and, at a private interview, severely remonstrated with the King, Nasir-ud-din Haidar, on his dissolute habits, and threatened to take over the management of the kingdom unless the desired reforms were effected. This was repeated in the beginning of 1835, but the warning was unheeded by the King, whose time was wholly engrossed among the five European associates of his dissipation, viz., the barber, (de Russett, whose son, a merchant of this name, was killed in the Cawnpore Massacre of 1857); tutor (Wright); painter and musician (Mauntz); librarian (Croupley), and Captain Magness.”
6. In October 1847, Lord Hardinge, in a personal interview with the King, Wajid Ali, solemnly assured him that the British had, as the Paramount Power, a duty to perform towards the cultivators of the soil, and that, unless the King adopted a proper arrangement in the revenue and judicial departments of his Government so as to correct abuses now existing, it would be imperative on the British Government to carry out the orders of the Court of Directors. Two years were specified for carrying out the necessary reforms.
7. His Majesty’s character and habits were not, however, such as to encourage the prospect of improvement. Nothing could be more low or dissolute.[1] Singers and females, provide for his amusement, occupied all his time. The singers were all Domes, the lowest caste in India. These men, with the eunuchs, became the virtual sovereigns of the country. They meddled in all state affairs, and influenced the King’s decisions in every reference made to him. This resulted in the misrule which prevailed, and with which Colonel Sleeman reproaches the King in a letter dated August 1853 — “Your Minister has dismissed all the newswriters, who formerly were attached to Amils of districts to report their proceedings, on the ground that such officers are unnecessary, so that you can never learn the sufferings of the people, much less afford them redress. In regard to affairs in the city of Lucknow, your eunuchs, your fiddlers, your poets, and your Majesty's creatures, plunder the people here, as much as your Amils plunder them in the distant districts."
8. Since the Government had lost faith in Wajid Ali Shah ever being able to bring about the desired reforms, the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, directed Colonel Sleeman, who was Resident at the Court of Lucknow in
- ↑ The Oudh rulers were weak, vicious and dissolute, but they have seldom been cruel. and have invariably been faithful and true to the British Government.
