That the inhabitants of Lucknow should rise against us was a very probable event, notwithstanding the false reports of their universal contentment. We had done very little to deserve their love and much to merit their detestation. Thousands of nobles, gentlemen and officials, who during the King's time had held lucrative appointments, were now in penury and want, and their myriads of retainers and servants thrown out of employ of course. Then the innumerable vagabonds and beggars, who under the native rule infested the city and found bread in it, were starving during British administration.
The native merchants and bankers, who, while Wajid Ali was on the throne, made large profits from supplying the luxurious wants of the King. his courtiers, and the wealthy ladies of the thronged harems, found no sale for their goods; and the people in general, and especially the poor, were dissatisfied because they were taxed directly and indirectly in every way.
The tax upon opium especially caused immense discontent throughout the country, but particularly in the city. Opium was an article as extensively used in Lucknow as in China, and the sudden deprivation of this drug was most severe upon the opium-eaters.
Then there were fanatics in the city, who made use of religious enthusiasm to influence the minds of their co-religionists still more against us. It was these "idle hands" that Satan employed to do much of the mischief wrought during the fearful rebellion of 1857, an event which consummated their own ruin, and sent Scores of them to the gallows.
4. In consequence of information telegraphed from Calcutta, Raja Maun Singh, an influential landed proprietor in the Fyzabad District, was arrested by order of the Chief Commissioner, and placed in confinement at his fort of Shahgunj. Sending for the British authorities, the Raja warned them that the troops would rise, and offered, if released, to give the Europeans shelter in his fort. Seeing the critical state of things, Colonel Goldney released him. and Mann Singh at once commenced to put his fort of Shahgunj in order, and raise levies. Matters looking very ominous at Fyzabad, the civilians sent their families to Shahgunj, where they were sheltered for a few days, when Maun Singh, either from zeal or pretended fear of the mutineers, desired them to depart. He, however, provided boats for them on the Gogra, to which they were escorted by night, and a party of Maun Singh's levies accompanied them some way on their journey. They all reached the station of Dinapore in safety.
