BOOKS.

SLEEKA.N2t3 JOURNEY THROUGH OlIDE.*

Airnotron the late Major-General Sleeman is chiefly known in this country for his Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official, he was an Indian veteran of forty-seven years' service, having begun his career in 1809, and died on his passage from Calcutta in February 1856. For nearly forty years he was chiefly em- ployed in diplomatic and political offices, rising at last to be Re- sident at Lucknow. In this post Lord Dalhousie found him, and wished him to undertake a tour through the kingdom, and to report upon its general condition,—doubtless to strengthen the evidence in favour of the contemplated annexation. This tour was performed in 1849-1850, and originally published in India as a sort of blue-book for official circulation, "which may be perused, but cannot be published, wholly or in part, with- out the sanction of Government." This has now been obtained, and the volumes before us consist of the original journey, with some correspondence upon the general subject of Oude and the regal goings-on at Lucknow. The original object of the tour affects its character as a book of travels. Passing sketches of scenery and manners, with a few notes of natural productions or the industry of the people will be found. There are also some tales of wonder in reference to natu- ral history, of which the most wonderful are a series of "facts," in the first volume at pages 208-222, respecting children carried off and brought up by wolves, and which, if true, certainly prove the possibility of the story of komulus and Remus. The substance of the work consists of reports on the condition of the country: how this district was oppressed by a farmer of the taxes ; how another was devastated by a more bloody ruffian ; how in some places a powerful landholder deprived all the neighbouring estate- owners of their property by force or fraud ; while large por- tions of the country would pay nothing save to superior force, and that only after a contest. " It became a point of hon- our to pay nothing to the King without first fighting with his officers." The murders, atrocities, devastations, and misery, which this state of things produced, can scarcely be imagined. The nar- rative of one campaign by the King's officers against a certain large district of taxpayers will give an idea of a country neigh- bourhood in Oude.

The Native method of collection was nominally twofold. There was either the system of fanning as formerly practised in Europe, under which the farmer guaranteed so much to the King and got what he could screw out of the people. The other plan is denominated a pledge, from the chief undertaker guaranteeing to pay over what he is able to collect. Both modes; however, come to the same thing : the commander of the soldiers gets as much as he can out of the country, and gives as little as he can to the King. The mode of levy varies with circumstances. In the case of a powerful and resolute landlord occupying a strong country, the collector, unless in great force, may have to walk off with nothing, or far less than what is due. In some cases he may make a clean sweep, or have to fight for what he gets. A determined and ruthless man at the head of a powerful body, un- scrupulous himself, and aided by assistants equally unscrupulous, whether violence, treachery, or perjury be the mode of acting, will devastate a country. Such a person was Rughbur Sing ; and his lieutenants were worthy of their chief. Five thousand rupees beyond the usual levy was demanded from a certain Rajah, which he at last agreed to pay, and on the "most solemn pledges of per- sonal security, he collected all his tenants to arrange the matter." Prag Pursaud, the agent of Rughbur Sing, then demanded seven thousand rupees as a gratuity to himself, which the Rajah refused to give.

" The agent sent off secretly to Rughbur Sing, to say that unless he came at the head of his forces he saw no chance of getting the revenues from the Rajah or his tenants, who were all assembled, and might be secured if he could contrive to surprise them. Rughbur Singh came with a large force at night, surrounded his agent's camp, where the tenants and the Rajah's officers were all assembled, and seized them. He then sent out parties of soldiers of from one hundred to two hundred each, to plunder all the towns and villages on the estate, and seize all the respectable residents they could find. They plundered the town of Bondee, and pulled down all the houses of the Rajah, and those of his relatives and dependents ; and, after plunder- ing all the other towns and villages in the neighbourhood, they brought in one thousand captives of both sexes and all ages, who were subjected to all manner of torture till they paid the ransom demanded, or gave written pledges to pay. Five thousand head of cattle were at the same time brought in and distributed as booty."

Some'of the tortures were of the common kind, others indicated invention. Kurum. Hoseyn, one of the agents, "rubbed the beards of the, men with moist gunpowder, and as soon as it be- came dry in the sun, he set fire to it." He or another introduced a new principle in the law of vendor and purchaser—" Apreel Sing, a respectable Jagheerdar of Bondee, was tortured till he consented to sell his two daughters and pay the money." Nero's mode of torturing the Christians was revived—a cloth steeped in oil was bound round the wrists and set alight. Notwithstanding these proceedings, and some atrocious murders under circumstances of the grossest treachery, the Rajah allowed himself to be inveigled back by solemn promises, an oath upon the Koran, &c. It was a mere trap to get all the men and property assembled.

• A. Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, in 1849-1850; by direction of the Right Honourable the Earl of Dalhousie, Governor-General. With Private Corre- spondence relative to the Annexation of Oude to British India, Sm. By Major- General Sir W. H. Sleeman, K.C.B., Resident at the Court of Lucknow. In two volumes. Published by Bentley. Kurum Hoseyn now suggested to Beharee Lal to come suddenly with the largest force he could collect, and seize the many respectable men who had assembled at his invitation.

" He made a forced march during the night, appeared suddenly at Boa- dee with a large force, and seized all who were there assembled, save the Rajah and his family, who escaped to the jungles. Detachments of from one hundred to two hundred were sent out as before, to plunder the country and seize all from whom anything -could be extorted. All the towns and villages on the estate were plundered of everything that could be found; and fifteen hundred men and about five hundred women and children were brought in prisoners, with no less than eighty thousand animals of all kinds. There were twenty-five thousand head of cattle, and horses, mares, sheep, goats, ponies, &c., made up the rest. All, with the men, women, and children, were driven off pell-mell, a distance of twenty miles to Bu- suntpoor, in the Hurhurpoor district, where Beharee Lars head-quarters had been filed. For three days heavy rain continued to fall. Pregnant women were beaten an by the troops with bludgeons and the butt-ends of muskets and matchlocks. Many of them gave premature birth to children and died on the road ; and many children were trodden to death by the ani- mals on the road, which was crowded for more than ten miles. "Rughbur Sing and his agents, Beharee Lai, Kurum Hoseyn, Maharaj Sing, Prag Sing, and others, selected several thousand of the finest cattle, and sent them to their homes; and the rest were left to the officers and soldiers of the force to be disposed of : and for all this enormous number of animals, worth at least one hundred thousand rupees, the small sum of one hundred and thirty rupees was credited in the Nazim's accounts to the Ra- jah's estate.',

Amid all this cruelty it is consolatory to find one good Samari- tan, and he a Native officer in the Company's service.

" The sipahees and other persons employed to torture gut money from their victims or their friends who ventured to approach, or from the pitying peasantry around; and all laughed and joked at the sereamsof the sufferers. Several times during the two months Rughbur Sing paid off heavy arrears due to his personal servants by drafts on his agents for prisoners, to be placed at the disposal of the payee, ten and twenty at a time. It is worthy of remark, that an old subadar of one of our regiments of Native Infantry, who was then at home on furlough, happened to pass Busuntpoor with his family, on his way to Guya on a pilgrimage. He and his family had saved what was to them a large sum, to be spent in offerings for the safe passage of his deceased relatives through purgatory. On witnessing the sufferings of the poor prisoners at Busuntpoor, he and his family offered all they bad for a certain number of women and children, who were made over to them. He took them to their homes, and returned to his own, saying that he hoped God would forgive them for the sake of the relief which they had afforded to sufferers."

This was probably an extreme case, but something short of it seems to be the usual mode of proceeding ; in fact, the Resident lays it down as the rule, that if the Court got the money no questions were asked. " The collector, whose tenure of office seldom extends beyond the season, cares little as to the mode as long as he gets the money, and feels quite sure that the Sovereign and his Court will care just as little, and ask no questions, should the troops sell every living thing to be found on the estate." At the period General Sleeman made his journey and for some time before, the King was a mere puppet as regards government, though profligate to a degree. But the profligacy practised at the court of Oude is familiar to the public in the Private Life of an Eastern King. We take a few of the more political specimens.

" The King, as I shall show in my next official report, is utterly unfit to have anything to do with the administration, since he has never taken or shown any disposition to take any heed of what is dope or suffered in the country. My letters have made no impression whatever upon him. He spends all his time with his singers and the females they provide to amuse him, and is for seven and eight hours together living in the house of the chief singer, Rajee- od Dowla—a fellow who was only lately beating a dram to a party of dan- cing-girls, on some four rupees a month. These singers are all Domes, the lowest of the low castes of India; and they and the eunuchs are now the vir- tual sovereigns of the country, and must be so as long as the King retains any power. The minister depends entirely upon them, and between them and a few others about Court everything that the King has to dispose of is sold.

"The King would change his minister tomorrow if the singers were to propose it ; and they would propose it if they could get better terms or per- quisites under any other. No minister could hold office a week without their acquiescence. Under such circumstances a change of ministers would be of little advantage to the country.

" The present King has, from the time he ascended the throne, manifested a determination to take no share whatever in the conduct of affairs ; to spend the whole of his time among singers and eunuchs, and the women whom they provide for his amusement; and carefully to exclude from access ell who suffer from the maladministration of his servants, or who could and would tell him what was done by the'one and suffered by the other.

"But it is not his minister and favourites alone who take advantage of this state of things to enrich themselves ; corruption runs through all the public offices, and Maharaja Balkishen, the Dewan, or Chancellor of the Ex- chequer, is notoriously among the most corrupt of all, taking a large por- tion of the heavy balances due by contractors, to get the rest remitted or misrepresented. There is no court in the capital, criminal, civil, or fiscal, in which the cases are not tampered with by Court favourites, and decided according to their wishes."

To which the Resident adds a postscript.

"P. S.—I find that the King's brother is altogether incompetent for any- thing like business or responsibility. The minister has not one single qua- lity that a minister ought to have ; and the King cannot be considered to be in a sound state of mind."

Probably it was this fine phrensy that drove the King to poetry, for in the following month he had taken to versifying.

"I may mention that the King is now engaged in turning into verso a long prose history called Hydree. About ten days ago all the poets in Luck- now were assembled at the palace to hear his Majesty read his poem. They sat with him, listening to his poem and reading their own, from nine at night till three in the morning. One of the poets, the eldest son of a late minis- ter, Mohamid-od Dowla, Aga Meer, told me that the versification was ex- ceedingly good for a King."

Notwithstanding all this, the then Colonel Sleeman did not ad- vise annexation. He was for maintaining the Native rule in form, partly because our system destroyed and of course dissatisfied the Native aristocracy ; and he distinctly warned Lord Dalhousie of the danger that might follow from the Native army.

" While we have a large portion of the country under Native rulers, their administration will contrast with ours greatly to our advantage in the esti- mation of the people; and we may be sure that, though some may be against us, many willbe for us. If we succeed in sweeping them all away, or absorbing them, we shall be at the mercy of our Native army, and they will see it; and accidents may possibly occur to unite them, or a great por- tion of them, in some desperate act. The thing is possible, though impro- bable ; and the best provision against it seems to me to be the maintenance of Native rulers, whose confidence and affection can be engaged, and admin- istrations improved under judicious management."

His plan was to establish a Native Regency : subsequently he leant to an assumption by the British government who were to ad- minister for the Native benefit; that is, we were to become the Government ruling through Native officers, and paying the re- lations of the King their pensions out of "the surplus. But we doubt the practicability of either scheme. There is much in being "native and to the manner born." Notwithstanding the state of insecurity, and one would imagine of terror in which the people live, they prefer their own ways to ours, and seldom immigrate into the adjacent territories, unless driven thither by such raids as those of ltughber Sing. They ad- mit the greater security ; but they have a Jack Cade abhor-

rence of our law. Property, it seems, melts away before parch- ment; and though a similar change takes place under arms, in

the one case it becomes the spoil of soldiers and gentlemen ; in the other it falls into the hands of low fomenters of litigation. In short they prefer their own war to our law.

" In our own districts in Upper India they often kill each other in such contests ; but more frequently ruin each other in litigation in our civil

courts, to the benefit of the Native attorneys and law-officers, who fatten on the misery they create or produce. In Oude they always decide such questions by recourse to arms, and the loss of life is no doubt fearful. Still the people generally, or a great part of them, would prefer to reside in Oude, under all the risks to which these contests expose them, than in our own districts, under the evils the people are exposed to from the uncertain-

ties of our law, the multiplicity and formality of our courts, the pride Mid negligence of lose who preside over them, and the corruption and insolence of those who must be employed to prosecute or defend a cause in them, and enforce the fulfilment of a decree when passed.

" The members of the landed aristocracy of Oude always speak with re- spect of the administration in our territories, but generally end with re- marking on the cost and uncertainty of the law in civil cases, and the gra- dual decay under its operation of all the ancient families. A less and less proportion of the annual produce of their lands is left to them in our pe- riodical settlements of the land revenue, while family pride makes them expend the same sums in the marriage of their children, in religious and other festivals, personal servants, and hereditary retainers. They fall into balance, incur heavy debts, and estate after estate is put up to auction, and the proprietors are reduced to poverty. They say, that four times more of these families have gone to decay in the half of the territory made over to us in 1801 than in the half reserved by the Oude Sovereign : and this is, I fear, true."

The closing words of this extract contain a source of our un- popularity if not a cause of the late mutiny. The Native aris- tocracy has found itself melting away, and we do not see the way clearly to any remedy. Mr. Gleig attributes our annexations and absorptions less to ambition than to the necessity of findino. "fresh fields and pastures new" in the way of patronage. This necessity will operate with as much force under the Queen as under the Company ; probably it will be less checked by local influences and tradition, while there will not for some time be much disposition to regard favourably the rights of the Natives. The journey of the late General Sleeman will furnish a great deal of information as to the condition of Oude under its Native rulers, and many indications of the lawless and feudal-like state of the country which we now have to conquer. In a literary point of view there is too great a sameness of topics without the neces- sary relief. Treachery, robbery, murder, and devastation, varied by little save the profligate imbecility of the King and his court, become wearisome when they form the staple of two ample volumes.