to collect the best
that it was in my power to obtain; and the following particulars,
gathered partly from himself, and partly from one who has had many
opportunities of becoming acquainted with his history, form, I believe, a
trustworthy account of a career which, from its tragic nature, is
invested with a thrilling interest, while it faithfully portrays the
eventful changes usually attending the life of an Oriental statesman.

CHAPTER IX.

_Sketch of the career of His Excellency General Jung Bahadoor, Prime
Minister of Nepaul_.

It will be necessary before commencing an account of the career of Jung
Bahadoor to describe the state in which the political affairs of Nepaul
were when his ambition and daring prompted him to play so important a
part in its government. Cool, courageous, and an adept in all arts of
intrigue, he possessed every qualification necessary to render a man
successful in the East, where native courts are incessantly torn asunder
by rival factions, and scenes of violence and bloodshed are the result of
plots and counterplots, as each party becomes for the time predominant,
and its leading man assumes the office of premier, to be soon after
deprived of his short-lived greatness by a successful conspiracy of the
opposing party. These in their turn share the same fate, the King and
country remaining passive spectators of the struggles between the
opposing factions. They are indeed uninteresting to the King, for he is
only too delighted to get any one to take the cares of government off his
shoulders, and considers his prerogative to consist in enjoying himself
as much as possible. They are equally uninteresting to the country, for
these violent dissensions do not arise upon questions of policy, in any
way affecting its government. Ministerial explanations are never asked
for nor given in the East. The power of the prime minister is absolute
till he is shot, when it becomes unnecessary to question the expediency
of his measures, and the people are only interested to this extent, that,
generally speaking, the longer a premier can maintain his position, by so
much is their prosperity increased.

The two rival factions in Nepaul were the Pandees and Thapas, and in the
early part of this century the reins of government were held by one of
the most enlightened men that ever attained to the position of prime
minister. Bheem Singh Thapa has left behind him numerous monuments of
his greatness,