the fall in their value in
exchange during the times that we have been engaged in our most
serious wars has been less in Lucknow than in Calcutta, the capital
of British India; so much greater assurance do the people feel of our
resources being always equal to our exigencies. At such times the
merchants of Lucknow commission their agents in Calcutta to purchase
up Government securities at the rate to which they fall in Calcutta,
for sale at Lucknow, where they seldom fall at all. About three
crores and half of rupees, or three millions and half sterling, have
been at different times contributed to our loans by the sovereigns of
Oude as a provision for the different members of their respective
families and dependents; and the interest is now paid to them and
their descendants, at the rates which prevailed at the time of the
several loans (four, five, and six per cent.) to the amount of
fourteen lacs thirty-five thousand and four hundred and ten rupees a-
year.

The Begum's haughty and violent temper, and inveterate disposition to
meddle in public affairs, were the real cause of her continual
disquietude and ultimate disgrace and ruin. The minister of the day
dreaded the ascendancy of so imperious and furious a character,
should she ever become reconciled to the King. During the whole reign
of Ghazee-od Deen, her husband, from the 12th of July 1814, to the
20th of October 1827, her own frequent ebullitions, which often
disfigured the King's robes and vests, and left even the hair on his
head and chin unsafe, and Aga Meer's sagacious suggestions, satisfied
him that his own personal safety and peace of mind, and the welfare
of the State, depended upon his keeping as much as possible aloof
from her. He was fond of his son, Nuseer-od Deen Hyder, but during
his minority he always took the part of his adoptive mother, the
Padshah Begum; and, in consequence, remained almost as much as she
was alienated from the King, his father. His natural mother died soon
after his birth; and people suspected that the Padshah Begum had her
put to death that she might have no rival in his affections; and she
had an entire ascendancy over him, acquired by every species of
enervating indulgences; and he remained all his life utterly without
character, ignorant of the rudiments of public affairs, and
altogether incapable of taking any useful part in them.

She retained this ascendancy over him for some time after he became
King, first from habi