Ava not
to grant the redress justly demanded for wrongs suffered, so as to
enlist on our side the sympathy of all civilized nations, and at the
same time to discover the real weakness of the enemy and the
facilities offered to us, in their fine rivers, for the use of our
strong arm--the steam navy. Not a single "untoward event" has yet
occurred to dispirit our troops, or give confidence to the enemy, or
to prejudice the people of Burmah against us: and there certainly is
nothing in this war to make us apprehend "that our political
difficulties will begin when our military successes are complete." It
is not displeasing to perceive the strong tendency to an early onward
move, while your Lordship has so prudent a leader in General Godwin
to restrain it within due bounds.

I remain, &c.,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To the Most Noble
The Marquis of Dalhousie, K.T.
Governor-General of India.
Calcutta.

__________________________

Lucknow, September, 1852.

My Lord,

The longer the present King reigns, the more unfit he becomes to
reign, and the more the administration and the country deteriorate.
The State must have become bankrupt long ere this, but the King, and
the knaves by whom he is governed, have discontinued paying the
stipends of all the members of the royal family, save those of his
own father's family, for the last three years; and many of them are
reduced to extreme distress, and without the hope of ever getting
their stipends again unless our Government interferes. The females of
the palaces of former sovereigns ventured to clamour for their
subsistence, and they were, without shame or mercy, driven into the
streets to starve, beg, or earn their bread by their labour. This
deters all from complaining, and they are in a state of utter dismay.
No part of the people of Oude are more anxious for the interposition
of our Government than the members of the royal family; for there is
really no portion more helpless and oppressed: none of them can ever
approach the King, who is surrounded exclusively by eunuchs,
fiddlers, and poetasters worse than either; and the minister and his
creatures, who are worse than all. They appropriate at least one-half
of the revenues of the country to themselves, and employ nothing but
knaves of the very worst kind in all the branches of the
administration. The King is a c