to get a large sum out of so wealthy a
family. Three of his wives, Hoseynee Khanum, Mosahil Khanum, and
Sakeena Khanum, had at the time great influence over his Majesty, and
they wished to take advantage of the occasion, not only to screw out
of the family a large sum for the King and themselves, but to
confiscate the estates, and distribute them among their male
relations. The minister, Menowur-od Dowlah, the nephew and heir of
Hakeem Mehndee, who has been and will be often mentioned in this
Diary, thought that, after paying a large sum to gratify his
Majesty's ruling passion, and enable him to make handsome presents to
the three favourites, Dursun Sing ought to be released and restored
to office, for he was the only man then in Oude capable of
controlling the refractory and turbulent territorial barons; and if
he were crushed altogether for subduing one of them, the rest would
all become unmanageable, and pay no revenue whatever to the
Exchequer. He, therefore, recommended the King to take from the two
brothers the sum of twenty-five lacs of rupees, leave them the
estates, and restore Dursun Sing to all his charges, as soon as it
could be done without any risk of giving umbrage to the British
Government.

The King thought the minister's advice judicious, and consented; but
the ladies called him a fool, and told him, that the brothers had
more than that sum in stores of seed-grain alone, and ought to be
made to pay at least fifty lacs, while the brothers pleaded poverty,
and declared that they could only pay nineteen. The minister urged
the King, to take even this sum, give two lacs to the three females,
and send seventeen to the reserved treasury; and called upon the
Chancellor of the Exchequer to give in his accounts of the actual
balance due by the two brothers, on their several contracts, for the
last twenty-five years. He, being on good terms with the minister,
and anxious to meet his wishes, found a balance of only one lac and
thirty-two thousand due by Dursun Sing, and one of only fifteen lacs
due by his brother, Bukhtawar Sing, in whose name the contracts had
always been taken up to 1842. The King, sorely pressed by the
females, resolved to banish Dursun Sing, and confiscate all his large
estates; but the British Resident interposed, and urged, that Dursun
Sing should be leniently dealt with, since he had made all the
reparation and atonement required. The King told him, that Dursun
Sing was a notorious and