in my first chapter, and many another good officer well
pleased.

Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. H. SLEEMAN.

To H. M. Elliot, Esq.,
Secretary to the Government of India,
Calcutta.

_________________________________

Jhansee, 29th March, 1848.

My Dear Maddock,

I hope you will not disapprove of the resolution to which I have come
of resigning the charge of the Saugor territories, now that
tranquillity has been restored,--the best possible feelings among the
people prevail, and the object you had in view in recommending Lord
Ellenborough to confide that charge to me has been effected,--or of
the manner in which I have tendered my resignation. Were I longer to
retain the charge, I should be subjected to humiliations which the
exigencies of the public service do not require that I should at this
time of life submit to, and I shall have enough of labour and anxiety
in the charge that will still remain to me. If an opening for Sir R.
Shakespear could be found, his salary might be saved by my residence
being transferred to Gwalior. If either Hamilton or I were to be
removed to some other post, it would be well to reduce Gwalior and
Indore to political agencies, under the supervision of an agent, as
in Rajpootana, with Bundelcund added to his charge. The latter of
these two measures has, you know, been under consideration, and was,
I think, proposed by Sutherland when you were at Gwalior with Lord
Auckland. Had the Lieutenant-Governor known more of the Saugor
territories when he wrote the paper on which Government is now
acting, he would not, I think, have described the state of things as
he has done, or urged the introduction of the system which must end
in minutely subdividing all leases, and in having all questions
regarding land tenures removed into the civil Courts, as in the
provinces. It is the old thing, "nothing like leather." I shall not
weary you by anything more on this subject. I hope a good man will be
selected for the charge. The selection of Mr. M. Smith as successor
to Mr. Brown was a good one. My letter will go off to-day, and be, I
trust, well received. I am grieved that Clerk has been obliged to
quit his post; he has been throughout his career an ornament to your
service, but his friends seem all along to have apprehended that he
could not long stand the climate of Bombay. I am anxious to learn how