ossible for a country to
prosper.*

[* Krishun Sahae has been restored, but does not feel secure in his
tenure of office.]

I may here mention one among the numerous causes of the decline of
the district. The contract for it was held for a year and half, in
A.D. 1847-48, by Ahmed Allee. Feeling insecure in his tenure of
office, he wanted to make as much as possible out of things as they
were, and resumed Guhooa, a small rent-free village, yielding four
hundred rupees a-year, held by Bahadur Sing, the tallookdar of
Peepareea, who resides at Pursur. He had recourse to the usual mode
of indiscriminate murder and plunder, to reduce Ahmed Allee to terms.
At the same time, he resumed the small village of Kombee, yielding
three hundred rupees a-year, held rent-free by Bhoder Sing,
tallookdar of Magdapoor, who resided in Koombee; and, in consequence,
he united his band of marauders to that of Bahadur Sing; and together
they plundered and burnt to the ground some dozen villages, and laid
waste the purgunnah of Peepareea, which had yielded to Government
twenty-five thousand rupees a-year, and contained the sites of one
hundred and eight villages, of which, however, only twenty-five were
occupied.

During the greater part of the time that these depredations were
going on, the two rebels resided in our bordering district of
Shajehanpoor, whence they directed the whole. Urgent remonstrances
were addressed to the magistrate of that district, but he required
judicial proof of their participation in the crimes, that were
committed by their followers, upon the innocent and unoffending
peasantry; and no proof that the contractor could furnish being
deemed sufficient, he was obliged to consent to restore the rent-free
villages. The lands they made waste, still remain so, and pay no
revenue to Government.

Saadut Allee Khan (who died in 1814), when sovereign of Oude, was
fond of this place, and used to reside here for many months every
year. He made a garden, about a mile to the east of the town, upon a
fine open plain of good soil, and planted an avenue of fine trees all
the way. The trees are now in perfection, but the garden has been
neglected; and the bungalow in the centre, in which he resided, is an
entire ruin. He kept a large establishment of men and cattle, for
which sixty thousand rupees a-year were regularly charged in the
accounts of the manager of the district, through his reign and those
of Ghazee-od Deen, Nuseer-od De