strict.

The estate of Seobuksh is very extensive. The soil is all good and
the plain level, so that every part of it is capable of tillage.
Rutun Sing, the father of Seobuksh, is said to have been a greater
rack-renter, rebel, and robber than his son is, and together they
have injured the estate a good deal, and reduced it from a rent-roll
of one hundred thousand to one of forty. Its rent-roll is now
estimated in the public accounts at 54,640, out of which is deducted
a _nankar_ of 17,587, leaving a Government demand of only 37,053.
This he can't pay; and he has shut himself up sullenly in his mud
fort, where the Nazim dares not attack him. He is levying
contributions from the surrounding villages, but has not yet
plundered or burnt down any. He was lately in prison, for two years;
but released on the security of Rajah Lonee Sing, of Mitholee, whose
wife is his wife's sister. He, however, says that he was pledged to
produce him when required, not before the _present Nazim_, but his
_predecessor_; and that he is no longer bound by this pledge. This
reasoning would, of course, have no weight with the Government
authorities, nor would it be had recourse to were Lonee Sing less
strong. Each has a strong fort and a band of steady men. The Nazim
has not the means to attack Seobuksh, and dares not attack Lonee
Sing, as his estate of Pyla is in the "Huzoor Tuhseel," and under the
protection of Court favourites, who are well paid by him.

Lonee Sing's estate of Mitholee is in the Mahomdee district, and
under the jurisdiction of the Amil; and it is only the portion,
consisting of one hundred and four recently-acquired villages, which
he holds in the Pyla estate, in the Khyrabad district, that has been
made over to the Huzoor Tuhseel.* He offered an increased rate for
these villages to the then Amil, Bhowood Dowlah, in the year A.D.
1840. It was accepted, and he attacked, plundered, and murdered a
good many of the old proprietors, and established such a dread among
them, that he now manages them with little difficulty. Basdeo held
fourteen of these villages under mortgage, and sixteen more under
lease. He had his brother, maternal uncle, and a servant killed by
Lonee Sing, and is now reduced to beggary. Lonee Sing took the lease
in March, 1840, and commenced this attack in May.

[* Anrod Sing holds twenty-eight villages in the Pyla estate,
acquired in the same way as those held by Lonee Sing.]

The Nazim had with him, of inf