In fact, he was richly deserving to keep a shop of Bang*. And yet this man’s favour and power rose to such a height, that no less a man than Hassen-reza-qhan, the Minister, was afraid of his influence, and strove to be upon good terms with him. Whilst he was in the middle of so much power and grandeur, Assef-ed-dowlah’s heart changed at once with respect to him, and a few days after my departure from Lucknow, he became so sick of his company and person, that he ordered him to be banished his dominions, half naked, and on foot, forbidding any one to give him clothes or any carriage whatsoever. Guards were sent to his lodgings, and his whole property was confiscated. From that day no tidings were ever heard of him.

After all these confiscations, it was strange enough to see Assef-ed-dowlah betray the utmost aversion against parting with any of his money, unless it was to pay the pensions due to his Orderlies. Whenever any one besides made bold to ask his pay or his arrears from him, he from that moment became his enemy; nor could he bear to hear of such a demand, and he was ever after ready to shed his blood. Sometime before my arrival at Lucknow, several officers and others had gone in a body, and had asked and received their arrears. Many of these had the wisdom. to disappear immediately, but some others having ventured to tarry, were all seized sometime after, and all blown at a gun; and this execution happened during my stay in that city. It frightened all the world; so that a few days after the Ghossain Fakyr, a Commander of character and importance, having spied a favourable moment, quitted the camp, and with his arms and baggage marched across the country, and reached Nedjef-qhan’s army, with whom he took service; and in the same manner, all the descendants and relations of Saadet-qhan and Ab8l-mans8r-qhan found means, one after another, to quit Lucknow and to repair to Nedjef-qhan’s camp.

We have mentioned that Iredj-qhan had been sent for and Iredj-qhan is sent for, and made Prime Minister. entrusted with the whole management of Assef-ed-dowlah’s affairs as his Prime Minister. This man shewed himself at once capable of his office. He commenced bringing the finances into order, and little by little, both the high and the low accustomed themselves to look up to him as to their centre. In a conference with Djan Bristow, that omnipotent man, he asked him, “What business he could possibly have with the Government, and with the affairs of those countries? A sum of money is yearly due to you by treaty for the maintenance of your Brigade. Do receive that money from me, but meddle no more with any thing. Keep yourself on the footing on which you, as Agent from the Company, have been placed by the treaty subsisting between your Government and Shudjah-ed-dowlah’s family; but if you go one step further, I inform you that your pretensions shall be imparted to the Supreme Council, and that your conduct in those countries shall undergo a discussion there between you and me.” Djan Bristow, little accustomed to such a style, repented his having been so earnest in sending for such a man, and he was examining how he ought to manage with him, when the Minister fell into a bad habit of body. His natural heat by degrees for­sook him, and his distemper turned out to be a confirmed dropsy; so that after lingering a month and some days, he departed this The Prime Minister dies. life. After his death, both Assef-ed-dowiah and Mr. Djan Bristow were anxious to appoint a fit man to such an office, and they both turned their eyes on Hassen-reza-qhan. This noble­man had once been Superintendant of Shudjah-ed-dowlah’s kitchen-office, and on that account he was a little known to Assef-ed-dowlah; insomuch that, for some time he was preferred to all others for carrying messages to Mr. Djan Bristow. Being therefore admitted to secret conferences with both parties, he had acquired some credit, and both thought of conferring the office of Naib or Deputy upon him. But he was so slothful and indolent, so averse from entering into coversation with the heads of office and other men of business, (without which, however, there is no governing), so addicted to his pleasures and repose, and in imitation of his master, so averse from all kinds of busi­ness, that he declined himself that high office. The by-standers themselves, who knew his genius to the bottom, could not under­stand why they persecuted the poor man, to make him a Minister at any rate, and to load him with an office of which he was utterly incapable. God knows for what reasons, Mr. Djan Bristow had resolved, not only on keeping this poor man in Is succeeded by Hassen-reza-qhan, a very indolent man. office against his own will, as a Deputy to a Prime Minister, invisible, but also on appointing another Deputy to him for the purpose of executing the penible part of the office. This able man was found out for him by his friend and favourite, Ismail-beg, a Persian*, who was one of the shrewdest, most artful, and most time-serving men of his age. He had already been long in employment amongst the English, having been entrusted with the Post Office, and with the business of stationing spies, and procuring weekly intelligence from Delhi; offices of trust conferred upon him so early as the times when Shah-aalem and the English had their residence at Ilah-abad. This Ismail-beg had from longhand connections with Haider-beg-qhan, a Cab8l­ian, whom he introduced to Mr. Djan Bristow, after having entered into a secret treaty with him by which he secured some To whom Mr. Bristow is obliged to give a very active Deputy. pecuniary advantages to himself. The Cab8lian, who was an intriguing man, and one accustomed to sow, that great ones might reap, had been introduced to Mr. Djan Bristow so early as the first appearance of Iredj-qhan’s distemper; and he had been recommended by Ismail-beg as an able man, fit to execute the penible office of the Naib’s Naib or Deputy’s Deputy. This Haider-beg-qhan was, as well as his brother, Mirza-n8r-beg, a man versed in revenue matters, having successively rented most Character of that Deputy. of the Districts of the Province of A8d from Shudjah-ed-dowlah. He was extremely rude and severe in collecting his rents, paid no regard to friendship, was intent on his own profits, and had become nearly insociable. Being greatly in arrears to Shudjah-ed-dowlah, that Prince had made him over to his guards, together with his brother, and these having orders to enforce payment, fell upon them both with such a storm of slaps, blows, and kicks, that the elder brother died under the operation; the younger, who was Haider-beg-qhan, escaped with life, by making proper applica­tions to that Prince’s favourites. Sometime after this event, that Prince died; and this man who had been but a few days ago buffeted by the meanest of the guards, and had despaired of his own life, was now by the prevalence of his fortune, called up from that state of dejection, and ordered to assume the collection of full two corores of rupees, which is in fact to assume the abso­lute dominion over so much ground. Hassen-reza-qhan, who did not like to be Prime Minister, objected both to his being kept in office himself, and to his being saddled with a Deputy; but he was over-ruled by Mr. Djan-Bristow, who determined that he should be invested with the office of Naïb, or Deputy to Assef-ed-dowlah, and that Haïder-beg-qhan should be Deputy to himself, Hassen-reza-qhan. Rich Qhylaats were put upon their shoulders, with such a difference in the richness, however, as should discriminate their respective relations, and the same nicety was observed in presenting them with elephants, horses, and sets of jewels. From that day Haïder-beg-qhan was engrossed intirely by the affairs of his department; and Hassen-reza-qhan, who had been complimented with a Djaghir of one lac of rupees, turned his views intirely towards cool retreats, pas­times, voluptuous, and secret pleasures, just as if these verses of Hafyz had been addressed to him personally:

“Get up boy, and make haste to fill up that glass of wine,

Make haste for life passes away meanwhile, and the motion of the sphere knows no rest;

He now went less frequently to Court, and he intirely addicted himself to a life of ease and voluptuousness. He seemed to be the man of whom the poet had said:

“Whatever is provided for thee by the decrees of Fate will come to thee;

Will come to thee, at any rate, whether thou wilt give thyself any motion for it or not?”

It was observed on this promotion that every man, who came into office, made it a point to propose to his master a reduc­tion in the troops and pensions; and a revolution taking place accordingly in the affairs, some that had lived in opulence came to want water to drink, whilst streams of that element were pouring of themselves at the very doors of some others, who had not so much as dreamed about it. But it happened that, at the very time when Djan Bristow’s scheme was taking place, and establish­ing itself solidly, his protector at Calcutta, General Clavering, was quitting this world, the book of his existence having been closed and shut up. The Governor’s party acquired thereby a preva­lence; and Mr. Djan Bristow being recalled, Mr. Middleton was sent to reside in his stead. From this sudden change, General Goddard, who then was at Feroh-abad, but who had great connections with the new Resident, had conceived great hopes both for himself and for me; the more so, as this gentleman, on his arrival at Lucknow, had inquired for me from Mr. Djan Bristow’s assistant, and had informed him of his having a letter from the Governor for me, with many recommendations. On this intelligence I waited on that gentleman. He took me into a closet, and putting the Governor’s letter in my hands, he bade me read it; this I did, and I explained the contents. These he seemed to hear with attention and pleasure, then shewed me a deal of kindness, and requested me to come to see him, and to talk with him in private whenever I should have any thing to impart. And matters went on for some time in a favorable manner, when the same Englishman, who seemed to be his assistant, and in fact was his right-hand man, being secretly gained by Haider-beg-qhan, and fearing likewise a diminution of his own influence, should I ever come into office, gave Mr. Middleton to understand that it was very improper in him to make his confi­dant of a man who held a correspondence with the Governor. This short remark had its full effect, and Mr. Middleton becom­ing impressed with suspicions on a variety of accounts, at once turned a new leaf with me, and commenced shewing me the utmost neglect. Such a total alteration in his behaviour could not long remain a secret, and concluding that there was nothing to be done for me in those parts, I thought that the only party left was to obtain General Goddard’s leave to repair to Azim-abad, and this he gave not without much reluctance. Sometime after, Mr. Middleton turned a new leaf with General Goddard also, who was his old friend. A frozen coldness took place between them. The General lost his appointment, and I was thunderstruck when I saw him again at Azim-abad, from whence he proceeded to Calcutta. He had the goodness to desire my attendance in that journey and to take me with him, and for some time he expected to recover his footing, in which case he intended to make use of my services, when he was himself appointed to serve in the army commanded for the Decan, as we have said in our former volume; so that I returned to Azim-abad. The dominions of Assef-ed-dowlah remain now as they were, still under the apparent management of Hassen-reza-qhan, who enjoys the emolument and honors of the Deputyship, in retirement and voluptuousness, but really under the government of Haïder-beg-qhan, his Deputy, who undergoes all the fatigue, and assumes all the authority of the collection of the revenue; nor was that Minister’s influence affected by the recall of that same Mr. Middleton, who, on some displeasure conceived against him by Mr. Barwell, one of the Members of the Council, had been dismissed from his office. On the contrary, it received even some accession; for on that antagonist’s going home, Mr. Middleton was immediately sent back, together with Mr. Johnson; and now the whole government at Lucnow is in the hands of those two English gentlemen: a state of things which brings naturally to our remembrance the situation of Nedjef-qhan, their next neighbour.