FYZ
470
to retain, or give her any sliare in the perquisites of the half he had made over to others ; nor would he give her credit for any portion of the collections which had been anticipated by Maun Sing. He made her pledge the whole rents of her estate to Hoseyn Allee Khan, the commandant of a squadron of cavalry on detached duty under him. Unable to conduct the management under all these outrages and exactions, she begged to have the estate put under Government officers. Her friends at court got an
'
order issued for her being restored to the possession of the whole estate, having credit for the whole amount collected by Maun Sing, and a remission in the revenue equal to all that Government allowed to the proprietors of such estates. disregarded the order, and made over or sold villages belonging to the estate to Rughbur Sing, the atrocious brother of Maun Sing, who sent his myrmidons to take pos"
"Wajid Allee
Khan
Naraenpoor and other
session. They killed the lady Sogura's two agents in the management, plundered her of all she had of property, and all the rents which she had up to that time collected for payment to Government, and took possession of Naraenpoor and the other villages sold to their master by Wajid Allee. "Wajid Allee soon after came with a large force, seized the lady and carried her off to his camp, put all her officers and attendants into confinement, and refused all access to her. When she became ill and appeared likely to sink under the treatment she received, he made her enter into written engagements to pay to the troops, in liquidation of their arrears qf pay, all that he pretended that she owed to the State. He prevailed upon Ghuffoor Beg, who commanded the artillery, to take these her pledges and give him, Wajid Allee, corresponding receipts for the amount for transmission to the treasury, and then made her over a prisoner to him. Ghuffoor Beg took possession of the lady and the estate, kept her in close confinement, and employed his artillerymen in making the collections in their own way, by appropriating all the harvests to themselves.
" Wajid Allee was superseded in October 1849 by Aga Allee, who, on entering on his charge, directed that martial law should cease in Muneearpoor; but Ghuffoor Beg andhis artillerymen were too strong for the governor, and refused to give up the possession of so nice an estate. When I approached the estate in my tour, Ghuffoor Beg took the lady off to Chundoly, where she was treated with all manner of indignity and cruelty by the artillery. The estate was going to utter ruin under their ignorant and reckless management, and the JSTazim Aga Allee prayed me to interpose and save it and protect the poor lady Sogura. I represented the hardship of the case to the Durbar, but with little hope of any success under the present Government, who say that, if the troops are not allowed to pay themselves in this way, they shall have to pay them all the arrears for which the estate is pledged, not one rupee of which is reduced by the collections they make. If they were to hold the estates for twenty years, they would not allow it to appear that any portions of the arrears had been paid off. The estate is a noble one, and, in spite of all the usurpations and disorders from which it has lately suffered, was capable last year of yielding to Government a revenue of fifty thousand rupees, after providing liberally for all the requirements of the
