Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924073057345).pdf/529

MUH 521 to give ; and Shekh Imam Buksh was, in 1819, sent to supersede him as a temporary arrangement. " In 1820, Poorun Dhun and Govurdhun Dass, merchants of Lucknow, took the contract of the two districts at twelve lacs of rupees a year, or an increase of three lacs; and from that time, under a system of rack- renting, these districts have been falling off. Mahomdee is now in a worse state than Khyrabad, because it has had the bad luck to get a worse set of contractors. Hakeem Mehndee retired with his family first to Shaje- hanpore, and then to Futtehgurh on the Ganges, and resided there with his family till June, 1830, when he was invited back by Nusseer-ood-deen Hyder to assume the office of prime minister. He held the office till August, 1832, when he was removed by the intrigues of the Kumboos, Taj-ood-deen Hoseyn and Sobhan Allee Khan, who persuaded the king that he was trying to get him removed from the throne by reporting to the British Government the murder of some females, which had, it is said, actually taken place in the palace. Hakeem Mehndee was invited from his retirement by Mahomed Allee Shah, and again appointed minister in 1837; but he died three months after, on the 24th of December, 1837. "During the thirty years which have elapsed since Hakeem Mehndee lost the contract of Mahomdee, there have been no less than seventeen gover- nors, fifteen of whom have been contractors; and the district has gradually declined from wbat it was when he left it, to what it was when he took it—that is, froin a rent-roll of seven lacs of rupees a year, under which all the people were happy and prosperous to one of three, under which all the people are wretched. The manager, Krishun Sahae, who has been treated as already described, would, in a few years, have made it what it was when tbe Hakeem left it, had he been made to feel secure in bis tenure of office, and properly encouraged and supported. He had, in the three months he had charge, invited back from our bordering districts hundreds of the best classes of landholders and cultivators, who had been driven off by the rapacity of his predecessors, re-established them in their villages, and set them to work in good spirit, to restore the lands which had lain waste from the time they deserted them; and induced hundreds to convert to sugarcane cultivation the lands which they had destined for humbler crops, in the assurance of the security which they were to enjoy under his rule. The one class tells me they must suspend all labours upon the waste lands till they can learn the character of his successor ; and the other, that they must content themselves with the humbler crops till they can see whether the richer and more costly will be safe from his grasp, or that of the agents, whom he may employ to manage the district for him. No man is safe for a moment under such a government, either in his person, his character, bis office, or his possession; and with such a feeling of insecurity among all classes, it is impossible for a country to prosper. “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 ball, in A.D. 1847-48, by Ahmed Allee. l'eeling insecure in his tenure of office, he wanted to make as much as possible out of things as they were, and resumed Briehun Sabae las been restored, but does not feel secure iu his tenure of office.