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LETTERS FROM INDIA.
207

There are forty-six guns firing. Kurruck Singh, Runjeet’s successor, is dead; some people say poisoned by his son, but the resident does not think so; and poor Kurruck was almost an idiot when we were at Lahore, and did not look as if he could live long, and he has been in a dying state for three months. The last medicine they tried with him was powdered emeralds—evidently not wholesome—and I can imagine they would not be comfortable to the stomach. It is rather convenient to our Government to have only one party to treat - with instead of two, but Noor Mahal is very anti-English; at least his favourites are; he himself is only a very dissipated young man, very good-looking, though he was only recovering from the small-pox when we saw him.

fancy Kurruck’s wives found him rather a bore, for only one of them has thought it necessary to burn herself.

great chief from Moorshedabad arrived on Sunday, and George held a durbar for him yesterday, much to the satisfaction of several Calcutta ladies, who had never seen one. He is only eleven years old and a very pretty boy. George has given him an English tutor, and