which was put on a more efficient footing by the introduction of European Officers into the Military Department.
As a token of gratitude for the recovery of the King of England (George III.) from a dangerous illness, Asaf-ud-daula presented the Doctor with Rs. 25,000 and distributed a similar sum in charity in His Majesty’s name.
This King is held in affectionate remembrance, up to the present day, by the natives, who are in the habit of repeating, every morning, this couplet as an auspicious incantation before commencing business:—
Jis ko na de Maula Us ko de Asuf-ud-daula.—Whom giveth no God (Maula) him giveth Asuf-us-daula.
Asuf-ud-daula seems hardly to have had any distinct plan for building, but to have allowed the city to grow up round the Chauk chiefly to the western side of what is now the Canning Street. He encouraged merchants and traders to settle by the widest and most extravagant liberality. He spent money lavishly on public buildings, and gardens, some of which are the chief ornaments of Lucknow, such as the Daulat Khana, Rumi Darwaza, Bibiapur Kothi, Chinhut House, the Great Imambara, Charbagh and Aishbagh. This last garden is now the site of the filtering and distributing Station of the Municipal Water Works. His own palace was in the building known as the Daulat Khana, the chief house, or Asufee Kothi, being named after himself. He died childless, on let September 1797, and was buried in his own magnificent Imambara at Machhi Bawan.
“Where now the Pomp, which marks an Eastern Throne?
Where is the Monarch, and his Courtiers gone?
You lofty dome, in vain uplifts its head!
It marks but the spot, where rest the mighty dead!
But the lone lamp, which trembles in the tomb,
Is a fit emblem, of the unchanging doom
Which awaits alike, the Tyrant, and the Slave,
The free, the generous, virtuous, and the Brave.
Like that lone lamp, awhile life brightly burns,
Then smokes and flickers, and to ashes turns!“
K. M. Nicholson.
5.—VAZIER ALI.
Vazier Ali, reputed son of Asuf-ud-daula, succeeded him and reigned for four months, but his proved illegitimacy and worthless character led the Governor General, Sir John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, to displace him and elevate Sadat Ali Khan, the half-brother of Asuf-ud-daula. and younger son of Shuja-ud-daula. Mr. Cherry, Resident at Benares, negotiated the treaty with Sadat Ali, who was then living at Benares on a pension of 112 lacs of rupees. The new Nawab marched to Lucknow
