where Sir John Shore was encamped. The Governor General was in extreme peril from Vazier Ali’s lawless soldiers, but he, with the utmost calmness, maintained his position, and the new Nawab was eventually placed on the throne, Vazier Ali being deported to Benares on the same pension of 112 lacs a year. In 1799 Vazier Ali assinated Mr. Cherry, at Benares, and raised a temporary rebellion, but was defeated, taken prisoner, and sent to Fort William. After many years of captivity there, he was transferred to the palace built for Tippu Sultan’s family in the Fort of Vellore, where he died in 1817.
The marriage expenses of this Prince in 1795, amounted to 30 lacs of rupees, while his funeral expenses, in 1817, cost but 70 rupees, a strange reverse of fortune.
6 —SADAT ALI KHAN, 1798-1814,
In 1798 Asuf-ud-daula's brother, Sadat Ali Khan, succeeded Vazier Ali and earned for himself, during his reign of sixteen years, the character of the best administrator and wisest and most sagacious ruler that Oudh had ever seen. Nawab Sadat Ali added the sum of 19,22,862 rupees to the subsidy given to the British Government, every year, on account of the auxiliary force during his predecessors reign; and afterwards, for the greater satisfaction of the British Government, made over to the Hon’ble East India Company, certain Districts of his dominions (some of which now form part of the North-West Provinces), estimated to yield an annual revenue of nearly a, million and a half sterling.
He was parsimonious in his habits, and the contrast between him and his lavish predecessor got him the name of a miser, but the fine works he executed and the steadiness with which he carried out his plan of embellishing the eastern part of the city, as his brother had done the western, prove that he was ready to spend largely Where occasion required. Almost all the principal buildings between the Kaiser Bagh and the Dilkusha were built by him. He was, on the whole, a good and just ruler; had mixed in the society of British Officers and had been well trained to habits of business. No Sovereign of Oudh conducted the Government with so much ability as he did. He never remitted his vigilance over the administration; and, in this way, and by a judicious selection of his ministers, he secured the prosperity of his dominions, which enjoyed almost uninterrupted tranquillity during his reign. He was the first to establish a reserve treasury in A. D. 1801, and, on his death, he left 14 crores of rupees (14 millions sterling) in it.
