care.

As I have said, the King never sees any petition or report: he hardly
ever sees even official notes addressed to him by the British
Resident, and the replies to almost all are written without his
knowledge.* The minister never puts either his seal or signature to
any order that passes, or any document whatsoever, with his own hand:
he merely puts in the date, as the 1st, 5th, or 10th; the month,
year, and the order itself are inserted by the deputies, secretaries,
or favourites, to whom the duty is confided. The reports and
petitions submitted for orders often accumulate so fast in times of
great festivity or ceremony, that the minister has them tied up in
bundles, without any orders whatever having been passed on them, and
sent to his deputies for such as they may think proper to pass,
merely inserting his figure 1, 5, or 10, to indicate the date, on the
outermost document of each bundle. If any orders are inserted by his
deputies on the rest, they have only to insert the same date. There
is nothing but the _figure_ to attest the authenticity of the order;
and it would be often impossible for the minister himself to say
whether the figure was inserted by himself or by any other person.
These deputies are the men who adjust all the nuzuranas, or
unauthorized gratuities, to be paid to the minister.

[* On the 17th of October, 1850, Hassan Khan, one of the _khowas_, or
pages, whose special duty it is to deliver all papers to the King,
fell under his Majesty's displeasure, and his house was seized and
searched. Several of the Resident's official notes were found
unopened among his papers. They had been sent to the palace as
emergent many months before, but never shown to the King. Such
official notes from the Resident are hardly every shown to the King,