nor is he consulted about the orders to be passed upon them.]

They share largely in all that he gets; and take a great deal, for
which they render him no account. Knowing all that he takes, and
_ought not to take_, he dares not punish them for their
transgressions; and knowing this, sufferers are afraid to complain
against them. In ordinary times, or under ordinary sovereigns, the
sums paid by revenue authorities in _nazuranas_, or gratuities,
before they were permitted to enter on their charges, amounted to,
perhaps, ten or fifteen per cent.: under the present sovereign they
amount, I believe, to more than twenty-five per cent. upon the
revenue they are to collect. Of these the minister and his deputies
take the largest part. A portion is paid in advance, and good bonds
are taken for the rest, to be paid within the year. Of the money
collected, more than twenty-five per cent., on an average, is
appropriated by those intrusted with the disbursements, and by their
patrons and patronesses. The sovereign gets, perhaps, three-fourths
of what is collected; and of what is collected, perhaps two-thirds,
on an average, reaches its legitimate destination; so that one-half
of the revenues of Oude may be considered as taken by officers and
Court favourites in unauthorized gratuities and perquisites. The pay
of the troops and establishments, on duty with the revenue
collectors, is deducted by them, and the surplus only is sent to the
Treasury at Lucknow. In his accounts he receives credit for all sums
paid to the troops and establishments on duty under him. Though the
artillery-bullocks get none of the grain, for which he pays and
charges Government, a greater portion of the whole of what he pays
and charges in his accounts reaches its legitimate destination,
perhaps, than of the whole of what is paid from the Treasury at the
capital. On an average, however, I do not think that more than two-