Henry Lawrence, who was then Chief-Commissioner, wrote to Sir Hugh Wheeler, commanding at Kánhpur, to caution him not to depend upon the loyalty of Náná Sáhib. It is not to be doubted that Náná Sáhib took advantage of his visit to enter into negotiations with the discontented nobles of the province, and to concert with them the outlines, at least, of a general plan of action.
Whilst the province of Oudh and the district of Bithor were thus fast becoming hotbeds of conspiracy, a similar process was taking place through the length and breadth of the North-west Provinces. That the system known as 'the village system/ under which the heads of villages represented, before the law, the communities of which they were the hereditary chiefs, may not have been a system which recommended itself theoretically to a ruler nurtured in western ideas may be conceded. But that system was rooted in the soil. The great Akbar, when engaged in the task of consolidating and systematising the territories he had conquered, had attempted to introduce reforms which would have tended to greater centralisation. But, after a few months of experiment, he shrunk from a task which, he recognised, would rouse against him the feelings of his subjects. Where Akbar had feared to tread, the English, guided by the rash hand of Mr Thomason, had rushed in. The result was that throughout the districts over which he had ruled, in Juánpur and Azamgarh, in Agra, Kánhpur, and the adjoining districts, throughout Bundelkhand, there reigned a discontent which lent itself very readily to the schemes of the major conspirators. The advocates of Mr Thomason's reforms have endeavoured, under the shield of anonymous criticism, to controvert this assertion. But facts are stubborn things. I have had it from the mouths of many in-
