I can't trust the Report in the office, and the hand may not be so legible as I could wish.
The Court is very averse to the appointment of a successor to Wilcox; and it is with reluctance they have kept on the native officers who go on with the work.

I told them either to keep them on or to pension them.

I don't think a successor should be urged upon them in the present state of beggary to which they are reduced.

Nobody sees any use in it, while there are a vast number of useful things neglected for want of funds; as to the instruments, the Court care nothing about them, knowing nothing of their value; and would, no doubt, be glad to give them to any establishment requiring them.
The minister, singers, and eunuchs are all now sworn to be united; but this cannot last many days.

The "pressure from without," in the clamour for pay, will soon upset the minister; but they will find it difficult to get another to undertake the burthen of forty or fifty lacs of balance, and a score of fiddlers and eunuchs as privy councillors.