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32 dream in which is visioned the light that never was nor will be.

Mr. Colvin throughout life retained fast hold of the friends whom he made in his first district. In Mr. Ricketts he found the sympathy and the good fellowship which to his final hour never failed him. Another friend he made there was the Commissioner, Mr. Pakenham, who a little later became Private Secretary to Lord William Bentinck. But Mr. Colvin was not to remain long in Cuttack. In the close of 1827 he was transferred to Haidarabad in the Deccan, the capital of the Nizám's Dominions, as second Assistant to Mr. Byam Martin, who was at that time the Company's Resident there. It was a far cry for the young couple from Cuttack, the journey being first by sea to Masulipatam, and thence by palankeen to their destination.

The affairs of Haidarábád had engaged the Government of India's close attention since 1820. Its finances, from causes which need not be now entered into, were in disorder. With a view of replacing them in equilibrium it had been agreed that the Resident should be allowed a power of interference in the administration of the State which recalls recent experiments in a less remote Muhammadan country. The Resident was instructed to 'employ his advice and influence for the establishment of the prosperity of the Nizám's dominions and the happiness of his subjects; and in that view to direct his attention to the following topics — a salutary control over the internal adminis-