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Rh districts had suffered not more from famine than official misrule. He forwarded to his Council a well-laid plan for reforming the local administration. His stay at Lucknow extended from April to the latter part of August. He succeeded in rescuing the Wazír's finances from utter wreck, and placed the government in the hands of two able and trustworthy ministers. At Faizábád he made friends of the Begams by restoring to them a part of their Jaghírs.

In September Hastings sailed down the rain-swollen Ganges to Benares, accompanied by the young Sháhzáda, Prince Jawán Bakht, who had fled from Delhi to Lucknow in quest of aid for his father from the perils that encompassed him. Hastings took a fancy to his youthful visitor and a friendly interest in his story. But he could only advise the prince to return home and look to Sindhia for the protection his father needed from the fights and plottings within his own capital, and from the encroachments of Sikh invaders on Mughal ground. His letters to his wife at this period are full of matter likely to interest one who had so long shared his public cares as well as his private experiences. Of his way of life he writes, 'I eat sparingly; I never sup, and am generally in bed by ten. I breakfast at six. I bathe with cold water daily, and while I was at Lucknow, twice a day.' If a heavy burden still weighed upon his mind, the business which now occupied it was light, uniform, 'and with little vexation.' And, unless everybody was conspiring