in his 1839 letter to Chinese Amban wrote that both of his parents were poisoned to death by Bhimsen's alleged court physicians during their illness. Also, later in 1839 during the revival of poisoning cases against Bhimsen, two new additional fabricated cases of death by poisoning of King Girvan and his wife was brought. Furthermore, it was widely known that King Rajendra's grandfather King Rana Bahadur Shah died from the sword assault by his step-brother Sher Bahadur Shah during an open court discussion while his father King Girvan Yuddha Bikram Shah along with his wife died from the smallpox to which historian Chittaranjan Nepali contends as another attempt of libel against Bhimsen by Hodgson. Failure of Mathabar Singh Thapa's mission to Britain Although the British Residents were officially instructed to keep out of the internal politics of Nepal, the Resident was courted by both the King as well as the Mukhtiyar. Hodgson was waiting for an opportunity to exploit the rift between the Mukhtiyar and the royal family and begin a more aggressive campaign to increase British influence and trading opportunities. Hodgson also believed the large standing army to be a security threat and that the border tensions could be pacified if the King was directly in control, rather than a Mukhtiyar who needed to keep on the right side of the army. By 1834, Hodgson had come to a conclusion that he would not be able to have his way so long as Bhimsen was in control of the Nepalese administration; thus he strongly sympathized with the Pande faction, and he wished to install Fateh Jung Shah, who was more favorably disposed to him, as the Mukhtiyar. Hodgson reported to the Government of India on the dominance of Bhimsen over the position of the King as: In August 1834, Hodgson proposed to conduct a new commercial treaty between Nepal and Britain, which Bhimsen in principle agreed to but disagreed with several of the clauses. At a time when his authority was diminishing, Bhimsen could not afford to antagonize the Resident; but at the same time, he could not accept his proposals and be seen as subservient to the British by the Nepalese court. Nevertheless, he tried to maintain a friendly and conciliatory attitude toward the Resident, in order to win him as his ally, by loosening the restrictions on his movements and granting direct access to the King. In