3DE Dbl 
 
'•iiMcTiiyN 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 . CALIFORNIA / 
 
F 
 
HON BLE SIR CHARLES A. ELLIOTT, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E. I 
 
 Calcutta Pho^ 
 
LABORIOUS DAYS 
 
 LEAVES FROM THE INDIAN RECORD 
 
 OF 
 
 SIR CHARLES ALFRED ELLIOTT, 
 
 K.C.S.I., CLE., &C., &C., 
 LliUTENANT-GoVERNOR OF BeNGAL. 
 
 CALCUTTA: 
 
 PRINTED BY J. LARKINS, 
 AT THE PERSE VERAXCE PRINTING WORKS, 132, LOWER CIRCULAR ROAD. 
 
 892. 
 
LOAN STACK 
 
.1. 
 
 /AM ^ 
 
 TO 
 
 LADY ELLIOTT, 
 
 WHOSE GENTLE INFLUENCE BRIGHTENS HER HUSBAND S HOME 
 ^ AND LESSENS THE BURDEN OF HIS OFFICIAL CARES, 
 THIS LITTLE SKETCH OF HIS BRILLIANT CAREER 
 IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 910 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 One of the most promising signs of the times 
 we Hve in is the preference shown by the reading 
 pubHc for memoirs and records of discovery and 
 travel. The new bias is a reaction from the love 
 of fiction which characterized the last generation. 
 It, indeed, was fortunate in possessing such lite- 
 rary giants as Dickens and Thackeray, not to 
 mention minor stars in the galaxy of genius which 
 illustrated the early Victorian era. The taste 
 created by the immortal Waverley Novels, and 
 kept alive by successors not unworthy to occupy 
 the throne of the Wizard of the North, is now 
 catered for by authors of a very different calibre. 
 We have been pelted with romances in thousands, 
 until every passion has been torn to tatters and 
 the changes rung on every possible incident of 
 human life. Those who are familiar with the 
 Under-currents which influence public opinion have 
 long since been aware that the reign of the nove- 
 list is hastening to decay. The fact is not to be 
 regretted ; for fiction, save of the very first quality, 
 tends to dilute the sympathies and impair the 
 judgment. 
 
The rise of biography in pubHc esteem is es- 
 pecially a matter for congratulation. There 'is no 
 greater spur to exertion than the exploits of our 
 fellows. What man has done, we reflect, man 
 can do. I venture to think that the life-story told 
 in this little book will not be without its effect 
 on the formation of character. I claim not the 
 skill of a Plutarch, whose enthralling pages have 
 led many a youth to emulate the noble deeds 
 which they embalm. Nor does my subject lend 
 itself to such treatment. Sir Charles Elliott, at 
 the outset of his Indian career, looked face to 
 face at war in its direst form : but for more 
 than a third of a century his lines have been 
 cast, if not always in pleasant, at least in peace- 
 ful places, and his victories have been those of 
 civil life. Had he fallen on times of civil stress, 
 there can be little doubt that his indomitable 
 energy and power of impressing his personality 
 upon others would have placed him in the first 
 rank as a man of action. But the great value 
 of his life is the lesson it affords nil sine lahore ; 
 freely translated by Macaulay as '^ Genius con- 
 sists in a capacity for taking pains." This is, 
 indeed, a truism : but it is constantly forgotten 
 in these fevered times of ours, when men mistake 
 notoriety for distinction and struggle to rise by 
 self-advertisement and by picking the brains of 
 others. 
 
Ill 
 
 • 
 
 The plan of this work has precluded my 
 adding those touches so welcome to the gentle 
 reader which lift the veil of private life and ex- 
 hibit the subject of a biography in his relations 
 with friends, family and dependents. It has been 
 said truly that to know a man one must see him 
 at home. Sir Charles Elliott's character would 
 lose nothing by such a scrutiny. In the brief 
 intervals of relaxation from duties which would 
 crush an ordinary man, he appears in an amiable 
 light — a warm-hearted friend, devoted to family 
 ties, and one whose culture has not outgrown his 
 sense of humour. While glorying in his work and 
 investing Its dryest details with a halo of enthu- 
 siasm he enjoys with equal zest the active pleasures 
 that life affords. He is still an ardent pedestrian, 
 oarsman and mountaineer ; and, in his younger 
 days, he was an excellent shot. The Miltonian 
 quotation from which I have borrowed my title by 
 no means applies to him in its entirety. 
 
 My acknowledgments are due to Babu Kally 
 Prosonno Dey, Editor of the National Magazme^ 
 for permission to reprint the chapters of this little 
 work which originally appeared in that Interesting 
 periodical. 
 
 To Rai Bahadur Jalprakas Lai, CLE., Dlwan 
 of the Dumraon Raj, I am Indebted for a subscrip- 
 tion covering the cost of a sufficient number of 
 copies of this book to guarantee me against pecu- 
 
IV 
 
 r 
 
 niary loss. This is a great matter in a land where 
 the success of literary ventures is so uncertain. 
 Profit I do not desire. I wriie in the interests of 
 truth and justice ; and it will suffice for me if a 
 perusal of this little work should correct mistaken 
 estimates of Sir Charles Elliott's public character, 
 and lead to a wider recognition of the great ser- 
 vices he has rendered to the Government and 
 people of this country. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 Because it is an ability not common to write a good history, as 
 may well appear by the small number of them ; yet if 
 particularity of actions memorable were but liberally re- 
 ported, the compiling of a complete history of the times 
 might be the better expected when a writer should arise 
 that were fit for it : for the collection of such relations 
 might be as a nursery garden, whereby to plant a fair and 
 stately garden when time should serve. 
 
 Bacon's Advancement of Learning. 
 
 It is a staple complaint with educated Indians 
 that Englishmen are unsympathetic. Permeated 
 as many are with western culture, and conscious of 
 moral and intellectual affinities with the ruling 
 race, they resent the apparent want of interest in 
 themselves and their aspirations exhibited by the 
 Anglo-Indian community at large. They point to 
 the giants of a past age — the generation of Sir 
 William Jones — and the galaxy of bright visitants 
 whose love for the land of their sojourn was only 
 equalled by their craving desire to explore the 
 secret recesses of her history, laws and religion. 
 The contrast between past and present in this re- 
 spect is, indeed, discouraging ; and not less so the 
 growing divergence between forces which united 
 might revolutionize Asiatic society within the 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 life-time of a generation. Those, howevei; who 
 are inclined to impute all the blame to Eng- 
 lish insularity and racial pride would do well to 
 ask themselves whether other and less obvious 
 causes are not at work. The proximity of Europe, 
 with its ever-widening scope for mental and phy- 
 sical enjoyment, renders the comparative stagna- 
 tion of India more intolerable than it could have 
 been to the eighteenth century Englishman. He 
 was never confronted by demands from subject 
 races for social and political equality, and played 
 unquestioned the grateful part of patron. Our 
 best and brightest intellects of to-day a];e too 
 often benumbed by a crushing routine and im- 
 paired by the irritation arising from a sense of 
 injustice. Often, too, they dwindle under the 
 atrophy encountered in our Hill-resorts with an 
 atmosphere of officialism and soul-less frivolity. 
 Hence the undoubted fact that, with all her mate- 
 rial progress, Imperial India can boast of no 
 single contribution to that which De Quincey terms 
 the Literature of Power. Thoughtful men of 
 every race will agree that the time has come for 
 a united effort to remove this reproach. Good 
 government, improved facilities for locomotion, 
 and the interchange of ideas are but a means to 
 an end — the elevation of humanity. Those who 
 keep that great object in view will take the fullest 
 advantage of the mechanism afforded by modern 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. • 
 
 scIenc^ : but they will soar high above the world of 
 the engineer, the organizer, and the soldier. They 
 will devote their best energies to ''the proper study 
 of mankind " — not in view of gratifying an idle 
 curiosity or adding a zest to lettered ease, but that 
 they may be able to gauge the defects of society 
 and suggest remedies for the countless ills against 
 which religion and science alike have hitherto 
 striven in vain. Now human society is incarnate 
 history : and he who wishes to grasp its real im- 
 port and tendencies must compel the past to yield 
 its varied stores. A rich and almost untrodden 
 field li(?s open to such a man. Our official records, 
 ^n spite of the ravages of Philistinism,* are a 
 mine of wealth to the explorer. The archives of 
 our great families teem with curious lore which is 
 gladly placed at the disposal of the judicious en- 
 quirer. Lastly, the people still possess a vast 
 wealth of tradition and floating legend which awaits 
 its Grimm or its Niebuhr to yield results of price- 
 less value to the student of sociology. So be- 
 wildering, indeed, is the mass of material at hand 
 that the would-be historian knows not where to 
 begin, and dreads the dissipation of his energies 
 
 * A collector of Murshidabad some years back, wishing to 
 write a history of that little-known period which separates the ac- 
 quisition of the Diwanny from the reforms of Cornwallis, was 
 deterred by the discovery of a gap of fifteen years in his records ! 
 A predecessor had burned several tons of priceless papers relating 
 to the years 1772—1787 in order to find room for current ones. 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 on a task which may launch him on a bouiidless 
 ocean of research. But let such a one take heart 
 of grace. He will find in any British district a 
 compact and manageable unit : and the industry 
 of many working in parallel channels will soon 
 afford a vast mass of data for generalization and 
 synthesis. The author ventures to think that, by 
 laying before his readers the very pith and mar- 
 row of a district history which is a model of its 
 kind, he may tempt some of them to follow his 
 example, and perhaps to deserve equally well of 
 posterity. 
 
 Unao, we learn from Hunter' s Gazetteer ^ is a 
 district of the Lucknow Division of the North-, 
 Western Provinces, embracing 1,747 square miles 
 of the vast alluvial plain traversed by the sacred 
 Ganges. The census population in 1881 was 
 rather less than 900,000 : all engaged in tilling 
 the fertile loam whose crop-bearing power is en- 
 hanced by assiduous irrigation. Devoid of inter* 
 esting features, with no centres of learning, industry 
 or the arts, a more unpromising field for historical 
 research can hardly be conceived than is afforded 
 by this little nineteenth century Boeotia. But 
 enthusiasm sustained by dogged resolution makes 
 light of obstacles : and thirty years ago Unao was 
 fortunate enough to possess a chief who was en- 
 dowed with these qualities in a marked degree. In 
 i860 the present Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO.. 
 
 then ^Ir. Charles Alfred Elliott, found himself 
 Deputy Commissioner of Unao, and straightway- 
 resolved to preserve its history and tradition from 
 unmerited oblivion. His education fitted him ad- 
 mirably for the self-appointed task. Born twenty- 
 five years previously, he had enjoyed the priceless 
 boon of a public school and University training. 
 He was, indeed, a scholar on the great foundation 
 of Trinity College, Cambridge, when the seduc- 
 tions of an Indian career proved too strong for 
 the aspirations which he may well have cherished 
 of acquiring academic distinction. In June 1856 
 he passed the second open Examination for our 
 ^ Civil Service, and came out to this country in the 
 November of that year. While he was still a 
 student at Benares, the mutiny whirlwind swept over 
 the land and gave him opportunities of gaining ex- 
 perience and distinction which young civilians of 
 these humdrum days may sigh for in vain. He 
 embraced them with ardour, was attached to Gencr- 
 ral Franks' forces on the borders of Oudh, and 
 afterwards to those of Sir Hope Grant and Gene- 
 ral Kelly ; and was twice mentioned In despatches. 
 The restoration of the British peace found him 
 ready and willing to exchange the sword for the 
 pen. After spells of service as Assistant Commis- 
 sioner of Faizabad and Civil Judge and Town 
 Magistrate of Lucknow, he became Officiating 
 Deputy Commissioner of Unao at an age when 
 
JilSTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 modern civilians deem themselves fortunate if they 
 are entrusted with the destinies of a sub-division. 
 The spirit in which Mr. Elliott began his labours 
 as annalist of Unao shines through the preface of 
 his admirable little history, which was printed for 
 private circulation in 1861. He tells us that he 
 wished to put to a crucial test his belief that the 
 history of an average district would be of value 
 to local officials and residents, to the student and 
 the general reader. He laments the absence of 
 works of a similar scope — a fact due to ignorance 
 of the results derivable from careful investigation 
 and an unjustly low estimate of the value -of col- 
 lated tradition. His remarks on this head are, 
 singularly far-seeing in so young an author, and 
 richly merit quotation. '' Like all half-educated 
 races," he writes, " the Hindus place an inordinate 
 value on their mythical and historical traditions, 
 and are greatly pleased to find an Englishman in 
 an official position enquiring into them ; while the 
 reputation of being acquainted with out-of-the- 
 way facts, not ascertainable in the ordinary official 
 routine, creates in their minds a presumption of 
 general information as to the state of the district, 
 and makes them more communicative on matters 
 respecting which a private enquiry is often neces- 
 sary. Thus a knowledge of the popular traditions 
 and ballads gives to the possessor an influence 
 over the people and the key to their hearts. Even 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO., 
 
 if thi^ book were of no further use than as a re- 
 cord to be kept in the Unao office, I should still 
 feel a pleasure in presenting it, for the benefit of 
 future officials, as a small return to the district 
 for the pleasant memories with which it is as- 
 sociated in my mind, and as a testimony of the 
 interest I felt in it and of the esteem and regard in 
 which I hold some of its taluqdars and residents. 
 The common disregard of tradition as a vehicle 
 for historical truth springs, I think, from two 
 causes — from our general distrust of native accu- 
 racy, and from the exposure by Niebuhr and Sir 
 George C. Lewis of the fallacy of the traditional 
 basis on which the history of Rome as it used to 
 be written rested. But it is one thing to rely on 
 a single tradition, such as Livy's, composed evi- 
 dently in the interest of certain families, and dead 
 and stereotyped long ago, and quite another thing 
 to question a multitude of living, conflicting tra- 
 ditions, and after testing and trying them in every 
 way by comparison with each other and with ex- 
 ternal landmarks, to collect from the alembic of 
 close enquiry a precipitate of historical fact. 
 None of the objections urged against the validity 
 of tradition in Niebuhr's famous chapter apply to 
 such a treatment of it as this native inaccuracy 
 tends all in one direction — to the glorification of 
 the subject of the story ; and thus the error being 
 constant it can be eliminated in a general enquiry. 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 Where a story praises A above B, and B s-ets B 
 above A, the mutual self-glorification neutralizes 
 itself." 
 
 Thus the keynote to our author's treatment 
 of tradition is to be found in a pregnant remark of 
 a predecessor in the same line of research, that 
 concurrence between isolated traditions is almost 
 equivalent to authentic history. He compares 
 versions current among different clans as well as 
 those told in different families of the same class, 
 and reads them by the light of general history. 
 This process of sublimation gives a residuum of 
 fairly trustworthy narrative, illustrating evepits of- 
 ten of great importance in their bearing on the , 
 formation of a people's character and the deve- 
 lopment of their civilization. Tradition apart, a 
 mass of documentary evidence had to be dealt 
 with. This included sunnuds^ safe guides as re- 
 gards facts and dates ; family records, only worthy 
 of evidence when they concern contemporary 
 events ; and certain obiter dicta in a Persian school 
 book then in great request. From these somewhat 
 unpromising materials Mr. Elliott contrived to ex- 
 tract a mass of information enabling his readers 
 to trace the history of Unao from the earliest days. 
 We see the little district in the mythical era a 
 portion of classic Ajodhya, the realm of good king 
 Dasarath, and the chosen above of saints and 
 warriors. Anon the curtain lifts and gives us a 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 glimj^se of a land clothed with dense forests, the 
 habitat of wild aboriginal tribes. These give way 
 before the invasion of the fair-skinned Aryan, and 
 take refuge in the hill region northward, whence, 
 about the commencement of the Christian era, 
 they swoop down on their conquerors and drive 
 them even unto distant Guzerat. Twelve hundred 
 years later we view an immigration of chivalrous 
 Rajputs driven from the centres of Hindu power 
 and devotion by the fierce Shahabuddin Gori. A 
 century later the followers of the Prophet pour in 
 and establish colonies throughout the land, which 
 pave^the way for its assimilation with the Empire 
 of Akbar. The reign of the Mogul is graphically 
 portrayed, with its elaborate fiscal system, its 
 centralization tempered by checks and counter 
 checks. Then we see how, when paralysis strikes 
 the heart of the effete organization, satraps throw 
 off their allegiance ; and one of them bribes the 
 English successors of his master to recognize him 
 as sovereign of Oudh. The description which 
 follows of the Nawabi rule, its lawlessness and 
 elasticity as contrasted, not altogether unfavour- 
 ably, with the inexorable justice that followed the 
 annexation, enables us to understand why the 
 very excellences of the British regime prompt- 
 ed the whole population of Oudh to range them- 
 selves on the national side in the crisis of the 
 Mutiny. 
 
10 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 r 
 
 But Government is, after all, less a question 
 of laws than of the personal character of those 
 appointed to administer them. Our author's pe- 
 roration is a passage of equal eloquence and truth, 
 and deserves to be written in letters of gold in 
 every Secretariat of the Empire. '' The Native of 
 India," he writes, '' has no valet mind : he can 
 worship the true hero when he knows him. And 
 as long as the British Government can send such 
 men as Major Henry Evans* to govern its districts, 
 to walk uprightly in its service, and to lead its 
 subjects up through education and a love of law 
 to religion and a love of God, so long will the 
 future of Unao be bright indeed." 
 
 He who desires to be well acquainted with a 
 people will not reject their popular stories and 
 superstitions. These are the words of Sir John 
 Malcolm, a past master of statecraft, for whom 
 the oriental mind had no secrets. His dictum ap- 
 plies with twofold force to the historian of an 
 Indian community : for in no part of the globe 
 have these legends, which pitiless science terms 
 myths, exercised a profounder influence on the for- 
 mation of national character. History proverbially 
 repeats itself : and the key to many a complex 
 problem of life and action is afforded by a minute 
 study of those glorious epics which are among the 
 
 ** The first Deputy Commissioner of Unao. 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. U 
 
 ^ • 
 
 mos^ precious inheritances of the Aryan Race. 
 Here the ancient altars stand decked with greener 
 bays than those of Greece and Rome in colder 
 climes. The Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Purans, 
 with their pictures of virile bravery and womanly 
 self-devotion, still live in the hearts of millions 
 and insensibly influence their daily lives. Their 
 very blots and blemishes, the blurred outlines 
 which reveal their hoary antiquity are cherished 
 with a loving care ; and episodes, which to the 
 matter-of-fact European are but the stuff that 
 dreams are made of, are vivid realities in the eyes 
 of tke faithful Hindu. Sir Charles Elliott has, 
 therefore, done wisely to devote a chapter of his 
 history to the mythical age of Unao : albeit that 
 most of the legends current in the district are but 
 variants charged with local colouring of stories 
 found in epic poesy. That of Lona Chamarin 
 merits quotation in our author's own graphic words, 
 if only for the proof it affords that Hindu methods 
 of culture have remained the same for countless 
 ages. Lona was a woman of the despised caste 
 of leather-dressers, and lived at Unao. One day, 
 while bathing in the Ganges, she found a caldron 
 full of flesh which had been cast ashore near the 
 temple of Puriur. This was the mortal spoils of 
 Dhanattar Vaid, who had been killed by the snake, 
 typifying in mythology the Scythian invasion of 
 India, lest by his cunning he should save king 
 
12 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 Parichit from a similar fate. Lona ate the fiissh : 
 and as she ate, the wisdom of Dhanattar passed 
 into her. She became skilful in cures and medi- 
 cines, and if any was bitten by a snake she healed 
 him. There came a day when all the people of 
 Unao were transplanting the young rice-plants 
 from their seed-beds to the wider fields in which 
 they were to grow. Every man brought the plants 
 in a basket and threw them out in one place where' 
 Lona was standing : but when they came back 
 with another basketful they found that she had 
 planted out all the plants which were in the heap. 
 When they saw this they wondered greatly ,'5 and 
 said, ''We are two hundred men bringing baskets 
 of plants, how can one woman plant out so many 
 all alone ? " So, at last, when the rest went away 
 after emptying their baskets, her brother-in-law 
 stayed behind and hid himself. He watched and 
 saw that when all were gone Lona stripped herself 
 naked and took up the heap in her hands, and 
 muttered words, and cast the plants into the air, 
 and all the rice-plants planted themselves out in 
 order, each in its proper line and place. Then he 
 cried out in astonishment, and when she saw 
 that she was watched, she was overpowered with 
 shame, and crouching down tried to escape. Her 
 brother-in-law followed to reassure her, but she 
 fled the faster, and as she fled the earth opened 
 before her, and behind her all the water from the 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. i;; 
 
 rice-^elds, collecting in one wave, flowed down 
 the channel which she made. At first she crouch- 
 ed as she ran, but when she saw she was pursued 
 she rose up, and the channel became deeper, and 
 the wave behind her rose higher, and fear added 
 wings to her flight. So she sped along, carrying 
 destruction through the country as she ran ; pass- 
 ing through the town of Newayan until she reached 
 the Ganges at Dal-armau and rushed into it and 
 hid her shame in its water. The channel which 
 she made is called the Lona Naddi to this day. 
 The flood destroyed the town of Newayan, and left 
 nothing but a high mound which stands close to 
 the bank of the stream. Sir Charles Elliott adds 
 a foot-note to the effect that mantras for charm- 
 ing away the evil effects of snake-bite are still 
 addressed to Lona Chamarin : but they are not 
 popular, for any one knowing them is bound to go 
 to the assistance of the victim who pronounces 
 them : a necessity which might sometimes prove 
 inconvenient to the onlooker. Those who have 
 lived in the little island of Jersey will remember 
 that ancient formula the Clameitr de Haro, an 
 appeal to a long-defunct Duke of Normandy 
 famed for strong administration and justice, which, 
 uttered by any one whose rights are invaded at 
 once suspends all proceedings to his detriment. 
 
 As materials for history, however, the value 
 of myths is nought and the annals of Unao are a 
 
14 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 blank till its conquest by the Mahommedar^s in 
 the thirteenth century of our era. At that date 
 the Unao Pargana was tenanted by a colony of 
 Bisseins from Gorakhpur, whose king Anwanta is 
 supposed to have given his name to the district. 
 Further west there was a large settlement of 
 Chandels, driven from Chanderi in the Deccan by 
 the Chohan victorious in that great battle which is 
 best described in the terms of a proverb used in 
 eases where might conquers right — Khet Pri- 
 thora, talwar Ala aur Tidal ka. '' The victory 
 was Prithi-Raj's, but the glory lay with Ala and 
 Udal." The present pargana of Bangarmau' was 
 the seat of the Rajpuri clan, the chief of which 
 was a tributary of the kingdom of Kanouj. Its 
 capital was at Rajkot, where to this day vast ruins 
 extend over an area of several miles. The streams 
 which wash the base of mounds a hundred feet high 
 lay bare cyclopic masonry and sometimes gold 
 coin and jewellery stamped with quaint legends 
 which bring disaster on their finders. A Brahmin 
 community was found at Safipur : and a cluster of 
 low-caste herdsmen in the central portion of the 
 district. In the east lived the Bhars, an aborigi- 
 nal race, which at one time dominated the eastern 
 half of Oudh. Their earliest habitat was Bahraich, 
 which is said to owe its name to them : and they 
 have left indehble traces on the nomenclature of 
 the upper Gangetic delta. 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. 15 
 
 \ 
 
 lyhen we approach the Mahommedan con- 
 quest we stand on firmer ground. In the year 1 193 
 A.D., writes Sir Charles Elliott, Shahabuddin Ghori 
 conquered and slew the hero of Rajput chronicles, 
 Raja Prithora of Delhi : and in the next year 
 he overthrew his great rival, Raja Jaichand of 
 Canouj. These important victories were followed 
 up by vigorous attacks in all directions. The 
 sacred Mount Abu, the impenetrable Gwalior, the 
 holy Benares, Gya and Ajmir and . Anhalwara 
 Patan — all the great centres of Rajput power and 
 Hindu devotion — w^ere startled by the appearance 
 befor^ their walls of the uncouth barbarians. All, 
 after a brave but vain resistance, fell before his 
 sword. The Brahmin folded his hands and cursed 
 the Mleccha, but not openly. The merchant 
 sought to turn an honest penny by him, and was 
 oftener paid with iron than with gold. The Sudra 
 served the strange highlanders much as he had 
 obeyed his Aryan master. But to the Rajput this 
 upsetting of his received ideas was intolerable. 
 It was part of his religion that his race should 
 be lords of the lands ; and to see his Raja bow 
 before a barbarian was desecration and impiety. 
 By mutual jealousies, by incapacity for combina- 
 tion, and by fatuous negligence, the country had 
 been taken from him, and the lives of his great 
 Rajas had been lost. Now at last, thoroughly 
 roused when it was too late, he felt that it was 
 
16 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 impossible to remain quiet under defeat. ^!f he 
 could not fight he could fly ; some spot might be 
 found where, though only for a little space, he 
 might be beyond the conqueror's reach. The 
 outcome of this great movement was the coloniza- 
 tion of Unao by warlike Rajput clans. Another 
 class of these settlers owe their origin to grants 
 of land bestowed on their ancestors by Mogul 
 emperors for services in war. Under Akbar's 
 liberal sway Rajputs were prized as the very flower 
 of the army. Alliances with princesses of their 
 stock were eagerly sought for by the Mahom- 
 medan nobility — nay, by the imperial family itself . 
 Both Jehangir and Shah Jehan were Rajputs on 
 the mother's side. These colonies reproduced all 
 the essential features of European feudality. The 
 tract occupied by the settlers was held under a 
 special grant from the king. The grantee was 
 bound to do service in the field against rebels or 
 disturbers of the peace when called on by the 
 proper authorities : and sometimes it was stipulat- 
 ed that he should attend the Faujdar on his 
 excursions through the country with a fixed force. 
 Sixteen great clans of Rajputs still survive in 
 Unao, each with its own well-defined tract of 
 country. The royal house of Bulrampur is an 
 offshoot of one of these, — the Junwars, found in 
 the Bangarmau Pargana. From another branch 
 was descended the infamous Jussa Singh who 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. 17 
 J 
 
 duriDg the Mutiny seized the English fugitives 
 escaping by boat from Futtehgurh and delivered 
 them to the ruthless Nana, by whose orders they 
 were done to death on the Cawnpore parade-ground. 
 The Dikhits are a second important Rajput class; 
 asserting a lineal descent from the children of the 
 Sun who ruled Ajodhya for fifty-one generations. 
 Though still in possession of a large and compact 
 area in Unao, they are but a shadow of their 
 former selves. Their downfall dates from the 
 opposition offered by their Raja Prithimal to the 
 assimilation of Oudh by the Emperor Akbar. 
 Whe© the Vizier of Mahommad Shah Adili, says 
 Sir Charles Elliott, led his forces to oppose the 
 return of Humayun, all Hindustan was moved to 
 see a Hindu once more at the head of affairs and 
 combating a Mahommedan in the field, and a vast 
 army flocked to his standard. This feeling gave 
 to the campaign something of the nature of a 
 religious war ; and, as a natural result, the victory 
 of Akbar spread over all the country the fear of 
 a forcible conversion to Islamism. This fear was 
 probably the immediate cause which prevented 
 Prithimal from obeying the summons of Akbar's 
 general, Mahommad Amin Khan, who was ap- 
 pointed to the government of Oudh. Though 
 treated with the greatest courtesy, and repeatedly 
 called on to submit, he refused to return any 
 answer whatever to the summons, but sent his 
 B 
 
18 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 four Ranis to their fathers' homes, and called a 
 council of feudatories and followers to discuss the 
 conduct of the war. . . . Some counselled him 
 to meet the enemy in the field, and others warn- 
 ed him to keep within the ramparts of his fort : 
 but not one spoke of surrender. Meanwhile the 
 Delhi force had crossed the Ganges by a bridge 
 of boats below Canouj, and encamped before the 
 fort of Patheora. Then was seen the resolution 
 which the council of war had decided on. Clad 
 in full armour, and followed by all his captains 
 dressed in their saffron robes, the Raja issued 
 into the plain and drew up his forces foir^ the 
 battle. The Moghal yoked his guns together to 
 withstand their impetuous charge ; but twice his 
 staunchest battalions were driven back and twice 
 a shameful rout was imminent, when fresh reserves 
 came up. But the unequal contest was now all 
 but over. Bhagiruth Singh, the Chohan, had al- 
 ready fallen : other chiefs were wounded, and the 
 Rajputs were weary and dispirited. Then the 
 Moghal cavalry were brought up fresh to the 
 attack. Latta Singh Chandel headed one des- 
 perate charge and fell drowned, as the bard phras-. 
 es it, in that sea of horsemen. The enemy swept 
 on in one irresistible wave over Prithimal and his 
 captains, who fell each in their places, and the 
 power of the Dikhits was for ever broken. The 
 Chohans formed another tide of Rajput immigra-^ 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. ^ 19 
 
 tion. *»TheIr advent was, according to tradition, 
 due to an old man's uxoriousness. A Chohan Raja 
 of Mainpuri, the hereditary chief of all Rajputs 
 beyond Rajasthan, married again late in life, 
 thouo^h his former wife had borne him two sons. 
 The bride was averse to be an old man's darling, 
 and stipulated that, if she bore a son, he should 
 succeed to the family possessions. The Raja 
 eagerly closed with these hard terms, but did not 
 long survive his bliss. A posthumous son was 
 born, and the young Rani produced her deed 
 and claimed its execution. The injustice was 
 patent • but there w^as no help for it. Rajput 
 honour demanded that the contract should be 
 strictly enforced. The slighted elder brother left 
 their patrimony in disgust and settled in Unao. 
 
 The second great class of Rajput emigrants — 
 those in the enjoyment of jaghirs for military 
 service — includes the clans of Sengor and Gaur. 
 Sir Charles Elliott gives an episode in the 
 history of the former which places the lawless- 
 ness of Nawabi rule in a startling light. Umrao 
 Singh, an eight-anna shareholder in the village of 
 Kantha, was sold up in 1848 for default in paying 
 revenue. Like other desperate men in those days 
 he took to the road, and, joining another bandit 
 named Baljor Singh of Parsandan, was the prime 
 mover In many a dacoity. In 1850 this precious 
 pair at the head of five hundred followers had the 
 
20 , HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 hardihood to attack the king's ChackladaV, who 
 Avas encamped at Bainsora with a loyal Sengor 
 chief named Runjit Singh, a thousand troops, and 
 two cannon. But the royal artillery had only two 
 rounds per gun ; and after discharging their pieces 
 they incontinently fled. Deprived of their moral 
 support, the rest of the Chackladar's army followed 
 suit, and the rebels looted the royal camp and 
 dragged off the guns in triumph. It was, how- 
 ever, short-lived. The outraged Chackladar return- 
 ed with stronger forces and abundant ammunition, 
 and carried fire and sword into every village which 
 had opposed him. It is only what mighc have 
 been expected to find Baljor and Umrao promi- 
 nent in the rebel ranks during the Mutiny ; while 
 Ranjit Singh was equally active on the English 
 side. The Gaurs are settled in Tuppeh Bunthur, 
 which was traditionally occupied in Akbar's reign 
 by a race of cowherds who paid an annual tribute 
 of ghee to government. Actuated either by in- 
 solence or knavery — two characteristics not un- 
 known in the Goalas of our own time — the Gaddis, 
 as they were called, filled the earthen vessels in 
 which the tribute was sent with cowdung and 
 covered it with a thin layer of ghee. On the 
 discovery of their fraud at Delhi, a Gaur who held 
 a high military command was told off to punish 
 the insubordinate ones. He carried out the royal 
 behest by exterminating them and annexing their 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. >• 21 
 
 territoVy. Kesri Singh, a later chief of Bunthur, 
 came into colHsion with a tribe of Chandels in 
 occupation of another Tuppeh of Harha on a 
 boundary question. The reign of law had not 
 begun, and there was no other resource but an 
 appeal to arms. A sanguinary encounter took 
 place regulated by the code of Rajput chivalry. 
 Man after man on either side came to the front 
 and challenged a foe to single combat. Thus 
 the whole of the forces was speedily engaged, and 
 the slaughter was as great as that under similar 
 conditions recorded in Walter Scott's Fair Maid 
 of PeHh. The Chandel leader wounded Kesri 
 Singh so desperately that he could not stir from 
 the spot where he fell ; and as quarter was neither 
 asked nor given in those good old times, he would 
 infallibly have been slaughtered had not a merci- 
 ful Brahmin surreptitiously dragged him unto a 
 bed of dry rushes. Here he was sought by his 
 blood-thirsty foes, who thought of setting the 
 rushes on fire as the simplest method of destroy- 
 ing him. But the Brahmin again saved Kesri's 
 life by swearing that the field was his, and that 
 the sale of rush baskets was his only means of 
 livelihood. Seeing them incredulous, he proceed- 
 ed to assure them that if they fired the rushes he 
 would cut his throat there and then, and a Brah- 
 min's blood would be on their guilty heads. This 
 awful threat was sufficient. The Chandels with- 
 
22 < HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 drew. Kesri was carried to the Brahmlfi's hut 
 where he soon recovered to take the field again 
 and turn the tables on his enemies. 
 
 Sir Charles Elliott's chapter on the Rajput 
 colonization of Unao ends with the story of the 
 great Bais clan, who, though not strictly speaking 
 settlers in that district, claimed a lordship over 
 seven of its parganas. As is customary with 
 Rajputs, the Bais assert a miraculous descent. 
 Their ancestor was none other than Salavahana, 
 the son of a mighty serpent who conquered king 
 Vikramajit of Ujani and exercised the unique pri- 
 vilege of fixing his own era which begins A.D. 55. 
 There is, however, a hiatus of twelve centuries in 
 their annals ; and we do not hear of them again 
 till 1250, when two scions of the tribe named Abhai 
 Chand and Nirbhai Chand won glory by rescuing 
 the Queen of the Gautam Raja of Angul from the 
 clutches of the Mahommedan governor of Oudh. 
 The Raja had omitted the formality of paying 
 tribute, and the Governor in revenge despatched 
 a strong force to intercept the Rani while on a 
 pilgrimage to Buxar for the purpose of bathing in 
 the Ganges. The Rajput brothers happened to 
 be passing when the helpless lady's palanquin was 
 attacked ; and, moved by her piteous appeals for 
 help against the barbarians, they charged the 
 assailants and drove them off. Nirbhai Chand 
 fell a victim to his valour, but Abhai Chand 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO.^ 23 
 
 surviVed to wed the daughter and heiress of the 
 grateful Raja, and to succeed with the title of Rao 
 to all the Gautam possessions north of the Ganges. 
 Tilak Chand, the seventh in descent from the hero 
 of this romantic story, is a name still familiar to 
 Baises throughout Oudh. He flourished in the 
 fifteenth century, and extended the empire of his 
 clan over twenty-two parganas. Tilak Chand was 
 the premier Raja of Oudh, and innumerable legends 
 of his power and prowess are sung by local bards. 
 Two clans are found to this day in Unao who are 
 Rajputs by courtesy, though not by blood, because 
 'the ^eat Rao brought them within the sacred pale-. 
 The Mahrors were originally low-born Kahars 
 who carried Tilak Chand out of an action fought 
 with the Pathans of Mulhiabad. It was the only 
 defeat of his glorious career. A panic seized his 
 troops, who deserted their chief wounded in his 
 litter ; but his faithful bearers stood by him and 
 beat off the foe. The Rao afterwards declared 
 that his Rajputs on that day were women and his 
 Kahars Rajputs : and then the poor Mehras (palki- 
 bearers) became Mahrors and gave their daughters 
 in marriage to Rajputs of blue blood. The Rawats 
 are another class of ''Tilak Chandi Rajputs," and 
 boast an illegitimate descent from the great epony- 
 mous hero of the Bais. Mitrajit, the seventh Rao 
 from Tilak Chand, is second only to him in the 
 estimation of the clansmen. Sir Charles Elliott 
 
24 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 tells us that when MItrajit first went to Delhi, 
 he attended the Durbar, but stood outside the 
 entrance expecting some one to invite him in. 
 He waited till it was all over, and when the Rajas of 
 Jaipur and Marwar were passing out, they noticed 
 his uncouth country air and manners, and asked 
 who he was. They were told " a Raja of Baiswara." 
 One asked why he wore tw^o swords. ^' To fight any 
 two men who dare to meet me '' was the proud 
 reply. The others asked why he did not enter the 
 Durbar but stood without the door. He replied 
 that in his country It was customary to invite the 
 stranger, and not leave him to push his way in 
 uninvited. However, he said, as fliey had given 
 their daughters and sisters to the king, they would 
 not be looked on as strangers and had a perfect 
 right to enter. Incensed at this insult they chal- 
 lenged him to single combat. Mitrajit came to 
 the field mounted on a mare, which, at the first 
 onset, became unmanageable and bolted with him. 
 He pulled her up with great trouble, and dismount- 
 ed, pronouncing a curse on any member of his 
 race who should in future bestride a mare. He 
 then returned to the field on foot and discomfited 
 both his foes. To this day no Bais of his house 
 can be Induced to mount a mare. MItrajit's exploit 
 took wind, and he rose to high favour in the Im- 
 perial Court. He was entrusted with the command 
 of an army sent to Cabul, where in a dangerous 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. , 25 
 
 mounhim pass he met and defeated the enemy. 
 Elated by the victory, he ordered his kettledrum to 
 sound the note of triumph, but their hoarse boom- 
 ing brought down an avalanche of snow which 
 buried the greater portion of his host. Thus he 
 fell Into disgrace at Delhi and returned to his home 
 a broken man. It is not a little curious that a 
 tradition such as this should survive for centuries 
 and be repeated by thousands who have never seen 
 snow and can form no conception of Its nature and 
 appearance. 
 
 Sir Charles Elliott repeats one m.ore tale of 
 Rajpift prowess, which is interesting by reason of 
 the light It throws on the rough and ready 
 methods employed by the native government of 
 old time In the collection of revenue. When 
 Sa'adat Khan, the founder of the royal house of 
 Oudh, became provincial governor in 1723, he 
 found the revenue administration in the direst 
 disorder : and just as Warren Hastings did half a 
 century later, he made a progress through the 
 country in order to see things with his own eyes. 
 When he reached a place called Morawan In 
 Balswara, he summoned the canungos and ordered 
 them to produce the dauls or rent-rolls of their 
 respective parganas. They asked what daul his 
 Highness wanted, explaining that there were two — 
 the " coward's daul " and the '' man's daul." In 
 the first, the zemindar was charged only with the 
 
26 r HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 sum fixed at the previous settlement, but *m the 
 second his rent was raised in proportion to inter- 
 mediate improvements. The Subadar called for 
 the '' man's daul," and doubled the assessment of 
 Baiswara with a stroke of his pen. Then he 
 summoned the agents of all the Rajas to a Dur- 
 bar, where he sat with a heap of pan leaves on 
 one side and a heap of bullets on the other. 
 Addressing the crowd, he bade them, if their 
 masters accepted his terms, to take up the fan 
 leaves : if not the bullets. One by one they step- 
 ped forward and humbly took up a fan leaf each. 
 Sa'adat Khan turned to his courtiers and said 
 with a sneer — ^' I had heard great things of the 
 fighting men of Baiswara, but they seem readier 
 to pay than to fight. '^ But he was premature in 
 his judgment. The agent of Cheitrai, an illegiti- 
 mate member of the clan, stood last in Durbar 
 by reason of his master's bar sinister. When his 
 turn came, he said '' Nawab, my master was ready 
 to accept your terms ; but if you wish to see now 
 a Bais can fight he will not refuse to gratify you. 
 Give him but a day to prepare himself, and then 
 lead your forces against his fort." Sa'adat Khan 
 agreed, and attacked Cheitrai's stronghold on the 
 morrow. But he found it a hard nut to crack. 
 All day long the battle raged, and the besiegers 
 were baffled. In the evening the Nawab sent to 
 say that he was quite satisfied with the specimen 
 
HISTORY OF UNAOi 27 
 
 he held afforded of Balswara prowess, and that 
 he would let Cheitrai off with half the assessment 
 fixed in his case. The terms were accepted and 
 Cheitrai rose high in the esteem of government. 
 
 The Mutiny divided Rajputs in Unao. The 
 vast majority joined the national side, for the 
 hostility to British rule throughout Oudh was 
 indescribably bitter.* Some, however, defied 
 public opinion and met with a rich reward. 
 Amongst the loyal few were the Magarwara Raj- 
 puts, who lived but five miles from Cawnpore on 
 the Lucknow road. In spite of their proximity to 
 'the g^eat rebel centre, these people assisted the 
 English army with information and supplies, and 
 accompanied Sir Henry Havelock in his ineffectu- 
 al advance on Unao and Basiratganj. When he 
 retreated to Cawnpore they left their homes and 
 followed him ; nor did they leave his standard 
 when they saw their village in flames — destroyed 
 
 ■^ The cause of this hostility was, in some measure, the national 
 pride of the people of Oudh. Thirty years before the annexation, 
 Bishop Heber, while on his progress up-country, met a Captain 
 Lockitt at Lucknow, who told him that he had recently had a con- 
 versation with an old jemadar of cavalry, who spoke out like the 
 rest of his countrymen on the weakness of the king and the 
 wickedness of the Government. Captain Lockitt asked the old 
 man how he would like being placed under the British Govern- 
 ment. " Miserable as we are," he exclaimed, of all miseries " keep 
 us from that ! " " Why so ? " asked Captain Lockitt. " Are not 
 our people better governed?" Yes, was the answer : "but the 
 name of Oudh and the honor of our nation would be at an end." 
 
28 fHISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 by the rebels as a warning to sympathizers with 
 the Feringhis. 
 
 We have seen an indirect result of the 
 Mahommedan conquest of India in the settlement 
 of Rajput colonies throughout Oudh. It remains 
 to consider the effect on the popular character 
 produced by the introduction of a fresh strain of 
 blood, and on social history by new ideas and a 
 new administrative policy. The first wave of 
 invasion rolled in from Ghazni, whence Masud, 
 the fiery nephew of Sultan Mahmud, set forth in 
 1030 A.D. to plant the green flag of Islam in 
 places which had never yet re-echoed prais\as of 
 God the Highest, the most Merciful. He took 
 Delhi and was welcomed at Canouj. But when 
 he crossed the Ganges and penetrated further 
 into Oudh, he was stoutly opposed by a confeder- 
 acy of powerful Rajas who drove him Into Bah- 
 raich and cut his army in pieces. Three hundred 
 years elapsed ere any Mahommedan obtained a ' 
 foot-hold in Oudh. Between the 14th and 17th 
 centuries their colonies slowly increased, but 
 they have long been stationary, and at the present 
 day the Hindus are more than 93 per cent, of the 
 population. The early conquests were the out- 
 come of blood-feuds or other forms of private 
 revenge ; and the struggle between the creeds 
 had none of the features of a religious war. 
 There is, indeed, a strong tendency among the 
 
HISTORY OF UXA0.1 29 
 
 followers of the Prophet to assimilate in all ex- 
 ternals with their Hindu neighbours. In the 
 matter of diet they are as scrupulous as any 
 Brahmin. The dhuti is commonly worn by 
 them, and the formula Ram Ram their ordinary 
 mode of salutation. In short, the law which 
 ordains that the greater body shall attract the less 
 is, or was till lately, in as full operation in Unao 
 as it was in Eastern Bengal before the great neo- 
 puritan revival which is stirring Islam to its 
 depths had placed an impassable gulf between 
 the professors of the rival creeds. Bangarmau^ 
 60 oken mentioned in these annals, was the 
 theatre of the first Mahommedan effort at coloni- 
 zation. According to tradition, about the year 
 1300 A.D. a saint named Alauddin came from 
 Canouj with the intention of living peaceably in 
 the territories of Raja Nala of Newal. But the 
 Raja would not tolerate the presence of a vileccha, 
 and endeavoured to eject him. The holy man 
 cursed his persecutor ; and straightway the city 
 of Newal turned upside down, burying its inhabi- 
 tants. Utensils of archaic form are to this day 
 exposed by the plough amongst the extensive 
 ruins of king Newal's luckless city ; and those 
 who stand upon ancient ways see a confirmation 
 of the legend in the fact that they are always 
 found inverted. The catastrophe was probably 
 due to an earthquake in prehistoric times. After 
 
30 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 this exhibition of superhuman power Alauddin 
 founded the town of Bangamau, which still con- 
 tains a leaven of Shaikh and Sayyid families. 
 The more important settlement at Sufipur, or 
 Saipur, dates from 1431, when Ibrahim Shah of 
 Jaunpur, to revenge the insult offered to another 
 saint known as Maulana Shaha Ikram by the 
 refusal of five Rajas to allow him to sound the 
 azam, or summons to prayers, marched a strong 
 force into their territory and defeated them with 
 great slaughter. The victory cost one of the 
 Musulman generals his life. His grave, which is 
 still pointed out at Sufipur, has rare and precious^ 
 virtues in a country which suffers greatly from 
 droughts. In the event of one occurring, all that 
 is necessary is to milk a cow and mix the milk 
 with ten maunds of flour, and ghee, spices, &c., 
 in proportion before the tomb. Hardly is there 
 time to bake the resulting cakes ere the sky be- 
 comes overcast and the worshippers are drenched 
 to the skin. The Maulana's grandson, Shah Safi, 
 is the eponymous hero of Sufipur. Many legends 
 survive to attest his miraculous power. On one 
 occasion a poor widow, who had lost her all 
 through the tyranny of the Faujdar of Khairabad, 
 entreated him to revenge her wrongs. He took 
 from his mouth the lump of pan which he was 
 chewing and told her to fix it to an arrow and 
 shoot it at the house of his oppressor. The 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. ^ 31 
 
 Faujdar, hearing of the advice, ran in great alarm, 
 prostrated himself at the holy man's feet and 
 craved and obtained pardon. Then, from sheer 
 feminine curiosity the widow shot the pd?i from 
 a bow at a mound which stood near Khairabad. 
 The mound at once disappeared and in its place 
 there opened a yauning gulf which is called to this 
 day Saji Sugar. 
 
 The next wave of Mahommedan conquest was 
 impelled by Sayyid Baharuddin, son of the gene- 
 ral who was killed at the battle which led up to the 
 foundation of Bangarmau. The Bisseins of Unao 
 itsplf fell victims to a notable stratagem planned by 
 him, full details of which will be found in Sir 
 William Hunter's monumental Gazetteer of hidia, 
 in the shape of a quotation from Sir Charles 
 Elliott's history. (Vol. xiii p. 428.) But the 
 Mahommedan colonies in Unao were not all the 
 outcome of ^' blood and iron." A peaceful inva- 
 sion of the district resulted from the Moghul 
 policy of rewarding military service by grants 
 of land. These jaghirdars have planted Shaikh 
 or Sayyid families in nearly every town of any 
 size : but the only house of any importance — • 
 that of the Rasulabad Sayyids— -received its death- 
 blow during the Mutiny. The chief then threw 
 in his lot with the national side, and paid the 
 penalty of his blunder in the confiscation of his 
 estates. 
 
32 t HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 Sir Charles's sketch of Unao under Moghal 
 rule is instructive, as proving that the English ad- 
 ministration owes but little to the effete organiza- 
 tion which it superseded. Under Akbar, when the 
 Government was as strong and highly centralized 
 as imperfect communications admitted, Unao form- 
 ed a portion of the Lucknow Sai^kar^ the largest 
 of five divisions into which the province of Oudh 
 was split. It contained 14 parganas with a 
 revenue of Rs. 4,52,242, as compared with Rs. 
 9,63,930 just before the annexation, Rs. 10,33,640 
 as settled after that event, and Rs. 14,22,720 in 
 1883-84. Each pargana was administered- by tv^o 
 distinct classes of officials. In the one category 
 came the Qazi, Mufti, Qanungo and Chaudhuri, — 
 generally natives of the pargana and paid by grants 
 of land or fees, and holding their posts for life. 
 The functions of the two first named were judicial. 
 The Qazi was Civil Judge, Registrar, and Priest, 
 with a supervision over the morals and ceremonies 
 of his jurisdiction. The Mufti was a miniature 
 Legal Remembrancer, whose opinion or fiitwa 
 w^as a necessary basis for the decisions of the 
 Criminal Courts. The duties of the Qanungo and 
 Chaudhuri were connected with the revenue, and 
 they were settlement officers of the pargana. 
 There was no substantial difference between them : 
 but the former appointment was always conferred 
 on the chief zemindar of the pargana; while the 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. 33 
 
 latter fell to a writer of the Kalesth caste. The 
 second class of officials included the Amil, Krori 
 and Tehsildar. They were seldom residents of 
 the pargana, were often transferred, and were paid 
 either by salary or a percentage on the collections. 
 The Amil was magistrate-collector — the district 
 chief in both revenue and judicial affairs. The 
 Krori and Chaudhurl were subordinate revenue 
 officers ; the first taking his name from an obsolete 
 division of the empire into tracts, each paying a 
 crore of dams, i.e., two-and-a-half lakhs of rupees. 
 Their duties were identical, and in process of time 
 b^oth ^lerged in the Tehsildar. Above the local 
 officials came the Faujdar, who was military com- 
 mandant and responsible for the preservation of 
 peace ; and the Dewan, whose work was that of 
 general supervision in revenue matters. Higher 
 still there were the officers of the Suba, or pro- 
 vince — the Nazim or Governor, the Dewan, or 
 chief Minister, and the Amin, who was responsible 
 for the land settlements. This duality was intend- 
 ed to provide a system of checks and counter- 
 checks, and it survives to this day in many zemin- 
 dari offices. In practice it worked but indifferently. 
 The history of Unao during the period when the 
 arm of the Emperor of Delhi was longest is a 
 record of rebellion, robbery, murder, and illegal 
 exactions. When the sceptre of Aurungzib fell 
 into impotent hands, the anarchy became intoler- 
 c 
 
34 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 able : and no semblance of order was effected till 
 Sa'adat Khan, the Nazim of Oudh, threw off his 
 allegiance and founded the royal house whose last 
 crowned representative must be fresh in the 
 memory of Calcutta residents. Sa'adat Khan 
 was a lineal descendant of Imam Muza Kassim, 
 of the best blood of Persia. During a civil war 
 which desolated his native province, Khorassan, 
 he migrated to Lahore and exchanged his name, 
 Mir Muhammud Amin, for that which he was 
 destined to render famous. In 1723 the Emperor 
 Mahammad Shah created him Subadar of Oudh 
 with the titles Pillar of the Empire, Confident 
 Support of the State, Glory of War. Sa'adat 
 Khan's administration was characterised by a 
 minute care for his subjects' welfare, which is still 
 remembered with gratitude. On his death in 
 1756 he was succeeded by a nephew, Sujaud- 
 daula, who dropped the title of Subadar and 
 assumed the loftier one of Nawab Vizier of 
 Oudh. His grandson, Ghaziuddin Haldar, took 
 a still bolder flight ; and with the purchased con- 
 sent of the East India Company became King 
 of Oudh. During the greater portion of the 
 Nawabi era, Unao was subject to Faujdars whose 
 government Included the southern portion of 
 Oudh and the lower Doab. The best of these 
 functionaries was Ilmas AH, who flourished at the 
 end of the last century. He built for himself a town 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO.^ 35 
 
 called MIyanganj, which Sir Charles Elliott styles 
 one of the few places in Unao worth visiting. It 
 is a square, with four wide streets meeting in a 
 central point, surrounded by lofty crenelated 
 walls, crowned by forty-four towers. Colonel 
 Sleeman, of Thuggi fame, pays a well-deserved 
 tribute of admiration to Ilmas Ali, whom he re- 
 gards as '' one of the best and greatest men of 
 any note that Oudh had produced." ^^ During all 
 this time," he writes, '' Miyan Almas kept the 
 people secure in life and property, and as happy 
 as people in such a state of society can be ; and 
 the w'fiole country under his charge was during 
 his hfetime a garden." What modern Indian 
 ruler could desire a nobler encomium ? The 
 standard of prosperity was equally high under 
 King Sa'adat Ali. This vigorous ruler had diffi- 
 culties in his path which would have taxed the 
 utmost resources of a Frederic the Great. His 
 mighty neighbour, the honourable Company, was 
 in sore straits for money to carry on a series of 
 wars, great and little ; and its demands on the 
 Garden of India were insatiable. The annual 
 subsidy exacted rose from ;^5oo,ooo in 1787 to 
 ;f 760,000 six years later. In 1801 another turn of 
 the screw brought up the total to ;^ 1,350,000, 
 and the distracted Sa'adat All was fain to pur- 
 chase immunity from further demands by ceding 
 half his dominions. He then set himself to the 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 task of reorganising the administration of the 
 remainder. It was divided into chacklas, of which 
 modern Unao included three entire ones and 
 portion of two more. In every chackla he 
 stationed a strong force of regulars and police to 
 preserve tranquillity and lend the strong arm to 
 the Collectors of revenue at need. The regular 
 troops were paid at the rate of Rs. 4 per men- 
 sem, not much more than half the guerdon de- 
 manded by the Company's sepoys ; and the pay 
 of the police was a rupee less. Thus w^ere life 
 and property in Unao rendered as secure as in 
 the best governed British districts — seciiVer far 
 than in contemporary Bengal. The golden age 
 of the little district was the years between 1740 
 and 18 14, when master-minds such as Ilmas's and 
 Sa'adat All's miade themselves felt in every 
 branch of the administration. But the native 
 revenue system had inherent defects which brought 
 about its downfall. Sa'adat Ali was a splendid 
 man of business ; but he was hard and remarka- 
 bly close-fisted. Under the Mogul government, 
 and to a less extent that of his immediate prede- 
 cessors, supervision was lax and local officials 
 made the collection of revenue an excuse for 
 plunder. Sa'adat Ali sought a remedy for this 
 evil in the introduction of the contract system, 
 under which the collections were farmed out 
 yearly to the highest bidders. While he remained 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. 37 
 
 at the helm of affairs, abuses were sternly check- 
 ed and the mechanism worked smoothly. But he 
 left behind him no successor capable of compre- 
 hending his policy in its higher aims, or trained to 
 seek its continuity. His reforms fell into abey- 
 ance, and the tide of disorder and oppression rose 
 higher than ever. The farmers, who were gene- 
 rally mere speculators, were bound to render the 
 uttermost fraction secured by their bond, and 
 they could not, and they would not, show mercy to 
 defaulting proprietors. One class, and one alone, 
 battened on the general misery. This was the 
 t^luq(^rs. They were fostered by the revenue 
 authorities; for the fewer and larger the estates, the 
 easier it was to realize government dues. Hence 
 the speedy elevation of the taluqdars on the ruins 
 of countless smaller proprietors. The cry of the 
 people rose to heaven ; and if it did not render 
 annexation inevitable, it at least afforded a reason- 
 able excuse for the active interference of the 
 British Government. On that much-vexed ques- 
 tion our chronicle is judiciously reticent. The 
 event was too recent when he wrote to be viewed 
 with the dispassionate judgment which history 
 demands ; and as an official of the new province, 
 he probably felt that it would be indecorous to 
 discuss the question. We of the present day are 
 on a different stand-point : and this chapter may 
 fairly conclude with a few words on the annexa- 
 
38 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 tion. In weighing the pros and cons we find it 
 clear too that neither the British nor the national 
 party were wholly right or altogether wrong. The 
 NawabI rule was by no means so unspeakably bad 
 as writers in the interest of the East India Com- 
 pany alleged. The balance of power between 
 parties was, in fact, nicely adjusted. Revenue 
 must be punctually forthcoming at Lucknow to 
 gratify the taste for extravagance or miserly hoard- 
 ing, in which the kings of Oudh indulged. Hence 
 the local representatives of Government were 
 hound, at all hazards, to prevent combination on 
 the part of taluqdars, and to maintain a concilia- 
 tory attitude towards them. Nor could the latter 
 afford to quarrel with subordinate holders, for 
 there were no courts to administer a rigid system 
 of law without regard for persons. Hence differ- 
 ences were generally adjusted by mutual accom- 
 modation. The NawabI principle, writes Sir 
 Charles Elliott, was to drive no one to despera- 
 tion : the English to mete out to every one the 
 same inexorable justice. No one who knows India 
 can doubt which would be most popular in the 
 country. The same principle underlay the collec- 
 tion of revenue. The Government's, and therefore 
 the zemindars' demands were adjusted to the 
 produce of the harvests. The accession of the 
 English was the signal for a screwing up of reve- 
 nue to the highest amount ever obtained in 
 
HISTORY OF UNAO. ^ 39 
 
 Nawabi times, while payment was rigorously- 
 insisted on whatever were the fluctuations of 
 agricultural prosperity. It is hardly necessary to 
 ask which method is best adapted to the easy- 
 going oriental character. The one feature of the 
 modern administration which the most inveterate 
 encomiast of ancient times admits it to excel is 
 the degree of security afforded to person and 
 property. But candid native opinion w^ould prefer 
 that exaction and robbery should be rife, rather 
 than an unbending law should forbid the indulg- 
 ence in sacred blood-feuds, and should reduce 
 great kmilies to ruin in order that money-lenders 
 might flourish. In the essentials of life and colour- 
 ing Oudh has undoubtedly lost by the annexation. 
 Lucknow, while the seat of a Royal court, retain- 
 ed no small share of the glories associated with 
 oriental rule. Modern India still reeks of the 
 counting-house, and the sternly-utilitarian spirit 
 in which government is administered is in itself 
 enough to account for our failure to win the 
 people's hearts. Of the political relations between 
 the Company and the Court of Oudh which led up 
 to the annexation the less said the better. All 
 honest Englishmen must look back with humilia- 
 tion and abhorrence at the duplicity and greed 
 which marked the intercourse between the Supreme 
 Government and its old allies, the Subadars of the 
 Deccan, Bengal, and Oudh, But better times 
 
40 HISTORY OF UNAO. 
 
 have dawned. The conscience of England is 
 more acute than it was so lately as 23 years back, 
 when India was saddled with the cost of an official 
 ball given in London to the Sultan of Turkey. 
 Who can doubt that if the Marquis of Lansdowne 
 had been confronted with a situation in Oudh such 
 as that which vexed Lord Dalhousie's soul,^ the 
 cradle of Indian Monarchy would have been suf- 
 fered to remain beneath the sway of a native race ? 
 
 * Id a letter to his father written during the throes of the 
 mutin}^, Mr. EUiott gave good reason for his beh'ef that the annexa- 
 tion was not distasteful to one class at least whose interests have 
 till lately been deemed beneath the attention of Indian rulers. 
 " Clark and I have ridden out this morning some six miles towards 
 the rebels with a small body of cavalry. As we returned home 
 ■we crossed a small river, and came over the high ground of its 
 bank. The instant we were seen from the first village, coming 
 from the direction of the rebels, we beard shrieks and cries ; 
 every one -put his plough to his shoulder and drove his oxen before 
 him — women rushed off into the nearest wood, the whole village 
 was deserted. As we got closer to it, we saw a man lurking about 
 and called to him. He uttered a shout, rushed inside and brought 
 out the zemindar, who camo running towards us half laughing. 
 *'0h Saheb!" said he, "We thought you were the rebels!" 
 ^' What ! " I said, laughing, " do I look like a badmash ? " " l^o, 
 saheb," was the reply, " but we could not distinguish, and we took 
 you for Bisram Singh." "The moment they found out we were 
 English the whole village returned at once ; and in half an hour 
 twenty ploughs were going merrily again. The same happened with 
 the next village ; and returning home we overtook its two zemindars 
 w^io were on their way to our camp at Burree to tell us that 
 Bisram Singh (a rebel leader of note) had come. I do not hesitate 
 to say the popular feeling is intense desire for our rule among the 
 ryots." (Letter from Mr. C. A. Elliott to the Eev. H. V. Elliott 
 quoted, at pp. 80-81 Gubbins's Mutinies in Oudh). 
 
.^ 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HOSHANGABAD SETTLEMENT. 
 
 The Settlement Officer is an evolution of 
 British rule. The Great Mogul had an elaborate 
 and not inefficient mechanism for gathering in the 
 tribute from the land which supported the pomp 
 and majesty of his court, but this useful func- 
 tionary found no place therein. From times long 
 antei^dent to the Mahommedan conquest the 
 State had enjoyed an unquestioned right to a share 
 in the produce of the soil. This was ordinarily 
 three-fifths : but the zemindar and village officers 
 claimed their quota. The first was, in later days 
 at least, something more than a mere tax-collector. 
 Offices of all kinds have in India a strong tend- 
 ency to become hereditary, and, as we shall see 
 presently, the zemindar had by custom, if not of 
 right, a first option of re-engaging at the periodi- 
 cal settlements. He was allowed to recoup him- 
 self for his risk and trouble by retaining one-tenth 
 of the Government share, or three-fiftieths of the 
 gross produce. The village organization had not 
 yet been crushed beneath the heel of ignorance. 
 The headman, generally styled mokaddam, the 
 watchman, and the patwarij or village accountant, 
 
42 HOSH\NGABAD SETTLEMENT. 
 
 all took a fixed portion of the collections. The 
 interests of Government were safeguarded, in 
 theory at least, by the cajitmgoj a representative 
 of the supreme power, who was in charge of a 
 group of villages, and submitted reports to the 
 higher revenue authorities as to the extent and 
 profits of cultivation, derived from inspection of 
 the patwaris' accounts. The Provincial head of 
 the Department, styled DewaUj used to summon 
 the zemindars to a great annual assembly, termed 
 Puny a J at the capital, and offer them a settlement 
 of the land for the year on terms based on the 
 canungo's reports. In Bengal these gathe-'ings 
 were held with much pomp and ceremony at a 
 fine country seat of the Nawabs Nazim called 
 Motijhil.^ A tradition still lingers in Murshidabad 
 of the glories of Lord Clive's first Piinya after 
 the cession by the titular Emperor of Delhi of 
 control over the provincial resources. 
 
 This sketch of the old revenue system rend- 
 ers it clear that the Settlement OflBcer was but 
 
 * "Another point of interest at Murshidabad is the still 
 beautiful Motijhil, whose deep- blue waters once reflected a stately 
 palace built by Serajuddaula, which, after the rout of Plassey, 
 became the chosen residence of Lord Clive. The lake of the pearl 
 has a special interest in the eyes of Englishmen ; for here in 1765 
 the cession of the financial control of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa 
 was solemnly ratified. Thus were the sinews of war provided for 
 the career of conquest on which our ancestors entered : and thus, 
 like Runny mede, Motijhil is the cradle of a world -shadowing 
 empire." F. H. S., in >S. E. Journal. 
 
HOSHANGABAD SETTLERIjENT. 43 
 
 faintly foreshadowed in his prototype the canungo 
 of the Moghul era. As the roots of British 
 Empire struck more deeply into the soil, the neces- 
 sity became clear of employing scientific methods 
 in dealing with the complex problems offered by 
 the administration of land revenue. The work 
 of assessment was no longer left in unskilled 
 and venal hands, but entrusted to the fine flower 
 of the civil and military services. The field of 
 selection was necessarily limited. A Settlement 
 Officer must, in fact, be born one ; for the most 
 untiring industry will not compensate for the 
 absen(;e of natural gifts. He must have a minute 
 acquaintance with the farmer's lore — the methods 
 of cultivation, qualities of soil, and cost and value 
 of crops. He should be able to unravel the 
 tangled web of tenure and custom. He must be 
 something of a chemist, botanist, and mathemati- 
 cian. He must have a passion for accuracy and 
 detail, an absorbing love of duties which to the 
 uninitiated seem almost repulsive. If, in addi- 
 tion to these qualities, he has a talent for 
 picturesque description, an eye for the beauties of 
 nature and a warm sympathy with the toiling 
 peasant, we have in him a man fit for a more 
 conspicuous, though not a more useful, role than 
 that of assessor to land revenue. It was a small 
 feather in Mr. C. Elliott's cap that the Chief Com- 
 missioner of the Central Provinces should have 
 
44 HOSHANGABAD SETTLEMENT. 
 
 chosen him at the age of 28 as Settlement Officer 
 of his richest and most important district. 
 
 Hoshangabad is a valley 150 miles in length 
 between the Nerbudda and the Satpura Hills. 
 Its area is 4,437 square miles, considerably larger 
 than that of the English counties of Somerset 
 and Devon combined. Its vast expanse of rolling 
 upland is, for the most part, clothed in due season 
 with golden corn : for Hoshangabad has a deep, 
 black soil of inexhaustible fertility and has long 
 enjoyed the title of the garden of India. If the 
 land that has no history is blessed, then Hoshanga- 
 bad is fortunate indeed. Until the beginnkg of 
 the past century, its annals are well-nigh a blank. 
 It then became a bone- of contention between the 
 reigning family of Bhopal and the Mahrattas, 
 with the result which war always brings to the 
 unhappy peasantry. Their cup of misery filled 
 to the brim when the leader of one of the con- 
 tending factions called in the ruthless Pindaris to 
 his help. In 181 8, when the greater portion of 
 the district was taken over by the British Gov- 
 ernment under treaty with the Peshwa at Nag- 
 pore, Hoshangabad was a howling desert, dotted 
 with ruined villages and fields fast relapsing to 
 jungle. The process of recuperation which settled 
 government brings with it was retarded by the 
 incredible fatuity exhibited in the first settlement 
 of land revenue made in 1824. Its author, who 
 
HOSHAXGABAD SETTLEIAeNT. 45 
 
 held the title of Political Officer, was one of those 
 sanguine men who believe that peace and security 
 attract capital and increased population as if by- 
 magic. Under this impression he raised the reve- 
 nue of Hoshangabad proper by seventy-three per 
 cent, in the first year, and so crescendo till the 
 demand for the fifth year was fifty per cent, above 
 that exorbitant total. The case of Seoni, immor- 
 talized by Mr. Sterndale's facile pen, was even 
 worse. The demand there was screwed up from 
 Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 1,39,000 in five years! The 
 unhappy zemindars were, of course, unable to 
 •satis'i^ these claims, and the exactions and cruel- 
 ties which followed must have made the people 
 look back on the Pindari raids with something like 
 regret. The history of the next forty years is a 
 record of the efforts made to repair this gigantic 
 blunder. Major Ousley, who reigned supreme as 
 Principal Assistant Agent to the Governor-General 
 from 1826 to 1839, brought down the revenue 
 by 25 per cent, and after 38 years of profound 
 peace it was still 21 per cent, below that which 
 was exacted in 1825. Major Ousley appears 
 to have been a remarkable man : albeit cui^sed 
 with that passion for meddling which betrays the 
 administrator of the second order. He was the 
 finished type of the patriarchal ruler, and his 
 regime had all the excellencies and a large share 
 of the defects inseparable from arbitrary govern- 
 
46 HOSliANGABAD SETTLEMENT. 
 
 ment. He lived, says Mr. Elliott, among the 
 people, entertained them in large parties, was a 
 guest at their festivals, and shared in some of 
 their ceremonies. Justice was administered in a 
 simple, untechnical manner, and even the Jail 
 prisoners obtained leave of absence for two or 
 three months together; and, being put on their 
 honor, always came back. But the idyll had the 
 seamy side. Major Ousley's constant interfer- 
 ence with the course of business in the supposed 
 interest of the ryot destroyed all confidence and 
 drove capital from the district.* His era left 
 behind it a long train of ills which it needed the 
 reign of law to remove. In 1854 Hoshangabad 
 was placed under a Deputy Commissioner and the 
 North-Western revenue system was introduced 
 in its integrity. From that epoch dates the growth 
 of prosperity which the district has since main- 
 tained. The population which, in Major Ousley's 
 time, was only slightly in excess of 200,000, 
 grew to 450,000 in 187 1 and 488,000 ten years 
 later. 
 
 *In his eagerness, to put down oppression on the part of zemin- 
 dars and money-lenders he forgot the illustrious Turgot's maxim, 
 ■which should be written in letters of gold in every court-house 
 of the land. " We are sure to go wrong," he used to say, when 
 pressed to confer some benefit on the poor at the expense of the 
 rich, " the moment we forget that justice alone can keep the 
 balance true between all rights and all interests. The key-note to 
 my policy is not pity or benevolence, but justice.'' 
 
HOSHANGABAD SETTLEIJeNT. 47 
 
 Mr. Elliott's settlement operations commenced 
 in 1863, and his report, a volume of 288 pages 
 with elaborate maps and figured statements, was 
 submitted in 1865 to the Provincial Settlement 
 Commissioner. It richly merits the encomium 
 passed on it by that officer and the Chief Com- 
 missioner, and, indeed, stands unrivalled after a 
 quarter of a century of reports and nukshas. In 
 general plan it is not unlike the author's earlier 
 effort, the History of Unao. The physical fea- 
 tures of the district are picturesquely described : 
 and then follows a brief historical sketch. The 
 general condition of the people is surveyed with a 
 minuteness which proves that Mr. Elliott has that 
 fellow-feeling for toiling humanity in the absence 
 of which the ablest administrator will leave no 
 lasting impression behind him. Finally, the story 
 of the settlement itself is told in three chapters 
 teeming with information as to tenures, occupancy- 
 rights, waste lands, and a thousand other topics. 
 This portion of the work, though extremely valu- 
 able as a record of district administration and a 
 model for future Settlement Officers, is too techni- 
 cal for the great bulk of my readers. The 
 chapter on the condition of the people is, however, 
 of general interest, and might furnish out not 
 one but half a dozen chapters. Mr. Elliott's 
 information as to castes is of special value at a 
 time when the bonds of that system are tightening 
 
48 hosb:angabad settlement. 
 
 in the Hindu community. Ninety-five per cent 
 of the population of Hoshangabad are, it appears, 
 Hindu emigrants from Bandelkhand, Marwar, and 
 Khandesh. The Gujars are one of the largest 
 agricultural castes. Prosperity has altered their 
 nature, and the thieving, lawless scum of Upper 
 India has settled down into a community of peace- 
 ful farmers, shrewd, vigorous and comparatively 
 enlightened. Still more remarkable is the change 
 which plenty has wrought in the aboriginal Gonds. 
 According to a contemporary chronicle, they were 
 sixty years ago '' savage and intractable," but 
 now they are the mildest and most tirpid of 
 mortals. One section into which they are divided, 
 the Raj-Gonds, have become completely Hindu- 
 ised. It is with the Central Provinces as with our 
 North-Eastern frontier. The Hindu religion exer- 
 cises a wonderful fascination for aboriginal tribes. 
 The glittering bait of caste-recognition induces 
 the Raj-Gond who has waxed wealthy to don 
 the jane and boast of his Rajput ancestors. 
 The case of the Rajbanshis is very similar. 
 They are the most numerous agricultural caste of 
 Hoshangabad, and also claim a Rajput origin. 
 But on cross-examination they are fain to admit 
 that they tarried long on the way. Strange 
 to say the Rajbanshis of Northern Bengal are 
 at this moment agitating for recognition as 
 Khetris, ix.^ Rajputs. Like their far-away cousins 
 
HOSHANGABAD SETTLEM^INT. 49 
 
 they are strongly suspected of an aboriginal 
 taint. 
 
 The land-owning classes are mostly descen- 
 dants of officers in the employ of the old lords 
 of the country — the Mussalmans of Bhopal and 
 the Mahrattas of Nagpur. The history of their 
 connection with the soil throws some light on the 
 genesis of zemindars throughout India. If, as 
 was often the case, a cultivating clan is un- 
 able to maintain itself till the crops ripened it, or 
 the weaker mernbers at least, must have recourse 
 to some capitalist for a loan. The lender, for his 
 own security, interposes between his debtors and 
 the Government, becomes responsible for the 
 revenue and, armed with the forces of the law, 
 recoups himself by levying rent. Whoever, writes 
 Mr. Elliott, having money by him, came forward 
 at the right time when cultivators were ready to 
 break up the jungle if fed or clothed, that man 
 became the Malgusar. The Mahrattas muster 
 strong in this class : and at the time of our report, 
 they owned 29 per cent, of the Hoshangabad 
 villages. They are observant of ritual and but 
 slightly infected with the Marwari shylockism 
 which impairs the dignity of Brahmin immigrants 
 from Hindustan, Rajputanaand Bundelkhand. The 
 Mahratta Brahmins differ from their compeers of 
 other provinces in that they marry into any gotra 
 but their own : and are sub-divided, not into kids 
 D 
 
50 HOSx-IANGABAD SETTLEMENT. 
 
 but tribes. The Peshwas belonged to one, and 
 not the highest of their tribes, the Chithans, so 
 called because Parasuram employed their ancestor 
 to perform his father's Sraddh which carried with 
 it Chit — defilement. A certain proportion of the 
 land, especially in the Seoni pargana, is in the 
 hands of Bunnias ; and it is pleasant to find Mr. 
 Elliott saying a good word for a class which is 
 generally held up to execration as blood-suckers. 
 He had not been able to see, he writes, that they 
 w^ere in any respect worse landlords than the rest 
 of the world, less popular or more given to rack- 
 renting. «^ 
 
 Our author turns from ethnology to agri- 
 culture and adds more to our knowledge of the 
 art as practised in India than all the Agricultural 
 Departments combined have done. The rich 
 black soil will only yield its treasures to assiduous 
 tilling. In May, before the rains set in, it is turn- 
 ed over by a hoe-plough peculiar to these parts, 
 called the hukliar^ whose iron share weighs three 
 or four seers (7lbs), is i8'' to 2\" by 4'', fixed to 
 a heavy horizontal beam not in line with the fur- 
 row, as in the case of the common plough, but at 
 right angles to it. By setting it at a more or less 
 obtuse angle it can be made to pare the weeds at 
 the surface or penetrate the soil to its full depth. 
 This process is repeated at frequent intervals 
 during the rainy months ; to bukhar in Sraban 
 
HOSHANGABAD SETTLEIvIeNT. 51 
 
 (July — August) being imperative. As the soil 
 softens under the annual deluge, the bukhar 
 penetrates more and more deeply, till the field is 
 purged of weeds, and brought into a condition 
 which would gladden a Midlothian farmer's heart. 
 Its aspect is, however, changed by the invasion 
 of the drill-plough, nai^i, which gets a couple of 
 inches lower down than the bukhar and covers the 
 surface of the field with great clods, turned up 
 from a nether stratum. Hence the results ob- 
 tained in these heavy soils without irrigation. The 
 seed falls into a moist medium and the young 
 jhoot!^ spring up through a soft, loosened crest 
 while their roots strike into a sub-soil which has 
 not been caked by exposure to the sun's fierce rays. 
 The system thus described would probably give 
 excellent results in the rich loams so common in 
 Eastern Bengal. 
 
 The time of sowing corn depends on the 
 temperature ; for the tender plants would perish if 
 exposed to too great a degree of heat. The ryot 
 has a home-made thermometer, in the shape of a 
 wisp of cotton soaked in ghee. This is placed out 
 of doors overnight ; and if the cold has been suffi- 
 cient to solidify the ghee^ sowings may be attempt- 
 ed. But astrology and magic are made handmaids 
 to rule of thumb. A lucky day must be fixed 
 upon by the aid of the village priest. In his 
 valuable glossary attached to the report, Mr. 
 
5^ HOSflANGABAD SETTLEMENT. 
 
 Elliott gives a proverb embodying the folk-lore on 
 the great sowing question, — 
 
 *' Who ploughs on Sunday shcall be rich, 
 Who ploughs on Monday shall get the fruit of his labour, 
 Wednesday and Thursday are both good. Friday fills the gi-anary. 
 Who sows on Saturday or Tuesday no seed shall come to his door." 
 
 The end of October and beginning of Novem- 
 ber are considered the season of sowing : and the 
 longer it is deferred the drier and less productive 
 the land. The Hoshangabad farmer is seen at 
 his best at sowing time. He then works for ten 
 or twelve days almost without intermission, and 
 day or night if the moon serves. He never returns 
 home or sleeps more than two or three hour^ at a 
 stretch. His meals are brought to him in the 
 field by his wife, — wheat chupattis and porridge 
 in abundance. Thus toiling he can plough and 
 sow four-fifths of an acre during day-light and 
 two-fifths on moon-lit nights. More can be ac- 
 complished if four or five ploughs work together. 
 Bullocks, hke men, are sociable, and it has been 
 remarked that those in the rear of the first pair 
 hardly feel the labour. Would that the wretched, 
 slovenly, dawdling North-Bengal peasant could 
 see his distant brothers at work, for his latent sense 
 of shame might stir him to emulation ! Seed is 
 used in the proportion of a maund of 80 ibs to the 
 acre. When it is down, the field must be fenced, 
 especially^ if jungle or high roads be near. The 
 fences are always temporary, mere dry branch- 
 
HOSHANGABAD SETTLE]\\eNT. 53 
 
 es of some thorny tree stuck in the ground in 
 line. To make assurance doubly sure, a watch- 
 man is engaged by four or five cultivators who 
 club together to pay him 4 maunds of wheat, 320 
 lbs, per ten acres. He builds a little hut and 
 keeps a bright fire burning. At night he is 
 supposed to walk four times round the field with 
 a blazing branch to scare wild beasts. For royal 
 game he has what is called the "tiger's terror," a 
 drum consisting of an earthen pot covered with a 
 goat's skin well stretched. A peacock's feather 
 is inserted through a hole in the skin and secured 
 with n knot. The watchman holds the pot between 
 his feet and draws his fingers along the feather, 
 eliciting thereby, as Mr. Elliott says, a most un- 
 earthly and diabolical sound, which ought to be 
 enough to keep any intelligent beast away. 
 
 Wheat ripens towards the end of February, 
 and is cut by Gond and Kurkee immigrants from 
 the hill-country, just as the hay crops of old 
 England were got in twenty years ago by hordes 
 of wild Irishmen from Tipperary and Galway. 
 They usually receive one sheaf in twenty, or if 
 they work in gangs by contract, three maunds 
 (240 lbs.) of wheat per ten acres reaped. The 
 produce averages sixfold,— six maunds, or eight 
 and a half bushels per acre. Threshing and 
 reaping proceed together. The Hoshangabad 
 threshing-floor is not the mere plot cleared of 
 
54 HOSHANGABAD SETTLEMENT. 
 
 grass which we see in Lower Bengal. It is well 
 fenced and provided with a shed for housing 
 cattle. A short stake is fixed in the centre with 
 an accompaniment of religious rites, and the wheat 
 to be threshed is spread round it to a radius equi- 
 valent to the length of the line of ten or twelve 
 bullocks abreast employed to thresh it out. They 
 are tied to the stake and driven round and round 
 belly-deep in the golden litter. They are muzzled 
 at first : but not when the grain has separated and 
 sunk to the bottom of the pile. Winnowing is 
 the next operation, and it is hedged about with 
 ceremonies. An auspicious day for begiiining 
 must be named by the village priest, who is 
 restricted in his choice by a variety of rules. The 
 farmer and his labourers will then proceed to the 
 threshing-floor with the paraphernalia of sacri- 
 fice, — milk, clarified butter, turmeric and boiled 
 wheat. These are solemnly offered to the stake, 
 probably as a survival of Phallic-worship, and to 
 the heap of threshed grain. The boiled wheat, 
 etc., are scattered round, to tempt the thieving 
 bhoots (spirits) away from the former. Then the 
 master winnows five baskets-full, and the chaff 
 and grain are collected and measured. If they 
 fill the baskets, the omen is a good one ; other- 
 wise the spot for winnowing is shifted. These 
 first-fruits are not added to the heap but are the 
 perquisite of Brahmins. Winnowing goes on 
 
HOSHANGABAD SETTLEMENT. 55 
 
 merrily while a wind is blowing, and employs three 
 men, one of whom fills the basket, a second 
 empties it, standing on a stool, while the third 
 sweeps the grain and chaff into separate heaps. 
 The day's work is always scrupulously measured 
 in order to cheat the hhoots, who dare not pilfer 
 when the tale of the wheat is known. Such are 
 the simple processes by which is produced the 
 Indian wheat so dreaded by English farmers 
 and so familiar to frequenters of Mark Lane. 
 Mr. Elliott considered them fairly well adapt- 
 ed to the conditions prevailing in Hoshanga- 
 j^ad.^ He was at one time an ardent advocate for 
 the North-Western system of high farming with 
 irrigation, and inclined to undervalue the primitive 
 methods which content the peasantry of Hoshanga- 
 bad. An experiment made by him in 1864 confirm- 
 ed this view ; for he raised a crop of wheat such 
 as had never been seen in the district from a plot 
 manured and irrigated secundum artem. But 
 riper knowledge led to a recantation. With an 
 almost limitless extent of virgin soil awaiting re- 
 clamation, an area under tillage of three quarters 
 of a million acres to a population under 450,000, 
 Hoshangabad had as yet no need to adopt the 
 scientific methods which are forced on cultivators 
 elsewhere by the increasing difficulty of gaining 
 a subsistence. Space fails me to describe the 
 elaborate experiments undertaken by Mr. Elliott 
 
56 HOSIIANGABAD SETTLEMENT. 
 
 m view of ascertaining the actual productiveness 
 of the land, the analyses of soils made under his 
 instructions, the minute enquiries into profits and 
 cost of cultivation detailed in this unique volume. 
 One lays it down, with a sigh that there should 
 be so complete a divorce between the Bengal 
 official and the land that supports him. No 
 Settlement Officer in these Provinces could hope 
 for Mr. Elliott's opportunities of penetrating the 
 veil that conceals the peasant^s life. They must 
 be content to wear the best years of their life away 
 in a dull and ever-increasing drudgery of routine 
 reports, bundles and figured-statements ; and the 
 great book of nature, the short and simple annals 
 of the poor, are alike shrouded from their view. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FAMINE COMMISSION. 
 
 Mr. Elliott's splendid work for Hoshangabad 
 was rewarded by Sir William Muir by an appoint- 
 ment as Secretary to the Government of the 
 North-Western Provinces. One of the most 
 serious obstacles to the perfect success of our 
 regime is the fact that the Secretariats, which are 
 the mainsprings of the administration, have been 
 so lately composed of men devoid of experience 
 in the great world's ways and the microcosm 
 afforded by the district. Mankind is not governed 
 by bundles. On the other hand, it is difficult to 
 overrate the advantage, both to the individual and 
 the community, of Secretariat experience gained 
 when the judgment is ripe and some insight has 
 been attained into the motives of human action 
 and the mechanism of society. Mr. Elliott's 
 intimate knowledge of Indian character and cus- 
 toms stood him in good stead in this new post, 
 carrying him far above the soul-depressing files 
 and dockets in which so many Secretaries are 
 content to wallow. His broad sympathies with 
 fellow- creatures led him to enter on a crusade 
 agaiost the hideous practice of infanticide among 
 Rajput clans. In official routine he inaugurated 
 
58 TH^£ FAIMINE COMMISSION. 
 
 some useful reforms. He it was who set the 
 principle of testing Police work by the percentage 
 borne by convictions to cases reported, and estab- 
 lished a wholesome rivalry amongst District staffs 
 by arranging them in a varying order of merit. On 
 him devolved the superintendence of the Census 
 of 187 1 -2 in the North-West, a task the diffi- 
 culty of which his colleagues who have passed 
 through the ordeal of 1891 may be able to appre- 
 ciate. 
 
 After a brief period spent in 1877 in the 
 ^' general line " as Commissioner of the Mirat 
 Division, Mr. Elliott had the opportunity forivhicb 
 so many able men sigh and sigh in vain, of prov- 
 ing his mettle by a crucial test. A terrible famine 
 broke out in Southern India ; and officers gifted 
 with organizing power and exhaustless energy 
 were needed to direct the operations for relief. 
 Mr. Elliott was named, jointly with Sir C. Mon- 
 crieff, to serve as Famine Commissioner in Mysore. 
 In the following year the scope of his labours was 
 enlarged by the formation of a Famine Commis- 
 sion for the purpose of investigating the causes of 
 these terrible visitations and prescribing reme- 
 dial action. He became Secretary to that body ; 
 and it is no disparagement to his associates to 
 affirm that his hand is evident in nearly every 
 page of the four large blue-books in which their 
 report was laid before the British Parliament. His 
 
THE FAMINE COMMISSldk 59 
 
 work in this sphere has had more far-reaching 
 consequences than any performed during a long 
 and busy career : and we must Hnger awhile in 
 describing its scope. 
 
 The instructions given by the India Office 
 to the Famine Commission were as vague as most 
 of the utterances of that official Delphi. They 
 were, however, amplified by the Government of 
 India in a minute penned with a statesmanlike 
 breadth. The Commission were to ascertain how 
 far local peculiarities of administration, tenure, 
 soil, water-supply, density of population, and sys- 
 1?ems^^f cultivation tend to intensify or mitigate 
 famine. They were to gauge the comparative 
 power of the agricultural population in different 
 Provinces to resist the effects of drought, their 
 relative wealth, and the relation of their well-being 
 to the varied forms of land tenure. As regards 
 the species of relief to be afforded, the battle of 
 large against small and scattered works was to 
 be fought to the bitter end. The Commission 
 were told to point out the limitations to the duty 
 of Government in the matter of food-supply. 
 They were to discuss the influence of forests and 
 irrigation on food. The great question of transit 
 was to be threshed out : how far road and water 
 carriage were susceptible of improvement ; how 
 the blocks on railways resulting from abnormal 
 pressure on staff and rolling-stock might be mini- 
 
60 tMe famine commission. 
 
 mized. The financial responsibility for famine 
 relief was to be defined. Finally, its whole 
 mechanism in every shape must be scrutinized 
 and, if necessary, remodelled. The programme 
 was one which must have appalled even such a 
 glutton for work as the future Lieutenant-Governor 
 of Bengal : but he set about the task of perform- 
 ance with characteristic ardour. A series of in- 
 terrogatories was framed and circulated to officials 
 wdth special experience and others whose position 
 had brought them in close contact with the Indian 
 people. The replies elicited fill nearly a thousand 
 closely-printed pages of foolscap size. This»mas€ 
 of information was supplemented by personal 
 experience gained in visits paid to nearly every 
 Province. The question of irrigation as a pro- 
 phyllactic was so large as to necessitate the 
 appointment of a special committee who travers- 
 ed the regions watered by canals and considered 
 on the spot the various problems they offer. The 
 report is in two parts, with as many bulky volumes 
 of evidence. The first part deals with relief : the 
 second with measures of protection and preser- 
 vation. The curtain rises with a geographical 
 sketch of the peninsula which brings into clear 
 relief the conditions tending to produce famine. 
 Its primary cause is drought, — an abnormal cessa- 
 tion of the rains at the period when the great 
 winter rice crops is approaching maturity. The 
 
THE FAMINE COMMISSION. 
 
 tracts most liable to famine are those with an 
 annual rainfall ranging between 30 and 35 inches. 
 Famines have occurred at varying intervals since 
 the dawn of civilization : but the earliest of which 
 we have any detailed record devastated Bengal In 
 1 7 70- 1. There is too much reason to believe that 
 this famine was intensified by the callous greed 
 of certain high officials and their understrappers 
 who formed a " ring," as we should call it now- 
 a-days, for the purpose of raising the price of 
 grain. A third of the population of the Lower 
 Provinces, then estimated to contain thirty million 
 sx)ulsf is believed to have perished. In 1784 
 scarcity ravaged Upper India, which, if less de- 
 structive to life, was far more widely felt. In 1807 
 Madras was a sufferer, and then for the first time 
 we see some recognition of the principle that the 
 adoption of relief measures is incumbent on Gov- 
 ernment. Large remissions of land revenue were 
 granted and loans were made to landed proprietors. 
 It was sought to stimulate private trade by bounties 
 on grain imported and guaranteeing a minimum 
 price to Importers. A further step in advance 
 was made in 1837-8, when the Upper Provinces 
 and the adjoining Native States suffered grievously 
 from a failure of their crops. The principle was 
 then laid down that employment must be provided 
 for able-bodied sufferers by Government ; while 
 the maintenance of the helpless was primarily a 
 
62 TI^E FAMINE COALMISSION. 
 
 charge on private chanty. Pubhc works which 
 cost twenty lakhs of rupees were set on foot, 
 and relief committees were organized in each dis- 
 trict to administer funds derived from public sub- 
 scriptions, supplemented by State grants. Thirty 
 years passed by without a serious failure of the 
 crops ; and our rulers had begun to flatter them- 
 selves that the spectre of famine had been laid. 
 Their optimism received a rude shock in May 
 1866 when the discovery was suddenly made that 
 the markets throughout Orissa were depleted. 
 Ere supplies could be furnished the monsoon set 
 in, cutting off access by sea ; while the onl3T land 
 communication available was an unmetalled road 
 which each rainy season made a quagmire. The 
 peasantry died off by hundreds of thousands, and 
 the mortality was only stayed in November when 
 the Bengal Government, rushing from the extreme 
 of apathy to that of unreasoning panic, poured 
 forty thousand tons of rice into the country, much 
 of which was sold for a mere song. 
 
 This prodigality was repeated on a vaster 
 scale in Behar, where acute distress followed the 
 failure of the autumn rain in 1873. Sir Richard 
 Temple, who then occupied the Belvedere gadi^ 
 saw in this calamity an outlet for his almost 
 superhuman activity. He laid it down as an 
 axiom that in times of famine private trade was 
 but a broken reed to lean on; and that it was 
 
THE FAMINE COMMISSK^N. G3 
 
 incumbent on Government to prevent mortality 
 and distress at all costs. With this end in view 
 nearly half a million tons of grain were imported, 
 mostly from Burma, and distributed by way of 
 loans to agriculturists from depots scattered over 
 Behar. The landless class were enabled to earn a 
 liberal grain wage on what were euphemistically 
 termed relief works ; but the tests exacted were 
 little more than nominal, and, in point of fact, the 
 staff of life was distributed freely to all comers. 
 In fine, a quarter of the population of Behar was 
 supported for several months at a cost to the State 
 9f si^ and a half millions sterling, much of which 
 went to sv/ell the gains of middlemen. But for 
 the self-reliance and self-respect inherent in the 
 Indian character the entire fabric of society would 
 have received a fatal shock. Far different was 
 the fate of sufferers in the Madras Presidency 
 during the famine which followed a drought in 
 1876 and an irregular monsoon in the following 
 year. At the very outset much precious time 
 was wasted owing to a difference of opinion be- 
 tween the Supreme and the Local Government as 
 to the character of the relief works which should 
 be set on foot. The first preferred small and 
 scattered ones, bringing relief home to every 
 man's door: the second strenuously advocated 
 large and highly centralized operations. Taught 
 by the bitter experience gained in Behar the 
 
64 THfe FAMINE COMMISSION. 
 
 Government of India impressed on its subordi- 
 nates that while no pains were to be spared to 
 save life, it was futile to aim at the prevention of 
 all suffering. Everyone is agreed on the folly and 
 worse of indiscriminate private charity; but the 
 fact often escapes recognition that the evil is 
 multiplied a thousandfold when Government is 
 the offender. The maxim is unimpeachable; but 
 it must have been due to a sense of humour un- 
 suspected in so august a body that led Lord 
 Lytton's Council to despatch Sir Richard Temple 
 to preach the new Gospel in the benighted South. 
 The Madras famine, however, set econom^^ at 
 defiance and cost the State eight and a half 
 milhon sterling. 
 
 The inferences to be drawn from past his- 
 tory are set forth with great precision in Mr. 
 Elliott's report. We must be prepared, it seems, 
 to face a scarcity with partial distress in some 
 portion of the Empire in two years out of nine, 
 and a famine once in twelve years. Every pro- 
 vince may expect drought with its inevitable 
 result once in eleven or twelve years ; and a great 
 famine twice in a century. The greatest number 
 ever likely to be simultaneously afflicted is thirty 
 millions. As distress or plenty varies directly 
 with the harvests, it is well to know that a peasant 
 who gathers in half an average crop can ' scrape 
 along ' till the earth shall again yield her increase : 
 
THE FAMINE COMMISSIoV. 65 
 
 but famine becomes a certainty when the produce 
 falls below a quarter of that of an ordinary year. 
 Taking price as a criterion we find that when rice 
 sells at eight to ten seers per rupee, the danger 
 signal must be considered as hoisted ; but material 
 conditions vary so enormously that the price-test 
 is not of universal appHcation. The direct morta- 
 lity from famine is by no means so great as is 
 commonly supposed — far less, in fact, than that 
 resulting from epidemics which often occur in 
 times of plenty ; but distress undoubtedly Impairs 
 fecundity and causes a drop in the birth-rate. It 
 is, ch(^ering to learn that India has a marvellous 
 recuperative power ; and that famines show a 
 tendency to become less acute in modern times. 
 
 Turning from cause to effect, Mr. Elliott's 
 Commission laid it down as a fundamental dogma 
 that the battle with famine lies within the scope 
 of the duties of an Indian Government ; first, be- 
 cause such calamities transcend all private effort, 
 and secondly because the State Is here the land- 
 lord. But the interference of Government must 
 be beneficial, and not such as to check the opera- 
 tions of thrift and self-reliance. Indian Society 
 rests on the ties of family and village ; and these 
 primitive organizations, combined with the national 
 frugality and foresight, enable it to resist a strain 
 which would ruin communities more highly deve- 
 loped. The first symptoms of famine are never 
 
 E 
 
( 
 6G THE FAMINE COMMISSION. 
 
 shown by the enormous class which tills its own 
 land ; for it has resources in the shape of stocks 
 or credit which enable it to hold out for several 
 months, perhaps, even to tide over the crop-failure. 
 It is the landless labourer, the artizan and small 
 trader, the beggar, the cripple and the leper, the 
 dependent on a family well-to-do in ordinary times, 
 who feel the first pangs of want. Candidates for 
 relief are ranged in two classes — those who are 
 incapable of work and those from whom some 
 form of labour may be exacted. In the case of 
 the first it is of great importance that the incep- 
 tion of relief works should not be too long delayed 
 for then the constitutions of the distressed may 
 be fatally enfeebled. It is, therefore, essential 
 that a list of public works to be undertaken in the 
 event of famine should be prepared in each district 
 in advance. These might be connected with 
 roads, drainage or water supply and should be 
 placed in as close proximity as possible to the 
 habitations of the distressed. The " distance 
 test" as it is called, i.e. insistence on candidates 
 for employment traversing a certain distance in 
 search of work, is condemned, and very rightly 
 so, by the Commission. They object, too, to the 
 intervention of the contractor, while admitting that 
 a gang or two of the more able-bodied might be 
 employed on piece work. Organization and con- 
 trol should rest primarily on trained Engineers 
 
1 
 
 THE FAMINE COMMISSION. 67 
 
 under the general supervision of the District Col- 
 lector. The task exacted should be seventy-five 
 per cent, of that rendered by a labourer in ordinary 
 times ; the dole, whether in grain or money, should 
 be such as to furnish subsistence to the labourer 
 and his helpless dependents. The case of those 
 unable to work is to be met by alms, distributed, 
 as far as possible, in village centres through the 
 duly-controlled agency of village officers. The 
 camp and poor-house-organizations with which it 
 was sought to stem the tide of famine in Madras 
 are open to grave and radical objections. It is our 
 primary duty to preserve the mechanism of village 
 and family intact. The principle in dealing with 
 the great question of food supply is non-interfer- 
 ence with private trade, save in such exceptional 
 cases as a combination among dealers to raise 
 prices, or communications so defective as to deter 
 enterprize. Then and then only should the State 
 intervene and import grain into famine-stricken 
 tracts. That old-fashioned nostrum for famine, the 
 storing of grain in times of plenty, is utterly futile 
 in dealing with the vast population of Upper India. 
 In this respect the duty of Government is to 
 watch over the course of trade, and facilitate it 
 by providing communications and canals. Minor, 
 but still important, measures of relief are the 
 grant of remissions of revenue and loans to the 
 landed classes. The first should be made con- 
 
I 
 68 THE FAMINE COMMISSION. 
 
 ditional on similar concessions being made to the 
 peasantry. In regard to the second, the Behar 
 Famine of 1874 elicited the fact that advances 
 by Government are faithfully repaid, and involve 
 small risk of financial loss. They should be 
 devoted primarily to the purchase of bullocks and 
 seed grain. Lastly, the responsibilities of local 
 bodies — Municipalities and District Boards — as 
 to co-operation in Famine prevention and relief 
 must be declared and defined with strictness. 
 The chain of official subordination in relief mea- 
 sures, should range from the Head of the Admi- 
 nistration through a new Department to beterm-ed 
 that of the Director of Agriculture and Famine 
 relief. Commissioners of Divisions, District officers, 
 those in charge of Circles or groups of villages, 
 down to the village headmen. In order to secure 
 uniformity of procedure, a draft Famine Code 
 was submitted by the Commission. It needs but 
 a superficial acquaintance with the public measures 
 of the decade which has followed this epoch- 
 making report to recognize the fact that nearly 
 every recommendation it contained has been 
 adopted by the Indian Government. Would that 
 the work of the Commissions which succeed each 
 other as winter does the scorching heats were as 
 pregnant of great and lasting results ! 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF ASSAM, 
 
 Mr. Elliott's labours on the Famine Commis- 
 sion had scarcely terminated ere he was called to 
 functions equally onerous in connection with the 
 Indian Census of 1881. As Commissioner he 
 organized the victory won by less conspicuous 
 agents over the blind forces of ignorance and 
 prejudice. In this capacity he visited every pro- 
 vince jv^ith the exception of Assam during the 
 cold weather of 1880-81, leaving the task of 
 tabulation and report to his successor, Sir W. 
 Plowden. He became Chief Commissioner of 
 Assam in March 1881 in the room of Sir Steuart 
 Bayley, translated to the Residency of Hyderabad. 
 Some of our so-called non-regulation provinces 
 seem to exist mainly to serve as stepping-stones 
 to the Bengal gaddi. There the future Lieute- 
 nant-Governor may linger awhile and try his 
 prentice hand on material more suited to experi- 
 ments in the art of governing than our own. 
 Not that Assam is devoid of complex problems. 
 It is cut off from our railway system ; inhabited 
 by a sturdy race of European settlers who are 
 proverbially less amenable to discipline than are 
 the children of the soil ; and hemmed in on three 
 
70 THE ADMINISTRATION OF ASSAM. 
 
 sides by vast highlands peopled by tribes ranging 
 in point of social development between the un- 
 redeemed savagery of the Lushais and the semi- 
 civilization of Manipur and Tipperah. In the 
 year prior to Mr. Elliott's advent to power a high 
 British officer had been inveigled into a trap by 
 the Angami Nagas and massacred with the greater 
 portion of his escort. Nor is the danger to public 
 peace confined to the belt of frontier tribes. Soon 
 after Mr. Elliott's arrival a serious rising took 
 place in the old-settled district of Cachar. A 
 certain Sumbhudan set up as a god and pretend- 
 ed to convey a divine afflatus to many deluded 
 followers. So unbounded became his influence 
 that none could be found to serve a process on 
 him. The Deputy Commissioner who endeavour- 
 ed to bring these fanatics to reason was charged 
 furiously by them and received a wound which 
 caused his death. Mr. Elliott's policy towards his 
 dangerous neighbours during his term of ofhce 
 in Assam was one of conciliation coupled with 
 firmness. The practice of wholesale village- 
 burning which had hitherto served as a punish- 
 ment for raids was discouraged : but the frequent 
 incursions of these tribes into British territory, 
 generally undertaken in order to bring back re- 
 fugees to allegiance, were sternly repressed. To 
 the tact and vigilance displayed during his four 
 years' tenure of office may be ascribed the ab- 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF ASSAM. 71 
 
 sence of serious outrages on our North Eastern 
 frontier. 
 
 Turnlnof to Internal administration we find 
 that this once backward province owes to Mr. 
 Klliott the large measure of self-government she 
 enjoys. On the basis of Lord RIpon's famous 
 circular of May 1882 he framed a scheme for 
 entrusting the people with the management of 
 their own public affairs. Boards, charged with 
 the supervision of roads and schools, were organ- 
 ized in every district. In Kamrup and SIbsagar, 
 once the seats of government and still possessing 
 a strong leaven of influential families, the Native 
 members of these boards were elected by the 
 whole body of ryots paying revenue to govern- 
 ment. In Sylhet, which is virtually part and 
 parcel of Bengal, the Deputy Commissioner 
 nominated an elective body consisting of a local 
 notable residing in each census circle, which, in 
 its turn, selected representatives on the board. 
 Elsewhere the native members were nominees of 
 government ; but where the tea-planting interest 
 predominated, as it did In five of the eight plains' 
 districts, half the non-ofBcial members were elect- 
 ed by vote from this class. The influence of 
 offlcialism was restricted by a proviso that its 
 representatives should in no case exceed one third 
 of the total. All means were taken of increasing 
 the Boards' prestige and interesting them in their 
 
72 THE Administration of assam. 
 
 work. The Executive Engineer had hitherto been 
 independent of the civil officer, and treated as a 
 separate and equal authority. The resulting, j 
 friction ceased when he was placed under the / 
 Deputy Commissioner, and afterwards under the / 
 Boards with the title of District Engineer. Some/ 
 idea of the utility of these new bodies may be 
 gathered from the fact that the expenditure on 
 public works, including two short lines of railway, 
 rose from ten lakhs in 1879-80 to twenty-six during 
 Mr. Elliott's last year of office in Assam : and 
 that Rs. 2,84,000 was devoted to maintaining 
 1,200 schools during the year first mentioned a^ 
 compared with Rs. 4,50,000 in keeping up 1,800 
 schools at the later epoch. The benefits to the 
 planting community from the large outlay on 
 roads and bridges has been incalculable. Nor 
 was this the only advantage desired by it from 
 Mr. Elliott's view of the importance of improving 
 methods of locomotion. Assam had always been 
 terribly handicapped by her antiquated system of 
 river traffic. The journey between Calcutta and 
 Sibsagar was made in large steamers, each towing 
 a pair of cumbrous flats ; and often occupied a 
 longer time than that from England to the Metro- 
 polis. Planters were therefore cut off from the 
 cheerful ways of man as effectually as the Britons 
 of old from Roman civilization : and a profound 
 stagnation overspread the province. To Mn 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF ASSAM. 73 
 
 Elliott it owed the establishment of the fast daily 
 mail service on its great rivers which has done 
 more than aught besides to bring Assam within 
 the pale of progress. But if its principal trade 
 was hampered by defective communications it was 
 not less so by well-meaning but mischievous legis- 
 lation. The labour question is a burning one with 
 Assam planters. To hold their own against the 
 fierce competition of China and Ceylon they must 
 have coolies on reasonable terms : and their 
 efforts in that direction were thwarted by the 
 operation of laws and rules which appeared to 
 h^ve^been framed in view of discouraging emigra- 
 tion from less sparsely populated districts. The 
 Inland Emigration Act of 1882 introduced four 
 drastic changes in principle. It promoted free 
 emigration ; gave preference to recruitment by 
 garden agents over recruitment by contractors ; 
 raised the maximum period for which contracts 
 could be made from three to five years : and 
 legalized such contracts within the province itself. 
 Under these fostering influences the production of 
 tea rose from thirty-one million pounds in 1879-80 
 to fifty-one million in 1883-4 an increase of 60 
 per cent, in four years. 
 
 The interests of the native population of 
 Assam were not less considered by Mr. Elliott. 
 He paid yearly visits to every District and nearly 
 every Sub-division of his extensive charge, and 
 
74 THE aWiNISTRATION OF ASSAM. 
 
 ascertained local wants by personal conference 
 with the members of the various boards. District 
 officers were specially enjoined to do likewise. 
 In a resolution which foreshadowed those orders 
 issued in October last which have evoked so much 
 criticism in official circles, he imposed on these 
 subordinates the duty of spending at least four 
 months of each year in the interior of their 
 charges. This prolonged sojourn in tents was, he 
 said, rendered possible by the Assam climate, 
 whose mildness in mid-April is in sharp contrast 
 with the intolerable heat of early summer in other 
 provinces. The revenue-law of Assam had been 
 in state bordering on chaos. Every variety of 
 organization known to India was at work : and the 
 confusion was more confounded by an absence of 
 system in attempts to deal with the numerous 
 difficulties attending on land administration. Mr. 
 Elliott's Code, founded on a draft originally pre- 
 pared by Mr. W. Ward when Judge and Com- 
 missioner, simplified the process immensely. He 
 remodelled the subordinate collecting agency by 
 substituting tehsildars, as seen in the North- 
 Western Provinces, for the niauzadars^ or reve- 
 nue contractors who had oppressed the cultivator 
 and intercepted a large share of the revenue. 
 The future of the waste lands, amounting, in the 
 Assam valley alone, to nine million of acres, occu- 
 pied his close attention. These were not, as he 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF ASSAM. 75 
 
 remarked in the Administration Report for 1881-2^ 
 overgrown with forests, but good, flat, alluvial soil, 
 covered only with grass and reeds which required 
 nothing but the sickle and the match to turn 
 them into excellent ash manure : while the abund- 
 ance of bamboo and cane made the building of a 
 comfortable hut the work of a few days. This 
 settler's paradise awaited occupants principally 
 because the absence of any limit to appropria- 
 tions favoured the growth of a squatter-communi- 
 ty similar to that which has so greatly hindered 
 the legitimate expansion of our Australian Colo- 
 ,nie^. Mr. Elliott took the first step towards the 
 destruction of these monopolies by ordaining that 
 no grant should in future exceed 600 acres : 
 and that the cultivation of a grant should be a 
 condition precedent to any further concessions. 
 In 1883 ^ survey was commenced of waste lands 
 in the Lakhimpur District, which was carried out 
 by a private firm at the cost of grantees. No 
 fewer than 134,000 acres were thus demarcated In 
 three years. Those who are familiar with Sir C. 
 Elliott's recent utterances will be prepared to 
 learn that he attached great importance to such 
 operations while In Assam. In 1882 he formed a 
 special department, the Directorate of Agricul- 
 ture, for the purposes of systematic surveys ; and 
 thus anticipated events In Bengal by nearly two 
 years. The first task undertaken by the new 
 
*JQ THE ADMINISTRATION OF ASSAM. 
 
 Director was the cadastral survey of 228 square 
 miles in Kamrup at a cost of only 6 as. 9 pie per 
 acre. In 1884-5 ^ further area of 450 square 
 miles was thus treated. In order to provide the 
 necessary staff for the maintenance of the splen- 
 did cadastral maps, seven survey schools were 
 opened which imparted technical instruction to 
 officers employed on this duty and issued certifi- 
 cates of proficiency. 
 
 There was, indeed, no branch of the admi- 
 nistration from which Mr. Elliott's reforming hand 
 was absent. In the management of the Excise, 
 for instance, it had been the practice to let .the, 
 exclusive rights of opening shops in a given area 
 for the vend of spirits, ganja and opium. This 
 system favoured the growth of middlemen ; for 
 the purchasers invariably sublet the shops within 
 their mahals, as they were called, and thus inter- 
 cepted a large proportion of the profits which 
 should have enriched the exchequer. Mr. Elliott 
 directed that all shops should be let directly by 
 government ; and partly by this change and part- 
 ly by judicious enhancement of the selling price 
 of stimulants he raised the excise revenue from 
 eighteen and a half to twenty-two lakhs in three 
 years. 
 
 We have seen enough of Mr. Elliott's Admi- 
 nistration in Assam to recognize its fundamental 
 maxim. It was justice for the children of thq 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF ASSAM. 77 
 
 soil ; justice for the European settler ; justice for 
 the government he served. It was thus with the 
 illustrious Turgot, when governor of a province of 
 old France before the Revolution. The key-note 
 to his policy, writes a biographer, was not pity or 
 benevolence, but justice. '' We are sure to go 
 wrong he said," when pressed to confer a benefit 
 on the poor at the expense of the rich, '^ the 
 moment we forget to hold the balances true 
 amongst all claims and all interests." Such must 
 be the watch-word of our Empire wherever 
 Britain's flag waves on the breeze, if we would 
 ♦avciid a cataclysm such as wrecked the proudest 
 monarchy of Europe and shook the whole fabric 
 of civilization. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 The decentralization of finance was, perhaps, 
 the most beneficent measure of Lord Mayo's 
 brief regime. Up to his time the provincial gov- 
 ernments had dipped at their own sweet will into 
 the imperial exchequer ; and extravagance with 
 its inevitable results was universal. In 187 1 came 
 into force that which is known as the contract 
 system ; by which local governments were allotted, 
 certain definite sums to cover the charges of the 
 chief departments under them, and were informed 
 that any excess on the debit side of their ledger 
 must be covered by local taxation. The weak 
 point in this scheme was the inelasticity of the 
 resources placed at the disposal of the provincial 
 authorities. This inconvenience was remedied in 
 1878 by the assignment to them of the revenue 
 derived from certain branches of the administra- 
 tion such as excise, stamps, law and justice, and 
 the like : the Supreme Government reserving to 
 itself a share only in the future increase of revenue 
 under these heads. This statesmanlike measure 
 infused new life into the dry bones of provincial 
 administration. Satraps had now for the first 
 time a direct interest in economy and the deve- 
 
THE FINANCE COMIMITTEE. 79 
 
 lopment of their resources. From the epoch of 
 the contract system dates that steady expansion 
 of our revenues which has enabled the exchequer 
 to meet the heavy losses entailed by the depre- 
 ciated rupee. The term of the contracts between 
 the Imperial and Local Governments is five years ; 
 that entered into in 1882 expiring in 1887. To 
 facilitate the impending reorganization of finances 
 Lord Dufferin, in March 1886, appointed a Com- 
 mittee of experts with power to scrutinize the 
 Expenditure of every department of the Empire 
 and to suggest large economies. Mr. Elliott's 
 vast, experience of similar functions pointed him 
 out as the man of all others for the direction of 
 this enquiry. He was, therefore, named Chair- 
 man of the Committee. With him were associat- 
 ed Sir Henry Cunningham, Sir W. Hunter, the 
 Hon'ble M. Ranade, Colonel Filgate and Messrs. 
 T. Westland, Bliss and Hardie. The Committee's 
 preliminary labours were facilitated by the ap- 
 pointment of Sub-committees to deal with the 
 various departments. Printed notes were drawn 
 up summarizing the information required and sug- 
 gestions received, and were circulated among 
 departmental chiefs. On receipt of replies to 
 these, all persons responsible for expenditure were 
 invited to confer with the Committee and clear up 
 points of doubt. Visits were paid by delegates 
 from the Committee to the head quarters of each 
 
80 THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 government : and strenuous efforts were made to 
 digest and systematize the enormous mass of 
 details within the limited period allowed by the 
 Government of India. The task proved impos- 
 sible of fulfilment : and, in December 1886 the 
 Committee submitted a report which was neces- 
 sarily incomplete. It is comprised in two folio 
 blue-books of nearly a thousand pages. The 
 first part relates to the forthcoming contracts 
 for 1887, and the second to departmental and 
 miscellaneons expenditure. To follow the Com- 
 mittee through the labyrinth of facts and figures 
 in which their enquiries are recorded would require 
 a volume ; and it is to be feared that my readers 
 would find it as imbued with " disgusting dry- 
 ness " as Bishop Burnet did the magnum opus of 
 Lord Clarendon. That which shines conspicuous 
 throughout is Mr. Elliott's amazing power of mani- 
 pulating figures and his capacity for entering into 
 details. His conclusions were not accepted with- 
 out demur from some of his colleagues : Sir H. 
 Cunningham and Mr. Ranade being conspicuous 
 in the extent and number of their protests. A 
 large majority, however, were accepted by the 
 supreme government : and the contracts which 
 are now about to expire were based on the Com- 
 mittee's recommendations. The annual gain to 
 the Indian exchequer by the economies suggested 
 was, in round figures Rx. 1,280,000 — nearly a 
 
THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. . gi 
 
 million sterling at the rates of exchange then 
 current. In the course of 1887 the threads laid 
 down by the Committee were taken up by Mr. 
 Elliott in the capacity of Finance Commissioner 
 with the Government of India ; and a blue-book 
 of 660 pages compiled by him discusses the sub- 
 jects untouched by the defunct Committee. The 
 insight which the three volumes afford into the 
 mechanism of administration in British India leads 
 us to question the universal applicability of Count 
 Oxenstiern's views as to the little wisdom shown 
 in the art of government. We are most of us too 
 prone to accept the noiseless working of the state 
 machine as a matter of course ; and to ignore the 
 vast amount of skill and labour it involves, while 
 we lay the utmost stress on the failures which 
 must beset the course of every human institution. 
 Mr. Elliott's Committee dragged many anomalies 
 and some abuses to the light of day. It is toler- 
 ably certain, however, that no other empire in the 
 world has less to conceal or would have borne so 
 successfully a piercing scrutiny. 
 
 Hardly had Mr. Elliott completed this task 
 ere he was called upon by Lord Dufferin to assume 
 the portfolio of Public Works Minister, for such 
 de facto is the Member of Council who has this 
 great department in his charge. Every high 
 official who has illustrated this office has had his 
 peculiar hobby. Mr. Elliott's bent lay strongly 
 
[ 
 82 THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 towards our railway system. There was doubt- 
 less much in its complicated mechanism and the 
 immense variety of economic questions which its 
 working involves that appealed to his severely 
 practical mind and to his instincts as a born 
 administrator. Hardly had he taken his seat in 
 Council than he threw himself with characteristic 
 vigour into the great controversy of private versus 
 public enterprize in railways. The question is 
 destined to exert so vast an influence on the his- 
 tory of civilization that a brief retrospect of its 
 phases may not be out of place. England, the 
 mother of railways, was at the time of their r>birth 
 permeated with the doctrine of laissez-J-aire. 
 Statesmen and economists were for the most 
 part agreed that the function of the state stop- 
 ped at the preservation of order, and that the 
 fullest scope should be given to the impulse they 
 were pleased to term " enlightened self-interest." 
 There was much in our past history which justi- 
 fied this view. Our commerce, and indeed our 
 Empire itself, had been the slow evolution of 
 private enterprize. Hence an inactivity which 
 was the reverse of masterly characterized the 
 attitude of the state towards the wondrous 
 discovery. The right of constructing new lines 
 was allowed to become a bone of contention 
 between rival promoters, whose struggles for vic- 
 tory in the courts and before Parliamentary 
 
THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. 83 
 
 Committees Increased three-fold the initial cost of 
 our railways and has left England with a system, 
 marred by many serious defects. Our example 
 was followed by the United States, where 160,000 
 miles of railways are in the hands of 600 private 
 companies. With few exceptions the lines are 
 exploited by unscrupulous wirepullers who pile up 
 vast fortunes at the expense of a long-suffering 
 public. In Italy the Government has endeavoured 
 to keep private enterprize under some control by 
 granting concessions to competing lines through- 
 out the length of the peninsula : but it is under- 
 stood that most of them have combined a2:ainst 
 the common enemy — the traveller, the merchant 
 and the producer. The springs of authority are 
 stronger in France ; and the state has reserved to 
 itself the option of purchasing many existing lines, 
 which are at present under private management. 
 French railways are proverbial for combining a 
 maximum of charges with a minimum of speed and 
 accommodation. In northern and central Europe, 
 on the other hand, the state, from motives con- 
 nected with strategy, has retained a firm grip on 
 the railway network. The result has fully justified 
 this policy. The zone system, by which railways 
 having termini at a common centre are divided 
 into sections over which coaching and goods 
 charges are identical, must revolutionize the work- 
 ing of lines throughout the world. Its success 
 
84 THE FINANCE CO^nilTTEE. 
 
 has been demonstrated in Austro-Hungary, and it 
 is only possible where railways are owned by the 
 state. Though much diversity of practice still 
 prevails, public opinion is slowly veering round 
 towards the theory that the enormous powers now 
 necessarily vested in companies can only be suc- 
 cessfully wielded by the governing power. The 
 splendid success of our postal and telegraph 
 system has opened men's eyes to the advan- 
 tage of state control over methods of inland 
 locomotion. We are beginning to doubt the 
 wisdom of the old war-cries. Enlightened self- 
 interest is often synonymous with selfishnes?j; 
 and laissez-faire with a criminal abnegation of 
 the first duty of a state — the protection of the 
 weak against knavery and strength. Mr. Elliott, 
 therefore, was in sympathy with modern thought 
 when he pronounced strongly against the sur- 
 render of our Empire to the railway promoters. 
 A patient trial had indeed been given to private 
 management and it had been found wanting. All 
 the conditions necessary for economical working 
 were absent. Minute division of responsibility 
 and close supervision are the A. B.C. of railway 
 management. Neither was possible with Boards 
 of Directors sitting 6,000 miles away ; always 
 readier to gain the good-will of their subordinates 
 by sanctioning extravagant expenditure, than to 
 seek the best interests of their shareholders. 
 
Tin-: FIXAXCE (^(^M:\nTTF,K. ,Q5 
 
 *' Enlightened self-interest " in railway manage- 
 ment takes the form of unfair competition, of 
 such devices as the lowering of junction rates in 
 order to block rival lines, and of endeavours made 
 to drive traffic into the longest *' lead." The 
 injustice thus involved cannot be remedied by 
 state control. An attempt was made in that 
 direction in 1887, when it was sought to impose 
 on the principal companies a schedule of uniform 
 maxima and minima goods' rates. It was frus- 
 trated by a declaration on the part of the E. I. R. 
 authorities to the effect that they reserved to 
 tken*selves the right of varying the classification 
 as their interests might demand. Two years 
 later a fierce contest began between that line 
 and the new Indian Midland. The Cawnpore 
 traffic was the aim of each ; and the former 
 company sought by every means in its power 
 to force it through the longer ' lead,' via Jabal- 
 pur. The Government, after taking the opinion 
 of eminent counsel, declined to interfere for the 
 protection of exporters. During the term of office 
 of Sir Charles Elliott (he had at last obtained 
 the long deserved distinction of K. C.S.I.) a half- 
 hearted step in the direction of control was for- 
 ced on the Indian government by the home authori- 
 ties. Under instructions from the Secretary of 
 State an Act (i of 1890) was passed which pro- 
 vided for the appointment of a commission to 
 
SG THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. . 
 
 settle disputes between rival companies. It is 
 very doubtful, however, whether this imitation of 
 English practice will be aught but a dead letter 
 in India. The companies here can fall back on 
 their contracts and evade compliance with any 
 decision at which a commission might arrive as 
 regards rates. One is driven to the conclusion 
 that the State can exercise no efficient control 
 over a vast commercial railway in private hands. 
 Companies must be suffered to prey on each other 
 or combine against the public till the evil grows 
 too great for bearing. The question of the con- 
 struction of railways is intimately connected ,.wil,li 
 their management. Our policy in this respect 
 was, till Sir Charles Elliott's regime, marked by a 
 singular absence of consistency, and, indeed of 
 common sense. The older lines were built on 
 loans in the English market raised by the glitter- 
 ing bait of a gold guarantee so heavy that share- 
 holders were content to rest on their oars, certain 
 that, whether their lines were well or ill managed, 
 the capital invested would always bring a hand- 
 some return. Though this system has been justly 
 exploded the interests of the tax-payer have been, 
 on more than one occasion of late years, sacrificed 
 by the transfer of new lines to private manage- 
 ment on most inequitable terms. When the 
 Council were allowed a free hand, as in the case of 
 the purchase of the Oudh and Rahilkhand and 
 
THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. S7 
 
 the construction of the Amballa-Kalka lines, afar 
 better bargain has been secured. Sir Charles 
 Elliott's attitude as regards construction was 
 logical enough. With the completion of the East 
 Coast and the Assam-Chittagong lines, the trunk 
 system of this Empire will be fairly complete ; and 
 branches, or feeders, will alone remain to be em- 
 barked on. It is preferable that such works 
 should be undertaken by the government or by 
 public bodies under governmental control on capi- 
 tal borrowed with the Secretary of State's guaran- 
 tee. But the interest must be payable in silver 
 a yd the guarantee must not exceed three per cent. 
 If private promoters are willing to accept these 
 terms there is abundant room for them ; for gov- 
 ernment has its hands full, and the new-fledged 
 public bodies have at present neither the means 
 nor the knowledge to fit them for great enterprizes. 
 The function of the constructors must, however, 
 cease with the completion and equipment of the 
 new lines. Experience has shown that trunks can 
 work branches more economically than the latter 
 can work for themselves. Therefore feeders 
 should be leased out to lines with which they are 
 connected at a fixed proportion of their gross 
 earnings. Fifty per cent is a ratio which is fair 
 to all concerned. 
 
 The battle of the gauges is a minor phase of 
 the railway controversy. The broad gauge, so 
 
( 
 88 THE FINANXE COMMITTEE. 
 
 called — 5' 6" — is that which finds most favour at 
 home : and it has been adopted on most of our 
 trunk Hues. Without pronouncing positively for 
 the metre gauge, or underrating the evils of a 
 break, Sir Charles Elliott, to judge from his public 
 utterances, looks with favour on a system which 
 favours extreme cheapness of construction and 
 protects the permanent way from the wear and 
 tear of heavy engines and high speeds. The 
 question of breaks is another burning one in the 
 railway world. After directing a series of elabor- 
 ate experiments Sir Charles Elliott has pronounced 
 in favour of the Vacuum break, influenced by its 
 greater simplicity and the power it possesses of 
 bringing a train to a complete stop without the 
 intermittency in working needed in the case of its 
 rival, the Westinghouse. These breaks have, 
 therefore, been fitted to all the N. W. R. trains 
 and to those on the E. B. S. and Oudh and Rohil- 
 khund which carry mails. Here, at least, govern- 
 ment management is in advance of that of any 
 private company in India. 
 
 But Sir Charles is something more than a 
 mere theorist. Besides formulating a poHcy to 
 govern the relations of the state with railway 
 enterprize he devoted close personal attention to 
 the development of the net-work of lines. Pro- 
 jects embracing 1064 miles of permanent way, 
 begun before his term of office, were completed 
 
THE FINANCE C0MMITT2E. 89 
 
 during its course. Twelve lines, aggregating 596 
 miles, were carried through from their inception. 
 Nine, including 167 1 miles, were begun but were 
 unfinished when he vacated his seat in Council. 
 Surveys in 18 more projects were ordered; and 
 in 12 of them the plans and specifications were 
 ready at the close of his functions as public 
 works minister. 
 
 Though railways were evidently Sir Charles's 
 hobby, the interests of their rivals, the canals were 
 not neglected. Two new systems came under 
 construction. The first is the Peryar Canal in 
 the Madras Presidency ; a splendid work from an 
 e:^gi»eering point of view, but one which is not 
 likely to bring a larger area than at present under 
 cultivation. The second is that known as the 
 Sirsa and Chenab Canal. The Panjab alone of 
 Indian Provinces possesses every factor necessary 
 to the success of artificial waterways. It is a dry 
 and thirsty land, in spite of its historic rivers. 
 Good water runs to waste, while acres untold lie 
 fallow for want of it. The sturdy peasantry have 
 turned their spears to ploughshares, and bring to 
 bear on cultivation the dogged determination with 
 which they once fought for the Khalsa. In Bengal 
 proper, with the sole exception of South Behar, 
 irrigation by means of canals has been a failure. 
 Other provinces are either well provided already 
 or enjoy climatic condition which render canals 
 
 G 
 
90 TKE FINANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 superfluous. That the grand scheme connected 
 with the Jhelam, which has been surveyed and 
 has received the sanction of the Secretary of 
 State, should still hang fire in the absence of 
 allotted funds is deeply to be regretted in the 
 interests of Upper India. 
 
 The personal equation is of the first import- 
 ance to the smooth working of so vast a depart- 
 ment as that of Public Works. When Sir Charles 
 Elliott took his seat in council the civil branch was 
 seething with discontent. Loud complaints were 
 heard on all sides of retarded promotion and 
 undue preference shown to Royal Engineers, 
 The first grievance is a very real one. No attenvpt 
 had ever been made to ascertain the strength at 
 which the staff of engineers must be maintained, 
 or to adjust recruitments. The wildest guesses 
 at Indian requirements were made : and when 
 Cooper's Hill College was set on foot the annual 
 supply of young Civil Engineers was fixed at fiftyo 
 In 1874 no fewer than eighty were launched on 
 an Indian career. Sir Charles Elliott's enquiries 
 as to the real needs of all branches of the P. W. 
 D. resulted in placing it beyond all doubt that the 
 staff, exclusive of the military works branch, 
 should be kept down to 730 officers ; 600 of whom 
 should be civil engineers. Actuarial computations 
 proved that twenty-four men were required annual- 
 ly to fill vacancies caused by deaths and retire- 
 
THE FINANCE C0MMITTI:E. 91 
 
 ments among the latter. Half of these will in 
 future be supplied by Cooper's Hill and half by 
 Indian colleges or recruited from deserving subor- 
 dinates. Under this arrangement the utility of 
 Cooper's Hill appears open to grave doubt. The 
 Indian tax-payer has every right to protest against 
 the maintenance of an expensive establishment at 
 home which turns out a dozen young engineers 
 annually. A vast impetus would be given to tech- 
 nical education in this country were twelve addi- 
 tional appointments in the upper grade of the 
 P. W. Department allotted to candidates from 
 our engineering colleges. The other ground for 
 d^iecentent among the civil engineers has less 
 foundation in fact. There had, doubtless^ been an 
 undue weight given to tact and pleasant manners 
 in selecting men for the secretariat and the Con- 
 sulting Engineer's branches. On the other hand 
 no dispassionate observer can doubt that these 
 qualities are conspicuous in the products of Wool- 
 wich and Chatham. Outside these very small 
 sections there is really no ground to suspect par- 
 tiality in the authorities for Royal Engineers. The 
 department is divided into several wholly distinct 
 branches — those of Road, and Buildings ; Irriga- 
 tion, and Railways. An officer who has cast his 
 lot in with the first may find that his coevals in 
 other lines have distanced him ; and that owing to 
 no fault of his own. But inequalities of promotion 
 
92 TKE FINANCE COMMITTEE. 
 
 must always arise where a profession affords and 
 careers so diverse. It is precisely the same with 
 the regular army. In one regiment a captaincy is 
 reached in eight years : in another a subaltern 
 may pine for sixteen ere reaching the proximate 
 goal of his ambition. The grievances of the civil 
 engineers are, therefore, either incurable or illusory: 
 but where palliation was possible it was secured 
 by Sir Charles Elliott's anxious care for the in- 
 terests of his subordinates. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 
 
 In November 1890 Sir Charles Elliott re- 
 ceived the offer from Lord Lansdowne of the 
 Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, which was 
 about to be vacated by Sir Steuart Bayley. He 
 hesitated long ere he accepted the thorny crown. 
 Difficulties which would have dismayed a less 
 vigorous mind lay before him. Bengal, as he told 
 the guests at a farewell dinner given by the cove- 
 nanted service to its retiring chief, is second only 
 to Russia in the demand it makes on the adminis- 
 trative faculties of its ruler. He was new to the 
 Province, and unknown to nine-tenths of his 
 future colleagues. How far he has justified the 
 expectations of his friends must be discussed at 
 that date, which Bengal hopes is yet distant, when 
 he shall seek the well-earned repose of private life. 
 We live too near the events which have followed on 
 his accession to power to judge them from the his- 
 torian's stand point. And then, though we seldom 
 recognize the fact, all human actions are links in a 
 chain of causation stretching through unnumbered 
 ages. The true value, therefore, of isolated facts 
 cannot be appraised until time shall have displayed 
 their ultimate consequences. Our judgment, too, 
 H 
 
94 ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 
 
 is apt to be distorted by passion or prejudice, dis- 
 turbing the attitude of calm scrutiny which the 
 historian must adopt If his work Is to be aught 
 save a nine days' wonder. *^We may blush to 
 think," writes Lord Mahon, *' that even those 
 years which, on looking back, are universally 
 admitted most prosperous and those actions now 
 considered irreproachable were not free at the time 
 from most loud and angry complaints. How 
 much has prosperity been felt, but how little 
 acknowledged ! How sure a road to popularity 
 has It always been to tell us that we are the most 
 wretched and ill-used people on the face of the 
 earth ! To such an extent, in fact, have these 
 outcries proceeded that a very acute observer has 
 founded a new theory on them ; and, far from 
 viewing them as evidence of suffering, considers 
 them as one of the proofs and tokens of good 
 government." It is only natural that the policy 
 of an ardent reformer — of one who Is not content 
 that a thing should be done well If It can be done 
 better — should excite acrimonious and unreasoning 
 criticism ; and that the aspirations which prompt 
 it should be persistently misunderstood. A re- 
 capitulation of the chief measures which have 
 characterized Sir Charles Elliott's brief career as 
 Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, may serve to 
 correct misapprehensions and pave the way for 
 the future annalist. 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 95 
 
 Among the drawbacks of our executive sys- 
 tem, is the fact that offices which make the 
 heaviest demands on the bodily and mental vigour 
 often devolve on men who are long past their 
 prime. Hence the dread of responsibitity, the 
 laxity and the want of backbone which have 
 again and again led to disaster during the past 
 decade. No part of India stood in greater need 
 of a reformer than this fair province of Bengal, 
 when, in December 1890, Sir Charles Elliott was 
 called on to guide her destinies. His exhaustless 
 energy and self-reliance led him to take nothing 
 i^x granted, and to place the most venerable in- 
 stitutions on their trial. This apparent oblivion 
 of the labours of former travellers on w^ell-beaten 
 paths, and of the fact, as true in our day, as in 
 Horace's, that many strong men lived before Aga- 
 memnon, is a characteristic perchance better suit- 
 ed to the government of a brand-new colony than 
 of a province where intense conservatism underlies 
 an apparent assimilation of western ideas. But 
 no one who knows him will deny that he has suffi- 
 cient patience to listen to the views of others and 
 sufficient candour to give them their due weight. 
 
 Recognizing the fact that sound finance is 
 the mainspring of good government, Sir Charles 
 Elliott's most strenuous efforts have been directed 
 to increasing the scanty resources which imperial 
 exigencies, real or supposed, place at his disposal. 
 
9G ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 
 
 The quinquennial revision of the financial relations 
 between the supreme and the provincial govern- 
 ments took place during the current year. The 
 Lieutenant-Governor seized the opportunity thus 
 afforded of expressing his views on this point with 
 no uncertain voice. Full justice was done by the 
 Government of India to the efficiency with which 
 the revenues of Bengal had been administered 
 during the term of the expiring contract. The 
 income from civil services had expanded from 
 Rx. 3,410,000 to Rx. 3,610,000; that from rail- 
 ways from Rx. 2,200,000 to Rx. 2,975,000. But 
 it proposed to sweep a portion of a prospective 
 increment, which might be as much as Rx. 190,000 
 annually, into the imperial coffers. The Bengal 
 Government was deprived of control over the 
 Tirhut State Railway, and of all income derivable 
 therefrom : and the project of imperializing that 
 main source of our provincial revenue — the East- 
 ern Bengal Railway system — was also mooted. 
 Sir Charles Elliott, who is blessed in an eminent 
 degree with the courage of his opinions, protested 
 strongly against any further curtailment of the 
 revenues. The period to which the contracts were 
 restricted was, he argued, too short ; for the 
 consequences of good finance or of the reverse 
 cannot be fully developed in five years. Better 
 far it would be to declare the whole revenue of 
 Bengal provincial and levy certain fixed percen- 
 
> 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 97 
 
 tages for imperial needs, than make each period 
 of revision a sigrnal for more exorbitant demands. 
 The Government of India is nought but a vast 
 spending department. Incalculable sums are flung 
 into the abyss of frontier defence : while, owing 
 to the apathy with w^hich the glaring defects in our 
 monetary system are regarded, we see the volume 
 of home charges constantly swelling. Unproduc- 
 tive expenditure must be controlled with jealous 
 care ; or in other words, the credit side of the 
 imperial budget should be stationary, or at least, 
 slowly progressive. On the other hand there are 
 K® 4imits to the benefits which would flow from a 
 policy of real decentralization in finance. Bengal 
 labours under climatic disadvantages such as no 
 other tract of the like area endures. Vast systems 
 of drainage are urgently needed if the central and 
 eastern districts are to be anything but a hot-bed 
 of disease. Roads, feeder railway-lines, water- 
 supply, medical relief — such are a few out of many 
 pressing wants. All might be supplied in a decade 
 or two if the government had but the power of 
 granting adequate assistance by way of loans or 
 subsidies to local bodies charged with the construc- 
 tion of works of public utility. The same fearless 
 eagerness to stand up for the right was exempli- 
 fied in a protest against that fanaticism which 
 deems the revenues of India and the health of 
 countless millions as nought compared with a 
 
98 ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL 
 
 passion for notoriety and hysterical sentiment. In 
 answer to that baneful influence commonly known 
 as '' Exeter Hall" he pointed out that the increase in 
 our revenue for opium consumed in India had been 
 barely eight per cent in ten years — not more than 
 was proportionate to the growth of population in 
 consuming districts. He urged that the closure 
 of licensed shops for the sale of opium would 
 certainly drive men to lose their health and money 
 in illicit dens. He put in a good word for a much- 
 abused and misunderstood drug by asserting, that 
 it enables its votaries to do heavy tasks at a 
 minimum cost of tissue, and is reputed to be a 
 prophylactic of malaria in the steamy swamps of 
 Lower Bengal. Ever eager to develop the resour- 
 ces at his disposal, the Lieutenant-Governor 
 directed that the manufacture of salt by Govern- 
 ment agency should be resumed in districts on the 
 Bay of Bengal, where its cost is hardly a sixth of 
 that entailed by the produce of Cheshire. Of 
 equal importance with sound finance is a good 
 judicial and policy system. Here, too, Sir Charles 
 Elliott's ceaseless activity has found a useful outlet. 
 The working of the Calcutta Small Cause Court — 
 an institution corresponding with our English 
 County Courts but vouchsafed larger powers — had 
 been the subject of hostile criticism, due, perhaps, 
 to the fierce light which beats about all forms of 
 governmental agency in the metropolis, rather than 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL 99 
 
 to its inherent defects. A close enquiry made it 
 clear that the method of transacting business there 
 compared favourably with that of kindred institu- 
 tions in Bombay and Madras, except as regards 
 the duration of contested cases. The excessive 
 delays were largely due to a want of method in 
 framing the cause list and too frequent postpone- 
 ments. These have now been reduced by the 
 device of postponing cases not reached or part- 
 heard de die in diem. In consonance with the 
 views of the native community Sir Charles Elliott 
 protested against a proposed reduction of the 
 S^nall Cause Court Judges' jurisdiction from suits 
 of Rx. 200 in value to those of half that amount ; 
 and objected to the option of an appeal to the 
 High Court being permitted. He remarked that 
 the arrears would be sensibly lessened by an indul- 
 gence in fewer holidays and a lengthening of the 
 hours spent in Court. There can be no doubt 
 that some curtailment is needed in the licence in 
 regard to vacations arrogated by our Civil Courts. 
 It is a survival of the usages imported from Eng- 
 land by the old Supreme Court. The re-organiza- 
 tion of the subordinate judicial service was a 
 matter of still greater urgency. Yearly swells the 
 volume of litigation ; and everywhere a cry rises 
 for more civil courts of the first instance. The 
 intense monotony of life in the interior leads men 
 to give vent to their surplus energies in the arena 
 
( 
 
 100 ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL 
 
 offered by the courts of law. An experienced 
 district judge, who had been employed in enquiries 
 as to the need of strengthening our judicial staff, 
 had recommended large additions in the lower 
 grades. Sir Charles Elliott supported his pro- 
 posal, observing, however, that newly-founded 
 Civil Courts rarely paid their way at first ; and 
 that the Supreme Government must expect a 
 heavy addition to our liabilities for the cost of the 
 additional establishments. It was only fair, he 
 argued, that a large proportion of the loss should 
 be met by a reassignment of provincial revenues. 
 The administration of criminal justice is still isicre 
 closely connected with executive functions. Here 
 the local knowledge gained by His Honor during 
 his extended tours stood him in good stead. He 
 had, too, before him the report of a strong com- 
 mittee appointed by his predecessor to enquire 
 into the admitted defects of our police system, 
 which is largely dependent on the working of the 
 courts. A lack of close supervision on the part 
 of the district chief ; irregularity in attendance at 
 court on that of his subordinates ; frequent and 
 unnecessary remands — such were a few of the 
 many defects revealed by these enquiries. They 
 have been, in large measure, remedied. Deputy 
 Magistrates now make it a point of honour not to 
 plead want of time as an excuse for adjourning a 
 case and a greater degree of zeal has been infus- 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. ]0l 
 
 ed into all ranks of public servants. The internal 
 organization of the police has not been neglected. 
 Increased pay and allowances have been conceded 
 to the rank and file ; and superior educational 
 qualifications insisted on in those which we may 
 call the non-commissioned grades. The reserves 
 have been reorganized, on a military basis ; and 
 legislation has been sketched out in view of im- 
 proving the condition and increasing the powers 
 of that backbone of good district government, the 
 village watchman. Convinced by personal experi- 
 ence of the benefit to the people resulting from 
 frj-q^ent tours by heads of departments. Sir 
 Charles Elliott framed a code of rules prescribing 
 a minimum period to be spent in the interior by 
 each officer. The resolution embodying these 
 orders excited considerable comment, and the 
 wisdom of fettering the discretion of high officials 
 was questioned far and wide. It must, however, 
 be admitted, that in this and other respects, Sir 
 Charles's theory and practice coincide. He shuns 
 delights and lives laborious days. No considera- 
 tions of personal comfort are allowed to outweigh 
 those connected with this primary duty : and few 
 portions indeed of the vast province committed to 
 his care have not been passed in review by him. 
 
 The well-being of the agriculturist is of 
 greater importance in Bengal than in any other 
 Presidency. Various causes had conspired to 
 
102 ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 
 
 impair it. The Permanent Settlement left the 
 immemorial rights of the tenantry at the mercy 
 of an unscrupulous landlord. The fierce com- 
 petition for land, resulting from the advance of 
 population and the ruin of handicrafts by English 
 competition, had riveted the chains imposed by 
 Lord Cornwallis and his advisers. The first really 
 successful attempt to protect the tiller of the soil 
 was made in the much abused Tenancy Act of 
 1885. One of the most important clauses in this, 
 the ryots' Magna Charta, renders it possible for 
 the authorities to insist on a survey and record of 
 rights being carried out in any tract whick-l.ad 
 not been subjected to these processes. The 
 necessity of putting this law in force is felt more 
 or less in every district ; but nowhere more press- 
 ingly than in Northern Behar, where rack-renting 
 and extortion of all kinds leave the unhappy ryot 
 within a hair's breadth of famine. Sir Charles 
 Elliott pleaded the cause of these really dumb 
 millions. He pointed out that a cadastral survey 
 was merely an importation of accurate methods 
 and skilled supervision into a process which all 
 Zemindars are forced by self-interest to attempt 
 for themselves. The proposed survey was there- 
 fore, in a good landlord's interest : for it would en- 
 able him to recover large tracts which carelessness 
 and rule-of-thumb have left in the possession of 
 squatters. The ryots on the other hand, would 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 103 
 
 secure a bulwark against Invasion of their rights 
 by village tyrants. Who shall say that these 
 advantages are dearly bought at an expenditure 
 of seven annas — hardly as many pence — per acre ? 
 His Honor admitted frankly that furious and 
 obstinate opposition would be excited by the 
 survey. Ignorance would conspire with an inter- 
 est in maintaining the countless abuses arising 
 from the existing chaos to prejudice mens' minds 
 against a most useful reform. Sir Charles Elliott, 
 however, argued that the results would be well 
 worth the cost : and urged that a cadastral survey 
 of -5-^,500 square miles in North Behar, to be 
 completed in five years, might receive the sanc- 
 tion of the Viceroy and Secretary of State. 
 These high functionaries acceded this warm sup- 
 port to the proposal ; and in spite of keen opposi- 
 tion the great measure has been definitely resolved 
 on. 
 
 His Honor is, indeed, the last man to shrink 
 from personal odium when it is entailed by a 
 course dictated by his sense of duty. Nowhere 
 is the need for sanitation more pronounced than 
 in our most advanced Province ; and nowhere, 
 alas, is it less understood and recognized. The 
 public bodies which are the fruits of Lord Ripon's 
 policy of Self-Government, have not invariably 
 risen to the occasion. Our towns are hotbeds of 
 disease. Sir Charles was forced to admit that 
 
( 
 104 ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 
 
 the well-meant attempt to associate the people in 
 the management of public affairs was half a cen- 
 tury in advance of the times we live in. While 
 the power of municipalities must be enlarged, the 
 bonds uniting them with the authority of Govern- 
 ment officers stand in equal need of strengthening. 
 The Sanitary Commissioner had been little else 
 than a quasi-ornamental appendage of Govern- 
 ment. He has been developed into a Sanitary 
 Board wath greatly enlarged powers, and special 
 engineering experience at his call. The Vaccina- 
 tion Department too has undergone drastic reform. 
 Centralization had been pushed to external lk=?.:^s, 
 and no pains had been taken to gain the help and 
 countenance of local officials. All this is now 
 changed. The district is now the unit in vaccine 
 operations. Civil Surgeons, who are posted at 
 each head quarters, are responsible for w^ork 
 within their several charges, and a strong staff of 
 inspectors and sub-inspectors have been placed un- 
 der their supervision. Education in the true sense 
 of the word must precede ihe attempt to enforce 
 sanitary rules. Sir Charles Elliott has given free 
 scope to his predecessor Sir George Campbell's 
 far-seeing policy which dotted the provinces with 
 primary schools. Municipalities are enjoined to 
 devote a larger share of their revenues to the 
 support of such. That which is called high edu- 
 cation is too firmly established to need state 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 105 
 
 bolstering. The District High Schools will, 
 therefore, be surrendered to the care of local 
 bodies. The too long neglected cause of tech- 
 nical education has received his earnest support. 
 Amongst his reform has been an entire re-casting 
 of the Engineering College at Sibpur. It occu- 
 pies the site selected by that gentle enthusiast 
 Bishop Heber for the cherished foundation by the 
 aid of which he hoped to bring the best traditions 
 of our English Universities to bear on the train- 
 ing of young converts for the Christian Ministry. 
 His Honor declared that the increase in the num- 
 ber^^of youths educated for engineering pursuits 
 and qualified to develop the resources of the 
 province was an object on w^iich he w^as justified 
 in incurring a large outlay, inasmuch as he was 
 confident that all such outlay would be fully re- 
 productive. The College now consists of an 
 Engineering section and one devoted to the tech- 
 nical training of apprentices. Four appointments 
 in the upper subordinate grades of the Depart- 
 ment of Public Works are now filled by competi- 
 tion amongst its pupils. The College examination, 
 with two years' practical training, is accepted as 
 qualifying for the post of Engineer under the 
 District Boards. The technical schools which 
 those bodies are forming throughout the interior 
 will, in time be affiliated with Sibpur. We are, in 
 fact, in a fair way of seeing the reproach removed 
 
/ 
 106 ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 
 
 that English rule has done little towards reviving 
 the technical skill for which India was once world- 
 renowned, but which has been crushed beneath 
 the heel of Western competition. 
 
 The tribes on our eastern frontier have made 
 themselves unpleasantly conspicuous of late. 
 Nowhere are civilization and utter barbarism in 
 closer contact than in the rich tracts bordering 
 on the habitat of the fierce Lushais. This country 
 has lately been made a separate administrative 
 change ; and the task of overawing them facilitated 
 by a very large expenditure on roads and bridges. 
 
 Nor amid the care and drudgery of his.b^gh 
 office has the cause of charity and social progress 
 been neglected by Sir Charles Elliott. He is a 
 warm supporter of that movement for bringing 
 skilled medical and surgical aid home to the helpless 
 women of this country which will illustrate Lady 
 Dufferin's name when the political and diplomatic 
 triumphs of her husband shall have passed into 
 oblivion. The Fund owes to him a donation of 
 Rs. 15,000, which should serve as a stimulus to 
 the generosity of others who have far fewer claims 
 on their purses than a Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Bengal, There is, indeed no movement which 
 aims at lessening the sorrows of life or increasing 
 its innocent pleasures which does not find in him 
 a warm supporter. The task thus imposed would 
 be beyond his strength but for the active sympa- 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF BENGAL. 107 
 
 thy of Lady Elliott, who nobly seconds his efforts 
 for the common good. 
 
 This imperfect sketch of a great and useful 
 career speaks a moral which he that runs may 
 read. High aims persistently followed lead to 
 honour and renown, and, that which is sweeter 
 still to noble minds, they bring with them the con- 
 sciousness of talents well applied, of evil impulses 
 eradicated, of good instincts fostered and streng- 
 thened. Of Sir Charles Elliott may be said that 
 which John Stuart Mill proudly records of his 
 father, the historian of British India : — 
 
 _'' His moral inculcations were at all times, 
 those of the Socratici Viri — justice, temperance 
 (to which he gave a very extended application), 
 veracity, perseverance, readiness to encounter pain, 
 and especially labour, regard for the public good ; 
 the estimation of persons according to their merits 
 and things according to their instrinsic usefulness ; 
 a life of exertion in contradistinction to one of 
 self-indulgent ease and sloth," 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 CONTAINING SELECTED PUBLIC ADDRESSES BY SIR CHARLES 
 ELLIOTT AS LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. 
 
 SPEECH ON THE INAUGURATION OF THE DUF- 
 FERIN HOSPITAL, CALCUTTA, 2nd MARCH, 1891. 
 His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor, in inviting her 
 Excellency to declare the hospital open, said : — Your Ex- 
 cellency, — The report which you have heard read contains so 
 full an account of the history and objects of this institution 
 that very few words, in addition, are needed from me on this 
 occasion, for all of you, ladies and gentlemen, have had or 
 will fi'^w have an opportunity of inspecting the building, and 
 you will, I am sure, feel satisfied that it has been well and 
 sagaciously planned, that the accommodation provided is mode- 
 rate in quantity and suitable in quality, and that we have good 
 reason for hoping that it will soon be in full working order, 
 and that the classes for whose benefit it is designed will flock 
 to it and will obtain relief from much physical suffering 
 through its aid. It is a great cause for satisfaction that your 
 Excellency is not opening to-day only the portion of the main, 
 building, the construction of which is finished, but that you 
 are really opening the whole set of subsidiary buildings which 
 the original planners of the institution designed. A hospital 
 such as we see before us would be altogether unsuitable and 
 inadequate without the addition of a dispensary and a con- 
 sulting-room for out-patients, quarters for the resident doctor 
 and matron, separate accommodation for wealthier patients and 
 out ofl^ces. All of these, I rejoice to say, have now been 
 provided. The offer of the money required for a children's 
 ward has been nobly answered, and I have the great pleasure 
 of announcing that the whole of the sum required to meet it 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 had been subscribed by yesterday. The list of subscribers 
 whose names have been received since the report was 
 printed is as follows : — 
 
 Raja Janki Bulluv Sen, of Rungpur ,,. ,,. 4,000 
 Nawab Bahadur of Moorshidabad ... ... 1,000 
 
 Raja Govind Lall Ray, of Rungpur ... ... 1,000 
 
 Rai Bhunput Singh Bahadur ... ... 1,000 
 
 Babu Hem Chunder Gossain, of Serampur .. 500 
 
 Sir Andrew Scoble ... ... 500 
 
 Fakhiroonnisa Begum, of Gya ... ... 200 
 
 Nawab Syed Zaimul Abideen Khan Bahadoor, 
 
 Teroze Jung of Moorshidabad ... ... ... 130 
 
 Prince Jehan Kudr (2nd donation) ... ... 125 
 
 Syed Ameer Hossein ... ... ... ... 100 
 
 Syed AH Belgrami, of Hyderabad ... .,. 100 
 
 ■ Syed Ikbul Ali Khan, Bahadur of Hyderabad ... **ioo 
 Kajah Wahid Jan of Gya ... ... ... 300 
 
 Mr. Meugens ... ... ... ... ... 500 
 
 Babu Janokey Nath Roy ... ... ... 1,000 
 
 In addition to this, Nawab Ashanoollah Khan Bahadur^ 
 of Dacca, has intimated that he will make up any balance 
 required. I am proud to think that Bengal has nobly re- 
 sponded to the call I made upon her, and that the reproaches 
 which were levelled at her at the last annual meeting have 
 been wiped away and cannot again be repeated (Applause). 
 But while I mention these contributions with pride and 
 pleasure, I would not have it forgotten that there are other 
 contributions more valuable than money. You all remember 
 the lines of Tennyson : — 
 
 I asked them, give me immortality, 
 
 Then didst thou part in asking with a smile, 
 Like wealthy men who care not how they give. 
 I do not undervalue the gifts of money, for we cannot Ao 
 without them, but I cannot forget that many persons may 
 appear liberal who do not deny themselves one pleasure or 
 
APPENDIX. [[{ 
 
 luxury, or suffer one moment's inconvenience in consequence 
 of these gifts. 1 do emphatically say that the hard-worked 
 official or business man who out of his scanty leisure contri- 
 butes time and thought to the furdierance of a scheme like 
 this does more real service to the cause than many whose 
 money contributions are blazoned abroad. Service of this 
 sort has been freely rendered by Mr. Guyther, the Executive 
 Engineer, who not only prepared the plans, but also super- 
 vised the whole work of construction ; the names of other 
 members of the P. W. D., who have worked with and under 
 him with equal alacrity have been mentioned by the Honorary 
 Secretary. It is a great pleasure to me to be able to record 
 these good works on the part of the Department with which 
 I was lately so exclusively connected. But the most im.port- 
 ant assistance of all of this kind has been contributed by Mr. 
 Cotton' (Applause), the indefatigable Secretary of the Bengal 
 Branch of the Dufferin Fund. Those who know how heavily 
 and continuous a Secretary's work is will best be able to 
 realize the greatness of the service which Mr. Cotton has 
 rendered to the cause by the large amount of voluntary work 
 which he has undertaken and ably carried out in its behalf. 
 Last, but not least, I may be permitted to say that you. Lady 
 Lansdowne, are included in the list of benefactors of this 
 class, both for the constant and assiduous labour you have 
 undertaken as President of the Dufferin Fund, and also in 
 that you have graciously consented, in spite of the burdens 
 of your many public engagements, to favour us by your 
 presence at this ceremony — a condescension for which, on 
 behalf of all present, I have to tender you our sincere thanks. 
 (Applause.) And now 1 will conclude with a prayer in which 
 I am sure that all the people assembled here, whether Chris- 
 tians of Jews, Mahomedans or Hindus, will join — that the 
 blessing of Almighty God may rest upon this undertaking, 
 and that the Dufferin Hospital in Calcutta may fulfil all that 
 we expect of it, and may be the means of rescuing many of 
 
•jy APPENDIX. 
 
 the women and children of this great city from physical 
 suffering and premature death. (Loud applause.) I ask your 
 Excellency to declare the Hospital open. 
 
 SPEECH ON THE INAUGURATION OF 
 THE VICTORIA HALL, HUGHLI, JULY iith, 189 i. 
 His Honor in reply said that he had responded with much 
 pleasure to the invitation to declare the Victoria Hall open, 
 because, independently of the great gratification it was to him 
 to visit Hughli and make the acquaintance of the large, and 
 highly-educated community of the town, it was especially 
 interesting owing to his always having heard of Hughly as 
 being less peculiarly Indian than most other places. Long 
 before coming to Bengal he had more than once discussed 
 with Bengal officers the respective merits of the Patriarchal 
 system of Government as practised in the North Western 
 Provinces and Upper India, where his own training had been, 
 and of the more legal and more elaborately organized system 
 of Government through or with the help of local bodies and 
 the leaders of Native society. In these discussions Hughli, 
 had always been held up as a district in which the inhabitants 
 were so educated, so loyal, and so sensible of the true require- 
 ments of the administration and of the assistance that can be 
 given by local self-government that that district at least could 
 do without the Patriarchal system. He now met for the first 
 time the assembled community, and so far as he could judge 
 from appearances this report of Hughli was true. The objects 
 of Government seemed to be understood, its views supported 
 by the good sense of the people, and they were ever ready to 
 assist the local administration. The fact of their building 
 the hall in which they were assembled in commemoration of 
 the Jubilee of their gracious Sovereign and naming it after 
 her showed the loyalty and good feeling that actuated their 
 lives. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 His Honor wished to lay particular stress at this parti- 
 cular time on this point, for just now there was a wave of 
 disloyalty and distrust abroad the origin of which sprang from 
 a certain Bill introduced at the commencement of the year. 
 He wished to appeal to the good sense of such a community 
 as that assembled to do their best to put down such senti- 
 ments. Political disputes must of necessity always have in 
 their train feelings of bitterness ; but it behoved all good 
 citizens to abstain from prolonged agitation and to bury the 
 hatchet as soon as possible, and also to discourage those who 
 try to stir up a spirit of race-hatred and alienation. The 
 good intentions of the Government should be accepted and 
 not only should bygones be bygones, but it was through the 
 loyalty of the upper and better educated classes that better 
 feeling should be revived. Here in Hughli, he might just 
 meiiLiOn one particular opportunity of assisting Government 
 and showing good feeling. It had been brought to his notice 
 that a Hindu gendeman was in the habit of causing annoyance 
 to his Mahomedan neighbours in the Imambara by beating 
 gongs and blowing trumpets during their hours of prayer. 
 Now nobody was entitled and nobody who was at all en- 
 lightened would wish, to exercise his own religious feelings 
 in such a way as to hurt the religious feelings of others. Every 
 man of right feeling ought to allow to others the same religious 
 toleration and respect which he would wish for himself. His 
 Honor said he was glad to think that so far as he could judge, 
 his words seemed to meet with approval, and he trusted that 
 the good sense of the community would settle matters ami- 
 cably, and that he should not hear of any necessity arising for 
 the intervention of the Magistrate and the employment of the 
 police in this matter, but that Hughli would maintain its fair-fame 
 as an enlightened and well ordered town. His Honor then 
 said that he would reply to the points mentioned in the address. 
 
 First as regards drainage. He had no definite information 
 which was with him as regards the scheme, but he understood 
 
vl APPENDIX. 
 
 that such a scheme had been prepared and it would be called 
 for. If it appeared to be good and sufficient then he would 
 assist by sanctioning a Government loan on easy terms, as 
 had been done in the cases of Howrah, Utterpara, &c., under 
 the conditions laid down by the Supreme Government. 
 
 The second point was the water-supply. This was one 
 he had very much at heart. There were at present two 
 schemes before the Sanitary Board for the supply of water to 
 riparian Municipalities. The first was that works were to 
 be established opposite and similar to those of Fulta for the 
 supply of all riparian Municipalities on the right bank. This 
 seemed the better scheme in some ways, but the chief diffi- 
 culty would be the allotment of fair proportion of expenses 
 to the several riparian IMunicipalities. The second scheme 
 was that each Municipality should have its own pumping, 
 settling, and filtering machinery for its own supply, afTa" this 
 would be cheaper in some respects, as for instance in neces- 
 sitating a much less length of piping ; but the cost of machinery 
 and working would probably be much greater. Whatever the 
 scheme might be, however, he expressed a hearty desire to 
 see during his term of office a supply of good water to all 
 riparian Municipalities. As regards railway stations by the 
 Hughly Bridge the question had been brought forward once 
 before, and should be again enquired into, as it was possible 
 that local wishes might, at any rate, be met so far as the 
 establishment of a narrow passenger platform was concerned. 
 
 SPEECH ON THE PRESENTATION OF ADDRESSES 
 AT MYMENSINGH. 
 His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor replying thanked 
 the representatives of the several Associations for their very 
 friendly and loyal welcome, and expressed his gratitude 
 for the kind expressions contained in each and all. He 
 was glad to see that they had not only noticed, but had 
 
APPENDIX. vii 
 
 also been satisfied with the efforts of the Government of 
 Bengal since he had the honor of being at its head, and 
 assured them that Government's greatest desire was to devote 
 itself to watching over their welfare. He has long wished to 
 visit this large and important centre, Mymensingh ; and it 
 had been one of his first cares to select a special Magistrate 
 and Collector for so heavy a charge. In Mr, Phillips the 
 District possessed an officer of the highest ability and of 
 indefatigable energy, and it was to be hoped that his health 
 would permit of his remaining long enough to carry through 
 the many important vvorks of the District. As regards the 
 address of the District Board, it was one of unusual import- 
 ance, owing to the very wide view it took of the requirements 
 of the district, and his Honor said he could not do more than 
 touch on some of the points alluded to, and leave the others 
 to lo treated in the secretariat, for which he would, however, 
 issue special orders. In referring to the Municipal Address, 
 his Honor expressed his sympathy with the members of the 
 Committee in their loss of so able a Chairman, but trusted 
 his successor would prove himself to be equally capable. The 
 address contained a request that the ferry revenues might 
 be handed over for certain purposes, and he hoped before 
 leaving the town to be able to make a personal inspection, and 
 if the projects seemed in every way desirable the request 
 should be granted. In reply to the address from the Maho- 
 medan Association his Honor assured the members that he 
 had always sympathised with their wants, and that Govern- 
 ment were equally willing and anxious to give them their fair 
 share in all appointments, but it was absolutely necessary that 
 they would fit themselves for the posts. Though Government 
 was bound to divide its patronage as fairly as possible, it was 
 an ecvually sacred duty that only those qualified for appoint- 
 ments should hold them, and it was a regrettable fact that 
 great difficulty was experienced in finding qualified Maho- 
 fffiedan candidates- The remarks about local schools seemed 
 
ylii APPENDIX. 
 
 reasonable, and the District Board would be asked to give the 
 matter their consideration and what help and encouragements 
 they could. The re-establishment of the Madrassa was a ques- 
 tion that had not yet been brought to notice, and his Honor 
 could not therefore give any sort of reply, except that it would 
 be referred to Sir Alfred Croft for report, who, no doubt, would 
 gladly embrace the opportunity of assisting the Mahomedans 
 as far as he could ; and as far as was fair he, no doubt, would 
 help wdth a share of the Government funds. In reply to the 
 gentlemen of Sherpur his Honor said he hoped on some future 
 occasion to be able to visit them in their own homes, and see 
 something of their villages, but though the Magistrate had 
 kindly arranged that he should drive out and see one or two 
 of the Sherpur gentlemen, the plan had unfortunately been 
 abandoned owing to want of time. The request they made 
 for a railway was already included in the scheme proposfa by 
 the District Board, which went a very great deal further, and 
 was a very large request, indeed, even for an extensive district 
 hke this. It was very simple for a district to make such re- 
 quests, but were each to do so the sum total would be some- 
 thing appalling. The project of the District Board would 
 require at least some 50 lakhs, which was out of the question, 
 but a survey of the Tangail hue should be made. It had al- 
 ways to be remembered that in dealing with funds for railways 
 the funds were Imperial and not Provincial, and that there 
 was only a certain sum available each year. Of this Bengal, of 
 course, got its share, and were it possible to do so a loan of the 
 necessary eight lakhs or so would be lent for the counstruction 
 of this line on the security of the District Board. The con- 
 tinuation of the line to Sherpur would be a very much more 
 difficult concern, owing to its involving the construction of a 
 great length of bridge, which would be quite beyond the means 
 of the Provincial Government. The funds, therefore, would have 
 to be asked for from the Imperial coffers, and not only would be 
 a very clear case of necessity for the line have to be made out^ 
 
APPENDIX. ix 
 
 but also a very decided prospect of profit. Even so it was highly 
 improbable that Government would grant the necessary sanc- 
 tion and funds, considering that such great projects as the 
 Assam-Chittagong line, which for years had been a pet scheme, 
 were as yet unfinished, and would require several crores for 
 completion. Government only had a certain sum annually 
 for such works, in which a great hole would be made were 
 they to grant six lakhs here and eight lakhs there for small 
 local requirements. His Honor then expressed his satisfaction 
 at hearing of the construction and maintenance of roads, found- 
 ing of scholarships, and other such good works, which were 
 a distinct step in advance ; and on behalf of the Government 
 he thanked those gentlemen who were expending their time 
 and energy on behalf of their countrymen. His Honor then 
 said that after all these sentiments of approval he was bound to 
 ada a word of disagreement, and that w^as because he was 
 sorry to find the address of the District Board penetrated by 
 the idea so common in this country, that the people should 
 look entirely to Government for support, or, as they put it 
 in the address, State nursing, State aid, and State subsidies. 
 It was absolutely necessary in these days of enlightenment and 
 progress that they should learn to stand alone, and alone 
 to w^ork out their own requirements. The Government of 
 India had already as much to do as it could manage and it 
 was a well-known fact that its officials were overworked. The 
 difficulty about the looseness of the nuptial tie among the lower 
 classes of Mahomedans was a great misfortune, but it was not 
 for law to step in where morality was concerned ; for w^hat was 
 the good of law where the public conscience did not carry it 
 out.? A time no doubt would come when education and 
 civilization would work the necessary remedy. As regards 
 the, request for a Mahomedan Marriage Registration Act, 
 his Honor said he was by no means in favor of it, and would 
 certainly never bring forward such a Bill until a great majority 
 of the Mahomedans had requested him to do so, and ai 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 present he believed there was a very decided feehng against it. 
 In conclusion, his Honor explained at considerable length 
 how wrong both in theory and practice was the State aid for 
 which people were so ready to ask. 
 
 REPLY TO AN ADDRESS OF THE INDIGO PLAN^- 
 TERS OF BEHAR AND SONEPUR, NOV., 1891. 
 His Honor, replying, said to Mr. Hudson and the gentle- 
 men representing the Indigo Planters' Association, that he had 
 received with great satisfaction the address with which they 
 had been good enough to welcome him on his arrival among 
 them in Behar, and that he very cordially reciprocated these 
 kind feelings, and hoped that his arrival among them would 
 leave nothing but present recollections both in their minds 
 and in his own. Coming among them as he did, almost a com- 
 plete stanger to Behar, they would not, of course, expect him 
 to say much about the details of their work. He came more 
 with the object of learning the position of the Indigo industry 
 than for the purpose of giving any opinion on the subject, and 
 he trusted that he would have the opportunity of gaining 
 much knowledge that would be useful to himself. What he 
 knew at present about the industry w'as to a large extent due 
 to a report drawn up by his predecessor Sir Stewart Bayley 
 just before resigning oflfice. This report had lately been 
 published as a Parliamentary paper, and he would read to 
 them a few passages in order to give publicity to those 
 views : Sir Ashley Eden, addressing the Indigo Planters' As- 
 sociation, said: — "I take this opportunity of thanking your 
 Association for the cordial co-operation which you have 
 always given to me and the officers of Government, for 
 the admirable influence which you have exercised throughout 
 Behar and for the conciliatory and moderate spirit in which 
 you have adjusted disputes between contending interests." He 
 then read extracts from the Administration Report of the Patna 
 
APPENDIX. xi 
 
 Division for the year 1883-84. The Commissioners wrote as 
 follows: — "With regard to the Behar Indigo Planters' Asso- 
 ciation, I understand that it is doing much good work. The 
 Secretary of the Association complains that some indigo planters 
 benefit by the institution while declining to be bound by its 
 rules or to contribute to its necessary expenses. He thinks 
 that an expression of opinion on the part of the Government 
 would be sufficient to induce these gentlemen to join the Asso- 
 ciation." Sir Charles was sorry to find that this anticipation 
 of the Commissioner had not altogether been realized. Another 
 report says : — " The Secretary of the Behar Indigo Planters' 
 Association writes to the Collector of MozufTerpore that he 
 believes the relations between planters, zemindars, and ryots are 
 satisfactory, and that during the past year there has been hardly 
 any necessity for the interference of the Association w'ith the 
 a%irs of any factory." He adds : " The operations of the 
 Cadastral Survey Department under Colonel Barrow, and of 
 the record of rights under Mr. Collin were begun in No- 
 vember last, and there has been, I am happy to believe, no 
 friction between the members of the Association and the 
 officers mentioned, owing in a great measure to the tact 
 and courtesy displayed by them in all matters which have 
 been brought to their notice." Another report says : — " The 
 Indigo Planters' Association furnishes the best possible in- 
 stance of local self-government. It is completely voluntary. It 
 is latent till occasion arises, and then it springs into action." 
 And the last passage in that part of the report, that dealt 
 with Behar and which sums up Sir S. C. Bayley's own views, 
 were as follows : — "A reference to the general correspondence 
 of this Government shows that whereas formerly the object 
 of indigo was a burning one, which gave constant anxiety and 
 re(juired unremitted attention, it now really elicits allusions 
 such as those quoted from the Administration Report — a 
 change which indicates how much more smoothly the work is 
 carried on at present." He needed hardly to say to the 
 
xii APPENDIX. 
 
 gentlemen there present that he had read these reports Mith 
 great satisfaction, and he trusted that the opinion formed by 
 such experienced men were still justified, and that the working 
 of their Association was still directed to smoothing away and 
 removing all harshness and injustice, and that the members 
 were doing all in their power to ensure the progress and suc- 
 cess of this great industry. 
 
 One passage which he had just read spoke of the ex- 
 perimental cadastral survey carried on in the Mozufferpur 
 district about four years ago. He would take this opportunity 
 of referring especially to that, because, as they no doubt were 
 aware, the cadastral survey was about to be commenced in the 
 four districts of Northern Behar. He need hardly say that he 
 had not entered on an undertaking of this kind without a 
 due sense of the difficulties that might arise and the consider- 
 able labour that it would entail on himself and many of 4iis 
 officers. It was not a w^ork one would undertake with a light 
 heart. He knew that there had already been signs of an agi- 
 tation commencing against it, but he was quite satisfied that 
 the cadastral survey was wanted in this country, and that it 
 would be highly beneficial. From what he had been able to 
 learn from some of their number, he believed that all the most 
 influential members would welcome the measure. It would 
 give them an accurate knowledge of every one's rights with 
 w^hich they had to deal. They were all of them obliged to 
 have constant dealings both with ryots and landholders, and 
 it would be found to be most important to know the exact 
 extent of those rights conferred upon them by the Tenancy 
 Act. The third great class interested in the question was 
 the Zemindars, and from them he knew that some agitation 
 and opposition might be expected, but he hoped that these 
 would melt away when they heard more of the facts. Ewery 
 Zemindar was obliged to keep up a record of his ryots, their 
 holdings, and their rents, but this record was generally most 
 inaccurate, as for the most part they were obliged to rely on 
 
APPENDIX. xiii 
 
 the Patwari who was not described as a trustworthy person. 
 Well, the survey would give them an accurate record of these 
 facts, and would clear up all the disputes and uncertainties 
 which caused so much annoyance and loss. He trusted it 
 was hardly necessary for him to assure the Zemindars that 
 Government would not have entered on this undertaking 
 unless it had been convinced that it would be for the good and 
 not the harm of the landlords. He was convinced that when 
 the three parties most interested, the ryots, the zemindars, 
 and planters, came to know what the Survey really meant, 
 they would welcome it as a thing beneficial to themselves. 
 
 He had just issued a Resolution, which he hoped they 
 would read carefully when it was published in the next Gov- 
 ernment Gazette and the newspapers, and he gladly took 
 this opportunity of explaining its contents and arguments 
 briefly to them. He trusted that all who read it and under- 
 stood its full scope and intentions would lend him their 
 hearty co-operation in the performance of this arduous task, 
 The Indigo Planters' Association had been spoken of as a 
 part of the Administrative Machine, assisting Government and 
 being in return assisted by Government. As long as they 
 carried out this silent compact which was made with them by 
 Sir Ashley Eden, and carried on their operations with justice and 
 equity, he could assure them that the Association would receive 
 his hearty support. In conclusion, he begged to thank them 
 cordially for the kind way in which they had received him, and 
 he would look forward to the remainder of his tour as likely to be 
 equally pleasant and profitable to him as it had hitherto been. 
 
 SPEECH ON THE DUFFERIN FUND. 
 
 The following Address was delivered at a meeting of the 
 supporters of the Countess of Dufferin's Fund. H. E. the 
 Viceroy in the Chair, Jan. 1892. 
 
 The best manner in which we can show our thanks to 
 your Excellencies for the support and encouragement of this 
 
^\y APPENDIX. 
 
 Society, is by showing what has been done by it or for it during 
 the past year, what progress we have made, and what we hope 
 to make. We have now five female hospitals in Bengal, in 
 Calcutta, in Bhagulpore, Durbhanga, Gya and Cuttack, and at 
 all of these, with one exception, the number of patients who 
 have received medical attendance was larger than in the pre- 
 ceding year. The one exception, I am sorry to say, is that of 
 the Dufferin Hospital in Calcutta ; there, though the in-patients 
 increased from ii8 to 173, the number of out-door patients fell 
 from 21,000 to about 17,000. There were, we believe, two 
 reasons for this ; one was the death of Mrs. Foggo who had 
 become well known, and had gained the confidence of the 
 public, and it was not unnatural that it would take a little time 
 for her successor to acquire a similar following, and that the 
 numbers should fall off for a time. The other reason was that 
 the Eden Hospital had opened a dispensary for women com- 
 ing as out-door patients, and this had, of course, tended to 
 compete with the Dufferin Hospital, but so far as this cause 
 operates it is satisfactory to know that more medical care, not 
 less, is being bestowed on women. We have good reason 
 to hope that the results will tend to a larger attendance at 
 both institutions next year. Besides these we have no less 
 than four hospitals which are well on their way to existence. 
 That at Bettiah of which Lady Elliott lately laid the founda- 
 tion stone, we owe to the munificence of the Maharajah 
 of Bettiah. The brother of the Maharajah of Durbhanga, 
 Raja Rameswar Singh Bahadoor has undertaken to provide 
 funds for starting a women's hospital at Raj Nagar, and though 
 the project has not advanced during the year, I have no doubt 
 that he will perform his promise at an early date. While I was in 
 Behar I received a very generous donation from a mahomedan 
 gentleman of the place of Rs 10,000 towards founding a h'os- 
 pital in Patna, and another Indian gentleman has privately 
 undertaken to supply whatever funds are requisite to complete 
 and start the building, so that I may congratulate Patna, the 
 
APPENDIX. XV 
 
 second town in Bengal, on the prospect that this want will 
 shortly be satisfied. Within the last few days I have heard ol^ 
 the Collection of Funds for a hospital at Dinajpur, and I hope 
 that this institution will soon be started. This is certainly a 
 good tale of progress for a single year as regards the creation 
 of women's hospitals. 
 
 Next, as to the number of ladies of different degrees of 
 skill and training, who are employed under the Dufferin Fund 
 in the treatment of women, our report is as follows : We have 
 one lady Doctor of the first class, who is in charge of the 
 Dufferin Hospital, Calcutta; of the second grade, those who 
 have taken the degree of Licentiates in medicine and surger}', 
 we have five at Bhagalpur, Darbhanga, Gya, Cuttack and 
 Chittagong; of the third grade, who correspond to hospital 
 assistants, we have only three, at Murshidabad, Burdwan and 
 Kamarhatti. In order to test how we stand in this respect, it 
 is well to compare ourselves with our sister province of the 
 North- West, the province in which this Society has received its 
 widest expansion, in so much that of the half million patients 
 of whom you have heard as recipients of medical relief during 
 the past year, about half belong to the North-Western Provin- 
 ces alone. Well, I find that in the North-West Provinces they 
 have one lady doctor of the first grade — the same number as 
 we have ; they have six of the second grade against our five ; 
 it is only in the third grade that they are much ahead of 
 us, having, I think, twelve or fifteen against our three. It 
 is clearly necessary for us to do all we can to diminish 
 this difference and to increase the number of our trained 
 and skilled lady doctors. This is, as Mr. Beverley and 
 Mr. Chentral Rao have already told you, the veiy root of 
 the matter for the Dufferin Society, and if we overcome this 
 diffjculty, we may rely on overcoming every other obstacle 
 that stands in our w^ay ; but it is a very real difficulty. We 
 have two excellent institutions at which these ladies are 
 trained. At the Medical College, there are 21 female students. 
 
xvi APPENDIX. 
 
 but Dr. Birch has not arranged his figures so as to show how 
 many of these are likely to pass out in the next or the follow- 
 ing year. Here the education is of the highest class, and every 
 effort should be strained to keep up the numbers of these 
 students. At the Campbell Medical School the education only 
 fits the students for the third or hospital assistant grade ; but this 
 is the grade of which as I have shewn, it is most important to 
 increase the numbers. Last year lo or ii young women passed 
 out, and when I last visited the school, Dr. Coull-IMackenzie 
 told me that all of these, except, I think, one, had obtained 
 employment, and that one has, I believe, received an appoint- 
 ment since then. But in the year that is now passing out there 
 is a lamentable falling off — the number is only four, so that 
 we have a very small reserve on which to fall back for filling 
 the new extensions we hope to make. I trust this decrease is 
 only temporary and accidental, as the numbers in the two lower 
 years are considerably larger, but I strongly feel that this is the 
 direction in which personal effort is most needed. I would urge 
 this on the influential gentlemen whom I see assembled here. 
 Many of you have large numbers of dependents, often here- 
 ditary followers, and if you can impress on them how desirable 
 a thing it is for their girls to take up this new opening in life 
 and to embrace the study of medicine; how useful they will be to 
 their country-women as well as how profitable the profession 
 will be to themselves, you will do more for the spread and suc- 
 cess of the Dufferin Society than were if you made the most 
 munificent contributions in money. Mr. Chentral Rao spoke 
 ■ of stirring up the District Boards and Municipalities to help in 
 this way. I am glad to say that they have shewn great readi- 
 ness to do it. A very large number of the Boards and IMuni- 
 cipalities have offered scholarships ; but in too many cases no 
 one has come forward to accept the offer. I am confid,ent, 
 however, that we need not despond and that is only a question 
 of time before public opinion becomes permeated without 
 object, and expresses itself distinctly on our side. I have kept 
 
APPENDIX xvii 
 
 for the last part of my speech the important question of 
 finance : and the remarks I have to make on this subject are 
 not so much intended for the present audience, which has the 
 printed report before it, but I make them in the hope that they 
 will be fully reported in the newspapers both English and Ver- 
 nacular, and will penetrate to the mofussil districts, as my 
 main object is to shew in what way I wish the Provincial 
 Branch to work, not for Calcutta alone, but for the mofussil. 
 It is with pride and pleasure that I announce that Bengal has 
 responded to the appeal which I ventured to make in this hall 
 last year in a way which has surpassed my most sanguine anti- 
 cipations. We have received this year Rs. 37,400 for the Build- 
 ing Fund of the DufEerin Hospital, and that project is now 
 in a secure position, and its extensions are almost completed ; 
 and we have raised Rs. 32,919, or say, Rs. 33,000 for the Gene- 
 ral Fund. You will say it is most unreasonable if I am not 
 altogether satisfied ; and indeed I am fully satisfied with the 
 amount collected, but not so much so with the composition of 
 the item. When we put aside sums that are ear-marked, like 
 the Rs. 10,000 given by my Mahomedan friend at Patna for the 
 women's hospital, or munificent gifts like the Rs. 10,000 of Mr. 
 Walter Thomson of Behea and the Rs. 5,000 of the Raja of 
 Khaira, which we cannot expect to be constantly repeated, 
 there remains only Rs 8,000 contributed by the general public. 
 Our expenditure, on the other hand, has been Rs. 1 4,000 this year, 
 and this is the normal and recurrent outlay on the Dufferin 
 Hospital and the Surnomoyi Hospital, which I do not see any 
 means of largely reducing. One item, indeed, there is which 
 might be reduced ; and I make a special point of mentioning 
 it, as I see the Chairman of the Calcutta Corporation present. 
 Last year it was remarked in more than one quarter that the 
 Rs. I, •200 per annum subscribed by the Corporation to the 
 Dufferin Hospital was, if not illiberal, at least not bounteous ; 
 but they have not thought fit to increase the figure. There, 
 however, is a charge of Rs. 881 for municipal taxes on the 
 2 
 
xvni APPENDIX. 
 
 Hospital Building ; and this is a charge from which I reaHy 
 think they might find it in their hearts to exempt so deserv- 
 ing a charity, I appeal to the Chairman and to any of the 
 Municipal Commissioners who may be present to take this 
 matter into consideration at an early meeting. 
 
 Now to resume. Our obligatory expenditure iS; as I 
 said, about Rs. 14,000 a year and I want to place that on a 
 firm basis. We receive about Rs. 5,000 a year from our in- 
 vested funds, and the balance, or Rs. 9,000, is an amount which 
 I make no doubt will be contributed year after year by public 
 charity. I should be very ungrateful for what has been done 
 and very wanting in reasonable confidence for the future if I 
 felt any want of security on this subject. 
 
 Even this very day I have received from two generous 
 residents of Calcutta, Messrs. Heeia Lai Johory and Gulal 
 Chand a contribution of Rs. 1,500 towards the funds of our 
 Society. But what I am extremely desirous to see are these 
 sums distributed over a wider basis and contributed not in 
 large gifts by a few wealthy persons, but in small amounts 
 by a great number of the well-to-do middle class. This year 
 for the first time, the Provincial Branch is able to announce 
 that it has received a promise of annual subscriptions of 
 Rs. 350 from 14 different people, and many of these sub- 
 scriptions are in amounts of Rs. iq and Rs. 12. This is what 
 I want to secure, and what I asked for — not subscriptions 
 of Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 but of Rs. 10 and Rs. 17 and Rs. 
 20 per annum. It is a great mistake, and a very common 
 Anglo-Indian mistake, to think that a subscription, if given 
 at all, must be a handsome one of Rs. 100 or Rs. 50; the 
 result is that many abstain from giving, and those who give 
 or obliged to give to a more restricted number of charities 
 than they would. I trust that we may receive this year i* large 
 influx of small annual sums, the promise of which will afford 
 security of a broad and permanent basis to this charity, an4 
 will justify us in carrying out the extensions we aim at. 
 
APPENDIX. xix 
 
 This brings me to the last point in my speech which 
 is this : say, that we get a permanent income from sub- 
 scriptions of Rs. 20,000 or Rs. 25,000, what do we intend to 
 do with it? Hitherto our energies have been absorbed in 
 starting the Dufferin Hospital in Calcutta, but it is obvious 
 that we must not be content to remain in this position. It 
 is the mofussil from which, to a large extent, we receive 
 subcriptions, and it is in the mofussil, which needs medical 
 skill and attendance far more than Calcutta with its magnificent 
 provision of hospitals and its abundance of doctors, that our 
 funds should chiefly be spent. The scheme which I intend to 
 propose to the Local Committee is that we should offer to pay 
 half the salary of a medical lady, up to, say, Rs. 30, in every 
 district, and should offer to pay half the cost of erecting a 
 women's ward, up to, say, Rs. 1,000, attached to the hospital at 
 the Head quarters of every district. When I said women's 
 ward I used the wrong word. It is not a ward that I contem- 
 plate, but a row of separate rooms suited to the secluded 
 habits of respectable women. We have made a great mistake 
 hitherto in several cases in Bengal by creating wards for 
 women on the same pattern as wards for men. No women 
 but the very poorest will be content to lie in beds six or eight 
 or ten together in a single ward. We must provide separate 
 quarters for them in which they can retain their privacy, 
 and can be visited and attended by their relatives, and I 
 am glad the Maharajah of Bettiah's Hospital is being con- 
 structed on this plan. It need not be an expensive plan : 
 indeed, it should be a less costly one than the construction of 
 wards on the usual system. In this way I hope that in a 
 few years, possibly even before I leave this country, I may 
 see a trained lady doctor and a suitable women's Branch 
 Hospital in every district of Bengal. This is the scheme 
 of co-operation with the mofussil which I hope the Provincial 
 Branch will be able to adopt, and this is the prospect of 
 pj^tension of the objects of the society which; I trust, we shall 
 
XX APPENDIX, 
 
 be able to hold out to our friends and supporters in the 
 country. When we have accomplished it we shall have given 
 the truest and most practical expression of our thanks to your 
 Excellency and Lady Lansdowne for the support and en- 
 couragement you have given to this most valuable charity. 
 We shall then be able to look this charming portrait of the 
 Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava in the face and say : " We 
 have realized your beneficent aspirations, and the ball which 
 you set rolling we have kept up and carried on to the goal 
 which you aimed at." 
 
 REPLY TO ADDRESSES AT BHAGALPUR, 
 APRIL, 1892. 
 His Honor said be begged to thank the assembled gentle- 
 men for the very kind and hearty manner in which, in the 
 addresses just read, they had welcomed him on this his 
 first arrival in the tov/n of Bhagalpur, and he wished to assure 
 them how sensible he was of the feelings of loyalty and 
 kindliness which had animated their addresses. He wished to 
 take this opportunity of expressing how mi.ich he regretted 
 the unforeseen accident of the previous night, by which they 
 had been caused the inconvenience of such a prolonged de- 
 tention at the railway station. Had there been any expectation 
 of such a possiblity, he would most certainly have telegraphed, 
 asking that no one might await his arrival. In three out 
 of four addresses reference had been made to the principal 
 object of the present tour, which was, too, the principal thought 
 in the minds of most people, and certainly of all those 
 who were in any way connected with land — the prospect 
 of scarcity and famine in this district. He was, therefore, 
 very glad to be able to reassure his hearers that he did not 
 consider the present state one necessitating alarm. He had 
 visited a considerable portion of the affected parts of the 
 district and a large number of the relief works, and had 
 
APPENDIX. xxi 
 
 not seen half-a-dozen persons, all told, who appeared to be 
 suffering from hunger, or who were to any degree emacia- 
 ted. The present stage appeared to be this, that there is food 
 in the country, and not at excessively high prices, but the 
 ordinary sources of agricultural employment for landless la- 
 bourers have closed up, and they are no longer able to earn 
 wages by working in the fields as the landlords and ryots 
 alike are unable to pay wages. These classes have, therefore, 
 to work on relief works in order to obtain money to buy 
 food, and the present problem is how to provide a suitable 
 and sufficient programme of such works. Most effectual 
 measures had been taken by Mr. Wace, the Collector, to 
 provide ample labour in all places where the people could 
 possibly require it Those works which had been started were 
 being carried out in a most reasonable and sagacious manner, 
 and His Honor wished to congratulate the district on their 
 good fortune in having such a Collector at such a time — a man 
 of such ability and sound judgment, as to know exactly how 
 far to start these relief works or where to limit or close them, 
 and yet avoid any possible harshness or severity. It was a 
 most difficult thing to decide the exact time when works 
 should be lessened or extended ; and the district was, indeed, 
 fortunate in having in Mr. Wace an officer of both ability, 
 earnestness, and previous experience of famine work. 
 
 His Honor said it afforded him great pleasure to be able to 
 announce that the Maharaja of Sonbursa, with his well-known 
 generosity, had offered to Government Rs. 10,000 to be ex- 
 pended on relief works on a road or any other work of utility 
 in the distressed tracts. Babu Janordhan Singh of Barail had 
 offered Rs. 900 for gratuitous relief in Supul. Rani Sitabati 
 offered Rs. 1,000 for the relief of widows and women who 
 could «iot appear in pubhc. He understood that the Raja 
 of Barwari intended making an offer, of which no doubt he 
 would soon make known the details. The Raja of Baneli 
 and Kumar Nityanand Singh had intimated their intention 
 
xxli APPENDIX. 
 
 of jointly undertaking some improvements on their estates, 
 which would serve as relief works, and cost Rs. 7,200. Babu 
 Ganpat Singh intended starting some similar work to the value 
 of Rs. 2,000. The Maharaja of Durbhunga had before him 
 as liberal a scheme of works as he carried out in 1889, but 
 no order had yet been given. This His Honor considered 
 a most laudable record of private liberality at a time when 
 most needed, and he begged to congratulate the different 
 donors on their public-spirited actions. 
 
 In the address from the Municipal Commissioners, the 
 remark that a ruler benefited by a knowledge of those he 
 ruled had afforded him pleasure, as it agreed so entirely 
 with his own views, and he was glad to find the District Board 
 has spoken in a very similar sense. His Honor said he 
 did not wish any one to think that tours through different parts 
 of the province were in any way prompted by the least distrust 
 of local officers or fear of being misled by them, but there 
 was such a great advantage in being able to enquire into 
 and discuss local requirements on the spot itself, where far 
 more information could be gained than from any number 
 of written reports. 
 
 A reference had been made to the filtered water-supply 
 which this town was fortunate enough to possess, and he 
 congratulated it on being one of the few towns in Bengal 
 which enjoyed such a benefit. He hoped, during his stay, 
 to be able to look into the municipal accounts, to see how 
 the funds were allotted and administered, as mention had been 
 made of the maintenance of the water-works being a heavy 
 charge on their resources. There was to be a new re-assess- 
 ment of the town, by which it was to be hoped a substantial 
 increase to their funds would be secured. Reference had been 
 made to a promise made by a landholder of the S.gnthal- 
 Parganas to present a large sum for the further extension of 
 the water-works, but His Honor said he feared he would be 
 hardly justified in entering into that question, as he knew none 
 
APPENDIX. xxiii 
 
 of the details and it was not one in which Government could 
 very well interfere. If any gentleman found himself unable to 
 carry out a promise which he had made, Government could 
 hardly compel him to do so; if he had changed his mind 
 in the matter, it was for the Commissioners to use what gentle 
 persuasion they could to lead him back to a better way of 
 thinking. Mention had been made of the long period during 
 which the municipal franchise had been enjoyed in Bhagalpur, 
 and it was satisfactory to find reason to believe that the power 
 had been exercised judiciously and well. The fact of having 
 to reply to addresses on a first arrival at a place, before there 
 had been time or opportunity to become acquainted with it, 
 was unfortunately unavoidable ; but His Honor hoped to be 
 able to see for himself how work had been carried on. 
 
 He noticed that in the address a hope had been expressed 
 that Local Self-Government would receive still further expan- 
 sion in his hands, but His Honor feared that what v/as really 
 in their minds was to deprecate any restriction rather than to 
 advocate the expansion of Local Self-Government, and that 
 reference was made to the Municipal Amendment Bill which 
 had received some adverse criticism from this point of view. 
 He could, however, assure his hearers that nothing was further 
 from the thoughts or wishes of Government, whose only 
 desire was to take such measures and to make such corrections 
 as would conduce to greater efficiency in the carrying on of 
 the work. Wherever it had occurred to himself or his advisers 
 that flaws existed, they proposed making small modifications 
 in the Act to empower Government to step in, and make small 
 changes without having to use the drastic measures which 
 under the Act were in its power, and the employment of which 
 would bring much discredit to any municipality. It was 
 certainly a much severer measure to abolish a municipality 
 than what was now proposed in the modification in the Bill 
 before Government. He would, however, assure them that 
 the proposed alterations had been circulated for general 
 
xxlv APPENDIX. 
 
 opinions and remarks, and that ail criticism would receive full 
 attention. 
 
 The District Board had referred to the heavy drain upon 
 their funds in connection with the famine, and trusted that 
 they would not be called upon to contribute to relief works a 
 larger sum than that which they had set aside for the purpose. 
 He found that they had provided about Rs. 35,000 for these 
 works, being the whole of their balance, and also what would 
 have otherwise been spent on original works. They had also 
 in their budget provided about Rs. 80,000 road repairs, and 
 much of this could be utilised if necessary. His Honor did 
 not think it likely that this provision would be insufficient, but 
 they appeared to have made a very full and excellent distribu- 
 tion. It certainly was not desirable that sums, which were 
 absolutely essential to the good administration of the district, 
 should be diverted to other purposes. The district was well 
 equipped with unmetalled roads, some of them relics of 1874, 
 and it would be a mistake were anything done that would 
 lessen the benefits they conferred. As far as one could foresee, 
 the present distress might continue, or possibly somewhat 
 increase, during the next two months, but with July the rains 
 should come, bringing with them labour in the fields and 
 wages, and in August they might expect to reap their new 
 crops. Should this be so, the present arrangements of the 
 District Board seemed ample. The District Board had rather 
 a tendency to speak of the funds as their own, as if they stood 
 apart from and could even be in opposition to Government; 
 but His Honor said he wished to remind them of the solidarity 
 that should exist between themselves and the Government. 
 He looked on the District Board as almost a Government 
 Department. They were a body of public-spirited gentlemen 
 who gave their voluntary assistance to Government and ^, had 
 public funds placed at their disposal ; but the funds actually 
 belonged to Government, and when they spoke of their propo- 
 sed allotments, they were in much the same position as Govern^ 
 
APPENDIX. XXV 
 
 ment when framing its budget. He could assure them that 
 the Provincial Government had been cut down by the Provin- 
 cial contract very severely, and that his position was that he 
 had just enough funds for necessaries but none for luxuries. 
 The Government, like them, had been obliged to withdraw 
 all superfluous grants from other objects to meet the expenses 
 of the present distress, and to cut down many items. It would 
 give him great satisfaction to assist the Board with Provincial 
 funds, or to recoup them their famine expenditure if he could ; 
 but in the present year at least, there was no chance of his 
 having any funds for this purpose. 
 
 Referring to the Mahommedan address, His Honor said 
 that he was glad to hear so much had been done for education, 
 and that a Madrassa had been instituted in a manner suited 
 to the requirements of the day in order that Mahommedan boys 
 might not fall behind the rest, and be able to hold their own 
 in competition. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, in the North-West 
 Provinces, had set them an example which but few could follow 
 closely, but which many now-a-days were striving to follow 
 to some extent ; and every effort made to establish and carry 
 on a system of education for Mahommedans on Mahommedan 
 principles was deserving of Government encouragement. The 
 Mahommedan gentlemen of Bhagalpur were to be congra- 
 tulated on what they were doing, and would receive such 
 assistance as was fair and just. The request for aid from the 
 Mohsin Fund seemed reasonable, and though the annual fixed 
 sum for grants-in-aid of Buildings had for this year been all 
 allotted, no doubt the Director of Public Instruction would be 
 willing to consider fully their claim when distributing the 
 grants for next year. 
 
 His Honor said he had kept till the last a reference to 
 the r,emark made by the residents of Bhagalpur, when in their 
 address they said : " We venture to express a hope that your 
 Honor will not proceed with the proposed cadastral survey, 
 involving an expenditure on the part of landlords and tenants 
 
Xxvl APPENDIX. 
 
 which they are alike unable to bear." Now, it was not very 
 clear whether this remark was intended to refer exclusively to 
 some possible extension of the cadastral survey to the District 
 of Bhagalpur, or to the work which is actually going on of the 
 survey in North Behar. There was no thought of extending 
 the survey to Bhagalpur at present, but His Honor hoped that 
 so soon as the cadastral survey of Behar had been brought to 
 a successful conclusion, and when the people came to see and 
 understand the enormous advantage that such a complete 
 record of rights conferred upon them, so far from requesting 
 that they might be delivered from it, they would in coming years 
 include in their addresses to his successor a request that the 
 cadastral survey of Bhagalpur might be begun at the earliest 
 possible date. Assuming, however, that the passage related 
 to Behar, and that they were speaking on behalf of their 
 friends and relations in that part of the country, His Honor 
 said he was glad to be able to take advantage of this oppor- 
 tunity to make a few remarks and explanations which he 
 hoped would tend to alay their alarm and anxiety. The 
 objection taken in the address rested on the ground of the 
 expenditure the survey would involve in the present season of 
 scarcity. It was to be hoped however, that the present distress 
 are but a temporary evil. No one could predict the future ; 
 but, on the other hand, no one had any valid grounds for 
 anticipating a failure in the coming monsoon ; and should all 
 go well, the present trouble would be as completely forgotten 
 next year as the pressure of 1889 was forgotten in 1891. 
 There was every reason to hope that a kind Providence 
 would not afflict the district beyond what it could bear; and 
 that, with the advent of good and seasonable rains, all fears of 
 further scarcity would pass away. So much for the special 
 objection as to the burden of expenditure being aggravated by 
 the present scarcity ; but there remained the general objection 
 that the survey would undoubtedly cost money, and he sym- 
 pathised with their general dislike to have expenditure throv/n 
 
APPENDIX. xxvn 
 
 upon them. In the address, however, mention had been made 
 of the fact that the cost would fall on both landlords and 
 tenants ; but as regarded the latter His Honor did not think 
 there was any need to feel much alarm. As matters stood 
 at the present moment, any ryot who had to defend a rent suit 
 was, sure, first of all, to go to the Collector's cutchery, and 
 there to pay one rupee for a copy of an extract from the 
 Patwari's Jamabandi, which was absolutely of no validity 
 whatsoever, and would not be accepted as evidence in any 
 court. When, however, the proposed survey had been com- 
 pleted, the average ryot would be charged a rupee or there- 
 abouts for a trustworthy and valid statement showing the area, 
 the rent and the number of his fields, and all the incidents of 
 his tenure, and for all this he would pay exactly the same 
 amount as he now had to pay for a document that was per- 
 fectly worthless. He was quite sure that any ryots who 
 understood the facts would willingly offer ten times what the 
 survey would cost him, for the sake of the security of the 
 record. He had quite lately had an example of this brought 
 to his notice, in the case of a gentleman in this district, Mr. 
 Hirsch Christian, who holds a ryots tenure in the Baneli- 
 Srinagar Estate, of which a survey and record of rights had 
 lately been carried out by the Court of Wards. That gentle- 
 man had informed him that he set the highest value on the 
 record he had secured and that he considered that the survey 
 had been the greatest blessing which could have been con- 
 ferred upon the estate. 
 
 The case of landholders no doubt was somewhat different, 
 and those who owned large tracts of land would have large 
 sums to pay. All that Government could and would do was 
 to try their best to diminish, as far as possible, the disagree- 
 able burden of payment, by spreading it out over a number of 
 years, and to further offer them the assurance that this survey 
 would be to their clear and certain advantage, which, when 
 they had realized and come to understand in its true working. 
 
xxviii APPENDIX. 
 
 would be accepted by them as even more than an equivalent 
 for any expenditure it might have entailed. His Honor said 
 that his hearers might possibly have noticed the speech he 
 made at the last meeting of the Supreme Legislative Council 
 in Calcutta last month, in connection with the Court of Ward's 
 Bill. He had undertaken there to do all he could to secure 
 for the landlords, in whose estates a cadastral survey had been 
 carried out, a short and summary procedure for the recovery 
 of arrears of rent. When there was no longer any dispute as 
 to whether a man was a tenant or not, and as to what his rent 
 was but only as to how much he had paid and how much was 
 in arrears, he was sure that the summary powers for dealing with 
 such cases which are provided for in the Tenancy Act might 
 fairly be utilised ; and he was in hopes that a shorter proce- 
 dure, even, might be allowed, corresponding to the power of 
 Government under the Certificate Act. 
 
 There was another suggestion for the relief of Zemindars 
 under consideration, concerning which no definite promise 
 could be made beyond the fact that he was favorably disposed 
 towards the scheme of abolishing patwaris if it could be 
 done with safety. The suggestion was that there should not 
 be any Government servant retained as accountant in a village, 
 but only the landlord's own accountant, provided security 
 could be given that the accountant, should be competent, and 
 that the landlord would keep up the record of rights in a com- 
 pletely correct condition by entering mutations or other neces- 
 sary alterations. As it was, his audience knew that at present 
 all alterations in the register of the names and shares of the 
 proprietors were supposed to be carried on by a self-acting 
 system, and there was a penalty prescribed for any omission to 
 register alterations. It was reasonable to think that a similar 
 procedure could be devised for securing the correction of ♦^he 
 Khatians and jfamabandts, and the maintenance of the record 
 of rights from year to year ; and if this were provided, it was 
 quite possible that Government would agree to the abolition 
 
APPENDIX. xxix 
 
 of \.h.Q pahvari, who is undoubtedly an object of suspicion and 
 dislike to the landlords, and an interminable element of 
 discord. 
 
 Although no reference had been made to it in any of the 
 addresses, there was, another point on which he w'ould like 
 to make, a few remarks, as he had reason to believe it was one 
 of the chief causes of alarm in connection with the proposed 
 survey specially among the Zemindars, and that was the great 
 expense Hkely to be incurred on account of the bribes taken 
 and illegal demands that might be made by unscrupulous 
 Amins. It was needless to say that one who had been so long 
 in this country as he himself had been, and had seen so 
 much of the manners and customs of the lower orders of 
 such people, w^as not prepared to deny the possibility of such 
 demands being made or was ready to undertake the defence 
 of Amins ; but though it were impossible to trust to the 
 absolute integrity of these officials, it was both possible and 
 sufficient to rely on the constant supervision and inspection 
 of their \vork by superior officers with the aid of scientific 
 mathematical instruments. The fears of the malpractices of 
 these Amins were, in fact, due in great part to ignorance of the 
 system to be pursued, and when once the survey was well 
 started and its modus operandi understood, it would very 
 easily be seen that such alarm was quite unnecessary. The 
 measures which it was proposed to adopt were that as the 
 Amin went on with his work, measuring and recording in his 
 record, say, about thirty members a day, he should give to the 
 holder of each field a " parcha " or slip showing exactly what 
 had been recorded. This the ryot would take away with 
 him and discuss at his leisure, and at once see whether there 
 was any mistake in the record. During this work it would be 
 qi-jite unnecessary for the Zemindar to detail any person to 
 keep a special w^atch over the Amins. Everything recorded 
 would thus be brought to light, and its accuracy would be 
 challenged and tested at once ; so where would be the use of 
 
XXX APPENDIX. 
 
 an Amin making any false entry ? When this work had been 
 completed for a block of villages, the attestation-officer would 
 come round, who would be either a covenanted officer, such as 
 an Assistant or Joint-Magistrate or else a Deputy Collector. 
 He would fix a certain day for the attestation of the khatian, 
 and have up all the villagers before him, and read out the 
 record which concerned each in turn, enquiring before all 
 the assembled crowd if there was any mistake ; and thus the 
 examination would be easily completed. At this point only 
 would it be necessary for the Zemindar to have some trust- 
 worthy agent present, able to offer any necessary explana- 
 tions to the attesting officer, or to assist in settling errors 
 and disputes, and to protect the Zemindar's interests. He 
 hoped that those present, who were connected with Behar, 
 would explain this method of procedure to their friends, and 
 that they would see how impossible it would be for an Amin to 
 make false entries undetected, and how useless for any one to 
 offer him bribes and to submit to any illegal demands on his part. 
 He trusted what he had said to-day would be of some 
 efficacy, both as removing the alarm felt by Zemindars about 
 the results of the unknown operations of the survey, and also 
 as disclosing to them what had to be set on the other side of 
 the account, as advantages which would, accrue to them in 
 consequence of the survey. He would further observe that a 
 conference had lately been held at Muzaffarpur, at which the 
 Director of Surveys, Colonel Sandeman, and the Commis- 
 sioner, Mr. Lyall, had met a large number of Zemindars and 
 Indigo-planters ; and though he had not received an official 
 report of the proceedings, he hj),d reason to believe that the 
 explanations offered had been favorably received and had 
 done much good. In any case he was sure that in Colonel 
 Sandeman they would find an officer of great experience g^nd 
 skill, and one who was most anxious to make the survey go 
 smoothly, and to meet all reasonable wishes of the parties 
 concerned. 
 
APPENDIX. xxxi 
 
 REPLY TO ADDRESSES FROM THE PEOPLE OF 
 GAYA, OCT., 1892. 
 His Honor, replying to both these addresses, said that he 
 thanked the members of the Municipal Committee of Gaya, 
 and of the District Board, and the gentlemen representing 
 the residents of the town, very sincerely for the excellent 
 sentiments which animated the addresses just read to him. 
 He cordially reciprocated the feelings expressed in the muni- 
 cipal address, that visits like this must benefit both the people 
 and the Government by making them better acquainted with 
 each other and establishing loyal and friendly regard. From 
 visits of this kind a great and decided advantage was to be 
 gained, for they tended to increase his interest in their wants, 
 and he felt growing in his mind the value of an acquaintance 
 with those with whom he had never before been brought into 
 close contact. He had heard with great pleasure the assur-. 
 ance that the municipality had cleared away the load of debt 
 by which they had so long been hampered in their efforts in 
 the cause of improvement; and now that they would have 
 a surplus at their disposal, he trusted that the time had come 
 when they would be able to take in hand many useful works, 
 and that they would be in a position to carry out their inten-. 
 tions of supplying the town with wholesome fresh water. He 
 was glad to find that they had determined to do so, because 
 the question of supplying the inhabitants wath pure water was 
 of the highest importance, and he trusted that the scheme 
 which was being drawn up by one of his ablest Engineers 
 would be a good one, and at the same time not too expensive. 
 He would try to assist them by granting them a loan to 
 enable them to carry out the work, and the interest would in 
 that case be much less than if they obtained the money from 
 any» other source. There was one point to which His Honor 
 wished to draw special attention, and it was that when, during 
 the Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, municipalities were relieved 
 of the charges for maintaining the police, it was distinctly laicl 
 
xxxii APPENDIX. 
 
 down, as part of the contract that the sums thus released 
 should be devoted to the cause of education and to sanitary 
 reforms for the public good. Now at Gaya this contract had 
 been quite ignored, and the reason invariably set forth was 
 the want of funds and indebtedness of the municipality. 
 This excuse no longer existed, and His Honor trusted that in 
 future they would see their way to spending more money on 
 that most important object, and they would fulfil the direct 
 contract which they had made. He would draw their special 
 attention to the importance of primary education in the town. 
 He had some figures here that would astonish them. The 
 boys of a school-going age here amounted to six thousand, 
 but the number of children at present in their schools was 
 only one thousand boys and twenty girls. This fell very 
 considerably below what he expected of them. If they 
 wished to stand their ground in the race, they would do well 
 to remember the great advance Bengal v/as making in its 
 desire for education. It was not desirable that their girls and 
 boys, their boys especially, should be allowed to grow up in 
 darkness and ignorance. The sum that the municipality had 
 expended on education was only two hundred and seventy- 
 nine rupees, and this was even less than they had expended 
 the year before. He sincerely trusted that the next time he 
 received their municipal report they would have remedied this 
 defect, and that he would find better provision had been made 
 for primary education. 
 
 With regard to medical treatment Gaya stood very well, 
 and especially so with regard to the treatment of female 
 patients. They had done an excellent thing in creating a 
 female ward, for the control of which the Dufferin Fund had 
 placed at their disposal a lady doctor, who was, he trusted, 
 acceptable to the ladies of their households, and under wtose 
 care he had no doubt it would become more and more useful. 
 He was very glad to hear that funds had been collected for 
 building a female hospital to enable ladies of good families 
 
APPENDIX. xxxiii 
 
 to enjoy the benefits of medical treatment in seclusion and 
 primacy, without which their hereditary customs and pre- 
 judices would make them shrink from any such institution. 
 
 The Municipality in their address had lightly touched 
 upon the main subject of the address of the Reconciliation 
 Committee — he meant the melancholy and regretable cir- 
 cumstance which the recent riot sprang up. He was extreme- 
 ly glad to find that it was not a premeditated aftair, and that 
 it did not occur with the knowledge of the leaders ^of society 
 in their town, but that it was owing to the passions of the 
 lower classes. They were fully aware — and he hardly needed 
 to impress upon them — that a blow would have been struck 
 to the prosperity of Gaya and the whole province, if that 
 riot had been allowed to continue, and that possibly their 
 streets would have been bathed in the blood of their fellow 
 citizens. He was extremely glad to find that the riot was 
 nipped in the bud by the wisdom and prudence of the lead- 
 ing men among them. This was just what one should expect 
 from them, and it was the heart and soul of the great prin- 
 ciple of Local Self-Government which Lord Ripon had done 
 so much for, and which had taken such a firm root in the 
 country. It had no more valuable and no more real develop- 
 ment than that which was shown when the leading men of the 
 place came to the front and took the position which their 
 social standing, wealth, and their education justified them in. 
 taking, and put down any attempt, on the part of the lower 
 classes to create a disturbance. He, as head of the province 
 and as representative of the Government, congratulated them 
 in having among them such men as rose up on this occasion 
 and he offered his thanks to the gentlemen who distinguished 
 themselves. There were many who, he understood, assisted 
 the magistrate on this occasion, but he wished to give special 
 attention to the names of Moulvi Syed Mahomed Abu Saleh, Mr. 
 Abdul Halim and Mirza Dost Mahomed as representatives of 
 the Mahomedan community. Among the Hindu gentlemen he 
 3 
 
xxxiv APPENDIX, 
 
 wished especially to thank on the part of Government the Raja 
 of Maksudpor, Babu Ramanugreh Narayan Singh, the Deputy 
 Magistrate, Babu Ambica Prasad, Rai Rainarayan Singh^, 
 Baijnath Singh, Babu Chota Lai Sijwar, and Babu Haldeo Lai. 
 These gentlemen, he understood, had done no little 
 service to the Government and the town. He thanked them 
 on the part of Government, and he trusted that the people of 
 Gaya would thank them on the part of the town for preserv- 
 ing them from that stain which would have been hard to wipe 
 away and he also trusted that the feeling of reconciliation 
 which they expressed before him was a true and a general 
 one. He had received petitions from a small party of foolish 
 and discontented people asserting that the reconciliation was 
 unreal, but this he refused to believe. These petitions of a 
 few malcontents did not carry any weight with him, and he 
 did not intend to take any notice of them, but to treat them 
 as they deser\ed to be treated. He accepted the tribute they 
 intended to pay to Mr. Grierson, and he on behalf of the 
 Government wished also to thank him for the wisdom and 
 temperate manner in which he had quelled the discord. He 
 had also heard that Messrs. Lang and Pritchard had given 
 material assistance. As they were young officers, his hearers 
 would closely watch their future career, and if they rose to 
 positions of eminence, the gentlemen here assembled would 
 be able to say that these young men had received their first 
 lesson in Government among them in Gaya. With regard to 
 the well which they wished to sink in recognition of Mr. 
 Grierson's conduct on this occasion, and to call by his name, 
 he was glad to grant them permission to do so, and sincerely 
 trusted that the water of this well would be used to wash 
 away all unkindly feelings among themselves. 
 
 REPLY TO ADDRESSES AT DINAJPORE, APRIL, 1892. 
 
 His Honor thanked those present sincerely for the very 
 
 kind and hearty addresses with which they had been good 
 
APPENDIX. XXXV 
 
 enough to greet him on this the occasion of his first visit to 
 the town of Dinajpur, and he fully reciprocated the wishes 
 expressed by them that the visit might leave nothing but plea- 
 surable recollections. Certainly the general effect of bringing 
 a ruler and those under his care into closer association tended 
 towards better mutual understanding, and to a more hearty 
 co-operation in matters which they equally had at heart ; 
 and he hoped that, although the present visit was to be of 
 necessity but a short one it would none the less have this 
 desirable effect. The chief question touched on in the address 
 presented by the zemindars was that of the scarcity which 
 unfortunately prevailed in some parts of the district, and His 
 Honor said he was glad to be assured that the measures which 
 had been taken to cope with it were considered to be both 
 sufficient and effective. The district was very fortunate in 
 having for its Magistrate, an officer who, though not recently 
 appointed, had been in Dinajpur in former times, and was 
 therefore acquainted with the locality and its requirements. 
 It was a most difficult matter in times like the present to be 
 able to calculate how far scarcity pressed upon the poorer 
 people and t^xed their resources. With his accurate know- 
 ledge of the district in other and more prosperous times, Mr. 
 Tute was able to contrast the normal state of things with what 
 he now saw, and was, therefore, able to form a correct judg- 
 ment as to its present condition and requirements. In the 
 Commissioner too, the district was fortunate in possessing 
 an officer who had long served under the Government, and 
 had for years been the Secretary in that department in which 
 the management of famine operations lay, and who, therefore, 
 was thoroughly conversant with the principles which under- 
 lie the famine Code and with the views and intentions of both 
 the lotal Government and the Government of India. It was 
 satisfactory to learn that what was being and would be done 
 sufficed to meet any distress there was among those people 
 who lived chiefly by labouring on the lands, but who, owing to 
 
xxxvi APPENDIX, 
 
 the failure of the rains and consequent scarcity, had not been 
 able to get the labour that was usually in demand by zemin- 
 dars and landholders generally, and who, in consequence, had 
 been obliged to seek employment on such works as Govern- 
 ment had opened in order to obtain the wherewithal to supply 
 their daily food. The numbers shown in the returns as being 
 on relief works was rather large, but Mr. Tute had explained 
 that many of the works on which the people were employed 
 were not relief works in the proper sense of the word, but 
 were works which the District Board would, under any circum- 
 stances, have carried out, and had so arranged as to meet 
 the present demand for work and to a certain extent to derive 
 benefit to themselves by getting their works carried out at a 
 comparatively cheap rate. 
 
 This led him to the remark in the address from the Dis- 
 trict Board about the difficulty that had been experienced in 
 apportioning the sums that were available to the sums that 
 were required for different works. They mentioned that the 
 necessity for providing relief had proved a very severe strain 
 on their resources, and might result in injury to their roads 
 and other works. Possibly that might be true, but it had to 
 be remembered that it was the first duty both of Government 
 and of all District Boards who were the agents or hands of 
 Government to consider which of their requirements were the 
 most pressing, and to allot their funds accordingly. Nothing, 
 his Honor said, had been borne more upon him than the great 
 necessity of providing suitable buildings, more especially in 
 Eastern Bengal, for Munsifs and other similar officers of Gov. 
 ernment, and he had fully intended this year to give one lakh 
 over and above the usual building grant for the purpose. 
 Scarcity, however, had come upon the land and had neces- 
 sitated the diversion of this money to another still 'more 
 pressing purpose. The District Board were very much in the 
 same position, and had been obliged to divert a certain por- 
 tion of their funds in order to benefit the class of people 
 
APPENDIX. xxxvli 
 
 requiring labour by providing work upon the roads. This 
 merely meant the postponement of some original works. No 
 doubt it was very disappointing, but it had perhaps one advan- 
 tage in teaching them the virtue of patience under circumstan- 
 ces beyond their control, and they might very well say to 
 themselves that though they had been unable to carry out their 
 good intentions this year, they would at any rate do so next 
 year. 
 
 Both the District Board and Municipal addresses had 
 referred to the construction of a female hospital and to work 
 being in a forward condition, and his Honor said he had just 
 had great pleasure in seeing what had been done, and con- 
 gratulated them heartily on what they had undertaken, planned, 
 and commenced. He had often started on previous occasions 
 his opinion that the plans on which female hospitals in many 
 places had been constructed were not on a system quite 
 appropriate to the requirements of the customs of this coun- 
 try. In Calcutta and many other places large female wards 
 had been built on the very same principle as those provided 
 for men, and this was contrary to the very essence of the 
 treatment necessary in the case of women, for even though 
 all males might be rigorously excluded from any portion of 
 the buildings, it was repugnant to the feelings of women of 
 the upper and middle classes to be in a large ward where there 
 might be several others at the same time. The plan of the 
 building which was being erected here was excellent and it 
 was greatly to be hoped that the ladies of the place would 
 soon learn to take advantage of the benefits it conferred, for 
 they might be assured that they would have perfect privacy 
 and that there would be nothing that could in any way shock 
 their sense of modesty. Dinajpur was much to be congratu- 
 lated, on being the first large town in Bengal that had adopted 
 this right principle of construction. 
 
 Next as regarded the question of education. The Muni- 
 cipal Commissioners had started in their address that the cos 
 
xxxviii APPENDIX. 
 
 of erecting a house for their model school, by which he under- 
 stood that they meant a middle Vernacular School, had been 
 so great that they had not been able to do much for primary 
 education. This excuse would be accepted for the past year, 
 but in future years it was to be hoped that the Commissioners 
 would awake to the absolute importance of devoting funds 
 to this most necessary work. Next to the two great require- 
 ments of good drinking water and efficient sanitation to 
 ensure the health of the body, no duly was so incumbent on 
 a Municipality as to provide sufficient opportunities for primary 
 education. Here there were some 1,830 boys of a school- 
 going age, and till very lately there was not one single primary 
 school supported by the Municipality. This meant that their 
 boys were being subjected to a very great drawback, and 
 would be at a great disadvantage when in the great battle of 
 life they had to compete with boys of other districts who had 
 not been so unfortunately circumstanced. His Honor hoped 
 the Commissioner would very soon see their way to altering 
 this state of affairs. He was glad to see that one pathshala 
 had recently been started but it would be necessary to start 
 a good many more before they could consider the town to be 
 in a satisfactory condition. Luckily primary education was 
 very cheap, and sufficient provisions for their 1,830 boys could 
 easily be supplied for less than one thousand rupees, so the 
 cost of the measure was not really heavy for the resources of 
 any Municipality who had the least pretensions to managing 
 their finances well. 
 
 His Honor then came to the important question of the 
 position of the Municipal Committee. In their address they 
 had mentioned that the past year was the first in which they 
 had enjoyed the full privileges of local self-government, so 
 far as that existed in electing their own Chairman and .Vice- 
 Chairman. For the six previous years their Chairman and 
 Vice-Chairman had been official, but during the past year 
 both had been non-official. Their Chairman was a noble- 
 
APPENDIX. xxxix 
 
 man of the town and a man of great liberality who had done 
 a great deal by his contribution towards local drainage, and 
 who as head of the local society was a most fitting person 
 for the post. The Vice-Chairman was an able but perhaps 
 somewhat too busy pleader of the town. Well, what had the 
 results of these elections been ? The Commissioners had in 
 the address spoken with becoming modesty of their doings. 
 They had said : " We regret to see that the Public Auditor has 
 made an unfavourable report of this IMunicipality. We are 
 sensible of the mistakes pointed out, and have applied for the 
 services of an Auditor to put our accounts straight and to 
 start afresh on a sound basis. We also intend to increase 
 and reform our collecting staff, and have also taken measures 
 to put our assessments on a proper footing under the guidance 
 of our Magistrate." These sentiments were so excellent and 
 so wise that it was difficult to say anything severe of the 
 occurrence which had led to their necessity. He was most 
 unwilling to use such an occasion as this — an occasion of 
 friendly and cordial meeting, when the loyalty to Government 
 which inspired them all found its expression in a cordial 
 address to himself, which gave him sincere pleasure — for 
 uttering any words of censure or reproof, and still more so 
 when they had disarmed him by the cordial confession that 
 they were alive to their own shortcomings. But, still, as a 
 matter of history, for their own instruction as to the lesson to 
 be learned from the past, as well as for the future guidance of 
 other Municipalities in Bengal, it would not be wise to pass 
 over too lightly the errors and failures of the past year's 
 experiment. When local self-government was first instituted 
 in the time of Lord Ripon, it was started with the full con- 
 sciousness that mistakes would occur, for everyone in the 
 world made mistakes, but it was also started in the belief that 
 the experience which would be gained through these very 
 mistakes would result in producing such experience and 
 political training and knowledge of the art of Government 
 
xl APPENDIX, 
 
 as would more than counterbalance any evil results. The 
 Magistrate, Mr. Tute, had made a most careful inspection of 
 the Municipality and its official records, and in his report had 
 pointed out how the Municipal finance, sanitary conditions, 
 and othei: matters had not merely fallen into arrears, but had 
 actuaHy gone back. He had pointed out how many sanitary 
 improvements had been actually abolished and insanitation 
 permitted to start afresh ; how the Commissioners had decid- 
 ed that private tanks could not be cleaned out without a 
 separate report for each and instructions as to the method of 
 doing it from the Civil Medical Officer. 
 
 As these or similar tanks had existed and been cleaned 
 for hundreds of years, surely such advice and instruction as 
 how to do the work were unnecessary. The assessment of 
 the town had been left in a most irregular condition, and the 
 collections had fallen so much into arrear that at the end of 
 the past year there was an uncollected balance of over Rs. 
 6,000. In the previous year when the Chairman had been a 
 Government official, the total arrears had been some Rs. 1,100 
 only. Of course it was impossible to prevent having some 
 arrears, owing to deaths, departures, and so forth, but the 
 amount this year had been so large that it was satisfactory to 
 find the Commissioners had recognised the error of their ways, 
 and had resolved to take such steps that in future no such 
 blame could be laid at their doors. Again, they had made 
 an unfortunate mistake as regards the loan for the drainage of 
 the town which had been provided, but which the Commis- 
 sioners had resolved not to take up. They had recently 
 changed their minds and applied for the loan, and His Honor 
 had been compelled to reply that, as the whole sum provided 
 in the budget for such loans had now been allotted, it was 
 impossible to grant the request in the current year. This 
 misfortune was due to their own procrastination, but it might 
 have the advantage of saving them from the results of procras- 
 tination on future occasions. This spirit in which their 
 
APPENDIX xli 
 
 address had concluded was a very right and proper one, and 
 it was very certain that with the assistance of Mr. Tute they 
 would be able in future to avoid similar mistakes, and would 
 experience but little difficulty in wiping off their arrears. 
 
 Reverting to the address of the District Board, His Honor 
 mentioned the request that the Government would forego the 
 interest due on the instalment of Rs. 40,000 for this year of 
 the loan of two lakhs which had been taken up for permanent 
 improvements. This instalment, they said, had been put 
 aside and was not to be utilised for fear of necessity arising for 
 meeting the expense of further relief works. His Honor said 
 he had had no opportunity of consulting the Financial Depart- 
 ment, but he was pretty certain that if they had drawn the 
 advance from the Treasury, they could be allowed to refund 
 it, and if it had not already been drawn there was no necessity 
 for taking it this year, and in either case the charge for inter- 
 est could be remitted. His Honor then concluded by again 
 thanking those present for their friendly welcome, and assuring 
 them how real a pleasure it had been to him to make their 
 acquaintance. 
 
 REPLY TO ADDRESSES FROM INHABITANTS OF 
 THE DISTRICT OF PURL 
 " I have to thank you for the address of welcome you have 
 just read, and for the kind manner in which you have greeted 
 me on my arrival in this place. I must, however, confess to 
 a feeling of regret that the terms in which I am about to 
 reply are not of the kind one likes to employ on an occa- 
 sion like the present, when the Municipal Commissioners are 
 assembled to meet their Lieutenant-Governor; when they 
 ordinarily have a report of good work and progress to present ; 
 and when it is the natural result of such a meeting that all 
 should afterwards separate with an increased regard for each 
 other. The present, however, is an occasion on which, while 
 wishing to treat you with the utmost courtesy, I should be 
 
xlii APPENDIX. 
 
 failing in my duty, both to Government and to yourselves, 
 were I not to explain in what way you have omitted to carry 
 out your duties, and to point out to your shortcomings. I 
 fully appreciate what you have said as regards the unusual 
 difficulties with which you have to contend, and I admit that it 
 must be often hard to carry out certain works in such a 
 manner as not to offend the religious prejudices or principles 
 of the people whom you represent. It would neither be right 
 for you to offend those prejudices, nor for the Government 
 even to ask you to do sO, but there are many matters connect- 
 ed with good administration and sanitation, into which the 
 question of religious prejudice does not in any way enter, and 
 I would invite you to take much more active steps in these 
 matters than you have hitherto been in the habit of doing. In 
 the first place, you put forward the plea of poverty as an excuse 
 for the present state of affairs, and say that, when the Lodging 
 House Fund raises its contribution from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 6, coo, 
 supplemented by a possible grant of Rs. 2,000 from the Dis- 
 trict Board you hope to be able to carry out great improve- 
 ments ; but I wish to draw your particular attention to the 
 amount of income which is already yours, and which you 
 do not even take the trouble to coU'ect. During the three- 
 quarters which have elapsed of the year 1891, the demand on 
 account of latrine-tdx, house-tax and land-rent amounted to 
 the sum of Rs. 28,000, but you only collected Rs. 14,500, or 
 very little over half the amount due to you. Now what is the 
 use of your talking of the works you are going to do with an 
 increased grant of Rs. 4,000 from other sources when you 
 do not take the trouble to collect Rs. 13,500 of the funds to 
 which you are already entitled ? These remarks refer to the 
 income which you are entitled to collect. But that income 
 ought to be increased. The present assessment of the tgwn 
 was settled in 1888, and in the year 1891 the time came round 
 for a new assessment, when, very correctly, you divided up 
 the town into different portions, and allotted one to every two 
 
APPENDIX. xliii 
 
 Commissioners, telling them to draw out lists of houses and to 
 visit and assess them according to their true value. But 
 having done this you did no more; the work was never 
 carried out, and I am told that up to the present day not 
 one single Commissioner has ever given in his record of 
 re-assessment." 
 
 " Regarding the expenditure of the funds you have actually 
 received, I do not feel called on to make very unfavorable 
 remarks on the manner of its distribution. On education, 
 however, I find you spend almost nothing ; nothing is done 
 for vaccination, and for registration but very little, your funds 
 are limited, it is true, and I admit that the conservancy and 
 cleaning of the roads necessitated by the great traffic caused 
 by pilgrimages require an unusually large part of your avail- 
 able means ; but it is necessary to point out to you how 
 serious the results of these limitations are. You have hitherto 
 only afforded a little aid to one Middle Vernacular School and 
 one Girls' School, and you have recently promised the Magis- 
 trate to open some Primary Schools. What I would urge 
 upon you is, that sufficient opp'ortunities for primary education 
 should be afforded for all boys of a school-going age, to 
 enable them to receive sufficient education to hold their own 
 in competition with the boys of other parts of Bengal. It 
 seems to be a freely admitted fact among you all, that Orissa 
 is very backward in the matter of education, and yet you have 
 hitherto done almost nothing towards affording your boys 
 improved facilities for acquiring education. Personally I 
 should be very glad to find every office in Orissa filled with 
 Urya officials, and I am sure that Mr. Toynbee, the Commis- 
 sioner, agrees with me ; but of course. Government are bound 
 to accept the best candidate they can get. If a Bengali and 
 an ,Urya candidate of nearly equal qualifications come for- 
 ward, there is no doubt, but that the latter will be taken ; but 
 if the Bengali shows decided superiority, then, of course. 
 Government is bound to accept him. I wish you, therefore. 
 
xliv APPENDIX. 
 
 to very seriously consider this question of providing larger 
 means of education." 
 
 "I have been speaking so far of the amount of money 
 which you have spent; but now I would like just to look into 
 the question whether it is well and judiciously spent. About 
 48 per cent, of your funds have been laid out on conservancy 
 and road cleaning ; but has all that might have been done 
 with this money been actually done ? Going through your 
 town yesterday and to-day, I have found that most houses have 
 cesspools which open on and discharge into the street. Such 
 a filthy state of things I have seen in no other town in Bengal, 
 and it is very certain there can be no possible offence to reli- 
 gious principles in altering this. The conservancy arrange- 
 ments are at present of the poorest and most offensive type 
 and the cesspools could be easily arranged to discharge their 
 contents into reservoirs at the back of the houses instead of on 
 to the street front. Most of your houses seem to be well and 
 strongly built, standing on well-raised stone plinths, and you 
 have therefore every element for a good drainage system, and 
 yet the present state of things exists. The cost of these 
 charges ought not to fall upon the Municipality, but they 
 should be carried out at the expense of the owners of the 
 houses. Then, again, the state of the public burial-ground 
 for paupers has been described as horrible. Your Magistrate 
 Mr. Allen, very rightly recommended you to build a burning 
 place, and you erected a good Chahiitra (platform) with sur- 
 rounding walls for cremation ; but as soon as the Magistrate 
 went away on leave and turned his back, you turned yours 
 also, and permitted the Chabutra to fall into disuse and 
 disrepair. Now this sort of conduct is neither creditable 
 to you nor to that system of local self-Government which has, 
 perhaps, the reputation of being more flourishing and be;tter 
 appreciated in Bengal than in any other part of India. The 
 next question is that of the four great sacred tanks in the 
 town. Some of them are very fine, but at the same time the 
 
APPENDIX. ^1^. 
 
 water in them must be very unwholesome, and there can be 
 very little doubt but that they are a great source of disease 
 among the large number of pilgrims who come to them. It 
 is very certain that something must be done to cleanse these 
 large sacred tanks. The tank, which is the most sacred of 
 all, called the Setgunga tank, is in the very midst of your 
 houses, and as it is very deep and the water level is very low, 
 it is therefore very foul, indeed ; and yet the Municipal Com- 
 missioners do not seem even to have thought out any plan for 
 cleaning it. Recently, during a visit to Gya, I came across 
 just such another deep and foul tank surrounded by houses, 
 but when it was pointed out to him, the Mohant at once 
 promised to have it dewatered and cleaned out, and made no 
 difficulty about the matter. Surely what was possible in Gya 
 must be equally so here. It would be very gratifying, therefore, 
 to hear that some wealthy Mohant or other gentleman had 
 come forward and undertaken to do the work. If, however, 
 this should not happen, the Municipality must do it them- 
 selves, and if they raise objections to the work, then Govern- 
 ment must enforce it. It seems to me that the best and only 
 method of cleansing and keeping the tank clean will be to 
 put in some sort of pucca flooring, and to repair the masonary 
 sides, so as to prevent any drainage entering the tank, and to 
 have the water changed at least once a year." 
 
 "And, now, gentlemen, having drawn your attention to 
 these matters, I must tell you that I have been very seriously 
 considering what steps it will be necessary for the Government 
 to take. The one course open under the present Municipal 
 Act is to issue an order, under section 64, and if it is not 
 obeyed, then under Sections 65 and 66 to suspend the Muni- 
 cipality ; but this would have entailed great discredit on all 
 concerned, and undoubtedly the vernacular papers would have 
 taken up the subject and pointed at Puri the finger of scorn. 
 But another course will very shortly be opened, for in an amend- 
 ed^ Municipal Bill, which is now being considered, there is a 
 
xlvi APPENDIX. 
 
 proposal that Government should have power to put a Munici- 
 pality into Schedule 2. There are already some municipalities 
 under this schedule, but by some unfortunate oversight such 
 a rule as is now being proposed was omitted in the original 
 Act. I am anxious specially to draw your attention to this 
 amending Bill, because I see that an agitation is being got up 
 against it and people are saying that I am aiming a blow at 
 Local Self-Government, and instituting a retrograde measure. 
 This is a complete mistake, and the working of the Municipal 
 law in Puri is a good example of the benefit which my pro- 
 posed amendment will do. Instead of passing an order which 
 will convey a direct and severe censure, a milder policy will be 
 opened. When this amendment has been passed, Government 
 will have the power to order any Municipality to be placed in 
 the second schedule, and will then be able to order the 
 Chairman to be a Government official, and to see that work is 
 properly carried out. It would, however, be pleasanter and 
 more satisfactory if you yourselves were to move in this direc- 
 tion, and ask your present Chairman to resign, and take care 
 to appoint in his place an official who is trained in sanitary 
 matters, and is strong enough not only to give the necessary 
 orders, but to see also that they are efficiently carried out. 
 Such an official will be found in your Civil Surgeon, who is 
 naturally designated as the most suitable Chairman of such a 
 municipality as this. I have no present intention of putting 
 the power vested in Government under the old Act into opera- 
 tion by suspending the Municipality, but as soon as the new 
 Act has been passed, I mean to appoint an official Chairman. 
 If you choose to do so, you have the power to forestall my 
 intention in the manner I have just suggested. 
 
 " Before closing this reply I wish to refer to another sub- 
 ject. There is sitting in Calcutta at the present time a 
 voluntary Committee to take measures on behalf of the 
 sanitation of Puri, and the town owes a great debt of gratitude 
 to its members and especially to Babu Jadu Lai MuUick, and 
 
APPENDIX. xlvii 
 
 Babu Raj Kumar Sarbadhikari, the Secretary, for all the trouble 
 they have taken for the improvement of this place. I think, 
 however, the Committee are somewhat mistaken in attributing 
 to the water supply the cause of so much illness and suffering 
 among the pilgrims. There is no dearth of wells containing 
 good water in the town from which the residents obtain their 
 supplies, and from which pilgrims also could get theirs, and 
 if the residents do not suffer from the water, it cannot surely 
 be said that the well water is the cause of disease among the 
 pilgrims. There must, therefore, be some special cause affect- 
 ing the pilgrims alone, as the Magistrate, Mr. Allen, has 
 very justly remarked, and this cause no doubt is the insanitary 
 habits of the pilgrims, and their custom of drinking the 
 polluted-water of the sacred tanks in which diseased people 
 bathe as freely as any other. No doubt, too, many of the 
 pilgrims arrive from long distances, feeble and exhausted, 
 and therefore more susceptible to disease. Mr. Allen has in 
 a praiseworthy manner been devoting himself to the general 
 welfare of these travellers before they reach Puri, and has 
 been endeavouring to lessen the hardships of the road by 
 establishing and improving chatties, by erecting hospitals, 
 and appointing health-officers and special native doctors at 
 the season the pilgrims are most numerous. The other pro- 
 bable cause of disease remains, and it is my intention to have 
 a proper analysis made of the water in each of these large 
 tanks, and also of the water from three or four of the most 
 used wells. If the well water is found, as we believe, to 
 be good, then the question must be considered as to whe- 
 ther there are sufficient wells, and if not, then more must be 
 constructed. If the tank water is as bad as I conceive, every 
 nerve must be strained to purify it, and keep it clean, and in 
 these combined ways, by looking after the health of the pil- 
 grims on the road to and from Puri, by protecting and 
 increasing the supply of well-water, and by turning the tank 
 from receptacles of liquid sewage to reservoirs of fair whole- 
 
xlviii APPENDIX. 
 
 some water, I trust we may succeed in lessening the terrible 
 mortality among the unfortunate pilgrims, and effacing the 
 stigma which now attaches to this place." 
 
 SPEECH IN THE VICEROY'S COUNCIL ON THE 
 COURT OF WARDS' AMENDMENT BILL. 
 His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal spoke as fol- 
 lows : — What had been said by the two Hon. Members who 
 preceded him, Mr. Evans and Sir Phillip Hutchins, as to two 
 of the main subjects under discussion, viz., as to the power of 
 the Court of Wards to intervene in the management of undivi- 
 ded shares in estates, and as to the general principle of allow- 
 ing a proprietor to declare himself disqualified to manage his 
 estate, had been so fully stated and so entirely accorded with 
 his own views, that it was unnecessary for him to say anything 
 more on those subjects. His Honor turned therefore to the 
 third main subject of the day, the applicability of the certifi- 
 cate procedure to Wards' Estates, and would proceed with great 
 pleasure to answer the challenge which had been thrown 
 down by the Hon. Mr. Evans, who had practically asked 
 from the head of the local Government a pledge that an 
 executive order should issue preventing the use of the certifi- 
 cate procedure in a certain class of cases, and that the earliest 
 possible opportunity should be taken to amend the Certificate 
 Act in the same direction. His Honor answered that he gave 
 that pledge with pleasure, and readily undertook to do what 
 the High Court and the Hon. Member desired should be 
 done. He fully agreed with what had been said by Mr. 
 Evans as to the condition of things which generally was found 
 to exist, when the Court of Wards first took over an estate of 
 a deceased proprietor. They generally found that the estate 
 was in a condition of great confusion, and the accounts and 
 rent-roll were incorrect and untrustworthy. It was not a fair 
 thing then for the ryot that the manager of an estate under 
 the Court of Wards should have legal power given to himto 
 
APPENDIX. j^lix 
 
 act upon the rent-roll and the lists of arrears and other papers 
 as if they were thoroughly proved and reliable, and to issue 
 certificates and take out execution for rents due, and leave the 
 onus of proof, that the rent was not due, upon the ryot. But 
 while admitting that this was not the right position in which to 
 place the ryot, he did not believe that the law had often or 
 usually been worked so as to cause real injustice, and he 
 was glad that the Hon, Mr. Evans had guarded himself from 
 making a charge against the officers of Government, and had 
 protected those officers from having a charge made against 
 them which would have had no foundation. The Hon. Mem- 
 ber very justly said that although the legal position of the 
 ryot was an improper one, there was no doubt that the Mana- 
 gers of estates did their best to do justice, in spite of the 
 temptation to show clean rent-sheets and a full collection of 
 rents. The Rent Courts before which these requisitions came 
 would, as a rule, be quite as careful to ensure that the decree 
 was not made against the ryot upon insufficient grounds as a 
 Civil Court would. His Honor thought his hon. friend had 
 in some slight degree exaggerated the idea that the Managers 
 of Wards' Estates were consumed with a desire to show their 
 zeal and efficiency by a punctual collection of rents, It had 
 been his duty to study and to review the annual report in which 
 the Board of Revenue set forth the demands and collections in 
 the Wards' Estates ; and, as a matter of fact, that report 
 showed that heavy arrears existed in many estates, and that 
 it was a rare thing for the entire demand of the year to be 
 collected within the year. If on any future occasion he should 
 be inclined to attribute these arrears to laxity or neglect he 
 would bear in mind his honorable friend's theory that the 
 large balances are due, not to want of zeal, but to assiduous 
 care, to do justice, and he would abstain from censure accord- 
 ingly. But leaving this point and returning to the main 
 question, His Honor desired to state, in as clear language as 
 was possible, what he intended to do to carry out the pledge 
 4 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 now given. He fully agreed that a summary procedure for 
 unrecovery of rent was not a suitable process in any case 
 where a dispute existed as to what the amount of the rent 
 really was ; and the order which he proposed to issue was 
 that as soon as an Estate came under the Court of "Wards, 
 the first duty of the Court would be to carry out the provisions 
 of Section loi and the following Sections of the Bengal 
 Tenancy Act, to make a settlement between landlord and 
 tenant, including a field survey and the completion of the 
 record of rights : and till the record of rights was made^ and 
 every dispute between landlord and ryot was definitely settled, 
 he was of opinion that the certificate, of any form of summary 
 procedure, was not justified. His Honor further undertook 
 that he would take the earliest possible steps in conjunction 
 with his legal advisers to carry out the amendment of the law 
 so as to make the procedure under the Certificate Act agree 
 with what he would prescribe by executive Resolution. 
 
 His Honor thought that the Hon. Member Mr. Evans had 
 been very well advised in not pushing his objections to the 
 certificate procedure to the extent of trying to bar the passing 
 of this Bill or inserting provisions restricting the application of 
 the Certificate Act in the case of the few estates which would 
 be newly brought by this Bill under the Court of Wards. By 
 the course he had taken he had ensured the extension of the 
 revised procedure not only to the new estates, but to all those 
 already under the Court or falling under the old law* But 
 there was a still wider vista which might be opened out to 
 them in connection with this matter. It was one which he 
 thought was of considerable importance and he was glad of 
 this opportunity of laying it before the Council. He came 
 down to this Council having no doubt about the proposal 
 which he was about to make : but, since he had been there, 
 some slight doubt had crept into his mind, after what had 
 fallen from the Legal Member. Sir Alexander Miller had 
 expressed his opinion that a summary procedure might be 
 
APPENDIX. li 
 
 suitable for the recovery of the Government demand of revenue 
 but could in no way be suitable in the adjustment of a dispute 
 between landlord and tenant. His Honor trusted when the 
 Legal JMember had an opportunity of seeing the great accu- 
 racy with which the record of rights undef the Tenancy Act 
 was made, and how distinctly every incident of the tenure was 
 defined, and what care was taken to settle all disputes and 
 record all the facts of the case, when the Hon. Member had 
 satisfied himself on the subject, he would agree that a sum- 
 mary procedure might be allowed as^ safely for the recovery of 
 rent as for the recovery of Government revenue. The Council 
 were aware that the local Government were engaged not mere- 
 ly in the Cadastral Survey of these estates, as to which His 
 Honor had pledged himself, but also in surveying a large por- 
 tion of these provinces, and these operations had given rise to 
 great anxiety on the part of many landholders and ryots. His 
 Honor thought it would be some satisfaction to them, and 
 some alleviation of their anxiety, if they could be assured that, 
 as soon as these records of rights, which would be formed 
 under the Bengal Tenancy Act, had been drawn up, some 
 summary procedure, like that for the recovery of rents by 
 Government, would be adopted and that landlords would 
 practically obtain the same benefits in regard to the recovery 
 of their rents as Government officers now had in regard to the 
 recovery of rents in the estates which belonged to Governmenty 
 and those which are under the management of the Court of 
 Wards. There was a provision in the Tenancy Act under which 
 rent suits below Rs. 50 may be tried summarily like Small 
 Cause Court suits, but this provision had not been put in force 
 hitherto, because rent suits generally have turned, not on the 
 mere question whether the rent has been paid or not, but on 
 the question how much the rent properly is, or whether rent is 
 due at all. When once disputes of this sort had been cleared 
 away, it seemed probable that the provision referred to might be 
 utihsed, or even that some simpler procedure might be invented. 
 
lii APPENDIX 
 
 His Honor promised that this subject should be taken in hand 
 by the Bengal Government at the earliest opportunity, and he 
 .trusted that, with the sanction of the Government of India, he 
 would be able to carry out measures or possibly to introduce a 
 Bill of this kind which would extend the benefits to all classes 
 and would do a great deal to remove the disputes and anxieties 
 now arising between landlord and tenants, as well as to allay 
 the opposition to the Cadastral Survey. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Pages, 
 
 Ancient Hindu Literature, its effect on the 
 
 formation of the national character ... lo, ii 
 
 Annexation of Oudh ... ... 27, 39, 40 
 
 Assam, Sir Charles Elliott's administration of ... 69 — jj 
 
 Bais, Great Rajput Clan in Unao ... 22 — 7 
 
 Bengal, Sir C. Elliott's administration of ... 93 — 107 
 
 Bhars, Aboriginal Tribe in Unao ... 14 
 
 Bisseins, do .., ... Id. 
 
 Canals — 
 
 Construction of, under Sir C. Elliott as P. W. 
 
 Minister ... ... ... 89 
 
 Periyar ... ... ... Id. 
 
 Sirsa and Chenab ... ... ... Id. 
 
 Irrigation in Bengal ... ... ... 89 — 90 
 
 Cadastral Survey — 
 
 Of Behar ... ... ... 102 
 
 A necessary complement of the Permanent 
 
 Settlement ... ... ... Id. 
 
 Arguments in favour of and violent opposition 
 
 to ... ... ... ... 102 — 3 
 
 Sir C. Elliott's proposals sanctioned by the Secre- 
 tary of State ... ... ... 103 
 
 Chandels — 
 
 An aboriginal tribe in Unao, expelled by the 
 
 Chohan Rajputs ... ... ... 14 
 
 Battle with the Gaur Rajputs ... ... 21 
 
 Dufferin Fund, receives the warm support by 
 
 ^ Sir Charles Elliott ... .„ ... 106 
 
 Education — 
 
 Primary, fostered in Assam ... >.• 7^ 
 
 In Bengal ... ... ,., 104 
 
 5 
 
\[y INDEX. 
 
 Pases. 
 
 High Education ... ... ... 104—5 
 
 Technical ... ... ... 105 — 6 
 
 Elliott, Sir Charles, A.— 
 
 Birth and education ... ... ... 5 
 
 Arrival in India ... ... ... Id, 
 
 Attached at the outbreak of the Mutiny to 
 various field-columns, and twice mentioned in 
 
 despatches ... ... ... Id. 
 
 Assistant Commissioner of Faizabad, Town Magis- 
 trate of Lucknow ... ... ... Id. 
 
 Officiating Deputy Commissioner of Unao ... Id, 
 
 Writes the History of Unao ... ... 8 
 
 Principles which underlie the work ... 6 — 8 
 
 Settlement Officer of Hoshangabad ... 43 
 
 His Settlement Report of do. ... 44 — 56 
 
 Agricultural experiments ... ... 55 — 6 
 
 Secretary to the Government of the N. W. Pro- 
 vinces ... ... ... ... 57 
 
 Useful reforms ... ... ... 57 — 8 
 
 Commissioner of the Mirat Division ... 58 
 
 Secretary of the Famine Commission ... Id. 
 
 Methods adopted for gaining information ... 60 
 
 Report ... ... ... 64 
 
 Draft Famine Code ... ... ... 68 
 
 Chief Commissioner of Assam ... ... 69 
 
 Frontier policy ... .*, ,,, 70 
 
 Introduces Local Self-Government ... 71 — 2 
 
 Improves Communications ... ... 72 
 
 Improves the system of Cooly-recruitment ... 73 
 
 Revenue Code ... ... ... 74 
 
 Land administration ... ... ... 75 
 
 Cadastral Survey ... ... ... Id. 
 
 Excise ... ... ... ... 76 
 
 General principles of his policy ... ... 76—7 
 
INDEK. Iv 
 
 Pages. 
 
 Secretary of the Finance Commission ... 79 
 
 His Report ... ... ... 80 
 
 Results in an annual saving of nearly a million 
 
 sterling to the revenues of India ... Id, 
 Finance Commissioner with the Government of 
 
 India ... ... ... ... 81 
 
 Member of the Supreme Council in the Depart- 
 ment of Public Works ... ... 81 
 
 Created K.C.S.I. ... ... ... Id. 
 
 His Railway policy ... ... ... 82 — 9 
 
 Canals ... ... ... ... 89 
 
 Reorganizes the P. W. D. Staff ... ... 90 — i 
 
 Appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal ... 95 
 Protests against the starvation of his Province in 
 
 the matter of Contracts ... ... 96 
 
 Views on the Opium question ... ... 98 
 
 Resumes the manufacture of Salt on the Coast Id. 
 
 Reorganizes the Calcutta Small Cause Court Id. 
 
 Strengthens the Subordinate Executive Service 100 
 
 Instills new vigour into the Magistracy .., Id. 
 
 Rules for touring ... ... ... loi 
 
 His industry and activity ... ... Id^ 
 
 Proposes a Cadastral Survey of Behar ... 102 
 
 Establishes a Sanitary Board ... ... 103 
 
 Reorganizes the Vaccination Department ... 104 
 
 His Educational policy ... ... 104 — 5 
 
 Advocates Technical Training ... ... 105, 6 
 
 Frontier policy ... ... ... 106 
 
 Supports the Dufferin Fund ... ... Id. 
 
 Takes the lead in social and charitable move- 
 
 ^ments ... ... ... ... Id. 
 
 General lessons derivable from his career ... 107 
 
 Elliott Lady ... ... ... 107 
 
 F. H. S. ... ... ... ... {noie) 42 
 
Ivi 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Famine — 
 
 Appointment of a Commission to enquire into 
 the causes of 
 
 Mr. Elliott, Secretary ... 
 
 Instructions given by the India Oflice 
 - By the Government of India 
 
 Methods employed of eliciting information 
 
 History of Famines in this country 
 
 Report of the Commission 
 
 Famine Code 
 
 Finance — 
 
 Decentralization of 
 
 A Commission of, appointed with Sir Charles 
 
 Pages. 
 
 58 
 Id. 
 
 59 
 Id. 
 
 60 
 60 — 64 
 
 64 
 68 
 
 78 
 
 iLUiott, I'resident, ... 
 
 ... 
 
 79 
 
 Its report 
 
 
 80 
 
 Frontier Tribes — 
 
 
 
 Policy as regards, in Assam 
 
 ... 
 
 70 
 
 In Bengal 
 
 ... 
 
 ic6 
 
 Gaurs, a Rajput clan of Unao 
 
 19- 
 
 —20 
 
 GoALAS, Knavery of 
 
 ... 
 
 20 
 
 GoNDS, Aboriginal tribe of Hoshangabad 
 
 ... 
 
 48 
 
 GujARS, Agricultural caste in Hoshangabad 
 
 ... 
 
 Id. 
 
 Heber, Bishop 
 
 27 {7iote) 
 
 105 
 
 History — 
 
 
 
 Value of a good Indian 
 
 ... 
 
 3 
 
 Difficulties encountered by writer ... 
 
 ... 
 
 Id. 
 
 Of Unao by Sir Charies Elliott ... 
 
 6- 
 
 -40 
 
 Value of tradition in ... 
 
 10- 
 
 -II 
 
 Hoshangabad — 
 
 
 
 Area 
 
 ... 
 
 44 
 
 History 
 
 44 
 
 —6 
 
 Settlement of by Sir Charles Elliott 
 
 ... 
 
 47 
 
INDEX Ivii 
 
 Pages. 
 
 Ethnology of ... ... ... 48 — 50 
 
 Agriculture in ... ... ... 50 — 56 
 
 Hunter — 
 
 Sir W. W., K.c.s.i. His monumental Gazetteer ... 4, 31 
 
 Member of the Finance Commission ... 79 
 
 Kesri Singh, — A Chandel Chief of Unao ... 21 
 
 Local Self-Government in Assam ... 71 
 
 LoNA Chamarin — Legend of ... ... 11 — 13 
 
 Magarwara Rajputs in Unao, their splendid loyalty 
 
 towards the British during the mutiny ... 2'j 
 
 Mahommedan Conquest of India 14, 15, 17, 28 
 
 Colonies in Unao ... .,, ... 28, 29 
 
 Bangarman ... ... .... 30 
 
 Sufipur ... ... ... ... Id. 
 
 Shah Sufi ... ... ... Id. 
 
 Legend of his interference to protect a widow... 30 — i 
 
 Rasulabad ... ... ... 31 
 
 Mahrattas in Hoshangabad ... ... 49 
 
 MiYAN Ilmas — 
 
 An able administrator of Unao ... ... 34 
 
 His capital, Miyanganj ... ... 35 
 
 MoGHUL Rule — 
 
 In Unao ... ... ... ... 32 
 
 The mechanism of Government under ... 32 — 33 
 
 Mutiny — Sir C. Elliott's services in ... ... 5 
 
 In Unao ... ... ... „. 27 
 
 In Oudh ... ... ... ... \{note) 40 
 
 Nawabi Rule — In Unao contrasted with British ... 38, 9 
 
 Opium — Sir C. Elliott's views on ... ... 98 
 
 Ouch — 
 
 Royal family of — its origin and history ... 34 
 Oppression and ingratitude of the E. I. Com- 
 pany ... ... ... ... 35, 39 
 
iviil INDEX 
 
 
 
 Pages. 
 
 Contrast between native and English rule 
 
 ,., 
 
 38-9 
 
 Annexation 
 
 ... 
 
 39—40 
 
 OusLEY, Major— 
 
 
 
 His patriarchal reign in Hoshangabad 
 
 ... 
 
 45 
 
 Its disadvantages 
 
 ... 
 
 46 
 
 Patriarchal System of Government, its 
 
 draw- 
 
 
 backs ... 
 
 ... 
 
 46 
 
 Phallic Worship — Survival of — in Hoshangabad 
 
 54 
 
 Prithimal Raja — Chief of Dikhit Rajputs in 
 
 Unao, 
 
 
 defeated by Akbar ... 
 
 ... 
 
 17, i^ 
 
 PuNYA — Annual settlement of Bengal 
 
 ... 
 
 42 
 
 Rajpurisj an aboriginal tribe in Unao 
 
 ... 
 
 M 
 
 Their capital, Rajkot 
 
 ... 
 
 Id. 
 
 Rajputs — 
 
 
 
 Driven from Rajputana into Unao by Mahom- 
 
 
 medan invaders 
 
 
 15 
 
 Sixteen clans in Unao 
 
 ... 
 
 16 
 
 Origin of royal House of Balrampur 
 
 ... 
 
 //, 
 
 Dikhits ... 
 
 ... 
 
 17 
 
 Their chief, Prithimal, opposes Akbar 
 
 ... 
 
 17 
 
 Defeated ... 
 
 ... 
 
 i.S 
 
 Sengors and Gaurs 
 
 ... 
 
 1 1,^ 
 
 Desperate battle with Chandels 
 
 ... 
 
 21 
 
 Rise of the great Bais clan 
 
 ... 
 
 22 
 
 Its hero, Tilak Chand... 
 
 
 2 x 
 
 Pseudo, or Courtesy Rajputs in Unao 
 
 
 25 
 
 Mitraj it, Bais chief 
 
 ... 
 
 Id. 
 
 Story of his reception at Delhi 
 
 ... 
 
 24 
 
 Duel with Durban's 
 
 ... 
 
 /,/. 
 
 Taken into imperial favour and given a 
 
 com- 
 
 
 mand in Cabul 
 
 
 Id 
 
 Army overwhelmed by an avalanche 
 
 .... 
 
 2^ 
 
INDEX. lix 
 
 I 
 
 Pages. 
 
 RAIL^vAYS, Private versus State management ... 82 
 I History of the struggle in England, America, 
 
 and the continent ... ... ... 82 — 3 
 
 Drawbacks of private enterprize ... ... 84 — 6 
 
 I Mistakes as regards construction in India ... 86 — 7 
 
 Indian trunk system nearly complete ... 87 
 Branch lines should be constructed either by the 
 State or private contractors on a moderate 
 
 silver guarantee ... ... ... Id. 
 
 i Battle of the gauges ... ... ... 87,8 
 
 I Of the breaks ... ... ... 88 
 
 Saadat Khan — 
 
 Founder of the Royal Family of Oudh ... 25 
 
 Settles Unao ... ... ... Id. 
 
 Withstood by a Rajput Chief ... ... 26 — 7 
 
 His origin, scion of a noble Persian Family ... 34 
 
 Emigrates to Lahore ... ... ... Id, 
 
 Created Nazim, and afterwards Subadar of 
 
 LOudh ... ... ... ... Id. 
 
 Death ... ... ... ... Id, 
 AADAT Ali Khan — 
 
 King of Oudh, oppressed by the E. I. Company 35 
 
 His strong government ... ... 36, 7 
 
 i Sanitary — Board created in Bengal ... 104 
 Settlement — 
 
 Officer, his origin, ... '..."" ... 41 — 3 
 
 Qualifications necessary ... ... 43 
 
 g Annual in Bengal ... ... ... 42 
 
 I In Hoshangabad ... ... ... 43 — 56 
 
 ITradition — Value of in History ... ... 10,11 
 
 TovRS — Rules as to official, excite unfavourable 
 
 comment ... ... ... lor 
 
 Turcot — Minister under the old French Monarchy 
 
 his views ... ... ... 77 
 
Ix 
 
 INDEX 
 
 
 Pages. 
 
 Unao— 
 
 
 Extent, area and population 
 
 4 
 
 History in mythical times 
 
 II 
 
 Legend of Lona Chamarin 
 
 II— IS 
 
 Aboriginal inhabitants 
 
 14 
 
 Mahommedan invasion 
 
 15—31 
 
 Rajput Colonies 
 
 15—28 
 
 Establishment of Moghul authority 
 
 32 
 
 Its mechanism ... ... .... 
 
 32—3- 
 
 Nawabi imIq 
 
 34 
 
 Saadat Khan, Subadar 
 
 34 
 
 Miyan Ilmas 
 
 Id. 
 
 Exactions of E. I. C. ... 
 
 35 
 
 King Saadat Ali Khan... 
 
 35 
 
 His government and system of land revenue ... 
 
 35-6 
 
 Abuses and decay 
 
 37 
 
 Annexation 
 
 37 
 
 Mutiny in — 
 
 2; 
 
 Vaccination Departments in Bengal, reorganized 
 
 10.' 
 
 Wheat— Method of cultivating in Hoshangabad.,. 
 
 50-55 
 
i 
 
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