. 
 
 NOTES ON INDIA. 
 
LONDON : 
 Printed by G. BABCLAT, Castle St. Leicester Sq. 
 
NOTES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES 
 
 OF 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 BY CHARLES RAIKES, 
 
 If 
 
 MAGISTRATE AND COLLECTOR OF MYNPOORIE. 
 
 10 % Pmbm 0f % dM Sto m 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 
 
 MDCCCLII. 
 
 

 MORSE STEPHENS 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE Notes on the North -Western Provinces 
 of India, which are now offered to the English 
 reader, were written originally for the " Benares 
 Magazine," and have, with the exception of the 
 last paper, appeared in late numbers of that 
 periodical. The humhle attempt of the writer is 
 to describe, in a popular manner, the working 
 of our civil administration in that part of India to 
 which he is attached by the ties of duty and long 
 service. He is induced to offer his observations 
 to a larger circle than is embraced by the " Be- 
 nares Magazine"* by the following considerations. 
 At the present moment, when the affairs of India 
 engage the public attention, it is believed that a 
 
 * This periodical, able and deserving though it be, cir- 
 culates as yet only amongst a small phase of English readers 
 in India, and is scarcely known in England. 
 
 512857 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 few simple details of the working of our Police 
 and Revenue systems, though given by one who 
 has better means of observing- than talents for 
 recording his observations, may be not unaccept- 
 able to the general reader. And if that increas- 
 ing and important class of our public men in 
 England, who take an intelligent interest in 
 British India, should find here little that is new 
 to them, there are still hundreds, nay, thousands, 
 who would gladly see a popular description of 
 the every -day duties which occupy their sons or 
 brothers in the Indian Civil Service. 
 
 To that service the writer belongs. No one 
 knows better than he does how dry are the sub- 
 jects of Indian police practice or revenue science 
 (for a science it is) ; but it is this very reason 
 which has induced him to attempt, in some poor 
 degree, to attract attention to questions so im- 
 portant to millions of our fellow-subjects. If, by 
 his imperfect endeavour to sketch the condition 
 of the people as affected by the policy of their 
 English masters, he has added but one stone to 
 the monument of Christian civilisation, which so 
 many abler hands are striving to rear in India, 
 his labour will not have been in vain. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 Such being the scope of the writer, a few 
 words more may be excused as to the detail of 
 his book. 
 
 The first place has been given to the note on 
 " Female Infanticide," because that paper has 
 been honoured by the approbation of the Lieu- 
 tenant-governor of Agra, to whom it was originally 
 inscribed, and has been distributed by that dis- 
 tinguished statesman to the magistrates and other 
 public servants in the Upper Provinces. 
 
 The next four numbers of the Notes, from 
 two to five inclusive, belong to the subject of 
 Landed Tenures in the North- Western Provinces. 
 No. II. sketches the Rise and Progress of our 
 Revenue System. No. III. sketches the Character 
 of the Rajpoot Agriculturist, and the Condition of 
 the Landed Proprietors under British rule. 
 
 No. IV. continues the subject of No. III., 
 and proceeds to consider the case of the Non- 
 proprietary Cultivating Classes. 
 
 No. V. contains the Domestic History of a 
 Rajpoot Family, as affected by the proceedings of 
 a Magistrate and Collector. 
 
 Nos. VI. to VIII. present a sketch of the 
 duties of a Magistrate in the North -Western 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Provinces. These " Notes on the Police " were 
 written to form a pendant to the " Notes on 
 Landed Tenures," given in Nos. II. to V. The 
 last of the Police Notes has not yet appeared in 
 print in India. 
 
 The extracts given in Nos. V., VI., and VII., 
 as from the Note-book of a Magistrate and Col- 
 lector, describe scenes through which the writer 
 has himself passed in short, facts, not fancies ; 
 as, indeed, the reader may conclude from the 
 ordinary nature of many of the circumstances 
 related. 
 
I. 
 
 FEMALE INFANTICIDE IN THE DOAB.* 
 
 IT was our national enemy who dubbed the English 
 "a nation of shopkeepers." There was more of 
 wit than of truth in the sentence. For if, in 
 matters of mere traffic and commerce, the English 
 mind be guarded and cautious, it is in other moral 
 or social relations remarkable for frank unsuspect- 
 ing confidence. The hearts of our countrymen are 
 prone to belief ; we speak, not only of their deep 
 natural faith in the realities of the unseen world, 
 but we say, also, that Englishmen in general walk 
 this every-day life with believing hearts. 
 
 One special faith there is, deep in the mind of 
 England, which our present subject has suggested 
 to us, and that is, the faith in female virtue. The 
 Englishman, and, thank Heaven, with good reason, 
 is a believer in the purity of the female sex : to his 
 mind (we speak of all except the professed liber- 
 
 * Land between two rivers. In Hindostan the vast and 
 fertile tract situated between the Ganges and Jumna is known 
 as " The Doab." 
 
 B 
 
2 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 tine) the innocence of girlhood is a reality, whilst 
 he regards with equal respect the vow of the 
 matron or the veil of the widow. And what in- 
 dividuals believe, the common voice of the nation 
 ratifies. As a people, we venerate the quiet cha- 
 rities of domestic life. In late years, when almost 
 every European dynasty seemed to shake, the 
 throne of England has needed no surer bulwark 
 than that which the love of a nation could supply. 
 To a monarch who, to the dignity of a queen, 
 added the graces of a wife and a mother, who had 
 shown herself in all these relations so faithful, 
 what honest English heart could be faithless ? 
 How immense the effect upon our national cha- 
 racter of this one article of our fireside religion, 
 can best be told by those who, in less favoured 
 societies, have tried to lead or raise the human 
 mind. 
 
 In India we are reminded, at every turn, how 
 hard it is to affect the domestic morals of a nation 
 which believes not in female honour and virtue. 
 No man is more impatient of female disgrace than 
 your Rajpoot or Brahmin, but no man is more in- 
 credulous of female fidelity. Girlhood he watches 
 with doubt, married life with jealousy, widowhood 
 the very word is a reproach.* Men who pro- 
 phesy thus of their women need not be surprised 
 if their prophecies come true. The woman of 
 India is what the man has made her. But so is 
 woman everywhere : educate her, trust her, woman 
 
 * The word rand, or widow, is a common term of abuse. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 3 
 
 will be virtuous ; cramp her mind, pamper and 
 confine her body, show her that she is degraded, 
 and degraded she will be, whether in the seraglio 
 of the East or the salons of Europe. 
 
 Reflecting, as one is apt to do, rather bitterly 
 on the degraded condition of the women of India, 
 the thought will arise, how little has England done 
 for her* how few and feeble the attempts that 
 have been made to raise her position or to defend 
 her rights. Rights of woman ! Alas ! in India 
 these may be summed up in few words, to suffer, 
 and to die. The sufferings of the sex have been 
 well touched by a happier pen than ours. 
 
 u To the fair of other lands the fate of the 
 " Rajpootnee must appear one of appalling hard- 
 " ship. In each stage of life Death is ready to 
 u claim her by the poppy at its dawn, by the 
 " flames in riper years ; while, the safety of the 
 " interval depending on the uncertainty of war, 
 " at no period is her existence worth a twelve- 
 " month's purchase. The loss of a battle or the 
 " capture of a city is a signal to avoid captivity 
 " and its horrors, which, to the Rajpootnee, are 
 u worse than death." t 
 
 The woman of India has suffered deep and 
 
 * There are a few bright exceptions to this rule, and lately 
 a very noble attempt to ejevate the native female has been made 
 in Calcutta under the auspices of Mr. Drinkwater Bethune, to 
 which we emphatically wish " God speed." 
 
 t Tod's " Annals of Rajasthan." The annalist here refers 
 to the Rajpoot practice of sacrificing their women rather than 
 let them fall into an enemy's hands. 
 A*. 
 
4 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 long, but she has suffered in silence, and her suf- 
 ferings have been, at least in appearance, voluntary 
 with her own hand has she lighted the funeral 
 fires which were to consume her life along with 
 the lifeless body of her husband ; and (in some 
 races) with her own hand has she quenched the 
 spark of infant vitality as each girl was born to 
 her. Our earlier settlers in India, intent on com- 
 merce and wealth, had little opportunity to notice 
 the wrongs of the women of the country. At a 
 later period they were averse to meddling with the 
 customs of the people, and at home, unless the 
 sufferings of some Begum of rank could be worked 
 up into " political capital,'* little notice was likely 
 to be taken of the women of India.* Later still, 
 Lord William Bentinck found it no easy matter to 
 fight the battles of the innocent uncomplaining 
 widow, amidst the official apathy or secret oppo- 
 sition of men who should have been the first to 
 assist him. 
 
 However, our present affair is not with the 
 wrongs of Indian women in general, but with the 
 peculiar and unnatural crime which, amongst cer- 
 
 * The females of India and their wrongs were useful when 
 a grand display in Parliament was wanted to crush a political 
 foe. 
 
 Every one has heard of Burke's celebrated orations about the 
 Begums of Lucknow, and, above all, that famous peroration 
 about the virgins of Bengal, and their treatment by " the in- 
 fernal fiend," Devi Singh, at which Mrs. Sheridan fainted, and 
 the orator himself sunk down to cover his face with his hands, 
 overawed by the figures which his own imagination had con- 
 jured up. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 5 
 
 tain classes, consigns the female infants to imme- 
 diate death. 
 
 And first, to take a more extended glance. 
 
 Infanticide is a world- wide crime. Except the 
 land of our own Saxon forefathers, we can scarce 
 name a country unstained hy the blood of its infant 
 children. Men of letters and refinement have 
 equalled the savage and surpassed the brute in 
 this special ferocity. In all continents, in Europe, 
 Asia, Africa, and America, in almost every island 
 from the rocks of Iceland to the reefs of the 
 Pacific, the hand of the parent has been lifted 
 against his child. The usual cause in other coun- 
 tries has been want or luxury ; in India, either 
 superstition or pride. Before the time of English 
 domination thousands of hapless children were 
 thrown as votive offerings to the river gods. These 
 sacrifices have been stayed ; but still, as we write, 
 hundreds of infant females are being hurried out 
 of the world, victims to the pride of their parents. 
 
 Let us examine the source of this particular 
 pride, which has proved so tragical to the Raj- 
 pootnee girls. Like other martial and gallant 
 races, the early Rajpoots were not insensible to 
 the claims of chivalry. Their women were free. 
 Instead of being mewed up, as is now their lot, in 
 the female apartments, all reasonable liberty was 
 granted to them. Some privileges of the ladies, 
 indeed, remind us of the best days of Romance, 
 and carry us away to the western world, and to 
 the days of Charlemagne or the Crusades. The 
 distressed Rajpootnee damsel, or the forlorn matron 
 
6 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 in the hour of danger, would send her jewelled 
 bracelet* to some preux chevalier, like Bayard 
 of old, sans peur et sans reproche, who thenceforth 
 would serve his mistress to the death, nor ask but 
 one return that she should accept and wear the 
 proffered guerdon of his loyalty, a bodice of silk 
 or embroidery.t History relates that the Emperor 
 Humaioon, son of Baber, was so inspired with 
 romantic devotion on receiving a bracelet thus sent 
 by the Princess Kurnavati in her distress, that, 
 forgetting the usual phlegm of his nature, he 
 pledged himself at once to her service, "vowing 
 " to obey her behest even if the demand were the 
 " castle of Rinthumbor."t The knight thus chosen 
 was styled " Rakhibund bhai" the bracelet-bound 
 brother ; and on such a connexion the breath of 
 scandal was never known to pass. But, not only 
 might the daughter of a Rajpoot thus choose her 
 liege knight, she might do more, she had a liberty 
 which our own Anglo-Saxon damsels, unless of 
 royal rank, have seldom tasted. She might choose 
 her own husband, and might herself inform the 
 happy lover on whom her choice had fallen. On 
 a given day the chiefs assembled, and, passing 
 through the gallant line of suitors, the Rajpootnee 
 
 * Rakhi. 
 
 f Mr. Rafter, in his " Savindroog," suggests that the corset 
 was chosen as a proof of affection, because that garment is so 
 close to the heart of the wearer ; but we are inclined to believe, 
 that it was selected to denote a pure and fraternal gift, it being 
 the custom for brothers to give presents of dress to their married 
 sisters. 
 
 t Tod's " Annals," quoted by the author of " Savindroog." 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 7 
 
 maiden threw the mala, or garland, over the 
 favoured swain. These assemblies broke up some- 
 times in so much heat, that at last it was found im- 
 possible with safety to convene them. To this day, 
 in the mid Doad, as the sun enters the summer 
 solstice, the village youth while away the glowing 
 nights with the chant of " Ala and Oodun." In 
 these and other such romaunts we learn how readily 
 the disappointed suitors flew to arms, and, with all 
 their love turned into hate, pursued the accepted 
 rival. So much noble blood was shed on an oc- 
 casion of this sort in the warfare between Jyechund 
 and Pirthee Eaj, that from that day no mala has 
 been thrown. The Rajpoot tribes, convulsed by 
 internal dissensions, and hardened by frequent 
 warfare, forgot their old chivalrous ways. The 
 gentler sex, who had caused the mischief, were 
 the first to suffer, and their liberty was changed 
 into thraldom. When they could no longer woo 
 or be wooed by fair means, they must be won at 
 all events, and the sword became the arbiter of 
 their lot. The stronger of the Rajpoots began to 
 carry off, by force of arms or by stratagem, the 
 marriageable women of other cognate tribes. This 
 practice gave new life to the old Hindoo super- 
 stition* of the inferior position of the father-in-law. 
 The son-in-law became, more than ever, the social 
 superior of his father-in-law. If the wife were 
 
 * "The point of honour is carried so far, that it is reckoned 
 disgraceful to receive any assistance in after-life from a son- 
 in-law or brother-in-law." ELPHINSTONE'S India, vol. u 
 p. 358. 
 
8 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 henceforth a slave, the wife's father need expect 
 but little courtesy or consideration. A Rajpoot 
 of the present day is subject to his son-in-law hand 
 and foot, can refuse him nothing, and, without 
 disgrace, cannot accept so much as a meal at his 
 hands. 
 
 There is a tradition prevalent in the Doab, 
 that a Chohan Thakoor, being sorely pressed by 
 his son-in-law, and smarting under the sense of 
 disgrace which his mere position as the father of 
 a married daughter seemed to entail upon him, 
 called together his sons, and bound them by an 
 oath to save his family from future contempt by 
 destroying every female child that might be born 
 to them. Hence, as some say, the origin of female 
 infanticide amongst the Chohan Rajpoots, men in 
 other respects the noblest of a not ignoble race.* 
 But there have been other and more subtle in- 
 fluences at work. At the very root of the evil 
 stands this principle, the Hindoo disbelieves the 
 purity of the sex ; a daughter arrived at puberty 
 must, he thinks, be married or be disgraced. 
 When he seeks a husband for her it must be in 
 his own caste, but it must also be in a subdivisiont 
 of that caste ; higher, if possible, but at all events 
 differing from his own. To intermarry in one's own 
 subdivision is impossible ; such an union would be 
 set down as incestuous. Disgrace is attached to 
 marriages with men of inferior relative rank. 
 
 * Tod assigns the first place to the " Chohan" as warriors 
 amongst the thirty-six royal races of Rajpoots, 
 f " Kool," or " Goth." 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 9 
 
 " The owner of a hyde of land, whether Seesodea, 
 " Eahtore, or Chohan, would scorn the hand of a 
 " Jareja princess."* What, then, is a Rajpoot father 
 to do with his marriageable daughters ? He must, 
 it is clear, seek a husband for them in a rank equal 
 to his own, or in a higher rank. But if his own 
 subdivision be high, if he be a Chohan or a Rah- 
 tore, he will not easily find such a son-in-law ; or if 
 he do find him, will have to pay high in hard coin 
 for blood and rank. And this is why a Rajpoot 
 mourns when a daughter is born to him, and re- 
 joices when he has a son. The one brings dis- 
 grace, anxiety, or at the least heavy expense upon 
 his house ; the other increases his wealth and his 
 dignity. 
 
 So far, then, we have attempted to trace the 
 domestic position of the Rajpoot girls. This posi- 
 tion is a false one. So, it may be said, is that of 
 thousands of their sisters in Europe, who suffer 
 from the prevailing scarcity of husbands. But, in 
 the western world, we have long had convents to 
 receive the unmarried women, and, what is better, 
 we have no false private code of morals ruling, as 
 in India, that celibacy is a disgrace. Hundreds of 
 our best and most useful persons are unmarried 
 women. The state which Christianity has sanc- 
 tified, heathenism has more than debased; it has 
 annihilated. There is no such element in Indian 
 society as that which the adult unmarried female 
 
 * Tod's " Annals." 
 
10 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 so gracefully supplies in Europe. A woman in 
 India must marry, or she must cease to be. The 
 conventional rules, then, of society, in which the 
 Rajpoot for some centuries past has found himself, 
 left him but this option, to give up his pride or 
 his daughters. 
 
 On a former occasion* we have sketched the 
 Rajpoot character; we then described him as ex- 
 ceedingly proud and only moderately humane : so, 
 when the question came whether he should part 
 with his humanity or his pride, the evil part of his 
 nature gained the victory. We will not call it an 
 easy victory ; they who know the Rajpoot best are 
 aware of his moody sufferings,t of the discontent 
 and discomfort of his soul when he condemns his 
 infant girls to death : but still he has shown little 
 hesitation as to the course he should pursue. The 
 girls of the highest Rajpoot clans have, since the 
 days of Pirthee Raj, been sacrificed, hundreds of 
 families sparing not one female. The hiatus thus 
 caused has been filled up by the daughters of the 
 humbler tribes, and the men of the humblest tribes 
 have often been sore pushed to find a wife at all. 
 When man sets himself up against his Maker, and 
 dares thus habitually to mar His handiwork, what 
 
 * See " Notes on the Landed Tenures," Benares Magazine 
 for October 1850. 
 
 f It is well known at Mynpoorie that the late Rajah Duleer 
 Singh, when a female infant was made away with in his fort, 
 used to be restless and unhappy, giving away money, a horse, 
 or an elephant to the Brahmins, as though to expiate the crime. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 11 
 
 can be expected but vexation and disappointment ? 
 And thus we see how the cruel absurd pride of 
 these Rajpoots has ended. 
 
 We find a body of men endowed alike with 
 many noble qualities, and all of the same caste. 
 But in this caste there are subdivisions, some of 
 which the voice of custom has pronounced to be 
 high and some low. The high cannot get husbands 
 of sufficient rank for their daughters, so they kill 
 them ; the low being in the mean time obliged to 
 go without wives at all. Where, might we ask, is 
 the vaunted Reason of man when Pride is allowed 
 to shut the light of God from the soul? 
 
 But we desist ; the subject before us requiring, 
 as old Hooker would say, "not railing, but 
 reasons." The question occurs, Cannot the mind 
 of the European, backed by his power (a power 
 greater than Eastern nation or emperor ever saw), 
 cannot the European with all his vantage ground 
 put down such a miserable practice as this of mur- 
 dering little children ? This question is not to be 
 answered at once, for the evil to be mastered is not 
 in men's bodies only, but in their souls ; not only 
 in their acts, but in their motives. A crime, which 
 nips the budding life fresh from the hand of God, 
 seems left for God to punish. Man has not time 
 nor place to step in. The life of a new-born child, 
 we all know, at the best hangs on a single thread. 
 To snap this, any treatment less tender than the 
 caress which even the beast of the forest bestows 
 upon her young, will suffice. 
 
 The mere neglect of the ordinary precautions of 
 
12 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 the lying-in room, the mere refusal of the mother to 
 perform her first maternal duties, a bowl of water, 
 a rough touch anything, in short, is enough.* The 
 magistrate can hardly punish men for a want of 
 solicitude about their young ; yet without solicitude 
 the young will be lost. So it is only to the very 
 superficial observer, to the very ignorant disciple of 
 the "sic volo, sicjubeo" school, that it will appear 
 
 * A native has described the manner in which female infants 
 are destroyed in the following words : 
 
 " Milk, which is designed by nature to form the food of the 
 new-born babe, is the substance used for the cruel purpose here 
 referred to. In a vessel full of this nourishing liquid, the stony- 
 hearted parents, or their female attendants, plunge the female 
 infants as soon as they come into existence, and they are made 
 to struggle in it till the vital principle is extinguished in them. 
 Opium is not unfrequently made the instrument through which 
 these Rajpoots perpetrate the horrifying deed. The manner of 
 doing it is thus related : The mother applies it to the nipples of 
 her breast, and it is insensibly imbibed with the milk by the 
 infant, and has the effect of extinguishing its life. A Rajpoot, 
 who is in my service, told me, when I asked him for some in- 
 formation upon this -topic, that his countrymen stick a bit of the 
 drug to the roofs of their infants' mouths, and allow them to re- 
 main in this dangerous position for a minute or two, during 
 which the heat of the mouth melts the drug, and it is taken into 
 their system, and hurries them into eternity. The extinction of 
 life is sometimes effected by means of suffocation, the umbilical 
 cord and secundines being placed on the nose and mouth of 
 infants to check respiration. He further added, that his father 
 had made away with the lives of his three sisters in this manner." 
 Prize Essay on Female Infanticide, by Cooverjee Rustomjee 
 Mody, Bombay, 1849. In this work are collected a number of 
 tenets from the Puranas, showing how opposed is the practice of 
 child-murder to the religious tenets of the Hindoos. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 13 
 
 an easy thing to put down such a crime as this.* 
 Young and ardent men advocate a sort of physical- 
 force system ; older and more experienced heads 
 are all for moral suasion and expostulation. A 
 via media between the extremes of inquisitorial 
 severity and mere protestation is, we believe, the 
 right course. On the whole, we think that in our 
 own provinces the delicacy shown to the feelings of 
 a race, who show so little common humanity them- 
 selves, has been carried quite far enough ; and we 
 proceed to give our reasons for advocating a little 
 more general and direct supervision of the Rajpoots 
 of the N. W. Provinces than has yet been consi- 
 dered necessary. Before doing so we may just 
 remark, that we do not blame the magistrates of 
 Upper India, who, although they have put down 
 almost all open violent crime, have not as yetbeen 
 able to cope with this secret wickedness. It is 
 only lately that much attention has been directed 
 to statistical inquiry, and, without such inquiry, 
 
 * Under the old Roman law infanticide was winked at, and 
 the crime was easily put down when it was made by Valentinian 
 and his colleagues (by including such murders in the Cornelian 
 law) a capital offence to expose a child. In India, a law (XXI. 
 1795) similar to that of the Roman Emperor was promulgated 
 in the end of the last century, but with very different effect ; that 
 is to say, with scarcely any effect at all upon the cruel habits of 
 the people. A sufficient reason for this may, perhaps, be found 
 in the different domestic habits of the people. A Roman lived 
 comparatively in public, and could only make away with his 
 child by sending it to a distant forest or other exposed place. 
 A Rajpoot lives in private, with high walls enclosing a consi- 
 derable area ; and in his domestic privacy the crime of infanti- 
 cide can be practised with little risk of detection. 
 
14 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 the disproportion between male and female infants 
 is not observed. The crime of infanticide, for the 
 obvious reasons which we have already given, is 
 not easily brought home to any particular person. 
 The death of an adult can only be compassed by 
 force or stratagem, and will probably create inquiry 
 and suspicion ; the mere putting a new-born infant 
 out of the way is a much simpler matter, and can 
 generally be accomplished without risk or trouble. 
 And when the very strongest suspicions have 
 seemed to warrant a committal of the parents to 
 take their trial at the Sessions Court, it has been 
 found impossible to obtain a conviction.* 
 
 We only remember the names of two men who 
 have been known at all to the public for their exer- 
 tions to put down female infanticide north of the 
 Caramnasa. Jonathan Duncan early called atten- 
 
 * The following 1 extract from a calendar of prisoners com- 
 mitted by a magistrate in 1849, gives an outline of a case in 
 which there was not the slightest doubt of the guilt of the 
 parents, but, nevertheless, no conviction could be got at the 
 sessions. The judge in this case was heard to observe, that he 
 did not doubt the guilt of the accused, but that, supposing him 
 to have been innocent, he might equally have run away and 
 borrowed a child. In short, it is almost impossible to prove the 
 actual murder in such cases. 
 
 " It is customary in this district, with the object of checking 
 " Female Infanticide, to register the births and deaths of female 
 " infants born in Chohan Thakoor families. On the 26th Sep- 
 " tember, 1848, the birth of a female child in the house of Gun- 
 '* durrup Singh of Kirpuree, was reported at the Kotwallie. On 
 ** the 13th November, it was reported that the child was ill a 
 " burkundauze was sent to see her, and returning stated that 
 " the child was well. It was subsequently proved that, on the 
 
PROVINCES OF INDtA. 15 
 
 tion to the crime in the Benares Province ; but, 
 beyond declaring the criminality of the act, we are 
 not aware that he put into execution any measures 
 for its prevention. We believe he recommended 
 that the Rajpootnee girls should have dowers paid 
 them by Government. The Court of Directors 
 negatived this proposal, and no wonder, lest good 
 men who killed no daughters and got no dowers 
 might be tempted to imitate the Rajpoots' ex- 
 ample. 
 
 At a later period, as we learn from an interest- 
 ing article in the " Calcutta Review,"* Mr. R. 
 Montgomery, when magistrate of Allahabad, set 
 earnestly to work to put down infanticide amongst 
 some of the Rajpoots. His measures bear the 
 practical stamp which has marked all the pro- 
 ceedings of this distinguished public officer. "In 
 44 the first place," says he, " I appointed a chu- 
 
 " occasion of the visit of the burkundauze, a neighbour's child 
 *' was shown. There was reason to suspect that Gundurrup 
 " Singh, and Mussummutt Bukt Kenwur his wife, had destroyed 
 " their child. They had left their village ; but in January were 
 " brought in, and their case investigated. There were very 
 " strong grounds for suspicion, but not enough to justify a 
 " commitment till later, when intelligence was received from 
 " Shajehanpore that these persons had been over to a village in 
 " that district to borrow a child, with the object of personating 
 44 an infant which it was supposed they had destroyed. This 
 " transaction being fully proved, and the bones of an infant 
 " being dug up in Gundurrup Sing's out-house, for which he 
 " could give no account, he and his wife were committed to 
 " take their trial for murder, and Bhubootee Singh as accessory 
 " after the fact." 
 
 * " Calcutta Review," No. 2, on Female Infanticide. 
 
16 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 " prassee to reside in each village, whose sole duty 
 " it was to report the birth of a female child in the 
 u families of any of the above classes of Rajputs. 
 " I also bound the gorait, chowkidar, and mid- 
 " wives, under a heavy penalty, to report separ- 
 " ately each birth at the thannah, the four thus 
 " acting as a check on each other. I directed 
 " the thanadar, on the death of any female infant 
 " being reported, to hold an inquest on the body, 
 " and afterwards to transmit it to the civil surgeon 
 " for examination. I associated the tehsildar with 
 " the thanadar, in order to ensure a more efficient 
 " superintendence ; I promised them both hand- 
 " some rewards if I should be hereafter satisfied 
 " that they, by their joint efforts, had put a stop to 
 " the horrible practice." 
 
 " I am happy to state, that, as far as I am able 
 " to judge, the method I have pursued has been 
 " attended with perfect success. It is only two 
 " months since the plan came into operation, and 
 " of four female infants that have since been born, 
 " three are alive, and one dead." Report by the 
 Magistrate of Allahabad in 1841. 
 
 We do not consider that the amount of espion- 
 age enforced by Mr. Montgomery is desirable ; 
 and though such a system might be safely and 
 efficiently worked by the able hand of the present 
 Commissioner of Lahore, we are not disposed to 
 see our magistrates throughout the provinces en- 
 forcing so close an inquisition. We have already 
 said there is a via media, which neither sets a 
 premium on crime like Mr. Duncan's dowry 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 17 
 
 scheme, nor yet presses so heavily on the Rajpoot 
 pride as Mr. Montgomery's system. 
 
 We must recollect what tbe Rajpoot once was 
 in better days. No Norman knight at the court 
 of Rouen, or in the days of Tancred, could show 
 more delicate devotion to the gentle sex than did 
 the early princes of Rajpootana. This spirit is 
 quenched ; their martial habits are, under our 
 system, necessarily decaying. We must take heed 
 lest we rob them of what alone is left them, their 
 self-respect. In devising measures for putting down 
 female infanticide amongst the Rajpoots, the advice 
 of men of other castes cannot he trusted. Hindoo 
 and Mahometan would alike rejoice to ride rough- 
 shod over the pride of the Thakoor, and jealousy 
 easily puts on the cloak of virtuous indignation : 
 yet, regard as we may their feelings, something 
 may he done, and perhaps something more than 
 has yet been done in general, to let the Rajpoot 
 feel that the eye of the Anglo-Saxon is upon him, 
 and that his sins shall some day find him out. 
 
 Happily we are not left here to mere specula- 
 tion. The experiment of a modified and regulated 
 supervision has been tried, during the last six years, 
 over a considerable tract of country, in the head- 
 quarters of one of the chief Rajpoot tribes, and 
 with no small success. 
 
 Many of our readers will recollect the famine 
 of 1838, (none, indeed, who were then in the N. W. 
 Provinces will ever forget it,) when mothers sold 
 their children for a morsel of bread, when the rage 
 
 c 
 
18 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WKSTERN 
 
 of hunger obliterated even the distinctions of caste, 
 and the Brahmin might be seen devouring the 
 leavings of the Dhom.* Nowhere did hunger and 
 disease press heavier than in the plains of the mid 
 Doab. Whole villages were depopulated, and 
 every effort of public or private benevolence failed 
 to meet the wants of a starving population. The 
 Government did much to relieve the sufferers at 
 the time, but a merely temporary assistance was 
 not sufficient, and it became necessary to lower 
 the revenue demand in many villages. Mr. Unwin, 
 then Collector of Mynpoorie, was in 1842 engaged 
 in fixing the amount of this revision, and his camp 
 was pitched in the midst of the villages of the 
 Chohan Rajpoots. In the course of his proceed- 
 ings it was found desirable to ascertain how far 
 the population had been affected by the famine, 
 and with this object Mr. Unwin determined to 
 take ten villages in each pergunneh, and selecting 
 one house in each of these villages, to count in 
 person every head in it. "In so doing," we use 
 his own words, " I observed what previous in- 
 " formation led me to expect, that no single 
 " Chohanee (female Chohan), young or old, was 
 " forthcoming. t I remarked this to the Zemindars 
 
 * The lowest caste. 
 
 f The wives were, of course, not Chohanee, as Chohan cannot 
 wed with Chohanee. The higher Chohan usually seeks alliances 
 for his daughters (if they are preserved alive) with the Kuchwaee, 
 Budhoreea, Bughela, Rathore ; and the humbler Chohan will 
 take a female from the Pureehar of Bundelcund and the Jadhen 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 19 
 
 " and people themselves, who, of course, were in 
 " numbers all about me on these occasions, and 
 " told them I knew the cause, and should look 
 " after them in future." 
 
 Mr. Unwin acted with zeal and discretion, and 
 above all things (in India) with promptitude. At 
 once and on his own responsibility he established a 
 system of watchful inspection, which was thus 
 described by the officiating magistrate of Myn- 
 poorie (in 1848), in reply to a call for information 
 from the Court of Directors : * 
 
 " In Chohan villages the watchmen are ordered to give in- 
 " formation of the birth of a female child forthwith at the police 
 " station. A burkundauze goes to the house and sees the child, 
 " the thanadar informs the magistrate, upon which an order is 
 " passed, that after one month the health of the new-born child 
 " should be reported. The watchmen are further bound to give 
 " information if any illness attack the child, when a superior 
 ** police-officer (either thanadar, jemadar, or mohurrir), at once 
 " goes to the village, sees the child, and sends a report to the 
 " magistrate. In suspicious cases the body of the child is sent 
 ** for and submitted to the Civil Surgeon.'* 
 
 of Kurowlie, near Jyepoor. Beyond this we do not think they 
 often go, or, to use their own phraseology, lower than this. 
 The chief Chohan families in the mid Doab are at Mynpoorie, 
 Rujore, Etah, Ekah, Chukurnuggur, and Purtabneir. The 
 Budhoreea Goth is originally the same as the Chohan, but 
 intermarriage is now allowed between the two tribes. 
 
 * Mr. Unwin received cordial assistance from Mr. Robert 
 Thornhill, at that time Joint-Magistrate of Mynpoorie, whose 
 attention, as well as that of every officer who has since been in 
 the district, has been constantly given to watch the working of 
 Mr. Unwin's scheme. 
 
20 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 The effect of Mr. Unwin's measures was soon 
 felt in the district. Amongst other incidents we 
 may quote the following, as partaking of that almost 
 grotesque character which in these matter-of-fact 
 days seems peculiar to India. The Government 
 had watched Mr. Unwin's proceedings with appro- 
 bation, and took an early opportunity to notify in a 
 public manner the interest which was felt in the 
 success of his measures. 
 
 There is at Mynpoorie an old fortress, which 
 looks far over the valley of the Eesun river. This 
 has been for centuries the stronghold of the Ra- 
 jahs of Mynpoorie, Cbohans whose ancient blood, 
 descending from the great Pirthee Raj and the 
 regal stem of Neem-rana, represents la creme de la 
 creme of Rajpoot aristocracy. Here when a son, 
 a nephew, a grandson, was born to the reigning 
 chief, the event was announced to the neighbouring 
 city by the loud discharge of wall-pieces and match- 
 locks ; but centuries had passed away, and no infant 
 daughter had been known to smile within those 
 walls. 
 
 In 1845, however, thanks to the vigilance of 
 Mr. Unwin, a little grand-daughter was preserved 
 by the Rajah of that day. The fact was duly noti- 
 fied to the Government, and a letter of congratula- 
 tion and a dress of honour were at once despatched 
 from head- quarters to the Rajah. 
 
 We have called this incident, the giving a robe 
 of honour to a man because he did not destroy his 
 grand-daughter, a grotesque one ; but it is very far 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 21 
 
 from being a ridiculous incident. When the people 
 see that the highest authorities in the land take an 
 interest in their social or domestic reforms, those 
 reforms receive an impetus which no lesser influ- 
 ences can give them. The very next year after 
 the investiture of the Rajah, the numher of female 
 infants preserved in the district was trebled ! Fifty- 
 seven had been saved in 1845 ; in 1846, one hundred 
 and eighty were preserved ; and the number has 
 gone on steadily increasing ever since. This is 
 the best answer to those who would sneer at the 
 paternal style of Government, and who would advo- 
 cate mere red-tape, law, and bayonets for the people 
 of India. 
 
 Influence is everything in Hindostan. Indeed 
 in all countries good government, like true religion, 
 depends upon influences and motives quite as much 
 as upon mere rules and restrictions. In England, 
 influence does much ; in India, we repeat, it does 
 all. To go against the law is nothing to the native 
 of India, but he rarely consents to go against the 
 magistrate. When a government of mere law 
 comes in, when codes instead of men are to rule 
 India, the sooner the English are off* to their ships 
 the better. Let us see what local influence, sup- 
 ported by the influence of the Government, but 
 scarcely assisted by legal sanction, has done for the 
 suppression of female infanticide in Mynpoorie. 
 In 1843, not a single female Chohan infant was to 
 be found in the district ; at the present moment 
 there are fourteen hundred girls living, between the 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 ages of one and six. We subjoin an extract from 
 the official Registers, from 1844 to 1850 inclusive. 
 The girls born during the year, and still alive at 
 the end of the year, are only entered : 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Girls of 6 years 
 
 Name of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 and under, liv- 
 
 Thannah. 
 
 1844 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 1850 
 
 Total. 
 
 ing in May 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1851. 
 
 Koorowlie 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 24 
 
 83 
 
 119 
 
 Shekoabad 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 15 
 
 22 
 
 75 
 
 80 
 
 Bhowgong 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 45 
 
 60 
 
 Koosmurra 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 44 
 
 55 
 
 Kurhul ... 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 43 
 
 33 
 
 Sumao 
 
 58 
 
 8 
 
 35 
 
 44 
 
 53 
 
 46 
 
 43 
 
 287 
 
 145 
 
 Mynpoorie 
 
 28 
 
 10 
 
 57 
 
 57 
 
 77 
 
 97 
 
 108 
 
 434 
 
 353 
 
 Ghurour ... 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 21 
 
 41 
 
 36 
 
 61 
 
 57 
 
 240 
 
 234 
 
 Sirsa-gunge 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 Kyleyee ... 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 25 
 
 43 
 
 29 
 
 38 
 
 43 
 
 182 
 
 140 
 
 Phurrah ... 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 13 
 
 50 
 
 38 
 
 Total ... 
 
 134 
 
 57 
 
 180 
 
 209 
 
 261 
 
 302 
 
 348 
 
 1491 
 
 1263 
 
 To check these results, a census of the entire 
 Chohan population of the district, of six years old 
 and under, has been made in the present year. The 
 plan adopted was, first to call upon the village ac- 
 countants to report the numbers of boys and girls, 
 up to the age of six, living in their respective vil- 
 lages. These returns were then tested as closely 
 as possible by other independent officials, and, as 
 the result of that examination, the number of 
 females was reduced eleven per cent. The return 
 thus corrected is as follows, and is given for per- 
 gunnehs, not for the thannahs, noted in the former 
 table : 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 Names of Pergunnehs. 
 
 Boys 6 years 
 and under. 
 
 Girls 6 years 
 and under. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 Ghurour 
 
 297 
 
 194 
 
 
 
 376 
 
 219 
 
 
 Kurhul 
 
 52 
 
 33 
 
 The distribution 
 
 Koorowlie 
 
 33 
 
 17 
 
 of the 1263 girls 
 
 Mustufabad and She- 1 
 koabad ) 
 
 474 
 
 299 
 
 into their respective 
 thannahs will be 
 
 Kishnee Nubbee Gunge 
 Munchuna 
 
 261 
 
 364 
 
 102 
 246 
 
 found in the last 
 column of the pre- 
 
 Bhowgong 
 
 283 
 
 150 
 
 ceding table.* 
 
 Aleepoor Puttee 
 
 21 
 
 3 
 
 
 Total ... 
 
 2161 
 
 1263 
 
 
 * In 1850, inquiries were made in 66 villages as to the com- 
 parative number of children in existence amongst the Chohan 
 Thakoors, the Patuk Aheers (who are suspected of practising 
 female infanticide), and other classes. The boys of six years 
 old or under numbered 2770, the girls 2004. 
 
 Of these, Chohans have 614 boys to 293 girls. 
 Patuk Aheers 120 94 
 Other Castes 2036 1617 
 
 Total . . 2770 Boys. 2004 Girls. 
 
 From a census lately taken in the neighbouring district of 
 Etaweh, it appears, that 8253 boys of ten years and under were 
 found to 4589 girls. Yet, in 1849, the births of 479 boys 
 were reported, and as many as 716 girls. 
 
 It is notorious all over the world, that it is only in highly- 
 civilized, and probably we might say Christianised societies, that 
 the females who are reared by their parents equal in number 
 the males. In India, where the male child is, owing to the 
 peculiar religious tenets of the people, so much desired, the 
 daughters are never cared for as the sons are, and the number 
 reared even in families who do not practise infanticide is not 
 equal to that of the sons. Still the disproportion amongst the 
 Chohans is so great, that taken alone, even if other proof were 
 wanting, it would go far to prove the prevalence of female infan- 
 ticide. 
 
24 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 We will not weary our readers with more 
 figures. It will suffice to express our conviction 
 that, whereas formerly scarce one female escaped 
 with life, now at least one out of two is preserved. 
 The Rajpoot fathers are beginning to take a pride 
 in their little daughters, and often bring them out 
 to make their salaam to the English officer as 
 he passes their villages. 
 
 The case, then, of the females of the higher 
 Rajpoot castes may be thus summed up. In days 
 long gone by they were treated with respect, and 
 even with gallantry ; in later times their lot has 
 been a hard one. At the present day, the head of 
 a Rajpoot household considers that he must find a 
 husband for his daughter, and one of good family. 
 But such a husband is only to be got for money, 
 and the sum required, when added to the other 
 indispensable marriage expenses,* is more than 
 
 * We have not said enough, and we could hardly say too 
 much, in reprobation of the extortionate demands made by the 
 bkats, and other hangers-on of the Rajpoot families, on the oc- 
 casion of a wedding. Colonel Tod says on this subject " Un- 
 " fortunately those who could check nuptial profusion find their 
 " interest in stimulating it, namely, the whole class of mangtas 
 " (mentlicants), bards, minstrels, jugglers, Brahmins, who as- 
 " semblo on these occasions, and pour forth their epithalamia in 
 " praise of the virtue of liberality. The bardais are the grand 
 " recorders of fame, and the volume of precedent is always 
 " recurred to, in citing the liberality of former chiefs ; while the 
 " dread of their satire (viserva, literally poison} shuts the eyes 
 " of the chiefs to consequences, and they are only anxious to 
 " maintain the reputation of their ancestors, though fraught with 
 " future ruin. 
 
 " ' The Dahirna emptied his coffers' (says Chund, the pole- 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 25 
 
 most men can afford. Hence the Rajpoot father 
 has been driven to the alternative of sacrificing his 
 family pride or his daughters. He has preferred 
 sin to what he considers shame, and has carried his 
 prejudices so far, that in certain parts of the 
 country the female children have all been system- 
 atically destroyed. But it appears that a regulated 
 system of espionage and supervision, supported by 
 the influence of the Government and of the local 
 authorities, has been found effectual to the putting 
 down of this crime to a considerable extent. 
 
 The question remains, and a very interesting 
 question it is, What more can be done ? If half of 
 the females have been saved, let us set to work to 
 preserve the remainder. In the first place, it might 
 be well to extend the Mynpoorie system of super- 
 vision to all districts in which the infant females 
 
 " star of the Rajpoots) * on the marriage of his daughter with 
 ** Pirthiraj ; but he filled them with the praises of mankind.' 
 " The same bard retails every article of these daejas or dowers, 
 " which thus becomes precedents for future ages ; and the 
 " * lac passao' then established for the chief bardai has bt> 
 " come a model to posterity. Even now the Rana of Oodipoor, 
 " in his season of poverty, at the recent marriage of his daugh- 
 " ters, bestowed the gift of a lac on the chief bard ; though 
 " the articles of gold, horses, clothes, &c. were included in the 
 " estimate, and at an undue valuation, which rendered the gift 
 " not quite so precious as in the days of the Chohan. Were bonds 
 " taken from all the feudal chiefs, and a penal clause inserted 
 " of forfeiture of their fief by all who exceeded a fixed nuptial 
 " expenditure, the axe would be laid to the root, the evil would 
 " be checked, and the heart of many a mother" (and we may 
 add, father) " be gladdened, by preserving at once the point of 
 " honour and their child." TOD'S Annals of Rajasthan. 
 
26 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 are destroyed, and to every tribe suspected of female 
 infanticide. Another plan remains to be tried, which 
 may complete a reform already so well begun. 
 Though nothing new, it has not yet been tried on a 
 large scale in our Provinces.* We allude to the 
 regulating by authority the amount of dowers. 
 
 * From Mynpoorie the system of supervision extended, about 
 1847, to the neighbouring district, and we observe that this ex- 
 periment was made by Mr. E. H. C. Monckton, when officiating 
 as Magistrate of Etaweh in 1849. He called upon the heads of 
 the Thakoor families to execute engagements in punchayet, for 
 the putting down female infanticide. Here is a specimen of the 
 papers given in on the occasion : 
 
 " We Peetum Singh, Bisal Singh, Bhoop Singh, Hoolass 
 " Singh, &c., who have been summoned to be admonished not 
 " to commit female infanticide, beg to state that we do not 
 " murder our female children ; but, as matter of precaution, we 
 " have now settled amongst ourselves by arbitration that, if any 
 " of our brethren be HI indigent circumstances, and have not the 
 *' means of defraying the marriage expenses, we will assist him 
 "to do so. To murder female infants is held in detestation 
 " by us. The opinion prevalent, that we consider it an abuse to 
 " be called father-in-law, is false : we do not think it to be so, 
 " nor do we take offence at it. Should any one among us be guilty 
 " of such an act, we will excommunicate him, and he will render 
 " himself liable to punishment by the ruling power, and to the 
 " wrath of the Day of Judgment. If at any time it should 
 " appear to the authorities that any one among us has com- 
 " mitted infanticide, we will expel him from our society, and 
 " deliver over his children to become the property of the Go- 
 " vernment. If to our knowledge any of our brotherhood should 
 " be guilty of the crime of infanticide, we will banish him from 
 " our society, and report the circumstance to authority. 
 
 " With reference to the report that we do not allow the female 
 " children to take nourishment from the mother's breast, we beg 
 " to state that it is false ; should any one do so, he will be 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 27 
 
 No one can converse much with the Rajpoots 
 themselves on this matter without being asked, Why 
 does not the English Government forbid the ex- 
 
 " liable to the same punishment as we have resolved upon for 
 " those who may commit infanticide. As to the statement that 
 " when a pregnant woman draws near her time we send her over 
 *' to the Murhattah territories, with a view to destroy the infant's 
 " life if a girl, and after doing so the mother is recalled ; we beg 
 " to say, that although this is not the fact, we have determined 
 " as a prudent measure, that if any one among our class should 
 " send over his pregnant wife to the Murhattah territories with 
 " the intention of destroying the child if a girl, that we will ex- 
 '* communicate him. 
 
 " In regard to the marriage of girls we have come to these 
 " resolutions, viz. that as it is not justifiable for the father of 
 " the boy to cause the father of the girl to enter into such con- 
 " ditions as to marriage settlement as suit his wishes, only before 
 " closing the nuptial contract (because, if the girl's father be 
 " poor, the marriage cannot take place, and must be necessarily 
 " put off), we therefore propose that the headmen of the village 
 " should arrange the dower according to the circumstances in 
 " life of the girl's father, and to this arrangement he must con- 
 " sent ; and that whenever the girl's father receives a proposal 
 " from the boy's father, he should immediately declare that he 
 " is willing to abide by the decision of the arbitrators or head- 
 " men as to amount of dower." 
 
 In reporting to the Government Mr. Monckton's proceed- 
 ings, the Commissioner of Agra, Mr. Robinson, who had long 
 watched the measures adopted in the Mynpoorie and Etaweh 
 districts for putting down child murder, writes : 
 
 " His honour is well aware that the main incentive to the 
 " practice is the 'enormous expenses that are by custom thrown 
 " on the parents when a daughter is married, and I really be- 
 " lieve that a law, protecting the people from these expenses, 
 " and, under the cloak of the power of Government, saving the 
 " disgrace that attaches to refusing to incur those expenses, 
 " would be gladly received by the people." 
 
8 NOTES QN THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 action of dowers ? Why is not security taken from 
 our chiefs to prevent the fixing of dowers, and to 
 prohibit the adjudication of any disputes relating to 
 them ? But here we may be stopped by the legal 
 politico-economist with the question Do you, in 
 this nineteenth century, propose a return to the 
 policy of the fourteenth century ? Are you anxious 
 to revive laws which have gone out of date as long 
 ago as the piked shoes and long coats which gave 
 rise to them? 
 
 We reply, that we are no advocates for sump- 
 tuary laws in general, and that such laws are mostly 
 needless and impolitic ; but, in our opinion, legal 
 theories may be safely put aside when they en- 
 danger the common rights of humanity. It is one 
 thing to put down piked shoes by a special law, 
 and another to put down murder. The old- 
 fashioned sumptuary laws were directed against 
 foppery, against open and harmless follies, but 
 what we would now advocate is an enactment 
 for the better putting down of secret and villanous 
 crimes. 
 
 " Nee Deus inter sit, nisi dignus vindice nodus" 
 this is our motto. 
 
 We are not ashamed to avow ourselves Gothic 
 enough to wish that the system of extravagant 
 dowers and weddings, stained as they are with in- 
 nocent blood, should be put down by authority. 
 We should prefer that this authority were not ex- 
 traneous, that the people themselves, assembled in 
 their punchayet, should supply the remedy to their 
 own social evils ; but, if need be, we would gladly see 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 29 
 
 the power of the Government employed in support- 
 ing the voice of the people. 
 
 Let the chiefs of every tribe, whose children 
 have fallen victims to the pride of race, he con- 
 vened. Their voice will, if we mistake not, be 
 found ready to condemn the time-honoured con- 
 ventionalities which have led them into crime. If 
 the Government sanction the voice of the people, 
 the Rajpoot will gladly fall back upon such autho- 
 rity, and will fling to the winds the fetters which 
 have so long bound him. One strong and well- 
 sustained effort, and the victory is ours. The 
 voice of nature, the sanction of laws and religion, 
 the common instincts of humanity, ^all these are in 
 our favour ; and we have but one enemy, custom, 
 to overcome. " Immemorial custom" says Menu, 
 the Indian lawgiver, " is transcendant law,' 9 and 
 " the root of all piety ;" and no man who knows 
 India will deny the difficulties of attacking any 
 practice, however absurd or revolting, which has 
 the sanction of custom. But, when custom is quite 
 opposed alike to law and piety, to the law and the 
 religion of the people themselves, it cannot last for 
 ever ; the victory, though tardy, will be certain. 
 Here, again, we need not to work in the dark ; pre- 
 cedents are close at hand. 
 
 We mentioned a few pages back the Choan 
 fort at Mynpoorie. Within a bow-shot of that fort 
 is a prosperous city. The richest and most flou- 
 rishing families in this city are Brahmins, as rich 
 and prosperous indeed as the Rajpoots are poor and 
 declining. One cause of their prosperity is soon 
 
30 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 told. Instead of ruining themselves by marriage 
 expenses, they have the strictest sumptuary laws, 
 fixing the amount to be spent at weddings and in 
 dowers, beyond which limit no man can be allowed 
 to spend, or indeed ever thinks of spending, a 
 single rupee.* 
 
 We cannot doubt but that the influence of Go- 
 vernment might induce the Eajpoots to adopt some 
 similar wholesome rule. Let the Chohan of Myn- 
 poorie and Etaweh, the Kuchwaee of Jyepoor, the 
 Bughela of Rewa and Tirooa, the Rathore of Joud- 
 poor, let all the chief clans of the Rajpoots be con- 
 vened : let not only the heads of the people, but the 
 heads of ten or fifteen families in each clan, be in- 
 vited : let them be asked to put down the crime 
 which has so long stained their name. We ask not 
 for mere bonds or promises, but we would have them 
 draw up a moderate scale of dowers, to transgress 
 which shall be punishable. Let such an assembly 
 have the sanction of the Head of the Government, 
 and the days of female infanticide will be num- 
 
 * Amongst the Muturrea Brahmins nothing is paid at 
 " lugun," or the period of betrothal. There are four sorts of 
 marriages, called, in the jargon of the tribe, 
 
 1 . A wul-bea . . Soo, Soweya . . 1 st day of marriage ceremonies, 
 
 Rs. 100. 
 ,, 2d payment, Rs. 125. 
 
 2. Doem .. Senkra .. 1st day, Rs. 50. 
 
 2d Rs. 150. 
 
 3. Teesra .. Puchisya .. 1st day, Rs. 25. 
 
 2d Rs. 50. 
 
 4. Kora . . One rupee is paid by the bride's folk. No 
 disgrace attaches to this cheap wedding. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 31 
 
 bered. The penalty itself, and the mode of enforc- 
 ino- it, must be left to the wisdom of the Govern- 
 
 O ' 
 
 ment to determine. The experiment on a small 
 scale has been tried, and, as it is reported, with 
 entire success. The Mairs (in Mairwara) had long 
 practised female infanticide ; but, wishing to give 
 up this custom, they came to Colonel Hall and 
 said, " We intreat you to lower the sum of our wed- 
 " dino- contracts ; we are unable ourselves to make 
 
 O ' 
 
 " the change, but we earnestly beg of you to do so, 
 " binding us all to obedience by heavy penalties." 
 A Convention of the Elders, under the auspices of 
 the Superintendent of Mairwara* was called; and 
 Col. Dixon gives us the result. (" Sketch of Mair- 
 wara," p. 31.) 
 
 " At this convention it was determined that the Gooroo, or 
 " priest, should receive seven rupees on the celebration of a 
 " marriage ; the dholee, or minstrel, forty ; and that the remune- 
 " ration to the bride's father be restricted to 106 rupees. Thus 
 " infanticide received its death-blow through the diminution of 
 " the expense attendant on marriage, which was now brought 
 " within the means of all sections of society. For many 
 " years past no female children have been put to death. The 
 " practice has fallen altogether into desuetude. Indeed, so 
 " greatly have the ideas of the people changed on this and 
 " other usages since the introduction of our rule, that the com- 
 " mission of such an act would now be viewed as a most heinous 
 " crime. Personal advantage has, however, had its weight in 
 " bringing round the desirable reform. Daughters are no 
 " longer looked upon as a source of trouble and anxiety ; mar- 
 " riage being open to the poorest classes, they are much in re- 
 " quisition. Hence fathers rejoice on the birth of a daughter, 
 " seeing they are now regarded as a source of wealth." 
 
 What has been done by the simple Mairs may 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 be done, and we believe would gladly be done, by 
 the unsophisticated Rajpoots. Indeed, history tells 
 us that a convention for fixing moderate dowers was 
 held by the Rajpoots under one of their own 
 princes, which failed merely from the want of 
 power of the presiding chief to carry out its decrees. 
 We read in the " Annals of Rajasthan" that the 
 " great chief, Jye Singh of Amber (now Jyepoor), 
 " submitted to the prince of every Rajpoot state 
 u a decree, to be laid before a convocation of their 
 u respective vassals, in which he regulated the 
 " dower and other marriage expenditure with refer- 
 " ence to the property of the vassal, limiting it to 
 " one year's income of the estate. This plan was, 
 " however, frustrated by the vanity of the Choon- 
 " dawut of Saloombra, who expended in the marriage 
 " of his daughter a sum even greater than his sove- 
 '' reign could have afforded ; and to have his name 
 6t blazoned by the bards and genealogists, he sacri- 
 " ficed the beneficent views of one of the wisest of 
 " the Rajpoot race."' 
 
 No man has a better right to be heard in any 
 matter affecting the Rajpoot manners than the ele- 
 gant annalist of Rajasthan; and we have his autho- 
 rity for saying, that a sumptuary edict such as Jye 
 Singh's can alone meet the evils which their mar- 
 riage customs have entailed. We have just seen 
 
 * Colonel Tod helps us here to a precedent from European 
 history, and it is not the only one which might be adduced. 
 *' Marseille fut la plus sage des republiques de son temps: les 
 dots ne pourraient passer cents ecus en argent, et cinq en habits, 
 dit Strabon." De VEspiit dcs Loix, ch. xv. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 33 
 
 that in Mairwara Jye Singh's own policy has been 
 revived ; that what he could not accomplish has at 
 once been carried out by British influence. Why 
 should not the same experiment be tried on a larger 
 scale ? Why need we to despair of the future fates 
 of the Rajpootnee ? What India cannot do for her, 
 England can ; cast off by her own flesh and blood, 
 where can she better look for protection than to a 
 Government whose power is only equalled by its 
 benevolence? Here she must carry her appeal. 
 The firm hand of British rule, which has rescued 
 the widow from the burning pile, which has shaken 
 off the fetter from the slave, which has given free- 
 dom to the humblest peasant under its control, that 
 hand, let us hope, will, ere long, lead the Rajpoot 
 father back to a sense of parental duty. English 
 justice will recover for the Rajpoot's daughter what 
 it has secured for every other subject, the common 
 blessings of life and liberty. 
 
 Since the above Paper was written some further 
 steps have been taken by the local authorities, for 
 an account of which we refer our readers to the 
 subjoined extracts from an Agra newspaper: 
 
 " Agra Messenger ," for 22d November, 1851. 
 We have been favoured with a copy of a set of resolutions 
 passed at a meeting of Chohan Rajpoots in the Mynpoorie dis- 
 trict in the present month, and signed by the Rajah and most 
 of the influential chiefs of the tribe. As it will interest many 
 of our readers, we subjoin a free translation of this document. 
 
 Agreement of Chohan Thakoors in the matter of Marriage 
 
 Expenses. 
 
 " Since many and great evils have arisen in our tribe owing 
 
 D 
 
34 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 to the heavy expenses attending the marriage of daughters, we 
 the undersigned write the following agreement, and attest the 
 same (in the presence of the magistrate of our district), of our 
 own free will and accord. According to these resolutions we 
 will act, and will induce others to act as far as we can. 
 
 " Resolution 1st. We will arrange the marriage expenses 
 of our daughters in future according to the following grades : 
 
 " 1st Grade. This is for Rajahs and Talookdars. The maxi- 
 mum to be demanded as dower for a girl shall be rupees 500. 
 One-third to be paid at the period of Lugun, one-third at the 
 door of the bride's father, and the remainder in ' Kuneya 
 Dan,' Pin money, &c. 
 
 "2d Grade. For Zemindars. Maximum dower to be de- 
 manded, Rs. 250 ; one-third, &c. 
 
 "3d Grade. For persons not Zemindars, in easy circum- 
 stances, Rs. 100, &c. 
 
 "4th Grade. For all decent men, one rupee. 
 
 " 2d Resolution. If the father of any girl chooses of his 
 own pleasure to give more than this, we make no objection 
 but if the father of any youth demand more, -we will restrain 
 him ; if he insist, we will put him out of our caste as a person 
 who brings dishonour thereon. 
 
 " 3d. Brahmins, bards, and barbers, are in the habit of 
 insulting persons who do not spend largely at weddings we 
 undertake, if such insult be offered to us or our friends, at once 
 to complain to the magistrate, who will, doubtless, prevent 
 abuse being given us. 
 
 *' 4th. Our wedding procession expenses shall in future be 
 moderate, and according to the grade to which we- belong." 
 
 The evils alluded to in the preamble are so many and so 
 great, that, as some of our readers know, they have sufficed to 
 overcome the common feelings of humanity, and to cause the 
 destruction of female infants by their own parents. This crime 
 has for some time past attracted the serious attention of the 
 Government and of the local authorities in some districts. 
 
 We are inclined to believe that a law for the regulation 
 of dowers, as lately urged upon the Government by a writer in 
 the " Benares Magazine," might be effectual for the repression 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 35 
 
 of the unnatural practices of the Rajpoot clans. But we are 
 not sure whether the plan of self-legislation, now, as we learn, 
 adopted by the people themselves, does not at least promise as 
 much as might be expected from any external influences of 
 whatever kind. The idea, too, of destroying one noxious super- 
 stition by the instrumentality of another, is worthy of attention. 
 Caste has done so much harm in its day, that we shall gladly 
 see its forces turned to the extinction of evils which caste itself 
 has produced. 
 
 We learn from a witness of the Mynpoorie meeting, lhat 
 the resolutions which we have detailed were received by the 
 people, not with a mere decent assent, but with hearty and 
 sincere acceptance. This we can easily understand so far as the 
 bulk of the people is concerned, but it can be no easy matter 
 to persuade the chiefs to pass measures which, if thoroughly 
 enforced, must lessen the emoluments and importance of every 
 one of them who has a marriageable son. We think the Rajah 
 of Mynpoorie deserves especial credit for setting the example in 
 so good a work. Nothing, however, can be expected from this 
 movement unless the cognate tribes, the Rahtores, Bhudowreas, 
 Kuchwahas, &c., be induced to unite with the Chohans in the 
 grand work of self-legislation and social reform. We cannot 
 too earnestly impress upon all magistrates the necessity of push- 
 ing on a quiet, considerate, yet searching inquiry, into the do- 
 mestic statistics of the Rajpoots in their several districts, 
 especially as to the numbers of children living, say from ten 
 years and under, of both sexes. It is not in the districts where 
 female infanticide has been most prominently noticed that this 
 crime is most prevalent. On the contrary, it has been checked 
 in those quarters, and perhaps prevails most now where least 
 suspected. 
 
 We may return to this interesting, though somewhat difficult 
 subject hereafter. In the meantime, we are glad to hear that 
 the Commissioner of Agra is about to preside at a grand meeting 
 of Rajpoots, to beheld at Mynpoorie at the end of this month. 
 
 Our views about Government are pretty well known to the 
 public. For European states we should be the last to advocate 
 the delusive advantages of a would-be paternal Government ; 
 
36 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 but in India we are unable to deny, that a paternal spirit thrown 
 into the administration of public affairs may accomplish much 
 which a mere constitutional policy could never attempt. Nor 
 is it unreasonable to suppose that Englishmen who have proved 
 themselves so well able to walk alone, and choose their own des- 
 tinies in matters of national policy, may, on the whole, be well 
 trusted to guide and influence the councils of weaker nations. 
 There are cases in which this is particularly clear to the moral 
 sense ; and it may be generally affirmed, that whilst constitu- 
 tionalists will legislate well enough for themselves, when it is 
 their humour so to do, it requires the gentle violence of a pater- 
 nal rule to lead aright the more wayward and less sophisticated 
 members of the human family. Such, at least, are our impres- 
 sions after reading the details of the meeting of Rajpoots at 
 Mynpoorie, which is to be found in another part of this day's 
 issue. 
 
 These curious tribes are possessed of many good and some 
 great qualities, but their whole character is blighted and marred 
 by the abominable practice, too common amongst them, of 
 " Female Infanticide." The great incentive to this crime is the 
 inordinate expense which attends the marriage of a Rajpootnee 
 damsel. The domestic privacy which these races observe enables 
 them to destroy their newly-born children if they choose, with- 
 out detection or public censure. Thus, to avoid the expense of 
 marrying a daughter, or the shame of keeping her unmarried at 
 home, the parents make up their minds to put her out of the 
 way, and the unfortunate girls too often find a grave amidst the 
 gloomy galleries of their fathers' strongholds as soon as they see 
 the light. 
 
 Much has been done in the way of surveillance to stop this 
 practice; in some districts half of the girls are now saved, 
 and there is reason to believe that continued watchfulness and 
 attention may put down the revolting practices altogether. 
 
 In the hope of giving a still more effectual check to crime 
 of this sort, the Commissioner of the Agra division and his 
 subordinate magistrates have, it seems, determined to commence 
 a campaign against those social observances, such as extravagant 
 dowers, immoderate assemblages at nuptial processions, &c. &c., 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 37 
 
 which have brought so much injury and dishonour upon the 
 Rajpoot name. If they need encouragement in so sensible a 
 course, they have only to refer to the oft-repeated advice of the 
 present Lieutenant-governor of these provinces, whose object 
 we believe has always been to attack the evil in the bud, and 
 to recommend prevention where cure seems so difficult. 
 
 We gave in a late issue of our paper (22d Nov.) an outline 
 of the resolutions to which the Rajpoots of the Mynpoorie dis- 
 trict had, at the instigation of the local authorities, subscribed. 
 These resolutions were, it appears, offered by the Commissioner 
 (supported by the judge of the district and the magistrates), to 
 the acceptance of a large body of Rajpoot chiefs, assembled 
 from all the surrounding districts. A large number of these 
 influential men, after fully considering the proposal, put their 
 names to the engagement, which, if as faithfully observed as it 
 was warmly undertaken, will restrict marriage expenses for the 
 future, and thus save the lives of thousands of innocent children. 
 
 We are not prepared to say that resolutions so formed and 
 adopted will, of necessity, be binding and effectual; but still, 
 so far as they go, they are good, and, when error is once clearly 
 seen and acknowledged, no one can say that an united protest 
 against such error will be ineffectual. There are some crimes 
 and follies which are checked by the mere notice which publicity 
 may bring upon them. 
 
 However, to return to the point whence we started. If we 
 are to have a paternal government for India, let its influences 
 ever be exerted, as on the occasion we are noticing, with the 
 real paternal spirit. When the voice of authority comes forward 
 to plead the same cause as the voice of nature and affection, it 
 will find a ready echo in the human breast. 
 
 The Rajpoots of the Doab, who saw the representatives of 
 the Government men, some of them grown grey in the service 
 of that Government standing for many long hours whilst they 
 were seated around, until every objection had been met, every 
 question answered, and almost every name affixed to the future 
 charta of their unborn children, these Rajpoots, we say, will go 
 home to tell their families that, though the Government of their 
 country is in the hand of foreigners, it is carried on, none the 
 
38 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 less, by men who are neither strangers to their wants nor in- 
 different to their happiness. 
 
 Mynpoorie. On the 5th of this month, this quiet little 
 station was thrown into a state of unusual bustle and excite- 
 ment. All sorts of Oriental processions, elephants, camels, 
 horses, and ruths, were to be seen converging about noon on 
 the large plain between the Sessions Court-house and the Jail. 
 Hundreds of honest, sturdy-looking pedestrian Rajpoots, each 
 with his tulwar under his arm, were trudging along through the 
 dust which their wealthier chiefs kicked up. All of these men, 
 great and small, had attended the invitation of Mr. Tyler the 
 Commissioner to a grand and solemn meeting, which had been 
 convened by him ostensibly for the purpose of lowering marriage 
 expenses, but in reality with the object of putting down female 
 infanticide, which the said marriage expenses promote. 
 
 A long row of tents was pitched for the accommodation of 
 the Rajpoot delegates, open only on one side, facing which was 
 a tent for the accommodation of the Commissioner and other 
 gentlemen attending the meeting. Knowing as I do the pride 
 of the Thakoor chiefs, I watched with some interest this first 
 attempt to get a number of them to consult together on a matter 
 of social policy. 
 
 As I expected, when the question was proposed to them 
 where they would please to take their places, each Rajah said 
 that the first place was his due. This matter might easily have 
 been arranged ; but there came a worse nodus. A man had 
 been invited by mistake, who claimed to sit amongst the Rajahs 
 one Poke Pal Singh of Awa, in the Muttra district. Poke 
 Pal is not a Chohan, nor a Rahtore, nor a Budhorea, nor a 
 Kuchwaha, but a Jadon. His tribe is considered rather dashed 
 with mongrel blood; and, worse than all, he came to represent 
 not a real Rajah, but, as the other chiefs said, a Company's 
 Rajah. In short, Poke Pal was a parvenu ; and the others, 
 who could trace their descent from the sun or the moon, would 
 have nothing to say to him. Matters being thus the chiefs 
 dispersed in little knots all over the plain, and politely declining 
 the invitation of the Native Deputy-collector to take their places 
 in the mujlls up drove the Commissioner with the Judge, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 39 
 
 Magistrate, Joint Magistrate, and other gentlemen who attended 
 the meeting. 
 
 The Deputy-collector suggested that the assembly must 
 result in separate groups of the chiefs being brought up to the 
 Commissioner's tent, and matters looked rather unpromising. It 
 was determined, however, to appeal to the politeness of the 
 Thakoors, and very soon all were seated in comfort and good 
 humour round the Assembly tents, or wherever they could find 
 room. Then came the Commissioner, Mr. Tyler; the Judge of 
 Mynpoorie ; Mr. Thompson, the Magistrate of Mynpoorie ; the 
 Joint Magistrate of Putialee ; Mr. Reginald Thornton; Mr. C. 
 R. Lindsay, and other gentlemen who attended the meeting. 
 
 In their presence a set of excellent resolutions, which had 
 been previously adopted in the Mynpoorie district, and which 
 have already been noticed in the " Agra Messenger," were pro- 
 posed to the united assembly. For three or four hours the 
 Commissioner and his party were engaged in explaining and 
 witnessing the signing of these resolutions. The scene was a very 
 gay and rather an impressive one. Most of the chiefs had splendid 
 robes, either of cloth and gold, or brocade ; their attendants 
 clustered round with arms, silversticks, chowries. There was the 
 boy Rajah of Mynpoorie on one side just coming into life, a life, 
 too, in his case promising many cares and some dangers ; on the 
 other side was another Chohan chief, the old Rajah of Purtab- 
 neir, looking already like a mummy, but wrapped up in shawls 
 and brocade. Then came Poke Pal Singh, and close by him, 
 looking very haughty and somewhat disgusted, remarkable by 
 his quaint, conical head-dress, was the manly young Rajah of 
 Rampoor, the chief Rahtore of these parts. Poke Pal Singh 
 spent the morning in informing all passers-by how much the 
 said Rampoor Rajah was honoured and respected by him ; the 
 Rajah meanwhile looking uneasy, and paying little heed to the 
 flatteries heaped upon him. Few objections were made, and 
 on all sides terms of approbation were heard. One old gentle- 
 man rushed up and said, " It is all very well our signing this, but 
 will the Company let us off our payments at ferries when we go 
 across the water to fetch our brides home ?" When the meeting 
 broke up, some three or four hundred names had -been affixed 
 
40 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 
 
 to the resolutions, and every chief had thus solemnly pledged 
 his word to assist in the humane object. 
 
 Let people, if they like, smile at the credulity of men who 
 believe that the Thakoors are to be trusted ; at all events, if one 
 life be spared owing to the exertions of the day, the Mynpoorie 
 meeting will not be unrewarded. 
 
 P. S. One Thakoor, a regular old-fashioned Chohan, said to 
 Poke Pal after the assemblage, " No wonder you come here, 
 for now there is a chance for you to get a husband for your 
 daughter." This raised a laugh at the expense of the rich old 
 gentleman, who, it is notorious, had been long offering large 
 sums, ineffectively, to get a Chohan husband for his daughter. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 41 
 
 II. 
 
 THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF OUR REVENUE 
 SYSTEM. 
 
 THE word Serishtadar, as now used, is probably 
 familiar enough to most of our Indian readers. 
 
 It suggests the idea of a comfortable and portly 
 old native gentleman, with a shawl round his waist, 
 a pair of spectacles on his nose, and a bundle of 
 papers under his arm. Sixty years ago, however, 
 it would seem that we had Serishtadars in white 
 jackets and nankin trousers. 
 
 Such, at least, does our imagination depict Mr. 
 James Grant, " Serishtadar of Bengal," about the 
 year 1786. This gentleman, in that year, wrote a 
 very valuable revenue paper, called '' An Analysis 
 of the Finances of Bengal." We will introduce our 
 subject with an extract from this work : 
 
 " About eleven hundred years since there is some reason to 
 believe that a revolution, introductory of the Brahmin religion 
 and the sway of new rulers, happened, at least in that part of 
 Bengal where the native inhabitants were Budoistes (Buddhists ?) 
 or wholly uncivilized ; as, indeed, may still be said of them, 
 being chiefly of the tribe of chuars, or robbers, of a swarthy 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 black, like th neighbouring mountaineers on the North and 
 West, supposed to be the aborigines of the country/' 
 
 Supposing Mr. Grant's tradition to be correct, 
 we need not go very far from .the famous city whose 
 name our magazine bears, * to seek for the abori- 
 gines of the country. 
 
 A few hours' sail up the winding Ganges will 
 bring us to Mirzapore, the Liverpool of the East. 
 Within sight of its busy market are hills and woods, 
 where these children of the soil find a home and a 
 rough livelihood. There we may still meet them 
 scattered over the country as field labourers, or as 
 freeholders of small patches of land granted by the 
 local chiefs, in acknowledgment of their services as 
 forest-keepers. Some, almost as wild as their 
 neighbour the tiger of the forest, skulk among 
 the rocks and hills forming part of the great 
 Vindhyan chain, and stretching along to the west 
 of the Ganges from Rajmehal to Rotasgurh and 
 Rewah. Others, with habits and superstitions 
 more resembling those of the Hindoo population, 
 inhabit the rough lands which stand between the 
 plains and the hill country. Some have become 
 half Hindoos, others are more than half savages ; 
 short in stature, ill-looking, and black, these Coles 
 or Bheelst contrast strongly in appearance with 
 the better-grown and fairer Rajpoot. Miserable 
 though they now be, it is probable that the fair 
 
 * Benares. 
 
 f Known by various other names, as Koond, Dhangar, Mair, 
 Mina, &c. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 43 
 
 plains of India had them as their earliest masters. 
 According to local tradition, a people called Cheroo 
 drove this aboriginal race from the plains to the 
 hills and forests. From the Cheroos sprung that 
 famous tribe called Bhur, Rajbhur, or Bhurputwa, 
 which most undoubtedly occupied the country he- 
 fore the Eajpoots spread themselves over it. Still, 
 to pursue our inquiries in the country about Be- 
 nares, we find immense mud forts, tanks, and other 
 excavations, which are in that province universally 
 attributed to the agency of the Bhur tribes. If we 
 turn from these mute witnesses of the vigour of a 
 race now nearly lost, to the country people, we shall 
 find that the Rajbhurs hold a permanent place in 
 their myths and traditions. Time-honoured chro- 
 nicles tell us, for instance, how in the Ghazeepoor 
 district the Rajpoots of Talookah Bahnsdy, were 
 once slaves to the Bhurs ; how, when their masters 
 were drunk at a feast, the Rajpoots fell upon them, 
 killing some, enslaving the rest, and dividing the 
 country between the Nirowny Rajpoots of Bahnsdy, 
 the Nihom Rajpoots of Reowtie, the Birwar Raj- 
 poots of Muneer and Mujos, and the Kin war Raj- 
 poots of Syutwar. So, again, in the Mirzapore 
 district, we learn that Goodun Deo of the Ghurwar 
 family of Rajpoots, from Kanouj, visiting Ramgurh 
 under pretence of pilgrimage, seized upon the coun- 
 try, wresting it from the hands of a drunken and 
 slothful Bhur King. In the Azimgurh* district, 
 too, we shall find traces of the same tribe, the same 
 
 * See the printed Report of the Collector of Azimgurh, 
 pp. 7, 8. 
 
44 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 immense ftots and excavations attributed to the 
 Rajbhurs, or, as they are sometimes called, the 
 Assoors or Demons. The Brahmin* and Rajpoot 
 tribes, by force or fraud, drove away these earlier 
 tribes, a few of whose descendants are still to be 
 found. Sturdy chiefs, like Lot or Abraham of old, 
 divided the land; the jungle disappeared, the 
 swamp was reclaimed by the toil of the military 
 colonists, and the works of cultivation and irri- 
 gation began. The sons of the village patriarch, 
 his dependants, the offsets perhaps of some neigh- 
 bour tribe, united to do him honour and to give 
 him strength. One mess of plain food supplied the 
 males of the ruling family, one stack-yard and 
 granary contained the common treasure of their 
 fields ; separate property and separate interests 
 were unknown. To this day, that perfect division 
 and separation of property, which is considered so 
 essential to order and comfort in the Western 
 world, is not fully known amongst these village 
 communities, which, be it observed, in the Bengal 
 provinces have a patriarchal, rather than a cor- 
 porate character. Even in these degenerate times 
 we could point to bodies of brethren, co-partners, 
 whose horses, cattle, cornstacks, yes, whose purse 
 even, is common to all. The best feature, however, 
 
 * It is probable that the Brahmin families formed settle- 
 ments in the country before the Rajpoot invasion. For example, 
 we may note that in pergunneh Kantit of the Mirzapore district, 
 where there are 304 estates held by Brahmins, and 308 by the 
 prevailing clan of Rajpoots, the local traditions universally 
 assign the earlier occupation of the country to the Brahmins. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 45 
 
 of the Indian village system is to be found not so 
 much in the unity of the brethren, which can 
 hardly be expected to last for ever, as in the policy 
 which admits a severally of interest, without de- 
 stroying the unity and continuity of the parent 
 holding. Long heads and honest hearts had those 
 old village worthies who devised a system of rural 
 polity, which, in the northern parts of India at 
 least, has stood alone, unchangeable amidst change, 
 orderly amidst disorder. It is beyond our present 
 purpose to trace in detail the varied and appro- 
 priate schemes which the Rajpoot tribes have 
 adopted in their village councils. 
 
 Be it enough to observe, that one great object 
 is to maintain every man in possession of the share 
 in the village to which his birth has entitled him ; 
 another is to provide for a separation of interests 
 when needful, without a disturbance of the common 
 responsibility of the tribe. We may well believe 
 that men who with their mothers' milk had suckled 
 in the taste of equality and common right, were 
 not to be put off in after life with anything 
 short of their own share, whatever that share may 
 be. If a division of partnership took place by 
 the ordinary laws of the people, all sons shared 
 alike, and the custom of equal inheritance became 
 rooted in their habits.* To this day we find the 
 petty Rajpoot landholder, in connexion with the 
 
 * In the families of Hindoo Rajahs this rule does not hold 
 good. With them, generally, the eldest son succeeds to the Raj 
 and to the landed estates. 
 
46 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 original unit from whence he and his lands derive 
 their title. He does not claim to own so much 
 land, but so many fractions of that original whole 
 which his ancestor called into separate existence. 
 Thus, so far as we know, grew up and flourished 
 those village commonwealths which give their cha- 
 racter to the country. All around tended to attach 
 the military colonist to the soil, to lead him, with- 
 out renouncing the sword, to cultivate the peaceful 
 arts of husbandry. 
 
 The sword, indeed, was not allowed to rust in 
 his hands ; martial training prepared the village 
 youth to maintain stoutly what their forefathers 
 had hardly won ; a taste for rude freebooting was 
 not entirely kept down by the more chivalrous 
 principles of the clans. At the same time agri- 
 culture was the chief avowed occupation of the 
 people, and it was the mixture of agricultural 
 pursuits with a martial and resolute bearing, 
 which formed the Rajpoot character in that manly 
 mould which it still retains. Their simple plans 
 of life and self-government, their observance of 
 all that habit and custom had sanctified, their 
 determination to assert acknowledged rights rather 
 than to seek to acquire new ones, in short, the 
 genius of their manners and of their religion, 
 tended to bind the village communities closely to 
 the soil. So when the storm of Moslem invasion 
 swept time after time across their fields, the vil- 
 lage system rather bent than broke before it. To 
 use the expressive words of one our best and most 
 talented statesmen, the late Lord Metcalfe : " the 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 4? 
 
 village communities are little republics, having 
 nearly everything that they want within them- 
 selves, and almost independent of any foreign re- 
 lations. They seem to last where nothing else 
 lasts. Dynasty after dynasty tumbles down ; re- 
 volution succeeds to revolution ; Hindoo, Patan, 
 Mogul, Mahratta, Sikh, and English, are all 
 masters in turn, but the village communities re- 
 main the same. In times of trouble they arm 
 and fortify themselves : a hostile army passes 
 through the country ; the village communities col- 
 lect their cattle within their walls and let the 
 enemy pass unprovoked. If plunder and devas- 
 tation be directed against themselves, and the 
 force employed be irresistible, they flee to friendly 
 villages at a distance ; but when the storm has 
 passed over, they return and resume their occu- 
 pations. If a country remain for a series of years 
 the scene of continued pillage and massacre, so 
 that the villages cannot be inhabited, the scattered 
 villagers nevertheless return whenever the power 
 of peaceable possession revives. A generation may 
 pass away, but the succeeding generation will re- 
 turn. The sons will take the places of their 
 fathers, the same site for the village, the same 
 positions for the houses ; the same lands will be 
 occupied by the descendants of those who were 
 driven out when the village was depopulated ; and 
 it is not a trifling matter that will drive them out, 
 for they will often maintain their post through 
 times of disturbance and convulsion, and acquire 
 
48 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 strength sufficient to resist pillage and oppression 
 with success/ 
 
 So far we have endeavoured to trace the steps 
 by which the early colonists became owners of the 
 soil. For its peaceable possession they had to pay 
 tribute to the nearest chief who was able and will- 
 ing to protect them. Such tribute, whether levied 
 in kind from their crops, in coin, or other valuable 
 material, or in gratuitous service and fealty, was, in 
 truth, a sort of black mail levied by the powerful 
 from the weak, as the price of protection. The 
 powerful have in Hindustan, as elsewhere, learned 
 to assert as a right what they could maintain by 
 might. Hence, doubtless, the origin of the king's 
 claim to a share in the produce ; a claim readily 
 expanded by obsequious jurists to a share in the 
 soil, or eventually to ownership of the soil. And 
 so in India, as well as in some western nations, we 
 find the theory that the king is lord of the soil. 
 We do not, however, believe that any claim to 
 ownership of the soil was generally pretended by 
 the Hindoo chiefs or kings ; they took what they 
 could get, whether a sixth or a fourth, or any other 
 part of the produce ; and they collected this their 
 share according to a system of which the traces 
 exist to this day. The Indian genius is fertile in 
 expedients for oppression ; one of the oldest seems 
 to be the plan of compromise between the strong 
 and the weak, on condition that the weak should 
 squeeze and coerce those who are weaker still. 
 Whatever be the cause, true it is that the Indian 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. ^ 
 
 people can only be moved, secundum artem, b) 
 the lever of one of tbeir own immediate class. 
 Men who would cry aloud for justice, if any other 
 person forced their services, are dragged away from 
 their homes or their ploughs, by the head man or 
 chowdree of their own particular craft, without a 
 word of complaint. Everybody must have noticed 
 the necessity which seems to exist for employing 
 head men, or middle men, in all transactions with 
 the working classes of the East. Be the object 
 great or small, to move an army or to engage a 
 porter, with the aid of the chowdree you can get 
 on, without him you are at a stand-still. And 
 so from time immemorial the revenue screw has 
 been applied by the agency of the revenue payers. 
 The local chief called upon the district chowdree 
 for his dues ; the chowdree squeezed the head man 
 of the village ; the head man in his turn levied 
 the assessment from the village brethren. The 
 regulated system for collecting the revenue, which 
 thus grew up, though shaken by the violence of 
 the early Mahomedan conquerors, has to this day 
 never been wholly destroyed. 
 
 Patans or Moguls were glad enough to avail 
 themselves of a system so economical and so well 
 suited to the genius of the country. When they 
 had leisure* to attend to the collection of the 
 
 e The following remarks on the policy of the Moguls, quoted 
 by Rouse in his " Dissertation concerning the Landed Property 
 of Bengal," p. 1 15, are to the point: " Les conquerans Mogols 
 porterent dans toutes les contrees qu'ils soumirent par leurs 
 armes un systeme de politique qui leur fut prescrit par la neces- 
 
 17* 
 
 E 
 
50 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 revenue from the land, their desire was to restore 
 the old system ; and the reforms which Sher Shah 
 attempted, and the great Akher accomplished, 
 tended to perfect the existing system, not to 
 change it.* Timour ordained, that " if the sub- 
 jects" (of conquered countries) " were satisfied 
 with the old and established taxes, those taxes 
 should be confirmed." t The Mogul emperors 
 were not slow to acknowledge the expertness 
 of the Hindoos in the varied accounts which 
 were required in the management of the land 
 revenue. Akber owed much of his success, and 
 not a little of his renown, to the labours of his 
 Minister of Finance, the celebrated Tuder Mull. I 
 The rules by them prescribed for the conduct of 
 revenue officers are in liberality of spirit, and in 
 justice of indention, not at all behind our most 
 
 site. Au lieu de saisir les terres des vaincus, ils leur en 
 laisserent la possession, pour ne garder entre leurs mains que 
 Tepee : parceque le nombre des conquerans etoit si dispropor- 
 tionne a celui des conquis, que s'ils avoient essayer de se dis- 
 perser comme cultivateurs dans les diverses provinces, la separa- 
 tion des membres qui n'eussent plus fait un corps compacte 
 auroit bientot detruit la puissance de ce peuple. . . . L'ancienne 
 tax constitutionnelle des terres etoit la regie invariable de leurs 
 imp6ts, en sort que les peuples n'avoient fait que changer des 
 maitres." CHEVALIER DE ST. LUBIN. Politique des Mogols ; 
 Memoires historiques, ., sur les Revolutions Angloises dans 
 V Hindustan. 
 
 * See Elphinstone's "History of India," 2d vol. p. 239. 
 
 f The amount of these taxes, we learn (see Book II. of the 
 " Institutes" of Timour), was one-third of the produce of irrigated 
 ands. 
 
 I Tuder Mull was of the Kayeth caste, and early leaving the 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 51 
 
 modern and approved revenue legislation. Akber 
 desired his revenue collector " to consider himself 
 the immediate friend of the husbandman, to trans- 
 act his business in a place where every one may 
 find easy access, without requiring any mediator. 
 He must assist the needy husbandman with loans 
 of money, and receive payment at distant and con- 
 venient times ; he is required to use the utmost 
 circumspection and impartiality in measuring the 
 lands ; he is to collect the revenues with kindness, 
 and never make any demands before they become 
 due," &c. &c. * Laws conceived in this liberal 
 spirit, carefully matured and vigorously carried out, 
 left a deep impression on the revenue policy of the 
 country. 
 
 A hundred years after Tuder Mull had made 
 his first essay as a revenue officer, we find his sys- 
 tem in full force from Delhi to Bengal, under the 
 
 Punjab, his native land, commenced his political career in 
 Guzerat, A.D. 1553. He became a military chief and superin- 
 tendent of revenue by a conjunction of offices common in those 
 days. After serving in Guzerat and in Bengal with reputation, 
 he returned to Delhi in 1577. Here as peshkar, or chief deputy, 
 to the Vizier Shah Munsoor, he assisted in the internal revenue 
 reform with which his name and that of his master, the Emperor 
 Akber, has been associated. Devoid of avarice, and sincere, 
 persevering, even vindictive, in his temper, respected for his 
 attention to the ceremonies of his religion, the character of 
 Tuder Mull gave weight to his measures. He carried out a 
 detailed settlement of the land revenues with equal labour, talent, 
 and integrity. 
 
 * " Ayeen Akburee," page 377, Part III. vol. i. Calcutta 
 edition, 4to. 
 
52 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 able guidance of Shahjehan.* After Shahjehan 
 came Aurungzebe, from whose time the revenue 
 system began to decline. Let us pause here to 
 notice what a very slight acquaintance with Indian 
 history will teach us, that it requires a great mind 
 to grapple with and master the difficulties of the 
 Indian land revenue system. The greatest generals, 
 the most able politicians amongst the Mahomedans, 
 have been the best revenue officers. When talent 
 and energy were lost amidst a refined and effemi- 
 nate sensuality, when justice and liberality were 
 forgotten amidst the universal thirst for gold, the 
 revenue administration was the first to suffer. Au- 
 rungzebe, though not generally deficient as a poli- 
 tician, made one fatal error : he thrust out the 
 Hindoo officers from all posts of importance in the 
 revenue service. Whilst he was thus wantonly de- 
 stroying a system which his predecessors had so 
 carefully matured, his rival Sevajee was deeply 
 cementing the foundations of tbe Mahratta dynasty, 
 by a minute attention to the agricultural prosperity 
 of his conquests. And so, whilst the power of the 
 Mogul declined, the Mahrattas got bolder and 
 stronger, until at last the Emperor of Delhi was a 
 mere captive puppet in their hands. 
 
 Let us now glance at a plan of revenue manage- 
 ment, which may be termed, for want of a more 
 accurate name, the Zemindarree system. One of 
 
 * Shahjehan, however, yielding to the arguments of his able 
 adviser and minister Saadoollah, was inclined to adopt a less 
 detailed mode of collection than Akber had established. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 53 
 
 the great principles of Akber's policy was to collect 
 the land tax directly from the villagers, without any 
 go-between in the shape of a revenue farmer, and 
 even without a too implicit reliance on the village 
 head man. To carry out the details of this scheme, 
 numbers of subordinate collectors were employed ; 
 these were mostly Hindoos, whose patience and skill 
 in accounts qualified them for preparing the various 
 forms required.* With vigorous superintendence, 
 under the eye of a Tuder Mull or a Saadoollah, 
 such machinery would work well. Aurungzebe, 
 however, had not the patience to superintend so vast 
 an apparatus ; disgusted with the intrigues of the 
 subordinate Hindoo officers, blinded by an excessive 
 bigotry which could see no need for the services of 
 unbelievers, he dismissed them from their employ- 
 ments. The new men of his own creed lacked the 
 patient diligence and the experience of their prede- 
 cessors in office. As a matter of course, the order 
 and economy of the revenue collections ceased. A 
 new state of things grew up. It became neces- 
 sary to issue sunuds, or royal patents, for the col- 
 lection of revenue to contractors, or farmers of 
 revenue, familiarly termed zemindars. As the 
 Mogul dynasty drew near to its close, higher and 
 higher swelled the titles wider and wider rolled 
 the firmans of the emperors of the world ; but the 
 pompous forms, the fulsome language of the imperial 
 
 * See some forty of these forms, many of them containing 
 near fifty columns, in the " Dewan Pusuncl." Our modern put- 
 warries too are, we believe, expected to prepare numerous forms, 
 giving village statistics in much detail. 
 
54 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 edicts, betray the weakness of the body politic, 
 worn out with luxury and enervated by sloth. A 
 crisis was at hand ; the healthy vigour which the 
 empire had known in earlier days was lost and gone. 
 It is with empires as with men ; the extremities 
 often show the first signs of decay. So we find in 
 Bengal, that, long before the Moguls fell, a com- 
 plete disorganisation of the revenue system was in 
 progress. The Viceroys, bent on their own selfish 
 and ambitious projects, found it expedient to grasp 
 summarily at the revenue. The regular system 
 was trampled under foot. The provincial gover- 
 nors entered into engagements with men whose 
 talent, wealth, or local influence, best enabled them 
 to extort money from the agricultural population. 
 Thus grew up that class of rapacious powerful con- 
 tractors for the revenue, the zemindars of Bengal, 
 the talookdars of the Upper Provinces. The con- 
 sequences of their arbitrary proceedings were almost 
 fatal to the landed proprietors of Bengal. When 
 the grant of the Dewanny was made to the British 
 in 1765, about a century after the issue of the ear- 
 liest zemindarree patents, scarcely a vestige of the 
 village communities was in many places to be found. 
 The greater part of the country was found parcelled 
 out into large estates under powerful zemindars. 
 These men, though, as we have seen, in reality 
 merely contractors for the revenue, asserted without 
 scruple proprietary right in their entire domains. 
 
 One reason may be given for the common 
 though mischievous error of confounding these 
 zemindarree rights, or rights to collect revenue, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 55 
 
 with the right of occupation and possession of the 
 lands named in the zemindarree sunud. It was 
 natural that the Viceroys, in choosing persons for 
 the office of revenue contractor, should prefer men 
 of local influence and experience. It thus hap- 
 pened that the persons who acquired zemindarree 
 rights were often already endowed with rights allo- 
 dial and hereditary. The most grasping and un- 
 scrupulous of the Rajpoot or Brahmin communities, 
 themselves memhers of a village community, and 
 at the most only primi inter pares, struggled to 
 obtain the imperial patent, with which, when they 
 had got it, they exterminated all rights save their 
 own. Such, at least, was the process in Bengal, 
 which destroyed the village communities. Amongst 
 the sturdier clans of Behar, Benares, and the Doab, 
 the talookdar did his best to imitate the zemindar 
 of Bengal; but his success, owing to the temper of 
 the people, was not so complete. He might harass 
 and depress, but he could not destroy the spirit of 
 the clans. Grants of large tracts in reward of 
 military or political services, occasionally made by 
 the Mahomedans, and frequently by the Mahratta 
 powers, affected the village communities much as 
 the zemindarree grants which we have been describ- 
 ing. Nor were religious and charitable grants over 
 extensive tracts uncommon. In all these cases, it 
 is plain enough that the state can only alienate its 
 own right, viz. the right to collect the land-tax, 
 whether payable in money or in kind. But in the 
 general scramble for wealth and power, which 
 began with the decline of the Mogul emperors, the 
 
56 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 weakest were trampled under foot, and thousands of 
 landed proprietors became mere tenants at will. In 
 short, when the British began to raise their thoughts 
 from silk pieces and cottons to the magnificent 
 empire which was at their feet, they were fairly 
 puzzled to know to whom the land had belonged, 
 to whom it did belong, to whom it ought to belong. 
 It would be amusing, if it were not sad, to notice 
 the conflicting opinions of those days. Our friend 
 Mr. Grant, the Serishtadar, asserted that all 
 landed property was vested in the State. Mr. 
 Rouse declared that the zemindars were the real 
 owners of the soil. Warren Hastings had one 
 opinion : Philip Francis had another : Shore dif- 
 fered from all. Sorrow came fast upon the com- 
 munities of Bengal. Worse than sorrow shame- 
 attaches to the English policy, which at a later 
 period, by dubbing the zemindars as lords of the 
 soil, for ever rivetted the chains which bound down 
 its rightful owners. Hastings would have saved 
 
 O o 
 
 the people and the State from the ruinous measures 
 of the permanent settlement, but he was opposed at 
 home and abroad. When in 177^S ten years after 
 we had undertaken the government of Bengal, he 
 proposed to take some steps towards ascertaining 
 the value and capabilities of the land, he was re- 
 buked by the Court of Directors. In 1781? undis- 
 mayed by the opposition of his council, and by the 
 ignorant apathy of most of his subordinates, this 
 great man made a last effort to improve the revenue 
 system. Abolishing the provincial councils of re- 
 venue, he sent collectors to the several districts in 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 5J 
 
 Bengal. A committee of revenue sat in Calcutta, 
 under the eye of the Government. In 1785, Has- 
 tings resigned office ; he was succeeded by Mr. 
 Macphersori, whose notions on revenue matters 
 appear to have been sound. It was with the view 
 of restoring the ancient revenue system that Mr. 
 James Grant was appointed to the office of Serish- 
 tadar. An enthusiastic admirer of the Mogul 
 dynasty, he would have restored the system of Akber 
 and Tuder Mull. It would, we believe, have been 
 a happy thing for Bengal had his counsels been 
 followed. All sound statesmen in the East saw the 
 necessity for research, before any permanent mea- 
 sures affecting the land revenue could with safety 
 or justice be adopted. Of this necessity no man 
 was better aware than Warren Hastings ; but un- 
 happily, at this time, any measure which Hastings 
 approved was at once condemned by a powerful and 
 noisy party in England. Philip Francis had re- 
 corded his opinion, that '* without a fixed assess- 
 ment of the land no other measures whatsoever can 
 save the country."* On what data this fixed 
 assessment was to be grounded we cannot tell ; but, 
 so far as Francis was concerned, it was not to rest 
 upon the basis of sound experiment and inquiry. 
 With characteristic ignorance of Indian subjects, 
 he opposed every proposal for securing the rights of 
 the Ryots (by which term the ancient village com- 
 munities were intended) to the perpetual and undis- 
 
 * See an elaborate minute of his, stuffed with quotations 
 from Adam Smith, Sir James Stuart, and Montesquieu. 
 Revenue Selections, p. 439. 
 
58 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 turbed possession of their lands. In his opinion, 
 it was impossible to support the ryots without doing 
 injustice to the zemindars. Alas that the opinions 
 of Francis should have found acceptance ; that those 
 of Warren Hastings should have been rejected! 
 We might wonder that Hastings's common sense 
 was despised, whilst the theories of Francis pre- 
 vailed, did we not remember that just at this crisis 
 the cry of u India in danger ! " was raised. Expe- 
 rience has taught us, that when India is in danger 
 common sense and prudence are at a discount. 
 India in danger ! and forthwith some violent remedy 
 is prescribed ; generally the catching hold of some 
 new Governor-general, or military chief, who is 
 hurried out to the scene of action with orders to 
 undo all that his predecessor has done. A more 
 high-minded nobleman, a more benevolent statesman 
 than Lord Cornwallis, never existed. But he was 
 sent out burdened with instructions drawn up in 
 London, and ill-adapted to the country in which 
 they were to take effect. A landed gentry, a native 
 aristocracy, a class resembling that which Lord 
 Cornwallis adorned at home, seemed indispensable 
 to the carrying out of the home plans. If such a 
 class was not to be found, it must be created. But 
 the zemindars were surely the very men wanted. 
 Titles, power, wealth, influence they possessed ; 
 public spirit, a sense of honour and good faith, 
 would follow when they were liberally and honor- 
 ably treated. Thus argued Lord Cornwallis, and 
 the zemindars were declared the lawful lords of the 
 soil. This was not enough : their revenue pay- 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 59 
 
 ments to the State must be fixed at once and for 
 ever ! All measures for ascertaining the value of 
 this apparently inestimable boon were forbidden. 
 Surveys, measurements, and other such ordinary 
 common-sense processes, would not please the young 
 aristocracy ; so thought the Governor-general, and 
 no doubt justly enough. In vain did the mild voice 
 of the experienced Shore plead for delay : in vain 
 did he urge that our limited information forbade a 
 measure so sudden, so vast, and so irrevocable. 
 Cornwallis persisted. The broad lands of Bengal 
 were given away at an unequal and erring rate to 
 the land-jobbing zemindars of Bengal, and for 
 ever ! The village communities, who had outlived 
 the convulsions and demise of the Mogul empire, 
 went down to the very dust, to be trampled upon 
 by every village tyrant, to lead a sort of Ishmael 
 life, their hands against every man, and every 
 man's hand against them. We have called this 
 boon to the zemindars apparently inestimable. But 
 there is a fatality attending all attempts at legis- 
 lating for India in England. Give us English 
 honesty, justice, and independence for India, but 
 spare us English law. By the code which intro- 
 duced the permanent settlement, it was ruled that 
 before a zemindar could force his tenant to pay his 
 rent, the justice of the demand might be disputed 
 in the civil courts by the tenant, and the payment 
 deferred pendente lite. Yet the zemindars were to 
 pay their revenue to Government to the day. The 
 result may easily be imagined ; the tenants dis- 
 puted, the rents were unpaid, the revenue could 
 
60 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 not be collected, and that monstrous evil, the sale 
 of estates for revenue balances, began. Confusion 
 increased as the lands became the subject of a 
 general scramble. A set of cunning speculators, 
 who had managed to learn enough of the new sys- 
 tem for their own ends rascals, in comparison with 
 whom the zemindars of Cornwallis were respectable, 
 were fast becoming proprietors of the country. The 
 zemindars were falling so fast, that, to save them 
 from annihilation, it became necessary to pass a 
 new law.* This law enabled the zemindar to come 
 down summarily upon defaulting tenants. Some 
 such expedient had been made inevitable by the 
 previous blunders of the legislature. We shudder 
 to contemplate the condition of the tenants, whose 
 forefathers had been in the long enjoyment of 
 landed rights, but who were now given over to a 
 worse than Egyptian bondage. A few extracts 
 from the official records of those days will show 
 whether our language, when mourning over the 
 grave of all agricultural freedom and independence 
 in Bengal, is too strong. The Nizamut Adawlut, 
 the chief court of criminal judicature in the country, 
 informs the Governor-general in 1809, li We are 
 1 'convinced that some qualification of the power 
 " now vested in the landholders, farmers, and 
 66 under-renters, to recover alleged arrears of rent 
 u by distress, without any previous investigation of 
 " the claim of arrear, is indispensably necessary to 
 " secure the tenants of the land from oppression 
 
 * Reg. VII. 1799. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 61 
 
 u and ruin."* In 1810, the Magistrate of Dinage- 
 pore writes of "a general system of rack-renting, 
 " hard-heartedness, and exaction, through farmers, 
 *' under-farmers, kutkunadars (farmers under sub- 
 " farmers), and the whole host of zemindarree 
 *' amlah." Even this rack-renting, he tells us, " is 
 " unfairly managed. We have no regular leases 
 " executed between the zemindar and his tenants. 
 u We do not find a mutual consent and unre- 
 " strained negotiation in their bargains. Nothing 
 '' like it ; but, instead, wo hear of nothing but arbi- 
 " trary demands, enforced by stocks, duress of sorts 
 " and battery of their persons."t In 1811, Mr. W. 
 Leycester, Judge of Dinagepore, writes thus : 
 " The remaining three thousand" (daily prisoners 
 in his district) " I would attribute to the illegal 
 " duress of sundry kinds by the zemindarree amlah 
 11 upon the bodies of their ryots, in order to com- 
 " pel some kind of engagement from them which 
 '* may be hoped to give a shadow of justice to their 
 " future distraints.":]: The Collector of the district 
 gives similar testimony to the misery of the culti- 
 vators^ In 1815, Mr. Sisson, joint Magistrate of 
 
 * Letter from the Register to the Nizamut Adawlut, 4th 
 July, 1809. See, also, extract of a letter from the Acting 
 Judge of Circuit at Moorshedabad, 1st August, 1810. Rev. 
 Sel. 211. 
 
 f Magistrate of Dinagepoor to the Acting Judge of Circuit 
 at Moorshedabad, 24th July, 1810. Rev. Sel. 21 1. 
 
 | Revenue Selections. 218. 
 
 Rev. Sel. 231. See, also, a letter from Mr. Barnett, 
 Acting Collector of Rajeshahye, 1 6th August, 1811. Rev. Sel. 
 240. 
 
2 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 Rungpore, gives to the Government a detailed 
 account of tho sufferings of the ryots at the hands 
 of the zemindars, which he concludes in the fol- 
 lowing words: " Not a child can be born, not a 
 " head religiously shaved, riot a son married, not a 
 " daughter given in marriage, not even one of the 
 " tyrannical fraternity dies, without an immediate 
 " visitation of calamity upon the ryot. Whether 
 " the occasion be joyful, whether it be sad, in its 
 4< effects to the cultivator it is alike mournful 
 " and calamitous. Surely it will be sufficient to 
 " have stated these facts. I feel that I should 
 " be only weakening the cause by dispassionately 
 " discussing the probable effects of the conti- 
 " nuance of so woeful a system of remorseless 
 tyranny."* 
 
 We admire the independence and honesty with 
 which the civil officers of those days protested 
 against the mischievous policy of Government. 
 Their representations were supported by the Go- 
 vernor-general. The Marquis of Hastings informs 
 the Court of Directors in very plain terms that 
 " The class of village proprietors appeared (in the 
 large zemindar ree holdings) to be in a train of 
 annihilation, and, unless a remedy is speedily ap- 
 plied, the class will soon be extinct. Indeed," 
 he adds, "I fear that any remedy that could be 
 proposed would even now come too late to be of 
 any effect in the several estates of Bengal ; for the 
 license of twenty years, which has been left to the 
 
 * Mr. Sisson's Report, 2d April, 1815. Rev. Sel. 390. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 63 
 
 zemindar of that province, will have given them 
 the power, and they have never wanted the in- 
 clination, to extinguish the rights of this class, so 
 that no remnants of them will soon be discoverable." 
 It is needless to add to these quotations, but we 
 may well pause to ask, whether the words of Lord 
 Hastings have been prophetic ? What are now the 
 rights of the village proprietors in Bengal? Have 
 they been extinguished? Especially we may ask, 
 has the Bengal Government taken advantage of 
 the opportunities given by the survey of the land 
 now in progress to record and to establish such 
 rights as have survived to this day ? 
 
 The Court of Directors, when it was too late, 
 became aware of the mistakes which had been 
 made in Bengal. For some time after the death 
 of the Marquis of Cornwallis, the system of reve- 
 nue administration, introduced under his auspices, 
 was considered to be a master-stroke of policy. 
 The sagacious Wellesley applauded it, and hastily 
 promised an extension of the permanent settlement 
 to the ceded and conquered provinces north-west 
 of Bengal.* This promise was renewed by Lord 
 Minto, with the proviso of the sanction of the 
 Court of Directors. t This sanction was never 
 granted. In Lord Minto's time we find the home 
 authorities gradually opening their eyes to the 
 error which they had committed. In 1811, in the 
 strictest terms, they forbade an extension of the 
 
 * See Reg. XXV., 1803, and Reg-. IX., 1805. 
 t Reg. X., 1107. 
 
64 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 Bengal system to the north-west.* Early in 1812 
 the Court express a doubt whether, after all, the 
 principle of the permanent settlement be so clearly 
 right as to render its universal adoption desirable. 
 In 1815 their language becomes a little more plain, 
 and lt the great mistakes which unquestionably oc- 
 curred in forming the permanent settlement" are 
 commented upon freely enough. In short, the 
 bubble had burst ; the permanent settlement was 
 found to have been a mistake. 
 
 Thus far we have endeavoured to trace the 
 origin of landed property, such as we now find it, 
 in the Bengal presidency, and we have noted the 
 effects of the permanent settlement upon the landed 
 proprietors in Bengal proper. Turn we now to the 
 north-west. Gradually, as we recede from Bengal, 
 setting our faces towards the sources of the Ganges, 
 we begin to meet with men of stouter frame and 
 tougher texture. And now, as at length we stretch 
 over the vast level Doab between the Ganges and 
 Jumna, we find ourselves amongst those soldier- 
 cultivators, whom we have described in the graphic 
 terms of Lord Metcalfe.t Bred under a severer 
 climate, agriculturists and soldiers by taste, some- 
 times robbers from necessity, the clans of the north- 
 west, through every political storm, have clung fast 
 
 * " The object of the present dispatch," says the Court, " is 
 " to caution you in the most pointed manner against pledging 
 " us to the extension of the Bengal fixed assessment to our newly 
 " acquired territories." Letter to the Bengal Government, 
 Uth November, 1811. 
 
 f Ante, p. 46. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 65 
 
 to their village lands. Time will not permit us to 
 dwell at any length on the details of our earlier 
 administration in the ceded or conquered provinees. 
 An extension of the permanent settlement, as we 
 have already observed, had been promised uncon- 
 ditionally by Lord Wellesley, and conditionally by 
 Lord Minto. The condition was the sanction of 
 the Court of Directors, who, very fortunately, did 
 not grant it. Lord Minto hinted at " the dan- 
 geraus consequences to be expected from the dis- 
 appointment of the landholders of the upper pro- 
 vinces if the boon were longer delayed." But the 
 Court had grown wary, and as for the landholders, 
 the sample they got of the Bengal revenue legis- 
 lation in the operation of the land sale laws which 
 had been introduced was quite enough for them ; 
 in fact, when some years later the Marquis of 
 Hastings made a tour through the provinces a 
 tour, too, for the very purpose of inquiry into the 
 condition of the landed classes we believe that he 
 was not once reminded of the promises of Lord 
 Minto or Lord Wellesley. The Marquis by this 
 time was aware, that there would be more of danger 
 in attempting to introduce the Bengal policy than 
 in declining to extend it to the north-west. Up to 
 the year 1822, if the acts of the (Revenue) legis- 
 lature had been feeble and uncertain, so had the 
 proceedings of the executive been most faulty, per- 
 plexed, and irregular. Do we blame the early 
 servants of Government if their acts were arbitrary, 
 their councils irresolute ? Certainly not ; our early 
 commissioners and collectors in the north-west were 
 
66 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 working in the dark, or, at best, were as mariners 
 in a troubled and dangerous sea without chart or 
 compass. Ignorant of the tenures of the country, 
 they were obliged to trust to powerful and in- 
 terested subordinates, who led them astray. Or 
 when, in spite of obstacles, they had gained some- 
 thing of local knowledge and experience, their 
 hands were tied by the laws which they ad- 
 ministered. 
 
 That monstrum horrendum, the sale-law of 
 Bengal, had been imported ; a law alike unsuited 
 to the habits, feelings, and genius of the people, 
 and, as we believe, to the real interests of the 
 State. The scramble which had taken place in 
 Bengal was acted over again in the north-west. 
 But the stout Rajpoot was not to be tamed like 
 the effeminate Bengalee. A war of land-holder 
 against decree-holder, auction-purchaser, and all 
 other intruders, began, which has left indelible 
 marks upon the history and condition of the people 
 at large. Law failing, luck failing, the stubborn 
 husbandman had recourse to the last argument, 
 indeed, too often the first argument with a Rajpoot, 
 the club or the tulwar. Open affrays, nightly 
 assassinations, endless and bloody feuds, spread 
 over the land. All the clubs and swords, however, 
 could not deter sharp men from studying our re- 
 venue practice, in order to obtain a title to lands. 
 The excitement of the ordinary law courts was 
 tame compared with that which our revenue officers 
 afforded. As the sale-day came round, whilst the 
 defaulting landholder was either kept by the con- 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. j 
 
 trivances of the officials in ignorance of his lia- 
 bilities, or was sulkily abiding the doom of his 
 lands in his old ancestral fort, the sleek money- 
 dealer was at his post ; the lot was proclaimed, 
 bribes went round, knowing looks passed between 
 the amlah and the capitalist, whilst the collector's 
 hammer transferred estates, equal, perhaps, in ex- 
 tent and value to a first-rate German principality, 
 from a family of fine fellows, whose forefathers had 
 reclaimed it from the w r ild beasts, to some cunning 
 usurer, who would never have the heart to visit 
 his purchase. At last, one of the magistrates,* a 
 benevolent and talented man, protested in language 
 so powerful, yet so just, against these proceedings, 
 that the Government were obliged to interfere. A 
 regulation was passed, with the express object of 
 cancelling the iniquitous proceedings by which 
 " poor and ignorant men" had been, under cover 
 of the sale-law, deprived of their property.t Let 
 us hope that the special commissioners appointed 
 under this law did some good and remedied some 
 evil. Better times were now fast approaching. 
 One most important discovery had been made. 
 We had learned our own ignorance. At last the 
 Government fully felt the necessity for inquiry and 
 investigation. The result of Holt Mackenzie's 
 tour with the Governor-general, through the upper 
 provinces, was the enactment of Regulation VII. 
 
 * Mr. T. C. Robertson, afterwards Lieutenant-governor of 
 the Agra Presidency, 
 f Reg. I., 1821. 
 
68 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 of 1822. This was the Magna Charta of the 
 village communities. From its date commences a 
 new era in the revenue history of India. Property 
 in the soil, as distinguished from interest in the mal 
 or revenue, was, for the first time, clearly recog- 
 nised. The collectors were set to work, and plenty 
 of work was cut out for them. The interests of all 
 parties connected with the soil were to come under 
 revision and record. The various claims to the 
 land, some concurrent and requiring specification, 
 some conflicting and demanding settlement, were 
 to be reviewed. Inquiry was to be pushed close 
 as to the productiveness and capabilities of the 
 soil. Holt Mackenzie's anxiety to do justice to 
 all, to a certain extent, defeated its own object. 
 An amount of detail and of labour was thrown 
 upon the collectors which was more than they 
 could bear. Fast men could make little progress 
 in the settlement of their districts ; slow men 
 made none at all that was perceptible. Nor 
 could it be otherwise with proceedings so varied 
 and so minute. A hide of land supplied a bullock- 
 load of records. Before many years had passed, 
 the revenue machinery, which had seemed to 
 Mackenzie rusted with idleness, was found clog- 
 ged with over-work. Thus stood matters when 
 Lord William Bentinck's powerful and practical 
 mind was brought to grapple with this great 
 question. He determined, if possible, to remedy 
 the stoppage, and, calling to his aid one of the 
 ablest men in the Civil Service, he applied himself 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 69 
 
 to the work.* A short, but stringent and effectual, 
 law was passed, t The impossibility of bringing 
 disputes to a crisis had hitherto stopped surveys, 
 settlements, and everything else. A remedy, simple 
 and equitable, was provided. The collector was 
 empowered, in disputed cases, to summon a village 
 jury, and to carry out their award at once. Another 
 cause of delay had been the enormous demand upon 
 the collector's time and patience for the arrange- 
 ment of minor details. These were wisely handed 
 over to native or other qualified subordinates, with 
 powers to act as deputy-collectors. No effort, no 
 expense, was spared to set on foot that great and 
 noble work, the survey and settlement of the north- 
 western provinces. Under the auspices of Lord 
 Bentinck the chief Board of Revenue gradually 
 matured their plans. With the aid of some of the 
 best talent which the Service could supply a scheme 
 was completed, which to the scope and liberality of 
 Akber's policy added the exactness of European 
 science. The work was carried out ably and zea- 
 lously, and eight years saw every village in the 
 north-western provinces measured, every field 
 mapped. We must satisfy ourselves by hastily no- 
 
 * Our great revenue reformers have not always been trained 
 in any existing revenue school. Monro laid down the sword to 
 introduce the ryotwar system at Madras. Holt Mackenzie be- 
 longed to the Secretariat; and Robert Martens Bird, before he 
 was called to the Revenue Board by Lord William Bentinck, 
 had on the judicial bench become acquainted with the defects of 
 our revenue system. 
 
 f Reg. IX., 1833. 
 
70 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 ticing the points of difference which are most 
 obvious, when comparing this settlement with that 
 of Bengal. And though the contrast, if fairly 
 drawn, must show in strong colours the superiority 
 of the later operations, it must be remembered that 
 nearly lifty years had elapsed since the earlier set- 
 tlement was devised. If, with more mature ex- 
 perience, we were able to avoid the rocks upon 
 which our earlier legislators ran, it is but fair to 
 acknowledge that the same just, liberal, and honest 
 intention pervaded the early and the late settlement. 
 The difference was in the head, not in the heart, 
 of the great men whose policy we are discussing. 
 The philosophy of the first settlement was that of 
 the old schoolmen ; a dogma was taken up, and 
 matters were driven into agreement with it. The 
 philosophy of the last settlement was of the induc- 
 tive method. Holt Mackenzie and Robert Bird 
 are the Bacons and Hookers of our revenue schools. 
 The projectors of the first settlement forbade and 
 eschewed local inquiries of a close and searching 
 nature. They forgot the ground on which they 
 stood to look for analogies which had no existence. 
 Full of theoretical justice, they did solid wrong ; full 
 of real benevolence, they spread ruin and desolation 
 around. The projectors of the last settlement, by a 
 wide observance of the real state of things, by com- 
 parison, by analysis, by patient investigations, qua- 
 lified themselves to take up solid ground, and on it 
 to build a stable and well-proportioned structure. 
 The first settlement ruined the persons for whose 
 benefit it was devised. The last settlement saved 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 7 I 
 
 millions of much-enduring men from ruin and 
 misery. The ancient landed proprietors were pro- 
 tected from further injury and degradation. In 
 numberless cases they were restored to their rights 
 rights which, though they had never ceased to 
 assert, they had almost despaired of asserting with 
 success. In Bengal, the mass of the agricultural 
 communities were given over, tied hand and foot, to 
 soi-disant zemindars, who had no real and para- 
 mount rights, and no bowels for the people. In the 
 north-west, the agricultural classes were released 
 from the thraldom in which they had been held by 
 revenue farmers and contractors, whether known as 
 Eajahs or Talookdars. Considering the process by 
 which these talookdars had obtained a footing over 
 their estates, it would have been perfectly justifiable 
 if the ruling power had declined their further ser- 
 vices as middle-men, and forthwith removed them 
 from all holdings to which they could not prove a 
 title by inheritance or purchase. Nay, not only 
 would such a process have been justifiable, but some 
 such restitution justice demanded in favour of the 
 families who, during the last half century, had sunk 
 under the power of the talookdars, almost to the 
 level of mere tenants at will. Justice was done, but 
 justice was tempered with mercy. A selfish policy 
 would have supported the talookdars and quietly 
 extinguished the subordinate proprietors, if, indeed, 
 they can be justly called subordinate who were, 
 though oppressed, the real lords of the soil. Stern 
 justice might have ousted the talookdars and have 
 
72 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 restored the village communities, as we have already 
 said, leaving the talookdar to fall hack upon such 
 resources as he might have, independently of his 
 talookdaree rights. But the Government did not 
 press so hardly upon men, who, though without 
 sufficient title, had long enjoyed power and wealth. 
 In the large talookas the villages were settled with 
 such of the local communities as could prove a just 
 title to the land ; the State took all the risk and all 
 the loss attendant upon engagements with broken, 
 thriftless, and impoverished men : but, at the same 
 time, a considerable allowance (from 10 to 30 per 
 cent on the revenue payments) was settled on the 
 excluded talookdar. For this act of self-denying 
 justice, which brought liberty and comparative in- 
 dependence to thousands, we conceive that the 
 revenue authorities deserve all credit. A more 
 just, and, as one would suppose, a more popular 
 measure, could not have been devised. Yet, both 
 in India and in England, this particular part of the 
 settlement proceedings has been suspected and 
 abused. At home, the matter was never fairly un- 
 derstood, except by a very few of those who had to 
 pass an opinion upon it. In India we might well 
 wonder that the enfranchisement of the village com- 
 munities was unpopular, unless we happened to 
 know what Indian popularity means. The vox 
 populi, we may at once say, has little or nothing 
 to do with it, for that voice is not yet heard. In a 
 country where public spirit and patriotism are un- 
 known, and where tyranny has long pushed law 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. JS 
 
 aside, a Government, to be good, must be paternal. 
 A just and powerful Government, whose aim is 
 
 " Parcere subjectis et debellaie superbos," 
 
 will only be popular when the popular voice has had 
 time to gain confidence, and to create an audience 
 for itself. Spurious popularity in the East may be 
 cheaply obtained by following Sir Robert Walpole's 
 maxim, " quieta non movere" Let the rich devour 
 the poor, let the powerful oppress the weak, touch 
 not vested interests, and with a little courtesy and 
 professed liberality, a Government will be popular. 
 
 The voices of those who alone obtain a hearing, 
 because they alone can make themselves heard the 
 voices of the great, the rich, and the influential, will 
 join in a chorus of adulation. But let the sword 
 which God has placed in the hand of the magis- 
 trate be fearlessly wielded, let impartial justice be 
 shown to all alike, and there will be an end of po- 
 pularity. Millions may bless, and will bless, an in- 
 trepid and just Governor ; but then who, in India, 
 hears the voice of the million ? No, it must be an 
 object more real and noble than popularity which 
 nerves the legislator for his task. It must be a 
 sense, a deep and earnest sense of duty. Tbis 
 eminently did those men possess who planned and 
 executed the settlements in the north-west. Their 
 chief objects were to equalise the burdens borne by 
 the landed classes, to rescue and record the rights 
 of tbe village communities, and to introduce fairness 
 and moderation in the transactions between landlord 
 and tenant. 
 
74 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 It is impossible to deny that their efforts have 
 been successful. There is at present a lucid order 
 and economy about the revenue system to which 
 no other branch of the administration can pretend 
 with any sort of justice. Our Police, our Civil 
 Courts, might well be improved ; our revenue man- 
 agement in the north-west seems alone to progress 
 steadily towards excellence. A reform so great and 
 so rapid must in its course meet with opposition, 
 and give cause for hostility. Amongst the servants 
 of Government, some of the most estimable, whose 
 station and habits removed them from much contact 
 with the mind of the people, took their estimate of 
 the settlement from their native acquaintance 
 amongst the higher ranks. 
 
 There may have been other reasons, too, for the 
 prejudice with which some of what may be called 
 the old school regarded this great measure. With 
 them we seek no controversy. Nor will we stay to 
 dispute the point with those who call the necessary 
 lowering of the Government demand, owing to the 
 effects of the lamentable drought and dearth of the 
 years 1837 and 1838, a breaking down of the set- 
 tlement. We care not to argue with opponents who 
 attribute the visitations of God. to the devices of 
 man. Let such take their stand with the gentle- 
 man at Bombay, who has traced the ravages of the 
 cholera to the salt monopoly of the East India Com- 
 pany. But, in truth, now that the improved revenue 
 system has had time to work, and to prove its worth, 
 it needs no apology or defence. The greatest hap- 
 piness of the greatest number has, as far as possible, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. J5 
 
 been secured. The exact state of things in every 
 township has been carefully investigated and re- 
 corded. Disputes have been composed ; jealousies 
 have been allayed. The rights of the village 
 sharers have been carefully preserved and recorded, 
 whilst the interests of the merest cultivator have not 
 been overlooked. The orderly payment of a mo- 
 derate revenue has been provided for, and where 
 default occurs, the means have been devised for 
 coming down directly upon the defaulter, a*hd saving 
 the man who has discharged his engagements punc- 
 tually. In every district, officers selected from the 
 people decide every dispute that may arise, under 
 the direct control of the Collector of the district. 
 Check upon check has been devised to prevent 
 delay in the decision of all cases affecting the inte- 
 rests of the landed community. And as, in an ope- 
 ration so vast as the settlement of these provinces, 
 many errors and inaccuracies must have crept in, 
 the revenue authorities have been invested with 
 power to rectify any error and to supply any de- 
 ficiency in the record.* Of late years, the best 
 energies of the Government have been directed to 
 the improvement and consolidation of the revenue 
 system. Compendious treatises, embracing not only 
 the rules of revenue process, but also the principles 
 of revenue science, have been drawn up. Transla- 
 tions of these have been distributed right and left. 
 
 The more intelligent of the people are being 
 thus fast led to co-operate with their rulers, whose 
 
 * See Government resolution, 12th September, 1848. 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 principles are better understood and appreciated. 
 All candidates for government employ find the ne- 
 cessity of mastering the existing Revenue Code. 
 
 The consequence is, that numbers of books in 
 the language of the country, some of considerable 
 merit, are issuing from the presses at Agra, Delhi, 
 and elsewhere, explanatory of the laws affecting 
 landed tenures, and of the principles of agriculture 
 and rural economy. 
 
 The Collectors of Revenue have been encou- 
 raged to disseminate manuals of useful knowledge 
 suited to the capacities of the rising generation 
 among the students at the village-schools. Such 
 books, for which also the people have to thank the 
 Government of the north-western provinces, will, we 
 trust, supersede the trash which has hitherto been 
 taught at these schools. 
 
 One great work remains to be noticed, the im- 
 portance of which to the physical welfare of the 
 millions of the Doab can hardly be over-rated. In 
 these fertile, but thirsty plains, the demand for 
 water is almost incessant and unlimited ; in seasons 
 of drought the whole country becomes panic-stricken, 
 Thousands snatch their means of subsistence direct 
 from the soil, who, when their crops fail for want of 
 rain, have nothing to subsist upon. Grain may be 
 stored in abundance, but the smaller landholders 
 have nothing to give in exchange for it. Famine 
 and pestilence are the necessary consequences ; nor 
 can all the liberality of Government do much to 
 avert the evil. 
 
 It has been reserved for an administration iden- 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 77 
 
 tified in a peculiar manner with the revenue reforms 
 in the upper provinces to commence upon this 
 great work, and to urge its progress, in spite of 
 many obstacles. The Ganges Canal will, when 
 completed, save the Doab from future dread of 
 famine as a magnificent proof of British enter- 
 prise it will, we trust, ere long take its place 
 with the survey and settlement operations. Point- 
 ing to these monuments of the energy, the skill, and 
 the liberality of the British Government in India, 
 we shall be able confidently to boast that the mantle 
 of Akber has fallen on no unworthy successors. In 
 Akber's imperial city shall the fame of Akber be 
 eclipsed. It may, haply, belong to Agra to roll 
 away the reproach which has been too long attached 
 to the British name, 'the reproach of narrow com- 
 mercial views and selfish policy. As the friends of 
 India, above all, of the patient cultivators of the 
 soil, the best wish we can offer them is that Eng- 
 lishmen may fulfil their high destinies. Con- 
 querors of all around, a noble strife is yet before us. 
 A glorious battle is to be fought, not in tented field, 
 not in the arena of ambition or self-aggrandisement. 
 England's remaining combat must be, not only with 
 the cunning, the ignorance, the superstition of her 
 Eastern children, but with the pride, the sloth, the 
 selfishness of her own sons. In such a warfare, con- 
 quering ourselves, we shall conquer all. Justice, 
 mercy, and Christian charity, these must be the 
 weapons which, steeling our own hearts, and soften- 
 ing the hearts of our opponents, shall surely bring 
 us to victory. 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 III. 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE RAJPOOT AGRICULTURIST, 
 AND CONDITION OF THE LANDED PROPRIE- 
 TORS UNDER BRITISH RULE. 
 
 AN intelligent traveller from London or New 
 York, arriving in Calcutta, and taking up the pa- 
 pers of the day in the hope of gleaning some inform- 
 ation about the country and people, would probably 
 find himself fairly puzzled. In one column he 
 would read a sprightly article, in which the settled 
 superiority of British rule over Indian anarchy was 
 touched with the passing pen, as a matter of fact, 
 open to no dispute, and requiring no confirmation. 
 In the next page, however, if he did not meet with 
 the direct converse of this proposition, he would 
 probably be told plainly enough that the sway of 
 the English in India was a mere pretence or a pal- 
 pable failure. The more he read, the more his 
 wonder would grow. How comes it, he might ask, 
 that an empire confessedly so magnificent, the envy 
 and wonder of the world, a whole evidently so stu- 
 pendous, is yet made up of parts, which, if the 
 public prints are to be believed, are ill assorted, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 79 
 
 worse put together, and separately contemptible ? 
 If the Government be feeble and partial, the courts 
 venal, the police corrupt; if all the machinery of the 
 State be out of order, and all its functions deranged ; 
 how comes this general confession, whether avowed 
 or implied, of the depth, the supremacy, of British 
 influence in the East ? We might attempt to solve 
 this question by asking another. Is the English 
 public able to judge fully and impartially of the 
 condition of the Indian people ? India owes much 
 to a free, and, on the whole, an enlightened press, 
 which by boldly recording facts has drawn attention 
 to lonof-established grievances or to incipient abuses ; 
 but in the nature of things the British press is 
 better able to protect and define the rights of 
 Englishmen than to decide that great and mo- 
 mentous question, the condition of the people of 
 India. Yet the test by which Government must be 
 tried is this : Are our laws and institutions suited 
 to the genius, happiness, and improvement of our 
 subject millions ? Before this question, which we 
 must answer one day to God and to man, other 
 matters sink into comparative insignificance. We 
 believe that the efforts of the Government to 
 suit their proceedings to the people have of late 
 years been great ; but, owing to the nature of our 
 empire in the East, these efforts are but little known 
 and much misrepresented. The powers that be are 
 the constant objects of attack here, as indeed in all 
 free countries, or in all countries in which the 
 press is unshackled. But in Europe and America, 
 where party spirit reigns supreme, if one party 
 
80 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 attacks the Government another defends it ; and the 
 State gains as much by his friends as it loses by its 
 foes. Here it is all attack and no defence. Our 
 Indian Governors, conscious of material power and 
 full integrity of purpose, guide calmly and steadily 
 the vessel of the State, and scorn to shorten sail to 
 the puffs of calumny, with a degree of stoicism 
 which we believe may be carried too far : they re- 
 sent no injury, repel no insinuation, and invite no 
 aid. 
 
 We have been led into these reflections by the 
 examination of a little treatise on village affairs, 
 which has lately been published at Agra.* This 
 work adds one to the many proofs around us of the 
 valuable results of our improved revenue legislation. 
 A native of talent and observation, who, under the 
 old regime could never have risen to any share in 
 the revenue administration, now speaks ex cathedra 
 as a deputy-collector, and in a lucid sketch of the 
 internal village state gives us the result of his ex- 
 perience. We turn to this subject with interest, 
 because we believe that our late success in the re- 
 venue administration is little known to the English 
 public, and has not been yet sufficiently appreciated. 
 The subject is not only interesting in itself, and by 
 no means exhausted ; but is also so pregnant with 
 suggestion as to what our general policy should be, 
 that its indirect importance can hardly be over- 
 
 * Kit&b i hdldt i Dihee, or the Book of Village Affairs. By 
 Jumaloodeen Hussnn, deputy-collector of Mynpoorie. 1850. 
 Lithographed (in very good style) at the Musdir-ool Nuwadir 
 Press. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 81 
 
 rated. The nature of our present revenue system, 
 and the reason of its success, may be shortly told. 
 Our plan is, after patient inquiry into the condition 
 of the people, into their own way of thinking and 
 acting, to form rules of procedure which may suit 
 existing and deeply-rooted institutions. Instead of 
 trying to force these institutions into a model which 
 may suit our ideas of expediency, we have of late 
 years tried earnestly to adapt our proceedings to the 
 wants and the genius of the people. This is the 
 secret of our success, and the omen of our future 
 increasing strength and prosperity. Working with 
 the people of the country for their good, Heaven 
 will bless our labours, and we may accomplish the 
 great destiny which opens before us. 
 
 Our present object is to give some slight idea of 
 the existing state of the agricultural proprietors 
 under our rule in the north-western provinces. 
 The leaders amongst them are the descendants of 
 those colonists, half-soldiers, half-cultivators, whose 
 origin we attempted to trace in a former number.* 
 Thes? form, perhaps, the most important, and cer- 
 tainly not the least interesting, portion of that vast 
 family which has fallen so strangely under the sway of 
 the Anglo-Saxon race. Men like these are worth ex- 
 amining ; their almost mysterious origin and settle- 
 ment, their manly mould and character, their sol- 
 dierly bearing and ancient blood, alike commend 
 them to our sympathy and our respect. Such, in 
 many points of resemblance, were the fathers of our 
 
 * See No. II. p. 41. 
 
82 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 own island home. Here, in the far East, we may 
 trace the clannish feelings and feuds, the love of a 
 ride across the border, the readiness for an appeal 
 to sword or club, which marked our Celtic pro- 
 genitors. Here, again, we may note the endurance of 
 toil, the tenacity of purpose and affection, the devo- 
 tion to the household gods, the homestead, and the 
 soil, which our Saxon fathers knew. It may be as 
 well to select, as a fair specimen of these tribes, the 
 Rajpoot of the Doab. 
 
 The traveller passing up towards the north- 
 west, from the sacred spot where, under the walls 
 of Allahabad, the Ganges and Jumna unite, must 
 not expect to see anything like a beautiful country. 
 For, in truth, whatever there may be of sylvan or 
 rural beauty in the Doab, does not disclose itself to 
 the wayfarer on the high road. The highway itself, 
 with its stream of varied life, may interest ; the gene- 
 ral look of the country will only give disappoint- 
 ment. Yet, if you strike off the beaten path at any 
 point from Allahabad to Delhi, you can scarcely go 
 many miles without coming upon scenes of much 
 quiet beauty. Villages, surrounded at one season 
 with the richest vegetation, at another with golden 
 crops, throw an air of rural comfort and abundance 
 over the scene. The mango grove, the tank, the 
 village shrine, adorn a landscape, which, if not 
 beautiful, is at least pleasing to the eye. The most 
 prominent object in such scenes is the old village 
 fort, which has for centuries sheltered some clan of 
 Eajpoots, half -kings, half-robbers. Passing the 
 underwood in which cattle are grazing, the lotus- 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 83 
 
 covered pond, the groves and orchards which cluster 
 around, you come to the stronghold whose rising 
 towers look over the surrounding plain. The ap- 
 proach is by a rough steep track, worn deep with 
 the feet of men and cattle. The thick hamboo 
 jungle which once surrounded the walls has been 
 cut down, the moat has been nearly filled up with 
 the rubbish of a century, the massive doors have 
 fallen into decay ; but still there is a rough kind of 
 stateliness, a sort of baronial dignity, hanging 
 about the place. Pushing through a wicket you 
 come, under a heavy gateway, into the quadrangular 
 inclosure within the walls. Here all tells of rural 
 abundance, and of the dolcefar niente of country 
 life. On one side are buffaloes and cows tethered, 
 lazily chewing the cud, or eating their provender 
 out of huge earthenware vessels let into the earth ; 
 on another side is a range of stabling for horses, 
 
 o O * 
 
 bullocks, or other cattle. Here a long open passage 
 is filled with the palanquins and bullock-carriages 
 of the family ; there stands a row of closed cham- 
 bers, stored with the produce of the farm, heaps of 
 grain, oil-cake, or sugar in great reservoirs of un- 
 baked clay, defying damp and vermin. At the 
 further corner of this inclosure is a rough stair, 
 leading up to the flat roofs of the stables and store- 
 houses below. Here are the lounging-places, the 
 beds of the male members of the family, and cham- 
 bered galleries, leading away to the more private 
 abodes of the women. Your Rajpoot is not very 
 choice about his bed-room or bed, and is satisfied 
 with any corner in which the wind blows upon him, 
 
84 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 where he can find a place to hang up his trusty 
 sword and buckler close at hand. For a seat he has 
 a great clumsy wooden platform, or a cart-wheel set 
 up upon legs. The most luxurious have nothing 
 better than a carpet or rug, with great pillows of red 
 cloth, stuffed with tow or cotton, of which the shape 
 and size would make an English upholsterer stare. 
 Furniture, besides what we have described, there is 
 none ; but in the recesses of the wall you may see, 
 perchance, a bundle of dusty papers, a powder-horn, 
 an inkstand, and perhaps the picture of some god or 
 hero. Pigeons fly in and out of little boxes fastened 
 against the walls, and perhaps a stray, melancholy- 
 looking peacock, stalks, sentinel-like, along the gal- 
 leries. The sacred peepul or banyan-tree has been 
 taught to climb across the roof, throwing a pleasant 
 shade around. In a quiet corner, as you stoop to 
 look into the deep cool well, the sudden dropping of 
 a curtain, and the clank of a bangle, tell that the 
 female apartments are not far off. 
 
 It is, perhaps, a natural error which the Rajpoots 
 make when they mistake exclusiveness for civilisa- 
 tion. Proud, ignorant, and select, they are ex- 
 clusives par excellence. The sword cannot cut its 
 way into their set, neither talent nor even money 
 can force its barriers. Railway scrip may bring a 
 small tradesman in England to hob and nob with a 
 Duke, until it be convenient to kick the parvenu 
 down stairs again ; but our Indian gentry are not so 
 accessible. However, exclusive though they were, 
 the Rajpoots of the olden time did not deny the light 
 of heaven to their wives and daughters ; it was the 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 85 
 
 jealous Mahometan who taught the Hindoo to he as 
 suspicious of his women as he already was scrupu- 
 lous of his caste. So now it is the lot of the fe- 
 males to be kept in doors, and to he huddled up in 
 some corner if a stranger of the other sex come 
 near ; and instead of going about openly and fear- 
 lessly, as was once her custom, the Rajpootnee is 
 early taught to affect the airs of the Zenaneh. 
 Having, however, a naturally strong turn for domestic 
 and rural economy, the women, though ignorant, 
 are not idle or useless. They grind the corn, make 
 the bread, look after the dairy produce, and, except 
 amongst the proudest clans, spin cotton- thread for 
 household use ; these pursuits, with the care of their 
 children, and other inferior domestic duties, keep 
 them employed. With these occupations, and per- 
 haps from the necessity of the case, the Rajpootnee 
 generally keeps faithful to her lord ; if she admit a 
 stranger to her favours, it is at the risk of her life. 
 Every Indian magistrate knows that the Rajpoot, at 
 no time very placable, never forgives and seldom 
 cares to survive conjugal dishonour. Instances are 
 frequently occurring of men who, on suspicion of 
 intrigue, fall upon the offending woman, murder her, 
 and then sullenly give themselves up to justice, with 
 the remark that their honour is gone, and the sooner 
 their life goes the better. His sense of honour, keen, 
 perhaps morbid, would lead a Rajpoot to defy a 
 thousand deaths rather than to proclaim his shame 
 in courts of law. A sweep of his sword frees him 
 from the mncuium matrimonii, or from any rival 
 who may venture to trespass on forbidden ground ; 
 
86 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 that done, he is ready to die himself, and, as we 
 have already said, seldom cares to live under his 
 disgrace. So long as his wife behaves well, he is a 
 faithful and often an indulgent husband. As a 
 parent, we must look at him from two separate 
 points of view, if we can. He is very fond and 
 proud of his sons. His daughters alas! it is no 
 secret how they are treated. We remember a ser- 
 mon on <c Cruelty to Animals" by the celebrated 
 Chalmers, in which he proved that this crime was 
 to be attributed rather to the negative qualities of 
 inattention and want of sympathy, than to any active 
 spirit of hate, or of blood-thirstiness, in the human 
 breast. We are not going to apologise for the 
 Rajpoots, who allow their daughters to be destroyed 
 like blind puppies ; but we believe that their crime 
 is quite as much the result of want of principle as 
 want of affection. The proof of this is, that if once 
 their daughters are spared, the fathers become as 
 fond of them as they are of their boys. However, 
 be this as it may, it is impossible to deny the exist- 
 ence of the fearful crime of female infanticide 
 amongst many of the Rajpoot tribes.* Such a 
 practice can only be stopped by reforming the 
 
 * The reasons why the higher castes of Rajpoots murder 
 their girls are various. The chief inducement to this crime is 
 the heavy expense to which their customs expose them on the 
 occasion of the marriage of a daughter. These may be thus 
 stated. On the conclusion of a match between the parents, a 
 sum of money is sent to the father of the youth by the father of 
 the girl. This sum is not large, probably about the jenth of the 
 amount of " Juheez" or dower. This is a sort of earnest- 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 87 
 
 people, or by coercing them : coercion would only 
 avail when founded on a system of rigid espionage, 
 most intensely odious to the feelings of the people. 
 The British Government have preferred the attempt 
 to reform, to the determination to put down this 
 secret wickedness ; and to a certain extent they have 
 succeeded. Forgetting, if we can, this dark stain 
 in the character of the Rajpoot father, it is only 
 jnst to add, that when the natural feelings are 
 allowed to have play, there is no want of deep and 
 
 money ; and when the ceremony of "Tilluk" is completed, the 
 father of the girl cannot recede from the engagement. 
 
 After this comes the " Luggun," when half of the dower 
 agreed upon is paid, and the date for the nuptial procession, 
 called the " Burat," is settled. The " Burat," or chief marriage 
 ceremony, to which all the relations and friends are invited, is 
 the occasion of the most profuse' expenditure in feasting them ; 
 the greater the multitude fed, the better satisfied is the pride and 
 vanity of the father of the girl, who at the same time pays the 
 remainder of the dower. This sum varies according to the rank 
 of the parties, but is generally enough to throw the father into 
 debt and difficulties. Unless a handsome sum be offered, a 
 husband of good caste is not to be procured; and unless the 
 feasting be profuse and the invitations to the marriage - feast 
 general, then the girl's parents are held up to public scorn, as 
 stingy or poverty-stricken. This is the chief reason why the 
 high-caste and proud Thakoors hate the idea of a daughter 
 being born to them. Another reason is the blind pride which 
 makes them hate that any man should call them Sala or Sussoor, 
 Brother-in-law or Father-in-law. 
 
 This crime of infanticide is not confined to the Rajpoots. 
 Some tribes of the Aheers are equally guilty. We remember 
 remonstrating with the heads of an Aheer village, who had ten 
 girls to eighty boys living. They said, " Sir, it is all very well 
 for Bunyans and such people to beget girls, but they are very 
 seldom born to men of our caste." 
 
88 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 disinterested paternal and filial affection. Educa- 
 tion, so far as letters are concerned, they have not 
 themselves, and they seek it not for their children, 
 beyond what may enable them to scrawl their names 
 in unequal characters, or to puzzle out a few 
 Hindee rhymes. Moral education, properly so 
 called, is not to be expected amongst men whose 
 religion is independent of any real moral law. 
 To supply in some poor degree these defects, we 
 find amongst them a reverent observance of the 
 various forms and obligations, whether domestic 
 or social, which time and custom have sanctified. 
 From these laws, such as they are, there is no 
 appeal; and opinion, call it public or private, 
 exercises a most tyrannical sway over the Hindoo 
 mind. It is hardly the fault of the Rajpoot of the 
 present day, however much it may be his misfor- 
 tune, that the public voice, to which he alone can 
 be expected to listen, calls light darkness, and 
 darkness light. Whilst we deplore his ignorance 
 we must yet admire his virtues, virtues marred 
 yet not utterly destroyed by an evil superstition. 
 As a whole, his character is a fair type of what 
 fallen man unaided by Divine teaching must ever 
 be ; a ruin, but still with a touch of native ma- 
 jesty clinging about it. Laborious without method, 
 frugal without economy, and chaste without prin- 
 ciple, he is by turns generous and malignant, 
 affectionate and cruel. 
 
 There is no progress about this race. Calcutta 
 Baboos may ape English vices, may read the " Age 
 of Reason," and sup off ham and champagne ; 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 89 
 
 country dealers and artizans, petty lawyers and pub- 
 licans, may push on and gather wealth, to spend it 
 in luxury ; the Rajpoot looks on unmoved. Money 
 he may desire, but not for the material luxuries 
 which it can command. He has few wants, fewer 
 aspirations : a mess of unleavened bread and vege- 
 tables, a few curds and sweetmeats, are enough for 
 his food ; a dress of quilted cotton for winter, of 
 white cloth for summer, with a turban for holidays, 
 these supply his wardrobe. He seldom seeks for 
 any stimulants more powerful than tobacco, or any 
 greater luxury than his hookah. On the whole, 
 though his conduct is regulated by no real moral 
 principle, it is correct and decent, and you cannot 
 help liking the man, though you cannot quite re- 
 spect him. He is a fast friend and a bitter enemy, 
 a strange mixture of nature and sophistication. 
 Land he dearly loves, because of the power which 
 landed possessions confer, and the pride which in 
 all countries they feed ; and, except his honour and 
 his son, there is nothing perhaps so dear to him 
 as his land. 
 
 When the Rajpoot stalks forth from his home 
 to the village council, where, under the shade, the 
 elders of his race are assembled, he is easy and 
 good-natured in his temper so long as he observes 
 no attempt upon his rights. If, however, he sus- 
 pect unfair treatment, he soon gets noisy and 
 excited ; opposition makes him violent ; treachery, 
 revengeful. In old times, right gave way to might, 
 and clubs and swords were quickly brought to bear 
 upon a disputed point. Now, after an inordinate 
 
90 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 amount of clamour, the disputants gird up their 
 loins and set off to the collector's cutcherry. 
 Before we attempt to follow them there, it will 
 be well to trace some of the more prominent fea- 
 tures of the village constitution ; in doing which, 
 we shall avail ourselves gratefully of the useful 
 forms of village accounts which Jumaloodeen Hus- 
 sun's book supplies. Perhaps the history of a 
 village in the Doab for the last fifty years may 
 serve to place our object in a clear light. 
 
 Runjeet Singh was a Rajpoot of the last cen- 
 tury. He and his elder brother left home young, 
 after an unsuccessful struggle for their rightful 
 share of the land, and in the early part of the 
 present century were amongst the most con- 
 spicuous of Lord Lake's native cavalry officers. 
 After the battle of Laswarree, in which his elder 
 brother fell, Runjeet retired from the army with 
 a shot through his leg, a pension, and what we 
 call in England a comfortable independence. The 
 old soldier determined to change his rupees into 
 land. In the early days of British occupation 
 he had not much difficulty in suiting himself with 
 a couple of snug estates. In one of these, called 
 Rajpoor, he took up his abode with his two sons r 
 Shere Singh and Baz Singh. It was a pleasant 
 spot this Rajpoor, with its fine old trees hanging 
 over the banks of the Ganges. The other village^ 
 called Futtehpoor, lay in that rich well- watered 
 valley, along which the Kallee Nuddee runs, be- 
 tween Furuckabad and Mynpoorie. It is with 
 Futtehpoor we have most to do. The lands had 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 91 
 
 been tilled for ages, partly by a number of cul- 
 tivators of the Kachi caste, and partly by bearers 
 and fishermen living in the village. There were 
 some men, too, who lived on a neighbouring estate, 
 and held land in Futtehpoor. There is no doubt 
 that the Kachis originally settled on this spot and 
 cleared the lands, but, in or before the last century, 
 in an evil hour, they made some sort of compact for 
 their own protection with the Canoongo of the 
 pergunneh, which ended in his claiming the pro- 
 perty. Any really good title he never had. Plow- 
 ever, his heirs found it easy to obtain a '' decree" 
 from our Civil Courts, soon after their first esta- 
 blishment, and the Kachis sunk for ever into the 
 condition of cultivators. 
 
 From the Canoongo's family Runjeet bought 
 the village. A young active man of the Kayath 
 caste was just then the village accountant, by name 
 Lulloo, with whom Runjeet easily made arrange- 
 ments for the management of his new purchase. 
 Runjeet was a fine, generous old man, and at once 
 agreed that the Kachi cultivators should be allowed 
 to hold their lands, as before, at easy rents. A 
 rent-roll was drawn up and agreed to, which gave 
 Runjeet, after the payment of all demands, a net 
 profit of 400 rupees per annum. He led a very 
 easy life, dwelling, as we said before, on his other 
 property near the Ganges' bank. Twice a-year 
 it was his custom to ride over to Futtehpoor, to 
 spend a few days, and to collect, or rather to 
 receive his rents. These half-yearly rent audits 
 
9 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 were at the period of the spring and autumnal 
 harvests, when quite as many compliments passed 
 between landlord and tenants as are customary 
 on such occasions in Old England ; and we are 
 hound to say, quite as much good feeling was 
 shown. Lulloo generally had the cash ready tied 
 up in sundry little bundles, which were opened 
 with a good many hints at the trouble he had 
 undergone in the collection. Occasionally some 
 wretched fisherman, or other low-caste tenant, was 
 dragged up to account for a few rupees due on 
 his little plot of ground, when Runjeet would 
 look very black ; but the matter was generally 
 settled by some other tenants agreeing to give 
 security for the debtor. One point of difference 
 there is between Indian and English rent -days ; 
 instead of the landlord's giving a dinner to the 
 tenants, the tenant generally makes some offering 
 to the landlord. At least such was the custom 
 at Futtehpoor. When Runjeet's old grey mare 
 was seen coming down the slope near which the 
 village lay, one man set off to the river to get 
 some fish, another brought a little sugar and milk, 
 a third ran for a bundle of grass or straw ; in 
 short, all hastened to welcome their " malik " 
 with little offerings and many cries of "Johar,"* 
 &c. Having eaten, drunk, slept, smoked, scolded, 
 laughed, and chatted enough, the old man, after 
 
 * Johar is the salutation addressed by an inferior to a supe- 
 rior in the Central Doab, except, of course, to a Brahmin, who 
 is addressed with " Pai lugee." 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 93 
 
 a few days' stay, put his money into his saddle- 
 bags, primed his pistols (the same which he car- 
 ried with Leek Sahib), and rode off home. 
 
 Runjeet's tenure of Futtehpoor is the simplest 
 form of what is called zemindarree tenure. Its 
 incidents are merely these : he must pay his re- 
 venue tax to Government, and he must collect 
 from his tenants according to the rent-roll. If 
 he failed in his engagements to the State, his 
 rights as proprietor would be sold or farmed. If 
 he tried to collect from his tenants more than was 
 settled and entered in the rent-roll, they might 
 rebel ; though, at the period of which we write, 
 they would not probably have succeeded in trying 
 to oppose the will of a wealthy superior. We have 
 no tenure in India simpler than this holding of 
 Futtehpoor, except in the few cases of freeholds, 
 or lands which pay no revenue to the State ; and, 
 even in these cases of freehold, the State claims 
 the right to arbitrate between landlord and tenant. 
 Zemindarree sole, in which a single proprietor 
 enjoys the entire proprietary profit of an estate, 
 exists generally in villages recently purchased, like 
 Futtehpoor, or in the domains of some Rajahs or 
 other large proprietors, in whose families the head 
 succeeds to the undivided property in the land. 
 In such a case as Futtehpoor, the simplicity of 
 tenure will generally not last long. A few years 
 passed pleasantly over Runjeet's head, when the old 
 soldier became restless and ailing, and determined 
 to go off on a pilgrimage to Gyah. He died on 
 the way, leaving his estates to his two sons, Shere 
 
94 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 Singh and Baz Singh, whose names were entered 
 in the Government books in the room of their 
 father's. The village accountant Lulloo went on 
 collecting the rents as before, and paid the pro- 
 ceeds, after deducting the revenue dues and village 
 expenses, to the two sons in equal proportions. 
 This was the first step ; Futtehpoor was now a 
 partnership concern. As time passed on, the 
 grandsons of Runjeet grew up, and about the 
 year 1833 were six in number, viz. : 
 
 Sons of Shere Singh. 
 Aman. 
 Koondun. 
 Jeyt. 
 
 Sons of Baz Singh. 
 
 Soojan. 
 Putram. 
 
 Sooltan. 
 
 One or two unhealthy seasons passed, and the 
 two elders, Shere Singh and Baz Singh, died. 
 Their names were forthwith scratched off the 
 collector's books, and those of their eldest sons, 
 Aman and Soojan, were entered, who became 
 henceforth, in village and cutcherry parlance, Lum- 
 ber dars of the shares of their fathers, or, in other 
 words, of Puttee Shere Singh and Puttee Baz 
 Singh. When Lulloo came over from Futtehpoor 
 with the rent, he used to present a scroll, which 
 being deciphered, ran thus : 
 
 ACCOUNT or MOUZA FUTTEHPOOR. 
 
 EXAMPLE I. 
 
 Rs. As. P. 
 
 Proceeds in Cash 1200 
 
 Paid for Revenue 700 
 
 Paid for Village Expenses 100 
 
 Balance being Profit 400 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 95 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF PROFIT. 
 
 Names of Sharers. E ^! m Share of Profit 
 
 Rs ....... 200 
 
 in Biswas. 
 
 Aman 
 
 Koondun 
 
 Jeyt 
 
 Sooltan ,... 2|' 
 
 1* * \ Rs.. ..200 
 
 Putram 5 ) 
 
 Total Rs 400 
 
 Every estate consists of twenty imaginary Bis- 
 was, or one Beegha. These Biswas are again 
 subdivided into Biswansis, and the Biswansi is 
 further divided, into Cutchwansis, and so on. 
 Towards Bengal the imaginary division is cal- 
 culated in parts of a rupee instead of a beegha. 
 In Futtehpoor, Aman had a 2^ Biswa share, Soojan 
 had a 5 Biswa share ; in other words, Aman had 
 a right to one-eighth part of the profits, and his 
 cousin Soojan had a right to one-fourth of the 
 profits. In short, the division of an integral estate 
 into Biswas or Anas is merely a contrivance for 
 calculating the profits and loss thereon in the most 
 familiar manner. With the aid of little bit of 
 stick, or kunkur, for tallies, these fractional accounts 
 are most earnestly made and jealously watched 
 in a large coparcenary holding, amidst a chorus 
 of disputes and protestations which baffles descrip- 
 tion. However, to return to our village, which 
 as yet, with Lulloo's good offices, got on swim- 
 mingly. A sad misfortune, however, was hanging 
 over the brotherhood. Runjeet's fancy in settling 
 at Rajpoor had been particularly taken with a 
 
96 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 spot of land, well wooded and dry, which hung 
 over the Ganges. In spite of the warnings of 
 some of his neighbours, the old soldier determined 
 to build a small mud fort on this promontory, and 
 here his grandsons with their wives and young 
 children lived. They had much of the village 
 land under their own management, and were in 
 prosperous case, when, one rainy season, the river 
 took an adverse turn, and washed away their home 
 and a great slice of the land of Raj poor. The 
 brethren with their wives, little ones, and cattle, 
 fled to a hamlet near at hand, and saved as much 
 of their household goods as they could. One of 
 the children died, the locality was considered un- 
 lucky, and at last it was decided that Rajpoor, 
 or what was left of it, should be let, and that the 
 family party should migrate in a body to their 
 property at Futtehpoor. They had gone through 
 some hardship and trouble before they reached 
 their new home ; as often happens under such 
 trials, with loss of property came loss of union 
 and fellowship. The ladies of the family, if the 
 truth must be told, were the chief causes of mis- 
 chief. Shere Singh's two elder sons had married 
 Chohan Thakorynes, poor and proud, who looked 
 down with no concealed* contempt upon their 
 sisters-in-law of the humbler Toomur tribe. The 
 Toomur women, who had married Jeyt and Sooltan, 
 in their turn, when it became necessary to bustle 
 about and make themselves useful, reproached the 
 Chohan women for their fine-lady airs. The 
 women soon set the brothers quarrelling, and the 
 strife became constant and furious. The sons of 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 97 
 
 Baz Singh, who were hitherto prudent bachelors, 
 did their best to reconcile the disputes of their 
 cousins, but without much success. Division of 
 rights, separation of the common interest, seemed 
 inevitable. Hitherto, in happier days, the four 
 brothers had eaten their mess of food, had shared 
 their produce, cattle, and money together ; but 
 this natural and economical arrangement could last 
 no longer. Separate bouses were built and occu- 
 pied. A council of proprietors was called, and 
 with frowning brows and stormy looks the brothers 
 came together, and met their cousins under the 
 shade of the village peepul-tree. It was deter- 
 mined that the property of the four disputants 
 (for no two of them could keep on good terms) 
 should be divided ; each sharer was to take by 
 lot his quotum of the ploughs, bullocks, buffaloes, 
 domestic utensils, &c., and (as opportunity offered) 
 cultivate what land he might require. The sons of 
 Baz Singh, like good and sensible men, kept toge- 
 ther. They, too, set to work to cultivate. Some 
 of the land of Futtehpoor was held, at this time, by 
 tenants who resided in a distant village ; these 
 readily gave it up ; some was taken by the brethren 
 as the Kachi cultivators died ; and, in short, our 
 Rajpoots soon got as much of the land into occu- 
 pation as they could well manage. 
 
 Hitherto we have had to do with non-resident 
 proprietors, who drew a certain profit from an 
 estate with the lands of which they had no direct 
 concern. Now we come to a holding, in which 
 part of the land is occupied by the proprietors 
 
 H 
 
98 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 themselves, and part is let out, as before, to tenants. 
 We spare our readers all uncouth Indian terms, 
 so far as we can, but must claim quarter for one 
 little word. The land held by a resident pro- 
 prietor, in his own hands, is called seer, and, as 
 this word is short and expressive, we shall often 
 use it hereafter. When our six Kajpoots had fairly 
 settled themselves in Futtehpoor, and had taken 
 into their hands more or less seer land, a new 
 settlement of accounts became necessary. 
 
 Lulloo, the village accountant, had known little 
 comfort since the brethren had come to Futtehpoor. 
 The tenants paid him less respect than before ; one 
 of th^e proprietors had set longing eyes on two little 
 pet pieces of land of his, which, somehow or other, 
 had not found their way into the rent-roll ; and, in 
 short, Lulloo's occupation, if not gone, was de- 
 cidedly in a declining state. But what distressed 
 the old man most, was the fear of giving offence 
 to any one of his six lords and masters. The 
 Rajpoots have an ugly trick of giving a hostile 
 accountant a knock on the head, and visions of 
 drawn tulwars and iron-bound clubs would dis- 
 turb poor Lulloo whenever his masters got angry 
 with him or with each other ; which, to tell the 
 truth, was rather often. The accounts which he 
 had now to prepare, amidst a storm of invective 
 and an occasional ugly threat of being sumjhaoed,* 
 drove him almost to despair. And, indeed, his 
 
 * This very expressive word, when used as a threat, answers 
 to 'the English menace, " I'll teach you to do so and so ;" and 
 when used in anger is full of murderous meaning. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 99 
 
 was no easy task, to teach reason and moderation 
 to a set of high-spirited obstinate men, who were 
 unwilling to be guided by either. Aman, the elder 
 son of Shere Singh, wanted his brothers to pay 
 down cash for the land they held, and when 
 they demurred, proceeded to attach their crops. 
 He actually placed two boys and an old woman 
 with a long stick at three corners of one of Sooltan's 
 fields, when his proceedings were stopped by a cry 
 of " Mar, mar," and a sally from Sooltan, Koondtm, 
 and Jeyt, who threatened, not only to submerge 
 Aman's watchers in the river, but to give their 
 employer his quietus too. There was much shout- 
 ing, and, as Aman's part was taken by the village 
 watchmen and others, things looked ripe for a 
 general action ; when peace was restored by Lulloo, 
 who, having placed first his turban and then his 
 head at Aman's feet, and invoked the manes of 
 old Runjeet, produced his budget, with the fol- 
 lowing deprecatory address. 
 
 "Why should the noble maliks, thakoors, and 
 descendants of warriors, dispute like persons of low 
 caste ? Your prosperity is so great that you have 
 plenty of land and nothing to pay. Let your ser- 
 vant explain. In this bag, as I told you before, 
 are one hundred rupees, being the rents of the 
 fields of your cultivators. The payments for the 
 Government tax, for the expenses of the village, 
 the watchman, and your humble servant, have been 
 made. All that you have to do is to divide this 
 money amongst you in its just proportions, like 
 gentlemen j but, instead of that, you begin to fight 
 
100 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 like a set of " Chumars, he would have 
 
 added, if he dared, but his voice was drowned in 
 a general shout of applause. Hereupon Lulloo 
 threw down his bag, and pulled out of a hollow 
 bamboo a scroll, which, being interpreted, ran 
 thus : 
 
 EXAMPLE II. 
 
 Name of Profit on Deduct Value Balance due Balance due 
 
 Proprietor. his Share. of Seer. to each. from each. 
 
 Aman Rs.50 50 
 
 Koondun ..50 35 15 
 
 Jeyt 50 30 20 
 
 Sooltan 50 75 25 
 
 Soojanwithj 2QO , 10 9Q 
 Putram J 
 
 It will be observed that Sooltan, who had a 
 large proportion of seer, had to put down C 25 
 rupees, being the rent of land which he held in 
 excess of his share of the profits (which are as- 
 sumed at 400 rupees). This sum of 25 rupees, 
 added to the 100 rupees of common rents from 
 Lulloo's bag, was applied to make up to each pro- 
 prietor his full share of the profits, as here shown. 
 All payments for revenue, &c. had been made 
 from the land held by common tenants. Thus, 
 for the time being, peace was restored by Lulloo 
 with his rupees and arithmetic. 
 
 A year or two later, the proprietors had taken 
 a greater quantity of seer land into cultivation, 
 the rent of which, at the existing rates, was as 
 much as 600 rupees. Henceforth evidently a part 
 of the revenue must be paid by them, for the land 
 held by the common tenants no longer sufficed to 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 101 
 
 meet all demands. Accordingly the elder sons of 
 each family, Aman and Soojan, set to work as 
 lumber dars, or head men, of Puttee Shere Singh 
 and Puttee Baz Singh, to collect the money due 
 from each share. When the revenue and village 
 expenses had been paid, the accounts of the head 
 men were produced for audit in the idle month of 
 Jeyth, in the following form : 
 
 EXAMPLE III. 
 
 Names of Area of Land Rent in R-rrinfa Ralanops 
 
 Cultivators. in Beeghas. Rupees. Receipts. 
 
 Aman 100 100 100 
 
 Koondun 60 70 70 
 
 Jeyt 40 60 60 
 
 Sooltan 140 150 140 10 
 
 Soojan with Put- j 2Q() 22Q 22Q Q 
 
 ram J 
 
 Other cultivatorsj 53Q 5gQ ^ Q 
 
 not proprietors] 
 
 Sewaee Singhara 10 10 0* 
 
 Total 1070 1200 1190 10 
 
 The result of operations was further shown by 
 a memorandum, thus : 
 
 Names of Sharers. Am ^^ K Profit in Rupees. 
 
 Aman 2| 50 
 
 Koondun 2^ 50 
 
 Jeyt 2| 50 
 
 Sooltan 2| 50 
 
 Soojan with Putram. . 10 200 
 
 20 Rs. .. 400 
 
 * Sewaee Singhara Sewaee items of revenue are those 
 generally manorial perquisites which the proprietor gets besides 
 land rent, such as from fisheries, the Singhara root grown in 
 pools, &c. &c. 
 
102 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 The proceeds in this case have been taken to 
 amount to 1200 rupees, of which 700 rupees go to 
 Government revenue, and 100 rupees for village 
 expenses, as in a former example. The remain- 
 ing 400 rupees, after making every proprietor 
 account for the rent of his seer, just like any 
 other cultivator, will be distributed amongst the 
 sharers as before, in proportion to the share of 
 each. 
 
 About this time fortune smiled upon the bro- 
 therhood. The long -talked -of settlement (under 
 Reg. ix. 1833) was in progress, and was extended 
 to Futtehpoor. It was not thought necessary to 
 raise the Government demand. But, as a general 
 revision of rents was going on, the Rajpoots took 
 the opportunity for raising their rent-roll. They 
 determined to make the Kachis pay as much as 
 the other tenants ; and as their lands were pro- 
 ductive, well tilled, and at low rents, the Kachis 
 were unable to resist the advance. The increased 
 profit which resulted from this measure, and from 
 the letting of some fisheries advantageously, 
 amounted in round numbers to 300 rupees. Old 
 Lulloo, in a new turban, which had been given 
 him on the occasion, making his reverence to the 
 assembled brotherhood, thus spoke, 
 
 " It is by your good fortune that the rent-roll, 
 which your servant has with so much pains prepared, 
 has been passed by the collector (may his prosperity 
 be lasting !). Henceforth you will live on your lands, 
 as becomes men of your birth, upon easy terms. The 
 Kachis, who are accustomed to heat and labour, 
 will pay the full rents which they ought to have 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 103 
 
 paid long ago ; you, the lords of the soil, instead 
 of paying, as hitherto, like common cultivators, 
 shall pay a light rent." The result of the new 
 settlement was shortly this. The brethren held as 
 much seer land as before, but, instead of paying 
 the ordinary rents levied on other cultivators, they 
 were henceforth to hold their land on favoured 
 rates, indeed on nearly one half of what they had 
 paid before. But, as we have observed, the seer 
 held by each proprietor in Futtehpoor had de- 
 pended on the means of the several brothers, and 
 was not in proportion to the share of each in the 
 whole estate. It was necessary, therefore, in the 
 annual settlement of accounts, to retain the form 
 shown in Example 3. Every proprietor was first 
 charged at the usual high rate of rent on his seer, 
 and the only difference was, that, instead of dis- 
 tributing 400 rupees of profit, 700 rupees were 
 divided. It may, perhaps, be here asked, what 
 was the use of lowering the seer-land rate ? The 
 answer is, that the proprietors thereby concealed, 
 as far as they could, the real money value of the 
 proceeds from the estate, and, by showing a low 
 and poor rent-roll, conceived that they made out 
 a better claim to raise the rents of the Kachi cul- 
 tivators. We have heard of men, by no means 
 wanting in sagacity, who have been sorely puzzled 
 by this plan of favoured rates. They found a 
 village doing apparently very well with a rent-roll 
 on paper which nobody disputed, yet actually 
 giving a total sum less than the Government 
 revenue. They did not know that perhaps half 
 
104 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 the land, and the best land too, was entered at 
 rent-rates only one half of the real value. 
 
 But we must hasten on with our village history. 
 It does not appear that the comparative prosperity 
 of the brethren put a stop to their disputes. Aman, 
 the elder brother, became very unpopular with the 
 others of his family. It fell to him as lumberdar, 
 or head man, with his cousin Soojan, to collect the 
 rents from the common tenants, and to disburse 
 the public money. His younger brothers suspected 
 that he made money by his office at their expense. 
 At last nothing would satisfy them but a division 
 of the tenants, which was made by the process 
 called assamee bhant in the following manner: 
 First, A schedule was drawn up by old Lulloo, 
 showing the name and caste of every cultivator 
 .having no proprietary rights, his quotum of rent, 
 extent of land, and so on, with grand totals of rent 
 and land. Secondly, Two scrolls were prepared, 
 in which an equal amount of rental was entered. 
 Aman and Soojan drew each by lot one of these 
 scrolls, and took the tenants entered in their re- 
 spective lots. Thus the common tenant land was 
 divided between the two Puttees of Shere Singh 
 and Baz Singh. Thirdly. The lot drawn by Aman 
 was subdivided into four lists, which were drawn 
 by lot by the four brothers. This process may 
 seem simple enough on paper, but as a sort of cata- 
 logue raisonne of tenants had been made out, it 
 was a tedious business. The solvency, caste, 
 habits, and character of each tenant, and all such 
 points, were as closely canvassed as those of a 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 105 
 
 horse by a Yorkshire jockey. Two months of in- 
 cessant talking and wrangling left poor Lulloo worn 
 out and exhausted, and he soon after died, leaving 
 as a legacy the following memorandum : 
 
 AsSAMEEWAR KllEWUT, OR DIVISION OF TENANTS, OF THE 
 VILLAGE FUTTEHPOOR. 
 
 EXAMPLE IV. 
 
 Name of 
 
 Name of 
 
 Names of Extent of Tenant 
 
 Rent in 
 
 Puttee. 
 
 Sharer. 
 
 Tenants. Land 
 
 in Beeghas. 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 Shere Singh 
 
 Aman . . 
 
 Budloo, &c. 
 
 50 
 
 100 
 
 
 Koondun 
 
 Nunkoo, &c. 
 
 60 
 
 100 
 
 
 Jeyt 
 
 Khedoo, &c. 
 
 50 
 
 100 
 
 
 Sooltan 
 
 Bowannee,&c. 
 
 80 
 
 100 
 
 Bah Singh 
 
 Soojan 
 Putram. . 
 
 It now was the duty of each of Shere Singh's 
 sons to collect from his own tenants, according to 
 this list. The seer land accounts were kept as 
 before. The advantage of this arrangement was, 
 that one brother could not accuse the other of 
 pocketing the rents. 
 
 As time passed on, the good management of the 
 united brethren, Soojan and Putram, had its due 
 effect ; their tenants were flourishing, whilst those 
 of the four brothers were decaying. The sons of 
 Shere Singh declared that the sons of Baz Singh 
 had all the good fields, and demanded a distribution 
 of the cultivated land. The six proprietors as- 
 sembled in solemn conclave, and agreed to leave it 
 to the elder brother of each family, i. e. to the two 
 lumberdars, to divide the cultivation, which was 
 
106 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 accordingly apportioned in equal lots to the two 
 families, leaving only a certain remnant of waste 
 land, jungle, and some small freeholds of the village 
 Brahmin, in common. An application was made to 
 the collector of the district for leave to file a new 
 statement of liabilities : thus the village of Futteh- 
 poor was transferred from the list of " zemindarree " 
 estates to that of estates held in ' imperfect puttee- 
 daree " tenure. Henceforth the sons of Shere 
 Singh paid a separate share (the half) of the Go- 
 vernment revenue ; their cousins, the sons of Baz 
 Singh, paid the other half. If a balance occurred 
 in one division of the estate, the revenue authorities 
 came, in the first instance, down upon the default- 
 ing division ; if the defaulters did not pay what 
 was due from them, their lands were offered in 
 farm to the proprietors of the solvent division, who 
 were expected for that consideration to discharge 
 the debt. Failing in this obligation, to which from 
 the constitution of the holding they were liable, 
 Government would hold the entire estate responsible, 
 and would proceed against it by farm or sale, as 
 might be expedient. But the proprietors might, if 
 they chose, set themselves free from the degree of 
 joint responsibility which attached to their position, 
 by claiming a full and entire legal separation. 
 When such a separation takes place in Futtehpoor, 
 as will be the case some day, the two separate hold- 
 ings will be entered in the Government books as 
 two distinct estates ; one will be called Futtehpoor 
 Shere Singh, the other Futtehpoor Baz Singh, and 
 the original relationship will be lost and gone. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 107 
 
 Such, then, is the progress of village affairs, by 
 which the simple " zemindarree " tenure is every 
 day tending towards the various complications of 
 " imperfect putteedaree ;" or, in other words, from 
 sole or coparcenary tenure towards tenure in sever- 
 alty. So, again, the imperfect several ty gradually 
 merges into a complete and perfect division of 
 estates.* 
 
 We have traced, at the risk of our readers' 
 patience, the fortunes of an Indian village commu- 
 nity. Before attempting to show the effect upon 
 such a body which our reformed revenue laws may 
 produce, let us glance at the condition of these cor- 
 porations under the Mahometan emperors. Akber's 
 enlightened policy did much to prevent them from 
 State oppression ; but taking them at their best, in 
 
 * It is not easy to foresee what will be the effect on the 
 people of the extreme subdivision of estates which must in time 
 take place. The right to claim such a division recommends 
 itself at once to every English mind, and its attendant incon- 
 veniences are to be traced to the original law of equal inherit- 
 ance, and not to the respect which we have shown to the rights 
 of private property. We must not judge of the political effect 
 of the subdivision of landed property from what we see in Euro- 
 pean countries. Its probable result is the converse of what we 
 observe, for instance, in France ; there a hot spirit of enterprise, 
 vanity, and personal ambition, tempts the petty owner from the 
 plough and from the country to join the masses of the cities; 
 his pride is not in his vineyard or corn-field, but in " la belle 
 France," and in her municipal institutions, in which he hopes 
 some day to figure. Now, in India, it is needless to say that a 
 division of the large brotherhoods, whether desirable or not for 
 other reasons, can politically only tend to peace and subordina- 
 tion. 
 
108 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 his time, it is certain that the relative rights of 
 sharers never received the attention which they 
 deserved. The history of our large village clans, 
 from the days of Akber downwards, is one tale of 
 discord and oppression. Village rights were recog- 
 nised then in the Doab about as much as they are 
 now in Oude ; the claims of equal inheritance were 
 acknowledged in theory, but denied in practice, and 
 might made right. Later still, the most arbitrary 
 and oppressive means were taken by the Govern- 
 ment, or by the Talookdars, and others to whom 
 the Government delegated its authority, to squeeze 
 the revenue out of the people. Insolvent zemindars 
 were beaten, fed upon salt, placed up to the arm- 
 pits in ordure, their children taken in pledge ; in 
 short, were tortured in every way that cruelty and 
 avarice might suggest. This was the lot of the 
 weak ; the powerful took to their forts, and when 
 starved out of them, to their jungles, and defied 
 the Government altogether. As for justice be- 
 tween man and man, sharer and sharer, it was not 
 thought of. Such was the state of things in the 
 Doab when Lord Wellesley first occupied it, and 
 twenty years later matters were not much improved ; 
 there was, perhaps, less fighting, but more injustice. 
 Indeed, even up to the time of the present settle- 
 ment under Reg. ix. 1833, the manner of collecting 
 the revenue was most unjust and irregular. The 
 innocent and the guilty (of revenue default) met 
 one common ruin. To give one instance : a village 
 held by sharers where lands were divided, and who 
 were justly liable, each for their own quotum of 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 109 
 
 revenue, fell into balance, owing to the rascality of 
 some of the sharers, who chose to live at the expense 
 of their brethren. The collector, instead of coming 
 down upon the defaulter, would pass the order, com- 
 mon under the ancien regime, " Let Bilah-bun- 
 deebe made.'' What does the reader suppose Bilah- 
 bundee means ? So far as we can learn its etymo- 
 logy, it means a stopping of holes ; and in its 
 original vernacular use, it applies to the stopping a 
 fox or a rat into his hole. When applied to Indian 
 bipeds, Bilah-bundee means a stopping of all those 
 vents through which the coin of the proprietors of 
 a village might otherwise ooze out, to the detriment 
 of the Government revenue. When this process 
 was ordered, off went the Tehsildar with his follow- 
 ers, and laid the best men of the village by the heels. 
 Every decent householder of the proprietary family 
 was kept in durance until the money wanted was 
 paid up. If A paid for B, or C for D, it mattered 
 not ; the revenue was realised, and the collector 
 was satisfied. 
 
 " Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi ! " 
 
 By such harsh measures as this, by kafee zd- 
 minee * and other contrivances, was the revenue 
 
 * Kafee zaminee, or sufficient security. The Tehsildar was, 
 in the days of which we are writing, told to take kafee zarninee, 
 or full security. Some powerful hanger-on of the Tehsildaree 
 cutcherry undertook to give this security, and then proceeded 
 to levy the money due in the most harassing and arbitrary 
 manner, until the defaulter had to buy him off by a payment 
 much greater than the original debt due on the revenue account. 
 
110 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 taken.* There are districts which to this day have 
 not entirely recovered from the withering rule of 
 some of our early collectors. 
 
 Blessings be upon the good men and true who 
 came to the rescue of the Indian village communi- 
 ties. It was not their lot, nor perhaps their ambi- 
 tion, to accomplish what may be called an European 
 reputation ; but their names will here live in the 
 grateful memory of millions. Amongst these our 
 revenue reformers stands Robert Bird pre-eminent. 
 Gifted with a clear head and a firm hand, a culti- 
 vated mind and determined will, he it was who first 
 applied a complete remedy to the injuries of the 
 landed proprietors. Him might the revenue stu- 
 dent of the present day apostrophise in the glowing 
 terms once applied to the master of a far different 
 philosophy, 
 
 '* E tenebris tantis tarn clarum extollere lumen 
 Qui primus potuisti, illustrans commoda vitee, 
 Te sequor." 
 
 It was no selfish spirit, no desire to grasp at the 
 resources of the country, which gave impulse to 
 Bird's inquiries ; the animus at work was, in the 
 first instance, purely a judicial one. It had been 
 
 * These short, simple, and summary ways of getting money 
 out of the people, live in the fond remembrance of many a grey- 
 headed native revenue official. Ask such an one how it is that 
 now-a-days, though the revenue has been perhaps lowered, 
 every man's right defined, every man's quotum settled, the 
 money does not come in to the day as it did in the good old 
 times. "Ah, sir," he will reply, " in those days we went to work 
 like men, and took the money ; now you sit like beggars and 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. Ill 
 
 his lot as judge of a district to note the cruel griev- 
 ances and endless entanglements of affairs caused 
 by our early revenue arid civil procedure. Profess- 
 ing to govern according to the law and constitution 
 of the people, our best intentions had ended only 
 in their damage and disappointment. Mr. Bird 
 longed to see a practice introduced more consistent 
 with our principles. The " painful and disin- 
 terested researches of a judicial officer into the best 
 mode of obviating the difficulties and promoting the 
 welfare of the landed interest of the country :" these 
 are, in his own words, the motives and proceedings 
 which led to our great revenue reforms. The 
 movement was more than disinterested ; it was dic- 
 tated by a spirit of the most active philanthropy. 
 Like most generous actions, it brought its own 
 reward ; for again, to use Bird's language, " the 
 same methods of procedure which were best calcu- 
 lated to determine the rights of individuals were 
 also found to be most conducive to the ascertain- 
 ment of such an equal and moderate revenue 
 demand as is most for the interest of the State." 
 It is not our intention to follow out the details of 
 the survey and settlement proceedings which formed 
 the basis of our existing revenue code. It will suf- 
 
 ask for it. We had then bilah-bundee, kafee zaminee ; or, if that 
 would not do, we tied a defaulter up on the nearest tree, and 
 let him down when his wife brought the money Now you are 
 more like bankers than revenue officers ; but there is nothing 
 like a little compulsion. Seedkee oonglee se ghee nuheen nikalta. 
 You can't take butter up without closing your fingers. Village 
 people won't pay unless they are constrained." 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 fice to draw attention to the spirit which has per- 
 vaded this great work. We have shown that in 
 every village there is a rule, more or less known, 
 and varying according to circumstances, but still a 
 rule, whereby the distribution of property in the 
 land should be enforced. This rule, full of mean- 
 ing, and fitted to the habits of the people, is to 
 them what the common law is to us. A lex script a 
 had been brought in, which knew not and heeded 
 not the voice of ages. It was Bird's duty, and one 
 which he skilfully executed, to take up the broken 
 links of the village common law, and to fling aside 
 or amend such of our statutes as could not be 
 brought to agreement with it. His it was to intro- 
 duce a general and scientific survey of the country, 
 to mark carefully and to record the boundaries of 
 every village, to register the separate possessions, 
 rights, privileges and responsibilities of those com- 
 munities who held their lands in severalty, and of 
 the several interests of those who held land in 
 common. 
 
 Any of our readers who may have taken the 
 trouble to follow the various forms of village ma- 
 nagement given in these notes, will at once see how 
 all-important it must be to the village proprietors 
 that their holdings be fully recognised and under- 
 stood by the revenue authorities. A process, 
 which under one form of village rule is legitimate 
 and appropriate, may be under another form dis- 
 astrous. Not to multiply examples which might be 
 tedious, let us take one instance. Suppose that in 
 the village Futtehpoor, after the division of the land 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 113 
 
 between the two families, default occurred in Puttee 
 Shere Singh, L e. the share held by the four bro- 
 thers. According to the old system, or rather no 
 system, the Tehsildar would have laid hold of all 
 the sharers : he knew and cared nothing about the 
 village law and constitution, and the sons of Baz 
 Singh would have had to pay for the default of 
 their cousins the innocent for the guilty. By the 
 present rules, the four brothers would be called to 
 account for their own debts. They know this, and 
 therefore strive to keep their accounts clear ; but 
 formerly, when the idle or dissolute and the indus- 
 trious met one common fate, what inducement had 
 any man to honest exertion ? Formerly sales of 
 land, which swept away the rights of whole families, 
 involving the frugal and the careless in one ruin, 
 farms which destroyed the life and spirit of entire 
 tribes of men, were of almost daily occurrence. 
 Now it is impossible for a collector to apply any of 
 the more stringent processes for securing the 
 revenue, without giving clear and sufficient reasons 
 for his proceedings. The rights of landed proprie- 
 tors are watched with a jealousy that astonishes 
 even themselves. No petty owner of twenty acres 
 can have his holding transferred for a few years on 
 account of revenue default, without the sanction 
 and scrutiny of the head of the local Government. 
 The danger is now, not that matters will be done 
 illegally or informally, but that the revenue officers 
 will become too much tied to forms and observances. 
 They must beware of degenerating into men of 
 mere red-tape routine. To support a career of 
 
 i 
 
1 14 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 much drudgery and self-denial, they require a strong 
 infusion of life into their work, and a touch of en- 
 thusiasm. For them, a mere cold discharge of duty 
 will hardly suffice ; they should encourage, also, a 
 hearty affection for the people. 
 
 How mysterious is the Providence which has 
 placed a handful of English gentlemen at the head 
 of Indian affairs ! Never let it be said that they 
 have neglected the wonderful opportunities of their 
 destiny. The duties of the English in India are to 
 the people, The more an officer of the Govern- 
 ment can mix with them the better. Let him 
 know them thoroughly ; to do this he need only 
 listen to them patiently. They are prone to confide 
 in the justice and kindness of their European 
 masters. That they are incapable of feeling or of 
 gratitude is false. His must be a cold heart and 
 barren imagination that cannot respond to the 
 feelings with which our Indian subjects regard 
 their village homes homes which to their simple 
 minds are little worlds of history and romance, as 
 well as of common life. With some kindred feeling 
 will they revere the man of power who will take 
 the pains to do them justice, and will not refuse 
 them sympathy. Nor is it only in its moral aspect 
 that official life in India may please. We allow 
 the physical privations and sufferings of cutcherry 
 work in the hot season to be severe ; but when the 
 sun gives some respite, there are many enjoyments 
 in store for the man of simple tastes and contented 
 mind. Then is the time to sally out into the fields 
 amongst the people, Amidst their pleasant villages, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 115 
 
 under the shade of the tent, or the well-grown 
 mango grove, the wanderer may almost forget that 
 he is in a strange land. India need not, and can- 
 not rival England in our affections. We miss the 
 hill and dale, the steaming pasture, the clear trout 
 stream of our native land ; but still we may rejoice 
 in the rural beauties of a less favoured scene. The 
 freshness of an Indian morning in the cooler season 
 may charm us, if only by contrast. 'Tis true we do 
 not wake to the carol of the thrush, nor to the 
 voice of " newly-wakened herds " lowing across the 
 meadow ; our dreams are not mixed up with the 
 sound of the gardener's early scythe under our win- 
 dow ; yet still we wake to a glorious morn. The 
 air is clear and frosty ; the dew glistens on the 
 broad fields of springing wheat and barley ; all 
 nature seems instinct with life and joy. A mixed 
 sound, the shouts of the villagers driving out their 
 cattle to the field, the barking of their dogs, the 
 shrill voices of their children, come sweeping down 
 the morning breeze ; nearer still is a chorus of 
 birds, amidst which the silvery note of the dove 
 rises ever clear and long. Man and horse seem 
 alike inspirited by the fresh breath of the morning, 
 as we gallop along, throwing " atra cur a " to the 
 winds. If there be any country in which Nature 
 never smiles to win poor man away from his cares, 
 it is not India. Mornings passed in exercise or 
 rural sport, days under the trees or in the cheerful 
 tent, the village people all around to claim our care 
 and protection ; time thus spent flies fast and well. 
 If home and home scenes linger in the memories of 
 
116 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 the Englishman in India, it is well ; but well, too, 
 if he remember how valuable the passing hour may 
 be. Each day may see some old feud reconciled, 
 some village strife composed, some benefit conferred 
 upon a grateful people. And if the official man 
 look forward to a time when he may hope once 
 more to be at home, and amidst the enjoyments of 
 private life, how pleasant is the hope that he may 
 even then live in the regard of a wild yet noble 
 race, who love his memory, because he felt for them 
 and tried to do them good. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 IV. 
 
 CASE OF THE NON-PROPRIETARY CULTIVATING 
 CLASSES. 
 
 a Uauteur de V institution est demeure inconnu? 
 Thus does the Baron Barchou de Penhoen end his 
 learned disquisition on the village republics of the 
 East.* Monsieur le Baron is quite right ; nobody 
 knows who was the author of the Indian village 
 institution ; and for a very sufficient reason, at all 
 events, so far as our north-western provinces are 
 concerned ; for they never had any living author. 
 The Indian village system in the north-west cannot 
 justly be called an institution at all ; it is just a 
 status, growing out of peculiar circumstances, and 
 existing because of its obedience to those circum- 
 stances. Its author is necessity, that fruitful mother 
 of invention, and the secret of its growth and sta- 
 bility is to be found in its powers of assimilation 
 to her rough nutriment and self-adaptation to her 
 
 * " L'Inde sous la Domination Anglaise, par le Baron Barchou 
 de Penhoen." Paris, 1844. 
 
118 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 stern decrees. The Indian village struggles on 
 amidst outward violence and inward convulsion, not 
 by virtue of any refined and complex economy, but 
 thanks to certain elastic and long-living qualities, 
 which in the social as well as in the animal world 
 consist best with a low degree of organisation. 
 Philosophers may dream about the f ' force of orga- 
 nisation," which has withstood " historical boule- 
 versements " and Apolitical cataclysms;"* for 
 our parts, we believe it is just the absence of any 
 artificial organisation that has kept our village 
 system alive. The agricultural communities form 
 the polypi of the social world, the link between 
 living and mere vegetating organisation ; their pe- 
 culiarity is that they can survive anything. Cut 
 them in pieces, disperse or batter them, they still 
 go on living, and prosper not the less. And thus 
 it is that, whilst kings, empires, and dynasties, 
 have passed away, the humble village community 
 remains. 
 
 It does not follow that, because the village system 
 is simple, there has been any lack of honest wit in 
 its growth and developement. The fact is, that our 
 early village worthies, though the children rather 
 than the parents of the constitution to which they 
 belonged, were long-headed and wary politicians. 
 Like cautious seamen in rough weather, whose chief 
 care is to keep their craft well to the wind, they 
 preferred security to progress. There is an honest 
 policy running through all their proceedings which 
 
 * " L'Inde sous la Domination," &c., vol. i. chap. iV. p. 66. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 119 
 
 we cannot help admiring, and to which we would 
 gladly draw the attention of our readers. 
 
 A village, so called in the revenue parlance of 
 the north-western provinces, is a tract of land with 
 fixed name and boundaries, whether it contain what 
 in England is properly called a village or not. It 
 may be inhabited, or it may be be-churagh (without 
 a lamp), as those estates are called which contain 
 no human habitation ; it may contain one cluster of 
 houses, or many. When the sturdy coloni from the 
 far North had taken their stand in the country, the 
 land gradually became parcelled out amongst the 
 settlers. The forests fell before increasing num- 
 bers, and branches from each parent stock peopled 
 hamlets on every side. The country became dotted 
 with fort-like homesteads, each homestead with its 
 little oasis of cultured land, and with its herds and 
 flocks grazing in the farther jungle. Centuries 
 passed away : time after time the Mahometan tents 
 whitened new fields of conquest ; India bowed and 
 fell before the fierce sons of the Prophet ; but the 
 Indian village system stood unhurt. The people 
 surrendered their political rights ; but it was only 
 to cling more closely to their social and domestic 
 institutions. If the truth must be told, the patriot- 
 ism of our Indian (t village Hampdens " is of a 
 somewhat contracted nature ; like the Vicar of Bray, 
 so long as they get their share of the loaves and 
 fishes, they care very little who may be the dis- 
 penser thereof. It suited the earlier Mahometans 
 to treat their new subjects well. As time rolled on, 
 the Emperor Akber came, and India's Doomsday 
 
120 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 Book was compiled. Every village was enrolled in 
 the imperial register ; the name of its dependent 
 hamlets, and the amount of its tribute, were fairly 
 entered ; and that distribution of landed property 
 into mehals or estates, which had so long existed, 
 and which still exists, was recorded in imperishable 
 characters. To this day, or at all events up to the 
 period of the late great settlement, the books of 
 Akber were consulted in cases affecting landed pro- 
 perty, and the revenue forms and terms then intro- 
 duced are still known amongst us. Akber was the 
 friend of the village communities, who, under his 
 vigorous yet paternal rule, had little to desire. 
 They had lost what they little prized, national su- 
 periority ; they held fast what they dearly valued, 
 family union and stability. When worse days came, 
 their foes were of their own household ; and such of 
 the communities as lost their independence, fell 
 rather by the treachery of their own members than 
 by any foreign violence. The chiefs who enslaved 
 them were of their own flesh and blood. 
 
 Under these varied fortunes, then, it was that 
 the simple patriarchal form of village government 
 flourished. The heads of each large family or tribe, 
 assisted by the common voice of the brotherhood, 
 held undisputed sway, each in their own domain. 
 Feuds or differences were settled by the members of 
 the village council (or punchayef), sitting, not as 
 judges, but as arbitrators between man and man, 
 and carrying out their awards rather by the force of 
 opinion than by the actual arm of the law. To the 
 minds of men in this simple state, the vox populi 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 is indeed the vox Dei, and men who would yield to 
 nothing else, would yet listen to the voice of the 
 majority ; for, however he might despise law, no 
 Indian yet ever quite despised public opinion. 
 
 So far, then, as the regulation of landed property 
 is concerned, there is a common law well known 
 and dear to the people. Happily for them and for 
 us, our revenue legislators have become aware of 
 this, and have at last enlisted the sympathies of the 
 people in their favour, simply by acting in accord- 
 ance with those sympathies rather than in spite of 
 them. We say, happily ; for one thing is certain, if 
 we would rule the people of India well and wisely, 
 we must rule them in their own way. Legal fic- 
 tions, John Roes and Richard Does, may suit John 
 Bull (though even he is getting rather restive under 
 them), but they will not do here. " I have tried 
 everything," said a young magistrate to William 
 Frazer, the lamented Commissioner of Delhi, " I 
 have imprisoned, fined, and taken security from the 
 
 people of pergunneh, but I can't keep them 
 
 quiet." " Did you ever try," asked Frazer, "to 
 let them alone?" Now, this is just the treatment 
 which the Indian village system requires, to be let 
 alone. A policy which has stood for twelve cen- 
 turies, whilst half-a-dozen governments have tum- 
 bled into the dust, will outlive anything except 
 needless and officious interference. For us to set 
 to work to improve or alter these institutions, would 
 be about as wise as it would be for the native 
 Indian communities to attempt to regulate the 
 British constitution. The one and the other are 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 alike the offspring of circumstances, rather than of 
 design, and both should be left to work out un- 
 aided and unfettered the part which Providence 
 has assigned to them. 
 
 It is obvious, that in societies such as we have 
 been describing, where union is strength, unity 
 must at all events be maintained. But, as division 
 of interest enters more or less into all human affairs, 
 the question soon arose, How can general union be 
 made best to consist with individual freedom and 
 independence? It happens that the idiosyncracy 
 of the Indian agriculturist was well suited to the 
 
 o 
 
 solving of this problem. His was not an astute 
 mind clinging with sophisticated tenacity to his own 
 rights, and careless of carrying the affections of 
 others along with him ; nor yet, on the other hand, 
 was his a soft-yielding nature to give himself blindly 
 up to the leading of other men. His character was 
 a compound of self-will and unselfishness. Let us 
 see with how much strong sense and sound mother- 
 wit he could act when occasion required it. We 
 will take for an example this very matter of divid- 
 ing the land. But, first, we must ask our readers 
 whether they ever walked through a Derbyshire 
 pottery. If so, they may remember that a day's 
 work of a pottery-turner is reckoned at so many 
 dozens. Now dishes and plates are counted twelve 
 to a dozen ; but when you come to jugs, you will 
 find one gigantic fellow set down as a dozen, while 
 thirty-six little jugs, equal in value to the single 
 monster, will be put down as a dozen also. This 
 plan is adopted in order to keep up a uniformity of 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 123 
 
 prices in the accounts,* As a mere counting-house 
 transaction, there is nothing very remarkable in 
 this ; but its coincidence with an arrangement many 
 centuries old in India for the division of the land is 
 curious. Most Indian villages contain three or 
 more kinds of land, well known to the people, and 
 appreciated by them. These divisions may have 
 reference to the nature of the soil, the facilities of 
 irrigation, or to the relative position of the land to 
 the village. Let us suppose this last division, when 
 the land will be estimated thus : 
 
 First. The land close to the homestead. 
 
 Second The middle circle of land. 
 
 Third. The outer circle. t 
 
 The first quality being well manured and easily 
 watched and watered, is the most valuable. The 
 second quality of land is farther a-field, has fewer 
 advantages, and a less value. The third quality 
 of land, remote from the village, is still less valuable. 
 Now, when a proprietor of land claims a separation 
 of his share, he may naturally expect to have a slice 
 of each quality of land. If poor land be given him, 
 he will require that the deficiency in quality be 
 made up in quantity. A valuation and appraise- 
 ment such as must be made is obviously a work 
 of complication and difficulty, even supposing all 
 
 * See Chambers' " Edinburgh Journal," Nov. 1848, for a 
 good description of this mode of keeping accounts. 
 
 f The first is called Barak, Gohanee, Goonduh. 
 
 The second, Munjha, Manj. 
 
 The third, Burhar or Uar. In the Benares province, these 
 circles are called, 1st, Goindh ; 2d, Bichkur ; and 3d, Palo, 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 parties to be desirous to act fairly and cordially ; 
 but, amongst a set of violent and suspicious men, 
 the difficulty and delay of the process becomes in- 
 creased indefinitely. To remedy this evil, some 
 long-headed patriarch devised the very scheme 
 which we have described as prevailing at the 
 Derbyshire potteries. Like the pottery masters 
 with their imaginary dozens, the villagers set up 
 a standard measure of imaginary begahs, and divide 
 the estate accordingly. In the Central Doab there 
 is a word in use, touzee, or towjee as the rustics 
 pronounce it, which signifies a division, a separate 
 part. From this word the village imaginary begah 
 was named a touzee begah, because it was the begah 
 or land-measure used for making a division of the 
 land. An estate was divided into several (say a 
 hundred) of these imaginary begahs. The relative 
 value of each of the three (or more) sorts of soil 
 was set down for instance, one towjee begah was 
 declared equal to four ordinary begahs of land of 
 the first quality to six ordinary begahs of land of 
 the second quality or to eight begahs of the land 
 of the third quality. It was then ruled by common 
 consent, that the shares of the brethren should be 
 computed henceforth in towjee begahs. In future 
 the sharers, instead of claiming so many biswas or 
 anas i. e. so many fractions of a begah or of a 
 rupee, would state their rights in towjee begahs. 
 The result of this was, that when a division was 
 claimed, it remained with the village to apportion 
 off just what land was most convenient to spare to 
 the claimant. He could not demand, as he might 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 have done but for the custom of towjee bhaut, a 
 slice of the best land, or of each sort, a bit of each 
 field, or of every hamlet ; all he could claim was so 
 many touyee begahs, and those he would get in 
 whatever shape was most convenient to the com- 
 munity at large. This custom tended to check 
 capricious men from demanding a separation of the 
 land on insufficient cause, and helped to prevent 
 disputes and keep the brethren together. It had 
 the disadvantage of being too artificial to last amidst 
 all the reverses of fortune to which the village com- 
 munities were liable, and, though once widely pre- 
 vailing, is now seldom found. We have detailed 
 this little trait of village policy to show what the 
 village genius is, how capable of simple yet effectual 
 expedients for successful self-management. 
 
 So far we have tried in our " Notes" to give 
 some account of the landed proprietors in the north- 
 western provinces, of their rise, progress, and policy, 
 whether domestic or social. Now, though an Indian 
 landed proprietor may be, and is, a very different 
 kind of animal from his European congener, the 
 man of old oaks, elms, and park-gates, he has still 
 in his own way very considerable landed duties, 
 rights, and dignities. We have already said that 
 he forms one of a lordly brotherhood, not the mere 
 member of a corporation. He has no equals in the 
 village, save those of his own tribe. Lord of the 
 soil, his authority is paramount ; and the other 
 village officers, such as the accountant or watch- 
 man, are virtually his servants. But in most 
 estates we shall find, besides the superior pro- 
 
126 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 prietors, a large and important agricultural class 
 of persons, who hold lands by an inferior title in 
 tenant-right. Every one knows that in India all 
 sorts of offices and occupations descend from father 
 to son, almost by right. Hereditary cultivators are 
 just as common as hereditary barbers, washer- 
 men, or carpenters. It would require more time 
 and learning than we can command to define how 
 these cultivating non-proprietary classes were re- 
 garded by former governments. We have our own 
 impressions on the subject, and they lead us to 
 believe that the merely cultivating tribes, whose 
 ploughshare was not readily convertible into a 
 sword, met with very scurvy treatment under the 
 Mahometan rule ; and we see reason to suppose that 
 they were generally considered as mere 4< hewers 
 of wood and drawers of water," the Helots of the 
 agricultural classes. The British Government 
 
 o 
 
 early found the difficulty of drawing a line between 
 these hereditary cultivators and the more depressed 
 of the proprietary classes ; and no wonder, for 
 many cultivators were proprietors, and many pro- 
 prietors were cultivators. Hence, we may trace in 
 our early revenue laws an evident anxiety to pro- 
 tect the tenant classes, mixed with considerable 
 doubt and hesitation as to how far they ought to 
 be protected. It was and is a difficult subject to 
 deal with, for if the mere cultivators are made 
 independent of the proprietor, the superior holder 
 is placed in a false position ; he has the responsi- 
 bilities of a land-owner without the power. On the 
 other hand, if the cultivators are made mere tenants 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 at will, a most important body of men, the very 
 sinews of the state, are crushed. We are treating 
 the matter as one of policy. It is not easy to argue 
 the abstract justice of the case until we obtain 
 clearer light than has yet been thrown on the 
 origin and on the condition of the tenant classes 
 under former Governments. On the whole, it is 
 probable that policy and justice go together in this, 
 as in other cases ; and we are disposed to stand up 
 for the tenant-right. Some protection must be 
 given to this useful and industrious class. We do 
 not find many Dukes of Devonshire or Bedford 
 amongst our eastern landlords, who, to tell the 
 truth, are much more likely to kick a tenant out 
 of his mud hut than to build a villa or model- 
 cottage for him. Besides all this, the Government, 
 as lord paramount, has a hold over the landed pro- 
 prietors, and can justly demand that the ancient 
 hereditary cultivator shall not be disturbed so 
 long as he pays his rent. Some such provision was 
 ostensibly made by former Governments ; and we 
 are right to protect and encourage in every legal 
 manner the peasantry of the country. Nor are 
 they slow to learn and appreciate the privileges 
 of their position. In most districts, the collector 
 on his daily journey to cutcherry is followed by 
 cultivators, with petitions in their hands, calling 
 upon him to settle their disputes with the pro- 
 prietors of the land. One man has a bunch of 
 green corn or of young trees, which have been for- 
 cibly plucked up by some domineering landlord, 
 and which are prominently displayed "ad miseri- 
 
128 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 cordiam" to the district chief; before the cutcherry 
 stands a group of men with their ploughs and oxen, 
 intended to catch the eye of the functionary, and to 
 show how the owners have been ejected from their 
 land. For one hour that the Revenue Collector 
 spends in securing the Government revenue, he and 
 his numerous subordinates spend six hours in the 
 service of the people, and particularly in arbitrat- 
 ing between landlord and tenant. The expositions 
 of the law in such cases, put forth authoritatively 
 by the Government of late years, throw as much 
 light as possible on a somewhat obscure subject. 
 The commentary is better than the text, for the 
 law itself between landlord and tenant is, however 
 copious, neither clear nor explicit. 
 
 We should be glad to see a short stringent Act 
 to define the rights of the zemindar and the ryot 
 Anglic^ the landlord and tenant. A very few 
 words might settle questions which now give 
 anxiety and uncertainty to the proprietors, as well 
 as the under-tenants of the land. We may just 
 mention, for example, difficulties which may occur 
 under existing rules. What period of time gives 
 a tenant a prescriptive right of tenancy ? * Under 
 
 * The terms in use to denote cultivators possessed of tenant- 
 rights are as various as the customs by which the extent of these 
 rights are estimated. They are sometimes called mouroosi, or 
 hereditary; chupperbund^ or householders ; kudeem, or ancient; 
 cultivators from other villages are called paikasht. Under 
 existing rules, they cannot be summarily dispossessed by the 
 proprietor of the land, any more than the resident ryots. We 
 have to remark of all this class that they have no power to sell, 
 or, under ordinary circumstances, to transfer their interest in 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 what circumstances can a landlord raise his rents ? 
 What remedy can a landlord take against an im- 
 practicable tenant, who allows the land to become 
 deteriorated by neglect ? Can a tenant, under 
 any circumstances, transfer his rights to another ; 
 for instance, if he go on a pilgrimage, or be 
 afflicted with an incurable disease ? * Hitherto, 
 (we speak of the upper provinces), questions of 
 this nature have easily settled themselves, because 
 tenants have been in demandj and the landlords 
 would as readily have parted with their cattle as 
 with their ryots. But now we are on the eve of 
 great changes ; the population, cut short by the 
 years of famine in 1837 an d. 1838, is rapidly re- 
 covering itself, and we shall soon have the great 
 canal forming a second valley of the Ganges, down 
 the back-bone of the Doab. Every day the value 
 of the tenant-right is increasing, the landlord 
 watches the rising families of tenants with un- 
 
 the land to another ; but on the demise of a tenant cultivator, 
 his nearest heir succeeds. 
 
 * We are not aware that it has ever been ruled by sufficient 
 authority, what is the longest period that may elapse (short, of 
 course, of a year) between the date of a cultivator's ejectment 
 by a landlord from his holding, and the date at which a petition 
 for redress must be filed in the summary suit department. As 
 it is, tenants often wait to see what the season promises to be ; 
 and if they see no sign of rain, hold themselves in readiness to 
 resist all demands for rent. If *he landlord makes his own 
 arrangements for tilling the tenant's former holding, and then, 
 late in the season, a good fall of rain comes, the tenants rush in 
 to the collector to complain of ouster. To prevent this, different 
 rules prevail in different places. In this, as in other cases, one 
 uniform mode of procedure is desirable. 
 
 K 
 
130 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WKSTERN 
 
 mixed pride no longer, but begins to feel jealous 
 of every man who absorbs a part of the profits of 
 the land. 
 
 We have said this much about the tenant-right, 
 without saying who these tenants are. Tb tell 
 the truth, the ethnography of the tribes of 
 Hindoo cultivators has puzzled wiser heads than 
 ours. 
 
 So far as we can learn, the lower tribes sprang 
 from mesalliances between the members of the 
 higher ones. In many villages, those who are 
 now mere cultivators under a superior proprietor, 
 were once proprietors themselves, or are directly 
 descended from such ex-proprietors. Their an- 
 cestors, or they themselves, failed to pay their 
 revenue, the inexorable sale-law came into ope- 
 ration, and the proprietary interest passed away 
 from men of blood and family to the man of money- 
 bags. Thank Heaven ! the evil days have gone 
 by when such transfers of property, disinheriting 
 hundreds at a blow, were common. But their 
 mark remains behind like the trail of the ser- 
 pent, full of venom and misfortune. Villages in- 
 habited by large bodies of high-spirited men, such 
 as the Brahmins or Rajpoots, whose rights in the 
 land have been sold for revenue default, form the 
 plague-spot in our administration. They are a 
 continual thorn in the side of every revenue or 
 police officer in their neighbourhood. The great 
 object of the dispossessed clan is by continual 
 worrying, by opposition both active and passive, 
 by threats and violence, to bring the purchaser 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 131 
 
 of their rights to terms, so as to leave them still 
 virtually in their ancient position as proprietors. 
 If this object be attained, well and good ; if not, 
 a perpetual civil war rages in the village. The 
 nearest police station, and sooner or later, the 
 magistrate's court, is filled with complaints of 
 affray, assault, arson. Everybody in authority 
 is against the ex-proprietors, from the magistrate 
 down to the village- watchmen ; but they are strong 
 in numbers, and in the sympathies of their neigh- 
 bours. If they torment the criminal authorities, 
 they drive the revenue officers to despair ; sum- 
 mary suits for balances of rent, complaints of 
 illegal attachment, exaction, and ouster, come in 
 thick as hail ; until everybody in the collector's 
 court wishes that these unruly tenants were any- 
 where but in their district The upshot of all 
 this is, either that the purchaser gives up his 
 bargain in despair, or that he buys over one 
 part of the proprietary clan to his own interest, 
 when the heads of the opposition party generally 
 find their way into jail, and their descendants 
 gradually subside into a reckless indigent pea- 
 santry. But, we repeat, thank Heaven, the causes 
 which led to such evils have been removed. No 
 man henceforth in the north-western provinces will 
 fall from the rank of a proprietor to that of a 
 tenant, except by his own fault, or by the opera- 
 tion of misfortunes which may overtake and subdue 
 man under any system of government. The class 
 of tenants just described should be treated by the 
 ruling powers with firmness, yet with considera- 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 tion, and should be encouraged to retrieve their 
 fortunes by habits of industry. Holding, generally, 
 large tracts of land, there is plenty of room for 
 them to thrive if only they will learn to be thrifty ; 
 and the sooner they are taught that lawless habits 
 end in ruin, and that to attain success in life they 
 must deserve it, the better it will be for all parties. 
 We may dismiss this unfortunate class of tenants 
 with the remark, that their habits of life and 
 domestic economy do not readily accommodate them- 
 selves to their fallen fortunes, and that, in conse- 
 quence, they are almost always in debt and diffi- 
 culties, and living on the verge of a predatory 
 and lawless career. 
 
 Next to them come the large families of the 
 same blood, who, from whatever cause, lost their 
 proprietary rank and independence centuries ago. 
 Such communities often live in contented subor- 
 dination to their superior, paying perhaps a fixed 
 rent for their estate, which they levy amongst 
 themselves ; and, on the whole, are not much 
 worse off than the communities of cultivating 
 proprietors. 
 
 After the Brahmin and Kajpoot cultivator in 
 point of blood, but far superior to them in agri- 
 cultural skill and industry, come the Jat and 
 Kachi tribes. Then follow a variety of families^ 
 who are seldom found as proprietors, but who 
 cultivate the soil in patches of varying extent 
 in almost every village. Some of these nearly 
 monopolise peculiar crops ; as, for instance, the 
 Jahar or bearer caste, who generally grow the 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 133 
 
 singhara in pools, and hemp in light soils, as 
 well as the ordinary cereals. Taking these cul- 
 tivators in the mass, they are, as we might expect, 
 a lower race, perhaps morally, and certainly phy- 
 sically, than the owners of the land. Centuries 
 of subordination to village tyranny have left these 
 men servile, timid, and deceitful. They are, how- 
 ever, more sinned against than sinning ; humble, 
 patient, and industrious, but withal slippery and 
 cunning ; living from hand to mouth ; depending 
 more or less on the favour of the village pro- 
 prietor, and his creature, the village accountant ; 
 we must not expect to find amongst them the 
 severer virtues of our race. It is no small credit 
 to them to say, that though often driven to satisfy 
 their hunger by parching the unripe crops in the 
 corner of a field, yet they generally pay their rents 
 honestly. Their houses surround the fort in which 
 the heads of the village dwell, and stretch out to 
 the edge of the cultivation. The coarsest bread, 
 with the rare addition of a little sugar, or ghee, 
 satisfies their hunger. A cloth round their loins 
 made in the village loom, and a rough woollen 
 blanket made by the village shepherd for winter, 
 complete their ordinary dress. A few brass pots, 
 rude ploughs and well-ropes, form their capital ; 
 a few toil-worn bullocks, with perhaps a milch 
 cow or buffalo, form their live-stock. The early 
 dawn sees thousands of these hard-working men 
 plodding forth to their daily task in winter : the 
 summer moon shines on their labours all night 
 long. Like the patriarch of old, " in the day 
 
134< NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 the drought consumes them, and the frost by 
 night, and the sleep departs from their eyes." 
 
 Yet, thanks to the blessing of a. fixed rent, these 
 cultivators form on the whole a happy and con- 
 tented race. The payments made by them, whether 
 in money or kind, cannot be raised at the discretion 
 of any one ; nor, if their rent is paid, can they be 
 removed from their land. However much this may 
 limit the value of the superior proprietary right, no 
 man who has observed the working classes in India 
 can doubt the efficacy of a fixed moderate rent to 
 promote the greatest happiness of the greatest num- 
 ber. It has been prettily written by some one, that 
 " no man who owns a tree and loves it can be deso- 
 late." Words cannot describe the comfort and com- 
 parative independence which the holding and own- 
 ing (by, however, a vile sort of ownership) a little 
 plot of ground brings to millions of our Eastern sub- 
 jects. All that volume of affection which the 
 Englishman bestows upon his fireside, the Irishman 
 on his pig and potato-ground, the Scotchman on his 
 heather-clad mountains, all that the^ Frenchman 
 feels or professes to feel for Paris and " la belle 
 France" or the American for the star-spangled 
 banner, in short, all the feelings which in other 
 lands centre in family love or patriotic pride, are 
 concentrated by the Indian peasant on his land. 
 Beyond it, beyond the range of his own village and 
 the nearest mart for village produce, he seldom be- 
 stows a thought. Little cares he who rules the 
 land, so long as he is left in secure possession of his 
 little speck of it. The fierce strife which so often 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 135 
 
 scorches the souls of the land-owners, the vexatious 
 lawsuits, the wearisome attendance in courts of law, 
 
 all this the tenant, under ordinary circumstances, 
 
 escapes. If his life be one of toil and privation, it 
 is sweetened by the love which he bears to his land 
 
 land which his father ploughed before him, and 
 
 his sons should plough when he has passed away. 
 
 India is the land of contrasts. We know of 
 none more striking than the contrast between agri- 
 cultural appliances and agricultural results. An 
 Englishman, fresh perhaps from the loams of York- 
 shire or the clays of Essex, sees a miserable-looking 
 peasant with a single cloth round his loins, creeping 
 out late in June with what looks like a crooked 
 stick on his shoulder, and urging before him a 
 couple of bullocks, which for size and condition a 
 donkey on Hampstead Heath might despise. The 
 country around is like a desert of sand, the wind 
 like the blast from a furnace. However, a shower 
 of rain falls, the bullocks are hitched on to the 
 crooked stick, and begin to scratch the sand in little 
 unequal rings, not a bit like the honest ankle-deep 
 furrows of England. But what is the result of this 
 simple process, so little resembling the three-horse 
 ploughing, patent scarifying, bone-dust and guano 
 doctoring of our home soil ? Why, in November, if 
 our Englishman goes again to the scene of the 
 operations which appeared to him so contemptible, 
 he will find himself in a forest of vegetation, and 
 unable to see his way amidst fields of jowar or 
 bajera, each plant standing nine feet high, and each 
 ear of the corn weighing half a pound avoirdupoise. 
 
136 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 The grain, ground and made into coarse heavy 
 cakes, supplies the food of the cultivator till the 
 spring harvest furnishes him with wheat, pulse, and 
 harley. It becomes us not to speak with disrespect 
 of agriculturists who knew the use of the drill- 
 plough, and understood well the rotation of crops, 
 at a time when England was a wilderness. If the 
 proceedings of the peasantry in India, especially for 
 the crop which grows almost spontaneously amidst 
 the heat and moisture of the rainy season, be rude 
 and simple, they yet display both skill and perse^ 
 verance in the harder labours which raise their 
 early or spring crops. The industrial energies of 
 the human race are, perhaps, in no part of the world 
 more fully developed than* in the villages of Jats or 
 Kachis, whether proprietors or mere tenants. Go 
 when you will amongst their rich and well-manured 
 fields, you find men, women, and children at work. 
 Lands prepared by them (we speak now particularly 
 of the Kachi or other gardening tribes) will bear 
 comparison with any that could be shown in the 
 gardens at Chatsworth or Kew. Acres and acres of 
 rich soil, naturally tenacious but improved by in- 
 cessant tillage, are annually prepared for sugar- 
 cane and poppy cultivation, every lump as big as a 
 hazel-nut being pulverised by repeated ploughings, 
 or by thumping with a short wooden club, if other 
 means fail. No living being works harder than the 
 Kachi. In October he sows wheat or barley ; in 
 March or April he harvests it, and puts in a crop of 
 water-melons or gourds ; these by constant irriga- 
 tion will be ripe in June, when comes the autumnal 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 137 
 
 crop of millet, &c. And here again we meet with a 
 contrast : the finest, stoutest, and most powerful of 
 the inhabitants produce the worst crops. This is 
 easily accounted for hy the pride of high caste, 
 which withers whatsoever it touches. Some of the 
 Brahmins and Rajpoots are too proud to handle a 
 plough. The Brahmin is unwilling to destroy ani- 
 mal life with the ploughshare or in spreading out 
 manure : above all, he fears lest with the goad he 
 should shed the blood of the sacred ox. The Rajpoot 
 avoids the plough for the same reasons, after he has 
 assumed \hejuneo or sacred thread round his neck, 
 and sometimes postpones or entirely avoids this in- 
 vestiture in consequence. But pride of caste, like 
 other sorts of pride, is modified a good deal by cir- 
 cumstances ; and this agricultural exclusiveness, 
 which is observed strictly by the people of the rich 
 Benares province, who can afford to be supercilious, 
 is little regarded to the north of Allahabad, where 
 from various causes the demand for labour is 
 greater. 
 
 The prevailing modes of cultivation in the 
 north-west provinces have been well described in a 
 late pamphlet by Mr. Coverley Jackson.* We 
 gather the following memoranda as to the average 
 hire of labour and rent in Upper India from Mr. 
 
 * " Statistics of Agra, by C. C. Jackson, Esq., C. S., Col- 
 lector and Magistrate. Agra, 1850." In which will be found 
 not only much useful statistical and agricultural information, 
 but also some very just remarks on the injury which our mode 
 of civil procedure may entail upon the landed proprietors; of 
 which subject more hereafter. 
 
138 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 Jackson's Statistics, modified by our own observa- 
 tions elsewhere. 
 
 Rent.* 
 
 Money rent varies from 15 rs. an acre to 1 r. 
 4 as. Average rents may be set down thus : 
 
 Land of the 1st quality. The very best land, 
 in which tobacco, poppy, caraway seeds, safflower, 
 and garden stuffs are grown, lets at 3 rs. per village 
 begah, or 15 rs. per acre. 
 
 Land of the 2d quality. From 1 2 rs. 8 as. per 
 acre to 7 rs. 8 as. Crops as in first quality, or 
 wheat. 
 
 Land of the 3d quality. From 5 rs. to 1-4 per 
 acre. In this land all the more ordinary cereals, 
 also sugar-cane, indigo, and cotton, are produced. 
 Garden ground is seldom rented so low as this, 
 except where there are no good masonry wells for 
 irrigation. The proportion of each quality of land 
 is about as follows : 
 
 1st Quality, 2^ per cent. 
 
 2d 6 
 
 3d 91 
 
 Labour. 
 
 Ploughing in light sandy soils may be done at 
 the rate of about one-half acre per diem ; the hire 
 of ploughman, plough, and a pair of small bullocks, 
 being about four anas. A working day for one pair 
 of bullocks is from sunrise to noon. 
 
 * We may remind the English reader that a rupee is worth 
 about two shillings, and contains sixteen anas. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 139 
 
 Irrigation. One pair of bullocks in six 
 hours, with three men, will irrigate one-fifth of an 
 acre.* 
 
 Weeding. In a country like India, where vege- 
 tation is so rapid, the weeds would destroy the au- 
 tumnal crop but for constant weeding. Average 
 hire of men, women, and boys, one with another, is 
 little more than 1J> ana per diem. 
 
 Reaping. The labourer gets one sheaf in 
 twenty, and takes care to bind good heavy ones 
 for his own use, which the owner winks at, unless 
 he be more than usually churlish. But customs 
 vary, the general rule being that the reaper gets 
 8 to 10 Ibs. weight of ears of corn for his day's 
 work. 
 
 Eent payable by the ryots or tenants to the su- 
 perior landholders is either in money or kind. Pay- 
 ments in kind are becoming less common every 
 year, and prevail most in the wilder parts of the 
 country. In unhealthy rough parts (such as the 
 belt of jungle under our mountain ranges, for in- 
 stance) the tenant gets two-thirds, or even three- 
 fourths, of the crop ; in more favoured places his 
 share is about one-half of the produce. The land- 
 lord's share is given to him as it stands, or divided 
 at the granary, as may be most convenient ; some- 
 times it is converted into money by appraisement. 
 Like most purely agricultural folk, the ryot has an 
 
 * It is supposed that the water is thirty-six feet below the 
 surface, and that one superficial inch of water is led over the 
 land. The cost of the apparatus and labour of man and beast 
 per diem will be about eight or ten anas. 
 
140 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 eye for valuation, which, when there is nothing to 
 give it a bias, is unerring ; he can tell to a few 
 pounds' weight the outturn of a crop of standing 
 corn. One custom is curious and worthy of men- 
 tion, as throwing light on the manners of the 
 people. A proprietor who has a good opinion of 
 his tenant's honesty will allow him to cut and store 
 his grain without any restriction. When the har- 
 vest is over, the landlord takes as his share what- 
 ever the tenant gives him. This settlement, " in 
 foro conscientice" is called Ram Kotulea, or God's 
 store, i. e. a share given fairly as in the sight of 
 God. 
 
 It will at once strike our readers that there are 
 grave objections to a system of rent which discou- 
 rages exertion ; for few men work heartily to im- 
 prove the land when another is to share imme- 
 diately in the produce. The system of payments in 
 kind leads also to tedious disputes. Its good point 
 is, that in catchy, uncertain spots or seasons, the 
 landlord and tenant take all risks together.* The 
 ryots, such as we have attempted to describe them, 
 form the bulk of the labouring agricultural popula- 
 tion, and far exceed in number the men who are 
 mere farm-servants, or what we should call labourers 
 at home. Farm-servants are found generally in the 
 employ of the higher proprietary classes. Plough- 
 men, mostly of tho chumar or leather- working caste, 
 
 * The plan of taking rents in kind is sometimes called indif- 
 ferently Kunkoot or Bhutai ; but the meaning of these terms is, 
 strictly speaking, different. Kunkoot means appraisement of 
 produce; bhutai (from bhaut, division) means division of produce. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 141 
 
 do all sorts of rough out-of-door work, and receive 
 about two rupees monthly hire, and about ten pounds 
 weight of grain for each plough at the time of the 
 spring and autumnal harvests. If they are used 
 also for domestic work in-doors, a small gratuity is 
 given occasionally, and a suit of clothes at family 
 weddings. The village potter, ironsmith, carpenter, 
 barber, and washerman, get a large handful of ears 
 of corn at the time of cutting the harvest, and about 
 ten pounds weight of the grain for each plough in 
 the village when housed. 
 
 Below these, again, there is a class of agricultural 
 slaves.* We use the word slaves for these domestic 
 servants, either descended from parents of their own 
 class, or the children of poor people adopted by the 
 wealthy ; but they are in reality free to go where 
 they please, and only stay with their master so long 
 as it suits their own pleasure. In return for all 
 sorts of domestic service they get food, clothes, and 
 protection, marry amongst their own class, and are 
 not much worse off than the rest of the labouring 
 poor. 
 
 As a general rule, the lower castes are ready to 
 do any service suited to their capacity which the 
 village proprietor requires ; they attend his wedding 
 
 * These are called khana-zad, born in the family; or 
 goo lam, slave ; sirkaree, i.e. belonging to the head of the esta- 
 blishment ; chela or chera, dependant; roteya, who get food in 
 lieu of wages; ruhooa, destitute persons taken to stay in a 
 family (from ruhna,to remain). The females are called loundie, 
 bandhees, bundoor, daseej and cheree ; concubines of this class 
 are called sureet. 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 processions, run messages, and are ready to serve 
 him on all occasions. Perhaps one of the most 
 striking points of resemblance between eastern and 
 western politics is the sort of serf-like feeling dis- 
 played by the lower agricultural tribes on the one 
 hand, and the patronising care of them shown on 
 the other by their feudal superior the zemindar. 
 In well-ordered villages, where the natural manners 
 of the people are still in full operation, there is a 
 real feeling of identity of interest between the higher 
 and lower classes, and they are ready to fight the 
 battles, attest the falsehoods, and further the de- 
 vices one of another. 
 
 Such, then, are the peasants of the East, or of 
 that part of it which falls within the scope of our 
 observations. Compared with the peasantry of 
 Europe, their lot is fortunate enough, so far as 
 material prosperity and physical comfort are con- 
 cerned. If they suffer from a burning sun, they 
 avoid the severer privations which are caused by the 
 cold of northern countries. If their food be coarse 
 and simple, so is their taste ; if their clothing be 
 scanty, it is yet sufficient. If a famine once or 
 twice a century decimate the population, they avoid 
 the continual dearth of Europe. If their houses be 
 rude and ill furnished, they are at all events rent- 
 free and roomy enough. The English labourer, 
 poor fellow, whilst he sweats over another man's 
 fields, is looking gloomily forward to the time when 
 his strength will fail to keep him longer out of 
 " the Union," the Indian labourer is happily free 
 from such dismal forebodings. Go into his house, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 143 
 
 except just before the harvest season (when he is 
 now and then on short commons) and you will see 
 piles of large earthen jars full of grain, and very 
 often a good cow or buffalo to give milk and ghee 
 to the family. 
 
 Would that we could give as good an account of 
 the morale of these people as we honestly can of 
 their physique. They may, perhaps, be less disso- 
 lute on the whole, and less brutal than the looser 
 part of the European poor, but we shall look in vain 
 amongst them for the rugged honesty of the English 
 labourer, the native polish of the French paysan, or 
 the simplicity of the Italian contadino. Of the 
 Indian peasantry we fear it must be said, em- 
 phatically, " the truth is not in them." A lie 
 seems to come to their lips almost more naturally 
 than the truth. This is much from an habitual and 
 hereditary servile and timid spirit, ever taught to 
 prefer the expedient to the right. But how can 
 moral right be found in the mazes of a wrong re- 
 ligion ? when the fountain head is corrupt, where 
 shall we look for the clear stream of truth and 
 virtue ? 'Tis sad to know that so debased is the 
 state of millions of men, men patient, laborious, 
 and frugal fit for better things. Sadder still will 
 it be, if we quietly acquiesce in the moral depravity 
 around us. Be it far from us to fold the hands in 
 patient indifference, to turn away our heads and 
 hearts with scorn : such is never our duty as men, 
 as Englishmen, as Christians. For what purpose 
 has Providence brought us mysteriously, almost 
 
144 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 miraculously, to the height upon which we stand, if 
 we dare not to look around us, to look forward and 
 to see India awakening from the torpor of ages, 
 flinging away her ancient superstitions, and accept- 
 ing from her conquerors the blessings of truth? 
 Every Englishman in India has his mission. True, 
 we cannot all sow the good seed ; our secular engage- 
 ments, our public duties forbid it. But who or 
 what shall hinder us from breaking (so far as God 
 may help) the stubborn soil? When God said, 
 " Let there be light," the glorious work was all His 
 own ; yet were there (may we believe) thousands of 
 ministering spirits to roll away the bands of night. 
 So when the blessed Light shall shine on India 
 (and who can tell how soon the clouds may be dis- 
 persed ?), how many labourers may be called to pre- 
 pare her soil for the heavenly influence ! There is 
 work for every man and woman amongst us. Our 
 actions, our motives, are scrutinised by thousands of 
 observant and intelligent men. Who can say how 
 the silent eloquence of a virtuous life shall speak to 
 their souls ? But it is not only by example and by 
 influence, those grand levers of the human affec- 
 tions, that we may hope to move these heathen 
 hearts, we may do more than this, we may exert 
 ourselves directly for the benefit of the people. To 
 give one instance : the natives are ignorant ; and it 
 has been too much the fashion to despise their own 
 existing educational resources, and to take for 
 granted that nothing short of a miracle can elevate 
 native morals and manners. Now, why should we 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 145 
 
 not try to improve the native schools, and thus to 
 give the popular mind a better direction ? We can- 
 not enter here on the vast question of national 
 education, but may just remind our readers, that 
 where there is a will to be useful a way will be 
 found. The local Government has set us all the 
 example, and, superior to the senseless prejudices of 
 former days, has stooped to visit and to inspect the 
 indigenous schools. Every one may, if he please, 
 help on this good work. And if it be granted that 
 knowledge is better than ignorance, science better 
 than quackery, then surely it is a noble work to 
 shape aright the rising mind of the country, to give 
 a true direction thereto instead of a false direction, 
 bread instead of a stone. As we cannot dispense 
 with the village schools, why not strive to improve 
 those nurseries of the Hindoo soul ? Why not put 
 useful books instead of trash into the hands of the 
 young ? Once the taste for sound pabulum felt, the 
 healthy appetite will grow with what it devours. 
 Tales about fabulous gods, demons, and puppet- 
 kings, will be thrown aside when the true lights of 
 history and science dawn upon the mind. If any 
 human means can, under the blessing of the Omni- 
 potent, prepare His way, the means of education are 
 not to be neglected. We cannot give all the in- 
 struction we would ; our eyes, our son's eyes, may 
 not see the light of God break forth upon India, 
 but, we repeat it, this is no reason for refusing to 
 dispel the darkness. 
 
 If we would discharge our duty to our neigh- 
 
 L 
 
146 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 hours and ourselves, we must be up and doing. 
 To stand aloof, lest by meddling with heathen 
 schools we defile ourselves, is not to follow the ex- 
 ample of the great Missionary, who, going forth to 
 instruct the heathen world, made himself 4< all 
 things to all men, if by any means he might save 
 
 some." 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 147 
 
 V. 
 
 DOMESTIC HISTORY OF THE RAJPOOT FAMILY. 
 
 THE name of Lord William Bentinck is, in the 
 north-western provinces of India, usually associated 
 with the idea of progress and reform. His tem- 
 perament qualified him for the task of flinging 
 down, with a strong hand, every apparent obstacle 
 to improvement, and his career was essentially an 
 onward career. But, when the occasion demanded 
 it, he could retrace with cautious steps the ground 
 which his predecessors had too rashly occupied. 
 Great as a reformer, he was greater still as a 
 conservative. We might prove this assertion by 
 other instances, but it will satisfy our present 
 purpose to give one example of this wise retro- 
 grade policy. 
 
 From the days of Timour downwards, every 
 great statesman in India had been, to use Timour's 
 own words, " the Lord of the Sword and the 
 Pen."* To separate the department of justice 
 from the department of revenue, the sword of the 
 magistrate from the cutcherry of the revenue 
 
 * " Institutes of Timour," book ii. 
 
148 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 officer, had formed no part of the policy of any 
 chief until Lord Cornwallis and the Code of 1793 
 came to sweep away the Indian, and to introduce 
 the English regime. Ten or twelve years after 
 this epoch, the new system had worked its way 
 to Madras, and it was there that its absurdity 
 was most thoroughly exposed hy Colonel Munro. 
 He himself was equally able to wield the sword 
 of the conqueror or the pen of the statesman, and 
 versed as he was in every detail of revenue manage- 
 ment, no man was better qualified to lift the veil of 
 adulation and pretension which had so long been 
 thrown over the Cornwallis legislation.* No man 
 better than Munro could point at once to the mis- 
 takes and injustice of that feeble, though well- 
 meant policy, and never did ihe arguments of 
 Munro tell more strongly, than when he showed 
 the impolicy of separating the revenue from the 
 police power. From Sir Thomas Munro, Lord W. 
 Bentinck took many a valuable lesson, and before 
 introducing his great revenue reforms throughout 
 Upper India, his Lordship wisely and boldly united 
 the offices of magistrate and collector.! This was 
 a step, if we are to believe the political economists 
 of Europe, backwards, but in reality a wise and 
 humane one. 
 
 The separation of the revenue bureau from the 
 
 * " A monument of human wisdom." This was the term 
 applied to the Code of 1793, by one of its supporters. 
 
 t It is true that such union had been Legalized in 1821, but 
 it was not carried into execution till ten years after by Lord VV. 
 Bentinck. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 149 
 
 court of the magistrate, which the jealousy of the 
 middle classes, and perhaps the progress of civilisa- 
 tion, has enforced in Europe, is not suited to the 
 existing state of things, or, rather, to the state of 
 the national mind, in the East. Before we came 
 here, the head of every village, of every province, 
 of each state, had a mixed revenue and judicial 
 power. This is what the people are used to ; they 
 are prepared to respect a chief, who, if he takes 
 their revenue with one hand, administers speedy 
 and substantial justice with the other. 
 
 But they could never understand the theory of 
 an office which gave a man the power to seize and 
 sell a whole province for revenue default, whilst he 
 could not arbitrate between a landlord and tenant 
 in the most trivial matter. They will never respect 
 an official who can only take their money, and 
 beyond that has no power either to protect or to 
 punish them ; but to a chief who holds the sword 
 of the magistrate as well as the pen of the tax- 
 gatherer they will pay all honour and respect. 
 The officer of Government feels this ; he knows 
 that the people almost worship him ; and, if he 
 is worth his salt, he strives to feel for them and 
 with them. No longer tempted, as a mere col- 
 lector of revenue, to consider all men as revenue- 
 payers only, no longer provoked as a magistrate to 
 conclude, as some magistrates have done, that all 
 men are rogues, his position is exalted as much as 
 his power is increased. The collector's influence is 
 extended, but so, too, is the interest which he feels 
 for the people. The authority of the magistrate 
 
150 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 is advanced, but so in proportion is the temper of 
 his administration softened and improved. In- 
 creased power is attended with wider sympathies 
 and a deeper sense of responsibility. 
 
 All this, we know, has been disputed, but we 
 have neither time nor inclination to raise the 
 ghosts of all the objections which were decently 
 interred by Munro so long back as 1815. Nobody 
 at the present time, that we know of, denies in this 
 particular instance the advantages resulting from 
 our return to the old policy of the country. 
 
 The experience of every day teaches us more 
 and more that the true course of the Indian legis- 
 lator must consist in the moulding, the suiting, and 
 if need be, the lowering* his proceedings so as to 
 meet the mind of the people. If it be good for 
 India to climb the heights of European political 
 science, the ascent will never be made unless we 
 first step down into their own arena to lend them 
 a helping hand. Our desire in these "Notes" is 
 to describe to our readers the country people as 
 they are, and as they are affected by the policy of 
 our Government, and we wish, on the present occa- 
 sion, to show the advantages resulting from the 
 combined action of the magistrate and collector. 
 
 With this object before us, we shall make no 
 apology for the insertion of the following simple 
 narration, taken from the "note-book " of a friend, 
 who, as magistrate and collector of a district, has 
 
 * Of course we do not speak of lowering our policy morally, 
 but artistically ; in other words, simplifying, and, as it were, 
 diluting it, to suit the taste of the people. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 151 
 
 had opportunities of watching the effect of our 
 institutions upon the mind of the people. We 
 give prominence to the extract the more readily 
 hecause we believe that simple details of official 
 life in India, which, from some cause or other, 
 are seldom given to the public, may be useful, 
 and not without interest to our readers. This 
 tale seems to us to show forcibly how well the 
 collector may aid the magistrate under the existing 
 system. 
 
 Camp, Dec. 18 Before I forget a day's work 
 I lately had, let me try to make some note of it. 
 To begin at the beginning. It was, I well re- 
 member, a burning day last July, when Kuma- 
 loodeen, mv deputy -collector, first came to me 
 about the Mullowlie case. The rain kept off, and 
 the sky was clouded with dust, which obscured 
 the sun like the ashes from a volcano. We used 
 just then to have cutcherry open from before six 
 in the morning till eleven, but even at that early 
 hour the poorer of the omlah, and suitors who 
 Jiad to walk home, were occasionally struck down 
 by coup de soleil on their way. I had left the 
 court, and was sitting down to my mid-day break- 
 fast, when the deputy was announced. I felt 
 disinclined at the moment to receive a visitor, 
 but, knowing that he was a man of business, 
 who would not come a mile out of his way (when 
 the thermometer was standing at 120) without 
 some good reason, I ordered him to be shown 
 in at once. Kumaloodeen is a fine-looking man, 
 like most Kohilla gentlemen, stout, and broad 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 made, with a clear, calm eye, aquiline nose, and 
 pleasing contour of face. He had worked his 
 way up from the place of an ordinary scribe to 
 be serishtadar, or head man of the Revenue Court 
 in the district ; and when the orders for creating 
 
 ' O 
 
 deputy-collectors came out, he was one of the first 
 natives -raised to that honourable office. He 
 proved himself well deserving of the promotion ; 
 just, experienced, and of good ability, he was 
 beloved and respected by the native population, 
 who looked upon him as a father and a friend. 
 
 The pergunneh of M , which, since the time 
 
 of the famine, had been out of order, was under 
 his charge, and a revision of the settlement having 
 been made, that part of the country was beginning 
 to prosper again about the time my story begins. 
 After the usual salutations, 
 
 Deputy. " I have come to speak to you, Sir, 
 about the Mullowlie estate. You remember Mul- 
 lowlie it is old Holasi's village, in which you 
 ordered me to make a partition of the land. 
 Well, I have completed the matter so far as the 
 land is concerned, but the family cannot agree 
 amongst themselves about the division of their 
 dwelling-house." (Here Kumaloodeen dropped his 
 voice, and glanced around, / ordered the ser- 
 vants to leave the room, when he proceeded) 
 " In the house treasure is secreted to a large amount, 
 nobody knows where, except the old man, Holasi ; 
 but all the family know that money is buried some- 
 where. Now, Sir, what I am afraid of is, that 
 as the old man and his nephew have quarrelled 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 153 
 
 about their land, they will go on disputing about 
 the house and the treasure ; an attempt will be 
 made to dig for the coin, when there will be a 
 fight, and some of the Thakoors will be killed, 
 or, what is almost as bad, they will commence 
 proceedings the one against the other in the civil 
 courts. In either case the family will be ruined, 
 and that will be a pity, as they are as fine a set 
 as any in the pergunneh." 
 
 Collector (smiling'}. "I wonder, Mr. Deputy, 
 if Providence had made you a * Moonsiff? instead 
 of a ' Deputy- Collector,' whether you would have 
 been more lenient in your strictures upon our 
 system of civil justice ? " 
 
 Deputy. " Ask our Sudder Ameen, Sir, who 
 is a zemindar himself, as well as a civil judge, 
 whether any family of landholders, who once get 
 a taste for going to law, ever stop whilst a pice 
 is left them ? Heaven protect us from civil law, 
 a taste for it is just like a taste for opium-eating, 
 or gambling. But, Sir, excuse me, I was going 
 to say that the Mullowlie people have all solemnly 
 promised me to put off further dispute, and all 
 division of their property, such as houses, grain, 
 stacks, &c., till the cold weather : then I want 
 you to go the village for a few hours, when you 
 can have the money dug up and divided, and I 
 know you will be glad to save the family from 
 either broils or litigation." 
 
 Collector. " If the people apply to me I shall 
 be glad to do what I can to settle their disputes ; 
 
154 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 in the meantime, the less said about this treasure 
 the hetter. But how much is there ?" 
 
 Deputy " From ten to twenty thousand ru- 
 pees, if report is to be trusted." 
 
 I had forgotten all about this conversation 
 when lately I came to spend a few days in the 
 
 M pergunneh. Kumalooden came out there 
 
 to meet me, and our camp was pitched, as it 
 happened, within seven or eight miles of Mul- 
 lowlie. 
 
 I had made my usual march one morning, and 
 was hearing my police reports after breakfast ; 
 old Sheikh Kulloo was opening them in a corner 
 of my tent, and reading, spectacle on nose, in the 
 regular orthodox sing-song tone, interlarding his 
 recitative with an occasional remark, generally 
 complimentary to me, or the reverse of compli- 
 mentary to any police official who might not 
 happen to be in his good books. 
 
 Sheikh Kulloo, loquitur (very rapidly, and in 
 the Oordoo - Persic jargon of the Foujdarree 
 courts.) " No event of any importance noted 
 " from thanah Junglepoor two old women 
 " tumbled into wells one man gored by a bul- 
 16 lock one attempt at burglary one little boy 
 " lost at the Devee melah one burkundaz wants 
 " leave of absence ;" Csing-song ends the Sheikh 
 
 ' V. O O 
 
 speaks in his blandest natural tones,) " The pros- 
 '' perity of your honour is so great, that to open 
 " these daily thanah reports is now almost super- 
 " fluous. I remember the time when we used to 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 155 
 
 " have gang-robberies every month ; and highway 
 " robberies, attended with wounding, every fort- 
 " night: but now, owing to the great good fortune " 
 .... here the Naib Nazir was interrupted by the 
 entrance of a very important personage (in his 
 own opinion), Rung Lai, acting tehsildar of 
 
 M , who stated that he had just received an 
 
 express from the neighbouring police-officer of 
 Junglepoor, to the effect that a robbery of four 
 thousand rupees had taken place at Mullowlie. 
 Rung Lai expressed his desire to go at once to 
 the spot, and to assist in the investigation. li Four 
 thousand rupees ! " said I : " impossible ; I don't 
 believe it." "Four thousand rupees!" groaned 
 Sheikh Kulloo ; " this is the end of the year, and 
 " here comes a case of four thousand rupees 
 '* the criminal statements are utterly spoilt. Well, 
 " there is no struggling against destiny ; what is 
 " to be, surely comes to pass ; but, Sir, your 
 " slave always told you that the thanadar of Jun- 
 66 glepoor was a kum-bukt, a man born under 
 " an evil omen ; and you, with your usual saga- 
 " city. . . ." " Now, Sheikh," I interrupted, "put 
 " up your papers, reach me my spurs, and go over 
 4< to give my compliments to the Deputy Sahib ; 
 " he must go with me." In five minutes we were 
 on our horses, and proceeding at a hand-gallop 
 towards Mullowlie. En route, let me describe 
 my companion, the tehsildar Rung Lai. This man 
 had been for thirty years in Government employ 
 in the district, and for the last ten as serishtadar 
 of the collector's office. Formerly he used to take 
 
156 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 bribes, and to intrigue as mucb as otber Kayeths 
 generally do, but of late years (possibly with an 
 eye to official promotion) he had been very guarded 
 and correct in his conduct. He was a large, 
 heavy-looking man, of great capacity for business, 
 and much experience. But, his late promotion to 
 the office of tehsildar had turned his head a little ; 
 and as we rode along he delivered himself of a 
 
 o 
 
 constant stream of self-grat illation. 
 
 Rung LaL " It was high time for you to send 
 
 me out to M ; what do you think I found 
 
 there at the tahseely? seven burkundaz ; yes, Sir, 
 seven, too old to walk, and riding about on ponies 
 to collect the revenue ; no regular office hours, and 
 two hundred and seventeen bats ; yes, live bats in 
 the Government Treasury ! Then, Sir, there were 
 . . . ." (here Rung Lai stopped short, observing, 
 perhaps, a cloud on my brow, and almost a tear 
 in the eye of his predecessor, a fine old man, who 
 having grown grey in the service, and expecting a 
 pension, was on a smart pony close behind us, lis- 
 tening to our conversation. 
 
 Collector. " Well, Rung Lai, we will talk about 
 that another day. You have had a good harvest, and 
 the spring-crops look well." 
 
 Rung LaL " By your good fortune, Sir, since I 
 came here there has been a wonderful crop ; and as 
 for the revenue, which used always to be behind, it 
 is paid up to the day." 
 
 Collector. " Good ; how do you like the people? 
 I hope you get on well with them ? " 
 
 Rung LaL "Well with them! Indeed I do; 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 157 
 
 they are shureer (rebellious), very shureer, but they 
 are afraid of me ; besides which, I put them to no 
 expense ; when I go to the villages I won't even 
 take a drink of water from them ; in short, I ..." 
 
 Collector (getting tired of Rung Lai and his 
 puffs). 4< What is the name of this village ? " 
 
 Rung Lai. " Mobarikpoor. I have been in this 
 pergunneh four months and ten days only, but I 
 know the name of every village in it. Mobarik- 
 poor is a famous place for tobacco." 
 
 Collector. " What are those blackened earthen 
 pots stuck upon sticks in the tobacco ? They look 
 like scare-crows, but surely neither bird nor beast 
 will touch the tobacco." 
 
 Rung Lai (with a subdued chuckle). " No, Sir, 
 those are not scare-crows, but charms. The crop, 
 you see, is good, and those pots are put up to catch 
 the envious (or evil) eye of the passer-by ; by the 
 goodness of Providence I am versed in all rural 
 customs, though I have lived so many years in a 
 city." 
 
 Just here we met the owners of the village, who, 
 on hearing that a hakim was passing by, had hurried 
 out to make their salaams. " What," cries Rung Lai, 
 " come out without your turban to see the Collector ! 
 For shame!" 
 
 Collector. " Never mind." (To the zemindars, 
 who were looking rather abashed), <; Well, my 
 men, you have some nice land here, and a fine 
 village. Have you a school for your sons ?" 
 
 Zemindars. " We are poor men, my Lord ; 
 
158 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 are we to eat or to send our boys to school ? The 
 tehsildar Sahib knows . . . ." 
 
 Rung Lai. "I know you to be a pack of ill- 
 fated asses. Although 1 attend punctually to every 
 part of the duties of the ' Companee Buhadoor,' if 
 there is one thing I pay more attention to than 
 another, it is the promotion of education. But 
 these men, and such as these who prefer food to 
 knowledge, oppose me. However, I could get on 
 well enough but for the old women and the put- 
 warries, who are always putting some new idea 
 into people's heads. When I first came here, 
 nothing would please them but that the Govern- 
 ment would make Feringees of all the little boys. 
 When the people gave up this notion a new fancy 
 was brought out : sixteen schools out of four-and- 
 twenty in the jurisdiction of your humble servant 
 were stopped ; yes, absolutely closed ; and what, 
 Sir, do you suppose was the reason? The old 
 women spread a report that the Ganges canal, 
 which has been so long cutting, would not chul, 
 that the water would not run in it, and that the 
 boys were not really wanted for education, but for 
 sacrifice to propitiate Gunga-jee ! The schools, as I 
 say, were deserted until I went round to the vil- 
 lages, and swore upon the Ganges water that there 
 was no real cause for alarm." 
 
 But enough of Rung Lai and his prosing to do 
 him justice, he has made a very good tehsildar so 
 far, and will do well^ I doubt not. 
 
 It was noontide when we rode into Mullowlie. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 1.59 
 
 At the entrace of the village, a well-dressed young 
 man, with a very dejected look, met us, and made 
 a salaam. Supposing him, rightly, to be one of the 
 zemindars of the place, I inquired whether any 
 theft had taken place, to the amount of four thou- 
 sand rupees. He said, u Yes, Sir, and / am the 
 thief/' " That is just what I told you, Sir," said 
 the deputy ; " the family feuds are breaking out 
 " again, and you have come in time to settle them. 
 " Depend on it, no theft has happened at all." By 
 this time we had reached the fort, in which the 
 Thakoor chiefs lived. Riding under the spacious 
 doorway into the outer court, which surrounded 
 the house, I observed an old man sitting, sunning 
 himself on a sort of bench, who made a salaam to 
 me, and called out that he had lost the use of his 
 legs, or he would have got up -to welcome me. This 
 was Holasi, the head of the family, whose tale I 
 may here tell as shortly as I can. Holasi is a 
 Chowhan Thakoor, the elder of two brothers, who, 
 unlike the generality of their tribe, were celebrated 
 twenty years ago for their economy, prudence, 
 and untiring industry. They had amassed a con- 
 siderable sum of money, and owned the large Mul- 
 lowlie estate, as well as other distant villages. The 
 fame of their wealth having got abroad, a party of 
 dacoits determined to attack Mullowlie. In the 
 dead of the night Holasi was roused up, found his 
 brother engaged hand-to-hand with the robbers, and 
 arrived, with others of the family, only in time to 
 save the life of his infant nephews, and to avenge 
 the death of his brother, who fell covered with 
 
160 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 wounds. Holasi took paternal charge of his 
 nephews, and a little niece, who, with the widow 
 of his brother, lived with his own family in the 
 Mullowlie fort. Some eight years after this do- 
 mestic tragedy, the settlement of the land revenue 
 of Mullowlie came on, and Holasi very honestly 
 entered in the village papers the names of his 
 nephews as joint-proprietors with himself in the 
 Mullowlie estate. No Rajpootnee damsel in the 
 district had a better dower or a gayer wedding 
 than Holasi's niece. The nephews were brought 
 up with their cousin Bijayee Singh, the only son 
 of Holasi. In due time the elder nephew, Ewuz 
 Singh, who, notwithstanding his uncle's kindness 
 to him, was of a jealous, suspicious temper, was 
 married to the daughter of a Khuteyar Thakoor, 
 and from that time there was an end to peace and 
 harmony in the Mullowlie family. As soon as 
 Ewuz was settled with his wife, and with every 
 comfort around him which a Rajpoot could desire, 
 he found out that he was an ill-used man. For- 
 getful of the many benefits he had received from 
 his uncle, he determined upon a step which was 
 most distasteful to the old chief. This was to 
 sue in the collector's court for a separation of the 
 landed estate, so that he might take the manage- 
 ment of his ancestral share of the land out of 
 Holasi's hands and into his own. Ewuz Singh 
 was put up to this course by his wife's family, who 
 wished to get the Mullowlie estate into their own 
 clutches, if possible. They were encouraged to this 
 the more that old Holasi had lately had an attack 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. l6l 
 
 of palsy, and (as natives often do when they become 
 infirm) had made over his own right and interest in 
 his landed estates to his son, Bijayee Singh, who, 
 being an easy open-hearted man, was supposed not 
 to inherit his father's talent for business. 
 
 You might go a long way without finding a 
 finer fellow than this Bijayee Singh. With a noble 
 manly look, with all the innate courage and spirit 
 of the Rajpoot, he was yet as gentle as a lamb. 
 There was not a better shot, a more dashing rider, 
 nor a more dexterous swordsman in the country 
 side, yet he nursed and watched over his old father 
 with the de\ 7 otion of a woman. I have above hinted, 
 that old Holasi was hurt when his nephew, Ewuz 
 Singh, demanded his own share of the estate, and 
 refused any longer to be satisfied with the abundant 
 provision which he had hitherto enjoyed in com- 
 mon with the rest of the family. Now, it may 
 seem very natural to the English mind, and very 
 right for Ewuz Singh thus to insist upon his claim- 
 ing his separate share, and setting up, as we call it, 
 for himself; but, knowing how much happier the 
 native families are living in patriarchal form toge- 
 ther, I was very sorry when he came to the col- 
 lector's court to claim his separate rights. Still I 
 could offer no opposition to his demand for a divi- 
 sion of the land according to the terms of the village 
 settlement. 
 
 Old Holasi opposed him, disputed my authority 
 to divide the land, and when other means failed 
 appealed to the Commissioner, declaring that his 
 nephew was under age, and not entitled to any di- 
 
 M 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 vision. The Junm-puttr* was produced, and, like 
 the parish register, there was no appealing from its 
 testimony ; so the division, or butwarra, as it is 
 called in official parlance, proceeded under the su- 
 perintendence of the native deputy-collector. Even- 
 tually, equal lots being made, the land measured, 
 and mapped, the Mullowlie estate was divided. 
 One turuf or side was given to Bijayee Singh, as 
 the representative of Holasi, and the other to Ewuz 
 Singh and his brother. The deputy has often told 
 me, that during this transaction the only one of the 
 parties who behaved with uniform temper and 
 honest purpose was Bijayee Singh. True, under 
 the influence of his father's authority he at first 
 opposed the division, but when he saw that Ewuz 
 Singh had the law clearly on his side, he put no 
 further impediment in the way, and behaved fairly 
 and honorably. 
 
 This, then, was the trio that assembled round 
 me with their numerous followers, as I got off my 
 horse and sat down in the shade of the porch. In 
 this very spot, twenty years ago, Holasi had driven 
 off the dacoits from the dead bodv of his brother. 
 
 */ 
 
 There he was now, almost unable to move, carried 
 about by two men, or propped up in a corner with 
 pillows, helpless in body, yet full of spirit and in- 
 dignation. "Look, sir," he said, pointing to 
 Ewuz, who stood with his head down in silent de- 
 jection, " look at that boy, who has brought ruin 
 6( upon Holasi's house. Ask him, who saved him 
 
 * This is a paper drawn out by the family Brahmin, showing 
 the moment at which a child is born. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 163 
 
 " from the dacoits ? Who nursed and fed him ? 
 " Ask him whether in this pergunneh any Raj- 
 " poot's daughter had such a wedding as his sister ? 
 " Ask him who gave her dower, yes, from an 
 " elephant downwards, who furnished her with 
 " such jewels as Agra alone can supply?" " Stop, 
 tf father," said Ewuz, " kusoor hooa, I have erred ; 
 " now be pleased to ask the hakim to punish 
 " me. I have ill-treated you, I have robbed you." 
 6( Come," said I, '* let us hear the thanadar. I can 
 " believe that Ewuz Singh has given you pain and 
 " annoyance, old man ; but can the son of a Cho- 
 <c ban Thakoor rob his own relations ? " Hereupon 
 Bijayee Singh stepped forward " Sir," said he, 
 '' yesterday I quarrelled with Ewuz Singh ; in my 
 " rage I went to the thana and accused him of 
 " theft. I lied, Ewuz is no thief: we have a dis- 
 " pute about our dwelling, but we are not thieves. 
 " I am the one to blame ; punish me." 
 
 I called up the thanadar, got pen and paper, 
 held a short proceeding after taking one or two de- 
 positions, and inflicted a small fine on Bijayee Singh 
 for having given false information to the police, 
 advising him to keep his temper better in future. 
 I then asked to be shown the disputed abode. Leav- 
 ing the old man under the porch, we walked on. I 
 never go over one of these fine old Rajpoot forts, 
 without half envying the occupiers the quiet country 
 life they lead : there is such a rude abundance of 
 farm produce, such sleek cattle and horses, such 
 quiet shady spots and corners. Mullowlie was as 
 nice a place of the sort as I had ever seen. Passing 
 
164 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 through a large open court, surrounded with roomy 
 well-built stables and store-rooms, we came to a 
 square two-storied house. I observed the deputy 
 send on a man to order the females out of the way. 
 The dwelling-house was built with blind high walls 
 outside, but opening within into a quadrangular 
 court, which was overlooked by the flat- terraced 
 roofs and open verandahs, from which the women 
 saw their little share of the world. The walls, 
 where not painted with grotesque figures, sparkled 
 with the fine white silver sand of the Doab, which 
 was carefully plastered over them ; implements for 
 spinning, cleaning grain, and cooking, were strewed 
 about ; everything looked comfortable and home- 
 like. The fact was, as I afterwards heard, the 
 good folk of Mullowlie had quarrelled so violently 
 amongst themselves the day before my visit, that no 
 dinner had been cooked nor eaten. To make up 
 for lost time, on the morning when I peeped into 
 their house, an abundant meal was preparing ; 
 though, as we sball see presently, a second fast-day 
 was in store for the family party. 
 
 Looking round at the rooms, terraces, galleries, 
 verandahs, and endless mud walls, I thought to 
 myself what a hopeless search the family might 
 have for old Holasi's rupees if he died without dis- 
 closing their secret hiding-place. I was willing to 
 test the truth of the story about this treasure ; so, 
 turning to the young men, I said, " Why do you 
 " not divide your property ? thus, one party take 
 <c this dwelling-house, which is highly finished 
 " and very snug, no doubt, but somewhat confined, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 165 
 
 " and the other party take that fine range of houses 
 " outside, with the large court attached?" They 
 shook their heads, and I saw that the small dwell- 
 ing-house, in which both had rooms at present, was 
 the object of their desire. 
 
 I did not choose to allude to the treasure unless 
 they mentioned it to me, and we returned to the 
 outer gateway, where old Holasi was seated. After 
 some conversation with the young men and the 
 thanadar it was settled, that the division of the 
 disputed dwellings should be decided by a pun- 
 chayet, or jury composed of three neighbouring 
 landholders, whose arbitration was agreed to by 
 both the son and nephew of the old man. But he 
 himself was not satisfied with this arrangement, 
 and just as I was getting on my horse to return to 
 my camp, I heard his voice. " Sir, sir, you must 
 " stop ; I want to speak to you." When I came up 
 to him he seized me by the legs, and pressing his 
 old head as well as he could towards my feet, he 
 said, addressing me by my name, " You must not 
 " go yet ; you must do Holasi justice, or these lads 
 *' will fight and destroy themselves and me also. 
 " There is treasure buried in Mullowlie fort, and 
 <c you must come and dig it up: I will show it to 
 u nobody living, save in your presence or the de- 
 " puty's. Lift me up, quick, my lads, and carry 
 4< me to the inner house." 
 
 Once again the women were scared away from 
 their pursuits, as old Holasi, carried by his son and 
 another stout fellow, pushed into the quadrangle. 
 " Let me down there" screamed Holasi ; *' there" 
 
166 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 The old man took his post in a room on the left 
 side as we came in, where Ewuz Singh's wife had a 
 moment before been cooking her husband's ample 
 meal. Fires were blazing, and large vessels send- 
 ing forth a savoury steam. " Away with all that ; 
 " out with the fire, scrape away the ashes/' said 
 Holasi : " and now, my boys, dig." Ewuz Singh 
 said, " Sir, this is my house ; you may dig here, but 
 " you will allow me afterwards to dig in Bijayee 
 " Singh's house opposite : there is the treasure, not 
 '' here" To this stipulation all assented. " The 
 " money is in a khulsa" (large brass vessel), said 
 Holasi, " and there are Us. 10,000, more or less." 
 Two sturdy dependants of Holasi's were soon work- 
 ing away, with that peculiar zeal which animates a 
 native when he is digging down his neighbour's 
 wall, whilst at every stroke of the spade Ewuz 
 seemed to flinch as if it hurt him. The digging 
 went on fast and furious, until at last the heads only 
 of the diggers were visible. The natives with me 
 began to exchange looks, and to hint to one another 
 their doubts ; my patience, too, was fast oozing away, 
 wben suddenly a spade struck upon an earthen pot, 
 which breaking to shivers, left a heap of coin mixed 
 with the earth. The rupees were soon handed up, 
 cleaned and counted. They were old Furuckabad 
 rupees, and numbered Rs. 2318. 
 
 " There are more," cried Holasi ; *' search for 
 " the khulsa : you may blow me out of a gun if it is 
 " not close at hand." After some half hour of hard 
 work the spade of one of the diggers struck against 
 a metal vessel, and the "khulsa" was found. "Pull 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 167 
 
 " it out," cried I. "I can't," said the voice below, 
 " it is brimful of rupees ; and so heavy, it cannot 
 " be moved." A rope was thrown over a beam in 
 the roof, then let down into the pit where the dig- 
 gers were, and fastened to the neck of the khulsa. 
 A strong pull, off flew the head of the vessel, and 
 down went the pullers into the dust. In due time 
 the coin was picked out, and we all set to work, 
 some washing, some counting, the village bunyan 
 weighing, and two tailors in a corner stitching large 
 double bags of cotton cloth, each big enough to hold 
 two thousand rupees. The contents of the brass 
 vessel turned out to amount to Rs. 6392, fine old 
 Furuekabad rupees, which are now at a premium 
 in the market owing to the purity of the silver. 
 
 Ewuz Singh now urged me to push the search 
 further into the private rooms of his cousin Bijayee, 
 on the opposite side of the quadrangle, assuring 
 me that he could point out treasure there. The 
 rooms were long and dark ; a torch was sent for, 
 but, from the rambling manner of Ewuz, I could 
 see that he did not know where to look. At last 
 he came to a place where the earth had newly been 
 turned up. u Look, sir," he cried ; " the villains, 
 they have carried away the money." At last, get- 
 ting desperate, he said, " I'll go and bring the 
 old woman, my mother ; she knows all about it." 
 Away he rushed, and returned presently, support- 
 ing what looked like a bundle of clothes in his 
 arms. The old lady, emerging from the folds, 
 looked around, seemingly in a doting, scared man- 
 ner, and then suddenly stretched out her arm, and, 
 
168 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 with a withered fore finger pointed to a distant 
 wall. She was carried to the spot, and the dig- 
 ging commenced. About a foot below the sur- 
 face Ewuz hit upon an earthen vessel. " Here, 
 here are the rupees which my mother buried!" 
 he cried with delight. " Stop," said I : " when 
 did your mother bury her treasure?" " Twenty 
 years ago." " Then this is not hers ; for see, 
 here is the head of Queen Victoria whom may 
 Heaven long preserve." In short, the rupees were 
 some 1811 in number, which Bijayee Singh had 
 buried at the end of the last harvest. Instead 
 of putting his savings in an old stocking, as an 
 English countryman might have done, or into a 
 hole in the thatch like an Irishman,* he had, in 
 the Indian fashion, buried them in the earth. 
 All eyes were now turned upon the old woman, 
 and surmises passed round as to the manner in 
 which she, bed-ridden in a remote part of the 
 house, had become acquainted with Bijayee Singh's 
 treasure. 
 
 There she sat, with her shrivelled arm and 
 
 * Many of our readers may remember the story of the 
 merchant at Delhi. On his father's death, this man was look- 
 ing over the family account-books, when he found this entry : 
 
 " When six ghurrees of the day were remaining on the first 
 day of the month Phagoon, I buried one lac of gold mohurs in 
 the dome of the Jumma Musjid." 
 
 The merchant, sorely puzzled, consulted the family physician, 
 who, on being promised a share of the treasure, undertook to 
 point it out. On the month and hour indicated he searched for 
 the exact spot in the merchant's premises where the shadow of 
 the dome fell, and there, sure enough, was the money. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 169 
 
 skinny finger still pointing to the ground. Ewuz 
 Singh went again to work, with two or three 
 helpers. I came out into the court, and was 
 turning over in my mind how I should best dis- 
 pose of the money until the jury could be sum- 
 moned to apportion it amongst the claimants, 
 when a shout from within announced further dis- 
 coveries. Ewuz Singh was up to his knees in 
 rupees ; he had come upon a large earthen mone, 
 or urn, out of which we, in due time, counted and 
 weighed 11,283 rupees. They were the same old- 
 fashioned coinage as those which had come out of 
 the khulsa. We had now altogether 21,804 rupees, 
 which were being washed, piled, and weighed. I 
 sat watching the work whilst the deputy went out, 
 as he said, to say his afternoon prayers, taking old 
 Holasi with him. To tell the truth, I felt a little 
 perplexed. Evening was coming on ; it was a 
 wild corner of my district ; what was I to do 
 with all this money? The punchayet of neigh- 
 bours were the best people to divide it, no doubt ; 
 but it was too late to send for them at that hour. 
 Should I seal up the coin and send it to the teh- 
 sildar's cutcherry, until the arbitrators came to 
 
 divide it, or ? Here the deputy came in and 
 
 addressed me in an under- tone. " I have been 
 " talking," said he, "to the old man, who will not 
 " make any opposition if you propose to divide the 
 " money at once, and to make over to each party 
 " what came out of their own house." I asked 
 whether Bijayee Singh would agree. The deputy 
 answered " Bijayee Singh cares nothing about 
 
170 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 " the money, but I have had much trouble in 
 " persuading old Holasi, who says that all belongs 
 61 to him, though he did not deny that his brother 
 " had been privy to its concealment-" The sun 
 had just gone down below the walls of the old 
 fort, and there was little time for debate. 
 
 I addressed the cousins, reminding them that 
 my only object was their common good, and asking 
 them whether they chose to abide by my decision. 
 They both assented eagerly. I turned to Ewus 
 Singh and said, " I propose to give you all the 
 " money that came out of your kitchen, being 
 "rupees 8710; but," I added, "you must both 
 " agree or I'll do nothing say, are you satisfied?" 
 " Yes, I am content." " Write it down," said I, 
 " and sign your approval. In such a case I will 
 " use no authority of my own ; all I wish is to 
 " see you both satisfied and reconciled." 
 
 All eyes were now turned on Bijayee Singh. 
 The scene was a curious one. The women, unable 
 to restrain their curiosity, had crept on to the 
 roof close above us, forming, with their crimson 
 veils and deep blue dresses, a picturesque group. 
 Bags of money were piled around the court amidst 
 a medley of pots, pans, wooden bowls, spades and 
 pickaxes ; in one corner two cats, who had con- 
 trived to upset a vessel of milk, were helping 
 themselves, watching as intently their flowing trea- 
 sure as their biped neighbours were eyeing the 
 silver heaps. A group of stout Rajpoots pressed 
 round Bijayee Singh, whilst apart from them stood 
 the deputy, in his riding-boots, green cloth mantle, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 and handsome belt, in a careless attitude, but fully 
 awake to all around him. On the opposite side 
 sat I, pen in hand, noting down Ewuz Singh's 
 agreement to the terms proposed. The friends of 
 Bijayee Singh began to urge him not to give his 
 money or his father's to the intruder who had 
 brought discord into the family. He had stooped 
 down over the coin, which had been brought out 
 of his house, and lay there in a monstrous pile, 
 enough to tempt the virtue of most men. Every 
 breath was hushed as I asked again, in a loud 
 voice, whether Bijayee Singh agreed to the terms 
 proposed? The pen was waiting to take down 
 his words, and it was just the moment when a 
 man might be expected to make the best terms 
 for himself. Bijayee Singh covered his face with 
 his hands, and for a moment seemed in doubt ; 
 then, pushing far from him the silver pile, he 
 said, " Take the money, sir, I have plenty ; take 
 " it all, give it to Ewuz ; only ask him" and here 
 a tear trickled down his manly face "ask him 
 '' to love Holasi and me, and not to bring dis- 
 " sension into our home : other money I can get, 
 " but where shall I find another brother?"* 
 
 Ewuz melted and fell at his cousin's feet. 
 They embraced, and their voices trembled as they 
 vowed to forget their strife, and to smooth with 
 filial kindness the declining years of old Holasi. 
 I felt proud of my Rajpoot friends. *' Come, 
 " come," I said, " let us not forget the feelings 
 
 * Bhai was the word used, which means brother or cousin. 
 
172 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 " of this moment. Imitate the example of your 
 " fathers stick to one another, for better or for 
 " worse, in life or in death, as they did ; money 
 " you may get, or land, but Bijayee Singh has 
 u well said, Where can you find another brother?" 
 
 It was late ; taking up, as a trophy, my share 
 of the plunder, the rim which we had pulled off 
 the brass pot, I told the thanadar and his at- 
 tendant burkundaz to leave the fort. They obeyed, 
 the latter taking off his shoes and shaking them, 
 to show that none of the rupees had found their 
 way in. Next went the tailors; when a gratuity 
 was wanted for them, a member of the family 
 tossed them one of the rupees from the treasure- 
 heap. This was observed by the others, who 
 forthwith took back the coin and gave a com- 
 mon rupee from their purse instead. 
 
 The deputy smiled and shook his head ; 
 " Ah," said he, " they will never touch these 
 " rupees unless it be to save their land or to buy 
 " more." 
 
 The moon shone as we trotted home to our 
 camp, and that night I dreamed of Bijayee Singh 
 and his rupees.* 
 
 * We have learned that the two cousins and the old man 
 are living now on good terms, and talking of investing their 
 spare cash in Company's paper. A further amicable division of 
 the property has been made, the upshot of which was, that all 
 grain, live-stock, arms, and utensils, were equally divided be- 
 tween the cousins, whilst for the head of the family the following 
 articles were reserved : 
 
 A tent, a wedding palkee, five carpets, one shawl, and a 
 pair of camel-drums^ 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 173 
 
 VI. 
 
 NOTES ON THE POLICE. 
 
 TWENTY years ago a circular letter was sent 
 to the magistrates of the Bengal Presidency, re- 
 questing them not to hamstring convicts before 
 execution ! * Within the last few months the 
 Government of the north-west provinces directed 
 magistrates to exempt from the ordinary prison- 
 rules of clipping and shaving, not only the sacred 
 locks of Sikh prisoners, hut the hair of all convicts 
 to whom such a proceeding would he "justly of- 
 fensive or degrading. "t Straws thrown up show 
 which way the wind blows, and, as the animus 
 of the order of 1830 and the order of 1851 is 
 equally benevolent, we can only conclude that 
 the humanity of the present day takes a wider 
 range, and pushes its sympathies farther than did 
 the humanity of the last generation. If convicts 
 
 * Circular from Nizamut Adawlut to Magistrates, dated 
 April 23, 1830. 
 
 f Letter from Secretary to Government, North-west Pro- 
 vinces, to Inspector of Prisons. 17th January, 1851. 
 
174 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 were formerly treated like wild beasts, they are 
 now treated like gentlemen, when they deserve it. 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to inquire whether 
 any corresponding advance is to be observed in 
 other branches of our penal law, and whether the 
 people of the upper provinces have, on the whole, 
 reason to be satisfied with the existing criminal 
 code, and the manner of its administration. We 
 have already attempted* to give our readers some 
 account of the revenue system introduced into 
 these provinces by our countrymen, and its bear- 
 ing on the happiness of the people ; it remains for 
 us now to notice the effect on the same people of 
 our proceedings as magistrates and conservators of 
 the public peace. 
 
 It is an old saying, " when things come to 
 the worst they must mend ;" and we need not 
 claim any great credit for English magistrates in 
 Upper India, because the peace is better kept now 
 than it was in the last century. They appeared 
 upon the scene, at a time of anarchy, in a country 
 never remarkable for order. But if we are to 
 form any just conception of what the English have 
 done for North-western India, we must take into 
 full account the difficulties which beset their ear- 
 liest steps as magistrates, as guardians of order 
 and liberty. To say that they had to deal with 
 a disordered or disorganised state of society would 
 be scarcely enough ; disorder or disorganisation 
 implies previous order and organisation, but, at 
 
 . * Notes on the Landed Tenures, p. 41. . 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. J5 
 
 the crisis of which we are writing, we may look 
 in vain for any trace of either one or the other. 
 No sooner did the hands of the Mahometan em- 
 perors slacken and they had done so long before 
 English cannons were heard in the Doab no 
 sooner had the scramble begun for the power of 
 the old Mogul tyrants, than lawlessness became 
 the law, misrule became the rule of the empire. 
 In better days, some of the emperors, men of 
 talent and power, had been able, with the help of 
 their rough northern soldiers, to keep their do- 
 minions in subjection, and even to introduce some 
 sort of public police for a short time, and within 
 a narrow boundary. But civil order and liberty, 
 if they ever existed, formed the exception, not the 
 rule of the times. Eastern poets and historians 
 love to dwell upon the virtues of kings, who left 
 the delights of the seraglio to patrol their cities 
 in the garb of a Kotwal, or who watched so closely 
 over the public morals, that a purse of gold might 
 be left with security on the highway. All this 
 suits the Arabian Nights or the Mahometan his- 
 torians of India equally well ; but, as Mill says, 
 we now know what value to put upon such state- 
 ments. Shah Jehan had as many compliments 
 paid to his police administration, and deserved 
 them, as well as any of his predecessors, yet it 
 was from his court that the travelling physician 
 Bernier wrote so feelingly of " le peu d'argent qui 
 me restoit de diverses rencontres de voleurs." 
 
 From the days of Shah Jehan down to the 
 time when Lord Lake wrested Upper India from 
 
176 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 the grasp of the Mahrattas, there was no stronger 
 government than that which Scindia created in 
 the name and on the ruins of the Mogul empire. 
 Particularly in the provinces assigned to his able 
 general, Du Boigne, some degree of quiet was 
 established, and the people were, to a certain ex- 
 tent, protected. But even there we may look in 
 vain for anything like social order and civil liberty. 
 In proportion as the head of the State was strong 
 the people were weak. Ask any old man what 
 was the condition of the Doab under the Mahrattas, 
 and he will answer almost in the words of the 
 Prophetess of Mount Ephraim,* ''The highways 
 " were unoccupied, and the travellers walked 
 u through byways. The inhabitants of the vil- 
 " lages ceased." ^ 
 
 But already the leaven had been infused into 
 the fermenting social mass, which has since so 
 mightily worked in Upper India, which had long 
 ago operated so powerfully in Europe. War had 
 hitherto formed the trade, the employment, of the 
 rough tribes on the banks of the Jumna: it was 
 
 o 
 
 now to become their science. A regular army 
 was seen for the first time arrayed in the plains 
 of the Upper Doab, across them the earlier flashes 
 of military science broke bright and resistless, 
 and the effect on the politics and tactics of the 
 day was electrical. Wherever Du Boigne and his 
 brigade appeared, wherever the musket and bayonet 
 were opposed to the matchlock and tulwar, Eu- 
 
 * Song of Deborah and Barak, Judges, v. 6, 7. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. . 177 
 
 ropean discipline prevailed : Eastern numbers and 
 valour, however great, could make no lasting stand 
 against the science of the West. 
 
 Wherever the White Cross of Savoy* flashed 
 across the battle-field victory followed in its train. 
 The heroes of Rajpootana, those bold Rhatores, 
 whose impetuous cavalry had so often swept all 
 
 * These were the colours of Du Boigne. To illustrate well 
 the old saying that truth is more wonderful than fiction, we 
 could wish to see a well-written account of the life of this 
 Savoyard adventurer. It would be interesting to watch his 
 career from the time he left his native home at Chamberri, to the 
 day when, with a personal guard of his own, 600 Persian cavalry, 
 he turned his back on Hindostan, of which he had long been the 
 virtual king, to seek that home again. Having served as a 
 soldier under his own prince, then as an ensign in Lord Clare's 
 regiment of the Irish brigade under the French king, later still 
 having fought the Turks in the uniform of the Russian empress, 
 having been imprisoned at Constantinople and sold as a slave, he 
 had gone through all that training of war and adversity which 
 might fit him for the role he had to play in Hindostan. His 
 parents bought him out of slavery, and he became again an 
 officer in the army of Russia. By one of those seeming chances 
 on which the destinies not only of men but of nations are sus- 
 pended, Lieutenant Benit Du Boigne found himself commanding 
 the escort of an English nobleman who was making a progress 
 among the Grecian islands. Lord Percy gave him letters to 
 Warren Hastings, then governor of Bengal, and to Lord Macart- 
 ney, governor of Madras. After various fortunes, Du Boigne 
 found himself nominally in the service, but in reality master, of 
 Scindia and his domains. And whether as a civil governor or 
 as a military commander, he has left behind him an imperishable 
 name in the north-western provinces of India. (See Mill, book 
 vi. chap. 12, and Mr. Eraser's interesting memoir of Col. 
 Skinner.) As an instance of the terror of Du Boigne's name, 
 we may notice that, when Nujuf Khan, who held the fortress of 
 
 N 
 
178 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 before them, even they, at last, were driven off the 
 field, though not without a bloody and terrible 
 resistance.* 
 
 Turn the page of History as we may, human 
 nature comes up the same. The first effect of a 
 standing army in the hand of a despot, whether in 
 the Eastern or Western world, is identical; civil 
 
 Kanounde, found death approaching, he sent for his begum, 
 and with his dying breath laid this injunction upon her, " If 
 " Scindia comes make no surrender, but if Du Boigne or Perron 
 " appear, yield at once." Before Du Boigne left India, he was 
 at the head of some forty thousand disciplined troops, with fifty- 
 two pergunnehs east of the Jumna, yielding twenty-two lacs 
 per annum for their maintenance. He had a salary of rs. 6000 
 a month, besides 2 per cent on the military expenditure. He is 
 described as giant-boned, tall, strong featured, with piercing 
 eyes. From daybreak to midnight he was employed on matters 
 of war, revenue, and diplomacy. The Imperial army, as by 
 favour of the Mogul emperor his force was called, consisted of 
 the following detail : 
 
 Six regular brigades, each consisting of 30 battalions of 
 Sepoys and 10 of Nujeebs, 700 men each. 
 
 Two thousand regular cavalry and 200 pieces of cannon. 
 
 Dowlut Rao Scindia had also a cloud of Mahratta Horse 
 estimated at 100,000, and 2000 irregular infantry. 
 
 * On one occasion the irregular beat the disciplined soldiers. 
 See in Skinner's Memoir the account of a charge made by 
 10,000 Rhatore Rajpoots, who, coming on with a thunder 
 tramp, first at a slow hand -gallop, increasing to the wildest 
 speed, rode through showers of grape and shot, right over Du- 
 dernaigs brigade, leaving only 200 men on their legs out of 
 8000 ; and then, without even looking behind them, rushed 
 upon the Mahratta cavalry of the second line, who, says Skinner, 
 " ran like sheep." A rare instance this of a disciplined force 
 swept down by a herd of irregulars. But the pluck of the 
 Rajpoot has often worked wonders. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 179 
 
 subjection is secured, civil liberty is endangered. 
 The change working in Scindia's dominions under 
 Du Boigne in the 18th century, resembled from 
 many points of view the change which France had 
 seen in the 1,5th century, under Charles VII. or 
 Louis XL, which Spain had seen under Charles V. 
 The sturdy clans of Hindostan, like the nobles 
 of France or the mechanics of Toledo, had to 
 learn the lesson which a regular force alone can 
 teach ; they were sinking fast from the state of a 
 warlike nation keeping down a feeble court, to the 
 state of a warlike people kept down by a standing 
 army. If in our own country the civil power was 
 once, though once only, extinguished, when the 
 well-trained dragoons and pikemen of Oliver Crom- 
 well showed our forefathers what discipline could 
 do, we may well believe that the liberty of the 
 subject was a thing of small account, when a Mah- 
 ratta chieftain first found himself, thanks to a re- 
 gular army, supreme from the Nerbudda to the 
 Sutlej. 
 
 But if History teaches us that a standing army, 
 without a constitutional government, means des- 
 potism, we may learn in the same book that a mer- 
 cenary army, and especially an army commanded by 
 mercenaries, endangers the despot who owns it. 
 What the Swiss hirelings and German black bands 
 were to Europe, the brigades of Du Boigne and 
 Perron were to Upper India. Like other merce- 
 naries, they were good servants, but bad masters ; 
 and when Du Boigne, with his sovereign the old 
 Patel, passed off the scene, Dowlut Rao Scindia 
 
180 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 found himself in possession of an engine, mighty 
 indeed, yet dangerous to the hands that might 
 attempt to guide or restrain it. At the head of 
 his army was Perron, the perjured Perron, as the 
 natives of Upper India still call him. Perron hated 
 the English as much as Du Boigne* had respected 
 them, and the flames of war broke out. The ruin 
 which bad policy had begun, bad faith completed. 
 A mercenary traitor admitted, or helped to admit, 
 the soldiers of Lord Lake into the fort of Allyghur, 
 and whilst British arms prevailed on every side, the 
 Mahratta army fast melted into disorder. 
 
 It was thus amidst a population swarming with 
 disbanded soldiers, with robbers, with desperadoes, 
 that the earliest English statesmen found themselves 
 legislating for the ceded and conquered provinces of 
 Upper India. The changes from anarchy into sub- 
 jection which had begun under Du Boigne, had to 
 begin again under Lord Lake. Men are not trans- 
 formed in a dav from freebooting" soldiers into 
 
 u 
 
 orderly subjects. It was long before the old English 
 baron exchanged fighting for politics, before he 
 hung up his sword and dismantled his castle ; and 
 though half a century has passed, with scarce a shot 
 fired in the Doab, to this day the husbandman 
 girds on his sword when he passes the boundaries of 
 his own homestead. He has had more leisure for 
 learning the arts of peace than inclination to learn 
 them. But a change, deep though slow, is passing 
 
 * It was a saying of Du Boigne's, " Never quarrel with the 
 
 English." 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 181 
 
 over the spirit of the people. The splendid bar- 
 barity of former ages is fading from their memory, 
 the days of Eastern romance are numbered, the 
 flood of Eastern splendour is receding, but to leave, 
 as we hope, the solid foundations of peace and pro- 
 sperity behind. 
 
 We have dwelt thus upon the historical circum- 
 stances which preceded our appearance in Upper 
 India, because they afford a clue whereby to unravel 
 that curious moral tangle, a test whereby to analyse 
 that strange compound of lawlessness, military taste, 
 and civil subjection, which goes to make up the up- 
 country man. We have remarked on other occa- 
 sions how little these rough sons of nature care for 
 the law, yet how much they respect the lawgiver, or 
 at least the minister of the law ; how supremely 
 indifferent they are at once to public peace, and to 
 public liberty. It follows, then, that the difficulties 
 which the ruling power has to encounter in dealing 
 with such a population are peculiar. A liberal 
 Government would gladly encourage public spirit, 
 but its paramount duty is to maintain public order. 
 Press these people too much with rules and re- 
 straints, and what chance is there of seeing them 
 free-minded or public- spirited ? Take the curb 
 from off them on the other hand, loosen the reins 
 of government too freely, and what hope is there of 
 public order ? In Indian politics, the middle way 
 is the safe way, but it is not an easy way either to 
 find or to keep. Look round the world, and we 
 shall find that in religion, in politics, even in science, 
 great minds only can hold and keep this middle 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 way ; it is the acme of modern attainments. But 
 great minds do not grow up like mushrooms, and 
 we have no right to look for them in every Indian 
 Mofussil court. Yet, supposing the mind of the 
 Government to be hent, as we believe it is, on hold- 
 ing this just middle way between severity and in- 
 dulgence, the men presiding in these courts must 
 interpret and represent that mind to the people of 
 India. However earnestly they strive to do this, 
 their path is beset with snares and difficulties. The 
 daily strife of an Indian magistrate is not so much 
 with crime as with indifference. He. cannot get 
 the people on his side. If he succeed more or less 
 in influencing public opinion in his district, he will 
 fail none the less to awaken public spirit. How, 
 indeed, can any man awaken that which does not 
 even slumber, that of which in Hindostan we can 
 only predicate that it is not, not known, not com- 
 prehended, not translated, not translateable ? '-To 
 translate the morale of M. Curtius, or of Hampden, 
 into Hindostanee, would be as difficult as to mes- 
 merise a crocodile. It is a doctrine for which the 
 Hindoo mind has no room, or, at all events, no 
 place. But public spirit is in other countries the 
 very strongest support to the law and to the magis- 
 trate ; in England, for instance, when great crime 
 occurs, it prompts every man to track, or if possible 
 to seize, the offender ; and what is a magistrate, 
 himself a foreigner and in a foreign land, to do 
 without this great ally ? He must do the best he 
 can : not a single friend can he rely upon in India 
 beyond the circle of his own police ; and of them 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA, 183 
 
 there is scarcely one whom he can feel sure of for a 
 single hour. To fight efficiently his daily battle 
 against crime and fraud, the president of an Indian 
 cutcherry requires the spear of Ithuriel, the hands 
 of Briareus, the eyes of Argus ; but let him want 
 help as he may, he is all alone, and his pursuit of 
 truth is one endless round of difficulty and dis- 
 appointment. 
 
 We have urged this consideration of the pe- 
 culiar difficulties to which a magistrate is exposed 
 who has no public to help him, because, without 
 making allowance for this hindrance as well as 
 the other drawbacks which the very history of the 
 people supplies to all administrative efficiency, it 
 would be impossible to weigh justly the merits of 
 the English administration. But, as one crime 
 breeds a second, so does one social defect produce 
 another. Where there is no public spirit there is 
 no very distinct public voice, and where there is no 
 public voice the ruler of the people must often give 
 heed to uncertain sounds. When these sounds 
 come from all sides, and in every variety of discord, 
 he may be tempted to pause, distracted ; or if he 
 strike out right or left, he will often strike at ran- 
 dom. The Eastern mind loves to throw the honest 
 English understanding into this dilemma. Nothing 
 pleases an astute Hindoo better than the tormenting 
 an enemy secundum art em through the instru- 
 mentality of a police court. Let him see but a 
 chance of success, and he will rush into the magis- 
 trate with cries and gesticulations that must attract 
 attention, and may create sympathy. Self-inflicted 
 
184 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 wounds, mutilated bodies, false witnesses, all the 
 machinations of perjury and villany, are ready to be 
 brought into play when the opportunity may offer. 
 Hence, whilst his conscience warns the magistrate 
 to listen to every complaint which reaches his ears, 
 his experience must warn him to beware how he 
 listens to, or at all events how he believes, any one 
 of these complaints. An unwilling ear will be 
 closed to cases of real injustice, a too- willing ear 
 will be plied with lies from morning till night. 
 Here, again, discretion, discernment and temper, a 
 clear head and a sound heart, are eminently wanted. 
 If the evils which we have touched upon be real, 
 and who that has seen a Mofussil court will deny 
 their reality ? if magistrates in India cannot expect 
 public spirit to come forward and help them, but 
 may expect to find private malignity bent on turn- 
 ing the police courts into instruments of torture, we 
 repeat that it is quite necessary to take these evils, 
 negative and positive, into consideration, if we would 
 rightly appreciate what the career of an Indian 
 magistrate is. The people over whose interests he 
 presides are either rough countrymen, half-robber, 
 half-cultivator or shepherd, servile to his person and 
 office, but supremely indifferent to law, and careless 
 of human life ; or they are, as found amongst the 
 towns, a crafty, litigious, lying race, who would use 
 the law as an implement of torture wherewith to 
 ruin or terrify their neighbours. What chance has 
 a magistrate amongst such a people ? A warm- 
 hearted, honest Englishman, earnest to improve his 
 district, straining every nerve to hew, if possible, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 185 
 
 the characters of his people into European form, is 
 like a sculptor cutting an Apollo Belvedere out of 
 sandstone. However firm the hand, however skilful 
 the touch, the work soon crumbles into dust and 
 disappointment. 
 
 The best magistrate, then, is he who laughs at 
 disappointment, and works steadily on as though 
 success were still within his reach. And so it is, to 
 a certain degree. It is no small success to win the 
 hearts and affections of a people who, though igno- 
 rant or artful, can still be grateful. One thing is 
 very sure, that whatever a magistrate is in India, 
 the people will soon find it out. The native subor- 
 dinate functionaries watch every turn of his coun- 
 tenance, every inward working of his soul, as a 
 spaniel watches a gamekeeper's whip : the common 
 people watch him as a Persian watches the sun, and 
 regulate their conduct accordingly. 
 
 But it is time that we should leave generalities, 
 and come a little to matters of detail. We are not 
 going to inflict, in this place, upon our readers a list 
 of regulations and acts of the Government, but we 
 will invite them to accompany us in what may prove 
 a somewhat desultory search of anything picturesque, 
 interesting, or of practical importance, in up-country 
 police matters. For the use of professional persons 
 who may care to trace the origin of some of our 
 most important rules, we subjoin to this article a 
 few memoranda hastily thrown together, and of no 
 great originality, which still may be interesting to 
 a beginner. ( See page 199.) 
 
 The historian Mill told us long ago, though not 
 
J86 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 before Bengal had enjoyed many years' experience 
 of Lord Cornwallis's code, that the penal law set up 
 by the English in India was defective in clearness, 
 certainty, promptitude, cheapness, and nice adapta- 
 tion of penalties to each species of delinquency, to a 
 degree that never had been surpassed and very 
 rarely had been equalled ; and added, " Its failure, 
 " therefore, and the misery of the people who must 
 " depend upon it for protection, are not a subject 
 " for surprise."* Now, judging from the docu- 
 ments then before him, we believe the historian was 
 justified in making these severe remarks. But we, 
 writing in the upper provinces, at the present day, 
 are glad to be able conscientiously to declare, that 
 the effects of our penal laws and administration 
 have been beneficial to the people, in, if not the 
 highest, yet a very high degree. The texture of 
 the law is curious enough, if texture be the right 
 term to apply to a piece of patchwork ; but if it 
 serves to protect the poor man we will not quarrel 
 with it : a coat may have many colours, and be a 
 very good coat for all that. 
 
 One test of the efficiency of the penal law and 
 of its manner of administration, is the prevalence 
 or absence of great crimes. Now, it might not be 
 hard to demonstrate that great crime is less 
 common in Upper India t than in many old 
 settled countries our own, for instance ; and, 
 
 * Mill's " History of India," book vi. chap. 6. 
 -f We propose a closer examination of this point in a future 
 number. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 187 
 
 at all events, it may be asserted with confidence, 
 that life and property are at this moment generally 
 as secure in the Agra Presidency as in England. 
 To take an example or two. Thuggee, if we are 
 to believe the frequent correspondence of the 
 " Times," is more common in the purlieus of 
 Russell Square than in the metropolis of Upper 
 India. Amongst us in the East, professional 
 villains are to be found occasionally, who, having 
 performed the prescribed ablutions, proceed to 
 drug the traveller for the sake of his money, but 
 it is not in India that wives mix arsenic in their 
 husbands' tea, in order to gain a few pounds by 
 the funeral. The few straggling dacoits of the 
 north-west are not much worse than the many 
 bands of armed burglars in Berkshire or Kent. 
 It is in Surrey, not in Agra, that justices of the 
 peace go to bed with a revolving pistol under 
 their pillow. Highway robbery is far more 
 common on the turnpike roads of Old England, 
 than on the Grand Trunk Road of India.* Bold, 
 
 * A late number of the " Times " is on our table, for 
 Monday, July 28th a busy time, and a time, when editors need 
 not beat about for crimes to fill up gaping columns. This 
 paper is full of crime. The Cheshire banditti, with masks and 
 pistols, figure in one page with the Yorkshire highwaymen. 
 Thirteen of these last-named gentry were convicted of highway- 
 robbery at the summer assizes at York, and speaking of this 
 crime, the judge remarked, " that peaceable people walking 
 " about after night-fall were in continual danger of being 
 " attacked and robbed by two or three ruffians banded to- 
 " gether." Is there a district in the Agra Presidency of which 
 the same could be said with truth ? 
 
188 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 bad -men, are common enough in either country ; 
 but so long as they stop short of murder, such 
 men run, we believe, a safer career in Great 
 Britain than in Hindostan. 
 
 But we may be reminded that petty tyranny 
 and oppression prevail more widely in India than 
 in Europe. We at once reply, that the magis- 
 trates sitting in Indian cutcherries are far more 
 ready to put down the tyranny which profes- 
 sional rogues and swindlers practise on the public, 
 than are the magistrates sitting in Bow Street. 
 A man who is swindled out of his money whilst 
 he is awake, has as good a natural right to look 
 to the magistrate for redress, as a man who has 
 been robbed of a sheep or a horse whilst asleep. 
 In England, however, rough sheep or horse- 
 stealers are sent beyond seas, whilst accomplished 
 swindlers live on, unscathed by any magistrate, 
 to prey upon the unsuspecting portion of the 
 public. Frauds, patent to the common sense of 
 all mankind as sucb, if kept within certain limits 
 well known to their practitioners, are not punish- 
 able by a magistrate in England. Similar frauds 
 would bring a delinquent in India at once within 
 the grasp of the law, and the perpetrator would, 
 under the operation of what are called the general 
 regulations, find his way into prison. In illus- 
 tration of the contrast which in this particular 
 undoubtedly exists between the laws and proce- 
 dure of the two countries, we offer to our readers 
 the following anecdote, supplied us from the Note- 
 Book of an up-country magistrate. We do not 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 189 
 
 vouch for the legal accuracy of our friend's views, 
 though we can for the literal truth of his story. 
 To our lay mind his reflections seem supported by 
 reason and common sense, hut he shall speak for 
 himself. 
 
 Extract from an Up-country Magistrate's 
 Note-Book. 
 
 Camp. December 1850. -- I received some 
 papers from one of the deputy-magistrates of 
 my district to-day, which set me thinking whether, 
 after all, justice between man and man is not done 
 as well here as at home. At all events, swindlers 
 and rogues seem to me to thrive in England, and 
 often because the law will not encourage a magis- 
 trate to put down fraud and chicanery. Here, on 
 the contrary, every magistrate who has a grain of 
 energy tries to put down fraud, or to punish it, as 
 well as open crime or disorder. 
 
 I have fallen into this train of thought owing 
 to the following incident. A few days ago, when 
 taking petitions in the open air, as is my custom, I 
 was struck with the appearance of one of the crowd. 
 He was a well-dressed, venerable looking old man, 
 with a long silver beard. On to the front of his 
 dress was stuck a petition, well written on an eight 
 anna stamp paper. Both his arms had been cut 
 off, as I afterwards learned, under the native regime 
 some fifty years ago, probably on account of some 
 crime. Having lost his arms, the old gentleman 
 had long lived by his wits, and when I saw him 
 was following the vocation of a horse-dealer. I 
 
190 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 cast my eye over the abstract at the head of the 
 poor creature's petition with interest. It set forth 
 that the petitioner sued under the provisions of 
 Reg. IX. 1807, for restitution of a horse and some 
 clothes taken from him by force. In the body of 
 the petition it was stated that the petitioner (Syed 
 Ali by name) had taken a horse valued at Rs. 500 
 to the great fair at Butesur for sale : that the said 
 horse having fallen sick, Rambux had offered to 
 take it to his village and cure it : that the animal 
 was taken accordingly to Rambux's home, and 
 there doctored : that when the petitioner wanted 
 to take away his horse, the defendant Rambux 
 threatened to assault him, and seized the animal, 
 and his clothes worth Rs. 5. That the petitioner, 
 being a poor helpless traveller, came straight to the 
 magistrate to claim protection and assistance. The 
 person against whom the complaint lay was a 
 zemindar of my district, of decent repute, and I 
 did not believe that he had done anything very 
 criminal, but as his village was near the tehseel 
 station, I referred the petitioner to the tehseeldar, 
 and directed that functionary, who was a deputy- 
 magistrate, to see justice done to him. 
 
 I soon got the papers of the case from the 
 deputy, who reported that Syed Ali had applied to 
 the defendant Rambux to cure his horse, that 
 Rambux had agreed to do so on condition that 
 if the animal, which was in a very bad way, reco- 
 vered, he, Rambux, was to get one-third of the 
 price it might fetch in the fair ; in which case 
 all expenses of food and medicines would be de- 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 191 
 
 frayed by the horse-doctor. A written agreement 
 to this effect had been drawn up, and taken at the 
 instance of the Syed to the police-office to be at- 
 tested. That the deputy-magistrate had seen the 
 horse, which was still ailing, and that Rambux 
 refused to let the owner take away the horse 
 before the cure was complete, until the expenses 
 of food and medicine had been paid, and a loan 
 of Rs. 5, cash advanced to the Syed, repaid. 
 
 My order on receiving this report was, that if 
 the horse-dealer wanted redress he might apply to 
 the civil courts, ' as the case was clearly not a 
 criminal one ; but I added, as the defendant in 
 the c??e was a respectable man, I doubted not that 
 if the Syed would pay expenses, and repay the loan 
 made to him, the horse would be given up. I have 
 just heard that both parties took my advice, and so 
 the matter is settled. Now, it may or may not be 
 desirable that, as a general rule, magistrates should 
 interfere, as I and my deputy did in this case ; yet, 
 on the whole, I contend, that the spirit of readiness 
 to listen at all events to men who complain of 
 injury, is one that should be encouraged. There 
 is little fear of too much being done ; the natural 
 desire of most public men is to avoid labour which 
 does not legitimately belong to them, and they have 
 more reason to fear the temptation to do too little 
 than the inducements to do too much. I should 
 never have noted down so commonplace a transac- 
 tion as that between Syed Ali and Rambux but for 
 the contrast which it displays, so far as the magis- 
 terial animus is concerned, to another affair about 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 a horse which lately came to my notice when I was 
 on furlough at home. 
 
 I was living a few miles out of London, in 
 Essex. One morning I came up by the coach, 
 for we still have coaches from our village to the 
 city, and got into an omnibus in Bishopsgate Street 
 to go the West End. Before we had passed Corn- 
 hill, a gentleman, somewhat flurried in his manner, 
 got hastily in, and as we drove on I recognised in 
 the new passenger an old Hayleybury acquaint- 
 ance, whom I had not seen since we both left 
 College some fifteen years back. After mutual 
 exclamations of pleasure at the meeting, my friend 
 informed me that he had been swindled out of 
 36 L that morning, and was in, what is vulgarly 
 called, a fix, not knowing how to retrieve a false 
 step which he had made. 
 
 Thus ran his story. u You know I have just 
 come home on furlough. 1 was in want of a 
 hunter, and came up from the country this morn- 
 ing to look at a ( genuine mare ' advertised for sale, 
 price fifty-five guineas, the property of a gentleman 
 who might be spoken to. The mare was standing 
 at a Mews, near Baker Street. Here I found a 
 smart groom, who said, ' Master's ' name was John 
 Sharp, Esquire, that he was staying at an hotel in 
 the neighbourhood, and added, ' I'll step over and 
 fetch him.' " 
 
 " John Sharp, Esquire, soon made his appear- 
 ance, a fresh-looking man, with a sharp, brown eye, 
 a bottle-green cut-away coat, drab trousers, red 
 neckcloth, with a look of quiet, suppressed slang 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 about him, which ought to have put me on my 
 guard. Pulling a key out of his pocket, he opened 
 the stable door, and showed me the hunter. Liking 
 the look of the mare I asked for a trial, to which 
 the owner at once assented. Tom the groom 
 saddled her, and led her out into the yard. I 
 was just about to put my foot in the stirrup, when 
 Mr. Sharp came forward, and said, ' No offence, 
 Sir, I am sure you are quite the gentleman, and 
 that everything is all right, but, as I have not the 
 pleasure of knowing you, just as a matter of busi- 
 ness I'll trouble you for a deposit.' Seeing me hesi- 
 tate, he went on, ' a mere form, Sir ; a cheque will 
 do, Sir, if you do not happen to have the cash 
 about you.' Well, to make a long story short, I 
 gave Mr. Sharp a cheque on my bankers for 35L, 
 tried the mare, found that she went tender before, 
 and she was broken-winded, and in a few minutes 
 returned to the Mews. Tom ran out to hold the 
 mare, and the moment I was off her back, led her 
 into the stable, and locked the door. I felt a 
 twinge of insecurity, as Tom came up with a touch 
 of the hat, and began, Well, Sir, how do you find 
 her ? Werry tidy mare we reckons her, and Master 
 wouldn't a part with her, hever so, only he's been a 
 going excuse me, Sir rayther too fast lately, and 
 is a breaking up of his stablishmenk' 
 
 " I suggested that the mare was lame and 
 broken-winded. 
 
 Tom." < Well, Sir, she be a little shade thick 
 in the wind, but, bless you, Sir, that's no detur- 
 ment ; but 111 run and call Master, you ad better 
 
 o 
 
194 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 speak to him/ Exit Tom, leaving me outside the 
 stable door, tapping my hoot, biting my lips, and 
 watching a pecuniary transaction in progress at the 
 next stable-door between a coachman's wife and a 
 costermonger. For a weary half-hour did I stand 
 sentry over that stable-door, until at last Tom ap- 
 peared again, munching an apple very leisurely. 
 
 " * Where is your Master ? ' I said, angrily 
 enough. 
 
 Tom. " < Well, Sir, Master has stepped out ; 
 but he's left word I was to take the balanst of 
 the fifty-five guineas, if you wished to take the 
 mare/ 
 
 " ' But/ thundered I, < if I don't want to take 
 the mare, what then ? ' 
 
 Tom. " ' Well, Sir, then you'd better speak 
 to Master ; all I know is you must pay money 
 down before I unlocks that ere door. Master is a 
 werry partickler gentlmun, and I darn't give you 
 the mare without the money. It ud be as much as 
 my place is worth/ 
 
 " ' Where is your Master ?' I asked once more. 
 
 Tom. " ' Well, Sir, I bleive he's gone into 
 the country: a party called for him whilst you 
 was on the mare/ 
 
 "I felt that I was done, jumped into a cab, 
 hurried to my bankers, found the cheque had 
 been cashed, and Mr. Sharp was nowhere. 
 
 " Running over with indignation, I hurried to 
 
 the Police-office in Street, and made my way 
 
 into the presence of the sitting magistrate, who was 
 lounging over the ' Morning Post/ I began my 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 1Q5 
 
 story ; when I had got half through it, the magis- 
 trate looked surlily up from his paper, took a con- 
 temptuous stare at me, (my friend was as well 
 dressed and good-looking a man as one could 
 meet), and then drawled out, as he turned over 
 the leaves of the ' Post/ ' Go out, will you, and 
 don't take up the time of the court with your 
 nonsense.' 
 
 " I left the place in disgust, and, fool though I 
 have been, I still rejoice to think that, at all 
 events, I never treated the poorest native in the 
 way this London magistrate treated me. I have 
 been to consult a friend at the India House, and 
 am now on my way back to the stables.'' 
 
 Here ended my friend's story. 
 
 Although I thought his position rather hopeless 
 so far as the 351. was concerned, I suggested an 
 interview with my solicitor ; but on hearing the 
 case, the man of law at once pronounced that the 
 only resource was a civil action, but that we should 
 not find Mr. Sharp " worth powder and shot." 
 
 And thus rogues prey upon the unsuspecting 
 portion of mankind in England every day in the 
 year. As an illustration of the popular feeling in 
 such cases, I will quote the remark of my friend 
 the coachman of our coach. He could not restrain 
 a grin as I went over my friend's story. "Well, 
 " Sir," he said, " excuse me ; but the gent was to be 
 " sure rayther in a manner of speaking what we 
 " calls softish ; howsomedever that knowing cove 
 " would not a treated me so, he'd a knowed better. 
 " Bless your heart I'd a been the death on him, I'd 
 
196 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 " a watched for him, I'd a waited for him, if it had 
 " been a twelvemonth, and I'd a punched his ed 
 " against a lamp-post ! " 
 
 Now I have only to say, that had the scene 
 of Mr. Sharp's proceedings been at my station 
 of Jungle-poor, instead of in Baker Street, and 
 had I been informed of them by a credible person, 
 I would have done my best to lay hold of such a 
 rascal, and supposing the case proved against him, 
 the taking money on false pretences and then 
 making off with it, I would have put Mr. Sharp 
 on the roads. I also believe that the Sessions 
 Judge, who knows the law of our Courts as well 
 as any man living, would have supported my de- 
 cision on appeal. 
 
 Having given our friend's story, we shall satisfy 
 ourselves for the present with bringing forward one 
 other instance of the superiority, in certain cases, 
 of the criminal law as administered in India, over 
 the criminal law of Great Britain, not indeed as 
 regards the letter of the statute, but as to rules and 
 mode of practice. 
 
 When a young Englishman fresh from College 
 takes his seat for the first time, as an assistant to 
 the magistrate of an Indian district, one of the 
 many puzzling technical terms which he meets with 
 is the word budmdash. If our tyro be a sensible 
 youth, and not ashamed of his ignorance, he asks 
 what the word means ; if he is foolish enough to 
 hope that he can hide his lingual deficiencies from 
 the omlah, as sharp a set as the world can produce, 
 he notes the expression, and looks it out at home in 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 197 
 
 his dictionary. He then learns that bud means 
 had, and mdash means livelihood, and that the 
 term ' badmdash ' is applicable to persons of bad 
 repute, who have no ostensible means of earning an 
 honest livelihood. 
 
 If a man leads an idle dissolute life, and is no- 
 torious as a thief or a vagabond, it is the duty of 
 the magistrate in India, on being duly certified to 
 the above effect, to call the accused person before 
 him, and institute an inquiry into his way of life. 
 Habitual offenders against the law are at once di- 
 rected to furnish security for their good conduct, 
 and failing to do so, are sent to prison, either for a 
 year, by order of the magistrate, or for as much as 
 three years, by the Sessions Court, if their case 
 may seem to require such precautionary treatment. 
 Without this power, the authorities would never 
 have been able to introduce that degree of order 
 and public peace for which the Upper Provinces of 
 India are generally remarkable. 
 
 In England, notwithstanding the existence of a 
 statute* which might be enforced with the best 
 
 * Here is the opinion of a jurist of no mean repute in Eng- 
 land, Mr. M. D. Hill, Q. C., Recorder of Birmingham : 
 
 " There is a statute on the books," says Mr. Hill, * by which 
 a reputed or suspected thief, by frequenting streets and certain 
 places therein described, which are supposed to furnish greater 
 opportunities for plunder than others, may, if the magistrate 
 before whom he is brought infer from such frequenting that his 
 intent was to commit a felony, be adjudged to be a rogue, and 
 may be punished with imprisonment. 
 
 " What I would propose is, that when, by the evidence of 
 two or more credible witnesses, a jury has been satisfied that 
 
198 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WKSTERN 
 
 effect, notwithstanding the dire want of some such 
 safety-valve, the magistrates are unable to rid the 
 streets of the swarms of notorious thieves, shop- 
 lifters, and pick-pockets, who infest the larger 
 cities. None of our readers need to be told, that 
 in our otherwise happy Isle there exists a class of 
 men, boys, and children, distinct even in their phy- 
 sical characteristics from the industrious million, 
 a class banded together almost from infancy against 
 the peace, property, and morality of their country. 
 Bred in cellars, and dens of infamy, educated in the 
 streets, lodging in slums, or in any corner out of 
 sight of the policeman, grow up amidst profligacy, 
 debauchery, and crime, "les classes dangereuses" 
 of our English society. Fearing neither God nor 
 devil, hating and hated, these human harpies exist 
 only by preying upon their kind. Professional 
 plunderers, such as these, are just as well known to 
 the police, as the police are known to them. We 
 lament the sad fate which thus trains up responsible 
 beings to certain crime and dishonor, but we also 
 lament that the opportunities of such training are 
 allowed. Moral lepers should be treated as men 
 
 there is good ground for believing, and that the witnesses do 
 actually believe, that the accused party is addicted to robbery 
 or theft, so as to deserve the appellation of ' thief,' he shall be 
 called upon in defence to prove himself in possession of means of 
 subsistence, lawfully obtained, either from his property, his 
 labour, or from the assistance of his friends. On the failure of 
 such proof, let him be adjudged a reputed thief, and put under 
 high recognizances to be of good conduct for some limited 
 period ; or, in default of responsible bail, let him suffer im- 
 prisonment for the same term." 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 199 
 
 afflicted with physical pestilence, should be tended, 
 watched, and cured; and then, but not till then, 
 sent into the world of every-day life. Infection, at 
 all events, should be prevented, and in India it is so 
 prevented, where a confirmed " mauvais sujet" is 
 taken up, put into prison, and taught to make 
 carpets or paper, or set to work on the public 
 roads. Are we wrong in saying that here again 
 Indian mofussil law has the advantage ? 
 
 We hope that the comparisons which we have 
 attempted to draw will not be misunderstood, as 
 though we put them forward in the wretched " tu 
 quoque" spirit of argumentation, which tries to puff 
 up one cause by running down another. Our mo- 
 fussil police and magisterial courts have, we well 
 know, many faults to which we hope hereafter to 
 direct attention ; but there are also in our criminal 
 procedures some strong redeeming points, marked 
 by practical usefulness and sound common sense. 
 Let us give credit where credit is due. We have 
 still much to contend with, why should we fear to 
 assert that much has been accomplished ? 
 
 MEMORANDUM ON THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF CRIMINAL 
 LAW IN THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY. 
 
 (See page 185.) 
 
 BEFORE we can attempt to sketch the outline of our up- 
 country penal code, it will be necessary to examine its origin. 
 The body of laws introduced into the ceded and conquered 
 Provinces has, for its prototype, Lord Cornwall's Bengal Code 
 
200 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 of 1793. On the present occasion we shall satisfy ourselves with 
 running " currents calamo" over those earlier rules on which 
 our existing Regulations are founded. Nor will our limits allow 
 us in this paper to get beyond the laws introduced into the 
 Benares Province in 1795. 
 
 The Bengal Code may be traced back to the " General Re- 
 gulations for the Administration of Justice " proposed by the 
 Committee of Circuit at Cossim-bazaar, and " made and or- 
 dained by the President and Council in Bengal in 1772." 
 
 From this date the Collector of each district was not only to 
 preside in the Provincial Court of Dewannee, on the part of the 
 Company (in their quality of " King's Dewan"), but also was to 
 attend to and watch the proceedings of the Foujdarree Adawlut. 
 The sword of the magistrate was at this time ostensibly wielded 
 by the Nazim, or supreme magistrate, whose authority was 
 derived, or supposed to be derived, from the imperial fountain 
 of law and dominion at Delhi. The real power was generally 
 in the hands of Warren Hastings. The besetting sin of this great 
 man, which was to bring upon him, ten years later, the thunder- 
 ing vituperation of Burke before the Commons, and which, five 
 years after that, was to put him on his knees in Westminster 
 Hall before the Peers of England, the sin of "unscrupulous- 
 ness," breaks out in his Minutes at this early date. 
 
 Dacoits were the scourge of Bengal then as they are now, 
 and by the 35th article of the new Regulations such offenders 
 were declared liable to capital punishment, whilst their families 
 were to be condemned to perpetual slavery. The Committee 
 had apologised for proposing this severe enactment, but Hast- 
 ings, in a letter (signed by him as President of Council, 10th 
 July, 1773), not only defended this harsh law, but also urged 
 the necessity of selling as slaves, or transporting in slavery to 
 Fort Marlborough, all convicted felons and life prisoners. " By 
 " this means," he says, " the Government will be released from 
 " a heavy expense in erecting prisons, keeping guards in monthly 
 " pay, and in the maintenance of accumulated crowds of pri- 
 " soners. The sale of the convicts will raise a considerable 
 " fund if these disorders continue. If not, the effect will be yet 
 " more beneficial." 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 201 
 
 To support these severe propositions, he states that the Ma- 
 hometan law is founded on the most lenient principles, and an 
 abhorrence of blood, whilst the instances of strict and exemplary 
 justice done by Mahometan princes, and recorded in history, are 
 of the most sanguinary kind, and inflicted without regard to 
 law ; whence he argues it is necessary and desirable for the 
 sovereign power to depart, in extraordinary cases, from the strict 
 letter of the law; and he recommends this practice to his brother 
 counsellors. Thus did the dispenser of law trample law under foot. 
 
 The evil of false complaints to which we have adverted in 
 our preceding article, seems to have been common, and a very 
 wholesome rule was made, which, with certain limitations, would 
 be useful in the present day. In the 16th Article of the 
 Regulations of 1772, the custom of levying chowt, or other fee 
 or commission on the account of money recovered, or etldk, a 
 fine on the decision of causes, as well as all heavy arbitrary fines 
 (in civil suits), is abolished. " But," says Article 17th, " as 
 " cases may occur, in which it will be highly necessary for the 
 " welfare of the community, to curb and restrain trivial and 
 " groundless complaints, and to deter chicane and intrigue ; 
 " which passions amongst these people often work to the undo- 
 " ing of their neighbours ; a discretion shall, in such cases, be left 
 " to the court, either to impose a fine, not exceeding five Rupees, 
 " or inflict corporal punishment not exceeding twenty lashes with 
 " a rattan, according to the degree of the offence and the person's 
 " station in life." We think that in the present day a few rat- 
 tans would operate well in such cases, and deter people from 
 resorting to the courts of justice in order to oppress their enemies, 
 or to extort money from the public more effectually than fine or 
 imprisonment, which our existing laws adjudge in such cases. 
 In the civil courts especially the revival of some such enactment 
 as this would work like a charm, for there are persons who use 
 these courts as wicked priests once used the Inquisition, and 
 who hold the threat of a civil suit, to be supported by forged 
 documents and false swearing, as an Italian bandit holds a 
 blunderbuss to the head of a wealthy traveller. And, to tell the 
 truth, the public in some parts of India where forgers and false 
 
202 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 swearers have long triumphed, no more desire to find themselves 
 as defendants in a civil suit opposed to such machinators, than 
 the good people of the sixteenth century desired to find them- 
 selves handed over to the civil power on the prosecution of the 
 Courts Spiritual. 
 
 But this is a digression, and probably an unprofitable one, 
 as it is, we fear, too late to hope that our civil courts will burst 
 forth from the time-honoured cerements of law and form, to ad- 
 minister speedy and substantial justice. We now take leave of 
 the Code of 1773, with the remark that in it we may trace the 
 germ of most of our subsequent legislation. 
 
 In 1774 we find Hastings appointing thannah, or police 
 stations, and stung to the quick apparently by the continued 
 ravages of dacoits, urging that " all persons of whatever degree 
 " or profession who shall be convicted of receiving fees or other 
 " pecuniary acknowledgments from robbers, knowing them to 
 " be such, or of abetting or conniving in any shape in their 
 " practices, shall be adjudged equally criminal with them, and 
 " punished with death." At the same time he revived the old 
 offices of foujdar and thannadar. (See extracts from the pro- 
 ceedings of the Governor and Council, under date 19th April, 
 1774, quoted by Colebrooke in his Supplement to the Digest of 
 Regulations and Laws.) 
 
 By the resolutions of Government, recorded on the 6th April, 
 1781, the foujdars and thannadars were recalled, the judges of 
 the several Dewannee Adawluts were invested with the power of 
 magistrates for the apprehending of dacoits, though the power 
 of punishing such delinquents was still reserved to the Courts of 
 Nizamut Adawlut acting in the name of the Nabob. And, in 
 order to lick the criminal statements and police reports of all 
 these odd courts into shape, a covenanted officer was appointed 
 on a salary of Rs. 1000 per mensem, with the title of " Remem- 
 brancer of the Criminal Courts." At this period we have only 
 to remark, that the general spirit of the legislation was of a 
 practical turn ; that the English officers, under the cloak of the 
 Nabob's name, exercised great power in a somewhat unscru- 
 pulous manner; and that, notwithstanding Hastings' remarks on 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 203 
 
 the bloodless character of the Mahometan law, wretches used, by 
 its operation, even under the eye of the English courts, to suffer 
 amputation of one or more limbs for grave offences. 
 
 Passing on to 1787, we then find the district chief as judge, 
 collector, and magistrate, deciding petty cases and inspecting 
 jails. Still, however, the larger share of criminal authority 
 remained nominally with the Nabob, Mahomed Reza Khan, in 
 his capacity of Naib Nazim. 
 
 Three years laten, owing to the " numerous robberies, mur- 
 " ders, and other enormities daily committed throughout the 
 '* country," and for other weighty reasons, we find further 
 changes required. The jurisdiction of the judge collector 
 sitting as magistrate was defined, the curtain dropped upon the 
 Naib Nazim, and the Governor-general, Lord Cornwallis, stood 
 forth and expressed his determination to resume the superinten- 
 dence of the administration of criminal justice throughout the 
 British Provinces. Four courts of circuit, three for Bengal and 
 one for the Behar Province, were established. Two convenanted 
 Civil Servants of the Company sat in these courts, assisted by a 
 Cazee and Muftee. The chief criminal court, or Nazamut 
 Adawlut, was removed from Moorshedabad to Calcutta, and 
 the Governor-general and Members of Council presided, with 
 the head Cazee of the provinces, and two Muftees, to ex- 
 pound the law when wanted. The decisions of this high court 
 were under certain restrictions to be regulated by the Maho- 
 metan law. By these restrictions the absurd distinctions made 
 by Aboo Huneefah as to the mode of the commission of murder, 
 were set aside, and the relations of the murdered man were no 
 longer to be permitted to pardon the offender and stand between 
 the law and the law's victim. 
 
 It was not till 1791 that the Governor-general in Council 
 resolved that the punishment of mutilation should be discon- 
 tinued. The loss of one limb was to be exchanged for seven 
 years' imprisonment with labour, and loss of two limbs for four- 
 teen years' similar punishment. 
 
 In the following year it was ordered that the police establish- 
 ments hitherto kept up by landholders in virtue of their engage- 
 
204 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 merits to Government should be discharged, and police officers 
 in future should be nominated by the magistrate. The darogha 
 of police thus commissioned was ordered, amongst other duties, 
 to apprehend and send to the magistrate all vagrants or sus- 
 pected persons who might be lurking about his jurisdiction 
 without any ostensible means of subsistence, or who could not 
 give a satisfactory account of themselves. Here we may trace 
 the origin of the future " bud-mdash" regulations, of which 
 notice has been made in the article to which this Memorandum 
 belongs. The village watchmen, those useful links in the great 
 police chain that is to say, useful when well paid and looked 
 after were put under the darogha's control. Police daks were 
 established, and certain piratical-shaped boats were put under 
 an interdict. Most of these rules were well adapted to the 
 existing state of things. 
 
 And now, in 1793, legislation was attempted on a more am- 
 bitious scale. Lord Cornwallis decided to separate the col- 
 lector's office from that of the magistrate and judge. This was 
 good European policy, but, in our opinion, not suited to the lati- 
 tude of Bengal ; and our own private belief (a weakness, it may 
 be) is, that if one district chief, within moderate limits, had re- 
 mained supreme in each Bengal district, we should riot hear so 
 much of dacoits and gang-robbers along the lower Ganges as 
 we now do. But we are wandering from our subject, and will 
 only make one more remark on the complicated and tedious 
 enactments of 1793. These laws contain three elements, English 
 justice, English common sense, and English law. For the 
 justice and common sense which pervade the Code, we give 
 Lord Cornwallis our best thanks ; never were such wholesome 
 infusions more welcome. For the English law, we beg to say, 
 that it is all very good in its way for those who like it, in her 
 Majesty's Courts at Westminster, but it never did any good, 
 and never will do any good in Bengal. What European fire- 
 water has been physically to the Red Indian, European law has 
 been morally to the Indians of the East. Millions of simple 
 men, alike in the Lower and Upper Provinces, curse the day 
 when they or their fathers first tasted English law, so far as it is 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 205 
 
 developed in our civil jurisprudence ; under its forms and delays 
 thousands of village communities, which neither force nor famine 
 could disperse, have crumbled into dust. 
 
 But, we must hasten on, and will ask our readers only to 
 pause a moment with us at our own classic city of Benares, to take 
 one taste of English law made expressly for the Brahmins of the 
 place a race of men, like Corporal Bunting's cat, more feared 
 than respected. Class legislation, as it is called, is bad enough 
 under any circumstances, but when bad laws are made to save 
 bad men from punishment, the extreme of legal absurdity would 
 seem to have been attained. But, no; any man may learn how 
 bad laws, such as these, can be made worse, by legal forms and 
 technicalities, and to any sceptic we beg to suggest a careful 
 perusal of Reg. 21 of 1795. This law provides for the punish- 
 ment of Brahmins in Benares. Amongst them an accursed 
 practice used to prevail of threatening to kill themselves, and, 
 what was much worse, their wives and children, when anything' 
 contrary to their wishes was required of them. Such sacrifices 
 of wives and little ones by fire or the sword were by no means 
 uncommon, and as Brahmins, do what crime they might, were 
 not to be subjected to capital punishment, some law was con- 
 sidered necessary to meet these atrocious cases. Benares 
 happened to have been under a Hindoo ruler before Warren 
 Hastings laid hands on the province, but let us suppose, for 
 argument's sake, that the Brahmins of Benares had, under any 
 of the more reputable Mahometan princes, commenced sacrific- 
 ing their children when the tax-gatherer came to their doors ; 
 the Mahometan would have had blood for blood, and the 
 Brahmin would at once have expiated his unnatural crime with 
 his life. But when once the taste for English legal forms, 
 delays, and observances had come in, summary punishment, 
 however just, was out of the question. Besides the sort of benefit 
 of clergy, which the laws extended to all Brahmins in Benares, 
 the very forms of those laws put summary punishment, and even 
 summary repression of crime, out of the question. 
 
 The tehsildar, let us suppose, had intended to enforce through 
 a peon the ordinary process of the revenue authorities to realise 
 money due by a land-holding Brahmin. The Brahmin bars his 
 
206 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 outer door, and declares his intention to establish a koorh ; in 
 other words, catches hold of a knife or a torch in one hand, of 
 his infant child in the other, and vows to burn or slay if he is 
 asked to pay a single rupee. Now, observe the process according 
 to law, whilst the Brahmin is killing his family, 
 
 1st. The peon is to wait upon the tehsildar. 
 
 2d. Tehsildar (after taking peon's deposition) to wait upon 
 the collector. 
 
 3d. Collector to summon the Government vakeel. 
 
 4th. Government vakeel to move the magistrate. 
 
 5th. Magistrate to send a relative to the angry Brahmin. 
 
 6th. Relative failing " componere lites" then a Brahmin 
 Chuprassey was to enter upon the negotiation. 
 
 7th. Brahmin failing, a Mahometan peon was to take the 
 offender into custody, if he could catch him. 
 
 Lastly. If the Mahometan peon arrived too late, and found 
 only the ashes or the mangled bodies of the Brahmin's family, 
 then the Brahmin himself, when caught, would be liable to trans- 
 portation, and his family (such as survived) were to be banished, 
 and their lands forfeited. So the families of such Brahmins as 
 had a bad temper, and a dislike to cash payments, had the 
 option of being burnt or being banished ! 
 
 Such of our readers as are blessed with children round their 
 knees will recognise in this animated series of legal proceedings 
 enumerated above, the original of that popular nursery myth, in 
 which the prominent characters are an old woman and a pig. 
 " Water won't quench fire, fire won't burn stick, stick won't beat 
 dog, dog won't bite pig, pig won't get over gate, and I shan't 
 get home to my supper to-night." 
 
 Thank Heaven, we have got rid of most of these forms in our 
 criminal and revenue institutions ; but they cluster thick around 
 the temple of civil justice still. And here, having worked our 
 way home to Benares, we must pause, with the hope of carrying 
 this hurried examination of the law, further up the country in 
 our next number. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 207 
 
 VII. 
 
 NOTES ON THE POLICE. 
 
 THEMISTOCLES, when desired at a feast to 
 touch the lute, replied, "I cannot fiddle, but I 
 can make of a small town a great city." Now, 
 for India we want, if we can get them, men who 
 shall come up to the vaunt of the Athenian com- 
 mander ; not fiddlers, but men of pith and pro- 
 gress. We look for science, not art ; statesmen, 
 not lawyers ; above all, for our magistrates we 
 require officers possessing nerve, action, and energy. 
 For Governors, Councillors, and Judges, we may 
 hope to find statesmen of patient inquiry and inves- 
 tigation, in whom thought predominates over action. 
 But, for our magistrates in India, we demand the 
 graces which (if we may fetch another simile from 
 Athens) Demosthenes required in an orator. First, 
 Action. Second, Action. Third, Action. And 
 if to action be joined that great though rare gift of 
 moral thoughtfulness, so valuable to the man of 
 power and movement, these qualities combined 
 
208 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 with a fair share of ability and judgment will give 
 us all we could ask, and more than we shall often 
 get for our public men. The more a magistrate 
 has these characteristics, and the more equally 
 they are diffused over his character, the better 
 he will be. 
 
 Action, however, and energy, are what we now 
 lay most stress upon, because in days of peace and 
 outward tranquillity these qualities are not always 
 valued at their true price, and their absence is not 
 so palpably mischievous as in more stirring times. 
 There is more danger now of men becoming plod- 
 ding, methodical, mere office functionaries, than of 
 their stepping with too hasty a zeal beyond the 
 limits of the law. There is truth, too, in Jacque- 
 mont's sneer India is governed by stationery, to a 
 more than sufficient extent ; and one of the com- 
 monest errors of our magistrates, which they 
 imbibe from constant and early Indian associa- 
 tions, is to mistake writing for action, to fancy 
 that dictation will supply the place of exertion. 
 In no other country are so many written orders 
 issued with so much confidence, received with 
 such respect, and broken with such complacency. 
 In fact, as for writing, we believe the infection 
 of the '< cacoethes scribendi" must first have grown 
 up in the East. It pervades everything, but is 
 more rampant and more out of place in a police- 
 office than anywhere else.* It was not the ma- 
 
 * We do not mean to undervalue the daily written police 
 reports, which are of the greatest importance ; what we protest 
 against is, the needless spinning out of these daily advices, and 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 209 
 
 gistrates who originated this passion for scribbling, 
 but they have never succeeded in repressing it, 
 nor, whilst the law requires that every discontented 
 old woman's story shall be taken down in writing, 
 is it to be expected they ever will. The Khayeths 
 worship their pen and ink on certain festivals, and 
 there is a sort of "religio" attaching to written 
 forms and statements which is not confined to offi- 
 cial life, but pervades the whole social polity of the 
 writing tribes. An Indian scribe, whose domestic 
 expenditure may average sixpence a-day, will keep 
 an account-book with as many columns, headings, 
 and totals, as would serve for the budget of a 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer.* To Tudor Mul 
 and such worthies we owe, no doubt, a great deal 
 for the method and order which they infused into 
 public records ; but we have also to thank these 
 knights of the pen for the plaguiest long-figured 
 statements, and the greatest number of such state- 
 ments, which the world ever saw. 
 
 the filling them with useless matter. It is amusing- to watch a 
 native officer a deputy-magistrate, for instance on whom, once 
 in a way, the duty of disposing of the police reports for the day 
 is devolved. He invariably thinks it his business to pass some 
 sort of order on every item of the thanadar's day-book, and if 
 no other remark can be made, puts " has been read" opposite 
 the most trifling entry. 
 
 * It is remarkable that the Hindoos keep no written accounts 
 in the shape of what we call history, nor even such memoranda 
 as can furnish material for the historian, whilst they preserve 
 the minutest details of everything connected with national 
 revenue or expenditure. See MALCOLM'S Central India, vol. i. 
 p. 58-60. 
 
 P 
 
210 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 If, then, the genius of the people lead them to 
 mistake writing for action, we need not wonder 
 if the servants of Government imhibe more or less 
 the same dangerous error. That such is the 
 genius of the people we need hardly stop to prove. 
 Take an instance from every-day life. A man 
 succeeds to the management of landed property, 
 and deputes an agent to look after it. An English 
 agent under such circumstances would get on his 
 pony, and ride over every part of the estate. An 
 Indian homme d'affaires squats in the most com- 
 fortable place he can find, and prepares, at second 
 hand, an interminable detail of every field, &c. &c. 
 The one would do and see much but write little, 
 the other sees nothing and does nothing but write 
 volumes. Hence in India we want an accountant 
 for every village, hence the need for every petty 
 chief to entertain almost as many penmen as 
 ploughmen. Our laws, as we have already hinted, 
 favour this Eastern weakness ; if two neighbours 
 quarrel about a drain or a dunghill, a rough word 
 or a hasty blow, their mutual recriminations must 
 all be taken down in black and white, with the 
 statements of all their witnesses, before the smallest 
 legal sentence can be passed. This process is 
 requisite, not only in cases appealable to the higher 
 courts, but also in the pettiest causes in which the 
 order of the magistrate is final. Tons of paper 
 pass daily into the criminal record-rooms, filled 
 with the most trivial occurrences, described with 
 the greatest possible minuteness. 
 
 Such being the " idola specus " which haunt 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 21 
 
 the earliest steps of Indian officials, and such the 
 tendency of the public mind, we need not wonder 
 that the personal prowess, energy, and activity 
 displayed by men of rank have held a high, perhaps 
 an undue place, in the estimation of the people. 
 Men accustomed to see all official labour pushed 
 off upon deputies, and to consider power synony- 
 mous with ease and luxury, are delighted with a 
 district chief who is as ready to spend the day 
 in the saddle, if need be, as in the cutcherry. 
 
 Men admire most what they least understand. 
 Napoleon, when he wished to make the greatest 
 impression on his officers, put on the cap of the 
 savant and solved problems with the sages of 
 " the Institute." In like manner, a magistrate, 
 who will ride sixty miles across country, if need 
 require, will at once secure the respect of his 
 satraps and the votes of his people. The gallant 
 bearing of William Frazer, at the head of his 
 squadron of horse, is still the talk of the men 
 of Delhi : the rough Jats and Goojurs, in the 
 valleys of the lower Himaleyeh, still tell their 
 children how Frederick Shore cut down in single 
 combat the best swordsman of the Upper Doab. 
 But even amongst ordinary men, in ordinary times, 
 there is not seldom a demand for promptitude in 
 action and presence of mind, which makes no 
 unimportant part of the schooling of our Indian 
 statesmen. In turning over the pages of the 
 "Note-Book," to which we have been on former 
 occasions indebted, we have come upon the follow- 
 ing description, which we transcribe. It seems to 
 

 
 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 us to afford an illustration of the activity which 
 on occasion is required from a magistrate in India. 
 Our readers will recognise in the " Mr. Clerk " 
 alluded to, the present Sir George, late Governor 
 of Bombay. 
 
 CUTCHERRY ON HORSEBACK. 
 
 From a Magistrate's Note-Book. 
 
 . In the year 183.5 I was an assistant to the ma- 
 gistrate of Paneeput, and was stationed at the then 
 flourishing cantonment of Kurnal. I had charge 
 of that place, and of two or three of the thanas 
 near it. My master, John Lawrence, loved then 
 as now to encourage a spirit of action and energy 
 in his subordinates, and his name was as much 
 respected then amongst the Jats, Goojurs, and 
 Ranghurs of the Jumna, as it now is amongst the 
 Bunnoochees, Wuzeerees, or other wild tribes on the 
 Indus. One morning in November I was sitting 
 in my tent, doing cutcherry, as the phrase goes, 
 when two travel-stained men pushed in and asked 
 to speak to me in private. No sooner was the tent 
 cleared than one of my visitors, after glancing 
 around, unloosed his waistband, and pulled out 
 of its folds a note from the " burr a sahib," as 
 he said. It was from George Clerk, the political 
 agent at Umballah in those days, and from its 
 contents I learned, that certain freebooters of my 
 district, with the help of some of the men of 
 Khytul (a protected Sikh state), had made a 
 raid upon the village of Asynduh, near Umballah, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 and had carried off a large herd of cattle at the 
 point of the spear, killing or wounding whoever 
 opposed them. The messengers were the Jat head- 
 men of Asynduh, owners of the lost cattle, and the 
 killed and wounded villagers were their relations 
 and dependants. 
 
 I fancy now I can see the dusky faces of these 
 injured men, burning with rage and revenge, and 
 feel their hot breath as they whispered to me how, 
 where, and when I was to help them to recover, 
 at all events, their property, if not more fully to 
 avenge their wrongs. Above a whisper I could 
 not persuade them to speak, though nobody was 
 within a stone's throw of the tent. From their 
 story it seemed that the men of my district, who 
 had helped the Khytul marauders, were afraid to 
 keep any of the harried cattle in the Paneeput 
 villages, and that the greater part of the buffaloes 
 were at a village called Ooblana, in the Khytul 
 state, some twenty odd miles from Kurnal. From 
 fear of detection, the herds were kept day and 
 night in the dense jungles near the village, and 
 only brought morning and evening to a tank under 
 the village walls to be milked. The Jats urged 
 me, on a fixed day, to bring out a party of horse- 
 men, when they promised to meet me at daybreak 
 near Ooblana, and point out, if not the thieves, at 
 all events the lost cattle. Above all things, I was 
 to give no hint of my intentions to any living man, 
 or the expedition would be a failure. 
 
 On the night preceding the day fixed for my 
 " dour" on going to bed I told my bearer to wake 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 me about midnight. I then rode off with the 
 thanadar of Kurnal and as many sowars as I could 
 muster (about eleven in all), taking the road to 
 Ooblana. I ordered the vakeel of Khytul to at- 
 tend me, a fat, jolly little man, called Dewan 
 Singh, who rode a capital Tangun pony. The 
 animal, over- fed, under-worked, and excited by 
 the number of horses about him, jumped and 
 kicked more than was agreeable to his master, to 
 the great amusement of the sowars, who kept 
 cutting their jokes at the expense of the sleek 
 Dewan. " Wah, wah," " keisa buboola Ghora, 
 what a fly-away steed ! " they cried ; " bravo, 
 " vukeel sahib; you'll catch all the dacoits be- 
 " fore we can come up if you go on at that pace." 
 Somewhat incautiously, I mentioned to the 
 vakeel that his services would be required at 
 Ooblana to make an impression upon the head 
 men of the place, who had been cattle-lifting. 
 He promised to do his best, but doubted if the 
 people would listen to him ; though, he added, 
 possibly the thanadar might who lived in the 
 town. About a coss from Ooblana I met one of 
 the Jat head men, who ran on to show the way. 
 My horse, glad to move faster through the chilly 
 morning air, broke into a hand-gallop, and when 
 I pulled up to let the guide come on, the fat 
 vakeel was reported missing. His horse had last 
 been seen running off towards home with him, 
 through the grass jungle, at a pace which the 
 sowars declared it was no wish of the rider to 
 encourage. From this I understood that Dewan 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 Singh had no taste for a controversy with the 
 men of Ooblana, and, when I knew more of them, 
 I thought him quite right. 
 
 The sun was just rising over the broad leaves 
 of the Dhak jungle bushes, when my guide pointed 
 to a mango tree, from which came down two of 
 his party, and informed us that the buffalo herd 
 was close by. We pushed on, the tall wiry Jats 
 running like antelopes as we got near the milking- 
 place. From a rising knoll I could see some hun- 
 dred buffaloes standing quietly round one of the 
 sedgy pools, which in those parts are found here 
 and there amongst the bush-jungle. Three or four 
 men, armed only with light hatchets, were watching 
 them. And now we came in sight of the village, 
 or town rather, of red brick, with a wall round it, 
 and strong gateway, the land near being cultivated 
 as far as a matchlock could carry from the wall, 
 and no further. Beyond, all was thick grass and 
 bush-jungle. The Jats, rushing in amongst the 
 cattle, soon tied the arms of the astonished herds- 
 men, and joyfully recognised several of their lost 
 buffaloes. 
 
 A few minutes had passed in counting and 
 examining the animals, which seemed to know the 
 voice of their owners, when all at once a cry came 
 sweeping down the west wind, so loud and so shrill 
 as to make the old woods round us ring again. 
 " Hark !" said my men ; " there is the * Rooka :' 
 we shall soon have the villagers down upon us." 
 Hastily ordering the sowars to keep the buffaloes 
 well together, I pushed on towards the town. A 
 
216 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 chuprassey, mounted on a horse of mine, and the 
 Kurnal thanadar, both of whom I knew to be 
 courageous men, followed me. "Look, sir," said 
 the thanadar, "look at the rascals coming down 
 " like ants out of that fort, and then, perhaps, 
 *' you will understand why I do not fancy coming 
 " on these dours alone ; if your honour were not 
 " here, do you suppose those cut-throats would let 
 "one of us escape alive?" Whilst he yet spoke 
 the enemy were upon us ; lines of rough-looking 
 fellows, armed, some with spears, some with match- 
 locks, blowing away at their matches, some with 
 big clubs only, came sallying out of the town-gate, 
 whilst the walls above and around were crowded 
 with old men, women, and children, all screeching 
 like so many jackals. Conceive the cry of a pack 
 of fox-hounds joined to a chorus of Indian watch- 
 men and pariah dogs, and you will have only some 
 faint idea of what the " Rookuh," or war-cry of a 
 Ranghur village is. My chuprassey, riding up to 
 the foremost man, called out, " Stop, rascal ! don't 
 you see the Sahib Buhadoor?" He might as well 
 have spoken to the wind. I tried to stop the 
 next man by pulling a pistol out of my holsters, 
 and pointing it in his face. He coolly said, " Shoot 
 away, if you like, but you won't get our buffaloes," 
 and then ran off after the next towards the pool. 
 At this moment I recollected what the fat vakeel 
 had told me about there being a thana at Ooblana, 
 and pushed through the gate, determined to call 
 the Sikh thanadar to account. I did not know 
 then, what I afterwards learned, that this worthy 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 217 
 
 official was the very man who had plotted the raid 
 on Asynduh, and was to have netted the biggest 
 share of the booty, if I had not come to disturb 
 his arrangements. I had some difficulty in get- 
 ting by the crowds of armed men in the narrow 
 street, but, sticking the spurs into my horse, forced 
 my way on as well as I could. Before I had reached 
 the thana I met the thanadar, with two other 
 horsemen fine, handsome, well-armed Sikhs, all 
 three were, and ready for mischief they looked 
 charging down the street, whilst the people 
 salaamed to them right and left. On seeing my 
 white face, the thanadar's jaw fell, as, putting my 
 hand into my pocket, I exclaimed, " Here is Mr. 
 Clerk's letter : I am his friend ; if one of my buf- 
 faloes is carried away by these vagabonds Mr. 
 Clerk will hang you over your own gate." 
 
 I turned my horse's head, and then, calling 
 on the thanadar to follow, proceeded towards the 
 buffalo pool. The men of Ooblana had been too 
 many for my troopers, and had carried the cattle 
 off into the jungles, out of sight or hearing. Here 
 and there a straggling horseman came sneaking 
 out of the thicket, looking foolish and disconcerted. 
 I vowed to the thanadar that I would never leave the 
 place without my buffaloes, and that he should be 
 held responsible for the consequences if they were 
 not restored to me. We galloped off in the direc- 
 tion from which our sowars were returning, and, 
 after a two-mile's ride, I heard the shouts of the 
 villagers and the cracking of the bushes under the 
 heavy tramp of the cattle. My sowars now showed 
 
218 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 a very bold front, but there was little need for 
 their help, for, when the Ooblana men saw me 
 riding with the thanadar at my heels, they ran off 
 towards their stronghold, and we drove the buf- 
 faloes off towards my boundary. 
 
 On reaching the Dachour thana we counted 
 our cattle, and found we had seventy-nine head of 
 fine buffaloes. Those which were fairly proved to 
 belong to Asynduh were restored to their owners, 
 and the thieves were made over eventually to Mr. 
 Clerk for punishment. I got back to Kurnal after 
 a forty-mile's ride, well pleased with my day's work. 
 When I twitted the sowars upon being outdone by 
 a set of cow-drivers, they declared that they were 
 not attacked according to the rules of warfare, but 
 that their opponents got amongst them and set up 
 a screech, on which every buffalo cocked its tail 
 and ran off like mad to the jungles. The vakeel, 
 when he next came to make his salaam, execrated 
 his bad luck and his pony, which had run, he 
 said, till the saddle-girths burst. " But, sir," he 
 ended, " I have got rid of the beast, and will ride 
 in a palanquin for the rest of my days." 
 
 Such, then, are some of the more active sceilos 
 of a magistrate's life in India. 
 
 We may now turn to examine briefly the ma- 
 chine over which he presides. Residing ordinarily 
 in the chief town of his district, the magistrate and 
 collector of the north-western provinces (to say 
 nothing of his revenue duties) watches over the 
 police and criminal jurisdiction of a tract of country 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 219 
 
 containing, on an average, some 7^0,000 souls, and 
 extending, to take one district with another, over 
 2322 square British statute miles.* This district 
 is parcelled out into revenue and police divisions. 
 The revenue divisions, of which there are from 
 five to ten, or thereabouts, in ordinary districts, 
 are each under a tehsildar, and are only noticed 
 here because this officer has, or ought to have, 
 generally the police charge in his division, or 
 tehsildaree, as it is commonly called. Within this 
 tehsildaree, according to its size and population, 
 two or more thanas, or chief police-stations, are 
 embraced. The tehsildar, as deputy -magistrate, 
 has generally the powers of an assistant-magistrate ; 
 that is, can inflict small fines and sentence to short 
 terms of imprisonment in cases made over to him 
 by his superior. He cannot, however, legally take 
 up petitions, though such may be made over to 
 him by the magistrate. It is a common and very 
 convenient practice to call upon the deputy -ma- 
 gistrate to give an opinion, in what are vulgarly 
 called Act IV. of '40 cases ; in other words, in 
 cases of forcible dispossession or apprehended 
 breach of the peace, owing to disputes about pos- 
 session of land, houses, &c. &c. A good teh- 
 sildar, as deputy to the magistrate, is a most 
 
 * The largest district in the north-west provinces, Goruck- 
 poor, contained, by the last published return, 7346 square miles, 
 and a population of 2,376,533 sbuls. Delhi and Benares have 
 a comparatively small area, on account of the large cities in 
 those districts, which alone give ample employment to the 
 magistrate. 
 
220 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 useful person, and well earns his salary of 200 
 rupees per mensem ; under him comes the police 
 thanadar,* who is, or ought to be, the repre- 
 sentative of the tehsildar within the limits of his 
 thana. Volumes have been written about the 
 under-pay men t of these officers, whose salaries 
 range from twenty-five to fifty rupees per mensem. 
 But, as in a rightly-administered district, the 
 thanadars are to be considered the deputies of the 
 tehsildar in his police capacity, and as they may 
 hope to rise to this higher dignity, it is not so 
 clear, as many persons suppose, that the thanadar 
 of the north-western provinces is altogether under- 
 paid. It is the bounden duty of a district chief, 
 who, as collector as well as magistrate, has much 
 patronage in his gift, to keep his eye on meritorious 
 men ; and good thanadars should be made revenue 
 peshkars, or deputy tehsildars, whence the next 
 step is to the tehsildaree. Difficulties, especially 
 with reference to the acquisition of a revenue 
 education by the thanadar, attend the execution 
 of this plan, but they are not insuperable ; and, 
 as a general rule, the thanadar should have be- 
 fore him the prospect of one day aspiring to the 
 tehsildaree. His pay then will not be so very 
 much out of proportion to his power, and his con- 
 dition will be the normal condition of most rising 
 young professional men in Europe, working hard 
 on small emoluments, in the hope of future ad- 
 
 * Kotwals get a salary of 100 rupees, or more, in the larger 
 cities. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 vancement, True, he has much power ; but if his 
 superior, the tehsildar, be held duly responsible for 
 the character of the police in his division, this 
 power will be exercised under an eye well able to 
 detect error, and under a hand well able to repress 
 disorder. 
 
 Under the thanadar is the jemadar of police, 
 who acts as his assistant and deputy. There is, 
 too, in each thana, a writer, who has also a deputy ; 
 and there are some twenty or thirty burkundaz, the 
 pedites of the police force.* Lower still comes the 
 last, but by no means the least important link in the 
 chain of administration, the village watchman or 
 policeman, one of whom is found in each consider- 
 able township. 
 
 Besides the watchman, there is a nondescript 
 functionary kept in most villages by the landholder, 
 whose duty is to carry information of all important 
 occurrences to the police office, to guide travellers, 
 call the tenants, &c. &c. This bulahur or goreyt 
 is generally remunerated by a patch of land, granted 
 by the village lords, and his relation to the magis- 
 trate is not very clearly defined, either by law or by 
 custom, so far as we know. At the period of the 
 revenue settlement the Government made an abate- 
 ment in the demand to meet the pay of the watch- 
 man ; either in money, or by giving up the revenue 
 on their lands. Very high authorities have consi- 
 
 * The jemadar and mohurrir get about 8 or 10 rs. per 
 mensem, and the burkundaz gets 4 rs. The village watchman 
 gets seldom more than rs. 2-8 or rs. 2 a month, and certain per- 
 quisites (at harvest time) of grain. 
 
222 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 dered it desirable that the watchmen should be re- 
 munerated for their services by allotments of land, 
 which tend to keep up the feudal relation to the 
 village lords. We, however, conclude on the whole, 
 that the best way to pay the village police is in 
 money, through and by the tehsildar, who should 
 collect the sums due with the revenue, and disburse 
 the same periodically, say every quarter, to the 
 watchmen. 
 
 Such, then, is the organisation over which the 
 magistrate of the north-western provinces, aided by 
 his joint magistrate and covenanted assistants, pre- 
 sides. His establishment is generally made more 
 complete by the services of some fifty or more 
 mounted policemen, and on an emergency he can 
 strengthen his police by the temporary aid of his 
 tehsildaree and gaol guards.* 
 
 We have already said that the public, as such, 
 give no help to the ministers of justice. But the 
 law has never released the landholders from the 
 responsibility attached from time immemorial to 
 their position, as conservators of the public peace, 
 within the limits of their own estates. On the con- 
 trary, many enactments distinctly enforce this con- 
 dition, and however unwilling or indifferent the 
 village proprietors may be, it must be through their 
 aid and concurrence alone that the police can be 
 
 * There are many cases in which it would be absurd for a 
 magistrate to call out the military, yet in which the sight of a 
 few muskets and bayonets would have an excellent effect. The 
 gaol guards, us now organised in most districts, can occasionally 
 thus be used with advantage. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 effectual. The magistrate who lets the landed pro- 
 prietors see, that without needlessly harassing them 
 he will yet never relax his legal demands on their 
 co-operation, and will never pass over their apathy 
 or opposition, takes the surest and shortest road to 
 administrative success. If any supposed advance in 
 legislation loosens this, the chief remaining hond 
 between the magistrate and the people, the conse- 
 quences upon public peace and order may be 
 serious. As matters now stand, the officers of Go- 
 vernment, if they use discreetly but resolutely the 
 powers over the landed proprietors with which the 
 law has armed them, may generally secure the help 
 of the most locally influential classes. For it is 
 clearly the interest as well as the duty of the ze- 
 mindar to help the police, unless he or his are impli- 
 cated in a breach of the law. Take an ordinary 
 case of homicide, for instance. A peasant, in a fit 
 of rage or jealousy, cuts down in open day his 
 enemy or his rival. His near relations urge him to 
 fly, but before he has gone far, the village land- 
 holders and watchmen, knowing that the magistrate 
 will surely hold them responsible for the open 
 escape of a criminal, raise the hue and cry, and the 
 offender is secured. His arms are tied behind his 
 back, his sword is pulled out of the place where it 
 had been hastily concealed, and off he is marched to 
 the nearest police office, where he generally con- 
 fesses his guilt, and within four-and-twenty hours 
 he is in the district gaol. More atrocious and secret 
 crimes, such as midnight assassination, or child- 
 murder, for the sake of plunder, are every day de- 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 tected by the aid and agency of the villagers. The 
 police without this aid can do very little. 
 
 When crimes are committed by the landholders 
 themselves, the helplessness of the magistrate with- 
 out his natural ally the zemindar, is felt plainly 
 enough. Let us consider the case, once so common, 
 of a regular fight with swords and staves in official 
 language, a case of affray with homicide, in which 
 the rival factions of a village community are en- 
 gaged. There are two causes which lead to these 
 enormous offences. First, disputed claims to 
 houses, land, trees, fisheries, pastures, or other 
 manorial rights. Secondly, hereditary ill-blood, 
 which causes a predisposition to pugnacity, com- 
 bined with an innate love of resorting to the sword 
 or club as a clencher to all arguments. The first of 
 these irritamenta has been almost taken away by 
 the excellent revenue legislation of late years, which 
 has left no doubt as to boundaries and landed rights 
 in general, and by the working of judicious legisla- 
 tion, which ought to secure the settlement of cases 
 of forcible dispossession in a summary manner. 
 These grea,t improvements leave no excuse for club 
 law ; a dispute about property may now be promptly 
 and cheaply disposed of, and cases which, in our 
 own country, would take the parties concerned into 
 Chancery, and keep them there for a lifetime, are 
 daily settled by the magistrates, with the aid of an 
 umpire or a village jury, in the course of a few 
 hours. The moral causes which predispose men, 
 full of pride and vigour, to take the law into their 
 own hands, are not so easily remedied ; and many 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 years must pass before we can hope to curb the 
 national defects of temper, or to remedy the popular 
 deficiencies of education. These are shown on every 
 trifling occasion. Let us give an example. 
 
 Shere Singh, a violent, proud, and ignorant 
 young Rajpoot, sees a goat trespassing on his sugar- 
 cane or corn-field. Urjun is the owner of the goat, 
 second cousin to Shere Singh, with whom he played 
 as a child, with whom he climbed trees as a boy, 
 and whom as a man he is ready to defend against 
 all the world, out of his own village. But the 
 fathers of these young men live and eat separately, 
 the grandfather of one killed the grandfather of the 
 other half-a-century back, and the lands and inte- 
 rests of the two families have long been divided. 
 Shere Singh feels that Urjun's goat has no right in 
 his field ; he picks up a clod of earth or a stick, 
 flings it at the animal, which goes limping home 
 with a broken leg. Urjun's father had watched 
 Shere Singh ; he comes down from the roof of his 
 house, and abuses the offender at the top of his 
 voice. Urjun comes home, sees the goat which he 
 had bought for his sick child lying helpless on his 
 threshold, sallies out, hears Shere Singh abusing 
 his female relations, and runs to fetch his sword. 
 The villagers gather round; there is a rush, a scuifle, 
 a fight, and, before the sun sets, Urjun and Shere 
 Singh are carried off to the police-office on char- 
 poys in a moribund state, with broken heads and 
 mutilated bodies. Twenty others of the family had 
 been engaged in the melee, but nobody will tell the 
 police who they were ; the wounded scuifle off to 
 
 Q 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 the neighbouring villages, the dead or dying are 
 given up to the authorities. Let the village watch- 
 man be called, he will give no information, and 
 unless the magistrate succeed in hunting up some 
 stray witness unconnected with the village, the 
 whole affair is left in doubt. So great are the diffi- 
 culties when the landholder and the police do not 
 pull together. 
 
 The regulations for the internal economy of the 
 police force (as detailed in Reg. XX. of 1817) are 
 excellent. The magistrate under these provisions 
 receives daily reports of the distribution of his 
 forces, and of every occurrence which deserves 
 notice. Checks are used to prevent, as far as may 
 be, the falsification or alteration of the written 
 entries made in the books of the country police 
 offices, but no check is so effectual as the eye of a 
 vigilant magistrate. The same men who will cook 
 their police reports, and fleece every village in their 
 beat under a feeble or inefficient magistrate, will 
 act with zeal and comparative fidelity when they 
 have to deal with an able master. 
 
 This brings us to an important part of our sub- 
 ject, the treatment of subordinate native official 
 persons by the magistrate. Here, we believe, is 
 one of our most notorious short-comings : English 
 pride and reserve in the treatment of the people 
 of the country have gone far to neutralise English 
 honour and energy. Subjection may be natural to 
 the Indian mind, but it is a subjection mixed with 
 familiarity. " My old master was so kind to me," 
 we once heard a grey-headed chuprassey say, almost 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 with the tears in his eyes, " such a kind master : 
 " he brought me up, he treated me, pala, (cherished 
 " me\ koota ke mafik (like a dog)." The man's 
 voice faltered ; he could praise his old master no 
 farther. Here is the secret of the Indian tempera- 
 ment. Treat the natives with mixed love and 
 severity ; if not with the familiarity, yet with the 
 affection shown to dogs, and they will go round the 
 world with you; seek to drive them, as mere horses or 
 beasts of burden, and they will play you a trick the 
 moment your eye is off them. The Oriental voca- 
 bularies could supply half-a-dozen synonyms for the 
 word " murdoom-shinasee" for which the English 
 language, so far as we remember, has not a single 
 direct equivalent. Murdoom-shinasee ', literally " the 
 knowledge of men," means the faculty of judging 
 character, of selecting the fittest man for any par- 
 ticular duty. Every one who has read a page of 
 history knows, that of all qualifications for a man 
 in power, this is about the first ; yet amongst our 
 mofussil or provincial chiefs, for such we consider 
 magistrates to be, no quality is less thought of or 
 less cultivated. A superficial acquaintance with 
 native character has led many an English officer to 
 conclude that " all (black) men are liars ;" and men 
 who are treated as liars will seldom long respect 
 truth. But there are as many and as great varia- 
 tions of character under a dark skin as under a 
 white one, and honesty may be found or may be 
 cultivated as truly, though not so frequently, in the 
 torrid as in the temperate zone. Of all men it most 
 becomes a magistrate to hold free and open inter- 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 course with the people, and then he will soon know 
 the character of his subordinates. Where a native 
 official bears a good repute, where all men speak 
 of his honesty and fidelity, there is a dependant 
 who may, within certain bounds and restrictions, be 
 trusted. 
 
 Thus may a wise chief note certain grand moral 
 landmarks, thus may he keep within reach certain 
 "points d'appui," to which, in time of difficulty, he 
 can look for guidance and support. It is super- 
 fluous to add, that a kind, patient, and conciliatory 
 mode of conduct, habitually becomes the man of 
 power in India as in every other country. And 
 nowhere on occasion will the impetuous flash of 
 just indignation work with more instant energy 
 and effect.* The mild, temperate, yet active ma- 
 gistrate, who kindles into fire only on great and 
 pressing occasions, will do far more than one of 
 those stormy characters whose voice is to be ever 
 heard thundering through his cutcherry, or one of 
 those sour spirits who talks to his omlah like a 
 spoiled child to his nurse. 
 
 * As an illustration of this part of our subject, we are 
 tempted to give an anecdote related to us by an accomplished 
 civil officer of high rank in the north-west : his informant was 
 Sir E. Colebrooke. Mr. Seton (afterwards resident at Delhi) 
 held some important office (probably that of Governor-general's 
 Agent) in Rohilcund. There was a fermentation among the 
 Puthans at Bareilly, and a meditated insurrection. Seton, send- 
 ing for the principal Mahometans, called on the m to allay the 
 evil feeling. Amongst others came the cazee, a notorious old 
 scoundrel, whom Seton addressed with all the courtesy of a 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 But if the suaviter in modo be desirable, no 
 less necessary is the fortiter in re. Orientals are 
 like children, and it is a due firmness and severity, 
 blended with the kinder feelings of the heart, which 
 can alone secure their devotion. Your kind, easy 
 man, who likes to see the people about his bench 
 with fine shawls and sun-shiny faces, who cannot 
 say No to the importunities of his omlah, does 
 as much harm to a district as your mofussil Nero, 
 who speaks habitually to men of rank in the accents 
 of a whipper-in rating a hound. 
 
 In short, whether a magistrate is too proud and 
 distant, or too easy and yielding, the result is the 
 same. In the first case, he will not hear the people's 
 voice; in the second case, he will hear it only 
 through certain official mouth-pieces, whose object 
 will be to deceive and to cajole him. In either case, 
 the darling sin of Eastern satraps will have full 
 scope : malversation will spread across the length 
 and breadth of the country. 
 
 Whilst touching on the subject of malversation, 
 we may venture a few remarks on the peculiar 
 reasons which make the personal character and 
 
 gentleman of the old school. The cazee made difficulties and 
 objections. Seton was convinced that this man was at the 
 bottom of all the mischief brewing, but went on mildly admo- 
 nishing- him, to no effect; when, firing up, he seized the cazee 
 by the beard, and shaking his (the cazee's) head backwards and 
 forwards, exclaimed, " Suno Cazee Jee, humnuruin ho sukta aur 
 " hum gurum ho sukta." (" Listen, Mister Cazee, I can be 
 " gentle, but 1 can be rough too.") 
 
 The cazee was frightened to death, gave in at once, went 
 home to the citizens, and stopped all the agitation. 
 
230 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 disposition of the magistrate so important in India. 
 The honour of our country is associated with his 
 name. By the people at large he is looked up to, 
 not as a mere functionary, however powerful, but as 
 the State, the Sirkar, the personification of British 
 Government. However pure and upright his con- 
 duct (and such we believe the conduct of our ma- 
 gistrates in general to be), however benevolent his 
 intentions, yet the people will consider him neither 
 pure nor good, if his native subordinates are al- 
 lowed, unchecked, to practise corruption and ex- 
 tortion. A proud, idle, or soft magistrate, will fail 
 to exercise a pure administration, however honour- 
 able his private character may be. 
 
 History at large is the hand-book of statesmen, 
 but if there be one page of it more worthy the 
 study of an Indian officer than another, it is the 
 history of malversation. For though the arts of cor- 
 ruption are as old as the civilisation of man, though 
 they luxuriate as freely in the snows of Russia as in 
 the sands of Asia, India has ever been their chosen 
 home. But India may none the less take a lesson 
 from Europe. Above all there is one period, and 
 a very interesting one it is, in the history of Rome, 
 which seems to us full of instruction to the rulers of 
 British India : we allude to the century and a half 
 which preceded the establishment of the Imperial 
 power under Julius CaBsar. No men ever suffered 
 more from the curse of misgovernment than did the 
 provincial subjects of Rome during this period. The 
 sons of Rome left every Roman virtue behind them, 
 and adopted every foreign vice, when once they 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 passed the frontiers of their parent soil. The pro- 
 consuls of the Republic, men of talent, of good 
 hirth, of tried experience, on reaching their dis- 
 tant provinces, devoted every energy to the bad art 
 of turning civil power into gold. Rome execrated 
 her corrupt sons, but she failed, distant and dis- 
 tracted as she was, to restrain their corruption. 
 And so the Roman provincials went on suffering, 
 as men never suffered before, whilst their women, 
 their gold, their painted vestments, were torn from 
 them to encumber the proconsular trains. It mat- 
 tered little to the subject wretches of Greece, of 
 Syria, or of Sicily, that Roman law was strict, that 
 Roman virtue was proverbial. They saw Rome only 
 in the shape of a tyrant who debauched their women, 
 and plundered their treasuries : the will of the pro- 
 consul was their law, his lusts their doom. Now to 
 apply this to our subject. 
 
 We live in no ordinary times. The splendour 
 which seemed to surround Rome, when first she 
 bore the sceptre of the world, gathers fast round 
 our Eastern empire. Let Englishmen beware, lest, 
 dazzled by the brilliancy of their position, they lose 
 sight of the necessities of the people. Let them 
 take warning from Rome. As it was with Italy, so 
 it is with England. Her sons, speaking a strange 
 tongue, administering strange laws, enforcing them 
 by still stranger powers, pushing on alike the arts 
 of war and peace, dictate supremely, as did the 
 Romans of old, to millions of subjects, differing alike 
 from themselves and from one another. England 
 has her own cares, her own distractions, as Rome 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 had before her. Her political sympathies with 
 India are no stronger than those of Rome were with 
 Macedonia ; her social sympathies are infinitely less 
 than those of Rome were with Greece. England 
 has only a few chosen men, who devote themselves 
 with an intelligent zeal to the strengthening her 
 Eastern empire ; their influence, if considerable, is 
 still remote. All then, or nearly all, depends on 
 the local Government, whose type is to be found 
 not only in the palaces of Calcutta or Agra, but 
 also in the cutcherries of those representatives of 
 Government who, as commissioners, judges, magis- 
 trates, or collectors of revenue, preside over the im- 
 mediate destinies of India. All that the Roman 
 proconsul was, or might have been, to the provin- 
 cials of Rome, these officers are to the people of 
 India. The Indian Governments must be judged, 
 not only by the ability and zeal of governors and 
 secretaries, but by the character of the men who 
 carry on the every-day executive functions of the 
 state. Happily for us and for India, the rule with 
 these our proconsuls is what was the exception with 
 the Roman deputies : we can point to many whose 
 hearts are devoted to the happiness of the people, 
 not to one whose energies are given to their ruin. 
 Such a man, indeed, a modern Verres or Dolabella, 
 belonging to our own patrician order, could not hope 
 to hide his vices for a single day from a Government 
 ever jealous of English honour. 
 
 All this is well. We bestow more affection on 
 the people than Rome ever spared to her distant 
 provincials, whilst we have not to thank our subjects, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 233 
 
 as Rome had to thank hers, for either science or 
 taste, for marbles instinct with life, or for the 
 kindred arts of poetry and painting. We repeat, 
 this is so far good and generous. 
 
 None the less it may he asked, Is England ful- 
 filling all the duties which India requires at her 
 hands ? Are the men of England in India doing 
 all that as Englishmen above all, as Christians 
 may be demanded of them? Boasting of their 
 moral strength, are they not still weak, in that they 
 too lightly consider the moral weakness of the 
 people ? 
 
 It is not enough to answer to these questions 
 that the English servants of Government are honest, 
 pure, high-minded men. The question remains, 
 Are they jealous of the purity and honesty of others 
 who exercise power in their name and on their 
 behalf? 
 
 Here, we believe, is the weakest point in the 
 English administration of India. Men, pure and 
 high-minded themselves, yield to a supposed ne- 
 cessity of impurity and corruption in others. To 
 sell justice may long have been common amongst 
 the natives of Hindostan, yet surely that judge is 
 not blameless who presides in a court where many, 
 at least, of the minor processes of justice are com- 
 monly bought and sold. Corruption may not be 
 open ; no man cries stinking fish : but that must not 
 satisfy a jealous guardian of the law. It is his duty^ 
 however painful, to suspect, to hunt out, and on due 
 occasion to denounce, dishonest acts ; it belongs to 
 him to sweep away these old superstitions about 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 custom and necessity, not to bury his head in them 
 as an ostrich buries her head in the sand. Above 
 all, his very first and most special duty is to teach 
 the people that injustice, however customary, is 
 never necessary, and that honesty, however rare 
 amongst the native officials, is the best policy all 
 the world over. And for this we must look to our 
 district officers, and not to the Supreme Government 
 alone. 
 
 But here the insular pride and good nature of 
 English judges equally interpose between them and 
 justice. The high-minded Englishman cannot 
 make up his mind to listen to tbe tale of informers ; 
 he cannot bring himself to pry into suspicious 
 papers and accounts ; nor will the kind, easy 
 master, on the other hand, believe that his well- 
 dressed, bland omlah, are a set of rapacious villains. 
 All this suspicion and smelling out of crime, he 
 argues, is fitter for a Bow Street officer than for a 
 gentleman : so it may be ; yet if the English gentle- 
 man chooses to sit in an Indian cutcherry, he is 
 bound to think of the people as well as of his own 
 tastes and habits. He must learn to sacrifice, or at 
 all events to mortify, the feelings with which he has 
 been brought up, whether of pride or of softness. 
 If he argues that it is beneath him to pry into the 
 dirty intrigues of native officials, he is wrong, for it 
 is never beneath an Englishman to do his duty. 
 
 The circumstances of the country demand of the 
 judge that he should be not the judge only, but the 
 advocate of the people. Even Rome could on occa- 
 sion produce her orators to denounce, in never- 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 dying words, the atrocities of provincial corruption. 
 We need not repeat, that corruption is not the 
 weakness of English gentlemen of the present day ; 
 hut it is, and long will be, the darling sin of their 
 Indian subordinate officers. And thus the English 
 sin by deputy. They do not encourage corruption, 
 but neither do they extinguish it. They make up 
 their minds that an evil is necessary, when they 
 ought only to determine that the necessity exists no 
 longer. The whole question is an unpleasant and 
 disagreeable one, so it is pushed out of sight. 
 
 But the people of India, whose wits are as keen to 
 detect official iniquity as, unhappily, they are prone 
 to practise it, are not thus to be satisfied. They 
 love to see an extortioner or oppressor brought 
 low, and they consider him, and him only, an up- 
 right judge who looks for uprightness in his subor- 
 dinates. It is, then, clearly the duty of our country- 
 men to put down with a strong hand the malversa- 
 tion of native officials. How often (to compare 
 small rogues to great ones) have these Indian 
 satraps been to their jurisdiction what Verres was 
 to Sicily, what Dolabella was to Macedonia. Men 
 of this stamp should be hunted out and denounced, 
 without scruple or compunction. What the youthful 
 Cassar was to Dolabella, what Cicero was to Verres, 
 this must the English magistrate be to any rapacious 
 subordinate. Solicitude for the people may well 
 supply to the Christian judge that righteous zeal 
 which ambition or policy furnished to the heathen 
 advocate. 
 
 The fate of one corrupt official, whose villanies 
 
236 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 have been fairly brought home to him, and have 
 met with worthy punishment, will be a lesson to 
 entire provinces, and will deter hundreds from a 
 career of extortion and plunder. 
 
 We are glad to believe that in this respect 
 matters are mending. Corrupt men and corrupt 
 omlah still are to be found, but they form the ex- 
 ception, not the rule, and their number is, we trust, 
 decreasing. A fixed plan of promotion, depending 
 not on seniority but on merit, will do wonders for 
 them as it has done for their European superiors. 
 In the judicial department, it is remarkable that a 
 native judge, who has any prospect of promotion, 
 hardly ever is known to be corrupt. Sudder ameens 
 at the top of the tree, who can rise no higher, and 
 obscure moonsiffs whose lack of ability leaves them 
 no hope of promotion, are the only men who are 
 now suspected of taking bribes. Amongst the 
 police, corrupt thanadars are still too common, but 
 dishonest tehsildars and deputy-magistrates are few 
 and far between. 
 
 The revenue training which most of our district 
 officers have undergone, by throwing them into 
 constant unreserved habits of intercourse with the 
 people, has had an immense though indirect effect 
 upon the criminal and police administration of the 
 upper provinces. Men in power have learned the 
 inestimable advantages of being accessible, at all 
 due times and places, to the people. They have 
 learned, too, that ignorance about their people and 
 districts is not a necessary evil, but a crime. When 
 men knew not what the resources of the country 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 were, knew neither the geography nor the statistics 
 of their districts, it was not to be supposed that 
 they would study very exactly the habits, man- 
 ners, or feelings of the several tribes therein. But 
 it were a shame for a magistrate, with all the varied 
 information which his revenue office now affords 
 him, to remain in the dark as to any important 
 fact or distinction bearing on the welfare of the 
 people. The best rule he can lay down for himself 
 is, to carry into his cutcherry, as magistrate, the 
 same feelings and habits which he has learned as a 
 collector or settlement officer. A reserved, haughty, 
 distant, inaccessible revenue officer, is of about as 
 much real use as a blind miniature painter or a 
 deaf musician. His very element is, or ought to be, 
 popularity ; and it is not much otherwise with a 
 magistrate. Let him, when out of doors, forbid 
 access to no man : he will find it a good rule to 
 listen to all who interrupt his walk or his ride : if 
 the suitor complain against his neighbour, let him 
 be referred at once to the open cutcherry, as the 
 proper arena for disputes between man and man : 
 if he complain of the officers of Government subor- 
 dinate to the magistrate, let the complainant have 
 due encouragement to open out his grievance. This 
 will cut short petty tyranny and extortion. 
 
 It is quite possible for a magistrate to go regu- 
 larly to his court,* yet still to give no fair audience 
 
 * We do not allude to the case, now, we believe, a very rare 
 one, of magistrates who neglect their bounden duty of daily 
 going to cutche:ry when at their slation. Such men we have 
 known in by-gone days, who would say, " There is nothing- to 
 
238 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 to his people. Once a-day they should, at a stated 
 time, he invited to bring their petitions openly to 
 the head of the district, and to say out what they 
 have to say, without fear of any man. They will 
 soon find that it is of no use bringing trumpery 
 complaints against one another or against the police 
 officers, but that no real abuse will be allowed to 
 pass without inquiry. 
 
 Having ventured to lay down these rules for a 
 magistrate, we will conclude this part of our subject 
 by assuring district officers that a firm, yet mild and 
 generous, treatment of their numerous subordinates, 
 will be accepted with gratitude by none more than 
 the subordinates themselves. A discriminating 
 eye, as well as a kind hand, is what every native 
 who is fit for the public service highly appreciates ; 
 and, as a body, our police officers will be grateful 
 and attached to a good magistrate. If only he will 
 treat them as Claudian tells us Theodosius treated 
 his soldiers, he will meet a like reward. 
 
 " Poenae parcus erat, 
 
 largitor honorum ; 
 
 Pronus, et in melius gaudens converters fata; 
 Hinc amor, hinc validum, devoto milite, robur." 
 
 Before leaving this part of our subject we give 
 
 do in my district." There is a very short way to arrive at this 
 state of things : all magistrates have only to do nothing, and 
 the people will soon enable them to say with truth, that " there 
 is nothing to do.'' " Solitndinem faciunt et pacem appellant" 
 This mischievous class of public men is nearly extinct, and 
 they do perhaps less harm in the north-western provinces than 
 in other parts of India; for here the people, if they cannot get 
 justice, will soon take the law into their own hands. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDtA. 239 
 
 an instance of the harm which a single hasty order 
 by the magistrate may cause, in the following ex- 
 tract from our friend's " Note-Book." 
 
 BEERBUL THE BHOORJEE. 
 
 I have never been able to make up my mind 
 whether it is right and proper for the head of a 
 district to make over a part of his police reports 
 to a joint or assistant -magistrate for orders : if he 
 do not give the younger officers in the service 
 some separate police charge they will have little 
 opportunity for learning how to manage a district, 
 and will take less interest in their duties than when 
 they are entrusted with a distinct responsibility. 
 On the other hand, such evils arise from a slight 
 apparent error, from a seemingly trifling incon- 
 sideration, that one trembles to place the powerful 
 lever of police authority in the hands of an in- 
 experienced workman. An incautious nod of the 
 head in the cutcherry may cause the ruin of whole 
 families in the mofussil. A careless dissent to the 
 proposition of a subordinate may involve an entire 
 village in riot and bloodshed. Here is an instance 
 of the evil resulting from an inconsiderate though 
 well-intentioned order. 
 
 I was, in 184 , walking through the ward of 
 my gaol in which prisoners under trial were kept. 
 Here were assembled, not only men committed by 
 me to take their trial at the sessions-court, but 
 also the prisoners from a neighbouring district,, 
 whose cases were pending before the same tribunal. 
 Men awaiting their trial generally have a good 
 
240 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 deal to say, to very little purpose, to the magis- 
 trate, when he comes to inspect their ward. 
 Amongst others who addressed me was a middle- 
 aged man, with small, red-looking, wild eyes, griz- 
 zled hair, and a peculiar forehead, which ran hack 
 into a point, so that one could fancy it moulded 
 in the form of an equilateral triangle, with the 
 eyebrows for the base line. The manner of this 
 prisoner was as singular as his appearance, whilst 
 he kept reiterating, " They killed my child ! they 
 killed my child ! I brought him up from so 
 high," stooping down and holding the flat of his 
 hand a few inches from the ground : " I watched 
 him and cherished him, but they killed him, with- 
 out any fault or crime." On inquiry, the gaol 
 darogah informed me that the prisoner was on 
 his trial for murder, committed in the neighbour- 
 ing district, and that the child which he kept 
 lamenting was a pet tree, which had been cut 
 down by the police. My curiosity was so far ex- 
 cited, that when a native visitor a few days later 
 asked me whether I had heard of the murder 
 which had been perpetrated in the - - district, 
 owing to the cutting down of a tree, I at once 
 begged to hear the particulars. My informant 
 had, I suspect, been on an unsuccessful expedition 
 to the said district in quest of employment, which 
 may account for a certain degree of bitterness per- 
 vading his narrative, but the facts related by him 
 are, as I have reason to know, not far from the 
 truth. 
 
 " Beerbul, who is now in your honour's gaol, 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 and about to take his trial for murder before the 
 sessions-judge, is a bhoorjee, or parcher of grain, 
 by profession. He was always considered a quiet, 
 decent man. Next door to him lived a Marwarrie 
 money-lender, named Putnee Mul, a bunyan by 
 trade, but with a heart like a butcher, and so 
 famous for avarice, that if by mishap any man 
 took his name in the morning on an empty 
 stomach, he would get no dinner that day unless 
 he beat his shoes five times on the ground, cry- 
 ing, 'God forgive me!' each time. Putnee Mul 
 grudged to spend an anna, even in the funeral 
 ceremonies of his own father, but could always 
 find a few rupees to bribe the police to worry his 
 neighbours. Well, as I said, he lived next door 
 to the bhoorjee, and, as a matter of course, they 
 hated each other. The bhoorjee had no children ; 
 he was an odd reserved sort of man, and cared for 
 nobody except his old wife, and for nothing except 
 one pet tree, which he had planted when a boy, and 
 married, after his own marriage, to a well in his 
 court-yard. Every morning he and his wife, after 
 their daily ablutions, poured water over the tree ; 
 which, in short, they looked upon as their child. 
 As bad luck would have it, a branch of this tree 
 grew gradually over a part of the Marwarrie 
 money-lender's roof. When the water dropped 
 from this branch in the rainy season it washed 
 away a small portion of the mud plaster, and the 
 repairs cost Putnee Mul two pice. This was 
 ruinous ; so he went to the bhoorjee, and told 
 him to cut the offending branch of his tree off. 
 
 R 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 The bhoorjee got angry at the idea of mutilating 
 his beloved tree, and gave Putnee Mul a cross 
 answer. 
 
 " Off went the money-dealer to the thanadar, 
 and, putting five rupees into his hand, begged 
 him to report to the magistrate that the bhoorjee's 
 tree opened a road for thieves to his house, and 
 ought to be cut down. The report went before 
 the junt sahib (joint-magistrate, whose experience, 
 be it said with respect, is limited), and the order 
 came for cutting down the tree. Two burkundazes 
 were sent to the village, who laid hold of a couple 
 of labourers, and cut down the tree, whilst Putnee 
 Mul looked on with a satisfied grin from the roof 
 of his house. In the evening the bhoorjee came 
 home, with a basket of leaves for his oven on his 
 head, found his wife crying and beating her breast, 
 and his doorway blocked up with the fallen tree. 
 Putnee Mul called out to him, * Well, Beerbul, 
 will you do as I bid you in future, or not?' 
 Beerbul was silent ; but murder was in his heart. 
 
 *' Next morning, as Putnee Mul came out in 
 the early dawn with his lotah in his hand, he saw 
 what looked like three lights under the wall of 
 the bhoorjee's house ; two of these were the blood- 
 red eyes of the bhoorjee, the third was his match. 
 The next moment the Marwarrie was on the 
 ground, with four bullets from Beerbul's match- 
 lock in his heart. 
 
 u With a yell of triumph the bhoorjee sprung 
 on his prey, and, ere yet the death-struggles were 
 over, drew his rusty sword, and hacking off the 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 243 
 
 arms and then the head of his victim, stuck them 
 on the mutilated trunk and branches of his dar- 
 ling tree. He then bent down over the dead body 
 and drank, out of the hollow of his hand, three 
 mouthfuls of his enemy's blood. This done, he 
 reloaded his matchlock, and, armed with it, with 
 sword, dagger, and bow and arrows, took his post 
 on the roof of his house, * Now/ he cried, ' let 
 ' the thanadar come who dared to rob me of my 
 
 * child, my only child, and I'll serve him as I 
 4 served this cursed Marwarrie.' 
 
 "Hours passed on, but none were found bold 
 enough to seize the bhoorjee, whose matchlock 
 was pointed at any human being who came near. 
 Towards evening a dog came to smell at the body 
 of the Marwarrie, but Beerbul pinned him to the 
 ground with an arrow. 
 
 "The police surrounded the place, and the 
 thanadar had a charpoy put for him under a tree 
 beyond the range of Beerbul's matchlock. All 
 Putnee Mul's money-bags would not have tempted 
 him within the bhoorjee's reach. So passed the 
 day, and so the night. Next day the voice of the 
 woman could be heard encouraging her husband, 
 as she handed him up a pitcher of water and a 
 cake of bread : ' Well done, rajah ! die like a man, 
 
 * and never let them tie your hands.' Well, sir, 
 to make a long story short, the bhoorjee was 
 caught at last, but not by fair means. 
 
 " When the news of his resistance reached the 
 sudder station, various expedients for taking him 
 alive were discussed. Everybody had a plan, but 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 nobody's plan was approved. At last a little Ma- 
 hometan writer, named Jan All, belonging to the 
 collector's office, stepped forward and said, ' If the 
 junt magistrate sahib will order his slave to go to 
 the aid of the police, the bhoorjee shall, by the 
 good fortune of the Kumpanee Buhadoor, be cap- 
 tured.' The junt sahib assented, and the by- 
 standers applauded Jan AH for his devotion. 
 ' Here is my sword/ said one ; ' here is my pony,' 
 said another. I want no sword,' said Jan Ali ; 
 
 * but give me that old book of medicine belonging 
 1 to the dufturee : I want nothing else.' 
 
 " ' He is going to work some sort of spell/ 
 said the bystanders : ' well, contrivance is better 
 ' than force, especially when one has to do with 
 
 * such a kafir as this bhoorjee.' Such were the 
 criticisms passing round as Jan Ali set off, with 
 his thin legs sticking far out of his broad white 
 trowsers, whilst he kicked his heels into the 
 nazir's pony, one hand on the mane, the other 
 clasping the medicine-book. 
 
 " When he arrived at the scene of Putnee 
 Mul's murder the shades of evening were closing 
 in. The bhoorjee had been two days and a night 
 watching his enemy's corpse, and began to get 
 rather tired. A villager was sent to scream out 
 to him that a message had come from the magis- 
 trate. The bhoorjee put down his matchlock and 
 invited the messenger to a parley. Jan Ali came, 
 book in hand, and saluting Beerbul, informed him 
 that the magistrate, admiring his courage, had 
 offered a pardon, if he would come quietly down 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 from the roof of his house. (This, I need not 
 inform you, sir, was a devise of Jan All's, and 
 not any order of the magistrate's.) ' Who are 
 'you?' said Beerbul. * They call me Syed Jan 
 ' Ali,' was the reply, 'and I am the chief Kazi 
 
 of .' * A Syed, are you?' replied Beerbul ; 
 
 c will you swear that my hands shall not be tied 
 4 if I come down?' 'On the Koran,' said Jan 
 Ali, producing the medicine-book, and reverently 
 holding it out on the palms of his hands, with 
 his eyes turned up to heaven. The bhoorjee came 
 down, when four burkundazes pounced upon him, 
 kicked him, and, tying his arms with a strong 
 rope, led him away like a wild beast. ' Oh ! ' said 
 he, ' Kazi jee, I thought my arms were not to be 
 ' tied.' Jail Ali replied, with a smile, ' That is 
 ' the way we catch murderers ; ' and so the bhoorjee 
 was carried off, the policemen looking very big 
 with drawn swords and lighted matches all round 
 him." 
 
 Here ended my informant's story. 
 
 I watched the progress of Beerbul's case with 
 
 interest. The civil surgeon of pronounced 
 
 him mad, and another medical man, on seeing him 
 and hearing his history, hinted that all was ac- 
 counted for by the shape of his head, "for in the 
 " whole course of his life he had never seen such 
 " a developement of the organ of firmness." It 
 was, however, proved, that the man had never been 
 mad, nor suspected of madness, till he killed the 
 Marwarrie, and was then, and at the time of trial, 
 quite capable of distinguishing between right and 
 
24-6 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 wrong ; so it ended in Beerbul's being sent to the 
 kola panee, or black water, as transportation is 
 termed up the country. Now here, owing to a 
 single inconsiderate, though by no means ill- 
 intended order, one man lost his life, another his 
 liberty, and two families were plunged into ruin 
 and misery. 
 
 NOTE. Writing from camp, we defer the 
 examination of comparative criminal statistics pro- 
 mised in page 186 of this volume, and the con- 
 tinuation of the <; Memorandum on the Rise and 
 Progress of Criminal Law in the Bengal Presi- 
 dency," till our return to the comforts of a 
 library. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 247 
 
 VIII. 
 
 NOTES ON THE POLICE. 
 
 WE have attempted already to sketch the rela- 
 tive positions of an English magistrate in Upper 
 India and the body of the people, and it remains 
 only to consider him en rapport to the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 There is much to tempt men in power in India, 
 and above all, magistrates ; to fancy themselves om- 
 nipotent, and to lead them to exclaim with the 
 French monarch, " Uetat, cestmoi." But an Indian 
 magistrate by no means escapes the conditions of 
 modern power, and with many slaves he has, too, 
 no short allowance of masters. 
 
 And here we come to a constitutional defect, if 
 not an organic disorder, in our system of govern- 
 ment ; for, whilst the magistrate owns allegiance to 
 a whole host of authorities, not any one of these 
 authorities is in the position effectually either to 
 support or to control him. 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 The Government may smash the Magistrate, the 
 Nizam ut Adawlut or the Commissioner of Police 
 may snub him, the Sessions Judge may worry him, 
 Inspectors of Prisons or of Road Police may trouble 
 and perplex him, but not one of these superiors is 
 able fully to test his merits or to remedy his failings. 
 
 The evil of this systematic defect may not be 
 felt when, as at present, the government is con- 
 ducted by a statesman who is closely acquainted 
 with the merits of his subordinate officers. But, 
 when another Pharaoh comes who knows not Joseph, 
 when the magistrates are left to prove their worth, 
 if they can, merely through the regular channels of 
 official routine, they will have little beyond their 
 own sense of duty to guide or encourage them in 
 labours as arduous as often fall to the lot of man. 
 For, to consider seriatim the custodes of the 
 custodes of Upper India, 
 
 First, we have his honour the Lieutenant-gover- 
 nor of the North-western Provinces. 
 
 Now, we repeat, so long as we have in this noble 
 office a man who studies the official character of all 
 the more prominent officers under him as a pilot 
 studies his ground, not only by chart, but, so to speak, 
 by actual soundings, so long as the foremost man 
 in the ranks of the up-country service be chosen to 
 rule at Agra, no good magistrate will be overlooked. 
 But, for all that, the exertions of able magistrates 
 may fail to attract the same attention as the per- 
 formances of efficient revenue officers. The cause 
 of this is not justly to be traced to any indifference 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA* 249 
 
 on the part of the Government as to how the people 
 of the country are treated, so long as the Govern- 
 ment share of the resources of the country are duly 
 realised. No, it is to a very different reason that 
 we must attribute the insufficient hold which the 
 Government of India has on the magistrate. Eng- 
 lish law has, perhaps, more to do with the matter 
 than Oriental rapacity. But this we can better 
 show when we come to consider the magistrate's 
 second master, namely, the Sudder Nizamut Adaw- 
 lut, or Supreme Court of Criminal Judicature, 
 which stands next in rank to the head of the State. 
 Before this tribunal the record of all the judicial 
 acts of the magistrate, duly registered monthly, 
 passes. The Sudder judges also constantly have 
 his proceedings in criminal cases under review. 
 But, in India as in England, the judges hold no 
 administrative responsibility to the Government. 
 They are supreme and unfettered, and do not con- 
 sider it within the limit of their ordinary jurisdic- 
 tion to weigh nicely the merits of each magistrate, 
 or the nature of his work. The acts of the Govern- 
 ment itself, as every one knows, are liable to be 
 called in question before their tribunals, and vir- 
 tually the judges are independent of the adminis- 
 trator of the State. Under these circumstances, 
 which, be it observed, result from an imitation of 
 the constitutional law of England, it were absurd to 
 expect from a judge of the Sudder Nizamut Adaw- 
 lut a reasonable opinion as to the merits or effi- 
 ciency of any particular magistrate. Ask such a 
 judge what is the public character of any one of 
 
250 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 the district magistrates, and he will candidly con- 
 fess that he is unable to give a decided opinion.* 
 
 But the qualifications of the same man as a 
 revenue officer are subjected to a far more close 
 and immediate scrutiny by the Board of Revenue, 
 which is directly subordinate to the local Govern- 
 ment, and responsible for the control of the Col- 
 lectors of Revenue. It not only belongs to this 
 Board to test accurately the qualifications of all 
 their subordinates, but also to keep the Government 
 informed of their estimate of each and all. 
 
 We do not complain of the independence of the 
 judicial officers, but merely offer this explanation of 
 the causes which tend to exalt the office of Col- 
 lector over that of Magistrate. The Collector being 
 more immediately and closely watched by one pow- 
 erful department, has a better opportunity of prov- 
 ing his abilities than the magistrate whose entire 
 official career comes under no such immediate scru- 
 tiny. For all the judicial acts of the magistrate 
 come under the review of the Sessions Judge or the 
 Supreme Criminal Court only, and these judges 
 having no authority over the magistrate in police 
 matters, are not in the position to form an accurate 
 estimate of his calibre. 
 
 Let us go on now to consider the Commissioner 
 of Police, who comes third amongst the superiors of 
 our magistrates. This high official, who is, or ought 
 
 * We allude here to the Sudder Judges at Agra. In the 
 Calcutta court, we have reason to believe, that a closer watch is 
 kept over the criminal proceedings in the lower courts. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. &51 
 
 to be, responsible directly to the Government for 
 the police in his division,* has, on the whole, the 
 best opportunity of appreciating the labours of the 
 magistrate. But he has no power either to con- 
 trol or to support the judicial acts of a district 
 chief. 
 
 In fact, he can only see the magistrate's conduct 
 officially from one point, and can test his efficiency 
 simply as an administrator of police, not as a judge 
 in criminal cases. For all this, if the Commissioner 
 habitually and systematically gives as much of his 
 time and attention to the police, as to the revenue 
 concerns of his division, he may be an instrument 
 of extensive good to the people. It belongs to him 
 not only to exhort, encourage, or, if need be, rebuke 
 the magistrates ; but he should closely scrutinise, 
 by local inquiry, the character of every native police 
 authority in his jurisdiction. He should know, 
 minutely, the peculiar strong or weak points in the 
 administration of each district, and carry a good 
 magistrate over every obstacle. The intimate ac- 
 quaintance which, as the *' eye of the Government," 
 he ought to have with the state of public feeling in 
 each part of his division, will enable him to form a 
 correct estimate of the relative value of the district 
 officers. As for the mere figured monthly reports 
 of crime, these alone will show little. One of the 
 first results of efficient district management, follow- 
 ing upon laxity, may be an apparent increase of 
 
 * The Revenue Commissioners are also superintendents of 
 police in the upper provinces, and we hope ere long to see them 
 invested with similar powers in Bengal. 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 crime. The proportion between crime and punish- 
 ment may be a surer test, but even this cannot 
 always be implicitly trusted. One of the most un- 
 failing of all possible criteria of a magistrate's cha- 
 racter is the " vox populi," which in India, as in 
 other places, can hardly be mistaken in a matter 
 where popular interests are so deeply concerned. 
 But whilst we advocate the most anxious supervi- 
 sion, and recommend the police commissioner ever 
 to keep a ready ear and open eye, we as distinctly 
 deprecate anything like a needless spirit of meddle- 
 some interference. If we may borrow a metaphor 
 from naval life, we would dub our commissioners as 
 u quarter-masters," whose part it is to guide care- 
 fully the vessel of the State so far as their own watch 
 extends. It is their business to keep a sharp eye 
 on the ship's head and compass, and to warn the 
 helmsman of any error in his course ; not to knock 
 him on one side, to seize hold of the helm, or let 
 the halyards fly. 
 
 In matters of police the Commissioner corre- 
 sponds directly with the Government. Now, though 
 praise will do more good to a deserving officer than 
 any other stimulant, we protest against its indiscri- 
 minate use, until it degenerates into the " butter " 
 of vulgar life. The annual police reports of some 
 of our commissioners present rather too much of this 
 smooth and unctuous lubricity, and remind us of 
 the confabulation between the Sudder Judge and 
 the Registrar in the olden time : 
 
 Sudder Judge. "Is the annual report ready?" 
 
 Registrar. " Quite ready." 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 253 
 
 Sudder Judge. " Have you praised all the 
 judges ? " 
 
 Registrar.' 1 All." 
 
 Sudder Judge. "Then send it off." 
 
 The upshot then, so far as the police is con- 
 cerned, is just this the Commissioner may, if he 
 pleases, do very much for the country. He ought 
 to be the eye of the Government ; hut it depends on 
 the man whether the office be a great or as mall 
 one. It is as he may please to make it, the pro- 
 consulship of a wide province, or a species of post- 
 office ambulante. 
 
 The fourth superior under whom the magistrate 
 labours is the Sessions Judge. This officer has 
 power to do nothing in a district, but to undo every- 
 thing, if he pleases. Happily for the magistrates 
 and for the people, Indian judges act generally with 
 generosity as well as judgment, and use their powers 
 discreetly. But for this, so great is the encourage- 
 ment to appeal upon appeal which the law gives, 
 the magistrates would be unable to maintain public 
 order. When a judge ascends the bench, who, 
 from some defect of mind or temperament, is inca- 
 pable of taking up cases, except with the pettifogging 
 animus of a small English attorney, the result upon 
 the police of a district is most mischievous. For 
 it is needless to say, that in a state of society such 
 as exists in India, men should be encouraged to the 
 utmost to love equity, truth, and good faith, above 
 all things. What can it do but harm to the Indian 
 morale to see an English judge exalting the letter 
 of the law above its spirit ? A quibbling, hair- 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 splitting judge, who instinctively prefers the legal 
 to the equitable aspect of a question, is a public 
 misfortune. Such a man, throwing away the very 
 arms with which his education, as an Englishman, 
 might have furnished him, descends into the arena 
 to combat crime and intrigue with weapons at which 
 every little Indian lawyer is his master. At the 
 same time, it behoves the magistrate to beware lest 
 by any fault of his excuse be given for an over- 
 zealous regard to the mere letter of the law on the 
 part of the judge ; for if the executive authority be 
 tempted to issue an illegal order, or to do an arbi- 
 trary act, who shall blame the superior court for 
 setting things right ? It may be a weakness to cling 
 too fondly to the law, but it is a sin knowingly to 
 neglect it. So, once for all, we urge upon the notice 
 of the magistracy old John Selden's rule, "Eat 
 within your stomach, act within your commis- 
 sion."* 
 
 Pass we on now to number five of the magis- 
 
 o 
 
 trate's masters. 
 
 The Inspector of Prisons claims a share of his 
 allegiance. District officers complain, but we think 
 without sufficient reason, of the increased trouble 
 thrown upon them by the inspector's demand for 
 
 * Seek, above all things, we would urge upon every young 
 civil officer, seek, above all things, to obtain a sound judicial 
 animus, and to acquire the principles of English law, as bearing 
 upon the weight of evidence and other cognate points. A legal 
 education, strictly so called, may not be within your reach, but 
 judicial training is open to your choice, and every opportunity 
 should be seized of giving a judicial tone and temper to your 
 proceedings. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 sundry returns and prison statistics. It cannot 
 be denied that the labours of the gaol establish- 
 ments have been increased since the appointment 
 of an inspector, but the health and safe custody of 
 the prisoners have been secured in proportion. 
 Indeed, if we were asked to point out a modern 
 measure combining in a remarkable degree eco- 
 nomy, humanity, and progress, it is this appoint- 
 ment of a general inspectorship of prisons we 
 should name.* The services of an able and in- 
 telligent officer have been secured for the sole 
 object of reforming prison discipline, and a mass 
 of statistical information has been acquired which 
 cannot fail to supply the material for progressive 
 improvement in this important, but once neglected 
 department. Already an advance is apparent in 
 the condition of the convict population, who are 
 gradually being protected from extra-judicial 
 punishment in the shape of disease caused by 
 filth or crowding, and, at the same time, are 
 subjected to a more strict and equal penal dis- 
 cipline. But, to revert to our subject, the ma- 
 gistrate's labour and anxiety are not lessened, and 
 a fifth superior is added to the list. 
 
 Number six, in districts through which the 
 Grand Trunk Road passes, is the Superintendant 
 of Police and Inspector of Halting-grounds thereon.t 
 
 * Let us hope to see a similar appointment made in Bengal, 
 where it is much wanted. 
 
 f Road and canal officers, in some districts, add much to 
 the cares of the magistrate, who has to keep matters smooth if 
 he can, and to prevent the people from growing restive under 
 the inconveniences which the progress of public works causes. 
 
256 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 It is the last straw which breaks the camel's 
 back, and if, under these many masters, a ma- 
 gistrate, who, as collector of revenue, has also to 
 obey a long list of fiscal authorities, sometimes 
 gets bewildered or out of patience, it is no great 
 wonder. Nay, the wonder rather is that, on the 
 whole, the volumes of official correspondence con- 
 tain so slight a tinge of bitterness, and that so 
 much good feeling pervades the relations of official 
 life. 
 
 If our reflections are just, if the magistrates 
 have too many masters and too little direct re- 
 sponsibility, it may be worth considering whether 
 some remedy to this defect in our criminal ad- 
 ministration can be devised. Our own persuasion 
 is, that such a remedy might be found very near 
 at hand, merely by demanding from the commis- 
 sioners of police a more close account of their 
 stewardship, and a more intelligent estimate of 
 the state of local police in their several districts. 
 They should be directed to send for a certain 
 number of cases decided by the magistrate, and 
 report specifically on his judicial as well as police 
 capacity. Such reports, embracing the whole field 
 of administrative performance, should be called for 
 at least twice a-\ear.* 
 
 * As it is, some commissioners of revenue, who are versed 
 not only in every rule of their craft, but also in every shade of 
 official aptitude displayed by their subordinate collectors, 
 assume too often in police matters the habit of those old Italian 
 friars, who dubbed themselves Fratres lynorantice, and an- 
 swered ail questions with their one word, Nescio. Or, if they 
 are not honest enough to avow their ignorance of the minutiae of 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 257 
 
 To return to our police magistrate. He has, 
 let us suppose, by combining tact witb energy, 
 succeeded in satisfying his official superiors and 
 in keeping the people of his district in good 
 temper and order. There remains another and 
 a very important task. He must secure, if pos- 
 sible, the comfort and safety of the innumerable 
 travellers, who for many hours of each day and 
 night swarm along the high roads of his dis- 
 trict. 
 
 Thanks to the incessant attention of the local 
 government in the north-west, this part of district 
 duty is much simplified. Every magistrate has 
 abundant instructions at hand, and every facility 
 is given to him by his superiors to complete a 
 chain of arrangements, embracing the convenience 
 of travellers of all ranks. And as yet the 
 system of the up-country shines by contrast with 
 the "laissez aller" fashions of the lower pro- 
 vinces. 
 
 No sooner does the traveller from Bengal or 
 Behar cross the stream, whose ill-omened waters * 
 
 police administration, as affecting the various classes of so- 
 ciety in their divisions, there is none the less an indistinct, hazy 
 atmosphere, hanging over their annual police reports, through 
 which the ruling powers can hardly be expected clearly to see 
 their way. Nothing like gross inefficiency or decided disorder 
 would escape observation, but the relative degrees of excellence 
 in district work are passed over in a manner disheartening to 
 the ablest and most laborious amongst the public servants. 
 
 * The Hindoos consider it a defilement to touch the waters 
 of the Caramnasa river. 
 
258 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 divide these provinces from our north-western ter- 
 ritory, than he observes signs of comfort and 
 security to which as yet he has been a stranger. 
 Instead of an occasional dog-kennel-looking hut, 
 or (as in Ramgurh) an elevated bird-watcher's 
 platform, tenanted by a half-starved village-watch- 
 man, the wanderer begins to see strong police- 
 stations every two or three miles along the road, 
 with stout, well-armed patrols of horse and foot. 
 Serais, with open gates, invite the weary traveller, 
 whilst, at convenient distances, encamping-grounds 
 are marked out, and supplies for man and beast 
 stored in commodious buildings. 
 
 Apropos to the matter of supplies, we must 
 digress for a few moments to give due credit 
 to the authorities for the pains which they have 
 taken in arrangements, which, to the mere English 
 reader, may seem so far from perhaps, so far be- 
 neath the notice of the Government. The disciple 
 of Adam Smith may be inclined to remind us that 
 in a populous and productive country, such as 
 Upper India generally is, supply and demand 
 will, under a good rule, regulate themselves, and 
 that any interference on the part of the Govern- 
 ment must be not only superfluous, but mischiev- 
 ous. And so, no doubt, it would be, if the line 
 of march lay betwixt London and Coventry, instead 
 of between Delhi and Benares. But in India 
 such reasoning will not hold good, for so great 
 is the dread in the national mind, and, doubtless, 
 so well founded, of men armed either with autho- 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 259 
 
 rity or with more material arms, that the supply 
 will not answer to the demand in their case. 
 
 Under our Mahometan predecessors the march 
 of an army caused at least as much misery as the 
 utmost terrors of war cause in European countries. 
 Nay, even in days of peace the mere progress of an 
 emperor was marked by desolation, pestilence, and 
 famine, and might be tracked by blasted harvests 
 and smoking villages. Nor, as the English flag 
 surmounted one by one the imperial strongholds, 
 were matters in this respect at once and entirely 
 altered for the better. No exertions of the British 
 could restrain their soldiers and followers from the 
 work of plunder and destruction. Even in later 
 days, and in spite of the most stringent orders, the 
 march of troops came like a fall of locusts on our 
 provinces ; and, owing to the increasing general 
 tranquillity and civilisation of the country, these 
 visitations year after year were more severely felt. 
 This was not the fault of the military authorities 
 alone, for hungry men with arms in their hands, 
 who find the ordinary markets closed against them, 
 will naturally enough help themselves. As yet the 
 civil powers had established no sufficient system for 
 securing at once the comfort of the troops and the 
 protection of the country people. When an army 
 or a regiment was expected, hurried orders were 
 sent to the district officers to prepare supplies, but 
 how those supplies were to be got together nobody 
 cared. The consequence was, that some tehsildar, 
 or police-officer, laid the country round under con- 
 tribution, whereby he hoped to supply the troops 
 
260 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 with forage. Sheep, fowls, cattle were hunted out 
 and carried off to the encampment, the merchant 
 was deprived of his cart, the ploughman of his 
 bullocks, artisans and labourers were dragged from 
 their homes, and a scene of injustice and extortion 
 took place, which the people did not forget for 
 months after. To save their own credit, the native 
 civil-officers had to pay a douceur to the head men 
 of the military bazaar, which they (the civil sub- 
 ordinates) in their turn levied from the landholders 
 in the neighbourhood. The natural result of all 
 this was the desertion of villages along the line 
 of march, and especially near the usual places of 
 encampment. Such a state of disorder could not 
 last long after the completion of those reforms in 
 the management of the land revenue which we have 
 on former occasions described ; and during the last 
 few years especially the Government has taken a 
 deep interest in the matter, and a regular system 
 for the supply of provisions to all large bodies of 
 travellers has been matured and carried into exe- 
 cution. 
 
 Encamping grounds at regulated distances have 
 been marked off.* Contractors for all sorts of 
 necessary supplies have been encouraged by ad- 
 vances of money to settle, and have been furnished 
 with convenient storehouses and shelter. Regular 
 tables of price-current have been prepared in the 
 English and vernacular languages, duly counter- 
 signed ; the weights and measures have all been 
 
 * Shady spots have been selected, or, if such could not be 
 obtained, young trees have been planted. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 tested and approved ; even the very flour-sieves 
 have been stamped with the official seal. All these 
 details may seem trifling, but the effect of attention 
 to such trifles on the comfort of the troops, and on 
 the happiness of the people, is immense. A regi- 
 ment marches into a town now without causing any 
 greater excitement than the arrival of a pleasure 
 train from London causes to the good people of 
 Brighton or Epsom. Decent civil officials, under 
 the orders of an assistant or deputy-magistrate, 
 supplied with full credentials, and with instructions 
 how to act in every sort of emergency, attend alike 
 to the wants of the general of an army or the hum- 
 blest traveller. The military, seeing that due 
 regard is paid to their comfort, meet the civil 
 authorities with cordiality, and sternly repress all 
 freebooting and oppression. And as a natural 
 consequence, land near the line of march, instead 
 of being thrown out of cultivation as formerly, 
 is daily rising in value, and the traffic which used 
 to be a curse to the country has become a source 
 of emolument. 
 
 And this reminds us of that unequalled Grand 
 Trunk Road along which the commerce of the 
 
 c? 
 
 country rolls, as yet without a tax, in one con- 
 tinued stream. England has her immortal Mac- 
 adam, but all that he did for English roads was 
 to throw down well-sorted stone fragments, which 
 it was left to the traffic to drive into a close 
 binding soil. Now, in Upper India we have no 
 binding soil and no granite. But by elaborating 
 the limestone of the country (or whatever else 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 kunkur may be), by pounding it up with water 
 and by much beating, a road is made, with great 
 labour and expense, but smooth as a bowling-green. 
 We wish that the patriots of Manchester, who com- 
 plain of the bad roads of India, would come to see 
 our chief lines of communication in the north-west. 
 We could point with satisfaction to the merchant of 
 Agra bringing his mountains of cotton along a road 
 metalled into one masonry-like embankment, his 
 property guarded by day and watched by night by 
 the servants of Government,* and, except at the 
 
 * As a proof of the care taken of travellers, we may remark, 
 that a correspondence lately came under our observation, in 
 which the zealous superintendent of road police complained bit- 
 terly to a district magistrate that gratuitous police watchmen 
 were not provided for the night guard of all native travellers en- 
 camping along the line of the Grand Trunk Road. 
 
 The arrangements for watching the Grand Trunk Road in 
 the district with which we happen to be best acquainted are as 
 follows : Every two miles along the road there is a police sta- 
 tion with three policemen. These men are drafted from the 
 body of the district police, are well armed, and wear a becoming 
 uniform. The hours of their respective night-watches are fixed, 
 and each man, on joining a road police-station, has a written 
 notice given him, specifying the precise duties of his post. From 
 10 p. m. to 4 a. m. two of the three night-guards patrol the road. 
 Horse-patrol are stationed at convenient distances, and to keep 
 them on the alert, a written and verbal parole is sent from the 
 magistrate's court to each end of his district every night. The 
 written parole is returned by the district post, so that the autho- 
 rities have proof that once, at all events, each night, the horse- 
 men patrol their portion of road. To keep all up to their work, 
 along the forty miles of road three mounted jemadars are sta- 
 tioned, who send in written reports every morning of the exact 
 spot where they passed each horse or foot-patrol during the 
 ni^ht. In the district to which we allude, in addition to the 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 pontoon, or boat-bridges over the Jumna and 
 Ganges, free from all tax or toll. It would be 
 at once conceded to us that, at all events, in 
 the north-western provinces of India trade is less 
 
 forty miles of Grand Trunk Road, there is at least an equal 
 length of Branch Trunk Road leading towards Agra, which is 
 watched and patrolled in the same manner. During the past 
 year, no one single case of highway robbery has taken place ; 
 and though the traffic has been great, the amount of property 
 stolen at night from travellers at halting-places, so far as can be 
 ascertained, does not exceed twelve hundred rupees (nine hun- 
 dred of which are the value of a bale of silk cut off a cart under 
 the nose of a sleepy watchman). When it is considered that in 
 this district there are no restraints put upon travellers as to 
 where they shall halt, and that parties of wearied merchants are 
 spending the night all along the road under the canopy of 
 heaven ; when the following table of traffic, too, is taken into 
 account, it will be acknowledged that due care is taken to pro- 
 tect the commerce of the country. 
 
 Of loaded carts (of one to eight bullocks each) there were 
 28,168, drawn by 99,714 bullocks. The beasts of burden 
 camels, bullocks, horses, &c. carrying loads amounted to 
 34,820. This is the account of what passed on the Grand Trunk 
 Road alone in the year 18,51. Above, i.e. to the west of the 
 point where the Agra Branch Road meets the Great Trunk 
 Road, from and to Agra along the branch road, an almost equal 
 amount of traffic passed. 
 
 Now, allowing that each bullock and beast of burden drew 
 or carried on an average property worth ten rupees, the losses of 
 merchants by theft in the two roads cannot be set down at more 
 than ten pie per hundred rupees, and by robbery nil. And as 
 no single instance of cattle theft occurred during the year on the 
 road, either of loaded or not loaded cattle, the ten pie per hun- 
 dred rupees must be reduced to at least three pie per hundred 
 rupees, or four pence per hundred pounds sterling. 
 
NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 taxed and better protected than in any other 
 country under the sun.* 
 
 So far we have followed the steps of the magis- 
 trate, as head of the local police, through the course 
 of his duties both to the public and to the Govern- 
 ment under which he serves. A few words may 
 now be spared to the detail of his everyday life. 
 One characteristic marks it, hard work both for 
 mind and body, but for the mind especially. Were 
 it not for the variety of the distractions which make 
 up his day, it would be impossible for the magis- 
 trate to support the amount of wear and tear to 
 which he is exposed. 
 
 * The truth is, that in the Agra Presidency men of com- 
 merce and capital are cherished and cared for to an undue 
 extent. The merchant princes of Upper India, thanks to our 
 settled Government, excellent bridges, roads, and vigilant police, 
 enjoy advantages which their forefathers never even dreamed of. 
 We grudge them not their wealth and prosperity, nor would we 
 see the Government relax for one moment in its efforts to open 
 out the resources of the country. But we confess, that we 
 should gladly see the commercial classes share with the agricul- 
 tural population the direct burdens of the State. The progress 
 and stability of our Government have alike opened out new 
 sources of revenue, and we can see no reason why those who 
 profit most from a strong and settled Government should di- 
 rectly share no part of its expenses. The landed communities 
 in general care far less about the security of person and pro- 
 perty, which a good system of police has effected, than the com- 
 mercial classes. The complaint of the landholder is not that he 
 has to pay so much, but that he is called to contribute so ex- 
 clusively to the State. That statesman will deserve well of 
 India and of England who will summon courage to make all 
 who benefit by British rule contribute equally to its support. 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 The early morning sees the up-country magis- 
 trate riding or walking, far or near, to examine 
 some road or other public work in progress, to visit 
 some disputed tenement, or, failing these objects, to 
 inspect his gaol or prison-factories. On the road, 
 he is beset by people, who, notwithstanding the 
 many hours daily spent by him in cutcherry, vow 
 that they have been unable to obtain a fair hearing. 
 On his return home, a heap of police reports 
 which the district dak has brought in is waiting ; 
 and the public post comes in, too, with its own 
 budget of demands for statements, explanations, 
 and so forth. The police diaries being read and 
 disposed of, with their list of crime, native visitors 
 begin to send in their names before the morning 
 meal is over. It is time to go to cutcherry, but 
 three or four applicants for an interview remain un- 
 satisfied. One word only they have to say, but 
 when once they find themselves inside the house, the 
 one word swells into a long story. At length the 
 magistrate' makes a rush to the door, but there he 
 meets a tehsildar from a distant post with returns 
 which require immediate attention. After some 
 half-hour of examination, the tehsildar is dismissed, 
 and once again our functionary, already half fagged, 
 sets off for cutcherry. At his gate, a police report 
 is thrown into his carriage, from a glance at which 
 and at a dead body stretched on a litter, and carried 
 by four villagers, he finds it necessary to go at once 
 to the civil surgeon to ask for details of a post mor- 
 tem examination, which must be made without dc- 
 
266 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 lay. He is already late for cutcherry, and when he 
 gets there has to pass through a long line of impa- 
 tient suitors. It takes an hour to receive, read, and 
 explain the orders passed on the petitions thrust 
 upon him by the people. Then comes the regular 
 work of the day. The list of criminals under 
 trial, of witnesses in attendance, of cases ready for 
 orders, is produced ; letters to the commissioner of 
 police, the inspectors of prisons, are written, and the 
 day is wearing on, when the head man of the 
 Revenue-office makes his appearance, and produces 
 a goodly bundle of papers. The magistrate asks 
 whether the parties interested in these cases are in 
 attendance, and is answered in the affirmative. The 
 papers are ordered to be brought forward. It is 
 the rule to keep no man waiting ; but before the 
 suitors and their witnesses have been collected the 
 head gaoler brings his books ; after him comes the 
 stampkeeper, then the man who prepares the road- 
 making accounts, each with a pressing request for 
 one moment's attention, and to them succeeds the 
 record-keeper. The rule is, as we have said, to 
 detain, if possible, no witnesses or people over the 
 day ; so that the magistrate finds it nearly dusk 
 before he gets home, weary and worn out. He 
 takes his ride or drive round the same road, and 
 sees the same people that he has seen for the last 
 nine months, eats his dinner, tries to get through 
 an article in the " Quarterly," or a more than 
 usually tempting official printed report. If he goes 
 into society, he is too tired to enjoy it, and wishes 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 267 
 
 himself in bed. Such is the every-day life of the 
 magistrate. 
 
 The morning of one day only in the week greets 
 the worn official with some hope of leisure and 
 repose. The magistrate thanks God for Sunday, 
 though the week-day din and rattle of business is 
 still in his ears, and he cannot help to contrast un- 
 favourably an Indian with an English Sunday. In 
 spite of himself, recollections will come up of the 
 merry church-peal, the rural scene dotted with 
 honest villagers hastening up gladly to the house of 
 God, in short, of all the loved sounds and sights 
 of a Sunday at home. Still he has rest, and is 
 thankful. Beyond this sacred day no real holiday 
 does he know ; for though all other business may 
 be brought to an occasional stand, crime takes no 
 rest ; and some, indeed, of the magistrate's most 
 anxious days are those of festival and rejoicing to 
 all around him. 
 
 We cannot conclude these Notes without a 
 word to the members of the civil service in India. 
 To you we address ourselves, whether young or old, 
 whether high in rank or only entering upon public 
 life, because you can best give effect to any sug- 
 gestions for the improvement of the people. Few 
 men appreciate the circumstances in which you are 
 placed. Vulgar opinion may still attach the idea 
 of wealth and money-getting to a writership in 
 India, but the delusion is fast wearing away. The 
 days have gone by when the orchestras of Calcutta 
 or Madras used to salute the toast of " the Civil 
 Service" with the popular air of (< Money in both 
 
268 NOTES ON THE NORTH-WESTERN 
 
 pockets." Such a greeting nowadays would be 
 accepted as rather a smart piece of irony, so far is 
 anything like pecuniary affluence from distinguishing 
 your service. Indeed, whilst we could count on our 
 fingers the men whose pockets could jingle respon- 
 sively to the old-fashioned tune, we might try in vain 
 to enumerate the civil servants who are struggling 
 against the difficulties ofimpecuniosity. So much the 
 more shame for the service ! some may say. But the 
 truth rather is, that, considering what is expected 
 of a man in office, the young civilian nay, the 
 middle-aged civilian, is but moderately paid. It 
 read very well when Jacquemont wrote to his friends 
 in Paris, how Lord William Bentinck administered 
 the empire of the East with all the simplicity of 
 William Penn. But if a Governor-general can 
 afford to go about like a Quaker, it does not follow 
 that a young assistant to a magistrate may rightly 
 adopt an equal contempt of appearances. He can 
 hardly trudge on foot to cutcherry whilst his subor- 
 dinate officers have their decent conveyances, nor 
 can the native officials put down their palanquins or 
 ponies so long as the suitors who throng about them 
 travel in good style. 
 
 No : it is not money that flings a charm round 
 civil power in India in these days. Even the most 
 able servants of Government, who have grown grey 
 in the study of local laws, manners, and languages, 
 who have worn out a life in heaping up knowledge, 
 for which, beyond the limits of their own presidencies, 
 there is neither use nor demand, even these men are 
 not better paid than their fellow-men of equal talent 
 
PROVINCES OF INDIA. 269 
 
 and application at home.* But, none the less, there 
 is much to reconcile a generous mind to the sore 
 labours and privations which wait upon civil life in 
 India. Power, a shade, a pretence, a slavery, in 
 England, is a reality here. The power of doing 
 good, not to one or two persons or parishes, but to 
 thousands, is what every civil servant may justly 
 aspire to. The power of mitigating the ills of life, 
 of smoothing its inequalities by lessening injustice, 
 by putting down tyranny, and by encouraging honest 
 exertion, all this lies in the civilian's daily path. 
 All round the world, in every other country, English 
 statesmen debate, deliberate, argue, or protest ; in 
 India alone they seem still privileged to act. 
 
 To action, then, we invite every man charged 
 with civil power. Once again we remind you that 
 a noble field lies open to your exertions. Other 
 hands have performed the work of destruction, and 
 have wiped away the ancient empires and monarchies 
 of the East. These have fallen, unpitied, because 
 stained with innocent blood and polluted by in- 
 justice. To you belongs the double work of restora- 
 tion and reform, not by a blind introduction of the 
 law or policy of England, but by grafting English 
 honour and justice upon the institutions of the 
 East. 
 
 The work of conquest has been completed, the 
 work of regeneration must begin. Let our soldiers 
 
 1 The civil servant labours under this disadvantage, that his 
 professional knowledge is useless to him out of India. The 
 soldier, the divine, the surgeon, can find employment at home, 
 but the civilian cannot. 
 
270 NOTES, ETC. 
 
 wear, as they have boldly won, the laurels of vic- 
 tory ; for the statesmen of India a glorious oaken 
 crown remains. To raise up a degraded race, to 
 cure the plagues of past bad government and bad 
 morals, to prepare if you may be so blessed the 
 way for real virtue and true religion, to this you 
 are called ; and look round the world as you may, 
 you will never find a more glorious vocation. 
 
 London : -Printed by G. BARCLAY, Castle St. Leicester Sq. 
 
JU. 
 
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