ness and attention from the local magistrates, down to the European soldiers, and from the Rajas and Kings down to the poor native Christians.

REGINALD CALCUTTA.

TO R. J. WILMOT HORTON, ESQ.

Bombay, May 10, 1825.

The recent invasion of Cutch, by some of the wild people of the Sindian provinces, which at one time menaced serious consequences, has now subsided, and was, probably, only an effect of the dismal distress from drought and famine, under which all those miserable and turbulent countries are now suffering. But the attention of all India is fixed on the siege of Bhurtpoor, in Rajpootana, on the event of which, far more than on any thing which may happen in the Birman empire, the renown of the British arms, and the permanency of the British Empire in Asia must depend. The Jâts are the finest people in bodily advantages and apparent martial spirit whom I have seen in India, and their country one of the most fertile and best cultivated. Having once beaten off Lord Lake from their city, they have ever since not only regarded themselves as invincible, but have been so esteemed by the greater part of the Maharattas, Rajpoots, &c. who have always held up their example as the rallying point and main encouragement to resistance, insomuch that, even when I was passing through Malwah, gallantee shows," like those carried about by the Savoyards, were exhibited at the fairs and in the towns of that wild district, which displayed, among other patriotic and popular

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scenes, the red-coats driven back in dismay from the ramparts, and the victorious Jâts pursuing them sabre in hand.

Their fortress, too, has really all the advantages which can arise from an excellent situation, an imposing profile, a deep and wide ditch, a good shew of cannon, and a very numerous and hardy garrison, while the means which Sir D. Ochterlony has been able to collect against it, though really far more considerable than could, under all circumstances, have been expected, are described, in a letter from General Reynell, as very barely adequate to all which they have to do; while the present intensely hot season is a circumstance greatly unfavourable. Still I do not find that any of my military acquaintance despond. On the contrary, they all appear to rejoice at the opportunity offered for effacing the former very injurious impression which had been made by Lord Lake's failure, though they admit that, should our army fail again, few events would go so near to fulfil the shouts of the mob a few months back in the streets of Delhi,-" Company ka raj ko guia!" “The rule of the Company is at an end!" Meantime, heartily as I desire the success of our arms, and the more so because the cause, I believe, is really a just one, I am very sorry for the Jâts themselves, with whose rough independent manner I was much pleased, and who shewed me all possible civilities and hospitality in passing through their country. One strange feature in the case is, that the war and siege have been commenced by Sir D. Ochterlony on his own sole authority, and without any communication with the Supreme Government! I believe he was fully justified by the urgency of the case; but this is one among many proofs which have fallen under my notice, how impossible it is to govern these remote provinces from Calcutta, and how desirable it is to establish a separate Presidency for Northern and Central India, either at Agra, Meerut, or, perhaps, Saugor.

In the midst of these troubles, and of those other smaller blood-lettings which are pretty constantly going on in one part or other of this vast country, I have had much reason to be thankful

for my own peaceable progress through districts where, a very few weeks sooner or later, I should have met with obstacles far beyond the reach of that little military array which I described in my last letter. I passed Bhurtpoor a month before the war began, and Jyepoor little more than a month after the revolution which had taken place there was tolerably settled. A similar good fortune attended me with regard to a rebellion in Doongurpoor, and a very sanguinary quarrel between two rival Mussulman sects, at Mundipoor; while, in crossing the jungles between Malwah and Guzerât, had I been ten days later, I should have found the road literally impassable, through the exhaustion of the wells in the present drought, and the almost total drying up of the Mhye and its tributary streams. As it was, I suffered from nothing but heat, which, in Guzerât I found very intense, the thermometer frequently standing at 109° in my tent. My medical companion, and most of my servants, had fevers. I myself weathered the march very tolerably, though I certainly was not sorry to find myself "once more upon the waters, yet once more," at Surat. From that city I embarked on the 18th of April for Bombay, a pleasant three days' passage. This is a very beautiful little island, though now sadly burnt up. As a town and place of residence, it cannot compare with Calcutta, though in climate, at this season, it is superior. Its main advantage, however, is the society of Mr. Elphinstone, one of the ablest and most gentlemanly men I have ever known, and possessing a degree of popularity and personal influence, as well as an intimate knowledge of every person and thing within the Government, which I never saw before, except, perhaps, in the Duke of Richelieu, at Odessa.

*

REGINALD CALCUTTA.

TO JOHN THORNTON, ESQ.

Bombay, May 12, 1825.

I have owed you a letter so long that I feel now, like other tardy debtors, almost ashamed to pay it. My silence, however, has not been occasioned by my having ceased, I may say even for a day, to recollect and love you, but from various causes arising out of the way of life in which I have been engaged, which have left me little time to attend to the epistolary duties of friendship.

During the whole of my residence in this country, and more than ever since, in the course of this long journey, I have been enabled to see and hear a good deal of the advantages and disadvantages of an Indian life, your boys have been very frequently in my mind, and my general impression has certainly been that, though, except under very unusual circumstances, great wealth is now no longer to be looked for in India, and though the dangers of the climate are, I think, rather underrated than otherwise in Europe, the service still is one of the best within an Englishman's reach, as affording to every young man of talent, industry, and good character, a field of honourable and useful exertion, and a prospect of moderate competency, without any greater risk of health and life than, with such views before him, and with a reliance on God's good providence, a Christian is fully justified in encountering. One great and grievous evil,-the long and almost hopeless separation from country and friends, is now greatly abated by the plan said to be adopted by the Court of Directors, which not only secures to their civil servants a pension after a certain length of residence in India, but allows likewise of a furlough after a portion of that time is expired. And I need hardly, I trust, say that during the time which your sons must be separated from you, I hope they will always look on me as their uncle, and that it will be a pride and pleasure to my wife and myself, to supply as

far as we can supply, the place of Mrs. Thornton and yourself to them.

With regard to the moral and religious dangers of India, I am not justified in concealing from you that they are still many and great. I do not, indeed, think that the temptations to gross. immorality are more numerous here than elsewhere. Drunkenness is almost unknown in good society, and its effect on the health are so rapid and terrible, and it is regarded with so much dislike and disgust by the majority of those by whose influence public opinion is guided, that there is little reason to apprehend its ever becoming fashionable. And connection with native women, though sadly common among the elder officers of the army, is, so far as I can learn, among the younger servants either civil or military, at present by no means a fashionable vice. It is the same with gambling, the turf, and other similar pursuits; they are not followed by many, and those who do follow them are, I think, regarded by the young men themselves as more or less raffs. The dangers of India seem to me to be, in Calcutta, ostentatious expence and continued dissipation; and in the remoter stations still more than in Calcutta, a forgetfulness and disuse of the external means of grace and godliness. A greater danger than either of these has been very common, but is now I am told less frequent or less prominent than it used to be, I mean an unbelief in, and denial of Christianity. Of this last it was not likely that I should myself see many instances, but that it is sometimes to be met with I have learned from a very amiable young man, who had heard some specious and mischievous arguments during the course of his residence which had disquieted him a good deal, and of which I am happy to believe that I succeeded in effacing the impression. But these dangers, great as they are, are certainly not peculiar to India. They will be found more or less every where, where young persons are left to themselves, as all young men must be in a great degree at an early age. And there are, by God's mercy, some countervailing circumstances which make me think both that India is, in