cupying two opposite angles of the fort, which is an irregular square, with, I think, twelve semi-circular bastions, and a very wide and deep wet moat, except on the west side, where it rises immediately from the rocky banks of the river. On one of the eminences of which I speak is a collection of prison-like buildings; on the other a very large and handsome house, built originally for the Commander-in-chief of the district, at the time that Monghyr was an important station, and the Maharattas were in the neighbourhood; but it was sold some years since by government. The view from the rampart and the eminences is extremely fine. Monghyr stands on a rocky promontory, with the broad river on both sides, forming two bays, beyond one of which the Rajmahâl hills are visible, and the other is bounded by the nearer range of Curruckpoor. The town is larger than I expected, and in better condition than most native towns. Though all the houses are small, there are many of them with an upper story, and the roofs, instead of the flat terrace or thatch, which are the only alterations in Bengal, are generally sloping, with red tiles, of the same shape and appearance with those which we see in Italian pictures; they have also little earthenware ornaments on their gables, such as I have not seen on the other side of Rajmahal. The shops are numerous, and I was surprised at the neatness of the kettles, tea-trays, guns, pistols, toasting-forks, cutlery and other things of the sort, which may be procured in this tiny Birmingham. I found afterwards that this

place had been from very early antiquity celebrated for its smiths, who derived their art from the Hindoo Vulcan, who had been solemnly worshipped, and was supposed to have had a workshop here. The only thing which appears to be wanting to make their steel excellent, is a better manner of smelting, and a more liberal use of charcoal and the hammer. As it is, their guns are very apt to burst, and their knives to break, precisely the faults which, from want of capital, beset the works of inferior artists in England. The extent, however, to which these people carry on their manufactures, and the closeness with which they imitate English patterns, show plainly how popular those patterns are become among the natives.

August 13.-Mr. Templer, the judge and magistrate, breakfasted with me this morning, and gave me such an account of Monghyr and its spiritual concerns, as made me decide on staying over Sunday. There are besides his own family, five or six others here of the upper and middling classes, and above thirty old English pensioners, many of them married and with families, without any spiritual aid except what is furnished by a Baptist missionary, who is established here. Of him Mr. Templer spoke very favourably, but said that the members of the Church of England, though in a manner compelled to attend his ministry, would value extremely an opportunity of attending divine service, and receiving the sacrament in their own way, while the number of children of different ages, whose parents might be expected to bring

them for Baptism, was far from inconsiderable. I, therefore, requested Mr. Templer to give publicity to my arrival, and intention of performing divine service on the Sunday. I dined with him, and he afterwards drove me through what is really one of the prettiest countries that I have seen, very populous, but cultivated in a rude and slovenly manner. The rent of the best land is about two rupees for a customary begah, nearly equal to an English acre, or to three Bengalee begahs. They get three crops in succession every year from the same lands, beginning with Indian corn, then sowing rice, between which, when it is grown to a certain height, they dibble in pulse, which rises to maturity after the rice is reaped. The district is very fertile, and most articles of production cheap. The people are quiet and industrious, and the offences which come before the magistrate both in number and character far less, and less atrocious, than is the case either in Bengal or farther on in Hindostan. Theft, forgery, and house-breaking, being the besetting sins of the one, and violent affrays, murders, and highway robberies, being as frequent among the other people, and all being of very rare occurrence in the Jungleterry district. The peasants are more prosperous than in either, which may of itself account for their decency of conduct. But Mr. Templer was inclined to ascribe both these advantages in a great degree to the fact, that the Zemindarries in this neighbourhood are mostly very large, and possessed by the representatives of ancient families, who, by the estimation in which

they are held, have the more authority over the peasants, and as being wealthy have less temptation to oppress them, or to connive at the oppression of others. Though a Zemindar of this kind has no legal controul over his people, he possesses greater effective controul, than a great land-owner in England exercises over his tenants. Most of them still hold cutcherries, where they attend almost daily to hear complaints and adjust differences, and though doubtless oppressions may sometimes occur in these proceedings, yet many quarrels are stifled there, and many mischievous persons discountenanced, who might else give much trouble to the magistrate.

In the upper parts of Bahar, and in the neighbourhood of Benares, the Zemindarries are small, and much divided between members of the same family. In consequence the peasants are racked to the utmost, and still farther harassed by the lawsuits of the joint or rival owners, each sending their agents among them to persuade them to attorn to him, and frequently forcibly ejecting them from their farms unless they advanced money, so that they have sometimes to pay a half-year's rent twice or three times over. Nor are the small freeholders, of whom there are, it appears, great numbers all over Bahar, so fortunate in their privileges as might have been expected. They are generally wretchedly poor; they are always involved in litigations of some kind or other, and there is a tribe of harpies, of a blended character between an informer and a hedge-attorney, who make it their

business to find out either that there is a flaw in their original title, or that they have forfeited their tenure by some default of taxes or service. These free, or copy-holders, have been decidedly sufferers under Lord Cornwallis's settlement, as have also been a very useful description of people, the "Thannadars," or native agents of police, whose Jaghires," or rent-free lands, which were their ancient and legal provision all over India, were forgotten, and therefore seized by the Zemindars, while the people themselves became dependent on the charity of the magistrate, and degraded altogether from the place which they used formerly to hold in the village society. The permanent settlement was regarded by some as a very hasty and ill-considered business. Many undue advantages were given by it to the Zemindars, at the same time that even so far as they were concerned, it was extremely unequal, and in many instances oppressive. Like our old English land-tax, in some districts it was ridiculously low, in others, though the increase of cultivation had since brought the lands more up to the mark, it was first ruinously high, so that, in fact, quite as many of the ancient Zemindarrie families had been ruined, as had been enriched, while taking all the districts together, the Company had been losers to the amount of many millions. I should have supposed that by its permanency at least, it had been the chief cause of the prodigious extension of cultivation, which every body allows has occurred in Bengal and Bahar since they were placed under the immediate government of the