had had an old woman at hand and in his power, he was likely enough to have burned himself." Human sacrifices, as of children, are never heard of now in these provinces, but it still sometimes happens that a leper is burnt or buried alive, and as these murders are somewhat blended also with religious feeling, a leper being supposed to be accursed of the gods, the Sudder Dewannee, acting on the same principle, discourages, as I am told, all interference with the practice. The best way, indeed, to abolish it, would be to establish lazarhouses, where these poor wretches should be maintained and, if possible, cured, or at all events kept separate from the rest of the people, a policy, by which more than any thing else, this hideous disease has been extirpated in Europe.

All these stories have made a very painful impression on me. If I live to return to Calcutta, it is possible that by conversation with such of my friends as have influence, and by the help of what additional knowledge I may have acquired during this tour, I may obtain a remedy for some of them. And it is in order that this anxiety may not pass away, but that I may really do some little for the people among whom my lot is thrown, that I have put down more fully the facts which have come to my knowledge. I have on a former occasion noticed the opinions of most public men in India, on the important question of putting down suttees by authority. Whether this is attempted or not, it seems at least highly necessary that the regulations should be enforced which the Indian

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Government itself had declared desireable, and that those instances which are really murder, on Hindoo as well as Christian principles, should not escape unpunished. Of the natural disposition of the Hindoo, I still see abundant reason to think highly, and Mr. Bayley and Mr. Melville both agreed with me, that they are constitutionally kind-hearted, industrious, sober, and peaceable, at the same time that they shew themselves on proper occasions, a manly and courageous people. All that is bad about them appears to arise either from the defective motives which their religion supplies, or the wicked actions which it records of their gods, or encourages in their own practice. Yet it is strange to see, though this is pretty generally allowed, how slow men are to admit the advantage or necessity of propagating Christianity among them. Crimes unconnected with religion are not common in Ghazeepoor. There are affrays, but such as arise out of disputes between Mohammedan and Hindoo processions at the time of the Mohurrun, in which blood is sometimes drawn. The police is numerous and effective, and the Thannadars, &c. though they had been here also, in the first instance, forgotten in the perpetual settlement, have been better provided for since than those of Bahar; but the tenants on the small and divided estates in these provinces, are worse off than those on the larger properties in Bahar. Estates here are seldom large, and the holdings very minute.

The language spoken by the common people is Hindoostanee, of a very corrupt kind. The good

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HINDOO LAW-OFFICERS.

"Oordoo" is chiefly confined to the army and courts of justice. When a person under examination once answered in it with unusual fluency and propriety, Mr. Melville's native chief officer said, with a sagacious nod, "That fellow talks good Oordoo! He has been in prison before to-day!" All legal writings, records, &c. are in Persian, a rule which Mr. Melville thinks good. Persian holding in India the place of Latin in Europe, in consequence of this regulation, all the higher officers of the court are educated persons. Persian is, as a language, so much superior in clearness and brevity to Hindoostanee, that business is greatly facilitated by employing it, and since even Oordoo itself is unintelligible to a great part of the Hindoos, there is no particular reason for preferring it to the more polished language. The honesty of the Hindoo law-officers is spoken very ill of; they seem to become worse the nearer they approach the seat of justice. The reason perhaps is not hard to discover; they are in situations where they may do a great deal of mischief; their regular salaries are wretchedly small, a part even of these arise from fees often oppressive and difficult to obtain, and they are so much exposed to getting a bad name even while they exact merely what is their due, that they become careless of reputation, and anxious by all underhand means to swell their profits. Much evil arises in India from the insufficient manner in which the subaltern native servants of Government are paid. In the case of the town duties, a toll-keeper, through whose hands

the dues of half a district pass, receives as his own share three rupees a month! For this he has to keep a regular account, to stop every boat or hackery, to search them in order to prevent smuggling, and to bear the abuse and curses of all his neighbours. What better could be expected from such a man, but that he should cheat both sides, withholding from his employers a large portion of the sums which he receives, and extracting from the poor country-people, in the shape of presents, surcharges, expedition and connivance-money, a far greater sum than he is legally entitled to demand?

September 1.-We advanced this day across the river by the aid of a favourable wind, which just lasted long enough to induce me to decline a very kind invitation sent by Mr. Bayley and Mr. Melville to return to them (being still within sight of Ghazeepoor) and proceed to Dâk on Friday afternoon. The wind, however, was of considerable service, since the place where we now were, Zermineeh, is famous for the time which boats are often detained there. After crossing the river, we proceeded a very little way against the stream.

September 2.—In addition to the stream, we had now the wind against us, but notwithstanding were dragged on with much difficulty six or eight miles, as far as a village named Chuckeepoor, where further progress, without great additional help, became impossible, the banks being high, steep, and crumbling, and the river perilously rapid. There were, at least, twenty vessels of different sizes already set fast and moored, a little a-head of

us, waiting for a westerly wind. I therefore sent to the Jemautdar of Chuckeepoor to desire him to hire fifty men for the next day, to pull the boats past the difficulty, and, since Mohammed confessed that he now saw no chance of the pinnace reaching Benares before Sunday evening, to hire bearers also to carry me to Seidpoor, on the regular Dâk road, where I felt convinced that my Ghazeepoor friends, knowing how the wind was, would have relays stationed for me. The Corries arrived at the same point a little before me, as in tracking, a budgerow, even of the heaviest kind, has an advantage over a vessel with sails and rigging.

September 3.-Forty-five men attended this morning, of whom some were dispersed among the other boats, but with the addition of her crew, the Cora had forty men at the drag-line; of these we had two, lest one should break, both new and strong ones. This was a necessary precaution, because if the tow-line breaks, the boat is in considerable danger. The country-people said, that they had seen a budgerow literally dashed to pieces the year before in the very place where we were lying. The people were saved with great difficulty, but every thing on board was lost, and hardly two planks of the boat remained together. The stream is indeed like that of a cataract, and the bank so high and crumbling, that the trackers work at a great disadvantage, as they dare not come close to the edge, and have to wind their way through trees and brushwood, and among the pillars of an old pagoda. At length having occu