enue. Protected from all external enemies by our forces, which surround him on every side, his whole army is left to him for purposes of parade and display; and having, according to his notions, no use for them elsewhere, he concentrates them around his capital, where he lives among them in the perpetual dread of mutiny and assassination.* He has nowhere any police, or any establishment for the protection of the life and property of his subjects. As a citizen of the world I could not help thinking that it would be an immense blessing to a large portion of our species if an earthquake were to swallow up this court of Gwalior and the army that surrounds it. Nothing worse could possibly succeed; and something better might.

"The misrule of such states, situated in the midst of our dominions, is not without its use. There is, as Gibbon observes, a strong propensity in human nature to deprecate the advantages, and magnify the evil of present times; and if the people had not before their eyes such specimens of native rule to contrast with ours, they would think more highly than they do of their past Mahommedan and Hindoo sovereigns, and be much less disposed than they are fairly to estimate the advantages of being under our government. The native governments of the present day are fair specimens of what they have always been-grinding military despotisms; and their whole history is that of 'Saul who killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands,' as if rulers were made only to slay, and the ruled to be slain. In politics, as in landscape, "Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,' and the past might be all couleur de rose in the imagination of the people, were it not reproduced in these ill-governed states, where the 'lucky accident' of a good governor is not to be expected in a century, and where the secret of the responsibility of ministers to the people has not yet been discovered."

Since this description was written the administration of government has somewhat improved under the influence of

* Another traveller, who saw the Rajah of Gwalior at a nach, describes him as sitting with a drawn sword in one hand and a naked dagger in the other.

the English Residents; but in many of its features the picture is true even to the present day. Wherever there has been improvement it has been wholly through British influence, and this vivid sketch of a native government, without that influence, enables us to realize the condition in which India would be at the present day if it had never been conquered by the English; and the state into which it would at once relapse were their supremacy withdrawn.

CHAPTER XXX.

TO ELLORA.

March of Sir R. Hamilton-Indor-The Rajah's Palace-Strike into the Mail-road-Revolt of Kuhárs-Cavalcade-Origin of the present Rajah-Mhow-Goojree-Kurrumpoora-A Stray White Man-Manners of Natives-Sindwar-Fortress in Ruins -Sirpoorah-Peculiar Police Regulation-Old Venetian Coins-Enter the British Dominions-Dhoolia-Native Town-Evidences of having entered British Territory -Malligaum-Cantonments-Native Town-The Fort-Parallel Defences-Nandgaon-Camp in a Grove-Sakigaon-Put up in a Temple-Enter the Děkkun—Physical Geography-The Nizam-“Might makes Right."

WE left Oojén on the evening of February 9th, for Indor, distant thirty-eight miles. The next morning we breakfasted by the roadside, just outside a village, where were pitched the tents of Sir R. Hamilton, the Resident at Indor, who was marching from that place to Mehidpoor. During the breakfast, parties of soldiers; ladies and gentlemen on horseback, in carriages, or in shigrams; elephants, camels, and hǎckurees belonging to his train, were constantly coming in; and all day long we were passing people belonging to the camp, on foot, or variously mounted.

Marching is a most delightful mode of travelling. You go into tents, taking with you all your furniture and attendants, and in this way may travel any distance with all the comforts of home. The march, which is generally from twelve to eighteen miles, is made in the early morning, on horseback, or in a carriage. On arriving at the camping-ground, you find a breakfast-tent already pitched, and breakfast ready. During the discussion of the meal, the large tents and attendants come up, and a most comfortable home for the day is arranged in an inconceivably short time.

Indor is a large town strongly walled, and the residence of Holkar, one of the great Maharatta princes. The Rajah's

palace fronts on an open square, in which we found a great mela, or fair, going on. The palace is over three hundred feet square, and six stories high. Its style of architecture is impure Saracenic. Within, there is a court surrounded by tall pillars of black wood. We were not admitted into the interior of the palace.

The town seemed thriving, and the streets were filled with people. The houses were generally high, and built with frames of dark wood.

At Indor, we struck the mail-road between Agra and Bombay, and consequently got along much more easily, as our bearers could do the same distance in shorter time, and the bungalows were at regular intervals on the road. All the way from Agra we had hardly seen anything better than a mere wagon track, and for part of the way there was not even that. Most of the merchandize we saw on the road was being conveyed on the backs of bullocks, of which we sometimes met droves of five or six hundred. After leaving Indor, we used to see the mail-cart every day, which reminded us that we were not entirely out of the reach of civilization; but in the country in which we had been, the only mails were those for the few places in which English officers were stationed, and they were easily carried by a running hurkáru, or postman.

We were detained a day at Indor, by a revolt of our kuhárs, who refused to go on, unless they were paid some demands for demurrage. We were finally obliged to call in the aid of the law, in the shape of a police jumatdar, who read them the ěkranama, or Persian agreement which they had signed before leaving Agra; and soon brought them to reason by threatening them with imprisonment in case of noncompliance with our requisitions. These men had been dissatisfied for a long time, but were too wise to make a complaint in the native territories through which we had been passing, knowing, as they did, that however right they might be, they would stand no chance of justice from a native judge. They chose Indor as the scene of the revolt, because they expected that the case would come before Sir R. Hamilton, or

an English magistrate. Luckily, however, they were all absent, and the jumatdar arranged matters, without giving us any trouble, for the small reward of two rupees. He even promised to have some of the mutineers flogged, if we liked.

On one of our walks to the town, we met a long cavalcade of chobdars, (men with silver maces,) couriers, native cavalry, and sepoys; the latter of whom wore the Rajah's uniform of dark green, made in the English fashion. They were escorting one of the Rajah's young relations, (I believe a brother,) who had been visiting a garden near the city. He was a little boy, not over eight years of age, very splendidly dressed, and riding a large white horse, richly caparisoned. The Rajah himself was quite young, and was originally a poor shepherd boy. On the death of the last Rajah, without descendants, the Company might easily have annexed his territories, but instead of doing so, they at last discovered this distant relative, and raised him from his humble position to a seat on the Musnud.

We left Indor on the 12th of February for Mhow, distant thirteen miles, which is a station of the Honourable Company's troops. From Mhow we marched the next day to Goojreetwenty-seven miles-arriving there on the 14th. The following day's march was to Kurrumpoora, twenty-five miles. On the way, we crossed the famous and sacred river Nurbudda; but we did not see much of it, as it was three o'clock in the morning when we reached it, and the night was very dark. We had now left the great plain of Northern India, the waters of which flow into the Ganges. Even at Indor there is a branch of the Chumbul which eventually flows into that great stream. But after leaving Mhow, the slope of the country was to the westward, and the road descended to the coast over successive plateaux, separated by ridges of hills, high to the westward, but low to the eastward.

Kurrumpoora is situated in a barren and hilly country; the village is small, and composed of mud huts, but contains a fine large surai, or open court for the accommodation of travellers. It is built at the foot of a low, but steep hill, on the top of which is the dâk-bungalow. During the day, as we