one on the mountains, near Asam, on the lands of Raja Tirath Sinh, the other on the Sylhet side, on the estate of Raja Dewan Sinh. It is to the latter, chiefly, that our notices apply.

This station is at a place called Chira Punji, nearly twenty miles from Pandua. The first two miles from the latter place pass over the plain, through a j jungle of low bushes, grass, and a few trees, much of which has been cleared very lately by the inhabitants of a Cosya village, recently settled in this direction. A gradual ascent then leads to the crest of a low range of hills, about three hundred feet above the plain; along which a path proceeds, for about four miles, to the westward. The track then having united with that from V1Parapunji, turns northward, and passes over a second range of hills, I rather more steep and abrupt than the first, but perfectly practicable.

On the summit of this range, 1300 feet above the plains, is Bairang Punji, a Cosya village, occupying a commanding position, but destitute of any other natural advantages, being surrounded by jungle, and ill supplied with water, bon ruin yleisten ad bols On the sides of the hills are extensive plantations of betle-nut to trees, oranges, and jacks. The lime-stone quarries are seen in the valleys on either side of the road. On the north of Bairang is a valley, through which runs a water-course, and along it are situated the villages of Neyumdab, Sorkoolong, and Motang. The road passes through the latter to the foot of the third ascent, termed Mahadeo ki Chartee, a winding and rather difficult pathway, cut in the side of the mountain, and rising to the height of a thousand feet, or two thousand and three hundred above Pandua. From the summit of this elevation commences a table-land, sloping upwards very gently to the north, and offering no difficulties that may not be very easily removed. [<,!trty} -yU;;trL

The pass of Mahadeo is paved for the accommodation of footpassengers, and could scarcely be rendered available to cattle, without becoming less practicable to men, A cattle-road, however, may be constructed a short way to the east. From the Mahadeo-pass to the summit of the fourth ridge, three thousand and five hundred feet above Pandua, the distance is about two miles; thence to Moosmye, is a mile and a half; and from that to Chira Punji, about three miles, making a total distance of ten miles from Bairang. The altitude of Chira Punji, by barometrical measurement, is four thousand and two hundred feet above the plains; and, by trigonometrical survey, the height of the ridge, to the northward, is about four thousand and six hundred feet; that of the mountains to the northeast appears to be still more considerable.

The country about Chira is open and undulating, rising into gentle hillocks, and intersected by ravines, in the bottom of which run shallow streams of clear water, forming occasional falls over projecting points of rock. There are few trees, but some of the elevations produce a few slender bushes. Many of the European

fruits are found wild, as the raspberry, the strawberry, the apple, and the plum. The fir-tree is a native of these parts. ...?

A fine nutritious short grass grows in abundance on the tableland, and yields excellent pasture the cattle, consequently, are of a superior quality to those of the plains. The climate is temperate and agreeable; at a season, when the thermometer at Pandua was 77° in the morning and 94° in the afternoon, it stood at Chira at at 60° morning and evening, and never exceeded 77° throughout the day. The natives are remarkably healthy, to bol inm

One great advantage of the position is, the facility with which it may be reached, and with which all the conveniences and luxuries of life may be transported thither. Boats of the largest size may proceed from Sylhet to within three hours' distance of Pandua, at all seasons, up the Soorma river, and from Pandua, a few hours will convey them to Chira Punji.)

The estate of Chira Punji is the property of Dewan Sinh, who has uniformly given great satisfaction to the British authorities. It does not extend much beyond the village of Chira, and includes the four villages mentioned above, as well as Soorang, to the east of Bairang and Moosmye, the residence of Mookum Rajah, a kinsman of Dewan Sinh, who holds a joint interest in some of the villages.

Our information of the site of the bungalo on the Asam side, is less precise than the preceding, and we have been able to collect only the following particulars: It is within the territory of Tirath Sinh, usually known as the Dulla Raja, which extends from the low land of Asam, some distance beyond Lungburee, and the chief town of which is Nungklow. The elevation of this latter is about four thousand nd feet above the plains, the country is open, and the climate temperate and salubrious. The Rajah, some time since, agreed to co-operate in the construction of a road, practicable for elephants and cattle, and the chiefs of the adjoining districts, as far as to Chira Punji, had also expressed their concurrence. By the construction of a road, therefore, on the Sylhet side, to that station, the communication between Asam and Sylhet will be maintained with every attainable facility.'

The settlement of our newly acquired territory in Arracan had become a subject of discussion in the Bengal Papers. The following is from the same Number of the Government Gazette," and may be regarded, therefore, as coming from authority:

We understand that the arrangements for the administration of this province, and the regulation of the police, have lately been established upon a systematic organization. The duty of the police in the interior, is little more than that of surveillance, as the zemindars are held responsible for the maintenance of good order in their respective divisions, and crimes of serious dye are of very rare ocThe WT & CUDOTI 260817

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currence. The chief scope for the activity of the police, and where it is necessary they should be armed, is the boundary along the hills, from whence the Khyengs have been accustomed to descend, and plunder the low country. In proportion, however, to the success with which these marauding incursions are resisted, they will gradually be discontinued, and the necessity to guard against them will cease. The revenue arrangements, for a term of three years, have been most readily entered into by the zemindars. With the growing population of the country, and the augmented market for natural produce, there will, probably, be no difficulty in realising the amount, at least to more than a sufficient extent to cover the cost of management. The amount of the revenue is estimated at above twenty lacs, and the charges at not much more than half that sum. No taxes have been imposed on exports and imports. Two annual fairs have been established, one at Tulak, to commence on the full moon of December, and one at Aeng, on the 5th day preceding the full moon of March, each to last five days. The fulfilment of their engagements has been declared to be the only condition of perpetual possession by the zemindars, including a right of alienation by sale, bequest, or gift. Such a right was never admitted by the Burman Governors, although the tenant was usually left in possession, upon his paying a fine or douceur to each new governor of the province, who was changed every three years, and had full powers to alienate as he pleased: the Government, throughout the Burman state, being the only proprietor of the land, and the cultivators, consequently, living in a state of insecurity, fatal to the existence of agricultural prosperity and population.

The head men of the villages, the Gongs, (the Gaums of Asam) or Paradars, have been retained in the new system, on a footing similar to the Tashkheesee Talookdars of Bengal. They are chosen by the villagers, and collect, in kind, or money, as may be agreed upon, and are not removable by either the zemindar or ryots, except with the concurrence of the supreme authorities, and only on proofs of incompetency or gross misconduct.'

'An attempt has been made to introduce the mode of catching elephants in a keddah, as practised in the more northern portions of the provinces, which promises to be successful. In the first trial, fifteen elephants, available for the public service, were secured.

It is satisfactory to learn, that the state of the European officers, Native troops and flotilla, continues healthy. No tendency to the epidemic fever has been manifested, and, as the principal stations have been much improved by clearing away the jungle, and draining, there is every reason to hope that the military posts will continue to improve in salubrity.

'The transactions that were the cause of the late alarm at Akyab, seem to have originated in the arrival of a person from Ava, pretending to be a member of the old royal family of Arracan. He was reported to have been accompanied by several armed boats, and the

rumour was so prevalent, that many persons left the place for a time. On sending out a party to ascertain the fact, no traces of either boats or followers were found. Some reports were also current, that the individual above alluded to, had been tampering with the Mugh Levy, to put him in possession of the town, but further inquiry failed to establish the fact in a satisfactory manner. In order, however, to prevent any further misconstruction of the objects of a probably harmless individual, the senior commissioner judged it expedient to direct his departure, and he was sent in the Sophia to Chittagong. This measure seems to have had the effect of allaying every apprehension. The experience of the past, and the frequency of aggression and domestic tumult, have inspired the Mughs of Arracan with a degree of credulous timidity, which it will take some time, and the continuance of regular government, to dissipate.'

On this, 'The Bengal Hurkaru,' of the 24th, offers the following remarks:

"The Government Gazette," of Thursday, renders an account of the settlement recently made for Arracan. According to this account the revenue amounts to above twenty lacs of rupees a-year, without any imposts on the export or import produce. It consists, therefore, we may conclude, of a land revenue, and of the produce of the salt monopoly. The settlement is said to have been made with the zemindars, upon whom our Government is described as having bestowed a perpetual right of possession in the land, including a right of alienation, sale, bequest, or gift. In short, the Government has raised this class of persons into a landed aristocracy, or has done what Lord Cornwallis did in Bengal between thirty and forty years ago, with this only exception, that the assessment is not perpetual but fluctuating. Under the Burman Government, the state was held to be the only proprietor of the land, and the cultivators are said to have lived in a state of insecurity fatal to the existence of agricultural prosperity and population."

With great deference to the respectable and, indeed, talented individuals who have made the settlement for Arracan, we are firmly of opinion that their whole arrangement is founded upon erroneous principles. In the name of patience and good sense, what have such hard words as zemindar, tashkheesee, and talookdar, to do with a British fiscal arrangement in a new country? What is the Persian language to the Mughs? Or why inflict upon them the institutions of the Mohammedan conquerors of the Hindoos, which are just as strange to them, and as inapplicable to their situation, as those of the ancient Etruscans, or more ancient Egyptians.

'By the new arrangement, it appears that the police, and other local officers of the old Government, have, by the fiat of the Commissioners, been declared proprietors of the land to the exclusion of the cultivators, the virtual proprietors, even by the showing of the

Government Gazette itself. We fear, upon examination, it will, în fact be found, that they have done the very thing which has of late years been so much deprecated by the home authorities, not to say by philosophical and speculative writers. In the language of Mr. Mill, when the sovereign power generously sacrificed its own proprietary rights, it should have bestowed those rights upon those "upon whom the motives to improvement which property gives would have operated with a force incomparably greater than that with which they could operate upon any other class of men; they to have been bestowed upon those from whom alone in every country the principal improvements in agriculture must be derived, the immediate cultivators of the soil."—" Instead of doing this, the ryots," in the language of the same writer," have been handed over to the zemindars in gross." This is the very catastrophe which the historian of British India emphatically denounces as a great opportunity lost; if the great opportunity has occurred once more, we ask why this great opportunity has been again lost 2, 1. r

From the unimproved state of Arracan, it is certain that the land-tax imposed is not a tax upon rent but upon produce, and that it must consequently enhance the cost of every necessary of life, and therefore arrest the progress of improvement and the increase of population. This will be easily seen by comparing the area with the estimated population. The former appears to be about 15,000 miles, and the latter about one hundred thousand inhabitants. This gives something less than seven inhabitants to a square mile, instead of 200, 300, and even as far as 600 in some parts of Bengal. In short, not above a sixth or seventh part of th cultivable area of the country is yet inhabited or cultivated. Legitimate rent cannot therefore have commenced in such a country. Its condition can bear no analogy to that of the densely-peopled provinces of Hindoostan, and its system of taxation should therefore be founded upon totally different principles.'

the

The amount of revenue is described to be double the charges of Government. If this be the case, it is quite clear that taxation is carried to twice the length it ought to be. It is probable, however, that this will be found in the sequel as unintentional exaggeration, If it were all land-revenue, or the Arracanese paid in any shape the whole sum, the tax would amount, upon man, woman, and child, to twenty rupees a-head. The semi-savages never could pay so much. It is not improbable that the salt monopoly is really looked to as the principal source of this revenue, and that the wealthier inhabitants of Bengal are speculated upon as the principal contributors to the alleged revenue of Arracan. Such a speculation, however, must proceed in fallacious reasoning. If the quantity of salt brought to Bengal be increased, the monopoly profit upon the old supply will necessarily diminish. If, indeed, salt can be bought cheaper, and of a better quality, from 'Arracan than any where else, both the Government and the people will be gainers. It is pretty certain, however