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 housebreaking 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 Zemin dar of this kind has no legal contro' over his people, he possesses greater effective control than a great landowner 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 their 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 somctimes 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 magis trate, and degraded altogether from the place which they used formerly to hold in the village society. The per manent 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 at 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 everybody allows has occurred in Bengal and Bahar since they were placed under the immediate government of the Company. But that increase, I was told, might be accounted for by other causes, such as the maintenance of public peace, the perfect exemption from invasion and the march of hostile armies, and the knowledge that a man was tolerably sure of reaping the immediate fruits of his labour, and that the acquisition of wealth did not expose him to the malignant attention of Government. In Bahar at least, the Zemindars had not, even yet, any real confidence in the permanence of the rate, and in fact there had been in so many instances revisions, re-measurements, re-examinations, and surcharges, that some degree of doubt was not unnatural. In all these cases, indeed, fraud on the part of the original contractors had been alleged by Government, but, as some of the Bahar landlords had observed, they did not hear of any abatement made by the Company in those instances where the advantage of the bargain had been notoriously on their side, while, they also observed, so long as, in the recent measure adopted by Mr. Adam, the Government possessed and exercised the power of taxing the raw produce of the soil to any amount they pleased in its way to market, it was of no great advantage to the landholder that the direct landtax remained the same. On the whole what I heard confirmed my previous suspicion, that the famous measure of Mr. Law was taken on an imperfect acquaintance with the interests of India, and that, in the first instance at least, a decennial valuation, executed in a liberal spirit, would have avoided many inconveniences without losing any great advantage. Mr. Templer surprised me by what he said of the size of farms in this part of India. A wealthy "Ryut," or peasant, on one of the large Zemindarries, often holds as much as two hundred English acres. August 14.-I had this morning one christening, and Mr. Corrie had several. The child I christened was a very fine boy of two years old, the son of an invalid serjeant, who came, attended by his wife, a very pretty young half-caste, and by two of his comrades and one of their wives as sponsors. All these were very well-behaved decent old men; they stayed talking with me some time; they spoke well of India, but complained of the want of some occupation for their minds. A lending library, they said, would be a great comfort to their little society. I afterwards mentioned the subject to Mr. Templer, and, I hope, put him in the proper way to get one from Government, as well as a school for such of these poor men's children as, by any accident, were prevented from going to the Military Orphan Asylum. I understand that these old soldiers are in general men of very decent character, and though poor, brought up their families very decently. Some of them, however, are liable to sudden fits of drunkenness or infatuation, sometimes after many months of sobriety, during which nothing can keep them from brandy so long as they have either money, credit, or clothes. Monghyr is the station generally chosen by the more respectable characters, the reprobates preferring Moorshedabad. The Company give them the choice of residing either at Moorshedabad, Monghyr, Buxar, or Chunar, and they sometimes change repeatedly before they fix. In consequence of the intention I had expressed to have service to-morrow, Mr. Templer told me that the Baptists had given notice that their own meeting should not open, so that he said we should probably have all the Christian residents of the place and vicinity. The Baptist congregation in this neighbourhood was first collected by Mr. Chamberlain, an excellent man and most active missionary, but of very bitter sectarian principles, and entertaining an enmity to the Church of England almost beyond belief. He used to say that Martyn, Corrie, and Thomason, were greater enemies to God, and did more harm to his cause, than fifty stupid drunken "Padre inasmuch as their virtues, and popular conduct and preaching, upheld a system which he regarded as damnable, and which else must soon fall to the ground. The present preacher, Mr. Lesley, is a very mild, modest person, of a far better spirit, and scarcely less diligent among the Heathen than Chamberlain was. has. however, as yet, had small success, having been but a very short time in the country. Mr. J. Lushington, whom I found here, has been detained some days, owing to the dandees belonging to the horse-boat running away, a practice very common on this river, these people getting their wages in advance, and then making off with them. One of the party asked Mr. Lushington whether there had been any quarrel between the dandees and his servants, or himself; on his answering in the negative, it was observed that one fertile cause of boatmen's desertion was the ill-conduct of Europeans, who often stimulated them to do things which, in their weak and clumsy boats, were really dangerous, and, against all law or right, beat them when they refused or hesitated. A general officer was some time since heard to boast, that when his cook-boat lagged behind, he always fired at it with ball! I suppose he took care to fire high enough, but the bare fact of putting unarmed and helpless men in fear, in order to compel them to endeavour to do what | was, perhaps, beyond their power, was sufficiently unfeeling and detestable. They are, I suppose, such people as these who say that it is impossible to | inspire the Hindoos with any real attachment for their employers! I am pleased with all I see of Mr. Lushington, who is gentlemanly, modest, and studious; he is going to Nusseerabad, so that it is possible we may see a good deal of each other. August 15.-Mr. Corrie read prayers, and I preached and administered the Sacrament, in the hall of Dr. Tytler's (the garrison surgeon) house. There were, I should guess, sixty persons in the congregation, among whom were two or three natives. The Monghyr proselytes were very young persons, probably brought over by the Baptist missionaries; Mr. Lesley and the greater part of his flock attended, but did not stay the Sacrament. There were, however, between twenty and thirty communicants, all deeply impressed and attentive. In the evening I again preached to pretty nearly the same conHegregation. During this stay at Monghyr, I was advised by many old Indians to supply myself with spears to arm my servants with in our march. Colonel Francklin particularly told me that the precaution was both useful and necessary, and that such a show of resistance often saved lives as well as property. Monghyr, I was also told, furnished better and cheaper weapons of the kind than any I should meet with up the country: they are, indeed, cheap enough, since one of the best spears may be had complete for twenty anas. I have consequently purchased a stock, and my cabin looks like a museum of Eastern weapons, containing eight of the best sort for my own servants, and eight more for the Clashees who are to be engaged up the country. These last only cost fourteen anas each. This purchase gave me a fair opportunity of examining the fire-arms and other things which were brought for sale. My eye could certainly detect no fault in their construction, except that the wood of the stocks was slight, and the screws apparently weak and irregular. But their cheapness was extraordinary; a very pretty singlebarrelled fowling-piece may be had for twenty S. rupees, and pistols for sixteen the brace. Cattle swimming across the River - Brahmin Labourers-Patna-Bankipoor-GranaryHackeries- Dinapoor - Cantonment - Digah Farm - Chupra-Floating Shops- FortNative Christians-Schools-Curreem Musseeh-Varieties of Complexion. seemed, from a sand-bank in the river, and full of monstrous ant-hills, looking at a little distance like large hay-cocks. The peasant had just finished threshing his barley, and was busy burying it in the dry soil. A small shed, as usual, stood to watch where the straw with the grain in it had been collected. The high ground of Peer Puhar above Monghyr was still in sight. Just before we stopped. a very large crocodile swam close to the boat, and showed himself to the best advantage. Instead of being like those we had seen before, of a black or dusky colour, he was all over stripes of yellow and brownish black like the body of a wasp, with scales very visibly marked, and a row of small tubercles or prominences along the ridge of his back and tail. He must, I should think, have been about fifteen feet long, though under the circumstances in which 1 saw him, it was by no means easy to judge. My cabin was extremely in AUGUST 16.-There was no wind this morning till near twelve o'clock, but we had then just enough to help us out of the eddy of Monghyr and across the river to the other side, along which our boatmen had a painful day's tracking against a fierce stream. The Curruckpoor hills on the left hand continued to offer a very beautiful succession of prospects. A chain of marshy islets seemed to extend nearly across the river towards the end of our course, by the aid of which a large herd of cattle were crossing with their keepers. The latter, I conclude, had been ferried over the principal arm, but when I saw them they were wading and swimming alternately by the side of their charge, their long grey mantles wrapped round their heads, their spear-like staves in their hands, and, with loud clamour joined to that of their boys and dogs, keeping the convoy in its proper course. The scene was wild and interesting, and put me in mind of Bruce's account of the pas-fested with insects this evening, partisage of the Nile by the Abyssinian army. cularly with a large black beetle, which The bank at the foot of the hills seemed was very beautiful, having a splendid fertile and populous as well as beauti- mixture of jet, copper-colour, and emeful; that along which we proceeded is rald about it. I had also a pretty green very wretched, swampy, without trees, lizard, which I carefully avoided inand only two miserable villages. Seve- juring, knowing it to be an enemy to ral alligators rose as we went along, ants and cockroaches, both of which but I saw none basking on the many plagues are increasing, and unfortureedy islets and promontories, which, nately do not now seem to check each during the hot months, are said to be other. Yet I was a little perplexed their favourite resorts. Mr. Lushing-how the "honest man should have ton's budgerow kept up with my pin- found his way into my closet." nace extremely well, but the Corries were far behind. We moored for the night adjoining a field of barley, the first I had seen in India; the ground was recovered, as it August 17.-We had a fine breeze part of the day, and stood over to the other bank, which we found, as I had expected, really very pretty, a country of fine natural meadows, full of cattle, he believed the doctrine to be a gloss of Buddh, striking his staff with much anger on the ground at the name of the The Brahmin labourers lifted up his simple plough, took out the coulter, a large knife shaped like a horn, wiped and gave it to a boy, then lifted up the beam and yoke on his own shoulders, and trudged away with it. These Brahmins, I observe, all shave their heads except a tuft in the centre, a custom which not many Hindoos, I think, besides them observe. and interspersed with fields of barley, wheat, and Indian corn, and villages surrounded by noble trees, with the Curruckpoor hills forming a very in-heresiarch. teresting distance. If the palm-trees are now resting after their toil, and were away (but who would wish them their groups are very picturesque. The away?), the prospect would pretty close-ploughman, after unyoking his oxen, ly resemble some of the best parts of England. In the afternoon we rounded the point of the hills, and again found ourselves in a flat and uninteresting, though fruitful country. The last beautiful spot was a village under a grove of tall fruit-trees, among which were some fine | walnuts: some large boats were build- | ing on the turf beneath them, and the whole scene reminded me forcibly of a similar builder's yard which I had met with at Partenak in the Crimea. Many groups of men and boys sate angling, or with spears watching an opportunity to strike the fish, giving much additional beauty and liveliness to the scene. I have been much struck for some days by the great care with which the stock of fruit-trees in this country is kept up. I see everywhere young ones of even those kinds which are longest in coming to maturity, more particularly mangoes and the toddy or tarapalm (the last of which, I am told, must be from thirty to forty years old before it pays anything), planted and fenced in with care round most of the cottages, a circumstance which seems not only to prove the general security of property, but that the peasants have more assurance of their farms remaining in the occupation of themselves and their children than of late years has been felt in England. Having a good wind, we proceeded a little further before sunset; we passed a herd of cows swimming across a nullah about as wide as the Dee ten miles below Chester, the cowman supporting himself by the tail and hips of the strongest among them, and with a long staff guiding her in a proper direction across the stream. We soon after passed a similar convoy guided by a little boy, who, however, did not confine hiinself to one animal, but swam from one to another, turning them with his staff and his voice as he saw proper. So nearly aquatic are the habits of these people, from the warmth of the climate, their simple food, their nakedness, and their daily habits of religious ablution. I saw a very smartly-dressed and rather pretty young countrywoman down to the ghât at Monghyr to wash. She went in with her mantle wrapped round her with much decency and even modesty, till the river was breast high, then ducked under water for so long a time that I began to despair of her reappearance. This was at five o'clock in the morning, and she returned again at twelve to undergo the same process, both times walking home in her wet clothes without fear of catching cold. The ancient Greeks had, I am convinced, the same custom, since other come The village near which we brought-to for a short time in the evening belonged to Brahmins exclusively, who were ploughing the ground near us, with their strings floating over their naked shoulders; the ground was sown with rice, barley, and vetches, the one to succeed the other. Abdullah asked them to what caste of Brahmins they be-wise the idea of wet drapery would longed, and on being told they were pundits, inquired whether "a mixture of seeds was not forbidden in the Puranas ?" An old man answered with a good deal of warmth, that they were poor people and could not dispute, but hardly have occurred to their statuaries, or, at least, would not have been so common. We again brought-to about seven o'clock, by a field just ploughed ready for the rising inundation; we are now |