research on the subjects introduced; nor do they claim to be dogmatic and final on the mysteries of either the manners or customs of the distant countries through which the steps of the author have led him. Their relation will not be found clothed in either mighty sentiments, beauteous description, or sublimity of language. The flowery fields of imagination have been avoided; and truth, simple truth, is the only thing throughout these fugitive pages at all laid claim to. If they cause but one more eye to be turned with any degree of interest towards India — neglected India, its people, general character, scenery etc., or add but one particle to the information of any whose thoughts are turned towards that country, then every object in these memoranda thus loosely thrown together will be fully secured.

The following lines of Horace may serve as the key-note of my thoughts and aspirations:

Si quid novisti rectius istis,
Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum."

"If a better system's thine,

Impart it freely, or make use of mine."

UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA

DESPOTIC GOVERNMENTS.

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CHAPTER I.

Despotic nature of Hindoo and Musalman governments of India-Unbridled extortion and rapacity detrimental to general welfare, and productive of distrust, falsehood, and poverty-Their debased religion and its effects-CasteInroads on prejudice and superstition-The custom of burying treasure-Fruitless search for it by two French adventurers.

"Obruat illud malè partum, malè retentum, malè gestum imperium."-Cicero.

"Perish that power which has been obtained by evil means, retained by similar practices, and which is administered as badly as it was acquired."

BOTH Hindoo and Musalman governments have ever been most despotic, arbitrary, and tyrannical; traces of which are everywhere observable, even to this very day throughout India. Of the differences existing between them, it may be remarked that the former, perhaps, are only slightly removed from the latter in the extreme ferocity and uncompromising superstition of their character. Indeed, Asiatic despotisms, it must be said, have ever been, and ever will be, the worst throughout the world. I am not prepared to say that to this cause alone is to be

TO VIMU

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PEN AND PENCIL SKETCHES.

attributed the primitive, rude and ignorant state in which nearly the whole native population of India remains at present, enveloped as they are by the most abjectly superstitious religion and a designing and debauched priesthood; but I do consider that the exercise over a people of such despotic power as Hindustan has been swayed with, must have invaded and necessarily destroyed property, or rendered it so insecure as to prevent its accumulation even by the exertions of so industrious a people as the Aborigines of India. Thus, continuous poverty engendered ignorance, and prevented both the increase and existence of knowledge. No general security of property or person was known to exist. No one thought it worth while to save wealth, when the sole ruler of it, and the lives of the possessors, was the sword of a tyrant, as rapacious of gold as he was ruthless of the means he used to obtain it.*

The oldest authentic and credible account which we have of Hindūstān, is probably that which was written by Megasthenes more than two thousand years ago, and preserved by Arran in his history of India. And it is perhaps not too much to say that throughout every department of government from that early date to the time of Mamood I., 1000 A.D., and from thence to 1205 A.D, the commencement * See note A in the Appendix.

of the Patan dynasty, down to the extinction of the Moguls, every transaction of power and office was tinted with the grossest cruelty and extortion.

Grinding and unprincipled rapacity on the one hand necessarily produced the most subtle cunning and servile submission on the other. Deception, falsehood, and distrust soon amalgamated, and became the innate disposition and character of a people who were no doubt formed and intended to hold as high and moral a situation in the world as any people who have ever existed. Yet they are, as they have been for ages, perhaps, the most ignorant, superstitious, and corrupt people under the sun. Their religion is much mixed up with their social and political economy, and no doubt contributes greatly to the stagnation of improvement throughout this vast country.

In the separation of the people into castes, and the rigid observance of absurd stereotyped regulations, may be traced another stumblingblock to general improvement and advancement in civilisation.

The nature of these castes naturally confines men within the limits of a partial set of ideas, thoughts, and wishes, as well as bounding their exertions. and labours to a most confined and contracted sphere of action. They are finally fettered, and

held fast by the marriage bond. A contract out of their caste is so strictly forbidden that a transgression subjects the party to expulsion and degradation-a loss of every social tie of communion amounting in extent to the prohibition of even touching the person. This is called losing caste, which can only be regained by the most painful self-mortification, on which subject I will touch by and bye.

As regards the females of a family, when the settlement of them in the same rank or caste is at all doubtful, infanticide has been, and even now is in many of the north-west districts, the inevitable consequence, causing a destruction of female children and disproportion of the sexes quite appalling to think of. It is true, I believe, that the possession of immense wealth may have in a few solitary instances made inroads in this circle of prejudices and superstition, and that the inferior have been allowed by marriage admittance into the higher grades of religious rank; but the chronicle of the innovation is most carefully treasured up, registered, and remembered. And no matter how the immediate families of the parties may ostensibly blend and mix together outwardly, yet within the secret chambers of their own houses, and amidst the celebration of their mystic festivals, the distinction is, though imperceptible, most religiously observed. These