ear. His son, Surubjeet
Sing, is engaged in plunder, and, it is said, with his father's
connivance and encouragement, though he pretends to be acting in
disobedience of his orders. The object is, to augment their estate,
and intimidate the Government and its officers by gangs of ruffians,
whom they can maintain only by plunder and malversation. The greater
part of the lands, comprised in this estate of Ramnuggur Dhumeereea,
of which Rajah Gorbuksh is now the local governor, are hereditary
possessions which have been held by his family for many generations.
A part has been recently seized from weaker neighbours, and added to
them. The rest are merely under him as the governor or public
officer, intrusted with the collection of the revenue and the
management of the police.

_December_ 4, 1849.--Gunesh Gunge, _alias_ Byram-ghat, on the right
bank of the river Ghagra, distance about twelve miles. The country
well cultivated, and studded with good groves of mango and other
trees. We passed through and close to several villages, whose houses
are nothing but mud walls, without a thatched or tiled roof to one in
twenty. The people say there is no security in them from the King's
troops and the passies, a large class of men in Oude, who are village
watchmen but inveterate thieves and robbers, when not employed as
such. All refractory landholders hire a body of passies to fight for
them, as they pay themselves out of the plunder, and cost little to
their employers. They are all armed with bows and arrows, and are
very formidable at night. They and their refractory employers keep
the country in a perpetual state of disorder; and, though they do not
prevent the cultivation of the land, they prevent the village and
hamlets from being occupied by anybody who has anything to lose, and
no strong local ties to restrain him.

The town of Ramnuggur, in which Gorbuksh resides occasionally, is on
the road some five miles from the river. It has a good many houses,
but all are of the same wretched description; mud walls, with
invisible coverings or no coverings at all; no signs of domestic
peace or happiness; but nothing can exceed the richness and variety
of the crops in and around Ramnuggur. It is a fine garden, and would
soon be beautiful, were life and property better secured, and some
signs of domestic comfort created. The ruined state of the houses in
this town and in the villages along the road, is, in part, owing to
the system whic