many of them, and
proceeded against them as Thugs by profession, under Act III. of
1848. His measures have been successfully followed up by Captain
Weston, his successor, and this crime has been greatly diminished in
Oude. It prevails still, however, more or less, in all parts of
India.

These Pausies of Oude generally form the worst part of the gangs of
refractory tallookdars in their indiscriminate plunder. They use the
bow and arrow expertly, and are said to be able to send an arrow
through a man at the distance of one hundred yards. There is no
species of theft or robbery in which they are not experienced and
skilful, and they increase and prosper in proportion as the disorders
in the country grow worse. They serve any refractory landholder, or
enterprising gang-robber, without wages, for the sake of the booty to
be acquired.

Many of the sipahees of the Mobarick Pultun, on detached duty with
the king's wakeel in attendance upon me, were this morning arrested,
while taking off the choppers from the houses of villages along the
road and around my camp, for fuel and fodder, in what they called the
"_usual way_." The best beams and rafters and the whole of the straw
were fast moving off to my camp; and when seized, the sipahees seemed
much surprised, and asked me what they were to do, as they had not
received any pay for six months, and the Government expected that
they would help themselves to straw and timber wherever they could
most conveniently find it. All were fined; but the hope to put a stop
to this intolerable evil, under the present system, is a vain one.
The evil has the acquiescence and encouragement of the Government and
its functionaries of all kinds and grades throughout the country. It
is distressing to witness every day such melancholy proofs of how
much is done that ought not to be done, and how much that ought to be
done is left undone, in so fine a country.

A want of sympathy or fellow-feeling between the governing and
governed is common in all parts of India, but in no part that I have
seen is it so marked as in Oude. The officers of the Government
delight in plundering the peasantry, and upon every local Governor
who kills a landholder of any mark, rewards and honours are instantly
bestowed, without the slightest inquiry as to the cause or mode. They
know that no inquiry will be made, and therefore kill them when they
can; no matter how, or for what cause. The great landholders would
kill th