ree from
tigers.

I had a long talk with the Brahmin communities of two of these
villages, who had been lately invited back from the Shajehanpoor
district, by Krishun Sahae, and resettled on their lands. They are a
mild, sensible, and most respectable body, whom a sensible ruler
would do all in his power to protect and encourage; but these are the
class; of landholders and cultivators whom the reckless governors of
districts, under the Oude Government, most grievously oppress. They
told me--"that nothing could be better than the administration of the
Shajehanpoor district by the present collector and magistrate, Mr.
Buller, whom all classes loved and respected; that the whole surface
of the country was under tillage, and the poorest had as much
protection as the highest in the land; that the whole district was,
indeed, a garden." "But the returns, are they equal to those from
your lands in Oude?"--"Nothing like it, sir; they are not half as
good; nor can the cultivator afford to pay half the rate that we pay
when left to till our lands in peace." "And why is this?"--"Because,
sir, ours is sometimes left waste to recover its powers, as you now
see all the land around you, while theirs has no rest" "But do they
not alternate their crops, to relieve the soil?"--"Yes, sir, but this
is not enough: ours receive manure from the herds of cattle and deer
that graze upon it while fallow: and we have greater stores of manure
than they have, to throw over it when we return and resume our
labours. We alternate our crops, at the same time, as much as they
do; and plough and cross-plough our lands more." "And where would you
rather live--there, protected as the people are from all violence, or
here, exposed as you are to all manner of outrage and extortion."--
"We would rather live here, sir, if we could; and we were glad to
come back." "And why? There the landholders and cultivators are sure
that no man will be permitted to exact a higher rate of rent or
revenue than that which they voluntarily bind themselves to pay
during the period of a long lease; while here you are never sure that
the terms of your lease will be respected for a single season."--
"That is all true, sir, but we cannot understand the '_aen_ and
_kanoon_' (the rules and regulations), nor should we ever do so; for
we found that our relations, who had been settled there for many
generations, were just as ignorant of them as ourselves. Your Courts
of justice (adawlut