to entertain the smallest doubt:--"and thus," he triumphantly concludes,
"in twenty or thirty years, the whole of the debt would be liquidated;
some of the most oppressive taxes might be immediately abolished, and
others gradually relinquished; provisions would become cheaper, and the
people be rendered happy, and grateful to the government."

"When in Hindustan," says the Khan, "I had heard, like millions of
others, of something in connexion with the Feringhi rulers, called
_Company_; but no one knew whether this was a man, or a medicine, or a
weapon, or a horse, or a ship, or any thing else. The most prevalent
notion was, that it was an old woman; but as the oldest among us, and
their fathers before them, had always heard it spoken of in exactly the
same terms, they were further puzzled to account for her preternatural
longevity." A well-directed course of enquiry in England, speedily
enabled the Khan to unravel the mystery; and he has enlightened his
countrymen with full details on the composition of the venerable Begum,
with the Court of Directors, the Board of Control, &c.; but in the
prosecution of these researches, he was surprised by finding that
_Company_ was so far from being one and indivisible, that _Companies_
"exist by thousands for multifarious objects--many even for speculation
in human life. The most recent is the Victoria, composed of twelve
directors, and other officers. A man puts a value on his life, and on
this sum they put a per centage, varying according to his age and state
of health, which he pays, and when he dies his heirs receive the money.
People of the middle classes generally resort to this method of
providing, by small annual contributions, for the support of their
families after their decease--and consequently the man's own relations
often rejoice when he dies, while strangers (the Insurance Company)
grieve."

On the important subject of the domestic usages and manners of the
English, the Khan enters less at length than might have been expected.
Of country life, indeed, from which alone correct ideas on such subjects
can be derived, he saw absolutely nothing, his knowledge of the country
being apparently limited to the prospect from the windows of a railway
carriage; and his acquaintance with London manners was drawn more from
ballrooms and crowded soirees, than from the private circles of family
reunions. With these limited opportunities of observation, his remarks
on the mass of the