uth," (says this author,) "it would be almost cruelty to molest
this happy people; for in this district are the only vestiges of the
beauty, purity, piety, regularity, equity, and strictness of the ancient
Hindostan government. Here the property as well as the liberty of the
people are inviolate. Here no robberies are heard of, either public or
private. The traveller, either with or without merchandise, becomes the
immediate care of the government, which allots him guards, without any
expense, to conduct him from stage to stage; and these are accountable
for the safety and accommodation of his person and effects. At the end
of the first stage he is delivered over, with certain benevolent
formalities, to the guards of the next, who, after interrogating the
traveller as to the usage he had received in his journey, dismiss the
first guard with a written certificate of their behavior, and a receipt
for the traveller and his effects; which certificate and receipt are
returnable to the commanding officer of the first stage, who registers
the same, and regularly reports it to the rajah.

"In this form the traveller is passed through the country; and if he
only passes, he is not suffered to be at any expense for food,
accommodation, or carriage for his merchandise or baggage: but it is
otherwise, if he is permitted to make any residence in one place above
three days, unless occasioned by sickness, or any unavoidable accident.
If anything is lost in this district,--for instance, a bag of money or
other valuables,--the person who finds it hangs it upon the next tree,
and gives notice to the nearest _chowkey_, or place of guard, the
officer of which orders immediate publication of the same by beat of
_tomtom_, or drum."

These, my Lords, are the effects universally produced by the Hindoo
polity throughout that vast region, before it was distorted and put out
of frame by the barbarism of foreign conquests. Some choice, reserved
spots continued to flourish under it to the year 1756. Some remained
till Mr. Hastings obtained the means of utterly defacing them. Such was
the prospect of Benares under the happy government of Bulwant Sing.
Such was the happy state of the same Benares in the happy days of Cheyt
Sing, until, in the year 1781, Mr. Hastings introduced _his_ reform into
that country.

Having stated the general outline of the manners of the original people
of Hindostan, having stated the general principles of their policy,
w