classes of India. Under native
governments a merchant's books were appealed to as 'holy writ', and
the confidence in them has certainly not diminished under our rule.
There have been instances of their being seized by the magistrate,
and subjected to the inspection of the officers of his court. No
officer of a native government ventured to seize them; the merchant
was required to produce them as proof of particular entries, and,
while the officers of government did no more, there was no danger of
false accounts.

An instance of deliberate fraud or falsehood among native merchants
of respectable station in society is extremely rare. Among the many
hundreds of bills I have had to take from them for private
remittances, I have never had one dishonoured, or the payment upon
one delayed beyond the day specified; nor do I recollect ever hearing
of one who had. They are so careful not to speculate beyond their
means, that an instance of failure is extremely rare among them. No
one ever in India hears of families reduced to ruin or distress by
the failure of merchants or bankers; though here, as in all other
countries advanced in the arts, a vast number of families subsist
upon the interest of money employed by them.[27]

There is no class of men more interested in the stability of our rule
in India than this of the respectable merchants; nor is there any
upon whom the welfare of our Government and that of the people more
depend. Frugal, first upon principle, that they may not in their
expenditure encroach upon their capitals, they become so by habit;
and when they advance in life they lay out their accumulated wealth
in the formation of those works which shall secure for them, from
generation to generation, the blessings of the people of the towns in
which they have resided, and those of the country around. It would
not be too much to say that one-half of the great works which
embellish and enrich the face of India, in tanks, groves, wells,
temples, &c., have been formed by this class of the people solely
with the view of securing the blessings of mankind by contributing to
their happiness in solid and permanent works.[28] 'The man who has
left behind him great works in temples, bridges, reservoirs, and
caravanserais for the public good, does not die,' says Shaikh
Sadi,[29] the greatest of Eastern poets, whose works are more read
and loved than those of any other uninspired man that has ever
written, not excepting our own