a greater burthen to the
people. He will always take as long as he thinks he can with
impunity.'

'But do you not think that when people see a man adequately paid by
the Government they will the more readily complain of any attempt at
unauthorized exactions?'

'Not a bit, sir, as long as they see the same difficulties in the way
of prosecuting him to conviction. In the administration of civil
justice' (the old gentleman is a civil judge), 'you may occasionally
see your way, and understand what is doing; but in revenue and police
you never have seen it in India, and never will, I think. The
officers you employ will all add to their incomes by unauthorized
means; and the lower these incomes, the less their pretensions, and
the less the populace have to pay.'[11]

Notes:

1. January, 1836.

2. The old Anglo-Indian rose much earlier than his successor of the
present day commonly does.

3. For other popular explanations of the alleged decrease in
fertility of the soil, see _ante_, Chapter 27, where three
explanations are offered, namely, the eating of beef, the prevalence
of adultery, and the impiety of surveys.

4. The inapplicability of these observations of the author to the
present time is a good measure of the material progress of India
since his day. The Ganges Canal, the bridges over the Indus, Ganges,
and other great rivers, and numberless engineering works throughout
the empire, are permanent witnesses to the scientific superiority of
the ruling race. Buildings which can claim any high degree of
architectural excellence are, unfortunately, still rare, but the
public edifices of Bombay will not suffer by comparison with those of
most capital cities, and for some years past, considerable attention
has been paid to architecture as an art. A great architectural
experiment is in progress at the new official capital of Delhi
(1914).

5. The road is now an excellent one.

6. Parched gram, or chick-pea, is commonly used by Indian travellers
as a convenient and readily portable form of food. The 'brass jug'
lent to the author could be purified by fire after his use of it.

7. Growls of this kind must not be interpreted too literally. Any
village landholder, if encouraged, would grumble in the same strain.

8. This is the permanent difficulty of Indian revenue administration,
which no Government measures can seriously diminish.

9. The mission to Kabul, under Captain Alexander Burnes, was not
dispatched ti