ne of the gang
ran off to the magistrate at Sagar, with whom he had before been
acquainted;[6] and he sent him back with a small party, and a letter
to the Datiya Raja requesting that he would get the box of jewels for
the poor merchant. The party took the precaution of searching the
house of the thieves before they delivered the letter to their friend
the minister, and by this means recovered about half the jewels,
which amounted in all to about seven thousand rupees. The merchant
was agreeably surprised when he got back so much of his property
through the magistrate of Mathura, and confirmed the statement of the
thief regarding the dispute with the custom-house officer which
enabled them to discover the value of the box.

Should Government by and by extend the System that obtains in this
single line to the Customs all over India they may greatly augment
their revenue without any injury, and with but little necessary loss
and inconvenience to merchants. The object of all just taxation is to
make the subjects contribute to the public burthen in proportion to
their means, and with as little loss and inconvenience to themselves
as possible. The people who reside west of this line enjoy all their
salt, cotton, and other articles which are taxed on crossing the line
without the payment of any duties, while those to the east of it are
obliged to pay. It is, therefore, not a just line. The advantages
are, first, that it interposes a body of most efficient officers
between the mass of harpies and the heads of the department, who now
virtually superintend the whole System, whereas they used formerly to
do so merely ostensibly. They are at once the _tapis_ of Prince
Husain and the telescope of Prince Ali; they enable the heads of
departments to be everywhere and see everything, whereas before they
were nowhere and saw nothing.[7] Secondly, it makes the great staple
articles of general consumption alone liable to the payment of
duties, and thereby does away in a great measure with the odious
right of search.

At Kosi our friend, Charles Fraser, left us to proceed through
Mathura to Agra. He is a very worthy man and excellent public
officer, one of those whom one always meets again with pleasure, and
of whose society one never tires. Mr. Wilmot, the Collector of
Customs, and Mr. Wright, one of the patrol officers, came to dine
with us. The wind blew so hard all day that the cook and khansaman
(butler) were long in despair of be