ment by the assurance
of impunity thereby given to criminals. The only remedy for all this
evil is to fill up the great gulf between the magistrate and Thanadar
by officers who shall be to him what I have described the patrol
officers to be to the collectors of customs, at once the _tapis_ of
Prince Husain, and the _telescope_ of Prince Ali--a medium that will
enable him to be everywhere, and see everything.[20] And why is this
remedy not applied? Simply and solely because such appointments would
be given to the uncovenanted, and might tend indirectly to diminish
the appointments open to the covenanted servants of the company.
Young gentlemen of the Civil Service are supposed to be doing the
duties which would be assigned to such officers, while they are at
school as assistants to magistrates and collectors; and were this
great gulf filled up by efficient covenanted officers, they would
have no school to go to. There is no doubt some truth in this; but
the welfare of a whole people should not be sacrificed to keep this
school or play-ground open exclusively for them; let them act for a
time as they would unwillingly do with the uncovenanted, and they
will learn much more than if they occupied the ground exclusively and
acted alone--they will be always with people ready and willing to
tell them the real state of things; whereas, at present, they are
always with those who studiously conceal it from them.[21]

It is a common practice with Thanadars all over the country to
connive at the residence within their jurisdiction of gangs of
robbers, on the condition that they shall not rob within those
limits, and shall give them a share of what they bring back from
their distant expeditions.

They [_scil._ the gangs] go out ostensibly in search of service, on
the termination of the rains of one season in October, and return
before the commencement of the next in June; but their vocation is
always well known to the police, and to all the people of their
neighbourhood, and very often to the magistrates themselves, who
could, if they would, secure them on their return with their booty;
but this would not secure their conviction unless the proprietors
could be discovered, which they scarcely ever could. Were the police
officers to seize them, they would be all finally acquitted and
released by the judges--the magistrate would get into disrepute with
his superiors, by the number of acquittals compared with convictions
exhibited i