" The best beams and rafters and the whole of the straw
were fast moving off to my camp; and when seized, the sipahees seemed
much surprised, and asked me what they were to do, as they had not
received any pay for six months, and the Government expected that
they would help themselves to straw and timber wherever they could
most conveniently find it. All were fined; but the hope to put a stop
to this intolerable evil, under the present system, is a vain one.
The evil has the acquiescence and encouragement of the Government and
its functionaries of all kinds and grades throughout the country. It
is distressing to witness every day such melancholy proofs of how
much is done that ought not to be done, and how much that ought to be
done is left undone, in so fine a country.
A want of sympathy or fellow-feeling between the governing and
governed is common in all parts of India, but in no part that I have
seen is it so marked as in Oude. The officers of the Government
delight in plundering the peasantry, and upon every local Governor
who kills a landholder of any mark, rewards and honours are instantly
bestowed, without the slightest inquiry as to the cause or mode. They
know that no inquiry will be made, and therefore kill them when they
can; no matter how, or for what cause. The great landholders would
kill the local Governors with just as little scruple, did they not
fear that it might make the British Government interpose and aid in
the pursuit after them.
Pages:
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488