their progress is generally marked by the smoaking ruins of villages, the shrieks of women, and the groans of their mutilated husbands. At times they wallow in abundance, while at others they cannot procure the common necessaries of life; and their horses, which are trained to undergo the same privations as their masters, often receive a stimulus of opium when impelled to uncommon exertion. Night and the middle of the day are dedicated to repose; and recent experience has shown us that they may be surprised with effect at such hours. Fighting is not their object, they have seldom been known to resist the attack even of an inferior enemy; if pursued, they make marches of extraordinary length, and if they should happen to be overtaken, they disperse, and re-assemble at an appointed rendezvous; or if followed into their country, they immediately retire to their respective homes. Their wealth and their families are scattered over that mountainous tract of country which borders the Nerbudda to the north. They find protection either in castles belonging to themselves, or from those powers with whom they are either openly or secretly connected. They can scarcely be said to present any point of attack, and the defeat or destruction of any particular chief, would only effect the ruin of an individual, without removing the evil of a system equally inveterate in its nature, and extensive in its influence.

The most powerful of the Pindarie chiefs are Kurreem Khan, Cheetoo (or Seetoo, as he is often

called) and Dost Mohummud. There are however, several subordinate chiefs, who are the commanders of dhurras, or tribes, and acknowledge a tacit obedience to one or other of the three great leaders before mentioned.

Kurreem Khan is descended from an ancient Mahomedan family; his early youth was spent in the service of Holkar, which he subsequently quitted for that of Dowlut Row Scindiah; his character and enterprising spirit soon increased the number of his adherents, he enlarged his possessions, partly by grants from Scindiah, and partly by usurpations from the rajah of Berar and nabob of Bhopaul, whose dominions he alternately invaded and ravaged. He possessed himself of several fortresses, and, at the termination of the Mahratta war, his power was such as to excite the fears and jealousy of Scindiah, who caused him to be treacherously seized and confined at Gwalior. Here he lingered some years in prison; after which, having obtained his release by the payment of a ransom, he resumed his former habits, returned amongst his companions, and, in a short time, became as powerful as he had been before. Scindiah, unable to crush him by open force, had once more recourse to treachery, and taking advantage of a quarrel between Kurreem and Seetoo, assisted the latter, who, having overthrown Kurreem in a pitched battle, compelled him to fly for refuge to Ameer Khan, who made him over to Toolsa Bhye, the widow regent of the Holkar family. Kurreem has since escaped, or rather been liberated,

liberated, and is now at the head of his dhurrah, which amounts to about five thousand horse, and is cantoned near Barseim, in Bhopaul. It is rumoured that he is about to be reconciled to Scindiah; but after what has passed, they can have no confidence in each other.

Cheetoo, who is at present the greatest of all the Pindarie chiefs, enjoys the confidence and favour of Scindiah. He has lately acquired extensive influence; the numbers of his followers daily continue to increase, and, by a late account, he was said to be at the head of twenty thousand horse, a small corps of bad infantry, and a train of twenty ill served guns. He possesses the forts and districts of Sutwass, which run along the northern branch of the Nerbudda to the south of Oujein, and nearly opposite Hindia.

Dost Mohummud, the son of Heeroo, is entitled from his birth to hold the chief place over all the Pindarie tribes. This person is, however, inferior to Cheetoo, and the troops subject to his command may amount to between ten and twelve thousand horse, a small body of infantry, and a few guns. A party of the adherents of Dost Mohummud, commanded by his brother, Wausil Khan, invaded our provinces, and there is every reason to believe, that they were accompanied by some of the troops of Scindiah. Their camp is at Bagrode, a short distance to the north-east of Bilseih, a district in Bhopaul.

Their chief

that of Scindiah. leader is a person named Kawder Buksh; those of inferior note Tookoo and Sahib Khan; and their united strength may be computed at nearly five thousand horse.. They are generally cantoned in the vicinity of Kunool and Sohundra.

The Pindaries may probably amount altogether to between thirty and forty thousand horse; but in a community so subject to constant fluctuations, it is impossible to form any accurate idea of their number, which must vary from day to day according to the caprice of individuals, and the condition of the adjoining countries. Throughout the greater part of the territories of the native powers in central India, the husbandman is seldom permitted to reap the fruits of his labours; his fields are laid waste, his cottage reduced to ashes, and he has no alternative, but that of joining the standard of some lawless chief. Thus the numbers of the Pindaries may be said to increase in the same ratio, as the means of subsistence diminish; hunger goads them on to the work of destruction, and they rejoice in anticipation of the spoils of wealthy countries. Were they permitted to continue their merciless depredations without molestation, the peninsula of India would in time become a desert, and the few inhabitants that survived the general wreck, a band of savage and licentious robbers. The pastoral tribes of Arabia and Turkey, although sufficiently prone to pillage, where an occasion may offer, are not impelled 2K 2

by

by such motives of imperious necessity, as the predatory horse of Hindostan; their slender numbers cover extensive countries, and when their flocks have exhausted the pasture of one plain, they move with their families into another. The Pindaries are, on the contrary, confined to a tract of waste land which has become the general rendezvous of every vagabond and outlaw, and whence they issue in desperate bands, in search of the necessaries of life. Some analogy may at first appear to exist between their usages and those of the early Mahrattas under Sevajee, but on reflection we shall discover an essential difference in many important points. The adherents of Sevajee were warmed by a strong patriotic feeling, they were all of the same religion and country, and were in fact the long oppressed inhabitants of an ancient kingdom, recovering their rights by the expulsion of a depraved and declining government of strangers. The Pindaries are a mere collection of vagrants from various countries and of different castes and religion, brought together from an inability of otherwise procuring the means of subsistence, divided amongst themselves, and ready at all times to desert their leaders, and enter the service of any prince or state who may support them.

The dominions of our allies have ever since the year 1811, been subject to their incursions. In 1814 they entered the province of Bahar, and threatened Bengal; and in the two following years invaded the British territories

under Fort St. George. Passing with the rapidity of lightning through the country of the Nizam, they suddenly broke in upon the defenceless district of Guntoor, and in an instant spread themselves over the face of the country, every where committing the most shocking and wanton atrocities. In 1816 they returned with redoubled numbers, and extending themselves from the coast of the Conkan to that of Orissa, threw the whole southern part of the peninsula into a state of alarm. They again passed without difficulty and without opposition, through the dominions of our allies the Peishwah and the Nizam; carried fire and sword almost from one end to the other of the district of Ganjam, and returned home, laden with the spoil, and stained with the blood of our subjects. In this last expedition, however, several parties of them were overtaken, and we have the satisfaction to know that they were unable to contend against the Company's troops. The success of the troops under majors Lushington, Macdoual, and Smith, and of the small detachment of sepoys, under the brave lieutenant Borthwick, in the southern part of India, and the equally brilliant exploits of several officers of the Bengal army, must have a salutary influence in checking the boldness of the Pindaries, give confidence to our own troops, and convince the native powers that we still preserve unsullied, our accustomed superiority in arms.

CONDUCT

CONDUCT OF THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT AT VENICE.

reciprocation of slavery, through every link of the chain which binds empire together. As a

North of Italy.)

We are told that on Louis 14th expressing, when a child, his admiration at the despotic power possessed by the Turkish sultans, one of his courtiers had the honesty to draw his attention to the number of those who had perished by the bowstring. But it is a vulgar view of the subject to imagine that absolute princes are subjected to no heavier penalty. A miserable end is bad, but a miserable life is yet worse. I call his a miserable life, who is deprived of the exercise of freewill, while he is seated beneath the shadow of power. Amongst the strange contradictions which are to be found in despotic go. vernments, the theory and practice of which are generally at variance, this is, I believe, one of the most ordinary. I do not, however, mean to say that there have not existed in different ages and different countries absolute monarchs of extraordinary mind and talents, who have been able to guide or stem opinion, and who have really reigned; but I speak of what I believe to be the case in a great majority of instances. This is easily accounted for, since despotism cannot rest upon its own base. Despotic monarchs, therefore, seek as narrow a one for it as possible, and plant it (where they do not find this done to their hand) upon the prejudices of the people. Hence in such states there is a constant

more

established usages than the emperors of China and Morocco? The emperor of China may indeed cane his mandarins, and the emperor of Morocco may behead his people at pleasure; but should either attempt any liberal or useful reform, he would be instantly hurled from his throne. We may say that all monarchy is built upon opinion. Constitutional kings in mixed monarchies, which are rationally constituted, generally speaking have to defer to the enlightened part of the public. Absolute monarchs are usually the tools of the ignorant and hypocritical. To a European instance; the emperor of Austria is sometimes stigmatized in Italy as a wayward tyrant, at once foolish and faithless, professing great religion and morality, and violating, in practice, every precept of God and man. The following notice may serve to show how far these accusations are founded in truth, and how far he is a willing instrument in perpetrating the mischief which is attributed to him. The whole of Italy rung with the gracious professions which he made to his new subjects on visiting his Italian states; of his promise to abolish provincial custom-houses, to diminish the burthens under which his subjects were groaning, &c. &c. &c. Princes, however, too often find a dispensation from these sort of promises in the necessities of the state, and the cir cumstances of the times.

We will

will therefore pass by these and their non-performance, and look to others of a different description, for the violation of which it would be difficult to find other excuse than that which serves as a text to my letter.

When the emperor visited Venice in 1815, he inspected in person all the public institutions, churches, hospitals, and prisons. On visiting the prison of the Riva degli Schiavoni, the keeper informed him of whatever was interesting in the history of those confined in it, or the immediate cause of their imprisonment. Amongst others he pointed out two boys, the eldest of whom was not above fifteen years old, and who, by the French laws, which remained in force, had been sentenced to five years imprisonment for stealing some fruit, observing that two years of that period had already elapsed; and he ventured to suggest, in a case where the punish ment was so evidently disproportioned to the offence, his imperial majesty would find a happy occasion for exercising his mercy. He made the reply, which he vouchsafed to every petition which was presented him, of sarà fatto; but never redeemed his promise, either in this or in the innumerable other occasions, where he had pledged it, and always in the same form of words. During his six weeks stay at Venice, he was positively besieged by suppliants, and one of those about him has reported, that the number of their petitions amounted to 40,000; all which were received with the invariable an

swer of sarà fatto, yet I have been assured, that no instances is known of a single promise having been fulfilled. This statement, though made by one whose evidence would appear unexceptionable, must, I think, when tried by arithmetic, be considered as exaggerated; for you will observe that, allowing this imperial assurance-machine to have been at work for only twelve hours out of the four-and-twenty, it would have delivered about a lie a second, a power that appears almost incredible. But allowing this statement to be overcharged, it is universally agreed that numerous petitions were graciously received, and compliance promised, but in no one known instance performed.

Are we to attribute this conduct to forgetfulness-to indifference? I have, without affectation, too good an opinion of the emperor's intentions, to accuse him of what may be considered as crimes in a sovereign. All is to be attributed to his not being a free agent; but if a doubt could remain on this subject, the following anecdote will, I think, remove it:

An officer who had, by his services, arrived at the rank of captain in the French navy, but who had only been able to obtain a lieutenant's commission in the Austrian service, on the Imperialists taking possession of Venice, petitioned the emperor to be re-instated in his original rank. His prayer was backed by the commandant of the Austrian marine, who confirmed the statement of his claims, and strongly

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