The old Major Capt[=a]n was a curious character.  The government of Nepaul is purely military.  All executive and judicial functions are carried on by military officers.  After serving a certain time in the army, they get rewarded for good service by being appointed to the executive charge of a district.  So far as I could make out, they seem to farm the revenue much as is done in Turkey.  They must send in so much to the Treasury, and anything over they keep for themselves.  Their administration of justice is rough and ready.  Fines, corporal punishment, and in the case of heinous crimes, mutilation and death are their penalties.  There is a tax of kind on all produce, and licenses to cut timber bring in a large revenue.  A protective tariff is levied on all goods or produce passing the frontier from British territory, and no European is allowed to travel in the country, or to settle and trade there.  In the lower valleys there are magnificent stretches of land suitable for indigo, tea, rice, and other crops.  The streams are numerous, moisture is plentiful, the soil is fertile, and the slopes of the hills are covered with splendid timber, a great quantity of which is cut and floated down the Gunduch, Bagmuttee, Koosee, and other streams during the rainy season.  It is used principally for beams, rafters, and railway sleepers.

The people are jealous of intrusion and suspicious of strangers, but as I was with an official, they generally came out in great numbers to gaze as we passed through a village.  The country does not seem so thickly populated as in our territory, and the cultivators had a more well-to-do look.  They possess vast numbers of cattle.  The houses have conical roofs, and great quadrangular sheds, roofed with a flat covering of thatch, are erected all round the houses, for the protection of the cattle at night.  The taxes must weigh heavily on the population.  The executive officer, when he gets charge of a district, removes all the subordinates who have been acting under his predecessor.  When I asked the old Major if this would not interfere with the efficient administration of justice, and the smooth working of his revenue and executive functions, he gave a funny leer, almost a wink, and said it was much more satisfactory to have men of your own working under you, the fact being, that with his own men he could more securely wring from the ryots the uttermost farthing they could pay, and was more certain of getting his own share of the spoil.

With practically irresponsible power, and only answerable directly to his immediate military superior, an unscrupulous man may harry and harass a district pretty much as he chooses.  Our old Major seemed to be civil and lenient, but in some districts the exactions and extortions of the rulers have driven many of the hard-working Nepaulese over the border into our territory.  Our landholders or Zemindars, having vast areas of untilled land, are only too glad to encourage this