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 being able to give us any dinner at all.  At last we managed to get a tent, closed at every crevice to keep out the dust, for a cook-room; and they were thus able to preserve their master’s credit, which, no doubt, according to their notions, depended altogether on the quality of his dinner.

Notes: 

1.  The place is a small town in the Gurgaon District, Panjab.

2.  The term ‘uncovenanted’ may require explanation for readers not familiar with the details of Indian administration.  The Civil Service of India, commonly called Indian Civil Service, which supplies most of the higher administrative and judicial officers, used to be known as the Covenanted service, because its members sign a covenant with the Secretary of State.  All the other departmental services—­Public Works, Postal and the rest—­were grouped together as uncovenanted.  In accordance with the Report of the Public Service Commission (1886-7) the terms ‘covenanted’ and ‘uncovenanted’ have been disused.