In my ride this morning I asked the people of the villages through and near which we passed whether infanticide prevailed:  they told me that it prevailed amongst almost all the Rajpoot families of any rank in Oude; that very poor families of those classes retained their daughters, because they could get something for them from the families of lower grade, into which they married them; but that those who were too well off in the world to condescend to take money for their daughters from lower grades, and were obliged to incur heavy costs in marrying them into families of the same or higher grade, seldom allowed their infant daughters to live.

“It is strange,” I observed, “that men, who have to undergo such heavy penance for killing a cow, even by accident, should have to undergo none for the murder of their own children, nor to incur any odium among the circle of society in which they live—­not even among Brahmins and the ministers of their religion.”

“They do incur odium, and undergo penance,” said Rajah Bukhtawur Sing; “do they not?” said he to some Brahmins standing near.  They smiled, but hesitated to reply.  “They know they do,” said the Rajah, “but are afraid to tell the truth, for they and their families live in villages belonging to these proud Rajpoot landholders, and would be liable to be turned out of house and home were they to tell what they know.”  One of the Brahmins then said, “All this is true, sir; but after the murder of every infant the family considers itself to be an object of displeasure to the deity, and after the twelfth day they send for the family priest (Prohut), and, by suitable gratuities, obtain absolution.  This is necessary, whether the family be rich or poor; but when the absolution is given, nothing more is thought or said about the matter.  The Gour and other Rajpoots who can afford to unite their daughters in marriage to the sons of Chouhans, Byses, and other families of higher grade, though they cannot obtain theirs in return for their sons, commit less murders of this kind than others; but all the Rajpoot clans commit more or less of them.  Habit has reconciled them to it; but it appears very shocking to us Brahmins and all other classes.  They commonly bury the infants alive as soon as possible after their birth.  We, sir, are helpless, living as we do among such turbulent and pitiless landholders, and cannot presume to admonish or remonstrate:  our lives would not be safe for a moment were we to say anything, or seem to notice such crimes.”

I do not think that any landholder of this class, in the Bangur district, would feel much compunction for the commission of any crime that did not involve their expulsion from caste, or degradation in rank.  Great crimes do not involve these penalties:  they incur them only by small peccadillos, or offences deemed venal among other societies.  The Government of Oude, as it is at present constituted, will never be able to put down effectually the great crimes which now stain almost every acre of land in its dominions.  It is painful to pass over a country abounding so much in what the evil propensities of our nature incite men to do, when not duly restrained; and so little in what the good prompt us to perform and create, when duly protected and encouraged, under good government.