verage yield, and its average requirements, with an
accuracy that the most painstaking English official can seldom hope to
attain to. They had a strong interest in representing things to be worse
than they were; for the more intense the scarcity, the greater the merit
in collecting the land-tax. Every consultation is filled with their
apprehensions and highly-coloured accounts of the public distress; but
it does not appear that the conviction entered the minds of the Council
during the previous winter months, that the question was not so much one
of revenue as of depopulation." In fact, the local officers had cried
"Wolf!" too often. Government was slow to believe them, and announced
that nothing better could be expected than the adoption of a generous
policy toward those landholders whom the loss of harvest had rendered
unable to pay their land-tax. But very few indulgences were granted,
and the tax was not diminished, but on the contrary was, in the month
of April, 1770, increased by ten per cent for the following year. The
character of the Bengali people must also be taken into the account in
explaining this strange action on the part of the government.

"From the first appearance of Lower Bengal in history, its inhabitants
have been reticent, self-contained, distrustful of foreign observation,
in a degree without parallel among other equally civilized nations. The
cause of this taciturnity will afterwards be clearly explained; but no
one who is acquainted either with the past experiences or the present
condition of the people can be ignorant of its results. Local officials
may write alarming reports, but their apprehensions seem to be
contradicted by the apparent quiet that prevails. Outward, palpable
proofs of suffering are often wholly wanting; and even when, as in 1770,
such proofs abound, there is generally no lack of evidence on the other
side. The Bengali bears existence with a composure that neither accident
nor chance can ruffle. He becomes silently rich or uncomplainingly poor.
The emotional part of his nature is in strict subjection, his resentment
enduring but unspoken, his gratitude of the sort that silently descends
from generation to generation. The passion for privacy reaches its
climax in the domestic relations. An outer apartment, in even the
humblest households, is set apart for strangers and the transaction
of business, but everything behind it is a mystery. The most intimate
friend does not ventur