and appropriate with impunity
the estates of the small proprietors in their neighbourhood.

_January_ 1, 1850.--Fourteen miles to Rae Bareilly, over a plain
with more than usual undulation, and the same doomuteea light soil,
tolerably cultivated, and well studded with trees of the finest kind.
The festoons of the bandha hang gracefully from the branches, with
their light green and yellow leaves, and scarlet flowers, in the dark
green foliage of the mango and mhowa trees in great abundance. I saw
them in no other, but they are sometimes said to be found in the
banyan, peepul, and other trees, with large leaves, though not in the
tamarind, babul, and other trees, with small leaves. I examined those
on the mango and mhowa trees, and they are the same in leaf and
flower, and are said to be the same in whatever tree found. Rae
Bareilly is in the estate of Shunkurpoor, belonging to Rana Benee
Madho, a large landholder. He resides at Shunkurpoor, ten miles from
this, and is strong, and not very scrupulous in the acquisition, by
fraud, violence, and collusion, of the lands of the small proprietors
in the neighbourhood. I asked Rajah Hunmunt Sing, of Dharoopoor, as
he was riding by my side, this morning, whether he was not a man of
bad character. He said, "No, by no means; he is a man of great
possessions, credit, and influence, and of good repute." "But does he
not rob smaller proprietors of their hereditary lands?" "If," replied
the Rajah, "you estimate men's character in Oude on this principle,
you will find hardly any landholder of any rank with a good one, for
they have all been long doing the same thing--all have been
augmenting their own estates by absorbing those of smaller
proprietors, by what you will call fraud, violence, and collusion,
but they are not thought the worse of for this by the Government or
its officers." Nothing could be more true. Men who augment their
estates in this way, purchase the acquiescence of temporary local
officers, either by gratuities, or promises of aid, in putting down
other powerful and refractory landholders; or they purchase the
patronage of Court favourites, who get their estates transferred to
the "Hozoor Tehseel," and their transgressions overlooked. Those who
augment their resources in this way, employ them in maintaining armed
bands, building forts, and purchasing cannon, to secure themselves in
the possession, and to resist the Government and its officers, who
might otherwise m