ses), they and the countries they govern retrograde. No sovereign
in India, sir, that has any regard for himself or his country, can
with safety sit down and say that _his belly is full_ (that he has no
further ambition of conquest): he must go on to the last.'"*

[* The Rajah's reasoning was drawn from the practice in Oude, of
seizing upon the possessions of weaker neighbours, by means of gangs
of robbers. The man who does this, becomes the slave of his gangs, as
the imperial robber, who seizes upon smaller states by means of his
victorious armies, becomes their slave, and, ultimately, their
victim, The history of India is nothing more than the biography of
such men, and the Rajah has read no other.]

The poor belted attendant of Chotee Sing was confounded with the
logic and eloquence of the old Rajah, and said nothing more; and
Chotee Sing himself kept quietly behind on his horse, with his ears
well wrapped up in warm cloth, as the morning was very cold, and he
was not well. He looked very grave, and evidently thought the Rajah
had outlived his understanding. But the fact is that the Rajah has,
by his influence at Court, taken all the lands held by his two elder
nephews, Rughbur Sing and Ramadeen, and made them over to their
youngest brother, Maun Sing, whom he has adopted, made his heir, and
the head of the family. He has, in consequence, for the present a
strong fellow-feeling with Lonee Sing; and, in all this oration at
least, "his wishes were father to his thoughts."

The sharpest retort that I remember ever having had myself was given
to me by a sturdy and honest old landholder of the middle class, whom
I had known for a quarter of a century on the bank of the Nerbudda,
in 1843. During the insurrection in the Saugor and Nerbudda
territories, which commenced in 1842, I was sent down by the
Governor-General Lord Ellenborough to ascertain if possible the
causes which had led to it. I conversed freely with the landholders,
and people of all classes in the valley, who had been plundered by
the landed aristocracy of the jungles on the borders, and had one
afternoon some fifty in my tent seated on the carpet. After a good
deal of talk about the depredations of the jungle barons upon the
people of the cultivated plains, and remonstrance at the want of
support on their part to the Government officers, I said to Umrao
Sing, one of the most sturdy and honest among them, "Why did you
withhold from the local officers the i