for the
tributes with the revenue office in money, and collecting them in kind
at the rate fixed by law, would by the sales gain a profit of 400 or
500 per cent; at the same time the native, by the mere circumstance
of then paying in kind, would have paid the tribute corresponding to
five or six years in a single one, without, on that account, having
freed himself from the same charge in the following seasons.

[No check on extortion.] When the extortionate acts as these are
practised, to what lengths may it not be expected the other excesses
and abuses of authority are carried? To the above it ought moreover
to be added, that the provincial magistrates have no lieutenants,
and are unprovided with any other auxiliaries in the administration
of justice, except an accompanying witness and a native director;
that the scrutinies of their accounts, to which they formerly were
subject, are now abolished, and, in short, that they have no check
upon them, or indeed any other persons to bear testimony to their
irregularities, except the friendless and miserable victims of their
despotism and avarice.

Notwithstanding, however, what is above stated, it sometimes happens
that a magistrate is to be met with, distinguished from the rest by
his prudence and good conduct; but this is a miracle, for by the very
circumstance of his being allowed to trade, he is placed in a situation
to abuse the wide powers confided to him, and preferably to attend
to his personal interests; in fact, if the principle is in itself
defective, it must naturally be expected the consequences will be
equally baneful. The lamentable abuses here noticed are but too true,
as well as many others passed over in silence; and the worst of all
is, that there is no hope of remedying them thoroughly, unless the
present system of interior administration is altogether changed. In
vain would it be to allege the possibility of removing the evil by the
timely and energetic interposition of the protector of the natives;
for although this office is in itself highly respectable, it cannot
in any way reach the multitude of excesses committed, and much less
prevent them; not only because the minister who exercises it resides
in the city, where complaints are seldom brought in, unless they come
through the channel of the parish curates; but also on account of the
difficulty of fully establishing the charges against the magistrates,
in the way the natives are at present depress