our authorities, influenced at once by
religious liberalism or indifference, and by deference to Hindu feeling,
accepted these conditions. The first stipulation caused no trouble, but
the force of circumstances has led to the violation of the second. When
there were no European troops in the Province, and the only Englishmen
were civil officials, officers of native regiments, and a few casual
travellers, the prohibition of beef caused little inconvenience; but a
large influx of English people, soldiers and others, made the observance
of the stipulation impracticable. For a time it was violated, and the
authorities professed to know nothing about it; but when Nynee Tal
became a great summer resort, and English soldiers were located at it,
beef became a well-nigh indispensable article of food, cows and bullocks
were killed, and the breach in the treaty by which the country was ceded
to us became manifest to all. It is said that when the high-caste
officials protested against this outrage on the Hindu religion, an
English official quietly said that such good Hindus were not in their
proper place, that they should be transferred to their holy city,
Benares. This speedily silenced the complaint, as hill people intensely
dislike leaving their mountains for the plains.

The treaty with the Ghoorkhas is not the only one in which the
stipulation against beef has been made when territory has been ceded. To
a treaty-keeping people like the English the stipulation has been very
embarrassing, so embarrassing that for a time resolute effort has been
made to observe it, but it has at length broken down under what has been
deemed the compulsion of circumstances. We have heard of a high-caste
official consoling his brethren for the outrage by reminding them it is
the nature of tigers to eat cows and bullocks, and by telling them that
the English were tigers, had a similar love for such food, and as it was
their nature it must be borne with. Though so shocked with the shedding
of the blood of cows and bullocks, the ruling class in Nepal have shown
no aversion to the shedding of human blood, as is well known by all
acquainted with the history of the country. During the mutiny a friend
of mine, travelling with a regiment of Ghoorkhas that had come down from
Nepal to help us, saw them kill a party of mutineers who had surrendered
under an oath of their lives being spared, with a savage ferocity which
shocked him beyond measure.

(4) TRA