tent-poles, and the brass bell with which the sentries on duty sounded the hour; all Lieutenant Thomas’s cooking utensils, and many other things, several of which they had found lying between the tents and the prince’s pleasure-house, particularly the contents of a large heavy box of geological specimens.  They had, in consequence, concluded the gang to be lodged in the prince’s pleasure-house.  The guard on duty at this place would make no answer to their inquiries, and I really believe that they were themselves the thieves.  The tents of the Raja of Raghugarh, who had come to pay his respects to the Sindhia, his liege lord, were pitched near mine.  He had the day before had five horses stolen from him, with all the plate, jewels, and valuable clothes he possessed; and I was told that I must move forthwith from the flower-garden, or cut off the tail of every horse in my camp.  Without tails they might not be stolen, with them they certainly would.  Having had sufficient proof of their dexterity, we moved our tents to a grove near the residency, four miles from the flower-garden and the court.[8]

As a citizen of the world I could not help thinking that it would be an immense blessing upon a large portion of our species if an earthquake were to swallow up this court of Gwalior, and the army that surrounds it.  Nothing worse could possibly succeed, and something better might.  It is lamentable to think how much of evil this court and camp inflict upon the people who are subject to them.  In January, 1828, I was passing with a party of gentlemen through the town of Bhilsa, which belongs to this chief, and lies between Sagar and Bhopal,[9] when we found, lying and bleeding in one of the streets, twelve men belonging to a merchant at Mirzapore, who had the day before been wounded and plundered by a gang of robbers close outside the walls of the town.  Those who were able ran in to the Amil, or chief of the district, who resides in the town; and begged him to send some horsemen after the banditti, and intercept them as they passed over the great plains.  ‘Send your own people’, said he, ’or hire men to send.  Am I here to look after the private affairs of merchants and travellers, or to collect the revenues of the prince?’ Neither he, nor the prince himself, nor any other officer of the public establishments ever dreamed that it was their duty to protect the life, property, or character of travellers, or indeed of any other human beings, save the members of their own families.  In this pithy question the Amil of Bhilsa described the nature and character of the government.  All the revenues of his immense dominions are spent entirely in the maintenance of the court and camps of the prince; and every officer employed beyond the boundary of the court and camp considers his duties to be limited to the collection of the revenue.  Protected from all external enemies by our military forces, which surround him on every side, his whole army is left to him for purposes of parade