small privilege to the compiler of such a work as this to chronicle, even in a few imperfect pages, the recent annals of Mairwara, and to show how a wild and lawless people were reclaimed by a single European officer, taken from an expense-magazine.'

The readers of Mr. Kaye's very clever book-for such it is-may admire his style; but, as we have shown, they have some reason to distrust his authority.

The extract on which we have been observing is from a report made by Colonel Sutherland, embodied, indeed, and adopted in the "Sketch;" but we have now to ask the reader's attention to another, which is altogether Colonel Dixon's own. After recording the retirement of Colonel Hall and his own appointment, Colonel Dixon proceeds to say:

"It was manifest that water was the great desideratum, and that the first step towards improvement must be to provide for its supply. It was the one thing necessary to bind the inhabitants to the soil, to attach them to our form of government, and to admit of our moulding them into the habits of life we desired. It was evident that on its provision, which would ensure the ripening of the crops, depended future prosperity. It has been said the rains are light and uncertain; but though the fall, in reference to more favoured climes, is small, still, were arrangements matured and carried out for retaining all the rain that fell on the soil, there was a confident promise sufficient would be reserved for the purpose of the cultivator. The plan was easy of conception; the difficulty was to carry it out. Its enforcement involved the outlay of considerable sums of money. The people at that time were too impoverished to afford any gratuitous assistance. Measures involving an immediate expenditure for what might have been considered a problematical benefit, were not likely to be favourably entertained by the Government. Colonel Hall, during his thirteen years' administration, had made and repaired seven tulaos. The benefit to the people and the return of revenue had been great, but the outlay had been inconsiderably small. To have progressed at the slow rate which then prevailed, would have been to have protracted the final completion of all the works of irrigation that were necessary, to an indefinite period. The superintendent had been recently appointed. His character might not be sufficiently known to the autho

rities to warrant a deviation from the then established rule, which was, to discourage advances or outlays on agricultural purposes. Still, some essay towards effecting improvement was imperative. The subject was brought to the notice of the Government; such circumstances as favoured the project being duly set forth. The proposition was favourably entertained, and sanction accorded. The requisition embraced the construction of two tulaos. The work contemplated was inconsiderable in respect to what was to be accomplished-to place the country in a position to withstand a season of drought. But as the Government had vouchsafed its sanction, there was a confident expectation its support would be continued, and more liberally extended to the outlay of larger sums, on the utility, alike to the people and to the State, of works of irrigation being made palpably manifest. The question of the support of the Government having happily been answered in the affirmative, it became necessary to arrange systematically for the spread of improvement throughout the district. The expense of the larger works, it was evident, must be borne by us; but there was no reason for allowing the inhabitants to remain inactive. It was desirable to enlist their hearty co-operation in the fulfilment of contemplated improvements."-Sketch, pp. 85-6.

We submit that the impression which this passage is calculated to convey is, that although Colonel Hall built a few tanks in thirteen years, Colonel Dixon was the first who saw the real value of irrigation works, and gave the impulse to their construction; that, when he took charge of the district, the advantages arising from these might have been regarded as "problematical" by the Government, and their utility as not yet made "palpable." This is, accordingly, the impression imbibed, not only by Mr. Kaye, but also by Captain Baird Smith, who, in his valuable book on "Italian Irrigation," gives an abstract of Colonel Dixon's book; and it appears again in a notice of the "Sketch," in the February number of Blackwood's Magazine of the present year. Blackwood and Smith give each their meed of praise to Colonel Hall, but the reader will rise from the perusal of both with the conviction, that the order of the respective merits of Colonels Hall and Dixon, refers the social reforms to the former, while the irrigation works

cupy his handsome shops, neighbouring villages replaced their mud hovels by solid habitations resembling those of the new city; and rival bazaars arose in various parts of the country. The population in 1847 consisted of 1955 families, and the average annual value of the merchandize imported, exported, and passed through the city in the three preceding years, amounted to £147,191. Provision has been made for amply supplying the inhabitants with water; trees give their refreshing shade in the chief streets, at the gateways, and in the roads which approach the town; and by having broad streets parallel to each other, intersecting the town from north to south and from east to west, ventilation has been ensured, and health preserved. Uniformity in the buildings, and regularity in their construction have been attended to; and in 1838, a rampart wall, six feet wide, twelve in the bastions, seventeen feet high, and twenty-one in the bastions, and two miles in circuit, was carried round the town. The work of all this rampart is so good, that Colonel Sutherland, on seeing it in his tour of inspection, observed that "the building the town wall of Nya Nuggur was enough to immortalise one man."

Another of Colonel Dixon's many successful efforts was the establishment of an annual fair at Nya Nuggur, by which an opportunity for more general intercourse was afforded to those secluded mountaineers. We can imagine the interest with which he and his predecessor must alike regard this picture of the first fair :

"The fair was numerously attended by the people, decked out in their best attire, and accompanied by their minstrels. Clans, kept apart by the feuds of ages, now met on one neutral spot, and greeted each other. Opportunity was then afforded for forming a judgment as to the industry or sloth of particular sections. The dress of the industrious shone conspicuous, while shame and a firm resolution to amend, characterised those whose appearance was shabby. The females of the industrious classes were extremely well dressed. Seated on the flat roofs of the bazaars in clusters, or moving about the fair, they more resembled the wives of Sahookars in appearance and attire than the matrons and daughters of the wild predatory race of Mairs. By this simple ex

* Vide "Sketch," p. 118.

pedient of holding a fair, were the people of two purgunahs gathered together at one spot; the condition of each village, indeed of each separate family, was freely imparted to each other; the sedulous had their reward in self-approbation, in having made so good an appearance, and then returned home confirmed in their habits of thrift. The wives of the slothful were the only sufferers amidst the gay and happy multitude. Plunder and robbery were interdicted, and the only certain road to independence was application to labour. Their lords and masters were importuned to improve their condition, and thus example had been highly beneficial. Much good feeling had thus been generated amongst the people; while all returned home, intent on amendment."-Sketch, pp. 120-1.

The fair is regularly maintained, and is attended by 8,000 or 10,000 Mairs as well as by Rajpoots, and others from the adjoining provinces.

The building of a town and the establishment of the fair were so far successful movements; but there is a circumstance connected with them which leaves our praises not unmingled with regret. Colonel Dixon"the subject," as he says, "having received mature deliberation"-thought proper to dedicate the fair to an Hindoo idol, in whose wonderful deeds," as he again says, "the people place implicit faith," and moreover, he erected the effigies of this idol, or hero-saint, mounted on a horse, sculptured in stone, in the centre of his town. If Colonel Dixon could do nothing for the furtherance of true religion, he ought not, at all events, to have lent the sanction of his station and of the Government he represents to the encouragement of idolatry. This was, according to the phrase of a great diplomatist, "not only a crime, but an indiscretion." Nothing has so strongly excited public feeling against the East India Company, nothing in their near hour of trial will so much endanger their continuance, as their alleged discouragement of Christianity; and the mere fact of their uncalled-for idol at Nya Nuggur may be a fresh item in the long list of charges against them.

The progress of the Mairs was not unheeded by their neighbours. The Ajmeer chiefs complained that their tenants were leaving them, tempted by better terms in Mairwara. Their su

† Ibid. p. 118.

perintendent wrote to this effect to Colonel Dixon, who, in reply, showed that the cause of these emigrations lay not in invitations from hin, or reduction in assessments, but in irrigation works and field improvements; and that, if the Ajmeer chiefs adopted these, their people would not leave them. Eventually Colonel Dixon was directed to proceed to Ajmeer, and introduce there the irrigation works and field improvements which had been so successful in Mairwara. This he did, to the great advantage of the district, although from the inferior fertility of Ajmeer, and other causes, the results were not altogether so striking, either in production or in revenue, as in Mair

Colonel Dixon is truly entitled to the high praise of having emulated alike the zeal and the success of his predecessor, and it is manifest that the Mairs have been fortunate in their rulers; both in having two successive superintendents of rare administrative talents, and, during so long a period, but the two. One of the infirmities of our Asiatic empire incidental in a great measure to its being ruled by Europeans is the frequency of change in its provincial governments. A superintendent has hardly become acquainted with his position, when he is transferred by promotion, or compelled to leave by sickness. Thus, Ajmeer has had its rulers changed eleven times in twenty-three years, while the happier Mairwara has, in thirty-one years, known no other governors than Colonels Hall and Dixon.

It is, we trust, evident that we have no desire to disparage the high claims of Colonel Dixon, but there are in his quarto volume some perplexing passages to which it is right to refer, especially as they have already occasioned overt misapprehension.

Colonel Dixon embodies in his text, and adopts the following extract from a report made by Colonel Sutherland,

a high authority, who visited Mairwara on a tour of inspection in 1841, and wrote as follows for the information of the Governor-General of India :—

"Much was achieved for the peace and agricultural prosperity of Mairwara by Colonel Hall, C.B., and the people have a lively sense of the benefits which they derived from his administration. The high degree of prosperity which it has now attained, arises, however, from the system introduced by Captain Dixon. He may be said to live amongst the people. He knows minutely the condition of each village, and almost of its inhabitants individually; is ready to redress not only every man's grievances, but to assist them to recover from any pecuniary or other difficulty in which they may be involved. It may be supposed that such a system could not be of any extensive application; but from what I have seen here, and from my experience elsewhere, I am satisfied, that in unimproved countries, if men of Captain Dixon's energies and disposition could be found, this system of management may be of very extensive application. Captain Dixon has no European assistance, but his native establishment is so admirably disciplined and controlled, that whether in the construction of tanks, in the assessment of the revenue, or the administration of justice amongst this simple and primitive people, these establishments conduct all matters to almost as happy an issue as he could himself. I described at some length, in the fifteenth paragraph of my Khalsa report on the condition of Ajmeer, the system pursued by Colonel Dixon, and I need here only repeat, that it is simply to take from all classes alike the money value of a third share of the produce, to assist them to the utmost extent, on the part of Government, to obtain water for irrigation, and to assist them individually with money, or by a remission in the share of produce, according to the work to be done in the accomplishment of all objects acknowledgedly remunerative and useful."-Sketch, p. 72.

This passage is sufficiently perplexing. It speaks of a system introduced by Colonel Dixon, to which the prosperity of the district is ascribed, while it names, expressly, two systems, and describes a third. Our complaint concerns not style, but facts, and, in making it, we join in every eulogy on the energy of Colonel Dixon. He did all that might become a man, and all that was left for him to do; but he did not introduce either of the two systems named, or the third, described in this extract they being all in successful operation when he took charge of Mair

wara.

As we impugn this passage, we desire to be distinct.

First, we are told that the prosperity of Mairwara arises "from the system introduced by Captain Dixon. He may be said to live amongst the people. He knows minutely," &c. Surely, Colonel Dixon knows, and Colonel Sutherland ought to have known, that all this was, for thirteen years, the system and practice of Colonel Hall.

Secondly, as to the system, not expressly named, but described. Captain Dixon has no European assistance; but his native establishment is so admirably disciplined," &c. Now, Colonel Dixon knows perfectly well that this identical establishment was trained to his hand by Colonel Hall; trained, too, from a class who were, at that time, habituated to falsehood and fraud, and that-what is unusual in administrative changes in India-he had not to part with a single member of it.

Thirdly, the second system actually named, and the third, described above, is-" To take from all classes alike the money value of a third share of the produce; to assist them to the utmost extent on the part of Government to obtain water for irrigation," &c.

The money advances for irrigation works were, as we have seen, greatly extended in the time of Colonel Dixon, and he was thereby enabled to accomplish all that he did so well; but public works of the same description had been erected, and advances made, in like manner, in the time of Colonel Hall; and it was in consequence of the beneficial operation of these works, and their proved results, that the system of advances was extended. It was a rule of the Indian Government at that time, not to sanction advances for agricultural improvements, until their value and importance had been thoroughly ascertained. On this account, Colonel Hall was not enabled

to proceed as rapidly with irrigation works as his successor; but the system was the same, and its value was tried, established, and strikingly exhibited, in the improved condition both of country and people, before Colonel Dixon ever built a tank.

Thus are the three averments in that short extract all inaccurate. Colonel Sutherland was, no doubt, justly pleased with the activity of Colonel Dixon, and the condition of his province, and possibly, in an excess of official felicity, forgot for a moment that he ever had a predecessor.

We have good reason for remarking on this extract. Mr. Kaye, in his recent book* on "The Administration of the East India Company," takes his account of Mairwara from the "Sketch;" does much injustice to the claims of Colonel Hall; and cites this passage in a note, as one of his main authorities. In the heading of his chapter on the "Progress of Civilisation," we have "Dixon and the Mairs," but not the name of Colonel Hall. The latter is afterwards introduced to

us as " Captain Hall, of the 16th Bengal Native Infantry,† an officer who, in the Quartermaster's department, had exhibited considerable ability and force of character," and the moral and administrative reforms are mostly referred to him; but the irrigation-works are as wholly ascribed to Colonel Dixon as if his predecessor had never once thought about them. "He (Dixon) saw at once what was the great want of the country. Eager to develop the productiveness of an unyielding soil, and to stimulate the industry of an unyielding people, he addressed himself to this great matter of the water supply, and left untried no effort to secure it."+ "The finan

cial results of the experiment were highly favourable: the moral results were more favourable still."§ "His (Dixon's) name will live as the regenerator of the Mairs. It is no

small privilege to the compiler of such a work as this to chronicle, even in a few imperfect pages, the recent annals of Mairwara, and to show how a wild and lawless people were reclaimed by a single European officer, taken from an expense-magazine."

The readers of Mr. Kaye's very clever book-for such it is-may admire his style; but, as we have shown, they have some reason to distrust his authority.

The extract on which we have been observing is from a report made by Colonel Sutherland, embodied, indeed, and adopted in the "Sketch;" but we have now to ask the reader's attention to another, which is altogether Colonel Dixon's own. After recording the retirement of Colonel Hall and his own appointment, Colonel Dixon proceeds to say:

"It was manifest that water was the great desideratum, and that the first step towards improvement must be to provide for its supply. It was the one thing necessary to bind the inhabitants to the soil, to attach them to our form of government, and to admit of our moulding them into the habits of life we desired. It was evident that on its provision, which would ensure the ripening of the crops, depended future prosperity. It has been said the rains are light and uncertain; but though the fall, in reference to more favoured climes, is small, still, were arrangements matured and carried out for retaining all the rain that fell on the soil, there was a confident promise sufficient would be reserved for the purpose of the cultivator. The plan was easy of conception; the difficulty was to carry it out. Its enforcement involved the outlay of considerable sums of money. The people at that time were too impoverished to afford any gratuitous assistance. Measures involving an immediate expenditure for what might have been considered a problematical benefit, were not likely to be favourably entertained by the Government. Colonel Hall, during his thirteen years' administration, had made and repaired seven tulaos. The benefit to the people and the return of revenue had been great, but the outlay had been inconsiderably small. To have progressed at the slow rate which then prevailed, would have been to have protracted the final completion of all the works of irrigation that were necessary, to an indefinite period. The superintendent had been recently appointed. His character might not be sufficiently known to the autho

rities to warrant a deviation from the then established rule, which was, to discourage advances or outlays on agricultural purposes. Still, some essay towards effecting improvement was imperative. The subject was brought to the notice of the Government; such circumstances as favoured the project being duly set forth. The proposition was favourably entertained, and sanction accorded. The requisition embraced the construction of two tulaos. The work contemplated was inconsiderable in respect to what was to be accomplished-to place the country in a position to withstand a season of drought. But as the Government had vouchsafed its sanction, there was a confident expectation its support would be continued, and more liberally extended to the outlay of larger sums, on the utility, alike to the people and to the State, of works of irrigation being made palpably manifest. The question of the support of the Government having happily been answered in the affirmative, it became necessary to arrange systematically for the spread of improvement throughout the district. The expense of the larger works, it was evident, must be borne by us; but there was no reason for allowing the inhabitants to remain inactive. It was desirable to enlist their hearty co-operation in the fulfilment of contemplated improvements."-Sketch, pp. 85-6.

We submit that the impression which this passage is calculated to convey is, that although Colonel Hall built a few tanks in thirteen years, Colonel Dixon was the first who saw the real value of irrigation works, and gave the impulse to their construction; that, when he took charge of the district, the advantages arising from these might have been regarded as "problematical" by the Government, and their utility as not yet made "palpable." This is, accordingly, the impression imbibed, not only by Mr. Kaye, but also by Captain Baird Smith, who, in his valuable book on "Italian Irrigation," gives an abstract of Colonel Dixon's book; and it appears again in a notice of the "Sketch," in the February number of Blackwood's Magazine of the present year. Blackwood and Smith give each their meed of praise to Colonel Hall, but the reader will rise from the perusal of both with the conviction, that the order of the respective merits of Colonels Hall and Dixon, refers the social reforms to the former, while the irrigation works