In the year 1767, there was a famine in Bengal," when eight out of every ten persons are said to have died. The year before the famine, the harvest was deficient through the want of rain, and during the next year there was comparatively no rain. Those possessed of property were able, of course, to procure provisions better than others, and more of them survived; but in some houses, not more than one person, and in others not a soul, was left alive!

Besides rice, the Bengal farmer cultivates wheat, barley, pulse or liguminous plants of different sorts, mustard,” the indigo plant, linseed, turnips, radishes of one kind, sugar-canes, ginger, turmerick, tobacco, &c. In shady situations, where the soil is rich and loamy, ginger and turmerick flourish; the former is usually sold green, and only a small portion dried for consumption; the latter is sold in a powdered state. Amongst other kinds of pulse, the principal are, mushōōrů, and bootů. The cultivation of the plantain is a profitable branch of husbandry.

Trees are rented in Bengal: a mango tree for one roopee annually; a cocoa-nut, for eight anas; a jack,

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m In the Punjab, in 1785, a million of people are said to have died by famine.

"Three kinds are usually cultivated, shŭrsha, rayee, and shwétů shŭrsha. The first is the most esteemed.

↑ Hindoo kings formerly planted, as acts of merit, as many as a hundred thousand mango trees in one orchard, and gave them to the bramhuns, or to the public. The orchard, says the author of Remarks on the Husbandry and Internal Commerce of Bengal," is what chiefly contributes to attach the peasant to his native soil. He feels a superstitious predilection for the trees planted by his ancestor, and derives comfort and even profit from their fruit.

one roopee; a tamarind, one roopee; a betel-nut, four anas; a talŭ, four anas; a date, two anas; a vilwŭ, four anas; a lime tree, four anas. The palms are rented partly for the sake of the liquor which is extracted from them; with the juice of the date, molasses and sugar are made; and the juice of the talŭ is used like yeast. The trunks of some of the talŭ trees present the appearance of a series of steps, the bark having been cut at interstices

Orchards of mango trees diversify the plaius in every part of Bengal. The delicious fruit, exuberantly borne by them, is a wholesome variety in the diet of the Indian, and affords him gratification and even nourishment. The palmyra abounds in Véhar: the juice extracted by wounding its summit becomes, when fermented, an intoxicating beverage, which is eagerly sought by numerous natives, who violate the precepts of both the Hindoo and Mahomedan religions, by the use of inebriating liquors. The cocoa-nut thrives in those parts of Bengal which are not remote from the tropic: this nut contains a milky juice grateful to the palate, and is so much sought by the Indian, that it even becomes an object of exportation to distant provinces. The date tree grows every where, but especially in Véhar; the wounded trunk of this tree yields a juice which is similar to that of the palmyra, and from which sugar is not unfrequently extracted. Plantations of areca are common in the centrical parts of Bengal: its nut, which is universally consumed throughout India, affords considerable profit to the planters. The bassia thrives even on the poorest soils, and abounds in the hilly districts: - its inflated corols are esculent and nutritious, and yield by distillation an intoxicating spirit; and the oil, which is expressed from its seeds, is, in mountainous countries, a common substitute for butter.-Clumps of bamboos, which, when once planted, continue to flourish so long as they are not too abruptly thinned, supply the peasant with materials for his buildings, and may also yield him profit." The bamboo is applied to innumerable uses by the natives: as, for the roofs, posts, sides, and doors of their houses; the oars and roofs of their boats, their baskets, mats, umbrellas, fences, palanqueens, fishing-rods, scaffolding, ladders, frames for clay idols, &c. &c. A native christian was one day, in the presence of the author, shewing the necessity and importance of early discipline: to illustrate his proposition, he referred to the bamboo used in a wedding palanqueen, which, when quite young is bent at both ends, to rest on the bearers' shoulders, and is tied and made to grow in this shape, which it retains ever after, so that, at the tim of cutting, it is fit for use.

from top to bottom, to permit the juice to ooze out. The liquor falls from a stick (driven into the trunk) into a pan suspended from the tree.

Towards the latter end of October, the farmer sows wheat, or any of the other articles mentioned above, on new land, or on that from which the first harvest of rice was raised; and in the beginning of March, the wheat, barley, &c. are ripe. These kinds of grain are cut with the sickle; they are not trodden out by oxen, but beaten with a stick; and are laid up in golas. The price of wheat, in plentiful times and places, is about one măn, and of barley about two muns, for a roopee. The natives of Bengal seldom eat wheat or barley, so that the consumption of these articles in the lower provinces is not great; the few who do, boil the wheat like rice, and eat it with greens and spices fried in oil. Barley is sometimes fried and pounded, and the flour eaten, mixed with molasses, sugar, curds, tamarinds, plantains, or some other vegetable; and is also offered to the gods and deceased ancestors. In some of the upper provinces, the wheat and barley are very excellent; and in those parts the consumption is considerable.

The different kinds of pulse cultivated in Bengal are commonly split, and fried for food; pulse make also a part of the offerings to the gods; the consumption is therefore pretty large. Pease are sold at three or four muns for the roopee.

Flour is ground by the hand, by different casts of Hindoos, and not unfrequently by women. The stones are round, about three cubits in circum1 ference, and are made rough on the face with a chissel, and laid one upon another, with a hole in the centre of the uppermost to let down the corn. A piece of wood as a handle is fastened in the uppermost, taking hold of which the person turns it round, and the flour falls out at the edges.

of the people, even before birth, to a state of mental and bodily degradation, in which they are for ever shut out from all the learning and honours of the country.

The distinctions of rank in Europe are founded upon civic merit or learning, and answer very important ends in the social union; but this system commences with an act of the most consummate injustice that was ever perpetrated; binds in chains of adamant nine-tenths of the people; debars them for ever from all access to a higher state, whatever their merits may be; puts a lock upon the whole intellect of three of the four orders, and branding their. very birth with infamy, and rivetting their chains for ever, says to millions and millions of mankind, "You proceeded from the feet of Brumha; you were created for servitude."

Some persons have thought that the cast, as it respected mechanical employments, must be advantageous, since, by confining the members of one family to one trade, it secured improvement. Actual experience, however, completely disproves this theory, for Hindoo mechanics never introduce a new article of trade, nor improve an old one. I know that improvements have been made under the inspection of Europeans, but these do not enter into the argument. For native use, the same cloths, the same earthen, brass, iron, and other utensils, the same gold and silver ornaments, in use from time immemorial, unimproved, are in use at this day. But, if these mechanical employments had been thrown open to all ranks, who can say what advances might not have been made in improvement? Those who are acquainted with the effects of European skill and taste on the artists of Bengal, can see very plainly an amazing change for the better: the native

tion is that of gathering the opium, which for more than a fortnight employs several persons in making incisions in each capsule in the evening, and scraping off the exuded juice in the morning. If the greater labour be considered, the produce of a bigha of poppy, reckoned at seven roopees eight anas, is not more advantageous than the cultivation of corn.

Tobacco, it is probable, adds the same writer, was unknown to India, as well as to Europe, before the discovery of America. It appears, from a proclamation of Jahangeer's mentioned by that prince in his own memoirs, that it was introduced by Europeans into India, either in his, or in the preceding reign. The plant is now cultivated in every part of Hindoost'han. It requires as good soil as opium, and the ground must be as well manured. Though it be not absolutely limited to the same provinces, its culture prevails mostly in the northern and western districts. It is thinly scattered in the southern and eastern provinces. In these, it is seldom seen but upon made ground; in those it occupies the greatest part of the rich land, which is interspersed among the habitations of the peasantry.

Radishes and turnips are eaten raw by the natives, or fried and eaten with rice; but are never given to cattle. The egg plant, and several species of capsicum, says Dr. Carey, are also cultivated in Bengal. The fruit of this plant is much used all over India as an article of food, as is the capsicum to give a pungent taste to several Indian dishes. Other plants also are cultivated as articles of food. The cucurbitaceous plants are often

"Solanum melongena.