On the 1st May will be published, NO. XVII. OF THE BENARES MAGAZINE; A MONTHLY WORK OF RELIGIOUS AND GENERAL LITERATURE. TERMS.-Annual Subscription, in advance; .. Rs. 16 0 Single No. (or subscription in arrears), R. Advertisements, 2 Annas a line, or Rs. 4 per page. 18 Communications, endorsed by known correspondents, will be received bearing. All others must be prepaid, or will be rejected. We would request our constituents to send their literary contributions in short covers open at each end. A stitch, which may be secured by a seal, sufficiently protects the Manuscript. All letters, papers, and payments may be addressed to the Editor of the Benares Magazine, Chunar. Orders for the Magazine may also be sent to, and monies will be received by, Messrs. Thacker and Co., and Messrs. Lepage and Co., Calcutta, and the Superintendent of the Orphan Press, Mirzapore. The BENARES MAGAZINE will contain in each number, on an average, 80 pages of this size. THE BENARES MAGAZINE. MAY, 1850. I. RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OFFICIAL VISIT TO THE RAMGURH DISTRICT. THE year 1831 passed with me in the Ramgurh district, where I was then Register and Assistant to the Magistrate and Collector. The constitution of this district was, in consequence of its great extent and the variety of its races, necessarily different from that of other zillahs. This large district reached from the bank of Monghyr near the Nursingpoor hills to the southern extent of Chota Nagpoor, and from the extremity of the Bancoorah district eastward, commencing at Gomeah Chutty, to the bank of the river Soane in the west. These very circumstances, I am now inclined to allow, fully justified the measure which the Government subsequently adopted, of breaking up this immense area into many sub-divisions, and of placing it under charge of many subordinate officers residing at places in the territory; whereas, in the times of which I write, the offices of Government were at the very north-western extremity of the principality, and, in some cases, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles from the police stations. The consequences which flowed from this state of things may be conceived by any one acquainted with Indian police and native notions. The Darogas of police were, in many respects, the virtual masters of the country; and did as they pleased-for few people had the time and the money to come a fourteen or even a seven days journey to complain of anything but a vital injury. The native inhabitants of this district were, and are still, saving alone the higher classes(and of these the proportion is very small,) in a state border VOL. III. A |