The plot was afterwards discovered, and the old butler,
washerman, and all, were sentenced to work in a rope on the roads.
[W. H. S.]
Penal labour on the roads has been discontinued long since. Similar
plots probably have often escaped detection. The whole conversation
is a valuable illustration of Indian habits and modes of thought.
11. The subject of the police administration is more fully discussed
_post_, in Chapter 69.
CHAPTER 59
Concentration of Capital and its Effects.
Kosi[1] stands on the borders of Firozpur, the estate of the late
Shams-ud-din, who was hanged at Delhi on the 3rd of October, 1835,
for the murder of William Fraser, the representative of the Governor-
General in the Delhi city and territories.[2] The Mewatis of Firozpur
are notorious thieves and robbers. During the Nawab's time they dared
not plunder within his territory, but had a free licence to plunder
wherever they pleased beyond it.[3] They will now be able to plunder
at home, since our tribunals have been introduced to worry
prosecutors and their witnesses to death by the distance they have to
go, and the tediousness of our process; and thereby to secure
impunity to offenders, by making it the interest of those who have
been robbed, not only to bear with the first loss without complaint,
but largely to bribe police officers to conceal the crimes from their
master, the magistrate, when they happen to come to their knowledge.
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