Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. II. DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY, AND ITS POPULATION, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE DIFFERENT RACES OF ITS INHABITANTS, - OF THE GOVERNMENT, — OF THE COURTS OF JUSTICE,— THE EUROPEAN AND NATIVE SERVANTS OF THE COMPANY, - THE PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENTS IN THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM, — IN POLICE, — THE REGULATIONS ENACTED ON THESE SUBJECTS, Jl o those who have never been in Bengal, or who are there only commencing their career as Servants of the Company, and have not enjoyed opportunities of acquiring information regarding the country and its inhabitants, still more especially, to the younger Servants of the Company, — it will be pro perper to address a few words. Not that there are wanting many and excellent general accounts of Hindostan, but because these works have seldom descended to minute particulars. Those books which are connected with the history of India, are not in the hands of every one ; and it is necessary that the reader should possess, within the present Essay, materials sufficient for forming his opinion on the different branches of the subject. For more useful and extensive information, I should recommend his reading Mr. Colebrooke's work on the " Hus- " bandry of Bengal;" Mr. Ward's " Ac- " count of the Hindoos;" the papers on these subjects, in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society; and the Supplementary Volume to the " Digest of the Regulations;" to all of which I am indebted. Bengal is, for the most part, a flat champaign country, having, however, occasional elevations, nod, in some parts, hills. It possessessesses every diversity of soil; but the greater part of it is of a clayey nature, with a portion of siliceous sand intermixed. Owing to the inundation of the rivers, and the partial intermixture of other substances than those above mentioned, the qualit...