30 
bined influence of the sun and rain. Add to this, that the 
command of labour in Calcutta is so great, that, in case of 
sudden alarm, the whole works will be completed for service 
in the course of a few hours. 
* Fort- William contains an extensive armoury, a cannon 
foundery, a bazar or market-place, and excellent barracks 
for 2000 infantry. So far as concerns the Europzean garrison, 
the duty of the Fort is abundantly easy. The main guard 
consists of a captain, two subalterns, and sixty privates, who 
have no other duty to perform but to lounge about the guard- 
house for twenty-four hours, and pay the customary honours 
to such general officers as pass near their post in the morning 
and evening. From seven o’clock in the morning, till five in 
the afternoon, they pay no compliments, but strip off their 
uniform, and lie down on couches under the verandah of the 
guard-house. A guard of a subaltern and thirty privates 
. mounts over the Vizier Ali, confined in one of the magazines, 
which has been converted for his sake into a state prison, 
and where this unlucky chieftain has been incarcerated for 
the last fifteen years. 
* The defence of the gates abd works of the Fort i is en- 
trusted to the Seapoys, or native troops, a battalion of whom 
is constantly on duty here, and relieved monthly from the 
native cantonment at Barrackpore. ‘These Seapoys are most 
admirable sentinels. The punctuality with which they exe- 
cute the orders given to them, admits of no relaxation. There 
is a strict prohibition against the introduction of wine or 
spirits into the Fort for the use of the troops; and the schemes 
by which the Europzean soldiers endeavour to evade it are 
sometimes uncommonly ingenious; but they hardly ever escape 
the vigilance of the Seapoys; and the number of the punish- 
ments for this offence is as creditable to the one as it is dis- 
graceful to the other. Every delinquency of this nature is 
tried by a garrison court-martial, composed of the officers of 
the main guard, with two subalterns from the garrison; and 
the usual award is twenty or thirty days' solitary confinement 
on bread and water. The system of corporal punishment is 
fast dying away throughout the army in India. There was but 
