32 
for the unlimited use of that poison, which its extreme cheap- 
ness in this country enables them to indulge in; and, speedily 
degenerating into confirmed drunkards, are either prematurely 
cut off, or become an useless burden on the service. 
* [t has been remarked that, notwithstanding the daily issue 
of spirits to troops on board ship, they are less sickly during 
the longest voyage than they ever are in quarters. The reason 
is obvious. In the former case, they are restricted to a 
moderate allowance, regularly distributed; and were it pos- 
sible to limit the consumption to the same quantity in quarters, 
no mischief would accrue from indulging the soldier to that 
extent; but as matters stand, it is notorious that the gra- 
tuitous dram acts merely as a stimulus, provoking an irresist- 
ible thirst that is not to be quenched on this side of brutal 
intoxication. 
** À great number of Palankeens attend pie at the 
Fort, where they wait, like so many hackney-coaches, for 
employment, at the rate of a rupee (half a crown) a day. 
Each palankeen is borne by four bearers, and is usually 
attended by a fifth, who carries a large umbrella to shade 
the sunny side of the vehicle. A person may either sit in it 
or stretch himself at full length, and is carried along in the 
easiest manner imaginable, at the rate of four or five miles 
. an hour. Officers, on their arrival from a cold climate, are 
apt to disdain this mode of conveyance as bordering too near 
on effeminacy. But whatever may be thought of it in the 
country, the palankeen is indispensable in Calcutta, where 
the crowds of foot passengers, hackeries, and beasts of burden, 
raise such volumes of dust, and obstruct the way in such a 
manner, that the streets are rendered in a great measure im- 
passable. The heat is, moreover, so intense, and the air so 
close and sultry, that a person languishes directly under a 
profuse perspiration, that renders his clothes as wet as if he 
had plunged over head and ears in the Hoogly. 
* 'The theory of the subdivision of labour may not, perhaps, 
be quite familiar to the hirelings of Bengal; but I will ven- 
ture to say, that no class of people have reduced it more 
systematically to practice. The instant you arrive at Calcutta, 
