CHAPTER II. 



OF CERTAIN PECULIARITIES IN THE CIRCUM- 

 STANCES AND CONDITION OF INDIA, NOT FOUND 

 IN THE COUNTRIES OF EUROPE. 



IN India, we have very many stages of civiliza- 

 tion. By no means an infinitesimal part of the 

 country, is still, in the undisputed possession of wild 

 beasts.* Others are occupied by demi-savage races. 

 Large tracts of country are inhabited by semi-barba- 

 rous tribes. In a few districts the state of society is 

 nomadic. But, taking 1 a general view of the whole, 

 the great bulk of the middle and lower classes of the 

 people of the mofassil\ of India, may be said to be 

 in the Agricultural stage of civilization. Of course 

 there are, and were, when England was peopled by 

 Ancient Britons, many populous towns and flourish- 

 ing cities ; but by reason of the enormous distances 

 and great difficulty of intercommunication, these do 

 not exercise any material influence on the state of 

 society in the interior. The masses the hewers of 

 wood, and drawers of water, the tillers of the soil, have 



* See Official Returns showing the number of natives de- 

 stroyed annually by alligators, tigers, wolves, and other wild 

 animals, and those who die from the effects of snake-bites. They 

 average some thousands ; yet the fifth portion of such cases, 

 are never reported. In Sindh, alone, the number of deaths 

 from snake-bites, is enormous. 



f Ihe country, as opposed to cities or towns. 



