I! K N 



230 



r, i: N 



or worn round the ancle : p:i\ uiont for them is usually made 

 in rice, an 1 Kuropcan p>d-. < i-\ '"" supplies Bon- 



gal with cocoa-nut oil, c.iir, u le.v )>,-ails, - ~. uinl 



rhaiik-shclls, in return for piece good*, sugar, silk, and rice. 

 Teak trnber, sandal wood, coir, r.>roa nuts, and some drugs 

 are received from Malabar, which takes in payment 

 goods, metals, ami British woollen*, with dates, raisins, coral 

 ami praii- brought from the Arabian and Persian Gulfs. 

 the c.mnlries bordering on these gulfs Bengal receive* 

 .n copper, almond-, dates. r,,tle>\ ^uins, pearls, coir, 

 cocoa-nuts, pepper, and bullion, the last in a large propor- 

 timi. c In -lly in the form of Spanish dollars, Persian rupees, 

 gold I-. matins, and Venetian sequins. The returns are made 

 in cotton piece-goods, silk goods, indigo, sugar, and grain. 



The Mauritius is supplied with large shipments of rice 

 from Bengal, and gives in return pepper and spices from the 

 Malabar coa-t. 



Penang, and of late years Singapore, have been the chief 

 entrepots of the trade carried on between Bengal and the 

 straits of Malacca, Borneo, Celebes, and the Molucca islands. 

 The most valuable part of the import trade from this quarter 

 is treasure, in the form of gold-dust from Borneo and Su- 

 matra, and dollars and Sycee silver brought by t , 

 vessels. Besides the precious metals, Bengal receives pep- 

 per, spices, tin, various drugs, betel-nut, and wax. Cotton 

 piece-goods, opium, and rice form the principal an ides of 

 export from Bengal to these settlements. 



From the Burmese empire Bengal imports timber and 

 planks, with a considerable value of gold and silver treasure, 

 both of which metals are in the form of circular Hat cakes 

 of various sizes and standards, from pure gold or silver to 

 two-thirds alloy. Small quantities of wax, sapan-wood, 

 ivory, and drugs are likewise furnished by this trade to 

 Bengal, which returns British cotton goods, grain, indigo, 

 sugar, and opium. 



Military Forces. In estimating the military force of 

 Bengal, it is not possible to separate the proportion em- 

 ployed in the province from that stationed in ot. cr provinces 

 under the same presidency. The following number! must 

 therefore be taken as applicable to the entire possessions of 

 the British within the presidency of Bengal, including Be- 

 t, Bareilly, the ceded districts on the Ncrbudda, and 

 districts i -tided by the rajah of Berar. 



According to a return made from the India House by the 

 military secretary in 1 83:2, the military force in Bengal, 

 according to the most recent accounts, was as follows : 



Engineers OHicers, European . 



Native . 



Non-commis. Offi- 

 cers and Privates 



Artillery Europ., Horse, Offic. 4i 

 Privates 1,313 



Foot, Officers 89 



Privates 2,956 



44 

 12 

 5G 



813 



869 



1,358 



3,045 



Native, Horse, Offic. 18 



Priv. 407 



Foot, Officers 8i 



Privates 3,029 



-4..IU3 



425 



3,114 



3,539 



Cavalry Euro. (King's) Offic. 54 



Priv. 1,181 



Native (Comp.'s) Offic. 463 



Priv. 8,748 



7,942 



1,235 



9,211 



Infantry European, Officers . 

 Privates . 



Native, Officers . . 2,964 



Privates . . 77,518 



10,446 



8,350 



B0.4S9 



Carried forward 



88,832 

 108,089 



Brought I -rward 

 Invalids . 



Pioneers ..... 

 Hospital Surgeons and A.-si>t -Surgeons 222 

 Native Doctors . . 235 



Staff, including Commissariat 



H'S.Oi.9 

 '.'.7IG 



-1.07 

 410 



Total . . . 11: 



The expense of this army, as stated in the same return 

 In the auditor of Indian accounts, amounted to tin- 

 gum of 4,329,537/. It does not appear thai mili- 



tary stores sent from England is included in -. 

 meiit. 



Kevtnuf, fyc. It is not possible to draw inn distinction 

 between the financial results of the provin. 1 and 



those of the entire presidency, which hitter, therefore, are 

 here given, under different heads, tor the year 1 h;i-2-33, the 

 latest for which any detailed account has been given: 



Revenues and Charges of the Hmgul Presidency for Ike 

 yar 1832-33. 



P.n-ei. 



Land revenue . 



Stamp duties ... 



Saver and Abkaree revenues 



Salt monopoly . 



Cost and charges . 



! 



58,73,:t96 

 -- 

 i,i5,n.>-n 



38,43, "r;i 



C,. r )i.' 



'1,948 

 40,03,401 



Opium monopoly 



i t and charges 



Customs . 



Other receipts . 



Charges of collecting: stamp dm 

 land saver and Abkaree reve- 

 nues, and custom duties . 1,13,02,630 

 Civil and political charges . 87,15,451 

 .Judicial and police . . 1,08,97, 894 

 Military and miscellaneous . 4,26,91,451 



1,13,89,564 



7fi.6S.26-2 



-o,r 



87,17,698 

 10,68,27,893 



Interest on debt 



7,36,07,426 

 1,52,14,969 



8,83,22,395 

 Surplus revenue . . Rs. 1,60,05,498 



or 1,800,549 



(Ayin-i-Akbari : Rennell's Mf.mnir of a Map (if Hindu- 

 stan ; Mills's History of British India ; Mr. Charles Grant's 

 Observations on t/n> Stuff of Society among the Axiatir 

 Subjects of Great Britain : various Reports of Committees 

 of both Houses of Parliament appointed to inquire into the 

 affairs of the East India Company in 1821, 1828, 1830, 1831, 

 and 1832: Tallies of the Iff venue. Population, $-c. of the 

 United Kingdom, pail iii. : Wilson's lin-inr afthf K.rler- 

 nal Commerce of Bengal (published in Calcutta ) : M'Phcr- 

 son's History of the. I'.urvptan Commerce trilh India; Dr. 

 Francis Hamilton's (late Buchanan) Stutittii-al Survey of 

 C"rlaiii Di.itrii-tx uf Jlt-Hgul ; MS. in the Library of th 



East India Company.) 



BENGALI LANGUAGE. Among the numerous ver- 

 nacular dialects now spoken in northern India, and appa- 

 rently descended for the most part from the ancient classical 

 language of the country, the Sanscrit, few possess stronger 

 claims upon the attention of the linguist as well as (lie 

 politician than the Bengali, the colloquial medium of a 

 population of more than twenty millions, spread over a 

 territory of about 100,000 square miles. The alphabet 

 employed by the natives in writing, and adopted by Euro- 

 peans in printing books in the Bengali lainimge, is evi- 

 di'iitly borrowed from the Devanfigari. tiic rhan.rl.-i- prcn- 

 1 misappropriated to fix the Sanscrit lamina-ie : both com- 

 piW- four!. 'en vowels and diphthong*, and thirty-three con- 

 -cmblance in form which the Bengali bears 

 is nearly the same as that of the 



current English handwriting to the form of letters employed 

 in printing. The ground* work of the Beng fill lan^m 



t'ner Sanscrit, just as that of the Italian or Spani-.li is 

 I. aim, with a comparatively small addition of words which 

 cannot be traced to that source. But the refined system of 



