305 



Nay more, the celebration of these wasteful festivals 

 and ceremonies is often the source of grinding 

 oppression on the part of many Zemindars, who 

 invariably make them the occasion of imposing 

 abwabs, or taxes, on their tenants, a practice which, 

 though it has been disallowed by law, is universal. 



No contrast could be more striking than that 

 which meets the eye of the traveller from the North 

 West, as he approaches Calcutta the Metropolis 

 of British India ! Bridges broken down, roads 

 in some places washed away, and in others dis- 

 gracefully out of repair, are every where to be 

 seen. A few years back, I counted, for miles 

 along what is called the grand trunk road, heaps 

 of metal which had been deposited for four or five 

 successive seasons, and never laid down. Nor could 

 there be any mistake. The growth of the vegeta- 

 tion which in Bengal springs up after a rainy season 

 even out of burnt bricks, readily told the tale. In- 

 deed it may truly be said, that in the interior of 

 Bengal, there are no roads at all. Dacca, the once 

 nourishing Capital of Eastern Bengal under Mahom- 

 maclan rule, is still unconnected with the Metro- 

 polis. A trip to Darjeeling, the Hill Sanatarium of 

 Bengal, and the only rising European colony of the 

 Province, is literally a perilous undertaking. The hill 

 portion of the road the last official report on the 

 subject tells us will not be practicable for carts, before 

 the end of 1861 In the North Western Provinces of 



