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wealth, but no Capital, in India, is not at all sur- 

 prising. 



But in the midst of so much wealth how is 

 it that the great body of the people are, so misera- 

 bly poor ? This would seem to be more difficult 

 of explanation; but it is not so. In India the 

 system on which society is regulated is pecu- 

 liar. There is a despotism an Oriental despotism 

 about it, which percolates through all ranks of 

 society from the highest downward, that is not 

 readily understood in Europe. Kings prey upon 

 the whole community ; the Governors of provinces 

 prey on the people of the provinces over which they 

 rule ; the great landholders prey on the landlords : 

 and the landlords prey on the ryots. Kings 

 having a large number of persons to prey upon, 

 are rich ; and in their persons is represented the 

 greatest portion of the surplus wealth of the 

 Nation. Governors, petty Uajas, Nawabs, great 

 landlords, &c., for the same reason, are, rich and 

 well to do. But the unfortunate ryots, preyed 

 upon by every one, have no one on whom in turn 

 to prey, and are therefore very poor, so poor that 

 they are left nothing beyond the bare means of sub- 

 sistance, nothing to pay the cost of cultivating their 

 little farms. Hence the necessity for the system 

 of advances, against the iniquity of which so 

 much is said and written, by people who under- 

 stand very little about it. Nor do I allude solely 



