ANGLO-INDIAN HOSPITALITY. 347 



of which he was undoubtedly guilty either as principal or as 

 accomplice, evading justice only through the extreme tender- 

 ness of our laws towards the accused, and the slow, clumsy 

 procedure of the Courts, which, with their elaborate forms 

 and machinery, afford every facility for escape to the criminal, 

 reminding one of a poacher who sets the most ingenious and 

 complicated snares, but leaves in them many issues for the 

 escape of the game he hopes to catch. In the case in point, 

 the convict servant was immediately discharged ; but there is 

 little doubt that he obtained employment again under an 

 assumed name, in some other district, with some equally care- 

 less employer. 



The new-comer will have read and heard much of the 

 profuse hospitality of Anglo-Indian houses. True enough for- 

 merly ; but he must moderate his expectations in this respect, 

 and need not apprehend a superfluity of pressing invitations 

 " to come and stay as long as you can " on his arrival in Cal- 

 cutta. He will, in due course, find this virtue still surviving 

 in the " Mofussil," that is, in the interior of the country, and 

 flourishing vigorously among the indigo plants, and around 

 the indigo vats. There are many potent causes for the 

 change which has taken place of late years, with which he 

 will become fully acquainted after a residence of a year or 

 two in Bengal. He must also modify considerably the com- 

 monly accepted estimate of the facilities for travelling based 

 on liberal loans of boats, elephants, horses, and conveyances 

 on the part of the residents of the interior, for he will have 

 to depend mainly on his own resources, except in Northern 

 Behar, where he will still receive much kind assistance in this 

 respect. European civil officials are " few and far between," 

 and even among those few, some eschew the indulgence of 

 more than one or two horses or ponies, some even preferring 

 to plod on foot to their Courts, sheltering their dignity under 

 the humble gingham ; while the many native officials rarely 

 venture on the extravagance and perils of riding horses. I 

 found myself once in a small civil station in Eastern Bengal 

 where there were two horses in all, and not a single gun or 



