3U APPENDIX. 



tunate dupes to institute a Oiyil suit against them in the Sudder 

 Ameen's Court. Europeans of the worst class, and particularly fo- 

 reigners, hare recently settled themselves upon the Hills, and hare 

 emulated the natives in carrying on this system. 



3. — The warning given to the Government by the present Comman- 

 dant, that the impunity given to the lesser crimes, would eventually 

 lead to the commission of greater ones, has, within the last few weeks, 

 been frightfully fulfilled ; several scenes of the most revolting outrage, 

 and murder, having occurred amongst the natives. 



4. — ^One half, of the-, so-called, servants upon the Neilgherries, are 

 either hberated, or escaped convicts ; and, in consequence of there 

 being no law between master and servant, and the Legislative Council 

 of India having refused to pass one, these malefactors earn a livelihood, 

 by practising upon the fears of unprotected ladies and famiUes. This 

 has latterly risen to such a pitch, that several have quitted the Neil- 

 gherries, not deeming either their persons or property secure, under 

 the system at present existing. 



5. — G-ang robberies, and dacoities are on the increase, amongst the 

 natives, at a distance from the station, emboldened by the defective 

 state of the law to suppress them ; in fact, founded, as this is, on mere 

 Musulmau tradition, it may be safely asserted, that there is scarcely 

 an act of the Magistrate, undertaken for the seomity of life ^nd pro- 

 perty, that does not render him hable to a prosecution, which, in fact, 

 has been threatened, in regard to the present Commandant, for suppress- 

 ing nuisances, which, in any country in Europe, would have rendered 

 their perpetrators Hable to the heaviest penalties. 



6. — The only real, and eifectual remedy for the evUs, at present so 

 universally prevalent upon the N eilgherries, and to make them what 

 they very soon would be, a blessing to all visitors, as well as the perma- 

 nent residents, is, to carry out the Marquis of Dalhousie's intention, 

 had his Lordship remained in India, of making the whole of these 

 Districts a non-Kegulation Province. 



