12,4 
POONAH 
patronage of Lady Mackintosh. Colonel Close had the distribution 
of it : he had previously fed fifteen hundred people daily with boiled 
rice ; but the sight of the food rendered them nearly frantic ; con- 
fusion ensued, and numbers lost their share, particularly the more 
helpless. The Colonel therefore determined that this contribution 
should be distributed in money, each person to receive sufficient to 
purchase one good meal in the four and twenty hours. Eight pice 
were adequate to this ; children had a smaller sum,who, with the wo- 
men, had the preference. About five thousand daily were relieved, 
and it sustained them till the new crops were gathered in, so that their 
lives were actually saved to society. The money operated less on 
their feelings, than the food : the confusion was consequently less. 
It was regularly the business of an officer, with a guard of sepoys, 
to superintend the distribution. The sending up of rice from the 
coast was considered as ineligible, from the expense of conveyance. 
Indian wheat and juwarry had already been got in; rice was ex- 
pected to be so in about a fortnight. The officer commanding the 
garrison was particularly careful in protecting the fields around the 
town ; the English name is therefore very popular among the lower 
orders. The guard of one hundred seapoys was not more than suf- 
ficient for these purposes. Several Brahmins, who were no objects 
of charity, mixed with the beggars, and tried to obtain a share : 
when detected, they were instantly punished with four dozen 
lashes, in defiance of the holiness of their character; nor has this 
been since objected to. His Highness feeds a great number of his 
own cast, but his charity has not extended further. 
It is impossible to teach a native Prince the duty of protecting 
his subjects. During the scarcity, the number of lives saved by the 
