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BOMBAY. 
should vie with the others in splendor or expense. The society is 
less numerous, and the salaries are smaller ; economy is consequently 
more attended to by a kind of tacit compact ; the style of living is 
however frequently elegant, and always comfortable and abundant. 
I confess, that having so lately quitted my native country, I pre- 
ferred it to the splendid -profusion of Calcutta. The necessaries of 
life are here dearer than in the other parts of India ; the wages of 
servants are consequently much higher. Rice, the chief food of the 
lower orders, is imported from Bengal even in favourable years ; at 
present the famine has raised it to an alarming price. Grateful, 
however, must the inhabitants be to Providence, for having, at such 
an eventful period, placed them under the British protection, and 
relieved them from those sufferings which afflict the nations around 
them. The subscriptions, which were entered into to extend this 
benefit beyond the limits of their territory, do honour to the gen- 
tlemen of the settlement. Hospitals were opened for the gradual 
administering of relief to such as were too much exhausted to feed 
themselves, and hircarrahs were placed on the confines to bring in 
those whose strength had failed them before they could reach the 
fostering aid that was held out to them by the hands of British be- 
nevolence. The preservation of several hundreds of thousands on 
the Malabar coast may be attributed to the overflowing supplies 
which Bengal was able to pour out for their support, in consequence 
of the fifty years tranquillity which she has enjoyed under her pre- 
sent masters.- India, under one supreme controul, can never expect 
to feel the effects of famine ; for a season which causes a scarcity in 
one party generally produces an increase of produce in another ; and 
the devastations of hostile armies will be at an end, which can 
