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SCENES IN INDIA. 
CHAPTER IX. 
PHANSIGARS. 
While Europeans have generally travelled through 
India in comparative security, arising from the dread 
inspired by the power and dominance of the British 
government, the path of the native has been beset 
with perils by the hordes of ferocious robbers which 
everywhere abound, from the highest regions of the 
Himalaya mountains to the southern extremity of 
Hindostan. 
This is one of the sad fruits of imperfect legislation, 
that, by an unpardonable tolerance of delinquency by 
the petty governments into which this vast country is 
divided, leaves the public peace exposed to outrageous 
violations. Impunity is an encouragement to crime, 
and until the laws which emanate from the native 
tribunals of India are enforced with strict and im- 
partial severity, man will prey upon his fellow with 
that sanguinary ferocity which nature dictates to the 
wild beasts of the forest only. 
Encouraged by the general apathy of the native 
princes, tolerated desperadoes commit their depre- 
dations with comparative impunity ; and in many 
instances their extraordinary dexterity is equalled 
only by the savage brutality with which they per- 
