Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1838-01-10
VOL. X. NO. 16.

+ rushes through troughs into channels,
which lead to every bed. A man passes
along, who, after suffering a proper guam
tity of water to flow upon bed, scrapes
with his hand little soil into that char
mel, and leads the water into another,
passing thus from bed to bed. till the whole
is walered The services Of watering
pot would be wholly inadequate, in so hot
climate and without any rain. .4.
Such practice is doubtless alluded to,
Prov. xxi, /, where it is said of Gods
easy control of human hearts, that "he
turneth them as the rivers (riyulets) of
water"
AS there is always power enough in a
tropical sun, to produce vegetation, mois-
ture alone is necessary to continual crop
| ping. Districts, therefore, furnished as
this is, with tanks. and rivers, present
continually all the varieties Of seasons in
Europe. The eye Wanders over large
fields, in some parts of which men are
tploughing, In others planting, and in
others harvesting, and bearing away on
their heads the ripe grain. Each field is
divided as in our own rice-erowing dis
trcts. into small compartments, separated
by narrow mound Of earth, about a foot
high. On any of these the water is
turned at pleasure, while the rest are dry;
and every stage OF the process, and of
the grain, is seen at once Most of the
lands are cropped twice year; some
times with rice, but more frequently with
rice first, and then some other grain or
pulse
The scene is beautiful but .squaIid
poverty, and miserable nendicants con-
stantly obtrude, and remind one of Pope's
lines
" In vain kind seasons swell the teeming grain,
Soft showers distil and suns grow wsrm in vain:
The swain, with tears, his Illustrate labor Yields,
, And, furnished, dies amidst his ipened fields
All the writers | have been able to
: consult, and most of my friends in yari-
Gus parts of Hindostan, declare India to
4 be in state Of progressive poverty and
depression. The following observation
of Hamilton embodies the general idea.
f After stating many facts, and adducing
public records to prove his assertion, and
remarking that the nature of the connec-
ton which binds the country to Britain,
: will sufficiently account for this tendency
to deterioration, without resorting to local
mismanagement, he says -" All the off,
ces of emolument civil and military, and
, the highest lines of commerce ale in the
hands of strangers, who, after Temporal
5 residence, departed, with the capital they
? have accumulated Under native rulers,
Y even the extortions of rapacity, and the
D drains of tribute returned into circulation
e and promoted in some form, territorial
e industry. Under its present constitution,
. the remittance, or rather tribute to Britain
t carries off every year large share Of the
produce for which nothing is returrrd.""
-, The number of slaves in this region, is
e said to be greater than in most other parts
of India; and embraces nearly the whole
Of the Punchum Bundam caste
o In every part of the Company's terrific.
ry slavery exists. No efforts have been
: made TO ascertain their precise number
e and condition. After much inquiry,
o. am disposed to compute them at about
:, one in twenty of the inhabitants that is
r about ten millions Their condition must
in many respects, be not worse than that
n up not only by propagation, but by the
e sale of children by their parents. Manu-
$ missions, however, are frequent among
: the opuIent. The subject seems not tc
q have excited the attention of British phi
3 Ianthropists to any considerable extent
If One great reason why it has not beer
a abolished, is, that British courts are
guarded by Hindoo and Mahometan laws
J. and these sanction the system.
IS "Hamion's Gazetteer of India