Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/119

Rh brutal treatment of a poor native, in the teeth of the clearest evidence, the Governor-General rebuked the offenders in a scathing Minute which might have come from the pen of Dalhousie or Canning.

Allusions to sport occur occasionally. The partridge shooting at Culford was good, especially in November and December. And as the practice of driving birds was then unknown, it may be presumed that there was more cover in the fields than we see anywhere at present. But we do not find any mention of a tiger, a deer, or a buffalo hunt in any of the most familiar correspondence, though districts now entirely cleared of tree and grass jungle, numbering countless villages and containing a population of 500 souls to the square mile, were then the haunts of deer, wild boars, leopards, and tigers.

Some further details of the social condition of Calcutta are subjoined. They illustrate the habits and fashions of our grandfathers in India, and shed a pleasant light on the character and position of the Governor-General.

Cornwallis was not so taken up with big questions that he could find no time for measures affecting the health and comfort of the residents of Calcutta. Within a year of his arrival he, as Governor of Fort William — an office held with but independent of that of the Governor-Generalship — forbade inmates of the Fort to use flaring links and torches, but allowed the use of lanterns with candles along the ramparts and