Page:The Marquess of Hastings, K.G..djvu/222

214 ness entreated me to rely on his unreserved devotion. To understand this warmth of feeling, one ought to know the excessive depression in which half-castes are held by the Company's servants .'

A brief note should not be omitted in this volume, to record the public works which were undertaken during the administration under review. Roads, bridges, and canals were constructed or repaired, and the communications throughout the country were improved, by which the internal commerce was promoted and agricultural industry encouraged. Delhi, in the last century, had been supplied with good water by a canal which the Mughals had made; but the works had fallen into decay for many a long year, and as the Jumna, on which the city is situated, passes over great beds of natron, the inhabitants were condemned to use the brackish water which was all they could get. Lord Hastings caused this canal to be opened up, and thus Delhi was indebted to him for a gratuitous and plentiful supply of pure water drawn from the spot where the Jumna issues from the mountains, before it enters into the plains. He also restored two other canals, one, which ran into the province of Hariána, and another which traversed the Doáb. The districts moreover through which these water-courses went, were once again rendered fit for human habitation.

Calcutta, the seat of government, was in a very unhealthy state, and though Lord Wellesley had done