The Friend of India June 7th 1838

Though the exportation of labourPrs from this country has not reached that maturity of iniquity which characterized the African Slave Trade ; and though it would be wrong in the present stage of the transaction to designate it by any harsher name than that of a slave trade in embryo yet through the weakness and ignorance of the one party and the vigor and ability displayed by the other it is [...] It is true that a confidcrable number of Brahmuns are employed in teaching the schools of the people; but they consist of the ordinary ignorant Brahmuns who have never learned the first rudiments of the language of the Vedas. [...] It is ocetaionally the laguage of the pulpit in the celebrations of the Moharram it is the language of the long established manuscript Akhbars or Intellgencers of the native courts and of the printed newspapers of modern times addressed to the educated classes of society ; and the employment of less worthy medium in composition is genrally considered inconsistent with the dignity of li [...] There we levy no tax ; we abstain from all interference with the internal economy of the temple; and the revenues of the shrines are under the exclusive controul of the Priests—but we maintain a strict Police to protect the worshippers'from oppression ; and the Magistrate is ever ready to prevent diturbances. [...] The senery is bold and sublime -on a scale of nine thousand feet above the level of the sea ; and it is in the immediate vicinity of the sublimest range of mountains in the world.