one of them the chosen and salaried servants
of that great public body which represents
England in India, and for every one of whose
doings the good name of England is pledged
to the countless millions whom we have
taken under our paternal rule in that unhappy
empire.  For every official deed of
theirs; for every act of cruelty, injustice, or
rapine; for every anna of the wretched ryot's
substance wrongfully extracted; for every
torture or indignity inflicted upon his most
miserable carcase, the Honourable East
India Company is responsible.

And now let us see how the case stands.
Messrs. Elliot, Stokes and Norton have collected
information from all parts of the
Madras Presidency, and have heard evidence
from every class, directly or indirectly concerned ;
from the rent-collectors and the rent-payers,
and from every section of both.
These gentlemen unhesitatingly report, as the
result of their inquiries, that "personal violence
on the part of the native revenue and
police officials prevails throughout the presidency;"
personal violence of such a character
that, "in five recorded instances. death has
followed upon its infliction."  They declare
this to be "the only conclusion that any impartial
mind could arrive at.  The use of
wooden pincers (the kittie); trussing a man;
bending him double (anandal); squeezing the
crossed fingers with the hands; punches on
the thighs; slaps; blows with the fist or a
whip; twisting the ears; making a man sit
on the soles of his feet with brickbats behind
his knees; putting a low caste man on his
back; striking two defaulters' heads against
each other, or tying them together by the
hair; placing in the stocks; tying the hair of
the head to a donkey's or a buffalo's tail;
placing a necklace of bones, or other disgusting
or degrading materials round the neck," —
are some of the usual ways of expediting the
receipt of money.  The police officials often
however resort to more severe procedures;
as, for instance, "twisting a rope
tightly round the arm or leg so as to
impede circulation; lifting up by the moustache;
suspended by the arms while tied
behind the back; searing with hot-irons;
placing scratching insects, such as the carpenter
beetle, on the most sensitive parts
of the body; dipping in wells and rivers
till the victim is half suffocated; beating
with sticks; nipping the flesh with pincers;
putting pepper or red chillies in the eyes,
&c.; these cruelties being occasionally persevered
in till death, sooner or later, ensues."

We must constrain ourselves to tell one or
two of the cases which came under the
Commissioners' notice.  A ryot named Sooboraya
Pillay, who cultivates land to the
yearly value of two hundred and forty rupees
(or twenty-four pounds), was a defaulter on
rent-day, in December, eighteen hundred and
fifty-four, to the amount of fifteen rupees, or
one pound ten shillings.  The poor man
alleged that his crop had been very bad;
and (probably imagining that the Honourable
Company would hardly miss his fifteen rupees
out of its total land-tax of fifteen millions
sterling), asked to be let off.  But no.
"They had me placed in the sun," he told
the Commissioners, "my head tied down in
a stooping posture; they had me beaten with
a whip, and stones put in, and pinched my
thighs;"— And this, for a deficit of thirty
shillings!  The miserable man adds, that he
sold the bullocks from his plough to pay the
money.

In April of the same year, another ryot,
Kistna Pillay, the entire amount of whose
little rent was six pagodas (or about fifty
shillings) a year, being in arrear to the extent
of ten shillings, was given up by the monigar,
or village collector, to the police; by them
was placed in anandal (that is, trussed down
with a weight upon his back); was beaten
upon the thighs; and, lastly, had the kittie,
or wooden squeezer, applied to his fingers.
In the case of another cultivator, named
Kistniar, there was a refinement in the use of
the kittie.  It was applied to both his hands
by the peons, under the immediate superintendence
of the duffadar; but, lest the
ordinary mode of pressing it with the hands
should not be sufficient, the wretches stood
upon it until the unhappy man fell down
from pain.  His arrear was two pounds, and
he had promised to pay that sum in four days,
as soon as  he received from Pondicherry the
proceeds of the sale of his crop, which had
been sent by him to that market.  But they
would not wait.

Commonly, too, these hapless creatures are
made to cooperate in torturing themselves.
Fancy a full-grown man submitting quietly
to stand for half a day with a huge stone on
his back, on his head, or on his shoulders!
Imagine another tamely crossing his own
fingers and thumb, or interlacing the fingers
of the right and left hands, while the peon is
adjusting the kittie, or rubbing his hands
with sand or dry earth for a comfortable
squeeze — squatting upon the ground with his
arms and legs interlaced, and holding his
ears one by each hand!

The unhappy ryots, it would seem, are but
too glad to submit to such degradation, in
order to escape worse.  It would have been
well for Abookkier Saib, for example, to have
gotten off so easily.  This poor fellow (who,
I dare say, would willingly have stood upon
one leg for a whole week in preference) was
put into anandal, his neck being tied down to
his feet by a cord only two cubits in length;
his fingers were screwed in the kittie till the
bones protruded through the flesh; his
thighs were pinched till the skin was actually
flayed; and he was finished off with a supplementary
boxing, flogging, and kicking for
the space of three hours.  He owed to the
Honourable Company eight shillings!

Occasionally, the poor ryot will try to