MYSORE, CAtfARA, AND MALABAR.

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of the very limited prerogatives that they had enjoyed by the CHAPTER
feudal system, under which they could neither exact revenue from
the lands of their vassals, nor exercise any direct authority in their Jan. 11;
districts. Thus the ancient constitution of government (which,
although defective in many points, was favourable to agriculture,
from the lands being unburthened with revenue) was in a great
measure destroyed, without any other being substituted in its
room. The Raja was no longer, what he had been, the head of a
feudal aristocracy with limited authority, but the all powerful de-
puty of a despotic prince, whose military force was always at his
command, to curb or chastise any of the chieftains who were in-
clined to dispute or disobey his mandates. The condition of the
inhabitants under the Rajas, thus reinstated in their governments,
was worse than it had been under the Canarese Brdhmans; for the
Rajas were better informed of the substance of individuals, and
knew the methods of getting at it. In short, the precarious tenures
by which the Rajas held their station, joined to the uncontrolled
authority with which they were vested, rendered them to the ut-
most degree rapacious; and not even a pretence was set up for
exacting money from all such as were known to have any. There
were no laws ; money insured impunity to criminals, and innocent
blood was. often shed by the Rajas own hands, under the pretence
of justice. In the space of a few years many of them amassed trea-
sure, to an amount unknown to their ancestors; and had it not been
for the dread that they entertained of Hyder's calling them to an
account for their ill-gotten wealth, their situation under him was
better than that which they held before the invasion. The county,
however, was daily declining in produce and population; in so
much that, at the accession of Tippoo, I have reason to conclude,
from my own observations, and from the inquiries which I then
made, that they were reduced to one half of what they had been at
the time of Hyder's.conquest. But still greater calamities were
reserved for the unfortunate inhabitants of this country in the