Whenever they quarrel with each other, or with the local authorities of the Government, from whatever cause, they take to indiscriminate plunder and murder over all lands not held by men of the same class; no road, town, village, or hamlet is secure from their merciless attacks; robbery and murder become their diversion-- their sport; and they think no more of taking the lives of men, women, and children who never offended them, than those of deer or wild hogs.

They not only rob and murder, but seize, confine, and torture all whom they seize, and suppose to have money or credit, till they ransom themselves with all they have, or can beg or borrow.
Hardly a day has passed since I left Lucknow in which I have not had abundant proof of numerous atrocities of this kind committed by landholders within the district through which I was passing, year by year, up to the present day.

The same system is followed by landholders of smaller degrees and of this military class--some holders of single villages or co-sharers in a village.

This class comprises Rajpoots of all denominations, Mussulmans, and Pausies.
Where one co-sharer in a village quarrels with another, or with the Government authorities, on whatever subject, he declares himself in a _state of war_, and adopts the same system of indiscriminate plunder and reckless murder.

He first robs the house and murders all he can of the family of the co-sharer with whom he has quarrelled, or whose tenement he wishes to seize upon; and then gets together all he can of the loose characters around, employs them in indiscriminate plunder, and subsists them upon the booty, without the slightest apprehension that he shall thereby stand less high in the estimation of his neighbours, or that of the officers of Government; on the contrary, he expects, when his _pastime_ is over, to be at least more feared and courted, and more secure in the possession of increased lands, held at lower rates.
All this terrible state of disorder arises from the Government not keeping faith with its subjects, and not making them keep faith with each other.