system only just detected in its operation, the officers who were first appointed to investigate the reports and accusations of the informers, used their utmost efforts to arouse in the Supreme Government a corresponding interest, and happily succeeded. The matter was taken up most warmly by the Governor-General, Lord William Bentinck[1], and the Supreme Council, and highly intelligent officers were appointed to superintend the execution of measures in those districts where Thuggee was discovered to be in practice. Most of the native princes gave up claims upon such of their subjects as should be apprehended upon charges of Thuggee, or who should be denounced by the informers; and although in many parts the landholders and Potails of villages protected the Thugs, and resisted their apprehension, yet the plans for the suppression of the system were
- ↑ As the last sheets of this work are passing through the press, the melancholy intelligence of the death of Lord W. Bentinck has reached England. I am thus prevented having the honour of placing his name in conjunction with that of Lord Auckland, in the Dedication of these volumes.
