YOU write, “that eighty smiths are required in the musquet manu­factory at Khân-Khânhully; and that, having made an application “for this number to the Aumils of the surrounding districts, they had “answered, that the Ryots excused themselves from furnishing them “just now, on account of its being tillage time.”

It is known. As the tillage of the land does not depend on black­smiths, we write to desire, that the most peremptory orders may be issued to the Aumils within your jurisdiction, and enforced by bailiffs, for providing [immediately] the requisite number of these artificers.

Whatever might be the case in Mysore, it is, at least, certain, that in the provinces of Bengal and Behar, the cultivation of the lands depends, in a very material degree, on the manufacturing classes and artizans; who, at the tillage season, are accustomed to quit their ordinary avocations, and to resume, for the necessary time, the labours of husbandry. Even the soldiers, at this period, are in the habit of returning on furlough to their native villages, for the purpose of working in the fields belonging to their respective families. I am inclined to think, that the same practice will be found to have obtained in Mysore; and, indeed, the reference made to it by the Ryots, sufficiently establishes the fact. At this rate, the Sultan could not be ignorant of its existence; so that, in saying, “the culture “of land did not depend upon blacksmiths,” he probably sacrificed the truth, and, what was worse, persisted in his oppression, chiefly for the sake of a conceit. Eighty men taken from the plough at such a time, would hardly fail to produce a material embarrasment in the agricultural operations of the district which was obliged to furnish them.