Twelve years of a soldier's life in India : being extracts from the letters of the late Major W.S.R. Hodson; including a personal narrative of the siege of Delhi and capture of the King and Princes / edited by his brother, George H. Hodson.

  • William Stephen Raikes Hodson
Date:
1859
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Twelve years of a soldier's life in India : being extracts from the letters of the late Major W.S.R. Hodson; including a personal narrative of the siege of Delhi and capture of the King and Princes / edited by his brother, George H. Hodson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    most rejoiced at the and Sir F. Currie's con- siderate kindness in devising it. We wont say anything of the regularity or consistency of making a man of two and a half years’ service^ and who has passed no examination, a political officer, nor will we be ungrateful enough to say that he is unfit for the appointment, but that he should do his utmost to show that the rule is more honoured ^ in the breach than in the observance.’ Residency, Lahore, April i6th, 1848. I shall not have the same variety to chronicle now that I seem to be fixed here, but more interest and a higher style of work. Since I wrote last I have been six hours a day employed in court, hearing petitions and appeals in all manner of cases, civil and criminal, and in matters of revenue, as there are but two officers so employed. You, perhaps, mil com- prehend that the duty is no sinecure. It is of vast importance, and I sometimes feel a half sensation of modesty coming over me at being set down to administer justice in such matters so early, and with- out previous training. A little practice, patience, and lefiection settle most eases to one’s satisfaction owever; and one must be content with substantial justice as distinguished from technical law. In anv refe^tf T to knl has the satisfaction of saveTv^a ve untrammelled av by a very simple code. Some things, such as entencing a man to imprisonment for s^;ven yea kilhng a cow, are rather startling to one’s ideas of
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