A Thug leader, possessed of most polished manners and great eloquence, being asked by a native whether he never felt compunction in murdering innocent people, answered, with a smile, "Does any man feel compunction in following his trade? and are not all our trades assigned us by Providence?" The native gentleman said, "How many people have you, in the course of your life, killed with your own hands, at a rough guess?" "I have killed none!" "Have you not been just describing to me a number of murders?" "Yes; but do you suppose I could have committed them? Is any man killed from man's killing? Admeeke marne se koee murta. Is it not the hand of God that kills him? and are we not mere instruments in the hand of God?"

Fatalism is a prominent dogma of the creed of the Thugs; and they consider themselves, in the exercise of their trade, to be entirely exempt from moral responsibility. Yet, in the attention to omens, or in the neglect of these instructions, they strangely enough appear to regard themselves as free agents, who may expect reward for obedience and punishment for disobedience. In their view, to commit murder is inevitable, and a matter of necessity to murder according to rule is an act of choice; and to choose aright is meritorious.

How, it may well be asked, could such a fraternity grow up in Hindoostan, and be permitted to carry on their depredations for so many ages? But the same religion that allowed the mother to strangle her infant, that suffered the Brahmans to offer up their human sacrifices, that commanded the helpless female to mount the funeral pile, that encouraged the devotee to throw himself under the wheels of Juggernaut, patronized the Thugs in their assassinations, and gave them the license of plunder at their will. What class in the community, then, could dispute their right, or question their authority? Many of the native rajahs had licensed the infamous system; a certain tax was levied upon every house which was known to be inhabited by a Thug; and, under the sanction of the law and the government, the assassin was permitted to carry on his atrocious deeds throughout the country. Nay, such was the encouragement these murderers received, and so useful were they to the public treasury, that, when the British government resolved to put them down, and applied to the independent princes to coöperate with it in accomplishing this object, the rajah of Joudpoor contended that he had a right to protect the Thugs, and refused to give up

those who had taken refuge in his territory; and had it not been for the firmness of Lord William Bentinck, who ordered an army to assemble on the frontier of his dominions, and showed him that it was impossible the Joudpoor province should become the rendezvous of a banditti who would commit their depredations with impunity upon the other states of the empire, the system would have flourished, under such protection, to this day.