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MARWARREES.

barely understood; while in Teloogoo and Canarese districts, his very existence there, much less his association with any village community, is quite incomprehensible. Very frequently the Marwarree's national reputation prevents his settling in any village of a district. The local Bunnea element may be strong, and shuts up its shops by way of protest against the outsider. This scarcely signifies to the immigrant. He will surely find some place where he is not disturbed, and once he settles, he never gives up; and, indeed, for the most part, the people have found out that it is better to encourage the Marwarree to become one of themselves, to share the fortunes of their community, than to keep him restless and striving. Thus, the Marwarree who can see the best way to permanent advantage, modifies the grinding, grasping, national spirit, and becomes the beneficial trader and local banker, greatly respected, especially when he brings his wife from his own land, and children grow up about him. Now he is more than respected - he is honoured, nay, often beloved. His natural intelligence spreads among the people, and improvement ensues. His capital helps the whole community, and he is not, so to speak, more extortionate than the people can afford to allow him to be. He is charitable and industrious, ignorant, but liberal in his ideas and proceedings. In short, he occupies a very valuable position, and makes the most of it in a legitimate manner. 

It is little known, perhaps, how much the settlement of Marwarree merchants has influenced the local progress of the provinces to which they have emigrated, and how much even their hard, griping proceedings have done to advance and accelerate progress, where they could be controlled, and where the people could be brought to a knowledge of their own right and the protection afforded by the law. Berar, one of the greatest cotton provinces of India, under the extortions of the native government, and the petty Marwarree traders and bankers, had been reduced to the lowest ebb. Under our own administration of the province, it is now a garden, and the Marwarrees have, in a very considerable degree, assisted by their capital in its development. They are now content with legitimate transactions, and extortion for the most part has become a thing of the past. And the same may be said of them in all purely British provinces. To them England is indebted - and this fact is little known - for an immense extension of its manufactures, which are carried by them into localities where they were previously scarce, and exchanged for local produce, or sold retail to the people.

Marwarree agency is not confined to India. The fraternity may be seen in China, in Africa, in Arabia, and in Persia, unchanged in character, and in their one pursuit, that of wealth. For them education has no charms. It is not one of their necessities at all. Many of them can barely read or write enough to carry on business, and a village Marwarree's books have an unenviable notoriety. The character they use is the "Mahajun," a kind of Deva Nagri running hand, very