SURAT.
37
he overworks his men, and for the slightest error, such as he commits a thousand a day, he cuts the poor wretches in the tenderest, and, alas, the slenderest part! Sir Richard Temple could have made an excellent license-tax collector of my friend the postmaster. He is a typical instance of what we call here "a zealous official"—the man who, be he Native or European, brings the Government into utter disrepute by resorting to petty high-handedness like this, very often in order to curry favour with arbitrary and unscrupulous superiors. Such men are, unhappily, not few nor confined to a limited area. They are scattered over the whole Empire, and are doing damage to the préstige of the Government wherever they are.
