be reckoned on in every new attempt; and the impossibility of travelling during the height of the rains in the plains of Bengal; I do not anticipate that less time will be occupied in my inquiries, if they are directed to be extended over the same space.
10. Estimate of expense.I have next to furnish an estimate of the expense that will be incurred in carrying this design into effect. Since your Lordship has required me to include in this estimate the sum requisite for my personal remuneration, which I should have gladly left entirely to your Lordship’s decision, I trust my suggestion on this head will be viewed with indulgence. I do not offer to engage in this undertaking merely for the sake of a livelihood, but support and provision for my family is one of the objects to which it is my duty to look, and when I mention to your Lordship that for the last six years I have had a net salary of Rupees 700 per month, for the discharge of what certainly were laborious but quiet and sedentary duties, your Lordship will probably not think me unreasonable if I propose the same monthly sum as my personal remuneration for duties still more laborious, since they will exact both much bodily toil and considerable mental activity. If your Lordship, considering the importance of the duties to be discharged, and the responsibility of the agent to be employed, that I am offering to the use of Government the knowledge and experience of mature age and the results of 17 years’ residence and studies in India, that I shall devote my undivided attention to the duty with which I may be charged—and that I ask and expect no pension and have no other resource whatever; if, considering these things, your Lordship should think the sum I have mentioned too low for my personal remuneration, I shall be thankful for any addition which your Lordship may deem proper.
11. The other principal items in the estimate consist of the establishment I must maintain and my travelling expenses. Finding it difficult to fix these in my own case, I sought to ascertain from the Civil
