it-triCli:;CvfV^.-Ci;'/',\
 
 
 REFLEGTiaNS 
 
 THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 OF 
 
 BRITISH INDIA.
 
 
 LCJNDON : 
 
 i-RINlED EY S. AND K. BEKTLEY, 
 
 Uoisel-strtft, Fleet succt
 
 REFLECTIONS 
 
 THE PRESENT STATE 
 
 BRITISH IxNDIA. 
 
 " Ad illaniibi pro se qiiisque aciiter iiUendat animiim, qiije vitsp, qui mores fuerunt — 
 per quos viros, qiiibusque artibus, domi militi3eqne, et partiini et auctum imperinin 
 sit." Liv. Praif. 
 
 " Primo pecuniaf, dein imperii cupido crevit, et quasi materies omniuni malornm 
 fuere. Namque avaritia (idem, probitatem, ceteiasqiie artes bonas siibvertit ; pro liis 
 superbiam, crudelitatem, Deos negligere, omnia venalia habere, edocuit ; ambitio 
 multos mortales falsos fieri subegit ; aliud clausum in pcctore, aliud promptum in 
 lingUci habere ; amicitias inimicitiasque oon ex re, sed ex coramodo, eestumare ; ma- 
 gisque vultum quam ingeuium, bonum habere." Sall. 
 
 " Cum per se res mutentiir in deterius si consilio in melius non mutentur, quis finis 
 eritmali?" Lord Bacon. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HURST, CHANCE, AND CO., ST. PAULS CHURCH-YARD. 
 
 1829.
 
 
 r 
 
 
 TO 
 
 W. WHITMORE, Esq. M.P. 
 
 IN TOKEN OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 OF HIS ABLE AND DISINTERESTED EFFORTS 
 71 IN FAVOUR OF 
 
 THE FREE TRADE OF INDIA, 
 
 AND IN THE HOPE OF FURTHER ANIMATING 
 
 AND EXPANDING HIS EXERTIONS 
 
 IN A CAUSE 
 
 ^ WHICH IS NO LESS WORTHY OF THE STATESMAN, 
 
 THAN OF THE PHILANTHROPIST, 
 
 I 
 
 >^ THESE PAGES ARE 
 
 RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 

 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The object of the following pages is not to 
 enter upon the difficult, and almost unbound- 
 ed, field of discussion, relatively to the affairs of 
 India, but rather to attract public attention to 
 the perilous situation of our empire in that 
 quarter, with a view to the adoption of such 
 measures as may appear calculated to consolidate 
 its strength, and to prepare it for the eventful 
 crisis which, at no distant period, it must have 
 to encounter. Several of the topics here touch- 
 ed upon, are so ably discussed in the work on 
 " Colonial Policy as applicable to tlie Govern- 
 ment of India," that the Author feels himself 
 called upon to account for his having introduced 
 them at all. He can only say, that as he con- 
 sidered them incidental to his subject, he did
 
 viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 not think himself at liberty to avoid them alto- 
 gether ; and that, differing as he does only in a 
 very slight degree from the writer alluded to, 
 h£ shall feel himself amply rewarded if any of 
 his readers, who happen not to have perused the 
 above-named work, shall be induced to study it, 
 in order to make themselves fully acquainted 
 with the whole system of Indian Policy ; for a 
 work which has stronger claims to general at- 
 tention, or which is better calculated to become 
 the text- book of all who take a special interest 
 in the affairs of India, is nowhere to be found. 
 
 On the subject of the Freedom of the Press, 
 too, the Author has deemed it unnecessary, in 
 the present concurrence of all the liberal and 
 reflecting in the propriety and necessity of estab- 
 lishing such a principle, to add his feeble voice 
 to the almost a:eneral acclaim. " No man who 
 hath tasted learning," saitli Milton, " but will 
 confess the many ways of profiting by those 
 who, not contented with stale receipts, are able 
 to manage and set forth new positions to the 
 world ; and were tliey but as the dust and cin-
 
 INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 ders of our feet, so long as in that notion they 
 may yet serve to polish and brighten the ar- 
 moury of truth, even for that respect they were 
 not utterly to be cast away. But if they be 
 of those whom God hath fitted for the special use 
 of these times with eminent and ample gifts, and 
 those perhaps neither among the priests nor among 
 the Pharisees, and we, in the haste of a precipitant 
 zeal, shall make no distinction, but resolve to stop 
 their mouths, because we fear they come with 
 new and dangerous opinions, as we commonly 
 fore-judge them ere we understand them ; no less 
 than so to us, while, thinking thus to defend 
 the Gospel, we are found the persecutors ! This 
 I know, that errors in a good government and 
 in a bad are equally almost incident ; for what 
 magistrate may not be misinformed, and much 
 the sooner, if liberty of printing be reduced into 
 the power of a few ? But to redress willingly 
 and speedily what hath been erred, and in 
 highest authority to esteem a plain advertise- 
 ment more than others have done a sumptuous 
 bribe, is a virtue (honoured Lords and Commons)
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 answerable to your highest actions, and whereof 
 none can participate but greatest and wisest 
 men."* To the truth of such sentiments neither 
 the lapse of time nor the ingenuity of man has 
 been able to oppose any rational objections. 
 
 On the only remaining subject concerning India, 
 the expiration of the Company's Charter, it would 
 perhaps be premature to hazard any observations 
 at the present moment. That momentous ques- 
 tion must shortly be discussed ; but as yet, facts, 
 and not reasoning, are principally required. The 
 periodical renewal of this question is considered 
 by some as answering the effect which is aimed at 
 by Machiavel, when, speaking of the instability of 
 human institutions, he observes, that " those sys- 
 tems of government are best constituted, and con- 
 tinue longest, Avhich either have establishments or 
 institutions of their own, by the api)lication of 
 which tliey may be reduced to their first prin- 
 ciples ; or easily fall by accident, as it were, into 
 some course that tends to such a renovation."! 
 
 * Areopagitica. 
 
 t Political Discourses, chap. i. book 3.
 
 INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 But Sydney, in reasoning upon this passage, very 
 justly observes, that they who proposed doing this, 
 " ought to have examined whether that principle 
 be good or evil ; or so good, that nothing can be 
 added to it, which none ever was." * And certain 
 it is, that in the instance of the Company's char- 
 ter, what is termed the previous question, is of 
 much more importance than a discussion of the 
 conditions on which their lease should be renewed. 
 Such a mass of vested rights, as well as of rights 
 by prescription, have now grown up and blended 
 themselves with the existence of the charter, that 
 the voice of reason stands but an indifferent 
 chance, when opposed to the clamours of interest, 
 backed by the weight of political influence. Un- 
 happily, too, those who are chiefly concerned, the 
 natives of India, have no share in the debate, 
 excepting by means of the few disinterested indi- 
 viduals who spontaneously advocate their cause ; 
 and of the latter, a very small portion is in the 
 possession of wealth or influence ; for as the 
 wealth of an Indian has generally been accumu- 
 * Discourses on Government p. 406.
 
 Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 lated by the operation of Indian abuses, it is but 
 too frequently employed in continuing them. 
 
 How long, then, the present system is destined 
 to continue — how long our fellow-subjects in India 
 will have to defray the expenses of four distinct 
 governments, or to pay an enormous surplus reve- 
 nue, as a contribution towards the profit and loss 
 of their chartered rulers, it is in vain to conjecture; 
 but whatever be the determination on these points, 
 that something may be done to ameliorate the 
 condition of the inhabitants of our Eastern terri- 
 . tories generally, is most earnestly to be desired, 
 for the honour of human nature, as well as for 
 the real interest of the British empire.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page 
 
 On the Territorial Acquisitions of the English in Hin- 
 dostan, and their position amongst the Sovereign 
 Powers of Asia . . . . .1 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 On the Danger to which British India is exposed from 
 
 Invasion . . . . . .28 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 On the Condition of the People of Hindostan . , 74 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 On the general Character and Temper of the Natives 
 
 of British India . . . . .134 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 On the Colonization of India . . . .168
 
 REFLECTIONS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF THE ENGLISH 
 IN HINDOSTAN, AND THEIR POSITION AMONGST 
 THE SOVEREIGN POWERS OF ASIA. 
 
 " Memorare possem quibus in locis maxumas hostium 
 copias populus Romanus parva manu fuderit ; quas 
 urbes, natura munitas, pugnaiido ceperit ; ni ea res lon- 
 gius nos ab incoepto traheret." 
 
 The history of the rise and progress of British 
 influence in Hindostan has been so frequently 
 written, that in offering any observation on the 
 present situation of the East India Company, it is 
 only necessary to advert to a few of the most 
 prominent points of that eventful record. Most 
 English writers on the affairs of India, contem- 
 plating with a very natural complacency the vast 
 fabric which has been raised in so distant a part 
 
 B
 
 2 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 of the globe, by the enterprise and ability of their 
 countrymen, have been led to overlook, if not to 
 undervalue, the exploits of other European na- 
 tions in the same field of exertion, and have 
 easily persuaded themselves to believe that none 
 but Englishmen could have acquired so extensive, 
 and, apparently, so firmly-rooted a dominion. The 
 general impression which they thus endeavour to 
 convey, is not only inconsistent with that charac- 
 ter for impartiality which history ought to uphold, 
 but, at the present moment, is pregnant with the 
 most mischievous effects, as tending to bias our 
 speculations concerning the future government of 
 so interesting a portion of the British Empire. 
 It is easy to proceed from generals to particulars, 
 and to satisfy those who are already suflSciently 
 hostile to any change, that as Britain has shown 
 itself the most able, because the most successful, 
 candidate for supreme power in Hindostan, so 
 her empire having been acquired under the os- 
 tensible agency of the India Company, that Com- 
 pany, under a renewal of their privileges, will be 
 best able to preserve it. On this account, it 
 would not be without its use, at the commence- 
 ment of the ensuing discussions, to lay before 
 the public a succinct but impartial statement of 
 the exploits of the Portuguese, Dutch, and French, 
 in the course of their several attempts to establish
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 3 
 
 themselves in the continent of India. But as the 
 investigation would involve nothing short of a 
 general history of all the European settlements 
 in that part of the world, it is sufficient, perhaps, 
 on the present occasion, to refer to the pages of 
 Di Barros and Raynal, as excellent correctives of 
 our national historians ; and to intimate that the 
 exploits and noble conduct of Duarts Pacicco, with 
 his small but intrepid band of heroes, in defence of 
 Coction, against the King of Calicut ; or of Fran- 
 cisco D'Almeida, and his gallant son Don Sorengo ; 
 or, above all, of the great Alphonso Albuquer- 
 que at Ormus, Goa, and Malacca, achievements 
 which were even less honourable to his memory 
 than the title of Just, which his great and emi- 
 nent qualities extorted even from his enemies — 
 will not readily meet a parallel, and certainly will 
 not be surpassed, in the highest page of the Chro- 
 nicle of the East India Company. 
 
 It is an error more frequently committed by 
 those who merely record military events, than by 
 the writers of general history, to allow their at- 
 tention to be so entirely absorbed, by a desire to 
 augment the fame of their favourite heroes, as to 
 lead them to deny that the enemy had any quali- 
 ties to entitle him to respect ; forgetting that the 
 merit of success rises in proportion to the obsta- 
 cles opposed to it by his skill and courage. The 
 
 13 2
 
 4 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 contrary to this, however, appears to be the case 
 with the narrators of the actions of Europeans in 
 India, and a disposition is everywhere apparent to 
 magnify the triumphs of a discipUned force over 
 an ill-armed and tumultuous rabble, into matter 
 of national renown and congratulation. This ob- 
 servation does not apply to the Portuguese, because 
 their numbers were so exceedingly small, as to 
 render even their escape from such overwhelming 
 masses as they were opposed to, a subject of the 
 greatest surprise and admiration ; but, brilliant as 
 their exploits undoubtedly were, and making every 
 allowance for the national degeneracy which had 
 then begun to display itself, they must cede the 
 palm of intrepidity to the Dutch, who conquered 
 the conquerors, and, under the command of Jacob 
 Hemskerke, Gibrand Warwick, Stephen Vanha- 
 gen, and others, deprived them, after a short but 
 severe struggle, of almost all the conquests and 
 influence which they had acquired in India. But, 
 if not to the Portuguese, it nmst be admitted that 
 the observation applies to a great part of the 
 military history of the English in Hindostan ; and 
 certainly, if they had not been opposed to the 
 French, in the early part of their career, the re- 
 nown of their conquest would have been less 
 briUiant in proportion to the indifferent character
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 5 
 
 for military prowess of the only enemy with whom 
 they would then have had to contend. 
 
 The real cause of our success,* and the gene- 
 
 * Sir John Malcolm, in the introduction to his Political 
 History of India, observes, that the means by which India 
 was rendered subject to England, were, of all others, the best 
 calculated to effect that great object. " Force and power," 
 he says, " would not have approached the shores of India 
 without meeting with resistance ; but to the unpretending 
 merchant every encouragement was afforded," &c. This ob- 
 servation, however, is peculiarly unfortunate, for no Europeans 
 (even not excepting the Portuguese) ever approached India 
 more by the operation of force and power than the English. 
 Their first regular voyage, in 1601, after the Portuguese had 
 been in possession of their extensive influence in India for 
 more than a century, was signalised by the capture of one of 
 that nation's largest vessels. Ten years after they forced an 
 entrance into Surat, after worsting the Portuguese fleet, and 
 obtained permission to erect factories. The fact is, that the 
 length and danger of the voyage to India placed all adven- 
 turers under the necessity of embarking in the trade with 
 ships both well armed and well manned ; but the English, 
 above all others, were attentive to fortify themselves on 
 shore, and erect factories wherever they were able to esta- 
 blish themselves ; and a very few years after their first settle- 
 ment at Surat, we find them entering into a treaty with the 
 Dutch to pay half the expenses of the garrison of Pullicat, 
 besides maintaining ten ships of war in the Indian seas. 
 The expenses of their factories and fortifications were, in- 
 deed, objected to as early as 1668, and contracts with the 
 Native merchants recommended. — See Mill, vol. i p. 02, 3.
 
 6 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 rai ascendency we have acquired in India, does 
 not reside in our national character as English- 
 men, but in the moral and physical energy which 
 the arts of civilization confer on mankind, and in 
 which it is the peculiar distinction of Europe to 
 exhibit a marked contrast to the degenerate effe- 
 minacy of the greater part of the Asiatic conti- 
 nent. Long previous to the appearance of the 
 English on the Peninsula of India, the inhabitants 
 of that extensive region had felt, and acknow-' 
 ledged, the effect of European valour and disci- 
 pline. Our countrymen had only to repeat the 
 lesson which had but lately been impressed upon 
 the minds of the Natives by the hardy achieve- 
 ments already alluded to. The question as to the 
 
 From the first the English had shown themselves more than 
 a match for the Portuguese, — and from the Dutch they were 
 fortunately relieved, in a great measure, by the superior im- 
 portance which their formidable rivals attached to the spice 
 trade of the Indian Archipelago ; whilst the French, who 
 appeared upon the stage when our countrymen had already 
 become firmly settled, and, besides obtaining the cession of 
 Bombay, had distinguished themselves against the Mahrattas 
 — set the first example of aspiring to political influence, 
 grounded upon cessions of territory from the Mogul Em- 
 peror. In short, the very reverse of Sir John Malcolm's 
 observation appears to hold good, and the English may be 
 said to owe their success to their not having approached 
 India as unpretending merchants, but as warlike adventurers, 
 aided by force and power.
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 7 
 
 competency of an Indian army to cope with even 
 a vastly inferior force of disciplined Europeans, 
 was already settled. After the first encounter this 
 could never, indeed, have been for a moment 
 doubtful ; and, at the present day, it may be as- 
 serted, without fear of contradiction, that not- 
 withstanding the long intercourse which the peo- 
 ple of the Eastern world, whether under British 
 influence or not, have had with the English, and 
 with other Europeans — and notwithstanding the 
 numerous opportunities which they have had of 
 profiting by the examples placed before them, 
 there is not a nation from Persia to China, that 
 could oppose greater obstacles to the progress of 
 an European army, than were experienced in the 
 early period of our reign, when General Goddard 
 marched across the Peninsula. 
 
 The struggle for supremacy, then, was not in 
 reality a struggle between Europeans and Natives, 
 but between European rivals amongst themselves ; 
 and from the instant the command of the ocean 
 was obtained by the British, that struggle was at 
 an end. Dupleix, Bussy, and Suffrein, did much 
 to retard the event ; but as the main contest be- 
 tween England and France was decided in Eu- 
 rope, those eminent men did but vainly strive 
 against events which were totally beyond their 
 control. Tlieir efforts, indeed, rather tended to
 
 8 TEllRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 the advantage of the English Company, for it was 
 the policy adopted by Dupleix, that first suggested 
 that wide departure from the mercantile charac- 
 ter, which eventually placed us in the position we 
 now occupy amongst the powers of India. The 
 appointment of that able man to the Soubahdarry 
 of the Carnatic, by Salabut Jung, in 1755, and the 
 cession which his equally distinguished coUeaguCj 
 Bussy, obtained from the same Prince, of a part 
 of the Northern Circars, for the French Company, 
 were the prelude and pretence for the English 
 India Company's soliciting the title of Dewan of 
 Bengal. Indeed, if the course of European po- 
 litics had not taught the French commanders 
 rather to indulge their feelings of national rivalry, 
 than to attend to the prudent line of conduct 
 which theu' relative position in India ought to 
 have suggested, they would probably have avoided 
 coming into direct collision with their powerful 
 competitors; in which case, they would have pre- 
 served an influence in India, which even our 
 great maritime resources might not have enabled 
 us easily to destroy. Under this supposition, 
 what the result might have been if the French 
 had retained Surat, and directed all their efforts 
 to advance in the line of the Nerbudda, or even 
 the Indus, would be a curious, though now a 
 fruitless speculation.
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 9 
 
 But, whatever might have been the event, if 
 the decisive struggle had been deferred until the 
 rival Companies had been more nearly on an 
 equality as to their available resources, no man 
 can doubt that the conqueror was destined to be 
 Lord of the Indian World. By the discovery of 
 a passage round the Cape of Good Hope, the 
 weakest, and most effeminate portion of the globe, 
 was, in a manner, laid open to the attacks of the 
 strongest and most enterprising. The exploits of 
 the Greek mercenaries, the Macedonian conquest, 
 and even the comparatively feeble inroads of the 
 Romans in the decline of the Empire, had never 
 failed to evince the effect of military discipline, 
 when fairly brought to bear on the countless 
 array of an Asiatic force ; and if this is undenia- 
 ble as an historical fact, relatively to that portion 
 of the Eastern World, which, being in immediate 
 contact with the Western, was likely to have im- 
 bibed some share of its warlike character and 
 principles of organization, how much more certain 
 is it, that the same effect could not but follow in 
 a quarter, the remoteness of which from any such 
 source of improvement conspired, with an enerva- 
 ting climate, to render its inhabitants both morally 
 and physically an easy prey to the first invader. 
 Accoi-dingly, wc find that the conflict between 
 civilization and semi-barbarism : between the de-
 
 10 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 generacy attendant upon vicious institutions, and 
 the spirit of enterprise resulting from freedom and 
 intellectual energy, was never for an instant 
 doubtful. The same tide of success by which the 
 progress of the Spaniards was characterised in 
 America, carried forward the British in their con- 
 quest of Hindostan ; and if, in either case, that 
 tide seemed for a moment to be interrupted, it 
 was only when the confidence or arrogance of the 
 victor induced him to rely too much on his cou- 
 rage or good fortune ; in short, to despise every 
 indication of a warlike spirit on the part of his 
 opponents. 
 
 With such a prey, then, within their grasp — so 
 rich in attraction — so powerless to defend itself — 
 it is evident that there was no conceivable limit 
 to the career of our countrymen, but in the re- 
 straints which the great council of the nation 
 might see fit to impose upon them. The want of 
 the necessary funds, which, at first sight, promised 
 to become a barrier to their advance, became, in 
 fact, the principal inducement to their aggres- 
 sions, and, occasionally, furnished them with the 
 means of extending them. So many petty usur- 
 pations had started up, when the Mogul Empire 
 was dismembered, that the British, who made 
 their appearance at that crisis of intrigue and rival- 
 ry, not only found every facihty in compassing
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 11 
 
 their own more legitimate ends, but were tempted 
 by many an Indian Divitiacus to push forward 
 their invincible legions, and to interfere in the 
 politics of the country, by those splendid offers of 
 remuneration which the traitors were enabled to 
 hold out, by intercepting the provincial treasures 
 on their passage to the capital. It cannot be de- 
 nied that it required an arduous exertion of self- 
 denial to decline opportunities at once so tempting 
 in point of immediate profit, and attended, in 
 reality, with so little risk : in this sense it is no 
 doubt true, that the first advance of the English, 
 from their several factories, was decisive of their 
 future conduct, and the position in which they 
 found themselves was, certainly, little calculated 
 to encourage the adoption of any system of policy, 
 founded upon a just and equitable estimate of the 
 claims of the various powers with whom they were 
 thus suddenly brought in contact. 
 
 If the hope of gain, however, tempted the 
 agents of the Company to embroil themselves 
 with the Native Powers, their profusion and im- 
 prudence did not fail to involve them, shortly 
 after, in the greatest financial difficulties. An 
 inordinate thirst for commercial profit charac- 
 terised them as merchants, and an eager desire 
 to silence the scruples and reproaches of the home 
 authorities, by exhibiting a show of revenue as an
 
 12 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 excuse for their political enterprises, was the line 
 of policy subsequently pursued. At first they 
 merely stipulated with their Indian allies for an 
 exemption from duty on their merchandize ; but 
 afterwards, when they began to mix more inti- 
 mately in the intrigues of the petty chiefs around 
 them, they became willing accomplices whenever 
 the prospect of adequate advantage was held 
 forth ; and point d' argent point de Suisse^ would 
 then have been a much more appropriate motto 
 than the imposing one since adopted, without, it 
 is to be hoped, the sanction of the British Senate. 
 It had been well, indeed, if the possession of 
 wealth had been their only ambition; but when 
 the immense hoards of treasure, accumulated and 
 plundered throughout the Empire, were entirely 
 exhausted in the payment of their heavy demands, 
 the animosity and ambition of the Native Chiefs 
 still remaining unappeased, a convenient substi- 
 tute was found in land, and a district, yielding a 
 certain revenue, became, in most cases, the stipu- 
 lation agreed upon. But as it is a much easier 
 task to cede territory than to give quiet possession 
 of it, — to estimate the amount of revenue, than to 
 point out how that revenue is to be collected, the 
 territorial acquisitions of the Company almost 
 invariably brought with them the necessity for 
 expelling some occupant, whose title was, not
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 13 
 
 imfrequently, more valid than that of the power 
 assuming to be paramount, and of burthening the 
 unhappy population with taxes, in addition to 
 those which had already reduced them to the 
 greatest poverty. 
 
 Nor were these the only embarrassments in 
 which the foreign transactions of the Company in- 
 volved them. The several Presidencies of Bengal, 
 Madras, and Bombay, acting upon views of local 
 expediency, or of apparent commercial advantage, 
 were sometimes in direct opposition to each other, 
 and always exhibited, to the nations of Hindostan, 
 the spectacle of a people actuated by every im- 
 pulse of pecuniary or political covetousness. Thus 
 at Bombay, a league with the Mahrattas, the 
 enemies of the Mogul, for the protection of our 
 trade against Angria the pirate, — and with the 
 Mogul authorities themselves against the Mah- 
 rattas, — signalized the commencement of our ca- 
 reer in that part of India ; and the violation of the 
 treaty of Poorundur, and the disavowal of the 
 convention of Wargaum, soon followed. Thus 
 the Company offered its assistance alternately to 
 those who rebelled against their lawful sovereign, 
 and to that sovereign himself, just as its interest 
 at the moment happened to prompt : — witness the 
 deposition of Surajah-ul-Dowlah and of Meer 
 Jaffier, — the alliance with the Mogul against Cos-
 
 14 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 sim Alii, — the deposition of the latter, and the 
 restoration of Meer Jaffier, after the latter had 
 been stigmatized by them as an avaricious ruler, 
 whose chief officers sought only to enrich them- 
 selves by the plunder of the people, who had oc- 
 casioned a scarcity and dearness of provisions in 
 his country by the heavy and exorbitant taxes 
 which he had levied, and whose conduct, in short, 
 made him the dread and detestation of all good 
 men, and called aloud for a change of system : — 
 witness their subsequent opposition to the Mogul 
 himself, till bought off by a promise of the cession 
 of Oude, then ruled by Surajah-ul-Dowlah, who 
 himself, however, shortly after purchased their 
 alliance for fifty lacs of rupees, and availed himself 
 of their aid to crush the Rohillas, without the 
 shadow of a reason beyond the * fixed hate and 
 loathing' which he bore the posterity of Ali Mo- 
 hammed, the principal founder of their clan, and 
 the personal enemy of his father : — witness, also, 
 their disgusting arrogance and injustice towards 
 Mahomed Ali, Nabob of the Carnatic, who had 
 evinced his gratitude for their support, in fixing 
 him in his dignity, by contributing the treasures 
 left him by his father, his own large resources, 
 and all that he could raise upon credit, as a fund 
 to meet the expenses of the war with the French,
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 15 
 
 as well as for the re-establishment of their ruined 
 factories in Bengal, — conduct which left an inde- 
 lible stain, not only on the reputation of the Com- 
 pany, but on that of the British nation, by whom 
 the rights of the Nabob had been unequivocally 
 and solemnly acknowledged in the treaty of Paris 
 in 1763. Thus, too, on the Coromandel coast, 
 national rivalry was the occasion and excuse for 
 the agents of the Company endeavouring to ruin 
 the French interest at the Native Courts, by their 
 intrigues ; and the cession of the Northern Cir- 
 cars, in 1765, was the fruit of this policy ; whilst 
 at Calcutta, a thirst for dominion and pecvmiary 
 profit obtained Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, about 
 the same time, under a promise of the payment 
 of twenty-six lacs of rupees annually to the Mo- 
 gul, which tribute, though exceedingly small when 
 compared with the revenues of those provinces, 
 was withheld, in less than eight years, under the 
 pretext that the unfortunate Monarch, who it 
 was notorious was not master of his own actions, 
 had broken his agreement with the Company, by 
 consenting to reside in the capital of his Empire, 
 under the protection of the Mahrattas. And to 
 conclude, when Sir John Lindsay, and afterwards 
 Sir Robert Harland, were sent out from Europe 
 as commissioners and plenipotentiaries, to ensure
 
 16 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 the execution of the treaty of Paris, to which our 
 ally, Mahomed Ali, as well as Salabut Jung, Sou- 
 bahdar of the Deccan, were in some measure con- 
 sidered as parties, their presence was found so 
 inconvenient by the Council of Madras, that every 
 possible obstruction was thrown in their way, and 
 their recall earnestly, and, to the disgrace of the 
 nation, successfully recommended. The selection 
 of those individuals does not indeed appear to 
 have been a happy one ; but much allowance 
 should be made for them, in consequence of the 
 various and even impracticable engagements with 
 the Native Powers, with which the Company's 
 Government had embarrassed itself; — they deter- 
 mined to cut the knot which it was so difficult to 
 untie ; but in so doing, they ran the risk of com- 
 mitting even a greater injustice than that which 
 they desired to correct. Placed in a novel situa- 
 tion, with extensive but imperfectly defined pow- 
 ers, the Commissioners were probably inclined, 
 like the Supreme Court of Judicature on its first 
 establishment in Bengal, to interfere too much in 
 the ordinary administration of the Provinces ; but 
 their presence, under more precise regulations, if 
 they had been men of greater ability and expe- 
 rience, would stiU have been eminently useful, as 
 a check upon those proceedings of the Company's 
 Government, which so frequently entailed the
 
 THE ENGT.ISH IN INDIA. 1? 
 
 deepest disgrace upon tlie national character.* 
 The experiment miglit still he made with every 
 prospect of advantage. 
 
 But whatever may have heen the injury done 
 to our national character, it cannot be denied that 
 it is to a steady adherence to the system of poli- 
 tical barter just described, that the Company owes 
 its extensive territories. Nothing was done with- 
 out an equivalent, either in money, or in land, 
 rated at an annual revenue greatly exceeding the 
 interest of the outlay attending its acquisition ; 
 and it is susceptible of proof, that if commercial 
 had not been blended with political transactions, 
 
 * Hyder All is said to have declared that peace with the 
 English was indifferent to him, since they had shown them- 
 selves totally unworthy of confidence. The splendid passage 
 in Burke's Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's Debts, 28th Feb. 
 1785, is well known: — " When at length Hyder Ali found 
 that he had to do with men who either would sign no con- 
 vention, or whom no treaty and no signature could bind, and 
 who were the determined enemies of human intercourse it- 
 self, he decreed to make the country, possessed by these 
 incorrigible and predestinated criminals, a memorable ex- 
 ample to mankind. He resolved, in the gloomy recesses of 
 a mind capacious of such things, to leave the whole Car- 
 natic an everlasting monument of vengeance, and to put ■ 
 perpetual desolation as a barrier between him and those 
 against whom the faith' which holds the moral elements of 
 the world together was no protection." 
 
 C
 
 18 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 the liritish power in India would now exhibit the 
 singular spectacle, of a government continually at 
 war, and yet totally free from public debt. The 
 statements published by Mr. Rickards have clearly 
 shown, that whilst the utmost prosperity attended 
 the Company, even in its most unjustifiable ag- 
 gressions upon the neighbouring States, its trade 
 was so improvidently conducted as to threaten 
 absolute bankruptcy — a crisis which seems only 
 to have been averted by the appropriation of ter- 
 ritorial revenue to the amount of a million ster- 
 ling per annum, or, in other words, tlie imposition 
 of a tax to that amount upon their Indian sub- 
 jects. The whole of the dividends paid to pro- 
 prietors of India stock for a period of seventeen 
 years, prior to the last renewal of the Company's 
 charter, may, indeed, be said to have been fur- 
 nished hy money extorted from the people of Hin- 
 dostan, by a system of the most oppressive taxa- 
 tion probably ever inflicted ujion any country in 
 the world — a taxation so heavy, and so directly 
 tending to the impoverishment of the wretched 
 inhabitants, as to cause a doubt in the minds of 
 reflecting men whether we are not called upon, in 
 justice and in mercy, to relinquisli altogether the 
 possession of a country, the Government of which 
 is so mucli more expensive than its actual re- 
 sources are al)le to support.
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 19 
 
 But independent of political consideration, the 
 difficulties attending the abandonment of terri- 
 tory, particularly after it has been for any consi- 
 derable period under' our sway, are more than 
 sufficient to outweigh the humane motives upon 
 which such a measure might be suggested. To 
 whom, in fact, are we to restore such conquests ? 
 If the authorities from whom we wrested them, 
 we should merely relieve the inhabitants from 
 one set of usurpers, to deliver them into the hands 
 of a worse ; with the aggravation, too, of the lat- 
 ter being both exasperated and impoverished in 
 consequence of those changes which they believe 
 the English to have been principally instrumental 
 in bringing about. There is not, perhaps, a 
 square mile of territory, from Cape Comorin to 
 the Himalayah mountains, that had not for very 
 considerable periods been subject, under some 
 form or other, directly or indirectly, to foreign 
 dynasties or usurpers ; and it was but in compa- 
 ratively few instances, that the dismemberment 
 of the Mogul empire gave the actual possessors a 
 more valid claim, than that acquired by the Com- 
 pany in the course of their negotiations or con- 
 quests. The reproach of the Company is not in 
 its having appropriated as large a share of the 
 spoil as it could secure, by treaty, or by force of 
 arms, after it had declared itself a pohtical comjje- 
 
 c 2
 
 20 TEIIRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 titor ; but in having associated itself with mis- 
 creants and traitors, and, by alternately employ- 
 ing meanness and arrogance, open force, and 
 treacherous intrigue, having effected its guilty 
 purpose. To talk, then, of restoring possessions 
 acquired under such circumstances, is to inculcate 
 at least a very questionable morality, and to ad- 
 vocate the opinion, that provided our conscience 
 be quieted by such a measure, the subsequent 
 fate of the helpless natives need not give us the 
 slightest uneasiness. We have seen, however, too 
 many instances of the consequence of such a 
 step ; and a scene is now acting on the banks of 
 the Irrawaddy, which should for ever banish all 
 thoughts of adopting a line of conduct, which, 
 under the guise of magnanimity, is in reality an 
 act of the basest and most cruel desertion. It is 
 well known, that the inhabitants of Pegue were 
 encouraged to afford their assistance to the Bri- 
 tish army, by the proclamation published by Sir 
 A. Campbell, in which he exhorts them, by every 
 promise that could be supposed to tempt that na- 
 tion, to revolt against such an iron sway as that of 
 the Burmese. "Compare," says the British Com- 
 mander, "your condition with the comfort and 
 happiness of the poor maritime provinces, viz. 
 Mergui, Yeah, Tavoy, and Martaban, now under 
 the protection of the English flag ; follow tlieir
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 21 
 
 example to enjoy their blessings, by placing your- 
 selves under my protection ; it is a duty you owe 
 to your aged and infirm parents, to your female 
 relatives, your wives and children." — On being as- 
 sured that this proclamation really emanated from 
 authority, for they deputed one of their chiefs 
 expressly to make the inquiry, the major part 
 of them came over to the British Army, many of 
 them bringing their arms with them ; and during 
 the remainder of the war co-operated with our 
 forces. Yet, after having thus, upon the faith of 
 our promises, incurred the deepest resentment of 
 their unforgiving foes, the Burmese, they were 
 again delivered over to the tender mercies of the 
 Lord of the White Elephant, with merely the 
 hollow provision in their favour, contained in the 
 sixth article of the treaty of peace, that " no 
 person whatever, whether native or foreigner, is 
 hereafter to be molested by either party, on ac- 
 count of the part which he may have taken, or 
 have been compelled to take, in the present war.'* 
 The sequel is known to every body who has found 
 leisure to devote a few moments' attention to 
 what passes in so remote a part of the globe. 
 Those who escaped the sword fell by the hands 
 of the executioner, unless they averted their fate 
 by the payment of such heavy fines as reduced 
 them to a mass of abject and powerless slaves —
 
 22 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 themselves and all they hold dear kept, as the fatal 
 proclamation described them, " in constant terror 
 of their lives, and, like wild beasts, frequenting 
 jungles." And such, doubtless, would be the lot 
 of the inhabitants of India, generally, whenever 
 any considerable portion of the territory should be 
 abandoned by the British authorities.* The Ma- 
 hometan, assisted by crowds of Arab mercenaries 
 — the Seik — the Nepaulese — the Mahratta, and 
 even the Burmese, would carve, each for himself, 
 an empu'e over the less energetic inhabitants of 
 the peninsula. The greater, as well as most 
 fruitful portion of India, bounded as it is by na- 
 tions which are robust and warlike, in compari- 
 son with the inhabitants of the plains, is unfit for 
 
 * The abandonment of the Rajhpoot states in 1805, in 
 consequence of the line of policy imposed upon Lord Corn- 
 wallis, and his successor Sir George Barlow, it is well known, 
 consigned that unfortunate race to the avarice and extortion 
 of the Mahrattas, and their ally Amir Khan ; and it is wor- 
 thy of remark, that when those states were again taken 
 under the protection of the British Government, it was 
 only on condition of the greater part of them paying to the 
 Company the same tributes, in fact, that had been exacted 
 by the Mahrattas. This, indeed, was stated to be in return 
 for political protection, and military defence, but the whole 
 of the Mahratta powers having been completely prostrated 
 by the masterly operations of Lord Hastings in 1818, that 
 protection and defence were no longer necessary to their 
 security.
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 23 
 
 the establish ment of a government composed en- 
 tirely of natives : — like the horse in the fable, they 
 are incapable of putting forth their best speed, in 
 the race of civilization, without the assistance of 
 a rider to animate their exertions, and direct their 
 course. When successfully defended, it has al- 
 ways been by foreigners — witness the numerous 
 'Patan dynasties by whom Bengal and Behar were 
 so long maintained in independence, and who not 
 only repulsed all attempts to subdue tliem, but 
 even carried their arms beyond the Indus, and 
 conquered Cabul and Candahar. 
 
 The natives of the plains, indeed, appear to be 
 so insensible to that regard for the dignity of hu- 
 man nature, by which combinations for self-de- 
 fence, and public institutions of all kinds, are en- 
 couraged, — they are as a body so deficient in that 
 feeling of mutual confidence, upon which the 
 power of self-government must depend, that it 
 is quite impossible to believe them capable of de- 
 fending themselves against the encroachments of 
 their neighbours, in the event of the administra- 
 tion of the country being committed to their con- 
 trol. If such a step were taken, they woidd very 
 shortly invoke the assistance of their late masters, 
 and the groans of the Hindoos would place us 
 under the necessity either of entangling ourselves 
 once again in tlie politics of the country, or of
 
 24 TERlllTORIAI. ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 witnessing the oppression of our former subjects, 
 under the consciousness that our own government 
 had done its utmost to incapacitate them from 
 making anv resistance. 
 
 On these principles, the resignation of any part 
 of the Indian territory would be inconsistent with 
 justice or even with sound poHcy, for in the event 
 of a portion only being given up, its quick sub- 
 jugation, ])y the' most powerful of its neighbours, 
 would only protract for a little the jieriod when 
 we should have to struggle for our own safety, 
 and enter once more upon the arena of political 
 contention. The expediency of such a step, 
 though at all times furnishing an alluring topic 
 of declamation, is applicable, if at all, only to 
 such recent acquisitions, as, having been wrested 
 from organised governments, and not always 
 upon principles of self-defence, or under an ex- 
 pressed or implied oljligation to protect them 
 against former usurpers, do not involve either a 
 national breach of faith, or such a sudden change 
 in the settled state of society, as would occasion 
 inconvenience, if not ruin, to the majority of the 
 community. 
 
 The fact indeed seems to be, that in a country so 
 unsettled as India was at the time of the English 
 appearing in it, — in a country, too, so remarkaljly 
 deficient in that public spirit and character to be
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 25 
 
 acquired by civilization alone, it was very difficult 
 for the East India Company to maintain a station- 
 ary position. A certain degree of influence, and 
 a small extent of independent territory, were ab- 
 solutely necessary for its safety ; and had these 
 been secured upon a moderate scale, it might 
 always have commanded advantages sufficient to 
 preclude any apprehension of its being overawed 
 by a native force ; and the benefits of commerce 
 being reciprocal, the surplus produce of the coun- 
 try would not have failed, in that case, to find its 
 way into the English factories. To have con- 
 stantly declined advancing, however, when allure- 
 ments to ambition were everywhere held out, was 
 more than could have been expected from a go- 
 vernment administered by so many individuals 
 of various talents and character, and by men 
 whose distance from the Mother Country almost 
 entirely relieved them from responsibility. When 
 fairly committed in the great struggle for inde- 
 pendence and power, no matter whether by the 
 incapacity or the rashness of colleagues, the diffi- 
 culty of preserving a strict neutrality, without a 
 compromise of the national dignity, (a quality, 
 alas ! at once so palpable and so evanescent as to 
 invite and yet to elude the attempts of every 
 " brief authority" to define it) was enhanced, in 
 proportion to the numbers of all ranks of natives
 
 26 TERRITORIAL ACQUISITIONS OF 
 
 who voluntarily resided under their protection. 
 For it must not be concealed, that although the 
 subjects of the Company have great reason to 
 complain of the avaricious and oppressive nature 
 of its government, yet it is stiil, in most of its 
 features, very superior to any other which they 
 could hope to enjoy by a change of masters. If 
 it were otherwise, it would indeed be disgraceful 
 to human nature; but, nevertheless, it should not 
 be forgotten, that our duty is not restricted to 
 giving the country a better government than it 
 could expect under native rulers — we should give 
 it the best, which, under all circumstances, it is 
 capable of enjoying. 
 
 In despite, then, of the feeling of indignation 
 which every honest mind must experience, on 
 perusing a detail of the unworthy, and often cri- 
 minal, means by which the East India Company 
 have attained possession of their vast domains, 
 it is impossible, without doing a still greater 
 wrong, to counsel any other atonement * for the 
 wrong already committed, than that which a just 
 and liberal system of government will afford. If 
 we can give peace, happiness, and security to 
 
 * The expediency of relinquishing our conquests in India^ 
 will, to most people, appear in the highest degree extrava- 
 gant, even if it were possible to draw a line between what 
 could be called the old, and the new acquisitions of the
 
 THE ENGLISH IN INDIA. 27 
 
 those realms,— if we can rescue them from the state 
 of degradation into which they have been plunged, 
 no less by natural than by moral causes — by their 
 effeminacy, as well as by their vices, — and if we 
 can raise them to the rank of a free and an indus- 
 trious people, then, and then only, will our do- 
 minion have been a blessing ; in every other point 
 of view it must be looked upon only as the means 
 of perpetuating the misery of a wretched popula- 
 tion of nearly a hundred millions, and of entailing 
 a heavy and indelible disgrace upon the British 
 name. 
 
 Company. In the wide field of Indian speculation, how- 
 ever, there are not wanting those who do counsel such a 
 measure. — In eodem prato, bos herham quwrit, canis lepurem, 
 ciconia lacertum.- — A few words therefore, on the point in 
 question, it was thought, would not be deemed irrelevant.
 
 28 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE DANGER TO WHICH BRITISH INDIA 
 IS EXPOSED FROM INVASION. 
 
 " La vostra nominanza e color d'erba 
 Clie viene, e va, e quel la discolora 
 Per cui ell* esce della terra acerba." 
 
 The view just taken of the nature of our 
 Indian empire, suggests these two important in- 
 quiries. — What are the dangers to which Hindos- 
 tan is exposed in the event of its being invaded 
 by a powerful enemy capable of meeting a British 
 army in the field ? and, What degree of attach- 
 ment can the Natives be supposed to bear to our 
 name and government ? Upon the first of these 
 points, a few observations will form the subject of 
 the present chapter. 
 
 The most careless reader of Indian history can- 
 not have failed to observe, that every Asiatic 
 people, with whom the British forces have come 
 into contact, have shown themselves unable to 
 resist the European system of war and discipHne.
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 29 
 
 Yet past exploits, and the transactions under the 
 administrations of Lords Wellesley and Minto, 
 were not of themselves sufficiently decisive upon 
 this head, to convince those who had taken a 
 superficial view of the causes of our success ; and 
 the then impending conflict with Nepaul, which 
 may be said to have been bequeathed as a state 
 legacy to Lord Hastings, was by many considered 
 to be the e.vper'wieiitiun criicis of the military cha- 
 racter of the Indian government. So, indeed, it 
 proved to be, as far as tactics and discipline were 
 concerned ; for it was by our superiority on those 
 points alone that the struggle was decided in our 
 favour. The Nepaulese were superior in physical 
 strength, if not in personal courage, to the greater 
 part of our troops ; they had numbers at their 
 command, and their country abounded in natural 
 obstacles and defensive positions ; yet by the effect 
 of comprehensive military arrangement, assisted 
 by good discipline, were all these advantages set 
 at nought, and the war, so formidable in its first 
 aspect, brought to a successful termination in two 
 short campaigns. Still, although the splendid 
 government of Lord Hastings achieved this great 
 and important triumph, which, in addition to those 
 masterly operations which his Lordship directed 
 against the Mahrattas and Pindarries, appeared to 
 place the Company's territories in a state of per-
 
 30 DANGEIl OF BEITISH INDIA 
 
 manent security, there yet remained one enemy 
 with whom the Indian army had not measnred its 
 strength ; and as Lord Mjnto Iiad left the war of 
 Nepaul to liim, so Lord Hastings left that of Ava 
 to his successor. In the event, however, the 
 Burmese proved to be even less formidable than 
 any antagonist whom the British had hitherto 
 been tempted to meet in the field ; and the dis- 
 memberment of their empire, together with the 
 establishment of military stations in Cachar, Arra- 
 can, and on the borders of Pegue, effectually put 
 it out of their power to molest the Bengal go- 
 vernment in future, even if their contemptible 
 character, in a military point of view, did not 
 render the occurrence of such a contingency com- 
 paratively unimportant. Thus, while the interior 
 of India is entirely under British influence or 
 authority, the whole frontier of that vast tract is 
 tenanted by states, which not only have felt the 
 weight of our arms, but which have been com- 
 pelled to admit resident officers at their courts, 
 or in their immediate vicinity, to Avatch over and 
 report upon their conduct. The Seiks, who wit- 
 nessed the operations of the British army in 1805, 
 and have since acknowledged our influence, form 
 no material exception to this general arrangement. 
 Whether it be in consequence of the influence 
 of climate, or of imperfect social institutions, or.
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 31 
 
 as is more probable, of both, it is observable that 
 the Asiatic nations have shown themselves less 
 susceptible of consistent and sustained exertions 
 of warlike skill, in proportion as the country 
 which they inhabit approaches towards the tro- 
 pics. The sun, which imparts its fire and vivacity 
 to them, seems to deny them the exercise of 
 judgment and discretion. Even the natural ad- 
 vantages of a strong country appear to form no 
 exception to the truth of this remark ; and whilst 
 the movmtaineers of Nepaul excel the inhabitants 
 of the hilly regions of Southern India, including 
 Ceylon, the latter made a much firmer stand 
 against the Moguls and the English, than the 
 tribes established in the fastnesses of Java have 
 shown themselves capable of in their resistance 
 to the Dutch.* Many of the nations now alluded 
 to had acquired considerable knowledge in the 
 arts of war and government ; the Nepaulese and 
 Burmese had subjugated several neighbouring 
 states and provinces ; but the latter, in particular, 
 
 * By recent advices, however, it would appear that the 
 extremely weak state of the European establishments of the 
 Dutch in Java, has at length tempted the natives of that 
 island to rise and make strenuous efforts to recover their in- 
 dependence. If the character here given of the Southern 
 Asiatics does not operate to the disadvantage of the Javanese, 
 we may shortly hear of the Dutch being totally expelled the 
 island.
 
 32 DANGER OF BUITISH INDIA 
 
 after pursuing tlie career of conquest with re- 
 markable spirit for a series of years, had appa- 
 rently becoiue contented with what tliey had 
 acquired, and, without evincing any genius for 
 improvement, had deteriorated in the stupid ty- 
 ranny of their domestic government, in propor- 
 tion as they had relaxed from the energy of their 
 foreign policy. It seems, indeed, to be a law of 
 nature, that nothing in the history of mankind 
 shall be stationary : to cease to advance in tlie 
 career of improvement, is to retrograde ; and thus 
 we invariably find, that the half-civilized portions 
 of the globe, when no longer acted upon by their 
 first impulse, become alike the prey either of the 
 civilized portion, on the one hand, or of the com- 
 plete barbarian on the other. Thus the half-civi- 
 lized states of China, Persia, and Hindostan, 
 showed themselves as unable to resist the barba- 
 rian Tartar tribes, as the Asiatics of modern times 
 have been to withstand the attacks of European 
 invaders ; whilst the Tai'tar conquerors, in their 
 turUj when they came to partake of the half-civi- 
 lized character of the con(|uercd, evinced them- 
 selves utterly incompetent to withstand the dis- 
 cipline and organized institutions of Great Britain 
 and Russia. 
 
 The same reasoning, which is ai)plicable to the 
 English in their present attitude as an Asiatic
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 33 
 
 power, is equally so to Kiissia ; with this consi- 
 deration, indeed, which gives additional force to 
 it, that the latter is in a manner compelled, by 
 lier natural position, to that collision with the 
 weaker states, which the former has traversed 
 half the globe to provoke. It is evident, how- 
 ever, that the same train of consequences must in 
 both cases attend upon the conflict between a 
 people rapidly advancing in civilization, and one, 
 if not in the act of retrograding, certainly almost 
 stationary ; and that, in proportion as the southern 
 provinces of the Russian empire profit by the at- 
 tention which is bestowed upon them by the 
 government, the Autocrat of the North will be 
 assailed by the same temptations to aggrandize 
 himself at the expense of his semi-barbarous 
 neighbours, which the East India Company's 
 agents were unable to resist in their progress 
 towards the conquest of Hindostan. Nor are the 
 facilities which the Russians enjoy for the prose- 
 cution of such enterprises, at all inferior to those 
 which their superior maritime strength conferred 
 upon the English. The water- communication 
 between the Baltic and the Caspian is complete 
 and uninterrupted : from St. Petersburg!! to the 
 Neva, a canal runs along the margin of Lake 
 Ladoga to the WalkoAva, from whicli the naviga- 
 
 D
 
 34 DANGER OF BEITISH INDIA 
 
 tion is continued by the Nesta and the Sna, to 
 another canal which joins the Tuertsa, of which 
 the waters flow into the Wolga ; so that miUtary 
 stores can be conveyed, with comparatively small 
 risk or expense, not only to the southern and 
 eastern shores of the Caspian, but probably to the 
 centre of Khorasan, or to the confines of Cabul. 
 
 In w^eighing the inducements which are thus 
 held out to Russia to aggrandize herself, it cannot 
 but be perceived that the great prize at which 
 she aims must undoubtedly be Hindostan. Per- 
 sia, and the countries immediately contiguous, 
 offer comparatively but a feeble temptation ; the 
 barren soil of the former, and its deficiency in 
 navigable streams, render it unfit for colonization, 
 and worthless as a conquest ; whilst the tracts 
 lying between Orenberg and Balkh contain so 
 great a proportion of desert and uninhabitable 
 land, that, notwithstanding the advantages to be 
 derived from the fine streams which flow into the 
 Sea of Aral and the Caspian, any extensive settle- 
 ment in that quarter would be a work of time and 
 difficulty. It is probable, then, that Russia would 
 covet no more of either than to afford her a safe 
 and easy communication with the territories im- 
 mediately adjacent to India. The whole line of 
 her frontier, from the Seas of Kamtschatka and
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 35 
 
 Okhotsk to the Caspian, is so well guarded by the 
 cautious policy of the Chinese, no less than by 
 natural obstacles, that, taking into consideration 
 the scanty population and bleak climate of Siberia, 
 together with the difficulty of assembling a large 
 force in those quarters, there can be little encou- 
 ragement for her to attempt an advance in that 
 direction. But when her frequent wars with 
 Turkey and Persia are considered ; the armies so 
 long concentrated in Georgia and Armenia ; the 
 military colonies planted in her southern pro- 
 vinces, together with the now long-established 
 habits of the people of those parts, which have 
 reconciled them to the inconvenience of their 
 situation, and taught them to meet the exigencies 
 attendant upon so warlike a neighbourhood, we 
 cannot but perceive that, whether from the elas- 
 ticity of an increasing population,* or from the 
 wish to employ large masses of troops, which it 
 might be alike expensive and dangerous to re- 
 mand to the northern provinces, the country 
 
 * See the Chevalier Gamba's Account of Georgia, for the 
 encouragement afforded to commerce and agriculture by the 
 Russian Government, and the immense accession to the 
 population from the neighbouring provinces of the Persian 
 and Turkish empires. In 1820, seven thousand families are 
 said to have gone over to the Russian dominions. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 extending towards our Eastern possessions is the 
 line of least resistance, and the direction in which 
 the explosion must take place. 
 
 On the other hand, if to the operation of na- 
 tural causes, as just described, we add the sti- 
 mulus of political rivalry, we may be assured that 
 every circumstance conspires to produce the colli- 
 sion of Great Britain and Russia on the confines 
 of India, and that at no very , distant period. 
 Russia, at least, will leave nothing unattempted 
 to accelerate the meeting, or rather to place the 
 occurrence of that meeting entirely at her own 
 option in point of time ; for in what other quar- 
 ter can she detect a vulnerable point in the armour 
 of her mighty antagonist, or where could she de- 
 sire a nobler field on which to measure her colos- 
 sal strength with her undaunted rival, than on the 
 plain of Hindostan ? 
 
 In discussing the probability of such an attack 
 being made upon India, the mind naturally recurs 
 to the Macedonian conquest ; and with reference 
 to the loosely-recorded enterprise of Alexander, 
 we form, perhaps, an exaggerated estimate of the 
 length of the march, the difficulties of the road, 
 and the hostile dispositions of the nations whose 
 territory would have to be traversed. Making 
 allowances for the improvement of modern war- 
 fare, this might, indeed, be the correct mode of
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 37 
 
 reasoning, in the event of such an expedition as 
 that which is said to have been meditated by Na- 
 poleon, after the conquest of Egypt ; but great is 
 the difference between the obstacles to be over- 
 come on such a route, and those which oppose 
 themselves to a march from the shores of the 
 Caspian. On consulting the map, we may ob- 
 serve that the Russian possessions already extend 
 very nearly to the spot whence most of the later 
 conquerors of Hindostan set out on their route. 
 The geography of that part of Asia is still so im- 
 perfectly known, that it has not yet iDeen clearly 
 ascertained whether the river upon which stands 
 the city of Herat, disembogues itself into the 
 Caspian by the Gulf of Balkan, or joins the Oxus 
 in its course to the Sea of Aral. If, however, as 
 is most probable, the former be the fact, an esta- 
 blishment on the island of Naphtonia, or in the 
 Gulf of Balkan, would place the Russians in com- 
 munication with the Turcoman tribes, whose hos- 
 tility to the Persians is deadly and hereditary, 
 and secure the means of advancing by Herat to 
 Cabul, without the necessity of taking the more 
 circuitous route by the southern shores of tlie 
 Caspian, or of following the more difficult track, 
 already laid down, from Orenberg to the banks of 
 the Oxus, and along the course of the Amu to 
 Balkh. The Turcomans and Usbecs, though for- 

 
 38 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 midable to a nation so weak in itself, and so 
 defective in military organization as the Persians, 
 would be unable to oppose a large well-appointed 
 army of Russians, even if their hopes of plunder 
 did not induce them eagerly to take part in the 
 expedition. If, however, it be thought that an 
 advance through Azerbijan, and the north of Per- 
 sia, into Khorasan, though the most tedious, would 
 yet be the safest route, the progress which the 
 Russian arms are now making in that, direction,* 
 aiford every prospect of the way being very soon 
 left open to them. Every conflict into which it 
 is so easy for a powerful state to force its weaker 
 neighbour, especially in a quarter so remote from 
 general observation, and therefore so little liable 
 to excite public animadversion, must of necessity 
 end in defeat to the Persians, and, in consequence 
 of theu' poverty, with reference to the probable 
 demands of Russia, as well as to their misgovern- 
 ment, in a cession of territory. Already has the 
 feeble barrier of the Kur, and the Uras, been 
 forced ; and, in addition to their conquests, indem- 
 nification for the expenses of the war, may pos- 
 sibly place the Russians in possession of Ghilan 
 
 * If we may believe the latest intelligence, the Russians 
 have taken possession of Tabriz, and are in full march upon 
 Teheran, a point at least four hundred and fifty miles within 
 the boundary, and on ihc route to Herat.
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 39 
 
 and Mazenderan, provinces which Peter the Great 
 considered necessary to the establishment of his 
 complete ascendency on the Caspian. 
 
 But it is not to war and conquest alone that 
 we must look for the narrowing of that space 
 which separates the two most powerful candidates, 
 not only for the supremacy of Asia, but, through 
 her, for preponderance in Europe also. For it is 
 not to be doubted, that the possession of India 
 would greatly increase the influence of Russia in 
 the general councils of Europe — even its danger 
 would probably have an unfavourable effect upon 
 the, politics of Great Britain. Nations, like indi- 
 viduals, to be honest must be independent : and, 
 under the bare possibility of our Asiatic terri- 
 tories being wrested from us, it is not difficult to 
 conjecture the unworthy compliances into which 
 we may be driven. But by open war, however 
 efficient in the end, this crisis might not, possibly, 
 be produced for many years ; notwithstanding the 
 direct interest which Russia must have in silently 
 acquiring that position, from which, eventually, she 
 may be able to turn her attention towards India, 
 without that previous " note of preparation," and 
 hostility with neighbouring states, which her pre- 
 sent situation would render unavoidable. A re- 
 ference to the line of policy adopted by the East 
 India Company, and the various means by which
 
 40 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 the whole country, from Cape Comorin to the 
 Himalayah Mountains, has been reduced under 
 the direct sway or acknowledged influence of the 
 English, would readily suggest those measures by 
 which a paramount control in Central Asia might 
 be obtained with very little outward appearance of 
 injustice or violence. The disputes which always 
 attend the succession to the throne in Persia,* are 
 fruitful in crimes, of which political hypocrisy 
 might take advantage, to read a great moral lesson 
 to that unfortunate nation ; and such is the uncer- 
 tainty of life, as well as right, among the members 
 of the royal family, that any of them, whatever 
 might be his pretensions, would gladly cede one half 
 of the kingdom to an auxiliary who was powerful 
 enough to secure him in the undisturbed possession 
 of the remainder. This is by far the most rapid, as 
 well as the most eflfectual mode, by which Russia 
 can obtain that vantage ground which will enable 
 her to affront the Eastern world. In order to ac- 
 complish a measure to her so desirable, the tran- 
 quillity of Europe, though of course favourable, 
 is by no means indispensable ; since the usual gar- 
 risons and provincial detachments, stationed in the 
 
 * By late accounts, it appears that the Shekakee tribe, the 
 most powerful in Azerbijan, has joined the Russians : the 
 father of Jehangir Khan, their chief, it will be recollected, 
 dispiiied the crown with the present Shall.
 
 FRO]\r RUSSIAN INVASION. 41 
 
 neighbourhood of the Persian frontier, are at any 
 time sufficient for the intimidation of a state, at 
 once so uninformed in matters of political science, 
 and so little entitled to respect on account of its 
 military capabilities. By means of one of those 
 treaties, which a power so formidable can always 
 negotiate with one of the competitors for the 
 throne of a nation torn by internal dissensions, 
 and in momentary dread of the incursions of the 
 fierce and lawless tribes in its vicinity, Russia 
 might obtain by cession, or under the condition of 
 a temporary occupation, or by means of a perma- 
 nent subsidiary force, not only the command of as 
 much territory as would be necessary to facilitate 
 her advance upon the Indian frontier, but a stipu- 
 lation for such farther aid in cattle, provisions, or 
 men, as Persia might be able to afford. Such, in- 
 deed, is the unsettled state of the Shah's domi- 
 nions, even in the most quiet times, that it may 
 well be doubted if such a treaty, coupled as it 
 would be with actual assistance and great moral 
 influence in repressing insurrections of all kinds, 
 would be mainly disadvantageous to him at any 
 given period ; but at the present moment, when 
 the course of affairs in the western world tends, 
 if not to the total expulsion of the Mohammedans 
 from Europe, at least to a very great retrench- 
 ment of their power in that quarter, Persia may
 
 42 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 shortly feel the necessity of strengthening her 
 western frontier, to guard against that re-action 
 which the spirit of the Turkish Government will 
 probahly display when confined almost entirely 
 to her Asiatic possessions. If Russia, therefore, 
 were to exact the assistance of the reigning Shah, 
 in subduing the country lying in the direct route 
 to India by the Oxus and the Amu ; or in ac- 
 quiring military possession of Candahar, as the 
 price of her support on the Tigris and Euphrates, 
 and the confines of Kurdistan and Armenia; there 
 would be little doubt of her success in the object 
 she cannot but have most at heart, — that of bring- 
 ing within the reach of her grasp the brightest 
 jewel in the crown of her illustrious rival. 
 
 The route leading from Russia to the Indies is 
 not, as before remarked, by the south of the Cas- 
 pian and Khorasan alone, but may be traced out 
 east of the Caspian, by Khiva and the course of 
 the Oxus and Amu to Bokhara, Samarcand, and 
 Balkh ; or east of the Sea of Aral, I)y the Kirgies 
 Desert, and the Sur, or Sihoon, to nearly the same 
 point in the great line of trade established be- 
 tween eastern Russia and Central Asia. Indeed, 
 there can be little doubt that the attention of the 
 Court of Petersburgh has already been directed to 
 this hne, and that, whatever may have been the 
 ostensible object of the recent Missions to Khiva
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 43 
 
 and Bokhara, no ordinary anxiety has been evinc- 
 ed to ascertain how far an improvement in com- 
 mercial intercourse might be turned to account in 
 paving the way for the establishment of a politi- 
 cal influence amongst hordes of barbarians, who, 
 though apparently accessible to no kindness or 
 conciliation, appear only to need the presence of 
 some really formidable authority, to be reduced 
 to the same state of tranquillity as the fierce and 
 lawless inhabitants on the confines of Georgia 
 and Armenia, and other districts into which 
 Russia has successively introduced her system 
 of rule. 
 
 But under whatever circumstances the inva- 
 sion of India might be attempted, it is probable 
 that the attacking army, instead of marching di- 
 rectly from Russia, would be composed princi- 
 pally of troops stationed in recent conquests, or in 
 the employ of Persia, as a subsidiary force, or as 
 an army of occupation. Thus the Russian troops, 
 though apparently more closely connected with 
 the parent country, are ' likely to lose much of 
 their energy by a long sojourn in distant and, 
 perhaps, uncongenial climes ; and when to this 
 circumstance is added the probability of a consi- 
 derable admixture of Asiatic recruits, to fill up 
 occasional vacancies, it may be supposed that the 
 invading army would assimilate pretty nearly, as
 
 44 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 to its component parts, to the force wliich the 
 English might be able to collect in defence of their 
 possessions. Yet, supposing this to be the case, 
 without any qualification, supposing the two ar~ 
 mies to contain the same number of Europeans, the 
 remainder being composed of natives of the coun- 
 tries in the possession of each nation respectively, 
 still the advantage would rest with the invaders. 
 A mixture of different nations in one army, if 
 not permitted to impair its discipline, is no detri- 
 ment to it, but probably the contrary, in offensive 
 operations ; but in defence, some feeling to coun- 
 terbalance the effect of occasional failure is indis- 
 pensable, — that feeling is patriotism : and it may 
 be assumed as an axiom, that whilst, for invasion, 
 an army may ])e composed of soldiers of one or 
 of many nations, indifferently ; for defence, every 
 man in it ought to have a strong interest in the 
 soil which he endeavours to protect. 
 
 In order, effectually, to oppose the invasion of 
 India, it would be desirable to occupy the Punjab. 
 That region once passed, there wovdd no longer 
 be any natural obstacles, of which the defenders 
 could avail themselves, in opposing a direct ad- 
 vance into the heart of Hindostan. The Punjab, 
 indeed, has always been the field in which the 
 rulers of Delhi have defended themselves with the 
 greatest advantage ; when that is in possession of
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 45 
 
 the enemy/ no alternative remains to the invaded, 
 beyond that of committing the fortune of the war 
 to the event of one great battle on the plains of 
 Kurnaiil or Panniput — already too often fatal to 
 Hindostan — or of allowing the enemy to ravage 
 and lay waste the country, and to advance unmo- 
 lested to the siege of Delhi, in the confidence that, 
 even if unsuccessful, they will always have a strong 
 country in their rear to retreat to and to encamp 
 in, until the recurrence of the fair season for their 
 operations, or the arrival of reinforcements from 
 the other side of the Indus. On the other hand, 
 the Indian army, by having the Punjab organized 
 in its rear, would not only command the services 
 of the warlike race inhabiting those tracts, but it 
 would possess the advantage of receiving supplies 
 by the Indus, and its tributary streams, instead of 
 the circuitous route of the Bay of Bengal and the 
 Ganges. The right flank of their army, too, 
 would be greatly strengthened by the force which 
 occupies the protected hill-states, extending its 
 posts along the mountains to the borders of Cash- 
 mere, so as to bear upon the left and rear of the 
 enemy. 
 
 It must not, however, be forgotten, that if the 
 banks of the Indus be selected as the most fa- 
 vourable position in which to expect the attack, 
 the British troops will have an immense march to
 
 46 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 perform, in addition to the ill effect of exposure to 
 the climate of the hotter parts of India for many 
 months, if not years, before they are called to the 
 conflict. If the European troops latest from Eng- 
 land are made to replace those who have been 
 longest in the country, whilst the latter proceed 
 to the frontier, the field-force will contain none 
 but seasoned men ; but in that case, their fresh- 
 ness and energy will have been considerably im- 
 paired. From five to eight years are in all cases 
 a sufficient seasoning for European troops in 
 India. After that period, the effects of climate 
 become speedily apparent on the constitutions of 
 men possessing so little power or motive for re- 
 straint as common soldiers ; they are no longer 
 Capable of enduring the fatigues and privations of 
 protracted warfare ; and one, or at most, two ac- 
 tive campaigns, would be sufficient to exhaust 
 their strength. We too easily allow ourselves to be 
 deceived on this point, by the imposing accounts 
 which are so often given of our Indian wars ; and 
 we fancy that, because our countrymen cheerfully 
 undergo the labours of a campaign or two, they 
 would be a match for any troops that could make 
 theu' appearance upon the same theatre. These 
 campaigns, however, have generally been fought 
 within a short distance of our resources, and with 
 all the conveniences and accommodations at hand,
 
 FROIVI RUSSIAN INVASION. 47 
 
 which old and undisturbed establishments can 
 command, in a country entirely at the disposal of 
 the service. In the few instances in which this 
 has not been the case, we uniformly observe sick- 
 ness to prevail amongst the European troops to 
 an alarming extent ; whilst the natives, if they 
 suffer less from that cause, (which, however, is 
 not always the fact,) suffer more from disaffection 
 and desertion. So much, indeed, are the sepoys 
 accustomed to make war within the boundaries of 
 Hindostan alone, and in the comparatively easy 
 mode alluded to, that they soon become disgusted 
 with any service that threatens either to abridge 
 their comforts, or to prolong their absence from 
 their native plains. Of the three distinct armies 
 which are at the disposal of the Indian Govern- 
 ment, those of Madras and Bombay are generally 
 considered to be better adapted for hard service 
 than the Bengal troops ; but as this is supposed to 
 proceed entirely from the great attention which 
 is paid to their equipment, and to the regular sup- 
 ply of every thing conducive to their comfort, when 
 on foreign service, whilst the Bengal troops are in 
 a great measure left to their own resources, it 
 seems to follow, not only that the former are more 
 expensive to the state, but that it will be difficult 
 to bring large bodies of them to act with Bengal 
 sepoys with reciprocal confidence and cordiality,
 
 '48 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 without putting the latter upon an equality with 
 them, in respect to pay, and all other advantages. 
 Here, then, is another point to be attended to in 
 conducting the defence of the country ; and in or- 
 der to secure an army which may act with union 
 and effect, an equalization, in the particulars just 
 referred to, of the troops of the three Presidencies, 
 should immediately be adopted, upon the scale 
 afforded by the most liberal of the whole. 
 
 But this is not all ; in an army for the defence 
 of India, assem.bled in the Punjab, comprising a 
 considerable force of European as well as native 
 troops, the former, though a great proportion of 
 them would probably be over-seasoned, if brought 
 up by easy marches, would benefit by the change 
 of climate ; whilst upon the latter, the cold and 
 fatigue would have a directly contrary effect ; 
 and if harassed by active operations, especially 
 night attacks, accompanied by that uncertainty of . 
 supplies which is likely to occur on such occasions, 
 their number would shortly be diminished both by 
 sickness and desertion, and a depression of spirits 
 peculiar to the Hindoos, and resem])ling the maladit 
 du pays, would unfit those who yet stood to their 
 colours for any but the most ordinary camp du- 
 ties. Under these circumstances, the Commander- 
 in-Chief could never place entire reliance on the 
 apparent strength of his army, as shown in figured
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 49 
 
 statements ; for although the natives would proba- 
 bly improve, if stationed nearer their own country, 
 the Europeans would fall off in proportion to their 
 exposure to the relaxing climate of Hindostan. 
 Neither would the customs and institutions of the 
 service be favourable to the views of the Com- 
 mander ; and there is reason to believe, that the 
 peculiarities which appear to adapt an Indian 
 army to the perforinance of the duties which are 
 now entrusted to it, would, in some measure, in- 
 capacitate it for a conflict,* in comparison of 
 
 * The following descii[jtion of the Russian soldiers will 
 be read with deep interest by military men in India, as exhi- 
 biting the picture of an army admirably adapted for distant 
 and arduous enterprises, even in a tropical climate : — " The 
 Russian soldiers, unexcited by any spirituous liquors, with 
 which the troops of other nations are often treated, previous 
 to engaging in battle, make the sign of the cross, and, im- 
 movably fixing their eyes on their leader, follow him in the 
 most profound silence — unanimous in their impetuosity, con- 
 stant and imperturbable in danger — qualities which in military 
 nations are the exclusive patrimony of perfect discipline. 
 Frugal and patient under privations, as they are submissive, 
 they spend the whole day in battle, and at night a ration of 
 bread or biscuit; and a draught of water from the nearest 
 brook, suffice to allay their hunger and thirst, whilst the 
 bare ground for a bed, and their knapsack for a pillow, 
 relieve their fatigue." — Narrative of Don Juan Van Halen,&c. 
 
 For a description of the Cossacks, too long to insert here, 
 see SirW. Scott's Life of Napoleon, vol. 5, p. 363. 
 
 E
 
 50 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 which any service it has yet seen may be deno- 
 minated mere " playing at soldiers." 
 
 The strength of the Company's army, includ- 
 
 The account of the Russian army, given by Sir Walter 
 Scott, is also subjoined, as peculiarly interesting at the pie- 
 sent moment : — " In the mode of disciplining their forces, 
 the Russians proceeded on the system most approved in 
 Europe. Their infantry was confessedly excellent, composed 
 of men in the prime of life, and carefully selected as best 
 qualified for military service. Their artillery was of the first 
 description, so far as the men, guns and carriages, and ap- 
 pointments were concerned ; but the rank of General of 
 Artillery had not the predominant weight in the Russian 
 army, which ought to be possessed by those particularly de- 
 dicated to the direction of that arm, 43y Avhich, according to 
 Napoleon, modern battles must be usually decided. The 
 direction of their guns was too often entrusted to general 
 officers of the line. The service of cavalry is less natural to 
 the Russians than that of the infantry ; but their horse 
 regiments are nevertheless excellently trained, and have uni- 
 formly behaved well. But the Cossacks are a species of 
 force belonging to Russia exclusively. The natives of the 
 Don and the Volga hold their lands by military service, and 
 enjoy certain immunities and prescriptions; inconsequence 
 of which, each individual is obliged to serve four years in 
 the Russian armies. They are trained from early childhood 
 to the use of the lance and sword, and familiarized to the 
 management of a horse peculiar to the country, far from 
 handsome in appearance, but tractable, hardy, swift, and 
 sure-footed, beyond any breed perhaps in the world. At 
 home, and with his family and children, the Cossack is kind, 
 gentle, generous, and simple ; but when in arms, and in a
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 51 
 
 ing the regiments of His Majesty's service visually 
 stationed upon the continent of India, is about two 
 hundred thousand upon the war establishment, ex- 
 clusive of irregular corps of cavalry and infantry, 
 
 foreign country, he resumes the predatory, and sometimes 
 the ferocious habits of his ancestors, the roving Scythians. 
 As the Cossacks receive no pay, plunder is generally their 
 object ; and as prisoners were esteemed, a useless incum- 
 brance, they granted no quarter, until Alexander promised a 
 ducat for every Frenchman whom they brought in alive. In 
 the actual field of battle their mode of attack is singular, 
 instead of acting in line, a body of Cossacks about to 
 charge, disperse at the word of command, very much in the 
 manner of a fan suddenly flung open, and joining in a loud 
 yell, or hourra, rush, each acting* individually, upon the ob- 
 ject of attack, whether infantry, cavalry, or artillery, to all 
 of which they have been, in their wild way of fightino-, for- 
 midable assailants. But it is as light cavalry that the Cos- 
 sacks are, perhaps, unrivalled. They and their horses have 
 been known to march one hundred miles in twenty-four 
 hours without halting. They plunge into woods, swim 
 rivers, thread passes, cross deep morasses, and penetrate 
 through deserts of snow, without undergoing material loss, 
 or suffering from fatigue. No Russian army, with a large 
 body of Cossacks in front, can be liable to surprise ; nor, on 
 the other hand, can an enemy, surrounded by them, ever be 
 confident against it. In covering the retreat of their own 
 army, their velocity, activity, and courage, render pursuit by 
 the enemy's cavalry peculiarly dangerous ; and in pursuing a 
 flying enemy, these qualities are still more redoubtable." — 
 Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, vol. .5, p. 362, &c. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 of which the latter are generally employed as 
 guards and police in aid of the civil magistrates. 
 In speaking of the defence of India, it is not un- 
 frequently supposed that the Vv'hole of this force 
 would be marshalled to oppose the invader on his 
 crossing the Indus ; but a very slight glance at 
 the map will be sufficient to explain the absurdity 
 of this expectation. The distance from Madras 
 to the centre of the Punjab, is as great as that 
 from Moscow to Paris ; and from Calcutta to the 
 same point, it- is farther than from Madrid to 
 Vienna. With such immense tracts of country 
 in the rear of our army, tracts which are inhabit- 
 ed by various nations, differing as much from each 
 other as the Portuguese from the Poles, it would 
 be madness to attempt to concentrate more than 
 a small proportion of the whole force upon a spot 
 so far removed from the heart of our provinces. 
 In point of fact, the greatest number of troops 
 assembled for any one purpose in India, or upon 
 any line of operations, has never been as much as 
 fifty thousand. The regvdar forces at Seringapa- 
 tam, though consisting of detachments from all the 
 Presidencies, were less than forty thousand. The 
 army before Burtpore, in 1825, did not amount to 
 thirty thousand ; and the whole of the regular 
 Bengal forces assembled by Lord Hastings, either 
 against the Nepaulese, or in his more extensive
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INV^ASION. 53 
 
 operations against the Pindarries and Mahrattas, 
 did not much exceed forty thousand. The Ben- 
 gal troops emploijed on the latter occasion were 
 about fifty-five thousand, including irregular levies 
 of all descriptions ; these, however, were acting 
 on a widely extended circle of concentric opera- 
 tions, and the army of occupation of each dis- 
 trict contiguous to the seat of war, did not ad- 
 vance much beyond its accustomed boundary. 
 On a straight line of operation towards the Indus, 
 the case would be very different, and whole dis- 
 tricts would be entirely denuded of troops. It 
 is evident, then, that in the event of an invasion 
 by a large army, the protecting force must either 
 consist in a great measure of new levies, in addi- 
 tion to the present army of occupation, or new 
 levies must be distributed about the provinces, in 
 order to admit of the troops now stationed there 
 being disposable. If we estimate the invading 
 force at only fifty thousand men, it would require 
 an equal force to defend the frontier, together 
 with a strong reserve to form a rallying point, 
 keep up the communication, and garrison the for- 
 tified places. The whole would not fall short of a 
 hundred thousand men ; and allowing only one 
 fourth part of the number to be Europeans, we 
 should have seventy-five thousand natives, either 
 to be brought to the scene of action by long and
 
 54 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 toilsome marches from the remotest provinces, 
 and through cHmates differing amongst each other 
 as much as Spain and Italy do from Holland and 
 Germany — or this portion of the army would be 
 principally composed of new levies, drawn from 
 the vicinity of the upper provinces, where the 
 people, from circumstances which will be explain- 
 ed hereafter, are by no means well affected to the 
 present government. Supposing, therefore, the 
 Europeans to suffer nothing, either from the sud- 
 den change of climate, if arriving direct from 
 England, or from being over-seasoned by the 
 effects of a protracted residence in India, still, as 
 they would have to bear the brunt of the attack 
 against an army flushed with conquest, inured to 
 fatigues, and allured by the hopes of plunder, their 
 situation would be a very arduous one ; for it is 
 unreasonable to expect that our native troops, got 
 together by either of the modes above described, 
 would be a match for their opponents in the field, 
 allowing three-fourths of the latter to be Persians, 
 Affgans, or Tartars, disciplined in the Russian 
 manner, or rather, intermixed in the same ranks 
 with the Russian soldiers. Amidst the manifest 
 disadvantages under which an army so circum- 
 stanced would labour, it would require the most 
 consummate skill, on the part of the British com- 
 mander, to conduct the most ordinary operations.
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 55 
 
 even in the Punjab, where the face of the country 
 is such as to afford positions favourable for defen- 
 sive operations ; but should the seat of war be 
 transferred to Upper Hindostan, the whole tract 
 lying between the Setledge and the richest part of 
 the Bengal provinces, is so totally destitute of na- 
 tural strength, that he would be unable to avoid 
 coming to a general engagement in any other 
 manner than by taking post under the walls of 
 Delhi or Agra, and allowing the enemy to levy 
 contributions on all the open country. The offi- 
 cers of the Company's service, it is true, have a 
 perfect knowledge of the country, and are, perhaps, 
 more accustomed to the management of large 
 masses, than officers of corresponding rank in most 
 other services ; but on ground so perfectly level as 
 that upon which they would have to manoeuvre, 
 those qualifications would be of very little assist- 
 ance against an active and enterprising opponent, 
 who, if inferior to themselves in those respects, 
 would probably excel them in general military 
 combination. But even on this point a good deal 
 of exaggeration has been indulged in ; and although 
 the English would appear, if we judge from the 
 accounts of battles gained and operations under- 
 taken, to have waged war on a large scale in 
 India, yet, as has been before remarked, their 
 armies have always been comparatively small ;
 
 56 DANGER OF BKITISH INDIA 
 
 and they have been indebted for their triumphs 
 to their skill and discipline having been so vastly 
 superior to their opponents, and not to their num- 
 bers. There is no doubt, that the masses which 
 they are in the habit of directing — though, agree- 
 ably to the usual proportion in Indian armies, not 
 more than one-tenth consist of fighting-men, the 
 rest being composed of baggage-servants and 
 camp-followers, — have the effect of giving them 
 the military coup-d'a^il, and of training them to 
 those habits of self-possession and command, which 
 qualify them for entering upon a wider sphere of 
 action, with less preparation than officers accus- 
 tomed to the command of but very limited num- 
 bers ; but this circumstance, though undoubtedly 
 it renders the approach of more active warfare less 
 formidable than it otherwise might appear, does 
 not entirely supersede the necessity for consider- 
 able experience in actual operations with oppo- 
 nents more entitled to respect than those with 
 whom they have hitherto been in the habit of 
 coping. 
 
 As it is highly probable, then, that war, under 
 a new aspect, will ere long approach our Indian 
 possessions, and that the collision of England and 
 Russia on the plains of Hindostan may be con- 
 sidered inevitable, to attempt to avert the storm 
 by intriguing in the Court of Persia, is merely to
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 57 
 
 prescribe for symptoms, instead of grappling with 
 the disease itself. In place of employing every 
 effort to conciliate the Persians, and to persuade 
 them to adopt improvements in war and govern- 
 ment, alike unsuited to the genius of the nation, 
 and to the inclination of the leading families, we 
 should turn our attention exclusively to our Indian 
 empire, and take advantage of our vmlimited in- 
 fluence and authority, to strengthen it, by infusing 
 a feeling of love and respect for the British name, 
 and a firm reliance on the mildness and the justice 
 of its sway. A foreign government, ruling over 
 such extensive realms as those now under the 
 dominion of the Company, must have much more 
 to apprehend from internal discontent, than from 
 external force ; and, in point of fact, we find that, 
 since the Mussulman conquest, the invasion of. 
 Hindostan has not unfrequently been effected, by 
 armies of comparatively inconsiderable strength, 
 under a promise or expectation of support from 
 the various tribes with whicl\ it is peopled, — tribes 
 which all writers concur in describing as ever 
 ready to rise in favour of the most formidable 
 candidate for sovereign power. Baber states his 
 army, enumerated too with apparent accuracy, to 
 have amounted, great and small, good and bad, 
 servants and no servants, to only twelve thousand 
 men. — Memoirs, p. 293; and again, p. 310, "When
 
 58 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 I invaded the country for the fifth time, overthrew 
 Sultan Ibrahim, and subdued the empire of Hin- 
 dostan, I had a larger army than I had ever be- 
 fore brought into it. My servants, the merchants, 
 and their servants, and the foUoweii of all de- 
 scriptions that were in camp along with me, were 
 numbered, and amounted to twelve thousand men." 
 Nadir Shah, invited into Hindostan by some dis- 
 contented nobles, defeated the imperial army with 
 his advanced-guard alone ; and when Ahmed 
 Shah, better known by the name of Abdallah, was 
 repulsed in his first attack upon Hindostan, the cir- 
 cumstance was attributed to his having neglected 
 to secure the co-operation of any of the powerful 
 tribes. The Tartars and Persians, then in the 
 service of the Mogul, were a sufficient match for 
 his army : on his second advance, however, being 
 assured of the assistance of Gazi-ud-dein, at the 
 head of the Tartar interest, he conquered Delhi 
 without any difficulty ; and in his subsequent ex- 
 peditions always maintained the ascendency thus 
 acquired. It is impossible, indeed, to peruse the 
 history of the events just referred to, without 
 being struck with the apparent ease with which 
 Hindostan may be invaded either from Cabul or 
 Candahar. The nearest road from Herat to 
 Cabul and Attoc, through Huzarah and the hiUs, 
 though difficult, and at some seasons almost im-
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION, 59 
 
 passable, is only a month's journey in fair weather ; 
 whilst the route by Candahar is described as 
 straight and level, practicable without risk or 
 trouble even in the winter, and requiring about 
 forty or fifty days' march. If, however, Cabul be 
 avoided, and the advance conducted through Can- 
 dahar to Derah-Gazee-Khan, on the Indus, (the 
 point at which the Affgans crossed that river, in 
 their march to Cashmere, in 1813,) it would re- 
 quire only fifty or sixty days' march to bring 
 an army from the centre of Khorasan to the rear 
 of the Punjab, upon the very borders of the Bri- 
 tish territory.* 
 
 Under the bare possibility of such an event oc- 
 curring, it would be interesting to ascertain the 
 actual state of our frontier provinces in respect to 
 
 *" It may be important to remark, that by whatever route 
 the invasion of India by the Russians be accomplished, they 
 will march with the stream of national antipathies in their 
 favour — the Usbecs have a rooted hatred against the Per- 
 sians, and rival the latter in their Hostile feelings towards the 
 AfFgans; whilst the AfFgans cherish as much resentment 
 against the Seiks for their uninterrupted encroachments, as 
 the Seiks do against the English, for protecting the apos- 
 tate chiefs on the left bank of the Setledge. Should the 
 invaders cross the Indus at Derah-Gazee-Khan, they might 
 conciliate Runjeet Sing, the present ruler of the Punjab, and 
 induce him to co-operate in an attack upon the Company's 
 territories.
 
 60 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 military preparation and local resources. Into 
 this subject, however, it is not the intention of 
 these pages to enter very deeply at present ; but 
 it may not be without its use to remark, that such 
 is the security or supineness of the Indian Go- 
 vernment, that, during the late siege of Burtpore, 
 when the battering guns were fast becoming un- 
 serviceable from incessant firing, the nearest de- 
 pot, which was that of Agra, (from its situation 
 and strength one of the most important stations 
 in Upper India,) was incompetent to the supply of 
 the requisite number to replace them. If the as- 
 sault had failed, the army must have suspended 
 its operations till both artillery and ammunition 
 could have been procured from Allahabad, a dis- 
 tance of at least thirty days' march. This, too, it 
 must be observed, was not in a part of the coun- 
 try where such an occurrence as a siege was un- 
 looked for, but where the feeling of jealousy, which 
 our failure in 1805 had occasioned, rendered the 
 last twenty years little more than a season of pre- 
 paration. In answer to this, it is asserted by 
 the advocates of procrastination, that no serious 
 intention to invade our north-western provinces 
 could be manifested by the Russian Court, with- 
 out affording us ample time for every species of 
 preparation for defence. But, in addition to the 
 example just given, it should be remembered, that
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 61 
 
 the war with Ava, though for years considered 
 unavoidable, yet found the Indian Government 
 almost entirely unprepared ; so much so, indeed, 
 that it cannot be denied, that if the Burmese gene- 
 ral, Maha Bundoolah, had boldly pushed forward, 
 after the decisive affair at Ramoo, he would have 
 met with little or no opposition in his advance 
 upon Chittagong and Dacca, and might even 
 have insulted the very suburbs of Calcutta. The 
 north-western frontier, indeed, has been attended 
 to more than any other, as the course of events 
 has naturally led to that result ; but it is doubt- 
 ful whether, at the present moment, the whole 
 country above Allahabad contain the necessary 
 equipments for an army of fifty thousand men. 
 Neither is it certain that the whole of the Com- 
 pany's provinces could furnish a remount* of suit- 
 
 * In Bengal, the government stud may be calculated to 
 contain about six or seven thousand brood-mares — the upper, 
 or northern division, however, has not yet been productive ; 
 and the whole taken together have not hitherto been ade- 
 quate to the supply of horses for the horse-artillery and 
 dragoons, without taking the native cavalry into the account. 
 The dispersion of the Pindarries transferred a number of 
 mares to the Company's provinces ; but breeding was not 
 much attended to until of late years, when entire horses 
 being imported from Europe, Government formed the nor- 
 thern division of the stud out of those materials. It requires, 
 however, the greatest vigilance, on the part of the inspec- 
 tors, to prevent the admission of undersized or defective
 
 62 DANGER OF BKITISH INDIA 
 
 able horses for the cavahy and horse-artillery, or 
 cattle for the provision and transport of so large an 
 army beyond two campaigns. The habits of the 
 
 animals ; and on this account the annual produce of service- 
 able horses is by no means commensurate with the expense 
 to the state, hideed, the territorial system of the Company 
 so greatly augments the value of land hitherto appropriated 
 to pasturage, that breeding upon a large 'scale seems to 
 require the encouragement of very high prices for horses, and 
 it may perhaps be doubted whether cattle of all kinds' be 
 not upon the decrease throughout the provinces. The Seik 
 Rajah, with the short-sighted policy common to semi-barba- 
 rous states, has lately opposed, to the utmost of his power, 
 the importation of horses into the Company's territories, 
 through' his dominions, from the north; which has ever been 
 the principal mart, as the indigenous supply of Hindostan 
 has at all times been s-mall. In acting in this manner, how- 
 ever, he has rendered us no inconsiderable service, by turn- 
 ing the attention of the Indian Government to the necessity 
 of improving their internal resources. But establishments 
 for this purpose, when in the hands of Government, are more 
 expensive and less productive than when left to private spe- 
 culation ; yet, in Hindostan, the pressure of taxation is so 
 great, and accumulation is so completely checked, that 
 few individuals possess the means of entering upon a 
 business which requires so large an outlay, and the re- 
 turns of which are so precarious. The horses bred in 
 this manner, without the assistance of Government, are 
 now scarcely more than sufficient for the supply of the 
 ifregular cavalry, in which corps the troopers themselves, 
 or their immediate commanders, contract for the horses. 
 In the Madras territory, since the abolition of the Ganjam 
 stud, there has been no breeding district, excepting on a very
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 63 
 
 people are not such as to lead thein to rear any 
 but the small breed of cattle commonly used for 
 purposes of agriculture and traffic, and for the 
 
 limited scale by private dealers : the celebrated Manantoddy 
 jungle has almost ceased to afford any considerable number, 
 and the remains of the breed from which the Mysorean horse 
 were furnished, are fast disappearing, notwithstanding a 
 feeble attempt lately made to encourage them. The practice, 
 indeed, both at Madras and Bombay, of importing horses for 
 the service of Government, as well as for private purposes, 
 from Arabia and Persia, tends greatly to depress the country 
 market. 
 
 In Bombay, according to Mr. Chaplin's statement, there 
 were in the whole Company's territories, in 1824, probably 
 not more than 6000 horses, and of these, but a small number 
 of description whose progeny would answer for the service of 
 our cavalry. 
 
 If, therefore, the importation of horses from Persia and 
 Arabia were to cease, or be materially affected, as would pro- 
 bably be the case if the Russians were to establish an in- 
 fluence in the Court of the Shah, it is not difficult to foresee 
 what would be the embarrassment occasioned to our army. 
 A complete remount for the regular cavalry, including dra- 
 goons and horse-artillery, of the three Establishments, would 
 require about thirty thousand horses, besides the smaller 
 description required for the foot-artillery and irregular 
 corps. The march of cavalry and artillery from remote 
 stations to the seat of war, would alone expend more than 
 could well be replaced at the present moment, even by the 
 the liberality of the King of Oude, (who has before now 
 mounted regiments of dragoons,) or by the expensive mar- 
 kets of carriage-cattle to be found at Calcutta, Madras, 
 ftnd Bombay,
 
 64 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 dairy ; and the breed of ponies called Tattoos, for 
 general purposes. Extensive requisitions could 
 only be complied with at the expense of the grow- 
 ing harvest, or of a serious interruption of the 
 ordinary occupation of the inhabitants. Our 
 army would be under the necessity of carrying 
 its supplies of all kinds in its train, or other- 
 wise it would prove as great a scourge to our 
 own territories as the most rapacious invader ; 
 and in the event of a reverse, instead of fall- 
 ing back upon its resources, it would have to con- 
 tinue its retreat through an exhausted, and proba- 
 bly an exasperated population. 
 
 When hostilities commenced with Ava, the 
 greater part of the expedition to Rangoon and 
 Arracan was supplied from the Madras Presiden- 
 cy ; Bengal was exempted from any considerable 
 demands either for men, or for cattle and stores ; 
 and yet, although the declaration of war was is- 
 sued in February 1824, supplies for the advance of 
 a force through Cachar to Ava, had not been col- 
 lected in September of the same year ; and when 
 that expedition was given up, and a much smaller 
 one, under General Morrison, ordered to proceed, 
 by Chittagong to Arracan, it was not till Ja- 
 nuary 1825, that the troops were able to advance, 
 and that with only a portion of their stores and 
 cattle. Now, if this was the case with an army
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 65 
 
 of six or sev^eii thousand, marcliing in the neigh- 
 bourhood of our capital, and through some of the 
 most rich and densely populous of our provinces, 
 with the streams of the great rivers favourable for 
 the transport of supplies of all kinds ; what are we 
 to expect when all these conditions are reversed ? 
 when supplies have to mount the long and often 
 difficult course of tlie Ganges and Jumna against 
 a powerful current; where the country is compara- 
 tively wild and unproductive; where the inhabitants 
 are, from recent conquest and other causes, by no 
 means well affected to the Government ; and when 
 they will be called upon for supplies, not for a 
 mere detachment, but for an army perhaps a 
 hundred thousand strong? 
 
 In speaking of supplies being sent to the Upper 
 Provinces, it should be mentioned, that although 
 the Company's territory, on the Bengal establish- 
 ment, is remarkably deficient in good roads fit for 
 military purposes, — the great rivers, in fact, afford- 
 ing a comparatively economical means of commu- 
 nication from Calcutta to Furrackabad and Delhi, 
 — there is no public establislnnent "of boats or 
 river craft for the conveyance of stores. When 
 supplies of any kind are required in the field sta- 
 tions, boats are hired by the army commissariat, 
 ostensibly at a small expense, but in reality at a very 
 great one ; for such is tlie defective state of those 
 
 F
 
 66 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 which alone are procurable for the public service, 
 and so badly are they navigated, that the acci- 
 dents which occur in the loss of men, as well as 
 stores, would form a verv serious addition to the 
 general rate of transport. The actual cost, also, is 
 materially enhanced by the slow mode of travel- 
 ling, and the difficulty of conducting a fleet of 
 boats to such immense distances by means of the 
 track-rope. From forty to sixty are as many as 
 can be taken by one opportunity, according to the 
 system now in force ; and these, conveying alto- 
 gether not more than twelve hundred tons upon 
 an average, are three months in reaching Alla- 
 habad, and from thence two to Agra, and one to 
 Futtighur ; from either of which points, it would 
 require a march of thirty days to reach the banks 
 of the Setledge. When, indeed, we consider the 
 difficulty of collecting transport, the slow rate of 
 travelling against the strong current of the Ganges, 
 and the limited supply either of stores or men 
 which each fleet can convey, it is perhaps not too 
 much to assert, tliat supposing the Russians to 
 have secured, by treaty or otherwise, a free pas- 
 sage through Persia, they could at any time col- 
 lect an army of fifty or a hundred thousand men 
 upon the banks of the Indus, as soon as, and per- 
 haps sooner, than the Indian Government could 
 complete the necessary arrangements for opposing
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 67 
 
 them with effect. Startling as this opinion may 
 appear, it is only necessary to consult the map, 
 and to bear in mind the ease with which Russia 
 can accumulate troops of all descriptions in her 
 south-eastern frontier, to demonstrate its possible 
 correctness. If Russia were, immediately after 
 declaring war, to direct her attention to this 
 point, her army in Georgia would have been on 
 its march long ere intelligence from Europe could 
 reach Bengal, From the banks of the Kur (though 
 it is probable the Russian boundary has already 
 been pushed two hundred miles more to the south) 
 to Herat, is about eleven hundred miles, or one 
 hundred and ten days' march ; and from Herat to 
 the Indus at Cabul, or at Derah-Gazee-Khan, as 
 has been already stated, is about fifty days' march, 
 making upon the whole one hundred and sixty 
 marches. Now, if we may believe the published 
 Army Lists, in the whole of the territory above 
 Allahabad, including Oude, Rohilcund, and Rajh- 
 pootanah, there are not more than* forty-five 
 
 * To these may be added such troops as the Bombay Pre- 
 sidency could spare : but, in this case, the march from 
 Mhow, Guzerat, and Catch, to Moultan, or to Loodianah, on 
 the Setledge, would be somewhat greater than from Allaha- 
 bad to the last mentioned place ; with the disadvantage of 
 having a country but partially known, and certainly but 
 badly supplied with necessaries of all kinds for troops to 
 
 F 2
 
 68 DANGER OF BUITISH INDIA 
 
 thousand regular troops, including the regiments 
 of His Majesty's service ; and of these only about 
 twenty thousand are nearer the frontier than 
 twenty marches. But as no advance into the 
 Punjab could prudently be attempted with less 
 than thirty thousand men, it would be necessary 
 to draw troops from stations as distant as Alla- 
 habad, which is at least fifty days' march from the 
 frontier. So far, however, there appears to be a 
 great difference in favour of the Indian army 
 reaching the point of rendezvous before the assail- 
 ants ; but we are not to overlook the important 
 consideration, that of all the troops thus collected 
 together, only about seven thousand five hundred 
 are Europeans. To provide the necessary escorts 
 and communications, and to raise the European 
 force to the number of twenty thousand — which 
 may be looked upon as the smallest proportion, if 
 the invaders should cross the Indus with fifty 
 thousand men — troops would have to march from 
 all parts of our provinces, from a distance of 
 twelve and fifteen hundred miles, proceeding either 
 
 pass through. A division from Bombay, however, would be 
 of the greatest service in threatening the right flank of the 
 invading army, and in operating upon his communications, 
 in the event of his pushing on to Delhi ; though the moral 
 effect, upon the natives, of his gaining possession of that 
 capital, would render it a matter of the utmost consequence 
 to oppose him, before he could advance so far.
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 6*9 
 
 by the course of the rivers, or across a country but 
 very indifferently provided either with roads or 
 with the requisite suppUes for such a force ; and it 
 would be necessary to send to Ceylon, the Mau- 
 ritius, and leven the Cape of Good Hope, for regi- 
 ments of His Majesty's service to supply the place 
 of those sent to the frontier. 
 
 Upon the whole, then, if we attend to the 
 events now passing in Persia, and consider the 
 great probability that Russia will ere long esta- 
 blish a permanent influence in that kingdom, too 
 much attention cannot be paid to the political 
 strength of our Indian provinces ; and whatever 
 may be the assistance which we can expect from 
 the spirit or patriotism of the inhabitants, no time 
 should be lost in providing those safeguards, which, 
 as the conquerors of that extensive region, we are 
 bound, as well in justice, as from a regard to our 
 own welfare, to afford. But in order to estimate 
 the degree of attachment which the Indian Go- 
 vernment can claim, it will now be necessary to 
 take a view of the condition of the people sub- 
 mitted to its sway. 
 
 Since the foregoing pages were written, advice 
 has been received that, in consequence, no doubt, 
 of the diversion which the increasing importance of 
 the affairs of Greece has o])erated in favour of
 
 70 DANGER OF BRITISH INDIA 
 
 Persia, Russia has made peace with that power. 
 The conditions are severe ; and while they secure 
 to Russia at all times an easy access to Tabriz 
 and Teheran, they put her in possession of a sum 
 of money not only sufficient to defray the expense 
 of the late war, but to provide means of future 
 aggression, whenever it may suit her to renew 
 hostilities. The war, indeed, may be considered 
 to have set at rest the question, as to the practi- 
 cability of transporting a large army from Russia 
 to the heart of Persia : not only has the feeble 
 barrier of the Araxes been passed, but the disposi- 
 tion of the inhabitants of the contiguous provinces 
 to assist an invader, ascertained beyond all doubt. 
 With little or no apparent effort on the part of 
 Russia, a large and well-equipped army was as- 
 sembled to the south of the Caucasus, and put in 
 motion upon the capital of Persia, without the 
 latter being able to offer any effectual resistance, 
 or, indeed, possessing any other means of sav- 
 ing her hoarded treasures, than the immediate 
 sacrifice of a considerable portion of them, at 
 the discretion of the conqueror. Such, too, is 
 acknowledged to be the state of anarchy and 
 disorder in which the greater part of Persia is 
 plunged, that the Shah is fearful of removing 
 the remains of his treasure to a more distant 
 asylum ; whilst, therefore, liis known avarice
 
 FROM IIUSSIAN INVASION. 71 
 
 is a sufficient guarantee against profusion, the 
 immense hoardings, which, according to a late 
 writer, will amount to nearly thirty millions sterl- 
 ing, when the present demand has been satisfied,* 
 will still be within the reach of Russia on any 
 future occasion. On the other hand, the Shah's 
 advanced age and growing infirmities render it 
 not improbable that Russia may very shortly be 
 appealed to, to settle the claims of rival candidates 
 for the throne; in which case the devotion of 
 Jehangu' Khan, the present governor of Ardebil, to 
 the cause of Russia, will no doubt meet with its re- 
 ward, in the recognition of his relationship to the 
 legitimate royal stock of Persia, for the assertion 
 of which, his father was cruelly put to death by 
 the present Shah. The present Prince Royal, Ab- 
 bas Mirza, has rendered himself unpopular in the 
 north-western provinces, by his arbitrary conduct 
 during the progress of hostilities ; and has lost the 
 confidence of the nation, no less by the manner in 
 which he forced the kingdom into a war, than by 
 the rash and inconsiderate manner in which he 
 opposed the advance of the enemy's force. Little 
 doubt, therefore, need be entertained that in the 
 event of peace with Constantinople again setting the 
 southern division of the Russian forces at liberty, 
 
 * See Lieut. Alexander's Travels.
 
 72 DANGER OF BKITISH INDIA 
 
 the late designs upon Persia will be resumed, and 
 ample advantage taken of the information now ac- 
 quired respecting the deficiencies, moral and phy- 
 sical, under which that unfortunate country appears 
 destined to labour. 
 
 But whatever may be the future views of our 
 great Northern rival, the respite which has thus 
 been afforded to the Indian Government is most 
 valuable. Had the Russians continued to ad- 
 vance, the alarm which had begun to pervade our 
 frontier provinces would have so greatly encreas- 
 ed, as, in some measure, to have impaired the 
 character of any measure which might be adopted 
 for improving the condition of the inhabitants of 
 that part of our territory, by giving it the appear- 
 ance of being rather extorted by our fears than 
 conceded by our justice. Now, however, all im- 
 mediate danger being removed, and the recur- 
 rence, though still within the bounds of probability, 
 not impossibly distant in point of time, no such 
 motives can be inferred. Indeed the only appre- 
 hension now is, that the improvidence of the Go- 
 vernors will lead them to neglect the solemn 
 warning which they have received, and induce 
 them again to^ consider the governed as safe from 
 attack,* and as firm in their allegiance, as if no 
 
 * Symptoms of this have already appeared in the orders 
 issued respecting the reduction of the army : — from ten to
 
 FROM RUSSIAN INVASION. 7^3 
 
 such danger had ever offered itself, or as if they 
 had not just reason to complain of the general 
 impoverishment to which they are reduced. 
 
 twenty men per company in the infantry, and the same in 
 the cavalry, have been reduced, and some companies of artil- 
 lery have been dismounted and the horses sold. The impolicy 
 of this proceedings respecting the cavalry and artillery in 
 particular, must be manifest from what has been observed 
 with regard to the scarcity of horses in India ; and the demand 
 being so greatly reduced, there will be little or no encourage- 
 ment for breeding ; and, in addition to the time required for 
 properly breaking horses for the public service, Government 
 will not be able to procure them in the event of a sudden 
 call. Advantage should be taken of a period of peace to 
 prepare ourselves in every point for future wars ; and if re- 
 trenchment in expenditure must be made, it should only be 
 in those departments which admit of being easily restored to 
 their origrinal strencrth in time of need.
 
 74 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE OF 
 HINDOSTAN. 
 
 " Verum illi (nostri majores) delubra deorum pietate, 
 domos suas gloria decorabant ; neque victis quidquam, 
 praeter injurise licentiam, eripiebant. At hi contra, ig- 
 navissimi homines per summum scelus, omnia ea sociis 
 adimere, quae fortissimi viri victores hostibus relique- 
 runt : proinde quasi injuriam facere, id demum asset 
 imperio uti." 
 
 In the last chapter, it has been shown that the 
 defence of India against the attacks of a really 
 formidable power would require not only a more 
 efficient army than that which is now distributed 
 througliout its provinces, but that even the best 
 organized force would find it difficult to subsist 
 itself in any part of the country without being as 
 detrimental to its prosperity as if it were on hos- 
 tile ground. With the exception of a few tribes, 
 not very respectable as to numbers, we have 
 perhaps Httle to apprehend from the open assist- 
 ance which the people of the country might be
 
 IN HINDOSTAN. 75 
 
 disposed to afford the common enemy ; but even 
 their lukewarmness, their indifference to the fate 
 of the present Government, would be pregnant 
 with the most disastrous consequences. If, in- 
 deed, it be doubted whether any country can be 
 conquered wlien its inhabitants resolve to be free, 
 it must follow that no foreign occupant can suc- 
 cessfully defend it, unless the inhal)itants range 
 themselves unequivocally on his side. It is, there- 
 fore, of the first importance, to endeavour to as- 
 certain the actual condition of the people, and 
 what is their attachment to the soil they cultivate, 
 and to the government under which they live. 
 
 The habits of the Mohammedan conquerors of 
 Hindostan leading them to indulge in pomp and 
 sensuality, the love of ease and pleasure soon in- 
 fluenced their demeanour towards the vanquished ; 
 and if the feelings as well as the interests of the 
 Hindoos were generally disregarded, they at least 
 derived some consolation from seeing their fellow- 
 countrymen occasionally raised to high dignity 
 and power, both in the civil and military depart- 
 ments of the state. It is true that this was too 
 frequently the consequence of forced alliance and 
 polluted blood ; but the patient idolater, as soon 
 as the sense of personal degradation was overcome, 
 did not disdain to profit himself and his kindred 
 by the influence thus obtained. On the other
 
 76 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 hand, if wealth to an enormous amount was 
 wrested from them, often under circumstances of 
 the greatest cruelty, still that wealth was dissipat- 
 ed as freely as it was obtained, and the greater 
 part of it flowed back in refreshing streams upon 
 the industry of the country. It may be remarked, 
 too, that the Mohammedans, though differing as 
 much as Christians do, in religion, from the Hin- 
 doos, were yet of the same flesh and blood ; in 
 the great family of nature they were kindred ; 
 and the same sun that shed its genial influence 
 upon the one, cheered and animated the other. 
 But with the English every thing is different : the 
 climate of India is looked upon as foreign and 
 ungenial ; to them the country is forbidden 
 ground ; they are only allowed to reside in it as 
 sojourners anxious to regain their native homes ; 
 and whilst their exactions surpass those of all 
 former rulers, they individually support a smaller 
 expenditure than the natives can be induced to 
 believe is consistent with the stations they hold, 
 and the wealth appropriated to their support. 
 With every allowance for variation of national 
 character, their expenditure in India is, generally 
 speaking, on the lowest scale of decent subsis- 
 tence, according to their several ranks ; their sur- 
 plus income is remitted to Europe, and they, as 
 well as their employers, appear to look upon
 
 IN HINDUSTAN. 77 
 
 Hindostan as a patrimony granted to them for 
 the support of their families on the other side of 
 the globe. Almost the whole of what is wrung 
 from the people, ostensibly in requital for the 
 protection afforded them by the Government, in- 
 stead of being laid out in bona fide state expen- 
 diture, for the advantage of the country, is 
 devoted to the payment of the interest of debts 
 contracted by the Company in their character of 
 merchants, and in the past or present support of 
 foreign establishments, such as Prince of Wales's 
 Island, Bencoclen, and St. Helena, maintained 
 avowedly for commercial purposes. Add to this the 
 depression of the higlier classes, (which was the 
 unexpected consequence of the territorial system 
 of revenue,) and their exclusion from places of 
 trust and emolument, — the little employment 
 given to the natives in general, in consequence of 
 the economical scale of our Indian establishments 
 — and the small number of our troops compared 
 with the countless multitudes of an armed force 
 constituted according to Asiatic notions of parade 
 and splendour ; and we may easily comprehend 
 how infinitely more severely our Christian rule 
 must bear upon the condition and prosperity of 
 the people, than that of any previous concjueror. 
 It is to this account that we should have to place 
 the apathy of the inhabitants in the event of any
 
 78 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 serious danger threatening the Anglo-Indian Go- 
 vernment : — the impoverishment of the country- 
 might not be revenged upon us in deeds of insur- 
 rection and blood, but theirs would be the vOuC 
 silentio tenuis^ which, though not heard in the 
 whirlwind or in the earthquake, would speak dis- 
 may and ruin to the hearts of their oppressors ; 
 and the reckless indifference with which they 
 would behold the struggle, even if they abstained 
 from open hostility, would be decisive of the fate 
 of their present rulers ; for no army ever yet 
 withstood the energies of a powerful invading foe, 
 if unsupported by the sympathy of the country 
 which it was endeavouring to defend. 
 
 From what has been before remarked respecting 
 the territorial acquisitions of the Company, it will 
 readily be conceived that nothing could have been 
 less calculated to encourage the expectation of any 
 improvement in the condition of the people, than 
 the principle of actual pecuniary profit upon 
 which those acquisitions were made. Without 
 pausing to reflect that the several powers then 
 holding possessions in India, if not in open rebel- 
 lion against their legitimate sovereign, were cer- 
 tainly foreigners and intruders on the soil, whole 
 tracts and provinces were accepted as gifts, or 
 conquered by force of arms, as if the aboriginal 
 inhabitants were not more worthy of consideration
 
 IN HINDOSTAN. 79 
 
 than the trees and other productions to be found 
 on the surface. According to the barbarous com- 
 putation of oriental despots, countries were only 
 valuable in proportion to the direct land revenue 
 they yielded ; the happiness of the inhabitants 
 never entered into the calculation ; and the slow 
 and often interrupted progress of arts and com- 
 merce afforded no othei" available source of in- 
 come. The occurrence of wars and revolutions 
 rarely permitted any hope of improvement in the 
 amount ; and as amidst the scenes of pillage that 
 took place under a system of graduated plunder, 
 from the prince down to the smallest functionary, 
 every thing was destroyed or dissipated that came 
 within the reach of man, — the land, which appear- 
 ed to be the only indestructible element of pro- 
 duction, came to be considered as the sole property 
 of the ruler. It was of this principle, which in 
 itself exhibited the very essence of anarchy, igno- 
 rance, and misrule, that a Christian establishment, 
 emanating from a community in which civilization 
 and refinement were supposed to have attained 
 their highest point, were not ashamed to avail 
 themselves. Following the worthy prototypes 
 which the history of Asiatic barbarism and ty- 
 ranny afforded them, the India Company declared 
 that the farmer's dues were in effect those of the 
 state ; and subsequently, when, under the reforms
 
 80 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 introduced by Lord Cornwallis, they ostensibly 
 bestowed proprietary rights upon the zemindars, 
 they first appropriated to the state the whole 
 produce of the soil, after paying the expenses of 
 cultivation, and one-tenth of the reVital to the 
 newly created landholder. In addition, however, 
 to Asiatic principles and precedents, and to the 
 learning and research bestowed by Patton* to 
 prove that the sovereign was sole proprietor, or, 
 which amounts to the same thing, the sole disposer 
 of landed property, arguments were not long un- 
 discovered, whereby to confer on this principle the 
 sanction of more competent authority ; and Black- 
 stone is quoted by one of the writers in support 
 of the Company's prerogative to prove, that if a 
 " subject in England has only the usufruct and 
 not the absolute property in the soil — or, as Sir 
 Edward Coke expresses it, he has dominium utile, 
 but not dominium directum — a ryot in India may 
 rest contented with an usufructuary right." But, 
 besides that this principle in the law of England — 
 resting as it does upon the doctrine of escheats, 
 by which the sovereign of the state succeeds to all 
 inheritance to which no other title can be found, 
 and by which lands, like all other property, revert 
 to and vest in the King, who in the eye of the law 
 is the universal lord and original proprietor of all 
 
 * Principle of Asiatic Monarchies.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 81 
 
 the land in his kingdom — is declared by Black- 
 stone (2.50) to be, " in reality, a mere fiction ;" it 
 forms part only of that constitution by which the 
 King is solemnly sworn to govern his people ac- 
 cording to the statutes in Parhament agreed on ; 
 if, therefore, the ryot of India is bound to rest 
 contented with the same title to his ground that 
 a subject of England possesses, to make the 
 analogy complete, a free constitution should be 
 given, and the quota of land-tax to be paid should 
 be settled by his representatives in Parliament 
 assembled. 
 
 Nothing, in truth, could have been more idle 
 than the wliole controversy concerning the right 
 of property in the soil of India : the natives, 
 whose very subsistence depended upon the issue, 
 were unable to take any part in the discussion ; 
 and it is quite evident that the will of Govern- 
 ment, which was alone commensurate with its 
 power, was the only rule by which it was deter- 
 mined. Arguing from a state of things which 
 had been produced by ages of plunder and desola- 
 tion, the East India Company saw that the only 
 rational mode of restoring the prosperity of the 
 country, would interfere with tlie pecuniary aid 
 which their commercial embarrassments rendered 
 necessary, besides compelling them to abstain 
 from all attempts to increase their rents until 
 
 G
 
 82 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 order was restored, and with it the peaceful and 
 industrious habits of the community. Their in- 
 terest as traders was, in fact, incompatible with the 
 real interest of territorial rulers, supposed to have 
 a sympathy with the prosperity of the country. 
 The financial difficulties in which the Company's 
 Government had involved themselves, did not 
 allow them the necessary leisure to take a just 
 and magnanimous view of the great and interest- 
 ing question which the wonderful course of events 
 had submitted to their decision ; and, unhappily, 
 the great Council of the nation, and the ever- 
 watchful eye of the British public, were too distant 
 to admit of effectual interference to save the in- 
 habitants of India from the continuance of a 
 system, which, even under the more lenient sway 
 of Mohammedan rulers, had plunged the greater 
 part of them in hopeless poverty. 
 
 When, however, the India Company and their 
 Government ordained a permanent settlement of 
 the land revenue in 1793, there is no doubt that 
 it was their intention to renounce all claim to the 
 proprietorship of the land in favour of the zemin- 
 dars ; but in omitting exactly to define, in the first 
 instance, the relative situation of zemindar and 
 ryot, the door appears to have been left open to 
 so many alterations and interferences on the part 
 of GoveiTiment, as in a great measure to have re-
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 83 
 
 duced the proprietary right to a mere name. The 
 interests of the ryots being in direct opposition to 
 those of the landholders, the latter were soon 
 found complaining that, unless they were armed 
 with power, as prompt to enforce payment from 
 their renters, as Government had authorised the 
 use of in regard to its own claims, it was impos- 
 sible for them to discharge their engagements 
 with punctuality. Notwithstanding this appeal, 
 however. Government appear to have been scep- 
 tical as to the ill effects of the system, until its 
 interests * were likely to be affected, by the farther 
 progress of the evils complained of, exposing por- 
 tions of the land sold to the hazard of a reduction 
 in the rates of assessment. It then interfered for 
 the protection of the zemindars ; and a regulation 
 was enacted, " for better enabling individuals to 
 recover arrears of rent or revenue due to them," 
 [the opening of the preamble to which is to the 
 
 * Much the same reasons were given by Timur for pro- 
 tecting; his subjects from ruin ; " for the ruin of the subject 
 causeth the diminution of the Imperial treasures :" a passage 
 upon which Mr. Pattou (Principles of Asiatic Monarchies) 
 makes the following observation : — " This intimate con- 
 nexion between the interest of the Sovereign and the pros- 
 perity of the husbandman (the immediate tenant of Govern- 
 ment), is the surest pledge of his security." Such were the 
 opponents of the permanent settlement in Bengal ! 
 
 G 2
 
 84 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 following effect : — " Government not admitting of 
 any delay in the payment of the public revenue 
 receivable from the proprietors and farmers of 
 land, justice requires that they should have the 
 means of levying their rents and revenues with 
 equal punctuality, and that the persons by whom 
 they may be payable, whether under farmers, de- 
 pendant talookdars, ryots, or others, should be 
 enabled, in like manner, to realize the rents and 
 revenue from which their engagements with the 
 proprietors or farmers are to be made."] By this 
 regulation, the delays which a defaulter was 
 enabled to oppose to the distrainer in enforcing 
 payment of arrears of rent or revenue, as far as 
 the amount was realizable from his crops or his 
 personal property, were avoided, and the dis- 
 trainer allowed, under specified conditions, to put 
 up the property of the defaulter for sale, and to 
 cause it to be sold, to make good the deficiency ; 
 and, in some cases, to confine the defaulter until 
 he discharged the claim against him, together with 
 interest, at twelve per cent. Thus the protection 
 afforded to the cultivators by the permanent set- 
 tlement was in effect withdrawn, and the land- 
 holders had it again in their power to practise all 
 those oppressions and arbitrary exactions, which 
 it had been the object of that settlement to abolish 
 for ever. " It became the interest of the zemin-
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 85 
 
 dar," as is observed by Mr. Thackery on another 
 occasion, " not to assist, but to ruin the ryot, that 
 he might eject him from his right of occupancy, 
 and put in some one else on a raised rent ;" — and 
 such was his power in this respect, that the culti- 
 vators, unable to bear up against their renewed 
 oppressions, were frequently induced to abscond, 
 in order to avoid imprisonment, in addition to the 
 forfeiture of their whole property. It was from 
 the operation of these two causes — the efforts of 
 the landholders, on the one hand, to retain their 
 station, and, if possible, to raise their share of the 
 rents ; and of the ryots, on the other, to secure a 
 fair remuneration for their labour, — that justified 
 the following appalling picture, drawn by the Col- 
 lector of Midnapore, in February 1802. " They 
 (the zemindars) all say, that such a harsh and 
 oppressive system was never before resorted to in 
 this country ; that the custom of imprisoning 
 landholders for arrears of revenue was, in compa- 
 rison, mild and indulgent to them ; that though it 
 was no doubt the intention of Government to con- 
 fer an important benefit on them by abolishing 
 this custom, it has been found, by melancholy ex- 
 perience, that the system of sales and attachments, 
 which has been substituted for it, has, in the 
 course of a few years, reduced most of the great 
 zemindars in Bengal to distress and beggary, and
 
 86 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 produced a greater cliange in the landed property 
 of Bengal than has perhaps ever happened in the 
 same space of time in any age or country, by the 
 mere effect of internal regulations." Estates were 
 everywhere sold for default of revenue ; and the 
 purchasers, who supplanted the first proprietors, 
 being in their turn unable to support themselves 
 under such a system, the land was sold and re- 
 sold, until it at length fell into the possession of a 
 set of men who were content to act merely as the 
 receivers of the land-tax, without having any 
 farther interest, in their estates, or incurring any 
 risk but that of losing their office. This was, in 
 fact, the natural result of the anomalous position 
 in which the zemindar was placed in resjDect to 
 Government and to the ryots ; responsible to the 
 former for the whole amount assessed on his 
 estate, and necessarily at the mercy of the latter, 
 when the least delay in realizing that amount 
 occasioned a sale of his property to make good the 
 defalcation, he was gradually deprived of every 
 thing he possessed, besides the tenth share of the 
 rents, which formed his commission for collecting 
 the whole. No individual thus circumstanced 
 could be supposed to have the power, even if he 
 had the will, to attend to the comforts and pros- 
 perity of his tenants ; and whilst, for want of 
 capital, no attempt could be made by the latter to
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 87 
 
 improve their condition, without overwhelming 
 them with debt, no subsequent effort could release 
 them ; because every advantage which was gained 
 excited the covetousness of their landlord, and in- 
 duced him to make use of all the means in his 
 power to dispossess them, and procure a higher 
 rent from their successor. This consideration ope- 
 rated as a complete bar to improvement ; and, in 
 fact, the only reasonable prospect which offered 
 itself to such of the landholders as still possessed 
 sufficient capital, was to turn their attention to 
 the cultivation of such waste land as lay within 
 the boundary of their estates, and the produce of 
 which, agreeably to the spirit of the act of perma- 
 nent settlement, was not liable to farther tax- 
 ation. 
 
 In a climate like that of India, where vegetation 
 is so rapid, and where inundations are so fre- 
 quent, ground very soon runs to waste and becomes 
 overgrown with brushwood. Colebrooke esti- 
 mates the proportion of land tilled in Bengal and 
 Behar at only one-third of the whole surface ; and 
 gives it as his opinion, in an extreme case, that a 
 period of thirty years scarcely covers the barren 
 sand with soil — when inundations have been 
 caused, as sometimes occurs, by rivers breaking 
 through their banks or changing their course. It 
 requires, indeed, at all times, a considerable
 
 88 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 expense of money and labour to clear wastes that 
 are overgrown with jungle ; in most cases, two or 
 three years must elapse before it is discovered how 
 much of the ground, so cleared, will yield a suffi- 
 cient remuneration ; and if to these considera- 
 tions be added che ill effects of poverty and igno- 
 rance, in persevering upon an exaggerated esti- 
 mate of profit, some idea may be formed of the 
 difficulty of reclaiming land under similar circum- 
 stances, and of the degree of encouragement 
 which it would be desirable to hold out for such 
 employment of capital. Instances, indeed, have 
 not been wanting, of individuals having entirely 
 ruined themselves, after a perseverance of upwards 
 of twenty years, in their endeavour to reclaim 
 waste lands in different parts of India. Fortu- 
 nately, such instances are rare, but they serve to 
 show the difficulty attending improvements of this 
 nature. The Indian Government, however, still 
 adhering to the principle, that all profits derived 
 from the land are in effect those of the state, have 
 not only allowed themselves to be prevailed upon, 
 in consequence of this very partial imiDrovement 
 of the condition of the landholders, to withhold 
 the benefits of a permanent settlement from the 
 ceded and conquered provinces, although under 
 the most solemn engagements to grant them, but 
 they have endeavoured, and are still endeavour-
 
 OF HINDOSTAN.. 89 
 
 itig, by a sort of quo warranto process, to assert 
 their right to share in the augmentation of income, 
 which some zemindars have procured at so much 
 expense and hazard to themselves individually. 
 In regard to the north-western provinces, in par- 
 ticular, nothing can be at once so unjust and so 
 impolitic as such conduct. The whole population 
 of that part of the country, which is most exposed 
 to foreign aggression — a race of men well known to 
 be more robust and more prone to military habits 
 than in any other part of India — instead of being 
 attached to the Government, by being attached to 
 the soil, which they ought to protect, are kept in 
 an unsettled and discontented condition ; ready to 
 believe that nothing but a change of masters can 
 free them from the state of impoverishment in 
 which they are plunged; — whilst the great land- 
 holders are deterred from, attending to tlie happi- 
 ness and prosperity of their tenantry, by the ap- 
 prehension that Government will step in and 
 appropriate all the profits, as they are thought to 
 be doing in the rest of their dominions. 
 
 The effect of these circumstances in discou- 
 raging agriculture, it is unnecessary to insist upon; 
 but the injury thus inflicted upon the country is 
 greatly enhanced by the change which a few years 
 have wrought in its commercial prospects. When 
 British influence was first established in Bengal,
 
 f90 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 the country was literally crowded with manufac- 
 turers and artisans of all descriptions. The va- 
 rious officers, both of the Mogul court and the 
 subordinate principalities and governments, with 
 their numerous retainers, occasioned an immense 
 consumption of every article which luxury could 
 desire, or the ingenuity of the country produce ; 
 and some of these, on account of their beauty and 
 costliness, formed the basis of a considerable ex- 
 port trade. But on the substitution of a compa- 
 ratively economical European Government, the 
 demand for productions of this nature almost en- 
 tirely ceased ; the industry of the country every- 
 where met with a sensible check ; and the finish- 
 ing blow was put to many of those manufactures, 
 for which India had been so long celebrated, by 
 the fabrics of Europe being made to rival them in 
 delicacy of workmanship, and even to surpass 
 them in cheapness. Nothing was then reserved 
 for the industry of the natives but such articles as 
 were too coarse or too valueless to excite compe- 
 tition ; and the great increase of the import trade 
 soon converted India almost exclusively into a 
 market for raw produce. This great revolution 
 in the commercial interests of the country was 
 calculated to arouse all the vigilance, and call for 
 all the forbearance, of a Government which had 
 the welfare of its subjects at heart. The great
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 91 
 
 change which had taken place in the condition of 
 the people, who, from being composed of a mass 
 of manufacturing classes, sufficient to furnish am- 
 ple employment for the agricultural class, became 
 suddenly transformed into a nation of cultivators, 
 called im.periously for the fostering hand of Go- 
 vernment to increase and improve the produce of 
 the soil, by the adoption of every expedient which 
 industry, skill, and capital could apply to it, and 
 to create such other employment as the nature, 
 wants, and habits of the people would admit. In 
 all countries where the great bulk of the inhabi- 
 tants gain their subsistence by cultivating the soil, 
 the natural increase of population will soon ex- 
 ceed the demand for employment, and the wages 
 of labour will be gradually reduced to the lowest 
 possible rate. Nothing can avert or even retard 
 the general distress and misery consequent upon 
 this state of things, but the extension and im- 
 provement of agriculture, the encouragement of 
 industry to furnish employment to the surplus po- 
 pulation, and the diffusion of education and in- 
 telligence ; by the operation of which new wants 
 and new tastes will be engendered sufficient to 
 impart a stimulus to the industry and ingenuity 
 of all classes. The Indian Government, however, 
 as we have seen, acted upon diametrically oppo- 
 site principles. When the amount of the land-
 
 92 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 tax had been fixed in perpetuity at a rate which 
 there was every reason to suppose would drain the 
 surplus earnings of the whole agricultural commu- 
 nity into the coffers of the state, a permanent set- 
 tlement with the ceded and conquered provinces, 
 though distinctly promised under the governments 
 of Lord Wellesley and Lord Minto, is withheld 
 from time to time, in the hope of gradually en- 
 ticing the landholders to make such improvement, 
 as may afford an opportunity of approximating to 
 the maximum assessment which the produce of 
 the soil will admit ; because, in a few instances, 
 the landholders of Bengal and Behar have been 
 able to accumulate more wealth than could rea- 
 sonably have been anticipated. Nor is this inde- 
 cent appetence of revenue confined to the regula- 
 tions enacted of late years, — regulations which 
 appear to be passed for no other purpose than to 
 be subjects of perpetual discussion and illusive 
 amendment — but it is made to apply retrospectively 
 even to rights and privileges which existed before 
 the acquisition of the Dewanny, and which had 
 been recognised by every successive government ; 
 for the tenures by which certain lands have 
 been held rent-free from time immemorial have 
 come at length to be questioned, and many of 
 them have lately been resumed, whilst others are, 
 at this moment, under sequestration.
 
 OF HIXDOSTAN. 93 
 
 When the English first appeared upon the 
 plains of India, there were so many native princes 
 and chieftains in the exercise of sovereign power, 
 and these personages were so easily induced to 
 alienate their rights for the sake of immediate 
 advantage, that it is probable the custom of grant- 
 ing lands rent-free continued even after the Com- 
 pany had unequivocally assumed political rule. It 
 was necessary, therefore, to inquire into and put 
 a stop to an abuse which threatened to make 
 such serious inroads upon the fiscal jurisdiction 
 of the state ; and accordingly, as far back as 1783, 
 a regulation was passed, that all rent-free land, 
 in whatever quantity, unless held under the sanc- 
 tion of a grant from the Governor and Council, or 
 unless possession thereof had been obtained ante- 
 cedent to the Dewanny grant, were resumable. 
 To this regulation no reasonable objection could 
 be made ; though such is reported to have been 
 the number of claims for land which then called 
 for confirmation, that it is supposed a very great 
 portion of them was left unadjusted by the Com- 
 mittee empowered to carry the above resolution 
 into effect. 
 
 These lands are chiefly of four descriptions,* 
 the Devutter and Pirutter, granted for the endow- 
 
 * See Mr. Grant's Analysis of the Finances of Bengal, 
 Fifth Report, Appendix, p. 200 and 318.
 
 94 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 ment of Hindoo and Mohammedan temples, re- 
 spectively ; Bramutter, lands appropriated for the 
 maintenance of Bramins ; and Mohutran, or hono- 
 rary grants to individuals. The two latter descrip- 
 tions may be sold, or otherwise disposed of ; but 
 the two first are for ever devoted to the purposes 
 for which they were originally granted ; and an 
 order of Government, on the occasion referred to, 
 prohibited the granting of land for religious or 
 charitable purposes in future without the express 
 sanction of the state, though existing proprietors 
 were confirmed in their possessions. Affairs re- 
 mained in this situation for many years, but at 
 length an order was issued, decreeing that rent- 
 free lands should be resumed, unless the propri- 
 etors of them could produce their sunnuds, or 
 grants, for the inspection of the Collector of the 
 district ; when those found to bear unequivocal 
 marks of validity were to be confirmed, and the 
 others rescinded.* As, however, much of the land 
 
 * By a subsequent regulation, rent-free land, not exceeding 
 ten biggahs in extent (about 3 acres), are exempted from the 
 operation of this decree, upon proof being produced of such 
 lands having been in the possession of the family now hold- 
 ing them for a certain specified period. There is little doubt, 
 however, that the revenue records which were deposited in 
 the Khalsah when the permanent settlement was made, do 
 actually contain the registry of most of the rent-free estates 
 which axe now about to be resumed.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 95 
 
 in question had been granted many years, and in 
 some cases centuries, before the establishment of 
 the Company's Government, it was scarcely pro- 
 bable that sunnuds and titles could have been 
 preserved, amidst the scenes of violence and com- 
 motion which had so frequently occurred ; neither 
 public nor private registers could be supposed to 
 have survived the general wreck ; though the 
 known habits of the people were perfectly consis- 
 tent with the belief that such property continued 
 to descend in the families to which it had been 
 originally given. 
 
 To these evils arising out of the extreme uncer- 
 tainty of their rights, where every privilege is as- 
 sumed to be held by sufferance, liable to the re- 
 vision or resumption of Government, without even 
 the form of open investigation, must be added the 
 imposition of stamp-duties, bearing with peculiar 
 severity upon the under tenants and cultivators, 
 and which were a direct consequence of the act of 
 permanent settlement. 
 
 The natives of India, but particularly the inha- 
 bitants of what are termed the Lower Provinces of 
 the Bengal Presidency, cherish a very general and 
 sincere veneration for the character of Lord Corn- 
 wallis ; and with reason look upon him as the 
 champion of their rights, and the founder of the 
 few privileges which still remain to them. His
 
 96 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 professed desire to make their protection depend 
 solely upon the laws, and not upon the individual 
 character of their rulers ; and his consequent sepa- 
 ration of the financial from tlie judicial functions, 
 and making public officers in the former depart- 
 ment responsible for their conduct to the courts 
 established in the principal cities and districts ; 
 his regulating courts of appeal and last resort ; 
 his abolition of judges' fees, as well as all other 
 charges which set a price upon justice, and made 
 it difficult of access in proportion to the pover- 
 ty and helplessness of the suitor ; his recommend- 
 ing and laying the foundation cf a code of laws, 
 laying down rules for the conduct of all, and spe- 
 cifying the mode of attaining speedy redress for 
 every injury ; and the care he took to explain the 
 grounds of every regulation he enacted, and to 
 appeal to the good sense of the people upon all 
 subjects affecting their rights, persons, or pro- 
 perty, — called for, and still command, their fervent 
 admiration, and justly entitled that distinguished 
 nobleman to the gratitude, not only of India, but 
 of all mankind. Accustomed, as the natives of 
 India are, to look up to their rulers with a defer- 
 ence and respect little short of adoration, they 
 hailed with heartfelt gratitude these manifesta- 
 tions of a kind and beneficent mind ; but in pro- 
 portion to the sincerity of this feeling, is the dis-
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 97 
 
 may with which they have witnessed the almost 
 total abrogation of measures, the reasons of which 
 had been so fully and satisfactorily laid open 
 to their understanding, and a system infinitely 
 more severe and inflexible than any they had be- 
 fore seen, substituted in its place. Innumerable 
 are the traditions current throughout the pro- 
 vinces, concerning the love of justice, and the 
 strictly impartial mind, for which Lord Corn- 
 wallis was celebrated ; they consider his regula- 
 tions as having established and conveyed to them 
 benefits till then unknown, or only existing in 
 their legendary abstractions of what a perfect 
 ruler should be. His equal administration of 
 justice, by rules which professed to disregard the 
 persons and qualities of men, and to be free from 
 the influence of the Government itself, gained all 
 their confidence ; and if the land-tax appeared to 
 be so great, as to leave the ostensible proprietor 
 an inadequate share of the rents of his estate, still 
 the amount taken was " fixed, and for ever," and 
 admitted of relative diminution, by the effect of 
 increased industry. This certainty of exemption 
 from future demands, notwithstanding the disad- 
 vantage under which they laboured, in being in a 
 great measure excluded from taking any part in 
 the government of their country, and in being de- 
 barred from receiving assistance and instruction 
 
 H
 
 98 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 from the settlement of intelligent Europeans 
 amongst them, still offered considerable induce- 
 ment to them to improve their property by cul- 
 tivating the more valuable articles of produce, 
 and by clearing waste or uncultivated lands: — like 
 the lever of Archimedes, industry only required 
 ground to stand upon, to enable it to move the 
 universe ; and that ground they beheld in the 
 security to persons and property, which it was his 
 Lordship's anxious wish to establish. 
 
 It is singular, however, that although Lord 
 Cornwallis successfully combated the reasons for 
 delaying, for ten years, the final announcement of 
 a permanent settlement, which Mr. Shore had 
 adduced, he never appears to have entertained a 
 doubt as to the prior right of the zemindars to 
 the property of the soil. " Mr. Shore has most 
 ably, and, in my opinion,"* observes his Lordship, 
 " most successfully argued in favour of the rights 
 of the zemindars to the property of the soil." 
 But if the value of permanency is to be withdrawn 
 from the settlement now in agitation, of what 
 avail will the power of his arguments be to the 
 zemindars, for whose rights he has contended? 
 They are now to have their property in farm for 
 a lease of ten years, provided they will pay as 
 
 * Fifth Report, Appendix, p. 473.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 99 
 
 good a rent for it ; and this pro])erty is then to 
 be again assessed, at whatever rent the Govern- 
 ment of this country may at that time think pro- 
 per to impose. In any part of the world, where 
 the value of property is known, would not such a 
 concession of a right of property in the soil be 
 called a cruel mockery ?" The interest of the 
 zemindar was, in point of fact, too intimately 
 blended with the proprietary right to be easily 
 separated ; but nothing is more clear, throughout 
 the whole controversy, than that tlie position 
 which he occupied constituted a disturbing cause 
 by which the plumb-line of justice, in making 
 the proprietary recognition, was warped from the 
 perpendicular, and the entire calculation affected 
 with error accordingly. The ryot was the real 
 proprietor — he paid the rent of the land to the 
 zemindar as an agent of Government only. The 
 zemindar was a civil officer of police, as well as 
 revenue ; he was bound to make good his stipu- 
 lated payment of revenue, under penalty of suf- 
 i'ering an equivalent loss of property, or of being 
 deprived of the whole ; it was his duty to preserve 
 the peace of the country, and his services were 
 required for the defence of the state, against re- 
 bellion or invasion, according to his means of fur- 
 nishing that assistance. From all these duties, 
 however, excepting the collection of the rents, our 
 
 IT 2
 
 100 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 system of government relieved him ; and, in prin- 
 ciple, he had no farther right than that which the 
 justice of Lord Cornwallis conceded to those who 
 were likely to suifer from the resumption of the 
 Sayer. " As to the question of right," * observes 
 his Lordship, " I cannot conceive that any Govern- 
 ment in their senses would ever have delegated an 
 authorised right to any of their subjects to impose 
 arbitrary taxes on the internal commerce of the 
 country. It certainly has been an abuse that has 
 crept in, either through the negligence of the Mo- 
 gul governors, who were careless and ignorant of all 
 matters of trade ; or, what is more probable, con- 
 nivance of the Mussulman aumil, who tolerated 
 the extortion of the zemindar, that he might again 
 plunder him in his turn. But be that as it may, 
 the right has been too long established, or toler- 
 ated, to allow a just Government to take it away 
 without indemnifying the proprietor for the loss ; 
 and I never heard that, in the most free state, if 
 an individual possessed a right that was incompa- 
 tible with the public welfare, the legislature made 
 any sci'uple of taking it from him, provided they 
 gave him a fair equivalent. The case of the late 
 Duke of Athol, who, a few years ago, parted very 
 unwillingly with the sovereignty of the Isle of 
 Man, appears to me to be exactly in point." The 
 
 * Fifth Report, Appendix, p. 475.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 101 
 
 situation of the zemindai's bore a still greater 
 resemblance to tlie case here brought forward by 
 his Lordship ; the extent and condition of their 
 tenure varied from those of a jagheerdar, or 
 feudal chieftain, to those of a Government agent 
 for the collection of the rents, invested with au- 
 thority over the ryots, to enforce the cultivation 
 of the lands, and to yield them, at the same time, 
 his protection. In all cases, and under whatever 
 designation, the collection of the revenue, and the 
 appropriation of a part of it for defraying the 
 local expenses, was the principal stipulation ; and 
 the amount which remained after these payments, 
 over and above the remuneration allowed by the 
 state, was paid into the treasury, either in the 
 form of an offering, or present, on renewal of the 
 jagheerdar's commission every three years, or of 
 tribute, or simply in the form of land revenue. 
 If this view had been adopted by the Indian 
 Government at the time of making the permanent 
 settlement, and if the zemindars had been com- 
 pelled to grant pottahs to all the farmers or un- 
 der tenants, and ryots, who could command suffi- 
 cient capital to enable them to keep their lands in 
 cultivation, the otherwise insurmountable diffi- 
 culties arising out of a vain endeavour to reconcile 
 the existence of proprietary rights, with a denial 
 of that control wliich a landholder everywhere
 
 JO^ CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 possesses over his tenants, would have been in the 
 first instance avoided ; and the zemindar would 
 have fallen into his natural and correct position, 
 of assistant to the collector of the district, in re- 
 mitting through him the net land revenue to 
 Government, after paying the authorised local ex- 
 penses. 
 
 In addition, however, to the various arguments 
 by which the question of the permanent settle- 
 ment, and the persons with whom that settlement 
 was to be made, had, not undesignedly, been per- 
 plexed, two other considerations were not with- 
 out their influence upon the minds of the Court of 
 Directors and the principal members of the Indian 
 Government. The first was the actual necessity 
 for realizing quickly and certainly the greatest 
 possible revenue from India, in consequence of the 
 commercial embarrassments into which the Com- 
 pany had fallen ; and the Court of Directors were 
 only too hai)py to close with a plan which yield- 
 ed even more than they had calculated upon, with- 
 out feeling disposed to attend to the developement 
 of any other system, the operation of which might 
 not turn out so speedily advantageous to their in- 
 terests. The other, a consideration which may 
 be supposed to have had much weight with the 
 Indian Government, and to have induced them to 
 recogiiise the zemindars as proprietors of the soil,
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 103 
 
 in preference to the ryots, was, that the Govern- 
 ment itself stood in the position of a zemindar in 
 respect to its salt as well as to its opium monopo- 
 lies ; and whilst in this capacity it reserved to itself 
 the right to alter the tenure of the ryot in the 
 Salt Mehals, &c. it could not with any consistency 
 consider the proprietary right to be vested in any 
 but the zemindars. 
 
 Notwithstanding, therefore, the concurrence of 
 all parties in the necessity for protecting the 
 ryots, the latter were placed in subordination to 
 the zemindars, with no other stipulation in their 
 favour, in the act of permanent settlement, than 
 an article,* declaring that it was " a duty at all 
 times indispensably required from the proprietors 
 of land to conduct themselves with good faith and 
 moderation towards their dependant talookdars 
 and ryots, and that Government reserved to itself 
 the power to enact, whenever deemed proper to do 
 so, such regulations as might be thought necessary 
 for the protection and welfare of the dependant 
 talookdars, ryots, and other cultivators of the 
 soil." Regulations to this effect were indeed sub- 
 sequently framed, and there is little doubt that if 
 the same coolness of judgment and strict imparti- 
 ality which had so much influence in enacting the 
 
 * Colebrook's Supplement, p. 338.
 
 104 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 permanent settlement, had superintended * its 
 operations for two or three years, it would, in 
 spite of the disadvantages under which it labour- 
 ed, have answered every reasonable expectation ; 
 but the departure of Lord Cornwallis to Europe 
 so soon after the great change had been effected, 
 left the new system in the hands of some of its 
 bitterest enemies, and the want of cordial co- 
 operation on the part of the civil functionaries, by 
 which the measure had all along been impeded, 
 quickly ensured its virtual abrogation. Accord- 
 
 * Mro Tucker, however, seems to be of a different opinion. 
 Not only does he think that the several Governors of India 
 were peculiarly suited to the particular times and circum- 
 stances in which they happen to have been placed, but in 
 the ardour of his optimism he asserts that Lord Teignmouth 
 followed in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor, and 
 with scrupulous good faith gave effect to plans which, as a 
 member of Lord Cornwallis's Government, he had felt it his 
 duty to oppose. This is the first time, perhaps, that the indi- 
 vidual by whom a plan was to be carried into effect, has 
 been thought peculiarly suited to that task by his personal 
 hostility to the measure. Whatever may have been the 
 good faith of Lord Teignmouth, whether to his own or to 
 his predecessor's opinion, certain it is, that the regulation 
 which drove the ryots into the civil courts to ascertain their 
 rate of lease, destroyed the very corner-stone of that fabric 
 which Lord Cornwallis had been so intent upon rearing. — 
 Tucker's Review, &c. p. 216. — See also Fifth Report 
 p. 486-7.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 105 
 
 ingly, we find that a regulation (8 of 1763), which 
 directed that landholders should prepare forms of 
 pottahs, or leases, for the collector's approbation, 
 and tender such pottahs to their tenants, on pain 
 of being fined if they neglected to do so, was sus- 
 pended in the following year in a great number of 
 zillahs, and it was then declared that the approba- 
 tion of the collector extended only to the form * 
 of pottahs, " any dispute regarding the rate being 
 referred to the civil courts." Here, then, we have 
 at once the true cause of the vast accumulation of 
 law-suits in the several courts : the pottahs, which 
 the ryots had been taught to expect, were so 
 much waste-paper, until their terms had been set- 
 tled by an appeal to law ; and as it is probable 
 that it did not happen in above one instance in 
 ten that both parties agreed upon the subject, 
 almost the whole agricultural population were ac- 
 tually compelled to appeal to the courts. Mr. 
 Mill, in his History of British India, attributes the 
 accumulation of undecided cases in a great mea- 
 sure to the mischievous prejudices of lawyers, 
 " one of the most remarkable of which is that of 
 rendering judicial proceedings intricate by the 
 multiplication of technical forms,f &c. ;" and cer- 
 
 * Regulations 2 and 4, of 1794. 
 
 t History of British India, p. 283. et se^.
 
 106 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 tainly the description of the forms and delays, in- 
 cluding repeated translations of law-papers, given 
 by Mr. Shore in his first minute * (already re- 
 ferred to), is sufficiently formidable. The 5th Re- 
 port, indeed, expressly informs us, that the judicial 
 rules upon which those still in use in Bengal are 
 founded, " had the advantage of being framed by 
 professional talents ;" but this the historian seems 
 to think is per st anything but a recommendation. 
 The habits, ideas, and associations of professional 
 men, are so inseparably connected with precedent 
 and authority, that they are seldom well qualified 
 for striking out new paths in legislation : blind- 
 ed, like horses in a mill, they are apt to imagine 
 that they are making great strides in advance, 
 when they have only been travelling in the old 
 beaten track of the little circle to which they have 
 so long been yoked. On this subject, however, 
 the historian appears to be somewhat at variance 
 with himself; for he informs us that "there was in 
 India nothing which in reality deserved the name 
 of law," forgetting what he had just said of the 
 perverse ingenuity of lawyers, and that he had 
 shortly before told his readers, that "justice had 
 always been distributed in the method of simple 
 and rational enquiry" among the people of Hin- 
 
 * Fifth Report, Appendix, p. 190.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 107 
 
 dostan. We have the authority of the 5th Re- 
 port for the fact of the people of India having been 
 governed by a system in which they apparently 
 acquiesced with cheerfulness, and that the cus- 
 toms of the Hindoo and Mohammedan law were 
 known, if not to all the European Judges and 
 Magistrates, certainly to the native law and mi- 
 nisterial officers, whose services, we are told, were 
 connnon to all the English courts, district as well 
 as city : the Mohammedan laws with respect to 
 Mussulmen, and the Hindoo with respect to Hin- 
 doos, being considered the general rules by which 
 the Judges were to form their decisions in all civil 
 suits, and the Mohammedan law of the Koran, 
 as explained by the commentators, the general 
 rule for criminal justice ; with such alterations 
 and modifications of its sanguinary punishments 
 and mutilations, as the milder spirit of British 
 criminal justice dictated. With regard, however, 
 to the principles on which English practice was 
 engrafted upon Indian law, and particularly to 
 the introduction of paid advocates * (vakeels), it 
 
 * Lord Cornv/allis is not responsible for the introduction 
 of vakeels into Indian Courts of Justice, as might be infer- 
 red from the passage of Mr. Mill's history here adverted to ; 
 his Lordship found them already established there by the 
 regulations of 1781, and all he did was to reform the abuses 
 connected with their practice and appointments.
 
 108 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 is impossible not to agree with the historian in his 
 general view of the law, not indeed in India only, 
 but even in the mother country. 
 
 The absurdities by which English law still con- 
 tinues to be encumbered, arose in the course of 
 ages out of peculiar states of society, and are re- 
 tained apparently from no other motive than the 
 instinctive horror of innovation, which the timid 
 of all persuasions are too prone to entertain. 
 The structure of society has undergone many and 
 great changes, but the common law is still " in 
 the rearward of the fashion," and retains its anti- 
 quated costume, as if unconscious of the ridicule 
 with which it is covered. It evinces, however, a 
 constant endeavour to reconcile new feelings and 
 new circumstances to its own preconceived no- 
 tions ; and thus, by a sparing adoption of such 
 modern improvements as bear a strained resem- 
 blance to ancient practice, it has become a thing 
 of threads and patches,* utterly incomprehensible 
 to ordinary men. Authoiity and precedent are 
 its avowed foundation ; and its professed aim is to 
 furnish a plain and certain rule for the guidance 
 and protection of all. Yet new decisions of indi- 
 
 * Questi sono, (says Beccaria,) gli espedienti delle nazioni 
 deboli, le leggi delle quali non sono che istantanee riparazioni 
 di un edificio ruinoso, che crolla da ogni parte.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 109 
 
 vidual Judges, grounded upon fanciful analogies 
 to some former case, are constantly erected into 
 maxims of law, and an adherence to remote 
 sources of authority, in opposition to the plain 
 standard of reason and common sense, involves 
 every fresh question in inextricable confusion. 
 Thus, whilst the stability of the law is relied upon 
 in theory, its uncertainty is notorious and appa- 
 rently inevitable in practice ; and decisions, in fact, 
 depend more upon the personal character of the 
 judge, than upon any fixed or ascertained princi- 
 ples. Under the hollow pretence, indeed, of shield- 
 ing us from the tyranny or corruption of judges, by 
 referring every thing to precedent, it, in reality, 
 creates the worst of tyrannies, — a varying and un- 
 certain law ; and it sets, as it were, a premium 
 upon the ingenuity of lawyers, to reconcile present 
 circumstances with past decisions. Thus it fur- 
 nishes a constant bar to its own improvement, by 
 discarding every thing that has not some previous 
 sanction in its favour, without adverting to the 
 circumscribed state of knowledge and experience 
 at the period when that sanction was pronounced ; 
 and it has a tendency to encourage litigation by 
 holding out almost as fair a prospect of success to 
 the wicked as to the innocent. What is termed 
 common law, is, in fact, to be found only in reports 
 of cases and in the dicta of judges, forming toge-
 
 110 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 ther an immense heterogeneous mass, which, on 
 the one hand, may be made to assume any form by 
 means of what is technically called a fiction, and 
 from which, on the other, the ingenuity of a prac- 
 tised lawyer can extract authority for almost any 
 doctrine however absurd. Right and wrong, in 
 short, become in a great measure subordinate con- 
 siderations ; the sole question is, not what is just, 
 but what is law ; and that law is to be found not 
 in any written enactment, but in the ever-varying 
 opinion of presiding judges. 
 
 To fix this wavering mass, to give firmness and 
 consistency to the loose elements of the soil, is in- 
 deed a great desideratum, not only in India, but in 
 England also. All writers are agreed, that since 
 the adoption of the Code Napoleon, the number of 
 lawsuits for real property (precisely that depart- 
 ment in which English law displays the greatest 
 number of subtilties) has been greatly reduced in 
 France. Indeed, the mere compression of exist- 
 ing laws into a small compass, is of itself a benefit 
 conferred upon the community ; it not only brings 
 the law within the comprehension of all, but it 
 confines the subject-matter of future comment, and 
 restrains the authority of the judge within its just 
 bounds — those of a faithful interpretation of the 
 laws. For the framing and institution of such a 
 code in India, an excellent opportimity was un-
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. Ill 
 
 doubtedly lost when the reforms of 1793 were car- 
 ried into effect. The submissive character of the 
 Hindoos, their acknowledged hereditary prostra- 
 tion, and their habits of looking up to their rulers 
 as to their father, and, imder Providence, their God 
 upon earth, — were no less favourable to the calm 
 and dispassionate investigation which such a mea- 
 sure would have demanded, than to the superin- 
 tendence of its operation in the hands of the most 
 considerate and well-informed servants of the 
 Company. We are told, indeed, that it was ne- 
 cessary to respect the prejudices of the natives, and 
 to adhere as much as possible to their laws and 
 customs, in framing a system of Government for 
 our eastern possessions ; but a very slight inspec- 
 tion of the regulations, which have been passed 
 under this solemn injunction, will convince any 
 man, that the only prejudices which have been re- 
 spected, are certain cruel and disgusting obser- 
 vances of their religion ; which, in their operation, 
 are rather calculated to assist,* than to impede 
 
 * See, amongst other instances, regulation 4, of ] 806, for 
 the care with which the most cruel and abominable supersti- 
 tions practised at the Temple of Juggernaut have been sanc- 
 tioned and organized with a view to the pecuniary profit 
 which they yield to our Christian Government. The num- 
 ber of lives annually supposed to be sacrified in consequence 
 of the Juggernaut pilgrimage, is too great to mention; the 
 surrounding country is literally whitened with human bones.
 
 112 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 the fiscal views of Government ; and that, in other 
 respects, very little attention has been paid to the 
 feelings or opinions of the people. We found the 
 inhabitants of India, it is true, immersed in the 
 most profound ignorance, and a prey to the most 
 absurd and revolting superstition ; but security of 
 property, and redress of grievances, are substantial 
 benefits, which address themselves to the business 
 and bosoms of men of every intellect, and of all 
 persuasions ; and certainly, the conduct of the 
 people of Bengal, in appealing to our law courts, 
 did not evince any slowness to avail themselves of 
 the protection which was offered to them, even 
 by the very incomplete reforms effected at the 
 period now referred to. This conduct, as the 
 Government justly observes, indicated a change of 
 circumstances which ought to be received with 
 satisfaction, inasmuch as it evinced the protection 
 intended to be aff"orded by an equal administration 
 of justice, to be real and efficient ; and showed 
 that the care and attention, which its directors 
 with so much solicitude had urged the Govern- 
 ment to observe for preventing the oppressions 
 formerly practised by the most powerful land- 
 holders, had not been exerted in vain ; and that 
 in the success of those exertions a foundation had 
 been laid for the happiness of the great body of 
 the people, and in the increase of population, agri- 
 
 I
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 113 
 
 culture, and commerce, for the general prosperity 
 of the country.* But the Government, with 
 singular inconsistency, instead of acknotvledging 
 the confidence thus shown in the uprightness of 
 their intentions by redoubling their efforts to ad- 
 minister strict and impartial justice to all parties, 
 first did all in their power to promote litigation, 
 and then loaded the redress of grievances with 
 such heavy duties, as amounted to a denial of it 
 altogether to the great majority of suitors. If the 
 liberal and enlightened observ^ation just cited, had 
 been followed up by an increase in the number of 
 courts, or by the appointment of commissioners, 
 with power to settle all disputes arising out of the 
 new order of things, upon the known and recogniz- 
 ed principles of equity to the parties, it cannot be 
 doubted that the rage for litigation would quickly 
 have subsided, and that the permanent settlement 
 would have realized the most favourable expecta- 
 tions, without that revolution in property, and 
 those appalling scenes of distress, with which its 
 operation has been accompanied. On the contrary, 
 however, in less than a month after passing a re- 
 gulation for the relief of the zemindars, another was 
 published for re-enacting the payment of the in- 
 stitution fee, abolished in 1793, and for establish- 
 ing fees on exhibits, " so as to render the proceed- 
 
 * Revenue Letter 31st October, 1799. 
 I
 
 114 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 ings costly to the party cast or non-suited, without 
 (it is said) discouraging recourse to them where the 
 cause of action might be well founded." The pre- 
 amble states that '• in consequence of there being 
 no expense in the first instance, and but a mo- 
 derate and limited one ultimately, many ground- 
 less and litigious suits and complaints have been 
 instituted against individuals, and the trials of 
 others have been protracted, &c., whereby the 
 judges have been prevented from determining 
 causes with that expedition which is essential for 
 deterring individuals from instituting vexatious 
 claims, or refusing to satisfy just demands, &c. ; 
 and that the establishing of fees on the institu- 
 tion and trial of suits, and on petitions presented 
 to the court, being considered to be the best mode 
 of putting a stop to this abuse of the ready means 
 now afforded to individuals of availing themselves 
 of the exercise of the laws, without obstructing 
 the bringing forward of just claims ; the following 
 rules are enacted, &c." The imposition of this ex- 
 pense, it is stated in the 5th Report, was expect- 
 ed to repress litigation in future ; but with respect 
 to the large accumulation of causes already on the 
 judge's file, they were got rid of by an e.v-post 
 facto law, which directed that the fees required to 
 be paid on the institution of suits hereafter (10th 
 April 1795) "shall be paid, under the like rules
 
 OF HINDUSTAN. 115 
 
 and exceptions, in all suits or appeals now depend- 
 ing in the zillah, or city courts, &c. &c. which 
 may have been instituted subsequent to the 1st 
 May 1793, unless adjusted by the parties ; and 
 such suits, unless withdrawn, or the fees are paid 
 within one month, to be dismissed." In thus en- 
 deavouring to repress litigation, however, most of 
 the fees were carried to the account of Govern- 
 ment, and their amount, no doubt, suggested the 
 expediency of turning what was now considered a 
 national characteristic, to the advantage of the 
 state, by farther impositions ; accordingly a regu- 
 lation to this effect was passed in 1797. But in 
 thus converting the views of their subjects into a 
 species of traffic, the Indian Government seems to 
 have been aware that some apology was due ; and 
 on that account the abolition of the police tax is 
 made in some measure the excuse for increasing 
 the fees on the institution and trials of suits, and 
 for establishing a stamp duty on law papers. 
 " Difficulties, (it is said in the preamble to the re- 
 gulation in question, 6th of 1797) having been ex- 
 perienced in determining wliat persons were liable 
 to be charged Vv ith the police tax, and frauds and 
 exactions having in consequence been committed 
 by the assessors and collectors, to the vexation of 
 the contributors as well as to the diminution of the 
 produce of the tax, the Vice-President in Council 
 
 I 2
 
 116 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 has therefore resolved to abolish this tax ; and 
 with a view farther to discourage the preferring 
 of litigious complaints, and the filing of superflu- 
 ous exhibits, and the summoning unnecessary wit- 
 nesses on the trial of suits, and also to provide for 
 the deficiency which will be occasioned in the 
 public revenue by the abolition of the police tax, 
 as well as to add to the public resources without 
 burthening individuals, he has resolved," &;c. &c. 
 Passing over the singular manner in which the 
 discouragement of litigious complaints is joined 
 with the abolition of a totally distinct tax, ac- 
 knowledged to be nearly unproductive, it may be 
 observed that as the fees and stamps were here 
 made payable alike by those who might prefer 
 just complaints, as by those who might be termed 
 litigious, it is difficult to understand how such a 
 tax could be considered as not burthening indivi- 
 duals. On the contrary, no tax burthens indivi- 
 duals so much as a tax upon law proceedings, to 
 which no person resorts but in asserting or de- 
 fending a right, of which he is, or is threatened to 
 be, unjustly deprived. A police tax, on the con- 
 trary, being nothing more than a general contri- 
 bution for a common benefit, is, under equitable 
 regulations, an imposition every way unobjection- 
 able, and by municipal arrangements might cer- 
 tainly be collected and disbursed, not only to the
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 117 
 
 advantage of the state, but to the great comfort 
 and security of the public. 
 
 The difficulty of keeping pace with the de- 
 mands for redress, does not appear to have been 
 sensibly diminished by the abovementioned regu- 
 lations : on the contrary, their tendency being to 
 encourage injustice by hopes of imjiunity, the 
 natural consequences ought to have been rather 
 an increase than a diminution of suits at law ; 
 but it was not till the year 1803, that the proper 
 remedy was applied, by adding to the number of 
 judges throughout the provinces, and enlarging 
 the jurisdiction of the native commissioners or 
 munsiffs. This remedy, however, was applied on 
 so small a scale as to be totally inadequate to the 
 end proposed ; and the usual consolation for such 
 a failure was again sought in an augmentation of 
 the revenue, by means of farther stamp duties. 
 Accordingly, Regulation 1st of 1814, and others 
 which followed after a short interval, increase the 
 rate of stamp duties, and extend the use of stamp 
 paper so greatly, that without them no complaint 
 can be filed, no grievance taken cognizance of;* 
 
 * Harrington's Analysis, vol. i. p. 162, apparently cites 
 this regulation as first introducing the use of stamps " for 
 raising a revenue ;" but the preamble above quoted from Re- 
 gulation 6th, 17^7, shows the principle to have been avowed 
 on that occasion.
 
 118 CONDITION* OF THE TEOPI.E 
 
 on the contrary, if any suitor neglect to provide 
 himself with the necessary stamps, and present 
 documents written on common paper, he is sen- 
 tenced to a fine of twenty times the value of the 
 stamp omitted, and a rejection of his complaint 
 until the fine be paid and the prescribed stamps 
 supplied. 
 
 Meantime, however, the power of distraint 
 had been greatly increased by Regulation 7th of 
 1799, by which it was declared that under- 
 tenants of every description were to be considered 
 defaulters for any arrears of rent withheld beyond 
 the day on which the same might have been pay- 
 able ; and liable to immediate distress, if all such 
 arrears were not paid on demand. A commission 
 of one anna in the rupee on the amount of sales of 
 property sold was also authorized to be charged to 
 the account of the defaulters, in addition to the 
 other expenses attending the attachment. The 
 power of the collector was also strengthened by 
 his being allowed to imprison defaulting land- 
 holders, and to charge interest for the amount of 
 the monthly instalment remaining undischarged, 
 at the rate of one per cent, per mensem, from the 
 date at which the arrear became due, without 
 waiting for authority from the Board of Revenue 
 so to do, unless he think proper to apply for 
 special instructions. He was authorized and di-
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 119 
 
 rected, however, to suspend the exercise of these 
 powers in cases of drought, inundation, or other 
 calamity of the season, and where the defaulter 
 was entirely blameless, reporting circumstances to 
 the Board of Revenue. But whether from the 
 Board having condemned this indulgence where 
 shown, or from the natural inclination of men in 
 official stations to exceed the bounds of their au- 
 thority, the collectors did, notwithstanding, attach 
 and distrain to such an extent as to call for the 
 interference of Government * to prohibit their 
 doing so, during the three first months of the 
 year, v, hilst the landholders and farmers were ad- 
 justing their settlements with the ryots. By the 
 regulation here referred to, however, it was direct- 
 ed that, in order to limit the division of property, 
 when an estate was attached, the whole of it, and 
 not a part, was to be sold ; the surplus produce of 
 such sale, after discharging the amount of arrears, 
 interest, and fines, to be given to the proprietor, 
 unless otherwise specially directed. It was more- 
 over ordained, that whenever the collector thought 
 the revenue was wilfully withheld, or the arrear 
 ascribable to neglect, mismanagement, or miscon- 
 duct, the Board might impose an additional penal- 
 ty of one per cent, per mensem, to be paid from 
 the time when the arrears became due till dis- 
 * Reg. 1, of 1801.
 
 120 CONDITIOX OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 charged, or till the farm or estate was attached, 
 together with distress and sale of personal proper- 
 ty where accounts were not forthcoming. If, how- 
 ever, the proprietor at any time antecedent to the 
 sale, delivers in his account, the sale is not to take 
 place ; but instead thereof, as a punishment to the 
 defaulter for his withholding his accounts, the 
 Governor General may impose such fines as he 
 may judge proper, in addition to the former. 
 
 Here then may be said to have terminated the 
 long struggle between the zemindars and the 
 ryots oil the one hand, and the Government 
 and the zemindars on the other. At first the 
 zemindars were relieved from the liability to 
 imprisonment, and other arbitrary punishments 
 for non-payment of their revenue ; but portions 
 of their estates were ordered to be sold to make 
 good their defalcations ; when, however, they 
 complained of this, the pov/er of imprisonment 
 was restored, and their personal property, as 
 well as their whole estates, rendered liable to 
 sale. In like manner, the ryots were apparently 
 secured in the possession of their ground, by the 
 zemindars being directed to grant them pottahs 
 or leases, and they were encouraged to appeal to 
 the law when oppressed by their landlord : — their 
 availing themselves of this privilege, however, oc- 
 casioned the imposition of law taxes, the restora- 
 tion of the power of distraint and imprisonment.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 121 
 
 formerly held over them by the zemindars, and 
 eventually the establishment of stamp duties, to 
 such extent and amount as almost to constitute a 
 total denial of redress under any grievances they 
 might suffer. 
 
 There can be no doubt, however, that the per- 
 manent settlement, though ruinous to the greater 
 part of the old zemindars, has greatly contributed 
 to extend cultivation ; and that the present ze- 
 mindars, as a body, and indeed with exception of 
 those whose waste land estates are now in fact 
 under sequestration, are in a very prosperous con- 
 dition. This circumstance, indeed, is so well 
 known that, as before remarked, it has excited 
 what was termed by Mr. Shore, " the cupidity of 
 Government,'' to demand a portion of the excess. 
 It must not, however, be supposed, because some 
 individuals have prospered greatly under the new 
 order of things, that, therefore, the land tax is 
 moderate ; for as yet the scanty and penurious hus- 
 bandry of the country has experienced no general 
 improvement. The advantages referred to have 
 been mostly confined to those estates which con- 
 tained a large portion of uncultivated land, or the 
 boundaries of which had been but loosely ascer- 
 tained, or in which the cultivation had been im- 
 proved by the unexpected demand for more valu- 
 able produce. In all these instances it is proba- 
 ble that a rise of rents was accomplished without
 
 122 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 much difficulty ; but the number of cases in point, 
 in which any great degree of improvement was at- 
 tended with an augmentation of the zemindars' 
 income, must have borne but an inconsiderable 
 proportion to the general mass. It may be observ- 
 ed, too, that in addition to the slowness and un- 
 certainty of returns from the cultivation of waste 
 lands in general, the appropriation of pasture land 
 is attended with a diminution of apparent profit, 
 by the increased expense and difficulty of sub- 
 sisting the cattle used for agricultural purposes, 
 particularly during that period of the year when 
 the crop is on the ground. But even were the 
 fact otherwise, were it certain that every zemin- 
 dar had doubled his income by the improvements 
 effected on his estate, how unworthy it is of the 
 character of a great Government to endeavour, by 
 every means in its power, to deprive its subjects 
 of their hard-earned profits, because after so many 
 years of risk and labour those profits turn out to 
 be greater than could have been expected, under 
 so severe an assessment. How much more wise, 
 as well as humane, it would be to rejoice in the 
 unexpected prosperity of the country, to encourage 
 accumulation, and with it, increased activity of 
 trade, and a sincere attachment to the Govern- 
 ment which secui'ed to them the enjoyment of so 
 many blessings ! Instead of this, however, the
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 123 
 
 natives are continually alarmed by inquisitions, 
 actual or threatened, into the validity of their 
 titles, and correct measurement of their estates ; 
 and swarms of canongoes, or native revenue sur- 
 veyors, are spread over the surface of the country, 
 ostensibly for the protection of the ryots, but in 
 reality for the purpose of discovering and report- 
 ing unassessed land. These men, who are virtu- 
 ally released from responsibility, partly by their own 
 obscurity, but chiefly by the small number and inac- 
 cessibility of the English functionaries under whom 
 they act, extort money almost at will from the indi- 
 viduals with whose lands they have any concerns, 
 and by indulgences to one, or menaces to another, 
 afflict the unhappy people with endless vexations. 
 
 In order more clearly to point out the condi- 
 tion of the ryots, the following table of the pro- 
 duce of one biggah, about ^ of an English acre, 
 together with the usual rent according to the 
 annual settlement, and expenses of cultivation, is 
 here inserted. A comparison with the estimate 
 given by Colebrooke, (Husbandry of Bengal,) 
 will show that, whatever may be the case with 
 other classes, the situation of the ryot has not im- 
 proved. All the articles here inserted, with the 
 exception, perhaps, of paddy, are susceptible of 
 great increase ; and some garden-lands, particu- 
 larly in the vicinity of lai^e towns, produce five
 
 124 
 
 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 and even ten times as much ; but taking a large 
 extent of country, the average is not greater than 
 what is here given : this point, however, is not of 
 such importance regarding the whole calculation, 
 from the small proportion of land appropriated to 
 the sort of produce in question, one tenth of the 
 whole cultivated svuface being considered much 
 more than its utmost extent. 
 
 
 Expense of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Seed, Ciilti- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Descriptioa of Produce. 
 
 valioii,Keap- 
 
 '.Dg, Weed- 
 
 iDj;, and 
 
 Rent. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Value 
 of the 
 
 Cultivator's 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Crop. 
 
 Surplus. 
 
 
 Slonng. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rps. Aus. 
 
 Rps. 
 
 Ans. 
 
 Rps. 
 
 Ans. 
 
 Rps. 
 
 Rps. Ans. 
 
 Ti.AA fO\d Land 
 P^^^^y {New Land 
 
 3 1 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 3 7 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 7 
 
 3 4 
 
 Sugar Cane 
 
 10 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 4 12 
 
 Tobacco 
 
 9 12 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 20 
 
 5 4 
 
 Ginger 
 
 9 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 5 12 
 
 Cotton 
 
 6 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 18 
 
 6 12 
 
 Onions 
 
 10 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 6 12 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 6 12 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 4 4 
 
 Garlic 
 
 10 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 4 12 
 
 Curry, Herbs, &c. 
 
 6 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 16 
 
 5 4 
 
 Jute 
 
 4 12 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 3 12 
 
 Hemp 
 
 4 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 5 4 
 
 Turmeric 
 
 7 12 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 17 
 
 5 4 
 
 Mustard 
 
 4 12 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 4 4 
 
 Mulberry 
 
 5 12 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 3 12 
 
 Pulse, of sorts 
 
 5 4 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 11 
 
 3 4 
 
 Wheat 
 
 5 12 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 4 12 
 
 Barley 
 
 5 8 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 Cucumbers 
 
 9 12 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 12 
 
 21 
 
 6 4 
 
 If, then, we suppose a farm to consist of about 
 25 biggahs, or 81 English acres, which is as much 
 as one man and his family can manage, the culti-
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 125 
 
 vator's surplus, at the above average, will be about 
 12^ rupees for the garden land, and 74^ for the 
 rice land, making altogether 87 rupees, or 8/. 7^. 
 per annum, or 7 rupees 4 annas for the monthly 
 subsistence of himself and family. 
 
 The following is a statement of the expense of 
 living for a family of five persons, on the lowest 
 scale consistent with bare subsistence : 
 
 , Riip. Ans. 
 
 Rice four-fifths of a seer, about l|lbs. for each per- 
 son, at 30 seers per rupee - - 4 
 
 Pulse, one pice, (less than a halfpenny) per diem 
 
 each - - - - -25| 
 
 Salt and Condiments ditto (salt at 5 maunds per 
 
 rupee - - - - - 1 2J 
 
 Oil, two chittacks (about 2oz.) at 10 rupees per 
 
 maund - - - - - 15 
 
 Total 8 
 
 To this must be added something for clothing, 
 scanty as it is, besides occasional expenses for re- 
 pairs of hut, fees, &c. Charity should also enter 
 into the account, but as this is generally bestowed 
 in the form of victuals, it is difficult to estimate its 
 exact value; as, however, it actually diminishes 
 the above allowance, and that in no inconsiderable 
 degree, it should not be lost sight of in forming an 
 opinion of the condition of the people. The item of 
 charity, indeed, is much larger than can readily be 
 conceived by tliose who are unacquainted with the
 
 126 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 habits of an Indian community. The class of 
 people living entirely upon alms, whether given 
 from motives of superstition, or from mere compas- 
 sion, is exceedingly great. Crowds of sturdy beg- 
 gars, generally of a religious caste, parade the 
 country, and extort a plentiful subsistence, more 
 from the united effect of fear and superstition, than 
 from any other feeling of the inhabitants. Every 
 village, also, has its separate band of religious 
 mendicants, who make their rounds every day, de- 
 manding a handful of rice from each householder ; 
 and if to these we add the really destitute objects, 
 who from disease or infirmity have a claim upon 
 the compassion of their more fortunate brethren, 
 we shall have a mass of charitable demands, from 
 which the almost unhoused Hindoo has no refuge 
 but by granting a portion of his scanty meal, 
 almost equal to the poor's rate in England, bur- 
 thensome as that is acknowledged to be. 
 
 The only methods which the poor husbandman 
 has of eking out his miserable existence, are by 
 disposing of the produce of such fruit trees as may 
 be upon his farm, or by keeping cows and selling 
 their produce ; or lastly, by endeavouring to raise 
 a second crop of some kind in the intervals of the 
 usual harvests. But from all these sources of 
 profit so much must be deducted for interest of 
 money, or encroachment upon other branches of his
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 127 
 
 industry, that little or no benefit can be expected 
 from them, in the present state of the country. 
 Thus the produce of trees may be valuable in 
 many cases, but they are prejudicial to the growth 
 of other articles, and the ground they cover forms 
 a serious deduction from the quantity of land cul- 
 tivated : some indeed are attended with loss, un- 
 less more care is taken to strengthen the soil, than 
 a poor ryot can afford ; of this kind are plain tains, 
 which, in addition to the usual fallow of one- 
 fourth, or even one-third of the lands yearly, ex- 
 haust the soil in three or four years, and render it 
 useless for a period much more than equal to the 
 advantage to be derived from their culture. In 
 like manner the profits of the dairy are realized at 
 the expense of that share of the produce consum- 
 ed by the cattle, together with the additional 
 trouble, whatever it may be, of watching and 
 milking them. In circumstances so straitened, 
 even the smallest item becomes of importance, and 
 the miserable hut in which the cultivator resides 
 must be considered as diminishing, p^o tanto, the 
 quantity of his productive land. 
 
 If by the above table we endeavour to ascertain 
 the present situation of the zemindars, the follow- 
 ing will be the calculation, assuming that the in- 
 crease of rent since the permanent settlement has 
 not much exceeded the proportionate increase in
 
 128 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 the cultivation of the more valuable articles of 
 produce, which is generally supposed to be the fact. 
 The zemindar's share of the rent of the 25 biggahs, 
 above mentioned, would be only 6 rupees 5 annas 
 per annum ; but supposing him to possess 1000 
 biggahs or about 354 acres, his income would be 
 252^ rupees, and the amount of land revenue paid 
 by him to Government 2272lJ rupees. But to his 
 income must be added the profit arising from any 
 imcultivated or unassessed land, which happened to 
 be upon his estate at the period of the settlement, 
 and from which he has since been able to raise a 
 rent by bringing it under tillage. The quantity of 
 land exempted from taxation (rent free), and that 
 which was appropriated to pasturage taken toge- 
 ther, was calculated by Mr. J. Grant* at no less than 
 two-fifths of the whole surface in 1786, whilst the 
 land in cultivation was but one-half that amount 
 or one-fifth of the whole ; and as Colebrooke 
 (Husbandry &c.) apparently estimates the rent of 
 free lands as in the proportion of 3 to 4 to the 
 waste land, we have upon these data the average 
 quantit)'^ of reclaimable land in each estate equal 
 to something more than one-third of the whole. 
 But as it was clearly the interest of the land- 
 
 * See the Analysis already referred to, in the Appendix, 
 5th Report.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 129 
 
 holder to cultivate as much of his ground as pos- 
 sible during the several settlements which were 
 made immediately previous to, and which formed 
 the basis of, the permanent settlement in 1793, 
 (since he paid rent for the whole,) it is reasonable 
 to suppose that a considerable portion of it was 
 rendered productive during the "seven years which 
 elapsed between the periods referred to. Allow- 
 ing, however, that this may not have been the fact, 
 and r^.Xaiat)ng upon every spot of ground, even to 
 tl:,'^* tbtal absorption of pasturage, having been cul- 
 tivated by the present proprietors, it will only 
 amount to about 340 biggahs in 1000 ; which, 
 upon the average rent given in the foregoing 
 table, will make 858^ rupees ; which, added to the 
 former 252, will amount to 1110^ rupees (111/. 
 per annum), or 92^ per mensem; a very small in- 
 come, indeed, for the support of a zemindar and 
 his family, and the payment of the expenses neces- 
 sarily attendant upon his rank and station. 
 
 But, besides that the above calculation is obvi- 
 ously an extreme and improbable one, it is gene- 
 rally believed that a very great majority of the 
 present landholders pay no more than 500 rupees 
 yearly to Government, — they consequently have 
 only 55^ rupees for their income, out of the rents 
 collected upon the assessment ; and if to this we 
 
 K
 
 130 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 add * half tlie amount, as a reasonable average for 
 tax-free cultivation, their miserable pittance is not 
 more than that of the poorest class of ryots. Upon 
 the whole, then, we may conclude that, with the 
 utmost possible advantage that can be obtained 
 under the present circumstances of the country, 
 the great majority'of landholders, as well as ryots, 
 can realize nothing more than a bare subsistence 
 from their ground ; and that, from the impoverish- 
 ed state of the cultivating classes in general, there 
 is no probability that their unassisted exertions 
 will enable them to accumulate capital for the im- 
 provement of their stock, or for the encourage- 
 ment of new branches of industry. 
 
 Hitherto, the poverty of the cultivating classes, 
 men who have both property and employment, has 
 alone been adverted to ; but the extreme misery 
 to which the immense mass of the unemployed 
 population are reduced, would defy the most able 
 pen adequately to describe, or the most fertile ima- 
 gination to conceive. The extremes to which 
 they are driven for subsistence may be judged of 
 from the following facts, which, it is to be presum- 
 ed, are well known to those who have resided for 
 
 * According to Colebrooke, their incomes are tripled, and 
 in some instances they are said to have been decupled ; but 
 both cases must be exceedingly rare, the consequence of 
 some extraordinary local circumstance.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 131 
 
 any long period in India ; but the number of help- 
 less wretches who daily sink under the effects of 
 misery and starvation, no attempt can be made to 
 estimate. 
 
 On many occasions of ceremony in the families 
 of wealthy individuals, it is customary to distri- 
 bute alms to the poor ; som^imes four annas, 
 (about three pence,) and rarely more than eight 
 annas each. When such an occurrence is made 
 known, the poor assemble in astonishing numbers, 
 and the roads are covered with them from twenty 
 to fifty miles in every direction. On their ap- 
 proaching the place of gift, no notice is taken of 
 them, though half famished and almost unable to 
 stand, till towards the evening ; when they are 
 called into an enclosed space, and huddled together 
 for the night in such crowds, that, notwithstand- 
 ing their being in the open air, it is surprising how 
 they escape suffocation. When the individual, 
 who makes the donation, perceives that all the ap- 
 plicants are in the enclosure, (by which process he 
 guards against the possibility of any poor wretch 
 receiving his bounty twice,) he begins to dispense 
 his alms, either in the night or on the following 
 morning, by taking the poor people, one by one, 
 from the place of their confinement, and driving 
 them off as soon as they have received their pit- 
 tance. The number of people thus accumulated 
 
 K 2
 
 132 CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 generally amounts to from twenty to fifty thou- 
 sand ; and from the distance they travel, and the 
 hardships they endure for so inconsiderable a 
 bounty, some idea may be formed of their desti- 
 tute condition. 
 
 In the interior of Bengal, there is a class of in- 
 habitants who live by catching fish in the ditches 
 and rivulets ; the men employing themselves dur- 
 ing the whole day, and the women travelling to 
 the nearest city, often a distance of 15 miles, to 
 sell the produce. The rate at which these poor 
 creatures perform their daily journey is almost in- 
 credible, and the sum realized is so small as 
 scarcely to afford them the necessaries of life.* In 
 short, throughout the whole provinces, the crowds 
 of poor wretches who are destitute of the means of 
 subsistence are beyond belief: on passing through 
 the country, they are seen to pick the undigest- 
 ed grains of food from the dung of elephants, 
 horses, and camels ; and if they can procure a 
 little salt, large parties of them sally into the 
 fields at night, and devour the green blades of 
 corn or rice, the instant they are seen to shoot 
 
 * This source of profit,, insignificant as it is, together 
 with that arising from ferries, did not escape the searching 
 eye of Government; and ReguUition 19. of 1816, and 6. of 
 1819, ordained taxes upon each : these taxes, however, it has 
 ance been found expedient to repeal, as unproductive.
 
 OF HINDOSTAN. 133 
 
 above the surface ; such, indeed, is their wretch- 
 edness, that they envy the lot of the convicts 
 working in chains upon the roads, and have been 
 known to incur the danger of a criminal prosecu- 
 tion, in order to secure themselves from starving 
 by the allowance made to those who are condemn- 
 ed to hard labour.
 
 134 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE GENERAL CHARACTER AND TEMPER 
 OF THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 
 
 " Dum alii quoquo modo audita pro compertis habent, alii vera 
 in contrarium vertunt, et gliscit utrumque posteritate." 
 
 It is a favourite maxim with a large class of 
 politicians, and particularly with those connected 
 with India, that what the sword has conquered, 
 the sword must maintain. If this maxim be in- 
 tended to keep up the vigilance of the conqueror, 
 until the conquered become reconciled to their 
 change of condition, it is hardly necessary to in- 
 culcate it with the oracular solemnity which some 
 writers have done ; since a conquest can only be 
 said to be complete when opposition has entirely 
 ceased, and the minds of the vanquished have 
 been restored to their wonted tranquillity. But 
 if, as seems to be the aim of some late writers on 
 the affairs of India, it be meant that a nation 
 which has been conquered by the sword, must 
 ever be retained in its allegiance by the same 
 means, the maxim is equally false and pernicious.
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 135 
 
 It assumes the people to be constantly in a state 
 of revolt ; it rejects all sympathy with them ; and 
 tacitly admitting that one foreign government, 
 however long established, can be entitled to no 
 preference over any other that may endeavour to 
 suj)plant it, leaves the nation in dispute to be 
 fought for, like the prey of wild beasts, with the 
 sole privilege of being devoured by the victor. 
 
 The first object of a conqueror ought to be to 
 conciliate the conquered, and to discover materials 
 for his and their joint security against foreign ag- 
 gression. He should reflect, that the same prowess 
 which put him in possession, may suffice to expel 
 him, if superior means of repelling an attack be 
 not brought into motion. The very facility with 
 which he made the acquisition becomes a prin- 
 cipal cause of his insecurity ; for, whilst the value 
 of the conquest continues to offer the same temp- 
 tation, the means by which he achieved it are 
 known to the world, and are capable of being 
 accurately estimated in the event of attack ; so 
 that he is liable at any time to be assailed by 
 superior forces when the spirit of the community 
 over which he rules is not taken into the account ; 
 and that spirit is a reserve of strength, or a source 
 of danger, according as he succeeds in exciting 
 their confidence, and uniting their interest with 
 his own.
 
 136 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 The greater part of our Indian territory has 
 now been under British sway for nearly a century, 
 and our conquest may still, in the language of 
 Burke, be said to be as crude as it was the first 
 day : we govern without society and without sym- 
 pathy of the natives ; we have no more social 
 habits with the people than if we still resided in 
 England ; nor, indeed, any species of intercourse 
 with them, but that which is necessary to making 
 a sudden fortune with a view to a remote settle- 
 ment ; — yet at the present day, when so little has 
 been done by us for India, orators in Leadenhall 
 Street still speak of our being too prone to inno- 
 vation, and of our being misled by our habits of 
 judging the people by the scale of civilization to 
 which we 'Ourselves have advanced. We are too 
 apt, it is said, to overlook the state of compara- 
 tive non-civilization to which the now enlightened 
 English nation was itself reduced, during that 
 eventful period of its history, when bigotry, super- 
 stition, and prejudice were its sad and sole charac- 
 teristics, and to forget that our emancipation from 
 the bonds of darkness was effected, not by any 
 sudden or coercive reformation, but by the gradual 
 hand of time, the unshackled reflections of reason, 
 and the salutary influence of the great principles 
 of truth, which have at length placed us in g, per- 
 manent and intellectual superiority. But if there
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 137 
 
 be any truth in this eulogium on our moral feeling 
 and intellectual superiority, we have at least had 
 ample time to impart a portion of the benefit of 
 them to the natives of our Indian empire. There 
 is no reason why those who travel upon the road to 
 civilization and knowledge should be compelled 
 to follow, step by step, in the track of those who 
 first explored the way. To the latter, the route 
 was necessarily long and wearisome, from their ig- 
 norance of the true direction, and the want of any 
 guide to conduct their steps ; but no sooner were 
 they arrived at the summit of the ascent, than the 
 commanding view which they obtained enabled 
 them to detect the needless wanderings into which 
 they had been seduced, and to point out a plainer 
 way to all succeeding travellers, free from the dif- 
 ficulties and dangers by which the first adven- 
 turers had been embarrassed. This, however, it 
 appears, is by no means the process to be followed 
 in India ; but the natives are to be left almost 
 entirely to their unassisted energies, with little or 
 no assistance from the superior knowledge and 
 experience possessed by those who assume the 
 office of their protectors. 
 
 There are men who seem to imagine that such 
 of their fellow- creatures as have the misfortune to 
 differ from them in complexion are, like horses 
 and dogs, incapable of imparting to others any
 
 138 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 portion of the individual training bestowed upon 
 them by their masters. " In speaking of the Hin- 
 doos," says Mr. Rickards, " something mysterious 
 is always fancied to belong to them, as if they were 
 not composed of flesh and blood, nor had passions 
 and desires as the rest of the human species." 
 Undoubtedly, if the present generation of civilized 
 man were to rest content with continuing their 
 race, and furnishing their children with nothing 
 but food and I'aiment, Europe would hi no very 
 long period become as barbarous, not only as the 
 rude parts of Hindostan, but as the most savage 
 regions of Africa ; but this at once we pronounce 
 impossible, from the tendency, which is the pecu- 
 liar characteristic of the human mind, to advance 
 in wisdom and intelligence. Yet this impossi- 
 bility we do our utmost to render not only pos- 
 sible, but almost inevitable, in Hindostan, by sys- 
 tematically denying to the natives in general all 
 access to useful instruction, and repressing all 
 attempts to improve them, by stigmatizing such 
 conduct as dangerous to the stability of our poli- 
 tical rule. The argument against the diffusion of 
 knowledge among the lower classes, though it 
 assumes in India the political type which is pe- 
 culiar to that Government, is, in fact, the same 
 throughout the world, — that education is unneces- 
 sary to those who, from their poverty, are destined
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 139 
 
 to labour for their subsistence : as if the desire to 
 improve our condition were not, under all circum- 
 stances, the stimulus to our exertions ; and as if 
 the degree of natural intelligence with which an 
 individual was endowed, were not as susceptible of 
 being improved to his advantage, as his manual 
 dexterity or muscular strength. As, however, a 
 great portion of the wealthy, from indolence as 
 well as from jealousy, are more anxious to main- 
 tain their position by repressing the energies of 
 others than by exerting their own, they are almost 
 unanimous in the apprehensions they entertain of 
 the fearful effect of that buoyancy which would 
 be evinced, if genius and industry were, under all 
 circumstances, assured of a fair field in the general 
 competition for the good things of this life. Hence 
 the sneers so assiduously thrown out against what 
 is termed the march of intellect in Europe, and 
 the rancour with which all extended endeavours to 
 improve the moral condition of the subject millions 
 of our Indian provinces, are met by those whose 
 vested interests are, however erroneously, con- 
 ceived to be endangered by such a measure. If 
 an adherent of the Company be asked what ob- 
 jection there is to granting the Hindoos the benefit 
 of education, with a view to their participating 
 in those civil rights which are at present exclu- 
 sively in the hands of Euroj)cans, he replies, * That
 
 140 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 they are not yet in a state to enable them to pro- 
 fit by such a boon ;' and thus, the effect being taken 
 for the cause, misgovernment is to be continued, 
 because it has been found to produce injurious 
 consequences. So in the queries circulated to the 
 judicial authorities of Bombay in 1822, relatively 
 to the establishment of trial by jury*, one Judge 
 has so little reliance on the probity or independent 
 spirit of the natives, that he thinks they would 
 seldom, if ever, act in opposition to what they 
 conceived to be the wish, or even opinion, of the 
 judge. Another speaks of the acknowledged want 
 of integrity in the native character, which, accord- 
 ing to him, is so great, that natives will not place 
 confidence in each other in punchayets, or arbitra- 
 tions of a civil nature ; or, if they do, they seldom 
 fail to repent it : and others are decidedly against 
 the plan, as foreign to the habits of the people, 
 and inconsistent with their political situation. 
 And thus it is, that by continually reasoning in 
 a cu'cle, the ignorance, wretchedness, and vice of 
 the natives are ever destined to endure, because a 
 hundred years of British protection and govern- 
 ment have failed in producing any thing else. 
 Probably there is no region in the world in 
 
 * A regulation for trial by a jury of natives has, however, 
 been passed by the Madras Government.
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 141 
 
 which the inhabitants are so entirely what their 
 religion and civil government have made them, as 
 the Hindoos. With some classes of Christians, 
 auricular confession is supposed to be sufficient to 
 keep the minds of men in subjection to a vigilant 
 priesthood ; and in Cliina, a regulated system of 
 precedence and individual authority secures the 
 outward submission of all ; but v/ith the Hindoo, 
 the constant interference of the injunctions of his 
 religion in every action of his life, is calculated to 
 repress both his mental and physical exertions, 
 and to reduce him to the condition of a mere liv- 
 ing machine. From this state of torpor he can 
 only be awakened by being brought into collision 
 with men of more active propensities, and of a 
 higher order of intellect. To civilise him, we must 
 first teach him to feel his wants, and to be sensible 
 of his natural strength. A people like the Hin- 
 doos, might for ever, as they have already done 
 for ages, continue to look upon themselves as a 
 favoured race in the system of Providence, if not 
 roused by the example of greater happiness and 
 enjoyment in other states of existence : Init it 
 would be contrary to the character which human 
 nature everywhere exhibits, to suppose that if the 
 effect of useful knowledge, aided by moral and 
 upright conduct, were fairly placed before them, 
 they would fail to inspire a feeling of emulation.
 
 142 CHARACTKR AND TEMPER OF 
 
 and an earnest desire for instruction ; or that 
 their absurd superstitions would not gradually 
 wear away under such circumstances. Without 
 this opportunity being afforded them, however, it 
 is no less unfair to speculate upon their character, 
 than to estimate the strength of a man whilst 
 bound and loaded with chains. 
 
 Those who endeavour to open the eyes of the 
 people of England, as to the true situation of their 
 fellow-creatures in India, labour under considerable 
 disadvantages from the immense extent of coun- 
 try, and the great variety of human character to 
 which their speculations relate, no less than from 
 the want of that intercourse with the natives 
 which alone could enable them to form a correct 
 estimate of their peculiar qualities. It falls to the 
 lot of very few Europeans during their sojourn in 
 India, to see any very considerable portion of the 
 country subject to British rule ; and of the few 
 who have seen much, but a small number possess 
 the talent to observe, or the inclination to record 
 their observations. Most of those who are much 
 engaged in the interior are men of business, who 
 cannot, indeed, often command sufficient leisure to 
 accumulate facts and inferences relating to any 
 thing beyond the line of their own immediate oc- 
 cupation ; whilst the comparatively idle men, who 
 abound in the three great resorts of adventurers of
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 143 
 
 all descriptions — Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay — 
 are too apt to imagine that the specimens of the 
 native population which they there meet with, are 
 common to the whole of India. Yet, when we 
 consider that the Bengal Presidency alone is near- 
 ly equal in size to France and Switzerland taken 
 together, we shall cease to wonder that so few are 
 competent to pronounce upon even that portion of 
 our empire, still less that scarcely any remarks 
 can apply, with equal accuracy, to the whole of 
 the extensive regions of which it is composed; 
 Of the public servants of the three Presidencies, 
 probably those of Madras have the most general 
 knowledge of the country in which they act. 
 The fact, of the direction of all the great rivers of 
 that part of India lying across the principal lines 
 of communication from the capital to the interior, 
 and consequently affording little or no conveni- 
 ence to travellers, is favourable to the incidental 
 acquisition of topographical and statistical know- 
 ledge ; whereas the long and comparatively nar- 
 row tract of the Bengal presidency, being tra- 
 versed from one extremity to the other by the 
 noble rivers Ganges and Jumna, with their innu- 
 merable tributary streams, the principal commu- 
 nications are by water ; a mode of travelling of all 
 others the least favourable for acquiring a know- 
 ledge of the country which is traversed. Such,
 
 144 CHARACTER ATsD TEMPER OF 
 
 indeed, are the conveniences afforded by this mode 
 of conveyance, that travellers avoid even the 
 smallest land journeys, and shutting themselves 
 up in their accommodation-boats, which are fre- 
 quently as large and commodious as private dwell- 
 ings, they continue their customary occupations, 
 without paying more attention to external objects 
 than during an ordinary sea voyage. On this ac- 
 count, principally, the gentlemen who have resided 
 in Bengal, independently of the great number who 
 never quit Calcutta, are generally less acquainted 
 with the state of the country, and the character 
 of its inhabitants, from personal observation, than 
 those of either of the other Presidencies. 
 
 Probably the most comprehensive description 
 of Hindostan is to be met with in Sultan Baber's 
 Memoirs. It is as follows : — " Hindostan is a 
 country that has few pleasures to recommend it : 
 the people are not handsome ; they have no idea 
 of the charms of friendly society, of frankly mix- 
 ing together, or of familiar intercourse. They 
 have no genius, no comprehension of mind, no po- 
 liteness of manner, no kindness or fellow-feeling, 
 no ingenuity or mechanical invention in planning 
 or executing their handicraft works, no skill or 
 knowledge in design or architecture ; they have 
 no good horses, no good flesh, no grapes or musk
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 145 
 
 melons,* no good fruits, no ice or cold water, no 
 good food or bread in their bazars, no baths or 
 colleges, no candles, no torches, not a candlestick !" 
 In this spirited and faithful sketch, so characteris- 
 tic of the habits of thought and observation of 
 the distinguished writer, it is remarkable, that 
 there is not a word either of the inferior personal 
 strength of the Hindoos, their inhospitalityf and 
 
 * Baber appears to have introduced grapes and melons 
 into Hindostan, and from the following passage it might be 
 inferred that the date was not unknown there. " They say 
 that the date alone, of all the vegetable kingdom, resembles 
 the animal kingdom in two respects : the one is, that where 
 you cut off the head of an animal it perishes ; and if you 
 cut off the top of the date-tree it withers and dies : the 
 other is, that as no animal bears without concourse with the 
 male ; in like manner, if you do not bring a branch of the 
 male date-tree and shake it over the female, it bears no 
 fruit." The introduction of the male date-tree into Hindo- 
 stan (the female alone existing there at present), would be a 
 great boon bestowed upon the inhabitants; no less, proba- 
 bly, than that of potatoes, for which they are understood to 
 be indebted to their intercourse with Europe. The fructifi- 
 cation of the date-tree, however, is a matter of some diffi- 
 culty, where the male trees do exist. At the Isle of France, 
 native Arabs are employed for that purpose. 
 
 t The rude state of the law at the period referred to, or it 
 might perhaps be more correctly said, the non-existence of 
 any laws, in the modern acceptation of the terra, may be 
 thought to account for the omission of litigiousness as one of 
 the characteristics of a Hindoo ; but there is reason to be- 
 
 L
 
 146 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 litigiousness, or their want of courage, — topics 
 upon which modern writers are so prone to ex- 
 patiate. 
 
 " The muscular strength of the Hindoos," says 
 Mr. Mill,* on the authority of various writers, " is 
 small ; even less, according to Mr. Orme, than the 
 appearance of their bodies, though expressive of 
 weakness, would lead the spectator to infer ; and 
 this is in some measure attributed to the sim- 
 plicity and lightness of their food. But if this 
 observation may be considered applicable to the 
 Bengalese, and to the inhabitants of the Carnatic, 
 what shall we say of the tribes under the govern- 
 ment of the Polygars of the South, or of those in 
 the interior of India, from the table-land of the 
 Mysore to the provinces of Bundlecund and Raj- 
 pootanah ; or to the inhabitants living on the 
 banks of the Ganges, from its confluence with the 
 Soane and Gogra, up to Hurdwar? countries in 
 which the human form attains a degree of perfec- 
 tion, and strength, and stature, probably not sur- 
 passed by any people in Europe. The idea, in- 
 
 lieve that the fureead kutcheree, or public audience of justice, 
 in which the sovereign and his subordinate governors were 
 accessible to all, received all petitions, and enquired into 
 them upon the spot, was in use long before the introduction 
 of the law of the Koran in India. 
 
 * Hist, of India, p. 311. 
 
 J
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 147 
 
 deed, that vegetable food, accompanied by absti- 
 nence from fermented drink, prevents the increase 
 of bodily strength, is a mere prejudice ; and 
 without enquiring by what subtle chemistry the 
 nourishment we take is converted into blood and 
 muscle, it is sufficient to advert to the condition 
 of some of the larger quadnipeds, and to instance 
 the elephant, the camel, the horse, and ox, in 
 proof of the attainment of muscular strength, and 
 a capacity for enduring fatigue, without the use 
 of animal food. The observation of Forster on 
 the robust activity of the people of Khorasan and 
 Afghanistan, also quoted by Mr. Mill, in a note 
 upon a passage in which the assumed corporeal 
 weakness of the Hindoos is in some measure at- 
 tributed to the climate, is, indeed, directly to this 
 point ; and a reference to the pages of Herodotus, 
 where the discipline of the ancient Persians is de- 
 scribed, would show that a light and simple diet 
 was in olden time common in nations most cele- 
 brated for their strength and prowess. Nay more, 
 at the present day, the condition of the Irish and 
 Scotch, and many of the English peasantry, toge- 
 ther with that of large masses of the population of 
 the South of Europe, who seldom know what it is 
 to obtain a meal of animal food, would afford 
 farther proof, if required, to estabhsh the same 
 point. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 With respect, too, to the litigiousness of the 
 Hindoos, it may be observed, that the minute 
 legislation which their system displays, by render- 
 ing almost every act of their life a religious ob- 
 ligation, puts it in the power of every individual 
 to support himself by a reference to authority ; 
 and by enlisting his conscience on every occasion, 
 gives an air of fanatical obstinacy to all their dis- 
 putes. It is this circumstance that makes the 
 Hindoo so tenacious of his rights in the first in- 
 stance ; whilst the general wretchedness of the 
 people contributes to encourage that disposition ; 
 — men will ever cling with the most clamorous 
 obstinacy to any support which they think es- 
 sential to their existence ; and to the miserable 
 and impoverished, every encroachment, however 
 small, seems to threaten destruction. This prin- 
 ciple, whilst it accounts for the litigious subtlety 
 of the " wildest of the Irish," unites with the 
 former in the case of the Hindoos of the present 
 day ; than whom a more wretched and oppressed 
 race is probably not to be found on the face of 
 the earth. 
 
 In like manner, the extremely artificial nature 
 of their social system has rendered the Hindoos 
 obnoxious to several other reproaches, which the 
 impressions of the moment, rather than calm
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 149 
 
 observation, has induced some writers to vent 
 against them. The laws of Menu appear to have 
 considered the whole frame of society simply as 
 an aggregate of family circles, the extent of which 
 was accurately ascertained by the ties of consan- 
 guinity. It was incumbent upon each head of a 
 family to attend to every call for support made 
 by any of his kindred, and as long as an indivi- 
 dual remained with his blood relations, he shared 
 their last mouthful of subsistence. When, how- 
 ever, a Hindoo wandered from his home, and 
 happened to be reduced to distress, the same ar- 
 rangement which had secured him from want, 
 now prevented his receiving assistance from stran- 
 gers ; he was looked upon as an outcast — as a 
 man who had no connexions nor claims upon so- 
 ciety ; or, what was worse, he might have forfeited 
 them by misconduct. To him the feast of nature 
 was literally full, and those sitting at the table 
 were only astonished that he should endeavour to 
 intrude himself amongst tliem ; whilst, too, they 
 were already crowded perhaps beyond their com- 
 petence, in addition to the alms which they were 
 expected to bestow upon a ravenous priesthood. 
 
 The last charge, however, the want of personal 
 courage, is of a graver nature than any of the 
 others ; and as a belief in its truth is calculated to
 
 150 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 act injuriously upon the line of policy adopted by 
 our Government, it may not be improper to in- 
 vestigate it more minutely. 
 
 The foundation of this charge is doubtless the 
 apparent ease with which Hindostan has so fre- 
 quently been subdued ; but when we enquire into 
 the circumstances attending its subjugation by the 
 Arab, or Saracen, and Tartar hordes, we find that 
 the success of those invaders depended upon very 
 different, and, indeed, opposite principles, from 
 those of all subsequent assailants. In the army 
 of Mamhoud, numbers and physical strength were 
 aided by religious enthusiasm ; and the inhabitants 
 of Hindostan were too much divided amongst 
 themselves, to be able to collect so large an army 
 as that by which they were invaded ; composed, 
 as it was, of a hardy race of men inured to con- 
 quest, rapid in their movements, and cruel, even 
 to extermination, when obstinately resisted. Such 
 a description of warriors, continually recruited 
 from their native hordes, were fully adequate to 
 the conquest of any country ; and without any im- 
 peachment of the natural courage of the Hindoos, 
 it is not surprising that they felt before the same 
 union of fanaticism and martial ardour, which the 
 greater part of the civilized world was at that 
 period unable to resist. 
 
 Still the efforts of the Hindoos to make head
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 151 
 
 against Mohammedan oppression were highly cre- 
 ditable to them ; and it was not till the Affghan in- 
 vasion, about two hundred years after the first at- 
 tack, that the followers of the Prophet may be said 
 to have gained a permanent footing in Hindostan. 
 From that period the main struggle seems rather 
 to have been amongst the Mohammedans them- 
 selves, than between the Mohammedans and Hin- 
 doos ; though the latter we always find maintain- 
 ing their independence in Rajpootanah, and in the 
 strong country towards the centre of India, and 
 occasionally taking advantage of existing commo- 
 tions to enlarge their territory. Ultimately, how- 
 ever, the Hindoos, after a resistance of more than 
 five centuries in duration, appear to have been 
 completely overwhelmed. The Mohammedans, by 
 degrees, formed a considerable portion of the po- 
 pulation of the country ; and, as a tribe addicted 
 almost exclusively to the use of arms, and united 
 by one common feeling of religious enthusiasm, 
 they were amply sufficient to keep the rest of the 
 community in subjection, when depressed and im- 
 poverished by continued exaction and arbitrary 
 treatment. Mohammedan dynasties were esta- 
 blished in various parts of the country, and foreign 
 invaders, in addition to the superior discipline 
 which their armies now began to display, were 
 always certain of a considerable party in their in-
 
 152 CHAllACTER AND TEMPEll OF 
 
 terest, though always disposed to make common 
 cause against the Hindoos upon any serious alarm 
 of their encreasing strength. Nor were these 
 alarms unfrequent. The exploits of the Mahrat- 
 tas, in their unequal struggle with the Moguls, 
 when the power of the latter was at its height, 
 were sufficient to keep the whole force of the em- 
 pire in check. And subsequently, the invasion of 
 the Affghans (or Durannies) is alone supposed to 
 have prevented the Mussulmans from being en- 
 tirely driven out of Hindostan. In our own 
 times, too, the same Hindoo power was so formi- 
 dable as to induce the Government of Madras to 
 evade the performance of their treaty with Hy- 
 der in 1769, and to expose their ally to destruc- 
 tion rather than provoke its hostihty ; the Bengal 
 government, in 1765, having set them the exam- 
 ple, by reinstating the Nabob of Oude in his ter- 
 ritories, in order that they might be made a bar- 
 rier to protect the dominions of the Company 
 from the encroachments of those active and enter- 
 prising freebooters. 
 
 But the assaults of European powers were 
 conducted upon totally different principles from 
 those of the Mohammedan conquerors of India. 
 Instead of numbers and superior ferocity, we see 
 nothing but discipline and intellectual power — 
 the arts of military combination, and attack and
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 153 
 
 defence, were those alone which enabled so small 
 a number of individuals to achieve such mighty 
 triumphs. The Hindoos, accustomed to the do- 
 minion of their haughty liege lords, the Mohamme- 
 dans, were struck with surprise on seeing the ap- 
 parent ease with which the latter were discom- 
 fited ; and they were therefore disposed to pay 
 the greater respect to the heroic strangers : but 
 to argue thence, that they were totally deficient 
 in natural courage, is to commit a mistake that 
 may eventually lead to the most disastrous con- 
 sequences. When the wonderful exploits of Pe- 
 checo were yet fresh in the memory of the Portu^ 
 guese, one of their leaders, the Marshal Don Fer- 
 nando Cotigno, who, in conjunction with Alphonso 
 Albuquerque, conducted the expedition against 
 Calicut, made so lightly of the enterprise, that 
 he advanced to the assault without armour, and 
 with no other weapon than his walking-cane : 
 when, his conduct, no doubt, influencing that of 
 his soldiers, being attacked with spirit by the na- 
 tives, he was completely defeated — his life, and 
 that of many of his men becoming forfeit to his 
 temerity, and the remainder of his troops being 
 alone extricated by the able conduct of Albu- 
 querque, who was himself wounded in the en- 
 gagement. The military history of India is full 
 of such examples.
 
 15.4 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 Courage, though undoubtedly susceptible of 
 considerable modification by the effect of political 
 institutions, or even local peculiarities, is yet in 
 some form or other common to every nation and 
 climate ; but it is the business of the philosopher 
 to unfold and discriminate the various modes in 
 w^hich it is manifested. On close investigation it 
 might be foimd, that, like the outvi^ard expression 
 of grief in many countries, it depended upon cer- 
 tain forms and precepts, of an antiquity too re- 
 mote to admit of satisfactory elucidation. No- 
 thing can be so singular, and indeed revolting 
 to the feelings of a man of refinement, as the 
 apparently conventional mode in which, it is cus- 
 tomary with many nations, and particularly in 
 Asia, to lament the decease of the nearest and 
 dearest relations ; and although a knowledge of 
 ancient history ought to have prepared the mind 
 of a well-educated European for this and many 
 other peculiarities, yet such is the irresistible force 
 of national prepossessions, that many are led to 
 infer an almost total absence of the kindly af- 
 fections amongst a people so characterised ; for- 
 getting, that to this very people our manners, 
 under similar circumstances, must bear an equally 
 singular appearance. The slightest degree of re- 
 flection, indeed, is sufficient to convince vis that 
 such an opinion is a gross libel upon human na-
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 155 
 
 ture ; and that, whatever may be the methods 
 taken to express their feelings, the ties of love 
 and affection, when torn asunder, occasion sensa- 
 tions of as mvich tenderness, and pangs as acute, 
 in the breast of the untutored savage, as in that 
 of civilized man. That the case is in some degree 
 the same with natural courage, there are many 
 reasons for believing, when we compare this fa- 
 culty as it is evinced by different nations, or by 
 individuals of the same nation, under different 
 circumstances. Whatever may be the varieties 
 of temperament, all, when the proper chord is 
 touched, evince the same emotion, the same in- 
 herent spirit, and the same temporary disregard 
 of personal ease and security. 
 
 It is not, then, the actual possession of courage, 
 but the peculiar manifestation of it, which distin- 
 guishes one state of society from another. With 
 the Hindoos it partakes of those restrictions with 
 which their religious system seems to overlay all 
 their natural powers ; and in highly -civilized life, 
 it is under the strict regulation of reflection and 
 the sentiment of honour. In both cases, however, 
 it acknowledges in reality an artificial standard ; 
 and instances of intrepidity, which are to be met 
 with in savage life, occasionally surpass them 
 both. As a natural characteristic, it is alone ca- 
 pable of being rendered of service to the state by
 
 156 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 discipline ; which is, in fact, to courage, what civil 
 Government is to liberty — it is an union of the 
 courage of the whole body with the least possible 
 sacrifice of the courage of the individual — the 
 active intrepidity of the individual is repressed, in 
 order to secure the greatest possible effect from a 
 combination of that of the whole. Though its 
 theory is essentially defensive, it is capable of any 
 impulse of attack — it pushes forward and dilates 
 itself, where opposition has been overcome, but 
 rallies and collects its might when actually as- 
 sailed — it provokes attack iu the first instance, 
 and, having repelled it, explodes, as it were, and 
 completely overwhelms its adversaries. It is its 
 defensive quality which ensures its triumph over 
 unregulated courage, however heroic : for cou- 
 rage* is that faculty of mind, which prompts to 
 deeds of hazard, under the probability that suc- 
 cess will crown its exertions ; all beyond this is 
 self-devotion — an act which is very rarely called 
 for under the most exalted patriotism. Disci- 
 pline, however, by holding out little chance of 
 success to its assailants, appears to demand no- 
 thing short of self-devotion to oppose it effectual- 
 
 * " Fortitudo est virtus pericula justa contemnens — muni- 
 mentum humanse imbecilitatis inexpugnabilc : quod qui 
 circumdedit sibi, securus in hoc vitae obsidione perdurat. 
 Utitur enira suis viribus, suis telis." — Seneca Epist.
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 15? 
 
 ly ; and hence, if not always irresistible in attack, 
 it is ever formidable in defence. Instances of 
 masses precipitating themselves upon almost cer- 
 tain destruction, in order to overwhelm, rather 
 than conquer their adversaries, might easily be se- 
 lected, even in modern times — In the attack of the 
 Bastille, and also of the entrenchments of Je- 
 mappe, it may be said of the defenders, as it was 
 of the three hundred Fabii,* they were slain, not 
 overcome ; — whilst, on the other hand, the resist- 
 ance of the French when the Russians attempted 
 to retake their position at Borodino, and of the 
 English squares at Waterloo, are instances of the 
 triumphs of defensive discipline, under the most 
 trying circumstances. But still, discipline, like 
 other institutions of civilized life, appears, to the 
 intrepid but vm instructed barbarian, to partake of 
 pusillanimity ; nor can he without difficulty per- 
 suade himself, that men of any real spirit could 
 be brought to submit to such restraints. Ac- 
 knowledging no other test of power than strength 
 and intrepidity, when they contemplate their ene- 
 mies as men differing in little or nothing, as to 
 natural appearance, from themselves, they consi- 
 
 * " Ideo nemo trecentos Fabios victos dicit, sed occisos. 
 Et Regulus captus est a Poenis, non victus : et quisquis 
 alius seevientis fortunse vi ac pondere oppressus, non sub- 
 mittit animum." — Seneca.
 
 158 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 der an organized body of them as merely contain- 
 ing the aggregate strength of the number of men 
 composing it, without referring to the principles 
 upon which their union is cemented. On the 
 contrary, their huddling together, as it were, has 
 all the appearance of fear ; and the adventurous 
 barbarian is only the more inclined to attack 
 them. The Mamelukes of Egypt advanced to the 
 muzzles of the French muskets, and, in their rage * 
 at being unable to break the ranks, threw them- 
 selves from their horses, and seized the bayonets 
 with their hands. The Lesghis, and other Tartars, 
 cannot be brought to comprehend the nature of 
 discipline ; but in contempt of foot soldiers, threw 
 themselves upon tiie Russian battalions with un- 
 abated confidence, notwithstanding their repeat- 
 ed discomfiture : they attribute the success even of 
 the Russian artillery to the horses that draw it. 
 The Nepaulese prisoners could not understand 
 how their troops, accustomed to victory, had been 
 beaten ; and repeatedly said, " Give us Buctower 
 
 * It affords a remarkable illustration of the tendency 
 which extremes have to meet under all circumstances, that 
 the highly-disciplined Cuirassiers of the French army, not- 
 withstanding the extensive experience which they must have 
 had, displayed the same feeling of indignant surprise on being 
 repulsed by the British squares on the heights of Mont St. 
 Jean, as the Mamelukes of Egypt did when they were unable 
 to penetrate the ranks of the French at the battle of the 
 Pyramids. — See Scott's Life of Napoleon.
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 159 
 
 Thapa (one of their bravest chiefs) to command 
 us, and we will fight it over again with you when- 
 ever you please ;" — and the Burmese, it is weU 
 known, were so struck with the slender make of 
 the Madras Sepoys, that they were convinced we 
 owed our success to some peculiar quality pos- 
 sessed by the Europeans, and always said, that if 
 the latter were withdrawn, they would drive the 
 rest of the army into the sea. 
 
 It is, however, to take a very confined view of 
 discipline, to suppose that it consists in nothing 
 more than ranging men in even files, clothing 
 them uniformly, and arming them with muskets, 
 &c. ; — all this may be done, and yet fail to inspire 
 that confidence which is requisite to make good 
 soldiers. Confidence, in this sense, is no less the 
 result of the character of the Government itself, 
 than of the personal weight of the commander, 
 whether of a battalion, division, or army— the lat- 
 ter having, doubtless, the greatest influence in the 
 hour of battle, but the former giving to the army 
 its general qualifications and efficiency. Let any 
 one observe the difficulty of keeping up the spi- 
 rit and discipline of an army, when supplies are 
 irregularly or scantly forwarded to it, or when 
 good quarters and accommodation for the sick 
 are not well attended to ; and he will easily com- 
 prehend how much greater the influence of Go- 
 vernment is, than any other. The feeling of se-
 
 160 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 curity which the soldier experiences on being as- 
 sured of the stability of the system under which 
 he serves, and under the operation of which he 
 expects to be provided for, when disabled, or v/orn 
 out in the service, is so indispensable in upholding 
 his firm attachment, that it has been observed, 
 that in India the East India Company suffers in 
 the opinion of the native troops, as well as of the 
 inhabitants at large, from the vicarious nature 
 of its Government. Known' throughout the pro- 
 vinces chiefly as the collectors of the revenue, its 
 agents or functionaries are expected to take their 
 flight upon the a})pearance of any more formidable 
 competition. The idea of a change of masters 
 thus necessarily becomes familiar to the native 
 army, and other classes of the community ; and 
 every report of the Company's reign being over, 
 as Bishop Heber relates, displays the little moral 
 influence which the dominion of a century has 
 established over the minds of the people of Hindo- 
 stan. The EngHsh are, in fact, considered in no 
 other light than those foreigners who trained the 
 Mahratta troops in the European manner, but 
 who, neglecting to secure those guarantees of the 
 permanence of their system, just alluded to, did 
 but cripple the nations of those active marauders, 
 and deliv^er them, chained and bound, into our 
 hands — they gave them the cumlDrous qualities of 
 our tactics, which rendered it impossible for them
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. l6l 
 
 to avoid coming in contact with our regular forces, 
 but were unable to supply that confidence in their 
 new organization which alone could give it effect, 
 and enable them to contend with so formidable 
 an antagonist. But this error, though obvious 
 enough in the instance before us, we shall our- 
 selves be in danger of committing, if we measure 
 our strength merely by the number of men en- 
 rolled beneath our banners, without taking the 
 necessary steps to inspire them with confidence in 
 the stability of our power, grounded upon the 
 general attachment of the people to our system 
 of Government.* 
 
 * This observation applies with still greater force to the 
 attempts lately made to introduce the system of European 
 discipline amongst the Persians. Discipline, to be efficient, 
 should be national ; — until regular institutions afford a firm 
 basis to rest upon, a reserve and rallying point in case of 
 defeat, it is in vain to expect any permanent benefit from 
 the adoption of the mere outward forms of European war- 
 fare. On the contrary, the experiment will be attended with 
 the manifest disadvantage of forcing the Persians into con- 
 tact with more experienced soldiers, without holding out 
 that prospect of renewed effort, even after repulse, which 
 constitutes the redeeming characteristic of undisciplined va- 
 lour. When men are once accustomed to act in concert, 
 defeat and dispersion are generally fatal to them ; they 
 can no longer unite without the presence and assistance 
 of some superior authority to re-organize them; their ha- 
 bits of regular discipline unfit them for the display of indi- 
 
 M
 
 162 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 One point generally overlooked in appreciating 
 the strength of our position in India, is, that the 
 Mohammedans, besides the immense numbers that 
 
 vidual prowess ; and whilst the more irregular bands of war- 
 riors are broken and dispersed only to unite again and com- 
 bat with a keener thirst for revenge, the disciplined body, 
 unless supported by a widely-extended system, having the 
 confidence of the nation for its basis, is thrown into inextri- 
 cable confusion, unable to rally till at a distance from the 
 field of battle and safe from the attack of the enemy. It 
 may, indeed, be objected, that great captains have, in all 
 ages, kept their armies together by means of their own ener- 
 gy, unsupported by any ulterior system; but in these cases 
 we shall find that, besides the more indiscriminate right of 
 plunder, almost unknown in modern warfare, their discipline 
 was enforced by the assistance of select bands, or reserves, 
 which, whilst they formed a rallying point for those who 
 were repulsed, kept the wavering in their ranks by the influ- 
 ence as much of fear as of example. In the cases before 
 us, however, — the Mahrattas under the guidance of French 
 officers, and the Persians under our own, — these reserves, 
 which should be the support of the whole army, are thrown 
 forward in the commencement of the conflict, and, being 
 once beaten, there is no longer any hope of opposing the 
 progress of the enemy. The declaration of Aga Mahomed 
 Khan,* that he knew better than to run his head against the 
 Russian walls of steel, and expose his irregular army to be 
 destroyed by their cannon and disciplined troops, was ex- 
 actly to the point. " Their shot," said the sagacious monarch, 
 " shall never reach me ; but they shall possess no country 
 beyond its range ; they shall not know sleep ; and let them 
 
 * Sketches in Persia, chapter xx.
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 1()3 
 
 settled in Hindostan on each of their three grand 
 irruptions, received constant accessions to their 
 strength by Mussulman adventurers of all coun- 
 
 march where they choose, I will surround them with a de- 
 sert." This observation reminds us of the advice of Memnon 
 the Rhodian, for conducting the war against Alexander the 
 Great, as given by *Diodorus Siculus and Arrian,f — to check 
 the Macedonians by destroying the country before them, and 
 preventing their marching forward for want of provisions ; to 
 trample the herbage under their horses' feet ; to burn the pro- 
 duce of the country, and even to lay the towns and villages 
 waste; "by which means," says the latter, "Alexander, 
 finding himself destitute of provision and forage, would be 
 unable to penetrate farther." To the portion of this opinion 
 on the inexpediency of forming the Persians into regular 
 battalions, Sir John Malcolm seems to have given his ready 
 assent ; though, from what is stated in the chapter imme- 
 diately preceding the one first quoted, not altogether upon 
 very correct principles ; for, if the harlequin-changes which 
 a re there referred to, had indeed left his Persian friends no 
 remains of barbarism but their beards, the introduction of 
 the modern system of discipline would be in all respects 
 right and proper ; it would then be the effect of an efficient 
 cause : — it is only its premature introduction before other 
 departments of the state, and indeed the nation generally, 
 had been sufficiently improved to enable them to appreciate 
 its value, and to give it full effect, that is earnestly to be 
 deprecated. If they go hand in hand with civilization, there 
 is plenty of good stuff" in Persia to oppose the progress of 
 the Russians ; but by no other means is this desirable end to 
 be effected. 
 
 * Lib. xvii. c. 2, t Lib. J. c. 13. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 CHARACTER AND TEMPER OF 
 
 tries, whether from the North, or by the Indian 
 Ocean and Persian Gulf. It was by this ex- 
 tensive colonizati6n that their numbers were aug- 
 mented beyond the usual ratio of natural increase, 
 and their spirit was enabled to keep pace with 
 that of their sect in other parts of the world ; a 
 point which, though it appear of easy accomplish- 
 riient to us, was sufficient to preserve their intel- 
 lectual superiority over the degraded Hindoo, as 
 well as to give them great weight as a component 
 part of the population. To this state of things 
 our present situation bears no sort of resemblance, 
 nor is there indeed any thing strictly analogous in 
 all history to the conquest of Hindostan by our 
 countrymen. All other extensive conquests have 
 been effected by means of large armies, and main- 
 tained either by such armies settling in the con- 
 quered country, or protecting the settlement of 
 their fellow countrymen.* But in India, the num- 
 ber of European troops employed at any one pe- 
 riod, has been inconceivably small ; and our acquisi- 
 tions have at once been made and maintained al- 
 most entirely by the agency of our conquered sub- 
 jects. At the decisive battle of Plassey, Lord 
 
 * See a long enumeration of instances given by Seneca, 
 ending with the passage quoted by Gibbon, (Decline and 
 Fall, chap, ii.) " Wheresoever the Roman conquers, he in- 
 habits."
 
 THE NATIVES OF BRITISH INDIA. 165 
 
 Clive had only nine hundred Europeans ; and at 
 the present day, the number of Europeans in the 
 whole army is not more than as one to ten native 
 soldiers. The Europeans of every description, 
 actually in India, are only in the proportion of 
 one to three thousand natives ; whilst under the 
 height of the Mogul government, the Mohamme- 
 dans are said never to have been less than one- 
 twentieth, though sometimes estimated as high as 
 one-twelfth of the whole population. 
 
 With this immense disparity of numbers 
 against us, it is surely unwise, and even criminal, 
 to shut our eyes to the real circumstances by 
 which our situation, as the ruling caste of India, is 
 distinguished. If, indeed, our hold upon the na- 
 tives is in opinion — if they look up to us with con- 
 fidence for security of person and property, as well 
 as for encouragement in whatever conduces to 
 their happiness and prosperity — which, indeed, is 
 the only rational meaning of an empire of opi- 
 nion — then it behoves us to endeavour, by every 
 means in our power, to diffuse the benefits of edu- 
 cation throughout the country ; to reform the 
 habits of the people ; to excite their industry, and 
 to impress them with that consciousness of their 
 own defects, which shall at once awaken in them 
 the desire of knowledge, and dispose them to rely 
 upon the wisdom and beneficent intentions of their
 
 166 CHAllACTEll AND TEMPEU OF 
 
 rulers. But if by opinion, it is meant to be insi- 
 nuated, as is sometimes the case, that our strength 
 depends upon the ignorance of the natives of their 
 immense numerical preponderance, then the idea 
 displays not only the extreme of folly, and in- 
 attention to passing events,* but is in itself highly 
 dangerous to the continuance of our rule. That 
 ignorance, even if it exist at present, cannot pos- 
 sibly be expected to endure much longer ; and 
 if in the mean time any serious danger threaten 
 
 * The opposition to the house-tax, &c. at Benares and 
 Bareilly — and lately, the disafleciion manifested throughout 
 the provinces during the whole period of the Burmese war — 
 but particularly on the siege of Burtpore- being undertaken, 
 are well known. A long catalogue of the signs of the times, 
 more than sufficient under a military despotism and an en- 
 slaved press to indicate the temper of the people, might ea- 
 sily be prepared ; — two only are here selected. In a late 
 disturbance in the South of India, when a distinguished ser- 
 vant of the Company lost his life, the natives are said to 
 have cut off his right hand, and nailed it to the gate of their 
 fortress, with an inscription, purporting that it belonged to 
 one who had boasted that he never returned a native's salute. 
 In Calcutta, under the eye of the Supreme Government, a 
 wealthy Hindoo, who had erected an immense bazar at an 
 enormous expense, on speculation, was almost ruined by the 
 steady and unanimous refusal of the natives to resort to it, 
 because he was said to have entered into a contract for the 
 purchase,of Government salt, by which the already high price 
 of that article was likelv to be farther enhanced.
 
 THE NATIA^ES OF BlllTlSH INDIA. 167 
 
 our dominion, the natives will not fail to ask 
 themselves, how far it is desirable to make com- 
 mon cause with a nation which has shown so little 
 solicitude for their welfare. The presence of a 
 rival power will at least afford them the prospect 
 of a change ; and as to the great mass of the 
 population of Hindostan no change could well be 
 for the worse, we ought not to be surprised at any 
 excesses into which they may be driven. For 
 nations do not, like individuals, "rather bear the 
 ills they have than fly to others which they know 
 not of;" on the contrary, they strenuously exert 
 themselves to get rid of the burthens which they 
 feel to be galling and troublesome ; and when 
 their condition, notwithstanding all their efforts, 
 is perceptibly deteriorating, they eagerly catch at 
 any, even the most remote prospect of relief; they 
 become desperate, and judge that, happen what 
 may, they cannot be worse : by perpetually brood- 
 ing over the possible evils of a revolution, they 
 familiarize their imagination with disasters and 
 dangers of every description ; and it has been 
 truly said, that he who despises life is inaccessible 
 to pity, and that there is no enemy more truly 
 formidable than one who is prepared to die.
 
 168 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON THE COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 
 
 ** Instat enim et urget, et quo te cunque verteris, persequitur." 
 
 That the people of India are, generally speak- 
 ing, immersed in almost hopeless poverty ; that 
 they have in fact nothing to lose, and every thing 
 to gain by a change of masters ; and that they 
 must in consequence be quite indifferent to our 
 weal or woe, in the event of danger threatening 
 our dominion, must be quite evident to all who 
 have attentively considered the three great fea- 
 tures of our Indian revenue system : the effects 
 which followed, and those which still continue to 
 follow, upon the permanent settlement ; the ac- 
 knowledged aim and end of the Munro system, 
 which is to tax industry and improvement, and 
 to enable Government to drain all the surplus 
 earnings of the cultivators, as the zemindars are 
 allowed to do in Bengal ; and lastly, the refusal 
 on the part of the Court of Directors to grant 
 any settlement to the ceded and conquered pro-
 
 OF INDIA. 169 
 
 vinces, by which a limit may be affixed to the 
 demands of the state upon the produce of the soil. 
 In 1786, Mr. T. Grant thus describes the con- 
 dition of the Hindoo peasantry : " A seer of rice 
 with a little seasoning, a rag, a hut, or the canopy 
 of heaven, (the whole brought within the daily 
 expenditure of an anna, or twopence for each in- 
 dividual,) satisfy all the natural wants of an Hin- 
 dostanny husbandman or manufacturer ; and if he 
 can save at the end of the year a couple of rupees 
 from the produce of his industry, rated at one 
 hundred in the market, he is infinitely richer, 
 more contented, and easy in his circumstances, 
 than the individual following either of these trades 
 in England, who, after incurring a personal ex- 
 pense of two shillings a day, should be able to lay 
 by an annual profit of two guineas from his whole 
 estimated work of one hundred." Twenty-seven 
 years afterwards, Warren Hastings, in his reply 
 to a question put to him by Parliament, says : 
 " The poor of India, who are the people, have no* 
 
 * One might imagine that with these gentlemen, to want 
 nothing, and to want every thing, were synonymous ex- 
 pressions. Much general misapprehension prevails in Eng- 
 land respecting the actual wants of the people of India : 
 when we read of the rag which covers the lower classes, and 
 the fine cloth in which the wealthy are wrapped, we think 
 only of the blessing of living in so genial a clime, forgetting
 
 170 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 wants ; unless the scanty rags which they wear, 
 their huts, and simple food may be considered as 
 such, and these they have upon the ground which 
 they tread upon." And in Mr. Tucker's late work 
 on the Finances of the Company, the following is 
 the description given : " The habits of the great 
 body of the people are simple and uniform ; their 
 diet is spare, and confined generally to a few ar- 
 ticles of the first necessity — rice, vegetables, fish, 
 and the smaller grains ; their clothing is scanty 
 and mean ; their habitations poor and unfur- 
 nished ; what we term luxuries, are confined to 
 the opulent few. Capital is thinly distributed 
 over the surface ; and even the advantages of a 
 genial climate, a prolific soil, and of manufactur- 
 ing skill, were not found sufficient to swell the 
 stream of commerce. In all this the keen eye of 
 the financier could see nothing to touch ; the ob- 
 jects were too minute and worthless,* &;c." Thus 
 
 that the temperature varies from forty to fifty degrees of 
 Farenheit's thermometer during the year, and, not unfre- 
 quently, fifteen or twenty degrees during twenty-four hours. 
 So far, indeed, from clothing being unnecessary, there are 
 perhaps few countries in whicii the poor suffer more from the 
 want of it ; even in the hot weather, the same poverty which 
 puts clothing out of their reach, deprives them of oil, 
 without which their sufferings from a scorching sun are 
 excessive. 
 * " Review of Financial State," &c. p. 49, It is worthy of
 
 OF INDIA. 171 
 
 we see, that, at this moment, the account of the 
 poverty of the inhabitants, given, too, by men who 
 
 remark, that, notwithstanding the worthless and minute nature 
 of the objects of taxation here apparently assigned as a reason 
 for the immense land-tax of India, other taxes formed, at the 
 period of Mr. Tucker's writing, more than a moiety of the 
 whole revenue of the Bengal Presidency. The salt monopoly, 
 in particular, yields two-thirds as much as the land-revenue 
 of the lower provinces ; approaching, as Mr. Tucker himself 
 expresses it, to a poll-tax of no trifling amount. The price 
 of salt Mr. T. states to be about 12^ pence per annum to 
 the consumers, for six seers, (which, however, is but a small 
 average allowance ;) but as he inadvertently grounds his esti- 
 mate upon the wholesale price obtained by Government, it is 
 obviously too low. And, in point of fact, the retail price is 
 always as high as two annas per seer, which will raise the ex- 
 penditure of each individual to eighteen pence, instead of 
 twelve pence half-penny, or about 50 per cent, upon the 
 wholesale price : which, assuming Mr. T.'s estimate of natural 
 price to be correct, (about one-third the gross sale price,) will 
 make the amount of tax to Government, on account of salt, 
 about one shilling, instead of eight pence halfpenny a head 
 per annum, as he has stated it. This computation agrees, 
 also, with the amount of gross sales and charges given in 
 Mr. Prinsep's financial result of Lord Hastings' administra- 
 tion. The charge of 55,53,170 rupees being deducted from 
 2,04,75,412 rupees, and the remainder divided by thirty mil- 
 lions, the supposed amount of population, gives 1 1 .925 pence, 
 or very nearly one shilling ; which, being taken as the amount 
 of poll-tax received by Government, and 50 per cent, added 
 for the advance of retail price, gives about eighteen pence a 
 head, as before. Independent of this tax, the customs,
 
 172 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 ranked amongst the firmest advocates of the Com- 
 pany, appHes with as much force as it did nearly 
 half a century ago, notwithstanding the boasted 
 good effects of our rule. Yet more than thirty- 
 five years have now elapsed since the commence- 
 ment of the discussion respecting the introduction 
 of a more equitable relation between landlord and 
 tenant, upon the model of European tenures, and 
 the subject is still apparently as far as ever from 
 being set at rest. Whole volumes have been 
 written upon the condition of our Eastern posses- 
 sions, but nothing whatever has been done towards 
 the removal of those causes which weigh down 
 the spirit, and paralyze the exertions, of the great 
 mass of their population. In the interminable 
 controversy, one party accuses the other of ex- 
 clusively employing the reasoning dictated by Eu- 
 ropean prepossessions, whilst the other retorts the 
 reproach of Orientalism upon all those who would 
 
 stamps, and excise, bear with considerable weight upon the 
 people of India: though their consumption of taxable objects 
 may be small, the general rise of prices, occasioned by high 
 taxation, reaches all classes ; for the imposition of a tax is 
 like the casting of a stone into the water — the greatest agi- 
 tation occurs in the first instance at the spot where it falls, 
 but the movement thus occasioned soon subsides, and is car- 
 ried in circling eddies to the very margin of the pool, leaving 
 its surface smooth and undisturbed, but raised in its level 
 exactly in proportion to the size of the body thrown into it.
 
 OF INDIA. 173 
 
 persuade the world that the Indian Government 
 ought to follow in the steps of their Mohammedan 
 predecessors ; but it must be allowed, that if there 
 is little of unquestionable wisdom in the institu- 
 tions even of the most enlightened of the old 
 states of Europe, there is certainly infinitely less 
 that is worthy of imitation to be found in the 
 most recondite maxims of Asiatic government. 
 In the mean time, however, whilst we deliberate, 
 the enemy is almost at our gates, and the only 
 opportunity we shall proliably ever possess of in- 
 creasing our moral strength, and organising our 
 resources, is irretrievably passing away. 
 
 Whatever notions, abstract or practical, may 
 form the plan upon which the Indian Government, 
 if sincerely desirous to improve the condition of 
 the country, may think proper to act — and, as has 
 before been observed, there is reason to believe, 
 that any system founded upon natural equity 
 and the sound principles of common sense would 
 speedily approve itself to the understandings, and 
 even to the prejudices of the natives — it is quite 
 evident that, without a great change in the pre- 
 sent circumstances of society, -there would be no 
 adequate foundation for it to rest upon. The 
 people whom we govern are swayed by social and 
 religious institutions, which seem framed for the 
 express purpose of keeping them in perpetual non-
 
 174 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 age ; and as long as those institutions continue to 
 be unshaken by education and example, it is need- 
 less to expect that any desire of improvement will 
 be evinced, or any encouragement be given for 
 hoping that they will profit l)y the endeavours 
 made to ameliorate their condition. Where igno- 
 rance, poverty, and superstition, are all combined, 
 the case may well appear hopeless to those who 
 shrink from the trouble and responsibility of effect- 
 ing or recommending any alteration in the settled 
 order of things, that is not in a manner forced upon 
 their adoption by the resistless, though often tedi- 
 ous advance of practical knowledge. With the 
 Hindoos, that advance must be even more effectu- 
 ally impeded by their poverty than by their igno- 
 rance and superstition. The degree of skill to be 
 acquired in the course of laborious occupations, 
 under the pressure of great poverty, is unavoidably 
 small : if it be true that necessity is the mother of 
 invention, it is no less so that her bantling will 
 never come to maturity unless she have strength 
 and leisure to nurse it. In order to give effect to 
 the happy thoughts which are sometimes struck 
 out on the emergency of the occasion, some spare 
 time is required for reflection and experiment. 
 Knowledge is power in every sense ; but practical 
 is not speculative knowledge, and both are requi- 
 site in order to mature the sudden conceptions of
 
 OF INDIA. 175 
 
 genius, when acted upon by necessity. There can 
 be no doubt that many useful discoveries are lost 
 to society for want of time to record and consoli- 
 date them ; and it is possible that the institution 
 of castes and hereditary trades among the Hin- 
 doos, may have taken its rise from the idea, that 
 constant application to one specific employment 
 was favourable to that concentration of mind^ 
 which leads to invention and improvement. Ci- 
 cero expresses himself to this effect in the treatise 
 from which the motto to this chapter is taken ;* 
 and, indeed, before the discovery of the advantages 
 to be derived from the division of labour, nothing 
 short of the application of a whole life, accompanied 
 by the traditional lights communicated from father 
 to son, must have appeared sufficient to qualify 
 an individual for the exercise of a distinct trade. 
 The knowledge, which with us is communicated 
 by means of books, must, in the rude times ad- 
 verted to, have been imparted entirely by oral 
 instruction and practical example ; and each suc- 
 cessive scholar, instead of enjoying the benefit of 
 the accumulated experience of his predecessors in 
 the art which he was anxious to acquire, and start- 
 ing, as it were, from the landmarks which they 
 had established, was obliged to conform to the 
 
 * " AfFert autem vetustas omnibus in rebus longinqua ob- 
 servatione incredibilem scientiam." — De Divinatione, i. 49.
 
 176 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 same process, and to follow the same undeviating 
 routine, which appeared to be the only secret of 
 their superior dexterity. 
 
 Thus the ordinary duration of human life seem- 
 ed too short to produce any material improve- 
 ment ; and accordingly, if the expertness with 
 which the Hindoos manage the simple contriv- 
 ances which alone are known to them, is, at 
 first sight, calculated to excite the admiration of 
 an European observer ; that feeling, when ana- 
 lyzed, will be found to proceed rather from sur- 
 prise at so much being effected by means appa- 
 rently so inadequate, than from any impression of 
 the actual knowledge displayed by the artist ; 
 and certainly, as far as the point can be ascertain- 
 ed, no material improvement in the arts has taken 
 place amongst them for ages. In India, then, 
 where the number of persons who are qualified to 
 direct or assist in so great a work as the reforma- 
 tion of the habits and manners of a numerous po- 
 pulation, is so small and fluctuating, the task is 
 looked upon as quite impracticable. 
 
 The efforts that have been made by humane 
 and enlightened individuals, to obtain a footing in 
 this great sea of darkness, have often been inter- 
 rupted, or entirely relinquished, for want of the 
 proper means to secure and render permanent 
 what they had gained; and before their efforts
 
 OF INDIA. 177 
 
 could be renewed with any prospect of success, 
 the waves of ignorance and superstition have 
 swept away all but the slight vestiges of their la- 
 bours, which were discernible in the barbarous 
 dialect, and not unfrequently in the dissolute man- 
 ners of their former pupils and assistants in the 
 generous undertaking. Nor is this the case in 
 the work of education alone. In almost every 
 other attempt, whether of Government or of indi- 
 viduals, there is the same character* of instability, 
 
 * These effects are especially visible on the site of old Go- 
 vernment establishments, or indigo manufactories, which have 
 been abandoned : there every thing seems invested with a sort 
 of premature antiquity. In India, the decay and dilapidation 
 of deserted buildings is astonishingly rapid, owing to the 
 alternate dryness and humidity of the atmosphere, and the 
 rank vegetation which quickly makes its appearance in every 
 hole or crevice : this, together with the natural tendency of 
 the great mass of the community to absorb and obliterate 
 the slender alteration, either in language or customs, which 
 the short residence of Europeans may have produced, almost 
 induces the observer to imagine that he is surveying the 
 ruins of some centuries, instead of those of an establishment 
 but a few years deserted. Here, the feeble remains of some 
 English terms appear as if transmitted by tradition beyond 
 the memory of living man. There, a few implements, or a 
 piece of broken furniture, the uses of which have already be- 
 come nearly obsolete ; or, it may be, some remains of supe- 
 riority in the draught, or axletree of the carts, or Imckerries, 
 of the vicinity, proclaim the former existence of a better 
 
 N
 
 178 ON THF, COLONIZATION 
 
 the same want of consistent and persevering ad- 
 vances towards a definite end, in consequence of 
 
 state of things ; but from the imperfect traces still discern- 
 ible, the date appears almost to baffle enquiry. In like 
 manner, the improvements which the occasional residence of 
 Europeans may have effected in the natural products of the 
 soil, linger but a few years after the departure of the indivi- 
 duals who introduced them : thus the fruits and vegetables 
 of a neighbourhood tenanted by European gentlemen, being 
 an object of profit, retain a considerable celebrity for a com- 
 paratively longer period, but in the end merge into the ge- 
 neral mass of wild and uncultivated produce. Thus several 
 parts of the country, which a few years since were famed for 
 producing good mangoes, peaches, plantains, &c. no longer 
 furnish any but the common sort; and, in general, the fruit 
 may be said to grow almost wild, excepting on a few spots 
 in the actual occupation of Europeans, or but recently aban- 
 doned by them. Of these a great number are susceptible of 
 very considerable improvement ; and, with care and atten- 
 tion, might be made to equal the produce of any climate on 
 the globe. 
 
 Amongst the means by which settlements might be effect- 
 ed, and improvements in the useful arts rendered permanent, 
 the establishment of Moravian missions, upon tracts of Go- 
 vernment land, in different parts of the country, deserves to 
 be mentioned. From their unobtrusive habits, and from the 
 actual conversion of the natives forming no part of their ob- 
 ject, though they are at all times willing to receive such as 
 voluntarily join their communion, this most useful sect seems 
 admirably fitted for setting an example to the people of Hin- 
 dostan, of the benefit of moral conduct, in conjunction with 
 pcacefid and industrious habits of life.
 
 OF INDIA. 179 
 
 the frequent changes which occur amongst the 
 persons to whom the execution of any project re- 
 quiring time and assiduity is entrusted. India, 
 indeed, as a field of exertion for an inteUigent, 
 well-informed, and industrious class of men, may 
 be said to be almost entirely fallow and unculti- 
 vated : a teeming soil is tilled much in the same 
 manner as a school-boy prepares his little plot for 
 mustard and cress. 
 
 Works of labour are performed by the effort 
 of mere numbers, with scarcely any, even the 
 rudest application of mechanical contrivance : the 
 implements made use of are all of the coarsest and 
 most cumbrous description ; and these, in the 
 feeble hands of the listless and indolent jjeings 
 who wield them, are, for the most part, so useless, 
 that a crowd of labourers in any one line of indus- 
 try, will scarcely execute more work than two or 
 three able-bodied Europeans. Thus, whilst la- 
 bour is nominally cheap, and actually so, as far as 
 relates to the poor wretches themselves, it is, in 
 reality, extravagantly high to those who employ 
 them. Improvements to be seen in the great 
 establishments and work-yards of Calcutta, and 
 other cities, and wherever, in short, there are 
 Europeans to direct and superintend the native 
 workmen, have led many t^ imagine the latter 
 
 N 2
 
 180 (JN THE COLONIZATION 
 
 more expert and intelligent than is the fact : but 
 these good symptoms are confined to the imme- 
 diate vicinity of tlie establishments adverted to ; 
 and, like all other sorts of instruction, communi- 
 cated under present circumstances, are exceedingly 
 transient in their effects, and liable to disappear 
 with the removal of the cause which gave them 
 birth. In short, every Englishman who has been 
 much in the interior of India is sensible of the 
 slowness and want of common knowledge of un- 
 assisted native workmen, and of the helplessness 
 to which his countrymen are reduced when plant- 
 ed amidst such a population ; and yet, when it is 
 proposed to give a better direction to native in- 
 dustry, by supplying it with examples and instruc- 
 tion upon fixed and durable principles, we hear 
 nothing but of the difficulty and inutility of the 
 measure. 
 
 The measure so often suggested, and so often 
 evaded, or overruled, is Colonization. To counter- 
 act the disadvantages under which all classes of 
 the community at present labour, to confer a bene- 
 fit upon the governors, no less than upon the go- 
 verned, Colonization is the only plan that can be 
 adopted with any prospect of success. 
 
 By the adoption of this measure,* in respect to 
 
 * " Our einpire there," (in India,) observes Sir John Mal- 
 cohii, '•'■ has already derived, and must continue to derive,
 
 OF INDIA. 181 
 
 India, it is not meant that a crowd of settlers 
 should be sent out as they are to the Cape of 
 Good Hope, Canada, or Van Dieraen's Land. Co- 
 lonization is, in fact, of two distinct kinds, cor- 
 
 the greatest benefit from the enterprise of British merchants, 
 which has diffused wealth, encouraged industry, and promot- 
 ed the general prosperity of the, country ; adding, by the in- 
 crease of its resources, to the strength of the Government. 
 English artisans have also, within a narrower sphere, been 
 most useful : neither of these classes here, in any way, come 
 in collision with our native subjects, by trenching upon their 
 right of claims ; on the contrary, they have been their benefac- 
 tors ; they have given them an example of the benefits that 
 accrue to individuals and nations from large and liberal 
 principles of trade ; they have taught them the useful and 
 ornamental arts of life, and it is to them that we must chiefly 
 look, as affording examples for the natives to follow in every 
 improvement of civilized society." — Pol. Hist. vol. ii. p. 255. 
 — No testimony in favour of Colonization can well be stronger 
 than this; and yet the General, afterwards, observing that 
 English merchants and artisans had established manufac- 
 tories in provinces which had been long under our rule, states 
 it as his opinion, that " many reasons concur to make the 
 increase of these settlers impolitic." What these reasons 
 are, however, he does not condescend to inform us. But 
 this is only one of those instances of hot and cold being 
 blown upon the same subject with which the Political His- 
 tory abounds. Another instance, from the same chapter, 
 may here be given. Speaking of the Anglo-Indians, he says, 
 " A just and generous Government will not, however, have 
 recourse to that narrow principle which apportions benefits by 
 the power any class of its subjects have of enforcing them ;
 
 182 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 respoTidiiig with the state of the country which 
 sends forth the colonists, as well as of that which 
 receives them. One is intended for the benefit of 
 the former, which relieves itself by encouraging 
 
 nor will it withhold any reasonable boons, because it is of- 
 fended by the temper in which they are solicited. Acting on 
 different grounds, it will give to this, as to every other class 
 of its subjects, that consideration which is due to their con- 
 dition, and which will fill their reasonable liopes, without a 
 sacrifice of any essential interest of the empire. Though 
 placed under circumstances of depression and discourage- 
 ment, this body of men has lost few opportunities of becom- 
 ing useful and respected in the different walks of life to which 
 their pursuits have been directed. We should continue, 
 therefore, to cultivate their moral and religious principles ; 
 and whilst we institute and encourage seminaries for their 
 instruction upon an extended scale, we should provide the 
 means of their future employment, in the condition of life 
 best suited to their respective situations and qualifications." 
 Who would not suppose from this that the writer weis about 
 to propose that education and character should furnish the 
 criterion of fitness for employment by the state, for this class, 
 as well as for any other of the Christian community of hidia ; 
 but no : Sir John goes on to observe, that, "if the justice of 
 his proposition is admitted, the means of carrying it into ex- 
 ecution will not be difficult, as they require no change in those 
 suhitory restraint <, in which the principles of both the civil 
 and military services in India are now grounded." And what 
 are these principles of salutary restraint but the positive ex- 
 clusion of the class, whose interest he thus affects to espouse, 
 from both the civil and military branches of the service! — 
 This, and several other passages of the work, exhibiting the
 
 OF INDIA. 183 
 
 the emigration of its surplus population ; the other 
 is for the benefit of the latter, and consists in the 
 infusion of intelligence and activity into the social 
 mass, by the settlement of men of skill, industry, 
 and capital. It is precisely this infusion, this ad- 
 mixture of men of energy and intelligence, with 
 its already numerous, but almost torpid population, 
 \s-hich is required for Hindostan, to set before 
 tlie inhabitants the effects which so fine a climate 
 is capable of producing, when their industry * is 
 
 struggle of a good and evil principle, have led many to be- 
 lieve that it wtiS origuially written in one frame of mind, and 
 afterwards retouched and prepared for publication in another. 
 * Amongst those who have formed, or rather, who have 
 been industrious in inculcating an erroneous impression of 
 the mode in which it is proposed to extend the principle of 
 Colonization to India, is Sir John Malcolm. He commences 
 ( Vulltical Hintory, vol. ii. p. 250,) by telling his readers, that 
 no extensive colonization can take place, unless the settlers 
 are admitted to have property in the soil : and then goes 
 on to say, that " the grounds upon which the impolicy and 
 danger of admitting Englishmen to follow agricultural pur- 
 suits in India rest, are, in a great degree, referable to the pe- 
 culiar nature of our Eastern possessions, which must never be 
 viewed as a colony." This proposition is what logicians call 
 identical, and amounts to this : — India must never be colo- 
 nized, because it must never be viewed as a colony. He 
 does not give any reason why Colonization should not oe per- 
 mitted, other than by informing us, that whilst we have gua- 
 ranteed to our subjects the enjoyment of their property, laws, 
 usages, and religion, we ought to impart such improvement
 
 184 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 directed with ability, and animated by an active 
 and independent spirit. 
 
 The general advantages attendant upon this 
 great measure will not be confined to the natives 
 alone, or to the working classes ; the Government 
 of the country will feel the benefit of it in almost 
 
 as will promote their happiness, and the general prosperity of 
 the country ; but not to associate with our improvement any 
 measure, of which the operation is likely to interfere with 
 their interest, to offend their prejudices, or to outrage their 
 cherished habits and sentiments;" by which iusidious petifio 
 principii, he plainly insinuates, that Colonization would in- 
 evitably work all the mischief alluded to. He afterwards 
 admits, however, (p. 251.) that land might be purchased, 
 " where our regulations have made it saleable ;" and thus un- 
 warily affords us a clue to his whole argument upon this sub- 
 ject ; for, on enquiring how it happciis that the property of 
 the natives is not everywhere saleable at the option of the 
 possessor, we are naturally reminded that a permanent settle- 
 ment, conferring the right of property in the soil, has, as yet, 
 been given but to a small portion of the Company's domi- 
 nions ; and that, in all other parts of India, Crovernment still 
 claim and exercise the right of universal landlord. Sir John 
 Malcolm's apparent solicitude, therefore, about the rights 
 and cherished habits of the inhabitants of India, is but one 
 of the many instances in which that writer makes use of cer- 
 tain set phrases, in order to " keep the word of promise to 
 the ear, and break it to the hope." The only rights for 
 which he contends, are those of the Company to have a share 
 of the advantages resulting from the increased produce of the 
 soil, no mutter how that increase has been ctiected : in other
 
 OF INDIA. 185 
 
 every stage of its administration ; but more parti- 
 cularly in the check and restraint which the pre- 
 sence of respectable settlers will impose upon such 
 of the public functionaries as are liable to be be- 
 trayed into the commission of acts of an arbitrary 
 and unjustifiable nature, by the too great discre- 
 
 words, to tax the land to the utmost. In his account of the 
 Bareilly insurrection, he is contented with slightly passing 
 over the opinion of the Commission in favour of a permanent 
 settlement of the Upper Provinces. In vol. ii. p. 169, he in- 
 forms us, that the permanent settlement of 1789, — the only 
 act of the Company which secures the right of property in 
 the soil to any portion of their subjects, — " is now admitted, 
 by its warmest advocates, to have been too much hurried," 
 &c. ; and, in page 183, we are told, that " a long period 
 must still elapse before we have accumulated facts and expe- 
 rience, in which we can venture to establish permanent and 
 unalterable arrangements ;" and again, page 250, the impos- 
 sibility of recalling the favours and concessions granted by 
 the Company to its subjects, without impairing the confidence 
 of the natives in the good faith of Government, is assigned as 
 a reason that " no measures should be adopted creative of such 
 rights and privileges, unless we have the clearest conviction 
 that they can be permanently maintained, without injury or 
 danger to our native subjects, and to the general interest of 
 our empire of India." This sort of reasoning is the more ex- 
 traordinary, as the writer, at page 173, had evinced a sounder 
 knowledge of his subject, by observing, that " a government 
 which precludes itself from any increase of territorial assess- 
 ment, must look to the general diffusion of wealth for the fu- 
 ture improvement of its resources ; and though a long period
 
 186 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 tion with which their distance from the seat of 
 Government induces them to believe themselves 
 armed, and in the assistance which such men 
 would have it in their power to render the state, 
 by acting in the commission of the peace, and re- 
 lieving the magistrate of the district from a por- 
 tion of his too extensive and often incompatible 
 duties. 
 
 must elapse before it can venture to subject to direct taxation 
 any of the possessors of that affluence which its liberal po- 
 licy has created, it may expect to receive an early and con- 
 stantly increasing return, through the enlarged demand for 
 the necessary commodities and luxuries of life required for a 
 population advancing in numbers and comfort, and the con- 
 sequent progressive improvement of duties and customs." 
 But thus it is throughout the work referred to. It was pub- 
 lished, apparently, with 'a view of supporting what are termed 
 the rights of the Company, grounded upon a recommenda- 
 tion to respect the barbarous customs and cherished habits 
 and sentiments of the natives, together with an adherence to 
 the usages of the governments in India which preceded our 
 own — tolerably efficient barriers against the progre?sS of civi- 
 lization, it must be allowed ! — Here and there, however, 
 symptoms of a better spirit become apparent ; but these only 
 bubble to the surface of the stagnant mass, show themselves 
 for an instant, then burst and disappear for ever. Sir John 
 is, indeed, as he has elsewhere styled himself, '' the advocate 
 of lery slow reform." He says, " we cannot interfere in the 
 prevention of infanticide, or in the self-sacrifice of females 
 on the funeral pile of their husbands, otherwise than by 
 praise of those who abstain from such acts, and neglect of
 
 OF INDIA. 187 
 
 The " brief authority " of public officers when 
 exercised in situations remote from the capital, 
 (and in Bengal the term remote may be applied 
 to districts not very distant from Calcutta, in con- 
 sequence of the * slowness and difficulty of com- 
 munication between all stations excepting those 
 lying on the principal military road, or in the di- 
 i-ection of the stream of the great rivers, no less 
 than in consequence of the total silence of an en- 
 slaved press upon all subjects relating to the ser- 
 
 those who approve or perpetrate them. How much more 
 manly was the course pursued by Capt. Kennedy, the Politi- 
 cal Agent atSubathoo : see that otticer's Report on the State 
 of the Hill Tribes entrusted to his superintendence : — see 
 Calcutta Annual Register for 1821. A system of Jesuitical 
 compromise is certainly not calculated to raise us in the 
 estimation of that part of our Indian' subjects whose good 
 opinion is worth preserving. 
 
 * It is worthy of remark, that, notwithstanding the incon- 
 venience experienced for want of -the means of rapidly trans- 
 mitting intelligence throughout India, the line of communi- 
 cation by telegraph, which was commenced more than eleven 
 years ago, is not yet completed even half-way to Agra. It 
 is calculated, that if this method of communicating with the 
 frontier had been in operation at the period of the first arma- 
 ment against Burtpore, under the late Sir David Ochterlony, 
 the state would have saved, on that occasion, in extraordi- 
 nary expenses alone, as much as they have lavished upon 
 that hitherto useless project during the eleven years of inde- 
 cision above mentioned.
 
 188 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 vants of Government,) and the excesses occasion- 
 ally committed by individuals now residing by 
 special favour in the country, and who may be 
 disposed to avail themselves of their distance from 
 the district, or city courts, and of the apparent 
 credit which they enjoy with men in authority, 
 as by the smallness of their numbers, and the 
 habitual deference with which they are regard- 
 ed by the submissive natives, would meet with a 
 salutary check in the residence of a numerous 
 and respectable class of their countrymen, and 
 that mutual feeling of independence and consider- 
 ation would be established, which is at once the 
 cause and the effect of morality and upright con- 
 duct. 
 
 The temptation to make bad use of their power, 
 wealth, or influence, is as great, and probably 
 as mischievous in its effect, amongst the higher 
 classes of natives themselves, as amongst Euro- 
 peans. Natives of all ranks are prone to ill-treat 
 those beneath them ; and men of wealth and au- 
 thority press servants and porters, and exact sup- 
 plies of all kinds, on their own terms, without any 
 apprehension of being called to account for so 
 doing ; for such is the difficulty of obtaining re- 
 dress under such circumstances, both in regard to 
 the actual expense of prosecuting in the first in- 
 stance, and the great trouble and interruption of
 
 OF INDIA. 189 
 
 business intailed by an appeal to our courts, at tlie 
 distance of sometimes more than an hundred miles, 
 that very few can be found either rich or per- 
 severing enough to go through with the process.* 
 In the present condition of the more wealthy 
 classes of natives, in respect of moral feeling ; and 
 of the poorer classes, as to the contempt and help- 
 lessness into which they are fallen, no laws or 
 prohibitions can be effectual in repressing the dis- 
 orders adverted to ; f and any advantage to be 
 gained by associating individuals of rank in the 
 administration of the provinces, would be greatly 
 alloyed, by the danger to be apprehended from 
 adding personal influence to the numerical pre- 
 ponderance already so fearfully on the side of the 
 natives. A late member of the Calcutta Govern- 
 ment is said to have been well aware of the great 
 oppression practised by t^he darogahs, or subordi- 
 nate police authorities, as well as by the munsiffs, 
 or native civil commissioners, and to have recom- 
 mended the abolishment of their appointments in 
 favour of the zemindars, who were to have been 
 
 , * As an instance, it may be mentioned that the jurisdiction 
 of the Zillah Court of the twenty-four Pergunahs, in the 
 neighbourhood of Calcutta, extends as far as the Island 
 of Saugor, probably 120 miles. 
 
 t " La dove la materia c corrotta," says Machiavelli, " le 
 buone leggi non giovano."
 
 190 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 vested with authority to investigate and decide 
 upon civil and criminal complaints of a specified ex- 
 tent ; but as there were few objections against one 
 set of natives which did not apply with equal force 
 to every other, the project appears to have been 
 abandoned. The only method, indeed, which 
 suggests itself for relieving Government from this 
 twofold embarrassment, without increasing the 
 number of their civil and military functionaries 
 beyond the competence of their utmost revenues 
 to support the expense of, is to permit and en- 
 courage the settlement of Europeans throughout 
 the country, not only with a view of rendering 
 their services available in carrying the laws into 
 effect, but by reforming the habits and manners of 
 the natives, and setting before them the spectacle 
 of an industrious class of men, living under the 
 same laws as themselves, enjoying the comforts 
 and conveniences of life by the exertion of their 
 skill and diligence, and a rigid adherence to the 
 principles of morality and justice in the regula- 
 tion of their concerns. 
 
 Many, however, are inclined to doubt how far 
 the proposed settlers might promote tlie advantage 
 of the under tenants and cultivators, under the 
 system of landed property at present established 
 in India. Whilst the profits of capital vested in 
 land in England are acknowledged to be lower
 
 OF INDIA. 191 
 
 than by most other metliods of employing it, am- 
 ple compensation is supposed to be made by the 
 advantage which the possession of real property 
 confers, in the shape of political influence, votes in 
 elections, eligibility for, or patronage of, local ap- 
 pointments, militia commissions, &c., together 
 with game and other privileges ; and the land- 
 lord is thereby disposed, not only to refrain from 
 rack-renting his estate, but to grant occasional 
 indulgences to his tenants, as circumstances may 
 require. But in India no advantage is attached 
 to the possession of land beyond the direct amount 
 of its rent ; the landholder looks upon the crop as 
 his best security for the payment of his ow n dues 
 and those of Government ; and the vigilance which 
 his intermediate position between the State and the 
 cultivators of the soil obliges him to exert, has, as 
 has been before observed, the most unfavourable 
 effect upon the spirit and industry of the great 
 bulk of the people. As long as this state of things 
 is allowed to continue, it may be thought that the 
 introduction of European settlers would fail to be 
 attended with the benefit anticipated ; for if they 
 were to become landholders, their interests being 
 in all respects the same as the present proprietors,- 
 they would have every temptation to bear as 
 severely upon their under-tenants ; and it would 
 be some time before the effects of general improve-
 
 192 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 ment and encreased industry would introduce a 
 more liberal mode of proceeding. The demand 
 for produce of all kinds might, indeed, be expected 
 shortly to encrease the aggregate industry of the 
 country, and raise the value of labour; but in the 
 mean time, to secure to the under-tenant and 
 ryots as much as possible the advantages which, 
 as holders of farms, they would not fail to derive 
 from the encreased demand for land which an 
 influx of capital would occasion, some provision 
 on the part of Government appears desirable. 
 Not that it is probable that, without a reform in 
 the habits and manners of the people, any positive 
 regulation will materially improve the condition 
 of the two classes in question ; but by giving them 
 a firmer hold upon the land they cultivate, the 
 present value of their rights would be enhanced, 
 and they would in some measure be secured from 
 the exactions of any new purchasers of the zemin- 
 dary estates, of which their fields or farms consti- 
 tute a portion. Notwithstanding every effort 
 that can be made, the value of those rights will 
 still be very small, and liable to constant diminu- 
 tion, by the rapid increase of population, which 
 existing laws * in favour of marriage render inevi- 
 
 * The Mutsu Puran says, *' No man ought to remain un- 
 married even for a day ; if he does so, he must perform cer- 
 tain penances as an atonement ; and this, although he may
 
 OF INDIA. 193 
 
 table. These laws, which it is imperative upon 
 every Hindoo to obey, must tend greatly to coun- 
 teract every attempt which is made to improve 
 the condition of the jDeople ; and until, by slow 
 degrees, the energies of the country shall be com- 
 pletely roused, and a general demand for labour 
 shall give every man the means of obtaining a 
 livelihood in proportion to his intelligence and in- 
 dustry, no permanent amelioration can be expect- 
 ed. Meanwhile, however, by rescuing the small 
 farmers, &c. from the situation of tenants at will, 
 
 otherwise be diligent in prayer, in giving- alms, and in study- 
 ing the Vedah." And the Bubusut Puran, " If a man marry 
 after his forty-eighth year he shall be accounted sinful ; but 
 if he remain unmarried, or without a male child, until his 
 forty-eighth year, all the good actions of his life shall be of no 
 service to him." Again, the Chundogopurusistang — " A girl 
 often years old is arrived at the age of puberty, therefore let 
 her be given in marriage in the course of her tenth year." 
 And in the Bubusut Puran, " If a girl is not married before 
 the age of puberty, her father, mother, and eldest brother, 
 are rendered for ever sinful." 
 
 Adverting to the great increase of population which laws 
 of this nature must occasion, it may here be remarked, that 
 the quantity of salt annually sold by the Government may 
 form a criterion by which to judge of the general impoverish- 
 ment of the people, or the degree in which they are incon- 
 venienced by that cruel monopoly. On comparing the gross 
 sales and selling prices of salt given in Mr. Tucker's Review 
 of the Finances of the Company, pp. 54, 55, 56, the increase 
 
 O
 
 194 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 liable to be sold, as it were, with the farms they 
 occupy, without being sure of being allowed to 
 hold them a day beyond the transfer, they will 
 have an opportunity of profiting by any accidental 
 acquisitions of means, or local convenience, which 
 may arise ; and be able to better their condition, 
 without the constant apprehension of having the 
 produce of their labour wrested from them. — 
 " Agriculture," says the Lord Archon in the 
 * Oceana,' " is the bread of the nation ; we are 
 hung upon it by the teeth ; it is a mighty nursery 
 of strength ; the best army ; the most assured knap- 
 sack ; it is managed with the least turbulent or 
 
 in the quantity supplied does not appear to bear any pro- 
 portion to the supposed increase of population ; the conse- 
 quence is, that the price has been raised almost a hun- 
 dred per cent, in a period of thirteen years ; and whilst 
 this increased demand, when the quantity produced has 
 been augmented by about one-fifth, affords a satisfactory 
 proof of the greater proportional increase in the popula- 
 tion ; it also serves to show how extensively the tax must 
 operate as a grievance on the people, " whose simple diet 
 requires the addition of salt as a stimulant." If there be 
 truth in Mr. Tucker's estimate, the Company would at once 
 increase their revenue, and diminish the iticonveniences ex- 
 perienced by the people, if they were to augment the quan- 
 tity of salt at least two-fold. 
 
 For an account of the oppressions suffered by the salt- 
 manufacturers, scarcely surpassed by the 7nita of South 
 America, see Rickards, p. 118. In 1825, Mr. Tucker 
 says," This grievance has, / trust, been removed."
 
 OF INDIA. 195 
 
 ambitious, the most innocent hands of all other 
 arts — wherefore I am of Aristotle's opinion, that a 
 commonwealth of husbandmen, and such as ours, 
 must be the best of all others. I wish I were hus- 
 l)and good enough to direct something to this end : 
 but racking of rents is a vile thing in the richer 
 sort, an uncharitable one to the poorer, a perfect 
 mark of slavery, and nips j'^our commonwealth in 
 the fairest blossom." All classes, indeed, except- 
 ing the zemindars, whom the permanent settle- 
 ment of the Lower Provinces has secured in the 
 possession of the lands, would concur in the 
 propriety of such a regulation ; and even to the 
 zemindars themselves, such advantages might be 
 offered as would obtain their consent, without in- 
 volving any infringement of their proprietory 
 rights. 
 
 One plan which suggests itself, is to encourage 
 the zemindars to grant leases, by making a remis- 
 sion in the amount of their land-tax, in propor- 
 tion to the length of lease granted. If an abate- 
 ment of one per cent, were granted for leases of 
 ten years and upwards, and of three per cent, for 
 leases in perpetuity ; the certainty of immediate 
 profit would probably induce the zemindars to 
 accept the terms ; and the farmers and cultivators 
 being secured in the enjoyment of the fruits of 
 their industry, at least for the shorter period, 
 
 o 2
 
 196 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 would have a strong interest to exert themselves 
 in improving the condition of their lands. It may 
 indeed be objected, that such a measure would be- 
 nefit an order of men, the zemindars, who, what- 
 ever may have been the case with their predeces- 
 sors, are now in no want of such assistance ; but 
 if, in benefiting the poor classes, this be unavoid- 
 able, without a direct violation of acknowledged 
 proprietory rights, it may be remarked, that as the 
 increased amount of rents has, in almost all in- 
 stances, taken place rather from the extension, 
 than from the improvement, of agriculture — as 
 the same slovenly husbandry that was in use fifty 
 years ago still continues to prevail — there is reason 
 for believing that increase, great as it has been, 
 does not preclude the hope of considerable im- 
 provement in the quality and quantity of produce 
 being effected, by the exertion of the cultivators 
 and small farmers, should the encouragement now 
 suggested be afforded them. On the contrary 
 with the increased circulation of money, which 
 the new order of things would create, and the con- 
 sequent fall in the rate of interest, the industrious 
 would be able to procure the necessary funds for 
 increasing tlieir stock and produce, without the 
 risk of ruining themselves by the accuinulating 
 interest of their outlay, as is the case at present.
 
 OF INDIA. 197 
 
 And if, in this respect, the Upper Provinces would 
 gain more than the Lower, in proportion to the 
 check to improvement, which cannot but have 
 been the effect of their expectation of receiving a 
 permanent settlement, having so repeatedly been 
 disappointed, this effect of the measure may 
 perhaps be considered as rather an additional re- 
 commendation of it, as it will tend to bind those 
 more closely to the soil, who, from their geogra- 
 phical position, are most exposed to external ag- 
 gression. Rendered comparatively independent 
 in his circumstances, the cultivator would not fail 
 to profit by the example set before him by the 
 European settlers, in procuring for himself the 
 comforts and conveniences of life, and in qualify- 
 ing himself for taking a share in the affairs of his 
 district and country. The settlers would form a 
 nucleus of intelligence and industry, the presence 
 of which could not fail to have a favourable influ- 
 ence upon the minds, as well as the actions, of the 
 population ; mixing with the natives as farmers, 
 planters, and traders, bound to them, in short, by 
 one common interest, and by reciprocal good offices, 
 they would give strength and consistency to the 
 mass in time of peace, and in war they would 
 organize and conduct levies, and perform all the 
 duties of a brave and active yeomanry, sufficient to
 
 198 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 animate the allegiance of all orders, and place 
 the country in perfect security against external 
 aggression or internal revolt. 
 
 Not only would the condition of the native 
 population be greatly improved by the measure 
 proposed, but the state would directly participate 
 in the advantages conferred upon the agricultural 
 classes. The interest of wealthy and intelligent 
 landholders would prompt them to undertake 
 those works of public utility, the expense of which 
 is now defrayed principally by the state, as lord 
 paramount. Local charges of this nature form a 
 large deduction from the gross rents, and, in ad- 
 dition to the cost of management and collection, 
 which, it is to be presumed, would also be diminish- 
 ed, greatly reduce the net receipts of revenue. 
 The redemption of land-tax by some ; the reason- 
 able terms on which others would lend their aid 
 in superintending and remitting the collections ; 
 and the consequent abolition of various offices, 
 which the present state of the country renders in- 
 dispensable, would not fail very shortly to relieve 
 the Government from charges, the saving of which 
 would more than compensate for the diminution 
 in the stipulated amount of their land-revenue. 
 The Government, by rigidly adhering to the prin- 
 ciple of universal proprietorship, has become justly 
 obnoxious to the reproach of having contributed
 
 OF INDIA. 199 
 
 little — nothing towards the einbelHshment of the 
 country, or the convenience of the inhabitants, 
 generally, by the execution of works of public 
 utility. Indian history is full of descriptions of 
 the magnificent edifices, and other works of art, 
 completed by former sovereigns and provincial 
 rulers. Firoze Shah, we are informed in Dow's 
 translation of Ferishta, built fifty great sluices, 
 forty mosques, thirty schools, twenty caravanse- 
 rais, a hundred palaces, five hospitals, a hundred 
 tombs, ten baths, ten spires, a hundred and fifty 
 wells, a hundred bridges, &c. &c. Baber, in his 
 Memou's, tells us that he ordered a minar, or turret, 
 to be raised at every nine coss, and a post-house* 
 at every ten coss, with a relay of six horses ; and 
 he is never tu-ed of speaking of the number of 
 gardens and palaces which he erected and planned. 
 Shere Shah, Ackbar, Jehangler, Shah Jehan, and 
 Aurungzebe, appear also to have vied with each 
 other in magnificence of this nature ; and the 
 great officers of state, in all parts of the empire, 
 have left behind them monuments of their taste 
 and liberality. The costly materials whicli they 
 employed, together with the grand scale and mas- 
 
 * The quickest mode of travelling now in use, or indeed 
 attainable at present, in Bengal, is by what is called Dawk ; 
 that is, by palanquin conveyance, at the rate of about four 
 miles an hour !
 
 200 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 sive style of the edifices alluded to, form a remark- 
 able contrast with the small and unpretending 
 buildings erected by the English. Nothing, in- 
 deed, can be more striking than the difference be- 
 tween the approach to Delhi, or Agra, even in 
 their present state of decay, and that to Calcutta, 
 after its having been nearly a century the capital 
 of our Eastern empire, the seat of our Government, 
 and the residence of the most opulent of all classes, 
 whether European or native. In the former, the 
 road is lined with the ruins of palaces, gardens, 
 fountains, tanks, serais, baths, in short, et qiiicquid 
 tautcE prcEmittitui' urbi — whilst the latter exhibits 
 nothing from which, at the distance of a mile from 
 the city, the traveller could be led to suppose that 
 he was approaching a place of greater conse- 
 quence than an ordinary country-town. The re- 
 proach which Burke thundered against his coun- 
 trymen in the East is not yet wiped away ; and 
 though, perhaps, it cannot now be said, that 
 " were we to be driven out of India this day, 
 nothing would remain to tell that it had been 
 possessed, during the inglorious period of our 
 dominion, by any thing better than the ouran- 
 outang or the tiger," yet the monuments of state 
 or beneficence left behind us, would be compara- 
 tively few indeed ; and, excepting in the town of 
 Calcutta itself, they would be almost entirely con-
 
 OF INDIA. 201 
 
 fined to the repairing of Ali Murdan's and Firoze 
 Shah's canals, the construction of an imperfect 
 military road from the seat of Government to the 
 Upper Provinces, and the erection of a gaol in all 
 the principal towns. 
 
 The influence upon the minds of men, which is 
 created by an attention to whatever contributes to 
 adorn the face of the country, and adds to the 
 comfort and convenience of the inhabitants, is at 
 all times sufficiently great to become an object 
 worthy of the consideration of Government. At- 
 tachment to the spot on which we were born is not 
 a mere sentiment grounded upon early association, 
 but has for its basis the substantial advantages 
 which that spot affords. To strengthen these claims 
 is to nourish the spirit of patriotism ; and a wise 
 government will never relax in its efforts to pro- 
 mote a feeling upon which the safety of the coun- 
 try may eventually depend. In India, especially, 
 all our institutions should have this object in view, 
 in order that a foundation may be laid for organ- 
 izing an efficient provincial army, and a regular 
 system of defence, in the furtherance of which all 
 ranks of the community may be interested. The 
 diffusion of instruction amongst all classes, together 
 with the encouragement to industry which has 
 just been recommended, will engender a spirit 
 of pride and independence in the peasantry of
 
 202 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 the country, and render them bold, active, and 
 capable of encountering the fatigues of a sol- 
 dier's life in time of need. A plan for raising 
 regiments in each district, officered, as much as 
 possible, from the gentry, British, Indo-British, 
 and native,* of the neighbourhood, would not only 
 encourage the feeling of patriotism, and attachment 
 to the soil, amongst the soldiery, but dispose the 
 whole country to take an interest in the events of 
 war, and keep up a salutary emulation and rivalry 
 between the several corps of the army. During 
 peace, such troops as were necessary might be 
 stationed, as much as convenient, in the district 
 where they were raised, and employed in the exe- 
 cution of such works of public utility as would at 
 once furnish them with ample occupation, and con- 
 duce to the general advantage of the community. 
 
 * Speaking of the Roman conquests, Gibbon remarks, " In 
 their manners and internal policy, the colonies formed a per- 
 fect representation of their great parent ; and they were soon 
 endeared to the natives by the ties of friendship and alliance. 
 They effectually diffused a reverence for the Roman name, 
 and a desire, which was seldom disappointed, of sharing, in 
 due time, its honours and advantages. — The grandsons of the 
 Gauls, who had besieged Julius Caesar in Alesia, commanded 
 legions, governed provinces, and were admitted into the Senate 
 of Rome. Their ambition, instead of disturbing the tranquil- 
 lity of the state, was intimately connected with its safety and 
 greatness." — Decline and Lull c. 2.
 
 OF INDIA. 203 
 
 The pay and subsistence of the army should he 
 sufficient to induce men of good character and 
 abiHties to enrol themselves. The honourable 
 poverty, as it is called, in which it is deemed 
 politic to retain the military profession, becomes 
 a mischievous fallacy when carried so far as to 
 lower the defenders of the country in the estima- 
 tion of their fellow men. If poverty induce con- 
 tempt in every other class of society, it certainly 
 will not promote in the breast of a soldier, those sen- 
 timents upon which his character and intrepidity 
 in a great measure depend. The pay of soldiers 
 should of course be i-egulated by the rate of wages, 
 generally obtaining, in the country where they are 
 employed ; but an individual engaging himself in 
 the profession 'of arms, should not only be main- 
 tained during the continuance of his employment, 
 but he should be recompensed, according to the 
 length of his service, upon rejoining his fellow 
 countrymen, and resuming the habits of life which 
 his enrolment had interrupted. Greater risk is 
 incurred from the effect of military licence, by 
 drawing a distinct line between the soldier and the 
 citizen, than by encouraging them to cherish re- 
 ciprocal feelings of kindness and confidence, and - 
 to entertain a common sympathy for the prosperity 
 of the state. For this purpose, the formation of 
 a regular militia should be encouraged ; and, in
 
 204 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 recruiting for the army, men who have been 
 brought up to regular trades should be preferred. 
 In all situations where active military service was 
 not required of them, they should be employed in 
 the execution of public or private works, according 
 to their several qualifications, upon such additional 
 wages as would be a sufficient compensation for 
 their labour.* Independent of the general advan- 
 tages attendant upon this system, if steadily ad- 
 hered to, it is probable that it would materially 
 affect the institution of castes among the natives, 
 by setting a bounty upon useful endowments ; in- 
 stead of filling the ranks, as at present, with men 
 who, in the common phrase, are said to be fit for 
 soldiers because they are fit for nothing else. 
 
 Little or no effect, however, from' a plan of this 
 
 * According to Van Halen, (Narrative, &c.) this seems to 
 be very much the case with the Russian army. The colonel 
 of a regiment is said to be allowed to profit by the industry 
 of his men, when military duty is suspended. " The soldiers 
 then become masons, carpenters, smiths, &c. or engage in 
 whatever occupation they may be hired for ; so that, as they 
 are furnished by the colonel with suitable dresses, that their 
 uniforms may not suffer during the time they are thus em- 
 ployed, they cannot be recognised as soldiers, except by their 
 mustachios. Besides, there are always a certain number of 
 men employed in the workshops belonging to the regiment, 
 in every description of trade ; consequently, every thing that 
 can possibly be wanted for the corps is made by the soldiers."
 
 OF INDIA. 205 
 
 nature, can be expected, until measures are adopt- 
 ed for diffusing throughout the country the bene- 
 fits of elementary instruction in tlie mechanical 
 arts, agriculture, and manufactures, by the pos- 
 session of which the people will learn the value 
 of labour, and be able to put forth their strength 
 in the great field of human industry. Many peo- 
 ple imagine that this useful measure is in actual 
 operation, in consequence of tlie forty-third sec- 
 tion of the charter of 1813, directing that " a 
 sum of not less than one lac of rupees, (10,000/.) 
 shall be annually set apart and applied to the re- 
 vival and improvement of literature, and the en- 
 couragement of the learned natives of India, and 
 for the introduction and prometion of a know- 
 ledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the 
 British territories in India, &c." When, how- 
 ever, it is recollected that British India is sup- 
 posed to contain nearly ninety millions of inha- 
 bitants, it will not be deemed surprising that the 
 expenditure of such a small sum as ten thousand 
 pounds is found totally inadequate to the produc- 
 tion of any visible effect upon the manners and 
 habits of the people. The Hindoo and Moham- 
 medan Colleges, established in Calcutta, are un- 
 doubtedly useful institutions, as far as the learned 
 natives of India are concerned ; and while some 
 of the former bid fair to spread a knowledge of
 
 206 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 the English language among the natives of the 
 higher classes of Calcutta, the latter is chiefly in- 
 strumental in qualifying Mohammedans for the ap- 
 pointments of vakeels, or pleaders in the law 
 courts. The gradual introduction of the English 
 language, however, is a point of so much import- 
 ance, that any institution, which has for its object 
 the perpetuation of the existing absurdities of a 
 body of law administered in a language alike fo- 
 reign (and generally unknown) to the judge who 
 presides, as well as to the suitors and witnesses, 
 cannot but be considered as a misappropriation of 
 the funds in question. If the English language 
 were made an indispensable qualification * for 
 
 * Of late years, a great deal too much importance has been 
 attached to the acquisition of the languages of the country, 
 as a qualification for office. Sir John Malcolm very justly 
 observes, that strict principle, general knowledge, and sound 
 judgment, should constitute the principal considerations in 
 estimating the character of a public servant. " As an aux- 
 iliary," he adds, " to the developement and useful action of 
 these qualities, an acquaintance with the languages of India 
 is most desirable; but unassociated with them, it is nothing, 
 and injury has sometimes resulted to the public from a too 
 exclusive consideration being given to this attainment." — Pol. 
 Hist. vol. ii. p. 187. It may be questioned, indeed, whether 
 a nation was ever civilized by its conquerors making themselves 
 masters of its language. The study of a languuge, almost 
 necessarily induces an imitation of the trains of thought, and 
 even of the manners, the traces of which it has been em-
 
 OF INDIA. 207 
 
 every public employment, it would tend, more 
 than any thing else, to the encouragement of ge- 
 neral knowledge, and, as a natural consequence, to 
 the gradual weaning of the minds of the natives, 
 from the absurd superstition by which their ener- 
 
 ployed to record ; and the acquisition of a living language in 
 particular, is not more aided by a quickness of ear and com- 
 prehension, than by a certain mimic inflection of voice and 
 gesture. The truth of this remark is so generally felt, that 
 most persons, in their first colloquial attempt in a foreign 
 tongue, run into the extreme of action and grimace, in order 
 the more readily to make themselves understood. But if 
 this be the case with a mere accomplishment, how much 
 more true it must be, where the language in question is that 
 by the aid of which the greater part of our official business, 
 as well as familiar intercourse with those around us, is carried 
 on. Perhaps there are few causes which have had a more di- 
 rect tendency to retard the progress of European arts and civi- 
 lization in the East, than the general favour which Oriental 
 studies have found in the eyes of our countrymen ; and cer- 
 tain it is, that many instances are to be found of promising 
 talent for the public service having degenerated into mere 
 pedantry from the same cause. There are, accordingly, few 
 Oriental scholars in India who have distinguished themselves 
 in other branches of learning or speculation, or who have 
 established a reputation as men of enlarged views, even on 
 subjects connected with their pursuits. They mostly evince 
 a sort of literary proselytism, and are occupied only in up- 
 holding the credit of their adopted faith. Some brilliant ex- 
 ceptions there undoubtedly are, and perhaps no one shines 
 more conspicuously as such than the writer already referred
 
 208 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 gies are clogged, and which sits like an incubus 
 upon both their mental and physical powers. A 
 knowledge of the English language would, in this 
 sense, conduce both to the moral and physical ad- 
 vantage of the natives, and would shortly render 
 
 to in the note ; owing, probably, to his active employment 
 and varied occupations having so absorbed his attention, as 
 to have prevented his penetrating too deeply into the wilder- 
 ness of Eastern lore. But this pre-eminence, as it is highly 
 honourable to him as a man of talent, only renders it the 
 more to be regretted, that he should have expressed opinions 
 so adverse to the general improvement of the natives of In- 
 dia, and so little in accordance with that spirit which might 
 be expected from an independent Briton, who owed his own 
 early rise to the display of considerable ability, and to the 
 exertion of a frankness and uprightnessof character, not only 
 highly creditable to himself, but capable of producing the best 
 effects upon the condition of those who, more perhaps than 
 any race on earth, need the advocacy of commanding talent, 
 in unison with powerful influence. What was said by a 
 French writer, on the conversion of Abubekre by Mahomet, 
 may, with a little alteration, be applied to Sir John Malcolm. 
 " When a man of consequence falls into an error, the conta- 
 gion spreads with rapidity. The vulgar appreciate the value 
 of an opinion according to the idea which they form of the 
 merit of those who embrace it ; and they imagine, that where 
 the head is sound, the heart cannot err." But whether the- 
 opinions which that writer has lately put forth on the sub- 
 ject of a maximum taxation on land, the necessity for abso- 
 lute government, and the slavery of the press in India, pro- 
 ceed from his head or his heart, they are equally to be re- 
 arretted.
 
 OF INDIA. 209 
 
 them fit to take a share in conducting the affairs 
 of the country, which their utter ignorance now 
 affords an excuse for depriving them of. Educa- 
 tion would not only engender new tastes and new 
 wants, but confer the means of gratifying them. 
 A thousand channels of industry would be opened, 
 and doubtless new forms of invention would be 
 " bodied forth," which it is impossible, under pre- 
 sent circumstances, to foretell ; for, as there are 
 stars, the light of which astronomers tell us has 
 not even yet had time to reach the sphere which 
 we inhabit, so there are combinations of thought 
 in the fertile mind of man which it is hardly pos- 
 sible to imagine. In proportion as the genius of 
 the natives was called forth, the increased inter- 
 course with Europeans, which would be the direct 
 consequence of their newly-acquired intelligence, 
 would elevate their moral character, and imbue 
 them with a spirit which could not but be fa- 
 vourable to the propagation of the religion of the 
 Gospel amongst them. It would, indeed, be doing 
 no less injustice to the purity of that religion, than 
 to the dignity of human nature, to suppose that 
 any thing but utter ignorance could retain the 
 natives of India in the gross system of idolatry by 
 which they are now debased ; and the evident 
 feeling of shame that is perceptible in the counte- 
 nance of every native above the ordinary stamp, 
 
 p
 
 210 ON THE COI.ONIZATION 
 
 when the ceremonials of his reHgion are spoken of 
 in his presence, should be hailed as a good omen 
 of the ultimate effect which the diffusion of know- 
 ledge will produce. It is easy to conceive how 
 the most gifted genius, when standing alone and 
 unsupported amidst a priest-ridden population, 
 and having none but repulsive and haughty Euro- 
 peans, in high official stations, to resort to, will 
 cling to the errors of the religion in which he was 
 brought up, even in spite of his better reason ; but 
 when the number of those with whom he can in- 
 dulge in a community of thought is increased, 
 there will be no longer any such reason for con- 
 cealment ; and conversion* will rapidly proceed, as 
 
 * The danger of exciting insurrection on the score of reli- 
 gion, where we are so vastly outnumbered by our native sub- 
 jects, and of rousing opposition on the only point on which 
 our native army is likely to make common cause against us 
 with their fellow-countrymen, is too obvious to be insisted 
 on : it is impossible, therefore, not to agree with Sir John 
 Malcolm {Pol. Hist. vol. ii. p. 265.) in his general reason- 
 ing on this subject ; but when he asserts that the progress 
 of the British was accelerated by their adoption of this prin- 
 ciple, and that of the Portuguese and French impeded by 
 neglecting it, neither history nor reason will bear him out. 
 If the Portuguese had surrounded their settlements and 
 towns with native Christians, they would at least have been 
 certain of the allegiance of their subjects ; and their fall 
 would have been retarded, instead of hastened, in proportion 
 to the number of adherents which religion had procured
 
 OF INDIA. 211 
 
 it always should do, by the light of reason and 
 reflection : — non est relio-ioms cohere reli^ionem — 
 but example and education are at all times legiti- 
 mate means of producing conviction. 
 
 With the slender means, * however, at present 
 at the disposal of Government, it is unreasonable 
 to expect that any decisive improvement, of the 
 kind alluded to, will be effected. In Calcutta, the 
 success of several public and private establish- 
 
 them. They would, in short, have been less dependent on 
 Europe for recruiting their strength. It was, however, the 
 decline of their power and influence in Europe, and the con- 
 sequent want of support from the mother-country, added to 
 the active and persevering hostility of the Dutch, that occa- 
 sioned their downfall in the East ; and these causes were 
 quite sufficient, notwithstanding the assistance which they 
 might have derived from a Christian population, even had it 
 been as numerous as the writer would persuade us. In like 
 manner, the French were overmatched by the English having 
 been enabled, in consequence of their possessing tho com- 
 mand of the ocean, to intercept all supplies in time of war ; 
 and in consequence, too, of their growing wealth and influ_ 
 ence with the natives giving them political ascendency at 
 .the several native courts. Religion had no influence in this 
 case ; and if, in the time of Dupleix and Lally, the religious 
 feelings of the Mohammedans and Hindoos were outraged, the 
 historian, in order to demonstrate the truth of his position, 
 should have given us some proofs of positive injury to the 
 French interests from the cause. It is, indeed, so little cer- 
 tain that the Mohammedans would evince any interest in a 
 professed intention to convert the Hindoos by priests, or.
 
 212 ON THE COLONIZATION 
 
 ments, but particularly of the Anglo-Indian Col- 
 lege, has led many to form an exaggerated esti- 
 mate of the measures now in operation, and of 
 the general encouragement given by Government, 
 as well as individuals, for promoting instruction 
 throughout the country. Those at Calcutta are 
 chiefly supported by the exertions of private indi- 
 viduals ; and the countenance afforded by Govern- 
 
 rice versa, that the hitter would trouble themselves in behalf 
 of the former, that many people believe we might with per- 
 fect safety make use of one sect to coerce the other, did not 
 our ideas of toleration and religious freedom forbid the deed. 
 The association of a war of religion with every tumult in 
 which the Mohammedans are concerned, arises out of the mis- 
 take of assuming that their green flag is a rallying point in 
 cases of this nature exclusively ; whereas it is their national 
 standard on all occasions, and is hoisted to collect Mohamme- 
 dans, just as the Union Jack serves as a signal for English- 
 men. It may, perhaps, be true, that the English evinced 
 less solicitude for the propagation of the Christian faith, 
 than any other adventurers ; trade and conquest, indeed, ap- 
 pear to have absorbed all their attention ; but to assert that 
 they purposely avoided what the historian is pleased to call 
 the " great errors" of their rivals, is to say they acted upon 
 principle throughout, and to take credit for their sins of 
 omission, as well as those of commission. A total want of 
 principle, other than a constant readiness to aggrandize 
 themselves where they had power to do so, is the most re- 
 markable characteristic of the early progress made by the 
 English in India.
 
 OF INDIA. 213 
 
 inent is generally supposed to be almost entirely 
 attributable to the influence of some leading mem- 
 bers of the society ; whilst native gentlemen of 
 rank and wealth, though many of them undoubt- 
 edly men of liberal and enlightened minds, are . 
 not insensible to the vanity of seeing their names 
 associated with those of the magnates of the 
 realm in this or any other public undertaking. 
 Certain it is, that at a distance from the capital, 
 the spectacle of a native of rank interesting him- 
 self in the education of his countrymen, is, if not 
 entirely unknown, at least very rare ; and from 
 this circumstance, together with the small num- 
 ber, and comparatively short residence of the 
 missionaries and others, on whom the practical 
 charge of the schools devolves, no perceptible pro- 
 gress has been made, or can be expected, in a 
 work requiring so much persevering attention, and 
 so steady an adherence to system, as the progres- 
 sive reform which it is desirable to effect in the 
 habits and manners of the population of Hindo- 
 stan. Without the aid of a body of men who, 
 from being settled in the country, will be impelled 
 as much by a feeling of mutual convenience and 
 advantage, as by a sense of their duty as Chris- 
 tians, to attend to the improvement of those 
 around them, no lasting impression will be made
 
 ^o<r 
 
 214 COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 
 
 — our utmost efforts, like writing on the sand, 
 will be liable to be effaced by every change, even 
 to the slightest ruffling on the surface. 
 
 In every point of view, then, is Colonization 
 the only effectual remedy — the " one thing need- 
 ful" for the salvation of Hindostan ; whether we 
 look to augmenting the efficiency of the civil Go- 
 vernment, and enabling it to fulfil the duties to 
 which it is now confessedly inadequate, without 
 an addition to its expenditure which the revenue 
 of the country could never support ; or to the de- 
 fence of the country against foreign invasion, 
 without rendering it onerous, out of all propor- 
 tion, to the mother country ; or, lastly, to the im- 
 provement and well-being of the subject-millions 
 committed to our sway, and the eventual esta- 
 blishment of Christianity over some of the fairest 
 portion of the habitable globe. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 London: 
 
 I-KINTEI) nv S. AND K. BENTLKY, 
 Ooib«t Street, I'lert Street. 
 
 8423 xO
 
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