CRAWFURD 
 
 ON THE 
 
 COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 
 
 TWO SI 1 1 1.LIVGS AND SIXPENCK. j
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
 

 
 BRITISH COLONIZATION 
 
 OF 
 
 INDIA.
 
 NOTES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 SETTLEMENT OR COLONIZATION 
 
 OF 
 
 BRITISH SUBJECTS 
 
 IN 
 
 INDIA: 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN APPENDIX 
 
 OF 
 
 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN CRAWFURD, ESQ. F.R.S. 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES RIDGWAY, 169, PICCADILLY. 
 
 MDCCCXXXIII.
 
 Printed by W. Col1in & Co. 
 Glasgow.
 
 SiS 
 *Y7T, I 
 
 7^^F* 
 
 CO 
 
 ONE 
 QQ 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE President of the Board of Control, having requested 
 that the parties interested in the East India Trade would fur- 
 nish him with their views on the subject of the Settlement of 
 
 o Europeans in India, very able Papers were, in consequence, 
 laid before him by the East India Committees of Glasgow 
 
 w and Liverpool : and I submitted, in behalf of the Native and 
 European inhabitants of Calcutta, the Notes which form the 
 text of the present publication ; which I have endeavoured to 
 render more worthy of general attention, by an Appendix of 
 Illustrations, in which will be found, concentrated, no incon- 
 siderable portion of the information contained in the immense 
 mass of Parliamentary and other Public Documents, printed 
 within the last few years ; and which, up to the present day, 
 for they are not yet completed, amount to no less than four- 
 and-twenty folio volumes of various sizes. - 
 
 J. C. 
 
 27, Wilton Crescent, London, 
 March 20, 1833. 
 
 357334
 
 NOTES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF BRITISH SUBJECTS 
 
 IN 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 THE Merchants and Manufacturers of Great Britain ought 
 naturally to be solicitous on the question of the settlement 
 of Englishmen in India, because, to the existence of free 
 British settlers, they cannot fail to see that the present pros- 
 perity of the Indian commerce is mainly, if not wholly, to be 
 attributed ; and because, it is a fact which cannot be contro- 
 verted, that the more freedom that has hitherto been bestowed 
 upon the intercourse of Europeans with India, the greater 
 has been the benefit conferred upon the trade of India. 
 
 This may be briefly illustrated by a very few examples. 
 The external trade in Cotton Wool, which has frequently ex- 
 ceeded in value a million pounds sterling per annum the 
 manufacture and external trade in Indigo, which exceeds two 
 
 O * 
 
 millions and a half the external trade in Opium, which is 
 exchanged with the different nations of Asia consuming it, 
 for a sum not under four million pounds sterling per annum, 
 are, all of them, distinctly traceable to European settle- 
 ment ; or, at least, it is quite certain, that without the pre- 
 sence of European free settlers no such branches of trade 
 could have existed.* 
 
 Without referring to minor improvements, which owe their 
 
 * Appendix, A.
 
 8 
 
 origin to European settlers, it may be further mentioned, that 
 ship-building, for foreign trade, is entirely an art of European 
 introduction. About eighty thousand tons of this description 
 V of shipping belong to the two ports of Calcutta and Bombay. 
 It is to this class of vessels, let it not be forgotten, that the 
 Government of India has entirely owed its capacity of carry- 
 ing on ah 1 its great military expeditions beyond the bounds of 
 Hindostan ; such as the expeditions against the Philippines, 
 ^ Egypt, Macao, and all the French and Dutch possessions. 
 
 In periods of scarcity or famine, the same class of vessels 
 has conferred inestimable benefits on the people of India. 
 In the famine which prevailed on the Coromandel coast, in 
 1824, not less than sixty thousand tons of grain were quickly 
 conveyed by the free-traders from Bengal ; and in the famine 
 of 1807, not less than one hundred and twenty thousand tons. 
 It is almost needless to insist, that the native coasting traders 
 of India could not possibly have afforded a similar relief, since 
 it is a well-known fact, that they can perform but a single 
 /\ voyage in the year, and this a very tedious one. 
 
 Indeed, it is not too much to assert, that the very existence 
 of the towns of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, still more 
 of the settlements in the straits of Malacca, as ports of foreign 
 commerce, has depended upon the class of persons, who, in 
 former periods of the commercial history of India, used to be 
 called " Interlopers." At the close of the last charter, the 
 total exports and imports of these places was certainly short of 
 thirteen million pounds per annum ; they are, at present, pro- 
 bably not under twenty-six millions, or have been doubled in 
 the short period of twenty years ; the commerce of the East 
 India Company, with the exception of two or three articles 
 still exported under pretext of making a remittance of terri- 
 torial revenue, having meanwhile altogether ceased.* 
 
 The beneficial effects of the enterprise of the free British 
 traders has been by no means confined to the British pos- 
 sessions. A very large portion of the commercial prosperity 
 of Canton is derived from the same class of British subjects ; 
 
 * Appendix, B.
 
 who carry on the most important part of the commerce of the 
 place, either by an evasion of the law, or an open violation 
 of it. The total commerce thus carried on has increased, 
 during the last twenty years, from about four and a half mil- 
 lion pounds to double that amount ; the commerce of the East 
 India Company with China having, within the same period, 
 declined from 2,700,000 to 2,400,000.* ^ 
 
 The same observation applies to Java, and even to Manilla ; 
 both of which owe the most active branches of their commerce 
 to British merchants and mariners. The trade of Java, for 
 example, in the highest period of its prosperity, under the 
 monopoly system, was short of one-and-a-half million pounds 
 per annum, and it is now equal to three millions : while a large 
 portion of the imports in it consists of British manufactures, or 
 of the productions of the soil and industry of British India. 
 
 The commercial improvements which the merchants and 
 manufacturers of Britain have good reason to expect will 
 result from an extended intercourse of Europeans with India, 
 and their permanent settlement there, may be shortly stated. 
 They will consist of improvement in the quality, and extension 
 in the quantity, of Cotton Wool, to be furnished for the manu- 
 factures of this country, now dependent on America, and de- 
 pendent on a slave population, for nine-tenths of its supply, 
 of improvement in the culture of the Mulberry, and rearing of 
 the Silk-worm, improvement in the quality and quantity of 
 Sugar, Rice, \Vheat, and other corns, extension of the culture 
 of Coffee, and introduction of the culture of Tea, Cocoa, and 
 other products usually denominated colonial,-}- the application 
 of skill and capital to the construction of bridges, roads, canals 
 for navigation, and works of irrigation, J the application of 
 capital and enterprise to mining operations, steam navigation, 
 the coasting trade of India, and the external Asiatic trade. 
 
 The ordinary state of the money market in India, affords 
 as striking and conclusive evidence as can be adduced, of the 
 advantages which have heretofore been derived from the pre- 
 sence of free British settlers, while it shows the urgent call 
 
 * Appendix, C. f D- J E - F -
 
 10 
 
 N which exists for its extension. On the security of the pub- 
 lic revenue, the state is enabled to borrow money at so low 
 an interest as five per cent. Within the special jurisdictions 
 of the King's courts, wherever they exist in India, British 
 merchants, of good credit, are enabled to borrow, on their 
 personal security only, at an interest of from eight to ten per 
 cent. British merchants beyond the special jurisdictions of 
 the King's courts, or residing in the provinces, on the imper- 
 fect security of Indigo factories, or other immoveable property, 
 borrow at from ten to twelve per cent. Now, the common 
 rate of interest between native and native, beyond the juris- 
 diction of the King's courts, is, according to the nature of 
 ,. the security, from twenty-four to sixty per cent, per annum. 
 The obvious inference to be drawn from this statement is, 
 that by the permanent settlement of British subjects under 
 fair and equitable laws, a great deal of capital would soon be 
 invested in the improvement of the agriculture, mining, manu- 
 factures, communication, and commerce of India, which is at 
 present excluded from it, by the precariousness and conse- 
 quent high cost of the investment.* 
 
 As connected with this subject, the beneficial influence of 
 the free-traders in supporting public credit may be adverted 
 to. Every one acquainted with the commerce of India will 
 at once feel that they are the main stays of commercial credit ; 
 and a reference to the public records will show, that by far 
 the greatest part of the public loans, now amounting to some 
 fifty million pounds, have been borrowed by the state only 
 through their agency and assistance.f 
 
 For the effectual development of the commercial capabili- 
 ties of India, the following conditions naturally offer them- 
 selves, as those on which it would be eligible that British-born 
 subjects should have access to the country intercourse with 
 its inhabitants and liberty of settlement. 
 
 1. Every British subject desiring to proceed to India, to 
 * Appendix, G. f H.
 
 11 
 
 be at liberty to do so without license or certificate, in as free 
 and ample a manner as British subjects are now at liberty to 
 frequent any colonial possession of the Crown. 
 
 2. British subjects, when in India, to have liberty to tra- 
 vel or proceed from one British district or province to another 
 with the same freedom as any Native of the country. 
 
 3. British subjects not to be banished from India, except 
 by sentence of a Court of Justice, and under the sanction of 
 established laws, equally applicable to them as to the Natives 
 of the country, and the arbitrary power at present vested by 
 law in the local Executive to be of course annulled. 
 
 4. British subjects to be permitted to carry on any species 
 of trade or manufacture, or any branch of industry whatsoever, 
 which may be carried on by any Native of the country or other 
 person, and the prohibition to carry on the internal trade in 
 salt, tobacco, rice, &c. to be repealed.* 
 
 5. British-born subjects to be permitted to own or hold 
 lands, or other immoveable property, in as free and ample a 
 manner as. any native Indian may hold the same, and within 
 every part of the British dominions. 
 
 6. The law of inheritance with respect to such property, 
 as well as to moveable property, to be the law of England ; 
 and, as more suitable to the circumstances of the country, and 
 compatible with its usages, lands may be considered as per- 
 sonalty and not as realty. No inconvenience can result from 
 this arrangement, since, in all ages of the history of India, the 
 different nations, or tribes, or even castes, inhabiting the 
 country, Hindoos of different sects, Christians of different 
 persuasions, Jews and Mahomedans, have invariably enjoyed 
 their own particular laws of inheritance. This principle 
 seems to have been acted upon even before the Mahomedan 
 
 * Appendix, I.
 
 conquest. It prevailed during the Mahomedan rule, and 
 has been acted upon by ourselves, even in those parts of our 
 possessions where English laws, even in their most technical 
 forms, have in almost all other matters been established. 
 
 7. British-born subjects, residing in India, to be amenable 
 to the same civil and criminal tribunals as the Indian subjects 
 of the State. 
 
 One of the great objections heretofore raised against the 
 permanent settlement of Europeans in India, has been very 
 unfairly derived from the arbitrary and imperfect state of the 
 laws in the provincial courts, originating in the absence of a 
 legal education on the part of the Judges, the corruption of the 
 ministerial officers, and the administration of justice in a lan- 
 guage foreign to every party concerned. These defects have 
 been admitted by the parties the most interested in concealing 
 them ; and since funds for the improvement of these tribunals 
 exist, as is shown by the present judicial expenditure, of at 
 least a million and a half per annum, it is the indispensable 
 duty of the legislature to furnish a competent administration 
 of justice; and, derogatory to its honour, to plead the imper- 
 fection of the present establishment as a ground or argument 
 for the exclusion of European settlement. To quote the 
 words of the present enlightened Governor General of India, 
 Lord William Bentinck, " It would be the height of absurdity 
 to argue, from the inefficiency of our existing institutions, 
 against the admission of Europeans. The remedy, it is clear, 
 is not the exclusion of these, but the reform of our system."* 
 
 The existence of Courts, corresponding in number to the 
 present Provincial Courts, presided by a Recorder, or other 
 professional judge, would, in all probability, be found quite 
 competent, for many years, to the administration of justice 
 over the small number of British-born subjects, who, judging 
 from past experience, are likely to resort to India and take 
 up their permanent residence in it. 
 
 The natural and convenient seat of such Judicatures would 
 
 * Report and General Appendix from the Select Committee, 1832, p. 280.
 
 be the principal cities of the interior, where there frequently 
 exist, at present, City Judges, whose courts might be dis- 
 pensed with, and the expense attending them saved ; as, for 
 example, Moorshedabad, Dacca, Patna, Benares, Bareilly, 
 Delhi, Agra, Furruckabad, Masulipatam, Bangalore, Trichi- 
 nopoly, Tellicherry, Surat, Poonah, and Ahmedabad. The 
 whole of these places are only named with the view of indi- 
 cating the localities of such Courts as might eventually be- 
 come necessary; for in the meanwhile it is not probable, that 
 more than one half, or at most more than two-thirds, of them 
 would be found necessary. These courts might be relieved 
 of a considerable portion of criminal and civil business, by 
 the institution of Courts of Requests, and Courts of Petty 
 Sessions ; the Commissioners, or Justices, to consist jointly 
 of natives, Europeans, or the descendants of natives arid 
 Europeans. 
 
 The yearly salary of a Provincial Judge, in Bengal, is about 
 4,500 ; and, when we observe that the King's Recorder of 
 Bombay had 500 less than this; and the Recorder of Prince 
 of Wales Island 1000 less, and yet that sometimes great, 
 and always adequate legal talents were procured at these sums, 
 we cannot anticipate any difficulty in procuring for India ten 
 or fifteen Professional Judges, which would correspond with 
 the number of Provincial Courts throughout every part of 
 India. 
 
 These Judges, perhaps, ought to be named by the Local 
 Government; and, at all events, be amenable to the Supreme 
 Local Government for their conduct, in the same manner as 
 the Judges in England are amenable to Parliament, or even 
 in a higher degree.* 
 
 An important question, of course, here arises What 
 civil and criminal Laws ought to be administered ? The 
 natural and obvious reply is, the law of the conquerors, after 
 the manner followed by almost all conquerors in all ages ; 
 and, especially, in accordance with the practice of our imme- 
 diate predecessors, the Mahomedans. It is not meant that 
 
 * Appendix, J.
 
 14 
 
 English Laws are perfect, or in every respect suited to the 
 genius of Indian society. All that is contended is, that they 
 are the best at our command, that, with all their imperfec- 
 tions, they are the laws of a civilized people; and, therefore, 
 entitled to a preference over Native Laws of any descrip- 
 tion, which are confessedly those of barbarians, and that, 
 at any rate, they are the only laws which English Judges can 
 understand and administer. English laws, more or less skil- 
 fully adapted to circumstances, are no innovation in India. 
 Under the name of Mayors, Recorders, or Supreme Courts, 
 they have been administered in different parts of India for a 
 time varying from twenty-five to eighty years, and are at 
 present in full operation over at least a million of people, con- 
 sisting of various nations and sects of Mahomedans, various 
 nations and sects of Christians, various nations and castes 
 of Hindoos, with Malays, Chinese, Burmese, Siamese, and 
 other nations. 
 
 The technicality, the expense, and the delay attending the 
 administration of English law have been justly objected to 
 them, but these are not necessary, but adventitious qualities 
 of English justice; and, judging from the success of some ex- 
 periments made upon a very considerable scale, may in a great 
 measure be got rid of. 
 
 Of the existing tribunals in the Provinces, and of the code 
 of regulations administered in them, it is not necessary to say 
 much, seeing that, after forty years' trial, they have totally 
 failed, and, indeed, been fully condemned by the deliberate 
 judgment of the Home Authorities themselves, as may be seen 
 by the following short quotation : " In the conduct of trials, 
 in unravelling intricacies of particular cases, in eliciting truth 
 from witnesses, in appreciating evidence, in applying the law 
 to the fact, Indian judges, unprepared by education or other- 
 wise for the judicial office, have many peculiar difficulties to 
 \ contend with. The code of regulations by which they are 
 bound, consists almost entirely of rules of procedure ; the 
 Mahomedan and Hindoo laws are the guide for their decisions 
 in certain cases only, and in all others not specially provided 
 i for, the Judge has no law but that of his own conscience.
 
 15 
 
 For propriety in the proceedings of the courts, therefore, 
 little security is to be found in the state of the law, and of * 
 the judicial establishment."* 
 
 The utility of jury trial has been much insisted upon even 
 in the administration of justice to the Natives of India; and its 
 admitted success, after an experiment of a good many years, in 
 Ceylon, suggests the utility of adopting it in India. In crimi- 
 nal trials, at least, its necessity in the case of British-born sub- 
 jects may fairly be insisted upon. In this event, as in the case 
 with Aliens in England, one half of the jury only need con- 
 sist of British-born subjects, or at least of Christians, a 
 provision which would not only be fair and equitable in itself, 
 but obviate the difficulty which might, for a considerable time, 
 be expected to arise from the insufficient number of British 
 settlers. It has already been stated, that the monstrous 
 power vested in the Indian Governors, of arbitrarily removing 
 British-born subjects from the country, with or without cause 
 assigned, must be annulled, and this for obvious reasons, which 
 it is almost unnecessary to dwell upon. The bare posses- 
 sion of such a power, has in itself hitherto been quite suffi- 
 cient to alienate the affections of the free settlers, and thus to 
 convert the natural and the best supporters of the British 
 power in India, into its secret opponents. In proof of this, 
 it is enough to state, that both the Judges and the Law offi- 
 cers of the Indian Government, have repeatedly declared, that, 
 under the present law of transmission or deportation, it was 
 in vain to expect that a British jury would ever give a ver- 
 dict in favour of the Company, in any case of prosecution for ^. 
 libel. This admission of the effects of the law, is of itself 
 alone a sufficient condemnation of it. But the possession of 
 this power is inconsistent with the perfect security of property. 
 The merchants and manufacturers of Britain, at the dis- 
 tance of 14,000 miles, cannot repose the necessary confidence 
 in agents and correspondents, who, on bare suspicion, and at 
 the arbitrary will or caprice of any individual, however high 
 
 * Letter from the Court of Directors, to the Governor General of India, 
 8th December, 1824, in Selection of Papers from the Records at the East 
 India House, Vol. 4th, page 39.
 
 16 
 
 his rank, may be removed from the management of their 
 ; affairs, on the brief notice of two short months. The power 
 has now existed forty years, and on a fair retrospect of all 
 the cases in which it has ever been exercised, it would perhaps 
 be difficult, indeed impossible, to point out a single instance 
 of a real or urgent state necessity for its exercise. In several 
 cases, even the Home Authorities themselves have been 
 forced to admit that it was wantonly abused; and yet, in none 
 of these examples has any individual ever succeeded in ob- 
 /V\ taining that redress which the Law pretends to hold out. 
 
 A law to prevent arbitrary imprisonment, similar to our 
 statute of Habeas Corpus, will be indispensably necessary to 
 good government, whether in reference to Europeans or Na- 
 tives ; but neither this privilege, nor the abolition of the ar- 
 bitrary power of banishing Europeans, vested in the execu- 
 tive authorities, ought to preclude the Governor General, by 
 and with the advice of his Legislative Council, or even on 
 his responsibility without it, from having the power of with- 
 holding permission to British-born subjects to resort to dis- 
 turbed districts, or particular parts of the country where in- 
 surrection or rebellion prevailed, or, indeed, it might even be 
 conceded, to places where the Government might deem their 
 residence either dangerous, or politically inexpedient, if any 
 such existed. 
 
 But this is a power, which, if conferred, would be rarely 
 exercised ; for surely it is obvious to common sense, that it is 
 not to poor, disturbed, or discontented districts that British 
 merchants, traders, or planters, will naturally resort, but on 
 the contrary to those that are rich, populous, and contented. 
 The recent returns from Bengal point this out in a manner 
 highly satisfactory, and the results deserve here to be briefly 
 referred to, in illustration. Indigo Planting, and indeed free- 
 settlement generally, is for the most part confined to the rich, 
 populous, tranquil, and well-ordered provinces of the Bengal 
 Presidency. Within the Bombay Presidency, the territories 
 of which are generally of very recent acquisition, and in which 
 a turbulent, refractory, and disorderly population generally 
 prevails, there is no Indigo, or any other species of planting
 
 17 
 
 carried on by Europeans, and indeed few European settlers, 
 of any description, within the provinces. Under the Madras 
 Presidency, the territory and population of which is generally 
 of a similar character, there is very little Indigo Planting, and 
 very few European settlers in the provinces. Even in Bengal, N ' 
 the extent of Indigo Planting will almost invariably be found 
 to be proportionate to the populousness and tranquillity of the 
 different districts or provinces. It is carried on to the great- 
 est extent in our oldest and most populous acquisitions in 
 Lower Bengal to a smaller extent in the less pacific districts X^- 
 of the north-west and not at all in exposed frontier districts 
 and, above all, in districts which have been the recent scenes 
 of rebellion or insurrection. A perusal of the recent returns 
 will afford the most ample and satisfactory testimony in sup- 
 port of this assertion.* 
 
 8. British-born subjects to be liable to the same direct 
 and indirect taxes as native subjects. 
 
 This rule naturally suggests many observations referable 
 to the success of Indian commerce. It supposes, in the first 
 place, that the Government of India shall not, in violation of 
 all admitted principle, be a trading government ; or, in other 
 words, that one description of British merchants shall not 
 have the power of taxing another description of British mer- 
 chants, their rivals.f 
 
 It supposes, that taxes shall not be imposed through the 
 pernicious instrumentality of monopolies ; and, of course, it 
 supposes the abolition of the monopolies of salt, opium, to- 
 bacco, &c. ; and that a revenue shall be raised from these ar- 
 ticles by means less injurious to industry, and less oppressive 
 to the people.^: 
 
 It supposes the abolition of all transit, or other internal 
 duties, which in every country have proved serious obstacles 
 to the progress of commerce, which in India are represented as 
 being both burdensome to the people, and vexatious to the 
 trader, and which, in a great many instances, are proved, by 
 
 * Appendix, K. f L - f M -
 
 18 
 
 the public records, to be levied at a heavy cost, and therefore 
 to be very unproductive to the treasury.* 
 
 It supposes also the abolition of all custom duties between 
 the territories of one presidency or settlement, and another 
 presidency or settlement, which at present prevail in the same 
 manner as if the different governments, or settlements, were 
 foreign countries in relation to each other, f 
 
 By the present law, no new or additional imposition of any 
 duty or tax upon the export, import, or transit of any mer- 
 chandise whatsoever, is valid until the same be approved of 
 by the Home Authorities.^: This clause, the operation of 
 which has proved highly beneficial, was introduced into the 
 Act of 1813, as a necessary protection to the distant specula- 
 tions of the British merchant. The same rule should be 
 continued, and indeed it may be suggested, that the principle 
 might be carried a great deal farther, with infinite advantage 
 to the good government of India, from which the commerce 
 of India with England is inseparable. If, for example, it 
 were enacted, that no new or additional tax whatever should 
 be imposed by the local Legislature of India, until the law- 
 imposing the same had been duly published in India re- 
 ceived the sanction of the Home Authorities, and afterwards 
 been duly published in England, the necessary effect would 
 be to give to the system of Indian taxation, a degree of con- 
 fidence, certainty, and stability, heretofore unknown to it ; 
 and at the same time to corroborate, on the most wholesome 
 and legitimate principles, the natural and necessary depen- 
 dance of India upon the Crown and Government of England.^ 
 
 Such are the conditions on which it appears that British 
 settlement in India might be safely and advantageously carried 
 into effect. They suppose the existence of a Legislative 
 Council, to which British and Indian subjects of all classes 
 shall be equally admissible, to assist the executive power in 
 framing laws for the good government of India. British free 
 settlers, admitted to such a Council in common with others, 
 
 * Appendix, N. f O. J 53 George III. c. 155, s. 25. 
 
 Appendix, P.
 
 19 
 
 could not in reason object to obey, or live under, laws enacted 
 by such a body. 
 
 ' On the safety and expediency of the free settlement of 
 Europeans in India, considered in a political point of view, a 
 very few words may suffice, in reply to the very feeble opposi- 
 tion which has recently been offered to the measure, either in 
 England or in India. 
 
 In the discussions which preceded the present Charter, the 
 alleged misconduct of European settlers, and the danger which 
 would accrue to our political power in India, from the vast num- 
 ber of this class of persons which it was imagined would flock 
 to India in the event of an open trade, were arguments much 
 insisted upon with a view to preserve the monopoly and close 
 system. The value of these assertions may be judged of by 
 the results, as they are exhibited to us in the official Returns 
 submitted by the very parties themselves, who predicted that 
 so much evil would be the consequence of free commerce and 
 free intercourse. When the Directors of the East India 
 Company were called upon, by the late Select Committee of 
 the House of Commons, for a Return of the free-settlers re- 
 siding in India, it was found that they were possessed of no 
 official statement whatsoever, even of the numbers of those 
 persons from whose presence they had anticipated so much 
 danger to our political power, and the Return which they 
 made to the order of the Select Committee, was expressly 
 stated to be derived " chiefly from Almanacks published in 
 India," By this Return, it would appear that the total num- 
 ber of British settlers in India in 1815, at least a whole year 
 after the commencement of the free-trade, was but 1501, and 
 in 1828, thirteen years afterwards, but 2016. Instead of a 
 vast rush of Europeans resorting to India, no indication what- 
 ever of such resort appears on the face of the public records ; 
 for the greatest number of persons who ever made appli- 
 cation to go out, in any one year, was 92. The total num- 
 ber of applications for leave to proceed to India, in the 
 eighteen years ending with 1831, was but 1547, being, 
 on an average, no more than eighty-six in each year. The 
 actual number of persons who obtained licences to proceed in 
 
 B 2
 
 20 
 
 the eighteen years in question, however, was but 1324, giv- 
 ing, on an average, but 74 per annum, which is far less than 
 one individual for each ship which has proceeded to India in 
 the free-trade, since the Indian commerce was thrown open.* 
 
 Such is exactly the result which might in reason have 
 been anticipated, and for obvious reasons. First, the voyage 
 is long, irksome, and expensive. A first cabin passage 
 costing at least 100, a second 60, and a steerage passage 
 not less than 35 or 40 : Secondly, the climate of India is 
 disagreeable to the European constitution, and not always 
 salubrious : Thirdly, the prohibition to hold lands, and the 
 law of transmission, are obvious discouragements to capitalists : 
 and, Fourthly, every avenue to political preferment is closed 
 against adventurers, the nomination to every office of credit or 
 profit being made in England. 
 
 The Returns furnished, in compliance with the orders of 
 
 /the Court of Directors, by the authorities in India, respect- 
 ing the conduct of the Indigo Planters, the class of British 
 settlers who had been the chief subjects of obloquy, afford by 
 far the completest practical answer which has hitherto been 
 given to the absurd objections which had been urged against 
 the usefulness, safety, and expediency of European settle- 
 / ment. All the Judges and Magistrates were directed to make 
 a report to the Government of Bengal, touching the conduct 
 of the European Planters towards the native inhabitants, as 
 well as their general behaviour, and this report, in its very 
 nature, was both secret and ex parte. The inquiry embraced 
 
 ythe conduct of 473 Planters with their assistants, spread 
 over thirty-two districts, or, more correctly, Provinces, con- 
 taining an area of 220,000 square miles, or a territory three 
 times the extent of Great Britain, with perhaps twice as 
 many inhabitants as the United Kingdom. From every dis- 
 trict where the magistrate has given an opinion, that opinion 
 A is highly favourable, except in one instance, where the party 
 only objects, that he is " not apprised of any great improve- 
 ment in cultivation, in manufactxires, arts and sciences, by the 
 
 * Report of!831, p. 769. Report and General Appendix, 1832, p. 26S.
 
 21 
 
 planters," and that he, " on the general scale, is inclined to 
 believe that the character of indigo planters is not high." 
 In the district, however, thus reported upon, it does not very 
 distinctly appear that there are any European indigo planters. 
 The opinions of all the other public officers is invariably 
 favourable. The general scope of the reports is, that the 
 indigo planters in their dealings were " honourable and 
 upright," that their treatment of the natives was " kind 
 and conciliatory," that " instances of misconduct were of 
 very rare occurrence," that " the country at large derives 
 great benefit from the residence of respectable Europeans in 
 the interior," that the proprietors eagerly " apply to the 
 planters to build factories on their estates," that " the lower 
 classes of the natives were better clothed, richer, and more in- 
 dustrious in the neighbourhood of the factories, than those at 
 a distance from them," that " they are of the greatest pos- 
 sible benefit to the country, giving employment to thousands," 
 that " if the capital put in circulation by them were with- 
 drawn, crimes would greatly increase," that the planters could 
 not be looked upon " in any other light, than as a great benefit 
 to the people, in expending much capital among them, raising 
 the value of land and labour, and accommodating them in 
 their necessities on much more liberal terms, than they could 
 obtain from any other quarter," that, from the large capital 
 circulated by the planters, " the comforts of all classes had 
 been increased, the Zemindar's rents (meaning the land tax) 
 had been realized with greater facility, and immense tracts 
 of jungle, that overspread the country before the cultivation 
 of indigo was introduced, have totally disappeared." These 
 are exactly the effects which had been so often insisted upon 
 by the indigo planters, and by their friends, although, gene- 
 rally, in language more measured.* 
 
 Some parties who fully admit the utility and necessity of 
 British settlement in India, insist, however, that this settle- 
 ment should be limited to " respectable persons," and that 
 the exercise of the right of limitation should be vested in the 
 
 * Report and General Appendix, 1832, p. 295.
 
 22 
 
 government. The government would, in this case, be called 
 upon to decide who was, and who was not " respectable" a 
 course open to innumerable objections. First, no government 
 is ever possessed of competent means to decide such a point : 
 Second, the task of deciding is an invidious, if not an odious 
 office, even if it were a practicable one : Third, the power of 
 deciding this point, is exceedingly apt to become a matter of 
 patronage in the hands of the government, or, at least, of its 
 ministerial officers. This is proved, by comparing the conduct 
 of the Court of Directors before and since Parliament inter- 
 fered with the mode of licensing free-traders to proceed to 
 India. In the first nine years, ending with 1822, when the 
 Home Indian Government was left to itself, the Directors re- 
 jected above 30 per cent, of all the applications made to them 
 for leave to proceed to India ; but, after the interference of 
 Parliament, and in the nine years, ending with 1831, they 
 rejected less than 13 per cent. only. Indeed, as to the pre- 
 tended knowledge of the Home Government, respecting the 
 real character of the residents in India, or even as to its en- 
 tertaining any actual solicitude upon this subject, we possess 
 a virtual contradiction in the striking fact already referred to, 
 that when called upon to state their numbers, they were 
 found to be possessed of no information whatever on the sub- 
 ject, save what they drew from old Indian Almanacks. Had 
 the question appeared to them of the smallest political mo- 
 ment, it may fairly be inferred, that they would have been 
 found possessed, not only of a record of their numbers, but 
 even of the private history and character of each individual 
 among them. For the first fifteen years, of the present 
 charter at least, such information was not deemed either im- 
 portant or necessary, and it was not until after the commence- 
 ment of the present Parliamentary inquiry that the Court of 
 Directors thought of calling for this sort of information.* 
 
 But the strongest argument of all against legislating to re- 
 strict emigration to India, and settlement there, to " persons 
 of respectability," is, that the restraint is superfluous and un- 
 
 * Letter from the Court of Directors, dated the 6th of August, 1828, 
 in General Report and Appendix, 1832, p. 291.
 
 
 necessary. The poorer classes of society could not find their 
 way to India; or, when there, could not find employment. 
 The passage-money, as already stated, could not cost less than 
 30 or 35, while the out-fit would not amount to a less 
 sum ; and, after this disbursement of 60 or 70, the emi- 
 grant, if an ordinary day-labourer, would arrive in India 
 without a farthing in his pocket; and this too in a country 
 of which the market is already fully stocked, in some places 
 indeed overstocked, with labourers. 
 
 Even the apprehension, of Europeans proceeding from the 
 sea-ports to the interior, is utterly chimerical. Two and three 
 hundred English sailors, out of employ, have been known to 
 be at one time in Calcutta, upon several occasions, since the 
 opening of the trade ; but these, instead of proceeding into 
 the interior for dangerous purposes, have scarcely ever been 
 known to wander even into the neighbouring villages. 
 
 The European settlers, for whom there is a demand in 
 India, will consist of skilful artizans of the highest class ; 
 mariners of the better class : or, more correctly, navigators 
 and pilots ; engineers, teachers ; merchants, agriculturists, and 
 other capitalists. The lowest of these classes will barely be 
 conveyed to India at a less cost than 100. If left entirely 
 to themselves, there is not the slightest danger that men of 
 this description will not be sufficiently respectable ; that is to 
 say, be possessed of knowledge, integrity, diligence, and tem- 
 per ; because these qualifications, as every body in the least 
 degree acquainted with India knows, are as necessary in that 
 country to the success of the adventurer as either skill or capi- 
 tal, while it may fairly be doubted, whether one individual out 
 of a thousand, not in the public employment of the State, has 
 ever succeeded without being possessed of them. In corro- 
 boration of this view of the character of the class of Europeans 
 likely to emigrate to India, it is only necessary to advert to 
 the fact, that the settlers at present in India are chiefly found 
 concentrated as merchants, mariners, teachers, and head- arti- 
 ficers, in the principal towns, or as agricultural capitalists in the 
 provinces, not where the population is scanty, and the price 
 of labour comparatively high ; but where the former is dense, 
 and the latter comparatively low.
 
 24 
 
 In truth, not only no advantage has accrued from the 
 restrictions heretofore placed on the emigration of Euro- 
 peans to India, and their settlement there, but these restric- 
 tions are themselves chargeable with no inconsiderable share 
 of the irregularities which have been very unfairly com- 
 plained of. The demand for European skill and capital 
 in India, during the rigour of the restrictive regulations, 
 it is sufficiently known, was often supplied from the most 
 anomalous and suspicious sources from runaways from the 
 East India Company's ships from British subjects who had 
 found their way to India by defying the laws from run- 
 away or emancipated convicts from New South Wales 
 and French, Dutch, and Danish adventurers from the Indian 
 settlements of these nations ; in many instances, persons 
 destitute of the necessary character and education. Ever 
 since the relaxation of the restrictions in 1814, and since 
 the competition has been opened to a less exceptionable class 
 of Europeans, the character of the settlers has been constantly 
 improving, and the improvement has always been in propor- 
 tion to the extent to which the relaxation has been carried ; 
 a fact of which there is abundant evidence in the documents 
 laid before the different Select Committees of the House of 
 Commons, which have been sitting for the last three years.* 
 
 * Appendix, Q.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 The Author having been absent during the printing of the 
 Appendix, several typographical errors have, unluckily, crept 
 in, of which the following are corrections. 
 
 27, 
 
 Line 4, 
 
 for " 1821," read 
 
 " 1831." 
 
 29, 
 
 3, 
 
 " portion," 
 
 " position." 
 
 29, 
 
 4, 
 
 " Mirrapore," 
 
 " Mirzapore." 
 
 29, 
 
 13, 
 
 Ditto, 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 33, 
 
 - 23, 
 
 " are likely," 
 
 " are so likely." 
 
 35, 
 
 - 8, 
 
 " Meerub," 
 
 " Meerut" 
 
 35, 
 
 34, 
 
 " Nitron," 
 
 " Natron." 
 
 36, 
 
 18, 
 
 " Dirapore," 
 
 " Dinapore." 
 
 36, 
 
 19, 
 
 " Chufra," 
 
 " Chupra." 
 
 36, 
 
 - 24, 
 
 " croak," 
 
 " crock." 
 
 36, 
 
 - 34, 
 
 " Quilt-shaped," 
 
 " Quill-shaped." 
 
 37, 
 
 30, 
 
 " Bagee Rao," 
 
 " Bajee Rao." 
 
 41, 
 
 - 26, 
 
 " Leharunpore," 
 
 ." Saharunpore." 
 
 42, 
 
 - 6, 
 
 _ Sylhel," 
 
 " Sylhet." 
 
 44, 
 
 - 7, 
 
 " collections," 
 
 " collection." 
 
 45, 
 
 2, 
 
 " Achrois" 
 
 " Octrois." 
 
 46, 
 
 33, 
 
 " locatees," 
 
 " treaties."
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. 
 
 THE reader may form some judgment of the extent to 
 which two of these branches of trade have been carried, by 
 the quantity and value of each of them imported from British 
 India into China, in the year 1821. They are as follows : 
 
 Value. 
 
 Cotton Lbs. 65,490,933 1,193,813 
 
 Opium 2,302,530 2,409,743 
 
 3,603,556* 
 
 The value of the Indigo produced in Bengal, exclusive of 
 that produced within the Madras territory, may be judged of 
 from the following passage of a memorial from the principal . 
 merchants of Culcutta to the Governor General in 1829. 
 " The number of begahs," say they, " appropriated to this 
 crop is between thirty-five and forty lacks." (From one 
 million and fifty thousand, to one million two hundred statute 
 acres.) " The value of the Indigo annually produced, is from 
 two-and-a-half to three crore of rupees," (from two-and-a-half 
 to three million pounds sterling,) " whereof, perhaps, two 
 crore are expended in this country for rent, stock, wages, in- 
 terest on capital, &c. ; and a large portion, probably three- 
 fourths of the balance, is remitted to England." General y\ 
 Appendix to Report, from Select Committee of the House of 
 Commons, on the affairs of the East India Company, 1832, 
 page 273. 
 
 Anglo-Chinese Calendar and Companion, Macao, 1832.
 
 B. 
 
 Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, are known to have risen 
 from the condition of villages to that of opulent towns in a 
 very short period of years. The following particulars re- 
 specting the progress of Bombay, are exceedingly interesting 
 and instructive. The writer, a member of the government, 
 resided many years in the place, and possessed not only the 
 opportunity, but the capacity to judge. " I will, however," 
 says he, " appeal to facts, to the condition of the population 
 of Bombay, the oldest European settlement in India, having 
 been under the Portuguese and British rule for three cen- 
 turies. On its cession to the Crown of England, in 1661, 
 its population did not exceed 15,000 souls, * the outcasts of 
 the natives of India.' It now contains 15,474 houses, valued 
 at 3,606,424, and a population exceeding 229,000 souls. 
 There are many natives of great wealth, great intelligence, 
 and of liberal principles." Second Appendix to the Report of 
 the Select Committee in the Public Department, 1832, p. 274. 
 
 The rapid prosperity of Sincapore is a well known example. 
 The colony, for it may so be called, was founded in the month 
 of February, 1819. The first census of the population was 
 taken by my own directions, in 1824, five years thereafter, 
 when the inhabitants were found to amount to 10,683. In 
 1830, they had increased to 16,634, and, although I have no 
 particular statement in my possession to show it, I am told 
 they at present exceed 20,000. The statement of the trade 
 for eight years, for no accounts were kept prior to 1824, is as 
 follows, reduced from Sicca rupees to pounds sterling, at the 
 rate of ten rupees to the pound. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Exports. 
 
 Both. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1824. 
 
 1,455,509 
 
 1,390,268 
 
 2,845,717 
 
 1825 
 
 1,323,917 
 
 1,228,786 
 
 2,552,703 
 
 1826 
 
 1,361,978 
 
 1,388,306 
 
 2,750,284 
 
 1827 
 
 1,438,599 
 
 1,387,201 
 
 2,875,800 
 
 1828 
 
 1,961,120 
 
 1,804,660 
 
 3,765,780 
 
 1829 
 
 2,121,559 
 
 1,876,240 
 
 3,997,809 
 
 1830 
 
 1,875,350 
 
 1,826,634 
 
 3,701,984 
 
 1831 
 
 1,780,994 
 
 1,565,157 
 
 3,346,151
 
 29 
 
 Wherever British skill, enterprise, and capital, can reach, 
 wherever they can be exercised without molestation, and 
 wherever the portion is to any degree commercially favourable, 
 we have similar results. The modern town of Mirrapore, in 
 the interior of Bengal, on the south bank of the Ganges, and 
 about five hundred miles from Calcutta, is a very striking 
 example. The following is the judicious Mr. Hamilton's 
 description of it, in 1828. " It is at present one of the 
 greatest inland trading towns, and has long been the grand 
 mart for cotton. The native inhabitants are more remark- 
 able for their active industry than in any part of the Com- 
 pany's dominions out of the three capitals. A considerable 
 quantity of fileture silk is imported to Mirrapore from Bengal, 
 and passes here to Upper and Central Hindostan. In the 
 vicinity a very durable carpeting and various fabrics of cotton 
 are manufactured. The modern town consists of handsome 
 European houses, native habitations, arid clusters of Hindoo 
 temples crowding the banks of the Ganges, and, seen from 
 the river, the whole makes an animated appearance. The 
 soil of the town, and lands adjacent, is so strongly impreg- 
 nated with saline particles, as materially to injure buildings 
 composed of brick and mortar. In 1801, Mirrapore was 
 found to contain 50,000 inhabitants, which have probably 
 since then increased at least one half, not only from the un- 
 interrupted tranquillity it has enjoyed, but also from the ad- 
 ditional stimulus, occasioned by the opening of the commerce 
 with Europe, and the increased demand for cotton, the bales 
 of which are sent direct to Diamond Harbour." 
 
 C. 
 
 The first year for which a correct statement of the trade y 
 of the Port of Canton with British India exists, is 1817-18. 
 Comparing the British trade of that year, with the British 
 trade in 1830, the following are the results in thirteen years, 
 in pounds sterling.
 
 30 
 
 I 
 
 East India Company, . . 
 Free Trade, 
 
 Exports and Imports. 
 
 1817. 
 
 1830. 
 
 2,611,846 
 3,606,135 
 
 2,672,005 
 6,796,165 
 
 Total, 
 
 6,217,981 
 
 9,4,68,170 
 
 
 We have here the Company's trade nearly stationary, and 
 yet the whole trade increased by more than 50 per cent. 
 The great increase has been in the article of Opium. The 
 comparative quantities and values, in the two years named, 
 were as follow, it being held in mind that the actual consump- 
 tion, and not the mere imports, are referred to. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Chests. 
 
 Lbs. 
 
 
 
 1817-18 
 1830-31 
 
 Increase 
 
 3,680 
 18,760 
 
 527,773 
 2,599,013 
 
 845,921 
 2,795,006 
 
 15,080 
 
 2,071,240 
 
 1,949,085* 
 
 The following particulars respecting China, a country 
 which is so soon to be opened to the trade of the United 
 Kingdom, after an exclusion of two centuries, may be inter- 
 esting to the commercial reader. By census, taken in 1813, 
 the population of China Proper was, for each of its eighteen 
 provinces, as follows : 
 
 
 Capital 
 
 f^ifioc 
 
 Area. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Provinces. 
 
 cities. 
 Lat. N. 
 
 Statute Miles. 
 
 Total 
 
 Per mile. 
 
 Pechely, 
 
 40o 
 
 59,700 
 
 27,990,871 
 
 468 
 
 Kiongnan, (two divisions,) 
 Kiansi, 
 
 32 
 29 
 
 85,000 
 72,000 
 
 72,011,560 
 30,426,999 
 
 347 
 422 
 
 Fokien, .... 
 
 26 
 
 57,150 
 
 14,777,410 
 
 258 
 
 Chekiari, 
 
 30 
 
 37,200 
 
 26,256,784 
 
 705 
 
 Houkouan, (two divisions,) 
 
 31 
 
 168,300 
 
 46,022,605 
 
 273 
 
 Honan, . . . 
 
 35 
 
 62,000 
 
 23,037,171 
 
 371 
 
 Shantong, 
 
 37 
 
 56,800 
 
 28,958,764 
 
 510 
 
 Sbansi, . . . 
 
 38 
 
 63,500 
 
 14,004,210 
 
 220 
 
 Sliensi, (two divisions,) . 
 
 36 
 
 167,700 
 
 25,562,131 
 
 150 
 
 Sechuen, 
 
 31 
 
 175,600 
 
 21,435,678 
 
 122 
 
 Canton, .... 
 
 23 
 
 97,100 
 
 19,174,030 
 
 197 
 
 Kouansi, . 
 
 25 
 
 87,800 
 
 7,313,895 
 
 83 
 
 Yunnan, .... 
 
 25 
 
 131,400 
 
 5,561,320 
 
 42 
 
 Kweicbow, . . . 
 
 26 
 
 51,200 
 
 5,288,219 
 
 103 
 
 Total, .... 
 
 
 1,372,450 
 
 367,821,647 
 
 268 f 
 
 Appendix to Report from Select Committee of 1831, p. 663. 
 f Anglo-Chinese Calendar and Companion.
 
 31 
 
 The population of China Proper, or the population con- 
 sisting of the proper Chinese race, amounted then, twenty 
 years ago, to 367,821,647; which, enormous as it appears, 
 gives for the area of the country no more than 268 to the 
 square mile a density not equal to that of our own country, 
 or of several other countries of Europe. The reader, by 
 casting his eye over the table, and comparing it with the map, 
 will see how this immense mass of human beings is distributed, 
 and hence will be able to speculate what portions of the coun- 
 try are likely to afford the greatest commercial resources. 
 The most densely peopled provinces are those of the east, 
 and lying either upon the sea-coast, and abounding in har- 
 bours, or situated in the great alluvial plains of the principal 
 rivers. All the great rivers of China running from west to 
 east, it follows that the western portions of China are for the 
 most part hilly ; consequently barren, and in most cases thinly 
 peopled. One great province, bordering upon the country of 
 the Birmans, Tonquinese, and Siamese, has so low a rate of 
 population as 42 to the square mile. Lying towards this 
 quarter, even the province of Canton, best known to Euro- 
 peans, and supposed by them to be so populous, is found, on 
 account of its mountainous and sterile character, to contain 
 less than 200 inhabitants to the square mile ; a ratio much 
 inferior to that of the British possessions in Bengal. But the 
 population of the Chinese Empire, now given, is that of China 
 Proper only. In Tartary and other dependencies, there is a 
 further population, which is estimated at 2,203,654 ; making 
 the total, in round numbers, 370 millions. 
 
 The amount of the Chinese taxes, levied in money, is ten 
 millions sterling, and the value of those levied in kind, is 
 about two millions ; making the whole about twelve millions 
 sterling, which is under eighteen pence per head. This 
 however is not the whole amount of Chinese taxation ; it is 
 only what is remitted to the Imperial treasury, after deduct- 
 ing many local and provincial charges.
 
 D. 
 
 The statement respecting Cotton, in the text, is underrated. 
 The proportion of East Indian Cotton consumed in Britain 
 does not much exceed one-twentieth part of the whole con- 
 sumption. The rest, with the exception of a small quantity 
 of Egyptian cotton produced by forced labour, is the produce 
 of Slave labour in the United States. 
 
 Of the quantity of Sugar imported into the United King- 
 dom, amounting to nearly half a million of cwts. not above 
 one-twenty-third part is the produce of the British territories 
 in India. From the island of Mauritius, there is imported 
 about two-and-one-fourth times as much as from the whole 
 of the British dominions in India that is, from the parent 
 country of the sugar-cane, with its 550 thousand square miles, 
 and its 70 millions of inhabitants, where there are very few 
 provinces or even districts in which the sugar-cane is not 
 grown, and over the greater part of which the art of manu- 
 facturing sugar has been known time out of mind. 
 
 The manufacture of raw Silk for exportation, was intro- 
 duced by the East India Company into Bengal about sixty 
 years ago, and having been chiefly in their hands, or the 
 hands of Natives of India, throughout, the article has under- 
 gone very little improvement in point of quality, although, 
 particularly since 1814, there has been a large increase in the 
 quantity.* 
 
 With Indigo, the case has been very different from silk. 
 The manufacture of an article fit for exportation was intro- 
 duced about ten years later than that of silk; and having 
 been all along in the hands of European adventurers, joined 
 
 * As the production of Raw Silk, after the demolition of the Company's 
 monopoly, is likely to become one of the most important articles to the 
 agriculture and commerce of India, and the manufacture of Great Britain- 
 it may be proper here to mention, that both the mulberry and the worm, 
 which produce the inferior silk of India, differ specifically from those which 
 yield the finer silks of Italy, France, China, and Persia, but that, notwith- 
 standing this, occasional parcels of silk are produced with care, which are 
 little inferior to the finest Italian.
 
 S3 
 
 of late years by a few enterprising Natives, it has sustained 
 an improvement, both as to quantity and quality, quite un- 
 precedented by any corresponding commodity. The progress 
 of this important manufacture may be judged of by the im- 
 portations into Great Britain of Indian and all other Indigo, 
 in two periods : 
 
 Year. 
 
 Indian. 
 
 All other. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1785 
 1830 
 
 Ibs. 
 154,291 
 7,920,172 
 
 Ibs. 
 1,539,208 
 296,268 
 
 Ibs. 
 1,693,509 
 8,216,UO 
 
 The results are these. In a period of forty-five years the 
 importation of Indigo into this kingdom has been increased 
 nearly five-fold ; the importation of East Indian Indigo has, 
 in the same period, been multiplied more than fifty-fold; 
 while that of all other Indigo has fallen to less than one-fifth 
 of what it was. 
 
 E. 
 
 With respect to internal communication, British India is 
 still in a very barbarous state ; little or nothing existing in 
 the way of roads, bridges, or navigable canals, except a few, 
 constructed chiefly for military purposes, by the Mahomedan 
 and British Governments. Something more has been effected 
 in the way of irrigation, in the north of India, chiefly by the 
 Mahomedan Government, and in the south more generally 
 by petty Hindoo chiefs. In India, as in other dry and hot 
 countries, a skilful irrigation multiplies the productive powers 
 of the soil, according to circumstances, from five to ten fold. 
 There is no department of industry, therefore, in which enter- 
 prise, science, and capital, are likely to be profitably and benefi- 
 cially employed. The following sketch will show the state of 
 navigation and irrigation in the oldest portions of the British 
 dominions, and which have been nearly seventy years under 
 our management. It is drawn by a well-informed writer, 
 
 c
 
 . 
 
 34. 
 
 but an admirer of the present exclusive system : " Not- 
 , withstanding," says he, " the innumerable water-tracks which 
 
 V pervade the lower portions of the Bengal province, there is no 
 part of India where communication, by means of good roads, 
 or navigable canals, is so much wanted. Here are few nul- 
 lahs (streams) navigable even for the lightest craft, except 
 in the rains, and no roads ; so that it is only whilst the country 
 
 V is inundated that any thing like free intercourse prevails be- 
 tween one quarter and another. Every place is consequently 
 ^/ left almost entirely to its own resources for four-fifths of the 
 year ; like a beleaguered city, suffering every privation, whilst 
 a general superabundance reigns, perhaps, throughout the 
 country. Then, again, canals for irrigation. In Bengal, 
 
 V irrigation is scarcely known ; yet there cannot be a doubt of 
 the incalculable advantage to agriculture which it would pro- 
 duce. The soil of the lower parts of Bengal is not refreshed 
 in the moderate degree congenial to cultivation. It is either 
 inundated, or parched almost to absolute sterility ; like the 
 effects of intoxication on the human frame for having been 
 , the more drunk, it becomes the more dry. And the soil is 
 of that nature, that as soon as the moisture is evaporated 
 which a few days, after the waters subside, are sufficient to 
 accomplish the face of the earth becomes so indurated, that 
 it resembles a surface of rock, intersected by fissures, its 
 j^. miniature ravines, which no tender plant can perforate. It 
 requires no more to convince one of the advantage which the 
 command of refreshing moisture would give to the cultivator 
 of such a soil." Observations on the Law and Constitution 
 of India, by Lieutenant Colonel Galloway, of the Honour- 
 able East India Company's Service. Second edition, 1832, 
 p. 281. 
 
 The East India Company laid before the Select Com- 
 mittee of the Commons, in 1831, what they were pleased to 
 call, " An abstract Statement of all important Public Works 
 which have been constructed in India, or are at present in 
 progress ; such as Canals or Roads, since the last renewal 
 of the East India Company's Charter." These extend from 
 1812 to 1831, or for a period of twenty years, and embrace
 
 all India. Exclusive of surveys, they amount in number to 
 193. Some of the works in question are for purely official 
 purposes ; some consist of mere repairs ; some consist of the 
 formation of a tank ; some of the digging of a well. Among 
 the important public works, we have " The erection of 
 a Mausoleum at Ghazeepore to the memory of Marquis 
 Cornwallis," " The building of a bridge over the nullah 
 (brook) at Meerub," "Twopucha (of stone and masonry) 
 wells, constructed at Meerub ; one for the use of the Natives, 
 and for watering the roads of cantonments, and the other for 
 the use of the public libraries," and, " The clearing of the 
 Island of Saugor authorized." The last entry is curious. 
 After much entreaty, permission was at length given by the 
 government, to private Europeans and others, to clear the 
 Island of Saugor ; and the bare permission, thus charily con- 
 ceded, is called " an important public work." But, in fact, 
 much less blame is to be ascribed to the East India Com- 
 pany for not acting themselves, than for preventing others 
 from acting. It is not, in fact, from the state, but from the 
 activity and enterprise of private adventurers, that works of 
 great and extensive public utility are to be expected in a 
 civilized community, or under any form of regular govern- 
 ment. The East India Company has, perhaps, not expended, 
 in the whole period of its rule of seventy years, as much 
 money on works of public utility, as has been laid out in the 
 single speculation of the Liverpool and Manchester railway. 
 Had they not hindered them, it is needless to add how much 
 more would have been invested by private adventurers over 
 the wide and unoccupied field of British India. Report of 
 Select Committee of the Commons, 1831, p. 770. 
 
 F. 
 
 The useful Mineral products, which exist in India, nlay be 
 described as consisting of Iron, Copper, Lead, Lime, Mineral- 
 coal, Load-stone, Granite, and other useful building stone, 
 with Saltpetre, Nitron, and culinary Salt. In quarrying, 
 
 c2
 
 , 
 
 S6 
 
 Y mining, and smelting, British India may yet be described as 
 in its very infancy. Good iron-ore is very generally to be 
 found throughout India ; and mines of mineral-coal have 
 recently been wrought, in the Bengal provinces, by some en- 
 terprising Europeans. At present, about fifteen thousand 
 tons are annually produced; chiefly in consequence of the 
 .. recent introduction of steam navigation upon the Ganges. It 
 v may safely be presumed, that mining operations will engage 
 a considerable share of European enterprise and capital, when 
 European settlement is established upon a safe and fair foot- 
 ing. The reader may judge of the state of the arts, from 
 the manner in which the manufacture of the staple article of 
 Saltpetre is conducted. For the production of this commo- 
 / dity, some portions of the territories under Bengal possess 
 advantages of soil and climate which far surpass those of any 
 other portion of the world ; and, in fact, about fifteen thou- 
 
 yw sand tons are annually exported. The description of the pro- 
 cess is as follows : " In the neighbourhood of Patna, Dira- 
 pore, Chufra, &c. where the soil is highly charged with salt- 
 petre, a large quantity is manufactured, and, for the most 
 part, by Natives, who are very successful in the simple process 
 they adopt ; which is conducted in the following manner : A 
 quantity of impregnated earth being thrown into an earthen 
 ffumlah, (an unglazed croak, or large jar,) clear water is poured 
 upon it, and allowed to remain for twenty-four hours ; during 
 which the saline particles are drawn up and incorporated. 
 The water is then let off by holes, at the bottom of the yum- 
 lah, into smaller vessels, and boiled until the whole evapo- 
 rates, leaving only the saltpetre. A species of salt is made 
 from the froth which rises upon the surface of the water dur- 
 ing the process of extracting the nitre from the earth. The 
 saltpetre made by the first process is termed Abbee, (watery,) 
 and undergoes a second evaporation, in the same manner as 
 before, when it assumes the name of Culmee, (quilt-shaped 
 ehrystals.)" BeWs Review of the External Commerce of 
 Bengal. Calcutta, 1830. Page 28, part II. 
 
 The process of manufacturing culinary salt, in Bengal, for 
 the consumption of a population of from thirty to forty millions
 
 37 
 
 of people, is still more wretched. And, for a bad article, 
 costs nearly four times as much as a good article costs in 
 Cheshire, a ton of the first costing, on an average, at Cal- 
 cutta, 60s. ; and of the latter, in Liverpool, not more than 
 165. "I find," says a most intelligent witness, "that a 
 molungee it is not stated whether it is with his labourer or 
 without, but it is understood that a molungee has his la- 
 bourer and that, with his labourer, he can manufacture, with 
 extraordinary labour, in the course of the season, 50 maunds, 
 or 4200 pounds. The price of labour averages two rupees 
 per month ; so that these two men receive twenty-eight rupees, 
 or 53s. 8d. Now, in Cheshire, two men would manufacture, 
 in one week, 25 tons, or 56,000 pounds ; and the wages, 24s. 
 In any comparison I can make as to the manufacture in the 
 two countries, I ought to mention a contingency to which the 
 manufacturer in India seems exposed. I find that, in 1825, 
 an irruption of the sea swept away, at Hattiah Sunguthy, in 
 Chittagong, 318,000 maunds of salt; these contingencies we 
 are not subject to in this country." Minutes of Evidence be- 
 fore the Select Committee on the Affairs of the East India 
 Company Revenue, p. 51. 
 
 G. 
 
 Of the rate of interest, between Native and Native, the fol- 
 lowing evidence, among a thousand, may be quoted. " What 
 is the usual rate of interest paid by Ryots for sums borrowed 
 from Soucars ?" (Bankers.) " Twelve per cent, per annum; 
 but, of course, this varies according to the exigencies of the 
 borrower and the rapaciousness of the lender. It is said 
 never to have been two per cent, per month, during, or be- 
 fore, the time of Nana Furraveese, and very seldom so much ; 
 but, since Bagee Rao's accession, it has been known to be as 
 high as ten per cent, per month ; and several instances are 
 within my recollection, where bonds produced in the adawlut 
 (court of justice) stated the interest to be three, four, and five 
 per cent, per mensem." " Question. Does the rate vary 
 
 357334
 
 S8 
 
 when the loan is for grain instead of money ?" " Yes ; but 
 it is not possible to define the rates. Those at one-and-a- 
 half, two, and two-and-a-quarter fold, were the most common, 
 and depended on the time the debt was likely to be unpaid." 
 Report on the Deccan, in Selection of Papers from the Records 
 at the India House, vol. 4th, p. 749. 
 
 H. 
 
 Of the Registered, or Funded Debt of India, the follow- 
 ing is the Official Statement of the proportions held respec- 
 tively by Natives and Europeans, in 1830 : 
 
 Europeans, .22,913,990 
 
 Natives, 7,860,10-2 
 
 Total, 30,774,092 
 
 Second Appendix to Finance Report, from Select Committee 
 of 1832, p. 214. 
 
 Another advantage which the Government of India has 
 gained from the settlement of Europeans, and the influx of 
 capital consequent upon it, is the reduction of interest which 
 it has been enabled to make on the public debt. Under the 
 close system, and even in periods of the greatest political 
 prosperity, the interest on which the public loans were raised 
 was twelve, ten, and eight, per cent. ; and it was not until 
 1812, that any considerable sum of money was raised at so 
 low a rate as six per cent. Even in time of war, money 
 has, of late years, been borrowed at so low an interest as five, 
 ten, and even four, per cent. At the first-named rate, near 
 25,000,000 have been raised ; and, at the second rate, up- 
 \/ wards of 400,000. Between the lowest rate, at which 
 loans were commonly raised before the free-trade, or eight per 
 cent., and the rates now specified, the difference, or annual 
 saving, is 766,000. Had the terms of all the loans ad- 
 nutted it, the interest upon the whole public debt, of near 
 40,000,000, might have been reduced to five per cent ; and 
 this reduction will actually be made at the termination of the 
 Charter. The public expenditure will, in this manner, have
 
 39 
 
 been reduced, in 1834, through the instrumentality of the 
 free-trade, so deprecated by the East India Company, by the 
 annual sum of 1,200,000. The government, in fact, 
 has been benefited to this extent, unknown to itself, and 
 in spite of itself. This is a much larger sum than the 
 Company ever made by its trade, even including the Tea 
 Monopoly ! ! 
 
 I. 
 
 The first of these conditions may be considered as con- 
 ceded, since the Notes were written ; as it forms one of the 
 distinct propositions of the Indian Minister to the Court of v 
 Directors. With respect to the second, under the liberal 
 administration of Lord William Bentinck, and with the pro- 
 gress of liberal opinions, the vexatious regulations respecting 
 passports, appear, in Bengal at least, to be much relaxed. 
 Nothing can show more clearly the worthless character of the 
 regulations in question, than the fact, that, under the Com- 
 pany's Government, passports are required by Europeans 
 only, and, under the Government of the Crown, in Ceylon, 
 by Natives only. The apprehended danger, in the one case, 
 is from the conquerors; and, in the other, from the con- 
 quered ; and from both it is equally absurd and unreasonable, 
 for it can be attended with no effect whatever, except that of ex- 
 citing distrust, suspicion, and dislike. In regard to the third 
 condition, going to the British possessions in India without 
 licence, is at present declared by law to be " a high crime 
 and misdemeanour ;" punishable by " fine or imprisonment, 
 or both fine and imprisonment." No person, even with a 
 licence, can go beyond ten miles of a principal settlement 
 without a special written leave; any more than a soldier can 
 quit a garrison without leave of absence. So absurd is this 
 enactment, that the Governor General, in his own person, is 
 violating it every week, when he goes to his country-seat, 
 which is sixteen miles from Calcutta. It is violated daily by 
 the masters, officers, and mariners, of trading-ships, when
 
 40 
 
 they join their vessels at any of the several stations where 
 shipping usually lie, all of which are above ten miles from 
 Calcutta. Persons fully licensed may, notwithstanding, have 
 their licence withdrawn, without cause assigned, and be 
 ordered to quit India on two months' notice ; and, failing obe- 
 dience, the party is deemed, in the absurd and barbarous 
 jargon of the monopolists, to have " unlawfully traded ;" that 
 is, deemed to have forfeited " all his goods," " with double 
 the value thereof," to have committed a high crime and mis- 
 demeanour, and to be liable, on conviction, to fine or impri- 
 sonment, or to both. Finally, in actions against the East 
 India Company, or its servants, for the unlawful arresting of 
 persons found in the East Indies, the defendants may plead 
 the general issue ; the proof lies on the plaintiff, arid, if his 
 proof fails, he is liable to " treble costs." These barbarous 
 and atrocious enactments, which are a disgrace to the Statute 
 Book, are the fruits of the alliance between the governments 
 of Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville, in 1784 and 1793; continued 
 by their successors in 1813. With regard to the fourth con- 
 dition, surely nothing can be more mischievous, or ridicu- 
 lous, than the prohibition, to British-born subjects, to deal 
 in the internal trade, in such staple articles as salt, tobacco, 
 grain, and beetlenut. It is virtually an exclusion of the 
 most active and enterprising capitalists from dealing in com- 
 modities, of which a cheap supply is indispensable to the 
 comforts of the people. The articles in question were the 
 chief subjects of the trading abuses of the Company's own 
 servants, in the period of anarchy and injustice which imme- 
 diately followed the conquest ; and, after the best part of a 
 century has passed over, the same enactments are continued, 
 and not only directed against a class of men who, at the time, 
 had no existence, but applied to a state of society wholly 
 different to that which gave rise to them.
 
 41 
 
 J. 
 
 The salary of the Recorder of Bombay, and there was no 
 other King's Judge down to 1824, was 40,000 rupees, at the 
 high exchange of 2s. but 4000 ; and at the first institution 
 of the court there was no retiring pension. The late Sir 
 James Mackintosh served for seven years on these conditions. 
 The salary of the Recorder of Prince of Wales Island, for 
 twenty years together, was but 3000 a year, without pension, 
 and yet persons deemed worthy of being afterwards promoted 
 to the office of Puisne and Chief Judge of the King's Su- 
 preme Courts in India, filled the office. The salary of the 
 present Recorder of the three joint settlements of Prince of 
 Wales Island, Sincapore, and Malacca, is but 18 thousand 
 dollars, or at the exchange of 4s. but 3600 a-year, without 
 any travelling allowance, although the distance between the 
 two remotest settlements which he has to visit, is a voyage of 
 400 miles. The pension after ten years' service is 1000; 
 the same received by any class of the Company's Judicial 
 officers, or even by a commercial or revenue servant. He- 
 turn of all Civil Offices and Establishments, ordered by the 
 House of Commons to be printed, 1830. Courts of Justice 
 in India, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed* 
 1829. 
 
 K. 
 
 In explanation of what is stated in the text, beginning 
 from the north-west, it may be remarked that there are no 
 British Indigo Planters in the two large districts of Leharun- 
 pore and Mozuffurnugger, bordering upon the Himalaya 
 mountains and the Goorka territories ; none in the district 
 of Etawa, although lying in the rich territory between the 
 rivers Jumna and Ganges, because exposed to the Mahratta 
 frontier; none in the divisioni of Nugeena, Shajehanpore
 
 42 
 
 and Pillibheet, bordering also upon the northern range of 
 mountains, and to the east of the Ganges ; none in the 
 province of Bundlecund, so recently the scene of war arid 
 anarchy ; none in Cuttack, a mismanaged and insurgent dis- 
 trict ; none in Chittagong, the north-east portion of Rung- 
 pore, or Lylhel, districts bordering upon the countries of the 
 barbarous tribes to the east of Bengal ; and, of course, none 
 in Arracan, Assam, or any other of our recent acquisitions 
 from the Burmese, countries still more barbarous and anarchi- 
 chal than the latter. It is the same cause, added to a more 
 oppressive and fluctuating system of taxation, and less libera- 
 lity on the part of their governments, that has generally ex- 
 
 *** eluded the manufacture of Indigo from Madras, and wholly 
 
 f excluded it from Bombay. 
 
 L. 
 
 The trading of the East India Company, with the public 
 revenue, if it deserve the name of trade, has heretofore proved 
 one of the greatest nuisances of the Indian administration. 
 The agents of the Company, necessarily regardless of profit 
 and loss, are reckless of the prices they give in India or 
 receive in England. Operations conducted in this spirit dis- 
 turb and distract every fair commercial speculation. In short, 
 in the dealings of the Company, the merchant can rely upon 
 nothing but its recklessness and caprice. One example will 
 be sufficient in proof. In the three years, ending with 1829 
 1830, the Company sustained, even by their own showing, a net 
 loss, on the single article of Indigo, of 291,455 sterling, 
 the amount of loss increasing in each consecutive year, and yet 
 the same losing trade has since been persevered in. The 
 great lord or landed proprietor, who should, from caprice or 
 for vicious frolic, apply the rents, of his estate to distract the 
 commercial dealings of a neighbouring village, would not be 
 acting a more unjust or mischievous part. Report of the 
 Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Affairs of 
 the East India Company, 1831, p. 655.
 
 4,3 
 
 M. 
 
 The net revenue, derived from the monopoly of Salt, 
 throughout all India, is 1,356,966. This is all that is 
 produced from the consumption of 70 millions of British sub- 
 jects, and, if we add 20 millions more for the subjects of 
 tributary princes, of 90 millions of people, who pay more for 
 their Salt than the people of England do by about 1350 per 
 cent, or thirteen-and-a-half times. The charges of collecting 
 the revenue under the Salt monopoly in Bengal are about 
 16 per cent., to which they have risen in the course of the 
 last twenty years from 10 per cent. Under the Madras Presi- 
 dency they range according to the districts, from 19 up to 36 
 per cent. In both cases the custom charges are not included, 
 amounting in Bengal to about 18 per cent., and ranging at 
 Madras from about 3 per cent, to 16 per cent. 
 
 The net revenue, realized by the Opium monopoly, through- 
 out all India, is 867,330, a sum to which it had fallen from 
 one million and upwards, which it amounted to in 1821. This 
 is a singular tax, being paid throughout by strangers. If 
 we estimate the total consumption of the Chinese, Malays, 
 and others, to be worth 4,000,000 sterling per annum, 
 the Indian revenue is equal to an import duty upon the value 
 of 25 per cent. Both in respect to trade, agriculture, and 
 finance, this monopoly may be described as equally mischievous, 
 pernicious, and impolitic. The Opium poppy is one of the 
 great staple and peculiar products of the soil of India, and it is 
 difficult to assign any limit to the extent to which its growth 
 might be carried. At present it is confined to a couple of 
 districts, and to the territories of tributary princes, where we 
 found it impracticable to control its growth. Every where 
 else the growth of it, unless for the State, is as rigidly pro- 
 hibited, and without the same just grounds, as the growth of 
 tobacco in England. It is in spite of the monopoly regula- 
 tions only that the value of the Opium trade with China, the 
 principal mart for it, has, in the course of the fourteen years,
 
 between 1817 and 1831, increased by full 230 per cent. A 
 moderate export duty, or an excise duty, as levied in this 
 country upon Hops, while it would be more productive than 
 the monopoly, in a financial view, would, of course, be more 
 favourable to agriculture, and less vexatious and embarrassing 
 to commerce. Exclusive of proportion of Customs, the 
 charges of collections under this monopoly amount to about 
 12 per cent., or, if we include the customs, to about 30 per 
 cent., a fact which at once proclaims the improvident charac- 
 ter of the tax. 
 
 / The Tobacco monopoly is limited to a few districts under 
 
 the Madras Presidency, but, as far as it goes, is still more 
 mischievous than the Salt or Opium monopolies. The gross 
 proceeds, in the year 182728, amounted to 85,482, and 
 the charges of collection to 31,843, or, exclusive of Cus- 
 \/ tom's establishments, 37 per cent. In 1818, frauds and 
 embezzlements, on the part of the public officers, were dis- 
 covered in this monopoly to the extent of 52,646, or to 
 within a fraction of one year's net revenue. 
 
 It appears from these statements that the net produce of 
 / all the Company's monopolies in India, amounts to no more 
 than 2,277,935, which is about 650,000 less than the 
 net produce of the Custom duty on Tobacco in this country ; 
 a tax levied with comparatively very little inconvenience, and 
 little felt by any party, whereas the East India Company's 
 monopolies are accompanied by almost universal annoyance 
 and vexation. The whole charge of collecting the Tobacco 
 duty does not exceed 6 per cent, on the gross amount, while 
 . / the actual charges of collecting the revenue derived from the 
 Company's monopolies, cannot be less than five times as great. 
 Second Report of the Commons on the Affairs of the East 
 India Company, 1830, p. 82 and 98. Selections from the 
 Records at the India House, voL 1st, p. 719.
 
 45 
 
 N. 
 
 These internal imposts consist of transit-duties, town- * 
 duties, after the manner of the Continental Acbrois, and du- 
 ties levied in markets. Sometimes these are farmed, and at 
 other times collected by public establishments. The transit- 
 duties are borrowed from the native governments, and are but 
 a clumsy and mischievous mode of levying a tax upon ah 1 arti- 
 cles of consumption. In the single district of Candeish, there 
 existed in 1821, four years after its cession to us from the 
 Mahrattas, and there may possibly still exist, 276 Custom- 
 houses for the levying of frontier and transit-duties, but A. 
 chiefly the latter. A public officer, speaking of a neighbour- 
 ing district, and referring to a figured statement, makes the 
 following observation on the character of these transit-duties. 
 " It will be seen from that document, that the duties on some 
 articles are equal, or nearly so, to the original price, and that 
 on others they are not above the hundredth fraction of one per 
 cent., as in the case of Nutmegs, &c., and even so low as a 
 six-hundreth fraction on Opium. It is also to be observed, 
 that the heaviest duties fall on the absolute necessaries of life, 
 whilst its luxuries can hardly be said to pay at all." 
 
 The transit-duties are so mixed up with others in the 
 public accounts, that it is impossible to ascertain the charges 
 of collection, but there is no doubt they are enormous. The 
 peculations and extortions of the native collectors are, how- 
 ever, still worse, as the following statement of an official 
 document will show. The statement of Mr. Chaplin, the V 
 late collector of Bellary, that he considers the sum of 40 
 thousand pagodas, or about half the amount of the revenue 
 now derived from sayer, (miscellaneous duties, of which the ^^ 
 chief are transit,) to be annually peculated by the servants 
 of his district in that department; and his description of the \J 
 progress of a native collector of sayer, in obtaining money by 
 improper means, will show the time and attention required to 
 manage successfully this branch of revenue. Mr. C. observes
 
 46 
 
 " On the subject of the Customs generally, I have but few ob- 
 servations to submit to the Board. Notwithstanding that the 
 revenue has improved of late years, this branch of it forms a per- 
 fect sink of fraud and corruption, which seems quite unfathom- 
 able. However perfect the regulations may be, they seem to me 
 to be quite insufficient to guard against the combined artifices 
 of merchants and sayer servants to defraud the government. 
 No sooner is one check upon embezzlement and smuggling 
 established, than another mode of evasion is invented, and 
 the accounts of the department are so intricate and multi- 
 farious, that it is scarcely possible satisfactorily to trace the 
 clue of frauds through the various mazes in which they are 
 involved. This difficulty of proving malversation is the great 
 stumbling-block in the way of all inquiry : great facilities are 
 consequently afforded to the sayer servants of appropriating 
 the collections. A needy Brahmin, destitute of the means of 
 subsistence, appointed on a salary of three canteray pagodas per 
 mensem, (between l 1 and ,12 a-year,) to a chowky (custom- 
 house) of any magnitude, immediately begins to live on a 
 comparatively grand scale, celebrates two or three weddings 
 for himself and his relatives in the course of the year, gives 
 expensive entertainments, provides his wife with costly orna- 
 ments, and not unfrequently has a gomartah in his own pay, 
 to assist him in conducting the business of the chowky. It 
 is sufficiently obvious whence he derives the means to supply 
 these disbursements, they are obtained, of course, at the 
 Sirkar (public) expense. The ways and means of defraud- 
 ing the revenue are various." Selections from the Records 
 at the India House, vol. 4-th, p. 713 and 768, &c. vol. 2d, 
 p. 605. 
 
 o. 
 
 Merchandise which pays import duties at Bombay, if the 
 goods be not imported from Europe or America, for these are 
 protected by locatees or Acts of Parliament, will be liable to 
 frontier and transit-duties, if taken by land into the Madras
 
 47 
 
 territory, or to custom-duties, if conveyed by sea. Should 
 the same goods be conveyed to Calcutta, they may have 
 additional custom-duties to pay there, and if they are con- 
 veyed into the interior of the Bengal territory, there will be 
 additional transit, market, or town-duties to pay. Not only ^/\ 
 this, but the rates of duties, and the principle of assessing 
 them, differ generally under the different India governments 
 of the Company, and all of these differ again with those of 
 the Indian governments of the Crown. The government of 
 Bengal will not consent to receive, except in trifling and 
 limited quantity, the excellent and cheap salt of Madras and 
 Bombay. Even the salt of England will not be received in 
 Bengal except on payment of a duty equal to about ten times 
 its prime cost, an impost which is, of course, nearly pro- 
 hibitory, and was in reality meant to be so. In the Madras \ 
 territory, where corn is dear, and where scarcities or famines 
 are frequent, the grain of Bengal, where there has been no 
 famine or scarcity for half a century, and where there is a 
 constant exportable surplus, will not be received, except in 
 payment of an import-duty ; and even then it can only be 
 received in small quantity, as there is nothing to give for it, 
 since the government of Bengal will not permit salt, the 
 staple product of the Madras country, to be freely imported. vA 
 Thus, the gluts to which Bengal, and the famines and scarci- 
 ties to which Madras, are liable, are both aggravated by the 
 absurd and indefensible policy of the government. 
 
 P. 
 
 Besides the example quoted in the text, other instances of 
 the advantage accruing from a fixed and stable system of tax- 
 ation may be quoted, even from the Indian fiscal system. In 
 the year 1793, the land tax, estimated at 4 nine-tenths of the 
 rent, which rent was calculated at from one-half to one-third, 
 or one-fourth of the gross produce of the land, was limited in 
 perpetuity in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. 
 It has, therefore, been as invariable in these provinces for 40
 
 48 
 
 years, as our own land tax has been in Britain for 140. The 
 results of this measure are very remarkable. The whole 
 revenue has been somewhat more than doubled ; the indi- 
 rect taxes, or taxes other than the land-tax, have been multi- 
 plied near twelve-fold. Before the permanent assessment, 
 the land-tax formed near 70 per cent., and it now forms little 
 more than 40 per cent. At the period of the permanent 
 assessment, land, as far as a private property in it was con- 
 cerned, was unsaleable, and it is now worth 16 years' purchase. 
 The population, in 1793, did not certainly exceed 24 millions, 
 and the same territory, in 1822, was found to contain 33 and 
 a-half millions of inhabitants. This may be contrasted with 
 the results in a portion of British India, where every branch 
 of the public revenue has been in a constant state of fluctua- 
 tion, since our first acquisition of it in 1800. This is the 
 territory commonly called the " Ceded Districts" under 
 Madras, and which is equal in extent to the kingdom of 
 Scotland. In the 23 years between 1806 and 1829, the total 
 revenue had declined by above ten per cent. the indirect 
 taxes, or taxes other than the land tax, had increased by about 
 240 per cent. The variable land-tax had fallen off by 30 
 per cent. The land-tax which, in 1806, formed 93 parts in 
 100, still formed 75 parts in 100, in 1829. Land, which 
 was nearly unsaleable in the first-named year, was equally so 
 after an interval of three-and-twenty years ; and the popula- 
 tion, which in 1806 was 1,917,376, was in 1823 no more 
 than 2,022,317, or in 16 years had sustained an augmenta- 
 tion of no more than five per cent., a rate of increase much 
 smaller than that of the old and densely peopled countries of 
 Europe, a fact the more remarkable, since the distinguished 
 individual who first arranged this portion of the country, the 
 late Sir Thomas Munro, by far the most skilful of the 
 ministerial officers of the Indian government, had used, in 
 reference to this particular subject, the following remarkable 
 words : " Were it not for the pressure of the land-rent, (tax,) 
 population ought to advance more rapidly in India than in 
 America ; because the climate is more favourable, and because 
 there are every where great tracts of good land uncultivated,
 
 49 
 
 which may be ploughed at once, without the labour and 
 expense of clearing away forests. As there are above three 
 millions of acres of this description in the Ceded Districts, it 
 cannot be doubted that a very considerable addition will be 
 made, in 20 or 25 years, to the population, and also to the 
 land rent, (tax,) beyond the highest estimate which has been 
 made of it." Second Report of Select Committee of House of 
 Commons of 1810, p. 80. Second Report of 1830, p. 98. 
 Fifth Report, 1812, p. 946. 
 
 Q. 
 
 In concluding this Appendix, it may be a matter of some 
 convenience to the reader, to bring together a few of the 
 opinions recently expressed by the most able and enlightened * 
 officers of the Indian Government. Sir Charles Metcalfe, a V 
 member of the Supreme Council, a man of distinguished 
 talents, long experience, and enlightened views, thus expresses 
 himself, in a Minute, dated the 19th of February, 1829 : 
 " I have long lamented that our countrymen in India are 
 excluded from the possession of land, and other ordinary rights 
 of peaceable subjects. I believe that the existence of these 
 restrictions impedes the prosperity of our Indian empire, and, 
 of course, that their removal would tend to promote it. I 
 am also of opinion that their abolition is necessary for that 
 progressive increase of revenue, without which our income 
 cannot keep pace with the continually increasing expense of 
 our establishments. I am further convinced that our posses- 
 sion of India must always be precarious, unless we take root, 
 by having an influential portion of the population attached to 
 our government by common interests and sympathies. Every 
 measure, therefore, which is calculated to facilitate the settle- 
 ment of our countrymen in India, and to remove the obstruc- 
 tions by which it is impeded, must, I conceive, conduce to the 
 stability of our rule, and to the welfare of the people subject 
 to our dominion. The proceeding now adopted being a step 
 forward, in what appears to me to be the right course, has my 
 
 D
 
 J 
 
 50 
 
 hearty concurrence." Lord William Bentinck, after declaring 
 his entire concurrence in the sentiments expressed by Sir 
 Charles Metcalfe, proceeds in a long, argumentative, and 
 eloquent minute in Council, to express his views. There is 
 room here only for the following passage, which affords after 
 ah 1 , however, but a very inadequate sample of a most instruc- 
 tive and interesting document. " We need not, I imagine," 
 says he, " use any laboured argument to prove that it would 
 be infinitely advantageous for India to borrow largely in arts 
 and knowledge from England. The Legislature has expressly 
 declared the truth ; its acknowledgment is implied in the 
 daily arts and professions of government, and in all the efforts 
 of humane individuals and societies for the education of the 
 people. Nor will it, I conceive, be doubted, that the diffusion 
 of useful knowledge, and its application to the arts and busi- 
 ness of life, must be comparatively tardy, unless we add to 
 precept the example of Europeans, mingling familiarly with 
 the natives in the course of their profession, and practically 
 demonstrating, by daily recurring evidence, the nature and the 
 value of the principles we desire to inculcate, and of the plans 
 we seek to have adopted. It seems to be almost equally plain, 
 that independently of their influencing the native community 
 in this way, various and important national advantages will 
 result from there being a considerable body of our country- 
 men, and their descendants, settled in the country. To 
 question it, is to deny the superiority which has gained us the 
 dominion of India: it is to doubt whether national character 
 lias any effect on national wealth, strength, and good govern- 
 ment : it is to shut our eyes to all the perils and difficulties of 
 our situation : it is to hold as nothing community of language, 
 sentiment, and interest, between the government and the 
 governed : it is to disregard the evidence afforded by every 
 corner of the globe in which the British flag is hoisted : it is 
 to tell our merchants and our manufacturers, that the habits of 
 a people go for nothing in creating a market, and that enter- 
 prise, skill, and capital, and the credit which creates capital, 
 are of no avail in the production of commodities." 
 
 To these testimonies, I shall only add the evidence of Mr.
 
 ,51 
 
 Mackenzie the ablest, and the best informed man, connected 
 with the Indian Government in my time : " Are you not 
 aware that the case of the Indigo Planters has often been ad- 
 duced as a proof that the ownership of land, on the part of 
 Englishmen iu India, must produce effects very detrimental 
 
 to the English character in that country ?" >" I believe 
 
 that opinion has been held by many. I should observe, that 
 never having been in charge of a district myself, I can only 
 speak from the authority of others ; but I have communicated 
 on the subject with a great number of public officers, and also 
 with many individuals not in the service. The general result 
 of my inquiry is, that the disorders of a few have been allowed 
 a great deal too much weight, in estimating the general char- 
 acter of the class ; and, on the general question, I should say, 
 that the balance of good is exceedingly great. I consider 
 the evils, in the lower parts of Bengal, with which I am best 
 acquainted, to have arisen, in a considerable degree, out of 
 the restrictions upon the settlement of Europeans in India. 
 If the persons who own, or support the indigo factories, had 
 been allowed to send home for any persons whom they thought 
 likely to be good managers, their concerns would have been 
 in the hands of a class very superior to many who, from 
 necessity, they have been compelled to employ ; for factories 
 are, I believe, often in the hands of persons not qualified for 
 so great a trust. I apprehend, also, that great mischief has 
 arisen out of the difficulty of occupying land, by which Euro- 
 peans have been compelled to hold land, which they do very 
 extensively, in the name of native agents. I have under- 
 stood, from gentlemen, indigo planters themselves, that they 
 were compelled, frequently, to wink at abuse on the part of 
 the natives whom they employed, chiefly because the land 
 being in their name, they had the means, if not of ruining 
 them, at least of putting them to great loss and inconvenience. 
 Another effect of the prevention of Europeans holding land 
 avowedly is, that, when disputes arise in the Courts, it is 
 much more difficult to get at the real truth, and, therefore, 
 there is a great opening to litigation. I think it probable, 
 if Europeans had the power of holding land, that the tenures
 
 necessary for the conduct of their indigo business would 
 have been fully ascertained, and there would rarely have arisen 
 the question, now often disputed, Whether a particular planter 
 be entitled to the produce of a particular tract of land or not ? 
 Under the present system, it constantly happens that the 
 Courts are called on the spur of the moment to decide dis- 
 putes involved in doubt ; and, as their decision can hardly be 
 quick enough to save the season, the indigo planters are often 
 compelled, in their self-defence, to use force to secure their 
 rights. I think the prevailing opinion of the public officers 
 in Bengal, to whose opinion I should attach most weight, 
 was, that the indigo trade had very greatly added to the 
 wealth of the districts in which it was established, and bene- 
 fited the native inhabitants, and that the outrages complained 
 
 of were rather exceptions to the general rule." " Does 
 
 there exist any general jealousy on the part of the natives of 
 
 Europeans occupying land in India ?" " I am not aware 
 
 of any such jealousy ; but I have no doubt that particular 
 classes may object to it, and be unwilling to have Europeans 
 settled in their neighbourhood. I should think a consider- 
 able number of Bengal Zemindars would object ; for many 
 oppress their tenants exceedingly." " Should you sup- 
 pose the higher classes throughout India would generally be 
 
 averse to it ?" " I think not, supposing the Europeans 
 
 respectable." 
 
 Printed br W. Collini ft C. 
 
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 REMARKS on FREE TRADE to CHINA. By the 
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 REPLY to " PRESENT STATE, and FUTURE 
 
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 Contents : My Commission Joining Depot Battle of Waterloo 
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 lized Eurppe ; but the field of action in which he was chiefly engaged, 
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 without suborning our judgments into any approbation of the vices and 
 weaknesses with which poor mortal heroism is so often accompanied." 
 Edinburgh Review, No. 94.
 
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