where Madras now stands. The real foundations of our Indian empire were laid in the interval between 1750 and 1765, when Clive defeated the lieutenants of the Mogul, and the Mogul himself, and acquired Bengal, the richest of all the Indian provinces, the most easily defended, and that which has afforded us, throughout, those resources which have enabled us to conquer and to preserve all our subsequent acquisitions. Political Divisions. The following estimate of the area and population of the different states into which Hindostan is divided will give the reader a tolerable notion of the political division of the country: 137,000 Paramount State (British) Tributary States Independent States Total 33 33 2,000,000 37 4,000,000 66 1,000,000 41 7,000,000 512,873 83,473,417 162 564,610 41,278,092 73 137,000 7,000,000 51 1,214,483 131,751,509 108 It will appear from this statement that the British government possesses about 42 parts in 100 of the whole area of India, its tributaries about 46 parts, and the independent states but 12 parts. England and her tributaries, in fact, possess 88 parts out of 100 of the whole of India. The amount of population is much more in favour of the British dominions, which contain twice as many inhabitants as the tributary, and about twelve times as many as the independent states. The density of pop., as expressed in the third column of the table, is an index, to a certain extent, of fertility of territory, and of favourableness of position. The British dominions, tried by this test, are twice as populous as the tributary, and more than three times as populous as the independent states. Resources.-The public revenues of India are derived from the land-tax, or rather from the appropriation, by the sovereign, of a very large portion, and often, indeed, of the whole rent of the land; from taxes on houses, arts, and professions from customs and transit duties; and from fees and fines. All other taxes are inconsiderable in comparison with the land-tax, which, in every native state, constitutes about 95 parts in 100 of the entire public income. Under the British government, it amounts in round numbers to 12 millions sterling. If it bore the same proportion to absolute population, it would in the tributary states be nearly 6 millions, and in the independent states nearly 1 million. This is by no means likely, however, to be the ratio, and the probability is, that the land-tax follows the proportion of the relative density of population. On this hypothesis the land-tax of the tributary states will be about 2,700,000., and that of the independent states about 320,000.: adding 10 per cent. to the two last for other taxes, and knowing from positive data what the whole revenue of the British government is, we may make an approximate estimate of the entire public revenue afforded by the people of India, and state it in round numbers: numbers. With an oppressive system of taxation, the Indians are barely able to contribute 3s. a head, while the inhabitants of the United Kingdom contribute, with infinitely greater facility, twelve times that amount ! Languages. It has been stated, that there are no fewer than 25 native languages spoken throughout Hindostan, independent of the dialects of tribes in a very rude state of society. "The extensive region," says Mr. Colebrooke, "which is nearly defined by the banks of the Saraswatty and Ganges on the N., and by the sea to the E. and W., contains, according to some, 57 provinces, and, according to others, 84, and each has its peculiar dialect." The Hindoos of the N. portion of Hindostan are acquainted with three dead languages, viz. the Sanscrit, the Saraswatty, or Pracrit, and the Pali. Of these three the Sanscrit contains internal evidence of being the oldest. It was the language of a people who, according to a very probable Hindoo tradition already referred to, occupied the right bank of the Jumna, a little way to the N.W. of the city of Delhi, and with it probably originated the Brahminical religion, and the first dawn of Hindoo civilisation. The Saraswatty or Pracrit was the language that succeeded it in the same country, and it seems to bear the same sort of relation to it that the Italian does to Latin. The Pali is a language which sprung up in the province of Bahar. Of this, also, the Sanscrit forms the groundwork, and the relation between them may be supposed to bear a similar relation to that which subsists between the With Spanish, or French, and the Latin tongue. the people speaking the Pali language sprung up the religion of Buddh; and Pali is, to the present day, the sacred language of all the Asiatic nations who have Buddhism for their national worship. The existence of these three languages, that have successively ceased to be spoken, affords, as before observed, satisfactory evidence of the great antiquity of Hindoo civilisation. One or other of the languages in question is more or less mixed up, not only with every language of Hindostan, but also with the languages of most of the neighbouring countries. To the N. they form the groundwork of these languages, as Latin does of Italian; to the S., on the contrary, they are engrafted on the language in something like the manner in which the French is engrafted on our own Saxon tongue. The literary Hindoos reckon that there are ten cultivated languages, having a written character and a literature, viz. five to the N., called the five Gaurs, and five to the S., called the five Dravirs. The enumeration, however, is not very clear and distinct, at least as applicable to present times. The Gaurs are the Saraswatty, Canoj, Gauva or Bengalee, Maithila or Tirutiya, and the Oorissa. The first of these is the dead language already mentioned. The Maithila is confined to a small portion of the district of Tirhoot, the Gauva is the language of the numerous people of Bengal, already mentioned, and the Oorissa or Urya, of the people of Cattack. The Canoj, as such, is an extinct language, but is considered, on good grounds, to be the parent of the modern Hindee, the most cultivated and generally spoken of all the native languages of Hindostan. Upon the language of Canoj has been grafted the Persian, the court and literary language of the Mohammedan conquerors of India. This language, in fact, is found to exist in the Hindoo, very much as the French is found in our own Saxon tongue, its introduction having been effected exactly in the same manner. Besides the local language of each district, the Hindee is commonly spoken by all persons of education throughout all parts of India, and almost universally by all persons of the Mohammedan persuasion. Its prevalence, it may be observed, is probably owing as much to the parent language having been, previously to the conquest, the language of a numerous and powerful nation, as to the subsequent influence of the conquerors. Without this supposition, it is difficult to believe that, in the comparatively short period which elapsed from the first permanent conquest of the Affghans, at the end of the 12th century, until it acquired its existing form, it should have acquired so wide an extension as it is found to possess. The five Dravirs are the Tamul, called by Europeans, very improperly, the Malabar; the Maharashtra or Mahratta; the Karnata or Canara; the Telinga or Talugu, improperly called by Europeans, the Gentoo; and the Gujrati. The groundwork of all these languages is peculiar; but upon all of them is engrafted more or less of the Sanscrit language, or its derivative, the Pracrit; the amount of words decreasing, as we proceed S., until, in the ancient Tamul, it disappears altogether. The Tamul, the Telinga, and the Canara are divided into two dialects, an ancient and a modern; the first containing the national literature, and being nearly unintelligible to the people at large. Besides these more cultivated tongues, there are at Sir James Mackintosh has pointed out this resemblance in his "Epitome of the History of England." least 20 languages spoken by nations tolerably civilised, | tions, may be considered as profoundly ignorant. In and of considerable numbers, as the Assami, spoken in metaphysical and ethical speculations, more consonant to Assam; the Nepali, Rosali, and Dogari, three languages the genius of such a people, they have indulged to a spoken in Nepaul; the Cashmeri, spoken in the cele- much greater degree; and their speculations in grammar brated valley of Cashmere; the Punjabi, spoken in the especially, if not distinguished for utility, are remarkable country of the five affluents of the Indus; the Multani, for ingenuity. The Sanscrit language, distinguished for the dialect of the prov. of Multan; the Sindhi, spoken the complexity and variety of its structure, has afforded by the Sindhians, at the mouth of the Indus; the Bika- an ample field for such discussions. It may be remarked neri; the Marwari; the Jayapuri; the Odepuri, four that it is the only one of their languages that is subjected languages spoken in Rajpootana; the Haruti; and the to rules, and that they have never composed a grammar of Braja, spoken in the higher portions of the valleys of the any of the living languages. Geometry is another science, Ganges and Jumna, and derivatives of the Saraswatty the invention of which is ascribed to the Hindoos; but or Pracrit; the Magadhi, spoken in the S. portion of the their earliest treatises are of the 7th century, 1,000 years prov. of Bahar; the Malwa, spoken in the prov. of the after they had been in contact with the Greeks of Bactria, same name; and the Bundela, spoken in the prov. of and at least 15 centuries after the first knowledge of the "Bundlecund. Many of these languages are in course of science in Greece itself. In astronomy, the Hindoos make gradual extinction and absorption by the Hindee, as the large claims to antiquity, reckoning their tables from the Celtic dialects of our own country are in progress of commencement of the Cali-yuga, or iron age of the extinction by the English; the Armorican by the French, Hindoo mythology, 3,102 years before Christ. Of such and the Basque by the Spanish. To the S. we have the an antiquity, however, there are great doubts; and Konkani, the language of the Concan; the Tulawa, or the more general opinion seems now to be, that the language of the country which Europeans call Canara; astronomy of the Hindoos was either derived from the and the Malayalim, spoken by the inhab. of the S. por- Bactrian Greeks, or intermediately from the Arabs of tion of coast lying below the W. Ghauts, as far as Cape the middle ages. The coincidence between it and the Comorin. Greek astronomy, is at all events, both remarkable and suspicious. Thus, the days of the week are seven in number, and named after the seven planets; while they follow in the same order as they do in the Greek. The ecliptic is divided, as among the Greeks, into 12 signs, with the same names, emblems, and arrangement; and the signs are also divided into 30 degrees. As these matters are purely arbitrary, they cannot but have had the same source. Two things seem to be agreed upon by all parties; viz., that the Hindoo astronomy is empirical, and not founded on general principles; and that, among the Hindoos, astronomy has only been used as an auxiliary to astrology, and never applied to any useful practical purpose; with the exception, and this in a very rude manner, of reckoning time. Of the languages of rude or savage tribes, such as the Garrows, Coolies, Catties, Gonds, Coles, &c., not less than 30 may be easily enumerated. Besides the three dead languages, one of them, the Sanscrit, as much studied as Latin is in Europe, there are in India eight languages, each spoken by a numerous pop. ; 20 spoken by people less numerous, but still civilised; and at least 30 spoken by rude tribes; making in all 58 living languages. This simple fact may satisfy us at once that all India never was subject to one government, or never even thoroughly united in large masses. To the native languages now enumerated must be added the Persian, still as much studied, and much more generally written, than Latin is in Europe; the Arabic, often studied, from religious motives, although not spoken; the Portuguese is a good deal spoken on some parts of the maritime coast, especially by the converts to Christianity; and the English, which has begun to make considerable progress. Arts. The arts in which the Hindoos have made the greatest progress are, agriculture, weaving, dyeing, and architecture. The ox, buffalo, horse, ass, elephant, hog, dog, sheep, and goat have been domesticated, and used by the Hindoos from the earliest antiquity. The camel, probably, has been equally long known in Upper Hindostan. The common poultry is also of great antiquity among the Hindoos; and is supposed, and most W. world. The buffalo and ox only are used for agricultural purposes; the horse generally for war or pleasure, now and then for burthen; the elephant for pleasure or burthen; the camel and ass, with few exceptions, for burthen only. With the exception of the horse, camel, sheep, and goat, every one of the animals above enumerated are still found in many parts of India in the wild state. The agricultural implements used by the Hindoos are simple and rude, such as might naturally be expected among poor occupants, cultivating each a small patch of land upon an uncertain tenure; and the process is equally rude. It should however be observed, that neither the one nor the other are so much inferior to those of the S. part of Europe as a native of this country, accustomed to the more perfect implements and processes of English husbandry, would expect to find them. The greatest exercise of the skill and labour of the Hindoos in agriculture is displayed in works of irrigation; and the reader will not be surprised at this, when he understands that through means of irrigation the produce of the land is, according to circumstances, always multiplied never less than five fold, and often as much as ten. The works for this purpose consist of immense embankments, reservoirs or tanks, and wells. The delta of the Ganges, and the celebrated mound of the Cavery in S. India afford examples of the first description of works: reservoirs or tanks are sometimes of vast extent, and capable of converting 4,000 or 5,000 acres of what is often a dreary desert of sand into productive corn fields: these are most frequent in S. India. Wells, which are often sunk to the depth of between 200 and 300 ft., afford the principal means of irrigation in the upper portion of the valley of the Ganges. In a few cases there exist canals for irrigation resembling those of Lombardy, but these are of Mohammedan, not Hindoo, origin. Literature. The best and largest portion of Hindoo literature is contained in the dead Sanscrit ; that which is contained in the seven living languages already enumerated being for the most part little else than transla-likely with good reason, to have spread from them to the tions, or rather paraphrases, from it. To Hindoo literature in any language, prose composition is hardly known. Every thing is in verse, from works of imagination to history, to treatises on theology, astronomy, medicine, grammars, and even dictionaries. These facts are at once evidence of antiquity and of rudeness, while they show that, for 2,000 or 3,000 years at least, native literature has made little progress. The Hindoos have been said to be, at the present moment, in the condition, in reference to literature, of the Europeans of the middle ages; who had no books but such as they inherited from the Greeks and Romans. But it is obvious that they are in a much worse condition, inasmuch as their models are incomparably inferior. The two most celebrated works of Hindoo lite. rature are the Mahabarat and the Ramayana; the one giving an account of the wars of the sons of Bharat, and the other the adventures of Rama, king of Ayndhya or Oude, a supposed incarnation of Vishnu, the "Preserver of the Hindoo Triad." The scene of both is laid in the upper portion of the valley of the Ganges. Mr. Mill's description of these poems, some of the best specimens of which have been translated into English, is not unjustly depreciatory:-"These fictions," says he, "are more extravagant, and more unnatural, not only less correspondent with the physical and moral laws of this globe, but, in reality, less ingenious, more monstrous, with less of any thing that can engage the affection, awaken sympathy, or excite admiration, reverence, or terror, than the poems of any other, even the rudest, people with whom our knowledge of the globe has yet brought us acquainted. They are excessively prolix and tedious. They are often, through long passages, trifling and childish to a degree which those acquainted with only European poetry can hardly conceive." (History of British India, i. 368., 4to. edition.) Science. The sciences in which the Hindoos have made some progress are, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and astronomy. The first and second are probably the only ones in which, perhaps, they are entitled to lay any claim to originality. They are probably the inventors of the system of notation, which the Arabs borrowed from them, and we from the Arabs. It is not necessary, however, to add that the Hindoos are clumsy arithmeticians; and that, as in the case of gunpowder, certainly invented in China, it is in Europe only that the art has been perfected. In geography, medicine, botany, and the physical sciences generally, the Hindoos, like other Asiatic na The articles cultivated by the Hindoos from very early times, are wheat, barley, rice, millet, several pulses, the sugar-cane, sesame, mustard, the cocoa, areca, and other palms; cardamoms, ginger, black pepper, cotton, the mulberry, indigo, madder, the mango, and the banana. From the Mohammedans they received the vine, the fig, the apple, peach, and pear; the pomegranate, limes and oranges; the carrot, onion, and melon, with the opium poppy. From Europeans they have received maize, oats, common potatoes, the batata, or sweet potato, the ground pulse, or arachis, the capsicum, guava, and pineapple, by way of America; the shadock, from Java; the lichi, from China; and most of the common pot-herbs, direct from Europe. The sugar-cane is most probably a native of Hindostan, and the art of manufacturing coarse sugar from it is traced by the etymology of the word gour, to Bengal. The art of granulating sugar, and separating it from the molasses, was most probably introduced into India from China, as the name of the commodity Chini, would seem to imply. The art of candying or crystalising sugar, the only mode of refining practised in the East, was taught the Hindoos by the Mohammedans, who themselves appear to have first practised the art in Egypt, as the name of the article Misri (that is, Egyptian), would seem to import. The Hindoos had made a far greater progress in the art of weaving, than in any other. It was confined to materials which their country either produced in great abundance, or of great excellence; or of which, in fact, in ancient times, they may be considered to have possessed nearly a monopoly, viz. cotton, silk, and the hair of the Tibetian goat. With the exception of silk, which they had in common with China, India may be considered as the native country both of the material and manufacture of the others. The cotton-plant is grown almost every where, from the S. extremity of India up to the valleys of the most N. range of the Himalaya, and it may be traced from India to every warm country by its original Sanscrit name. The quality and nature of the fabric varies every where with the quality of the plant; and hence a vast variety of fabrics, known by the names of the districts producing the raw material: thus, the fine textures known in Europe as Dacca muslins, were produced only in that district, in which is cultivated, within narrow limits, a variety of the plant, with a staple remarkable for fineness and beauty, not found any where else. Silk weaving, like that of cotton, is an art which has been practised from remote antiquity in India. In the Sanscrit language there is a peculiar name for the class of persons exclusively employed in the feeding of silk worms. The variety of the latter bred in India differs from that of China and Europe; and the species of mulberry grown for the food of the worm is a distinct one from that used either in Europe or China. But as the Hindoos are much inferior in skill and ingenuity to the Chinese, the silk fabrics of Hindostan have never equalled those of China; nor is the raw material, even now, equal to that of the Chinese, though under the superior care and skill of Europeans. The Cashmerians, the manufacturers of the well known shawls which bear their names, are descended from genuine Hindoos; and though the shawl goat be not a native of their country, they were the nearest civilised people to the rude nomadic tribes, to whom it belonged. They naturally, therefore, became the manufacturers; and the invention of the shawl manufacture may, therefore, be fairly ascribed to the Hindoos. From these statements, it will appear that the discoveries now described, and the progress in manufacturing industry which they imply, are rather owing to the accident of position than to any superiority of skill and ingenuity. This is at once apparent, by the little skill which the Hindoos evince in arts, where they possess no superiority in the raw material, as in woollen textures, iron fabrics, and earthenware, in respect to which there are few nations ruder and more unsuccessful. Orme, who is followed by Mill, ascribes the superiority of the Hindoos in the manufacture of cotton fabrics to the peculiar softness and delicacy of the Hindoo hand; but this is a fancy for which there seems to be no ground whatever. The Hindoos, comparing them with other nations in the same state of society, and to Europeans until comparatively recent periods, had attained considerable skill in the art of dying, producing colours that are both fast and brilliant. Here also, however, they had several advantages of the same nature as those already described, such as the possession of indigo, lac, and madder, three of the finest and most durable of all known colouring materials. Inferior dyes, such as the carthamus, morinda, turmeric and sappan, are also natives of the country. Their dying processes, however, have always been, and are, tedious, operose, and empirical. Nearly the whole architecture of the Hindoos which deserves notice is dedicated to religion. The people have always lived in huts, and even their chiefs and princes were satisfied with very mean accommodation; and the only palaces have been those of the gods. But even their temples are more distinguished for magnitude, the substantial nature of the materials, and the elaborate character of the ornaments, than for beauty, grandeur, or propriety. Many of the most remarkable consist of caves, or subterranean grottoes; and the rest have, for the most part, a pyramidal form. One class of religious monuments which makes so conspicuous a figure in the architecture of Christians and Mohammedans, is wholly wanting among the Hindoos,-those erected in honour of the dead; a circumstance no doubt arising from the universal practice of burning the corpse, and the belief in the doctrine of the metempsychosis. Of a far higher order is the architecture introduced into India by the Mohammedans, particularly since the time of the Turkish dynasty, the descendants of Timour. These consist of mosques and mausoleums, in the style of architecture introduced by the Arabs into Spain; and are so remarkable for beauty and chasteness of design, grace of proportion, and excellence of material and workmanship, as to be entitled to be compared with the finest remains of Grecian or Roman art. In these Mohammedan buildings, white and coloured marbles are largely employed, a material never seen in any Hindoo building, though very abundant in many parts of the country. The most remarkable of the Mohammedan monuments, well known to Europeans by the name of the Tajemahal, is situated near the city of Agra, on the right bank of the Jumna. It is a mausoleum occupying, with its gardens, a quadrangle of forty acres; the principal building, with its domes and minarets, being almost wholly of white marble. This was built by the Emperor ShahJehan, about two centuries ago. Even the palaces of the Mohammedan princes, and the houses of the omrahs were built in very superior style to those of the Hindoos of the same rank. In fact, the Mohammedan architecture exhibits unquestionable evidence of superior science, taste, and civilisation. In useful architecture, such as the construction of roads, bridges, and public accommodation for travellers, the Hindoos have made very little progress, as may be seen by an examination of the more S. portion of India, which Mohammedan influence hardly reached. The ancient Hindoos were unacquainted with the arch, and hardly ever built a bridge of any sort. Down to the present day the principal rivers of the Deccan are crossed on wooden floats, or in baskets covered with leather. Now and then a few miles of good road lead to some celebrated place of pilgrimage, and on the ways leading to such places inns for the accommodation of travellers, called choultries, are not unfrequently met with. These consist of bare walls and a roof, without food, furniture, or attendance. Both these roads and inns have been constructed from religious motives only. In this department of architecture, also, the Moham medans have made considerable improvements: the only bridges existing in India are of their construction; and the same thing may be said of public roads. Effects of British Rule.-The great body of the Indian people had, for six centuries before the commencement of our government, been under the dominion of foreigners; but of foreigners more energetic than themselves, and a good deal more civilised. Upon a fair retrospect of what they have lost and gained by the Mohammedan dominion, they must, upon the whole, be considered as having been considerable gainers. The conquerors being Asiatics, and approaching to the native inhab. in complexion, manners, customs, and state of civilisation, assimilated with the latter, and, to a certain extent, adopted their language and customs. Even in matters of religion, where the difference was widest, a considerable share of toleration was established; and Hindoos, converts to Mohammedanism, and mixed races were in time admissible to the highest offices of the state, and not unfrequently promoted to them. This condition of things was superseded by the British rule, which may now be considered as having been practically constituted for a period of about eighty years. The British government, as established in India, and as it is now in operation, may be considered an enlightened despotism, a good deal controlled by the public opinion of Englishmen on the spot, and to a smaller extent by parliament and publíc opinion in England, and possessing some advantages over, but also many disadvantages which did not belong to, the Mohammedan government, which it superseded. It may be divided into three periods: the first being that which intervened between the victory of Plassy in 1757, and the first effectual interference of parliament in 1784, but not practically enforced till 1793, an interval of 36 years. This was a period of pretty general anarchy, accompanied by constant, or at least frequent wars. The government was carried on upon the principles of the Mohammedan system, and did not pretend to be bottomed upon any other. The taxes were levied with more than Mohammedan rapacity; and the administration of justice followed the Mohammedan law with less than Mohammedan intelligence. The only modification in any of these particulars depended wholly on the moral and intellectual character of a few public functionaries. At the same time the industry of the country was subjected to a commercial monopoly, exercised by the government itself, and the aim of which, as of all similar institutions, was to obtain possession of as much as possible of the produce of the country at less than it cost, and to sell it for more than it was worth. It cannot be supposed that the British government during the period in question could possibly be productive of beneficial results to the native inhab. of the country; and it certainly produced none to the parent country, whose resources were wasted, and whose commerce was not augmented, by the possession of India. The next period of our administration embraces the twenty years from 1793 to 1813. During this time the land | Brahminical order, where we should least expect to find tax, the greatest burden of the Indian people, was esta-it. Commerce, in fact, the great engine by which civiliblished in perpetuity throughout the greater part of the sation, as well as improved morals, have been produced Indian territory. Regular courts of justice were insti- in Europe, has begun to do its work in Hindostan also. tuted, and the judicial and fiscal administrations were The value of knowledge and of character has begun to carefully and completely separated, after the example be felt, and already there may be counted among the of European nations. The commercial monopoly con- merchants of Calcutta, Bombay, and other places where tinued as in the previous period, but it was exercised with commerce is carried on upon a large scale, Hindoo, Mogreater leniency and forbearance, except in so far as con- hammedan, and Parsee merchants, as faithful to their cerned the settlement and resort of British subjects to engagements, and of as strict probity, as any community India, the laws against which were more rigorously car- can boast of ried into effect than ever. Parliament never effectually The disadvantages of our position for carrying on the interfered in the affairs of India during this period; every administration of India are sufficiently obvious. Ours, thing was presumed to be going on prosperously. The in the first place, is not a national government, nor is it wars that were carried on in India in the meantime nearly as yet a government carried on by conquerors who have doubled the extent of our territory, and raised the terri-made the slightest progress towards naturalisation or torial debt to 30,000,000Z. sterling. But instead of reaping amalgamation with the party governed. We are aliens any direct advantage from these acquisitions, parliament in blood, in manners, in language, and in religion, carrywas obliged, on the lapse of the charter, to exonerate the ing on the administration of 80 millions of people, and E. I. Company from a long arrear of a tribute of about half exercising a control over 50 millions more, at a distance a million sterling a year, which it was wholly unable to of 12,000 m. The local government is purely vicarial, pay. The entire advantage conferred upon the people of and the essential administration rests with men residing India, during the period now mentioned, resolves itself at a vast distance, who never saw the country, and who into the permanency of the land-tax, with some amelio- have no accurate knowledge of its manners and institurations in the administration of justice, and freedom from tions. These men themselves are perpetually changing, foreign aggression and invasion. The English nation and look upon Indian affairs as matters of very secondary derived no benefit whatever from India; our commerce importance to domestic and European politics. The with it, which was but of trifling importance, continued local governments, instead of being responsible to the stationary; we paid a monopoly price for every Indian parties whose administration they conduct, are only commodity we consumed, and were obliged to forego the amenable for their acts to their political friends in Europe, whole of the paltry tribute we had bargained for. while the affairs of India are too complex, too extensive, The third and last period commences in 1814, and and too remote, to be understood by, or, for the most part, comes down to the present time. In 1814 the Indian to excite any interest in, the people and parliament of trade was, in a great measure, thrown open; and in England. In India, generally, the acts of the local govern1834 the last vestige of monopoly, and even the com- ment are secretly prepared without consulting or attemptpany's commercial character, was finally put an end to,-ing to conciliate the parties for whom the laws are made. a measure which, with some drawbacks, has been productive of much advantage both to the people of India and of England, though in a greater degree to the latter. The exports of India to this country have more than doubled; and the people of India and of England respectively receive each other's productions for about from a half to a third part of what they cost them under the monopoly. The influx of Europeans into India since 1814 has been followed by a great influx of British capital; and something like a public and independent opinion has sprung up at the principal seats of commerce, to control the despotism of a virtually absolute government. This public opinion finds a voice in a press formerly under a rigorous censorship, but now thrown open, and which employs itself greatly to the advantage both of the governors and the governed, in the exposure of public and private abuses. A system of effectual native education may be said to have begun in 1814; and the native inhab. of the principal towns, who before considered all education to be comprised in the study of the Persian, a foreign language, or of the Sanscrit, a dead one, have betaken themselves with great ardour to the study of the language of the conquerors; and have, in many cases, made an extraordinary progress in the knowledge, not only of our language, but of our literature. What is wanted in India is not a system of education that shall make the people acquainted with the niceties of Sanscrit grammar, but a system that shall communicate to them the elements of useful knowledge, and that may pave the way for their emancipation from the gross prejudices and superstitious observances by which they have been so long enslaved. We doubt, however, whether this can be done by instructing them in English. It is true that English schools have been extraordinarily successful in Calcutta, and other large towns; and the proficiency of many of the natives in our language and literature is far greater than could have been rationally anticipated. But though no means should be left untried to extend instruction in English, still we have no idea that it can ever be diffused generally throughout the country, or be made to exert any powerful national influence. To bring about the regeneration of Ind.a, the better way, as it appears to us, would be to have proper school and other elementary books compiled in the languages of the different pro- The greatest revenue which a colonial empire ever vinces, and to introduce them into the native schools yielded, and, in fact, the largest public revenue in the and seminaries. This plan, though it would not intro-world, that of Britain and France excepted, is unequal duce the language of England, would do what is of still to meet so enormous an expenditure; and one of the more importance; it would introduce the rudiments of worst forms in which bad government can present itself, European science and literature, and would apparently oppressive and grinding taxation, is the necessary conbe the most powerful means for promoting the improve- sequence. Nor is it, perhaps, in the power of the best ment and civilisation of the natives that it is possible to disposed administration much to ameliorate this state of bring into the field. (The latest and most authentic in- things, so long as government is conducted on the prinformation with respect to education in India, may be ciples hitherto persevered in. The Indian revenue apfound in Mr. Trevelyan's excellent work on that im- proaches to 20 millions, and considering the poverty of portant subject.) the people, as indicated by the low rate of wages, and the comparatively small amount of capital and industry in the country, this is said to be equivalent to an annual public revenue in England of about 100 millions; and it should be remarked that the Indian revenue never diminishes, but, on the contrary, may be considered a perpetual war taxation, from which there is no Since 1814 may also be dated the abandonment, on the part of many of the most wealthy and enlightened inhab. of the towns, of the gross superstitions of their forefathers, and the adoption of rational opinions in matters of religion; and it may be remarked as extraordinary, that this species of conversion has been most frequent with the One of the great disadvantages of the British government in India is the vast expense at which it is conducted, and the consequent weight of taxation to which the people are necessarily subjected. In India there are five local governments, and in England two departments connected with the government, all which are paid for out of the Indian revenue, on a scale of expense of which the rest of the world affords no example. Thus the salary of the governor-general is equal to five times that of the first lord of the treasury, while an Indian secretary is more highly paid than an English secretary of state. There are about 1,000 civil officers engaged in the judicial, magisterial, and fiscal administration of India, every one of whom costs the Indian people, including his pension on retirement, more than a puisne judge of the Court of King's Bench costs the people of England. As we maintain our dominion not through the affections and goodwill of the people, but partly through their docility, and partly by the sword, a vast army of 200,000 men becomes necessary. Thirty thousand of these must be carried over the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, and, mortality included, are maintained at double the expense of the same force in Europe. The officers of the whole Indian army amount to about 5,000, and these, retiring pensions included, cost about three times what the same number would cost in Europe. It is not, however, to be supposed, that the large salaries allowed to those engaged in the administration of the Indian government originate in extravagance merely. It may, in fact, be doubted whether it be possible, on any reasonable ground, to make any sensible diminution in their amount; and whether the excess that might be deducted from some departments should not go to balance a deficiency in others. The salaries of Europeans in India must be high; first, because of the expensive style of living in the country, and the immense number of servants and retainers that a person in any prominent situation must keep; and, second, because of the many expenses attending the training and fitting out of a young man for the Indian service. Till one or both of these sources of expenditure be diminished, of which there is but little prospect, it is idle to talk of materially reducing the cost of European functionaries in India. relief or abatement. While India is subjected to this amount of taxation, there is reason to fear that her prosperity will not make any considerable advance, nor the people be attached, or even reconciled, to the dominion of strangers, especially while at the same moment they are carefully excluded (which never happened to them under any previous foreign dominion) from all respectable or responsible share in their own government. But, without inquiring whether it be possible materially to diminish the amount of taxation imposed on India, it is certainly possible to do what is of equal importance, that is, to change the mode in which it is assessed. We have already given some account of the perpetual settlement adopted under Lord Cornwallis for the assessment of the land revenue in Bengal (see antè, p. 357); and, whatever may have been the defects of that settlement, there can be no doubt that, by limiting the amount of the assessment, it has been productive of the greatest advantage. But in the Madras provinces, and in the greater part of India, exclusive of Bengal, under our dominion, the land-tax is not only oppressively heavy, but a system has been adopted in regard to the management of the land and the assessment of the tax that seems to be wholly subversive of the security of property, and to be calculated only to discourage, or rather extinguish, industry. (For proofs of this, see INDIA (BRITISH), and MADRAS.) But this is not of the essence of a land-tax it is an abuse discreditable to those by whom the system was originally recommended, and still more discreditable to those by whom it is maintained, after experience has fully demonstrated its pernicious influence. The first thing essential in India is to establish the security of private property; to make the occupiers of the land feel that they have an interest in its improvement; and that the produce obtained by superior industry and intelligence will not be wholly swallowed up by fiscal rapacity. Even if we cared nothing for the interests of the people of India, but took it for granted that Providence had consigned them to our keeping, merely that we might extract from them the utmost possible amount of revenue, this would be our best course. The real, and, in the case of India, the only way to increase revenue, is to increase the wealth of the people; and this will be best done by giving them a permanent interest in the improvement of the soil, and by making the assessment fixed, if not for ever, at least for a lengthened period. Notwithstanding the vast demand in this and other European countries for sugar, coffee, cotton, hemp, and other staple products of India, and her illimitable capacities for their production, they have hitherto been exported only to a comparatively trifling extent. This is ascribable principally to the poverty and ignorance of the cultivators in India, arising from the uncertainty of the land tenures and the oppressive amount of the land-tax, and partly to high discriminating duties laid ou East India produce in Great Britain and those European states that have colonies in the West Indies. But it is abundantly certain that the adoption of a more liberal system with respect to taxation in India, and of an equal tariff at home, combined with a little judicious encouragement at the outset on the part of the Indian government, might provide for an indefinite increase in the culture of the great articles of Indian produce suited for the European markets. The wonderful extension of the indigo culture shows conclusively what may be expected from a liberal course of policy. But no considerable improvement need be looked for in the greater part of the country while the land-tax continues to be assessed as at present. This forms at once an insuperable obstacle to the investment of British capital in the cultivation of the land, and to the acquisition of wealth by the native cultivator, and is, in fact, destructive alike of the means and the hope of improvement. One advantage the people of India certainly derive from British rule, which they never enjoyed, at least to the same extent, before-freedom from civil war, and from foreign aggression and invasion. But it must, at the same time, be acknowledged, that these benefits have been purchased at no inconsiderable price—the suppression of all competition and emulation between different parts of the country; and the entire sacrifice of national independence, accompanied with an utter hopelessness of those successful insurrections by which other Asiatic people rid themselves of tyranny, and procure, at least, a momentary melioration of their condition. What probability, it may be asked, is there of the stability and permanence of our dominion? This is a question more easily put than answered. No people under the same circumstances ever possessed such an empire before, or any thing resembling it; and we have, therefore, no precedent to guide us in attempting a reply. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with stating, that India appears to be unassailable, except by a nation that has the command of the sea. Her land frontier is fenced by impassable mountains, and by deserts and rivers that could not be traversed by an invading army without great difficulty and loss. No doubt, however, if we voluntarily cross the natural barriers that protect India, and advance into Central Asia, we may meet Russian troops on ground congenial to them; and if so, the prestige that has hitherto attached to our arms in the East will run a considerable risk of being dissipated. But so long as we confine ourselves within the proper limits of India, and preserve our superiority at sea, we have little to fear from foreign aggression. An attack by Asiatic powers is out of the question; and the danger of French and Russian invasion is far more chimerical than real. Our superior national resources, commercial enterprise, and naval power, gave us our Indian empire, and maintain our supremacy over it. Any nation that should deprive us of these might possess itself of India without any extraordinary difficulty; for in the hour of need the natives would not certainly render us any effectual support. But, in so far as can be surmised at present, we have nothing to apprehend from the superíor power of foreign foes or rivals and as to danger from internal insurrection, we have the best security against it in the singular docility of the people, their want of nationality or patriotism, their political ignorance, the innumerable divisions which exist amongst them, and their incapacity of combination for any great purpose. Our greatest danger arises from our advancing into Central Asia, from the vast expenditure of our government, the frequency of our wars, and the grievous taxation to which these lead, a taxation which cannot but engender a discontent and disaffection, the results of which no one can at present foretell. Bodily and intellectual endowments. - The Hindoos, as already stated, constitute six sevenths of the population of Hindostan; but the remaining inhabitants, though the stocks were in many cases originally different, are now so much assimilated with them through a mixture of blood, and the adoption of Indian manners and customs, that for our present purpose the whole population may be considered under one head. In point of race, the Hindoos have been regarded by naturalists as belonging to what they call the Caucasian, and even to the same family of that race as the white man of Europe! But this is a fantastical notion, for which there is hardly even so much as the shadow of a foundation. The only three points in which any analogy has been discovered between the Hindoo and European are the oval form of the face, the shape of the head, and traces of a certain community of language. In every other respect the points of contrast are incomparably more decisive than those of resemblance. The European is white, the Hindoo black. The European (and his is the only race that is so distinguished) has an infinite variety in the colour of the hair, from flaxen to black, and great variety in the colour of the eye, from light blue or grey up to dark brown: with the Hindoo, the colour of the hair is ever black, and the colour of the eye ever dark brown. The European is taller than the Hindoo, more robust, and more perse. vering. Even in the rudest states of civilisation, the European has exhibited a firmness, perseverance, and enterprise, which strikingly contrast with the feeble, slow, and irresolute character of the Hindoo. In the performance of ordinary labour in those employments where there are means for drawing a just comparison, the labour of one Englishman is equal to that of three ordinary Indians. Three Indian seamen will hardly perform the work of one English seaman, and three battalions of sepoys would not, in any case, supply the place of a single battalion of Europeans. There is little doubt but that an equal inferiority would have been the result of a trial of strength with a Roman legion or a Greek phalanx. When the skill required in any particular employment rises in amount, and the European is enabled to avail himself of improved tools which the Hindoo either cannot or will not use, the disparity becomes still greater: thus;-A master shipwright, or a master carpenter, in India, finds it as cheap to employ a single European at 81. per month as eight Hindoos at the same amount of wages! In physical force and continuity of labour the Hindoo is unquestionably not only below the European, but below the Arab, the Persian, and, above all, the Chinese. When, therefore, we hear of the price of labour being low in India, we must confine it to the roughest and rudest kind, viz. rural labour; and even then it must be taken with much allowance. Looking at the quantity of labour perforined, and the manner in which it is executed, the rate of Indian wages is high; and it is only the nominal rate, or that paid for labourers employed by time, that is low. In one physical quality there is a striking distinction between the Hindoo and European. The European is born with an inflexible and comparatively rigid fibre; the Hindoo with a fibre more pliant and soft than that of our women. This distinction, however, is a mere affair of climate, for the quality supposed in this instance to be peculiar to the Hindoo frame is common to that of natives of every warm climate; even Creole Europeans, in the very first generation, are distinguished by it. |