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fortune, they generally prosecute the grand object of enriching themselves by means of extortion, instead of fair legitimate profits.

In India, a commercial resident, with a large establishment of servants under him, some of them intended for coercive purposes, is stationed in all the considerable towns; and it has been stated, and by no less an authority than the Marquis Wellesley, that the intimation of a wish from the Company's resident is always received as a command by the native manufacturers and producers. How then is it possible for the private trader to come fairly into competition with persons possessing such authority, and often instructed to make their purchases on any terms? Mr Tucker admits, that the Company's investments in India, during the last ten years, may, in some instances, be said to have been forced; that is, the goods bought by them, have sometimes been purchased at a higher price than they would have brought in a market frequented only by regular merchants, (p. 195.) But the truth is, that it is not in the nature of things that the Company's purchases can ever be fairly made. The natives cannot deal with their agents as they would deal with private individuals; and it would be worse than absurd to suppose, that agents authorized to make purchases on account of Government, and to draw on the public treasury for the means of payment, can ever act like individuals, whose fortunes are responsible for their transactions.

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From the influence,' says Mr Rickards, of the resident on the one hand, and the pecuniary wants of the manufacturers on the other, it is quite clear, that they may be kept in perpetual bondage to the Company's service. And when we thus see the industry of the country subject to the entire direction of the ruling authority, supported, for the most part, and often irregularly by advances from the public revenues, and all competition, the soul and essence of commerce, far removed from this feeble and delicate fabric, as if its very touch were ruin; who but the most prejudiced can possibly see or expect prosperity under such a system? completely subversive of every principle, on which both experience and theory would teach us to found any rational hope of public good.

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It is almost unnecessary to allude to the hackneyed argument in favour of the East India Company continuing to act in a mercantile capacity, that otherwise they would not be able to realize the surplus revenues of India in England. Every one must see the absurdity of such a statement. Cannot the same means, which served to remit the immense sums that Great

Britain expended on the Continent during the late war, suffice to remit a few hundred thousand pounds from India? When the Indian Government get a surplus to remit to England, let them go into the Exchange in Calcutta, and buy bills on London for the amount. This is what Mr Baring or Mr Rothschild would do, if they had a sum at Calcutta, which they wished to make available in England. And if the Company do this, and abstain from having any thing whatever to do with commercial transactions, it is certain that they will realize a revenue of a million in London, with infinitely less trouble and expense than they now incur to realize 100,000Z.

We do therefore hope that, in so far at least as the trade of India, exclusive of the China trade, is concerned, the Company will see the policy of relinquishing it entirely; of dismissing their commercial residents; and throwing the markets of Hindostan open to the unfettered and unopposed competition of private traders. We entertain, as we stated before, very great doubts, whether the public would gain any thing by the abolition of the Company's territorial rights and privileges; but we think we have proved beyond all controversy, that they would gain a great deal by the abolition of the Company's commercial privileges; and as the Company would lose nothing by giving them up, we are at a loss to conceive the grounds on which they could resist coming to a satisfactory arrangement with Government on this subject. A well timed Should they grasp concession be of great use to them. may at too much, they may lose all. If they will not be sovereigns, without also being hucksters, they may probably find, when too late, that they have sacrificed the substance to the shadow, and that the year 1833 is destined to be the term of their exist

ence.

The extent to which the private trade to India has already been carried, and the statements of all the commercial men who are acquainted with the country, show that there is nothing either in the habits or institutions of the natives, to prevent the indefinite increase of the consumption of British and other European produce. But, besides the Company's exclusive privileges, the high discriminating duties laid on many species of East India produce, form a serious obstacle to the ex

We have purposely abstained from mixing up the question of the China trade with that of India; but it is a subject of which we shall not lose sight. Mr Tucker has totally failed in his attempt to repel the statement we made in No. 78, with respect to the effect of the Company's monopoly on the price of tea.

tension of the trade with India. The extra duty on East India coffee, and the excess of 10s. a cwt. of duty laid on East India sugar over that which is laid on sugar from the West India islands, are, in effect, bounties which force the consumption of the latter in preference to the former. But the permission recently granted to import India cotton goods on paying a duty of ten, and India silk goods on paying a duty of thirty per cent. ad valorem, may, we hope, be hailed as the pledge of a return to a better system; and we trust the time is not far distant, when the products of all the dependencies of the empire will be admitted to the British market on the same terms.

Before closing this article, we may observe, that those who are in the habit of exaggerating the extent of the benefits we derive from India, contend that the remittances to England, on account of private individuals returning from India, and which may perhaps be taken on a high average, at from 1,500,000l. to 2,000,000l. a year, ought to be set down without deduction to the credit of India. But this is an evident error. It is obvious, that we must set against these remittances the heavy expense attending the education and outfit of all the young men who are destined for the Company's service, not one-third of whom ever return with fortunes to this country; and it must also be borne in mind, that though Englishmen had been prevented from acting as judges and revenue-officers in Hindostan, it does not follow, that they might not have employed their talents as advantageously in other situations. Nothing, therefore, can be more erroneous, than to affirm that the remittances from India, on account of individuals, are so much clear gain to this country; and though we do not go quite so far as those who contend, that they are more than balanced by the charges that ought to be set against them, yet it is plain, that they must, in consequence, be very greatly reduced; and that they can only form an almost imperceptible item in the revenue of such a country as England.

ART. V. A Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans, under Generals Ross, Pakenham and Lambert, in the years 1814 and 1815; with some Account of the Countries Visited. By the AUTHOR of The Subaltern.' London. John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1826.

T

Is little work contains a popular account, by a British
Officer, of the military operations carried on by the Bri-

tish troops in America, during the years 1814 and 1815, when peace was restored in Europe by the overthrow of Bonaparte, and when the Ministers of Great Britain determined to assail, both by sea and land, their only remaining enemy, on the other side of the Atlantic. No serious invasion of America was of course contemplated. It was only intended to spread alarm along her coasts; and, by ravaging detached spots, and menacing many points of her territory, to do all the mischief, and occasion all the expense possible. With this view, a considerable armament was sent out, to which the author of the narrative before us was attached; and he has certainly given a lively and interesting account of the operations which followed. He seems to be an acute and attentive observer, and he describes the scenes and feelings which belong to a soldier's life, with peculiar clearness and force. It is those touches of individual feeling, indeed, which mingle with his narrative, that give it its chief interest, and distinguish it from a mere professional detail of military transactions. War, from its very nature, places those engaged in it in situations of extraor dinary interest; its hardships, its perils and its vicissitudes, produce the most intense excitement; and such characteristic sketches, therefore, of its eventful scenes, as give to men of peace a glimpse of the interior economy and manners of a camp, are far more acceptable than a dry, scientific account of plans, movements, and results. In this respect, the present work, we think, has very considerable merit. We must add, however, that the writer appears to have a great dislike to the Americans, which breaks out occasionally in little anecdotes to their prejudice, or illiberal constructions of their conduct. He stigmatizes them generally as remarkable for low cunning; and in illustration of this charge, he very soon tells a story of two Americans, who, having taken arms in defence of their country, and being surrounded and made prisoners, endeavoured, by false pretences, to deceive the British and procure their release. Thus a clever, though unsuccessful ruse de guerre, which, if it had been practised by a British soldier, would probably have been commended as a masterpiece of coolness and presence of mind, is low cunning in the Americans; and thus it is, that national prejudices, working with such slight materials, raises up general imputations against a whole people. It is but fair, however, to state, that those antipathies do not seem to have affected his narrative of military operations, which is really distinguished throughout by a tone of great calmness, impartiality, and candour.

It was on the termination of the Peninsular war that our

author was sent with his regiment to encounter new dangers in America. The troops embarked from the Garonne, under the command of General Ross; and in the course of their voyage to the Chesapeake, where they arrived about the end of August, they were joined by reinforcements, which increased their numbers to between 4000 and 5000 effective men. This petty army, formidable only from its courage and discipline, it was proposed to disembark for offensive operations on the American coast. The troops were accordingly landed on the 19th, on the shores of the Patuxent, to the amount, including sailors, of 4500 men. After three or four days march along the banks of the river, and passing through the towns of Nottingham and Marlborough, which were entirely deserted, they came in sight of the enemy's army, occupying a strong and commanding position on the brow of a hill, having in their front the little town of Bladensburg, and a branch of the Potomac, over which was thrown a bridge; and on the right bank of which, nearest the American army, was a large stripe of larch and willow trees, filled with riflemen. The American army, computed at double the number of the English, was drawn up in three lines, protected by twenty pieces of artillery. Two heavy guns commanded the bridge over which their enemy had to advance, and four more, two on each side of the road, swept partly in that direction, and partly down the whole slope, into the streets of Bladensburg. The British advanced without dismay, on the formidable position of the Americans, which they carried, though with the loss of not less than 500 men. When we consider that, in this action, inexperienced levies were opposed to veteran troops, no other result could be rationally anticipated. The Americans took a commanding position. They wisely declined the close and fatal onset of the disciplined band to which they were opposed. The veterans, on the other hand, were eager for close action; and thus accordingly the battle was decided, the Americans giving way at all points as their enemies advanced. The situation of the British was not, however, free from danger. They were few in number, and in the attack they were fearfully exposed. On the bridge, which was necessarily covered with the advancing troops, a whole company was swept down by the first discharge from the American batteries. The succeeding discharges were fortunately levelled with less precision, otherwise the loss would have been more severe, and the event more doubtful. The rifle, that formidable weapon, was peculiarly fatal. The troops were galled by the fire from the riflemen stationed in the wood; and it was over their dead and dying companions that the Bri

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