The writer of this article has freely praised the talents of Sir James Mackintosh while absent; he

bounty and charity have not been forgotten, and that the British. government of this territory is as forward to relieve the miseries as to punish the crimes of its subjects.

"You must already have perceived that I am about to speak of the successful exertions which have been made to avert the calamities of famine from our own dominions, and to alleviate the sufferings of those wretched emigrants who have sought refuge among us from the famine which has laid waste the neighbouring continent.

"What the causes are which in all ages seem to have rendered famine so frequent and so peculiarly severe in India, is a question of great curiosity, and indeed of great practical importance, but not very fit to be examined in this place, and to which I have not yet the means of giving a satisfactory answer. One general observation however I will venture to make. The same unfortu nate state of things existed among our ancestors in Europe four or five centuries ago. The same unfavourable seasons which now only produce scarcity, then almost uniformly produced famine. Various causes have doubtless contributed to the great and happy change which has since taken place; all of them connected with the progress of European nations in the arts, institutions, and manners of civilized life: but the principal cause is, beyond all doubt, commerce: for only one of two expedients against dearth can be imagined; either we must consume less food, or we must procure more; and in general both must be combined; we must have recourse both to retrenchment and importation. Both these purposes are effected by commerce. The home trade in grain reduces consumption; and this it does by that very operation of enhancing its price, which excites so much clamour among the vulgar of all ranks: and the foreign trade in grain makes the abundance of one country supply the wants of another. Thus famine is banished from what may properly be called the commercial world. So powerful and so beneficial are the energies of that great civilizing principle of commerce, which, counteracted as it

perhaps would have been still more ready than he now is "to hesitate dislike," had he been present.

every where is by the stupid prejudices of the people, and by the absurd and mischievous interference of governments, has yet ac complished so great a revolution in the condition of so large a part of mankind as totally to exempt them from the dread of the greatest calamity which afflicted their ancestors. Whether commerce could effect so great a change in India I shall not undertake to determine. Perhaps there are physical difficulties which are insuperable, and others arising from the condition and habits of. the people which would be extremely difficult to overcome. These certainly are circumstances which must diminish and retard such a beneficial change.

"But to return from generalities, in which I ought not perhaps to have dwelt so long. You are well aware, that, from a partial failure of the periodical rains in 1802, and from a more complete failure in 1803, a famine has arisen in the adjoining provinces of India, especially in the territories of the Peishwa, which I shall not attempt to describe, and which, I believe, no man can truly represent to the European public without the hazard of being charged with extravagant and incredible fiction. Some of you have seen its ravages; all of you have heard accounts of them from accurate observers. I have only seen the fugitives who have fled before it, and who have found an asylum in this island. But even I have seen enough to be convinced that it is difficult to overcharge a picture of Indian desolation.

"I shall now state to you, from authentic documents, what has been done to save these territories from the miserable condition of the neighbouring country. From the 1st of September 1803 to the present time there have been imported or purchased by government four hundred and fourteen thousand bags of rice, and there remain one hundred and eighty thousand bags contracted for, which are yet to arrive, forming an aggregate of nearly six hundred thousand bags, and amounting to the value of fifty lacks of rupees, or six hundred thousand pounds sterling. During the 1805-1806.

S

same

The life of this accomplished gentleman is capable of furnishing much food for public curiosity and

same time there have been imported by private merchants four hundred and eight thousand bags of rice, making in all an impor tation of a million of bags, and amounting in value to one million pounds sterling..

"The effects of this importation on the population of our own territories it is not very difficult to estimate. The population of the islands of Bombay, Salsette, and Caranja, and of the city of Surat, I designedly under-estimate at four hundred thousand. I am entitled to presume that if they had continued subject to native governments they would have shared the fate of the neighbouring provinces which are still so subject. I shall not be suspected of any tendency towards exaggeration by any man who is acquainted with the state of the opposite continent when I say, that in such a case an eighth of that population must have perished. Fifty thousand human beings have therefore been saved from death in its most miserable form by the existence of a British government in this island. I conceive myself entitled to take credit for the whole benefits of the importation, for that which was imported by private merchants as well as for that which was directly imported by the government, because, without the protec tion and security enjoyed under a British government, that commercial capital and credit would not have existed by which the pri vate importation was effected.

"The next particular which I have to state relates to those unhappy refugees who have found their way into our territory. From the month of March to the present time such of them as could labour have been employed in useful public works, and have been fed by government. The monthly average of these persons since March is nine thousand one hundred and twenty-five in Bombay, three thousand one hundred and sixty-two in Salsette, and in Surat a considerable number; though from that city I have seen no exact

returns.

"But many of these miserable beings are on their arrival here wholly unable to earn their subsistance by any, even the most mo

derate,

instruction, and we hope that the promise of his favourite author Cicero may some day be realised in respect to himself:

"Scribam ipse de me, multorum tamen exemplo, & clarorum virorum."

derate, labour. They expire in the road before they can be discovered by the agents of our charity. They expire in the very act of being carried to the place where they are to receive relief. To obviate, or at least to mitigate, these dreadful evils, a Humane Hos pital was established by government for the relief of those emigrants who were unable to labour. The monthly average of those who have been received since March into this hospital is one thousand and thirty in Bombay, about an hundred in Salsette, and probably three hundred at Surat.

"I myself visited this hospital, in company with my excellent friend Dr. Scott, and I witnessed a scene of which the impression will never be effaced from my mind. The average monthly mortality of the establishment is dreadful; it amounts to four hundred and eighty. At first sight this would seem to argue some monstrous defects in the plan or management of the institution. And if there were great defects in so new an establishment, hastily provided against so unexampled an evil, those who are accustomed to make due allowance for human frailty would find more to lament than to blame in such defects. But when it is considered that almost all these deaths occur in the first four or five days after admission, and that scarcely any disease has been observed among the patients but the direct effects of famine, we shall probably view the mortality as a proof of the deplorable state of the patients rather than of any defects in the hospital; and instead of making the hospital answerable for the deaths, we shall deem it entitled to credit for the life of every single survivor.

"Those who know me will need no assurances that I have not mad these observations from a motive so unworthy of my station and my character as that of paying court to any government. I am actuated by far other motives. I believe that knowledge on subjects.

so important cannot be too widely promulgated. I believe, if every government on earth were bound to give an annual account before an audience whom they respected, and who knew the facts, of what they had done during the year for improving the condition of their subjects, that this single and apparently slight circumstance would better the situation of all mankind; and I am desirous, if any British government in India should ever, in similar calamitous circumstances, forget its most important and sacred duties, that this example should be recorded for their reproach and disgrace.

"Upon the whole, I am sure that I considerably understate the fact in saying that the British government in this island has saved the lives of one hundred thousand persons; and, what is more im portant, that it has prevented the greater part of the misery through which they must have passed before they found refuge in death, besides the misery of all those who loved them, or who depended upon

their care.

"The existence, therefore, of a British government in Bombay in 1804 has been a blessing to its subjects. Would to God, that every government of the world could with truth make a similar declaration!

Many of you have been, and many will be, entrusted with au thority over multitudes of your fellow-creatures. Your means of doing good will not indeed be so great as those of which I have now described to you the employment and the effect. But they will be considerable. Let me hope that every one of you will be ambitions to be able to say to your own conscience, I have done something to better the condition of the people entrusted to my care. I take the liberty to assure you, that you will not find such reflections among the least agreeable or valuable part of that store which you lay up for your declining years."

THE