rally known nor too much studied. We hope those of the East-India directors whose attention is not wholly engrossed with their patronage, will meditate seriously and conscientiously on these remarks. "In reasoning upon human events, independent of any immediate interposition of Providence, it is the duty of man in his individual state, and much more in a state of society, to consider the means he possesses for the accomplishment of any particular end. If, therefore, political wisdom be something more than an empty name, let us attend to that precept, which teaches us to compare the object we have in view with our capacity to obtain it; or to bring the subject more home to our reflexions, that Great Britain should well consult her ability to defend an empire, so distant and extensive, from the combined efforts of a French and Russian Asiatic army, assisted by those powers, whom rooted antipathies or recent injuries have alienated from our cause. Looking only to the map of India, England possesses a territory, great in extent, and flourishing in resources; the strength of a kingdom does not, however, consist in the extent of its dominions, or the number of its people, but in its union and compactness; in the celerity with which its strength may be called into action, and its forces made to bear upon any given point. Is it not then necessary to examine, how that power is united, how all the parts which connect the mighty empire of British India, are combined in any consistent whole? How is rebellion kept down at present, but by the strong arm of power? Are Scindiah and Holkar favourable to the British cause, or have they forgotten their recent defeats, and the prize of dominion snatched so rudely from their grasp? Have the other Mahratta powers assimilated with a government which has humbled their pride, and contracted the sphere of their exertions? The memory of the Chout (a grant now withheld, of a fourth part of the revenues of the southern provinces), the peculiar system of their government, their annual campaigns of plunder, the very collection of the revenues, which support the princes and the nation, always paid with reluctance, and for the most part extorted by force, will urge them to seize with avidity, the first moment which offers itself, of casting off an alliance, not cemented by affection, but imposed by a hard necessity. "The Rohillas have not forgotten the ungenerous interference of the British army in 1774, and the surrender of their liberties to the dominion of Oude. They are still brave, warlike, and industrious, and their incorporation with the British territories in Oude may rather prove a source of danger than of triumph. Is even the vassal state of Oude, so long the seat of British intrigues, so long accustomed to misrule and rebellion, pleased with the changes that have been made in her provinces, or inclined to favour the future designs of her Liege Lord? Are the Mahometan chieftains, the Jauts, or the Seiks, prepared to join the British standards, or to participate in the contest which must decide the fate of India? "Under a wise and able government, not a moment should be lost to resist an evil of such tremendous magnitude; and if the chances of war, or the effects of political arrangements have consigned so large a portion of Hindoostan to the British empire, no alternative remains but to meet the danger at the breach. Whilst disputes are agitated about forms and precedents, whilst divisions are made in the senate, and among the multitude, about the necessity of concession, or the justice of new acquisitions, behold the enemy is at the gates. No concession will disarrange the projects of the modern Alexander; no friendship or peace will soften his resentments, or disconcert his views. He has made the fall of England as indispensible as that of Carthage was to Rome; he has made his own aggrandizement to rest upon humbling his rival in the dust; and he looks to the subjection of British India, as the most effectual means of annihilating the British power in Europe. "In such a crisis, delay would be dangerous, fas est et ab hoste doceri.' Is the enemy brave and active, does he employ the best means to compass his purposes; let the policy of his rival be the same, let her counsels be dictated by the same prudence, and acted upon with the same resolution; the chances of success are then equalised, and the justice of the cause will at length preponderate. The power acquired by England in India, if wisely employed, may be the means of acquiring more, or rather of consolidating beyond the power of accident, that which it already possesses: but if with a foolish policy such measures are persisted in, the apparent motive, or ultimate aim of which, is only to divide, to weaken, and to irritate the native powers, without contributing any thing to their essential benefit; if they are led to suppose that our object is only plunder, or the gratification of a restless ambition; if any undue interference is made, or any interference sanctioned, hostile to the religious habits of the people, before others have been superinduced by time, a lenient government, and the fostering hand of education and refinement, by which alone the change from ancient opinions becomes Jess sensible, and the dislike to new principles less repugnant, England will act the part of a state madly bent upon its ruin, and only kindle the flame for its own extinction. "It is indeed easy for a government to murder and destroy its subjects, without adding a particle of strength or of happiness to its empire; and though, by spreading divisions among its neighbours, its nominal power may for a time be augmented, the evil will eventually fall on its own head, and sap the foundation of its welfare and security. The real strength of an empire is in the wisdom and justice of its government. The principles of justice will remain firm and unshaken, whether influencing individuals or nations, when all other systems have perished and decayed. Already is the English frontier of Oude advanced to within three or four hundred miles of the Afghan provinces of Lahore and Cashmere;-the thirst of dominion should now yield to the benevolent design of ameliorating [meliorating] the condition of the natives, and removing by lenient measures their rooted prejudices against a foreign in Auence. The Hindus and Mahomedans may, perhaps, be dra gooned into a formal profession of Christianity, or be compelled to show tokens of love and submission; but the obligations imposed by such severe expedients are as weak, as the injustice that dictated them is dangerous and flagrant. They will only serve to increase the alienation which it is an imperious duty to remove, and add to the myriads whom the successful march of an invading army. will draw round its standards. "If India be worth preserving, and its commerce be a main source of our present political greatness, the energies of the state must be instantly called into action, in adopting the most prompt and decisive measures, to avert a blow which threatens not only the British Empire in the East, but perhaps the existence of Britain as an independent nation. Whatever saliguine hopes might have been indulged and countenanced in Parliament, of the growing prosperity of India in 1801, have now, it may be presumed, in consequence of the revolutions both in Europe and Asia, become more precarious: the dangers threatening from the East cannot but rivet the attention even of the most ignorant and thoughtless; nor can the pressure of the times in 1784, be compared to the alarming crisis of 1809. Nothing but a happy combination of efforts, both at home and abroad, can secure the empire from the storm that is ready to assail it. Nothing but a zeal united with knowledge, a courage directed by prudence, a wisdom uninfluenced by party or prejudice, can save the commerce, and with it the sovereignty of India, from falling under the influence of France. "It may perhaps be urged, that the late revolution in Spain, and the present convulsed state of Europe, may lead to political changes, which will remove to a greater distance the dangers we have been describing. But it will be of little avail, to have removed the evil, if it may recur with more alarming symptoms, and probably at a period, when we are less prepared to meet it. It requires, indeed, no great effort of ingenuity to prove, that the consequences of our late measures have diminished the security of our eastern empire. But men are naturally pleased with the brilliant detail of conquests; and look not so much to the result, as to the splendour of a victory. Whilst the irritation of the public mind continues in Hindoostan, whilst the French, whoever is their ruler, are enabled to intrigue with the bordering states, the seeds of disaffection may easily be matured to revolt, and occasions will never be wanting to diffuse them." P. xxxviii. Here we must pause, to inquire what is the actual state of the British administration in Hindoostan. How are "all the parts which connect the mighty empire of British India, combined in any consistent whole?" What are the unity and energy of a government destined to resist such a powerful and effective combination of enemies? Why a vast and partly unknown empire, occupying an extensive - tract of land along the coast of the Indian ocean, from the shores of Persia to those of China, divided into rival presidencies, with a nominal supremacy, but without any reciprocal responsibility; weak through their mutual jealousies, and despotic from their weakness-a government which has all the inconsistency, imbecility, and cruelty of democracy, without its national enthusiasm; which makes treaties to-day and deviates from them to-morrow; which is administered by deputies, who are the more honoured the more wealth they accumulate, or who are virulently persecuted in proportion to the superiority of their talents and integrity; a government which has as many features, as many modes of acting, as it is composed of individuals. Such an incongruous system. of oppositions and contradictions never before occurred! A system, if so it may be called, where the directors have collectively and individually different views; where the governors again are influenced by other considerations; where the civil and military authorities wage an eternal war of emolument; and where it is deemed necessary, in order to maintain obedience, to oppose, instead of uniting, all the subordinate branches against each other. A power so constituted may excite our surprise at its existence, but most assuredly cannot inspire respect, or beget a hope of its permanency. In this country, the contest for authority between the ministers of the day and the directors destroys all responsibility in either. There is, too fre quently, a want of unanimity between the different presidents and the commander-in-chief. In the presidial councils, one class of members uniformly oppose another, and all are decided against the bench of king's judges, while his majesty's officers and army treat with contempt those of the Company. Can such a state of things long resist the machinations of a vigilant and observing enemy like Buonaparte? If it should, its rulers must ascribe it to blind fortune, and not to political wisdom. India, however, like all tropical climates, is not the land of patriotism, still less is a regard for the public welfare a virtue of adventurers; its fall therefore will be coolly and carelessly antici、 * The late case of Lord Lauderdale strikingly illustrates the absurdity of a system, in which political measures do not rest on their propriety, or the authoritative judgment of an individual, but on the intrigues of opposite and contending interests.-Rev. pated, while the fortunes of the guilty authors of its ruin will be fully sufficient to procure them a temporary immunity from condign punishment. In these observations, Mr. Chatfield will perceive, that although we venture to pronounce the over-land march of a French army to India highly improbable, if not impracticable, and certainly unnecessary; yet we are far from wishing to defeat the object of his public-spirited efforts to attract the attention of statesmen to the imminent dangers and perilous situation of the British settlements in the East. On the contrary, we are gratified to find a work founded on historical facts, which may perhaps enable our legislators to form more just and practical notions of what our Indian government should be, what are the dangers to which it is.exposed, and what are the indispensable means necessary to its salvation. We believe, few, if any, of the directors, do not now feel the necessity of a general and radical change in the India system; they know its weakness too well not to be convinced of its incapacity to resist French intrigue, and more than one of them, we have been assured, lately sold out India stock to a considerable amount. It is indeed impossible that men can shut their eyes on the rapid progress of French missionaries, as well as French emissaries, in the very centre of the British possessions. It is a fact not less true than extraordinary, that, in the jurisdiction of the presidency of Fort St. George alone, there are upwards of 400,000 French Papists, all of whom are French au cœur, and the most decided enemies to Protestants. These men, although nominally Christians, joined the Hindus, and assisted in the massacre of the English at Vellore. The number, indeed, and influence of the Papists in Hindoostan, and their sanguinary hostility to Protestants, as well as their arts in exciting the same hostile spirit in the placable Hindus, have at length attracted the attention of the discordant rulers. But it is now, perhaps, too late to remedy the ruinous consequences of such policy, when the enemy is at the gates. How, we may ask, did the zeal of the enemies to the conversion of the Hindus slumber, while near half a million were converted into French papists before their eyes? Were they less apprehensive of the ulterior effects of papistical superstition than of protestant rationality? did they suppose popish slavery more |