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THE

POLITICAL, COMMERCIAL, AND FINANCIAL STATE

OF THE

ANGLO-EASTERN EMPIRE.

CHAPTER I.

THE UNAVOIDABLE SOVEREIGNTY OF INDIA BY ENGLAND; -NECESSITY OF PREVENTING A FRENCH EMPIRE IN HINDOSTAN ;-ATROCIOUS

DESPOTISMS OF THE MAHO

MEDAN, MAHRATTA, AND FEUDAL GOVERNMENTS, FROM WHICH THE HINDOOS HAVE BEEN RESCUED BY THE BRITISH NATION.

IN contemplating the progress of Britain, from a small and insulated kingdom to a vast maritime empire, the annalist is compelled to seek some point whereon to rest, while reflecting on the events which conduce to the prosperity or decline of a nation; this historical landmark will be found at the period of the establishment of the East-India Company, an epoch when the commercial and naval power of this country emerged into active competition with surrounding rival states, each struggling for a monopoly of trade with the East, or for an extension of territorial dominion in regions which, to the eye of the poet, the philosopher, and the politician, presented the most glowing prospects of romance, of science, or of national aggrandizement.

At the close of the fourteenth century, the commerce and power of Genoa declined, while that of Venice increased

B

by reason of the latter enjoying, unrivalled, a monopoly of the India trade;* but at the end of the fifteenth century, on the discovery of a new continent in the West, and of a maritime passage to the East, the monarchs of Spain and Portugal settled by treaty a division of the world+ between their respective crowns.

By a tacit submission to these grasping projects the peninsula of Europe remained, during the sixteenth century, in the undisturbed possession of the valuable territories and lucrative commerce acquired by the Portuguese and Spaniards in Asia and America, until the destruction of the invincible Armada' by British heroism and skill, threw open the navigation of the ocean; and the subsequent establishment (in 1600) of one bodie corporate and politique' for trading to the East-Indies, by one of the most prudent and patriotic sovereigns that ever wielded the English sceptre, laid the foundation of that wonderful superiority which has made

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"Britannia need no bulwark,-her home is on the deep."

It not being the intention of this work to detail the various events which terminated in the conquest of Hindostan, it will be sufficient to observe, that during the seventeenth century the East-India Company confined themselves almost entirely to commerce, for the possession of which a hazardous, and even warlike struggle was carried on with foreign nations, which was with difficulty preserved during the avaricious military republic of Cromwell, the dissolute reign of his successor, and the bigoted rule of a second James.

• Via Egypt, Syria, and Constantinople.

The first stipulation of this extravagant agreement was, that all new-found countries to the northward of the Canaries should belong to Spain, and all southward to Portugal; a treaty was subsequently signed and sanctioned by Pope Julius II., by which the meridian of demarcation was removed 270 leagues farther west in favour of Portugal.

The systematic acquisition of territory commenced with the eighteenth century, more particularly in 1741; when the ambitious M. Dupleix, governor of Pondicherry, involved the Company in the wars of the Carnatic, and in the affairs of the contending princes of the south of India.

At the close of the eighteenth century, England had irrecoverably lost her transatlantic dominions in the West; but the richness of her commerce with the East, the transcendent achievements of her subjects, and the powerful empire which they had wrested from the prostrate and inveterate foes of their country in a distant hemisphere, was deservedly alike the theme of universal astonishment and approbation; and now, in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, after a deadly contest of years, and an immense expenditure of blood and treasure, the British influence is beneficially extended over the swampy Sunderbuns of Bengal and Arracan, the table-land of the Carnatic and Mysore, the fertile fields of Malwa, the arid plains of the Dûab, the jungly tracts of Orissa, the temperate region of Bahar, the lovely vales of the Deckan :-in fine, from the sacred Ganges and impetuous Burrampooter to the farfamed Indus and romantic-shored Nerbudda,-from the eternal snow-capt Himalaya, to the Indian ocean!-an empire spread over half a million square miles of the most fertile country on earth, with one hundred million of human beings subject to its sway, and over-canopying the ruins of the French and Danish territories, the insular and maritime supremacy of the Portuguese and Dutch, and the destructive dynasties of Ackbar and Tippoo Sultaun, of Sevajee, Scindiah, and Holkar !

Such being the extraordinary position of the Angloeastern empire, let us proceed to examine the causes which led to its establishment, and the advantages derivable therefrom to the natives of India, particularly as it is said

that our occupation of Hindostan is "a monstrous usùrpation;" that "the East-India Company and their ser± vants, armed as they were with power, and instigated by jealousy, have, from the earliest times to the present hour, been involved in quarrel, disturbance, and war with the natives of India, and who, to guard their own privileges, ascribe to others the outrages and disorders of which they themselves have been guilty."*

From the moment when Englishmen became possessed of a foot of land in India, dire necessity more than national aggrandizement impelled their advance to the sovereignty they now hold. The different kingdoms of Europe sought a preponderating balance of power, by the acquisition of dominion in Asia, and if England had refused to play for the extraordinary stake, which Napoleon wisely foresaw would place her at the head of the potentates of the earth, the commanding influence of her opinions and councils (whether for good or ill) would have expired with the last century. Not only, therefore, was there an imperious necessity to prevent, by every possible means, the domination of French authority in India or in Egypt, but there also arose the peculiar rights of security and vicinage, the enforcement of which became a matter, not merely of expediency or prudence, but of absolute requirement. Mr. Burke said and proved, that THE LAW OF NEIGHBOURHOOD "is founded on the principle that no use should be made of a man's liberty of operating on his property, from whence detriment may justly be apprehended;" if this principle be admitted in private life, which the daily occurrences in our police reports prove, how much stronger is it among nations in political society, inasmuch as the happiness of a community is of far greater importance than that of an individual!

* Rickards' India, vol. i. p. 81.

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