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to the produce of America, and the manufacturing industry of England; but sugar, to the production of which the lands of the petitioners might be turned, is loaded with such heavy duties in England, as effectually to shut the market against the industry of the East-Indians, when turned to this particular commodity;" the petitioners, therefore, rightly assert, that "the labouring and manufacturing classes of natives especially, are already suffering grievous hardships, in consequence of the principles of trade and commerce which actuate the English councils, not being extended to India!"

This is a true libel on Great Britain; it ought to make her senators and statesmen blush. Let me, however, try to call them to a sense of what is due to their own country, as well as to India, by placing in juxta-position the rates of duty charged on articles of East-India produce, as compared with West-India and other Colonial produce.*

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The following enormous rate of duty per cent. on articles of East-India produce, will shew still more the detriment which in reality impedes Eastern commerce:

* From M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary.

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Since the foregoing was written I have received a copy of Mr. Poulett Thomson's proposed schedule of duties to be inserted in the Customs Bill about to be introduced to the notice of Parliament. In some instances it will be productive of good to India, in others no relief is afforded. On "all sorts of gums" for instance, the duty is fixed at six shillings per cwt.; by the former rate of duty, gum arabic, an article in extensive use among manufacturers, paid no more than it does at present if imported from a British possession, while formerly the duty on that imported from a foreign possession was twelve shillings per cwt.; this, in fact, is tantamount to an increase of the duty on the gum from a British possession ;-the duty on lac dye and shellac was formerly only five per cent., now it is raised to one and six shillings per cwt.; tragacanth, an Eastern gum which paid formerly only one per cent., is raised to the squaring duty; it is the same with other Asiatic gums of great use in manufactures, while those of which the most trifling quantity is required, such as ammoniac, for expensive but valueless medicines or perfumes as regards the poor,

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According to the reduced price, the duty is of course lowered. The Chinaman has a good right to complain of the English taxation on his tea and sugar, while we are forcing our cotton goods on him as much as possible.

are brought to the level of the gums used for varnishes, dyes, &c.

Refined camphor is reduced from £4. 13s. 4d. to £2. per cwt.; unrefined ditto, from 9s. 4d. to 1s. So far, so good. I am rejoiced to find castor oil (which Bengal can afford of such excellent quality under Mr. Gordon's* improved, but expensive machinery), reduced from £1. 8s. to 2s. 6d. per cwt. Mr. Thomson has had the good sense to reduce considerably the duty on essential oils; senna leaves also, which the British possessions in India can so well afford in abundance, are reduced from 18.3d, to 6d. per lb.; this is hardly low enough, if Mr. Thompson desires to make England an emporium for India produce-a point well deserving his attention, since India is not allowed to manage her own foreign commerce, but is placed at the caprice of the minister of the day in England.

There are other material reductions, which will do more to augment British commerce with the East, than all the petitions and declamations against the East-India Company's monopoly would obtain in one hundred years; olibanum is lowered from £2 to 6s. per cwt.; rhubarb from 28. 8d. to 1s. per lb.; pearl and raw sago from 15s. to 1s. per cwt.; dragon's blood from £9. 6s. 8d. to 4s. per cwt.; aniseed from £3 to 58. per cwt.; tapioca from 10s. to 1s. per cwt.; aloes and many other minor articles to 2d. per lb. : but the greatest of all still remain untouched, yet the WestIndians are loudly calling for further reductions; even while I am now writing, Mr. Burge has given notice of a motion for lessening duties on West-India produce.†

Sir Charles Forbes, also, with that enthusiastic feeling

• Mr. Gordon is an Indo-Briton, and one of the most experienced chemists in India. 350,000lbs. of Castor Oil are now annually imported; it makes a beautiful oil for burning in lamps.

On coffee, from 6d. to 4d. per lb. ; on vinegar, from £18. 18s. to £2. 2s. per tun; on ginger, from 10s. to ls. per cwt.; on pimento, from 5d. to 1d. per lb.

for the natives of India which has characterized every act of his life, has given notice of a motion for the reduction of the duty on articles of East-India produce: but it has been plainly intimated to him that he will not succeed in his benevolent and honest intentions.*

In closing this chapter I take leave to remark, that while writing it I have been looking at the question of free-trade with India, not with a narrow or sectarian view, but with a desire to place it in a clear and comprehensive manner, before the candid reader and statesman, who has no interest to serve but that of his country. The mode to benefit India and England (for while united their interests are identified, and a partial or temporary benefit to the one will be certainly succeeded by a punishment which sooner or later overtakes injustice), is not by holding out delusive anticipations which may never be realized, but by putting a shoulder to the wheel, and placing India in some better and fairer position with regard to her produce and manufactures;-not by squeezing the uttermost drop of the vital fluid from her famishing frame, while denying her the means of re-invigorating it, but by generous and just treatment with regard to the duties on her sugar, coffee, rum, cotton, tobacco, &c., pouring the life-blood in her veins, and thus creating a healthy and vigorous existence, which will form the best basis (that of reciprocal interest) for the mutual happiness and lengthened connexion of both

countries.

The Honourable Baronet anxiously watched the Customs Bill while passing through the Committee, in the hope of procuring some reduction on East-India coffee, saltpetre, &c., but there seems to be no feeling in the House for the Indian agriculturist or manufacturer; so long as the latter can receive cotton goods and saltpetre, nothing else is cared for; but England sooner or later will suffer for her unjust and ungenerous treatment of the Indian.

CHAPTER V.

THE FOREIGN ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA;-CIVIL GOVERNMENT, MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS, AND EXPENDITURE THEREOF;-TABULAR STATISTICS OF THE POFULATION, IN PROPORTION TO THE NUMBER OF CIVIL AND MILI

TARY SERVANTS, REVENUE, AREA, &C., AND THE EXECUTIVE, LEGISLATIVE, AND DIPLOMATIC CHARGES OF THE THREE PRESIDENCIES;-THE PROPOSAL OF MAKING THE INDIAN ARMY A ROYAL COLONIAL ESTABLISHMENT!

IN a preceding chapter, I detailed at some length the home government of the Anglo-Eastern empire; a brief analysis of the foreign government will be requisite to form a connected view of the whole. As in the former instance, I begin at the base; stating the means by which the civil and military services of the Company are supplied as well as managed, reserving the judicial for a separate chapter.

THE CIVIL ADMINISTRATION OF INDIA.

The civil service of India, from which the executive, financial, judicial, and commercial departments are supplied, from the provincial magistracy to a seat at the Council Board (or sometimes to the governor-generalship*), originates principally+ from the students of Haileybury College, an establishment founded by the East

* The Right Honourable Lord Teignmouth, for instance.

+ By a resolution of the Court of Directors in January 1832, no person will in future be appointed to a writership "unless he shall have passed two terms at the college."

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