human blood,* nor of the arts of treachery and intrigue, when power or dominion were to be acquired, which they, like the Mahomedans, equally believe to be a gift from heaven, and victory a sure proof of success."+

Many formidable bands of Hindoos, who, like the Mahrattas, gloried in the "inestimable advantage of having a finger in every man's dish," afford ample scope for details of cruelty and devastation; such, for instance, as the formidable freebooting Pindarries, who, congregated as an immense army of mounted robbers and ruffians, spread ruin throughout a great part of India, and required all the talents of the Marquis of Hastings, and the largest British force ever brought into the field, for their suppression. Even now (in 1832), a band of terrific robbers named Coolies, and professional murderers called Thugs (composed principally, as regards the leaders, of Brahmins), are creating alarm and destroying property about Mirzapore and Benares-so difficult is it to calm and settle a people who had long been the propagators of anarchy, and who lived by crime and bloodshed!

The general tendency of Mr. Rickards' work, when ridiculing" the inspired high-priests of the temple in Leadenhall-street," is to prove that the British administration of India has "but slenderly alleviated the rigour of the despotisms under which the Hindoos have so long

The diabolical practices of infanticide, female cremation, and human cremation, all of which are encouraged by the Brahmins, sufficiently illustrate this position, independent of Mr. Rickards' note from Colonel Wilks' account of Mysore, relating to the Hindoos torturing their enemies, "decorating their goddess with a necklace of human skulls, and a wreath composed of the noses and ears of their captives." However such barbarity may be palliated by considering the persecutions to which the Hindoos were subjected by the Mahomedans, it is rather stretching a point too much to be continually lauding them as the most virtuous, humane, amiable, and civilized people on earth!

† Vol. i. p. 229.

Vol. i. P. 69.

groaned."* I cannot, therefore, close this chapter without adducing the testimony of the author before me respecting the governments of the minor princes who were to be found scattered over various parts of India, and who, according to Mr. Rickards and Colonel Wilks, are accused of privately assassinating four hundred priests (the only number they could collect together who would trust them), while passing from the audience-hall into a pretended refreshment chamber, because they opposed themselves to the moderate request of a tax upon "opening a door!"-or of surrounding with large bodies of cavalry any community of their subjects who shewed the least resistance to oppression !†

The petty princes of India described by Mr. Rickards. -"The kingdom of Mysore, which arose out of the ruins of Vijeyanuggur, exhibits also a like origin in military adventure and blood, and in a similar series of intriguing usurpations, murder, and conquest."-" Each petty chief, by counterfeiting grants from Delhi, laid his claim to districts; the country was torn to pieces with civil wars, and groaned under every species of domestic confusion; vil

*Notwithstanding this, Mr. Rickards tells the Select Committees of the Houses of Lords and Commons in 1830-31, and the Board of Control in 1832, that the East-India Company are the very fittest agents which his Majesty's Ministers can entrust the government of India to for the future; while he has written two large volumes to shew that their past administration is no better than any of their predecessors. My high opinion of Mr. Rickards will be found in the work which I have written on the Tea-trade, p. 137: it is, therefore, exceedingly painful to have to note discrepancies which materially affect either horn of the dilemma Mr. R. may ultimately fix on. It is, I think, evident that his generous enthusiasm for freedom in politics has blinded him, as much as his self-interest in commercial matters has swayed his judgment; in fact, his plan of reform for the home and foreign government of India, stamps him as as a dangerous partizan. + Vol. i. p. 232.

In the Carnatic, for example, no less than twenty petty chiefs assumed the title of Nabob. One of these "intriguing sinners" took the cognomen of Nizam-ul-Mulk (composer of the state); but the country exhibited, as Mr. R. says, a scene of boundless exaction

and

lainy was practised in every form; all law and religion were trodden under foot; the bonds of private friendship, of connexions, as well as of society, were broken;* and every individual, as if amidst a forest of wild beasts, could rely upon nothing but the strength of his own arm."

Another set." The Polygars, like the northern zemindars, were originally military adventurers, or leaders of banditti, or revenue or police officers employed under former governments, and who, availing themselves of times of weakness or distress, or the absence of a controlling force, established themselves in their respective districts. Each Polygar, in proportion to the extent of his jurisdiction and power, had forts and military retainers, and exercised within his own limits all the powers of an Asiatic despot. In the history of the Pollams (the districts governed by the Poligars), anarchy, misrule, lawless power, insurrections, civil and external wars, ravages and famines, are the most prominent features. When the contribution demanded by a Poligar, the amount of which depended on his conscience, was resisted or not quietly submitted to, it was enforced by torture and the whip; the whole village was put in confinement; every occupation interdicted; the cattle pounded; the inhabitants taken captive into the pollam lands, or murdered; in short, every species of outrage continued to be committed, until the object of the Poligar was accomplished." (P. 485.)

and rapacity on the part of government and its officers, of evasion on that of its inhabitants, or of collision between them and the public servants, while the revenue diminished even with the cultivation.

An extract from Mr. Orme's works will shew the general insecurity of private rights under the government of the petty princes :— "The mechanic or artificer will only work to the measure of his necessities: he dreads to be distinguished. If he becomes too noted for having acquired a little more money than others of his craft, that will be taken from him; if conspicuous for the excellence of his skill, he is seized upon by some person in authority, and obliged to work for him night and day on much harder terms than his usual labour acquired when at liberty."-Book I. chap. iv.

C

Another Specimen." In the northern circars, when they came into the Company's possession, not only the forms but even the remembrance of civil authority seemed to be totally lost; the Zemindars had all forts and armed forces for their defence, the more powerful using their force as opportunities favoured to extend their possessions, and swallow up minor zemindaries."

One more instance." The Jaghire* was twice invaded by Hyder Ali, once in 1768, and again in 1780. In the latter, more especially, fire and sword seemed to contend for pre-eminence in the work of havoc and destruction. At the close of the war in 1784, the country exhibited few signs of having been inhabited, save in the bones of murdered bodies, or the naked walls of villages and temples, the melancholy remains of an almost universal conflagration. To the miseries of a desolating war, succeeded a famine death and emigration nearly depopulated the country." (Vol. i. p. 419.)

But why continue details at which the heart sickens?— why relate further instances of one hundred thousand men being put to death in cold blood in one day?-why describe streets of cities made impassable by heaps of slain?why describe the pitiless slaughter of thousands of mothers with their smiling infants at their breasts?—why describe the fury of respectable citizens, who, beholding the pollution and ravishment of their wives and daughters, their wealth seized by the hand of rapine, and they themselves insulted, beaten, and abused, with one consent shutting the gates of their cities, murdering their consorts and children, setting fire to their houses, and then rushing out

* Now called Chingleput, a distance of 2,440 square miles in extent, and in the immediate vicinity of Madras.

like madmen against their enemies?—why, I ask, depict any more of scenes such as these, which every where crimson the page of Indian history prior to our conquest ?* A christian and a philanthropist would have said, that any power, European or Asiatic, that would have interfered to put a stop to such harrowing scenes would be entitled to the highest approbation which man could bestow; not thus, however, is it with those who can see no merit in that which does not originate with themselves, or square with their notions of government. If the East-India Company had never added one shilling to the wealth of England, one inch of dominion to her crown, or one leaf of laurel to its glory, the mere circumstance of establishing peace in a country such as India, which for countless ages had been a prey to every species of atrocity which degrade men far below the level of the brutes, and which, under a less genial clime, and fertile territory, would have converted the whole land into a howling wilderness; they would most assuredly deserve to be ranked among the noblest benefactors of the human race. If, therefore, the subsequent chapters shew that they have prudently fulfilled the almost sacred duties which so extraordinarily and unexpectedly devolved on them some better treatment is due to them from their countrymen than an implicit reliance on statements, as destitute of decency as of truth, which it has been so much the fashion of late to give credence to, while it will be admitted that the acquisition of the Indian empire by Great Britain has been the greatest blessing ever conferred on that long distracted land.

According to the profound Mill, and comprehensive Major Rennell, rebellion, massacres, and barbarous conquests, make up the history of India from the remotest period.