Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

interdict the suttees, until the opinion of the native officers of the Bengal army were had, as to the feelings of the troops on a subject which, as well as infanticide,* involved the dearest rights of humanity, and which in any other country but India, would have instantly fallen beneath the execration of public odium. When we see so powerful an opposition to the abolition of such a diabolical rite as female cremation, let us beware lest we proceed too fast; let us temper prudence with benevolence, policy with principle, and justice with expediency..

It is well known that the Indian governments have spared no exertions to put a stop to this unnatural crime in India, among their allies as well as vassals; but unfortunately, pride, poverty, and avarice are leagued with superstition to perpetuate these horrible sacrifices. It is stated that Major Walker, previous to his departure from Guzerat, received the most affecting compliment which a good man could receive, in being welcomed at the gate of the palace, on some public occasion, by a procession of girls of high rank who owed their lives to him, and who came to kiss his clothes, and throw wreaths of flowers over him, as their deliverer and second father.

CHAPTER VII.

[ocr errors]

-REFU

MOTIVES

THE COLONIZATION OF INDIA BY ENGLISHMEN;
TATION OF MR. RICKARDS' CALUMNY;-PETITION OF
THE NATIVES AGAINST COLONIZATION;
WHICH INFLUENCED THE COURT OF DIRECTORS IN
GRANTING LICENSES;-IF EUROPEANS HAD BEEN
ALLOWED AN INDISCRIMINATE RESORT TO INDIA, THE
LANDED PROPERTY OF THE HINDOOS WOULD HAVE
PASSED INTO THE HANDS OF THE FORMER.

THE subject on which I am now about to treat is one of great importance, not merely to the mercantile prosperity of India and England, but also to the continued connection of both countries: I mean the colonization of India. Before entering on it however, I cannot help protesting against the unjust, and I will add untrue assertion of Mr. Rickards, that by the East-India Company "British merchants in India, have ever been considered interlopers and enemies,—sometimes exposed to virulent persecutions and barbarous cruelty, and uniformly branded with the imputation of being incorrigible disturbers of the public peace."*

Does Mr. Rickards support this monstrous charge by a shadow of proof? No! not an iota. He quotes a "note" from Mr. Mills' work (a gentleman who has never been in India), the utmost tendency of which† is

• Rickards' India, vol. i. p. 82.

+ Even this very note is quoted, it appears, by Mr. Mill, from another old work, entitled " Hamilton's New Account of India, p. 232."

to shew that Sir Josiah Child wrote to the government of Bombay in 1691 (!)" to crush those who invaded the ground of the Company's pretensions in India!!"-The allegation against the Indian government is in itself so serious, that I cannot help expressing my astonishment that a person of Mr. Rickards' age and experience, as well as standing in society, could have dared to utter so gross a calumny. Where are the instances of "barbarous cruelty" which Mr. Rickards asserts to have been perpetrated on British merchants? In what records are they "branded as incorrigible disturbers of the public peace ?" Sir, I am gratified that you have presumptuously uttered so outrageous a mis-statement, for it will lead every unprejudiced person to look with contempt on your unworthy endeavours to raise a popular outcry against a body, to which you yourself are principally indebted for the station you now enjoy. Lest, however, there should be some who, dazzled with a name, are ever ready to lend a willing ear to those, who announce themselves as 'lights to lighten the Gentiles,' I will not content myself with merely offering a negative to the foregoing infamous charge, but prove its falsity by a detail of irrefutable facts.

The words " ever been" require that I should look even beyond the present century for refutation; and the first document that presents itself, is a table prepared by Mr. Hodgson, of the Madras civil service, and delivered into the House of Lords, 6th May 1830, to shew the attempts which have been made in the Madras territory to cultivate silk, cotton, cochineal, and other articles, by free merchants, who received every possible assistance from the Company's government.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Ganjam

1796

and

1803

Between Grant of land for the erection Unsatisfactory.
of sugar works, to Messrs.
Smith and Colley, reverted
to a Mr. Dick. The making
of rum tried; sugar was not
cultivated by these gentle-
men; the cane was bought.

1800

[blocks in formation]

as

regarded the breeding of horses and rearing cocoanuts.

A lease of two pergunnahs, Unsatisfactory
containing many villages, to
Major Evans, superintend-
ent of the Company's stud,
to facilitate the breeding of
horses. Cocoa-nut planta-
tions on a great scale were
tried. Major Evans was here
a farmer of revenue, or Eu-
ropean Zemindar.

A lease of many villages to Unsatisfactory
Messrs. Campbell and Keat- as regarded in-
ing, for the cultivation and digo.
manufacture of indigo, &c.
These gentlemen were Eu-
ropean Zemindars during
the period of their lease.

A grant of land to Dr. Rox- Unsatisfactory
burgh, near Samulcottah, and abandon-
for sugar plantations and ed.
exotics. This grant was not

of any great extent, and did
not include the superiority
over any native village.
Pepper tried, I believe.

[blocks in formation]

Various grants of small plots Unsatisfactory
of ground were made in
these and the provinces
named above, for the crea-
tion of mulberry and opuntia
gardens, for the rearing of
silk-worms and of the cochi-
neal insect.

Grant of privilege to work Unsatisfactory
copper mines to Captain as

Ashton, H. M. 12th regt.

regarded

copper.

Grant of land (part endowed Unsatisfactory.
land of a pagoda at Vulloor)
to Mr. Popham, for the cul-
tivation of Bourbon cotton

[blocks in formation]
« AnteriorContinuar »