The British settlements in Asia were surrounded by neighbouring states under the most arbitrary institutions; indeed, diametrically opposed to all rightly acknowledged principles of nature; governed by men of a restless, turbulent, and treacherous* disposition, who were little better than successful robbers, or cold-blooded assassins on an extensive scale; of consummate skill in breaking as well as making treaties; who admitted openly, that they considered war as a source of revenue,† and who vehemently sought to effect the complete expulsion of the English from India, by the most powerful home, as well as foreign armaments. The latter were, therefore, in self-defence, unavoidably compelled, not only to adopt measures of precaution, but to fortify themselves against contingent danger, from men with whom no moral law was binding,§ no treaty

*The treacherous conduct of Tippoo Sultaun, in co-operating with the French, and stimulating every native power to rise simultaneously, for the purpose of "utterly destroying the English in India" (words of Tippoo's secret circular), at a moment when he was making the greatest professions of friendship to our government, is one instance out of many (the Peishwa's conduct is another) of the feeble reed we had to rely on, in the promises or faith of the native despots.

The Mahratta chieftains, for instance, were always prepared for hostilities, and made annual campaigns into the districts which had not yet been brought into an actual state of servitude: these devastating excursions were denominated Mul-uk-gherè, a Persian compound of mul-uk, territory, and ghere, to take possession of. The state of the surrounding country may be readily conceived from such yearly visitants.

The regular army of Scindiah, when he declared his "determined resolution of extirpating the English," consisted of ten formidable brigades, a well-served train of artillery consisting of five hundred guns, and two hundred thousand cavalry, all of which were more or less officered by experienced Frenchmen. The standing army of Holkar while at peace with us, was 150,000 cavalry and 40,000 well disciplined foot, besides numerous auxiliaries, among whom were the brave Rohillas, who offered to serve three years without pay, for the sake of plunder, when Holkar would attack the English.

The pious precept of the koran, which Tippoo held forth to the Mahomedans throughout Asia, to induce them to join his standard in "a holy war against the English infidels," (Tippoo's secret circular,) consisted of that passage which declares that," THE HIGHEST MERIT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD IS TO MAKE WAR AGAINST INFIDELS!"

permanent, and with whom might was at all times right.

Such being the character of the aggregate of the Indian princes, we may imagine, even without the aid of history, what was the basis of their governments.

The Mahomedan dynasties were built on usurpation, cemented with the blood of the feeble and innocent, and maintained by sequestrating the riches of the wealthy ;— the policy of the Moslems in Asia, and indeed in every country where they obtained a footing, was complete subjugation, universal dominion, and uncontrolled despotism;-their ruling principles were avarice, sensuality, an imposing pageantry,† and a conversion to the faith of the Koran.

The Mahratta territories were considered as predatory acquisitions, to be held only by the sword, for with the wily and aspiring Brahmin war and plunder were the two great sources of revenue ;‡ hence the quartering of a Mahratta army in a province was more destructive than myriads of locusts, or years of drought and pestilence; while of their rulers it has been truly observed, that their musnuds were their horse-cloths, their sceptres their swords, and their dominions the wide line of their desolating marches. §

* Lord Cornwallis tried in vain to introduce the principle of European treaties into Indian diplomacy, the failure of which is exemplified in the triple alliance between the British Government, the Nizam, and the Peishwa; while the system of defensive subsidiary alliances, from not being, until of late, carried far enough, was equally unproductive of beneficial results.

† A deep knowledge of the infirmities of our nature, prompted the Moors in Spain, as well as in India, to captivate the weak minds of their subjects, by works of splendid architecture, which, after the lapse of centuries, remain as monuments of the daring genius and slavish submission of the conquerors and of the conquered.

The reign of Alia Bhye is a noble exception: but it is such a solitary one as only to place her virtues, and the vices of other rulers, in more striking relief on the historical canvas.

§ The Mahrattas yearly sacrificed to each of their war-horses a

sheep,

The small principalities which existed in different parts of Hindostan,* were in some measure a compound of the two foregoing governments, with the addition of constant jealousies, disputes and war; thus the ploughman was invariably seen armed at his rustic occupation, and the shepherd, while peacefully tending his herds, always prepared for the battle-field.+

Each and all of these governments framed their system of politics on the cunning or adroitness with which they could foment dissension among their rivals or neighbours; money became the essence of power, for their armies were chiefly composed of mercenary troops who knew no other fidelity than their pay, and, as was the case with the Prætorian guards, Strelitz and Janissaries throned and dethroned whom they pleased, or served those best who rewarded them with the highest largesses. The truth of the foregoing account cannot be denied by Mr. Rickards himself, as the following dreadful depictations of Indian despotisms, which I extract from an appalling variety of massacres and rapine in Mr. Rickards' work, will prove; and I think that after perusal the reader will agree with me, that it is a matter of astonishment as well as regret, how Mr. Rickards could have penned these eloquent but horrible details, and yet declare that "wars, usurpation, and rapine, equal to any thing in the preceding ages, have marked the rise and progress of the British dominions in India!"

sheep, and sprinkled it with the blood; and at the festival which took place after annually taking the field to collect chout (tribute), the chiefs cut each a handful of corn with his sword, to denote the predatory object of the undertaking

* The word Hindostan' is used throughout this work to signify the whole peninsula of Asia.

+ Throughout the western provinces of India the long continued fears of the peasantry have not yet subsided sufficiently to allow of their appearing abroad unarmed.

Mr. Rickards' description of the Mahomedan dynasties in India." Throughout the whole period of the Mahomedan ascendancy in the south, the same enormities, the never-failing accompaniments of their presence and power, are recorded to have been uniformly and unceasingly perpetrated, as have been already described in the northern provinces.*

"To review the occurrences of this period, would only be to give further examples of the same unprovoked and devastating warfare, the same struggles for power, the same unbridled thirst of conquest, the same perfidy, treason, and private assassination; the same disregard of any tie, whether of nature, of honesty, or of honour, and the same persecution, oppression, and massacre of the Hindoos.

"The scenes, indeed, of butchery and blood, are often mentioned as too horrid to relate-thousands-twentyseventy-a hundred thousand souls being sacrificed at one time, without the least remorse.‡

"The treasuries of these southern princes were always filled from the enormous plunder of their defenceless subjects; and the system of Mahomedan exaction, sometimes under the name of contribution, but permanently under that of revenue, being every where the same, with the

It is impossible to quote the hundred preceding pages, in which Mr. Rickards details the most revolting barbarities of the Mahomedans towards the Hindoos; the cutting off the noses of thousands at a time, maiming them in every shape, whipping to death, women devouring their own children in agony, and myriads upon myriads during the eighteenth century, wantonly slaughtered in cold blood.

+ Mr. Rickards speaks in several places of it being "no uncommon thing for 50,000 and 100,000 souls to be massacred at once, in which neither sex nor age were spared;" and of the blood of the most venerable priests, learned men, and citizens, being used for tempering the earth with and plastering the city walls!

Mahomed, son of Alla-ud-deen, "one of those southern monsters," died, it is true, acknowledging "all is vanity," but not until after gratifying during his life "every sensual passion, slaughtering 500,000 persons, and ruining and depopulating the Carnatic."

power of rapacious armies every where to enforce it, the fate of the unhappy people was here, as in the north, stamped with the same wretchedness. There was no security for person or property; the latter more especially was always a fair object of seizure whenever it was known to exist,* and the mass of the people were thus reduced to a state of poverty from which there was no escape, and of violence and oppression against which there was no redress."+

What a revolting description of despotism is the foregoing delineation of a Mahomedan dynasty! While perusing it the blood curdles in the veins, and the genial current which in general flows around the heart, becomes almost frozen in its course. Yet Mr. Rickards has the hardihood (I will not give it a worse term) to say that "the causes which first sunk, have ever since continued to keep down the many in the lowest depths of degradation and wretchedness;" that "improvement was impracticable where fire and sword were the moving principles of every existing government;" and that "every change has been to the people, but a change of oppressors!" While in another place Mr. Rickards observes, after stating that the "loose principles of banditti were, on a larger scale, those of the Asiatic courts for seven or eight centuries; whoever has a taste for atrocities of this nature; for details of lawless rapine, and wholesale butchery of the species; for flaying and impaling alive, and every species of torture;

Even to the present day the Hindoos have not entirely got over the dread of being known to possess money, or of having gold and silver utensils. Vast sums of money remain buried in the earth from generation to generation, and not unfrequently a sudden death deprives the inheritor of treasure, of a knowledge where it lies concealed. Those who have conversed with wealthy natives can confirm me in this particular.-R. M. M.

+ Rickards' India, vol. i. page 223.

‡ Ibid. p. 220.