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THIS BOOK
FORMS PART OF THE
ORIGINAL LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHICAN
BOUGHT IN EUROPE
1838 TO 1839
BY
ASA GRAY

tº * fº

AN
IN QUIR Y
I N TO TH F
EXPEDIENCY OF APPLYING THE PRINCIPLES
O F
Colonial Jolttp
T () THE
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA;
AN ESSENTIAL CHANGE
3|antſet, Jemureg,
And, consequently, in the
CHARACTER OF ITS INHABITANTS.

{...,
* ºt tº t. i. '74 tº *...* *
—e——º.
J %
LONDON :
PRINTED FOR J. M. RICHARDson, 23, corn HILL,
OPPOSITE THE ROYAL EXCHANGE.
1822.
Quod hodie esset imperium, nisi salubris providentia victos per-
miscuisset victoribus —SENEcA.
Quid aliud exitio Lacedaemoniis et Atheniensibus fuit, quanquam
armis pollerent, nisi quod victos pro alienigenis arcebant?—
TAcrTUs.
The stock of materials by which any nation is rendered flourish-
ing and prosperous are, its industry,+its knowledge, or skill,—its
morals, its execution of justice,—its courage, and the national
union in directing these powers to one point, and making them all
centre in the public benefit.—BURKE.
J.A. º.º. º. º. º. ºf 4° 49' ºr ºf 4 º’ & ‘º dº º ºxº-sº dº ſº
M A R C H ANT, PRINTER, 1 N G R A M-Co URT, LOND ON .
C O N T E N T S.
§ Page
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V
Chapter I—On the commercial System of
the East India Company . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.
Chapter II.- On the Tribute drawn from
India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Chapter III.—Political View of the ter-
ritorial System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Chapter IV.-Statistical View of the ter-
ritorial System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Chapter V-On the Colonization of India 231
Chapter VI.—On the remaining Topics
connected with the Abolition of the East
India Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Appendia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
INTRODUCTION.
HAD those statesmen and legislators who
laid the foundations of the British colonies
in America intended and foreseen the great-
ness to which they were destined, and had
to that end nursed them in the lap of Liberty,
their deserts would have transcended all praise.
But though much must be allowed to the
country which “bred and formed the colo-
“ nists who were capable of achieving such
“great actions,” we are bound to admit that
there was no proportion between the excel-
vi INTRO I) UCTION.
lence of the municipal institutions conferred
and the merit of the donors. The commer-
cial restrictions which were, from time to time,
imposed, though, from the statistical condition
of the colonies, they had scarcely any effect
in stunting their, growth, yet abundantly ma-
nifested the narrow selfish spirit in which
they originated. At last, when a crisis arose,
which put to an unequivocal test the virtue
and wisdom of the mother country, she failed
miserably in the trial ; nor is there any page
of her history, of which an Englishman is so
much ashamed as that which records the
causes, and iconduct of the American war:
whereas, if the just pretensions necessarily
resulting from the freedom which the colonists
inherited, had been met with candour and
magnanimity, the glory of that period would
have eclipsed all that had preceded it. In esti-
mating, therefore, the merit or demerit of
public men, it is necessary to consider how
much ought to be ascribed to design, and
how much to accident and circumstances.
INTRODUCTION. vii
Thus, the conduct of England towards her
Eastern possessions has been as much cal-
culated to retard their improvement, as her
treatment of her Western possessions had an
opposite tendency; but as, in the latter case,
there are many abatements from the credit
to which she would at first sight seem entitled,
so in the former, the history of their acqui-
sition and early relations supplies some apo-
logy for the slowness with which she recedes
from a system essentially vicious and inde-
fensible. If the policy which England has
observed respecting India had been delibe-
rately and systematically determined on, we
should be compelled to say that she declined
the cheap purchase of inestimable advantages;
and that far from sanctioning the magnificent
design of laying the foundation of an empire
flourishing in arts and industry, she employed
one simple and efficacious expedient to pre-
vent all who should resort thither from having
the motives or the means that are essential to
the accomplishment of such a purpose. She
viii INTRODUCTION.
decreed that no European should be capable of
being a proprietor or farmer of land. Find-
ing the country overspread with an ill-civilized
population, and yielding a relatively trifling,
but absolutely considerable revenue, consist-
ing of the rack-rent of almost its whole sur-
face, she determined to become the step-mother
of this inferior brood, and to preserve their
inferiority, by subjecting them as little as
possible to its only corrective, the contagion
of the example of her true sons: to adopt
the entire Asiatic system of landed tenures
and revenue, and to make Englishmen the in-
struments of maintaining unimpaired its pri-
meval improvidence: to continue to sweep
into the local exchequer about one-third of
the annual gross produce of the land, and,
after defraying the expenses of government
on the lowest scale, to draw the balance to
herself as tribute : and by the exclusion of
Englishmen from any interest in the soil, to
compel each successive flight of function-
aries and merchants to realize their earnings:
I N 'I' R () IDUCTION. ix
and savings in England. Thus was India,
as it were, surrounded with Berkley's brazen
wall, but with a sluice to permit the efflux
of its wealth as long as it could be made to
flow.
The basis of this system, the prohibition of
Europeans from holding property in land,
“ had its origin,” says Mr. Colebrooke, “ in
“ an unworthy, not to say groundless dis-
“ trust. It carried the remedy far beyond
“ the evil; and established a sweeping one,
“ when a much more confined one would
“ have amply sufficed ; it remains in force
“ after the reason of the law has totally
“ ceased ; and for a different end from that
“ which was contemplated by its enactment.””
The original reason of the restriction was
to prevent frauds and embezzlement in the
assessment and collection of the revenue; the
“ different end" for which it is retained, is to
prevent colonization, and thereby the occur-
On 1mport of Coionial Corn, p. 82.
X INTRODUCTION.
rence of a state of things which would wrest
the government and patronage of India from
the hands of the East India Company.
One plea for this exclusion is to preserve
to the natives their lands which might other-
wise, it is pretended, be encroached on by
Europeans; but when this claim to self-denial
is made, no notice is taken of the small pro-
portion of the produce of their lands, which
our fiscal regulations leave to them; and there
are men who, not looking at India through
the spectacles of books, but with their own
eyes, have insisted on the generosity of pre-
serving to the natives the monopoly of their
rack-rented lands.” We found the inhabi-
tants of India debased with superstition, and
steeped in poverty, with some splendid excep-
tions; we found that “a few had all, and all
“ had nought.” By way of improving their
condition, we become ourselves the excep-
tions, and leave the many their nothing ;
* Ed., Rev. No. 19, No. 22.
INTRO DUC'I' I () N. xi
“ they remain in all the misfortune of their
“ old errors, and all the superadded misery
“ of their recent punishment.” It is improv-
ing on the bitterness of the epigrammatist to
require the gratitude of a nation for being
guaranteed in the enjoyment of what Codrus
lost.* If the land is ever to become a market-
able object for Europeans, they must pay the
greater part of its price, not to the native for
his privilege of cultivating the government
domain, but to government in redemption of
its devouring tax. It will be shown hereafter
that by no other operation can this chief
fountain of wealth be freed from obstructions,
and enabled to gush over a recreated ter-
ritory.
That a country so far beneath the level of
practicable improvement, so abounding in
latent means of administering to human gra-
tifications, should fall under the tutelage of
a nation qualified beyond all others to pro-
-ur
Nil habuit Codrus; attamen perdidit totum nil.
xii INTRODUCTION.
º
mote their developement, would seem to be a
manifest provision of Providence for the com-
mon benefit; and panegyrists are not wanting
who lavish on the manner in which England
has acquitted herself of this trust, that fund
of praise which ought to be reserved for her
entrance on a career having the happiness
of the governed for its eternal goal. In be-
half of the natives we may address to the
authors of such flattering representations what
the lion said to the painter in the fable; but
they accord so well with the reciprocal wants
and capacities of the patron and client nation,
and with what we naturally expect from such
a connexion, that they always carry with
them a most plausible sound. On the other
hand, a declaration from the highest authority,
(as from one who could “crown his words
“ with deeds,”) that Nature “and Fate had
“ ordained in unalterable decrees,” that our
government of India “must, at the best, be
“ inconvenient to the mother and supreme
“ power, oppressive and inadequate to the
* . . . ;
INTRODUCTION. xiii
“ necessities of the governed;” “grates harshly
on the ear, and revolts, by its implied reser-
vation of a right to commit whatever op-
pression we may think requisite in the execu-
tion of any scheme of power that we may
choose to adopt. How are we to deter-
mine the quantum of oppression which is
thus to be justified by the decrees of fate?
While statesmen ascribe to their own policy
every favourable event, they have often
sought to evade responsibility for the fai-
lure of their plans by magnifying the domi-
nation of fortune over human affairs: but was
it ever before attempted to place the doc-
trine of fatalism in the front of a system of
laws with the view of deprecating the indig-
nation that would be excited by the injustice
with which they were confessed to be preg-
nant? Such arguments should only be ad-
dressed by wolves to sheep. When the op-
pressor by instinct meets with any show of
Speech of Mr. Pitt, January 14, 1784,
xiv I N 'I' R () 12 U (, 'I' I () N.
resistance, he instantly discovers, that “Na.
“ture and Fate” have relaxed their impulse;
his appetite becomes more reasonable, his
power of abstinence increased, and the “de-
“ cree” appears to veer round from inevitable
indulgence to positive prohibition. Thus, in
our dispute with the American colonies, we
found that we had grievously miscalculated
the quantity of mis-government prescribed by
nature and fate. Instead of being “argued
“ into slavery,” they “cast our sovereignty
“ in our face,” and left us to ruminate at
leisure on the probable consequences of a
more temperate exercise of our superiority.
The above-quoted passage, from Mr. Pitt,
reminds us of a sentence in Adam Smith, by
an apparently not accidental resemblance in
the expression, combined with the utmost
contrast in their scope and import. “Such
“ exclusive companies, therefore, are nuisances
“ in every respect; always more or less in-
“ convenient to the countries in which they
“ are established, and destructive to those
I N T R () lj U (, 'I' I () N. XV
“ which have the misfortune to fall under
“ their government.* The judgement im-
plied in the former passage is, that our treat-
ment of India was the best that could be con-
trived consistently with the laws of nature
and the decrees of fate: the judgement pro-
nounced in the latter, respecting the very same
system, in its essential parts, and without any
saving reference to an over-ruling necessity,
is, that it was the worst, the most iniquitous
and destructive that could be inflicted on a
country.
I trust it may be shown that the interests
of India may be reconciled and identified
with our supremacy; and that an impartial
estimate of our duties, as it could not lead
to a compromise with wrong, so neither would
it terminatein commanding our abdication. Sup-
posing the inclination equal, the beneficence
of an administration will be in proportion to
the talents of the rulers. With respect to the
* Vol. ii. p 485.
xvi INTRODUCTION.
former we cannot, even before a human tri-
bunal, plead any deficiency: with respect to
the latter, we urge just claims to more or
less of superiority over all competitors. The
wisest governments may, for a time, mistake
the way that conducts to its object; but no
government can wash its hands of oppression,
by pleading that it is inseparable from the
extent and complexity of the system over
which it presides.
In this place I shall content myself with
pointing to one great and obvious benefit
which experience proves that India can only
hope to enjoy at our hands,-internal peace
and tranquillity. “Simul et illud Asia cogi-
“ tet, nullam a se neque belli externi, neque
“ discordiarum domesticarum calamitatem ab-
“ futuram fuisse, si hoc imperio non tueretur.
“ Id autem imperium cum retineri nullo altero
“modo possit, aequo animo, parte aliqua su-
“ orum fructuum, pacem sibi sempiternam
“ redimat, atque otium.”
AN INQUIRY,
&c. &c.
<>
CHAPTER I.
ON THE COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF THE
EAST INDIA COMPANY.,
THE establishment of a joint stock company
for carrying on foreign trade, even though
protected by a monopoly, is an evil which
infallibly corrects itself, and this the more
speedily in proportion to its magnitude:
but when the revenues of a vast empire are
at the disposal of such a body, the evil is
aggravated and complicated to the utmost
possible extent. The feet of clay are then the
strongest parts of the image whose hands
B
2
COMM F. RCIA I, SYSTEM OF
are of iron, its head of brass, and its legs
of oak. So long as its connexion with the
earth is uninterrupted, the uncouth and omi-
nous figure may stand, until its disgusting
triumph shall have exhausted mortal patience.
It will readily be granted that Dr. Smith
has not wilfully extenuated the abuses inse-
parable from the idea of a monopolizing go-
vernment. But although his strictures no
longer apply to one point, viz. the conse-
quence of under-paying their servants, yet it
is certain that he has altogether omitted some of
the most pregnant evils and incurable vices of
the system, whether considered in a commer-
cial, political, or moral, point of view. He
with justice asserts that the Company are
incapable of conducting trade with the requi-
site skill and economy ; but he does not per-
ceive that when revenue became subsidiary
to (nominal) commerce, their thirst of money,
though not abated, was attracted by another
object, and left them perfectly indifferent to
strictly commercial profit or loss. As soon as
they were at liberty to dip freely into the
redundant stream of revenue, they were
no longer satisfied with skimming off the
cream produced by trade. Their unwilling-
ness to attend to their interests as merchants
"I"H E JEA ST IN DIA C () M P A NY. 3
was then equal to their inability; and —they
could not if they would, was not more certain
than—they would not if they could. This
subject is treated by Mr. Burke, in his mas-
terly way, in a report presented to the House
of Commons, June 25, 1783. “ The spirit of
tº &
& 6
66
6 &
& 6
6 &
6 &
66
& 6
& &
& 6
& 4
& 6
& &
6 &
& C
6 &
all these regulations naturally tended to
weaken, in the very original constitution of
the Company, the main spring of the com-
mercial machine, the principles of profit
and loss: and the mischief arising from an
inattention to those principles has con-
stantly increased with the increase of its
power. For, when the Company had ac-
Quired the rights of sovereignty in India, it
was not to be expected that the attention to
profit and loss would have increased. The
idea of remitting tribute in goods naturally
produced an indifference to their price and
quality; the goods themselves appearing
little else than a sort of package to the
tribute. Merchandise, taken as tribute, or
bought in lieu of it, can never long be of a
kind, or of a price, fitted to a market
which stands solely on its commercial
reputation. The indifference of the mer-
cantile sovereign to his trading advantages
naturally relaxed the diligence of his sub-
B 2
4 CO M M ERCIA L SYSTEM Ol'
“ ordinate factor, magistrates through all
“ their gradations, and in all their functions ;
“ it gave rise, at least so far as the principal
“ was concerned, to much neglect of price
“ and of goodness in their purchases.”
But even this negative statement does
not exhibit the full force of this evil. The
Company's independence of mercantile profit
not only renders them careless in watching,
the variations of the level of demand and
supply, but makes it their positive interest to
be extravagant in all that relates to the con-
veyance of the tribute, and to the export of
goods to India. They are sure of their
dividends; and the greater the expense of
management, the greater the patronage of
the Directors, and profit of their friends and
clients. Any clear savings could only go
towards the liquidation of debt, or into the
Exchequer for the use of the public. Is it
their interest to effect such savings? Totally
the reverse.
A state establishment for conducting trade
* : is founded upon a policy as erroneous as that
by which institutions are formed for maintain-
* Works, v. xi. p. 87,
THE EAST IN DIA COMPANY. º)
*
ing the labouring poor in workhouses, or by
any other modification of an eleemosynary
system. In both cases, much labour and
contrivance are exerted to produce a loss,
where gain might have been insured without
any care or trouble. The labourers in both
establishments, from the lowest to the highest,
want the alternate spur and check of self-
dependence. They have their fixed allow-
ances,—the parish is bound to find them ; and
the produce of any assiduity or frugality on
their parts would be for the benefit of others,
who would not thank them for it, and who
cannot exact it. Their reasonings and feelings
are, in this respect, those of slaves, and the
comparative disadvantage to the public is
similar to that incurred by the slave proprietor,
with this aggravation, that it is perfectly gra-
tuitous, and admits of no compensation. S.
No part of this corrupt waste is imputable \
to the local government. They desire no-
thing more ardently than to have the mill-
stone of nominal commerce disengaged
from their necks. It is their interest to see
the country flourish under their auspices, to
appropriate all its revenue to its own pur-
poses, and not to starve or postpone many
craving demands in every department of
6 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
|
. . . . government, for want of the funds which are
s - ...” * tº
wrested from them by a corporation in another
hemisphere. Nor do they ever swerve from
the course pointed out by this interest, but
inasmuch as they comply with the injunctions
and importunities of those whom, in their
public capacity, they have very slender mo-
tives to fear, and none at all to respect.
Of the degree in which the Directors in-
dulge their propensity to prodigality, in the
equipment of their ships, we have an exact
criterion in the difference between the rates of
freight paid by them and by private mer-
chants, the former being never less than
.* . double the latter. In February, 1798, the
Bengal government published an advertise-
ment, stating that the sum chargeable to
individuals for freight, on the regular ships,
would be £52: 15: 1 per ton, when the price
on foreign ships was £16 per ton.” It does
not appear that any merchants were allured
by this advertisement to procure for their
goods the superior comfort and accommoda-
tion of a regular ship: but the Company must
* have been of opinion that their goods would
#
& - * # * gº
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3, § * * * . * * ~ * t - e
- - - w . & 3. 3 * -
zº s: ----- •,-- - - -------------
* Henchman's Observ. p. 64,
"I H E EAST IN DIA COMPANY. 7
not be satisfied with less; for an eminent Direc-
tor declared, in a debate at the India House,
June 18, 1817, that there was no other “fleet &
“ of ships then in existence calculated for
“ their service,” than the one which cost them
E26 per ton, while private freight was £13
per ton. When the rich Jews, in the time of
Julian, in their enthusiastic zeal to rebuild
the temple, dug the earth with pick-axes and
spades of silver, and transported the rubbish
in mantles of silk and purple ; they could not
be taxed with the folly of imagining that
meaner implements were not better adapted to
the purpose ; neither can the Honourable
Company, in their alta mente, think it indis-
pensable that the very pack-horses of a
caravan should be adorned with trappings
“ embossed with barbaric gold.” &
It is obvious that this excess of freight,
beyond what is paid by their rivals, must be
incompatible with profit; and, therefore, no-
thing can be more absurd than for the Com-
pany to contend that they manage their trade.
as economically as private individuals, with
the earception of freight; and yet the Directors
do not scruple to advance this self-refuting
proposition in one of their reports: “Your
“ committee feel themselves warranted to
8 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
“ maintain that the Company ship their goods
“ in India at a less aggregate of costs and
“charges than individuals do, and realize the
“ proceeds here at a less expense, saving
“ ONLY IN THE ARTICLE of FREIGHT ON THE
| “. Regular ships, which may be reduced,
“ with respect to coarse articles, by hiring
“ ships of inferior equipment.” If for “may
“ be,” we were to substitute “ cannot be,”
we should have a reading more conformable
to all preceding experience, and to the subse-
quent fact itself: for, sixteen years afterwards,
we find them declaring that they can spare no
portion of the magnificence of their navy, and
still postponing the execution of their threat
to withdraw their countenance from the
coarser articles, by subjecting them to be
transported in ships of inferior equipment.
Whatever be the cost at which they ship
their goods in India, the Directors, at least,
ingenuously announce that all their mercantile
virtue had fled to Aurora and the Ganges;
that those whose minds were devoted to the
government of an empire could yet keep a
corner for the precious infinitesimal details of
* As. Ann. Reg. for 1801, state papers, p. 29.
22
^ A 2
#.” *
THE EAST IN DIA COMPANY. 9
successful trade; and that only that branch of
their affairs was fatally mismanaged, over
which they themselves peculiarly and affec-
tionately presided.
But we have confessions of general loss
upon their trade; and, though these are far
from being the best evidence that can be
produced in this case, yet declarations have
always weight against a party, and, at all
events, they are necessary ingredients in that
mass of inconsistency of which every thing
erroneous and pernicious is made up. Thus,
a Committee of Directors, in a Report dated
March 25, 1793, say, “ The remittance of
“ the fortunes of individuals to foreign ports
“ was injurious to the Company; but the loss
“ would have been infinitely greater, if the
“ investment had been made in India, and
“ sold in Leadenhall-street for account of the
“Company.” Here is a complaint, that
individuals would not sacrifice a part of their
fortunes in defraying the extra-charges insepa-
rable from sovereign trade; and, at the same
time, an admission that, since their losses
must be in proportion to the magnitude of
* Henchman, p. 72.
…” s A
,” …' 2 ...?'
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3. º ** .* . .# …” **** …? ...? 2 . 4.
-- Y. .# # * . ...; ... * * * * *
* … º **-r; . {..., , . . ." Af *
s * * * .* & : *, *A - ‘. . . sº
10 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
their dealings, the Company could not exist,
ſnor sail a single fleet of ships, but by misap-
plying or mortgaging the revenues of the
unhappy country abandoned to their cupidity.
| For, whatever might be the out-turn of invest-
;
ments, provided at the expense of India, the
amount was so much gain to the Company;
and, at different times, they have urged the
local governments not to be nice in considering
what would fetch a profit and what would
not. In their letter to Bengal, of April 7,
1773, they say, “ The state of our affairs
“ requires the utmost extension of our invest-
“ ments. You are not to forbear sending .
“ even those sorts which are attended with
“ loss, in case such should be necessary to .
“ supply an investment to as great an amount .
“ as you can provide from our resources.”
Did ever a merchant think of relieving his
embarrassments by instructing his correspon-
dent to send him goods that would sell at a
loss, unless he had a fraudulent bankruptcy in
contemplation ? In this case, the bankruptcy
i is not only postponed by saddling India with
... . debt, toties quoties, but will be ultimately
...--sº
: * ~ * §
• *
* Henchman, p. 74. Burke, xi. 3.
*
i
§
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 11
averted by leaving the incumbrance, where it
is now sustained, on the back of India. In
another letter to Bengal, June 20, 1820, they
repeat similar orders: “And if you should at
“any time have to determine upon the quan-
“ tum of investment, without being in pos-
“ session of particular orders from us, or any
“ clear and decisive facts to guide your judge-
“ ment, you will incline to the more ample,
“scale of provision,” &c. The correspon-
dent of a merchant may be supposed to act ...
without particular orders; but it is the exclu-
sive prerogative of mercantile sovereigns to
permit, or rather to urge, their agents to ship
goods “without any clear and decisive facts
“ to guide their judgements;” that is, without
the least knowledge of, or attention to, the
state of prices in the respective markets.
In 1801, the Directors offered to sustain a
loss of £15 for every ton imported by private
traders, provided they might vex the owners,
by restricting them from the use of any other
ships but those supplied to them by the Com-
pany.” But the private trade that must live
* Henchman, p. 209, and see p. 75, 76. The loss es-
timated to have been incurred by the Company in supply-
ing tonnage for the privileged trade from 1795 to 1810
inclusive, is £444,293. Fourth Report, 1812, p. 444.
.
12 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
by profit, “ or bear no life,” abhors constraint,
and has uniformly rejected every proffer of
alliance. The private merchants are not
afraid to encounter the freest competition,
but they shrink from the least unnecessary
expense: the Company care little for expense,
but they dread competition, chiefly from its
being pregnant with principles of expansion and
intelligence which will finally destroy them.
The inconsistency of the Company, in
boasting of their capacity to trade in compe-
tition with private merchants, and imploring
that they may never be exposed to the dan-
gers of competition, has often appeared in the
writings of their advocates, and never more
strikingly than in the accredited and most
elaborate defence that has been made for
them.* The mighty Philistine encourages
himself and his adherents, by pointing to his
gigantic limbs, “ his hairy strength; ” and
yet, by avoiding the judicial combat, he vir-
tually pronounces the horrible word craven.
An investigation of their pretensions, in this
respect, goes to the very bottom of the expe-
diency of enduring and prolonging their ex-
* The expediency maintained of continuing the system,
&c. &c. by Robert Grant, Esq. 1813.
T fi E. F. A. ST INDIA COMPANY. 13
istence: because, if they be capable of con-
ducting trade with the same profit, and of
giving it the same extension that private mer-
chants can, England must gain as much by the
continuance of their monopoly as she would
by its abolition; nor would they be under the
necessity of misapplying the revenues of India;
at all events, England would gain all that India
lost. I, therefore, entreat the reader's attention,
not merely to the contrast between the passages
I am about to quote, but to the arguments
they separately contain. The first is as fol-
lows: “Were the monopoly (of the China
“ trade) abolished, private adventurers would
“ crowd into it; and although the Company
“ by their extensive capital, established con-
“ nexions, mature experience, and high com-
“ mercial character, might, in a simply com-
“mercial view, look forward to an ultimate
“ triumph, yet a complete victory does not
“imply that there had not been a hard-fought
“ battle. On the contrary, the probability is,
“ that the eagerness of the adventurers would,
“ for some seasons at least, greatly abridge
“ the profits of the trade to all the parties
“ embarked in it. Such a struggle, the Com-
“ pany, if they had nothing beyond commer-
“cial interests at stake, might be able to en-
14 CO M M ERCIA H, S Y STEM () F
; ºf
…' * …
"… ; # º', º
“ counter, with the hope of eventual supe-
“ riority; but the diminution, for several
‘ seasons together, of the resources and credit
“ necessary to the due discharge of their
* political functions, could not fail to pro-
“duce the most fatal consequences.”* It is
here plainly said that the Company have a
decided superiority in point of capital, con-
nexions, experience, and character. What
more could an accomplished merchant desire
to give him confidence against the rivalship of
“ adventurers” but poorly furnished in all
{
&
these respects? Accordingly it is not in their
commercial capacity that the Company affect
any fear, it is in their political capacity This
implies an assumption that their political de-
partment is unable to provide for itself, that it
leans on the commercial, and must be sup-
ported by it; an assumption not merely des-
titute of proof, but, as I hope will more clearly
appear in the next chapter, contradicted by in-
controvertible facts. I trust it will be shown that
a contest between the Company and private
individuals would by no means depend on the
commercial strength of the parties, nor be a
--
Ibid, page 362.
“T H E E A ST IN DIA COM PA NY. 15
test of mercantile skill, because the Company,
by means of their political connexion with
India, would rise refreshed every time they
were thrown to the ground. Should that
be the case, the combatants would not meet
on equal terms ; the Company would bear a
charmed life, and could not swear that they
had “neither bone, stone, ne grass ; nor any
“ inchantment, sorcery, or witchcraft, whereby
“ the law of God may be abased, or the
“ law of the devil exalted.” The free mer-
chants, however, care not what shape they
assume, nor what harness they have on their
backs; they give them an open and unqua-
lified defiance.
The other passage is in the last page of the
book, and having something of the solemnity
of parting words, may be supposed to disclose
the author's mind more than the first. “The
“ relaxations now meditated in the system,
although in themselves purely commercial,
do, in fact, threaten its eacistence. With a
full intention, on all hands, that the system
shall be preserved with every political pri-
vilege untouched, with all the semblance of
imperial vigour and dignity, it may be de-
stroyed by the petty depredations of com-
mercial adventure; as the vessel which has
& 4
& 6
6 &
& 6
6 &
& &
& 6
© &
| 6 COMM ERCIAL SYSTEM OF
“ victoriously withstood the buffets of assail-
“ing enemies and warring elements, the
‘ battle and the breeze, falls a victim to the
“ insects that, with unchartered eagerness,
“ burrow amidst her planks and feed on her
“ timbers; and becomes fit only to be con-
“ demned and broken up, without having
* suffered any declension in the symmetry of
‘ her make, the bravery of her equipage, or
“ the force of her fire.” Alas! what a change
is here! Look upon this picture and on this!
The gallant ship that but a few pages ago
was engaged in an open “hard-fought battle”
with the free-merchants, looking forward to
ultimate triumph, now falls a prey to those
very enemies, who, without even a chartered
right to commit depredations, reduce her to
such shameful plight that she is only fit to be
condemned and broken up. Then, she had
every advantage that heart could wish, the
soundest timbers, the most complete equip-
ment, a numerous and valiant crew, and a
commander of great experience and the
highest reputation. Now, it is not, it cannot
be concealed, she has an internal defect for
which nothing can compensate; she must be
taken to pieces and the fragments sold ; for
“ what signify all the art and cost with which
6
&
&
&
&
'I' H E E A ST 1 ND I A (C() M P A NY 17
“ she can be carved, and painted, and gilded,
“ and covered with decorations from stem to
“stern ? What signify all her rigging and sails,
“ her flags, her pendants, and her streamers?
“What signify even her cannon, her stores,
“ and her provisions, if all her planks and
“ timbers be unsound and rotten ?”
But without further insisting on the discord-
ance of the two passages, the depredations
imputed to the free-merchants must mean that
they would either reduce the selling price of teas,
or smuggle, or, perhaps, both. With respect to
the reduction of price, and the increase of con-
sumption and of exports to China, that would
follow ; these are the arguments on which the
free merchants rest their claims to participation
in the trade; and nothing can exceed the
absurdity and indecency of their being used
by the Company to support their claims. The
free merchants petition for a right to supply
the consumers of tea at a cheaper rate than
they now pay for that article; and say that
every addition to the price at which they could
afford to sell it is a chartered depredation on
the public. The Company dispute none of
the facts, they freely admit the consequences
of an open trade as far as the interest of the
consumer is concerned ; yet they contend that
C
18 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
it is the duty and interest of the public to pro-
tect them against the effects of competition,
and to contribute, by the excess of price,
towards the support of their extravagance and
mismanagement. With respect to smuggling,
I shall here only observe that government may
apply the same general principles and the
same practical expedients for its prevention,
which are successful in regard to every other
trade. Excessive prices, whether occasioned
by heavy duties or by monopolies, the venality
of ill-paid officers of customs and excise,
and a low standard of moral principle ; these
are the causes of smuggling, and these causes
ought to prevail less, and do prevail much less
in England, than in any other country. It is
well known to what enormous extent smug-
gling has always existed in Spain and in Spanish
America, not, indeed, on account of the free-
dom of trade, but, chiefly, because trade was
there subjected to all the restrictions which
the foolish and wicked spirit of monopoly
could invent. . . . .
One of the most satisfactory self-disqua-
lifying passages, on the part of the Directors,
is contained in the Third Report of their
Special Committee on the private trade, dated
March 25, 1802. They say: “Whilst the
T H E E A ST INDIA COM PA NY. 19
& 4
& 6
& 4
6 &
& &
& C
& 6
6 &
& 4
& 6
& C
& &
& 6
& ©
& 6
& &
& 6
Company are preparing a fleet, it is for the
interest of a teak (or oak) ship to sail
before, and being single, the voyage is per-
formed in a much shorter time ; and by
arriving so much earlier at her port of
destination, the cargo is sold to great ad-
vantage, whilst the market is forestalled
before the Company's fleet can arrive.”—
This undue advantage is the more distressing,
as the late advices from India state, that
the Company’s exports cannot be sold, be-
cause the private traders have forestalled
and destroyed the market.
“The Company's investment has been usu-
ally provided from three sources:
“Surplus revenue, which is now absorbed
by the state.
“The fortunes of individuals, to be remitted
home. * . . '
“The sale of the Europe exports in India.
“As the private traders have intercepted
the second, and forestalled the third, it is
but just, on behalf of the Company, to call
on them to point out what still remains.”
The answer intended to be elicited by this
last question is, Nothing; an answer fatal to
the cause of those who propose the question.
It is a singular course to aim at convincing
C 2
20 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
your adversary that you are without resources,
and to arm him with documents which prove
all that he wishes to establish. Without pro-
ceeding a step farther, the private traders
would gladly join issue at this stage of the
trial, and call for judgement; for they both
admit and contend that the Company have no
commercial capital, and that they are incapa-
ble of employing the small part that is osten-
| sibly such.
But, unfortunately, the condition of the
Company was by no means so desperate as
they represented; and the cause of justice to
England and India was very far from being so
likely to obtain a speedy triumph as we might
have anticipated from their tone of despond-
ence. This will appear from a short review
of their three sources.
First, the surplus revenue was not, and is not,
as it ought to be, absorbed by the state. Every
year a portion of it is diverted from its proper
objects to administer to the necessities of the
\
\
}
}
f
i
|
"... is Company, either in the shape of investment,
or of interest on loans raised for its provision.
At the date of this Report, the Directors knew
that, for many years, they had received, and
still expected to receive, large investments
provided in this manner.
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 21
Secondly, the fortunes of individuals are
always ready to be poured into the Company's
treasury; and, at the date of this Report, the
sums annually derived from this “ source”
had averaged, during several years, £1,500,000.
These fortunes, however, are not “remitted”
without burthening the revenue. The pro-
ceeds are applied to defray the Company’s
home-expenses; and, in the mean time, the
individuals who advanced the capital receive
their interest from the revenue, which also
guarantees the ultimate redemption of the ca-
pital. If individuals had no other security for
the remittance of their fortunes than the Com-
pany’s trade, they would reason as the fox did
with respect to the prudence of entering the
lion's den, when he saw all the footsteps
pointing inwards, not one outwards.
Thirdly, if the Company exported bullion,
they would not find the market “forestalled
“ and destroyed:” but they think it more con-
venient to make unto themselves friends by
purchasing commodities in England, which
are sold in India and China at a great loss;
this loss, like all the rest, being made good by
drawing upon the revenue. The Company
complain that they cannot purchase an invest-
ment, because private merchants, laying out
##
;
gº
…t.#f
22 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
their talent to an “undue advantage,” have
run before and destroyed the market for Bri-
tish manufactures: as if the Indians would
not sell their cottons, silks, sugars, and salt-
petre, for silver! And this part of their mis-
management, the Company are so far from
extenuating, that they invariably make a merit
of it. How far their experience of the strength
of popular prejudices may have encouraged
them in the pursuit of such a plan, I pretend
not to conjecture.
In Mr. Bruce’s “View of Plans for the
“ Government of British India,” we have not
only large acknowledgements of general loss
by trade, but of losses from a quarter whence
they were least expected, viz. from hav-
ing the uncontrouled disposal of the re-
venues of India, and from thence diverting a
tributary stream into the channel of their
* I should not be justified in quoting from this work,
(a quarto of 632 pages), had it not been an OFFICIAL
publication, jointly by the Company and the Board of
Controul, in 1793. “Having met the views of Govern-
“ment, and of the Company, at that time, it was printed
“ by direction of the Commissioners for the affairs of
“India.” Preface to Bruce’s “Report on the Negoci-
“ation,” &c. .
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 23
trade! “On the subject of their claims,” says
he, “the Company might, probably, bring
“ forward a demand of nearly £5,000,000,
“ for money laid out in acquiring and defend-
“ ing the provinces. They might, also, pro-
“bably expect interest on this sum, which
“ would more than double it. They might
“ further state the great losses which their trade
“ had suffered since the acquisition of the
“ Dewannee, from the necessity which their
“ commercial Boards had been under to enlarge .
“ their investments, as the only means of bring-
“ ing home the revenues; and add, that from?
“ this circumstance the price of goods in
“India had been increased, and the sale
“ value of them, in Europe, lessened by the
“ large quantities brought into the market.”* . .
Would it not have been a natural expedient,
under such circumstances, to have petitioned to
be relieved from the burden of “acquiring and
“ defending provinces?” Or if they could
not be gratified in so reasonable and patriotic
a demand, if they could not get rid of their
impedimenta, at least to apply “the revenues”
towards the expense of “acquiring and de-
*...*
*
* Ibid. page 233.
24 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
“fending provinces,” instead of “ bringing
“ them home 2° What hindered them from
clinging to their old and profitable, because
unsophisticated trade? The best security
against losses from the receipt of tribute ap-
pears to be the abstaining from taking it. But,
instead of adopting measures for insulating
themselves from the noxious touch of tribute,
we find them betraying the most lively appre-
hensions, and using all manner of deprecation
and expostulation whenever propositions to that
effect have been thrown out.
Thus, in discussing one of the plans for se-
parating trade from revenue, Mr. Bruce ob-
serves: “Placed in such circumstances, they
“ would have had no inducement to continue
“ the export trade, but that of its yielding
“ them a profit, and no motive for engaging
“ in the import trade, (for they now would
“ have had no surplus revenues to bring
“ home,) but that of its yielding them an ade-
“ quate profit.” And he goes on to show,
that the Company would have had “little
“ temptation,” and “no great inducement,”
to proceed, thus lightly equipped, in the pro-
*E*-*-
* Ibid. page 239.
"I" H E E A S'I' I N DIA COM l'A NY, 25
*.
secution of real trade. In another place, he
puts a string of questions equally at variance
with claims to indemnification for losses in-
curred by the appropriation of tribute; and
which, by their superfetation of error and in-
consistency, must deprive his opponent of all
power of reply, and leave him only that of
admiration. “Would it have been prudent
& 6
& 6
to stop the partial aids which India gives
to the China investments? Would it not
check the general spirit of commercial en-
terprize, if the efforts of the Company to
extend the circle of Asiatic commerce were
discontinued 7 Would it not, upon the
supposition that the India trade had been,
upon the whole, a losing one to the Com-
pany, have been hazardous to take it from
them ; and yet to leave the China branch
in their hands, when it is the connexion of
both branches which has rendered the whole
a profitable concern ? Would it, in fine,
have been advisable to leave, with them,
what is confessedly profitable, and yet to
have withdrawn from them what their im-
mense stock and established credit alone
could support?”” We are here told that
6 4.
4 &
6 6
6 &
€ $
& 6
& 6
& 4
£ 6
* Ibid. page 243.
26 COM M ERC I AL SYSTEM OF
the leaven of profit which qualified the whole
lump resided in that portion of the trade
which was, “upon the whole, a losing one ;”
that is to say, even the China investment
would not leave a profit if a great part of the
teas were not purchased with Indian revenue;
and this selection of the medium in which
tribute shall be received, is called “ commer-
“cial enterprize;” and individuals not having
this resource could not “support” a trade
with India.
But though Mr. Bruce is the mouth of the
Company and of Government, there is another
passage to which still greater importance may
be attached, because (if there be any faith in
internal evidence) it belongs to the exposition
of a plan submitted by a leading Director,
which is said to have been “the result of
“ study, and of local information.”—“If, on
“ the one hand, the fostering aid and protec-
“tion, and (what is of equal importance)
“ the check of the Governments abroad was
“ withdrawn from the commercial depart-
“ ment, the Company would not long enjoy
“ a new charter, but soon be reduced to a
“state of bankruptcy; and if, on the other,
“ the commerce was not connected with the
“ revenue, the best measures which could be
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 27
... devised for the management of it, (i. e. the
“ revenue,) would not render it productive.”"
One would think, that to make revenue
“ productive” was “past praying for,” being
implied in the definition of the word; but the
meaning is, that the revenue would be “pro-
“ ductive” of no advantage to England, un-
less part of it were appropriated and trans-
mitted thither by nominal merchants, who are
by this privilege alone saved from bank-
ruptcy.
The Company's India trade, as it is called,
having, since the year 1757, become little
more than a vehicle for the transmission of tri-
bute, and being confessedly a losing one, it
follows that England has been enriched in a
less degree than India has been impoverished.
What the difference may have been, it is not
necessary, if it were possible, to ascertain,
because the importance of any precise exact-
ness on such a point is outweighed by two
considerations. 1. We can state pretty nearly
the amount that has been wrongfully abstract-
ed from India, without the return of an equi-
valent: 2. Whatever England may have
* Ibid, page 252.
28 CO M M ERCIAL SYSTEM OF
gained by the tribute, it is certain that she
would have gained much more by free trade,
and by regulating her intercourse with India
on the principles of colonial policy. Never-
theless, there is a calculation on this subject,
by Mr. Lambert, embracing the period from
1757 to 1792, which deserves to be submitted
to the reader, both as an approximation to the
truth, and as affording a striking illustration of
the impolicy of the system. He states the
sums paid by India at upwards of £50,000,000;
and the amount received by England, both
on account of fines, by way of ransom for
the territorial revenue, and of duties and
customs, after deducting what she would
have received from trade alóne, according to
an average of the customs before the acqui-
. sition of territory, at £7,960,868. During
, the same period, the rate of dividend was less
than the former average. So that, to afford
Great Britain ºf 8,000,000, India had been
drained of more than £50,000,000.* Eight
millions, “ eight pints of reasonably good
“ soup, that these politico-mercantile cooks
“ had been able to produce, after all their
* As. Ann. Reg. for 1803, mis. tr. p. 26.
"I'l-H E E A S'1' I N DIA COMPANY. 29
“ simmerings and boilings, all the hams and
“ chickens, and pounds of beef, which they
“ had stewed down, and the bills which they
“ had run up in consequence at the different
“ shops.”
If the trade be unprofitable, and if the
territory do not yield where withal to defray
the expense of “ acquiring and defending” it,
whence come the dividends, and whence the
funds, to supply the excess of political expen-
diture, for which compensation is demanded ?
O, they will tell you, the trade is profitable !
and though, if profit were possible, Archi-
medes himself, who could number the sands
on the sea-shore, could not extract the exact
per-centage from the chaos of their accounts,
they will make you out a profit, on the India
investment, of £22:8: 6 per cent. and, on
the China investment, of £37: 14:4 per
cent.” Such are the chameleon tricks the
gentlemen of the Direction make the trade
perform, while, like so many aruspices, they
are laughing in their sleeves. Surely, if the
people of England employed on this subject
one-half of the mother-wit which they disco-
* Speech of Lord Castlereagh, July 18, 1806.
30 CO M M ERCIA I, SYSTEM OF
ver on all other occasions, they would not so
long have submitted to see the wretchedness
of India at the double expense of their own
exclusion from its untrodden fields of agricul-
ture and commerce, and of the enhanced
price of its imported commodities. They
would have remembered that the laws of
trade are the laws of nature, and, therefore, are
not subject to geographical variations in their
tenour and force. They would have treated
the local knowledge apologists for mercantile
sovereignty as the traveller of old was treated,
who boasted that, when he was at Rhodes, he
had performed an incredible feat of agility.
They would be convinced that such a form
of government “ is a shameful and unblessed
“ thing,” whether we regard the interests of
the dependent, or of the metropolitan,
country. -
So familiar, from their own practice, has
the idea of trading to a loss become to the
Directors, that they seem to have brought
themselves to imagine that private individuals
could and would persevere in such a trade.
In a report, dated January 27, 1801, on the
claims of the free merchants to be permitted
to provide their own tonnage, instead of being
restricted to that offered to be supplied by the
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 31
Company, and to their great mutual inconve-
nience and earpense, the Directors observe,
“ The continuance of its exertions would not
“ depend altogether, nor perhaps chiefly, on
“ the gain of the commodities carried to and
‘ from India. If commodities brought only
“ prime cost and charges, and yet the ship-
“ owners could make out a profitable employ-
“ ment for their ships, which is avowed to
‘ be a leading motive for the present requisi-
‘tions of the merchants, it might still be
“ their interest to carry on the trade,” &c.;
and in another report, on the same subject,
dated March 25, 1802, they say, “ In Lon-
“ don, Amsterdam, or the great commercial
“ places in Europe, the instances are very rare
of the ship and cargo belonging to the same
person, or of the owner purchasing a large
‘ part of the cargo, to be sold afterwards at a
‘ loss, for the purpose of employing the ship ;
and yet THIS appears to be at present the
“ practice of the merchants in India.” The
same opinion is contained in a report, dated
March 25, 1793. A committee, appointed
by several mercantile houses acting as “agents
“ for the East Indies,” had represented, that,
from the necessity under which individuals
had been to remit their fortunes, in foreign
6
C
6
& &
& 4
&
&
6 &
32 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
ships, to foreign ports, Great Britain must
have been a loser to an amount which, since
the acquisition of the Dewannee, might be
estimated at £10,000,000, which sum had
been gained by foreigners for freight, agency,
duties, &c. In reply to this memorial, the
T)irectors argue as if the individuals concerned
in this circuitous trade had suffered an abso-
lute loss of £10,000,000 ! and say that, had
their property been remitted through an ex-
tension of the Company’s investment, “the
“ loss would have been infinitely greater l’’
Should it be asked, why those whose cue
it is to justify their exclusive fitness for the
conduct of the trade and government of
India should on this, as on numberless occa-
sions, seek security from false facts, long
exploded errors, or palpable sophistry; we
can only account for it by the necessities inci-
dent to the defence of a bad cause; for, all
the good arguments being inviolably engaged
on the other side, what is left to them but
a mercenary, impotent, and ridiculous rabble !
Doubtless, there are circumstances which, in
some degree, console the worthy Directors
for the disgrace of marching “ through Co-
“ ventry” at the head of such troops.
I have already observed that Dr. Smith was
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 33
mistaken in supposing that the Company con-
tinued to seek for profit in the arduous paths of
commerce, after they had discovered a royal
road to tribute. He is also inaccurate in his
statement of the anomaly, or apparent contra-
diction, between their conduct and their
interest. “Trade, or buying in order to sell
“ again, they still consider as their principal
“ business, and, by a strange absurdity, re-
“gard the character of the sovereign as but an
“ appendix to that of the merchant, as some-
“ thing which ought to be made subservient to
“ it, or by means of which they may be
“ enabled to buy cheaper in India, and there-
“ by to sell with a better profit in Europe.”
“As sovereigns, their interest is exactly the
“ same with that of the country which they
“ govern; as merchants, their interest is di-
“rectly opposite to that interest.” This
would be true, were it possible to separate
revenue from commerce when committed to
the management of the same body, and to
prevent the Company's left hand from know-
ing what its right was doing; but the matter of
* Vol. ii. p. 479, 480.
34 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
fact is the reverse of what Dr. Smith sup-
posed, and it is their sovereignty, not their
trade, that is constitutionally hostile to the
welfare of India. As merchants, they en-
riched India by being compelled to purchase
its commodities ; as sovereigns, they impove-
rish it by being enabled to take them. As
merchants, it was their interest to export to
India as much as possible in goods and
bullion, according to the increase of the
demand in Europe for the return cargoes ; as
sovereigns, it is their interest to export as
little as possible, and, by penurious establish-
ments, by neglecting public works, and taxing
futurity, to bring away as much tribute as
possible. Auferre, rapere, imperium vocant.
We see, then, that it is neither their interest
to be thrifty merchants, nor just sovereigns;
we are not, however, without a clew to the
labyrinth. -
It is their interest to retain their share of the
patronage of India, and the disposal of its
revenues: first, by keeping up an ostensible
and unprofitable trade; secondly, by barring
every access to the improvement of India. A
strict observance of these two leading maxims
is indispensable to the existence of the East
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 35
India Company; and the practical enforce-
ment of them constitutes the meritorious te-
nure by which alone they can maintain their
station on their bad eminence.
First.—It is necessary that they should
appear to carry on trade; but it is not neces-
sary, nor possible, nor even desirable, that their
trade should be profitable. Their command over
the revenue offers a perpetual premium to
extravagance in that department; and such pre-
miums are more efficient and successful than
those which invite to industry and prudence.
If they ceased to trade, it was never imagined
that they could exercise the powers of sove-
reignty a moment. If they had even insi-
nuated the possibility of their shutting up
shop, and of contenting themselves with being
simply KINGs, all the world would cry periisse
pudorem / But they know their own interest
better. They know that if they would grasp
the imperial sceptre with one hand, they must
continue to flourish the hammer that regulates
their auction sales with the other. They can-
not imitate Lorenzo de Medici, who, having
immense landed estates, determined to in-
crease his income by relinquishing commercial
concerns, after “bitterly exclaiming against
D 2
36 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
& 6
the negligence and imprudence of his factors
“ and correspondents.”
If they were to renounce trade they would
deprive themselves of an argument which
holds a conspicuous place in the View of
Plans: viz. that the surplus revenue of India
can only be brought to England by them and
for them “If the surplus had been entrust-
& &
& &
6 &
& &
& &
& 4
6 &
6 &
& 6
6 &
6 &
ed to the credit of the private merchant,
what security could government have ob-
tained that the amount would be realized in
the treasury in Britain ; or what security
could individuals have given that they
would bring the goods to England, pay the
duties to government, or that they would
not have carried them to foreign markets,
to evade the payment of these duties?
Had the surplus of the revenue been en-
trusted to such merchants, they would have
had it in their power to make their own
terms, and might have reduced the value to
the public, either by offering a depreciated
rate of exchange, or by demanding an un-
reasonable length of credit. The inevitable
* Roscoe, chap. viii.
'THE EAST IN DIA COMPANY. 37
“ consequence would have been a decrease in
“ the carrying trade of Great Britain, and a
“ diminution of the home duties and customs.
“If a preference had been given to the Com-
“ pany, still a similar depreciated rate of
“exchange and length of credit might have
“ been demanded ; and, admitting their abi-
“lity to pay the portion of the revenues which
“ they had taken credit for, their trade might
“ have been unequal to the purpose of bring-
“ing home the whole surplus, and they might
“ have made their own terms for the amount
“ which it might have suited them to take.”
Among all the good things in Mr. Bruce's
lively volume, some people may give the pre-
ference to this passage, even over that wherein
he speaks of the loss occasioned by the
receipt of tribute. For, 1st, he objects to a
mode of remittance as dangerous and incon-
Venient, which the daily practice of the world,
ever since the Jewish or Lombard invention
of bills of exchange, in the thirteenth century,
evinces to be the safest and most expedient: 2d,
he adduces the fear of losing a part of the
{
**-sºº.…
*****--.
* Page 241.
38 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
surplus revenue as a reason for sacrificing the
whole. So, Lord Bacon tells us, “ fear pre-
“ occupateth death ;” and the usurer, in a
time of tumult and danger, “ when the foot
“ of the common soldier sounds an alarm on
“his stairs, will, perhaps, hang himself, lest
“ his throat should be cut.” Such is the view
of the matter, in which the two parties to the
negotiation concurred. -
After all, the Act of 1793 affected not to
sacrifice the whole. Notwithstanding the ob-
stacles that were conjured up to frighten
parliament into an abandonment of the whole,
the “ depreciated rate of exchange,”—“ the
“ length of credit,”—“ their own terms,”—
the Company were solemnly required, if they
pleased, to pay half a million yearly into the
exchequer. At the end of the first year,
while this singular compact was fresh in the
public memory, they were pleased to pay their
half million ; but, after that one benevolence,
not a farthing could be extracted from them,
“ by prayers, or threats, or tears,” though a
surplus of upwards of a million was annually
accruing in India. The surplus was most
incontrovertibly legible on the books in India,
it was plainly tangible; but when it reached
Leadenhall-street, it was crumbled into ele-

THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 39
mentary particles, and dissipated through a
hundred volumes.
The Company having thus acquired posses-
sion of the tribute, on pretence that it could
only be brought to England in their regular
ships, precluded themselves from realizing
any part of it by means of money paid in Lon-
don for bills on the presidencies, however
decided the advantage of such a proceeding
might occasionally be even with their es-
tablishments; and though, in fact, it was the
only rational mode of remitting the whole
tribute at all times. Accordingly, when the
Bengal government, in a letter, dated August
23, 1809, recommended that they should
grant bills on Calcutta for specie received in
London from Americans and other foreigners,
they start a number of objections, not one of
which has the slightest foundation in commer-
cial principles. In their reply, dated June 20,
1810, they say, that “ to accommodate fo-
“ reigners with bills upon our Indian terri-
“tories would serve to advance them in the
“ rank of traders, and, consequently, to dis-
courage the trade to England, whilst it im-
parted to the Company the character of
agents, and agents for the promotion of the
trade of foreigners, which certainly would
& 4
& 4
6 &
& 4

40 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
“ place them in no popular light either here or
“ in India.” As if the Company had not
contested every inch of the ground when the
free merchants were petitioning to enter into
competition with these foreigners. They say,
“The bills could have been discharged only
“ by borrowing money at high interest, by
“ issuing treasury notes at an unreasonable
‘ rate of discount, or by the more distressing
“ measure of paying to foreign merchants the
“Junds intended for our own investment.”—
“On the whole, therefore, we are so fully
“impressed with a sense of the impolicy of
“ adopting the plan in question, and of the
“ injurious result by which it would be fol-
“ lowed, that, even at such a moment as the
“ present, although a sum has been offered
“ us at a favourable earchange, we have not
“ thought it right, notwithstanding the state of
“ your treasuries, and all other existing circum-
“stances, to accept it: and to adopt any
“ plan of this sort as a system, we are con-
“vinced would be most impolitic, Both IN A
“. COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL VIEW, as well
“ as in respect to the general reputation of the
“ Company.” Nevertheless, after the renewal
of their charter, by the Act passed on July
21, 1813, circumstances being considerably
6
§

"THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 41
changed, they grow less fastidious, and con-
sent to receive into their treasury in London
as much money as can be forced into it by the
various devices described in their letter to
Bengal, dated September 6, 1813;* all of
which are strictly conformable in principle to
the plan which, three years before, they had so
much taxed their ingenuity to find reasons
for condemning. Of the utility of the modes of
remittance prescribed in this last mentioned
letter there is no question. Into the justice
with which they therein claim certain funds as
commercial, and designate certain charges as
political, and whether they do not, on the
strength of these assumptions, riot in the mis-
appropriation of the revenue, I shall inquire
in the next chapter.f
Secondly.—It is their interest to bar every
access to the improvement of India. The
strength and wisdom of governments are
necessarily commensurate with, and have their
common origin in, a perfect sympathy between
* See paragraphs 27 and 28 in the Appendix.
f The history of Mr. Richards’ removal from his seat
in council at Bombay shows at what expense the Company
indulge their desire to appear mercantile.
42 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
the interests of the subject and the duties of
the ruling power. A government confident in
the purity of its intentions has nothing to fear
from the growing resources of the people, since
its own energy and stability are consubtan-
tiated with their prosperity: but one whose
duties are in opposition to its interests, one
unconnected with its subjects by the natural
bonds of political authority, is conscious that
any expansion of their resources would be in-
compatible with subordination, and, therefore,
consults its own security by obstructing their
advancement.
If a country having a foreign dependency,
greatly its inferior in civilization, would give
itself the means and motives of transfusing
the principles of its own superiority, it must
recur to the medium of colonial policy. Co-
lonization will so multiply and strengthen the
ties of mutual intercourse and affection, that
the protecting power will be able to see with
pleasure the increasing strength of its colony;
the intermixture of foreign and native popula-
tion will cement the whole mass by animating
it with a national spirit, while the latter will
attach themselves to the former in proportion
as they emulate their example and benefit by
that best instructor. And if such progressive
"THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 43
improvement should ultimately lead to separa-
tion, that event should be considered as the
consummation of a series of virtuous labours,
as the noblest monument of paternal care, as
the commencement of a more valuable com-
mercial intercourse with a people destined to
spread and to elevate our name and language
in the world. If the colony have not an
adequate extent of territory, or should it be
situated within a short distance of the mother
country, the separation will never take place;
otherwise, it can only be prevented by perpetual
oppression. However much there may be to
reprehend in the history of our American war,
yet we know that the constancy and talents
displayed by the Americans were inherited
from their English ancestors; no other nation
could have bequeathed such a patrimony;
and we may even now say, as the Duke of
Ormond said of his dead son, that we would
not exchange our emancipated colonies for
the dependent colonies of Spain or Portugal.
To compliment a nation on the never-ending
dependence of its colonies, supposing these
well provided with physical resources, would
be such a bitter pleasantry as that of Sir
Thomas More upon his wife, when he told her
that she had prayed so long for a boy, that
44 comMERCIAL SYSTEM of,
she had at last got one who would be a boy all
his life.
If, on the other hand, it resolve to retain
the conquered provinces, by mere military
force, it is obvious to what internal and exter-
nal accidents such a dominion is exposed ;
there is no mutual attachment, no generous
confidence reposing on devoted loyalty, no
spring of ceaseless improvement. The go-
vernment dares not unlock all the springs of
political life; it must always be weak, and its
timidity will often exceed its weakness. But
if a government, thus intrinsically feeble,
should be delegated to a body of subjects
, who are under the necessity of replenishing
the channels of deserted commerce by means
of tribute, who, by this preposterous endow-
ment, are converted from bees into drones,
i and who, from the inveterate habit of mono-
poly, are no less jealous of the enterprises of
their own countrymen than of the prosperity
of the native population; if the majesty of
the supreme power should be intercepted by
such a compound of sordid greediness, every
source of mischief is carried to its maximum.
The ruling passion of such a body must be to
exclude disinterested witnesses from the scene
of their rapacity, and still more those who
THE EAST IN DIA COMPANY. 45
might be inclined to adopt the distant province
as their homes, and to identify their fortunes
with its own; since such persons would be
armed with the strongest motives to awaken
their countrymen to the claims of a just and
wise policy.
If the genius of the English East India
Company appears less malignant than that of
the Dutch, as displayed in their governments
of Brazil, Java, and the Cape of Good Hope,
it must be ascribed to three counteracting cir-
cumstances; a greater degree of controul on
the part of the State, a greater degree of pub-
licity, and a difference of national character.
But in the conduct of both we discover the
same predominant maxims: reiterated instruc-
tions to keep establishments at a minimum,
AND revenue at a maximum, in order that the
greatest possible tribute may be sent home;
a jealousy of statesmanlike governors; and
an anxiety to prevent the beginnings of colo-
nization. The English Company stake their
existence upon this single question of coloni-
zation; and Mr. Robert Grant has written a
great book to establish the following syllogism:
It is highly desirable that colonization
should not take place in India:
46 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
But the East India Company is the only
organ on whose vigilance we can rely for its
prevention:
Therefore the Company ought to be main-
tained in all their privileges. But though I
were willing to rest the cause upon the result
of an examination of the major proposition,
I cannot allow its importance to divert me
from the investigation of many other topics
which did not enter into the plan of Mr. Grant's
work.
As the least encouragement of the in-
dustry of India, however directly advan-
tageous to England, might have some ten-
dency to introduce colonization; and as
their strength is only adequate to “destroy the
“crocodile in the egg;” so have they resisted
every relaxation of their monopoly, with the
pertinacity of men who would desire to
“ crack nature's moulds, all germens spill at
“ once,” lest there should arise tongues to
plead, and arms to assert the rights of huma-
nity. They have ransacked the mercantile
theory for arguments long unused to the light
of day, and produced them with as much
confidence as their predecessors did in the
early part of the last century. Thus, in a
'THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 47
Report, dated January 27, 1801, the Directors
say: “Thirdly, with regard to the competition
4 &
& 6
“
6 &
& 4
é &
& 4
& 4
6 &
6 &
6 &
which a great enlargement of private trade
may occasion in the Indian commerce.
That the law of every market should be a
free permission for those who enter into it
to buy and sell, need not be disputed; but
it is a question, not of commercial prin-
ciples, but of the policy of states, whether
their subjects shall be encouraged to enter
into competition with each other at any par-
ticular For EIGN market. There can be no
doubt that a great increase of demand, and
of purchases in India, would enhance the
cost of commodities there; and that a like
increase in the quantities sold here, though
this mart should be the largest, would, on
the whole, lower the proceeds. The conse-
quence from both branches of competition
would, therefore, be evident, and a direct
disadvantage to this country, and a disad-
vantage not to be compensated in this case
by the extent of the trade.” This flagrant
passage has been well animadverted on by
the author of the Considerations. * When the
-º-º- —dº-
* Considerations on the Trade with India, &c. 1807.
p. 35.
48 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM () F
same argument was urged in 1730, we had so
little footing in India, that it might be called a
“ foreign market;” and the Company did cer-
tainly “buy” their investments: but, in 1801,
it was brought forward for the purpose of
preventing our fellow subjects from receiving
any compensation for the impoverishing sys-
tem to which they are subjected by their im-
mediate masters. Respecting the reasoning
of the Company, in 1730, Mr. Grant observes:
“ Dr. Smith treats with ridicule the argu-
“ ments, or some of them at least, by which
“ the Company defended themselves on the
“ occasion; but it would be easy, were it
“ necessary, to show that those arguments,
“ though sufficiently unsound, were by no
“ means more open to derision than certain
“ of the reasonings urged on the opposite
“ side.”* Now Dr. Smith takes notice of no
other argument than the fundamental one
which asserts the disadvantage of competition.
“The miserable effects of which the Compa-
“ny complained,” he says, “were the cheap-
“ness of consumption, and the encourage-
“ment given to production, precisely the two
*-ºm-
"Sketch of the History of the E. I. C. p. 143.
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 49
“ effects which it is the great business of
“ political economy to promote.” And if
the argument was “unsound” in 1730, how
much more indefensible was it in 1801 ! The
inference to which it unavoidably leads is,
that the whole trade of Great Britain ought to
be comprised in one gigantic monopoly; a
fate to which India would long have been
condemned, had the Company been able to
bar the rights of foreign nations as well as of
British subjects; and one which is actually
inflicted on most of the Malayan islands by
their Chiefs. Sir S. Raffles, finding no trace
of this ultra-barbarous practice in their his-
tory, thinks it may have “been copied from
“ the monopoly regulations of the Dutch.”
Another mode in which the Company mani-
fest a disposition to sacrifice the incalculable
interests of India to their own selfishness, is
in exclaiming against the employment of
British capital in the extension of the India
trade. In their Report of January, 1801, on
the private trade, the Directors say: “That the
“ grand objection of a commercial nature to
* Vol. iii. p. 134.
50 C (3 M M ERCIAL SYSTEM OF
“ this new trade is, that a considerable capital
“ must be transferred from Great Britain to
“ carry it on.” But would it be transferred
from a more profitable to a less profitable in-
vestment? Is it a “grand objection” that
the gainful end cannot be attained without the
application of the appropriate means? Be-
cause they can “fill by law,” do they imagine
that others cannot enrich their country by
honest industry Or do they really think that
England is impoverished because she pays for
the sugar of the West Indies; and because
she accommodates the Americans with long
credit? This they have distinctly declared
to be their opinion. In a memorial, addressed
to the Lords of the Treasury, dated May 3,
1797, they say: “Another strong circum-
“ stance is, the India trade does not drain the
“ country of its capital, or divert it from
“ other channels, as is the case with the West
“India trade, where immense sums are ad-
“vanced upon mortgage of plantations: and
“ in the American trade, where goods are sent
“ upon long credit to the detriment of com-
“ merce.”
Such was their opinion of the West India
trade in 1797. Their opinion of the same
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 51
trade, as expressed in their Report of March
25, 1802, is extremely different, and yet not
less worthy of the patronage of the Directors.
They say: “It may, therefore, become a ques-
& 4
6 &
& 4
& 4
6 &
€6
& 4
£ 6
& C
& 6
& 4
& 4
6 &
{ %
tion for consideration hereafter, how far
the importation of sugar from the East,
which leaves a loss to the importer, and
the first cost of which is paid for by the
public in silver from hence, shall be encou-
raged, to the prejudice of the West India
sugar, the cost of which is either spent by
the proprietor in the mother country, or
paid for by the manufactures and stores ex-
ported from home: for silver is often re-
ceived from the islands, but seldom sent
thither.” – “ The value of every rupee
invested in sugar, and imported from the
East, is an additional rupee to the balance
of trade against the mother country. Some
able and well-intentioned persons have made
it a question, whether sugar may not be
supplied to an almost indefinite amount;
but they are not aware that the success, or
in other words, the benefit of India in this
instance, would prove the destruction of the
mother country, which cannot eacist under the
immense drain of bullion that must follow.
E 2
52 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
“If the East were in the same predicament
“ with the West Indies, when the cost of the
“ sugar was either spent in Great Britain or
“ Ireland, or paid for in manufactures or
“ stores, it would be consistent with the
“soundest principles of political arithmetic to
“ encourage the importation by every possible
“ means.” It would be consistent with the
soundest principles to encourage the West
Indian, or dearer manufacture, in preference
to the East Indian or cheaper / Every penny
saved by the superior cheapness of East
Indian sugar would be a penny lost by the
adverse balance of trade 1 &c. &c.
Thus, if monopoly can “bolt her argu-
“ ments,” we see of what stuff they are, and
must be made. Mr. Robert Grant freely con-
demns them, as “unsound” and “odious;”
but his opposition to any material modification
of an institution founded on such false and
pernicious maxims is not a whit the less un-
qualified Respecting the notable error which
stands out so prominently in the above quo-
tations, viz. that wealth consists in gold and
silver, he says: “But, further, a clear proof
“ that the faults, however odious they may
“ now be deemed, of the commercial doctrines
THE EA ST IN DIA COMPANY. 53
“ of our fathers should rather be charged on
“ the age than on the influence of merchants,
“ is furnished by this circumstance, that those
“ doctrines were adopted by impartial men
“ of eminently profound and original minds.”
It is true that the errors of the mercantile system
are not the errors of the present generation;
they could not long survive the publication
of the Wealth of Nations; yet still we see their
grim and fetid ranks embalmed in the cata-
combs of Leadenhall-street. It would not be
easy to conjecture how Mr. Grant manages
to satisfy his friends for backing them after
such a fashion. While they are perishing in
the untenable outworks, he fires upon them in
his retreat, and unfurls the flag of monopo-
lizing sovereignty from the pinnacle of the
castle of patronage, built, as a last refuge, in
the centre of the citadel of anti-colonization.
Sir John Malcolm thinks the Court of Di-
rectors “incompetent, as a body, to the
“ exercise, in any shape or mode whatever,
“ of political power;” but that “though they
“ may not be equal to the functions of sove-
“ reignty over an extended empire, they must,
*–
* Sketch of the History, &c. p. 23.
54 COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF
“ from the greatness of their concerns, the
“ liberality upon which those are conducted,
“ and the general character of the individuals
‘ elected to the Direction, be always deemed
“ the first mercantile body in the world.”
Sir John takes it for granted that they are
merchants, that they have a capital of their
own, and that they are liberal in the distri-
bution of the profits earned in trading with
it. Had he looked a little into this depart-
ment he would have found “not one trace of
“ commercial principle in their mercantile
“ dealing;” and what is more important, that
theº' abstraction of political funds, and im-
patience of political expenditure, proceeding
from the “liberality” with which their other
concerns are conducted, were the immediate
causes of all the embarrassments that their
orders have ever occasioned in the march of
political events. He seems to admit that their
“ urgent injunctions of economy,” at a time
when there was a surplus of a million, pre-
£
* Sketch of the Pol. Hist. p. 45. Mr. Dundas called
the Company’s monopoly grafted upon tribute —“the
“ greatest commercial concern in the annals of polished
“ nations.” Speech, April 23, 1793.
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 55
vented Lord Cornwallis from taking Seringa-
patam, in February, 1792; so that he was in-
duced to leave the Mysore tiger wounded
and writhing with pain and rage, but not the
less capable of rendering necessary, seven
years later, all the expense and bloodshed of
another campaign.” He would have seen
that what he considers the only compliment-
able part of their affairs, was not only ill-
administered itself, but the cause of whatever
defects existed in other departments; and that
the private “ habits and pursuits” of the Direc-
tors had but little share in rendering their
understandings untractable to the appreciation
of vigorous and long-sighted schemes of po-
licy. Let, however, Sir John Malcolm's wish
to deprive them of political power be but
accomplished, and all controversy respecting
their merits would at once lose its interest and
its subject matter. ->
* This consequence was predicted by Mr. Orme, in a
letter, dated August 13, 1793. Hist. Fragm.
56.
CHAPTER II.
ON THE TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
AN enlightened friend of India, in arguing
the question of our right to draw tribute from
that country, employs the following illustra-
tion: “A guardian can have no claim to re-
“ imburse himself, from the ward’s estate, for
“ the expense he incurs in litigation to obtain
“a trust not spontaneously committed to him.
“ Sovereignty is a similar trust, which im-
“ poses duties on the acquirer, but entitles
“ him to no compensation for the expense and
“ risk at which he acquired secure authority
“ where he had no pretensions grounded on
“ the voluntary election of the subjects.”*
The duties incident to every situation in which
men can be placed make it a trust, for the
6
* Mr. Lambert, As. Ann. Reg. for 1803, Mis. Tr.
p. 29.
'I' R i BUT E U RAW N FROM IN DIA. 57
faithful discharge of which the moral respon-
sibility is complete, whether it be judicially
considered as of perfect or of imperfect obli-
gation, whether it be of so high a nature as to
be above, or of so low a kind as to be be-
neath, the cognizance of law. But the duties
of government are not temporary but perpe-
tual, and they are not onerous but profitable
in proportion to their conscientious fulfilment.
The king never dies, and he has a direct
pecuniary interest in the improvement of the
estates of his subjects. The trust committed
to a government may, therefore, be more
aptly compared to that of the proprietor of an
estate, resident in the case of a mother coun-
try, non-resident in that of a colony or distant
dependency. 3.
It is not requisite formy present purpose to en-
ter into distinctions respecting free and absolute
governments, since the duties of each are the
same, however different may be the security
enjoyed by their different subjects. If the
ruling power considers a people subjectos
tanquam suos, it is surely a strong reason why
it should not hold them viles ut alienos. The
disadvantages incident to the estate of an ab-
sentee proprietor, as well as to the remote
dependency of an absentee supreme govern-
58 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
ment, are not always factitious, or resulting
from their dependence ; but may be inherent
in them as inferior members of a system
which protects them while they contribute to
strengthen it; so that, under all circum-
stances, the condition of each may be the one
most conducive to its prosperity and happi-
ness; for the resident agent and his servants
in the one case, and the local government and
its functionaries in the other, may possess
means of simultaneously benefiting their
principals and those 'ependent on them
beyond comparison superior to any attain-
able by the native population. And if the
results do not correspond to such compara-
tively propitious circumstances, no apo-
logy, founded on the plea of non-residence,
can be admitted in justification of the fai-
lure. -
Leaving this analogy, we may observe that
the ability of the different members of an
empire to contribute to the general treasury
will be inversely in proportion to their dis-
tance from the seat of imperial legislation.
Many powerful causes concur to determine
the circulation from the extremities. Politics
and fashion, ambition and pleasure, attract
the greatest fortunes from every quarter to the
TRI BUTE U RAW N FROM IN DIA. 59
capital; and innumerable streams, having
their sources in the farthest east and west,
disembogue into this capacious reservoir. In
this manner, the distant provinces contribute
to the wealth and splendour of the metropolis;
but what the metropolis is to all parts of the
empire, the whole body of the mother coun-
try is to her colonies and foreign dependen-
cies. This tendency towards the centre is
essential to the unity of the complicated mass.
It creates a maximum of strength where the
greatest momentum is required to propel the
imperial protection and authority to the re-
motest regions, while it favourably disposes
the supreme government towards those regions
by bringing into contact with it persons who
are interested in their welfare, and acquainted
with their condition.* The absentees may
thus be considered as performing the double
function of hostages and of virtual represen-
tatives.
But their number may be greater than,
under the most perfect conceivable arrange-
ment, would be required to satisfy these pur-
* Brougham's Col. Pol, vol. i. p. 150–154. Burke,
vol. ix. p. 134–147.
60 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
poses for the common benefit; and this is
undoubtedly the case with respect to Ireland
and the West Indies. The history of Ireland
easily explains why her absentees are rela-
tively more numerous than those of Scotland;
but she cannot complain of the excess, since
it is a consequence of her early subjection to
England, to which she owes her civilization
and her industry with all its fruits. The sums
she has remitted to her absentees have grown
with her growth, but they have not kept pace
with it; and the aggregate of her private
revenue (the rate of whose increase has been,
and may still be, accelerated by the abolition
of restrictive laws) must be continually bear-
ing a larger proportion to her tribute. In
1688, it was estimated at £136,000; in 1729,
at £627,000; in 1805, at £2,890,000, besides
interest on loans raised in England.
In the West Indies, a part of the excess is
occasioned by the climate, and a part by the
unhappy structure of society. “No great
“ praise,” says Dr. Dickson, “ seems to be
“ due to absentees in general ; but I must do
“ them the justice to believe (what I have
“ been often told) that one cause of the non-
* residence of the more reflecting is, that
“ they may escape the truly deplorable scenes
©
é
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA. 61.
“ inseparable from the present mode of car-
“rying on the West Indian cultivation ;
“ scenes which destroy their own comfort,
“ and injure the tempers and the morals of
‘ their children.” These “more reflecting
“ persons” should consider whether they
can plead their sensibility to distress as an
excuse for not relieving it; and how far they
are responsible for all the suffering that is inflict-
ed on their own estates, by their own “ mana-
gers,” for the under feeding and over working of
their slaves, and for the use of no other stimulus
to labour than the smart of bodily pain. If they
would allow their humanity to nerve them against
the first aspect of this wretchedness, they might,
even by occasional residence, enjoy a feast of
reason and mercy, in training their slaves to
gradual manumission.f But though the tem-
t
* Mitigation of Slavery, &c. p. 24.
t The desiderata are: 1st, Encourage human labour,
and increase its power, by substituting the plough for the
hoe, and by the use of other implements and machinery:
2d, Increase the power of labouring cattle by better
feeding, shelter, treatment, and mechanical facility of
draught: 3d, Make the slaves adscripti glebae, and pay
them in wages proportioned to their diligence: 4th, Make
them competent witnesses on the trials of whites, and
62 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
poral advantage of such a proceeding is
as certain as the spiritual, since they would
thus greatly increase their incomes, yet expe-
rience shows that such is the force of habit
and prejudice, that, notwithstanding the tre-
mendous warnings that are sent from time to
time, the work will never be accomplished
until the colonial legislatures shall be quicken-
ed by a more authoritative interposition on
the part of the mother country. I have never
seen an estimate of the rents of absentee West
Indian proprietors, but they “may, without
“any exaggeration, be computed by mil-
“ lions.”*
give equal protection to their persons and property: 5th,
Educate them in Christian amity: they would thus be
trained to the exercise of freedom, and it would be the
interest of planters to allow supernumerary hands to
emigrate as freemen to the towns : 6th, Recruit the soil
by alternating crops of sugar, corn, potatoes, &c. there-
by rendering the price of provisions more uniform: 7th,
Reduce the duty on clayed sugar, so as to take away the
monopoly of the London refiners: 8th, Remove the 43
per cent. tax: 9th, Reform the laws of debtor and
creditor: 10th, Reform the currencies.
* Brougham, vol. i. p. 152. The only absentee-tax now
existing, I believe, is that in Jamaica of 6 per cent, on
the gross value of sugar and rum, for legal commission to
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 63
It appears, then, that the balance of ad-
vantage resulting from non-residence is very
greatly in favour of the mother country; and
this fact cannot be too strongly pressed on the
attention of the latter, that she may be in-
duced to abstain from exacting public tribute.
All history impresses us with this lesson, and
colonial history in particular, that there is
more reason to apprehend, and to guard
against, the abuse of power on the one hand,
than the frowardness and ingratitude of
dependence on the other. In the case of
nations and their offspring, unlike that of
individuals, we find the ropy; stronger in the
filial than in the parental relation. Accord-
ingly, it appears that (with the exception of
India) the only public tribute that Great
Britain ever drew from her colonies or depen-
dencies is from a few weak islands incapable
of resisting the oppression. She received
none from Scotland and Ireland before the
agents; but, in the reigns of Richard II. Edward IV.
and Henry VIII. Irish absentees were taxed at no less
than two-thirds of their lrish income. See Sinclair's
History of the Revenue, 3d edit. vol. iii. p. 155, 158,
lă9.
64 TRIBUTE DIRAW N FROM INDIA.
unions; none from North America before the
revolt; she receives none from Canada ; none
from any part of the West Indies, except Barba-
does and the Leeward Charibean islands, which
are subject to a tax of 4% per cent. on their
gross produce, equal to an average of 10 per
cent. on their net produce. Dr. Dickson says
that he has “ witnessed its grinding op-
“ pression; ” and, further, that “ this fatal
“ duty, as Oldmixon justly calls it, miserably
“ distresses the islands which pay it, without
“ materially contributing, on the grand na-
“tional scale, to the resources of the em-
“pire.” At its first imposition, in 1663, it
was not only comparatively light, from the
great profits earned by the planters, but it was
stipulated that the money should be appro-
priated to defray the expenses of the islands
in which it was raised ; a stipulation which has
been widely departed from, the greater part of
the produce of the tax having been applied to the
civilexpenditure of other islands, and to various
objects quite unconnected with the colonies.f
* Mitigation of Slavery, p. 384.
f Mr. Brougham has an observation on this subject,
which, if it means to justify the diversion of the 43 per
cent, fund, is quite unsatisfactory. He says, “ Mr.
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 65
With respect to that part of the military
expenses for which the colonies have been
unable to provide, and to the whole charge for
naval defence, it may be observed, that the
same measures which, by gradually conduct-
ing the slaves to a knowledge of the duties
and interests of freemen, would render the
islands secure against the danger of internal
explosion, would also so qualify the coloured
population as to make them invulnerable from
without ; by which mode of defence the
colonies themselves would be relieved from
much expense, and freed from all alarm ; and
the military resources of the mother country
would no longer be unprofitably dissipated far
from the objects to which her efforts should
be more immediately directed.
I shall now consider, in the order already
“ Burke" inveighs warmly against the diversion of the
“ fund from the services of the island where it is raised;
“forgetting how little it signifies, either to the mother
“ country or the colonies, whether the money paid by
“ themselves, or by the other subjects of the empire, is
“ spent among them.”—Vol. i. p. 553.
* Europ. Settlements, part iv. ch. 9.
66 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
observed, first, the private, and, secondly,
the public, tribute paid by India.
India being governed as a conquered pro-
vince, and not as a colony, it is evident that
the tribute remitted through private channels
cannot be accompanied by the same effects
which have followed the Irish and West
India tribute. In the latter case, we have
seen that the receivers derived more than
a pecuniary benefit, while the tributaries
were not without compensation, for this
circulation of inhabitants tended to keep
up an interchange of kindly feeling, to
promote a sense of compatriotism, to consoli-
date the strength, to multiply and combine
the relations and interests by which the em-
pire is held together. In the case of India,
neither this additional moral gain on the one
hand, nor moral compensation on the other,
can take place. Of the many hundreds of
persons, resident in Great Britain and Ireland,
who derive a whole or a portion of their in-
comes from India, only some ten or twelve,
who have retained an interest in mercantile
houses and indigo concerns, possess any
controul over the sources whence those incomes
are derived. Some, on retiring from India, re-
move their capitals, and “to their interest, the
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 67
“ day after they have left it and carried their
“whole fortune with them, it is perfectly
“ indifferent, though the whole country was
“swallowed up by an earthquake.” Those,
however, who leave their fortunes in that country,
whether invested in the Company's debt or in
houses, whatever may be their interest, are
wholly without power to preserve or improve
their incomes. The collection of the public
revenue, and the causes which raise or lower
the rents of houses, are as independent of
them as are the revolutions of the moon. Not
being absentee proprietors, they can neither
possess the dignity nor utility attached to that
character. They do not act as connecting
links between England and India. They are
neither hostages nor virtual representatives.
Being utterly without influence in the country
wherein they had spent the vigour of their
days, they cannot produce the palladium
of landed property to diffuse over the
evening of life the reflected radiance of
eastern consideration. Should they have
acquired a reputation by civil or military ser-
vices, its pure lambent flame will continue to
**s-,- ---> --------- - ------- ... ...- . ~~ : .....*.*-2-ºxº~~~.--~~~~~--------º-º-º-º:******** *
* Wealth of Nations, vol. ii. p. 484,
F 2
68 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
burn, but the oil which fed the intensity of its
heat will cease to be supplied. Thus the
whole transaction is pecuniary gain to Eng-
land, and pecuniary loss to India. Such are
the effects which present themselves vestibulum
ante ipsum.
The amount of property annually abstract-
ed from India, by individuals, has varied very
little from £1,500,000 since the year 1760.
Had it always consisted of the savings of
salaries, and of the earnings of honest indus-
try, its yearly amount should have been only
one-fifth of what it now is ; but what was
then wanting in legitimate resources was made
up by unbounded fraud and licentious rapine.*
The public revenues of whole provinces were
swept into the coffers of individuals by way of
interest on loans advanced to the Nabob of
| Arcot out of his own funds. In 1785, the
capital of all these fictitious debts amounted
to £4,440,000, and, to this day, it is a bur-
den on the revenue of the Carnatic.f “ If
* “ Three members of the council of government (at
* “ Madras) obtained a large assignment of territorial re-
“ venue in 1767, which came to light in the two succeed-
“ing years.”—Wilks’ Hist. vol. ii. p. 213.
t Mr. Brougham says, “ None of the ancient nations
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 69
“ we fix the commencement of this extraction
“ of money from the Carnatic (by English
“gentlemen on their private account) at a
“ period no earlier than the year 1760, and
“ close it in the year 1780, it, probably, will
‘ not amount to a great deal less than twenty
“ millions of money.” In March, 1793, a
committee of London merchants connected
with the East Indies estimated that the sums
gained by foreigners in the way of freight,
charges, and profits, on the remittance of the pri-
vate fortunes of British subjects from India, from
the year 1765 to 1793, could not be less than
310,000,000, which we may suppose to be
one-sixth of the capital on which it was gain-
ed. Descending to a later period, we find
the Court of Directors calculating the amount
6
“ appear to have reached such a pitch of wealth as to give
“ rise to the emigration of an overflowing capital.”—
Vol. i. p. 222. But the Roman worthies condescended to
be creditors somewhat on the same terms with Paul Ben-
field, Taylor, Call, Pybus, &c. Ariobarzanes, King of
Cappadocia, was overwhelmed with debt to Pompey;
the Cyprians were distressed by the interest exacted by
Brutus; and the Britons owed Seneca £320,000.
Hooke's Roman Hist. vol. iii. p. 554, 569. Henry's Hist.
of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 354.
* Burke, vol. iv. p. 208,
70 TRIBUTE D R AW N FROM INDIA.
of savings to be annually remitted by British
residents in India at £1,500,000; but Mr.
Henchman considers it to be much under-
stated, for the purpose of resisting the claims
of the free merchants. And, certainly, it
does not agree with the estimate in their letter
to Bengal, dated June 20, 1810, in which
they say, “It is no extravagant assertion to
“ advance, that the annual remittances to
“ London, on account of individuals, have
“ been at the rate of nearly £2,000,000 per
“ annum for a series of years past.”
India being subjected to so great a drain, in
favour of men who are prohibited by law from
applying any part of their gains to fructify
the soil whence they are derived, it may be
asked, on what pretence of justice can go-
vernment open another “ fistulous wound that
“shall constantly draw off the alimentary
“ juices which the system secretes ?” The
following imaginary case may help to set this
matter in a clearer light: “ Although the
“ county of Cornwall were not to pay a farthing
‘ of taxes to the treasury of Great Britain, nor
“ to send a single man to the standing army ;
* yet, if all its great proprietors resided in
London and Bristol, paying taxes there to
“ the state; if men from other parts of Eng-
&
6
&
&
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 71
“ land resorted thither to accumulate pro-
“ perty by the mines and fisheries, and re-
“ turned home to spend their gains; if the
“Cornish men paid the whole or the greater
“ part of the expense attending the civil go-
“ vernment of the county, and served in the
“ militia, without pay, as long as they were
“ able to bear arms;–we should certainly be
“ entitled to call it an integral part of the em-
“pire of great value to the imperial concern
“ as a source of wealth; and to denominate
“ that traffic a home trade, which is employ-
“ed in exchanging against its minerals the
“ cloths of Yorkshire, or the hard ware of
Warwickshire.” But what should we say
if the British government purchased with the
revenue of the county a quantity of its tin and
other produce equal in value to all that was
annually remitted to the absentee proprietors,
and, whenever the surplus of the county reve-
nue failed (as it must fail) to furnish the
means of providing this investment, supplied
the deficiency by loans charged on its future
revenues, the interest of which loans, and,
ultimately, the capital, were also to be trans-
&
* Brougham, vol. i. p. 154.
72 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
ferred to London? If a Nathan were to press
such a case on the parliament of Great Bri-
tain, that august body would take many years
to deliberate before it passed sentence of con-
demnation on a practice which corresponds, in
every respect, to our treatment of India.”
They are, probably, yet destined to compile
many a voluminous report, to hear and pre-
serve, by the aid of short-hand writers, many
distorted facts, and much false theory, from
the mouths of witnesses,f before they revert
* “If so august an authority as the legislature could
“ thus act, [i. e. participate in the Indian revenues, we
“may less wonder that private individuals, and especially
“ those within the more immediate influence of the mag-
‘ netic attraction, should have forgotten more exalted
“ principles in a thirst for barbarian gold.”—Quart. Rev.
No. xxxiii. p. 115. Is it possible this writer should think
the legislature not responsible for the whole which it
permitted to be taken, but only for the part which it
appropriated to itself? His words imply, that it was
unworthy of the legislature to receive a shilling of the
revenue, but that it might without injustice, or loss of
dignity, connive at the abstraction of millions.
f These examinations abundantly exemplify the truth of
Dr. Cullen's favourite remark, that there are more false
facts than false theories in the world. In general, how-
ever, the false theory is mixed with what passes under the
name of fact. See Stewart's Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 441.
(ſ
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 73
to mere common sense, and the received
maxims of political economy, for principles
whereby to regulate the trade and government
of India. The day when justice shall be fully
done to these great claims will assuredly come
at last; and if the Rockingham and coalition
ministries had not fallen victims to court in-
trigue and popular delusion, a most important
step would long ago have been taken; for
they would not have permitted the Company's
investments to continue to be “ supported on
“ principles fatal to the prosperity of India.”
They devoted themselves with the heroism,
but without the success, of Curtius. That
yawning gulf must be filled up, not with the
sacrifice of the best thing in the common-
wealth, but of the worst.
On the acquisition of the Dewannee, in
All that the Company's witnesses did prove was nothing
more than the tritest circumstances respecting the igno-
rance and prejudices of the natives. But the Directors
will never again be able to march troops of witnesses to
the bar of the House of Commons. The opinions of
their servants, civil and military, whether taken by tale
or by weight, will be found decidedly to preponderate in
favour of all that they most eagerly deprecate.
* Burke, vol. xi. p. 78. -
74 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
1765, Lord Clive stated the revenue at
£2,500,000, and the surplus, to be annually
carried off as tribute, at £1,650,900. All the
purposes of defence, of civil administration,
and of public works, in a country where these
are exclusively expected at the hands of go-
vernment, were to be satisfied by one-third
of a revenue supposed to consist of nine-
tenths of the net produce of the land, and
two-thirds were to be drawn off by a parlia-
mentary corporation, originally instituted for
the purpose of trading to the East Indies.
| The revenue was subsequently much increased
by assuming the monopoly of salt and opium,
and by subsidies from neighbouring princes;
but it appears that the average annual tribute,
in the shape of investment, from 1765 to 1791,
was upwards of a million.” What it has been
since may be collected from the following
facts: viz. whereas the interest on debt, in
1792-3, was £636,226, in 1808–0, it was
#2,309,836, the net increase of debt having
been £20,905, 194; and the debt was contracted
in the above period, during which the net sur-
* View of Plans, p. 318. As. Ann. Reg. for 1803,
Mis, Tr. p. 40, 41.
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN IDIA, 75
plus revenue, after defraying all charges eaccept
interest, amounted to £17,833,187.*
Reckoning the aggregate of tribute, public
and private, at only two millions a year, it
will amount, in the 55 years which have
elapsed since 1765, to £110,000,000. It is to
be observed, that, whenever the deficiency of
surplus was made up by loans, four-fifths of
the money so raised must have gone in diminu-
tion of the private tribute, and would other-
wise have been remitted, in a separate channel,
under its own proper name, four-fifths being
the proportion of the Indian debt that is held
by Europeans. Although, at that period, the
aggregate of tribute must have been less than
at others, yet it was every year as great as,
under all circumstances, it could possibly be
made. It is obvious that the source of public
tribute must have been exhausted long ago, had
not the extension of our dominion continually
opened fresh springs to supply it; nor is it less
clear that, when the revenue of Bengal was only
four millions, or any other limited sum, sup-
* Appendix, No. II.
t Letter from the Bengal government, August 23,
1809,
76 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
posing the charges also limited, the rapid im-
poverishment of the country, caused by the
annual loss of a million and a half, would
occasion a progressive diminution of the re-
venue; that to supply this deficiency debt
would be contracted ; and that the original
surplus, being consumed at one end by in-
creasing interest of debt, and at the other by
diminishing income, would soon disappear,
while public credit must die with it. When
Parliament, therefore, in a sort of legislative
preamble, passed an abstract declaration of
censure on the prosecution of schemes of
conquest in India, it ought, in all consistency,
to have superadded a resolution, stigmatising
the conversion of an exclusive trading com-
pany into a syphon for draining a conquered
province of its wealth.
Under the supposition of a limited surface
from which it was to accrue, the private
tribute, though it would have lasted longer,
must also, in time, have ceased to be forth-
coming; for “no country can long import
“unless it also exports, nor can long export
“ unless it also imports.”
* Ricardo, p. 364.
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA. 77
The impolicy of the British system of pro-
viding for the expenses of war by loans has
been unanswerably insisted on by the ablest
writers of every period.” But, in Britain,
the greater part of the borrowed capital, and
almost all the interest, are spent within the
country, and, during intervals of peace, the
nation may make what exertions it pleases to
release its revenue: whereas, from India, all
the borrowed capital, and four-fifths of the
interest are constantly withdrawn without the º
return of an equivalent; and, since the de-
mand for tribute is perpetual, there is no inter-
val during which a surplus can be exclusively
applied to the reduction of debt. No sooner
does the acquisition of fresh territory, or an
improvement in fiscal ingenuity, open a new
field to the revenue, and yield it a fund that
might be available for the redemption of debt,
than it is devoured by the ravenous and
insatiable harpy. Under the present system
it is demonstrable, that India never can
be freed from financial incumbrance, but
* Sir J. Stewart, Hume, Smith, Malthus, Hamilton,
Ricardo. .
78 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA,
must continue to maintain an unceasing
struggle between exertion and embarrassment.
Under this system India is not only burdened
with the interest on a debt not its own, but
with the loss incurred by remitting that inter-
est through the medium of the Company's
trade, whether the loans be made in England
or in India. If made in the former country,
the expense of remitting the interest in goods,
the proceeds of which will be less than prime
cost and charges, must of course fall on the
Company, that is, on India: if made in the
latter country, the creditors will either stipu-
late for the option of payment of interest in
London at the market rate of exchange, which
the Company's trade cannot afford, or be
compensated for the inconvenience of not
having that option, by a higher rate of inter-
est. The loss resulting from this process will,
of course, be augmented by the repayment
of capital in England, and be altogether saved
by the repayment of capital in India.
Various are the modes in which the advo-
cates of the Company have treated the sub-
ject of public tribute ; their opinions exhibit
as much variety as could be expected
from men to whom every course was open,
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 79
except the right one. 1. They speak of it with
great indifference, as a matter the justice and
policy of which could not be questioned. 2.
They apologize for it, as being unavoidable.
3. They represent it as being advantageous to
India. 4. They deny that any tribute has
been taken, contending that the debt has been
occasioned by the insufficiency of the reve-
nues to cover the political expenses, and that
therefore the territory is justly charged with
its redemption. - .
I. They confess the tribute, and beg the
question as to its justice and policy. In 1793,
Mr. Dundas said that the Company was “an
“ organ of government and of trade which
“ had experimentally proved itself to be
“ suited to the administration of distant pro-
“ vinces, the revenues of which were to be
“ REALIZED (in England) through a regulated
“. COMMERCE.” And, to the same purpose,
Mr. Bruce: “Here the second question pre-
“sents itself, through what hands, upon this
“ plan, could government have brought home
‘ the surplus revenue? That this surplus
“ must be realized in Britain, through the
“import trade, and that it can pass through
no other medium, is an admitted and esta-
&
( &
80 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
“ blished fact.”* The Court of Directors,
in a letter to the Bengal government, dated
June 20, 1810, say: “It is no new doctrine,
“ that all the acquisitions of Europeans in
“ India will, in some shape or other, be trans-
“ferred to the mother country, unless they
“colonize in India; a practice of which, hap-
“ pily, there have, hitherto, been few exam-
“ ples:” —and that ever since 1756, but par-
ticularly since 1765, “there has been, as is
“ well known, a constant drain from India
“ of the wealth, public and private, acquired
“ there by Europeans.” And so they dismiss
the subject of the “constant drain” of public
and private wealth from the country com-
mitted to their care. It is, they say, an old
and “well known” grievance, and “happily.”
not likely to be alleviated.
Lord Cornwallis, in a minute of February 3,
1790, says: “Its real value (i.e. of Bengal)
“ to Britain, depends upon the continuance of
“ its ability to furnish a large annual invest-
“ ment to Europe; to give considerable
“ assistance to the treasury at Canton; and
* View of Plans, p. 241.
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 81
& &
& 4
& &
& &
& 6
4 &
to supply the pressing and extensive wants
of the other Presidencies. The conse-
quences of the heavy drains of wealth from
the above causes, with the addition of that
which has been occasioned by the remit-
tance of the private fortunes, have been for
many years past, and are now severely felt,
by the great diminution of the current specie,
and by the languor which has thereby been
thrown upon the circulation, and the ge-
neral cultivation of the country.” It is very
remarkable that it did not occur to this able
and upright Governor-General that the real
value of India ought to depend, not on the
precarious continuance of an impoverishing
tribute, but on the certain benefits of an en-
riching trade; and on the field that it afforded
for the labours of civilizing colonists.
Mr. Mill thinks that, “as regards the Bri-
“tish nation, it is in these (financial) results,
& &
6 &
& &
& 6
&
&
that the good or evil of its operations in
India is wholly to be found. If India
affords a surplus revenue which can be sent
to England, thus far is India beneficial to
England.”* And an anonymous writer
***--. -- - ---
* Vol. iii. p. 718.
82 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA,
avows the same opinion, not with a stern
disregard, but with a cool and facetious con-
tempt of the consequences to India. “Whether
“any country,” says he, “can, for a long period,
“ afford to yield a considerable tribute with-
“ out receiving a commercial return, in one
“ form or other, is a curious question of po-
“ litical economy; and those who are disposed
“ to support the negative of the proposition,
“ will have some difficulty in showing the
“utility of our territorial acquisitions in
“ India.”* This writer sees no objection to
pursuing the experiment until it end in the
cessation of all gain to one party and the com-
plete prostration of the other. When the vital
fluids shall have been drawn off, then the car-
rion carcass, being of no further “utility,”
may be thrown to gorge the obscene birds of
the air and the beasts of the jungle. This
is not the utility of the guardians of the
public welfare, but the utility of a robber
or a foe.
II. They plead necessity. Mr. Shore, in a
minute of June 18, 1789, says: “If we were
* Considerations on the Danger and Impolicy of laying
open the Trade with India and China. 1812.
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA. 83
“ to suppose the internal trade of Hindostan
“ again revived, the export of the produc-
tions of the country, by the Company, must
“still prevent those returns which trade
“ formerly poured in. This is an evil inse-
“ parable from an European government.”
What is an European government incom-
patible with the existence of trade, which
could pour in its returns only under the
auspices of the native tyranny which we sup-
planted In a tract by Mr. Charles Grant,
printed by order of the House of Commons, *
the author, after fully exposing the nature and
extent of the public and private tribute (which
he estimates at fifty millions, from Bengal
alone, in the thirty years following its acqui-
sition) says: “Certainly, a great deal was
“ due from us to the people in compensation
“ for the evils which the establishment of our
“ power had introduced among them, and in
“ return for the vast advantages which we
“ reaped from the change, it was but fit that
4.
&
*-a-...—sº
* Observations on the State of Society among the
Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain, particularly with re-
spect to Morals; and on the Means of improving it.
G 2
84 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
“ what the country had suffered, or was sub-
“jected unavoidably to lose, by being de-
“ pendent upon us, should be repaid by all
“ the benefits which good government, in
“ consistency, at least, with that dependence,
“could bestow.” But nothing is said to show.
how the extraction of public tribute was and
is unavoidable; and if we should be referred
to certain unalterable decrees of Nature and
Fate, already spoken of, the necessity would
not be at all the more intelligible.
The author, however, does not admit that
the Company were actuated by a spirit of
rapacity. “With respect to the Company and
“ to Europeans in general, these various evils
“ proceeded more from the elation of new
“ success, from extravagant notions of the
“ resources of the country, and unreflecting
“ eagerness, than from intentional rapacity.”
Now all these dispositions are perfectly con-
sistent with rapacity. Men released from ex-
ternal controul, and able to gratify their ap-
petite for plunder, will, no doubt, be inso-
lent, and careless of consequences; but the
moral quality of those transactions depended
on the validity of the title under which they
acquired their wealth, not on the giddy trans-
TRIBUTE D R A WN FROM INDIA. 85
ports which the prize excited, nor on the ac-
curacy of their calculations respecting the
amount of what they refrained from taking,
nor on the uses to which they applied their
rapine. And how does the apology here
offered apply to the Company? They were
far removed from the scene of the scramble,
yet they gladly received their share, and pre-
scribed a strict continuance of the process by
which it was obtained. Even if the resources
of the country had not been sifted and bolted
to the bran, by Lord Clive and his successors,
they knew precisely what proportion the tribute
they exacted bore to the sum total received
into their treasury at Calcutta : but postponing
all thought of the claims of India upon that
treasury, they deliberately resolved to consider
the acquisition of it as a dispensation from
all further obligation to prosecute their trade;
and counted, with glistening eyes, how much
must be doled out for local expenses, and
how much might be carried away in triumph.
Nor was it merely during the elation of
their first success that the Company forgot
the duties that belonged to their new cha-
racter. From the system which they then
adopted, “by which it was absolutely impos-
“sible that India should not be radically and
86 TRIBUTE D R A W N FROM I NDIA.
“ irretrievably ruined,” they never volun-
tarily departed; having constantly enjoined
the exaction of the heaviest tribute that could
be realized, and resisted every palliative that
the legislature has hitherto applied. They
have never considered how irreconcilable the
sacred right to protection in the people of
India is with the open profession of a plan
to try “the continuance of their ability” to
be drained of their wealth. “ To protect
“ men,” says Burke, “is to forward and not
“ to restrain their improvement; else, what
“ is it more than to avow to them and to the
“ world, that you guard them from others,
“ only to make them a prey to yourself? This
“ fundamental nature of protection does not
“ belong to free, but to all governments; and
“ is as valid in Turkey as in Great Britain.
“No government ought to own that it exists
“ for the purpose of checking the prosperity
“ of its people, or that there is such a prin-
“ciple involved in its policy.”f It is doubt-
* Burke, xi. 51.
+ Vol. iii. 225. Respublica, res est populi cum bene
ac juste geritur, sive ab uno rege, sive a paucis optima-
tibus, sive ab universo populo. Cic. ap. Augustin.
TRIBUTE D RAW N FROM IN DIA. 87
ful whether the positive or the negative part
of the system, by and for which the Company
exist, evinces more decidedly a hostile mind
on the part of the rulers to their people; and
with respect to the inference from such a state
of things, the great master already quoted
observes, “that he never knew a writer on
“ the theory of government so partial to au-
“ thority as not to allow that the hostile mind
“ of the rulers to their people did fully justify
“ a change of government; nor can any
“ reason whatever be given why one people
“should voluntarily yield any degree of pre-
“ eminence to another, but on a supposition
“ of great affection and benevolence towards
“ them.””
The injury inflicted by impoverishment is
of that gross and palpable kind which it
cannot be pretended that any people would
virtually sanction. If the natives fully under-
stood the nature of those measures which pro-
duced that severe general distress and languor
described by Lord Cornwallis, we cannot
presume that they consented to them; still less
if we suppose them ignorant of their nature
* Ibid. p. 163.
88 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
and tendency. We cannot speak of the ruling
power making compensation, by the benefits
of good government, for the evils simulta-
neously inflicted by its own mal-administration,
without an extraordinary solecism ; and one
not less impious than absurd. It would be to
resemble those men, of whom a great divine
says, that “they are for making a composition
“ with the Almighty. These of his commands
“ they will obey: But as to others why
“ they will make all the atonements in their
“ power; the ambitious, the covetous, the
‘ dissolute man, each in a way which shall
‘ not contradict his respective pursuit.”*
The little that Mr. Robert Grant has said
on the subject of tribute, f a word which does
not once occur in his twin volumes, is full of
&
&
* Bishop Butler's Sermon upon the Character of
Balaam.
f Absolute silence is not an unusual resource with this
writer. Thus, he has not a syllable on the subject of the
Nabob of Arcot's debts, though it is inseparably mixed up
with the history of the Madras residency, subsequent to
the year 1766. Such is his method of “virtually” and
“ tacitly” refuting charges against the servants of the
Company. See Sketch of the History, &c. pp. 289–292,
365, 366.
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 89
error. 1. After stating that great frauds and
extortions were practised by the native officers
employed in the collection of the revenue of
Bengal, between the years 1765 and 1769, he
observes: “The effect of these circumstances
“ was the gradual impoverishment of the
“ country; an effect, however, to which other
“causes greatly contributed.” Admitting
the existence of the alleged abuses in their
utmost extent, the impoverishment was not only
not in the least degree occasioned by them,
but they had plainly a contrary effect. We
are told (and Mr. Verelst tells us more fully
in his instructions to the supravisors) that the
native agents, by every artifice of deceit and
collusion, embezzled vast sums of the produce
of the land-tax. Well! as much as stuck to
the fingers of these native peculators, as much
as they intercepted from the British treasury, -
so much was saved, and therefore gained, to
their country. 2. Neither is the true source
of the impoverishment to be found among the
“ other causes,” and “new set of evils col-
“ laterally but almost unavoidably occasioned
*-
• Ibid. p. 368.
90 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
“ by the transfer of the revenues from the
“ treasury of the Nabob to that of the British
“ government;” which Mr. Grant thus de-
scribes: “As the new wealth thus accruing
“ to the Company could be realized in Eu-
“ rope only through the medium of com-
“ MERCE, the orders for the Bengal invest-
“ ment were at once very largely augmented.
“ This enhanced demand could not immedi-
“ately be met by a proportionate augmen-
“tation in the supply of the commodities
“ required; and, as a remedy for the difficulty,
“ the native agents” of the Company too
“ frequently made use of compulsory mea-
“ sures to secure to themselves a pre-emption
“ of the market to the exclusion of the coun-
“ try dealers.” In this passage, the realiza-
tion (as it is called) of a portion of the
revenue in England is not at all assigned as
the main cause, nor as any cause, of the dis-
tresses to be accounted for: it is mentioned
* See Mr. Richards' Surat Diary for the European
agents’ management of refractory artizans. Similar op-
pression was practised everywhere, and even still India
might exclaim, Perish such commerce /
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 91
solely for the purpose of introducing the state-
ment respecting the extortions imputed to the
native officers. The gain effected by the
power of pre-emption, or by the forcible taking
of goods at the buyer's own price, was un-
doubtedly authorized ; but whatever was em-
bezzled by the native agents, together with all
that they levied without authority, must have
been appropriated to their own benefit, and
therefore did not go to swell the volume of
the tribute. Under no view of the matter can
these native instruments, with all their imper-
fections and offences on their heads, be trans-
formed into scape-goats. Mr. Grant having
thus glibly substituted for a radical and per-
manent evil, its apparently temporary and
corrigible accompaniments, – and these ac-
tually operating as its correctives, – proceeds,
as might be expected, to show that “there
“ was yet in the national genius and princi-
“ ples of the British, what might retrieve the
“ faults and rectify the disorders that have
“ been described.” We are left to suppose,
that thenceforward the annual operation of
extracting tribute was performed so skilfully,
that the patient could not feel it, either in its
immediate or remote effects. 3. Retrospec-
92 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
tively Mr. Grant exonerates the tribute from
all influence whatever in effecting “ the gra-
“ dual impoverishment of the country:” yet,
at a later period, when that mine could no
longer be so profitably worked, he hints his
doubts as to the equity of doing so for the
future, and gives only his faint disapprobation
to uphold the practice. Thus: “The act of
“ 1793, indeed, provided for a participation,
“ on the part of the British public, in the
“ surplus of the Indian revenues; but, surely,
“ the revenues of a great empire are suffici-
“ently operative when they fully feed its
“expenditure! Those who expect more from
“ the empire of Hindostan appear to deal
“ out a hard measure!!”* This from one who
speaks of realizing in England the new
wealth accruing to the Company from the
revenues as a matter of course; the only ques-
tion raised on the occasion respecting the
mode of its conveyance! But Mr. Grant,
having no explicit opinions on the subject of
tribute, and not appearing conscious that he
was treading on any debateable ground, can-
* Expediency, p. 360.
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA. 93
not properly be comprehended in any of the
four classes into which, with reference to that
all-important question, the advocates of the
Company may be divided.
III. They represent the tribute as being ad-
vantageous to India. It is not less true at
this day than it was in 1783, that, ever since
the year 1765, the greater part of the Com-
pany's annual investment from India has been
purchased with Indian revenues, or with loans
raised by mortgaging them; “that the great-
“ ness of this investment has been the stand-
“ard, by which the merit of the Company's
“ principal servants has been too generally
“ estimated;”* and that this main cause
* Thus, in a debate at the India-'house, December 6,
1798, in a General Court held for the purpose of voting a
pension to Lord Hobart, Mr. Inglis (late Chairman) said:
“ In matters of commeRCE his exertions stood unrivalled
“ in the annals of the East.” The proof of this supe-
riority of commercial genius and activity in his Lordship
was, that he had raised the average public tribute, drawn
from Madras, from £162,000 to £507,200. During all
this time the revenue of Madras, (which has since been
greatly increased by accessions of territory) was far from
being adequate to its expenditure. In the year 1796–7,
94 TR H BUTE D R A WN FROM IN DIA.
“ of the impoverishment of India has been
“ generally taken as a measure of its wealth
“ and prosperity.”* Such a mistake seems
scarcely excusable, seeing that the Parliamen-
tary discussion which the subject underwent
in 1767, and the acts then passed proclaimed
to all the world that the imports of the Com-
pany were no longer to be considered as the
produce of a commercial capital to be re-
placed with a profit, and so reinforced to be
employed in the increased production of
commodities,—but as the payment of a tribute.
the charges (including interest on debt) were £2,445,532
The revenues, (including # of £381,938, re-
ceived in India on the sale of import
goods, and for certificates on the Court of
Directors,) were . . . . . . . . . . . . . . e e º 'º C tº 2,091,812
Deficit tº Q º O C & © e º ºs e º O & Q & © 9, 8 º' tº tº e º e º e º e & £ 353,720
Commercial evertions of Lord Hobart. • . . . . 642,048
Total deficit to be supplied by Bengal, or by
loans © e º e e. e. e. e. e. e s e e e s e e s e e º e º e o e s e º e £ 995,768
Let the reader judge from this foot what must be the
effects of the ever active Herculean mischief.
* Burke, vol. xi. p. 51.
TRIBUTE DRAWN FROM INDIA. 95
But we are more surprised to find the mistake
committed in the very moment when the
writer, or speaker, is either exulting in the
clear gain to England, or complaining of the
distress produced in India by its remittance.
Out of many examples I shall adduce a
few in their chronological order. The most
simple and precise expression of this opinion,
which makes the happiness of India consist
in toiling and spinning for the benefit of an-
other nation, is by Mr. James Grant, a Bengal
civilian, who says: “We insist and will
“ maintain, that such or even a more exten-
“sive TRADE than is now carried on by the
“ East India Company in exports from thence
“ (from India) without returns of earchangeable.
“ merchandize, is so far from being destructive
“ to the country, that the necessary standard
“ of finance, the ease, welfare, and prosperity
“ of the society at large, particularly the class
“ of manufacturers, absolutely and almost
“ entirely depend on its continuance.”
Mr. Bruce, after speaking of the decline of
the revenue, and every other symptom of im-
poverishment which became so visible soon
* Fifth Report, 1812, p. 326.
96 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
after the Company had assumed the fiscal go-
vernment of Bengal, concludes as follows: “It is
“ almost certain that had not an ouTLET for
“Indian productions been afforded by the
“ European companies, the fall of Eastern
“ arts and manufactures, and the consequent
“ distress of the natives, would have been
“ more sudden and great.”* He makes no
distinction between the different principles on
which the great English and the small foreign
companies conducted their trade; being
“ almost” persuaded that the main requisite
to the prosperity of India is to open an ample
“outlet” for her produce.
A minute recorded by Lord Wellesley, June
2, 1798, contains the following passage:
“The investment, at once the most powerful
“ cause of our temporary distress, the main
“spring of the industry and opulence of the
“ people committed to our charge, and the
“ active principle of the commercial interests
“ of the Company, is more likely to be in-
“ creased than diminished in any future year;
“ and, consequently, the embarrassments of our
“...finances must be progressive, if some means
* View of Plans, p. 473.
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 97
“ be not devised for aiding the resources of
“ this presidency, which must now be consi-
‘ dered the general treasury and bank of our
“ Indian empire, furnishing supplies for the
“ services of all our other possessions in In-
“ dia, as well as a large and increasing pro-
‘ portion of the capital employed in the trade
“ to Europe and to China.” We are here told
that the same thing, the investment, is the
cause of opulence to the country and of po-
verty to the state, of increasing wealth to the
tax-payer, and of increasing embarrassments
to the tax-receiver. It is said, theoretically,
that the people are benefited by the efflux of
the produce of their land and labour; but it is
felt, practically, that the operation is debili-
tating, and, if unchecked, will become ruinous.
Mr. Dundas, in his budget speech, March
12, 1799, while he admits that “ The pur-
“ chase of investments has been made princi-
“ pally by money raised on loans at a high
“ rate of interest,” and that “ the inconveni-
“ence produced thereby is great,” observes,
in reply to the objections that “ might be"
made to such management, (for nobody took
the trouble to make any,) that “it was cer-
“tainly the duty of the Company to embrace
“ the favourable opportunity of adding to their
H
6
6
&
98 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
“ trade, which offered by the removal, for the
“ most part, of foreign competition; and that,
“ if they had not done it, disastrous effects
“ might have been produced : the industry of
“ the natives would have been cramped, the
“ cultivation of the raw material discouraged,
“ and the manufacturers deprived of support.”
We have here exactly the same error, or, rather,
the same hypocritical pretence, that it is advan-
tageous for India to export, without returns,
produce purchased with her own money. In
revulsions of trade, individuals suffer loss by
the difficulty of withdrawing that part of their
capitals which may be invested in machinery
or in agriculture: but though the state has
always afforded more or less protection to the
agriculturist, at the expense of the commu-
nity, it has never assisted manufacturers, when
distressed by changes from peace to war, or
from war to peace, by granting a bounty on
the exportation of their goods. The interest
of the nation requires that no artificial obsta-
cles should retard a new distribution of its
capital. Such evils are not only temporary,
but are more incident to rich and power-
ful countries, which can best support them,
“ where large capitals are invested in machi-
“ nery, than to poorer countries, where there
TRIBUTE D R A. W N FROM IN DIA. 99
“ is proportionally a much smaller amount of
“ fixed, and a much larger amount of circula-
“ ting, capital, and where, consequently, more
“ work is done by the labour of men.” A
suspension, or cessation, of the payment of
tribute, if not accompanied by the extension
of a legitimate market, would, no doubt, pro-
duce some of the effects of a revulsion in
trade ; but since the Indian artisan has no
fixed capital worth mentioning, he could, with
little inconvenience, turn to any other employ-
ment that would be in demand in consequence
of the relief from tribute ; and the labours of
agriculture are always open to receive him.t
* Ricardo, p. 367.
# Extract from Answers to Interrogatories, by Mr.
Wordsworth, collector of Rungpore, 1802. “ The wea-
“ vers’ chief iuducement to labour as manufacturers
“ seems to arise less from necessity, or motives of indus-
“ try, than from a well known disposition (governed by
“ custom) to engage more or less in the same business in
“ which their forefathers have been occupied: and I am
“ credibly informed that, out of thousands who have been
“ accustomed to receive advances from the merchants
“ for years together, few, if any, are found, like the ma-
“nufacturers of most other countries, to express the least con-
“ cern, or complain of any suffering consequent distress,
“ when, from stagnation of trade, or other causes, the mer-
#
H 2
100 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
Lord Castlereagh said, (July 18, 1806,)
“The worthy Alderman (Prinsep) must be
“ prepared to dispel the apprehensions which
“ must be entertained with respect to the inju-
“rious influence on the prosperity of India,
“ which may be the consequence of an un-
“steady and unequal demand for its produce,
“ before he can expect to satisfy Parliament
“ that an intercourse perfectly unrestrained is
“ preferable to that qualified intercourse,
“ partly free and partly restricted, which now
“ prevails.” If to prevail on parliament to
liberate India from the fangs of the Company,
it had only been necessary to satisfy its tender
anxiety that the prosperity of that devoted coun-
try would not be endangered by substituting an
unrestrained barter for the steady and equal
“ demand for its produce” in exchange for its
own revenues; we might hope that upwards of
half a century would not have been spent in
vain and fruitless endeavours to effect it. If
there ever had been a sincere desire to protect
India, her friends might have succeeded in
“ chants are obliged to withhold from them suddenly, or
“ for any length of time, the usual supplies of cash for
“ the provision of goods.”
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM I N DIA. 101
proving that she could not thrive under the ex-
haustion of her life-blood, while we, who re-
ceived it, were not at all afraid of bursting
with repletion.
Coming down to a later period, I shall refer to
a letter from the Vice President in Council, of
Fort William, dated August 23, 1809, paragraph
114, and the answer to it from the Court of Direc-
tors, dated June 20, 1820, paragraph 61, in both
of which documents the remittance of debt, or
tribute, is spoken of as “giving encouragement
to the “ industry of the country.” Finally, Mr.
Hastings, when examined by the House of
Commons, March 30, 1813, said, (without
any chronological restriction,) “ The Compa-
“ ny’s investment affords a livelihood to thou-
“ sands, it animates the industry of the peo-
“ ple, and is equally beneficial to both.”
The provision of the greater part of the
Company’s Indian investment is essentially,
and almost formally, the same operation as if
India gave a bounty on the exportation of her
produce. Now “ the sole effect of a bounty,
“ either on the exportation of manufactures,
“ or of corn, is to divert a portion of capital
to an employment which it would not natu-
rally seek. It causes a pernicious distribu-
tion of the general funds of the society; it
& 4
& 6
€ $
102 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
“ bribes a manufacturer to commence or con-
“tinue in a comparatively less profitable em-
“ ployment. It is the worst species of taara-
‘tion, for it does not give to the foreign coun-
‘ try all that it takes away from the home
‘ country, the balance of loss being made up
“ by the less advantageous distribution of the
“general capital.” A bounty on the pro-
duction of particular commodities, by giving a
strong impulse to their exportation, and an
equally strong stimulus to the importation of
those on whose production it was given, would,
in a still greater degree, “alter the natural
“ distribution of employments, to the advan-
“tage, indeed, of the foreign countries, but
“ to the ruin of that in which so absurd a po-
“ licy was adopted.”f
Mr. Ricardo having stated and illustrated
an imaginary case of a colony being compelled
to pay a heavy bounty on the exportation of
its raw produce and manufactures to the mo-
ther country, observes, “ It may, however,
“ be said that a bounty on exportation is a
“ measure of internal policy, and could not
“ easily be imposed by the mother country.”f
4
&
6
6
* Ricardo, p. 439. + Ibid. p. 457.
f Ibid. p. 478.
TRIBUTE D R AW N FROM IN DIA. 103
Certainly, no mother country has ever car-
ried her selfish treatment of a colony to so
injurious an extremity; but conquered provin-
ces, entrusted to a Dutch or English East
India Company, afford examples of the inflic-
tion of this scourge during “ the continuance
“ of their ability” to bear it.
IV. They deny that any tribute has been
taken, contending that the debt has been oc-
casioned by the insufficiency of the revenues
to cover the political expenses; and that,
therefore, the territory is justly charged with
its redemption. Notwithstanding the inextrica-
ble confusion which reigns throughout the details
of Indian accounts, the masses, not of deficiency,
but of surplus territorial revenue, from the year
1765 to this hour, are so palpable that it must
require no little hardihood to present state-
ments exhibiting a contrary result. I know
only two directors who have ever committed
themselves in so hopeless an undertaking, Mr.
Nathaniel Smith and Mr. Charles Grant; and,
as their statements embrace different periods,
we have only the weight of one authority in
support of the calculation for each period.
Neither of them vouches for the accuracy of the
other. But this backwardness to enterinto parti-
culars does not hinder the Court of Directors, in
104 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
their collective capacity, from invariably repre-
senting the debt as being conceived and
brought forth in political extravagance, as
having no connexion with what they call their
trade. It seems they cannot afford to emulate
the courage of ministers, who, while they ac-
knowledge the debt to have originated chiefly
in the extraction of tribute, always speak of
the revenue being mortgaged for the redemp-
tion of the whole as a matter not disputable,
and, certainly, never disputed.
Mr. Smith makes revenue debtor to trade,
from 1750 to 1790, nearly five millions.”
During nearly the whole of this period, it is
certain that, “in a commercial light, England
“, became annually bankrupt to Bengal to the
“ amount nearly of its own dealing; or,
“ rather, that the country suffered what was
“tantamount to an annual plunder of its ma-
“nufactures and its produce to the value of
“ 381,200,000;”f and we have seen that Mr.
Grant admits that, up to 1793, a very large
public and private tribute was drawn from
Bengal, and, consequently, from India gene-
* View of Plans, p. 326. # Burke, vol. xi. p. 57.
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 105
rally, because Bengal supplied the wants of
the other presidencies.
It is worth while to observe Mr. Bruce's recep-
tion of this claim of five millions remitted to
India more than received from it, so irreconci-
lable with his plan, which is founded on the
exclusive competence of the Company to bring
home the tribute, which he shows to have been
at the rate of upwards of a million a year.
He says, “ In the actual state of the trade
“ and of the revenues, however, all reasonings
“ on the subject seem unnecessary, farther than
“ to fix our attention on the fact that these
“ claims of the proprietors” [though the ba-
lance lay the other way, according to his
own showing] “ are an additional reason for
“ continuing the present union between the trade
“ and the revenues, and for granting the Com-
“ pany such terms as shall enable them to
‘ discharge the debts which they have con-
“ tracted IN DEFENCE OF THE INDIAN PRO-
“ v INCES AND OF THEIR TRADE, and to
“ realize the value of their stock l’” If the
territory does not pay its own expenses, why
should the Company cling to it? If, after so
many years' experience, they found themselves
losers, in consequence of the “union be-
Ç
106 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
“ tween trade and revenue,” why should they
petition for its continuance 2 or why should it
be continued to them, as a means of reimburs-
ing them for the expenses itself had occasion-
ed? If the territory more than paid its expen-
ses, the debt cannot belong to it.
This claim of revenue, being debtor to trade,
crowns the climax on the subject of tribute.
First, we tell India simply that we are deter-
mined to take tribute as long as she can pay it.
Secondly, we say that it is unavoidable; we are
urged on by fate, like predestinated crimi-
nals; but we will make compensation by duly
performing the less costly parts of good go-
vernment. Thirdly, we tell her that it is for
her good ; it is to promote her industry and
opulence : if we said, (like the Hanoverian
ladies of the court of George I. to appease a
London mob,) “We come for all your goods!”
the word would be better suited to the action.
Fourthly, we declare that, after all, she is but
an unprofitable servant, that she has received
more than she has paid, and is not CREDITOR
but DEBTOR.
Mr. Grant exhibits the following balances
on accounts of supplies to, and receipts from,
India and China during the several periods:
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA. 107
In 15 years to 1802–3, balance
in favour of (or excess of re-
ceipts from) India and China, ºf 133,879*
In 15 years to 1802–3, do. do. 388,084f
In 10 years to 1802–3, do. do. 2,228,549*
In 8 years to 1805–6, balance
against India and China. . . . 2,226,685*
In 17 years to 1804–5, do. do. 508,961*
In 11 years to 1803–4, do. do. 3,370,748f
In 15 years to 1804, profit on
trade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,759,734f
The aim of these statements is to show that
India has rather gained than lost by the con-
nexion between revenue and trade; and that
at all events the Company have drawn no
tribute from India, whether arising from sur-
plus revenue, or from money raised on loans.
The most obvious objection to their accuracy
is, that by making India and China but one
party, no credit is given to the former for
advances to the latter, to the amount, probably,
of £400,000 a year. Such advances, in ten
years, constitute at once a tribute of four
millions. In 1804 and 1806, for the purpose
* Speech, July 15, 1806, t Speech, July 19, 1804.
108 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
of exonerating the Company's trade from the
charge of unprofitableness, and from the bur-
then of the Indian debt, Mr. Grant represents
India and China as returning less than they
received. But, in 1801, to answer a different
purpose, he reminds the proprietors, that
“ the advantages of a sure and great com-
“ merce, of A LARGE TRIBUTE, of a domi-
“ nion maintained by its own resources, have
“ not been staked in following uncertain the-
“ ories, which could only be tried at the
‘ risk of losing what was possessed.””
In 1793, the surplus revenue (after pay-
ment of £520,000, as interest on a debt of
f8,000,000) was £1,612,226. From 1793 to
1809, the amount of surplus revenue (without
payment of interest) was £17,833, 187; and
the increase of debt was £20,905, 194. So
that, at the end of the above period, the
surplus, after payment of fifteen years' interest
on the debt of 1793, would amount to
3610,033,187. With these data, let the reader
determine whether the above sum of nearly
6
* Report of a Select Committee of Directors on the
Private Trade, January 27, 1801.
TRIBUTE DRAWN FROM INDIA. 109
twenty-one millions was borrowed for the
purchase of investments, or for making good
deficient revenues | *
It is evident that, during the above period
of fifteen years, (and the case is equally
strong with repect to former periods,) no part
of the dividends could have been paid from
profits on trade. If the dividends had always
been paid from such a fund, either no debt
would have existed, or, if debt had been
contracted, there ought to have been some
payments to the English and an increase in
the rate of dividend, after payment of interest
on the debt from commercial funds, and the
accumulation of good assets for its discharge.
If a merchant trades to a profit, the larger
the capital employed the greater the amount
of his profits. The 58th section of the act of
the 53d Geo. III. c. 155, provides that in the
event of the commercial profits being insuf-
ficient to defray the dividends, the Company
may make good every such deficiency out of
surplus revenue. But we see that, without any
* The reader will also judge of the accuracy of Mr.
Colebrooke's assertion, already noticed, that we have
ceased to draw direct tribute from India.
110 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
such clause in former acts, the Company
managed to pay their dividends out of pre-
tended profits, but really out of revenue, by
means of the incorrigible confusion of their
accounts. Let the reader examine the plan
for separating the political and commercial
accounts in the Appendix, (No. 1.) and say
whether the skeins will be kept untangled,
or whether commercial profit can possibly
accrue under such management.
On a financial view of the above period it
will be apparent, that India would have made
a good bargain, if, in the year 1793, she had
been permitted to ransom herself from all
connexion with the Company's trade by an
annual gift of half a million, over and above
providing for the then debt which was theirs,
not hers. Under such an arrangement the
Indian debt of 1793 would have been much
reduced, instead of being quadrupled. The
mixture of trade and revenue, under colour
of which the Company pretend that the
former assists the latter, was never consented
to by India. If it were possible she would
avail herself of the law of England respecting
“ confusion of goods, when those of two
“ persons are so intermixed that the several
“ portions can no longer be distinguished.”—
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA. 111
&
* If one wilfully intermixes his money, corn,
“ or hay, with that of another man, without
“ his approbation or knowledge, or casts gold
“ in like manner into another's melting-pot
“ or crucible, the civil law, though it gives
“ the sole property of the whole to him who
“ has not interfered in the mixture, yet allows
“ a satisfaction to the other for what he has
“ so improvidently lost. But our law, to
“ guard against fraud, allows no remedy in
“ such a case; but gives the entire property,
“ without any account, to him whose original
“ dominion is invaded, and endeavoured to
“ be rendered uncertain, without his own con-
“ sent,”*
The drain to which the revenue and the
country are subject, is the same whether the
surplus revenue be employed in the purchase
of investment, or in the payment of interest
on debts contracted for the purchase of in-
vestment. The Company cannot receive the
income of their estate and mortgage it to its
utmost value at the same time. The degree
in which the revenue is absorbed by the pay-
ment of interest, represents the degree in
* Blackstone, vol. ii. p. 405.
I 12 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
which they have exacted tribute beyond the
annual ability of the country to afford it. Mr.
Francis, however, prefers a strange charge
of the Company having got into a bad habit
of paying for their investments with money
borrowed in India, as if, by this means, they
did not get them for nothing just as much as
when they bought them with surplus revenue.
“ Bad habits grow out of abundant means,
“ and are apt to continue when the means are
“ gone. A woful reverse has taken place
“ in this branch of the Company's resources.
“Instead of providing their investment with
“ the money of India, which was equivalent
“ to getting it for nothing, they have for many
“ years paid for it with money borrowed
“ there at an exorbitant interest, and now
“ with specie from England.” Surely Mr.
Francis knew that provision for the interest
and redemption of the loans was made “with
“ the money of India, which was equivalent
“ to getting them for nothing.”
It is the same thing to India whether her
surplus revenue be exported as tribute, or
absorbed by the payment of interest on debts
contracted by forestalling tribute, on the sup-
position that India were doomed never to
have her entire revenue appropriated to her
TRIBUTE D R A WN FROM INDIA. 1 13
own purposes; but if the Company had always
made the clear surplus the measure of their
demands, the difference would be great
indeed, on the supposition that the abolition
of the Company will bring with it a release
from public tribute. In that case there would
be the difference between entering immedi-
ately on the enjoyment of a disencumbered
revenue, – and being condemned for many
years to divert a large portion of it from its
legitimate uses to the payment of the Com-
pany's creditors, by whom it would be imme-
diately or ultimately transferred to England.
As a question of equity, there can be no diffi-
culty in deciding whether the Company had
or have a right, as usufructuaries for twenty
years, to anticipate the revenues that are to
accrue for an indefinite number of years after
the expiration of their term. It is true Go-
vernment have uniformly sanctioned their pro-
ceedings: but, in the first place, the abstrac-
tion of tribute, and encumbrance of the re-
venue for that purpose, are not thereby ren-
dered less repugnant to justice; secondly,
though Government have permitted, (and they
could not well quarrel with evils inseparable
from a scheme of their own formation,) they
have never directed and compelled that mis-
I
1 14 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
management of an extensive and complicated
commercial department, fruitful in jobs and
patronage, which leads the Company to repair
the losses thus incurred by continual encroach-
ments on future surplus revenue. If, by an
unexampled victory over their nature, in the
conduct of that department, they had never
practically deviated from commercial prin-
ciples and commercial prudence, it is to be
presumed that such conduct would not have
been matter of public censure.
It would give little satisfaction to be able
to apportion the blame between the Company
and the Board of Commissioners. Improbus
ille puer, crudelis tu quoque mater. If Govern-
ment were to authorize the Boards of Trade
and of Agriculture to expend five or six
millions each in commercial and agricultural
speculations, and to place them under the
controul of Ministers specially appointed for
these duties, it would be ridiculous to ascribe
the failure of such speculations to the unskil-
fulness of the Boards, or negligence of the
Ministers, and to attempt to remedy the mis-
chiefs that would unavoidably follow by new
regulations and a change of directors. At
the same time, section 107 of the act of the
33d Geo. III, c. 52, is worded with such con-
TRIBUTE DRAWN FROM INDIA. 115
summate ambiguity that it is impossible to say
whether mortgaging the revenue for the pro-
vision of investment was legal or illegal.
The Directors, in their letter of September 6,
1813, (paragraph 17,) say that the act of the 33d
Geo. III. directed the appropriation for the
purchase of investment in each year “to be
“ made in a specific sum from surplus re-
“ venue.” That it did not authorize the
appropriation to be made from any other
source, namely, from money raised on loans,
in addition to the surplus of each year. The
act states, under the fourth head of the “uses
“ and purposes” to which the revenue shall
be applied, (i. e. AFTER defraying all ex-
penses, military, marine, civil, and commer-
cial, and interest on debts,) “that there shall
“ be issued to the respective commercial
“boards of the said Company, at their several
“ presidencies in India, in such proportions
“ as the Court of Directors of the said Com-
“ pany, with the approbation of the Board of
“ Commissioners for the affairs of India,
“ shall from time to time direct, a sum of
“ not less than one crore of current rupees
“ in every year, to be applied in the provision
“ of the Company's investment of goods in
“India, and in remittances to China for the
I 2
1 16 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
|
“ provision of investment of goods there.”
It must be supposed that, under some con-
struction of this section, any deficiency of re-
venue to supply a sum, indefinitely eacceeding
-one crore of rupees, might be made good by
borrowing ; for the President of the Board
freely acknowledged, in almost every budget-
speech, that the greater part of the invest-
ment had been provided with borrowed
money; how much he never could exactly
define. But while he approves of these loans
with respect to the past, and disapproves of
them with respect to the future, the principle
of his approbation in the former case is equally
applicable to the latter; and the principle of
his disapprobation in the latter case is equally
applicable to the former. Inasmuch as they
were necessary to “encourage the industry
“ of the natives,” they jumped very well with
his humour; but as they tended to eat up the
fund for public tribute, they were naught.
It appears, moreover, that Mr. Dundas
always spoke rather as one having power to
advise, than to check and controul ; and that
he reserved the strongest expression of his
disapprobation for the period when his official
power of advising had actually ceased. Thus,
on March 12, 1799, he said: “An undue
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. I 17
“ proportion of advantage will fall to the
“ home concern, because a considerable part
“ of the prime cost of the cargoes is paid for
“ in India, by the addition of the debt there.
“The inconvenience produced thereby is
“ great, but may not be looked upon as last-
“ing, as measures may be adopted to supply
“ from Europe the deficiency.” The small
“ proportion of advantage” which fell to
India under this arrangement is not pointed
out. On March 25, 1800, what had last year
been censured prospectively, is now praised
retrospectively, and the prospective censure
grows stronger. “The peculiar situation of
“ affairs rendered it, in the past case, expe-
“ dient, and indeed necessary; but, in future,
“ other modes must be devised. A consider-
“ able surplus from the revenues will again,
“I trust, very soon accrue; but, in whatever
“sense they may prove deficient for the pur-
“chase of cargoes, a supply must be found,
“ either by bills upon the Court of Directors,
“ or by bullion or exports from this country.”
On June 12, 1801, he perseveres in justifying
every yesterday, but his imperative assurance
dwindles to a hope, that every to-morrow
shall not resemble it. “My sentiments on
“ the propriety of furnishing investments by
jº.
118 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA.
“ means of loans have formerly been dis-
tinctly given: THEY ARE STILL THE SAME.
The measure was proper at the time, but by
no means so for permanent practice; and
although the same measure has been pur-
sued in the last year, I should HoPE the
“very considerable supplies which have now
“ for several years been furnished from the
treasury in England, and which it appears
the intention of the Court to continue, will
“ prevent the further accumulation of the
“Indian debt.” During how many years Mr.
Dundas might have continued to deprecate
as future what he approved as past, can only
be matter of conjecture; for, in his letter to
the T)irectors, dated June 30, 1801, he takes
leave of the subject, with a negation of any
pledge to sanction borrowing for the purchase
of investment, in terms so comprehensive, that
they amount to a retraction of all he had
previously declared to have been expedient
and necessary. “From what I have above
“ stated, it will not be understood that I mean
“ to pledge myself to an opinion, that IN ANY
“ case it is proper for the East India Com-
“ pany to burthen their revenues in India by
the contraction of debt for the purpose of
“investment. That commeRCE is the only
& 4
6 &
& 6
& 4
& 6
& 4
& 6
& 6
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA. 118)
“ proper medium by which the excrescent
“ revenues of India can be conveyed to Bri-
“ tain, admits of no doubt; but it is by no
“ means so clear that creating a commercial
“ capital, by borrowing at high interest in
“India, is an expedient measure.”
The object of the above-mentioned letter
is to recommend the adoption of certain
measures which, by reduction of establish-
ments and of debt, would in a few years leave
two millions applicable to the provision of
investment, being one-fifth of the then re-
venue, the same proportion which was avail-
able in 1723; and the same proportion, the
abstraction of which was so strongly repro-
bated by the Select Committee of 1783. * To
execute this plan, and “subdue their only
“ formidable enemy, the Indian debt,” he ex-
horts the Directors to exert themselves “with
“ the same enthusiasm” with which he him-
self is animated. To retrace their steps, and
regain the same proportion of free revenue
that they possessed in 1793, would be the
consummation of all imaginable prosperity;
nevertheless, in his last budget-speech, he
-*-*.
* In their Ninth Report.
120 TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM INDIA.
describes the improvement of their affairs since
1793, as being a change from “chaos” to
“ sunshine.” No wonder that the Directors
should pray (as in their third Report on the
Private Trade, 1801,) that chaos should
“ come again;” that they should think the
luminary whence all this sunshine proceeded
was no other than their “formidable enemy,”
glaring on them with a broader face, from a
higher elevation, and should feel less disposed
to rejoice in his meridian blaze, than when he
first saluted them with his oblique and power-
less rays.
It was the boast of Augustus that he had
found Rome a city of brick, and would leave
it a city of marble. Our ambition must be
supposed to be of an opposite kind with
regard to India, so long as we permit the
Company to scrape off and convey to Eng-
land a large proportion of its revenue as if it
were something superfluous and “excrescent;”
and to borrow money from a country which
they designate and treat, not as creditor, but
debtor. “India in debt to them 1 For what?
“Every debt for which an equivalent of some
“ kind or other is not given is on the face of
“it a fraud. What is the equivalent they
“ have given 2 What are the articles of com-
TRIBUTE DRAW N FROM IN DIA. 121
& 6
4 &
£ 6
& 6
( &
& 6
C &
& 4
{ {
& C
merce, or the branches of manufacture
which those gentlemen have carried hence
to enrich India What are the sciences
they beamed out to enlighten it? What are
the arts they introduced to cheer and to
adorn it? What are the religious, what the
moral institutions they have taught among
that people as a guide to life, or as a con-
solation when life is to be no more, that
there is an eternal debt, a debt ‘still pay-
‘ing, still to owe, which must be bound on
the present guarantee in India, and entailed
on their mortgaged posterity for ever?””
These are questions that cannot be too often
repeated, nor too seriously considered.
* Burke.
122
CHAPTER III.
POLITICAL VIEW OF THE TERRITORIAL
SYSTEMI.
THE first in order, as the first in importance,
of all inquiries into the nature of a govern-
ment must be that which examines into the
sources of its security and stability. The in-
stinct of self-preservation will naturally press
this subject on the attention of all those en-
trusted with the administration of public affairs.
When we consider, however, the relation of
interests existing between the governors and
the governed ; when we reflect that the pros-
perity of the latter constitutes the glory of
the former; and that, in short, it is the uni-
versal tendency of virtue to predominate,
even in this world, we must allow that such
an inquiry possesses, at the same time, the
dignity of a sacred duty, and may well em-
ploy all the talent and wisdom that can be
brought to its discussion.
POLITICAL VIEW, ETC. 123
However much the interest of my argument
might secretly prompt me to over-rate the inse-
curity of our Eastern dominion, I can adduce
declarations to the same effect, from unexcep-
tionable witnesses, not only stronger than my
purpose requires, but stronger than I myself
can subscribe to ; for, as I do not consider
our past jeopardies to have been quite so im-
minent as they are represented by some of
those witnesses, so, I have better hopes of
the present firmness; and of the endurance
and future fortunes of the state. That we
hold India by a precarious tenure is a propo-
sition which all, who have written on ques-
tions of Indian policy, have asserted, whe-
ther their object has been to recommend or to
deprecate innovation, and one on which they
have, as might be expected, built a consi-
derable part of their respective systems. But
we should hardly have anticipated that these
acknowledgements of insecurity should be far
more frequent and explicit from the friends of
the established order of things than from their
opponents; and it may seem a sufficient con-
demnation of the doctrines of the former
party to state that they advise us not to at-
tempt to remove, or correct, the causes of
danger, to place our surest reliance on non-
interference, and to provide for ourselves this
124 PoliticAL v IEw of
only consolation that, when revolution or de-
feat does come, we may be able to say that we
did not fire the train, and that the immediate
causes of the disaster were beyond our con-
troul.
It may be proper to lay before the reader a
few examples of the almost unanimous feeling
on this subject. No avowal can be stronger
than is contained in the following well-
known passage from Mr. Hastings,” one of
the most strenuous enemies of free trade and
of colonization: “I much fear that it is not
“ understood, as it ought to be, how near the
“Company's existence in India has, on many
“ occasions, vibrated to the edge of perdition ;
‘ and that it has been, at all times, suspended
“ by a thread so fine, that the touch of
“ chance might break it, or the breath of
“ opinion dissolve it; and instantaneous will
‘ be its fall, whenever it shall happen. May
“ God, in his mercy, long avert it !” Mr.
Charles Grant, equally zealous on the same
side, says,t “ A few more successful turns in
“ Benares, on the part of so inferior a chief
“ as Cheit Sing, would have put all Bengal in
.
* Review of the State of Bengal, p. 154.
+ Observ. on the State of Society, &c.
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 125
“ commotion.” “I frankly acknowledge,”
said Mr. Wilberforce,” “ that I have long
“ thought that we hold our East India posses-
“sions by a very precarious tenure.” “The
“ trunk of the tree is of prodigious dimen-
“sions, and there is an exterior of gigantic
“strength. It has spread its branches widely
“ around it, and there is an increasing abun-
“ dance of foliage and of fruit; but the
“ mighty mass rests on the ground merely by
“ its superincumbent weight, instead of hav-
“ing shot its roots into the soil, and incorpo-
“ rated itself with the parent earth beneath it.
“Who does not know that the first great
“ storm would probably lay such a giant
“ prostrate 1" Of the tenure which Mr. Wil-
berforce wished to strengthen by introducing,
“ as the source of every other improvement,”
a community of sentiments on the great inte-
rests of morality and religion, his opponent,
Mr. Marsh, f observed, “Of all tenures it is
“ the most delicate. The thread and liga-
“ments, which hold it together, are so fine
“ and gossamery, that one incautious move-
* Speeches, June and July, 1813, in Pamphleteer, No. 5.
f Ditto, July 1, 1813, in ditto, No. 4.
126 POLITICAL VIEW OF
“ ment may snap it asunder. It is a chain
&
6
6 &
é &
66
which no artificer can repair. But we hold
it on this simple condition—abstinence from
all aggression on the religions of the coun-
try.” More weight, however, will be de-
servedly attached to the following decla-
rations, by Sir John Malcolm. “It appears
& 6
& 4
66
& 4
& 4
& 4
6 &
4 &
& 6
& 4
& 4
& 4
& 6
& 6
& 6
& 4
6 &
6 &
quite impossible ever to introduce any sys-
tem of government into our possessions in
India, which will render them secure for a
day, except under the management of an
able and firm ruler,” &c.—“The only safe
view that Great Britain can take of its
empire in India is to consider it (as it really
is) always in a state of danger, and to no-
minate persons to rule it, calculated from
their superior energy of character to meet
every emergency that can arise. The dan-
gers which assail our empire in India from
internal weakness, are much greater than
we can ever apprehend from external attack;
and these will always increase in an alarm-
ing degree when the administration abroad
has not the decided support of the govern-
ment at home.”” -
* Sketch of the Political Hist, of India, p. 459—462.
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 127
Sir John Malcolm, however, does not con-
tent himself with representing the necessity
of the unremitting exercise of the highest
endowments with which rulers can be gifted,
as the only condition under which we can
hold our dominion for a day; he does not
say, “India is as quiet as gunpowder; there-
“ fore, use all caution in your proceedings;”
he distinctly describes the consequences of
colonization as the means which are “calcu-
“ lated to establish our power over India on
“ the firmest basis.”
Though none of the preceding writers have
entered into an analysis of the causes of the
insecurity which they lament, yet it may be
said generally that they ascribe it to the amaz-
ing disproportion of our numbers, and the no
less striking dissimilarity in our language,
manners, customs, and religion; while the
opponents of colonization maintain that an
attempt to increase our numerical strength
would so multiply and exasperate the occa-
sions of reciprocal offence and resentment,
that it would ultimately result in our destruc-
tion, or, if the white population should be
victorious in the conflict, in the cessation of
monopoly, tribute, and patronage. Accord-
128 POLITICAL VIEW OF
ing to the view of one cohort of this party,"
our aim ought to be, by the introduction and
diffusion of civilization and knowledge of the
arts, to reduce the sources of discord, and
promote an uniformity of character between the
natives and their rulers; though it is obvious,
that, as our power springs from our moral su-
periority, while we continue to be so out-num-
bered, in proportion as we succeeded in our
endeavours to raise the natives to a level with
ourselves, we must renounce all our present
advantages, than which nothing could be more
opposite to the inclinations and designs of the
gentleman alluded to. At the same time, if
their refusal of all the means whereby such an
improvement could be effected, did not sug-
gest doubts of their sincerity, it at least gua-
rantees us against this species of euthanasia.
To infuse new light and energy into the minds
of our subjects is not the most likely way to
fortify the position of their jealous and exact-
ing masters; nor is it less incongruous to
represent the same circumstance—the diver-
* See Observations on the State of Society, &c. by
C. Grant, Esq.
THE TERRITORIA L SYSTEM , 129
sity of character—as alternately the cause of
the precariousness of our tenure, and of the
origin and duration of a dominion which is
already older than any that India has ever
known ; and which, far from bearing the
marks of incipient decay, is even now only
in the freshness of its youth.* This system
cannot be relieved from these various ob-
jections, but by promoting such an increase
of the white population, as shall preserve
to them a salutary preponderance, accom-
panied by the gradual communication of every
civil right which can be beneficial to the
natives in their progress towards equality of
civilization. -
That we hold our empire by the force of
opinion, is a phrase which is in the mouth of
almost every party, but those who employ it
are not so fond of explaining what they mean.
It does not come very consistently from those
* It is indeed a youth which has outgrown its strength.
The solidity of the bones and tone of the sinews are not
in proportion to the bulk and stature: and these are de-
ficiencies which time, if unassisted by a change of regimen,
can never supply.
K
130 POLITICAL VIEW OF
who consider that our greatest danger arises
from the hostile prejudices engendered by the
diversity of customs and of creeds; and no per-
son has pretended that there exists anywhere
an active principle of loyalty and attachment
upon which we could place the slightest re-
liance in the hour of trial. It would, indeed,
be most unreasonable to expect such a return
from a people subjected to the despotism of
a handful of foreigners, who exclude them
from every avenue to honour, and from all
but the most subordinate civil and military
offices. The opinion, then, on which we are
told that our power depends, resolves itself into
that passive fear, or mere indifference, which is
the ruling principle under all Asiatic govern-
ments. “L’on a oublié dans l'Asie,” says
Volney, “ces moyens moraua, qui, marriés par
“ des législateurs habiles, ont souvent élevé
“ de grandes puissances sur des bases d'abord
‘ très foibles.”—“ Personne ne s'est avisé de
“ susciter cet amour du bien public, qui, dans
“ la Grèce et l'Italie, même dans la Hollande
“ et la Suisse, a fait lutter avec succès de
‘ petits peuples contre de grands empires.
* Emirs et pachas, tous imitent le sultan;
‘ tous regardent leur pays comme un domaine,
&
6
&
é
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. | 3 ||
“ et leurs sujets comme des domestiques.”*
But Volney, whose picture of Asia is one of
the most faithful that has ever been drawn,
did not sufficiently reflect that it is precisely
because the territories of Asiatic princes are
their estates, and because their subjects are
therefore their servants, that the feeling of
patriotism or public spirit cannot possibly
exist. The supposition of their dependance
on, or responsibility to their subjects, for their
conduct in the appropriation of their revenues,
or other acts of government, is totally incon-
sistent with the relative situations of the
parties, and with the fundamental constitution
of the state. It is, therefore, with reason that
Sir Henry Strachey says of the British au-
thority in India, in opposition to the general
current of authors and speakers, that “No
“ government ever stood more independent
‘ of public opinion. I never knew one na-
“tive who had even a remote idea of the
* political state of the country. And can it
‘ possibly, for a moment, be supposed that
“ the people of Bengal dream of subverting
€
&
&
" Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte, tom. ii. p. 251.
K 2
132 POLITICAL VIEW OF
“ the government?”* The truth of this ob-
servation is not materially affected by the
subsequent extension of our power over coun-
tries peopled with a less tractable and less
passive race.
A third circumstance in which the source
of the precariousness of our tenure has been
sought, is that to which our attention is di-
rected by Mr. Patton, in his just analysis of
the Principles of Asiatic Monarchies. He
has well applied the doctrines of the great
Harrington to illustrate the political condition
of various countries in Asia, and examined,
with chronological exactness, the origin of the
feudal system in Europe: he has truly shown
that the British power in India is founded on
the fact, that the government is the universal
or sole landlord: but he errs in supposing
that this over-balance of property in favour
of the ruling power has been fatally disturbed
by the establishment of the Permanent Set-
tlement. The change introduced by that
measure may be briefly stated as follows:
According to the theory of every Asiatic go-
Vernment, (subject to considerable modification
*********-*.
* Fifth Report, p. 530.
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 133
in mountainous countries, such as Cabul and
Syria,) the revenue of the sovereign consists
of the entire produce of the land, after de-
ducting the expenses of cultivation and of
collection. The actual cultivators are not
hired servants, but petty farmers, whose pay-
ments are ascertained by leases enduring for
longer or shorter terms, and on consideration
of rendering which, they and their heirs hold
their portions of land for ever, or, in other
words, are like villeins regardant, or the coloni
of the Roman code, attached to the soil.
The officers of government, who collect the
rents, are either agents, with fixed salaries, or
farmers, who engage to pay a certain sum into
the treasury, and are rewarded with all the
surplus that their care or rigour can acquire.
Under either system, the cultivator is pro-
tected against the exaction of more than his
defined rent; so that the only advantage at-
tending the latter system would, at first sight,
seem to be the simplicity of its administration;
but though, in every other branch of revenue,
experience has justified the preference of
agency to farming, yet so much more difficult
and important are the labours of agriculture
that it is prudent to encourage the husband-
men and their superintendants by making
134 POLITICAL VIEW OF
some profit contingent on their exertions. In
Bengal, under the British administration, the
native collectors (Zemindars and Talookdars)
had early been converted into farmers of re-
venue, their emoluments being supposed to
average one-tenth of their collections; the
periods for which they contracted had been
annual, quinquennial, and decennial, till the
year 1793, when the utmost value of the lands
having been supposed to be sufficiently ascer-
tained, Lord Cornwallis declared the assess-
ment, fixed by the then existing decennial
settlement, to be perpetual.
Of the consequences likely to result from
this arrangement, Mr. Patton says: “If the
“ Zemindars are to be deemed the proprietors
“ of their Zemindarries, as the English go-
“ vernment seems now to have established,
“ they will very soon of themselves make the
“ discovery, that the English East India
“Company can have no just right to levy
“ from them NINE-TENTHs of the rents of
“ their private estates. This enormous assess-
“ ment from private proprietors they will cer-
“tainly regard as too high a price to be paid
“ for government protection; and the wealth
“ which would flow from a ten-fold multi-
“ plication of what they are at present per-
&
sº
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 135
& &
& 4
66
& 6
{ %
& £
& 4
& 6
& 6
6 &
& &
6 &
G. &
mitted to receive, they may be led to ima-
gine will enable them to protect themselves;
especially if a few of those great proprie-
tors of thousands of square miles of culti-
wated land, with innumerable inhabitants,
should determine to combine together for
that purpose.”—“If to elevate Zemindars
to that standard, you make them lords of
the property they were meant only to super-
intend, you will totally destroy the purposed
effect of the establishment, and subvert
the Indian system. What must be the
consequence? The land-establishments of
Europe must influence the government esta-
blishments; the stream of wealth will cease
to flow into the treasury of the sovereign :
rival powers will arise to combine and to
restrain, or to annihilate altogether the so-
vereign authority.” t
A very short experience sufficed to show
* Page 190. .
t Ibid. page 198, and see p. 206. To the same pur-
pose Dr. Buchanan says, that, “although Zemindars give
6 &
a security and ease in collecting the revenue, there can
“ be little doubt that hereditary proprietors of large
“ landed estates are a political evil in a country governed
“ by foreigners.”
136 POLITICAI, VI E W () {
that these apprehensions were entirely ground-
less. The office of Zemindar had long
been hereditary, so that the quality of trans-
missibility to the posterity of the holder was
not then first communicated to their lands;
but, on the other hand, the condition which
accompanied the formation of the permanent
settlement, declaring that arrears of revenue
should be recoverable by the sale of part, or
of the whole of the land of the defaulter, was
itself a much greater innovation than that
celebrated settlement. Under its operation,
the larger Zemindarries have been broken up
into fragments, the old hereditary land-holders
have been dispossessed and beggared, and
greater changes of landed property produced
than ever occurred in any other country.
Before the settlement of 1793, defaulters were
liable to be punished by imprisonment, and
under the native governments by the severest
corporal inflictions, and even by expulsion
from their Zemindarries, but the Zemindarry
was never transferred to strangers; so that,
notwithstanding the variableness of the assess-
ment which might be imposed on them, they
were, in all respects, much more entitled to
the designation of great proprietors during
the ages which preceded the formation of the
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEMI. 137
permanent settlement than they have been
since. In Mr. Patton's zeal to refute the mis-
representations on the subject of Zemindarry
tenures, by which the introduction of the per-
manent settlement was justified, he did not
consider that, with the exception of the rule
for the recovery of arrears by the sale of
lands, the change would be rather nominal
than real, since no alteration was made in
their rate of contribution to the state, whose
means of coercion must therefore remain un-
impaired. As their power would not be in-
creased, so there was no reason why their
perception of the desirableness of a “ten-fold
“ multiplication of what they are at present
“ permitted to receive” should grow more
intense than it had been theretofore. No Ze-
mindar, who had the means of resistance,
ever paid his “nine-tenths” without compul-
sion; and their disposition to renounce “go-
“vernment protection,” does not depend
upon whether they shall be called proprietors
taxed at a permanent, or hereditary officers
bound to make good a fluctuating assessment,
but upon whether they have the means, and
are permitted to maintain forts and armed
retainers. The refractory Zemindars are not
to be found in the old provinces, where a per-
138 POLITICAL VIEW OF
manent settlement has been formed, but in
the new, which are still subject to periodical
renewals of assessment, though, according to
Mr. Patton's theory, these results ought to
have been reversed.
Another consequence of the permanent
settlement should have counteracted, in a
great degree, the apprehensions which Mr.
Patton entertained from the alteration of the
nature of the Zemindarry tenure. What was
formerly annexed to an office, and therefore
descendible per stirpes, became now a private
estate, and subject, both by the Mahomedan
and Hindoo laws of inheritance, to indefinite
partition per capita. The tendency of such a
rule of succession, by its repeated operation
to immerse the Zemindarry proprietary in
equal poverty, is obvious; and some gentle-
men have been so struck with this evil, that
they have recommended the application of a
direct legislative remedy. Still it is unde-
niable, that our government is, to use the lan-
guage of Harrington, “planted in the earth
“ of the Zemindars;” but our Sepoys “are
“ the dragon that lies at that root, and without
“ which the fruits would fall into the mouths
“ of the Zemindars by way of property, (as
“ when the knights’ fees, granted first for life,
6
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 139
“ became afterwards hereditary in Oceana,)
‘ which would cause such a fall from mo-
‘ narchy, that it would become, as we have
seen, the rise of popular power.”
Here then lies the cause of our insecurity.
What if this dragon should turn upon its
keepers, and tear them to pieces! or even if it
should begin to think itself not fed and es-
teemed in proportion to the profit derived from
its services! The diversity of interests between
the masters and defenders of the state, which
obtains in all countries subject to absolute
governments, exposes their internal order and
tranquillity to the caprices of the soldiery :
and their immunity from foreign conquest to
the chance of one or two battles. If the
danger from the latter source should be re-
garded as too remote and improbable to afford
adequate motives to induce us to make
effectual provision for its removal, still it
should be remembered, that there would be a
reciprocal tendency in the one to attract the
other, and that we should be utterly defence-
less against their united forces. Our power
is now so extended, that any advantage
gained by an enemy in the field would look
like the victory of rebels, and be the signal
for defection to subsidized dependants, and for
&
6
{
6
140 POLITICAL VIEW OF
seditious thoughts and practices every where.
Those whom internal jealousy had formerly
divided, are now levelled and crushed by
the weight of our sceptre, and therefore pre-
disposed to make common cause against us,
whenever a fit opportunity shall present itself.
In short, the impossibility of foreseeing the
causes, the manner, and the time, in which
discontent may spring up in the minds of our
native troops, affords no excuse for a supine
reliance on the continuance of that provi-
dential quiet which we have hitherto enjoyed.
The words of Harrington are, once more,
strictly applicable to our situation. “Where-
“ fore, it being unavoidable in the Turkish
“ empire, that either the Janizaries (Sepoys),
“ or the Timariots (Zemindars), may do what
“ they list (in regard that whether of them be
“ able to give law to the other, must at the
“ same time be able to give law to the prince;
“ and to bring them to an equal balance were
“ to make a civil war, or at least to sow
“ the seed of it) THE NATIve wound of
“ MoMARCHY BY ARMs REMAINS INCURED
“ AND IN CURABLE.”*
* I shall take this opportunity of replying to a charge
against Harrington, which was first preferred by Huine,
T H E TERRITO RIAL SYSTEM. 141
The frequent and almost proverbial muti-
nies among Janizaries, contrasted with the
and has never been objected to by any subsequent writer
who has mentioned his name. Thus, Mr. Dugald Stewart,
in his Seventh Essay, says: “A remark which Hume
&
6
&
é
&
&
&
&
$ 6
has elsewhere made on the Oceana, appears to me so
striking and so instructive, that I shall give it a place
in this note. ‘Harrington,’ he observes, ‘ thought
himself so sure of his general principle, that the ba-
lance of power depends on that of property; that he
‘ ventured to pronounce it impossible ever to re-establish
monarchy in England : but his book was scarcely pub-
lished when the King was restored; and we see that
monarchy has ever since subsisted on the same footing
as before. So dangerous is it for a politician to venture
to foretel the situation of public affairs a few years
hence.”—“How much nearer the truth (even in the
science of politics) is Bacon’s principle, that knowledge
is power l—a principle which applies to man, not less
in his corporate than in his individual capacity; and
which may be safely trusted to as the most solid of all
foundations for our reasonings concerning the future
history of the world.’” To the same purpose, a writer
in Blackwood's Magazine, for December, 1818, p. 271,
says: “Sir James M'Intosh has, indeed, observed, ‘I
& &
£ 6
66
& 6
< &
am sensible that in the field of political prediction,
veteran sagacity has often been deceived.’ He alludes
to the memorable example of Harrington, who pub-
lished a demonstration of the impossibility of re-esta-
blishing monarchy in England six months before the
142 PoliticAL VIEW OF
obedience and discipline which characterize
our Sepoys, may suggest that there must be
“ restoration of Charles II. But the author of the Oce-
“ana was a political fanatic, who ventured to predict an
“ event, not by other events which had happened, but by
“ a theoretical principle which he had formed, that ‘ the
“ balance of power depends on that of property.” So
“ unphilosophical was Harrington in his contracted view
“ of human affairs, that he dropped out of his calculation
“ all the stirring passions of ambition and party.” Those
who are unacquainted with the works of Harrington will
be surprised to hear, that the assertion of Hume, Stewart,
&c. has No foundation whatever. Harrington has no-
where “pronounced,” or “demonstrated the impossi-
“bility of ever re-establishing monarchy in England.”
On the contrary, it may be truly said, that he foresaw,
and foretold the restoration of Charles II. What must
have given rise to the above extraordinary perversion of
Harrington’s meaning, on the part of Hume, is the de-
claration that IF his plan of an equal commonwealth and
an agrarian law (providing that £2000 a year should be
the maximum of income from land that any individual
could possess) were once established, there would be no
danger of such a constitution being subverted by the
introduction of monarchy, because such a change would
then be contrary to the interests of all parties. So far
was he from saying, that the majority of the people of
England were averse to monarchy towards the end of
Cromwell's usurpation, that he admits that “the people
“ of England are twenty to one for monarchy;” and
&
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 143
an essential difference in favour of the sta-
bility of our power, arising partly from the
estimates that there are not above “fifty thousand of the
“ more active and knowing that drive vigorously at a
“ commonwealth.” ”
Among his “ Aphorisms” are the following: “ 8. The
‘ spirit of the people of England, not trusted with their
“ liberty, drives at the restitution of monarchy by blood
“ and violence. 9. The spirit of the people of England,
“ trusted with their liberty, IF THE ForM BE sufficIENT,
“ can never set up a king,” [i. e. if his whole plan be
adopted, “ and, if the form be insufficient, (as a parlia-
“ ment with a council in the intervals, or two assemblies
co-ordinate,) will SET UP A KING WITHOUT BLOOD
“ or violeNoe.” + “ 102. If the late king had freely
“ permitted to the people the exercise of the power inevi-
“ tably devolved upon them by the change of the balance,
he had not been destroyed. If either of the late single
“ persons had brought the people into an orderly exercise
“ of the power devolved upon them, he had been great.
“What party soever shall hinder the people from the
“ exercise of the power devolved upon them, shall be cer-
“tainly ruined. Who or what party soever shall intro-
“duce the people into the due and orderly exercise of
“ the power devolved upon them, shall be forthwith
secure, and famous for ever.”f
The doctrine of Harrington, respecting the dependence
of political power on the distribution and balance of pro-
&
6
&
&
&
&
º
&
* Page 562, 3. Edit. 1771. f Page 483. # Page 489.
144 POLITICAL VIEW OF
character of the latter, but chiefly from their
being officered by British subjects, and from
perty, was a noble discovery, (as his biographer observes.)
which none can dispute with him, and to the complete-
ness of which succeeding writers have added nothing.
Hume says, “ that it must be received with several limi-
“tations; ” but the limitations which he proceeds to
describe, are distinctly unfolded by Harrington as inse-
parable results from his principles.
According to Mr. Stewart, there is more truth in
Bacon’s maxim, that knowledge is power, even when ap-
plied to politics. To this let Harrington himself reply.
“ The principles of government are, then, in the goods
“ of the mind, or in the goods of fortune. To the goods
“ of the mind answers authority; to the goods of for-
“ tune, – power, or empire. Wherefore LEVIATHAN,
“ though he be right when he says that riches are power,
“ is mistaken when he says that prudence, or the reputa-
“ tion of prudence, is power; for, the learning or pru-
“dence of a man is no more Power than the learning
“ or prudence of a book or author, which is, properly,
“AUTHORITY. A learned writer may have authority,
though he has no power; and a foolish magistrate may
“ have power, though he has otherwise no esteem or
“ authority.”f He goes on to show that no government
can be good, the form of which does not tend to unite
authority and power. Wise men are “ a natural aristo-
“ cracy, diffused by God throughout the whole body of
&
Ç
G
* Part I. Essay 7. + Page 37.
THE TERRITORIA L SYSTEM. 145
the strict observance of every engagement
contracted with them. Undoubtedly, muti-
nies have been of rare occurrence in our na-
tive army; but, on the other hand, they are
more dangerous. The person of the Sultan,
or his Vizier, is at the mercy of the Janiza-
ries, but not the Turkish empire. However
confident of their own strength, and however
dissatisfied, the Janizaries never attempt the
subversion of the national polity, nor make
any demands inconsistent with its fundamental
principles, or with the established constitution
of their own body. They would never seek
to expel the Turks from Constantinople. But
if our sepoys should ever perceive their
“ mankind to this end and purpose;” i. e. not to force
or draw, by the greatness of their estates, but to lead, by
their influence, as auctoritate patrum. But when mere
KNowLEDGE is “debauched by ambition, and not satis-
“ fied to continue the instructor, aspires to be the master,”
what is the consequence 7 “ Along with its natural pro-
“ tectors and guardians, knowledge will be cast into the
“ mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish
“ multitude.”
As to the writer in Blackwood’s Magazine, I leave his
fanaticism to the just censure of every admirer of one of
the brightest ornaments of English literature.
L
146 POLITICAL VIEW OF
strength, which has of late so much increas-
ed, is still increasing, and must, finally, hit
the dullest sense, the objects they might
think desirable and attainable would be, not
the head of a governor or commander-in-chief,
not even emancipation from the difficulties
under which they labour, but the entire dis-
placement of those foreign masters, the rigour
of whose exclusive regulations time has had
no power to abate. Where the separation is
so abrupt and wide, no amicable compromise
could be effected. Where no measures have
been adopted to prepare a gradual coalition
between the conquerors and the conquered,
and where the former have trusted too much
to the mere force of military discipline, how-
ever reinforced by the awe inspired by moral
superiority, there can be no discontent in an
army formed from the mass of the conquered
without imminent danger of the utmost revolu-
tionary violence.
It appears, then, that when we are said to
hold India by the empire of opinion, the ex-
pression ought to be taken with almost an
exclusive reference to the opinions of our
native soldiers; a restriction, however, with
which I have never seen it accompanied,
though it might have been suggested by a well-
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEMI. 147
known passage in Hume. “The Soldan of
“ Egypt, or the Emperor of Rome, might
“ drive his harmless subjects, like brute
“ beasts, against their sentiments and inclina-
“tions; but he must, at least, have led his
“mamelukes, or praetorian bands, like men,
“ by their opinion.” “
Of the present mode of officering our native
army, it is no doubt true, that, while its efficiency
as an instrument is greatly increased, its lia-
bility and power to re-act from the impulse of
alienated opinion is no less diminished. But,
while the exclusion of the natives from all but
the very lowest ranks in the army, and a no
less rigorous exclusion from offices in the civil
department, prevent the existence in their
persons of that measure of wealth and influ-
ence which the possession of considerable
offices would confer, and which is the only
species of aristocracy known in Asia, there is
no resource, analogous to the distribution of
British officers throughout the native batta-
lions, for marshalling the civil population,
which, therefore, remains an inert mass inac-
cessible to any good impulses from above,
* Part i. Essay 4.
L 2
148 POLITICAL VIEW OF
though teeming with all the vices that are en-
gendered by poverty, depression, and con-
tempt. European civil servants cannot be
substituted for their natural leaders in the
series of gradations requisite for the due diffu-
sion and active maintenance of civil discipline.
The very multiplication of this class of Euro-
peans serves but to insure the expulsion of
natives from any sources of consideration and
emolument that might have been antecedently
relinquished to them.
The abject condition in which the natives
are held, was brought strongly to the view of
Sir H. Strachey by one of the interrogatories
circulated by Lord Wellesley; viz. Whether
government ought to declare itself the sole
source of honour? “ On whom I beg leave
“ to ask,” says Sir Henry, “ can titles be
“ conferred, when none are placed in a situ-
“ation where it is possible to render them-
“selves eminent or conspicuous ! How can
“ their merits be known when their rulers
“ have no connexion with them,--when there
“ is no intermediate class between the sove-
“ reign power and the common people?
“ Surely it will be recollected that the dis-
“tance between us and the natives is infinite.
“ The greatest Zemindar in this district,
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 149
“ though possibly a proud man, would not
“ refuse, for the promotion of his interest, to
“ court the friendship of the lowest dependent
“ of an European.” Here, doubtless, is as
singular a question and as singular an answer
as ever came within the knowledge of any
man. A government doubting whether it
ought to assume the prerogative of distributing
honours, and finding the great mass of its
subjects excluded from the possibility of earn-
ing and wearing them Of the causes and
consequences of that exclusion I have already
spoken, and shall again advert to it; but it
may be proper to ask, why our government
should doubt the expediency of exercising a
right which is necessarily inherent in every
government? The reason was, that it was
supposed the natives were so bigoted in their
reverence for that which their ancestors had
known as the fountain of honour, though it
was now but a broken cistern, that they would
not recognise the validity of such a power in
our hands. It was imagined that they would
venerate no title, nor consider any genuine,
which did not nominally come from the
Mogul ; for they could not but be aware that
the Mogul had no sovereign power, nor, in-
deed, so much personal independence as the
150 POLITICAL VIEW OF
meanest of their fellow-subjects. And it must
be conceded that these apprehensions were
not altogether without foundation, since Hin-
doos of the highest rank have occasionally
applied to our government to move the Mogul
to invest them with titles or other insignia of
state. This special power of conferring
honours, which had survived the wreck of the
Mogul's political power, seemed to resemble
the spiritual power of the Pope, which per-
vades all Catholic countries, and is wholly
independent of temporal assistance or opposi-
tion. It was the creature of opinion; but this
opinion respecting the Mogul is necessarily so
much affected by the possession and exercise
of political power, that government must
possess the means of extinguishing it. For this
purpose, it would be proper to resume every
attribute of sovereignty, which, without en-
riching him, makes us seem poor; to cease to
coin money in his name ; to permit neither
honorary dresses nor titles to proceed from
him ; and, in fine, to abolish that serio-comic
pantomime which, on certain days, is enact-
ed in the palace, at Delhi, where the British
resident actually performs homage to the
Mogul, and such other mummery, as may be
imagined, with no other effect than to excite,
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 151
in the tantalised monarch, numberless wants
and pretensions which cannot be gratified.
We confuse and blind him with the fumes of
our incense, and then wonder that he does
not see clearly the relative situation in which
he stands. We must blame ourselves if he
cannot always understand the drift of our
communications, stuffed as they are with ori-
ental extravagance and sounding phrases,
where so much less is meant than meets the
ear. His Majesty may well say to the
resident,
“So sweetly you bade me adieu,
I thought that you bade me return.”
But we are beginning to act on more rational
principles, and, within these few years, seve-
ral hints, both positive and negative, have
been given to the Court of Delhi on the sub-
ject. Hitherto, these lessons have been short,
and with long intervals; we do not seem suffi-
ciently sensible of the inconvenience and in-
congruity which have been gratuitously occa-
sioned ; and, though convinced that, some day,
it must be reformed altogether, we proceed very
slowly and circuitously. It is really as if we
had, in the Tower of London, a lineal descen-
152 POLITICAL VIEW OF
dant of CANUTE THE GREAT, whom the coin-
stable, &c. were instructed to treat, as far as
regarded words and ceremonies, and the
whole code of etiquette, as if he were the
reigning Prince of the House of Brunswick.
Such a king would be as formidable a pre-
tender to the crown of Great Britain as Acbar
II. is to the crown of India. That crown had
fallen from the head of a fugitive, and after-
wards imprisoned, emperor long before it be-
came, all soiled and battered, a trophy to the
British arms.”
To return to the condition of the people.
It is not denied that their debasement and
wretchedness is favourable to the despotic
power of the government. According to Sir
* At one time, even Lord CLIVE thought it excellent po-
licy that we should assume the titles of Tributaries to the
Mogul, and to this Soubahdar, and to that Soubahdar.
He believed in the reality and the utility of the mask.
Colonel Wilks thinks it “ next to impossible that such a
“ policy was the spontaneous growth of the great mind
“ of Clive.”—Vol. ii. p. 56. Nevertheless, there is sa-
tisfactory evidence that it was ; for Clive was not a man
who would hesitate to speak his true mind to the Direc-
tors. See a Letter from him, dated January 16, 1767, in
Mill, vol. ii. p. 258.
THE TERRITORIAI, SYSTEM. 153
Henry Strachey, “ The total want of energy
“ and spirit, the poverty and ignorance of the
“ natives, compose the strength of our go-
“ ment.” But what a satire on a govern-
ment, that its strength should rest on such a
foundation, and that its interest should be
irreconcileable with the improvement of its
subjects | Sir Henry, indeed, says that, as
they advance in civilization, it will be neces-
sary to exercise a stricter controul ; but he
neither shows how such advancement is possi-
ble, nor whence the requisite addition of
power could be derived. “ All appearance
“ of military interference in the police is, or
“ may be, kept out of sight. It is the prin-
“ciple of ignorance, and not of fear, that,
“ at present, preserves us; and I should ima-
“gine it will be only when European laws,
“ religion, and literature, come to be disse-
“minated in this country, that it will be
“ necessary to draw the reins tighter, and to
“ show what we certainly, AT PRESENT, pos-
“ sess, power irresistible to command obe-
“ dience.” As Sir Henry has nowhere
recommended, nor alluded to, the application
* Fifth Report, p. 532.
154 POLITICAL VIEW OF
of the only remedy that can victoriously cope
with the numberless evils which oppress India,
the encouragement of colonization, it does
not altogether appear whether he considered
the limited number of Europeans which are,
or, under the present system, can be, tempo-
rarily resident in this country, and the nature
of the avocations in which their time is em-
ployed, as (what it really is) an insuperable
bar to the dissemination of European laws,
religion, and literature. But, supposing the
conversion in question, by whatever means ef-
fected, it is certain that our present establish-
ments could not stand a moment before it. If it be
the principle of ignorance that preserves us now,
what would protect us if this mighty nation,
“ purging and unsealing her long-abused
“sight,” were at last to see, in their naked
helplessness, the handful of foreigners by
whom she is held in the most abject subjection?
It is evident, that such a nation would not
permit us to hold, much less to tighten, the
reins of government; and that she could only
be ruled by a power acting (in every instance)
in accordance with her own wishes, expressed
by organs duly constituted for that purpose.
A recurrence to the errors and corruptions
of Hindooism and Mahommedanism would
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 155
be as reasonable an expedient for purifying
the morals of the natives, as the re-establish-
ment of their civil institutions would be for
satisfying all the obligations which we have
contracted towards improving their condition.
And yet some of the ablest of our Indian
administrators, who have most sensibly felt,
most powerfully described, and been most
eager to correct the mischiefs inherent in our
present system,” have not ventured to suggest
other measures than a more liberal admission
of natives into offices of trust and emolument.
Thus, Sir Henry Strachey, speaking of the
vigorous police which the Zemindars were for-
merly enabled to maintain, in consequence of
the civil and military power vested in their
hands, says: “Any measure that has a ten-
“dency towards the restoration of this power
“ (though I confess I have no distinct concep-
“ tion of the mode in which it can be accom-
“ plished) must, I think, advance a step
‘ towards the creation of a body of gentry,
‘ who, though they should never be actuated
“ by the same motives as ourselves, nor pos-
sess any feelings in common with us, may
6
6
& &
* Sir Henry Strachey and Mr. James Stuart.
156 TOLITICAL VIEW OF
“ yet perform great services to the public.
“Such a measure would, in my opinion, bring
“ the lower orders more distinctly under the
“eye of the magistrate. It might enable us,
“ in some slight degree, to excite awe, to
“ impose restraint, to awaken national ardour,
“ and love for the government.” If there
be no other resource than a measure, the out-
lines of which elude the grasp of the imagi-
nation, and whose operation would yet be so
trifling, we may well conclude that it must
be necessary to resort to something beyond
the materials and system of things, to the
contemplation and use of which Sir Henry
considered himself restricted. A restoration
of their former power to the Zemindars could
not be effected without withdrawing both the
collectors and judges from their districts, and
thus reverting to those first crude arrange-
ments, from which not only political motives,
but constant experience of the venality and
abuses inseparable from the exercise of power
by natives, f have compelled us to recede.
* Fifth Report, p. 537.
t “Every person of any substance or character in this
“country has been successively tried in the department
THE TER IN ITO RIAL SYSTEM. 157
And if the collectors and judges are retained,
then the people cannot look up to the Ze-
mindars as persons entrusted by government
with the means of influencing their happiness;
and we cannot, through their medium, inspire
awe, much less awaken national ardour; a
sentiment, indeed, which never inhabited the
breasts of their ancestors in any generation.
Besides, a gentry is not composed of men
whose only title to weight and authority in
the state is derived from their offices, but of
men who, from the extent of their landed
possessions, are able silently to controul the
government on the one hand, and the people
on the other.
Intimately connected with the plan of re-
storing to the Zemindars much of their original
authority, is that for making them responsible
for the crimes and disorders committed on
their lands; a favourite measure with the two
opposite classes of persons: those who would
arm the Zemindars with powers, the abuse of
“ of the collections. Fear, reward, severity, and indul-
“ gence, have all failed, and ended in a short politic for-
“ bearance, or additional acts of dishonesty and rapine.”
Verelst. Anno 1768.
158 POLITICAL VIEW OF
which would be grievous and dangerous;*
and those who, by refusing to enlarge the ju-
risdiction and confidence at present vested in
the Zemindars, would render the exaction of
responsibility from them both inefficient and
unjust. “I would not,” says Mr. Dowdes-
well, “give them a particle of power more
“ than they already possess with respect to
“ the police; but I would render them ac-
“ countable, under severe penalties, for the
“ communication of information of all heinous
“ offences, both to the magistrate and to the
“ police Darogati.”f Of these two modifi-
cations of the system of attaching respon-
sibility to the Zemindars, the former is least
objectionable, being built on more liberal and
consistent principles.
* Extract from Answers to Interrogatories, by Mr.
Tufton, collector of Bahar, 1801. “ It would be still
“ more objectionable to revert to the old plan of making
“ the Zemindars responsible for robberies; for it would
“ throw all back again into that state from which the
“ British government has been redeeming the country,
“ and produce oppressions which would be endless, and
“ beyond controul.”
f Fifth Report, p. 613. See a similar recommendation.
at p. 590, by Mr. Edward Strachey.
THE TERRITO RIAL SYSTEM. 1.59
But supposing that, without any sort of
public inconvenience, we might reserve “a
“ considerable number of offices for natives
“ upon a liberal footing of confidence and
“emolument,”* making some addition to the
number of those who can support their fa-
milies in a decent manner, and have an
opportunity of acquiring some degree of per-
sonal respectability; and that from these and
other improvements in the police, there should
result a great diminution of such criminality
as is cognizable by the law, and of general
litigiousness; still there would remain the evils
of a government, having no root in the affec-
tions of its subjects, cramped in its resources,
by their want of skill and industry, and com-
pelled to exercise the dangerous prerogative
of despotism.
In no other way can these evils and dangers
be encountered, with the least chance of ra-
dical benefit, but by the cordial encourage-
ment of colonization. By no other means
can the double objection to the employment
of natives be removed ; first, that they are not
morally qualified, if government were willing;
* Mr. James Stuart. Fifth Report, p. 576.
I60 120 LITICAL VIEW OF
secondly, that if they were qualified, govern-
ment dare not arm them with so much power
and influence. From the closer intercourse,
and more frequent mental collision on every
subject of human interest and occupation, that
would then take place between the native
and creole population ; and from the increased
means which the latter would possess of ope-
rating directly on the moral and intellectual
character of the former by the multiplication
of schools and colleges; the English lan-
guage, religion, laws, and manners, would
become common to the two races; and not
only would the native candidates for office be
endued with the requisite qualifications, but
the government would derive strength and
consistency from laying open all offices to
their ambition, and thereby interesting all,
from the highest to the lowest, in its stability.
When the population had become homoge-
neous, there would be neither excuse nor
motive for recognizing any other distinctions
than those which merit, or the want of it,
created. And if, notwithstanding, a dispo-
sition to revolt should anywhere show itself,
it could not fail to be speedily dissipated by
those who could apply to the disaffected the
language that Cerealis addressed to the Gauls:
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 161
“ Omnia in communi sita sunt: ipsi plerum-
‘ que nostris exercitibus presidetis: ipsi has
‘ aliasque provincias regitis: nil separatum
* clausumve. Proinde pacem et urbem quam
‘ victores victioue eodem jure obtinemus
“ amate, colite.”*
It is needless to pursue this subject into
all its consequences and modifications that
government, in all its departments, would suc-
cessively assume, in conformity to the expand-
ing capacities of its native subjects. It would
be the care of each period to substitute more
liberal institutions, in proportion as they
should outgrow those legal restrictions with
which they are now fettered; and to apply
the immutable principles of justice to regu-
late the varying condition of their internal
affairs.
G
&
&
&
* Tacit. Hist. iv. 74,
Aſ
162
CHAPTER IV.
STATISTICAL VIEW OF THE TERRITO RIAL
SYSTEM.
WHERE a land-tax is so divided as to affect
only the farmers' profits, and not the land-
lords' rents, there must always remain a large
amount of private income derived from land,
in the hands of a powerful body of proprie-
tors, which can only be reached by those
taxes on expenditure which fall indiscrimi-
nately on all incomes. Taxes on raw pro-
duce, without disturbing the general level of
profits, are diffused among the community in
proportion to each person's consumption, and
have no natural limit but their tendency to
discourage production, a limit which would
be distinctly indicated by a decrease in their
productiveness. But, for a tax on rent the
landlords receive no remuneration by increase
of rents; and if such a tax were indefinitely
aggravated, it would destroy the landed aris-
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 163
tooracy, and convert them into mere agents
for collecting the land-tax, and paying it into
the exchequer. That such a state of things
might be produced, in England, by the bound-
less accumulation of national debt, Hume
has endeavoured to show in his essay on
public credit; but the possibility of the occur-
rence of “ this unnatural state of society "
may be more easily disputed than the proba-
bility of the subversion of the constitution,
which he has described as its inevitable con-
sequence. We cannot “suppose the land to
“ be taxed eighteen or nineteen shillings in
“ the pound,” without supposing that the
members of the legislature would pass an
ordinance of self-condemnation. We may be
sure, therefore, that neither in England nor in
any part of civilized Europe, will the pro-
gress of taxation ever be able to absorb any
considerable portion of the landlords’ rents.
But what, in Britain, the unmitigated action
of so powerful an engine as her public debt
could never accomplish, is (with respect to the
rate of the land-tax, not to its appropriation)
the natural condition of India. She has never
known any other. The land-tax amounts to
mine-tenths of the rent, or eighteen shillings
in the pound; and as the country is cultivated
M 2
164 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
by a sort of metayers, this constitutes a much
greater proportion of the gross produce than
would be implied by an equally heavy
tax on rent in Britain; that is, supposing that
such a tax could long continue to be levied,
which it could not, without driving capital
from the land, and degrading the cultivators
into an inferior class.
There is no error more completely exploded
than that maxim of the economists, that all
taxes fall on land, and consequently that all
taxes may, without injustice, be directly im-
posed on the land. I should, therefore,
scarcely have thought it necessary to advert
to the question, though suggested as it is by
the practical illustration afforded by the state
of Indian taxation, if that error, expelled,
hunted, and chased from every other corner
of Europe, had not, with so many others,
taken refuge in Leadenhall-street. In a letter
addressed to the Bombay government,” the
Directors, after combating Mr. Rickards'
denial of the ultimate incidence of all taxes
on land, say: “Mr. Rickards has, therefore,
“ against him not only a class of the most
* Dated January 10, 1810.
‘THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 165
“ acute, and, as some people think, of the
“ most profound reasoners on matters of po-
“ litical science that ever existed, but the
“ practical financiers of every country in that
“ part of the world, upon the history and
“ observation of which his notions seem to be
“ chiefly founded.” So that, on one side, we
have the French economists, the native rulers
of India, and the Directors; on the other, we
have the present generation of political econo-
mists.” In the same letter they say, that the
land-tax of England is “ of the same nature
“ with the tax imposed under the permanent
“ settlement in British India.” No doubt a tax
of four shillings in the pound is of the same
nature as one of eighteen shillings; and with
the same truth all crimes and all punishments
may be said to be of the same nature; but in
all these cases it is of infinite importance, with
respect to their effects and consequences, to
ascertain how much the things differ in
degree.
Different persons have differently estimated
the proportions in which the gross produce
of the soil is divided in India. According to
* Ricardo, pp. 267, 8, 299–304.
166 • STATISTI ('A L VIEW OF
Mr. Shore, * if we take it at 100 parts, the
claims of government may be stated at 45;
the Zemindars and under-renters may be sup-
posed to have 15; and 40 remain with the
actual cultivators. But of the 15 parts as-
signed to the Zemindars and under-renters,
10 f must be allowed for the charges of col-
lection and management, leaving only 5 for
the clear income of the Zemindar. But these
several proportions are subject to consider-
able local variations; and in general it may
be said, that the profits accruing to those in-
terposed between government and the culti-
vator are larger than those assumed in Mr.
Shore's Minute. The quantity of ground oc-
cupied by each farmer or ryot, is from 6 to 24
acres, the great majority being of the smaller
description, and requiring only one plough,
which, with other implements and a team of
oxen, costs about £6. Under these circum-
stances, together with the inveterate custom
of borrowing for rent, seed, &c. at usurious
* Minute, December 8, 1789.
+ Or 20 per cent. on the gross payments of the ryots.
Colebrooke's Remarks in As. Ann. Reg. for 1802, Mis.
Tr. p. 43.
'THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 167
interest, it will not be supposed that the
farmers can earn more than a bare subsist-
ence; and the result of Mr. Colebrooke's
calculations is, that “the peasant cultivating
“ for half produce is not so well rewarded
“ for his toil as hired labourers;”* Mr. Sis-
mondi has made the same observation with
respect to the metayers in Lombardy. The
tenure of the ryot is a lease in perpetuity, on
condition of paying the rent in conformity
with the custom of the country, or with his
own particular engagement. There is every-
where a merikh, or maximum, within which
the law will restrain the exactions of the land
lord, while it compels him to respect the title
of occupancy of the ryot, so long as he sa-
tisfies the just demands of the former. What
may originally have been a state of predial
servitude, may now be considered a privilege,
inasmuch as the peasant may freely seek to
better his fortune by emigration to another
province, or to a town. He no longer acknow-
ledges a master, though he is seldom free from
the claims of a creditor.
It remains to inquire what may be the rate
* Remarks, ch. vi.
168 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
of income enjoyed by individual proprietors
or Zemindars. In some parts of India this
description of persons does not exist, and
where they are established, since they profess
to pay nine-tenths of their receipts into the
collectors’ treasury, it is obvious that their
estates must be very extensive, in order to
yield them a moderate income. It is also
certain, that the Mahomedan and Hindoo laws
of inheritance are continually splitting these
estates into minute subdivisions, so as, in many
instances, scarcely to leave tangible interests
to the litigating co-sharers. They are called
co-sharers, in consequence of a regulation of
the Bengal government, (VI. of 1807,) which
provides that no share of a Zemindarry shall
be severed, and erected into a separate estate,
unless it will bear an assessment of at least
500 rupees; though this is not the only cause
of partnership in estates. No doubt there
are in the recesses of public offices materials
for forming an estimate of the number of land-
lords with the real amount of rents left in the
hands of each; but as nothing of this kind
has found its way into any Parliamentary
Report, I know of no nearer approximation
to truth on this subject than is contained in
the following passage from the first edition
THE TERRITORIA L SYSTEM. 169
of Colebrooke's Remarks: “The income in-
“ tended to be left to proprietors of lands
“ assessed to the revenue, amounts to (one-
“ tenth, or) Rs. 26, 46, 409. Their actual
“income is greater, but a considerable pro-
“ portion appertaining to the owners of larger
“ estates, the remainder, distributed amongst
“ more than 60,000 proprietors, does not
“ afford an average of 30 rupees each, which
“ is insufficient to maintain the family of the
‘poorest labourer.”* The proportion of the
above sum struck off as belonging to large
proprietors is about 8 laks, being the income
then possessed by the Zemindars of Rajes-
hahy, Wheerbhoom, Burdwan, Jessore, Nud-
dea, and Dinagepore, the aggregate of whose
contribution to the revenue was, at the time
of the formation of the permanent settlement,
421,000,000. But it is to these very proprie-
tors, with the exception of Burdwan, that Mr.
Shore refers for the verification of his asser-
tion, that “the Zemindars are almost univer-
“ sally poor.”t And since the date of the
passage quoted from Mr. Colebrooke, all
6
* As. An. Reg. for 1802, Mis. Tr. p. 69.
# Minute, June 18, 1789, Paragraph 129.
170 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
those large estates have been greatly reduced
by the attachment and sale of portions of
them for the recovery of arrears of revenue.
Such is the statistical aspect of India at this
day. Such it was, with very immaterial ex-
ceptions, before the formation of the perma-
nent settlement; the cultivation of the coun-
try, though increased in extent of surface,
being not at all improved in quality, and con-
sequently the general circumstances of the
people being in no respect bettered. If they
are rather deteriorated, that change must be
ascribed to the political causes spoken of in
the two preceding chapters. It is not, there-
fore, my intention to consider the authors of
the permanent settlement as responsible for any
very important consequences, good or bad;
but only to contrast the actual results with
the glowing pictures of prosperity which they
presented as its certain fruits, and to show
that there was nothing whatever to warrant
their sanguine expectations and flattering pre-
dictions. The Zemindar was still to pay
nine-tenths of his rents into the exchequer;
the ryot was still to be protected in the per-
petuity of his tenure, and was, in fact, to be
in a more peculiar, and, as far as the interests
of agriculture are concerned, more important
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 171
sense than his anomalous landlord, the owner
of the soil. The quantity of stock, the dis-
tribution of labour, the choice of crops, were
still to be left to the resources and discretion
of the ryot for ever. There was no principle
in the new arrangement that was calculated
to make that rank and unprofitable under-
wood give place to trees of majestic growth
and various usefulness.
The incongruity of the tenure of the ryot
with the qualities of proprietorship ascribed
to the Zemindar, and the seemingly insupe-
rable bar to all improvement, which the
nature of their relation implied, are thus
treated by Mr. Shore. After observing, that,
without the interference of government be-
tween the Zemindar and the ryot, “the pre-
“sent confusion would never be adjusted,”
he proceeds: “This interference, though so
“ much modified, is in fact an invasion of
“ proprietary right, and an assumption of the
“ character of landlord, which belongs to the
“ Zemindar; for it is equally a contradic-
“tion in terms to say, that the property in
“ the soil is vested in the Zemindar, and that
“ we have a right to regulate the terms by
“ which he is to let his lands to the ryots,
“ as it is to connect that avowal with discre-
&
172 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
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tionary and arbitrary terms. If the land is
the Zemindar's, it will only be partially his
property, whilst we prescribe the quantum
which he is to collect, or the mode by which
the adjustment of it is to take place be-
tween the parties concerned.
“Much time will, I fear, elapse before we
can establish a system perfectly consistent
in all its parts; and before we can reduce
the compound relation of a Zemindar to
government, and of a ryot to a Zemindar,
to the simple principles of landlord and
tenant. 4.
“The idea of the imposition of taxes by
a landlord upon his tenant implies an in-
consistency ; for it is saying to the landlord,
you shall not raise the rents of your
estate.” *
I have not quoted the above passage for
the sake of pointing out any inconsistency in
the language of Mr. Shore himself, nor of
contending that, since the relation between the
Zemindar and the ryot was such as he de-
scribes, the character of proprietor of the
tand must have been erroneously imputed to
* Minute, December 21, 1789.
'THE TERRITORIA L SYSTEM. 173
the former;—that point has been sufficiently
argued by Mr. Patton;– but of showing that
the relation in question, being preserved un-
modified and unviolated, was incompatible
with the advantages which were sought for
in the execution of the permanent settlement;
and that with the confusion of language would
also be perpetuated the baneful influence of
the inverted relation, by which the attributes
of ownership of the soil belong to the tenant,
not to the landlord. Mr. Shore says, “much
“ time will elapse before we can establish a
“ system perfectly consistent in all its parts,”
&c. No other writer, I believe, has con-
sidered the permanent settlement as an ar-
rangement essentially imperfect, and separated
by an immense interval from a just and
beneficial system.* But though Mr. Shore
described a better order of things, at which it
would be infinitely desirable to arrive, he has
* Mr. Thackeray (in a passage about to be quoted) and
Mr. Mill (Hist. vol. iii. p. 295,) enlarge on the incon-
sistencies noticed by Mr. Shore; but it is merely to re-
commend a ryotwar permanent settlement; (see Mill, vol.
iii. p. 277;) as if the substitution of government offices in
the room of the Zemindar made any essential change in
the system.
174 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
no where hinted by what means, with the
assistance of any imaginary lapse of time, it
would be possible to approach it. He has
not shown that the permanent settlement con-
tained the germ of any improvement by the
influence of which India might be, at the
end of a century, better adapted for the re-
ception of the European system of landed
tenures than she was at the time of his wri-
ting; nor, if India were then capable of re-
ceiving it, that we should be disposed to,
bestow it. But, however Mr. Shore may have
read the future history of India, it may be
affirmed, that, towards the effecting of such a
consummation, the lapse of time will do
nothing.” We need not stand expectant, dum
defluat amnis: if we be really willing to build
the great and good work, the materials are
at hand, the mode is simple, the success is
certain.
Lord Cornwallis replied to the above-quoted
* Mr. Elphinstone says, (Account of Cabul, p. 176):
“Ages must pass away before the slaves of India or
“ China could be made capable of taking a share in the
“ government of their country.” But how many ages,
if no attempt be ever made to render them capable?
**
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 175
observations as follows : * “ Unless we sup-
& 4
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£ 6
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pose the ryots to be absolute slaves of the
Zemindars, every bega of land possessed
by them must have been cultivated under
an express or implied agreement that a
certain sum should be paid for each bega
of produce and no more. Every abwab
or tax imposed by the Zemindar over and
above that sum, is not only a breach of
that agreement, but a direct violation of the
established laws of the country.”—“Nei-
ther is the privilege which the ryots in many
parts of Bengal enjoy, of holding posses-
sion of the spots of land which they cul-
tivate, so long as they pay the revenue
assessed upon them, by any means incom-
patible with the proprietary rights of the
Zemindars. Whoever cultivates the land,
the Zemindars can receive no more than
the established rent, which, in most places,
is fully equal to what the cultivator can
afford to pay. To permit him to dispossess
one cultivator for the sole purpose of giving
the land to another, would be vesting him
* Minute, February 3, 1790.
176 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
“ with a power to commit a wanton act of
“ oppression.
“Neither is prohibiting the landholder to
“ impose new abwabs or taxes on the lands
“ tantamount to saying to him, that he shall
“ not raise the rents of His estate. The rents
“ of an estate are not to be raised by the
“ imposition of new abwabs or taxes on every
“ bega of land in cultivation; on the contrary,
“ they will in the end be lowered by such
“ imposition,” &c. It is obvious that his
Lordship's arguments by no means apply to
the objections urged by Mr. Shore. Mr.
Shore says that if the Zemindar is restrained
from raising the rents of his estate as high
as he can, he cannot justly be termed landlord.
Lord Cornwallis replies that he ought not to
be permitted to violate a right of occupancy
vested in the ryot. The scope of Mr. Shore's
observations is, that no obstacle ought to be
opposed to the equitable suggestions of self-
interest in the operations of industry and
conduct of private affairs: the inference from
Lord Cornwallis' remarks is, that the choice
and employment of servants ought not to be
left to the discretion of masters, but that the
former ought to be armed with a tenure ren-
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 177
dering them and their heirs for ever indepen-
dent of change of circumstances, and of the
well or ill-advised judgement of the latter.
If Mr. Shore had more fully developed and
specified the inconveniences which are im-
plied in his Minute, perhaps the Governor-
General would have found still greater difficulty
in returning a satisfactory answer. Such a
specification we have in the following extract
from a Memoir by Mr. Thackeray.” “If
“ occupancy is admitted (in favour of the
“ ryot) it would not be in his (the Zemindar’s)
“ power to turn out the occupants, and let
“ his fields to a speculative farmer, who
“ might, by superior skill, industry, or tools,
“ raise more produce: for these causes the
“ Zemindar must go on in the old way with
“ the ryots; and the improvement of the
“ lands now held by them will depend upon
“ themselves, not on the Zemindar. To reap
“ the full benefit of the extended estates, the
“ Zemindar ought, perhaps, to be a landlord
“ in the full extent of the term ; he ought to
“ have power to do what he pleased unem-
* Memoir in Favour of Ryotwar Permanent Settlements,
April 29, 1806. Fifth Report, p. 918.
N
178 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
“ barrassed by any supposed rights of his
“ tenantry ; and he ought to be an enlight-
“ened, scientific, enterprising landlord, not
“ such as usually become the Zemindars.
“ If the ryots are to have the occupancy, and
“ the Zemindar to be merely an hereditary
“ tehsildar, I do not see any scope for im-
“ provement further than what the ryots may
“ themselves eacecute.”
It must, nevertheless, be admitted to have
been the opinion of a great authority on all
subjects connected with India, that the per-
manent settlement did tend to favour the
substitution of leasehold farmers in the room
of perpetual occupants. Mr. Colebrooke
thus describes the change which he anti-
cipated. “In recognizing a proprietary right
“ belonging to Zemindars, no more can have
“ been intended than to disclaim all preten-
“sions on the part of the sovereign to a
“ property in the soil; not to abridge or
“ annul the rights and privileges of other
“ classes. But, under the acknowledgement
“ of it, occasion must frequently occur for
“ the particular vindication of every privilege
“ which seems to clash with the property so
“ acknowledged to be vested in Zemindars.
“The succession of occupants will gradually
&
6.
THE TERRITO RIAL SYSTEM. 179
“ afford to the Zemindars, as landholders,
“ the opportunity of limiting the tenures:
!easehold farmers will succeed to privileged
occupants; and the rights of other classes
“ will be likewise abridged. Perhaps, the
“ certainty of stipulated rent may, neverthe-
“ less, be a full compensation for the loss
“ of an indefeasible right of possession.””
Of this progressive mutation, without refer-
ence to the mode of its accomplishment, Mr.
Colebrooke seems to speak rather in a tone
of regret, than as considering it to be preg-
nant with public utility. But with respect to
the probability of its occurrence, it may be
observed, in the first place, that the supposed
process of gradual encroachment by the Ze-
mindar on the rights of the ryots is exactly
the reverse of that whereby copyhold estates
in England, which were originally held at the
will of the lord, acquired the validity and
stability which they have long possessed.
Indeed the relation which actually subsists
between the ryot and the Zemindar corres-
ponds essentially with that between the
* Remarks on the Husbandry, &c. chap. iv.
N 2
180 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
copyholder and the lord of the manor;” and
yet, though, in England, the villeins, or occu-
pants, by enjoying their possessions in a re-
gular course of descent from father to son,
and a long series of immemorial encroach-
ments, acquired a title to prescribe against
their lord, while the designations of the several
parties continued unaltered ; Mr. Colebrooke
supposes, that, for the mere sake of reconciling
names with things, British Judges in India
will lend the sanction of law to an opposite
current of encroachment against the prescrip-
tion of ages; and that rights, which had
sprung up and grown to maturity under the
sway of a barbarous despotism, would be
pruned or rooted out, while justice was dis-
pensed from British adawluts. Secondly, in
a country, like India, where the population is
nearly stationary, or where its increase is sup-
* “ All the leases of this district (Rungpore) may be
“ said to be in perpetuity, or rather that the occupants
“ of the soil are the REAL PROPRIETORs, bound to pay
“ a certain taw to Government through the ZEMINDAR,
“ or Lord of THE MANOR.”—MSS. by Dr. Francis
Buchanan.
THE TERRITORIA I, SYSTEM. 181
ported by bringing into cultivation land equal
in fertility to that already cultivated, where
neither the Zemindar (if it were his interest)
nor the ryot has skill to add permanently to
the productive powers of the land; and, con-
sequently, where there is nothing to occasion
a progressive enhancement of the value of raw
produce, there is little temptation to infringe
the perpetuity of a tenure for the sake or
chance of a higher rent. For these reasons,
which experience has hitherto in no way invali-
dated,” I must believe that leasehold tenures
will never be introduced in the way contem-
plated by Mr. Colebrooke.
It is a consequence of this uniformity in
the value of raw produce, that in whatever
part of Asia the reign of a firm and able
prince has at any time permitted the attain-
ment of such a measure of prosperity as is
* Extract from Answers to Interrogatories, by Mr.
John Eliot, Judge of Tipperah, April, 1802. “The
“ ryots being now secured in their property, and liable to
“ no extortion whatever, have become rich; while the
“ proprietors of the lands evince the utmost poverty,
“ and cannot, in the present days, obtain the smallest
“ credit; and it is now no uncommon thing to see them
“ begging charity from their former dependants.”
182 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
compatible with its political and statistical
condition, experience has taught him, that,
without any sacrifice of present or future re-
venue, he might consult the ease and welfare
of his subjects, and simplify the admini-
stration of his affairs, by making a permanent
settlement of the rate of the land-tax over all
his dominions.” Thus, according to Volney,
“ Sultan SELIM gave orders to prepare a
“ defter, or register, in which the contingent
“ of each village should be set down. In
short, he established the mini at an INvA-
“ RIABLE rate, and ordered that it should
“ neither be augmented nor diminished.” In
the Ayeen Akbery, we are informed that
“CobAD (king of Persia) disapproved of this
“ arbitrary mode, and intended to have made
“ a measurement of all the arable lands in
“ his empire, for the purpose of ascertaining
‘ an equitable FIXED revenue, which was pre-
“ vented by his death.” “His son Noor-
&
* Herodotus says, that Darius Hystaspes fixed the
revenue of Persia at £2,807,437; a sum which Dr. Ro-
bertson thinks too small, considering the “mines, mag-
“nificence, and luxury of the East.” Yet it is exactly
the territorial revenue of the present day. Malcolm's
Persia, vol. i. p. 266.
THE TERRITO RIAL SYSTEM. 183
“SHEERVAN (under whose reign Mahomed
“ was born) adopted his plan,” &c. The Em-
peror AKBER, with the assistance of rajah
Tudon-Mull, also established one permanent
rate for levying the land-tax in every province
of his empire: and the Abbé Grosier seems
to ascribe a similar arrangement to the Em-
peror Yong-Tchin, when he says that he
“changed the capitation into a land-taa, in
“ order that the revenues of the state might
“ be more fiased and certain, and that the
‘ collection of them might be made with
“greater exactness, and in a manner less
“ burdensome to the people.”* The author
of a work on Zemindarry tenures, f speaking
of the condition of talookdars (a superior
class of ryots, paying their rents directly into
the exchequer) under the native governments,
says, that they were favoured individuals,
“ who, having obtained small territorial grants,
“ the value of which being completely ascer-
“ tained, were then to be rated at a FIxED
“ annual assessment, subject to no future
“ increase.”
It appears, therefore, that the new principle
&
* Vol. i. p. 483. + Mr. James Grant.
184 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
introduced by our permanent settlement was,
not the fixing an invariable rate of land-tax,
but the mode of recovering arrears by attach-
ment and sale of the defaulter's estate, and
the subjection of Zemindarries to the same
rule of inheritance with personal property.
But it is to the first mentioned circumstance,
almost exclusively, that the eulogists of the
permanent settlement ascribe the merit of a
bold innovation. Thus, Mr. Robert Grant
says, “We have ventured on a yet more RA-
“ DICAL INNovATION, casually glanced at in
“ the course of the preceding pages.”—“This
“ was the permanent and irrevocable settle-
“ ment of the territorial revenue at a certain
“ valuation, moderately fixed, of the property
“ assessed.”* It is hoped that the preceding re-
view of the nature and effects of that measure
will have shown, that there was as little
ground for the following representation of the
benefits with which it was supposed, by its
framers, to be pregnant. In a letter to the
Court of Directors, dated August 2, 1789,
Lord Cornwallis says: “The humane and
* Expediency, p. 112. If this means that the assess-
ment was fixed below the former average, it is a mistake.
"I'HE TERRITO RIAL SYSTEM. 185
& 4
& 4
& 4
& 4
6 &
& C
& 6
4 &
6 &
& 6
& 6
& 4
& 6
& 6
& 6
liberal sentiments which dictated the instruc-
tions upon which the present plan (the
permanent settlement) is founded, will
prompt you to receive the highest gratifi-
cation if my hopes of its producing wealth
and happiness to the intelligent and indus-
trious part of the individuals of this coun-
try, shall be realized : and, independent of
all other considerations, I can assure you,
that it will be of the utmost importance
for promoting the solid interests of the
Company, that the principal landholders
and traders, in the interior parts of the
country, should be restored to such circum-
stances as to enable them to support their
families with decency, and to give a liberal
education to their children, according to
the customs of their respective casts and
religions; that a regular gradation of rank
may be supported, which is nowhere more
necessary than in this country, for preserv-
ing order in civil society.” The Court of
Directors, in a letter on the same subject, say:
6 &
6 &
6 &
& 4
6 &
Had such a system been adopted twenty
years ago, and fairly followed, it is not to
be doubted that the produce, manufactures,
and commerce of the country, would at this
time have been in a more flourishing state
186 STATISTICAI, VIEW OF
“ than they are ; and the people, sensible of
“ a new order of things, of privileges, and
“ prosperity unenjoyed before, would have
“ risen in their character, and felt real attach-
“ ment to the government from which those
“blessings are derived.”
Nearly thirty years have now elapsed since
the formation of the permanent settlement in
Bengal, and the promised benefits are still in
the list of desiderata. Even if some accession
of “ wealth” could reasonably have been
looked for, yet credit should only have been
taken for the balance that would remain, after
making due allowance for the exaction of
tribute. But, perhaps, the advantages of a
permanent settlement have never been more
exaggerated than in the documents relating
to its application to JAvA ; and the subject
will be still better understood and appreciated,
if we examine these somewhat closely.
The quantity of ground occupied by each
cultivator is from two acres to half an acre.
Under the Dutch administration, the rent
due to government from the cultivator varied
according to an arbitrary and oppressive esti-
* Fifth Report, p. 727.
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 187
mate of his capacity to pay, and was partly
commuted for labour on the highways and
other feudal services. Under the British ad-
ministration every description of feudal ser-
vices was abolished, and leases for a moderate
term of years, with a view to the eventual
establishment of a perpetual settlement, on the
principle of the Ryotwar system, were granted
to the actual cultivators, ascertaining their
several assessments to the land-tax, according
to the various degrees in which the land was
calculated to reward the labour bestowed
upon it, the highest rate being one-half of the
estimated gross produce, the lowest one-fourth.
Thus, though the cultivation was performed
with the stock of the peasantry, yet their re-
muneration could not be said to exceed the
wages of their labour; so that the entire net
produce was drawn into the exchequer. The
advantages derivable from the application of
capital in stocking, fencing, draining, manur-
ing, &c. and from the division and economy
of labour, were, by such a system, excluded
for ever. Future increase of production must
be limited by the quantity of waste-land ca-
pable of tillage: nothing could be expected
from the improved productiveness of that
already cultivated, or from a diminution of
188 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
the expense of cultivation. Nevertheless, the
remedy thus applied to Dutch rapacity is cha-
racterised as a “ FUNDAMENTAL change””
and an “entire REvolution ; ” and the va-
rious features of prosperity and civilization,
which, as if by enchantment, were soon to
make their appearance, are described in the
following terms: “By a steady adherence to
“ a system which, even in its origin, was pro-
“ ductive of such fruits,” [i. e. an increase of
the surface cultivated, and a decrease of
crimes, “ by continuing to the peasant the
“ protection of laws made for his benefit, by
“ allowing full scope to his industry, and
“ encouraging his natural propensity to accu-
“ mulate, agriculture in Java would soon
“ acquire a new character: it would soon
“ become active and enterprising ; there would
“ soon be created a difference in farms and in
“ the circumstances of individuals; capital
“would be fixed and augmented in the hands
“ of the skilful and the industrious among
“ the cultivators; the idle and the indifferent
“ would relinquish their possessions in their
“ favour; roads, intercourse, and markets
&
* Raffles' Java, vol. i. p. 153, &c.
THE TERRITOTIAL SYSTEM. 189
“would be increased; the organization of
“ society would be changed; and an improved
“ race would show themselves in some measure
“ worthy of the most fertile region of the
‘globe.” All these wonders were to spring
(whether “ soon,” or in a hundred years, it
matters not) from a regulation assuring to
the Javan metayer of an acre or two of land
a bare subsistence ; while the surplus produce
of his labour was the property, not of indivi-
duals, but of the state |
The controversy that was maintained in
the Madras Presidency, on the comparative
expediency of a Zemindarry or a Ryotwar per-
manent settlement, gave occasion to discus-
sions respecting the advantage of consolidating
small into large farms; the advocates for the
former plan insisting on the recognized supe-
riority of large farms, while the adherents of
the latter plan either disputed the alleged su-
periority, or more reasonably contended that
the question of large or small farms was alto-
gether irrelevant, because the size of farms
in India is independent of, and uninfluenced
by, the existence or non-existence of Zemin-
dars. But though the question of large or
small farms is inapplicable when the choice
is between a Zemindarry and a Ryotwar set-
&
190 STATISTICAL VIEW () F
tlement, it is highly pertinent and material
when we direct our attention to the relative
merits of the statistical systems of Europe
and Asia. The arguments in favour of large
farms, that is as large as can be conveniently
superintended by one man, may perhaps be
comprehended in the observation that they
imply the possession of abundance of capital
and skill. Neither of these, separately, if
they can exist separately, would be sufficient.
Skill without capital could not stock a large
farm; and capital without skill would be
employed in any way rather than in carrying
on the difficult operations of agriculture.
Adam Smith declares that, “after what are
“ called the fine arts and the liberal profes-
“sions, there is, perhaps, no trade which
“ requires so great a variety of knowledge
“ and experience as husbandry.” And Mr.
Burke still more decidedly pronounces—“It
“ requires ten times more of labour, of vigi-
“ lance, of attention, of skill, and, let me
“ add, of good fortune also, to carry on the
“ business of a farmer with success, than
“what belongs to any other trade.”f So
* Book i. chap. x. + Vol. vii. p. 378.
THE TERRITORIA L SYSTEM. 191
pre-eminent are the requisites for the success-
ful conduct of agriculture, when all the arts
have been carried to perfection; not so when
the poor metayer follows the routine of a
thousand years. But though the advantages
attending large farms, in increasing the pro-
portion of net produce are undeniable, in
India they cannot exist, because there is
neither skill nor capital; and these are want-
ing because her population is debased by
ignorance and servitude, impressed on her
by the whole frame and tenour of her go-
Vernment.
In the size of farms or estates, while there
is a maximum which it is desirable that they
should not exceed, so there is a minimum
beneath which the public good much more
strongly demands that they should not sink.
When every rood of ground maintains its
owner, the land can only “just give what life
“ requires, and give no more;” and nature
being allowed no more than is absolutely
indispensable to the supply of animal wants,
“man’s life is cheap as beasts.” There is
then neither vent nor profit, and no individual
possesses more than the lowest possible wages
of labour. There can be no public revenue,
no commerce, no trade, no market, no com-
192 STATISTICA L VIEW OF
modities, except the coarsest articles of do-
mestic furniture. In such a state of things
many days must be consumed in idleness,
and much labour wasted from unskilfulness.
In proportion as possessions become enlarged,
the sum of idleness diminishes, and the quantity
of produce increases in the ratio of the
number of persons employed in raising it; the
surplus maintains those who administer to the
various accommodations of life; the distinc-
tion between owner and farmer is established,
and rent and profit constitute a considerable
portion of the aggregate income. Mr. Mal-
thus, however, appears to have fixed the mi-
nimum at too high a point on the scale in the
following passage. “If all the land in Eng-
‘ land were divided into farms of £20 a year,
‘ we should probably be more populous than
“we are at present; but as a nation we
‘ should be extremely poor. We should be
‘ almost without disposable revenue, and should
“ be under a total inability of maintaining the
“ same number of manufactures, or collecting
“ the same taxes as at present.”* I appre-
hend this statement to be greatly exaggerated,
6
&
&
&
* Book ii. chap. vi.
THE TERRITORIAI, SYSTEM. 193
and that supposing the change in question
to be suddenly introduced, without prejudice
to existing capital and skill, the reduction of
public wealth would not be very considerable,
much less would there be almost an annihi-
lation of disposable revenue. A farm of £20
a year supposes one of at least 20 acres, and
we know that many parts of Ireland and of
the highlands of Scotland are divided into
farms averaging less than 20 acres; and yet
they yield good rents to their proprietors, and,
consequently, funds for the maintenance of
manufactures and the payment of taxes. Si-
milar examples may be found all over Europe.
In the north of Ireland, where the linen-
weavers occupy (or at least did at the time of
Arthur Young's tour) farms as small as from
four to ten acres, and where, from their
wretched management, the produce is not one-
tenth of what it ought to be, the rent is, in
most cases, paid wholly from the produce of
their looms.
If the advocates for ryotwar settlements
have contented themselves with saying, that
the small size of farms in India was an evil
for which the acknowledgement, or institution,
of proprietary Zemindars offered no remedy,
their reply to the observations of their oppo-
()
194 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
ments would have been eo tenus satisfactory.
But they go much farther. They venture, in
very unmeasured language, to pronounce the
Indian modification of the metayer system,
with leases in perpetuity, to be absolutely
good, may perfect, and such as we ought not
to wish to see altered. Thus Sir Thomas
Munro says, that the minute division of land
in Canara “ has not disabled the owners from
“ providing for every expense which the BEST
“ cultivation requires.” And in a later re-
port he observes: “The tendency of the
“ Indian system of casts and laws of inhe-
ritance, always has been, and must be,
to keep land divided into small portions
among the ryots, and to make the same
person labourer, farmer, and landlord. WHY,
THEN, ATTEMPT TO SUBVERT AN ANCIENT
“ SYSTEM, which places the great body of the
“ ryots above want, renders them industrious,
frugal, and comfortable, and preserves the
simplicity of their manners, and their re-
“ spect for public authority ? But it has
“ been said, that there can be no proper sub-
ordination without just gradations in society;
4 &
£ 6
& 4
£ 6
{ %
& 4
&
6
6
£
6
* Reports, November 9, 1800. Fifth Report, p. 909,
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 195
“ and that Zemindars are required in Indian
“ society to accomplish this desirable end:
“ but this opinion is completely contradicted
“ by experience, for there is no people on
“ earth among whom there is greater subor-
“ dination than among the Hindoos who
“ never saw proprietary Zemindars until they
were created by the Company's govern-
“ ment.”* The system of casts can only
influence the division of lands by ensuring
the operation of the laws of succession, in
preventing the children of a ryot from quitting
husbandry to follow any other occupation.
But the restrictions of casts are not so strictly
exclusive ; there is a considerable latitude of
employments to which the descendants of
ryots may, and do, apply themselves; and
succession per capita, though always preju-
dicial, prevails in other countries without in-
ducing the consequences ascribed to it by
General Munro. These circumstances, then,
are neither the primary causes of the minute
partition of land, nor insuperable obstacles
to the introduction of a different order of
tenures. But if they were, why NoT attempt
& 6
_*
* Ibid. p. 947, Report, August 15, 1807.
O 2
196 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
to subvert a system which, by making “ the
“ same person labourer, farmer, and land-
“ lord,” does in fact eat up the profits of the
farmer, while the land-tax absorbs the rents
of the proprietor; in other words, which is
incompatible with tile existence of farmers
and landlords properly so called, and with
all the congeries of wealth, strength, and
order, to which they so eminently contri-
bute? A frugal and industrious peasantry
ought to constitute but a portion, not the
whole of a prosperous nation. If General
Munro had correctly stated the observation
respecting the importance of a gradation of
ranks in society, he would have perceived that
it had never been contradicted by experience.
It is not merely subordination that is thereby
ensured, (for obedience is unlimited where
there is no middle class between the prince
and the people,) but subordination under the
protection of wise and equitable laws. “The
“ most stable foundation of legal and rational
“ government is a due subordination of rank
“ and a gradual scale of authority.””
An equally zealous, but less consistent, eulo-
* Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. iv. p. 104.
TH E '1" E R RITO RIAL SYSTEM. 197
gist of the Indian territorial system is Mr.
Thackeray. Speaking of Malabar, Canara,
and the ceded districts, he says: “It will be
& 6
& 6
& 6
& 4
6 &
& 6
& 6
$ 6
( &
& 4
& &
found that these provinces, when settled in
the way proposed [permanent ryotwar], will
be in that situation which the soundest
authors, the greatest political economists,
and wisest statesmen have ever thought
best suited to produce general happiness
and the greatest agricultural improvement.
They will be divided amongst a yeomanry,
a great number of small proprietors,” &c.
It may be considered an UTOPÍA by some ;
however, I think that government can and
ought to extend this happy system to these
provinces.” Such is his predilection for an
equal distribution of the conveniences of life,
that he seems unwilling to see a single rich
man rear his head above the general level.
& ©
& 4
& 6
6 &
C &
4 &
& &
& 4
& 4
If one rich man engrosses many of the
good things of life, many poor must go
without them. One fat Rajah supposes
fifty-two ryots.” [“Give me the spare men,
and spare me the fat men!”]. “These in-
equalities are the consequence [cause] of
opulence, and are, on the whole, evils which
will follow of themselves, as far as the
customs of the Hindoos will allow them.
198 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
“We need not hasten them.” Mr. Thack-
eray, however, has one Utopia for India and
another for England. It is part of his Uto-
pian system for India, “which the soundest
“ authors, &c. have ever thought best suited
“ to produce general happiness,” that nine-
tenths of the rents of land should be drawn
into the exchequer; but he admits that a
practical application of such “ soundest,”
“ wisest,” doctrines to England would be
the ruin of her kind of “ happiness.” She
has been raised, by an opposite system, “ to
“ the pinnacle of glory;”—but, in India, that
“ haughty spirit, independence, and deep
“ thought, which the possession of great
“ wealth sometimes gives, ought to be sup-
“ pressed. They are directly adverse to
“our power and interest.” – “We do not
“ want generals, statesmen, and legislators;
“ we want industrious husbandmen.” Thus,
in the same report, do plain truth and over-
strained sophistry meet together. Nil fuit
unquam sic impar sibi. But there is a me-
thod in all this variety. When he is “Reges
“ atque Tetrarchas, omnia magna loquens,”
* Report, August 4, 1807. Fifth Report, pp. 984–
99 .
THE TERRITO RIAL SYSTEM. 190
it is in his proper person, and he is perfectly
serious; but when he says, “Sit mihi mensa
“ tripes et concha salis puri, et toga quae de-
“ fendere frigus, quamvis crassa, queat,” it is
as the self-constituted representative of the
people of India
Though it has occurred to some gentlemen,
that the indefinite partibility of Zemindarry es-
tates ought to be limited by law, nobody has
thought of employing the same power to in-
crease the size of farms; if we except the
tendency which some of the advocates for
Zemindarry, in preference to Ryotwar settle-
ments, ascribed to the system which they
recommended. Mr. Cox and Mr. Tucker
wished to apply the rule of primogeniture to
all estates not exceeding 500 rupees of jumma;
but it has never been proposed to enact a re-
gulation for an opposite purpose to that aimed
at by an Act of Henry VII. which directed that
farms, consisting of 20 acres, or more, should
not be consolidated, but should be kept in
tillage, for the future. Adverting to the
above-mentioned proposition for the partial
introduction of the privilege of primogeniture,
Mr. Colebrooke observes, “Very minute sub-
“ division of landed property is, no doubt,
“ inconvenient to government. But other
200 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
“ means may be devised of remedying the
“ inconvenience without interfering with the
“ law of inheritance, and without excluding
“ co-heirs and co-partners from the enjoyment
“ of their several rights. Regulation VI. of
“ 1807, does not, to my apprehension, pro-
“ vide the proper remedy. But the consider-
“ation of this subject does not press for im-
“ mediate attention.”* While we must con-
cur with Mr. Colebrooke in condemning all
direct legislative provisions for controuling the
use and transmission of property, except in
the case of intestates, we may regret that he
did not throw out his own ideas as to what
“ other means” should be resorted to, for
obviating the admitted evil.
When a land-tax is so high as in India, its
rate, and the manner of levying it, having
originally risen out of the fact, that the sove-
reign was proprietor of all the lands in his
kingdom, -it is, no doubt, a very natural
suggestion, that every reduction of assess-
ment, consistent with the public safety, must
be a public benefit.f But it depends on the
* Minute, June 20, 1808.
# Mr. Mill finds no difficulty in jumping to that conclu-
"I HE TERRITO RIAL SYSTEM. 20 [
degree of advancement in arts and civilization
to which a nation has attained, whether every
remission of land-tax shall not cause a dimi-
nution in the gross, and still more in the net,
amount of its annual produce. In the present
condition of India, an abatement in the de-
mands of the state would undoubtedly be fol-
lowed by two consequences: first, the power
of indolence would rise in proportion to the
pressure of excitement which was withdrawn,
and the quantity of produce would be dimi-
nished. It has been observed, even in Eng-
land, “ that, on the estates of landlords who
“ pride themselves in demanding low rents,
“ the most slovenly culture is observable;”
and Dr. Buchanan has remarked a compara-
tive inferiority of tillage on low-rented
estates in India: secondly, a greater propor-
tion of the produce would be consumed on
the ground by idle retainers, and less appro-
sion. “ The mode of increasing the riches of the body
“ of the people is a discovery no less easy than sure.
“ Take little from them in the way of taxes; prevent them
“ from injuring one another,” &c. “ Light taxes and
“good laws; nothing more is wanting for national and
“ individual prosperity all over the globe.” Vol. iii.
p. 357.
202 STATISTIC AI, W H E W OF
priated to the maintenance of productive or
unproductive labourers. There would be
less produce, fewer commodities, a smaller
aggregate amount of profits and rent; and,
therefore, abridged means of providing for
public security, accommodation, and magnifi-
cence. But, as these consequences would
not equally follow, if equal remissions of
assessment were made on a Zemindarry and
on a Ryotwar settlement, it will be proper to
consider the two cases separately.
If the remission were made on a Zemin-
darry settlement, there would be no immediate
diminution of incitement to the cultivators of
the ground, because the Zemindars might con-
tinue to exact the same rents that they had
previously received : but they would not
employ the same vigilance and attention in
collecting their rents that they had before ex-
erted, when the least relaxation would have
been sensibly felt, and a greater degree of
negligence would have occasioned the attach-
ment and sale of their property. When
placed in a more easy and secure situation,
indolence would grow upon them, and its
influence would be communicated, through
the intermediate links, to the ryots. But,
whatever, estimate we may form of the effect
THE TE R RITOR 1 AI, SYS'll E. M. 203
thus likely to be produced, a still more impor-
tant question arises, What would be the
political consequences of diverting a consi-
derable proportion of the rents of land into
such a channel ? Would the course of our
power continue to run as smoothly as it does
at present? If the consideration and influ-
ence which the Zemindars now possess were
multiplied ten-fold, or even five-fold, should
we be able to rule this multitudinous empire
with undiminished authority ? These ques-
tions answer themselves in the negative; but,
since such advantages would never be gratui-
tously bestowed, we may be re-assured against
apprehensions from extensive operations of
this sort, by the general inability of the Zemin-
dars to purchase them at a fair price. During
the administration of Lord Wellesley, a ques-
tion was circulated to the collectors as to
the expediency of permitting the Zemindars
to redeem part, or the whole, of the land-tax;
and, as to the number of years purchase,
which they would be willing to give for a re-
mission of jumma, all the answers were of a
dissuasive kind. Those who believed that the
remission would be advantageous to agricul-
ture, and that the Zemindars would give the
ten years purchase, deprecated the measure as
204 STATISTICAL VIEW () tº
highly impolitic and dangerous; while those
who looked upon it as politically harmless,
represented that it would be detrimental to
agriculture by favouring the natural indolence
of the people, and that the Zemindars would
not give more than two years purchase. Thus,
the highest price that, in the opinion of any of
the collectors, could have been procured
would yet have been inadequate ; and, though
quite as high, considering the usual rate of
interest, as it would have been prudent for
them to give, it would obviously have been a
losing bargain for government to sell the land-
tax at ten years purchase, while it entertained
the expectation of being soon compelled to
pay from sixteen to seventeen years purchase
for the redemption of its funded debt.
If the remission were made on a Ryotwar
settlement, it would not be purchased by
the ryots, but would be granted to them on
the supposition of their having been insuffici-
ently remunerated for the expenses of produc-
tion. If it did not exceed that measure, the
remission would be judicious; but if it did, it
would be objectionable, for the reasons already
assigned. Every remission beyond that point
would be a sacrifice of so much revenue,
which would not be compensated by any ad-
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 205
dition of net private income, from which de-
ductions could be made for taxes or for
savings. An assessment up to that point is
the only means of securing any portion of the
fruits of the earth for those who do not raise
them, but who devote themselves to other
occupations. Mr. Malthus seems to have
overlooked this consideration in the following
passage: “When property is so much di-
“ vided, that the rent and profit of a farm
“ must be combined, in order to support a
“ family upon it, a land-tax must necessarily
“ greatly impede cultivation; though it has
“ little or no effect of this kind when farms
“ are large, and let out to tenants, as is most
“ frequently the case in England.” Is it not
evident that, in the former case, the remedy is,
by retaining the tax, indirectly to force land
into fewer hands, so that, after satisfying the
wants of the cultivator, there shall be enough
for the tax? It is admitted that, in the latter
case, the tax could be paid without inconve-
nience; but the imposition of the tax would
be the most effectual corrective of those cir-
cumstances, which would otherwise prevent
* Book ii. ch. vi.
206 STATISTICA L VIEW OF
proprietors from being able to pay it. When,
as in Russia, the rent of land is drawn, in the
form of a capitation-tax, from the boors who
cultivate it, the proprietor needs not fear plant-
ing them too closely on his estate; it is his
interest to subdivide farms so as to multiply
the payers of poll-tax; and when the portion
of a boor is too small, he obtains permission
to emigrate to a town, in consideration of a
small increase of his tax.
It is from not attending to the fact that the
petty ryot's share of the crop is, and ought to
be, no more than the wages of his labour,
that a writer in the Edinburgh Review ex-
claims loudly against the rate of land-tax esta-
blished by the British government in Java.
“We may be quite sure that countries only of
“ the most singular fertility could withstand
‘ so exorbitant, and, in Europe, so unheard-of
“ a demand ; and we may be also certain, that,
“ whenever such a plan is systematically perse-
“vered in, the country is doomed to irretrie-
“ vable poverty.”* He contrasts the payments
made by the peasant to the proprietor (i. e. go-
vernment) in Java, with the payments made
6
* No. lxii. p. 410.
THE TERRITO RIAL SYSTE. M. 207
by the proprietor to government in Europe. A
rent of half produce (the highest in Java) is
by no means unheard-of in Europe. By
means of the system which the reviewer con-
siders as so destructive, an increasing revenue,
amounting to nearly a million sterling, was col-
lected ; and the consequence of any abatement
of demand would have been to aggravate that
indolence, which is the root of all poverty.
Mr. Verelst, in speaking of under-assessed
talooks, does not say that they presented an
appearance of greater comfort and neatness,
or that the cheerful hum of industry, plying
its various tasks, was more rife; but that they
“generally swarm with inhabitants,” and
“ contain many idle and these unserviceable
“ hands.” “ The radical vice in the Javan
system is not to be remedied in so summary a
manner as that prescribed by the reviewer.
One of the most strenuous opponents of the
rate of Indian land-tax is Mr. Rickards. To
illustrate its baneful effects, he supposes
that, in England, the whole amount of reve-
nue, arising from the excise on malt, beer,
and spirits, were laid immediately on barley,
* Instructions to the Supravisors, 1769.
208 STATISTICAL VI E W () F
and then asks, “ Can any man, for a moment,
“ suppose that this cultivation would not be
“ immediately and effectually checked
“Would capital be any more employed in a
“ line where profit was at once annihilated, or
“aught but hungry necessity drive a people,
“ under such circumstances, to the cultivation
“ of their soil.”* If barley-flour were not an
ordinary and useful article in the food of the
poor, and barley itself were only consumed in
the shape of fermented or distilled liquors, it
would depend on circumstances, respecting the
convenience and security of its collection,
whether it would or would not be expedient
to lay the whole duty at once on barley ; and,
if no objection arose from such considerations,
there can be no doubt that barley, loaded with
the whole duty, would continue to be culti-
wated to the same extent, and with the same
profit, as before. Mr. Rickards wished to
* Essay on Taxation, September 24, 1807. Bombay
Rev. Cons. July 9, 1808.
f In the reign of Charles II. the trade of tobacco-
planting having been found to be sufficiently profitable, in
spite of a tax of £10 per rood, power was given to the
justices of peace (by 22 and 23 Car. II. c. xxvi.) to
“ pluck up and utterly destroy" all tobacco planted in
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 209
reduce the land-tax, and proportionally to in-
crease other taxes, but as the first step, which
he proposed should be taken, was not the
abandonment of a portion of the revenue, but
the nominal transference of the tax from the
land to the houses, it does not appear how
that change of words could have tended to
the attainment of his object. However erro-
neous his principles, such a practical conclu-
sion was at least nugatory and harmless.
So long as the Asiatic territorial system
shall be permitted to reign without qualifi-
cation, it is not by the abstaining from levy-
ing revenue, but by its just disbursement and
wise appropriation, that a government will
best consult the good of its subjects, and give
the surest proof of its regard for their welfare.
It is more immediately and visibly the interest
and duty of an Asiatic government to execute
many works that in Europe are properly left
to the prudence and zeal of private persons.
The care and expense of constructing roads,
bridges, tanks, dams, &c. naturally devolve
England and Ireland. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
the culture of saffron might have borne a heavy tax, since
the produce of an acre was usually worth £20.
P
210 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
on government, where there are neither rich
proprietors, nor farmers, nor public spirit, nor
the habit of co-operating for the execution of
a common benefit. Here, when it was im-
possible to err on the side of profusion, a
reference to what has been said on the sub-
ject of tribute will show to what extent we
have been deficient, especially during the forty
years subsequent to the acquisition of the
TXewannee.* There is scarcely an Asiatic
state, whose exertions in this department have
not left ours far behind ; whereas, with our
* “ Universal poverty prevents the undertaking (of
“ roads, &c.) from motives of public spirit. And
“ nothing is applied to such works from the revenue
&
6
levied by the state. Remains of stupendous cause-
“ ways, ruins of bridges, and of magnificent stairs on the
“ banks of rivers, not replaced by similar undertakings
“ of a modern date, suggest melancholy reflections on the
“ decline of the country.” Colebrooke's Remarks. Mr.
O. N. White, in a Minute, dated March 25, 1793, speak-
ing of the construction of tanks, &c. says: “ If such
&
“ works (of which there is not, I believe, a single in-
“ stance since the establishment of the Company's admi-
“nistration on the coast) had been executed in the
“Circars previous to the late famine, a great part of the
“ inhabitants, who have perished within the last three
“ years, might without doubt have been preserved.”
&
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 211
superior means and science we ought to have
eclipsed their greatest achievements.”
But the utmost that even a British govern-
* See Sir J. Malcolm's Account of Munificence of Shah
Abbas. Hist. of Persia, vol. i. p. 552. See descriptions
of covered bazars, with arched roofs. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 522,
and Elphinstone's Cabul, pp. 424, 432-4. Of the little
tributary state of Mysore, Sir John Malcolm says:
* Its canals, public roads, and bridges, already surpass
“ those of any province in India; and will (if the same
“ active spirit of improvement continue) soon rival those
“ of the most civilized parts of Europe.” Sketch of
Pol. Hist. p. 380. -
The famous suppressed despatch of April 3, 1805,
contains the groans of the Directors over the money ex-
pended in building the magnificent government-house at
Calcutta. They remind the Governor-General that, in
their letter of August 28, 1801, they had limited the dis-
bursements for buildings, and for the purchase of lands
for that purpose, in the public and judicial departments,
to the sum of ONE lack of rupees per annum. The re-
opening one of Shah Jehan's canals of irrigation, drawn
from the Jumna above Delhi, is one of the most consider-
able things the British government has done. This work
was completed in May, 1820, at an expense of £24,000;
but the profit is so great and certain, that, during the seven-
teen years that we have possessed that territory, individuals
would have cut or re-opened many canals. So far back
as 1806, two gentlemen were willing to undertake this
very canal on their private account.
&
p 2
212 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
ment could have effected in improving and
adorning the face of the country, sinks into
insignificance, when compared with what
would follow from the free introduction of
European enterprize, and the diffusion of arts
and knowledge among the people. We may
estimate, with some degree of precision, the
difference, in point of wealth, between Britain
and India, if we attend to the following par-
ticulars. Bengal is about the same size
as Great Britain, and each contains about
30,000,000 of cultivated acres. The revenue
collected in Bengal is less than £3,500,000;
in Britain it is more than £50,000,000. In
Bengal the value of the gross produce of the
land is little more than £1 an acre, and the
expense of cultivation, from the waste of
labour and inefficiency of implements, averages
three-fourths of the gross produce: in Britain
it is 65 an acre, and the expense of culti-
vation less than one-third of the gross pro-
duce.” So that though the gross produce of
* In Mr. Shore's Minute of June 18, 1789, he calcu-
lated the gross produce of Bengal at about £8,500,000;
assuming the land-tax and the intermediate profits between
government and the ryots, to be a moiety of the gross
produce; and adding the estimated produce of the
"J"HE TERRITO R H A L SYSTEM. 213
Britain exceeds that of Bengal only five-fold,
its net produce exceeds that of the latter
twelve-fold. But the agricultural produce of
Bengal constitutes nearly the whole of its
annual creation of property: in Britain it
forms but one half of the aggregate gross
I’62V6IAUlé.
In Bengal four-fifths of the population, or
24 millions, are agriculturists ; of the remain-
ing 6 millions, the greater part are artizans,
whose earnings are a mere subsistence, that
is, do no more than defray the expense of
production; a very few are rich bankers and
merchants; the rest are petty shopkeepers,
servants, &c. In Britain only one-third of
the population are agriculturists; more than
laheraj or rent-free lands. But he did not make sufficient
allowance for the real expenses of cultivation. Mr. Cole-
brooke's data justify his calculation, that the gross pro-
duce amounts to £32,000,000. In 1813, when prices
were at their highest, the total produce of the soil of
Great Britain was estimated at £160,000,000, of which
only £40,000,000 were absorbed by the expense of pro-
duction. Dr. Colquhoun estimated the annual produce
of the agricultural industry of Great Britain and Ireland
at £216,817,624; and of all other kinds of industry,
including remittances from colonies, (exclusive of the
East Indies,) at £213,703,748: total £430,521,372.
214 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
that proportion are employed in manufactures,
in which large capitals are invested ; and the
rest of the productive labourers are engaged,
under the agency of extensive capitals, in
mines, shipping, fisheries, banking, &c. In
Bengal, a gross produce of £32,000,000, di-
vided by 24 millions, gives gº 1 : 7 : 0 for each
individual: in Britain, a gross produce of
3150,000,000, divided by 4 millions, gives
337 : 10 : 0 for each individual ; and
g430,000,000, divided by 17 millions, gives
2625 : 5: 10 for each individual. In the West
Indies, the yearly value of the produce ex-
ported, exclusive of what is consumed by the
inhabitants themselves, is 613 : 18 : 6 per
head, for man, woman, and child, black and
white.
Though the revenue of an Asiatic prince
absorbs a much larger proportion of the rents
and profits of his subjects, it is, we see,
greatly inferior in absolute amount to that of
an European sovereign. Some writers, how-
ever, mistaking a heavy rate for a large
amount of taxation, have imagined that the
income of Asiatic sovereigns exceeds that of
European governments. Thus Mr. Orme says:
“The king, by being proprietor of the lands,
“ sells to his subjects their subsistence, in-
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 215
“ stead of receiving their supplies from them.
“ Hence a resource eaceeding that of all the
“ taaces, imposts, and customs of other govern-
“ ments; but still a resource incapable of
“ producing gold and silver without the assist-
“ ance of commerce.” And Sir Thomas
Roe ascribes the supposed immensity of the
Mogul emperor's revenue to the very circum-
stance which impoverished his people, and
consequently himself. “In revenue he doubt-
“less exceeds either Turk or Persian, or any
“ Eastern prince. The sums I dare not name,
“ but the reason: ALL THE LAND Is HIs, No
“ MAN ELSE HAs A Foot.” t Montesquieu
has committed a mistake not less palpable,
though of an opposite kind; and because the
absolute amount of the revenues of despotic
sovereigns is small, he affirms that the rate
of public impositions on their subjects is low,
and that, by an invariable law of nature, light
taxes are some compensation for the miseries
of servitude. {
&
* Hist. Fragm. p. 414.
+ As. An. Reg. for 1802, Mis. Tr. p. 24. -
f Esprit des Loix, l. xiii, c. 12. See also Gibbon's His-
tory, vol. iii. p. 82, octavo. -
216 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
But dry statistical facts fail to convey so
lively an impression of the superior wealth,
comfort, splendour, order, and beauty of Eu-
ropean life, as when the graphic pen of a
traveller contrasts the external appearances
of the most prominent objects in both coun-
tries: and as I know no writer who has done
this with so much truth and spirit as Bernier,
making allowance for the glimmerings of chi-
valry that still lingered on the face of Europe,
I need not apologise for the length of the
following extracts from an old translation of
his Letter to the Lord Colbert.
“ It is not there that the kings find for
“ their service, princes, lords, gentlemen, sons
“ of rich and good families, officers, citizens,
“ merchants, and even tradesmen, well born,
“ well educated, and well instructed; men of
“ courage that have a true affection and
“ respect for their king, that often live a great
“ while at the court, and in the army at their
“ own expenses, entertaining themselves with
“good hopes, and content with the favour-
“ able aspect of the prince; and who upon
“ occasion fight manfully, covetous to uphold
“ the honour of their ancestors and family.
* Those kings, I say, never see about them
“ but men of nothing, slaves, ignorants,
&
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 217
&
&
& 6
& 4
46
& 6
& 6
& 6
46
6 &
66
66
& 6
& 6
& C
& 6
& 6
46
6 4.
66
& 6
6 &
& 4
brutes, and such courtezans as are raised
from the dust to dignities, and that, for
want of good education and instruction,
almost always retain somewhat of their
offspring, of the temper of beggars enriched,
proud, insufferable, heartless, insensible of
honour, disingenuous, and void of affection
and regard for the honour of their king and
country.” “ * *
“ Far be it, therefore, that our monarchs of
Europe should thus be proprietors of all
the lands which their subjects possess.
Their kingdoms would be very far from
being so well cultivated and peopled, so
well built, so rich, so polite, and flourishing,
as we see them. Our kings are otherwise
rich and powerful; and we must avow that
they are much better and more royally
served. There would soon be kings of
deserts and solitudes, of beggars and bar-
barians, such as those are whom I have
been representing, who, because they will
have all, at last lose all, and who, because
they will make themselves too rich, at
length find themselves without riches; or
at least very far from that which they covet
after, out of their blind ambition and
passion of being more absolute than the
218 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
4 &
£ 6
66
& 4
C &
66
& £
& 4
& &
66
é &
& 4
£ 6
6 &
& 6
& 6
& &
& 4
6 &
{ %
& 6
& 6
& &
& 6
& 6
laws of God and nature do permit. For
where would be those princes, those pre-
lates, those nobles, those rich citizens, and
those famous artizans, those towns of
Paris, Lyons, Thoulouse, Rouen, London,
and so many others? Where would be that
infinite number of boroughs and villages,
all those fair country houses, and fields and
hillocks tilled and maintained And where
would, consequently, be all those vast
revenues drawn thence, which at last enrich
the subjects and the sovereign both 2 We
should find the great cities and the great
boroughs rendered uninhabitable because of
the ill air, and to fall to ruin without any
body's taking care of repairing them; the
hillocks abandoned, and the fields over-
spread with the bushes, or filled with pes-
tilential marshes, as hath been already inti-
mated.
“A word to our dear and experienced
travellers: they would not find those fair
conveniences of travelling; they would be
obliged to carry all things with them like
Bohemians; and all those good inns, for
example, that are found between Paris and
Lyons, would be like ten or twelve wretched
Karavanserrahs, that is, great barns raised
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 2 19
“ and paved, such as our Pont-Neuf is,
“ where hundreds of men are found pel-mel
“ together with their horses, mules, and
“ camels, where one is stifled with heat in
“ summer, and starved of cold in winter, if
“ it were not for the breathing of those ani-
“ mals that warm the place a little.”
For all the statistical evils which we have
been reviewing, as well as for all the political,
there is but one safe and effectual remedy, -
colonization. Others are either nugatory or
pernicious. It remains to inquire what specific
measures it would be necessary to adopt in
order to introduce and promote colonization;
how we ought to prepare the soil in which we
would plant our colonists. It must evidently
be by reversing those legislative restrictions
which at present not only prohibit Europeans
from being proprietors of land, but withhold
all temptation to evade the prohibition.
All legal obstacles being supposed to be
removed, the simplest operation that would
follow would be the sale of waste lands, by
government and by private persons, to Euro-
peans, without the reservation or future im-
position of any tax on rent. It would not be
easy to reckon the advantages which these
transactions would immediately produce. The
220 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
demand for labourers would occasion a de-
sirable rise of wages among the poorest class
of the community. The rise would not affect
those ryots who are attached to their own
hereditary farms, or (as they may with, per-
haps, equal propriety be termed) estates; but
the benefit being less extended would be more
sensibly felt ; and the increasing improvement
in the condition of labourers, as compared
with that of ryots, would facilitate the con-
version of ryots into labourers; a conversion
which it would be the principal object of the
proposed measures ultimately to effect wher-
ever the range of their influence extended.
How different this first consequence from
those which were formerly inevitable, when
fresh tracts of territory were subjected to the
action of British capital in the West Indies!
Each undertaking would also be a school of
agriculture, a focus whence instruction would
be disseminated more effectually than from
the experimental farms projected by Lord
Wellesley,” without occasioning any expense
* The Directors put their veto on this alarming project
of experimental farms. In May, 1820, Dr. Carey pub-
lished a prospectus of an agricultural and horticultural
society; the business to be conducted by a president, two
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 221
to government; but being, on the contrary,
the germs of an infinite augmentation of its
resources. The means of transport, by land
and water, would be improved, so as greatly
to reduce the expense of conveyance to re-
mote markets; while the increase of Euro-
peans and the diffusion of a taste for the pro-
ductions of Europe among the natives, would
continually extend the export trade from
Britain, the limitation of which used to be an
argument with the Company against throwing
open the trade, and still is with West India
proprietors, against an equalisation of duties
on the sugars of both hemispheres.
When the land to be purchased by an Euro-
pean had been already in a state of cul-
tivation, the operation would be some-
what complex. For, after he had paid its
price to the Zemindar, and redeemed the land-
tax from government, (say at sixteen years
vice-presidents, a committee, &c. &c. Though the Doctor
may be serious, yet nothing can look more like a piece
of most trenchant irony. What is the proposition of the
benevolent enthusiast? “Go to, let us form an AGRI-
“ culturAL society l’’ in a country where an European
agriculturist would be dragged from the plough, and trans-
ported as a criminal |
222 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
purchase,) it would still be necessary that he
should purchase the interests which the ryots
on his estate held in the portions which they
occupied, so that nothing should stand be-
tween him and the use of the soil. The
nature of these bargains would vary according
to circumstances, and the compensation in
each case would depend on a comparative
estimate of what the respective parties were
about to surrender on the one hand, and to
acquire on the other. Wherever the situation
of the ryot was superior, in point of earnings,
to that of a hired labourer, the interest he
would have to dispose of would be more
tangible and susceptible of estimation ; but
even in those innumerable cases where it was
worse, he would yet have to exchange the
certainty of a subsistence, however scanty
and wretched, for the fluctuating demand of
the market of labour. As the superfluity of
hands was drawn off from the old lands, their
services would be required on the new, and
in other operations connected with the prepa-
ration and circulation of an increasing quan-
tity of commodities: and as these transactions
would be contemporaneous, the balance would
still be in favour of the demand for labour,
so as to keep the reward allotted to it per-
THE TERRITORIAL SYSTEM. 223
manently above the former average. During
the progress of this change there would be a
gradual tendency to fix in the mind of the
labourer a higher standard of physical com-
forts than he or his ancestors had been accus-
tomed to ; and population would at last so
adjust itself as to enable him to command all
the conveniences that philanthropy could wish
to see him in the enjoyment of.
After some forty or fifty thousand Euro-
pean heads of families had established them-
selves as agriculturists, merchants, and trades-
men, in the territories subject to the Bengal
presidency, and a like proportion in the other
presidencies, it would be time to permit the
natives to redeem their land-tax, and the
rights of occupancy of their ryots, so as
ultimately and universally to effect a really
radical change in the Indian system of landed
tenure. An increasing proportion of natives,
especially of those born since the transition
was in progress, would then be qualified, by
emulating their British or creole brethren, to
avail themselves of the new advantages
opened to them by a strong and liberal go-
vernment, and to cast off the slough of Indian
habits and prejudices. It would then also
be time to make the English language the
224 STATISTICAI, VIEW OF
\
medium of all public business, and to extend
to native Christians eligibility to the highest
civil and military offices; at the same time
that the unconverted might be admitted into
many from which they are now excluded. -
At an early period of the new era it would
be expedient to reform the government, by
substituting for the present council, at each of
the presidencies, two legislative bodies, on
the model of those of Jamaica : but from
electors and elected the qualification to be
required ought not to be genealogical, that is,
Ought not to refer to shades of complexion,
but to property and religion. When circum-
stances rendered such a change practicable,
the upper house would be composed of peers
and prelates. As soon as the materials for
such a fabric existed, its construction would
be rendered imperative by a regard for the
strength of government and the welfare of the
people.
When a considerable body of European
skill and capital had thus been rooted and
naturalised in India, some few things which
are now carried thither from Britain would be
manufactured in the country; but the main
trade between India and Britain would for
ever consist in exchanging the productions
THE TERRITO RIAL SYSTEM. 225
of a tropical soil for the productions and ma-
nufactures of a temperate climate. It, there-
fore, highly concerns the interests of both
countries that a reasonable scale of duties on
exports and imports should be established:
and, as the West India planters are the only
class of persons throughout the whole empire
who oppose such a procedure, (the hostility of
the Directors scarcely venturing to take such
a step,) it is necessary to examine what has
been urged, by one of their ablest advocates,
to induce England to pass a perpetual self-
denying ordinance, by prohibiting the culti-
vation of the resources of India, and repelling
the tide of Indian commerce from her shores.
After giving a comparative table of the
East Indian and West Indian trade with
Britain, showing that the value of the latter
exceeds that of the former, Bryan Edwards
observes : “But the great difference arises
“ from the circumstance that the trade to the
“ West Indies is carried on with our own
“ colonial possessions, which the settlements
“ in the East never were, nor ever can be
“ considered.” Enough has been said to show,
that this plea for exclusive preference of the
West Indies has no foundation. Let us next
Q
226 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
listen to the following: “Those plantations
& &
{ %
{ %
& 4
& 6
& 4
& &
€ $
£ 6
€ $
“
& 6
46
& £
6 &
é &
& 4
6 &
& 4
& 6
é &
4 &
& 4
é &
& 6
& 4
which have hitherto proved more than
adequate to our wants; which, from prox-
imity and insular situation, are easily de-
fended ; which enrich our manufactures,
encourage our fisheries, and return all their
acquirements into the bosom of their alien-
ated parent, are, it seems, to be neg-
lected, and the national encouragement
must be diverted to distant independent
countries, whose inhabitants purchase but
few of our commodities, and consume none
of our fish, but take bullion instead of
them; who rather send manufactures to
our markets than receive them from us;
and whose exports may be checked and
controuled by a thousand accidents which,
at this distance, can neither be obviated
nor foreseen. In short, by recommending
the settlement of sugar plantations beyond
the Cape of Good Hope, this project main-
tains that it is wise to remove encourage-
ment from proximate and dependent colo-
nies to countries which, being placed be-
yond the reach of civil regulations from
hence, can be governed only by the sword,
and which, at no very remote period, may
THE TERRITORIAHL SYSTEM. 227
“ regain their independence; when, however,
“ it will be too late to resort back again to
“our ruined and deserted colonies in the
* West Indies.” “
1. The sugar, &c. of the West Indies, at a
moderate price, could never prove “more
“ than adequate to the wants” of the British
and foreign consumers. 2. Those plantations
have generally been deemed “the most vul-
“nerable part of the British empire;” and in
the American war, “all our eleven islands,
“except Barbadoes, Jamaica, and Antigua,
“fell a comparatively easy prey to the
“ enemy.”f It is not, however, denied that,
by improving the condition of the slaves, by
giving them some portion of privilege and
property to fight for, the islands might be
“easily defended.” 3. The West Indian
planters are not all non-residents: but what-
ever may be the gain to Britain from trade,
and from remittances to non-residents, it
would be the necessary result of the measures
deprecated by Mr. Edwards, to open more
&
* Hist. of West Indies, book vi, chap. v.
+ Dickson's Mitigation, &c. p. 364.
Q 2
228 STATISTICAL VIEW OF
abundant sources of similar acquisitions.
The more he succeeds in teaching others to
value these advantages, the more he counter-
acts his own purpose, which is, to dissuade
Britain from using the only means that can
enable her to draw fresh accessions of wealth
from her eastern possessions. 4. When Mr.
Edwards says that these possessions are in-
dependent and, in the very next sentence,
that they may one day regain their indepen-
dence; that they are governed by the sword,
and yet beyond the reach of civil regulations;
we see how an acute and vigorous mind
may be perplexed under the weight of a
bad cause.
It must, no doubt, be conceded that the
interests of the West Indian planters would,
in some degree, suffer from the encouragement
of rival productions in the East Indies; and
that it might be necessary to withdraw part
of the capital now invested in the former.
But is not every class of the community,+
are not landlords, farmers, manufacturers,
subject to losses by sudden falls of prices,
and changes in the channels of trade? And
is it, on such occasions, thought reasonable
to protect or indemnify the sufferers, by grant-
'THE TER RITO RIAL SYSTEM. 229
ing them a qualified monopoly, to the per-
manent injury of the great body of con-
sumers ? On the occasion in question, the
change would not be sudden but very gra-
dual ; and the advocates for the East Indies
would not object to any equitable mitigation;
such as the abolition of that most unjust
monopoly possessed by the London sugar-
refiners, and the removal of the restrictions
imposed by the navigation laws, on their in-
tercourse with America.
It is not, however, to be supposed that the
West Indian planters can by any means be
reconciled to an infringement of their mo-
nopoly. They have occasionally remon-
strated against the conquest, or amicable
acquisition of new islands; and, after the
cession of the Spanish part of St. Domingo
to France, Mr. Edwards augured equal dis-
aster from the success, as from the failure, of
the French to reduce the revolted negroes.
“Whether we consider the possession by
“ an active and industrious people, of so
“ vast a field for enterprise and improvement
“ on the one hand, OR the triumph of suc-
“ cessful revolt and savage anarchy on the
“ other, it appears to me that the future fate
230 sTATISTICAL VIEw, ETC.
“ and profitable eacistence of the British ter-
“ ritories in this part of the world are involved
“ in the issue.”” We need not, therefore,
very severely tax our sympathy for men who
will be satisfied with no other security for
their own interests, than the condemnation
of every other part of the tropical world to
sterility.
* Hist. of St. Domingo, chap. xi.
CHAPTER V.
ON THE COLONIZATION OF IN DIA.
IN treating of the evils to be remedied by co-
lonization, and of the manner in which it
might be introduced and promoted, much of
what might be said on the advantages to be
derived from it to both countries has necessa-
rily been anticipated. It has been shown that
no material improvement can be expected from
legislative arrangements operating upon, and
with, the existing materials, from cutting and
shuffling the same pack. When a nation has
reached a certain stage of civilization, and
her further progress is checked, or wholly
prevented, by injurious and oppressive laws,
the repeal of those laws is all that is required
to enable her to assume the rank and station
for which she was designed by nature. This
observation is particularly applicable to the
history of Ireland. But a nation in an infe-
232 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
rior stage of civilization, and there retained
chiefly by the nature of its tenures in landed
property, cannot be raised from its depression
by merely removing obstructions to the action of
its own latent energies. T)uring centuries, it has
“ settled on its lees,” and, in order to change
its “ scent,” it must be effectually dashed,
and brewed, and stummed, by the admixture
of a more precious vintage. Such a nation is
that of India ; but the portion of British sub-
jects resident in India is obviously too small
to be used as a corrective. They are said, by
an ingenious writer, to be “ small, indeed, in
“ comparative number, but of inestimable value
“ in respect of their attainments.” I Now, if
their number be too few, the value of their
attainments,” however admirable in them-
selves, will be small, indeed, when considered
as an instrument for diffusing “ light” through
“ these vast empires.” Whatever be the
“ virtues of a medicine, it is useless if the
dose be too small. The British in India
are “ like a handful of salt thrown into a
“ pond ;” and, therefore, the effect of their
* Jeremiah, ch. xlviii. v. 11.
t Sumner's Records of the Creation, vol. ii. p. 186.
() () L() NI ZATION O I' I N DIA. 233
presence, in benefiting the natives, has hither-
to been little perceptible.
The advantages of colonization suggest them-
selves so readily to the mind, that it would,
perhaps, be fair to throw the burden of proof
on its opponents; and, as the friends of Com-
pany-government rest more of the strength of
their cause on the solidity of their objections to
colonization, than on all other grounds put to-
gether, they may be supposed to have spared
no labour in fashioning them.
It is objected, then, that colonization has
never, under any circumstances, taken place
without dispossessing the original inhabitants
of a part, or of the whole, of their territory ;
that these consequences have not been acci-
dental, but unavoidable ; and that they are
necessarily implied in the transaction. “ The
“ occupants of no country, not even the hunt-
ers of a forest, can easily afford room to
new settlers ; and when they are either com-
pelled or persuaded to admit a foreign co-
lony, the truth is, that they are, to a certain
extent, displaced, that is, they are divested
of a part of the soil which, previously, sup-
“ plied them with subsistence.” Every coun-
& 4
& &
& &
{ %
& 4
& 4
* Grant’s Expediency, p. 199.
234 COLON I ZATION () F IN ID I A.
try, he says, being peopled up to its actual
resources, is full; and he compares the pro-
cess of colonizing India to pouring mercury
into a vessel full of water.” If this theory
were well founded, how should we justify the
ways of Providence in providing, by the prin-
ciple of population, not merely for the reple-
nishment of the whole earth, but for the trans-
ference of the arts and improvements of one
people to another less removed from barba-
rism? Instead of finding in it a new argu-
ment for the divine benevolence, it would be a
stumbling-block in the way of natural reli-
gion. Under that supposition, vice and
misery would be interposed between man and
the attainment of those objects for which he
was undoubtedly designed ; and a violation of
justice would be a necessary preliminary to
the achievement of the greatest good. But
the theory is founded on a total misapprehen-
sion of the progress of society. When a peo-
ple of hunters emigrates and settles in a new
country, which is already occupied by hunters,
they must either expel or exterminate the
former inhabitants. The same may be said if
* Ibid. p. 198, 209.
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 235
one pastoral people subdues another, and
appropriates their land, with its flocks and
and herds, to themselves. Nearly the same
may be said of the super-induction of one
semi-agricultural people on another; and, ac-
cordingly, history is full of expulsions and
exterminations thus occasioned. But when
a people colonizes in a country occupied by
another less advanced in arts and improve-
ments, they “ make room" for themselves,
not by displacing the indigenous inhabitants,
but by the creation of new resources, by ap-
plying more skill and labour to the cultivation
of the soil, and to every other means of sus-
tenance and convenience. Such an operation
does not resemble the pouring of mercury into
a vessel full of water; but may rather be com-
pared to the sending an additional number of
cattle to graze in a field, which had previously
been made to bear a luxuriant crop of herbage.
Nor does this operation necessarily suppose
any of those “silent and successive assump-
“tions” into which Mr. Grant says it is, for
the most part, resolvable. There is no step
in the progress of the colonists, from the mo-
ment of their first intercourse with the old
inhabitants, which may not have been made,
not only with the strictest observance of the
236 COL () NIZA'I' I () N OF INI) IA.
rights of the latter, but to their infinite benefit
and improvement. Instead of being “ dis-
“ placed,” they may be enabled to increase
their numbers a thousand fold, and to procure
access to enjoyments hitherto unknown to
them. These advantages, it is conceivable,
may be acquired during a period unstained by
a single act of violence or fraud ; but they
would not be too dearly purchased at the
price of “ a series of civilizing conquests.”
Mr. Grant, however, maintains, that a civi-
lized people cannot settle, even on “ a barba-
“ rous region, scantily interspersed with sava-
“ges, who hunt over it for their subsistence,”
without the latter becoming “ an easy prey to
“ encroachment.” In considering this to be a
case of usurpation, he differs from every wri-
ter on the principles of law and government.
One cannot, indeed, speak, without a sole-
cism, of encroaching on those who, neither by
occupancy, nor by labour, had acquired any
title to the lands which they traversed in the
chase, and to any spot of which their “ right
“ of possession continued for the same time
“ only that the act of possession lasted;”* nor
* Blackstone, book ii. ch. i.
COLON I ZATI () N () F INDIA. 237
of divesting men of a part of their sustenance
by means which “ do not lessen, but increase,
“ the common stock of mankind.”* The
term usurpers would rather be applicable to
those who, claiming an exemption from
labour, and to “ walk with beast, joint-te-
“nants of the shade,” should pretend to ex-
clude from their forests men who were willing
to perform the conditions annexed to the ac-
quisition of every human blessing.
It is not till after having thus endeavoured
to show that colonization, under any circum-
stances, is pregnant with injustice, that Mr.
Grant propounds the question, Is, then, the
colonization of India an evil? And, though
he had previously exerted himself, through
several pages, to secure an answer in the affir-
mative, he resumes the topic of “ encroach-
“ ment,” and “ extrusion,” as the inevitable
consequences of colonization. Thrice he slays
the slain. He can imagine no other road to
prosperity but the oblique and treacherous one
of dishonesty. He allows no check from
self-interest, from conscience, from law ; but
* Locke on Gov. b. ii. ch. v. § 37. See also Vattel,
b. i. § 31 § 209.
238 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
fabricates a monster of colonial wickedness,
unredeemed by a single virtue. For some
time, the public welfare grows out of the
energy of private vices. “ The more the
“ resources of the country fall into their
“ hands, the better will they be qualified to
“ to win what they have not yet appropriated.
“The advantage already achieved, like strong
“ positions gained in a hostile country, will
“ assist their further advancement.”* At last,
however, they are overtaken by a tremendous
revulsion, which “sweeps away at once our
“ dominion and our crimes.” The additional
resources, with which they had thought still
more to strengthen their hands, and the new
positions which they had secured, now stand
them in no stead; and those who had yielded
to the youthful impetuosity of the colony are
suddenly enabled to over-master the mature
vigour of its manhood. But, before we inquire
further into the probability of such a catas-
trophe, or of the provocation assigned as its
cause, it will be proper to consider his argu-
ment from the encroachment effected by our
present establishment in India.
* Expediency, p. 222.
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 239
“The truth is, that a certain proportion of
“ the natives has already been supplanted;
“ otherwise, the British establishment, now
“ systematically existent in the country, could
“ have found no place.”* And, therefore, he
argues that the degree in which the natives
would be supplanted by colonization would
be so much the greater, as the number of sup-
planters would be so much more numerous.
But, as there is no analogy between the two
cases, we may grant the premises, and yet
safely deny the conclusion. Because the
present establishment, which is avowedly not
colonial, has supplanted a portion of the na-
tives, it by no means follows that a colonial one
would be attended with the same consequen-
ces. The present establishment, assuredly, is
one of “ conquerors who,” as Mr. Grant says
of the early settlers from the north-west,
“ cleaved out to themselves a dwelling-place
“ by the sharpness of their swords; ” who
neither toil nor spin, and yet are arrayed in all
the gorgeousness of the East; and who not
only supplant individuals, but deprive India
of the fruits of her proper labour. But colo-
* Expediency, p. 210.
240 ('OLONIZATION OF IN DIA.
nists would come with silver and gold, where-
with to purchase every acquisition that they
made, and, instead of impoverishing the
country, like the present temporary residents,
who transfer the hoarded savings of their sala-
ries to Britain, would enrich it by applying to
its improvement and embellishment all the
earnings of their own skill and industry.
Even the Mogul conquerors of India are said,
by Burke, to have very soon abated of their
ferocity, and to have given nature fair play,
not because they pursued our policy in shut-
ting the door against “a pacific influx of
“ adventurers,” (which “ destroys India,”)
but “ because they made the conquered country
“ their own ; and rose or fell with the rise or
“fall of the territory they lived on.”* But the
atonement that so rude a people thus made
for the mischiefs of their invasion could not be
compared with the benefits that Britons would
impart to India, when they became its
denizens.
Suppose a civilized people were to take
possession of a country occupied by hunters,
but without any design of colonizing, and
* Works, vol. iv. p. 38.
CO LC) N Z A T : { } N : ; F I N ID I A. 241
that, without traffic, without introducing
pasturage or agriculture, they should maintain
themselves by exacting from the natives a por-
tion of all that they gained in hunting; such
an establishment would, in principle, exactly
correspond with that which Mr. Grant main-
tains the expediency of continuing in India;
and every argument that has been recipro-
cated, respecting the latter case, might, muta-
tis mutandis, be applied to the former.
Since Mr. Grant admits no other mode of
colonization but through “ the progressive
“ extrusion of the natives from their here-
“ ditary possessions,” it is not surprising that
he should compliment exclusive companies on
their antipathy to every thing savouring of co-
lonization. To prevent colonization is, thus,
but another expression for preventing the ex-
trusion of the natives, and “ protecting them
“ from the most abominable injustice!” Nor
need we wonder at the avidity with which he
seizes on a passage in the Wealth of Nations,
in which, he thinks, this compliment is “ obvi-
“ ously implied,” inasmuch as Dr. Smith
makes it matter of crimination against ex-
clusive companies, that they have prevented
the displacing of the natives. But it is pass-
ing strange, that Mr. Grant should believe that
R
242 colonization of INDIA.
any such censure is conveyed in the following
words: “ In Africa and the East Indies,
“ therefore, it was more difficult to displace
“ the natives, and to extend the European
plantations over the greater part of the
“ lands of the original inhabitants. The ge-
“ nius of exclusive companies, BESIDEs, is
“ unfavourable, it has already been observed,
“ to the growth of new colonies, and has,
probably, been the principal cause of the
little progress which they have made in
“ the East Indies.” Upon this Mr. Grant
observes, “ IF colonization supposes the dis-
“ placing of the natives, and if exclusive
“ companies be reprehensible, as the principal
“ obstacle to colonization, it follows, that
“ they are reprehensible, as the principal ob-
“ stacle to the displacing of the natives.”
Now it is abundantly manifest that Dr. Smith
here speaks of the obstacle presented by the
genius of exclusive companies as being not
only greater in degree, but perfectly distinct
in kind from that which consisted in the diffi-
culty of displacing the original inhabitants.
No other meaning can be consistently extract-
& 6
* Vol. ii. p. 474.
COLON I ZATION OF INDIA. 243
ed from his words than that, if those countries
had not been subjected to “ the government
“ of an exclusive company of merchants,”
which “is, perhaps, the worst of all govern-
“ ments for any country whatever,” the co-
lonies planted in them would have made con-
siderable progress without displacing the
natives; but that, as those countries were
cursed with such governments, the progress
of colonies in them must have been extreme-
ly slow and languid, even if there had been
no inhabitants to displace; while, on the other
hand, such governments occasionally open
huge gaps in the original population of a coun-
try, without planting their countrymen in the
room of those whom they displaced. These
sentiments are dispersed over every part of the
Wealth of Nations; its great author seems to
have cherished them in his heart's core. Can
we then suppose him capable of falling into so
gross an inconsistency as that imputed to him
by Mr. Grant
If Dr. Smith had intended to express what
Mr. Grant thinks is “ obviously implied" in
the above-quoted passage, he must have used
* Vol. ii. p. 367.
R 2
244 C () I., O N I Z A T J () N t) F IN DIA.
some such words as the following, instead of
those in the second sentence : “ especially as
“ they had the happiness of being protected
“ by the genius of exclusive companies,
“ which, it has been already observed, is
“ more liberal and paternal than that of other
“ governments; ” or, “ and this difficulty
“ chiefly consisted in surmounting the barriers
“ raised by the genius of exclusive compa-
“ nies against all encroachments on the rights
“ of those who have the good fortune to live
“ under their protection.” No doubt there
are errors in Adam Smith, and on points of
fundamental importance, as Ricardo, the se-
cond founder of the science, has shown ; but
to suppose that he could bless those whom he
avowedly intended to curse, that compli-
ments could be involved in passages stamped
with his note of reprobation,--is to suppose
that Locke should blunder into Platonism,
or that Galileo might, unwittingly, have stum-
bled on an admission of the immobility of the
earth.
Mr. Grant does not scruple to apply the
compliment, which he has thus attempted to
extort from Dr. Smith, specifically to the
Dutch East India Company, because Dr.
Smith says that the advantages of the situa-
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 245
tion of their settlements at the Cape and at
Batavia had “ enabled them to surmount all
“ the obstacles which the oppressive genius of
“ an exclusive company may have occasionally
“ opposed to their growth.” Without stopping
to inquire how far Dr. Smith was mistaken, in
point of fact, as to the prosperity of those
settlements, we are here only concerned with
the bearing of the passage on the conduct of
the natives. According to Mr. Grant, it is
implied, that the oppression was inclusively eacer-
cised ON the Europeans, and IN FAvour of
the natives. Implied by Dr. Smith, who
reprobated the cruelty with which this com-
pany had reduced the population of the Mo-
luccas to the number which was sufficient to
answer their own selfish purposes And we
learn, from Sir S. Rafiles, that, by similar acts
of oppression, they had reduced the popula-
tion of Java, in some provinces, to one-tenth
of what it had been in 1750; and that they
“ viewed their Javan subjects with less regard
“ or consideration than a West-Indian planter
“ formerly viewed the gang upon his estate.” "
We see, therefore, that the most rigorous pre-
* Raffles’ Java, vol. i. p. 64, 65, 151.
246 COLON I ZATION OF INDIA.
cautions against colonization may co-exist
with the utmost oppression of the natives of a
foreign possession. It is, indeed, obvious
that the condition of the latter must be prefera-
ble when they have to deal with individuals
who are amenable to justice, than when left to
the mercy of a power which is necessarily
both judge and party.
The next branch of the subject, that Mr.
Grant examines, is, what treatment the natives
would experience, at the hands of the colonists,
after the colony had been fully established.
He decides, that it would be so oppressive
and vexatious as, ultimately, to goad the suf-
ferers into successful rebellion; and the
ground of this opinion is, that the abuse of
their superiority, on the part of the Euro-
peans, which is now effectually restrained by
the pure administration of justice in the Su-
preme Courts of Judicature, at the Presiden-
cies, and by the reflection of public opinion
from England to India, would rage uncon-
trolled, when an INDo-BRITISH PUBLIC (which
has yet no existence) should have created an
unjust standard of opinion, with respect to
the reciprocal duties of the two orders of soci-
ety, whose influence would penetrate into the
very tribunal of justice, from which the in-
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 247
jured native, who had sufficient courage to
urge his way to its bar, would be dismissed
without redress. The only other alternative
he thinks scarcely less to be deprecated :
namely, the progressive advancement of the
colony, until it acquired the means and the
inclination to struggle for emancipation. Cer-
tainly, the probability of the former alterna-
tive is very “ nearly connected” with Mr.
Grant's previous discussion respecting the
manner in which the colony might be expect-
ed to grow up ; for, the tendency to perpe-
trate those encroachments, on which he has
insisted, must, after all, be measured by the
soundness of the speculations on which we
are about to enter; and whatever may be defi-
cient in the vindication of my countrymen,
which has been already offered, I may now
hope to supply.
The qualifications with which I would ad-
mit his fundamental proposition, respecting
the inferiority of the native character, relate
rather to the kind than to the degree assigned
to it by Mr. Grant. I agree with him, that,
in point of civilization, they are far below the
least improved of the central European na-
tions: but it does not follow that, in personal
248 COLON I ZATION OF IN ID IA.
intercourse with Europeans, they are so
wholly without means of self-protection as he
supposes. Dente lupus, cornu taurus, petit.
What they want in extent and justness of
views, may be more than compensated by a
familiarity with arts to which their adversary
cannot stoop, or from which he would shrink
with abhorrence. They know every resource
to which he is limited by principle, by habit,
and by a regard for reputation; but he cannot
know all the devices which an exemption from
the restraints of truth permits them to prac-
tise.” If we except the cases of wanton vio-
lence from European soldiers, and the occa-
sional slight annoyances from the petulance of
young men from England, it may be truly said
that the natives are exposed to no injuries but
from one another; and that their own vices
* “ With us they argue upon our principles; in
“ their conduct, they assume their own,” &c. Mr.
Shore's Minute, June 18, 1789. “An Englishman will
“ ever be found unfit to follow the subtle native through
‘ all his arts.” Verelst. “As often as Europeans are
6
6
&
careless or credulous in their transactions with the Ben-
“ galees, they find that they have fallen into the hands of
‘ harpies.” C. Grant's Obs. on the State of Society, &c.
&
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 249
are the only obstacle to the pure administra-
tion of justice, to the impartial punishment of
the guilty, and deliverance of the innocent.
The latter, who happen to be accused, are in
a worse predicament in India than in any
other country subject to well-ordered govern-
ment ; and the tedious and unequal war
which they sometimes wage with perjury and
forgery, while their beleaguering enemies hold
the public opinion suspended on the issue, is
one of the most painful subjects of contem-
plation which can be presented to the mind.
All these evils, the insolence of the raw Eu-
ropean, the insidious treachery of the native,
the numerous points of repulsion in their
respective habits and tempers, colonization
would tend continually to reduce to their
minimum, by purifying and strengthening the
character of the one, and evaporating the
prejudices of the other.
There is, however, one point of inferiority
which Mr. Grant has greatly exaggerated,—
the physical weakness, effeminacy, and cow-
ardice, which he imputes to the Hindoos.
The description, which Orme applies to the
whole race south of Lahore, must be restrict-
ed, almost exclusively to the Bengalees.
The “ Hindoos,” generally, are not “ meek
250 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
“ and cowardly to excess.”* Surely, a glance
at the achievements of our native armies, (in
which are ten Hindoos for one Mahomedan,)
a momentary recollection of the many testimo-
nies to their bravery and intrepidity, under the
severest trials, ought to have saved Mr. Grant
from hazarding so untenable an assertion.
Whatever constitutional debility and pusillani-
mity there is among many casts of Hindoos,
is not the effect of climate, but of that system
of superstitious thraldom, from which coloni-
zation only can relieve them. When the bar-
riers of cast shall have been thrown down, a
vast proportion of the numerical strength of
India will cease to be held of no account; it
will all become available for her protection
against foreign aggression and domestic
tyranny. Government will be able to wield a
more powerful instrument; but, to prevent re-
coils, it will be more disposed to respect the
rights of the governed. The friends of the
Company pursue different courses in treating
this part of the subject. Some admit, or contend,
that the above-mentioned emancipation would
result from colonization, for the purpose
* Expediency, p. 245.
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 251
of alarming us with this lamentable conse-
quence, that the administration of Indian affairs
would slip out of the Company's hands.” Mr.
53
* “The institution of casts,” says one of these, “ con-
stitutes a source of security to the permanence of our
East Indian government, hitherto unparalleled in the
history of the world; and, as there is no great proba-
bility that mankind will ever again be edified by a simi-
lar phenomenon, it is rather a pity, that we should be in
any particular hurry to adopt measures, which might
prematurely destroy it. Here the maxim, so frequently
in the mouths of politicians, “ divide and govern,”
“ pervades, in a practical shape, and stands consecrated
“ by the hand of Time itself. Nor could there be a state
“ of things BETTER CALCULATED TO INSURE THE HAP-
“ PINESS OF A PEOPLE, when, as in this instance, the
“ views of their governors are invariably directed by a
“ liberal, enlightened, and humane, policy.” A View of
the Consequences of Laying Open the Trade to India in
Private Ships, &c. by Charles Grant, M.D. in the Pam-
phleteer, vol. i. The Italian proverb says, Make your-
selves sheep, and the wolves will eat you: but, according
to the above prescription, it would be the interest of
every people to make themselves sheep, provided they
could induce the genius of exclusive companies to take
them under its “liberal, enlightened, and humane, pro-
“ tection.” The advantages of the institution of casts, in
“ compressing the restlessness of ambition, and impa-
“ tience of subjection,” are insisted on by Mr. Marsh,
in his Speech against the Introduction of Christianity,
July 1, 1813.
& &
& 6
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252 (SOLON I ZATION OF INDIA.
Grant, on the contrary, keeps the abolition
of casts out of sight, for the purpose of re-
taining undiminished that moral and physical
superiority on the part of the Europeans, on
the alleged abuse of which his whole argu-
ment rests. -
It is said that colonization would create
an Indo-British public, whose moral feelings
would be so much debased, that their indiffer-
ence to the sufferings of the natives would
only differ in degree from that bigotted insen-
sibility which obtains in the West Indies, and
especially at Barbadoes, with respect to those
of the negroes: and that the want of this
local public is the “principal key to the
phenomenon” of the wisdom and delicacy
with which the British residents exercise the
invidious authority entrusted to them ; and of
“ their virtues always rising to the British
“ level.” This theory is sufficiently flattering
to national vanity, but, fortunately, it is utterly
unfounded; it is belied by all experience and
history. I say fortunately, because the theory
would teach us that virtue is peculiar to certain
climates, especially to those whose inhabitants
had once been painted savages, that it could
not be naturalized, and that it could not pro-
pagate itself in a foreign soil, but must be suc-
COLON I ZATION () F INDIA. 253
cessively renewed by slips from the parent
stock. “It may easily be observed,” says
Hume, “that though free governments have
“ been commonly the most happy for those
“ who partake of their freedom ; yet are they
“ the most ruinous and oppressive to their
“ provinces.” And this oppression can be
warded off by no other means but precisely
those which, according to Mr. Grant, are most
calculated to produce it, viz. colonization.
It is not till the posterity of the emigrants
from a free and happy country have raised
the colony somewhat to a level in point of
power with the metropolitan state, that they
become sensible of any sort of level in the
streams of imperial bounty. Until that time
they see plainly, and feel sensibly, that the
mother country has, as Mr. Thackeray recom-
mends, one Utopia for herself and another
for exportation to the colonies. The chains
with which Ireland was so long bound were
not untwisted by the writhing of the native
Irish, nor by the generosity of England, but
broken by the strength of the colonists.
“The British parliament, in a former session,
* Essays, part i. essay iii.
254 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
& &
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frightened into a limited concession by the
menaces of Ireland, frightened out of it by
the menaces of England, were now fright-
ened back again, and made an universal
surrender of all that had been thought the
peculiar, reserved, uncommunicable rights
of England.”
Enough has been said to show that in the
worst times the Irish shared more largely in
the rights of England than the natives of India
* Burke's Works, vol. iii. p. 368. See also vol. vi. p.
338. “In England, the double name of the complain-
& 6
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& K.
6 &
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4 &
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& &
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ants, Irish and Papists, (it would be hard to say which
singly was most odious,) shut up the hearts of every one
against them.”—“ However, as the English in Ireland
began to be domiciliated, they began also to recollect
that they had a country. The English interest, at first
by faint and almost insensible degrees, but at length
openly and avowedly, became an independent IRISH
interest; full as independent as it could ever have been
if it had continued in the persons of the native Irish;
and it was managed with more skill and more con-
sistency than probably it would have been in theirs.
With their views the Anglo-Irish changed their maxims
—it was necessary to demonstrate to the whole people,
that there was something, at least, of a common inter-
est, combined with the independency, which was to
become the object of common exertions.”
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 255
have hitherto done. It is true they are not
all, at present, communicable, but with the
gift of colonization they might be made so.
And yet so satisfied have the English been
with the level to which they have permitted
their virtues to rise in India, that they have
repeatedly described a government which
monopolized the trade of its subjects, ex-
hausted them by exactions of tribute, and
proscribed them en masse from all but the
lowest offices in its service, as one calculated
to ensure to them the greatest measure of
happiness.”
But though it will hardly be denied, that,
* As an instance, take the following sentence in a
speech of Lord Castlereagh's, March 22, 1813. “The
“Company have raised a mighty empire, and they
“ have governed it in the manner best calculated to pro-
“mote the general interests of the state, and to produce
“ and support the happiness of the extensive population
“ entrusted to their care.” These words, said Mr. Ran-
dle Jackson, “ought to be written in letters of gold, as
“ a justification to all posterity,” &c. Speech, March 24,
1813. Will posterity look no further than that golden
.legend ? Will it satisfy INDIA and the friends to INDIA!
But the flights of Mr. Mill, as an eulogist of the Com-
pany, leave all others far behind. See his History,
vol. iii. p. 373, 550.
256 CO, I,() N J ZA '+' ( ; * {) ; ; N IX A.
to the English colonists, after they ceased to
consider themselves a mere garrison, the Irish
owe every thing from the lowest mechanical
convenience to the highest moral blessing; it
may be said, that a necessary condition to
those beneficial consequences was that, as in
this case, the two orders should become firmly
incorporated: but that where such coalition
cannot be expected, as in the West and East
Indies, the inferior class will experience the
most generous treatment from the governing
body, when the latter are too few to constitute
a local public, and are but a detachment from
the British population, the vacancies in which
are renewed by successive draughts from the
main body. And, in support of this opinion,
an appeal may be made to all that has been
written in England against the slave trade,
and in favour of mitigation of slavery. Now
the assertion deduced from this view of Mr.
Grant's theory is not less repugnant to ex-
perience than those to which the preceding
observations apply. For, however heteroge-
neous a people may be, it is natural that
there should be more sympathy between those
who grow up together from generation to ge-
neration, and participating more or less in a
common interest than between strangers; and,
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 257
accordingly, we find that the degree of huma-
nity displayed by the British on Creole resi-
dents, observes a proportion the reverse of
what is required by Mr. Grant's theory, (and
which, be it remembered, is the key to his
whole line of defence,) being greatest in those
whose want of intercourse and remoteness of
connexion with Britain, have given to their
virtues a peculiar level as well as raciness;
and least in those whose virtues, from the
lateness of their emigration, retain, most tena-
ciously, like the “fountain Arethuse,” the
flavour of their distant source. Nor let this
be supposed to derogate any thing from the
glory of Britain, or to imply any unwillingness
to do her reverence as the queen of civilized
nations. It only imports that it is one thing
to be a member of an equal commonwealth
and another to be armed with power among
those with whom we acknowledge no con-
sonance of tastes and prejudices.
Thus, says Bryan Edwards, “generosity
“ towards each other, and a high degree of
* compassion and kindness towards their
‘ inferiors and dependants, distinguish the
* Creoles in a very honourable manner.”*
Ç
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* West Indies, book iv. ch. i.
Ş
258 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
And, says Mr. Ramsay, “Adventurers from
“ Europe are universally more cruel and
“morose towards the slaves than the Creoles
“ or native West Indians.”* Barbadoes,
which is consistently singled out for its pre-
eminence in rigour and bigotry, is in truth
pre-eminent, and for the very causes which he
assigns for opposite qualities. “The great
“ mass of the Barbadian slaves have been
“ born in the colony, for about ten genera-
tions; and the proportion of whites is far
greater than in Jamaica or any other British,
or probably European, colony. From
these and other causes elsewhere stated,
and which, as the general effect has never
been questioned, need not be here repeated,
the slaves are, in general, better treated in
Barbadoes than in any other of our sugar
“ colonies.”f The Barbadoes planters and
merchants were also the first public body
in the West Indies “to admit the abolition
“ of the slave trade to be a measure founded
6 &
46
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& &
& 4
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& &
* Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of the
Slaves, &c. -
# Dickson's Mitigation of Slavery, p. 359. See, also,
pp. 575, 439, 440.
COLON I ZATION OF INDIA. 259
“ on the general principles of humanity, and
“ therefore not to be shaken by considerations
“ of less importance.”* In Bermuda, the
existence of the same causes, in a still greater
degree, has occasioned a still better treatment
of the slaves. “It is generally acknow-
“ ledged that the Bermudians are even better
“masters than the comparatively humane
“ planters of Barbadoes, whose laws they
“ have adopted and improved. These old
“ colonies having been for a long period fully
“ peopled, about ten generations of native
“whites and blacks have grown up together,
“ in a degree of forbearance in the whites
“ and submission in the blacks, unknown in
“ the later settlements, where time has not yet
“ smoothed down, in some degree, the aspe-
“rities which necessarily grow out of the in-
“ compatible interests and conflicting passions
“ of owner and slave.” t
Among all the laws affecting the slaves,
none are productive of so much wretchedness
and mortality as those which make them
chattels, and liable to be sold in satisfaction
* Resolutions, passed August 26, 1811. Ibid. p. 512.
+ Ibid. p. 336.
S 2
260 COLONIZATIO N OF INDIA.
of all debts, both of simple contract and
specialty. The cruelty of these laws, under
the operation of which, says Mr. Long,” “it
“ is inconceivable what numbers have pe-
“ rished,” was execrated by West Indian
planters at a time when it was upheld and
confirmed by British acts of parliament.
(5 Geo. II. c. 7. and 13 Geo. III. c. 14.) It
originated, indeed, in the desire of the first
adventurers, who had no intention of becoming
permanent colonists, to realize their property
as soon as they could in England or North
America, at whatever expense of suffering to
the slaves, or to the general prosperity of
the islands. T The act of 5 Geo. II. was
“ procured by and passed for the benefit of
“ British creditors: and I blush to add,” says
Mr. Edwards, “that its motive and origin
“ have sanctified the measure, even in the
“ opinion of men who are among the loudest
“ of the declaimers against slavery and the
“ slave trade. Thus the odious severity of
“ the Roman law, which declared sentient
“ beings to be inter res, is revived and per-
* Vol. ii. p. 486. Dickson, p. 31–43, 57, 58.
COL () NIZATION OF IN DIA. 261
* C
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petuated in a country that pretends to
Christianity In a few years a good negro
gets comfortably established ; has built
himself a house, obtained a wife, and
begins to see a young family rising about
him. His provision-ground, the creation
of his own industry, and the staff of his
existence, affords him not only support,
but the means also of adding something
to the mere necessaries of life. In this
situation he is seized by the sheriff's officer,
forcibly separated from his wife and chil-
dren, dragged to public auction, purchased
by a stranger, and perhaps sent to terminate
his miserable existence in the mines of
Mexico, excluded for ever from the light
of heaven; and all this without any crime
or demerit on his part, real or pretended.
He is punished because his master is unfor-
tunate. I do not believe that any case of
force or fraud in Africa can be productive
of greater misery than this.”” In June,
1797, Mr. Edwards, as a member of the
House of Commons, procured the repeal of so
* Book iv. ch. v. and Dickson, pp. 208, 452.
262 C() LONIZATION OF INDIA.
much of the 5 Geo. II. c. 7, as relates to ne-
groes in his Majesty's plantations. The plant-
ers must now, therefore, exclusively bear the
odium of not passing a law for attaching the
slaves to the land. It is for them to explain
and to justify the postponement of a measure
which their own statements render every
friend of humanity impatient to see adopted.
As a last effort to sustain the superiority of
the British public, in point of regard for
justice and benevolence, over that of the
West Indies, it will be said that the British
Parliament abolished the slave trade contrary
to the wishes of a majority of the planters.
But how was it abolished 1 The English who
were ºnterested in the traffic, whose principles
had never been corrupted by the contagion
of tropical profligacy, who were living at home
in the midst of the abolitionists, and breathing
the same moral atmosphere, — did they con-
cur in the abolition? Did Liverpool and
Bristol petition for it? Did they submit to it
without the greatest dissatisfaction and the
loudest complaints? No! Those who were
interested in the trade, even remotely, whether
in a pecuniary or political point of view, re-
sisted to the last, and though conquered were
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 263
never convinced. The truth is, that after that
great crime had been permitted to run its
course, during nearly two hundred years, the
increased humanity of the age would no
longer tolerate it, and it was suppressed, as it
were, by acclamation. But this improvement
is not confined to Britain; it is felt in the
West and in the East, and we trust will ex-
pand its benign influence over every region of
the globe.
What is the cause of that refined sense of
humanity, the praise of which every Briton
justly claims for his country It is not owing
to any combination of red and white in the
complexion, nor is it because there
“ lawns extend that scorn Arcadian pride,
“And brighter streams than famed Hydaspes glide.”
It is FREEDOM that gives the mind to thrill
with sympathy, to teem with invention, to
labour with ceaseless activity. But freedom
already flourishes in the West Indies, and
may be planted in the East under the fairest
auspices. If we will believe one who threw
a prophetic glance into futurity, whatever men
are, morally or intellectually, they are so, not
from soil, or climate, or tincture of the epi-
264 COLON I ZATION OF INDIA,
dermis, but from instruction, non solum, non
calum, non corpora, sed artes praestant.”
If, then, we pursue the opposite analogy
resorted to by Mr. Grant, and reason from
what have been the effects of long association
between the two classes of European and
African descent in the oldest colonies in the
West Indies, to what would be the effects of
similar circumstances in the East Indies, we
are irresistibly led to an opposite conclusion
from what he has drawn. And though, in
this latter case, arguments arising from the
general principles of human nature have not
received the same extent of practical confir-
mation, yet the tendencies of those principles
under actual operation are so distinctly pro-
nounced, that the result is as satisfactory as
if we could appeal to the experience of ten
generations. Wherever the European inha-
bitants are more thickly congregated, as at
the three seats of government; wherever in-
dividuals have habituated themselves to much
intercourse with the natives, and having sur-
vived their originalities of family and friend-
ship and contracted new ones, have ceased
* Bacon, Nov. Org. tit. i. aph. 129.
COLON I ZATION OF INI) I A. 265
to contemplate Britain as the vista of their
earthly pilgrimage; in short, whenever there
is an approximation to that state of things
which colonization would exhibit, there we
find the Europeans animated with the most
kindly feelings towards the natives, most ably
and actively co-operating for their improve-
ment, and reaping the most ample returns of
confidence and attachment. Thus, at Cal-
cutta, there are Bible societies, school socie-
ties, and a school-book society, (exclusive of
the Baptist mission establishments for the
same purposes); and in the principal school
society and school-book society we see Eu-
ropeans and natives acting together as mem-
bers of the same committees, and joint-secre-
taries, giving to each other “the right hand
“ of fellowship,” and thereby justifying a
belief that the two orders will hereafter make
nearer and nearer approaches to mutual
understanding, respect, and regard. Several
Hindoos are also associated with Europeans
as partners in their private mercantile esta-
blishments, and are thus enabled to invest
their funds in undertakings which natives
alone could neither have originated nor sup-
ported. These men speak and write English
correctly, and their sons promise to surpass
266 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
them, being taught English, Latin, and other
parts of a liberal education.
The school societies and similar institutions
are, however, more important and more de-
serving of attention, as indications of the
temper that prevails, than for the visible good
that they produce. While the opportunities
of benefitting by the example, and of follow-
ing in the track of Europeans, are so few, as
under the present restrictive system they must
be, out of the thousands educated few can be
expected to ascend to any notable distinction
in private life, (for the avenues to public ser-
vice are shut against them, whatever their
qualifications might be); the greater part must
subside into the ignorant mass from which
they were a moment elevated. The expe-
riment can never be said to have been fairly
tried until, in consequence of a great change
of circumstances, the youth shall find that, on
leaving school, he has only stepped into a
larger school, yielding not less efficient assist-
ance to his future progress, and abounding in
more powerful incitements to exertion. “It
“ is not houses will serve, but cities of cor-
“ rection.”” These considerations are not
* Anatomy of Melancholy, vol. i. p. 82.
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 267
sufficiently adverted to by some who contem-
plate the operations of the societies with a
feeling of disappointment, nor by others who
treat them with levity and disdain, at the
same time that they are ready to bear their
part of the expenses incurred. Ultimately,
I doubt not, all obstacles will be removed ; but
our more immediate object is to show, that,
wherever the signs of colonization are most
apparent, there is also a disposition to succour
and raise the natives, not to depress them.”
* The duty of endeavouring to diffuse Christianity in
our colonies is admirably enforced by the great author of
the Analogy, in his sermon on Matt. xxiv. 14. “It being
“ an indispensable law of the Gospel, that Christians
“ should unite in religious communities, and these being
“ intended for repositories of the oracles of God, for
“standing memorials of religion to unthinking men, and
“ for the propagation of it in the world; Christianity is
“very particularly to be considered as a trust, deposited
“ with us in behalf of others, in behalf of mankind, as
“ well as for our own instruction. No one has a right
“ to be called a Christian who doth not do somewhat in
“ his station towards the discharge of this trust, who
‘ doth not, for instance, assist in keeping up the pro-
“fession of Christianity where he lives.”—“But the
“bare establishment of Christianity in any place, even
“ the external form and profession of it, is a very im-
&
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268 COLONIZATION OF INI) IA.
The Saugor island society presents another
example of Europeans and natives uniting
“ portant and valuable effect. It is a serious call to
“men to attend, to the natural and the revealed doctrine
“ of religion. It is a standing publication of the Gospel,
“ and renders it a witness to them; and by this means the
“ purposes of Providence are carrying on, with regard to
“ remote ages, ai. well as to the present.” The blessings,
temporal as well as spiritual, which will follow from the
subversion of Hindooism, are innumerable. One half of
the species will receive a new life. The wife will then
be able to eat with her husband, which now she is not
permitted to do. It may be observed that Christians are
the only people that use tables ; and I am fully sensible
of the truth of the following sentence in Sir F. M. Eden's
State of the Poor: “Here, where the practice is so
“ common, that not only the lowest peasant eats his meal
“ at a table, but also has his table covered with a table-
“ cloth, it may not, perhaps, be so readily perceived, as
“ it is by those who have been witnesses of a contrary
“ practice, that the sitting together at a table is, perhaps,
“ one of the strongest characteristics of civilization and
“ refinement.” Vol. i. p. 524. Hence, he says, the ex-
pressiveness of the phrase à mensa et thoro, which occurs
in the articles of separation between man and wife.
But there is one curse that we may instantly remove
from Hindoo women, that of being offered up as sacrifices
to the Moloch of their dark and bloody superstition on
the funeral piles of their deceased husbands, after having
had their minds poisoned, bewildered, and frighted from
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 269
their counsels and efforts to promote a com-
mon object. This island, containing about
their natural propriety, by false” comments on their own
false scripture. That this abomination might long ago
have been suppressed, without the slightest difficulty, is
the opinion of the generality of British residents, and of
the most respectable natives, among whom I may name
Ram Mohun Roy ; but the permission actually operates
as an encouragement, by giving currency to the fashion,
the prevalence of which is far from being co-extensive
with Hindooism. Indeed the experiment, as to the want
of danger in interposing, has occasionally been tried by
the zeal of individuals, who, sometimes by persuasion,
and sometimes by force, have snatched the victim from
her destroyers, so to speak, as a brand from the fire.
Pliny, having mentioned the abolition of human sacrifices,
by a Senatus Consultum, in the year of Rome 657, says:
Non satis abstimavi posse quantum Romanis debeatur, qui
monstra sustulere in quibus hominem occidere religio-
sissimum erat. Lib. xxx. c. 1. To deliver our subjects
from this horrible evil, it is only necessary to act on the
same principle which dictated the prohibition of koors,
of female infanticide, and of the offering of human beings
to be devoured by sharks at Saugor. If the legislature
will permit human sacrifices among a superstitious people,
there will always be found wretches whose cupidity or
cannibal disposition will make them willing priests at the
altar.
* See the Friend of India, (printed at Serampore,) for December, 1819.
270 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
100 square miles, from a period anterior to
the arrival of the English, had been covered
with swamps and jungle, and served as a
mere lair of wild beasts, and source of pes-
tilential exhalations. During many years the
advantages that would result from clearing
and cultivating it, both in furnishing various
accommodations and supplies to the shipping,
and in affording to the inhabitants of Cal-
cutta, and of the interior, the cheapest means
of enjoying sea air and sea bathing for the
recovery of health, had been a theme for con-
versation, for visionary projects, and unavailing
wishes. Government never had, and never
would have, money to spare for such an ex-
Alter enim, SI conced AS MACTARE, vovebit
Degrege servorum magna, et pulcherrima quaeque
Corpora; vel pueris, et frontibus ancillarum
Imponet vittas: et si qua est nubilis illi
Iphigenia domi, dabit hanc altaribus, etsi
Non sperat tragica furtiva piacula cervae.—Juv. xii. 115.
. Of the sect of Ram Mohun Roy, it may be said that
they serve indirectly as iconoclastic pioneers to Chris-
tianity. As it happened before, so it may happen again,
that when deism shall have uprooted the weeds of idola-
trous polytheism, then may the disenchanted mind be
profitably sown with Christianity.
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 271
periment: the natives had more than enough
of money, but neither zeal nor intelligence,
and little interest in the result, except as it
would render accessible certain spots of pecu-
liarly holy ground. At last, in the year 1819,
a few British merchants taking the lead, a sum
of 2% lacks of rupees was raised, by subscrip-
tions of Europeans and natives, in shares of
1000 rupees; and an agreement entered into
with government, of which it is unnecessary
here to specify the conditions. It is sufficient
to observe, that, for this most useful work, a
presage of what colonization would effect, we
shall be indebted to a class of persons, whose
existence and increase the Company have
always viewed with the utmost jealousy and
aversion.
The office for registering lascars, or native
seamen, is another benefit conferred by Euro-
peans on the natives. Before the establish-
ment of that office, in 1817, lascars were to
such a degree a prey to the over-reaching ra-
pacity of native crimps, (ghat manjees, &c.)
and were carried on board so ill provided for
the voyage, and with wages so much fore-
stalled, that they were tempted to deliver
themselves by secretly setting fire to the ship
before she left the river, or when within sight
272 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
of land. To prevent these crimes and cala-
mities, by insuring to the lascar the receipt of
the whole of his wages, and to protect him
against his own improvidence, was the design
contemplated by the establishment of the Las-
car Register Office, the expense of which is
borne by regulated contributions from under-
writers and ship-owners; and its success has
satisfied the most sanguine expectations of
its promoters.
In all the discussions that attend the pro-
gress of these societies and institutions, in the
periodical press of Calcutta and Serampore,
there are abundant manifestations of a dispo-
sition, on the part of the European inhabi-
tants, not merely to abstain from, and discoun-
tenance, any “ encroachment” on, or “ ex-
“ trusion” of, the natives, but to conciliate
and befriend them in every possible manner.
And, as this spirit is more active among those
who have resided some time in the country,
than among new-comers, there is reason to
expect, that it would grow and strengthen
with the increase of the colonial community.
It will not surely be said, that, because Bri-
tish India has no separate political existence,
and because the British residents are to each
other as parts of the British public, they are
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 273
incapable of having local opinions, tastes, and
interests. There is no town in Britain, however
inconsiderable, nor however subject to an
influx and efflux of temporary inhabitants, that
has not its local public, which claims and ex-
ercises an exclusive jurisdiction over local
matters: and shall it be denied to a body of
men so peculiarly circumstanced, and so
remote from that public, which is (according
to the hypothesis I am combating) to be the
only judge of their fame and character? It is
proverbial that every place has its “parish
“ business” to talk about. But this dispute
really runs into logomachy; for, admitting
that they are but parts of the British public,
yet they are on the spot where every Indian
occurrence, great and small, is transacted;
they are present to see, to hear, to snuff up, the
slightest odour of good or ill desert; they are
the audience, with whose applause or censure
the actors must necessarily feel cheered or
dejected.
But, in order that this audience should be
able to discharge the important function as-
signed to it, it is necessary that its mouth, the
press, should be free. When authors are sub-
ject to arbitrary and extra-judicial punish-
ment, the press ceases to be an organ of praise
T
274 COLONIZATION OF IN DIA.
or blame. When people once perceive, that,
like the suborned oracle, it can only Philip-
pize, its monotonous strains of panegyric are
always suspected, and generally despised.
In the mean time, calumny and misrepresen-
tation creep about, and maintain their existence
only from the interception of that publicity,
under whose scrutiny and rebuke they could
not live. Such was the condition of the press
of Calcutta during many years previous to
the administration of the Marquis of Hastings:
but, as the censorship is not dead, but sleep-
eth, and may be restored to its abhorred office
by his successor, as the controul of govern-
ment over the press has not been legally an-
nulled, but only the mode of exercising it
altered,—it is necessary to remind Englishmen
that their brethren in India, whatever station
they may be honestly and diligently filling, are
liable to be removed from it and from the
country, and turned penniless on the wide
world, if they publish any thing displeasing
to the government! The ostensible apology
for the continuance of this scandal is, that it
would be dangerous to allow indiscreet discus-
sions to go forth among the natives. What is
this but to avow that our motives and designs
will not bear examination, and that our go-
COLON I ZATION OF INDIA. 275
vernment cannot adapt itself to the interests
and wishes of an intelligent people? Though
surrounded by native governments, character-
ized by every vice that belongs to barbarous
despotisms, we are yet fearful that ours should
not gain, by trusting to legal checks on free-
dom of investigation and speculation; and
the expediency of this hoodwinking policy is
maintained by those who oppose colonization,
on the ground that the natives would then, and
then only, be liable to be deceived and tram-
pled on 1 Perhaps, however, they will say,
that, in advocating the propriety of subjecting
the aberrations of the press to the cognizance,
not of a jury, but of the local governments,
they only mean indirectly to support the origi-
nal system, under which, when it existed in
practical vigour, every European, not in the
service of the Company, was considered an
interloper, and liable to be summarily trans-
ported without trial; but that, if it be intended
to widen indefinitely the foundation on which
our power rests, by adopting the colonial plan,
they withdraw their objections to a free press,
being sensible that, under such circumstances,
it would rather be a corrective, than an aggra-
vation, of the evils they apprehend. It is
evident, indeed, that the question of a free
T 2
276 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
press in India depends on that of colonization:
if the latter be granted, the former cannot be
withheld –the two things are plainly insepa-
rable. With respect to the natives, it is no
less apparent, that the more they are capable
of interesting themselves in English politics
and literature, the more they must be qualified
to appreciate those principles of justice, order,
and freedom, of which Asia presents no other
example, and to which they may appeal,
whenever they may think themselves aggrieved
by their violation. It must be perfectly op-
tional, whether we shall attack such men by
good treatment, or alienate them by the re-
verse; and it would be needless to argue,
whether the probability of our making the
wiser choice would be increased or diminished
by a free press.
A fit accompaniment to these restrictions is
an order of the Court of Directors of 1806,
that the inhabitants of Calcutta, and of the
other Presidencies, shall not meet in their
town-halls, or elsewhere, without the permis-
sion of government. This badge of servitude
being, in all respects, analogous to the former,
and resting on the same authority, will, in
due time, share the same fate.
In the mean time, there is this immovable
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 277
obstacle in the way of those who oppose the
“ liberty of unlicensed printing,” that the
offspring of Europeans by native mothers, re-
siding within the jurisdiction of the Supreme
Courts, are exempted from those star-chamber
proceedings, in respect to the use of the press,
to which British subjects are liable. So long
as Europeans continue obnoxious to extra-
judicial coercion, there is this double anomaly,
that, not only is the discretionary power,
claimed for a particular purpose, rendered
substantially inadequate and nugatory, since
all can, anonymously, resort to the “unli-
“ censed” (or half-cast) press, but exclusive
confidence, in a matter of much political inte-
rest, would seem to be reposed in a class of
persons, who are, at the same time, in mat-
ters of yet greater interest, treated as if they
were objects of distrust, being ineligible for
the regular service of the state, both civil and
military, and who may therefore be presumed
to be somewhat dissatisfied and querulous.
A greater latitude is thus ostensibly allowed,
to those who are excluded for attack, than to
those in possession for defence; and the ut-
most facility of evasion is afforded to those,
whom it is, at the same time, attempted to re-
strain and intimidate, by the menace of arbi-
278 COLONIZATION OF INDIA,
trary punishment. From such a state of
things, unanswerable arguments in favour of
the liberty of the local press might be ad-
dressed to those, who would resist reasons
drawn from a higher source.
The principle on which persons of the
mixed blood are excluded from the regular
service of the Company is, that their admis-
sion would indirectly favour colonization,
“ by accrediting the sort of connexion, in
‘ which the mixed race originates, and, by
“ proportionably reducing the value of alli-
“ ances purely European, to loosen one among
“ the holds, by which Englishmen in the East
“ are attached to Europe.” The progress
of colonization, if other obstacles were re-
moved, would not be sensibly retarded by an
adherence to the above-mentioned principle ;
and it might then be a question, on other
grounds, to what extent, if at all, it ought to
be allowed to operate. But it never can be
advisable to carry it farther: viz. to their ex-
clusion from the irregular service, or to the
exclusion from the regular service of those
who are more than one step removed from the
&
{
&
* Expediency, p. 216.
COLONI ZATION OF IN DIA. 279
native renter. And yet it is pretty well
known that the Directors are actuated by a
strong disposition to give it that extension;
that they resist and endeavour to defeat every
provision for the employment of half-casts in
the irregular corps, which the Marquis of Has-
tings has made, with the wise and humane
design of stimulating their patriotism, and of
raising them in their own estimation and in
that of others; and that they have even
adopted a rule for excluding from their regular
service every candidate, who, in the phra-
seology of the West Indies, would be called
a quadroon. This persecuting spirit may not
be the effect of prejudices, such as are as-
cribed to the future colonists ; it is the result
of a policy totally regardless at what expense
of degradation and suffering, to a particular
class in the community, it accomplishes its
purpose. Have the half-casts reason to con-
gratulate themselves on the elevated level,
from which British virtue showers her graces
upon them, and to pray for the continuance
of a system which avowedly sacrifices them
to its pretended anxiety for the happiness of
the natives' -
Surprise is frequently expressed, that so few
of these people avail themselves of their capa-
280 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
city to become proprietors of land; and that
a still smaller proportion are entitled to the
name of agriculturists. A reference to what
was said, in the last chapter, on the double
redemption of the rights of government and of
the ryots, which ought to precede the agricul-
tural operations of the colonists, will help to
explain why they have derived so little benefit
from the land, and the land from them. These
difficulties might, in some measure, be over-
come by the concurrence of an impulse from
government, with a greater degree of energy
and a more liberal education on their part.
In their personal qualities and accomplish-
ments, they and their friends will find the
surest resources against malevolence from
whatever quarter. But it is not to be expect-
ed, that they will throw themselves with spirit
and advantage into the career of agriculture,
until the difficulties that obstruct its entrance
shall have been encountered and subdued by
British colonists. Then, too, their exertions
would be invigorated, as they are in all other
pursuits, by competition with the most skilful
rivals.
A comparison of the disadvantages under
which these people labour, with those which
oppress the analogous race in the West Indies,
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 281
will strikingly illustrate the superior respect
entertained for those, with whom the former
are connected by their maternal ancestors.
In India, the only legal incapacity to which
they are subject, more than other persons of
illegitimate birth, is their exclusion from the
regular service of the Company; and, until
lately, this exclusion did not pursue them to
the second generation. In the West Indies,
the following incapacities attach to them, until
after three descents from the negro ancestor:
1. Their evidence is not received, in criminal
cases, against a white person: 2. They can
neither be elected, nor elect others, to serve
in parochial vestries and general assemblies;
they are incapable of acting in any, the low-
est, office of public trust, or of holding com-
missions, even in the black and mulatto com-
panies of militia : 3. In Jamaica, a testamen-
tary devise from a white person to a negro or
mulatto, not born in wedlock, of property
exceeding in value 32000 currency, is void.
Private acts are sometimes passed, granting
to individual mulattoes the privileges of
white people, with some limitations. These
restrictions (the first of which is so revolting
and detestable) manifest the profound con-
tempt with which the negro race is regarded,
282 COLON I ZATION OF INDIA.
and the immense interval by which the whites
consider themselves separated from them, from
those whom they have known only as slaves
or freedmen. The independence of St. Do-
mingo reads an impressive lesson, that negroes
can be masters and legislators; and that,
though still in a probationary state, they are
acquiring a capacity to perform all the duties,
and maintain all the relations, of civilized
life.
In India, every native, both Mussulman
and Hindoo, (however the latter may be
branded, in the eyes of his countrymen,
with lowness of cast,) may be a witness
against an European ; whereas, under the Ma-
homedan governments, which we supplanted,
no Hindoo could give evidence against a Mus-
sulman. In the provincial courts, the natives
are tried by European judges, without a jury;
and in the Supreme Courts, at the Presiden-
cies, by juries composed of British subjects.
These arrangements are perfectly satisfactory
to Mr. Grant; and provide, he thinks, amply,
and in the best manner, for the administration
of justice. He objects to the introduction of
the punchaiet, or Indian jury, which Colonel
Wilks has recommended as best qualified to
extract truth from judian witnesses, on the
COLON I ZATION OF INDIA. 283
ground, that no reliance could be placed on
the oaths of any number of jurors promiscu-
ously chosen. “ The juror may undertake
“ for the witness, but who shall undertake for
“ the juror It is difficult to believe, that
“ the person who has literally no conscience
“ in the witness box should always find one,
“ when he steps over the barrier into that of
“ the jury.” “ There is a fallacy in this di-
lemma, which the least advertence to the diffe-
rence between an interested witness and a dis-
interested juror will serve to detect, and to
show that the question, quis custodiet, &c. is
here impertinent. Even native judges would
be more trustworthy than native witnesses;
but native jurors, “ promiscuously taken,” are
still more favourably situated. They could
not be tampered with beforehand, and they
could not depend on being remunerated after-
wards: their concurrence, therefore, in a true
verdict, even though they might individually,
as witnesses, have no consciences, would be
infinitely more probable than their conspiring
to give a false one ; and, if we may depend
on their honesty as jurors, there can be little
&
1 bid. p. 132 and p. 103–4.
284 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
doubt of their superior skill. There is, among
natives, a sympathy, an instinct, a tact, in
judging the presumptions of guilt charged
against their fellows, and in drawing just infe-
rences from the manners of witnesses, to
which Europeans never can attain, and to
which they seldom pretend. A professional
European may indeed use more dexterity in
Cross-questioning, and in hunting a prevari-
cating witness through all his evasions and
doublings; but it must be remembered, that
prevarication, in India, is not the sole test of
honesty, and that there is scarcely a single
witness, however indifferent respecting the
issue, that does not run into it, or that may
not be drawn into it; for, as Mr. Elphinstone
justly remarks, a native of India “ seems in-
“ capable of observing any thing accurately.”
Other reasons are assigned by Sir Henry
Strachey,” why the witnesses, in support of
the prosecution of a culprit, who is really
guilty, and whom they are anxious to convict,
defeat their purpose, by mixing superfluous
lies with their evidence of facts. All this
* See his Report on his Completion of the Second Ses-
sion of the Calcutta Court of Casts, 1802.
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 285
jumble of truth and falsehood, on both sides,
not a little disturbs the equanimity of the Eu-
ropean judge, so that he frequently discharges
the splendid bile of his indignation against the
prosecutor and his witnesses, by acquitting
the accused, whom he, nevertheless, believes
to be guilty. All this Sir Henry Strachey
admits; and the cause to which he ascribes
the evil, viz. our ignorance of the native cha-
racter, distinctly points out a jury of natives
as the appropriate remedy. If, then, we have
sufficient reason to rely on such a jury, there
remain, to enforce the propriety of its intro-
duction, all those reasons connected, not
merely with the reality, but with the opinion of
an upright administration of criminal law,
and, also, with its good effects on the moral
and intellectual character of the jurors, which
render that institution dear and sacred in the
eyes of Englishmen.”
In our native army, offenders are tried by
courts martial composed of native officers, and
the members of these courts, both as jurors
and judges, discharge their functions in a very
* At Ceylon, natives are tried by juries composed of
natives. *
286 COLON I ZATION OF IN DIA,
satisfactory manner. Nobody has ever thought
of applying “ the old Indian dilemma of the
“ elephant and the tortoise,” to the subver-
sion of this excellent regulation.
But, though Mr. Grant is now so unwilling
to admit natives into the jury-box, very diffe-
rent are his sentiments as to the expediency
of the concession, under a colonial system.
According to his reasoning, the present system
ought to restrict trial by jury to British sub-
jects, until its own doom be pronounced, and
then, with a death-bed piety, enjoin its suc-
cessor to communicate the privilege to the
natives. May we not prescribe a leaf out of
this Ixov Epſtropixe to the supporters of the
present system, before they quit the stage?
May we not commend to their own lips the
cup which, for the benefit of the colonists,
Mr. Grant has sweetened with so copious
an infusion of humanity? But all this hu-
manity is prospective, and to be exercised
at the expense of the moderation and
self-denial of the colonists. To curb them,
* “ The proposed succedaneum of an Indian jury
“ seems, partly, to involve the old Indian dilemma of the
“ elephant and the tortoise.” Expediency, p. 131.
{XO LON i ZATION OF IN DIA. 287
he tramples on his elephant and tortoise, and
produces Indian jurors, (so lately rejected for
want of conscience,) omni eacceptione majores.
He thinks that a Hindoo prosecuting an Euro-
pean would be more likely to receive a fair
hearing from a jury of “ low marrow-minded "
European householders, with all their western
prejudices fresh and thick upon them, such
as now serve on petty juries, than from one
of “ low narrow-minded creole house-
“ holders,” to whom those prejudices would
be but faintly transmitted, and in whom they
would be counteracted by long habits of deal-
ing with natives, their equals or superiors in
wealth, and by the improved and improving
character of the natives generally. He would
resort to the stronger remedy only when the
disease had assumed milder symptoms.
With respect to the supposed partiality of the
verdict of a creole jury, trying an European de-
fendant, prosecuted by a Hindoo, he says, “In
“ what manner shall the evil be remedied? Shall
“ we constitute the juries de medietate linguae,
“ as it is called 7 Would the colonists tolerate
“ such an arrangement? Would they endure,
“ for example, that a British settler, indicted
“ for the ill-treatment of his Hindoo servant,
“ should be tried before a jury half composed
288 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
“ of Hindoos ? Or, even if they would, are
“we of opinion that the numerical parity would
“create a real equilibrium ?”* Now, if I
should say, (as I am most willing to do,) that
I believe the colonists would not object to
such an arrangement, that is, to an equal di-
vision of the jury in such cases, he would in-
stantly bring forward a demand, that there
should be a numerical superiority in favour of
the natives, but without specifying to what
extent, whether as 7 to 5, or as 8 to 4. Such
pertinacity of crimination must be left to itself;
it cannot be reasoned with. *:
While I agree with Colonel Wilks, in ap-
proving of the use of juries composed of na-
tives, I wish nothing less than to see all the
juridical rules and practices, which the English
have introduced, superseded by those pre-
scribed in the Hindoo code, “ with all its nu-
“ merous imperfections on its head; ” among
which imperfections are, the variableness of
the number composing the punchaied, and its
exclusive application to arbitrate civil diffe-
rences. I would not seek the means of im-
provement among the earliest attempts of bar-
* Ibid., p. 240.
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 289
barous ignorance, much less in the books of
a society viciously constituted, and corrupted
by superstition and venality, but among the
latest refinements of enlightened civilization.
We ought to endeavour to attain to simplicity,
not by adopting the crude efforts of a people,
among whom the progressive principles have
been paralysed during so many centuries, but
by extracting the essence of the accumulated
experience of natives, who, in all things, have
carried improvement and discovery to the
greatest height. It would be more reasonable
to digest a comprehensive code, having the
smallest possible alloy of imperfection, than
to be satisfied with a limited one, confessedly
loaded with “numerous imperfections.” There
is nothing in English jurisprudence that, if
transferred to India, could justly be consider-
ed a misapplication of technical skill, labour,
and expense, that ought not to be reformed in
England, as being obnoxious to the same cen-
sure. With reference, therefore, to every ju-
dicial rule and practice, the question ought to
be, not whether it is borrowed from the code
of England, or of Arabia, or of Japan, or of
the north of India, or of the south, but whe-
ther it satisfies those principles of equity and
utility which are recognised by all mankind,
U
290 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
and adapted to secure the common interest,
the public content, and tranquillity.
Having now examined the probability of
the occurrence of those encroachments and
oppressions, those “ thousand insults and in-
“juries,” which Mr. Grant imputes to our
future colonists, it remains for the reader
to determine whether he has established his
charges, and, with them, the certainty of the
retributive vengeance with which the over-
loaded patience of the natives would, at last,
by one convulsive effort, overwhelm their
tyrants. If the premises should be granted,
I have no wish to dispute the conclusion, nor
to dissever crimes from their penal conse-
quences.
The other alternative is considered by Mr.
Grant as less probable, but by the Directors
as equally probable,” and by both, apparently,
to be deprecated: viz. that the colonists
should conduct themselves with so much pru-
dence and equity, and should effect so great
* “ Nor is it less probable that a vast mass of native
“ subjects, thus put into a new state of agitation, a
“ numerous European community progressively enlarging
“ its views with its importance,” &c. &c. As. Ann. Reg.
for 1801, St. Pa, p. 31.
COLONIZATION OF INDIA. 291
an improvement in the native character, as to
constitute a mass of political strength, capable
of conceiving and asserting pretensions to in-
dependence. Those judgements must be pro-
nounced very much at random which embrace
opposite extremes with equal alacrity ; and
which alternately manifest the same degree of
conviction, that the colonists will abuse to the
worst, and use to the best, purposes,-their
moral superiority over the natives. But the
reader will decide, whether this last alterna-
tive is not the one which unbiassed reason and
dispassionate inquiry would adopt, as exhibit-
ing as clear tokens of probability as can be
expected in human affairs. In what space of
time these seeds of independence might come
to maturity, whether in fifty or in two hundred
years, I shall not venture to conjecture, but
this opinion I will confidently submit to the
candour of all men that there can be no justift-
cation for the conduct of those who would in-
terpose obstacles to obstruct their growth; inas-
much as no obstacle could be devised that
would not partake, more or less, of oppression.
It would be no excuse for any measures taken
to stunt the growth of the colony, that they
had for their object the benevolent design of
preventing the evils and atrocities of civil war.
U 2
292 (!() LON I ZATION OF INDIA.
Let every generation take upon itself the dit-
ties which circumstances devolve upon it, be
they arduous or easy. We cannot indulge
ourselves in unjust, harsh, and domineering
proceedings, on the plea that we fear poste-
rity may neither have wisdom nor virtue ade-
quate to the demands of some great emer-
gency. Such a plea would be insulting and
ridiculous.
In estimating the progress of the colony,
some regard ought to be had to the climate.
From the occasional visits of epidemics, no
country is exempt; but, in general, it may be
said, that, though the climate is far from being
congenial to the European constitution,-yet,
in ordinary years, the proportion of deaths is
not greater than it is in Europe. At the same
time, the climate is continually improved, by
the progressive clearing of jungles, and drain-
ing of swamps, &c. The beneficial effect of
such operations has been ascertained in many
instances; but the importance of attending to
them, in large towns, cannot be too highly
estimated.” Other means of securing or re-
* The attention paid to the improvement of Calcutta is
creditable to the Committee of Conservancy; but, whe-
('OLONIZATION OF IN 1) I A. 293
covering health are also increased by expe-
rience; as those relating to the construction of
houses, to regimen, to medical practice, and
to local salubrity. But, as the very existence
of the colony would depend on the number
and character of the Creoles, a more interest-
ing question presents itself, How would the
climate affect them If we judge from their
ther from want of funds or of powers, their operations do
not keep pace with the wishes of the public, nor with the
necessities of the case. Calcutta has been compared to
St. Petersburgh; but the want of an original plan for the
building of the European or native part of the former
city has occasioned defects, which it will require much
public spirit and expense to correct. Indeed, if the es-
planade of Fort William did not guaranty the preservation
of its lungs, Calcutta would be in a much worse predica-
ment than it is. Were it only for the more vigorous pro-
secution of these improvements, it would be a highly de-
sirable (and not a premature) arrangement, to give to
Calcutta an elective municipal constitution. The thirst
for civic honours, the spur of public opinion, would cer-
tainly produce more zealous, able, and powerful agents
than any that government can select. Thus we might in-
troduce the first example of a non-stipendiary magistracy
into India. The effect of this change, in relieving govern-
ment of some of the multitude of questiuncles respecting
petty arrangements and most trifling details, that are now
incessantly obtruded on its attention, and consume its time,
would not be the least of its advantages.
2.94 COLONIZATION OF INDIA.
condition in the West Indies, we have no rea-
son to apprehend any kind of degeneracy.
According to Bryan Edwards, they are a
taller race than the Europeans, (a fact of it-
self incompatible with degeneracy,) but not
proportionably robust ; rarely obnoxious to
those inflammatory disorders, which frequent-
ly prove fatal to the latter; without less capa-
city and stability of mind ; and by no means
falling short in those qualities of the heart
which render man a blessing to all around
him. They are acclimated Europeans, with
more frankness and gaiety of disposition, but
also with more aversion to serious thought and
deep reflection. Now we may, with certainty,
expect that the Creoles of India, as inhabiting
a country of greater variety of surface and
temperature, would be even less distinguish-
able from their European ancestors by per-
sonal or mental peculiarities; and that they
would amply attest the truth of the sublime
lines of the poet.
“Can opener skies and suns of fiercer flame
O'erpower the fire that animates our frame;
As lamps, that shed at eve a cheerful ray,
Fade and expire beneath the eye of day ?
Need we the influence of the northern star
“To string our nerves and steel our hearts to war?
COLON I ZATION OF INDIA. 295
“And where the face of Nature laughs around,
“ Must sick'ning Virtue fly the tainted ground !
“ Unmanly thought !—What reasons can controul,
“What fancied zone can circumscribe the soul,
“Who, conscious of the sourcefrom which she springs,
“ By Reason's light, on Resolution's wings,
“Spite of her frail companion, dauntless goes
“ O'er Lybia's desart, and through Zembla’s snows.”
The mixed race, it is obvious, would be not
less capable of resisting the utmost fervour of
the solar ray than the aboriginal inhabitants;
and among them most valuable members of
the community would be found, in all ranks,
from the highest to the lowest. It is not to
be denied, that a certain invincible prejudice,
in favour of pure European blood, would pre-
vail through all classes, and that, in general,
the gradations of society would be marked by
corresponding shades of colour, a white aris-
tocracy, a brown middle order, and a black
commonalty. With many exceptions, this
would be the general rule; but it would be
effected, not by the exercise of any sort of
oppression, on the part of those of a fairer
complexion, not by prescriptive and exclusive
laws, but by the circumstances that would re-
gulate intermarriages. The poor white man
would frequently be compelled to seek a mate
296 COLONIZATION () F IN DIA.
among females of a dusky hue, and his grand-
son might be driven to choose among a yet
darker race. On the contrary, the opulent
Christian, of the deepest aboriginal tint, could
have no difficulty in obtaining the hand of a
lady having a certain proportion of European
blood, and his grandson might aspire to one
still richer in this species of dower. Thus, as
the posterity of the one would be more and
more nigrescent, that of the other would be
more and more albescent, until the colour of
the ancestor became, in both cases, extinct.
May those, who are fair outwardly, strive to
be pure inwardly may the visible impress of
an unmixed lineage bespeak the invisible can-
dour of the mind, and be a continual spur to
excel in generous and humane conduct, in
all that elevates and sweetens human nature.
207
CHAPTER VI.
O N THE REMAIN ING TOPICS CONNECTED WITH
THE ABOLITION OF THE EAST INDIA COMI-
PANY.,
IF I have succeeded in showing that the
existence of the Company is by no means in-
dispensable to the welfare of India, –that, on
the contrary, the interests of that country irre-
sistibly demand its abolition, — I have removed
the principal” objection against throwing open
the trade with China, the profits of which, the
Company declare, are essential to their poli-
tical efficiency. Without those profits they
could not pay their home establishment, whence
there would be reason to apprehend that those
young gentlemen who are so kind as to answer
the Governor-General's despatches would
-*m-
* Expediency, p. 357.
298 A BOLITION OF THE
disband themselves; * they could not pay the
dividends to the proprietors of East India
stock, which would reduce the multitude of
counsellors from upwards of a thousand to
two dozen, and by consequence break up the
best organ for the government of India that
the nation, in its wisdom, could devise. The
middle links of this chain of reasoning are
good and strong; we shall admit the pro-
prietors to be necessary to the Directors, and
the Directors to be necessary to the proprie-
tors; but the extreme links are not rivetted
into the things which they are intended to
connect, viz. the profits of the China trade
and the good government of India. In the
first place, I have shown that the profits of
the China trade (if in their hands it be profit-
able) are not the only, nor the principal, fund
whence they have defrayed their home dis-
bursements; and that there is another fund,
the territorial revenue, which they know to
be far more valuable, and of which they
have always freely availed themselves. In
* See Debate at the India House, where it appears
that a Mr. Melvil was in training to take upon himself the
Military Correspondence.
EAST INDIA COMPANY. 299
the second place, I have proved that the go-
vernment of India, through the medium of the
Company, is essentially hostile to the pros-
perity of that country.
The gravity with which the Company put
forward their political services as a reason
for conceding to them the monopoly of the
China trade, is not the least singular thing
attending this whole discussion. It is obvious
that, besides the loss incurred by the con-
traction of the trade, the excess of price at
which the teas are sold beyond that at which
the consumer would obtain them under a free
trade, is a tax levied on the people of Eng-
land for the benefit of the East India Com-
pany ; and the appropriation of this tax they
claim, “not so much for their own sake, as
“ for that of the great interests entrusted to
“ their guardianship.”* It is for the sake of
the people of India, that they submit to be cum-
bered with exclusive privileges, that they are
even anxious to lay their countrymen under
contribution! Scarcely does history record
an instance of severe unwillingness “to bear
“ the golden yoke of sovereignty” for its own
* Expediency, p. 358.
300 ABOLITION OF THE
sake; but if such a feeling be barely con-
ceivable in the case of a prince who really
devoted his time to the discharge of all the
duties which are incumbent on the faithful
shepherd of his people, and who identified
himself with all their good and evil fortunes;
what shall we think of such language in the
mouths of sovereigns who live many thou-
sand leagues distant from their subjects, and
who know them only by the occasions which
they afford for the exercise of patronage and
the receipt of tribute
The argument next in the order of impor-
tance for the continuance of the monopoly is
derived from the peculiar character of the
Chinese government. It is said that the mere
change would alarm the Chinese; and that
our enemies, the Portuguese at Macao, and
the Portuguese missionaries at Pekin, when
they could display an act of parliament throw-
ing open the trade with China, might say:
“ It was by instruments of this kind that
“ India was conquered, and by the same
“ instruments the English hope to subdue
“ China.”* That is to say, the Portuguese
* Quarterly Review, No. xvi. p. 274.
EAST IN DIA COMPANY. 301
who have so long been incapable of injuring
us by pointing, not to a scroll of parchment,
but to the thing itself which did really con-
quer India, the Trojan horse which carried in
its womb the Lawrences and Clives, might yet,
after the removal of that appalling machine,
persuade the Chinese that they would need
to use still greater caution in their transactions
with peaceable disunited merchants! On the
contrary, nothing could tend more to allay
the jealousy and apprehensions of the Chi-
nese than the substitution of private for in-
corporated merchants; and experience has
shown that all their quarrels have been with the
supercargoes of the latter, not with those of
the former, whether English trading from
India, or Americans. 2. It is said that British
seamen are more unmanageable than Ame-
ricans, and more apt to commit those excesses
and infringements of municipal restrictions
which the Chinese are prone to resent by a
renunciation of all mercantile intercourse.
But the Dutch and other European powers
trade to China, and not under the direction
of a Company, but as free merchants. Will
it be said that the sailors of all these nations
are more likely to behave with justice and
moderation towards the Chinese than the
302 A BOLITION OF THE
British In truth, British seamen do not
deserve that their frank and daring spirit
should be so misrepresented ; and those who
bring the charge, to answer a particular pur-
pose, would be ready to acknowledge, on other
occasions, that our sailors are less liable than
those of any other nation to insult or injure
helpless and unoffending people. The con-
duct of the crews of the Alceste and Lyra,
at the Loo Choo Islands, was but an example
of the temper they manifest under similar cir-
cumstances. But suppose a homicide com-
mitted, the offender is, by the law of nations,
amenable to the Chinese laws; and there are
only three courses for us to observe with re-
ference to the Chinese code, which punishes
all homicides with death ; viz. to submit to the
evil; to withdraw from direct trading with
them ; to make it the subject of negotiation.
If we should not adopt the second of these
courses, as there is no probability that we
ever shall, there is as little reason to fear that
the Chinese should forego the advantages
they reap from our trade ; for, in the first
place, they can always compel the surrender
of the guilty, or unfortunate person; second-
ly, their indifference to commerce is almost
wholly affected, and shows itself only in the
EAST IN DIA COMPANY. 303
strange composition of their state papers;
for, on every dispute with the Company's su-
percargoes, the viceroy and his subordinate
officers have manifested the utmost desire that
trade should suffer no interruption. The
immense population of the province of Can-
ton, traders and men in office, are so accus-
tomed to the sweets of commerce, that the
Court of Pekin probably could not deprive
them of it, if, disregarding all financial
considerations, it were so rash as to make
the attempt. 3. It is doubted whether the
Chinese would receive a British Consul. The
Americans “ have a person who chooses to
“ call himself by this name; but we know
“ that he is neither acknowledged nor re-
“ spected by the government, which merely
“ consider him as the person on whom they
“ can fia: a responsibility for the conduct of
“ the Americans.” If the Chinese do not
acknowledge him, we may suppose that they
would dispense with his presence, and that
he is there solely for the convenience of the
Americans.” If a British Consul resided on
the same terms it would be sufficient. His
* Quarterly Review, No. xvi. p. 273.
304 A BOLITION OF THE
duty would be, like that of the American
Consul, who has not even a salary from his
own government, to advise and instruct ship-
masters in the usages of the port; and as to
responsibility in his own person for the con-
duct of his countrymen, it is a mere bugbear.
The responsibility has invariably attached
to the peccant individual. 4. It is said, that
“ a British Consul armed with power short
“ of tyrannical, could maintain no effectual
“ controul over a promiscuous assortment of
“ British crews.”” And if he had such
powers, the Chinese would not permit the
exercise of them to be eacclusive of their juris-
diction. We may as well talk of arming an
ambassador at Paris with tyrannical powers.
The Chinese police, the captains of ships, and
common prudence are the only sources of
preventive controul that can be imagined in
the port of an independent power. 5. It is
said, “we doubt whether any British subject
“ of respectability would expose himself (as
“ consul) to the chance of the degrading
“ treatment he might receive at the hands of
“ the Chinese ; and are pretty certain that
* Expediency, p. 253.
EAST IND I A COMPANY. 305
“ the House of Commons would not arm him
“ with the power of delivering up a British
“ subject, who may have committed an invo-
‘ luntary and accidental homicide, much less
“ to deliver up an innocent substitute.”
The respectability of the consul would en-
tirely depend on the salary annexed to his
office. If it were thought necessary to make
that equal to the emoluments of one of the
senior supercargoes, there can be no possible
reason why the consul should not be taken
from the same rank of life to which they be-
long, that is, the highest under the degree of
nobility. Certainly, the British legislature
would never authorize the consul to sacrifice
an innocent individual ; but does this writer
suppose that the Company's supercargoes
possess any powers incompatible with the
laws of England ; or that those laws could
sanction that in the latter which would be
criminal in the former? Are British subjects,
servants of the Company, independent of
British jurisdiction? No! The Chinese may
have power to eactort, but the Company's
officers cannot have lawful power to surrender
&
-------sº
* Quarterly Review, No. xvi. p. 273,
X
306 A BOLITION OF THE
to death an innocent person of whatever
country. 6. It is said that a consul “would
“ be exposed to insults and humiliations which
“ could not possibly be endured by a national
“ delegate without a compromise of the na-
“ tional honour.”” This is said with a total
disregard to our history, and to the diplomatic
relations we maintain with the several powers
of the world. We have one estimate of na-
tional honour, and of the expediency of vindi-
cating it, for our ambassador at Paris, another
for our envoy at Constantinople, another for
our consul at Algiers. After purchasing the
forbearance of the last-mentioned state during
many years by the payment of a disguised
tribute, we at last thought of speaking to
them by the voice of our naval thunder. It
is not every day, nor with every nation, that
we choose to go to war for the ears of a
smuggling captain. But farther, the national
honour is equally concerned whether we hold
intercourse with foreign powers through the
medium of Company's servants, or through
that of “national delegates.” There is no
difference. It is in vain, therefore, that the
* Expediency, p. 353.
EAST INDIA COMPANY. 307
Company urge their readiness to save the na-
tional honour by throwing their own servants
to be trampled on.” It is also unjust towards
those gentlemen ; and the conduct of the late
embassy proved that a super-cargo (Sir George
Staunton) could be more tenacious of national
dignity than his majesty's representative. When
the Company shall have been dissolved, the
nation will be as free to forego, or to assert,
every just claim, after a comprehensive view
of all circumstances, as she has ever been.
The last argument against a free trade to
China is, that it would occasion an indefinite
increase of smuggling. “ That these appre-
“ hensions are too just, the history of the
“ tea-trade seems to evince.”f Now that his-
tory shows that, when the monopoly, which is
here represented as the only safeguard against
smuggling, was entire, and before it had felt
any of those ineffectual blows which, at in-
tervals of twenty years, (as if we could not
* “ The Company’s agents frequently submit to ca-
“ prices and humiliations (from the Chinese) to which the
“ honour of a sovereign would not allow any representa-
“tive of his to yield.”—Report of the Committee of
Correspondence, &c. 1813. Pamphleteer, vol. ii. p. 115.
t Expediency, p. 354.
x 2
308 A BOLITION OF THE
recover from so great an effort in the revolu-
tion of a smaller cycle,) have been aimed at
it, the clandestine supply of tea was equal to
two-thirds of the whole quantity consumed.
The state of the tea-trade, in 1784, and the
effect of the reduction of the duty, by the
Commutation Act, from 119 to 11% per cent.,
prove any thing rather than that the Company's
monopoly is a security against a fraudulent
import. In as far as it enhanced the price of
tea, to that extent undoubtedly it increased
smuggling; but the main cause then, as in all
times, of the prevalence of the practice was
the exorbitance of the duty. There is a cer-
tain point beyond which every addition to the
duty occasions a more than proportionate
defalcation of revenue, whether from dimi-
nished or from illicit consumption. The
means of reducing smuggling to a minimum,
moderate duties and skilful regulations must
be more effectual under a free trade than under
a monopoly, because, in the former case, there
is less temptation to counteract them. But
Mr. Grant speaks as if “the still maturing
“ system of the Company ” were itself a re-
gulation, and the most efficient of all for the
suppression of smuggling; whereas, that sys-
tem can only tend to ensure the payment of
EAST IN DIA COMPANY. 309,
the duties by the Company, not to prevent
its evasion by others. The Company are not
farmers of the duties; they employ no esta-
blishment to co-operate with that of the Cus-
tom-House. The honest, licensed distiller
does not trouble himself with those whose
occupation it is to defraud the Excise; he hires
no myrmidons to hunt out and bring to con-
dign punishment those whose “secret, black,
“ and midnight” practices diminish his profit.
The Commissioners of Excise would never
propose to increase the revenue by erecting
an exclusive company of distillers. Though
the duty might be collected from the new
company with the utmost “cheapness, facility,
“ and certainty,” they would know that these
advantages could not compensate for the loss
incurred by the augmentation of illicit distil-
lation, which would be the infallible conse-
quence of the monopoly.
One would suppose, from Mr. Grant's mode
of reasoning, that the tea-trade had formerly
been free, and that excess of smuggling had
been reduced solely by applying the ligatures
of monopoly. He says, “ if the tea-trade be
“ AGAIN set afloat, and vessels from various
“ parts of the kingdom encouraged promis-
“ cuously to engage in it, all the benefits re-
310 ABOLITION OF THE
“ sulting from the present arrangement will
“ be put to imminent hazard.” Would throw-
ing open the trade be recurring to a system
which we have already experienced, and
found to be hurtful ? Have we ever tried the
effect of a promiscuous contribution to the
revenue from a promiscuous trade to China º
Perhaps no part of the Company's case has
been the subject of greater delusion than this;
for some people, who have been more or less
intolerant of every other part of their system,
have yet respected their China trade, and up-
held all their pleas for its countenance; and
yet, on examination, no part of their case
appears less defensible. In this instance the
practical mischief may not be (as it is indeed
far from being) equally lamentable, but the
arguments for its removal are, in proportion
to their object, equally clear and conclusive.
I proceed to the question of patronage.
The transference to the crown of the patronage
now enjoyed by the Directors is to be con-
sidered, as it would affect the government of
Britain on the one hand, and of India on the
other. The Company maintain that it would
* Expediency, p. 355.
EAST INDIA COMPANY. 311
be productive of great detriment to both ; that
the increased power of the king's ministers
would encourage them to abuse it in India,
which abuse would further strengthen their
power and render it less controllable. The
ministers would conciliate supporters in Par-
liament by a skilful distribution of their Indian
patronage, and by favouring their relatives,
friends, and dependents in India, in violation
of regulations too reasonable to be openly
rescinded ; and would thus, by multiplying
their offences, secure a more zealous adherence
to their party, and a more unscrupulous ap-
probation of all their measures. For these
evils, which amount to nothing less than a
dissolution of the British constitution, and
the unlimited oppression of India, they assert
that there is no other remedy than to retain
the present system by which the patronage
and government of India are, in a certain
degree, delegated to the Company.
The circulation of corrupt influence and
interchange of jobs, by which these dreadful
effects are to be accomplished, naturally carry
back the mind to those times when all that is
here prospectively imputed to the House of
Commons was actually practised in the India
House; when those who had been, by what-
312 A BOLITI () N OF THE
ever means, enriched in India, employed their
wealth, not to propitiate their judges, but to
constitute themselves judges, by purchasing
seats and votes, in proportion to their wealth,
in the Court of Proprietors. By means of the
power so acquired they controlled and directed
the Directors, and protected those Governors
whose mal-administration had ministered, or
would minister, to their thirst of gold. Never
were men's duties and interests so directly set
in opposition to each other. Never was there
a scheme so well adapted to promote the pur-
poses of a corrupt confederacy, and to subject
the trade and revenues of kingdoms to its
avaricious sway. This was the system by
which the trade and government of India
were once regulated ; this was the unsophisti-
cated idea of a Sovereign Company; and as
there never was a time when they have not
maintained the expediency of continuing “the
“ present system,” so it has never been to
them that we have been indebted for reform,
but to the legislature, whose interposition has
been beneficial in proportion as it has brought
them more under its control, and encroached
more largely on their privileges. But as the
office of control, on the part of the Execu-
TIv E, over the administration of the most
EA ST IN 1) I A COMPANY. 313
important dependency of the crown, is not
merely anomalous, (since its own acts ought
to be controlled by Parliament,) but extremely
prejudicial, as implying a delegation of ex-
ecutive function and division of responsibility;
it is necessary to inquire how we may reap all
the benefits connected with a total abolition of
the Company, to the exclusion, as much as
possible, of the collateral inconveniences.
In the first place, Mr. Grant overrates the
value of the patronage that would devolve to
the crown. He estimates the salaries of all
the Company's servants, civil, military, medi-
cal, clerical, legal, &c. at £3,500,000; and
then, by the following process, calculates that
the offices annually vacated will be no fewer
than one in ten ; so that nominations to the
whole should revolve every ten years. “It is
“ said to be an established law of probability
“ that, of thirteen individuals casually as-
“ sembled together, one will die within a
“ twelvemonth ; whence has arisen the vulgar
“ superstition respecting the unluckiness at-
“ tending a company of that number. On
“ this ground, it might, perhaps, be assumed
“ that, of the offices in the Indian establish-
“ ment, every thirteenth would annually fall
“ vacant by death ; but the casualties of dis-
314 ABOLITION OF THE
“ missal for misconduct, or of voluntary
“ resignation, with a view either to farther
“ promotion or to retirement from public life,
“ must greatly increase the probability of a
“ vacancy. It seems a very temperate assump-
“tion that every TENTH office would annually
“ be vacated.” The offices annually at the
minister's disposal would, therefore, yield
f350,000; but Mr. Grant, making an allow-
ance for the minister's forbearance in the use
of this “ prodigious machine,” is content to
state it at £250,000. Now a mortality of one
in thirteen is a thing unheard of, and cannot
even lean for support on the vulgar supersti-
tion above-mentioned, which (I have read
somewhere) is derived from the number pre-
sent at the last supper, of whom Judas Isca-
riot was one. Equally unheard of is a military
or civil promotion, at the rate of annual re-
newals of one-tenth of the entire corps. It is
no less inconsistent with his own showing. He
states that the number of civil functionaries,
(at that time, 1813,) transferable to his majes-
ty's service, was 587, which, according to his
rule, would require the annual appointment of
* Expediency, p. 310.
EAST INDIA COMPANY. 315
58 writers; but the real number was less than
half of that proportion, being only 26.” In
like manner, he states the number of military
officers (in 1813) to have been 3467, which
would yield 346 cadetships every year; but he
declares that they amounted only to 120.t
The application of this sort of test would,
no doubt, exhibit the value of the patronage
that would be possessed by ministers, but not
of that which would be transferred to them,
because nearly all that depends on selection
and preferment, consistently with the rules of
the respective services they already possess.
The share of this description of patronage
which belongs to the Directors is comparatively
trifling. They have the distribution of the
tickets in the lottery, but the prizes are wholly,
or almost wholly, at the disposal of the
local governors. Now these tickets are the
only additional weights that would be thrown
into the scale of ministerial patronage ; and
let the reader consider what proportion they
would bear to the mass that is already there ;
whether the power of the crown, since the
revolution, has been so nicely dependent on
* Expediency, p. 283.
+ Ibid. 284, and Appendix, No. XI.
316 A BOLITI () N () F THE
the sum of its patronage that it would re-
ceive any sensible increase from such an ad-
dition ; and whether it might not even lose
rather than gain by so invidious an accession
of the apparent means of strength.
Secondly, whatever may be the influence
of the crown in peace or war, and however
much it may be augmented by the annexation
of foreign dependencies, there are resources
in the British constitution more than sufficient
to balance it. The House of Commons is
not a permanent senate which might be pen-
sioned once for all, but composed of represen-
tatives accountable to their constituents. This
description is substantially applicable to the
House of Commons, even in its present state ;
but how much more after it shall have under-
gone that temperate analogical reform which
public opinion is continually struggling to
enforce | If the influence of the Crown be
not too powerful at the elections, we may
well defy its operation on the elected. If the
source be pure we may trust to the inherent
virtues of the waters for the failure of all
attempts to taint them. If there were no
rotten boroughs there could be no Paul Ben-
fields, who could lead each a train of seven
followers into Parliament. But, besides the
EAST IN 1) I A (!() M PA. N. Y. 3.17
grand check which is in the hands of indepen-
dent electors, there is the censorship of a free
press, ever pouring forth its appropriate
praises and reproofs; there are meetings of
counties and corporations to frame petitions:
and these are so adequate to their purposes,
that we are never likely to require the last
remedy for a distempered parliament, “ the
“ interposition of the body of the people itself,
“ whenever it shall appear, by some flagrant
“ and notorious act, by some capital innova-
“tion, that their representatives are going to
“ overleap the fences of the law, and to in-
“ troduce an arbitrary power.”” Either these
resources have been overlooked by Mr. Grant,
or he thinks they would be unavailing; for he
appears seriously to be alarmed,f lest seven-
teen millions of people should consent to part
with their liberty, because a handful of writer-
ships and cadetships was scattered among
them; and lest it should be said, after we had
thrown away the shield of the Company,
India capta ſerum victorem cepit.
Thirdly, though, from these considera-
# * Burke's Works, vol. ii. p. 324.
t Expediency, p. 304.
3.18 A BOLITION () F THE
tions, we might conclude, that the transference
of the Company's patronage to the Crown
would be perfectly compatible with the safety
of the constitution, on the supposition, that
the anti-colonial plan was to be persevered in ;
yet, if a colony be planted and flourish, it is
obvious that it will be able to furnish, from
its own body, almost all the functionaries,
from the appointment of whom, in England,
so much danger is apprehended. The colo-
nial candidates would be cheaper, and though,
perhaps, less finished and showy than those
from the mother country, would be better
adapted to the uses and to the taste of the
colony. The advantages of their position
would be so great, that England would soon
have to supply only a very few of her chosen
sons to fill the highest stations, the represen-
tatives and connecting links of that imperial
power, which would constitute one of the es-
tates in the colonial government. At first, the
advantages of the colonists would be chiefly
those of proximity to the seat of power, of
local experience, and personal connexion;
but, as the political weight and consistence of
the whole body increased, they would proceed
to frame their petition of right; they would
define by laws the mode of appointment to
EAST INDIA COMPANY. 319
offices and the qualifications of the candi-
dates. All this is admitted by Mr. Grant.
“A colonial public is formed, not untinctured
“ with provincial self-importance ; but who,
with some plausibility, claim a portion of
the popular rights and franchises that are
supposed to constitute the essence of Bri-
tannic liberty; who probably demand, in
many cases, the privilege of electing their
own magistrates; and, at all events, will
“ not endure to be devoured by place-hunters
“ from the mother country.” As the stream
of patronage, the greater part of it, would
flow from new sources, so it would, in some
instances, run in new channels. Some offices
that have now large salaries would then be
executed for small ones, or gratuitously. The
duties of magistrates, which now press so
heavily on a few, would be rendered of com-
paratively easy discharge by being divided
among many; and the office of collector, now
so complicated and laborious, would, from
the simplification of landed tenures, the con-
solidation of petty estates, and the exact as-
certainment of fiscal impositions, become one
& 6
& &
& &
& 6
& &
6 &
* Expediency, p. 254.
32() A Bo LITION OF THE
of the least toilsome, and if not in some
places suppressed might be charged with the
collection of other taxes.
Since, therefore, the colony would be infi-
nitely useful in intercepting patronage from
the ministers, it would be clearly the duty of
all who deprecated the abolition of the Com-
pany, “ as pregnant with imminent danger to
“ the balance of the constitution,” (and we
might look for such posthumous service even
from the abolished Company,) to contribute
their best exertions to promote the growth of
the colony; because it would be only during
the interval of its nonage that the danger
could exist. If the constitution survived that
interval, all would be well.
Finally, there are not wanting means of al-
laying the fears of the most apprehensive
during this season of trial. Before the colony
was strong enough to grasp at much patronage,
expedients might be devised for diverting from
the minister that which would be relinquished
by the Directors. For instance, writerships
and cadetships might be put up to open sale,
and be given to those possessing the required
qualifications according to priority of applica-
tion: or the option of taking them might be
assigned, as prizes for scholarship, to a cer-
EAST IN DIA COMPANY. 321
tain number of the most respectable schools in
Great Britain and Ireland: or the writerships
might be distributed among the mayors of a
certain number of the most considerable cities
and boroughs in Great Britain and Ireland, at
the rate of one to each yearly : or the power
of nominating to civil, military, and medical
appointments might be conferred on the local
governors, with this restriction, that the person
so appointed should have resided in India
since he attained the twenty-first year of his
age, and that his appointment did not violate
the just claims and expectations of any indi-
vidual or body of men. Other restrictions
and other plans may be suggested, but it is
hoped enough has been said to show that no
objection can be weaker, no alarm more
groundless, than that which we have been
combating.
It follows, from the preceding observations,
that the next objection, viz. that laws to re-
strain the abuse of patronage by the local
governors would be ineffectual, because par-
liament being corrupted would have lost its
power to enforce the observance of them,--has
been already answered. If the integrity of
parliamentary controul would be by no means
impaired, if the balance of the constitution
Y
322 A BOLITION OF THE
would be undisturbed by the abolition of the
Company, (a balance which is continually ex-
posed to the action of so many more powerful
causes,) then we should continue to possess
the same security for the exaction of responsi-
bility from governors which we have at present:
but, in truth, we should acquire more and greater
securities. The colony would look after its
own welfare. There would arise an authority
more interested and better qualified to inspect
the local administration than any which now
exists. It is vain to suppose, as Mr. Grant
truly observes, that “ the empire of India
“ can be minutely inspected by large delibe-
“ rative assemblies meeting in a distant quar-
“ter of the globe, and intent on an innume-
“rable variety of concerns nearer home.”*
Therefore is it necessary studiously to promote
the strength of the local public, to which we
may confide the closest scrutiny into Indian
affairs, reserving for the decision of parlia-
ment only those great and rare questions
which should be worthy of so high an
arbiter. -
While India would thus be protected with
:::: Expediency, p. 3()3.
EAST INDIA COMPANY. 323
stronger safeguards on the virtues of the go-
vernment, her internal resources would be so
greatly increased, and her internal security so
much improved, that government might safely
dispense with some part of that extreme
anxiety in the selection of agents, and that
nice weighing of concurrent pretensions, which
the delicate and precarious nature of our
tenure, under the present system, renders
necessary. The safety, the existence, of the
state would cease to depend on the accidents
of extraordinary discernment into human
character,-on promptitude of just decision in
moments of critical emergency, —on the ca-
price of fortune in promoting and degrading
dynasties whose foundations are not laid broad
and deep in the nature of things.
There is one claim of the Company which
I know not how to state in intelligible lan-
guage: it is a claim to a sort of sov EREIGNTY.
They say they have a perpetual right to ap-
point governors, to build and maintain forts,
to muster forces by sea and land, to coin
money, and to erect courts of judicature.”
* Short Hist. of the E. I. C. p. 16, 56. Letters of
Gracchus, in Pamphleteer, vol. i.
Y 2
324 A BOLITION OF THE
They say they hold one part of their territo-
ries by one tenure, and another by another;
one part (the northern Circars) as tributaries
to their vassal the Soubah of the Deccan ;
another part (Bengal) as grantees from their
pensioner the Mogul. At other times, they
say they “ do not claim the sovereignty of
“India, but only the territory.” But all
these rights are defeasible, it seems, for a pe-
cuniary consideration. Thus, “ if the sove-
“ reignty of the Isle of Man be estimated at
“ 3100,000, what may be the value of that
“ of British India?” iſ Without regard to
superior fertility, if we reckon the value of
the latter in proportion to its extent of surface,
which to that of the former is as 1200 to 1,
its sovereignty will be worth £120,000,000, a
sum which, if equally divided among the
3000 proprietors, would put £40,000, into
the pocket of each. Now there must occur to
all men a simple and equitable mode of an-
swering these claims. It is for the state to
resume all that has been from time to time de-
legated to the Company, the administration
* Letter from the Chairman, &c. 1813.
+ Dr. M'Lean Ap. Pamphleteer, vol. i. p. 236.
EA ST IN ID 1 A COMPANY. 325
of the revenues, the command of armies, the
erecting of courts of judicature, &c. Let the
state do all that is indisputably within the
competence of its sovereignty, and then let
the Company apply the residue of their sove-
reignty to whatever use they please. They
would probably find that there did not remain
with them even so much of the reality or
shadow of supremacy as there did with poor
Theodore, King of Corsica, when imprisoned
for debt in London. As to their right to the
territory, which would be a right not of re-
ceiving but of paying taxes, they must esta-
blish it by bringing actions, in His Majesty's
courts of justice, against each of the millions
of private proprietors among whom it is di-
vided.
It is needless to ask, whether the Company
would continue to trade, in their corporate
capacity, after the administration of the reve-
nues had been resumed, and the trade to
China thrown open. They would neither
have funds to trade with, nor would they so em-
ploy them if they had. These two measures
would, therefore, amount to a dissolution of
the Company; and, notwithstanding the inde-
finite claims to indemnification which the pro-
prietors throw out, their just claims are as dis-
326 ABO LITION OF THE
tinctly ascertainable as those of any other de-
scription of public creditors. They are en-
titled to their stock at its current value. A
more complicated question would be the appor-
tionment of debts and assets between England
and India. I have said enough in the second
chapter to show that, if England took the
whole upon herself, debts and assets, there
would still remain a vast balance due to India.
Because India has, during many years, paid
the interest of a debt contracted for commer-
cial purposes, that is surely no reason why
she should be charged with the redemption of
the capital. Nevertheless, I may venture to
say, that India will joyfully renounce all pre-
tensions of this sort, so that her facility on
that point shall expedite her separation from
the Company. Invigorated with new hopes
and a new political regimen, the debt will not
weigh a feather. Let India, therefore, take
the debt, and England the stock; and let the
assets, (not that ridiculous item of upwards of
$10,000,000, which stands in the Company's
books, under the head of dead stock, for mo-
ney expended out of the revenues on buildings,
fortifications, plate, furniture, pleasure-boats,
&c. since 1702, but) movable, tangible assets,
be divided between the two countries, in pro-
EAST IN D1A COMPANY. 327
portion to the amount of debt which shall de-
volve upon each.
The last topic that I shall urge in favour of
the abolition of the Company is, their (almost
avowed) incompetence to govern our extended
Indian empire. Conscious of their unfitness,
and dreading the financial consequences of
war, they have been unceasing and importu-
nate advocates for such an adherence to a non-
interfering and pacific system, as should con-
fine our territory in some sort of correspon-
dence with their limited capacity to manage
it. They wished that all beyond our frontier
should be reserved as an arena, wherein Mah-
rattas, Rajpoots, and Pindaries, should for
ever worry and destroy each other, unmindful
of the impossibility of guarding so extensive a
ring fence from their desultory irruptions, and
still more of the chance of their uniting in one
concerted attack on our provinces, in conse-
quence of the ascendancy of one or two supe-
rior spirits. That leaders capable of skilfully
combining their operations should arise was a
contingency to which we were always ex-
posed, so long as the perennial warfare, which
desolated central India, was permitted to ex-
tend its ravages, and increase its instruments,
328 A BOLITION OF THE
operations which were reciprocally to each
other as causes and effects.
The peace of Europe is maintained by
the balance of power. When that is disturbed
by the ambition of any one state, war is
kindled and rages without interruption, except
perhaps from nominal peaces, but real truces,
until the common enemy has been compelled
to renounce his schemes of aggrandisement,
and retire within his old frontier. Then its
several nations repose on the faith of treaties,
and still more on a conviction of the inutility
and danger of molesting their neighbours, for
a period of twenty or thirty years. The
temple of Janus is shut, and all Europe is
devoted to the cultivation of the arts of peace,
and to the pleasures and advantages of a
friendly intercourse among all its inhabitants.
But India has never been capable of main-
taining such a system of warlike or peaceful
relations. There never has been a balance,
nor talent, nor mutual confidence to preserve
it a moment if it had existed. The personal
character of a particular chieftain enabled
him to ascend a throne, and to subdue the
neighbouring princes. If his successor did
not degenerate he extended the limits of his
EAST IN DIA COMPANY. 32%)
kingdom by further conquests. If, on the
contrary, he inherited none of the eminent
qualities of his predecessor, he became him-
self the victim of more able chiefs, and ex-
piated the usurpations of his father. Thus
did the Anarch of old reign throughout the
peninsula, over an interminable chaos of jar-
ring elements, interminable, but by the per-
vading energy of one paramount state. Such
a steady compressive force is as beneficial
for India as the substitution of a monarchy
for a heptarchy was for England; and the
most flourishing periods which the former has
known under native rulers, have been those
when a Mogul emperor ruled with the most
undisputed sway.”
* “ Permettez moi de vous demander ce qui arriveroit
à l'empire des Chinois, si, sans rien changer a ses
moeurs, a ses loix, a ses coutumes, ni a son gouverne-
ment, vous partagiez seulement ses provinces en plu-
sieurs souveraintés indépendantes. Bientôt vous verrez
que ces moeurs, ces loix, ces coutumes, et ce gouverne-
ment que vous aimez tant, souffriront plusieurs altéra-
“tions. Tout l'édifice sera ébranlé. Des princes, dont
“les besoins seront plus grands que les richesses de leurs
sujets ne se trouveront plus dans cette abondance ras-
&
&
& 4
& 4
& 4
& &
&
&
330 A BOLITION () F THE
The circumstances which are leading the
British authority to a higher eminence than
the Mogul ever reached, are big with omens
“ sasiante, où est actuellement PEmpereur de la Chine.
“Les passions de tous ces princes dirigéront leur poli-
“ tique,” &c. &c. Mably, Doutes proposés au Phil.
Econom. Let. v. If Mr. MILL had given a plausible ac-
count of that strictly defensive system of politics which
the Directors patronize, I would have ventured, at the
risk of digression, to examine it; but what can one do
with such a tissue of puerilities as the following 7 On the
treaty of Basseen, he says, “The grand benefit held out
by the Governor-General is, that the Mahrattas would
be withheld from war. But this, if foreign war is
meant, the Mahrattas had always regarded, and, except
“ in a few instances, had always found, a source of
“ benefit rather than of harm. If internal wars are
“ meant, these, it is plain, would be as effectually pre-
“ vented, if the controul of Scindia, as if that of the
English, became complete over all the Mahratta states.”
iii. 604. At page 612, he shows that Scindia was inca-
pable of exercising such controul. Lord Wellesley
“ might have so terminated the subsisting disputes, as to
“ make the power of Scindia, the Peishwa, Holcar, and
the Raja of Berar, nearly equal. In the contests which
“ would of course prevail among them, the British go-
vernment, by always showing itself disposed to succour
the weakest party, might have possessed a pretty com-
plete security for maintaining the Mahratta empire, if
6
&
&
&
&
&
&
é
&
6
&
&
&
£
{
6
EAST IN 1) [A COMPANY. 33 I
of far other happiness and splendour than
could emanate from their sceptical bigotry.
But the Directors avert their aching eyes from
“ there had been any use in such a case, in the shape
“ which it had thus been intentionally made to assume.”
iii. 613. The drift of this passage seems to be, that we
had no interest in the dissensions or confederacies of the
Mahrattas, and that the mere signification of our dispo-
sition to interpose would be effectual, though we should
never back our remonstrances by deeds. “Additional
“ revenue is only useful when it is not balanced by an
“ equal increase of expense. The Governor-General
“ talks loudly of the additional revenue, but not a word
“ of the additional expense,” &c. iii. 66. So that if
the additional revenue support twenty additional batta-
lions, with an adequate civil establishment, such increase
of revenue is useless / there is no balance of hard money
for tribute “ In regard to the territory, it may, at any
“ rate be assumed as doubtful, whether, in the circum-
“ stances of the British state, at the time of the treaty
“ of Basseen, she could be rendered intrinsically stronger
“ by any accession of territory; since, by act of Parlia-
“ ment, THE QUESTION stands decided the opposite
“ way.” iii. 663. Here, a particular case, depending
upon its own circumstances, is “ said to be decided by
“ the opinion of parliament on an abstract question.”
Now, surely, it is not “a proposition which it will be
“easy to maintain, that a country is stronger with regard
332 A BOLITION OF THE
this prospect, and regret the good old times
when our compact investment-yielding ter-
ritory was more within the compass of their
“ to its neighbours, if it has its army dispersed in several
‘ countries, a considerable body of; it in one country,
“ and a considerable body in another, than if it had the
“ whole concentrated within itself, and skilfully placed
“ in the situation best calculated to overawe ANY neigh-
“bour from whom danger may be apprehended.” iii. 664.
This concentrated army would need to be well equipped
with seven-league boots, else it might be in the north
when its presence was required 500 miles to the southward.
“It is said that the position of the English subsidiary
‘ troops, with a native prince, imported the annihilation
“ or a great reduction of his own force; this, in the cir-
“cumstances of India, cannot be regarded as a matter
“ of almost any importance.” Ibid. A great diminution
in the number of non-productive labourers, and the con-
version of a mischievous, disorderly rabble into plough-
men and artizans, must be a matter of great importance.
“ It was in a short time, as we shall see, found by the
“ British government itself, that it could regard the pre-
“sence of the subsidiary troops as a very weak bridle
“ in the mouth of a native prince, when he began to
“ forget his own weakness. The weakness, in fact, was
“ the bridle. If he remained weak that was enough with-
“ out the subsidiary troops. If he grew strong, the sub-
‘sidiary troops, it was seen, would not long restrain
“ him.” Ibid. This reasoning will scarcely convince
§
&
*
EAST INDIA COMPANY. 333
superintendance. Amidst the congratulations
of more sanguine men they hold such lan-
guage as follows: “That a handful of fo-
& C
4 &
6 &
& 4
C &
& 4
& 4
reigners should, in our old and limited
possessions on the south-east of India,
where the people are more submissive, have
succeeded in establishing a quiet rule, is a
marvellous thing; but to establish our au-
thority over regions, comprehending in all,
perhaps, 80,000,000 of people, among
whom are many turbulent, unsettled tribes,
must be an achievement of far higher diffi-
culty. To MAINTAIN THIS v Ast Doy[1-
NION, W E HAVE, OF A LL DESCRIPTIONS
OF EUROPEANs, CIVIL AND MILITARY,
Not MoRE THAN 40,000. We are a people
altogether dissimilar to the natives in origin,
language, manners, customs, and religion,
and our government (our direct govern-
ment) over them is attended, perhaps ne-
those who impose, or those who receive, subsidiary de-
tachments, that they are not bridles. Since Mr. MILL is
an advocate for the colonization of India, I would not
willingly detract from the weight of his authority. Per-
haps, he is the only person who, holding such senti-
ments, is at the same time a zealous partizan of the
Company.
334 A Bo LITION of THE
“ cessarily, with this disadvantage, that offices
“ of trust and importance under it are not
“open to natives, Hindoo or Mahomedan.”
This little extract contains a complete syllabus
of all the dangers and evils which do really
beset our empire in India; and this represen-
tation comes from a strenuous opponent of
colonization | Can any exposition of an un-
sound state of things more clearly indicate
the means of counteraction? Is it possible to
display, in more forcible terms, the awful state
in which we are placed if we do not hasten
to reduce the disproportion between the go-
verning and the subject orders!
Another gentleman in the same debate more
explicitly confessed the inability of the Com-
pany to cope with the difficulties of their
present situation. “This,” said he, “I do
“ most conscientiously believe, that had it
“ been possible for the government of this
“ country to have combined with the noble
“ Marquis To overtHRow THE EAST INDIA
“ CoMPANY, and by that overthrow to place
“ the preponderating influence in the Crown,
&
* Speech of Mr. C. Grant, at the India House, Fe-
bruary 3, 1819.
EAST INDIA () () M P A NY. 335
“ which the present state of affairs in India
wrill necessarily produce, a more dangerous
wound could not have been inflicted on
our constitution, or surer means devised
to effect those objects than the steps
“ taken by the Marquis of Hastings in
“ India.”
The insufficiency of the Company, as an
organ for the government of India, results
from the incompatibility of their constitution,
not only with the colonial system which we
must speedily adopt, but with any course of
prudent or equitable administration as it re-
spects the natives, with distinct responsibility
as it respects England, or with that respect
which the European functionaries ought to
entertain for their nominal masters. It is no-
torious from the ever-renewed complaints of
the Directors, that the Governors-General not
only “evade or disobey” their positive orders,
whenever they think that the President of the
Board of Controul will support them, but con-
duct their whole administration in an opposite
spirit from that which would be acceptable to
them. According to Mr. Grant, “it is expe-
“ dient that the Directors should, in India,
“ be held up as the ostensible head of the
& 4
336 A B O LIT I O N OF THE
“ government.”.” He does not surely mean
in the eyes of the natives, for they have no
more idea of the difference between Company,
and ministers, and parliament, than a blind
man has of the difference of colours. And
yet it is as little probable that he should sup-
pose such deceit practicable on any European
in their service. The Company are without
the only two foundations, on which respect
to government can rest, the possession of
power, and the opinion of a right to power.
Every European in India knows that they
have not the substance, and few think that
they ought to be armed with the outward signs
of authority. But how much surer is this
knowledge, and how much more intense this
opinion, in the breast of him whom most of
all the “ ostensible” rulers would wish to
impress with opposite sentiments! Can he
who has been selected from the flower of a
nation's aristocracy, and who has established
the justest titles to his viceregal station, —
submit implicitly to the opinions and com-
mands of four-and-twenty citizens “ of credit
* Expediency, p. 48.
EAST IN DIA COMPANY. 337
“ and renown 2" To talk of “preserving,
“ cherishing, and enshrining,” such a system;
of “guarding it at once with the armour of
“ law and the enchantment of opinion,”* is
to war with the unconquerable instincts of
nature, the consenting testimony of experi-
ence, the plainest dictates of justice, the
irrefragable conclusions of political wisdom.
But the days are numbered during which it
will be permitted to cumber the ground. Al-
ready it begins to stagger, crack, and gape;
and whoever shall contribute to its entire
subversion, will deserve well of his country,
of India, and of mankind.
* Expediency, p. 387.
APPENDIX.
No. 1.
Ea:tract of a Letter from the Court of Directors of the
East India Company to the Governor-General in
Council in Bengal, in the Public Department, dated
6th September, 1813; with the Outline of the Plan
for keeping the Books of Account in India.
Paragraph 9. YoUR attention will be naturally drawn
to the general principles laid down in the Act for the fu-
ture administration of India; but the very marked differ-
ence between the provisions of it and those of the Act
of the thirty-third, as they relate to the conduct of the
financial departments of our governments, renders it
highly expedient that you should be furnished at the
earliest period practicable with our views and opinions
upon this branch of the subject, and such instructions as
at present appear to be requisite.
10. The most prominent feature of the difference now
made, and which will be the first object of remark, is the
Z 2
34() APPENDIX.
entire separation of the territorial or political from the
commercial branch of our affairs, as directed by the 64th
section. As very particular stress appears to have been
laid upon this point, for reasons not necessary at present
to be detailed, and as it is no less our earnest wish than
our positive duty to yield the most implicit obedience to
the directions of the legislature, we are extremely anxious
that such regulations should be framed, and such arrange-
ments made as shall most effectually accomplish the end
required. For this purpose the mode of keeping the
books of account at our several presidencies and settle-
ments is obviously a paramount object of attention. We
are aware of the difficulty of furnishing you with instruc-
tions which shall fully embrace every point of the detail
of this extensive subject, and that the completion of any
arrangement must in some measure be left to the exercise
of the practical knowledge and experience of your ac-
countant-general ; but we deem it of importance to ap-
prize you that it is indispensably necessary that measures
should be taken for keeping and arranging the several
books of account in the departments under your govern-
ment, so as to contain and exhibit the accounts of the
territorial and political departments separately and dis-
tinctly, from such as appertain to or are connected with
the commercial branch of our affairs, according to the
letter and the spirit of the Act; and it is highly essential
that the arrangements for this purpose at each of our
presidencies and settlements should, as far as practicable,
be carried into execution upon a principle of complete
uniformity.
11. We are led to hope that, from the mode in which
APPEND IX. 341
the books of account in India are already kept and
arranged, the diſliculty of effecting the separation now
directed will not be very considerable.
12. Our auditor of Indian accounts having, in pursuance
of our directions, laid before us a plan of the future mode
of keeping your books of account, a copy of the same is
sent a number in the packet, in order to be referred to
your accountant-general, who is to consider it as the ge-
neral outline or ground-work of the future arrangement
of those books ; but is nevertheless to be at liberty to
suggest any additions or alterations of the system thus
laid down, which may in his judgement have a tendency
to render it more complete.
13. According to the strict letter of the Act, the ope-
ration of this section, as well as of those relating to the
appropriation of the revenues, which will next be noticed,
must be considered as commencing after the 10th April,
1814. As your official year terminates the 30th April, it
does not appear necessary to make any of the alterations
in the general form of your books, till the opening of the
year 1814-15, but you will give the requisite directions,
that any advances that may have been made from the
political to the commercial department in the manner
hereafter directed, between the 10th and the 30th April,
1814, may be carried to account accordingly, and stand
as a debt to the latter department in the books of 1814-
15; so that it shall be practicable to present to Parliament
the account of the territorial and commercial transactions,
completely contradistinguished from each other, at the
period required by the Act.
14. The next point of difference in principle from the
342 A PPEN ID IX.
former Act to which your attention must be very specially
directed, is in the 55th and 56th sections of the present
Act, respecting the appropriation of the revenues and
profits of our territorial possessions and the funds which
are assigned as immediately applicable to the purchase of
investments or the purposes of commerce.
15. You will observe, by the 55th section, that the
territorial revenues and profits are first to be appropria-
ted to defray the several descriptions of charge, which
are enumerated under their respective heads, viz.
The charges and expenses of collecting the revenues.
The military establishments.
The interest upon the debts.
The civil and commercial establishments, and the terri-
torial charges paid in Europe, or the advances made
in Europe on account of territorial charges.
16. The surplus which shall result, after defraying all
these charges, is to be applied to the liquidation of ter-
ritorial debt, or of the bond debt, in England, or to such
other purposes as we may think proper to direct from time
to time. This is the general outline of the appropriations
to be hereafter made.
17. The appropriation now prescribed differs from that
prescribed by the Act of the 33d, principally in the mode
of advance and in the extent of what is to be issued in
each year for the purchase of investment, the Act of the
33d directing it to be made in a specific sum from surplus
revenue; whereas the whole amount to be issued in
India, for the purposes of commerce, in the purchase of
investment in India or China, is in future to be regulated
by the actual payments which shall have been made in
APPENDIX. 343
England, during the year preceding, from our commer-
cial funds, on account of territorial charges.
18. We cannot more distinctly explain our views of
the construction of the sections of the Act, which have
now been brought under notice, than by observing that,
although the management of the whole, as one concern,
remains with us, it is requisite that the political branch
should be considered as an affair of government, the com-
mercial as that of a mercantile transaction, and by debit-
ing and crediting in account the transactions between
them, in advances and supplies, as if they were absolutely
distinct and separate concerns; so that accounts of receipt,
expenditure, and balance, may be duly rendered by each
respectively in the way required by Parliament.
19. The sections of the Act now passed, relating to
the finances, appear to us to have been founded upon the
positive assumption, that, during peace at least, the
revenues of the territorial or political branch will be fully
sufficient not only to defray its own charges both at home
and abroad, but to furnish a surplus applicable to the re-
duction of the debt; and that the ultimate proceeds or
profits of the commercial branch will likewise amount to
a sum exceeding what shall be required for the liquidation
of all demands of a commercial nature, including the
dividends on the capital stock and the interest upon the
bond debt in England.
20. The effectual accomplishment of these objects is
of the highest importance to the future prosperity of our
affairs, and, in so far as respects the political branch
particularly, is viewed by us with the utmost solicitude
and anxiety. The result of the actual accounts of revenue
344 A PPF. ND IX.
and charge in the year 1811-12, as advised in your letter,
from the financial department, dated 21st November,
1812, is highly satisfactory to us; and although the sur-
plus, estimated for the year 1812-13, in the same letter,
falls far short of that of the preceding year, we trust that
the expectations held out by you, that the actual surplus
will not be less than a million sterling, will be fully realized.
We propose communicating in the next despatch our
orders relative to the branches of the Indian establish-
ments, which, in our judgement, are susceptible of reform,
and to furnish you with an accurate estimate of what may
be the future amount of the advances to be made in Eng-
land on account of the territorial charges ; but we cannot
defer impressing most distinctly upon your attention the
necessity of the utmost vigilance that the revenues be duly
realized and brought into our treasuries; and, as to the
charges, not only that an increase may by every possible
means be avoided, but that every measure, consistent
with the security of the empire, be resorted to for their
retrenchment. The surplus revenue of a million will not
be sufficient to defray the advances required in England,
including the charge of interest, &c. produced by the
loan of £2,500,000 from the public in the year 1812; it
is therefore perfectly clear to us that, unless a reduction
of expenditure to the amount of £500,000 annually can
be accomplished, the expectation of Parliament as to the
liquidation of debt will not only be disappointed, but the
recurrence of war would be productive of the most disas-
trous consequences.
21. As directly applicable to the term “surplus reve-
nue,” we deem it proper to observe for your future
A PP E N ID IX. 345
guidance, that the view of the surplus produce of the ter-
ritorial revenues cannot be reckoned complete till the
whole amount of political charges, incurred both in India
and in England, shall be brought to account. You will
be furnished, in due time, with an account of the political
charges incurred in England; but you will, nevertheless,
continue as formerly to cause to be drawn up, and for-
warded to us, the annual statements of the revenues and
charges, showing the actual result in India in each year;
also estimates of succeeding years, accompanied with the
fullest explanation of the causes of variations which shall
appear on the comparison of the actual accounts with the
estimates for the year to which they relate, or in the esti-
mates of the following years, compared with the actual
accounts of the past.
22. With respect to the commercial branch, we strictly
enjoin your scrupulous attention to its economy and ma-
nagement, not only as it may be connected with the pro-
per application and employment of our own funds, but as
it may be affected by the enlarged or general competition,
which is now admitted into the trade of India.
23. You will, from time to time, be furnished with our
orders upon this subject: but we cannot omit, on the
present occasion, expressing our expectation, that all our
servants shall conduct themselves with liberality and can-
dour, and act up to the full spirit of the legislature; so
that, if the traders should be disappointed in their views,
they may have no ground for imputing their disappoint-
ments to any deviation on our part, from the principle
upon which the trade is opened to them.
24. The difficulty of the process in the separation of
346 A PPE N I) IX,
the accounts at the winding-up of the expiring period
may, in some degree, be increased by our orders of the
9th April, 1813, for the investment to be provided in the
year 1814, which exceed the amount in the contempla-
tion of the act since passed. The sums advanced, in
consequence of these orders, will of course be brought to
account, and must be hereafter adjusted with the amount
of the advances or payments made from our treasury in
England, on account of the territorial or political con-
cern ; and in whatever amount the advance made by that
concern in India, in 1814, shall exceed the payment made
in England, such excess must be debited in India to the
commercial branch.
25. Our instructions, for the provision of the invest-
ment of the year 1815, will be forwarded at a proper
time. We propose, upon another occasion, to state more
specifically, in detail, our views and intentions respecting
the management of our commercial affairs; for the pre-
sent, we shall only advert to our former observation, that
the description of funds, which will be hereafter imme-
diately applicable in India to the purposes of com-
merce, is,
First. The repayment of advances made in England
from our commercial funds, for expenses chargeable to
the territories, according to the amount to be advised by
us, deducting therefrom the charges of the commercial
establishments, and all the commercial charges in India,
which may have been paid from the territorial revenues
or the political funds, in the same year. We shall advise
you of the principle upon which this deduction is to be
made.
A PP EN DIX. 347
Secondly. The produce of the sale of exports of goods
and merchandize, consigned directly to our commercial
boards, with any other fund, strictly of a commercial na-
ture, that may come into the possession of those boards:
you will receive our instructions as to the detailed appli-
cation of those funds in the purchase of investments in
India; also, as to the amount to be remitted to China,
for the purchase of investments there.
26. It is necessary to draw your particular attention to
the money which may remain in the Indian treasuries, in
consequence of the loans having been raised upon terms,
under which the holders of public securities are entitled,
at their option, to demand the payment of the interest,
falling due half-yearly, in bills upon us at a specific rate
of exchange. The uncertainty of the amount to which,
from various causes, the exercise of this option may be
carried, renders it extremely difficult, and almost imprac-
ticable, to establish any plan of remittance upon a regular
principle ; this money originating in, and proceeding from,
an appropriation of territorial revenue, is to be consi-
dered strictly of apolitical nature, and as a species of de-
posit in your treasury, for the purposes of remittance to
England for the payment of the bills, which are as strictly
a political demand upon our home treasury. With this
view, when the payment of the half-yearly interest upon
the debt is demanded in bills upon us, you will immedi-
ately, upon the issue of those bills, uniformly set apart a
sum equal to their amount, in order to its being remitted
to us for the supply of our treasury at home; for, not-
withstanding the provision in the 58th section of the
act, for the protection of our commercial funds in Eng-
348 A PP E N DIX.
land, from the embarrassment which would be occasioned
if those bills fell, in course of payment, without the re-
mittance of funds from India to meet them, it is of essen-
tial moment that every practicable measure be resorted
to, in order that a due supply may be thrown into our
home treasury. And here we would strongly express the
anxiety we feel, that our financial system may be brought
to that state of arrangement that application to parlia-
ment, for pecuniary assistance, may in no case be requi-
site, except upon extraordinary occasions, arising from
political or other contingencies, which no human foresight
or management could provide against.
27. Having laid down, as a general principle, that,
in our judgement, the money, which is now the object of
remark, is purely political in its nature, we have further
to add, that the disposal of it, in the way of remittance,
is to be regulated according to a plan, the general outline
of which we now proceed to communicate :-
First. In advances to the public service, repayable by
his Majesty's Government in England. This being a
mode of remittance advantageous both to the Government
and to the Company, you will avail yourselves of it to the
utmost extent of the demands which may arise, taking
measures that the advances in cash made by you be regu-
larly vouched; also, that the account of every expendi-
ture, chargeable either in supply of stores, &c. or in dis-
bursements on account of Government, be drawn up with
the utmost precision, and transmitted to us, signed by a
responsible officer. Measures are in concert with his
Majesty's Government for a definitive arrangement of
this subject, which will be hereafter communicated to
A PPEN DIX. 349
you ; but you will, for the present, follow the instructions
which are now given, and charge the advances and sup-
plies in the current coin of the Presidency and Settle-
ment where they are made.
28. Secondly. The second mode of remittance that has
been suggested to us, is through the channel of private
merchants or individuals, and this in two ways:—
First. In the receipt of monies from such merchants or
individuals, into our treasury in England, for bills upon
our governments in India.
Secondly. In advances, by our governments in India,
to such merchants or individuals as may require them,
for bills on their agents in England, to be offered upon
the positive consideration, that the amount advanced is
to be employed in the purchase of goods and merchan-
dize in India, to be consigned to some port of the United
Kingdom.
29. Having thus explained the general outline of the
plan, at present in our contemplation, as applicable to
this remittance, we have only to add, that we are fully
aware that no less uncertainty attaches to the extent
to which the plan itself may operate than to the
amount of the fund for which its operation may be re-
quired. We must be governed by circumstances as they
occur, and shall furnish you with our instructions from
time to time. For the present you will proceed in
making advances to the public service as first directed,
and in making trial of the proposition as to advances in
cash to private merchants and individuals, upon the prin-
ciple now laid down, taking every possible care that no
loss be incurred in the rate of exchange, or by the tenor
350 APPENDIX.
at which the bills shall be drawn; and especially guard-
ing that substantial security be taken from the indivi-
duals to whom the advances may be made, either by the
consignment of the goods to the port of London, to be
deposited in our warehouses, or by such other securities
as you may deem sufficient. You will likewise, as a se-
curity against risk, require that the consignments shall
be insured, and the policies placed in your hands till
advice shall be received of the payment of the bills.
30. You will take into early consideration the manner
in which this measure should be announced to the public,
with a view to the general accommodation, and for the
purpose of your being apprised in time of the extent of
the applications that may be made; for, if the amount in
which the private merchants shall be disposed to avail
themselves of this mode of accommodation shall fall short
of the sum required to be remitted, after the advances
shall have been made to the public service, and the bills
drawn by us shall have been paid, the amount of the re-
mittance must be absolutely and fully carried into effect,
to the extent that bills may have been drawn upon us for
the interest on the debts ; and you must, therefore, as a
dernier resort, have recourse to the measure of further
advances to our commercial department, for the purchase
of goods for consignment to us, to the amount of the de-
ficiency which shall be found to exist, in consequence of
the failure of demand by the parties as now adverted to,
unless the situation of the money-market in India shall
render it safe or eligible to make an occasional consign-
ment of bullion.
31. In the event of a remittance being made through
APPENDIX. 351
the channel of our commerce, the transaction must be
considered entirely distinct and separate from our own
immediate commercial proceedings, and brought to ac-
count accordingly. A separate invoice of the goods pur-
chased by the advance thus made must be transmitted,
as the proceeds in England are to be carried to account
in direct connection with the political branch of our con-
cern being solely applicable to the liquidation of bills of
a political mature.
32. You will of course regulate the remittance from
year to year, as far as possible, by the amount which shall
be required. If in any year it should occur, that remit-
tances shall have been granted to individuals in excess of
that amount, you will, in such case, make a proportionate
reduction in the next year.
33. The amount for which remittance will be required,
must ever be liable to great fluctuation, principally from
the course of exchange, and the demand that shall exist
for cash at our presidencies.
Outline of a Plan for keeping the Books and Accounts of
the several Presidencies in India, in conformity with
the Directions of the Act of the 53d of His present
Majesty, cap. 155, sect. 64.—(Referred to in the
preceding Extract, para. 12.)
The General Books which, as the title imports, exhibit
the particulars of the pecuniary affairs of the Govern-
ments in all their branches, to be continued so far as re-
gards the details of the territorial and political transac-
352 - A PPF N DIX.
tions of the Company. The commercial concerns to be
entered on those books only in abstract.
A set of books to be opened, entitled “The Journal
and Ledger of the Commercial Concerns of the East
India Company,” in which every transaction relative to
those concerns is to be entered in detail.
The General Journal and Ledger will contain the de-
tail of all the accounts relative to the following depart-
ments of the service :-
First. The General Department, comprehending all
matters relative to the political concerns of the Company,
the Mint and Post-Office revenues and expenses, and the
other offices classed under this department in the book of
civil establishments; except the establishments of the
supreme court, the justices of peace and coroner, which
more properly fall under the Judicial Department; and
the Nizamut, and other stipends and allowances, which
are charges upon the revenues, and should come under
the Revenue Department. In regard to the stipends to
the King, &c. at Delhi, these are at present charged
against the revenues, although in the book of establish-
ments they stand under the general branch.
Second. The Judicial Department, including the
Supreme Court, &c. as above.
Third. The Revenue Department, including the sti-
pends, &c. as above, and customs. Under this depart-
ment, the salt and opium may also be included, as there
does not appear to be any cogent reason against re-trans-
ferring the management of these articles to the Board of
Revenue: on this point, however, the opinion of the
Governor-General in Council should be taken.
A PPENDIX. 353
Fourth. The Marine Department. The foregoing
comprise the civil branches of the service, included under
the territorial and political concerns.
The Military Department is a separate head compre-
hended in those concerns; but it is not intended that the
military disbursements should appear in detail on the
general books; these may continue under their present
form and mode.
The General Journal and Leger should contain a
head of Commercial Department, under which all receipts
and advances from, to, or on account of, that department
are to be entered.
The Commercial Journal and Leger should, in like
manner, contain a head of General Books, showing the
corresponding debits and credits of the territorial and
political concerns.
The accounts of receipts and disbursements annually
sent to Europe, should be framed on similar principles,
in such a manner as to show the distinction between the
territorial and political and the commercial transactions
of the government in the two branches.
The quick stock accounts to be framed on the same
principles. One statement, as at present, may contain
the whole of the debts and assets, although to be divided
under the two branches.
In the first place, the balance of property of every de-
scription remaining on the 10th or 30th April, 1814, in
every department under the government, is to be stated
in detail, distinctly and separately under the two heads of
territorial and political and commercial; the quarterly
2 A
354 A PPE N DIX.
accounts thereafter will of course be framed on the same
principles.
The dead stock accounts to be formed in the same
Iſlanner.
The foregoing observations are more particularly appli-
cable to the accounts of Bengal; but the same principles
are to be attended to at the other presidencies, as far as
circumstances will admit; it being distinctly understood
that one uniform system, both in principle and detail, is
to govern in the method of keeping the accounts of all
the presidencies.
For this purpose it is extremely desirable that the mode
of bringing the account on the Bengal general books, the
revenues of the provinces and the customs, should be
followed at Madras and Bombay ; to effect which it will
be necessary to forward, from Bengal to the other presi-
dencies, copies of those parts of the general books which
relate to the revenues and customs. Any further direc-
tions which may be requisite to produce a conformity in
the books of the two presidencies with those of Bengal,
in other articles, may also be supplied from the latter.
Whatever instructions may be necessary regarding the
method of keeping the accounts at Prince of Wales
Island and Fort Marlbrough, upon the plan above
sketched out, will be furnished from Bengal.
East India-House,
August, 1813.
A PPENDIX. 355
Plan for keeping and arranging the Books of Account
of the East India Company in England, that the
said Books shall contain and exhibit the Accounts of
the Territorial and Political Departments separately
and distinctly from such as appertain to or are con-
nected with the Commercial Branch of their Affairs;
submitted by the Court of Directors of the said Company
to the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India,
for their Approbation, in conformity to the Provisions
of the Act of the 53d of the King, cap. 155, sec. 64;
together with the Alterations, Amendments, and Addi-
tions, made by the said Board, in the manner also pro-
vided in the said Act.
PLAN,
As originally submitted by the Court.
ALTERATIONS, AMENDMENTS
and ADDITIONS,
By the Board of Commissioners.
Classification and Allotment
of Charges.
Territorial and Political
Charges.
Political Charges General.
Commissioners for the af-
fairs of India.
Raising of recruits and
cadets.
Tradesmen’s bills for re-
pairs to the house, coals,
candles, house - expenses,
one-half.
2 A 2
356
APPENDIX.
Law charges ; one-half.
Packets overland.
Military fund.
Annuitants and pension-
ers ; all granted for political
services.
Directors’ gratuities; one-
half.
Salaries and gratuities to
the officers of the house.
Secretary's office; two-
thirds.
Treasury; one-fourth.
Accountant's office; one-
fourth.
Examiner's office ;
whole.
Auditor's office; ditto.
the
Freight office; one-fourth.
Historiographer ; the
whole. -
Librarian; ditto.
Book-office; one-half.
Counseller; ditto.
Solicitor; ditto.
Paymaster of seamen's
wages; one-fourth.
Shipping; ditto.
Law charges. – The ex-
pense incurred under this
head, whether for actions
at law or otherwise, relating
to the political department,
to be distinctly and sepa-
rately brought to account.
Freight office to be wholly
chargeable to the commer-
cial department.
Paymaster of seamen's
wages to be wholly charge-
able to the commercial de-
partment.
Shipping, ditto, ditto.
A 12 PEN DIX. 357
Military stores; the whole.
Military fund ; ditto.
Doorkeepers; two-thirds.
Military Secretary ; the
whole.
Assistant; ditto.
Extra clerks ; two-thirds.
Fire-lighters and porters;
one-half.
Military officers and sol-
diers; sundries for provision
on the outward voyage to
India.
East India volunteer re-
giments.
Sundries for passage-mo-
ney to India.
Company's stud.
Subscriptions to charities
and on public occasions;
one-half.
Clerks in the house, for
extra attendance ; in the
same proportion as the sala-
ries.
The expense of the volun-
teer regiments to be equally
divided between the politi-
cal and the commercial de-
partments.
Admitted, as far as relates
to the political service.
358
APPEN DIX.
Military seminary; the
whole except the building.
East India College; ditto.
Examining military stores.
Adjustment of Indian ac-
counts, and payments on
account of India.
Money advanced per order
of the Secret Committee.
Bengal Orphan Society.
Commissioners for adju-
dicating Carnatic debts.
Depôt at the Isle of
Wight.
Stationery for home use ;
one-half.
Persian embassy and sub-
sidy.
Fees on brevet commis-
sions.
Madras Military Fund.
Batta to King's naval
officers serving in India,
East India College.—The
expense to be charged to
the commercial department,
in the proportion the number
of servants of that depart-
ment bears to that of the
political department on the
Indian establishments.
Approved, so far as may
relate to the political de-
partment.
A P P E N ID IX.
Taxes for the house ; one
half.
Prisoners of war.
Passage of Military to
India, including tonnage
occupied by the troops.
Political Freight and
Demurrage.
Demurrage previous to
leaving England, where the
same has been incurred by
waiting for troops or stores
belonging to government.
Approved; but the Board
require an account to be
annually laid before them, at
the commencement of the
season, of the rate propo-
sed to be charged for the
passage of each officer and
soldier to India, showing
the several items of which
that rate is composed; also,
the
number of military actually
conveyed to India in the
Company's ships in each
season, with the charge on
account thereof: distinguish-
ing his Majesty's from the
Company’s troops ; distin-
an account showing
guishing likewise officers
and privates.
The Board approve, as a
general principle, of the
commercial department be-
ing reimbursed every ex-
pense bond fide and actually
360
A PPEN L) IX.
incurred by the provision of
tonnage for the conveyance
of troops or stores to India:
but considering the charge
in question to be immedi-
ately applicable to or con-
nected with the Company's
political government, they
think proper to direct that
arrangements be made to
avoid, as far as practicable,
this charge. As the em-
barkation of his Majesty's
troops for the Company’s
service, that the depart-
ments of government give
timely notice to the Court
of Directors of the number
of troops intended to be
sent to India in each sea-
son ; and that the Court in
due time apprize those de-
partments of the periods
after which the ships would
be subject to the charge of
demurrage. With respect
to the Company’s own troops,
it is presumed to be per-
fectly within the power of
the Court to prevent the
necessity of incurring the
charge.
*
A PPEN DIX,
361
Passage of troops; char-
ter-party passengers.
Freight of tonnage al-
lowed; ditto.
Victualling, ditto.
Amount of freight paid
by the Company, for ton-
mage reserved for the ac-
commodation of troops.
Admitted; but an account
to be annually laid before
the Board, showing dis-
tinctly the expense incurred
on these accounts ; also,
the number and description
of charter-party passengers,
with the rate of charge for
each, under their respective
heads.
According to the general
principle already admitted,
expense actually incurred
by the commercial depart-
ment is to be repaid :—as
to tonnage expressly reser-
ved for, and occupied by
troops, there can be no
question; but the rate of
the freight must be annually
reported to the Board, as
before required. As to
tonnage reserved, but not
occupied in consequence of
the embarkation being coun-
termanded, the Board can-
not admit the charge, unless
it shall be made to appear
that a positive loss or ex-
pense has been incurred by
362
A PPE N ID IX.
Amount of freight paid
by the Company, in conse-
quence of the ship being
employed as a packet or
cartel.
Demurrage for time em-
ployed in public service, or
in carrying troops or stores
from one port to another in
India; and
Freight paid for tonnage
of troops, military stores,
&c. from one port to another
in India.
the commercial department;
and that it was found neces-
sary to occupy extra ton-
nage, or to charter more
ships in consequence of the
reserve for the conveyance
of troops.
Admitted ; with the un-
derstanding that the propo-
sition has no reference to
despatches or letters for-
warded to or from India by
the Company's ships in the
usual course.
Admitted ; provided the
commercial department ac-
tually incurs expense or loss
by the ships being detained
or employed for the purposes
now stated, but not other-
wise. If ships are proceed-
ing from one port to another
in India, unoccupied by
merchandize, and no extra-
ordinary freight or demur-
rage is paid to the owners
in consequence of the con-
veyance of troops or stores,
no charge should be borne
by the political department,
A PP E N IX IX.
363
Freight of stores consign-
ed to St. Helena. Demur-
rage for deviation to St.
Helena, and for detention
there delivering stores, out-
ward-bound.
Freight on government-
St0reS.
except for the victualling
the troops or shipping the
stores, according to long-
accustomed usage.
At a rate to be reported
to the Board from year to
year. If the Company have
dealings at St. Helena in
the export of goods for sale,
a proportion of the demur-
rage should be charged to
the commerce. Positive
orders should be given to
the government of St. He-
lena to adopt every measure
to prevent a longer deten-
tion of the ship at the island
than absolutely requisite for
the delivery of the stores.
The freight on govern-
ment-stores being repayable
by his Majesty's govern-
ment in England, cannot be
classed with the head of
political freight and demur-
rage, which forms a part of
the territorial charge to be
A discus-
sion having taken place
repaid in India.
364
A PPENDIX.
Interest on the Debts of the
Nabob of Arcot.
with the Right Honourable
the Secretary of State for
the War Department, re-
specting the conveyance of
troops and stores for go-
vernment on the Company’s
ships, and the general prin-
ciple admitted that prefer-
ence should be given to
these ships, over those of
private individuals, pro-
vided the charge is equally
reasonable; it will rest with
the Court to adopt the re-
quisite measures with the
public offices, in order to
accomplish a definitive ar-
rangement on this subject.
Admitted to be political;
but the Board desire to be
furnished with an account
of the actual amount of the
funds this purpose,
arising either from annual
receipts from the Carnatic
revenue, or the interest upon
the amount of them : also
the specific application of the
same in India and England,
whether in liquidation of
for
A PPEN ID IX.
365
Pay to Military Officers on
Furlough and Retirement.
Pay-Office-General for re-
cruiting King's Regiments
serving in India.
charges incurred by the
commissioners, or in pay-
ment of the principal or in-
terest of the claims already
adjudicated by the said com-
missioners, made up to the
latest period practicable;
also, that an account of a
similar description be fur-
nished annually.
Approved; but a detailed
statement of the payments
on this account to be an-
nually laid before the Board.
The repayment of this
disbursement to the com-
mercial departmentin India,
depending on the actual ad-
vance of the money by the
Company's treasury in Eng-
land, an arrangement must
be made with the office of
his Majesty's paymaster-
general, respecting the pe-
riods of payment, so as that
the demands of that office
may be regularly brought
forward and liquidated with-
in the Company's official
year of account.
366
A PPE NIO IX.
Interest on the Loan of
.62,500,000from the Pub-
lic and Sinking Fund.
Eapenses of St. Helena, pay-
able in England.
Expenses of Prince of Wales
Island, payable in Eng-
land.
Eapenses of Bencoolen, ditto.
This payment should be
regularly brought to account,
distinguishing interest and
sinking fund.
Approved. The revenues
at present existing, with
whatever new duties may be
levied, to be applicable to
the expenses. The corre-
spondence relating to the
affairs of this island, to be
hereafter submitted to the
consideration of the Board
of Commissioners, in like
manner with that relating to
the other political concerns
of the Company.
An adjustment must be
made of the expenses of the
island; and such part as may
appear to be of a commercial
nature carried to account .
accordingly.
An adjustment to be like-
wise made of the expenses
of this settlement; the mili-
tary establishment, after de-
ducting the revenues, to be
charged to the political de-
AIP Pº N DIX.
367
Military and GarrisonStores
to be exported.
Cost.
Freight on ditto.
Interest.
Charges.
partment, and the civil esta-
blishment to the commer- .
cial.
Marine or naval stores for
the Company's marine esta-
blishments are supposed
to be comprized with the
military and garrison stores.
The Board rely that the ut-
most attention be paid, that
the indents from India for
stores be limited to the an-
nual demands of the service,
as far as prudent and prac-
ticable, so that expense be
not incurred by the accumu-
lation in the arsenals. Eco-
nomy in the purchases is
evidently an essential point
of attention. The freight
will be charged at the rate
charged on the Company's
staple exports, or in an
equitable proportion, ac-
cording to the articles. The
interest on the actual outlay
of the money, and the rate
of the charges on the in-
voices, similar to that on the
Company's exports.
368
APPENDIX.
SUGGESTIONS by the COURT,
In regard to the Preparation of
Accounts under the New Charter.
1. It is submitted, that
the profit and loss accounts
be made up in the respec-
tive sales as heretofore; that
the profit which shall be
apparent in the March and
September sales, 1814, shall
be the funds whereout the
dividends, due in July,
1815, and January, 1816,
shall be paid. The same
system to be observed in
each subsequent year, so
that the dividends shall be
payable out of the profits
arising in the preceding
year.
REMARKS, ALTERATIONS,
AMENDMENTS, & ADDITIONS,
By the Board of Commissioners.
As the appropriation of
the profits of the year, in
the manner suggested by
the Court, appears to be
the only practicable mode
by which the directions of
the act can be carried into
operation, the Board ap-
prove the same, premising
that the dividends on the
capital stock, due in July,
1814, and January, 1815,
will be paid from funds
arising from profits in the
sales of March and Sep-
1813; but they
think proper to call the at-
tention of the Court to the
tember,
necessity of giving direc-
tions, that the accounts
which must be required,
according to the 57th and
58th sections of the act of
the 53d of the King, be
annually prepared with
every degree of precision,
in order to show the suffi-
A PPENDIX.
369
2. That the political pay-
ments, which shall be made
in England in the year 30th
April, 1814, to 30th April,
1815, added to the amount
of exports in the year 1814-
15, be considered as con-
stituting the funds which
will be applicable to the
provision of cargoes to re-
turn to England in the
year 1816.
3. That the general stock
account of the Company,
called stock per computa-
tion, which has been here-
tofore made up to the 1st
March in each year, shall,
in future, be made up to
ciency, or otherwise, of the
funds, for the purposes
therein specified.
Approved ; as the sug-
gestion appears to be in
conformity to the letter and
spirit of the 50th section
of the act, so far as re-
spects the year which is
specified. The commence-
ment of the new system is
prescribed to be the 10th
April, 1814, both for India
and England. The process
in the first year must, there-
fore, necessarily be on esti-
mate, and adjustments must
afterwards be made of the
advances and payments in
the commercial department,
in the manner provided for
in the same section.
The act of the 54th of
the King, cap. 36, sec. 55,
provides for the alteration
of the period of making up
the accounts. The distinct
exhibition of territorial
debts and assets, contradis-
2 B
370
APPENDIX.
the 1st May; and that the
home-accounts, as well as
the quick-stock accounts
of the several presidencies
of India, do distinctly ex-
hibit the statement of ter-
ritorial debts and assets,
contradistinguished from
commercial debts and as-
sets ; and also, that the an-
nual account, which, in vir-
tue of acts of parliament
now in force, is directed to
be made up to the 1st March
in each year, be, in future,
made up to the 1st May.
To effect this alteration, a
new parliamentary enact-
ment will become neces-
Sary.
4. That an account be
opened in the leger, under
the head of “Territorial
Account,” which will con-
tain, on the debit side, the
amount of all payments
made in England on that
account; and, on the credit.
side, the payment by India,
of these advances either by
tinguished from commer-
cial debts and assets, as
now proposed, is fully ap-
proved; and the Board are
very desirous that instruc-
tions be sent to the Indian
governments to give the
most positive directions to
the departments of account,
relating to the transmission
of documents required for
the preparation of accounts
in England, so that they
may be presented to parlia-
ment within the time re-
quired by the act.
Approved; on the as-
sumption that it is combined
with such arrangements of
detail as shall enable the
Company, from time to
time, to furnish such dis-
tinct accounts relating to
the several branches of the
political department, both
as to debts and assets, and
APPENDIX.
371
issues to the commercial
boards in India, or by any
other means.
receipt and expenditure,
as are or may be required
by parliament, or called for
by the Board. It being
understood, that the ac-
count of the payments in
England, for territorial
charges to be repaid in
India, according to the pro-
vision of the 54th section of
the act of the 53d, will be
drawn up or calculated from
the debit side of this gene-
ral head; and as the rate
of exchange, at which the
payment in sterling shall be
converted into Indian cur-
rency, is not provided for
in the said act, the Board
deem it eligible and proper
to determine, that the ex-
change shall be at the same
rates which have obtained
and been sanctioned by the
usage of parliament, as well
in fixing of salaries, and in
the settlement of accounts
between the public and the
Company, as in the accounts
which have annually been
presented to, or brought to
2 B 2
372
APPEN DIX.
5. That an account be
opened under the head of
bills of exchange, drawn
from India on account of
the interest of Indian debt;
the debit side to exhibit
the amount of payments
made in England by the
Company, in each year on
such account. The credit
side to exhibit, 1st. The
amount of monies that may
be received in England in
re-payment of advances
made in India on account
of his Majesty's govern-
ment.—2dly. The amount
of monies that may be re-
ceived in England for bills
to be drawn on India.--
3dly. The amount of bills
of exchange, drawn in the
Company's favour, for ad-
the view of parliament, for
a long series of years, viz.
2s. the current rupee,
calculated at 16 per cent.
less than the sicca rupee.
8s. the pagoda.
2s.3d. the Bombay rupee.
The Board fully approve
the keeping the transac-
tions, to which this head of
account applies, entirely
distinct and separate from
that of the general territo-
rial account. The manner
of debiting the payments
in England under this head,
as now proposed, is correct.
The formation of the credit
side, by bringing to account
the remittances through the
four modes which are point-
ed out, calls for no further
remark as to the three first,
than as it may relate to the
uncertainty of their amount
respectively, from being ex-
posed to contingencies as
to the advances to the pub-
lic service, and being ex-
perimental as to the trans-
APPENDIX.
373
vances made to individuals
in India.-4thly. For ad-
vances made in India to the
Company’s commercial ser-
wants, for investment to be
specifically provided in In-
dia from the funds, to the
amount which England shall
be drawn upon for the pay-
ment of the interest on the
Indian debt.
actions with individuals.
As to the fourth mode, or
the remittance to be made
through the channel of the
Company'scommerce, which
is designed to embrace
whatever amount may be
required to be remitted be-
yond what shall have been
provided for by the other
modes, the Board, in refe-
rence to the several discus-
sions which have taken
place on this subject, have
thought proper to agree,
that an arrangement be
made on the following prin-
ciples: the balance found
remaining under this head
of account at the close of
the year, after giving full
credit for all remittances
received from India in the
course of the year, whether
in bills or certificates upon
Government, or bills upon
individuals paid or payable,
or in receipts from indivi-
duals for bills on India, to
be added to the amount of
territorial charges, to be
374
APPENDIX.
repaid from the political
treasury in India to the
commercial department
there, and to be applied by
that department, at the op-
tion and risk of the Com-
pany. But the amount of
this balance to be convert-
ed into Indian currency, at
the rate of exchange at
which the bills may be
drawn; provided always,
that if, in any year, the
Company's trade from India
shall not realize, upon an
average, 2s. 6d. the sicca
rupee, the political depart-
ment shall be debited for
the amount of the deficiency,
which shall be found to have
arisen on the sum to which
this head of account relates.
The Board desire it to be
distinctly understood, that
their acquiescence in the
arrangement suggested by
the Court for making the
separation of the political
and commercial accounts in
the existing leger, is, from
their reliance on the assu-
A l’I’EN DIX.
375
6. As the amount of
stores to be exported may
be deemed a territorial dis-
bursement, it is submitted,
that, in future, those stores
be invoiced at their actual
prime cost, without the ad-
dition of 10 per cent. as has
been the practice; that the
freight outwards, the insu-
rance, interest, and charges
of shipping, be added in
lieu of this 10 per cent.
7. It thus being proposed
that the invoices of stores
exported to India, shall
rance conveyed by the
Court, that it will be found
fully sufficient for the pur-
pose of yielding obedience
to the directions of the late
act, and that new heads
will be opened in the books
of the Company, from time
to time, as circumstances
may require, of which the
Board is to be kept regu-
larly advised.
The cost, freight, inte-
rest, and charges of ship-
ping, having been already
adverted to, this suggestion
is approved, with the ex-
ception of what relates to
insurance, which is not to
be charged.
Approved; with the ex-
ception of insurance, the
losses actually sustained to
376
APPENDIX.
contain the prime cost, with
the several
freight, interest, insurance,
and charges of merchandize;
so, in like manner, it ap-
pears to be desirable that
the invoices of goods for
sale should be formed upon
the same principle.
charges of
8. In regard also to the
formation of the freight ac-
counts, it will be desirable
that the freight upon goods
exported, be separated from
the freight on goods im-
ported. According to the
present system, the whole
freight and demurrage is
charged in the home ac-
counts, excepting upon such
part of the outward cargo
as exceeds the stipulated
free tonnage.
9. As political freight and
demurrage is to be carried
to the territorial account, it
will also be necessary that
a separate account be made
be brought to account as
heretofore.
Approved.
Approved.
APPEN i ) IX.
37
up for all charges of this
description, such account to
pass the Committee, as is
customary with other freight
aCCOuntS.
10. As the Company are
in the practice of making
advances on account of
freight, at various periods,
before the freight account
is finally settled, these ad-
vances, it is submitted,
shall, in the first instance,
be considered to relate alone
to the commercial freight
and demurrage, subject to
future adjustment. The
freight account, in this view
of the subject, will be di-
vided into three classes:–
1st. For freight and demur-
rage outward;—2d. Freight
and demurrage homeward;
—3d. Political freight and
demurrage.
11. Such directions as
appeared to be necessary
for the arrangement of the
Indian books and accounts,
Approved.
Requires no remark.
378
A Pl” E N I) I X.
have been transmitted to
India, in the despatch of
the 6th September last.
12. The act commencing
simultaneously in England
and in India, on the 10th
of April, 1814, the state-
ment of debts and assets, at
home and abroad, should
be made up terminating
with that day, or say 30th
April,1814. The view then
exhibited of the Company’s
debts and assets, distin.
guishing under the heads
respectively of political and
commercial, will be the
basis on which the future
system of the Company, in
regard to the separation of
their accounts, is to be form-
ed; but this account cannot
be made up till the Indian
statements to the 30th April,
1814, shall have been re-
ceived in England.
13. As it has been before
proposed that the accounts
of stock per computation,
The statement to be pre-
pared in the manner pro-
posed, and made up to the
10th, and adjusted to the
30th April, 1814, for pre-
sentation to parliament in
the next year, at the pe-
riod directed by the act.
Approved.
APPEN IDIX.
379
shall be made up on the 1st
of May in each year, it is
also proposed that the ge-
neral leger of the Company
in England shall be balan-
eed on the 30th April in
each year, instead of the 30th
June in each year, as at
present. An alteration in
the bye-laws will be neces-
sary, before this proposition
can be carried into effect.
380 A PPIN DIX.
No.
• APPENDIX, No. 6, to the Second Report from the Select Commit
count of the Total Annual Amount of the REVENUES and CHARGEs
the actual Accounts from the Year 1792–3 to the Year 1808–9, with
Parliament; distinguishing as to the REven UEs, the Revenues of the
Princes, or Collections from ceded or conquered Countries; and as
and Fortifications, from the Civil, Revenue, Judicial, and Marine
paid on the Debts.
B.EVENUES.
"...º.º..."..."...". Tº
Madras, and Bombay. conquered Countries. e
*... ." | Gross Amount.
ef st st
Court's Estimate, 5,523,625 º 1,440,000 6,963,625
Feb. 1793. ---
1792–3 tº º 4 tº 5,985,026 tº ſº 2,240,602 || 8,223,628
1793–4 6,359,466 1,917,304 8,276,770
1794–5 6,538,628 † 1,487,565 8,026,193
1795-6 gº º ... 6,319,679 ... 1,546,415 || 7,866,094
1796–7 tº tº ... 6,484,593 ... 1,531,578 8,016,171
1797–8 tº º ... 6,315,605 1,744,275 8,059,880
1798–9 ... 6,380,884 2,271,149 || 8,652,033
1799–1800 ... 6,777,041 2,959,631 || 9,736,672
1800–1 º º ... 6,847,833 3,637,226 10,485,059
1801–2 gº tº ... 7,206,926 4,956,663 12,163,589
1802–3 tº ... 7,823,914 5,640,623 13,464,537
1803–4 * * ... 7,876,612 g 5,394,773 |13,271,385
1804–5 * & wº 8,158,267 ... 6,791,128 14,949,395
1805-6 * * ... 8,253,698 ... 7,149,711 |15,403,409
1806–7 gº ºf ... 7,794,643 te 6,741,096 ||14,535,739
#1807–8 . . . . 8,584,050 | . . 7,117,036 |15,701,086
1808-9 o . . 8,379,484 * 7,167,464 |15,546,948
* This Appendix is divided in this and the following page, partly for the con-
veniency of printing. The division in this page takes place in the column of
Net Revenue.
# Years 1807 and 1868 taken from Appendix 11, Third Report.
A PPEN DIX.
381
II.
tee on the Affairs of the East India Company, is a (detailed) Ac-
of the several Presidencies, of India, as estimated in 1793, and by
the Estimate of the same for the Year 1809–10, as laid before
Company's Possessions exclusively, from the Subsidies from Native
to the CHARGES, the Military Charges, and Charges for Buildings
Charges, showing also the Supply to Bencoolen, &c. and the Interest

CHARGES.
Buildings Civil, Revenue, Total Charges,
Military. and Judicial, and including those
Fortifications. Marine. on Subsidies.
ºf st ef st
2,917,500 || 117,875 2,126,950 5,188,125
3,480,536 || 108,138 2,388,773 6,304,607
3,361,837 || 115,190 2,412,545 6,066,924
3,409,598 || 137,143 2,400,913 6,083,507
3,622,546 98,512 2,616,842 6,474,247
4,107,057 | 122,723 2,686,517 7,081,191
4,506,454 99,508 2,619,182 7,411,401
5,473,587 110,129 2,624,277 8,417,813
5,526,024 162,934 2,952,632 8,998,154
6,512,423 183,473 3,055,437 10,405,501
6,996,672 176,156 2,958,741 11,062,452
6,061,169 183,795 3,509,343 10,925,427
7,777,793 165,356 3,518,286 13,001,083
8,459,263 220,033 3,724,433 14,548,453
9,032,598 || 278,336 3,796,587 | 15,561,328
8,772,422 290,738 3,725,381 15,283,908
7,394,259 329,217 | 3,612,912 || 13,635,256
7,374,236 315,149 3,419,671 || 13,284,169
Deduct Surplus Charges . . . . . . . . . .
BA I. A Nce, or NET REve Nur. ...
Surplus
Charges.
Net
Revenues.
ef
1,775,500
157,919
749,169
* †
907,088
1,921,021
2,209,846
1,942,686
1,391,847
934,980
648,479
234,220
738,518
79,558
1,140,137
2,499,110
270,302
400,962
2,065,830
2,262,779
*-*s-se
18,740,275
907,088
*-ºs.
17,833,187
-----sº-sº
382 appendix.
No. II. continued from page 381.
APPENDIX, No. 6, to the Second Report from the
SELECT Committee, on the Affairs of the East India
Company.

Net Supply to
Revenues, as Bencoolen, Interest on Surplus Surplus
preceding Penang, Debts. Revenue. Charges.
Page. &c.
Court’s Estimate, st ºf ef sf' st
Feb. 1793 * * 50,000 561,923;1,163,577
1792–3 tº º 66,217| 636,2261,21 8,578
1793–4 tº º 40,822. 526,205|1,642,819
1794–5 4- ºr 62,080. 484,301 || 1,396,305
1795-6 tº 104,154. 414,750. 872,943
1796-7 * & 101,190| 426,847. 406,943
1797–8 tº ſº 163,299 603,926 tº º 118,746
1798–9 tº tº 120,668; 721,550 tº º 607,988
1799–1800 tº º 171,363 957,286 * Q 390,081
1800–1 * * 156,325| 1,062,684 tº º 1,139,451
1801–2 tº º 241,220) 1,386,593 * * 487,676
1802–3 tº ºn 196,848. 1,361,453 940,809
1803–4 tº º 304,056; 1,394,322 sº ſº. 1,428,076
1804–5 e - 372,163} 1,566,750 * - 1,537,951
1805–6 tº º 250,599; 1,860,090 tº º 2,268,608
1806–7 º º 179,197 2,224,956 tº dº 3,152,322
*1807–8 tº º 725; 2,145,844 tº º 201,739
1808-9 * - 176,707| 2,309,836 gº tº 223,764
17,833, 1872,707,63320,083,569|6,478,39711,556,402
* —|Deduct...} 6,478,397
# 5,078,005
wº
* Years 1807 and 1808, from Appendix 11, of Third Report.
f ºf 5,078,015 according to Reports.
tº See note at the foot of page 380. The column of Net Revenues is
here repeated; the four following columns show the application of the Net
Revenues, and the amount of the Surplus Charges.
'THE EN ID.
l