40 
establishments in India for upwards of a century, and our 
influence extends now over the whole of this immense region; 
yet that influence, all powerful as it is in political and com- 
mercial affairs, has not had the slightest effect in approxi- 
mating the natives to us in a social point of view. The 
manners, the dress, and the domestic ceconomy, of those 
even who are in the habit of daily and hourly intercourse 
with us, are the same as they were the first day we set foot 
in India. i 
* Religion has lent her aid to strengthen and perpetuate 
the difference which originally existed between the manners 
of the Hindoos and those of their conquerors. With the for- 
mer, religion is omnipotent, it prescribes their food, their 
dress, their trade, and every action of their life. With the 
latter, its mandates too often go for nothing, or, if they pro- 
duce any effect, it is by their tacit influence on the moral 
conduct. The Hindoo bears a superstitious veneration for 
every thing possessed of life: the Briton venerates nothing, 
but sacrifices all, without distinction, to his appetite or his 
amusement. The former worships 833 millions of gods, 
male or female, some with two arms, some with two hundred; 
the latter, so far as can be gathered from his actions, wor- 
ships neither god nor goddess. So little influence, unhap- 
pily, indeed, does religion appear to possess over our conduct, 
that the more intelligent Hindoos regard us as a nation of 
enlightened Atheists, and would look upon conformity to 
our faith as tantamount to the abjuration of all religion. 
“The military force of the Presidency of Bengal consists 
of two regiments of light dragoons and six of infantry, 
King's troops: one regiment of Company's Europzan artil- 
lery, eight regiments of native cavalry, and thirty of native 
infantry, each of two battalions of 1000 rank and file. With 
such a force judiciously managed, the Governor-General had 
good reason to look for a speedy and successful issue to the 
war in Nepaul. His anticipations were, however, disap- 
pointed, and the determined resistance and repulse sustained 
at the opening of the campaign, made a deep impression on 
his Lordship's mind. In the first alarm he sent off for 
