THE EAST INDIA EXCRESCENCE. 517 



of a population delivered over to hunger and despair, a population 

 which is naturally the most peaceful, simple, and contented in the 

 world, still we cannot doubt that an enormous diminution might be 

 made in the expenditure. The sale of cadetships, and other commis- 

 sions, alone, would produce an immense addition to the revenue, and 

 in the pressure for employment of the crowds of well-educated per- 

 sons in the present day, there is no reason why the pay and allow- 

 ances of the officers of the Indian army, should be double the amount 

 of the pay of the officers of king's regiments stationed in still more 

 unwholesome climates and more expensive countries, or why an officer 

 shall purchase, at an expense of a thousand pounds, a commission in a 

 regiment in the West Indies, whilst the cadet, in the service of the 

 East India Company, without the expenditure of a shilling, by the 

 influence of a bilious Director, shall be placed in possession of double 

 pecuniary advantages. The entire expence of the Indian army may 

 be unquestionably reduced by several millions. 



The cost of the civil service of India amounts to two millions ster- 

 ling ; the number of persons employed being two thousand, and their 

 salaries and emoluments amounting to the monstrous average of two 

 thousand per annum for each individual ! 



The judicial department is another vast scene of corruption, extra- 

 vagance, and waste. Upwards of 2,000,000/. per annum are expended 

 for the nominal administration of justice, the principal judges being 

 English lawyers, who possess little knowledge of the laws, customs, 

 or language of the Indian population. The office of an Indian judge 

 is in reality little other than an enormous sinecure, the business being 

 chiefly transacted by the inferior native judges; and our readers may 

 form a proper idea of the state of the administration of justice in India, 

 from the circumstance that the arrear of causes amounted in 1828 to 

 upwards of 140,000 in Bengal alone ! 



To the families of the native princes the enormous sum of 1,218,648/. 

 is alloted. These are the princes whose dominions have fallen, by the 

 chances of war, into the power of the East India Company, and who, 

 in deference to the principle of legitimacy, are maintained in royal 

 splendour, though, for the purposes of government, no longer any 

 other than empty pageants of departed power. Upon the principle of 

 the cheapest government, were a reduction of one million effected in 

 this branch of the expenditure, still the remainder of the sum of 

 1,218,648/. would surely be a most generous allowance to these thir- 

 teen families. The home establishment incurs an expenditure of 

 58(),000/. per annum ; the cost of coals, repairs, and taxes, is 60,000/. 

 per annum ; and the estimated value of the rent of the premises is 

 is about 80,000/. per annum. Thus we see that, at home and abroad, 

 the grand evil of this company is in wasteful expenditure, the salaries 

 being in general full two hundred per cent, above the fair remunera- 

 tion for the services rendered, and to pay these, millions of money are 

 annually extorted from the poorest population in the w r orld. 



At the expiration of their charter, the Company is in a condition of 

 utter insolvency. In the annual balance sheet submitted to Parlia- 

 ment in the recent session, we find the amount of their debits and 

 assets, commercial and military, to be as follows : 



