70 Affairs of British India. 



grasp. Here was a difficulty that might have daunted partisans less 

 experienced in the warfare of pamphlets and magazines ; but it is the part 

 of great minds to find resources in every dilemma. Great emergencies call 

 for bold measures ; and as the Company must be represented as feeble 

 and impotent as all hazards, the notoriety of the facts left its adversaries 

 no alternative but to dispute the supposed agency. It is true,, they ad- 

 mit, that British India is the most splendid jewel that ever was set in 

 the crown of any prince, and that those who annexed such an appendage 

 to our empire have deserved well of their country. But not a tittle of 

 this glory appertains to the Company. The valour of Englishmen has 

 won the many hard fought fields of which our territorial acquisitions 

 are the fruits ; the same agents have consolidated and improved these 

 conquests, by the exercise of those milder talents and virtues, for which 

 they are exclusively indebted to the moral and intellectual education 

 received in their native land. So far from affording them any effectual 

 assistance towards the amelioration of the state of society in India, or 

 rendering its connection with this country truly valuable to either, the 

 Company has acted the part of an incubus upon those energies which 

 have been directed towards the attainment of these objects. All the good 

 that has been effected has been brought about without their knowledge 

 or concurrence, or even in direct opposition to their orders. They have si- 

 lenced the voice of philanthropy in their dominions, and even banished 

 those patriotic journalists, who alone " faithful found, among the faith- 

 less, * * * among innumerable false," have denounced their 

 vicious system of government, and devoted themselves to the common 

 interests of England and the whole native population of India. What- 

 ever advantages either country has reaped from their mutual relations 

 are solely ascribable to English merit ; whilst for every evil to which that 

 connection has given birth, or which, though pre-existent, it has failed 

 to eradicate, the Company are exclusively responsible. 



All hail, Genius of British valour and wisdom ! for verily thou hast 

 wrought great things for us ! The Greeks made Gods of their heroes, 

 but we have so far improved upon the practice, that we have first formed 

 a hero out of our own abstract essences, and then proceeded to idolize 

 ourselves. We are really at a loss to determine, whether it be more 

 wonderful that men should delude themselves with a fallacy so extrava- 

 gantly absurd, or hold the intellects of their fellow-creatures in such 

 mean estimation, as to entertain a hope of foisting it upon the under- 

 standing of a single reasonable being. Under this novel system for the 

 appreciation of human actions, neither the head that devises, nor the 

 hand that executes, seems entitled to any consideration. We have been 

 all along in error. The great general who leads our armies to vic- 

 tory, the statesman whose wise counsels would appear, to vulgar eyes at 

 least, to have saved his country from ruin, are alike unworthy of our 

 commendation or gratitude : the national genius has achieved both tri- 

 umphs, so let us praise and thank ourselves. Equal measure must be 

 dealt to the philosopher and the poet ; for every individual owes as much 

 to the advantages which his nativity has conferred upon him, as each of 

 the many persons who collectively constitute the Company, and its civil 

 and military services. But the Company has enjoyed great facilities 

 in the establishment of its empire, from the nature and character of the 

 nursery from which it has been able to draw its executive officers and in- 

 struments of government. So must every Englishman, or body of En- 



