1830]. [ 65 ] 



AFFAIRS OF BRITISH INDIA. 



THE second grand fallacy upon which our Indian reformers have 

 mounted and careered as witches upon fiery steeds, which " glamour" 

 alone prevents the spectators from perceiving to be nothing but bean- 

 stalks is built upon the truism that human nature is universally the 

 same ; and that, consequently, our conduct as the rulers of Hindostan, 

 should be regulated by general principles, without regard to any pecu- 

 liarities of national character, the in-grained habits of the people with 

 whom we have to deal, or the unprecedented nature of the situation 

 which we occupy.* 



In other words, the argument of these philosophers is this : the mind 

 of man is everywhere the same, but as, under a favourable combination 

 of circumstances, men have obtained a far larger share of liberty, security, 

 and social happiness in some countries than in others, it follows, as a con- 

 sequence, that if we transplant the institutions under which the former 

 people have flourished, nothing further will be wanting to raise the less 

 favoured nation to the same level. We cannot force the oak to grow in 

 India, it is true, nor can we raise the bamboo in England, for in those 

 respects the differences of soil and climate interpose insuperable obstacles ; 

 but the mind of universal man is one, whether he dwell beneath the 

 tropics or within the arctic circle ; he loves liberty and plenty in every 

 quarter of the globe, and we have not yet found a people who have a 

 passion for taxation. Therefore, there can be but one mode of proceed- 

 ing, deal with whom we may ; and it is only reasonable, when we have 

 a delightfully spacious field before us whereupon to erect a fabric of 

 legislation, to build upon the model of that which has already been found 

 so admirably adapted to the works and wishes of one of the branches 

 of the great family of mankind. Trial by jury, for instance, is an insti- 

 tution to which Englishmen are extremely partial (though Mr. Bentham 

 thinks it an unphilosophical prejudice), but human nature is universally 

 the same ; ergo, let the Hindoos be empanelled incontinently. Again, 

 the unrestricted freedom of the press has effected more for England than 

 all the wisdom of her senators, and all the valour of her warriors; and 

 time and long habit have rendered even the worst excesses of the gigantic 

 moral engine comparatively innoxious. But as the mental faculties and 

 feelings of the natives of India are essentially the same as those of 

 Englishmen, those who doubt that a free press would work wonders for 

 our fellow- subjects in the East, must be influenced either by bigotry or 

 self-interest, f The next step is the denouncement of the Company and 



* " General principles" is the stock phrase of the day, which has succeeded to its equiva- 

 lent, so much in favour with Philosopher Square, " the unalterable rule of right, and the 

 eternal fitness of things." The value of both aphorisms consists in the vagueness which 

 renders them equally useful on all occasions, and facilitates sophistry and evasion. 



-f- E. g. " The same general principles which are applicable to Ireland, are equally appli- 

 cable to India. There may be trifling differences in the modes of their application ; but 

 these will be found trivial and unimportant. Human nature is pretty much the same in all 

 ages and climates. What is fundamentally true of it under a fair complexion, is equally 

 so under a brown or black one. It cannot be transmuted to serve the interested purposes of 

 patronage or party. When we legislate for the Hindoos, in short, we legislate for men, and 

 not for creatures of a clouded and egoistical imagination." Free Trade and Colonization, 

 p. 55. Mr. Crawfurd has the grace to make some slight qualifications, but with those ex- 

 ceptions, every sentence is more or less a fallacy. It is a mere insult to our understandings 

 M. M. New Series. -VoL. X. No. 55. 4 I 



