234? MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



East India Company, contains many valuable remarks upon the internal 

 government of their vast dominions ; and though the writer, like all other 

 servants of the Company, sees nothing but a spectacle of wisdom, humanity, 

 and just legislation in the system, we fear that too many data appear in his 

 own observations to give reason for far different conclusions. The dreadful 

 system of unrestrained and unlimited powers of taxation would appear to 

 banish from an immense extent of the dominions of the Company all hopes 

 of improvement, and all chances of the accumulation of capital, of the en- 

 joyment of the fruits of labour, and of the sweets of real liberty. Viewing 

 the state of our Indian empire, as men living in an age w^hen the doctrine of 

 right of conquest, and other inhuman and ferocious arguments of the strong 

 against the weak, have long since passed away, and when the principle of 

 the greatest happiness has succeeded to the principle of the greatest slaughter 

 and oppression of our fellow men, we car not but view the system of the 

 East India Company as one vast and overwhelming tyranny. From the land 

 tribute of an ill cultivated country is derived the enormous revenue of 

 16,000,OOOZ. ; and from unchristian and inhuman monopolies of salt and 

 other necessaries of life is raised a sum of 4,000,000/. The consequences of 

 such a devastating tyranny is seen in the declining agriculture and famished 

 population of whole districts of the most fertile country in the world. The 

 impolicy of vesting the government of an immense division of the globe in a 

 joint-stock company of merchants is thus exposed, and though a distance 

 of twelve thousand miles will for ever prevent the enjoyment of the full 

 blessings of British liberty in the benighted regions of the east, we yet 

 trust that the senseless project of continuing merchants in the capacity of 

 kings will yet be defeated by the efforts of the friends of universal liberty. 



The second and most original portion of this work contains a history of 

 the families of the native princes, who, having been defeated and deposed in 

 the wars of the East India Company, are yet maintained in royal splendour 

 out of the revenues of their former dominions. Thus, whilst no longer kings, 

 and without duties to perform or powers to be exercised, these royal paupers 

 are supported in palaces and amidst the utmost profusion of oriental 

 luxury, and this out of mere deference to the principle of legitimacy and the 

 divine right of kings. The same principle which carried back the imbecile 

 Louis XVIIIth to the palace of the Tuilleries upon the bayonets of the British 

 troops, has long forbidden the outward demolition of the insignia of royalty 

 in the East ; and a sum of 1,073,243/. is annually expended, according to 

 our author, upon the families of thirteen of the native princes, whose domi- 

 nions are now embodied in the possessions of the Company. We think it 

 not an unreasonable suggestion to the proprietors of the stock of the East 

 India Company, that in the universal fears of the insufficiency of security 

 for the payment of the annuity of 630,000/. by reason of the low state of the 

 Indian revenues, it were well that about one million of the allowance for the 

 courts and eunuchs of the native princes should now be withdrawn. To 

 diminish the weight of taxation to the famished and despairing people of our 

 Indian possessions is another reason why so splendid a support should no 

 longer be afforded to the families of barbarous and imbecile tyrants whose 

 dominions have now passed away. 



As a work of great research into the history, genealogies, and possessions 

 of the native princes of India, and as containing a clear outline of the pro- 

 gress, and civil and military system of the East India Company, we recom- 

 mend a perusal of this work to all whose attention is now directed to the 

 affairs of the eastern world. 



