1830.] the Renewal of the Company's Charter. 679 



It appears, then,, that from 1803 to 1812 inclusive, 1204 gang-rob- 

 beries were committed,, upon the average, every year; whilst from 1818 

 to 1825 inclusive, the average return was 210. And yet Mr. Rickards 

 asserts, that the crime in question still continues " to rear its terrific 

 head, in spite of all the expedients and contrivances set on foot to sup- 

 press it :"* a charge, it may be, abstractedly true, because the calendars 

 are still far from blank under this head ; but who would suppose from 

 the language in which it is couched, that the evil denounced in such dra- 

 gon-like metaphor had lost five-sixths of its intensity? 



It would be easy to multiply specimens to any extent, of the manner 

 in which vague and general terms have been employed to mislead and 

 baffle inquiry, with respect to the management of India by the servants 

 of the Company. Because vice and crime still nourish to a very la- 

 mentable extent, that circumstance is loudly insisted upon ; and those 

 who have not succeeded in strangling the monsters, are denounced as 

 little better than accomplices. But the great progress that has been 

 made towards the attainment of the objects in view ; the almost regular 

 yearly diminution of oifences of the more heinous description against life 

 and property ; and the silent alteration which a determined but humane 

 system of policy is most assuredly working in the habits of the people ; 

 and their modes, if not their principles, of action, are carefully kept out 

 of sight. When gentlemen, who have served in India, and whose names, 

 like that of Sir Henry Strachey, carry great weight with them, ex- 

 press their opinions with regard to any part of the machine of govern- 

 ment, or any branch of the system, in terms of disparagement or repro- 

 bation ; the philosophers of the school to which we allude quote and 

 echo their words, give them an interpretation far more general than they 

 were intended to bear, and press them into their service as crutches 

 for their own limping theories. But when Sir Henry Strachey, speaking 

 of our operations as a whole, says, <c we did establish our system, ano! 

 imperfect as it is in practice, no law or institution, no measure of any 

 sovereign, in any age or country, perhaps, ever produced so much bene- 

 fit ; its advantages are beyond all price f." The candid adversaries of the 

 Company became suddenly " nigh gravel blind," and cannot read the 

 testimony. They have adopted the same principle of quotation from the 

 reports and public despatches of functionaries in active employment, who 

 are under solemn obligations to tell no smooth tales, and to hide no sores 

 or blotches from the government which they serve. Those documents 

 have been searched with the most painful industry for matter of vilifica- 

 tion, and this is made use of exclusively under a tacit assumption, that 



* Vol. ii. page 213. 



-f- Judicial Selections, vol. ii. p. 60. There is much more to the same purport, e. g. 

 " The eastern people have had wise kings and just judges. We have heard, no doubt, of 

 particular acts of signal equity, and of great skill in detecting injustice among them ; but 

 never had they a consistent uniform judicial system a set of tribunals to which the people 

 might resort, and without regard to the personal character of the judge or ruler, depend upon 

 obtaining justice." 



" This great blessing may be said, with strict truth, to have been unknown in India till 

 conferred upon it by the English East India Company." Ibid. p. 59. " With respect to 

 the disadvantages of the system, I do not think it necessary to add much to what I have al- 

 ready stated. These disadvantages have, I think, been exaggerated. Some I have heard 

 mentioned as such, which, perhaps, have no existence. Of these defects, part may be 

 ascribed to human infirmity, and to our peculiar circumstances.'" Ibid. p. 65. " But on 

 the whole, the balance of good is greatly in favour of our system of government. Without 

 hesitation, I affirm, that the people derive benefit from it ; and the best part of it I conceive 

 to be our judicial system." Ibid. p. C(j. 



