680 British India, and [\TuNU, 



the whole truth, " as well as nothing but the truth," has been told. It 

 was Burke, we think, who illustrated the candour of such mangled re- 

 ferences, by offering to prove from Scripture itself, that " there is no 

 God," if he were but permitted to suppress the preamble, " the fool has 

 said in his heart." 



We need scarcely say what sort of verisimilitude a picture so painted 

 possesses. It has not even the poor merit of a gross caricature ; for it 

 fails to make one laugh. By dwelling on the prevalence of crime, the de- 

 lays of the law, partial and temporary instances of over-taxation, and draw- 

 backs and evils of every description, to the rigid exclusion of the pre- 

 ponderating contents of the opposite scale; they have succeeded in laying 

 before the public a delineation of the condition of the people of British 

 India, about as faithful as would be afforded by any painter of English 

 morals and manners who should obstinately refuse to employ any colours 

 but those which he might derive from the Newgate Calendar, the reports 

 of crim. con. and seduction cases, and the adventures of Tom and Jerry. 

 We can only call to mind, at this moment, one writer who is worthy to 

 be placed upon a level with our philosophers in this department, to 

 wit, Fillet, the French prisoner of war, who generalized so liberally upon 

 the habits and demeanour of the dames and damsels with whom it was 

 his happy lot to associate during his sojourn here, as to conclude and 

 publish that all English women drank gin, and gave each other black eyes. 



But these are not the only arts that have been practised to mystify the 

 subject. The goal from which the rulers of British India started, for the 

 establishment of social order, arid a regular system of government, has 

 been either altogether concealed, or stated to be other than it really was. It 

 never seems to occur to the adversaries of the Company, that it might be 

 a difficult task to grapple with the giant vices of many millions of 

 heathens, of a people sunk in most degrading superstition, and bound 

 down for countless centuries under the double yoke of political and spi- 

 ritual bondage. By a process similar to that which has helped him to 

 his vain triumph over Sir Thomas Munro, with regard to the demand 

 of India for British manufactures, Mr. Rickards having laboriously 

 proved that the domination of caste is not quite absolute or universal, 

 proceeds to treat it altogether as a bugbear. It forms, he seems to think, 

 no real obstacle to the amelioration of the condition of Indian society, it 

 is a mere non-entity, which owes its imaginary existence solely to the 

 anxiety of the monopolists, to throw this flimsy covering over the chains 

 which they themselves have forged for the minds of their subjects, or to 

 account for the small improvement which their institutions have effected. 

 There are not four pure tribes, as the theory of division supposes ; there- 

 fore, the prejudices of caste have no influence at all towards retarding 

 the march of civilization : there are no genuine Cshatryas, Vaisyas, or 

 Sudras, remaining ; therefore, those who have spoken of " the artificial 

 and unnatural division of the people into distinct classes," and have called 

 it a "misshapen structure of society," did so with the intention of imposing 

 upon the public. We shall shortly see it proved, that there are no Hindoos 

 in existence, as our fellow subjects, at least, because their numbers have 

 been egregiously overrated by those who have tickled the imaginations of 

 the manufacturers of Manchester and Glasgow with a long numerical ar-' 

 ray of their possible customers. We have not so studied logic as to sup- 

 pose, that because a proposition may be overstated through prejudice or 

 interest, the reverse is to be considered as necessarily demonstrated. 



Whatever the causes of depravation, however (and doubtless ninny 



