1830.] [ 675 ] 



BRITISH INDIA, AND THE RENEWAL OF THE COMPANY'S CHARTER. 



WHEN a subject, vast in its extent, embracing an infinitude of details, 

 and extremely difficult of comprehension, as a whole, even by those to 

 whom many of those details are habitually familiar, is to be rendered 

 intelligible to general readers, the time is very far from wasted which is 

 employed in opening a vista for the full and free range of the mental 

 vision over the field of discussion. The sand that Belzoni and his bro- 

 ther travellers found piled against the front of the great temple of Abou 

 Samboul, and which covered the very head-gear of the gigantic statues 

 standing as sentinels over the portal, is but a feeble type of the obstruc- 

 tions that oppose themselves to the inquirer, who comes, if it be possible, 

 without prepossession or prejudice, to seek for information with regard 

 to the condition of the native population of our oriental dominions, and 

 the nature of the government under which they live. But as it is obvious 

 that any attempt at elucidation would be labour thrown away, unless the 

 questions at issue be disencumbered of the difficulties in which misrepre- 

 sentation and paradox have conspired to envelope them, we shall devote 

 a few pages to the task of beating down the mounds which have been so 

 industriously thrown up between the public and the real facts of the case, 

 partly, we must conclude, to serve the purposes of party, but principally, 

 as far, at least, as Mr. Rickards is concerned, from motives of a less ques- 

 tionable character. It may be, however, that he will not thank us for 

 this charitable construction, for we confess that we cannot pay a compli- 

 ment to the purity of his intentions, except at the expense of his intel- 

 lectual powers. Where premises, in a variety of instances, are incorrectly 

 stated, authorities enormously strained, and deductions, which the god- 

 dess of sophistry herself would blush at, are solemnly announced as 

 demonstrated, and are laid down, accordingly, as stepping-stones to 

 ulterior conclusions of a damnatory nature, either the moral principles or 

 the mental faculties must bear the blame. We shall have abundant op- 

 portunities, in the course of the series of papers which we contemplate, 

 to prove that we have dealt Mr. Rickards no hard measure ; but our 

 business is more at present with general features, than the character- 

 istics of an individual author. 



The first great fallacy is this : an absolute standard is erected for the 

 measurement and appreciation of the government of British India, by 

 the servants of the Company, without any allowance for the peculiarities 

 of situation, the difficulties against which they have had to struggle, and 

 the resistance of circumstances over which they could not possibly pos- 

 sess any control whatever. This institution is bad, objects one critic, for 

 it militates against general principles of jurisprudence. That source of 

 re venue is polluted, cries a second, for it was not only derived from Ma- 

 hommedan tyrants and extortioners ; but it displays most, if not all, of 

 the diagnostics which political economists agree in describing as indi- 

 cative of a bad tax. You have done nothing for the country which has 

 been fifty years under your sway, vehemently asseverates a third ap- 

 praiser. Where are your canals, your roads, your bridges ? Where is 

 agricultural capital, and an improved system of husbandry ? Where is 

 much that you confessedly have not even attempted to do ? Wherefore is 

 it that your actual achievements should fall so lamentably short of our 

 estimate of possible improvement. Crime, urges another, is still rife, 

 and heinous in its character. In the Lower Provinces, gang-robbery 



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