1825.] 
tS 
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[ 5385 ] | 
“LITERATURE, DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN, 
OF DECEMBER, 1824. 
WYETDS “tO 2 
40evaanid pass 
WITH A CRITICAL PROEMIUM. 
Aithoreor Publishers, desirous of seeing an early’ Notice of their Works, are 
Tdsoilgas 2 
YHOUGHL the season be not yet ar- 
“ tived’when the press should be ex- 
pected to be fruitful of splendid and volu- 
maious works, on the’ one hand, or those 
of inteleétual luxury and hich imagination, 
on thééther,' we lave been able to select 
fron? those of ‘humble proportions and pre- 
tensions, some two or three which appeared 
eS unworthy of the attention of our 
readers—if not for their budk, for the mag- 
nitude of the questions with which, by in- 
ference at least, they are connected. To 
the friends of humanity and of those prin- 
ciples by which alone the interests of hu- 
manity can be protected or advanced, every 
thing, that relates to the condition of our 
fellow-beings in Eastern or in Western In- 
ia, will be regarded as important: and as 
such we have given a degree of consideration 
to one little volume, and to one small pam- 
phiet, which works of much greater extent 
could otherwise hardly expect in our con- 
tracted space : while with respect to those, 
that refer, one of them to the salmon fisheries, 
and the other the state of the manufacturing 
population’ (for they are both of them ques- 
tions of right and life), we have oily to la- 
ment that we could not extend an equal 
degree of ‘attention. To another article 
more Connected with the intellectual accom- 
plishments of the few, than the claims and 
necessities of the many, our predilections 
would, nevertheless, have led us into much 
more ample examination than we have in- 
dujged in: for though our solicitude is pri- 
rily for the broad and solid base of the so- 
cial edifice, We are not indifferent to the taste- 
ful ee inents of the Corinthian capital. 
But Pdue examination of ‘the ingenious 
work ‘of ‘Mr. Roe would have demanded a 
sheet, instead of a column, ofour miscellany; 
anid we ‘haye been obliged to confine our- 
sélve$ to ‘so Sketchy and partial a review 
of his prlnciplés; as, we’ are perfectly aware, 
can’ teither do justice to his views of the 
subject;! nor our own. 
A Voice | om India, in Answer to the Re- 
of England. Dedicated by permis- 
sion, to the Right Hon. President of the Board 
of Control. — By John’ B.° Seely, Captain 
im the Bombay Native Infantry, &c. &e.— 
The author of the “ Wonders of Elora” 
has furnished us with another work, worthy 
of 4'‘much more ‘extended consideration 
than we have space to give to it. There 
is ‘to be examined in it, much to be 
itroverted, and much more to be learn- 
,» than it appears to have been the in- 
tention of the author to teach. “ O that 
Ee ey would write a book!” is a 
» perhaps, which many a reviewer may 
requested to transmit Copies before the 18th of the Month. 
————_ 
have breathed from personal motives—man 
a philanthropist might breathe from more 
generous considerations. We have more 
pleasure, we confess, or at least more in- 
tellectual profit, in perusing the arguments 
of the opponents, than of the adyocates, of 
our principles ; and it is but justice to. say, 
that the sentiments manifested in the 
“ Voice from India,’” come to us, in some 
respects, in the best form they are capable 
of—in the frank and temperate language of 
a gentleman, and with the manifestations, 
at once, of talent and information. \ Yet are 
the conclusions’ we should draw from) his 
premises, in many respects, directly the re- 
verse of those he would wish us to infer. 
What would he say’to’us,’ if-upon the hy- 
pothesis, that his own mode of reasoning, 
as far as it goes, is valid, we should under- 
take to demonstrate from his “own data, 
that either our possessions in’ India must 
he abandoned,* or we ourselves must shortly 
cease to be a free nation. But this is a 
field too large for us to enter upon, and we 
must confine ourselves to a. single point. 
The main object of Captain Seely is to sub- 
stantiate the proposition, that the freedom 
of the press ought not to be, and must not 
be permitted to exist in the East- Indies, 
because the government of India is, and 
must, of necessity, be, arbitrary; and a 
despotic government and a free press can- 
not exist together. Now to a part, at 
least, of the major proposition we cannot 
object. The English government of the 
East-Indies 7S indisputably an arbitrary 
government—a government by the sword 
—a government of the victor few over the 
yanquished (or the cajoled and defrauded}) 
many; and the minor proposition, that 
despotism and a free press cannot con- 
tinue to be co-existent, is equally indis- 
putable. If the present system of go- 
vernment is ‘to be sustained in India, we 
know not, therefore, how we are to deny 
the sequitur that a free press must never 
there be tolerated. Nay, we will even go 
a step further, and say, that if we could 
agree 
* © Perish Commerce! but Tet the Constitution 
live? exclaimed the mad-brained metaphysician— 
the. high-court anarchist—tbe sophi-tical dema- 
gooue, yndham—himeelf at once the most sub- 
tile, and the most headlong evemy, to the constitu- 
tion, of his day. ‘* Perish Commerce }) but’ let the 
Constitution live!” ‘* Perish our East-India do- 
minion 3" if the dilemma were admitted, we would 
exclaim, ** but let British freedom live 1? 1) 
«“ The lily peace oulshinesthe silver store, 
And life is dearer than the golden ore.”” 
+ Inall cases of subjugation, by such dispropor-. 
tioned pumbers, it reqoires neither argument nor 
detail to prove that intrigue and treachery muvt 
have born a larger share than valour. 
