Retrospect of the last Twenty-five Years. 
Christianity. He had undertaken,ape- 
riodical publication in his language, net 
with any views of interest, to which his 
large fortune renders him superior, —but 
for the advancement of civilization, and 
in which he was encouraged by the late 
Governor, the Marquis of Hastings. 
But in the month of April 1823, Mr. 
Adam, the new Governor-General, in 
concert, with the, Judge, of Calcutta, 
Macnaghten, suppressed all liberty of 
the press, and forced the illustrious 
Ram Mohun Roy to renounce. his 
journal. 
The East-India Company and. the 
_ English Government seem equally de- 
sirous that the economical and political 
condition of the people should re- 
main unchanged. As, in an army of 
160,000 Indians, they will not permit 
a native of the country to be raised 
above the rank of a serjeant; neither 
will they, in the regulation of so many 
millions of men, ever confide the least 
power, either, civil or political, to an 
Indian; and they; look. with mistrust 
upon every man who rises above the 
rank ofa mechanic. Yet,amidst all these 
discouragements, man vegetates and po- 
pulation abounds ; and while the British 
Isles sustain only about 17,000,000, 
Bengal alone, within the same territo- 
rial space, contains 30,000,000. For 
them, however, and the countless mil- 
lions beside, who inhabit the vast and 
fertile regions of India, the hopes of 
progressive improvement, in all that 
should belong to man, are again ob- 
secured; and what was begun by the 
munificent virtue and piety of the Brah- 
min, Ram Mohun Roy, can be regarded 
only as a few seeds of promise scattered 
over a vast and reluctant soil.. May it 
take root there, spring up again and ger- 
minate, and be imperishable, till, in fa- 
vouring season, it may flourish, without 
check or bias, and its progressive branches 
strike again into the earth, till, like the 
banana of the clime, every tree be- 
comes a forest! Even in India the last 
quarter of a century has done some- 
thing in furnishing the grounds of such 
a hope for the progressive system. 
NEW SOUTH WALES. 
On.this third continent (for so, from 
its extent, larger much than Europe, it 
might be called), the cradle, perhaps, of 
future nations, it would be premature 
to expatiate: but, sullied as it is by the 
impure materials of which its colonies 
are composed, its temperate clime,, as- 
sisted by the quickening power of Eng-, 
599 
land, appears already to give promise of 
residence to a numerous and civilized 
population; and, from the refuse of 
jails and brothels, perhaps, may spring a 
race, destined to spread and to improve 
the arts, the intellect, and the virtues 
of Europe, over regions heretofore 
scarcely sprinkled with a few wretched 
hordes, or families, of the most degraded 
and least humanized savages that ever 
wore the form, without aspiring to the 
habitudes of man. Science and intel- 
lect,even now, are finding fresh resour- 
ces there. Even literature has its obliga- 
tions to acknowledge from the same 
quarter. We noticed, in our number 
for June last (p. 449), an interesting 
volume of Geographical Memoirs, edi- 
ted by Baron Field, esq., and the same 
gentleman has published a collection of 
poems, entitled, First Fruits of Austra- 
lia. 
AFRICA. 
The colonies of the Cape of Good Hope 
and Sierra Leone, (in spite of the politi- 
cal jobbing—the inherent vice which 
infects every project, however enlight- ~ 
ened or benignant in its general aim, 
of the British Goyernment,—which has 
thwarted the prosperity of the former, 
and of the disastrous affair with the Ash- 
antees, which has clouded the reputa- 
tion of the latter) will, by degrees, carry 
the knowledge, civilization and virtue, 
which liberty and European intelligence 
have fostered in the parent state, into 
the interior of this barbarous and be- 
nighted quarter of the globe; and re- 
trieve the crimes: which Europe, too 
long; has perpetrated against the Negro 
race. The veil is yet too thick to-be 
distinctly penetrated by any but pro- 
phetic eyes; but “ coming events’ are 
obscurely shadowed in semblances that 
may at least encourage a reasonable an- 
ticipation. 
HAITI. 
The course followed by the new 
Sable Nation, in St. Domingo, during 
this portion of the age, is a subject for 
the greatest triumph to humanity. The 
sons of Africa have proved that they 
are men; that they have a right to free- 
dom, because they have the capability 
of appreciating knowledge and virtue. 
Europe’s most deadly crime transported 
the Africans into the islands of Ame- 
rica ; a succession of crimes keeps them 
there, in bondage, and renders them 
ferocious. If they rush into crime, when 
breaking their chains, the responsibility 
rests entirely upon those who forged 
them. 
