1828] 
The country was once prosperous, in a 
very high degree, under its native govern- 
ments, and the observance of its own cus- 
toms—which the Company deny not; but, 
in the teeth of this implied confession, they 
quote the irreversible state of castes and 
customs, as the source of the existing and 
augmenting poverty of the country. The 
actual misery is also not denied ; “ but the 
cause,” say the Company, “resides not in 
the want of good management on our part, 
but in the obstinate inflexibility of the na- 
tives in adhering to customs, which check 
and interfere with the career and progress 
of improvement.” Mr. Rickards proposes 
to tear off the mask ; and, under the appre- 
hension that he may not be able to make 
a large book of a readable kind, and rather, 
perhaps, in the expectation that several lit- 
tle books stand a better chance of being 
read than one bouncing volume, he under- 
takes to discuss, separately and successively, 
the following topics :— 
1. The castes of India, and the alleged 
simplicity and immutability of Hindoo 
habits. 
2. The condition of the natives under 
former governments. 
3. The revenue systems under the Com- 
pany’s government, as tending to perpetuate 
the degraded condition of the natives. 
4, The Company’s trade, and its results 
in a financial point of view. 
5. The reform of administration in India, 
as regards the present system both at home 
and abroad. 
The fasciculus before us embraces the 
castes of India, and the alleged simplicity 
and immutability of Hindoo habits, and 
shews, beyond farther dispute, that the 
notion of the existence of four exclusive 
castes is mere imagination—or to be found 
merely in books—and scarcely there ;—that 
the laws of nature—love—hatred—envy— 
ambition—power—have every where broken 
in upon these institutions of art and artifice ; 
»—that this matter of castes sits compara- 
tively loose upon Hindoos, and openings are 
found for passing from one to the other ;— 
-and that, at all events, fifteen out of the 
eighty millions of India are not in the 
_ slightest degree influenced by them. Then, 
again, with respect to the vegetable diet of 
the Hindoos, Mr. Rickards shews, equally 
satisfactorily, that their poverty, not their will 
consents to this diet, and that, with the ex- 
‘ception of cow-beef, and that confined to 
one portion only of one caste, fish, flesh, 
and fowl are greedily devoured, whenever 
they can be got at; and that the wealthier 
classes of society suffer no restraints what- 
ever upon the indulgence of their appetites. 
And, again, as to European accommoda- 
tions and European manufactures, so far 
from Indians opposing ‘their introduction, 
they eagerly adopt and use them, and would 
do so more and more, if more were within 
their reach. This is. decisively contirmed 
s 
Domestic and Foreign. 
77 
by broad facts, since the telaxation ‘of the 
Company’s monopoly in 1813. The Com- 
pany then said, “such is the pertinacity 
with which Hindoos cling to their own pro- 
ductions, that there is positively no room for 
the importation of more European goods ;” 
but the fact is, that the private trade to 
India more than doubles the whole of the 
Company’s trade to India, and China to 
boot—a pretty satisfactory proof of the grow- 
ing acceptablenes of European commodities 
in India. 
Mr. R. has abundantly confirmed his own 
positions, built on his own long experience, 
by extracts from Bishop Heber’s very valu- 
able work on India, recently published in 
two quarto volumes. 
Ephemerides, or Occasional Poems, by 
Thomas Pringle ; 1828.—Among the mul- 
titude of small volumes, ofsmall poems, this 
at least deserves to be distinguished from 
the common herd. It is obviously the pro- 
duction of a person of considerable cultiva- 
tion and taste—presenting, to be sure, no 
very decisive proofs of original genius or 
fertile fancy, but indications in abundance 
of deep and right feelings—warm sympa- 
thies for the oppressed, and generous indig- 
nation against oppressors. The volume 
consists of poems written chiefly in Scotland, 
and published years ago; the principal of 
which is the Autumnal Excursion, which 
will remind the reader of some of Scott’s 
most felicitous turns, written too about the 
time when Sir Walter’s poetical energies 
were in their fullest activity ;—not that we are 
very great admirers of that great man’s muse ; 
but many are: and we must think Mr. 
Pringle’s effort entitled to a similar kind 
of admiration. The rest of the volume is 
made up with some few pieces, for the most 
part in the sonnet shape, suggested by cir- 
cumstances that pressed upon his observation 
in far different scenes—the settlements of the 
Cape where the author has resided some 
years as an agricultural colonist, and, for any 
thing that appears, may do so still. Fol- 
lowing these sonnets are some notes relative 
to the conduct of the recent government of 
the Cape towards the Caffer, Bushman, and 
‘Hottentot, which will furnish some intel- 
ligence not generally known, with akindling 
of indignation, that such oppressions have 
been sanctioned by English authorities. The 
sound sense and right judgment of the 
writer—quite free from all cant—entitle the 
following testimony he bears to the mis- 
sionaries to a respectful hearing—though 
unconnected with the poetry :— 
Of the missionary settlements in South Africa, 
generally, [have only room to observe, that, after 
having repeatedly visited most of these within the 
Cape Colony, and carefully watched their pro- 
yress for several years, | have no hesitation in 
asserting, that it is at those institutions alone 
that any effectual means have been adopted to 
improve the condition of the Aboriginal inhabi- 
