232 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



empire in this India on a throw of 

 the die ; double or quit, neck or 

 nothing. Fortune favoured, and 

 the directors approved her favour- 

 ite. Thus, the reforms of Sir John 

 Craddock (with whom as above 

 observed, the plan of abolishing 

 the tent contract originated) for 

 a second time endangered the 

 existence of the British power in 

 India. 



But if Sir G. B. anxious to 

 gratify the directors, by establish- 

 ing a system of economy, chose 

 to adopt the plan of Sir J. Crad- 

 dock, there was no necessity for 

 adopting also the offensive pre- 

 amble on which Sir John's decree 

 was founded. It might have been 

 sufficient to state, without saying 

 a word of experience, that accord- 

 ing to the general principles of 

 human nature, the tent contract 

 placed the duty of officers in direct 

 opposition to their interests. The 

 truth, according to all accounts, 

 is, that Sir George was a man of 

 harsh and repulsive manners, fond 

 of exercising the rigour of power, 

 and one who, ceteris paribus, would 

 have preferred a system of coer- 

 cion to one of conciliation. It is 

 not an acquaintance with mercan- 

 tile business alone, or with law 

 and the forms of government, that 

 can qualify a man for being the 

 ruler of a distant colony or other 

 dependency. Plures sunt casus 

 quam leges. Laws themselves de- 

 rive their efficacy from the moral 

 nature of man. This, therefore 

 is to be managed otherwise than 

 by law, in all those violent situa- 

 tions in which, for a time, the usual 

 course of human nature and mo- 

 tives of actions is suspended, by 

 the force of circumstances and 

 the power of passion. The current 

 of this is not always to be stemmed 



by force : it must sometimes be 

 soothed and diverted ; and extra- 

 ordinary measures are demanded 

 by extraordinary situations. The 

 aiffairs of distant dominions, where 

 the national legislature or metro- 

 politan government cannot act as 

 unforeseen emergency requires, 

 are safer under the direction of 

 minds humanized, elevated, in- 

 formed and refined by a learned 

 and liberal education, compre- 

 hensive in their views, and deriv- 

 ing a fertility of resource from the 

 stores of history, and the light of 

 science. How forcibly and glo- 

 riously is the truth of this remark 

 illustrated by the conduct of lord 

 Minto ; who has cultivated with 

 assiduity and success, a taste and 

 genius for literature and science, 

 that seems hereditary in his 

 family! Nor does this truth derive 

 less confirmation from the humane, 

 prudent, enlightened, and disin- 

 terested maxims that have long 

 regulated the conduct of the Bom- 

 bay government ; to which it is a 

 relief to turn our attention. What- 

 ever may be thought of the policy 

 of annihilating the autliority of the 

 nabob ofSurat (which some have 

 questioned) the population of that 

 immense city, changed their mu- 

 nicipal superiors very much to 

 their advantage, especially in mat- 

 ters of civil litigation and per- 

 sonal security : in both of which 

 branches the tyranny of the nabob's 

 arbitrary and vicious government 

 frequently dictated decisions equal- 

 ly at variance with justice and 

 humanity. The foundations of 

 a throne, according to the pro- 

 found observation of sacred scrip- 

 ture, are best secured byrighteous- 

 ness or justice : justice of which 

 sympathy with our fellow men, or 

 doing as we would be done by, is 



not 



