EAST INDIA FLY EATON. 



The political importance of the Kast Indies, in their 

 present state, to Britain, is too great to allow us to 

 exj>ect an essential improvement in the condition of 

 this country. A taxable population of 83,000,000 of 

 inhabitants, with 40,000,000 under dependent native 

 princes ; an army of 200,000 men, in the service of the 

 company; about 16. 000 civil officers; an annual export 

 of about 14,000,000, and an import to the same 

 amount, from all parts of the world ; 4,000,000 

 paid in the .h;ipe of duties to the British government 

 annually, and an annual contribution of 11,000,000 

 for the general circulation of the British empire, are 

 objects which outweigh all moral considerations. 

 The funded stock of the company, at present, 

 amounts to 6,000,000, their indivisible and fluctu- 

 ai iiii; property to about 50,000,000, and the amount 

 of their annual land-tax is jE28,000,000, lialf as large 

 again as that of Russia. This gigantic political-mer- 

 cantile association will exist as long as a small mili- 

 tary power is sufficient to prevent a great nation 

 from attempting to throw oft' the yoke ; as long as the 

 system defaire le commerce en sultan et de faire la 

 guerre en marchand can survive ; as long as the pre- 

 tensions of the metis, the offspring of European fathers 

 and Indian mothers, do not increase ; and the Indians 

 and Moliammedans remain ignorant of the real weak- 

 ness of those to whom they are subject. 



It appears that the revenue of the British possessions 

 in India is greater than that of any European state, 

 excepting France and Britain. In 1827 28, it 

 amounted to 23,035,164 ; in 1828 29, it was esti- 

 mated at 23,350,317. The interest on the debt is 

 about 2,000,000 yearly; the total interest on the debt 

 and charges, including those paid in England, and the 

 expenses of die island of St Helena, was 26,314,344 

 in 182728, and 23,994,503, in 182829 ; the 

 surplus of charge above revenue was, in 1825 6, 

 over three millions ; the estimated surplus revenue 

 in 1829, 1,318,593. Before the Burmese war, 

 there was a surplus of revenue over expenditure of 

 one million and a half ; but in the twenty years pre- 

 ceding 1828 29, there are only six which show a 

 surplus revenue. The total assets of the company, 

 including property of every description, amounted to 

 18,406,039. The rate of dividend, since 1793, has 

 been 10j per cent. It is believed that the value of 

 American imports from England into China amounts 

 to 800,000 dollars, whilst that of the company 

 amounts to 800,000. The East India company 

 exported tea from Canton, from 1824 25 to 1827 

 28, and sold hi England and the North American 

 colonies, during the same period, as follows : 



Exported from Canton. 



182425. 

 182526. 

 182627. 

 182728. 



Ibi. 



28,667,078 

 27,82'l,121 

 40, 13.' ,241 

 33,269,333 



1,900,660 

 1,729,949 

 2,368,461 

 2,086,971 



Sales. 

 England. N. Am. colonies. 



182425. 26,523,327 



182526. 27303,668 512,314 

 182627. 27,700,978 723,081 



3,741,402 

 3,946,770 

 3,567,737 

 3,468,590 



182728. 28,120,354 941,794 



From Great Britain to the East Indies and China, 

 together with Mauritius, in the year ending Jan. 5, 

 1829, goods were exported at the declared value of, 



By the East India company, . 1,126,926 7 7 

 Free trade, including the J . 4,085,4261611 

 privileged trade . 



Total, .... 5,212,353 4 6 



In produce of goods of the East Indies and China, 

 were imported into Great Britain in the year ending 

 Jan. 5, 1829, 



By the Kant India company .... 6,176,903 

 Free tiade, including tliu priTilegedl . ., w j 



trade 3 



Total ..... . 11,220,570 



The amount of the population of the British East 

 Indies cannot, of course, be known witli anything 

 like accuracy ; but the following is probably as near 

 an approximation as can be made : In the Ben- 

 gal presidency. 58,000,000 ; Madras presidency, 

 16,000,000; Bombay presidency, 11,000,000; total 

 British, 85,000,000 ; subsidiary and dependent (say), 

 40,000,000; outports in the bay, &c., (say), 1,000,000; 

 total under British control, 126,000,000 ; indepen- 

 dent states, but controlled by the British ;inns 

 (say), 10,000,000; approximate total, not European, 

 i:i6,000,000 ; total Europeans, about 40.000 ; about 

 one European to three thousand four hundred natives, 

 or, where they have the whole command of the go- 

 vernment and revenue, one European to two thousand 

 one hundred and twenty-five natives. See India, for 

 details regarding the liistory, statistics, &c., of the 

 country. 



IV. The French, Danish, and Swedish East India 

 companies have been of little importance, even in 

 their most flourishing state, to the commerce of the 

 world. The French, established in 1664, could not 

 succeed ; in 1796, the trade was again thrown open. 

 A new company, established in 1785, expired in 

 1791. The East India company in Denmark esta- 

 blished in 1618, and several times renewed, finally 

 surrendered its possessions to the king in 1777. The 

 company has now only the Chinese trade. The 

 Swedish East India company, established in 1731, 

 and renewed in 1766 and 1786, still exists at Gothen- 

 burg. For every voyage it pays 75,000 dollars in 

 silver to the crown, to which, on its establishment, 

 it was obliged to advance 3,000,000 dollars in silver, 

 of which one million, not on interest, is merely a 

 security, and the other two millions are considered 

 as a loan. 



EAST INDIA FLY (lytta gygas). The colour is 

 a deep azure or sea-blue ; all parts of the insect, 

 head, elytra or wing-cases, body and legs, are of the 

 same colour, with the exception of the under part of 

 the chest, on which there is a brown spot. Its size 

 is from three-fourths of an inch to an inch in length, 

 being nearly twice the size of the lytta vesicatoria, or 

 cantharides. They have b'ttle or no odour. This 

 species of cantharides has been tried at the Philadel- 

 phia alms-house. They proved to be exceedingly 

 active as vesicatories, and never failed in their et'ect. 

 They produce a vesication, in general, much earlier 

 than the Spanish fly, and, from being found so much 

 more active, only one half the quantity is added u. 1 

 making the e.mplastrum cantharidis. See Cantharides. 



EAST INDIES, the name generally bestowed on 

 those continents and islands to the east anil south of 

 the river Indus, as far as the borders of China, in- 

 cluding Timor and the Moluccas, but excluding the 

 Philippine islands, New Guinea, and New Holland. 

 See India, and the different articles, as Calcutta, Ben- 

 gal, &c. 



EATON, WILLIAM, an American, remarkable for 

 his adventures, was born at Woodstock, Connecticut, 

 February 23, 1764. He was the son of a farmer, in 

 straitened circumstances, and one of thirteen chil- 

 dren. He displayed talent in his childhood, and 

 acquired the rudiments of a good English education. 

 When about sixteen years of age, he enlisted in the 

 army, in which he remained for a twelvemonth, in the 

 capacity of waiter to an officer. In 1783, he was 

 regularly discharged, with the rank of sergeant. He 

 then undertook the study of the Latin and Greek 

 languages, which enabled him to gain admission into 

 Dartmouth college. From January, J7S8, to August, 



