MR SMALL S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PROF. ADAM FERGUSON. 645 



his fellow creatures knows but half of the human heart. But such are the neces- 

 sary taxes of occupation, of business, and perhaps of life. 



" Sd. That all that rests with us individually, is to act our own parts to the 

 best of our ability, and to endeavour to do good for its own sake, independent of 

 events, disappointments, or sufferings. 



" Under these impressions I have acted and 1 now act; and if the India Com- 

 pany, the ministers, and the Legislature extend their views to the necessity of 

 affairs, and to the future prosperity of Britain and India, as they stand united ; 

 and if they will adopt the plans I have laid before them, I am steady in believing 

 that the greatest benefits to Britain from Thule to the Land's End, and to Asia, 

 from Cape Comorin to Tartary, may flow from the practical operation of the 

 commercial and political systems I have opened for the adoption of the empire. 

 The outlines are clear and strong, as well as the ground of the operations them- 

 selves. Look on the map and see the field of empire marked by the Thibet 

 Hills from Tarttiry to Chitagong, by the Ganges from its source to its embrace 

 of the ocean, and by opposite chains of hills and of wild tribes from Balasore to 

 the Jumna. 



" This empire asks nothing from Britain but protection and some staples ; 

 and it sends to Europe every year about twenty fine Indiamen, loaded with the 

 industry and the productions of its extraordinary soil. Each ship is worth 

 L. 100,000, one with another. The improvements made in navigation, and the 

 knowledge of climates, and the care of health, enable Britain to carry on this 

 trade, if she adopted a liberal plan for it, on a footing to employ a fleet in going 

 and returning, including China and the coasts of the great Peninsula, about seventy 

 ships — now equal in size to 50-gun ships, why not to 64 and 74 ? Commerce would 

 then create a navy for Britain, at least such as would command the Indian seas ; 

 and as in King William's days, the first great operations of our state began 

 by converting our debts into funds or property by regular payments of the 

 interest ; so we may here employ the present interest of our debts to be a 

 medium for remitting the whole to Britain in an additional investment of goods. 

 Upon this system, which necessity forced us to begin here in 1782, by i)ro- 

 viding what was called a subscription investment, and drawing bills upon the 

 proceedS'Of the goods, India was saved from the jaws of war and the chains of a 

 little monopolist policy, which forced all remittances to Britain through the 

 channels of foreign trade, and which paid the tribute of custom to Lisbon and 

 Copenhagen, at a rate that has turned the exchange from Copenhagen against 

 England to about 18 per cent. 



But my system does more ; it pours in upon Britain more streams of friend- 

 ship and of aid, which every officer, civil and military, in these colonies wishes 

 to send partially to his relations, and which, in the general remittance and receipt, 

 give the British heart on this and your side of the ocean its most delightful 



