1831 .] 
On the Sandstone of India. 
207 
a marsh, a torrent, might produce effects similar to those of distance. What 
interest then could any capitalist have, in sinking his wealth in so unprofitable an 
undertaking ? Let, however, a canal be cut, reducing the charge for carriage ; 
-a road be made; the marsh drained, or a bridge thrown across the torrent; and 
how differently would this fertile tract be circumstanced ? That fertility in the 
soil, which formerly was not available to enrichment, would now, in concert 
with the reproductive principle, the labour and capital of man, become productive 
of revenue and of wealth. 
So far we have contemplated the progress of enrichment, checked by no cause 
extraneous to itself. The absence of the conjoint and reciprocal action of the 
three concomitants which are essential to its existence and increase, together with 
the physical circumstances of the country under review, having alone interfered 
with the progress of enrichment. But when we consider the inevitable effects of 
absolute and ill-directed power in individuals, and of national animosities, in the 
dark ages of an infant world, we may readily perceive the causes of many 
impediments to this natural career of wealth. When we again consider the new 
and intricate relations which, in the progress of time, cannot fail to spring up in 
a society, conforming to existing laws and customs, however absurd and barbarous 
these may be, together with the effects of subsequent counter enactments, framed 
under the delusions probably of false theories, doubly entangling the involved 
meshes of this highly artificial web, we may readily imagine how wide a field is 
open, in the old world, for aiding the progress of wealth, by the alteration and 
amendment of existing institutions and habits : for the effects of mistaken policy 
are, as regards production, analogous to the natural obstacles already adverted 
to ; the fiat of despotic power raising, in many cases, barriers more insuperable 
than Alpine tracts ; and liability to arbitrary exaction, crushing, ere it has strength 
to bud, the latent germ of national enrichment. 
II . — On the Sandstone of India. By the Rev. R. Everest. 
[Read before the Physical Class Asiatic Society, 8th June, 1831.] 
1“ the 17th No. of the Gleanings, a writer who has given us some valuable 
information respecting the rocks of the Bhartpfir district, after describing some 
Reties of sandstones, informs us, that “ they belong to that great formation of 
sandstone, which is now very generally considered as identical with the A ew Red 
S'vnlstone of the English Geologists.” _ 
Now as I am one who do not coincide in the general opinion, that t icnr 
identity has been established on more than a very distant and even trifling analog) 
between them, I have ventured to say a few words on the subject ; premising, at 
lhe same time, that I have no further information on it than what I have obtained 
fr,, m the writer’s present paper, and the two papers of Captain Franklin, one in t ie 
Geological Transactions, and the other in the Asiatic Researches. But, as the 
seems to hint that he is in possession of some additional facts, (see p. • 
lne 37, and p. 147, last paragraph,) in that case, the present remarks mus on y 
be understood as a call upon the advocates of the assertion for further evidence. 
Captain Franklin’s papers, or paper, (for they are nearly the same,) is t ie on y 
n( ^ in which any reasons are adduced in support of the opinion , and these J > 
11 state them rightly, are as follows : — (see Asiatic Researches, p. 24 , c-j 
st - That the formation includes a number of beds of variegated mar s, an 
gnu. 
