prince and country-the traitor. for the bribe of being himself made prince, not merely to sell his master, but give two millions three hundred and ninety-eight thousand pounds sterling, or, according to the historian Orme, £2,750,000, with valuable privileges and property of state; while these dealers in treason and rebellion pocketed each from two hundred and forty to two hundred and eighty thousand pounds sterling! A more infamous transaction is not on record." And what aggravates the villany of this transaction is the fact, that at the very moment when they were carrying on this treasonable negotiation with Meer Jaffier, Clive was writing in the most affectionate terms to Surajah Dowlah-the same post which carried a “soothing letter" to the Nabob, carrying to Clive's agent at his court another letter couched in these terms: "Tell Meer Jaffier to fear nothing. I will join him with five thousand men who never turned their backs."

But not half this tale of infamy has been told. The individual through whom Clive and the Committee communicated with Meer Jaffier was a Bengalee of the name of Omilchund, a native merchant of great wealth residing at Calcutta. This man, who held in his hand the whole thread of the conspiracy, imitating the conduct of the English members of the plot, demanded of them at the last moment three hundred thousand pounds sterling as compensation for his own services. These worthies, so prompt to exact enormous donations for themselves, were extremely incensed at the demand. But Clive-a man, says Mills, "to whom deception, when it suited his purpose never cost a pang,"—had a plan in readiness whereby they might secure the assistance of Omilchund, and yet save paying the reward for which he stipulated. This was no easy matter; for the Hindoo merchant, distrusting, no doubt, the honesty of his British fellow-conspirators, had required that an article stating his claim should be inserted in the treaty between Meer Jaffier and the English, which he further insisted on seeing with his own eyes. But what was Clive's expedient? He caused two copies of the treaty to be drawn up, one genuine, the other fictitious, the latter containing the engagement demanded by Omilchund, the former omitting all mention of his name. There was, however, another obstacle in the way. Admiral Watson, joined with Clive in the command, having some small remnant of honesty, hesitated about signing the simulated treaty. And what did Clive do? He forged Admiral Watson's name. The plot then proceeded against Surajah Dowlah. The English general, having matured his plans, changed the tone of flattery and friendship in which he had hitherto indulged towards the unfortunate Prince into violent accusation and menace, and intimated his intention at once to march his troops against him. This was done accordingly, and Meer Jaffier, when his master was in the agony of disaster and defeat on the field of battle, drew off his division of the army, and joined the English. Surajah Dowlah was defeated, and shortly after assasinated by the son of Meer Jaffier.

And how fared it with Omilchund, the go-between in this precious conspiracy, whose right to compensation had been, as he believed, solemnly guaranteed by treaty ? Mr. Macaulay shall relate the residue of the tale: "The new sovereign was now called upon to fulfil the engagements into which he had entered with his allies. A conference was held at the house of Jugget Seit, the great banker, for the purpose of making the necessary arrangements. Omilchund came thither, fully believing himself to stand high in the favor of Clive, who, with dissimulation surpassing even the dissimulation of Bengal, had, up to that day, treated him with undiminished kindness. The whole treaty was produced, and read. Clive then turned to Mr Scrafton, one of the servants of the Company, and said in English

'It is now time to undeceive Omilchund.' 'Omilchund,' said Mr Scrafton in Hindostanee, the red treaty is a trick; you are to have nothing.' Omilchund fell back insensible into the arms of his attendants. He revived; but his mind was irreparably ruined. From the moment of that sudden shock the unhappy man gradually sank into idiocy.

We must now revert to Meer Jaffier. He was raised to the throne of the master whom he had betrayed, and, while he continued sufficiently obsequious to the English, and sufficiently ready to pour money into the maw of their insatiabie rapacity, he was sustained there by their power. But this did not last long. He, in his turn, was dethroned by these commercial king-makers in favor of his son-in-law, Meer Causim. This man, by employing every species of cruelty to extort the necessary funds from his unhappy subjects to serve the purposes of the English, pleased the latter for a while. But in about three years they, wearied of him also, dismised him from the royalty of Bengal, and re-installed Meer Jaffier once more. From this time forward the English became of course, the real masters of Bengal, though they continued for some time to rule in the name of some puppet nabob or another. Now we ask if in the whole records of history there is a blacker scene of rapacity and purjury, forgery and fraud of every kind, than was exhibited in the British acquisition of Bengal?

And how did they govern the country they had acquired by means so infamous? We will call Clive himself as witness. On his return to India, after a temporary sojourn, we find him writing thus: - I can only say that such a scene of anarchy, corruption and extortion, was never seen or heard of in any country but Bengal. The three provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, producing a revenue of £3,000,000 sterling, have been under the absolute management of the Company's servants ever since Meer Jaffier's restoration to the Soobahship; and they have, both civil and military, exacted and levied contributions from every man of power and consequence, from the Nabob down to the lowest Zemindar. The trade has been carried on by free merchants, acting as gomastahs to the Company's servants who, under the sanction of their names, have committed actions which make the name of the English stink in the nostrils of a Gentoo and a Mussulman; and the Company's servants have interfered with the revenues of the Nabob, turned out and put in the officers of the Government at their pleasure, and made every one pay for their preferment." A severe famine followed upon this misgovernment, so that it is not surprising to find the Governor-General, Lord Cornwallis, twenty years afterwards, describing Bengal as a country that was hastening to decay. These are his words: "I am sorry to be obliged to say that agriculture and commerce have for many years been gradually declining; and that at present, excepting the class of Shoffs and Banyans, who reside almost entirely in great towns, the inhabitants of these provinces were advancing hastily to a general state of poverty and wretchedness. In this description I must even include almost every Zemindar in the Company's territorities; which, though it may have been partly occasioned by their own indolence and extravagance, I am afraid must also be in a great measure attributed to the defects of our former system of mismanagement."

DOMESTIC BEREAVEMENTS FROM WAR.-As illustrations of the bereavements caused by the Indian mutiny, it was lately stated by a preacher in Scotland, that a gentleman in that country had lost twenty-two relatives in India within six weeks; and that out of thirteen of a family party which met last year in St. Andrew's, only one is now living, twelve having gone out to India, and fallen victims to the mutiny.

CAUSES OF THE INDIAN REBELLION.

Some of these are very obvious, and others are in a course of development; but it will require not a little time, inquiry and reflection to fix them all in the public mind. We cull, as they come within our reach, a few facts and opinions that may throw further light on the subject.

INFLUENCE OF BRITISH OFFICIALS IN PROVOKING THE REVOLT." Why are we at War in India 3-This sudden and terrible outbreak will leave sad and bitter memories in India. When the brief but bloody tragedy which now convulses that great territory, shall have been played out; when revolt shall have worked its last outrage, and revenge have immolated its last victim; when time shall have assuaged, to some extent, the cruel sorrows and surging passions of the nation, there must arise a deep and searching inquiry into the causes of this great disaster. It is not enough to tell us of "greased cartridges," and "missionary colonels," or of our petted Sepoy soldiers, who, like spoilt children, have pouted into mutiny, and massacred their best friends. We understand that caste is the deepseated cancer of Brahminical India, and we know that Moslem and Hindoo are alike enervated and corrupted by the most depraved sensuality and superstitions; but we only deceive ourselves if among these elements alone we seek the true causes of this wide-spread disaffection to English rule, and the diabolical barbarities to which our countrymen and countrywomen have been so cruelly exposed. It is not the heathenism nor the licentiousness of the Bengalese that has made them assassins; it is certainly not the Christianity of the English, nor is difference of creed alone sufficient to explain such a paroxysm.

Such causes will probably never appear in despatches from the Governor General, nor are they even likely to be recorded in parliamentary Blue Books; but now and then we gather from private letters, and from independent travellers, some facts and incidents which throw no little light upon the origin of such convulsions as that which is now threatening our supremacy in the East.

Take the incidental testimony of Bayard Taylor, while travelling through northern India, 1853. "There is" he says, "one faction of English society in India, which I cannot notice without feeling disgusted and indignant. I allude to the contemptuous manner in which the natives, even those of the best and most intelligent classes, are almost invariably spoken of and treated. Social equality, except in some rare instances, is utterly out of the question. The tone adopted towards the lower classes is one of lordly arrogance; towards the rich and enlightened, one of condescension and patronage. I have heard the term 'niggers' applied to the whole race by those high in office; with the lower orders of the English it is the designation in general use. And this, too, towards those of our own Caucasian blood, where there is no instinct of race to excuse their unjust prejudice." All this from one who looks favorably on the general results of English rule in India.

It is in this supercilious deportment of English residents in India, and its natural and inevitable result, the deeply-stung pride of the natives, that may probably be traced one of the chief causes of our present dangerous relations with that vast population. Forgetting one of the cardinal truths of our own religion, that God hath made of one blood all nations of men,' our countrymen in India, whilst denouncing the caste prejudices of the Brahmin, have maintained the baser caste of blood, and have trampled

with relentless pride upon all the sensibilities of those who were once the undisputed lords of the soil, but are now made to writhe under the petty indignities and insults with which conquerors are ever too apt to disgrace their usurpations.

SEPOY ATROCITIES NO MARVEL.-The tone assumed by the English press and public generally in reference to the insurrection in India, is that of mingled astonishment and indignation. They stand aghast at the combined audacity and folly of the men who have attempted to throw off the yoke of British conquest. No one, indeed, can wonder that the unutterable atrocities committed by the insurgent Sepoys, upon those who have fallen into their hands, should awake a thrill of horror and indignation in every human bosom. The deeds they have perpetrated are such as degrade our common humanity below the level of the beast, and make us blush at hearing the very name of men. That they are, however, worse than those committed by other armies, we do not believe. Unhappily, the records of history furnish abundant proofs, that when men have been trained to the work of slaughter, and their minds, by elaborate instruction and practice, familiarised with violence and bloodshed, there are no excesses of ferocious and brutal barbarity, that the most diabolical imagination has ever conceived, which they are not capable of enacting, after the frail bridle of military discipline has once been snapped.

We do not say this to excuse or extenuate the conduct of the Sepoys. Heaven forbid! We say it merely to direct the attention of our readers to the fact, so carefully concealed by the admirers of the militaay profession, that these appalling outbreaks of cruelty are the natural results of a system which, by silencing the voice of conscience, and trampling under foot the very instincts of humanity, converts rational beings, endowed by God with all the affections and charities of life like ourselves, into what Southey terms mere machines for murder." We have not a syllable to say against the feelings of intense execration, which the abominable outrages inflicted by the Sepoys on helpless women and children have excited throughout the country and throughout the civilized world. The only surprising thing is, that men cannot see that these things are really not less horrible when they are done for us, as they often have been done by these very men, than when they are committed upon us.

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THIS REBELLION A NATURAL AND NECESSARY RESULT OF BRITISH WRONG. For some years past ominous mutterings of discontent have been heard in the Indian armory. Sir Charles Napier, especially, did his utmost, during his military command in that country, to convince the authorities that they were sleeping on the thin crust of a volcano which might at any time explode into universal insurrection. A deaf ear was turned to his warnings; but at length has come the great crisis in our Asian Empire.

What is the cause, or what are the causes, of this commotion? We will not attempt to enumerate the various and conflicting reasons assigned for this calamity. To our own mind, the great radical cause, which lies at the bottom of all others, is perfectly clear. We have been attempting to govern India by the sword, and for purely selfish purposes, in utter contempt of the great principles of truth and justice, and the claims which its 100 millions of inhabitants had upon us as a Christian nation. The one great aim has been our own aggrandisement by fair means or by foul. To acquire territory by conquest or confiscation; to seize upon and appropriate to ourselves the estates of the native land-owners, without purchase or compensation; to extort by terror and torture exorbitant taxation-exorbitant as compared with their means-from the impoverished peasantry; and then to silence all complaint, to suppress all rising disaffection by the bayonets

of our native army of 300,000 men-this has been our systematic policy in India. It has been carried on lately at a more rapid pace, and with a more daring hand, than during any former period of our history. Lord Dalhousie, during the eight years that he was Governor-general, absorbed by fraud or force territories belonging to the native Princes, having an area of some 150,000 square miles, and from 20,000,000 to 30,000,000 of inhabitants.

The result of this insatiable lust of annexation has been most disastrous in many ways. It has utterly shaken the faith of the people in our veracity and honor: for many of these acquisitions have been made in direct violation, not only of clear right on the part of the original possessors, but of the most explicit treaty obligations on our part. Mr. Malcolm Lewis, a gentleman long occupying a high judicial post in India, remarks on this point:"We have raised an enemy stronger than the chiefs we have ruined; in our loss of character among the inhabitants of India, we have created an enemy superior to all physical force; we have proclaimed throughout India that we are faithless, that one principle, and one only, actuates us, viz., the desire which actuates the robber-that of seizing everything of value that falls within his grasp."

This extension of territory, also, has added enormously to the burdens of the people. It is true that many of our seizures were made expressly for purposes of revenue, to add, as it was thought, to the resources of the Indian Government. But what is gotten by dishonesty, is seldom found to be permanently profitable. The extent of our empire has been enlarged; but this, instead of enriching, has only tended to impoverish the Indian exchequer, because the cost of the military occupancy and the civil administration of the new provinces, has generally far exceeded the revenue derived from them. Sir Erskine Perry, in a speech he delivered in the House of Commons on Indian finances, has proved this beyond all controversy, by unimpeachable official documents. He takes the States, annexed within a few years, of Scinde, Sattara, Punjaub, Pegu, and Nagpore, and he shows that the charges, civil and military, upon these five annexations exceed the revenues derived from them to the extent of £3,227,576 annually. Now, what can the effect of all this be, but to divert, for the maintenance by the strong hand, of these recent conquests, those means which might otherwise be applied to develop the resources of the country, and to improve the condition of its inhabitants? How little these latter duties are attended to may be inferred from one astounding fact, mentioned by Mr. J. B. Smith, in his speech on introducing his motion for the cultivation of cotton in India. He stated that Mr. Mangles, the present chairman of the East India Company, when examined before the Cotton Committee, was asked this question," What revenue have you derived during the last fourteen years from India ?" His answer was, "We have received about £300,000,000." "And how much have you spent in roads, in works of irrigation, and other public works ?" About $1,400,000!”

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By such means we have added in a comparatively few years territory twice as large as the United Kingdom. To inforce these exactions, and to carry on annexations, the British Government in India have raised a monster army of three hundred thousand natives, training them to violence, pandering to their cruel superstitions, encouraging among them the use of maddening intoxicants almost unknown to them till lately. Suddenly and terribly the storm has burst upon us; we are punished by the very instruments we trusted in, and by which we have inflicted such wrongs. All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.'"-Her. of Peace.