Lines to Solitude,

No. VIII.

79

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Course of Exchange,.......................................~~~~ 123

Prices of Edinburgh Stocks,~~~~~~ ib.

124

Births,...

125

126

THIS is an admirable and masterly exposition of the most brilliant Administration in the annals of our Indian Empire. It details, in a succinct, but satisfactory manner, the critical situation of affairs at the time when the Noble Marquess assumed the reins of government ;-the measures adopted to place both the finances and the army in a condition to meet the exigences that had already arisen ;-the causes that inevitably led to the war with Nipaul;the advantage taken of that contest, by the States of Central India, to organize a mighty confederacy for the overthrow of the British power in that region; the gigantic plans which were conceived, and successfully executed, for dissolving that confederacy, and establishing our ascendancy on a basis not to be shaken bat by a long train of misrule or adverse fortune;-the important political and financial results obtained by a rare, we had almost said, unequalled, combination of administrative and military talents;-the vast accession of strength to the Government, produced not so much by the splendid success of our arms, which swept every enemy from the field, as by the temperate use of victory, and the wisdom and justice that presided in our councils; the attain ment of these prodigious advantages without the expenditure of a single shilling on the part of the Company; -the rapid improvement in the condition of the country, and in the puble revenue, effected by the destruction

VOL. XVIII.

of those execrable spoilers, the Pindarries, by the total subjugation of all the States capable of disturbing the peace of India, and by the justice with which our Government was administered, all tending to produce that security to which the people had been so long strangers, and without which there can be no prosperity ;the importance of our Indian Empire to this country, as affording a direct surplus revenue,-as opening a wide field for the employment of a considerable portion of our youth, who, after realizing fortunes, generally return to spend them in their native land, and as containing a market for many of our manufactured commodities ;-and, finally, the political advantage of having always on foot, and at no cost, a large and powerful army, ready to move to any point where its services may be required, and to turn the scale in our favour. These are mighty results to have been attained by the genius and skill of one man, in the course of little more than nine years; results which have conquered ages of peace for India, and given to our power a moral stability which it never before possessed, and which, henceforth, it will require comparatively but a small portion of sense or wisdom to preserve unshaken. The measures by which they were produced necessarily embrace a very wide field; but in the invaluable little work before us,-which is, without all doubt, the most statesmanlike document ever submitted to

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the public on the subject of Indian affairs, and which, we may remark in passing, is printed for distribution, not for sale,-they are detailed with such admirable clearness and precision, that we shall find difficulty in putting our readers in possession of the greater part of its contents, and of enabling them to appreciate the justice of the unqualified commendation which we have felt it to be our duty to bestow upon it.

When the Marquess of Hastings entered upon the management of affairs in October 1813, his first view of them was by no means encouraging. The treasuries of the three Presidencies contained no funds adequate to meet any unusual charges; the credit of bonds, issued as securities for monies borrowed, had fallen so low as to make eventual recourse to a loan in a moment of exigency almost a desperate expedient; and the embarrassment in consequence produced, had been rather aggravated than diminished, by the injudicious measures of retrenchment adopted by the preceding Government. To the persons who were then entrusted with power, the military charges, that is, the provision for all warlike objects, offensive or defensive, had appeared the only head of expenditure in which an available saving could be effected; and, accordingly," the paring-knife was applied with rather an indiscriminating hand" to many articles of the military establishment, which had, till then, been deemed indispensable towards the security of the country. By this clumsy and unstatesmanlike process, the contemplated surplus was no doubt produced; but it was attended with consequences which had not been foreseen by those who could devise no better expedient for supporting public credit, and securing a small balance of receipts over expenditure, than weakening the main prop and stay of our power.

Let it not be supposed (says the Noble Marquess, with a graceful but uncalled-for modesty) that I am insinuating a censure on an expedient to which the Government was pressingly urged by financial difficul. ties. The limit, within which a reduction of disbursement in the military branch would not entail mischief, was perhaps not to be computed without trial,

As it was, experience showed that hazard had been incurred in a degree quite unapprehended. The saving had principally arisen from a great diminution of our armed force. The operation of such a measure was not confined to the ques tion of sufficiency for eventual defence;

for nothing would mislead the judgment more than a parallel between the employment of the Indian army and that of our

military at home. The native troops are, in fact, the police of India; the Burkendauzes, or armed attendants of the Magistrates, being totally inadequate, if not supported by the regulars. Hence, the complication of duties resting upon the soldiery is so great, as that it is rare for even half of a battalion to be found at its

head-quarters. Occupation of dependant stations,-detachments with treasure, which is in constant transit,-escort of stores periodically dispatched from Calcutta to the several provinces,-charge of convicts working on the roads,-custody of prisoners transmitted from different parts for trial before the Courts of Circuit,-and guards over gaols-form a mass of demand which our fullest military complement could barely answer. A great number of those among whom such duties had been divided, could not be dismissed without causing the service to be oppressive to the remainder; but there was a further consequence which rendered the burthen intolerable to the native

soldier. This incompetence of strength

involved nearly an extinction of those leaves which it had been the custom to

grant annually, for a proportion of the

men in each regiment to visit their villages. The privation of hope to see his

connexions occasionally was insuperably irksome to the Bengal Sepoy, usually of high caste. In consequence, very many in each corps solicited discharge from the service. Unless when in the field, this indulgence had been uniformly conceded on application, as the individual had received no bounty on entrance; of course there was an awkwardness in refusing what had from practice assumed a colour of right, when contest was only secretly anticipated by Government from parti culars which it wished not to divulge. So many of those who thus petitioned to quit the service were veterans approaching the periods of claim to the invalid pension, (the great object of the native soldier,) that the sacrifice which they desired to make exhibited unequivocally the deep discontent of the army. I, therefore, found Government convinced that perseverance in the experiment was too dangerous; and the re-adoption of those military provisions which had been stricken