the manger be applicable to them?an application most opprobrious in private life, and still more so in a public body, not one of whose Directors individually but must spurn it. All that appears necessary is, that the East India Company should avail themselves of the power granted by Act of Parliament, and issue licences for British ships to trade in tea to any other country than this: it is a measure at once so just and politic, that I hope so fair an opportunity for gratuitous concession will not be allowed to escape. P. B. P.

INDIAN WAR SONG.

Paraphrase of an Indian Song, or Ode, written in the Brij Bakah language, and discovered in the cummerbund or sash of a Pindarrie chieftain, who had fallen during a night skirmish between the freebooters and a detachment of our cavalry in India, during the last campaign.

MOUNT and away! Hark, the nuqura's loud call,
Bids the serf quit his labour, the chieftain his hall;
Bright looks and sweet voices awhile must give way
To the flash of the spear, and the war-courser's neigh.

The kaffers† shall tremble, who view from afar
Our conquest-crown'd banner, like Buehram's red star;
And fly to the ships, whence they treacherously came
To rob us of glory, to clothe us in shame.

Would they track our bold march, let them look where on high
Our war-fire's reflection hangs red in the sky:

An Iris of hope to the free and the brave,
A meteor of fear to the coward and slave.

Let the Musulman rise, with his old battle cry,
For the glad hour of freedom and vengeance is nigh;
Let him think on the sceptre his forefathers swayed,
And the might of past ages shall rest on his blade.

Will the fiery rajpoot hear the trumpet that rings
With a nation's appeal to the offspring of kings,§
Nor rush to the field, like his proud sires of old,
The vanguard of valour, and guide of the bold?

Sound! sound to horse! hark! the loud clanging hoof
And the neigh of impatience gives gallant reproof;
March! and the trump of our Durrahs shall roll,
Like a fast-coming storm on the infidel's soul.

Indian drum.

C. J.

+ Literally unbelievers, infidels, a term of reproach mutually applied by Christians, Mohammedans, and idolaters, to the enemies of their respective creeds.

The planet Mars.

The rajpoots are the kingly and warrior caste among the Hindoos: and from the men of this class, the British army in India is principally supplied.

SKETCHES IN INDIA.

Sketches in India, treating on Subjects connected with the Government; Civil and Military Establishments; Characters of the European, and Customs of the Native, Inhabitants. By William Huggins. London, 1824. 8vo. pp. 237.

SINCE the publication of Mrs. Graham's Journal of a Residence in India, we have had no popular work on the manners of the European inhabitants of that country: and our estimation of the book now before us, is not such as to induce a belief that this will ever become as popular as that of Mrs. Graham's was in its day. The writer, amidst some things that are useful and true, has mixed up much that is useless and false; and the defective style and arrangement of the whole, is such as to render it a task of no small labour to proceed through the volume without interruption. We have done this, in execution of a duty, but not in enjoyment of a pleasure; and with a view to spare others the toil of seeking for the few grains amidst a profusion of chaff, we shall proceed to give the outlines of the subjects treated of, with occasional passages of the work itself; so that the reader may be possessed, in a small compass, of the principal information contained in the whole. We are aware that this is contrary to the usual practice of reviewing;-but leaving to those publications, which are exclusively devoted to party-purposes, the task of praising, or condemning in the gross, according to the religious and political sentiments professed by the writers of the works reviewed, and in utter disregard of their real merits: we shall, at least, endeavour on this, and on all other occasions, to give a fair and impartial account of the several publications that may fall under our notice, neither refusing praise nor sparing censure where either may appear to us to be due.

The mode chosen by the author of "Sketches in India," for the communication of his sentiments on the state of society in that country, is that of familiar letters; a design which, when well executed, has peculiar charms: but at the same time, one which is too frequently used as a covering for indolence, or incapacity, and often therefore exhibiting the greatest defects in information and arrangement. In this respect we regard the letters in question, as rarely or ever evincing the beauties which often beam, with peculiar grace, through the familiar epistles of friends; though on the other hand they furnish innumerable instances of carelessness, pedantry, and bad taste combin duvanve

The first letter in the collection gives a meal hafa feeb description of the entrance to the river Hoogly, and the approach to Calcutta; and as though it were intended that the reader should have an early proof of that entire absence of enthusiasm in the cause of improvement which distinguishes the author's mind, he makes an allusion to one of the most benevolent and public-spirited undertakings of modern times the cultivar tion of Saugor island-apparently but for the purpose of expressing his hopelessness of its success.

The second letter furnishes an illustration of the notions entertained by the author as to the peculiar duties of the English Government and the East India Company towards India. He had somewhere read or heard,

no doubt, of the observation of Burke, during the time of Warren Hastings, that if the English were to lose their possessions in India, they would leave behind them no trace of the country having ever been occupied by a civilized race of conquerors: and he embodies this thought on the very first occasion of his seeing and describing the Government-house at Calcutta.

This magnificent structure, which would not sink in a comparison with most palaces in Europe, owes its rise to the princely disposition of Marquess Wellesley. Setting aside the royal palaces in London, which do not compete with this, I have seen the Thuilleries and palace of Versailles, and think neither of them equals the Government-house in uniformity and majesty of design; the building of it is said to have cost upwards of a million sterling, and to have excited considerable discontent at the India House. I shall here observe, if the East India Company are so mercenary as to deny the expenses necessary for erecting magnificent buildings, their empire may endure, and may perish without leaving a trace of its grandeur behind, or mark to show the tide of its prosperity. p.6.

The great objects of foreign conquest, and the true symbols of prosperity, appear to this writer to be the erection of great public buildings. Other authors have regarded such monuments as generally recording the wretchedness of the people who reared them, and the vanity or despotism of those for whose gratification they were raised. The pyramids of Egypt, and the caverned temples of India, have been generally considered as monuments of useless labour, wrung from an already impoverished, and therefore abject people. To be consistent, however, this writer ought to regard the excavations at Elephanta, Salsette, and Ellora, with the innumerable monuments of ancient superstition existing. throughout India, as proofs of a higher degree of civilization and prosperity than even the Government-house at Calcutta, the erection of which, must have cost much less labour and expense than many of the monuments alluded to. If he had read the History of India with any attention, he must have known that there could be no criterion of grandeur and prosperity more fallacious than this. To erect the Governmenthouse at Calcutta it is admitted that a million sterling was required of the Company. From whence could this fund be raised, but from the source which supplies all its demands-a portion of the property or labour of the people of India, in the shape of revenue from the soil, and duties on commerce? It could be no great benefit to the native inhabitants to have to furnish this million; yet it is they who must ultimately pay the expense of such edifices. If a million were taken from them for the construction of bridges and roads; for the embankment of rivers; clearing of unhealthy sh r; enacting wise laws; establishing schools;

or promoting any otha hore from which benefits might return to them

in their own generation, and descend with increased force to their children, they might readily spare it, and all parties would reap the advantage of such an outlay. But the magnificent palace at Calcutta, which it cost them a million to erect, will not return to them or their descendants a single benefit of any description whatever, unless the annual demand of more money for its embellishment and repairs can be so considered. That the Governor should have a public residence, and a handsome and commodious one, will not be disputed; but that the displeasure of a Trading Company at a servant of theirs paying too large a price for the gratification of his personal vanity, should be urged against them as a

reproach, is an idea that could only have arisen in a confused imagination. We continue the author's remarks:

What has distinguished the conquests of the Greeks and Romans from those of Timur and Zinghis Khan ?—What but the arts, the improvements, the civilization, and the monuments which time has not been able to destroy, but after a lapse of ages remain to excite our emulation, and instruct our minds. Palmyra still towers amidst the desert, and speaks the magnificence of Zenobia, whilst the track of Timur is not seen upon the sand-his armies annihilated and mingled with the dust. If the Company, from another motive, from a spirit of avarice, walk in the track of this waster, and refuse to impress a single stamp of greatness upon the empire they have seized, their conduct is much more culpable. They are not Tartars of the desert, but men instructed in the arts of civilized life-in the history of past ages, aware of the duties which attach to rule and improvements due to their empire; if, then, from the wretched love of gold, they deviate from these, their conduct is highly censurable. The Marquess had collected materials at Barrackpore for erecting another magnificent building there, and had commenced the foundations when his government expired. In consequence of the avarice I have condemned, this design was given up by his successors, and Lady Hastings erected a greenhouse from the neglected pile. p. 6, 7.

If the avarice of the Company were never displayed in a more objectionable manner than their refusing to sanction the erection of expensive and useless edifices, their conduct would be worthy of praise. It is one thing to desolate provinces, as was done by Timour and Zenghis Khan, and another to abstain from studding it with idle monuments of pomp and magnificence. In this, the Company are undoubtedly right: the monuments which they erect, should be more worthy of enlightened men; they should introduce the skill, capital, and industry of their countrymen freely into India; they should teach their subjects the useful arts of life; frame new laws; encourage the diffusion of intelligence; and change the whole character of the people, before they think of palaces and public buildings. The Hindoos, under the Brahmins, are not more barbarous than were the people of England under their Druids in Roman days: but as the English are now much more capable of speedily changing the character of a conquered people, by the introduction of knowledge among them, than were the Romans at the conquest of Britain; so they might, had they acted wisely, have even by this time wrought as great an improvement in the people of India under their rule, as the English underwent from the time of the conquest, to the middle ages of our history. That they have not done so, is a foul and deep reproach: but it is even yet not too late to begin. Let them open their dominions freely to the colonization of Englishmen; revise the laws, or have a new code; and restore the freedom of the press. If they would but do this, in twenty years India would make a greater advance in civilization than she has done during the two centuries that she has been subject to the dominion of different powers in Europe.

In the third letter, the author attempts an account of the leading characteristics of the several Governors General, from Warren Hastings to Lord Moira: and in attempting to palliate the crimes laid to the charge of the former, he has some remarks which are worth transcribing, if only for other collateral suggestions, to which they are likely to give rise in the mind of the reader:

The Rohilla war, seizure of Benares, death of Rajah Nundcomar, and annulment of the Bengal leases, are, I think, the chief points on which his conduct has been attacked. I shall not plead in his defence those intrigues which are so Orient. Herald, Vol. 2.

K

prevalent in an Indian cabinet, and are known only to the actors, those machinations which roused his hostility. I shall not defend his wars on the score of justice, for it is a test to which no conquerors have been subjected, but look simply to consequences; the acquisitions he made added consistency to our possessions; gave them the shape and form of a connected empire; gave them stability. If we censure his conduct, why do we retain them? Why have we an empire in India at all? We have no natural right; we did not purchase it; we have conquered it. Warren Hastings added rich provinces to our empire; we retain them; we glory in them; we reap advantages from them; and shall we arraigu as a culprit the man who procured them for us? If England did not wish to be grateful to her benefactor, she should not have ruined him; if she wished to avoid the odium entailed by those acquisitions, she should have restored them, instead of exhibiting a mock resentment against the man who procured them, whilst the provinces acquired by his talents and political ability, are esteemed a precious dowry. It was not generous to brandish the rod of correction above his head, who drew forth a jewel, valued as the brightest in her coronet; which blazes on her brow, and accuses her of ingratitude. p. 15-17.

These questions may be better answered by the East India Company' than by ourselves. We are no admirers of the manner in which our Indian empire was acquired, any more than of the manner in which it is at present governed. Let those who approve of both, solve the difficulty which the author starts. We pass on to the brief mention made of Lord Hastings: where, after animadverting on the Nepaul war, which the author conceives his Lordship to have undertaken from mere views of ambition and personal aggrandisement, he says→

His Lordship in this war displayed extensive military capacity, and his opera tions were planned with a degree of wisdom and skill that do high credit to his talents. In his civil conduct, his Lordship observed that moderation and regard for liberty, which, during the course of a long life, he has uniformly professed. He cancelled those restrictions which had been, before his time, imposed on the press, and by enabling the inhabitants of India to write their sentiments freely, has done an important service to the community. In short, if we could blot the Nepaul war out of Lord Hastings's administration, his conduct in other respects. would enable us to pronounce him a great and good man. p. 24.

The fallacy of the opinions which prevail respecting Lord Hastings's conduct towards the Indian press, is so mischievous that it can never be too frequently exposed. The restrictions imposed on the press before his Lordship's government, were those of a direct censorship, which compelled all writers (except the most dangerous class, the Indo-British) to submit their writings to the Chief Secretary before they could appear in print. This was abolished by Lord Hastings, and infinite credit taken by himself for this pretended liberality. We say pretended, from the deepest conviction, after all that has since transpired, that the admiration of free discussion, so often and so unequivocally professed by Lord Hastings, could have had no foundation in truth; and that the sole object of expressing it at all, was to obtain praise, for what he must have known in his heart, was not in the slightest degree deserved. We were among the first to extol the apparent magnanimity of the Noble Marquess, believing, in the simplicity of good faith, that all he said was truly and sincerely meant to be made his rule of action. Is it possible, however, that any man can admit that "Lord Hastings has done (in the words of the author) an important service to the Indian community, by enabling the inhabitants of India to write freely," when this same "Liberator" of the Indian press avows, repeatedly, that he had himself, when he abolished the censorship, framed other and more galling restric