grossly misrepresented, not only by the English public in general, but by a great proportion of those also, who, though they have been in India, have taken their views of its population, manners, and productions from Calcutta, or at most from Bengal. I had always heard, and fully believed till I came to India, that it was a grievous crime, in the opinion of the Brahmins, to eat the flesh or shed the blood of any living creature whatever. I have now myself seen Brahmins of the highest caste cut off the heads of goats as a sacrifice to Doorga; and I know, from the testimony of Brahmins, as well as from other sources, that not only hecatombs of animals are often offered in this manner as a most meritorious act, (a Raja, about twenty-five years back, offered sixty thousand in one fortnight,) but that any person, Brahmins not excepted, eats readily of the flesh of whatever has been offered up to one of their divinities, while among almost all the other castes, mutton, pork, venison, fish, any thing but beef and fowls, are consumed as readily as in Europe. Again, I had heard all my life of the gentle and timid Hindoos, patient under injuries, servile to their superiors, &c. Now, this is doubtless, to a certain extent, true of the Bengalese, (who, by the way, are never reckoned among the nations of Hindostan, by those who speak the language of that country,) and there are a great many people in Calcutta who maintain that all the natives of India are alike. But even in Bengal, gentle as the exterior manners of the people are, there are large districts close to Calcutta, where the work of carding, burning, ravishing, murder, and robbery, goes on as systematically, and in nearly the same manner, as in the worst part of Ireland; and on entering Hindostan, properly so called, which in the estimation of the natives reaches from the Rajmahal hills to Agra, and from the mountains of Kemaoon to Bundelcund, I was struck and surprised to find a people equal in stature and strength to the average of European nations, despising rice and rice-eaters, feeding on wheat and barley bread, exhibiting in their appearance, conversation, and habits of life, a grave, proud, and, decidedly, a martial character, accustomed universally to the use of arms and athletic exercises from their cradles, and preferring, very greatly, military service to any other means of livelihood. Another instance of this want of information, which at the time of my arrival excited much talk in Bengal, was the assertion made in Parliament, I forget by whom, that " there was little or no sugar cultivated in India, and that the sugar mostly used there came from Sumatra and Java." Now this even the cockneys of Calcutta must have known to be wrong, and I can answer for myself, that in the whole range of my journey, from Dacca to Delhi, and thence through the greater part of Rajpootana and Malwah, the raising of sugar is as usual a part of husbandry, as turnips or potatoes in England; and that they prepare it in every form, except the loaf, which is usually met with in Europe.'

Of the state of the Schools, and of Education in general, he speaks rather favourably; and is very desirous that, without any direct attempt at conversion, the youth should be generally exposed to the humanizing influence of the New Testament morality, by the general introduction of that holy book, as a

lesson book in the schools; a matter to which he states positively that the natives, and even their Brahminical pastors, have no sort of objection. Talking of a female school, lately established at Calcutta, under the charge of a very pious and discreet lady, he observes, that Rhadacant Deb, one of the wealthiest natives in Calcutta, and regarded as the most austere ' and orthodox of the worshippers of the Ganges, bade, some 'time since, her pupils go on and prosper; and added, that “if "they practised the Sermon on the Mount as well as they re"peated it, he would choose all the handmaids for his daugh"ters, and his wives, from the English school.” '

He is far less satisfied with the administration of Justice, especially in the local or district courts, called Adawlut, which the costliness and intricacy of the proceedings, and the needless introduction of the Persian language, have made sources of great practical oppression, and objects of general execration throughout the country. At the Bombay Presidency, Mr Elphinstone has discarded the Persian, and appointed every thing to be done in the ordinary language of the place.

And here we are afraid we must take leave of this most instructive and delightful publication; which we confidently recommend to our readers, not only as more likely to amuse them than any book of travels with which we are acquainted, but as calculated to enlighten their understandings, and to touch their hearts with a purer flame than they generally catch from most professed works of philosophy or devotion. It sets before us, in every page, the most engaging example of devotion to God and good-will to man; and, touching every object with the light of a clear judgment and a pure heart, exhibits the rare spectacle of a work written by a priest upon religious creeds and establishments, without a shade of intolerance, and bringing under review the characters of a vast multitude of eminent individuals, without one trait either of sarcasm or adulation.

Of the other work, the title of which we have been led to prefix from the connexion of the subject, we have left ourselves room to say little, and, in truth, have but little to say. It is a very clever and instructive pamphlet, in support of the justice and policy of allowing an absolutely free trade to India, together with an unlimited right to settle and to hold land in that country. It is written in the tone of an advocate no doubt, with some acrimony perhaps, and perhaps with some exaggeration; but with singular spirit, clearness, and brevity; and rested throughout on such an imposing array of facts, as must be a little startling to those to whom they are opposed, and invaluable to all

who wish to form an impartial judgment on the questions to which it relates. It is on this account chiefly that we wish to recommend it to the notice of our readers. We certainly have but rarely seen a controversial tract so closely and vigorously reasoned; and do not now recollect an instance of so good and concise a digest of all the material facts that bear upon a very large and delicate discussion. In the compass of no more than seventy-two octavo pages, we have all the topics that belong to that discussion fairly stated, and all the objections and answers luminously and strongly presented, along with a most succinct and precise view of the facts, and the authorities from which they are derived. If this piece be, as is generally reported, from the hand of the author of the Account of Java, and of the Embassy to Siam, we cannot but congratulate him on his improved power of condensation. It is evidently from the hand of one who is extensively as well as minutely informed on the subject of which he treats; and, be it from whose hands it may, we cannot but think, that no man, who has ever turned his thoughts to that subject, should grudge the small labour of reading this clear and compendious statement, and no man presume to speak or to vote in regard to it, till he has thoroughly meditated its contents, and inquired diligently into the accuracy of its premises and conclusions. For our own parts, we profess to be ourselves in this laudable course of training and preparation; and without venturing, as yet, to give a decisive opinion on the soundness or safety of all this author's reasonings and suggestions, propose only to make such a slight analysis of the course he pursues in them, and to give such little specimens of the force with which he moves in it, as may induce our readers to follow our example, in acknowledging him as an associate in their inquiries, and a contributor to their materials for thinking.

The great scope of the work is, in the first place, to show, from the signal and undeniable success of the experiment already made of a partial opening of the trade to India, that no doubt can now be entertained of the policy of opening it altogether; and, in the second place, to make out the perfect safety and great advantages of allowing Englishmen to settle and hold lands in that country, 1st, By direct arguments and statements to that effect; 2dly, By showing how lamentably the judgment of those, who have advocated the opposite doctrines, has been disabled, by the notable contradiction which fact and experience have given to their equally confident predictions as to the disasters which would follow from any relaxation of the monopoly; 3dly, By facts, proving the safety and advantages of the measures suggested, on the past history and present condition of this very

people; and, 4thly, By facts of an analogous nature in the history of other nations, who have been placed in nearly similar circum

stances.

Under the first head, the author has made a very striking and triumphant exposition of the prodigious increase of the trade since its partial opening in 1815, and proved, at the same time, that this cannot be ascribed either to any accidental change of circumstances, or even to any increase of activity or improvement of policy in the Company; as it happens, that the increase is confined to those articles only which have been taken up by the free traders, while such as have remained in the hands of the Company have either continued stationary, or, in spite of the new excitement, have actually declined and gone back. In 1814, the last year of the absolute monopoly, the whole Exports to India and China amounted to about two millions and a half. In 1826, they had risen to very near five millions; the increase being confined to India, as the monopoly is still maintained as to China. The total imports in 1814 were little more than six millions; in 1826, they were better than eight; the smallness of the proportionate increase being clearly explained by the continuance of the monopoly as to Tea, at all times by far the most considerable article of import. The author, indeed, has shown, by a detailed statement, that while the actual quantity of tea imported had not increased, in twenty years, by so much as 12 per cent, the supply, with a view to the increased population of Great Britain and Ireland, had in reality decreased in a proportion of not less than 30 per cent! while the consumption of Eastern coffee had more than doubled since the introduction of the free trade. In Cotton goods the progress has been still more remarkable. In 1814, the quantity exported was 818,206 yards; in 1826, it was no less than 26,225,103, and steadily progressive. The whole Indigo trade and manufacture, producing an export of nearly two millions per annum, is a creation of the free system. It is almost the only branch of industry which Englishmen have been allowed to practise in India; and the consequence has been, that, by the signal improvements in the manufacture introduced by their skill, capital, and energy, the commodity has been so much improved, as to have driven the American article nearly from the market, and to have extended our trade and connexions, upon the safest of all bases, to the amount that has now been mentioned. In all the other manufactures of Indian produce, to which Englishmen have been allowed to apply themselves, the consequences have been equally remarkable; and the author specifies in detail those of tin ore, antimony, gum lac, and safflower. But the most remarkable case, as he gives it, is

undoubtedly that of the far more important article of Opium. The trade in this article was opened in 1815; but the Company, as sovereigns of the only accessible countries where it then grew, maintained their monopoly, by taking the culture entirely into their own hands, and strictly prohibiting it everywhere but at their own establishments; and the consequence was, that they continued to sell an inferior article at a high price, and to a limited extent, the chief consumers being in China, and the Indian islands. They are actually said to have paid the cultivators no more than L. 14, for what they sold in the market for from L.200 to L.400. The first invasion of their privilege was by the Americans, who speedily undersold them in Turkey opium in those very markets; and the remedy or revenge was, to impose a prohibitory duty on the free article, within all the range of their own territory, thus establishing a virtual monopoly, in favour of the Americans, against their own subjects! But the great disaster was the discovery, that opium was manufactured by the native cultivators in the newly conquered provinces of Malwah, and the other Mahratta districts; and that, as soon as the intercourse was opened, the free traders offered L. 60 and L.70 for what the Company bought at home for L.14 or L.15, and yet undersold them in all the great markets of the East. To have interdicted the established industry of the native proprietors, in this its most beneficial application, was more than could be ventured on in a newly ceded territory; and the Company was induced, therefore, to meet this formidable competition, first, by giving still higher prices, and so driving their rivals from the market,-in which hopeful attempt, the author before us avers, that they actually expended near L.700,000, in the year 1823; and then by actually negotiating with the native princes, for the discouragement of the growth of opium in their dominions. The great additional profits, however, that accrued to the cultivators from the competition, effectually frustrated both attempts; and the quantity of Malwah opium increased sevenfold in the course of five years; while its quality was so much improved by the same powerful causes, that whereas it used to sell at a discount of 25 per cent below that of Bengal, it is now at a premium of 14 per cent. To crown this view of the contrasted effects of monopoly and even partial freedom, the author adds, that while the Company, in the days of their unrestricted privilege, had not been able at all to extend the sale of their opium in a period of thirty years, it has been raised, in the five years since the Malwah competition, from about two thousand five hundred chests annually, to upwards of ten thousand;-the price formerly obtained for the smaller quantity being only about two millions and a half of dol