where, the most important and durable link of connexion between the rulers and the body of the people, an immense majority of which is there agricultural. It afforded the readiest means of influencing the feelings, as well as of representing and advocating the interests, of a population from which we are divided by too many distinctions, and too great a distance, to permit us to ascertain or understand their real feelings and interests, and with whom we have too little in common to be capable of guiding or leading them, though we have the power to command.

This was in itself a serious evil, which was very imperfectly compensated by the apparent security we derived from the absence of individuals possessing influence enough to combine or organize resistance; for it was not from this class that any act of rebellion was to be apprehended: their power, individually, was too small to be formidable-they were incapable of combination, and they had too much to lose, and were too well aware of the hopelessness of resistance, to hazard all they possessed. But so long as a great part of India continued to be under the independent control of native princes, and their territories afforded a field for the exercise of native talent and the gratification of ambition, the consequences of our system were less injuriously felt, and its tendency less generally perceived. Now, however, that the whole peninsula is either subject to our direct rule, or indirectly feels the effect of our domination and its depressing influence on the higher classes, both that portion which still remains and that which has recently been absorbed into the mass of the people, but still preserves the remembrance of better days, is animated by no very friendly sentiments towards the British Government.

While feelings of alarm and discontent are thus excited in the native aristocracy by the hopelessness of its position-by its absolute exclusion from employment, and the impossibility of finding any road to preferment, to honour, or to wealth-the decline of the higher classes produces its natural effect-a depreciation of the intellectual standard of native society in our provinces. The great mass of the population under our immediate government, with some limited exceptions which shall be noticed, is undergoing a progressive degradation. The labouring classes, to whom the financial necessities of the Government have permitted no relaxation of their heavy exactions, are pressed to the utmost limit of

their power to pay. The European collectors of the revenue, men distinguished-as the whole body of the Company's servants now is, beyond the employés of perhaps any other governmentfor intelligence and integrity, finding themselves valued rather in proportion to the amount they may realize than to the prosperity of the districts intrusted to their charge-and left without any intelligent and trustworthy interpreter of the feelings of the people,

any

any testimony of their real condition in which both parties may confide, or any influential advocate of their interests-too often find no measure by which to regulate their demands but the ability of the people to meet them.

At the same time there is growing up, at all places where Europeans are numerous, more especially at Calcutta, and even at the smaller stations, amongst the persons more immediately in contact with Europeans, as well as at the public schools instituted under the auspices of the British Government, a class of men who have drawn instruction from a new source, and have received an impulse in a new direction. The literature, the science, and the political opinions of Europe have had attractions for many who, from motives of personal interest, from a purer love of knowledge, or from constant exposure to a new agency—from breathing a new atmosphere-have imbibed notions on religion, politics, and morals unknown to their ancestors; and shaking off the chains of their ancient prejudices and superstitions, rejoice in a recent emancipation from the restraints they imposed. Having yet discovered no limit to the liberty they have attained to, they are inclined to regard it as unbounded; and, though they no doubt entertain a respect for the institutions and the intellectual advancement of the people whose sentiments they believe they have adopted, many of them are disposed to prove their attachment to their new principles by pushing them to the utmost possible length. In their speculations Christianity becomes Unitarianism, and free government democracy; but that they are at all prepared to apply their theories to any practical purpose-that they are capable of tracing any real connexion between speculations on the principles of political economy and the practical government of any country -that they have compassed even a confused perception of the workings of a popular representation-or have derived from their political studies any other intelligible result than that they individually, and the natives of India collectively, are entitled to be much more important and influential personages than they now are-it would be a ludicrous error to suppose. But this is precisely the opinion which all men, in all situations, are most ready to adopt, because it is what the vanity of ninety-nine in every hundred has prompted them all along to suspect. The facility of disseminating such principles is therefore great, and their tendency is obvious. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that this is the only instructed class of the natives of India which is connected with us by any community of views, of sentiments, or of interests; and that through them will probably be conveyed to its population generally the first impulse to improvement-that they are more available to us as instruments of government than any other body of men-and that they possess peculiar qualifications for becoming

a new

a new link of connexion between the Europeans and their own countrymen. Their political opinions are as yet merely speculative; and in good hands they might be made valuable members of the community, as many of them now are, under the influence of the Company's servants. But at Calcutta, where they are most numerous and most influential, they are placed in a more hazardous position; and the individuals of our own nation who seek to inflame their minds with exaggerated notions of liberty would do well to reflect how far it may be conducive to the true interests of India or of England to foster feelings of ultra-liberalism in the minds of men whom it may be necessary ere long to employ more extensively than heretofore in conducting the details of a government, which for centuries to come must in its principles be essentially despotic, though not therefore necessarily oppressive.

It is not by inculcating opinions fitted neither to their political situation nor to their comprehensions-by filling their minds with wild speculations on schemes of government inapplicable to their country, and of the practical operation of which they have not, and probably never can have, any opportunity of judging,-that the natives of India are to be attached to our domination-made contented with the condition in which they are unavoidably placed, or rendered fit instruments to promote the welfare of their fellowsubjects. If they are taught to look to the speedy realization of extravagant notions of liberty, as an object which they can hope to attain and the only one which they ought to aim at; if they learn to regard everything short of this visionary standard of excellence as worthless, and every restraint which may be imposed or retained as a violation of their just rights, and a legitimate ground for seditious clamour or open resistance-they may, indeed, succeed in expelling the English from India, and thus relieving themselves from the real or imaginary oppressions of which they may have been taught to complain, but they will have plunged themselves and their country into an abyss of misery, deeper and more direful than the history of the calamities of nations has hitherto recorded. But the fact is, that the natives are practically too wise to fall into such an error, and amusing themselves with mere speculations, leave the greater folly of proposing their application in India to the more ignorant and senseless of their European instructors-persons who have recently, we are very sorry to say, received countenance and support in very high quarters.

'Nothing,' (Miss Roberts observes,) save acts of folly and iguorance on the part of new legislators, deeply versed in theories, and bent upon making experiments at any expense, could threaten the destruction of British power in the East; but a change of masters may effect a great deal, and the present generation may very possibly be enlightened upon the subject of mismanagement by the loss of Hindostan.'

We

We choose for the present to leave this brief extract without comment. Our Indian readers will understand the motives of our reserve. We must however observe that, whatever arrangements may be necessary to relieve the finances of India, it is an indispensable condition that the interest of the Company's servants should be protected. This is a point on which, we presume, there can scarcely be any serious difference of opinion, for to their high character, zeal, and efficiency the safety of that empire must still be intrusted. It is admitted on all hands that the scale on which they are remunerated for their services has now been reduced at least as low as with justice or prudence it can be reduced; and we see no reason to believe that it is impossible to reconcile the protection or even the advancement of their individual interests with those of the people they have ruled with so much equity, or that of the government they have so faithfully served.

Nothing in these amusing volumes is more worthy of attention than the instances which Miss Roberts has recorded of the veneration with which the natives regard the memories of some of their European superiors. How completely, in these cases, must every unfavourable perception of religious distinctions have been obliterated, and how many barriers interposed by the prejudices of both parties must have been swept away by the kindly intercourse arising from the sense of benefits received on the one hand, and the equally powerful feelings of attachment that grow up in the mind of him who in a right spirit bestows them! Instances of the posthumous respect which the natives show to Europeans, whose kindness had won their affections, are by no means rare -some of the most striking had already been mentioned by Bishop Heber. Their tombs are honoured as the tombs of saints—a lamp is kept constantly burning, and the ground around is swept and carefully preserved from all impurity by some old man, devout after his own fashion, who, having renounced the world, spends the remainder of his days in tending the grave of his benefactor, or the benefactor of his forefathers. The natives never pass the spot without saluting it in reverence, and an aged sepoy may often be seen leading his son to offer up his prayers at the resting-place of an officer under whom the veteran had won his laurels, and who had been to him, as he himself expresses it, his father and his mother,' his only friend and protector. These were the true conquerors of India.

The tomb of General Wallace, an officer who died but a few years ago at Seroor, a cantonment in western India, is an object of peculiar veneration; and Miss Roberts has alluded to the more whimsical honours which are paid to the spirit of the departed soldier. The guard on a place called the Piquet Hill' turns out at a stated hour of the night, and presents arms to the general,

who

who, on his favourite white charger, and attended by an orderly long attached to him, is supposed regularly to visit the post. It is worthy of observation, that the sepoys, who firmly believe in this apparition, and many of whom believe they have seen it, show neither agitation nor alarm in performing the voluntary duty, and consider it quite as much a matter of military etiquette as if the fine old man were alive-as would he were-to exact it. But

The most interesting, though not the most splendid, monument commemorating the virtues of an English resident in India, occurs in the neighbourhood of Rajmhal. It is a cenotaph, of Hindoo architecture, raised by the natives of the adjacent hill-districts to the memory of Augustus Cleveland, who formerly filled the office of judge at Boglipore. Two fakirs are employed to keep a lamp continually burning within the building, and once a year a festival is held at the spot, the annual celebration of the apotheosis of that highly-reverenced individual, whom the poor people, who were the objects of his benevolent care, regard with feelings nearly approaching to idolatry. . . . . A tomb, in the neighbourhood of Agra, in which the remains of an European officer, who spent his whole life in the performance of kindly deeds, are deposited, is much venerated by the natives, who bestow upon it the honours of a lamp. . . . . Had it been the fortune of Warren Hastings to have found a sepulchre in Bengal, the crowds who now recite verses in his honour, and link his name with enthusiastic blessings, would have assembled annually at his tomb, and rejoiced in the supposition that his spirit still hovered over the land which had rightly appreciated those services which were so shamefully unrequited in his own country.'-vol. ii. p. 39.44.

Why has no one written the life of Warren Hastings? He was one of the most remarkable men of our times, and assuredly by far the ablest of all who have ever governed India. The large expanse of his views-the successes he achieved-the uncompromising and harassing opposition he encountered in his government from a majority of the council, whose vote decided every measure, and from the usurpations of the judges-the unbending but tem. perate firmness and courage with which he bore down all resistance, and surmounted every difficulty and danger-the persecution he endured from his enemies, perhaps the keenest wits and most eloquent men of their time, who, during the seven long years to which his trial was protracted, subjected his character to a searching inquisition, such as that of no other public man was ever exposed to the calm dignity and true greatness which enabled him to endure, and ultimately to shake off, the load of obloquy which had been heaped upon him—and the enthusiastic affection with which he was regarded, and with which his memory is still cherished, by the very people whom it was his imputed crime to have oppressed and plundered-these features, taken altogether, furnish a more remarkable subject for biography than the life of almost