interdict the suttees, until the opinion of the native officers of the Bengal army were had, as to the feelings of the troops on a subject which, as well as infanticide,* involved the dearest rights of humanity, and which in any other country but India, would have instantly fallen beneath the execration of public odium. When we see so powerful an opposition to the abolition of such a diabolical rite as female cremation, let us beware lest we proceed too fast; let us temper prudence with benevolence, policy with principle, and justice with expediency.. It is well known that the Indian governments have spared no exertions to put a stop to this unnatural crime in India, among their allies as well as vassals; but unfortunately, pride, poverty, and avarice are leagued with superstition to perpetuate these horrible sacrifices. It is stated that Major Walker, previous to his departure from Guzerat, received the most affecting compliment which a good man could receive, in being welcomed at the gate of the palace, on some public occasion, by a procession of girls of high rank who owed their lives to him, and who came to kiss his clothes, and throw wreaths of flowers over him, as their deliverer and second father. CHAPTER VII. -REFU MOTIVES THE COLONIZATION OF INDIA BY ENGLISHMEN; THE subject on which I am now about to treat is one of great importance, not merely to the mercantile prosperity of India and England, but also to the continued connection of both countries: I mean the colonization of India. Before entering on it however, I cannot help protesting against the unjust, and I will add untrue assertion of Mr. Rickards, that by the East-India Company "British merchants in India, have ever been considered interlopers and enemies,—sometimes exposed to virulent persecutions and barbarous cruelty, and uniformly branded with the imputation of being incorrigible disturbers of the public peace."* Does Mr. Rickards support this monstrous charge by a shadow of proof? No! not an iota. He quotes a "note" from Mr. Mills' work (a gentleman who has never been in India), the utmost tendency of which† is • Rickards' India, vol. i. p. 82. + Even this very note is quoted, it appears, by Mr. Mill, from another old work, entitled " Hamilton's New Account of India, p. 232." to shew that Sir Josiah Child wrote to the government of Bombay in 1691 (!)" to crush those who invaded the ground of the Company's pretensions in India!!"-The allegation against the Indian government is in itself so serious, that I cannot help expressing my astonishment that a person of Mr. Rickards' age and experience, as well as standing in society, could have dared to utter so gross a calumny. Where are the instances of "barbarous cruelty" which Mr. Rickards asserts to have been perpetrated on British merchants? In what records are they "branded as incorrigible disturbers of the public peace ?" Sir, I am gratified that you have presumptuously uttered so outrageous a mis-statement, for it will lead every unprejudiced person to look with contempt on your unworthy endeavours to raise a popular outcry against a body, to which you yourself are principally indebted for the station you now enjoy. Lest, however, there should be some who, dazzled with a name, are ever ready to lend a willing ear to those, who announce themselves as 'lights to lighten the Gentiles,' I will not content myself with merely offering a negative to the foregoing infamous charge, but prove its falsity by a detail of irrefutable facts. The words " ever been" require that I should look even beyond the present century for refutation; and the first document that presents itself, is a table prepared by Mr. Hodgson, of the Madras civil service, and delivered into the House of Lords, 6th May 1830, to shew the attempts which have been made in the Madras territory to cultivate silk, cotton, cochineal, and other articles, by free merchants, who received every possible assistance from the Company's government. Ganjam 1796 and 1803 Between Grant of land for the erection Unsatisfactory. 1800 as regarded the breeding of horses and rearing cocoanuts. A lease of two pergunnahs, Unsatisfactory A lease of many villages to Unsatisfactory A grant of land to Dr. Rox- Unsatisfactory of any great extent, and did Various grants of small plots Unsatisfactory Grant of privilege to work Unsatisfactory Ashton, H. M. 12th regt. regarded copper. Grant of land (part endowed Unsatisfactory. |