European, whose conduct is such as to excite a popular alarm among the natives. Secondly, the tribunals of the Supreme Courts of Judicature, and of the parallel Court of the Recorder in Bombay; tribunals which, being totally independent of the Company, may be said to hold the judicial balance between the British residents and the natives. Thirdly, the intimate intercourse and effectual sympathy maintained between Great Britain and British India, insomuch that the British subjects resident in the latter, being educated in Great-Britain, always holding connexion with it, and always aware that they act under its supervision, partly derive by inheritance, partly catch by contagion, and partly consult from prudence, those sentiments of right and justice, which are here generally popular, but which, in India, local prejudices might be apt to extinguish or overbear. Fourthly, the rule, adopted and enforced in the Indian service, of gradual and progressive advance. ment; and, what may be viewed in combination with this, the prohibition imposed on all British subjects, of residing, without a special license, at any place in India, except within ten miles of some one of the principal settlements. By these two provisions it is secured, first, that situations of high power or influence or responsibility shall be con ferred only on those, whose residence in the country has been sufficiently long to familiarize them with the usages and manners of the natives; and secondly, that British subjects in general, de

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barred from lawless rambles throughout the vast continent, and among the varied population, of Hindostan, shall ordinarily be confined to places, in which experience has, in a great measure, familiarized the natives with the usages and manners of Europeans.

Of these four barriers between the native and the British resident, it will hereafter appear that the third,—the subjection of the resident to the public opinion transmitted or caught from his mother country,-is probably the most efficient, so far as respects the ill usage to which the natives might be exposed, merely from their inferiority in general force of character, and independently of any direct violation of their peculiar customs and prejudices. In this excepted point, however, their chief security seems to consist in the regulations comprised under the last of the four heads enumerated. The fear of punishment, or the influence of the characteristic benevolence of their country, might supply the British residents. with motives to caution and forbearance in their intercourse with the natives; but good motives or right intentions will, in this case, do little, without a practical knowledge, or rather a sense, of the singularities of the native character and customs, and a formed habit of making allowance for those singularities. These qualifications, no laws, however wise or wisely administered, no vigilance of eye or vigour of arm on the part of the executive government, no sympathy, however

intimate, between the minds of the local and those of the British public, can communicate; nothing can communicate them but a slow training and experience.

Were the country thrown more open to the ingress of European adventurers, there are many reasons for thinking that material encroachments would speedily take place on the prejudices and privileges of the natives. The executive and the judicial authorities, which easily controul an orderly, compact, and, as it were, disciplined array of persons, would find the task very different of" watching a set of independent irregulars, in a state of wide dispersion. Public opinion in this country, which, with equal attention and effect, watches the Indo-British community, so long as it is comprised within known and narrow limits, would be little competent to the cognizance of numerous adventurers, scattered, unhearing and unheard, over the vast area of the Indian Continent; nor is it to be assumed that the adventurers in question would prove equally alive to the influence of public opinion, with the persons introduced by the present system. But the greatest evil, by far, would be the necessary supersession of that slow policy of training and experience already mentioned. At present, all the collectors of revenue, commercial residents, and judges, in the service of the Company, are preferred to their respective stations, as was fully explained in the first chapter of this work, in some joint proportion

to merit and length of service. If the Company were abolished, political or judicial situations, indeed, might still be conferred by the same rule; but the keeping these doors fast would avail little, if the wide gate of commercial speculation were unclosed. The ignorance and prejudices of Englishmen, once suffered to come into unrestrained contact with the ignorance and prejudices of Hindoos, some terrible detonation would probably be the consequence.

These observations will be, if possible, still more conclusive, should it be allowed that a freedom of trade and access to India would, in any considerable degree, augment the number of British residents in that region. Yet this would be no very extravagant postulate, but seems to have the sanction, by implication at least, of all parties. The sanction of it by the advocates of free trade and access is sufficiently involved in their perpetually declared opinion, that the adoption of the system which they recommend would open a vast number of new channels to the commercial skill and enterprize of Great Britain. For it is admitted, that our trade in India cannot be conducted without the presence of British merchants or agents; and it may reasonably be presumed, that a vast increase of the work done, implies at least a considerable increase in the number of the labourers. On the other hand, it is notorious that the position in question is maintained, though, generally speaking, on far different

grounds, by most of those who oppose, either partially or entirely, the emancipation of the Indian trade. Without, therefore, any examination, in this place, of the reasonings employed by these conflicting parties, the common conclusion in which those opposite reasonings appear to result, may be taken for granted. But, though it is thus referred to as confirmatory of the general argument here maintained, the reader will take notice that, even independently of its truth and on the supposition of its utter falsity, the argument remains valid.

On the consequences which a free entrance of Europeans into India would be likely, in its first operation, to produce, there seems no occasion to add more. It is a perfectly distinct question whether, in a subsequent stage, such an event would not lead to the colonization of India; and this question must be discussed on such large grounds as to comprehend another enquiry,-how far the same effect might be expected to result, even from a partial relaxation of the restrictions at present in force, on the residence and commerce of Europeans in that country.

Although the idea of colonization in India has been represented as altogether chimerical, yet, at all events, its title to these epithets can be made out only by a minute and detailed investigation, and is not apparent on the surface. On the contrary, an impartial observer, casting a view on the subject for the first time, would rather be apt to