Such are some of the evils and dangers which may be expected to arise from the colonization of India; and these are especially insisted on in this place, not only because they seem of a highly serious nature, on which point there cannot be two opinions, but also because they appear likely to result pretty speedily when the colonial system shall once have been carried into complete effect. In the view of the present writer, the prospect of these consequences is so near as, in a great measure, to shut out of contemplation an event on which yet some very judicious persons have laid a considerable stress as the probable effect of India colonization, namely, that of an attempt, on the part of the colonists, to emancipate themselves after the manner of America. At the same time, it would be perfectly unwise to leave even this contingency out of the account; and, if we suppose, either, on the one hand, that the colony, in the course of time, incorporates itself with the Indian population, or, on the other, that, continuing separate, it subsists long enough to become extremely numerous, at the period when it shall have reached either of these states, the contingency in question will be at hand.

It is true, indeed, that the system-mongers of the day are not apt to find themselves much hampered by such considerations. We are informed, accordingly, on the authority of Dr. Smith, that it is the duty of a country to relinquish the management of its colonies, whenever they attain mature

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age; and are admonished, therefore, to expect the emancipation of an Indian colony, as an event equally natural and desirable. The principle of the voluntary emancipation of colonies, there seems little occasion here to discuss; because Dr, Smith himself has acknowledged that it is a principle which, after all that can be said, never will be carried into practise. "To propose" (his words are)" that Great-Britain should voluntarily give

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up all authority over her colonies, and leave "them to elect their own magistrates, to enact "their own laws, and to make peace and war, as "they might think proper, would be to propose "such a measure as never was and never will be "adopted by any nation in the world. No nation "ever voluntarily gave up the dominion of any

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province, how troublesome soever it might be to govern it, and how small soever the revenue "which it afforded might be in proportion to the expence which it occasioned.' Such, certainly, have generally been the feelings of mankind on this subject, and it does not seem very likely that they can have been changed even by the event of the American war, which some persons may regard as a precedent strongly in favour of the voluntary emancipation of colonies. Indeed the author of the Considerations upon the Trade with India himself, feels so much in unison with

* Book IV. Ch. vii. Part 3. There might, however, be found exceptions to the remark; but those, totally inconsiderable or peculiar.

the rest of the world on this matter, or deems it so hopeless to contend against that common feeling, that, making, for the sake of argument, the supposition of an endeavour on the part of a British colony in India to render itself independent, he holds out no other consolation to the mothercountry than the prospect of speedily re-establishing her authority by the sword. "Reduced,

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indeed, (he says) must be the power of Britain, "if she could not soon punish the pride and pre"sumption of a few rebellious citizens that should"attempt so desperate a design." The fewness of these rebels, it should be observed, is one of the points in dispute; but, be they few or many, the idea of such a contest and such a victory is sufflciently shocking; and, even on the ground of expediency alone, the wise man would probably reckon it a more advisable plan to destroy at once the crocodile of colonization in the egg, than to be soothing our minds with the contemplation of a triumph over the full-grown monster.

If these premises have been made out, the obvious practical inference is, that colonization should be guarded against, even at the price of all the commercial restrictions established by our present policy. But there results also from the premises a farther practical deduction or corollary. Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the facility of colonizing India, there probably will be pone as to the difficulty of retracing our steps, if we once make any decided progress in that busi

ness, excepting, perhaps, by measures of a very violent and arbitrary kind. Indeed, the proof of this position has been sufficiently implied in some of the preceding remarks; and, connecting it with a consideration of the nature of the colonial system, the conclusion plainly is, that even the remotest approaches to colonization ought to be avoided with jealousy. This is not a matter in which we are authorized to act on a mere balance of probabilities; nor, in such a case, is a disregard of distant contingencies, magnanimous, but wholly irrational. For no rational man lightly esteems a small chance of a great evil, or will, by the fear of a comparatively trivial inconvenience, be induced to incur the hazard of a fatal error.

CHAPTER III.

On the probable Effects of transferring the political Functions and Patronage, now possessed by the East-India Company, to some other Person or Persons.

SHOULD the present Indian system be abolished, the commerce of this country with India either will continue to be conducted by the Company, trading on a joint stock, though without a monopoly, or will distribute itself among a number of unconnected individuals; while the powers attached to the government of India, though lost to the Company, must subsist in an organized state somewhere, possibly divided, but certainly not dissipated. On the exercise of those powers, however, is suspended the welfare of a very large portion of our species; and it therefore becomes a question of the most serious nature, in what hands they shall be reposed.

Closely connected with this question is another, of not less importance in itself, and, with respect to the immediate interests of Great Britain, still more important. On the abolition of the present Indian system, the commercial patronage of India would follow the fate of our Indian commerce; it would either remain, with the Company, or diffuse itself among individual hands.