tant subject in question, gave to a diligent use of the opportunities within his reach, a fair hope of comparative and satisfactory sucHe, therefore, addressed himself to the task, and pursued it with a perseverance, sometimes perhaps relaxed by indolence, but more frequently intermitted of necessity.

cess.

The projected work was intended to exhibit, first, a historical sketch, derived from authentic sources, of the past proceedings of the East-India Company: in the next place, a correct view of the actual nature and effects of their present system, both political and commercial, contrasted with a conjectural view of the probable nature and effects of those systems which a new order of things might be expected to substitute: and lastly, an investigation of the objections adduced or adducible against the present system,―objections, either political or commercial; objections, either founded on a survey of particular facts, or developed from a germ of general principles.

The period, meanwhile, approached, at

which the question was to undergo the solemn revision of the Nation and of Parliament. Under the increased necessity for exertion which this circumstance imposed on the author, the magnitude of his design, and the comparative scantiness of his leisure, equally prescribed to him the utmost compression and brevity. But the very same causes combined to prevent a compliance with the injunction. The subject grew visibly every hour. The desultory views of it, which alone his other avocations allowed him, for. bade that connected and (if the expression may be used) panoptical attention to it, which would both have rendered the labour bestowed on the operation most effective, and the reduction of the scale on which it was conducted most practicable. Delay produced the spontaneous rise of fresh topics, or the afflux of fresh objections, without bringing the leisure requisite to a due combination of the new materials with the old. Under these circumstances, the unexpected adjournment of the question was an event highly convenient,

The respite, however, has by no means enabled the author to liquidate his arrear of composition; partly, from unavoidable interruptions which it would be impertinent to particularize; but, chiefly, from the extent of the original plan. The full execution of such an undertaking would require, not the partial and disjointed efforts of a few seasons, but the steady devotion of years.

The expected national discussion, however, is now in progress; and it soon appeared that the author could by no method secure to his humble labours a chance of effect, except by sending forth, in a detached state, such portions of the work, as were sufficiently complete, and would bear insulation. Even here a selection was to be exercised. Although the grounds on which the subject may be fairly and usefully contested, are, like the prejudices that prevail respecting it, innumerable, yet it includes some few questions, the decision of which must, after all, dispose of the rest. It is a circumstance gratifying to the author, that his reflexions on certain

topics which appear preeminently to fall under this description should have been so far advanced as to admit of immediate publication. Those reflexions form the contents of the following pages.

The volume is divided into four parts or chapters. The first exhibits a synopsis of the system established for the government of British India, comprising all the departments of it, both in England and in the East. It also describes and exemplifies the principles by which the territorial administration of the Company is regulated, and endeavours to trace out the effects of that administration on the state and feelings of the vast population included within its range. With this account, some partial views of the commercial regulations of the Company are necessarily interwoven, and it is followed by a delineation of their military system as an appendix.

It is next enquired, what effects a material modification or change of that constitution

might naturally be expected to involve. The second chapter, accordingly, attempts to follow out the consequences that would flow from any sensible relaxation of the restraints imposed by the present system on the free access of Europeans to India, and on their residence in that country. It is here shewn that such a change, though in appearance commercial, would in its effects be political, menacing both countries with dangers which ought at any price to be averted. The third chapter similarly traces the probable results of a change in the political part of the present system, and these results also, it is shewn, are likely to prove disastrous.

The facts detailed, and the principles laid down, in these three chapters, are, in the fourth, shortly applied to the pending differences between the Ministers of the King and the Company. The proposition maintained is, that the plan meditated by Ministers would virtually amount to an invasion of the present system both in a commercial and a political