these rivers the coast stretches both ways to the southward, the eastern and western side inclining to the same point, so as to meet at Cape Comorin. Beyond this, the adjacent island of Ceylon extends a little farther, and reaches to within about 6° of the equator.

the large territories of Ava and the Burmese empire, lying east from the Brahmapoutra, are now attached to India, besides other conterminous regions.

It is customary to speak of the preceding provinces and states as British, Tributary, or Protected and Independent, but such a distinction is upon the whole rather nominal than real. British influence now pervades the whole region, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin on the one hand, and from the Indus to the Ganges on the other; and as for any individual or separate power which the Protected States can exercise, they might as well be termed British, while the really Independent territories, as Scindia, Nepaul, and the Punjaub, are gradually being reduced under British sway. How little of Hindoostan, territorially speaking, does not now acknowledge the supremacy of British power, may be seen at a glance by referring to any coloured map of the country.

This extensive country presents, as already stated, a great variety of surface, being diversified in some places with wide sandy deserts; in others with fine undulating hill countries, well watered and fertile; a third portion consists of flat high-lying regions, called table-lands, which, from their height above the sea, are cool and temperate; and a fourth division consists of immense fertile plains, watered by the large rivers of the country, and their numerous tributaries. A considerable portion of the low-lying country is of a marshy shrubby character, called jungle, and unfitted for cultivation. Each of these divisions of India presents an aspect peculiar to itself, and all of them are distinguished by natural productions, both plants and animals. Besides the Indus on the west, and the Brahmapoutra on the east, there are other large and important rivers descending from the outskirts of the Himalaya Mountains, or from ranges of hills called Ghauts, and descending to the sea both on the east and west coasts. The principal of these streams is the Ganges, which, with its tributaries, drains a large portion of the north-pagan religions, and speaking many more different east division of the country, and enters the sea in the province of Bengal, along with the conjoined waters of the Brahmapoutra. The valley or plain of the Ganges, and the valleys of its confluents, form the fairest and richest portion of Hindoostan.

9. Ajmeer.

10. Moultan.

11. Cutch and Guzerat.
12. Malwa.

Third, THE DECCAN. This division lies next, in a southerly direction, to the above, extending from the Nerbudda river on the north, which flows into the sea on the west coast, to the Kistna, a river flowing into the sea or Bay of Bengal on the east coast. Between these rivers lies the Deccan, a much less fertile division of India than the preceding; Bombay, a small island on the west coast, belongs to the province of Aurungabad in this division. The Deccan comprehends the following provinces, a portion of which formed the once famous Mahratta empire:

5. Balaghaut, ceded districts.
In addition to the foregoing divisions and provinces,

Modern History.

What was the original political condition of the vast territory now composing the British Indian empire, it would be needless to detail minutely. Like other portions of Asia, it was early inhabited by a primitive people, more or less barbarous, professing different languages. The principal religion, however, was Hindooism, to which we shall afterwards allude; and it has been said by some historians that the early Hindoo race of inhabitants manifested many symptoms of civilisation, and even a knowledge of some of the sciences. However this may have been, the inhabitants generally were in some measure an industrious, but simple race, and little inclined to war. Reasoning from what has occurred in their history, as well as from the informafrom tion communicated regarding them, they seem, the earliest times, to have had little or no care with regard to who ruled over them, provided they were insured in the possession of their ancient religious usages, and their system of living in small communities, under a simple species of local government. They were reckless of what sovereign was placed over them, or to what dynasty they were transferred, so long as the internal economy of their village districts remained the same. This species of political apathy produced the results which might have been expected. From the most remote period of which any record is preserved, the inhabitants of India, including those tribes which possessed more decided warlike propensities, or who had the spirit to resist aggression, were subjected to the government of strangers, who seized upon their territories, and made them the objects of taxation.

Of the remoter period of Indian history little is correctly known; all that may be said of it is, that both the Greeks and Romans were supplied with some of their articles of luxury from Hindoostan, and that for many centuries this Eastern clime was supposed, by the ill-informed inhabitants of distant parts of Asia and Europe, to be the richest and most sumptuous country on the globe. The tales related of Indian grandeur appear to have in time excited the avarice and ambition of Mohammedan or Saracen chiefs. The first of this barbarous, though intrepid race who made a successful inroad upon India was Mahmoud, sultan of Ghuznee, or Affghanistan, a kingdom on the north-west of India. Mahmoud commenced his successful expeditions into India about the year 1000, and he continued them till 1024, making the destruction of pagan idolatry more the object of his visits than the acquisition of wealth or power. In this period of twenty-four years he had subdued a considerable number of the native princes, and notwithstanding his professions, exacted immense tributes in gold and every kind of valuable commodity. A successor of Mahmoud, named Mohammed, after carrying on war with the Indian princes for Hindoostan with an exceedingly large force, and bore some time, at length, about the year 1193, entered down all opposition. The king of Delhi was slain in battle, and having advanced to that ancient capital,

Mohammed there left a viceroy to maintain his autho- | became animated with a desire to open a commercial

rity. In this manner a Mohammedan dominion was for the first time established in the heart of India, and in one of its greatest cities; and thus commenced the Affghan or Patan sovereigns and their dynasty.

The dynasty so planted continued in existence for rather more than 300 years, when, in 1525 or 1526, it was subverted by Baber, who was considered one of the most adventurous warriors of his time, and who, like his prototype Mohammed, was of the Moslem faith. Baber was either descended from a Mogul or Tartar chief, or in some way, not clearly explained by historians, connected with a race called Moguls, who assisted him in his attempts upon India; and from causes of this nature, the empire which he founded in Hindoostan has ever since been called the Mogul empire. From the year 1526, a series of Mohammedan emperors, whose seat of authority was at Delhi, ruled the largest and finest portions of India. By them the country was in many places newly subdivided into provinces, and put under the government of tributary kings or nabobs, who superseded the Hindoo rajahs or petty princes. One of the greatest of these Mogul emperors was Akbar, who flourished between the years 1556 and 1605. By his daring and judicious management the central provinces were preserved in complete tranquillity, and Guzerat, Bengal, and part of the Deccan, were added to his already extensive empire.

While the emperors of India were thus establishing their power, multifarious schemes were formed in Europe for getting possession of some of the wealth, if not some portions of the territory, of Hindoostan. The commodities of Indian manufacture or produce were hitherto imported into the European states only by means of tedious overland journeys, or partly by the Red Sea, and were endangered in their passage by the attacks of ferocious Tartar and Turkish tribes. The discovery of a new and safe road to India thus became a matter of very great consequence. A route by sea round the Cape of Good Hope was at last found by the Portuguese, who, under the command of Vasco de Gama, in 1498, landed in Hindoostan, on the coast of Malabar, where they at once established themselves. The whole commerce of the East Indies was now in the hands of the Portuguese for nearly a century-and this was the golden age of Portugal. Lisbon became the great depôt of Indian spices and other commodities, greatly to the envy of the Dutch and other nations. Portugal was united to Spain in 1580; the Spaniards oppressed Holland, and caused it to revolt; this revolt was followed by the capture of the Dutch ships trading to Lisbon; and this capture compelled the Dutch to engage in a direct trade to India. The English soon followed their example. The political and spiritual tyranny of the Portuguese in India, as well as the abuses which they permitted in commerce, gradually subverted their power, and divested them of respect. The Dutch and English, therefore, found everything in that state of division which is favourable to the establishment of a third party. The Dutch established an East India Company in 1602, and a prosperous trade was thereafter carried on. The Dutch adopted quite a different line of policy from that of the Portuguese in their transactions with India. They cared nothing about the religion of the Hindoos, and set up no inquisition to force Christianity on those they dealt with: all they wanted was commercial intercourse, and their excellent management soon secured them a large share of the Indian traffic. They possessed themselves of Batavia, in the island of Java; in 1641 they acquired Malacca, the capital of the Portuguese East Indies; they subsequently acquired the Cape of Good Hope for a settlement; and these colonies were a great assistance to the intercourse between Europe and India. The Dutch subsequently acquired a number of other possessions in the East; but most of these came afterwards into the possession of the British.

intercourse with India as early as the reign of Edward VI. (1553); but their expeditions failed in reaching the desired country, from their want of geographical knowledge: and it was not till the shutting of Lisbon against the Dutch, that they were so far excited as to persevere in their maritime attempts till they were successful. They at length learned which was the true course to steer for India; whereupon, in 1600, a company of merchants was formed in London to prosecute the traffic with the East; being empowered to do so by a charter from Queen Elizabeth, which was to last fifteen years. The first expedition of these adventurers cost £69,091, and consisted of five ships, the largest of which was 600, and the smallest 130 tons burthen. The articles which they took were principally bullion, iron, tin, broadcloths, cutlery, and glass. This expedition proved remarkably successful, and led immediately to a repetition of annual voyages of the same nature. This early trade was nevertheless considerably hampered by the Portuguese; and it was found necessary to try to secure the favour of the Mogul emperor. In 1607, therefore, Captain William Hawkins was sent out by the Company, to endeavour, if possible, to open a commercial intercourse with the dominions of the Mogul. Hawkins, after surmounting great difficulties, placed in his way by the Portuguese, reached the court of the Mogul emperor Jehangire, son of the famous Akbar, already mentioned. This visit was unfortunately of no avail, from the pernicious interference of the Portuguese Jesuits; and another English mission, on a greater scale, and from the king, was sent forth in 1615. This embassy, which was conducted by Sir Thomas Roe, proved more successful in securing the favour of the Mogul, but did not lead to any important results. The affairs of the Company, nevertheless, continued prosperous, and factories were in many places planted on the coasts of India. These factories were warehouses for the reception of native produce, and the storing of imported goods from England, and were no doubt of considerable use in the objects of their establishment. From the real or pretended dread of being attacked by marauders, the keepers, merchants, and servants at these places, at length began to strengthen the defences; and so, from being mere mercantile warehouses, the factories shortly partook of the decided character of armed garrisons.

It does not appear that the native powers of India took any active measures to prevent this insidious process of planting settlements. The natives were fond of dealing with foreigners, and the princes were so eaten up with jealousy of each other, that the British always contrived to gain the friendship of one by taking part against another, and in the end getting the advantage of both. Besides, it was not for some time that the British disclosed any intention of securing the jurisdiction of provinces, or a property in the soil. A watchful hypocrisy led them to yield on all occasions a reverence towards the political sway of the native emperors, rajahs, and nabobs. The original East India Company, with its charters at different times disputed and renewed, continued throughout the seventeenth century to carry on a profitable traffic with the East. Its factories were extended to Java, Sumatra, Borneo, the Banda Islands, Celebes, Malacca, Siam, the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel. In 1640, the native authorities gave permission for the building of Fort St George at Madras; and in 1645, a factory was established on the banks of the Hoogly, a branch of the Ganges near its mouth, which formed the foundation of Calcutta. The island of Bombay was also procured as a settlement in 1664-5, after a struggle with its Portuguese possessors. The affairs of the Company were not, however, in a prosperous state; and soon after the Revolution of 1688, the question of the validity of the old royal charter was started. The consequence followed of the Company not being able to We now enter upon the history of the rise and pro- perform its obligations, on account of losses occasioned gress of the British power in India. The English | by wars, infidelity of officers, extravagance, &c.; and

parliament in 1698 granted a charter to a new East India Company, on condition of a loan of £2,000,000 sterling to the state, and which was required to carry on King William's wars. But the great contentions between the two Companies soon made it necessary to unite them, and a union was effected in 1702, when an act of parliament was passed, establishing the conjoined association under the title of the United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies. Stock was raised by the sale of shares, and the shareholders to a certain amount were entitled to elect directors.

who had trusted them. In 1749, the robberies of the Company began with the protection of the pretender of Tanjore, a fine province of the Carnatic. Under pretence of illegitimacy, the nabob of this district was driven out for the purpose of obtaining some cessions of territory, and then restored on making further concessions. The rapid progress of the Company in the art of extending their possessions, appears from their treaties with Surajee - Dowlah, the nabob of Bengal, whom they contrived to depose in 1757, when large and rich provinces were the reward of their faithless policy. The French, who, in a similar manner, had acquired considerable territorial possessions in the Carnatic, now came into collision with the British merchants, and a hot war was carried on in India between these contending Europeans. The indecency of this conflict, as to which party should be the greatest robber, seems to have shamed both France and England, and commissioners were mutually sent to India to reconcile the differences which existed, as well as to check the acquisition of territory either by the English or French Companies. As a matter of course, this affectation of

The progress of the Company's settlements in India was on several occasions about this period caused by the superior skill of the British in medicine. In 1715, an embassy being sent on a commercial commission to Delhi. it happened that a medical gentleman named Hamilton, who accompanied the factors, had the good fortune to cure the Emperor Feroksere of a severe illness, which could not be overcome by the ignorant native physicians. In gratitude for this important service-though, it is likely, some very valuable presents from the Company had an equally liberalising effect the emperor granted liberty to the Company to pur-justice ended in nothing. After the commissioners had chase in Bengal thirty-seven townships in addition to that of Calcutta; he also conferred upon them some important commercial privileges, which soon rendered Calcutta a flourishing settlement. The charter of the East India Company was from time to time renewed during the eighteenth century, though (but not without great difficulty) against a powerful opposition. But loans to government carried them always through these embarrassments. In 1744 they advanced £1,000,000 at 3 per cent., in consideration of an extension of their privileges till 1780. Hitherto we have seen this company of English merchants acting only for the avowed object of commercial intercourse with India; we now enter upon a new page in their history, and show the origin of their political power.

The East India Company assumed the qualifications of a military and political power in the year 1748. But their advances towards territorial dominion were retarded by a rival, which gave them no small trouble. This competitor was France, which had in the meantime hastened to share in the commerce and spoils of India. In 1746, a French battalion had destroyed the army of the nabob of the Carnatic, and soon after the French officers succeeded in disciplining Indian troops according to the European method. The inferiority of the native Indian troops opposed to European soldiers, and the facility of instructing Indian soldiers, known by the name of Sepoys, in the European tactics, was thus proved. Ambition and avarice, political and mercantile cunning, could now act on a larger scale; and the independence of the Indian princes was gone whenever this trading Company, which was already encroaching upon all the rights both of the rulers and the people of these countries, should establish a permanent military force. Thus far the military organisation of the Company had been merely on the defensive; it now became able to act offensively; and the entire difference of the European and Indian notions of law could never fail to furnish opportunities to put this new means of power into action. The rights of succession, and all the rights of princes, subjects, and families, were so much disputed on the different principles of the Indian, Mohammedan, and British laws, that the Company, which often interfered as arbitrator, easily succeeded in extending their legal jurisdiction. If called to account in England for any of its undertakings, it was easy to uphold the correctness of its conduct, politically, on the ground of self-defence, which, at the distance of several thousand miles, could not be called in question; and in legal matters, by taking advantage of the impenetrable labyrinth of the law. Edmund Burke, who experienced, in the case of Warren Hastings, the head of the Company's affairs in the East, this impregnability of the association, accused them justly of having sold every monarch, prince, and state in India, broken every contract, and ruined every state

agreed that each should restore its acquired territories, and after a 'solemn' treaty to that effect had been arranged, hostilities commenced as before. It would be needless to recount the particulars of this struggle for power; it will suffice to state that the French ultimately were deprived by the British of their possessions.

By the defeat of the French forces in 1761, the British were left at liberty to pursue their schemes on India, being in no small degree favoured by the unhappy political condition of the Mogul empire. This large empire came under the rule of Aurungzebe, a descendant of Akbar, in 1658, and his reign lasted till his death in 1707. Under this celebrated Mohammedan emperor, the empire of the Moguls came to the height of its glory, and attained its largest extent. After Aurungzebe had added to it the kingdoms of the Deccan, it included nearly the whole peninsula of Hindoostan, with the neighbouring regions of Cabool and Assam. The revenues extorted from this populous and wealthy territory amounted to £32,000,000 sterling. During the reign of Aurungzebe, it was attacked by the Persians under the bold Prince Nadir, and also by a growing nation called Mahrattas, whose kingdom comprehended large portions of the provinces of Malwa, Candeish, Aurungabad, and Bejapore, in the Deccan. By Nadir, and his successor, Ahmed Abdallah, the Mogul empire, after the death of Aurungzebe, was almost entirely subverted to the character of a tributary to the Persians. Under these circumstances, there was scarcely a native power that did not consider itself entitled to trample on the feeble authority of the throne of the Mogul; and between the Affghans, whose kingdom lay to the north-west, and the Mahrattas, the empire was distracted, and made the object of greedy contest. The Affghans were at length victorious over their enemy; and in 1753 they placed a descendant of the old dynasty on the throne, and in the possession of the empty, but still venerated title of Great Mogul, to be the tool or the captive of the first daring power which should seize the capital.

From this period the dignity of the empire was at an end, and a favourable opportunity was offered to the various dependent princes to throw off their allegiance, as well as to enterprising chiefs to take advantage of the unsettled state of things, and establish new kingdoms for themselves. In this state of general revolution, a bold Mohammedan adventurer arose from an obscure rank, named Hyder Ali, who, by summoning round him bold and predatory bands, and waging war with considerable address, established his power as a sovereign in the Mysore, a territory forming one of the most remarkable of those elevated table-lands that diversify the southern provinces. Hyder was succeeded in 1782 by his son Tippoo, a person equally bold, though less prudent and fortunate. Against both these powerful rulers the British for a number of years waged war, with

various success. In 1792, Seringapatam, the capital of the Mysore, was besieged by the Marquis Cornwallis, with a strong British army, and after some show of resistance, Tippoo was fain to offer terms of surrender. He agreed to give up half of his dominions, and pay £3,500,000 in bullion. For the fulfilment of the treaty, he was under the necessity of giving up two of his sons as hostages. Having fulfilled his engagement, these young princes were returned in 1794; but after this he again commenced hostilities, and in 1799 the British forces, under General Baird, once more attacked, and now captured, Seringapatam. In the general slaughter which occurred in entering this strongly-fortified place, Tippoo was shot, and his body was afterwards found among a heap of the slain. Thus terminated a dynasty which, though short, and limited in respect of territorial dominion, was undoubtedly the most vigorous and best organised of any that had sprung out of the wreck of the Mogul empire. The principal war in which the East India Company was engaged after this successful contest was that with the Pindarees, roving tribes of Mahrattas, who, without any territory, carried on predatory warfare against all whom they could rob with impunity. The war with the Pindarees was one of great difficulty, and it cost the British a number of years before they finally quelled them. The Pindaree war terminated in 1817, and it was followed by a contest betwixt the British and the Birman empire, which was successfully closed in 1826, and by which the Company gained a considerable territory along the Bay of Bengal, east of the Brahmapoutra river. By the foregoing, and other less conspicuous contests with native princes, among which may be reckoned the war against the Nepaulese in 1814, and also by means of purchases, negotiations, and voluntary or involuntary renditions of territory, including the capture, cession by treaty, or purchase of the French and Dutch settlements, the British power was at length established as supreme over nearly the whole of India.

The relations which subsist betwixt the Company and the tributary and dependent states may thus be described:- The Company undertake the defence of the dependent prince's territories against all enemies, domestic or foreign. He is bound, on the other hand, to enter into no alliances with other sovereigns or states without the Company's consent; and he pays them a certain annual subsidy out of his revenues for their protection, while he generally keeps up an army at the same time for the maintenance of internal tranquillity. In some cases, instead of paying a subsidy, the prince cedes a portion of his territories, of which the Company draw the entire taxes. The Company keep a resident at the prince's court, who is entitled to demand an audience at any time; and by this agent the Company do in fact interfere pretty regularly in the internal concerns of the state, particularly in settling the succession to the throne. The princes are in reality mere viceroys, or rather tax - collectors for the Company; and when in any state gross mismanagement or breach of engagement repeatedly occurs, these pageants are dethroned and pensioned off, and the Company take the government of the country into their own hands. The Company's protection is often found to shelter internal misgovernment; for the prince, being secured by the British army against the resentment of his own subjects, is tempted to indulge the more freely in extortion and oppression.

REVENUE SYSTEM OF INDIA.

To sustain not only the above military force, but the civil management of India, a revenue of £18,000,000 requires to be levied. About two-thirds of this large sum is derived from a tax on land; and as the mode of collecting, imposing, and administering it, enters deeply into the system of Indian policy, and has a powerful influence on the social condition of the people, we shall here attempt its explanation.

Under the old Mogul empire, the sovereign was Hitherto the Company have governed their Indian considered the universal proprietor of the soil; but the territories by means of the presidencies of Calcutta, ryots, or cultivators, or actual owners, were held to Madras, and Bombay, each of these places being the have a perpetual right of occupancy, so long as they headquarters of a local military and civil government. paid the fixed annual tribute or rent demanded by the In future there will be another presidency, that of Agra, sovereign. The rent was fixed at a third, and somea place of note in the interior. The whole are under times at a half, of the value of the produce, and the the supreme control of a governor-general appointed functionaries appointed to ascertain the amount leviable, by the British court; these governors-general seldom and to collect it, were called zemindars. In 1793, Lord retain their situations above a few years. Mr Pitt, in Cornwallis, governor-general, with a view to establish 1784, passed an act establishing a Board of Control, a better system for all parties, changed the zemindars composed of six privy-councillors, to superintend the from the character of hereditary tax-collectors to that territorial concerns of the Company, which check is of proprietors of the soil, though still accountable to still continued, and reappointed under the act of 1833. government for the rent. This created a vast deal of To retain possession of so large a territory as India, misery at the time; thousands of poor ryots were the Company require to keep up a numerous and well- ejected from their ancient possessions; but ultimately appointed armed force, which is composed chiefly of the country at large was benefited. It was arranged natives or sepoys, with British officers, and partly of that the sum payable by the ryot for several years troops raised in Great Britain. The Company further should be fixed as the permanent rent; one-tenth of employ a number of Queen's regiments, who have double this was allowed as the zemindar's share, and the other pay allowed them. The army maintained in India nine-tenths the proportion payable to the government consisted, in 1837, of 26,582 British, 157,753 native, or Company. The rent paid to the Company being and 111,500 contingent or subsidiary native-making fixed, great quantities of land which had been conan aggregate force of 295,840 men! The annual ex- cealed-that is, left out of the rough and partial returns pense of the Anglo-Indian army is little short of formerly made, and which had lain in a wild state, or £10,000,000. In 1830, according to Reports laid before in pasture were now put under crop. The practice is, Parliament, it was £9,374,000; and, since then, a very to allow the ryot to occupy waste lands rent-free for considerable increase has taken place, partly on account three years, and to charge only a moderate rent for a of the increasing extent of territory, and partly on few years more. In this way a considerable extension account of the wars in Sinde, Affghanistan, and the of cultivation has taken place; and some of the zeminPunjaub. Some idea of the nature and composition of dars have acquired wealth. From their improvident this immense force may be formed from the following habits, however, such wealth seldom lasts more than one items of expenditure in the year above-named :-En-generation; and no progress has been made towards the gineer corps, £83,874; artillery, £606,463; cavalry, institution of a rural aristocracy. The Company have £1,070,834; infantry, £4,124,079; staff, £481,490; begun very recently to retrace their steps. When medical staff, £132,490; pioneers, £74,511; commis- zemindaries fall into their hands, as they are always sariat, £614,327; sundries, £2,178,887. The army, doing from time to time, by the inability of the holders native and European, is distributed throughout the to fulfil their engagements, the Company replace the country, at appointed stations, forming a chain of mili-ryots as nearly as they are able in their original situatary posts, and keeping up a continual communication tion, allowing them to hold their lands under payment with the seats of the various presidencies. of a rent which remains fixed, either permanently or