the expense of every principle upon which the permanence of our Indian empire rests. There never was in the world a more singular spectacle than to see a few thousand Europeans governing so despotically fifty or sixty millions of people, of different climate, religion, and habits-forming them into large and well-disciplined armies-and leading them out to the further subjugation of the native powers of India. But can any words be strong enough to paint the rashness of provoking a mutiny, which could only be got under by teaching these armies to act against their European commanders, and to use their actual strength in overpowering their officers?or, is any man entitled to the praise of firmness and sagacity, who gets rid of a present danger by encouraging a principle which renders that danger more frequent and more violent? We will venture to assert, that a more unwise or a more unstatesmanlike action was never committed by any man in any country; and we are grievously mistaken, if any length of time elapse before the evil consequences of it are felt and deplored by every man who deems the welfare of our Indian colonies of any importance to the prosperity of the mother country. We cannot help contrasting the management of the discontents of the Madras army, with the manner in which the same difficulty was got over with the army of Bengal. A little increase of attention and emolument to the head of that army, under the management of a man of rank and talents, dissipated appearances which the sceptered pomp of a merchant's clerk would have blown up into a rebellion in three weeks; and yet the Bengal army is at this moment in as good a state of discipline as the English fleet to which Lord Howe made such abject concessions and in a state to be much more permanently depended upon than the army which has been so effectually ruined by the inconveniently great soul of the present Governor of Madras.

Sir George Barlow's agent, though faithful to his employment of calumniating those who were in any degree opposed to his principal, seldom loses sight of sound discretion, and confines his invectives to whole bodies of men except where the dead are concerned. Against Colonel Capper, General Macdowall, and Mr. Roebuck, who are now no longer alive to answer for themselves, he is intrepidly severe; in all these instances he gives a full loose to his sense of duty, and inflicts upon them the severest chastisement. In his attack upon the civilians, he is particularly careful to keep to generals; and so rigidly does he adhere to this principle, that he does not support his assertion, that the civil service was disaffected as well as the military, by one single name, one single fact, or by any other means whatever, than his own affirmation of the fact. The truth (as might be supposed to be the case from such sort of evidence) is diametrically opposite. Nothing could be more exemplary, during the whole of the rebellion, than the conduct of the civil servants; and though the courts of justice were interfered with-though the most respectable servants of the Company were punished for the verdicts they had given as jurymen--though many were dismissed for the slightest opposition to the pleasure of Government, even in the discharge of official duties, where remonstrance was

absolutely necessary-though the greatest provocation was given, and the greatest opportunity afforded, to the civil servants for revoltthere is not a single instance in which the shadow of disaffection has been proved against any civil servant. This we say, from an accurate examination of all the papers which have been published on the subject; and we do not hesitate to affirm, that there never was a more unjust, unfounded, and profligate charge made against any body of men; nor have we often witnessed a more complete scene of folly and violence, than the conduct of the Madras Government to its civil servants, exhibited during the whole period of the mutiny.

Upon the whole, it appears to us, that the Indian army was ultimately driven into revolt by the indiscretion and violence of the Madras Government? and that every evil which has happened might, with the greatest possible facility, have been avoided.

We have no sort of doubt that the Governor always meant well; but, we are equally certain that he almost always acted ill; and where incapacity rises to a certain height, for all practical purposes the motive is of very little consequence. That the late General Macdowall was a weak man, is unquestionable. He was also irritated (and not without reason), because he was deprived of a seat in council, which the commanders before him had commonly enjoyed. A little attention, however, on the part of the Government-the compliment of consulting him upon subjects connected with his profession-any of those little arts which are taught, not by a consummate political skill, but dictated by common good nature, and by the habit of mingling with the world, would have produced the effects of conciliation, and employed the force of General Macdowall's authority in bringing the army into a better temper of mind. Instead of this, it appears to have been almost the object, and if not the object, certainly the practice, of the Madras Government to neglect and insult this officer. Changes of the greatest importance were made without his advice, and even without any communication with him; and it was too visible to those whom he was to command, that he himself possessed no sort of credit with his superiors. As to the tour which General Macdowall is supposed to have made for the purpose of spreading disaffection among the troops, and the part which he is represented by the agents to have taken in the quarrels of the civilians with the Government, we utterly discredit these imputations. They are unsupported by any kind of evidence; and we believe them to be mere inventions, circulated by the friends of the Madras Government. General Macdowall appears to us to have been a weak, pompous man; extremely out of humour ; offended with the slights he had experienced; and whom any man of common address might have managed with the greatest ease but we do not see, in any part of his conduct, the shadow of disloyalty and disaffection; and we are persuaded that the assertion would never have been made, if he himself had been alive to prove its injustice.

Besides the contemptuous treatment of General Macdowall, we

have great doubts whether the Madras Government ought not to have suffered Colonel Munro to be put upon his trial; and to punish the officers who solicited that trial for the purgation of their own characters, appears to us (whatever the intention was) to have been an act of mere tyranny. We think, too, that General Macdowall was very hastily and unadvisedly removed from his situation; and upon the unjust treatment of Colonel Capper and Major Boles there can scarcely be two opinions. In the progress of the mutiny, instead of discovering in the Madras Government any appearances of temper and wisdom, they appear to us to have been quite as much irritated and heated as the army, and to have been betrayed into excesses nearly as criminal, and infinitely more contemptible and puerile. The head of a great kingdom bickering with his officers about invitations to dinner-the Commander-in-Chief of the forces negotiating that the dinner should be loyally eaten-the obstinate absurdity of the test-the total want of selection in the objects of punishment-and the wickedness, or the insanity, of teaching the sepoy to rise against his European officerthe contempt of the decision of juries in civil cases-and the punishment of the juries themselves; such a system of conduct as this would infallibly doom any individual to punishment, if it did not, fortunately for him, display precisely that contempt of men's feelings, and that passion for insulting multitudes, which is so congenial to our present Government at home, and which passes now so currently for wisdom and courage. By these means, the liberties of great nations are frequently destroyed-and destroyed with impunity to the perpetrators of the crime. In distant colonies, however, governors who attempt the same system of tyranny are in no little danger from the indignation of their subjects; for though men will often yield up their happiness to kings who have been always kings, they are not inclined to show the same deference to men who have been merchant's clerks yesterday and are kings to-day. From a danger of this kind, the Governor of Madras appears to us to have very narrowly escaped. We sincerely hope that he is grateful for his good luck; and that he will now awake from his gorgeous dreams of mercantile monarchy, to good nature, moderation, and common sense.

BROUGHTON'S LETTERS FROM A MAHRATTA CAMP DURING THE YEAR 1809.

THIS

By THOMAS DUER BROUGHTON. 1813. Murray, Albemarle Street. HIS is a lively, entertaining, well-written book; and we can conscientiously recommend it to our readers. Mr. Thomas Duer Broughton does not, it is true, carry any great weight of metal; but,

placed in a curious and novel scene, he has described what he saw from day to day, and preserved, for the amusement of his readers, the impressions which those scenes made upon him, while they were yet strong and fresh. The journals of military men are given to the public much more frequently than they used to be; and we consider this class of publications as one of great utility and importance. The duties of such men lead them into countries very little known to Europeans, and give to them the means of observing and describing very striking peculiarities in manners, habits, and governments. Το lay these before the public is a praiseworthy undertaking; and, if done simply and modestly (as is the case with this publication), deserves great encouragement. Persons unaccustomed to writing, are prevented from attempting this by the fear of not writing sufficiently well; but where there is any thing new and entertaining to tell, the style becomes of comparatively little importance. He who lives in a Mahratta camp, and tells us what he hears and sees, can scarcely tell it amiss. As far as mere style is concerned, it matters very little whether he writes like Cæsar or Nullus. Though we praise Mr. Broughton for his book, and praise him very sincerely, we must warn him against that dreadful propensity which young men have for writing verses. There is nothing of which Nature has been more bountiful than poets. They swarm like the spawn of cod-fish, with a vicious fecundity, that invites and requires destruction. To publish verses is become a sort of evidence that a man wants sense; which is repelled not by writing good verses, but by writing excellent verses ;—by doing what Lord Byron has done; -by displaying talents great enough to overcome the disgust which proceeds from satiety, and showing that all things may become new under the reviving touch of genius. But it is never too late to repent and do well: we hope Mr. Broughton will enter into proper securities with his intimate friends to write no more verses.

The most prominent character in the narrative of Mr. Broughton seems to be that of Scindia, whom he had every opportunity of observing, and whose character he appears perfectly to have understood; a disgraceful liar, living with buffoons and parasites-unsteady in his friendships-a babbling drunkard-equally despised by his enemies and his pretended friends. Happy the people who have only to contemplate such a prince in description, and at a distance. The people over whom he reigns seem, by the description of Mr. Broughton, to be well worthy of such a monarch. Treacherous, cruel, falserobbing and robbed-deceiving and deceived; it seems very difficult to understand by what power such a society is held together, and why every thing in it is not long since resolved into its primitive elements.

"A very distinguished corps in this motley camp," says Mr. Broughton, "is the Shohdas-literally the scoundrels. They form a regularly organised body, under a chief named Fazil Khan; to whose orders they pay implicit obedience. They are the licensed thieves and robbers of the camp; and, from the fruits of their industry, their principal derives a very considerable revenue. On marching days

they are assembled under their leader, and act as porters for the Muha Raj's baggage. At sieges they dig the trenches, erect the batteries, and carry the scaling ladders. But their grand concern is the gambling houses, which are placed under their immediate control and superin tendence, and where they practise all the refinements of accomplishea villany to decoy and impose upon the unwary, which you perhaps fondly flatter yourself are the distinguished excellences of these establishments in Europe. Baboo Khan, a Mahratta chief of some rank and consideration, is an avowed patron of this curious society; and is, in fact, though in a higher sphere, as accomplished a Shohda as any of the band. About a year ago, a merchant came to the camp with horses for sale. The Khan chose out some of the most valuable, and paid down the merchant's own price for them on the spot; desiring him, at the same time, to bring more, as he was about to increase the numbers of his own Risalu. Such unheard-of honesty and liberality induced other merchants to bring their horses also for sale. The Mahratta took them all at the prices demanded; but, when the owners came for payment, he scoffed at them for their credulity, and had them actually beaten away from his tent by the rascally crew who always attend upon him. The merchants carried their complaint to the Muha Raj; and after waiting for several months in expectation of justice being done them, were paid at the rate of seven annas in the rupee; besides a deduction for the Buniyas, with whom the unfortunate fellows had been obliged to run in debt for subsistence during their stay in camp. The whole transaction lasted about a twelvemonth; at the end of which time they were obliged to decamp, with less than one-third of what was strictly their due.

"Where such acts of injustice and oppression are committed with impunity, it is not wonderful that there should be much misery among the poorer orders of the community. When grain is dear, hundreds of poor families are driven to the most distressing shifts to obtain a bare subsistence. At such times I have often seen women and children employed in picking out the undigested grains of corn from the dung of the different animals about the camp. Even now, when grain is by no means at a high price (wheat being sold in the market for thirteen seers for the rupee), it is scarcely possible to move out of the limits of our own camp, without_witnessing the most shocking proofs of poverty and wretchedness. I was returning from a ride the other morning, when two miserable-looking women followed me for charity; each had a little infant in her arms; and one of them repeatedly offered to sell hers for the trifling sum of two rupees. Many of our Sipahees and servants have children, whom they have either purchased in this manner, or picked up begging among our tents. In adopting these little wretches, however, they have so often been taken in, that they are now more cautious in indulging their charitable propensities. The poor people of the army, finding that a child, who told a piteous tale, and appeared to be starving, was sure to find a protector in our camp, used, in hard times, to send their children out to beg; and when better able to support them themselves,