ruption from Perfia, or an attack from the Burman empire, would thake our power to the foundation. The very extent of our poffeffons is their infecurity. The fcattered and unconnected state of our forces, the diftance at which our different military pofts neceffarily must be from each other, weakens our means of defence, multiplies the opportunities of attack, and renders our detachments liable to be cut off, one by one, before a fufficient body can be collected to refift the torrent, while the very affembling fuch a body of troops leaves a portion of country open to attack, or a prey to rebellion. When our dominions did not include the whole of the peninfula, our danger and infecurity arofe from the intrigues of cabinets, or from open and avowed hoftility to counteract the one, or to avert the other, an ambaffador at each court of Hinduftan was fufficient. But now the danger lies every where concealed; it is not confined to one or two spots, but extends itfelf over the wide and almost boundless stretch of English India. An evil fo extenfive might efcape the vigilance even of the best conftituted government; and it is not to be expected, that the youth who is ignorant of the language, manners, and cuftoms of the people over whom he is placed, and with whom he never affociates, will be able to difcover or counteract the fecret machinations of sedition, even if he should poffefs more activity than our countrymen in Asia are generally found to retain. Upon a careful examination of the fubject, it must appear, that the most effectual way to preferve India and England together for the greateft length of time, and for their greatest mutual advantage, is to permit the colonization of that country under proper regulations. The fate of our American colonies feems to have frightened ftatefmen even from taking into confideration the policy of fuch a meafure; and their timidity has been fedulously augmented by the influence of the exclufive trade. The two cafes, when compared, are however fo very diffimilar, that there is no arguing from the one to the other; and the independence of America can occafion no ferious alarm as to the fecurity of our Indian poffeffions, if this meafure were to be adopted. The colonization of India would take place under circumftances altogether different from thofe under which any other fettlements have hitherto been founded by the English or any European nation. Few of the European colonies owe their exiftence to great and liberal views of policy in the parent ftate. Having been eftablished by perfecution, and having flourished from neglect, they were permitted during their infancy to struggle with all the difficulty and mifery of their fituation, without receiving any affiftance whatever from the tenderness of their parent. VOL. IV. NO. 8. U Their Their poverty, however, protected them from oppreffion; their distance and their wretchedness secured them from attack. Increafing in numbers, and advancing in profperity, their hardy manner of life infpired them with the love of freedom; and, poffeffing within themfelves every thing neceffary for their fupport, they were aware and jealous of their importance. This profperity, which made them more averfe to dependence, inflamed the defire of the mother country to maintain them in it; and a ftruggle enfued, embittered with all the acrimony which the charges of rebellion and of tyranny could occafion. The Europeans who colonize India, will find themfelves placed in a fitua tion differing in every particular from that of their brethren who cultivated the waftes and woods of America. They will fettle in a country inhabited by a numerous, induftrious, and in many refpects a highly civilized people, differing from them indeed in religion and manners, and probably inferior in vigour of character. The frequent and rapid intercourfe which now fubfifts between the two countries, will proportionably increafe, and Englith manners and ideas will receive a conftant fupport in the new draughts from Europe. The principle of felf-defence will oblige them to preferve a clofe connexion with each other, and to depend upon the parent ftate for affiftance and fupport in protecting them against the infurrection of the natives, the inroads of the North, or the attacks from Europe; nor will this wealthy and profperous colony have any reafon to fear that neglect which was shown by the mother country to her weak and indigent fettlements in the Weft. The European, by preferving that fuperiority which the vigour of his character gives him over the natives, will be enabled, with their affiftance, to refift any external attacks to which the English empire may be expofed. But the great and effential fecurity which will be derived from the increase of Europeans, is the effectual check which will be given to all plots and confpiracies among the native fubjects of our empire. The intimate knowledge of their language and manners, which will naturally refult from a more extended intercourfe, will enable us to difcover and counteract every step which may be taken to our prejudice; nor will the period be very diftant, when a ftronger and more lafting bond of union will arife, and a reciprocity of good offices attach the Indians to the English character and name. But we must not deceive ourselves, and argue as if we had it in our power to adopt or to reject this measure at our pleasure. We forget that, even under the prefent fyftem, the colonization of India is going on, and upon the worst of all principles: We forget that, though the Company can prevent an individual from fettling fettling at Calcutta, the obnoxious perfon can elude their power, by walking to the Danish fettlement of Serampore, a distance of fifteen miles, whence he can only be removed by force. A remarkable inftance of this happened lately; when a number of Baptift miffionaries, wifhing to fettle at Calcutta, and being prevented by the authority of the Directors, immediately left the Prefidency, and went to Serampore, where they were permitted to enter upon the object of their miffion. When the fettlement of Chandernagore is restored to France, the danger and the dif ficulty will be increased in no fmall degree; and we have every thing to dread from fuch a focus of French intrigue in the very centre of our dominions. The conduct purfued by that power at Pondicherry, is a striking proof of the truth of this obferva tion. The great increafe of our Afiatic empire has been productive of another confequence, tending evidently to shake the founda tions of the prefent fyftem of Indian government. When the trade was first established, the writers, factors and merchants, who were fent out to manage the commercial concerns of the company, were men in an inferior rank of life to those who fent them; they were accustomed to look up to the latter, as holding a higher fituation in fociety. To them, the habits of obedience were already familiar; nor was the capacity of their maf ters unequal to the adminiftration of a mercantile concern. As the Company extended their dominions, the plains of India be gan to offer a tempting profpect to the younger branches of our noble and ancient families, who flocked to the East to accumu late a fortune, without tainting their dignity with the ftain of trade. The fame feelings (greatly increased by the exercife of unlimited power, and by the indulgence of every caprice) which made them flee from the exercife of a profeffion, forbad them to engage in the concerns of the Company at home, the management of which fell into the hands of an equally worthy, but lefs noble fet of men; and as the fervants furpaffed at home, in rank and in family confequence, the mafters whom they were obliged to obey in India, it is not difficult to perceive that, even when abroad, they would pay infinitely lefs regard to the authority of the Company, than the ten factors and writers of the earlier ages of its exiftence. This evil, it may alfo be obferved, is not a little increafed by the importance and rank which the governors of India enjoy in England. Indebted for their fituation entirely to the patronage of the Crown, and ufually forming a part of the hereditary branch of the Legiflature, they confider themselves rather as the comptrollers of the Company than the minifters of its power; and there is reafon to believe, that the Directors U 2 Directors have had to regret, more than once, that their power over their governors was not more extenfive, and their authority better refpected. The wifdom of allowing a free trade has been pretty generally allowed in fpeculation by all flatefmen, politicians and merchants, ever fince the publication of the Wealth of Nations; but, greatly as this fyftem has been commended, it is notorious that few have acted up to it, and that every one contrives to discover fomething peculiar in his own cafe, or in the circumftances of his own profeflion, to make it an exception to the general rule. In no inftance has this been fo univerfal as in the cafe of the commerce between Europe and Afia; and in every nation of Europe, it has been confidently afferted, that the trade of India must be committed to the charge of an exclufive company. This more general exception originally proceeded, in a great meafure, from the prejudices of mankind in favour of this commerce, which tempted them to buy with a high bribe from their refpective governments, exclufive privileges and extenfive power. In the prefent day, the defence of this falfe policy refts very much upon an inference, which is wholly inaccurate, from the hiftorical origin of thofe companies. They were founded at a time when the capital of individuals was undoubtedly unequal to the task of fitting out veflels for so long a voyage, and for eftablishing factories in Afia to collect and provide proper cargoes. But the true inference from this is only, that Europe was not at that period ready to engage in fuch remote enterprifes of trade; that the capital then embarked in commerce, was infufficient, without extraordinary privileges, to carry on the Afiatic branch; and that nothing but the hope of exorbitant profits, which at times attend new adventures when protected by exclufive rights, could have withdrawn fo much capital from more profitable and natural employments nearer home. That divifion of capital which is required for the maintenance of foreign commerce, has already taken place. The merchants who refide in India are poffeffed of fufficient wealth, fkill and induftry, to purchafe and collect the various productions which it is the object of European capital to bring to this quarter of the world. But, owing to the restrictions to which this trade is at prefent fubjected, the Indian capitalifts are not only employed in collecting goods from all parts of the Afiatic continent, but are alfo employed in fending thefe productions to England. If a more liberal fyftem were to be adopted, thefe capitalifts would moft probably find a fufficient occupation in collecting and afforting the goods for the European market, and the carrying trade would fall into the hands of English European capitalifts. Of this fact, that the capitals capitals of individuals are now fully equal to carry on the commerce of Afia, the ftate of the private and foreign trade affords the most fatisfactory proof; the more fo, as thofe engaged in it are able to contend with all the advantages which the India Company enjoy as lords of the foil, and proprietors of the exclufive trade. The inftance of the Anglo-Americans is particularly ftrong; for if they who are fo far our inferiors in skill, capital, and every other commercial facility, find it for their advantage to fend their fhips to India, to carry their goods to America, where they are landed, and to refhip thofe goods for the fupply of the European market, it muft furely be within the reach of English adventure to engage in that trade, which is able to bear fo circuitous and fo expentive a voyage, even without taking into account the lofs of time and the damage which the goods muft fuffer from their being landed and rethipped in America. The fame conclufion muit follow, whether the capital which is employed in this roundabout trade be understood to be English or American. If it be English capital (no matter whether European or Afiatic) it is a pofitive and unanfwerable demonftration, that the fame capital which embraces the roundabout, is fully equal to the maintenance of the direct trade, and that it would not only be equal to this direct trade, but that it would afford a confiderable profit, which might be advantageoufly employed in promoting and carrying on our manufactures and commerce. This profit is now given up to the Anglo-Americans, for the expence of landing and refhipping the goods, and for the difference between the length of the near and the roundabout voyage. The importance and the magnitude of this American trade, is not, we believe, fufficiently known or attended to. According to accounts laid before Congress, the amount of Indian goods landed in the United States for re-exportation, was, in 1790, 2,000,000 of dollars; in 1800, 39,000,000 of dollars: and this enormous increafe was understood to have arifen almost entirely from the Indian trade having been opened in the interval by the treaty between the two countries in 1794. The advantages which England would derive from this trade being carried on by Englifh fhips and Englifh failors (European and Afiatic) inftead of American fhips, muft be evident to every one, and would infallibly be fecured, if the English trader were relieved from thofe reftraints to which he is at prefent fubje&ed. The more the fyftem of Indian monopoly is confidered in its effects, the more fingularly mifchievous it will appear. It deftroys a direct trade between two parts of the fame empire; it U 3 forces See, upon this fubject, an interefting paffage relative to the fur trade, in Sir Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages in North America, Introd.. |