The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1805-08-22 00:00:00

• .41 , ;.0 11.••••• I INDIA. ON THE BRITISH DoNirNiuN IN THE EASTIN DIES, AND THE PRE , ,LNF STATE OF THAT COUNTRY. 1 t j, The destinies of fifty milli acts of men, the present population of the territories A . the English East-I' - dia Company, are certainly deserving of a moment's attention, were even the delierifol climate of the ever-verdant garden they inhabit incapable of ex citing any interest. or the Peniii•ithi on this side the G urges, that extensise region, which, according to every appearance, seems to be the most ancient on the face of the globe, and on which Nature has lavished her choicest ble:sings, with all that can contr;nute to the happiness of men, was, from remote ages, destined to be the objeft of the lost of conquest. Almost all the conquerots of the world attempted to subdue it. Osiris. or Bacchus, Semiramis, Sesostris, and Alexander, subjugated In dia. The Romans and Carthaginians alone, sought not to reduce its inhabitants, with whom they had esralalislied the relations of commerce. This condo& in the former appears rather extraordinary, especial ly as they had subjeSed the Western and Northern part of the Comment of Asia. The ancient commer cial nations of the East successively visited India ; whose ports were opened to them by trade, if it was not done by arms. In later times, .Ihengis Khan, Tamerlane, and Kouli Khan, brought this delight (.l portion of the cat th under their dominion ; aid the descendants of the second established themselves there. The meek nation of the Hindols, which had long been the happiest on the face of the earth, became, by their subketion to the Tartars, the most wretched of people. Their manners and their laws were overturned ; the restless, all-destroying faith of Mohammed was incorporated with the mildest and most philanthropic of religions; rude customs and cruel setirimmts accompanied patriarchal man nes: ; and the regions, which might have been deno minated the aboshr of felicity, became the theatre of wretchedness. A few Princes, as they were called, exclusively possessed the treasures of the Ilindons, who found themselves destitute of every thing, when the Europeans arrived in their country ; and nu sooner had these communicated to them their wows,' [ - char they Inst their independence. Labour, with. cut which they bad befre existed, was now their only resource against penury and distress. Had India the situation of Tartary, it would still have beets independent, and as unknown to the Eir_ ropeans as the latter. Nature appeared to have placed a barrier against invasion, on the part of Eu rope, by encompassing with sea , .. the richest por. Linn of these regions. But. it was these very seas that decided their sutjug;ition and their ruin. The treasures of India, which European luxury has made the °Nei!: of its desires, excited the rapacity of various nations of our continent, as soon as the way by the Cape of Good Mope was discovered ; and the necessity for the commodities which India produces obliged all comntercial nations to turn their attention toward that country. They ergted trading establishments on the coasts of Malabar and C'romandel, where they bartered for the produc tions of India. Avarice soon begot the desire of territorial possession, and awakened the spirit of conquest, which was farther instigated by the riches in India, a'id the imbecility of its powers. This country, incapable of opposing any of its enemies, now beheld various foreign nations contending for its f.itc, and &staining its territory, and the ocean which w.t,hes it, with blood. he Portuguese made the first conquests, of which they retained a very small portion ; their possessions passed successively int r the hands, of the Dutch, the French, and the English, and the latter now rule, without a rival, in the Fast 1.0 es, where they have even subverted the throne of Mysore. The calculations that lA-re made before the sub- jugation of Tippoo Saib's empire, gave a popula tion of 33 millions of men to the wide extended ¶l , possessions of the English East India Company : since tie Mysore and the Carnatic have been united to them, the number of inhabitants, according to Mr. 'Tennant, amounts to at least .50 millions. And yet that writer assures us, that this immense domi nion is of little bass it to the mother coentry, and that all its wealth Bows into the chests of private individuals. The same opinion was recently main tained by a Member of the British Senate. Mr. Francis, who for eight years had a seat in the Su preme Council of India, and is perfally acquainted with the affairs of that country. " India," said he, "as it is at present governed, yields us not the smallest revenue. Our resources are there exhausted in ruinous conquests, the Bower of our troops are there destroyed in battles, produc tive of no advantage to the nati.lnal welfare. On the contrary, were a mote judicious political sys tem to be adopted, India might be an inexhaustible source of benefit, opulence, and commercial advan tages." The first settlement of the F.nglish in India was calculated only for the purposes of trade : the tire Princes even carried their good-will towards them so fAr, as to grant them privileges not enjoyed bylheir own subjetts. They acted wisely in pro moting commerce; but while they opened one eye to trade, they shut the other to politics. They did not observe the reasons which exclude the Europe:us nations from all influence in China. It was in the year 1765 that the situation of the English in India first underwent an important change. Their first expedition against Bengal had the air of an adven ture; they soon became sovereigns. Lord Clive, the founder of this vast empire, however, said on this occasion, that he hoped the conquests of the English would be confined to Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa; that the plan of more extensive convests would be equally absurd and extravagant; and that, if the system of the Company were not to be entirely changed, no enlightened governor could entertain such a design. The same principles were avowed by Parliament in the years 173'2, 1744, and I 789. A di-tinflion ought certainly to be made between wars undertaken fur conquest and for defence; but neither the Parliament nor the public has ever been able to form an opinion on the justice of the wars of India. We have nothing more than the testimony of one belligerent power against the other, and such evidence is always liable to suspicion. Nothing farther was known than that war had been begun, and that great acquisitions had been made. The Indian Princes have no Ambassadors to represent their case; they beheld their countries ravaged, their wealth dissipated, their power trampled upon, and received no other satisfaaion than the general opinion, that they wee forced into a war by unjust ambition. Thus were Bengal. Benares, Oude, the Rohillas, Terrokabad, the Carnatic, and the king dom of Mysore, subdued, and the families of their sovereigns extinguished. The Nabobs of Tanjore. Tinevelly, Travancore, Decals, Gwicomar, Guzu. rat, Bundelennd, the Mogul, in a word, the whole peninsula from Delhi to Cape Comorin, excepting the country of the Mahrattas, is tributary to the English, and subjea to their dominion. Notwithstanding so many conquests, the thirst of the English for making farther acquisitions is become still more pressing : and this lawless desire produced the war with the Mahratta Chiefs, which is equally impolitic and unjust. The documents laid before Parliament hut too plainly admit, that those unfortunate Princes were ever treated by the Company as ambitious enemies, merely to compel them to cede a considerable portion of their do minions, if they were not determined to defend them. It is extraordinary, that the Peishwah should always be represented es the sovereign, the Chief of all the Mahratta Princes, when, in hats he is no more than their equal, only the Prime Minister of the confederacy of the Mahratta States. He was only Prillt&lT inter pares, and had not even the privilege of rejeding the last treaty, against which he had a very manifest repugnance.— The same ennduel was pursued with respea to Scindea, after he had been represented as a lawless, weak, and rapacious Prince. The Government of Bengal proposed a treaty, according to which he was to maintain an English army continually in his states ; to cede to the Company a territory sufficient lot the support of these troops ; to submit, in all dis putes with the Nizam, or the other powers of I lin dostan, to the decision of the British Government, and to deliver up to the Company his portion of the Duab, with the fortress of Agra and Delhi. All these concessions, were, of course, to have been for his onn advantage and security. It is, indeed, objelled, that the Mahrattas have taken into their service French Officers, with designs hostile to England ; and it is even asserted that they have among them 14,000 Fre:'ch troops, under Capt. Perron. This statement, however, is as de stitute of proof, as it is highly exaggerated. There is but a very small number of French officers in the army of the Mahrattas, and there is no reason to apprehend that the latter will learn from them the European ar: of war. It is their ancient method to carry on war by means of straggling corps, which renders them as formidable to the English troops as the Parthians were to the Romans. Scindea was never desirous of employing trench soldiers ; and, though he could not accept the humiliating treaty proposed to him, yet he both suspeeted and hated Perron, whom this circumstance induced to eapitu ' late with his little force. The dispersion of the English army over the prodigious space from Delhi to Poonah, is, besides, extremely dangerous ; be cause they are obliged to be as much upon their guard against the treachery of the sepoys incor porated with it, as against the hostile designs of the natives. To these observations—proceeding from one well acquainted with the subj-d, and which diffuse con siderable light over the night-piece usually exhibit ed by the Ministry, relative to the state of the Fast Indies—Administration could oppose scarcely any arguments. On the other hand, Charles Fox maintained, with the warmth natural to his clsaraaer. that after the subjeftinn of Tippoo, the governetens of India had . attem,sied to conclude re falthleis treaty with the Mahraps 4 and that their I• hands, like Macbeth 's, were so dyesi e witii the blood that the crimson stain co not be washed away. " If," said. he, " Cie war be•commenced against the Mahrattas, only fi , r fear of the French, the same pretests miy be employed against every state ot India, till, in our progress from destr u to de. struftion, we arrive at the great wall of China.— We make war upon the Mahrattas because they are the only power remaining in India ; that is, we are determined not to be quiet till the whole of the East Indies is suhjeaed to the English dominion." This, in faa, appears to be the plan of the all grasping English East India Company : however hasardous such an extension might be, government itself is aware of the danger of the present situation of affairs. In the same remarkable debate to which we have already alluded, the Minister of the East In dia department, Lord Castlereagh. observed, " that the British power in the East Indies would be me naced with great danger, if the Empire of the Mah rattas were united under a single Sovereign ; that the French officer, Perron, had. at a certain period, one million sterling annually, and an army of forty thousand men at his disposal ;,. and that if the French had, at that time, been able to throw ten thougand troops into Cuzurat, the consequences would have been incalculable." (To be concluded to-morrow.) THE ARITISH PRESS. LON DON, THURSDAY, ArGVST 22. At a late hour last night, we received, by Ex- PRUS, several sets of Dutch Papers, but none of them of a later date than those received on Tuesday. We therefore mention the circumstance. merely as a proof that no embargo has yet taken place in the Dutch ports. We give this day the first part of an article upon India, as translated from a Continental Publication of great respectability. It must be interesting to the people of England to know tile opinions enter tained in foreign nations of the system which we save pursued in India. Government, we understand, have determined to augment the navy with twelve new ships of the hoe. They are to ►e built in the ports of Russia, under the inspedlion and management of Colonel IBANTHSSII, who has set out for St. Petersburgh for that purpose. From the cheapness of labour, and of the materials for ship-building in Russia, COM pared with the prices in England, there will be a great saving upon this plan. This intelligence is of importance in another point of view, as it chews the friendly disposition of ALIII4IIDLIt towards this 'wintry, and his hostility towards France. This ac. oommodation afforded to a belligerent power will oertainly be regarded by 800 APART' as an hostile a& Colonel BINTISAid is, we believe, a native of Hampshire, but served early in the Russian army, in which he obtained a command under the auspices and patronage of Prince POTCMKIN. In the reign of the Emperor PAUL, he lost the favour of the Court and returned to England, where he has been since employed in the impel-ion and superintendance of the navy. We are enabled to state, says The Cork Mercantle Chi-smirk of the 16th instant, from a quarter the most eminent in accuracy and authority, that at this moment Me Spanith Monarchy 'Athol to itr Jona &lion. The series of circumstances which immedi ately roused all those symptoms indicative of the approaching decadence of this antient Monarchy, we cannot now develope for special reasons—but we can aver that the utmost consternation prevails in the Palace of Madrid, as well as in the Cabinet and Councils of the State. The arrogance and tyranny of the Pa Ince of iliac, have roused the indignation of the higher orders, as well as of some of the most antient public Institutions; acknowledged by the Laws of Spain. He has bad the temerity to intrr fere with the public justice of the country, by pre. veiling upon the King to suspend the fumftions of the Supreme Council of Coslik, that had confirmed an appeal from a Provincial Tribunal, adverse in its et leas to one of his favourites, who was a party in the cause. The Council have addressed the King in terms becoming the antient Spanish charaner —they have admonished him of the consequences of such an untoward mediation ; they base reminded him, in bold and manly language, of the dependency of his predecessors upon the laws of )pain, and upon the determination of the Supreme Council of Castile in former times; and they have stiggetted the to merity of putting a daring favourite *hove the laws, and intim.tted the probable consequences its times so e►pecially marked by such vicissitudes in hurn.in au thority. " The Court is in dismay," says our Cm respondent—as hat sallaa and distrustful—tl•rir n it sures are obstinate in some respells, and vravering • others. The Pa it4Cg of Peace bresthes venge4a" and the Supreme Council of Castile avows ra i : ance s and seems Cr) be the popular party. The Pr vinces are in disorder; and the Urge Cities curs, lent. BONAPARTE has offzed th: King a is army to crash the spirit of rebellion, as it is calk! and it the impotency of the Court accept the off, ' Spain will be engulphed in his obvious prajed cf e r tending the French Empire.' At present we cam enter into further particulars; but those which have related, our reader; may be persuaded, are i dub:table fads." We now find that Lord NILSON'S ship WAS n,; to leased from quarantine until Monday eveaing ; his Lordship landed, he immediately set otf Gordon, and reached town ohs To.:sday. A t e:trly hour yesterd:ty he attended at the Ad:nir.ilir, and had a long interview with Lord Bunts, After this interview his Lord Wp visited M-ur.. MARSH and Cutts, Navy Agents, Norfulk—tiee, Strand. He then visited tfie Navy-Office, &metre:. house, and returned to the Admiralty. A conen aw of people followed his Lordship down the Snail. He looks remarkably well, and in good he..ith. He was dressed in plain David uniform, and rote a green shade over his left eye. After his second vi s i t at the Admiralty, his Lordship paid a visit is Downing -street. to Mr. Pm., hid come to town from Brom/ay...accompanied by Sir SIDNST &WEN, to meet Itiktoriship. After this visit, he walked across _St. JSmes's Park, to his bout io Charges-street ; and, in the evening, he went obi ; seat at ilerton, in Surrey. it is rumoured ti.at Lis Lordship will be appointed immediately to a new command, anti that Sir Si ONLY SMITH will ba comprisetPleillie arrangement. Lord NILSON• is costaidently reported, never heard of Admiral CALDER'S adios till he arrived in the ChanneL An American vessel arrived at Portsmouth has a man on board who states that he was Steward His Majesty's ship Blancie,.of 36 guns, Captain Munoz, and that she was .unk in the \Vest Ind.t h after a desperate engagement with a sup-ri.w fun:, consisting of a Fr.:rrch frigate, a sloop, and a brig. We yesterday gave every article of interest in di Paris Papers, to the 14th, ezzept a long Note in Cie Alen;triir of the 11th, upon the present state of t‘ie Continent, in relation to the expeaed event of a confederacy of the principal Powers of Europe against France. This Nate, w:tich is :zivet in or first page, is distinguished by the moderation of i:s tone towards England, and its angry observations upon the policy of Russia. It has precisely made the two nations to change places, and lavished op°, Russia all the abuse it us:J to bestow upon Eng land. Every well-informed Englishman must rnile at such a silly attempt to cajole him,—and the Moniker may reply in the words of the Satyrist— ss Qu ndes!--asistete amine, de to Yabule narrater The inference to he drawn from this Article, in which the oflizial Gazette of Box AAAAAA com mends Prussia, flAtters Austria, sympathises wide England, and reviles Russia, ic, that the latter power has finally resolved to resist, by force, the crimes and aggressions of France. We understand that Admit al Sir Rnstry Cactus has been detached frurn the Channel Fleet, with As increased force, to cruise olf Ferrol. Yesterday a Court of Direeors was held at the East India House, which adjourned, at sex o'c:ock, till Wednesday neat. On Monday the Duke of Yoax attended at his Office in the Horse Guards, and transaßed business for the first time since his return from Weymouth. His Royal Highness was constant in his attend ance on Tuesday And yesterday, giving director's for the arrangements that are now making in the army. The Marquis WELLast.ev, not having heard of the appointment of Marquis Coariwaws. knead ed, it is said, to set out with the first ships of nest season, on his return to England. A spirit of distention and revolt, we learn, still continues to pervade several of the provinces in the vicinity of Canton, and several skirmishes had taken place between the insurrinte and the imperial Anne' with alternate S.ICCCSS ; a sJ it wits supposed it wound require All the force and energy of the empire to restore tranquillity to the state. Letters from the Gulph ol Persia state, that the Imaum of Nitric av was lately killed in an engage ment between a past of the fi..et And the inhahitaate of the opposite shore, who have 'Jog been in hoiti lity ; the latter being '.he disciple of Was AIME, sail the former a I rue Believer. The Beltiqueux, Capt. B 1. 0, is not to convoy the ontward.tmund East India Fleet, as was intended' The Thasfere, Sir 110114 E POPHAM, is to take the charge of them, being destined tot the Ent 1 " 1 "' The Genyurrer, of 71 guns, another ship of Lord Nation's squadron, has returned to Plymouth r. refit. Letters, it is said. have been received by the Cot tenburgh Mails, which state, that a 1111106 r/ English merchant ships at Cronstadt have, with it concurrence of &Le British Minister and I "ffictil been put in req :isit:on, for the purpose of rein , porting llus-ian twerps. Tney will be earned Stralsund, and employed in conjurZion with Cl Swedish forces in the nresteelion of Pomerania. at for any future operations that may be concerted.