The Sun. — London, England, 1839-07-08 00:00:00

C i J E I\7( ; D Tio tiItEAT PUBLIC MELTING. 1 country. I stop not now to ask whether we have any 1 business, when it is left to individuals.---(Hear, hear.) 1 right in natural justice and according to the eternal law . There is no country where roads are more necessary . „..,....,, enacting I,NDIA, 1 bli . place en Saturday, .11 the can have any right to y popu ate region t :an .neta n end there gee it Teem of the Freemasons' Hall, Great Q leen. t govern men thus, to scourge the ;is no place .in the whole world where, considering revenuethus,. to raise the tax from the see-;t of the I the dense population, they are . so . 3 , 1.):. .. , 1 etreea, of persons friendly to the formation of a B' -heti, entire' • w inti e• brow thus, without allowing them one single word in ; Watered b o c i e o un o t f les streams in all directions, fitted I 'Reda Soeiety, l'or bettering the condition of our fellow- brow affairs—( Heen he i ar)--.1 stop the election of those who are to govern and control In- for the pur y p t subjects, the natives of British India. Lord Brouglean nes igation, as well as of irriga ds not arrivedwhen not to ask—the tim e tion to which they were applied in the times of their in the Chair. i I teat question can be consistentl y Princee, theogh I believe the tanks are now almost all to c L e e n ' i ' m g put—butot.England, thinkwhen I have te right to app ea l to th e p eop l e broken o yet as to the roads I am told by those before the r t o im oi e n a v p va p s oin n t e e a d rly fo fi r lie th d e w p i r t o h c p e e e r d s i o n n g s s of great respectability. Th e N o bl e an d Learned Lord the w=ant, ui " "' all perceive the blank, when all feel who havespent the great er p ar t o f th e i r li ves th ere , if ascended. the platform at a very few minutes past one o'clock, amidst enthusiastic cheers. By this time the •• room and galleries were completely filled, there being present a great number of highly respectable ladies. senseof lea all 11 le ask—it to k are pressed down, as it were, by a you cross from the native roads unto your oen dominion ireshame. lit having such a domini on over men that which is inhabited by the 80,000,000 out of the i net letnd of representation—l have a right to 120 ,000,000, which comprise your own subjects as not too . late to ask—it is not premature well as the dependencies of all the tributary states, you as t 'whether it does not beco me th e free, th e come to a place where only a palanquin can travel q Amongst others we observed on - the platform, the • , Nawitub Eekbahoodowlah, Prince of Oude, the Prince Lost, the enlightened people of this country the road stops at the boundary of the frontier. I ' endeavour to to provide a substitute, to fill told by those who know India well, that a grea . t. o a o m n lama-teed-Deena, SQZI of the late Tippoo Sultana, Meer 7 Abdul Ali, and Meer Kurreein Ali, agents of the l : p . the blank, to supply same kind of remedy in the could never be conferred on the people of that country, the representation of the Indian people ? than opening communications by land and water, g Rej th of Sat. ; Ichanghecr Nowrojee, 'Hirjeebhoy 1 -Meet of Meerwanjee, and Dorabjee Meneherjee. EtqrS, of.' (Great cheering.) How is that remedy to be provided ? , which those thickly populated, inaccessible co'unY not by the Government—you can't expect it.—(He ar , tries might be traversed. The want of roads Bombay ; Fib- Charles Forbes, Bart., Sir Jerero'tah Bryant, Sir Henry Strachey, the Honourable Captain The question is against the people, as contrast e d does not only prevent it from improvement but it t i t i •it_ a h r.) the Government, and controlling and checki ng has this effect—it leads to the most ' horrible A. Stocker ,strom, Lieutenant-Governor of ttae Cape of Good 7 rlope, General Goodfellow, Mejor-General power. It cannot be provided by the Company. N ow , famine in parts of the country, and one district is over- Brigge, rtoelonel Thompson, Colonel Nichois, eel. Sykes, I beg hereto stop for a moment, that I may say it i s a loaded with grain, the result of a bountiful Providence, thing the furthe s t fro m any intention of mine upon this through a plentiful harvest, while another cl• t ht i or n t e h e ' Captair, Probyn, Daniel. O'Connell, Eso., M.P., Fraacis o e f • oceasion to offe r on e single word in disparegement, or same country is as much shut out from the Pos r s l ib t ilit Finch, retl.P., Wiliam Ewart, Esq., I\l .P., A. Chaeman, betoken the . slightest disrespect for the Company. I benefiting by the superfluity of the former district a y s if E'en, M.P., Joseph Pease, \Esq., sea., Joseph Stutge, have no. intenti on t o d o se—l have no occasion seas rolled between them ; aye, as if they were inhibit- E .q. , the Rev. W. Hague, U. S., the . Reven ni to do so—l have no interest to do so. It i s ants of another planet.—( Hear hear.) The cOnse del' al Keep, U S.. the Reverend Dr. Skinner, !' A Roe Dr.Mureh, the Rev. J. H. Hinton, CI. e Rev, U.S.,J el i te . System, and not the agents, of which I cttn- quence of.which is that we have ' lived to see the day the man, Dr. Bowring, Dr. Hcdgkin, J. H. Trolgold, p hinc . —(C . neers.) It is the blanks and defects, and when a famine has prevailed in the most fruitful regions • In h ise mischiefs, in that system which I point out, and not of the globe for the two last - years, at every one instrnt of r e ,Thor. Frankland, Esq. of Liverpool, John Craw rt those who work the system, that 1 impea c h. It i s t o which two years the Government supported by food— Turd, - Esq., Henry Blwaehard, Esq., Montgomery Mar- .i h n . , t .. 1 remedy for those detects—a cure for those mis- by pittance of daily food—doled out to the 150,000 tin, Esq. ; Wm. Dante, Reg., U. S., and certainly F. C. e ie,s—a substitute for those wants that I wish you starving people.—(Hear, hear.) Now I think 1 have Brown, Esqr.'s (the ; Hon. Secretary's) name ought 1. ot to be omitted, who ) took a . very active part in the ar- now to help me in finding, and not to say ono word said enough to show that the ease requires attention, de- . against the . India Company itself. The Company i s mends inquiry, and that it will be better for being better e rangement of tilt proceedings, and to whom great credit in .bi o Position which makes it utterly impost known in this country. Nor let it be supposed for a me is due not aity for the exuelleto acetmmodation he pro- si e for it to find that remedy. It cannot be called inept that we have not a direct interest here— vided for ttre Press, but for the attention he showed .upon to do it ; ofanti.] fulfilling whatever its . intention might be it we have an interest. That's not my argument ; and -the wecomm.odation he secured for almost every per- has no means fulfilling it. I believ e the intention o f that's not the foundation of my discourse at all. There son wha attended the meeting. the Company to be good—(Hear, hear)-1 believe the is a higher motive than any interest—there is a duty,— Lord Beoucnwsf immediately proceeded to open the Company to have done all the good it can—l believe (Hear, hear.) It's our consciences which ought to be businese, of the meeting. He said—lt gives ine the it has done immeasurable good to India—l believ e :th at consulted and agreed,—(H ear , hear.) It is our duty grey tent possible satisfaction to see so numerous and so India, from the picture lam about to give, had cause to step forward ; we are bound to do it by the most resp e , e.tabie a meeting assembled this day upon so great mu l ch more loudly . to . complain when it • , was groaning sacred obligations, and even if it were not for our inte and' so important turoccation. I only lament that the part uncer its native chiefs—the Manomedan Government, rest but against our interest, still, 1 say, let our duty be of ..fromth: proceedings which devolves upon me is likely, or the Mogul of the country, The Company- has we- done, be it for or against our interest,—(Cheers:) Ne tr arty natural defieency, and partly from ceeded l,e. to their dominion, has mitigated the hardship of vertheless, virtue will not only, on the part the people accidental circumstances, 'co be very indifferently per- .7 1 ru ias swayed . n sceptre of good policy ler of this country, in the present instance, be its own re formed, not certainly frt.-n any want of zeal, for my ‘ttnit the natives of India have reason to be thankful, ward. Have we no interest in the trade to the Etes' t re heart is as entirely in this' good chase as that of an who , , 6 last ~3 ' I believe as firmly as I believe that lam at this Indies ? Whether ' • one now hoary nte e eout until a late hour night, or rather an ere r ty hour this morning, - had a great • fatigue cast opou me which I could not avoid, I mean n i.i speaking-pen a - subject upon which I may (Lifer I with some here, and agree with others ; but I deemed it in? conscientious du • d' Ithe office, and duty' to isc large stied up for what 1 ; hold to be the just rights of con stience in civil and riot ions liberty-s---(Hear, hear,) — and the claim "of Men to be instructed in thee knowledge tent in . this Hall, that the • , oundless debt of gratitude, mo. would a mercantile people rather natives of India owe a trade with a poor, degraded, half naked, utterly im -1 E , 1 dl to the Comp and to the iteVerished set of customers,or with a set of customers— peep eof England.--((,beers.) an . —(C eers.) Much iirspolicy tnay I won't say rolling in affluence—but at all events in such have dictated their course —much of selfil e I•• happen in the best of r 2 s rows, as will a state as to have the means of purchasing ? The 1 e n3s always sure to happen most where those tents are the least y an, - it answers itself—the latter and not the former. m ,,a e v n e existed, and d under popular control . may Why, the people of India do not at this moment, one t ' iril • arisen both • much intoteration . has necc- with another, consume above fid. worth of our menu tile ‘ 3 ,rholethen in justice and in policy ; but upon inetures in a year.—(Hear, hear.) If every man in . —feel with that'intellectuel. food welch is convenient for them, without. distinction of party, or caste, or rank, or , sect, or creed--; and that all men under a free Govern . meat have an equal right to this boon of general educe- tion.-t-(Muc'a cheering.) I only make this reference to proceedin gs which have no connexion whatever with the object. of present meeting, and upon which men • may forma the most different and irreconcilable opinions i without any impeachment whatever, either of' their own credit, or of their own wisdom, and, above all, of a their (own anxiety to promote the cause tieoa which we one at prevent are met. I only allude to inin vindication of mY s telf, that I may state the reason why I come here ex hetueted by the fatigues of last night, not having got to bed till past four o'clock this morning. I was detained else- redounded not m ov o e r r e e ' than to thegoverned. t m o e t n h t of India by the Company has India could only afford to purchase a turban a ,year you the benefit . of the Government would send 50 millions worth annually out to India.— heir government has beet, (Hear, hear.). That's something I think in the way of sievei mitigated, and the advantages they have derived Ibe interest.---(Hear, hear.) That's something in the wee ohe tave been almost on a level with the benefits the of trade. It would be a return for all the care you have mother freelyt r country has received.—CHear.)All this admission bestowed on India ; it would be a much better return ~ make, and another ther also'o as, with some few ex- 'llan the two millions and a half that you draw from it cesiont, the course . of her Government has been just uow. And when I tell you there are 20 millions de or honest, bii so with hardly any exception it has beet, rived from India a year, that is not all. I have the most lant talents and splendid success. Men of euthority of the Chairman of the East India Company brillianttmos gigantic powers of mind, soldiers of the most thr what lam going to state to you now. He made the courage, statesmen of the most enlarged ca. tatement in Leadenhall-street, and I import it thence Pacify, politicians of the most enlightened views.and.of into Great Queen-street, and lay it before those who the.i ruled, t d commandin i g ge d nius, • hate from time to time if they have not India Stock standing with star; where by speaking to a late hour—feeline the pressure h of that upon myself individually, and that from the part t I had always taken in the cause of toleration, I could ra fi -e rm , o a e n ss w co it nr a er v e it i ,o , o a r n w r it e i tained their conquests with' opposite their names, have a stock of hurnanite done honour to the ° Assembl of Rome or to the Parliament not, last night, shrink from it.—(Cheers.) Having thus d i apologised to you in order to show that my present deficiency is ineviteble, and not arising from any want of zeal, let us came to what forms the business and the only bus:twos o f this day. First, then, We are here net al l m rti joining heart and hand together, to promote a la genius, A that would have and of justice in their bosoms, which may make them, Assembly of thens, to the Senate if they traffic duly with it, fur more briliant than if thee l ' of . the United King- nad half a dozen stars enibliszoning their names opposite dot.—(lmmense in mense cheering,) But still there remains the East India Stock.—(Much cheering.) His statement t n h ecess_ary inherent .f defect in the system. A country was this, that during the currency of the last Charter, a at ha p n la j e t n u s i its o e i l inm men n o unnatural a position as that from 1814 to 1834, upwards of forty-eight millionWsten handful of men in Europe to g?';:t work which all equally have at heart, and in favour n o r P a wt. ' ' ( tr which all - have a right —aye, and a duty, to lift there, sent by a larger flag had been drawn from India over into England, not itself . t govern . countless millions in one farthing of which aver had found its way 'back agaie i t Asia, putss ttsu.e in i f o r a state of things that absolutely to India.—(Hear, hear.) Now, when you think that _ t . t .. om always doin g. its duty, and A- those millions of money are drawn from the daily labour s i u d tey t n . ecessi necessitates, a substitut e being found for of those poor people who literally have hardly a rag to in ho strange, so un cover them—who cannot afford to pay for a turban, without distinction of party or religious opinions— ‘ a - their hand. You will be addressed by many to-ctay who are much better acquainted with the sub , Pct. that calls us together than I can profess to be ; I i t ta le t r t l ee and so f necessarily che a er a ine ) Now e t tt I ' nrenv men who have studied it foryeart, others who have ehich makes a n us a system of policy.—(Gre a t which it is the pride of a Mussultnan to wear, any more of things in India which you a few samples of the state Than the poorest beggar in your streets can afford to pee e , calls for out. interference, and ;t guinea for a beaver hat—when you think that it a matter of duty upon us to comb . • 1 f ' ' !neonlett sum is drawn from those poor. people. cley t ' th • 0 ect their lives professionally and otherwise to it, order first to dense extensive . I • . in ornottion at home as t o that they may enjoy the privilege of giyieg up d not a few, I am happy to say, who know it Practi- of those men I deem it a great gratification and a hieh rally, and, best of all, by having long resided in our eastern provincei. To associate and co-operate with honour ; and now that I shall shortly bring this subject before you, allow me briefly to remind you of the posi tion in which Great Britain stands. It has been her - - Plettsure, her policy, and her pride, whether wisely or- - for is another question—but it has been her policy, for the state e h things there ; next t o poiat out the wants nine parts in ten of the produce of the labour ?t . ourte l lownsunitc b ts tre ; and,. lastly, to endeavour and land to us their rulers—when you consider that ay discussion, , and y a peaceful, and moderate, and those poor people are so destitute of capital that they temperate means, to procure:reformation of those abuses, borrow at the rate of from twenty to thirty, and some an.d to cure those evils. I will just point nut one or two times as high as fifty per cent. a yearn the very corn things which distinguish the position of our fellow.sub- with which they have to sow their grounds—when you teas in the Ea t I have e . mentioned to you the vast consider that, I . think you will agree with me in the pro rev.enue we il draw . from thence—twenty millions sterling position. I began with stating that their* condition '1 ear. ow is that composed ? Fourteen millions merits our care, and that our bounden duty is to inquire ! . 1 tang ages, to extend her dominion over every region of the habitable globe. Net content with possessing an i ample and fruitful dominion at home—not content with heing the mistress of two of the first islands upon nhich the sun rises, she has deemed it expedient, tad now holds it to be inseparable from her honour, to rule likewise on all sides of the globe, over the most extensive dominions that nation ever of t it comes from the rent and profit of land ; the rest into their circumstances, to diffuse the knowledge which from a few tolls and imposts, but chiefly from mercan- will be gained by the inquiry, and to interpose, by all law tile roonopoly. Felt, as to the last of these, the six ful means, on their behalf.—(Continued cheers.) I have millions. We are thus—when I say we, I mean the Corn- purposely avoided one question, not from its not being party, for it represent s England. We are thus possessed pressed upon me, but from the surrounding circumstances of the exclusive and absolute possession of opium— attending it. I say nothing of the admirable charac,- a great brunch of the trade—to this extent that no ter, the mild, governed. I n India to which o ur attent i on i s now gentle, peaceful nature, the uniformly gwod person can pl an t o pi um w i t h out our authority and obedient demeanour of our Indian fellow-subjects. , say nothin g of their waiit of —aye, an d t h e - people are co m p e ll e d to plant —(Great cheering.) I , called, s h e h as a terr i tory of 1,100,000 square miles, peopl e d b y 1 20,000,000 of subject , , watered by rivers opium i n certain di str i cts wh i ch we point out for that instruction ; I say nothing of the darkness and secular that run i n a ll di rect i ons , diff us i ng fruitfulness, opening purpose wh e th er t h ey w il l or no ; and no man can sell ignorance in which they are placed. I purposely say communications, adornin g , enrichi ng , d e f en di ng t h at vast a sin g le o u n ce o f t h at opium unless he purchases his nothing upon polemical, controversial topics, of which, Tr authority . to do so from the Company ; hence comes a truth to tell, I had enough during the last night, though dominion. The cities which stud it spangle and glitter in th e sun. The natives, who cultivate, devote their whole hours—their days and their nights, to the hardest million or two a year. But that is dearly purchased not enough, perhaps to enlighten—( Hear, hear, and from those who pay it over . to our Governors, much laughter)—unless, indeed, it was calculated to f because it . stunts industry, it prevents growing increase my information upon the diversities of the labour, the revenues which they yield are poured into enterprise —it does harm . to all and good to human faculties—(Laughter) —upon the inequalities of our coffers with extraordinary profusion, so that twenty but few. But there is another thing equally men's genius, upon the possibility of the greatest learn , millions . sterling a year we draw clear and nett from remarkable with opium —and that is the monopoly of ine being combined with the grossest ignorance, upon -that territory—the largest known revenue in the world, save and except o n ly t h e revenue d er i ve d f rom t h e salt. N o t a fl a k e o f sa l t can b e li c k ed up, which the th e marvellous compass which bigotry and intole mether country , an d t h e revenue wh i ch our neighbour sun has left by dryi ng up t h e sea b r i ne upon the land— ranee will sometimes succeed in forming, by. he union not a flake of th a t can b e li c k e d up by the finger or by o f s t u pidity w i t h sense, o f li ght with darkness— the F renc h G overnment derives from France.l ask not— it is t oo l ate to as k , whether it be wise to hold such a the tongue—(L aug ht er )— w i t h out leave from the Corn- (Cheers)—the go ld en h ea d w i t h t h e c l ay f oot of the - domini on as thi s ? I as k not— i t is too late -now to stop pany, under a p ena lt y o f 50/ . or two months ' imprison. ravage—(Loud cheers)—u n l ess , i n d ee d, i n t h ese re to ioq u i re , w h et h er i t t e prudent to hold such immense gent, and someti mes b ot h—(h ear )— at the option of the spects, it proved the all but omnipotence of faction and Possessions as these ? I as k n o t —i t i s aga i n too late to Court that tries th e o ff ence — t h e o ff ence o f gathering up bigotry, I must confess that the last twelve hours have enquire, whether it b e s t r i ct l y h onest for any nation to a little, salt,whichP rov id ence h as ena bl e d t h e rays of the not produced any considerable illumination or edification affect suc h d om i n i on as t h at ? But admitting that she sun to leave on th e l an d . by . evaporating the moi s t ure on my part.— (L aughter and cheers.) You will rea r' from it.—( H ear , h ear , acrd cries of " Seame.") No w (lily, therefore, con ce i ve w h y I pass over any th i ng that f she i s j us t, i n accumu l at i ng such vast territories, and two millions and a h a lf comes f rom t hi s monopoly, but it can . by possibility lend me on polemi ca l groun d. : is w i se , a d m i tt i ng that she is prudent, not denying that govertii ng suc h count l ess myr i ads of people-- ( ti tre is accompanied with suffering, with v e x a ti on , persecu - M y f e et are still smarting, front the - scorchi ng w hi c h the Nobl e an d L earne d L or d was i nterrupted by the then and torment, t o th e hi g h est d egree hurtful to those they received in walking over that fiery ground last cheers that saluted th e en t rance o f M r. O ' Connell upon who pay it, and all b u t unprofitable to those who r a i se n i g h t . I t i s t h e only pain I feel from the defeat, for ' the platform)—l sa y, I as k not w h et h er i t be just, any it, because they h ave t o pay fo ur or f i ve times it needed not the lesson of last night to teach me the as much for the purpose of collecting it. But force of' the " mute eloquence of numbers"—( Laugh more than lask whether it be wise and politic, to accu then comes the other head—the fourteen mil- ter)—or how easy it is for potentates to be overwhelmed mulate such vast dominions, and to affect the govern lions—the bulk of the revenue which comes from the by mutes—(Laughter)—for the eperation of " mutes" merit of such countless myriads. of people ? I care not, rent of land that is paid by the people who cultivate is not confined to the Seraglio._( Laughter.) You will I grant it all—l grant it prudent—l grant it wise—l grant it just—but th en I h o ld t h at w h atever diff erence the ground ; those w h o pay to en d ure, who possess to understand why I abstain front entering upon that conform ; and that is rece i ve d i n t h e proportion which ground again, on which many here nosy differ, But Play 'divide men in opi n ion up on t h ose part i cu l ars, t h ere was fixed as far back as the time of Lord Cornwallis' this I say, that the people have long stood, and, for is tole proposition to which all men will assent, that arrangement, in 1793, which gave eighteen shillings out aught I know, may for ages yet to come stand, in dark- 'erg dominion cannot be possessed without entail s ; -og a co-relative duty on England—(Hear, h ear )— of every twenty shilling s to t h e G overnment, by way of ness, spiritual as well as temporal, though the blessed rent ; and the two shillin gs t h at rema i ned was to be for influence of Christianity has been gradually diffused by t and t h at if s h e w ill h ave an empire upon which the sun the profit of the labourer and the owner ; and he said, pious missionaries, the only means of converting the I never sets, she must govern it upon principles which let that stand e never to be . shaken. The Government heathen that have ever been found at all adequate for , consult the good of the millions of her subjects.—(lm renounces all property in land ; it has nothing to do the object, or attended with the least success.--(Cheers,) mense cheering.) She holds the sceptre at homeshe hold s th a t t h e d uty t h at. t h at sceptre imposes upon her with it ; it is a ruler; it i s not a landlord to receive W e w i s h no t to me ddl e w i th these labours, or to inter is t o g i ve protect i on to h er people at home, in return rents ; but at all events it must receive e i g ht een s hilli ngs f ere w i th these useful exertions, but we wish to diffuse for th e i r a ll eg i ance to h er. Sh e holds an island near to her, out of the twenty shillings ; and th e two s hilli ngs i s such knowledge as to both secular and spiritual teachers part and parcel of ou r e mpi re , b ut l ess happy and less given up,and g i ven u p f or ever, to the owner.—(Hear, will b e va l ua bl e , i n g i v i ng the b est direction to their fruitf u l, an d not muc h l ess oppressed, than these Indian hear.) Perhaps a man mi g h t say, w i thout any labours.—(Cheers.) We wish to impr ove th e con di t i on great exaggeration, or without being guilty of a of the population, so as to prepare the soil for spiritual dominions of which I have spoken—( Hear, hear)—and figure of' speech, unless it might be that he might as well as temporal histruction.—(Cheers.) We have unlese—we are all agreed upon that—she governs that island so as to consult the good of its people, she ceases be considered guilty of i rony — t h at t h e two shillings. often been called to account fir our tre a t men t o f I n t to dischar ge h er d uty —(H ear, for the owner of th e so il was not very much more Ilia. We have o ft en b een i n t h e strong —we have con. Citle t o th e i r a ll eg i ance, and she no longer has a right bear)—she forfeits her than he ought to h ave w h en hi s partner, the fessed it. One of the last of the most brilliant achieves. to sway th e sceptre over t h em. —(Much cheering.) Has Governor, took the 185.—(H ea r, h ear , and laughter.) intents of Lord W e ll es l ey was settlingthostweeestoree r she then a r i g ht any more to continue that sceptre in But that is as it was fixed up on i n . 1793 , an d which Went the throne o f O u d e . Wh en t h e Sovereign was upon back to 1765. I speak now chiefly of Bengal ; and up his death-bed, at 12 O'clock at night, there arose a ques r her hand which she sways over 120 millions on the other side of th e g l o b e, if s h e no longer consults the • to this hour—for upwards o f th reescore years and ten, tion between two contesting successors. Our author., interests and pro v id es f or t h e h app i ness of those millions the life of a man—the peri o d t o w hi c h a man ought to ties chose one—in my opinion not the ' rightftrit' I consider the length of his s h ort an d f ra il t i t l e i n his pos- heir in point of law ; but the Gallant Colonel whom it i s h er pl easure to ca ll h er own subjects? Again, and th at b r i ngs me to t h e more immediate object of our sessions to extend—up t o th at ti me i t h ad never been aided the Learned Lawyer, who otherwise would. assembling here to-day, ou r p eop l e at h ome h ave a share disturbed e but just as those th reescore years and ten have been beaten in argument, for I should not have in their own G overnment . O ur people at home inter- had elapsed, thr ee y ears ago , it was thought fit by a feared to meet the lawyer on the legal question in any noble kinsman of mine and his counc ill ors there to open Court ; . but as the Gallant Colonel had a battalion to ;ere w ith t h e management of their own affairs. Our p eop l e at h ome may not have a large share this arrangement, an d to lo o k a li tt l e i nto the 2s. ; not enforce his arguments, probably I should have bsen as . enough, m a y no t h ave t h e power of i nterference to give up the 18s., but to lo o k a li tt l e sharply about slow to dispute with him as the parties in this case were enou g h, i n t h e management of their own affairs, and in the 25., because it was found th a t t h e 2s. had swelled —(Laughter)—he raised to the throne the Pretender, swaying the course o f th e i r own G overnment.—(Hear, out to six or eight, in consequen ce o f t h e i mprovement who promised to he " conv en i ent " to hi s supporters— heate) lam one o f th ese —/ d are say I differ from which had taken place in agri cu lt ure, even under the to be" tractable for any ho nes t purpose "—(L aug h ter) mealy i n t h at—who think that the share of this coon- trammels and disadvantages unde r w hi c h it was placed. —but the G a llant C o l one l b e i ng, I i mag i ne, something try i s i nerneasureably less re resented in their own And the fact is, an inquiry has b een i nstituted as to of a lawyer as well as a soldier, made him undertake the excess, as it is called : to b r i ng t h e excess over the .to sign a paper containing any terms w hi ch the Go- Parliament th an the peoplepof this c o unt r y h ave a right to demand according to the principles of our • 2s. into a wholetomeand vigorous t axat i on.—(Laughter ) vernment might dictate to him—(Laughter)— an d so Constitution.—(Mu c h c h eering.) lam one of those Now, besides there being some qu es ti on a b out the 25., one the Colonel thought he had done, if not a ver y ga ll an t, who hold that no pains are to b e spared to increase that Part of the country was rent fre e l an d s, and there was a very clever thing -; but my N o bl e F r i en d t h e G o . .share Which they now hav e i n the representation and no 18s. at all to pay on that, whi c h was according to vernor-General, with his usual sense of justice, gave is conduct of their own a ff a i rs i n Parliament.— Lord Cornwallis' arrangement, m a d e , as I have said, in the Colonel a severe reprineend—suffi c i en t t o prevent (Hear, hear.) But at all event s t hi s representation— 1793 and going back to 1765. Th at, h owever, is all his acting so again—had not my Noble Fri en d soon their s h ar e in the Government--- t h e i r power of inter- disputed now, and the whole of th at rent free land is to after chosen to take the benefit of this very agreement , faring t o secu re the right management of their own be brought under co nsideration, a n d I suppose made to and to make a treaty for six lacs of rupees and an im concerns—vvhy it is as infinity compared to nothing yield the 18s.—(Hear, hear.) Commissioners have mense cession of territory.--(Hear,, hear.) I now contrasted with the unrepresented s t ate o f a ll been' appointed, and a rbitrators ha ve b een nominated to speak in the presence of the rightful Sovereign.--L the m illi ons o f t h e I n dies.—(Loud c h eers and hear.) ;ook over them and t o d e cide ; b u t t h ose ar b itrators are (Greet cheering, in the midst of which the Prince of . net appointed by b o th s id es , o n ly b y one—(Hear, hear) Outle rose and bowed with dignity to the m eet i ng. ) The The w h o l e a ff a i rs o f I n dia are managed b eh i nd their -. an d y e t 5,700 ha ve b een d ec id e d i n favour of the ryot, Company, I rejoice to say, have taken a manly and India' i s con d uc t e d w ith o ut the slightest interf erence in back s . —(H ear, h ear .) The whole Govern ment of In and against the G overn ment, w h o actua ll y named the honest course, for a reprima n d h a s g o ne ou t t o I n di a, re ' lndia= no t one o f t h ose i n dividuals who comp ose the arbitrators, who are in its service and li a bl e to b e ruined fusing to confirm the cession, and declining to take the milli o n s - i h ave men ti one d has a single voice —is al- and dismisssed by it at one moment's warning. —(Loud ben e fit of it.—(Cheers.) I give to her Majesty' s lowed t o u tt er a cr y, except the cry of misery when cheers.) Now it is totally premature to ask whether all Government, and especially to m y Right h onourable t ...onourable famin e covers t h e l an d, an d sweeps o ff its hundr e d s o f this is right or no t. I t i s tota ll y b eyon d my commission Friend the President of the Board of Controul, Sir this day to raise this question, but I state it to you as mat- J. C. Hobhouse (than whom a more honourable man thousands—not one whisper is suffered from one indi ter calling for inquiry, as demanding scrutiny, as justifying doe s not exist) praise for their. conduct in this affair.— vidual from the greatest Rajah in the Country down interference, as imposing a necessary duty on the con- (Cheers.) . I have now stated those things which ap andto the most wretced individu eiwho tills the ground, sciencesttb of the English people, to see how this i s , t o exam i ne pe ar t o me to form the groundwork of the propositions hardly derives a subsistence—not a whisper, not toe etuestion, and to resolve if the Government is which will be submitted to you in detail. I maintain a word is allowed to be expressed as to any one met fie Li o n dtbe wrong, and the people right, by all peaceful, that the advantage of governing such a territory as - sure, or any one principle that shall be taken for the go- found t some reedmperate, moderate, cordial means to obtain India, imposes on us the duty of governing it well_ overnment of his country, and the management of his (Great cheering,) Now there are- (Cheers)—and that the more distant the country is from own concerns.—(Hear.) I say I stop not now to ask, many dutie ess. 1 nd which amount which a Government owes to its people, the seat of our Government,.the more necessary it is for it is too late,. or, perhaps I ought rather to say, now almost to an obligation on the Go- anxiously to look to the interests of those great masses '-- it. is premature, I stop not at present to ask—the mo- 1 a vernment, il becausendlthey cannot be performed by indi- of our Hindoo fellow-subjects, who do not, like our ' rnent peradventure is not yet come for putting the quest ! vie na.s ; a . no really do . think there is no higher obli- , selves, enjoy to a certain extent the benefits of repro e ~ t inn --whether it is fit that Mel) should be governed be the i , gation, and more important duty on any country, I scutation. I maintain it is our duty to look to their in onillitie in a manner such as this. I stop not now to inquire i p k than to facilitate the means of con •-. ‘• on imumeation--(Cheers) ' terests abroad, precisely ~..4,T. , , ~, ' ` out of we,have any right to tax to the amount of --"-which is every body's b • usinesS, and yet no body's interests of our unrepresented fellow-citizens at home ' out oteiery i).os; every acre of land that bounds the 1 - -44 w...................... F SUN, 14:)\rDoN, MONDAY, JULY 8. 1-3 T). the in-get-noose . . . inastrious, respeetable labourers of this community —(Loud cheers.) Ido not mean thoses who, be their ignorance, more than their numbers, are at present incapacitated from exercising the fratiobise, and whom I hope will soon be worthy to receive it— ' (Cheers)----b u t I mean the ingenious, skillful artisans— thoSe industrious and highly respectable classes, who, unless they happen to pOssess some paltry pigstye of 101. a year value—are excluded from the franchise, though any one possessing such a fabric, even if as ig norant as the pigs that inhabit it—(Laughter)—may exercise that privilege ; who will, I trust, proceed with temper and moderation, abjuring, what I believe ninety nine out of a hundred among them abhor, all recourse to physics] force—(Cheers)—.aye, all mention of it— (Cheers)—which is not very brave, if it is not intended to have recourse to it—(Hear, hear, and cheers)—and if it is intended to have recourse to it, it is not absurd indeed, but it is wicked, rebellious, treasonable— (Cheers)— but so long as they do proceed with temper ance and moderation, they will excite sympathy and co operation ; and just on the same grounds our fellow-sub. sects in India are entitled, because unrepresented, to our sympathy and assistance.—(Cheers.) - My next propo sition is, that in discussing the conditiOn of our Indian fellow-subjects —in discussing the complicated details of their .administration, so alien from our habits, Go ernment, and institutions, our mariners, and customs, it is necessary to publish, by all means, information among, the people of this country as to India—( Hear) —and I rejoice that for this object an Association has been formed upon the most comprehensive basis, in cluding persons of all sects awl all parties, in all parts of the country, and supported by excellent men who have been connected with ludia—who have spent the greater part of their lives there—who have returned to their native country with a weight upon their con sciences, or rather their memories, of the responsibi lity they feel to do something to raise in the scale of being that unnffeilding and amiable people among whom their lives have been so much spent.—(Cheers.) There is my excellent friend, General Briggs, who has de voted himself zealously to this great work—(Cheers)— and there is my respected friend George Thompson— (Cheers)—whom to name is an honour—(Renewed cheers)—whose devotion to the happiness of his fellow creatures is only to be equalled by that extraordinary eloquence with which he is endowed.--(Cheers.) He has been warmly interested in this cause, and has been th e means of forming through the country many co. operating Societies for its promotion.—(Cheers.) It was thought that the time had now arrived for the for mation of a Central Society, and it is with that view I have now the happiness of meeting so, great an assembly. I have to thank you for the kindness with which sou have heard me; and . to request your favourable atten tion to what may now be submitted to you.—(Loud cheers.) Colonel THOMPSON came forward to move the first re so'ution. He said the result of an eight years' residence in India enabled him to state, that the conduct of the native population was most peaCeable—there never was an Englishman injured by a native -=--on the contrary, the presence of an Englishman was looked tows a security, and onegreatblessing was, with partial exceptions,the absence of that degrading system of slavery which prevailed in other parts of the world.—(Cheers.) He was bound to say, also, that the administration of justice seas corn punitively geed ; but it should be recollected that with 100,000,000 of people, no Government could go far in injustice, rind it was the power of public opinion in this country which acted as a beneficial restraint in that dis tant Continent—let the strings of that public opinion be tightened here, and so would the bonds of civil and re ligious liberty be drawn closer eren in that remote part of the world.--(Cheers.) He begged to move -I.—That the present condition of our native fellow subjects, in British India, estimated at a hundred millions, wholly excluded from the privileges of representation, and und e r the dominion of a Government, in whose appoint. ment they have no voice, and Girer whose acts they have no control,—demands the active sympathy and constant vigil:wee of the British people —(Cheers.) T. FRANKLAND, Esq., of Liverpool, seconded the resolution. He rejoiced to find that the British nation icid began to awake to a sense of its responsibility in reference to India, and to a consciousness of the vast importance of war empire in that (ratter of the globe, as a means of putting an end effectually to the horrible evils of slavery, by supplying us with an unlimited amount of free labour,—(Cheers.) Thus, out of our resources, and in British India, we might reap an tbundant harvest to reward our enterprise and benevo .ence ; and we should be_ no longer in the anomalous positiOn of crying out .against slavery, and at the same :iine be supperters of slavery, as the best customers of the plante. - --'-(Cheers.) He rejoiced at this prospect of doing avvay.- with slavery, k!couse he felt that its abolition, whenever it was practised, would not be mere beneficial to us than it. would be ultimately to those persons amongst whoM it now existed. (Hear, hear.) He b e li e v e d th at we might find as efficient- labourers in British India for threepence a day, as the slave proprietors could for Is. 6d. or 'ls. 9d. a day. This was one of the facts on which he rested the great probability of success. He believed an ex tensive sympathy would now arise in this country . on behalf of .British India. He had found his appeals most kindly responded to in Liverpool and Manchester, and in other important pl aces , an d h e was sure the pre sent appeal would not be m a d e i n vain here.—(ch eers ,) He believed the present m o ment was well timed—b e - I cause it commenced at a pe r i o d w h en our manufacturers were suffering bitter , distress on account of net being able to obtain remunerative prices for the fabricated cotton 'which they had bought in the raw state from the slave-holding cotton growers of the urked States-L. (Hear, hear)---and who were, therefore, compelled to shorten the hours of labour, upon which so many thousands depended for subsistence ; for to continue to work out the whole usual period would be more ruinous to those employers than would be the shut ting up of their manufactories. Therefore it was evident how advantageous it would be to our national interests to employ the cheap working cotton producers in 13ritish India. This Society would therefore pro claim British India as the land where cotton could be produced at the cheapest tate for this country.— (Cheers.) Ile had great pleasure in seconding tie resolution, for he was certain the Society would re ceive the, hearty co-operation of all ranks and sects in in this country.—(Cheers.) Mr. EwA HT, M.P., proposed the next resolution. IL That it is established by ample evidence, that there exists throughout British .India a great amount of poverty, misery and diseontftt—that the cultivation of extensive tracts of land has been abandoned, while others are suffered to lie waste—that the revenue is declining—th a t the people are oppressed by grievous monopolies, extending even to the necessaries of life —that the internal communications are negleetrd—and that dreadful famines frequently devas tate the land. portance of British Indiato us. That countryproduccd al most all the indigo consumed in the world, to the amount 0f3,000,000/., more than 2,000,000/. worth of which was used by us. We only drew from India one-ninth of the raw cotton which we used, though it could supply all we wanted. In it was found, about twenty-five years ago, an insect called the Lacking, which was' an excel lent substitute for Cochineal, and could be had at one. fifth of the price giveu for that article. It also supplied the resin, which was extensively incorporated with the sealing-wax and the varnish used in ;this country. It was also used to the extent of 1,000,000 lbs. a-year in the beaver hats manufactured in England. Many years ago, he (Mr. C.) discovered that antimony was produced in the great island of Borneo. Now it was imported to Sincapore, and thence shipped to this coun try, to the amount of 1,200 tons a-year, superseding the antimony of Germany and Spain.—(Hear.) In adverting to the oppressions of the British rule in India, he stated that the salt monopoly cost the labourer two months' labour out of a twelvemonth's toil, which alto gether was no more than 30s. (Hear, hear.) An ex perience of 35 years convinced him that nothing but good could result from the agitation of British Indian questions.—(Cheers.) The question had been agitated 25 years ago, when a Governor-General of India had been brought to trial, which trial had lasted within one year of the length of the siege of Troy. No harm had ensued from this agitation : but, on the contrary, an in finite deal of good had resulted to the cause of India in consequence. The first result was that courts of jus tiee were sent out from this country ; and for the first ' time justice was fairly and impartially administered in India. The next result was the sending out as Governor-General the most benevolent man who had ever swayed the destinies of that country ; and the next result was the carrying into effect the most generous and beneficial measure that had ever been proposed for that country. That settlement of the land revenue then took place which the Noble Lord said the present Government of India was anxious to attack. This was all that had resulted from these five-and twenty years of agitation, and from the prosecution of a Governor-General. He thanked the meeting for the attention with which they had listened to him, and begged to second the resolution of the lion. Member for Wigan.—(Cheers.) The resolution was then put from the Chair, and carried unanimously. -Mr. O ' CONNELL came forward to propose the next resolution, and was received with tremendous cheering, which lasted several minutes. When the applause had somewhat subsided, the Hon. and Learned Gentleman commenced his address as follows : Justice to India! —(Cheering.) Yes ! I come here to claim ju s ti ce f or India, and I b e li eve I am not guilty of any great temerity when I prophecy that justice will 'not be de layed much longer to that much oppressed country— that her gentle, generous, and brave population, must live to see the day w h en , d esp i te t h e i r oppression, they will enjoy the blessings of civilization and of good and pure Government—and why do ./ prophecy this ? Be cause it will be impossible to resist the decision of the people of England who have hitherto been kept in ignorance of the oppression under which India is suffer ing. I may be told that we have no force wherewith to put down the first form of Indian oppression, and that the upholders of it have at their command, military, artillery, organization, and wealth, that it is hopeless to attempt anything against the present system upheld as it is by these resources. But there is the still small voice of reason which must be heard, and when once the opinion of the English people shall be pronounced, prosperity and happiness will be en sured to India, and good government to her po pulation.—(Cheers.) The power of that voice has already been tried and acknowledged in the cause Of justice and humanity. I recollect, when we met in this very room, in 1829, what was then the condition of the unhappy African. He was a poor, flogged, tortured, over-worked, unpaid slave, groaning beneath the weight of burdens imposed upon him by his despotic task masters. What is he now ? A freeman wherever the British flag floats in proud supremacy.—(Loud cheers.) Who unmanacled him ? Was it the kindness and bene volence of his owners; who, in consequence of com• punctious visitings of conscience, ceased to torture ? (Cheers.) No ; they clung to their ill-got power. It was the voice of the people of England which broke the negro's fetters—which made his limbs too large for the chains which bound them.—(Cheers.) The part which the Noble Lord took in that great work.— (Cheers)—brings him to continue his exertions for another and a more extensive object—(Great cheering) —and accordingly we find him in his place to-day.— (Immense cheering.) He has been pleased to institute a comparison between the cruelties inflicted in India, and those which have been inflicted on an Island nearer home.—(Cheers.) I have no superfluous tears to shed for .Ireland, and shall show my, love of nay country by continuing my exertions to obtain for her justice and good Government, but I feel that I have something Irish at my heart, which shakes me sympathize with all these who are suffering under oppression, and forces tne. to give to universal man, the ben4t of the exertions which are the consequenee—(Cheers)— and what adds peculiarly to the claim of Ireland for sympathy and support is, that in the great cause of suf fering humanity, no voice was ever raised but Ireland is was found ready to afford relief and succOur.-(Cheers.) But' the tater of Indian suffering is one of much greater complexity. I have come here prepared with many notes, and had intended to have stated - many 'facts, but I. find that that would now be superfluous, because the Noble Lord has exerted, on this subject, the power of his genius, which adorns everything it touches. (Cheers.) Repetition from me would' b& tedious, and would only tend to render ineffectual what has fallen from him. But I must allude to one fact as the con sequence of ill government, and, having alluded to that fact and its effects, I will leave the result of this day to do its own work—(Cheers)—and it will. do its work, it will speed on the wings of the press, and rouse that mighty power which emancipated the African to give freedom to the Indian—the power of the English people. We shall have the mighty force of that power with us. We have the countenance and support of the women of England—and we have with us that sect of Christians who, not mixing in angry contests, or ming ling in passionate conflict, whenever they have under taken any good work never desert it, but press zealously forward until victory is secure. These arc now in our van—(Cheers)--these, who never shrunk from the charge where oppression was to be destroyed ; and who, in the good which they have done to mankind have found in it their own reward.—(Cheers.) We have at present with us much of till intellect and virtue of the country.—(Cheers.) Have we not with us the power and countenance of the women of England ? Is that small ?—(Cheers.) Is that to be overlooked ?—(Great cheering.) Why, at' the present moment the most powerful Sovereign on the face of the globe, and at the same time the most beloved, sets at defiance foreign foes and internal enemies : the Sovereign of England is a woman --(Tremendous cheering.) Tho cause of re ligion and of justice must succeed; and it is only neces sary to its success that what India has suffered and what her people are now undergoing, should be known. The Noble Lord has said, th a t s a me o f the acquisitions of the East India Company have been made with humanity and with justice —some small portion of those acquisi tions. I really do not know of one which has been so acquired.—(Cheers.) I am not contradicting the Noble Lord ,I am only drawing on my own ignorance. They have been acquired by a series of unmixed cruelty and perpetual deceit. They pretended to be the friends of the native_ Princes. Which*of the native Princes have they not betrayed ? From their allies they have be come their masters ; they bound themselves to uphold perticular dynasties, and to be the enemies of the ene mies of the Princes of such dynasty; but,by a mental obit don of not the most generous kind, they forgot to dis tinguish between the. enemies of the Prince and the Prince himself. The crimes that have been committed in India are matters to weep over, and the . debt that this country owes to India, great as it is in consequence of our immense possessions, is doubled in amount when we recollect that those possessions were acquired in a man ner too atrocious to be described.—(Cheers.) Are we the . proprietors of the soil in In - dia? No ; but let us con s;der awhile how we have acted with regard to the soil. The taxation which existed in India under the Govern ment of Mohammedans and the Gentoos was a land tax, the natural resource of a Government in a low state of civilization. The Gentoo tax amounted to one sixth of the produce ; the Mohammedan conquerors augmented this to one-fourth. Either of these is a com paratively light burden, and does not amount to much Mole than the landlords of England take for their rent. Then comes England, and becomes, as the lawyers would term it., executor de males non to the Gentoos anl the Mahommedans. Does England raise this tax to one-half ? No. To two-thirds? No. All is little enough for England, leaving nothing but a bare subsis tence to the unhappy proprietor of the soil. The Noble Lord has entered into a history of the settlement which took place in Bengal, Baham, and Orissa ; but this settlement is confined to those province!, and through. out the rest of India the Government takes the whole of the gross produce, leaving in the country nothing but a bare subsistence. Suppose such a state of circum stances to take place in England, what would be the state of proud and Paltny England, should she even submit to such a state of things ? But I believe in God she never would, it would then be time to talk of phy sical force to oppose the perpetration of such a gross and monstrous robbery. England would then be re duced to the same state ef destitatioa as the popefation of India is at present ; her Princes ground down to the earth, her Nobles starving or in exile, her gentry pea sants, and her peasants a wild roving,vagrant race, ve;th out even the wretched comfort of a poor-house to shelter them in sickness or old age.---(Cheers.) No country could endure it. The system is altogether bad. But if the system of taxation is bad, what is the mode of collecting it? How do the East India Company take their rent? Not as the Gentoos did, not as the Maloorn medans.did, in produce, but in money. Rice, and corn, may be good enough for others, but the East India Company must have " th e mon i es ;" an d how is!l the amount to be paid ascertained ; why by arbitrations such as the Noble Lord has described. I recollect He was glad to see that a steady light was breaking upon that dismal obscurity which had so long overspread the East. We had had inquiries before Parliament, we had investigations by the Government, and sedulous examinations by the East India Company on the state of those immense districts which were under our sway—and all those bad effected comparatively but little good. But now that we had directed to the subject that same impulse which had actuated the people of this country to take up the question of African slavery and the African slave trade, he had no doubt that the exact condition of British India would be soon ascertained and commented upon. The people of England were now_beginning to awake, and through the inAromentality of this Asso ciation, justice would be done at the same time to the inhabitants of British India and those of Great Britain. —(Cheers.) The Noble and Learned Lord had ad verted to the grievous oppression inflicted on the peo ple -of British India by the land-tax--in some parts this a, pereetadent settlement, and was but a comparative evil ; in other parts the unfortunate inhabitants paid ttxes to the Government. • He trusted this evil would be soon - fortrotar lira that 'a 'SO u systeth af-Prot;rietor ship would' soon extend throu g h Hindostsn. • Had not India, before she was ;overrun by' . the Mahonuaaedan forces, a fixed and well-defined law of property—• had she not still laws for regulating the rights of property—bad s he not free municipal institu tions—and should it be now said th that country which hal pos , ;essed such institution s from time imme morial ouht not to be called out of a sta t e o f b on d age the soil to an a l most unlimited tc o n a t ,. to N theSe already 0 f consumed te a , co ff ee, and datkuess ?—(Cileers.) In ex c h ange f or the assis tmefotrheWphriotheue people of Indi a l oo k e d to us, they offered of sugar, and ::o 34,000,000/ . a year. Now all x camount (tep se articles were produced in India ; but still we drew our supplies from it only in the miserable propor tion ot 4 500,000/. worth, or only one-eighth ot the wh o le, which it could provide for us with ease. Of our consumption of cotton we drew but one-eighth from India. The rest of the cotton we purchased from the shareholders in that Union which dis graced 1 its otherwise stainless flag by permitting its free citizens to be the owners of their fer low men. —(Loud cheering.) It was now known that tea was produced in certain parts of India. He should not further allud e to this in fant subject., than to say that it was one which held out the most important prospects to the endeavour to get I n di a freed from the is i u T u o s p t l e at oft once India coootry.—(C heer s.) W e transit duty which now opposed its commerce. They o had already succeeded, after nearly 10 years ' h ard labour, in the House of Commons, i n getting the sugar a to nd th c i o s ff e e o e u p nt ro ry du a c t the ed in certain parts India admitted same rates of duty as the pro duce of the West Indies. But until those duties were altogether equalised, it would be impossible to say that justice was done to the commerce of India. Unfortu nately India had no personal rep resentat i ves i n t h e had,hou sethoofuCool mons as the W est I ndies had, as Canada indirectly, and even as Australia had. Government might have supplied this want ; but as it had not, it was for the enlightened people of England to express their interest: and then the welfare of India Wo U ld n 10M: , ,t1' be oveamokel in the 1:1611,:13 of Commons.— (Cheers ) Mr. J. Caawruan seconded the motion. He should merely confine himself to a few facts illustrative of theim- hearing a story in Ireland of two men who were quarrelling, and a third interfered—a person who was present as k e d hi m w h y h e interfered, " Oh," said he, "as a mutual friend ;" "then," replied the other, " I will interfere as a mutual friend on the other side" —(A. laugh)--so the arbitrator is called in as a mutual friend to value the crops, and so great is the stimulus to him to do his duty honestly to the Government, that if he did not charge as much as they like, he is in danger of losing a very lucrative office.—( Cheers and laughter.) I will now read to you some of the instructions to those assessors. They are directed not to class fallow or waste land at too low a rate. I once heard a man say that he had looked into an empty chest, and was sur prised to find nothing in it ; what be could expect to find in an empty chest I cannot imagine.—(A laugh)— but these instructions remind me of him. These waste or fellow lands produce nothing, and yet the assessor is not to value them at too low a rate—that is in fact saying to him, these lands produce nothing for themselves, make them produce something for the Treasury.— (Cheers.) A n d w h y are they not to be valued at too low a rate? Why, "lest it should induce the re fractory ryots to give up the highly taxed culti vated lands and take up the waste." Here is a method of promoting the prosperity of agriculture, by a special caution that waste lands shall not be culti vated. "If the crop should produce less than the seed Sown," one would suppose that in such a case the ryot would be permitted to go free ; but nc—" The Cull amount of the rent should be demanded."—(Loud cries of ‘eShame, shame.") I am quoting from Sir Thomas Munroe's instructions ; this is no fabrication— no calumny._i t is the direction given by the Govern ment to its servants. Yes, such is the damning fact, ,that even although the crop should not produce the seed sown, the rent is still to be demanded. Why he was surely a calumniator who said that Englishmen, when they went to India, left their conscieners behind them. Alen of this stamp never had any conscience to leave behind, or same faint recollections of it—such as poets imagine infants to have of some former state of existence-would prevent their making • such a demand as this. The man is to live by the loss, and pay his rent into the bargain. " If the ryot is unable to pay, the rent is to be assessed upon the village, and if the vil lage is unable to pay, it is to be assessed upon the neighbouring villages, taking care to limit the as sessment within 10 or 12 per cent. lest it should injure the next year's revenue." They will not crush these unhappy people entirely—lest they should injure the next year's revenue. Do the people of England know this ? They do not ; if they did a thrill of honour would run through the land, and the people in a voice of thunder, which it would be impossible to resist, and what would be heard on the banks of every Indian river, would demand that sucVa state of things should be suffered no longer to exist. Why are we here to-day ? —to prove these things to the peop'c of England ; and now they will be wafted on the wings of the press from the Land's-end to the Hebrides, and India will hear th, t "'Ace proclaiming happiness to her and to hers.— (C! ears.) Take the land tax in England—if that bore the same proportion to the general taxation which it does in India, if that was as fourteen millions to six, beggary and ruin must be the necessary consequence. Why does it bear an inverse ratio in England ? Because the Government of England knows that the legitimate and most productive source of revenue does not consist in grinding the people to the earth but in taxing the commodities in the hands of the consumer, and the revenue will increase in proportion to the prosperity of the country. I place that as the cardinal point of the history of the present state of our connection with India. I wish not to weaken its effects entering into details. Is the popular don of a country thus situated prosperous or happy ? Alas ! how can it be so? Its capital is wasted—its reservoirs destroyed—its property—its prosperity—its happiness—all, all extinct—all at an end.—(Cheers.) The necessary result of such government follows as a matter of course. India is visited by periodical famines. It is a country in which th e i n h a bi tants support them selves upo n the lowest possible scale—the trifling value o f a few rupees sufficed to feed from year's end to year's end. They were the smallest consumers of any country, yet the poverty is such in the whole of Lelia, that the poor natives have not any :thing to lay bye from one good year, to supply the nece3sary food in a bad one— they had nothing which would allow them to save them selves when the crops failed. He had no store by him. arid accordingly when such a calamity fell upon he had nothing to do but to di e , H e (M r O'C . ) had put down the dates when these famines bad occurred, since we had changed our character—from merchants to mighty conquerors—from traders to princes. They come frightfully often. The year of the change, when we first called ourselves masters in India, was 1760 ; the first famine soon followed, for it occurred in 1766 ; another dreadful one broke out only four years after, in 1770, when one-half of the inhabitants of Bengal perished ; the next was in 1782 ; as if it came in every ten years, the next was in 1792, and was followed by one in 1803 ; then in 1804. The next, 1819, 1820, 1824, 1829, 1832, 1833 ; and, to show that the same system prevails still, and if possible in a worse degree, the famines come more thick, for they were in 1836, 1837, and a most dreadful one in 1838, which was almost universal throughout, India. That was the result of our Government in India ; and could any man tell him that a Christian man could meet his God, he having any, even the slightest means in his power to put an end to such horrors and not havin g used theta.—(Cheers.) Perhaps they might think these were calamities to which the Government were not instrumental. It was not so ; for in 1833, when a dreadful famine raged throughout India, there was exported from Calcutta alone no less than 151,223,696 lbs. of rice, and 13,722,408 lbs. of rice in the husk, peas, flour, bran, &c., all food upon which the natives of India would willingly exist. The deaths in Agra in 1838—in our own times, only last year —were really horrible, as ap peared from statements which were - authenticated. lie would read one :—" On the 14th of April, 1838, 71,000 pining wretches, men, women, and children, were fed by bounty at Agra ; and between the Ist and 15th of March, 71,523 infirm and sightless creatures were relieved in a similar manner. So great were the ravages of death, that the air for miles was tainted with the effluvia from the petrifying carcases of men and cattle, and the rivers of the Jumna and the Ganges were choked up and poisoned by the dead bodies thrown into their channels. The water and fish of these rivers were rejected as unfit for use, and men kept constantly employed in pushing the accumulated bodies down the torrents. The mortality was at the rate of 10,000 a month ; a destruc tion of life which, if it bad continued, would have swept off the entire population in less than a year." Was not that a horrible picture ? If there was a love stronger than another in this world it was the love of a mother to her Offspring —to what a miserable state must a mother be reduced before she in the night took her dear child and deprived it of life, so that she might not have the torture of seeing it die of starvation in the morning.e—(Sensation.) These were not long gone-by scenes—they were being acted now, and the people of England were tame only because they were ignorant of them.—(Cheers.) One more extract, and he would sicken them no more—it was unfortunately necessary, so that the people should know what was actually tak ing place under an English Goverment--" 200,000 are scantily fed daily by Government and private individuals in the north-west provinces ; yet this is but a faint pal liative. The people are dying like , dogs ; mothers throwing their living children at night into the Jumna— disease destroying numbers whom famine has spared— dogs and jackalls actually devouring bodies in which life was not extinct. At Gwalior hydrophobia was as fatal as cholera—famine dreadful—horses, asses, buf faloes, every-thing that had died a natural death, eaten by the natives. At Agra the police pick up 150 bodies daily"—and to succeed the famine the people of India bad now the pestilence of cholera and hydrophobia. The great and the wealthy natives might protect them selves, or fly from the plague, but what could the poor and half-starvin g p eop l e d o — t h ey were now screaming out to the people of England, if not for vengeance upon those who fostered, at least that an end might be put to a system which turned fields of abundance into fields of pestilence and starvation.—(Cheers.) He bad many other extracts, but he would not harrow the feelings of the meeting by reading them ; he would content him self with saying, that they proved the same system to exist in all parts of India ; the famine extended from north to south. Let the people of England demand in the first place, for without it there could be no peace or happiness in India—it was the first requisite—let them demand that the Parliament should make the law, and that the India Company should be obliged to put it in force—let them establish a fixity of land property. — (Cheers.) Then they had their opium mon opoly, which they exercised most ar bit rar il y , or d er i ng it to be grown here and not th ere . H e did no t complain of that, he complained of its production at all.—(Loud abominable cheers.) They were dealers in a most t s t enemy of poison ; they were disseminating s.eit t pleasures wa s si,orsewhi thaneh the worst, and destroyed man—a drug which enervated the consumption of the soul—took away all the joys God allowed for man in this world d i vas mother's even that curse of this country, d i - IL ardent spirits. Though it debased degraded ed those mitigation, —(Cheers an laughter.) The who partook of it, it was a milk compared to opium. erum-ea • ter has nothing to me for ; he can n ever g i ve it up as your drinkers of ardent spirit s may do ; there is nothing for him, but that his friends may wish his seedy death. But opium was made a sour c e o f p ro fi t by Christian men—of men who observed the first day of the week as the Christi an sabbath--of men who g o out to the Gentoo, and tell him to leave his superstition, and join him in worshipping a just God ; yet at the same time, they are the groaers and profit-mongers of that abominable drug , —(Cheers.) Then, again, the kind of opium consumed by the Indians necessarily diseased the stomach; and they required salt as a cor rective ; yet the same persons stepped in and denied them that which God had spread throughout the land ; so they were poisoning and profitting by the abominable °Punt and poisoning the inhabitants of India by denying them that necessary article which God had blessed them without salt. Yet this was not (hum by the wild Indian', or the Hottentot ; it was titled to the sympathy, the watchful care and interpo sition of the British people.—(Hear, and cheers.) During the last 60 years of our existence as a nation, we have received from that country in wealth, in hard cash, no smaller a sum than 1,000,0 00,0001. Our relations and friends — the greatest, gone to India and the wisest, and the bravest of the empire , have rd sterling. filling services connected either with the military or civil e stablishments there, have won wealth, and station, anti unfadintr, laurels ; and h ave attained honour and rank at home by the services rendered to the Crowa in India. But , ich w notwithstanding th ese c l a i ms , ar i s i ng out of the wealth which we have drawn from India, arising out of the immense value of India as an inheritance to be transmitted to our posterity, not withstanding the arising out of the political affinity existing between arising out of the moral, the people and ourselves, , en h intellectual , and physical wants of a population unequalled by any other th portion of the British possessions, great though are, down to this hour there bas been no Society for ey gathering up, collecting, and diffusing information touching . British India.—(Cheers.) How has that empire been ma naged ? Ido not wish to speak hardly of any society of men, nor do I wish to b r i ng a c h arge against gainst any body of men, but when I look at the way in which In dia has been governed, when I know that the Indian question has been invariably considered a bore, in the technical meaning of the term in the Houses of Lords and Commons—( Hear, hear) —when I knew that clauses vital to the interests of millions have been passed in Houses that might have been counted.out, that would have been counted out if anyother question than, e this, connected with the power, wealth , and patronage of individuals in this country was involved —when / know that questions, vital to the happiness of millions, have been dec ide d in Houses such these, and that, from one Charter to another, a to s twenty-four gentlemen ha s been entrusted the des tinies of one hun dred mi llions of human beings, I blush for the criminality of a Country which overlook s the claims o f so vast an empire, and commits them to the wisdom of men , who, if they were the w . isest and kindest of mankind, are unable to feelthe "l or care for them P ar ight.—(Cheers.) 1 impugn, not prescnt or past Co ur t of Directors—l grant that they y PvtATistc r Tf‘ melancholy, but it was true, that it was the work of Englishmen, by men who claimed to be highest in the scale of civilization—they were the pri soners, the murderers by starvation. Not one of them but in private life would spurn at having those words applied to him ; but because it was done in a body, did that make any distinction when the fact was see We had now arrived at a period when these hideous things should be made known, when men should be raised from a slumber resembling death, and be awakened to the voice of humanity.—(Cheers.) Let them use all their energies, and slacken not their efforts until they had abolished all trade in opium —abolished the salt-tax, and until the man, the native of India, could call his house his own—(Loud cheering) —and his family be enabled to live in the hope of suc ceeding him. They were a brave, a generous, and a gentle race. Where was to be found the Gentoo err the Mahommedan who was capable of refusine ' succour to the needy, or mercy t o a ll — w h o ever stood braver cat the field of battle ? He would appeal to their sense of hu manity. Oh, why should the mother be obliged to become the agonized executioner of her children—to theirsenseaf Christianity—oh let not the foul blot remain longer upon the pure and celestial shield of Christianity—let it not be an empty theory and 0- vain name, but let the Gentoo know its sacred influence alone by its beneficent acts—teach l.im your superiority by shoving him you are his benefactor and his friend—the voice of humanity' is raised to you, and Englishmen will obey its call,— (The Hon. and Learned Gentleman sat down atnidst loud cheers.) Sir C.FORBES, in rising to second the resolution, said he would show them his sense of the Littering manner ' they had received him by not attempting to details them at any length after the eloquent speeches which had been addressed to the meetin g . He could not re sist the opp or t un it y , h owever , o f congratulating thee meeting and the people of India on having such able advocates as the Noble Chaim - ia and the Hon. Member for Dublin. He congratulated the people of India not only upon their appearance that .day, but from the steady advocacy of two such men, The Noble Lord, while Lord Chancellor, had been mainly instrumental in passing a Bill which raised the .natives of India, by giving then the privilege of filling not only the office of Juror, bat s Grand Juror and Justice of the Peace. Upon that occasion also M r . O'C onne ll most a bl y supporte d t h e s' ! friends of India in the House of Commons. He had • with him an extract from a speech made by the Hon. Gentleman in September, 1831, in which he eloquently pleaded for equality between the natives of India and the Europeans there. For his exertions the chief natince of India had written him a letter of thanks. He was sorry to be obliged to say that he concurred in the greater part of what had been advanced by all speakers who had preceeded him. He wished he could bring himself to believe that lie was mistaken in the evils and injuries that had been inflicted upon the natives of India. —(Hear, hear) These sentim .nts of his were nothing new.—(Cheers.) He would conclude by coogratu lating the meeting upon the number and respectability of those who bad attended it. He was surprised, how ever, to find so few noblemen or gentlemen connected with India, and who, like himself; owed every thing they had in the world to that country. He trusted they wouldpereevere in their efforts—that they would endeavour to conciliate that kind•and generous race of men who might forget an injury but a kindness or a benefit never.—(Cheers.) The resolution was then put and agreed to. Lord BROUGHAM observed, that the worthy Barontet who had just sat down had come forward when the K terests of India were at stake manfully, fearlessly, and ably to discharge his duty to a country in which he had passed the greater portion of his life, and to which he had been on all occasions ready to pay the debt of gra titude lie owed. He wished the same disposition bad been evinced by other parties to pay their debts to that country ; but lie hoped the gentle and just hint of the Hon. Baronet would be the means of inducing them to attend their next meeting.—(Cheers.) Mr. FINCH, M.P. for Walsall, felt great pleasure in coming forward to give his humble aid to the objects of the meeting. The resolution which had been put into his band was as follows : That for the purpose of obtaining and diffusing informa , . tion--of directing more efficiently the public attention to r subject involving no less our commercial and political inte rests, than our social and moral duties—and of suggesting sed giving effect to such measures as are likely to improve the circumstances, and provide for the happi ness o f t h e people of B r iti s h India, an Association be now formed, to be called " The British India Society, for bettering the con dition of cur fellow-subjects—the Natives of British He was satisfied that a resolution with such objects in view would be carried unanimously. If they looked at what had lately taken place in the North American and West Indian possessions the people of England would see the importance and necessity of paying more attention to the wants and wishes of the inhabitants of their 'lndian empire. He believed a great and lamenteble deficiency of information was abroad with respect to India, and never was that more conspicuous th an on th a t occa si on , w h en . lie (Mr. Finch) had lent his humble aid nith Mr. Crawford in endeavouring to get rid of the Ei't India • Company's Charter.—( Hear, hear.) They shotild re collect, however, that getting rid of the Charter was only one step towards the objects they had in view. After the eloquent addresses they had' liStened to, he need not detain the meeting by divining upon the unhappy condition of :he docile, hurn:me, and kind hearted nation of India—(Loud cheers)—from genera tion to generation they had berm miliketed;to Vie' sway of successive conquerers—theY 'had been Tire'it'elp led to be shorn, and like lambs led to the slaughter, and opened not their mouths. He wouM not trespass : further on their time, but merely propose the resolu tion for its adoption. The Noble CHAIRMAN said, he lied no right to in terfere with the arrangements of the Committee, but he had a particular interest in interpoSing Menthe present occasion. He was exhausted by the proceedings else where, and would be obliged very shortly to seek needful rest-=if he did not therefore call u pen his friend Mr:Thompson to address them now he would be de prived of the benefit of hearing him at all, as he could not hear him where he ought to be heard—in the House of Commons. He hoped, therefore, Mr. Thompson would break the arrangements of the Committee, and second the resolution.—(Cheers, and calls for Mr. Thompson.) Mr. GEO. Tuastieson then came .forward, and was loudly cheered. He said—Nothing was more remote from my mind five inmates ago-than the thought of ad dressing this re, pectable and intelligent assembly, nor do I feel justified in trespassing snore then a few mo ments upon its time, seeing tlait the day is far advanced, and that there are those behind menvho have been ap pointed to speak to certain resolutions, and who, full of matter, and still more full of. zeal, would go away dis- . tressed if they were not able to tell you that which they know of India, and which would he more difficult, how much they love the country in which they have spent many years of their past lives. I can know but little of India ; that which I have gathered respecting the con dition of it I have gathered from works and eye-wit nesses. But I have not been slothful during the last , nine months in colle c ting evidence touching the present condition of 80,000,000 of people who deeell between the Himalayah mountains and Cape Cormorin and the sacred waters of the Gange.4 and the Bramahpooira on the one side, and the Indus on the other. It is most extraordinary fact in the history of this country, that in the accumulation of benevolent institutions to guard the rights and extend the liberties of mankind, there has never been formed, even to this hour, (for at i present there is no metropolitan association in retarenee to this topic, although I trust not many minutes will elapse ere you will with heart and voice ratify the determinatnen. that some individuals have come to, that a society of this description shall be formed in London)—it is most extraordinary that in London which owes ranch of its wealth to India, there should be no British India Society.—(Loud cheers.) . I say it strikes me as , a most extraordinary phenomenon, that there should have been no Society for making known the wrongs of our Musselman and Endo() brethren, who are so much en- F j.