The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-10-16 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1875

INDIA'S ROYAL VISITOR.

SAILING Over the seas towards the brightest
star that shines in our commercial constellation,
the Prince of Wales carries with him the good
wishes of the races which combine to make nj,
the population of the British empire. It is it
place of ancient and historic renown which his
Royal Highness has gone to visit. The Hindoo
writers ascribe the origin of their nation to a
period ages before the ordinary chronologies. A
line of kings is mentioned as reigning 2,300
C , and Buddhism is said to have been intro-
duced a thousand yeara before the Christian era.
That is to say, the cored trands of India were
dotted with populetcd cities centuries before
Philistines were defeated ny S•imuel and by Saul
and Jorathan_ The sun was shining brightly
upon the towers and pagodas of their towns
twelve hundred eers anterior to the contest
with the sling and with the stone lestween David
and Goliath. No wonder, then, that such in-
tirst the progress of the
shonid be exeit./1 b--
y
Ileir-Apparent to the British Throne over a. land
t. whose surface l trewe with venerable aw-locia-
-", tions. It is undonbted that the cities of Tyre
and Sidon., et) often Mentioned in eeered records
carried on commerce with India, and that.; I.lie
intercourse between it and the ancient Reiman
t Empire was very considerable. Partially con-
" qaered by Darius, whose mime occurs More
than once in Old Testament story, it was finally
subdued by Alexander the Great. More than
zoo°
years have now elapsed since that famous
conqueror traversing the plains of India and ;
Persia, fureght the mighty battles of the
Granicus, the Issue, and the Arbela ; and tosday
wa find sunlit Hindoostan under the rule of a
people whose existence then was unknown, and
whose changing clime would even now be looked
upon by many a proud Brahmin with the
anpreruee of contempt.
In going from the bustling and prosaic west
ID the gorgeous and dreamy east the Prince
visits a land which was long the scene of inter-
necine strife and the subject of foreign conquest.
Long before William the Norman landed on
our shories, India had been subjugated by the
ittahometans under Mailmen(' ,Ohuzzi, who in
his turn was overpowered by the slave-kings of
Delhi. In time the Mogul Tartars, under tiae
-Irieadership of Tamerlane, were masters of
Hindostan, and butchered 100,000 of its people.
In the reign of our own Henry VI. the first
, European settlement of Portuguese was estab-
lished on the southern coast; the Dutch founded
a United East India Company a century later,
• they were soon followed byithe French, so that
one European nation after another sapped gradu-
ally the strength of both the Mogul and the
Mahratta power. It was not until the year 1600
that the first charter was granted to the London
company of merchants, and after that the spread
of English influence in the East was rapid and
general. Factories were speedily established
at Surat; Madras was founded and made a
presidency; Bombay was ceded to England as
Part of the dowry of Catherine, queen of Charlei
11. ; Calcutta was purchased; and, on the 23rd
June, 1757, Clive, by his great victory at Plasm'',
acquired all Bengal, and placed English power
in India upon a sure and certain foundation.
The year of the centenary of Plassy-1857—wa5
that selected by the Sepoys for the overthrown
of British dominion in India, and to this day
the atrocities committed by the blacks call up
an involuntary shudder to the memory. It was,
however, in vain. The massacres of defenceless
women and children drew down upon their
authors some of the most terrible retributions
which modern history has recorded ; and al-
though from time to time rumours of disaffec-
tion reach this country, the three Presidencies
are upon the whole tranquil, and the Prince of
Wales will be welcomed by a contented, if not
by an enthusiastic and demonstrative people.
Having put an end to the war and desolation
which had been the rule in India for a thousand
years, established universal security of property,
and caused a rapid progress in wealth, industry,
and intelligence, the British people send out
their future sovereign to judge for himself of
the appearance of a land whose political insti-
tutions have undergone so many changes. It
has been truly observed that we have not only
restrained the Mahratta and the Sikh, but have
transformed them from soldiers into husband-
man. A suggestion is made that upon the
Prince's return, he should receive a title from
the Queen derived from some place in our In-
than Empire. So far all his dignities are named
from places in the United Kingdom. He is
Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Earl of
Dublin, Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and
we know not what besides. Why not vary the
titles by creating him Marquis of Calcutta, or
Viscount Madras? It would at all events be a
graceful compliment to the vast populations who
are now awating with so much interest the ap-
pearance of the Heir-Apparent in their ruidst.
Whether this be done or not, let us hope that
the visit will do good by cementing the ties be-
tween the English and Eastern Peoples. we all
wish the Prince health and prosperity during his
a
voyage, his progress through the Oriental lands,
and his return passage; nd that he will be
heartily welcomed when he again comes back to
English soil, no one who knows anything of his
popularity can doubt.