The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-30 00:00:00

929

of the then reigning Sovereign Jehangur, the
ancestor of that Emperor of Delhi whom a late
arrangement of the Marquis of Dalhousie has
decided shall be the last to dwell in his paternal
halls. Bombay came to us as the marriage
dowry of the Princess of Portugal, wife to
Charles 11. It was accompanied with the gift
of Tangier, then thought a far more important
Settlement, so much have the circumstances of
our empire changed. Charles. having no wish
to burden himself with what he deemed so
useless a possession, leased it to the East India
Company at a rental of ter pounds sterling per
annum, and that was the commencement of an
empire that now exceeds in extent and popu-
lation and value all the other dependencies put
together of the British Crown. Fort St. George
—in other words, the town of Madras, or, we
should say rather, the ground on Which Fort
St. George now stands—had been granted to the
Company a few years earlier, but still as a
feudal dependency of the native prince. The
villages on which Calcutta stands were at-
signed to the Company in 1700; but it Was not
till 1765 that they obtained the DeWitt)), of
Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, or, in other words,
the government of them, as vicegerents of the
Emperor, which formed the first nucleus around
which their magnificent empire has since
grown.
Regarding our earliest proceedings in India,
Britain has nothing to be ashamed of and
nothing to regret. Our first mission there Was
the peaceful one of merchants, and, but for the
aggressive conduct of the natives themselves,
we should long have retained that humble and
unintrusive character. But the tranquillity
we sighed for was not given us to possess. The
Wealth of our factories attracted the cupidity
of rulers more inclined to consult their own
wishes than their subjects' rights. Demands
upon demands were made, each more exorbi-
tant than the last, till at length resistance or
unlimited submission to plunder and ruin was
the only alternative left. Then came the awful
moment, long foreseen, but at which those
humble traders when it did come stood aghast.
And well they might. Opposed to them stood
the lieutenant of an Emperor whose throne
overshadowed the whole of Hind—one Lt
whose lightest frown the boldest quailed,
while on their side were but a handful of
Europeans, men bred up to the counting-house
and not to the sword, with a few native fol-
lowers whom they hardly dared to trust with
weapons. Opposed to them stood armies ex-
ceeding in numbers all the hosts of all the king-
doms of Europe at that time put together,
and whose courage and,.feroeity the stoutest
thought they had reasonrto dread. Our coun-
trymen had none but Gad to trust. in and an
honest cause.
But the Briton has a heart that While one
resource remains, while one stroke for salva-
tion can be struck, is not wont to sink. Then
stood forth, therefore, these quiet men, not to
yield their necks to the yoke, but to resist it—
to strike, at least, one blow for freedom before
they gave up themselves to despair and
death. They fought and fell ; and the tale of
the Black Hole of Calcutta long raised a
shudder in every English breast at the
barbarities to which our countrymen had
been subjected. But while a spark of feeling,
while a spark of honour, while a spark of
courage remained in the bosoms of English-
men, such atrocities were sure sooner or later
to draw down the vengeance they merited ;
and, bad the odds against us been tenfold
greater, Britons would have defied them in
a cause so generous and so just. Madras
furnished the troops ; in the youthful Clive
was found a commander equal to even greater
emergencies. A squadron under Watson lent
its valuable assistance ; Calcutta was retaken ;
and the sufferings of our countrymen avenged.
This period was, perhaps, the noblest in our
history, though not the, most brilliant. Up to
that date we had nothing to reproach our-
selves with. But we did not bear good for-
tune with the same equal virtue that we had
exhibited under adverse. By the bold and
fearless hand of Clive the fabric of native
power was soon crushed to pieces. He loved
to steer the most dangerous emirses, and
Fortune smiled propitiously on her daring
child. The more he tempted her the more
fond she showed herself of hi n, and, fickle to