The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-08-04 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRESS.

difficult countries lying beyond the eastern .shores bi
the Bay of Bengal—without pausing to inquire how
No. I.—INDIA. far that expediency or that necessity can be des
Of the hopes and fears which from time to time agitate inonstrated by those upon whose determination this
,the public mind, there are few perhaps more capricious Burmese war was commenced ;—we May be very certain'
lor uncertain than those which regard the welfare of our that it has already caused the destruction of a large pro.
Colonies ; and , absolutely none that proceed, generally 'portion of the finest European army which ever marched
speaking, on less accurate data, or more erroneous concep- in Asia. The fatal season in which our irtcipient opera.
Ilona of existing facts. It is, indeed, extraordinary, that Lions were carried on, and the diseases incident to that
while their Colonial Empire extends over an immense pos. s!ason in those burning climes, have swept off or rendered
Lion of every quarter of the globe, and comprises, upon the inefficient a greater number of English officers and men,
most moderate computation, a subject-population of one and of Bengal sepoys of high caste, than our most sans
hundred millions of souls, the British public are wonder- guinary engagements in the field against nyder Ally or
fully ignorant of, or careless to, the most interesting de. I Tippoo Saheb. These losses cannot be supplied, as to the
tails connected with the geographical extent, the na- Europeans, but after the lapse of a considerable interval of
tural riches, and even the commercial relations, of their time (owing to the enormous distance of the theatre of the
transmarinc pofs,asions. war from the mother-country), and at oh almost inconA
And yet it is the peculiar fortune of this mighty nation, ccivable expense of treasure. On the other hand, the
that being already the most opulent, the most highly-6. Burmese enemy is an armed population, anti its military
vilized, and, beyond all comparison, the most milprows of force, however inferior to our own in point of organization
European states, her physical means anti her political and discipline, has a polype-power of reproduction, which
energies are so far from having been as yet adequately dove- supplies, in a week or two, the casualties and destruction of
loped, that she has in her islands, colonies, and settlements half a campaign. It may be said that this power it does
in Europe and America, but most especially in Asia, un- but possess in common with all the populous nations of the
touched and absolutely inexhaustible sources from whence i East; hut we must observe, that while it rivals any of those
to refresh the sleepless spirit of her enterprize, and to sum:es in courage and intrepidity, it surpasses all of them
supply and deepen the still-increasing title of her in persevering energy. Add to these considerations that
grandeur. That, at a period like the preeentovlien over-pro- the Burmese are settled in view of that frontier which
duction in several branches of our manufactures, anti over- scarcely restrains, at mOmy time, innumerable hordes of "law-
trading among many classes of the mercantile interest, have less cavalry, under independent Rajahs" who subsist on
left such prodigious numbers of our artisans in a state either spoil ; that ours is an empire whose strength live in the
of absolute or of comparative starvation, that these colonial power of opinion, rather than of our own arms; that com-
binations and confederacies against us Must be, in the nature,
distant should never have been resorted to—that those
distant markets, of which we ourselves keep the keys, as, of timings, matters of .frequent occiartence ; anti that tlrm •
it were, should not have been opened to British goods success of one of these cadres and bhids toget hero thousand
which meanwhile are left to decay in our warehouses at
in active hostility against us ;—ard you have causes enough
home—that the fertile lands, the infant trade, the timber, for alarm and anxiety existing in India. Mai they may
lie best obviated, as I have already hinted, I shall hereafter
the precious metals, the peltry, and the fisheries, of those
Colonies should not have yet
show; observing only in the meanwhile, that under the
been made available to the
spirit, and skill, and industry of all Englishmen whose Sc-
present condition of circumstances in India, they are
customed avocations or employers can no longer maintain certainly formidable ; whereas the adoption of a few great
them ;—these are only so many proofs of our singular , but simple measures of liberal improvement would rapidly
apathy in respect of the most obvious and the most bone- fextinguish them.
ficial employment. of such vast resources. The apprehended danger to India, from invasion by
It is not my object to point out, at this place, the mode Russia, or Turkey, or Persia, may be, I think, instantly
or the particulars of such applications of our inert rowers 1 dispelled by a careful consideration of any accurate and
to the immediate exigencies of these times. These most I extensive map of Asia, and still more clearly by an in..important and interesting topics I propose to discuss very spection of tl e Indian frontier on the north-west, the
fully in another paper or two, and 1 have no fears of being north, and the north-east, as laid down in Mr. Arrowsimmith's
able to show, beyond all dispute, that I have neither magnificent map (1820), which is now lying before me.
exaggerated the extent of our means, nor the facility with 1. As to Russia; she could not p2netrate India overland,
which they may be immediately put into requisition—that in any force which could oppose the least resistance to our
de- own troops on the frontier, or those of NatiVe States in
I am neither too sanguine in my anticipations of the
gree of relief they are calculated to afford to all and every amity with us, and through whose territories the Rusaieft
the 'distressed classes of our home community ; nor too army must pass. From the North such an undertaking
hasty in designating our own put supineness, as connected would be impracticable ; for how could an army be ever
with the existence of these immense capabilities of im- sustained amidst the barren steppes of Independent Tar.
provement, as among the most inexplicable anomalies in tary, or effect a passage through the difficult country of
the history of political society. In the map of our im- the Kirghises or the passes of Daghestan ? And, even if
mense colonial possessions, time most prominent and deei. this subsistence could be obtained, and any commissariat
, dedly the most important object is the peninsula of Kitt- could hope to supply an army on its march, from the Iptish
doostan. The whole of that rich and wonderful country, to Cashger for example, by what magic will they In-
with the exception of some strips of territory almost insig- verse the vast desert of Kobi, or climb the stupendous
nificant compared with the enormous area on which they ranges of the Ilimmaleh mountains? All this must be
are described, acknowledges our dominion ; while not only done before they could even penetrate Thibet, a counoy
the entire countryi improperly named India, but several' absolutely invincible by nature, and to an army utterly im-
neighbouring manna, acquiesce in and conform to the so-
pregnable. Sterile mountains in almost endless succession
vereignty or paramountship exercised by The Governor- —frightful precipices, and narrow valleys through which
General and the Supreme Council. The natural riches of the winds rush with a destructive fairy unknown in any
India, its arts, and its peculiarly fortupate situation for other climate—rapid torrents, not to be stemmed by mili.
exercising a commanding influence over the commerce of tary bridges, and the mighty sources of the Ganges and
the east, have in all ages of the world attracted the at- the Burratnpooter, and their tributary rivers, would at
tention and excited the cupidity of other States. To that every step oppose to the march of troops obstacles as in-
cupidity its owls singular but very defective institutions superable as unexpected.
have bad an invariable tendency to subject it—a splendid 2. On the north-west of our frontier, the same difficul-
but almost passive victim. Armies of conquerors, front the ties would apply to any incursions that might be meditated
most differing and distant regions, have successively over- either by the Turks, or the Persians, or the Russians ; for
run and plundered and wasted the most beautiful of all the it is obvious that the latter could only attack us from that
oriental lands: Greeks and Malays, the warriors of Arabia quarter by coming through the territories of the former.
and of Thfoet, the hordes of Tartar), and the legions of But, in truth, how could either of them, while we have an
r L the Assyrian .from. his imperial. bowers as.„,arasy of observation in Nepettl-,. sneceettin-nry each wide'.
BaaiMan, and the wild Scythian from his icy lakes your? After quitting the Persian dominions, they must,
sold ilia snowy wilderness, all have successively rushed to in the first place, encounter—not to speak of burning de.
phinder and devastate the cultivated fields and the 'setts and successive chains of mountains—the irrecon.
dazzling cities of India;. and, wonderful to odd, the work ,cileable and hereditary enemies of Persia, the warlike
of spoliation has been successful in every instance! The ""Affglians" of Candabar and Cabral. This indomitable
pacific genius of the people, disposed to sedentary labours nation (whose population is about two millions, and of
and domestic pleasures, and the abundance of the precious whom almost all the males are hardy soldiers) has ever
metals Mid jewels whichl nature provides for, or luxury iii- been the scourge of the Persians ; and though they were,
troduces into, the several states of time Peninsula, have hi- for a little time, subdued anti broken by Kouli Khan, whose
therto but too well rewarded the avarice of their merciless horrible cruelties, in 1737, made their own past excesses
invaders. Pagan, Mohammedan, and Christian domi- sink into insignificance, they re-asserted their stormy
nations, have been, one after the other, for about 3,000 independence immediately after his death, and have since
years, settled in violence, and exercised in oppression, and repeatedly ravaged the dominions of his successors. Their
extirpated in blood : yet foreign power has never been de- activity and daring have ever made them formidable neigh-
terred from attempting, and rarely indeed prevented from neighbours to the North of India. Pursuit is almost hope-
effecting., partial subjugations of The Hindoos, and occupa- less ; for, mounted on their small and ill-favoured but
tions of thew territories. Yet at this moments after all the hardy horses, they betake themselves, on their return from
vicissitudes of fortune which They have experienced under battle, or from their plundering excursions, at full- speed,
so many masters, they have preserved their religion, their into the recesses of their savage and mountainous country ;
customs, their prejudices, and are, by far the greater part where, in ambuscades and among the passes, they have cut •
of them, in all that regards their moral identity, the same off, and intercepted, and destroyed, with undiscriminating
Hindoos who have witnessed the irruptions and the dy- animosity, all parties that have yet been sent out for their
nasties of the Patens, the Mongols, the Teeters. But in subjugation. The land has been rendered, by the retalia.
time revolution of ages, all these, as well as the more mo- tory vengeance of their own foes, amid not untrequently by
dent and ephemeral governments founded by the Porto- their own policy, a mere barren waste, throughout whici
guese, the Dutch, and the French, have succumbed to thegenial influence of a fine climatehas been effectually coon-
the genius of British power, whose standard floats on the teracted. Nor would the hopeless efforts of the Persians, or
walls of Delhi and at Cape Comorin ; and whose supe- the Russians, or both, terminate even here, though not yet on
riority is equally acknowledged on the Malabar and the the threshold of Hindostan ; for they must next grapple
Coromandel coasts—on the banks of the Ganges and the with the fierce opposition of the Scheiks—a people sworn
waters of the Indus. In this populous and productive to a man to preserve their country inviolate—strict repub-
country there occur not only immense portions of the richest beans—bearing a deadly hate to all foreigners, but honour-
soils, which lie utterly waste anti useless, but time ruins of ably observing their engagements—and, for some time
noble and extensive cities, with commodious buildings, past, on friendly terms with time British, alter having once
palaces, and forts, all decaying from year to year, f^r want 'seriously threatened our " Indian" existence (when our
of some little superintendence. These solitudes are coin- power there was in its infancy) with their formidable
paratively untenanted, and Art and Nature have vainly cavalry, a body of more than 60,000 strong; their terri-
wooed us, as the lords of the region, to COLONIZE them, tory, which formerly included the whole of the Poles
as the best, and perhaps the only permanent, security for still extends from Cachemere to. Taus, comprising the
our Asiatic power, and as the most promising and honour. whole of Moultan and part of Sind. But suppose them
able retreats for such of our fellow-countrymen as are pos- by treaty, or force, or miracle, to have conquered nature
rased of more spirit and enterprise than capital. The ruined and man, even to the left hank of the Indus ; or say that, by
cities would provide ample and substantial accommodation another route, they had successfully traversed the tremeu-
for those of our manufacturers, who may feel disposed to try dous ridges of time Indian Caucasus; or let it be imagined
their fortunes in another quarter of the world; and their In- that Russia, having assembled her troops for such an ex.
dian neighbours would then at once supply them with the petition on the shores of the Caspian, had embarked then:.
raw material for their looms anti the market for their labours. for example, at Astracan, and had even effected their trans-
Add to this, that the new settlers would be exempted from port up the Oxus, which discharges itself into the Caesium
the disadvantage of having even to raise their own dwell- on the opposite coast ;—is is to be seriously feared that they
ings--that hard necessity to which they would be subject could break through the kingdom of Cabul, a country to
in almost any other of tiie British possessions beyond the which even Norway itself, perhaps. must yield, on a corn-
seas,—and it must be evident that India, in all the respects parison of the clangers and the difficulties of their roads,
of public advantage, and private profit anffuonveniency, which are carried up time sides of the most terrific crags, and
offers the highest, the most easily earned, and the most ins- rocks, and mountains, and of their communications, which
mediate premium to British colonization. t are connected by gorges in the hills, that are most graph:.
Before I touch on this subject more in detail, and endea- cally described by Mr. Elphinstone as capable of being de-
vour to establish the other propcsitions that I have advanced fended by a handful of men against disciplined squadrons ?
in respect of the untried resources of our Colonies, and Between the Gurrah anti the Chunab, again, two noble
especially of India, it may be very necessary to quiet, it' rivers of Cabal, and time most wester) yof the Mahratta
possible, the alarms of those who fancy that, in theevent of States, flanking the country beyond Delhi, there inter-
a firm peace between Russia anti Turkey, India is in dan- vene vast deserts and arid plains ; time latter, at one season of
ger of successful invasion by one or both of those Powers. the year, parched by the fiery climate that prevails in Re
Others again predict the same perils as arising to her from latitude of V 7 tepees north, and at another, liable to such
the designs of Persia ; and not a-few of our: contemporaries sudden inundations from the torrents that fall from the
are at least equally uneasy about the ambitious views of time mountains, as sweep off even loaded camels anti their
Pacha of Egypt. I confess that my anxieties are excited drivers. The same thing may be said of the more nor-
only by the aspect of affairs under our own admini- theriy route (though that could not even be attempted by
station in India, anti of some defects in our existing politi- troops) between Peshawur, the capital of Cabul, and tl'
cal relations, that seem to weaken the already slender bond Cachemere country. Is is full of mountains, and ravines,
of union between her anti the mother-country. Let us and rivers, and military tribes, whose very existence, as
examine these more defined and more ill-omened " signs of independent states, has been established by the perfection
the times," in time first place. It will not, be (Hifi- to which they have carried the system of harassing armies
cult to prove that the others, if not absolutely visionary, on their march.
at least portend much less or much sore distant mischief. 3. With respect to the sinister designs of' the Podia of
The unfortunate renewal of hostilities between the British Egypt upon British India, they cannot be spoken of with-
forces under time command of Sir Archibald Campbell, and out a snide, although they have been more than gravels
the armies of the " golden-footed" monarch of Ava, is suspected by some of our contemporaries, whose patriot's
one of the most inauspicious circumstances that has occur- apprehensions are in a very excessive patio as compare I
red in time vicinity of our Indian frontier for many years with their geographical cat political knowledge. It is quite
past. Though there can be but little doubt of the success- evident that if this illustrious follower in the footsteps of
ful termination of this new campaign, rind, ultimately, of Sesouris means to make an overland invasion of it, he
he lieu rsnes
war itself, it is impossible to shut our eyes must cross the North of Arabia; he must get from Ca:r:)
to tb
magnitudee of the sactiftce by which those results over Arabia Petrtea anti the Great Deserts, to Bassdlamh, ant
t
must be obtained. from the top of the Persian Gulph to the Indus; a march
Without at all enrering, on the present occasion, into of between 3,090 anti 1,000 miles, on the moat moderato
the question of the original expediency or necessity of the . calculation ! Ridiculous as all this is, time notion of las
contest in which sec are engaged in the very fertile but reaching the Malabar coast, or of lauding on the shores a.

THOUGHTS ON OUR COLONIES.

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NOOk„li

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