The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

2 the

l'erritorieg 'antler the

or tl,r East India Company, and ,!1 the
Siat,,i tit, of India. By
Edward Thornton, Esq., author of the History
of " The British Empire in India." William H.
Allen and Co.

A Gazetteer of India ! It is impossible to take
up these four volumes without a feeling of unusual
interest, or to lay them down without some
degree of emotion. The vast barbaric Ind, the
dazzling region of boyish romance actually sub-
jected to the links and scale of the geographer; the
groping researches and the patient investigations
of the naturalist ; the relentless inquisition of the
political economist, and the rack of the historian.
India ! associated with all that is gorgeous in
pomp, wild and grand in dim distant obscurity,
and terrible in rapine, perfidy and bloodshed.
India ! world of enchantment, conjuring to the
youthful imagination dreams more fanciful and
glowing than any recorded in the Arabian
Nights. India ! far off land, overhung by a ceru-
lean canopy of the rarest azure, lit by the unshorn
radiance of a meridian sun, streaming a celestial
glory on verdant plains, crystal waters, wide-spread
banians, graceful palm forests garbed in glo-
rious green, and mountains stretching upward to
the very rack of Heaven. India ! region of the
elephant, ponderous and docile, now swaying be-
neath the burden of princes in howdahs, castellated
and golden, and anon the fatal minister of their
wrath ; home of the lion, tawny and deep-throated,
calling in thunder to his math—of the tiger, striped
and insidious—the leopard, spotted and crafty,
and all incarnations of subtlety and force. India !
land of moguls, nizams, nabobs, rajahs, and obse-
quious courtiers, sweltering in processional march
'neath the glittering load of priceless gems ; arena
and market of mailed horsemen, turbaned and sci-
, mitared hosts, and long-suffering, but subtle and re-
vengeful, Hincloos; land of the Veda, of Brahminical
temples and priests, of Juggernaut, the Suttee, and
the invidious and unalterable law of caste, of
palaces, black holes, palanquins, western nabobs,
and every species of the genus adventurer Europe
could supply. India, forsooth, "put into" base "cir-
cumscription and. confine" by a Gazetteer 1 Age of
boyish illusion surely it is fled never more to return!
It is true—we live in a plodding, matter-of-fact age;
a truce, therefore, to rhapsody ! though the agency
by which the volumes before us were compiled
is sufficiently in keeping with the romance evoked
by the subject to tempt further indulgence. That
such a Gazetteer of India as this should be the
fruit of one man's labours is really surprising.
The care, study, and patient research required to
achieve such a result must have been immense, and
at the first blush it would seem well for the com-
piler that his previous reputation for a profound
acquaintance with the history and condition
of this vast territory is at hand to stand
sponsor for the correctness of his work.
True, it is not the first which has appeared with a
similar object ; but, thanks to the liberality of the
East India Company, his own conscientious-
ness and good fortune, the author has been
enabled to avail himself of a vast mass of
official information, to which none before him, it
would appear, had asked for, or been permitted to
have access. Aud of this he has made such ample
yet discreet use, that the work is almost as new
as it is valuable and judiciously ample and concise.
The authorities which are invariably given in the
margin, for reference, and as a test of accuracy,
not only add a new feature of great value to the
work, but from their number supply a tolerably
correct idea of the vast amount of labour expended
over it, and call to one's recollection the labours
of our national lexicographer, Dr. Johnson, who,
unaided and alone, compiled his great work, while
a commission of the principal literati across the
Channel was there deemed necessary to accomplish
a corresponding task.
Turning carefully over the pages of the " Ga-
zetteer," and tasking to the utmost our recollection
of important places in India, whether in territories
under the immediate or indirect sway of the East
India Company, or ruled by native potentates, we are
unable to discover any omission. Each and all are
described with a fullness or a brevity proportioned
to their rank. The past history of the states
absorbed in our Indian empire—the succession of
events—the conflicts and the agencies by which
one after another they fell into the reluctant hands
of the Company, is told with an historic fidelity.
In appropriate pages will be found the early history
of the East India Company, its struggles and re-
verses, and the utter ruin apparently impending
over it some century ago, when the genius of Clive,
bursting through the trammels of official routine
and indolence, rose in its might, and, overturning
all before it, laid on, we trust, indestructible
foundations, the basis of that mighty empire,
to the consolidation and stability of which
the administrative genius and commanding talents
of Warren Hastings,. Wellesley, and more modern
statesmen, have so effectively contributed. The
successors of the little band of merchant adven-
turers, who probably would have been content with
toleration in their scattered settlements along the
coast, are shown at the present day to be the
governors or suzerains of by far the greater part of
ludia, and the arbiters, possibly, of her future
destiny. Nearly one half of the country, we are
told, is strictly British. The greatness of our In-
dian dominion will be appreciated if we look at the
boundless resources of that portion of Southern
Asia. Already some hundred and seven millions
1 of people, scattered over an area of 695,905 square
miles, patiently bear our yoke, and some fifty-four
millions in addition more or less directly own or
stand in awe of our authority. With such a popu-
lation, with immense tracts of waste or ill-culti-
vated country, susceptible in many parts of the
highest degree of cultivation, and capable of pro-
ducing all the cotton, coffee, tobacco, indigo,
flax, hemp, rice, sugar, spices, &c., we can
consume what is mainly needed for the
development of India's greatness is the con-
struction of roads, bridges, and other aids
and appliances of agriculture and commerce,
the education of the people, and the placing on a
satisfactory basis of the relation between the com-
pany and the holders or tillers of the soil—in one
word, capital and good government. While speak-
ing of the capitalists of India, it may not be out
of place to quote from the article " Bombay."
The area of this territory, exclusive of Scinde and
the territories administered by or on behalf of
Native Princes, is 67,945 miles, and its sea coast
extending from south to north, a distance of 480
miles, besides, a sea coast along the western side
of the Gulf of Cambay of 80 miles, offers numerous
havens, the principal of which, and the safest, is
Bombay. Here we are told several line-of-battle
ships have been built, and it is stated on authority
two ships of the line, or one ship and two frigates,
can now be produced to the British navy every
eighteen months, while the existing docks are
capable of holding ships of any size—both con-
siderations of importance at the present time, and
iu connection with the future. Strange to tell,
while it is calculated that every ship in the navy
of Great Britain is renewed every twelve years, the
teakwood ships built here and elsewhere are known
to last fifty years. Bombay, it is gratifying to add,
is in an adequate condition effectually to resist
attack from any quarter. Nor is this the case
with Bombay alone. It may be well to add that
under present arrangements the existing military
resources of the Native Princes of India
comprise a' force of little loss than 400,090
men, an amount exceeding by nearly
100,000 the numerical strength of the
British army in India, inclusive of the contingent
troops commanded by British officers. Consider-
able portions of the troops of Native States, how-
ever, are described in the official returns as fitted
rather for police purposes than for regular military
duties.
Considerable efforts, it would appear, indeed it
is well known, are being made to promote educa-
tion in India.
Railways, roads, and bridges too
are on the increase,
and there is every probability
of most of onr staple articles of commerce both for
household and manufacturing purposes being before
long produced in profusion, so as to render us
wholly, or in a great measure, independent of
China, Russia, and America. In fact, so varied is
the climate of India and the character of the soil,
that there is scarcely any produce peculiar to either
zone that may not be obtained from it.
The romance of India is for ever dissipated, but
we are mistaken if the future reality proves
not confessedly more magnificent and glorious.
For her we believe is reserved a great destiny.
Stories of blue-coated and brass-buttoned nabobs,
shivering in nankeens, and the consciousness of ill-
gotten wealth, and partly imaginary details of bar-
baric pomp and splendour may no longer faseinato
the fancy of youth with awe or wonder. Clive
may be regarded as a myth, and Hastings as one
of eld, but her steps will still be ',Award. We have
been, or are, sowing justice over her broad plains
—scantily, it is true, but not vainly, for ere long
we shall see the fruit. Huge stumbling-blocks to
improvements have already been removed—anti-
quated prejudices have been dispersed by the breath
of reason—party has narrowed its exclusiveness,
and we dwell now more than we used to do on the
future. We can both work and wait. Already
the scheme of that astute statesman, Fox, which in
his day set the nation about his ears, is being practi-
cally adopted. The patronage of East India di-
rectors, est snort, talent and character; are the
highways to preferment in India. The result
needs no unusual inspiration to predict that there
will be a healthy infusion of energy and honesty
into it. Gross abuses will not be permitted

the old lease of life. The press will be appealed
to, and the interest thus excited will increase
as the middle elas,,es more and more contribut^ to
the official staff in India. Our rule will he
and more firmly established the deeper we base it
it, justice. it may be our destiny to supplant the
Veda and the Koran with the Bible—to Chris-
tianise India's dusky tribes ; at all events, good
government cannot but add stability to our rule, and
aid in frustrating the ambitious designs of Russia,
against which we will do well to be perpetually on
our guard. A useful map, showing the purely
British, the protected, and the independent States,
with the dates of each accession of territory, and
other particulars, is given in the first volume, and
au abundance of statistical information is scattered
throughout the work. Here and there the opi-
nions advanced savour a little of Leadenhall.
street, but, despite a few defects, the " Gazetteer"
is highly creditable both to the author's industry,
good sense, and judgment, and deserves, what we
trust it will have, as extensive circulation.

iscellaneous Poems. By J. T. B. Edward
_ West.

The outpourings of a sensitive and religiously-
disposed mind, resorting in the desolation of
blighted prospects, bereavement, aid penury, to
" verse making" for consolation, are ever regarded
in this country with more or less interest and re-
spect. The author of these poems possesses such a
mind, has been unfortunate in worldly matters,
and has had to mourn over the " shattering of his
household gods." His unpretending poems, there-
fore, have a presumptive claim to attention—a claim
which. their modest merit tends to strengthen.
They are not productions of a high order—their
main value, ii fact, consisting in the natural and
mostly plaintive expression of feelings and senti-
ments with which the cares and vicissitudes of life
have rendered the majority of us in some degree,
familiar ; while, however, a melancholy vein runs
through a large portion of them, several of the poems
are of a cheerful and hopeful nature. The greater
part, we are told, were preserved for the amusement
of the author's children, and among them, un-
doubtedly, are some which young people will road
with pleasure, as well as old, and feel disposed to
get off by heart— a sure proof of the author's suc-
cess. The poems are divided into " Sacred"
(mainly metrical paraphrases of psalms), " Do-
mestic and Miscellaneous," " Fables," and
" Songs." Some of the latter are pitched in
the true lyric key, and will be read with
pleasure. So will the pieces from the French.
Need we commend this unpretending volume,
which, by the way, is very tastefully got up, to
the patronage of the benevolent and sympathising t
Lectures OM Respiration. By Thomas Hopley.