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

CiJ 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
ocieounotfles streams in all directions, fitted
I 'Reda Soeiety, l'or bettering the condition of our fellow- brow
affairs—( Heen heiar)--.1 stop
the election of those who are to govern and control In- for the puryp
t subjects, the natives of British India. Lord Brouglean
nes igation, as well as of irriga-
ds not arrivedwhen not to ask—the time tion to which they were applied in the times of their
in the Chair.
i I teat question can be consistently Princee, theogh I believe the tanks are now almost all
to cLeen'i'mg put—butot.England, thinkwhen
I have te right to appeal to the people broken o yet as to the roads I am told by those
before the
rtoimoienavpvapsoinnteeadrlyfofirliethde
wpirtohcpeeerdsionngss
of great respectability. The Noble and Learned Lord the
w=ant, ui" "' all perceive the blank, when all feel who havespent the greater part of their lives there, 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 dominion 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 become the free, the 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. oaomn
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.—(Hear, 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 contrasted does not only prevent it from improvement but it
titi•it_ahr.)the Government, and controlling and checking has this effect—it leads to the most 'horrible
A. Stocker ,strom, Lieutenant-Governor of ttae Cape
of Good 7rlope, General Goodfellow, Mejor-General power. It cannot be provided by the Company. Now, 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 is a loaded with grain, the result of a bountiful Providence,
thing the furthest from any intention of mine upon this through a plentiful harvest, while another cl• t htiorntehe'
Captair, Probyn, Daniel. O'Connell, Eso., M.P., Fraacis
oef•
oceasion to offer one single word in disparegement, or same country is as much shut out from the Posrslibtilit
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 ays if
E'en, M.P., Joseph Pease, \Esq., sea., Joseph Stutge, have no. intention to do 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 is 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 elite. 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
•Inhise mischiefs, in that system which I point out, and not of the globe for the two last-years, at every one instrnt of
re ,Thor. Frankland, Esq. of Liverpool, John Craw-
rt those who work the system, that 1 impeach. It is to which two years the Government supported by food—
Turd, -Esq., Henry Blwaehard, Esq., Montgomery Mar-
.ihn.
,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 is 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 believe the intention of 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 believe:that consulted and agreed,—(Hear, 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
respe,
e.tabie a meeting assembled this day upon so great mulch 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 ceededl,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-
.71 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 nteeeout until a late hour night,
or rather an ererty 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,,aevne
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 proceedings 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
mYstelf, 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 movoerree'
than to thegoverned.
tmoetnht 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
ohetave 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,
tdcommandinig gednius,
•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 rafi-erm,oaenss
wcoitnr
aerveiti,o,oarn
writeitained 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 of this day. First, then, We are here net
all m rti joining heart and hand together, to promote ala 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
tnhecess_ary inherent.f defect in the system. A country was this, that during the currency of the last Charter,
a athapnla
jetnusi itsoeil inm men
no 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 norPawt. ' '
(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 .
tgovern.countless millions in one farthing of which aver had found its way 'back agaie
it Asia, putssttsu.eini
for a state of things that absolutely to India.—(Hear, hear.) Now, when you think that
_t.t
..om always doing. its duty, and A- those millions of money are drawn from the daily labour
si udtey
tn.ecessi necessitates, a substitute 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 ittalet rtleeand so f necessarily
cheaeraine ) Nowettt I '
nrenv men who have studied it foryeart, others who have ehich makes
a nus a system of policy.—(Great 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 to 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 stateeh things there ; next to poiat out the wants nine parts in ten of the produce of the labour
?t.ourtellownsunitcbts 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 weil 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 oft 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 represents 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. In India to which our attention is now gentle, peaceful nature, the uniformly gwod
person can plant opium without our authority and obedient
demeanour of our Indian fellow-subjects.
,
say nothing of their waiit of
—aye, and the - people are compelled to plant —(Great cheering.) I
, called, she has a territory of 1,100,000 square miles,
peopled by 120,000,000 of subject,, watered by rivers opium in certain districts which we point out for that instruction ; I say nothing of the darkness and secular
that run in all directions, diffusing fruitfulness, opening purpose whether they will or no ; and no man can sell ignorance in which they are placed. I purposely
say
communications, adorning, enriching, defending that vast a single ounce of that 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 the 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 only the revenue derived from the salt. Not a flake of salt can be licked up, which the the marvellous compass which bigotry and intole-
mether country, and the revenue which our neighbour sun has left by drying up the sea brine upon the land— ranee will sometimes succeed in forming, by.
he union
not a flake of that can be licked up by the finger or by of stupidity with sense, of light with darkness—
the French Government derives from France.l ask not—
it is too late to ask, whether it be wise to hold such a
the tongue—(Laughter)—without leave from the Corn- (Cheers)—the golden head with the clay foot of the
-
dominion as this ? I ask not—it is too late -now to stop
pany, under a penalty of 50/. or two months' imprison. ravage—(Loud cheers)—unless, indeed, in these re-
to ioquire, whether it te prudent to hold such immense gent, and sometimes both—(hear)—at the option of the spects, it proved the all but
omnipotence of faction and
Possessions as these ? I ask not—it is again too late to Court that tries the offence—the offence of gathering up bigotry, I must confess that the last twelve hours
have
enquire, whether it be strictly honest for any nation to a little, salt,whichProvidence has enabled the rays of the not produced any considerable illumination or edification
affect such dominion as that? But admitting that she
sun to leave on the land. by. evaporating the moisture on my part.—(Laughter and cheers.) You will rea-
r'
from it.—( Hear, hear, acrd cries of " Seame.") Now (lily, therefore, conceive why I pass over any thing that
f she is just, in accumulating such vast territories, and
two millions and a half comes from this monopoly, but it can .by possibility lend
me on polemical ground.
: is wise, admitting that she is prudent, not denying that
govertiing such countless myriads of people--
( titre is accompanied with suffering, with vexation, persecu- My feet are still smarting, front the- scorching which
the Noble and Learned Lord was interrupted by the
then and torment, to the highest degree hurtful to those they received in walking over that fiery ground last
cheers that saluted the entrance of Mr. O'Connell upon who pay it, and all but unprofitable to those who raise night. It is the only pain I feel from the defeat, for
'
the platform)—l say, I ask not whether it be just, any it, because they have to pay four or five 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 then I hold that whatever difference the ground ; those who pay to endure, who possess to understand why I abstain front entering upon that
conform ; and that is received in the proportion which ground again, on which many here nosy differ, But
Play 'divide men in opinion upon those particulars, there
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, hear)— of every twenty shillings to the Government, by way of ness, spiritual as well as temporal, though the blessed
rent ; and the two shillings that remained was to be for influence of Christianity has been gradually diffused by
t and that if she will have 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 standenever 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
holds that the duty that. that sceptre imposes upon her
with it ; it is a ruler; it is not a landlord to receive We wish not to meddle with these labours, or to inter-
is to give protection to her people at home, in return
rents ; but at all events it must receive eighteen shillings fere with these useful exertions, but we wish to diffuse
for their allegiance to her. She holds an island near to her,
out of the twenty shillings ; and the two shillings is such knowledge as to both secular and spiritual teachers
part and parcel of our empire, but less happy and less given up,and given up for ever, to the owner.—(Hear, will be valuable, in giving the best direction to their
fruitful, and not much less oppressed, than these Indian hear.) Perhaps a man might say, without any labours.—(Cheers.) We
wish to improve the condition
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 irony—that the two shillings. often been called to account fir our treatment of Int
to discharge her duty—(Hear,
for the owner of the soil was not very much more
Ilia. We have often been in the strong—we have con.
Citle to their allegiance, and she no longer has a right bear)—she forfeits her
than he ought to have when his partner, the fessed it. One of the last of the most brilliant achieves.
to sway the sceptre over them.—(Much cheering.) Has
Governor, took the 185.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) intents of Lord Wellesley was settlingthostweeestoreer
she then a right any more to continue that sceptre in
But that is as it was fixed upon in .1793, and which Went the throne of Oude. When the 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 the globe, if she no longer consults the• to this hour—for upwards of threescore years and ten, tion between two contesting successors. Our author.,
interests and provides for the happiness of those millions
the life of a man—the period to which a man ought to ties chose one—in my opinion not the ' rightftrit'
I
consider the length of his short and frail title in his pos- heir in point of law ; but the Gallant Colonel
whom it is her pleasure to call her own subjects? Again,
and that brings me to the more immediate object of our sessions to extend—up to that time it had never been aided the Learned Lawyer, who otherwise would.
assembling here to-day, our people at home have a share disturbed e but just as those threescore years and ten have been beaten in argument, for I should not have
in their own Government. Our people at home inter-
had elapsed, three years ago, it was thought fit by a feared to meet the lawyer on the legal question in any
noble kinsman of mine and his councillors there to open Court ; . but as the Gallant Colonel had a battalion to
;ere with the management of their own affairs.
Our people at home may not have a large share
this arrangement, and to look a little into the 2s. ; not enforce his arguments, probably I should have bsen as
.
enough, may not have the power of interference to give up the 18s., but to look a little sharply about slow to dispute with him as the parties in this case were
enough, in the management of their own affairs, and in the 25., because it was found that the 2s. had swelled —(Laughter)—he raised to the throne the Pretender,
swaying the course of their own Government.—(Hear,
out to six or eight, in consequence of the improvement who
promised to he " convenient " to his supporters—
heate) lam one of these—/ dare say I differ from which had taken place in agriculture, even under the to be" tractable for any honest purpose"—(Laughter)
mealy in that—who think that the share of this coon-
trammels and disadvantages under which it was placed. —but the Gallant Colonel being, I imagine, something
try is inerneasureably less re resented in their own
And the fact is, an inquiry has been instituted as to of a lawyer as well as a soldier, made him undertake
the excess, as it is called : to bring the excess over the .to sign a paper containing any terms which the Go-
Parliament than the peoplepof this country have
a right to demand according to the principles of our •
2s. into a wholetomeand vigorous taxation.—(Laughter ) vernment might dictate to him—(Laughter)—and so
Constitution.—(Much cheering.) lam one of those Now, besides there being some question about the 25., one the Colonel thought he had done, if not a very gallant,
who hold that no pains are to be spared to increase that Part of the country was rent free lands, and there was a very clever thing -; but my Noble Friend the Go.
.share Which they now have in the representation and no 18s. at all to pay on that, which was according to vernor-General, with his usual sense of justice, gave
is conduct of their own affairs in Parliament.—
Lord Cornwallis' arrangement, made, as I have said, in the Colonel a severe reprineend—sufficient to prevent
(Hear, hear.) But at all events this representation— 1793 and going back to 1765. That, however, is all his acting so again—had not my Noble Friend soon
their share in the Government---their power of inter- disputed now, and the whole of that rent free land is to after chosen to take the benefit of
this very agreement,
faring to secure the right management of their own
be brought under consideration, and 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 state of all been' appointed, and arbitrators have been nominated to speak in the presence of the rightful Sovereign.--L
the millions of the Indies.—(Loud cheers and hear.) ;ook over them and to decide ; but those arbitrators are (Greet cheering, in the midst of which the Prince of
.
net appointed by both sides, only by one—(Hear, hear) Outle rose and bowed with dignity to the meeting.) The
The whole affairs of India are managed behind their
-.and yet 5,700 have been decided in favour of the ryot, Company, I rejoice to say, have taken a manly and
India' is conducted without the slightest interference in
backs.—(Hear, hear.) The whole Government of In-
and against the Government, who actually named the honest course, for a reprimand has gone out to India, re-
'
lndia=not one of those individuals who compose the arbitrators, who are in its service and liable to be ruined fusing to confirm the cession, and declining to take the
millions -i have mentioned has a single voice—is al- and dismisssed by it at one moment's warning.—(Loud benefit of it.—(Cheers.) I give to her Majesty's
lowed to utter a cry, except the cry of misery when cheers.) Now it is totally premature to ask whether all Government, and especially to my Right honourable
t ...onourable
famine covers the land, and sweeps off its hundreds of this is right or not. It is totally beyond 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 does 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 is, to examine pear to 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 Lion 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 dutieess.
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 reproe
~ 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
ipk 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)----but 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
the 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
under 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 believed that 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 places, and he was sure the pre-
sent appeal would not be made in vain here.—(cheers,)
He believed the
present moment was well timed—be-
I cause it commenced at a period when 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—that 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 justice for
India, and I believe 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 when, despite their 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, that same of 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 " the monies ;" and 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 through 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 she not free municipal institu-
tions—and should it be now said th that country
which hal pos,;essed such institutions from time imme-
morial ouht not to be called out of a state of bondage
the soil to an almost unlimited
tconat,.
to N
theSe already 0 f
consumed tea, coffee,
and datkuess ?—(Cileers.) In exchange for the assis-
tmefotrheWphriotheue people of India looked to us, they
offered
of
sugar, and
::o
34,000,000/. a year. Now all
xcamount
(tepse 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
whole, 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 allude to this in-
fant subject., than to say that it was one
which held out the most important prospects to the
endeavour to get India freed from theis
iuTuosptl e
at
oft
once India coootry.—(Cheers.) We
transit duty which now opposed its commerce. They
o
had already succeeded, after nearly 10 years' hard
labour, in the House of Commons, in getting the sugar
atondthciosffeeoeupntroryduact 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 representatives in the
had,hou sethoofuCool
mons as the West Indies 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
WoUld 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-