The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-07 00:00:00

THE guNs LONDON, TUESDAY, JULY 7, 1810.

neighbourhood they sought to trouble the Amerlean

slaveowner—that if this were not so, why did she not
emane;pate her slaves in the East Indies ? and that it'
America had been near the British posseslions in India
she would have left her West India slaves as they were

s sure.

and abolished slavery in 111 e. East Indies to trouble
America.—(Laughter.) This might seem absurd, but
it was an argument urged against the American aboli-
tioniits, and it was their duty to remove this obstacle
out of their way, that thee might have a free colt-se in
America, and that their principles might 'here run and
b.; glorified.—(Cheers.) Again, England was at pur-
chaser of America to the amount of thirteen millions

annually for cotton. She had therefore the power to
touch them in a most sensitive part—to wit, the pocket.

Thirteen millions was a splentlea bribe. England had

only paid twenty millions to prevent a revolution in
Jamaica, and did any one ask what bearing this had on
the subj.ct of British India ? The answer was there
was a land where tea millions of acres capable
of raising cotton for the whole civilized and uncivi-
lized world—cotton enough to cover the world with
bales ; let it be raised then under the fostering care of
the Government—let a duty such as that on American
cotton be put upon it, and let it be brought to Liver-
pool, and it would be found that thou;h his ears were
stuffed with it, in all appeals to his feelings or
his sympathies, they would be open to the effect
which, such a competition would produce. The
British India Society was the brightest star in the
galaxy which would put down slavery, and therefore he
bade them God speed.
The resolution was then put and carried unanimously.
Dr. BOWRING said he came forward most cheerfully
to propose another resolution for the acceptance of the
meeting, but he felt embarrassed because it was impos-
sible for him to take up new ground from that taken by
former speakers. He felt a deep sense of the great re-
sponsibility attaching to those who were called upon to
consider the interests of 150,000,000 millions of our fel-
low-subjects. He also felt deep shame at being enabled
to state the few benefits which had been conferred upon
them. It, in a country like this, there were to be found
10,000 men like the Chairman, actuated by his zeal, his
philanthrophy, and so devoted to the interests of the
natives of India—if such men were to be found even in
hundreds, the grievances of India would long crc that time
have been redressed.—(Cheers.) it was said they were
a civilized, a religious, ant an instructed nation ; what of
all those blessings had they conferred upon India? The
inhabitants of that fine, that noble country were not to be
. .

compared even to the Swiss, upon his bleak and barren
mountains. We were a large commercial nation—had we
even extended the humanizing and civilizing blessings of
commerce to India ? Let them compare our trade with
India with that of other nations—aye, even with nations
with whom we can only trade by permission, and under
the regulations of their Governments. This was an agri-
cultural nation. What a picture did India present ! Pos-
sessing boundless tracts of land with every shade of cli-
mate, fit for the beat productions of the earth, yet men
perishing by thousands and hundreds of thousands ! We
boasted of our religion—he did not mean the form and
words which too many considered as the essence of Chris.
tianity, but the true spirit of Christianity—had we im-
parted any of it to the natives of India? No, alas! we
heard much more of the complainings of those poor
natives than of their gratitude. We professed to be s
well-governed nation, and well acquainted with the prin-
ciplea of liberty, which we highly prized—had they given
that liberty to India—had they made justice easily ac-
cessible ?—had they made it cheap ?—could the natives
of that country easily and speedily obtain justice or re-
dress? Alas, no. They saw the evidence that they
had now before them—of men who had come thousands
of miles as suppliants, he believed up to the present me.
ment unsuccessful suppliants, for justice. Had we imparted
to her the blessings of commerce ? No, on the con-
trary, we had ruined that which she before commenced.
It was not mar.y years since India supplied almost
every European nation with cotton cloths—now, by the
improvements of machinery, we supplied her with our fa-
brics. Then would they not at all events take from her the
raw material ? We could not sit down to table, or put on
our wearing apparel without being indebted to India for
something ; then surely it was the duty of this country
to encourage her natives in the growth of an article which
would give them employment and prevent their starvation.
It was with much pleasure ho moved the resolution as
follows :
" That the employment of proper means to call forth the
resources of England, give activity to her industry and
add to the comfort and prosperity of all classes of her
population."
D. T URNBULL, Esq., seconded the motion. He felt
deeply interested in the welfare of India; but be sup-
ported the Society most warmly, because he believed its
efforts would prove a great blow to slavery in America.
The resolution was unanimously agreed to.
Weerneee Nimes, Esq., of Boston, said a resolution
had been put into his hands, and it was with pleasure that
he would propose it to the meeting. He would confine his
remarks to that portion of the resolution which applied to
his own country and the effect of the cultivation of cotton in
British India upon slavery in the American States. It was
now ten years since the friends of the negro in that
country first put forth the demand for the unconditional
abolition of slave' y—they thought that they would have
nothing more to do than to show that emancipation would
be safe—that it would be just, and, having proved that,
that it would, in such a liberty-loving; country, at once be
cordially and willingly acceded to in every State from
Maine to Georgia, but, at the end of the long period of
ten years, they had done almost nothing. I-lad it not
been for their perseverance and z.al, the more devoted
because of the difficulties they had met with, long long
ago they would have been put down—they must have
folded their arms in despair—they had given up all hope
of bloodless emancipation. When they heard of the
• British India Society and its objects, it burst upon their
car, and was as startling and as grateful as must have
been the first cry of land to Columbus when he was
plunged almost its despair—(Cheers)—they through it
saw again a peaceful hope for the slave, and then every
friend of abolition rallied round it and placed
their plan prominently before the country. Many
at first doubted, they deemed it but one more of the many
fables to which India had given rise—they deemed it a
very fiction, but he trusted through the exertions of the So-
ciety they would find it " Truth severe, in fairy fiction
dressed."—(Cheers.) If it was a fact that there were
.4,000,000 of acres within reach of the Ganges upon which
cotton could be grown now lying waste—il it were true
that there were 54,000,000 million; of men anxious for
labour, and that their services could be got for I.f. or 2d.
a-day, if they could bring their cotton to Liverpool at 41.
per lb., how could slavery stand against it at the cost of Is.
a-day ? Commerce was ineompatlle with slavery ;in this
country it had put down the system of villeinage; in France
it put an end to vassalage ; it had done more than Chris-
tianity, of which it was a good fore-runner. It was one ef
the most immutable of truths that the moment a free hand
touched any article, that moment it tell front the hand of the
slave, witness the beet sugar of France ; the moment it was
made her West India Colonists applied for protection
against the eternal principles of of corn nerce and free-
dom.—( Pear, hear.) And so it was with indigo. Fehr.
trimly it was all slave produce; now not one ounce of it
was. Ile need not give further r xamplcs, for the princi-
ple was as immutable as the laws of nature. No article
could ha grown aed menufactuied at the same time by
both free and slave labour. The fathers of his country
had thought in the settlement of their independence they
had put down slavery ; but unfortunately, in 1736, when
it was about to cease, a sale!l bag of cotton seed wan found
in Carolina ; it was almost by accident put into the
ground, and it was found that cotton could be grown, and
so slavery was perpetuated. Slavery could only be main-
tained by monopoly ; the moment she came into compe-
tition with free labourt she died. Cotton wes the corner-
stone of slavery in America ; remove it, and slavery would
eceivo its mortal blow—( Hear. ) lie was glad to
see such a Society grow up in the land of Clarkson and of
Wilberforce, the great fathers of anti-slavery. Ile wee
glad that Englatid was awakening to a sense of her power,
arid he prayed God that she would rouse herself as one
man, arid exert that peer for the sake of humanity ell
over the world. It was not the f.ellt of America that
slavery existed, it was the fault of Engleed that bribed
her with 14,000,000/. a year, and it was the price of cotton
in the Liverpool market that signed the death-warrant of
the poor sl 1,1C3.-( ) There were a class of m,-n
in America that would not listen to the voice of an angel,
or to one risen fr urn the dead. The denunciation; of
O'Connell were nothing to them while the balance was on
tie right side of the 1,4.1,-2,-ur —:hey must have anti-slavery
preached in their counting-houses, or it. would never be
preached at all.—( Cheers.) The only voice they would
listen to was the G iz.atte that published them bankrupts,
and the auctioneer that knocked down their houses to the
highest bidder. It was England that delayed that day by
paving them 14,000,000/. annually for their support
( hiear, hear.) 100 per cent. profit was better than the
most eloquent lips that ever spoke. The meeting might
think it sti antic for an American to speak thus of a system
which was to make bankrupt one half of his country, and to
paralyze the ether; but though he loved his country, he
loved his countrymen more, and these countrymen were the
coloured men of America —(Cheers.) For their s skes
he would say, " Welcome the bolt which smiles our cote-
inerce to the dust, if with it, by the blessing of God, it
will strike off the fetters of the slave."—(Cheers. ) But
he did not fear British India. Free Americas from the
incubus of slavery, and her beautiful prairies would beat
the banks of the Ganges. Free Aeaerioa front the incubus
of slavery, and Yankee skill in the fruitful valleys of the
south, would beat England and British India in any mar-
ket in the world. lie begged permission to read to the
meeting the authority of one who would justly be con-
sidered as a far higher authority than any who had spoken
from that platform, and he would observe that this was not
an efteiethought. It was not a new project, for years back
it had the devoted advocacy of Cropper, and fifteen years
ago Clarkson, in a private letter to a friend, had suggested
it as the only remedy for slavery in the translantie world
The meeting would pardon him fur reading a portion of
the speech the venerable Clarkson bad prepared in writing,
and had intended to deliver at the opening of the General
' Anti-Slavery Convention
My dear friends, you have a most difficult task to
perform ; it is neither more nor less than the extirpation
of slavery from the whole world. Your opponi Mg Who
appear the most formidable, are the cotton and other
planters in the southern parts of the United States ; who,
I am grieved to say, hold more than two millions of their
fellow-creatures in the most cruel bondage. Now we
know of these men, that they are living in the daily habits
• i
enjus
tees cruelty, and oppression, and may be therefore
said to have nu true fear of God, nor any just sense of re-
ligion. You cannot therefore expect to have the same
hold upon the consciences of these as you have upon the
consciences of others. flow then can you get at these
so as to influence their conduct. There is but one way ;
you must endeavour to meke them feel their guilt in its
consequences. You must endeavour, by all justifiable
means, to affect their temporal interests. You must en-
deavour, among other things, to have the produce of fn e
tropical labour brought into the markets of Europe, and

ur.dersell them 0-era—and if you can do this, your victory

_
" N,Av that thif;is po3iible, that this may be done, there
is no qufstion. The East India Company alone ean do
it of the.nseivcs, nod they can do it by means that are

pet fcctly moral and pacific, according to )cur own princi-
ples, namely, by the cultivation of the earth aarl hy the
employment of free labour. They may, if they please,
not only have the high honour of abolishing slavery and
the slave trade, but the advantage of increasing their re-
venue beyond all calculation ; for, in the first place, they
base land in tit( it possession twenty times more than equal
to the supply of all Europe with tropical produce; in the
second place, they can procure, not tins of thousands, hut
tens of m•llions of free la!rlourers to work ; in the third,
from a penny to threc-lialf-
what is of the greatest consequence in this case, the price
witahy.thesN‘eliasto;srLyvery
can stand against these
prices?
opfenlaclu
e)operr day. I
learn, too, from letters which I have seen from India,
and from the Company's own reports, that they have long
been engaged—shall I say providentially engaged—in pre-
paring seeds' for the cultivation of cotton there. Now if
we take into consideration all these previous preparations
(by which it appears that they are ready to start), and add
to this the consideration that they could procure, not teas
of thousands, but tens of millions of free labourers to work
—I speak from authority—l believe that if they would
follow up their plans heartily and with spirit, according to
their means, in the course of six years they would
materially affect the price of this article at market, and in
twelve that they would be able to turn the tide completely
against the growers of it in the United States.
" And here I would observe that this is not a visionary
or fanciful statement. Look at the American newspapers ;
look at the American pamphlets which have conic out
upon this subject ; look at the opinion of the celebrated
Judge Jay on this subject also ; all, all confess, and the
planters too confess—but the letter with fear and trem-
bling—that if the East India Company should resolve upon
the cultivation of tropical products in India, and carry it to
the extent to which they would be capable of carrying it
—it is all over with American slavery.
" Gentlemen, I have mentioned these circum-
stances, not with a view of dictating to you any
particular plan of operations, but only to show
you the possibility of having your great object
accomplished, and this to its fullest extent ; for what I
have said relative to the United States is equally appli-
cable to Cuba, Brazil, and other parts of the South Ame-
rican Continent; and, besides, the East India Company
have twenty times more land than is sufficient to enable
them to compete with them all."
The proprietors and conductors of the American news-
papers, to which Mr. Clarkson referred, were the
agents of the banks and the agents of the slaveholders.
It was not their policy to endeavour to raise and
secure a high price in the market of Liverpool, for fear
the eyes of Great Britain should be turned to her posses-
sions in the East, where, as they expressed it, there were
no doubt exhaustless resources for the cultivation of cot-
ton ; for they saw that if the attention of Great Britain
were directed to that quarter, America would lose the
market and slavery together.—( Hear, hear,) Twice had
they thought the death-blow was given to the system in
America, and twice had they been disappointed ; but, in
conclusion, he would say, take care that, in carrying out
this plan, the protection thrown over India did not bring
forth into life weeds as well as flowers—take care that
that system did not gather strength with the rest of their
Institutions, which would be strengthened in India ; and
that it did not, as it had done in America, monopolise the
resources of another world in the East. That was the
only danger that could be anticipated in the progress of
the Society. In conclusion, he would sly, take care, that
in driving cotton from our shores, you admit not a single
pound that is equally blood-stained with our own. lie
concluded by moving the following resolution :
" That the development of the resources of British In-
dia is calculated to produce important moral and social
effects, both on the people of the British West Indies and
on those of the United States of America—on the former
by supplying the deficient quantity of sugar required for
the consumption of England, and thereby confirming and
securing the salutary effects of the Act of E mancipation,
and on the latter, by enabling the free-grown cotton of
India successfully to compete with the cotton of America,
and thereby leading to the natural and peaceful extinction
of American slavery."
The Rev. J. Cr,ARKE, of Jamaica, seconded the reso-
lution. He was happy to find that the iniquitous laws
which had been passed by the Legislature of Jamaica would
not be adopted without some very important alterations.
With regard to America, he sincerely hoped that crc long
an end would be put to that evil system which prevailed to
so great an extent throughout that interesting country.
Mr. O'CoNezar. then rose to propose the next resolu-
tion, and was received with great applause. Ile never
felt more anxious to make an impressive and interesting
speech, and yet he never felt more unequal to the task
than he was at that moment. It was not from want of
voice or inclination—it was not for want of informa-
tion, for he had it in abundance, but the overwhelming im-
portance of the subject pressed upon his mind and op-
pressed him.—( Cheers.) Ile stood there the advocate of
150,000,000 of misgoverned human beings—natives of
die most productive climates upon the face of the earth,
who ought to be in prosperity and comfort, and
under the British banner enjoying freedom—(Hear)
—but who were worse then slaves, and rendered beggars
by oppression.—( Cheers.) The importance of the sub-
ject was still the greater, because it was not as yet under-
stood in England. Few were acquainted with its details,
few were even acquainted with its effects, and thus, in the
ignorance of the English mind there was spread abroad
an apathy which was appalling to those who really under-
stood the question, and, it, his firm belief, was really cri-
minal.—( Hear, hear.) Their lion. Chairman had said
that they were not there as the antagonists of the East
India Company. No ; but they were there to urge its
duties on the Company, and in a friendly way he would
accuse them of having hitherto neglected that duty.—
( Hear, hear, and a laugh ) He had come there, he
would confess, at once to prefer a bill of indictment against
the Company.—( Hear.) He had come there like an old
lawyer, as lie was, with the counts of his indictment
sufficiently' drawn out. He would arraign the East India
Contpany of a neglect of their duties. He would arraign
them of having had recourse to a systena of policy which
had led to the misery and oppression of the; native in-
habitants of India.—( Hear, hear.) But he would put
together the counts of his indictment in a more tidy and
business-like form.—(A laugh.) He arraigned them for
their monopolies—he arraigned them next for their de-
fective police, and their delays or denial of justice. He
arraigned them again for the monstrous iniquity of' their
resumption laws ; and lastly, but above all, he arraigned
them for their wholesale plunder of the land revenue.—
( Hear, bear.) There was first, then, their unjust mono-
polies ; secondly, their refusal of justice ; thirdly, the ini-
quity of their resumption laws; and, fourthly, the whole
system of the land revenue, He might, however, be first
asked why he forgot the subject which had principally
brought them together that day. He did not forget it, but
he wished to leave the slavery question to the British and
Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. That was their particular
province—that was emphatically their duty— ( Hear)—
and he would take the proper opportunities of pressing the
subject on the notice of that body, lie should observe,
however, that the evils of slavery could not be exaggerated.
They had boasted of the liberality of their grant of twenty
millions for the extinction of slavery, They had boasted
that they had emancipated 800,000 human beings in their
colonic?, and the boast w•a= a proud and a glorious enc.
lie believed that no other nation on the face of the earth
had paid as WO a price for the advancement of the in-
terests of humanity as the English nation hail done in its
grant of twenty millions. But what he tweeted was, that
they should get full value for the money. They had yet
:rot but half of it, they had got but Mt. in the pound.—
( Hear, hear.) They lied liberated Soo,eoo slaves in the
colonies, but there was still a million of slaves in the East
Indies, whose liberation was yet to be aecom lished.—
( Hear, hear. ) Aral on that subject he could not allow
the East India Cmnpany to pass scot-fete, for, in the de-
bates in the House of Commons on the Emencipetion
the East Lelia Company desire that no clause should be
introduced compellinl them to emancipate the slaves in
India. They had entered into some details of
family arrangements in I i:ra, for the Purpose of
showing that there would be considerable delicacy
in dealing with the case of fernale slaves, and they
prayed the [louse of Commons to leave the subject in their
own hands, while they prondsed that they would take it
up and abolish slavery :re far as lay in their potter,
but what had they done? They had dine just
tiothing—(Laughter)—and if they could have done
loos they would have done it.—( Renewed leughter.)
Slavery still continued in tee East Indies, but he would
content hiais if with telling them the amount of slaves
there, and with telling- them an instance of the stay in
which they were treated. The amount of slaves in India,
according to a Parliamentary return, was in all 80.0,000,
but he should observe that the number was underrated by
at least 200.000, so that they had, as tie had before stated,
1,000,000 of slaves at present in the East Indies. Ile
would next read a passage taken from a newspaper pub-
lished in India, for the purpose of showing the use made
of slaves there, The Hon. Gentlemen then read the fol-
lowing passage front a peonphlet entitled " East India
Slavery Theft is common throughout Ranighur, but
murder more prevalent among a particular class, which are
the slaves possessed by persons inhabiting the mountainous
and inaccessible interior, and of ravage and ferocious
When Petty disputes occur, these slaves are
compelled by their masters to perpetrate any enormity,
and are more especially ~,,,-,p7oyed for the purpose:7, of
assassination I Any hesitation or repugnance on the part
of the slave, is attended with immediate death, which
is equally his fate should lie fail ha the attempt. if
he succeed, he is sought out by efficers of
Government, and executed as a murderer." That
extract was one of undoubted authority, and he gave
it not that they might learn the entire case from it, hut
that they might have sonic idea of what slavery was in
India. Ile would not, however, f,llow up that topic, be-
cause, as he had said before, there was another body orga-
nised fur inquiry into it. But be was glad to have the op-
portunity of announcitt,, the facts he had stated in order to
direct public: attention to the matter. Ile believed that if
the attention of the pie of England was turned to the
question, slavery in people
would nut last touch longer.—
( Hear,
hear.)
- lie would return to his indictments against
the East India
thatf!
they
Company', y Let him preface his observa-
tions by statinghad heard much of the cheapness
of labour in India, they l
Ir“l heard much of the fertility of
the soil and the cliett.tcs
a—
s with which cotton could be pro-
duced in Indi
, it Pcould be produced, he believed, at
one eighteenth of its nice in America. Why thenproducecil Something might be attri-
buted to the want of industry and commercial spirit,
but there should be something else to account for such a
circumstance. There must have been something like mis-
government in India. The strongest proof of mis,.,_eovern-
ment in any nation was that its resources remnined para-
lysed, and that the bounties of Providence were allowed
to become unproductive by the unkindness of man.—
( Hear, hear. ) 11e would come more immediately to liis
first indictment. He accused the East India Company of
monopolies. Those monopolies were two in number_.
the monopoly:of opium and that of salt. With regard to
the monopoly of opium, need be ask them whether those

were guilty in the eyes of God and man who cultivated
that horrible and intoxicating poison ?--a poison, which in
its eff,!cts was destructive alike to the human frame and to

the human mind ; and he believed there was no greater
cause why this country has engaged in another war, and
accumulating another debt, and preducing all: those mis.
chievous consequences which fellow from war on the
pre sent and future generations.—( Hear.) lie thought that
was enough to produce a conviction of the crimes of the
East India Company in relation to that subj2et. But, in
addition, it made the inhabitants of India perish for want
of food. The East India Company did not allow them to
tili their land for the growth of human food in the most
fertile districts, by compelling them to cult'vas e the poppy,
for which they did not afterwards allow them to get their-
own price, but took it from them at the loves possible
value that could be given. On the charge of a monopoly
of opium, he would therefore say that the Company were
guilty, and he thought that the verdict would be re-echoed
by all England. He would next pass to the monopoly of
salt. That was a monopoly of one of the first necessaries
of life, as salt was an indispenEible ingredient in human
food, and especially in India. The food there consists
principally of vegetables, which, without salt, were a slow
and consuming poison. Perhaps, then, the East India
Company would take care that such a necessary could be
easily provided. Perhaps they had salt mines, which they:
work carefully ? No such thing. The bounty of Provi-
dence had murk salt the cheapest article that could
be imagined, and the waves as they retired left it on the
shores. It was most abundantly given by Providence,
but it was most atrociously monopolised by the East India
Company. He had statistical details to show how high a
price the natives were obliged to pay for salt, which he
did not think it necessary to submit to their considera-
tion. Ile could show them, that the traffickers in it
adulterated it, and by that means ruined its qua-
lity ; and lie could equally show them, that the entire
system which 'elated to the sale of salt was one of cruelty
and rigour ; ant, in short, one of enormous crime.
—( Hear, hear.) The • article the most necessary
to the nutrition of the people was seized on by the Go-
vernment, and doled out at an extravagant price, while
the natives were left to perish for a want of proper sus-
tenance. They could not estimate the extent of the evil
which he complained of, but they might easily conceive
what would be the consequence if in this country a mono-
poly of the farming produce was placed in the hands of
any body, and if that body was allowed to tell the farmers
that they should sow wheat there, or barley in another
place, and that they should not bring their produce to
the market where they might get the highest
price, but where their rulers might choose ; and if in addi-
tion the salt in this country was doled out to the inhabi-
tants at a monopoly price. He would say emphatically,
that if such a state of things existed in England, this
country, however proud she might now be of her wealth or
her commerce, would soon sink into a pitiful province, and
the misery of India would be the prototype of that which
would exist in tWs country. He hoped that his charge of
monopoly, on both hands, would be admitted to have been
proved. The monopoly existed in point of fact, and in
point of principle it could not be defended. The mono-
poly of opium was heinous in its principle, and the mono-
poly of salt was atrocious in its operation. He would
next come to the police, and to the administration of jus-
tice in India. lie had details which might show the ex-
traordinary distance of the different judicial districts from
each other, and the difficulty of obtaining justice there, as
well as the enormous expense which attended the most
simple prosecutions. But he would read a passage from
an Indian Newspaper, which would supersede any ne-
cessity for a speech of his on the subject. The
Honourable Gentleman then read the following ex-
tract from a Newspaper published at Serampore :—" A
robbery is now so every day an occurrence, that it ceases
to attract attention, except when accompanied with cir-
cumstance: of peculiar atrocity. Bengal, and more espe-
cially that portion of it which forms the circle round the
metropolis, is one unvaried scene of outrage and plunder.
No property is any longer considered as secure. To such
a degree of audacity have the disturbers of the public
peace attained, that in a variety of instances their depre-
dations are carried on by torch light, as if in utter mockery
of the police. The evil increases day by day. The papers
teem with reports of the most daring robberies committed
by large bodies of armed men, under the very eye of the
public officers. The disturbers of the public peace are no
longer confined to those of the lowest caste; men of aris-
tocratic birth and pretensions will be found in almost
every instance to be the abetters, if not the contrivers, of
these plundering expeditions. A grand organization of
robbers has grown up In the country,- which embraces men
of all classes ; and it is daily increasing in strength and
audacity. There arc regular receiving houses, kept by
men whose respectability of appearance would lull the
suspicion even of an infinitely more efficient police than
any of which the country can boast. And as the efforts
of the State have failed to secure to the people the pri-
mary blessing of a civilised Government—security of pro-
perty—it is not to be wondered at if the people should be-
gin to lose confidence in the institutions under which they
live. This mistrust is no longer veiled under indistinct
murmurs, but is beginning to be boldly avowed in the native
papers of this Presidency. It is openly asserted, week after
week, that whatever other blessings the British Govern-
ment may have conferred on the country, it has failed in its
efforts to give adequate protection to life and property."
It appeared from that extract that the oppressors of the
inhabitants of India were of two classes—the robbers
plundered them by night, and the police-officers plundered
them by day.—( Hear, hear, and a laugh.) Those things
occurred, too, in districts under the immed'ate eye of the
Government, and the extract lie had read showed what
the robbers spared the police gleaned away. If there
were a civilized portion in India it would be that to which
the extract referred; the passage, therefore, showed how
the East India Company deserted their duty in not afford-
ing sufficient protection to the unfortunate inhabitants.
Again, therefore, he would call far a verdict of guilty on
that head.—( Hear, hear.) He would next come to the
resumption laws, and those laws appeared to him to be of
the most iniquitous nature. Land was field at present in
India by the payment of a land-tax, which was an-
other name for rent. Under the Hindoos all land was
considered as the property of the Government which re -
ceived about one quarter of the produce. The Mussel-
mans afterwards received one-third, but the English now
claimed one-half. The East India Company insisted, in
addition, to being paid. in money, which became a source
of great inconvenience to the natives. There were, be-
sides, large districts all over India free from any assess-
ment. But hove had the East India Company acted on
that subject. There had been a permanent settlement
made in the year 1793, but it was then agreed that an in-
ves igation should be entered into as to the title of those
who held their ~land free from the payment of any tax.
That investigation, however, bad been delayed till the year
1836, so that for a period of more than forty years
the parties in question enjoyed their estates, and those
estates had been transferred from hand to hand, so
that the present occupiers were assignees three times told
of persons who held the land in 1793. The holders,
however, in the year 1836 had b..,en called on to produce
their title to the land. Could any proceeding be more
cruel or unjust than that? But that was not all ; the
Statute of Limitation in India was limited to thirteen years,
so that any one who held his land during that period could
claim it as his. The Government recognised that princi-
ple in the payment of rent ; and they said that any parties
who gout paid it for thirteen years might pay it for ever.
But they applied a different principle with regard to those
parties who held land free front assessment, so that per-
sons who had been thirty or forty years without payment of
any tax, were refused the benefit of the Statute of Limit-
ation. And yet that was what ayes called British justice—
that was the mariner in which the English had treated
the unhappy inhabitants of those districts where they ought
to have been protected a, d fostered. They sent out, it
appeared, commissioners appointed by themselves to inves-
tigate the t ides of the occupiers of land ; but they left the
natives without any tribunal to which they could appeal.
The result of that was that 800 estates had been forfeited.
If such events had occurred in England ho .x few of the
present generation would be able to substantiate the title
to their properties? It should be remembered that the
worthy commissioners called on the parties to produce the
titles 1411101 they hell for forty years before. They called
on men who had lived in 1793 to defend their tights in
1837 ; so that in their proceedings all that was ridiculous
was mixed up with all that was roost atrocious. It could
no longer be an object of surprise that the inhabitants
of India hail not accumulated capital, and that they
had not increased in weal]) as they should have doue
under Biiti:ll rule. The history of those transactions
reminded him of what had occurred in his Oen country at
the beginning of the reign of Charles the First: That
monarch had ordered Lord S:affurd to institute a com-
mission of inquiry into defective titles in Ireland. Lord
Stafford had sent out Judges to whom he assigned ss.
in the pound on all the money that they should
raise by the discovery of defective titles. The Judges
we,e thus bribed against the parties whose claims they
were to try. It happened that a jury in the county of
Roscommon found a verdict on one occasion against the
Crown ; and the jurors were seized on, in consequence,
and taken up to Dublin, where they were fined five
hundred pounds far the verdict they had given. Two
troops of horse were added as "good lookers on" by
Lord Stafford. There were plenty of them in India, ant
it was the remedy always. It was so in Ireland, but to
be sure is did not prosper in that case, for Lord Stafford
lost his head upon the seaffald. Rebellious and sanguinary
ware followed, and who would tell him that that would not
happen in India ?—(llear and cheers.) Were they not
human beings, sensible to injustice, and as ready to receive
arid respond to good treatment as the British people them-
selves? These commissioners, wno had been sent out to
search for defective titles, were the greatest among all
the calamities that had befallen India. NVl:at was the
first thing to provide for in order to induce the people to
accumulate capital ? Why to make these titles secure, and
be bad shown that the very opposite was the course taken
by the Secret Committee of Three of the East India Com-
pany. He thought he bad demonstrated to them the in-
justice of the conduct of the East India Company, for
nothing could be more base and unjust than tak-
ing tip that limitation in their favour, and
refusing to allow it when it told against them. It was
not carrying out the Christian maxim of doing unto others
as they would be done by. The iniquity of the proceed-
ing was plain and palpable, and he wanted time to dwell
at greater length upon it. Injustice and the insolent pre-
tence of domination had never been so atrociously and
perseveringly urged. Guilty then of the third count, and
he defied them to plead either common sense or justice
for the smallest chance of mitigating the public judgment
against them.--( Hear, hear.) But the greatest evil, the
giant evil was the laud revenue. He had already told
them how the Ilindoos and the Mussulmans treated the
natives. In 1793 Lord Cornwallis gave the Zemindars a
fixed rent, which they were to levy from the natives. In
fixing the rate he thought little of the people, whom he
left entirely out of his considera' ion, and made it one to
suit the aristocracy ; but even then, although the rate was
much too high, tho principle of permanency which
was attached to it enabled the proprietors to realize
handsome properties. But under the present system
a man was sent out to collect the tax, who was
to state how much it was to be. What reason '
could there be in such a case? If a man laid out capital
in the cultivation of his land his rent was raised, and the

more he laid out the higher he was charged. Were these
things known in England ?—( Hear, hear.) He was sure
they were not, for if they were, they would appear so un-
favourable to British humanity that he did not think the
East India Company would be allowed to practice them
for a,single hour.—( Hear and cheers.) He would read
to them an extras t from the evidence of Mr. Alexander
Sims, as illustrating the point. It was contained in a
Parliamentary paper which had just been published:—
" In the cultivation you do not consider the rent to be any
charge worth considering ? Yes, it is about 10 per Cent
upon the rental of the estate.—Beyond the rent that you
pay is the Government do you pay Taxes ? No, the rent
is the tax.—You pay no other tax of any kind ? No
Whet do you mean se hen you say that your tax to Govern.
ment is 10 per cent, of the rental ? What we pay to
Government we collect from the tenants, and I think that
the Government Revenue will be about 10 per cent. of
the rent roll of the estate.—So that supposing you collect
100 Rupees, 10 will go to Government, and 90 to your.
selves? Yes. It is not placed on that footing. We have
agreed to pay a specific sum, and we get as much as we can."
It appears further, from the evidence of the gentlemen.
that there was no limit to the amount of sugar that might
be grown in India.—( Hear, hear.) What, however, must
they think of the. plan under which the system of rob-
bing and extortion he had just called their attention to
was practised? And yet these tenants were stated to be
comfortable, merely because there was some fixity in the
principle on which the taxes were collected. Although
he had made these statements against the East India Com-
pany, he must be considered as their best friend, because
if the natives were merely treated with common justice,
it would secure peace and happiness in India, and prospe-
rity to the Company themselves. (Hear, 'near.) By
letting the land to the occupiers the price would pay their
debts, and give them a large annual revenue, while the
present system was one of fraud and embarrassment to the
East India Company, and of ruin to the unfortnnate na-
tives.---( Hear, hear.) It was unnecessary for him to point
out the poverty which must exist where a man knew not
what landlord to pay any one year for his property. It
was a fact that there were thirty-six millions of
acres in India uncultivated, and every one of them capable
of cultivation, but under the present system the jungle had
sprung up—the desert covered them, and the wild
beasts possessed them, when they should feed man abun-
dantly, and pour out golden harvests. And yet all tha
misery and wretchedness was attributable to British mis-
government.—( Hear, hear.) He could read them tale
after tale of the melancholy results of the present system,
but it was useless to occupy their time further. On the
Malabar coast the inhabitants had actually gone to their
rulers, and said, " Do not tax us in this way—we cannot
pay it; take all our land—give us a small allowance of
soil to keep body and soul together, and take every thing
else." To be sure they would be glad to do that ; and
now they might understand why it was that labour was so
cheap, and that the country remained unreclaimed, and
why it was that cotton could be produced so cheaply, aed
yet was not cultivated.—( Hear, hear.) Because the ca-
pital was not there, and there was no security of tenure.
With regard to the raising of the revenue upon land
he would read them one regulation of the great,
founder himself. In raising the tax, regard was to
be had to the productiveness of the crop—that was all
fair enough. But when the crop failed and only returned
the seed that had been put into the ground, producing no
profit, why the agreement was still to be paid, " as last
year, and if the farmers are not able to pay, all the adjoin-
ing lands are to be taxed to make up the deficiency."--
(Cries of shame.) Could they be surprised at the extent
of the misery that reigned in India under such a system,
and yet he had not stated the facts in too bright colours ?
He had shown that 36,000,000 millions of acres remained
uncultivated, that their productions were limited owing to
the want of capital, and there was a third point, and more
awful still, the constant recurrence of famine. From the
year 1762, when, after the battle of Plassy, the British
navy was first exercised in India, the first famine soon fol-
lowed, for it occurred in 1766 ; another dreadful one broke
out only four years after, in 1770, when one-half of the in-
habitants of Bengal perished ; the next was in 1782, as if
it came in every ten years ; the next was in 1792, this was
followed by one in 1803, then in 1804. The next, 1819,
1820, 1824, 1829, 1832, 1833, and to show that the same
system prevailed still, and if possible in a worse degree, the
famines were more thick, for they were in 1836, 1837,
and a most dreadful one in 1838, which was almost universal
throughout India, being nine in the last twenty years.—
( Hear.) [ He then read an extract which bore upon the point.]
They might ask what was the date of that ? No farther
back than March, 1840.—(Hear, hear.) • And it was
taken from the Asiatic Journal, which enjoyed the
countenance of the East India Company and Govern-
ment..—( Hear, hear.) Every plan proposed for the
amelioration of the condition of these unfortunate persons
had been opposed by the East India Company. He had
traced the crime and guilt to them, and a share of it would
attach to that meeting unless they insisted that that sys-
tem of despotism and tyranny should cease. _(Hear,
hear.) Much had been said of the value of India to
England, and of the wealth that had been obtained from
that country, but nine-tenths of it was plunder. But if
they did the people of the country justice—if they only
acted fairly towards them, the wealth of India would be
considerably increased. This land would produce to them
sugar, coffee, cotton, salt, teas, indigo, all of which were
articles of commerce and great consumption. It could
produce all of them in the greatest abundance and cheap-
ness—it would augment their native marine, double the
supply of their hardy sailors, it would augment their com-
merce with the whole world, and though last, not least, it
would, by furnishing a supply of cottsn to England,
extinguish slavery in North America.—( Loud cheera.)
Oh that he had the power of eloquence to send his voice
round their seagirt isle, aral rouse humanity, justice,
mercy in the British bosom, and where were those attri-
butes to be found unless in Great Britain ?—( Hear, hear.)
If he could bring them to listen to the details of compli-
cated robbery, and misery, and fraud, and eppreesion which
the accounts of the country unfolded, the remedy would
not long be withheld. He had the authority of a dis-
tinguished individual now in this country, the Right Hon.
Ilolt M'Kenzie, formerly a judge in India. What did he
say was the effect of the contact of the natives with the
Europeans? Speaking of particular parts of India, viz.,
the ceded districts, lie said :—" The longer we have had
these districts, the more apparently do lying and litigation
prevail ; the more are morals vitiated, the more are rights
involved in doubt ; the more are the foundations of scciety
shaken." What did another gentleman say, Capt. West-
macott, who had traversed the country from one end to the
other? Speaking of the influence of their contact with
the natives :—" It is greatly to be deplored, that in places
the longest under our rule, there is the largest amount of
depravity and crime. My travels in India have fallen little
short of 8,000 miles, and extended to nearly all the cities
of importance in Northern. Western, and Central India.
I have no hesitation in affirming, that in the Hindoo and
Mussulman cities, removed from European intercourse,
there is much less depravity than either in Calcutta,Madras,
or Bombay, where Europeans chiefly congregate."
Had they done the natives any good ?—( No, no.) Ile
had already shown how they had robbed and plundered
them, and what bad they done for India in return? They
had disseminated immorality and vice. They had pro.
duced misery, famine, and death.—( Hear, hear.) They
had read them lessons of demoralization and depravity and
crime, and they had subjected them to every species of
human suffering. It was a fact that natives had taken
their children, and plunged them into the waves to drown
them ! Mothers destroying their own children rather than
let them see the light of day. He feared such conduct
an I such a system called out for vengeance, in order that
such abominations might be blotted out from the face of
the earth. Let them only do justice to the natives—let
them accumulate capital and cultivate the soil, and Eng-
land would not be sufficient to supply their wants.--( Loud
cheers.) lie forgot how many millions it would take to
give them a turban a piece, but these statistical details and
calculations had been mede—so that their de_
mand would lbe insatiable fur British goods,
and a mart would be found for the cutlery and hardware
of 13irmingharn and Sheffield, if it were ten times the
amount —( Hear, hear.) Ail the general branches of
their commerce would be supported and extended, and
as hat price would they have to pry for all that ? Nothing
but justice—nothing but humanity.—( Loud cheers.) And
was it not too had—was it not enough to rouse the most
apathetic to think that they were paying the price of that
misgovernment and reaping the harvest of its iniquity
and crime?—( Hear, bear.) Let them not tell me (slid
Mr. O'Connell) this iniquity is safe. We have taught
them the art of war._( Hear, hear.) Their sepoy is as
valiant as our scldiers. A braver and more gallant hand
never existed than the native soldiers of India.—(hear,
hear, bear.) Shoulder to shoulder and breast-deep,
they are ever foremost in the hottest fire, and
as they arc a brave, so also are they a kind-hearted race
There are errors among them, arid darkest superstitions ;
but how do we present Christianity to them ?—( Hear,
hear ) Ii it the benevolent, kind, and mild religion
which the blessed and adorable Redeemer of mankind
taught ? Is it that in the stranger they should recognise
a friend, and in the enemy a brother ? Is it thus the mild
and charitable doctrines of Christianity are promulgated
to them? Oh, no I but by the scourge and the lash ; by
rapine, and torture, and the confiscation of their pro-
perty ; by assisting their failing harvests and bad seasons
to more than desolate them by death and famine.—
( Cheers.) How can they embrace Christianity under
these circumstances ? I make no excuse or apology, but
denounce, in the . loudest note my voice can raise, or
tongue can utter, those who would unchristianise India
and disgrace themselves by their cruelty and oppression.—
( Hear, and cheers.) I have addressed you long.
I have, as I told you, the materials for a
great deal more. I will keep and " bottle "
it up for a future day, least it should evaporate.—
( Cheers.) But, meanwhile, remember that I have shown
you four things. First, that the n:onopoly of opium and
salt is abominable in its nature, and moat objectionable in
its detail. Secondly, that there is neither a police nor a
sufficient administration of justice in India. Thirdly, that
the resumption law is one great law of the worst spolia
Lien, the most frightful and fearful of robberiee, under the
shape of a judicial proceeding. And, lastly and
above all, that the mode of levying the land revenue oc-
casions want and scarcity to the native, by depriving him
of the means of cultivating his land. All these crimes ex-
ist in the Government of India, and England will be a
participator in them unless she shall raise the shield of
humanity around the natives of India, to vindicate our
common Christianity, and promote the blessings of peace
and prosperity in that long oppressed quarter of the world.
The Hun. and Learned Gentleman concluded amid loud
and long continued cheering, by moving the following re-
solution :
" That this meeting is of opinion that the oppress've
monopolies,
the am d fluctuating amount of the land revenue, the general
resumption by the Government of lands hitherto held tax
free,
imperfection and corruption in the administration
of police and justice, and the maintenance of vexatious
are evils which ought to receive the immediate
and energetic attention of the Government of this coun-
try as tending to produce distrust and discontent among
the native population ; to unsettle the tenures of property,
and endanger the public peace—to cramp the exertions
of industry, and the progress of improvement ; to lessen I
the production of exportable commodities, and, by neces-
sary consequence, the capacity of extending commercial