The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-18 00:00:00

INDIA, PERSIA, AND

to Smolensk, which shows that it cannot be
compared to anything in Europe, either as to size or
population, any more than in difference of climate and
temperature, but that it must bo compared with Europe
itself. This empire has within its boundaries, the Ghauts
and Himalaya mountains, always covered with ice.
which rise, the former 13,000, the latter 27,000 feet above
the sea level. It is intersected by rivers, each of which,
like the Indus, Jumna, Sutledge, Ganges, and Bur-
hampootra, offers a navigation of not less than 1,200
English miles, and the two last-mentioned, during certain
months, pour into the Bay of Bengal a mass of water con-
taining more than 1,000.000,000 cubic feet in one hour.
It has for its defence a standing army excellently dis-
ciplined, and considerably greater than that of Austria,
and a revenue half as large again as Russia. Within its
boundaries there are towns which, like Calcutta, have a
population of a million : others which, like Delhi, Agra,
Benares, Lucknow, and Poonah, reckon from 300,000 to
500,000 inhabitants and others again—Madras and
Bombay, which carry on a trade greater than that of
ancient Carthage, Venice, or Genoa, during their most
r flourishing periods. It has kings as
,vassals, with a
greater number of subjects than Naples ; of dynasties
older than the Bourbons, and the emperor in Hindostan,
the descendant of Tamerlane (Timour Khan) the Great
Mogul, sits still on his golden throne, in Delhi, sur-
rounded by all the grandeur of the East, himself only a
prisoner in the power of the British.
BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN nu:ma.
LORD CLIVE'S ADMINISTRATION.
The history of the steps by which the British power
arrived at its present vast dominion in India is difficult
of compression,- but- we shortly proceed to notice the
leading points. The Company for some time were little
• more than an associated body of private adventurers, the
Governor and. Directors merely receiving the funds con-
tributed by each individual, managing them according
to his suggestion, and accounting to him for the pro-
ceeds. But in 1612, the merchants united into a joint-
stuck Company, and the whole was placed under the
c of of Directors. New commercial associations also
g a unity grew up, and combined together, till in 1655,
it roprietors were empowered by Cromwell to resume
a separate commerce. During a course of years from
this pdate, the Company, though under embarrass-
ment , were enabled to extend their commerce,
owing to the general prosperity of the coun-
try ; and in 1693 procured a charter from he
Crown to extend their capital to double its former
amount. In 1730 a strenuous effort was made, by peti-
tions from the chief mercantile towns, to have the Indian
trade thrown open to the nation, but the Company de-
feated this measure. Trade at this time had rapidly in-
creased, and attained to strength and power. But the
period was now come when the mercantile characte r of
the East India Company was to be eclipsed by its
achievements as a military power, and by the magnet ude
of their conquests. The ancient Mogul Princes courted,
in the dissensions which arose among them from time to
time, alternately the alliance and support of the French or
English India Companies, and these bodies turned their
quarrels to different accounts ; upon which the struggle
soon came to be which of the two should become the um-
pires of India. The affairs of the French were managed
with able conduct by La Bourdonnais, Dupleix, and
Lally ; but though, victory seemed inclined to
lean at first to the French and their allies, the
English affairs were effectually retrieved by the extra-
ordinary talents and address of Colonel, afterwards
Lord Clive. Having succeeded in humbling the French
power in the vicinity of Madras, Clive landed at Cal-
cutta in 1757, in order to chastise the Soubandar
Surajah-ul-Dowlah, who had a short while before at-
tacked the English factory at that place, and inhumanly
shut up
146 Englishmen in a prison, where, owing to
the excessive heat and want of water, 123 perished in a
single night. Clive had only 700 European troops, and
1,400 Sepoys with him when he landed; with these and 570
sailors furnished by the fleet,
the immense army commanded he did not hesitate to attack
manded by the SoubaLdar, and

AFFGHANISTAN.

rIsID XA.
It has generally been the guiding characteristic of
British Governments, and the distinguishing mark of
heir high, philanthropic, .and abiding policy, to refrain
from engaging themselves in war, bloodshed, or provoca-
tions leading to either, up to the extremest moment that
it could so do, compatible with its weal and glory ; and
this to an extent that has almost carried out the principle
involved in the dictum of Cicero, that " he preferred
an unjust peace to a just war." National honour,
however, becomes in some cases so entrammelled in ad-
verse events, that recourse to arms is as unavoidable as it
is to be recommended ; and when aggression proceeds
from the opposing party, and violation of sacred and long-
founded rights, persons, or institutions, attaches to their
political conduct, the wounded sense of British autho-
rity and right cannot reasonably submit to the injury
offered, nor the arm of vindication rest quiet. Our
Asiatic wars hare undeviatingly been wars of compul-
sion. Of all, which during the last half cycle of a cen-
tury, have engaged British arms in India, none can be
instanced in which our opponents have not been the pre-
cipitating parties ; the transactions of Seringapatam and
Bhurtpore, with a cluster of others referable to the
same period, bear ample testimony to the fact ; and
our. subsequent wars in Burma'', the Nepaulese ter-
ritory, and finally that which now' engages us in
Affghanistan, come under the same declaration. The
present. war is, upon our part, most virtually ono of
necessity : and perceiving, therefore, that non-avoidance
of bloodshed is a point which British authority, not-
withstanding its pacific desires, has been unable to pre-
vent or over-rule, and that war must inevitably prevail,
the only choice left to every true Englishman is, that
the arms and expeditions of his country, which are either
now on envoy to the seat of war, or some of which are
perchance at this moment engaged in contests, of the cha-
racter of whose fierceness and immitigability there can
be_ no doubt, may be crowned, in consonance with the as-
pirations of every patriotic heart, with those successes
and victories which heretofore, under the guidance of
Providence, have so often attended on our enterprises
abrOad.
ttkt such .a time, therefore, desire cannot fail to be
abroad in the mime of men to be acquainted with, the
lotalities in which the torch of warfare burns, as well as
its topegraphical and political relations to the various
kiPg'lnins adjoining ; and the accompanying Map,
In:: tight out and prepared under the accurate eye and
cay;y la, of Charing-cross, furnish these re-
tiuk ti°" in ever?. satisfactory point of view. The roads
vf:Candahar; Pestiawur, Raj puotana,—as those also bear-
ing. on Khelat, Peshoot,.. Lahore, and a variety of other
plat e,,bnt more especially the • mountain-passes of
el:
thoualabad, wherehave tour countrymen have been slaughtered
by sands already become stained and ine-
mt ra'tle spots • in the archives of history, and doubtless
o'ol%l at present but inconsiderable samples at most of
Milt may be surmised as hereafter destined to occur.
BRITISH INDIA.

EMINDAILIES or THE BRITISH POWER, Xle
THE EAST.

. Among the greatest phenomena in the history of the
w..; hl may, undoubtedly, be reckoned the British empire
in• ;he East Indies.
This empire has, within a single century, risen
irons- the humble rank of .a trading factory to an
empire of more than 140,000,000 inhabitants, includ-
ing- those who, though under their own Princes,
still obey the British power, and which extends o-er
1;250,000 .Engrds square miles of the most fertile p srt
of th©. surface of the earth (from 8 deg. latitude to
3c5 deg., and from 68 deg. longitude to 92 deg.),l nd
coniequently contains a polar altitude, the same-as ft om
'lv, -Messina to Torneo, and a breadth' as from Lisbon
- ...,-
'7N\

x•*

'4/14

"Y7'
r~
~,

50
''.'• ti.',...',:1.t....
~Z, K, \ 1.,.• ..,:',...'#,.;,A,",*.AZ,
\ \ . ''
\\‘' \ %....V..§",,, 4:2 k.'•,,,,,....W '-';.:::V
, lt \ \ ' \ O.,\NN% \\,, \`<.'.:`‘X•••‘. ...',.! \
,!•:,. \'; N\ \\N•NV.,..,',-5eq4.,,,\ ' .
~,77,-,,,,....„;;;;:_:„...::\, , .:,:.,,:,...,\\:,,,:.tw.:.,„ -‘:-.1:,...,, -• '.
A- ,vir
„-_,,.,..---x•:.--,-wify,
t,":off x‘\••\\l/4,-;--N---- ---_,, —'..—
\-- - ,111 v, ,
.....„_.,,,',.,.., . --____--( (k . , --• ..
•14 , 0. /1 I A' - •
-.a • • • ---••----• • -1.: . ic:.\ \ • ''...*••••,, '. , ' '',. 4''''''''N• '..., '....
'
.:N.'....,` ...• --- - •.,, ... ..... •,.N•:: -.'">-'"-----=•••,. 1
...m. L
( ( i ---
' / , 1 I ~. -4.--..• - ...- • \ . . -- .. `,....""t.
_________..
.71:pr\H,
~._______es,.....l4\s„
s\‘
_,______,_.....l. - • :'_._ -------- - - -....--,l_,_ -----, --:•,,,
_
_
I---_- % <", N. --‘• 1 ) '''' I •
CAUBUL.

totally defeated him in the famous battle of Plassy.
This victory threw the whole provinces of Bengal,
13ehar, and Orissa into our hands ; and they were finally
ceded to us by the treaty negotiated in 1765.

ADMINISTRATION OF MR. HASTINGS.
The administration of Mr. Hastings was one continued
scene of war, negotiation, and intrigue. Severe financial
distress pressed upon him on his entry on the Govern-
ment. The spoil of the Rajah of Benares—the putting
to the torture the two aged ladies, who were the reign-
ing Nabob's mother and grandmother, to force them to
deliver up their hoards, and by which he extracted from
them nearly half a million sterling, are historical circum-
stances too well known to need farther particularization.
His celebrated trial took place in the February of 1788.

ADMINISTRATION OF THE MARQUIS CORNWALLIS.
During the administration of the Marquis Cornwallis,
who succeeded Mr. Hastings, Tippoo Saib, the son of
Hyder Ali, was stripped of nearly half his dominions,
and the Company's territorial revenue greatly increased.
Lord Cornwallis was accounted generally a friend to the
people of India, and laboured earnestly, if not always
successfully, to promote their interests, which he well
knew were identified with those of the British nation.

MARQUIS OF WELLESLEY'S ADMINISTRATION.
During the administration of the Marquis of Welles-
ley, which began in 1797-8 and terminated in 1805.6,
the British empire in India was augmented by the con-
quest of Seringapatam and the whole territories of
Tippoo Saib, the cession of large tracts by the Mahratta
chiefs, the capture of. Delhi, the ancient seat of the
Mogul empire, and various other important acquisitions.
POPULATION OP TIM TXINIUTOILIZS IN