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

BRITISH INDIA.

ZCIUNDILUZZS Oa' T:;111 .13.R.1175ti POWER. rig•
T' Jii 3:111.S T. •
Among the greatest phenomena in the history of the
‘• o71:1 may, undoubtedly, be reckoned the British emr ire
in the East Indies.
This empire has, within a single century, risen
from the humble rank of a trading factory . to an
mpire of morel'ihan 140,000,000 inhabitants, includ-
ing those who, though under their own Princes,
obey the British power, and which extends o--er
1.250,000 English square miles of the most fertile p trt
of the surface of the earth (from 8 deg. latitude to
I.sdcg., and from 68 deg. Jongitude- to. 92_ t' nd
consequently contains a polar altitude, the same as fi om
Mess= to Torneo, and a breadth as from Lisbon

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 be 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.
I 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 Poonith, 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
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.

BE.XTXSZTIGOVERNIVIMNT IN INDIA.
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 associatedibody 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-
stock Company, and the whole was placed under the
control of Directors. New commercial associations also
gradually grew up, and combined together, till in 1655,
its proprietors were empowered by Cromwell to resume
a separate commerce. During a course of years from
this date, 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 tho nation, but the Compan yde-
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 magnitude
of their conquests. The ancient Mogul Princes court d,
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, a and •
Lally ; bat 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
Suraiah-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. Chve had only 700 European troops, and
1,400 Sepoys with him when he landed; with these and 570
sailors furnished by the fleet, he did not hesitate to attack
the immense army commanded by the Soubandar, and

totally defeated him in the famous battle of Plassy.
This victory threw the whole provinces of Bengal,
I;ehar, 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.