The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-04-16 00:00:00

BRITISH INDIA.

(From the Yorkshireman.)
[There is much truth, but not unmixed with exaggeration,
in the following :—]
In the extracts which we have recently given from the lec-
ture of Mr. George Thompson, at Sheffield, on the 27th ult.,
we have shown that the effect of British rule, in our eastern
empire, has been to beggar the population, to multiply
famines to a degree unknown under her former rulers, to
turn a land of gold into a scene of universal poverty, and to
drive the natives into a state of incipient rebellion. Incon-
trovertible authorities have been adduced to prove that the
system of taxation inflicted on her impoverished people is
one of habitual extortion and injustice, limited only by their
capacity to pay. In the words of Mr. Thompson, we now
proceed to advert to the commercial bearings of the question,
and the effect which would be produced on the slave trade,
and slavery throughout the world, by doing justice to our
fellow-subjects in India. "It was strange," observed Mr.
Mr. T., " that while our merchants and manufacturers were
complaining of the falling off of trade, they did not turn their
eyes to our 100,000,000 of fellow-subjects in the' east, inha-
biting the most fertile country in the world, ready to become
our customers."

•
" Every pound of sugar we have consumed, produced by
slave labour, during the last forty years, might have been had
from the free labour of India. Every yard of cotton that has
been made from the polluted produce of the United States
might have been had from the free labour of our own India.
Every leaf of tobacco we have had from the blood and sweat
of slaves might have been raised by a free peasantry in India,
which is capable of supplying, not only our own country, but
the whole world. To show how the East India produce
might compete with the slave produce, Mr. Thompson stated
that the expense of a slave, consisting of prime cost, interest
of money, wear and tear, and keep, in North and South Ame-
rica, was not less than ls. 6d. a day to the owner. But the
natives of the East Indies would gladly work for wages vary-
ing from Id. to 3d. per day at the highest ; and, at this cheap
rate might be produced sugar, cotton, tobacco, and rice for
the world. We were the slaves of China for tea, which we
might have from India ; we were the slaves of America for
cotton, and an east wind for three ur
nay exhausted, might stagnate the trade of the cotton
districts, and produce starvation, discontent, and sedition.
The same would be the result of a war with America. ,But
yet we, for the sake of enabling the planters of the slave
states to drive their 600,009 slaves to the cotton fields every
morning, wasting human blood, crushing the human intellect,
darkening the human understanding, and plunging into per-
dition their own souls, to raise cotton to procure our gold—
we are doing foul injustice to the hundred millions of our
fellow-subjects in India."
But suppose we could get cotton, sugar, rice, and tobacco,
from British India, were we sure that they would take our
manufacturers in return? To prove that the natives were
eager, when they had the means, to take our manufactures,
Mr. Thompson adduced a variety of evidence, showing the
surprising increase which had taken place in the value of our
exports since the abolition of the company's monopoly of the
trade to India.* It was impossible, Mr. Thompson con-
tinued, to calculate the immense amount of trade we might
have with India if the people were allowed to enjoy any rea-
sonable share of the produce of their industry. Sheffield and
other parts of England now send to India goods to the
amount of £lBO,OOO a year in hardware and cutlery of all
kinds—an amount which ought to be doubled and quadrup-
led a hundred times. He showed that if the Hindoos were
only left in a condition to take our manufactures, to the same
extent in proportion to their numbers, as the negroes of
Hayti, it would make our exports 150 millions a year.

* Sir Thomas Munro observed, " the people were remark-
ably fond of British manufactures." General Briggs says,
" Place India on an equal footing with the mother country;
treat her as a trading nation, and not as a tributary colony ;
and 90 millions of people, with a thriving agricultural popu-
lation, and a ready market for their produce, will not fail to
consume all that the manufacturers of England can supply,
in the way of broadcloth, cutlery, machinery of every de-
scription (from a steam-engine to a pocket-watch,) porcelain,
glass ware in all its shapes, jewellery, wines, and a hundred
other articles, which the want of means alone now prevents
the natives from purchasing."