The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-05-07 00:00:00

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It wise generally understood, and till lately asserted
by the Government Journals, that the real object of
the movements doer troops in India was to pet down
the Piadarrees. 'This mask is, however, now dropt.
It is avowed by the Courier, that this show of ioten•
tien against a particular tribe was merely a pretext to
cover the Marquis of HASTINGS' design of reducing the
Mabratta States ander the British yoke. The system
of dissimilation is a dangerous game to play. The
Marquis appears to have been met with his own
weapons. The Native Powers can dissemble too.— ,
If this art bad constituted no part of their no-
ted qualifications, it is evident they might have
acquired it amply from the beneficent conquerors,
who have come among them. "Both sides acted under
pretences," says the Courier ; and if this be the case,
Lord HASTINGS has not much room to accuse the
Mabratta Chiefs of insincerity towards him. "They
pretended friendship till the yoke was imposing."—
That is, we suppose, they pretended friendship till
the yoke was about to be imposed round their necks
for ever. Can we wonder, then, at their plans to
resist (t, and their starting unanimously into re-
sistance, when the system so formidatlY proposed
against a tribe of wandering robbers, sought to extend
itself jo the very heart of their capitals, and es-
timate them from their ancient dominions ? The In-
dian armies appear to have been most formidable; and
that, they have learnt to fight as well u deceive,
negotiate, conclude and break treaties'ishen it
suits them, as well as the most accost lished Euro-
pean Princes, is testified not much to of r satisfaction
or advantage by the records of the late events.—
HOLICAR has been beaten, but another such victory
would thin the British army in that quarter. The
powerful and artful SCINDIAII, it seems, is now to be
considered an enemy whose redaction is iodispen-
sible. 66 The next news witl probably bring ac-
counts of a battle with his army." The dissolution
of his power is not so certain. The dispersion of these
armies is not annihilation. The scattered elements soon
re-unite, and the European who aims at imposing tbe
yoke of thraldom upon them has to " fight all his battles
o'er again," and " slay the slain" as many times
over as the frantic Macedonian. The gallantry of
oar countrymen has, indeed, been eminently con-
spicuous in the fields of India as in the many other
lands which their blood has better moistened ; and it
is bat too true that the exploits on the ensanguined
scenes of the East, recut the remembrauce of the
fatal days of 66 Talav era and Waterloo," where vie-
tory wept over her own triumphs, and nations will
not know whether to raise the emblem of glory or
the monument of grief and despair.
The Ceylon Government Gaulle, has reached as,
containing a multitude of minute particulars respect-
ing the progress of the inserection in that island.—
The general aspect of the rebellion, however, was
not very formidable to a regular force, the Prw
tender himself being driven to extremities, aid
compelled in one instance to escape ou foot into a
jungle. The facts enumerated are, politically
speaking, of very little importance. Two or three
whites have been murdered. On one occasion Assist-
ant-Surgeon KENNEDY, and a native interpreter,
were put to death by a body of Candians, armed
with bows and arrows ; the detachment of a serjeant
end 10 native soldiers, who escorted them, having
exhausted their ammunition in repelling the attack,
bad fallen sacrifices in defence of the British officer.

A variety of subjects, important in themselves, but
without much apparent claims to interest upon the
face of them, came under consideration last night
in the Houses of Parliament. 'The Parish Vestry
Bill, to which we have endeavoured to call public
aUention, is passing rapidly and without much oppo.
sition, the third reading being to take place this even-
lug. When this Act.shall be carried into effect, the
Public will be better acquainted with its nature, on.
less it undergo a greater transformation in the short
progress it now has to make (a very onlikely cir.
cumstance) than any of the verbal alterations
made in it have yet effected in its spirit and
object. We cannot imagine that the most pleas-
ing feeling will be excited in the minds of some
of our countrymen, who, though they are not pos.
seined of much wealth, have yet some interests to
guard, when they attend the Parish Vestry, under
the new Act, and find some of their richer neighbours
entitled to give six voles for their one. yet this is
very likely to happen, and still more injarloos effects
are likely to spring from the Bill, which takes this
method of subverting the *misting order and pri-
vileges of society.