The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-04-04
The British In india.


being brought under the influence of foreign au-
thority All British India has been elevated since
the middle of the last century; and we must admit
that the improvement is due to English agencies
Containing within itself no power Of progress, no
capacity for development, native Indian society
has for the last two thousand years been singuary
sterile and deficient in all the energies that elevate
man in the scale of creation And it is exactly the
most debased and ignoble part of the Indian popu-
lation over which Britain has had most influence
1t is the indolent Bengalee and the imbecile races
that vegetate in the plains of the Gauges which
have been easiest subjected and most entirely con-
trolled by foreign masters. The tribes of the noun
tains have resisted longer the arms of the stout
islanders and it is from the northern armies that
the English have recently had the most serious OPP
position, and met with most serious losses.
The Sikhs, whom the British have last encoun-
tered are one of the bravest and fercest of all the
Indian tribes. Occupying the head-waters of the
Indus, and possessing the energy inherent in noun
tain races they have also the enthusiasm which is
inspired by new religious faith. Believers in
Nanac, the Indian Mahomet, and protesting pure
Deism, they consider themselves under the special
protection of God; and have all the blind and ex-
into warlike people. They are free from the re-
straints of caste and hence are more capable of
improvement than the races bound up in the letters
of Hndoo institutions. They have not fixed the
flowing waters of humanity or encircled the mind
in the fatal ring that admits of no enlargement;
and the future is open to them for hope and for
advancement. The Sikhs, therefore, stand better
chance of maintaining their independence, and are
worthier of it than the soft and enervated races
that pass away an inglOrious life on the borders Of
the sacred river But with all their native energy,
we cannot suppose that they will long be able to
resist British armies, keep themselves free from
the pervading influences of British civilization.
The battle on the bank of the Jhermun may, for
time impede the progress of English power; but it
is not to Indian tribes that we are to look for
staying the march of British power in the East.
Nor do we know of any thing short of contact
with Russia that will hinder England in the ag-
grandizement of her Eastern Empire.
We cannot regret the inevitable fate that seems
to hang over all the tribes of India. The right of
stronger and better race to take possession of
country which its former owners have shown them
selves incapable of cutvatng to the fullest extent,
is, we think, corollary of the right of the human
race to all the soil of all the earth. The dis
covery and partial occupancy of any part of the
earths surface cannot impart to people the right
of preventing all others from encroaching on the
appropriated domain. Britain is extending her
empire in India, by the authority and the power
which belongs to those who have the largest
amount of knowledge and civilization. The native
tribes succumb because their society possesses
within itself no principle of vitality-because they
can no longer subjugate to the uses of their con-
stantly increasing population the magnificent natu-
raj advantages with which Providence has sur
rounded them. 1t is in societies constituted after
the Hindoo fashion, that all the deductions of the
Malthusian doctrine of population are most clearly
observed. We see generation crowding upon
and outnumbering the one that preceded it; yet
art and science and industry not keeping pace with
the provocative energies the mass of the people are
on the point of starvation, while numbers throw
themselves into the Gauges, more to escape the
pangs of poverty than to sacrifice themselves to
their unnatural deities. We cannot censure any
agency that breaks up such system of society,
and gives some chance for an escape from such
unmtigated and wholesale misery. Besides, to
permit nation of dlers to hold one of the finest
regions of the globe, is to deprive other people of
the right they have to all the products labor may
force from the earth. If nation cannot cultivate
the soil on which it has squatted, the land must be
taken away and given to another people.
There was time when every feeling man
mourned for the sufferings of the Hindoos, and
regretted the crueties which British avarice prac-
ticed on the Indian tribes. The day, however, of
the Gives and the Hastings has long passed the
Wellesley's and the Bentinck's followed, and have
earned tie eternal gratitude of all India Under
the present organization of the British government
of Hindostan, there is little or no field for official
extortion and proconsuar rapacity. The English
government is, at the same time, the mildest and
the most efficient in all the East; and this is why
we cannot but be glad at the extension of British
power in India.
Great Storm-Arrival from the Sandwich Islands
Tie Rivsrs
Photographed to tbs Louisville Journa.1
HARRISBURG, March 81, P MA great storm of
wind, hail and snow occurred this afternoon, which
was quite destructive Six spans of the unfinished
bridge of the Central Railroad Company over the
Susquehanna, six miles from the city, were carried
away. The storm ragged for long time.
BosToN, March 81, 8 P. M.-The ship Gar
arrived at this port today, from the Sandwich
Tahiti to the 9Th of Dec. She brought $4,000 of
California gold.
PITTsBURG, March 81, 8, P. M.-There are 14a
feet water in the channel and falling The receipts
Of lumber very heavy and prices are unsettled.
The Telegraph No. 2 left for Louisville to-day.
Among her passengers were Senators Cass, Jeffer-
son Davis, Turney Atchison, Jones and Hannegan
CINCINNATI, March %, s P. M.-The river has
risen inches in the past "a hours The weather
is pleasant.
GT E. G. Creacraft, late member of the Penn
sylvania Senate, from Washington county, died
there on Tuesday, the Doth ut
EXPLORING PARTY.-A party, under Lieuten-
ants Michler and Bryan, of the Typographical
left San Antonio the 18th ult for the
purpose of exploring the country to the Preside Rio
Grande, with view to military operations, and the
of the post at the latter point for
which three companies of the LIST Infantry have
already marched.
Er Rev. John Smith has been nominated by
the Queen of England to the bishopric Of Hong
Kong, in China.
TERRIRIE PIAcr-The MethOs,ist church in