The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-09-12
Britt, Ii India,

AO hlSASA5 NI lhO Dl1llSn CUhuSCITOH
with India and its political supremacy
there, however soberly delineated, eX-
ceeds even the widest dreams Of ro-
nance. The circumstances attending
the acquisition OF that vast portion OF
the Astatic Continent, whose wealth has
been fabulous through all the historic
periods of earth, whose trade had been
coveted by all nations tor ages before
solomon had reigned and even before the
Pbaraohs had lived, and whence Egvp-
uans and PL9nicians had drawn their
treasures for building Memphis and
Thcoes and Tyre and Sidon. by small
Island in far of ocean. peopled by
new race, is most poterlt confirmation
Of the poetic axiom til at "truth is
stranger than felton,"
Ii is three hundred and seveuty-eight
years since the first Euro psan reached
"CalicuW (CaIcutta), in India, by the
way of the Cape Of Good Hope. Little
did Vasco da Cana dreaLu, when he
planted the standard of Por tugal at the
mouth of the Ganges, that he was open
ing the way for rival whose empire of
trade has since driven the Portuguese
flag from the empire of the seas.
Nearly an entire century elapsed after
Portugal had planted her colonies there, |
before the first Anglo-Saxon reached In
dia by the way OF the Cape. And still
half century later, little did England
think, when the whole nation jeered and
scOffed at the "dowerless Portuguese"
ded, and who brought him only the
Island of Bombay, that that "dowerless
Portuguese" bride was, giving them the
germ of their present, Indian Empire.
and of their sway over, tlyo hundred and
forty millions of Asiatic subjects. AND
yet such is the sober truth of this ro-
nance of history.
1t was not till the beginning of the
17th century that charter was granted
by England for the organization of that
wonderful corporation OF merchants
known as the East India Company. The
history Of the career Of that company is
itself one continuous romance. AT first
only feeble venture by unknown and
untitled men, it gradually rose to prince
ly power. 1t came to own province after
province of the richest regions of earth;
and each province larger than
the whole OF their own island |
home. 1t built Notifications and
established garrisons. 1t commanded
an army of 100000 troops, and itself
commissioned it's officers. 1t made |
treaties and declared war as q sover-
eign power. 1t appointed and paid its |
own judiciary. 1t held native princes |
and rulers Of India as their tributaries |
and Yassals. Cities larger than London |
were dominated by its military and reg
ulated by its police. Although legally |
but Company of Merchants, in all but
the name it was an Imperial Power.
For two hundred and fftg-eight years
this corporation grew and continued to
grow, till its power beganto overshadow
the British throne. And in 1853 an act
of Parliament was passed that trans
ferred the East India CompaRy's Gov
ernment of India to the royal crown;
and thus made possible and paved the
way to the assumption of an imperial
title to the wearer of that crown as the
"Empress Of India"
Verify, men must coneede that the
circumstances attending the planting
OF this Anglo-Saxon power, this young
est branch Of the Japhetic family, in this
earliest home of the Japhetic race, and
giving it imperial dominion there, are
Providential orderings more wonderful
than even the most ambitious plans OF
men could have devised, or the utmos
foreken Of man could have imagined; !
and must compel them to admit that
there is indeed "a Divinity that shapes
our ends, rough-hew them how we will"
And, in view Of these strangely ordered
events of the past as connected with the
expansion Of the Anglo-saxon race,
mems imaginatlons may be permitted,
without restraint, to forecast the proba-