In Oude, Rohilcund, and all the upper countries within our influence, the natives are, if poffible, ftill more diftreffed. Various hordes have been driven to defpair by hardfhip and exaction. They have affembled in formidable force, and menaced the whole country: -the hufbandman goes to the plough with a firelock over his fhoulder, while the Government is too feeble to reftrain these outrages, and too much depreffed to afford relief.'

Thus, according to Colonel Fullarton, every thing in India is rufhing headlong to perdition; yet if we turn to other writers, whose opportunities of information, and whofe reputation, may not be inferior to his own, every thing there is not only in full fecurity, but in a high ftate of improvement! Such contradictions may therefore be left to correct each other.

Sometimes, indeed, we find in the relations or fentiments of a writer, a degree of internal evidence, that does not require our going to India for farther fatisfaction; and of this kind we deem the following account of the distracted state of government

there :

The errors of the Company's management having attracted the attention of adminiftration at home, an act of the legislature was paffed in 1773, by which the powers of fovereignty were continued in the Company; but the authority of Parliament aflumed an executive interference in thofe very powers of fovereignty, by the appointment, recommendation, or confirmation of certain officers of juftice, and others to be established in India. The power and dig. nity of the Crown had, at an earlier period, been brought into di, rect competition, though not on equal terms, with the power and fovereign authority of the Company. An embaffy had been fent immediately from the Crown to the Nabob of Arcot, unavoidably in oppofition to the power of the Company. Vehement difputes arofe between the Ambaffador and the Prefidency of Fort St. George. The Governor and Council conftituted the regular authority of the fettlement, and poffeffed the powers of adminiftration; while the other claimed fuperiority as reprefentative of the Sovereign. The Nabob and all the other native princes were perplexed. They had been taught, that in the Company was vefted the fupreme authority of England, as far as refpected India-that no other power had any right of interference there. Now they are told, the Company is nothing more than a private body of merchants, without confequence or confideration in their own country, and who are foon to lofe all power and confequence in India.

* Or, rather, perhaps, to fome confidential friend, or correfpondent, of the Colonel's; for our Author tells us, in a note, that the Remarks on the condition of Bengal, and its adjacent territories, are not the refult of perfonal obfervation, and therefore may be confidered as lefs deferving attention than thofe which he has offered on the affairs of Coromandel. There is little doubt, however, confidering the natural fertility of thofe countries, that a mild and per manent administration might foon reftore them to profperity.'

In this fituation of affairs, what fhall the unfortunate Nabob believe?-how fhall he act ?-A host of needy adventurers poffefs themfelves of his confidence, impofe upon his credulity, and taint his mind with opinions that have fince proved his deftruction. "Your Highness (fay thefe adventurers) muft fhake off your connections with thofe traders ;-you must now adhere to the fovereign power and majesty of England :-You, Sir, are an independent prince; -you are guaranteed in your territory of the Carnatic by the treaty of Paris; - the Kings of France and Spain have ratified that treaty, and the King of England is your protector.-Throw off, therefore, all dependence on the mercantile affociation."

You will not be furprised, my Lord, that an Afiatic Prince, who cannot reconcile the contradiction of a body of merchants poffeffing fovereignty, fhould have been deceived by language fo congenial to his natural propenfities; efpecially when confirmed by the folemnity of public letters, and an embaffy from the Sovereign.

From that moment, his attachment to the Company was shaken: -he fpoke lightly of their power, difregarded their fervants, and counteracted their intentions.

The Government of Madras refented this defection, and forced him to confefs that his new allies were either negligent of their promifes, or unequal to refift the Company, in whofe hands the execu tive control still remained.

• Since that time, the Prefidency of Madras has been a continued fcene of counteraction. The Senior Officer of the squadron has ufually reprefented his Majefty at the Durbar, and that fituation tends to render him, ex officio, an object of jealoufy to the Company's Go vernment. The Commander in Chief on fhore, has likewife held an authority from the Crown, fo indefinitely expreffed, that he could neither fubmit to the government without incurring profeffional unpopularity, nor refift without exciting ruinous commotions."

Notwithstanding the fcepticism with which we peruse almost every publication relative to our affairs in the Eaft Indies, we muft acknowledge, that the well-written details and obfervations of this Author have contributed not a little to the enlargement of our ideas, and the correction of fome opinions which we had formed, concerning the real circumftances of the English interefts in India. His remarks frequently take a wide range, and place his political fagacity, as well as his military talents, in a very advantageous point of view. His work comprehends a conf derable variety of unquestionable information, and will, therefore, no doubt, prove materially useful to future compilers of the Hiftory of British Tranfactions in the Eaft, when the important events of the prefent century fhall pass in review before the defcendants of thofe who have been actors in both the great and the intricate scenes here delineated. His chief object is, profeffedly, to exhibit an unbiassed statement of recent occurrences in India, and of our actual fituation there;' and if, in doing this, he fails, in any inftance, of giving perfect fatisfaction to fome readers, who are in different fentiments [perhaps different attachments]

E e 4

tachments] in regard to Oriental politics, the ferment of the times may be more to blame than the writer. With refpect, in particular, to the Government of Fort St. George, and the dif tressful state in which our Author found the southern countries, when he commanded the army in thofe parts, we have not the shadow of a doubt, but that every thing is faithfully related and we must here obferve, that the actual service which he rendered to the Company, by the fpirit and vigilance of his conduct, in the execution of that important truft, proved of fo much confequence, and wore fo promifing an appearance of still greater fuccefs, that we could not, without regret, read his account of the interruption of his career, by an unexpected, though perhaps not unneceffary, paeification with Tippoo Sultaun.

The mention of Tippoo, in this place, reminds us of the advantageous character here given of his father, the renowned Hyder Ally Khan.-The following particulars concerning this extraordinary man, will be new to many of our Readers:

It is generally known, that Hyder Ally raifed himself, by his genius, and military fervices, to be the chief General, and prime Minifter, of the Rajah of Myfore, whom he foon found means to depofe, and imprifon with his family: after which, he tranfferred the fceptre to his own hand.

Hyder began his acts of fovereignty by training his peaceful fubjects to the ufe of arms, by new-modelling the military fyftem; by inviting all ranks of Moormen, Rajapoots, and other warlike cafts, to join his ftandard; by encouraging, or rather alluring, French and other Europeans to enter into his fervice; and above all, by a courfe of fevere and unremitting duty in the field. He attacked, and fucceffively fubdued the numerous Polygars, Chiefs, and petty Rajahs, whofe poffeffions lay within his reach. He extended his views against the countries fouth of the Ghauts, as far as the confines of Tritchinopoly and Madura, on the Malabar coaft. He reduced the Zamorin or Sovereign of Calicut, the Rajah of Paligat, the other Malabar Rajahs, and rendered the Rajah of Cochin tributary to his Circar. He conquered Beddanore, Goutty, and Chitelldroog; the countries of Cudapah, Kanoul, and Savanore; thus extending his dominions as far north as Goa on the Malabar fea, and across the peninfula to the country of Palnaud and Ganjam, on the coaft of Coromandel.

With thefe, and other inferior acquifitions, the Rajahhip of Myfore grew into a powerful State, 400 miles in length from north to fouth, and near 300 miles in breadth from east to west, with a population of many millions; an army of 300,000 men, and 5,000,000!. of annual revenue. Thefe atchievements were the refult of intrepid perfeverance. He next ventured to try his ftrength with the Marattas and with the English,-though he could not vanquish them, yet he increased in felf-confidence and public eftimation. His very failures he turned to account, and, like the Czar Peter, fubmitted to be worsted, that he might learn to be fuperior.

• During

During the long interval of peace with the English, from 1769 to 1780, the improvement of his country, and the strictest executive adminiftration, formed the conftant objects of his care. Under his masterly control, they attained a perfection never heard of under any other Indian Sovereign; the hufbandman, the manufacturer, and the merchant profpered in every part of his dominions; cultivation increased, new manufactures were established, and wealth flowed into the kingdom. But againft negligence or malverfation he was inexorable. The Renters, the Tax-gatherers, and other officers of revenue, fulfilled their duty with fear and trembling; for the flighteft defalcation was punished with the chaubuck, or with death. He employed fpies and intelligencers in every corner of his own dominions, and in every court of India; and he had other perfons in pay, who ferved as checks upon them, and watched all their operations.

The minuteft circumftance of detail, the produce of a crop, the cultivation of a diftrict, the portion paid to the Circar, and that referved to the inhabitants, were accurately known to him :-Not a movement in the remoteft corner could efcape him,-not a murmur or intention of his neighbours, but flew to him.-It will hardly appear exaggeration to fay, that he was acquainted with every spot," and almost with every perfon in his empire, when we confider that he was in a continued round of infpection.-In his Durbar, during the hours of bufinefs, reports from all corners were received :—his fecretaries fucceffively read to him the whole correfpondence of the day-to each he dictated in few words the fubftance of the answer to be given; which was immediately written, read to him, and difpatched.

On his right and left hand, during thefe hours, were placed bags of gold and filver; out of which, those who brought him intelligence were rewarded by one or more handfuls of coin, proportioned to their deferts; he was acceffible to all every horfeman or fepoy, that wanted to enter his fervice, was infpected by himself; every Jemidar, or officer of any note, was intimately known to him. His troops were amply paid, but not a fraction was loft. Thofe who fupplied his camps, garrifons, and cantonments, were all under fuch contribution, that almoft the whole military difbursements reverted to his treasury. There was no contractor bold enough to hazard a public impofition. There was no commander ingenious enough to fcreen inability or difobedience, nor a defaulter that could elude detection. He poffeffed the happy fecret of uniting minutenefs of detail with the utmost latitude of thought and enterprise. As his perfeverance and dispatch in bufinefs were only equalled by his pointednefs of information, fo his concifenefs and decifion in the executive departments of a great government, are probably unprecedented in the annals of men. Confcious from experience of his own ability, and of the weakness and diftraction of the English, he planned their extirpation from India. He fummoned all the native powers to join his caufe: they hefitated. He determined to act alone-and conquered the Carnatic.

* The chaubuck is an inftrument for fcourging criminals.

• His

His death, in December 1782, left the accomplishment of his farther defigns to his fon and fucceffor, Tippoo Sultaun, to whom he bequeathed an overflowing treasury, which he had filled,-a powerful empire, which he had created, and an army of 300,000 men, whom he had formed, difciplined, and enured to conqueft.'

Among other parts of our Author's work, we have especially noted his remarks on our political fituation in the Carnatic, &c. in which he points out the errors of our paft conduct, and suggefts what appears to him to be the least objectionable mode of a permanent reform.

In treating of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Oriffa, &c. he gives a particular, and very striking view of the extent, and local circumftances, of our poffeffions in that extenfive quarter, which will at once inftruct and aftonish those Readers who are not already well informed on the fubject. His geographical divifion of what is commonly understood by the Mogul empire,' is likewife curious, and, we believe, very accurate.

The political fuggeftions of the Author, relative to the idea of our giving permanent fupport to the Gentoo intereft, throughout the peninfula, in oppofition to their invaders and oppreffers, feem to merit the utmost attention. This, he observes, would unavoidably attach the great mafs of the natives to our caufe; and leaving their native Rajahs in the full interior direction of their diftrict, would afford us a voluntary contribution, more than fufficient to defray the whole ordinary and contingent charges of our Indian eftablishments.

In the fecond letter, to Lord Macartney and the Select Committee at Fort St. George, the Colonel gives a narrative of the operations of the army under his command, explains the defects, and fuggefts hints for the improvement, of the military system and difcipline; in all which his profeffional character appears to great advantage.

ART. X. Remarks upon Colonel Fullarton's "View of the English Interefts in India." By an Officer late in the Company's Service in Bengal. 8vo. 1 s. 6d. Stockdale.

TH

HIS nameless officer, who fteps forth to oppose Col. Fullarton, affures his reader, that, with refpect to Bengal,we can from our own knowledge, and, from perfonal obfervation, refute every fyllable that he has uttered, both as to the country, the army, and the civil fervice.' But without difputing the ability that is to atchieve all this, there would be fome fatisfaction in knowing where it refides; and who we are, whose knowledge and obfervation are to fuperfede thofe of Colonel Fullarton? When a gentleman addreffes the Public, in his proper character, and ftands refponfible for the veracity of what he publishes, his name gives a fanction; not eafily ftaggered by ano

nymous