To the preceding characters, I must, in the same spirit of truth and candour, add the eminent names of Lord Pigot, Lord Macartney, the second Lord Clive, Lord William Bentinck, and their successors in the respective governments of India; who will be recorded in history as bright examples of British virtue, cooperating with the supreme administration in conducting the Asiatic empire; which, commencing with a few Banians and factors in a mercantile warehouse, now extends over an immense territory, (exclusive of our latest oriental conquests) inhabited by upwards of sixty millions of people!

Under the general name of Hindostan, throughout these volumes, I have included the whole peninsula of India, agreeably to the geographical boundaries in the Ayeen Akbery. Several modern writers comprise it within a smaller compass, including only the provinces north of the Deccan, extending to the frontier mountains. As I did not thus understand it during my residence in India, I have not since adopted it. The best standard for this subject, seems to be the country thus distinguished by Abul Fazeel. "Hindostan is washed by the ocean on the east, the west, and the south; to the eastward lies Malacca, together with Sumatra, the Moluccas, and many other islands. On the north are high mountains, part of which forms the boundary of HindosBeyond tan, on that quarter; the rest belong to Turan and Iran. these mountains, as far as Chinese-Tartary, are several fertile territories; particularly Cachemeer, the two Thibets, and Kushtwar. The north side of Hindostan is plentifully supplied with rivers; so that it may be said to have water on all quarters.

"The whole extent of this vast empire is unequalled for the

excellency of its waters, salubrity of air, mildness of climate, and temperate constitutions of the natives. Every part is cultivated, and full of inhabitants, so that you cannot travel the distance of a coss (or two miles) without seeing towns and villages, and meeting with good water. Even in the depth of winter, the earth and trees are covered with verdure: and in the rainy season, which in many parts of Hindostan commences in June, and continues till September, the air is so delightfully pleasant, that it gives youthful vigour to old age."

In another part of the Ayeen Akbery we find that the imperial dominions, in the fortieth year of Akber's reign, consisted of one hundred and five Sircars, or provinces; subdivided into two thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven kusbahs, or townships. The grand Soobah divisions and subordinate purgunnas of the empire have been already mentioned. The revenue of the whole was then settled for ten years, at the annual rent of three aribs, sixty-two crore, ninety-seven lacks, fifty-five thousand, two hundred and forty-six dams, or sicca rupees 9,0743881, upwards of eleven millions, three hundred thousand pounds sterling. At the death of Aurungzebe, in 1707, from major Rennel's accurate memoir, "the Mogul empire comprehended a tract of country, extending from the tenth to the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, and produced a revenue of thirty-two millions sterling; which, in a country where the products of the earth are about four times as cheap as in England, is an enormous annual amount."

What infinite advantage, what incalculable benefits, must accrue from a wise and liberal administration over those extensive

realms which now form a part of the British empire, is not for me to discuss. What immense good was done by the wise policy of the Bombay government alone, during a late famine, we learn from the address of Sir James Mackintosh to the Grand Jury of that island, in 1804; no other language than his own can be adopted on this interesting subject; it indirectly points out the object I have often mentioned; the amelioration of the natives of India by the introduction of religion, laws, art, science, and civilization, in their best and most comprehensive

sense.

66 a

This upright and able magistrate, after descanting upon famine in general, enters into the particulars of that in the Concan, occasioned by a partial failure of the periodical rains in 1802, and from a more complete failure in 1803, from whence, he says, famine has arisen in the adjoining provinces of India, especially in the Mahratta territories, which I shall not attempt to describe; and which, I believe, no man can truly represent to the European public without the hazard of being charged with extravagant and incredible fiction. Some of you have seen its ravages; all of you have heard accounts of them from accurate observers. I have only seen the fugitives who have fled before it, and have found an asylum in this island. But even I have seen enough to be convinced that it is difficult to overcharge a picture of Indian desolation.

"I shall now state, from authentic documents, what has been done to save these territories from the miserable condition of the neighbouring country. From the 1st of September 1803, to the present time, there have been imported, or purchased by govern

ment, four hundred and fourteen thousand bags of rice; and there remain one hundred and eighty thousand bags contracted for which are yet to arrive; forming an aggregate of nearly six hundred thousand bags, and amounting to the value of fifty lacs of rupees, or six hundred thousand pounds sterling. During the same time there have been imported by private merchants four hundred and eighty thousand bags of rice; making in all an importation of a million of bags, and amounting in value to one million pounds sterling.

"The effects of this importation on the population of our own territories, it is not very difficult to estimate. The population of Bombay, Salsette, and Caranja, and of the city of Surat, I designedly under-estimate at four hundred thousand. I am entitled to presume, that if they had continued subject to native governments, they would have shared the fate of the neighbouring provinces, which still are so subject. I shall not be suspected of any tendency towards exaggeration, by any man who is acquainted with the state of the opposite continent, when I say, that in such a case an eighth of that population must have perished. Fifty thousand human beings have, therefore, been saved from death in its most miserable form, by the existence of a British government in this island. I conceive myself entitled to take credit for the whole benefits of the importation; for that which was imported by private merchants, as well as for that which was directly imported by the government; because, without the protection and security enjoyed under a British government, that commercial capital and credit would not have existed by which the private importation was effected.

"The next particular which I have to state, relates to those unhappy refugees who have found their way into our territory. From the month of March to the present month of October, such of them as could labour have been employed in useful public works, and have been fed by government. The monthly average of these persons, since March, is 9125 in Bombay, 3162 in Salsette, and in Surat a considerable number; though from that city I have

seen no exact returns.

“But many of these miserable beings are on their arrival here, wholly unable to earn their subsistence by any, even the most moderate, labour. They expire on the road before they can be discovered by the agents of our charity: they expire in the very act of being carried to the place where they are to receive relief. To obviate, or at least to mitigate, these dreadful evils, a Humane Hospital was established by government, for the relief of those emigrants who were unable to labour. The monthly average of those who have been received since March into this hospital, is 1030 in Bombay, about 100 at Salsette, and probably 300 at Surat.

"I myself visited this hospital in company with my excellent friend Dr. Scott; and I witnessed a scene, of which the impression will never be effaced from my mind. The average monthly mortality of the establishment is dreadful; it amounts to four hundred and eighty. At first sight this would seem to argue some monstrous defects in the plan or management of the institution; and if there were great defects in so new an establishment, hastily provided against so unexampled an evil, those who are accustomed to make