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IN a paper on the early history of India, published some time ago in this magazine,t we commenced our observations by referring to the indifference exhibited by the home public to all topics connected with our Asiatic empire; and we did so, as we then stated, not because the circumstance was either striking or anomalous, but for the better reason of its practical importance. "We could," as we then expressed ourselves, "little hope for any marked improvement in the social condition of the natives of India, until the people of these countries had such an acquaintance with it, as that a public opinion could be formed on the subject, and was known to exist." "It was only," we added, "to such pressure from without that the difficulties which attend the promotion of Christianity in India-the main sanitary provi sion for all its ills, spiritual, moral, and even industrial-would ever give way, and that one of the first steps towards the formation of this public opinion, was the diffusion of some knowledge of the history and statistics of the country." In humble aid of this object we then took up our pen, and with like purpose we now resume it. In regard to the fact of ignorance of, and apathy to, Indian interests, we find our views corroborated by what we believe we are entitled to call the highest authority on such a point, the Times newspaper, which, in a leading article of two years' later date-that is, on the 14th of June, 1847, dwells on the circumstance as a woeful truth, and

cites the saying of "one of our most accomplished writers and speakers, at this moment a member of her Majesty's cabinet," whom most of our readers will easily recognise as the able and eloquent Mr. Macaulay; and who "avowed his conviction that not one in ten of our most highly-educated gentlemen had the faintest conception of these incidents of British Indian history, which would correspond with the victories of Alfred, or the landing of the Conqueror, in our domestic annals."

We gladly admit that since the appearance of our previous paper, this insensibility to Asiatic interests has been a good deal lessened. This is partly an effect, and one which we anticipated, of the rapid, regular, and frequent communication by what is miscalled the "overland passage," which passes over no land except the hand's-breadth at Suez. This acknowledged improvement must, however, be most of all ascribed to the felt jeopardy to which our Indian empire was exposed by the unexpected aggression of the Sikhs. That taught us for, perhaps, the first time, deeply to appreciate the value of our imperial colony, and our views of interest were blended with nobler feelings in the triumphs which followed.

Although India is immeasurably the most important of all our great dependencies, there is not another in regard to which we have an equal tendency to indifference. The philosophy of the cause of this appears to be, that it is the only one with which we are not

"Mill's History of British India." Edited, and now completed, by Horace Hayman Wilson, M.A., F.R.S. 9 Vols. London: Madden, 1848.

The Life of Lord Clive." By the Rev. G. R. Gleig. London: Murray. 1848. Vide DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE, No. CL.

VOL. XXXII.-NO. CXCII.

2 x

nationally identified by colonization. Every Englishman who goes there hopes to return; nobody loves to live there; none settle; no one regards it as his home. Hence the lack of personal interest in the country; and hence, again, the general coldness of which we have been complaining. The duties of all in office are performed faithfully and well; but they are performed as duties, and such sympathy as strangers feel is, like their connexion with the soil, temporary. We notice the defect, not for the purpose of disparaging our government of India, which is, beyond all question, the best its nations have ever known-one which gives them that great element of social happiness, security of person and of property, and what we are disposed to regard as of almost equal importance, immunity from agitation. We notice the defect, not, we say, for the purpose of underrating the horrors of anarchy and terrors of misrule, from which our government has saved the people of India; or of depreciating the higher degree of civilisation which it has been, to a great extent, the means of introducing; but for the purpose of showing that to compensate for a defect which appears to be inherent in the nature of our connexion with India, we are bound the more carefully to consult her interests, and, as a means towards this, to make them more known, in various forms, through the press. Interest and pride seem alone to link us to India-interest in its rich resources-pride in the honours we have won there. We long to be united to that country by a holier tie-by that good feeling which must arise from well-directed efforts to improve the condition and raise the character of its many peoples. Our humble sphere is, to aid in making these known, and our first step an attempt to outline their history.

The India trade was, from the earliest period, looked on in the West as the most magnificent of all commercial objects; and each European nation, as it rose in maritime importance, aspired to a participation in its golden fruits. It is characteristic of the genius of Alfred, justly named the Great, that he endeavoured to direct the attention of our merchants to that line of traffic. He, as we are told by William of Malmesbury, sent, in the year

883, Sighelenus, Bishop of Sherburne, to India, under the pretext of making offerings at the shrine of St. Thomas, and the monk adds, that at the date of his chronicle, some of the commodities which the bishop brought back were to been seen in the church at Sherburne. The crusades, in later periods, made us somewhat better acquainted with the usages and productions of the East; but it was not until about the period of the Reformation, when, and much owing to that event, we were becoming a manufacturing people, that the expanding spirit of commercial enterprise began to exhibit itself in vigorous efforts to extend our trade, and then intercourse with India became our first object. The earliest of these attempts was the voyage of Robert Thorne, in the reign of Henry VIII., in the year 1527, to discover a north-west passage to India. Then followed the fatal voyage of Sir Hugh Willoughby, who, with all his crew, perished on the coast of Lapland. This voyage was in search of a northeast passage, and was made in the reign of Edward VI., in whose time, and that of Elizabeth, others of a like character were repeatedly undertaken by such well-known navigators as the Cabots, Frobisher, Davis, Hudson; some to seek out a north-west, others a northeast passage to India. These intrepid mariners failed in finding for their country the short track to the gold of Cathay, or to the diamond mines of Golconda; but they taught her a better service, in rendering her sons hardy and accomplished seamen. The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, by Bartholomew Diez, in 1486, and the actual voyage made to India, by Vasca de Gamo, in 1498, revealed the longsought-for course. We have, in our former paper, noticed the steps by which the Portuguese and the Dutch, availing themselves of this discovery, established their connexion with the East. It was not until Drake's circumnavigation voyage that our English merchants directed their attention to the course to India by the Cape. Drake, who had passed that promon tory in fair weather, disrobed it of the terrors with which it had been invested by the Portuguese and Dutch; and his voyage, which had given new impulse to the enterprise of our traders, was soon followed by an incident well calcu

lated to stimulate their desire for gain -we mean the capture of some Portuguese Indiamen with immense treasure, and with papers affording information of greater value. Besides the details thus made known, there had been a good deal of knowledge on the subject of the Indian trade, collected by an association called the Levant Company, which had been for some years established, and which conveyed goods from Aleppo and Bagdad, and thence by the Tigris to Ormus, on the Persian Gulf. This company succeeded in opening a very extensive intercourse with India; but the expenses of the transit were so great that the returns were not very lucrative. Encouraged by the hope of larger profits, and prompted, as we have said, by the spirit of maritime enterprise, vessels were fitted out, and voyages made to India, some by government vessels, and some by vessels fitted out by individuals. They, in all cases, partook of a piratical character, and their gains were usually enormous. Still the hazards were found to be too great for private capital, and an application, in consequence of this, having been made to Queen Elizabeth, she, in December, 1600, granted to the petitioning merchants a charter, erecting them into a corporation, under the title of "The Governors and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies." This charter gave them the privilege of exclusive trade; but the crown reserved to itself the right of resuming its grant, after a three years' notice. The early intercourse of the company was with the Indian islands, and their chief station was at Bantam, in Java. They subsequently found it advantageous to open a trade with the continent of India, which was first attempted at Surat, in 1609. The Portuguese, who were at that time in possession of the trade there, showed every disposition to oppose them; but they quailed before the determination of Sir Henry Middleton, who commanded the company's ships. Our merchants soon made some character with the native traders, and gained no little influence with the nabobs and princes of the country.

On the 11th January, 1612, they obtained from the Emperor Jehanghire a firman, authorising them to hold establishments in certain places along

the shores of his kingdom. Pursuant to this, they, in the course of that year, built a factory at Surat, and thus made their final settlement on the continent of India. This was in the reign of James I., who, about the same period, sent out Sir Thomas Roe as his ambassador to the court of the Great Mogul. This mission supplies us with a most interesting account of the emperor, his court and country, but was not attended with any political advantages. Soon after this an incident occurred, which led our merchants to abandon their connexion with the Eastern Archipelago, and to direct all their attention to the trade with continental India. The naval power of the Portuguese was declining, and with it their influence in the East, but the Dutch were our active and powerful competitors. They were deeply jealous of our endeavours to share with them the lucrative trade of the Spice Islands, and evinced this feeling in an act which will for ever stain their annals-known as the massacre of Amboyna. They had in that island a strong fort, garrisoned with two hundred men, and there were eighteen Englishmen residing in the town engaged in trade. These they arrested altogether, with some few Japanese and one Portuguese, on the ground that they had conspired to seize the fort. The statement of the charge exhibits the improbability of its truth, and this is further heightened by the nature of what they called their evidence. Their first information was from one of their own Japanese soldiers, and obtained by the application of torture. They then put all the prisoners to the rack. At first each of them denied any knowledge of such a plot, but the torture being again applied, they of course confessed all that their accusers wanted. When released from pain, they repeated their denial of the charge, but being tortured anew, were compelled to reconfess it. Nine of the English, including their captain, were put to death, their heads being cut off by a scimitar. They all declared their innocence in the most solemn manner. Nine Japanese and one Portuguese shared their fate, while the remaining Englishmen were pardoned.

The account of this cruel proceeding excited, as might be expected, the

greatest indignation in England, and to increase it, the court of directors had a picture prepared, copied and circulated, representing the horrors of the scene. It was not, however, the interest of our government to go to war on the occasion, and negotiations were commenced, which were protracted from 1623, the period of the transaction, until about 1654, in the time of Cromwell, when an adjustment took place.

The immediate result was, however, what the Dutch no doubt anticipated-the abandonment of our intercourse with the Indian Archipelago. Our merchants felt that they had neither forces nor forts enough to protect a trade, and thus was this guilty act long attended with all the advantages which its originators had contemplated.

Mill, whose prejudices often mar his work, assumes at times an air of impartiality, which is sadly misplaced. He endeavours on this occasion to excuse the Dutch, by suggesting that, biassed by self-interest, they may have believed their rivals guilty. The fanciful assumption of motives may palliate any crime; but unhappily this is not the only proceeding which taints the colonial conduct of the Dutch. On the contrary, it is only characteristic of their selfish and cruel policy in the East.

Partly in consequence of the loss of trade which ensued directly on this catastrophe, and partly from the large expense incurred by their contests with the Portuguese, the East India Company became at this time a good deal embarrassed; and it was while their finances were thus deranged, that a circumstance took place, which led to their settlement in Bengal, and subsequently proved the main source of their prosperity.

A physician, named Boughton, having been called on to attend the daughter of the Emperor Shah Jehaun, in a dangerous illness, was so fortunate as to cure her, and, in consequence, gained her father's goodwill. With generous feeling, he availed himself of this to advance the

interests of his countrymen, and obtained for them the privilege of carrying on a free trade. The same gen

tleman was equally successful at the court of the Nabob of Bengal, from whom he procured, in 1636, permission for the company's servants to erect a factory at Hoogley, on the sonamed branch of the Ganges. Much about the same time a fort was erected at Madraspatam, on the Coromandel coast, where we had for some time previously had depots. This new station was named Fort St. George; and thus have we traced the commencements of our three presidencies, on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts, and in Bengal. But the state of affairs in England precluded the company from availing themselves of these opening pros pects, and during the civil wars their existence, as a corporation, was in peril.

The India trade was in fact thrown open, for the five years which preceded 1657, the date at which Cromwell renewed the privileges of the company. The effects of this free trade are very differently stated in works of the period; but the nearest guess we can make at the truth leads us to think that our merchants offered India goods at low prices, and extended their sales to almost every part of Europe, underselling the Dutch even in Amsterdam. In confirmation of this last fact, Sir John Malcolm cites a passage, in the "Letters of Thurloe," Cromwell's secretary, to the effect that the merchants of Amsterdam, "having heard that the Lord Protector would dissolve the East India Company at London, and declare the navigation and commerce to the Indies to be free and open, were greatly alarmed, as they considered such a measure would be ruinous to their own East India Company.'

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The prospects of our own East India Company became more encouraging under Charles II. and his brother James. The former renewed and extended their privileges, and made over to them the island of Bombay, which he had received as part of the portion of his queen, the Infanta of Portugal. James added the important prerogatives of levying troops, holding courts-martial, and coining money. It is not, perhaps, to be wondered at, that these high powers were

* Malcolm's India, vol. i., p. 19, n.

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