tions, religions, languages, and races of men fubfifting in India, and where fcarcely any length of time could even render them intelligible, will probably ever be confidered as a fundamental political error. The antiquity, of the Gentoo civilization, laws, religion, and customs, fortified by the invincible attachment which it produced in the people, had, in all ages, procured the political attention, if not the refpect, of the moft ferocious and barbarous of

their various conquerors. How ever the people were oppreffed or pillaged, their prejudices in thofe refpects were facred and inviolate.

The Zemindars, who are the prefent great landholders of India, are likewife a fort of hereditary princes of the country. They generally rent, from their fubfifting mafters, thofe lands which their ancestors poffeffed in fovereignty. Some of these hold lands to the extent of ten or twelve thoufand fquare miles, and as the rents were generally easy, and the people ftill regard them with the highest degree of attachment and reverence, they are enabled to retain fome appearance of former royalty in their palaces, and fill more in their authority. English government in this country, is in a great measure maintained through this attachment of the people to their princes; and the defire of enabling the Zemindar to discharge his rent, is a principal fpur to their induftry. All the judicial bufinefs of the country, had hitherto been tranfacted in their provincial courts, and matters of litigation decided according to the known laws and customs.

VOL. XXIV.,

The

We

The authority of the native courts was not only denied by the new judicature, but their members were punished even to ruin, as well as perfonal infliction, for the difcharge of their functions, according to the established laws and conftitution of their country, which had till now been acknowledged by all conquerors. are at all times to recollect, that it had been the conftant policy of the Eaft India company in the government of thofe countries, to act under the apparent authority, and as the nominal fervants and officers, of that shadow of the antient fupreme fovereignty, the reprefentative of the Grand Mogul, who ftill refided at Delly. So that the new fyftem of judicature operated not fimply as a violent and unprepared innovation, but as a total revolution in the mode of government established by ourfelves.

The aftonished and terrified natives of Bengal and the adjoining countries, now beheld the extraordinary fpectacle of English bailiffs, accompanied by confiderable bodies of armed Europeans, traverfing the country, at the diftance of fome. hundreds of miles from Calcutta, to execute by force the decrees of the new judicature, founded upon laws and diftinctions which they were utterly incapable of comprehending, in the palaces, and on the perfons, of the Zemindars; whom they viewed at once with the refpect due to their natural princes, and to the medium of European authority. Force, in the defence of all that was held facred, was opposed to force. A kind of fieges were formed; reinforcements were fent [*M]

'to

to fupport the affailants; the timidity, not the inclination of the people, prevented their being cut to pieces; places were carried by form; the brother of one of the rajahs, with others of his friends or family, were killed in the defence of his palace.

The apartments of the women, which are held facred throughout all the Eaft, and ftill more fo among the Gentoos of rank, were violently broken into, and their perfons, which are supposed to receive fome defilement even from the cafual view of a ftranger, were fubjected to the rude handling and rough treatment of those fort of ruffians who are generally enployed upon fuch occafions. But this was not the worst. Their places of private and domeftic worship were violated in the fame manner; and thofe fymbols, or external objects of their adoration, which had been fanctified by the reverence of ages, were dragged from their places by prophane hands, and thrown amongst the heap of houfhold furniture and lumber, which were collected to anfwer the ends of the execution."

The governor-general and council, who confidered all matters of finance, and confequently all tranfactions with the Zemindars, as cognizable only by themfelves, and ftill regulated in that refort by the known laws and cuftomary course of justice in the country, could not but refent this invafion of their authority. They had indeed much ferious caufe of apprehenfion, from the effects which this violence on the rights, paf fions, and prejudices of the people might produce, in a country where

2

fo many millions of natives were governed by a handful of strangers.

They accordingly employed the military force of the company to reftrain the violence of the civil power; and a gang, confifting of about fourfcore bailiffs and their affociates, were in one inftance difarmed, and fent up prisoners to Calcutta. Two petitions were now prefented to parliament. The one from the governor - general and council, giving a long ftatement of the tranfactions, and requefting an indemnification from thofe legal penalties, which, for the prefervation of government and of the country, they had been under a neceffity of incurring, in refifting the decrees of the supreme court, and the operation of an act of parliament.

The fecond petition was fub. fcribed by 648 of the British fubjects refiding in the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Oriffa, containing a long detail of the grievances, oppreffions, and violations of their rights as men and as Britons, which they had endured under the authority of the fupreme court of judicature; particularly of their being deprived of the be nefit of trials by juries in all civil cafes; of the establishment of ex poft facto and retrofpective laws; of fome matters relative to appeals, and the admiflion of evidence, which feem to be exceedingly oppreffive and unjuft; with a number of other affumptions of power, which, as ftated, appear of an extraordinary nature. They likewife confirm the accounts given by the governor-general and council, relative to the state of confufion, anarchy, and danger, which

through

the throne.

HE rejection of his bill of T reform in the preceding feffion, did not prevent Mr. Feb. 15. Burke from bringing it forward again in the prefent. He opened his propofition by ftating the powerful motives which called upon him to resume his undertaking. The three celebrated refolutions of the late parliament on the 6th of April, 1780.-The general temper, expectation, and wifh of the people-And the direct applications to himself by fome of the counties. He fupported the measure of reform with his wonted eloquence and ability. The first argument was deduced from the ftate of public affairs, and the dangerous war in which we were involved with fo many mighty enemies. This was a ground of policy immediately affecting the ftate and government, and entirely independent of the applications or wishes of the people. It would eperate equally if no fuch applications had been made, or no fuch defire fubfifted. It would operate with equal force in any conftitution of government. When a naLion is involved in expences of fo vaft a magnitude as ftretch to the atmoft limits of the public ability, economy must be called in to pre

ferve the due proportion between the refources and the demands. It was the duty of minifters to have originally framed and carried into execution fuch a fcheme of reform; it was now their intereft to fecure themselves from punishment, and to make fome amends for their former neglect, by adopting the fyftem, and to give it efficacy by rendering it a measure of

the state.

He difplayed no fmall address in his application to the new reprefentative body. The three refolutions of the laft parliament, (which had been just read) he obferved, were to be confidered as a valuable legacy bequeathed to the public, and an atonement for the fervility which had ftigmatized their previous conduct. They formed a body of maxims, authorizing the people of this, country to expect from their prefent reprefentatives that which is declared to be neceffary by their predeceffors. They were, indeed, unoperative in their prefent form; they wanted fpecific conclufions to give the effect and benefit which they held out. The late parliament had been prematurely diffolved. But if the prefent parliament neglected to accomplish what the o

ther appeared to have defigned, all the confequences of refufing fo falutary a measure would be imputed to them, and those refolutions would stand upon the journals, as public monuments of exculpation to their predeceffors, and of difgrace to them.

He 'entertained a confidence, he faid, of meeting men in the new parliament, who would confider it as their duty to go hand in hand with him, in carrying into execution the wishes of the people; or rather thofe commands which had been delivered in thunder and lightning, and of which they expected in the fucceeding tranquility a faithful and happy exccution. The wifdom and power of the prefent parliament were the foundations on which the public confidence refted. The people, would not for a moment believe that parliament wanted integrity to adopt, what its wifdom fuggefted, and its power could execute. They would not give harbour to fuch a fuggeftion, until they could reafon from experience. It was the bufinefs of parliament to justify the nation. And nothing could be more conducive to their own, as well as to the national interest, than that it should be seen, that a free and generous confidence had more power to fecure the fidelity of parliament from the beginning, than complaint, clamour, and violence had in recovering it after it was corrupted.

When enemy fucceeded to enemy, and the guilty rafhnefs of minifters leagued with contending ftates against us, our independence, it had been faid, was to be maintained by the spirit of the people. Abandoned by our allies, and left

by Europe to our fate; in every fituation, in every emergency, and in every danger, we were to find confolation and refource, refuge or conqueft, in the spirit of the people. But the effect of fpirit, and the fpirit itfelf, muft depend upon ftrength. Strength, and the juices which feed it, the wealth of the country, ought to be carefully nourished and hufbanded, with care, with tendernefs, and with folicitude, not weakened and exhausted by diffipation and profufion. The method, he faid, by which the fpirit can be kept alive in the breafts of men, is by the participation of thofe to whom they look up for example. Let the government participate in the fufferings of the people! Let the king fhew his fubjects an example of retrenchment and economy, and the people chearfully fubmit to every diffi culty and labour.

He fuppofed the commons in the imaginary fituation of being the mere creatures of the crown; of their being conftituted, fed by, and totally dependent on the court; and in that ftate, he afferted, and reafoned to demonftrate, that it would be their duty, and ought to be their inclination, to advise the fovereign to economy and retrenchment. By the plan which had been prepared, they would be able to give the king that which kings in general greatly defired-power; for economy was power; it was wealth and refource it was men and arms; it was all that ambition could either covet or exert to accomplish its ends. Were he then himfelf the creature of a defpotic prince, he fhould, as his counfellor, advise [*M] 3

him,