is this-Do no wrong! "Le précepte même de faire du bien, s'il est subordonné à celui-là, est dangereux, faux, contradictoire; le méchant fait du bien, il fait un heureux aux dépens de cent misérables."* Now, whatever wrong the Marquis of Hastings may have done, has been open to free discussion. His Lordship threatened Mr. Buckingham on account of some sharp sarcasms upon the late Bishop of Calcutta, which appeared in his Journal. With this exception, the writer is not aware of any wrong done by that ruler, or, in portraying his public conduct, he should feel it his duty to proclaim it to the world.

The next question for consideration is, What good has the Marquis of Hastings effected? He conquered the enemies of the state, placed the empire in security, and established order and a system of police all over Central India. Lord Hastings treated the native princes with courtesy and justice, and reformed the abuses of the subsidiary states. He restored the representative Government of Elders in the Rajpoot countries. By the establishment of native agency, he cleared the files of the courts, of the vast arrears of undecided causes. Lord Hastings adopted the practice of the ancient sovereigns, by receiving in his walks and rides the petitions of the meanest natives. He paid every attention to their complaints, and caused inquiry to be made as to the truth of their allegations. Thus an appeal was open to all, and oppression was checked, if not prevented. His Lordship also improved the system of administrative justice in the army, and calmed the angry feelings of the soldiery; so that no military disturbance has taken place during his long go

* Rousseau.

vernment. Notwithstanding the extensive and protracted wars in which he was engaged, the revenues have improved and he has reduced the interest of money. Lord Hastings has founded Colleges and Schools all over the country. Seminaries for the lower orders had indeed been established there from time immemorial, but it was equally the object of the government and the teachers to engraft superstition on the youthful mind; that both mind and body might be enslaved.

The system of education adopted all over the world was framed after the model of these Hindoo schools, and there is a striking fact connected with this history. When Sir W. Jones visited Madras, one Andrew Ross, a merchant, took him to a village school in the neighbourhood of the Presidency. This great man was immediately struck with the simplicity, economy, and utility of this system of education. His remarks made a strong impression on the good merchant, who afterwards, I believe, persuaded Dr. Bell to establish at Madras the Male Asylum, of which Andrew Ross was a director.

The most remarkable feature, however, of the Marquis of Hastings's administration, and which will render it immortal, was the abolition of the base Censorship on the Press. By the diffusion of education and the establishment of a Free Press, the great sources of knowledge were thrown open; all the intelligence of the age was set at work to promote improvement, and superstition and despotism cannot long breathe in so light and pure an atmosphere.

SECTION II.

State of the Press in British India, previous to the Establishment of a Censorship.

"However surprising it might seem in absolute Governments, yet it is certain that the historians of the East wrote with more freedom concerning persons and things than writers have ever dared to do in : the West."-Dow's Indostan.

PREVIOUS to Lord Wellesley's administration, no restriction on writing or publishing had ever existed in' Indostan. The Censorship of the Press or on writing there, was an innovation, and this alone was wanting, where power fell into the hands of an arbitrary ruler, to complete the sum of human misery under Asiatic despotism.

The Hindoos of ancient times were distinguished for their learning. Abstract speculations and a redundant mythology obscured their more useful knowledge; still they were a people far advanced in the march of intellect. Their government was indeed despotic, but no trace has been discovered in history or law-book, of any restriction on writing. In those times, all was open to research and discussion, and there were no limits to their acquirements but the powers of their own minds. The Mahommedan Emperors gave every encouragement to learning. The Institutes of Timur and of Akbar abound with incitements to their subjects to cultivate their minds and to improve their knowledge. "I ordained," says the latter Emperor, "that in every town and in every city a mosque and a school, and a monastery and an alms-house for the poor and indigent,

and an hospital for the sick and infirm, should be founded."* Their colleges were crowded with learned men, and in these schools there were no restraints on the li

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berty of investigation.

The historians of Indostan wrote with freedom on the conduct and duties of their sovereigns, and some of their rulers acted up to the noble principles which their Chroniclers inculcated. Abulfazil states that Akbar was visible to every body twice in the course of twenty-four hours, and that he received their petitions without the intervention of any person, and, tried and decided upon them. Akbar," says he, "seateth himself on the eminence of humanity. In his behaviour there is such a condescension that the petitioner seems to be the judge, and himself the suitor for justice. He considers the happiness of the people as the best means of pleasing the Creator. He is ever searching after those who speak truth, and he is not displeased with words that are bitter in appearance but sweet in effect. He is not contented in that solely, himself doth not commit violence, but he sees that no injustice is committed." Persons are apt to make a boastful contrast between British rule and the system of anarchy that preceded it. Let them rather compare the noble administration of Akbar with that even of a Cornwallis or a Hastings.

Upon the whole it appears, that under the reign of Akbar there was greater liberty indulged in petitioning, in education, and in writing, than was enjoyed at that period in England.

* Institutes of Timur.

SECTION III.

Establishment of a Censorship on the Press, in British India.

“They rather desire to be Kings than to rule the people under the King, which will not administer justice by law, but by their own will."-Bacon.

"If every one of the twenty-two articles of charge brought against Warren Hastings had been proved, they would not have formed a crime of such enormous magnitude as that single one of having extinguished the Liberty of the Press in a portion of the British Empire containing fifty millions of inhabitants."

PREVIOUS to the establishment of a Censor of the Press by Lord Wellesley, the people of India had the same liberty to write as to breathe or to live. No law forbad it. Under Warren Hastings, Lord Cornwallis, and Sir John Shore, the Press was free even to licentiousness. They did not indulge an unreasonable expectation, from any human institution, of permanent good, unalloyed by temporary evil. Satisfied with the essential advantages that accrued to mankind from free discussion, they had too much sense to restrain it on account of personal attacks, or occasional severe and even intemperate sarcasms on their government. Thus a Free Press existed under the wisest of our statesmen, even in times of great difficulty and awful danger.

The arrival of Lord Wellesley in India was soon followed by the establishment of a Censorship,-a fatal