other species of arbitrary exaction, might have been so subjected to the test of discussion and public opinion, as to be opposed with ten times the effect that they can now be met by humble petitions, to which the parties petitioned will pay just as little attention as such humble solicitations of rights, as boons, deserve.

But though some may argue thus, and on that ground contend, that a people who will make no effort for their own liberties deserve no advocates to plead their cause, we confess that our hatred of arbitrary power is so purely unconnected with personal considerations, and withal so interminable as well as intense, that notwithstanding the great mass of the pretended independent' British inhabitants of India appear to us to have hugged their chains with an unaccountable and debasing fondness, and to have joined in the general hue and cry against the few who had nobler spirits than themselves, condemning all who dared to write or speak of liberty in that despotic land, as miscreants who desired only the destruction of all that was sacred and established;-notwithstanding, we say, the general prostration of all the faculties of thought and powers of action to the supreme will of the ruler for the time being, by which the English name and character has been so disgraced in India for years past, still, for the sake of the few noble spirits still existing amidst this subservient body of Englishmen, as well as for the helpless many among the Natives of the country itself, from whom nothing better than slavish submission could yet be expected, we think it a duty to raise our voice against this new attempt at trampling under foot every consideration for the interests of the subjugated people, which the Government of India, acting under orders of their superiors at home, are making, under cover of the Stamp Act, now about to be introduced into Calcutta.

In our last Number, in the article on the East India Company's Monopoly, we took occasion to show that no individual member of that Company, or in other words, no Proprietor of East India Stock, benefitted, in the remotest degree, from any increase of the Indian revenue, as the dividends on the amount of his stock remained, under all circumstances, the same; yet that, for the sake of the increased patronage connected with an increased expenditure in the government of these possessions, the twenty-four Directors were always glad to promote any scheme by which more money could be drawn out of the pockets of the people, and placed at their (the Directors') disposal. There is another reason why new taxes delight them. The only way in which a handful of Englishmen can rule a large body of foreigners is by keeping them ignorant and disunited; the surest way of effecting this is by keeping them poor. The same rule applies equally to the smaller body of their own countrymen whom they hold under their authority in India. The rule has been long since applied to the Army, whose officers, being kept in a state of perpetual dependence on the possible contingency

of a retiring pension, of which any act of independence on their part might for ever deprive them, and never being permitted to grow sufficiently rich out of their continually curtailed allowances to resign the service rather than submit to any indignities offered to them, are retained in the most manageable state of dependence on their superiors that could be desired. The Civil Service are only not in the same condition, because the civilians are the law-makers both in India and at home, and contain too many relatives and connections of the Directors themselves to be in much danger of any serious injury to their fortunes from any cause but their own indiscretions, which are far from being always unwelcome to the higher authorities, as their poverty, when it happens, produces the same happy effect of placing the individuals so affected at the entire mercy of those, by a subservience to whose will they can alone become rich. This is a melancholy and humiliating picture; but the chief question is, is it not true?

That portion of the British inhabitants in India, composed of what are miscalled independent gentlemen, divided into free merchants and free mariners, neither of whom are, however, free to do any thing that the Governor for the time being chooses to prohibit, is, one would have imagined, sufficiently under the power of the Government, by the simple condition of their residing in India on sufferance only, and being liable to be turned out of the country for any thing or nothing, without trial or without cause assigned, as well as without hope of redress from appeal. But the pleasure of impoverishing and trampling down those who are already destitute and prostrate, is one which is too dear to despotism not to be gratified at every favourable opportunity. And as the free merchants and free mariners of India are just as helpless and as incapable of offering any effectual resistance to their rulers as the enslaved natives of the country, the Directors at home, and their Governors abroad, are, no doubt, equally glad of an opportunity of showing these selfcalled independent' inhabitants of British-birth, that they are powerless and contemptible, and can be treated just as their rulers, in their sovereign will and pleasure, see fit. The issue will show whether there are any limits to their tyranny or not. In the mean time, treating the question as one to be decided by law and reason, (to which the petitioning inhabitants of Calcutta, after all their experience of the inefficiency of these guides, still appeal, as though these were to settle the dispute!) we shall record what has been said and done in the matter; earnestly desiring, though certainly not much encouraged to hope, that the end may be a triumph of right and justice over unbridled avarice and power; and that the inhabitants of India, British as well as Native, if they can be taught to hate depotism by no other means, may, after they have tamely submitted to all sorts of insults on their integrity, their independence, and their understanding, be roused to resistance by an attack on

their pockets, that meanest of all channels, and one through which a high-minded spirit would be least likely to be moved, but which, in the present instance, at least, seems to have stirred up a feeling that no previous aggravation could create.

We have received from Calcutta an official copy of the Stamp Act; but as it fills twelve entire sheets, and is full of technical and minute details, we shall not tax the reader's patience by its insertion. The only great question that can interest the public mind is the principle on which the Act is framed,—namely, the assumption that the East India Company and its Government in India have the power to levy, at their will and pleasure, contributions in any shape, and to any amount, not only from the Natives of India, (for, poor wretches! not even the complaining English petitioners seem to dispute that,) but from all British-born subjects residing by sufferance in their territories. We shall see the principle of the Act in its preamble: though this is a formality which, if the powers recited by it be justly assumed, might well be dispensed with altogether. This preamble is as follows:

'Whereas Stamp Duties have long been raised, levied, and paid ⚫ within the PROVINCES subordinate to this Presidency; and where' as it appears EXPEDIENT, with a view to the improvement of the revenue derived from the said duties: and is otherwise JUST AND PRO'PER that a similar tax should be levied and paid wITHIN THE TOWN OF CALCUTTA, the Vice-President in Council, under the powers ⚫ vested in him by virtue of the 98th and 99th section of the Act 53d 'Geo. III. cap. 45; and with the sanction of the Court of Directors ' of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies; and with the approbation of the Board of Commis'sioners for the Affairs of India, has enacted the following rules to 'be in force within the Town of Calcutta, from and after the 1st day ' of May next ensuing.'

This is really a pattern of a preamble which might serve for all time to come. It might be thus fairly paraphrased:

'Whereas floggings and tortures have long been inflicted on slaves within the PROVINCES subordinate to this country, (namely, 'the West Indies, the Mauritius, and the Cape of Good Hope ;) and whereas it appears EXPEDIENT, with a view to the improvement of discipline, and is otherwise JUST AND PROPER that similar 'floggings should be inflicted WITHIN THE ISLAND OF GREAT BRITAIN ITSELF, the prime minister, with the sanction of the West India planters, (the honourable masters' of the well-flogged slaves,) and the secretary of the colonies, (or commissioners for the 'affairs of our colonial dependencies,) have enacted the following rules (for a graduated scale of effective flogging) to be in force within the island of Great Britain, from and after the 1st day of May next ensuing,'

It is difficult to treat so absurd a preamble seriously. It is one of the finest instances of the non-sequitur that we remember, even in Indian legislation; and is only to be paralleled by the argument of Sir Francis Macnaghten, who, when he gave his sanction to the law for licensing the Press in India, used a very similar train of deduction contending that

'Whereas the Legislature of England (to their shame, be it re'corded) gave to the Government of India an instrument for effec'tually restraining the freedom of Englishmen, in the power to 'banish from that country all British-born individuals, (but these ' only,) without trial, for any act displeasing to the ruling authorities: THEREFORE, it was lawful for the Government of India (without the sanction of the English Legislature) to place a similarly effec'tive restraint on all Indian-born individuals; and, if there were no existing law by which this could be done, to make a new law to 'meet the case.'

In the same spirit, the India Company assumes, that because they have for a long time oppressed the helpless Natives, by a Stamp Tax in the PROVINCES, therefore it is just and expedient that they should similarly oppress the equally helpless English at the PRESIDENCIES; and the logic is indisputable, because it can be enforced if necessary at the point of the bayonet, and because if any Englishman refuses to admit its cogency, he can be transported without trial, which is a far more effective mode of silencing a man than by answering his arguments.

Arguments, it is true, have been advanced, some of them with great spirit and force; though, as yet, they appear to have made but little impression. Having repeated, however, the preamble to the Act, in which the whole principle of it is included, we shall first give the Petition of the inhabitants of Calcutta against its passing; and then add what may better follow than precede it. The Petition is as follows:

To the Right Honourable the Vice-President in Council, the humble Petition of the British and Native Inhabitants of Calcutta.

That your petitioners respectfully, but most earnestly, entreat the attention of your Lordship in Council to the Stamp Regulation lately promulgated, and which has excited the greatest apprehension and alarm among the British and Native inhabitants of Calcutta.

2. In the preamble, it is stated to have been passed by the VicePresident in Council, under the powers vested in him by the 98th and 99th sec. 53d Geo. III., c. 155, and with the sanction of the Court of Directors, and the approbation of the Board of Commissioners for the affairs of India.

3. Your petitioners have always understood that the statute adverted to, as vesting this power in the local Government, was limited to duties and taxes connected with Customs, and was passed for the express pur

pose of obviating difficulties arising from the imposition of such duties and taxes, within the jurisdiction of the King's Court in India.

4. Your petitioners cannot think that the legislature intended to give to the local Government the right of unlimited taxation. They humbly submit, for the consideration of your Lordship in Council, that if the legislature had intended to bestow any general power of taxation beyond the subject-matter of Customs specifically mentioned, such power would have been introduced by a suitable preamble, reciting the expediency or exigency of the measure, and would have been strictly defined as to its extent. Your petitioners cannot think that Parliament would heedlessly bestow the dangerous power of unlimited taxation, by general expressions, unconnected with the subject-matter, and of dubious construction.

5. Fourteen years have nearly elapsed since the enactment of the 53d Geo. III., embracing periods of great public difficulty, when the country was engaged in expensive wars, yet no tax has ever been imposed under the authority of that statute; and your petitioners pray that a power which, if it exists, has thus slumbered since its creation, may not be called forth at a period of public peace and tranquillity, when they hope that the exigencies of the state cannot require its exercise, and in times of commercial pressure and difficulty, when individuals are ill able to

bear it.

6. Your petitioners, in thus drawing the attention of your Lordship in Council to the legality of the regulation, and the important principle which it involves, cannot be misunderstood. They disclaim any wish or intention to question the power or authority of Government; they are only desirous of respectfully conveying to your Lordship in Council their opinion upon a subject of the greatest moment to their present and future interests.

7. With respect to the operation of the regulation, your petitioners are unable to express to your Lordship in Council the public inconvenience, embarrassment, and actual distress, that would inevitably follow its enforcement.

8. The Native Shroffs, in particular, have already taken the greatest alarm, and contemplate abandoning an occupation which they could not pursue without ruin, under the provisions of the Stamp regulation.

9. In every country such a tax must produce great inconvenience in its operation, and be attended with great vexation in its collection. But circumstanced as this country is, your petitioners avow their belief, that if the regulation should be carried into effect, commercial dealings would be impeded to a degree affecting public credit, and that money transactions would be wholly suspended.

10. Your petitioners have often experienced, and acknowledged most thankfully, the considerate attention always paid by Government to the opinion of the community when respectfully urged; and they entreat the attention of your Lordship in Council to the respectability and number of the signatures to this petition, evincing that it speaks the sentiinents and opinions of the British and Native inhabitants of Calcutta.

11. Your petitioners abstain from troubling Government by going in detail through the regulation, and pointing out the evils likely to ensue from each provision. They do not believe that human wisdom could devise any regulation of the same general nature and character that would not, in its consequences, be injurious to the public and to Govern