Remarks on the Husbandry and internal Commerce of Bengal. - Calcutta, printed 1804. London, reprinted for the Author. 8vo, pp. 210. Price 5s 6d. Boards. Blacks and Parry, 1806.

This work does not assume the character of a complete system of Indian husbandry. It is part of a treatise, the joint production of two gentlemen, in India, one of whom dying, the other thought proper to publish his portion of the work, on his own account. The original was compiled in 1794, but was corrected for the Calcutta edition of 1803; and is now reprinted for the author. We must, therefore, in examining its contents, make allowances for the interval between those dates and the present time: and for some deficiencies which no doubt were supplied in that part of the work which was composed by the party deceased. From the general character of the performance, as it appears on perusal, we are induced to regret, very sincerely, that the original undertaking was left imperfect. Nevertheless, though not complete, we think it valuable; and recommend it to the attention of our readers.

The work is divided into six chapters, and treats of the general aspect, climate, soil, and inhabitants of Bengal; the husbandry of that province, the tenures of its occupants, the rents, duties, &c. to which it is subject with remarks on its local and internal commerce, on grain, piece goods, and sundry minor articles of exportation. The subject is of peculiar interest to merchants, who trade to Bengal; to manufacturers who employ the raw materials derived from thence; and to those truly patriotic spirits who delight in establishing the precedence of British manufactures in whatever the world can produce as excellent. Under these ideas we shall consider this tract; and shall take the opportunity of annexing an article or two connected with the subject, by which we hope to diffuse valuable information, while at the same time we consult the taste and gratification of general

readers.

Bengal, though comparatively a level. country, has several mountainous districts. The plains are inundated annually by the Ganges, and produce rice; the mountains are dry, and yield wheat and barley. The general soil is clay, with a considerable proportion of siliceous sand.

The mountaineers are most evidently dis

tinguished by religion, character, language, and manners, as well as by their features, from the Hindu nation. Under various denominations, they people that vast mountainous tract which occupies the centre of India, and some tribes of them have not yet emerged from the savage state. They are, perhaps, aborigines, driven many ages ago from the plains of Hindustan by the Hindu colonists; but even desolate forests, an ungrateful soil, difficult roads, and a noxious climate, do not preserve to them the unmolested possession of the dreary region to which they have retired. Hindus, and even Muselmans, may be now found interspersed amongst them. It should be, however, noticed, that these mountaineers, in the progress of civilization, do often adopt the manners, and, in time, embrace the religion, and assume the name, of Hindus.

The population of Bengal, including the province of Benares, is stated by our author, at 27,000,000. We learn from his communications that

A considerable proportion of the land yields several crops within the year; much hand, the practice of crowding crops seems indeed yields only one; but, on the other ill judged, and it returns less in proportion to the labour and expence than successive cultivation. We may therefore assume, as the middle course of husbandry, two yearly harvests from each field; one of white corn, and another of pulse, oil-seed, or millet.

We are not to consider all land as yielding two crops; but that this may be adopted as a kind of average.

Cattle are grazed at a very small expence. It does not exceed eight anas a head annually for buffaloes, and four anas for cows.

The profits of the dairy arise from the sale of milk, of curds in various forms, and of clarified butter; the last is the only produce which admits of being transported to a distant market. The buffalo-cow daily supplies the dairy with two or three sers of milk."

Cattle constitute the peasant's wealth; and the profits of stock would be greater, did the consumption of animal food take off barren cows and oxen which have passed their prime. This, indeed, cannot happen where the Hindus constitute the great mass of the general population, since they consider the slaughter of kine and the eating of cows' flesh as sinful. But many tribes of Hindus, and even some Brahinens, have no objection to the use of other animal food. At their entertainments it is generally introduced; by some it is daily eaten, and the institutes of their religion do require that flesh should be tasted even by Brahmens at solemn sacrifices, forbidding, however, the use of it unless joined with the performance of such a sacrifice. Daily prac

tice, however, is not governed by rules of limited cogency; and micat, (mutton and goat's flesh,) being more than double the price of

pre

vegetable food, it cannot be afforded as a common diet upon the usual earnings of labour. Whether this circumstance has much influence, or whether entire abstinence from animal food be not rather ascribable to the valence of superstitious prejudices, may be questioned. Probably both have influence, though the latter has the greatest. From whatever cause it arise, the consumption of animal-food is not so considerable as to render the stock of sheep an object of general attention. Their wool supplies the home-consumption of blankets, but is too coarse and produces too small a price to afford a large profit on this stock.

This account agrees with remarks made in Egypt, on the Brahmens which accompanied our Indian army: and it contributes to explain the facility with which a diet of animal food was established, even among those who were supposed to be most averse to it. We are informed by Dr. M'Gregor, Med. Sketches. Egypt. p. 93. that "the sepoys suffered so much from the severity of the weather, and a climate very unlike their own, that a portion of animal food, as well as of wine, was ordered to be issued to them. The prejudices of country, religion, and of the different casts of Gentoos, were first overcame in the Bombay regiment: at length the most austere yielded; and, finally, even the severe Brahmin, as well as the rigid Mussulman, gave way to the necessity inspired by their situation in a foreign country."

The valuable articles of sugar, tobacco, silk, cotton, indigo, and opium, being the principal dependence of the peasant for the supply of conveniences and for accession of wealth, are well deserving of particular consideration.

Opium, it is well known, has been monopolised by government. It is provided in the provinces of Bihar and Benares, and sold in Calcutta by public sale.-A learned and very ingenious inquirer estimated the produce of one acre at sixty pounds of opium; but we think he must have been misled by the result of trials on very fertile land in a fortunate season. Such information as we have been able to obtain, has led us to estimate little more than four sers or eight pounds.-Many cultivators obtain from the same land a crop of pot-herbs, or some other early produce, before the season of sowing the poppy, but it is reckoned a bad practice.-In estimating the medium produce, we may advert to the accidents of season, to which this delicate plant is particularly liable from insects, wind, hail, or unseasonable rain. The produce seldom quares with the true average, but commonly runs in extremes: while one cultivator is dis

appointed, another reaps immense gain; one season does not pay the labour of the culture, another, peculiarly fortunate, enriches all the cultivators. This circumstance is well suited to allure man, ever confident of personal good fortune.

The preparation of the raw opium is under the immediate superintendance of the agent or of the contractor. It consists in evaporating, by exposure to the sun, the watery particles, which are replaced by oil of poppy-seed, to prevent the drying of the resin. The opium

is then formed into cakes, and covered with the petals of the poppy; and, when sufficiently dried, it is packed in chests, with fragments of the capsules from which poppy-seeds have been thrashed out.

This preparation, though simple, requires expert workmen able to detect the many adulThe adulteration of prepared opium is yet terations which are practised on the raw juice. more difficult to discover. It has been supposed to be commonly vitiated with an extract from the leaves and stalk of the poppy, and with gum of the mimosa; other foreign admixtures have been conjectured, such as cow-dung, gums, and resins, of various sorts, and parched rice.

Tobacco, though an exotic, is now culti vated in all parts of India.

From Benares to Rengpur, from the borders of Asam to those of Catac, there is scarcely a district in Bengal or its dependent provinces wherein the Sugar-cane does not flourish. It thrives most especially in the provinces of Benares, Bihar, Rengpur, Birbhum, Birbwan, and Mednipur; it is successfully cultivated in all, and there seem to be no other bounds to the possible production of sugar in Bengal, than the limits of the demand and consequent vend of it. The growth for home-consumption and for the inland trade is vast, and it only needs encouragement to equal the demand of Europe also.

It is cheaply produced and frugally manufactured. Raw sugar, prepared in a mode peculiar to India, but analogous to the process of making muscovado, costs less than five shillings sterling per cwt.

But

Cotton is cultivated throughout Bengal. Formerly the produce was nearly equal to the consumption, and very little was imported by sca or brought from inland countries. the increase of manufactures, or the decline of cultivation, has now given rise to a very large importation from the banks of the Jamuna and from the Dekhin. It is there raised so much more cheaply than in Bengal, that it supports a successful competition, notwithstanding the heavy expences of distant transport by land and water; and under-seils cotton of a middle quality in those very provinces where this article was heretofore abundantly produced. A fine sort of cotton is still grown

in the eastern districts of Bengal, for the most delicate manufactures; and a coarse kind is gathered, in every part of the province, from plants thinly interspersed in fields of pulse or grain. This last kind is almost exclusively employed in the coarsest manufactures for home-consumption; and the cotton, imported through the Doab, chiefly supplies the looms at which better cloths are wove.-Several species and numerous varieties of the plant afford this useful production.

Europe was antiently supplied with Silk through the medium of Indian commerce. But, according to most authors, it was the produce of China only, and even there was sparingly produced. Were the fact important it might be shewn, that the culture was not unknown to the eastern parts of Hindustan. For the antient language of India has names for the silk-worm and for manufactured silk; and, among the numerous tribes of Hindus, derived from the mixture of the original tribes, there are two classes, whose appropriated occupations (whence, too, they derive their appellations) were the feeding of silk-worms and the spinning of silk.-The excessive price which silk bore in Europe, when it could be obtained only through the commerce of India, rendered this the most valuable article of oriental traffic.-Five varieties of silk-worms are distinguished.

The tesser, or wild silk, is procured in abundance from countries bordering on Bengal, and from some provinces included within its limits. The wild silk-worms are there found on several sorts of trees, which are common in the forests of Silhet, Asam, and the Dekhin. The cones are large, but sparingly covered with silk. In colour and lustre, too, the silk is far inferior to that of the domesticated insect. But its cheapness renders it useful in the fabrication of coarse silks. The production of it may be increased by encouragement, and a very large quantity may be exported in the raw state at a very moderate rate. It might be used in Europe for the preparation of silk goods; and, mixed with wool or cotton, might form, as it now does in India, a beautiful and acceptable manufacture.

The manufacture of Indigo appears to have been known and practised in India at the earliest period. From this country, whence the dye obtains its name, Europe was antiently supplied with it, until the produce of America engrossed the market.-The better management of America in preparing the indigo, rather than any essential difference in the intention of the progress, transferred the supply of the market to America; for, it is now well ascertained that the indigo of Bengal, so far as its natural quality may be solely considered, is superior to that of North America and equal to the best of South America.

Various other articles, the production or manufacture of which is capable of great augmentation, are also enumerated: such as salt-petre, hides, starch, liquorice, ginger, anatto, and sundry colouring drugs, also tea and coffee

That the population of Bengal is capable of effecting very great increase in the productions of this country, we are assured; and that the rigid distinctions of cast, are not so strictly maintained as to justify any apprehension of failure on that account, is inferred from the daily occurrences in Bengal, where it is common to see Brahmens exercising the menial profession of a sudra, and sudras elevated to stations of respectability and importance. It is true, that every cast has clubs, lodges, or associations, peculiar to itself; nevertheless, professions, with few exceptions, are open to persons of every description. And the discouragements arising from religious prejudices, are not greater, says our author, than those resulting from the municipal and corporation laws of Britain.

We have no occasion to enlarge on the muslin trade of India; either on the elegance and beauty of its productions, the delicacy of their texture, or their distinctions and kinds. Nor on the silk goods, or the mixtures, derived from various places, and known by various names. We could have been glad, however, if the writer had not dismissed the article hemp in that cursory manner which ill corresponds with its importance. The only notice he takes of it, is p. 201, where he tells us," hemp may be prepared from the plant already cultivated here for a different purpose, and relieve Great Britain from the heavy tribute which her commerce and navy now pay to Russia."

Hemp, undoubtedly, is cultivated in India,, for the preparation of ang, an intoxicating drug, used instead of opium, and for much the same purposes: but we wonder it should escape our author, that it has been the subject of attention to our government. The Privy Council, in a letter to the Court of Directors of the EastIndia Company, dated Feb. 4, 1803, recommended to the Court to encourage as much as possible, the growth of strong Hemp, in India, for naval purposes chiefly; with which recommendation the Court immediately complied. This cir cumstance gave occasion to an extremely

valuable compendium, by Robert Wissett, Esq. on the subject of the cultivation and preparation of Hemp; and of an article, produced in various parts of India, called sunn, which answers all the purposes of hemp, and is nearly similar in its growth, and in the manner of preparing it. Mr. Wissett's work was printed before the retrospective period included in our review: we can, therefore, only commend it in general terms, as a laborious and judicious compilation from the best authors, British and foreign, on the subject of hemp, its growth and manufacture; between which and sunn, a comparison is instituted chapter by chapter. It deserves to be made more public than it hitherto has been this, indeed, is the character of sundry other works compiled by that gentleman, whose access to official documents and papers, has enabled him to furnish desirable communications, which in vain may be sought for elsewhere.

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The importance of our Indian empire is becoming every day more conspicuous; not only in its political relation, as a colony to a parent state, but as opening new and important channels for our commerce. In return, it is but just that this country should receive those natural productions, or native manufactures of India, which meet its demands. India produces, for instance, not less than five or six, (Dr. Roxburgh enumerates above twenty) of those vegetables, which, more or less, effectually answer the purposes of hemp, and may be used in making cordages of various kinds. Some of them are not inferior to the European plant. What forbids that samples of these should be submitted to the dexterity of British workmen; and why should not such as possess the requisite qualities, contribute to diminish our dependence on foreign nations for supplies of this important article? In the same laudable spirit, the Society for the Promotion of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, have offered a premium for the importation of Baughulpoor cotton, from which, cloths are made in imitation of nankeen, without dyeing: also for anatto, and for cochineal. It is true, that the insects which produce the latter, have not yet been advantageously naturalized in India; owing as is usually understood, to a want of the true cochineal mestique insect; the wild sort, having

been procured by mistake, yet there is every reason to hope that the proper species may be obtained, and that at some future period this valuable drug will be received direct from our own territories, instead of from Spanish America.

We close this article with a notice of another insect, similar in its properties to those of the cochineal, but yielding a yellow colour instead of a red. Our knowledge of it is derived from Dr. Roxdurgh's letter to the highly respectable Society before-mentioned.

Upon the leaves of this tree [which pro. duces the yellow ryrobolans, used in dyeing, also a species of galls, of a very irregular shape, and yellowish colour,] I have found an insect, which I take to be the larva of a coccus, or chermes; they are about three eighths of an inch long, and a quarter of an inch broad; flat below, convex above, and composed of twelve annular segments. The whole insect is replete with a bright yellow juice, which stains paper of a very deep and rich yellow colour.

Our readers may expect in our following numbers, descriptions of various Indian subjects, as well of the animal, as the vegetable kingdom, the properties of which excite our wishes for a better acquaintance with them, either as articles of commercial, or of scientific speculation, or of both.

Œuvres Choisies et Posthumes de M. de la Harpe, etc. Select and Posthumous works of Mr. de la Harpe, of the French Academy. In 4 vols. 8vo. Paris. 1800.-Imported by Dulau. Price 36s.

This edition does not comprise the whole of the author's productions, but a selection, said to have been determined by himself. It is well known, that this remarkable man, at different periods of his life, held opinions diametrically opposite. It, therefore, could not be supposed that he would admit into this compendium, formed in his latter days, any of those pieces offensive to morals and religion, which had been his glory in early lire,

We shall not submit this edition to a strict review; but the reader will find in our work various specimens of those detached pieces which compose it. The life of the author, drawn from the most authentic sources, and greatly superior to any which has hitherto appeared, is translating for a subsequent number.

But we acknowledge without hesitation, that the following paper has appeared to us, so extraordinary in its nature, and so striking in its contents, that we have separated it, by way of distinction, from the other articles contained in these volumes, and have given it an early insertion, for the consideration and reflection of our readers. The editor makes no remarks on it, but gives it simply as follows.

"The following very curious note was found among the papers of M. de la Harpe, after his death.

"It appears to me as if it were but yesterday; and it was, nevertheless, in the beginning of the year 1788; we were at the table of a brother academician, who was of the highest rank and a man of talents. The company was numerous and of all kinds; courtiers, advocates, literary men, academicians, &c. We had been, as usual, luxuriously entertained; and at the desert, the wines of Malvoisie and the Cape, added to the natural gaiety of good company that kind of social freedom which sometimes stretches beyond the rigid decorum of it. In short, we were in a state to allow of any thing that would produce mirth. Chamfort had been reading some of his impious and libertine tales, and the fine ladies had heard them, without once making use of their fans. A deluge of pleasantries on religion then succeeded; one gave a quotation from the Pucelle d'Orleans; another recollected and applauded the philosophical distich of Diderot,

Et des boyaux du dernier prêtre,
Serrez le cou du dernier roi.

And of the last priest's entrails form the
string

Around the neck of the last King. A third rises, and with a bumper in his hand, "Yes, gentlemen," (he exclaims) "I am as sure that there is no God, as I "am certain that Homer is a fool." The conversation afterwards took a more serious turn, and the most ardent admiration was expressed of the revolution which Voltaire had produced; and they all agreed that it formed the brightest ray of his glory. "He has given the ton to his "age, and has contrived to be read in the "chamber, as well as in the drawing "room." One of the company mentioned, and almost burst with laughter at the circumstance, that his hair-dresser had said while he was powdering him, VOL. I. [Lit. Pan, Oct. 1806.]

"Look you, Sir; though I am nothing "but a poor journeyman barber, I have no more religion than another man." It was concluded that the revolution would soon be consummated, and that it was absolutely necessary for superstition and fanaticism to give place to philosophy. The probability of this epoch was then calcuÎated, and which of the company present would live to see the reign of reason. The elder part of them lamented that they could not flatter themselves with the hope of enjoying such a pleasure: while the younger part rejoiced in the expectation that they should witness it. The academy was felicitated for having prepared the grand work, and being, at the same time, the strong hold, the centre and the moving principle of freedom of thought.

"There was only one of the guests who had not shared in the delights of this conversation; he had even ventured, in a quiet way, to start a few pleasantries on our noble enthusiasm. It was Cazotte, an amiable man, of an original turn of mind, but unfortunately infatuated with the reveries of the illuminati. He renewed the conversation in a very serious tone, and in the following manner. "Gentlemen," said he, " be satisfied,

you will all see this grand and sublime "revolution. You know that I am "something of a prophet, and I repeat," "that you will all see it." He was answered by the common expression, "It is "not necessary to be a great conjuror to foretell that.""Agreed; but, perhaps, it may be necessary to be something more, respecting what I am now "going to tell you. Have you any idea "of what will result from this revolu"tion? What will happen to yourselves, "to every one of you now present; what "will be the immediate progress of it, "with its certain effects and consequen "ces?" "Oh," said Condorcet, with his silly and saturnine laugh, "let us "know all about it; a philosopher can "have no objection to meet a prophet." "You, M. Condorcet, will expire on "the pavement of a dungeon; you will "die of the poison which you will have "taken to escape from the hands of the "executioner: of poison, which the "happy state of that period will render "it absolutely necessary that you should 66 carry about you.”

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