from her bolom, and feemed to examine it with much attention. "A moment after we heard a door open; and a fervant holding a light at the top of the balustrade enabled me to diftinguish a young man, who tripped lightly down stairs. "As he paffed, his hapless victim was feized with an univerfal trembling and fcarcely had he difappeared when the rest of her ftrength forfook her, and she fell on the lower ftep, behind the pillar that concealed us. I was going to call for affiftance, hut the fear of expofing her prevented me ; and I took the poor creature fenfelefs in my árms. The fhutting of the door above was then heard. She started at the noife, and feemed to revive a little. I held her hands in one of mine, and with the other fupported her head. She tried to fpeak; but the founds the endeavoured to utter were ftifled by her grief. We remained fome time in a filence which I did not dare to interrupt; when, at last, having entirely recovered the ufe of her fenfes, the faid to me, in a foft and faultering voice. "Ah! I fee very well “I ought to have warned you. The acci "dent that has just happened to me must "have made you uneafy, for you are good "and kind; you must have been afraid, and "I am not surprised at it. I was like you; "I was afraid too when I found myself in "this fituation; I thought I was going to " die. And I feared it, for that would have "deprived me of the only means of seeing " him, which is all that I have left. ** have found out, yes, I have found out that "I cannot die. Juft now, when he paffed "by, 1 left myfelf to go to him! If he " died, I should die too-but without that, "it is impoffible. We only die where "we live; and it is not in myself, but in " him, that I exist. But I "Some time ago—I was mad !-Oh! yes, "very mad indeed! and that will not fur"prife you, as it was in the beginning of his "going up this ftair cafe. My reason is now "returned. Every thing goes and comes; " and fo does that. This medallion, which "you fee, restored it to me: it is a portrait ; " but it is not that of my friend. What good "would that do? He is very well already; " he has no occafion to improve-he has no❝ thing to alter. If you did but know whose "portrait it is! It is the wicked woman's "above stairs-The cruel creature! What "trouble has the given me fince the ap"proached my heart! It was fo content! "fo happy!--but she has deranged and de"ftroyed all!-One day—I recollect it very "well-I happened to go alone into my "friend's room.-Alas! he was no longer "there!-I found this portrait on his table; "I took it; ran away with it; and fince "that I am better" After faying this, the began to laugh; talked of the public walks, of phaetons, and of horses; and I once more perceived a total confusion in her ideas. "Some moments after, when the left off fpeaking, I drew nearer to her; and asked, Why the preferved, with fo much care, 'the portrait of the wicked woman above fairs?" "How !" anfwered the, "what! you "do not know Why,it is my only hope; "I take it every day, put it by the fide of my looking-glass, and arrange my features "like hers. I begin already to be a little like her; and, by taking pains, I fhall "refemble her exactly. I will then go and "fee my friend; he will be fatisfied with "me, and will no longer be obliged to go to "her above stairs. For, except that, I am "fure he likes me best. Only think on "what trifles our happiness depends ! oa "fome. features which he found no longer "difpofed to his liking. Why did he not "fay fu?—I would have done then what I do now; and he would not have been 66 obliged to apply to a stranger. Nothing "was more easy, and it would have faved "us both a great deal of trouble: but with"out doubt he did not think of it. "Every evening I wait at the foot of the "ftair-cafe: he never comes down before "the convent bell has ftruck two :-and "then, as I can't fee, I count the beatings of "my poor heart.-Since 1 have been in pos"feffion of the portrait, I count every day "fome pulfations lefs !-But it is late, and I "must go from hence,-Adieu;" I accompanied her to the street-door. As foon as without, fhe turned to the left, and I walked on fome paces with her. She then fuddenly fixed her eyes on the ftream of light which the lamps formed before us. "You fee all "thefe lamps," faid the; "they are agi"tated by every breath of air :-it is the "fame with my heart-it burns like them :"but they confume, and I burn for "" ever!" 66 "I continued to follow her. "Stop," faid the, again, "return home: "I carry away with me a part of your fleep, and I "am to blame: for fleep is very fweet; it "is even fo to me—I fee in it what is past.” "I feared to afflict her by infitting any longer, and left her. However, my fear that fome accident might happen to her made me follow her with my eyes, as I walked on, gently behind. She foon ftopped at a little In France the Lamps are fufpended on lines across the streets." door, ! door, went in, and fhut it after her. I then returned home, my mind and heart equally agitated, and this unfortunate creature conti nually before my eyes. I reflected on the cause of her misfortune; and fome regret and the remembrance of fome past circurastances, were mingled with my tears. I was too much affected to hope for rest; and, while waiting for day-light, wrote down this fcene to which I had been witness." The Fall of Scepticism and Infidelity predicted. An Epistle to Doctor Beattic. Cadell. 8vo. 25. THIS gentleman, who has very flender, pretenfions to the title of a Poet, feems to poffefs claims more difputable till to the character of a prophet; and for our part, fo feeptical are we, in one point at least, that (without affecting to In Olentem Bellendeni Editorem, THE HE following extract from the epiftle dedicatory prefixed to this Poem, will fully explain the Writer's intention by its publication. "To the free Tranflator of the celebrated Preface to BELLENDENUS. "Worthy Sir, "I Have the honour to congratulate you on your emerging from that dark abyss, in which, like Milton's Satan, you trod the crude confiftence, that boggy Syrtis, neither fea, nor good dry land. Great are the obligations of the unlettered multitude to your learned labours in tranflating the book which many cannot read ;" its mysteries are now unveiled to idiotick eyes, and the book itfelf may well be configned to a dignified and oblivious repofe in the unmolested libraries of the great. Hail, great elucidator of the realms of Chaos! The work is worthy of your talents and your virtue. "Yet in one thing methinks you fail. You might have recollected that the humour of Harlequin confifts in his agility, and his wit in his patch-work jacket; you have trammelted him to a folemn pace, and clothed him in a veft uniformly black; his gambols and his wit are now no more. Perhaps in the nature of things it could not be otherwife; that only shows the abfurdity of your attempt: A trifle this, as it must be allowed that you have retained his dagger of lath, that redoubted weapon with which he performs fuck wonders. At the touch of this, virtue is degraded, and becomes a jest; diffoluteness, profligacy, and faction ufurp her honours; the man who faved the Eafl, is intulted by thofe reptiles, whofe accurfed politics rent thirteen provinces from the British Empire; the wile and good are held up as obj.cts of derision; be infpired with the gift of prophecy) we fcruple not to pronounce infidelity to be in no danger of a fall from fuch a religionift as the bardling before us, or even as the ingenious but weak and unphiloso phic Dr. Beattie, Carmen Antamabæum. 4to. IS. and the Minister is execrated, as having the guilt to be young, the effrontery to be virtuous, and the audaciousness to fave his country from the ruin in which these prefacepraised worthies were haftening to fink it. There are who shake their heads at these things; who look with contempt at this cele brated preface, as a wretched bundle of indigefted phrafes, the impertinent pedantry of an infolent Pedagogue, making his indexreading pander to his factious and dark malignity; who hold in abhorrence thofe virulent and invidious accufers, quibus neque propter. iracundiam fidem, neque propter infidelitatem bonerem babere debemus; who feel an honeft indignation at seeing a pious and learned divine depreciate and ridicule the noble severity of virtue, palliate the groffest debauchery, and fet forth the molt profligate characters in all the exorbitance of peftilent praile. No matter: Thefe are only the wife and good: Regard them not: Let the glory of appearing in print continue to weigh more with you, than ȧ regard to honour, justice, truth, and virtue. "An honeft indignation has extorted this addrefs from me; etenim quis tum diffoluta animo eft, qui, hæc cum videat, tacere at negligere poffit? I therefore beg leave to prefent you with a few Latin verfes: I can easily conjecture how acceptable they will be to you." Perhaps it is needlefs, to add, that the Verfes alluded to form a fevere fa ire on the Coalition Triumviri celebrated in the Preface to Bellendenus. After this quota◄ tion, however, we trust that our readers will not in future fufpect us of partiality in politics. A Viewe A View of the English Interests in India. By William Fullarton, Efq. M. P. and late Commander of the Southern Army on the Coast of Coromandel 8vo. 4s. 6d. Cadell. 1787. THE regulation of our Indian policy is an object of fuch immenfe mag. nitude and importance, more especially in the prefent contracted ftate of the British dominions, that any information regarding that topic, must be of utility and advantage. It is, perhaps, no more than the duty of every man, who from his rank and appointments in the Eaft may be poffeffed of materials for the purpose, to point out the defects in our administration there, and to suggest such improvements or remedies as may appear to him neceffary for the establishment and firm confervation of this laft great refource of England. Mr. Fullarton has performed this duty in a very laudable manner. High in command, and connected with the ruling Powers in India, his fituation opened to him fources of information from which ordinary men are debarred. Of thefe he has availed himfelf with fuccefs; he has obferved on the general posture of our interefts there, with difcrimination and judgment; he has cenfured what he thought amifs with dignity and moderation, and propofed his own fentiments with modesty and candour. A confiderable part of his book is employed in the detail of his own campaigns, which, though honour able teftimonies of his merit as a foldier, are not fo interefting to the general feelings, as thofe parts wherein he speaks of the great fyftem of English politics in India. In treating the former fubject, we discover neither pride nor vain-glory; in the latter, neither prejudice nor afperity. The public has heard much, and read more, of mifrule in India; there have been declamations without end on the peculations of the Company's fervants; and acts without number to retrieve if poffible the Company's affairs; but these declamations have only tended to eftablish the oratorical character of the perfons who delivered them; and those acts have too frequently confirmed the evils they were meant to remedy. But it is not merely to the peculation of the Company's fervants that the mifchiefs in the Eaft are owing-other causes concur materially-Want of fyltem is worse there than even a bad fyf tem. VOL, XIII. The great leading principle of all Eaftern inftitutions is permanency; but the principle, or at least the practice, of all English politics in India, has been productive of the moft pernicious instability. By the first, laws, manners, rites, and regulations are handed down from age to age undiminished and unaltered ;-by the fecond, the general order and arrangements of the country are torn afunder with capricious innovation : and to enforce a system so destructive of the dearest tenets of the natives, the continued operation of violence is required. The diftribution of the Gentoos into Talyngas, Malabars, Marattas, Canaras, and Malleallums, as well as into the different fects of Bramins, Rajahpoots, Nyara, and into many inferior subdivisions of merchants, labourers, and artificers, has remained inviolate fince the promulgation of the laws of Brimha, whofe Shafter contains the ordinances of their faith, and the pandects of their jurif. prudence. Thefe inftitutes have withstood the ravages of time, the irruptions of invaders, and the revolutions to which, in all recorded periods, those countries have been expofed. The wisdom of the Moorish conquerors of Indoftan failed not to preferve this ancient fabric of Indian adoration. In fact, the Mahometan governments apparently reverence the rites of the Gentoos, who ftill constitute the mafs of fubjects on the peninfula. Under the Moors, they are liable to oppreffions incident to all arbitrary governments; yet their tyrants have mingled policy with force: and, as the Goths adopted the manners of thofe nations whom they conquered, fo the Muffulmen have affimilated with the customs of their Indian fubjects. They encourage them in husbandry and manufacture-employ them in their armies them with their finance and, above all, preferve to them the purity of ther C.ft the fanctity of their Bramins, and the pomp of their religion. éhtrüft Happily for the English interefts, intole rance in matters of religion has not mingled with our Indian policy. But in our civil and military conduct, intolerance has united with inftability, to violate the most revered institutions, and to force pacific powers into measures for our extermination. So fully are thefe affertions verified by every circumftanee attending the origin and growth of our power in India, that on a conviction of our reftlefs and unstable views, was founded F the the policy of the Mogul, the Nizam, the This ruinous fluctuation of councils In order to account for the rife and This authority, perplexed and wavering as it might be rendered by the politics of the different Prefidencies counteracting each other, had yet fomew hat of unity in the idea of its formation; so far at least, that the native powers, confidering the Company as the fountain of all English authority in the peninfula, regulated their conduct by fuch communications as were conveyed through the medium of the Company's representatives. While this prevailed, the Nabob Mahomed Ally, and other native Princes in our alliance, conducted themselves with the utmost deference towards the established Government; and though at times they were severely preffed by fome rapacious members, they felt a degree of fecurity, and enjoyed an intercourfe of good offices, that hordered on prosperity. The errors of the Company's management having attracted the attention of Administration at home, an act of the Legiflature was paffed in 1773, by which the powers of fovereignty were continued in the Company; but the authority of Parliament affumed an executive interference in those very powers of fovereignty, by the appointment, recommendation, or confirmation of certain officers of juftice, and others to be established in India. The power and dignity of the Crown had, at an earlier period, been brought into direct competition, though not on equal terms, with the power and fovereign authority of the Company. An embaffy had been fent immediately from the Crown to the Nabob of Arcot, unavoidably in oppofition to the power of the Company. Vehement difputes arofe between the Ambassador and the Prefidency of Fort St. George. The Governor and Council conftituted the regular authority of the fettlement, and poffeffed the powers of Administration; while the other claimed fuperiority as reprefentative of the Sovereign. The Nabob and all the other native Princes were perplexed. They had been taught, that in the Company was vetted the fupreme authority of England, as far as refpected India-that no other power had any right of interference there. Now they private body of merchants, without confeare told, the Company is nothing more than a quence or confideration in their own country, and who are foon to lofe all power and confequence in India. In this fituation of affairs, what shall the unfortunate Nabob believe ?-how fhall be act?-A host of needy adventurers poffefs his credulity, and taint his mind with opinions themselves of his confidence, impose upon that have fince proved his destruction. "Your Higlinefs (fay these adventurers) "must shake off your connections with "those traders;—you must now adhere to "the fovereign power and majesty of Eng"land: -You, Sir, are an independent "Prince :-you are guaranteed in your ter"ritory of the Carnatic by the treaty of Pa"ris: the Kings of France and Spain have "ratified that treaty, and the King of Eng"land is your protector.—Throw off, there"fore, all dependence on the mercantile af"fociation." It is not surprizing that an Afiatic Prince, Company was fhaken :-he spoke lightly of defection, and forced him to confefs that his has been a continued scene of counteraction. ment ment without incurring profeffional unpopu. larity, nor refift without exciting ruinous commotions. Thus the pretenfions of Governor and Commander ftill remain in collifion with each other, the King and Company still continue in that country to be contending powers — while the Company and Nabob are bound over to perpetual variance. Between the civil and military no line is traced; no redress for the latter, no mode of coercion for the former, and the warfare of the Prefidencies is extended and confirmed. The provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Oriff, as poffeffed by the British, and including Benares, contain an area of 162,000 square miles; their annual revenues are fuppofed to have amounted, in happier times, to 5,000,00cl. sterling, and their population to 11,000,000: the province of Orde and its dependencies comprehend an area of 53,286 fquare miles, yielded a revenue of 3,500,000l. and maintained 20,000,000 of people. By this ftandard it appears that, the Coaft of Coromandel being added, its extent being 65,944 square miles, its ancient population 9,000,000, and revenue in former times 3,000,000l. the aggregate of these teritories will form a dominion nearly equal in sevenue, and far fuperior in population as well as in extent, to Great Britain, the richest and most productive kingdom in proportion to its area, that ever exifted in the temperate zones. Great Britain is fuppofed to contain an area of 96,400 square miles, her population is computed at 8,000,000, and her revenues at 14,000,000/. Our dominions in India contain by computation 281,230 square miles, the revenues are 11,500,000l. and the population 30,000,000! In former times the Bengal countries were the granary of nations, and the repofitory of commerce, wealth and manufacture in the Eaft. Veffels from all quarters poured out their treasures on the banks of the Ganges, and the numberless nations that people the northern regions of Indoftan, as far as Cafhmire, Lahore, and Thibet, including a range of feveral thousand miles, used to depofit their riches there, as the great mart and cer tre of their traffick But fuch has been the reftlefs energy of our m:fgovernment, that within the short space of twenty years, many parts of thofe countries have been reduced to the appearance of a defart. The fields are no longer cultivated, -extenfive tracts are already overgrown with thickets, the husbandman is plundered, the manufacturer oppreffed, been repeatedly endured, and depopulation has ensued. The districts are farmed famine has out to Renters, er Zemindars, and the collections, as well as all other business relating to finance, are committed to Provincial Chief, who reports to the Committee of Revenue. The Renter holds by a precarious tenure, while it cofts him fo much to procure and maintain his fituation, that it his exactions bear proportion to his rifk and advance of money, they must be extremely fevere indeed. Neither would it fuit the views of a Chief to be lefs induftrious in the bufinefs of extortion. They must therefore be unufually inexpert if they do not between them contrive to diftrefs the inhabitants, to ruin agriculture, and to defraud the Government of at leaft thirty or forty per cent. of the ftipulated payments. This they manage by statements of approaching want, which they themselves have occafioned; by accounts of provincial works, which are never performed; by unjustifiable deductions, and by connivance at the dua cations of the managers. The husbandmen and Ryots dependent on thefe depredators (compared with whom the feudal Seifs were in a state of freedom) are in their turn happy mortals, when contrafted with the weavers and manufacturers. If the former be plundered of their grain, the chaff at leaft is left for their fubfiftence; but fuch is the fyftem of commercial regulation that the wretched manufacturers have hardly a refource. The Commercial Chief, to whom they are fubject, and who, under the Committee of Trade and Manufacture, is charged with the business of investment, affigns to all the portion of their labour-by a fmall advance pretends to an appropriation of their industry, - denies their right to use their ingenuity for their own advantage,establishes a ruinous monopoly, by the abufe of power, and treats them as bondsmen toiling for his benefit. The confequence is, desertion among the weavers, a decreasing investment for the Company, enormous acquifition for himself, and a fatal stagnation of all trade and manufacture throughout his district. In Oude, Rohilcund, and all the upper countries within our influence, the natives are, if offible, ftill more diftreffed. Various hordes have been driven to despair by hardfhip and exaction. They have affembled in formidable force, and menaced the whole country: the husbandaan goes to the plough with a firelock over his shoulder, while the Government is too feeble to restrain there outrages, and too much depressed to afford relief. If we trust to our military on the Bengal eftablishment for protection against these alarming enormities, we shall find that entire F 2 согра |