APPENDIX.

[Referred to in p. 398, Vol. I.]

ON THE PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES

OF PERMIT

TING A FREE TRADE TO THE EAST INDIES.

THE Commercial Body in England seem firmly determined that a Free Trade shall be opened to them with the East Indies. As England chiefly exists by her commerce, this body has always the greatest weight; and there is not a doubt that they will carry their intentions into execution.

VOL. II.

Y

The

The exertions of our merchants, at present buoyed up with the hope of success from this trade, after having been so long depressed by the gloomy appearance of commerce in general, will give rise to a spirit and energy, which will carry away every obstacle opposed to its operation; more especially as little attention will be paid to the arguments on the other side, from the consideration of their being the suggestions of self-interest and partiality.

A Free Trade will be opened, and the returns of the second or third year will prove, by the simple and irresistible argument of actual loss, that at present every circumstance is against the probability of success in such an undertaking.

This subject is, indeed, rather out of the way of my profession; but it is not altogether unconnected with the object of the present Essay; and it excites such general interest,

interest, that I cannot avoid mentioning the difficulties which are likely to present themselves to the European speculator.

During a residence of eight years in Bengal, I have indulged in every possible opportunity, a curiosity which I have always possessed, of inquiring into the circumstances of tradesmen and artizans,-the mysteries of their profession,-the price of their labour, and the value of the commodities used. Few subjects, indeed, to me are more interesting.

From having a competent knowledge of the colloquial languages of India, (particularly the Bengalee, which is too little studied,) and from having been (in most of the districts where I have been stationed) for several months at intervals employed in the interior, I have had good opportunities of ascertaining the actual condition of the lower orders. The fact is not generally known,

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known, but it is nevertheless true, that those who reside at the Sudder or Head Stations in our Zillahs, are unacquainted with the condition of the people. The reason is simply this: The country now belongs to the Zemindars or landholders; their influence is consequently greater than that of any other body; it is their interest that we should remain in ignorance of the miserable state of their Ryots. All the information we receive is through them, or the corrupt Officers of our Courts, who are, to a man, in the of the Zemindars; and so strong is pay the league formed against us, that when a

Judicial Servant of the Company goes into

"

the interior, it is long before he can gain the confidence of the natives. It is only by laying aside his dignity, and taking advantage of the opportunities which occur of conversing with the peasants, without the intervention of any one, that he can come at the truth. An Englishman boldly tells his wrongs,-a Bengalee studiously conceals

conceals them. Here is a curious picture. For so material a difference in disposition, we must have a competent cause. It is not wanting. An Englishman is secure of redress,-a Bengalee almost sure of destruction from opposition to the will of his tyrant Zemindar. If he is turned out of his native village,-seized, under cover of a real or fictitious balance of rent, and when his person is secured, if he is then sent into the head station as a suspicious character, kept for months in confinement previous to his trial, condemned on the evidence of multitudes of perjured wretches, and finally imprisoned; it is only what he had to expect, it is only what a Zemindar can at all times effect.

It cannot then be expected, that information gained from so vile a source as that of the Zemindars can be entitled to credit. From the circumstances in which I was placed in India, and that free intercourse Y 3

with