Hutchings, from Penang; Misses Hutchings, Ibbetson, M'Nab, Cameron, Hunter, and Fraser.

By the Princess Charlotte of Wales, from Bengal and Madras:-Lieut.-Col. Tidy (C. B.), 59th Foot; Lieut. Tidy, 59th Foot; Sir Roger Martin, Bart., Civ. Serv., John Trotter, Henry Mundy, David Erskine, and Patrick Grant, Esqrs., M'Lane, late Capt. 7th Light Cav., Masters Elliot, Henry Erskine; Thomas Atkins and Woods; The Hon. Mrs. Elliot; Mesdames Heury Gubble, Savage, and Hadow; Misses Erskine, Compton, Ann Cowell, H. Hunter, Two Erskines, M. Atkinson, Two Clarkes, Savage, Hadow, and Coupland; nine

servants.

By the Duke of Sussex, from China :-Mr. Fox, of the late ship Asia; Mr. Haynes, and 2 children, from St. Helena.

By the Marquis of Wellington, from India :-Col. Balmain; Capts. Sweeney, Kerr, and Cleveland; Lieuts. Chisholm and Wallace; Master Jackson; Mesdames Hutchinson, Maxwell, and child; Kerr and child; Bailes and 6 children; Balmain and child; Cleveland and 3 children; Vaughan and 6 children; Dr. M'Kenzie, and wife, and children; Miss Bond; Col. Jackson, died at sea, March 5.; six servants.

By the Gipsy, from Bombay :-Capts. Wright and O'Donnoghue; Lieut. Stewart; Dr. Taylor; and Mrs. Wright.

By the Eliza, from Bengal:-Capts. G. S. Blundell, Bengal N. I., and E. Malone, Bengal Cav.; Lieut. Begbie; Messrs. Hastie, Shove, and A. Udney, Civ. Serv. (died at sea, 25th April;) Masters (two) Grindall, Poyntz, E. Ellis, W. G. Lumsdaine, and W. L. Hastie ; Mesdames Grindall, Stewart, and Begbie; Misses (three) Grindall, M. Stewart, F. Begbie, Ellis, L. Lumsdaine, E. Hastie,

and ten servants.

By the Clyde, from Madras and Bengal:-Capts. Steward and T. Hill; Lients. Steward, Haldane, and Grave; Mr. Phillipson; Mesdames Reddie, (and four children,) Steward, (and two children,) M'Lean, (and two children,) and Mrs. Clarke.

By the Sesostris, from Bombay :-Capts. Wilson, (and two children,) Athell, (and one child,) Slight, Trincombe, Hart, Johnson, Urquhart, and Grant; Lieuts. Docke, Lewis, King, and Jacob; Drs. Bourchier and Moyle; Mr. Pitt; two Masters Bartley.

By the Resource, from Bengal :-Lieut.-Col. Day; Lients. Rellier and Lloyd; Mr. Higgins; Mesdames Birmingham, (and three children,) and Bingley, (and five children.

By the Upton Castle, from Bombay :-Col. Egan and lady; Capts. Ellis, Lanseu, Fasberry and Thomson; Lieuts. Connor and Foley; Drs. Hathway, Frazer, and Liddell; Cornet Hay; Rev. Mr. Slead; Mr. Graham; seventythree invalids.

By the Catherine, from Bengal :-Majors J. Drysdale and Pew; Capts. Falconer and Hare; Lieuts. Symonds, Powle, and Whittenale; A. D. Ferrier, J. Ross, and J. Brown, Esqrs.; Masters Lamb, Barlowe, Mackenzie, E. Edwards, Matheson, La Marchand, Gordon, Fowle, M'Sween, and Bailey Mesdames Lamb, Bailey, Falconer, and Mackenzie; Misses Dickson, three Lambs, Barlowe, Matheson, Grant, and Davidson.

By the Lord Melville, from Bengal :-Lieut.-Col. Swain and lady; Capt. Rose, 45th Foot; Lieut. R. W. Lang, 37th N. I., and Miss E. Lethbridge. By the Diadem, from Bengal :-Mrs. Gordon and son.

To CORRESPONDENTS.

The War Song for Greece,' inserted in the Number for May, 1828, was from the pen of Mr. William Tucker, Surgeon, Adelphi, whose name and address were inadvertently omitted.

No. LVI.

6. Miss Wright's Establishment in America.....

7. Marius among the ruins of Carthage...

4. Summary Commitment for Constructive Contempts of Parliament, and of Courts of Justice.........

223

5. Buonaparte's Invasion of Russia, a Cambridge Prize Poem

231

237

263

265

269

270

.. 276

277

278

279

281

8. The Military Power of Turkey......

9. The Unrivalled Beauty and Glory of Religion.....

10. Trial by Jury in India....

11. Ovid in Exile.......

12. Power possessed by certain Individuals of supporting Heat.

13. Fragment

14. Indian Revenue and Territorial Debt...

15. Suttee at Bangalore .....

16. English Version of a Song or Hymn sung by a Hindoo Woman, on the Point of being Burned on the Pile with her Husband's Body...... 286 17. Suggestions as to the Benefits of a Representative Government at the Cape of Good Hope.......

28. Reply to an Article inserted in the 'Asiatic Journal' of London, and

32. Debate at the East India House on Captain Prescott's Case

THE ORIENTAL HERALD.

No. 56.-AUGUST, 1828.-VOL. 18.

ON THE COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN
WITH CHINA.

In several previous articles inserted in this Journal, we have discussed, at considerable length, our political relations with China, and endeavoured to dispel the illusion that has so long existed in this country with regard to the civil condition of the Celestial Empire, and the military and naval power of that imperfectly known quarter of the globe. In these articles, our object was to lift up the veil that has so long obscured the vision of our countrymen; and to show, that however adequate the internal policy of the Chinese may be, to secure the stability of their own singular laws and habits, that policy is altogether unfit to sustain their country against any external shock; and that, in remoddeling our political and commercial relations with them, (which must very soon be done,) it will require but a moderate application of our power, to bring the arrogant, but pusillanimous, natives of that country, to a proper sense of the advantages which would accrue to themselves and to us, by a more unrestricted trade than it has hitherto been our lot to enjoy, under the domination of that grasping body, the East India Company. Another object we had in view, while examining the character and power of the Chinese, was to effect that which we have, for a long time past, aimed at; namely, a change in the present system of our commerce with the East, which, we are satisfied, would be productive of incalculable benefits, not alone to England, but to the whole world. Independently of the commerce and manufactures of our country being encouraged and increased, by a freer and more unrestrained intercourse with the Eastern nations of the world than we enjoy at present, or than we ever have any chance of enjoying while such a body as the East India Company may exist, we are satisfied that the way would be paved for a wider diffusion of that knowledge and civilisation which Oriental Herald, Vol. 18.

Р

must, sooner or later, pervade all countries. For bestowing this most important of all benefits on a population exceeding that of any other country in the world, nothing can be so useful as the extension of those principles of freedom, both in a commercial and political sense, which are the peculiar boast of our own country. This must be the first step towards the higher object. The half-civilised Asiatic must taste of some of the sweets of that temporal enjoyment which is possessed by his more civilised fellow-creatures, before his judgment can be convinced that any creed is better than his own; and we again repeat, that the happier order of things at which all good men aim, is to be begun and attained among the nations of the East, and in China particularly, by the display of our power, by the unrestricted change of our productions, and by the gradual acquirement of those civil and political rights with which we are blessed. Under this impression, we proceed to consider the nature of the commercial relations of Great Britain with China.

In discussing this subject, we must begin with repeating what cannot be too often expressed, namely, that the monopoly of the East India Company operates like a dead weight on the commercial energies of the mother country, compels the community to pay more than a double price for an indispensable necessary of life, and greatly contributes to the oppression and subordination of a vast multitude of people, to an ignorant and despotic domination, to the entire exclusion of every principle of justice and freedom, civil as well as religious, political as well as commercial. To a person ignorant of our Indian affairs, it may be very natural to ask, how it happens that such a state of things exists at all? and how, if ever it were discovered to exist, it could, for a day or a year, be permitted to continue? We can only answer that it is so; and, moreover, that though the subject has been argued and canvassed in Parliament and out of Parliament, yet our trade with China and the East continues still the same, and we pay more than double what we ought for the most common of all our articles of consumption; in short, nothing even moderately beneficial has been obtained for the last half century in our commerce with that quarter of the world. And the only reason that has ever been assigned, or that indeed can be assigned, for this is, that every approach to an undisguised and enlightened discussion of our Indian and Chinese commercial relations has been keenly watched, unceasingly counteracted, and hitherto successfully opposed, by the whole weight and influence of the East India Company. It can be hardly necessary to state, that we speak of the East India Company as a corporate body, and of their conduct collectively, without the slightest reference to the individual motives or conduct of any one of its members, among whom we know that there are many able and intelligent men. We are speaking of them as a body, whose collective measures are injurious to the best interests of Great Britain, and far from beneficial to the distant country with which we are linked by them.