for any subsequent biographer to supply. Some interesting particulars, however, are added from notes in Lady Russell's and Dr. Burnet's hand-writing, at Woburn. Nothing can be more admirable than the paper which Lord Russell delivered to the sheriffs before his execution, in which, after expressing his gratitude to God for all his goodness, more especially for the invaluable blessing of a religious education, and for the peace of mind which he then enjoyed through faith in the Redeemer, he solemnly renews the protestation of his innocence. From the 'time of choosing sheriffs,' he says, I concluded the heat in ' that matter would produce something of this kind; and I am not much surprised to find it fall upon me; and I wish what is done to me may put a stop, and satiate some people's revenge, and that no more innocent blood be shed.' Thus fell, to gratify the revenge of James, and to secure his equally worthless brother in bis transient possession of arbitrary power, this great and good man. Charles, it appears, inclined to save him, but said, he was forced to consent to his death, otherwise he 'must have broke with his brother.'

This is now a tale of other times. The liberties for which Lord Russell sacrificed his life, are now established; but surely, those persons are unworthy of the privileges they inherit, who would wish to bury the recollection of the conflicts and sufferings by which they have been purchased. Thanks to the ceaseless references which, in their fondness for those golden times, the high church party are making to the days of the Stuarts, and the marked dread and abhorrence of Whiggism which is manifested in high places, there is no danger of their being forgotten by the present generation. The character of Lord Russell, however, is in broad and striking contrast to every thing factious, disloyal, and revolutionary. He contemplated no visionary changes in the form of government, nor did the notorious degree to which corruption prevailed in the House of Commons, lead him to seek any other than constitutional means of resisting the progress of arbitrary power. His conduct was marked by equal firmness and moderation, and by a thorough consistency. He was a party-man without ambition. He was popular, yet no demagogue. He was no courtier, yet a sincere royalist. Though an oppositionist, he was an orthodox Protestant, and though a friend to the Dissenters, he was an evangelical churchman.

The extracts we have given from the present volumes, will have rendered it unnecessary for us to pass any commendation upon the style of the composition. It is clear, manly, and unaffected; and the sentiments are worthy of a Russell. A portrait of Lord William is prefixed to the work, which also contains a fac-simile of his hand-writing, and an appendix of interesting documents. No. 1. The Advice of William, Earl of Vol. XIII. N. S. S

Bedford, to his sons,' whoever be its author, is highly deserying of a separate republication.

Art. II. 1. The History of British India. By James Mill, Esq. In Three Volumes, 4to. London, 1817.

2. Historical Sketches of the South of India, in an Attempt to trace the History of Mysoor, from the Origin of the Hindoo Government of that State, to the Extinction of the Mahommedan Dy. nasty in 1799. By Colonel Mark Wilks. Vols. II. and III. 4to. London, 1817.

URING the scenes of confusion which succeeded the death

of Aurungzebe, Jaffier Khan, an adventurer, had made himself independent in the subahdarry of Bengal. In 1756, Suraja Dowla, one of his successors, exasperated by the protection which had been afforded at Calcutta to an individual obnoxious to his displeasure, assaulted that city; which, notwithstanding that it might have been successfully defended, was in the most dastardly manner abandoned by its civil and military chiefs. So precipitate was their flight, that the vessels in which they embarked for safety, left to the disastrous consequences of inevitable capture, a great number of individuals who might have been brought off with the utmost facility. It was on this occasion that the fearful tragedy of the Black Hole, terminated in the suffocation of a hundred and twenty-three out of a hundred and forty-six individuals who were confined in that small, ill-aired, and unwholesome dungeon.' It does not, however, appear, that the Subaldar had the slightest knowledge of their situation. The larger portion of the blame must, at all events, remain with the English themselves, who had previously used as a prison, a place of so narrow dimensions, and so destitute of light and ventilation as to have acquired that significant designation. At this critical juncture, it happened fortunately for the local interests of the East India Company, that effectual aid was at hand. Clive, whose energy of character and military genius had been advantageously signalized in the wars of Carnatic, and in the subjugation of the pirate Angria, was, after some delay, sent from Madras with a formidable European and native force, under the convoy of Admiral Watson. Calcutta was retaken after a two hours cannonade from the ships, on the 2nd of January, 1757, and on the 10th, Hoogly, a considerable city at some distance, was taken by the British troops. Suraja Dowla reinvested Calcutta with a large army, but, alarmed by a spirited sortie, agreed to an accommodation, which was followed up by a treaty of alliance.

Clive now entered upon a series of exploits, bold indeed, and decisive, but marked by a steady and systematic disregard of those higher principles of faith and honour which ought ever

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punctiliously to regulate the conduct of public men. While the English were engaged in the expedition to Hoogly, intelligence arrived of the commencement of hostilities between England and France, which placed Clive in a state of no small embarrassment. The French had at Chandernagore, a body of European infantry and artillery, which, if added to the formidable means of the Subaldar, might have possibly made him an overmatch for the English force. But while Clive was in doubt as to the line of policy which it might be most advisable to pursue, the French relieved him from his hesitation, by proposing a local treaty of neutrality, which he readily acceded to, and the terms were speedily adjusted. Before, however, the signatures were actually affixed, reinforcements arrived from Bombay, and Clive then deeming himself strong enough to encounter both the French and Suraja Dowla, in shameless violation of his own recorded opinion that the non-execution of the treaty would subject him to the imputation of defective principle or unsteadiness of character, immediately dismissed the French deputies, and, after a severe but short struggle, reduced Chandernagore. His next object was, the destruction of the Subahdar; and this he effected by a complicated train of intrigues and treasons, which ensured the victory to the English in the battle of Plassey, and, terminated in the death of Suraja Dowla, and the elevation of Meer Jaffier to his office. The scramble for spoil, among the English officers and the members of the Committee, together with the consummate treachery' practised upon Omichund, the principal agent in the intrigues with Jaffier, are briefly but strongly stated by Mr. Mill, and to him we must refer for the #sickening details. The treatment of Omichund alone, if, as we doubt not, it be correctly detailed, is not exceeded, in shameless and deliberate faithlessness, by any of the deeds which have been consigned to infamous memorial in the page of history. Of all the individuals engaged in this transaction, Admiral Watson alone had the virtue to refuse his sanction; and his name was actually forged to the treaty which deceived, ruined, and maddened Omichund.

The fall of Suraja, and the establishment of Jaffier, were the marking events of the administration of Clive, and the foundation of the Bengal dominion of the East India Company. They were attended and followed by others of scarcely inferior magnitude, all of which that subtle politician contrived to make more or less subservient to his views. After the successful expedition to the Circars, under Colonel Forde, the defeat of the Mogul expedition against Bengal, and Forde's brilliant victory over a formidable Dutch armament, Clive resigned the government in 1760, and returned to England. As * an illustration of the estimation in which this active and able

governor was held by the natives, the following specimen of Indian humour is cited in a note.

The

There was an officer of rank, to whom Jaffier had been often indebted before his elevation, remarkable for his wit. This, from their former intimacy, and a jealousy of present neglect, he did not spare on the Nabob himself. While the armies of the Nabob and of Clive were at Patna, he was one day accused to the Nabob of having permitted a fray between some of his own soldiers and some of Clive's. "It chanced," says the author of the Seer Mutakhareen, ii. 19. "that Mirza Shemseddin himself made his appearance at that very moment it was in full durbar, and in the hall of audience. Nawab fixed his eyes upon him, and spoke a few words that seemed to border upon reprimand: Sir,' said he, your people have had a fray with the Colonel's people: Is your honour to learn who is that Colonel Clive, and in what station heaven has seated him? My lord Nawab,' answered the Mirza, getting up instantly, and standing bolt upright before him: Me, to quarrel with the Colonel! me! who never get up in the morning, without making three profound bows to his very jack ass! How then could I be daring enough, after that, to fall out with the rider himself!'"' Vol. II. p. 164, Note.

The presidency of Vansittart was by no means a season of quiet rule. A second Mogul invasion called for active exertions, and either the vices of Jaffier, or the hope of fresh donations from a grateful successor, induced the Council of Calcutta to depose him, and to raise Meer Causim, his son-in-law, to the vacant musnud. Vansittart appears to have been a meritorious governor; but his authority was a divided one. Circumstances had given the majority to his opponents in the council, who availed themselves of their ascendancy to thwart his measures, and to push their own fortunes at the expense, not only of justice, right, and precedent, but of all decency whatsoever. Their vexations and oppressions became at length intolerable, and the violence of Mr. Ellis, the chief of the factory at Patna, drove the Nabob Meer Causim into open hostility. Causim, though ferocious and cowardly, was a man of some ability, and he had assiduously employed himself in disciplining his army, and in arranging it, as far as possible, on the European model. In this he was assisted by Sumroo, a German adventurer, not destitute, apparently, of talent and enterprise, but a savage and unhesitating executor of the bloody mandates of his master. Ellis precipitated the rupture by surprizing Patna; but it was retaken by the Nabob's troops, and he, together with a number of his countrymen, was made prisoner, while Mr. Amyatt and other Englishmen were killed in an unsuccessful struggle. The Calcutta Government immediately reinvested Meer Jaffier with the ensigns of royalty; and the English forces marched to the encounter of Causim's troops. The conflict was long, severe, and for a time, even doubtful; such was the improved consistency

of the native army; and even after victory had declared for the 221 British, they were baffled during nearly a month, by a strong intrenchment behind which the Indians retired. Causim, exasperated by defeat, indulged his appetite for slaughter. Several natives of rank were put to death by his command; and when his passions were inflamed to the highest by the storming of the lines, and the subsequent reduction of his strongly fortified capital, he gave orders for the massacre of Mr. Ellis and all the English prisoners, with the exception of Mr. Fullerton, a surgeon, whose professional skill had recommended him to the favourable notice of the Nabob. dominions, took refuge with Sujah the Vizir and Nabob of Oude, Meer Causim, expelled from his to whose army the disciplined sepoys of his guest were an important reinforcement. In the war which followed between the Company and the Vizir, the main events were, the battle of Patna, gained by the English under Major Carnac, and the victory of Buxar, gained by Sir Hector Munro. The last is stated to have been

' one of the most critical and important victories in the history of the British wars in that part of the globe. It broke completely the force of Sujah Dowla, the only Mogul chief who retained till this period any considerable strength; it placed the emperor himself under the protection of the English; and left them, without dispute, the greatest power in India.'"

In the mean time, the servants of the Company were pushing to the utmost their infamous extortions. The interests and the commands of their employers were alike slighted in their shameless scramble for the spoils of oppressed and exhausted India. The miserable Jaffier was assailed on all sides, and every fresh concession was but the signal for a more audacious encroachment.

Respecting one principal sum of enormous amount, exacted by these harpies from the hapless Nabob, it is the express atfirmation of a Director of the Company, that all delicacy was laid 'aside in the manner in which payment was obtained for this sum, of which seven-eighths were for losses sustained, or said 'to be sustained, in an illicit monopoly of the necessaries of life, 'carried on against the orders of the Company, and to the utter 'ruin of many thousands of the India merchants; that of the 'whole, one half was soon extorted from him, though part of the payments to the Company was still undischarged, and though 'the Company was sinking under the burden of the war, and obliged to borrow great sums of money of their servants at 'eight per cent. interest, and, even with that assistance, unable to carry on the war and their investment, but obliged to send 'their ships half loaded to Europe.' In addition to this information, we have the testimony of Clive himself, who, after