the thing is done. This is the feeling also of the Indian community, and the expression of their wishes ought not to be treated lightly. Petitions from Bombay were presented to Parliament late in the last session. Petitions from Calcutta and Madras are now in the hands of Captain Grindlay, and will be presented immediately on the meeting of Parliament. The petition from the former place to the House of Commons has more than 7,000 signatures. Memorials have been forwarded to the Court of Directors and the Board of Control. The interest felt upon the subject is intense and universal; it is not confined to the ports and presidencies where the influx of strangers may be felt and European influence may be supposed to predominate-it has penetrated even into the western provinces, where committees have been organized for promoting the desired object.

Captain Grindlay pleads for the claims of the Indian people with considerable power; but as there must be a limit to extract, we are unable to quote many passages which we should wish to present to the reader. We must, however, make one extract, very proper to be duly considered by those who think the preservation of our Indian empire a matter of trivial importance. The apprehended designs of Russia, and the assistance which the use of steam agency may afford us in resisting them, give rise to the following observations, which, perhaps, may not be without weight with those who would think the loss of empire but a slight infliction. Captain Grindlay establishes, to our conviction, that this loss would not be final, but would be followed by others still more serious.

The political safety of India is intimately connected with its commerical prosperity, and, consequently, with its commercial value to this country. This position is by no means inconsistent with the received doctrines of political economy. It may be that, if India were separated from the dominion of Great Britain, and placed under a free, wise, and enlightened government, her value as a commercial correspondent of this country would not be diminished; and the example of the United States of America may be quoted in proof. But while this may be admitted fully and unreservedly, it is at the same time perfectly certain that the separation of India from Great Britain would withdraw from the latter country all participation in her commerce, because the government which would succeed the British, would be neither free, nor wise, nor enlightened. The breaking up of the British dominions would be followed either by the establishment of a number of native principalities, or by the extension over India of the authority of the most ambitious and encroaching power of modern times—a power which, within a comparatively recent period, has stretched itself eastward, and westward, and southward, and which still pursues its schemes of aggrandizement with unabated ardour.

If the British territories were parcelled out among native sovereigns, commerce would be at an end, because peace and reasonable government would be at an end. Ignorant, unprincipled and rapacious, these princes would be engaged in perpetual broils, and the country would return to that state from which it has been rescued by British interference. Some part of the country would always be in a state of warfare, and even the intervals of peace would be productive of no commercial advantage. Under such governments there would be no security for property, and consequently enterprise would be discouraged. Odious and mischievous imposts of every kind, which the good

sense of European rulers are gradually removing, would be forthwith revived. The transit duties, which have been recently abolished throughout the territories of Bengal, and which will soon cease to exist throughout all the presidencies, we may be sure would again be levied; for an eastern despot never waits for the gradual accumulation of the golden eggs, nor spares the life of the bird, if he thinks that even a small amount of present advantage will reward the sacrifice. These governments too would not only be rapacious, but weak; and the hordes of robbers, with which India once abounded, and which even the vigour of a European government can scarcely hold in check, would speedily re-assume that place in Indian society, from which our western notions have dismissed them. This would be the consequence of the re-establishment of native rule. War, and the more ignoble modes of rapine prosecuted during what would be miscalled peace, would quickly drive all commerce from the shores of India. If the other branch of the alternative be taken, and Russia supposed invested with that power which is now held by England, it will require no argument to shew, that the fall of our commerce will follow that of our territorial dominion. It is of our commercial and maritime greatness that the Russian government is especially jealous; and though that government has seldom failed to abound in liberal professions, it has never been prone to indulge in liberal policy.

These are startling considerations, and though the danger may be somewhat less threatening, we think some attention due to the succeeding hint: Arising from these reflections, is one especially addressed to the holders of East-India Stock. Their principal and dividends are secured to them by the Government of Great Britain, but they are secured upon the territory of India;-whatever places that territory in danger, consequently, impairs the security of the stock-holder; and, on the other hand, every new barrier to the British authority in India, is an addition to that security. The Proprietors of East-India Stock have, therefore, a direct interest in promoting the cause of steam-communication with India.

The pertinence of the following suggestions is obvious:

The manufactures of England have, in some instances, superseded those of India. Of the trade, which has been attended with such a result, England at least has no right to complain; and though India may have suffered thereby some temporary inconvenience, she possesses in her internal resources the means of recovering and of converting the trade with England into a mine of wealth and prosperity. India can never again be a great manufacturing country, but by cultivating her connexion with England, she may be one of the greatest agricultural countries in the world; she may furnish the raw commodity, which the local advantages of England enable that nation more beneficially to work up. Here, too, England will gain a double advantage, by securing in India at once a field for raising the raw material, and a market for the consumption of manufactured goods. The cotton and silk of India may, at some future time, afford the principal, perhaps the only, supply for our looms. A continental war would cut off our supplies of silk from France and Italy. A war with the United States would shut up the storehouse of our cotton. These occurrences, it may be said, are not immediately probable; but what prudent man will trust his fortune to mere probability, when he can have comparative certainty? The native merchants, concerned in the silk trade of Calcutta, know the value of English connexion, and are most anxious for the establishment of the only means that can improve it to its full extent. Are the merchants of London, and Liverpool, and Bristol-are the manufac

turers of Manchester, and Macclesfield, and Nottingham, less discerning or less spirited than the natives of Bengal? Are they slower in perceiving an advantage, or less energetic in seeking to realize it? This cannot be believed.

The commercial importance of the question at issue is, indeed, too apparent to require much argument to establish it. It may demand much labour to procure for it that degree of attention to which it is entitled-and it has demanded much; but where attention could be secured, conviction was inevitable. But it is not only in a commercial point of view that the question is interesting-the advancement of India in civilization depends greatly upon the extending or withholding increased facilities of correspondence with this country-and there is still one aspect more in which the question appeals to the fireside feelings of almost every family in Britain. A vast body of Englishmen are spread over the face of India. The civil, military, and ecclesiastical servants of the Company are above 10,000, and his Majesty's troops more than twice that strength-while the number of. European residents, unconnected either with the King's or the Company's service, is large and increasing. These are all connected by birth and early habit with numerous individuals and families at home. The ramifications of affection are here widely extended-for our countrymen in India have been taken from almost every class of society. Some are from the higher ranks; a very large proportion from the middle classes; and some from the lower grades of the community. A vast expanse of land and sea separates those whose hearts have been knit together by the ties of consanguinity or of spontaneous affection; but distance does not destroy the force of parental feeling, or filial duty, or conjugal affection, or fraternal regard, or early, disinterested, and long-cherished love, or old and valued friendship, or honest respect, or glowing gratitude. These feelings, where they ever existed, still continue to flow, and the best consolation for the absence of the beloved objects is found in frequent correspondence-in the opportunities thus afforded for each learning all that befals the other for good or for evil-in the mutual communication of their joys and their sorrows, and in the exercise of mutual sympathy. Captain Grindlay's early life has enabled him practically to know the value of this enjoyment, and the pain of deprivation. He consequently pleads the cause of his brethren con He refers to the amount of correspondence between the two countries, and then continues in the following terms :—

amore.

A large portion of the above correspondence is mercantile. Another portion is of a different character, but in the eye of humanity not less important. In India, a vast number of Englishmen are secluded from the land of their birth, from the homes of their childhood, from the friends and companions of their youth, from the parents to whom they have been accustomed to look up with mingled affection and reverence, from those with whom they are united by the bonds of fraternal love, and from the children whom the character in which their lot is cast compels them to educate at the distance of half the globe from themselves. If they have the feelings of men, their thoughts must often revert to those distant relations, and they must endure, on their account, many a moment of painful anxiety. The feelings of those friends in

England are precisely the same with regard to their relations in India: they are in fact more anxious and more bitter, from the consciousness of the added perils which a residence in India attaches to the chance of life and health. To all thus situated, the diminution of time, which steam-communication would effect in the transmission of letters, would be a boon the full value of which can be appreciated only by those who, under the pressure of anxiety for all that is dear to them, have watched and waited for expected tidings till they have experienced that sickness of heart arising from "hope deferred." The separation at best must be painful, and it is cruel to aggravate it by unnecessary infliction.

The number of persons whose dearest feelings of attachment are thus bound up with India, is not few, nor are they restricted to any particular circle of society. There is scarcely a family which has not some interest in the subject, intimate or remote, and no station in life, from the peer to the peasant, exempt from its influence; and while the improvement sought will add to the felicity of wealth and rank, it will in many instances be regarded by the humbler classes as one of the most valuable blessings which could be conferred upon them.

The members both of the civil and military service of India quit their country at an early age. The latter when mere boys; the former when only on the verge of manhood, or at most having just attained it. It is highly important to the characters of both that their sympathy with their native country and its morals should be preserved, and there is no better method of preserving it than by a frequent correspondence with their European connexions. They may be placed in circumstances where their good feelings and good principles will be in danger; if they should, the earnest and affectionate advice of an absent parent or friend will be likely to prove the best safeguard against temptation; and by multiplying the opportunities and increasing the certainty of correspondence between England and India, we shall contribute to sustain and improve the character of those who administer the government of India in the name and on the behalf of Great Britain.

These are considerations which it appears to us difficult to resist, and certain we are that a heavy responsibility will rest with those, if such there be, who shall continue to throw impediments in the way of a plan fraught with so much benefit, and open to no valid objection. The duty of Britain with regard to her own sons can admit of no doubt-her duty towards the country which has, under such extraordinary circumstances, been transferred to her sovereignty, is equally clear. It is her part to remove the evils which have accumulated under ages of mis-government and mental darkness-to diffuse through India the light and knowledge which she herself enjoys; and the amount of glory which she will derive from the due performance of this duty, can be equalled only by that of the deep disgrace which she will incur by neglecting it. This point is forcibly put in the Calcutta circular, issued by the committee in that city in the month of April last year:

To India, England is indebted for wealth, for fame, and in some degree for the prominent station she holds among the nations of the world. In return, she has a duty to perform to the countless millions subject to her sway-a duty which can never be performed as it ought to be, until the barrier which upholds their mutual ignorance, and thence fosters their mutual prejudices, is broken down,

The barrier once removed, can it be for one moment doubted, that the arts the sciences, the civilization, the capital of England would rapidly find their way to India? Their very nature is to extend-they only require a road, and when that is made easy to any place needing their presence, they cannot but go. India does need, and England can furnish them-and it is her duty to do so.

It is her bounden duty to open wide the doors of India for the entry and spread, EMPHATICALLY, of the knowledge of Europe. It is the one thing needed in India to enable her to advance, as under the dominion of England she ought to do, in the scale of nations, and this can only be done effectually by approximating the two countries in the manner proposed.

We leave this to speak for itself, confident that it will require neither comment nor recommendation. But we cannot pass by the opportunity of observing, that Captain Grindlay's pamphlet is greatly enhanced by the appendix of documents which is attached to it. All these papers are well worth reading, some of them are, we believe, made public for the first time in this country, and these contain matter especially interesting. The principal ground of objection to the establishment of a regular steam-communication has been afforded by the presumed expense. A notion prevailed that this would be very enormous, and, indeed, that it was almost incapable of being ascertained. Persons, however, have come forward, with plans, which they were willing to carry into effect on receiving a stipulated sum of no very large amount. In reference to these proposals, Captain Grindlay remarks:

Some of the plans quoted, are not mere suggestions, thrown out for the chance of adoption. The parties who brought them forward were ready and willing to effect that which they proposed, on receiving the necessary encouragement from government. The expense ought, therefore, to be no longer a bugbear. We know its maximum. If the state can carry on the plan for a less sum than private projectors have stipulated for, it is the duty of government to undertake it. If this be deemed improbable, it is no less a duty to give public sanction and support to some one of the plans by which private bodies have proposed to furnish the much-desired accommodation.

All this is unquestionably just; but from the statements appended to the memorial from Madras, it would seem that the expense might be reduced to a sum scarcely considerable enough to stagger the government of the pettiest principality in Germany.

It has been assumed that the annual expense of one steam-vessel, including the capital fund, would be £26,800, and four vessels being considered necessary to keep up a monthly communication, the total annual cost would thus amount to £107,200. The Madras committee, however, contest this estimate on three distinct grounds. First, they allege that proper vessels may be purchased and placed at Bombay at much less cost than has been assumed, and for this they appeal to the unexceptionable authority of Sir Pulteney Malcolm and Mr. Mc Gregor Laird. Secondly, they maintain that the charge for fuel has been greatly overrated: that the quantity estimated to be required for each ten-horse power is too great, and the price which they were calculated