Consideration on the Recent Political State of India (1815)

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE RESENT POLITICAL STATE OF INDIA 1815 BY ALEXANDER FRASER TYTLER PREACE. IT is in the contemplation of the Government of Great Britain, most materially to abridge the privileges of the East India Company, by admitting private speculators to a participation in their trade. It is only within these few years, that, after a series of arduous and protracted exertions, the concerns of the Company have begun to assume a more promising appearance and it is therefore, perhaps, more than unfortunate, that this period should have been chosen by Government Government for the agitation of those sures which are likely to prove hurtful, not only to the general Mercantile Interests of the Company, but still more in weakening that singular Tenure by which we have so long held our Indian possessions. The existence of this 'Company as a Commercial Body, is dependent upon their trade, as well as on the internal administration of their dominions, and the easy col- lection of their revenues and as an attack Is now meditated against the former of these it becomes them, more than ever, to dedicate their attention to the improvement of the latteiv To the Land, as the chief source of their revenue, their, efforts- must be first directed to the increasing the security of its tenure, to the amelioration of the condition of its labourers, promoting by this means its only certain and effectual improvement. As to the Revenue itself, they must endeavour, by every means, to increase the facility of its collection whilst, by a sedulous attention to the system of their Police they impart tranquillity to the industrious, overawe the idle and the vicious, and by conferring security on the property of the lower orders, encourage them in honourable exertion. These are great and jioble objects: When we consider the extent of our Indian dominions, and that immense popu- lation, for the welfare of which this country is now responsible, their importance is almost incalculable and the Author of this Work would certainly never have ventured to submit it to the Public, did he not consider, that those pages which attempt, even in the feeblest manner, to promote these important ends, will not, probably, be examined with that critical precision which is more properly applied to the productions of taste and imagination. It is a fact which, however singular and Unfortunate, is yet founded in truth, that those persons from whom correct information on these subjects might justly be ex- pected, are generally the least able, frqm the peculiar circumstances of their situation, to supply it: I mean the Company's Servants, During the early period of their residence in the East, every hour must be em- ployed in the acquisition of the languages, in the study of the laws of the country and, the manners of the DEGREESnatives whilst the latter years of their service are still more un- remittingly engrossed in the discharge o the irksoine and arduous duties of their profession. To the younger Servants of the Company another remark is applicabl