Production in 1850.. Consumption..... 16 Culture in British India. J. ....107 Jamaica, Production of Cotton in......665 ...207 .211, 562 L. .......314 Louisiana Historical Collections.... 286 Blooms, Frost, Crop... ......323 Little Red-Head........... Statistics... .565 Lyrics of the Palmetto..................................676 .392 Turpentine of Georgia.. Texas Woolen... 513 " Claret.. 118 66 N. Carolina... Manchester 226 Baltimore and the West .....227 Rail-road Transport, at Home and 66 "6 Alabama and Tennessee......218 The Sciote Lovers.. ...225 Trade of Great Britain and U. States and Commerce of Charleston...307 .159 238 ...344 ..345 .338 of Augusta. .432 " of Mobile .654 Girard and Mobile.. 445 Vicksburg and Jackson.......448 Alabama and Tennessee......552 Trade of New-Orleans.. Rail-road, Nashville and Chattanooga...554 Wilmington, Raleigh and R. R., Virginia and Tennessee.. ......555 W. 66 66 Charleston and Columbia.. Rice Production in Southern States....200 Western and Southern States, Pro- DE BOW'S SOUTHERN AND WESTERN REVIEW. Established January 1, 18460 AR J. D. B. DE BOW, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR JULY, 1850 2d SERIES, VOL. III, No. 1-3d SERIES, VOL. I, No. I. ART. L-GOVERNMENT OF BRITISH INDIA. THE HOME GOVERNMENT.-BY W. ADAM, ESQ.t INTRODUCTION; PROPRIETORS OF STOCK; COURT OF DIRECTORS; BOARD OF CONTROL; PARLIAMENT AND PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. THE acquisition of India by England, whether we regard the means employed, the results actually produced, or the consequences still future; whether we regard its influence on the conquering or the conquered race-on the civilization of Asia, or on the character of England-is one of the most extraordinary and fruitful events of modern times. Its history yet remains to be written; not in the spirit of party warfare, nor in the interests of national policy-not with the special pleading of the casuist, nor with the meager details of the statisticianbut in the spirit of a sound philosophy, and with an enlarged apprehension of the rights and duties, the prospects and destinies, of society. The government of India, that is, the system adopted by England for the administration of the affairs of that dependency, would constitute one part of such a history, profoundly interesting and important, when truly and fully understood; but obscure and complicated, from the nu merous checks and counter checks, means and agencies, that have been brought into operation, and presenting great difficulty to one who, The table of contents of this number is now, and will hereafter bublished upon the second page (inside) of cover.-ED. + Mr. Adam has lived many years in India, and had every opportunity of investigating its affairs. His residence is now in Louisiana. The affairs of India must be of great interest to the South, taking in view the so-much-talked-of competition from that quarter in our staples. through these multifarious particulars, attempts to penetrate to its essential and characteristic features. It is somewhat hazardous to make this attempt within the brief scope which the present occasion affords, and the reader must therefore be warned, that only the most superficial views of the frame-work of the English government of India, and of the principles which it embodies, will be presented; correct, it is not doubted, as far as they go, but still imperfect-suggestive, it may be, of some serious reflection to the thinking: but, to do justice to the subject, requires far more ample and extended illustration. Giving a population of one hundred or one hundred and fifty millions, to be governed by a nation of twenty-six millions, at the distance of half the circuit of the globe, professing different religions, speaking different tongues, having different manners, customs and institutions, belonging to different kinds of civilization, and to long and widely-separated divisions of the human race, what are the principles of government that should be adopted? what the best form of government that can be devised and administered? When this problem is offered for solution, the first thought that occurs to an honest mind, is, that the political and social relations between these two divisions of mankind are unnatural and vicious, and that no wisdom or ingenuity can frame a system of government, adapted to each circumstance, that shall be just to both-undegrading to the one and uncorrupting to the other. They stand in the relation of conquerors and conquered; of arbitrary rulers and subject masses; of masters and slaves-without common associations, or mutual sympathies, or identical interests; and, as this is a relation, in their case, which God has not established, which nature does not sanction, and which reason will not justify, so every attempt, by forms and systems of government, to confirm, perpetuate and sanctify it, must prove futile and unavailing. There is no right way of doing a wrong thing; and while the relation itself is allowed to continue, the mode of acting under that relation must partake of its vicious and unnatural character. Still, the relation exists, and the question recurs, What are the conceivable, the practicable, or the actual, modes of exercising the authority which it confers? One mode is that of transferring the authority of the dominant power from its original seat to the conquered country. This was the course pursued by Baber, the founder of the dynasty of the house of Zimur, in India, who, after ruling Cabul twenty-two years, conquered India, and made it the principal seat of his government, while Cabul was governed by delegated authority, as a subordinate dependency. It was the course also pursued by the king of Portugal, in the early part of this century. When driven from his native throne |