which have not served to transmit even the names of their founders down to our times, will frequently arrest your steps; but while these are hastening to decay, the customs and habits of the natives seem immortal, and present us now with the same traits under which they are painted by the Greeks who visited them two thousand years ago.

Perhaps in their moral character the Hindus -are worse than their ancestors, but before we absolutely condemn them we shall do well to consider the causes of their depravity. The poet has said, "Whatever day, makes man a slave, takes half his worth away," and in our measure of censure against the falsehood and perjury we meet with in India, we should remember that for many centuries they have been slaves to hard masters, and that if by subterfuge they could not conceal their property, they had only to expect robbery and violence; thus falsehood became the only defence of the weak against the strong, and lost something, at least, of its criminal character.

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Yet that it is not the peculiar character of the Hindus, or encouraged by their laws or their faith, we may convince ourselves by referring to those sublime passages in their Sastras, where truth is identified with the Almighty mind, and described at once in the most awful and the

most enchanting colours; and though in the modern Hindûs every generous feeling seems broken down, and replaced by an almost brute apathy, yet the spark though smothered is not extinguished, but ready to blaze forth if properly awakened, into all that genius and fancy can hope; or, if aroused by ill timed or ill directed interference with principles, which through loss of liberty, of empire, of riches, have clung closely round every heart and entwined themselves with every fibre, into vengeance, before which, ordinary means of safety will be vain, and ordinary courage subdued.

But I trust, that as we have hitherto used our power soberly, and on the whole, have made our government beneficial to the inhabitants of India, so we shall continue in the same wise moderation, and conduct the innovations necessary for their permanent improvement and our own security, in such a manner as that the hand of authority be never seen, but in the punishment of crimes, and her voice never heard, but in the dispensing of justice.

Into whatever part of the country you travel, or wherever you may be stationed, you will find much to examine; and if it be your good for tune to see various and distant parts of India, you will find a considerable variety of character, and sufficient difference of customs and of faith,

tory nominally under the government of the Nizam ul Muluc, or Soubadar of the Deccan, and that subject to the Peishwa of Poonah, are guarded and garrisoned by British subsidiary forces, while these princes, not less than the shadow of the Great Mogul, are prisoners in their palaces, to troops paid by themselves. Thus the whole of the immense region from the frontiers of Cabul to Cape Comorin north and south, and from the Indus to the Ganges east and west, is virtually under the British dominion; while the very few really independant chiefs and princes preserve that independance merely by sufferance, as you may convince yourself by an inspection of their geographical positions relatively to the British territory. But after all, it is chiefly the empire of opinion that supports us in our possessions, for the natives outnumber us in such a proportion as must make us tremble, if ever injuries offered to them, or interference in those points of religion For custom to which they are attached, shall rouse them to the exercise of the physical superiority they undoubtedly possess, and to shake off the timid and humble peacefulness which has hitherto distinguished them.

Long before the Mahomedan conquest of Hindostan the great monarchies of that country had been torn by internal commotions, and

• divided into many smaller kingdoms, which like their parent states contained in themselves the seeds of destruction, from the vicious principles on which they were founded.. Though it might be true, that if angels could descend to rule over men, absolute monarchy would be the best form of government, yet as we are constituted, such a government can scarcely possess stability. And the slight traces of Indian history which remain to us, would confirm, if it were needful, this well known truth. If in one picture we are presented with a Hindoo monarch reigning with justice, or extending his conquests over the whole Peninsula, in the next we see an insignificant race of successors at first governed, and afterwards dethroned, by their more enterprising servants, who, in founding new dynasties, only prepared for their descendants the same train of miseries they had themselves inflicted on their unfortunate masters.

The better authenticated history of the Mahomedan kingdoms of Hindostan presents us with the same scenes; and as the Mussulman sovereigns and usurpers were even more absolute than those of the Hindûs, on whom the sacerdotal class was always a considerable check, the changes were still more sudden and violent; so that, before the arrival of the Europeans in India, the Mahomedan monarchy was already

weakened by the detachment of some of its richest provinces. And although Aureng Zebe succeeded in re-uniting them to the crown of Dehli, and even in extending his dominions beyond the former conquests, his successors were gradually spoiled of province after province, till his throne was filled by a mere shadow of royalty, placed and upheld there by the army of a company of western merchants.

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But I must defer entering into the history of Mussulman India at present, as I think I should but ill perform your wishes if I neglected to preface it with that of the most ancient possessors of the soil that we are acquainted with, and there are besides some interesting topics on which it would not perhaps be amiss previously

to enter.

Nature seems to have taken pleasure in embellishing and enriching the favoured country of Hindostan with every choicest gift. Under a pure sky and brilliant sun the soil produces the most exquisite fruits, and the most abundant harvests; the rocks are rich in gems, the mountains teem with gold, and the fleecy pod of the cotton furnishes in profusion the light garment fitted to the climate. In travelling in the interior your eyes will often be enchanted with the most delicious landscapes. Amidst stupendous forests you will not unfrequently be