CHAPTER XI.

SLAVERY IN BRITISH INDIA.

The extensive, populous, and wealthy peninsula of Hindostan has

suffered greatly from the crushing effects of the British slave system.

From the foundation of the empire in India by Clive, conquest and

extortion seem to have been the grand objects of the aristocratic

government. There unscrupulous soldiers have fought, slaughtered,

enslaved, and plundered. There younger sons, with rank, but without

fortune, have filled their purses. There vast and magnificent tracts

of country have been wasted with fire and sword, in punishment for

the refusal of native princes to become slaves. There the fat of the

land has been garnered up for the luxury of the conquerors, while

famine has destroyed the people by thousands. There, indeed, has the

British aristocracy displayed its most malignant propensities—rioting

in robbery and bloodshed—setting all religion at defiance, while

upholding the Christian standard—and earning to the full the continued

execration of mankind.

In a powerful work, called "The Aristocracy of England: a History for

the People, by John Hampden, Jun.," a book we commend to the people of

England, we have the following passage:—

"From the hour that Clive and his coadjutors came into the

discovery of the vast treasures of the native princes, whence

he himself obtained, besides his jaghire of £30,000 per annum,

about £300,000; and he and his fellows altogether, between

1759 and 1763, no less than £5,940,498, exclusive of this said

jaghire, the cupidity of the aristocracy became excited to the

highest degree; and from that period to the present, India has

been one scene of flights of aristocratic locusts, of fighting,

plundering, oppression, and extortion of the natives. We will not

go into these things; they are fully and faithfully written in

Mills's 'History of British India;' in Howitt's 'Colonization and

Christianity;' and, above all, in the letters of the Honourable

Frederick Shore, brother of Lord Teignmouth, a man who passed

through all offices—from a clerk to that of a judge—and saw

much of the system and working of things in many parts of India.

He published his letters originally in the India papers, that

any one on the spot might challenge their truth; and, since his

death, they have been reprinted in England. The scene which

that work opens up is the most extraordinary, and demands the

attention of every lover of his country and his species. It fully

accounts for the strange facts, that India is now drained of

its wealth; that its public works, especially the tanks, which

contributed by their waters to maintain its fertility, are fallen

to decay; that one-third of the country is a jungle inhabited

by tigers, who pay no taxes; that its people are reduced to the

utmost wretchedness, and are often, when a crop fails, swept away

by half a million at once by famine and its pendant, pestilence,

as in 1770, and again in 1838-9. To such a degree is this

reduction of the wealth and cultivation of India carried, that

while others of our colonies pay taxes to the amount of a pound

or thirty shillings per head, India pays only four shillings.

"At the renewal of its charter in 1834, its income was about

_twenty millions_, its debt about _forty millions_. Since then

its income has gradually fallen to about _seventeen millions_,

and its debt we hear now whispered to be about _seventy

millions_. Such have been the effects of exhausted fields and

physical energies on the one hand, and of wars, especially that

of Afghanistan, on the other. It requires no conjurer, much less

a very profound arithmetician, to perceive that at this rate we

need be under no apprehension of Russia, for a very few years

will take India out of our hands by mere financial force.

"Our aristocratic government, through the Board of Control, keep

up and exert a vast patronage in India. The patronage of the

president of this board alone, independent of his salary of £5000

a year, is about _twenty-one_ thousand pounds. But the whole

aristocracy have an interest in keeping up wars in India, that

their sons as officers, especially in these times of European

peace, may find here both employment and promotion. This, then,

the Company has to contend against; and few are they who are

aware of the formidable nature of this power as it is exerted

in this direction, and of the strange and unconstitutional

legislative authority with which they have armed themselves for

this purpose. How few are they who are aware that, while the

East India Company has been blamed as the planners, authors,

and movers of the fatal and atrocious invasion of Caboul,

that the Directors of the Company only first, and to their

great amazement, learned the outbreak of that war from the

public Indian papers. So far from that war being one of their

originating, it was most opposed to their present policy, and

disastrous to their affairs. How then came this monstrous war

about, and _who_ then did originate it? To explain this requires

us to lay open a monstrous stretch of unconstitutional power

on the part of our government—a monstrous stratagem for the

maintenance of their aristocratic views in India, which it is

wonderful could have escaped the notice and reprehension of the

public. Let the reader mark well what follows.

"In the last charter, granted in 1834, a clause was introduced,

binding a secret committee of the East India Company, consisting

of three persons only, the chairman, deputy chairman, and senior

director, who are solemnly sworn to this work, to receive

private despatches from the Board of Control, and without

communicating them to a single individual besides themselves, to

forward them to India, where the receivers are bound, _without

question or appeal_, to enforce their immediate execution. By

this inquisitorial system, this worse than Spanish or Venetian

system of secret decrees, government has reserved to itself a

direction of the affairs of India, freed from all constitutional

or representative check, and reduced the India Company to a mere

cat's-paw. By the sworn secrecy and implicit obedience of this

mysterious triumvirate, the Company is made the unconscious

instrument of measures most hostile to its own views, and most

fatal to its best interests. It may at any hour become the

medium of a secret order which may threaten the very destruction

of its empire. Such was the case with the war of Caboul. The

aristocratic government at home planned and ordered it; and the

unconscious Company was made at once to carry out a scheme so

atrocious, so wicked and unprincipled, as well as destructive

to its plans of civil economy, and to bear also the infamy of

it. Awaking, therefore, to the tremendous nature of the secret

powers thus introduced into their machinery by government, the

Company determined to exercise also a power happily intrusted to

_them_. Hence the recall of Lord Ellenborough, who, in obedience

to aristocratic views at home, was not only running headlong

over all their plans of pacific policy, but with his armies

and elephants was treading under foot their cotton and sugar

plantations. Hence, on the other hand, the favour and support

which this warlike lord finds with the great martial duke, and

the home government."

The policy of the European conquerors of India was fully illustrated

during the gubernatorial term of Warren Hastings. Of his extortion the

eloquent Macaulay says—

"The principle which directed all his dealings with his

neighbours is fully expressed by the old motto of one of the

great predatory families of Teviotdale—'Thou shalt want ere

I want,' He seems to have laid it down, as a fundamental

proposition which could not be disputed, that when he had not

as many lacs of rupees as the public service required, he was

to take them from anybody who had. One thing, indeed, is to

be said in excuse for him. The pressure applied to him by his

employers at home was such as only the highest virtue could have

withstood—such as left him no choice except to commit great

wrongs, or to resign his high post, and with that post all his

hopes of fortune and distinction. It is perfectly true, that the

directors never enjoined or applauded any crime. Far from it.

Whoever examines their letters at that time will find there many

just and humane sentiments, many excellent precepts; in short, an

admirable circle of political ethics. But every exhortation is

modified or annulled by a demand for money. 'Govern leniently,

and send more money; practise strict justice and moderation

toward neighbouring powers, and send more money;' this is, in

truth, the sum of almost all the instructions that Hastings ever

received from home. Now these instructions, being interpreted,

mean simply, 'Be the father and the oppressor of the people; be

just and unjust, moderate and rapacious.' The directors dealt

with India as the church, in the good old times, dealt with a

heretic. They delivered the victim over to the executioners,

with an earnest request that all possible tenderness might be

shown. We by no means accuse or suspect those who framed these

despatches of hypocrisy. It is probable that, writing fifteen

thousand miles from the place where their orders were to be

carried into effect, they never perceived the gross inconsistency

of which they were guilty. But the inconsistency was at once

manifest to their lieutenant at Calcutta, who, with an empty

treasury, with an unpaid army, with his own salary often in

arrear, with deficient crops, with government tenants daily

running away, was called upon to remit home another half million

without fail. Hastings saw that it was absolutely necessary for

him to disregard either the moral discourses or the pecuniary

requisitions of his employers. Being forced to disobey them in

something, he had to consider what kind of disobedience they

would most readily pardon; and he correctly judged that the

safest course would be to neglect the sermons and to find the

rupees."

How were the rupees found? By selling provinces that had never belonged

to the British dominions; by the destruction of the brave Rohillas

of Rohilcund, in the support of the cruel tyrant, Surajah Dowlah,

sovereign of Oude, of which terrible act Macaulay says—

"Then the horrors of Indian war were let loose on the fair

valleys and cities of Rohilcund; the whole country was in a

blaze. More than a hundred thousand people fled from their

homes to pestilential jungles, preferring famine and fever and

the haunts of tigers to the tyranny of him to whom an English

and a Christian government had, for shameful lucre, sold their

substance and their blood, and the honour of their wives and

daughters. Colonel Champion remonstrated with the Nabob Vizier,

and sent strong representations to Fort William; but the governor

had made no conditions as to the mode in which the war was to

be carried on. He had troubled himself about nothing but his

forty lacs; and, though he might disapprove of Surajah Dowlah's

wanton barbarity, he did not think himself entitled to interfere,

except by offering advice. This delicacy excites the admiration

of the reverend biographer. 'Mr. Hastings,' he says, 'could not

himself dictate to the Nabob, nor permit the commander of the

Company's troops to dictate how the war was to be carried on.'

No, to be sure. Mr. Hastings had only to put down by main force

the brave struggles of innocent men fighting for their liberty.

Their military resistance crushed, his duties ended; and he had

then only to fold his arms and look on while their villages were

burned, their children butchered, and their women violated."

By such a course of action, Warren Hastings made the British empire in

India pay. By such means did the aristocrats, of whom the governor was

the tool, obtain the money which would enable them to live in luxury.

"The servants of the Company obtained—not for their employers,

but for themselves—a monopoly of almost the whole internal

trade; they forced the natives to buy dear and sell cheap; they

insulted with perfect impunity the tribunals, the police, and

the fiscal authorities of the country; they covered with their

protection a set of native dependants, who ranged through the

provinces spreading desolation and terror wherever they appeared.

Every servant of a British factor was armed with all the power

of his master, and his master was armed with all the power of

the Company. Enormous fortunes were thus rapidly accumulated at

Calcutta, while thirty millions of human beings were reduced to

the last extremity of wretchedness. They had been accustomed

to live under tyranny, but never under tyranny like this; they

found the little finger of the Company thicker than the loins

of Surajah Dowlah. Under their old masters they had at least

one resource; when the evil became insupportable, they rose and

pulled down the government. But the English government was not

to be so shaken off. That government, oppressive as the most

oppressive form of barbarian despotism, was strong with all the

strength of civilization; it resembled the government of evil

genii rather than the government of human tyrants." * * *

"The foreign lords of Bengal were naturally objects of hatred

to all the neighbouring powers, and to all the haughty

race presented a dauntless front; their armies, everywhere

outnumbered, were everywhere victorious. A succession of

commanders, formed in the school of Clive, still maintained

the fame of their country. 'It must be acknowledged,' says

the Mussulman historian of those times, 'that this nation's

presence of mind, firmness of temper, and undaunted bravery are

past all question. They join the most resolute courage to the

most cautious prudence; nor have they their equal in the art of

ranging themselves in battle array and fighting in order. If to

so many military qualifications they knew how to join the arts of

government—if they exerted as much ingenuity and solicitude in

relieving the people of God as they do in whatever concerns their

military affairs, no nation in the world would be preferable to

them or worthier of command; but the people under their dominion

groan everywhere, and are reduced to poverty and distress. O God!

come to the assistance of thine afflicted servants, and deliver

them from the oppressions they suffer.'"

From the earliest times the "village system," with its almost

patriarchal regulations, seems to have prevailed in Hindostan. Each

village had its distinct organization, and over a certain number of

villages, or a district, was an hereditary chief and an accountant,

both possessing great local influence and authority, and certain

estates.[106] The Hindoos were strongly attached to their native

villages, and could only be forced to abandon them by the most constant

oppressions. Dynasties might change and revolutions occur, but so

long as each little community remained undisturbed, the Hindoos were

contented. Mohammedan conquerors left this beautiful system, which

had much more of genuine freedom than the British institutions at the

present day, untouched. The English conquerors were not so merciful,

although they were acquainted with Christianity. The destruction of

local organizations and the centralization of authority, which is

always attended with the increase of slavery,[107] have been the aims

of English efforts. The principle that the government is the sole

proprietor of the land, and therefore entitled to a large share of

the produce, has been established, and slavery, to escape famine and

misery, has become necessary to the Hindoos.

Exhaustion was the result of the excessive taxation laid upon the

Hindoos by the East India Company. As the government became stinted

for revenue, Lord Cornwallis was instructed to make a permanent

settlement, by means of which all the rights of village proprietors

over a large portion of Bengal were sacrificed in favour of the

Zemindars, or head men, who were thus at once constituted great landed

proprietors—masters of a large number of poor tenants, with power to

punish at discretion those who were not able to pay whatever rent was

demanded.[108] From free communities, the villages were reduced to the

condition of British tenants-at-will. The Zemindaree system was first

applied to Bengal. In Madras another system, called the Ryotwar, was

introduced. This struck a fatal blow at the local organizations, which

were the sources of freedom and happiness among the Hindoos. Government

assumed all the functions of an immediate landholder, and dealt with

the individual cultivators as its own tenants, getting as much out of

them as possible.

The Zemindars are an unthrifty, rack-renting class, and take the

uttermost farthing from the under-tenants. Oppressions and evictions

are their constant employments; and since they have been constituted

a landed aristocracy, they have fully acted out the character in the

genuine British fashion.

Another tenure, called the Patnee, has been established of late

years, by some of the great Zemindars, with the aid of government

enactments, and it is very common in Bengal. The great Zemindar,

for a consideration, makes over a portion of his estate in fee to

another, subject to a perpetual rent, payable through the collector,

who receives it on behalf of the zemindar; and if it is not paid, the

interests of the patneedar are sold by the collector. These, again,

have sub-patneedars, and the system has become very much in vogue in

certain districts. The parties are like the Irish middlemen, and the

last screws the tenant to the uttermost.[109]

During the British government of Bengal, wealth has been accumulated by

a certain superior class, and population, cultivation, and the receipts

from rent of land, have largely increased; but, as in England, the mass

of the people are poor and degraded. In the rich provinces of Upper

India, where the miserable landed system of the conquerors has been

introduced, the results have been even more deplorable. Communities,

once free, happy, and possessed of plenty, are now broken up, or

subjected to such excessive taxation that their members are kept in

poverty and slavery.

Colonel Sleeman, in his "Rambles and Recollections of an Indian

Official," records a conversation which he held with the head

landholder of a village, organized under the Zemindar system. During

the dialogue, some statements were made which are important for our

purpose.

The colonel congratulated himself that he had given satisfactory

replies to the arguments of the Zemindar, and accounted naturally for

the evils suffered by the villagers. The reader will, doubtless, form a

different opinion:—

"In the early part of November, after a heavy fall of rain, I

was driving alone in my buggy from Garmuktesin on the Ganges,

to Meerut. The roads were very bad, the stage a double one, and

my horse became tired and unable to go on. I got out at a small

village to give him a little rest and food; and sat down under

the shade of one old tree upon the trunk of another that the

storm had blown down, while my groom, the only servant I had with

me, rubbed down and baited my horse. I called for some parched

grain from the same shop which supplied my horse, and got a

draught of good water, drawn from the well by an old woman, in a

brass jug lent to me for the purpose by the shopkeeper.

"While I sat contentedly and happily stripping my parched grain

from its shell, and eating it grain by grain, the farmer, or head

landholder of the village, a sturdy old Rajpoot, came up and sat

himself, without any ceremony, down by my side, to have a little

conversation. [To one of the dignitaries of the land, in whose

presence the aristocracy are alone considered entitled to chairs,

this easy familiarity seems at first strange and unaccountable;

he is afraid that the man intends to offer him some indignity,

or what is still worse, mistakes him for something less than a

dignitary! The following dialogue took place:—]

"'You are a Rajpoot, and a Zemindar?' (landholder.)

"'Yes; I am the head landholder of this village.'

"'Can you tell me how that village in the distance is elevated

above the ground; is it from the debris of old villages, or from

a rock underneath?'

"'It is from the debris of old villages. That is the original

seat of all the Rajpoots around; we all trace our descent from

the founders of that village, who built and peopled it many

centuries ago.'

"'And you have gone on subdividing your inheritances here as

elsewhere, no doubt, till you have hardly any of you any thing to

eat?'

"'True, we have hardly any of us enough to eat; but that is the

fault of the government, that does not leave us enough—that

takes from us as much when the season is bad as when it is good!'

"'But your assessment has not been increased, has it?'

"'No; we have concluded a settlement for twenty years upon the

same footing as formerly.'

"'And if the sky were to shower down upon you pearls and

diamonds, instead of water, the government would never demand

more from you than the rate fixed upon?'

'No.'

"'Then why should you expect remissions in bad seasons?'

"'It cannot be disputed that the _burkut_ (blessing from above)

is less under you than it used to be formerly, and that the lands

yield less from our labour.'

"'True, my old friend, but do you know the reason why?'

"'No.'

"'Then I will tell you. Forty or fifty years ago, in what you

call the times of the _burkut_, (blessing from above,) the

cavalry of Seikh, free-booters from the Punjab, used to sweep

over this fine plain, in which stands the said village from which

you are all descended; and to massacre the whole population of

some villages; and a certain portion of that of every other

village; and the lands of those killed used to lie waste for want

of cultivators. Is not this all true?'

"'Yes, quite true.'

"'And the fine groves which had been planted over this plain by

your ancestors, as they separated from the great parent stock,

and formed independent villages and hamlets for themselves, were

all swept away and destroyed by the same hordes of free-booters,

from whom your poor imbecile emperors, cooped up in yonder large

city of Delhi, were utterly unable to defend you?'

"'Quite true,' said the old man with a sigh. 'I remember when

all this fine plain was as thickly studded with fine groves of

mango-trees as Rohilcund, or any other part of India.'

"'You know that the land requires rest from labour, as well as

men and bullocks; and that if you go on sowing wheat, and other

exhausting crops, it will go on yielding less and less returns,

and at last not be worth the tilling?'

"'Quite well.'

"'Then why do you not give the land rest by leaving it longer

fallow, or by a more frequent alternation of crops relieve it?'

"'Because we have now increased so much, that we should not get

enough to eat were we to leave it to fallow; and unless we tilled

it with exhausting crops we should not get the means of paying

our rents to government.'

"'The Seikh hordes in former days prevented this; they killed off

a certain portion of your families, and gave the land the _rest_

which you now refuse it. When you had exhausted one part, you

found another recovered by a long fallow, so that you had better

returns; but now that we neither kill you, nor suffer you to be

killed by others, you have brought all the cultivable lands into

tillage; and under the old system of cropping to exhaustion, it

is not surprising that they yield you less returns.'

"By this time we had a crowd of people seated around us upon the

ground, as I went on munching my parched grain and talking to the

old patriarch. They all laughed at the old man at the conclusion

of my last speech, and he confessed I was right.

"'This is all true, sir, but still your government is not

considerate; it goes on taking kingdom after kingdom and adding

to its dominions, without diminishing the burden upon us its old

subjects. Here you have had armies away taking Afghanistan, but

we shall not have one rupee the less to pay.'

"'True, my friend, nor would you demand a rupee less from those

honest cultivators around us, if we were to leave you all your

lands untaxed. You complain of the government—they complain of

you. [Here the circle around us laughed at the old man again.]

Nor would you subdivide the lands the less for having it rent

free; on the contrary, it would be every generation subdivided

the more, inasmuch as there would be more of local ties, and a

greater disinclination on the part of the members of families to

separate and seek service abroad.'

"'True, sir, very true; that is, no doubt, a very great evil.'

"'And you know it is not an evil produced by us, but one arising

out of your own laws of inheritance. You have heard, no doubt,

that with us the eldest son gets the whole of the land, and the

younger sons all go out in search of service, with such share as

they can get of the other property of their father?'

"'Yes, sir; but where shall we get service—you have none to give

us. I would serve to-morrow, if you would take me as a soldier,'

said he, stroking his white whiskers.

"The crowd laughed heartily, and some wag observed, 'that perhaps

I should think him too old.'

"'Well,' said the old man, smiling, 'the gentleman himself is

not very young, and yet I dare say he is a good servant of his

government.'

"This was paying me off for making the people laugh at his

expense. 'True, my old friend,' said I, 'but I began to serve

when I was young, and have been long learning.'

"'Very well,' said the old man; 'but I should be glad to serve

the rest of my life upon a less salary than you got when you

began to learn.'

"'Well, my friend, you complain of our government; but you must

acknowledge that we do all we can to protect you, though it is

true that we are often acting in the dark.'

"'Often, sir? you are always acting in the dark; you hardly any

of you know any thing of what your revenue and police officers

are doing; there is no justice or redress to be got without

paying for it; and it is not often that those who pay can get it.'

"'True, my old friend, that is bad all over the world. You cannot

presume to ask any thing even from the Deity himself, without

paying the priest who officiates in his temples; and if you

should, you would none of you hope to get from your deity what

you asked for.'

"Here the crowd laughed again, and one of them said 'that there

was certainly this to be said for our government, that the

European gentlemen themselves never took bribes, whatever those

under them might do.'

"'You must not be too sure of that neither. Did not the Lal

Beebee (red lady) get a bribe for soliciting the judge, her

husband, to let go Ameer Sing, who had been confined in jail?'

"'How did this take place?'

"'About three years ago Ameer Sing was sentenced to imprisonment,

and his friends spent a great deal of money in bribes to the

native officers of the court, but all in vain. At last they were

recommended to give a handsome present to the red lady. They did

so, and Ameer Sing was released.'

"'But did they give the present into the lady's own hand?'

"'No, they gave it to one of her women.'

"'And how do you know that she ever gave it to her mistress, or

that her mistress ever heard of the transaction?'

"'She might certainly have been acting without her mistress's

knowledge; but the popular belief is, that Lal Beebee got the

present.'

"I then told them the story of the affair at Jubbulpore, when

Mrs. Smith's name had been used for a similar purpose, and the

people around us were highly amused; and the old man's opinion of

the transaction evidently underwent a change.[110]

"We became good friends, and the old man begged me to have my

tents, which he supposed were coming up, pitched among them, that

he might have an opportunity of showing that he was not a bad

subject, though he grumbled against the government.

"The next day, at Meerut, I got a visit from the chief native

judge, whose son, a talented youth, is in my office. Among other

things, I asked him whether it might not be possible to improve

the character of the police by increasing the salaries of the

officers, and mentioned my conversation with the landholder.

"'Never, sir,' said the old gentleman; 'the man that now gets

twenty-five rupees a month, is contented with making perhaps

fifty or seventy-five more; and the people subject to his

authority pay him accordingly. Give him a hundred, sir, and he

will put a shawl over his shoulders, and the poor people will be

obliged to pay him at a rate which will make up his income to

four hundred. You will only alter his style of living, and make

him a greater burden to the people; he will always take as long

as he thinks he can with impunity.'

"'But do you not think that when people see a man adequately paid

by government, they will the more readily complain at any attempt

at unauthorized exactions?'

"'Not a bit, sir, as long as they see the same difficulties in

the way of prosecuting them to conviction. In the administration

of civil justice (the old gentleman is a civil judge) you may

occasionally see your way, and understand what is doing; but in

revenue and police you have never seen it in India, and never

will, I think. The officers you employ will all add to their

incomes by unauthorized means; and the lower their incomes, the

less their pretensions, and the less the populace have to pay.'"

In the "History of the Possessions of the Honourable East India

Company," by R. Montgomery Martin, F. S. S., the following statements

occur:—

"The following estimate has been made of the population of the

allied and independent states:—Hydrabad, 10,000,000; Oude,

6,000,000; Nagpoor, 3,000,000; Mysore, 3,000,000; Sattara,

1,500,000; Gurckwar, 2,000,000; Travancore and Cochin, 1,000,000;

Rajpootana, and various minor principalities, 16,500,000;

Sciudias territories, 4,000,000; the Seiks, 3,000,000; Nepál,

2,000,000; Cashmere, etc., 1,000,000; Scinde, 1,000,000; total,

51,000,000. This, of course, is but a rough estimate by Hamilton,

(Slavery in British India.) For the last forty years the East

India Company's government have been gradually, but safely,

abolishing slavery throughout their dominions; they began in

1789 with putting down the maritime traffic, by prosecuting any

person caught in exporting or importing slaves by sea, long

before the British government abolished that infernal commerce

in the Western world, and they have ever since sedulously sought

the final extinction of that domestic servitude which had long

existed throughout the East, as recognised by the Hindoo and

Mohammedan law. In their despatches of 1798, it was termed

'_an inhuman commerce and cruel traffic_.' French, Dutch, or

Danish subjects captured within the limit of their dominions in

the act of purchasing or conveying slaves were imprisoned and

heavily fined, and every encouragement was given to their civil

and military servants to aid in protecting the first rights of

humanity.

"Mr. Robertson,[111] in reference to Cawnpore,

observes:—'Domestic slavery exists; but of an agricultural slave

I do not recollect a single instance. When I speak of _domestic_

slavery, I mean that _status_ which I must call slavery for want

of any more accurate designation. It does not, however, resemble

that which is understood in Europe to be slavery; it is the

mildest species of servitude. The domestic slaves are certain

persons purchased in times of scarcity; children purchased

from their parents; they grow up in the family, and are almost

entirely employed in domestic offices in the house; not liable to

be resold.

"'There is a certain species of slavery in South Bahar, where

a man mortgages his labour for a certain sum of money; and this

species of slavery exists also in Arracan and Ava. It is for his

life, or until he shall pay the sum, that he is obliged to labour

for the person who lends him the money; and if he can repay the

sum, he emancipates himself.

"'Masters have no power of punishment recognised by our laws.

Whatever may be the provision of the Mohammedan or Hindoo

codes to that effect, it is a dead letter, for we would not

recognise it. The master doubtless may sometimes inflict

domestic punishment; but if he does, the slave rarely thinks

of complaining of it. Were he to do so his complaint would be

received.' This, in fact, is the palladium of liberty in England.

"In Malabar, according to the evidence of Mr. Baber, slavery, as

mentioned by Mr. Robertson, also exists, and perhaps the same

is the case in Guzerat and to the north; but the wonder is, not

that such is the case, but that it is so partial in extent, and

fortunately so bad in character, approximating indeed so much

toward the feudal state as to be almost beyond the reach as well

as the necessity of laws which at present would be practically

inoperative. The fact, that of 100,000,000 British inhabitants,

[or allowing five to a family, 20,000,000 families,] upward of

16,000,000 are landed proprietors, shows to what a confined

extent even domestic slavery exists. A commission has been

appointed by the new charter to inquire into this important but

delicate subject.'"

We have quoted this passage from a writer who is a determined advocate

of every thing _British_, whether it be good or had, in order to show

by his own admission that chattel slavery, that is the precise form

of slavery of which the British express such a holy horror, exists in

British India under the sanction of British laws. Nor does it exist to

a small extent only, as he would have us believe. It has always existed

there, and must necessarily be on the increase, from the very cause

which he points out, viz. famine. No country in the world, thanks to

British oppression, is so frequently and so extensively visited by

famine as India; and as the natives can escape in many instances from

starving to death by selling themselves, and can save their children

by selling them into slavery, we can readily form an estimate of the

great extent to which this takes place in cases of famine, where the

people are perishing by thousands and tens of thousands. As to the

statement that the government of the East India Company have been

endeavouring to abolish this species of slavery, it proves any thing

rather than a desire to benefit the natives of India. Chattel slaves

are not desired by British subjects because the ownership of them

involves the necessity of supporting them in sickness and old age. The

kind of slavery which the British have imposed on the great mass of

their East Indian subjects is infinitely more oppressive and inhuman

than chattel slavery. Indeed it would not at all suit the views of

the British aristocracy to have chattel slavery become so fashionable

in India as to interfere with their own cherished system of political

slavery, which is so extensively and successfully practised in England,

Scotland, Ireland, and the West and East Indies. The money required for

the support of chattel slaves could not be spared by the aristocratic

governments in the colonies. The object is to take the fruits of the

labourer's toil without providing for him at all. When labourers are

part of a master's capital, the better he provides for them the more

they are worth. When they are not property, the character of their

subsistence is of no importance; but they must yield the greater part

of the results of their toil.

The "salt laws" of India are outrageously oppressive. An account of

their operation will give the reader a taste of the character of the

legislation to which the British have subjected conquered Hindoos. Such

an account we find in a recent number of "Household Words," which Lord

Shaftesbury and his associates in luxury and philanthropy should read

more frequently than we can suppose they do:—

"Salt, in India, is a government monopoly. It is partially

imported, and partially manufactured in government factories.

These factories are situated in dreary marshes—the workers

obtaining certain equivocal privileges, on condition of following

their occupation in these pestiferous regions, where hundreds of

these wretched people fall, annually, victims to the plague or

the floods.

"The salt consumed in India must be purchased through the

government, at a duty of upward of two pounds per ton, making the

price to the consumer about eight pence per pound. In England,

salt may be purchased by retail, three pounds, or wholesale, five

pounds for one penny; while in India, upward of thirty millions

of persons, whose average incomes do not amount to above three

shillings per week, are compelled to expend one-fourth of that

pittance in salt for themselves and families.

"It may naturally be inferred, that, with such a heavy duty upon

this important necessary of life, that underhand measures are

adopted by the poor natives for supplying themselves. We shall

see, however, by the following severe regulations, that the

experiment is too hazardous to be often attempted. Throughout

the whole country there are numerous 'salt chokies,' or police

stations, the superintendents of which are invested with powers

of startling and extraordinary magnitude.

"When information is lodged with such superintendent that salt is

stored in any place without a '_ruwana_,' or permit, he proceeds

to collect particulars of the description of the article, the

quantity stated to be stored, and the name of the owner of the

store. If the quantity stated to be stored exceeds seventy

pounds, he proceeds with a body of police to make the seizure.

If the door is not opened to him at once, he is invested with

full power to break it open; and if the police-officers exhibit

the least backwardness in assisting, or show any sympathy with

the unfortunate owner, they are liable to be heavily fined. The

owner of the salt, with all persons found upon the premises,

are immediately apprehended, and are liable to six months'

imprisonment for the first offence, twelve for the second, and

eighteen months for the third; so that if a poor Indian was to

see a shower of salt in his garden, (there _are_ showers of

salt sometimes,) and to attempt to take advantage of it without

paying duty, he would become liable to this heavy punishment.

The superintendent of police is also empowered to detain and

search trading vessels, and if salt be found on board without

a permit, the whole of the crew may be apprehended and tried

for the offence. Any person erecting a distilling apparatus in

his own house, merely to distil enough sea-water for the use

of his household, is liable to such a fine as may ruin him.

In this case, direct proof is not required, but inferred from

circumstances at the discretion of the judge.

"If a person wishes to erect a factory upon his own estate,

he must first give notice to the collector of revenue of all

the particulars relative thereto, failing which, the collector

may order all the works to be destroyed. Having given notice,

officers are immediately quartered upon the premises, who

have access to all parts thereof, for fear the company should

be defrauded of the smallest amount of duty. When duty _is_

paid upon any portion, the collector, upon giving a receipt,

specifies the name and residence of the person to whom it is to

be delivered, to whom it _must_ be delivered within a stated

period, or become liable to fresh duty. To wind up, and make

assurance doubly sure, the police may seize and detain any load

or package which may pass the stations, till they are satisfied

such load or package does not contain contraband salt.

"Such are the salt laws of India; such the monopoly by which

a revenue of three millions sterling is raised; and such the

system which, in these days of progress and improvement, acts as

an incubus upon the energies, the mental resources, and social

advancement of the immense population of India.

"Political economists of all shades of opinion—men who have well

studied the subject—deliberately assert that nothing would tend

so much toward the improvement of that country, and to a more

complete development of its vast natural resources, than the

abolition of these laws; and we can only hope, without blaming

any one, that at no distant day a more enlightened policy will

pervade the councils of the East India Company, and that the poor

Hindoo will be emancipated from the thraldom of these odious

enactments.

"But apart from every other consideration, there is one,

in connection with the Indian salt-tax, which touches the

domestic happiness and vital interest of every inhabitant in

Great Britain. It is decided, by incontrovertible medical

testimony, that cholera (whose ravages every individual among

us knows something, alas! too well about) is in a great measure

engendered, and its progress facilitated, by the prohibitory

duties on salt in India, the very cradle of the pestilence. Our

precautionary measures to turn aside the plague from our doors,

appear to be somewhat ridiculous, while the plague itself is

suffered to exist, when it might be destroyed—its existence

being tolerated only to administer to the pecuniary advantage

of a certain small class of the community. Let the medical men

of this country look to it. Let the people of this country

generally look to it; for there is matter for grave and solemn

consideration, both nationally and individually, in the Indian

salt-tax."

Yes, the salt-tax is very oppressive; but it _pays_ those who

authorized its assessment, and that is sufficient for them. When they

discover some means of obtaining its equivalent—some oppression quite

as cruel but not so obvious—we may expect to hear of the abolition of

the odious salt monopoly.

Famines (always frightfully destructive in India) have become

more numerous than ever, under the blighting rule of the British

aristocrats. Vast tracts of country, once the support of busy

thousands, have been depopulated by these dreadful visitations.

"The soil seems to lie under a curse. Instead of yielding

abundance for the wants of its own population and the inhabitants

of other regions, it does not keep in existence its own children.

It becomes the burying-place of millions who die upon its bosom

crying for bread. In proof of this, turn your eyes backward upon

the scenes of the past year. Go with me into the North-west

provinces of the Bengal presidency, and I will show you the

bleaching skeletons of five hundred thousand human beings, who

perished of hunger in the space of a few short months. Yes,

died of hunger, in what has been justly called the granary of

the world. Bear with me, if I speak of the scenes which were

exhibited during the prevalence of this famine. The air for miles

was poisoned by the effluvia emitted from the putrefying bodies

of the dead. The rivers were choked with the corpses thrown

into their channels. Mothers cast their little ones beneath the

rolling waves, because they would not see them draw their last

gasp and feel them stiffen in their arms. The English in the

cities were prevented from taking their customary evening drives.

Jackals and vultures approached, and fastened upon the bodies

of men, women, and children before life was extinct. Madness,

disease, despair stalked abroad, and no human power present to

arrest their progress. It was the carnival of death. And this

occurred in British India—in the reign of Victoria the First.

Nor was the event extraordinary and unforeseen. Far from it:

1835-36 witnessed a famine in the Northern provinces; 1833 beheld

one to the eastward; 1822-23 saw one in the Deccan."

The above extract from one of George Thompson's "Lectures on India,"

conveys an idea of the horrors of a famine in that country. What then

must be the guilt of that government that adopts such measures as

tend to increase the frequency and swell the horror of these scenes!

By draining the resources of the people, and dooming them to the most

pinching poverty, the British conquerors have greatly increased the

dangers of the visitations of famine, and opened to it a wide field for

destruction. The poor Hindoos may be said to live face to face with

starvation. The following account of the famine of 1833 is given by

Colonel Sleeman, in his "Rambles and Recollections:"—

"During the famine of 1833, as on all similar occasions, grain

of every kind, attracted by high prices, flowed up in large

streams from this favoured province (Malwa) toward Bundelcund;

and the population of Bundelcund, as usual in such times of

dearth and scarcity, flowed off toward Malwa against the stream

of supply, under the assurance that the nearer they got to the

source the greater would be their chance of employment and

subsistence. Every village had its numbers of the dead and the

dying; and the roads were all strewed with them; but they were

mostly concentrated upon the great towns, and civil and military

stations, where subscriptions were open for their support by

both the European and native communities. The funds arising from

these subscriptions lasted till the rain had fairly set in, when

all able-bodied persons could easily find employment in tillage

among the agricultural communities of the villages around.

After the rains have fairly set in, the _sick_ and _helpless_

only should be kept concentrated upon large towns and stations,

where little or no employment is to be found; for the oldest

and youngest of those who are able to work can then easily find

employment in weeding the cotton, rice, sugar-cane, and other

fields under autumn crops, and in preparing the land for the

reception of the wheat, grain, and other spring seeds; and get

advances from the farmers, agricultural capitalists, and other

members of the village communities, who are all glad to share

their superfluities with the distressed, and to pay liberally for

the little service they are able to give in return.

"At large places, where the greater numbers are concentrated, the

scene becomes exceedingly distressing, for in spite of the best

dispositions and greatest efforts on the part of government and

its officers, and the European and native communities, thousands

commonly die of starvation. At Saugor, mothers, as they lay in

the streets unable to walk, were seen holding up their infants,

and imploring the passing stranger to take them in slavery,

that they might at least live—hundreds were seen creeping into

gardens, courtyards, and old ruins, concealing themselves under

shrubs, grass, mats, or straw, where they might die quietly,

without having their bodies torn by birds and beasts before the

breath had left them! Respectable families, who left home in

search of the favoured land of Malwa, while yet a little property

remained, finding all exhausted, took opium rather than beg, and

husband, wife, and children died in each other's arms! Still more

of such families lingered on in hope until all had been expended;

then shut their doors, took poison, and died all together,

rather than expose their misery, and submit to the degradation

of begging. All these things I have myself known and seen; and

in the midst of these and a hundred other harrowing scenes which

present themselves on such occasions, the European cannot fail to

remark the patient resignation with which the poor people submit

to their fate; and the absence of almost all those revolting

acts which have characterized the famines of which he has read

in other countries—such as the living feeding on the dead,

and mothers devouring their own children. No such things are

witnessed in Indian famines; here all who suffer attribute the

disaster to its real cause, the want of rain in due season; and

indulge in no feelings of hatred against their rulers, superiors,

or more fortunate equals in society, who happen to live beyond

the influence of such calamities. They gratefully receive the

superfluities which the more favoured are always found ready to

share with the afflicted in India; and though their sufferings

often subdue the strongest of all pride—the pride of caste,

they rarely ever drive people to acts of violence. The stream of

emigration, guided as it always is by that of the agricultural

produce flowing in from the more favoured countries, must

necessarily concentrate upon the communities along the line it

takes a greater number of people than they have the means of

relieving, however benevolent their dispositions; and I must say,

that I have never either seen or read of a nobler spirit than

seems to animate all classes of these communities in India on

such distressing occasions."

The same writer has some judicious general remarks upon the causes of

famine in India, which are worthy of quotation. We have only to add,

that whatever may be found in the climate and character of the country

that expose the people to the frequency of want, the conquerors have

done their best to aggravate natural evils:—

"In India, unfavourable seasons produce much more disastrous

consequences than in Europe. In England, not more than one-fourth

of the population derive their incomes from the cultivation of

the land around them. Three-fourths of the people have incomes,

independent of the annual returns from those lands; and with

these incomes they can purchase agricultural produce from other

lands when the crops upon them fail. The farmers, who form so

large a portion of the fourth class, have stock equal in value

to _four times the amount of the annual rent of their lands_.

They have also a great variety of crops; and it is very rare

that more than one or two of them fail, or are considerably

affected, the same season. If they fail in one district or

province, the deficiency is very easily supplied to people who

have equivalents to give for the produce of another. The sea,

navigable rivers, fine roads, all are open and ready at all times

for the transport of the super-abundance of one quarter to supply

the deficiencies of another. In India the reverse of all this

is unhappily everywhere to be found; more than three-fourths of

the whole population are engaged in the cultivation of the land,

and depend upon its annual returns for subsistence. The farmers

and cultivators have none of them stock equal in value to more

than _half the amount of the annual rents of their lands_. They

have a great variety of crops; but all are exposed to the same

accidents, and commonly fail at the same time. The autumn crops

are sown in June and July, and ripen in October and November;

and if seasonable showers do not fall in July, August, and

September, all fail. The spring crops are sown in October and

November, and ripen in March; and if seasonable showers do not

happen to fall during December or January, all, save what are

artificially irrigated, fail. If they fail in one district or

province, the people have few equivalents to offer for a supply

of land produce from any other. Their roads are scarcely anywhere

passable for wheeled carriages at _any season_, and nowhere _at

all seasons_—they have nowhere a navigable canal, and only in

one line a navigable river. Their land produce is conveyed upon

the backs of bullocks, that move at the rate of six or eight

miles a day, and add one hundred per cent. to the cost for every

hundred miles they carry it in the best seasons, and more than

two hundred in the worst. What in Europe is felt merely as a

_dearth_, becomes in India, under all these disadvantages, a

_scarcity_; and what is there a _scarcity_ becomes here a famine."

Another illustration of the truth that poverty is the source of crime

and depravity is found in India. Statistics and the evidence of recent

travellers show that the amount of vice in the different provinces is

just in proportion to the length of time they have been under British

rule. No stronger proof of the iniquity of the government—of its

poisonous tendencies as well as positive injustice—could be adduced.

The cultivation and exportation of the pernicious drug, opium, which

destroys hundreds of thousands of lives annually, have latterly been

prominent objects of the East Indian government. The best tracts

of land in India were chosen for the cultivation of the poppy. The

people were told that they must either raise this plant, make opium,

or give up their land. Furthermore, those who produced the drug were

compelled to sell it to the Company. In the Bengal Presidency, the

monopoly of the government is complete. It has its establishment for

the manufacture of the drug. There are two great agencies at Ghazeepore

and Patna, for the Benares and Bahar provinces. Each opium agent has

several deputies in different districts, and a native establishment.

They enter into contracts with the cultivator for the supply of opium

at a rate fixed to suit the demand. The land-revenue authorities do

not interfere, except to prevent cultivation without permission. The

land cultivated is measured, and all the produce must be sold to the

government. At the head agency the opium is packed in chests and sealed

with the Company's seal.[112]

The imperial government of China, seeing that the traffic in opium was

sowing misery and death among its subjects, prohibited the introduction

of the drug within the empire in 1839. But the British had a vast

amount of capital at stake, and the profits of the trade were too

great to be relinquished for any considerations of humanity. War was

declared; thousands of Chinese were slaughtered, and the imperial

government forced to permit the destructive traffic on a more extensive

scale than ever, and to pay $2,000,000 besides for daring to protest

against it!

The annual revenue now realized from the opium traffic amounts to

£3,500,000. It is estimated that about 400,000 Chinese perish every

year in consequence of using the destructive drug, while the amount

of individual and social misery proceeding from the same cause is

appalling to every humane heart. Among the people of India who have

been forced into the cultivation and manufacture of opium, the use of

it has greatly increased under the fostering care of the government.

The Company seems to be aware that a people enervated by excessive

indulgence will make little effort to throw off the chains of slavery.

Keep the Hindoo drunk with opium and he will not rebel.

The effects of this drug upon the consumer are thus described by a

distinguished Chinese scholar:—"It exhausts the animal spirits,

impedes the regular performance of business, wastes the flesh and

blood, dissipates every kind of property, renders the person

ill-favoured, promotes obscenity, discloses secrets, violates the laws,

attacks the vitals, and destroys life." This statement is confirmed by

other natives, and also by foreign residents; and it is asserted that,

as a general rule, a person does not live more than ten years after

becoming addicted to the use of this drug.

The recent Burmese war had for one of its objects the opening of

a road to the interior of China, for the purpose of extending the

opium trade. And for such an object thousands of brave Burmese were

slaughtered, fertile and beautiful regions desolated, and others

subjected to the peculiar slave-system of the East India Company. The

extension of British dominion and the accumulation of wealth in British

hands, instead of the spread of Christianity and the development of

civilization, mark all the measures of the Company.

William Howitt, one of the ablest as well as the most democratic

writers of England, thus confirms the statements made above:—

"The East India Company exists by monopolies of the land, of

opium, and of salt. By their narrow, greedy, and purblind

management of these resources, they have contrived to reduce

that once affluent country to the uttermost depths of poverty

and pauperism. The people starve and perish in famine every

now and then by half a million at a time. One-third of that

superb peninsula is reduced to waste and jungle. While other

colonies pay from twenty to thirty shillings per head of revenue,

India yields only four shillings per head. The income of the

government at the last renewal of the charter was _twenty

millions_; it is now reduced to about _seventeen millions_; and

even to raise this, they have been obliged to double the tax

on salt. The debt was _forty millions_; it is now said to be

augmented by constant war, and the payment of the dividends,

which, whatever the real proceeds, are always kept up to

the usual height, to _seventy millions_. This is a state of

things which cannot last. It is a grand march toward financial

inanition. It threatens, if not arrested by the voice of the

British people, the certain and no very distant loss of India.

"We have some glimpses of the treatment of the people in the

collection of the land-tax, as it is called, but really the rent.

The government claims not the mere right of governing, but, as

conquerors, the fee-simple of the land. Over the greater part of

India there are no real freeholders. The land is the Company's,

and they collect, not a tax, but a rent. They have their

collectors all over India, who go and say as the crops stand, 'We

shall take so much of this.' It is seldom less than one-half—it

is more commonly sixty, seventy, and eighty per cent! This is

killing the goose to come at the golden egg. It drives the people

to despair; they run away and leave the land to become jungle;

they perish by famine in thousands and tens of thousands.

"This is why no capitalists dare to settle and grow for us

cotton, or manufacture for us sugar. There is no security—no

fixity of taxation. It is one wholesale system of arbitrary

plunder, such as none but a conquered country in the first

violence of victorious license ever was subjected to. But this

system has here continued more than a generation; the country is

reduced by it to a fatal condition—the only wonder is that we

yet retain it at all.

"The same system is pursued in the opium monopoly. The finest

lands are taken for the cultivation of the poppy; the government

give the natives what they please for the opium, often about as

many shillings as they get paid for it guineas per pound, and

ship it off to curse China with it. 'In India,' says a writer

in the Chinese Repository, 'the extent of territory occupied

with the poppy, and the amount of population engaged in its

cultivation and the preparation of opium, are far greater than

in any other part of the world.'

"Turkey is said to produce only 2000 chests of opium annually;

India produces 40,000 of 134 lbs. each, and yielding a revenue of

about £4,000,000 sterling.

"But perhaps worse than all is the salt monopoly. It is well

known that the people of India are a vegetable diet people.

Boiled rice is their chief food, and salt is an absolute

necessary of life. With a vegetable diet in that hot climate,

without plenty of salt, putrid diseases and rapid mortality are

inevitable. Nature, or Providence, has therefore given salt

in abundance. The sea throws it up already crystallized in

many places; in others it is prepared by evaporation; but the

Company steps in and imposes _two hundred per cent._ on this

indispensable article, and guards it by such penalties that the

native dare not stoop to gather it when it lies at his feet. The

consequence is that mortality prevails, to a terrific extent

often, among the population. Officers of government are employed

to destroy the salt naturally formed; and government determines

how much salt shall be annually consumed.

"Now, let the people of England mark one thing. _The cholera

originates in the East._ It has visited us once, and is on its

march once more toward us. We have heard through the newspapers

of its arrival in Syria, in Turkey, in Russia, at Vienna. In a

few months it will probably be again among us.

"_Has any one yet imagined that this scourge may possibly be the

instrument of Divine retribution for our crimes and cruelties?_

Has any one imagined that we have any thing to do with the

creation of this terrible pestilence? Yet there is little, there

is scarcely the least doubt, that this awful instrument of death

is occasioned by this very monopoly of salt—that it is the

direct work of the four-and-twenty men in Leadenhall-street.

The cholera is found to arise in the very centre of India.

It commences in the midst of this swarming population, which

subsists on vegetables, and which is deprived by the British

government of the necessary salt! In that hot climate it acquires

a deadly strength—thousands perish by it as by the stroke of

lightning, and it hence radiates over the globe, travelling at

the speed of a horse in full gallop. Thus it is that God visits

our deeds upon our heads.

"Such is a brief glance at the mal-administration, the abuse,

and the murderous treatment of India, permitted by great and

Christian England to a knot of mere money-making traders. We

commit the lives and happiness of one hundred and fifty millions

of souls—the well-being, and probably the chance of retention,

of one of the finest countries in the world, and the comfort and

prosperity of every human creature in Great Britain, to the hands

of those who are only, from day to day, grasping at the vitals

of this glorious Eastern region to increase their dividends.

This is bad enough, but this is not all. As if we had given them

a charter in the most effectual manner to damage our dominions

and blast all our prospects of trade, we have allowed these

four-and-twenty men of Leadenhall-street not only to cripple

India, but to exasperate and, as far as possible, close China

against us. Two millions of people in India and three millions of

people in China—all waiting for our manufactures, all capable

of sending us the comforts and necessaries that we need—it

would seem that to us, a nation especially devoted to trade, as

if Providence had opened all the gorgeous and populous East to

employ and to enrich us. One would have thought that every care

and anxiety would have been aroused to put ourselves on the best

footing with this swarming region. It has been the last thing

thought of.

"The men of Leadenhall-street have been permitted, after having

paralyzed India, to send to China not the articles that the

Chinese wanted, but the very thing of all others that its

authorities abhorred—that is, opium.

"It is well known with what assiduity these traders for years

thrust this deadly drug into the ports of China; or it may be

known from 'Medhurst's China,' from 'Thelwall's Iniquities of

the Opium Trade,' from 'Montgomery Martin's Opium in China,'

and various other works. It is well known what horrors, crimes,

ruin of families, and destruction of individuals the rage of

opium-smoking introduced among the millions of the Celestial

Empire. Every horror, every species of reckless desperation,

social depravity, and sensual crime, spread from the practice

and overran China as a plague. The rulers attempted to stop the

evil by every means in their power. They enacted the severest

punishments for the sale of it. These did not avail. They

augmented the punishment to death. Without a stop to it the whole

framework of society threatened to go to pieces. 'Opium,' says

the Imperial edict itself, 'coming from the distant regions of

barbarians, has pervaded the country with its baneful influence.'

The opium-smoker would steal, sell his property, his children,

the mother of his children, and finally commit murder for it. The

most ghastly spectacles were everywhere seen; instead of healthy

and happy men, the most repulsive scenes. 'I visited one of the

opium-houses,' said an individual quoted by Sir Robert Inglis,

in the House of Commons, in 1843, 'and shall I tell you what I

saw in this antechamber of hell? I thought it impossible to find

anything worse than the results of drinking ardent spirits; but

I have succeeded in finding something far worse. I saw Malays,

Chinese, men and women, old and young, in one mass, in one common

herd, wallowing in their filth, beastly, sensual, devilish, and

this under the eyes of a Christian government.'

"They were these abominations and horrors that the Emperor of

China determined to arrest. They were these which our East India

Company determined to perpetuate for this base gain. When the

emperor was asked to license the sale of opium, as he could not

effect its exclusion, and thus make a profit of it, what was his

reply? '_It is true I cannot prevent the introduction of the

flowing poison. Gain-seeking and corrupt men will, for profit

and sensuality, defeat my wishes, but nothing will induce me to

derive a benefit from the vice and misery of my people._'

"These were the sentiments of the Chinese monarch; what was the

conduct of the so-called Christian Englishmen? They determined to

go on poisoning and demoralizing China, till they provoked the

government to war, and then massacred the people to compel the

continuance of the sale of opium."

Howitt evidently has as ardent a sympathy for those who have

suffered from the tyranny of British rule as Edmund Burke himself.

The wholesale degradation of the Hindoos, which has resulted from

the measures of the East India Company, calls loudly indeed for

the denunciations of indignant humanity. The crime must have its

punishment. The ill-gotten gains of the Company should be seized to

carry out an ameliorating policy, and all concerned in enforcing the

system of oppression should be taught that justice is not to be wounded

with impunity.

The burdens imposed upon the Hindoos are precisely of the character and

extent of those that have reduced Ireland to poverty and her people to

slavery. Besides the enormous rents, which are sufficient of themselves

to dishearten the tillers of the soil, the British authorities seem to

have exhausted invention in devising taxes. So dear a price to live

was never paid by any people except the Irish. What remains to the

cultivator when the rent of the land and almost forty different taxes

are paid?

Those Hindoos who wish to employ capital or labour in any other way

than in cultivation of land are deterred by the formidable array

of taxation. The chief taxes are styled the Veesabuddy, or tax on

merchants, traders, and shopkeepers; the Mohturfa, or tax on weavers,

carpenters, stonecutters, and other mechanical trades; and the

Bazeebab, consisting of smaller taxes annually rented out to the

highest bidder. The proprietor of the Bazeebab is thus constituted a

petty chieftain, with power to exact fees at marriages and religious

ceremonies; to inquire into and fine the misconduct of females in

families, and other misdemeanours—in fact, petty tyrants, who

can at all times allege engagements to the government to justify

extortion.[113] These proprietors are the worst kind of slaveholders.

The mode of settling the Mohturfa on looms is remarkable for the

precision of its exaction. Every circumstance of the weaver's family

is considered; the number of days which he devotes to his loom, the

number of his children, the assistance which he receives from them, and

the number and quality of the pieces which he can produce in a year;

so that, let him exert himself as he will, his industry will always be

taxed to the highest degree.[114] This method is so detailed that the

servants of the government cannot enter into it, and the assessment

of the tax is therefore left to the heads of the villages. It is

impossible for a weaver to know what he is to pay to the government for

being allowed to carry on his business till the yearly demand is made.

If he has worked hard, and turned out one or two pieces of cloth more

than he did the year before, his tax is increased. The more industrious

he is the more he is forced to pay.

The tax-gatherers are thorough inquisitors. According to Rikards,

upward of seventy different kinds of buildings—the houses, shops,

or warehouses of different castes and professions—were ordered to be

entered into the survey accounts; besides the following implements of

professions, which were usually assessed to the public revenue, viz.:

"Oil-mills, iron manufactory, toddy-drawer's stills, potter's kiln,

washerman's stone, goldsmith's tools, sawyer's saw, toddy-drawer's

knives, fishing-nets, barber's hones, blacksmith's anvils,

pack-bullocks, cocoa-nut safe, small fishing-boats, cotton-beater's

bow, carpenter's tools, large fishing-boats, looms, salt-storehouses.

If a landlord objects to the assessment on trees, as old and past

bearing, they are, one and all, ordered to be cut down—a measure as

ridiculous as unjust—as it not only inflicts injury upon the landlord,

but takes away the chance of future profit for the government. Mr.

Rikards bears witness, as a collector of Malabar, that lands and

produce were sometimes inserted in the survey account which absolutely

did not exist, while other lands were assessed to the revenue at more

than their actual produce. From all this, it is obvious that the Hindoo

labourer or artisan is the slave of the tax-collector, who, moreover,

has no interest in the life of his victim.

Labour being almost "dirt cheap" in India, whenever speculating

companies of Englishmen wish to carry out any particular scheme

for which labourers are required, they hire a number of Hindoo

Coolies, induce them to visit any port of the country, and treat them

abominably, knowing that the poor wretches have no protection. The

operations of the Assam Tea Company illustrate this practice:—

"An inconsiderate expenditure of capital placed the Assam Tea

Company in great jeopardy, and at one time it was feared the

scheme would be abandoned. The number of managers and assistants

appointed by the Assam Company to carry on their affairs and

superintend their tea gardens, on large salaries, was quite

unnecessary; one or two experienced European superintendents

to direct the native establishment would have answered every

purpose. A vast number of Coolies (or labourers) were induced

to proceed to Upper Assam to cultivate the gardens; but bad

arrangements having been made to supply them with proper,

wholesome food, many were seized with sickness. On their

arrival at the tea-plantations, in the midst of high and dense

tree jungle, numbers absconded, and others met an untimely

end. The rice served out to the Coolies from the Assam Tea

Company's store-rooms, was so bad as not to be fit to be given

to elephants, much less to human beings. The loss of these

labourers, who had been conveyed to Upper Assam at a great

expense, deprived the company of the means of cultivating so

great an extent of country as would otherwise have been insured;

for the scanty population of Upper Assam offered no means of

replacing the deficiency of hands. Nor was the improvidence of

the company in respect to labourers the only instance of their

mismanagement. Although the company must have known that they

had no real use or necessity for a steamer, a huge vessel was

nevertheless purchased, and frequently sent up and down the

Burrampooter river from Calcutta; carrying little else than a few

thousand rupees for the payment of their establishment in Upper

Assam, which might have been transmitted through native bankers,

and have saved the company a most lavish and unprofitable

expenditure of capital."[115]

Ay, and the expense is all that is thought worthy of consideration.

The miserable victims to the measures of the company might perish like

brutes without being even pitied.

On the verge of starvation, as so many of the Hindoo labourers

generally are, it does not excite surprise that they are very ready

to listen to the offers of those who are engaged in the "Cooley

slave-trade." In addition to the astounding facts given by us in the

previous chapter, in regard to this traffic in men, we quote the

following from the London Spectator of October, 1838:—

"Under Lord Glenelg's patronage, the Eastern slave-trade prospers

exceedingly. The traffic in Hill Coolies promises to become one

of the most extensive under the British flag. A cargo arrived

in Berbice about the beginning of May, in prime condition: and

the Berbice Advertiser, one of the most respectable of the West

India journals, states, that out of 289, conveyed in the Whitby,

only eight died on the passage, and very few were ill. Only one

circumstance was wanting to make them the happiest of human(?)

beings—only eight women were sent as companions for the 280

men; and the deficiency of females was the more to be regretted

because it was 'probable they would be shunned by the negroes

from jealousy and speaking a different language.'

"The same newspaper contains a very curious document respecting

the Hill Cooley traffic. It is a circular letter, dated the 8th

January, 1838, from Henley, Dowson, and Bethel, of Calcutta, the

agents most extensively engaged in the shipment of labourers from

India to the Mauritius and British Guiana. These gentlemen thus

state their claims to preference over other houses in the same

business:—

"'We have within the last two years procured and shipped

upward of 5000 free agricultural labourers for our friends at

Mauritius; and, from the circumstance of nearly 500 of the

number being employed on estates in which we possess a direct

interest, we can assure you that a happier and more contented

labouring population is seldom to be met with in any part of the

world, than the Dhargas or mountain tribes sent from this vast

country.'

"Five thousand within two years to the Mauritius alone! This

is pretty well, considering that the trade is in its infancy.

As to the statement of the happiness and contentment of the

labourers, rather more impartial evidence than the good word of

the exporters of the commodity advertised would be desirable.

If Englishmen could fancy themselves Hill Coolies for an

instant—landed in Berbice, in the proportion of 280 men to 8 of

the gentler sex, 'speaking a different language,' and shunned by

the very negroes—we are inclined to think they would not, even

in that imaginary and momentary view, conceit themselves to be

among the happiest of mankind.

"We proceed with the Calcutta circular:—

"'The labourers hitherto procured by us have cost their

employers, _landed at the Mauritius_, about one hundred rupees

(or 10_l._ sterling) per man; which sum comprises six months'

advance of wages, provisions and water for the voyage, clothing,

commission, passage, insurance, and all incidental charges.'

"'The expense attending the shipment of Indian labourers to the

West India Colonies would be necessarily augmented—firstly, by

the higher rate of passage-money, and the increased quantity of

provisions and water; and, secondly, from the necessity of making

arrangements, indispensable to the health and comfort of native

passengers, on a voyage of so long a duration, in the course of

which they would be exposed to great vicissitude of climate.

"'On making ample allowance for these charges, we do not

apprehend that a labourer, sent direct from this country to

Demerara, and engaged to work on your estates for a period of

five consecutive years, would cost, landed there, above two

hundred and ten rupees, or 21_l._ sterling.'

"This sum of 210 rupees includes _six months' wages_—at what

rate does the reader suppose? Why, five rupees, or ten shillings

sterling a month—half-a-crown a week—in Demerara! The passage

is 10_l._, and the insurance 12_s._; for they are insured at so

much a head, like pigs or sheep.

"It is manifest that after their arrival in Demerara, the Indians

will not, unless on compulsion, work for five years at the

rate of 10_s._ a month, while the negroes receive much higher

wages. They are therefore placed under strict control, and are

just as much slaves as the Redemptioners, whom the virtuous

Quakers inveigled into Pennsylvania a century or more ago. The

Indians bind themselves to work in town or country, wherever

their consignee or master may choose to employ them. One of the

articles of their agreement is this:—

"'In order that the undersigned natives of India may be fully

aware of the engagement they undertake, it is hereby notified,

that they will be required to do _all such work as the object

for which they are engaged necessitates_; and that, as labourers

attached to an estate, they will be required to clear forest and

extract timber, carry manure, dig and prepare land for planting,

also to take charge of horses, mules, and cattle of every

description; _in short, to do all such work as an estate for the

cultivation of sugar-cane and the manufacture of sugar demands_,

or any branch of agriculture to which they may be destined.'

"In case of disobedience or misconduct—that is, at the caprice

of the master—they may be 'degraded,' and sent back at their own

charge to Calcutta. They are to receive no wages during illness;

and a rupee a month is to be deducted from their wages—thereby

reducing them to 2_s._ a week—as an indemnity-fund for the

cost of sending them back. What security there is for the kind

treatment of the labourers does not appear: there is nothing in

the contract but a promise to act equitably.

"Now, in what respect do these men differ in condition from

negro slaves, except very much for the worse? They must be more

helpless than the negroes—if for no other reason, because of

their ignorance of the language their masters use. They will not,

for a long period certainly, be formidable from their numbers.

How easily may even the miserable terms of the contract with

their employers be evaded! Suppose the Indian works steadily for

four years, it may suit his master to describe him as refractory

and idle during the fifth, and then he will be sent back at his

own cost; and the whole of his earnings may be expended in paying

for his passage to Calcutta, where, after all, he is a long way

from home.

"It is impossible to contemplate without pain the inevitable lot

of these helpless beings; but the conduct of the government,

which could sanction the infamous commerce of which the Hill

Cooley will be the victims, while professing all the while

such a holy horror of dealing in negroes, should rouse general

indignation.

Is it only a certain shade of black, and a peculiar physical

conformation, which excites the compassion of the Anti-Slavery

people? If it is cruelty, oppression, and fraud which they abhor

and desire to prevent, then let them renew their agitation in

behalf of the kidnapped natives of India, now suffering, probably

more acutely, all that made the lot of the negro a theme for

eloquence and a field for Christian philanthropy."

This is written in the right spirit. The trade described has increased

to an extent which calls for the interference of some humane power.

Should the British government continue to sanction the traffic, it must

stand responsible for a national crime.

Oppressive and violent as the British dominion in India undoubtedly

is, the means devised to extend it are even more worthy of strong

condemnation. The government fixes its eyes upon a certain province,

where the people are enjoying peace and plenty, and determines to

get possession of it. The Romans themselves were not more fertile

in pretences for forcible seizure of territory than these British

plunderers. They quickly hunt up a pretender to the throne, support his

claims with a powerful army, make him their complete tool, dethrone

the lawful sovereign, and extend their authority over the country. The

course pursued toward Afghanistan in 1838 illustrates this outrageous

violation of national rights.

The following account of the origin and progress of the Afghanistan war

is given by an English writer in the Penny Magazine:—

"In 1747, Ahmeed Shah, an officer of an Afghan troop in the

service of Persia, refounded the Afghan monarchy, which was

maintained until the death of his successor in 1793. Ahmeed

was of the Douranee tribe, and the limits over which his sway

extended is spoken of as the Douranee empire. Four of the sons of

Ahmeed's successor disputed, and in turn possessed, the throne;

and during this civil war several of the principal chiefs threw

off their allegiance, and the Douranee empire ceased to exist,

but was split up into the chiefships of Candahar, Herat, Caboul,

and Peshawur. Herat afterward became a dependency of Persia, and

Shah Shooja ool Moolook, the chief of Peshawur, lost his power

after having enjoyed it for about six years. Dost Mohammed Kahn,

the chief of Caboul, according to the testimony of the late

Sir Alexander Burnes, writing in 1832, governed his territory

with great judgment, improved its internal administration and

resources, and became the most powerful chief in Afghanistan.

Shah Shooja was for many years a fugitive and a pensioner of the

British government. He made one unsuccessful attempt to regain

his territory, but Peshawur eventually became a tributary to the

ruler of the Punjab. Such was the state of Afghanistan in 1836.

"In the above year the Anglo-Indian government complained that

Dost Mohammed Khan, chief of Caboul, had engaged in schemes of

aggrandizement which threatened the stability of the British

frontier in India; and Sir Alexander Burnes, who was sent with

authority to represent to him the light in which his proceedings

were viewed, was compelled to leave Caboul without having

effected any change in his conduct. The siege of Herat, and the

support which both Dost Mohammed and his brother, the chief of

Candahar, gave to the designs of Persia in Afghanistan, the

latter chief especially openly assisting the operations against

Herat, created fresh alarm in the Anglo-Indian government as to

the security of our frontier. Several minor chiefs also avowed

their attachment to the Persians. As our policy, instead of

hostility, required an ally capable of resisting aggression on

the western frontier of India, the Governor-general, from whose

official papers we take these statements, 'was satisfied,' after

serious and mature deliberation, 'that a pressing necessity, as

well as every consideration of policy and justice, warranted

us in espousing the cause of Shah Shooja ool Moolk;' and it

was determined to place him on the throne. According to the

Governor-general, speaking from the best authority, the testimony

as to Shah Shooja's popularity was unanimous. In June, 1838,

the late Sir William Macnaghten formed a tripartite treaty with

the ruler of the Punjab and Shah Shooja; the object of which

was to restore the latter to the throne of his ancestors. This

policy it was conceived would conduce to the general freedom and

security of commerce, the restoration of tranquillity upon the

most important frontier of India, and the erection of a lasting

barrier against hostile intrigue and encroachment; and, while

British influence would thus gain its proper footing among the

nations of Central Asia, the prosperity of the Afghan people

would be promoted.

"Troops were despatched from the Presidencies of Bengal and

Bombay to co-operate with the contingents raised by the Shah and

our other ally, the united force being intended to act together

under the name of the 'Army of the Indus.' After a march of

extraordinary length, through countries which had never before

been traversed by British troops, and defiles which are the

most difficult passes in the world, where no wheeled carriage

had ever been, and where it was necessary for the engineers in

many places to construct roads before the baggage could proceed,

the combined forces from Bengal and Bombay reached Candahar in

May, 1839. According to the official accounts, the population

were enthusiastic in welcoming the return of Shah Shooja. The

next step was to advance toward Ghiznee and Caboul. On the 23d

July, the strong and important fortress and citadel of Ghiznee,

regarded throughout Asia as impregnable, was taken in two hours

by blowing up the Caboul gate. The army had only been forty-eight

hours before the place. An 'explosion party' carried three

hundred pounds of gunpowder in twelve sand-bags, with a hose

seventy-two feet long, the train was laid and fired, the party

having just time to reach a tolerable shelter from the effects

of the concussion, though one of the officers was injured by

its force. On the 7th of August the army entered Caboul. Dost

Mohammed had recalled his son Mohammed Akhbar from Jellalabad

with the troops guarding the Khyber Pass, and their united forces

amounted to thirteen thousand men; but these troops refused to

advance, and Dost Mohammed was obliged to take precipitate fight,

accompanied only by a small number of horsemen. Shah Shooja made

a triumphant entry into Caboul, and the troops of Dost Mohammed

tendered their allegiance to him. The official accounts state

that in his progress toward Caboul he was joined by every person

of rank and influence in the country. As the tribes in the Bolan

Pass committed many outrages and murders on the followers of the

army of the Indus, at the instigation of their chief, the Khan

of Khelat, his principal town (Khelat) was taken on the 13th

of November, 1839. The political objects of the expedition had

now apparently been obtained. The hostile chiefs of Caboul and

Candahar were replaced by a friendly monarch. On the side of

Scinde and Herat, British alliance and protection were courted.

All this had been accomplished in a few months, but at an expense

said to exceed three millions sterling."

The _expense_ of national outrage is only of importance to the sordid

and unprincipled men who conceived and superintended the Afghanistan

expedition. In the first part of the above extract, the writer

places the British government in the position of one who strikes in

self-defence. It was informed that Dost Mohammed entertained schemes

of invasion dangerous to the British supremacy—informed by the

exiled enemy of the chief of Caboul. The information was seasonable

and exceedingly useful. Straightway a treaty was formed, by which the

British agreed to place their tool for the enslavement of the Afghans

upon the throne from which he had been driven. Further on, it is

said, that when Shah Sooja appeared in Afghanistan he was joined by

every person of rank and influence in the country. Just so; and the

followers and supporters of Dost Mohammed nearly all submitted to the

superior army of the British general. But two years afterward, the

strength of the patriotic party was seen, when Caboul rose against Shah

Sooja, drove him again from the throne, and defeated and massacred a

considerable British garrison. Shah Sooja was murdered soon afterward.

But the British continued the war against the Afghans, with the object

of reducing them to the same slavery under which the remainder of

Hindostan was groaning. The violation of national rights, the massacre

of thousands, and the enslavement of millions were the glorious aims of

British policy in the Afghan expedition. The policy then carried out

has been more fully illustrated since that period. Whenever a territory

was thought desirable by the government, neither national rights,

the principles of justice and humanity, nor even the common right of

property in individuals has been respected. Wealth has been an object

for the attainment of which plunder and massacre were not considered

unworthy means.

Said Mr. John Bright, the radical reformer of Manchester, in a speech

delivered in the House of Commons:—"It cannot be too universally

known that the cultivators of the soil (in India) are in a very

unsatisfactory condition; that they are, in truth, in a condition of

almost extreme and universal poverty. All testimony concurred upon

that point. He would call the attention of the House to the statement

of a celebrated native of India, the Rajah Rammohun Roy, who, about

twenty years ago, published a pamphlet in London, in which he pointed

out the ruinous effects of the Zemindaree system, and the oppressions

experienced by the ryots in the Presidencies of Bombay and Madras.

After describing the state of affairs generally, he added, 'Such was

the melancholy condition of the agricultural labourers, that it always

gave him the greatest pain to allude to it.' Three years afterward, Mr.

Shore, who was a judge in India, published a work which was considered

as a standard work till now, and he stated 'that the British government

was not regarded in a favourable light by the native population

of India—that a system of taxation and extortion was carried on

unparalleled in the annals of any country.'"

From all quarters we receive unimpeachable evidence that the locust

system has performed its devouring work on the broadest scale in

India; and that the Hindoos are the victims of conquerors, slower,

indeed, in their movements, than Tamerlane or Genghis Khan, but more

destructive and more criminal than either of those great barbarian

invaders.