REMARKS ON THE BRITISH CONQUEST OF INDIA.

At the close of this sketch of the origin and progress of the British power in India, it will not be irrelevant to make some remarks upon the particular qualities or circumstances which have enabled England to conquer and govern a country 10 times her size, containing a population 5 times as large, and situated at so great a distance. The first thing is

1. Superiority in the science and practice of war. In all the nations of Europe, military colleges are established, and men of the highest qualifications are supported in them. War, in all its branches, as fortification, gunnery, fencing, attack, and defence, has long been taught as science, and to no subject have the highest powers and faculties of the mind been applied with more assiduity and energy. Able works are published on all these subjects, and opinions, principles, and inventions are subjected to the test of experiment. Military operations are carefully analyzed. If successful, the causes of that success are ascertained; and if unsuccessful, the causes are searched out and understood. No native government in India has ever founded or supported any military or naval schools to prepare for the military or naval professions. The command of armies is generally intrusted to favorites, almost sure to be unfit persons, or to those who have some experience and been fortunate in such matters, whether the result of competency or chance. But those who may have acquired some experience and skill, having had no previous education in scientific principles to guide them, must be very inferior to what they would have been, could they have had the advantages of a suitable scientific edution at first.

Officers in the armies of the native princes of India have not the means and advantages of improvement which European officers have. They have no books on the subjects of their profession, and few if any histories of wars and battles which they can examine. Nor do they learn so much of each other in social and professional intercourse. In times of trouble and difficulty, councils of war are seldom if ever called or known. In oriental armies, all power is. generally vested in one com

commander, and all confidence is placed in him. If he is killed, and it becomes known, this generally decides the battle. There is none to take his place, none in whom they have confidence. All are panic-struck, and confusion and flight ensue. I have often heard the natives of India express their surprise at the difference between European and Indian armies in this respect. In European armies or regiments, if the commander is killed or wounded, another officer at once assumes the command, and then another and another if need be, and the battle still goes on, and all continue fighting as if no officer had fallen.

The difference between European soldiers and native sepoys, is scarcely less than between the respective officers. The natives become good soldiers, when formed into regiments and instructed in the discipline of European armies. But effective discipline was little known in the armies of India, when the English commenced their conquests there. The strength of armies was supposed to be in their number. The superiority of European armies on account of their discipline, was obvious in the conflicts of the Portuguese, the French and the Dutch, with the natives of India. Such conflicts were like those of the Greeks with the Persians, or the Romans with the barbarians, or the Spaniards with the Mexicans.

The European armies also as much excelled the armies of India in the superiority of their weapons, as their cannon, their muskets, pistols, and swords, as they did in their discipline. Indeed, we may say the same of all the material of war, as powder, balls, bombs, etc.

The superiority of the natives of Europe to those of India, and all the southern countries of Asia in all matters of war, became obvious as soon as they came into conflict with each other. When the European nations began to acquire territory and to evince a spirit for conquest, some of the Indian princes attempted to introduce European weapons and discipline into their armies, and with this view employed such persons as they could obtain. For this purpose many Europeans, chiefly French, were employed by Hyder Ali and his son Tippoo, by the Nizam, by Scindia, and by Runjeet Singh. Such officers were sometimes promoted to high command, and the most severe wars and battles the English have had with the native powers of India,

were with armies into which European discipline had been more or less introduced. Aware of the obstacles and difficulties which they might encounter from this source, it became a principle with the English at an early period of their history in India to effect the removal as far as possible of all such officers from the armies of the native powers, and to prevent any Europeans—except such as they should themselves approvebeing employed by any native powers. Articles to this effect generally made a part of their treaties with native princes. Future conquest was in this way made easy.

occur.

2. The government and constitution of the East India Company, though complicated and often slow and cumbersome in its operation, is yet well adapted for acquiring and governing such a country as India. The governments of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay have generally consisted each of a governor and commander-in-chief, (who has always the rank of general in the English army,) sent from England, and two councillors who have long been in the employment of the East India Company in India. The governor in Calcutta is called the governor-general, and the government in Calcutta can assume power over the governments in Madras and Bombay, should any emergency The governments in India are subject to the Directors of the Company, and these are subject to the Ministry, and the Ministry to Parliament; thus constituting a connection of control, responsibility, and restraint beyond the government of any country in the world. And not only have the Directors of the Company always had respect to ascertained and competent qualifications in the appointments of their agency, but when any one in their employment has exhibited decided incompetency, or did not follow their instructions and regulations to their satisfaction, he was dismissed or displaced, and some other one appointed. The Directors have shown great energy, decision, and independence in the exercise of their powers and rights in the government of India, and among those who have been displaced and dismissed by them, are councillors and governors, generals and governors-general. In 1844, the Directors of the Company in the exercise of reserved rights and without consulting the Ministry, recalled Lord Ellenborough, then governorgeneral, because his administration was not in their view for the

good of India, and though this exercise of their authority at first excited great surprise and incurred for a while much censure, yet when all the facts and circumstances became known, public opinion generally approved of what they had done.

*

Now if we compare the government and agency of the East India Company with the emperors, kings, and princes of India, who are absolute and despotic, arbitrary and often uneducated,* generally controlled by their minister or vizier, and other profligate favorites, and surrounded with their corrupt and venal courts, we shall at once see that the English would have great advantages over the natives in all matters of war and diplomacy, and that the natural and almost necessary result of hostile or official intercourse between them would be conquest, success, and exaltation on the part of the former, and defeat, submission, and degradation on the other.

3. The position of the first places which the English acquired in India, gave them great advantages in their wars with the native powers, and also for governing the country. Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay soon became large seaports, always open for communication with each other, as well as with every part of the sea-coast of India, and with Europe and all the world. No native government in India has ever had sufficient naval power to contend with the English, or to blockade any of their seaports. These cities became the seats of government, and they had such facilities for sending military forces to different parts of India, as no native power ever possessed. Thus in their wars with Hyder Ali,† and Tippoo Sultan, military forces proceeded from Madras to invade their dominions on the east side, and at the same time from Bombay to invade them on the west side. So in the Mahratta wars, forces proceeded into the Mahratta territories simultaneously from Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. Thus these cities, all under one government, possessed great advantages for carrying on war in all parts of India, and these advantages have been well improved.

The English having at all times the command of the sea,

*Shevajee, Hyder Ali, and Runjeet Singh, who were among the most powerful princes of India, could never write or read.

† So Hyder Ali said, "It is not what I can see of the English power that I dread, but it is what I cannot see that I fear."

could send troops and military stores to any places on the seacoast where they might be required, or from which they could be best transported to the scenes of war in the interior. In this way all their power in India could soon be concentrated upon any particular spot. The native princes, unable to comprehend the extent and sources of the English power, or to appreciate the celerity of their movements, were often surprised to find their territories invaded where they were not expecting it, and then to see their plans frustrated, their armies defeated, and their forts captured. And if their attack on any place failed, their ships were at hand to furnish escape for the army; and if the forces in any place were no longer necessary, the ships could at once transport them to places where they were required. The armies of Bengal, of Madras and the peninsula, and of Bombay, were available for any exigency in almost any part of India, and in a manner and to an extent previously unknown and unthought of in Indian warfare. And the great advantages the English have obtained from having the command of the sea in their eastern wars, have not been limited to India. The sable armies of India under English officers and English colors have been seen in Egypt, in Arabia, in Persia, in Mauritius, in Ceylon, in Burma, in Java, in Singapore, and in China. And in the revolutions and convulsions and changes yet to take place in the southern countries of Asia, even to the Pacific ocean, the native armies of India may be expected to be seen fighting under the banners of England, governed by English mind, supported by the revenues of India and the southern countries of Asia, and extending the English possessions till they shall include all places which may appear to be worth obtaining, or when acquired to be worth keeping. 4. The state of India when the English commenced their conquests and from that time must also be considered. The great Mogul empire of Delhi fell to pieces soon after the death of Aurungzeb in 1706. At that time the English possessions in India, consisted of only a few small forts or rather fortified factories on the sea-shore. It was not till the struggle between the English and the French for ascendency commenced in the Carnatic, in 1744, that the East India Company became one of the political powers in India. The English never had any war with the Mogul emperors, but only with the comparatively petty