Conciliation of natives.

small number of British forces in India, and compares this with the immense extent of territory, with the vast amount of the population, and the large armies that can be speedily raised and brought into the field by some of the neighbouring powers, will be satisfied, that our military establishment in that quarter would require very considerable augmentation. Besides these scattered cantonments, a considerable disposeable force ought always to be kept about the seat of government, ready to act as emergencies require. This measure has been adopted under other governments, where the proportion betwixt the troops and the territory was very unequal, and seems not only expedient but necessary in the present case.

This is not all. One of the chief means of security must be derived from the conquered or ceded countries themselves. Domestic disaffection or rebellion is the most powerful allurement to external aggression. But a confederation of states, a close and cordial union and co-operation among the members of the empire, opposes a formidable barrier, a firm and compacted phalanx, not only to predatory incursion, but also to more regular warfare. We speak now, not merely of a political association, which may be often apparent or nominal, and will prove, without the other, faithless

and inefficient; but of an union of affection and of energies. And, with the view of cementing this amicable conjunction, it must be the uniform object of all arrangements, political and military, and of all the executive administrations, not only to awe but to conciliate the natives; to teach them that it is at once their duty and their interest to submit to the reigning powers; and to convert, by a train of benefits, the law of force into the government of friendship. A mild and enlightened, an equitable but energetic system of policy must be pursued: a policy which, while it does. not insult their prejudices, or invade their rights, may shew that government has power, and will have the spirit, to cause itself to be respected: a policy which will evince, that although determined to maintain its own ascendancy, the administration will never lose sight of those means which may promote the best interests of their subjects.

tlers.

While the government is thus upheld and fortified by its British setown resources, and the affections of the natives, it may be farther strengthened by the introduction of colonists from Britain. That the scheme of colonial policy pursued by most nations, both in ancient and modern times, has originated too often in accident, and been circumscribed too much in object, is not to be denied. If foreign and un

inhabited districts have been peopled, it has been owing more to necessity, to the violence of persecution, to individual adventure, to narrow views of traffic, or to the desire of disburthening a parent state of its overgrown population, or of public nuisances, than to any liberal or enlightened considerations of political economy. It is time that governments should awake to a better sense of their true interests, and avail themselves of those means of self-preservation, which a judicious colonisation might afford. Were some of the vacant or thinly-peopled spots of Hindostan occupied by British planters; were suitable encouragement given to sober, peaceful, industrious emigrants, to settle on its fertile plains, which, on equal terms, would doubtless be preferred to the dreary wilds of the new world; were the colonists inured to arms; were an engagement of military service, similar to what the ancient feudal system exacted, to be stipulated as one provision of the tenure, by which they should hold their lands; each of these scattered colonies would prove a kind of open camp, each might repel predatory troops, and each, in succession, by continually interrupting the progress of the more powerful armaments of regular warfare, would prevent them from over-running the country, until a force sufficient to save the empire could be

.

collected. In short, they would act as advanced posts of a great army, spread abroad upon the face of the country, the commander in chief of which would hold his head quarters at the seat of government. An high authority, exactly in point, may be adduced. "Sometimes," says Montesquieu, "one monarchy subdues another. The smaller the latter, the better it is checked by fortresses: and the larger it is, the better it is preserved by colonies *." Experiments made not only in an adjacent country, but on the very scene to which our inquiries direct our attention, by their success amply confirm the suggestion of their policy. Alexander, upon conquering Persia, established a great number of Grecian colonies in that country. He pursued the same policy in India. By these means so well were his acquisitions secured, that, although after his death the empire was broken to pieces, yet both Persia and Hindostan continued under the dominion of the Greeks. And it is particularly remarked by historians, that not one province of the former revolted; and, in the latter, even the tributary kings whom he had gained over to his interest by his humanity and beneficence, as well as the districts he had subdued by force, re

* Spirit of Laws, b. x. ch. 10. Vide Note K.

Political vigilance.

mained subject to one of those generals, who, after exhibiting an example of insubordination, calculated to shake the fidelity of the allied or conquered provinces, by an undeserved felicity shared the unresisting empire among them *.

In addition to these arrangements for the security of our empire in the East, other precautions, not of a character so magnificent, but not less necessary, may be adopted. By the expedients usually employed in such cases, a vigilant eye must be kept upon the motions of those neighbouring powers, whose friendship is dubious, or who are most likely to be corrupted by foreign influence; whom motives of resentment or of jealousy, of policy or of restlessness, might incite to aggression. In particular those intrigues with the Mahrattas, carried on by a certain unfriendly European state, who has long envied the extent of our possessions, as well as the ascendancy of our influence in India, and is desirous either of expelling us from that favoured region, or sharing its riches with us, must be watched with unceasing and jealous care. Taught by the example of the great Macedonian chief, we must also cement, by every kind office,

*Robertson's India, pp. 27.-29.