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ANCIENT DESCRIPTION.

sit weeping for Tammuz, and where not seventy, not a million, but where all the men have their backs turned to the temple of the Lord, and are worshipping the sun, and the host of heaven; and she is still the mighty continent of the East, swarming with a hundred millions of enslaved freemen, heaving with the evils, and the calamities which Satan and his agents have inflicted for many an age, and prepared, like the cities of the plain, to be visited with snares, fire and brimstone as the portion of her cup. Who would not weep and mourn over the guilt, the superstitions, and the idolatry of India?

CHAPTER III.

THE BRITISH POWER IN INDIA.

THE TRANSFER OF INDIA ΤΟ GREAT BRITAIN THE MEANS
ADOPTED TO GAIN IT, MUCH TO BE CONDEMNED-THE STATE
OF INDIA UNDER FORMER CONQUERORS-THE DESIGN OF
GOD IN PUTTING HER INTO OUR POWER-THE OBSTACLES
TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE TRUTH-THE GRACIOUS INTER-
POSITION OF
NOT LIKELY ΤΟ
OVERTHROW OUR RULE-THE PROSPERITY OF OUR POWER-
THE OPINION OF SIR THOMAS MUNRO.

PROVIDENCE-CHRISTIANITY

In traversing the plains of India, and in contemplating the number and character of its inhabitants, how often have I reflected, with astonishment, on the strange and political phenomenon presented to my view. It is very easy to see how a country placed, in the centre of kingdoms, may become so powerful as to obtain their supremacy, and to render them all tributary to its aggrandizement. It is not difficult to comprehend how a conquering nation, whether it occupy an island, or the extremity of a continent, may extend its dominion over the territories of its neighbours, and make them tremble under its frown, or rejoice in its protection. But that an island of the western sea,-that a country

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STRANGE ACQUISITION.

which scarcely contained twenty millions of inhabitants, that a nation which has been called to struggle with accumulated difficulties in its own government, should,—at a time when America asserted her independence, and withdrew her support from the mother-land,—at a time when, with all the kingdoms of Europe leagued against her, she was obliged to struggle for her own existence,-obtain the supremacy over the eastern continent, and bring the powerful kingdoms of which it is composed into subjection, and, at a distance of fifteen thousand miles, hold them in her paternal sway, is not to be accounted for on the ordinary principles of worldly calculation and of political economy. No; the man who would so account for it, would strangely overlook the divine administration of affairs. The fear of the Lord has unquestionably been upon the people; the distrust and disunion which have prevailed among them, have been our strength and security; and while their confidence in our truth, and honour and honesty, is a very strong ground of attachment to us, yet the Lord fought the battle and gave us the victory. He introduced divisions into their councils and rendered them weak in enterprise; he caused the sword and the hand of every man to be turned against his neighbour; and he made the events of his providence contribute to the growth and establishment of our power, that he might exalt us, and make us the agents of his love.

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Titus, the son of Vespasian, besieged and destroyed Jerusalem. After he entered the city, he viewed her walls, he inspected her bulwarks, he stood astonished at the strength of her fortifications, he acknowledged the omnipotent arm of the God of Israel, and in rapture he exclaimed, "It is manifest that the Almighty has fought for us, and has driven the Jews from these towers, since neither human force nor all the engines of the world could have effected it." But what are the walls and fortifications of Jerusalem, when compared with the fortresses which required to be stormed, and the battles which were to be fought, and the formidable obstacles which had to be surmounted in taking possession of our Indian empire? Nothing but the power of the Almighty could have made us the rulers of such a continent. To Him, then, be the glory, the honour, the power and the victory.

In making such remarks, I do not wish to justify the measures which have often been pursued, in the acquisition of our Indian territories. Not at all. Our methods have been too much in accordance with the system which heathen and Mahommedan. conquerors have adopted. If truth and honour and justice have sometimes prevailed; gold, injustice, and oppression have more frequently triumphed ; and while the governor of the universe has the most benign and gracious designs in view, the agents who have accomplished his purposes have not thought so, nor have they reasoned so.

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FORMER INVASIONS.

From time immemorial, India has been an oppressed, an afflicted, and a misgoverned country. As the Goths, the Vandals and the northern barbarians made eruptions into the Roman empire, spread ruin and devastation in their march, laid waste the beautiful fields of Italy, and took possession of the provinces, so the Persians, the Afghans, and the Tartars from the north poured in their hordes, with the violence of a hurricane, upon the continent of India-spreading terror, and destruction in their course. It matters not whether it was the armies of the great Alexander and the victorious generals who followed out his schemes of ambition; or whether it was the fleet and terrific cavalry of Mahmood and his successors of the Ghasnian dynasty; it matters not whether it was the fierce and barbarous Pindarees under a Mahrratta confederacy, or the brave and conquering bands of British soldiers, under a Clive and a Cornwallis; the effects were nearly the same. Fire and sword spread their ravages on every side. Nothing was heard of but the burning of cities, the massacre of the young and the old, whole provinces given up to the spoiler, large and powerful armies cut to pieces. War brought the famine in its train, and the famine brought the pestilence, and the pestilence spread the ravages of death, till the population of the fairest provinces was often reduced to a mere remnant, till countries, once like the garden of the Lord, became an aceldama-a field of blood,

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