"the ordinances of this court of judicature were iffued, as they were all contrary to the customs, modes, ufages, and infti utions of this country, they occafioned terror in us; and day by day, as the powers of this court became more established, our ruin, uneafinefs, dishonor, and difcredit, have accumulated. We are now driven to the last extremity. Several who poffeffed means and ability have banished themselves from the country; but we do not all of us poffefs the means of flight, nor have we power to abide the oppreffion of this court. If, which GOD forbid this our petition fhould not be accepted, giving ourfelves up with refignation to our fate, we will fit down in expectation of death. After this, LET the foil of the country remain, and the court of justice-LET the court of justice remain upon the earth, or the earth cover it !"

On a motion by general Smith for referring thefe petitions to a committee, Mr. Boughton Rous took occafion to contrast the established policy of antient Rome with that adopted by England: "In all fubjection of territory contiguous to her own," faid this able fpeaker, "Rome gave her own laws, if the people wifhed to receive them or fhe allured them by immunities and honourable diftinctions. Thus fhe affimilated all the petty states of Italy to her laws and manners, till the whole peninfula became one nation.But in her diftant conquefts fhe pursued a very different policy. In these fhe was fatisfied to hold the supreme government, to poffefs the revenues and military powers, leaving the inhabitants to conduct their internal police by their own native magiftrates and laws; avoiding any infult to the religion or prejudices of the vanquished. Much better would it be for Britain to imitate, in this refpect, the conduct of the ancient Romans, than to persist in rash and injudicious attempts to impofe the laws of England upon the natives of India."

Many

Many of the judicial decifions of the fupreme court, as stated to the house, also wore the aspect of the most flagrant violence and injusticet: and a general conviction feemed

† Of these perhaps the most remarkable was the decifion given by the chief justice in the famous PATNA CAUSE. It had been the practice of the provincial courts established under the English government, to refer questions of Mahomedan law to the cawzee and muftees-antient and known judicial officers under the former government. A caufe of great importance refpecting a difputed property, referred, in the accustomed manner, by the council of Patna to the cawzee Sadhi and two muftees his affeffors, being decided by them in a mode which approved itself to the public judgment as highly equitable and fatisfactory, an action of trespass was nevertheless brought in the fupreme court against the cawzee and muftees by the lofing party. The action being admitted to lie, the cawzee was ar refted by warrant of the chief juftice, to the confternation and astonishment of the inhabitants, in the public ftreets of Patna, when returning to his habitation from the exercife of the duties of his office. The fheriff having the execution of the writ was directed not to admit the cawzee or his affeffors to bail under the enormous fum of 400,000 rupees: and had it not been for the interpofition of the provincial council, the defendants must have been dragged to Calcutta, at the distance of 500 miles, and have languifhed in prifon till their doom was determined. "The feizure of the cawzee in this difgraceful manner," fay the provincial council of Patra in their letter to the fupreme council of Calcutta, " coming from the execution of his office, has ftruck a general terror into the inhabitants of this city; we thought it therefore expedient, for the honor of government and the preservation of its authority, to offer the bail required for the enlargement of one of its first officers.-How can we expect," fay they," the other officers of these courts to carry any orders of confequence into execution, till they are affured of fafety and protection in the discharge of their duty?"

The circumftances of cruelty and atrocity attending this business are fully detailed in the fecond article of impeachment exhibited against fir Elijah Impey, in the house of commons, December 12, 1787, by fir Gilbert Elliot. In the fequel, the decifion of the cawzee was, upon grounds the most scandalously frivolous and futile, reversed by the fupreme court; and the cawzee and muftees condemned to pay damages and cofts to the amount of 300,000 rupees, which was in effect a fentence of perpetual imprifonment. The cawzee Sadhi, being aged and infirm, in a fhort time funk under the weight of this perfecution; the other defendants remaining in prifon upwards of two years, till they were fet at liberty by exprefs orders from England, commanding not only their releafe, but the restoration of the muitees to the offices they had before occupied with fair and unfullied characters.

As a fpecimen of the evidence on which the chief justice's fentence of reverfal was founded, a small part of the examination of one Cojah Zeke. reah may be cited: fr Elijah Impey declaring from the bench, the teftimony of this man to be confiftent and unimpeached. It was adduced to prove and establish the authenticity of various fignatures profeffing to witnefs a certain devife or deed of conveyance, styled, in the technical language of the Mahomedan courts, the bebenamah, on the validity of which the merits of the whole caufe abfolutely depended.

Q. Who wrote the writing which is round the feals?

A. What is wrote about my own feal and that of Ghyrut Beg in the hebenamah, I remember writing myfelf; but the other three I do not re

member

feemed to be momentarily excited, of the radical absurdity and erroneoufnefs of the prefent fyftem. Nevertheless, the weight of regal influence, ever jealous and abhorrent of reform in every fhape; the natural partiality of the minifter to his own original plans, and the preffure of affairs ftill

member writing. I am fure that above the feal of Mazum Beg is not mine that around Ullah is not my writing.

Q. You must know your hand-writing-anfwer, Is it your hand-witing, YES or NO?

A. It is not. It is not in my memory that it is. I do not remember it, if it is my hand-writing.- -IT MAY BE SO.

You must know your hand-writing-you need not look at it fo frequently.

A. If it is, it may be I do not recollect it. If it may be, it may be I do not recollect it. Ir is CERTAINLY MY HAND WRITING.

QNow you have fworn it is your hand-writing, and that it is not, which is true? One or the other of them must be true.

A. IT IS MY HAND WRITING.

Q. You did not fee Mahomed Iwaz write Ullah; therefore, why did you write under it?

A. I remember that when Ghyrut Beg affixed his feal, as he could not write, the deceafed, Shawbaz Beg Khan, defired me to write over it; and having procured lwaz to write in my abfence Ullah, he defired me to write Ullah.

Q. You have faid, I think, that you never faw the hebenamah after your own feal was put to it; and till after the death of Shawbaz Beg Khan; and that when you did put your feal to it, the other feals were not put to it, nor the fignature Ullah: How came you now then to say, that, after the feal of Ghyrut Beg was put to it, and the fignature Ullah, that Shawbaz Beg Khan defired you to write upon the hebenamah?

A. It is true, that when he defired me to put my feal to it, there was no other feal than his. But about the fame time, or a day after, when the other witneffes witneffed it, I was by, and he defired me to witness it. I was always prefent with Shawbaz Beg Khan.

Q. Were you by when Mahomed Iwaz wrote the word Ullah? A. I was not prefent then. When Imayet Ullah Beg and Ghyrut Beg put their feals to it, I was prefent.

Q. Why-if you did write under, the word Ullah, as you now fay you did why did you not immediately fay that you did write under it?

A. I was in doubt about my own hand-writing: and, having fworn, I was cautious in acknowledging it.

Q. What did you mean by faying that you never faw the paper after you had put your feal to it till after the death of Shawbaz Beg Khan, if Shawbaz Beg Khan did in fact produce it to you to write upon it at any time after you had put your feal to it?

A. It is not a contradiction. After all the feals were put to it, after that time, I meant to fay, I never faw it till after the death of Shawbaz Beg Khan.

Q. Is all the writing over the feals of your hand-writing?

A. The LAST is not my hand-writing.

Q. Look to it, and be fure.

A. This is alfo my hand-writing.

Q. Why did you fay it was not your hand-writing when it is?

A. I did not remember writing it: but on feeing it is the fame flow of the pen, I acknowledge it to be my hand-writing.

fill more urgent, prevented the adoption of any great or decifive measures of relief. From the contracted genius and policy of the exifting adminiftration, nothing great, decifive, or comprehenfively beneficial, could indeed be expected. A bill was, however, introduced and paffed, explanatory of the powers of the fupreme court of judicature, and in fome points limiting and reftraining its jurif diction, which had been extended, by the arbitrary encroachments of the chief justice, far beyond the real and obvious intent of the regulating act.

At this period the war in India had become very general; a most formidable combination of the country powers in oppofition to the English had taken place, which, affifted by the fleets and armies of France, feemed to menace the very existence of the empire of Britain in India. Hyder Ali, the antient and inveterate enemy of the company, in the month of July 1780 broke into the Carnatic with a vast army, and committed the most dreadful ravages. On the 10th of September he attacked and surrounded a con- · fiderable detached corps under colonel Baillie, which were entirely cut to pieces or made prifoners. He then attacked and made himself mafter of Arcot ; and scarcely did the Government at Madras believe itfelf to be in fafety, when fir Eyre Coote arrived to take the command of the company's forces on the coaft of Coromandel, and Hyder was in repeated engagements foiled and defeated by this fortunate and gallant veteran.

Various naval encounters alfo took place between the French and English fleets, commanded by M. Suffrein and admiral fir Edward Hughes, with equal skill, courage and fuccefs. The naval force of both nations was gradually increased, in the progrefs of the war, to a degree far beyond what had been known at any former period in India, amounting at the laft, on the part of the British, to eighteen fhips of the line of battle. But the proportion continuing nearly the fame, the mutual acceffions of ftrength

ferved

ferved only to increase the number of human victims: and the fucceffive battles being obftinately and even heroically contefted, the blood fhed in this unavailing conteft was uncommonly great.

To enter into the detail of fuch tranfactions can answer no valuable purpofe, except it be to exhibit the miferies of war in their genuine colors, divefted of that fafcination which accompanies the idea of victory, though attended perhaps to the victors themfelves with no folid advantage, to the vanquished with all the horrors of diftrefs and ruin. Doubtless, in every region of the world wisdom and humanity exift more than fufficient, could they be brought into action, to remedy these fatal and inexpreffible fallies; but it is melancholy to reflect how fmall a portion of either falls to the lot of the generality of those by whom the affairs of the world are conducted; and how remote, and on a tranfient furvey almost hopeless, is the prospect of any effential amelioration in the fyftem of human policy†.

A fecret committee having been appointed, in the year 1781, to enquire into the caufes of the Mahratta war, and

"Voici," fays the celebrated Monarch of Pruffia," l'erreur de la plupart des PRINCES," i. e. of the men ftyled in the vocabulary of human folly, moft ferene, most gracious, and most facred fovereigns! "Ils croient que Dieu a cree exprès et par une attention toute particulière pour leur grandeur, leur félicité, et leur orgueil, cette multitude d'hommes dont le falut leur est commis; et que leurs fujets ne font destinés qu'à étre les inftrumens et les miniftres de leurs paffions déreglées. Dès que le principe dont on part eft faux, les conféquences ne peuvent être que vicientes à l'infini: & de là ce défir ardent de tout envahir, de là la dureté des impôts dont le peuple eft chargé, de là la pareffe des princes, leur orgueil, leur injuftice, leur inhumanité, leur tyrannie, et tous ces vices qui dégradent la nature humaine. Si les princes fe défaifoient de ces idées erronées, et qu'ils vouluflent remonter jufqu'au but de leur inftitution, ils erroient que ce rang dont ils font fi jaloux, que leur élévation n'eft que L'OUVRAGE DES PEUPLES.-Ce principe ainfi établi, il faudroit qu'ils fentiffent que la vraie gloire des princes ne confifte point à opprimer leurs voins, point à augmenter le nombre de leurs efclaves, mais à remplir les devoirs de leurs charges, et à répondre en tout à l'intention de ceux qui les ont revêtus de leur pouvoir, et de qui ils TIENNENT la GRANDEUR SUPREMET" Such is the ingenuous and noble confeffion of the royal historian and philofopher, and fuch the language which at Berlin is applauded as the effufion of a magnanimous and enlightened patriotifm, and in London stigmatized, and perhaps punished, as the refult of difaffection to the government, if not amounting to actual fedition and confpiracy.