THE LITERARY PANORAMA. FOR APRIL, 1808. INVASION OF INDIA. EXPLANATORY REMARKS ON THE ANNEXED MAP OF HINDOOSTAN, WHICH IS COLOURED TO REPRESENT THE DIFFERENT STATES AND POWERS OF THAT COUNTRY. Circumstances, of which we have anxiously availed ourselves for the benefit of our readers, have placed in our hands information of the most interesting nature, and of unimpeachable authenticity, on the subject of the Expedition to India by the Russian and French armies. That expedition, we have no hesitation in believing, is in progress; and so are measures to render it abortive. We would not assume the tone of fool-hardy confidence as to its final result; though we confess that our anxiety on the subject is not extreme. "The road to London," said the reporter Eschasseriaux," lies through the East Indies." It be so; yet our enemies may may find it not only a tedious and toilsome, expensive and bloody, but an endless road. The magnitude of the object must plead our excuse for deviating from our custom, in placing this article, the first in our Number; as we could not answer it to ourselves, nor to that confidence with which we have been treated by the public, had we given this communication any but the most conspicuous situation. This plan was presented to the Empress Catherine II. at a time when her politics were, or affected to be, estranged from the favour which she had shewn to the British nation. It was further fostered by the Emperor Paul, and has been matured between Buonaparté and Alexander. VOL. IV. [Lit. Pan. April, 1803.] The Map presented to the reader is the same as that prefixed to the East India Register and Directory*; it has, therefore, the advantage of being officially correct. The British territories are bounded on the east by the Forests of Aracan ; so that the lower parts of the Burhampootra, as well as of the Ganges, are included in the dominions of the Company. It will be observed, that these rivers rise from the same mountains, and almost from the same springs; but one takes an easterly, the other a westerly, course. Happily, the British provinces follow the course of the Ganges, for the countries adjacent to the Burbampootra, are reported to be very unhealthy. Advancing up the Ganges, the countries on both sides of the river to Benares, belonged to the Company, in the time and under the government of Mr. Hastings; from that city upwards, Oude, Agra, the Rohilcund, &c. including Delhi, up to the banks of the Setlige, the British arms have penetrated, in, and since the year 1801, and these are in alliance with the Company, though the Company be. not the sovereign. The Setlige is the boundary of the country appertaining to the Seiks, whose dominion extends from thence to the very borders of Cashmere : it is bounded on the west by the Indus, down which river it extends nearly half way from Moultan to its mouth. As the country of the Seiks is intersected by many rivers, and diversified with many mountains, it forms in fact the barrier be tween Persia and Hindoostan. These peo ple are of modern origin, and have not long occupied such extensive dominions. * We refer our readers, and particularly such as have relatives in India, to this very useful publication, which gives the particulars of all the European and Native Regiments in the East India Company's service. Their power has never been fully tried. The Mahrattas are horsemen; of predatory habits, extremely rapid in their motions, fierce, vindictive, and agile. The forced marches which some of their armies have made, when pushed by urgency, are among the extraordinary efforts of warfare. And the great extent of their country, which forms a line of several hundreds of miles, not very distant, to such troops, from the course of the Ganges, will put into the hands of these people, if united, under an active chief, the balance of power between the conflicting parties, and, consequently, the welfare of India. We must always bear in mind, that the power of government is usually in the hands of professors of the Mahometan faith. But little apprehensions are entertained of the powers north of the British possessions. The population of these coun tries is not very dense, neither are they combined under chiefs capable of bringing great bodies of them into the field. As soldiers they are brave, but ill disciplined. Their country is strong, mountainous, and woody for the most part, but much of it is, to Europeans, very unhealthy. Our readers will observe the distance of the army of Madras from the scene of action: together with the still greater distance of the forces on the coast of Malabar. In fact, these establishments could be depended on for nothing further than that assistance to the general effect whicht is always afforded by maintaining a ready attitude, and a good countenance. An army moving up the Ganges, from Bengal, would be liable to whatever dis advantages were intended it, by the Mahratta State of Berar, an irruption froin which, consisting as it would do, of horse, would take an army going north west, in flank, and as it advanced, would be able to cut off its communication with Bengal. The disposition of the Rajah of Berar, is not, at present, such as to lead to the ex- The army in Bombay, and Surat, surpectation of this treachery, unless the rounded as those countries are by Mahratta French have corrupted him. Nor does states of dubious fidelity to their engage the policy of the Mahratta states lead them ments, could not be much diminished to desire the aggrandizement of the Seiks. with safety to the countries they occupy; It may, therefore, be inferred without and any advance towards the north would hazard, that these powers will not cordial- be attended with difficulty as well as with ly unite. The territory of Malwa is di- danger. But the sea is open to the entervided between the Mahratta chiefs, Hol-prise of these troops, and of this advantage 'kar, to the west, and Scindea to the east. they cannot be deprived. In short, the These would, no doubt, rejoice in any maritime superiority of the Company, calamity that might befall the British enables it to derive advantages from all its arms, and nothing would please them bet-resources, and to render them effectual to ter then to assist in such an affair; but the general and great purpose, that of dethese chiefs have not long since felt the feating the intentions of the enemy. weight of the Company's power, and they may be expected to look forward to cousequences, in case of failure, which, they must well know, would be severe. Our Map will enable our readers to draw other inferences for themselves. We shall, no doubt, have repeated occasions to refer to it, and we presume it will It is not situation only that gives impor- be found extremely useful on a variety of tance to these country powers: the nature occasions besides the present. The followof the troops they furnish, and the habits ing disquisition at once illustrates it fur of those troops, are of great consequence.ther, and is illustrated by it, CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PROJECTED IN- sions of India from this quarter, as have heretofore been effected, may contribute essentially to the better ascertaining what credit is due to present rumours. are in fact the instruments. Buonaparté has sent his emissaries to the Persian court; and the Persian court has returned compliments and presents, answerable to Certainly the minds of sovereigns who his own. The Persian court is, in fact, are men of business, are the depositories the center from whence this expedition, if of their own plans, which it is in their undertaken, must be supported; and we pleasure to conceal or to promulgate. Mi-presume that a slight review of such invalitary sovereigns, especially, who have felt the importance of secrecy, in the command of armies, may well be supposed to be extremely jealous of suffering their re solutions to transpire. Much less will they divulge a scheme, when it concerns the dominions of other states, and involves the welfare of those, whether friends or enemies, at whose expence they intend to aggrandize themselves. We shall, therefore, introduce our comments on the plan, now no secret to Europe, for assaulting and oversetting the British power in India, by an overland attack, by declaring that our knowledge of the intentions of Russia on this subject, is derived from the late Emperor Paul himself. During his short reign, that monarch paid India;" (Esther i. 1. viii. 9) for, we great attention to this project; and, more have no reason to think, that the Persian than once in our hearing, avowed his posi-empire, even when at its greatest height, tive determination of putting it into exe- ever established a permanent dominion cution. This is saying enough for our over any province of the present Hindoopresent purpose. To suppose that any mischief of which Britain was the object should exist, without the participation of Buonaparté, would be to defame his character, and to diminish the obligations under which this country lies to his animosity and envy. Yet, we shall not affect to affium with equal precision, what part in this adventure, is undertaken by our arch-enemy, or to know the very words of the conventions agreed to at Tilsit. Our private information (from an intelligent foreigner, of whose friendship for our work we have had numerous demonstrations) was the same for substance with that promulgated by authority in this country; with these remarkable words attached to it: "Your country, Sir, could not do otherwise than it has done, if it intended to escape the most powerful combination (snare) ever laid for it." We have already hinted, [Comp. Panorama, Vol. III. p. 1108] that we under stood the assistance to be furnished by France to Russia, in the first instance, consists in OFFICERS; but this does not exclude Intrigue, of which those officers. India inay be considered as a promontory lying between the river Indus on the west, (say long, 70) and the Burhampootra on the east (say long. 95) extending southward to N. lat. 9, but united on the north to Tartary, on the north east to Cashgur and Cabulistar, and on the west, but across the river Indus, to Persia. We have very little hesitation in placing the original India on the north west side of the head of the Indus, i. e, the most easterly province of the Persian empire: "the East," or even called by the Persians, stan. As the Brahmins of India say that they came into this country from the north west, and by the pass of Hurdwar, we might consider this passage as the first acknowledged intercourse, irruption rather, from Persia to India. But, as we have no authentic memorials whereby to state this event historically, we shall direct our attention to cases more analogous to the object of the present paper. Alexander of Macedon, whom his partizans dignified with the title Great, was intent on raising himself to the honours of Divinity: for he had discovered that sundry mortals like himself, had effected this distinction. We are not to suppose that Alexander was foolish enough to fancy the possibility, that he could be received as one of the ancient twelve Great Gods of the Heathen: the most he could expect, would be, as actually took place in Egypt, that he should be received as the thirteenth deity, and associated with those of the upper rank, But he knew, that Her cules, Theseus, and other heroes, had in length of time, by a process not absolutely B 2. |