Mr. B. thought it highly probable that if gentlemen did not leave this country for the civil and military service of India, till twentytwo (up to which period their education might be continued with advantage), most of them would probably have formed attachments before they left: and supposing them to be three years occupied in their travels, and not to enter on their duties in India till twentyfive, he conceived that if they still continued faithful to the objects of their affections at home, and wished them to come out by sea for the purpose of marriage, that the Government, as a reward for the fidelity of both parties, and to encourage European rather than Asiatic alliances, should pay the whole of the expenses of the lady's passage, if not give her a moderate marriage portion besides.]* The remainder which is given from the papers is sufficiently accurate in substance.

་

At the conclusion of a Lecture, which lasted upwards of two hours, and was listened to with intense interest and great applause, Mr. Buckingham took leave of his audience in very feeling terms.

After the applause consequent on this ardent expression of the Lecturer's feelings, had subsided,

LAWRENCE HILL, Esq. rose, and expressed his regret that some one in the assembly, better qualified than himself, had not made some proposal or suggestion, to evince that Mr. Buckingham's Lectures had not been lost upon them, and that they had given rise to some beneficial result. However, the conviction he felt of the importance of the subject on which Mr. Buckingham had just addressed them, compelled him not to allow the meeting to separate without offering them some resolution. With this view, he would propose,

That after the repeated and convincing proofs which Mr. Buck

*We take this occasion to mention, that by inadvertence of the compiler, several portions of these imperfect abstracts of Mr. B.'s lectures were inserted in the last Number of 'The Oriental Herald.' The intention of the Editor was merely to give those portions from the country papers which expressed the general effect produced on the public writers, and the community of the place in which the lectures were delivered; and thus to shew the progress which the cause was making in every quarter, in which Mr, Buckingham has yet advocated it. This, as matter of opinion merely, was no doubt stated with sufficient accuracy; but in the reports of the lectures themselves, nothing could be more imperfect than any attempt to compress within three or four pages, that which took as many hours to deliver with a rapid utterance. In addition to this, many of the few points that were included in these skeleton reports, were grossly inaccurate so that those papers which confined themselves to mere general expressions of the effect produced, and impressions left on the minds of the hearers, by the delivery alone, escaped these errors. We have thought it necessary to notice this inadvertent insertion of the parts referred to, to prevent any unwarrantable inferences being drawn from them, as coming from our own authority. -ED.

552 Progress of Mr. Buckingham's Labours in the Country.

ingham has given to the world, and of which we ourselves have been this day witnesses, of his rarely united qualifications, to advocate the great cause of a more extended intercourse with India and China, by his abundant information, his unwearied zeal, his great eloquence, and his capacity to bring all these into operation in the most crowded and intellectual assemblies, it is the opinion of this meeting, that a subscription should be immediately opened, and a committee appointed for the purpose of taking such measures as may be most expedient, and likely to make Mr. Buckingham's talents and information available to the country, and as may be most conducive to the desirable object of a free trade with the Eastern world, and beneficial to the other important interests involved in that great question.'

JOHN WILSON, Esq. of Thornly, in seconding the resolution, said, he considered it as a tribute and a testimony due to Mr. Buckingbam, for his zeal and talents in a great cause, and for his delightful method of conveying information, with a view to the promotion of that cause, to the understanding and the heart.

The resolution was unanimously carried, amid the acclamation of the meeting.

Mr. BUCKINGHAM, evidently much affected at this unexpected demonstration of regard, briefly returned thanks. Whatever might be thought of his talents or capacity, he hoped no one would call in question his ardent zeal in the cause; and which, if it were ever his lot to address another assembly, he hoped would not be found to have become relaxed in the slightest degree. Supposing it to be possible that he should be compelled to choose between offering up his life as the only sacrifice by which this cause could triumph, or of living in ease and affluence, but yet compelled to witness the continuation of the system, he declared, that though bound to society by the strongest of all possible ties, and having a family, every individual member of which was as dear to him as himself, yet he knew he had still sufficient of the Roman in him to prefer the former course. And he took heaven and earth to witness the sincerity of this vow, that so long as he possessed life, health, and adequate strength and means to maintain this crusade against the despotism and monopoly of the East India Company, nothing should prevail on him to turn aside from so holy a path. All he asked or hoped for was the sympathy and support of his countrymen ; and if he had but this, their triumph would be certain and complete.

TRADE WITH CHINA.

The following is an extract from the letter of an intelligent and patriotic gentleman, received by Mr. Buckingham during his tour in Scotland:

'All well-informed and candid persons must concur with you in the expediency of availing ourselves of the resources of our Indian Empire, and of laying open the China Trade, the monopoly of which has done this country irreparable injury, not merely in the annual loss we have sustained, but in forcing the trade into channels from which it cannot now be reclaimed-into the hands of our active rivals the Americans, who, at the India Company's expense, have more than shared their profits and monopolized the supply of foreign countries, of which our merchants have been deprived, and our navy of the nursery for seamen, to increase that of a power, which alone is likely, at no very distant period, to contend with us for the empire of the main.

'I don't know whether it has struck you in the same way, but it has appeared to me, that our late Burma conquests might be rendered very useful towards an intercourse with China. The great wariety of climate and immense population of that country, justify the hope that it may become an important outlet for our manufactures. The lessons impressed on the Burmese by the events of the late war, the residence of their ambassador at Calcutta, the occasional changes of his Suwarree, and the intercourse with our establishment on their coast, must all have opened the eyes of the king of the world and of the white elephant to our comparative power, and to the prudence of cultivating our friendship.

If the Chinese government have found it impossible to repress contraband trade at a single point (Canton), to which all its vigilance has been directed, how utterly impossible would it be if depôts were established along the Chinese and Burmese frontier. Ceded, as the coasts have been to us, and possessed, as we may consider ourselves, of the whole line 'from the Hooghly to Singapore, we should be more free from the interference of foreigners, and entirely so (the depôts being at the Burma side) from the consequences of the arrogance and ignorance of the Chinese government, to being embroiled with which we are at Canton always liable. A small duty would be ample remuneration for the privilege to the Chinese government, which would probably grasp at it, or at a moderate, stated, annual sum, by treaty, if arranged before its cupidity was awakened by, perhaps, exaggerated notions of the importance of the traffic. It appears to me, that a most beneficial outlet might there be found for our manufactures, to a rich and populous country, the varied temperature of which would induce the consumption of almost every species of them.'

BRITISH ARMY IN INDIA.

From The Times' of Wednesday, August the 26th, 1829.

Memorial of the 11th Regiment of Native Infantry.

Barrackpore, Jan. 31.

Sir,-1. Under the influence of the most intense feelings, and with sentiments of the highest respect for the authority of the Right Hon. the Commander-inChief, I venture, on behalf of myself and the officers of the 11th Regiment Native Infantry (whose names are signed in the annexed paper), to approach his Excellency, through your medium, with the following representation

2. We can but faintly describe the distress and dismay produced among the officers of the regiment, at the conclusion of a long march from Kurnaul, of nearly 1,200 miles in 104 days, to find themselves placed, by the operation of the general orders by the Governor-General in Council, No. 254, of the 29th of November last, on half-batta, from their arrival at this station.

3. In referring to the possible causes of so unexpected a measure, we in vain look for one that could, to the feelings of gentlemen and soldiers, who have served from one to twenty-seven years without the least reproach, justify, in reason or in equity, so severe an infringement of the table of regimental pay and allowances, under which we have all entered the service; and which, as it was established under supreme authority, and with the sanction of his Majesty, through his Ministers, we all understood to be final, at least as far as we were concerned, and as establishing our future rights and prospects in the service on a permanent basis.

4. That table was fixed in 1796, when the regimental, or general rank and claims of the Indian army were finally discussed and settled; and to that table we must ever most respectfully refer, as containing all our pecuniary rights or prospects, sanctioned, as they are, by the usage and practice of thirty years that they have been in operation with this army.

5. If, in 1801, an inroad was made in that practice, by the abolition of the double-batta before received by all officers in the western provinces (or beyond the Caramnassa river), we trust that its being received by the army with respect. ful silence, will not now be alleged against us on the score of precedent, as a reason for submission to the gradual extinction of every other claim we possess in right or equity, to the enjoyment of the remainder of our regimental allowances.

6. When that measure was adopted on the 9th of April, 1801, the Government, moreover, did not pay the double-batta, but the Nawab Vizier of Oude; and it was accompanied with the extension of full batta to all the officers at the old halfbatta stations within the provinces, in consideration of their purchasing from Government the bungalows and quarters, before provided to the officers, with bhistees and sweepers at the public expense. These acts being simultaneous, were too readily viewed by the army as a compromise, though, in reality, they were totally distinct measures, and rested, as we now find, on grounds wholly independent of each other, and which rather aggravates the hardship of our case, especially if taken in conjunction with the other changes in our situation, which we shall hereafter briefly state.

7. We can prove, by reference to official documents, that the double-batta so paid by the Nawab Vizier up to 1801, was (which the army could not then anticipate) when the general order of the 9th of April, 1801, was issued, then on the point of acquisition from the Nawab, by a permanent cession, or transfer of territory, from his Highness to this Government, amounting, per estimate, to 135 laks of rupees per annum; while the expense of all the force subsidized by his Highness, was, including the double-batta to the officers, only about fifty-six laks per annum; and that the treaty, which was pending full two and a half years (of course then unknown to the army), was signed on the 10th of November following the issue of the order, by which one of the items of the estimated charges against his Highness as a permanent burthen to the State was struck off from the officers.

8. We can further prove, by a similar reference, that the abolition of half-batta and the sale of quarters to all officers, at the stations of Barrackpore, Berhampore, and Dinapore, and their being, in cousequence, placed on full-batta, was a ineasure wholly distinct; that it stood by itself, and was founded on a calculation of the profit and loss (framed in the Audit-office, the Military Board, and the office of the Secretary to Government in the Military Department, jointly) by which it appeared, on an average of only seven years, that, comparing the expences of keeping up the public quarters, or bungalows, for officers at those stations, for the usual establishments for their repair, bhistees, and sweepers, and the allowance of half-batta on the one hand, with the simple issue of full-batta on the other, Government had, in the preceding seven years, been losers to the following

amount:

At Barrackpore

At Berhampore

At Dinapore

Up to 1801, Total Loss in Seven Years to Govern

32,201 12 0 2,84,674 3 0 90,580 9 0

Rs. 4,07,456 8 0

And, consequently, that, by the adoption of full-batta at those stations (not including the prices obtained for the quarters, which were fixed by the Government), the Government have ever since been pro tanto actually the gainers by this arrangement, in even a greater ratio, every seven years; inasmuch as the number of Native corps at Barrackpore (and of officers in a greater proportion) are full a third more; and that the number of his Majesty's corps are within that very limit, treble what the whole force of his Majesty's infantry in all the Bengal Presidency amounted to when that balance was struck; and full-batta, with sale of quarters, and cessation of all repairs, establishments, or extra and uncertain expenses, ordered in lieu of half-batta, with those expenses.

9. Under these circumstances, we must leave His Excellency to judge of the inevitable results that must be produced on our minds by the late order; referring to it as we must, simply in connection with the pay tables of 1796, or with the order of 9th April, 1801, and with the whole train of causes or events which led to both those measures.

10. We have, however, still stronger grounds of objection to the order, which we shall briefly urge, as being founded on a necessity so obvious, that it cannot require enlargement-that the pay and allowances of the regimental officer have, at no period in the annals of this army, been beyond the unavoidable expenses of his situation. Up to the moment that the double batta was likely to become a permanent charge to the state, though covered by an acquisition of territory and revenue now six times greater than the whole charge, this Government considered the double batta only a fair equivalent to cover the expenses, and state of constant preparation for march, which all officers, especially of native regiments (so liable to sudden and numerous detachment duties, as they almost exclusively are) were expected to maintain in the upper provinces.

11. That which was, up to 1801, only an equivalent, can hardly be more or less now. In 1801, the highest station of the army was only at Futtyghur, a distance of 755 miles; now it is at Loodiana, a distance of 1,268 miles from the Presidency. There are at this moment as many troops beyond the then limits of the British territory, as the whole Bengal army (of His Majesty's or of the Honourable Company's service) then consisted of. The expenses of marching, of servants, of food, are increased in the last 30 years, from 50 to 150 fold, at the different stations-taxes and duties before unknown are now laid on the officers equally with the rest of the community by Government;-1st, by increased rates of postage for distance;-2nd, by transit duties on all articles of supply, commissioned from Calcutta, even on our equipments as officers; on our supplies of wine or European articles of consumption for our living, as well as the charges of transportation and insurance now doubled to half the army by the very extension of territory since 1796 or 1801;-3rd, by the taxes on our boats, even when proceeding to or from our regiments;-4th, by a stamp duty on all bills and receipts. We could increase