y declined from their
ancient prosperity. But since they are come into our hands!----!
However, if we make the period of our estimate immediately before the
utter desolation of the Carnatic, and if we allow for the havoc which
our government had even then made in these regions, we cannot, in my
opinion, rate the population at much less than thirty millions of souls:
more than four times the number of persons in the island of Great
Britain.

My next inquiry to that of the number is the quality and description of
the inhabitants. This multitude of men does not consist of an abject and
barbarous populace; much less of gangs of savages, like the Guaranies
and Chiquitos, who wander on the waste borders of the River of Amazons
or the Plate; but a people for ages civilized and
cultivated,--cultivated by all the arts of polished life, whilst we
were yet in the woods. There have been (and still the skeletons remain)
princes once of great dignity, authority, and opulence. There are to be
found the chiefs of tribes and nations. There is to be found an ancient
and venerable priesthood, the depository of their laws, learning, and
history, the guides of the people whilst living and their consolation in
death; a nobility of great antiquity and renown; a multitude of cities,
not exceeded in population and trade by those of the first class in
Europe; merchants and bankers, individual houses of whom have once vied
in capital with the Bank of England, whose credit had often supported a
tottering state, and preserved their governments in the midst of war and
desolation; millions of ingenious manufacturers and mechanics; millions
of the most diligent, and not the least intelligent, tillers of the
earth. Here are to be found almost all the religions professed by
men,--the Braminical, the Mussulman, the Eastern and the Western
Christian.

If I were to take the whole aggregate of our possessions there, I should
compare it, as the nearest parallel I can find, with the Empire of
Germany. Our immediate possessions I should compare with the Austrian
dominions: and they would not suffer in the comparison. The Nabob of
Oude might stand for the King of Prussia; the Nabob of Arcot I would
compare, as superior in territory, and equal in revenue, to the Elector
of Saxony. Cheit Sing, the Rajah of Benares, might well rank with the
Prince of Hesse, at least; and the Rajah of Tanjore (though hardly equal
in extent of dominion, superior in revenue) to the