Bheels and other hereditary and professional robbers, were rapidly suppressed. When the British armies first entered Central India, and even in 1818, the country along the banks of the Nerbudda, and in the Vindhya Mountains, which stretch from the province of Behar to Cape Comorin, was not safe for even troops to pass; and till the end of the same year, when a British cantonment was established at Mhow, the robbers continued their depredations. All these bands were repressed, and the most vicious and depraved among them were gradually made sensible of the blessings attending a better course of life. From the territories of Bhopal to those of Gujerat, along the right bank of the Nerbudda, and from Hindia to the country of Burwannee, on the left bank of that river, a spirit of industry and improvement was introduced. New villages rose everywhere, and forests which had long been deemed impenetrable were fast cleared, on account of the profit derived from the timber required to rebuild villages, towns, cities. Between Jaum and Mandoo, the Bheels began to cultivate every spot, and their hamlets rose with a rapidity that promised an early and complete change in the whole face of that district, and in the manners of its inhabitants. Bishop Heber thought that he discovered a hankering among the hill-people' after their old modes of life, and that there were many of the Bheels who still sighed after their late anarchy, and exclaimed, amid the comforts of a peaceable government:

Give us our wildness and our woods,
Our huts and caves again.

An English party travelling from Mhow observed some Bheels looking earnestly at a large drove of bullocks which were drinking at a ford. Upon being asked whether those oxen belonged to him, one of the Bheels replied: 'No; but a good part of them would have been ours by this time, if it were not for you English, who will let nobody thrive but yourselves!" But, in proportion as an efficient police was established, and roads, those grand means of civilisation, were opened through the country, the wild mountain Bheels were kept in check, and gradually brought within the pale of law and civilised life.

But for the advance of British armies into Central India, these very Bheels would soon have attracted notice as a substantive power, for they had already acquired an ascendency over several petty native states; and neither Mahrattas nor Patans, neither Arabs nor any other kind of force at the disposal of the native potentates of Central India, would have ventured to attack them in their mountains, where no booty was to be expected, where nothing was to be got but hard blows.

Sir John Malcolm completely succeeded in clearing the country of Arabs and Meckranees, a desperate set of adventurers from Meckran, in Persia, who, in many instances, had made themselves perfectly independent of the native Indian chiefs whom they pretended to serve; and all the petty chieftains were warned that to retain any of these desperadoes as mercenaries, or to attempt to bring any of them back to the country, would be considered as equivalent to a declaration of hostility against the British government. All other classes of mercenaries, or of ruffians, who looked only to sword and spear for their support, were dismissed. Never was the reign of terror and anarchy more complete than in 1817. No contrast can be greater than what was presented in 1821. The natives were happier then than afterwards; for the recollection of the dangers and miseries they had recently endured, increased the enjoyment of present security and good government. "Take it all in all,' continues Malcolm, speaking of the period of 1821, 'there never was a country where the industrious classes of the population were better pleased with their condition than they now are; nor is this feeling much checked by the moody turbulence of the military classes, who have been deprived of their occupation. Almost all those who were actually natives of the country have been, in one way or other, considered; while a great proportion of the foreign mercenaries, who constituted the chief part of the disbanded armies, have been compelled to leave it; nor will these mercenaries ever return to disturb its peace, while the measures and principles by which the salutary change has been effected are preserved and supported.'

At Poonah, and generally in the dominions of the ex

Peishwa, Bajee Rao, changes and reforms equally salutary were introduced, principally through the management of the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, who had the genius of a true legislator, and all the generous sympathies of a philanthropist. By the conquest of the Poonah territory, the British dominion and possessions were extended along the western coast, from the northern boundary of the small province of Goa to the mouths of the Tapty; and inland to the long-established western frontier of the Nizam, from the junction of the Whurdah and Toombudra to the junction of the Wagoor and Tapty. Such places in Khandeish, belonging to the Holkar Mahrattas, as fell within these bounds, were ceded to the British by the treaty of Mundesoor, which Sir John Malcolm had concluded after the splendid victory at Maheid poor. Some other territories south of the Sautpoora range of hills were also yielded. By exchanges with the Guicowar rajah, and by arrangements with some minor princes, a continuous, uninterrupted dominion was obtained from Bombay to Calcutta, and from Madras to Bombay. The former Mahratta war having been attended with the similar advantage of continuous dominion between Madras and Calcutta, the communication between the three presidencies might now be considered as complete.

CHAPTER XIII.

Meeting of Parliament-Prince-Regent's Speech-Address-State of the Country-Proceedings of Parliament-Report of Secret Committees Bill of Indemnity-Scotch Burgh Reform-Bank Restriction Act-Royal Marriages-Slave Trade-Alien Act-Dissolution.

THE death of the Princess Charlotte took place on the 6th of November, 1817; parliament was opened by commission on the 27th of January following. It was the sixth and probably the last session of the fifth parliament of the United Kingdom. The prospect of being speedily sent back to their constituents was not so generally alarming to members in those days as it has since become; still, in

ordinary circumstances, a good many votes were apt to be affected by it, and the last session of the steadiest parliament, when it was certain or likely that a dissolution was at hand, was wont to be distinguished by some little refractoriness, showing itself both in a slight decline of the ministerial majorities and in the increasing number of popular motions, which were for the most part more favourably received than usual, as well as more pertinaciously urged.

The prince-regent's speech, which was read by the lord chancellor, after noticing in the customary terms the continuance of His Majesty's indisposition, proceeded to advert, at somewhat greater length, but in a phraseology hardly less dry and formal, to the death of the princess. His royal highness, it was declared, had been soothed and consoled by the assurances he had received from all classes, both of their just sense of the loss they had sustained, and of their sympathy with his parental sorrow; and, amidst his own sufferings, he had not been unmindful of the effect which the sad event might have on the interests and prospects of the kingdom. Little cordiality, it was well known, had for a long time subsisted between the father and daughter; the natural inclination which the latter had evinced to take part with her mother had estranged and alienated them; and, if the princess had lived much longer, there would probably have been seen the worst example that had yet been exhibited of the dissension and mutual hatred that had uniformly divided the wearer of the crown and the heir-apparent since the accession of the present family; and the internecine war between husband and wife that soon after broke out, would have been rendered still more deplorable and revolting, by their child being in all probability involved in it as an active combatant. The premature death of the Princess Charlotte at least saved herself and all parties that unhappiness. It could not fail, nevertheless, to be keenly felt by her father. Even if he had been a hardhearted man, which he was not, but only a luxurious and selfish one, he must have been stunned by such a blow. His pride and sense of personal importance, if nothing else, must have been severely wounded by it. His hope

of being the father of a line of kings was gone; he was become the last of his race; his blood would flow in the veins of no future occupant of his throne; no successor in a distant age would look back upon him as a progenitor; his history would end with his own life. All this, however, more calmly viewed, would be found to resolve itself into his merely finding himself in a new position, different from, but not in reality perhaps worse than, the one he had lost Accordingly, it does not appear that his grief long retained the bitterness and prostration with which it was at first accompanied. He was so ill for a short time that his life was considered to be in danger, and was only saved by copious bleeding; but in little more than three months he had so far recovered both his health and spirits, as to be able, at a dinner given by the Prussian ambassador, to entertain the company with a song.

The sequel of the speech was all congratulatory. It referred to the improvement which had taken place, in the course of the preceding year, in almost every branch of domestic history-to the improved state of public credit -to the progressive improvement of the revenue in its most important branches; mentioned the treaties that had been concluded with Spain and Portugal, with a view to the abolition of the slave-trade; and concluded by recommending to the attention of parliament the deficiency which had so long existed in the number of places of public worship belonging to the Established Church, when compared with the increased and increasing population of the country. The important change which had taken place in the economical condition of the country, it was observed, 'could not fail to withdraw from the disaffected the principal means of which they had availed themselves for the purpose of fomenting a spirit of discontent, which unhappily led to acts of insurrection and treason;' and his royal highness,' it was added, 'entertains the most confident expectation, that the state of peace and tranquillity, to which the country is now restored, will be maintained, against all attempts to disturb it, by the persevering vigilance of the magistracy, and by the loyalty and good sense of the people. Thus did the government flatter itself that its troubles were over, and