its frightful consequences, by means of a political system supported by the revenue taken from the Indians themselves. Whether we govern India ten or a thousand years, we will do our duty by it: we will look, not to the probable duration of our trust, but to the satisfactory discharge of it, so long as it shall please God to continue it to us. Happily, however, we are not on this occasion called upon to make any effort of disinterested magnanimity. Interest and duty are never really separated in the affairs of nations, any more than they are in those of individuals; and in this case they are indissolubly united, as a very slight examination will suffice to show.
The Arabian or Mahommedan system is based on the exercise of power and the indulgence of passion. Pride, ambition, the love of rule, and of sensual enjoyment, are called in to the aid of religion. The earth is the inheritance of the Faithful: all besides are infidel usurpers, with whom no measures are to be kept, except what policy may require. Universal dominion belongs to the Mahommedans by Divine right. Their religion obliges them to establish their predominance by the sword; and those who refuse to conform are to be kept in a state of slavish subjection. The Hindu system, although less fierce and aggressive than
