ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF INDIA, Madras, January 31, 1807. At the present awful period, when, in consequence of a failure of the periodical rains the Carnatic is threatened with all the horrors of famine, and the wretched inhabitants destitute alike of employment and sustenance, are flocking for succour to Madras; an ardent desire must be excited in every human breast of contributing to the prevention or alleviation of so dreadful a calamity. | intention of government to employ on works of public utility. Our capital on the 31st December, 1866, amounted to Pagodas 18,343, 26, 49, consequently, to relieve a greater, or supplicants, is beyond the ability of the fund. even long to maintain the present number of munificence which this settlement has long maintained, and prove commensurate to the extensive evil to the relief of which they are intended to be applied. Urged by the imperious call of hunger. thousands of wretched objects will crowd to the presidency, in hopes of finding that relief which their former places of residence could not afford. We trust that their reliance on the benevolence and liberality of this settlement will not be nisplaced. An exertion of generosity, and in such a cause, once in 25 years, cannot be deemed oppresFive and twenty years have elapsed since sive. We therefore feel a firm persuasion this part of the peninsula experienced the ra- that the subscriptions now solicited, will be vages of famine. At that time a general sub-worthy of that character for humanity and scription was opened for the relief of the native poor of this settlement, and it was most liberally encouraged, as well at Madras as by the supreme government and inhabitants of Calcutta. A committee for the appropriation of the money thus subscribed was elected, consisting of the ministers and churchwardens for the time being, together with some of the most respectible British, Portuguese, Armenian, and native inhabitants of Madras. Under the management of this committee, the funds of the charity were applied to the purchase of all the grain which could possibly be procured, Many thousands of distressed natives found immediate relief, and upwards of 2,000 remained, and for the space of seyeral months were daily fed at the Monegar Choultry. The whole amount of the subSeription would then have been expended, could sustenance have been obtained for a greater number of miserable objects. As the old fund will probably be soon exhausted, we purpose, as soon as the present subscription is closed, to call a meeting of subscribers, in order to elect a committee for the management and appropriation of the new contribution. (Signed) R. H. Kerr, Edward Vaughan, It will give pleasure to the public to learn from the foregoing paper, that the benevolence of our countrymen abroad has been ac, tive and preparative against a period of expect ed distress; and we take the greater interest When this grievous calamity ceased, the committee determined to apply the balance which remained, in a manner the most bene-in this pleasure, because the adversaries of ficial, and, next to the original intention, our nation, have done all in their power to apparently the most consonant to the bene- fix a stigma on us, for misconduct on a forvolent views of the subscribers, It was resolved that the interest accruing from this mer melancholy occasion of the like natnre: sum, should be appropriated to the relief and which was but too well known in Britain. maintenance of the sick, the aged, and infirm To vindicate the memories of some, and the among the native poor; and the principal reputation of others, which suffered by false should be preserved, in order to be in readi-report, at that time, we very readily acquiness to avert the miseries of famine, should it esce in subjoining an extract, from a private please Providence again to afflict this settlememoir, for the authenticity of which we ment with such a terrible dispensation. That period, alas! has arrived and we, the committee, in whom is now vested the management of the poor fund, have deemed it our duty to purchase such quantities and to commission such supplies of rice, as our capipital and the exigency of the times permits and requires. Since the commencement of the present year, the number of paupers who have resorted for relief to the Monegar Choultry, has increased from 150 to upwards of 1,800; independently of 200 whom it is the can safely answer. The Company's administration and the native ministers early took the alarm, and entered upon such precautionary measures as were within their power. In September 1769 the English and all their dependents were absolutely prohibited from trading in rice; not because they or any other set of people were at all suspected of having been monopolizing that article, but lest on the temptation of very high prices, European influence should and a number which fell in this period of horror has been variously estimated, and may perhaps be moderately taken at three millions. It is perfectly established that the dearth was general over the three provinces, and in all ruinously severe. A monopoly therefore, if that had been the cause, must have been general also. It is easy to conceive how one in any form operate to collect such undue quantities as to aggravate the scarcity Ge neral and strict injunctions were also published against hoarding grain, buying or sel ling it clandestinely, or carrying on any dealings in it but at the public markets; stock of rice, amounting to 60,000 maunds, was laid in for the use of the army, a nieasure to which the preservation of our military pow-quarter could be deprived of its produce to er and indeed of the country may be ascribed; for it is not to be doubted that want would have made the soldiery throw off all command, and seek subsistence with their arms in their hands, which must have produced total anarchy. The prime mover in all these measures was Mr. Becher, resident at the Durbar. supply another, but when in all quarters there was a like destitution, if we suppose this to have proceeded from monopoly, we must also suppose not a simple operation of emptying one district to fill another, still less to surcharge any other, because that would be to go from a better market to a worse one; but The famine was felt in all the northern dis- a local monopoly in every township, keeping tricts of Bengal as early as the month of No- up, not sending away, the grain found within vember 1769, and before the end of April its circle. Let us now enquire into the lowfollowing, had spread desolation through the est quantity of grain that can be supposed to three provinces. Rice rose gradually to four, have been hoarded. In the course of twelve and at length to ten times its usual price, but months, three millions of people are estimateven at that rate was not to be had. Linger-ed to have died; that is, nearly one-third of ing multitudes were seen seeking subsistence from the leaves and bark of trees. In the Country the high ways and fields were strewed, in towns the streets and passages choaked, with the dying and the dead. Multitudes flocked to Moorshedabad the capital. It be. came more necessary to draw supplies to that city, and no endeavour was spared to bring all the grain in the country to market. Subscriptions were set on foot. The Company, the Nabob, the Ministers, European and native individuals, contributed for feeding the poor. In Moorshedabad alone 7,000 were daily fed for several months, and the same practice was followed in other places; but the good effects were hardly discernable amidst the general devastation. In and about the capital, the mortality increased so fast, that it became necessary to keep a set of persons constantly employed in removing the dead from the streets and roads, and these unfortunate victims were placed in hundreds on rafts and floated down the river. At length the persons employed in this sad office died also, probably from the noxious effluvia they imbibed; and for a time dogs, jackalls and vultures were the only scavengers. It was impossible to stir abroad without breathing an offensive air, without hearing frantic cries, and seeing numbers of different ages and sexes in every stage of suffering and death. The calamity was not less in other quarters; in many places whole families, in others, the people of entire villages had expired. Even in that country there were persons who fed on forbidden and abhorred animals, nay, the child on its dead parent, the mother on her child. At length a gloomy calm succeeded. Death had ended the miseries of a great portion of the people, and when a new crop came forward in August, it had in some parts no owners, The the whole population; but as a third of the usual allowance of food might have preserved life, we should hence be led to conclude that the grain retailed in that year was two-thirds at least below the quantity usually vended. As, further, the failure would fall chiefly on those who in times of common plenty earned only a subsistence, and these may be computed at eight in ten of the community, the deficiency in the supply of the markets that year may well be rated at two-thirds of the usual consumption of eight millions of people, that is somewhat more than one-half of the whole quantity brought to market in ordinary times; and if this was occasioned by monopoly, so much must have been kept up. But let us assume what would be the most plausible theory, that a real scarcity, to a certain extent, was rendered severely fatal by the superven tion of monopoly; of what magnitude must we conceive the monopoly to be, in order to become thus operative? Here we must go on an ample supposition; for if monopolists had thought of contenting themselves with collecting, for instance, only a month's demand at a time, their main purpose would have been defeated, because in the mean while the rest would have found a distribution in the usual way. They must therefore have bought up largely at or before the reaping of a crop, and bought up more than they with-held, because part of their purchases we must suppose would be re-sold. If then we admit a real scarcity which would have occasioned a mortality of a million of people, (which prejudice has never granted,) and ascribe the mortality of the other two millions who perished, to monopo ly, concluding as we are obliged, that this monopoly consisted only of two great operations, that is on the December crop of 1768, and the August crop of 1769, then the quan. tity of grain hoarded up will turn out to have been one-third of the market-supply of ordinary years and assigning in such years to ten millions of persons, the young and the adult taken together, half a seer (or a pound) of rice per diem, which is a moderate allowance, that third will amount to six hundred and four millions of seers, or fifteen millions of [Comp. Panorama, Vol. II. p. 1217; Vol. III. maunds; which at a rupee each, a probable purchase-price in a time of real scarcity which we here suppose, will amount to fifteen millions or a crore and a half of rupces, one p. 154 and 321.] It was not our intention to have repeated any part of the history of the battle of Has half perhaps of the whole circulating meditatings, but having drawn our former article of the provinces at that time, and such a cawholly from French authorities, we have pital in the hands of those suspected of being been requested to complete the article by inconcerned, as no extravagance of credulity serting the English accounts of it. We ac can hold to be supposable. cede to this request the more willingly, because we are of opinion that our countrymen are liable to commit the same errors as were committed on that famous occasion, i. e. "that being of a frank and noble spirit, their violent inclination may carry them too fast into hope of victory." The consequences of this battle, which affected our whole constitution, deserve a particular examination by themselves. But we have not yet seen all the difficulties. The three provinces contain 150.000 square miles, and if we reckon fifteen square miles for the sphere of one monopoly-agent (which surely, after allowing for water, is an average full as much as he could compass) and reckon further two assistants only to each agent, we shall have thus ten thousand monopoly stations, and thirty thousand persons employed at them. Such a set of operations, or the hundredth part of them, and operations continued through a whole year, would have The night before the battle for divers refurnished uncontrolable evidence to all men. spects was unquiet. The English spent the The natives are indeed patient in suffering, time in feasting and drinking, and made the when they think suffering inevitable; they air ring with shoutings and songs; the Nor suffered in that calamity with wonderful mans were more soberly silent, and busied passiveness; but if they had traced their mi- themselves much in devotion: being rather series to any source like this, the country still than quiet, not so much watchful as not would have soon rung with their complaints. able to sleep. At the first appearance of the They are known to be clamorous even on tri- day, the king and the duke were ready in vial occasions, where any redress is possible. armis, encouraging their soldiers, and ordering They have been known in a time of scarcity, them, in their arrays; in whoso eyes it seemmerely apprehended or artificial, to have car- ed that courage did sparkle, and that in their ried urgent representations against the grain-face and gesture victory did dance. The dealers; they did so at the period spoken of, as they thought that those dealers secreted any grain, which according to their usual practice, they may have done, thereby unnecessa rily adding to the evil. But very probably, if the people had seen that the calamities of that period proceeded from human hands, they would not have borne them; they would have helped themselves to grain: perhaps have risen upon their European masters. No, they well knew and acknowledged whence their distresses came; they foresaw them in the drought of successive seasons, a drought not confined to their provinces; and felt in them the dispensation of a superior Power. This was one of those severe inflictions of the Almighty, by which offending creatures, who forget their Maker, are reminded of his being, and of his government of the universe. Those poor people sought by superstitious ob. servances to propitiate their deities, but they were "Gods that could not save," and their votaries remained without any moral change. duke put certain relicks about his neck, upon which King Harold had sworn unto him. It is reported that, when he armed, the back of his cuirass was placed before, by the error of him that put it on; some would have been dismayed hereat, but the duke smiled and said, "Assuredly this day my fortune will turn, I shall either be a king, or nothing, before night." The English were knit in one main body on foot; whereof the first ranks consisted of Kentishmen (who by an ancient custom did challenge the honour of that place) the next were filled with Londoners: then followed the other English. Their chief weapons were pole-ax, sword, and dart, with a large target for their defence. They were paled in front with pavises in such wise, that it was thought impossible for the ennemy to break them. The king stood on foot by his standard, with two of his brothers, Girth and Leofwine; as well to relieve from thence all parts that should happen to be distressed, as also to ma◄ nifest to the soldiers, that they retained no thought of escaping by flight. On the other side, the Normans were divided into three battles: the first was conducted by Roger Montgomery, and William Fitz-Osborne; it consisted of horsemen of Anjou, Maine, and Bretagne, commanded by a Bretagner, named Fergent; it carried the banner, which the pope had sent. The middle battle, consisting of soldiers out of Germany and Poictou, was led by Jeffery Martell, and a prince of Almaigne. The duke himself closed the last battle with the strength of his Normans, and the flower of his nobility. The archers were divided into wings, and also dispersed by bands through all the three battles. for the arrows to fall; but, when that avoid ance did nothing avail, they closed again, and covered themselves with their targets, joined together in manner of a pent-house; encouraging one another, to haste forward, to leap lustily to hand-strokes, and to scour their swords in the intrails of their enemies. Then the duke commanded his horsemen to charge; but the English received them upon the points of their weapons, with so lively courage, in so firm and stiff order, that the overthrow of many of the foremost did teach their followers to adventure themselves with better advice. Hereupon they shifted into wings, and made way for the footmen to come forward. Then did both armies join in a horrible shock, with pole-axes, and the prince of weapons, the sword: maintaining the fight with so man like fury, as if it had been a battle of giants, ather than of men. And so they continued the greatest part of that day, in close and furious fight, blow for blow, wound for wound, death for death; their feet steady, their hands diligent, their eyes watchful, their hearts resolute; neither their advisement dazzled by fierceness, nor their fierceness any thing abated by advisement. Thus were both sides set upon a bloody bargain; ambition, hope, anger, hate, inflam ing them to valour. The duke edged his soldiers, by declaring unto them the noble acts of their ancestors, the late admirable atchievement of their fellow Normans, in subduing the kingdom of Sicily; their own brave exploits under him; by shewing them all that pleasant and plentiful country, as the purchase of the prowess, as the gain and reward of their adventure; by putting them in mind, that they were in a country both hostile and unknown, before them the sword, the vast ocean behind, no place of retreat, no surety, but in valour and in victory; so that they, who would not contend for glory, were upon necessity to fight for their lives: lastly, by assuring them, that, as he was the first in advice, so would he be the foremost in adventure, being fully resolved either to vanquish, or to die. The king encouraged his men, by presenting to their remembrance the misenes which they sustained, not long before, under the oppression of the Danes; which whether they were again to endure, or never to fear, it lieth (said he) in the issue of this field. The king had the advantage both for number of men, and for their large able bodies. The duke both in arms, especially in regard of the bow and arrows, and in ex- This manner of fight would soon have deperience and skill of arms: both equal intermined as well the hopes as the fears of both courage; both confident alike in the favour of fortune, which had always crowned their courage with victory. And, Now, by fronting of both the armies, the plots and labours of many months were reduced to the hazard of a few hours. The Normans marched with a song of the valiant acts of Rowland, esteeming nothing of peril, in regard to the glory of their adventure. When they approached near their enemies, they saluted them first with a storm of arrows: Robert Fitz-Beaumont, a young gentleman of Normandy, beginning the fight from the right wing. This manner of fight, as it was new, so was it most terrible to the English, and they were least provided to avoid it. First, they opened their ranks to make way VOL. III. [Lit. Pan. Dec. 1807.] In the mean time the horseinen gave many sharp charges, but were always beaten back with disadvantage. The greatest annoyance came from the archers, whose shot showered among the English so thick, that they seemed to have the enemy in the midst of their army. Their armour was not sufficiently either compleat or of proof to defend then, but every hand, every finger's breadth, unarmed, was almost an assured place for a deep, and many times a deadly wound. Thus, whilst the front was maintained in good condition, many thousands were beaten down behind, whose death was not so grievous unto them, as the manner of their death, in the midst of their friends, without an enemy at hand, upon whom they might shew some valour, and work some revenge. sides, had not the targets of the English been very serviceable unto them; had not K. Harold also, with a lively and constant reso→ lution, performed the part not only of a skil ful commander, by directing, encouraging, providing, relieving, but of a valiant soldier, by using his weapon, to the example of his soldiers. In places of greatest danger he was always present, repairing the decays, reform ing the disorders, and encouraging his company, that in doing as men, whether they prevailed, or whether they perished, their labour was always gloriously employed. So they knit strongly together, and stood in close and thick array, as if they had been but one body; not only bearing the brunt of their encinies, but making such an impression upon their squadron that the great body began to shake. The duke adventured in person so far, moved no less by his natural magnanimity, than by glory of the enterprise, that, besides his often alighting to fight on foot, two, or (as some report) three horses were slain under him. And having a body both able by nature, and by use, hardened to endure travail, he exacted the greater service of his soldiers, commending the forward, blaming the slow, and crying out (according to his nature) with vehement gesture and voice unto all, that it was a shame for them, who had been victorious against all men with whom they dealt, to be so long held by the English in delay of victory So partly by his authority, and partly by his example, he retained his soldiers, and imposed upon them the fairest necessity of courage; whilst every man contended to win a good opinion of their prince. Then the fight entered into a new fit of heat; nothing less feared than death, the greatness of danger making both sides the more' resolute; and they, who could not approach to strike with the hand, were heard to encourage their fellows by speech, to pursue the victory, to pursue their glory, not to turn to their own both destruction and disgrace. The clashing of armour, the justling of bodies, the refounding of blows, was the fairest part of this bloody medley; but the griesliness of wounds, the hideous falls and groans of the dying, all the field defiled with dust, blood, broken armour, mangled bodies, represented terror in her foulest form. Never was fury better governed; never game of death better played. The more they fought, the better they fought; the more they smarted, the less they regarded smart. At the last, when the duke perceived that the English could not be broken by strength of arm, he gare direction that his men should retire and give ground; not loosely, not disorderly, as in a fearful and confused haste, but advisedly and for advantage; keeping the front of their squadron firm and close, without disbanding one foot in array. Nothing was more hurtful to the English, being of a frank and noble spirit, than that their violent inclination carried them too fast into hope of victory. For, feeling their enemies to yield under their hand, they did rashly follow those who were not hasty to fly; and in the heat of their pursuit, upon a false conceit of victory, loosed and disordered their ranks, thinking then of nothing but of executing the chace. The Normans espying the advantage to be ripe, made a stiff stand, redoubled upon the English, and, pressing on with a fury equal to their favourable fortune, with a cruel butchery broke into them, This error could not possibly be repaired. But it is scarce credible with what strength both of courage and hand the English, even in despight of death, sus tained themselves in this disorder; drawing into small squadrons, and beating down their enemies on every hand, being resolved to sell their lives with their place. But a mischief is no mischief, if it comes alone. Besides this disadvantage of dis-array, the shot of the Normans did continually heat upon the English, with a grievous execution. Among others, King Harold, about the closing of the evening, as he was busy in sustaining his army, both with voice and hand, was struck with an arrow through the left eye into his brains, of which wound he presently died. His two brothers, Girth and Leofwine, were also slain, and also most of the nobility that were present; so long as the king stood, they stood stoutly, both with him, and for him, and by him; his directions supported them, his brave behaviour breathed fresh boldness and life into them. But his death was a deadly stab to their courage; upon report of his death, they began to waver in resolution, whether to trust to the force of their arms, or to commend their safety to their good footmanship. In this uncertainty many were slain; many retired in reasonable order to a rising ground, whither they were closely followed by the Normans; but the English, baving gotten the advantage of the place, and drawing courage out of despair, with a bloody charge did drive them down. Count Eustachius, supposing fresh forces to be arrived, fled away with fifty soldiers in his company, and, meeting with the duke, rounded him secretly in his ear, that if he went any further, he was undone. Whilst he was thus speaking, he was struck between the shoulders with so violent a blow, that he fell down as dead, and voided much blooded at his nose and mouth. In this conflict many of the noblest Normans were slain, which moved the duke to make a strong ordered stand, giving liberty, thereby, for those English to retire. Others fled through a watery channel, the passages whereof were well-known unto them; and, when the Norinans did more sharply than advisedly pursue, the place being shadowed partly with sedges and reeds, and partly with the night, they were either stifled in the waters, or easily destroyed by the English, and that in so great numbers, that the place was filled up with dead bodies. The residue scattered in smaller companies, and had their flight favoured by increasing darkness; the enemy not adventuring to follow, both in a strange country, and in the night. Eari Edwin and Earl Morchard, brothers of approved both courage and faith, did great service at that time, in collecting these dispersed troops, and leading them in some fashion to London. Duke William, surprized with joy, gave publick charge for a solemn thanksgiving to God. Then he erected his pavilion in the midst of the field, among the thickest of those |