for the future government of the British territories in India, and regulation of the trade to the EaftIndies muft proceed; and with a view to this object, Mr. Bruce has compiled the laborious work, of which the following is the outline: In the introduction the leading events in the hiftory of Hindostan and of the Eaft-India company are explained, as the fource from which the fucceffive plans upon the fubject of India affairs have proceeded, as well as the fyftem upon which the British interefts in the eaft are at prefent administered.

In the first part of this work a digeft of the plans from the con'queft of the company, till their affairs came to be placed under the controul of the ftate, and from that period to the prefent times, is brought under review, that the political and commercial principles which must direct in the future administration of Indian affairs might be fully perceived.

In Part II. the outlines of a plan of foreign government, of commercial, economy, and of domestic adminiftration, are submitted to examination. The foreign government is deduced from the hiftory of India, and from the mixed tenure of conquefts and of treaties by which Great Britain holds its poffeffions. The judicial, financial, and military powers required to adminifter this government with effect are explained, in their relation to both of thefe fources of information.

The connexion of the Eaft-India trade with the revenues of the provinces and with the revenues of the nation is next examined; and fuggeftions for the improvement of the export trade, and of the cirVOL. XXXV.

cuitous trade within the company's limits, and of the import trade, are fubmitted to confideration. A fketch of the conftitution of the courts of directors and proprietors, and of the board of commiffioners for the affairs of India, concludes the work.

The authorities upon which the whole of this detail refts, have been obtained either from the records of the company and from the archives of the ftate, or from the communications of those whofe official and local knowledge qualify them to aid their country upon this impor tant occafion.

Mr. Bruce has employed much induftry in collecting from different quarters the moft authentic in. formation on the fubject of which he treats, and we have no doubt but that his work will prove a very valuable acquifition to the ftudiers of oriental politics.

interefts, and the means by which they have atchieved, and may maintain, their riches and importance. At the fame time, our author has not omitted to collect, from various authorities, any effential occurrence in the ancient hifto ries of the Weft Indies, or any important event, either local or general, which has taken place fince they were first explored by the renowned Columbus. And although Mr. Long has, in our own time, in his Hiftory of Jamaica, taken a yery extensive view of the western hemisphere, yet the fundamental materials of the work before us are entirely original, and, confidered either for novelty or magnitude, comprehend fuch a mafs of intelligence, fo interefting and inftructive, that we cannot hesitate to place Mr. Edwards in the highest rank in the annals of the hiftoric literature of Great Britain. We fhall present our readers with the plan of the work itfelf, from the author's own words:

"To prefent the reader with an hiftorical account of the origin and progrefs of the fettlements made by our own nation in the Weft Indian iflands.

To explain their conftitutional establishments, internal governments, and the political fyftem maintained by Great Britain towards them.

To defcribe the manners and difpofitions of the prefent inhabitants, as influenced by climate, fituation, and other local caufes; comprehending an account of the African flave trade, fame obfervations on the negro character and genius, and reflections on the fyf tem of flavery established in our colonies;

To furnish a more comprehenfive account than has hitherto appeared of the agriculture of the fugar iflauds in general, and of their rich and valuable ftaple commodities, lugar, indigo, coffee, and cotton in particular;-and finally

To difplay the various and widely extended branches of their com merce; pointing out the relations of each towards the other, and towards the feveral great interests, the manufactures, navigation, revenues, and lands of Great Britain.

Thefe, together with feveral collateral difquifitions, are the topics on which I have endeavoured to collect and convey to the public ufeful and acceptable information."

Previous to proceeding to inveftigations, merely of a political and commercial nature, our author enters on a retrospective furvey of the ftate and condition of the Weft Indian islands when first discovered by Columbus, and on a delineation of the most prominent features in the character and genius of their ancient inhabitants, a tafk which, from having refided many years in the countries of which he writes, he is fully competent to, and enabled to judge of the influence of climate and fituation, on the dif pofition, temper, and intellects of the inhabitants, better than many of thofe writers, who, without the fame advantage, have undertaken to compile fyltems, and establish conclufions on this subject.

"On the other branches of my work, fays Mr. Edwards, great part, I presume to think, will be new to many of my readers. I have not met with any book that even pretends to furnish a comprehenfive and fatisfactory account of the origin and progrefs of our national fettlements

fettlements in the tropical parts of America. The fyftem of agriculture practifed in the Weft Indies, is abnost as much unknown to the people of Great Britain as that of Japan. They know indeed, that fugar, and indigo, and cotton, and coffee, are raifed and produced there; but they are very generally, and to a furprising degree, unin. formed concerning the method by which thofe and other valuable commodities are cultivated and brought to perfection.

"On the fubject of the flavetrade and its concomitant circum Itances, fo much has been faid of date by others, that it may be fuppofed there remains but little to be added by me. it is certain, how ever, that my account both of the trade and the fituation of the enflaved negroes in the British colonies, differs very effentially from the reprefentations that have been given, not only in a great variety of pamphlets and other publications, but alfo by many of the wit neffes that were examined before the house of commons. The public mnft judge between us, and I fhould be in no pain about the refult, if the characters of fome of thofe perfons who have ftood forth on this occafion as accufers of the refident planters, were as well known in Great Britain as they are in the Weft Indies. What I have written on thefe fubjects has at least this advantage, that great part of my obfervations are founded on perfonal knowledge and actual experience; and with regard to the manners and difpofitions of the native Africans, as diftinguished by national habits and characteristic features, 1 venture to think that my remarks will be found both

new and interefting." We have to regret, that it would take us beyond the limits of our plan, to render adequate juftice to the merits of this valuable work. We can do little more, therefore, for the gratification of our reader, than to felect fome detached fpecimeus, and recommend the work itfelf to their perufal; in which there are, in both volumes, upwards of a thousand pages, abounding with ufeful information for the ftatefman and the philofopher, as well as for the planter and the merchant, and others concerned in the affairs of the West Indies.

We have already prefented our readers with the profpectus of the undertaking, as fet forth by the author; and we now can affure them that Mr. Edwards has faithfully fulfilled the arduous task in which he engaged.

In regard to the original inhabitants of the Weft Indian iflands, fubdued by the Spaniards, there has long fince ceafed to be any other veftiges of thofe unhappy people than their bones, occafionally difcovered in dreary caverns.

In the iflands of St. Domingo, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, Mr. Edwards computes the number of the aborigines to have been about three millions; differing on this point from Les Cafas, who ftates it at fix millions; 1,200,000 of whom inhabited St. Domingo.

The fate of these mild, unoffending, and harmless people, is related by our author in the follow ing ftrains of pathetic elegance:

"All the murders and defola tions of the moft pitiless tyrants, that ever diverted themselves with the pangs and convulfions of their fellow-creatures, fall infinitely fhort