Useful results to India of her connexion with England.rule in India; for her power, in course of time, may make every class in India feel that the rights of property are respected. Nothing will more tend to increase the capital, and hence the wealth of the country; for when security is given to property there is a great inducement to save, and the wealth which is saved, instead of being hoarded, will be usefully applied as capital to assist the further production of wealth. India is at the present time, in some degree, deriving this advantage from England's rule. But admitting this advantage, it cannot be too carefully borne in mind by those who are responsible for the government of India, that the Indian people ought not to be compelled to pay too high a price for it. Our administration being necessarily expensive, in consequence of the high remuneration which Europeans receive in order to induce them to reside in the country, every care ought to be taken to prevent its being more costly than it need be.
Although there are so many points of diversity between England and India, yet, as previously remarked, there are other countries whose economic condition differs most essentially from either that of England or India. The main requisite for the increased production of wealth is, in India, an increase of capital, and in England, an increase of land, or, in other words, an increased supply of cheap food. In the West Indies there is abundance of land and capital, but little labour.In the West India islands, however, there is an abundance of land and capital, but a great scarcity of labour. The decline in the prosperity of these islands is, in an economic sense, most instructive. Previous to the emancipation of the slaves, the West Indies possessed all the three requisites of production; their soil was fertile, it was owned by English proprietors, who readily supplied all the capital that was required, and labour was, of course, never deficient when slaves could be freely imported, and when there was an abundance of money with which to purchase them. But the abolition of slavery not only freed the slave, but effectually checked the importation of labour. Property in man was declared to be illegal, and therefore no one would resort to the expense of importing labour when he had not the power to retain the services of the labourers he imported.