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than many pretending volumes, by men who nave been half their lives in the countries to which they relate :—

We may add the following direct testimony on a point of some little curiosity, which has been alternately denied and exaggerated :

"At Broach is one of those remarkable institu

sent to the pictures of depravity and general worthlessness which some have drawn of the Hindoos They are decidedly, by nature, a mild, pleasing, and intelligent race; sober, parsimonious, and, "Of the people of this country, and the manner where an object is held out to them, most indusin which they are governed, I have, as yet, hardly trious and persevering. But the magistrates and seen enough to form an opinion. I have seen lawyers all agree that in no country are lying and enough, however, to find that the customs, the perjury so common, and so little regarded; and habits, and prejudices of the former are much mis- notwithstanding the apparent mildness of their manunderstood in England. We have all heard, for ners, the criminal calendar is generally as full as in instance, of the humanity of the Hindoos towards Ireland, with gang-robberies, setting fire to buildbrute creatures, their horror of animal food, &c.;ings, stacks, &c.; and the number of children who and you may be, perhaps, as much surprised as I are decoyed aside and murdered, for the sake of was, to find that those who can afford it are hardly their ornaments, Lord Amherst assures me, is less carnivorous than ourselves; that even the dreadful." purest Brahmins are allowed to eat mutton and venison; that fish is permitted to many castes, and pork to many others; and that, though they consider it a grievous crime to kill a cow or bullock for the purpose of eating, yet they treat their draft oxen, no less than their horses, with a degree of barbarous severity which would turn an English tions which have made a good deal of noise in Euhackney coachman sick. Nor have their religious rope, as instances of Hindoo benevolence to inferior prejudices, and the unchangeableness of their habits, animals. I mean hospitals for sick and infirm been less exaggerated. Some of the best informed beasts, birds, and insects. I was not able to visit of their nation, with whom I have conversed, assure it; but Mr. Corsellis described it as a very dirty me that half their most remarkable customs of civil and neglected place, which, though it has considerand domestic life are borrowed from their Mahomable endowments in land, only serves to enrich medan conquerors; and at present there is an ob- the Brahmins who manage it. They have really vious and increasing disposition to imitate the Eng- animals of several different kinds there, not only ush in every thing, which has already led to very those which are accounted sacred by the Hindoos, remarkable changes, and will, probably, to still as monkeys, peacocks, &c., but horses, dogs, and more important. The wealthy natives now all cats; and they have also, in little boxes, an assortaffect to have their houses decorated with Corin- ment of lice and fleas! It is not true, however, thian pillars, and filled with English furniture. They that they feed those pensioners on the flesh of begdrive the best horses and the most dashing carriages gars hired for the purpose. The Brahmins say that in Calcutta. Many of them speak English fluently, these insects, as well as the other inmates of their and are tolerably read in English literature; and infirmary, are fed with vegetables only, such as the children of one of our friends I saw one day rice, &c. How the insects thrive, I did not hear; dressed in jackets and trousers, with round hats, but the old horses and dogs, nay the peacocks and shoes and stockings. In the Bengalee newspapers, said to be in any tolerable plight are some mich apes, are allowed to starve; and the only creatures of which there are two or three, politics are canvassed, with a bias, as I am told, inclining to Whig-cows, which may be kept from other motives than gism; and one of their leading men gave a great dinner not long since in honour of the Spanish Revolution. Among the lower orders the same feeling shows itself more beneficially, in a growing neg. lect of caste-in not merely a willingness, but an anxiety, to send their children to our schools, and a desire to learn and speak English, which, if properly encouraged, might, I verily believe, in fifty years' time, make our language what the Oordoo, or court and camp language of the country (the Hindostanee), is at present. And though instances of actual conversion to Christianity are, as yet, very uncommon, yet the number of children, both male and female, who are now receiving a sort of Christian education, reading the New Testament, repeating the Lord's Prayer and Commandments, and all with the consent, or at least without the censure, of their parents or spiritual guides, have increased, during the last two years, to an amount which astonishes the old European residents, who were used to tremble at the name of a Missionary, and shrink from the common duties of Christianity, lest they should give offence to their heathen neighbours. So far from that being a consequence of the zeal which has been lately shown, many of the Brahmins themselves express admiration of the morality of the Gospel, and profess to entertain a better opinion of the English since they have found that they too have a religion and a ShasAll that seems necessary for the best effects to follow is, to let things take their course; to make the Missionaries discreet; to keep the government as it now is, strictly neuter; and to place our confidence in a general diffusion of knowledge, and in making ourselves really useful to the temporal as well as spiritual interests of the people among whom we live.

ter.

"In all these points there is, indeed, great room for improvement: But I do not by any means as

charity."

He adds afterwards,

"I have not been led to believe that our GovernIment is generally popular, or advancing towards popularity. It is, perhaps, impossible that we should be so in any great degree; yet I really think there are some causes of discontent which it is in our own power, and which it is our duty to remove or diminish. One of these is the distance and haughtiness with which a very large proportion of the civil and military servants of the Company treat the upper and middling class of natives. Against their mixing much with us in society, there are certainly many hindrances; though even their objec tion to eating with us might, so far as the Mussul mans are concerned, I think, be conquered by any popular man in the upper provinces, who made the attempt in a right way. But there are some of our amusements, such as private theatrical entertain ments and the sports of the field, in which they would be delighted to share, and invitations to which would be regarded by them as extremely flattering, if they were not, perhaps with some reason, voted bores, and treated accordingly. The French, under Perron and Des Boignes, who in more serious matiters left a very bed name behind them, had, in this particular, a great advantage over us; and the easy and friendly intercourse in which they lived with natives of rank, is still often regretted in Agra and the Dooab. This is not all, however. The foolish pride of the English absolutely leads them to set at nought the injunctions of their own Government, The Tussildars, for instance, or principal active officers of revenue, ought, by an order of council, to have chairs always offered them in the presence of their European superiors; and the same, by the standing orders of the army, should be done to the Soubahdars. Yet there are hardly six collectors in

India who observe the former etiquette: and the latter, which was fifteen years ago never omitted in the army, is now completely in disuse. At the same time, the regulations of which I speak are known to every Tussildar and Soubahdar in India, and they feel themselves aggrieved every time

these civilities are neglected.

Of the state of the Schools, and of Education in general, he speaks rather favourably; and is very desirous that, without any direct attempt at conversion, the youth should be generally exposed to the humanising influence of the New Testament morality, by the general introduction of that holy book, as a lesson book in the schools; a matter to which he states positively that the natives, and even their Brahminical pastors, have no sort of objection. Talking of a female school, lately established at Calcutta, under the charge of a very pious and discreet lady, he observes, that "Rhadacant Deb, one of the wealthiest natives in Calcutta, and regarded as the most austere and orthodox of the worshippers of the Ganges, bade, some time since, her pupils go on and prosper; and added, that 'if they practised the Sermon on the Mount as well as they repeated it, he would choose all the handmaids for his daughters, and his wives, from the English school.'"'

He is far less satisfied with the administra

tion of Justice; especially in the local or district courts, called Adawlut, which the costli ness and intricacy of the proceedings, and the needless introduction of the Persian lar.guage, have made sources of great practical oppres sion, and objects of general execration through out the country. At the Bombay Presidency Mr. Elphinstone has discarded the Persian, and appointed every thing to be done in the ordinary language of the place.

And here we are afraid we must take leave of this most instructive and delightful publication; which we confidently recommend to our readers, not only as more likely to amuse them than any book of travels with which we are acquainted, but as calculated to enlighten their understandings, and to touch their hearts with a purer flame than they generally catch from most professed works of philosophy or devotion. It sets before us, in every page, the most engaging example of devotion to God and good-will to man; and, touching every object with the light of a clear judgment and a pure heart, exhibits the rare spectacle of a work written by a priest upon religious creeds and establishments, without a shade of intolerance; and bringing under review the characters of a vast multitude of eminent individuals, without one trait either of sarcasm or adulation.

(October, 1824.)

1. Sketches of India. Written by an OFFICER, for Fire-Side Travellers at Home. Second Edition, with Alterations. 8vo. pp. 358. London: 1824. 2. Scenes and Impressions in Egypt and Italy. By the Author of Sketches of India, and Recollections of the Peninsula. 8vo. pp. 452. London: 1824.

THESE are very amiable books:-and, be- | them, will be more generally agreeable than sides the good sentiments they contain, they a digest of the information they might have are very pleasing specimens of a sort of travel-acquired. We would by no means undervalue writing, to which we have often regretted the researches of more learned and laborious that so few of those who roam loose about the world will now condescend-we mean a brief and simple notice of what a person of ordinary information and common sensibility may see and feel in passing through a new country, which he visits without any learned preparation, and traverses without any particular object. There are individuals, no doubt, who travel to better purpose, and collect more weighty information-exploring, and recording as they go, according to their several habits and measures of learning, the mineralogy antiquities, or statistics of the different regions they survey. But the greater part, even of intelligent wanderers, are neither so ambitious in their designs, nor so industrious in their execution; and, as most of those who travel for pleasure, and find pleasure in travelling, are found to decline those tasks, which might enrol them among the contributors to science, while they turned all their movements into occasions of laborious study, it seems reasonable to think that a lively and succinct account of what actually delighted

persons, especially in countries rarely visited: But, for common readers, their discussions require too much previous knowledge, and too painful an effort of attention. They are not books of travels, in short, but works of science and philosophy; and as the principal delight of travelling consists in the impressions which we receive, almost passively, from the presentment of new objects, and the reflections to which they spontaneously give rise, so the most delightful books of travels should be those that give us back those impressions in their first freshness and simplicity, and excite us to follow out the train of feelings and reflection into which they lead us, by the di rect and unpretending manner in which they are suggested. By aiming too ambitiously at instruction and research, this charm is lost, and we often close these copious dissertations and details, needlessly digested in the form of a journal, without having the least idea how we, or any other ordinary person, would have felt as companions of the journey-thoroughly convinced, certainly, that we should

o have occupied ourselves as the writers before us seem to have been occupied; and pretty well satisfied, after all, that they themselves were not so occupied during the most agreeable hours of their wanderings, and had omitted in their books what they would most irequently recall in their moments of enjoyment and leisure.

Nor are these records of superficial observation to be disdained as productive of entertainment only, or altogether barren of instruction. Very often the surface presents all that is really worth considering-or all that we are capable of understanding;-and our observer, we are taking it for granted, is, though no great philosopher, an intelligent and educated man-looking curiously at all that presents itself, and making such passing inquiries as may satisfy a reasonable curiosity, without greatly disturbing his indolence or delaying his progress. Many themes of reflection and topics of interest will be thus suggested, which more elaborate and exhausting discussions would have strangled in the birth-while, in the variety and brevity of the notices which such a scheme of writing implies, the mind of the reader is not only more agreeably excited, but is furnished, in the long run, with more materials for thinking, and solicited to more lively reflections, than by any quantity of exact knowledge on plants, stones, ruins, manufactures, or history.

Such, at all events, is the merit and the charm of the volumes before us. They place us at once by the side of the author and bring before our eyes and minds the scenes he has passed through, and the feelings they suggested. In this last particular, indeed, we are entirely at his mercy; and we are afraid he sometimes makes rather an unmerciful use of his power. It is one of the hazards of this way of writing, that it binds us up in the strictest intimacy and closest companionship with the author. Its attraction is in its direct personal sympathy-and its danger in the temptation it holds out to abuse it. It enables us to share the grand spectacles with which the traveller is delighted-but compels us in a manner to share also in the sentiments with which he is pleased to connect them. For the privilege of seeing with his eyes, we must generally renounce that of using our own judgment-and submit to adopt implicitly the tone of feeling which he has found most congenial with the scene.

On the present occasion, we must say, the reader, on the whole, has been fortunate. The author, though an officer in the King's service, and not without professional predilections, is, generally speaking, a speculative, sentimental, saintly sort of person-with a taste for the picturesque, a singularly poetical cast of diction, and a mind deeply imbued with principles of philanthropy and habits of affection:-And if there is something of fadaise now and then in his sentiments, and something of affectation in his style, it is no more than we can easily forgive, in conideration of his brevity, his amiableness, and rariety.

"The "Sketches of India," a loose-printed octavo of 350 pages, is the least interesting perhaps of the two volumes now before usthough sufficiently marked with all that is characteristic of the author. It may be as well to let him begin at the beginning.

"On the afternoon of July the 10th, 1818, our vessel dropped anchor in Madras Roads, after a fine run of three months and ten days from the Motherbank.-How changed the scene! how great the contrast!-Ryde, and its little snug dwellings, with, and sloping shores.-Madras and its naked fort, slated or thatched roofs. its neat gardens, its green noble-looking buildings, tall columns, lofty veran dahs, and terraced roofs. The city, large and crowded, on a flat site; a low sandy beach, and a foaming surf. The roadstead, there, alive with beautiful yachts, light wherries, and tight-built boats, with their naked crews, singing the same fishing barks. Here, black, shapeless Massoolah wild (yet not unpleasing) air, to which, for ages, the dangerous surf they fearlessly ply over has been rudely responsive.

"I shall never forget the sweet and strange sen. sations which, as I went peacefully forward, the new objects in nature excited in my bosom. The rich broad-leaved plantain; the gracefully drooping bamboo; the cocoa nut, with that mat-like-looking binding for every branch; the branches themselves waving with a feathery motion in the wind; the bare lofty trunk and fan-leaf of the tall palm; the aloes; the prickly pear; the stately banian with slender and elegant stem of the areca; the large drop-branches, here fibrous and pliant, there strong and columnar, supporting its giant arms, and forming around the parent stem a grove of beauty; and among these wonders, birds, all strange in plumage and in note, save the parroquet (at home, the lady's pet-bird in a gilded cage), here spreading his bright natural and untaught scream. green wings in happy fearless flight, and giving his

"It was late and dark when we reached Poonamallee; and during the latter part of our march we had heavy rain. We found no fellow-countryman to welcome us: But the mess-room was open and lighted, a table laid, and a crowd of smart, roguishlooking natives, seemed waiting our arrival to seek service-Drenched to the skin, without changes of linen, or any bedding, we sat down to the repast provided; and it would have been difficult to have found in India, perhaps, at the moment, a more ing natives, in white dresses, with red or white cheerful party than ours.-Four or five clean-lookturbans, ear-rings of gold, or with emerald drops, and large silver signet rings on their fingers, crowded round each chair, and watched our every glance, to anticipate our wishes. Curries, vegetables, and fruits, all new to us, were tasted and pronounced upon; and after a meal, of which every one seemed to partake with grateful good humour, we lay down for the night. One attendant brought a small carpet, another a mat, others again a sheet or counterpane, till all were provided with something; and thus closed our first evening in India. The morning for, was shaving a man as he still lay dozing! there, scene was very ludicrous. Here, a barber uncalled another was cracking the joints of a man half dressed; here were two servants, one pouring water on, the other washing, a Saheb's hands. In spite of my efforts to prevent them, two well-dressed lad dexterously putting on the clothes of a sleepy men were washing my feet; and near me was a brother officer, as if he had been an infant under his care!-There was much in all this to amuse the mind, and a great deal, I confess, to pain the heart of a free-born Englishman."

Sketches of India, pp. 3-10. With all this profusion of attendance, the march of a British officer in India seems matter rather of luxury than fatigue.

"Marching in this country is certainly pleasant; | general's tents from the Deccan, were in the act although perhaps you rise too early for comfort. An hour before daybreak you mount your horse; and, travelling at an easy pace, reach your ground before the sun has any power; and find a small tent pitched with breakfast ready on the table.Your large tent follows with couch and baggage, carried by bullocks and coolies; and before nine o'clock, you may be washed, dressed, and employed with your books, pen, or pencil. Mats, made of the fragrant roots of the Cuscus grass, are hung before the doors of your tent to windward; and being constant wetted, admit, during the hottest winds, a cool refreshing air.

of loading. The intelligent obedience of the vle phant is well known; but to look upon this huge and powerful monster kneeling down at the mere bidding of the human voice; and, when he has risen again, to see him protrude his trunk for the foot of his mahout or attendant, to help him into his seat; or, bending the joint of his hind leg. make a step for him to climb up behind; and then, if any loose cloths or cords fall off, with a dog-like docility pick them up with his proboscis and pat them up again, will delight and surprise long after it ceases to be novel. When loaded, this creature broke off a large branch from the lofty tree near which he stood, and quietly fanned and fly-flapped himself, with all the nonchalance of an indolent woman of fashion, till the camels were ready. These animals also kneel to be laden. When in motion, they have a very awkward gait, and seem to travel at a much slower pace than they really do. Their tall out-stretched necks, long sinewy ture, neck-bells, and the rings in their nostrils, with their lofty loads, and a driver generally on the top of the leading one, have a strange appearance." Ibid. pp. 46-48.

We must add the following very clear description of a Pagoda.

"While our forefathers were clad in wolf-skin, dwelt in caverns, and lived upon the produce of the chase, the Hindoo lived as now. As now, his princes were clothed in soft raiment, wore jewelled turbans, and dwelt in palaces. As now, his haughty half-naked priests received his offerings in temples of hewn and sculptured granite, and summoned him to rites as absurd, but yet more splendid and de-limbs, and broad spongy feet,-their head furníbauching, than the present. His cottage, garments, household utensils, and implements of husbandry or labour, the same as now. Then, too, he watered the ground with his foot, by means of a plank balanced transversely on a lofty pole, or drew from the deep bowerie by the labour of his oxen, in large bags of leather, supplies of water to flow through the little channels by which their fields and gardens are intersected. His children were then taught to shape letters in the sand, and to write and keep accounts on the dried leaves of the palm, by the village schoolmaster. His wife ground corn at the same mill, or pounded it in a rude mortar with her neighbour. He could make purchases in a regular bazaar, change money at a shroff's, or borrow it at usury, for the expenses of a wedding or festival. In short, all the traveller sees around him of social or civilized life, of useful invention or luxurious refinement, is of yet higher antiquity than the days of Alexander the Great. So that, in fact, the eye of the British officer looks upon the same forms and dresses, the same buildings, manners, and customs, on which the Macedonian troops gazed with the same astonishment two thousand years ago."

Sketches of India, pp. 23-26.

If the traveller proceeds in a palanquin, his comforts are not less amply provided for. "You generally set off after dark; and, habited in loose drawers and a dressing gown, recline at full length and slumber away the night. If you are wakeful, you may draw back the sliding panel of a lamp fixed behind, and read. Your clothes are packed in large neat baskets, covered with green oil-cloth, and carried by palanquin boys; two pairs will contain two dozen complete changes. Your palanquin is fitted up with pockets and drawers. You can carry in it, without trouble, a writing desk and two or three books, with a few canteen conveniences for your meals, and thus you may be comfortably provided for many hundred miles' travelling. You stop for half an hour, morning and evening, under the shade of a tree, to wash and take refreshment; throughout the day read, think, or gaze round you. The relays of bearers lie ready every ten or twelve miles; and the average of your run is about four miles an hour."

Ibid. pp. 218, 219. We cannot make room for his descriptions; though excellent, of the villages, the tanks, the forest-and the dresses and deportment of the different classes of the people; but we must give this little sketch of the Elephant and Camel.

While breakfast was getting ready, I amused myself with looking at a baggage-elephant and a few camels, which some servants, returning with a

"A high, solid wall, encloses a large area in the form of an oblong square; at one end is the gateway, above which is raised a large pyramidal tower; its breadth at the base and height proportioned to the magnitude of the pagoda. This tower is ascended by steps in the inside, and divided into stories; the central spaces on each are open, and smaller as the tower rises. The light is seen directly through them, producing, at times, a very beautiful effect, as when a fine sky, or trees, form the back ground. The front, sides, and top of this gateway and tower, are crowded with sculpture; elaborate, but tasteless. A few yards from the gate, on the outside, you often see a lofty octagonal stone pillar, or a square open building, supported by tall columns of stone, with the figure of a bull couchant, sculptured as large, or much larger than life, beneath it.

Entering the gateway, you pass into a spacious paved court, in the centre of which stands the inner temple, raised about three feet from the ground, open, and supported by numerous stone pillars. An building, contains the idol. Round the whole court enclosed sanctuary at the far end of this central runs a large deep verandah, also supported by columns of stone, the front rows of which are often shaped by the sculptor into various sacred animals rampant, rode by their respective deities. All the other parts of the pagoda, walls, basements, entablatures, are covered with imagery and ornament of all sizes, in alto or demi-relievo."

The following description and reflections among the ruins of Bijanagur, the last capital of the last Hindu empire, and finally overthrown in 1564, are characteristic of the author's most ambitious, perhaps most questionable, manner.

"You cross the garden, where imprisoned beauty once strayed. You look at the elephant-stable and juring up some associations of luxury and magnifi the remaining gateway, with a mind busied in concence. Sorrowfully I passed on. Every stone beneath my feet bore the mark of chisel, or of human skill and labour. You tread continually on steps, pavement, pillar, capital, or cornice of rude relief, displaced, or fallen, and mingled in confusion. Here, large masses of such materials have already formed bush-covered rocks,-there, pagodas are still standing entire. You may for miles trace the city walls, and can often discover, by the fallen pillars of the

ong piazza, where it has been adorned by streets | officer, and without public character of any <f uncommon width. One, indeed, yet remains kind, it is admirable to see with what uniform early perfect; at one end of it a few poor ryots, respect and attention he was treated, even by vho contrive to cultivate some patches of rice, cotcon, or sugar-cane, in detached spots near the river, the lawless soldiery among whom he had frehave formed mud-dwellings under the piazza. quently to pass. The indolent and mercenary Brahmins seem the only class of persons from whom he experienced any sort of incivility. In an early part of his route he had the good luck to fall in with Scindiah himself; and the picture he has given of that turbulent leader and his suite is worth preserving.

the road, or scrambling and leaping on the rude "First came loose light-armed horse, either in banks and ravines near; then some better clad, with the quilted poshauk; and one in a complete suit of chain-armour; then a few elephants, among them had dismounted. On one small elephant, guiding the hunting elephant of Scindiah, from which he it himself, rode a fine boy, a foundling protegé of Scindiah, called the Jungle Rajah; then came, slowly prancing, a host of fierce, haughty chieftains, on fine horses, showily caparisoned. They darted forward, and all took their proud stand behind and round us, planting their long lances on the earth, and reining up their eager steeds to see, I suppose, our salaam. Next, in a common native palkce, its canopy crimson, and not adorned, came Scindiah turban, and a shawl over his vest, and lay reclined, himself. He was plainly dressed, with a reddish smoking a small gilt or golden calean.

"While, with a mind thus occupied, you pass on through this wilderness, the desolating judgments on other renowned cities, so solemnly foretold, so dreadfully fulfilled, rise naturally to your recollection. I climbed the very loftiest rock at day-break, on the morrow of my first visit to the ruins, by rude and broken steps, winding between and over immense and detached masses of stone; and seated myself near a small pagoda, at the very summit. From hence I commanded the whole extent of what was once a city, described by Cæsar Frederick as twenty-four miles in circumference. Not above eight or nine pagodas are standing; but there are choultries innumerable. Fallen columns, arches, piazzas, and fragments of all shapes on every side for miles.-Can there have been streets and roads in these choked-up valleys? Has the war-horse pranced, the palfrey ambled there? Have jewelled turbans once glittered where those dew-drops now sparkle on the thick-growing bamboos? Hive the delicate small feet of female dancers practised their graceful steps where that rugged and thorn-covered ruin bars up the patr.? Have their soft voices, and the Indian guitar, and the gold bells on their ankles, ever made music in so lone and silent a spot? They have; but other sights, and other sounds, have also been seen and heard among these ruins. "I looked down on the chiefs under us, and saw There, near that beautiful banyan-tree, whole that they eyed us most haughtily, which very much families, at the will of a merciless prince, have been increased the effect they would otherwise have prothrown to trampling elephants, kept for a work so savage that they learn it with reluctance, and must shield, creese and pistol; wore some shawls, some duced. They were armed with lance, scimitar and be taught by man. Where those cocoas wave, once tissues, some plain muslin or cotton; were all much stood a vast seraglio, filled at the expense of tears wrapped in clothing; and wore, almost all, a large. and crimes; there, within that retreat of voluptu- fold of muslin, tied over the turban top, which they ousness, have poison, or the creese, obeyed, ofte: fasten under the chin; and which, strange as it may anticipated, the sovereign's wish. By those green sound to those who have never seen it, looks warbanks, near which the sacred waters of the Toom-like, and is a very important defence to the sides budra flow, many aged parents have been carried forth and exposed to nerish by those whose infancy they fostered."-Sketches of India.

The following reflections are equally just and important.-

"Nothing, perhaps, so much damps the ardour of a traveller in India, as to find that he may wander league after league, visit city after city, village Per village, and still only see the outside of Indian ety. The house he cannot enter, the group he not join, the domestic circle he cannot gaze upon, the free unrestrained converse of the natives he can never listen to. He may talk with his moonshee or his pundit; ride a few miles with a Mahometan sirdar; receive and return visits of ceremony among petty nawabs and rajahs; or be presented at a native court: But behind the scenes in India he cannot advance one step. All the natives are, in comparative rank, a few far above, the many far below him: and the bars to intercourse with Mahometans as well as Hindoos, arising from our faith, are so many, that to live upon terms of intimacy or acquaintance with them is impossible. Nay, in this particular, when our establishments were young and small, our officers few, necessarily active, necessarily linguists, and unavoidably, as well as from policy, conforming more to native manners, it is probable that more was known about the natives from practical experience than is at present, or may be again."-Ibid. pp. 213, 214.

of the neck.

"How is it that we can have a heart-stirring sort of pleasure in gazing on brave and armed men, though we know them to be fierce, lawless, and cruel-though we know stern ambition to be the chief feature of many warriors, who, from the cradle to the grave, seek only fame; and to which, in such as I write of, is added avarice the most pitiless? I cannot tell. But I recollect often before, in my life, being thus moved. Once, especially, I stood over a gateway in France, as a prisoner, and saw file in, several squadrons of gens-d'armerie d'elite, returning from the fatal field of Leipsic. They were fine, noble-looking men, with warlike helmets of steel and brass, and drooping plumes of black horse-hair; belts handsome and broad; heavy swords; were many of them decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honour. Their trumpets flourished; and I felt my heart throb with an admiring delight, which found relief only in an involuntary tear. What an inconsistent riddle is the human heart !"-Ibid. pp. 260-264.

In the interior of the country there are large tracts of waste lands, and a very scanty and unsettled population.

"On the route I took, there was only one inhabited village in fifty-five miles; the spots named for halting-places were in small valleys, green with young corn, and under cultivation, but neglected sadly. A few straw huts, blackened and beat down The author first went up the country as far by rain, ith rude and broken implements of hus as Agra, visiting, and musing over, all the re-bandry lying about, and a few of those round harden markable places in his way-and then returned thrashing-floors. tell the traveller that some waned through the heart of India-the country of Scindiah and the Deccan, to the Mysore. Though travelling only as a British regimental

dering families, of a rude unsettled people, visit these vales at sowing time and harvest; and labour indolently at the necessary, but despised, tas' of the peaceful ryot."-Ibid. p. 200

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