have developed the immensities of the latter with variations.

In the centre of our present mundane system is, they say, the Mount Myenmo of fabulous height, surrounded by seven concentric ranges. Round these the sun, moon and stars revolve. At the four cardinal points of Mount Myenmo are four great islands, each having five hundred dependent islets. One of these is Zampoodeepa (erroneously written Tumpadeepa), so called from a gigantic and sacred Eugenia tree thereon, which is twelve hundred miles in length, one hundred and eighty-six miles in circumference, with five principal branches, each six hundred miles long. This Zampoodeepa, or great southern island, is held to have been under the beneficent sway of his Great, Glorious and most Excellent Majesty, their most Gracious Sovereign recently deposed. Burmese authorities differ as to the exact position of Thunaparanta, while there is a general concensus of opinion among Western geographers that it is identical with the Auria Regio of Ptolemy, or IndoChina. We must content ourselves, therefore, with knowing that Thunaparanta must, at any rate, be situated in that part of the world called Zampoodeepa and its surrounding five hundred islets. To this knowledge Burmese cosmography helps us by forbidding all communication between the four great islands, owing to the tempestuous seas of Thamodra, or the great mid-ocean, whose waves are often mountains high, wherein fearful whirlpools are apt to engulph adventurous mariners; not to speak of the Leviathans, leagues in length, that sport therein. But the English and other Europeans, who are said to inhabit some of the small islands, are able to visit Burmah, China and India, owing to the comparative tranquillity of the seas which encompass these dependencies of Zampoodeepa.

The inhabitants of the other three islands live, it is said, from five hundred to one thousand years without

care of any kind, and die tranquilly at the end of their allotted time to be born again in the same island. They neither ascend into the superior heavens, nor descend into hell, and have neither aspirations nor fears. Burmese divines, however, teach that their lot ought not to be envied by the people of Zampoodeepa, who, by the merit of pious deeds can not only win for themselves exalted seats in the realms of the Nats or demi-gods, but can attain to the perfect state of Neikban or Nirvana.

Having absolutely nothing in the way of literature, excepting their plays and the fabulous history already mentioned, which only deigns to take notice of events flattering to their pride, it is no wonder that the Burmese have an exceedingly good opinion of themselves. With unparalleled selfcomplaisance, they are superbly happy in the firm conviction that they are wiser, braver, handsomer, and better than any other people in the world. Hence, unlike many Asiatics, they are not a fawning race. Naturally idle, and, as a rule, having neither perseverance nor fixity of purpose, discipline or any regular employment is most irksome to them. As soldiers they are therefore altogether impracticable, and almost equally so as domestic

servants.

These defects of character are also prejudicial to their success in mechanical arts. A Burman will often try his hand at various methods of obtaining a livelihood, and not infrequently in the wane of life will settle himself down as a doctor, a profession that combines dignity with profit, and requires, in Burmah, no previous training. He may accordingly be styled "Jack of all trades and master of none," except in the cases of those past-masters of arts, such as carving and jewellers' work, which require a long apprenticeship and steady application.

Though the material prosperity of British subjects has much increased,

contact with civilisation has had a

demoralising effect on many of the rising generation. Temperate, abstemious and hardy as the rural population is, indulgence in the use of opium and spirits, fostered by the pernicious traffic carried on under the ægis of British authority, has been attended in the towns with disastrous results, both moral and physical. Reverence for age and respect for parents, which used to be such a charming trait in the character of Burmese youth, is now, say the elders, conspicuous by its absence; while dissipation and unbridled license, alas! tell their sad tales on hitherto iron constitutions.

Inveterate gamblers, the Burmese are ready to stake everything they possess on chance, and under the native régime even their wives, children and their own liberty were thus hazarded. Hence the lottery mania, due, it is said, to Italian teaching, which more or less ruined the country.

In spite of these defects and shortcomings the Burmese possess many admirable qualities, which enlist the sympathy and interest of all who are brought into contact with them.

En

tirely free from all prejudices of caste, they make no difference between the despised pariah from the coast of Coromandel and the twice-born Brahmin of Benares. All men with them are equal, excepting the king, his ministers, and the priests. Fraternising readily with Europeans, "Jack Burman" is a prime favourite with "Tommy Atkins" and Englishmen of all classes. Strictly tolerant in matters of religion, Christians, Jews, Mohammedans, Hindoos, are allowed to practise the rites of their several religions without let or hindrance. With surprising candour their teachers allow that Christianity is almost as good as Buddhism, but opine that the former suits Europeans and Americans, and the latter the people of Indo-China; therefore, while,

on the one hand, they do not care to attempt the conversion of Christians, on the other, they cannot understand why Christian missionaries should not also let them alone.

No calamity is so overwhelming as to cause the Burman to despond. Buoyant and elastic, he soon recovers from personal or domestic disaster. His cattle may die of murrain, his crops may be destroyed, his house and all his belongings may be burned, without putting him out very much. Like Mark Tapley, he is "jolly" under all circumstances. Few Burmans care to amass much wealth, and when one does so he spends most of it in building pagodas, monasteries, caravansaries, or other works for the public benefit, so as to acquire thereby religious merit for himself and his future transmigrations. But though riches have no charm for them, they are. and especially the women, great dabblers in small mercantile ventures. They are also distinguished for their great public spirit, often shown at much personal sacrifice. Were it not for this admirable trait in their character, the general community would be put to intolerable inconvenience. For the Burmese government never provided in any way for public works, leaving it to the people to construct roads, bridges, wells, ponds, caravansaries, and the like, for the public. utility. Vanity, or ambition, or charity, or perhaps all three combined, inspire the people, as they inspire many public-spirited people with ourselves, when they desire to be public benefactors. But whatever their motives the public certainly profit by the results, and expresses its sense of benefits received by conferring on the donors honorary titles much esteemed by the recipients.

The Burman has an amazing aptitude for adapting himself to circumstances; so much so, that it is hardly too much to say that if the humblest coolie were suddenly made a grandee, he would comport himself in his new

sphere as if to the manner born. He is generally free from care. A bountiful soil supplies all his modest wants with little labour. Ambition has no charms for him, and so he jogs through life, merrily, lazily, and aimlessly. If the Burman has not actually found the philosopher's stone, he has, perhaps, more nearly succeeded in achieving that feat than any other member of the human race.

The teachings of an advanced civilisation must necessarily dissipate the fond imaginings inspired by the drama and the 'Maha Yaza Wen.' The matterof-fact prose of everyday life must

usurp the place of the romantic idylls of the past. Whether the result be the increased happiness and real welfare of the people depends much on whether, alive to our vast responsibilities, we are willing to learn a lesson from the past, and prove that the benefit of living under a settled government may not be too dearly purchased if it tends, directly or indirectly, to the social, moral, and physical ruin of a nation which deserves our liveliest interest and sympathy.

A. R. MCMAHON,
Major-General.

THE children of William Lloyd Garrison have undertaken to tell the story of his life. Two volumes carrying the story down to 1840 have appeared. To the children of the hero the work is one of piety and love. To those who personally took part with him in the great struggle all the details will be full of interest. The historian will also be grateful for a complete collection of material. But for the ordinary reader the narrative, completed on the scale of these opening volumes, will be very long; and as long biographies have very few readers, there is reason to fear that Garrison's fame may be buried under that which is intended to preserve it. An abridgment, disencumbered of documents, will perhaps hereafter be found expedient.

The old colonial slavery, sanctioned and perpetuated by the Revolution, was an awkward comment on the Declaration of Independence, and an ugly blot on a model Republic; though patriotic optimism might maintain that the contrast of slavery with freedom was favourable to republican character. But it was a relic of the past; it was comparatively on a small scale and of a mild type; it was half ashamed of itself; it was unaggressive; leading statesmen of the South freely denounced it and treated it as a temporary evil doomed to certain extinc

1 William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879. The Story of his Life told by his Children.' Vols. i. ii. New York: The Century' Co. No. 317-vOL. LIII.

tion. It would, in all probability, either have died out or dwindled into something which, so far as the negro was concerned, might with reason have been said to be better than Dahomey. But the case was entirely changed by the cotton-gin and the purchase of Louisiana. Then the signs of old age and of decrepitude vanished, and in portentous youth uprose the Slave Power defiant of earth and heaven. Slavery became a vast commercial interest, supporting a social caste. Not only did it put off all shame, but by the eloquent lips of Calhoun it proclaimed itself the best and most beneficent birth of time. Its sinister statesmanship, vested in an oligarchy of wealth and leisure, as entirely masters of their white dependants as they were of their slaves, and acting steadily for the security and aggrandisement of one paramount interest, politically subjugated the North, where it found allies both in the selfishness of the wealthy and in the venal mob of the cities. Goaded alike by the hunger of land which the exhaustion of the soil by its unskilled husbandry engendered and the desire of widening its political basis, it directed the foreign policy of the republic to Southern aggrandisement; nor were its aims in that direction bounded by the acquisition of Texes. The North, the sharer of its gains, its factor and its mortgagee, was bound to it by the complicity of lucre. Northern traders were not even in

Y

sensible to the social influence of the planter aristocracy; while the politicians cringed to a power so strong in itself and wielded with such unity and vigour. The Churches, especially such as drew their support chiefly from the wealthy class or had strong Southern connections, accommodated themselves to social sentiment, winked at slaveowning among their members, excluded abolitionism from their pulpits, discouraged it among their ministers, and piously acquiesced in the curse of Ham. The Press was equally enthralled. "From the President to the bootblack every one was for slavery." In no country does the force of public opinion, or what is taken for public opinion, press more heavily on the individual mind than in the United States.

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In the course of history, there occasionally appear powers of evil which, however peacefully you may be inclined, force you to accept wager of battle. Mohammedan conquest was one of these; the Slave Power was another. Seward's phrase, Irrepressible conflict," is familiar; less familiar are the words which formed part of the same sentence, "It means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become entirely a slave-holding nation or entirely a free labour nation." The battle was for the moral life and civilisation of the new world.

In political opposition to the Slave Power there was little hope. Slavery was impregnably entrenched in the Constitution; by no efforts of verbal interpretation could it be displaced; and the Constitution was the Bible of the American people. All that political opposition could do was to limit the extension of slavery northward. To abolish it in the district of Columbia was constitutionally possible, morally impossible, and practically useless. Moreover the politicians, as soon as they came within sight of the presidency, felt the attraction of the Southern vote. The apostasy of Webster, finely moralised by Theodore Parker, was the most signal and the saddest

of all tributes to the slave-owners' ascendency. Clay, though a Kentuckian and slave-owner, was in principle opposed to slavery, but party and ambition were too strong for him; and his constancy failed when he was called upon resolutely to resist the extension of slavery at the price of an iniquitous war. Of all the public men of real mark who appeared upon the scene before the closing act of the drama, the heartiest enemy to slavery was Lincoln; yet Lincoln never avowed himself an Abolitionist. On becoming President he recognised the protection of slavery as his constitutional duty, and of his readiness to perform that duty, even in the most revolting aspect, he gave a proof by showing himself willing to administer strictly the Fugitive Slave Law. Above all there was the Union, the idol of the national heart, the source of material advantages without number and the pledge of national greatness. Disunion was not only the loss of the mouth of the Mississippi, but the wreck of the Republican future. The crack of that lash in the hand of the South was always enough to bring the North upon its knees. Upon their knees, as soon as the Union was seriously menaced by Secession, the politicians fell. By a vote of one hundred and thirty-three to sixty-five the House of Representatives passed a resolution in favour of a constitutional amendment providing that for the future no amendment should be made in the Constitution which would authorise or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labour or service by the laws of the said State. This, as Mr. Blaine in his 'Twenty Years of Congress' says, would have entrenched slavery securely in the organic law of the land and elevated the privilege of the slave-owner beyond that of the owner of any other species of property. Still more signal was the surrender proposed in the series of resolutions called the Crittenden Compromise. In