assure us that British India is, in fact, a country without roads, without bridges, without canals, without those great works which mark a well governed state. At a public meeting at Glasgow some months ago, Major-General Briggs, indeed, made this

statement.

'Then, of these military roads, there is hardly one of them over which I have not travelled; and I say, without fear of contradiction, that there is scarcely ten miles of any part of them on which, during the rains, a carriage could be driven, or a loaded cart proceed without danger. Roads are marked out, it is true, they are levelled for the time being, and, till the wet season sets in, they are tolerably good; but one or two years serves to break them up entirely; roads without metal, without drains, without bridges,-and, to be rendered available even for the march of an army with its stores, a detachment of pioneers is required to precede the troops. There is another description of roads, however, to which much attention and money is devoted. I mean the roads within and around the Presidencies, and the principal civil and military stations. Each road not extending beyond three or four miles in length, and used purely for European gentlemen and ladies to drive their carriages.'

We also have now before us A Minute of the GovernorGeneral of India,' of August last, containing this passage-' As 'to the formation of roads, I fear, that, however valuable a really 'permanent and good road unquestionably is, for all purposes of national improvement, the hope of maintaining such roads, on an 'extensive scale, in the vast and poor territory and unfavorable 'climate of India, is not, for yet many years, to be entertained on 'a sober estimate of our difficulties and means.' And this is said of India, after half a century of our good government, a country out of which we have drained a thousand millions of money, and are yet draining twenty millions a year! This is that country whose finances the Edinburgh Review protests are so good that it will not need a loan for the payment of the vast expenses of the Afghan war; and yet it cannot afford to make a road for the transit of its goods, or for the passage of grain in a season of famine!

Here, then, we close, for the present, our portraiture of what the clerk of the Board of Directors terms the incomparably best governed of all our dependent possessions.' If the scene which it presents does not rouse our countrymen to rescue it from the vampyre system under which it is sinking, we shall have no longer any faith in the philosophy, humanity, or commercial policy which have so long distinguished us as a nation. The interests of the people of India do not require a reform of Indian government more

The native gentry and even princes, who have made these roads at their own cost, are prohibited by soldiers stationed there on purpose, from driving on them at the hours that the English frequent them.

peremptorily than the interests of our starving manufacturers demand it. If India be such a beautiful scene of good government, why does not the East India Company invite all who doubt the fact to go out and see for themselves? If that be the case, that would settle the matter at once. All people who know that they have a flourishing scene to display, are glad that it should be seen. As it is, we call on our countrymen to inquire-inquire-inquire : and as the Edinburgh Review has not only appealed to the evidence of Mr. Shore, but to Lord William Bentinck, we will also appeal to his lordship's evidence, and with that close our remarks. In his evidence on the Steam question, delivered after he had been for years Governor-General of India, after comparing our rule with that of the Mohammedans who went before us, and showing that theirs was far superior to ours, he added- India in 'order to become an attached dependency of Great Britain, must 'be governed for her own sake, and not for the sake of the 800 ' or 1000 individuals who are sent from England to make their 'fortunes. They are totally incompetent to the charge, and in their hands, administration in all its civil branches, revenue, judicial, and police, has been a failure. Our government, to become secure, must be made popular, and to become so, it must con'sult the welfare of the many and not of the few. The govern'ment must remain arbitrary, but it may also be, and should be, 'paternal.' But how can this be effected? ENGLAND HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF and no care for INDIA. India, again, has no representatives in England; has hitherto, had no access to her shores; her fate is entirely in the hands of the two authorities with whom her management is vested. The Court of Directors seek their office for the sake of the patronage only; for the most part, they are strangers to India; have their own separate affairs* to manage; are divested of responsibility; but from their permanency, and the knowledge which they derive from their numerous clients, they possess a power and influence over all affairs, which a temporary President of the Board of Control, unaided by any Board possessing local information, cannot possibly control.

*The patronage of the Directors is divided into twenty-eight shares, each ordinary Director having one, the Chair and Deputy-Chair, having each two, and two being reserved for the President of the Board of Control. Each share is worth about £13,000, and a double share £20,000 a year. By this patronage they divide £2,000,000 sterling of the revenues of India amongst less than 1000 persons, from lads of fifteen or eighteen years of age and upwards, in salaries of about £2000 each, besides a claim of retiring superannuations. Well may Mr. Thornton, the clerk to the Directors, with their double share of £20,000 and £13,000, and the power of putting their connexions into good salaries of £2000 and upwards, declare that India is a beautifully governed country.

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Art. VI. PUBLICATIONS OF THE CAMDEN SOCIETY.

The Political Songs of England, from the Reign of John to that of Edward II. Edited and Translated by THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., M.A., F.S.A. London: John Bowyer Nichols.

THE HE Camden Society, a name of good omen, was formed about three years ago. It has since that time been in modest and silent but effective operation. Its objects are the publication of selections from those literary treasures which lie wrapt up in vast collections of manuscripts found in our public libraries; the reprinting of works of sufficient rarity and value to render such reprint desirable; and the translation of historical works not yet rendered into English.

As to inedited MSS., however precious they may be as 'curi'osities of literature,' however deeply interesting to the antiquary, to the historian, to the philologist, in a word, to all who study the history of our language and manners, no private bookselling enterprize could be expected to publish them, since no sale could be calculated upon sufficiently large to indemnify it. The subscription which entitles to membership in this Society, and of course to a copy of its publications, is the moderate one of a guinea per annum, and the number of members is limited we believe to twelve hundred.

The society has already issued seven publications, and it is expected that its productions will in future appear with still greater frequency. They are put forth in an exceedingly elegant form, edited with great care and accuracy, and in all respects reflect much credit on the spirit and taste of those who have been employed to prepare them for the press.

Few of these publications would be very proper for review in a periodical like ours, or, indeed, in any other periodical except the Retrospective,' the discontinuance of which we have never ceased to deplore. But we are by no means inclined to underrate their importance or the interest. They are not only curious as remains of our own literature, but they reflect light on our general as well as our literary history, and on the manners and customs of former times; while, being printed verbatim from the ancient manuscripts, they afford to the student of our philology and grammar, a vast collection of valuable materials, and impart much knowledge respecting the state of the language in the earlier epochs of its history.

This series of publications, of which we can give little more than the titles, are An Alliterative Poem on the Deposi'tion of King Richard II., by Richard de Maidstone, edited by

"Thomas Wright, Esq., of Trinity College, Cambridge.' This is from a very ancient MSS., since the author died at Aylesford in 1396. Secondly, A Historie of the Arrival of Edward IV. in England, and the Finall Recouerye of his Kingdomes from Henry VI. A.D. MCCCCLXXI. Edited by John Bruce, Esq., F.S.A.' Third, Kynge Johan. A Play, in two parts, by John Bale,' one of our old dramatists, who died 1563. This work is edited by J. Payne Collier, Esq., F.S.A., from the MS. of the author in the library of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire. Fourthly, a larger volume, entitled Plumpton Cor' respondence,' being a series of letters, chiefly domestic, written in the reigns of Edward IV., Richard III., Henry VII., and Henry VIII. Edited by Thomas Stapleton, Esq., F.S.A., from Sir Edward Plumpton's Book of Letters; with notices historical and biographical of the family of Plumpton, of Plumpton, in the county of York. These letters, with the exception of those of the Paston family, published some years ago in two volumes quarto, are the earliest specimens in the English language of familiar epistolary correspondence, and, as such, form a curious comment on the manners and customs of our ancestors, and, indeed, on their domestic life generally. Fifthly, Anecdotes and 'Traditions, illustrative of Early English History and Literature,' derived from MS. sources, and edited by William J. Thoms, Esq., F.S.A. Sixthly, A Chronicle of the First Thirteen Years of the Reign of King Edward the Fourth, by John Warkworth, D.D.,' and edited by James Orchard Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S., and lastly the volume which stands at the head of this article.

Each of these publications is preceded by a valuable historical introduction, affording ample materials for remark, if our space permitted. We shall restrict ourselves, however, in the present article, to the fifth of these volumes, which alone, from the nature of the matters it contains, and its comparative freedom from obsolete language and an antiquated orthography, we hope to make interesting to the generality of our readers. It is a curious mélange, partaking somewhat of the nature of Selden's Table'Talk,' Bacon's Apophthegms,' or Camden's Remains. Of the motives in which the publication originated, the following account is given in the preface.

In submitting to the Members of the Camden Society the following anecdotes and traditions, the editor feels called upon, before proceeding, to describe the sources from which they are derived, to explain the motives which induced him to suggest to the council the propriety of the present publication; a suggestion acceded to with kindness which calls forth his best thanks.

In the first place, then, it appeared to the editor very desirable

that the Society should follow the example set them by Chaucer, whose intermixture of lighter matters, amidst the graver portions of his Canterbury tales,' has been the subject of frequent and well deserved encomium; so that those members of the society who think Minerva looks most bewitching when her face is dimpled with a smile, may be allowed an occasional glimpse of their divinity in that mood which they deem the happiest.

In the next place, the delight with which the few works of a similar character, existing in English literature, such as Selden's Table Talk, Bacon's Apophthegms, Spence's Anecdotes, and though last not least in our dear love, Camden's Remains, have been perused by innumerable readers, convinced him that a volume of Camdeniana,' even though it should be of far inferior merit to its admirable prototypes, would not be without its admirers. He was of course aware that the scattered anecdotes to be found in its pages would by many, be looked upon as trifling contributions to our stores of knowledge, scarcely as bricks from which great buildings might be made, scarcely perhaps as the straws necessary to make the bricks. Yet on the other hand he felt persuaded, that these materials trifling as they seemed, were worthy of preservation, and capable of being turned to good

account.'

The work is divided into three parts, the first of which is entirely derived from the Harleian MS. No. 6395, entitled Merry Passages and Jests,' compiled by Sir Nicholas Lestrange, elder brother of that singular genius, Sir Roger Lestrange. This MS. our author tells us contains a collection of nearly six hundred articles, of which the reader is here presented with a hundred and forty-one; the greater part of the rest being either not worth publication or not fit to be published. To this portion of the work there are prefixed some extensive notices of Sir Nicholas Lestrange and his family, by John Gough Nichols, Esq.

The second part of the book is derived from the Lansdowne MS. No. 231, written by John Aubrey, and containing some of the materials collected for a projected work, which was to have been entitled 'Remains of Gentilism and Judaism.'

The third part has been extracted from No. 3890 of the Ad'ditional MSS.' in the British Museum, from the common-place book of a Mr. John Collett.

The second part is undoubtedly not without interest, as recording many of the singular superstitions of our own country; but the first part is the one likely to prove most attractive. It is in fact a sort of elder Joe Miller, with frequently an additional advantage derived from the quaintness and raciness of the olden time. From this we shall proceed to present the reader with a few extracts.

A LONG SERMON.

'There was one preacht in summer and stood two houres; and one