to determine; seeing that some of the predisposing and collateral circumstances are not as yet very explicable, and others, we fear, not very creditable to the jealous and intermeddling parties concerned. But that any controversy of the sort should have so unseasonably risen at all on such a subject, is deeply to be deplored. And still more is it to be deplored that a course of events, which promised so successful an issue, should have taken the disastrous turn it has done, in consequence of contemporaneous local troubles, most of which, though wholly unconnected with the main work of the Khond Agency, yet came to be untowardly blended and confounded with it. Whether there has been in reality any departure from that wise and judicious line of policy and action which secured the unanimous approbation of Lord Elphinstone and his council, remains to be seen. Our own decided impression is, that there has not. But, as the whole subject has now been submitted to the investigation of a high minded and honourable man; and as his report will doubtless be, in due time, submitted to the consideration of judges as high-minded and honorable as himself, we deem it in every way more expedient to await their decision. Meanwhile, as regards the result in its more immediate bearing on the official credit, conduct, and character of the Agent, we know no valid ground for fear, or misgivings. What we do fear, is, lest-as the inevitable effect of unpleasant feelings excited by angry controversy, and the consequent distraction of attention, diversion of energy, and deadening of awakened interest,-the great philanthropic cause itself should be seriously damaged and lost, in the estimation of the public, and even of government itself. But, let us hope better things. Let us hope that neither the public nor the government will allow themselves to forget the bright and glorious object that lies athwart and beyond the murky atmosphere in which, for a time, it has been shrouded from the general view. Let them not forget that the cries of miserable victims, constantly offered in hecatombs to propitiate a bloody and cruel deity are still ringing in their ears, and that, with the cries of these slaughtered adults-slaughtered and torn to pieces alive with a ferocity which, in the comparison, might prove the savage cannibalism of New Zealand to be very mildness-there mingle the still more piercing cries of thousands of hapless innocents untimely slain. Let them not forget the aggravated and affecting circumstance, that it is not on the farthest verge of this green earth," in "distant barbarous climes," or along the unvisited banks of "rivers unknown to song,"-that these horrible monstrosities are daily and even hourly perpetrated. No; it is in the centre of India, so renowned for its ancient sages and legislators, its ancient arts and sciences, its ancient civilization and vauntingly humane institutions-yea, in the centre of British India, and within sight of the seats of British supremacy, British Magistracy, British Justice, British Benevolence, and British Law! Of the Romans, Pagan though they were, it has been remarked that they "deserved well of human nature for making it an article in their treaty with the Carthaginians, that they should abstain from sacrificing their children to the gods." Let it be the glory of Imperial Britain, Christian as she is, or professes, and ought to beto deserve still better of human nature, by not only emulating, but immeasurably surpassing, the highest philanthropy of Ancient Rome. Already has she interposed, with happiest effect, through the instrumentality of her Viceroys and their Agents, in vindicating the cause of suffering humanity, and in putting an end to the shedding of torrents of innocent blood. Duncan and his co-adjutors laid the foundation of a system for the abolition of the fearfully extensive practice of Infanticide in the Rajput States. The Marquis of Wellesley put an effectual stop to the periodical massacre of little infants, who were wont to be thrown by their infatuated mothers, in fulfilment of religious vows, into the turbid waters of Gunga Sagor, to be there devoured by the alligators and other monsters of the deep. Lord William Bentinck extinguished those cruel funeral piles that were wont to blaze in thousands over the plains of Hindustan,-awful piles, on which lay stretched the putrid corpse of the father and the living body of the mother,— and around them standing, the poor hapless children-not to excite the yearnings of a mother's compassion by their sobs and wailings-not to quench the devouring flames with their tearsbut,-let humanity shudder!-in the name of their gods to apply the torch, that, in a moment, was to leave them fatherless motherless orphans in a friendless world! For Lord Hardinge, our best wishes are, that, ere he lay down the insignia of the mightiest viceroyalty under the sun, he may be priviledged to witness another noble triumph to the cause of humanity and religion, in the infliction of a final death-blow on the horrible and sanguinary superstitions of Khondistan. And for Imperial Britain our wishes rise higher still. It was the boast of the greatest of the Cæsars, that, having found Rome brick, he left it marble. But for Britain our prayer is, that On these high heaven shall shed indulgent smiles. Shall truth divine her tearless victories spread; Wide and more wide the heaven-born light shall stream, Unwonted warmth the softened savage feel, Strange chiefs admire, and turban'd warriors kneel, And mark the hour, whose faithful steps for thee, ART. II.-1. Papers on subjects connected with the duties of the Corps of Royal Engineers. Vol. II., London 1838. (On Hurricanes, by Lieut. Col. Reid, R. E.) 2. An attempt to develope the LAW OF STORMS by means of facts, arranged according to place and time; and hence to point out a cause for the variable winds, with the view to practical use in Navigation, illustrated by charts and woodcuts. Second edition, with additions. By Lieut. Colonel W. Reid, C. B., F. R. S. (of the Royal Engineers.) London 1841. 3. An Enquiry into the nature and course of Storms in the Indian Ocean, south of the Equator, with a view of discovering their origin, extent, rotatory character, rate and direction of progression, barometric depression, and other concomitant phenomena: for the practical purpose of enabling ships to ascertain the proximity and relative position of hurricanes; with suggestions on the means of avoiding them. By Alexander Thom, Surgeon 86th, (Royal County Down) Regt. London 1845. 4. Journal of the Asiatic Society, (Ten Memoirs on Storms, by Capt. Piddington.) 5. The Horn-Book of Storms for the Indian and China Seas. By Henry Piddington, Sub-Secretary to the Asiatic Society, and Curator of the Museum of Economic Geology of India. Calcutta 1844. STORMS AND HURRICANES! Surely we "ought to consider with ourselves; to bring in storms and hurricanes among our readers, is a most dreadful thing; for there is not a more dreadful wild-fowl than your hurricane living, and we ought to look to it." We must therefore, we opine, "write us a prologue, saying thus, or to the same defect, ladies or fair ladies, we would wish you, or we would request you, or we would entreat you, not to fear, not to tremble;-our life for yours. If you think we come hither as a hurricane, it were pity of our life." Such is a Shaksperian version of a scene that was, or might have been, enacted in our deliberative Council. But seriously; although undoubtedly there be nothing more terrific to the imagination than the "war of elements," there is yet one thing which, to our thinking, is more fearful in the endurance, more horrid in the remembrance, and the recurrence of which will be more earnestly deprecated by those who have once experienced both; and that is a dead and longcontinued calm. One, accordingly, who was no stranger to the mechanism of human feelings and affections and passions, when he would depict to us the full unmitigated horrors of the sea, never dreamt of setting before us the lightning's flash and the thunder's roar, masts in splinters and sails in ribands, "waves mountain high," and troughs deep as yawning caverns. He knew well that in the midst of the elemental strife there is earnest and intense excitement, and that wherever there is excitement, there is life,-troubled, tossed, agonized life if you will, but still active, hopeful life. Coleridge could have delineated the storm, as Virgil and Falconer and a host of others had done before him, and as an inferior "artist" would certainly have done in carrying out the design of the Ancient Mariner; but no delineation of such a scene could have come within reach of the concentrated horror of these lines, which once read, can never be rooted out of the memory:— Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, "Twas sad as sad could be; And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea. All in a hot and copper sky The bloody sun, at noon, Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the moon. Day after day, day after day We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. Water, water every where, And all the boards did shrink: Water, water every where, Nor any drop to drink. The very deep did rot; Alas! That ever this should be; Yea slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea. About, about, in reel and rout, Burnt green, and blue and white. * And every tongue, through utter drought We could not speak, no more than if We had been choked with soot. |