from the gist of their composition it is evident that they do not know the amount of the offence. They imagine that they are in some degree squaring accounts by leaving their property behind them; and it is impossible to resist a belief that to a certain extent they act upon our own principle of self-defence. The Havildar-Major had told them, they say, that the Madras Sepoys were to sieze the arms of the regiment and to kill the

sudden fluctuations of this magnitude, no machinery will keep it supplied. It is no more possible to legislate beforehand for a panic than for a revolution. The Bank Act does secure us a supply of circulation which will never oscillate far on either side of our actual wants; but no legislation can furnish an adequate supply of any commodity, the demand for which is every now and then magnified by fear to double or treble its natural proportions. If a sudden dread of fam-men: "if he had not said this, we would not ine were to come over us whenever corn is dear, and induce every one who had a shilling to spare to rush to the market and lay in a year's stock of flour, we should have half the population starved in earnest. We don't do this, because we trust free-trade in corn to set us right. We do rush for accommodation whenever gold is scarce, because we have not learned to trust to the working of a system which is in fact free-trade in gold. Until this truth is brought home to us, we shall never be able to get through a season of pressure without increasing its evils by exaggerated fears; and every attempt to throw upon Acts of Parliament the blame which is due to our own selfish folly, will anly postpone the time when a more wholesome feeling shall render a run for gold as obsolete as a rush for corn has now become.

From The Spectator, 7 Nov. THE SEPOY PROCLAMATIONS AND LETTERS.

have deserted and saved our lives by flight." They remind their Colonel, that when an Adjutant was attacked, they seized the Sepoy, and that the regiment had been faithful in previous times of peril, although the Madras troops were not present. This representation is at least plausible. It is quite possible that the men believed the Madras troops to have been brought up for the purpose of their destruction; and from the manner in which their letter to the Colonel was answered, he seems to have thought that they were speaking in good faith, though acting under a false impression. They could not understand the arrangement of the Europeans; is it certain that we can understand all their movements and intentions? We remember some time since how the Times made merry with the exercises of certain Hindoo youths in British colleges, who had attempted to show off their scholarship by proposing and solving problems that were to us simply ridiculous: their compositions proved how difficult it was for the cleverest Hindoo minds, even at a docile age, to catch the purpose and spirit of British instruction.

IT is impossible to avoid smiling at the style in which the Sepoys of the Fifty-second Bengal Infantry address their Colonel, "his Excellency the Lord of Clemency, the Boun- Whether we look to the polite literature tiful of the Age," &c. But there is no doubt of the Fifty-second Bengal Infantry regiment, that half of the absurdity lies in the strange or to the most hostile proclamations thuntongue, with its idiom, which has not the dered at the British by the Government at same force to those who read it idiomatically Delhi and other Native leaders, we find the that it has to us. How ridiculous is a French same essentially different strain of thought letter translated into English; and the more and feeling. There is indeed one qualificapolished the letter the more foolish it reads. tion to be taken with regard to all these How laughable to readers in a distant documents; they come to us by channels country would be an English letter with some that are not entirely without question. The hostile purpose and its polite if not affection- proclamation of the King of Delhi seems to ate closing; the writer ending "my dear Sir, have been a placard; its wide diffusion shows believe me to remain yours truly"! But, that it had some common purpose; and it apart from the style, there is also something may be said that the edicts of revolutionary that is not easy to translate in the very sub- governments do not need authentication. stance of the Sepoy letter. The men are Another specimen of the seditious literature committing that which in our country is re-is said to have been found among the papers garded as a great crime-deserting; yet of one of the rebels, and the story is not im

probable. The so-called proclamations of actly to the same effect; but its preamble is
Nena Sahib appear to have been posted up more eloquent: "As, by the bounty of the
in places subject to his authority. The com- glorious Almighty God and the enemy-de-
position which was found among the papers stroying fortune of the Emperor, the yellow-
was the prayer of Shunkur Shah, the old faced and narrow-minded people have been
Rajah of Gond: it expresses an earnestness sent to heil, and Cawnpore has been con-
of devotion truly Oriental, praying for the quered." On these grounds, while the public
scattering of the English as if our race were servants are bound cheerfully "to engage
a nuisance and a pest. Nothing can be more their whole mind in executing the orders of
shocking to us than the description of the the Government," "it is the incumbent duty ·
way in which women have been massacred of all the ryots and landed proprietors of
and children destroyed; but Shunkur Shah every district to rejoice at the thought that
makes the destruction of "the enemy and the Christians have been sent to hell, and
their families" the object of a direct prayer both the Hindoo and Mahometan religions
to "the terrible mother Devee," whom he have been confirmed." A third paper is an
requests to "eat the unclean race." Here is order addressed by Nena Sahib to the Mayor
a combination of ideas which the English ap- of Cawnpore, directing him to contradict ru-
prehension not only fails to sieze but repels. mors that European soldiers had arrived at
Let us imagine a prayer asking a superior Allahabad, in order to prevent the alarmed
being to eat that which is unclean, and we townspeople from running away. The Mayor
shall see how thoroughly different from our is to proclaim that regiments of cavalry and
own must be the Hindoo notion of worship, infantry and batteries have been despatched
of Divine intervention, of Divine attributes, to check the Europeans; so that the people
and of blessings for the world. To us the shall remain in their houses without appre-
sentiment of this prayer is diabolical; yet hension and engage their minds in their
there appears no reason to imagine that the work. The mere style of these compositions
old Shah was an unredeemed fiend. He is enough to prove that the writer is not ac-
evidently had some qualities which we admire
-amongst them fortitude under a horrible
fate.

The most remarkable of these compositions, however, are those which purport to be proclamations issued by Nena Sahib. They come to us without authentication; but on the other hand, there appears to be no motive for fabricating them, and certainly they are in harmony both with the supposed genius of that monster rebel and with the exigencies of his position. The first, dated July 1st, is couched in these terms

"As, by the kindness of God and the ikbal or good fortune of the Emperor, all the Christians who were at Delhi, Poonah, Satarah, and other places, and even those 5000 European soldiers who went in disguise into the former city and were discovered, are destroyed and sent to hell by the pious and sagacious troops, who are firm to their religion, and as they have all been conquered by the present Government, and as no trace of them is left in these places, it is the duty of all the subjects and servants of the Government to rejoice at the delightful intelligence, and to carry on their respective work with comfort

and ease."

tuated by feelings common to the two races.
In the announcement that "both the Hindoo
and Mahometan religions have been con-
firmed by the destruction of the Christians,"
we see the craft of the Mussulmen playing
upon the Hindoo so nakedly that it is diffl-
cult for us to understand how the fact cannot
have been equally obvious to the Hindoos
themselves; yet they have evidently been led
for a time into an attempt at restoring Mus-
sulman supremacy in lieu of the milder and
more tolerable rule of the British. With
those essential differences in feelings, views,
and even in the use of language, how impos-
sible it is for the two races to come to a clear
mutual understanding! We can scarcely
measure the amount of moral culpability in
our adversaries; for, with their training, reli-
fanaticism, and modifies the criminality of
gion approves their treachery and destructive
their most barbarous conduct. To them the
brutal slaughter of women and children is
justified by some religious sanction. A Nena
Sahib is a noxious brute, whom we may
treat as a natural enemy and extirpate as we
would a hyena; but even the byæna we do
not hold to be morally responsible, as a man

The next bears the same date and is ex- would be.

If there are these excuses for the barbari- | as we expected, in a new form suggested by ans, it is impossible for us to deny that there the practical example at Whydah. An inhave been amongst them many instances of genious Frenchman, M. Régis, invented a great kindness and of chivalrous devotion. plan of conveying free Africans from Whydah Several cases of generous and gallant con- to Guadaloupe and Martinique; one of the duct have been related, in order to prove colonies accepted the proposal, and free that the majority of the Native chiefs, and Africans have accordingly been carried over. the people generally, are not with the muti- It is also reported that other cargoes have neers, but are with, the British. The private been landed in French Guiana. In these letters teem with narrations of both Hindoos colonies, the Negroes are to labor at the pay and Mussulmans who have entered the field in of 11 francs a month for ten years,—at least arms to fulfil their contracts with the Brit- that is stated to be the rate of wages which ish; who have continued faithful to us even a free African can earn. Should the French when they were themselves supposed to be West Indies be brought to a very high state treacherous; who have saved the lives of offi- of productivity, perhaps. Negro wages might cers and fugitives, and have refused all re- rise; but if they were to rise to a rate inward; who have gone through great trouble convenient for French employers, the remedy and danger in order to secure the safety of the would be easy, an importation of new free most helpless. At present we are contend- Africans would augment the supply of labor ing with an immense force of mutineers; the in proportion to the demand, and wages military organized force of Bengal, whom we would be kept down. It is therefore anticipshould have called out to put down the civil ated that the Negro will be very wretched inhabitants of the latter, has rebelled; and either in the French West Indies or in Guiit certainly proves a great amount of attach- ana, and a species of protest has been made ment to the British if the Natives can mus- against the new traffic. French casuists ter any show of antagonism to the action of might retort, that the objections to the transthe Sepoys. Yet the instances, as we have shipment of Negroes apply with equal force said, are innumerable; and it would as yet to the importation of Indian coolies in the be quite impossible to determine what is the British West Indies, and still more to the proportion of treachery or fidelity. importation of Chinese. We know how essentially different are the cases; but the retort is one which, whether fair or not, may be used against us in any European council.

These are considerations which must qualify our judgment in criticizing the conduct of those who are now responsible in India. To combat the Sepoys is a plain duty, and the course is direct; but how are we to deal with Sepoys who are less hostile than misled, who believe themselves to be flying for life? If the Natives exhibit an amusing trait which is like a childishness or puerility never outgrown, are not the persons charged with the practical administration of the country bound to consider that undeveloped condition of their subjects? If we make allowances for inferiority of race, barbaric training, and natural fears, how much larger allowance must we make in consideration of truly meritorious conduct and of heroic services? When these considerations are taken into account, we find that, simple as the principles of our own Government may be, the treatment of the Hindoos in detail is neither so simple nor so self-evident a thing as some easy writers would represent it.

From The Spectator, 31 Oct. THE "FREE AFRICAN" TRADE. THE slave-trade has been renewed exactly

But there are worse objections to the new French traffic: it has been imitated by Spaniards, Portuguese, and Americans. The demand for "free" Africans on the West Coast having exceeded the supply, it became necessary to stimulate the collection of the commodity, and the local chiefs have resorted to a very summary process. They have set to work in order to hunt up recruits, and the Black authorities do it very much upon the plan of our old pressgangs: they take the free Africans, willy-nilly, and accept a bonus on the transaction; they catch them as prisoners of war, detain them as slaves, and sell them as "free." It is a slave-trade in the name of free emigration; and the Daily News calls upon Lord Palmerston and Lord Shaftesbury to lay their heads together for the purpose of carrying out a better slave-trade suppression.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," and slave-trade by any other name has as shocking an odor. Whether the

FREE AFRICAN

Africans are called free or bond, the results to themselves bodily are likely to be much the same, if the new free slave-trade were to go on under the condition of the old traffic. Nevertheless, there are serious difficulties in the recommencement of the crusade. Our treaties and conventions with various foreign countries stipulate that they shall not tolerate the traffic in slaves, but the same treaties have no force as against the migration of free Africans. We have ourselves set an example of that migration from Sierra Leone. If we object that in the new case the Africans were originally captured as slaves and freed subsequently, that is exactly the story of the Negroes of our own colony.. It would seem as if M. Régis and his legal friends had been too sharp for us. We have a great alliance against the slave-trade, but it never occurred to us to render the same alliance operative against "free" emigration: and in order to render it so, we must revise the whole of our treaties, and obtain the consent of the several powers for the suppression of the free traffic. Such an agreement, however, is most , improbable. Our own Emancipation scheme has not been so very successful as to have great moral force with slave-owning countries. Our chief ally, upon whose support we rest so much in Europe, evidently does not incline to carry out the league against the new form of slave-trade. We have only with great difficulty succeeded in keeping up the armed coöperation against the slave-trade; , and the tendency to mutiny among our halfcoerced allies has been very considerable. The French have never been cordially with us, and they have kept up a joint fleet as much out of jealousy as anything else. The Americans have refused to allow that "right of search" which is requisite to prevent the flag of any nation from being a cover for the slave-trade properly so called. The state which has really acted most cordially with us, Brazil, we have treated with an oppressive hauteur. It has been only by the force of our influence, our strength at sea, and perpetual concessions to purchase agreement on this particular point, that we have managed to keep the league on foot, and at any moment the defection of France would have gone far to break it down. Our position has become so difficult and faulty, that we are not likely to obtain the same agreement on totally new grounds, professedly going far beyond the grounds that we have already occupied.

DCCX LIVING AGE. VOL. XX. 4

It is certain that Lord Palmerston has been perfectly in earnest on the subject of the slave-trade; but how is he to act-what can he do? To what court can he appeal for slave-trade treaties? To the Powers ?-We the interpretation and enforcement of the know beforehand what their judgment would be. To our principal ally? To the United States ?-Nowhere could Lord Palmerston command any influential backing. The only resource, then, is to enforce the slave-trade in other words by war afloat. But in the treaties by the means of our naval strength, present state of Europe, with an Indian war on hand, and without a cordial alliance anywhere save in France, Lord Palmerston would incur a great responsibility if he were to at-tempt an enforcement of the slave-trade treaties by naval broadsides.

It would seem probable, therefore, that in and of the religious feeling of Lord Shaftesspite of the earnestness of Lord Palmerston, bury, we must perforce fall back upon the common rule of life. We cannot compel France and other foreign states to regulate their conduct by our sense of right and wrong; and we must content ourselves with doing what we think right, and compelling no more than our own family to follow the same law.

Out of evil cometh good. No course of action has committed England to so many embarrassments and mistakes as the slave trade suppression. It has placed the Mothercountry in a false position with many of her African concessions from European states at own colonies; it has made us win small the cost of larger European concessions; it has rendered us odious for a petty dictation to those who should be our friends. Perhaps the compulsory abandonment of the policy may better the condition of England in Europe.

African will suffer in the long run.
Nor is it to be assumed that even the
yet to be satisfied that the position of an
We have
African as a slave in America is worse than
that of an African as a slave in Africa. It
pression of slavery which has, more than any-
has been the attempt at the compulsory sup-
thing else, prevented the education of the
African in America; which has checked the
national tendency to transfer him from African
deserts to Anglo-Saxon civilization. Should
the Negro population of America be very
a larger share of attention and consideration;
greatly multiplied, it will necessarily acquire
its civilization must be attended to; and
Africa after all may be civilized in America.
This result would happen the more speedily
should England lend her influence in a friend-
ly instead of a compulsory form.

From Tait's Magazine. his contraband cruises, a man of two or three

THE SMUGGLER'S REVENGE: A SEA-and-twenty, by name George Gilbert, the

SIDE YARN.

Come list awhile unto a greybeard's story.-Old
Play.

A fearful tale-the truth were' worse.-P. B.
Shelley.

In the year 179-, some five miles from the place where I am now writing, lived John Brown, the son of a substantial yeoman-farmer, and the hero of the tale I am now about

to tell—a fine, jovial, open-hearted young fellow was he in those days, handsome enough to turn the heads of half the girls within an afternoon's ride of his father's homestead, where but for his restless dislike of any set

tled mode of life, he might perhaps have been now leading a tranquil old age. But the life of a farmer had no charms for him. A life of excitement for me!" said the wilful young man to his father's remonstrance, "none of your hum-drum, stay-at-home, fireside happiness for Jack Brown." And, so thinking, he soon joined a band of smugglers,

son of a gentleman in reduced circumstances, and who, having been wild at college, to which by his father, at great personal inconvenience, he had been sent, for he was a youth of promise, in expectation of then doing something good for himself, had some months returned home, and growing tired of family reproaches, and having too much spirit to wish to live as a pensioner on paternal good nature, had joined the Petrel's adventurers. Brown and he were friends, yet in mind and body. By the side of the never were two men more utterly dissimilar genial Jack Brown, the quiet, saturnine George Gilbert made a poor figure yet there was more in him than a stranger would have Stern in feature, with a face whereon a smile supposed as the smugglers soon discovered.. seldom beamed-and then it was a smile more unpleasant than any frown-with nothing genial about it-cold as moonlight-a smile of mingled bitterness and contempt, who at that time infested this coast. In George Gilbert, nevertheless, was emphatithose days smuggling was not only more cally the brain of the Petrel's crew. He it common but less disreputable than now. France being almost closed to fair traders by Whenever a cool, calculating spirit, a keen was who planned for others to execute. war, those who required such fripperies as eye and indomitable perseverance were remuslins, and the like, or such creature comforts as Cognac, were obliged-if they stud- them; whenever a dashing enterprise was to quired, Gilbert was the man who furnished ied economy-to buy them in the cheapest be carried out by a strong nerve, a reckless market; and this was in the hands of the heart, and an iron hand, then Jack Brown smugglers, who at that time formed no inwas truly "Jack at a pinch." Little wonder considerable proportion of England's marithen if, with two such men banded together time population. Young Brown, who from in one cause, the Petrel soon became famous his childhood had been used to the sea, in a for successful cruises, and hair-breadth esshort time from the opening of this narative capes, or that her crew who were all bound had, by his energy and aptness for command, together in a kind of partnership, soon were elicited warm praises from his brother smug-in a good way to realise a handsome livelihood glers, and was speedily elected captain of as by their nefarious practices, in spite of the "rakish" a looking lugger, called "the Petrel," as ever baffled a King's cruiser. Once in every week or two the Petrel brought in

the much coveted muslins and silks for the

ladies, and the Cognac, &c., for their liege lords, who, however much they might reprobate smugglers and smuggling in public, had not the least objection to become purchasers in private of the smugglers' wares, at far lower rates than they could have purchased them of the fair traders as by law protected and recognized.

Among Brown's intimate companions, was an old schoolfellow, who had joined him in

revenue.

Now, although it is by no means my intention to dose my readers with too much sentimentality in these veritable chronicles, still I suppose I should be lessening whatever interest my story may possess, by omitting such love matters as are necessary to that story's development.

Let me be brief, however.

Jack Brown wooed and won as pretty a

girl as ever wore a contraband silk dress, or Furness. It was likewise surmised at the kissed a handsome young smuggler,-Kate time that George Gilbert-though he had