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direct correspondence was proved to have existed between the malecontents at Kurnool and the Wahhabi faction at Hyderabad, it was clear that their sentiments and objects, whether devised in concert or not, were essentially the same.

The transactions of which we have now endeavoured to show the true tendency and importance, were doubtless duly reported in the English newspapers at the time, but passed wholly unheeded by the British public, who saw in the dispossessment of a refractory nawab, and the imprisonment of a native prince, nothing more than the ordinary and constitutional exercise of the authority legitimately vested in the rulers of India. But it is impossible to say what might have been the consequences of this abortive movement, had any grounds of private discontent combined with the efforts of the Wahhabi propagandists to shake the fidelity of the sepoys. The materiel of the Madras army (unlike that of Bengal, which consists in a great measure of Brahmins and other highcaste Hindoos) is drawn principally from the lower grades of Moslems; and the famous mutiny of Vellore in July 1806, which, both for its suddenness and secrecy, and for the merciless spirit displayed by the revolters, bore no incon derable similitude to the recent outbreak at Cabul,* affords fatal evidence of the ease with which their passions may be goaded to acts of violence. It would naturally be supposed that, particularly at such a crisis as the present, the government would avoid exciting the augry feelings of a force thus constituted, by any tampering with their pay; yet such a reduction has recently been attempted, and the consequences have been such as might have been anticipated.

From the first establishment of the native army in India it has been customary, instead of organizing a regular commissariat service for the maintemance of the troops in the field, to

issue to the soldier an extra pecuniary allowance for the purchase of provisions, under the title of Batta-a Hindostani phrase, properly implying the rate of exchange between coins bearing the same name but from different mints. This ordinary allowance was termed half batta-but when the troops were called on for field service, or stationed beyond the boundaries of their own presidency, a further advance was made, which was denominated full batta. This latter regulation particularly affected the Madras troops, from the continual calls made on them for service in the Nagpoor and Hyderabad territories, &c., and until very recently no attempt was made to alter it. But in the latter part of 1841, the fort of Aseerghur, which (though in the Bombay territory) is garrisoned by Madras troops, was reduced from a full to a half batta station by a government order; but the regiment stationed there (the 52d Madras infantry) refused, on the next pay-day, to receive their money with. out full batta, and were not without difficulty reduced to submission by the efforts of the European officers. The government, however, persevered in the plan of reduction, which was next put in force (in February of the present year) at the important stations of Jaulnah and Secunderabad, in the Nizam territories, where, in addition to the proposed diminution of batta, the pay of the soldier was further curtailed by being issued in the depreciated coinage of Hyderabad.† Secunderabad is one of the most extensive cantonments of the Madras army, and derives additional importance from its close vicinity to Hyderabad, the capital city of the Nizam, and filled (as we have already mentioned) with a disaffected Moslem population. The troops followed the example of their comrades at Asseerghur-not less than four regiments (7th, 32d, and 8 th infantry, and 4th light cavalry) rejected their pay unless accompanied

*The standard of Tippoo, whose sons were then state prisoners in the fort of Vellore, was hoisted by the mutineers; but we believe it was never clearly ascertained under what instigation they acted, or what ulterior objects they proposed to themselves. An interesting narrative of this remarkable revolt is given in the United Service Journal for May 1841.

†The troops, officers and men, had always been paid, when quartered in the Nizam's dominions, at the rate of 111 Hyderabad for 100 Company's rupees, the real equiva lent being 120 for 100; but this has been redressed since the outbreak at Secunderabad,

by full batta, and broke out into open mutiny: and though the first-named corps, after some demur, returned to their duty, the others remained refrac tory till surrounded by a superior force of Europeans and artillery, when several hundreds were disarmed and made prisoners; and have since been either dismissed the service, or draughted into other regiments, as if to disseminate as widely as possible the example of disaffection. At present, (as we are assured by the latest accounts,) all symptoms of insubordination have disappeared; and as the batta grievance has been redressed by order of Lord Ellenborough, this may be really the case. Still it must be admitted as singularly fortunate, that this disturbance did not take place at the time when the fidelity of the soldiers was assailed by the machinations of Mubariz-ed-dowlah and his Wahhabi confederates; and even now, with the examples of the insurrection at Cabul and the mutiny at Vellore before our eyes, who can say how far this seeming security, in the critical state of our affairs in other quarters, is to be depended upon?

Such, up to the present time, have been the visible results of Whig domestic government in India, and of that ever-memorable stroke of Whig policy by which (as we were assured two years ago) our Anglo-Indian empire had been established for ever on an immovable basis; what the ultimate consequences of both may be, is as yet hidden in the womb of time. It had been long since foretold by him whose lightest word was never spoken in vain, at once the most illustrious of our warriors and most sagacious of our statesmen, that "it would not be till Lord Auckland's policy had reached the zenith of apparent success, that its difficulties would begin to develope themselves," and fatally has the prediction been verified. But if the ikbal, or good fortune, which is proverbially believed in the East to attend on all the operations of the Company, has deserted them in their utmost need in the passes of Cabul, it must be allowed that the original instigators of, and agents, in the Affghan war (with the single exception of the unfortunate Macnaghten,) have most signally reaped the benefits of its influence. Titles, pensions, and promotions, have been heaped upon them with an unexam

pled profusion, which presents a strange contrast with the impeachment of Hastings, and the general neglect experienced by those who laid, in past days, the foundations of our Asiatic rule; and before their short-lived laurels have had time to wither, they have been recalled to the tranquil enjoyment of their honours in England, leaving the rectification of their errors to their successors. Even to the last moment of his stay in India, the late viceroy was fostered by the breath of popular favour; and the thunder of the cannon which announced the arrival of Lord Ellenborough, was mingled with the acclamations which rang through the Town Hall of Calcutta from those assembled to do honour to the ruler whom he came to succeed. With the tributes of respect thus tendered we have no fault to find, if considered as on the principle of "speed the parting guest," or with reference to the amiable character and high private worth of the individual; but the laudatory allusions to his transIndian policy, with which the Calcutta addresses were filled, were equally opposed to fact and to good taste; and must (we think) have been felt by the object of them as a painful and humiliating mockery. When Lord Auckland assumed the reigns of government in 1836, the external relations of our Eastern empire were peaceful, the finances prosperous, and the army, notwithstanding the injudicious reductions of Lord William Bentinck, amply sufficient for any duty required within our own frontier; but a far different prospect awaits his successor. A treasury drained to the last rupee-an army defeated in one quarter, and disaffected in another-an almost hopelessly-involved foreign policy-with a war of extermination in Affghanistan -a seemingly interminable bucanier warfare in China, and the probability of hostilities with Burmah and Nepaul --such is the frightful catalogue of difficulties with which the new governor-general is called upon at once to grapple!

But Lord Ellenborough approaches the task with far different qualifications to several of his immediate predecessors, who seem to have assumed the viceregal sceptre of India as a dignified and lucrative sinecure; for the creditable fulfilment of the duties of which little exertion would be requir

ed, and still less any previous knowledge of the institutions and political condition of the countries they were thus called to govern. His services

as President of the Board of Control in 1828, and more recently (in 1840) as chairman of the Lords' Committee on East Indian produce, bear ample and honourable evidence of the extent to which his researches have been carried in the commercial and agricultural resources of our Asiatic territories, and afford a hope that this knowledge may, when the present storm has passed, be brought efficiently to bear on the development of these too long neglected natural riches. The trade of India has now been open seven years, but neither the parliament nor the public have as yet shown themselves adequately aware of its true value and importance. While the possession of the Indus ought to secure to us the whole commerce of Central Asia,* the tea of Assam, the sugar of Hindostan, and the cotton recently introduced from America and Egypt, might be cultivated so eventually both to render us independent of our now precarious trade with China, and to secure our supplies of cotton in the event of a rupture of our hollow friendship with America.

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For the first time during many years, the care of these mighty interests has devolved upon one who is endowed not only with zeal and goodwill, but with that previous acquaintance with India, its resources, and its customs, the want of which has so lamentably marred the well-meant endeavours of more than one of his predecessors. Of his foreign policy, hampered as it must necessarily be at the outset by the task of unravelling the tangled web which has been bequeathed to him, little can at present be said-but he has set out with the commander-in-chief for the northwestern provinces, in order to be

nearer the scene of action-a journey, we trust, to be attended with different results to the memorable progress of Lord Auckland to the same quarter;

and his domestic administration has been commenced auspiciously, by an act of justice to the Madras sepoys in the restoration of the disputed batta. But on the course of Lord Ellenborough's government will mainly depend the question of the future stability, or gradual decline, of our AngloIndian empire; for, though we are not among those who hold the opinion said to have been expressed by a late governor of one of the presidencies, (Sir Charles Metcalfe,) that "he hardly felt secure, on retiring to rest for the night, that the whole fabric might not have vanished into thin air before the morning,"-it cannot be denied that the prestige of unerring wisdom and invincible good fortune, which powerfully conduced to the maintenance of our authority, has sustained a tremendous shock from the late occurrences beyond the Indus. The French press already, in exulting anticipation, has ventured to indicate the period of its extinction:-" England (says the Siècle) "is rich and energe tic: she may re-establish her dominion in India for some time longer; but the term of her Indian empire is marked it will conclude before the quarter of a century." Less than the prescribed period would probably have sufficed, under a continuance of the policy lately pursued, for the accomplishment of this prophecy ; but we have good hope that the evil days have now passed away: and if Lord Ellenborough, at the conclusion of his viceroyalty, has only so far succeeded as to restore our foreign and domestic relations to the same state in which they stood ten years since, he will merit to be handed down to posterity by the side of Clive and Hastings as the second founder of our eastern empire.

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* The exertions of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce have already worked wonders in this quarter--depots have been established at vairous points on the Indus; and the port of Soumeeani, on the Belooch coast west of the mouth of that river, is fast becoming the emporium of a wool trade, the staple of which is supplied by the innumerable flocks grazing on these elevated table lands. A town in the interior called Wudd (145 miles from Khelat and 152 from Soumeeani) is the inland mart for this new trade.

A RECORD OF THE PYRAMIDS.

"Vitam impendere vero."

To this drama is affixed a preface of twenty-nine pages, after a dedication to Sir Robert Peel.

Pars minima estipsa puella sui.

The author, in the first page, tells the right honourable baronet that "he believes there does not exist one who ever questioned his personal disinterestedness or abstract love of his country." The first epithet conveys no meaning; the second would appear sly and insidious; but we are confident that the good Mr Reade had no such intention. He adds, 66 your acceptation of my dedication" (here he begins his versification, which is a fair specimen of the rest) "of the Poem of Italy to you, was an earnest of the success which it finally attained, thus ratifying your expressed opinion of it- -a success which I trust, and fully believe, will be further confirmed by time. Perhaps your accordance of the same honour to the present Drama, may entail on it, also, the like auspices."

We will not object to so fashionable a word as "accordance," although we would rather find it in another sense, its old one. But we must inform Mr John Edmund Reade that to "entail auspices" is sheer nonsense. Auspices lead to events instead of following them.

In the preface, p. 9, Mr Reade quotes a passage from Terence which had, perhaps, been more frequently quoted than any other of antiquity: but, in his equal want of scholarship and reflection, he omits the principal word, the word which conveys what he means to convey; and he makes the speaker in Terence say, "I am a man, and think nothing lies out of my way." Whereas the sentence is, "I am a man, and think nothing indifferent to me which concerns humanity." P. 9. "While the material energies of man, may be overpowered, the spirit and the mind of freedom remains unconquerable.”—How untrue,

how unphilosophical, how contrary to historical fact, is this specimen of Mr Reade's reflections!

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P. 11. It would be difficult to find out, in the second paragraph, what Mr Reade means, and whether he scoffs at " and laughs to scorn" transcendental philosophy, or whether he does it the honour to patronize it as a something beyond a mere tool of mechanism ;— a spark, a scintillation from the all-ineffable Being, who, to judge, far less condemn, his creatures, must leave their thoughts and actions as free as those of their archetype." We sincerely believe that Mr Reade is a religious man: but, his thoughts being never clear nor consistent, he has written here what would have been censured in any minister of sounder sense, and more capable of making just distinctions. Human thoughts and human actions never can be so free as those of the Deity, whose judgments are not to be thus arraigned. Mr Reade will say he did not mean any such thing: we know he did not: we attribute it to the feebleness of his intellect, and not to the unsoundness of his faith.

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P. 12. Here we must notice some absolutely false statements. "On my return, I published my long-laboured poem of Italy. I have been aware, in common with my poet brethren, [he means poetical,] that 'poetry,' in its highest walk, had become extinct, or, in other words, out of date,' [as if there were no difference,] and its altar altogether desecrated; that even the advantages of criticism were neutralized; its daily habit of pandering to the suggestions of friendship or instigations of spleen, having rendered its aids useless; the voices of the more discerning were drowned in the blazonries of the puffer," &c. We will not stop to enquire how a voice can be drowned in a blazonry-how a sound can be absorbed by a colour; but we must remark that there is no evidence of any living author who has taken

A Drama, in ten scenes, by John Edmund Reade, author of " Italy," "Catiline," &c.

VOL. LII. NO. CCCXXI.

H

was

such incipient pains to collect voices
and conciliate puffers, as Mr John
Edmund Reade. It is incredible to
what a degree he has been successful,
sometimes by unwearied flatteries,
and sometimes by piteous complaints
that his health had suffered, and
suffering, by the malignity of his
enemies and the neglect of the public.
We will leave his "poet brethren" to
settle the question with him, whether
"poetry in its highest walk has become
extinct, and its altar altogether dese-
crated." Let Mr Milman, Mr Words-
worth, Mr Montgomery, and other
moral poets, come forward on this
ground. For our own parts, we would
rather that a friend of ours should
have written the three worst pages of
Mrs Hemans, than the eight or nine
thousand verses strung like empty
birds' eggs in the dormitory of Mr
Reade. He goes on, I was also
prepared for the prejudice which
would at once condemn, without even
partially reading, far less dwelling on,
that which had cost me such time and
labour of thought to erect." What
prejudice can arise against a person so
inoffensive? And yet we wonder
that those whose business it is not to
criticize for the public, should, after
perusing one poem of this author, ab.
stain from even partially reading,
But,
far less dwelling on," the rest.
happy man, he now returns to his se-
clusion, "as quietly confident of re-
sults as if they had already hap-
pened!"

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"The sense of the duty of his mission will lay on him with the obligation of a moral law." In the first place, this is nonsense; in the second, the graramar is defective; and we are afraid some critic less lenient than ourselves will take up Prisciau's cudgel and lay it on poor Mr Reade. He writes in two lines of prose and bad Latin, part of two verses in Horace. He writes

"Si vis me flere, Primum dolendum sit tibi."

Horace wrote, as every twelve-year-
old schoolboy knows-

"Si vis me flere, dolendum est
Primum ipsi tibi."

It Mr Reade had ever once read
Horace, or had ever been taught the
scanning of a Latin verse, he could
not have made this mistake.

"His aspirations responded, or an

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"Discarding as the 'merest weakness' of the mind all vague and metaphysical analyzation."

Mr Reade has abundantly proved to us that there are merer weaknesses of the mind, though certainly more vague, than metaphysical analýzation; analyzation cannot be vague, although it may be inexact.

"The triteness and iterations of everyday common-place conveyed to them with an air of undue and false importance.

If Mr Reade had looked at the face
of any friend while he was delivering
this sentence, he would surely have
seen an involuntary smile at such a
Daguerreotype resemblance of him-
self. But he intends this rather for
it: "He will walk along his own path,
supported by the thoughts which have
made him the independent, the morally
happy being he is become, drawing in
all pure and joyful impresses from
nature round him, while carefully
mixing with his fellow beings in a
circle not wide enough to distract, or
weaken, or deaden, his social sympa-
thies; at the same time he will stand
apart, so that he will be carefully
mixing with his fellow beings, and
at the same time (mind you) he will
stand apart!" Doing what? why, in
sheer earnestness and sincerity of his
"mission;" for Mr Reade gives you
to understand in the preceding page
that he is "the true vates," devoting
his life to the worship of the good
and true. We are afraid he has been
devoting his life to such a phantom
of vanity as was never seen before,
even in the magical circle, or rather
the fairy ring of poets. "Thus should
he be occupied until he dies." We
have no objection, provided he does
not spoil our dramas by the nausea
he excites at his grave coxcombry.
"And however baffled or mystified
by time or circumstance," &c. Time
has nothing at all to do with him; and,
according to his own account, circum-
stance can have very little; for he
said three minutes ago, that he is
supported by thoughts which have
made him the independent, the
happy being," &c. The vates soon
discloses himself a potentate. "Who
would exchange the existence of such
á potentate?"

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