of cholera in the town will now admit of the aid of your students being withdrawn, and request the favour of you to recal them.

We cannot let this opportunity pass without recording our approbation of their conduct, and the great benefit derived from their skill and attention.

We beg leave to enclose the copy of a paragraph [quoted above] of a letter from the chief secretary to Government, expressive of the sentiments his Lordship in council entertains of the measures adopted, in the deputation of your students; and we return you thanks for the hearty co-operation we have experienced from you personally in averting the calamity with which the town was afflicted.-We are, Sir, your most obedient servants,

Calcutta Police Office, 13th Sept. 1925.

(Signed) C. R. BARWELL, Chief Magistrate. W. C. BLAQUIERE, Magistrate.

Now what was the nature of the calamity which this Native Medical Institution contributed so essentially to avert? It was a mortality which, according to the public papers, was carrying off in the town of Calcutta and its suburbs from four to seven hundred human beings daily! The great majority of these miserable victims were of course too indigent to procure the aid of the few European physicians, even if they could possibly have attended to them; and the want of medical advice could therefore only be supplied by such an institution as this, for educating the Natives themselves, so as to bring the medical art within the reach of the body of the people. Can any thing more be necessary to prove its utility? An institution which, in a single week, had saved perhaps thousands from the grave; which, as regards the diffusion of science, Mr. Secretary Bayley says, in another letter dated September 4th, speaking of Dr. Breton's labours," had already done more than he could have expected in many years." We wish therefore we could stop here, and conclude by saying, that we feel confident an institution established by that liberal and enlightened ruler of India, the Marquis of Hastings, and so steadily supported by his successors, an institution patronized by the rulers of India, and applauded by the people, containing at once the source of present blessings and the promise of great future improvement, would continue to flourish, and be maintained by the joint approbation of all, in full health and vigour.

But will it be credited that the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company-they who profess to entertain so tender a regard for the welfare of their Indian subjects, that they scruple to let an Englishman settle among them, lest he should hurt the "innocent Natives"-they who are unwilling to trust them with a free press, lest it should operate upon them like ardent spirits on the red men of America-and who profess to have the same regard for their bodily as for their mental health, should, after having sanctioned the suppression of all free discussion, now wish to suppress this Medical School for educating Native Doctors? Will it be said that our rules for the human constitution are as unsuited to them as our clothes are to their bodies; or as the British Constitution is to their political condition? That, in short, our pills and our potions would prove as hurtful to them as our political nostrums?-that the lancet

and scalpel of the surgeon are as dangerous in their hands as the pen and the press? But whatever be the reason of this new crusade against the spread of knowledge in India, the fact is stated in the following letter from Dr. Breton, communicated to us by Dr. Gilchrist, with those already quoted, for publication:

MY DEAR SIR,—My friend, Mr. Roberts, of the firm of Mackintosh and Co. wrote me some time since that you had been kind enough to notice, in favourable terms, the Native Medical Institution, lately established in Calcutta, for the instruction of Hindoos and Mohammedans in medical knowledge.

Of all the sciences studied by the Asiatics, that of anatomy and medicine, is the least understood and cultivated, and therefore in India it is universally admitted that the Bri ish Government could not have established an Institution calculated to be of greater public benefit not only to the Civil and Military branches of the service, but to the Natives generally, than the Native Medical Institution.

You, who have been in India, are well aware of the acquirements of the Native medical practitioners. Their knowledge of anatomy borders on nonentity, and their skill in physic is not far above their anatomical knowledge. What a blessing then it will be to the Natives generally, to have amongst them their own countrymen, educated on system to the medical profession, and capable of alleviating human affliction, which at present consigns to a premature grave myriads of deceased inhabitants of our Eastern empire.

The Native students are beginning to make themselves useful; eight having been already posted to corps, and four are about to be attached to two dispensaries, now forming for the relief of the suffering Natives; and, in the accompanying records, you will observe a pleasing public testimony of the students' exertions in arresting the progress of that dreadful scourge the cholera morbus, and I have no doubt that, in course of time, they will prove a highly useful class of public servants of the British Government in India.

Notwithstanding the acknowledged utility, and indeed necessity of the Native Medical Institution, the Honourable Court of Directors have unfortunately, with a view to economy, order d its abolition; but the Government of India, bound by their sa red duty to their Native subjects, have unanimously recommended in the strongest possible terms its continuance, and the Institution remains, pending, however, the result of the forcible remonstrance to the Honourable Court against its abolition.

The late Commander-in-Chief, Sir Edward Paget, it is reported, avowed his sentiments in council, that as there was a great deficiency of medical officers, Native doctors became indispensably necessary to afford medical aid to the numerous detachments from corps in the extensive dominions of India, and as it was not possible to procure them when required, it behoved Government to establish some kind of institution from which capable Native doctors might on all occasions of exigency be obtained, and it rested with Government to consider whether a better or more economical system could be devised than that which existed in the school for Native doctors. His Excellency further observed, that without a due complement of medical staff, he could not answer for the efficiency of the Bengal army, a point of vital importance to the state. This occurred in April last, and fortunately the general voice being in favour of the institution as it stood, an unanimous vote was given for its permanency.

The expense of the school for Native doctors is not worthy of a thought, being in reality nothing in comparison with the benefits likely to accrue from the institution. The latter is pleasingly adverted to by the GovernorGeneral, in his speech to the College Council, and hailed by the Natives with gratitude.

The anatomical plates and works published from time to time, for the use of the Native students, are printed at the Government Lithographic Press, at

no other expense to Government than that of ink and paper. In short, while every measure is adopted to ensure the utility of the school for Native doctors, rigid economy is studied and observed; and on the score of expense the Honourable Court of Directors will never have reason to complain. Indeed the medical institution may be said to be in unison with the Hindoo and Mohammedan colleges, established for the dissemination of general knowledge among the Natives of India. I am, my dear Sir,

Calcutta, October 31, 1825.

Your obliged and obedient servant,

P. BRETON. Superintend. of the Native Med. Instit.

This article having already extended to so great a length, we hasten to a conclusion, confident that such a case needs very little comment. For after the simple statement of the facts, we think the Court of Directors will hardly venture to persevere in their efforts to subvert this infant institution. Will it be for a moment tolerated, in this enlightened age and country, that they should suppress almost the only institution yet established by the British in India, for introducing among our Native subjects useful and practical European science? If the British public countenance this, instead of being any longer spoken of as an enlightened, a liberal or generous people, they deserve to be ranked below the very Goths and Vandals. For even these barbarians, if they had possessed any learning, would have imparted it to the nations they overran. It was the boast of the Romans to civilize the nations which they subdued; but if such a measure as this be carried into effect, no doubt will remain in the opinion of the world that the systematic policy of the British is to keep their subjects plunged in the most degrading ignorance.

We would warn the Directors that if they bring such a stigma upon the national character, the time is fast approaching when it will be considered whether they shall have the power of doing so any longer. The sinister influences which lead to such measures will be appreciated and provided against. It is true that if a respectable body of Native physicians were created in India, these might fill many subordinate offices, at a much more moderate charge, and render so large a body of European medical officers unnecessary. Hence a certain diminution of the patronage of the Directors, who would no longer have the appointment of so many of their friends from England. But if they venture, on such grounds, to put a stop to the cultivation of useful science among the natives of Bengal, and leave their Native subjects literally to " perish, in millions, for lack of knowledge," by those dreadful scourges which afflict tropical climates, it will afford the strongest ground for instituting an inquiry whether a body influenced by such motives can be any longer intrusted with the government of a vast empire.

THE FUTURE.

'Tis sweet to steal abroad at grey of eve,
When stars come thronging on the gazing eye,
As Day's pale wheels' fast-fading traces leave
To Hesper's train the champaign of the sky;
And, seated by some streamlet rippling by,
Babbling, like Jove's old oracle, its note,
To stray with Fancy where Futurity

Marshals her visions, bright as clouds that float
Burning o'er vernal skies, on which fond poets doat.
For then, unshackled by all meaner fears,

The thoughts that people thick our inmost soul,
Go crowding forth, and wander to the spheres,
Or seek the icy brightness of the pole;
Or touch on earth some more enchanting goal,
The arms of beauty, or the trump of fame;
Or those delights which prouder minds control-
The sweets of power, that oft, we find, inflame
Souls dead to weaker joys, and reckless of a name.

The Future is the poor man's heritage:

Who builds his cot amidst its sunny bowers,
And hopes to shun the pinching cares of age,
Close sheltered from the winds and beating showers,
Forgets the present want that fierce devours
His strength to bear, and aptitude to bliss,

And feasts on bounties of the unborn hours,

Heedless that those to come must spring from this

In which he circled is by fortunes all amiss.

Yet will imagination cheat our cares,
And gild the dawning scene with richest dies,
So that the toiling wretch, as on he fares,
Sees, ever, lovely lands before him rise;
And still o'erwhelmed in present agonies,
Looks onward for some turning in the way,
In which the vision that before him flies
May overtaken be, or choose to stay,
And glad his weary soul, and turn his night to day!
And I, I also gaze towards the goal

Which Fancy bids me hope may yet be won,
Though the tenth hour has on my musings stole,
As on him parabled by Judah's son,

Who, though hard labour's heavy sands had run
Nearly through all the day, was yet allowed

To overtake by diligence the sun,

And mingle with the earlier toiling crowd,

Though they, like envious churls, bawled out their clamours loud.

BION

ON THE LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE.*

In times like the present, when want and calamity are every day becoming more and more prevalent among the great mass of the people, it seems to be the duty of every public writer, who can feel for mankind, honestly to indicate what appear to him the causes of these evils. The indispensable brevity of periodical composition must always, however, confine the writer of a public journal to certain branches only of every great subject at a time; but perhaps there is little evil in this; the lapse of a month brings him again before the public, with another part of his investigation, which, though merely the continuation of a former inquiry, can hardly fail, if pursued with moderate judgment, to appear novel and agreeable. At least, such is the persuasion with which we now and then enter repeatedly upon topics like the one before us, which, whatever their importance and utility may be, are much less calculated than many others that could be chosen, to be wrought up into fashionable essays. On these occasions, however, we waive all considerations of fame or pleasure, content if by any means we can be useful.

The question at present to be determined is, whether it be for the good of the community that all the lands of the kingdom should belong to a few aristocratical families, to the entire disinheriting of a vast majority of mankind; or that they should lawfully descend in equal portions from the father to all his children, and thus, by degrees, be equitably divided among the citizens of the state. By the laws of England, as they stand at present, all the landed property of the father descends, along with his rank and title, to the eldest son. Against the injustice, and the mischievous and despotic tendency of these laws, we now contend; as it is principally from them that the poverty and enslaved condition of the majority of the English people have, in our opinion, been derived.

A man without political rights is a slave, and undoubtedly the majority of Englishmen have no political rights. It is vain to talk of the right of petitioning; while man has a tongue he will complain; but, unless he can command the REDRESS of his grievances, his complaining will prove of little benefit to him. Of the poverty and misery of the people no proof is wanting; as it is acknowledged, we believe, that more than one-fifth of the population has long been reduced to the condition of paupers. Moreover, at this very moment, tens of thousands of people are bordering on starvation, or actually dying for want, and, if they survive, they must owe their lives to the charity of their fellow-citizens. Were these calamities

* Discours de Mirabeau sur l'égalité des partages dans les successions; précédé du Nouveau Projet de Loi, de la Loi existante, et de leurs motives. 24mo. Paris, 1826.