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claimed and won the honours and distinctions to which their virtues and their talents entitled them, and trampled under their feet the hateful distinction of noble and commoner, originating in ignorance and barbarism, and fitted only to degrade and enslave the great majority of mankind. In the speech before us, the great orator of the revolution exults over the ruins of the feudal system, a monstrous edifice, which his own eloquence had greatly contributed to destroy.

Le concours de la loi et de l'opinion a détruit chez nous cette prépondérance générale que les noms et les titres se sont arrogée trop long-temps. Il a fait disparaître ce pouvoir magique qu' un certain arrangement de lettres alphabetiques exerçait jadis parmi nous. Ce respect, cette admiration pour des chimères a fui devant la dignite de l'homme et du citoyen. Or, je ne sais rien de mieux. pour faire repousser des rejetons à cette vanité ensevelie, que de laisser subsister des usages testamentaires que la favorisent, de cultiver en quelque sorte par les lois cette fond trop fertile d'inégalitié dans les fortunes. Il n'y a plus d'aînés, plus de privilégiés dans la grande famille nationale; il n'en faut plus dans les petites familles qui la composent.

The blessings which the Revolution conferred upon France have always appeared to the Bourbons as so many conquests achieved over their family greatness; and, whatever concessions they may have thought it necessary to make since their restoration to the spirit of the times, it is evident, from many symptoms, that their secret intention is to replunge the French into all the superstition and national slavery, from which they emerged by their courage and capacity. On the 10th of February last, one of the Ministers of Charles X. (the dock-master of Mohammed Ali) presented to the Chamber of Peers the project of a law for restoring the right of primogeniture; and in a speech, which, together with the law itself, is now before us, attempted to stultify the understandings of the peers by various ingenious sophisms, calculated to lead into the belief that the equal partition of estates would in the end annihilate all the advantages of landed property, and reduce the whole body of the people to a miserable rabble. That these sophisms have already thrown their roots across the Channel, and taken ground in this country, we must conclude from the words of the distinguished Baronet, previously quoted, for, in this instance, the popular English senator has undeniably imported his notions from France. However, the right of primogeniture, although it does happen to appear so just and admirable to this great Reformer, is likely to have fewer advocates in future. Even the speech of the " Gardedes-Sceaux," which convinced the member for Westminster, and many other elder brothers, of the excellence of this law, will, we suspect, have a contrary effect upon the generality of readers. The French orator, imagining perhaps that he was wielding an Achilles of an argument, insisted chiefly, in support of his motion, upon the tendency of primogeniture to uphold the "monarchical principle"! Could he have quite hidden that idea from the minds of his hearers, perhaps the law might have passed; but in making it the basis of his appeal, it was really like saying, "Keep your doors open all night, as it affords the greatest possible facility for the entrance of

those who will ease you of the wealth your industry might accumulate." So successful, indeed, is this gentleman in proving the reverse of what he intended, that we recommend his speech to the perusal of our readers, as a more striking document in favour of the equal partition of estates than even the splendid discourse of Mirabeau himself; for it is an example of the utter inefficacy of the best reasonings which the whole French Government could marshal in the course of years against the rights of man.

THE LAMENT FOR THE CID.

El Campeador! El Campeador!
Never was sound to the turban'd Moor
Like that of his trumpet's tone,-
It wither'd the strength of Moslem war
If the blast but bore it from afar;
Alas! for its voice is gone!

If on proud Cordova's high walls
To the silent steel-clad sentinels
Came but a distant hum,

Each held his breath, and fear'd to hear
The Cid and his knights in full career;
Alas! for that sound is dumb!

And then throughout the paynym land,
When the watchers took their anxious stand
Upon the mountain's brow,

They stood by the beacons day and night
With torches ever burning bright ;-

Alas! they may quench them now!

The Moslem maid who turn'd her eyes
To her false Prophet's paradise,

For the youth who fought afar,
Against the Cid, by Ebro's tide,
Or Guadalquiver's grassy side,
Need fear no more the war.

They may fling the Moorish banners wide-
The sacred flags-their faith and pride-
Which, when Ruy Diaz came,

They hid, as if each silken fol 1,
Heavy and stiff with gems and gold,
Would burn in his glance of flame.

El Campeador! El Campeador!
From Ronceval to the Ebro's shore

There's a voice of woe in the land-
When will there live so true a knight,
So kind in peace, so brave in fight,
So strong of heart and hand?

Yet even in death, brave Cavalier,
Thy country's glory thou shalt share,
For when our banner'd line

Fix for the charge the lance in rest,
One hope, one wish, shall fire each breast
To win renown like thine,

BERNARD WYCLIFFE,

38

THOUGHTS OF A RESIDENT IN INDIA ON THE CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THAT COUNTRY.

One of the greatest difficulties attending our periodical labours is that of obtaining from the country, to the improvement of which our hopes and efforts are constantly directed, such materials of discussion as are to be procured from every other quarter of the globe in which any freedom of publication exists. This difficulty is, however, every now and then surmounted, by the valuable communications of those private friends who still retain a lively recollection of the benefit produced by the Indian Press in the days of its short-lived freedom; and who, untired in the pursuit of human good, continue to make us the medium of offering their thoughts to the world. We cannot too strongly impress our distant friends with the value of such communications, and the importance justly attached to them in England; or too earnestly invite their full, free, and frequent transmission of their sentiments to us on all subjects connected with the actual state and the best means of improving the future condition of the country in which their lot is cast. The good to be done to themselves as well as to others, by such means, must be obvious: and while they may repose their confidence in us with safety, they will have their reward in living to witness the beneficial effects of such of their suggestions as by being made public may be adopted, but if hidden in their own bosoms, may be lost for ever to the world. After this brief preliminary, we offer the following as the principal portion of a communication made to us from the very heart of India, by one whose long residence in the country and superior intelligence entitle his opinions to great respect. He says:

"People seem to imagine that there is something in Hindoostan and Hindoos to distinguish them from all the rest of the world. It is true, indeed, that India is warmer than most other countries; but its inhabitants, after all, are made of much the same kind of stuff as the other inhabitants of this globe- if we prick them do they not bleed?-if we tickle them do they not laugh?'-and, it may be added with more solemnity than the quotation would seem to imply, if we wrong them, shall they not revenge? Alas! we have wronged them too deeply already-and the day of revenge, come when it may, will not be undeserved. Do not mistake me, I am not preaching up or prognosticating deeds of blood-no! the revenge of the Hindoos will be milder, but not less effectual; when the day of struggle arrives they will remain mute spectators of the conflict, and, heedless of our cries for assistance, will rather proffer it to our enemies than to us, in hopes of gaining by a change of masters what they cannot expect from a continuance of our rule. It is said, indeed, that our empire is one of opinion: nothing is more false-it is not so, and sheme it is to us that after near a century's

sway it is not. Our empire is that of money. The forty thousand Europeans who hold this country give employment to perhaps a million of Natives, but this is done so obviously by means of taxes levied upon the whole mass, and the regular payment of each individual's stipend fluctuates so sensibly with the rise and fall of the Government credit, that the very servants of the state are the first harbingers of our insolvency or downfal. If, by opinion, any notion of our intellectual or moral superiority be meant, that day has long gone by; that it has so, an unprejudiced mind may satisfy itself by attending to passing events and perusing the documents now so frequently laid before the public.

"The only peculiarity calculated to influence the destiny of India was its remote situation as compared with the rest of the world. It is with nations as with individuals, place them in seclusion and they inevitably contract notions of their own infallibility and absurd theories of one kind or another that totally unfit them for commerce with society. India was so placed. Her distance was too great from those parts of the world which had benefited by mutual collision to allow her to participate in the general improvement. She retained her antiquated institutions whilst almost all the rest of mankind were high in the career of advancement-and her stationary position, added to the enervating effect of her climate, made her an easy prey to every invader. Still, however, those who were tempted to disturb her repose were so few in number when compared to her countless multitude-the distance they had travelled, and, it may be added, the toils they had undergone, were so great, that, ere the work of conquest was complete, the conquerors had, in a great measure, lost their energy, and sunk imperceptibly into the habits of the conquered. The Moguls of India and the Tartars of China met in effect with the same fate: they established a temporary dominion, but, after struggling more or less to maintain it, yielded gradually to the influence of numbers, and were, at last, entirely absorbed in the great mass of Hindoo and Chinese population.

"How long the same causes might have been adequate to produce the same effect it is now needless to conjecture, for the discovery of a passage to India round the Cape of Good Hope entirely changed the face of affairs. India was, in a manner, drawn closer to Europe, and thereby rendered accessible on all sides to the activity and enterprise of the most powerful as well as the most civilized portions of the globe. The Portuguese, who led the way in this mighty revolution, were the first to take advantage of it-and what was the consequence? So far from there appearing to be any peculiarity to prevent the inhabitants of India from benefiting by and adopting the notions of any other people, whole provinces changed their religion, and it is hardly possible to imagine a greater impression made in so short a time or a more intimate amalgamation of conquerors and conquered than then took place. Movements in the political world

of Europe, however, precluded the possibility of the Portuguese continuing their efforts to subjugate the whole of India, or even effectually supporting their first series of expeditions---and thus the same lot befel them that must inevitably befal the few when they make partial and unsustained attempts to subjugate and change the character of the many. Like the Moguls, they were quickly absorbed in the population; and, perhaps from a former infusion of Saracen or even African blood rendering them more liable to show the effects of a tropical sun, they are now only to be distinguished by their having a still darker complexion than the aborigines of the country.

"But though these repeated instances of failure would appear to demonstrate the improbability of effectually colonizing India, it must not be forgotten that our position is materially different from that of any previous interloper. With the Moguls it would be idle to make a comparison; but, with respect to the Portuguese, it may be useful to remark that their conquests, though widely spread, were confined almost wholly to the sea coasts: they never made any deep impression on the bowels of the land,' though undoubtedly, if they had been supported by the mother country, they would have done so; and there can be as little question but in that case the whole face of the country would, long ere this, have been changed. But how vastly superior is our situation-how much more commanding our attitude! At home we have power, an overflowing population, riches, and the command of the ocean; here, we have penetrated Asia to the hack bone, our dominion embraces twenty climates, and every shade of manners and religious faith. Colonies, not too hastily collected, might be planted on spots little, if at all, unfavourable to European constitutions, and safely left to diverge from those points as opportunity and accession to the numbers of the colonists might dictate. This work might be auspiciously commenced by the Government itself; and invalid stations, with encouragement for Europeans of all grades to settle, might be advantageously established at Almorah, in Rohilcund, Goruckpoor, Tirhoot, or at Boglipoor, or the Nilgherry hills in the Deccan. Who shall say that the British nation would not soon find its account in the recruits, whether of whole or half blood, that would issue from such quarters?

"The mention of half blood is the principal consideration that gives me pause. There are, perhaps, grounds for apprehending that this class would increase in numbers, or degenerate by admixture with the Natives, and thus expose our giant British oak to be strangled by the numerous folds of the creeper by which it was overgrown. On this subject I confess my mind is not made up. I am disposed to think, however, that the tendency of half blood is rather to avoid deterioration; the females being comparatively rarely married to Europeans of whole blood, more of them remain

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