indigo still commands a practical monopoly. During this period the manufacture has been improved to a great extent, and though the process might still appear rude to a scientific European, it is doubtful if any other would produce a better result. It has also the advantage of extreme simplicity and of being comprehended with perfect ease by the natives. Although all these ends have been achieved by European agency alone, the natives have by no means abandoned the cultivation. You cannot pass up a river in Bengal without occasionally seeing a native factory on one side of the stream and a European factory within sight of it on the opposite bank. The two factories literally grow the plant on the same lands; the men who manufacture it on one side are the brothers and sons of those in the opposite establishment, and are frequently changing places. The native has all the advantage of the European experience, and has the greater advantage still of being the owner of his land and factory; the ryots are his serfs, and the people around are all bound to obey him. The indigo of the planter arrives in Calcutta in November or December perfectly dry, well packed, in good and clean condition, and fit for any market in the world. The native indigo arrives in January or February, still damp, illsorted, ill-packed, dirty and ill-conditioned, and so unmarketable, that it seldom finds its way to a European market, but is shipped to the Gulphs or some land of rude manufacturing processes. If the indigo of the European sells at 150 rupees, that of the native may fetch from 80 to 100. It is exactly the same with cotton. That from America arrives in Liverpool clean, and well sorted and well packed; the supply is certain, and the quality to be depended upon. The Bombay cotton, on the other hand, is badly picked and badly cleaned, is scarcely sorted at all, and so badly packed that it arrives at Bombay from the interior saturated with dust and soaked with moisture, while the supply is so uncertain that it will not suit any spinner to adapt his machinery to work this species alone. If Europeans could be established in the interior, every one of these defects would be removed at once, and the staple could easily be made, if not quite equal to the Georgian, at least so near it as hardly to depreciate its value. This might be accomplished either by the introduction of foreign seeds, which have been proved to answer well, or by selecting the longest stapled Indian varieties and attending sedulously to their culture. At present, the natives year after year sow the same seed in the same field which their forefathers sowed there from time immemorial. Every cultivator in England is aware that crops soon degenerate if seed continues to be returned to the same land which produced it. The simple expedient of interchanging the seed of one province with that of another, as is done invariably by the indigo planters, would improve the cultivation to an immense extent. But whatever be the process by which the amelioration is effected, there can be no doubt that the introduction of European skill and capital would at once make as great a change in cotton as it does in indigo, and that while native cotton now fetches only 4d. per lb. at a time when American realizes 6d., Indian cotton grown under European superintendence would sell at the same price as American, and compete with it in any market. Besides improvement in quality, the supply would be certain and the quantity unlimited. In this country it has been assumed that the construction of roads and railroads in India would effect the change. Undoubtedly these are excellent things, and will be of immense benefit to the districts through which they pass; but without European settlers they will be like beautiful tools without mechanics to handle them. They are far from being in themselves the most important elements either for improving the administration of justice or developing the resources of the country. These objects must be secured by a larger infusion of the European element, and that in a form less terrible than when armed with all the tremendous power of the Imperial Government. Whether it is that we look to the improvement of the social habits of the people, or to the introduction among them of European education or religion, it can only be accomplished by a tiers état in immediate contact with themselves. The civilian is by his position too far removed, and as a servant of Government he cannot obtain an impartial hearing. The soldier has of course no business to interfere, but a body of Englishmen whose interests were identical with those of their native fellow subjects, may work such a change in India as the most sanguine have hardly ever yet dared to anticipate. In the modifications that are about to take place in the government of India, we trust that these principles may be kept steadily in view. So great a change cannot be effected by a single enactment or a mere alteration in forms, but by perseverance in a well-defined course, which will call forth it is to be feared a considerable amount of opposition. So far, however, as can be judged at present, it seems the only course likely to conduct us out of our difficulties, or which would conduce materially to the benefit of India. Whatever changes may eventually be determined upon with regard to the constitution of the Home Government of India, it is to be hoped that at present they will not go beyond a 1 fusion of the two existing bodies into one, and the removal of the Court out of their hiding-place at Leadenhall Street to the freer and more intellectual atmosphere of the west.* If the President and Vice-President of the Board of Control were appointed Chairman and Deputy-Chairman ex officio of the Board of Directors, and the name of the latter body were changed to that of Council of India, all the unity and responsibility which is sought for would be obtained without losing the benefit of that experience which is just now so valuable. A revolution at home while a rebellion is raging abroad would unsettle everything, and errors might be committed in haste which years would be required to retrieve. It may no doubt be true that the system of double government is become no longer tolerable, or, indeed, possible; but it will be well for India if, in seeking a system which may seem more fitted to the exigencies of the hour, she finds rulers as disinterested and as warmly devoted to her welfare as the Company has proved. During so long and so eventful a career as that which began at Plassy and ended with the relief of Lucknow, it is impossible that any body of men should have avoided committing blunders of considerable magnitude; but their errors have never been those of ambition, and they cannot be charged with doing knowingly what they believed to be unjust or wrong. Steadily they have held the helm of the state, neither elated by success nor abashed by defeat, and the result is such as the world never saw before. When some future historian of England shall look for an illustration of the power of combination and steady adherence to a given purpose, which is said to be the characteristic of the AngloSaxon race, he will find no example so striking as the history of the East India Company, and none more creditable to the middle classes of English society; for whether here or in India, no order of persons ever performed with more ability or more integrity the various duties assigned to them in their several stations. And now that this state of things is passing away, it is an unparalleled event in the history of mankind, that a private company of merchants should be able to lay at the feet of their sovereign the empire of one-fifth of the human race, and the dominion over the fairest and richest portion of the habitable globe-a dominion gained by their own wisdom and the talents of their servants, and more in spite of than by means of any assist * There could not be a better inauguration of Sir B. Hall's grand scheme for concentrating the public offices at Westminster; and as land in Leadenhall Street is so much more valuable than in Cannon Row, it may be done almost without expense either to the Company or to the Government of this country. ance ance vouchsafed to them by the government of the country. If we show as much wisdom in using, as the Company have shown in gaining this empire, it will be well both for us and for our fellow-subjects in the east. The policy which is best adapted for the conquest and original settlement of a country may not be the best for its subsequent consolidation. The traditions of a hitherto successful government may prevent the agents who are trained under the old system from changing their views with a change of circumstances, and they may wish to stop at the foundation when they ought to be rearing the superstructure. The time may have arrived when they need an impulse from without that they may not become a barrier to that civilization which their predecessors started on its grand career. But in thinking of the much which remains to do, it would be folly to forget the much which has been done, and how able were the heads that contrived and the hands that executed it. The narrative of the Rise of our Indian Empire, from its Origin till the Peace of 1783,' which has just been reprinted from Lord Mahon's History of England,' is replete with an interest which rises to the pitch of being romantic from the wonderful deeds it records. Those who imagine that the story of our Indian Empire is dull will be agreeably surprised when they read it in the pages of a writer who has the art to single out what is notable, and the literary skill to exhibit it in its full light and its just proportions. It is one continuous tale of adventurous genius-genius both military and politicalgenius which combined consummate prudence with chivalrous daring, and which was equally able to be lordly in war and moderate in peace. There are dark spots undoubtedly in the prospect, but no one can rise up from the admirable narrative of Lord Stanhope without being deeply impressed with the mag. nificent display of the greatest qualities of the hero and statesman which has been continuously manifested in connexion with our Indian rule; and we repeat our opinion that though it is necessary in some respects to change the course of the ship, it is neither politic or just at present to discard the crew which has worked it with such courage and skill, and, by the mere dexterity of pilotage, has carried it triumphantly through such fearful storms. ART. THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. ART. I.-1. Letters of James Boswell, addressed to the Rev. W. J. Temple. Now first published from the Original MSS., With an Introduction and Notes. 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1857. 2. Boswelliana. Edited for the Philobiblon Society. By Richard Monckton Milnes. 4to. London, 1856. 3. Boswell's Life of Johnson. Edited by the Right Honourable John Wilson Croker. 1 vol. Imperial 8vo. London, 1847. Tabilities than prevails at present. HE contemporaries of Boswell had a higher opinion of his abilities than prevails at present. Lord Buchan said he had genius, but wanted ballast to counteract his whim.' Dr. Johnson, in his 'Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland,' bore testimony to his acuteness and gaiety of conversation.' Sir William Forbes acknowledged that his talents were considerable,' and a writer, who was probably Isaac Reed, described him in the European Magazine'as a man of excellent natural parts, on which he had engrafted a great deal of knowledge.' His social powers were universally recognised. If general approbation," Johnson wrote to him in 1778, will add anything to your enjoyment, I can tell you that I have heard you mentioned as a person whom everybody likes. I think life has little more to give.' The next year Johnson writes to him, 'The more you are seen the more you will be liked;' and, describing him to a lady, he said, 'Boswell is a man who I believe never left a house without leaving a wish for his return.' David Hume speaks of him in a letter as being very good-humoured, very agreeable, and very mad.' Burke doubted if he were fit to be a member of the Literary Club, but it was before they were acquainted, and when he was elected the great statesman was won over by an hilarity so abounding and spontaneous that he maintained it to be no more meritorious than to possess a good constitution. To Boswell's other qualities for enlivening a circle was joined a talent for mimicry, which was then in fashion among the wits of the metropolis, most of whom employed it, as he tells in his 'Life of Johnson,' to add piquancy to their anecdotes. In his boyhood he had imitated in the pit of Drury Lane Theatre the lowing of a cow with such success, that there was a general cry Vol. 103.-No. 206. in U |