a landskip, with two small figures in it of an angel, rainbow-winged, a-comforting a woman; but she could not be Hagar, for the vale was like Tempe, with no lack of water. The other was a fair woodland slope by the water-side at sun-set, with a circle of shepherds and shepherdesses dancing their hey-de-guys on the grass, to a pipe and tabor, while a young couple, perchance newly married, sate a little above and apart. Now, while I noted these things, a blue-coated serving man came in and announced dinner, and my benign hostess, turning about, said, "Come, sir, you must do us the grace to share our barn-door fowl and colewort to-day, after which I trust your faintness will have so passed off as to be no farther lett unto you."

So what could I do? I was but too glad to stay; and yet too dizzy to have the full relish of my privilege; yet I knew, all the time, I was happy, though I could not feel it. After dinner, the gardener's lad lent me his guidance through the wood, with whom I discoursed of sundry matters well worth ye coin I gave him, and I reached home with pleasant thoughts for my company all the way. Howbeit, mine eye was by that time so nigh closed, as to look like a parcel-ripe plum; so that all I could do that evening and the next was to sit i' the chimney nook, to the great pitying of all the household, who came about me after the flocks were folded, and assayed their might to amuse me by taletelling. What tales they were!... not ex

see.

actly of a cock and a bull, but of a kid and a goat, and of a fox and ape that went to see the world, such a world as you and I have yet to For mine own part, I repaid them with such a dish of magic and fairy-lore that they were ready to sit up till midnight; and Hobby, in a kind of enthousiasmos, at length cried out, Why, Cuddy, he's amaist as good as Colin Clout!" On my asking who this Colin Clout might be, they could only say he was a shepherd-swain, lived and dyed long ago, famous for his piping and poesy, none of which, it would seem, existed among them, even in fragments. Indeed, he appeared to be a kind of myth, a north-countrie Orpheus, who had whilome aimed to tame the salvages hereabouts. I have ever since been dubbed Colin Clout among 'em; a piece of wit suited to their capacities.

When I described to them where and with whom I had been, Cuddy cries, "Why, Hobby, 'tis the widow's daughter i' the Glen he's been harping about all along. Who'd a' thought it, after all his making her out to be fairer and finer than Ruth, Rachael, Rabshekeh, and all ye rest of them shepherdesses?" So little skill and appreciation of what is perfect have uncultivated minds.

So now farewell, my good Mr. Hervey. I think this tedious tale will prevent your sueing for another picture-letter some while to come. Your faithful IMMERITO.

It is Arrian, we believe, who relates that when the ambassadors of Scythia appeared before Alexander the Great, on his invasion of their country, they addressed him in terms similar to these:-"If your person were as gigantic as your desires, the world would not contain you; your right hand would grasp the east, and your left hand the west, at the same time." Now what was spoken as metaphorically true with reference to the Macedonian conqueror, is actually so with respect to the possessions that England holds, for her footprints are seen on the extreme limits of the earth, and her hands rest on dominions "wide as the poles asunder." History, to the farthermost end of time, will record no more marvellous phenomenon than this, that an island of comparative insignificance, speaking geographically, should rule the destinies of such a

territory as Hisdostan, separated from her by thousands of miles, immeasurably superior to her in extent, and numbering a population four or five times exceeding her own. In future ages, they who may hear of this extraordinary fact in the history of the world, would naturally conclude that such a country could only be held in subjection by the strong arm of the victor. If such happened to have read of ancient Greece and Rome, they would remember that the phalanxes of Alexander and Seleucus swept over the eastern world, from the Nile to the Ganges, "making it a desert and calling it peace;" that the conquests of the Roman emperors were only preserved by the swords of their cohorts and legions; and, by a parity of reasoning, it would be presumed that England retains her possessions by similar means. But the armies that sustain her power in India

are, to a great extent, enlisted from the dark tribes of the country, while it is the moral might of Britain-the power of her intellect, the force of her high name-that causes a willing obedience to her authority.

66

There is, however, another fact that renders the connexion of England and Hindostan yet more singular, and altogether unprecedented; it is that the one nation, as a nation, does not rule the other, but the governing power is held by a small body of comparatively unknown individuals, influential only because of the position they occupy relatively. The Jewish prophet designated the merchants of Tyre as princes;" and in our own day we find a company of twenty-four English merchants exercising the functions of crowned kings; they, themselves the subjects of a sovereign state, levy taxes, carry on wars, make conquests, and keep possession of large territories, independently of the Government to which they owe allegiance. Nearly two centuries have now elapsed since a charter was granted by Charles II. to the East India Company, to make peace or war with or against any princes and people, not being Christians; and to seize all unlicensed persons (Europeans) who should be found within the limits to which its trade extended, and to send them to England. The greater part of a century passed away without any attempt on the part of the English to enlarge their settlements at Surat and Calcutta, when, in 1756, Suraja Dowla, Soubhader of Bengal, found a pretence for attacking the latter city; but Lord Clive, who had gone out to India in the civil service of the company, which he soon exchanged for the military, defeated the troops of the Nabob, at the battle of Plassy, and from that time the absolute government of the English became established, and the sphere of their operations

considerably enlarged. Some idea may be

formed of the present extent of their dominion, from the fact that the number of troops attached to the three presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Calcutta, amounts to about 250,000, of whom about one-eighth part only are Europeans, and that the annual cost of equipping and supporting them is not less than ten millions sterling; we could pick out half-a-score independent sovereign princes of Europe, whose united levies would not furnish such a contingent as this, and whose revenues, if the men could be found, would be inadequate to their support. The Indian navy, too, is on a scale commensurate with the requirements of the Company, and is in every way worthy of the men who are children of the "mistress of the

seas." How long they who still hold undisputed possession of the country will be permitted to do so it is impossible to say; in 1833, certain portions of the charter of the Company, some of those especially which originally invested the directors with absolute authority, were repealed, and another constitution was granted. This, however, expires in April, 1854, and the subject of the British Government then taking the affairs of India entirely into their own hands has been mooted among politicians: it is a question, though, with which we have nothing to do here.

Till the commencement of the present century, notwithstanding the interest which our connexion with India would be likely to create, all that we knew of its scenic features, and of the peculiar habits, customs, and manners of its native tribes, was gathered chiefly from the rare and somewhat imperfect accounts of such as were employed in the service of the Company.

"a

There were few inducements then to tempt the artist, or the mere traveller for amusement's sake, so far from home: we had no “Overland Route" in that period of our history, to serve instead of a four or five months' voyage, with the chance of encountering the dangers of “ Nor-wester off the Cape." Times have changed since then, a trip to Bombay or Calcutta is now regarded with far more complaisance than our grandfathers would have contemplated a journey of a couple of hundred miles without crossing the seas; we owe this to steam and iron. However, notwithstanding the difficulties which deterred many from undertaking so hazardous a venture, an artist, and his young nephew, who had also a great taste for the arts, embarked in 1783 for India, with the purpose of making known to their countrymen at home something more of its scenery than they already were acquainted with. These two were Thomas and William Daniell, both of them subsequently members of the Royal Academy. William, the nephew, was only fourteen years of age when he sailed with his uncle, but he became the more famous painter of the two, and is far more favourably known by his portion of the results of their joint expedition to the East. The travellers commenced operations at Cape Comorin, exploring and sketching almost everything that was beautiful and interesting in the country between that point and Scrinagur in the Himalaya Mountains. Ten years were thus occupied by these enterprising artists. On their return to England, the annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy for many years bore witness to their skill, industry, and persevering efforts in the cause in