468 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[OcT. 



farmers, shoemakers, &c. that the Eng- 

 lish borrow from their melo-dramatic 

 neighbours the French." Mr. Feather- 

 stonhaugh's performance must of course 

 be regarded as a poem, and we have no 

 space for close examination. There is 

 a good deal of vigour in some of the 

 scenes ; but the attention is too much 

 engaged at the beginning with a busi- 

 ness which does not strictly connect with 

 the end with what the author proposes 

 as the main object of interest. The plot 

 has nothing to do with Ugolino's death. 

 We quote a few lines a fair specimen. 



Ugolino, looking at his children and 

 clasping his hands 



God! 



Are thy just eyes then turned awnyfrorn us 

 Or, in the depths of thine own counsel, thus 

 Dost preparation make for some great good, 

 Beyond the scope and vU'W of our weak minds? 

 I dare not speak to them ! 'tis the fourth day 

 Since we have looki'd on food. All hope is fled. 

 Excuse and consolation all alike 

 Exhausted. One short word can comprehend 

 All that the tyrant priest will send us now 

 And that isdeath death, that I've looked upon 

 Too oft perhaps, and dealt too largely in 

 With him, too and the turn is come, when he 

 And fate may think to square accounts with me. 

 But here I die ten thousand deaths each day. 

 There's not a pang of these dear innocents, 

 But stretches roe upon the rack. My soul, 

 And bolytoo, are tortured by this fiend. 

 Tiiis is not retribution. Oh, my God, 

 Let fall thy wrath on me, but spare my babes! 

 I am not heard I Famine alone reigns here. 

 1 am grown hoarse with bellowing aloud 

 For help. I am forsaken God and man 

 Have barred the doors of mercy on me. What! 

 Shall this most foul, most horrible of deaths 

 Pass, without gracing of a dear revenge ? 

 Thou monstrous, murderous priest! 



[Gnaws his hand in rage. Children run 



to him, 

 ANSELMUCCIO. 



Oh, father dear, 



I pray thee do not this thou clothedst us 

 With this most miserable flesh and now 

 Do thou, to stay thy hunger, eat of this. 



[Averts his he ad, and offers his arm. 



Family Library, Vol. XV. History of 

 British India, Though entitled a His- 

 tory of the British Empire in India, the 

 greater part of this first volume is oc- 

 cupied with the general history of the 

 country from the earliest historical no- 

 tices to the death of Shah Aulum in 

 1788- The Hindoos themselves- were 

 not the autochthones of the country, 

 for though occupying the upper regions 

 of India north of the Nurbudda, that 

 is fiom periods antecedent to all re- 

 cords, and almost all tradition, they did 

 not penetrate beyond that river till 

 about the second century before Christ, 

 and vast regions in the Deccan were 

 never at all occupied by them. There, 

 among the fastnesses of Gandwana, there 

 still exist barbarous tribes, the relics, if 



not the aboriginal inhabitants, at least 

 of such as preceded the Hindoos. They 

 have no institution of castes they wor- 

 ship tutelary deities unknown among 

 the people of the plains they do not 

 regard the cow as sacred, nor follow any 

 acknowledged Hindoo customs while 

 both complexion and features, at the 

 same time, point them out as a race dis- 

 tinct from both Hindoos and Mussul- 

 mans. The Hindoos themselves, come 

 from where they may though every 

 thing points to the north and north- 

 west were early broken in upon from 

 those quarters by Scythians, who brought 

 with them similar religious tenets and 

 practices, so much so, as to go far to 

 show Hindoos and Scythians were scions 

 of a common stock. 



The invasion of Darius reached to a 

 small extent, and the more sweeping 

 irruptions of Alexander and Seleucus 

 were transient, and left no lasting im- 

 pressions. Nor were the Hindoos per-i 

 manently disturbed by foreigners till 

 about the close of the tenth centurv. 

 Then it was that the Turkish slave, 

 Subuctagec, in the spirit of the early 

 Mahometan conquerors, turned his arms 

 against the worshippers of Brahma, and 

 paved the way for his successors. His 

 son Mahmood swept over the greater 

 part of Hindostan, the region, that is, 

 bounded by the Bahramputra on the 

 east, and the Nurbudda on the south ; 

 and his successors, designated as the 

 Ghiznivides, established their power for 

 nearly two centuries. About another 

 century the dynasty of the Ghoors pre- 

 vailed, in whose days burst in, in suc- 

 cessive, but merely predatory irruptions, 

 the Moguls, under the successors of 

 Ghengis Khan. The Ghoors were fol- 

 lowed by the Afgauns, the first Maho- 

 metan chiefs who crossed the Nurbudda. 

 With fresh bodies of Moguls, Timour 

 (or Tamerlane) spread his devastations 

 over India, at the end of the fourteenth 

 century; but it was not till the early 

 part of the sixteenth century that his 

 descendant, Babar (the tiger), confirmed 

 the permanent reign of the Moguls. 



But though finally the Mahometan 

 powers poured over the whole of India 

 - excepting particular districts which 

 were never subdued by Hindoo or Mo- 

 gul they appear to have interfered but 

 little with the political arrangements of 

 the Hindoos. The village system the 

 characteristic of Hindoo government 

 traceable through every division of so- 

 ciety up to the supreme authorities, 

 seems, in all essential points, to have 

 been recognized as effective, and pro- 

 tected accordingly. We English have 

 blundered miserably in this matter, and 

 have actually governed by the Koran, 

 where Mahometans themselves never 

 thought of enforcing its authority. 



