202 Monthly Review of Literature. 



light thus thrown upon the nervous system. The views of the nervous system 

 entertained by Dr. Hall promise to do much towards the clearing up of the 

 great difficulties by which the subject is at present surrounded ; and, by their 

 application to practice, confer a lasting benefit to practitioners in their treat- 

 ment of the complicated series of nervous diseases. 



State of the Question as to Steam-communication with India, by 

 Capt. M. GRINDLAY. 8vo. pp. 100. Smith and Elder. 



THAT extensive portion of the British dominions, stretching from the Himma- 

 layah mountains to Cape Comorin, which covers considerably more than 

 500,000 square miles, and supports a population of eighty-three millions, has 

 not hitherto held that high place in the public opinion and esteem, to which 

 its vast size, its political importance, and its seemingly inexhaustible resources 

 give it a claim. Although its riches are annually imported to furnish us with 

 luxuries, which from long use are almost become necessaries, we have never 

 been led to consider the internal affairs of India in any other light, than as 

 those of a foreign country, unconnected by ties either of conquest,,coloniza- 

 tion, or consanguinity. 



Our countrymen, it is true, have gone forth to its shores, and returned, after 

 the service of a few short years, the possessors of wealth that has given them 

 a political power, not always employed for the good of their country ; the 

 misrule of the Indian government, the monopolizing policy of the rulers at 

 home, and the continual exposures of the Company's misdeeds before parlia- 

 ment, have kept the subject of India before the public and drawn aside its 

 attention from home grievances, to the afflictions of their oppressed fellow- 

 subjects under the Tropics. The exclusive system that the East India Com- 

 pany have adopted, and the English government have too long permitted, may 

 be regarded as the chief reason of this indifference, we are happy to say that 

 the monopoly of the trade is now destroyed, a measure which we confidently 

 look on as the preliminary of greater and more beneficial changes. India is 

 now no longer a forbidden land to be visited only by the privileged few. Its 

 ports are open, and our merchants and all others whom profit or adventure 

 may draw thither can confidently approach its shores without fear of dismissal. 

 Its great distance from England, and the difficulty of access to it, maybe fairly 

 regarded as another and very important cause of the small degree of interest 

 with which Indian affairs have been regarded. But then it was the interest of 

 the Company to keep India as much as possible at a distance from the mother 

 country. Omne ignotum pro magnifico, was the motto which they adopted as 

 their ruling principle, and throughout their history we recognise their love of 

 monopoly, and their desire to keep things all snug and secret, as the main 

 points insisted on by the Company and its servants. Things are different now. 

 Every day closes the tie which unites us with our Indian fellow-subjects, and 

 it is a matter of greater importance now than ever it was before, not only that 

 all pacific measures should be adopted towards India, but that every thing 

 should be done to increase the mutual confidence and resources of both coun- 

 tries. 



To two people separated by great distance, but united by ties of commercial 

 fraternity, nothing can be of greater importance than speedy communication 

 between the two parties. It may comparatively be of little importance whether 

 a communication be made between London and Hertford in one hour or in 

 three ; but it is unquestionably of the greatest importance as respects com- 

 munication between London and Liverpool whether it be effected in twenty-two 

 hours or in nine : of how much greater importance must it be then that a 

 communication with the East Indies, from which we receive a very large 

 portion of our imports, and to which we send an equally large portion of our 

 manufactured produce, should be made in fifty-nine days or two months instead 

 of six. The time has now corne when, after the trial of various schemes for 



