1825.] 
sketches are occasionally glossed and tint- 
ed, so as to make them appear as it is 
wished that’ they should be seen :—in 
short, that’ the artist has coloured his In- 
dian scenes, with a particular view to the 
taste of the cognoscenti of Leadenhall 
Street. Illustrations of the whole of these 
remarks might be selected from the first 
chapter of the second volume—in which it 
must, however, be admitted (notwithstand- 
ing all the objections we may take to his 
style and sentiments, and all our incredu- 
lity of his having told the whole truth), 
that the author has contrived to present a 
very fascinating picture of ‘“‘ Indian vil- 
lage Life.”” If our space would permit, we 
would, in justice, quote the whole: but 
we must confine ourselves to the imme- 
diate illustration of our criticism. 
“© The courts of justice, the public seats under 
the trees, the numbers of children you behold at 
play, the mirth and gaiety which laugh in every 
eye—all, every thing, assures you, that happiness is 
shedding her perfume on the whole. Such pictures 
you will often be delighted with in travelling over 
the Honourable East-India Company’s possessions. 
Security and peace have long /eft industry at ease 
in the southern parts of Hindostan. It has been the 
object of the Court of Directors to attach the people 
by making them happy. O, how wise! O, how 
worthy of an eternal monument! What! though 
some of the Company’s servants have done wrong, 
and inflicted injury, have they not been dragged 
like tigers from their dens, to suffer from the spears 
of veprobation; and shall we blame a large body for 
the acts of an individual? No; British justice, 
English good sense, and the East-India Company’s 
known intentions to do good, have gained them the 
hearts of Hindostan. May it be perpetual! Ye who 
have power, let not colonization commit robbery ! 
O, let not a licentious press disseminate poison in- 
stead cf instruction, where there is not an antidote 
in public opinion! guard the prejudices and religious 
institutions of the meek and gentle inhabitants from 
the meddling foolish attacks of bigots and fanatics, 
who think that God cannot accomplish his wise 
purposes, without the aid of creatures framed from 
perishable dust.” 
‘The wise and benignant purposes of “ the 
Honourable East-India Company,” how- 
ever, will undoubtedly be accomplished ; 
because they and their “ creatures are not 
‘framed of perishable dust;’’ and so long 
as they can “ guard the prejudices and re- 
ligious institutions,’ (such as burning whole 
hecatombs of widows, separating man from 
man, to the extinction of all human sym- 
pathies, ‘by the miserable degradations of 
castes, &c. &c.) of the ‘meek and gentle”’ 
(i.e. abject and passively obedient) ‘‘ inha- 
bitants,” and can prevent that licentious en- 
gine, the press, from disseminating the 
poison of informalism among them, there 
ean be no doubt that “ security and peace” 
may continue to leave industry at ease in 
the southern parts of Hindostan :—that is 
to ‘say, may permit the industry of the said 
abject Hindoos to toil for the benefit of the 
said Honourable Company and its “crea. 
tures.”’ With respect to “the meddling, 
foolish dttachs of bigots and fanatics’ —if 
Domestic and Foreign. 
445 
we could properly understand what sort of 
attacks they are that are complained of 
(whether they be attacks vi e¢ armis, or only 
orium verbis), and also that, notwithstanding 
the said burnings, &c-, the said: Hindoo vil- 
lagers, &e. were quite as innocent, amiable 
and happy, as the advocates of Leadenhall 
Street find it convenient to represent’; we 
are not sure that we should entively disagree 
with the author, as to the foolish fanaticism 
that sometimes mingles, at least, with the 
zeal of missionaryship: more intent, we 
are afraid,—to say nothing of other mo- 
tives—on the dogmas of mysticism than 
the moralities of a pure religion, But 
that the governors of a dependency of a 
Christian nation, should proscribe © the 
preaching of Christianity among its sub- 
jects, and compel its missionaries to take 
refuge in the neighbouring possessions of 
another state (that small portion which is 
under the dominion of the King of Swe- 
den), is an anomaly we should think not 
very capable of conscientious solution. 
But, perhaps, it may be digested by those 
whose Jogic in serious matters, is equal to 
their ¢aste in others less important, that can 
relish such metaphors as happiness shedding 
perfume on a landscape, human tigers suf- 
fering from the spears of reprobation, &c., 
or which can admire the sensibility that 
adorns a pathetic tale of seduction,—which 
ends in the suicide of an injured husband, 
and the remorse of a betrayed wife, who 
“starved herself to death, and tore the 
beauties from her face, with her nails, 
which had destroyed her Bappo !”” with 
all the tricksical levity of witticism, with 
which the sportive satyrist would have 
decked up an adyenture of drawing-room 
coquetry. b; 
We repeat, however, that, notwithstand- 
ing all defects and blemishes, the “ Forty 
Years in the World” is a work of con- 
siderable amusement and interest, and as 
such, no doubt, will continue to be exten- 
sively read by more than mere noyel- 
readers. i / 
A Letter to the Right Hon. George Can- 
ning, principal Secretary of State for Fo- 
reign Affairs, §&c. &c., including some Re- 
marks on the more general Diffusion of 
Knowledge among the Lower Classes of the 
People. By R. Norrincuam, Esq.—We 
recommend this sensible little pamphlet te 
the serious attention of those anti-educa- 
tional alermists, Who are sagaciously dis- 
posed to apprehend, that a thirst of know- 
ledge would be more demoralizing to the 
labouring classes, than the thirst of the 
tap-room and the gin-shop ; and that, ‘in 
proportion as those classes become more 
intellectually informed, and more adyanced 
in civilization, they will be more danger- 
ously disposed to brutal violence and out- 
rageous insubordination ; or, that they will 
be worse artificers, miunufaeturers ‘aiid 
handicraftsmen,' in proportion’ as ‘they: ad: 
vance 
