80 Notes of the Month on Affatrs in General. (Jan. 
than of political wisdom—not less a solemn duty than a solid security 
against change. ‘ 
To those who talk with alarm of the results of civilizing India, we 
almost disdain to give a reply. Ifthe result were even to be our never 
setting a foot again upon its soil, it would not the less be our indispen- 
sable duty to communicate all the good in our power, physical or intel- 
lectual. For such is the command. But nations have never lost, and 
never will lose dominion by generous and active benevolence. Tyranny 
makes the timid daring, and the weak strong, for its overthrow. But 
gentleness, wisdom, and religion, are a pledge of empire that has never 
failed. We scorn, too, the outcry raised against the extinction of the 
habitual cruelties of India; the burnings of widows, the exposures of 
the aged, and the immolation of infants. We are ourselves partakers of 
the guilt, as long as we suffer it within our limits. It is nonsense to say 
that our prohibition would not be effective and final—that the Brahmins, 
whom we pay, or the population whom we protect, would resist an 
order so palpably disinterested, and dictated by such obvious humanity. 
The peninsula is not roused in arms by our demand of contributions— 
nor by our punishment of those who resist the demand, a much severer 
privation than the abandonment of an atrocious ceremony. We hang a 
Brahmin for murder, as soon as any other man ; yet there is no insurrec- 
tion of his order. We imprison, banish, fine, execute every form of law 
on every rank of offender, yet not a syllable of national murmur is heard. 
And yet we cannot prohibit the horrid and criminal murder of unfor- 
tunate women, whether victims, or enthusiasts, perpetrated under our 
eyes. This, too, will be at an end. It must wait only the additional 
intelligence of a few years, and the closer connexion with Europe. 
The passage between Mexico and Columbia would be the greatest 
physical event in human amelioration since the discovery of America. 
The four months’ voyage reduced to two; the hazards of a navigation 
through the most perilous seas of the world, exchanged for the safest ; 
the uncertainty of the sailing vessel substituted by the steam-boat, would 
produce an interchange between Europe and Asia of the most boundless 
benefit to both. China, Japan, the Islands, the richest Archipelago of 
the world, all would be unlocked to European enterprize, and com~ 
merce then, indeed, would begin her day of glory. 
THE CHAIN OF LOVE, 
Wwbp the spell, bind the spell, 
What is init? Fond farewell, 
Wreathed with drops from azure eyes, 
Twilight vows, and midnight sighs. 
. 
Bind it on the maiden’s soul: 
Suns may set, and years may roll, 
Yet, beneath that tender twine, 
All the spirit shall be thine. 
Oceans may between you sweep, 
Yet the spell’s\as strong and deep; 
Anguish, distance, time, are vain— 
Death alone can loose the chain. 
