-. 
1828.] 
terest our readers, and it could not be ex- 
plained accurately, and in detail, without 
engraved diagrams. We can only say, that 
they appear to us excellent. 
We are conscious that the foregoing re- 
marks are rather desultory and general, and 
we have made them so ‘on purpose, since a 
dry dissertation on telegraphic communica- 
tions, could not have interested our readers, 
or conveyed the kind of information we are 
desirous of giving. Enough has been said 
to shew the importance of the subject, to 
point out the absurdities and evils of the 
existing method, and to demonstrate the 
great improvements of Admiral Raper’s 
system 5 and. we now terminate our obser- 
vations, by congratulating the navy, and 
the nation, on the publication of this im- 
portant work, in which a complicated sub- 
ject is treated with perspicuity, and ex- 
pressed with an elegance of diction,’ and 
correctness of collocation, not often found 
in the lucubrations of the “ University 
bred” practised writer, and which demands 
the immediate attention of the Admiralty, 
and the support of every naval officer, who 
can feel for the victim of the slights and 
impertinencies of office, and appreciate im- 
Exavanent in his high profession. 
r Life i in India. 3 vols. 12mo. 1828,.— 
The great business of life in India, as well 
as elsewhere, in the world of novels at 
least—ay, and in the world of realities too 
—is still to be matching and marrying. In 
England, the ladies must wait and watch, 
but in India, they are snapped up at once, 
and the connubial knot is tied with a ce- 
lerity- proportioned to the speed with which 
death steps in to loosen it again. No where 
‘in the world is it less “‘ indissoluble.”’ 
The passengers of an Indiaman consisted 
incipally of Colonel Howard, of the India 
ice, his two nieces, the Miss Percys, 
peice girls both, full of wisdom and 
‘virtue, and two other young ladies, one a- 
Miss Hume, still wiser than they—pru- 
dence, indeed in her own person—and a 
Miss Panton, a lively girl, and a little of 
the giddiest—returning to their friends, 
and all of them under the care of Colonel 
Howard. Besides this party, there were 
two or three other ladies—a few officers, 
whose leave of absence had expired—-and of 
course, a batch of writers and cadets. Long 
before they reach the Cape, one of the offi- 
cers, a Captain Bently, and the youngest 
Miss Percy, are deeply smitten with each 
other; though no formal declaration takes 
place ; at the Cape appears a Mr. Fortescue, 
who also seems a little struck with the 
eldest ; and Miss Panton loses no time in 
flirting with any body who will flirt with 
her. Between the Cape and Ceylon they 
are overtaken, and taken—it was in time 
of war—by a French frigate, the Captain 
of which, as if he had been the Grand Sig- 
nior himself, insists upon all the ladies, to 
the exelysion of the gentlemen—the dis- 
Domestic and Foreign. 
647 
tress of Colone] Howard, and, of course, 
the distraction of Captain Bently—being 
taken on board his own ship, though he had 
really no manner of accommodation for 
them. Scarcely were these luckless dam- 
sels on board, than an English ship of force 
comes in sight, and recovers the captured 
vessel ; but the French frigate, without loss 
of a moment, claps all sail to, and escapes ; 
and, after cruising about for a time, lands 
the ladies at the Isle of Bourbon, where, at 
length, a cartel of exchange arrives, and 
after getting new rigged, and a few female 
comforts about them again, they finally 
reach the Hoogley and their friends. 
In the meanwhile, however, Colonel 
Howard and Captain Bently had been dis- 
patched to the Nepaul war; but a Mrs, 
Russel, a relative of the colonel’s, a leader 
of fashion at Calcutta, introduces the Misses 
Percy to India life. Mr. Russel is in the 
civil service, and keeps a large establish- 
ment, gives gay parties, and visits the go- 
vernor ; and the splendid interior of go- 
yvernment-house is thrown open in magni- 
ficent fetes. Opportunities are seized of 
alluding to, and explaining native customs, 
such as suttees—the scape bull—exposure of 
female infants, &c. The business of match. 
making is indefatigably pursued by all par- 
ties from the very moment of landing. 
Miss Eliza Percy—she, of course, thinks of 
nothing but Captain Bently, and searches 
the Gazettes for the killed and wounded. 
Mr. Fortescue re-appears from the Cape, 
and in the midst of his marked attentions 
to the elder Miss Percy, suddenly becomes 
mysterious, and almost shuns all approach 
to her. Miss Hume, though a very grave 
young lady, is speedily caught up by a 
countryman, a Major Melville ;: and Miss . 
Panton, though thinking now and then 
about West, one of her shipmates, accepts 
the proposals and the pearls of a Mr. Mare 
riot,, the resident of Cawnpore, mainly be- 
cause his are the first offers. Dispersions 
now take place; first, Mrs. Melville goes 
with the Major up the country—then Mrs, 
Panton accompanies the resident to Cawn- 
pore; and very soon Captain Bently gets 
wounded, gets well, gets leave to come to 
Calcutta, gets Eliza Percy’s consent and the 
Colonel’s, gets married—and then, also, 
proceeds northward, accompanied by his 
wife’ and her sister Charlotte, who /an- 
guishes—Fortescue is more and more mys- 
terious, more and more irresistible—more 
and more withdrawing. 
Captain Bently and the two sisters— 
Charlotte in a separate boat—are now 
pulled up the river, and all the perils, 
which that turbulent and unruly stream can 
fling in the way of passengers, are encoun- 
tered, and poor Charlotte, but for the very 
timely and most unexpected appearance of ° 
Fortescue, must have become food for the 
sharks. What brought Fortescue there ? 
He was on his way to Cawnpore, where a 
very lamentable affair had just occurred. 
