ROADS IN INDIA. 
619 
has a College at Pekin. Do you imagine 
that the students who affect to be lost in the 
inteni^e delight of studying tlie language of 
Tse have no other object in learning that 
charming tongue than interpreting at fairs on 
the Siberian frontier ? They are withdrawn 
into Russia after remaining at Pekin five years 
and replaced by new students. It would be 
curious to see the information they carry away 
as well as the instructions from the Autocrat 
of all the Russias to the Freshman ! Be assur- 
ed that there is no lack of Muscovite roubles 
or Muscovite intrigue at Pekin ; and to what 
object on earth is it so likely to be directed as 
the embarrassment of the most formidable of 
Russia's antagonists in Europe. In the last 
number of the Port Folio which has reached 
me, the attention of the British public is cal- 
led to this very poir^t. Here, in collision as 
we may almost say with the wolf of the north, 
with only a border and debateable land be- 
tween us, it behoves that we be doubly vigi- 
lant. 
Russia is adding two hundred thousand men 
to her army. Prussia is her thrall. Austria 
will not oppose her single-handed. France! 
alas for France ! Louis Phillippe is her King, 
■not by the grace of God. The German states 
are ridden rough shod by Prussia andRussia ; 
Spain is in convulsions ; Portugal a cypher. 
England alone can be an object of fear to 
Russia even for a moment. Her embarras- 
ment, her distraction, those are the ob- 
jects of Russian policy, and Russian policy 
weaves its net of mingled perfidy and blood 
and gold, from the tropics to the poles. One 
great mesh is, to my mind, now looking up 
in China. What would not the Muscovite, 
no niggard paymaster, award to the fortunate 
agents who should shatter the prosperity of 
British Indian, and British European com- 
merce in that Empire. Yea, shatter it only 
for a moment : for in that very moment Nico- 
las casts his glance around him, he sees Eng-, 
land convulsed by the great contest of the 
people and the Peers ; Ireland, her right arm, 
paralized or menacing ; India crippled in her 
resources through Fvussian diplomacy in China. 
He sees these things — he cries march! and 
without withdrawing a man from his vast de- 
fensive force, two hundred thousand Scythians 
defile before him on that ominous road where 
.stands Catherine’s prophetic direction post, 
To Constantinople!” 
While Russia has a College in Pekin, we 
should demand at the cannon’s mouth the 
same privilege for Great Britain, and make 
a similar use of it — well employed, it would be 
worth a thousand Amhersts and Macartneys.” 
ROADS IN THE EAST OF BENGAL 
AND CACHAR. 
The Benzal Herald of the 29th instant has 
an article, by tire Reformer, on dL road from 
Calcutta to Assam through the Cassiah Hills. 
'I he information which it conveys is valuable, 
but we fear that the locality through which 
the route lies, will be found so unfavourable 
for the construction of a durable road, that 
the project must be postponed till other wants 
of more immediate importance are supplied. 
The whole of the tract of country vvhich lies 
between the Megna and the Cassiah Hills 
is so repeatedly intersected with streams, that 
the construction of a road will be found an 
object of no ordinary difficulty. During the 
rains the road even between Dacca and the 
Megna is impassable except by water. From 
Dacca to Sylhet, during seven months of the 
year, the dawk is conveyed in a little dingy, 
and it is impossible to traverse that vast lagune 
except in a boat. The whole surface of the 
country is one sheet of water ; and the villages, 
built on gentle elevations, have all the ap- 
pearance of little islands studding a wide 
ocean. The first instruction given to boys 
and girls in that district is in the management 
of the paddle ; and in some of the most com- 
mercial towns, the passengers cross the streets 
in little canoes. For a moment one might 
almost fancy himself transported Venice and 
surrounded with gondolas. Over a, country 
of this, description, no road can be carried but 
at an expense, which it would be unwise to 
incur until there is a probability of greater 
traffic than now exists. 
The export of tea from Assam to Calcutta, 
will, eventually, furnish the element of a large 
commerce; but it is much to be doubted, 
whether the tea merchants would not find it 
more to their advantage to move down the 
tedious and long-winding Berhampootur, than 
to traverse the Cassiah Hills, with their bulky 
chests. There are also some awkward tor- 
rents which cross that route, and the descent 
from Chairra to the plainswill of itself be 
found a most formidable obstacle to the adop- 
tion of this road for commercial purposes. At 
present, moreover, those mountains are not 
sufficiently peopled, and are too deficient in 
draft cattle, to afford any adequate assistance 
to any active commerce. But all our ideas 
on the subject must for the present be neces- 
sarily vague. The provinces on our eastern 
frontier have hitherto been famed only for 
their lime and oranges, and we are therefore 
comparatively ignorant of the state and con- 
dition of the country. If the tea trade should 
assume any magnitude, a rapid and increased 
intercourse will necessarily commence with 
the metropolis, and thus constrain us to look 
for the most expeditious and safest route to 
Calcutta. One thing however is certain, that 
if the tea plant be discovered to grow with 
ease at Sadiya, and if we once acquire the 
mystery of manipulation, the cultivation of 
this plant will not long be confined to that re° 
mote and almost inaccessible province. The 
hills and mountains between Sylhet and 
Munipore which lie much nearer to Calcutta 
will soon be covered with tea gardens. 
It is impossible to revert to these fair re- 
gions without being strongly reminded of the 
untimely removal of the individual, who re- 
ceived charge of Cachar when it was a com- 
parative desert, and turned it into a flou- 
rishing province. The strict interpretation of 
the new military law which prescribed the 
number of officers who might be absent at 
