that we have banished from the land, to the best of our power, the curse of brigandage and dacoity. But what gang of dacoits ever committed a more flagrant outrage than this atrocity, which had been perpetrated under the supposed instigation of one of our countrymen ? The sin of Ahab and Jezebel was a trifle to it, for they, at any rate, preserved the forms of justice, and forbore to take the law into their own hands. Would not the first sentiment of every true Englishman be profound pity, and an earnest desire that Hely might be brought to account, in order that if guilty he might expiate his crime, and if guiltless might establish his innocence, and wipe off a foul suspicion from the English name? What, then, was the view of the subject taken by the anti-native portion of the Calcutta press? What was the theme upon which they especially delighted to dwell? Pity for the sufferers? No, indeed. Solicitude for the honour of our rule and nation? Far from it. The fear lest Hely should be condemned by the machinations of the friends of the Hindoo, and the deduction that the Bengalees were damneder niggers than ever, occupied their thoughts so entirely, that no room was left for more noble or humane sentiments. Hely was at last secured, and put to trial on a charge such that no jury in the world would have convicted him. Instead of indicting him as having been present at and engaged in a murderous riot, the prosecutor undertook to prove that the fatal shot had been fired by the prisoner's own hand. The hopeless confusion of a night attack, and the confusion, far more hopeless, of native evidence, would have prevented such a charge from being substantiated had the accused been ten times guilty. The jury declined to hear the defence, and at once returned a verdict in his favour. Then appeared a series of leading articles from which we have selected the following extract : "The Conciliation Policy, Lord Can"ning's great stumbling-block and infatuation, pensively declined to cut the "cords which bound the victim to "the altar, lest the native population "should be baulked of the wished-for "immolation. Their instinctive anti"pathy to the Feringhee might, it is "presumed, be dangerously excited with"out that sacrifice. An annual tragedy, "with a European to do the death-scene, "is a capital contrivance for obviating "rebellion. The tranquillizing enter"tainment can hardly now be discon"tinued. Cerberus must have his sop, or the infernal regions will become in"tolerable from his hungry howlings." Now I do not hesitate to brand the expression, "an annual tragedy," as a foul mis-statement. From the columns of this very journal I learn that the last Englishman who suffered the extreme penalty of the law in Calcutta, was a soldier, who was executed as far back as 1858 for the murder of a comrade and a countryman. Since Rudd, no European has died on the gallows. It is satisfactory to be enabled to add that on both these occasions the Englishman, though virulently "AngloSaxon," steadily maintained that partyspirit should not be allowed to interfere with the administration of justice. I have some thoughts of publishing a translation of the Odes of Horace adapted to the use of Indian readers. Here are three samples. If they meet your approbation I will set to work in earnest. LIB. III. CARM. 7. Quid fles, Asterië, quem tibi candidi Primo restituent vere Favonii? I. My dear Miss White, forbear to weep Because the North-West breezes keep At anchor off Rangoon II. On Irawaddy's water, For praising up her daughter. III. She talks of maiden's heart so true, And angry brothers six foot two Demanding satisfaction; And, as a last resource, throws out Hints very palpable about A breach-of-promise action. IV. She tells how Pickwick's glance of fire V. Fear not for him. But, thou, beware! VI. Than whom no other wallah steers, His buggy down the course; LIB. IV. CARM. 8. Donarem pateras grataque commodus, If all my "woulds," dear Jones, were changed to "coulds," I'd deck thy bungalow with Europe goods ; ' With bronzes which the awe-struck Baboo stops To gape and stare at in Chowringhee shops; Amidst the scorn of petulent R. A's ; With Woolner's busts which, in an anile huff, Our dons rejected, spite of Palgrave's puff. Brave presents these, but how can I dispense 'em, With some four hundred odd rupees per mensem ? One potent gift I boast, one treasure dear, Not full-length portraits, frame and all complete, Nor yet ovations at his country-seat, van Bore up the battle in the grim Redan, Undaunted, from the cloud of dust and flame, Straight back to camp for reinforcements came, As that small squad whom once the hero sent To pitch our Special Correspondent's tent. What gives old Time the lie, and keeps alive In school-boys' mouths the mighty name of Clive; Preserves great Hastings from oblivion's flood, And daubs poor Impey with perennial mud ? Why, just two articles in that review Where tawdry yellow strives with dirty blue. Ne'er will the man on whom the press has smiled Pine in collectorates remote and wild; "Sir Charles and Lady Mary Wood request LIB. I. CARM. 11. Tu ne quæsieris (scire nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi, Finem Di dederint, Leuconoë, nec Babylonios, Tentaris numeros. Matilda, will you ne'er have ceased apocalyptic summing, And left the number of the beast to puzzle Dr. Cumming? 'Tis vain to rack your charming brains about (confusion take her) The Babylonian Lament, the pretty dragonbreaker. What can't be cured must be endured. Perchance a gracious heaven May spare us till the fated year of eighteen sixty-seven.2 Perchance Jove's board of public works the dread decree has passed, And this cold season, with its joys, is doomed to be our last. Let's to the supper-room again, though kitmutgars may frown, And in Lord Elgin's dry champagne wash all these tremors down: And book me for the fifteenth walse: there, just beneath my thumb; No, not the next to that, my girl; the next may never come. Yours ever, H. BROUGHTON. 1 Sic Jovis interest optatis epulis. 2 This is the date fixed by Dr. Cumming for the end of all things, including the sale of his books. MR. JORDAN had invited a large party of people to meet the Dowager Countess; but the greatness of the leading light, which was to illustrate his house, had blinded him to the companion stars that were to tremble in her company. The principal people about had consented graciously to be reviewed by her ladyship who, once upon a time, had been a very great lady and fashionable potentate. A very little fashion counts for much on the shores of the Holy Loch, and the population was moved accordingly. But the young ladies, who accompanied the dowager, were less carefully provided for. When Miss Frankland, who was unquestionably the beauty of the party, cast a glance of careless but acute observation round her, after all the gentlemen had returned to the drawing-room, she saw nobody whom she cared to distinguish by her notice. Most of the men about had a flavour of conventionality in their talk, or their manner, or their whiskers. Most of them were rich, some of them were very well bred and well educated, though the saucy beauty could not perceive it; but there was not an individual among them who moved her curiosity or her interest, except one who stood rather in the background, and whose eyes kept seeking her with wistful devotion. Colin had improved during the last year. He was younger than Miss Frankland, a fact of which she was aware, and he was at the age upon which a year tells mightily. Looking at him in the background, through clouds of complacent people who felt themselves Colin's superiors, even an indifferent spectator might have distinguished the tall youth, with those heaps of brown hair overshadowing the forehead which might have been apostroNo. 52.-VOL. IX. phized as "domed' for thought" if anybody could have seen it; and in his eyes that gleam of things miraculous, that unconscious surprise and admiration which would have given a touch of poetry to the most commonplace countenance. But Miss Matilda was not an indifferent spectator. She was fond of him in her way as women are fond of a man whom they never mean to love-fond of him as one is fond of the victim who consents to glorify one's triumph. As she looked at him, and saw how he had improved, and perceived the faithful allegiance with which he watched every movement she made, the heart of the beauty was touched. Worship is sweet, even when it is only a country boy who bestows it-and perhaps this country boy might turn out a genius or a poet-not that Matilda cared much for genius or poetry, but she liked everything which bestows distinction, and was aware that in the lack of other titles, a little notability, even in society, might be obtained if one was brave, and knew how to manage it, by these means. And besides all this, honestly, and at the foundation, she was fond of Colin. When she had surveyed all the company, and had made up her mind that there was nobody there in the least degree interesting, she held up her fan with a pretty gesture, calling him to her. The lad made his way through the assembly at that call with a smile and glow of exultation which it is impossible to describe. His face was lighted up with a kind of celestial intoxication. "Who is that very handsome young man?" the Dowager Countess was moved to remark as he passed within her ladyship's range of vision, which was limited, for Lady Hallamshire was, like most other people, shortsighted. "Oh, he is not a handsome young man, he is only the tutor," said one of the ladies of the Holy Loch; but, notwithstanding, she too looked after Colin, with aroused curiosity. "I suppose Matty Frankland must have met him in society," said the dowager, who was the most comfortable of chaperones, and went on with her talk, turning her eyeglass round and towards her pretty charge. As for the young men, they stared at Colin with mingled consternation and wrath. What was he? a fellow who had not a penny, a mere Scotch student, to be distinguished by the prettiest girl in the room? for the aspiring people about the Holy Loch, as well as in the other parts of Scotland, had come to entertain that contempt for the national universities and national scholarships which is so curious a feature in the present transition state of the country. If Colin had been an Oxford man the west-country people would have thought it quite natural, but a Scotch student did not impress them with any particular respect. "I'm so glad to meet you again!" said Matty, with the warmest cordiality, "but so surprised to see you here. What are you doing here? why have you come away from that delicious Ramore, where I am sure I should live for ever and ever if it were mine? What have you been doing with yourself all this time? Come and tell me all about it, and I do so want to know how everything is looking at that dear castle and in our favourite glen. Don't you remember that darling glen behind the church, where we used to gather basketfuls of primroses-and all the lovely moors? I am dying to hear about everything and everybody. Do come and sit down here, and tell me all." "Where shall I begin?" said Colin, who, utterly forgetful of his position, and all the humilities incumbent on him in such an exalted company, had instantly taken possession of the seat she pointed out to him, and had placed himself according to her orders directly between her and the company, shutting her into a corner. Miss Matty could see very well all that was going on in the drawing-room, but Colin had his back to the company, and had forgotten everything in the world except her face. "Oh, with yourself, of course," said Matty. "I want to know all about it; and, first of all, what are you doing among these sort of people?" the young lady continued, with a little more of her face towards the assembled multitude, some of whom were quite within hearing. 66 "These sort of people have very little to say to me," said Colin, who suddenly felt himself elevated over their heads; "I am only the tutor;" and the two foolish young creatures looked at each other, and laughed, as if Colin of Ramore had been a prince in disguise, and his tutorship an excellent joke. Oh, you are only the tutor?" said Miss Matty-that is charming. Then one will be able to make all sorts of use of you. Everybody is allowed to maltreat a tutor. You will have to row us on the loch, and walk with us to the glen, and carry our cloaks, and generally conduct yourself as becomes a slave and vassal. As for me, I shall order you about with the greatest freedom, and expect perfect obedience," said the beauty, looking with her eyes full of laughter into Colin's face. "All that goes without saying," said Colin, who did not like to commit himself to the French. "I almost think I have already proved my perfect allegiance." Now "Oh, you were only a boy last year," said Miss Matty, with some evanescent change of colour, which looked like a blush to Colin's delighted eyes. you are a man and a tutor, and we shall behave to you accordingly. How lovely that glen was last spring, to be sure,' continued the girl, with a little quite unconscious natural feeling; "do you remember the day when it rained, and we had to wait under the beeches, and when you imagined all sorts of things in the gathering of the shower? Do you write any poetry now? I want so much to see what you have been doing since," said the siren, who, half-touched by nature in her own person, was still perfectly conscious of her power. "Since !" Colin repeated the word over to himself with a flush of happiness which, perhaps, no such good in existence could have equalled. Poor boy! if he could but have known what had happened "since" in Miss Matty's experience-but, fortunately, he had not the smallest idea what was involved in the season which the young lady had lately terminated, or in the brilliant winter campaign in the country, which had brought adorers in plenty, but nothing worthy of the beauty's acceptance, to Miss Matty's feet. Colin thought only of the beatific dreams, the faithful follies which had occupied his own juvenile imagination "since." As for the heroine herself, she looked slightly confused to hear him repeat the word. She had meant it to produce its effect, but then she was thinking solely of a male creature of her own species, and not of a primitive, innocent soul like that which looked at her in a glow of young delight out of Colin's eyes. She was used to be admired and complimented, and humoured to the top of her bent, but she did not understand being believed in, and the new sensation somewhat fluttered and embarrassed the young woman of the world. She watched his look, as he replied to her, and thereby added double, though she did not mean it, to the effect of what she had said. "I never write poetry," said Colin, "I wish I could-I know how I should use the gift; but I have a few verses about somewhere, I suppose, like anybody else. Last spring I was almost persuaded I could do something better; but that feeling lasts only so long as one's inspiration lasts," said the youth, looking down, in his turn, lest his meaning might be discovered too quickly in you conversation. But, as for me, I am your early friend, and I preferred you when you did not talk like other people," said Miss Matty, with a slight pout. "Tell me who has been forming your mind?" Perhaps it was fortunate for Colin at this moment that Lady Hallamshire had become much bored by the group which had gathered round her sofa. The dowager was clever in her way, and had written a novel or two, and was accustomed to be amused by the people who had the honour of talking to her. Though she was no longer a leader of fashion, she kept up the manners and customs of that remarkable species of the human race, and when she was bored, permitted her sentiments to be plainly visible in her expressive countenance. Though it was the member of the county who was enlightening her at the moment in the statistics of the West Highlands, and though she had been in a state of great anxiety five minutes before about the emigration which was depopulating the moors, her ladyship broke in quite abruptly in the midst of the poor-rates with a totally irrelevant observation "It appears to me that Matty Frankland has got into another flirtation; I must go and look after her," said the Dowager; and she smiled graciously upon the explanatory member, and left him talking, to the utter consternation of their hostess. Lady Hallamshire thought it probable that the young man was amusing as well as handsome, or Matty Frankland, who was a girl of discretion, would not have received him into such marked favour. "Though I daresay there is nobody here worth her trouble," her chaperone thought as she looked round the room; but anyhow a change was desirable. 66 Matty, mignonne, I want to know what you are talking about," she said, suddenly coming to anchor opposite the two young people; and a considerable fuss ensued to find her ladyship a seat, during which time Colin had a hundred minds to run away. The company took a new centre after this performance on the part of the great |