engines of ambition, are continually in operation in every direction by which our power can be diminished.

Captain Westmacott clearly shows the immense importance of Cabool as an ally of the British Government in preference to the friendship of Runjet Singh ; an ally, however, which commercially and politically has been marvellously neglected by us :

"Dost Mohammud, the ruler of Cabool, and the other Afghan chiefs, are, as I have said, favourably disposed to the British, and have long sought our alliance; but we have hitherto treated them with neglect, notwithstanding Dost Mohammud is in possession of the most important position in Asia as regards the security of British India. Cabool lies on the direct road by which an enemy would advance, and through which the manufactures of Britain are imported. The routes to India through Khorasan and Herat on the one side, and through Bokhara, Balkh, and over the steppes between the Caspian and the Indus on the other, meet at Cabool, at once the largest and wealthiest city below the Indian Caucasus, the most advantageous position that could be chosen for an emporium which would place our manufactures within reach of the Tartar races, and the point where an effective check may be given to an enemy advancing from the west. The chief of Cabool has always shown a desire to encourage commerce, by levying no higher duty on merchandize than two-and-a-half per cent.; and on the visit of our envoy on two occasions he was received by the merchants with marked attention. If Russia should establish herself either in Herat or Cabool, the neighbouring states would be obliged to join her alliance, for she would then have it in her power at any moment to interrupt the commerce between Central Asia, India, and Persia."

Now the people over whom Runjet Singh rules are sworn enemies to the Afghans; how then can our treatment of the nation tend but to the weakening of the barrier so essential to our security? Besides, on the death of Runjet, which by reason of years and intemperance cannot be far distant, there is every ground for expecting that his country will be torn by civil feuds, an excellent opportunity for Russian diplomacy and gold to operate. But we must quote a few passages and refrain from remark, otherwise the design and force of our paper will be injuriously affected :

"Intelligent travellers have warned us against the secret intrigues of Russia, and the native India papers are filled with news from Persia and the countries on the northern frontier of India, of the most serious import to the security of our possessions-intelligence which has been hitherto regarded by the British public with apathy. The time is now come when we must be prepared to develop our best resources in order to recover that position which our feeble policy, mistaken economy, and a contempt of all diplomatic relations, have lost us. Is it not a reproach to England that, during our long occupation of India, we have neglected, until a very recent period, to push our inquiries into the countries beyond the Sutluj and Indus, notwithstanding they are the high road to our possessions, and

the route by which all invasions of India have been conducted from the time of Alexander the Great to that of Nadir Shah, and through which, if ever a Russian invasion takes place, its army must advance? Until the mission of Captain Burnes in 1832, we had scarcely any knowledge of the vast region lying between our frontier and the Caspian. Russia, since the time of Peter the Great, has been advancing with slow and stealthy step to the Indus by encroaching upon the weaker countries on her frontiers; she allows nothing to divert her from this absorbing object, and her thoughts are directed to securing an influence in Bokhara, and Khiva, whilst we have shown a marked aversion to any political intercourse whatever with the countries of middle Asia. *

*

*

"It is only lately that we have ascertained the practicability of navi gating the Indus, and that treaties have been concluded with the Sikh Rajah of Lahore and the Ameers of Sinde, by means of which communications have been opened with the countries lying to the north-west of India. Large boats can ascend the Chenaub or Ascecines to Mooltan, and smaller vessels the Indus as high as Attock, while the other great rivers of the Punjaub enable the trader to reach Buhawulpoor, Lahore, Umritsir, and other populous and commercial cities, seated in a region with three million and a half of souls. The banks of the Indus are clothed with timber, and the forests of Kashmire supply abundance of cedar, pines, and valuable wood for ship-building and other purposes, which can be floated down the Jelum and Indus to the sea.

“British manufactures can now be poured into the Punjaub and the Delhi territory, and supply on the one hand the Sikh and Rajpoot populations south of the Sutluj, amounting to about fourteen millions of souls, and on the other the natives of Central Asia.

"The advantage of the Indus in diminishing the distance to be travelled over is enormous; merchandize will reach the northern districts of India three months earlier by this means than by the routes of Calcutta and Bombay, and at one-half the expense of transport. Articles of British manufacture for the markets of Western India take the difficult route overland from Bombay, which lies chiefly through forest and over deep sand; and the merchants are obliged to hire armed escorts to protect their caravans from pillage. Goods landed at Calcutta are sent in boats up the Ganges and Jumna, and are five and six months reaching Delhi, while the risk of shipwreck by storms, and the dangerous navigation, render insurance necessary to a large amount. All these difficulties can now be avoided by ascending the Indus from the sea. British manufactures are already superseding the native fabrics in the Upper Indus; and with a little care and common sense on the part of the government, equal success may be looked for in Central Asia. The plain and striped silks of the small Afghan district of Derejat on the west of the Indus, now subject to the Rajah of Lahore, are considered to surpass those of every other country, and three caravans leave annually for Cabool and Candahar, the first composed of no less than 29,000 camels. What a cheering picture this gives us of the wealth and resources of the country!

"Buhawulpoor, on the left bank of the Hyphasis, in the territory of the chief of Daood Pootra, is another town admirably situated for trade, and celebrated for its silk fabrics. The caravans from Khorasan pass

through it on their way to Western India, and those of the Punjaub on their route to the principal towns of Sinde.

"Our knowledge of the countries east of the Ganges was extremely imperfect until within the last fourteen years, but our territorial acquisitions from the Burmese in 1824, have enabled us to penetrate into them, and to supply our defective information. The coast of Tenasserim, and the fertile valley of Assam, watered in its whole length by the Bruhmapootr, are the most valuable of our new acquisitions. Assam yields abundance of silk, lac, mustard-oil, rice, timber, and ivory, and experiments now in progress promise success for the introduction of the tea-plant. Famine is unknown, and the value of labour owing to the abundance of the necessaries of life is remarkably low-the hire of a cultivator never exceeding four rupees, or eight shillings English per month. Assam is intersected by a prodigious number of fine rivers, flowing into the Bruhmapootr, which is navigable the whole distance from Suddya, where it leaves the hills, to the sea. The resources of this country, which is so admirably situated for commercial enterprize, and offers such opportunities for the employment of private capital, are daily developed; when I quitted it in 1835 not a single British merchant had settled there, nor do I believe that half a dozen merchants ever visited the country. It is one of the many extensive regions open to British industry in the East, and it is to be hoped will not long continue neglected. Tenasserim, from its salubrious climate, its rich and varied productions, and its ports and harbours, admirably situated for trade, enjoys every requisite for a valuable colony. Its sea coast, as well as Ye and Tavoy, abounds in iron and tin, teak and other timber for shipbuilding, wood, oils, gum, resins, caoutchou, and valuable dyes, ivory, rhinoceros' horns and bees' wax; and the sugarcane, indigo, rice, and coffee, thrive freely.

*

*

*

"In the event of an attack on our possessions from the north of the Indus our attitude must be purely defensive, for we have no force there sufficient for active operations. The whole of our disposable troops are concentrated on our eastern frontier, to meet an anticipated inroad of the Burmese, whose sovereign, after having made proof of the power of Britain, is again prepared to defy that power, and menace from the East an invasion of India.

"The two points immediately threatened are at the extremities of the empire, 2,000 miles asunder, and nearly double the distance that intervenes between Herat and Delhi, and with every means of transport at the command of Government, it would take five months to convey troops from Sylhet to our northen frontier. Even if the misunderstanding with Ava were adjusted, it would still be necessary to leave a large force behind to protect Calcutta.

"Since the reduction made in the strength of corps, officers in command of divisions have put forward frequent and urgent remonstrances to Government on the inadequacy of the force under their orders to carry on the details of duty in garrison and cantonments, but their remonstrances have been made in vain. The Government has however been obliged to enrol other regiments to supply the place of those disbanded by Lord Bentinck, and among the expedients to make good the deficiency of troops, it has withdrawn the native regiments from Oude, and raised an auxiliary

force to garrison that kingdom; this force is officered by Europeans, taken from native regiments of the line, which has in a degree impaired the efficiency of the latter.

"With reference to the extent of territory included in our Indian Empire, and the frontier to be defended, the army has at no period been on so low a footing; and never has India been in greater need of a large body of disposable troops, or less prepared to assume an offensive attitude. "Were the Muscovite hordes to cross the Attock, all our allies and tributaries would probably be in arms; it would be a signal for the Sikhs, the Rajpoots, the Mahrattas, the Rohillas, and the warriors of Oude, to fling away their scabbards.

*

*

*

"The Indus is the natural boundary of India on the west, and Attock on the east bank of that river, in lat. 33° 56'. N. long, 720 E., was always considered the frontier town. Attock signifies, in the Hindoo language, "The Bar," or "Limit," and its ancient name, Varunashyu, which it still retains, has the same meaning; it was so called, and the boundary of India determined by the great legislator of the Hindoo who enacted that no Hindoo should pass 'The Forbidden Stream' without degradation. The same idea of the fitness of the Attock for the boundary of a great empire was attained and acted upon by the Afghan and Tartar conquerors, who considered their dominions insecure without this effectual line. And the great advantages the Indus holds out for the transport of troops and merchandise, in being navigable all the way below Attock to the sea, need not be enlarged on. "Alexander the Great threw a bridge across the Indus at Taxila, now Attock, and was followed in after ages by Timour and Nadir Shah, who advanced upon India by nearly the same route. The volume of the Indus is augmented at this place by the river Cabool and several tributaries from the Indian Caucasus, and the current flows with great velocity among rocks, which confine the channel, and rise above the margin. These circumstances induced Akbar, the wisest and the greatest prince that filled the throne of the Moguls, to erect a fortress here in A.D. 1581, and Nadir Shah built another fortress near the same spot preparatory to invading India in 1739. The situation of the present fortress is ill chosen, from being commanded by a neighbouring height; but Runjeet Singh early saw the necessity of securing Attock to protect his empire against irruptions from the north, and he accordingly seized it from the Afghans in 1818, and has retained it ever since. Thus we see that every conqueror of India has considered that position the key of his dominions, which England has not only entirely neglected, but suffered an intermediary power to wrest from her natural allies the Afghans."

No invader, says our author, ever yet reached the Attock that did not conquer India. Of what consequence then must the command and the navigation of the Indus be to us commercially and politically! Of what vast importance the friendship of the tribes and nations that border this mighty stream! The second pamphlet puts this subject in a still more interesting light, by entering into other details and pursuing views which it did not fall within the scope of either Mrs. Postans or Captain Westmacott to pursue. The author of the pamphlet which compares and considers the

respective routes to India via the Red Sea, and via the Cape of Good Hope, is a much more sanguine person than the Captain. We must also pronounce his work as being one characterized by singular eloquence, as well as conveying a series of most delightful anticipations.

We like the manner in which the present author grasps and at the same time allows the widest possible expansion to his subject, viz., that the grand object of Steam Navigation is the acceleration of civilization; that is, social, moral, and intellectual development, as he construes the term; commercial and political purposes and principles being the wings upon which this most beneficient operation is carried out. This unquestionably involves a question of philosophic import, as well as one of practical details, which, we are not aware, has ever before been so succinctly and ably handled.

With regard to the question, which of the two routes mentioned is to be preferred ?-we agree fully with the author, and wonder, indeed, that doubt or hesitation can any longer attach to the matter. To us, and as he eloquently shows, for all the grand interests concerned, the route via the Red Sea is not only by far the most advantageous line, but in fact the only line that can be called a "Comprehensive Plan," which is the title of that which he so warmly recommends. And in these views he only concurs with the whole body of evidence taken by a Select Committee of the House of Commons on the subject.

We shall not stop to explain the manner in which the writer disposes of the various objections to the Red Sea route, but, at once quote a passage which contains his outline of the Comprehensive Plan:

"Now, this Comprehensive Plan, more than the representative of a single idea, is a hypothesis gigantic in itself, and million-formed in its objects, is the supposition of a chain of connexion run-and ramifying as it runs-throughout the expanse of the Oriental World! Nothing so splendid in speculation was ever conceived. The country which adopts it is at once stamped as the most remarkable in the universe. For Great Britain, as a commercial nation, it is the most perfect realization of a scheme to protect, promote, and aggrandise her interests that the brain of a statesman could originate. Boundless in its issues, it is bold, grand, unrivalled in its intentions. It opens to the vision England in the vastness of her empire, the plentitude of her power, at the climax of wealth and greatness. Approximating the several portions of a widespreading scattered dominion, by a power utterly miraculous, it gives the idea of Great Britain in a new point of view-as a novel phenomenon-as a nation of which the world had only to-day learned its stupendous and amazing features and resources. We say, if the plan cost millions to see it worked out, it should be carried into operation; we say, if every merchant in the kingdom denied himself a year's profits, the sacrifice in prosecution of this national undertaking in exchange for the immense good would be nothing. We are enthusiastic