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Prodigal Son, in which the mention of killing the fatted calf gave such offence, that he was advised to leave that part out in future, otherwise the pagans would be confirmed in their opinion of the Christian religion being a low or pariah religion.

The Jesuits certainly contrived to manage these matters better, and cautiously abstained from translating such portions of the Scriptures as they knew would be injurious to their cause. Some of their translations are still extant, and are read and esteemed among the Brahmins as classical works. The late Mr. Ellis, of Madras, (a man of excellent taste, and deeply skilled in oriental literature,) once heard read aloud, by a native Professor of the College, in the Malabar language, the episode of the fight between David and Goliah, in which he said the route of the Philistines was one of the finest passages he knew in any poetry, and excited universal admiration among the native hearers.

Desirable as it would be, on every consideration, to introduce the Christian religion into India, we fear, if we may use the expression, that the fulness of time is not yet arrived, and that the present attempts are calculated rather to retard than hasten it. If effected at all, it must (as we have repeatedly observed) be gradually, and by the example and influence of the local government. It was a very natural question which a Brahmin put to one of the Serampore missionaries- Why do you not first convert your own countrymen, before you attempt to convert us?' We have recently, it is true, appointed a bishop, and an archdeacon, and a few chaplains-but what are they among the millions of our subjects? As a matter of policy, as well as of duty, it might not probably be found injudicious to erect small but suitable chapels at every residency, with a good organ in each, and solemn music, to allure the natives to attend; it might happen that some who went to scoff' would remain to pray.'

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At all events, whatever degree of interference be deemed advisable, it should be committed to the judgment and discretion of the local government, who are best acquainted with the usages and prejudices of the natives, and with the safest means of correcting the errors and improving the condition of the vast population submitted to our rule; for we should never forget that the relation between that population and us is that of a conquered people to its conquerors, the former being about twice as many millions as the latter are thousands, and consequently that our dominion is solely upheld by opinion. Hitherto the improvement may have been slow, but it has been progressive and certain; the condition of the natives in every part of India to which our sovereignty or influence extends has been greatly ameliorated, and their happiness promoted by every rational means. We hope and

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trust therefore that the local government will not be interfered with, in consequence of the restless spirit of a few ultra-philanthropists, the activity of whose benevolent feelings appears to expand in the direct ratio of geographical distance. These gentlemen are not satisfied unless the work of an age be compressed into the space of a day; they have no regard for consequences. We must not,' says Sir John Malcolm, be diverted for one moment from our object by the clamour of those who, from only half understanding this great subject, seek to interest popular opinion, and national pride and prejudices, on the side of systems of speculative reform and rash innovations, as crude as they are dan gerous.'

In stirring the question of the sutties in the east, we are as far from impeaching the good intentions of Mr. Fowler Buxton, as we are those of Mr. Wilberforce for his zealous endeavours to effect the liberation of the blacks in the west; but we must be permitted to doubt the practical wisdom and discretion of both. The affairs of this world are not to be governed, nor the happiness of mankind secured, by intentions, however good, which militate against a sound and prudent policy. If, by a misplaced zeal, an insurrection should spread in one hemisphere, and a rebellion be created in the other, results, we regret to say, far from impossible, it would be but a poor apology to plead that no such calamities had been contemplated. These gentlemen, and those who think with them, ought to be aware, that the only effect of their interference would be to increase the evil which they meant to prevent, just as the victims rushed in greater numbers to fling themselves under the wheels of the Juggernath car, when we attempted to stop its career; whereas, since it has been treated with neglect, the priests are unable to procure a single sacrifice.

We say nothing here on the subject of what is called a free press in India, being fully persuaded that such a proposition, let it come from what quarter it may, will be entertained with just suspicion; and we earnestly hope that, so long as we have honest and intelligent rulers in that country, it will be sedulously protected from the certain and incalculable mischiefs which such an engine, in the hands of needy and unprincipled adventurers, cannot fail to produce. We entirely agree with Sir John Malcolm in thinking, that it is our duty to diffuse knowledge and truth;' but that it is also our most imperative duty to exercise our best judgment, as to the mode in which blessings shall be diffused, so as to render them beneficial.' We cannot better close these remarks than by quoting the concluding paragraph of his excellent work.

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'Since we have obtained sovereignty over them, (the natives,) we

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have greatly ameliorated their condition, and all rational means have been employed to promote their happiness, and to secure to them the benefits of good government. By premature efforts to accelerate the progress of the blessings it is our hope to impart, we shall not only hasten our own downfall, but replunge the natives of India into a state of greater anarchy and misery than that from which we relieved them. Let us, therefore, calmly proceed in a course of gradual improvement; and when our rule ceases, for cease it must, (though probably at a remote period,) as the natural consequence of our success in the diffusion of knowledge, we shall as a nation have the proud boast that we have preferred the civilization to the continued subjection of India. When our power is gone, our name will be revered; for we shall leave a moral monument more noble and imperishable than the hand of man ever constructed.'—p. 304.

ART. VI.-1. Orgueil et Vanité, Comédie en 5 actes, et en prose. Par M. J. S.

2. La Fille d'Honneur, Comédie en 5 actes, en vers. Par M. Alex. Duval, Membre de l'Institut Royal.

3. Le Folliculaire, Comédie en 5 actes, et en vers. Par M. de la Ville de Mirmont.

4. Les Plaideurs sans Procès, Comédie en trois actes. Etienne.

Par M.

5. L'Amour et l'Ambition, Comédie en cinq actes. Par M. Ribouté.

6. Valérie, Comédie en cinq actes. Par M. Scribe.

7. Le Secrétaire et le Cuisinier, Comédie. Par M. Scribe.

THE two walks of the drama to which we alluded in a former

Article as being those in which the French had attained superior excellence, are operatic pageantry and light comedy. By operatic pageantry, we mean the entire spectacle-the show of the grand opera, for in some particulars they are surpassed by other nations. The decorations of the theatre, the mode of lighting, and ventilating it, the appearance of the audience, are superior in England; and it is the fault of the managers if better machinery is not employed in this country, which the French, when they wish to be sarcastic, call le pays des machines. In Italy and Germany the music is beyond comparison superior, for, indeed, nothing can be more inharmonious and grating, than the imitative screams of the vernacular opera, in a fit of pathos. But the excellence of the ballet is an ample compensation for the music of the tragédie lyrique. There is an ensemble and a precision in the whole business of the stage, which other nations have not attained, and a brilliancy of execution to which none but French dancers can, as yet, pretend. Their style of representation, in

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deed, does not generally belong to the great pantomimic art, or to the imitation of strong passions; though even these we have sometimes seen successfully attempted; but it is characterized by ease, gracefulness, and agility. The sports of the heathen gods, and the imagery of mythological lore, generally supply the subjects of the great ballets; and it is difficult to conceive any thing more enchanting in its nature than the species of poetry→→→ the poetry of the heels-which the French have invented to embody these airy conceptions.

By light comedy,' we do not mean such as has been produced by the authors whom the French reckon among the most eminent dramatic writers, as Molière, Dancourt, Destouches, Dufresny, Regnard, &c. but by others of an inferior order, of an order, indeed, the members of which it would be almost held profanation in France, to admit farther than the portico of that temple in which the superior genuises are canonized. What we have to say upon this matter will probably provoke the strictest animadversion of our neighbours; unless, indeed, their contempt of our bad taste, of our barbarism, our ignorance, our want of Atticism, of Parisianism, save us from their wrath.

Molière, who may be considered as the father of French comedy, possessed a deeper insight into human character than any other dramatic writer of France, whether tragic or comic. But he painted the follies, rather than the passions of men, and gave portraits of the relations which the intercourse of society engenders, rather than the native impulses of the soul. He was full of wit, sprightliness, and gaiety, and his spirit of observation turned all he saw to the profit of his comic vein but here we think his praise must end; for he was not endowed with the powers of imagination and combination which constitute creative genius in its highest department. Molière might produce an Avare, or a Tartuffe, or an Alceste, or a Bourgeois Gentilhomme; but, he could no more have created an Ariel, or a Caliban, have painted a Falstaff, a Malvolio, or a Touchstone, than he could have formed a new world. Nay, without going to the extreme excellencies of the art, and quoting the miraculous productions of a poet whom our national admiration almost ranks as supernatural, we will venture to say, that Molière never could have produced the single personage of Sir Giles Overreach; as for Volpone and Mosca, they were quite beyond his powers. With all his eminent qualities, Molière was depressed by the meanness of his position, and his genius bowed before it. He was as great as his nation and its mind gave him room to be; but it is not in a country where nature is curtailed, and every thing is sacrificed to manners, that even comedy can have its full scope. It is true, a subjection

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a subjection to manners is less injurious to comedy than to tragedy; for the former still finds an ample fund for representation in the foibles of society, independently of the vast resource of characters and humours; while the latter has no treasures in reserve, but those which it can draw from passions and the heart. Madame de Staël is perfectly right, when she says, that the state of society in France was favourable to comedy; but it would be giving her assertion too much latitude, to allow that there is no higher species of comedy than that which is nurtured by such a state of society: we may think with her, that Molière is superior in his walk to the writers of other nations; but we cannot admit that his walk is the highest order of comedy, in poetry, philosophy, or general delineation of man.

The effect which national servitude to the tyranny of manners produces, is to efface the differences which nature established among men when she bestowed upon them an infinite variety of mind; and to wear down the diversified texture of society to an even if not a polished surface. The smallest asperity becomes a subject of remark and wonder, and often of ridicule. None, who pretend to appear in the world, dare to differ from its laws; and an affectation of compliance on the part of many who might very well be exempted from them, constitutes a principal distinction. But this distinction naturally must embrace classes rather than individuals. It must weigh upon the financier who would assume the flippancy of the courtier; upon the man of justice, who would imitate the gallantry of the man of the sword; upon the citizen, who would copy the nobleman; upon all who attempt to quit their situation in life for another, to which they are not suited. In systems of society where manners are paramount, these things hang together unavoidably; and the comedy which represents them must be the comedy of classes, not of individuals.

But where men have energy enough to shake off this species of oppression, and assume their native right to individual humours, allowing no class to legislate to character, the field of comedy is as uncircumscribed as the range of tragedy. It may ransack every heart, and expose its foibles, its weaknesses, its follies, all that makes it ridiculous or contemptible; and pursue in every single person the infinite combinations which these produce throughout the species, and which are precisely the elements that compose each particular disposition, and stamp individuality on every mind.

Dr. Johnson, in his preface to Shakspeare, has said, ' that in the writings of other poets, a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakspeare, it is commonly a species.' This opi

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