that any deficiency in his arbitration-scheme could never be felt. It is the simplest, and yet the most effective that any lawgiver ever imagined, namely, that there should be no property at all.

' And there shall be neither rich nor poor, but all shall have, in abundance, everything necessary for their wants; because they will love and help one another, like brothers.'—§ x.

'The earth is like a great bee-hive, and mankind are like bees*.

Every bee has a right to the portion of honey necessary to its subsistence; and if, among men, any one is in want, it is because justice and charity have disappeared from amongst them.'-§ vi. And as to personal quarrels and violences-such things will be utterly impossible, when there shall be no longer kings and laws, or property, or want, and that all the individuals of the human race 'shall live and help one another, like brothers.' The certainty of this most desirable result he philosophically proves by the analogy of the beasts of the field, who, he tells us with a profound knowledge of the habits of the animal world-never injure, nor trespass, nor prey on one another (§ vi.); and he exhorts mankind to have all things in common, and live in the same happy state of peaceable and benevolent equality, as the Abbé, no doubt, supposes foxes to do with chickens-wolves with lambs-and hawks with doves.

Our readers are, we dare say, tired of such incoherent drivelling; but there is one of these desultory rhapsodies so specially extolled by some of the French critics that we must not altogether omit it. It is a description of a congress of kings, (but whether at Vienna, Verona, or Töplitz, the author does not say,) which will, we think, fill—even to satiety-the wonder of all English readers.

It was in a gloomy night; a starless sky weighed upon the earth like a lid of black marble on a tomb.

And nothing disturbed the silence of that night, but a strange sound, like a slight fluttering of wings, which from time to time was heard over the countries and over the cities.

And then the darkness grew thicker and thicker, and every one felt his heart tightened, and a shudder run through his veins;

*We are a little surprised that the Abbé should adduce the instance of bees, as that is, we believe, the only class of inferior creatures which seems subject to that which the Abbé considers the cause of all evil-monarchical government; and in representing the uninterrupted peace and prosperity of the apian race, the learned Abbé forgets the drones, wasps, and hornets, and, above all, those marauders the robbing bees, of whose violence and injustice our own garden has lately furnished us with an example more atrocious than even the partition of Poland; for just as one of the hives had collected its ample stores, and was about to enrich us not only with its superfluous honey but with a new colony, a robber-swarm attacked it, killed and put to flight the lawful inhabitants, carried away every drop of honey, and left the hive as desolate and dismal a scene of devastation and solitude as if the Abbé's six kings had invaded it. But such is the kind of illustration which pervades the whole work! • And

And in a hall hung with black, and lighted by a reddish lamp, seven men clothed in purple, and their heads encircled by crowns, sat on seven iron thrones.'

We We regret that we cannot afford our readers the least guess who these seven kings are-why they are seven, and why no more, or whether they include the six kings before described with the six poniards-and if so, whence the seventh king comes. In short, we know not what is meant, unless an impious mimicry of the seven churches and seven stars of the Revelations.

The Abbé, however, proceeds with a detail of the proceedings of this royal congress, of which, though the meaning be equallythat is utterly-incomprehensible, the expressions are so shocking and the images so disgusting, that we hesitate whether we ought to transcribe them-translate them we shall not; but as even the severest of the Abbé's continental critics (the Revue Encyclopédique) styles his book ce grand et beau livre,' and as some even of our own London contemporaries pronounce his work to be 'a noble poem,'-we must venture to give our readers one opportunity of appreciating the native grace and majesty of the great,' beautiful,' and 'noble' original.

• Et au milieu de la salle s'élevoit un trône composé d'ossements, et au pied du trône, en guise d'escabeau, étoit un crucifix renversé; et devant le trône, une table d'ébène, et sur la table, un vase plein de sang rouge et écumeux, et un crâne humain.

Et les sept hommes couronnés paroissoient pensifs et tristes, et, du fond de son orbite creux, leur œil de temps en temps laissoit échapper des étincelles d'un feu livide.

Et l'un d'eux s'étant levé s'approcha du trône en chancelant, et mit le pied sur le crucifix.

'En ce moment ses membres tremblèrent, et il sembla près de défaillir. Les autres le regardoient immobiles; ils ne firent pas le moindre mouvement, mais je ne sais quoi passa sur leur front, et un sourire qui n'est pas de l'homme contracta leurs lèvres.

'Et celui qui avoit semblé près de défaillir étendit la main, saisit le vase plein de sang, en versa dans le crâne, et le but.

'Et cette boisson parut le fortifier.

Et dressant la tête, ce cri sortit de sa poitrine comme un sourd râlement:

'Maudit soit le Christ, qui a ramené sur la terre la Liberté !

Et les six autres hommes couronnés se levèrent tous ensemble, et tous ensemble poussèrent le même cri:

Maudit soit, &c. !'—pp. 64-66.

We cannot proceed with this tissue of horrors: they have no meaning, it is true, but they nevertheless shock us, as the blasphemous ravings of a maniac would do; and we close the infamous volume-which proceeds through forty similar chapters of impiety,

sedition,

sedition, jacobinism, and incomprehensible absurdity-with repeating our unfeigned wonder (not unmixed with fear) at the religious and political state of those countries in which such abominable nonsense can have created serious alarm. We are not, indeed, surprised that these WORDS OF A BELIEVER!' should have found panegyrists; and that the radical journals which used to treat this Abbé de la Mennais, in his preaching days, as an empty bigot, should now talk of him as respectable, venerable, ' illustrious,'—and what not? for, as far as he is intelligible, this "Believer' now urges revolt, rebellion, plunder, murder, and a general subversion of social order, with a vehemence and to an extent that leave Marat and Anacharsis Cloots far behind. Our own belief would have been-but that neither friend nor foe has said anything to encourage such a hope-that the unhappy man is insane, and stands in need of a keeper rather than a critic!

ART. IV.-Travels into Bokhara; being the Account of a Journey from India to Caboul, Tartary, and Persia: also Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus, from the Sea to Lahore, &c. &c., in the years 1831, 32 and 33. By Lieut. Alexander Burnes, F.R.S. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1834.

WE

“E are not in the number of those who affect to think or to speak slightingly of the East India Company; still less are we disposed to admire those conceited persons who are in the habit of sneering at the Directors of that Company, contemptuously designated as 'a set of merchant-kings, exercising their sway, and issuing their commands, with an equal ignorance of the first principles of government and of trade! As to principles of trade, we must indeed confess that they have shown themselves averse from the new-fangled doctrine of free trade; but is that question quite settled yet? With respect to the charge of unfitness to be trusted with the government of so vast an empire as India, it appears no bad answer that they and their servants conquered and created this empire; and the history of its rise and progress may perhaps be admitted as some further proof of their fitness to wear what they have won. Upon their trade, the House of Commons, in its wisdom, has thought fit to put an extinguisher-merchants they no longer are. That last and most important branch of their trade, alike productive of profit to those who carried it on, and to the public exchequer the tea-trade of China-has followed the fate of the rest, never to be recovered by themselves or by others. Not all

the

the energies of all the free traders of the United Kingdom will ever replace it on the old and advantageous footing.*

:

It is to be hoped, however, that no further encroachments will be made on the authorities who have so long and so ably administered the government of India, and whose successful endeavours, in diffusing happiness among countless millions of a quiet and innocent people, are universally allowed. Placed as these natives are, under the immediate rule of able, upright, and honourable men, taught from an early age to respect their prejudices, and to treat them with kindness and humanity-no change of the present system, we are quite satisfied, could tend to better their condition, or to promote the tranquillity of this extensive empire this they well know and are ready to admit; and we are persuaded that such repose and security, in the midst of a conquered people, is mainly owing to the dispersion of welleducated youths among the natives, whose language they learn, whose habits and customs they make themselves acquainted with, and whose opinions they treat with respect. Many of these adventurers, thus thrown into high and responsible situations at an early period of life, frequently without any one to advise with, and therefore compelled to reflect, and to act on their own discretion, need not shrink from a comparison, either as regards ability or conduct, with any functionaries in Europe, whether military or diplomatic.

We need not travel out of the pages of the volumes which are

*The evil consequences which we predicted in an article on The Free Trade to China' (Quarterly Review, No. C.) have already begun to show themselves. The most respectable of the Hong merchants have retired from business, and the rest are either unable or unwilling to advance a shilling to enable the poor cultivators of tea to prepare the usual supply, though 40,000 tons of shipping were expected at Canton: but we shall, notwithstanding, have some tea, and it is as well that our readers should know what sort of tea it will be. Our information is from an eye-witness of unquestionable authority, recently arrived in England from China. On the opposite side of the river to, and at a short distance from, Canton, is a manufactory for converting the very worst kind of coarse black tea into green; it is well known in Canton by the name of Wo-ping, and was always rejected by the agents of the East India Company. The plan is to stir it about on iron plates moderately heated, mixing it up with a composition of turmeric, indigo, and white lead, by which process it acquires that blooming blue of plums and that crispy appearance which are supposed to indicate the fine green teas. Our informant says, there can be no mistake respecting the white lead, as the Chinese superintendent called it by its common name yuen-fun. At the same time it is right to state, that pulverized gypsum (known by the name of shet-kao) is understood by the gentlemen of the late factory to be employed to subdue a too intense blue colour given by the indigo. There were already prepared, when this visit took place, 50,000 chests of this precious article, just enough for three cargoes of the very largest ships of the East India Company. The crafty proprietors told our friend and the other visiters that this tea was not for the English but the American market; but we shall no doubt have our full share of it: nay, some particulars lately published in the newspapers render it highly probable that the importation of the well-doctored Wo-ping has already commenced.

now

6

now before us, in search of an instance of what we are contending for. For the conduct of the first mission here recorded, Mr. Burnes was originally recommended by Sir John Malcolm, himself a brilliant example of the advantage to be derived from an early application to the study of the language, manners, and opinions of the native races. That admirable judge did not hesitate to say, in writing to the Governor-General, I shall be very confident of any plan Lieutenant Burnes undertakes in this quarter of India: provided a latitude is given him to act as circumstances may dictate, I dare pledge myself that the public interests will be promoted.' It might have been natural enough that some senior officers should have felt a little jealousy in being passed over on such an occasion; but, with a good-natured jocularity, they were ready to admit the superior claims of Lieut. Burnes, though he was one of Sir John Malcolm's swans.' Lord William Bentinck was so much pleased with his conduct of what had been entrusted to his charge, that on his return he took this 'swan' under his protection, and employed him on a second journey of far greater importance, though avowedly of a private nature.

In attempting to give some account of the three volumes before us, we labour under considerable difficulty: where there is such an exuberance of varied matter, that alone renders the task of selection no easy one; nor would any moderate space suffice to convey to our readers an adequate idea of what they may expect from a perusal of the work itself-one of the most valuable, we do not scruple to say, that has yet appeared, for the variety of information it contains regarding Sinde, the Punjab, and the upper regions of central Asia. On all these countries, it may be consulted as a standard work. Our difficulty is increased by the mechanical arrangement of the materials, in which we miss something of that lucidus ordo which a more practised writer would have preserved, For instance, we have first a personal narrative; then follow various memoirs on the countries travelled through, which embody the same thoughts and observations, frequently in the same language, with a repetition of description, both as to persons and things, which had already appeared in the personal narrative; this is particularly remarkable in describing the Punjab and the Indus. We rather suspect, indeed, that the memoirs were originally not intended for publication, and that they embraced political discussions which it has been thought proper to suppress. Another point which creates a little awkwardness to the reader is the inverting the chronological order of the travels performed: these commenced with the author's voyage up the Indus and its ramifications whereas his book begins with the Journey into Bokhara, the

;

second