6

"Great Mogul"; the resources of India,' became a meaningless phrase to them, nay they heard it with the same impatience of iteration, with which the Athenians listened to the word just as applied to Aristides. To form correct notions of the Great Mogul they need not undertake an overland journey, or proceed to Delhi. Let them content themselves with stepping into the India House-and after a look at its Museum, where they will see the trophies of exploded dynasties, and the proofs of territorial dominion extensive beyond conception, they can then send in their card to the Chairman, and in him, they will behold a Mogul more potential than the most absolute of the race of Tin.ur, that ever sat upon the peacock throne.

He who is pre-eminently considered as the historian of British India, and who on the threshold of his undertaking propounded the paradox, that he was the better qualified for the task he had undertaken, by his personal unacquaintance with the country, the languages, and customs, of which he was to give an account -had but small grains of allowance to concede, for obstacles that no untravelled Englishman can properly appreciate. He had no large toleration for exigencies of a complex kind, that came not within the verge of his associations and sympathies. These have reference to physical and moral difficulties, of a peculiar region, clime, and population, that to be thoroughly understood must be seen and felt. English prejudice, and apathy, for a long time formed a barrier which ponderous truths could not pass. The ready sneer, and the incredulous smile, of fire side philosophers, and dandies, was generally the award of him, who, from personal knowledge of India, its races, its productions and resources, ventured an opinion at variance with the set up oracle of theorisers. England, while as a nation overbearing towards her own colonial dependents, was ready by any other mouth piece, save those set up by practical knowledge, to vituperate any thing external to her own chalk cliffs, usque ad auroram et Gangem. India has always been a favourite target to direct shafts of censure at, that otherwise might find a more legitimate aim in the centres of her own policy, domestic, foreign, and colonial. India has apparently been considered as a sort of no-man's land that might be good ground for the onslaught of pen and tongue, and safely whooped and hallooed down, in the political chace, as a mere make-believe, when the true scent lay elsewhere. If any thing went wrong, India and its merchant company were mighty convenient, as a stalking horse, for the spouting rhetorician, or the aspiring place hunter. Fraught with misconstruction, strange compara

tively, in its social and political machinery, fruitful for good or for evil, and boundless in resources as in extent, no wonder that India, and its ministrations should have proved a theme of perplexed but dogmatical discussion to those, perhaps, who were truly most ignorant of the subject they expatiated upon with so much voluble assurance, derived from books and the process of cramming for the exhibition. The connexion between the two countries nevertheless, has gone on deepening and strengthening with time. The foundling, as it were, left at our door, has more than requited the step-dame attentions of its rearing, and a nascent consciousness of its claims to more kindly consideration, is developing itself. People are beginning to take some interest in its future destinies. If the parent state blame the nurse, it may well be asked, could you have done better yourself? Nay could you have done so well? We can only judge of what may be, by what has been, and is; where then are we to look for better management, elsewhere, on the part of the parent state? All circumstances duly considered, all difficulties impartially viewed, and all temptations and short comings generously weighed, the government of India may fairly challenge comparison with any, in all the qualities that give strength and dignity to justly wielded power. Where is there a colony better governed; where is there a people more considerately treated, notwithstanding unavoidable drawbacks? To compare the government of British India, with the administration of the Irish portion of the British empire, would be injustice to the former. Let us look at home then. Let us consider the parable of the mote and the beam. The security of life surely is quite as great in India, as it is in many parts of Ireland; and the Bengal ryot may, in most things, be truely said to be better off than the Irish cottier.

The progress of nations in no department is so slow as in the scientific organization of general interests. Grand and solid objects are lost sight of, in the stifling dust-storms of party, or postponed necessarily from the din and clang of war. Oh! for breathing time for peace reforms! Let us hope that at length it has come. Much is to be done-but who shall be so calumnious as to deny that much has been done, and honestly, wisely and well done. To him who may reiterate the taunt of Burke we would say: Si monumentum queris circumspice. Let any unprejudiced person visit those principalities governed by native sovereigns, and compare them with the Company's provinces, and he will comprehend how much has been done. The Company's government in fact has proved the greatest blessing to India.

N N

But for it, that country would now be a vast arena for grasping and unprincipled chiefs to play the same reckless, bloody and devastating game in, that has of late years been exhibited in the Punjab. The improvement of an area so illimitable as India, with its countless millions must of necessity be a work of time. To build even a great fabric of masonry, like St. Peter's at Rome, and to do it scientifically and well, within and without, and in all its parts, took some three hundred years; and shall we cavil at the progress of the work of edifying an Empire, with its millions, in less than a century of time? Surely there is much in this to make the sober mind pause, and the pious to hope. Well may we wonder with a generous admiration, how much has been done with SO little encouragement from the State paramount, and with so much natural apathy at home. But there is a stirring among the dry bones. National curiosity is rousing from its long and unaccountable slumber. England begins to feel that she has indeed an enviable, a great, and a glorious privilege, in being selected by Providence, for the splendid stewardship, almost miraculously entailed upon her, by a force beyond all human calculation and wisdom, for the sublime purpose, we cannot doubt, of spreading true science, and saving knowledge among the natives of Asia. "We may anticipate a future of much glory and good for India, and our native country in connection with it. And when we shall be called upon to relinquish our stewardship of this most magnificent empire, the most splendid gem of the British diadem; and when it shall please the great Lord of the heritage to declare that we may be no longer stewards;-then, do we devoutly hope, that in a prosperous country teeming with industry and the arts that civilize and adorn nations, and in a population of many millions, of free, industrious, enlightened and happy human beings, regenerated from the darkness of ignorance, and the thraldom of superstition;-to point to a monument of British sway, more enduring than the pyramids of Egypt, and more sublime than the imperial trophies of the Cæsars."*

Speech of the grand master of the Bengal Masons on laying the foundation of the Metcalfe Hall.

THE

CALCUTTA REVIEW.

ART. I.-The History of the Sikhs, &c. &c. by W. L. MacGregor, M. D. Surgeon, 1st E. B. Fusileers, late 1st E. L. Infantry. 2 Vols. Madden and Co. 1846.

IF the author of this book had attempted less he would have achieved more. As it stands it is a nondescript performance; a graft of history upon a stock of personal narrative, the one ever destroying the vitality of the other. The work is not a "history," though so it is denominated on the cover and on the title-page of the book. It is not a personal narrative, although the writer is constantly talking about himself and recording his own experiences. But it is a book in two volumes and seven hundred pages; and if it is not, in point of construction and arrangement all that we could desire it to be, it is undeniable that it contains a considerable mass of interesting information; and is altogether a very readable book.

It is possible that the students of Punjabi history and politics in this country may object to Dr. MacGregor's work, that the amount of novel information which it contains bears but a small proportion to that which may be found in previously existing works. We are afraid that the validity of the objection must be recognised in our critical court. In the works of Malcolm, Murray, Prinsep, Osborne, Lawrence; in a recent compilation by Mr. Thomas Thornton; and in various numbers of this journal, may be found three-fourths of the contents of these volumes. The remaining fourth, with some slight additions, might more advantageously have been given to the world in a single volume, under some such unassuming title as the "Journal of a Medical Officer, serving in the recent campaign on the Sutlej, with a personal narrative of a visit to the court of Runjit Singh." We believe that such a work would have found more readers and more admirers, and we are certain that we should have felt better disposed to give it a hearty welcome.

As it is, though they must be yielded more sparingly, we by no means intend to with-hold our expressions of obligation to Dr. MacGregor. He is entitled to our thanks for many

amusing, and some original anecdotes; for several very valuable suggestions; and, not least of all, for the earnest, and sometimes touching manner, in which he has borne his testimony to the good and noble qualities of many of his friends and companions, who perished in the hard-fought actions of Múdkí, Ferozshah and Sabraon. We are, perhaps, never so well pleased with our author, as when he writes in his own proper character, as a sensible experienced Medical Officerone of the many highly intelligent and benevolent surgeonphysicians of whom the Company has so much reason to be proud. It is from the professional character of the writer that his volumes derive whatever of novelty they possess; and as one who takes a deep interest in his profession, Dr. MacGregor will not look upon this expression of opinion as a condemnation of his work.

When some years before his death the physical powers of the old "Lion of the Punjab" began to fail him, and he sought in vain for reinvigoration from the remedies and restoratives of his own Punjabi physicians, it occurred or was suggested to him, that what Eastern skill could not effect, might yet, perhaps, be accomplished by the science and experience of the West. The services of a competent European physician were sought, and found in the person of Dr. Murray, who was, for some time, in attendance upon the Maharajah, but apparently with no very marked results-it being one thing to give advice and to prescribe remedies, another to persuade such a man as Runjit Singh to take either the one or the other. After a time, Dr. Murray was necessitated to retire from Lahore and from India; and soon afterwards Dr. MacGregor was permitted by Government to take his place. Of his medical experiences at Runjit's Court an amusing account is given in the volumes before us; and we think that we cannot do better, before advancing any further, than extract the following passages from the first volume of the History of the Sikhs:

"As further illustrative of the character of the Maharajah, we will offer a few more anecdotes, at the risk of being charged with egotism. In the history of India it will be found, that medical men have some share in procuring a footing for the English in the country. One of the emperors rewarded a medical officer at his court for his skill in curing him, with a grant of land to his countrymen! In our own case, the office of medical attendant on the Maharajah was accepted, when Doctor Murray resolved on going home, more with a view of seeing the Maharajah and conversing with him, than from any pecuniary consideration. Our second visit was made under peculiar circumstances:-for the express purpose of trying the efficacy of electricity and galvanism in removing the Maharajah's complaint. The former agent had been recommended by Dr. H. who occupied the somewhat anomalous position of Physician and Captain at the court of