and despondency, perhaps to charm with pleasant thoughts of by-gone happiness, perhaps to deepen the gloom of the present by contrasting it with the radiance of the pastis, we honestly admit, an experiment, which can not always be practically entered upon without suffering, in our heart of hearts, many a sharp pang of sorrow and regret. Happy is he who finds the old homestead-the old familiar faces, as he left them happy is he who does not feel himself, in his native village, a stranger among strangers. But even this cup is not all bitterness; and if it were, it would be well to quaff it. It is well that the arid heart should be soothed and softened by such tender emotions as these. It is well that there should be something to break in upon the utter stagnation of feeling, which the isolated state of the Indian exile is but too well calculated to induce. The anguish of the hour is not too heavy a penalty to pay for the good it does us.

Admitting then that there is much to pain the heart, in a return to our 66 own old homes," after a protracted sojourn beneath an Indian sky-admitting, too, much more than the Cape Journalist calls upon us to admit-admitting that there is much, in the cold stateliness, the reserve, the suspicions of English Society, to repulse, to mortify, to dishearten the man who is accustomed to the greater openness and liberality of the east,-it must, in all fairness, be acknowledged that a residence in Europe has many compensating advantages, which the holder of the balance must suffer to weigh heavily on the other side. There is more amusement, more diversion for the mind to be derived from a residence in a country, overflowing with objects of interest, pregnant with historical associations, teeming with the treasures of science and art, presenting everywhere most cheering signs of the progress of civilization, than from a sojourn in a new country possessing no national institutions,-no monuments of antiquity-no rich store-houses of the produce of human genius-no wonderful evidences of the advancement of human science, a country, whose resources, magnificent as is the promise of its youth, are as yet almost undeveloped. Now there is such benefit to be derived from travelling by the physical man—and at present we purposely confine ourselves to this branch of the subject from a constant change of scene and climate-from the pleasant, but not too stimulating excitement, afforded by the constant succession of interesting objects presented to his senses-that we question whether there is any remedy so efficacious in diseases of long-standing-especially in those maladies, which, in the language of the Cape Convivialist, "involve despondency." Now, without under

valuing the benefits derivable from a mail coach journey to Graham's Town, or a rough ride from one district to another, claiming at every stage, the freely-granted hospitality of the resident farmers-many of them fine-hearted English gentlemen, we must protest against the assumption that from such travelling delightful though it be the exhausted, enfeebled, hypochondriac Indian, can procure so certain an alleviation of his miseries, as from the circuit of his own island home-the country, which though often the last explored is the best worth exploring—or a tour through the continent of Europe. The constant succession of new objects presented to his senses effaces those painful impressions, which long familiarity with disease have stamped upon his mind, and which cling to him, from year to year, with fearful tenacity, so long as he is unable to emerge out of the old habits, the old localities with which they have so long been inseparably connected. There is a chain of morbid sympathies and associations to be broken asunder, before the morbid can hope to be restored to health; and in order thoroughly to effect this disruption, it is necessary that the gentle excitement of frequent change should be kept up for some length of time-until, indeed, the hypochondriac has thoroughly shaken off the incubus, by which he has so long been painfully oppressed. Now a new country-however striking its natural advantages-does not possess those objects of attraction and interest, with which civilized Europe everywhere abounds. There is less to occupy the attention, less to fill the mind with a succession of gently exciting thoughts. Simple nature, however beautiful-however grand, does not suffice to fill the mind of the man, who has since the season of early youth, lived an artificial life, and who has never known what it is to derive pleasure from the contemplation of external nature. Fresh air, bright skies, active exercise, and fine scenery are, in many instances, wholly insufficient to emancipate the imprisoned spirit from the thraldom, which has so long possessed it. Art must come to the assistance of nature, for the natural man is lost in the artificial; and we can only hope to effect a cure through the influence of those pleasurable sensations, which his previous habits and feelings have rendered him capable of receiving.

To the sufferer under the depressing affliction of a longstanding chronic disorder, we would recommend a visit to Europe to be extended to four or five years, according to the length and severity of his previous sufferings; and a considerable portion of the time to be consumed in travelling from one place to another. But where the disease is not of long

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standing where there is little more than atony resulting from acute disease, or where the object is to obtain temporary rest after long-continued and unbroken official labors in India, the invalid could scarcely betake himself to a better sanatarium than the Cape. The two years' absence allowed by the regulations of the service, will suffice to restore such patients to health and send them back, refreshed and re-invigorated, to follow their old avocations with new energy and new cheerfulness. This appears to us to be the rationale of the matter; but the truth is that the Cape advocates, in discussing the relative advantages of a visit to their colony and a visit to Europe, have lost sight, or written in ignorance of the circumstances, by which above all others, the present question is to be determined. It is not an abstract question of health aloneit is a question of rupees; and so long as the present Furlough regulations continue in force, the Cape Colony need not be under much apprehension that the progress of Steam-communication between India and Great Britain will draw away the wealth, which for many years the Cape Colony has derived from a never-failing supply of Indian invalidism. A Government servant, Civil or Military, as has already been shown, may visit the Cape for two years, retaining his especial appointment, during the time of his absence, and forfeiting but a very insignificant portion of his Indian allowances. Nor is this all; another very important consideration remains to be noticed. Whilst the

officer proceeding to Europe on medical certificate feels that he is doing so to the detriment of his prospects, inasmuch as that the time spent at home is not calculated in his period of service, the one, who merely betakes himself to the Cape, enjoys his two years holidays, without any such drawback. The years spent on sick-leave at the Cape do not rise up against him reproachfully on a future day; they are not deducted from his time of service, when his title to the retiring pension comes to be determined. He is acknowledged by Government to have served at the Cape, whilst at home he would have been, as a servant of the Company, virtually defunct. These are important considerations, of which no man who visits the Cape on sick certificate, even for a moment, loses sight. So long as the present regulations are in force, that Colony need be under no apprehension that officers will cease to avail themselves of the privilege which such regulations accord.

Whether these regulations are worthy of a prolonged existence or whether they ought not immediately to be sentenced to death is another question-a question of no inconsiderable importance, but one which we are not called upon to

discuss at any length in our present article. No one denies that they have ever been open to very serious objections; and now that London has been brought nearer than the Cape to all the Presidencies of India, it is difficult to perceive even the shadow of a reason for the perpetuation of the present furloughsystem. The services of absent officers are more available in England than at the Cape of Good Hope-a summons to return to India, in an emergency, can be more speedily presented, more promptly acted upon, when the absentee is within reach of the India-house, than when he is spending his furlough in an African or a more remote Australian Colony.* It is possible, we think, that before the present charter is much older, the Court of Directors will give their consent to a modification of the present system, allowing officers to proceed to England on more favourable terms than at present, and thus, we are afraid, realizing though after a different fashion the apprehensions which the Cape Colonists have so long entertained. We need not attempt to conceal the fact, that, if furloughs to Europe were granted to sick officers, on the same terms as they are now granted in favor of South Africa, a very large portion of the fifty or eighty thousand pounds now spent at the Cape will be diverted into other channels. The Colony must suffer by such a reform; but, being the advocates of no exclusive class interests, we can not allow any regret on this score to affect our judgment of the intrinsic propriety of the measure.†

We are hopeful, however, that before many years have elapsed the Cape Colony will derive something better from India than the annual thousands now spent by the flock of invalid visitors from the East. Where there is no especial object to be gained by a visit to England; where there are no family ties to renew-no peculiar train of morbid associations to be broken up, in the manner to which we have

* Officers Civil and Military are permitted to proceed to the Australian Colonies on the same advantageous terms as at the Cape. Many in the course of their time of absence, visit both settlements, and take the Mauritius in their way.

We shall probably at no very distant period, have an opportunity of discussing more fully the subject of the furlough regulations in connexion with their influence on the prosperity of the country. as affected by the efficiency of the executive. We should be rejoiced to see the officer, civil or military, who has lost his health in the service of the Company, permitted to proceed both to England and the Colonies without any sacrifice of income, or any retardation of the long-looked for day, on which his claims to the retiring pension is to be acknowledged. We believe that the wellbeing of the state, as well as of the individual would be promoted by such liberality; but we can not add that we desire to see the perpetuation of that part of the system, which permits absent officers to retain their particular appointments; a permission which we believe to be equally detrimental to the public and unjust to the "services" at large.

already adverted; where the conditions to be fulfilled are merely a withdrawal from the influence of the predisposing causes of disease and the supervention of a season of rest and relaxation after years of official labor,—the Cape will often be preferred to England, as possessing a milder, a more salabrious, a more exhilarating climate, and affording the means of living in comfort—indeed in luxury-at far more reasonable cost, than that for which he can purchase similar enjoyments at home. Few visit the Cape, who do not on their return to India carry with them pleasant recollections of their sojourn in the Colony, and desire to return to the enjoyment of its bright skies and genial weather. To men-especially to married men, whose incomes are not very magnificent-the Cape offers a more desirable because a more economical residence than England. The necessaries of life are procurable at a rate, the lowness of which would astonish the man habituated to the high price of food in the over-taxed British Islands. Bread and meat of the best quality are most encouragingly cheap. House-rent in the town is moderate-in the delightful suburbs still more moderate. Horses of an excellent breed are to be purchased at an extremely low figure; and save in seasons of drought (and such seasons are very rare) forage is plentiful and cheap. Good servants are not procurable at the Cape, and every Indian proceeding thither would do well to take with him two or three good native servants. With these forming his household, he will be independent of colonial domestic servitude, which it must be acknowledged is at present in a most miserable condition.

But it is not merely as a convenient resting-place, whereat to spend a brief vocation after many years of toil beneath a tropical sun, that we desire to recommend the Cape to the attention of our Indian readers. When a man has worked himself out; when he has lived long enough, perhaps, too long in India; when the grey winter of life appears, by certain premonitory symptoms, to be not very far distant; and the pension, which renders the Indian services the finest services in the world, holds out an inducement to him, weary and wasted, body and mind, as he is, to seek for rest and relaxation, in a less exhausting clime, we know no place under heaven, to which he could more wisely take his shattered frame and drooping spirits. We have already indicated those cases, in which we consider the Colony would be insufficient to answer the required purpose; but, these exceptions put aside, we honestly believe that every old Indian officer, especially if he have a family, retiring on his pension, or little beyond it, will end his days in far greater