in their opinion, infallibly attend such a measure. "The landrevenue," say they, "is the great pillar of the State, and if we cut it away, the whole edifice will soon come tumbling down. That, it is true, may not happen in our time; but we have no right to bring ruin upon those who are to come after us." In other words, if people in India were allowed the privilege of purchasing the fee-simple of their estates, the revenue of the country would be sapped, and the next generation or so after our time would find itself without funds sufficient to carry on the government of the country. People who believe this must suppose that the majority of the hundred and fifty million ryots, who cannot even sow their crops without borrowing, would redeem the land-tax if they had permission to do so. But the fact is entirely the other way; for only a fortunate few at the utmost could do so, and they would mostly be English capitalists engaged in developing the resources of the country. The natives, who hold the greater part of the land in their possession, would as soon think of buying estates in the moon as they would of purchasing the fee-simple of the land upon which they dwelt. Thus, in reality, the boon would simply be one of which English capitalists would take advantage-men of energy, who have made India what she is, and who only ask for fair play to make her yet tenfold more wealthy and prosperous.

Here we conclude this sketch of our great Indian Empire. Having occupied so much space with the exposition of the leading features of the subject, it is impossible to advert in any way to the probable future of the people or their British rulers. Now that railways are beginning to span the land, awaking, tossing together, and amalgamating the different tribes and peoples of India,-now that commerce and wealth are slowly beginning to accumulate in native hands, and that natives in ever-increasing numbers are taking part in the administration of the country, the future, the goal towards which all this is tending, must more and more press itself upon the considera

tion of thoughtful beholders. Suffice it to say, however, that India promises to continue for many generations subject to the ascendancy of the British race, and that it behoves us to fulfil the concomitant duty of benefiting the people over whom we rule. A cheerful and noble though arduous task; and we doubt not that many of the brightest names on the beadroll of England will continue to be contributed by the lordly bands of her sons who go forth to uphold her strange and mighty Empire in the East.

THE NATIONAL LIFE OF CHINA

OF the making of books on China-as on other subjectsthere has been no end; but how little reliable knowledge is to be extracted from the majority of those works! They are either sketches of individual life and personal adventure at some one of the five seaports recently opened to us-books meant to be readable, and nothing more; or, if the general character of the people and their history be attempted to be drawn, it is done in such a narrow spirit, and with such a bold defiance of facts, as seriously to mislead the unwary and wholly dissatisfy the reflecting.

One of the most common results of this erroneous teaching is the belief that rebellion is something unique and unparalleled in the history of China. A rebellion in China! Such an event seems to our press and public the most extraordinary thing in the world. And they stand in natural amazement at the supposed spectacle of the "immobile" empire of China now, for the first time for four thousand years, starting from its quiescence, and inaugurating all at once so stupendous a change. It takes a little of the couleur de rose off the affair, however, to learn, what is the fact, that a score of such dynastic revolutions have already taken place in China, and that some of these exhibit features substantially the same as those displayed in the present Rebellion. The Chinese Empire, in fact, existing throughout four thousand years, has purged and repurged itself

again and again; dynasty after dynasty has grown effete and fallen; and both in its religion and in its general history, the empire presents a more remarkable (because more long-continued) series of changes than is anywhere else to be met with in the world. Let us glance, then, at the characteristic features of this empire and its people. Let us look at its history, its politics, its religion, its social customs, and its remarkable system of national education. As in duty bound, we shall "begin at the beginning;" but we shall not waste time upon those fabulous tales and cosmogonies which some European writers so carefully commence with, but which are utterly repudiated by the majority of the Chinese themselves.

The limits of China Proper are nearly as marked as those of India, and the country seems to have been destined by nature for the development of an isolated and continuous civilisation. Bounded on the south and east by a tempestuous sea, on the north by vast and herbless deserts, on the west by lofty mountain-chains, China forms a nearly circular area of from five to six hundred leagues in diameter, shut in from the rest of the world. Rising in terraces as it recedes from the sea, watered from west to east by two great navigable rivers, traversed longitudinally by their tributaries, dotted with lakes, and intersected by numerous mountain-ranges, this immense region embraces the climates and productions of nearly all latitudes, as well as the inestimable riches of the mineral kingdom. Hence this old empire of China, as large as all Europe exclusive of Turkey, has always sufficed for itself, and developed its power in itself and by itself. It is true that since the European nations became great consumers of tea, they have in return imported into China foreign products unknown to the ancient inhabitants, and which have become necessary luxuries to the present population; yet, notwithstanding, the interchange of products between its different provinces (some of them as large as European kingdoms) might suffice for the industrial and commercial wants of the people,—and hence,

among other reasons, the great indifference shown by the Chinese Government for foreign commerce.

The Mongolian tribe who in remote ages wandered into this country, differ now from the rest of their race in having countenances less flattened and more expressive, and in general are as superior in physical as in intellectual qualities to the population of the adjoining regions;-a proof, on the largest scale, of the elevating influences of civilisation upon both the body and mind of man. They have black, strong, lank hair,-that of the females being often very beautiful; a flat nose, small oblique eyes and thin eyelids, round and prominent cheeks, a pointed chin, and little beard. Their constitution is of a coarse grain; consequently they are much less sensitive than Europeans, and also less subject to diseases. At what period they first broke off from the great central mass of mankind, it is impossible to state with accuracy; but, entering their future empire from the north-west, their earliest seat was the provinces now called Shensy (anciently Tsin) and Honan, which constituted the realm of their first king, Fohi. At this early period they seem to have been a pastoral people, living on the produce of their flocks and herds; but Fohi's successor taught them the art of agriculture, and induced them to cultivate and settle upon the land. Spreading southwards, they next occupied all the country to the north of the Yang-tse-keang, but suffered dreadfully for many years from a great inundation; and thence gradually penetrated to the full limits of the present empire,— the southern provinces not being wholly subdued and civilised until subsequent to the Christian era. Everywhere-Egypt perhaps excepted-we find that vast forests have preceded the reign of civilised man on earth. Every one has heard of the ancient forests of Europe and of the New World; the old Hindoo poems are full of descriptions of the primeval woods which overspread the Indian Peninsula; and in the early history of China, also, we find that the new-comers from the north-west were forced to level before them vast forests, in order to reclaim