The connexion between the Hindus and the Greeks is still further evinced by the accordance of the languages, which is sufficiently strong to point to a common origin, and it may be remarked that Homer so frequently uses the verbs in μ, as to occasion the conjecture that they were the primitive Greek form; if so, as they closely approach to the Sanscrit form, they add another link to the existing chain of evidence.

We must now dismiss Col. Kennedy's valuable work by strongly recommending it to the perusal of our readers, as one in which every subject has been examined without an undue bias, and in which the polished learning of the classical scholar has been applied to deeply interesting oriental

researches.

THE OLDEN TIME.

هركرا خوابگاهي الاخر بدو مشتي خاک است

THERE is an hour, when ages rise to view,

And flit before the Fancy's radiant eye,

When Time's still records of the moulder'd hue

Lead back the mind to scenes, which ne'er shall die.
There is an hour, when Mem'ry's potent spell
Divinely opens Death's long-sealed bier;
When those, who rul'd, or wrote, or nobly fell,
In scenes of fancied life once more appear.
Forc'd by that charm in Valhal's spacious hall
We see fierce Odin animate his horde,
And all those valiant deeds to mind recall,

Which mark'd in orient lands their deadly sword.
Till in the west, with blood and carnage rife,
They fix'd their seats and dar'd the wild affray,
And pour'd their legions, prodigal of life,

O'er distant realms, yet strange to foreign sway.
Thus forc'd, we witness o'er a world unknown
Osiris peace and useful arts disperse,
Or read in mystic Egypt's sculptur'd stone
Events, long since conceal'd from poet's verse.

Or as from Shinár mov'd the motley clan,
In quest of novel seats and lands unsung,

We trace the gen'ral history of man,

Attested by each faith, and rite, and tongue.
Fix'd by the spell, we mark proud Brahma's race,
And antient Iraun's fire-revering tribe,

Beyond the date of man their fathers trace,

And from the mind divine their lore imbibe.

We view the gods appear in human form,

And grace the earth with their transcendant line:
Against the Devs, dire regents of the storm,
We Paris view and warlike chiefs combine.

We see great Rama urge his blood-stain'd car,
Or think of Jamshid's splendour with a sigh,
Of Rustam's deeds, the thunderbolt of war,
Or Sohrab daring with his sire to vie.

Or Antar, urging on his bold career,
Midst tribes as free, as earth-encircling air,
Lords of the sandy waste and sword and spear,
The mighty lions of their desert lair.

HAFIZ.

We mark the veil, which, like some mist of gloom,
Dropt on the wanderings of each earlier age;
We feel, alas! oblivion was their doom,

The doom alike of savage and of sage.

Through the wide world we stretch our anxious ken,
And seek some blest at least with happier lot:
Where'er we look, the destiny of men

Meets our research: alas! we find them not.
Of Scythian rovers, ah! how little known!
Though destin'd to infest Europa's plains;
Of Carthage too, beyond her wars with Rome,
Her name and chiefs, alas! what else remains!
But Philip's son oblivion's spell invades,

And bursts by deeds of arms the fount of light;
Dispelling from the gloom the ling'ring shades,
He shews a wisdom, as his trophies, bright.
The Grecian sage receiv'd the rushing ray,
Like old Prometheus from indignant Jove:
In attic haunts new muses chose to stray,

And lovely Crishna deck'd the Dorian grove.
Yet still no rose, no nightingale was found,
Save where Anacreon pour'd his festive song,
Or where Bucolic bards aspir'd to sound

The strains, which to the eastern lute belong.
But though these lays of love and nature came
To tune to foreign themes the Grecian's page,
Th' enfeebled lyre, its notes no more the same,
Moan'd like a bulbul captive in his cage.

Yet, where are they-the sons of song and pow'r,
Whose mighty acts in ruin'd glories lie?
Ah! vain the wish that would recall their hour!
And will them, like their deeds, not doom'd to die!
They passed, as meteors: and the shades of night
O'erwhelm the spot, which mark'd them for its own,
Save where some star sheds forth its glimmering light,
But fails to make their former brilliance known.
And o'er their works Destruction holds its sway:
E'en Babylon is fall'n no more to rise;

The bittern and the owl and beasts of prey

Now sojourn, where once incense sought the skies,
And Jamshid's pile, that grand stupendous mass,
In fragments lies, by Moslem feet defil'd ;
And mighty Tadmór (shall thus glory pass?)
Is lost midst desert sands and tribes as wild.

So Bali's city, merg'd beneath the wave,

Like those between the Asphaltitic shore, Proclaims, that nought can Fate's destruction brave, That nought their pristine grandeur can restore. Just so, o'er them, who rul'd those wide domains, And taught fierce War the softer muse to woo,

With iron sceptre Death now sternly reigns,

And all the tears they have is heav'n's own dew.

What! though th' historic page, which shews their might,
Marks but some deeds, which signaliz'd their day,
Too scanty remnants of each glorious fight,
Too brief memorials of unbounded sway;

Yet, as th' eternal pyramids secure,

Which Fate's relentless grasp cannot consume, Still shall their mem'ries live, whilst time endure, And tear unwilling honours from the tomb.

D. G. W.

OPEN TRADE WITH CHINA.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR-AT a time when the affairs of the East-India Company are exciting so much attention, it may not be deemed obtrusive in one who has had some means of forming a correct judgment on the question, as to the expediency of throwing open the China trade, to submit a few remarks for the consideration of those who have to legislate on the subject: and although I do not pretend to throw much new light on the matter in dispute between the East-India Company and the anti-monopolist, yet I deem it not impossible that the following view of the subject may lead to some good, if it even does no more than induce the supporters of an "Open Trade" to moderate their expectations of the benefit which they anticipate to derive from the abolition of the Company's China monopoly.

I am by no means an advocate (generally speaking) of a system of monopoly, and am decidedly of opinion that, in almost all cases, the more free commerce is left, the more will it flourish, and in proportion benefit mankind in general; but I consider the trade with China as an exception to a general rule, and for reasons which I shall hereafter state.

There is little doubt, for instance, that if the corn-trade were thrown open, by the abolition of a protecting duty, a very large proportion of foreign corn must be purchased with specie, and that the balance of trade would, in so far, be against this country; but that specie must have been previously obtained by the productions of the soil or industry of Great Britain; where we may suffer in the one trade, we shall benefit in another; and it appears obvious that the corn taken from the continental markets, and brought into our own, must tend to enhance the price in the former and reduce it in the latter, until the value in each becomes pretty nearly upon a par, and the most expert and most industrious manufacturers must then assume the command in all markets where their productions are in demand.-This however is a discussion somewhat" far a-field" from the purport of this letter, except that three-fourths of the teas and commodities of China always have been, and must still be, purchased by the merchants of England (whether the East-India Company or private individuals) with specie or bills on India or England, and no country ought to expect that every branch of its trade should yield a balance in its favour.

Every person, who has been in the habit of seeing any thing of Chinese edicts, or knowing any thing of Chinese customs, will be aware that the whole system of Chinese legislation is one of precedents, and an emperor or mandarin of China would as soon think of altering any of the customs or laws of the celestial empire, as he would of endeavouring to controvert Confucius himself. The Chinese are not to be considered as a people upon whom a new light is likely to break, which would induce them to change or alter a custom that has existed for ages; and it will be in vain that the English nation look to them to allow any thing approaching a freedom of trade at Canton, or to permit European vessels to visit any other port of that empire.

From the period of the commencement of Europeans trading with China, the whole of their commerce has been carried on with a Hong, consisting of several merchants, authorized by the government to trade with the Barbarians," as they term foreigners; and for the privilege of so trading they are compelled to pay a heavy tax to government, independently of an occasional tight "squeeze" by the mandarins and hoppo. The trade, on the part of the Chi

nese, is therefore a strict monopoly, and in my opinion can only be met and carried on successfully, by the British nation, through the medium of a monopoly on its part.

It may be said that the Americans carry on a trade prosecuted by individuals; but those, whose occasional visits to China may have enabled them to form a correct judgment on the subject, will know, that their trade has always derived considerable benefit and facilities from the existence of the East-India Company's factory at Canton, through whose influence and weight with the Hong merchants (and through them with the government) the foreign trade with China has been kept in some degree of check and controul.

Let it be remembered, that the factory at Canton are the only customers the Hong merchants have, whose business they regard as of any material consequence to them, or to whom they can look for assistance and support in any emergency of commercial distress; and their commerce is of sufficient importance to the Hong, to induce them to conduct their intercourse with something approaching to justice and liberality; but do away with that wholesome check, and the weight which the outlay of two or three millions sterling annually, besides the loan or advance of as many millions of dollars, must always give, and throw such expenditure into the hands of hundreds of private individuals, each striving and competing with the other, and it will soon be discovered, to their cost, that the monopoly of the Hong, backed, as they always are, by the mandarins and hoppos (to whom alone there is any appeal on the spot), will overwhelm the small capitalists trading to the extent of their £40,000 or £50,000, and throw them entirely at the mercy of a dozen cormorants, who will then regulate the trade according to their own will and pleasure.

By the large sum annually expended with the Hong merchants in the purchase of tea, and by the advance which is occasionally made to them of a million or two of dollars, the factory are enabled to conduct their trade on à tolerably secure footing; and the same basis or system, that is acted upon by the Chinese with regard to the Company's trade, is, of necessity, extended to the other branches of the foreign trade of Canton, and thereby the benefits of their influence is indirectly felt by our country or Indian trade, as well as by that of all other foreign nations, who have any intercourse with the Chinese; though it is by no means a circumstance of unfrequent occurrence, that some one or other of the parties alluded to are obliged to solicit the good offices and intercession of the factory. If, therefore, there was not at Canton some kind of power of sufficient weight to exercise a wholesome check, in opposition to the monopoly of the Hong merchants (and it is not in the power of individuals to establish one), the whole trade would soon become entirely at their mercy, and must speedily either dwindle to nothing, or the parties carrying it on must submit to take and give such prices as the Hong merchants may, in their discretion, think proper to give and to exact; for they are well aware that we must purchase their teas at any price, whilst they (the Chinese nation) can very well dispense with any of the articles usually taken from Europe to Canton.

It will be found that, even with the facilities that the American trade with China has long enjoyed (and there is no other nation whose commerce has been worth speaking of), it has for several years been on the decline; and it is a singular fact, that there is hardly a single exception of an American merchant, entering largely into the China trade, that has not in a few years become bankrupt, the agents resident in China being the only parties who have realized fortunes. With this example, under such favourable circumstances, before

their eyes, how can the British merchants expect to carry on a prosperous trade, after the East-India Company's factory shall have been withdrawn? And it is obvious they cannot continue the expense of such an establishment at Canton, if the monopoly in teas be entirely withdrawn from them; and although some wiseacres may exclaim, "Do as other nations have done, and establish a consulate there, to protect your trade and general interests," those, who have attained any practical knowledge of the Chinese on the spot, will tell them, that the consuls already there are not valued one pinch of snuff, and that any one who might be sent, let him threaten, bluster, or coax, as much as he will, would have no more weight or influence than any other individual; and in such a case, it would become necessary for the British government to make up their minds to support his remonstrances by an armament, and to force a trade at the point of the bayonet.

But, although I am a strong advocate for the continuance of a factory at Canton, possessing the influence of the present one, I am not prepared to contend that the tea-trade ought to be continued a strict monopoly in the hands of the East-India Company. On the contrary, I think a middling course might be adopted, that would meet the object of the abolitionists, and still leave the Company a sufficient inducement to continue their factory, and not abandon the tea-trade to private merchants.

The number of vessels at present in employ in the country or Indian trade with China, amounts to upwards of thirty of large class, forming an aggregate of from 19,000 to 20,000 tons, exclusive of the Portuguese, the tonnage of whose vessels is not less than 4000 tons. Of these ships, which make an annual voyage, at least one-half the tonnage is empty on their return from China to India, and the owners would be glad to load back, as a return cargo, teas and other productions of China, at very moderate freights; and if the trade with Canton were thus thrown open circuitously through the ports of India, not only would the wishes of the abolitionists be nearly met, but several other desirable points would be gained.

The additional expense entailed on the private trade, in thus circuitously obtaining teas from China, through India, in commissions, freight, insurance, &c., would prevent him from underselling the East-India Company so much as to trench upon a fair mercantile profit to them; whilst the cost of maintaining a factory in Canton, which it would be their interest to keep up so long as they hold the monopoly of the direct trade, would equally hinder them from materially underselling the free trader, whilst both would derive the benefit of a comptrolling power over the Hong merchants, and the country or Indian shipping interest (now in a deplorably depressed condition) would be materially benefited, by obtaining cargoes back for such of their ships as now return empty, and the competition, that would be thus safely created between the East-India Company and the private merchants, would be such as to maintain a beneficial check on prices in England, without throwing the trade exclusively into the hands of either party, which must inevitably be the case if the China trade be altogether thrown open.

Another object, on which considerable stress has been laid, would also by this mode of conducting the trade be attained; and that is, preventing ships. manned by European seamen from going to China, except those that may be under the direct controul of the Company's factory, and which, notwithstanding it is lightly thought of by those who have no local knowledge of the manners and prejudices of the inhabitants of the country, will be sufficiently appreciated by such as have visited the Celestial Empire, and had feeling proof