political theorists in England, by whom the Eastern subjects of the queen are one and all regarded either as outer barbarians or as oppressed nationalities, with whom our connection is at once unwelcome to all concerned and discreditable if not perilous to ourselves, so that we are bidden to look forward with longing to the day when the tie which binds them to England will be severed, and the many populations now united under a strong and liberal though foreign government shall be pronounced "fit to govern themselves;" in other words, to the day when the wolf shall lie down with the lamb, and Punjabee and Mahratta, Hindustani and Bengali, Mogul and Madrasee shall live peaceably side by side, each under rulers of their own race and creed.
A great deal of this misgiving as to the present, and this eagerness to hasten on a future which is in truth so remote that its ultimate possibility seems the most doubtful of all propositions, is unquestionably due to a want of practical acquaintance with India, for which the fashionable run through the country in the cold weather, on which so much confident theorizing is based, is, as often as not, worse than no remedy. P. Hordern.
From The Contemporary Review.
A FARMHOUSE DIRGE.
I. Will you walk with me to the brow of the hill, to visit the farmer's wife, II. How thick with acorns the ground is strewn, rent from their cups and brown! III. The stream scarce flows underneath the bridge; they have dropped the sluice of the mill; IV. Cottages four, two new, two old, each with its clambering rose: V. Tenants of two of them work for me, punctual, sober, true; VI. Here is the railway bridge, and see how straight do the bright lines keep, VII. Lo! yonder the Farm, and these the ruts that the broad-wheeled wains have worn, |