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a dignified and lucrative sinecure; for the creditable fulfilment of the duties of which little exertion would be required, and still less any previous knowledge of the institutions and political condition of the countries they were thus called to govern. His services as President of the Board of Control in 1828, and more recently (in 1840) as chairman of the Lords' Committee on East Indian produce, bear ample and honourable evidence of the extent to which his researches have been carried in the commercial and agricultural resources of our Asiatic territories, and afford a hope that this knowledge may, when the present storm has passed, be brought efficiently to bear on the development of these too long neglected natu ral riches. The trade of India has now been open seven years, but neither the parliament nor the public have as yet. shown themselves adequately aware of its true value and importance. While the possession of the Indus ought to secure to us the whole commerce of Central Asia ('), the tea of Assam, the sugar of Hindostan, and the cotton recently introduced from America and Egypt, might be cultivated so as eventually both to render us independent of our now precarious trade with China, and to secure our supplies of cotton in the event of a rupture of our hollow friendship with America.

For the first time during many years, the care of these mighty interests has devolved upon one who is endowed not only with zeal and goodwill, but with that previous acquaintance with India, its resources, and its customs, the want of which has so lamentably marred the well-meant endeavours of more than one of his predecessors. Of his foreign policy, hampered as it must necessarily be at the outset by the task of unravelling the tangled web which has been bequeathed to him, little can at present be said:-but he has set out with

(') The exertions of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce have already worked wonders in this quarter-depots have been established at various points on the Indus; and the port of Soumeeani, on the Belooch coast west of the mouth of that river, is fast becoming the emporium of a wool trade, the staple of which is supplied by the innumerable flocks grazing on these elevated table lands. A town in the interior called Wudd (145 miles from Khelat and 152 from Soumecani) is the inland matt for this new trade.

VOL. III.

59

the commander-in-chief for the north-western provinces, in order to be nearer the scene of action-a journey, we trust, to be attended with different results to the memorable progress of Lord Auckland to the same quarter; and his domestic administration has been commenced auspiciously, by an act of justice to the Madras sepoys in the restoration of the disputed batta. But on the course of Lord Ellenborough's government will mainly depend the question of the future stability, or gradual decline, of our Anglo-Indian empire; for, though we are not among those who hold the opinion said to have been expressed by a late governor of one of the presidencies (Sir Charles Metcalfe,) that he hardly felt secure, on retiring to rest for the night, that the whole fabric might not have vanished into thin air before the morning, it cannot be denied that the prestige of unerring wisdom and invincible good fortune, which powerfully conduced to the maintenance of our authority, has sustained a tremendous shock from the late occurrences beyond the Indus. The French press already, in exulting anticipation, has ventured to indicate the period of its extinction. England (says the Siècle) is rich and energetic she may re-establish her dominion in India for some time' longer; but the term of her Indian empire is marked: it will conclude before the quarter of a century. » Less than the prescribed period would probably have sufficed, under a continuance of the policy lately pursued, for the accomplishment of this prophecy; but we have good hope that the evil days have now passed away and if Lord Ellenborough, at the conclusion of his viceroyalty, has only so far succeeded as to restore our foreign and domestic relations to the same state in which they stood ten years since, he will merit to be handed down to posterity by the side of Clive and Hastings as the second founder of our eastern empire.

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(BLACK WOOD'S MAGAZINE.)

MISCELLANEA.

FROM THE DANGEROUS CLASSES IN PARIS.

CHIFFONNIERS.It is in Paris only that the chiffonniers, or rubbish-hunters, form a distinct and specific class :-

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The extension of industry during the last thirty years has added to the dignity of this profession, which is alike followed by men,' women, and children. It requires no apprenticeship, no previous course of study, no expensive outfit: a large and compactly-shaped basket, a stick with a hook at the end of it, and a lantern, are the entire stock-in-trade of this singular species of labourers. The men, gain, on an average, and according to the season of the year, from twenty-five to forty sous a-day; but to do this they are obliged to make three rounds, two by day, and one during the night; their labour commencing at five in the morning and erding at midnight. · Between their rounds they examine and sort the cargoes which they bring in, and which they term their merchandize; and having done so, go and sell the arranged treasures to the master or managing chiffonnier for, like all other professions, this has its gradations of ranks, the higher of which are only reached after long periods of subordinate labour. Many of these chiefs keep furnished lodgings, which they let out exclusively to those ambulatory chiffonniers who have no fixed residence; reserving to their own use the groundfloor, as a magazine for their wares. The important operation of sorting his booty, if the chiffonnier is one of the better class, ani desirous of a healthy lodging, is performed either in a separate room, hired for the purpose, or, when the weather will permit, in the open air; but the far greater number possess only a single room, and in this, surrounded and assisted by their children, they spread out, examine, and sort the filthy produce of each journey. The floor is covered with rags, fragments of animal substances, glass, paper, and a thousand other things, some whole, some broken, and all begrimed with dirt: whilst the several selections fill all the corners of the room, and are heaped up under the bed. The stran

ger who enters is almost suffocated by the stench, which is rendered still more offensive by one, and sometimes two, large dogs, which form part of the domestic establishment of most chiffonniers, and which they take out with them in their nocturnal rounds. It is matter of astonishment that habit should enable these people to endure with impunity the putrid exhalations amidst which they live. The hotte of the chiffonnier is not merely the receptacle of his merchandize, it is also his market-basket: among all the filthy trash which he collects, he takes care not to neglect the luxuries of his table vegetables for his soup, pieces of bread, half-rotten fruit, everything which he conceives to be eatable. It is not unamusing to watch the sorting of all this, and to listen to the professional talk which seasons the operation when the sorter is in good temper, as he generally is, if his basket has been well filled and you address him with civility. Squatting down before it, he will show you, with a smile of exultation, a large beef-bone-a perfect beauty-and other articles of equal worth; and as he arranges his several heaps on the pavement, he will tell you that competition kills trade-that cooks have become dead to all sense of humanity, that they now make money of everything, bones and broken glass especially! These ragamuffins have their moments of good fortune and joy-it is when, in breaking apart a mass of filth, they see glittering before their eyes a silver spoon or fork; and, thanks to the carelessness of servants, these rich prizes are not of rare occurrence. The happy individual forthwith proceeds to the barrier with his friends, generally in a hackney-coach, to celebrate the event by a copious repast: the coachman, who anticipates the dirty state of his cushions, being the only dissatisfied individual of the party. The daily gain of the lady-chiffonniers amounts to, perhaps, fifteen or twenty sous: that of the children, to about ten. Many children, who run away from their parents at a very early age, take to this trade as a means of subsistence. The life they lead is almost savage: they are remarkable for the audacity and harshness of their manners. Some become so perfectly estranged that they lose all recollection of their father's abode, nay, even of his name.

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As with all other classes of operatives, the wine and spirit shop is the constant resort of these rubbish-hunters. To the aged chif fonniers, still more to the aged females of the class, brandy has an attraction which nothing else can equal. These women believe, and act upon the belief, that spirituous liquors afford the same nourishment as solid. food: they conceive that the artificial tone which results from the use of them is genuine strength; and the error is persisted in, until the constitution is destroyed. No wonder that the rate of mortality in this class is so high.

All the lower ranks display a certain pride and ostentation in their expenditure at the cabaret, but the chiffonniers more than any

other. The ordinary sort of wine will not suffice them; hot wine is their usual luxury, and they are vastly indignant if the lemon and sugar be not abundant. The cabaret-keepers are greatly scandalized by these extravagancies-that is to say, when a difficulty occurs, as it frequently does, in making up the reckoning. The generous sentiments which animate the better class of operatives are totally wanting mong these people: shunned and scorned by everyone, they in return shuu and hate all their fellow-creatures; they affect a cynic tone and manner, and appear to pride themselves on proclaiming their degradation and their vice. A considerable proportion of the men have passed through the hands of justice; and many of the women are prostitutes of the lowest order.'

NAUTICAL

ALLEGORIES. "

(QUARTERLY REVIEW.)

Thucydides explains the profound horror of the sea felt by all the earlier races of mankind, when he tells us that the fear of pirates prevented the Greeks for a long time from inhabiting the coasts. This is the reason why Homer arms the hand of Neptune with a trident, which makes the earth tremble. This trident was only a hook for seizing vessels, and the poet calls it dent (or tooth), by an appropriate metaphor, prefixing a particle which gives it a superlative sense.

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In these piratical vessels we recognise the Ball, in which Jupiter carried off Europa; the Minotaur, or Bull of Minos, with which he bore away the young men and maidens of the coast of Attica. The yards of a vessel were called corna navis (the horns); the sails were termed its wings, alaram remigium; - hence the monster which was to devour Andromeda, and the winged horse upon which Perseus came to deliver her. The thread of Ariadne is the art of navigation, which guided Theseus through the labyrinth of the Egean Isles: -Michelet's Principes de la Philosophie de l'Histoire, p. 236.

Comparatively recent times have indulged in similar allegories. Whittington's fortunate ship, the Cat, so named probably from its figure-head, was fabled into a quadruped, whence he derived all his wealth. But the schoolboy was surely illiberal, and perhaps not quite accurate in his deductions, when he declared that all the etymological inferences to be drawn from the Roman fleets and their crews, were un

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