shipboard, he is at once a privileged and licensed murmurer: but if a young lady be the fair inditer, she deplores the dulness, because there is but one ball, with a few dinners, in anticipation; and because the men are very stupid, or possibly, though this is but casually hinted at in the postscript, there are not two eligibles in the whole vicinity.

As for myself, although my old friend, for the first few days, has been continually apologising about the apprehended ennui of the place, and wearying himself and his guest most unmercifully, in seeking out the supposed necessary wherewithal to amuse; yet it would be difficult indeed to impress me, who am just escaped from Calcutta, with the conviction that any situation in the country, with tolerably decent friends, and without any positive bore, or desagrément in the way, could deserve the character of eternal dulness, with which the habit of talking and complaint has so stigmatised the Mofussil.

Time, to the larger portion of the Eastern community, excepting always the overworked civilian and Calcutta merchant, is the direct opponent to the Anglo-Indian's happiness; and it may not be asserting too much to add, to his health and moral feeling. From the moment of leaving the morning couch to the hour of again seeking it's unblest and unsoothing retirement, the aim of many is not to seize, improve, or rationally enjoy the passing day, but how to drive it hurriedly away; how to destroy and obliterate it's very being and existence ! From breakfast to noon, there may be a few forced dispellants of the hour; a morning visit or two; an occasional attempt at the performance of an official duty; the inspection of a stable; the trimming of a horse's mane or tail-nay, the more able exercise of skill in cutting a terrier pup's ears; followed by a solemn debate and elucidation of the subject, together with an interesting discussion as to the better expediency of "foxing" or

"rounding" the ear. All this, with the adjunct of billiards, cheroots, and perhaps a morning game at Piquet or Loo, many contrive to exterminate the enemy till Tiffin; but, even then, the watch is ever in hand, amidst deep wonderment and repining that "the Time passes so slow!" After Tiffin, although a new edition of cheroots, and possibly the now somewhat unfashionable hookah, may afford destruction to a portion of the afternoon, while the siesta may master the remainder; yet, with those to whose bilious habits is denied the luxury of the latter, how lingeringly the day lags on! How comfortlessly, how miserably they lounge about their bungalows; or wander, en deshabille, through their verandahs until the sighed-for departure of the sun enables them to dress, and creep forth languidly, to enjoy the same insipid drive on the same unvaried road, which day by day has wearied them for months with it's stale and cheerless monotony.

The asserted want of employment, the impossibility under such a climate of pleasantly and profitably distributing the time, the little inducement or opportunity or the mind to seek improvement in intellectual pursuits, or even amidst lighter resources, such as reading, music, or other arts,-these are the wonted and ready excuses to which people ascribe their state of listlessness and inaction in India. The climate and heat are triumphantly adduced as dampers to all exertion; and if, in reply, one might venture to suggest that, in the short history of British Hindoostan, there are brilliant instances to the contrary, we are informed that these are extraordinary examples that must have excelled anywhere; or we are then silenced by the luckless examplar of some premature victim, and asked "how long the exertion lasted ?"

I have been led into these reflections by the odd coincidence of complaint, and the concurring identity of the observations that

greeted us at almost every house we visited, when my friend Alport "took me round," as he termed it, the station of Sahibpore.

A few mornings after my arrival, we got into his buggy, and away we drove; first to the Civilians, as they resided in the immediate neighbourhood. We paid our respects

to two Judges of the

Court of Appeal* of

that day; the Judge and Magistrate, Mr. Chillum; the Collector of Revenue, with his brother Collector of Customs; the Register, and one or two of their young assistants. At some of the houses we deposited our cards only, as the gentlemen were at Cutcherry, and the ladies not visible. After this, we drove into cantonments, and made a regular tour of the Bungalows; but if we except the ridiculous concurrence of all, in complaining of the dulness of the place, and which complaint came equally from the civil and military residents, there was nothing

*It will be remembered that this speaks of 182-.