people have yet shown themselves. It was a tradition among them, that wherever ten men of Israel were settled together, a synagogue ought to be built there.'-vol. ii. p. 272. In the new settlements of Australia, we trust this will be borne in mind; and if Captain Parry has any power to make such arrangements, we feel that we have a pledge for their being made. Thus does this excellent work of Mr. Southey's point out the disease of the times, and its remedy; the gangrene which is creeping through the land, and the quickening spirit which alone can stay its progress. He pursues the cause and the cure, through all the great establishments by which our national character is formed our schools, our colleges, our hospitals, our manufactories, our parliament. The philosophers of England may laugh alike at the danger and at the defence by which it is to be met. So did those of France, till the frame of society tumbled about their ears, to the surprise of none more than themselves—speremus meliora. Meanwhile, let us seek repose from the troubled thoughts which the contemplation of national insecurity suggests, in the following beautiful picture of domestic feeling, which few can regard without some emotion, and with which many will sympathise from sad experience. 'The best general view of Derwentwater is from the terrace, between Applethwaite and Milbeck, a little beyond the former hamlet. The old roofs and chimnies of that hamlet come finely in the foreground, and the trees upon the Ornathwaite estate give there a richness to the middle ground, which is wanting in other parts of the vale. From that spot I once saw three artists sketching it at the same time -William Westall (who has engraved it among his admirable views of Keswick), Glover, and Edward Nash, my dear kind-hearted friend and fellow-traveller, whose death has darkened some of the blithest recollections of my latter life. I know not from which of the surrounding heights it is seen to most advantage; any one will amply repay the labour of the ascent: and often as I have ascended them all, it has never been without a fresh delight. The best near view is from a field adjoining Friar's Craig. There it is that, if I had Aladdin's lamp or Fortunatus's purse (with leave of Greenwich Hospital be it spoken), I would build myself a house. Thither I had strolled, on one of those first genial days of spring which seem to affect the animal not less than the vegetable creation. At such times even I, sedentary as I am, feel a craving for the open air and sunshine, and creep out as instinctively as snails after a shower. Such seasons, which have an exhilarating effect upon youth, produce a soothing one when we are advanced in life. The root of an ash tree, on the bank which bends round the little bay, had been half bared by the waters during one of the winter floods, and afforded a commodious resting-place, whereon I took my seat, at once basking in the sun and bathing, as it were, in the vernal breeze. But delightful as all about me was to eye, and ear, and feeling, it brought with it a natural reflection, that the scene which I now beheld was the same which it had been and would continue to be, while so many of those with whom had formerly enjoyed it, were past away. Our daydreams become retrospective as we advance in years; and the heart feeds as naturally upon remembrance in age, as upon hope in youth. "Where are they gone, the old familiar faces ?" 'I thought of her, whom I had so often seen plying her little skiff upon that glassy water, the lady of the lake. It was like a poet's dream, or a vision of romance, to behold her-and like a vision or a dream she had departed! "O gentle Emma, o'er a lovelier form Than thine earth never closed; nor e'er did heaven I thought of D., the most familiar of my friends during those years when we lived near enough to each other for familiar intercourse-my friend, and the friend of all who were dearest to me; a man, of whom all who knew him will concur with me in saying, that they never knew, nor could conceive of one more strictly dutiful, more actively benevolent, more truly kind, more thoroughly good; the pleasantest companion, the sincerest counsellor, the most considerate friend, the kindest host, the welcomest guest. After our separation, he had visited me here three summers; with him it was that I had first explored this land of lakes in all directions; and again and again should we have retraced our steps in the wildest recesses of these vales and mountains, and lived over the past again, if he had not, too early for all who loved him, "Began the travel of eternity." I called to mind my hopeful H-, too, so often the sweet companion of my morning walks to this very spot; in whom I had fondly thought my better part should have survived me, and "With whom it seemed my very life Went half away! But we shall meet-but we shall meet "Thy dead shall live, O Lord! together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust! for Thy dew is as the dew of herbs; and the earth shall cast out her dead!" Surely, to the sincere believer death would be an object of desire instead of dread, were it not for those ties-those heart-strings-by which we are attached to life. Nor, indeed, do I believe that it is natural to fear death, however generally it may be thought so. From my own feelings I have little right to judge; for, although habitually mindful mindful that the hour cometh, and even now may be, it has never ap peared actually near enough to make me duly apprehend its effect upon myself. But from what I have observed, and what I have heard those persons say whose professions lead them to the dying, I am induced to infer that the fear of death is not common, and that where it exists it proceeds rather from a diseased and enfeebled mind, than from any principle in our nature. Certain it is, that among the poor the approach of dissolution is usually regarded with a quiet and natural composure, which it is consolatory to contemplate, and which is as far removed from the dead palsy of unbelief as it is from the delirious raptures of fanaticism. Theirs is a true, unhesitating faith; and they are willing to lay down the burden of a weary life, in the sure and certain hope of a blessed immortality. Who, indeed, is there, that would not gladly make the exchange, if he lived only for himself, and were to leave none who stood in need of him-no eyes to weep at his departure, no hearts to ache for his loss? The day of death, says the preacher, is better than the day of one's birth; a sentence to which whoever has lived long, and may humbly hope that he has not lived ill, must heartily assent.'-vol. i. p. 242. ART. II. Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava, in the year 1827. By John Crawfurd, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c., late Envoy. London. 1829. THIS HIS is the second portly quarto with which Mr. Crawfurd has favoured the reading part of the public since his return from the several missions in the East, entrusted to his charge by the Governor-General of India. His account of those to Siam and Cochin-China we did not deem it necessary to notice, as the main points embraced in his narrative had been anticipated by the posthumous publication of the late Mr. Finlayson's Journal,—a work which we had happened to review at some length. The relative positions of the Burmese and Siamese territories to each other, and the proximity of the former to the eastern frontier of our Indian empire; the collisions which, in consequence, have happened, and may hereafter occur; and the limited knowledge we possess of the Burmese history, topography, institutions, habits, and resources, -all these might be thought fully sufficient to create a considerable degree of interest among our countrymen; but it would appear that the fact is not so. From some cause or other, the charm which, in earlier periods, seemed to encircle the ancient nations of the East has lost its efficacy; books treating of them appear to be no longer capable of inspiring that degree of interest they were wont to possess in the infancy of European intercourse. It can not not be for want of novelty; for one half of the eastern world remains yet to be explored. Perhaps we are more fastidious the more we advance in knowledge; perhaps, also, the want of interest of which we complain may, in part, be chargeable to the score of modern authorship. Indeed, we have a strong suspicion that there is something in this last matter; and that books on oriental subjects would be read as eagerly as formerly, if their authors could write and describe like Heber. At the same time we believe that the early impressions in favour of eastern nations were generally the offspring of exaggeration. The few travellers of the thirteenth century, and the Catholic missionaries who followed their steps, were so dazzled by the barbaric splendour of the sovereigns and their courts, that they overlooked the naked and squalid poverty of the slavish millions around: the overwhelming brilliancy of the former tended only to render the gloomy appearance of the latter still more obscure. The first notice of Ava, if we mistake not, is to be found in that most attentive and accurate traveller, Marco Polo, who, 'Wand'ring from clime to clime observant stray'd, He calls it Mien, by which name it is still known to the Chinese; but Mien in those times had a wider meaning. It comprehended the provinces of Bengal and Aracan; as well as what we call the Burmese country; and at that time-Kublai Khan, ruling over China and a great part of India,-the King of Mien, in order to prevent his country being overrun by the Tartars, who had an armed force on its frontiers, in Yun-nan, sent an army of sixty thousand men, horse and foot, with a multitude of elephants carrying battlements on their backs. The Tartars had but twelve thousand men, but they were excellent archers; and a battle taking place, they poured in their arrows so successfully against the elephants, which were in the front of the battle, that these huge creatures gave way, overthrew their army in the rear, and ran off into the woods. The consequence of this victory was, that the Great Khan got possession of all that country which at present constitutes the Burman empire, with the addition of Aracan and Bengal. The elephants and their conductors were taken into the Tartaric army, to the number of two hundred; and 'from the period of this battle,' says Marco Polo, the Grand Khan has always chosen to employ elephants in his armies, which before that time he had not done.' The pyramidal temples, the tombs, with their gilding and jingling bells, the jugglers and sorcerers which then accompanied their armies, and, as we know from recent experience, still continue to do so: All things, even down to to the practice of the men puncturing their skin with figures of beasts and birds, and rubbing in a black colouring matter, are accurately described by this faithful narrator. We are not aware of any further account of the Burman country, until it was visited, in 1546, by Fernan Mendez Pinto, who, though not, as Congreve calls him, 'a liar of the first magnitude,' does now and then tell a few fibs. Mr. Crawfurd thinks this writer has rendered an exaggerated and obviously an unfaithful account; but, per contra, in the course of the late hostilities, some of our officers gave their testimony to the fidelity of his descriptions. It was during the visit of this traveller that the Burman conquest of Pegu was effected; and it appears that the latter continued to be ruled by a Burman prince, when Cæsar Frederick, in 1563, and Gasparo Balbi, a Venetian jeweller, in 1458, and Master Ralph Fitch, a merchant of London, in 1587, visited this country. From the narratives of these three travellers it would appear that the condition of the Burman empire was pretty nearly the same, at the periods of their respective visits, as it now is, the king acting the tyrant over his ministers, and his ministers oppressing the people. We should say, indeed, if we are to admit the accounts of these travellers to be correct, or nearly so, that the Burmans, instead of advancing in civilization, have retrograded several degrees in barbarism. In 1695 Mr. Higginson, then Governor of Madras, sent an embassy, with a letter and presents, to the king of Ava. This letter, and the reply,-not from the king but one of his ministers,—are amusing specimens of commercial obsequiousness on one side and official arrogance on the other. Mr. Higginson says, To his imperial majesty, who blesseth the noble city of Ava with his presence, emperor of emperors, and excelling the kings of the east and of the west in glory and honour; the clear firmament of virtue, the fountain of justice, the perfection of wisdom, the lord of charity, and protector of the distressed; the first mover in the sphere of greatness, president in council, victorious in war; who feareth none, and is feared by all; centre of the treasures of the earth and of the sea; lord proprietor of gold and silver, rubies, amber, and all precious jewels; favoured by heaven, and honoured by men; whose brightness shines through the world as the light of the sun, and whose great name will be preserved in perpetual memory.'—p. 105. The envoy, having gained an audience on condition of making three several genuflexions, and, at each, bowing the head three times to the ground, was dismissed with the following letter, addressed to Mr. Governor Higginson :— In the East, where the sun rises, and in that Oriental part of it |