we may be assured that every circumstance conspires to produce the collision of England with France and Russia on the confines of India-with the first by sea on the southern coast, and with the second by land on the northwestern frontier. Considering England's maritime power, we can imagine that she can easily line the Indian coast with one strong fortress of frigates and men-of-war, which France will scarcely be strong enough to break through. But the danger thus looming in the distance requires necessarily to be reckoned up beforehand, so that, when her trial comes, she may not be found wanting in the balance of strife. And conceiving the probability of the second, the mind naturally recurs to the Macedonian conquest; when, from the vague accounts which history has been able to give of the enterprise of Alexander, we are tempted to assure ourselves upon the immense length and difficulties of the march, and the untameable ferocity of the savage tribes whose territories would have to be crossed. But in so supinely reckoning our safety, we lose all consideration of the improvement of modern warfare, and the fact of Russian authority and organisation already extending to the very spot whence the Mongol and

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Tartar Conquerors of India started on their race. Besides, Russia needs not necessarily force her way by open injustice or violence to the intervening hordes; she has already a less obtrusive line of policy set to her as an example by the East India Company in their conquest of India;-while the disputes, which never fail to attend succession to the throne of Persia, and the general imbecility of the nation, might supply an opportunity for Russia to extend her influence in Central Asia for an Indian invasion. On the Indus, then, the die will be cast; and success or defeat will be the result only in the Punjab, where armies will have to be marched from Madras, Bombay, and Bengal, the distance between the field of action and the starting-points being as great as nearly the whole breadth of the European continent, with tribes and nations interspersed differing as much from each other as the Spaniard from the Hungarian, or the English from the Italian; and if these extensive marches weigh nothing upon the European troops (which requires yet to be proved), the cold and fatigue must have a great effect on the Native regiments, whom sickness and a depression of spirit, the maladie du pays, will render almost whol

ly ineffectual. It will, besides, be difficult to inspire rebellious tribes and Native regiments, differing and opposed as they are in principles to each other, and ignorant of conceiving the stability of British power in the East, with any degree of confidence; and though discipline and courage avail in the impulse of aggression, in defence, we necessarily require confidence of the highest degree, and a feeling of patriotism, to bear the brunt of invading impetuosity. The resistance of the French when the Russians attempted to retake their position at Borodino, and of Havelock's noble band at Lucknow, are only too recent instances of confidence of success and self-devotion achieving triumphs in the defensive line under the most trying circumstances of overwhelming numbers and well-regulated discipline. The armies of Native troops brought into action will sadly be wanting in these springs of success; while the fact should never be neglected, that Upper India is replete with those restless tribes, which history has described as ever ambitious to seek for a change of masters; and in point of fact, Baber, Nadir, and Ahmed-the three greatest conquerors of the East-invaded India with a contemptible force, but succeeded on the battle

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field through the support and alliance of some of these tribes. And once the Punjab passed, our invaders shall have only a flat and unobstructing tract of country to march through, and the British Government will then have no alternative but to commit the fortunes of their empire to the issue of one great battle, on the plains perhaps of Paniput, which history has recorded to be invariably fatal to India.

The only measure to avert this appalling danger, the measure so often suggested, and as often evaded, is colonisation. Colonisation is of two distinct kinds-one benefiting exclusively the mother country, by relieving it of all surplus population, while the other tends to the benefit of the region colonised, by the infusion of a liberal degree of energy and intelligence into the mass of its ignorant and dull population, by the settlement of a few men of skill and activity. In the first instance, the mother country generally sends forth children with very limited means, and convicts; in the second, the colonisers are in most cases men of capital and it is the confounding of these two distinct classes of colonists that has raised the unfounded cry against British emigration to India, and delayed as yet the inestimable benefit

so necessary to the governors no less than to the governed of this country. When we say that the British Isles should colonise India, we do not mean, certainly, that a crowd of settlers should be sent out here, as they have been to America, the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, and New Zealand; but only just so many as will suffice for the necessary admixture of men of energy and intelligence with the dull and torpid millions of India, so as to develope the rich resources of its soil, which at present, for want of industry and ability, may be said to lie entirely fallow and uncultivated.

In the event of any such external invasion as we have before discussed occurring, the presence of British settlers will be of eminent service to Government, while the activity, courage, and knowledge of acclimated Saxons will be equal to a sustained effort against any opposing strength and discipline, for which the drooping spirits of fresh English troops, from unaccustomed Indian fatigue and heat, consequent on long marches necessary in an extensive line of military operations on the occasion, would be wholly unequal. Besides, the settlers having an interest in the soil of their adopted country, and reliance in the stability