to the annexation of their dominions, and the sovereignty of the entire peninsula of India. And had not the golden-footed sovereign of Burmah invaded Assam, and driven English subjects into captivity, boastfully threatening to take Calcutta, it is reasonable to believe that England would yet have remained confined within the natural limits of India. But she had her honour to vindicate; and the moment her armies crossed the mountain ranges into countries which stretched away to the Chinese Sea and the Pacific, she ventured upon a future, which, as it now gradually unfolds itself, seems to be full of intense interest to the future destinies of the world; for we lay it down as an axiomatic truth, that a power like hers, in spite of its reluctance, must advance, in a continent like Asia, till it reaches either high mountains or broad seas-till it beats, on the one side, against the base of the Chinese hills, and flows on the other into the waters of the Levant. Providence has decreed it so, and man cannot avert that decree; and the time is coming, when the entire continent of Asia, being brought to subjection by the Anglo-Saxon race, they of Europe and they of Asia will meet by that extensive plain whence they first set out in

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opposite directions to seek their respective homes. Let us hope that when that day comes, the common origin of mankind will be tangibly felt, and all nations, instead of fighting and wasting each other, as now, will learn to love each other as children of the same parents. How truly spoke, then, the first historian of the world" God shall increase Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem." Until now, this prophecy has not been fully accomplished, for the Shemites or the Asiatic race enjoyed for a long time the possession of the largest kingdoms of the world; and the march of empire and civilisation has hitherto been from East to West*-from the palace of Persepolis and the plains of Shinar to the isles of Greece, from the isles of Greece to the hills of Rome, from the hills of Rome to the fastnesses of Spain, from the fastnesses of Spain to the shores of Britain, and from the shores of Britain to the wilds of America. The progress to empire and civilisation has thus steadily been in one direction; and in this direction it has now reached America. But is this progress destined

*This has been attempted to be proved in a Prize Essay, by the writer of these pages, at the Elphinstone College, not yet published-"Westward the Tide of Empire rolls its sway."

to continue, or is the tide of civilisation to be at length arrested by the foot of the Rocky Mountains? No; there is nothing to show that the world is stagnant, and no signs in the heavens that the human race is retrograding. Four thousand years are now drawing to a close, and we stand on the verge of a great revolution of the world; the sons of Japhet are about now to dwell literally, and not figuratively, as of yore, in the tents of Shem; the audax Japeti genus setting forth not merely to hold by conquest and temporary tenure, but dwell by permanent colonies in the regions of the East. Civilisation is returning to the land of its birth, and another day and another race will soon commence to dawn upon the destinies of the human species. The Romans conquered by fire and sword; they gave peace only by establishing a solitude— Ubi solitudinem fecerunt pacem appelant ;* and they preserved their extensive conquests by extensive colonies. But England comes out to the East with the olive, and gives peace by order and civilisation. And if she desires to keep up her extensive acquisitions, she must also establish colonies, differing no doubt in principle as much in their

*Tacitus.

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mode of permanent tenure as in that of their acquisition. "Japhet shall dwell in the tents of Shem"; so said the prophecy. As yet he has not dwelt in the full significance of the sentence; but it will be fully verified when the English nation penetrates the regions of the descendants of Shem, not with the sword of the conqueror, to enslave, but with peace and knowledge, befriending and improving the people of the East as colonists; and the emigrants amalgamating* with the young generation of India, give birth to a progeny of race destined to develope another phase of civilisation, exceeding the wonders of Modern Europe as much as it has advanced over the ancient world. We may be voted visionary in our reflections: but views such as these arise unbidden in this place; and those who persuade themselves to laugh have only to look to the career of the Parsee in Western and of the Baboo in Eastern India. There is in reality no great difference between the two; and though the one has the ink-black skin,

* When English colonies will be established in India and other parts of the East, it is impossible to conceive that a mixture of the two races will not take place. They may remain separate for a time-for even a very long time,—but in the end, as the aborigines improve, the colonists will of themselves amalgamate with them.

while the other is rather olive-coloured in complexion, if not yet fairer, both are one in spirit -both have shown a vigorous constitution to improve--both are radicals and not conservatives. Both live in changes: "Overturn! overturn! overturn!" has already become their watchword; and abhorring stagnation, both show the strongest passion for novelty. Both have become Anglicised already; and if they go on in their career of progress some time more-it may be long, they may no doubt develope in time a new phase of civilisation as yet unknown to the world. Perhaps this consummation may come about with or without the element of English amalgamation-we cannot speak dogmatically on this point; though there is a greater probability of the first condition working itself upon the destinies of the world than the second; and a nation, hybrid in its composition, half English, half Hindoo, may spring up at a date as distant, it must be, from us as that of the hybrid formation of modern European nations was from the Romans in the full parade of their pomp and glory, believing in theism, pantheism or Christianity as the polestar of their faith, we care not which and we need not calculate which, so long as the pro