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of the popular talents of the leaders.

Before we appeared so much

upon the public stage,' said Dan, 'Tom Moore was considered the

foremost Catholic lay intellect of the day.

that pre-eminence.'"

He was jealous of losing

"Ran through some of

What follows is dated August 30, 1862. Moore's Diary. He mentions, under date 9th April, 1821, meeting Harry Bushe and his wife at Paris." Who Harry Bushe was is told, and there follows, as usual, a bit of reminiscence. It begins: "I remember when a child of six years old being with the Bushes in Dublin for some days."

A duel story told by of another duel story. (date of entry May 6,

Moore in his "Diary" reminds the diarist. That other duel story is told. Years later 1879) we get this: "Much excitement in poetical circles about Tom Moore's centenary. . . . A propos of poets and poetry, I remember a clever parody of Pope's lines:

If to her share some female errors fall,

Look on her face, and you'll forget them all!"

The "clever" parody is given.

In another place the approaching marriage of Lord Mountcashel "at the age of ninety-one" is brought to book. "Many years," it is pointed out, "have elapsed since Tom Moore inquired—

Who the devil, except his nurse,

For Lord Mountcashel cares a curse?

His lordship," it is duly added, "has now discovered someone who cares for him."

The last entry dealing with Tom Moore again represents him as the satirist of noble lords. He is nowhere in these memoirs touched on as the author of "Irish Melodies" or of "Eastern Tales."

Byron is alluded to only in connection with a friend of the diarist, an Englishman named Scott. "Charles Scott," it is chronicled, "who is a worshipper of Byron's muse, says that the circumstance of which he is vainest is that his cousin-german, Lady Charlotte Harley, received the poetical homage of Lord Byron, who inscribed 'Childe Harold' to her under the classic designation of 'Ianthe.'”

Similarly, Burns is touched on only in one note. "I observe that Leigh Hunt praises Burns for wishing Satan penitent and released from his den. My grandmother Wilson used to tell a story of a Presbyterian divine who introduced this sentiment into the pulpit. Having expatiated on the resources of omnipotent mercy, and the duty of praying for the conversion of sinners, the preacher

proceeded: 'And noo, my frien's, let us pray for the conversion of the puir auld de'il.''

To conclude. What is everywhere the patronising attitude of the country reader towards poetry is seen well in the case of this Irish country gentleman in the following singular entry, which bears date October 2, 1880 :-"Looked into a volume of Longfellow's poems. I am no judge of poetry and dislike it. I am therefore probably wrong in expressing disgust at the queer style of Hiawatha.' Rhymes are, I think, a nuisance, but, bad as it [sic] is, rhymeless octosyllables are worse. They run somewhat thus:

The pigs are rooting up the barley,
Heard ye not their grunt defiant ?
Those old sows make fearful havoc ;
Go, gossoon, and turn them out, or
Else I'll scourge your lazy carcase,
Raising welts as thick as fingers.

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Now, in my opinion, this sort of metre is enough to destroy the most interesting narrative or the description of the most interesting scenery."

In the opinion of some other persons this sort of criticism would have been better left unpenned. I am not of those other persons, for does it not reveal what many another entry in this diary reveals— the attitude towards literature of a very fine and not at all un common type of country gentleman ?

ELSA D'ESTERRE-KEELING.

VICTIMS OF CIRCUMSTANCES.

There's a man who plays a paying game,

Whatever he may say—

Whose name is a great and mighty name
Over the world to-day.

Who stands at ease where others fall,
Where others sink can swim;
While those who toil and spin-yes, all
Work, sweat, live, die for him;

He's an absolute ruler, deny it who can,

Our modern monarch, King Middleman.

N ex-Judge of the Calcutta High Court has recently pointed out

A in an interesting article which appeared in the Asiatic

Quarterly Review, that professional Thugs, organised bands of dakaits, and hired bodies of trained lattials 2 have ceased to exist in India owing to the British administration of justice. Life and property certainly enjoy a security never before known under any of the former rulers of the country, but is the pax Britannica an unmixed blessing to the people of India? This is a question which naturally wounds the amour-propre of the Anglo-Indians who are responsible for the government of the country; but in my humble opinion the parasite middleman, who fattens in still waters, has worked more harm to defenceless natives than the display of physical strength and the force of armed lawlessness which characterised the actions of people in authority during centuries of Indian rule. Peace of the description that now exists in Hindustan is very demoralising, and it is a well-known fact that the people are becoming more effeminate the longer they remain under the shadow of our flag; ennui is then created, which, as Auguste Comte has pointed out, is the cause of political convulsion and change.

A month or two ago a speech was made by Mr. Sayani, in the Governor-General's Legislative Council Room at Calcutta, during the debate on the Indian Budget, in which this Muhammadan gentleman expatiated on the flourishing condition of the people in the sat-yug (golden age) of the Hindus. On the other hand, Mr. ! Highwaymen. Clubmen engaged for riots.

Sayani's European colleagues looked upon the sat-yug as an hypothetical age to which discontented native orators refer to emphasise all their bitter statements regarding the waste of the resources of their country by an alien Government; and the Times, in a leading article on the subject, declared that "it is needless to say that the golden age is as purely mythical in India as elsewhere, but if we could regard Mr. Sayani as the exponent of the robust political economy which has been largely superseded in this country by effeminate sentimentality, there might be something to be said for his view. The alien rulers of India have indeed gone far in the removal of the natural checks of war, famine, and pestilence upon a population which in their absence increases its numbers with no more sense of responsibility than obtains in a rabbit warren." The natives of India, however, can thank God that Malthusianism has not found a footing in their land. And, although the "blessings of peace" have allowed the English to cope with famines and pestilence to a certain extent, the arts and industries of India have been woefully neglected.

Only imagine the sin and folly of exporting raw material from a country which produced the rich silks, brocades, and jewellery which amazed the great Charlemagne and his rude barons. Where in the whole world is there another building to be compared with the great Rameswaram temple? regarding which Dr. Fergusson says: "No engraving can convey the impression produced by such a display of labour when extended to an uninterrupted length of 700 feet. None of our cathedrals are more than 500 feet, and even the nave of St. Peter's is only 600 feet from the door to the apse. Here the side corridors are 700 feet long, and open into transverse galleries as rich in detail as themselves. These, with the varied devices and mode of lighting, produce an effect that is not equalled certainly anywhere in India. . . . Here we have corridors extending to 4,000 feet, carved on both sides, and in the hardest granite. It is the immensity of the labour here displayed that impresses us much more than its quality; and that, combined with a certain picturesqueness and mystery, produce an effect which is not surpassed by any other temple in India." There is no getting behind the fact that a very high state of civilisation prevailed all over India in prehistoric times, as even in the wildest forest regions there is evidence that the land at one time was under cultivation. Moreover, the ruined and buried citics, the innumerable temples and tombs of indescribable beauty, the large forts and their intricate defensive works, the magnificent Times, March 29, 1897.

* Fergusson's History of Indian Architecture, pp. 358, 359.

water-storage lakes, the anicuts and irrigation canals are in themselves monuments of the golden age.

I may as well explain to the English reader that the Hindus divide their history into four yugs or ages; and in their sastras it is asserted that these yugs show a progressive advancement in vice and misery. For example, in the sat-yug (golden age) all was purity, the life of a man being passed in the worship of God and in universal benevolence. After this came the treta-yug, when sin was first introduced into the world. The third was called the dwápar-yug. And the present age is the kali-yug, in which all is supposed to be sin, the signs of the kali-yug being sorrow, wretchedness, and disease. In this age the people are supposed to be proud and vile, and devoid of all proper feeling towards their parents; the Brahmans are without accurate knowledge of the Vedas, the mixture of castes has commenced, and men are steeped in sensuality. The women are also supposed to be universally corrupt at heart, caring only for pleasure-seeking. The rich are puffed out with their own pride, and look upon themselves as the salt of the earth; and the Brahmans bow down to wealthy Sudras who practise usury and other oppressive forms in their business transactions. Well, the records of the civil courts in every district of India will prove that the above-mentioned prophecy has been fulfilled in its entirety, bringing ruin in its train.

The railways, instead of lightening the burden of debt, have helped to make the fortunes of middlemen at the expense of the ryots. And yet the trading classes are not satisfied with what has already been done for them, as they are still clamouring for further extension in the railway system, as will be seen by the following extract from the Economist of April 24, 1897 :—

It will be remembered that in response to a very reasonable demand for the extension of railways, put forward by the commercial communities both in India and in this country, the Secretary of State agreed to the total expenditure by the State, and by companies guaranteed by the State, of Rx. 28,000,000 during the three years 1896-97, 1897-98, and 1898-1899. The main details of this expenditure, and the manner in which it was to have been incurred, were settled at the Railway Conference held at Simla, under the presidency of the Viceroy, in September last. The programme adopted was as follows:

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During the past year the expenditure incurred against this forecast is expected

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