spirit bounded bravely above the trial—“no— not now will I believe what you fear; rest and comfort; you need not embroider at nights now; you can knit, or make nets, but no fine work."

Strangers, to have heard him talk, would have imagined that his luxuriant imagination was contemplating four pounds instead of four shillings a-week; only those who have wanted, and counted over the necessaries to be procured by pence, can comprehend the wealth of shillings.

These two were alone in the world; the husband and father had died of consumption; he had been an earnest, true, book-loving man, whose enthusiastic and poetic temperament had been branded as "dreamy"-certainly, he was fonder of thinking than of acting; he had knowledge enough to have given him courage, but perhaps the natural delicacy of his constitution rendered his struggles for independence insufficient; latterly, he had been a schoolmaster, but certain religious scruples prevented his advancing with the great education movement beginning to agitate England; and when his health declined, his scholars fell away: but as his mental strength faded, that of his wife seemed to increase. She was nothing more than a simple, loving, enduring, industrious woman, noted in the village of their adoption as possessing a most beautiful voice; and often had the sound of her own minstrelsy, hymning God's praise, or on week-days welling forth the tenderness or chivalry of an old ballad, been company and consolation to her wearied spirit.

Books and music refine external things; and born and brought up in their atmosphere, Richard, poor, half-starved, half-naked, running hither and thither in search of employment, and cast among really low, vicious, false, intemperate, godless children, was preserved from contagion. It was a singular happiness that his mother never feared for him; one of the many bits of poetry of her nature, was the firm faith she entertained that the son of her husband-whose memory was to her as the protection of a titular saint-could not be tainted by evil example. She knew the boy's burning thirst for knowledge; she knew his struggles, not for ease, but for labour; she knew his young energy, and wondered at it; she knew the devotional spirit that was in him ;-yet in all these things she put no trust: but she felt as though the invisible but present spirit of his father was with him through scenes of sin and misery, and encompassed him as with a halo, so that he might walk, like the prophets

of Israel, through a burning fiery furnace unscathed.

66

These two-mother and son-were alone in their poverty-stricken sphere; and that newyear's-day had brought to the mother both hope and despair: but though an increasing film came between her and the delicate embroidery she wrought with so much skill and care, though the confession that she was growing dark," caused her sharper agony than she had suffered since her husband's death, still, as the evening drew on, and she put by her work, her spirit lightened under the influence of the fresh and healthful hope which animated her son. She busied herself with sundry contrivances for his making a neat appearance on the following day; she forced him into a jacket which he had out-grown, to see how he looked, and kissed and blessed the bright face which, she thanked God, she could still see. Together they turned out, and over and over again, the contents of their solitary box; and Richard, by no means indifferent to his personal appearance at any time, said, very frankly, that he thought his acquaintances, Ned Brady and William, or Willy "No-go," as he was familiarly styled, would hardly recognize him on the morrow, if they should chance to meet.

"But if I lend you this silk handkerchief, that was your poor father's, to tie round your neck, don't let it puff you up," said the simpleminded woman, "don't; and don't look down upon Ned Brady and William No-go (what an odd name); if they are good lads, you might ask them in to tea some night (that is, when we have tea); they must be good lads, if you know them."

And then followed a prayer and a blessing, and, much later than usual, after a few happier tears, another prayer, and another blessing, the worn-out cyes, and those so young and fresh, closed in peaceful sleep.

66

Neddy, my boy!" stammered Mrs. Brady to her son, as she staggered to her wretched lodging that night, "it's wonderful luck ye' had with that penny; the four-pence ye' won through it at "pitch and toss" has made a woman of me; I am as happy as a queen-as a queen, Neddy." The unfortunate creature flourished her arm so decidedly that she broke a pane of glass in a shopkeeper's window, and was secured by a policeman for the offence; poor unfortunate Ned followed his mother, with loud incoherent lamentations, wishing "bad luck' to every one, but more especially to the police, and the gentleman that brought him into misery by his mean penny;—if it had

been a sum he could have done anything with -but a penny! what could be done with one poor penny, but spend it!

Willy's penny went into a box with several

other coins; his mother lacked the common necessaries of life,-still Willy hoarded, and continued to look after his treasure as a magpie watches the silver coin she drops into a hole in a castle wall.

THE British are once more carrying on war in Asia; the succession of their conquests is close and rapid. Scarcely was the army returned from Afghanistan, than Sir Charles Napier was routing a host at the gates of Sindh; and no sooner was his victory ratified by peace in the valley of the Indus, than a hundred great guns were roaring along the banks of the Sutlej. All these episodes awakened in England much interest concerning the independent territories contiguous to our own in the East; and it became important to inquire into the nature and condition of the countries thus connected with British India. We are now again at war, not with a petty state, but with the most extensive, and one of the most ancient sovereignties in the neighbourhood of Hindustan. It is, therefore, interesting to glance at its situation, extent, resources, and actual advance in the arts and advantages of civilization. The information is the more necessary to be diffused, because a considerable division of its territory will probably fall under our rule.

In the south-eastern extremity of Asia, or India beyond the Ganges, is situated the extensive empire of Birmah. It is enclosed between Assam and Tibet on the north, the Indian Ocean and Siam on the south, and on the east the unexplored regions of Laos, Lactho, and Cambodia; the river Nauf and a ridge of hills separate it on the west from the British districts of Tiperah and Chittagong, in Bengal. From the rapacious character of its sovereigns, however, the limits of the Birman Empire, except where confined by the sea, have perpetually fluctuated, and generally continued to enlarge. Conquest has added province after province to its original dominion; its length may now be estimated at about a thousand miles, and its breadth at six hundred; while its total area has been computed at a hundred and ninety-four thousand. Ava Proper, however, which constitutes the seat of the ancient monarchy, is a moderately-sized country in the centre,-various subjugated territories lying

around,—Pegu, Martaoan, Junk Ceylon, Yunshan, Lowashan, and Cassay, with, formerly, Arracan, Tenasserim, Mergui, and Tavoy, which were conquered by the British in 1826. There are some good harbours on the coast, with several rivers of considerable size, the Irawaddy, the Kinduen, the Lokiang, and the Pegu, besides one or two beautiful lakes.

Throughout the cleared tracts of this large country, except over the hot and moist lands of the Delta, there prevails a very healthy climate; its seasons are regular, and the extremes of temperature are seldom experienced, except just previously to the rains, when the heat becomes, for a few days, sultry and oppressive. Indeed, with the exception of a broad delta, formed by the mouths of the Irawaddy, the surface is generally hilly and dry. In the south are provinces with a remarkably fine soil, producing crops of rice as heavy as are yielded by the richest lands in Bengal, whlch is considered the Lombardy of Asia. In the north, the rugged and mountainous tracts are comparatively poor, as all such regions are, but the small plains and valleys are everywhere of superior fertility; they grow excellent wheat, with all kinds of grains and legumes found in other parts of India. Among the indigenous productions are sugarcanes, tobacco of remarkable quality, indigo, cotton, and innumerable tropical fruits. In one province, towards the north-east, tea is cultivated, but of a poor flavour, and seldom used by the inhabitants, except as a pickle. Several districts contain forests of the celebrated Avan teak-tree, flourishing principally among hills. Every species of timber found in Hindustan thrives in Birmah, with the fir, though this, on account of its soft wood, is of little value, except for the turpentine it yields. Unfortunately, also, the forests are exceedingly unhealthy, and none can follow the occupation of wood-cutters except men of certain particular tribes, born and bred on the mountains: even these are said to be very short-lived.

There are few Indian countries more rich in

minerals than Ava. In the north, about six days' journey from Bunoo, are mines of gold and silver. On a hill near Kinduen are others, and rubies and sapphires are found there in great numbers, as well as near the capital. So long have these localities been famed, that in the sixteenth century the jewellers of Europe travelled to them for their costly gems. Iron, tin, lead, antimony, arsenic, and sulphur, are found in vast abundance; amber, pure and pellucid, is dug up near the streams, in the beds of which rich auriferous deposits are discovered. One which flows between the Kindueen and the Irawaddy is called among the natives the "River of Golden Sand." There are no diamonds or emeralds in Birmah, but amethysts, garnets, chrysolites, and jasper, with marble, which, when polished, is almost transparent, and equals the finest of that from which the unrivalled genius of Italian art has created forms of all but living beauty. The Emperor monopolises this article, which is held sacred, because from it are sculptured the images of the gods, to be seen in the bellshaped temples of the country. Among royal privileges, also, is that of possessing the celebrated wells which yield petroleum oil, universally used in Birmah, and producing for the crown a large revenue.

Between Amarpura, in Ava, and Yunan, in China, is carried on a lucrative trade. The principal export is white and brown cotton, which is carried up the Irawaddy in capacious boats as far as Bamoo, where a number of merchants from the Celestial Empire congregate to buy, and transport it to their own city in caravans. Amber, ivory, jewels, betel nuts, and edible birds' nests, from the blooming islands of the Indian Archipelago, are also exchanged with them for raw and wrought silks, velvets, gold leaf, preserves, paper, and hardware. Several thousand boats are continually passing up and down the great stream with rice, salt, and pickled sprats; the Irawaddy, indeed, is the principal channel of commerce into the heart of that extensive population. A few trains of men, however, proceed once a-year over the mountains, from Arracan, bearing on their heads packs of various merchandize-English broad-cloths, Bengal muslins, silk handkerchiefs, china, and glass. Cocoa-nuts from the Nicobar Isles are esteemed a great delicacy, and sold at a high price. In return, these primitive traders carry back precious stones, gumlac, and silver, though the export of that metal is prohibited.

Teak and other timber is exported to British India, but being a royal privilege, the trade is

restricted. At one time, the king, having granted a monopoly of it to some favourite, the teak planks were sold at more than five pounds sterling a pair--that is, the equivalent of so much English money; for in Birmah, as in China, there is no minted coin,-the currency is silver bullion and lead. All common articles are exchanged for so many weights of lead, a metal which has thus acquired an artificial value: the finer substance is reserved for more dignified negociations; it is not very plentiful, but highly prized. Among the laws of the empire is one,-"that no females and no silver be exported."

The king of Ava, monarch of the Birman Empire, is the inheritor of enormous pride. Like his neighbur of China, the brother of the Sun and Moon, and the ruler of Assam, whom he conquered, though he was styled "Sovereign of Heaven," he acknowledges no equal on earth, entitles himself BoA, and, with the arrogance of feeble and inflated vanity, pretends to dispose, his own majestic way, the destinies of Asia. Occasionally, he has been condescending enough to concern himself, also, for the settlement of affairs in Europe. Thus, in 1810, during the general war, he was so far kind as to inform the British envoy, that if England had made application to him "in a proper manner," he would have sent an army, beaten all her enemies, and put her in possession of "the whole continent of France." About the same time, among the "vassals" of his Birman majesty, was formally included "the king of England;" he described us, in a letter, as a petty nation, inhabiting a small island in a remote sea, and took to himself credit for more than mortal magnanimity, when he offered to forgive the governor-general "for the numerous falsehoods he had told," because he was not desirous of breaking the general peace by calling forth his armies to drive us out of India!

It was this wretched Chinese vanity that induced him then to risk a conflict with us, and the same ignorant presumption prevents him yielding reparation for his continual offences. With his chief ministers of state, his assistantministers, his ministers of the interior, his secretaries, his notaries, his great chamberlains, his receivers and readers of petitions, his banners, umbrellas, globes, swords, thrones, canopies, and imperial seals, he imagines himself in his capital-the "City of the Immortals"— to be a potentate, excelling in wealth, splendour, and power, the most awful monarchs of the earth. He is the fountain of all grace in his realms, for there are no hereditary honours

except his own; all officers holding their functions at the pleasure of the king, who rewards them meanly, but allows them pernicious privileges in trade. To his viceroy in Pegu he once granted a monopoly of supplying coffins; but as this favour depends on the temperament of an hour, the reverse is frequently experienced, and the governor of a province may one week be rioting in the oppression of a large population, and the next be dragged to court with a chain about his neck. One of them was punished in this manner for too much leniency in his administration, though only a few days before he had ordered the stomachs of twelve men, women, and children, to be ripped up, because they were suspected of disaffection. This horrible massacre was prevented through the influence of the British,—an influence which directly, as well as otherwise, has been an unmingled blessing to the races of India.

The population of the Birman empire is probably less than eight millions, though it appears to have been larger at a former period. Its condition is one of decay; weak and wicked governments, tyrannical conscription, and cruel burdens, reduce to misery a region capable, from its natural resources, of so much prosperity. Citics have sunk to villages, villages disappeared; cultivation has dwindled, and general industry decreased. Those who cannot pay their taxes are sold as slaves-and this often occurs from the severity of the imposts. One-tenth of all produce nominally belongs to the government; but this is far from the proportion usually exacted. Consequently, in spite of the impoverished state of the country, the treasures of the sovereign appear to be immense the revenues accumulating; since it is a maxim, that whatever goes into an Oriental exchequer, very little ever gets into circulation again. However, the British seem likely to sink his coffers a little. They have already demanded a quarter of a million sterling of him, and will charge him £10,000 a day, as the cost of the war, until its conclusion.

The Birmese are a military nation, every man being liable to be called upon to serve as a soldier. The standing army, however, is very small; and the largest force ever levied was sixty thousand men. The infantry are armed with muskets and sabres, and the cavalry, mounted on small but active horses, with spears. Every considerable town on the river's bank furnishes, in addition, a number of war-boats, which constitute the most respectable part of the imperial armaments. As many as five hundred have been collected at one time. Each has from forty to fifty rowers, with thirty soldiers, and one gun.

Their fire-arms are of the worst description; their artillery, though numerous, ineffective and illserved; and their fortifications, though sometimes imposing to the eye, possessed of few qualifications to resist the assault of Europeans. Almost all the towns and villages, however, are cleverly stockaded.

Though close neighbours of the slim, effeminate, and listless Bengalese, the people of Birmah differ essentially from them. A narrow range of hills, indeed, appears there to form a division between two distinct families of mankind. They are an active, energetic, inquisitive race; irrascible and impatient, but with the capacity to learn. They do not confine their women, allowing them, indeed, all the freedom they enjoy in Europe; yet the condition of the sex is degraded, and their treatment, far from being delicate or chivalrous, is not even humane. They are sold without repugnance to strangers, but are never allowed to be taken out of the country. All the children of Europeans born there, also, are subjects of the Avan King, and forced to remain, leading a life of misery and humiliation. In general, the women are faithful to their husbands, whose servitors, in fact, they are. Marriage is purely a civil contract, and one wife only is allowed, though numerous female slaves are included in a rich man's household. When he dies, without writing a will, three-fourths of his property go to his lawful children, and one-fourth to the widow. The dead are not burned, but buried; though, in Ava, a priest's body was formerly shot out of a huge cannon, which, it was supposed, sent his spirit to Heaven on a flash of fire!

The people have a Chinese cast of feature, and obviously are to be reckoned among the Hindu-Chinese nations. The men are of low stature, but athletic and active, long preserving a youthful appearance, because, instead of shaving, they pluck the hair from their faces. The women are fairer, but less delicately formed than the Hindus. Both sexes blacken the teeth, and the lids and lashes of the eye. They are comparatively an uncleanly race; and, though to kill domesticated animals is forbidden, game is eagerly sought for as food by the rich, and all kinds of reptiles by the poor. If a stranger happens to shoot a fat bullock, they are not, like some in India, fanatical to revenge the offence. Indeed, though a vain, presuming people, encouraged by the example of their rulers to arrogance and barbarian pride, their demeanour is far from insolent or supercilious. Some travellers have erroneously described them as rude in manners, because they do not rise from their seats on the approach

of a stranger, but among them the sitting posture is considered most respectful. In their mode of living a general simplicity prevails, their habitations being slight structures of bambus and mats, with a thatch of leaves, raised on posts three or four feet from the ground. No subject is permitted to employ any gilding in the decoration of his house, and only a few favourites are allowed to paint or lacquer the pillars.

The king reserves as his own prerogative the use of these ornaments. Everything appertaining to him has the word "shoe" or "gold" prefixed to it. Even his person is never mentioned except in conjunction with the imperial metal. When the petition of a subject has been transmitted to his majesty, "it has reached the golden ears;" when audience is granted, you have been "at the golden feet;" attar of roses is "grateful to the golden nose." Gold, therefore, is of too exalted a quality to be commonly used, and only very rich women wear ornaments of it, while none but a highlyprivileged noble can put rings of it into his

ears.

From this it may be imagined that the pride of rank in Birmah runs somewhat high. A chief journeying on the river will not sit in the same vessel with the oarsmen, who there go ahead in a boat, and tow his barge along. Neither will he enter the habitation of any inferior man, but sends servants on in advance of him, to build a house for his reception. A few bambus, a little grass, and some pliant rattans, are all the materials required; not a nail is used, and the whole might fall without injuring a lap-dog. Formerly, however, as many ruins remain to testify, masonry was well understood by the Birmese; but wooden buildings now supersede all others, and the degeneracy of the useful arts has followed the decay of the people.

The laws and religion of the Birmese are fundamentally Hindu; but they have no caste prejudices, and education is largely diffused among them. Music and poetry are highly admired; and the king has an immense library, the books being deposited in chests, with the contents described in letters of gold on the lid. There are three important personages, or "estates of the realm," in Birmah. The first, is the king; the second, is the white elephant; the third, is the queen. To the white elephant all presents from foreign ambassadors are made.

The one seen by Captain Canning was a small animal of a sandy colour, apparently diseased. His residence is contiguous to the royal palace, and consists of a lofty hall, hung with velvet curtains, and supported by gilded pillars. His forefeet are secured by silver chains to two posts, and his hinder feet by links of a baser metal. Thick soft mattresses, covered with blue cloth and crimson silk, serve him as a bed; his body is adorned with trappings of cloth of gold, studded with diamonds, sapphires, and rubies; his feeding-trough is equally rich; and a thousand attendants wait upon him. This extraordinary custom originates in the belief that a white elephant is the last stage of a human soul, in millions of transmigrations, after which the spirit is absorbed in the essence of divinity, to enjoy the pure beatitude of heaven. "Lord of the White Elephant, and of all the Elephants in the World," is one of the king's titles, and he is actually lord of all the elephants in Birmah, since no one but a noble, privileged by the sovereign, is permitted to possess or employ one of these animals.

The king, the queen, and the white elephant dwell at Amarapura, or the City of the Immortals, built on the shores of a deep and extensive lake, enclosed by a curving sweep of hills, and embosomed amid scenery the most fresh and picturesque. It is reputed to contain vast treasures, and its fortifications are said to be strong; but there is no doubt of their easy reduction by an English force. The principal defence of the country, indeed, is the heat of its climate; for this, though salubrious to the natives, is formidable to Europeans, compelled to expose themselves in the sun. Otherwise,

as we have said, Birmah is healthy, and among its hills may be found spots with an atmosphere as genial as that of the pleasant valleys lately discovered in the Himalaya.

Since the war is only now begun, and every mail may be expected to renew and increase the public excitement as to the Birman empire, this slight sketch, affording an idea of its actual characteristics as a country, may be found interesting by our readers. The information is the most authentic, and such as is not yet popularly diffused. It will be seen that a very important region, a very curious people, and a very singular state of manners exist there, to be brought under the influence of British power and, gradually, of British civili

sation.