deserved. "The spirit cannot be the creation of my own phantasy," urged he, "for it tells me things that altogether transcend my knowledge, and are wholly underived from my past experience. Fancy can but arrange materials supplied by former knowledge of some kind or other ;-this, therefore, must be a real spirit."

"Say

The arguments continued, and might have continued for ever without any very important result affecting the opinion of either. "Since I cannot persuade you by reasoning," said Tasso, "I shall convince you by an actual exhibition of the fact." Manso accepted the offer, and the next day, as we were sitting by the fire, he said, "Lift up your eyes and see the spirit!" Manso saw but the rays of the sun streaming into the room-Tasso fixed his eyes intensely in the direction of the window, and began to hold with the unknown something a most earnest discourse. Manso, it is true, heard no second voice, but Tasso's was as that of one in conversation-now questioning-now replying; and the words were often such as to show what the observations were to which he was replying. Manso listened with astonishment for a considerable time. At last the poet turned to his friend, and said, "From this day forth your doubts shall have vanished." rather are increased," was the reply; "since, though I have heard many things worthy of marvel, I have seen nothing of what you promised to show me to dispel my doubts." Tasso smiled, and said, "You have seen and heard more of him than perhaps and here he paused. Manso, who mentions the incident in a letter written at the time, says that Tasso's frenzy is more likely to be communicated to Manso than removed from the poet's mind. The fact is, that Tasso's disease still existed-the goblin, to whose pranks he referred the petty vexations which he suffered in the hospital, disappeared, when, in the palace of Manso, all inconvenience was removed, and the tricks with which a pauper lunatic was likely to be tormented were no longer practised upon him. In the monastery of Mount Olivet the fancies were of the Virgin and child-of fragments of the true cross and of relics. In Manso's palace the visions assumed a different charac

"

ter. Tasso's studies there were the works of Plato, and of his followers; and his literary occupation was build. ing up Socratic dialogues. It was not unnatural that fancy should now range in another sphere, and should give to him as to Socrates and Plotinus an attendant genius. How far the insane quite believe their fancies is another and a very curious question; but the particular illusions which from time to time haunted Tasso seem plainly referable to the circumstances in which he was at the moment placed.

The remaining years of Tasso's life were spent in the same state of uncertainty and dependence-now resident in a monastery or hospital-now in a palace-now receiving lavish gifts from some generous prince-now borrowing a few scudi to relieve him from immediate distress. There was at all times some expectation from the Court of Rome, which was seldom unheeding of literary claims. There was the less intelligible hope of fortune to be realized by the publication of a uniform edition of his works. The "Jerusasalem," the cherished work of his life, was never laid aside. It was re-arranged, and added to, and finally assumed the form in which Tasso vainly thought of its meeting the eyes of admiring posterity. The altered poem is only looked at by a few students, and his fame rests on the work in its first form.

He was in his fiftieth year when his tedious law-suit was finally adjusted. It was determined in his favour, but the property was nearly exhausted in the struggle to determine the rights of the parties claiming it. It is grati fying to record, that Tasso felt, when his health was breaking down, that there was more of kindness in the conduct of his early friend the Duke of Ferrara, than it was perhaps possible he should at an earlier period have felt; and he wrote the duke a letter expressive of the strongest feelings of gratitude, and of the most anxious wishes for a reconciliation with the family with whom he had been so long connected.

We have not thought it necessary to record the trying circumstances of the repeated spurious publications of the Jerusalem by which Tasso was tortured. More distressing to him, in all probability, were the provoking dis

cussions in which his claim to the rank of a great poet was denied. Enmity, however, was at last silenced; and the acknowledgment of his great genius seems to have been universal. It is

not, perhaps, possible for us, with our habits of thinking, to attach its due value to the ceremony of crowning a poet; but to Tasso the promise of a Triumph was happiness.

He arrived at Rome in November, 1544. On the next day he was admitted to an audience of the pope, who said, "We have destined you the laurel crown, that it may receive honour from you." Immediate preparations were made for the ceremony, but the inclemency of the weather rendered it necessary to postpone it to the following spring. April came, and with it came the feverish illness with which Tasso was at that season generally visited. Some one spoke to him of the coronation, and he replied

Magnifica verba Mors prope admota excutit."

He felt that but few days of life remained. The ceremony of Petrarca's coronation, two centuries and a half before, had taken place in April; the wish to have Tasso's celebrated at the same time of the year was a natural one; and now, when death seemed approaching, he said that he was to receive another diadem than that of fading laurel. He entreated to be removed to the monastery of S. Onofrio, not only because the air was better there than any where in Rome, but

that he might, by intercourse with the holy fathers there, have his conversation in heaven. Cesalpini, the pope's physician, informed him that his last hour was at hand. He embraced the physician, and thanked him for the welcome tidings. When asked to make a will, and dictate an epitaph, he smiled. "I have little to leave. My writings to Cardinal Cynthio-my portrait to Manso;" and to the convent where he was dying, and where he wished to be buried, he bequeathed a little metal crucifix which had been given to him by the pope. After he had received the last sacraments, Cynthio brought him the papal benediction-an honour given only to persons of the highest consideration. He entreated the cardinal to call in the copies of the Jerusalem and have them destroyed-an injunction impossible to accomplish. He died uttering the words, In manus tuas Domine.

The intended ceremonial of the coronation, thus interrupted by death, was recalled to the thoughts of the public by the honours which were paid to the body of Tasso. Dressed in a sumptuous toga, and the head crowned with laurel, the body was borne by torch-light through the city, and in the evening, after this procession, interred in the church of S. Onofrio.

The poetry of Tasso has had great influence on the literature of England -witness THE FAIRY QUEENE and COMUS. A.

WHEN We take up the history of a conquest, particularly when that conquest has occurred in our own times, and has added one of the richest and most fertile countries in the world to our own, we are led to speculate on and inquire into the following topics-inquiries which may be instituted with advantage in the study of all histories, but which, for the reasons just assigned, and for the national honour of our native land, and the character of her soldiers and statesmen, it is absolutely necessary should be fairly and distinctly placed before the public. These are the right of conquest; the necessity for conquest; the means whereby that conquest is obtained; and the benefit conferred on one or both countries, or on mankind generally by it.

With the first of these propositions we do not in the present instance feel inclined to deal, as it involves the question of the right which the British and the Anglo-Indian government had, or assumed to have, of at all entering, then diplomatically interfering with, or, more properly speaking, invading, (for such is the modus operandi of our Eastern politicians,) and afterwards warring with the Scindian nation.

Whe

ther the English in Hindostan were wise in ever crossing the Indus, either for commercial or hostile purposes-whether justified by fears of western innovation, or forced to it in order to redress grievances and insults-to assist an ancient ally, or to place an infatuated and imbecile barbarian monarch on the throne of a kingdom, where he possessed neither the fear nor the affection of the people-are all matters of deep moment, intimately mixed up with this question, for which the government of Lord Auckland, and the instigators of the invasion by Lord Keane, have to answer; but which we have neither space nor inclination to

discuss in this review. The disasters in Affghanistan are of too recent a date, and the wound inflicted on our national honour is still too fresh, to require much to be said as to the result of that most calamitous and ill-judged proceeding. The memory of our gal lant countrymen who perished at Kabool and in the Kyber, where the snows of the mountains were their windingsheets, and the wild winds of the desert their only mourners, is still green in our memories; while the effect of the destruction of our armies on the mind of a country where we exist but by the force of moral power, went nigh to shake the very foundations of our empire in the east. That the advance of the British towards the Persian fron. tier and our attempt to carry war into the centre of Asia, was a rash, unnecessary, and ill-advised step, most men who have thought upon and examined into the history of India for the last ten years, are now thoroughly convinced; but that step once taken, the other, the occupation of Scinde, became absolutely necessary. First, it was necessary to inflict such a just and wholesome chastisement on the authors of our late discomfiture, as would not only retrieve our national honour, but strike terror into the boasting hearts of the barbarian hordes with whom we dealt; then conduct, by a safe retreat, our thinned and scattered bands back to the British provinces; and by a last, but a decisive blow, re-establish our position in the plains of Hindostan. And this was effected in a masterly manner by the heroism, coolness, and unflinching courage of Sale, Pollock, and Nott.

At this juncture, however, another and most important military move was to be made, and precisely at that moment a change took place in the whole management of India, by the recall of Lord Auckland and the appointment

of Lord Ellenborough as governorgeneral. Here we must, however, digress, to place before our readers the way in which we first gained a footing in Scinde-a footing which, though then (1838) unwarranted, it subsequently became necessary to maintain at all risks.

Scinde, the Egypt of the Indus, in ancient times peopled by a pagan race, the Dhurs or Sindees, was conquered by the Mahomedans of Damascus in the eighth century. Ten centuries later, the Persian Kalloras, a swarm of military fanatics, not unlike the Whahabees of more modern times, overran that country, and retained it in whole or in part till 1770, when a tribe of the Talpoores descended from their mountains in Beloochistan, and settled in the fertile plains of Scinde. These hardy, enterprising soldiers soon possessed such sway in the land, that they disputed for, and finally rescued the command of the country from the Kolloras-treachery and assassination being equally resorted to by both sides. About the year 1800, two brothers of the Talpoore family divided the kingdom, reigning under the titles of Ameers of Upper and Lower Scinde the former at Kyrpoor, and the latter at Hydrabad; and the turban in both governments descended, not in the direct line of the sons, but to the eldest brother. The third capital of Scinde was Meerpoor. The Ameers once established in the sovereignty, soon called down more Belooches from the hills, making them large grants of land on military tenure.

"For the Belooch, it was indeed a conquest, resembling that of the Normans in England when Harold fell; for each chief was lord of the soil, holding it by military tenure, yet in this differing from his Norman prototype, that the Ameers could, and often did, deprive him of his Jagheere or grant from eaprice. This precarious tenure stimalated his innate rapacity; and the Belooch is by nature grasping, and habitoally an oppressor. He is a fatalist from religion, and therefore without remorse; an overbearing soldier without fear, and a strong-handed robber without shame, because to rob has ever been the custom of his race. Athletic, and skilled in the use of his weapons, for to the sword only, not the plough, his hand elutches, he is known,' says his conqueror, by his slow rolling gait, his fierce aspect, his heavy sword and broad

shield, by his dagger and matchlock. Labour he despises, but loves his neighbour's purse.' It was, however, only

plunder, for his own race of the hills were like himself in disposition, and somewhat more robust. He was, moreover, a turbulent subject, and often, chief and follower, menaced the Ameers, and always strived to sow dissensions, knowing well that in the time of commotion plunder would be rife and pay high.

the Scindee and the Hindoo that he could

"The system of government was one leading inevitably and rapidly to selfdestruction; and it would seem as if the Ameers had the instinct of this truth; for they secured their persons by numerous slaves, being in the traffic of human beings, both exporters and importers, chiefly of Abyssinian blacks, whom they attached to their interests by manifold favours; and these men, called Siddees,

(Seedees,) served them with equal courage and devotion: to all others they were brutal tyrants, cruel and debauched. Their stupid selfish policy was to injure agriculture, to check commerce, to oppress the working man, and to accumulate riches for their own sensual pleasures. 'What are the people to us?' was the foul expression of Noor Mohamed to Lieut. Eastwick. Poor or rich! what do we care, if they pay us our revenue;-give us our huntinggrounds and our enjoyments, that is all we require.' The most fertile districts were made a wilderness, to form their 'shikargahs,' or hunting-grounds. Their Zenanas were filled with young girls torn from their friends, and treated when in the hareem with revolting barbarity. In fine, the life of an Ameer was one of gross pleasures, for which the labour and blood of men were remorselessly exacted, the honour and happiness of women savagely sacrificed!"

With this people, however, we had but little intercourse. In 1775, a British factory was established and maintained for some years at Tatta, and in 1779, Lord Wellesley endeavoured to restore it, but the influence of Tippo Sultan is said to have prevented it. Various treaties, chiefly

of a commercial nature, or for the purpose of excluding the French and Ame. ricans, were made during the next thirty years; but of Scinde-its capabilities, fertility, and vast resources, no more than of its physical geography, or the facilities of the great highway of nations which passed through it-we knew but by report, till Sir Alexander Burnes, under pretence of carrying presents to Runjeet Singh, entered the

Indus in 1831; when said one of the inhabitants "Alas! Scinde is now gone, since the English have seen the river which is the high-road to its conquest." The following season, Colonel Pottinger negociated some commercial treaties, relating, for the most part, to the navigation of the river. From that period, it is manifest that the British, if they did not actually covet this fair kingdom, were at least determined on meddling with its political affairs; and an opportunity was not long in presenting itself; for Runjeet Singhour ally-seeking occasion for warring with the Ameers-then also our allies!!-Lord Auckland seized that moment of trepidation and alarm for offering British protection, on condition of the Ameers admitting and paying a British force to occupy Hydrabad, and likewise receiving a political agent, who was to become permanently established in the capital. At this time, although a certain degree of equality was understood to exist among all the princes of Scinde, yet the Ameers of Kyrpoor and Meerpoor acknowledged the Hydrabad family as the elder branch.

In 1838, the invasion of Affghanistan was decided on, ostensibly for the purpose of reinstating Shah Shoojah on the throne of that kingdom, and now Scinde became an object of vast importance to the proposers of that ill-fated politico-military speculation, so fraught with disaster and misfortune. Originally a province of the Mogul empire, Scinde became tributary to Kabool about the middle of the last century. This, however, from the instability and internal weakness of that government, had for a long time become a mere nominal dependency; yet a large arrear of tribute, and certain other rights, being claimed by the deposed sovereign of Khorassan, and in order to insure a passage for the British army across the country of the Indus, it was necessary to enter into other and closer diplomatic relations with the Ameers than had heretofore existed. For this purpose, a tripartite treaty was first concluded between the Maharajah Rungeet Singh, the Anglo-Indian government, and Shah

Shoojah. In the following paragraph, which we quote from a work written by some anonymous special pleader, for the purpose of decrying the government of Lord Ellenborough, and advocating the propriety of his recall, by the East India Directors, the condition of affairs, as they stood in February, 1842, is thus briefly laid before

us:

"The conclusion of this treaty, and the mode in which their interests were affected by it, were communicated to the Ameers by the British minister at Hydrabad, who was instructed, also, to announce the approach of the army intended to reseat Shah Shoojah on the throne of Kabool. A long course of diplomatic proceedings, varied by sundry hostile acts on the part of the British government, too well known to require detail, here followed. These ended in the conclusion of new treaties, the effect of which was to add the Ameers to the number of princes over whom the British government held control, by the tenure of a subsidiary alliance."+

We cannot now pause to discuss either the honesty or policy of these measures, nor inquire why the circuitous route through Scinde was chosen, instead of that through the Punjaub, the country of an ally, the Maharajah; neither can we debate the question relative to certain treaties said to have been broken by the English, concerning the transit of arms up the Indus; nor their interference with the Shikargahs, or hunting grounds of the Lords (of Scinde. We have read a great deal, and in society we still hear many laments on this latter subject, and many warm invectives launched against the British, for their cruelty in depriving these poor princes of their game preserves. These expressions of sympathy show, however, but little knowledge of the true nature of the subject. Several of these Shikargahs bordered the Indus, and the cutting of fuel from these forests was expressly stipulated for, and, therefore, the British had as just a right to do so, as a railroad company to pass a "Great Western," or a "Great Southern," through an English gentleman's deWe are not prepared to dis

mesne.