actions which history cannot record otherwise than with blame. But he has written his own character, his own praises, and also his own condemnation. We see him as he was. He has given us a faithful reflection of his mind, and the praise of sincerity is due to him. Those, therefore, who wish to acquire a just idea of him and his period will do well to consult the volume before us. With regard to the form in which this diary has been laid before the public, we shall only remark, that for the care, ability, and judgment with which

its highly gifted editor, Lord Braybrooke, has performed his task, our thanks-the thanks of all who read the work—are due to him. Nothing can be more admirable than the introduction and notes, which have transformed the rough diaries of Samuel Pepys into one large and consecutive, and clear and comprehensive narrative. Pepys has been fortunate in his editor, and Lord Braybrooke's valuable services will, without doubt, be appreciated in the literary world.

Garden and Bow Street, was sacred to polite letters. There the talk was about poetical justice and the unities of place and time. There was a faction for Perrault and the moderns, a faction for Boileau and the ancients. One group debated whether Paradise Lost ought not to have been in rhyme. To another an envious poetaster demonstrated that Venice Preserved ought to have been hooted from the stage. Under no roof was a greater variety of figures to be seen-earls in stars and garters, clergymen in cassocks and bands, pert templars, sheepish lads from the universities, translators and index makers in ragged coats of frieze. The great press was to get near the chair where John Dryden sat. In winter that chair was always in the warmest nook by the fire; in summer it stood in the balcony. To bow to him, and to hear his opinion of Racine's last tragedy or of Bossu's treatise on epic poetry, was thought a privilege. A pinch from his snuff-box was an honor sufficient to turn the head of a young enthusiast. There were coffee-houses where the first medical men might be consulted. Doctor John Radcliffe, who, in the year 1685, rose to the largest practice in London, came daily, when the Exchange was full, from his house in Bow Street, then a fashionable part of the capital, to Garraway's, and was to be found surrounded by surgeons and apotheca

THE COFFEE-HOUSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. FOREIGNERS remarked that the coffee-house was that which especially distinguished London from all other cities; that the coffeehouse was the Londoner's home, and that those who wished to find a gentleman commonly asked, not whether he lived in Fleet Street or Chancery Lane, but whether he frequented the Grecian or the Rainbow. Nobody was excluded from these places who laid down his penny at the bar. Yet every rank and profession, and every shade of religious and political opinion, had its own head quarters. There were houses near St. James's Park where fops congregated, their heads and shoulders covered with black or flaxen wigs, not less ample than those which are now worn by the chancellor and by the Speaker of the House of Commons. The wig came from Paris; and so did the rest of the fine gentleman's ornaments, his embroidered coat, his fringed gloves, and the tassel which upheld his pantaloons. The conversation was in that dialect which, long after it had ceased to be spoken in fashionable circles, continued, in the mouth of Lord Foppington, to excite the mirth of theatres. The atmosphere was like that of a perfumer's shop. Tobacco in any other form than that of richly scented snuff was held in abomination. If any clown, ignorant of the usages of the house, called for a pipe, the sneers of the whole assembly and the short answers of theries, at a particular table. There were puriwaiters soon convinced him that he had better go somewhere else. Nor, indeed, would he have had far to go. For, in general, the coffee rooms reeked with tobacco like a guard room; and strangers sometimes expressed their surprise that so many people should leave their own firesides to sit in the midst of eternal fog and stench. Nowhere was the smoking more constant than at Will's. That celebrated house, situated between Covent

tan coffee-houses, where no oath was heard, and where lank-haired men discussed election and reprobation through their noses; Jew coffee-houses, where dark-eyed moneychangers, from Venice and from Amsterdam, greeted each other, and Popish coffee-houses, where, as good Protestants believed, Jesuits planned, over their cups, another great fire, and cast silver bullets to shoot the king.Macaulay's History.

From the Dublin University Magazine.

BRITISH INDIA,

1.-" Mill's History of British India." Edited, and now completed, by HORACE HAYMAN WILSON, M.A., F.R.S. 9 Vols. London: Madden. 1848. 2.-"The Life of Lord Clive." By the REV. G. R. GLEIG. London: Murray. 1848.

In a paper on the early history of India, | published some time ago in this magazine, we commenced our observations by referring to the indifference exhibited by the home public to all topics connected with our Asiatic empire; and we did so, as we then stated,

which would correspond with the victories of Alfred, or the landing of the Conqueror, in our domestic annals."

We gladly admit that since the appearance of our previous paper, this insensibility to Asiatic interests has been a good deal lessen

ed.

not because the circumstance was either strikThis is partly an effect, and one which ing or anomalous, but for the better reason of we anticipated, of the rapid, regular, and freits practical importance. "We could," as we quent communication by what is miscalled then expressed ourselves, "little hope for any the "overland passage,' which passes over marked improvement in the social condition no land except the hand's-breadth at Suez. of the natives of India, until the people of This acknowledged improvement must, howthese countries had such an acquaintance ever, be most of all ascribed to the felt with it, as that a public opinion could be formed jeopardy to which our Indian empire was on the subject, and was known to exist." exposed by the unexpected aggression of the "It was only," we added, "to such pressure Sikhs. That taught us for, perhaps, the first from without that the difficulties which attend time, deeply to appreciate the value of our the promotion of Christianity in India-the imperial colony, and our views of interest main sanitary provision for all its ills, spirit- were blended with nobler feelings in the triual, moral, and even industrial-would ever umphs which followed. Although India is give way, and that one of the first steps immeasurably the most important of all our towards the formation of this public opinion, great dependencies, there is not another in was the diffusion of some knowledge of the regard to which we have an equal tendency history and statistics of the country." In hum- to indifference. The philosophy of the cause ble aid of this object we then took up our pen, of this appears to be, that it is the only one and with like purpose we now resume it. In with which we are not nationally identified regard to the fact of ignorance of, and apathy by colonization. Every Englishman who goes to, Indian interests, we find our views corrob- there hopes to return; nobody loves to live orated by what we believe we are entitled to there; none settle; no one regards it as his call the highest authority on such a point, the home. Hence the lack of personal interest Times newspaper, which, in a leading article in the country; and hence, again, the general of two years' later date—that is, on the 14th coldness of which we have been complaining. of June, 1847, dwells on the circumstance as The duties of all in office are performed faitha woeful truth, and cites the saying of "one fully and well; but they are performed as of our most accomplished writers and speak- duties, and such sympathy as strangers feel ers, at this moment a member of her Majesty's is, like their connection with the soil, tempocabinet," whom most of our readers will easi-rary. ly recognize as the able and eloquent Mr. Macaulay; and who "avowed his conviction that not one in ten of our most highly-educated gentlemen had the faintest conception of those incidents of British Indian history,

We notice the defect, not for the purpose of disparaging our government of India, which is, beyond all question, the best its nations have ever known-one which gives them that great element of social happiness, security of person and of property, and what

Indies." This charter gave them the privilege | a plot, but the torture being again applied, of exclusive trade; but the crown reserved they of course confessed all that their accuto itself the right of resuming its grant, after sers wanted. When released from pain, they a three years' notice. The early intercourse repeated their denial of the charge, but being of the company was with the Indian islands, tortured anew, were compelled to reconfess and their chief station was at Bantam, in it. Nine of the English, including their capJava. They subsequently found it advanta- tain, were put to death, their heads being geous to open a trade with the continent of cut off by a scimitar. They all declared their India, which was first attempted at Surat, in innocence in the most solemn manner. Nine 1609. The Portuguese, who were at that Japanese and one Portuguese shared their time in possession of the trade there, showed fate, while the remaining Englishmen were every disposition to oppose them; but they pardoned. quailed before the determination of Sir Henry Middleton, who commanded the company's ships. Our merchants soon made some character with the native traders, and gained no little influence with the nabobs and princes of the country.

anticipated-the abandonment of our intercourse with the Indian Archipelago. Our merchants felt that they had neither forces nor forts enough to protect a trade, and thus was this guilty act long attended with all the advantages which its originators had contemplated.

The account of this cruel proceeding excited, as might be expected, the greatest indignation in England, and to increase it, the court of directors had a picture prepared, copied and circulated, representing the horrors of the scene. It was not, however, On the 11th January, 1612, they obtained the interest of our government to go to war from the Emperor Jehanghire a firman, on the occasion, and negotiations were comauthorizing them to hold establishments in menced, which were protracted from 1623, certain places along the shores of his king- the period of the transaction, until about dom. Pursuant to this, they, in the course 1654, in the time of Cromwell, when an of that year, built a factory at Surat, and adjustment took place. The immediate rethus made their final settlement on the conti-sult was, however, what the Dutch no doubt nent of India. This was in the reign of James I., who, about the same period, sent out Sir Thomas Roe as his ambassador to the court of the Great Mogul. This mission supplies us with a most interesting account of the emperor, his court and country, but was not attended with any political advantages. Soon after this an incident occurred, which led our merchants to abandon their connection with the Eastern Archipelago, and to direct all their attention to the trade with continental India. The naval power of the Portuguese was declining, and with it their influence in the East, but the Dutch were our active and powerful competitors. They were deeply jealous of our endeavors to share with them the lucrative trade of the Spice Islands, and evinced this feeling in an act which will for ever stain their annals-known as the massaere of Amboyna. They had in that island a strong fort, garrisoned with two hundred men, and there were eighteen Englishmen residing in the town engaged in trade. These they arrested altogether, with some few Japanese and one Portuguese, on the ground that they had conspired to seize the fort. The statement of the charge exhibits the improbability of its truth, and this is further heightened by the nature of what they called their evidence. Their first information was from one of their own Japanese soldiers, and obtained by the application of torture. They then put all the prisoners to the rack. At first each of them denied any knowledge of such

Mill, whose prejudices often mar his work, assumes at times an air of impartiality, which is sadly misplaced. He endeavors on this occasion to excuse the Dutch, by suggesting that, biassed by self-interest, they may have believed their rivals guilty. The fanciful assumption of motives may palliate any crime; but unhappily this is not the only proceeding which taints the colonial conduct of the Dutch. On the contrary, it is only characteristic of their selfish and cruel policy in the East.

Partly in consequence of the loss of trade which ensued directly on this catastrophe, and partly from the large expense incurred by their contests with the Portuguese, the East India Company became at this time a good deal embarrassed; and it was while their finances were thus deranged, that a circumstance took place, which led to their settlement in Bengal, and subsequently proved the main source of their prosperity.

A physician, named Boughton, having been called on to attend the daughter of the Emperor Shah Jehaun, in a dangerous illness, was so fortunate as to cure her, and, in consequence, gained her father's good will. With generous feeling, he availed himself of this to

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