The Press. — London, England, 1858-07-31 00:00:00

76 fittraturt. The Private Journal of the Marquess of Hastings, KG., Governor-General and Commander-in- Chief in India. Edited by his Daughter, the Marchioness of Bute. Two Vols. London : Saunders and Otley. THlt appearance of Lord Hastings's journal affords us the opportunity of making a complaint as to the manner in which such books are brought out, which is fully warranted by the practice of editors in general ; and which we designedly place in a prominent position because it relates to a matter seriously affecting the comfort and convenience of even the most cursory reader. The notion of " editing," as applied to letters, diaries, and other biographical materials, is in these days a singular one. Either the "editors" or their publishers seem purposely to set their aces against all such help as might be afforded by maps, tables of contents, notes, divisions into chapters, connecting narratives, indices, or even the common typographical conveniences of head lines and marginal summitries. They have an absurd idea that the addition of these things impairs the elegance of a book, and that every thing should be sacrificed to preserve the appear ance of the unbroken river of type in its meadow of margin. it is therefore as well to remind them that, if we except the decorative binding, a book, consisting as it does merely of a quantity of printed pages, cannot possibly constitute an intrinsically pretty object. It pleases the eye by association alone. And we confess that the well filled sheets of books like the one now before us are acquiring, from the causes we have men tioned, associations which are anything but pleasing. Nothing requires an index so much as a journal, because its contents are necessarily heterogeneous, and observations or events re lating to each subject fare of course unclassified, and mentioned just as they happened to have occurred to the writer. Whenever a book of this class falls into our hands, we always see before us a dreary prospect of maps to be con sulted, routes to be drawn out, references to be made, dates very frequently to be added, a species of index to be compiled, and a variety of work to be done which the " editor," if the word has any meaning, ought to have performed for us. Pro bably, however, the fault in many instances rests with the publisher, to whom such materials are sold in the mass, and who contents himself with placing them in the same undigested manner before the public, without getting them licked into shape. The Marchioness of Bute, in the discharge of her functions as editress, has apparently restricted herself to making certain omissions in the journal, adding the dates at the top of the pages, and prefixing some observations which would be sensible enough if not defaced by the typographical absurdity of printing every pronoun relating to Lord Hastings with a capital letter; e.g.:— Francis, second Earl of Moira, afterwards crested Mar qneas of Hastings, was appointed to the givernment of British India in the early part of IRI3, which post He held for nine years. He was constituted both Governor-General and Commanderin-Chief by Ella own solicitati tn, not from an overweening love of power, but because He felt that under the then anxious stale of Indian affairs, it would he impossible for Him to carry out His views of duty to His country with a divided authority ; and He therefore stipu lated, before lie accepted :he appointment, for the labour and responsibility of both offices. Nor was it from merce nary motives that He grasped at this lofty position, for He omitted to mike any terms as to remuneration, and He yielded the question of adequate recompense when He found it was arranged that the salary of Governor-General only was to be assigned to Him, satisfiel that the concen trated power gave Him adithonal means of usefulness, &a &c. There is no map, although the greater part of the journal consists of a tour, and as the names of the places visited are not placed so as to catch the eye, it is very easy for a reader to lose him self and have to turn back several pages to know ►hat spot he is reading about. When we once know the name of the book before us it is surely enough. Of what use is it to any human being —an observation which will apply t..) many other volumes—to repeat the title of a work six or seven hundred times by printing it at the top of every successive page ? 11111111611111. THE PRESS, JULY 31, 1858 We gladly turn from these matters to the book itself, which—though occasionally wearisome, as journals are apt to be—is exceedingly well written, and does not need the apology of the preface, since its language shows neither "antiquity" nor " ob scurity,' and is as good English at the present day as in 1814. It contains thany passages expressed with great neatness and clearness, many of striking good sense, and many remarkable for their descriptive merit, conveying as they do the author's impressions in all their freshness, and enabling us vividly to realize many aspects of Indian life and manners. It expressly excludes any connected picture of public affairs, for a statement of which the persons for whom it was written are referred to the " Letter-book," and ' confines itself to topics of personal observation and interest. Still, public affairs are occasionally alluded to, and generally in a suggestive manner. Lord Hastings landed at Madras in September, 1813, and remained nine years Governor-General, till 1823. His journal only reaches to the end of 1818, as he found the pressure of business too great to enable him to continue it any longer. Ilis health must have been excellent, for he combined, as we have seen, the duties of com mander-in-chief with his own, and also kept up the state ceremonial of his office in its full and oppressive splendour. We find no entry of public importance till 1814, at which date Lord Hastings found himself obliged to comply with the urgent requisitions of the Directors at home by sending them 350,0001., and was in consequence "on the brink of great distress," being also exposed to the constant butF F ra nce , e rre Ceylon, ar ii i from va Persia,all which the G l o sl v e ern of ments were supported out of the Indian revenue. This embarrassment was only relieved by a timely contribution of three millions from the Nawab of Oude. There was, too, an additional and graver source of disquiet. The quality of the relations we had established with the native princes appeared to the farseeing eye of the Governor-General to involve " the elements of a " war more general than any which we have " hitherto encountered in India" : In our treaties with them we recognize them as inde pendent sovereigns. Then we send a resident to their courts. Instead of acting in the character of ambassador, he assumes the functions of a dictator; interferes in all their private concerns; countenances refractory subjects against them; and makes the most ostentatious exhibition of this exercise of authority. To secure to himself the support of our Government, he urges some interest which, under the colour thrown upon it oy him, is strenuously taken up by our Council; and the Government identities itself with the Resident not only on the single point but on the whole tenor of his conduct. In nothing do we violate the feelings of the native princes so much as in the deci sions which we claim the privilege of pronouncing with regard to the succession of the musnud. We constantly oppose our construction of Mehomedan law to the right which the Moslem princes claim from usage to choose among their sons the individual to be declared the heir apparent. It is supposed that by upholding the right of primogenitnre we establish art interest with the eldest son which will be beneficial to us when be comes to the throne I believe nothing can be inure delusive. He will profess infinite gratitude as long as our support is useful to him ; but, once seated, his subsequent attachment will always be regulated by the convenience of the day. He, too, will in his turn have to feel our interference in the succession as well as in minor instances. With regard to the latter it mi4lit be argued that some interest of the Company is always really involved. The simple existence of such an interest is not the true question. What should be consi dered, is, whether the matter be of a proximity or msgni tude to make the prosecution of it. desirable at the ex pense of the disgust and estrangement which you sow by the procedure. The tour through the Upper Provinces, which forms the staple of the book, commenced in June, 1814, and in the extent and variety of its ap pointments exceeded the "progresses" of most sovereigns. The first part of the route lay up the Hooghly and the Ganges, swollen with the melting of the Himalayan snow; the fleet of boats now sailing and tacking over the broad stream, as it flows for miles through the interminable plain, with its rice-fields and occasional clusters of mango and palm ; now laboriously dragged past some dang erous rock, against a nar rower and swifter current ; now passing villages, with their mean huts and tortuous lanes, now some vast and half-ruined fbrt, now mosques and tombs, and minarets and ghauts of stone, with their flights of steps leading from the entrance of some venerated but dilapidated temple, down to the turbid and sacred stream. Then the great Com pany's Representative lands for the evening ride or the promenade on an elephant, or to b o l d a levee, whither comes a Rajah, or B a b oo, with his offering of shawls,ri ch jewels, and diamond studded swords, which the Gove rnor -G eneral touches and declines, accepting the gift f or the Company, and taking for himself a muslin hand_ kerchief, a pair of Cashmere stockings, or some other article of trifling value. These civiliti es he returns by a wreath of white flowe rs , thr owil over the neck of the visitor, or by embraces graduated according to a minute etiquette, or b y a dress of state and a fur robe, in which that potentate departs, sweltering b ut happy, to hi s barbaric splendour and his squalid zenana. So me , times an absurd scene would occur : The gravity of the durbar was put to the test by a white. siczl accident. After the Rajah had tendered his nuzzur (the present offered to a superior) I requested hi m to sat down in au aria-chair . His weight, for he is very h i t ensb!ed him to compass this easily ; but when he was to : rise, and be invested with a kheistit, he was so wedged Chit the chair stuck fast to him, and there was some trouble in disengaging him. Luckily, everybody preserved &stead ! countenance, so that there was no addition to the Rajah's embarrassment. Or, as at Benares, he receives the deputation of the Pundits, who present him with a splendidly illuminated historical work,* and exhibit their mast promising pupils, who sit on the ground, like intellectual game-cocks, and chant, in aurae. bean strains, the principles of medicine, gram. mar, jurisprudence, and religion. Or he returns the visit which he has received, is carried in his palanquin through courts whose brilliant illumi nations only exhibit their mixture of splendour and meanness walks over flowered silks, which are scrambled for by the servants when he has passed ; is ceremoniously embraced, and lightly sprinkled during the conference with rose-water shot into the air from syringes ; witnesses the monotonous chorus of dancing girls ; is carefully examined by the ladies of his host's family through their curtains; and carries away on his shoulders the fragrant wreath of jessamine and roses. Or, after spending the day in beating the ravines for lions (the Governor-General is a keen sportsman, and will shoot partridge, lynx, deer, or peafowl when he cannot have the king of beasts), he attends a fete such as the following:— In the evening we set out to dine with the Newel) Vines . . Illuminations were prepared, and they certainly were be anything of the kind I have elsewhere witnessed. With a delicate attention, lamps had been forborne to be placed within the pirk of Conatamitis ; that being considered as too exclusively ours to be meddled with. But as soon• as we got ont of its gates we saw the whole road toward,t• the palace bordered with posts, on each of which many lights were fixed. As we approached the palace triumphal arches of lamps, raised on bamboo frames, had an elemant and most brilliant appearance. Proceeding further, we came to a place where, on each side, there were, in trans parencies, the representation of a bazaar or market. Tne costumes of liindoos and Chinese were strikingly por trayed. Thence we approached a kiosk, or summer house, decorated with lamps in a manner extraordinarily tastebiL But all this splendour failed in eomptaison with what opened upon us when we came to a sort of esplanade before the windows of the banqueting•room. It was al large as a middling•sized field in England. Time whole of it was laid out to imitate a parterre of flowera. The num ber of lamps with which the ground was covered for tha : purpose must have been immense, and the disposition of their various colours, to render the representation accarate,. was very happy. When he moves he has a double set of tents, one of which is sent on during the night aisd pitched immediately after daybreak. Each of the large ones (as we have heard, though it is not mentioned in the journal) required a hun. dred men to pitch it, and the whole equipage was regarded by the natives with great respect. His camp-followers amounted to ten thousand people, and included all sorts of traders, even that of working jewellers; and of course such practitioners as the following extract describes : One of our party saw a snake caught by a native lxilong ing to the fleet, and mentioned to ins the circumsuniceti which involve a point of natural history novel to me. The man was walking in a field by the river, and my informant was close t) him. A large cobra capella crossed the pith: the man immediately ran towards it. The snake did aut coil itself, but continued its retreat with its head raw(' eight or ten inches from the ground and turned hack. The man stooped, pausing for an instant, as if to fix the snake 'a eye with nis own. lie then suddenly seized the tail with his right hand, and raised it sufficiently to throw the reptile's head to the ground ; then he slid the forefinger and thumb of his left hand swiftly along the anake.4 bark ( drawing the animal back by the tail at the same tillYti) till he pinched it just at the head. He next twisted the body of the snoke • This appears to bad btMft i kept by Lord Hastings, •• meant to be. The editor altlglit have told tts where it is t in what it is about, if still in the possession of the family]