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

OP round his left arm, and kept it firm by pressing the arm to hie side. Havitig obtained a knife, he forced the snake to open its mouth, by pressing it at the angle of the jaws. Sae quickly touk out the fangs; but he then proceeded to lake oat with the point of the knife, from just shove the angled the jaws, two substances, which my informant ststes to have resembled small pickled capers. The reason 4 ssigned by the man for extracting them was ta prevent the stoke ever getting new fangs. Can these glands—tor such i suppose they were—placed at such a distance from the sockets in the jaw, furnish means fur the reproduction of the poisonous apparatus? I am not aware that the existence of such glands has hitherto been suspected by our *mato. mists. As to the mode of catching the snake, I believe it to he so easy that nothing but confidence is required. There has appeared to me a remarkable want of agility in the cobra eapella, and I even think some time is necessary to it fur getting into a condition to strike. After the man hol finished his operation on the snake, he suffered it to We him without concern. The route after leaving Benares was to Allah abad, then up the Ganges to Cawnpore, then by land to Lucknow, then back again and up the Jumna to Agra. Lord Hastings was forcibly impressed by the first view of the Himalayas, and frequently adverts to their magnificent ap pearance and the curious manner in which their advanced ranges sink abruptly into the plain without the usual insensible gradations. Some of his followers were equally struck with the spectacle, but they imagined the snowy moun tains to be made, like ice-cream, and a Bengal artist who was employed to produce a picture of them maintained that they were clouds. On another occasion they were affirmed to be of polished freestone, for "how could snow remain " unmelted when so much nearer the sun ? It " was hot enough in the plain." A visit to Delhi could only be made under conditions to which Lord Hastings would not submit, and he finally returned to Calcutta on the 9th of October, 1815. A great part of vol. ii. is occupied with the commander-in-chiet's march into the territories of Scindiah, and his negotiations with that prince, which were crowned with entire success, and much advantage to the British side. It was during this campaign (Nov. 1817) that the cholera first made its appearance. It had already been ex perienced in Calcutta and the southern pro vinces, and on its attacking the camp five hundred men died in one day. Its victims were much more rapidly prostrated than seems to be the case now, many of them dying in a few minutes. No observations seem to have been made which could demonstratively connect the epidemic with any natural causes ; the soil and the direction of the wind appear to have had some slight influence, but the deductions were purely empirical, and it is distressing to reflect that after all the attention which science has since bestowed upon the question, our treatment still remains not materially different, and but little more successful. Lord Hastings, with his usual kindness, rode about the camp with medi cine, and succoured many who could never have commanded any relief for themselves. In the account of this campaign we observe a reference to a class of people who are, we believe, peculiar to India, and whose characteristics explain the fact of the uniformly excellent sup plies which our army has enjoyed during the present war : The Banjaries [also spelt Brinjaries] are equally dexte rous [with the drivers of the hockeries or baggage-cana]. They are a remarkable community. The name implies migrating through the desert ; and such is their course of We. They have no fixed habitations, but move about, as convenience of pasture invites, with their numerous herds of cattle, in the uncultivated tracts near the foot of the northern hills. The principal people, however, among them keep up a constant communication with our tnilitary stations and with the native courts; so that they are ready at rail when their services are warted. Their business is to furnish cattle on hire for the transportation of baggage or grain. In the latter they are dealers; a circumstance which enables the Commissary General to contract with them at once for the provisi on and the carriage on occa sions when it would not be convenient to recur to our own magazines. The grain is carried in bags hanging across the backs of the oxen. When they are approached by hostile cavalry, the Itunjaries make a square redoubt with the bags, which they throw off their oxen and rear into ram parts with aurpriaing quickness. Most of the men have matchlocks and are very resolute, so that the plundering horsemen do not like to approach them. The Bunjaries are very fair in their dealings and trusty to their employers. These volumes throw a clear and favourable light on Lord Hastings's mind and character. His .Whets on general subjects were original and clever, a s w ill b e seen front his observations on the liindo mythology and its derivation from the THE PRESS, JULY 31, 1858. course of natural phenomena, his remarks on the fortifications of Allahabad, and on the question of " final causes" in the creation of certain animals (ii. p. 46) ; and he was not deficient in practical shrewdness, as will be evident from his bargain (ii. p. 55) with the Nawab Vizier at Lucknow respecting the district of Khyraghur. lle seems to have almost intuitively understood the native character, and his own highbred courtesy was exactly what would come home to the feelings of an Asiatic. Thus on his first day in the country,— Trays of fruit from the Nawah, with a letter of congrc• tulation on our arrival, were ushered in in great form. I wrote a civil note of acknowledgment, which I afterwards understood was regarded as s particular politeness. It seemed to we that the returning a verbal compliment, or the making a secretary write on (the occasion, would be a great deficiency iu breeding. And he was equally careful ;to impress the mind by the splendour of his retinue, and was rewarded by their reverential behaviour to him, which was remarked as singular, but not attri buted to its right cause by the English gentlemen who witnessed it. His principle is thus stated, but it is even now not sufficiently understood :- I gratified the attendants [at the Taj at Agra] very much by ordering a new silver tissue canopy, with proper sten dard-uoles ,to be rained over the monuments. That which now exists is completely ragg"d, anti supported by shabby sticks covered with coarse red paint. The reverence shown by the troopers to the remains of the sovereigns is suffi cient to show how a lit tle attention of this sort will be ap preciated. Again and again I say that men are to be grab• fled not by what we think important, but by whet conies home to their habitual feelings and prejudices, howsoever trifling it may appear• to us. This is a policy sadly ne glected by the British in this country, and the consequence is visible in the very little approach to assimilation towards which our long dominion over the country has led the natives. With similar good feeling: he determines to restore the tomb of Akbar, and there was doubt less a mixture of the same feeling in his plan of restoring the canal of Murdun Ali Khan. The value of his tact and appreciation of these matters was strongly evinced at Patna, where he received his visitors with his usual urbanity, which seemed to have gone very deeply into their sensibili ties : I gratified, in a pecnliar degree, Gundshaum Sing,h by granting permission for his wearing at the ilurbar ( which without such leave would have heeti inadmissible) a sabre, bestowed upon him by Lord Wellesley fur the activity of his service with Lord Lake. . . . . . As soon as he got out of the room he cried in recounting to those around him the kindness with which I had spoken to him. Our people are much toa negligent of those little winning at tentions w ieh operate strongly on the feelings of the natives. We think that the simplicity of our address and habits must be comprehended by them. But in fact they are too prone to ascribe those manners in us to our hold ing the natives too cheap t' care what they may think with regard to us. After a durbar which T held at Calcutta, a rajah said to the public secretary, " This man knows what to say to us. You ought always to have a great airdar at the head of the Government. - was of the weaver cast, and he could not flatter us with aiiything he said !" his observations on the native character in Bengal which occur at vol. i. p. 65, and on the sepoys at p. 36, are excellent, but too long for extract. He attributed the tenure of our power to the recognized equity of our rule and the impar tiality of our procedure, though, like Colonel Sleeman, he records the abhorrence which is felt of the lengthiness of our law suits, and the in vincible repugnance which a native feels to appearing as a witness in any of our courts. Kindness, sympathy, and good feeling are observ able in all his dealings and suggestions on these and kindred subjects, and the impression which was thus created in those over whom he ruled was not likely to be lessened by the spectacle of his activity and energy in the military depart ment of his administration. He discerned with much sagacity wherein our lee strength and weakness lay, and if he cannot he cited as a prophet on these matters in express words, like Metcalfe or Napier, it was probably because he was engaged in actual hostilities with tribes still fierce and unsubdued, and our power had not then arrived at the stationary state in which the best means of preserving its stability come in question. It was making, not made, and both as a man and as a statesman he is undoubtedly to be reckoned as one of its most judicious archi tects. 727 Salmon-Caste and Stray Shots. By J. Col quhoun. London : Blackwood and Sons. SPORTSMEN, like Reviews, may be divided into monthlies and quarterlies. There is, first of all, your regular, thoroughgoing, weather-beaten destroyer of the ferce naturae, who works like a gamekeeper, and enjoys it like a poacher ; who only knows the change of seasons by the change of costume which they demand from him ; who passes from tops and spurs into wading-boots and wide-awakes—from these into pads and flannels —from these into pilot-jacket and straw hat— from these into lace-up boots and light porous shooting coat—from this to the heavy velveteen and leggings, and so round again to pink and leathers, with a happy unconsciousness that man was born for any other purpose than hunting, fishing, cricketing, yatching, grouse, partridge, pheasant, and duck shooting. To such a man almost every month in the year has its distinct open-air amusement—as the salmon succeeds to the fox, and the trout to the salmon—the bat to the fishing-rod, and the rudder to the bat—the moor to the Channel, and the stubble to the moor—the pheasant to the partridge, and the snipe and woodcock to the pheasant, till Christmas finally comes round, amid heaps of furred and feathered slain, and crowned by a thousand anecdotes of the year's skill and daring. The second class of sportsmen are those who, whether from taste or necessity, merely just " run down" into sporting localities at particular seascns. A month with the hounds at Christ mas, a week's fishing at :Easter, a blow with a friend round the Isle of Wight in July or August, and perhaps the occupancy of 700 or 800 acres of shooting till term begins again in November, are about the limits of their indul gence. There is, of course, the third class, who care for only one kind of sport ; and a fourth class, who can get only one holiday. And it is in the last-mentioned that the appearance of such books as Mr. Colquhoun's, about this season of the year, awakens sweet and vague longings, like a youth's first consciousness of passion. About this time, too, the printsellers begin to put all their sporting pictures in the windows ; so that the unlucky sportsman, compelled by professional labours to abide the hot breath of August on th London flags, gnashes his teeth as he plods along Pall-mall, or Piccadilly, to catch glimpses of " Sportsmen at Luncheon," or "The Stray Shot," or "So-ho," or any other familiar vision set there by the demon of discontent to tantalize him. Mr. Colquhoun's present work is principally confined to the Island of Mull. This region seems to afford fair sport of all kinds, and very good at woodcocks and wild fowl. In 1857, says the author : On our first grouse-day my son and I shot twelve brace, and not one point at black game till we had left the moor ; the dogs then found a small pack, and we killed three. On our first day after black game, me bagged ten brace and a half, and never even saw a grouse. The bag counted eight brace and a half the first partridge•day. We could have increased it greatly, but decliued some large easily protected coveys. There were no chances that day at other winged game, except a sprinkling of pheasants, also reprieved. The grouse and black game had ten days' law, and the partridges upwards of a month. Fine strong. flying game rewarded our forbearance. The following remarks on the alleged decrease in grouse are very well worth perusal : In former years, when there were more black cattle and fewer sheep, no doubt grouse were far less disturbed and injured by stock; but so long as these nurseries for grouse, the deer-forests, continue in such vogue, the superseding of black cattle by sheep is in part atoned for. Had the grouse-grumblers complained that Highland farmers now keep more sheep and fewer black cattle than they formerly did, there would have been truth in the grievance. If it is maintained that the increasing flocks of sheep, like locusts, consume the food formerly allowed to the grouse, and thereby starve them out, I must own I can hardly reconcile this view of the matter with the facts I am about to state. let. No one will deny that the heather upon the west Highland coast of Scotland is quite as good and luxuriant as that of the north or centre. `god. The average sheep stock of the three districts is pretty much upon a par ; that is to say, the complement of sheep upon every hill is whet that bill will support without detriment to the stock. Now, every grouse sportsman knows that the grouse in the north or centre Highlands of Scotland are immensely more numerous than in the watery west.. To put it in another form—a crack shot in the north, or in Perthshire, will sometimes hog from one hundred and fifty to two hundred brace. On our best protected and best managed MOOTS in the west Highlands an equally good shot will seldom score as high as fifty brace under every advantage. Now, may I ask what is the reason that