The Express.
London, England, 1858-09-09 00:00:00

LITERATtIa.

WORKS ON INDIA.

Sie Mona. in British Burinali or, India beyond
die Ganges, in 1867. By CIIIIISTOPHIS T. WINTER.
London : Richard Bentley.
Service and ildreliture svith &be Khakis Resaaloh,
or Meerut Volunteer Horse, during Me Mutinies
1867.68. By Roster HENRY WALLACE
&
NWT. London : Richard Bentley.
My Bscepe frees the Mutinies in OudA. By a
iffeamisd Officer. In Two Volumes. Loud= :
Mama Bentley.
Any one conversant with the advertising columns
of our literary journals must be tempted to concur
with Voltaire when he denies to authors any origi-
nality whatever. According to the sage of Ferney,
the most original writers borrow from one another.
The instruction we gather from books is like fire—
we fetch it from our neighbours; we kindle it
at home ; we communicate it to others ;
till it becomes the property of all. Bach is the
paradox of the lively Frenchman. It is a question
how far this seeming want of originality is a neces-
sity of our very natures. Stripped of the accidents of
BAs, all men—aye, even women—are much alike ; he
IMPS iminmmi .01 Ww is arms=

nesigtiiiir lowland hates, in their hope and fears,
in their joys and griefs. All history is full of paral-
lels. The key to the present is the key which
unlocks the past, and will loosen the secrets of the
coming age. In wh►t house is there not a skeleton ?
In what heart is there not a sorrow known to none?
What countries or religions have not had their
heroes? In what sections of the community are
there not examples of a 'elf-sacrifice shoat divine,
or of • selfishness black as hell ? The

leading characteristics of humanity are in
like manner the same. All political struggles, all
religious excitements, all battles and revolts are the

same in their essence. One day the some shall be in
India, and the actor, Englishmen and Bepoys ; the
next in Algeria, and the Khabyle shall vanish before
the emqueruig Frank. We need no more go back
to the 'Weeks and the Romans for types of heroes,
them me need go to them for manly courage or
illeminime grace. Jon take this Indian mutiny. We
lane had sense scores of volumes occasioned by it,
yet all are alike, and this not so much that they
copy each other, as that they refer to the same
thing—to danger, with the fear and bravery it
always excites—to bloodshed and death, with the
terror or the fortitude that travel in their train.
When we open a book we know what it will oentnia;
one writer may be a little cleverer than seadisr,
bat the root of the matter will be the same.
We hare now classed together some miens et
whom it may be said that they are a day Wiliam
fair. The interest connected with India mai ban
matters is already on the wane. The East India
Company no longer rules the vast extent of terri-
tory, stretching from the slopes of the Himalaya
to Cape Comorin. The last of the Moguls has
been hurled from his throne, and is now •
primmer in our hands. We have cemented what
seemed our annihilated sway by • baptism, bitter
and terrible, of blood. And the British public,
conscious of its strength, and firmly believing its
superiority to every other public on the face of the
globe, is ceasing to take any particular interest in
Indian affairs. It was singular and significant that in
the very midst of the rebellion we were molly legisla-
ting for Wiens if not a straw had been lifted against
our rale, and as if the &pays were our dearest
friends Gad equally singular and significant is the
appanage clutch a book as this on British Burmah,l
the anther of whisk believes that it is hardly Doe-
sible to avoid the conclusion that the whole of tar-
mak mast be finally subjected to British rule.
Here we are all calling oat against annexation, and
blaming Lord Dalhousie, and charging him with
being one of the causes of the mutiny, and at the
same time Mr. Winter with delightful sang froid
advocates as • necessity our future possession of
Burnish, and composedly and in the most business-
like manner shows us how the thing will pay. Why
not annex ? says Mr. Winter. He is no moralist Ac-
cording to him, no question of justice or injoitioe is
involved. The end justifies the means. Is it not
lawful to do evil that good may come? Therefore
march our red coats into Burrash and make the
ementry ours. Her people will be better off, and we
shall clear a handsome profit by the transaction.
This is something like the sound reaching us across
the straits of Dover, showing how a French
invading army will be a boon, and welcomed as such
by the people—oppreesed and ground down and
mined by the " Sardanapaluses on the beaks of the
Thames." We thought we had heard the last of this
kind of argument, and that people had learnt to
distrust the reform and freedom initiated by invad-
' Mg armies. Depend upon it,
Who would to fres tbseasslme must strike the blow.
Be this as it may, Mr. Winter has published a use-
ful little volume, though the catalogue of good things
met with in Bermah reminds us of the Beadle in
"Oliver Twist" counting the spoons previous to
making the widow an offer. Our author travels
through the land, and returns to tell us of its lateen
—all it requires is British role. It appears that
since we have taken Pega the revenue has doubled.
Ice British Burnish all have equal rights, and all
am ander the protection of the law. The people are
well off, neither very rich nor very poor, and what is
more extraordinary still, are quite contented. The
climate is more suitable to the Englishman
than that of the rest of India. Englishmen
with energy. and capital may soon be rich.
The Temunerim provinces offer a fine field, and are
elemparatively little known for commercial enter-
prise and British capital. The two principal ex-
perts are teak timber and rice ; of the former it is
eifieulated that 2,100 full-sized trees, or about 9,000
Ws per annum, can be procured from the teak &s-
Mate without encroaching on those teaks which
harm not yet arrived at maturity. The rice grown
in the province is equal to the best Carolina, and
the mineral resources are great and almost un-
touched. Gold is found, as also coal and lead and
metic iron ore ; but the most profitable mineral
afn is " A merchant of Moulmein," says our, antbor,
"with whom I conversed while there on the pro-
bable result of a shipment of tin ore to England,
after a careful examinatioo, arrived at the
conclusion that a clear profit of 21. 10s. ltd.
on an actual outlay of 31. Os. 81d. would
be made." If this be so we may de-
pend upon it that the Barnsah tin will soon find
a way into the English market. The fruits of the
provinces may vie with any part of the world. To
the naturalist and the sportsman the country offers
great advantages. The waters are plentifully sup-
lied with fish, and the prawns am the size of small
lobsters. The insect world is IMEMITOIII4 and we
may add, troublesome. It is true we learn the com-
mon fly is not so troublesome as at home, bat iesteed
there is so lack of mnuquitoes, or of that abominable
pest of oar oldest and dirtiest towns, with which,
mere or lees. alas ! we fear our London readers are
ilensiliar. The author briefly enumerates the
Buddhist.' doctrines, and tells as, the peoole—who
aro always fully believing with good Dr. Watts,
Rstlgioa some was desired
To maks see lea lem—
ma firmly attached to them. As illustrations of
Berman literature, he gives us the following, taken
from the " Daniathat":

--
1111•SDIX0 • CAIN Wilk! A 1111100011 WAS DISTDOTAD
DT A DIOR OF swim.
Ob essibeet ! Klan, seledstim, sad the heads of
tbe peeps mese ess mod ours then that met andel
usw be kid, wed mall sibbses extestridtthed 617
gall net soy, '' Cdt. did ors bas est woe belies Ise, the
yeellelleeee.tbeireefteeineshisteed lino be
thole
sad only,
W7iktiumalygn 5.r
every has deebted dot ebbe add Maidens see
bobroyed by tomb/ who, ertgbtally iseigedlesat. have In
the mom et doe beam pewees!. /isms Illustration . is
Mum limn be Deer es 'rim Ileabneiee Wei Mug,
rid
a bomb be
wbon be eeerelied by ley and by
Or day, isaisd as as eserbel pine, the mg lb. bremle
VIM sift pada as Wall via beam me • beendial