the theory and history of our constitution. They ought to be well informed in all matters of public concernment. No other knowledge, however extensive and accurate, will entitle them to political consideration. The popular mind will be led by those persons only whom it recognises as deeply informed in matters wherein itself is at once ignorant and interested.

STANDARD OF POLITICAL INTEGRITY.

It is a bad symptom of the times when personal motives for public conduct are judged of in a tolerant manner-when it is taken almost as a matter of course that public men should in certain circumstances act corruptly. We may sometimes hear such motives calmly or jocularly spoken of as if they reflected little or no discredit upon those who are actuated by them. Of this fashionable kind of candour it was wittily said that "if the Evil One were to come amongst us in human shape, we should clap him on the back, and say, poor misguided angel!" We may hear it calmly said that, because salary is an object to such a man, he must aim at office, or retain it at whatever cost of consistency, self-respect, and reputation; or, that such an one is obliged to act in such or such a manner, because he is the follower of such a man, or belongs to such a party; or, that such a measure must have been brought forward because the interests of the party, not of the country, required it; or, that such a measure, however desirable, cannot be brought forward, as it would damage the interests of the party; or no wonder that So-and-So, being piqued at exclusion from office, opposes those by whom he has been passed over. That public men are sometimes actuated by such motives is, no doubt, but too true; but why should this conduct be glossed over as natural and pardonable, and spoken of as a matter of necessity, which could not be "helped?"" Such comments on corrupt conduct surely encourage it; and, as men are very much influenced by the praise or blame attached to their doings, can only tend to the deterioration of public action. When personal motives in public conduct become the rule rather than the exception, as we have lately seen to be the case in France and Spain, then woe to the public interests, to the security, peace, and social welfare of a nation! All the interests of a nation depend on the integrity of its leading men. Their lofty virtues are the public safeguard. Like Cæsar's wife, they must not only be pure, but above suspicion. A nation has a right to the best qualities of its chief men. Hence these men should be judged of by the true standard of integrity, and their comings short of it either passed over in silence, or, if mentioned, mentioned with disapprobation.

POLITICAL FATALISM.

A trivial kind of fatalism in public affairs is only too fashionable. Thus we may hear men speak of the adoption of such or such measures right or wrong, expedient or mischievous, as inevitable"they must be carried"-" they will be carried." This, as was well said, is, "as if the Fates and Destinies met somewhere in the dark and decided the matter for us." This fatalism is merely a disguise for indolence and cowardice. Neither nations nor individuals are compelled to act wrongly or foolishly. foolishly. Such a plea, if worth anything in the case of national policy, would hold equally good in the case of individuals for every act of vice or folly. As Butler has remarked, bring up a child with the notion that he cannot help acting in such or such a manner, and see how he will turn out!

EFFECTS OF RIDICULE.

People who deal in ridicule will sometimes be astonished at its exacerbating effects. Often it is not so much the merit of the jest which hurts as the animus which prompted it. The jest itself may be pointless, but it wounds as it is the expression of dislike or contempt. Hence many a man has sacrificed a valuable friend to a pointless jest. More friendships have been broken by petulant ridicule than perhaps by any other cause. A man is more likely to pardon another who has over-reached him than one who has laughed at him, for ridicule injures self-esteem, which is a more tender feeling than that of self-interest; and the man who has once been ridiculed by another will always distrust him, because he can at any time repeat the offence, whereas he may not have another opportunity of over-reaching conduct. No material services rendered can compensate for wanton ridicule. Though you may obtain for a man a coveted place, or save his life, yet, if you laugh at him, you will not make him your friend.

No personal faculty makes a man so much feared as that of ridicule. Great is its power in debate. Even Pitt learnt to fear the ridicule of Sheridan. Canning's ridicule was a more powerful weapon in debate than Brougham's invective. The man who possesses the power of making other men ridiculous, is under a great responsibility to employ his power only to expose folly, or refute sophistry, to abash impudence, and to humble insolence, arrogant pretension, and self-conceit. Some of the most goodnatured men are prone to the wanton use of ridicule, as one of our poets was called a "good-natured man with the worst-natured Of one of the best-natured men of my acquaintance, who was indiscriminate in his ridicule, it was said, in days before duelling was extinct, that "it was a wonder that he had not been shot."

muse.

COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA.*

EARL GRANVILLE has collected these reports in aid of the committee of the House of Commons, from different consuls supposed to be more or less acquainted with the subject. It was premised in Lord Enfield's circular that information was desired on the subject of communication with India through Turkey "by the Euphrates Valley route," but as few, if any, were personally acquainted with the latter, the reports are for the most part limited to the first portion of the route, which is discussed both in itself and its proposed prolongation, a good deal according to the amount of knowledge or the preconceived ideas of the writers.

Take for example the first report by Mr. Consul Barker, who has spent a great portion of his life in the vicinity of Alexandretta and Antioch. He condemns the former port in the most decisive language as very bad in winter, as exceedingly unhealthy, having the Bailan Mountains behind it and swamps beyond, whereas the bay of Antioch has its Kara-Bujak, where a safe and commodious harbour could be made at small expense, and a harbour of refuge at Posidium, the extensive ruins at that place attesting how much this little known port was used in the palmy days of Seleucia and Antioch.

The

Mr. Barker remarks, as do all others conversant with the country, that the break through the mountains by the river Orontes forms a natural opening for a railway, and "England ought to rejoice that there is a route open to her through Mesopotamia 1280 miles shorter than the Red Sea or any other route." idle stories, he adds, put forward of the obstacle in the way of the Euphrates line on account of barbarous Arab tribes, are not worth the least consideration. But of the Euphrates Valley Mr. Consul Barker was not in a position to offer any opinion at all.

Mr. Consul-General Eldridge is equally avowedly unacquainted with the country in general from personal observation, yet he decides in favour of either Alexandretta or Ayas, as the Mediterranean terminus, "because they are the only natural harbours available," i.e., as known to Mr. Consul-General Eldridge. ViceConsul Guarracino stands in regard to personal knowledge in the same category as Mr. Consul-General Eldridge, but residing at

*Reports respecting Communication with India through Turkey, by the Euphrates Valley Route. Presented to the House of Commons by command of Her Majesty.

Constantinople he gives his opinion in favour of a through line, giving at the same time just testimony to the vast undeveloped agricultural, mineral, and industrial resources of the country, as also to the temper and habits of the inhabitants, including the nomade populations.

Mr. Consul-General Herbert, residing at Baghdad and among the Arabs, gives these strange people a naturally very indifferent character, and he would therefore prefer that the line should be carried across North Syria and Mesopotamia to the valley of the Tigris. Mr. Consul-General Herbert gives strong testimony in favour of the proposed line, in a general point of view, as to its value and importance, whether by the Euphrates or the Tigris valleys. In a political sense alone, he believes that the acquisition by England of this rapid means of communication with India would prove to be well worth not only the amount of such guarantee as may be sought, but indeed the entire cost of the construction of the railway, whatever that may be.

This

Mr. Consul Holmes, who has resided some time at Dyarbekir, and is yet personally unacquainted with the country through which it is proposed to carry the line, advocates its being carried across northern Mesopotamia and down the Tigris. is a point which reduces itself before the committee to the simple question, as to whether the additional safety conferred by adopting such a line, and the opportunity given by it of developing the resources of so much additional territory, would compensate for the greater length (estimated at one hundred and fifty miles) to be given to the line. From personal and repeated observation along both the proposed lines, our opinion is that the Euphrates line is the most direct to India, that the Tigris line is in great part very little more populated than the Euphratic, that material would be as easily transported on the one line as the other, that, as Mr. Barker remarks, all ideas of any opposition on the part of the Arabs are idle stories, that the resources of the country would be ultimately as much developed by the Euphratic as by the Tigris line, and that there is nothing in the latter to counterbalance its additional length, which we also believe to be much greater than is estimated. Excepting in the case of the late much lamented Mr. Rassam, an old member of the Euphrates Expedition, none of those who give their opinion in favour of the Tigris route are personally acquainted with the Euphrates Valley, and Mr. Rassam may have been slightly influenced in wishing to bring the line to Mosul, as he was, up to the time of his decease, the greatest merchant of the place.

Mr. Consul Palgrave dismisses the through line from Scutari by Koniyeh to Aleppo, and from Aleppo by the Euphrates Valley,

in the most summary manner as "inadmissible." By some accident or other, to us totally incomprehensible, he, like Sir Henry Rawlinson, brings Kaisariyah into this line. The Black Sea route viâ Tereboli and Erzingan is dismissed in the same summary manner, and a route from Samsun to Sivas and by Malatiya to Dyarbekir is pronounced to be the most eligible "in an engineering and commercial point of view." As it is not likely, when the Turkish government has already commenced work upon the condemned line, that this advice will be followed, it is needless to discuss the difficulties that it presents. The route by Erzerum and Betlis is justly dismissed; that from Constantinople by Angora, Sivas, Dyarbekir, Mosul, Kifri, and Kirmanshah to Teheran is spoken of favourably. That from Bushir to Kurrachee is peremptorily condemned from want of towns and scant population. Mr. Palgrave decides ultimately in favour of a line from Alexandretta across North Syria and Mesopotamia including Dyarbekir (which Lieut.-Colonel Herbert has had the good sense to give up), and by Baghdad to Basra and Kuwayt; or he would have a through line viâ Muhammara to Bushir, and thence by Chiro, Linja, and Jask to Kurrachee.

Mr. Consul Rassam would have had the Seleucia or Alexandretta line cross the Euphrates below Balis, and be carried through the country of Balikh and Ayyubu-'tamr, south of Orfah, to Nisibin and Mosul. This line is projected to avoid the basaltic overflow of North Mesopotamia, and if the line by the Tigris valley were possibly to be adopted, it or some similar line as projected by Mr. Consul Taylor would have to be surveyed for all practical

purposes.

Mr. Consul Rogers suggests that a harbour be made at or near the mouth of the celebrated Dog River, and the line carried by Homs or Hamah to the Euphrates. We have travelled from Latakiyah to the upper valley of the Orontes, but not from Tripoli to Homs, and cannot therefore give an opinion as to the engineering difficulties to be overcome in this proposed route. The line is admittedly overrun by hordes of wild nomadic Arabs, but Mr. Rogers thinks that with good management they might be brought to be of service to the railway instead of their opposing it. Mr. Rogers speaks upon this point with large experience to back him.

Mr. Consul Sandwith rather suggests than advocates a line from Hayfa, as a safe roadstead, by the plain of Esdraelon across the Jordan and through the Hauran to Baghdad. This because he happens to be acquainted with Hayfa.

Mr. Consul Sankey writes evidently from personal knowledge of part of the country. He suggests an important point, to which