Administration, and one who, no doubt, in all | have surveyed the state of feeling in India that concerns personal appearance, is an ornament to the Government (laughter), but he is not the man to refound the Indian empire and that is what we have to do. (Hear, hear). We have the East India Company on the one hand and the Government on the other, the Board of Directors undoing what the Board of Control does, and the Board of Control undoing what is done by the Board of Directors. Is it wonderful that we find matters in such a chaos? I say it would be far more wonderful if we did not. (Hear, hear). The only wonder is that the subject is not taken up more fully throughout the country. I trust the time will soon come when the country will rise as one man and compel the Government to do something, not only to reconquer our Indian empire, but to make India an integral part of Her Majesty's dominions. (Hear). and the progress of disaffection, have long since foreseen the very crisis that has now come upon us. Sir Charles Napier was not the first to point out the danger to our empire in the formation of a force that has been likened to that of the Mamelukes, though the proportions of the Bengal army immensely exceeded those of the alien force which the Turkish Government was compelled to destroy in order to save itself. During at least half a century has that hostile power been growing up under our own fostering attention; and those who apprehend that it may now have outgrown our ability to crush it are neither the most timorous nor the most unpatriotic of our country. Among the practical reasons which they have for that opinion is the absence of the system which we found established in Hindostan, and which it has been our enduring object to break down. We have so far overridden the conflicting races and governments in that region, that we have removed one means of ruling by the counterbalance of rival forces From The Spectator 5 Sept. RECONQUEST OF INDIA. No event that has happened within the experience of the living generation has of keeping in check the various sections so formidably threatened the continuance of of the Indian millions by reciprocal antagoEngland's power as the outbreak in India. nism. We have pampered a great enemy, The rise of the first Napoleon, the conspiracy and have no other enemy to pit against him. to close Europe against us, was little in At present Bombay and Madras remain comparison to this danger which has arisen "stanch"; but should the infection of revolt within our own dominions. We shall not spread to those Presidencies, India would escape from the peril and its consequences speedily accomplish the comparatively easy without immense exertions and immense task of slaughtering all the Europeans cost. It is some consolation to reflect that the liability of the nation is also the opportunity for the nation; that if we have to confront vast labors and great sacrifices, we have an opening made for us to recover some of those strenuous qualities which we appear to have lost in the ease of peace and prosperity. But in order to employ that opportunity, and to hold our own, it is desirable that we should confront at once the question which is presented to us by eventsWhether we are to retain our Indian empire, or to abandon it? within our bounds, and would have to be reconquered under circumstances that forbid a renewal of the adventurous, piecemeal conquest by which we won it. If we have to accomplish the piecemeal, adventurous reconquest of India, it must be at least before we have actually lost our empire, or been driven [beyond its confines; for to return then would be a labor of such magnitude as to forbid our undertaking it at all. Another section of the community holds that England would be best without her distant dependencies: costly ornaments, of There are amongst us those who fear that no value as subject provinces, and equally the difficulties which we have made for our- available for England's true mission in the selves in India have become too gigantic be- world-commerce-if we threw off the refore we have chosen to recognize them. If sponsibility of governing them and confined officials who live in habits of routine have ourselves to the relations of trade. been "surprised" by this Sepoy mutiny, others, who have habituated themselves to regard events historically or practically, who This section points on the one hand to our naval and military expenditure, and on the other to the returns of the Board of Trade exhibiting our exports and imports; and insists that manders; and that no exertion will be wantour true marine force is that by which we ing to meet every increased demand. But convey not guns but goods, that our really we can already see a little further than that. self-supporting empire is that of traffic, and It is evident that the whole mutinous army, that we should be all the better if we were with the marauding bands which it will leave freed from the burden of our off-lying depen- behind, will not be reduced for some considdencies. If these views are ultimately to erable time to come. The army of reconprevail, or if the non-commercial politicians quest might proximately be estimated; but who doubt our capacity to hold India are after that army shall have done its work, a correct in their calculations, it would be a powerful guard will be necessary to mainmere waste of our means, of our wealth and tain our position in India, and to suppress manhood, to attempt the reconquest of India with a strong hand every new attempt at by force of arms and of military expenditure. contesting it. Even beyond that, some furIt would be well, therefore, to settle with ther measures must be in contemplation, such ourselves whether it is expedient to make the as a reorganization of the Bengal army, or of sacrifices requisite for keeping our empire those portions of the Native army which and restoring in India the full standard of must assist the British in maintaining our English power. dominion, a process to be carried on still under the guard of powerful British forces. A sound, political generalship would forecast the strategy, not only of the next campaign, but of the campaign after the next-the political, we mean, as well as the military strategy: and would be able, even in this instant September, to form some estimate of the ways and means which will be necessary for these successive strokes of statesmanship. And we say there will be the best chance of success if the whole operation be to a certain extent designed from the very commencement. If we judge from the present temper of the English public, and the deference which is paid to it by the Executive, we may assume that the question is to be decidedly answered in the affirmative. But even in that case, we shall lose nothing either in honor or in the chances of success, if we endeavor to form some estimate of the means requisite for the great end proposed, and study a little the economy of conquest. At present, our Indian policy is only from hand to mouth. Each fortnight has brought us from India an instalment of worse news, and each fortnight has carried back to India from this country The same policy of comprehensive prepaan instalment of increased exertion. It is ration is justified by every consideration of quite proper that there should be that en- finance and commerce; for the charge of relarged view of necessity, that augmented conquering India must to a great extent fall effort to perform great duties in India; but immediately upon England. "But England it is not by this journeyman estimate of the will repay herself out of the Indian revenues work to be done that we shall secure the and Indian commerce." In what way? By best chances of success, or accomplish it with as rapid a development as possible of the the smallest outlay of means, with the small-productiveness of India under a better sysest sacrifice of wealth and life. It is not tem: and how can we so promptly secure the your boldest man who endeavors "to make repayment as by taking every necessary the best" of a danger by diminishing the means to restore order at whatever cost calculation of it and using the most com- of immediate outlay? Whatever it may fortable words. No great work, even of en-amount to, the gross outlay will ultimately be gineering in undisturbed times of peace, can be accomplished with the best arrangements for its purpose and a minimum of cost, unless the whole scope of the work be apprehended from the first, and the ways and means be distinctly calculated. Is it so in Our countrymen will have to pay for this the case of India? We are assured that a process, and on many of them the burden large force will be on the scene of conflict will be grievous: they will bear it cheerfully by October next; that a continuous support or otherwise in proportion as they think the has been provided for the British com- statesmanship likely to be successful—in pro paid; but unquestionably it will be large in proportion as we handle the subject-of India with an auctioneer's statesmanship, and allow our estimate of the charge to rise as the difficulties rise before us. portion as the other difficulties of India offer It is not only the opportunity for energetic new opportunities for English energy, Eng- men and rising cadets, it is the opportunity lish enterprise, and the improvement of our for English statesmanship; and if we have institutions, demanded by the rising intelli- amongst us, in office or out of it, any man gence of all classes. The troubles in India who can break away from the slavery of rouwill be the fresh opportunity for those emu- tine-who can for the moment take a stand lators of Clive, Wellington, and Warren apart from the beaten track, and view the Hastings, who live unpronounced amongst future by the lessons of the past, surveying us; and in proportion as the responsible the coming campaigns with the eye of a poGovernment in London shows itself able to litical general employing his resources with appreciate such instruments, in proportion as such true economy as to use all and waste it fairly offers a field for the energy of Eng- none-that man will write himself on the ishmen of all classes, its administration will history of England and India as a great be popular, its demands met with cheerful man. promptitude. and as it with the whole eye of the bird looks dark, like a dark pair of glasses, it might, as I have said above, have suggested the name of barnacles. I have since consulted an old French dictionary for Besicles, which it gives as meaning Temple-glasses. This, I think, goes far to prove that my supposition as to what barnacles are is correct.-Notes and Queries. TO BE WORTH A PLUM.-Can any one furnish | in the mark to the shape of a pair of spectacles; an explanation of this expression? The word plum, in the usually received acceptation of £100,000 first came under lexicographical cognizance, I believe, in Johnson's Dictionary. He speaks of it as used "in the cant of the city," and gives quotations from Addison, Prior, &c, to show how the word was employed. No one of these quotations, however, indicates the amount, nor gives the slightest notion of the origin of the peculiar application of the word. Thus Prior says: "The miser must make up his plum, ETYMOLOGY OF BUXOM.-Oxoniensis will find the following in Missale ad usum Ecclesiæ Sarum, fol. 1527. tit. Ordo Sponsalium fol. XXXIX.: ་ And dares not touch the hoarded sum." Richardson (sub voce) intimates that no ex- "I, N take thee N to my weddyd husbode planation of the origin of the phrase can be tho haue & to holde for thys day for better, for given, but in the Supplement lately published, wurs, for richere, for porer, in syknesse and in he hazards the supposition that it means helthe to be boneere and buxum in bed et at (perhaps) a plumper, a plump sum." In bord tyll deth vs depart, yf holy cherche wol it Mandeville's notes on his Fable of the Bees, I ordeyne: And thereto I plyche the my find a passage which slightly modifies the notion trewthe." M. C. conveyed, by transferring it from the possession to the possessor. "If an ill-natured miser who is almost a plumb, and spends but fifty pounds a year," &c.-P. 83.-Notes and Queries. BARNACLES AND SPECTACLES.-I have always understood the difference between barnacles and spectacles to be this: that spectacles are merely single glasses, as aids to the sight, and barnacles double, i.e. with side pieces. The latter, I think, are more frequently of colored glass, and used more as protectors from wind, dust and glaring light, than as aids to the sight. May they not have been called barnacles from the similarity in shape to the black streak, which proceeds from the upper part of the beak in a line to the corner of, and right round the eye of the bernicle, or barnacle goose (Anser bernicla)? If OPTICUS has the means of looking at an engraving of this bird, I think he will allow that there is a strong resemblance In Cotgrave's English-French Dictionary, published in 1650, Oxoniensis will find “Buxom" with its present signification, the French meanings given being "gai, joyeux, haité." This last word, haité, now obsolete, I think, is translated, "Lively, lusty, blithe."-Notes and Queries. THE PRETENDER, AND SIR THEOPHILUS OGLETHORPE.-Can any of your correspondents give the particulars of a story of the alleged substitution of a son of Sir Theophilus for a son of James II.? making thereby, I presume, the first Pretender to have been a son of Sir Theophilus. Two pamphlets were published on this alleged transaction, in 1707 and 1745, I believe; purporting to be the evidence of a Mrs. Cooper, who had been a servant in the family, and written, Manning says, in his History of Surrey, in a very plausible style.-Notes and Queries. THE BRITISH HOUSE OF COMMONS. WITH patience thread-bare worn, A member sat in the Commons' House In dog days, small hours, and frowse, "In the morning from twelve till four ! . "And talk! talk! talk! "At evening for eight hours more! "It's oh, to be a slave "At words instead of work, "With Gladstone and Pam for Fox and Pitt, "And Bethell instead of Burke ! "Talk talk! talk! "Till the painted windows swim; "Talk! talk! talk! "Till the lights in the roof wax dim! "Clause and section and line "Line and section and clause"Till on the benches we fall asleep, "And dream of making laws. "O men, with incomes clear, "O men, with houses and wives, "What fools we are to be stewing here, "When we might lead easy lives! "Stick! stick! stick! "In the stench of the bone boilers' dirt; "To hear Gladstone's taunts at Bethell, "And Bethell's rejoinders pert! "Talk! talk! talk! "Our labor lasts night and day; "And what are its wages?-nothing a year, "And election bills to pay; "The right to stand on this matted floor, "The right to address that chair, "After a morning's blaze at the birds, "For an appetite for my meal! " With patience thread-bare worn, With eyelids heavy as lead, A member sat in the Commons' House When he fain would have been in bed. Sit! sit! sit! In dog-days, small hours, and frowse, And as the debate he couldn't quit, He tried to make the best of it, By singing the song of the House ! -Punch. EVENING HOURS. [ures, The human heart has hidden treasures While, lost in fame's or wealth's illusion, But there are hours of lonely musing, And feelings once as strong as passions, Float softly back-a faded dream; And it can dwell on moonlight glimmer, "And The Times a blank-for I'm not of the And while the sky grows dim and dimmer, rank "To be reported there. "Sit! sit! sit! "From weary chime to chime; "Sit! sit! sit! "And to miss a division's a crime, "Amend, divide, and report "Report, divide, and amend, "Till each section's a riddle, the act a snarl, "And a muddle from end to end. "Talk! talk! talk! "In the blazing midsummer light; "Talk! talk! talk! Heed no untold woe's distressOnly a deeper impress given By lonely hour and darkened room, To solemn thoughts that soar to heaven, Seeking a life and world to some. -Charlotte Bronte. WATER FALLS. But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted "Through the sweltering midsummer night: And from this chasm, with ceasless turmoil seeth "While all about the House "The bone-boilers' odors cling, "To mock us with dreams of the heathery hills "O! but to breathe the breath "To feel as I used to feel, ing, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced, COLERIDGE LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 700.-24 OCTOBER, 1857. Forty-five Letters by Béranger, and details which had so strangely troubled my sorrow. Surely in the case of one who could write trial restraining the publication of the loveletters betwixt Benjamin Constant and Madame Récamier which took place some years ago, is not forgotten by any one caring for the literary chit-chat of modern Paris, here favors us with a new proof of her impulsiveness. How long has Bèranger been dead? Some three weeks, little more: here is her book about Béranger-not tears in rhyme, but anecdotes and reminiscences in prose, and ransackings from letters which he wrote to Madame Colet, selected, we must say, with a sharp eye to business and the recommendation of the poetess. Did she forget her friend's express wish, that no eulogy should be spoken over his grave? Has she not here given among her first specimens the note of reply to her inquiries on the morning after M. Lafitte's funeral?— Madame Colet's recollections of Béranger are neither numerous nor important. So largely does she figure in them herself that but for other data to aid in judgment of the character of the greatest poet, which we possess, we might have fancied him a French Hayley to a Marseillaise Seward. He read to her most of the Napoleon and other songs, which are shortly coming. One, called "The Devil's Daughter," has a touching legendanother, "The Apostle," was dedicated to Lamennais. One "A Lesson on French History to General Bertrand's Son," is vouched for as containing a sublime verse about Joan of Arc; but the most beautiful, according to Madame Colet, is" Madame Letitia at Rome." Her acquaintance with Béranger began by correspondence. From 1847 to 1848 the Singer interested himself much in a drama. "Dear Muse,-I am still very much tired, which Madame Colet was writing. By the but you are too good in making yourself so way, it was after a reading of this play that You gave me tidings of Malle. Rachel-who, with the authoress, uneasy about me. the procession, for we who were the pall-was twisting her way homewards in a coach. bearers saw nothing ten paces from us. What, unfortunately, I saw too much of was among the barricades of February, 1848the stupid ovation which they tried to make broke out for the first time into "La Maras we came out, which threw me into a suffi-seillaise," by the infuriate singing of which ciently great dilemma, and into a greater the "Muse of Israel" propitiated the men of passion. I had to fly, but they took out the the Mountain, on whom then depended the horses from the carriage in which I had taken refuge, near that of Lafitte the elder. At last I contrived to reach a post of the National Guard, which afforded me a shelter from this ridiculous enthusiasm-a mourning coach was sent me, and municipal guards on horseback accompanied me, to keep off the too great eagerness of the street-folk. I am sensible of marks of sympathy, but they must not be noisy and disorderly ones: thus I cannot conceal from you that I have been touched to the utmost by the gallantry of the the colonies"! But great as was their intimilitary authorities, who, seeing my embar-macy, and great, Madame Colet would have rassment, assisted me to extricate myself us believe, as was the poet's enthusiasm for without any act of violence towards the crowd her, there was a point which even "the dear DCC. LIVING AGE. VOL. XIX. 13 destinies of the theatre on which depended her pension. Madame Colet also gives the details of a sort of lemonade-orgy into which she entrapped Béranger at " La Closerie des Lilas"-a music and dance garden of unequivocal reputation, where, on his being recognized, he was pelted with bouquets and kisses by the Lisettes of its fairy bowers, and hugged by a gigantic negro "in the name of |