whatever is without the circle of Indian connexions is beyond the limits of humanity. With them, if you have neither been in India, nor are going there, nor have Indian relatives, you are of the scum and offscourings of the earth. Of their own importance they have very much the same idea as the lady of St. Helena, who inquired if the arrival of the Indian fleet did not render England very gay. She, poor soul, had at least the excuse of reasoning by analogy: she saw the effects. which were produced upon the monotony of existence on a barren rock, by the casual appearance of a few ships, and knew not why it should be otherwise in England; but these people live in the world, and take no lesson from its experience. The attempt would be hopeless to convince them that they do not stand at the pinnacle of refinement and polished elegance. Indian society, in our British community, is an "imperium in imperio"-one great egotism, appealing to itself as the infallible standard of excellence, and alike ludicrous and intolerable to others. I never come in contact with a limb of this irritable and hypochondriac body that I do not bless the " auream mediocritatem" of my lot. If wealth can only be acquired under an Indian sun by the sacrifice of constitution, moral and corporeal, by the loss of native habits and of native feelings, who would exchange an English cottage for the revenues of Hindostan! A WELCOME VISITOR. "The general joy of the whole table.” SHAKSPEARE. "He was famous in his profession, and had great right to be so." SHAKSPEARE. A WELCOME VISITOR. Of all the calm pleasures of my retreat, there are, at least, none equal to the enjoyment of conjuring up the memory of the past. It is a volume lying ever open for inspection, and the perusal of which can neither fatigue nor disgust. It is a storehouse in which the imagination delights to seek her materials for every mood of gaiety or gloom, contentment or misanthropy. In my hour of careless cheerfulness, the lofty aspirations and romantic ambition of boyhood flit like splendid visions around me in the brightness and warmth of their early colouring. The chill of many winters melts from before |