which I returned yesterday, gratified beyond description) even to Poonah. I have already brought the plundering Bheels of that once royal land to till ground that has been fallow for near a century. These are all dreams. I shall be satisfied with having given a good impulse, shall probably shake you by the hand in November, take your commands for England in December, and there take a farm.' (Vol. ii. p. 309.)

This scheme, however, met with little favour from Lord Hastings and the Court of Directors, though it has since been realised in another form, by the creation of the lieutenantgovernorship of the North-western provinces of Bengal: and to a farm in Hertfordshire, the aspirant after these high honours did return. If, however, some disappointment mingled itself with Malcolm's return to Europe, that pang was soon forgotten in the delight with which he found himself surrounded by an affectionate family, and by his hearty enjoyment of the life of an English country gentleman.

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But whilst he enjoyed the freedom, the leisure, and the society of Europe, he never ceased to pursue the objects of his constant ambition, and he was successively again a candidate for the offices of Governor of Madras and Governor of Bombay. Nor did he renounce the crowning object of the governor-generalship of India. His exertions were at length partially rewarded by the appointment to Bombay, which he accepted in opposition to the advice of the Duke of Wellington; but he afterwards saw reason to regret that he had not followed that advice. The principal event of his government was an unfortunate squabble with the Chief Justice; but more permanent results have marked his administration from the judicious encouragement he gave cotton and silk cultivation, and to the establishment of steam communication with England. He left India for the fourth and last time in 1830, and reached England at a moment when his countrymen were engaged in a contest for Reform, which involved principles diametrically opposed to those of his own political experience. On these topics it is, however, unnecessary for us to dwell, and the pages which Mr. Kaye has devoted to them, might have been omitted without any detriment to the fame of his hero. Of the general estimate of Sir John Malcolm's powers recorded by his biographer, we have already expressed our opinion; but although we do not entirely subscribe to the tone of lofty panegyric he has adopted, we agree with him that the marvellous history of British India scarcely furnishes a more remarkable instance of a man who rose, entirely by his own energy and application, to some of the highest offices in that portion of the empire,-that he dis

played in all the duties and relations of life a warm-hearted and unselfish disposition, and that among the Englishmen who have ruled in India, none have left a name more deservedly respected and beloved by the people of that country.

ART. V.- La Roumanie. Par B. BOERESCO. Paris: 1856. To deliver the Moldo-Wallachian provinces from a Russian invasion was the first object of the late war; to constitute the government and future condition of those provinces on a safe, permanent, and liberal basis is the last object of the peace. To these objects the policy of the Western Powers and of Turkey herself is irrevocably pledged; and the degree of success which may in this respect attend our efforts will be no unfair criterion of the results of the late contest. When we engaged in it we found Russia invested by successive treaties with a right of interference in the affairs of the Principalities which amounted in her own estimation, and in the opinion of a large section of the population, to a Protectorate. Repeated invasions had familiarised her with the occupation of the country, and the absolute command which Russia had acquired of both banks of the Danube, from the confluence of the Pruth to its mouth, gave her a preponderating influence over the adjacent States on that great river. The peace of Paris has annihilated that Protectorate. An invasion of the Principalities by Russia would henceforth be regarded as an outrage on the public law of Europe, to which those States now belong. The Danube in all its course waters no portion of the Russian territory, and a considerable portion of Bessarabia has actually been restored to Moldavia.

But whilst we rejoice in these consequences of the late war, which have effectually removed one of the dangers that continually menaced the independence of the East and the tranquillity of Europe, we are sensible that the work of the Allies is not complete until the immunities of the Principalities shall be secured by a form of government at least as independent as that they owed to the interested interposition of Russia, and until their social condition is so consolidated as to oppose a national barrier between the Russian and the Turkish Empires. The territories of the Principalities have been for ages the Flanders of the East -the scene of incessant contests between the Hun and the Greek, the Pole and the Wallach, the Russ and the Turk. No country has been more frequently devastated by war; but none is better adapted by its position and natural fertility to give an additional pledge of the maintenance of peace.

Unhappily, in the course of the negotiations which followed the cessation of hostilities and the conclusion of peace, considerable differences have arisen between the several cabinets of Europe as to the most effectual mode of accomplishing this object. The French Government adopted, throughout these discussions, the plan for uniting the Principalities in one State; and this union is undoubtedly desired as the sine quâ non of a real political existence by all that is eminent and patriotic amongst the people. This proposal was acceded to, though more coldly, by Russia. But it was so strenuously opposed by Austria and by Turkey, that it became impossible and unadvisable to adopt it precipitately. It was but fair to consider the objections of these Powers, and to examine into the truth or justice of their objections. Nor could the union of the Principalities be discussed or decided in an isolated manner, apart from the institutions on which it may be based, or from the character and connexions of the prince whose election may consolidate and crown it.

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It should be borne in mind that during the negotiations at Vienna, in 1855, as well the negotiations at Paris, in 1856, these topics had been discussed. Lord John Russell remarked in the former Conference that the importance of the union of the 'two Principalities into one, the government for life or hereditary of the hospodars, the opportunity of a national repre'sentation had not escaped him,' though these questions were adjourned out of deference to the Porte. The French minister at Vienna had read an excellent memorandum in favour of the union of the provinces under an hereditary prince chosen from one of the reigning houses of Europe, but tributary to the Sultan. At Paris the subject was resumed. It is recorded in the Sixth Protocol of the Congress, that The first Plenipotentiary of France conceives that as the union of the two provinces satisfies the requirements brought to light by an 'attentive investigation into their true interests, the Congress • should admit and proclaim it.

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The first Plenipotentiary of Great Britain shares in and supports this opinion, relying especially on the utility and ex'pediency of taking into serious consideration the wishes of the people, which it is always right,' he adds, to take into account.' The proposal was resisted by the ministers of Austria and Turkey but the Treaty itself provided that a European commission should decide the bases of the future organisation of the Principalities, and that the Sultan should convoke Divans so constituted as to represent closely the interests of all classes of society, which were to express the wishes of the people on the subject.

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Unfortunately for the inhabitants, subsequent events were not calculated to remove the obstacles in the way of their desires. During a long and intricate series of negotiations, France placed itself no longer by the side of her late allies, but by that of her recent foe. The view which France took of every contested question was the Russian one. The French and Russian Ambassadors at Constantinople laboured together at the same oar, and became associated in a succession of acts so antagonistic to England and to Austria, as irresistibly to force these Powers into an understanding for mutual defence; thus reversing the alliance and the policy which had effected the successful termination of the war.

These circumstances may well explain the subsequent hesitation of the English Government in acceding to the wishes of the Principalities, and the repugnance of our diplomatists to lend their aid to a scheme supported by powers and personages so notoriously hostile. Such jealousies and resentments, however, do not lead to a due and calm consideration of the question itself, nor are they calculated to furnish a just decision upon its real merits.

Although these arrangements have hitherto been thwarted by diplomatic perplexities, their importance is not to be judged of solely in reference to foreign influences, but by the character and wants of the countries to which these arrangements are to apply; and it would be a scandalous failure in one of the great objects of the war if we failed, having the power in our own hands, to establish a sound national government over the Moldo-Wallachians, or, to call them by their more accurate common denomination, over the people of Roumania.

Let us now turn therefore to the countries themselves, and consider what elements of political strength they possess, and how far they may be trusted with the development of these powers in order to form a barrier against Russian ambition, without becoming at the same time a source of weakness and anxiety to Turkey.

The first characteristic of the Rouman race is the tenacity with which they have during so many centuries defended their distinct existence. Other races have preserved their nationality in impervious nooks or insular positions, but Moldo-Wallachia lies on the high road from the steppes to the fertile regions of the Danube. All the barbarian tribes passed it in succession, but never settled there; and the descendants of Trajan's colonists, accustomed to retire to the mountains from invasion, and to return to the cultivation of the plain when the invaders had passed, still people their old country, refusing amalgamation and flinging off

all subjection that is not of a merely nominal kind. From the earliest time the Roumans maintained their independence by arms. In alliance with the Bulgarians they resisted the Greek Empire. After the terrible invasion of Genghis Khan in the 13th century, the Wallachs and Moldavians rallied each under a native Duke. At the close of the 14th century appeared the Turks, who were obliged to humble the Danubians ere they could successfully attempt to reduce Constantinople. The Ottoman never encountered more stubborn or more chivalric foes. The great Sultans therefore respected them, and as the price of their neutrality or adhesion, merely demanded nominal tribute, stipulating in turn that no Turk should pass the Danube, but that the Moldo-Wallachs should continue to elect their own princes and be governed by their own laws. It was this very independence, that induced so many of the principal Greek families of Constantinople to migrate from that capital and settle in Moldo-Wallachia, where the Cantacuzenes and Paloologi flourish to this day. The traditions and counsels of these new comers greatly tended to sap the military institutions and hardihood of the Roumans, and to substitute for them the supple habits and functionary aristocracy of the Greeks. Against them as their most insidious enemies the Roumans long struggled. And under their most heroic kings, Stephen the Great and Michael the Brave, the spirit of Rouman nationality shone forth in more than primitive splendour, repelling on all sides Pole, Hungarian, and Turk. But as Poland declined, as Hungary was absorbed, and the Turks lost that martial impulse which gave them all their high qualities, the Moldo-Wallachian spirit subsided too; rascality succeeded to chivalry, and tax-jobbers to the soldier. The peasant, accustomed to cultivate the soil as the common property of all classes, though in unequal proportions, sank gradually to the Sclavonian condition of a serf, compelled to labour and fettered to the soil. His ancient right of electing his own chiefs and magistrates lapsed also. The nobles or Boyards, instead of electing their princes, were compelled to receive them at the hand of the Porte, which made choice for these offices of the rich Greeks of the Fanar, and of those amongst them who could pay the largest price. The aim of the Hospodars who had thus attained to power was of course to make as much money of it as possible in as short a time. Hence rapine became the sole aim and the sole task of government, the country being disarmed lest it should resist. The Hospodars brought Arnaouts to protect their persons and enforce their demands. The result of something short of a century of life-hospodorates under Turk