and the trade in human victims which it involved, were placedbeyond a doubt. A visit to the Cape of Good Hope now became necessary to restore a constitution tried by repeated attacks of illness, but on Lieutenant Macpherson's return, in 1841, he was appointed assistant to the agent at Ganjam, and entrusted with the duty of suppressing the Meriah sacrifice. The memoir now before us relates the measures which were adopted by Macpherson, and the success with which they were attended, but has then to show how at the moment when the object of his labours appeared to be obtained, and the practices both of human sacrifice and of female infanticide about to receive their death blow, he was rewarded by removal from his office, and a long period of suspension and trial. Into this subject or the controversy which ensued as to the rival claims of those engaged in the suppression of these rites, it is unnecessary here to enter. The distinguished civilian employed in the investigation, reported most highly in favour of Macpherson and his colleagues, and the Court of Directors ratified the decision, and recorded the reclaiming of the Khonds from the barbarous rites to which they had been immemorially addicted, as effected by the admirable power of individual character in the person of Major Macpherson, and thus authoritively assigned his place among the greatest benefactors of India, and the Governor General, in an obituary notice afterwards, proclaimed that the part which Major Macpherson took in the suppression of human sacrifices and infanticide among the Khonds, had gained for him a high place in the long list of distinguished officers who have adorned the Indian service, and entitle him to the lasting gratitude of the Government and the people of India. This struggle and this triumph so dearly won closed the first portion of Major Macpherson's Indian career. He had earned that return to Europe which broken health now rendered absolutely necessary, and the cheering words of Lord Dalhousie must have rendered this respite from labour doubly invigorating. The Governor General (who, had arrived in India during the investigation), as soon as the 'decision of his Government was pronounced, sent for Captain 'Macpherson, and after saying that he was sensible that nothing 'could ever compensate for the treatment which he had undergone, assured him on behalf of every member of the Gevernment, that to mark their undiminished confidence in him, he should be appointed to a suitable office in the Political Department as soon as his health would enable him to accept it.' In August, 1853, Major Macpherson returned to India, and Lord Dalhousie, true to his word, appointed him Governor General's agent at Benares, and afterwards to the political agency at Bhopal. After a short residence at Bhopal, the higher office of political agent at the court of Scindia at Gwalior became vacant, and to this post Macpherson was appointed. The office was peculiarly adapted to call out all Macpherson's qualifications. The youthful Scindia had lately by virtue of reaching his majority ascended the throne, and, as is usual with native princes, was balancing between good intentions and evil counsels. The minister Dinkur Rao was striving to reform a corrupt administration, and incurring the odium of those who had thriven on former abuses. To gain the confidence of the young sovereign, and to support with all the influence of his position the upright minister were to Macpherson thoroughly congenial duties. Without the labours of detail administration, the experience of long and varied services, and the influence of a matured character, were now brought to bear upon some of the finest provinces of Central India. The revenue system was thoroughly reformed, an efficient police was organized, the courts of justice purified, and the agent had the satisfaction of seeing the country prosperous, and the people contented. Cultivation and population everywhere increased. 'Wherever the agent went he found contentment, and distinct 'signs of increasing prosperity. The people asked for nothing but water for irrigation, and when they had learnt their 'value-for roads.' Three years of intimate intercourse, and the substantial benefits which had accrued, had won for the political agent the confidence and esteem of the prince and his minister, when the mutinies came to tax to the uttermost their loyalty to the Government which Major Macpherson represented. It will be fresh in the memory of most of our readers, how faithfully Scindia adhered to his loyalty to the British at this momentous juncture. How all the influence of his name and position, as head of the Mahrattas, was used to secure the fidelity of the Gwalior contingent as long as possible, and how, when this force yielded to the contagion and followed the example of the Bengal army, and Scindia felt that he could no longer guarantee the safety of the political agent and his suite, he sent them with the remnant of the English who had survived the massacre in the lines under the escort of his own personal bodyguard, to the nearest stronghold still in English possession,-the fort of Agra. It was at this moment when the charge which had been entrusted to him appeared to dissolve in his grasp, that the admirable judgment and forethought of Macpherson rendered his influence most valuable to the British cause. When forced himself to leave, he urged Scindia to keep the contingent in play, and to prevent its at once swelling the numbers which already beset the beleaguered English. And it will be remembered how admirably Scindia followed the advice. How he cajoled, threatened, yielded, postponed, finessed with his rebellious troops, until the English had gathered strength, and then finally dismissed them to break themselves against the army of Sir Colin Campbell at Cawnpore. From the fort of Agra Macpherson was enabled by advice and encouragement to strengthen the hands of Scindia, so that one of the highest civilians, who shared his detention in that fortress, recorded that few could know how much was due to him in the saving of India. With this eminent service the second and final portion of Macpherson's career drew towards its close. As soon as the support of an European force could be afforded, his post as political agent was resumed, and he was employed in restoring the authority of Scindia after the defeat of the rebellious troops by Sir Hugh Rose. But climate, the intense strain of the mutinies, and the subsequent anxieties and responsibilities, had done their work, and sad to say, that cordial, which the generous thanks of the country and Government he had served so well, would have proved at this moment, was not vouchsafed. Too long the sufferer clung to his post, till disease had advanced too far to be checked. The rest must be told in the words of the brother who has edited this memorial. At length, in the beginning ' of April, 1860, feeling worse and believing that change 'would do him good, he started for Calcutta intending to proceed immediately to Europe. The journey was long and 'fatiguing. On the way he rapidly became worse from 6 exhaustion and the heat of the weather. His admirable friend, the Dewan, now Rajah Dinkur Rao, met him on his way, and thinking him very ill, offered to accompany him 'to Calcutta, but the proposal was declined, and he conti'nued his journey while visions of Scotland, of streams and village greens, and children playing, floated before his eyes, ' and were a relief to him during the long and weary nights of his painful travel. He reached the house of his brother, Dr. Macpherson, at Calcutta, hopelessly ill, and there lingered for five days conscious of the approach of death, and evincing the kindness and consideration for others which always 'characterized him.' He expired on the 15th April, 1860. The tributes of public approbation and private esteem were now numerous, and Major Macpherson's name appeared in the list of those whose services were acknowledged by the Sovereign with the order of Companion of the Bath, but the list only reached India after his death. Such is a brief outline of this interesting memorial. It records the services of one of a class of well-educated, high principled Englishmen, who have given and are giving the best years of their lives and the whole energies of their minds, to the service of their country and the regeneration of India,-a class happily, so numerous that some circumstances of a peculiar character, or some opportunities not given to us, such as are related in this narrative, are necessary to distinction. We shall best describe the judgment we have ourselves formed of Major Macpherson by saying, that we are led from the perusal of this memoir to believe, that of all the tributes to his worth there recorded, he himself would have most valued, and would have set above all official praise, the tribute of a native of India,his friend, the able minister Dinkur Rao,-to his abilities in 'transacting State affairs, his firm, decided, and upright character, and his good nature and kind heart. To have exhibited these qualities, so that they are, as in this instance, not only appreciated by our Indian brethren, but copied in their lives, is the highest reward the Indian servant can propose to himself, being the highest proof that his service has not been in vain. ART. III.-1. Tibet, Tartary, and Mongolia, by H. Prinsep. London, Allan & Co., 1851. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Du Development des Idees Revolutionnaires En Russie, par A. Hertzen. London, 1853. Russia, by J. Kohl. 1855. The Russians at Home, by Sutherland Edwards. Allan & The Eastern Church, by Dean Stanley. Murray, London, Memoire sur la partie Meridionale de l'Asie Centrale, par Nicolas de Khanikoff. Paris, 1861. Essai sur la Situation Russe, par N. Ogereff. Trubner & Co., London, 1862. Des Reformes En Russie, par le Prince Pierre Dolgoron- Eastern Europe and Western Asia, by H. Tilley. London, 10. The Russians in Central Asia, translated from the Russian, 11. Russia, Central Asia and British India, by a British Subject. Trubner, London, 1865. 12. The Progress of Science, Art, and Literature in Russia, by F. R. Grahame. London, Blackwood & Co., 1865. WHEN in the year 1689 Job Charnock, the founder of Calcutta, smoked his pipe under the Boitakhana tree on the site of the City of Palaces, the future commercial capital of India, when he surveyed the dense tiger forest of Chowringhee and the Hooghly swarming with alligators, how little could he have anticipated the empire that would arise from that nucleus, or that the day would come when the English and Muscovites would be neighbours in North India. Probably indeed he never heard of Russia, which was then a terra incognita; its window in Europe,' St. Petersburgh, was at that period a swamp. But about that very time Peter the Great was planning the foundation of St. Petersburgh, built like Calcutta in a stagnant marsh in constant danger from inundations of the river. Both cities were erected at enormous sacrifice of life, and both served as the starting points for two mighty empires, the two rising empires of Asia-the one having its base in the frozen north of Europe, the other in a malarious delta, half the year a vapour bath. Both |