physical peculiarities, present such an extraordinary diversity that no two persons were ever found alike ?* To make, therefore, political institutions absolute, when nature is neither uniform nor homogeneous, is absurd, so long as Omnipotence impresses on everything earthly a varying character; thus nations submit themselves to laws adapted to the peculiarities of the country they inhabit, and the tastes with which their Creator has endowed them. If political freedom were the grand cause for producing a complete development of " every virtue which can adorn the mind," and thus forming, if I may so term it, a monotonous display of extreme morality, the reverse would necessarily ensue under political despotism, when we should expect to find a monotony of vice proportioned to the tyranny of the ruling power;† but the unjustness of this * Even in the same family we find no two individuals having similar characteristics. Notwithstanding all the efforts of education, we find a difference in moral qualities as well as mental powers. In hand-writing even, in the intonation of the voice, in gait, in animal propensities; and this distinction becomes the more marked, if we compare two brothers with the nation of which they form a part; while a wider line of demarcation is seen on comparing the people of the nation, in the aggregate, with the people of other and distant climes. Italy is a case in point: the iron heel of despotism presses on every part of that classic land. But the inhabitants of the north are essentially different from those of the south: the former produces the best soldiers, the latter the keenest politicians;—the people of the one are industrious, peaceful, of tamer manners, and, if I may so express my meaning, domesticated; those of the other, of a wild and stormy temper, generous but revengeful, capable of the most heroic as well the basest deeds, of an uncultivated genius and impatient of discipline; a country, in fact, where "The virgins are soft as the roses they twine, “And all, save the spirit of man, is divine.” Although both are considered the regions of painting and poësy, yet the southern genius far excels the northern in boldness of conception and magnificence of composition-as the writings and works of Dante, Tasso, and Machiavelli, of Raphael, Salvator Rosa, and Michal proposition scarcely requires to be demonstrated. England at the present moment enjoys a large portion of political liberty, and it has been augmenting from year to year since the revolution; but crime has nevertheless progressively increased. Denmark exists under a pure-nay, what is more extraordinary, a voluntary despotism, and Austria under complete absolutism; yet the virtue of the people ranges as high, if not higher, than that of any nations in the world. In fact, it is one of the fallacies of the age to think that mere political institutions are all that is required to fashion out a whole people; as much as to hold forth that a nation may become instantly rich by acting on the principles of Adam Smith, no matter what advance it may have made in agriculture, science, or manufactures. Why is it that such a striking difference is manifested between the inhabitants of a low, hot, and damp region, and the people of an elevated, cool, and dry atmosphere ?between the timid Bengalee and the brave Rajpoot, the phlegmatic Dutch and the sanguine Swiss?-between the commercial Chinese and the conquering Tartar; the latter being bold, warlike, and independent, glorying in deeds of heroism, Michael Angelo demonstrate; and of a more ancient date, those of Scipio, Cæsar, and Cicero, who owe their birth-place to the sunnier clime. Whence, then, this marked contrast? The political institutions, the religion, the language is common to all; but the climate and soil are essentially different. The north is a fertile, champagne territory, intersected by numerous rivers, cultivated to an astonishing degree, covered with wide and level roads, never-ending avenues, and thickly-populated towns and villages, with a highly luxuriant but dull and sleepy landscape; the south is crowned with purple-tinged mountains and golden-edged clouds, diversified with inaccessible and stupendous crags, foaming torrents, Cashmerian vales, wild but beautiful forests, and a scenery which presents the most splendid pictures at every step. Is it a matter of wonder that the character of men inhabiting such different countries should be dissimilar? "Who, for itself, can seek th' approaching fight, "No dread of death if with them die their foes, the former a cowardly, pacific, and even servile race, prone to superstition, addicted to compliments, and extravagant in all the littleness attending the ceremonials of behaviour? How comes it that nations of extensive power and great wealth, such as Rome and Greece, have allowed their liberties to pass from them, and gradually and silently submitted to the terrific yoke of slavery-to the monotonous despotism of one man? How can we explain the monumental civilization of the ancients, the bare ruins of which excite the admiration of millions-a civilization which induced its promoters to raise colossi for altars, to erect mountains for mausoleums, and wonderfully to excavate the very earth in forming temples for divinity ?* Why is it that we find in history nations, more especially those of a warm clime, numerous and enterprizing, passing through every stage of prosperity-then, by an unexpected and inevitable revolution, losing all traces of their former grandeur, and sinking into the condition of serfs? The temples of Luxor and Carnak, the Ptolomean pyramids, the mysterious ruins in Mexico, the rock-cut and splendid pagodas within the bowels of the earth and on its surface in Hindostan, would almost seem to attest the existence of a race of Titans, whose gigantic works, shrouded in the darkness of ages and defying the devastation of time, painfully strain our imaginations in conjectures, which are scarcely more than problematical, but which impress the fact on our minds that the architecture of men as we approach the tropics is more colossal and imposing; while as we advance towards the northern and southern poles, it is far less splendid, more convenient, but perhaps better finished. In truth, however advantageous political liberty be for man-and no one contends for it more than the author of this work-we must seek some other cause for the diversities which distinguish his national character. In some countries the earth, by incessantly-continued culture, unrefreshed by natural or artificial irrigation, ceases to produce the elements necessary to the formation of the nutritive sap of vegetables, and a deleterious chemical combination takes place, which exhales odours either innocuous or destructive of animal as well as of vegetable life. Thus whole regions are slowly depopulated, and the earth, returning to its primitive state, requires time and rest, before it be again capable of adequately supporting a given number of the human race but, during the interval, vegetables and animals, but more especially man, rapidly deteriorate. This is strikingly observable in the Maremmes of Tuscany, and several places where there are no marsh exhalations. In other countries, on the contrary, nature subdues civilization by a different process. An energetic and all-powerful principle of vegetable life increases in the ratio of the destruction of human life. Dwarfish plants assume gigantic form; ordinary-sized shrubs become lofty foresttrees; dense and luxuriant masses of foliage, upheld by interminable vines, and interspersed with every variety of the richest flowers, on all sides present immense umbrageous canopies; the earth, if barely scratched, produces maize sixteen feet high, and other farinæ of nearly equal size, while innumerable descriptions of wild animals and fruits are every where around; the carpet of nature is at all seasons green, and bedecked with the lovely flowrets which usually decorate the lawn, while the sky is unclouded, and the air of apparent delicious blandness. But amidst this unbounded profusion and loveliness, this terrestrial Eden, as regards the habitation of human beings, a is a desert! The shaft of death, with an unerring aim, is borne on the breeze; and man-stunted, emaciated, and wretched-only shews himself in a hostile attitude, to contend for his miserable existence with the wily tiger, the ferocious buffalo, or the majestic lion! These organic changes or local peculiarities of the soil whence food is derived will more easily account for the transition or formation of national character than political ⚫ institutions, which are not even such powerful modifiers of the mind as systems of firmly-believed religion or expansive education. To deliberate, therefore, seriously on instantly engrafting the enlightened and liberal principles of Englishmen on the superstitious and bigotted Hindoos, without first couching them for the moral cataract which yet dims their mental vision, is, however philanthropic, visionary in the highest, and indeed most mischievous, degree; for, in the body politic as in the body corporate, an injudicious attempt to increase the strength not only retards the desired object, but frequently superinduces diseases fatal to life; and it would be as erroneous to suppose that a man receiving sight after thirty years' blindness could immediately distinguish colours and compute distances, as that a people, after enduring a despotism of centuries, which had benumbed their energies and clouded their faculties, could, by a mere legislative ordinance, become restored to the healthy and beneficial enjoyment of both. It is therefore perfectly ridiculous to hear the blame which has been cast on the Authorities for not having immediately thrown open the highest offices in the state to the natives of India. Those who make this allegation either know little of India, or less of human nature. Of the former, first, because the diversity of people there is exceedingly great, and they are all jealous of each other: |