More practised still, he sees them as they are, eyes, The coarse machinations of the Donna Leonora make a foil to the delicacy and beauty of the whole character of Inez; and the vacillations of the old King would deserve a separate analysis if we were able to examine the play in detail. The author's dramatic method is marked by continuity and completeness; and the King's character is developed with the same care as the heroine's. Gonzalez is a little too conventional in his villany; but this does not tell on the general effect. ford Dudley, and Mrs. Oldfield Lady Jane Are they so false at court? There are joys That breaking on our dull disherited life Remind us we were born for Paradise, And this is of them. Guildford Dudley, in the height of his On a first reading we can conceive of fall, says just what would occur to a happiness, before the shadow begins to Inez being set down as the more success-noble and thoughtful mind, as better than ful of these two dramas. Though regarda direct personal panegyric: ing it as a composition of remarkable merit and strength, we should not concur in that opinion. Lady Jane Grey is written with a studied plainness and simplicity, and a punctilious adherence to the facts of history, which may at first produce the The subtle and overwhelming concentraeffect of work that is tame and bald. tion of dutiful feeling that made his wife Those qualities, however, are in reality the best tribute to genuine artistic feel-accept the hated crown at last is admirably suggested in a passage where there is ing; they express the subordination of not a word too much :the means to the end; they are like the careful playing of a musical executant who resolves to represent the master, and not himself. This is not the first time that the story of "Queen Jane" has been dramatized. In 1694 John Banks published a play on the subject, called the Innocent Usurper; and in 1715 Rowe's Lady Jane Grey, a Tragedy, was brought out at Drury Lane. Banks's drama is made up of the merest rant; and, though it was prepared for the stage, it was never acted a - deliverance for the public of those days. Rowe's tragedy held its own; Cibber played Bishop Gardiner, Booth took Lord Guild DUCH. As we find you now, What duty should you look for at her hands L. JANE. O that my blood GUILD. Your duty unto Him is grown as cold What! Guildford! husband! You have made me queen, And filled my heart with darkness. conveyed in the drama. Her spirit and rapidity in the discussion with Abbot Feckenham, her clearsighted dutifulness in the last letter to her father, and the lofty tone of the last message to her sister, written in the blank leaves of her Greek But, apart from excellence in composi- Testament, all these would seem to denote tion and design, once more to have given a character of almost oppressive elevation, prominence to the "words and behaviour" were it not for as many more traits markof Lady Jane Grey is in itself a merit. ing a simple and charming womanhood. Like some other characters of the highest Her relations to her husband are exceltype, hers is apt to retain perhaps a less lently brought out in Mr. Ross Neil's degree of conscious regard than it de- drama. She had looked forward to life, serves. To the masculine mental qualities not as one whose whole nature had been of her Tudor kinsmen she united the do- absorbed in vigorous study to the exclumestic devotion of a Rachel Russell and sion of more ordinary sympathies, but with the saintly elevation of a Godolphin. a youthful delight in the prospect of being "She had," as Fuller has said in a passage the companion of the man she loved, and which attracted notice as early as Rowe's the mother of his children: time, "the innocence of childhood, the beauty of youth, the solidity of middle, and the gravity of old age, and all at [seventeen]; the birth of a princess the learning of a clerk, the life of a saint, and the death of a malefactor for her parent's offences."* Her early attachment to literature was sweetened by her winning naturalness and her perfect breeding. In one of her Latin letters to the Zwinglian scholar Bullinger, she inserts a little Hebrew quotation from the "Proverbs" to please him by her progress in a study which he was directing; but she will not tolerate his praises: :-"Laudes . ut nec vendicare, ita nullo modo agnoscere debeo; sed quidquid mihi divina, bonitas largita est, id omne acceptum illi refero, tanquam mearum rerum omnium — quæ virtutis aliquam speciem habent - authori summo et soli." Few writers of words and thinkers of thoughts like these have ever been called upon to prove their sincerity in a trial of such deep-searching agony as hers. Just as her quiet tastes had revolted from the bare idea of public and official life, so had her clear head and heart from the first seen and felt the hollowness and peril of the whole scheme for a new testamentary disposition of the crown. Yet, when the collapse came, her self-possession far surpassed that of the chief leaders on her side; and as doom, final and irreversible, grew gradually fixed in the near prospect, her heroic patience and courage and discernment grew too. She was never for a moment deluded by hopes from Wyat's insurrection, her disapprobation of which attempt is well *Holy Kate. Fuller makes her eighteen; but seventeen was most probably her real age at her death in February 1554. With this Mr. Froude's account concurs. man. A perfect woman, nobly plann'd To warn, to comfort, and command; And yet a spirit still, and bright With something of angelic light. But the storm fell; and, as a recent critic has remarked, Mary could hardly have claimed kinship with her father, her brother, and her sister, had she not signed the death-warrant of a kinsman or kinswoHer cousin moved forward through cruel hours to the last, with the soul-possessing courage and calm temper of one whose feet were already "set beyond the waves of time". a Roman matron and a Christian saint united in a single character yet with the natural and unstudied ways of one who had never looked for prominence and notoriety in either pleasure or pain, but had hoped for a life of quietness and household love, in the peaceful valley of her lowliness. For Mr. Ross Neil's drama we need say no better thing than this, that it leaves us, not engaged in a refined discussion on merit or demerit in the author, not distracted with balancing the force or failure of one phrase or passage against another, but possessed with the sweet and noble memory of Jane Grey. From The Pall Mall Gazette. INDIAN FORESTS. A BLUE-BOOK on forest conservancy in India, extending to over 800 pages, has just made its appearance. Voluminous as it is, it contains but an instalment of the returns, and closes with a despatch from the Secretary of State for India demand for timber for sleepers and other purposes. Of course, the agents and the contractors who undertook to supply the companies bought up the timber they could deliver most cheaply, and devastated the immediate neighbourhood of the lines to save themselves the cost of transport. They cut for sleepers the promising young trees which should have been spared to grow into first-class timber. Nor would these abuses come to an end with the completion of the lines. Unless in exceptional instances, both the railways and the steam navigation companies burn wood in place of coal in their engines, and consequently the demand would be permanent, and would increase steadily as the supply fell off. For all these reasons, it became evident that the necessity for action was urgent. In a despatch dated November 1, 1862, the Governor-General in Council fully recognizes this. Indeed, it is rarely we find language so outspoken embodied in an official document. It is worth while noting ipsissimis verbis some of the facts stated, for they are so startling that we should have been slow to admit them had they been advanced on inferior authority. which bears date the last day of 1868. Yet we venture to say that, although it may be less satisfactory, it must be more interesting than any that are to follow. For it tells how the attention of the Government was first directed to the deplorable condition of the Indian forests, and it chronicles the beginnings of a system of forest conservancy that we trust may be productive some day of vast benefits. It was high time, indeed, that decided steps should be taken, and yet we can hardly condemn previous Governments for supineness. In the absence of a regular department of woods and forests, the timber question was the concern of nobody in particular, and every one, we fancy, had an idea that the forest resources of India were practically inexhaustible. So they undoubtedly had been, even while the British occupation was in progress. But destruction had all along been proceeding apace, had gained fresh impulse lately, and had naturally been most complete in the most thickly settled districts. If there had once been an abundance of wood, the demands upon it were incessant. It was employed to an immense extent for building purposes; it was used universally for fuel. Slight Indian structures were run up with no thought of durability; the insects and the climate are formidable enemies, and ill-seasoned timber required to be frequently renewed. Native proprietors had neither the intelligence nor the energy to care for a species of property the value of which they hardly recognized. Native woodmen and villagers cut the wood that came most conveniently to them, in every stage of growth, and with no regard to the future. Trees were felled in tracts, and although the forests renew themselves by seeding, the worthless jungle that follows the sweeping use of the axe chokes The despatch proceeds in similar tone, the chance saplings that may come strug- observing that it was only within a very gling up through it. The fatal dhya sys- few years that any sort of authorized fortem prevailed in the central forests. The est administration had existed anywhere. dhya, we may explain, is the clearing made Local authorities, having no instructions by some hillman in any part of his native on the subject had done hitherto what forest he may fancy. He brings down the seemed good in their own eyes. Here and trees, and burns them, using the ashes for there an energetic man had taken the forIn a very few years he finds the ests of his district in charge, as Colonel soil less rich than it was at first, and Ramsay had done in Kumaon, and such ismoves away to resume cultivation hard by olated instances had demonstrated the in similarly destructive fashion. In short, necessity of universal supervision. In the use of the forests was great, and the British Burmah there was already a forest abuse greater still, when the commence- conservator commissioned by the Government of the Indian railway works forced ment. Dr. Brandis was a German, reguthe question on the attention of Govern- larly trained, we presume, in the German ment. It was evident the railways must forest school. The Burmese forests had increase the consumption enormously. probably invited attention first, as being They created, in the first place, an urgent the most accessible nurseries of the teak manure. the matter of forests, and a sufficient commen- tree; and before a sleeper had been con- is difficult in any case in forest tracts of tracted for by the Indian railways, Indian vast extent; that any concession from teak was largely purchased by English arbitrary rules is extremely liable to be shipbuilders. Dr. Brandis enjoyed the full abused; that the restrictions are imposed confidence of the Government, and was as much in the interest of the natives as consulted in each step taken towards or- of any one else, and finally that they are ganizing the new department. The chief found to answer their purpose. Fire had objects aimed at were to secure, as far as been another fruitful source of injury to possible, the control of all the valuable the forests. In some districts, in Õudh forests, to taboo the timber against free and Gondwana in particular, there are axes and see that none of it should vast grassy plains lying within the boundbe cut without regular licence; to form aries of the reserved forest tracts. It was reserves, plant nurseries, and take care the custom to fire these plains annually in generally that there should be plenty of the dry season, and, of course, the flames young wood coming on to replace what often communicated themselves to. the was used up. The teak and the sâl are woods, destroying the saplings in their the trees that chiefly occupied the atten- outskirts. Fortunately, the forests can be tion of the Government. The sâl, although protected from these risks without inflictanswering admirably for railway sleep- ing much hardship on the owners of the ers where teak is not to be procured, is pastures. The arid plains may be fired more liable than teak to decay and disease. with impunity early in the spring, while Moreover, it is more the tree of Northern the grass in the woods is still so damp and North Eastern India, grows often in as to be incombust ble. These thoroughforests remote from water-carriage, while going measures tended to arrest the proits greater weight increases the difficulty gress of destruction. But although the of transport. The teak, on the contrary, Indian forests propagate themselves by is found as a rule in more thickly settled seeding, it was not enough to leave them districts, and nearer the centres of life and to recover by the slow course of nature. industry. Not only did its qualities recom- The demand for wood is pressing now, and mend it for every purpose, but while its must increase rapidly as steam communiwood was the most durable of all, no tree cation develops. According to the Govwas more easy to fell. The natives, like ernor-General in Council, "for the present the English, used it by preference for all at least the supply of fuel must be considpurposes, and accordingly well-grown teak ered without reference to the possible use trees were found to be rare. If they ex- of coal from the fields in Central India isted in any quantity it was in out-of-the- or Bengal." Colonel Elphinstone reports way situations, and the remoteness that from the Punjaub in 1866 that the market had saved them hitherto reduced their rate of wood had doubled itself within the value if it did not render them profitless. last ten years, the railway demand during Government felt that sharp remedies were that period being comparatively trifling. necessary, and the measures they devised The Government accordingly turned their were very stringent indeed. If they erred, attention to forming plantations and they certainly erred on the right side; but nurseries, either actually upon the great there are unbiassed judges who think they arteries of railway traffic or on rivers and went too fast and too far. Undoubtedly canals communicating with these. This they created much discontent in certain has been already done to a considerable localities. The necessities of the railways extent. On what scale the planting must first directed their attention to the matter, be carried out may be estimated from the and perhaps they legislated too much in fact that, according to one very competent the railway interest. They took up all authority, from thirty to forty acres of the forest land they could lay claim to, wood are necessary to supply the fuel for and promulgated a new code of forest a single mile of railway. Arrangements laws. From time immemorial the people have been made, besides, to lease the had been in the habit in many places of forests of the independent princes and cutting what wood they pleased. Now private owners, while especial attention they were forbidden to tamper not merely has been paid to the different varieties of with the teak, but with all the better Himalayan pine, forming excellent timber qualities of timber. Compelled to use in- in their way, although not equal to teak. ferior materials for their dwellings, they In short, decided measures have been were put to great expense in renewing adopted after due deliberation; the subject them. Complaints of course arose, the has been thoroughly ventilated, and nothanswer to which is that close supervisioning appears to have been neglected which experience or intelligence could suggest. Chinese, and are in continual danger of inThe authorities were fortunate in finding volving us in a war of revenge. It will be everywhere zealous agents and able coun- remembered that he was refused audience cillors. Reports had been ordered from at Versailles on the ground that the French all quarters, and some of them are models Government could not receive ambassaof thought, diligence, and accuracy. They dors from a potentate who denied a simiwell illustrate the versatility and ability lar privilege to the representatives of of the best class of our Indian officers, military and civil; for nothing would seem more foreign to their ordinary avocations than forestry. But when the Government resolved upon taking the forests under its especial tutelage, it became obvious that the officials who were to administer the new department should be men specially educated. Accordingly a staff has been organized which shall manage matters on scientific principles. Candidates trained at one of the forest colleges in France or Germany are to come up for competitive examination. Certain assistance is ex France, and some satisfaction was felt that the Celestials were at last taught that their barbarian insolence would not be endured by great Powers in comparison with whom they were really little better than savages. It now appears that Oriental insolence is not the sole or main cause of this apparently absurd piece of pretension. The Emperor is not insensible to the necessity of keeping on good terms and maintaining diplomatic relations with Europe, but this autocrat is not altogether his own master. Such is the ignorance of his subjects, and so deep and wide-spread is the hatred tended to them during their studies. They of the "foreign devils," that it is impossible are carefully tested on a sufficiently wide for him to receive our Ministers in person range of subjects. Hardy habits of life without exciting passions and suspicions and robust constitutions are made indis- that might shake his already tottering pensable qualifications, and they are sub- throne to the ground. He accordingly sheljected to a searching medical examination. ters himself behind his Ministers, and in To give an idea of the number of foresters order to evade the difficulty as long as possito be employed, we may mention that a ble he declines to proclaim his majority, and minute, dated September, 1868, fixes the in our interests continues in a state of pupilforce of the Bengal staff at seven con-age to his guardians. The Ministers, on servators, fourteen deputy conservators, and twenty-eight assistant conservators. AFFAIRS AT PEKIN. TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR." whom the responsibility is thus thrown of holding intercourse with the accursed race, are obliged to protect themselves from public odium by proclaiming violent anti-foreign sentiments, knowing that on the Emperor's majority a coup d'état in which their heads would pay the price of popular approbation, would be an easy matter for the OpSIR, Considerable disappointment was position. Yet their own political convicfelt by those interested in the mainten- tions are by no means violently hostile to ance of amicable relations between China foreigners, and they are in the curious poand Europe at the failure of the late mis-sition of men who have to drive their counsion of Chung Hou to the French Government. The Embassy was the first of its kind, and Chung Hou was the first Mandarin who had left the shores of China as the accredited representative of the Imperial Government. His high rank gave additional importance to the expedition, and as he was the official directly responsible for the outrage and massacre he came to extenuate, and as it was well understood in his own country that his life depended on the success of his negotiations, great hopes were entertained that the result of his journey might be to provide some better assurance for the maintenance of order and the protection of Europeans than we have at present, and to clear away some of the difficulties and misapprehensions ble though unpleasant illustration of which that impede our negotiations with the 'is the fact that they are enticing Europe try in a direction they privately regard as |