on society by means of a ticket-of-leave, which ticket was to be forfeited on any fresh misconduct. There can be little doubt that under the action of this system hundreds of criminals have been induced to turn to honest labour for their subsistence, and have been thereby reclaimed, and made so much gain to society. On the other hand, it is equally certain, that the more depraved and experienced in crime have looked on their ticket-of-leave as a license to recommence their career of villainy. The consequence is, that in our metropolis, and in our great cities throughout the empire, we have now an organized band of ruffians, so skilled in the nefarious business, and so able to baffle the police, that neither life, property, nor character, are safe from their assaults. An inoffensive person, who seems likely to have cash or a gold watch, is stealthily approached from behind, his assailant flings a cord over his head, and placing his knee against the back of his victim, draws the cord just so tight as not absolutely to strangle the sufferer. He at once becomes insensible, is robbed, and left in such a state that it is long before he recovers his senses, and as to his health, that he never recovers at all. This practice is called garotting, and its practitioners are almost wholly ticket-of-leave men.

Those outlying portions of great towns, such as Notting Hill, Holloway, Kentish Town, afford admirable scope for the display of their talents. Burglaries have become so frequent and so secure of impunity, that no small portion of the inhabitants of such places have provided themselves with Colt's revolvers, and are determined to take the law into their own hands.

The parks, again, afford a sphere for the development of another species of criminal adroitness. Gentlemen having occasion to pass through these after dark, and sometimes, indeed, they run the same risk in the day time, are liable to demands for money, backed with threats of the most odious desciptions. Shop-lifting, larceny of all kinds, highway robbery with violence, above all, garotting, are so common as scarcely to call for remark; and now the feeling of insecurity has become so great, that we hear everywhere two queries: -What are the police about? and what are we to do with our criminals? We shall address ourselves, first, to the latter of these queries. With the young culprits much may be done by educational means, and we have already spoken as to the efficacy of our reformatories. Some, indeed many, of our older criminals have been reformed also: but the more dangerous ruffians seem to be beyond all human power to amend. The country looks to its rulers for security. It

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does not say only, or chiefly, take these scoundrels and make them into good citizens,-but rather protect us, who are already good citizens, from the assaults of these scoundrels. We admit that we should try to reform these outcasts of society; but still this is, however excellent, only a secondary duty, and our first thought should be to secure the peace and welfare of society itself. For this purpose we want some sharp and severe punishment, something which may strike terror into the most hardened ruffian,-something which may induce him to say, "I must pause before I incur the risk of something so very disagreeable as this." For assaults on women we would gladly see the punishment of the lash: it is degrading, it is true; but nothing can further degrade the brutes who would thus be brought under its influence: they are already sunk so far beneath the level of humanity, that nothing in the way of punishment could sink them deeper. Hard work, too, is that which all the class, ruffians and rogues together, do most cordially detest. It is to avoid this alternative that they take to violence and fraud. Let their punishment then be severe labour: not mere playing at work, under the eye of a benevolent, and also too easily imposed on chaplain ; but real, hard, exhausting labour, such as the strongest of honest men would think no light work. Let this be constant and unremitting. Have a surgeon who will put up with no nonsense; and, as delicate living, and vicious indulgences, were the objects in view with which the criminal took to dishonesty and ruffianism, so let his fare be of the coarsest, and let no indulgences whatever be granted, save such as are absolutely necessary to enable him to fulfil his daily task. We may next be asked, what should that task be? and we reply, there are many about which such persons might be set-clearing harbours, draining marshes, making sewers-all kinds of work which might be useful to the public, and which it is yet difficult to get free men to undertake. There are abundant enterprises of this kind which government would willingly take in hand, but which they cannot do for want of funds; and the great call for funds is mainly for the payment of human labour. Surely it would do many a vagabond good, who now says," I shall get four years, and for the last two I shall have a ticket-of-leave ". if, on the contrary, he had to say, "I shall get four years; but the labour which I shall be compelled to get through in that time will be more than I have done in all my life before." This would be something worth avoiding-something too terrible to run the risk of lightly; and such a punishment as this would deter from crime those who now think that prison

life has its pleasant, as well as its unpleasant, side; and that there is something creditable in gammoning a chaplain. But then comes an after-question. The four years have past, and the ci-devant ruffian, his spirit really broken by the severities of prison discipline, or rather the discipline of forced labour, is at liberty. We think, in the first place, that certain offences should have a disqualifying effect. The man once convicted of them, should never be in precisely the same situation as he was before: he should, for instance, be incapable of voting for a member of Parliament; he might be, at all times, under the surveillance of the police, and liable to be arrested at any time, without having a right to complain of any infringement of his civil liberty. This would again be a heavy blow against crime, because it would give the police exactly the power which they want, to deal effectively with a large class of offenders. At present, our police know very well where to lay their hands on hundreds of men, all of whom were actively engaged in crime a few days ago, all of whom will be in a few days hence,all of whom have no means of living (at least they choose to have no others) than fraud and violence; and yet nothing can be done. They have broken open some new house; lamed some other policemen; garotted some fresh victim, or shed some fresh blood. Let such men be subjected to be, at any time, taken up when the police have reason to think that they are meditating new crimes; let them, in fact, be treated as Italian or Hungarian noblemen are by the paternal government of Austria; as Polish magnates are by the equally paternal government of Russia; or as the agents of King Clicquot but recently treated Mr. Morris Moore: what is tyranny towards all these would be leniency towards our Marleys and their like. But, notwithstanding all this, it would be well to give them another chance. Why not say to them, when their term of punishment is expired, you are now free; your country, if it cannot regard you in the same light as those who have never offended, is yet willing to recognise you as having, as far as you can, expiated your offences; if you now like to try your future in a new country, you may emigrate, and we will give you the means so to do. No colony can now object to receive you, as you will not reach its shores a convict, but a free citizen; and if you choose another land, not under the dominion of the British crown, you are free to make your choice: we will pay your passage, and furnish you with passports: then you may create a new character. Labour will be comparatively easy for you to obtain, and a fresh course of life is before you.

Literature of the Quarter.

The Land of the Veda: India briefly described in some of its Aspects-Physical, Social, Intellectual, and Moral; including the substance of a Course of Lectures delivered at St. Augustine's Missionary College, Canterbury. By the Rev. Peter Percival. London: Bell and Daldy.

Under this title we find one of the briefest possible histories of India. The writer had enjoyed many opportunities for its compilation. He had passed the greater part of his life in Hindostan, engaged in missionary enterprise and in translating English works into the native languages. A few years ago he returned to England with the view of taking orders in the English Church, and, after a brief sojourn, to return for the remainder of his life to the East. Speaking in the preface of the origin of this work, he says:

"The Committee of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts thinking that the writer's past experience in missionary work among the Hindus-a work in which he has spent the greater part of his life-might prove beneficial to the missionary students of the College of St. Augustine, decided that he should, for some months, take up his residence in that institution. He accordingly became an inmate of the College, and remained through Michaelmas Term, 1852; during which period, besides communicating instruction in the rudiments of the Sanscrit, the sacred language of the Hindus, to a select class, he delivered a series of lectures on India and its Evangelization in the College Hall."

The substance of those lectures form the ground-work of this history. But it is far from being confined to the religious history of that important country. This is its primary object, for the author goes on to state :—

"The object of the work is to supply information respecting India, its people and their condition, in such a form and to such an extent as may, it is hoped, contribute to awaken interest where little may have been felt, and to produce among the friends of missions in the Church of England a deeper sympathy and greater effort in behalf of the Hindus and other eastern nations, whose intellectual and moral improvement demands from the Church of Christ greater earnestness and self-sacrifice."

But, in addition to this, the work embraces almost every topic on which an Englishman can feel interested. Thus the first chapter is occupied by the ancient commerce between India and Arabia, Persia, Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, Rome,

Constantinople, Bagdad, Venice, Lisbon, and Holland. The second is devoted to its early history-Aborigines, Hindus, their origin, and the true character of caste. The third and three following contain the languages, the sacred writings, and general literature. One is given to the arts, science, and medieval knowledge. Nine or ten chapters convey almost all that curiosity can require on the religious doctrines of the various tribes; whilst others embrace general views of the natives and their habits, of which, as a specimen, we may repeat the contents of chap. XII.-Hindus, their early civilization-Skill in the arts, agriculture, tanks-Aspect of the Hindus-Customs-Houses -Furniture-Villages-Choultries-Towns-Industry-Food. We have, therefore, in these five hundred pages a very compendious and clear account of our eastern kingdoms: and as these are matters which, perhaps, now more than at any preceding period have an interest for Englishmen, both on religious and national grounds, we shall proceed to examine somewhat at large several of the points here brought before us.

We must, in the first place, find some fault as to an occasional incorrect expression, thus:-" India may be defined by the Himalaya, the rivers Indus and Brahmaputra, and the sea." Again," The Arab, the Persian horse, the Pegu or Acheen pony, and, latterly, horses have been imported from Australia, as they have long been (though not in large numbers) from the Cape of Good Hope." But these, and many similar solecisms, are no doubt attributable to the fact of the author's return to the East before the appearance of his book.

There are, perhaps, few subjects on which the opinions of the present generation are less rightly formed than on those relating to, what may be termed, the Physical History of India. Thousands, probably, are now preparing for the examinations which, for the future, are to form the test of capability for Indian service, of whom but very few will arrive at their adopted country with any correct knowledge as to its natural productions, or with any proper preparation for aiding in the discovery of its capabilities, commercial or agricultural. This gives, particularly at the present day, much value to the accounts of one who has lived long in the country; especially when, as in the present case, the writer was unconnected with any official matters. Nor ought such information to be neglected by the missionary. Both these reasons induce us to give extracts from this part of the work :

"With the exception," Mr. Percival says, "of the great desert