his keen observation, and intercourse with the peasantry, often enable him to assist in checking the practices of the spoiler. Fly-fishing in the spring is not so much prized as in the summer; the fish in general are slack or spent, and play with less energy. What the anglers wish, is a plenitude of sport at the season when the state of the rivers and the weather makes it worth while to go out. This is during the autumn-the very time when the commercial' fishing is unprofitable and has ceased: and, if a sufficiency of fish and of time were conceded to them at this season, they would doubtless do much conservative service. The argument, 'do not let fish be taken by one means, when they are unfit to be taken by another,' is plausible enough: the answer is, that rod and line can only take by units at the time that nets are killing by hundreds. As the money paid for 'leave' is not for the value of the fish killed, but for the sport,' and as it generally much exceeds that value, the upper proprietors will gain in a greater degree than the lower fishery can possibly lose. We cannot, indeed, acquiesce in any proposition to give unlimited scope to the angler, strong as his claim may be on the score of fair distribution and of his preservative influence. Our richer fisheries must be sustained by the means the law now affords of employing regular water-keepers: nor should the safety of the brood-fish be endangered. But it is a question, in the case of lesser rivers, whether they would not prove more remunerative as angling than as netting waters, and the experiment is now being tried in Scotland. Much of the soil of Ireland is fertile to a proverb: and her rivers have certain peculiarities calculated to render the salmon tribe remarkably productive. The island is, as Spenser says: 'Sprinkled with waters more than most on ground.' Her bright streams and broad lakes are more in number than are found in any similar area of country. These waters comprise a vast field of spawning ground, and afford shelter to the parent fish and brood: the tributary rivers flow clearly and rapidly over beds of gravel, and are, therefore, peculiarly suited to the reception of the ova. An ever-flowing mountain river, such as we see in Wales and Ireland, and especially in Scotland, is the natural habitat of the salmon and its congeners. It is not impossible that as high rents may, at some future period, be received for rodfishing in the smaller rivers of the Emerald Isle as are realized in 'the Land of Cakes,' where the Lochy and Spean are rented at 4707. a year, and the assessed amount of rental for sport on the Tweed is, even now, upwards of 10007. Such returns to the landed proprietary will ensure, on their part, the quid pro quo of sedulous sedulous protection, which will redound to the advantage of the really valuable commercial fisheries in the estuaries. Let us, however, be permitted to lay stress on this consideration:that the export of iced salmon is of far less importance to Ireland than an influx of warm Saxons to catch the glittering creatures all alive; for might not the peaceful invaders be themselves caught-an advertisement from the Encumbered Estates Court throwing a fly over them in the likeness of an 'eligible investment'? An ART. IV.-1. Dry Leaves from Young Egypt. By an ExPolitical. Third Edition. 1852. 2. Speech of Viscount Jocelyn, in the House of Commons, on the Case of the Ameers of Upper Scinde, June 23, 1852. authentic Report, published by request, with an Appendix. 3. Parliamentary Papers relating to Sindh. 1836-1843. THE history of our connexion with Sindh is far from being the brightest page in the annals of this nation. We had our factories for trade at Tatta and Hyderabad, until the dynasty of the Kaloras was overthrown by a conspiracy of wronged Talpurs in 1786. The associated chiefs thus brought to power drove out the Company's agents, and evinced always the greatest jealousy and distrust, whenever any attempt was made by the British Governments to re-establish either commercial or political intercourse. The lower part of the valley of the Indus was consequently as much a sealed book to us as that of Nepal or the mountains of Bootan and Tibet. When Lord Minto, under apprehension of French interference with the politics of the East -consequent upon General Gardanne's embassy to Teheransent missions to conciliate and invite to alliance with us the intervening nations between India and Persia, Sindh was one of the countries to which a political agent was deputed; but this mission failed to effect more than the signature of a document binding the Ameers to perpetual friendship, and to the exclusion of all Europeans, and was of no avail to establish confirmed political relations, or to open the resources of the country to our commerce. In 1828, about twenty years after this, the severe illness of Morad Ali, the ruling chief of Hyderabad, produced an invitation to a medical officer from the neighbouring province of Kutch to go over and try the effect of European skill. Dr. Burnes, who went accordingly, was very kindly received, and the brief narrative he published of his journey was read in India with great great interest, for it furnished to the public there the first clear insight into a state of manners, and a polity and forms of administration, strange in their nature, and likely, at some time or other, to be brought either into connexion or collision with us. The rigid abstinence with which we had left the Ameers for upwards of fifty years entirely to themselves, had inspired them with perfect confidence as to our intentions; they looked to us as their natural allies in extremity, ready and willing to assist them with advice, to use our influence to protect them from violence, and, if necessary, even to give them military support. We were no sooner convinced of this, than we resolved to take advantage of their good disposition on the first occasion. Accordingly, when King William IV. was advised to send a horse and four mares of the Suffolk cart-horse breed to Runjeet Singh, in return for a shawl tent and other magnificent trappings received from the Punjaub, we scrupled not to ask the Ameers at Hyderabad to permit of the royal present proceeding by water to Lahore, where the Sikh Raja held his court. The Ameers, in spite of their repugnance to admit Europeans, granted this favour, and furnished boats and everything else that was needed by Lieutenant, afterwards Sir Alexander, Burnes, who had the horses in charge; and the journey added largely to the information respecting Sindh previously obtained through the visit of the medical officer above mentioned, his elder brother. From this date forward the Ameers became the victims of a meddling policy, which, before ten years had expired, thrust them out of their country, and reduced them all to the condition of state prisoners, with only one exception, and he too is charged with offences, the retribution for which is even now, while we write, on the point of falling on him. A whole shelf of parliamentary papers has been filled with criminations and vindications of the part played by the Indian Government in producing these results. Our connexion with Sindh has also been productive of much literary fruit of other sorts. There are histories (so called), and memoirs, and books of travel, and controversial essays, of all sizes -from the grandiose romance of the Conquest of Sindh by Sir W. Napier, in which his brother is the Rinaldo, and Lord Ellenborough the Charlemagne, down to the petty pamphlets of subalterns, modestly celebrating the share they took in different operations. For less solid readers there are Mrs. Postans, who has published entertaining Letters, and a Lieutenant Burton, who has made the Sindh and Beloochee literature his particular study; and we have now before us a third edition of Dry Leaves from Young Egypt, by an Ex-Political'-a performance at once amusing and instructive, and which is dedicated to Colonel Outram, Outram, himself the author of two grave volumes of 'Commentary,' evoked by the representations of Sir William Napier. Yet, notwithstanding this literary deluge-nay perhaps in a great measure owing to it-we will undertake to say that there are very few even of the reading men of England who have a clear apprehension of the real course of all our proceedings as to Sindh. When the younger Burnes had delivered his elephantine steeds at Lahore, he went on to Simla, where he found the GovernorGeneral, Lord William Bentinck, occupied with instructions, recently received from home, to endeavour to establish a commercial treaty with Sindh, for the purpose of opening the navigation of the Indus to the productions of the United Kingdom, that so they might make their way to the markets of central Asia, which were described as mines of wealth. The information brought by Burnes was useful in the consideration of the mode of carrying out these instructions. There could be no doubt that the principal motive with the authorities of England for enjoining this policy at the particular juncture, was a growing apprehension of the designs of Russia, already dominant in Persia, and the desire to anticipate those designs by establishing relations with the courts and countries lying between India and Persia. It was pointed out to Lord William that a commercial treaty with states constituted like the courts of Hyderabad and Khyrpoor (which were a mere collection of independent chiefs and princes, each master of a separate territory and exercising in it sovereign right, while the nominal head of the whole was little better than a president in an assembly of equals)-would be only so much waste paper, unless there were resident political officers to see to the execution of the engagement, and to remonstrate when any article might be infringed; that it would be much better therefore, even for trade purposes, to establish in the first instance specific political relations, and to let commerce follow under accessory stipulations; and that this was evidently the wiser course at the juncture, seeing that the real motive for opening communications with Sindh was political. Lord William Bentinck acceded at first to the wisdom of this suggestion, and directed the instructions, even to the Persian letters to the Ameers, to be prepared accordingly; but, when they were taken to him for signature, he coolly said he should like to see how the thing looked the other way, and directed that another set of instructions and letters should be prepared, confined to commerce and the opening of the navigation. They were accordingly so prepared, and the two sets remained with him, in separate boxes, for three months, while he was making up his mind which to send off. He decided for the commercial set only the day before he arrived at Roopur for his meeting with Runjeet Sing. Although he had no doubt that a political connexion was the more eligible object to which to direct his efforts, he yet hesitated, in the relations which existed between himself and the ministry here, to exceed the precise letter of his instructions. If the communication with India by steam had then been open, the three months Lord William thus took in deliberating would have sufficed for a reference to England and a reply. In April, 1832, the commercial treaty, having been negotiated by Colonel Pottinger, was signed by the Ameers. The navigation of the Indus was conceded in the following terms: - 'The British Government has requested a passage for the merchants and traders of Hindoostan by the river and roads of Sindh, and the Government of Hyderabad acquiesces on three conditions. 1st. That no person shall bring any description of military stores by the above river or roads. 2nd. That no armed vessel or boats shall come by the river. 3rd. That no English merchants shall be allowed to settle in Sindh.' The Government of Hyderabad was to arrange a tariff of duties, and engaged so to levy them as to occasion no custom-house delays. This concession, for such it evidently was in terms, as well as in spirit, was made without any equivalent on our side, but was a very imperfect arrangement, that left everything to be settled by further negotiation, before any use could be made of the river Indus and the commercial facilities professed to be opened. In 1834 the duties or tolls of the navigation were adjusted, after a long negotiation, on the following basis, viz.: 19 rupees by the tatta khurwar, or ass-load, was to be levied for the entire route up the Indus to Loodiana on the Sutlej; of this toll 8 rupees were to be paid to the Ameers of Hyderabad and Khyrpoor, while 11 were to be divided between the Bhawalpore chief, Runjeet Singh, and the Company. In order to prevent altercation as to the size of boats, it was afterwards agreed to assess all boats at 30 khurwars, as a fair average, and so to levy 240 Tatta rupees for every boat making the voyage up or down. A British agent, not an European gentleman, was to reside at the Bundur, or port at the mouth of the Indus, to check the account of these tolls; and any goods landed from boats which had paid the rate, were further to be liable to all the local custom duties of Sindh. It is manifest that the Ameers of Sindh yielded in this instance under friendly feelings, though with reluctance, an object on which they were led to believe the British Government set great value. In 1833-34 the refugee king, Shah-Shooja, was encouraged to set |