and alarm. Surely the brave fellows who went through the difficulties and dangers of the Mahratta campaign, cannot have broken their allegiance! I can never believe it till I see it proved in the clearest manner."

Thus in these latter days, men have been reasoning a priori, believing in part, yet striving to unbelieve, considering things to be impossible whose possibility has been vouched by their actuality. In the same letter from which this extract is taken, Sir Arthur intimates that the Government had some thoughts of sending an embassy to Persia, and that Sir Arthur was exerting himself to secure that the ambassador should be, not Mr. Harford Jones, as was proposed, but Colonel Malcolm.

At length, nothing loth, Malcolm left Calcutta, reached Madras on the 14th of January, 1807, and on the 21st of March, left it for Mysore. His purpose now was to remain quietly at his Residency for a year, recruit his finances, which had been somewhat impaired by the expenses which he had been obliged to incur in northern India, and then retire to old England and otium cum dignitate. We cannot, at this stage of our article, afford to indulge in disquisition, else we might shew that Malcolm was in error; that the true otium for him was negotium; that the dignity that was most suited to his taste, was what is called in these days the dignity of labor. He soon felt this

himself. Mysore was too quiet for him. He was not the kind of man who, when there was nothing to do, could do it well. And in Mysore there was nothing to do but to let well alone. We find him therefore suggesting that he should be sent at the head of a small force to Bussorah, in order to divert the attention of Turkey, and compel the Sultan to withdraw from his connexion with Buonaparte. This proposal was made on the 6th of May, and repeated on the 25th. How then are we to account for the change that seems to have come over the mind of the writer, when Lord Minto arrived at Madras in the course of the following month, and when he wrote to his son and private secretary, begging him not to put him in the way of active employment, as his desire was now to spend a short time quietly in Mysore, and then to retire to a cottage on the lovely banks of the Eske? The solution is not difficult. There was to be love in that cottage. To make a long story short-and after the manner of India in those days, it was not a very long storyMalcolm had become acquainted with Miss Charlotte Campbell, daughter of Colonel Campbell, of H. M.'s 74th regiment, (afterwards Sir Alexander Campbell, Bart. and K. C. B., and Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army.) The acquaintance had sprouted up into friendship, the friendship had grown up into love,

and the love was about to effloresce into the orange-blossoms of marriage. And accordingly on the 4th of July, Miss Charlotte Campbell became Mrs. John Malcolm, the soldier's daughter became the soldier's wife, an help-meet for her husband. "After so many years of stirring and trying work, the enjoy'ment of a few months of repose was, perhaps, the best service ' he could render to the state. But he soon felt that he was again ready for a life of action. There was a new incentive to exertion. The once cherished idea of a speedy return to England was abandoned. So Malcolm again turned his thoughts towards some extensive scene of action, on which new honors might be gained to ennoble the name he had given to his wife." And such a scene was soon to offer itself. The peace of Tilsit had brought France and Russia into alliance; and it was not doubtful that they contemplated a combined attack upon India. To resist such an attack, Lord Minto determined to strengthen our alliance with the powers on our western and north-western borders; and in order to this end he resolved to send Charles Metcalfe to the Punjaub, Mountstuart Elphinstone to Affghanistan, and Colonel Malcolm to Persia. A few pages back we stated that it was the design of the Home authorities to send an ambassador to Persia, and that Sir Arthur Wellesley had exerted his influence to secure the nomination for Malcolm in preference to Mr. Harford Jones. Mr. Kaye, after stating that it seemed a mere matter of course that Malcolm should be selected for the Persian embassy, goes on to say :

"But there were other and higher authorities, and it was possible for them to ignore, or to reject, Malcolm's claims, and to think of another ambassador. Lord Minto, before leaving England, had urged those claims upon the King's ministers and the Court of Directors, and Sir Arthur Wellesley had done the same. But they had failed. The fact is that Malcolm, though perhaps the most popular man in India, was not popular in the regions of Leadenhall-Street and Whitehall. He had the reputation of being an able, an energetic, but an unsafe man. By unsafe they meant extravagant. They believed that on his former mission to Persia he had spent a large sum of public money; and they determined now to despatch to Teheran one with less magnificent notions of the greatness of England and the dignity of an ambassador. There was a gentleman then in England ready to their hand and fit for their purpose. Mr. Harford Jones had resided for many years in a mixed political and commercial capacity on the shores of the Persian gulf; he was not without a certain kind of cleverness, but it had never obtained for him any reputation in India, and among the Persians themselves his standing had never been such as to invest him with any prestige of authority, or to secure for him general respect. What it was

that particularly recommended him to the authorities at homeexcept that he was in almost every respect the very reverse of Malcolm-it is difficult to say; but they made him a Baronet, and despatched him, with large powers from the Crown, as ambassador to Persia, to counteract the influence of the French, and to conclude a treaty with the Shah. It was at first designed that he should proceed to Teheran by the way of St. Petersburg; but the peace of Tilsit necessitated the abandonment of this project, and when Lord Minto arrived in India he was altogether ignorant of the manner in which, under these altered circumstances, the representative of the Court of St. James would shape his movements in the east.

"In this state of uncertainty the Governor-General believed that there was still room for Malcolm to be beneficially employed (pending the arrival of Jones at Teheran) in that part of the country, which the influence of the latter would hardly reach. It was proposed therefore, to despatch him at once to the Persian Gulf, with a commission of a somewhat general and not very defined character."

We must say that we question the wisdom of this. Had Lord Minto not proposed in England the mission of Malcolm to Persia, -had the matter occurred to him for the first time in India, it would have been different. But the Court of Directors and the King's Government having distinctly refused to send Malcolm, nothing but the most pressing necessity could have justified the Governor-General in exposing his envoy to the collision which must have infallibly ensued. And we do not think that such necessity existed. It is true that the French had already an embassy in Persia, and it may be true that Russian diplomacy was at work in a less open manner. But it is also true that the Shah had hitherto valued the English alliance, and that there was no reason to believe that the habits of the Persian Court would permit a very speedy change of his policy.

Of course Malcolm accepted the appointment. On the suggestion of Sir George Barlow, who was now Governor of Madras, and who seems to have forgotten the little "tiff" he had had with Malcolm while he temporarily held the office of GovernorGeneral, he was gazetted as Brigadier-General, with a view to the increase of his influence in Persia. On the 17th of February, 1808, Malcolm, accompanied by his wife, embarked at Madras for Bombay. He reached this port in the first week of April, and here he made the acquaintance of Sir James Mackintosh,an acquaintance which soon ripened into a lasting friendship. On the 17th of April, he embarked on board the Psyche, a frigate lately captured from the French. Mrs. Malcolm was left at Bombay. It appears that Malcolm's spirits were not high when he set out on his mission. The counteraction of French influencé was all in the way of his duty, and not incompatible with his

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tastes. But it was no pleasant prospect that was before him, in having to maintain his position as affected by the presence of Sir Harford Jones, about who semovements he seems to have been uncertain, and who might arrive in Persia before him, or while he was there. And then he was a man and a husband as well as a public officer; and it was not pleasant to leave his wife, after nine months of married life, among strangers.

But his depression did not last long. At Muscat he did not land, but received a kind message from the Imaum, which was brought by an old friend, whose kindly remembrance of his former visit was very gratifying to his feelings. From Bushire he sent Captain Pasley and Mr. Bruce to Teheran with a letter to the King. But they were not allowed to proceed further than Shiraz. The French influence had prevailed. While their embassy was at court, Malcom was instructed to negotiate with the Prince Regent at Shiraz. To this he would not consent; and immediately set sail for Calcutta. His mission had failed; but he had done his duty, and he was not dispirited. Writing to his wife on the day of his leaving Bushire, he says:

"I have determined to proceed to Fort William, and sail for that place to-day. The resolution to pass Bombay, believe me, was not taken without pain; but my duty called for the sacrifice, and you will be pleased that I had virtue and firmness enough to make it. I hope to be at Calcutta about the 1st of September. I shall leave it for Bombay about the 1st of October, and arrive with my dearest Charlotte about the 10th of November. How long I stay there is a speculation; but, believe me, the present step is the only one I could take to enable me to do justice to the great interests committed to my charge. These, by the blessing of God, will yet prosper; and I shall have the credit, if the victory is won, of having not been sparing of exertion. A month with Lord Minto will do wonders,"

We suspect our readers are finding that we have become dull in this narrative. We shall therefore present a specimen of the Boy Malcolm." The following is from his journal kept for the perusal of Mrs. Malcolm :

"We sailed this morning for Karrack to get water for the

voyage. As we were nearing the island, I fell into conversation with a confidential servant of the Sheik of Bushire, who had been sent to facilitate our getting water at Karrack. This poor fellow became quite eloquent at the idea of my going to India, which he had just heard. It foreboded, he said, ruin to his country. He then abused the King, the Prince, and his master the Sheik, who was, he said, a weak young man, who was ruled by some vile Persian advisers. 'He has now,' said the Arab, 'put the seal to his folly by disgusting you with his unworthy suspicions.' He then launched out into a grand account of my last mission, which he graced, in the true Arab style, with personal anecdotes. Nothing could be more entertaining than for a man to listen to anecdotes of himself, particularly when these were partly true, partly accidental speeches and occurrences which had been framed into regular stories, and had reached in that shape the lowest classes. To give you a short specimen of the Arab's conversation: Do they keep a parcel of vile French vessels,' said he in a rage, while they send away a man of whose wisdom and munificence, children speak, as well as fellows with white beards ? Have they forgot what you did at Bushire, Shiraz, Ispahan, and Teheran? When Abdul Hamad, that half-merchant, half-minister, came to Bushire, deputed from Shiraz to find out by his wonderful penetration the objects of your mission, did you not closet him, make him swear secrecy, and then tell him that in the times of the Suffavee Kings, the Persians had no beards, but the English had; that the latter had since lost that fine ornament to the face, and that as it was rumoured the Persians had found it, you were deputed to try and recover your right? That Hamad said, he became a laughing stock all over Persia, when the manner in which you treated him was made public. And at Shiraz, when that sly Persian minister, Chiragh Ali Khan, asked you what your business was at Court, you replied that, if you told him, you should have nothing to say to his master, the king. At Ispahan,' continued the Arab, Mahommed Hussein Khan, the governor, who was the richest man in Persia, came to see you, and with a view of dazzling you, he wore a kubah, or upper garment, made of the celebrated zerbaff, or golden cloth, which is only worked in one loom in Persia. He found you dressed quite plain; but next day you went out a hunting, and it was reported to him that one of your favorite greyhounds was clothed in a cloth of the same stuff.' The fellow,' said he, "has worn a plain chintz jacket ever since he received this rebuke. When you went one day to see the king, he put on all his richest jewels to excite your wonder. You looked him in the face, and you looked at his sword; but your eyes never once wandered to his fine diamonds. He was disappointed, and told Hadjee Ibrahim to ask you, as you retired, if you had not noticed them. The Hadjee returned to the presence, and was silent. The King was angry and said, "Repeat what Malcolm Saheb said." The Hadjee hesitated, till the King grew impatient. He then said, "Please your majesty, when I asked Captain Malcolm what he thought of your diamonds," "Nothing," he said, "what use are diamonds except as ornaments for women? I saw