To ENTHUSIASM.

AND SO the cold world calls thee madness!
By the unwasting lamp of truth,
I would not change thy wildest sadness
For all the highest joys of youth!

If thou art madness, let me be
Ne'er free from such insanity!
No lucid interval I crave-

A hopeless maniac to my grave!

Gladly through life's dull path I'd stray,
And scare my fellows from my way ;-
Yes, let me ever feel thy power,
Nor know a reasonable hour!

When Nature's scenes before me lie,
Beat in my breast, gleam in mine eye,
And be in every glance up-given,
Towards the great bestower, Heaven.
When music's voice swells on mine ear,
Oh! brightly tremble in my tear :
Let every glittering tribute show
How deep, how fervent is thy glow,
As in the thunder's copious shower,
The electric flame's enkindled power.

If pity plead, if sorrow tell

Her tale of griefs and injuries,
Let my full heart like torrent swell,
Rush the proud tear-drops from my eyes.

And while in every burning word
The spirit's faithful voice is heard,
The labouring expression show
It cannot half reveal its glow.

Yes, I most ardently invoke
Thus, thus thy soul-exulting yoke ;
My beating heart, my burning brain
Throb to be subject to thy reign:
From the cold reasoning world estranged,
They'd be for ever deem'd deranged—
In word, in thought, and feeling changed.

Oh! thou 'rt to me another name
For quenchless genius' sacred flame;

For pure devotion's highest sigh,
Fit for the ear of Deity;

For heavenly compassion's glow,—
All else is but deceit and show.

What is the minstrel strain without thee?
A stagnant stream that none will quaff;
Let the poor mediocre flout thee,
And set up his unmeaning laugh;
And call thy flight extravagance,
Presumptuous thy heav'n-searching glance;
Be thou my leader through the spheres ;
Of song, oh! bear me on thy wings,-
Thy eagle wings, to where appears

The palace, whence the day-god springs
Up from the bosom of eternity;

Thy own high hour, for this gave birth to thee.

What is the preacher's?-let them say,

Who hear on every Sabbath-day

The hopes of heaven, the threats of hell,
Dealt out like drowsy parish-bell,
In sounds that lull them all asleep
Upon life's almost nodding steep ;-
Were but thy rousing influence there'
In faithful voice, in pleading tear,
The words, the looks, the tones that speak
The undaunted spirit that doth seek
All reckless of their smile and frown,
Their everlasting happiness,

Could human hearts such chillness own,
Those hearts that in pursuit of bliss
Rack nightly, daily, nerve, and pain,
With ceaseless labours to obtain.-
No, sweet Enthusiasm! here

Thou dost with thy true name appear :
Zeal for the cause of Heaven, and Love
To the whole race of human kind,

That fain would carry all above,

Nor leave one erring breast behind.
Oh! darkest, worst, insanity,

To take the name devoid of thee;
Such guilt is blended with that madness,
As shadows angel brows with sadness,
Waiting in vain repentance's voice,
To bid their hallow'd breasts rejoice,
And burning for the avenging blow
To lay the robber shepherd low.

S. E. H.

ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND PRESENT STATE OF THE CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS IN INDIA.

THE last arrivals from India bring accounts of the suppression of another Public Journal in Bengal- THE CALCUTTA CHRONICLE,' and of the establishment of the Censorship in the small settlement of Singapore. It would seem, therefore, that all the efforts hitherto made to stay the progress of Despotism, as exercised over the thoughts and words of men, have been hitherto wholly unavailing in that enslaved quarter of the globe; and that its power and influence is on the increase rather than on the wane. It is time, therefore, that we should renew our endeavours to draw public attention in England once more to this painful subject; and that we may execute our task with greater effect, we think it necessary, in the present instance, to go back to the origin of this degrading and ignominious curse.

We propose, therefore, to examine the right, expediency, object, and occasion, of establishing a Censorship of the Press, or an absolute despotism, in India, of which we have already witnessed so many of the calamitous results. If it should be asked, what, in the absence of all efficient responsibility, can be the use of discussing the measures of public men?—we reply, that if, by connivance, great state delinquents are exempt from formal and official punishment, their names are still liable to be branded with infamy in the opinion of their contemporaries, and to be handed down to the just execration of posterity, a warning to deter others from imitating their nefarious example. Even in a view of retribution, is it nothing, that thirty years after their perpetration, the political sins of the great should, in a permanent form, be brought up in judgment against them? For the edification and lasting benefit of mankind, is it not important that the records of crimes against the freedom of communities should be multiplied in every possible way, and transmitted through every possible channel, to distant climes, and to future generations?

First, then, as to the right of laying a previous restraint upon publications in any part of the British dominions, the power of King, Lords and Commons, is not an arbitrary power. They are the trustees, not the owners of the estate. The fee simple is in us. They cannot alienate, they cannot waste. When we say that the legislature is supreme, we mean that it is the highest power known in comparison with the other subordinate powers established by the laws. In this sense, the word supreme,' is relative, not absolute. The power of the legislature is limited, not only by the general rules of natural justice, and the welfare of the community, but by the forms and principles of our particular constitution. If this docOriental Herald, Vol. 16.

F

trine be not true, we must admit that King, Lords and Commons, have no rule to direct their resolutions, but merely their own will and pleasure. They might unite the legislative and executive power in the same hands, and dissolve the constitution by an act of parliament.'*

How absurd is it, then, even in imagination, that powers which are not constitutionally possessed by the higher authorities of the state, may be delegated by them to subordinate agents; or that those agents may constitutionally assume powers which are not of right, possessed by their superiors? When the governor of a colony or a province exercises a despotic power, his conduct is equally unwarrantable, whether it be by virtue of his own authority, or of an unauthorised delegation. In establishing an absolute control over the Press in India, and consequently annihilating every other species of liberty, of which a Free Press is the sole efficient guarantee, the Marquis of Wellesley, the original forger of these fetters, committed high crimes and misdemeanors, which cannot be wiped away, or in the smallest degree diminished, by the approbation of his conduct, supposing him to have received it, by the Court of Directors, the Board of Control, or the Legislature, or all of them united. By sanctioning his, measures, these bodies, without being able to legalise them, would merely render themselves participators in his crimes.

Next, with respect to the expediency of such a measure, it is obvious, from the existence of the liberty of the Press, unquestioned for the centuries during which we had previously held possession in that country, that there was even no direct pretext, and much less any necessity, for its adoption in India. If a Free Press could have existed without injury during the whole of that long period, surely it could not have become dangerous at the moment when improvement had arrived at so advanced a stage. There is, indeed, no country in the world where the perfect freedom of the Press would be more useful, whether to the governors or to the people. It would have prevented the Vellore and Barrackpore mutinies the Benares and Cuttack rebellions, and many other of the calamities which have happened in India since the establishment of the Censorship. If that country were invaded by a ferocious and despotic enemy, what motive of resistance could be so powerful as the knowledge among the inhabitants that they had the very palladium of freedom, a Free Press, to contend for! Even in our West India colonies, of which the inhabitants are chiefly in personal bondage, no restrictions on the Press exist, or have ever been attempted to be imposed; and we hear of no mischiefs arising from its licentiousness. Thus, then, whether in countries possessing entire freedom, in those where personal bondage exists, or in those enjoying intermediate

* Junius's Dedication to the English nation.

degrees of liberty, the danger of a Free Press to the state is always chimerical; whilst to evil-doers only is its terrors real.

To protect evil-doers, great state delinquents, from the only species of responsibility now existing in the British dominions, was the undoubted object of the Marquis of Wellesley's efforts to extinguish the liberty of the Press, and, consequently, every other species of freedom, in India. It was the first of a series of conspiracies, which were contemplated for the purpose of upholding the existing system of oligarchic misrule against the influence of increasing knowledge and civilization; and which, it was hoped, would create less alarm, and excite less attention, from the scene being laid in the remotest portion of the empire. It was a deep-laid scheme to familiarise the mind to restraint in the colonies, and to serve as a precedent, which might afterwards be applied, in due season, at home. Is it not notorious, that projects for establishing a Censorship of the Press in England were seriously discussed in the cabinet about the period of passing those odious laws, known by the name of the Six Acts? And upon those insensate and liberticide plans being abandoned, as too hazardous an experiment upon the patience of the people, the principle was attempted to be acted upon, in a less direct and more insidious manner, in 1821, by a self-constituted body, calling themselves 'The Constitutional Association,' but better known to the public, from the place of their assembling, and their odious functions, as The Bridge-street Gang.' The object of their association was, by prosecutions, persecutions, and other foul and indirect means, to stifle all discussion that might not suit them, every thing, in short, which did not sing the praises of corruption and abuse; and, in a moral view, the means did not reflect disgrace upon the end. The body consisted of 500 or 600 members, lords, commoners, clergymen, lawyers, officers, and women, a sixth part of the whole being ministers of the Established Church. The warfare between them and the Press commenced in the spring of 1821, and was not of long duration. On the one side, it began by prosecutions against editors and writers for alleged libels; on the other, by an analysis of the gang, and an exposition of their objects and motives. The attack on the Association was led by a weekly journal, called 'The Independent,' which was soon joined by the periodical press of England in general; and this phalanx, formidable from their rank, number, and wealth, with the Great Captain of the Age at their head, was speedily discomfited, dispersed, and annihilated.

It was about this period, and in the mayoralty of Mr. Alderman Atkins, that the progress of disloyalty and sedition appeared so alarming to that venerable person, as to give rise to the expression of apprehensions, that the inhabitants of London might, upon getting up some morning, find their throats cut, and the city laid in ashes! These terrific recollections were doubtless the creation of a conspiracy; and