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neither;' and then the close of the dialogue: But the lad's no a bad lad after a', and he needs some carefu' body to look after him.'

Fourthly. He is a good workman; knows his own business well, and can judge of other craft, if sound, or otherwise.

All these four qualities of him must be known before we can understand this single speech. Keeping them in mind, I take it up, word by word.

You observe, in the outset, Scott makes no attempt whatever to indicate accents or modes of pronunciation by changed spelling, unless the word becomes a quite definitely new, and scarcely writeable one. The Scottish way of pronouncing James,' for instance, is entirely peculiar, and extremely pleasant to the ear. But it is so, just because it does not change the word into Jeems, nor into Jims, nor into Jawms. A modern writer of dialects would think it amusing to use one or other of these ugly spellings. But Scott writes the name in pure English, knowing that a Scots reader will speak it rightly, and an English one be wise in letting it alone. On the other hand he writes' weel' for 'well,' because that word is complete in its change, and may be very closely expressed by the double e. The ambiguous' u's in 'gude' and 'sune' are admitted, because far liker the sound than the double o would be, and that in 'hure,' for grace' sake, to soften the word;-so also 'flaes' for 'fleas.' 'Mony' for 'many' is again positively right in sound, and 'neuk' differs from our nook' in sense, and is not the same word at all, as we shall presently see.

Secondly, observe, not a word is corrupted in any indecent haste, slowness, slovenliness, or incapacity of pronunciation. There is no lisping, drawling, slobbering, or snuffling: the speech is as clear as a bell and as keen as an arrow: and its elisions and contractions are either melodious, ('na,' for 'not,'-' pu'd,' for 'pulled,') or as normal as in a Latin verse. The long words are delivered without the slightest bungling; and bigging' finished to its last g.

I take the important words now in their places.

Brave. The old English sense of the word in 'to go brave' retained, expressing Andrew's sincere and respectful admiration. Had he meant to insinuate a hint of the church's being too fine, he would have said 'braw.'

Kirk. This is of course just as pure and unprovincial a word as 'Kirche,' or 'église.'

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Whigmaleerie. I cannot get at the root of this word, but it is one showing that the speaker is not bound by classic rules, but will use any syllables that enrich his meaning. Nipperty-tipperty' (of his master's poetry-nonsense') is another word of the same class. 'Curlieurlie' is of course just as pure as Shakespeare's 'Hurlyburly.' But see first suggestion of the idea to Scott at Blair-Adam (L. vi. 264).

Opensteek hems. More description, or better, of the later Gothic

cannot be put into four syllables. 'Steek,' melodious for stitch, has a combined sense of closing or fastening. And note that the later Gothic, being precisely what Scott knew best (in Melrose) and liked best, it is, here as elsewhere, quite as much himself 19 as Frank, that he is laughing at, when he laughs with Andrew, whose 'opensteek hems' are only a ruder metaphor for his own willow-wreaths changed to stone.'

Gunpowther. -Ther' is a lingering vestige of the French-dre." Syne. One of the melodious and mysterious Scottish words which have partly the sound of wind and stream in them, and partly the range of softened idea which is like a distance of blue hills over border land (far in the distant Cheviot's blue'). Perhaps even the least sympathetic Englisher' might recognise this, if he heard 'Old Long Since' vocally substituted for the Scottish words to the air. I do not know the root; but the word's proper meaning is not 'since,' but before or after an interval of some duration, as weel sune as syne.' But first on Sawnie gies a ca', Syne, bauldly in she enters.' Behoved (to come). A rich word, with peculiar idiom, always used more or less ironically of anything done under a partly mistaken and partly pretended notion of duty.

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Siccan. Far prettier, and fuller in meaning than 'such.' It contains an added sense of wonder; and means properly so great' or 'so unusual.'

Took (o' drum). Classical 'tuck' from Italian 'toccata,' the preluding touch' or flourish, on any instrument (but see Johnson under word 'tucket,' quoting Othello). The deeper Scottish vowels are used here to mark the deeper sound of the bass drum, as in more solemn warning.

Bigging. The only word in all the sentence of which the Scottish form is less melodious than the English, and what for no,' seeing that Scottish architecture is mostly little beyond Bessie Bell's and Mary Gray's? They biggit a bow're by yon burnside, and theekit it ow're wi rashes.' But it is pure Anglo-Saxon in roots; see glossary to Fairbairn's edition of the Douglas Virgil, 1710.

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Coup. Another of the much-embracing words; short for upset,' but with a sense of awkwardness as the inherent cause of fall; compare Richie Moniplies (also for sense of behoved'): Ae auld hirplin deevil of a potter behoved just to step in my way, and offer me a pig (earthen pot-etym. dub.), as he said "just to put my Scotch ointment in ; " and I gave him a push, as but natural, and the tottering deevil coupit owre amang his own pigs, and damaged a score of them.' So also Dandie Dinmont in the postchaise: "Od! I hope they'll no coup us.'

19 There are three definite and intentional portraits of himself, in the novels, each giving a separate part of himself: Mr. Oldbuck, Frank Osbaldistone, and Alan Fairford.

The Crans. Idiomatic; root unknown to me, but it means in this use, full, total, and without recovery.

Molendinar. From molendinum,' the grinding-place. I do not know if actually the local name,20 or Scott's invention. Compare Sir Piercie's 'Molinaras.' But at all events used here with byesense of degradation of the formerly idle saints to grind at the mill. Crouse. Courageous, softened with a sense of comfort.

Ilka. Again a word with azure distance, including the whole sense of each' and 'every.' The reader must carefully and reverently distinguish these comprehensive words, which gather two or more perfectly understood meanings into one chord of meaning, and are harmonies more than words, from the above-noted blunders between two half-hit meanings, struck as a bad piano-player strikes the edge of another note. In English we have fewer of these combined thoughts; so that Shakespeare rather plays with the distinct lights of his words, than melts them into one. So again Bishop Douglas spells, and doubtless spoke, the word 'rose,' differently, according to his purpose; if as the chief or governing ruler of flowers, 'rois,' but if only in her own beauty, rose.

Christian-like. The sense of the decency and order proper to Christianity is stronger in Scotland than in any other country, and the word 'Christian' more distinctly opposed to beast.' Hence the back-handed cut at the English for their over-pious care of dogs.

I am a little surprised myself at the length to which this examination of one small piece of Sir Walter's first-rate work has carried us, but here I must end for this time, trusting, if the Editor of the Nineteenth Century permit me, yet to trespass, perhaps more than once, on his readers' patience; but, at all events, to examine in a following paper the technical characteristics of Scott's own style, both in prose and verse, together with Byron's, as opposed to our fashionably recent dialects and rhythms; the essential virtues of language, in both the masters of the old school, hinging ultimately, little as it might be thought, on certain unalterable views of theirs concerning the code called 'of the Ten Commandments,' wholly at variance with the dogmas of automatic morality which, summed again by the witches' line, Fair is foul, and foul is fair,' hover through the fog and filthy air of our prosperous England.

JOHN RUSKIN.

20 Andrew knows Latin, and might have coined the word in his conceit; but, writing to a kind friend in Glasgow, I find the brook was called 'Molyndona ' even before the building of the Sub-dean Mill in 1446. See also account of the locality in Mr. George's admirable volume, Old Glasgow, pp. 129, 149, &c. The Protestantism of Glasgow, since throwing that powder of saints into her brook Kidron, has presented it with other pious offerings; and my friend goes on to say that the brook, once famed for the purity of its waters (much used for bleaching), 'has for nearly a hundred years been a crawling stream of loathsomeness. It is now bricked over, and a carriage-way made on the top of it; underneath the foul mess still passes through the heart of the city, tilì it falls into the Clyde close to the harbour.'

SOME INDIAN SUGGESTIONS FOR INDIA.

The

THE accession of a Liberal Ministry to power will, in all likelihood, affect the principles upon which India has hitherto been governed. The members of the present Government were able to perceive, whilst in Opposition, from an independent standpoint, the mistakes which vitiated the policy of their predecessors in office, and to realise, to a certain extent, the absence of sympathy between the rulers and the ruled which characterised the direction of affairs until now. hope, therefore, entertained on all sides in India that the commencement of a fresh régime will inaugurate a more Liberal policy in that country, can hardly be considered illegitimate or irrational. The difficulties which surround all Indian questions, and prevent Englishmen from ascertaining genuine Indian public opinion, lead to the impression that it will not be inopportune at the present moment to place on record a few suggestions, from an Indian point of view, for the consideration of those to whose hands the destiny of the country has been confided.

The first thing to which the serious attention of the Liberal. Ministry will probably be directed is the financial condition of India and the system of taxation in force there. In fact, the rehabilitation of Indian finances is a question of the greatest emergency, and any delay in grappling with it will be a grievous mistake. The partial repeal of the duty on imported cotton goods, by which the Indian Government abandoned without any tangible reason a considerable. amount of revenue, was one of those mistakes which leave their mark on the mind of the people for long periods of time. It gave rise to an impression, not without reason, that the interests of the people of India were sacrificed in deference to the wishes of a portion of the British community; and this opinion obtained public utterance in various quarters. It is a fact which has been lately recognised by one of the leading Liberal statesmen in England, that the cotton duties are not maintained for protective purposes, but rather for fiscal. reasons and exigencies. An indirect tax of this nature is more in conformity with the wishes of the people than any direct form of taxation;

and while it saves the Government much odium, it spares the population from the tender mercies of the tax-collector. The people, as a body, approved of the duty levied on cotton goods, because its incidence was hardly perceptible to them. The Government having abandoned a portion of the revenue, recourse was had to other measures to recoup the loss thereby sustained. That to a certain extent the License Tax was designed to answer this purpose can hardly be doubted. Possibly it was also intended that this tax should provide an insurance fund against famines. The object in view may have been very commendable, but the method adopted for carrying it into effect certainly deserves no commendation. A more mischievous measure, or one more calculated to bring the Government into disrepute with the mass of the population, could not have been devised. Those who know the impecunious condition of the general body of the people, how they live from hand to mouth, can imagine the hardships to which they were subjected at the hands of the smaller satellites of Government. The cases of gross oppression which were investigated and exposed in the Presidency towns served to throw considerable light on the condition of affairs in the Moffussil.

The amount realised by Government does not represent the entire sum extracted from the taxpayers. The collectors and assessors have always to be assisted by informers (as was publicly admitted in open court by one of the collecting officers), and these informers, who render their services gratis to the State, recoup themselves for their trouble from those who have to pay the tax. In a poor country like India, where the mass of the population is steeped in ignorance, where the English officials are inaccessible to the general run of the community, and where there is little public opinion, an indirect tax weighing lightly on the people, requiring no tax-gatherer and no informer for its practical working, is in every way preferable to direct

taxation.

It would seem, however, that this principle has been entirely lost sight of in India in every measure adopted heretofore for the adjustment of the finances. It would seem also that the men chiefly responsible for the introduction of the License Tax are yet unaware of the peculiarly obnoxious character this impost assumes when worked by the agency of informers and unpaid assessors. Some dim inkling of the hardships entailed on the people has led to the exemption of the poorest classes from the operation of the Act; the relief afforded is, however, very partial. Now that the surplus is acknowledged to be a dream of the past, it is idle to expect, whilst the financial direction remains in the present hands, that the tax will be repealed. Not even at the time when the idea of a surplus was first started, and many Alnaschar-like plans built upon it, did the repeal of the License Tax, or its substitution by some indirect form of taxation, ever enter the heads of the financial authorities. The