And they did live with catchpoles; and the piles
And palaces of great Qui-hi's--the huts

Of wretches who near Bow Bazaar do dwell-
Were trod by bailiffs. Patience was assum'd;
And men were gather'd into grinning groups,
To talk by stealth about each other's Stamps.
Happy were those who dwelt without the ditch
Of the Mahrattas, and Entally's line.

A fearful hope was all the town contain'd:
Agents appear'd on fire; but hour by hour
They shrugg'd their shoulders. Editorial stars
Blaz'd, and were extinguished. All was black.
The brows of men, by the despairing light,
Wore a most wrathful aspect, as by fits

The taxes fell upon them. Some sat down

With folded arms, and yawn'd; and some did rest

Their chins upon their sighing breasts, and smok'd; b) non h
And others hurried to and fro, and call'd

For their sircars to bring their bills (all stamp'd)

With mad disquietude at the items star'd;

Abused them for the amount; and then again,

With curses, threw the bills in each one's face,

f

་་་་

And kick'd them out, and roar'd. Fat Baboo's shriek'd oud A
And, taxified, did flutter all around,

And flap their dumpy arms. The biggest wigs
Were tame and tremulous. Assessors crawl'd,
And twin'd themselves among the multitude,
Pushing and squeezing-taxing even food.

M And feasts and dinner-parties were no more,
And simkin there was none. A meal was bought
With pice, and each sat sullenly apart

Gorging himself in gloom; no love was left;

» 191 294 The town was but one thought and that was stamps, Immediate and notorious; and the pang

Of taxes fed upon all entrails-men

Died, and their bones were tax'd as was their flesh;

Tax'd sugar'd punns were by tax'd brats devour'd,
Sircars inform'd 'gainst Sahib-logue, save one,

And he was faithful for a time, and kept

The ravenous tax-gatherers at bay,

Till hunger seized them, and the dinner hour

Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a dinning and perpetual moan,

He buries craved, and getting none, resolved

To claim his share of penalty-he wept,

The crowd was taxed by degrees; but two

Of an enormous fatness did escape,

And they were Baboos; and they met beside

A smart green table in a lawyer's room,

Where had been heap'd a mass of solemn briefs

For an unholy usage; they raked up

And shivering urged their buts, their ifs, their ands,
Of feeble negatives against the stamps,

Blew for a little life, and made a flame

Which was a mockery; then they lifted up

Their eyes as it grew darker, and beheld

A taxman's visage-saw, and shriek'd, and died—
Even of their vexatiousness they died,

Unknowing how to wriggle, an escape

From tax-that searching fiend. The world was tax'd,

Calcutta city was a dismal lump!

Horseless, shipless, tradeless, penless, inkless-
A lump of woe, and chaos of vile tax.

Horses, dogs, aud birds, were all assess'd,

And nought untax'd e'en moved along the streets;
Sailors-all grogless-wander'd through the town,
The Town-Hall fell down piece-meal; gaiety dropp'd
Into a slough of taxes ne'er t' emerge-

Fiddles were mute; and bachelors look'd grave,
And gave no balls; and matches there were none;
Informers swagger'd round with rampart air,
And Tories perish'd; taxation had no need
Of aid from them-She was the Universe.

LETTER OF PETER GORDON TO THE EDITOR OF THE

SIR,

COURIER.'

" MADRAS

Madras, March 7, 1827.

ONE would suppose that till now the good folks of the City of Palaces had not seen a stamp there.

They forget how they coveted the drudgery of a copying machine countersigning stamps at a few annas per thousand.

This stir shows strongly the difference between direct and indirect taxes; and between taxing persons virtually represented, to those who are without hope of their interests or representations being attended to by their sovereign.

The decree went out, the world was taxed; grievously-yet not a groan found its echo. We are ready enough to allow these kings of the East to take tribute of strangers, provided ourselves are free.

6

In 1808, stamps were introduced with the view of adding eventually to the public resources, without burthening individuals. This added to the Mohammedan law a new crime, and punishes it with seven years' transportation.

Rowannahs for goods, under ten rupees value, were then free from the charge of a stamp; now they are subject to that charge. It is miserable to see an old woman, on her handful of salt fish, which has repeatedly paid land custom, rowannah and fees, having to pay one anna land custom, and one anna rowannah.

Now, thank God, we also are to see it: and they are to feel its inconveniences in some small degree, but the dregs are for the poor of the land.

The curse of this country, the thread of the existence of the separate Government, is the separation between the European and Native subjects.

I welcome the Stamp Act to the Presidency, and hope it will be supported by summary process, with all its apparatus. I would also that it should be followed up with a court of wards; and that the search for betel should be extended to lavender and otter. The

salt practice of the interior extended to the town; this is but a hint of the changes I would desire in order to produce similar interests in the few and the many; to join the head to the stock.

Paul Pry enumerates his Majesty's and the Honourable Company's civil, military, medical, commissioned, non-commissioned, covenanted, and un-covenanted servants as chiefly affected. I believe that man is so linked to his neighbour, that blessings and curses operate on all mankind.

Undoubtedly, a considerable portion of it will be paid by the money of merchants resident in Great Britain; a greater portion by consumers and dealers in the United Kingdom.

You inform us that the Cape colonists are divided on the subject of this fresh burthen. In another of your columns you show us how they reason on such subjects: free inhabitants of the

This is mere drivelling; Asia is the model of taxation; first take then land; then as much of the annual produce as seems fit at the moment; more afterwards on any pretence.

This we have copied and improved upon, for we neither love or fear either God or man.

We have, moreover, improved the larger branch of collection, by adding to it all the means known in Europe, where it forms the chief resource.

We readily concede power and wisdom enough to tax an hundred millions of strangers, but discover a deficiency in taxing some.

The liberty of the press was a subject on which the ready public nearly all felt alike.

The King's Postage Act was one which interested all Europeans; but the Stamp Act will be a bond of union between all men of whatever rank or colour. It will tend in a slight degree to teach us all a truth of which I had no idea until lately. A senate, and a house of representatives, formed of existing materials, would operate beneficially in relieving the lawgiver, and in participating in the care of the state.

I believe that no province of this earth enjoys a smaller share of its own legislation than does the territory dependant on Fort St. George.

Your most obedient servant,.

PETER GORDON.

2.0

A NEW VISION OF JUDGMENT.

I HAD a vision as I lay,

Stretched on my couch the other day,

When my brain had got heavy and eye-sight dull,"
Poring over that morning's 'Bull."

And it seemed to me as if I stood

In the midst of a countless multitude;
Who gazed with a fixed and stupid stare
On a great red Lion up in the air,
Who trod a black cloud to and fro,
Scornfully eyeing the crowd below,
And cracking o'er head, at every step,
His tail as a coachman cracks his whip;
And at every stamp the lion did make,
That wretched multitude seemed to quake,
As if an electrical apparatus

Were giving them all their last quietus.

t

Loo And I heard a faint whisper grow stronger and stronger

Petition the Lion to stamp no longer!'

And, oh, how these poor sons of perdition

Like drowning men caught at the word Petition!'
And I heard a terrible scribbling then,
And the mingling voices of legal men
And it seemed as if by a coalition,

All people rushed to sign the Petition.

But I looked, and the Lion shook his mane,
And he roared till the multitude quaked again,"
And they ran like sheep, and left behind
(The slaves) that same petition unsigned!
Their flight was rapid, but something checked it,
In a quarter whence 'twas least expected;
And the dread of that stamping came on again,
528 671 And they blushed at their flight so base-so vain!
For sudden-a terrible voice, though single,
Made the ears of all who heard it tingle,

200, And public feeling burst down like a river,

And the very gound echoed, 'Peter Gordon for ever!

. But, oh! the rage of the Lion then,

How he stamped and he roared and he stamped again,
And how the dark cloud grew darker below him,

And his countenance changed, that I could not know him;"
How his tail kept cracking like distant thunder,

Till the frame of that cloud seemed rending asunder, he Penn

I thought of my sins and the Judgment Day
Till my senses reeled and I swooned away.

How long I lay I could not say;
Ofurt G12b 19bur ets et d'

tva. It must have been many a weary day 2 5m, esibi oldi toomeet

But I looked about me, and I knew
It was the year of Saviour thirty-two |
Tour

Topp! And there was the self-same multitude,

And there was the Lion up in the cloud
But, Lord! what a change from the royal brute
That was wont to stamp with so firm a foot!!
The great black cloud which he used to tread
Had dwindled to a very shred,

And his footing upon it was now so frail,
He was frightened even to wag his tail;
And he cursed himself in his royal woe,
'Oh that I had not stamped it so!"
When a luckless hole that escaped his view,
Let a hind leg of his Highness through,
And fast he plunged and kicked and roared,
Calling aloud for help on the Board.
But the Board was deaf, and the hole it grew
So big that at last the Lion fell through;
And the crush of his fall, and the awful yell
That rung on my ears as the monster fell,
And the damning hiss of a world's derision,

Made me gasp, and shriek I awoke-'twas a vision !

1st April, 1827.-Calcutta Chronicle.

ADVOCATE-GENERAL OF BENGAL. D

J. C. S.

T. E. TURTON, Esq. has been appointed to act as Advocate-General during the absence of J. Pearson, Esq., or until confirmed from England.-Bengal Hurkaru.

NATIVE IMITATION OF ENGLISH Manners.

NOTWITHSTANDING the freedom of our comments on a late occasion, our native friends, we are happy to find, have still full confidence in our liberality, and do not hesitate to request our assistance to give eclat to their festivals. We have been requested, by very sufficient authority, to insert the following, of the accuracy of which we make no doubt, and we are equally satisfied that it will have due effect, the postscript especially. The idea of promulgating such 'News of Fashion,' through the columns of a newspaper, is decidedly of English origin, and will be hailed as an encouraging specimen of the progress of enlightened customs. In fact, the advantage here, is on this side of the globe, and the substantial promises it holds forth, would be an obvious improvement on the intimations of an 'at home' in the 'Herald' or 'Morning Post.'

'A Native Festival is to be celebrated at Baboo Rooplol Mullicks, in Chitpore Road, Calcutta, on the evenings of the 14th, 15th, and 16th instant, (April,) in the grandest and most splendid style; an English band will be in attendance, and the nautches and entertainments will excel every amusement of the kind ever witnessed at this Presidency.

'Tickets are under distribution to the Baboo's friends, and all the respectable ladies and gentlemen of the Presidency who may feel desirous of honouring the Baboo with their company.

"

'P. S. Gunter and Hooper are to furnish the supper, and to supply the best champaign, claret, and all kind of wines and liquors, &c. &c.'-India Gazette, los di un noci si ga og du t

"

I

STORM IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF CALCUTTA.

Chandernagore, March 29.-IT was about five o'clock in the afternoon of yesterday, the 28th of March 1827, when indications Oriental Herald, Vol. 15.

M