country from the infidel usurpers. So general were these feelings→→→ so common the panic excited that they formed the topic of conversation in the bazaars of Calcutta and Bombay, and occasioned a serious decline in the value of the public securities."

Kaye, vol. i., p. 290.

"The native states on our own borders were beginning to evince signs of feverish unrest. From the hills of Nepaul and the jungles of Burmah came mutterings of threatened invasion. Even

in our own provinces, these rumours of mighty movements in the countries of the North-west disquieted the native mind; there was an uneasy, restless feeling among all classes, scarcely amounting to disaffection, and perhaps best to be described as a state of ignorant expectancy. Among our Mussulman subjects the feeling was somewhat akin to that which had unsettled their minds at the time when the rumoured advent of Zemaun Shah made them look for the speedy restoration of Mahomedan supremacy in Hindostan. In their eyes, indeed, the movement beyond the Afghan frontier took the shape of a Mahomedan invasion, and it was believed that countless thousands of true believers were about to pour themselves over the plains of the Punjab and Hindostan, and to wrest all the country from the hands of the infidel usurpers. The Mahomedan journals at this time teemed with the utterance of undisguised sedition. There was a decline in the value of public securities; and it went openly from mouth to mouth in the streets and the bazaars, that the Company's reign was nearly at an end.”

Alison, p. 597.

"So great was the throng, so violent the press, when these two great potentates met, that many of the attendant Sikhs believed there was a design to destroy their chief, and began to blow their matches and grasp their weapons with a mingled air of distrust and ferocity.' Soon, however, a passage was made, and the little decrepit old man was seen tottering into the tent, supported on one side by the Governor-General and on the other by Sir Henry Fane, whose fine figure strangely contrasted with the bent and worn-out form of the Eastern chieftan. Next day the Maharajah received Lord Auckland in his tent, who returned his visit. The magnificence of the scene then exceeded that of the preceding day, and the Sikhs fairly outdid the British in Oriental splendour. The brilliant costumes of the Sikh Sirdars, the gorgeous trappings of their horses, the glittering steel casques and corslets of chain armour, the scarlet and yellow dresses, the tents of crimson and gold, the long lines of elephants, and still longer squadrons of cavalry, formed an unrivalled spectacle of Eastern magnificence. But different emotions arose, and every British heart beat with emotion, when, in that distant land, the well-known notes of the National Anthem arose from a Sikh band, and the gun of the Kalsa thundered forth salutes to the representative of Queen Victoria."

Kaye, vol. i., pp. 373-375.

"Such was the crush-such was the struggle-that many of the attendant Sikhs believed there was a design to destroy their old de

crepit chief, and began to blow their matches and grasp their weapons with an air of mingled distrust and ferocity.' But in time a passage was made, and the imbecile little old man was to be seen tottering into the Durbar tent, supported on one side by the GovernorGeneral, and on the other by Sir Henry Fane, whose fine, manly proportions, and length of limb, as he forced his way through the crowd, presented a strange contrast to the puny dimensions of the Sikh chieftain, as he leant upon his arm, On the following day, Lord Auckland returned the visit of Runjit Singh. It was said by one present on this occasion that the Sikhs shone down the English.' The splendid costumes of the Sikh Sirdars-the gorgeous trappings of their horses-the glittering steel casques and corslets of chain armour-the scarlet and yellow dresses-the tents of crimson and gold-made up a show of Eastern magnificence equally grand and picturesque. As the Maharajah saluted the GovernorGeneral, the familiar notes of the National Anthem arose from the instruments of a Sikh band, and the guns of the Kalsa roared forth their expected welcome."

We have no patience really with such effrontery. It is true that in the second extract there is a marginal reference (1 Kaye 290) but it gives no indication of the vast extent of the obligation which has been contrasted. Whatever changes have been made by Alison have certainly not been improvements, and thus we commit him to the tender mercies of popular judgment, hoping they will remember "Der Bauer ist nit zu verderben: man hau' ihm denn Hand und Fuss ab."

ART. XI.-THE GOVERNMENT AND THE IRISH VALUATION OFFICERS.

Petitions, Evidence, fc., fc., relative to the case of the several Employés of the Service above named, at present under the consideration of Her Majesty's Government. Dublin Printed by Alexander Thom and Sons, 87, Abbey-street. 1857.

It is now more than a year since we placed before our readers a history of the basis, management, and ultimate aim of the General Valuation of Ireland.* In a subsequent number+ we noticed the petitions of the officers engaged in that service to the Lord Lieutenant, praying that his Excellency would recommend the introduction of such legislative measure as would remove the very peculiar and pressing grievances of their uncertain and anomalous position, placing them on an equality with the other Civil servants of the Crown regarding permanency of employment, and consequent pension in declining years. With the prayer of the petition we cordially agreed, for many reasons, and not the least as we ever considered it hollow parsimony and bad policy to debar the hard-worked Civil servants of the country from the hope of compensation in life's decline-the best guarantee for fidelity and efficiency in the discharge of duty, while in the van of life's battle. It had been remarked, at the period when we first noticed the matter, by a spirited journalist, that "a more modest, guardedlyphrased, and eloquently-simple appeal to the Queen's representative, could not have been made; that the facts mentioned had been studiously understated;" and we were glad to perceive, at the same time, that Lord Carlisle so far appreciated the importance of the work performed by those gentlemen, and the arduous and lengthened duties upon which their claims were specially founded, as to order their appeal to be submitted to the consideration of the Lords of the Treasury.

In our second notice, too, we gave a brief but succinct state

IRISH QUARTERLY Review, No. 20, vol. 5.
IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, No. 22, vol. 6.

ment of the crying evils under which this most important, useful, and, we may add, Imperial, branch of the Civil Service was and, we regret to say, is still labouring. We say Imperial advisedly; for is it not used for Imperial purposes? When we look back through a vista of thirty years, and mark the great value of the work these men have performed for the State, does not such a retrospective glance manifest plainly to our mental vision the amount of intellectual labour by which this department of the Civil Service has attained the position it now holds-being the standard by which the property qualification for the electoral franchise is regulated, the basis for levying succession and legacy duties, the property income tax, and all other public and local taxes in Ireland? Even the Incumbered Estates Court is materially assisted, if not guided, by it. When all these benefits force themselves on our mind, we cannot but deem this an Imperial branch of the public service, and are forced to decry the wisdom of that policy which could induce any government to act so unfairly to their tried and trusted servants, as thus to batten on the intellect of a portion of their most talented sons, and, in the scathing language of our native bard—

"First feed on their brains, and then leave them to die."

We have been accused of using language in our June number of last year (when writing on this to us interesting subject) that savoured of suppliancy; but, if deep earnestness of manner regarding the cause we espoused, and a sad seriousness of tone when speaking of these gentlemen's uncertain position, was suppliancy, we plead guilty to the charge. Now, we entirely disavow any-the remotestapproach to a suppliant tone, when referring, for the third time, to this all-important subject, The admirably-arranged pamphlet now before us disdains suppliant language; it tells its own story; it stares us in the face like a home truth; the paramount idea seems to be "Expendere vitam in vero;" there are no overdrawn statements to excite sympathy; no claptrap rhapsody to elicit applause; it is merely a simple "statement of facts"-the gauntlet of truth thrown down to the Government and the country; and, if all sense of justice be not dead, it will be responded to in a frank and generous way by both. Upon the general subject of the Civil Service Superannuation, upon which the

Valuation question is engrafted, we have no space to dilate, but merely to remark that this pamphlet is not only a handbook regarding this particular department, but a judicious arrangement of well-selected extracts from the evidence before the Civil Service Superannuation Committee of Sir C. E. Trevelyan and others, which bears on all departments of the Civil Service.

There is not in this or, perhaps, in any other country, a service in such a strange and paradoxical position as the Irish Valuation Office. By the Act 15 and 16 Vic., cap. 63, the office was made permanent but (quis credat?) the officers engaged to work out its details were not! They were to remain in the equivocal position of chance hirelings of the day; and when, after years of toil, during which they displayed zeal, science, and skill, if sickness, or the infirmity consequent on advancing years, should interfere with their ill-paid daily task, they were sent adrift, powerless and penniless, without compensation or gratuity of any sort to enable them to contend, even temporarily, with their peculiarly distressing position. These gentlemen, we may also observe, when entering the service, were never warned that their tenure of office was temporary. They naturally looked forward to recompense in the evening of life.

We can well imagine how many, for the last thirty years, have suffered the bitter pings of disappointment. They enter the service in the morning of life or heyday of manhood. Year follows on year in silence-silent as the falling snow-they awake, and find themselves old, the snow on their foreheads, and sorrow and uncertainty in their hearts, for they spent the cream of their years in the Valuation Service. But it is time to have an end to this. Why, we ask, are gentlemen conferring such a benefit on the State to be thus treated? Why should great and long services meet with small rewards, and justice be any longer delayed to gentlemen whose duties are so onerous and arduous as to require the possession of no ordinary ability and mental culture, to enable them to fulfill them efficiently, and who are at this moment fulfilling them with credit to themselves and advantage to the State?

Anxious as we are, and have at all times been, to send forth our protests against any crying national wrong, we could not effect our purpose of awakening the public