s_."

Dr. Robertson's _Disquisition on the Knowledge the Ancients had of India_,
shows that communications overland existed from a remote period; and we
know that the East India Company had always a route open for their
dispatches on emergent occasions; but let the reader consult the
_Reminiscences_ of Dr. Dibdin, and he will find an example of its utter
uselessness when resorted to in 1776 to apprize the Home Government of
hostile movements on the part of an enemy. To show, however, in a more
striking light, the difference between the "overland route" a century back,
and that of 1853, I turn up the _Journal of Bartholomew Plaisted_: London,
1757. This gentleman, who was a servant of the East India Company, tells us
that he embarked at Calcutta in 1749 for England; and, after encountering
many difficulties, reached Dover _via_ Bussorah, Aleppo, and Marseilles in
twelve months! Bearing this in mind, let the reader refer to the London
daily papers of this eighth day of November, 1853, and he will find that
intelligence reached the city on that afternoon of the arrival at Trieste
of the _Calcutta_ steamer, furnishing us with telegraph advices from--

Bengal, Oct. 3. 36 days!
Bombay, Oct. 14. 25 days!!
Hong Kong, Sept. 27. 46 days!!!

Rapid as this is, and strikingly as it exemplifies the gigantic appliances
of our day, the cry of Heursis in the play is still for the _next_, or a
nearer _way to India_; and, besides the _Ocean Mail_, the magnificent
sailing vessels, and the steamers of _fabulous_ dimensions said to be
building for the Cape route to perform the passage from London to Calcutta
in thirty days, we are promised the _electric telegraph_ to furnish us with
news from the above-named ports in a less number of _hours_ than _days_ now
occupied!

{560}

We have thus seen that the impetus once given, it is impossible to limit or
foresee where this tendency to knit us to the farthermost parts of the
world will end!

"Steam to India" was nevertheless almost stifled at its birth, and its
early progress sadly fettered and retarded by those whose duty it was to
have fostered and encouraged it--I mean the East India Company. From this
censure of a body I would exclude some of their servants in India, and
particularly a name that may be new to your readers in connexion with this
subject, that of the late Mr. Charles P. Greenlaw of Calcutta, to whom I
would ascribe all honour and glory as the great _p