A wild bull goring could not drive with more
impetuous horn
Than he, the stripling so despised, when he arose
in scorn.

They fled, the cowards, every one, with gems the
walks were strown:
Here lay a brooch of Indian pearl, and there an
emerald stone;
They threw their swords away and fled, each pale
as parted corse,
They did not stay to rest or eat, but took at once to
horse.

A moment pale and motionless the poet stood—nor
spoke—
Looked with fixed eyes as in a trance—neither the
silence broke.
He spurned the jewels with his foot, then knelt to
kiss her hand—
He the poor vagrant London poet, and she the lady
of the land.

Humbly Mabel turned to thank him, with an almost
tearful smile,
Looking at his breast and forehead, lest some wound
should bleed the while.
Low he bowed, and was departing, picking up a
broken sword,
Fearing ambush from the vengeance of some bruised
and beaten lord.

"Edward," said she, soft and gently, as a whisper in
a dream:
Like a prophet's revelation then upon him burst
love's beam.
He turned, and kissed her lips and forehead, and one
long wind-driven tress,
Then whispered, and a soft low murmur, scarcely
syllabled, said "Yes."

INDIA AND COTTON

THERE is a cry for cotton in the North, where
millions of our countrymen depend upon that
article for their daily bread. How the cry is to
be satisfied—how the bread is to be supplied—
has become a question of vital importance.
Cotton, to be sure, may be obtained in nearly
every part of the world. In the East, in the
West, in the South, the capabilities for its growth
are immense; but what is wanted is a source of
certain and sustained supply. In America our
chances are not worth a year's purchase. Of
all other countries, India is generally admitted
to afford the finest as well as the readiest field
for the employment of that vast amount of
capital which must soon remain idle unless an
outlet be found for it. The Cotton Supply
Association, in its report just published, declares
decisively in favour of India, as having advantages
beyond all its competitors in this respect; it
remains, therefore, only to make good use of
them in order to be independent of America for
ever.

It is at this point that our difficulties
begin. Nature has given us every advantage
in India that soil and climate can furnish;
but, although she has done so much for us,
we have done so little for ourselves that the
work may be considered barely commenced.
There are immense cotton-fields, it is true; but
neither capital, skill, enterprise, nor even
honesty, are employed in raising the plant;
which is therefore an inferior article, fetching an
inferior price. The natives, to whom the
cultivation is almost entirely confined, have very
little power to improve the state of things, and
what power they have they do not care to
employ. Each man has a little patch of ground
which he cultivates for himself. He is
responsible to no other person for looking after
his own interests, except, indeed, to the native
usurer, from whom he has received advances
for the purchase of seed, and who faithfully sells
him up if he neglects to pay them back. The
first mistake which he makes is in the matter of
this same seed. The seed produced from his
own district is sown over and over again, year
after year, and has been allowed to reproduce
itself in this manner for centuries past. The
usual fate of a very old family which has been
too exclusive in its alliances, of course attends
it. The plant becomes weak and imbecile,
and, coming from an exhausted stock, suffers
the additional disadvantage of having its education
entirely neglected. It never could be an
aristocrat, and the ryot (or cultivator) effectually
prevents it from taking even a respectable middle-
class rank. The seed having been sown, the ryot
is happy for a time in throwing the responsibility
upon nature, under whose auspices it usually
grows up in due time. The period for gathering
depends less upon the ripeness of the cotton
than the private convenience of the ryot—a
marriage or death in his family, or the
occurrence of some native festival—so that the
process is usually performed either too soon or
too late. The other preparations which it has
to undergo are made upon the same lax principle;
and the delay of transport being added to
the other delays, the cotton most likely catches
the rainy season on its way to the coast, where
it arrives damaged if not utterly spoiled. The
purchaser, indeed, may consider himself fortunate
if he receives the article only dirty and ill
prepared; for I have heard of such things as
straw being packed by mistake in the bales, not
to mention the carcases of animals, and other
little matters of the kind.

A European undertaking the cultivation of
cotton, would, it may be easily believed, set to
work in a different manner. In the first place,
he would make arrangements to receive regular
supplies of seed from a distance, so as to give
vigour to the produce, the education of which
would receive his unremitting attention. When
the plant became ripe, he would take care that
it was gathered at once. If a marriage or a
death took place in his family at the critical
period, he would be very glad in the one case,
and very sorry in the other, as in duty bound;
but neither occasion would he make an excuse
for the neglect of business; and as for his national
holidays, they are so few that their observance
would not be likely to interfere with his interests.
The consequence would be tlie production
of the best article that could be produced,