ly and conclusively decided; not to be disturbed by any authority acting under the Constitution and respecting it? Mr. Jefferson, although the first and most formidable opponent of the incorporation of the bank, thought all question about it was determined and could not be moved again. Are our institutions to be forever floating on troubled waters? Is there no resting place for them?

The case of "Dartmouth College vs. Woodward,” is the last we shall be able to give a particular attention to; and this will be but hastily reviewed. This also was a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the state of New-Hampshire, which had sanctioned n unconstitutional act of the legislature of that state. The leading points decided were, that a charter granted by the British crown to this college, in the year 1769, was a contract within the meaning of that clause of the Constitution of the United States which declares that no state shall make any law impairing the obligation of contracts; and that this charter was not dissolved by the revolution: that, under this charter, Dartmouth College was a private, and not a public corporation, being originally founded by individuals, with their own funds, and under their own direction; and that a corporation established for purposes of general charity, or for education generally, does not, per se, make it a public corporation, liable to the control of the legislature. The result of these principles was, that an act of the state legislature of New-Hampshire, altering the charter, without the consent of the corporation, in, a material respect, is unconstitutional and void. The most material alteration in the charter was that by which the property and government of the corporation were taken, in effect, out of the hands of its founders and proprietors, and transferred to the direction and management of the state and her officers. Yet the state Court, having, probably, a common feeling with, or an uncommon deference for, the legislature, found nothing wrong and unlawful in this manifest invasion of private rights. Not so the Supreme Court of the United States. They pronounced the usurpation to be a violation of the sanctity of a contract, and of the security given by the Constitution to every citizen in his property. The property was restored to its rightful owners, as well as their privileges.

Without this guardian power of the federal judiciary, every association incorporated for the purposes of religion, charity, or learning, founded by private benevolence or private funds, to which the state had not contributed one dollar, would be at the disposal of a state legislature; and at the mercy of intriguing politicians.

Every day keeps the public in mind of the obligations they owe to this Court for their decision in the Steam-boat Case.

We have now completed, most imperfectly indeed, the execution of our design, to place before the people of the United States, some of the most prominent services rendered to them by the judicial department of their government; and we indulge hope that our labour will not be without some influence in increasing the estimation which justly belongs to its learning, its diligence, its patriotism, and integrity.

ART. VI. Journal of an Embassy from the Governor General of India to the Court of Ava, in the year 1827. By JOHN CRAWFURD, ESQ. late Envoy. With an Appendix, &c. London: 1829.

In the eighth number of this Review, we gave to our readers a full account of Mr. Crawfurd's Embassy to Siam and Cochin China, and expressed there the very favourable expectations which that and the antecedent work of this author had induced us to form with regard to the Journal of his Embassy to Ava, which was already announced. At the same time, we described his general character and merits as a writer, in a way which renders superfluous any present notice of those topics. We have before us his second goodly quarto, possessing the same attractions as the first-novel, curious, and instructive matter, an elegant page, and illustrative engravings, suitable to the advanced state of the arts in England. The embassy to Ava was accomplished in the year 1827, but the book could not be prepared and issued earlier than last year. It is dedicated to the British king. Works of this kind are not reprinted in the United States, and are but seldom or slightly noticed in the British Reviews which circulate on this side of the Atlantic; yet they relate to subjects which should possess more interest for all liberal inquirers, than most of those which are principally discussed. They exhibit forms of human nature and action, of civilization and barbarism -quite different from the European, and serve to throw new light on the philosophy of man and government. We recollect that the war between the English power in India, and the Burman, excited some sensation in this country, where, as on the continent of Europe, it was thought to be likely to produce, or certainly to portend, very serious consequences to the British Indian empire. The result was, on the contrary, propitious; but the remembrance of that sensation may animate attention to the authentic details of Burman character and condition, which are furnished by the able envoy, who was deputed to conclude a commercial treaty soon after the conclusion of peace. There

are, besides, two excellent narratives of the war, written by officers of the British staff, to which we shall occasionally resort for remarkable traits.

The Burman empire, before the war with the British power, comprised the countries of Ava, Pegue, Munnipoor, Arracan, and Tennasserim, formerly independent kingdoms. It was bounded on the north by Thibet, on the east by China and Siam; on its extreme south, it touched Malaya, and the Bay of Bengal and British India formed its western line of demarcation. This vast tract of country has a fertile soil and healthy climate, and is intersected by rivers rivalling the greatest and most celebrated of the East. The empire grew by conquest during the last century it was arrested only by the Chinese boundary on the one side, and the British on the other. The government and people of Ava acquired the most extensive authority, and the highest military reputation of all the nations of India ultra Gangem. Conformably to the Eastern character, the pride of the conquerors increased in a much greater proportion than even the extent of their dominion. They fancied themselves superior in arms and arts to all the European as well as Asiatic races. When the Burmese troops invaded the British territory, their commander carried golden fetters, with which the Governor General of British India was to be bound when he should be led captive to Ava; and in the pockets of the Burmese officers, the British found letters from ladies, specifying how many slaves they expected to be reserved for them, out of the white Europeans at Calcutta. So little was known in that capital of the true character and strength of the Burmese; so exaggerated were the stories of their power and ferocity-that the native merchants were with difficulty persuaded to refrain from removing their families and property from under the very guns of Fort William, when intelligence was received of the invasion from Arracan. Consternation was, indeed, general throughout Bengal, and we remember that several of the London papers contained the most ominous predictions. All this has now almost a ludicrous character, when contrasted with the events and issue of the war. A few thousand British troops and seapoys beat the largest and best appointed armies of the Burmese, led by their favourite chiefs, on their own soil, and dictated a peace within a few leagues of their capital, which also, the victors could have occupied with but little additional bloodshed. The cessions which the Burmese government made to the British in 1826, contain an area of 48,800 English miles. This territory consists of the following parts;-the kingdom of Arracan divided into four provinces; a part of the province of Martaban, and the entire provinces of Ré or Yé, Tavoy and Mergui.

Mr. Crawfurd had resided six months at Rangoon, as civil VOL. VII.-No. 13.

18

commissioner of the British government, when, in September, 1826, he received instructions to proceed to Ava, for the negotiation of a commercial treaty. In his suite was Mr. Judson, of the American Missionary Society, as translator and interpreter. This true minister of the Gospel, and his distinguished wife, are both frequently mentioned in the narratives of the war, with special honour and gratitude. Their experience, intelligence, and intrepidity, were materially serviceable to the British. We shall take occasion to quote some of the testimony borne in their favour. Their agency creates a higher degree of interest for the transactions of the war and the embassy, as their names and pursuits are familiar to most of their countrymen. The envoy selected, for his accommodation in ascending the Irawadi, the Diana, of about one hundred and thirty tons, the first steamvessel which ever appeared in India, and the same which the British army most advantageously used in penetrating into the heart of the empire. This is a circumstance which deserves to be noted in the history of steam navigation. The vessel excited the same curiosity and astonishment in the natives of the interior, as the first steam-boat which ascended the Missouri, in the American Indians. Mr. Crawfurd, in tracing his progress, marks points on the river which the Burmese might have so fortified as to have rendered their country impregnable; and at Donabew, which was regularly besieged, he relates how Bandoola, the ablest and most renowned of the Burmese generals, was killed while reclining on a couch within the place, by an accidental shell, one of a half a dozen discharged as an experiment to ascertain the range of the British mortars. On his death, the Burmese chiefs offered the command to his brother, who refused it; the Burmese troops at once dispersed; the brother fled to Ava, where he found an order ready for his execution, and was, in fact, within an hour after his arrival at his own house, put to death for refusing the command. Such is the nature of these Asiatic despotisms, that his fate should not appear extraordinary, even by the side of the anecdote, that the king exclaimed of another general, who had behaved gallantly and lost his life," Why did not the fool run away!"

The aspect of the country which Mr. Crawfurd traversed, was such as it had been described thirty-one years before by Colonel Symes and Dr. Hamilton. All the natural advantages of every kind, had been either neglected or counteracted by that worst of scourges, arbitrary and corrupt government. As in Siam and Cochin China, the great men, or public dignitaries, whom the envoy encountered on his approach to Ava, at first displayed extreme repugnance to acknowledge a mission from the governor general of Bengal; a mere viceroy: they inquired only after the health of the king of England. We indicated, in

our review of Mr. Crawfurd's former work, the abject debasement of the attendants of the Siamese officers of state; but human degradation was carried still further in the spectacle which he witnessed before he reached the Burmese capital-the person charged with the governor of Bassein's spit-box, prostrate before his excellency, and holding the precious utensil over his head, without daring to look upwards! When the British party came within sight of the more populous parts of their route, men, women, and children, without distinction, crowded to the banks of the river, attracted by the novelty of the steam-boat. The women swam about the vessel in the evening, wholly fearless and unabashed. In seeking supplies of food, Mr. Crawfurd could procure no beef, though buffaloes and oxen were seen in numbers; for the Burmans respect the lives of animals in proportion to their magnitude, believing in the metempsychosis, and supposing that the larger the animal, the more advanced towards perfection is the soul of which it is the receptacle. The public worship which was seen at some of the pagodas, made an agreeable impression. The most respectable of the inhabitants visited those temples from six to seven o'clock in the morning, in their best dresses, bearing offerings chiefly of fruits and flowers. Their demeanour was highly decorous; they were cheerful, but not noisy; and no grotesque or ludicrous ceremonies entered into their devotions. Wherever, indeed, no superstition of a gloomy or fantastical cast prevails, public worship of the Godhead is found to promote public happiness and order—to excite social sympathies and improve social manners.

Mr. Crawfurd found, that owing to the insecurity of property, there existed no substantial structures in the country, except those which were dedicated to religious purposes. If a Burman becomes rich, temple-building is the only luxury in which he ean safely lavish his wealth. At Pugan, the gateways, the doors, the galleries and the roofs of all smaller temples are invariably formed by a well-turned gothic arch. Substantial materials, labour and ingenuity are all expended in the construction of pagodas; private dwellings soon fall to decay, and the architecture of these is regulated by degrees of personal or official rank. It is death for a Burman to attempt to inhabit one of a higher order than that to which he is understood to be entitled, and degrading to live in or enter one beneath his rank. Hence it happens, that chiefs, in travelling, have usually a house built for them at every stage; the poor villagers receive generally a very brief notice of the great man's approach, and wo to them and their huts, if the house be not completed by his arrival, or if his order of architecture be not strictly observed! No chief will enter the house even of an equal; the king never goes into the house of a subject, not even of his brothers;-but he may