service.  His quick eye soon detected the deficiencies of the greater number of the Company’s servants in command of the native language, an acquirement so valuable in possessions such as ours.  He determined to acquire a knowledge of the dialects of India, not doubting that a sphere of larger utility and greater emolument would open before his efforts.  The Mahratta war breaking out in 1803, Mr Hume was attached to Major-general Powell’s division, and accompanied it on its march from Allahabad into Bundelcund.  The want of interpreters was now felt, as Hume had expected, and the commander was glad to find among his surgeons a man capable of supplying the deficiency.  He continued to discharge his new duties without resigning his medical appointment, and managed to combine with both the offices of pay-master and post-master of the troops.  His ability to hold direct intercourse with the natives continued to be of immense service to him, and enabled him to hold simultaneously a number of offices with most varied duties, such as nothing but an unwearying frame and an extraordinary capacity could have enabled any one person to discharge.  At the conclusion of the peace, he returned to the presidency, richer by many golden speculations, for which a period of war never fails to offer opportunities.  In 1808, having accomplished the object for which he left his native land, he came to England, and, after an interval of repose, determined upon making a tour of the country, the better to acquaint himself with the condition of its inhabitants.’  After making this tour, and visiting various continental countries, he returned to England, where he devoted himself to a political career; and since 1812, he has for the most part had a seat in the House of Commons.  His parliamentary history since 1818 has been that of a reformer of abuses and enemy of monopoly, and he is respected even by those who differ from him in opinion.

Our next specimen is—­

’Thackeray, William Makepeace, author, was born in India, in 1811.  He is of good family, and was originally intended for the bar, of which he is now a member.  He kept seven or eight terms at Cambridge, but left the university without taking a degree, for the purpose of becoming an artist.  After about three years’ desultory practice, he devoted himself to literature, abandoning the design of making a position as a painter, and only employed his pictorial talents in illustration of his own writings.  For a short time, he conducted a literary and artistic review, similar in plan to the Athenaeum; but the new journal, although characterised by great ability, perished in competition with established rivals.  He also, with the assistance of Dr Maginn, started a newspaper; but this was unsuccessful.  His first distinction was won as a writer in Fraser’s Magazine, Punch, and other periodicals of character.  In the latter amusing periodical appeared his Jeames’s Diary, a clever satire on