secrets from each other-and you wrong my friendship if you withhold from me any private feeling in which my advice or assistance would be of the slightest service to you.'

"Answer me one question," said Winston; secret which you have withheld from me?"

"have you no

Lord Charles looked at him at first very gravely-then a smile broke over his face-and he answered-" None-not one." 66 "I am satisfied," returned Winston.

The grim man now glided in from behind the screen. "Well, Fletcher?" inquired Lord Charles.

"The carriage, my lord," said Fletcher, and glided out again. "Come, Winston, you are full of fancies. Let us see if we can't get rid of them at the Opera. The carriage is at the door." In a few minutes the two young men-the one self-possessed and unruffled, the other in a shockingly sullen humour-were on their way to the Haymarket.

The house was crowded; and as they passed into the stalls, Lord Charles recognized a number of acquaintances. Henry Winston did not see a human being he knew. He felt more and more isolated, and cut off from the circle of which his friend was so distinguished and popular a member; and the reflections which ensued upon this feeling were not very happily calculated to put him into better temper.

Between the acts, they strolled into the pit. Lord Charles seemed to be intimate with everybody; and the easy way in which he chatted with different parties in the pit tier of boxes, awakened in his wayward companion a bitter sense of the solitude of the great world to a man in his position. He was utterly alone in the crowd. Sickened with the glare, and depressed by a morbid comparison between his own lot and the brilliant life of Lord Charles, he determined to make his escape at the first opportunity.

By some accident, he suddenly lost sight of Lord Charles, who, an instant before, had been standing close to him. He looked round the pit and into the stalls, but Lord Charles was nowhere to be seen. This was a relief to him. He might now go without any discourtesy to his friend. And, being at liberty to go, he did what most people, who don't precisely know their own minds, do on such occasions-he lingered a little longer.

It was his first visit to the most magnificent theatre in the world, and the incubus which had hitherto weighed upon him being removed, he indulged his eyes with a general survey of the house. As he glanced from box to box, he caught a glimpse of a face he thought he knew. His heart beat tumultuously. Even at that distance, he felt that he could not be mistaken in the features of Margaret Rawlings. But he was not quite assured, and was afraid to be confident of it, till he saw the radiant head of Clara thrown forward, and gazing down into the pit. He was sure they must have seen him. At all events, the temptation was not to be resisted, and, scrambling his way into the passage, he

flew up the stairs till he gained the lobby of the first circle. He had great difficulty in finding out the box, and had to traverse the round two or three times, and make another ascent, before he reached it. Just as he entered the box, the curtain had fallen on the last act of the Opera, and the ladies were rising to go away. The first person he saw was Lord Charles Eton, gently dropping a shawl over the shoulders of Margaret Rawlings.

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The mystery of his Lordship's sudden disappearance was clearly explained. Henry Winston felt his blood leaping and burning through every vein in his body, and even the pleasure which Margaret exhibited at seeing him could hardly assuage the impetuous passion that raged in him at that moment. conviction that Lord Charles had treated him with perfidy, seized upon him, and turned his feelings into bitterness and hatred. A very jealous temperament was that of Henry Winston -a mad heart that loved and hated to extremity, too apt to trust and distrust, touched to the core by trifles, and as easily won by kindness as it was stung by neglect or duplicity.

"This is a most unexpected pleasure," said Margaret; "but why did you postpone your visit till we are just going away?"

There was no time for a reply, although Henry Winston had a sarcasm on his lips ready to launch against Lord Charles. Mr. Rawlings hurried them out, and seemed displeased at the interruption; and when Mr. Rawlings was displeased, there was no misunderstanding the expression of his face. Mrs. Rawlings was not of the party, and Henry Winston was resolved to have his revenge by escorting Margaret to her carriage, and consigning Clara to his Lordship. But, quick as he was in his tactics, he was foiled. Just as he was about to offer his arm to Margaret, Mr. Rawlings interposed.

"My Lord," said Mr. Rawlings, "will you give your arm to my daughter."

Henry drew back, and had the satisfaction of seeing Lord Charles conduct Margaret down the stairs. Clara was leaning on Mr. Rawlings. He was again alone.

The incident was a trifling one; but trifles of this kind are sometimes of grave import in their influence on the lives of the wisest men. Henry lingered behind. He saw them go down the stairs. Margaret once looked back, but he turned his head away, as if she, too, had conspired against him. The crowd increased in that narrow space; but he still kept them in sight, undetermined what he should do. He felt that he was not in a mood to trust himself again that night in the presence of Lord Charles, whose coolness and propriety always gave him the advantage in moments of heat and irritation; and so, at last, he wilfully lost them in the multitude that came pressing out through the doors. He was thankful for that. It gave him an additional grievance to brood upon; and he went home to his lodgings in so fierce a state of mind that it was a lucky thing he didn't happen to meet Lord Charles on his way.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LATE LIEUT. WAGHORN, R.N., THE ORIGINATOR OF THE OVERLAND ROUTE.

BY G. W. WHEATLEY.

FEW recent deaths have created more general regret than that of the gallant and unrequited man who brought India and England within less than one-third of the distance they relatively occupied, in point of time, when he commenced agitating for the Overland Route-his exertions and exploits in the promotion of which familiarised his name for upwards of twenty years in both hemispheres, and left him, like so many other national benefactors, embarrassment and hopeless anxiety as his reward. A large volume, of equal interest and instruction, might readily be compiled from the memoranda he has left of his struggles to overcome official apathy, in the first instance, and official prejudice ever after; but, at present, it must suffice to take up his career at that point, when, having repeatedly succeeded in exhibiting the soundness and feasibility of his plans, he had begun to reduce them to systematic practice for the accommodation of the English and India public, as well as of the Government, and, as he had hoped, for his own enduring worldly prosperity.

Towards the close of the year 1835, through my friends Smith, Elder, and Co., of Cornhill, acting as his agents in London, I became acquainted with Mr. Waghorn, who was then engaged in organising a plan for conveying letters in his own person, and opening up the Overland Route by way of the Red Sea. Embarking on board the Fire-fly steamer in the October of that year, he placed himself at Alexandria, whence he commenced a monthly dispatch to Bombay, introducing fast-sailing boats of his own on the Nile, and horses in the Desert to Suez, where he had frequent special despatch-boats of his own to Mocha or Juddah, from one or other of which ports there were generally sailing-vessels to Bombay. Leaving competent people in Egypt to look after the mails entrusted to him, he returned to England in the spring of 1837; and it is from that period may be dated my more immediate intimacy and business connections with him, which continued unimpaired and uninterrupted to the moment of his death, in the month of January last. At first I was selected by him to carry out certain of his designs in Egypt, but his business was then so rapidly increasing as to engross more of the time of his agents than they could devote to it, that they suggested that special offices should be opened in London, and placed under my supervision. To this he readily assented; and accordingly the Overland Registry Office was commenced in June 1837, that event being auspiciously inaugurated by the presentation of a magnificent piece of plate from the East India and China Association, and several eminent houses connected with the commerce of the East. This testimonial was accompanied by a flattering speech, eulogistic of his services in the promotion of steamcommunication with India via the Red Sea, through the medium of his old and long tried friend, Sir (then Mr.) G. G.de H. Larpent, Chairman of the Association; and among the names engraved on the epergne were those of Baring's, Barclay's, Lyall's, Scott, Cockrell, and some

dozen others of the first character. It was at this period also that he purchased a small schooner, the Emily, intended to ply as a packet between Marseilles and Alexandria-an idea, however, which he soon abandoned, the French Government having placed steamers on that line, calling at the Neapolitan Ports, by which means he was enabled to get his letters to and from Egypt at a considerable saving of time as compared to the plan of sending them round by H. M. steamers to Falmouth.

Anxious to perfect this new line of communication, which shortened the distance on an average of nine days, he returned to Egypt in the June of this year; but previous to so doing he had published his first Eastern brochure, entitled "Egypt in 1837," dedicated to the members of both Houses of Parliament, in the hope, as he expressed it, "that it would induce in them some sort of sympathy for Egypt, instead of that indifference to her interests which permitted her to be sacrificed to the bolstering up of Turkey."

It was in this work that he first developed that extraordinary attachment to the person of Mehemet Ali and anxiety for his Highness' interests which constituted so remarkable a trait in the idiosyncracy of Waghorn, reciprocated, as it was, to a great degree, by the ruler of Egypt, there being between those two individuals many feelings, views, and peculiarities alike. The principal object of the work in question was to shew that it was both our interest and duty, as a nation, to aid in the civilisation of Egypt, rather than by adhering to a line of policy which, while encouraging the extortionate demands of Turkey, tended to paralyse the efforts of Egypt towards the attainment of political freedom. It is not a little curious to observe how completely what were then considered the impetuous, interested, and prejudiced dogmas of Waghorn, regarding many matters in Eastern policy, coincide with what are now regarded as very profound and sagacious reasoning indeed, in the same direction. Copious passages might be cited in proof of this assertion; but one brief sentence will suffice here, rather, however, as illustrative of the man than of his political doctrines, viz:

"I doubt not that by some my opinions may be called enthusiastic, and, as such, subject me to attack; however, they led me to Egypt eight years ago. I felt convinced that that country ought to be the true road to India, and I maintained my principle in three quarters of the globe. I have travelled, since then, some hundreds of thousands of miles to disseminate my opinion, and I will never content myself till I find it the high road to India. I am as firmly convinced that Egypt is regenerating herself, and will resume her former station amongst the nations of the earth, and become as fruitful as she was in the time of the Pharoahs, and that, too, in ten years after English interests are fairly introduced. I think Turkey is fast verging to its downfall, and that Egypt, in twenty years more, will assume her place."

In this year also he published his first "Guide to Passengers," which revealed to the public with what extraordinary rapidity and efficiency he had established agencies at all the principal places in France, Italy, and Malta; how successfully he had used his means and opportunities (chiefly through the instrumentality of the Pacha) to promote the interests and comforts of travellers. His boats were not only the cleanest and swiftest on the Nile, but such was his sur

prising influence over the Arabs of the river that he persuaded them to relinquish the semi-nude condition of their race for attire more in conformity with notions of European delicacy; and by a combination of individual daring and resolution, which the denizens of the Desert could well appreciate, with kindness of manner, judicious liberality, and unswerving punctuality in all his time and monetary engagements, he indoctrinated them with habits of regularity and docility that would have been pronounced to be utterly unattainable within a life-time by any person previously acquainted with the state of things existing among the population alluded to.

Seeing how important his co-operation had become, the East India Company made him their deputy-agent in Egypt-a post which he did not long occupy-for the Company's agent, ConsulGeneral in Egypt at the period we speak of, was a personage of far too phlegmatic temperament and procrastinating habits for the ardent mind of his active and restless subordinate. The incompatibility between the pair at length ended in an explosion, on the occasion of the refusing the use of a building as a coal-store for Mr. Waghorn, who had procured the grant of it from the Pacha. He, accordingly, feeling that he was fettered, and that the great work to which he had devoted himself, did not and could not proceed as it should, relinquished his appointment, and resumed his efforts in the promotion of the same end in an independent capacity. Late in 1837, the Government took the whole mail system into their own hands, to the serious detriment and pecuniary loss of him who had originated it. Undismayed, however, by a catastrophe that would have broken the spirit of almost any other man, he confined his attention to the conveyance of parcels and passengers, and soon had an opportunity of shewing how peculiarly qualified he was for ensuring success in that department of his enterprise; for, shortly after the cessation of his superintendence of the mails, one of the East India Company's steamers having arrived at Suez with a broken piston, would have had to wait there till the receipt of a new piece of machinery from England, but that Waghorn prevailed upon the Pacha to order a piston to be cast at Cairo-the first thing of the kind ever attempted in that country; and the steamer, in consequence, was enabled to proceed on her voyage. A still more remarkable evidence of his influence over the Pacha occurred shortly after. When the news of the capture of Ghuznee, by Lord Keane, arrived at Alexandria, there was no steamer to forward it, to the no small disappointment and dismay, as may be supposed, of all the English residents there. Mr. Waghorn immediately proceeded to Mehemet Ali, to whom he never was denied access; and, without the slightest difficulty, procured the loan of his highness's own steamer, the Generoso, of which he forthwith took the command, and piloted her himself into Malta.

In this year he published "Egypt as it Is, in 1838," but which he had prepared the previous year, though he withheld the issue of it on the representation, to use his own words, " by members of her Majesty's Government, that the views it advocated would be entertained and promoted; but as nothing had since been done in furtherance of these views the work was now given to the public, the question being of too great moment to remain longer on the shelf." It was addressed to General Lord William Bentinck, M.P., the late

VOL. XXVII.

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