all Zemindars to send their sons to some approved School or College, where they might be initiated, when the mind was pliant, into genuine European maxims of fair and honorable dealing.

We have now passed in rapid review the principal points in the existing system of criminal justice which appear to need attention and reform. We have not very rigidly observed the lines of demarcation which separate the departments of Law, Procedure, Police, and Prison Discipline from each other. It was not our object to do so. We have endeavoured rather to notice the various subjects in the order of their importance, and as they naturally arose one out of another. We shall probably be told, (another "noodle's objection" by the way,) that this is "not the time for reform; that there are neither means nor leisure for introducing innovations while, (to use the hacknied phrase)" the political horizon is overcast" and war is impending in the North West. Of the changes which we have suggested, but few would require increased outlay, and those to the extent of only about a couple of lakhs, or a four hundredth part of the revenue. To shew that in the end would result profit, even of a pecuniary kind, would not, we think, be a difficult task. "If we only behold," says one of the earliest and ablest of the Company's advocates, "the actions of the husbandman in the seed-time, when he casteth away much good corn into the ground, we shall account him rather a madman 'than a husbandman. But when we consider his labours in the harvest, which is the end of his endeavours, we shall find the worth and plenteous increase of his actions."* Under this quaint simile is concealed an amount of solid wisdom by no means unworthy of the attention of our rulers, but to which we fear they are too frequently blind. The bare allusion to the investment of public money on an extended scale in any scheme of peaceful utility throws Leadenhall Street and Cannon row into a paroxysm of alarm. The policy of our Government often reminds us of that of the sage Wilhelmus Kieft, who "was so intent upon guarding the national pocket that he 'suffered the enemy to break its head: in other words, whatever precaution for public safety he adopted, he was so intent upon rendering it cheap, that he invariably rendered it ineffectual; ** * perceiving only the amount ' of immediate expense, without being able to look farther

*

"Defence of the East India Trade," by Mr. Thomas Mun. 1609.

' and regard it in connection with the ultimate object to be ' effected."*

We must allow however that there are obstacles in our way which are not to be removed by mere ridicule. The Government of India lives from hand to mouth, and is ever in difficulties. Many are the natural and necessary defects of our peculiar system of rule, but many others are only incidental, generated in by-gone days, and fostered still by superstition or chill penury." To enter upon the subject of Indian taxation forms no part of our present design. We will merely remark that, as at present constituted, the system is deficient in one important point; it furnishes the Government with no stimulus to improvement. In most other countries, any amelioration of the physical and social condition of the people is followed by an increase of wealth and expenditure, and consequently of the public revenue. The strongest possible impulse in the right direction is thus provided. In this country the chief sources of revenue are such that the Government partakes not directly and immediately of the benefits it confers. Nay, in many cases improvement can only be effected by sacrifice and self-denial, measures which are regarded with favour in few courts or council-chambers. This financial peculiarity, and the absence of the stimulus of public opinion, account in some measure for the current of reform in India being slow even to stagnation. If, according to the theory of a modern philosopher, civilization implies. as its chief characteristic, progress, it must be admitted that we are as yet not too far removed from barbarism.

Every new Governor-General, on his arrival, or even long before it, is trumpetted and set forth as the man of peace, the hero who is not only to protect us against foreign enemies but is to wage war against crime, ignorance and brutishness, and to rescue millions from a state of appalling moral and physical, degradation. The new reign commences full of hope and promise; but ere long some just and necessary war which it was impossible to have foreseen or averted, absorbs attention, and from that moment every thing else is forgotten. New acquisitions in distant and desert countries, the triumphant progress of the British bayonet, rivers choked with human bodies, men mown down and tossed about like grass in a hayfield, these form the theme of minutes and despatches; victory and vengeance become the sole objects of desire. We would

History of New York.

not be understood as regarding the bare idea of bloodshed with that sickly horror which is felt or expressed by certain sects and societies of the present day. Such emotions, while man is prone to error and injustice, are quite out of place, and tend but to foster the evils deprecated. But, looking upon war with its train of miseries as not unfrequently the less of two evils, we still protest against its ever being contemplated except as the means of securing the blessings of peace. Where any other object is in view, the slaughter inflicted is wanton and unjustifiable--murder on a large scale. Of what avail is it that the insult of centuries is avenged, that the honour of the British flag is untarnished, that another bright jewel is added to the crown, or another coloured spot to the map of India, if the millions for whose happiness we are responsible are weighed down with as much misery and vice as ever? They are doubtless a patient people, long suffering and of much endurance. Our rule and the gain it brings us are in little danger, comparatively, from internal discontent in Bengal Proper. This is the selfish consideration which we fear has too often actuated the Rulers of India. Where social improvement can be effected without the sacrifice of power, patronage or profit, it is not withheld; where the existence of that power or profit appears to be endangered, no expenditure is deemed excessive, no difficulties are succumbed to, no efforts spared.

To trace out and foreshadow the probable fruits of this principle of selfishness would lead us far from our design. Let us hope that our present ruler will regard the claims of the people of India upon his time and attention as the first and most paramount, and one not to be satisfied by vague unmeaning professions, or a passing allusion in an after dinner speech. Let him remember that interest and duty point to the same path. "In this day of trial," to quote an able contemporary," when 'institutions and states are sifted and searched to their dregs, and when it becomes a matter of life and death that a Government shall be able to justify itself to its people, and stand with a clear conscience before the world, abuses become daily more fatal and their cure more indispensable."

ART. IV.-1. A Dictionary in Sanskrit and English, designed for the use of private students and of Indian colleges and schools. By the late Rev. W. Yates, D. D., Calcutta, Baptist Mission Press, 1846, pages 928.

2. A Grammar of the Sanskrit Language, etc. By Rev. W. Yates, D. D., Second edition, Ibidem, 1845, pages 494.

THREE years have elapsed, since the lamented author of these two works, having left the shores of India in search of renovated health, was overtaken by death on the Red Sea, to whose keeping his mortal remains were committed until that day when the sea shall give up her dead. Born of humble parentage in December 1792 at Loughborough, the birth-place of John Howe, he was originally brought up for the same trade which Dr. Carey once followed; but his judicious father (who survived him about three years) perceiving that the talents and inclinations of his son pointed to a different sphere of labour, wisely encouraged him to take advantage of all the opportunities which Providence might grant for acquiring information. the early age of fourteen his mind underwent that change which bears the stamp of divine origin; and from that period his progress in the pursuit of knowledge was both continuous and rapid. After struggling with various difficulties, he was at length enabled, chiefly through the interposition of the great Robert Hall, to enter the Baptist College at Bristol, in October 1812, a few weeks before he had concluded the twentieth year of his age.

His predilection for the study of languages, which throughout life formed one of the leading features of his intellectual character, now developed itself more fully than before. In proof of this it may be mentioned, that he composed an elaborate Grammar of the Greek language, including a treatise on prosody. This work he must have carried on in secret, for even his biographer, Dr. Hoby, who was his fellow-student and intimate friend, appears not to have been aware of it; and but for the discovery of the manuscript after the author's death, its existence would probably have remained unknown. As a literary production the value of that grammar may not be great; but that a student of divinity should, at the age of twenty-one, compose such a work, without giving the least intimation of it to any of his friends, is a proof of perseverance and modesty such as we believe are rarely exhibited under similar circumstances. It appears, from a letter to his father, that he had previously "spent all his spare time in

writing a Greek vocabulary, because as there had not been one published yet, that he liked, he determined, if he could, to make one to his own mind." It was in the same pains-taking way that he applied himself to the study of Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic.

Whilst at Bristol he was led to form the resolution of becoming a Missionary. Having previously experienced great kindness from Robert Hall, he now wrote to him for advice, and received in reply a letter full of encouragement, and marked by an almost prophetic anticipation of his future career in India. It is singular that the youthful student should at first have thought of Abyssinia as the scene of his labours. "No sooner was this opinion formed," says his biographer, "than the library was searched for the Amharic scriptures and grammars, and closer attention given to the study of Arabic." But the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society, to which he naturally offered his services, directed his attention to Bengal, the only country where up to that time it had been endeavouring to plant the standard of the cross.

He left Bristol College in the spring of 1814, and after an interval of three months, the greater part of which he spent at Olney, where he was engaged in pastoral duties, he was publicly set apart for missionary labour at Leicester, on the 31st of August. Robert Hall offered up the ordination prayer, and it is certainly very remarkable to find Dr. Yates twenty-five years afterwards referring to that prayer in the following language:

"I shall hereafter see whether the impression so strongly produced in my mind by the prayer offered up by the Rev. Robert Hall at my designation will be realized or not. His prayer led me and others to feel that I should be removed in the midst of my usefulness as a translator of the Word of God. There was something very like the spirit of Prophecy, both in the manner in which it was uttered, and in the effect which it produced."

In those days it was necessary for Missionaries proceeding to India to obtain a special permission from the powers that be. With regard to Mr. Yates, his biographer says

"True to their oft-avowed principles of hostility to the religion and kingdom of Christ, the Court of Directors peremptorily refused permission for him to go out, although his passage was to be made in a private ship. This refusal was repeated, on a second and more urgent but respectful appeal. There remained, therefore, no alternative, but to take the case to the higher court, and at once ascertain whether in the spirit of the new act, which came in force only on April 10th of this year, (1814) the Board of Controul would really overrule, in this matter, the Court of Directors. On application to H. M. Government, permission was immediate