Mifs Hamilton next enters into an account of the Hindoo mythology, in which their inferior deities appear fmilar to thofe of Greece; and, in a manner which evinces her to be perfectly mistress of the fubject, the offers feveral confiderations to fhew, that the peculiar conftruction of the Hindoo government, and the precepts of Hindoo faith, though admirably calculated for the prefervation of their empire in happiness and tranquillity, were not fo favourable to the cultivation of the mind, and to its advancement in the paths of ufeful knowledge. She likewife enters into a hiftory of the Mahommedan conqueft, and the dettructive effects of their intolerant government; and concludes her account with a view of the prefent ftate of Hindooftan, under the British government, which cannot but highly gratify every benevolent mind.

been made, and is now the guide of the courts of justice, which have been established among them. Agriculture has been encouraged by the most certain of all methods-the fecurity of property; and all thefe advantages have been rendered doubly valuable, by the enjoyment of a bleffing equal, if not fuperior, to every other-the bleffing of peace, a blefiing to which they had for ages been frangers *.

Thefe falutary regulations, origi nating with Mr. Haftings, fteadily parfued by fir John M Pherfon and lord Cornwallis, and perfevered in by the prefent governor-general t will diffufe the fmiles of profperity and happinets over the best provinces of Hindooftan, long after the difcordant voice of party shall have been humbled in the filence of eternal reft; and the rancorous mifreprefentations of envy and malevolence, as much forgotten, as the florid harangues, and turgid declamations, which conveyed them to the fhort-lived notice of the world.'

The letters which follow are fuppofed to be written by Zaarmillá; rajah of Almora, who, on the conqueft of his country (now called Ro-. liulcund) by the Afgans, a people on the borders of Perfia, was among the number permitted to remain on their ancient territories. His letters are written to his 'friend Maandaara, another rajah who appears to have been banished from the province, and to have taken fhelter in the neighbourhood of Agra.

In thofe provinces which, by a train of circumstances, totally foreign to our purpose to relate, have fallen under the dominion of Great Britain, it is to be hoped the long-fuffering Hindoos have experienced a happy change. Nor can we doubt of this, when we confider, that in thofe provinces, the horrid modes of punithment, inflicted by the Mahommedans, have been abolished; the fetters, which restrained their commerce, have been taken off; the taxes are no longer collected by the arbitrary authority of a military chieftain, but are put upon a footing that at once fecures the revenue, and protects the fubject from oppreffion. The banditti of the hills, which used to moleft the inoffenfive inhabitants by their predatory incur fions, have been brought into peaceable fubjection. That unrelenting perfecution, which was deemed a duty by the ignorant bigotry of their muffulman rulers, has, by the milder fpirit of Chriftianity, been converted into the tendereft indulgence. Their ancient laws have been reftored to them; a tranflation of them, into the Perfian and English languages, has Sheernaal

The rajah Zaarmilla having had the opportunity of affording protection to captain Percy, an English officer, receives from him fuch an account of the English, and particularly of their fhafter (the Chriftian fcriptures) that he conceives a great defire to vifit the country of this excellent young officer. The rajah Maandaara objects strongly to this defign, and to divert his friend from it, fends to him the letters which he had received from the bramin (then in England) who

Review of the British Government in India.

Sir John Shore, bart.

gives a very unfavourable account of have given the appellation of he our customs, manners, and modes of roes. thinking. Zaarmilla imputing the bramin's account to ignorance or prejudice, perfifts in his voyage to England, his account of which, and of the different scenes he was prefent at, form the fubject of his inftructive and entertaining letters.

Our firft extract fhall be from the letter in which Zaarmilla communicates to Maandaara,. the refult of his conversations with his young military gueft:

Thou knowest, O Maandaara, how my mind has ever thirfted after knowledge. Thou knoweft with what ardour I have ever performed my Poojah Serwatee*, and that, at an age when few young men have read the Beids of the Shaiter +, I had not only ftudied the facred pages, but had perufed every famous writing in the Shanferit language.

The acquifition of the Perfic tongue opened to me a door of knowledge which I was not flow to enter. Hiftory, for fome time, became my favourite study. But what did the hiftory of states and empires prefent to my view? Alas! what, but the weaknefs and the guilt of mankind? I beheld the few, whom fortune had unhappily placed in view of the giddy eminences of life; putting the reins of ambition into the bloody hand of cruelty, lash through torrents of perfidy and flaughter, till, perhaps, overthrown in their career, they were trampled on by others who were running the fame guilty race: or if they furvived to reach the goal they aimed at, living but to breathe the air of difappointment, and then drop into the fea of oblivion. Such is the hiftory of the few, whofe guilty paffions, and atrocious deeds have railed them to renown, and to whom the ftupid multitude, the willing inftruments of their ambition, the prey of their avarice, and the fport of their pride,

To the great body of the people I never could perceive that it made any difference who it was that held the fcorpion whip of oppreffion, as into whatever hand it was by them conveyed, they were equally certain of feeling the feverity of its fling. Meditating on thefe things, the deep figh of defpondency has burft from my heart. Can it be, faid I to myself, that the omnipotent and eternal ruler of the univerfe fhould create fuch multitudes for no other purpose but to fwell the triumphs of a fellow mortal, whofe glory rifes in proportion to the mifery he inflicts upon the human race? Surely, by what I learn from the actions of the princes of the earth, virtue is a fhadow, and the love of it, which I have heretofore cherished in my breaft, is nothing but the illufive phantom of a dream!

By converfing with my English gueft I got a different view of human nature. Through the medium of the Perfic literature it appeared univerfally darkened by depravity. In the hiftory of Europe it affumed a milder form. In Europe man has not always, as in Afia, been degraded by flavery, or corrupted by the poffeffion of defpotic power. Whole nations have there acknowledged the rights of human nature, and while they did fo have attained to the fummit of true glory. The Romans, whom the Perfiant writers reprefent as the lawless invaders, and fearless conquerors of the world; and the Greeks, whom they load with every opprobrium, were in fact nations of heroes.. Spurning the chain of flavery, they wifely thought that human nature was too imperfect to be entrusted with unlimited authority; while they performed Poojah § to the goddess of liberty, their hearts were enlarged by the poffeffion of every virtue. She taught them the art of victory; ftrengthened

Worthip to Serafwatee, the Goddess of Letters. + Seripture of the Hindoos. ↑ See Richardfon's Introduction to the Persian Dictionary. Worship.

F

The age of purity. The Hindoos reckon the duration of the world by four Jogues, or diftinct ages. The Sottee Jogue, or age of purity, is faid to have lasted 3,200,000 years, when the life of man is faid to have extended to 100,000 years. The Tirtah Jogue, or age in which one third of mankind were reprobate, which consisted of 2,400,000 years. The Dwaper Jogue, in which one half of the human race became depraved, endured 1,600,000 years. And the Collee Jogue, in which all mankind are corrupted, is the prefent era. See Halhed's Gentoo Laws.

approbation of the measures of the power of acting in the name of the whole.

court can lead to titles and diftinction. No. In England, the honours of nobility are invariably bestowed according to intrinfic merit. The titles and privileges of these heroes of the firft clafs defcend to their children. We may well fuppofe what care is beftowed on the education of these young nobles, whofe minds are moulded into wisdom, at universities inftituted for the purpofe; where vice and folly are alike unknown; and where the faculties of a young man might have as great a chance of getting leave to ruft in ignorance, as to be loft in diffipation! From these feminaries of virtue, they are called to the fenate of the nation; where they debate with all the gravity, and the intereft, that might be expected from their early habits of ferious thought, and deep inveftigation. The fons of the king, at an early age, take their feats in that tribunal, from whofe decifion there lies no appeal. As their example is fuppofed to animate the young nobility, it may well be imagined how wife, learned, grave, and pious, thefe princely youths must be their actions are doubtlefs the mirrors of decorum, and their lips the gates of wisdom!

'About four hundred of these eminent men, each of whom to all the requifites of a Hindoo magiftrate unites the knowledge of a Chriftian philofopher form what is termed the third eftate.

Uninfluenced by the favour of party, uncontaminated by the base motives of avarice or ambition, they pursue with steady steps the path of, equity, and have nothing fo much at heart as the public welfare. No war can be engaged in, and no taxes impofed, but by the confent of these patriot chiefs. Judge then, my friend, how light the burden muft be, that is laid on by these representatives, these brothers of the people. Never can fuch men as these be inftrumental in` fending war, with all its attendant miferies, into the nations of the earth: all of whom they are taught by their Shafter to confider as brethren. In Afia we behold the gory monfter, ever ready to ftalk forth with deftructive ftride at the voice of ruthless tyranny, but in Europe, princes are the friends of peace and the fathers of their people.

Many of our Pundits + have contemplated, with aftonishment, the animofities that have arifen among the followers of the Arabian prophet, on account of the different interpretations given by their Imaums to certain paffages of the Koran; forgetting that the Supreme Being delighteth in va riety, and that he who hath not formed any two objects in his vast creation exactly fimilar, took doubtlefs no lefs care upon the formation of the human mind, perceiveth with delight the

The equality of human beings in the fight of God, being taught by their religion, it is a fundamental maxim of their policy, that no laws are binding, which do not obtain the confent of the people. All laws are therefore iffed by the fanction of their reprefentatives; every feparate district, town, and community, choofing from among themselves, the perfons moft diftinguished for piety, wisdom; learn ing, integrity, impart to them the * It is ordained that the magiftrate shall keep in fubjection to himself his luft, anger, avarice, folly, drunkenness, and pride: he who cannot keep thefe paffions under his own fubjection, how fhall he be able to nourish and inftruct the people? Neither shall he be feduced by the pleasures of the chace, nor be addicted to play, nor always employed in dancing, finging, and playing on musical inftruments. Nor thall he go to any place without a caufe, nor difpraife any perfon without knowing his faults, nor hall he envy another perfon's fuperior merit, nor fhall fay that fuch perfons as are men of capacity are men of no capacity, &c. See Code of Gentoo Laws, page 52. + Learned bramins.

See Preliminary Difcourfe of the bramins, employed by Mr. Haftings in the Pootee, or compilation of the ordinations of the Pundits.-Gentoo Laws.

contrarieties of opinion among men. They have carried their prefumption to far, that one fect hath dared to conceive hatred and ill will against another, for not viewing every dark paffage in the writings of their prophet, exactly in the fame light! How different is the cafe with the Chriftian! The great founder of their religion having left every man at liberty, to choose the form of worship which he finds beft calculated to excite, and to exprefs fentiments of devotion, they each attach themselves to the form moft agreeable to their own minds, allowing the fame liberty to others, and convinced that all are equally acceptable to the Deity, who acquiefce in his laws, and obey his commandments. In the dominions of the muffulmans, though all fects are permitted to live, it is one fect alone (the orthodox) that is invefted with power, or entrusted with authority. But a mong Chriftians what fect exifts that would accept of the most beneficial diftinctions, on terms fo contrary to the fpirit of their gofpel? No. All fects, equal in the eye of heaven, muft needs, by the wife and virtuous legiflators of this happy country, be admitted into an equal enjoyment of every right, and every privilege. The priests of their religion are, as their characters are fully fet forth in their Shafter, men who defpife the adventitious advantages of rank and fortune, who regard no diftinctions in their flock, but the diftinctions arifing from internal worth, and intrinfic goodness; not thirsting after worldly honours; not given to luxury; ftrangers to avarice and pride. Having no bitterness againit thofe who differ from them in opinion, animofity, ftrife, or wrath, is never heard of among thefe holy men, who, in the language of their Shafter," pafs through things temporal, only mindful of thofe which are eternal." Although my unwearied application to the study of the English language, enables me to read a few

paffages in that tongue, it is to the Arabic copy of thofe books of the Shafer, called gospels, to which I am indebted for the accuracy of my information.

"Not prefuming to lift the veil of myftery, with which fome paffages are enveloped (a prefumption, which in a ftranger would be equally unpardonable and unbecoming) I pafs over whatever appears to be myfter ous, with the most profound refpect. But that power, which taught me to sweep from my heart the duft of prejudice, taught me alfo to pay homage to excellence, wherever it might be found. In the precepts of the Chriftian Shafter, I behold the grandeur of fublimity, and the fimplicity of truth. There is one particular fo novel; fo peculiar; fo repugnant to the univerfally received opinions of mankind; that it confiderably excited my aftonifhment. In the revelation beftowed upon the Chriftians, women are confidered in the light of rational beings! free agents! In fhort, as a moiety the human fpecics; whofe fouls are no lefs precious in the eye of the Omnifcient than that of the proud lords of the creation! What can be more extraordinary?

of

The inferiority of women appears fo established by the laws of nature, and has been fo invariably inculcated, by all the legiflators fent by Brahma to enlighten the eight corners of the world, that it feems altogether inconteftible. It is true, that our divine laws (incomparable in wifdom!) do not, like the laws of the muffulmans, abfolutely exclude women from the participation of happiness in a future ftate, it being written in the Shafter, "that a woman, who burns herself with her hufband, fhall live with him in Paradise three crore and fifty lacks of years." But even in this cafe, it is contefted by the Pundits, that her admiffion into Paradife depends on her husband's title to an entrance into that state of felicity. Uncertain tenure

See the Hedaya or Commentary on the Muffulman Laws.