For this year there will be a scholarship for Arabic, another for Persian, and a third for Sanskrit. A scholarship is tenable for two years, but may be extended, in special cases, to three years. The age of candidates is above 17 years and under 25, on 1st of January of the year of examination. A native of India is excluded from competition for a scholarship in a language of his native tongue, or a language allied to it. Candidates intending to compete this year must give notice before the 1st of July next to Sir Frederick A. Abel, Bart., Hon. Secretary and Director of the Imperial Institute, from whom all particulars may be obtained. We trust these important scholarships will be widely taken advantage of, specially by Europeans, and also of the School of Modern Studies established in 1890, in co-operation with the Councils of University and King's Colleges, and thus realize the expectations of the founders, as expressed by the Prince of Wales, as an "invaluable assistance to those who are, by their future services, to contribute to a wise and prosperous government of the Indian Empire."

CANADA-THE PROJECTED NEW CANAL.

Mr. McLeod Stewart, an ex-Mayor of Ottawa, has proposed a new canal whereby the produce surrounding the regions of the great lakes of Canada may be cheaply and quickly transported to the sea-board, and thence to English ports. The proposed "Montreal, Ottawa, and Georgian Bay Canal" passes through some of the richest agricultural and lumber regions of Canada, and has engaged the attention of the recent GovernorGeneral, Lord Aberdeen, as a member of the Parliamentary Committee of the Manchester Ship Canal, who considers that such a waterway would be of great benefit to the two countries.

THE EAST INDIA ASSOCIATION.

AGRICULTURAL BANKS IN INDIA.

The Council of this Association, on 14th December, 1898, passed the following important Resolution :

"The Council have carefully considered the question of Agricultural Banks, and are of opinion that it is most desirable, in the interests of the agricultural population, that some such scheme of a practical, workable, and commercially sound character should be started in India, but they consider that it should be initiated by men of local knowledge and authority supported by native capital."

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

GEORGE ALLEN, CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON.

1. The Literary Year Book, 1898. Edited by JOSEPH JACOBS. The editor, with much industry and skill, has produced, in a concise form valuable information, specially to new authors, with respect to publishers, booksellers and printers. The work contains useful lists of the principal public libraries and scientific and literary institutions in the United Kingdom, reviews, magazines, and their specialities in reference to literary subjects, and minor details. Mr. Jacobs has succeeded in producing an interesting and useful volume for all engaged in English literature.

2. The Bible References of John Ruskin, by MARY and ELLEN GIBBS. The authoresses have done well in gathering together the many references to passages in the Bible in the various works of Mr. Ruskin. His extensive knowledge, his love of art, and his incisive criticism give a value to every comment or allusion he makes to Sacred Writ. The root and foundation of his scriptural knowledge are both instructive and interesting He says, "I owe to my mother for the resolutely consistent lessons which so exercised me in the Scriptures as to make every word of them familiar to my ear in habitual music,-yet in that familiarity reverenced, as transcending all thought, and ordaining all conduct." For speedy reference, the subjects criticized are arranged alphabetically, and in an Appendix there is the order of the Books, from which passages have been quoted and commented upon. The work is very valuable to the reader of the Sacred Volume, and especially to those who have to illustrate and expound it.

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

3. Wright's Arabic Grammar, third edition, revised (with additions and corrections) by W. ROBERTSON SMITH and M. J. DE GOEJE. Vol. II. 1898.

In previous issues of the Asiatic Quarterly Review (see October, 1896, and January, 1897) notices have appeared of volume i. of this edition.; we have now the pleasure to notice volume ii. of this important work.

This, the concluding volume of the lamented Dr. Wright's great contribution to Arabic studies, deals with the intricate subject of the Syntax. It takes up, first, the Syntax of the Verb; then, the Syntax of the Noun ; and, finally, the Syntax of the Sentence. It deals also with the highly complex subject of Arabic Prosody; and under this head come all the different methods of the Poetry of the Arabs. At the end of this volume we have a series of full and minute Indexes, three in number. They are classified Indexes, and the references are to the first volume as well as to the second. These indexes are very carefully compiled and are of great value-embracing, as they do, every important detail of this extensive work; and by the aid of them the student is able, with the minimum expenditure of time, to find every point with which the Grammar deals.

:

The section-marking of volume ii. is not continuous with that of volume i., the sections in each volume begin from "section i." onwards in this volume there are 253 sections. The volume contains 450 pages, of which the indexes occcupy about sixty. The value of the work to the student of Arabic is greatly enhanced by the footnotes that have been incorporated by Prof. de Goeje and the late Prof. Robertson Smith-names which are a guarantee for thoroughness of knowledge and soundness of teaching. The high workmanship exhibited in the letter-press is the same as that exhibited in the first edition of the work, and well maintains the reputation of the press from which it issues. The vowel-pointing of the Arabic sentences is given throughout the work-a feature that makes the work larger than it would otherwise have been; but the advantage to the student and to the critic will be great enough to compensate for this. The system by which throughout the work the paragraphs are indicated is highly elaborate and renders reference easy, pleasant, and effective: in a work of such magnitude and of such complicated nature this feature is one which it is not easy to over-prize. At the beginning of the volume there is a list of "Addenda et Corrigenda," from which it appears that the presserrors are surprisingly few-the list consisting mainly of additional remarks and modifications which, when we come to examine them, are found to be of real value as elucidative of the places to which they refer. This edition of the work well sustains the well-known reputation of the first; and it will be of lasting service to English-speaking people in Persia, Arabia, India, Turkey, Egypt, and other lands in which Arabic is used for professional and business purposes, and as a passport to the society of the learned. It will be of use, however, not only to those who require Arabic as a spoken language, but also to those who need it for literary purposesthe philologist, the theologian, and students of the Shemitish languages generally. The work exhibits a thoroughness of scholarship, an abundance and accuracy of illustration and example, and an extensiveness of quotation of the native Arabian authorities that constitute a guarantee of the usefulness of the work and a pledge of its permanency. It is not a work for the tourist or occasional visitor, but for the study, leading on to a more recondite and comprehensive acquaintance with the language. With Wright's Grammar and with the admirable Lexicon of Edward William Lane, the study of this beautiful language—the Italian of the East—is placed, for English students, on a higher platform than it occupied before the appearance of such works. B.

PRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS, LONDON.

4. From Cæsar to Sultan, being Notes from Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," made by His Highness Syaji Rao Gaekwar, Maharaja of Baroda, G. C.S.I.

It is a gratifying sign of the times to find a native Indian prince devoting his leisure to English literature. The progress which the native feudatory states are making under English supervision is one of the results of British rule in India, and there are many signs that princes, as well as people, participate in this progress. The various Rajkumar colleges for training

the sons of feudatory chiefs are already bearing good fruit, and exhibit further promise for the future. Prince Ranjitsinghji, so well-known as a cricketer, has shown by his book on cricket that he can wield the pen as well as the bat. Another native chief, the Rahore of Gondal, has published a historical work on Indian medicine, giving the English reader an account of native healing art. A Panjab chief published the notes of his tour through Europe, giving the views of an educated Indian prince on European manners and institutions. These three works have recently appeared, and now a fourth Indian prince-the Maharaja of Baroda—has joined the ranks of English authors. During his minority he had the good fortune to be put under excellent guidance, by which he has been enabled to carry out numerous reforms in his State.

The Maharaja's education has been mainly literary, and has therefore induced him to take a deep interest in the promotion of knowledge and to patronize men of letters and science. The establishment of the College and the Technical Institute in his capital city, the endowment of a chair of Indian pharmacology in Bombay, the republication of the almost forgotten literary masterpieces of former days in the Gujarati and Mahratti languages, the series of translations into these languages of some of the best English historical, philosophical, and scientific books, all prove his great zeal for the spread of knowledge among the natives of India, and especially among his own people. But not content with merely patronizing literature, he is actively engaged in studying English literature for himself, and endeavouring to impart the result of his research to his countrymen, and as an introduction he has produced his notes on the History of Gibbon. They embody an admirable analysis and condensation of that well-known work. As an example, we may quote his summary of Gibbon's famous chapter on Christianity :

"The first Christians were, for the most part, mean and ignorant, though there were some exceptions with regard to learning, and rank, and fortune; but we must remember that the Apostles themselves were chosen by Providence from among the fishermen of Galilee, and that the lower was the conditions of the past Christians, the more reason is there to admire their merit and success. The kingdom of heaven was promised to the poor in spirit, and minds afflicted by calamity cheerfully listen to the Divine promise of future happiness; while the fortunate are satisfied with possession of this world, and the wise abuse in doubt, and dispute their vain superiority of reason and knowledge" (p. 48).

We hope this handsome volume will yet be published in a popular form for wider use. The late Sir W. Smith's Student's Gibbon is the chief epitome of the Decline and Fall, but this present work is in some respects superior to it, being more compact, and restricting itself more closely to the main objects of the work, and will prove a very useful companion by the side of Gibbon's History. We would also suggest that this admirable work be translated into Gujarati, Mahratti, and Urdu, as there are very few works in these languages on mediæval European history.-R. P. KARKARIA.

CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY.

Second

5. A Modern Pilgrim in Jerusalem, by JOHN ROOKER, M.A. edition. The author gives a pleasing and interesting account of his visit

to Jerusalem, Bethany, Bethlehem, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan, with lovely illustrations of the Porter at Jerusalem, David's Well, the Damascus Gate, and other places.

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY; LONDON.

6. Japan and the Japan Mission. This is a new edition, with map and illustrations, of the history of the work of the agents of the Church Missionary Society. It describes the country, the political changes, the liberal and tolerant policy of the present Government, and hopeful progress in the future.

VOL. IV. OF THE "OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY." CLARENDON PRESS; OXFORD, LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK. 7. A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, founded mainly on the Materials collected by the " Philological Society," edited by DR. JAMES A. H. MURRAY, with the assistance of many scholars and men of science. Section Gaincope-Germanizing. By HENRY BRADLEY, HON. M.A., OXON. We have had the pleasure of referring to the excellence and importance of this magnificent work in our issues of January and April, 1898 (see pp. 191 and 435). The present section contains 1,971 words, 516 combinations, and 675 subordinate entries; in all 3,162. Of the main words 1,543 are current and native or fully naturalized, 371 are obsolete, and 54 are marked as alien or not fully naturalized. To show the copiousness of the work, it contains explanations of 3,666 words in the area in which Johnson has 344,-2,857 illustrated by quotations, as against 266 in Johnson, and 13,520 illustrative quotations, as against 786; and 1,070 in Richardson's. It contains the Japanese word geisha, so recently introduced into the English; galingale and garble from the Arabic; and gambier and gecko from Malay. The word game occupies seven columns, gate a similar space, and gauge five columns. Under the term Gazette there is the following interesting information: "The first official journal published in England was the Oxford Gazette, the first number of which appeared in November, 1665, when the Court was at Oxford on account of the plague. Nos. 22 and 23 were printed in London, and with No. 24 the title was changed to the London Gazette. The Edinburgh Gazette was first issued in 1690, the Dublin Gazette in 1705." As we have observed before, this "Dictionary is a History of English speech and thought from its infancy to the present day."

LIBRAIRIE HACHETTE ET CIE.; PARIS, 1898.

8. La Corée, indépendante, Russe, ou Japonaise, par R. VILLETARD DE LAGUERIE. This volume is a geographical, historical, and political treatise on Korea, which comes to hand at an opportune time. The author, who was in the Far East during and after the Chino-Japanese war, describes the degradation of the population, the miseries and impotence of the government of "the last virgin soil of the globe," i.e., Korea, or "the land of the serene morning." The book is divided into four parts. Part first tells us of the conquest of the country by Japan, of the causes of the