morals of this singular people, and shewing how the same things come to pass in all countries under the sun. A report of the Viceroy of the Fuh-keen and Che-keang provinces, complains of the depreciation of the metal currency in consequence of over-coinage, and proposes a suspension of issues from the mint, until the relative values of silver and currency approach nearer to a par'; the soldiers receiving their pay, in the mean time, in silver. A sensible expedient analogous to a return to cash payments. An imperial edict refers to a report concerning the malversations in office prevalent among the clerks and official assistants in the Government office of Pechely province; and directs the institution of a commission of inquiry. Another edict forbids any of the common people to have fire-arms. Other decrees award posthumous honours to deceased ministers.. A Chinese graduate, erroneously reported as a Tatar at the 'examination at which he obtained his degree', is directed to lose three years; while the head of the Tatar division who made the report, is to be delivered to the Criminal Board for trial and punishment. This singular order-something like punishing an Irish graduate for professing to be English-born-shews how the Tatars are always favoured whenever there is any competition. We give the titles of a few other extracts: Petition from a sick and aged minister to retire permanently from office.Petition for a new trial in a case of Homicide.-Loss of Lives from the Explosion of Gunpowder,-Imperial Decree.-Seizure of a Convict who had escaped from his place of banishment.-Forging the current Coin.-Distress at Peking.—Edict against Witchcraft.-Wreck of two Vessels from Loo-choo.New Ministerial Appointments.-Such are the contents of a Chinese Newspaper. Moreover, Art. XIV. makes it appear, that there exists an association in China, not very dissimilar from the European Freemasons, but of a more dangerous character. We must make room for an extract from Governor Ching's proclamation, which exhibits all the vanity and ostentatious pharisaism of the Chinese character, mingled with occasional good sense and wholesome morality. After setting forth his own good qualities, his exalted patriotism, and his indifference to music and women, goods and gains, revelry and avarice, the Foo-yuen (viceroy) thus proceeds:

Having had to give thanks to the Wise and Holy One for appointing me to be the soother of the people, I am well aware that, in all the districts under my government, robberies and thefts prevail and burn; litigations and imprisonments abound and multiply. Polite decorum and instruction do not flourish, and the public manners are not substantially good......Canton is a luxurious, extravagant province. The vice begins with the retired literati, and passes to the

country gentlemen; from them to the rich merchants; and down to the common people, and petty writers and lictors. They desire to have gay, shining dwellings; their food and drink from the seas and the mountains; their garments to be silks and crapes; their ancestors' halls must, in violation of their proper sphere, have vermillion beams, and doors, and pillars:-forgetting that Heaven's curse will come on those who affect an enjoyment (luxury) which does not belong to their place; whereas, in the affluent, charity to the poor and rescuing the distressed, bring a blessing on posterity for hundreds of years. Besides, the Emperor, who is supreme, and whose riches embrace all the world, encompassed by the four seas, himself sets you an example', &c.

It is the detestable custom of Canton Province, on every slight occasion, for a slight resentment, to commit suicide. And the relatives of the self-murderer view the dead body as a piece of goods of extraordinary value. They contrive to allege that the deceased committed suicide in consequence of ill-usage from some rich neighbour, who, to avoid litigation, gives them a sum of money; or, if he refuses, they combine with the police, and commence a prosecution. When I was at Nan-keung district, in the office of magistrate, five or six suicides occurred every month......Canton abounding in hills and rivers, it abounds in thefts and robberies, both by individuals and associated bodies of men. Let these be acted against, &c. Vagabond attorneys excite litigations, increase and protract them in numbers infinite and to periods interminable. The innocent are accused, and the utterly wrong become accusers; they find avaricious and cruel magistrates, and fraudulent police extortioners. Disputes about marriages and lands are viewed by magistrates as petty affairs, and are given to the management of underlings; and by various forms of legal fraud and oppression, families are ruined, and lives lost.' pp. 44-8.

Such appears to be the existing state of society in the Celestial Empire. The account to which suicide is turned, and the vindictive motive which leads, in many cases, to its commission, are features in which a strong moral resemblance will be recognized to those of the Bengalee. Nor is this the only particular in which the state of things described, corresponds to that which existed under the native Hindoo governments. Among the remedies proposed to be applied to these crying evils, two are certainly excellent measures; but there seems to be no provision made by the State for rendering them effective. Prohi'bit Gaming', is one; the other is:

• Cultivate talent; and schools are the places to foster talent. I hold public schools to be of the first importance. Why so slow in assisting, where aid is required! I will subscribe my salary to assist poor districts to establish public schools; and let the Foo districts subscribe 200 taels, and the Chih-le-Chow districts 150 taels, and the

* See Ecl. Rev. for May, p. 411. Art. Heber's Journal.

Keen districts 100 taels, and all the local officers according to their ability; and let them take the lead, and induce the country gentlemen to come forward and manage the concerns, &c.'

Admirably said, Governor Ching! One would imagine that you must have visited England, and taken a lesson of Mr. Brougham. Go on and prosper; and if the schoolmaster is once abroad in the Celestial Empire, the Missionary will not be far behind him.

The contributions relating to Hindoo literature, which are the most numerous, are the following:-Art. II. VII. XXIV. XXXIII. On the Philosophy of the Hindus. By H. T. Colebrooke, Esq., Director. VI. Essay on the Bhills. By Major Gen. Sir John Malcolm. X. Analytical Account of the Pancha Tantra, with occasional Translations. By H. H. Wilson, Esq., Sec. to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. XI. Inscription upon Rocks in South Bihar. Described by Dr. Buchanan Hamilton, and explained by H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. IX. XII. XIII. Sanscrit Inscriptions and Grants. Communicated by Major James Tod. XV. Short Account of the Saud sect (a sort of Hindoo Quakers). By W. H. Trant, Esq., M.P. XX. Account of Greek, Parthian, and Hindu Medals found in India. By Major Tod. XXIII. XXIX. On the Srawacs or Jains. By Major James Delamaine, and Dr. Buchanan Hamilton. XXVIII. Description of Temples of the Jainas in South Bihar, &c. By Dr. Buchanan Hamilton. XXX. Inscription near Trincomalee. Communicated by Sir Alexander Johnston.

The erudite and elaborate articles on the Philosophy of the Hindoos, by the Director, form the most valuable portion of the volume. We cannot attempt, however, to give an analysis of a treatise which is itself analytical, and which relates to so com plicated and abstruse a subject. We are continually struck with the coincidence between the Hindoo philosophy and that of the Grecian schools, especially the Pythagorean and the Platonic, as well as of the Sooffee sects. Some of these systems are theistical; others are avowedly atheistical, as the sects of Jina and Buddha in effect are; acknowledging no 'creator of the universe, nor supreme ruling providence.' Both these last-mentioned sects, like most others of Indian origin, propose for the grand object to which man should aspire, the attainment of a final happy state; to which they agree in applying the term mucti or mocsha, but with some shades of difference in the interpretation of the word. Many other terms are in use as synonymous with it. That which the Bauddhas, as well as Jainas, more particularly affect, and which is also used by other sectaries, is nirvána, profound calm, i. c. perfect apathy.

"Perpetual, uninterrupted apathy', remarks Mr. Colebrooke, can hardly be said to differ from eternal sleep. The notion of it as á happy condition, seems to be derived from the experience of ecstasies, or from that of a profound sleep, from which a person awakes refreshed. The pleasant feeling is referred back to the period of actual repose. Accordingly, the Vedanta considers the individual soul to be temporarily, during the period of profound sleep, in the like condition of re-union with the Supreme, which it permanently arrives at on its final emancipation from body. This doctrine is not that of the Jainas nor of the Bauddhas. But neither do they consider the endless repose allotted to their perfect saints as attended with a discontinuance of individuality. It is not annihilation, but unceasing apathy, which they understand to be the extinction (nirvana) of their saints; and which they esteem to be supreme felicity, worthy to be sought by practice of mortification, as well as by acquisition of knowledge.' p. 566.

Like the Persian Sooffees, the Hindoo schools are split into a variety of metaphysical sects.* The schism among the Bauddhas or Buddhists, which divided them into four sects, is of high antiquity. All of them', Mr. Colebrooke says, appear 'to have been indiscriminately persecuted, when the Bauddhas ' of every denomination were expelled from Hindusthan and ⚫ the peninsula. Whether the same sects yet subsist among the Bauddhas of Ceylon, Thibet, and the trans-gangetic India, ' and in China, deserves inquiry.' (p. 559.) On the subject of the affinity between the Hindoo metaphysics and the Greek, we meet with the following interesting statement.

The point on which the Pasupatas' (followers of Pasupati-a theistical sect) most essentially differ from the orthodox, the distinct and separate existence of the efficient and material causes of the universe, is common to them with the ancient Greek philosophers before Aristotle. Most of these similarly affirmed two, and only two, natural causes, the efficient and the material; the first, active, moving; the second, acting, moved: the one, effective; the other, yielding itself to be acted upon by it. Ocellus terms the latter ys, generation, or rather production; the former, its cause, airía Venicews. Empedocles, in like manner, affirmed two principles of nature; the active, which is unity, or God; the passive, which is matter. Here we have precisely the pracriti and carana of the Indian philosophers; their upadana and nimitta-carana, material and efficient causes. The similarity is too strong to have been accidental. Which of the two borrowed from the other, I do not pretend to determine. Yet, adverting to what has come to us of the history of Pythagoras, I shall not hesitate to acknowledge an inclination to consider the Grecian to have been, on this, as on many other points, indebted to Indian instructors.

It should be observed, that some among the Greek philosophers, like the Sanc'hyas who follow Capila, admitted only one material principle, and no efficient cause. This appears to have been the doctrine of Heraclitus in particular. His psigmata correspond to the sheer (tan-matra) particles of Capila's Sanc'hya; his intelligent and rational principle, which is the cause of production and dissolution, is Capila's buddhi or mahat; as his material principle is pradhana or pracriti. The development of corporeal existences, and their return to the first principle at their dissolution, correspond to the upward and downward way (ods åve and ôùs xar) of Heraclitus. I shall not pursue the parallel further. It would not hold for all particulars; nor was it to be expected that it should.' p. 574.

Sir John Malcolm observes, in his History of Persia, that the life and opinions of Pythagoras, if translated into Persian, 'would be read at this moment (in Persia) as those of a Sooffee saint. The tale of his initiation into the mysteries of the 'Divine nature, his deep contemplation and abstraction of 'mind, his miracles, his passionate love of music, his mode of teaching his disciples, the persecution that he suffered, and the manner of his death, present us nearly an exact parallel to what is related of many of the most eminent of the Sooffee teachers.' There seems to be no reason for hesitation in referring the modern Persian philosophy to a Grecian origin, although Pythagoras himself was a scholar of the Persian magi. We are rather indisposed to believe that he was indebted for his philosophy, in any considerable measure, to the Indian gymnosophists. The coincidence between the Grecian and the Indian philosophy would be explained, by supposing them to have been drawn from a common source more ancient than either.

The following remark is highly important in its bearing upon the question of the relative priority of the Jains and Buddhists, and of the Vedantins. The former sects disavow the divine origin of the Vedas, on which account, more than for their deviation from its doctrines, they are reputed heterodox by the Hindoo. Speaking of a hymn introduced into the Veda, the modern style and tone of which afford internal evidence of its having been composed after the Sanscrit language had been refined, and its grammar and rhythm perfected, Mr. Colebrooke adds:

'The internal evidence which it furnishes, serves to demonstrate the important fact, that the compilation of the Vedas, in their present arrangement, took place after the Sanscrit tongue had advanced from the rustic and irregular dialect in which the multitude of hymns and prayers of the Veda was composed, to the polished and sonorous language in which the mythological poems, sacred and profane (puranas and cavyas), have been written.' p. 461.