duty or our inclination were we not favorably to notice the colored plates appended to the paper. We hardly recollect to have seen any more faithfully and admirably executed, and which so clearly illustrate the subjects of the text.

Art. VII. The History, Antiquities, Topography, and Statistics of Eastern India; comprising the Districts of Behar, Shahabad, Bhagulpoor, Goruckpoor, Dinajepoor, Puraniya, Ronggopoor, and Assam, in relation to their Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, Fine Arts, Population, Religion, Education, Statistics, &c. Surveyed under the Orders of the Supreme Government, and Collated from the Original Documents at the E. I. House, with the Permission of the Honorable Court of Directors. By MONTGOMERY MARTIN, Author of the History of the British Colonies,' &c. In Three Volumes. London: Allen and Co.

THE

HE time must be near at hand when the interests of that vast province of the British empire whose population is at least five times that of the British isles, and more than a hundred and twenty times that of our West India colonies, will stand revealed to the awakened attention of the public in this country in all their magnitude and importance. Hitherto, of the awful responsibility which the possession of India involves, not only do our statesmen and legislators appear to be insensible, but no adequate idea is generally entertained even by the philanthropic and religious portion of the community. Ilow is this? The explanation is, we think, not difficult. First, India is regarded as a possession, not as a part of the empire; not as a colony. The number of British settlers is at present very inconsiderable, and few indeed emigrate to India with the intention of making it their adopted country and home. Then the natives are further removed from our sympathies than even the negroes or aborigines of our colonies, because the latter, at least to a considerable extent, are brought under moral cultivation, are as it were domesticated, Christianized, and speak our language. Once more, a certain degree of information is requisite in order to waken curiosity; and scarcely enough is known about India by the generality of persons, to lead them to feel interest in extending their knowledge. In fact, we believe that ignorance, absolute and discreditable ignorance, is the chief cause of the prevailing indifference to a subject which, when fairly appreciated and steadily contemplated, oppresses the mind with its vastness of extent and incalculable importance. And this ignorance, extending as it does

even to those who have the direction of public opinion, and exer. cise a powerful control over our public affairs, will sooner or later cost us dear.

A bare catalogue of the publications relating to India would, it is true, form a volume; but few of these give us any insight into the actual condition of the country and its population, and their sale, we suspect, is for the most part very limited. We know this to be the case with some of the most valuable works that have appeared. The present volumes form a large accession to our information; and we cannot but express our satisfaction that their multifarious contents have at length been suffered to see the light. The statistical survey which it comprises, was executed under the orders of the Bengal Government, dated Sept., 1807; by Dr. F. Buchanan, and occupied seven years. It was then brought to a close, after an expenditure of about £30,000, and when only a portion of the territories under the government of the Bengal Presidency had been investigated. The materials collected, and the observations made, were forwarded to the home authorities in 1816, and were suffered to remain in the East India House for twenty years. At length, on completing the Marquess of Wellesley's Despatches, Mr. Montgomery Martin asked and obtained permission to examine the manuscripts connected with this survey.

That examination,' he says, 'convinced me that a judicious selection from the documents and information would be extremely valuable, by placing before the British public a minute and official description of the condition of the mass of the people; while it would also tend to promote such further inquiries in India as will, I trust, enable us ere long to obtaina complete insight into the resources of that vast and fertile country, and into the social state of the millions of our fellow subjects by whom it is inhabited. Nothing that I saw in India, or that I ever read, presents so descriptive a portraiture of the natives of Hindostan as these official documents exhibit, and which I confidently trust will tend to excite the minds of the wise and good to co-operate in procuring from the parliament of the empire, that mercantile reciprocity of which so much has been heard with reference to foreign nations, but none at all with regard to our own possessions in India. . . . Were the hundred millions of British subjects in India converted into a consuming population, what a market would be presented for British capital, skill, and industry!'

Whatever may be thought of Mr. Martin's opinions on Indian affairs, (and perhaps it would have been as well if he had not introduced them into the preface to a work of this description,) the public of Britain and of India are under no small obligations to him for the labor bestowed upon the editing of Dr. Buchanan's voluminous reports. Mr. Martin deserves the credit of

being one of the most industrious and indefatigable literary workmen of the day; and we have no desire to disparage the value of his present performance; yet we must regret that he has confined his editorial labors to the simple process of selection and abridgement (which might, indeed, have been carried much further), and that he has shrunk from the difficult task' of offering any analysis of the facts contained in these volumes, or even reducing their contents to a table of matters or index. As it is, we very much fear that the undigested mass of materials will be consulted only for the data they may furnish to future compilers: by the generality of persons the work will be found scarcely readable. It would have been, we admit, an herculean labor properly to arrange, compress, and edit such a work; and to deal competently with the multifarious matters brought into the survey would have demanded an acquaintance with the history, literature, and languages of India that is possessed by few.

Within the last thirty years, the unwearied labor and high scholarship that have been employed in investigating the extant remains of Indian philosophy and mythology, have reduced to the shape of consistent knowledge the vague speculations that were entertained upon these subjects by the first pioneers in the untrodden field of Asiatic research. Much of the hearsay information scattered through these volumes with regard to the tenets, superstitions, customs, and traditions of the Hindoos, would have been of considerable value if collated with the results of the learned investigations prosecuted with such unwearied industry and brilliant success, by our Colebrookes and Wilsons, our Tods and Erskines, and a long array of Asiatic scholars. For instance, the account of the Sikhs (vol. i. p. 211), given on the authority of a fakir of Patna, is very defective and inaccurate, and the writer admits that he had not seen the account published in the Asiatic Researches. At vol. ii. p. 498, we find them referred to as more numerous in Bahar than any other Hindoo sect, which must be wholly erroneous. The account of the Jain sect is not less imperfect and confused; and we meet with many statements utterly unintelligible. For instance: The greater part at least of the "Tantras which contain the forms of worship of Vishnoo and his 'avatars, although supposed to have been composed by Siva, are 'believed to have been divulged by Narada to Gautama.'-vol. i. p. 189. Chronology and common sense are alike violated in this absurd statement. The author appears to have had no distinct knowledge of the sacred books he so often refers to, or of the infamous character of the modern Tantras. Sometimes we find him correcting himself thus: In some of the accounts which 'I have formerly given, I have to a certain degree been mistaken in calling the Ramawats followers of Ramanuj,' &c.-p. 201. The mistake and its correction are alike trivial, but the original

statement appears the most accurate. The account of the Rajpoot tribes (p. 507), would be quite unintelligible but for the commentary supplied by Major Tod. We find the learned reveries of Major Wilford repeatedly referred to, although Dr. Buchanan appears not wholly unaware of the unsafe character of his authority; and at vol. ii. p. 113, we find him controverting some of the Major's romantic statements respecting his favorite Magas. The extreme difficulty of coming to any fixed or rational opinion concerning the transactions of a people who have no history,' is assigned as an apology for having, in the account of Dinajpoor, supposed the original seat of the Gaur Brahmins to have been in the west of India, instead of Bengal. It is scarcely correct, however, to speak of the Hindoos as having no history. The Cashmirian annals go back to a remote period, and are of unquestioned authenticity; and all accounts agree in making the Brahmans to have entered India from the north-west, as a foreign colony who had previously established themselves in Cashmir. The perplexing variations in orthography in these volumes are attributable, we presume, to the obscurity of MSS. In vol. iii. we have Yovon for Yavan; Tontros for Tantras; Siva is written Sib; and his goddess, Parvati, Parboti, &c. The Brahmaputra, generally called Burrampooter, will hardly be recognized under the form of Brohmoputro. It is obvious how much this carelessness tends to increase the difficulty of extracting information from the crude memoranda here presented to us. In fact, as to the historical matter contained in these reports, and the greater part of the observations upon the Hindoo sects, no loss would have been sustained, had the bulk of the volumes been reduced by the whole space which they occupy. The statistical, topographical, and agricultural details form the only valuable portion.

As a specimen of the miscellaneous information, we give an account of an instance of crocodile-worship, which carries us back to the days when the inhabitants of rival cities on the Nile waged exterminating war against each other in the name of their bestial divinities. In Africa this would be called Fetish-worship.

The only place of Moslem worship is the Durgah of a saint, which is the property of a Fakir who has a small endowment. This monument is placed on the side of a tank, which, from its greatest length being from north to south, is a Hindu work. The chief celebrity of the place arises from its being inhabited by a crocodile, who is considered as the same with the saint; and he is accompanied by a smaller, which is supposed to be the saint's wife. On the 1st of Vaisakh about 5000 people of all sects assemble to make offerings to these monsters, which are then so glutted with kids and fowls that the multitude surround them without danger. At other times the supplies are casual; and sometimes the animals become so voracious, that they

occasionally carry away young buffaloes which come for drink. This year, as a man was attempting to drive out a young buffalo that had imprudently gone into the water, he was carried down and devoured. The natives, far from being irritated at this, believed that the unfortunate man had been a dreadful sinner, and that his death was performed by the saint merely as a punishment. Were twenty accidents of the kind to happen, they would consider it as highly improper to give the sacred animals any molestation. I went to view them in company with a Brahman of very considerable endowments, and by far the best informed person in the vicinity. I took with me a kid, the cries of which I was told would bring out the crocodiles. As I found the saint and his wife extended on the shore, where, notwithstanding the multitude, they lay very quietly, and as the kid made a most lamentable noise, I was moved to compassion, and directed it to be removed. This not only disappointed the multitude, but the Brahman said that such a proceeding was very unlucky, and that the neglect shown to the saint might afterwards produce very bad consequences. The claims of the kid, however, seemed most urgent, and the people appeared to be satisfied by my observing, that I alone could suffer from the neglect, as the piety of their intentions was indubitable.

The Hindus here seem to be more than usually indifferent concerning the objects which they worship; and several places, recently and avowedly built by mere men, attract as much notice as in other parts would be given to those of which the foundation had been accompanied by events that in some countries would be considered as extraordinary.'-Vol. iii. pp. 59, 60.

In reference to the slavery which still exists in Bengal, we meet with the following important statement.

It must be observed, that the same terms Golam and Gulmi, or Launda Laundi are given to male and female domestics, who are actually slaves, have been purchased, and are sometimes sold. Under the term Laundi, however, are often comprehended persons of a very different description; and, had a Moslem chief the means of procuring a Circassian beauty, she would come under this denomination. As it is, the high Moslems sometimes purchase a pretty child, with whom necessity induces her parents to part. She is carefully shut up with his wife, on whom she attends; but as she grows up, she often attracts the regards of her master, becomes a mother, and although she never acquires the rank nor dignity of a spouse, she often receives more of the chief's attention than falls to the lot of her mistress, and obtains a separate establishment. Every thing concerning the women of such persons being veiled in the most profound mystery, no estimate could be procured of their number; but this is a luxury in which almost every Muhammedan of fortune is supposed to indulge as far as he can afford.

Common domestic slaves are not only called Golam and Launda, but in some parts they are called Nufur. While in others this term and Dhinggar are exclusively given to slaves employed in agriculture,