Peshawur, as it is in Jessore, no one has dreamt of threatening him with a Parliamentary enquiry. His measures have been characterised by so much justice and moderation as well as vigor, that although they have resulted in an extension of territory and influence which Lord Ellenborough himself might have envied, he has not roused the outcry of party hostility. He has reduced the numerical strength of the army without weakening our means of defence; and he delivers the empire to his successor with an excess of income over expenditure, and in a state of such tranquillity as to inspire the hope of large resources for the future triumphs of peace."

Before his departure Lord Hardinge must also have received the reports of the speeches made at the parting dinner given by the Court of Directors to Lord Dalhousie, and in them had an earnest of the greeting that awaits him in England. On the occasion referred to, the Premier of England, addressing the Governor-General elect, expressed his conviction "that he will show, as his immediate predecessor, Lord Hardinge, has shown, that resolution in administering justice, forbearance towards all neighbours and foreign Powers, attention to the arts of peace, and sedulous care for the improvement of the inter⚫nal condition of India, which are compatible with the utmost spirit, the utmost courage in repelling any aggression that may be made-meeting and conquering those who choose to constitute themselves the foes of the British empire in India." The Chairman of the Court of Directors, himself a distinguished member of the Bengal Civil Service, at the same dinner, when proposing the health of Lord Hardinge, eulogized him no less than Lord John Russell had done.

Thus, amid the plaudits of the people whom he had ruled and already stamped by the approbation of the home authorities, has closed the administration of Lord Hardinge.

We bid adieu to his Lordship with every hearty good wish. He found India held by a discontented Army, threatened by invasion, and almost bankrupt. He has, in all senses, righted the vessel, restored confidence to our Ranks, to our Allies and our Dependants; replenished the public purse, tranquilized the Frontier, and brought peace and security to the long distracted Punjab. He has already been rewarded; but a Viscounty and a Pension is a small portion of his recompence. His best reward is in the conviction of his own noble heart that he has honestly and bravely done his duty; that he leaves behind him more than a hundred millions whom he has largely blessed by enlightened and just measures; and that returning to his Native land, he is regretted by those he leaves behind and warmly welcomed by men of every shade of opinion, as the pacific Warrior, the happy Statesman; the man who in reality "brought Peace to Asia!

ART. VII.—1. Manners and Customs of the Hindus; by the Revd. T. Acland, late Chaplain at Cuttack, Midnapore, &c., (Murray's Home and Colonial Library). London, J. Murray, 1847.

2. Five years in the East, by R. N. Hutton, 2 vols. London, Longman and Co., 1847.

3. Poems, by George Powell Thomas, Captain, Bengal Army, Author of "Views of Simla." London, Smith, Elder and Co., 1847.

4. Real Life in India. London, Houlston and Stoneman, 1847

IF the supply of new books relating to India be not in excess of the demand, we may congratulate ourselves on a growing desire among our brethren at home for information regarding the affairs of the Eastern world. In our last publication, we reviewed a batch of new works, principally illustrative of military life and military adventure; and we have now before us several volumes, which have appeared since the issue of the September number of our journal, and which demand from us, as Indian Reviewers, at least a passing notice of their contents. These are books of a lighter class. But the English press has recently sent forth works of higher pretensions, more solid character, and more enduring interest,* whilst from the opposite extreme of ephemerality we are deluged with an almost incessant stream of fugitive pamphlets on the passing topics of the day. If, we say, the supply of such works be not in excess of the demand, we may congratulate ourselves, not unreasonably, on the interest felt by the present generation in the affairs, great and small, of our Indian Empire.

Of the works whose names we have placed at the head of this article, the first is written by an English clergyman, a chaplain on the establishment, who came out to India, a few years ago, accompanied by his wife, but leaving his elder children in England. To these children he addressed a number of letters, which since the death of the reverend gentleman-for he died after a brief sojourn amongst us-have been collected and placed at the disposal of the editor or publisher of Murray's Home and Colonial Library. They form the last number which has reached us, of that valuable publication, and not the least interesting of the fifty which have appeared.

In the month of July, 1842, Mr. Acland, after an eventless voy

• Among these are the lives of Bishop Corrie and Dr. Yates, which we purpose ere long to consider.

age, found himself comfortably located in Calcutta. The Archdeacon invited the new arrival to take up his residence with him ; 'but having already accepted the offer of the bishop," he "was of course compelled to decline this" invitation. He remained about a month in the City of Palaces and then started for Midnapore, having been appointed to the ministerial charge of our southernmost Bengal stations. Of Calcutta Society he says nothing; his book is one long illustration of life at an out-station. And it is not the worse for that. Every touch-and-go voyager has something more or less preposterous to say about life at the presidency. Mr. Acland's letters have a spice of originality in them, because they are devoted to minute descriptions of Mofussil life and Mofussil Society, with all their components of bad dinners and good feeling, jungle-shooting, cigar-smoking, snakes and brandy and

water.

There is, indeed, nothing better in Mr. Acland's book than the sporting anecdotes, which are scattered thickly over his letters and told with a gusto which shows this reverend gentleman to have been a keen sportsman. Thirty or forty years ago, when the Church Establishment in India was a bug-bear to European politicians, it was alleged as a reproach to our Christian ministers, that they were in the habit of going out to shoot monkeys, and sometimes excited thereby the indignation of the natives.* Mr. Acland, it appears, had a taste for monkey-shooting and every other description of sport. Tigers and buffaloes-birds and bears-nothing came amiss to him. With a gun in his hand and a solah hat on his head, he appears to have been perfectly contented. His achievements in the jungle he narrates with spirit; but with something less than the usual amount of vain-glorious self-satisfaction. We could almost I wish that he had not narrated them at all.

The Indian sporting world has too efficient an organ of its own to render it necessary that we should meddle with this part of Mr. Acland's book. We would direct our attention to other

"It is not," wrote Mr. (afterwards Archdeacon and Bishop) Corrie, to Mr. Sargent, in 1813, "that the evangelization of India is a hopeless project, or that to attempt it is attended with political danger; for the story General Kyd produced in the house of House of Commons, to shew the danger of interfering with the natives is both erroneously stated and ridiculously applied. The idea of grave ministers of religion going out to shoot monkeys, would not have been entertained in any other connexion but as supplying an objection to missions. But the young men were not destroyed by the natives; the elephant on which they rode took fright at the clamour of lamentation and displeasure raised by the people on the monkey being killed, and plunged into a deep place of the river Jumna, when the howdah on which they sat getting loose from the elephant's back, the young men were drowned. General Kyd would perhaps say he had seen chaplains in India shooting monkeys, and he should at the same time have the candour to state that none of that description made themselves obnoxious to the natives by their religion, and consequently there is nothing to fear from an establishment of that kind.'

incidental topics-not following any particular order or arrangement, or endeavouring to give any connected account of our author's brief Indian career. There is no novel information, and there are no profound reflexions in Mr. Acland's series of letters. It would be unreasonable to look for either in such a book;—but it is not without suggestiveness. We have here the first impressions of a man of mature understanding-one who evidently writes in good faith-who is hampered by no foregone conclusions-who is bent neither on manufacturing a book nor on making out a case in obedience to the claims of publisher or party.

That he is very often mistaken-that he sometimes is betrayed into very ridiculous blunders, writing as he does without investigation and arriving per saltum at unwarrantable conclusions-we must in honesty admit; but we cannot question the sincerity of the writer nor severely reprehend his errors. The Editor of the Colonial Library may not be equally blameless. There are passages in Mr. Acland's letters which ought to have been expunged or published only under protest.

Here is a passage of this description. Writing of his brief sojourn at Madras, Mr. Acland observes :

"When you meet in the street with a native who is at all acquainted with you, or who wishes to express his thanks for anything, instead of merely saying, "Thank you," or " How do you do?" he presses his hands upon his eyes, and says, Salaam sahib." Some English persons, on going out for a walk, may be seen to carry a whip, with which, if the natives are at all troublesome, they lash them; but this is a cruel practice. Ladies are prevented by the heat from walking abroad here, and gentlemen seldom do so, but go about in what are called palanquins which I will describe hereafter. When we ride out, however swiftly we go, a man called a coolie runs by the side of the carriage. We are obliged to get up here at about half-past five in the morning, and then we go out for a drive, or in the palanquin; at half-past seven the sun is too powerful even for that exercise: we then return home, take a cold bath, and breakfast. At half-past six in the evening we are enabled to go out again a little. In the middle of the day we take a nap."

The English reader will not improbably infer from this that the European residents of Madras go abroad with whips in their hands to chastise the natives walking in the streets. An English clergyman says so, and it must be true. Mr. Acland has a becoming sense of the cowardly wickedness of beating one's native servants: but we are inclined to think that he somewhat exaggerates the extent to which the unseemly practise is carried by our English officers. At least we would fain hope that the following story, if not absolutely untrue, is at all events somewhat highly colored :—

"I think I have told you how cruelly some of the people here beat their Servants. I was standing with an officer in the porch of his house when I

was last at Midnapore, when his syce, or groom, brought his horse to the door. Captain L. turned to me, and said, I have not given that fellow a thrashing for a long time, and he 'll forget what it feels like, and grow lazy." Now the fact was, the man was so attentive and industrious that Captain L. could not possibly find any fault with him. However, he went down the steps, and on the pretence that the man did not hold his horse properly gave him several violent blows on the face and head, kicked him three or four times with all his force, and struck him on the back with a two-foot rule with such violence that the man was obliged to have his back plastered and bandaged up: and all this without the slighest fault on the part of the servant.

Much as has been said about slavery, I do not believe that any of the slaves in Jamaica were ever worse treated than are the servants of some of our officers here. The excuse is, that it is impossible to manage the Hindus without the whip; but I never use it, and I am certainly quite as well served by all excepting two. With these I am going to part, for they have been spoiled by living with a very violent man. I will give you an instance of the punishments I employ.

My sirdar always goes home to his supper at nine o'clock. The other evening, after he was gone, I found that he had neglected to get the night-lamp ready, so I was obliged to do it myself. The following morning, instead of thrashing him, I made no observation whatever on the subject; but at nine o'clock in the evening, when he came to ask whether he might go home, I said. "You did not bring the night-lamp last night; I may want something else that is not ready, so for the next week you will not go till eleven." This was a great punishment to him, and yet it did not degrade either the man or myself as a beating would do. At the same time I fully admit that the natives, by their slowness and inactivity, are sometimes very provoking; but surely that is no excuse to the Christian who gives way to angry feelings."

It is impossible to read, without pain, such a passage as this, in a work written by an English clergyman, and published in a series of volumes professing to be, and in reality being, "cheap literature for all classes." A book written by such a writer and published by such a publisher has a stamp of genuine currency upon it and is sure to obtain extensive circulation. The passage, moreover, is precisely calculated to arrest the attention of English Reviewers, and we are not surprised, therefore, to find that it has been largely quoted in the critical journals of the mother country. Our cheeks tingle with shame as we see this humiliating story adduced as an evidence of the overbearing insolence and cruelty of the European in India towards his native dependants. The anecdote may be strictly true. Mr. Acland speaks of what he actually saw, and we are constrained therefore to believe either that he has deliberately recorded a calumnious falsehood, or that Captain L. committed an act which would have been justly visited by the loss of his commission. We hope, for the sake of Mr. Acland's reputation, that the Captain L. thus honorably mentioned is not the same Captain L. with whom he subsequently appears (see pp. 90-91) to have been on terms of intimacy and friendship. We hope too, that we are not to presume, because the circumstance is not recorded in its proper place, that the Christian minister did not