being in a state of constant activity, while those of the Buddhists remain quiescent, and do not concern themselves about human affairs.

13. By Europeans the term Hindoo is in general so very loosely and inaccurately applied, as to include religions such as the Buddhist and Jain, professing tenets in direct opposition to the Brahminical system. Besides their three gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, the Hindoos have a whole pantheon of minor deities. The sea, the winds, the heavens, the elements, the sun, moon, and stars, every river, fountain, and stream, are all so many separate deities, or have distinct divinities presiding over them, nothing being done without the intervention of supernatural power. Descending still lower, there are myriads of demi-gods, of a most extraordinary description, and numerous beyond the power of calculation. A little red paint smeared over a stone, a lump of clay, or the stump of a tree, converts it into a god, worshipped by the lower classes and saluted by the upper with much apparent devotion. Any monster, or figure partly brutal, any multiplicity of heads and hands in the object adored, indicate a Brahminical place of worship.

14. The followers of Buddha teach, that from time to time men of surpassing piety and self-denial have appeared on the earth, and from their singular worth have after death been transferred to a state of supreme bliss or absence from pain. These saints, after reforming the world during their life-time, and by their superior sanctity acquiring the power of performing miracles, are imagined after death to possess a command over the living, and it is they who are the direct objects of worship with the Buddhists, Buddha, during his incarnation, reformed the doctrines of the Vedas, and severely censured the sacrifices of cattle, or depriving any thing of life: his sectaries contend with those of Brahma for antiquity, and are certainly in the aggregate more numerous. The Jains do not differ materially from the followers of Boodh, except that the chief object of their worship is Pariswanath, a deified saint. The presence of umbrella-covered pyramids or semi-globes, and of plain human figures sitting cross-legged or standing in a meditative posture, points out the temple or excavation of a Buddhist: the 24 saintly figures without the pyramid announce a temple of the Jains.

15. The Hindoo religion is without any acknowledged individual superior, or public convocation; but the immeasurable pre-eminence of the Brahmins over the rest of mankind is a point so perfectly clear to the other castes, that it is never disputed. This division of the people into castes, or tribes, each including a number of families of the same rank and profession, is the paramount distinction between the Brahminical Hindoos and the votaries of Buddha: but strict adherence to the peculiar duties of each caste having probably been found impracticable, they have been compelled to relax the spirit of the law, and to admit of numerous exceptions. The castes are four in number. The members of the first are called Brahmins, from the mouth (wisdom) and are deemed the most sacred; their province is to pray, to read, to instruct, to study the principles of religion, as well as to perform its functions, and to cultivate the sciences. The proper manner of Brahmins procuring their subsistence is by begging, every species of industry being derogatory to their rank. The majority of them may, and do eat animal food; priests, while officiating as such, perhaps do not; but though all priests are Brahmins, all Brahmins are not priests. The members of the second caste are called Khetries, from the arms (strength); their duty is to draw the bow, to fight, and to govern, and hence they are entrusted with the government and defence of the state. In peace they are its rulers and

magistrates; in war they are the generals who command its armies, and the soldiers who fight its battles. The right of bearing arms, however, though confined formerly to this caste, has latterly been found diffused throughout all classes, and even Brahmins have been seen standing in the ranks as common soldiers. The third caste is called Bice, from the belly and thighs; it is composed of husbandmen and merchants, the duty of its members being to provide the necessaries of life by agriculture and traffic. The members of the fourth caste are called Soooders, from the feet (subjection); they consist of artisans, labourers, and servants, their duty being to labour and

to serve.

16. A member of one caste can never quit his own, or be admitted into another; so that the station of every individual is unalterably fixed, his destiny is irrevocable, and the walk of life is marked out from which he must never deviate. Moreover, the members of each caste adhere invariably to the profession of their forefathers; and from generation to generation the same families have followed, and continue still to follow, the same uniform line of life. However, though the line of separation be so drawn as to render the ascent from an inferior to a higher caste absolutely impossible, and it would be regarded as a most enormous impiety if one in a lower order should presume to perform any functions belonging to those of a superior caste; yet, in certain cases, the Pundits (or Interpreters of the Hindoo law) declare it to be lawful for persons of a high class to exercise some of the occupations allotted to a class below their own, without losing their caste by doing so. Besides the four acknowledged castes, there is a race of unhappy men, known on the Coromandel coast by the name of Pariars, and in other parts of India by that of Chandalas. These are ontcasts from their original order, who, by their misconduct, have forfeited all the privileges of it. Their condition is, without doubt, one of the lowest degradations of human nature; if one of them venture to approach a warrior of high caste, the latter may put him to death with impunity. Every Hindoo who violates the rules or institutions of his caste, sinks into this degraded situation: hence it is that they so resolutely adhere to the institutions of their tribe, because the loss of caste is to them the loss of all human comfort and respectability.

17. The modern Mahometans of India may with safety be estimated at one-seventh of the total population, and notwithstanding the subversion of their political predominance by a Christian power, their religion is said to be yet expanding. They are no longer, however, the sanguinary zealots, who, 800 years ago, spread desolation and slaughter among the unconverted Pa gans in the name of God and the prophet. Open violence produced little effect on so patient a people, and although the Mahometans subsequently lived for centuries intermixed with Hindoos, no radical change was produced in the manners or tenets of the latter. On the contray, for almost a century past, the Mahometans have evinced much deference to the prejudices of their Hindoo neighbours, and a strong predilection towards many of their ceremonies.

18. The Christian religion, throughout the whole of Hindoostan, is em braced by about half a million of souls, almost all the descendants of the ancient Christian stocks, and relatively to the other classes existing under circumstances of degradation. The pride of caste among the Hindoos does not singly account for the contempt felt and shown by the followers of the Brahminical system towards them, no such contempt being manifested to the Mahometans, or to the European Christians. There are undoubtedly circumstances of diet and cleanliness, which tend to lower the "Nazarene in the eyes both of the Mahometan and Hindoo; and the European holding

himself far aloof from the native Christian, no portion of the veneration, which the first attracts, is reflected on his humble brother in religion. These temporal causes, which oppose the conversion of the Hindoos, will probably continue to operate, till it is found practicable to raise the inferior part of the chain without lowering the upper for conviction does not easily reach the mind of an individual, who, by becoming a proselyte, must inevitably descend from a decent rank in society to one degraded and discountenanced.

19. GOVERNMENT. The sovereign of India formerly bore the title of the Mogul Emperor, or the Great Mogul; his power became much crippled upon the death of Aurungzebe in 1707, and terminated with the defeat of the Mahrattas by the British at the commencement of the present century. For, although the British conferred on the last prince of this dynasty the title of emperor, aud permitted him to keep up the ceremonies of a court, yet he and all his family are dependant upon them for their daily support, and even the police of his metropolis is under the direction of a foreign resident. The supremacy of the British government in India is now so completely established, as to leave the native chiefs, who rose into power during the decline of the Imperial authority, of secondary importance. Hindoostan, therefore, must not now be viewed as a mere assemblage of Nabobs, Sultans, and Rajahs, but as a component portion of the British Empire, changed and modified in its territorial distribution by the effect of British domination, and in its internal economy by the promulgation of British laws and regulations.

20. The formation of the enormous empire now possessed by our Governmeut in India has been urged on by circumstances so uncontroulable, has been so fervently deprecated by the ruling authorities both at home and abroad, and so peremptorily interdicted by the strongest legislative enactments, that its acquisition under such circumstances appears very remark able. Incredible pains, it is well known, have been taken by the different governments of India since 1784, not only to avoid every aggression, but also to resist the importunity of the different native chiefs and communities to be admitted within the pale of its protection as subjects or tributaries. There may have been cases, although it would be difficult to indicate them, where the prospect of gaining a political ascendency, or too hasty an apprehension of a premeditated attack, has misled the government into hostilities which might have been avoided; but the general history of the British empire in India from the year 1639, [when it only amounted to a strip of terri tory one mile broad and five miles long on the coast of Madras,] to the conclusion of the war against the Mahrattas in 1818, is, that it has been wantonly assailed, the unprovoked enemy has been conquered, and the possessions wrested from him retained, not merely as a legitimate com pensation but also on the consideration of self-defence:

21. The existing political system of Hindoostan consists, 1st. of provinces actually in the possession of the British: 2dly. of states subsidiary and federative, who are protected by the British from external invasion, as well as from internal dissension, and who on their part engage in case of exigence, to place the entire resources of their territories at the command of the protecting power, and likewise to abstain from all political intercourse with the other powers of the country, except when in concert with the paramount authority which undertook to arbitrate their disputed right: and 3dly. of independent states. The only independent states now remaining in India are those of the Rajah of Nepaul, the Rajah of Lahore, the Ameers of Sinde, the King of Cabul, and the Dominions of Sindia. Besides these there are a few colonies in the country belonging to European powers, such as Goa, Damaun, and Diu I., on the Western coast, which are in the possession of the Portuguese: Pondicherry, on the coast of Coromandel, and Chandernagore, a few miles above Calcutta, which belong to the French: Chinsura also near Calcutta, and Sadras, a few miles below Madras, which belong to the Dutch: Tranquebar, on the coast of Coromandel, and Serampoor near Calcutta, which are in the possession of the Danes.

22. The native governments of Hindoostan have no political system of their own which can afford protection to their weaker neighbours; indeed the very reverse of this is the case, the object of every native state separately, and of all collectively, being to destroy the weak. Internally the constitution of these states is an unmixed despotism, every movement originating with the government, to the power of which there no limit except the endurance of the people, the sovereign's will being never opposed but by a general insurrection. The consequence of this is, that the great bulk of the population entertain no attachment to any set of political principles or to any form of government, and they have been so long accustomed to revolutions and frequent changes of sovereigns, that they obey with little repugnance whoever is placed over them, expecting his sway, like that of his predecessor, to be only transitory. They are solicitous for the toleration of their religious doctrines, rites, and prejudices, the security of their domestic con cerns, and the prosperity of their particular villages; but are totally destitute of what in Europe is understood by the term patriotism. They have no idea of loyalty or disloyalty but to the identical masters who support them, and their ideas run equally counter to all European notions of civil liberty. And in adverting to the incessant revolutions of these countries, it is a remarkable fact that in all the schemes of polity, whether of the victors or the vanquished, the idea of civil liberty in any shape never seems to have been contemplated, and is to this day without a name in the languages of India.

23. The provinces into which the whole of India is divided, together with their capital towns, and the estimated population of the latter, may be seen in the following table:

24. Calcutta, or Calicata as it is called by the natives," is the capital of the province of Bengal, and the metropolis of all the British possessions in India. It is situated about 60 miles from the sea, on the E. side of the Western branch of the Ganges, named by Europeans the Hoogly or Calcutta river, but by the natives the Bagheereetee or true Ganges, and considered by them peculiarly holy. Calcutta is the residence of the supreme governor of India, and the Presidency of which it is the capital is

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