The Christian Statesman and our Indian Empire, or, the Legitimate Sphere of Government Countenance and Aid in the Promotion of Christianity in India. An Essay which obtained the Maitland Prize for the Year 1858. By the Rev. G. F. Maclear, B. A. MacMillan and Co., Cambridge, 1859.

THIS Essay obtained the Maitland Prize for the year 1858. Like many other books written professedly for the purpose of competing for a prize, it has not so much the appearance of being the utterance of the author's earnest convictions as a work on such a subject ought to have. Mr. Maclear having been the successful competitor for the Burney Prize Essay for the year 1855, and for the Hulsean Prize for the year 1857, evidently thought that he would have a good chance of obtaining the prize for an essay on "The Legitimate sphere of Government Countenance and Aid in the promotion of Christianity in India ;" and therefore "read up" for and thought on the subject, wrote the essay, sent it in and succeeded. Too many topics are taken up to be thoroughly discussed within the short compass of 146 pages ; and the perusal of it produces a feeling of unsatisfactoriness and want of completeness, though the author has certainly done his best to fortify his positions by reiterated appeals to authorities. On nearly every third page we find a quotation sometimes long, sometimes short. It is very amusing to notice the mode in which these quotations are introduced. Occasionally, it is true, they are introduced by the simple remark. It has been observed' or 'it has been well remarked' but generally they are introduced in this style as the distinguished author remarks' 'as has been so well expressed by Bishop Hinds' writes Sir Emerson Tennent,' 'as Archbishop Whateley remarks,' 'to use the language of Sir John Lawrence,' 'as says an eminent writer,' the eminent writer we have just quoted,' 'just as it has been observed by a distinguished writer.' With these occurring again and again in the text, and with numberless references to distinguished and eminent authors in the notes, we cannot rid ourselves of the feeling that the writer is evidently trying to impress on the minds of the examiners a notion of his extensive reading and profound research. We regret to write thus, the more so because generally speaking we coincide with the author's conclusion, and there are passages which show an ability for good and even vigorous writing. We do not feel that the cause of Christianity and good government will gain much by the publication of this essay. As the best thing in the book and as giving a favourable notion of the Author's style, we extract the following. Having quoted a passage from the letters of Indophilus in the Times in favour of secular education by Government he proceeds :

'We have taken the liberty of quoting this passage at length, because the quarter, whence it comes, stamps it with authority, and imparts to it

a peculiar value. Now let us compare the admissions here made with the reasons generally alleged against any direct recognition of Christianity on the part of the Government in its Scholastic Institutions. Is it not here distinctly admitted,

First, that any really effectual separation of secular from religious instruction is impracticable?

Secondly, that by the Government system of education Hindu prejudices. are destroyed in the minds of the pupils ?

Thirdly, that by the same system the thoughts of the Hindu youth are directed towards Christianity?

Fourthly, that the Government system does not give the effectual motive · which a firm belief in Christianity would impart ?

Fifthly, that in the middle or transition state which this system pro-.. duces, the Hindus cannot remain, but unable to exist without some religion, must sooner or later pass over to Christianity ?

Now what are the grounds on which it is affirmed that any direct Governmental recognition of Christianity is to be deprecated? They are mainly these. First-it would be imprudent: secondly, it would be unjust thirdly, it would be impolitic. It would be imprudent, because it would offend the prejudices of the natives: it would be unjust, because it would be employing public funds raised from amongst the natives. themselves to convert them from their own religion: it would be impolitic, because it would be a species of 'proselytism' and 'quiet persecu tion.'

And yet it is neither imprudent, nor unjust, nor impolitic to maintain a course of instruction whereby the Hindu system is destroyed, the thoughts, of the Natives inclined towards Christianity, and a transition state produced, wherein they cannot remain, but out of which they must cventually pass on to Christianity. In other words, a Government professing absolute neutrality may legitimately impart such an education as must inevitably. destroy the Hindu system, and direct the thoughts of the native youths towards Christianity, and yet it would be guilty of imprudence, injustice and proselytising if it offered any instruction in the truths of that religion which its system of education thus unavoidably to promote.

Now it seems to us that there is here a very curious species of contradic. tion. We cannot reconcile the admissions of the advocates of an exclusively secular education with the reasons they allege against any direct instruction in Christianity. It seems to us that if it is unjust to promote Christianity directly, it is unjust and dishonest knowingly to promote it indirectly under cover of professed neutrality, and that for a Government to maintain a system which they allow does not supply those effectual motives to high moral rectitude which Christianity imparts, is not only unwise, but JUNE, 1859.

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something else; for to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, it is sin.'"

Sound as are most of the conclusions and well written as are many of the passages, we cannot divest ourselves of the belief that if a prize had not been offered this essay would never have seen the light-and for such a motive a book on such a subject ought not to have been written.

A History of Arabia Felix or Yemen from the commencement of the Christian Era to the present time, including an account of the British Settlement of Aden. By Captain R. L. Playfair, Madras Artillery; and First Assistant Political Resident, Aden. Bombay. Printed for Government. 1859.

THIS work is as unlike a Blue Book as well can be, but yet it constitutes No. XLIX. of the new series of Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government. It is purely historical and topographical in its character. It is not so much a history, however as a collection of Annals and Records out of which a better litterateur than the compiler could make a work of deep interest and importance. Captain Playfair has industriously read up all that could be found in the subject of Yemen, and gives us a list of Authorities in almost every language that has a literature, numbering no less than sixty-one. Crushed beneath the weight of his ponderous accoutrements, he has made a collection of materials of the baldest and most undigested character, which does not boast the virtue of even methodical arrangement. After general remarks on Yemen, he gives us a detailed description of Aden, and enters into an account of the fifteen great divisions of Yemen. He then takes up its history from the Christian Era, when the Himyarite dynasty so called from Himyar, fifth monarch of the race from Kaptan (the Jocktan of Scripture,) ruled over it, to its conquest by the Abyssinians who extinguished a dynasty that had existed two thousand years. The Abyssinians held the country from A. D. 525 to 573, when Saif, the last of the old Himyarite race, called in the Persians who drove them out. Like the rest of the Caäba worshippers of Arabia, the inhabitants of Yemen became followers of Mahomet, and the Imam of Sanäa, its chief town, became his vassal. His descendants continued to reign over the whole of it with varying fortune till A. D. 1728, when the chief of the Abdali tribe threw off his allegiance, seized Aden, and proclaimed himself Sultan of Lahej. Since that time till the present there have been eight of these Sultans, the present ruler having succeeded to power in 1849. His name is Ali Bin Mahsin.

The Europeans first came into contact with Yemen when Prester John,

the Christian King of Abyssinia, sent an Embassy to the Senate of Florence. In A. D. 1487 John Pedreio de Covilham went to Aden viâ Alexandria and the Red Sea, sent by John II., King of Portugal. The Red Sea was first visited by the English in 1609 in the Ascension commanded by Capt. Alexander Sharpey. In 1614 Van der Broeck was sent to the Red Sea for the first time by the Dutch East India Company. In 1762 King Frederick V. of Denmark organised an expedition for the exploration of Arabia and more especially Yemen under the learned M. Carsten Niebuhr. The first visit of the French was made about 1708. The ships under M. de Merveille were sent from Brest by a French Company of St. Malo. The Dutch, French, and English, all established factories on the coast, but especially at Mokha. In 1799 Lieut. Col. Murray, at the head of 300 European and native troops, took possession of the isle of Perim, situated between the two points which include the Straits of Bal-El-Mandeb, in consequence of the invasion of Egypt by the French. As it had no water, and it was found that the Straits could not be commanded by batteries on the shore, it was abandoned. It has since been re-occupied for purposes of navigation and with a view to the Electric Telegraph.

We obtained possession of Aden thus. A Madras ship, belonging to the niece of the Nawab of the Carnatic and under British colours, went on shore a few miles distant from Aden. She was plundered, and her passengers forced to submit to every kind of indignity. The Government of Bombay sent Captain Haines, I. N., to demand reparation, and, if he could not obtain it otherwise, to purchase Aden. The Sultan of Lahej paid an indemnity, and after signing a bond to cede the peninsula to the British for an annual pension of 87,000 dollars, proved treacherous. Captain Haines was reinforced by a body of 700 troops from Bombay under Major Baillie, and took the place by assault on 16th January 1839. Since then the Sultan has been continually setting up the other tribes the Foudtheli and Akrabi against us, and there have been not a few assassinations. But on the 18th March 1858 Brigadier Coghlan, the Political Resident and Commandant, gave him a thorough chastisement, so that as perfect satisfaction may be expected in our future relations with him as is possible with so treacherous but avaricious a savage. Aden has prospered greatly under our rule. The population has increased from 500 to 25,000; it is a free port, with a trade in 1858 of

which shows an increase over the previous year of Rs. 26,30,698. The only

other possessions of the British in the vicinity of Arabia are, besides Aden and Perim, the Massah islands in the Bay of Tajoorah, Eibat near Zaïlah, and the Curia Muria islands on the Mahra Coast of Arabia. The British purchased the two first in 1840 but have never occupied them, and the Imam of Muscat ceded the last in 1854. They are valuable for their guano deposits.

Recollections of a Winter Campaign in India in 1857-58. With drawings on stone from the Author's designs. By Capt. Oliver J. Jones, R. N. London: Saunders and Otley. 1859.

THIS work is the production of a rollicking sailor, and when we have said that the pictures with which it is illustrated are admirably done and most true to life, we have said the most of the book that we can. No one expects a sailor to describe anything on land with any degree of clearness or accuracy, and hence an intelligible description of scenery, incident or siege, must not be looked for in these 'Recollections.' But the pictures, slang, beautiful printing, stories and puns, make the reader glide along easily through Lord Clyde's operations between the Relief and final Capture of Lucknow. Captain Jones finds it difficult to say why coolies are called so, unless it is that no amount of heat has any effect upon them, and is of opinion that the letter n at the end of the word baboo would not be misapplied in the case of the native. The great virtue of our author is his 'pluck' and singular capacity for making a good dinner out of materials that disgusted landsmen, and for always putting up where the best dinner could be got. Disappointed in being employed during the Rebellion in carrying troops or in any other way, he came out to India as a volunteer, and was chiefly with H. M.'s 53rd and the Naval Brigade, throughout that part of the campaign at which he was present. He was absent from England only seven months, and even if his services had no other result, than the exquisitely truthful sketches of his servants, sea life, camp life, Dâk travelling, a Boar hunt, and the Naval Brigade Races, they would have been valuable. But our sailor also fought well and did not escape without a scar.

After the battle of the Kala Nuddee, when he was sitting at tiffin, the 53rd Skirmishers were observed to rise suddenly with a shout and make a rush on the village.

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By Jove,' exclaims Major English,' what will Sir Colin say? MacNeil (to the adjutant), for heaven's sake go and stop them.' My horse is here, shall I go, too, English?' Do; that's a good fellow ;' and away we went at a gallop, and reached the village just with the foremost men. It was fortunate for us that the enemy did not wait for the gallant 53rd, or two horsemen nearly in front would have had not much chance. MacNeil was halting them, while the advance sounded, and hurrah! on they went. The advance was first sounded by a little drum