brother was as men said, the most 'wide awake' man in the army. We have heard this story construed into an evidence of an Yankee-like obliquity of vision when rupees enter into the question. But Brigadier Showers thinks differently, and readily accepts two rupees certain, rather than a chance of ten. It cannot be denied that a panegyrical Biography re-opens the question of the dead man's worth; but it would ill become us to put on paper a word against such a character as Hodson's, unless we are prepared to remedy a serious omission in the published representation of his life, and to substantiate a serious charge.

A Brief Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Orissa Mission. Cuttack: 1858. THIS pamphlet gives a short notice of a Christian Mission in one of the most interesting places in India-Orissa, though we do not believe with the writer that it is "the Palestine of India," for with the exception of the shrine of Jagannath, which is simply a rendezvous of pilgrims, no other part of Orissa is now of much consequence. And Jagannath is not for a moment to be compared to Benares as a centre of influence. You have not, as at Benares, a staff of learned and deeply read Pundits who have dived into the past systems of philosophy; there is not even a regular Sanskrit College at Jagannath. No rich pilgrims go to Jagannath as they do to Benares, to spend the remainder of their days there.

Still Orissa is interesting, and we are glad to see from this report that the Missionaries are adopting what the Buddhist priests found so successful in Orissa, viz. to make their system national, and to divest it as much as possible of a foreign element, knowing that every plant naturalised must adapt itself to the soil. We have a very pleasing account of native ministers, and their mode of preaching, which certainly seems to be a model for natives in other parts of India, as, while it is thoroughly Christian in idea, it is at the same thoroughly oriental in the form which that idea assumes. Their sermons are pointed and pithy, and remind one of some of Spurgeon's lively appeals. Such preaching must tell.

Knowing, as we do, from educational and other returns, the fearful want of education in Orissa, and the very small number who can read any book intelligently and particularly a Christian one, we were surprised to find that the Missionaries here in 20 years printed and circulated in Urya 952,700 tracts, besides 100,000 portions of Scripture. Were the receivers generally in a capacity to appreciate and understand these, we believe such a statement would be a sign of good, and matter for rejoicing—but it is too evident all over India that the people will receive any thing in the shape of paper. As long as some payment is not required, we have no criterion JUNE, 1859.

by which to judge of the genuineness of the demand.

The living voice, in the present state of ignorance of the masses, is the surest way of getting at their hearts.

The Missionaries itinerate extensively. They carry out in religious matters what Sir H. Lawrence so often inculcated, both by precept and example on young civilians in magisterial ones-" more under the tree and less under the punkah." They adopt the principle of Dr. Chalmers, "we must go to the people and not expect them in the first instance to come to us. We must be aggressive."

The Life or Legend of Garidama, the Budha of the Burmese, with annotations, Notice on the Phongies, or Buddhist Religions, and the Ways to Niban. By the Right Rev. P. Bigandet, Vicar Apostolic of Pegu. Rangoon: Pegu Press. 1858.

No form of religion in the world at this moment numbers its votaries in such multitudes as Buddhism, and yet there are very few forms of belief whose tenets and tendencies are less understood, except by a select few whose opportunities have been special or whose research has been very painstaking. Over about one-fourth of the human family it has shed its soul-deadening blight. Its temples crown the hills of Nepaul and rise among the glades of Ceylon; its worshippers people the crowded cities of the vast Celestial Empire and the isles of Japan; it is the religion of Korea, Mongolia and Thibet as well as of the whole of the Eastern Peninsula from Malacca to the Shan States, with the exception of some of the wild tribes who declare respecting all religious belief" that they know little on the subject; that God once wrote his Commands upon a buffalo's hide, and called all nations together to take an abstract of it, but that they had no time for the work, being occupied with tilling their lands." No doubt among the many nations in which it prevails it is more or less mixed up with remains of earlier forms of belief and superstition, but essentially it is one widespread atheism which originally arose on the banks of the Ganges among the subtle philosophers of an earlier creed, and has extended its sway over so many countries, with whose borders Britain is only now becoming acquainted. Any detailed account of the origin of this religion, of what promises it makes to gain the acceptance of men, of its propagation, and of the nature of its tenets, does not lie within the limits of a notice such as this. For information on such topics the enquirer must be referred to such authentic sources of information as the work named at the head of this, the writings of Sir Wm. Jones, Klaproth, Remusat, Csoma de Körös, Turnour, Hodgson, Latter, and others. A few facts however may be briefly stated respecting the founder of this creed.

Budha or Gaudama, or Fo is, by the Northern Buddhists, that is, the Chinese, Japanese, and Thibetans, believed to have lived about 1027 B. C., but the Southern Buddhists, or the Burmese, Siamese, Cingalese, and Chinese, (according to some authorities as cited by Klaproth) fix the era of Gaudama in the sixth century before Christ. This discrepancy inclined scholars at one time to believe that there had been two historical Budhas. A careful comparison of the events of the recorded lives of both has, however, led to the conclusion that they are the same historical personage, whose nirváną or absorption into the quiescence of the deity, is placed in the eighteenth year of the reign of Ajata Satru (Adzatatha), the sixth Sisunága, King of Magadha or Behar. This was about 196 years prior to Chandragupta, the Sandracottus of the Greeks, and consequently in 543 or 544 B. C. To the north of Benares (Baranathee) on the banks of the Gogra, of noble or royal family, and in all probability of Kshetrya caste, was born Gaudama or Theid· dat. After passing twenty years or more under his father's roof, he left his family and betook himself during a period of six years to the solitude of Uranwela in the neighbourhood of Gaya, a place which in those days seems to have been a famous resort of meditative hermits and other ascetics. It was at a time when the Brahmans were undisturbed in their spiritual and intellectual domination over the masses of India, and when, having no disputes on this ground to occupy their attention, many of them seem to have retired to the solitudes to practice fastings and penances for the purification of their souls. Budha was one of these recluses but, probably like some others, he did not feel satisfied with the performance of an endless round of mortifications of the flesh and of the spirit. With him the idea seems to have taken the definite form of promulgating a new religious faith, to deliver men from that endless series of countless existences through which they are doomed to pass, and to free them from the vicissitudes and miseries essentially connected with the present state of being. This form in its outward manifestations was not altogether in direct and open antagonism to the existing beliefs and practices of the brahmans of his age at first they do not seem to have even dreaded its influence upon their social position.

Budha addressed himself to the teachers and high caste men of his age, especially about Benares. His only weapons were arguments, and by means of his addresses and those of his disciples, his doctrines spread so rapidly that it is believed Buddhism was, during the fortyfive years of Gaudama's ministry, preached and largely accepted by multitudes of all ranks in India from the borders of Nepaul to Kalinga. His doctrines differed from those of the Brahmans chiefly in ignoring the government of a divine being and the preaching of nib-b'han, or a state of

final quiescence, or perhaps annihilation, as "the escape from the whirlpool of human miseries," the goal to be longed for and sought after by all intelligent existences as the consummation of happiness. But underlying the doctrines of Budha and traceable by inference through much of his teaching, was a principle levelled at the distinction of caste, and thus destined ultimately to arouse the jealousies of the dominant castes of his countrymen. He admitted all as his disciples. Belief in his doctrines was the only and the wide door to the order of the "perfect." The proud Brahman perceived this and felt that whilst no superiority in respect of race was thus acknowledged, the way was opened to men of all castes and nations to an equality with himself, which would lower his claims to be looked up to and served as a spiritual superior by men of every grade in the social scale, and would place the Sudra in the same rank with himself, which might thus lead to the general acceptance of the new religion by the lower castes. It soon became evident that neither silence nor contempt were weapons of sufficient power successfully to combat it, and argument had failed. The religion spread and was patronised even by the kings. Athanka (Asoca) of Palibothra had lent the influence of the secular power to the decisions of its third and last general assembly, which compiled the Pittagat or collection of religious books. Immediately after this council the sect seems to have propagated its tenets with great zeal all over India, Cashmere, Ceylon, and the North of Burmah, and overthrew the aristocratic faith that had long kept the millions in bondage. But times changed, the kings no longer protected Buddhism, and an exterminating persecution was commenced in the fifth century of our era and continued till the seventh, when in the country where it had originated Buddhism became well nigh extinct. These wars with the Brahmanical Hindús evidently tended to hasten its diffusion in the surrounding countries. It had entered Nepaul in the first century, and in the fifth it spread in Thibet and Jaya, and a century later it gained a footing in Korea and Japan.

Though now extinct in India there are still many remains witnessing to its former influence-such as those at Gaya, and near Benares, at Bág in Malwa, at Ajunta, Ellora, Nasick and Gantúr, and on Salsette,-in some of which places the Brahmans have appropriated the old Buddhistic statues as members of the Hindu Pantheon.

The work before us is a translation into English, by the Vicar Apostolic of the Pegu Roman Catholic Mission, of a Burmese work, itself a translation from the Pali by a Burmese. It is chiefly occupied by the legendary life of Gaudama, and to this the translator, M. Bigandet, has added very extensive notes and comments, chiefly drawn from authentic sources, and of considerable value as presenting some of the chief features of Buddhism both as described in the sacred books and as practiced in Burmah at the

present day. The style is very creditable to M. Bigandet as a foreigner, but the very title in which he employs the word "religious" as the representative of religeuses, will shew that the author is a Frenchman. Of the contents of the book little idea could be conveyed without such a careful summary and extracts as there is not room for in these pages. The truth is in most cases so obscured as to be lost in the disguise of fable. Nothing is too absurd apparently for a Buddhist to believe, and no occasion seemed unworthy for the performance of a miracle by Budha. We give the following as a specimen of the contents of this sacred book of the Buddhists :"He (Phralaong or Budha) was wrapped up, as it were, in the profoundest meditation. The extremities of the branches of the Baudi (Banyan) tree, fell gently over him, and by their undulations seemed caressing, as it were, his tsiwaran: they resembled so many beautiful nosegays of red flowers that were offered to him. At the first watch of the night, Phralaong recollected what he had been during his former existences, and obtained the knowledge of the past; at midnight he was gifted with a sight similar to that of a Nat, and obtained the knowledge of the present; in the morning he obtained a perfect knowledge of the law, of all beings, and of all relations subsisting between them, that is to say, perfect wisdom. When this great wonder took place, ten thousand worlds were shaken twelve times; when the supreme knowledge was imparted to him, these words "most excellent being," were heard throughout the same series of systems. Magnificent ornaments decorated all places. Flagstaffs appeared in every direction with splendid streamers. Of such dimensions were they, that the extremities of those in the east reached the opposite side of the west, and those in the north, the southern boundary."..." The five sorts of lilies bloomed spontaneously.”.....“ Rivers suspended their course, the blind recovered their sight, the born deaf could hear, and the lame were able to walk freely."... "Innumerable other wonders took place at the moment Phralaong received the supreme intelligence."

The work is another added to those already existing which exhibit Buddhism in some of its Protean forms, and in producing it M. Bigandet has done a service both to missionaries and savans.

BENGALI WORKS.

Muktábali Nátak (The Garland of Pearls); a Comedy. By Káli Dás Sarmmá. Calcutta. Sambat 1915.

To write a good drama is no ordinary effort of poetical genius ; and yet every Bengali who has the faculty of making jingling rhyme imagines him