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Calcutta University Calendar for 1858-59.

Press, 1858.

The Madras University Calendar for 1859.

Calcutta: Bishop's College.

Madras. Printed by

D. P. L. C. Connor at the Press of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Vepery. 1858.

Address delivered by Sir James Colvile, as Vice Chancellor, 'to the Senate of the University of Calcutta, at its Annual Meeting, on Saturday the 11th of December 1858, and printed at the desire of that Body. Calcutta. Military Orphan Press. 1859.

We intend ere long devoting an Article to the important subject of Universities in India, and at present will not do more than chronicle, in a few words, the publication of these volumes, representing as they do our infant Oxfords and Cambridges in India, or rather our infant Londons, though this latter does not sound quite so academic, for according to the provisions of the great Education Despatch, which the Supreme Government have so continually ignored, our Indian Universities are based, almost too slavishly, on the constitution of the London University. The Calendars in both Presidencies are well got up as tʊ externals, but that of Madras is so inaccurate, and has so many typographical errors for an academic publication, that the Registrar must surely be unfit for his post. One examination paper-the Latin for 1857, is omitted altogether.

On comparing the two calendars we are struck by the fact that the Madras people surpass those of Calcutta in wisely limiting the course for both Entrance and the Bachelor's Degree, within a sphere that is in harmony with the state of education in India, while at the same time the questions given in the Calcutta examination are much more difficult than those at Madras. We believe the Madras plan to be right-to settle the standard and limit the course so as to be in accordance with the state of the affiliated Colleges, to be above them of course, yet not so far as to make University Honors unapproachable. Our Indian Universities are in their infancy, and we must not compare them with European Institutions of a similar nature, as they are now, but rather with what these latter were in the dark ages, when it was a triumph to overcome the 'quadrivium' as well as the trivium.' The Universities wisely conducted, as they give promise of being, will be a boon to India and have a great effect in time in raising the lower class of schools as well as the higher, and attaching the educated classes firmly to the British Government.

We see that both Universities have already two Bachelors of Arts respectively, but that while those in Calcutta are orthodox Hindus—one a Kulin Brahmin-those in Madras are both native Christians, educated at the Jaffna American Mission School and bearing, instead of the native names, the names Charles Winslow and David Carroll. They are the first Indian Graduates, having passed before those in Calcutta. The number of Under-Graduates is necessarily much smaller at Madras than at Calcutta. To give a complete history of the University, the Calcutta

Calendar ought to have contained the examination questions for 1857, as the names of the Under-Graduates who passed it are given. The characters in the Oriental Language Examinations give a strange, learned, and by no means unpleasing, look to the pages of these Calendars.

Sir James Colvile's address, in both its subject and toue shews the change as to the view now taken of the religious question, since the rebellion has taught the Christian the value of his faith when in the midst of Asiatics. He grapples with the question in a style that would have shocked even himself two years ago, and does not spare the notorious education minute of Sir George Clerk and Lord Ellenborough. The address is a manly and healthy one and coming from a 'neutral' Chief Justice must, with all its timidity, be accepted as a sign of the dawning of a new era :

"One of the most obvious results of the religious difficulty is the indisposition to receive even the truths of physical science and the results of modern observation, because they contradict the dogmas or the dicta of religious books, or the teaching or traditions of those who are thought to possess a character holier than that of professors of purely secular learning. In short, we have to meet the feeling, which, in Southern Europe, so long obstructed the reception of astronomical truths, or of whatever else conflicted with that portion of the Aristotelian philosophy which had been adopted by the Church;—the feeling which, in our own age and our own country, is still often found in antagonism to the results of Geological discovery. This however is an evil which time and gradual enlightenment may remove. But suppose it removed,-we shall hardly the less have to meet the religious difficulty in another shape. For there are few thinking men who, if they really possess any religious sentiment, will not admit the imperfection of that system of education, under which the teacher is severed from the religious sympathies of the taught; and must either be silent upon the relations of man to a higher world, or, if he discourses upon them, must be suspiciously heard and imperfectly understood. Again, this difficulty has lately presented itself in a new form and with especial relation to this University. I need not remind you that the University includes the students of the Government Institutions from which, necessarily, as I think, religious instruction is excluded; the students, whether Christian or not Christian, of institutions under the control of Christian Missionaries, and schools in which the teachers and the taught being alike Christians, religious instruction may be given as freely as in any European Seminary. It seemed to us, who settled the course of study and the subjects of examination prescribed by the University, that all should have an opportunity of distinguishing themselves in every brauch of learning which formed part of their ordinary studies. And therefore we inserted certain subjects connected with theology amongst those subjects, on one or more of which candidates for Honors might at their choice be examined-examination in such subjects being compulsory on none. We know now that even this concession has recently been objected to in a high quarter. I trust however that on a fuller explanation of the whole matter, that objection will be removed. One word more upon this subject in connection with the Faculty of Arts. The very necessity which excludes theology and religious doctrine from the compulsory subjects of our examinations, makes the duty of doing our very best to inculcate that sound morality, which all, whatever be their creed, may receive, the more imperative. It seems to me therefore that the warning, lately given to the Senate by. Dr. Duff, of the tendency of the native mind to prefer the subtleties of metaphysics and the intellectual exercises of Logic to the sound and practical truths of purely Ethical science, was of peculiar value,-and that we ought to be careful hereafter to order our examinations on mental and moral Philosophy in the manner indicated by him.”

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"I cannot believe that Providence has built up an insuperable barrier between

the thoughts and feelings of the Western and those of the Eastern world; between races who, if Ethnologists are right, are allied more closely than by their common humanity. May we not suppose that in the economy of the moral and intellectual world, there obtains some principle analogous to that which in the economy of the natural world permits the animal and vegetable productions of one climate to be transplanted to, and to become naturalized in another? Ought we not to believe that it is for some higher purpose than the extension of dominion or commerce, that our vast Empire here has been so marvellously built up, and during the last two years so providentially preserved? But we must be patient, we must recollect that we are not merely planting an exotic. We are planting a tree of slow growth. The plant is young and tender, and obstructed by weeds and brambles. But it is healthy, and if carefully tended, will by God's blessing become a goodly tree and overshadow the land."

Memorandum on the Province of Assam.

By G. R. Barry. Calcutta,

C. B. Lewis, Baptist Mission Press. 1858.

MR. BARRY of Serajgunge, with his usual energy and eye to outlets for merchandise and speculation, points out, in this short memorandum, the immense value of Assam to the Government, were certain suggestions of his adopted. He shews its capabilities in the way of Tea, Cotton, Rhea, Coal, Lime, Iron, Gold and Timber, the last of which is found in the forests that line the Brahmapooter for 400 miles. He proves that the common impression as to the want of population is a mistake, but that the people, from the unrestrained use of opium, the lightness of the land-tax, and the rules as to clearing waste lands, are thoroughly lazy, because better treated than any other of Her Majesty's Indian subjects. He recommends 1st "a stringent prohibition against the cultivation of opium. 2nd. (Paradoxical though it may appear) 'a gradual but considerable increase in the land and other taxes." Mr. Barry seems to be personally interested in the prosperity of the province.

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A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates in the Chinese Seas. lated from the French of Mademoiselle Fanny Loviot, by Amelia B. Edwards. London. Routledge and Co.

THIS is one of the numerous ad captandum vulgus class of works, which the Rebellion in India and recent events in China have so largely brought into the bookselling market. In style, in expression and even in fact, it is French-thoroughly French, and although the young lady authoress in her dedication declares that she has never written a book in her life, it is evident from the practised Litterateur spirit and getting up" of the whole, that her Narrative has been published by some literary artist. The French element is seen throughout, in its melodramatic character, in its intense and spasmodic expressions, in its occasional contradictions in the same page-though that may be rather a characteristic of the sex-in its word-painting and in its general extravagance. For instance; some vessels in the harbour of San Francisco at the height of the gold fever are thus described. "Their faded flags

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hung in tatters from the broken masts; their decks had given way 'and the moss was already growing in the interstices of the boards." Again, she is a firm believer in presentiments whether of joyful or sorrowful events. Again, she describes, in the truly intense and French style, 'two cheering little birds' that she had brought with her from HongKong. "I kissed them tenderly; for they were all that I had to love." One does not always dislike this, and if it is so evident in the English translation, what must it not be in the original.

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The story is emphatically a drame maritime.' There must be some truth at the basis of it, we suppose, from the 'corroborative extracts from the French Press'-the Presse, Moniteur and Patrie, which are appended to the little volume, but the superstructure and working up are, no doubt, largely imaginative. The story is this. Fanny Loviot sets out with her sister on a commercial speculation from Havre on the 30th of May 1852 bound for California. They touch at Rio Janeiro, and after many dangers, from which our authoress is never free throughout the volume, they reach San Francisco. A spirited picture is given of life in California; but owing to its dangers Mademoiselle Janny, leaving her elder sister behind, resolves to set out with one Madam Nelson on another commercial speculation to Canton, Macao, Hong-Kong, and Batavia. Her partner dies, and in 1854 she at last arrives at Hong-Kong. All her hopes being thus disappointed, she resolves to return to California, and takes her passage in a Portuguese ship, the Caldera, under a Chilian flag and commanded by a Captain Rooney. After meeting with a typhoon they are boarded by pirates who strip the vessel, and force the Captain and his crew, our authoress and the only other passenger-Than Lingh, a Chinese merchant, to submit to every indignity. When engaged in their pleasant work, those pirates are alarmed by a stronger set, and make off with what booty they had got, leaving the ship to the mercy of the new comers. A faiut attempt at escape in an old boat was made by all on board, but they were forced to put back. Their new master resolved to send the Captain to HongKong to negociate for ransom, and kept our Mademoiselle and Than Lingh in confinement until it should be paid. The horrors, filth and fear of their captivity are described, but still their lives are spared. Occasional glimpses are given us of pirate life. Capt. Rooney, of course, when he reaches Hong-Kong, hands over the pirates to the Goverument (the improbable predominates here) and persuades the P. & O. Company to lend The Lady Mary Wood for the purpose of rescuing the two captives. Their first attempt is unsuccessful; they cannot find the junks, but a second expedition is made in the Steamer Ann which is lent, at the request of the French Vice Consul, by Sir James Sterling. They destroyed many junks and villages, and recovered much of the cargo of the Caldera. At last, when the captives' junk is stranded, her sailors decamp.. Our heroine in men's clothes and waving of her chemise on a bamboo, is at first mistaken for one of them, but by her light hair falling down in tresses, Captain Rooney recognises her and she is saved. All Hong-Kong, it seems, was interested in the case; many of its inhabitants accompanied the expedition. At last after rest there,

per Malta, Bentinck and Valetta Fanny Loviot reached Marseilles, reached her beautiful France, and so sets herself to tell us all about it. Very interesting, certainly, if true.

The Cavaliers of Fortune or British Heroes in Foreign Wars. By James Grant, Author of "The Romance of War," Etc. With Illustrations. London: Routledge. 1859.

It was the intention of the late Sir Henry Lawrence, expressed on more than one occasion to the conductors of this Review, to write a work or series of Articles on Indian Adventurers and Vagabonds, including under these titles the many European soldiers of fortune, as well as men of no particular profession, but possessed of great natural powers, who ever and anon appear on the surface of Indian history, frequented in large numbers native courts, trained native armies like those of Runjit Singh, and, as none knew so well as himself (for they were ever crossing his path and receiving assistance from him) so abounded and still abound in British society in India. We fear the time is fast passing away when, accurate information may be discovered concerning such, unless they be the few who are more prominent on account of their success or notoriety than their brethren.

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Mr. Grant is better known as a historical novelist than as a historian or biographer, but in the course of his researches and reading with a view to the preparation of his historical romances, he must have met with much strange 'personal' information, that history in the course of time allows to drop. In the work before us he embodies this in a series of really interesting and somewhat accurate sketches of British soldiers of fortune, whom the great continental wars of the thirty years' 'the succession' and the seven years', as well as the peaceful condition and poverty of their own country, drove forth to seek for glory, wealth, and honours. They were chiefly Irish and Scotch,-the latter in the service of France and Gustavus Vasa, and the former, so famous in history as the 'Irish Brigade,' chiefly in the service of France alone. Hence the song, a verse of which Mr. Grant quotes in his preface.

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"They who survived fought and drank as of yore,

But the land of their hearts' hope they never saw more;
For on far foreign fields from Dunkirk to Belgrade,
Lie the soldiers and chiefs of the IRISH. BRIGADE !”

Our modern civilisation, and our artificial expedients in the art of War, have extinguished the class. We do not certainly live in a heroic' age in the old sense, but we have nobler triumphs to tell of than our sires, while India shews we have not gained them at the expense of British 'pluck' and Saxon muscle.

The first hero whom Mr. Grant takes up, and the only one with whom we are concerned, is the famous Arthur Count de Lally General of the troops of Louis XV. in India'. In the course of a picturesque sketch of MARCH, 1859.

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