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manders and first and second mates of the Company's own ships, be henceforth in the Committee of Correspondence.

That the recommendation to the appointment of officers to the Company's own ships, under the rank of second mate, be with the Committee of Shipping.

That the number of midshipmen be, for ships under 800 tons, four; of 800 tons and under 1000, six; of 1000 tons and upwards, seven.

That no appointment of supernumerary midshipman, or of succession to the office of midshipman, or of any person to act as a midshipman, beyond those above mentioned, be allowed.

That the first appointment of midshipmen to the Company's own ships be by the members of the Court in succession, according to seniority; so that every member of the Court should have one nomination before any member shall have a second; and that no midshipman to be appointed, shall be less than fourteen years of age, or more than eighteen years of age, unless he has been at sea, in which case, for every year he has been at sea, the age of admission may be extended as far as to his twentieth year.

That the complement of midshipmen assigned to any ship, be appointed a fortnight before the period fixed for the ship to be afloat; otherwise, such to be immediately filled up by the member of the Court next in rotation.

That the medical servants now actually in the Company's own service, shall have the same preference hereafter as naval officers in their own employ.

That the further appointments which may be made for the Company's own ships of medical men, not now actually in their own service, be recommended, of persons properly qualified, by the members of the Committee of Shipping for the time being, in rotation, beginning with the chairs, and proceeding according to seniority.

That after the ships now belonging to, or engaged for, the Company, shall have had their medical establishment completed, all appointments of surgeons in the Company's own ships be made from the class of assistant surgeons in those ships, giving the selection of such surgeons to the respective commanders,

according to the seniority of such commanders, subject to the approbation of the Committee of Shipping; and that the vacancies of assistant surgeons be filled up as before provided for.

That the medical appointments be made at the same time that the commanders and officers of the Company's own ships are nominated.

That the appointment of pursers be given to the commanders of the Company's own ships respectively, subject to the approbation of the Committee of Shipping.

With respect to the Commander and

Officers of a Ship lost or taken.

That the commander and officers of a ship lost or taken, if they are acquitted of all blame with respect to such loss or capture, and the ship should not be replaced, should not be reappointed to the Company's own service, so as to displace officers in actual employ; but should be eligible, if the Court should so please, to return to the Company's own service, according to their former rank, and not otherwise, as vacancies may happen.

With respect to Vacancies occurring when Ships are abroad.

That if any vacancy should occur when a ship is abroad, the appointment thereto, whether by the Indian government, the select Committee at Canton, or the commander of the ship, be by seniority in the ship, if the party is eligible; but that such appointment should on no account be otherwise than temporary.

The command of a ship, however, not to be given to any officer who is not competent by the rules of the service to a command, if such command can be otherwise supplied, according to those rules at the place where the vacancy may happen.

With respect to a Fund for decayed Commanders and Officers.

That it will be expedient to establish a special Fund for the relief of decayed and superannuated commanders and officers of the Company's own ships, upon principles and according to regulations to be hereafter prescribed.

(19

To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal.

SIR,-The recent treaty with the Candians, by which His Majesty is pledged, as it respects that people, to protect the religion of Buddha, and the pleasing account which we have had of the attentions paid by the British Government in Ceylon, on occasion of the restoration of that form of divine worship in Candy, have, no doubt, excited in many of those who are to be the readers of the Asiatic Journal, a desire to be better acquainted with the history, doctrine, and practice of that system. In the course of some inquiries into religious history, in which I have indulged, the name and peculiarities of Buddhism have a good deal fixed my attention; and, though, at present, I can only offer desultory observations, on a subject with which none, among us, I believe, are more than very imperfectly acquainted, yet even those observations, perhaps, may not be wholly unacceptable.

Buddha, Buddhu, Buddho, Gaudma, Shaka Godama, Somono and Samono Codam, Godam, Gaudma or Godma, Maha Muni, Sangal Muni, Shigi Muni, Shekia, Shactsha-Tuba, Fo, and, as I believe, Woden, Odin, &c. are all names by which, in different languages and dialects, is or has been intended the same person. The respective affinities observable between them, readily point them out as divisible into two classes, the one, I think, consisting in common, and the other in proper names.

Buddha 1 regard as a common name, and as no other than a dialectical variation of the English

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word God. I remember, that Rubruquis, the old traveller in Tartary, repeats the words of a woman, who said, that she would take or devote "her daughter to the bod" (something, I suppose, like placing her in a nunnery). The word bod, my author renders 66 or idol," a point of little consequence, because there is no question but the "god" was represented under an image. What I understand is, that God, Bod, Wod, Godam, Woden, Odin, are words of similar signification, and constitute a common, not a proper name. Thus, I would say, that Isis and Osiris were the bods or buddhas of the Egyptians, and Jupiter and Pallas the bods or buddhas of the Greeks.

On the other hand, the name Muni signifies a "prophet," and is, besides, perhaps, to be identified with the word moon. Muni, Menes, Menu, Manes, &c. &c. have all the same original. The Buddha of Bengal is said, by some writers, to be called Maha Muni in Tibet; according to others, he is the Maha Deva, or Maha Deo of the Hindus. I know that I have against me, as to my interpretation of the names of Menes and Menu, the express authority of Sir William Jones ; who, in the preface to his translation of the Institutes of that Indian sage, takes occasion to say, that "the word Menu has no relation whatever to the moon ;" and that the former" is clearly derived (like menes, mens, and mind) from the root men, to understand." My suspicion is, that men itself has a relationship with moon.

The names Shaka, Shigi, Shekia,

Sangal, Somono, Samono, are likewise allied between themselves, and constitute titles or additions of honour. In Nepal, Colonel Kirkpatrick found Maha Muni, Maha Deo, or Buddha, under the name of Sumbo or Sambo Nath; that is, the Lord Sam Bo. Is he not also the Shigi, Shaga, Shuga, Jaga, or Juga Nath of the Hindoos? Including the name of Fo, Bo, Vo or Wo, we thus possess a part (and a part only) of the names under which the divinity is mentioned, from Japan, China, and Cochin China, to Tibet and Ceylon.

But, writers are agreed, that we are to distinguish two Buddhas, the one divine, the other human ; the one existing before the world, the other appearing in it at some recent date. The case is, that the one Buddha is a god, the creator; the other Buddha is a god, a divinity, an inspired or divine person, prophet, a spirit. It would be easy to show, that this common use of the word god is found among all nations. In reality, the word god, or good, is an epithet; "god good or beneficent spirit." Thus, I could easily believe, that the history of Buddhism involves, not only that of two, but of many personages so denominated. Every divine teacher, every prophet, every inspired person, is, in the language of his pious followers, a spirit, a supernatural being, a good, a beneficent spirit; a god, bod, or buddha.

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Leaving, here, the question, what

may be the doctrine of the Buddhists, or of any sect of Buddhists, concerning Buddha the creator and governor of the world, our whole attention will be given to the human history of Buddha the prophet and mediator, his history and doctrine;

and the history, doctrine and practical influence of the institutions which are known under his name: always reserving, however, the point, whether the name of Buddha, is not as universal in its human, as in its divine application; whether it is not applied by every people, to whose language it appertains, to any and to all teachers, prophets, spirits or gods; and, consequently, whether we are to expect any bond of unity between the several local systems which have the common denomination of Buddhism. Such an unity is, I believe, under many aspects, to be found but, on the one hand, it must not content us to find it in the name; and on the other, the diversity of name is no proof of its absence.

Passing from the name, we may ask for the origin of Buddhism; for the country in which Budda the prophet was born, or in which he taught his system. On this head, there are a variety of statements; the honour of giving him birth, or of first receiving his doctrine, is claimed by various countries; nor ought we to be surprized if many, nor if all, the countries in which Buddhism is professed, are in the number of the claimants. Such a fact, if it does not lead to a suspicion that each country has had a Buddha of its own, is evidence of the high antiquity of the one Buddha the prophet, whose system, being carried from country to country, at very remote periods, had come to be believed the original production of each.

Of the uniformity of the basis of Buddhism, there is, nevertheless, some proof, in the uniformity of the images under which, in India, Buddha is represented to his worshippers; and to one and all those

images there belongs a peculiarity which cannot fail to strike the attention of the observer, while he is inquiring for its country. This is, that Buddah is constantly represented with woolly hair. His followers reject positively an African origin, and endeavour to account for this appearance of the head of Buddha, by referring it to an incident in his life: "His hair," say they," was originally long, like that of other Indians; but, being cut off, on a certain occasion, with a golden sword, it afterward assumed the appearance represented in the sculpture." Whether the chisel, nevertheless, does not speak more truth than the fable, may still admit a doubt.

I propose to trouble you, Mr. Editor, with two or three additional letters, on this ancient and wide-spread religion, and which divides, with that of Brahma, the religious empire of India and the adjacent countries, and shall, therefore, draw the present to a close; adding little beside an observation, that the virtues of the system appear to be gentleness and compassion, and the vices, rather melancholy and indolence, than ferocious or sanguinary dispositions. Buddha is often extolled as the "most merciful ;" and it is somewhere said, that, "he condemned the whole Veda," because of some of the bloody of ferings prescribed in the institutes of Brahma, The harmless sacrifices of the Chinese, which consist in burning coloured and gilded and tinned paper, are obviously Buddhist; since Buddha ordained paper figures of men and animals to be burnt, instead of the living victims themselves. In this, we have evidently the footsteps of the "most merciful;" of some great and good

legislator, who, giving laws to a people addicted to murderous rites, like those ofMexico and the Druids, took this ingenious and amiable method of substituting, while he amused their senses, and satisfied their superstition, an inoffensive practice. But was this the most ancient of the human Buddhas, or one of comparatively modern date? If Budha be the Jaga Nath of the Hindoos, the bloodshed at the Rutt Jatra, (the feast of his procession,) is grievously against the spirit of his

laws; at least, if that Buddha be also the Buddha "the most merciful.” To conclude, if the conjecture be right, that the Odin of the north of Europe is also the Buddha of Asia, then, singular as is the coincidence, in protecting the religion of Buddha in Ceylon, we are but protecting the religion of our ancestors. "I grant," says the Earl of Roscommon,

"I grant, that from some mossy idol oak, "In double rhimes, our Thor and Woden spoke."

But our Woden was not "the most merciful;" or, at least, the correlative worship of Thor was sufficiently bloody; and, hence, a further ground for believing, that the Indian Buddha, born in a softer climate, and in a less barbarous age, was the reformer of the Buddhism of more remote antiquity. "The gods," say the Buddhists of Birma, "who have attained the perfect state, are four; Chauchasam, Gonagom, Gaspa, and Godama (Buddha); but, of these, the law of Godama ought, at present, to be followed." In these words, we receive a hint of four successive Buddhas, divine lawgivers, the authors of new dispensations, each adapted to the time at which it was promulgated.-I am, &c. MYTHOLOGUS.

DESCRIPTION OF THE VALLEY OF DOONA.*

(From Kirkpatrick's Nepaul)

We were just an hour in ascending to the top of Doona-baisi hill, from whence we had a delightful view of the valley below, as well as a broken one of the snowy ranges of mountains before us. The declivity to the northward was in many places extremely steep, the road often lying along the edge of the shoulder by which we descended, and which now and then sunk very abruptly. The distance by the road from the summit of the mountain to the bottom of Doonabaisi, could not, I judge, be less than six miles, as I was two hours and twenty minutes in descending. We passed in our descent two hamlets, situated on small flat projections from the side of the hill; the first of them nearly midway down, the other about half a mile from the bottom. The village of Pisan-keel stands on the face of a detached hill less than a quarter of a mile from the foot of the descent into the valley, and leaning from it about south-west. The north side of Doona-baisi mountain, though of a perpendicular height not less than twelve hundred yards, was cultivated in some parts from its very summit to its base, presenting to the view one of the most interesting and picturesque sights that can be well imagined; many of the fields, indeed, appeared to be so steep as to excite some degree of wonder in us at the husbandman's

*The Valley of Doon or Doona is the scene of the death of the brave General Gillespie. See the Scottish song, under the head of POETRY, page 45. ED.

being able to reach, far less to cultivate them. The grain raised in these situations is principally Towli and Ikâro; they are both species of Ghya, or dry rice, the former of which is reaped in the summer, and the other in the winter solstice. I am inclined to think that Doona-baisi * lies nearly on the same level with Beem-phede, or perhaps a little lower. The Owl, or low-country plague, prevails in this valley with some force, between the months of April and November, which must be attributed to the great height of the mountains enclosing it, as otherwise it might well be considered an elevated situation, standing as it does more than fifteen hundred feet above the level of Cheeriaghati. During this period, the inhabitants fly to the sides of the surrounding hills, upon which they all have cottages to retire to. They nevertheless, continue, even during the bad season, to visit the valley without fear, while the sun remains above the horizon, never venturing, however, to pass the night below. This endemial disease, of which we have been accustomed to hear such exaggerated accounts, though doubtlessly a very afflicting malady, appears to be nothing more than the jungle fever, so common in the hilly and woody districts of India, and differing in no respect from the Malaria of Switzerland, as described by Coxe.

The word Baisi or Biasi, wherever it occurs, signifies a valley.

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