"The local importance of the Hon'ble Company's garden has, therefore, I think, never been sufficiently appreciated. Its position, on the right bank of the Hooghly, is undoubtedly, in some respects, disadvantageous, as rendering it difficult of access, but any change of site is obviously impossible, from the great expense by which it would be attended. The rapid extension of the population of Howrah makes this annually of less importance, and it may reasonably be hoped that, before many years, improved means of crossing the river, the exact nature of which cannot be foreseen, will facilitate access to the garden from the Calcutta side.

"The rapidity of the development of Calcutta, during the last fifty years, has undoubtedly been very great, but it is probably trifling in comparison to what may be expected in the next half-century. The existence of a large area of open ground, the property of the State, in the immediate vicinity of a populous and rapidly increasing city, is so important on sanatory grounds, that no question can exist as to the propriety of retaining it. The value of ground in the neighbourhood of Calcutta is already considerable, and may be expected to increase from year to year, so that the acquisition of land for the purpose of Parks will annually become more difficult. The area occupied by the Botanic Gardens will probably ere long be entirely surrounded by a dense population, when its importance, as a pure and healthy spot, will be even greater than at present.

To make the Botanic Garden an establishment worthy of the Empire, its scientific character ought to be raised, and it ought to be made available as a place, both of instruction and of recreation, for the public. To attain the latter object, it is not in the least necessary to neglect the former, and both may be effected without any great increase of expenditure. It will, however, be necessary to abandon the present fixed limit to the expenditure of the garden, which has, during the twenty-five years it has been in operation, destroyed its efficiency by cramping the efforts of the successive superintendents to make improvements. A fixed establishment is undoubtedly quite necessary, but extraordinary expenses for improvements should surely be taken into consideration on their own merits, and if approved of after a rigid scrutiny, sanctioned without reference to the ordinary expenditure. I shall therefore proceed to indicate, in succession, a number of points, in which increased outlay is, I think, called for.

"At present, the garden is open to all pedestrians, but carriages are excluded. This rule is found to work admirably at Kew, but it is not adapted to a tropical climate, so that practically the public are excluded from the Garden for the greater part of the year. I would propose at once to abolish this restriction; but unfortunately our roads are not adapted either in width or solidity to carriage traffic. To widen the principal roads, and to make them pucka throughout, will, in the first instance, entail a considerable expense, but when the roads have been brought into a thoroughly good state, a small annual outlay will suffice to keep them in good order. This outlay, I think, will be well repaid by the increased facility of access to the garden, which will increase its utility, and make the public take a greater interest in its maintenance and welfare.

"I have already stated my belief that, when the issue stops, the establishment of the garden will be quite sufficient for all ordinary demands upon it. Buildings for Garden purposes must, however, be excluded from the ordinary expenditure, and if we extend our operations in ornamental gardening, we shall need several additions to our buildings. Of these, none is more urgently required than a Glass House, the want of which is very severely felt in all our operations.

"At present, the Botanic Garden may be compared to the out-of-doors part of an English garden, in which hardy plants, or those capable of flourishing in the open air, grow. The stock is, therefore, limited to such as can endure the Calcutta climate, and consists chiefly of shrubby plants, annuals requiring so much labor for their cultivation, and for the preservation of their seeds, that they are only partially grown. These, however, constitute the most ornamental part of a garden, and an extension of their culture would much increase the beauty of our grounds."

Under the dry character of a report, the whole is a manly appeal to Government to rescue the garden from its present position of a gigantic nursery" and give it " and give it that scientific character to which its importance, as an institution of the empire, and an educating establishment, entitles it. We shall welcome the day hinted at in the report, when we can drive comfortably from Chowringhee across the Hooghly-bridge, and passing through the densely populated city of Howrah, then no more a suburb, enjoy the rich vegetation, rare beauty and glorious air of the Botanic Garden.

We have left ourselves no room for the report on opium. It takes up the details of the cultivation of the drug, its collection, its treatment, the import of it into the Sudder Factory, the weighment of it, its export, packing boats and loading, and finally its analysis. Dr. Lyell,-Alas! since fallen a victim to the recent Rebellion, cannot account for the preference that the Chinese give to certain varieties of opium :—

"The Chinese pay the highest price for Opium which in the drug market of Europe is looked upon as the poorest description. The Benares drug, which is markedly inferior in quality to the produce of this Agency, and each chest contains five per cent. less of solid Opium, commands a higher price in the market. Chemistry fails in showing satisfactorily why this should be the case, and the manufacture is conducted with as much care here as at that place. It may be owing to the greater number of Patna chests in the market, or to the impossibility of reconciling the Chinese to it after their confidence in it has been once shaken by the disaster which occurred several years ago,

"No certain knowledge exists as to the cause why they prize the Opium. My own opinion, as already mentioned, is that they value it for the quality and quantity of consumable extract; others, however, assert that it is for the quantity of morphia; another, that it is for the narcotine; and another, for its resinous principles."

The following is the analysis that he gives of it. :

"1st Step.-3,000 grains of opium are accurately weighed out, broken down by the hand in 32 ozs. of alcohol (at 42) and introduced into a stoppered bottle, where it remains for twenty-four hours, being occasionally shaken, the more thoroughly to expose all the soluble parts to the action of the alcohol.

"2nd Step.-The solution which has been formed by the maceration of the drug in alcohol is filtered and washed with more alcohol till it ceases to communicate any color to the spirit, or till all the soluble parts have been extracted.

"3rd Step.-2 ozs. of ammonia are then added to the solution thus obtained, put into a retort, and 16 of the 32 ozs. of spirit are drawn off by the heat of a water bath. By this means the ammonia combines with the meconic acid which in opium is always found in combination with narcotine, morphia. and the other alkaloids present in opium, and at the same time the strength of the alcohol is materially reduced, the narcotine can no longer be held in solution, so that narcotine in an impure state is obtained when the residue cools, and it is therefore set aside in an open vessel for about twelve hours.

"4th Step.-The impure narcotine thus obtained is collected on a filter; the morphia remaining in solution being more soluble. The impure narcotine collected on the filter is well washed with distilled water, and further with a weak solution of muriatic acid. This dissolves the narcotine, leaving the impurities on the filter.

"To the solution of muriate of narcotine thus obtained, which is usually of a

bright lake color, ammonia is added, which precipitates the narcotine pure or nearly so. This precipitate is collected on a filter, washed, dried, and afterwards, as in the case of morphia, boiled in alcohol with animal charcoal. On cooling this gives pure crystals of narcotine, and which are then ready to be weighed. "The morphia solution from which the narcotine was obtained on filtering is then evaporated down to the consistence of syrup, to drive off all the remaining portion of the alcohol.

"To this water is added, and part of the resin is precipitated by cautiously adding ammonia. The whole of the resin is precipitated, the solution now freed from resin is heated over a water bath, and when the solution cools, the morphia is obtained in the form of a precipitate of more or less impurity, as care has been bestowed in extracting the whole of the resin. This precipitate is then collected on a filter, washed, dried, and afterwards boiled in alcohol also with animal charcoal. On cooling crystals of pure morphia are obtained, which are carefully weighed."

The Method of Reasoning, for the use of those who have not leisure to study Logic. Calcutta, 1857.

THIS little work of thirty-one pages is part of the results of an attempt "to do a little good among the educated young men of Calcutta, as it was feared that many of them had forgotten much that they had been taught in their school and college days." Its object is thus good, but perhaps it were well not to enquire too closely into the mode in which it is carried out in the present case. The pamphlet is a very short abridgment of some of the principal sections of Whately's well-known work-a few of the examples of syllogisms and fallacies only seeming to be original. The character of many of these may be seen from the concluding statement of the preface.

"He would earnestly request those of his readers who do not believe in the Christian religion, to point out some flaw in the arguments used, or else to admit their force and embrace the "Gospel."

From what we know of the state of the native mind and of the non-Christian world generally, we question, if such an effort as this, will be likely to give any converts to Christianity, who are worth having. The class of men for whose use it is intended do not see that there is any necessary connection between their inability to refute the arguments in support of the Gospel, and the call upon them to embrace that Gospel.

Memoirs and Letters of the late Colonel Armine S. H. Mountain, C. B., Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, Adjutant General to H. M's Forces in India. Edited by Mrs. Armine S. H. Mountain. London, 1857.

We need make no apology for introducing this volume to the notice of our readers. It is the memoir of a good and gallant man, well-known to his countrymen in this land, and whose name is

imperishably associated with the most heroic achievements on one of India's bloodiest battle-fields. Were there no other reasons, the single one that Colonel Mountain, at the head of his brigade, stormed the centre and captured there the Artillery of the enemy in the battle of Chillianwallah, would be sufficient to claim for him, that his name should not willingly be let die. We are sure therefore that the memoir of him by his widow, will be received with general satisfaction.

With the exception of his service in the first China, and second Punjab wars, the career of Colonel Mountain was not marked by much of varied incident or exciting adventure. He entered the army in a time of peace, in 1815, after the close of the great continental war, and first saw active service in 1840 in China. His father was Bishop of Quebec, a man of high character and ability; and the hallowed influence of his training and example, his soldier son seemed to have carried with him throughout life. Born in 1797, Armine Mountain entered the army at the age of eighteen, served successively with the 96th, 52nd, 76th and 26th regiments, and arrived in India in 1829. Previous to this, he had been in Nova Scotia, England, Ireland, and the Island of Jersey. His life had been that of an ac· tive and conscientious officer, an affectionate son and brother, and an upright and honorable man. His first impressions of India contain in them, nothing particularly noticeable by people in this country, save perhaps a disposition to deal somewhat more gently with the natives with whom he came in contact than is often the case. For about a year, he was stationed in the Presidency of Madras, and was then removed with his regiment to Calcutta. After a few weeks in Bengal, the 26th marched to Meerut, and whilst stationed there, he renewed his acquaintance with the late Lord Dalhousie, then Commander-inChief, and also made the acquaintance of Lord and Lady William Bentinck, of whom he frequently speaks with the warmest affection and respect. Shortly after he proceeded to Bombay, as Military Secretary to Sir Colin Halkett, held that office till Sir Colin's recall, and then returned to Bengal as Aide-de-Camp to the Governor-General. In 1835, he visited England, in the hope of obtaining promotion to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, but in this he failed, and returned to India two years after. Whilst at home, he had the sad consolation of being present at his mother's death, whom he seems to have loved with the tenderest affection. He had married and brought his wife to India, but his prospects of domestic happiness were soon marred by his wife's untimely death. His only remaining solace was the little daughter which his wife had borne him. This child died two years afterwards, at the commencement of a voyage to England. Her father was not with her, and there is something very beautiful and touching in the expression of his feelings when he heard of his loss. Writing to his sister, he says:

It is a bitter thought that you never even saw her; that the wide sea is drifting her little bones I know not whither! That only one brief week after I had been permitted to embark her with so much thought, and care, and hope, and thankful confidence, my sweet child died, before she had learnt to love or even rightly knew her father,

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but this is weakness. God knows best. It was no doubt best for you, for her and at that day,' wherever I may be, she will surely be yielded up by the wide waters, and be numbered by her Saviour amongst the Angels of God."

Having been appointed Adjutant General of the China force, he sailed from Calcutta in April, 1840, along with a party of staff officers, and after encountering what appears to have been a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, he reached the scene of War. Throughout this, we do not mean to follow him; suffice it to say, that in one action he was severely wounded, having received three musket balls, and that he seems to have discharged his duties so admirably, as to draw from the Duke of Wellington, subsequently, the remark, when a list of the officers who had served in this war, was laid before him, and he laid his finger upon Colonel Mountain's name, "this man has done his work remarkably well; I should like to do something for him."

There is one thing however which we feel inclined to notice in Colonel Mountain's Correspondence, during the continuance of this war. We are well aware that it is the duty of a soldier simply to obey orders, and to sink his personality in his military allegiance; and that if it be a right thing for a man to enter an army, and a right thing for an army to be maintained, the responsibility of wrongdoing on a great scale, such as we sometimes see, rests not with subordinates, but with those at the head of affairs. We say therefore that if it be a right thing, as we think it is, for an army to be maintained to guard the interests of a kingdom, and if it be a right and justifiable thing that qualified men should take service in it, and if it be necessary that in this army, perfect discipline be maintained, as of course it is, then we do not see that the responsibility for the way in which it is employed, can rest any where but with the controlling power; and we do not see that for one individual wrong use of this army, the subordinate members are responsible. Were an army to be deprived of the services of all its conscientious members, every time the moral rightness of a war came to be a question, then it is not easy to see how it could exist for the accomplishment of those ends for which it was right that it should be embodied. It is a simple fact that very decided opinions have been held by many of our countrymen as to the morality of these China wars; that whilst all have felt that outrages had been committed upon the English flag, and upon the persons and property of Englishmen, many have been satisfied that we were both actively and passively the aggressors. True it is that Englishmen had been maltreated, and their property seized; but why? Simply because they would not cease from a traffic which was in transgression of the laws of the Chinese empire, and would not withdraw from the country of the Chinese, when required to do so. We look in vain to the principle of commercial reciprocity, so often alleged as a justification of such a line of conduct. If it justify our forcing our traffic upon the Chinese, it must equally justify the French or the Russians in forcing their traffic upon us, or demanding our traffic for them. Supposing that SEPT., 1857.

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