of those two words, for no one can get behind the communication made from the field by Mr. Hodgson; the information supplied to us was gathered from the lips of men, previously inaccessible to the scholar, and during Mr. Hodgson's long residence in their midst. His sympathetic manner, and kind and cordial treatment of barbarous tribes, enabled him to tap sources of linguistic knowledge absolutely sealed to the European scholar on his hasty tour through India, and ignorant of the vernaculars. Learned leisure is unknown to the hard-worked Indian official. I can truly say, that in all my experience of linguistic pioneers I never knew any parallel. Some may have desired to do the same work in different parts of the world, but were cut off early in their career by disease or death; others, equally desirous, may not have had the opportunity or leisure: no doubt Mr. Hodgson's official position greatly helped him.

On the 6th Feb., 1844, there was a special meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, to welcome their correspondent from Nipál, known to most of those present by name only; it was desired to express the sentiments of the Society to their valued and talented associate, who was to embark that evening for England; the word "old" was applied to him in the Official Report of that period; he lived more than half a century after that meeting. I had the privilege in my youth of being present, and then saw my honoured friend for the first time. I find an entry in my journal to that effect by unanimous vote of the Society it was determined to have a bust in their room, and a copy of that bust was, forty years later, entrusted to me by Mrs. Hodgson to place in the rooms of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain.

England is chary of the honours conferred on Englishmen for peaceful and scientific services. I enumerate such honours as he received:

(1) He was in 1832 (sixty-two years ago) elected Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society of London, and received their silver medal in 1859. (2) He was in the same year made Corresponding

Member of the Royal Asiatic Society, and later on was one of the vice-presidents.

(3) He was elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Science, Turin, in 1834.

(4) He received the gold medal from the Société Asiatique of Paris, and was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1838.

(5) He was elected in 1845 Honorary Member of the Natural History Society of Manchester and Frankfort. (6) He was made Honorary Fellow of the Ethnological Society, London, in 1846.

(7) He was elected Corresponding Member of the Institute of France in the Department of Natural Science, and in the Department des Belles Lettres in 1850.

(8) He was elected Honorary Member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1855.

(9) He was elected Honorary Member of the American Oriental Society, New York, in 1858.

(10) He was elected Honorary Member of the German Oriental Society, Leipsig, in 1862.

(11) He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1877. (12) He was elected D.C.L. of the University of Oxford in 1889.

On the occasion of a great triumph in the streets of Rome in the time of the Emperor Tiberius, the busts of all the great Romans of the preceding forty years were carried in procession, but the thoughts of the people are described by a contemporary historian as going back to the memory of Brutus, "because he was not there." So, in looking down the list of Indian decorations, worn so worthily by those, who have contributed to our knowledge of Indian Wisdom and the great Indian Nation, such as Sir Walter Elliot, Sir Henry Yule, Sir George Campbell, Sir Richard Temple, Sir Alfred Lyall, and Sir William Hunter, a feeling of wonder comes over those, who know what he did, to think that the name of Brian Hodgson is absent; honoured by the French nation, ignored by his own Government! It is a comfort to reflect

on the wise remark of Metternich at the Congress of Vienna, 1814, who, when he saw the Ambassador of England, Lord Castlereagh, standing undecorated in the midst of the representatives of Continental Powers covered with decorations, remarked, "le moins decorée, le plus distinguée." At any rate the Royal Asiatic Society did its duty, for ten years ago, under the presidency of Sir Bartle Frere, on my motion, the Council memorialized Lord Ripon, then Viceroy, to confer upon Brian Hodgson the same honour so worthily conferred on Walter Elliot; but Walter Elliot; but nothing came of it. Perhaps to have been publicly called the "founder of the true study of Buddhism" by such a scholar as Eugene Burnouf is a greater honour than any which the India Office could have conferred.

After his final return to England he lived a quiet and happy life of thirty-six years: having had the misfortune of losing his wife, the daughter of General Alexander Scott, in 1868, he remarried in 1869 the daughter of C. C. Townsend, Esq., of Derry, County Cork. The society of this sweet and charming lady added to the attractions of his domestic circle, and his genial hospitality, and her care and devotion accompanied him to his last hour. By me, personally, the society of these two valued friends was fully appreciated, and it so happened, that when I called on the 20th of May, 1894 (Sunday), to welcome them back to England, according to my custom of many years, I found that Mr. Hodgson was slightly indisposed, and his medical adviser was opposed to visits being paid. On the Wednesday following he passed quietly away, and within a few hours after the event I stood by his bedside, and gazed, with sorrow and admiration, on his noble features.

Sympathetic notices of this great scholar have appeared in foreign periodicals. At the next meeting of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres at Paris, the usual eulogium was passed on receiving the news of the death of their oldest corresponding Member. We see his like again.

August 5th, 1894.

J.R.A.S. 1894.

shall never

R. N. C.

55

II. NOTES AND NEWS.

The Gaya Temple.-A native correspondent says: "On Tuesday, May 29th last, a sabha of distinguished pandits of Benares assembled at the Maharaja of Benares' house, and decided by an elaborate reference to sacred and religious books that the Buddha Gaya Temple belongs to the Mahant, and is a Hindoo Temple of Buddhadeva. The ninth incar nation of Vishnu Mahabodhi and Bodhidruma are holy objects of Hindoo worship. His Highness contradicted and denied his rumoured sympathy with opponents, and has given acquiescence in this decision. The reason why the Hindoo Mahant of the Temple of Buddha Gaya disallowed the Buddhist priests to set up an image of Buddha in the Temple was, we are informed by a Hindoo gentleman, who knows the facts, that his advisers came to the conclusion that the fact of the Mahant complying with the wishes of the Buddhist priests would go against him in the decision of the question, whether the temple was considered so sacred by the Hindoos as to justify its control to be continued to be exercised by the Hindoo Mahant. The Mahant is anxious to establish his legal claim to the temple on several grounds, one of which is that the Hindoos consider the shrine as one of their most cherished places for pilgrimage."-Homeward Mail.

Cyprus.-Mr. Claude Delaval Cobham, Commissioner of Larnaka, has issued a third edition of his modestly entitled "Attempt at a Bibliography of Cyprus" (Nikosia). His first list (1886) contained only 152 titles, which has now been augmented to 497, though he does not pretend to include ephemeral articles in periodicals, and he has deliberately excluded the productions of the local press since 1887, when the new Book Law came into operation. The arrangement is in the main chronological, the subsequent works of each author being recorded under the date of his first. Numismatics, Epigraphy, Language, and Cartography are classified separately; Consular Reports (1856 to 1887) and Parliamentary Papers (1878 to 1893) have also a special

heading for themselves. There is a list of newspapers, from which we learn that the Owl still continues to exist, and that two new journals appeared last year. Finally, we have a Bibliography of the Cesnola Controversy, which has recently been again fanned into flame by the visit of Dr. Ohnefalsch-Richter to America.

Mr. Charles J. Rodgers, Honorary Numismatist to the Government of India, has lately made some rare finds of both gold and silver coins of Central Asia; amongst them many unhoped-for novelties have come to light. Unfortunately his health at present prevents him from attending to them.

III. NOTICES OF BOOKS.

SOCIETY IN CHINA. By ROBERT K. DOUGLAS, Keeper of the Oriental Books and Manuscripts in the British Museum, Professor of Chinese at King's College. London: A. D. Innes and Co., Bedford Street.

The title of this work is perplexing; but the author instructs his readers in the first sentence that "it is not to be taken to imply that there is a distinct difference between society of the present day in China and that of an earlier period." He thinks that, "speaking generally, everything in China that is modern is ancient, and all that is ancient is modern."

According to his preface, "the object of the book is to picture the Chinese as they are, and not necessarily as they profess to be," for "there is no country in the world where practice and profession are more widely separated than in China. The empire is pre-eminently one of makebelieve." Evidently, Professor Douglas is possessed with a conviction that the empire of China is very much, if not altogether, a sham; that "from the Emperor to the meanest of his subjects a system of high-sounding pretension to lofty principles of morality holds sway, while the life of the nation is in direct contradiction to these