this, to commence the work and to find out the real state of feeling among the leaders of native opinion in regard to it. When they had worked to a sufficient extent in the character of missionaries upon the public mind, then perhaps it might be possible for the Government to do something to help on the work, if it did not become, as he believed it would, unnecessary to use the agencies of the Government at all. The two Notes of Mr. Malabari, to which allusion was made, were, by direction of the Government while he was at its head, sent to all the local Governments of the country, with the request that they would obtain observations upon them from their officers and from leading natives. That, he thought, the Government could fairly do; it could bring these views before the people of India; but he did not think it was possible that the Government could at present do more. He hoped when the replies had been received that the Government would make them public, so that persons in England and in India might have the question brought fully and fairly before them. -The employment of medical women in India was a matter of great importance, and he had watched with interest and attention what was being done, especially in Bombay under the auspices of Miss Pechey and Miss Ellaby. A few days ago Lady Ripon had received an interesting letter from Miss Pechey in relation to her work; and that it was a very valuable work was shown by the fact that no fewer than 3,000 patients were relieved during the first five months the dispensary had been opened. That institution was not only doing a good medical work, but it was doing an important social work also. Miss Pechey spoke of the courteous way in which she was received in native families, and of the kindness and the confidence that was shown to her. We might rely upon it that this sort of intercourse between educated and intellectual Englishwomen and the native women of India, must be a very great social lever.-It was an object of this Association to extend the knowledge of India in this country; and no one could be more convinced than he was that in this respect there was a very important work to be done in making the people of England really acquainted with the thoughts, feelings, aspirations, habits, and present position of the people of India. Far more valuable even than that was the work of promoting social intercourse in this country, and also in India, between natives and Europeans. That was a work of the

greatest possible value, and all that could be done with that view, by friendly meetings, by Soirées, and by any other agencies, was of the utmost importance in binding more closely the people of this country to the natives of that wondrous dominion which God had given us in the East. It would not be denied by those who knew the inhabitants of India that they appreciated sympathy very highly, and we could not do better than make every effort in our power to prove to them by our acts as well as our words that sympathy was felt for them by the English people.-He expected that the year 1886 would afford unusual opportunities for the operations of this Association, because there was to be held a Colonial and Indian Exhibition. It was his belief and hope that many native gentlemen and chiefs of influence would come from India upon that occasion. He trusted, therefore, that this Association, the Northbrook Indian Society, and other bodies, would begin in good time to turn their attention to the forthcoming event, in order that they might be prepared to extend their operations to the large number of Indians whom we might expect to see amongst us. -Nothing could be of greater importance than the efforts which this Association was making for the purpose of affording guidance and counsel to students who came to this country. He hoped they would come in increasing numbers; but he quite agreed with Professor Monier Williams, that it was essential, that it was a capital necessity that we should provide for them, if they did come, counsel and advice, and some protection against the dangers which beset young men in these days, and which more especially beset young men coming from a distant country and thrown for the first time, apart from relations and friends, into the midst of the turmoil. and the temptations of great European cities. We should remember who those young students are. We should recollect, and they should bear in mind, that the future of India is to a great extent in their hands and in the hands of those like them in their own country. They are the inheritors of an ancient civilisation and an ancient literature, and it behoves them to do all they can to redeem and to restore the fame of their country; not by casting away their hereditary possessions, but by adding to them all the stores of Western knowledge; not for the purposes of display, not to exhibit a vain pride in superficial learning, but in the spirit which

so markedly distinguished the Eastern sages of the past, who were inspired by a true love of knowledge, and who wooed her for herself and not for those material advantages which she could bestow. And if to this ancient spirit they should add that which is the noblest feature of Western culture, a determination to use all the gifts that God has given them, and the learning they have laboriously acquired, for the benefit of others rather than for their own, they will be doing a great work for India and for England. I would earnestly exhort them," concluded the speaker, "and there are some of them here to-day-I would earnestly exhort you, my young friends, to set no lower aim before you, but to labour to do what you can to strengthen the foundations of the prosperity of your country by your devotion to the studies you are pursuing, and thus to raise up your peoples among the nations of the world. It is because I believe that this Association will give you help in that great work that I am glad to have been here to-day."

The Right Hon. Sir A. HOBHOUSE, K.C.S.I., moved a vote of thanks to the Marquis of Ripon for presiding, and congratulated him upon receiving hearty English welcomes on his return from the exile and labours of the Indian Viceroyalty, the responsibilities, duties, and fatigues of which were so little appreciated by Englishmen. He hoped that what the noble lord had heard of the work of the Association would induce him to give it help in time to come. There was no more noble aim than to stand as intermediaries between two peoples, far apart in distance and characteristics, who had been joined in close political bonds by the force of circumstances. There could be no nobler aim than to endeavour to increase their knowledge one of another, and so to remove, by a gentle hand, by gradual steps, and by moral influence, the barriers which stood between them, and to replace prejudice by knowledge and distrust by confidence, antipathy by sympathy and fear by love. These were the aims of the Association, and in helping it Lord Ripon was promoting objects which they knew to be dear to him by methods to which nobody could object.

The motion was seconded by General Sir RICHARD MEADE, K.C.S.I., and carried by acclamation.

The Marquis of RIPON, in responding, said he had already expressed the pleasure it gave him to be present. He did not grudge in the slightest degree the labour he had given to the

people of India for between four and five years. The work was to him intensely interesting, and he had brought away with him from India a deep regard and affection for the people of that country. He had also brought away with him an intense disinclination to increase the enormous responsibilities which already weighed upon this country in the government of those vast dominions. He felt a great interest in the work this Association was doing, and he should be glad to join it, as his wife had already done, and to give it any assistance in his power.

REVIEW.

HISTORY OF THE PARSIS: THEIR MANNERS, CUSTOMS, RELIGION, AND PRESENT POSITION. By DOSABHAI FRAMJI KARAKA, C.S.I. With coloured and other Illustrations. 2 vols. 8vo. Macmillan & Co.

As one of the many Nationalities which go to compose our Indian Empire, the history of the Parsis cannot fail to be interesting. But the interest is enhanced when we remember that the Parsis are the sole relics of the once mighty Persian Empire-the Empire founded by Cyrus (B.C. 558), whose grandeur, magnificence, and glory, we are told, were unsurpassed by any other nation of ancient times; whose kings were at once the most powerful of monarchs, and the wisest and most beneficent of rulers; whose armies were renowned for courage and military prowess; whose people were well trained in all the arts of civilised life; whose women were as brave as they were fair, and as famed for the freedom allowed them as for their modesty. In the course of centuries, peace and luxury exercised their enervating influence on at once hardy and warlike people, and the country fell an easy prey to hordes of Arabians. The battle of Nahavand (A.D. 641) completed the overthrow of the Persian Monarchy, and Mahomedan supremacy was established. The few followers of Zoroaster who refused to accept the religion of the Koran fled to the mountains, where they remained for about a hundred years unmolested. But persecution at last reached them, and, rather than deny their faith and fall into the hands of their cruel persecutors, a number of them determined to relinquish for ever the land of their forefathers, and to seek

an asylum in the country of the Hindus. Of the exact date of this and subsequent migrations, and of the numbers who went thus into exile for honour and conscience' sake, there is no reliable historical record; but it appears that after sojourning for a while in Diu, a small Portuguese island in the Gulf of Cambay, they reached Sanjan, in Gujarat, about the year A.D. 716, the Hindu ruler of which conceded to them the rights of shelter and settlement, on the condition that they adopted the language of the country, dressed their females in the Indian fashion, and conformed to some other minor usages. The distinctive feature of their creed (in however imperfect a form) they seem to have retained. They declared: "We are worshippers of the Supreme Being, the sun and the five elements," and in this faith they continued. In a few years a fire temple was erected, and the sacred fire was kindled on its altar in accordance with the tenets of the Zoroastrian religion.

For about three hundred years after landing at Sanjan the Parsis are said to have lived in peace and without molestation. By that time their numbers had greatly increased, and many of them had moved into other parts of India, with their families, a large number to Broach and Surat, and some even so far as the Punjab, where, in A.D. 1079, they appear to have again suffered Mahomedan persecution, and in after years were among those who offered a fierce resistance to Timur, the invader; but were ultimately compelled to fly to Gujarat. In the fourteenth century we read of a Parsi settlement at Thana, the members of which narrowly "escaped wholesale conversion from the religion of their forefathers to Christianity." The authorities having issued an order to that effect, the Parsis expressed their willingness to be baptised, but begged for two or three days' grace, which being granted, they invited the officials to a sumptuous feast in honour of the event, at which wine flowed freely; and when the guests had "well drunk," the Parsis took the opportunity of leaving the city, and escaped to Kalyan, twenty miles distant, where they settled, and did not return to Thana till 1774, when the English took possession of it. About the year 1305, the Parsis of Sanjan made common cause with the Hindus in resisting the aggression of the Mahomedans, under Muhamed Shah. A force of 1,400 Parsis, under their leader Ardeshir, joined the Hindu army, and when the Hindus were overpowered and fled, the Parsis succeeded