a degree of success which had been denied to similar previous efforts. We, members of the community of Bombay now residing in England, think it desirable that your friends and ours here should recognise the significance of well-meant attempts to promote good relations between your countrymen and ours in India as tending to the mutual advantage of both. We are grateful to you for the opportunity which you afford us by your presence here to give expression to this sentiment, at the same time that we are doing ourselves the pleasure of manifesting our sense of the sincerity and cordiality of your social intercourse with the different races and creeds of the inhabitants of Bombay. In offering you a welcome to your native land, may we express a hope that your large experience of India, and your larger sympathies with its peoples, may, in the important career which awaits you here, serve to promote that friendly feeling between the two countries, with the expansion of which broadens the scope of England's noble mission in Hindoostan? Accept, Sir James Fergusson, the sentiments of our profound respect and high regard, and believe us to remain, your sincere and dutiful friends. (Signed by many inhabitants of Bombay.) LONDON, 4th June, 1885. THE BIRTHPLACE OF SHAKESPEARE. It is an established fact that when Shakespeare's plays are announced in the Bombay papers, an unusually large house is the result. The audience is of a varied kind. There are, as usual, ladies and gentlemen, ordinary playgoers; but there are some present there who manifest the most lively interest. These are the junior and the advanced students of English language and literature. Long before the hour of acting the students muster in large numbers, and when the play has commenced, some of them may be observed repeating to themselves passages from Shakespeare, and thus they keep pace with the actors. The writer of this article once belonged to such an audience, and has now had the good fortune to see some of England's greatest and most eminent actors. Englishmen in England may perhaps wonder why the people of India, whose language and mode of thinking are different from their own, appreciate the works of their great national poet. The solution of this question is found in some books about Shakespeare, wherein it is happily expressed that he is the poet of the world, and that his plays have no particular home, being the common property of all who understand the English language. When I was still at Bombay, I had often thought of Shakespeare and his home, and had resolved that when I came to England I would not fail to pay a visit to Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace of this immortal bard. I believe that an account of Stratford may prove interesting to many of my countrymen. I left London on an autumn afternoon for Stratford-onAvon. To a foreigner, accustomed to the din and bustle of this huge metropolis, the quiet and quaint old town of Stratford was particularly pleasing. As the space at my disposal is limited, I shall not attempt to give a life of the poet. I take it for granted that most of us are familiar with his life, and that we all know in whose reign he lived and flourished. The chief objects of interest at Stratford are the house of the poet, the church where he lies buried, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Chalcotte Park, and Anne Hathaway's Cottage. The first in importance is the house of Shakespeare. It is a very small house, which is now very much changed. It has three rooms on the ground floor. One of these is the ancient kitchen, with its large chimney. Having seen this, I went to the room in which Shakespeare was born. The walls of that room are densely crowded with the names of the most distinguished visitors. One familiar name was pointed out to me; it was that of Sir Walter Scott. From this room I went to another on the right, which is now something like a museum, and which contains many valuable documents and relics relating to Shakespeare. One object in this room deserves special notice. It is a gold seal ring, on which are engraved the initials W.S. Having spoken of the house, I shall now attempt to notice some objects in connection with the church, where the poet lies buried. The situation is very beautiful. The river Avon flows gently by. There are many things worth noticing in the church, but none attract so much attention as the monument and the tomb of the poet. In the monument he is represented as writing upon a cushion, and on either side is a Corinthian pillar. Beneath the bust, the following lines are seen, in Latin : "Ivdicio Pylium, genio Socratem, arte Maronem : The English of which is: "In judgment a Nestor, in genius a Socrates, in art a Virgil: the earth covers him, the people mourn for him, Olympus has him." There is another Latin verse besides this, but I do not wish to trouble the reader about it. The grave of the poet is near the monument. It is covered by a flat stone, on which are to be seen the following lines. They are said to be written by the poet himself a short time before his decease: "Good friend, for Jesvs sake forbeare To digg the dvst encloased heare. Which can readily be turned into modern English. Many of us in India are aware of the fact that men of worth and genius in England are buried in Westminster Abbey. The above anathema will serve to explain why Shakespeare is not buried there. There is, however, a monument to him in the Abbey, in Poets' Corner. In another part of the church is still to be seen the font in which Shakespeare was baptised. I was also particularly pleased to see the old parish register, in which the name of William Shakespeare is written in Latin. Herein is entered the date on which he was christened. The next object of interest is the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. It has a pleasant situation near the banks of the Avon. The building was presented by Mr. C. E. Flower. It should be mentioned here that the members of the Flower family have done a very great deal to revive the memory of Shakespeare. In presenting this magnificent building, Mr. Flower has shown that the English nation always delights in doing honour to the memory of the great and the gifted. I wish I could give at full length the history of this Memorial Theatre, because, owing to the presence of this building, Shakespeare may still be said to live among the men of the nineteenth century. The exertions, therefore, of the different members of the distinguished Flower family in the cause of the national English poet certainly deserve to be praised. Memorial Theatre consists of a library, a picture gallery, and a theatre. The theatre has a stage which is admirably got up. Every year, in April, there are performances in the theatre, and the whole town is illuminated. In this way the poet's birthday is celebrated. The picture gallery contains some very valuable pictures. In the library there is a collection of books, both ancient and modern, that are written on Shakespeare. The I had no opportunity of seeing Chalcotte Park, but I saw Anne Hathaway's cottage. Hathaway was the maiden name of the poet's wife. The cottage still retains that appearance about it which it probably had in the time of the poet. One more object at Stratford remains to be noticed. It is the inn where Washington Irving, the American author, stayed when he visited Stratford. When a schoolboy, I had often and often read his description of Stratford in his "Sketch Book." The chair and other things of which he speaks are still shown to visitors, a large number of whom are his countrymen. The inn has since been named after him. I cannot bring this description to a close without thanking my English friends, both in London and at Stratford. I am sure that, without their assistance, I should not have been able to see the place to my satisfaction. London, June, 1885. B. S. M. WIDOW MARRIAGE IN INDIA. We are glad to learn that a Widow Marriage Association has been established at Naldanga, in Jessore (Bengal), under the auspices of the Rajas and Zemindars of that place. The following gentlemen have formed themselves into a Committee: Rájá P. B. Dev Roy, President; Raja Mathuresh Ch. Dey, VicePresident; Baboo Rajendra Nath Dutt, Preacher and Superintendent; Baboo Bissessur Bandopadhaya, Secretary; and a few other members. We have received an Appeal to Educated Hindus, signed by three members of the Association, who are, we understand, leading members of the Native community in Bengal. In this Appeal Bengalis are urged to consider their want of fixity of purpose, courage, perseverance, and unity. "Year after year, it continues, "the University pours forth into our society hundreds and thousands of educated youths, with the most elevated notions of things and the most advanced views of life. But, alas! where do all these notions and views go as soon as we pass the Gibraltar of collegiate life and launch ourselves into the great ocean of the world!" The writers further represent that politics should not absorb comparatively so much attention. "The connection between politics and society is intimate and inseparable. Let us direct all our energies and resources to the regeneration of our society, and the weeding out of those social evils, the existence of which is a grave reproach. It would not, of course, be practicable nor prudent to wage war against all the social evils at once. He is a bad general who attacks all the enemy's forts at the same time. Let us invest and take them one by one: 'Heart within and God o'erhead!"" The Appeal then puts forward as the foremost of the present social evils demanding redress "the wretched condition of widows, especially such of them as have lost their husbandsso-called-before arriving at womanhood." The unhappy fate and condition of such young widows is pictured: their unhappiness, their temptations, their isolation. Finally, a stirring address is made to graduates, students, and men of all professions and callings, to rouse themselves from their "lethargic sleep, which ill becomes the true sons of Aryavarta," and to bring about this "most necessary reform in society. Be not scared away by the phantom of social persecution. We have Manu and Paráshara-Paráshara, the lawgiver of the Kali Yuga -on our side; and we who have received a liberal education are a legion. Let us muster up courage, and come in a phalanx, and in the highest spirits, into the field.-We have already begun work, as you have seen in the newspapers. We now implore your sympathy and co-operation. Let us form ourselves into a vast organisation, the strength and magnitude of which will paralyse all opposition." The Appeal is signed by Rájá Promotha Bhushan Roy, Rajendra Nath Dutt, and Bissessur Bandopadhaya, and is dated from the Palace "Naldanga," Jessore, Bengal, 1st April, 1885. MEDICAL WOMEN FOR INDIA. Mrs. Grant Duff has received a private letter from General Ponsonby, stating that Her Majesty expresses herself as being warmly interested in the success of the scheme submitted to her for establishing a Hospital for Caste Women at Madras, and will graciously permit it to be called the Victoria Hospital. The Committee, of which the Hon. T. Rama Rao is the active Secretary, has, we understand, secured promises of Rs. 1,75,000 towards the three lakhs which they hope to collect. Lady Adam has consented to become one of the Vice-Patronesses. Mrs. Anandabai Joshee, the Mahratta lady who has studied Medicine in the United States for two years, has passed the Final Medical Examination at one of the American Universities. She will shortly receive her degree, and return to India. It is stated that Mr. Justice Thumboo Chetty, of the Chief Court of Mysore, has expressed his intention to offer a Scholarship of Rs. 35 per mensem, tenable for three years, to |