and mercenary chief, all the arrears of pay which he had earned in his service, and which amounted to a considerable sum, on condition that he would preserve his daughter.' Two exceptions, however, are mentioned. Huttaji,' says Major Walker, is a professed robber. This man, with the aspect and manners of a barbarian, possessed all the feelings of natural affection, which led him to cherish his daughters, in opposition to the usage and prejudices of his tribe. The daughters of Huttaji are between six and eight years of age. I observed their father caressing them with pleasure, and exulting in them with true parental satisfaction; and their persons and manners were very interesting. These girls wore turbans, and were dressed and habited like boys. As if ashamed or afraid of acknowledging their sex, they assured me that they were not girls, and with infantile simplicity, appealed to their father to corroberate their assertion.'--p.67. The duration of this barbarous custom does not seem to have been ascertained. All the information, collected by Major Walker on this part of the subject, amounts to this, that 'the origin of infanticide among the Jarejahs is not supposed to be more remote than 500 years.' But Captain Wilford, as we have seen, found the existence of the practice in an old Greek author in his possession.' It would be very obliging in this 'leaned pundit' of Benares, if he would condescend to name his authorities, which he rarely thinks it necessary to do. In the present instance, we strongly suspect that he has entirely mistaken the meaning of the old Greek author in his possession;' for we can venture to say, that no such custom as that of killing female children is recorded in any of the ancient authors, whether Greek or Latin, who have written on the subject of Alexander's expedition to India. It is not to be found in Arrian, nor in Quintus Curtius, nor in Diodorus Siculus, nor in Strabo, nor in the Bibliotheca of Photius, who has preserved a great deal of the writings of Ctesias. There are two passages, one in Diodorus Siculus, and the other in Quintus Curtius, relating to the murder of deformed male children, which, we are inclined to think, may have misled the Captain. The former, in speaking of the Sophiti and their excellent laws, observes, that they deprive of life all male children of defective or infirm habit of body;' and the latter, in narrating the arrival of Alexander among the same people, takes occasion, in praising the wisdom of their political and moral institutions, to observe, that if they should remark any male child to be languid or defective in any of his limbs, they order him to be put to death;' but not one word occurs respecting female infanticide. Yet if it had existed, in the days of Alexander, it is more than probable, that so singular a practice would have been noticed by some of his historians; as many of the customs of the In

dians are mentioned, and among others, that remarkable one of wives burning themselves on the funeral pile of their husbands.

We now come to the most pleasing part of the narrative, that which relates to the proceedings and expedients adopted by Major Walker, to induce the Jarejahs of the peninsula of Guzzerat to relinquish infanticide. It was obvious that, whatever the duration of the practice might have been, it was sufficiently rooted in the minds of the people, to render the difficulties of prevailing on them to abolish it, many and formidable. For a length of time he was amused and chagrined with promises and disappointments from a chief, whose interest it was to cultivate the favour of the Company's government. He availed himself of the agency and influence of Sunderji Savaji, already mentioned, but with no better success. He applied to Futteh Mahommed, a Mussulman jemadar, whose authority was paramount in the dominions of the Rao of Kutch, in the hope of obtaining his influence for suppressing a crime against nature and his religion; but the answer he received destroyed every hope of success from that quarter, and he was desired not to address him again on the subject. At length, in 1807, the Jarejah Chief, Jehaji, wrote as follows to Major Walker:

You have often urged me to adopt some course to preserve my daughters; and I am convinced you look upon me as your own, when you desire me to do this; but the Jarejahs have from ancient times killed their daughters, and I cannot first set a new example. I am much annoyed by Mallia; if therefore you reduce Mallia, and keep it subject to the Company, or give it to me, as well as restore Hurralla, if you should favour me so much, my present distress will be removed, and I will meet your wishes in preserving my daughters.'-p. 111.

By this paper the inviolability of the principle was at once abandoned, and the selfish and mercenary motive made manifest, which attached the Jarejahs to infanticide. He next applied to the mother of the chief, but she contended for the ancient privilege of the caste, and referred him to Jehaji, adding, at the same time, the Jarejahs have never reared their daughters, nor can it now be the case.' He ceased not, however, to make his attacks upon Jehaji, from whom, after much solicitation, and giving him to understand the advantages and credit which he would derive from the Company, by complying with the requisition, he obtained a conditional writing, to the following effect: From motives of friendship, the Honourable Company have urged me to preserve my daughters; to this I consent, if the chiefs of Nowanaggar and Gondal agree.' By the influence of a Brahman, the Gondal chief was at length prevailed upon to enter into a formal obligation to renounce for ever the practice of infanticide. Of this curious instrument the following is a tranlation :

"Whereas the Honourable English Company and Anand Rao Gaikawar Sena Khaskil Shumshir Bahader, having set forth to us the dictates of the Sastras, and the true faith of the Hindus; as well as that the Brahma-vaiverkeka Purana declares the killing of children to be a heinous sin; it being written, that it is as great an offence to kill an embryo as a Brahman; that to kill one woman is as great a sin as a hundred Brahmans; that to put one child to death is as great a transgression against the divine laws as to kill a hundred women; and that the perpetrators of this sin shall be damned to the hell Kulesoothela, where he shall be infested with as many maggots as he may have hairs on his body; be born again a leper, and debilitated in all his members: We, Jarejah Dewaji and Koer Nuthu, Zemindars of Gondal (the custom of female infanticide having long prevailed in our caste) do hereby agree, for ourselves, and for our offspring; as also we bind ourselves in behalf of our relations, and their offspring, for ever, for the sake of our own prosperity, and for the credit of the Hindu faith; that we shall from this day renounce this practice; and in default of this that we acknowledge ourselves offenders against the Sirkars. Moreover, should any one in future commit this offence, we shall expel him from our caste, and he shall be punished according to the pleasure of the two governments, and the rule of the Sastras.'

This was now readily signed by all the chiefs except one, who at length also consented, but at the same time solicited an abatement of his revenue to reimburse the expense to which he would be liable in consequence of bringing up his daughters. Thus, says Major Walker, the Honourable Company's government have the merit of having directed their philanthropic attention to the abolishment of a custom as singular as barbarous; and as contrary to the general feelings of parents, and of humanity, as ever disgraced the history of man. The happiest effects were immediately experienced upon the signature of the engagement; and, in the course of a few months, it became as difficult to prove the fact of any female children being put to death, as it formerly was to find one that had been saved. At the end of the year 1808, three infanticides only appeared to have been committed since the date of the obligation, and one of them rested on report only. In the expedition to Kattawar, Major (now Colonel) Walker, on his halt at Dherole, had all the neighbouring Jarejahs who had preserved their children brought to his tent. It was extremely gratifying,' he writes, on this occasion to preserve the triumph of nature, feeling, and parental affection, over prejudice, and a horrid superstition; and that those who, but a short period before, would, as many of them had done, have doomed their infants to destruction without compunction, should now glory in their preservation.' This visit must indeed have been peculiarly gratifying to Colonel Walker's feelings. The Jarejah fathers', says Mr. Moor, 'who a short time back, would not have listen

ed to the preservation of their daughters, now exhibited them with pride and fondness. The mothers placed their infants in the hands of Col. Walker, calling on him and their gods to protect what he alone had taught them to preserve. These infants they emphatically called "his children;" and it is likely that this distinction will continue to exist for some years in Guzzerat.'

We have now gone through the sad story of human artifice acting on human weakness? which, however, Mr. Moor, by his incidental notes,' 'remarks,' and 'illustrations,' has ingeniously contrived to swell out to more than 300 quarto pages. The main drift of these notes and illustrations appears to be that of advertising his Hindu Pantheon. Scarcely a page occurs which has not a reference to this elder, but we believe not the eldest, born of his brain; indeed the common inscription on the numerous guide-posts- See my Hindu Pantheon-so perpetually meets the eye as to be quite ridiculous. We were also amused with another article exhibited to public attention by Mr. Moor. After a long story, totally unconnected with his subject, he thinks it necessary to give a dull and prosing account of the manner in which an eastern correspondence is managed; and having talked a great deal about Indian and Persian impressions of seals of state, which have fallen into his possession, he adds, Among other subjects of like value, I am fortunate enough to possess an unopened letter, written by the late Great Moghul Shah Allum, to a personage of high consideration, with his signet unbroken. Any virtuoso desirous (as all such must surely be) of enriching his cabinet with so great a curiosity, may be accommodated with it on reasonable terms.' (p. 127.) On reading this passage we turned back to the title page to ascertain whether we had not committed a mistake by transcribing F. R. S. instead of F. A. S. and thus set down Mr. Moor as a person well skilled in various branches of natural science,' when we ought to have designated him as a dealer in broken pots and illegible manuscripts. If, however, there be any error in his titles, the printer solely is to blame.

We cannot think very highly of Mr. Moor's 'illustrations.' He is one of those who refer the origin of all human knowledge, institutions and customs to the Hindoos; who discover, in its purity, the philosophy of the schools of Athens and Rome in the Vedas and Puranas. Flowing from the Brahmans, the Greeks and Romans, Mr. Moor assures us, received it filtered through the priesthood of Egypt. The story of Telemachus appears to him to be stolen from the Travels and adventures of Kamarupa; and the fabulous relation of the Amazons was certainly borrowed from the Hindoos, because Hamazen means all-women, and is pronounced very much as we sound Amazon. Nay, he is al

most convinced that the gold stick in waiting at St. James's was borrowed from the Choabdar, or staff-bearer of an Indian Behudar, who, as he says, 'carries a baton of silver;' and it is nearly certain with him, that our Christmas Boxes travelled all the way from Persia, because there the word Bakshish signifies a gift. We are heartily weary of such fooleries, which answer no other purpose than to bring into contempt what little of value may be discovered among the remains of antiquity in Hindostan.

FROM THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.

The works of the right Rev. Beilby Porteus, D. D. late Bishop of London: with his Life. By the Rev. Robert Hodgson, A. M. F. R. S. Rector of St. George's, Hanover-square, and one of the Chaplains in Ordinary to his Majesty. In six volumes, 8vo. 21. 8s.

MR. HODGSON, the author of this publication, is a nephew of Mrs. Porteus. He was, for some years, chaplain to the Bishop, and was presented by his venerable patron to the living of St. George's, Hanover-square. Nobody could be better qualified to write the Bishop's life. No other person knew so well the different occurrences of it, or could so properly form an estimate of his lordship's character. Mr. Hodgson's task, however, has been considerably lightened, and the value of his book much increased, by having in his possession several manuscript volumes, in Bishop Porteus's own hand-writing, containing a great variety of facts and observations on the principal incidents of his life. From these volumes we are favoured with many extracts.

The Bishop was certainly a very sincere, worthy prelate. He had a great desire to do good, and spared no pains in the prosecution of his object. He was a man of superior abilities and attainments and will ever be revered as an ornament of the Bench. He seems to have done his duty without fear or favour, and always to have remembered that he had a labour to perform for the advantages which he enjoyed. He was never inattentive to the offices of his sacred function. On some occasions, his zeal was manifested with apostolical intrepidity.

The Bishop was born at York, in the year 1731, and was the youngest but one of nineteen children. His parents were natives of Virginia, who removed to England, with a small fortune, in 1720. He was sent to a private school at Ripon, and afterwards to Christ's College, Cambridge. When he took the degree of A. B. his name appeared upon the tripos as tenth wrangler; and