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collision can occur between them. The author of the book before us must have understood this principle clearly, for the system of corrective benevolence at work in Káthiawár and Gujarát appears to have weighed with him, in recommending the field of the Gujarati language to the Irish Presbyterian Mission.

On one point, referred to in some of the earlier correspondence between Europeans and Natives, we have not deemed it necessary to occupy space. But if we were to overlook it entirely we might be misunderstood. One of the first deeds of renunciation of infanticide speaks of the Hon. English Company and the Gaikawád as having together "set forth to the Jádejás the true faith of the Hindus." And some of the appeals made to them do in reality contain language to this effect. Now there can here be no compromise. Truth and error never amalgamate. However excellent, and however benevolent the motives of the framers of these documents, we must confess they erred in this instance, as in some others. Brown, in his Philosophy of the Human Mind, speaks of the true student as looking back, in the light of philosophic history, on the operations of great intellects, even in quest of truth, and venerating the very genius which he demonstrates to have erred. So, while we can give no imprimatur to the errors of Walker and Duncan, and of more recent followers in their train, we can look with leniency on the state of mind that led them into those errors. They never dreamed of setting forth the Hindu faith as true, though they have admitted that the particular shástras referred to did contain some shlokas bearing against infanticide; and of these they may have eagerly availed themselves. An argumentum ad hominem, used by a missionary, is no admission of the truth of the statement with which he seeks to pose his opponent; but only a reference to the thing as admitted by that opponent, and as inconsistent with the position out of which he desires to dislodge him. So in this case, the gentlemen in our eye do not in reality inculcate the truth of the Hindu books; they simply say, "You assert their truth; now here is their decision on this point." Still, in these appeals to the Hindu authorities, there is something unhappy. It was misunderstood, as making the English apologists for the truth of the Hindu religion. to do evil that good may come," is a principle of the inspired writings; and not to let our good be evil spoken of is another. An immediate advantage may induce the admission of that, which in its ultimate results would involve much evil. While the advocates of moral reformation should make every admission a fulcrum for applying the lever with more power, they should never rest that lever on a pile of sand. The eradication of infanticide is a glorious work; but even its results would be too dearly purchased at the expense

"Not

The practice widely diffused.

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of contributing to uphold brahmanism; and for this among other plain reasons, that if brahmanism were upheld, the consequent evils would still remain. If the tree were not hewn down, it would still produce poisonous fruit.

But passing on from these general remarks, we would observe that a much wider spread of infanticide than simply among Jádejá and other Rajput chiefs is brought to notice in some of the reports cited in the work under review. For an example, read the following from Colonel Pottinger.

"Sir John Malcolm came to Bhuj in March 1830. He made a speech to the assembled Jádejás on the enormity of the crime, and told them the English nation would force the East India Company to dissolve all connexion with a people who persisted in it. The Jádejás of course individually denied the charge, but they afterwards inquired from me how the Governor could talk so to them at a moment when we were courting the friendship of Sindh, in which child-murder is carried to a much greater extent than even in Kachh, for it is a well known fact that all the illegitimate offspring born to men of any rank in that country are indiscriminately put to death without reference to sex.*

"I quite concur with Mr. Wilkinson, that infanticide is carried to an extent of which we have hardly yet a complete notion in India. The Ráo told me very bluntly, that he had just found out that a tribe of Musalmans called Sammas,' who came originally from Sindh, and now inhabit the islands in the Ran, paying an ill-defined obedience to Kachh, put all their daughters to death merely to save the expence and trouble of rearing them. He has taken a bond from all the heads of the tribe to abandon the horrid custom, but, as he justly remarked, he has hardly the means of enforcing it.”

Major Parr too says :

"The crime of Infanticide is, I fear, by no means confined to either the Jádejá or Jaitwá population. I have heard assertions of its being extensively practised in Jaitwád, and amongst the Muhammadan tribe of Sétás."

Some of the late reports, as those of Major Wallace from the Mahi Kantha and of Mr. Fawcett from Ahmedabad, show also, that other tribes are involved in the crime, as the Marwádi and Ráthor Rajputs, the Kulambis of Gujarat &c., while the above statement of Sir H. Pottinger, and our author's note,* intimate an extensive murder of illegitimate children of both sexes. And although it is cheering to find so much progress made in the suppression of Jádejá infanticide as to leave ground to hope that it has ceased in Káthiawár, yet strict attention to the subject must be there maintained; and perhaps the time is not far distant when inquiry will be carried farther than has yet been done. No reflecting mind can doubt that there is a latent spark under the ashes, which, if not smothered by continued surveillance, would

[The murder of illegitimate children is dreadfully prevalent, there is reason to fear, through all the native states of India. A few years ago a representation was made on the custom to the Bombay Government by an humble Dhed of Kathiawár]

flame out as lurid as before. In addition to this, any one knowing the state of the country will naturally ask, Are there noillegitimate children born? and if so, where are they? The Hindu doctrine respecting woman forces on the benevolent mind the thought of a system of infanticide of which hitherto little account has been made. It may be well enough known that natives often charge their countrymen with procuring abortions. And the Hindu law sternly prohibits the re-marriage of widows; while according to their corrupt system of marriage in childhood, a girl may be a widow when yet of tender Are we to believe that these widows-not attributing to them the paramount impurity attributed in the Shástras to the female character, but simply the common character of humanity,—are all of immaculate purity, beyond the reach of temptation, and the power of the designing seducer? Are we to believe that not one of them ever steps aside from the paths of virtue? This would imply a moral state realized only in the purest Christian communities, under the influence of Christian moral principles, though not always under the profession. Now the fact is, there is ostensibly no illegitimate progeny found among the native community, at least in these parts of India. Even the English word "bastard" has no equivalent term among the Hindus. Add to this the virtue of certain plants much in use among the natives. The popular name of widow, and of loose woman, are virtually the same. Who then does not see that after the crime prevalent among the chieftains of the land has been put down, there is a deep sea of moral impurity heaving under the floating ark of society? Will not the feelings of our readers recoil from this? But to recoil from the mere statement is of no avail. Truth, though harrowing, must be told. Rather let us ask, what new antidotes can we yet originate, ere the poison produce death? What barrier to this additional flood of iniquity still remains? We repeat our belief in a coming day, when the majesty of Christianity, stronger than all temporal power, will cleanse the land from this taint. In the meantime, here is an argument for forbearing to throw cold water on missionary agencies. Here is an evil not to be met or corrected by any agencies hitherto employed. If we were to set ourselves to originate measures, none could suggest themselves as more likely to succeed with it than those which aim at reforming the mind and heart. Secular education applies itself to the intellect directly; and to the heart only by a secondary influence. The missionary seeks to enlighten the intellect; but he never allows his endeavors to stop short of aiming at the heart. Until that fortress is taken his warfare is not done. Every instance of that conquest is an addition made to the moving force of the moral principle. Let new Walkers and Duncans pass with a strict scrutiny over this field; and let the

Value of Dr. Wilson's work.

371

same wisdom, that devised fines and rewards in the other case, devise means for the emancipation and the protection of Hindu widows.

Various other matters in the work under review press on our attention. But we must close, by referring our readers to the work itself. To bring the subject treated of within the compass of a moderate volume was evidently a much more difficult task than might be supposed. And the selection of the more direct information and evidence from a mass of materials, was an undertaking that required much discrimination, and no ordinary amount of labour. These difficulties the author has admirably surmounted. He has put into the form of a permanent record, reaching to the present time, a mass of facts which must otherwise have passed into oblivion. But there are few portions of the history of man, more illustrative of his state and wants, than the one here developed. The book should be read by every friend of India, and of its education; and by every advocate of the diffusion of Christian truth. No one better furnished than Dr. Wilson with knowledge of Káthiawár, Kachh, Gujarát etc. could have been found to handle the subject, whether we speak of the natural history, the archæology, or the social state of these provinces. We invite attention to the work; and think it a favorable circumstance that it should make its appearance under the auspices of the Bomaby Government. It is well calculated to promote the great objects which the advocates of secular and of Christian education have in common. The author sustains in it his high reputation; and well merits public approbation.

The Oxford University Calendar. 1855.

On our writing table lies a modest drab octavo volume, the contents of which promise little excitement or amusement to an ordinary reader. It is mostly made up of catalogues of corporations, lists of graduates, memorials of academical honors and an interminable array of official names. The compiler has not been tempted into any reflections, nor has he added a single gloss or comment to the materials which he has got together. It is in fact no more poetical or sentimental in its design than the Army List or the Dix Mille Addresses and similar publications. Yet, to an educated mind, few books are more suggestive of thought; and no loyal son of Alma Mater can con over the well-remembered names without a pang of recollection, partly pleasurable, but mostly, we suppose, of self-reproach. It is happy for him, if on the whole he can honestly acquit himself of lost opportunities and a wasted youth. Our thoughts insensibly travel back from the palms and dusky faces of this parched island to a pleasant inland valley of the West, broad, fresh and green, swelling into gentle wood-crowned hills-a quiet home landscape, with a bright river, and tributary waters, and many willows, patches of heath and fox cover, humble village churches and cheerful cottage roofs, such as are only seen in England. Here are Headington Hill, and Bagley Wood, and Islip, and Iffley, where Alfred, some thousand years since, saw fit to found a school. On the bank of that fair river stands, or lately stood, the tower in which Roger Bacon wrested her secrets from Nature. And, embosomed in noble trees, at the confluence of the Isis with the lily-crowned Cherwell, rises the majestic group of towers and spires and domes that mark the site of our famous University.

There are certain localities which have been so often portrayed by art, and which strike the eye and the imagination so strongly, that they are familiarly known to all the world. Who does not recognize on seeing for the first time the choir of Cologne's unfinished minster, its steep roof soaring above the forest of tangled pinnaclesand the great crane which seems to promise that, some day or other, the whole of that colossal conception, with its stupendous western spires and central lantern, shall threaten the city and dwarf the pretensions of Antwerp and Strasburg? Who does not know, though he may never have set eyes on, the Piazza San Marco at