The Press. — London, England, 1858-11-27 00:00:00

• I. iir,i mot littl It Emit onh dirt of t Thal mot !eat nitt leas Not as NP tot! Con E2Ol the foul of 1' a 10 . IMO 'tat ret mer :bat a and rem :hat Par] !toli p garl ly:tt b.! mac a ti taj thet &)a Hot tho l fun( dire men Pea eler top fatii and of I seas Tolt (11i 2 vi abet 161 SUPPLEMENT TO Perhaps at this moment several, or even many, laborious compilers are at work to supply, more or less satisfactorily, this undoubted desideratum. Possibly a republication in separate form, with additional information, of the two valuable epitomes of Indian history, to be found in Sir Archibald Alison's and Lord Stanhope's Histories, might not be deemed by the public unacceptable, for each of these epitomes has superior and distinct merits. At present, however, one is already in the field ; and there lies before us his contribution to national literature, in the shape of a little foolscap octavo volume of fewer than three hundred pages, in which will be found the very cream of the three Histories of India already referred to—Mill, Elphinstone, and Thornton. Though called with becoming diffi dence " A Sketch," it has real pretensions to be called a History of India. Its author is a clergy man of the Church of England, of no mean literary pretensions or professional distinction ; and nearly a ten years' residence in India has given him great opportunities for. becoming practically acquainted with his subject. On the Madras establishment, he was attached to Bangalore, the largest military station in the south of India, and capital of the Mysore territory. His duty brought him into contact with every part of that extensive district, equalling Ireland in extent, and containing three millions and a half of Ilindoo and lahomedan natives, for the use of whom he founded a mission and built a school. With a small exception, to which we shall presently advert, we give our hearty approval of the little " Sketch " now lying before us. Every now and then we are given some of the happiest and most characteristic expressions of the eminent authorities above referred to, adhering to a tenacious memory ; but, generally speaking, the narrative flows freely from his own original and vigorous pen. The whole, however, is so well amalgamated that the result is a clear, agreeable, and impressive panoramic view of the chief events of Indian history from the earliest period down to the latest recapture of Lucknow. The aboriginal settlements, the Hindoo immigration, the Affghan and Mosul conquests, the Portu guese possessions, and the British empire are traced through their respective phases with suc cinctness and no little graphic force. In the British period, especially, no material event appears to have been omitted, from the founding of the factories at Fort St. George and Calcutta, down to the annexation of Pegu and Oude. Mr. Trevor here displays a style and power of con densation, forming of itself a capital recommen dation in a book for the niillion. Brief, again, as is this little work, it has claims to originality. Compiling freely from a multitude of authorities, Mr. Trevor, without surrendering his own judg ment, subjects every important transaction to an impartial and able discrimination. Of the Aff ghan invasion he strenuously disapproves, and our own views on that subject are not unknown to our readers. Mr. Trevor was at that time in India, and became thoroughly acquainted with the current of enlightened opinion there upon that subject. Decided opinions, in very few words, are given on the policy of respective Governors-General, from Clive to Lord Dalhousie, and his views are generally favourable to the " imperial policy " of the two Hastings and Lord Wellesley. We are glad to find him no friend to the " peace-at-any-price party"; he conceives I jbt No. 291.—V01. VI. fittraturt. in Historical Sketch. By the Rev. George Trevor, M.A., Canon of York ; late Chaplain in the Madras Establishment. London : The Religious Tract Society. I,I:EAT merit is due to any one at the present moment who, fit for the task, will produce a little Indian "Book for the Million " at home. It would be acquainting a few millions with the savings, doings, characters, the past and the future. of many millions—swarthy millions— only just subjected, for weal or for woe, to the direct sovereign sway of her who is now Queen of both, the few and the many millions. How shall be governed these two hundred millions, at more than ten thousand miles distance from the seat of Government, is a question of fearful mag nitude, regard being had to the true end of Government. Exactly tivelve months ago—at ',east within a few days of it—on the 27th of last November, the London public was astonished by a confident announcement of the Times news paper, that it had been determined to put an end to the administration of India by the East India Company, and vest it in the Crown. Sure enough the head of the late Government rose on the ensuing 12th February to verify that an nouncement : but scarcely bad he done so, than his own Government was blown into the air ; that of his rivals unexpectedly succeeded ; and after a long series of stormy debates, the great fact was accomsilished on the 2nd of August last, by the 'tatute (21 and 22 Vic., chap. 106) entitled, with :Teat significance, "An Act for the better govern ment of India." Thus suddenly came to an end :hatof the renowned corporation which for so long a series of years had reflected splendour on itself and the country of which it constituted a most remarkable institution. For let us say, in passing, :hat the se nse o f all parties in both Houses of Parliament pronounced those to be guilty of stolid ingratitude and ignorance, who hesitated place on the bier of the defunct Company, the garland of a nation's acknowledgments. The Legislature, then, has determined that India ought to be, and can be, and shall be, batter governed henceforth than heretofore; and 12 - 1 spent the session in constructing the suchine T for effecting that object, by means of tifth Secretary of State, exercising in her Majesty's name all the powers which had till then been vested in the great Company or the Board of Control. He is to sit in one of the House s of Parliament, but has for his Council !hose who cannot. Here, then, we have the f unctions of Indian Government exercised under direct responsibility to Parliament ; one of the members of which, wielding vast powers, and gTeater every day, is in the House of Commons, !lected by the people. Of what moment, then, put that people, for the purpose of electing utung representatives, in possession of accurate an d, easily accessible information on the subject L, Adis! The million will not wade through aau of blue-books, nor the seventeen octavo ,`, l)l ,unses of Mill, Elphinstone, and Thornton ill 8 vols., Thornton 7 vols., Elphinstone t vols.), i n spuddering quest of enlightenment, but stands on the margin of that slough of oolpond which alone, in its eyes, they constitute. tt6l. GRATIS. that the only real guarantee for peace in India lies in the subjugation of those powers whose interest or pleasure it is, from time to time, to make war. The wars in the Carnatic, the Mysore, and the Mahratta territories, are not only nar rated with spirit, but ably vindicated on the principle referred to. He condemns, on the other hand, the Affghan expedition, and the conquest of Scinde (as to which latter we do not concur with him); but his relation of these events, and his fair exposition of the anti-Rus sian policy inducing the proceedings which be condemns, reads like a summary of discussions carried on in the country itself, with the vivacity of near observers. A chief point of interest to the thinking public, is the prominence given in this little volume to the national distinction among the natives of India. " Hindoo " and " Nlahomedan," he tells the million, are not, as perhaps they suppose, national, but religions distinctions. Are these millions aware that ►here are, at this moment, in India, sixteen millions of souls, the remnants of aboriginal races, supplanted by Hindoos ? Thus commences Mr. Trevor his second chapter ; and it was this passage, so tersely and in such a pleasing style correcting a misapprehension per haps more than popular, which first attracted our attention to the volume : The natives of India are commonly regarded in Europe as consisting of two classes, Hindus and Mohammedans ; it would be nearly as accurate to divide Europeans them selves int.) Christians and Jr..s These are religious, not national, designations. The Hindus and Mohammedans of India belong to divers nations, while the number of those who adhere to neither religion is nearly doable that of the 310.8min:tans. The Bheels of Central India, the Collies and Dun* of Gnzerat, the Ghoonds and Coles of Orissa, the Shanars of Tinnevelly, with many other tribes in different parts, are the fragments of an earlier popula• Lion, which, though driven into the mountains and ex tremities of the land, has continued to preserve an inde pendent existence, and is still computed at sixteen millions of souls.* From the present state of these tribes little can be con• jectnred of the history and condition of the aboriginal race or races which they represent. Their occupation of India, however, must have been among the earliest settle ments of mankind. A country where life is sustained in comfort with little or no protection front the elements, and by a moderate application of unskilled labour ; would natu rally be populated before the arts and sciences had been discovered, which in colder regions are necessary to obtain food, clothes, and habitation. It may be assumed, there. fore, that India was visited by the first wanderers from the dispersion of Babel. _ A rapid sketch is given of the rise of Idolatry. Mr. Trevor shows us clearly the real state of the case : that the primi:ive llindoo religion was not monotheistic ; that the texts commonly cited for this purpose from the reda—" The Book " or llindoo Sacred Scriptures—are from the later and philosophical portion of it. The earlier, or primitive portion—the hymns used in worship by the first Hindoos—are distinctly polytheistic. (p. 27.) The philosophy of the iiindoos—the scheme elaborated by the philosophers, as it ap pears in the pages of Menu—is monotheistic ; but it never influenced the mass of the people, who remain sunk in a system of the grossest forms imaginable of idolatry. The real Scripture of that system is the Petrarias (p. 36), a mass of legendary poems, the bulk of which have been • llle.teral Briggs distributes the natives of In.lia as follows— Abotigii•al 'Rees Mobaminelatis Other foreigners Leaving a Hindu population of India sal Esrops Comporod, p. 19. 011 . 0 0 1 11 . 2 "tplemigirfiniiialft10011g4 , 6P.P.re LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1858. .~ _ ~~ iienow