had been rendered light and agreeable by the indulgence with which they were always received by the council, and by the ready aid and support of the invaluable director of the Society. He should be ungrateful if he did not also express the great assistance he derived from the efficiency of the assistant secretary, Mr. Norris, whose various and extensive acquirements, and zeal in the pursuit of those subjects of inquiry appertaining to the Society's objects, entitled him to their best acknowledgments.

After passing a vote of thanks to the treasurer of the Society, Charles Elliott, Esq., and amending one of the rules of the Society, the meeting proceeded to ballot for eight new members of the council, in place of those who go out by rotation; and who were unanimously elected. The names are as follow: Colonel Sir Jeremiah Bryant, C.B.; Sir Charles Forbes, Bart.; Sir Richard Jenkins, G.C.B., M.P.; Sir James Law Lushington, G.C.B., M.P.; Josiah M. Heath, Esq.; the Rev. W. H. Mill, D.D.; William Newnham, Esq., and Henry Wilkinson, Esq. All the officers of the Society were reelected.

The next meeting, the last for the season, was announced for the 20th of June.

CRITICAL NOTICES.

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Illustrations of Indian Architecture, from the Muhammadan Conquest downwards. lected from a Portfolio of Architectural Drawings, prepared with much care, and principally by regular measurements, from buildings at Agra, Delhi, Juanpur, Benares, Chunar, and numerous other Places in Upper India. By MARKHAM KITTOE, Esq. Calcutta, 1838. Thacker. Eight Parts.

THIS is an extremely interesting work, accomplished with most praiseworthy zeal and perseverance, under great difficulties, arising from the want of artists, the natives (the only ones available) not being either competent or trustworthy. Each part contains a view of some edifice, in its existing condition, an architectural elevation, of some of its parts restored, with specimens of its ornaments, in the shape of columns, capitals, cornices, ballustrades, parapets, brackets, corbels, trellice-work, spandril decorations, &c. infinitely various, some of them exhibiting a high degree of taste and beauty. This collection will be a treasure to the European architect. The plates (which are in the form of etchings, lithographed) are accompanied by descriptions and historical notices of the different buildings. We hope that Lieut. Kittoe (to whom the student of Indian antiquities already owes much, as the records of the Asiatic Society of Bengal will testify) may be induced to fulfil his design of making a future tour, with a view of collecting more materials for the pen and pencil of the same kind. Our knowledge of this department of the fine arts of India

is still very defective.

The Naturalist's Library, conducted by Sir WM. JARDINE, Bart., F.R.S. E., &c. Ichthyology, Vol. II., treating of the Nature, Structure and economical Uses of Fishes. By J. S. BUSHNAN, M.D., F.R.S. E., &c. Edinburgh, 1840. Lizars.

In all our works on natural history, the department of Ichthyology is comparatively deficient. Of late years, efforts have been made to supply this defect, but there is yet much to be done towards completing this branch of zoological science. The ably conducted work before us promises to make ample additions to this neglected province of natural history. The present volume is devoted to a series of excellent descriptions, illustrated by some of the most beautiful graphic delineations we ever saw, exquisitely and accurately coloured. The volume contains a memoir of Salviati, the aquatic zoologist of the sixteenth century, digested from Cuvier, and an Asiat. Journ.N.S. VOL. 32. No. 126. U

amusing and popular chapter on the economical uses of fishes. The thirty-one coloured plates in this volume are well worth the whole cost of the book.

The Bible Cyclopædia; a comprehensive Digest of the Civil and Natural History, Geography, Statistics, and General Literary Information, connected with the Sacred Writings. No. I. London. Parker.

This work, if adequately executed, will prove so valuable a companion to the Holy Scriptures, that scarcely a family, in which the sacred volume is admitted, will be without it, and being published at a reasonable price, it will be within the reach of the largest proportion of the reading public. The materials for such a work have been greatly augmented of late years; but this circumstance, whilst it furnishes the compiler with " appliances and means," imposes upon him the task of judicious selection and discrimination. It is impossible to pronounce a critical opinion of the execution of the work from so slight a scantling as a single number; but we are induced by a perusal of it to suggest, that it will be well to avoid reprinting large extracts from published works, instead of giving compressed and succinct abstracts. This is a practice which betrays a lack of industry in the writer, and is far from satisfactory to well-informed readers, at the same time that it unnecessarily augments the bulk of the work.

A Letter to the Right Hon. Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, M.P., on the Danger to which the Constitution is exposed from the Encroachments of the Courts of Law. By Sir GRAVES CHAMNEY HAUGHTON, K.H. M.A. F. R. S. &c. London, 1840. Wm. H. Allen and Co.

THE subject of this letter has lost much of its interest since the virtual concession of the point in dispute between the House of Commons and the Court of Queen's Bench by the former; but the question, though not congenial to the studies of Sir Graves, is here argued with the force and acuteness which distinguish all his writings. The Works of Josephus. Translated by W. WHISTON, A. M. Part I. London. Virtue.

AN elegant edition of a standard work.

Paul Periwinkle, or the Press-gang. By the Author of "Cavendish." London, 1840. Tegg.

THIS amusing novel, which appears in monthly parts, with comic illustrations, exhibits some highly humorous and characteristic sketches of nautical life and manners, by an artist who evidently copies from "nature."

The Tourist's Guide, or Dialogues on a Journey from London to Paris. By J. TOURRIER. London. Templeman.

Eighty Consonants of the French Language. By the same.

BоTH good helps to the acquisition of the French language, on a rational not pedantic plan.

Portrait of His Majesty Mahommed Shah of Persia.

THIS plate, engraved by Coombs, from a painting by Mr. Twigg, we are informed by those who have had the felicity of approaching the original, and hearing the Khúshamadi, is an admirable likeness. It is, moreover, a fine picture.

Mr. Waghorn's First Letter to the Press on the Eastern Question.

MR. WAGHORN, whose enterprize and industry have effected more than any individual's for the cause of steam communication between Europe and India, and to whose merits in this respect we have always borne testimony, is ambitious of acting a conspicuous part on the political stage, for which he is altogether unfitted. Observing that no newspaper in this country takes up the cause of Egypt, and that of some fifty or more "talented" men of both Houses of Parliament, who have visited that country during the last five years, and have had audiences of the Pasha, none have come forward in either House to express their opinions about that country," Mr. Waghorn has determined to act the part of flagellifer to the press, and "arouse it to its regenerating principles." He would do himself and the world more good

66

by restricting the exercise of his talents to the humbler, but more appropriate sphere in which he has already done so much benefit, and may do a great deal more.

LITERARY NOTICES.

M. Engelmann, of Leipzig, is preparing for the press, by the title of Bibliothecal Orientalis, a catalogue of all the works in Oriental literature, including grammatical works, which have appeared in France, England, and Germany.

Colonel H. Vyse has in the press an Account of his Operations carried on at Gizeh in 1837; as also an Account of a Voyage into Upper Egypt, to be illustrated with numerous drawings and wood cuts.

Mr. G. T. Vigne is preparing for publication, "A Personal Narrative of a Residence in Kabul, Ghizni, and Affghanistan, illustrated by numerous views and portraits taken on the spot."

Major Hough has a work in the press, at Calcutta, of a very interesting character, viz, “ A Narrative of the March and Operations of the Army of the Indus" during the late campaign.

The Sheraya ool Islam, or a treatise on lawful and forbidden things, by Abool Kasim, of Hoolla, has just issued from the local press at the same Presidency, under the superintendence of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The book is of great authority amongst the Mahommedans professing Shea doctrines.

A Narrative of Adventures during an Expedition to Siberia and the Polar Seas, by Admiral von Wrangel, of the Russian imperial navy, edited by Major Sabine, F. R.S., is in the press.

We insert the following syllabus of the contents of Professor Royle's valuable work, *Illustrations of the Botany and other branches of the Natural History of the Himalayan Mountains," with the view of shewing the nature and range of the subjects it embraces :

"This work being now concluded, it is desirable to give a fuller idea of its contents than can be obtained from its title. The Himalayan Mountains, forming the stupendous barrier between the dominons of the British and of the Chinese, and having their south-western bases resting on the heated plains of India, abound in all the forms of animal and vegetable life, characteristic of tropical countries in general, and of India in particular. Their gradually-elevated slope, supporting vegetation at the greatest known heights, affords, at intermediate elevations, all the varieties of temperature adapted to forms, considered peculiar to very different latitudes. A gradual approach is thus observed to take place to the animal and vegetable forms common in Europe, China, Japan, Siberia, and North America.

"Dr. Royle, while superintendent of the Honourable East-India Company's Botanic Garden at Saharunpore, within thirty miles of the Himalayas, had great advantages in becoming acquainted with the natural history and products of these mountains. He made meteorological observations, collected geological specimens, and skins of the mammalia and birds, together with insects, and about 4000 species of plants in the plains of India, and in the Himalayas, as far as Cashmere. Drawings were made of the most interesting of these by the East-India Company's establishment of painters.

"To shew the connection between the different branches of natural history, and their dependance on the physical features, soil and climate of the country, the work has been divided into two parts. The introductory portion treats, first,-of the physical geography of the plains and mountains of India, dwelling especially on the results of the surveys of the Hymalayas, (of which a view from the vicinity of Almorah is given in the frontispiece,) and the travels of Messrs. Turner, Moorcroft, and the Gerards, with notices of the elevations of the highest peaks and passes. This is followed by a view of the geological features of the plains and mountains, illustrated by a plate of sections, (in which the author was assisted by Mr. De La

Beche,) and three plates of fossil plants and animals, containing fifty-four figures. The meteorology is next treated of, and the climate of the tropics compared with that of the plains and mountains of India, with tabular views of the monthly and diurnal range of the barometer and thermometer in the plains of India. The characteristics of Himalayan climate, consisting of mildness, and equability of temperature and of pressure, at such elevations as Simla and Mussooree, resorted to by Europeans for the recovery of health, are then given.

"The physical features, soil, and climate having been noticed, a general view of the geographical distribution of the plants and animals which these are calculated to support, is treated of in an introductory chapter, in connection with the cultivation at different seasons and at several elevations.

"The botany itself is arranged according to the natural system, under the heads of 207 families, illustrated by coloured plates of 197 plants. The observations on each family consists of a notice of its geographical distribution in different parts of the world, an enumeration of the genera and remarkable species found either in the plains and hot vallies, or in the mountains of India; and the vegetation natural to different parts of India is compared with that of other countries enjoying similar climates. This plan was adopted as giving the most interesting and important general results, and as leading to a just appreciation of the influence of physical agents on vegetation, and as elucidating those principles which require to be attended to in the culture both of new plants, and of old plants in new situations. It also afforded great facilities in treating of the properties of plants as connected with structure, and for showing the immense resources of British India, and the probable means of still further increasing them.

"The subjects of agricultural and commercial importance which are more fully treated of, are tea, cotton, and tobacco; and the probability of the first being successfully grown in the mountains, and the two latter in the plains, is shown by application to practice of the principles of science. Also, hemp, flax, and the cordage plants; and, among medicines, the cinchonas, ipecacuanha, sarsaparilla, senna, rhubarb, and henbane, with many others. As articles of culture and commerce, various timber trees, gums, resins, caoutchouc, astringents, dyes, vegetable oils, fruit trees, the olive and carob trees, corn and pasture grasses, salep, arrow-root, and other articles of diet, are pointed out. As subjects of classical interest elucidated, may be noticed lycium, agallochum, or eagle wood, calamus aromaticus, and spikenard of the ancients; also, their costus, which is the puchuk of commerce.

"In connection with the climate and vegetation, it is interesting to notice the animal forms, and this has been done in two able papers, one on the Entomology of India, and the Himalayas, by the Reverend F. W. Hope, President of the Entomological Society, which is illustrated with two coloured plates of 20 insects, and the other on the Mammalogy of the Himalays, by W. Ogilvy, Esq., Secretary of the Zoological Society; this is illustrated by a figure of Lagomys, (new species), and also by two of deer. A list of the birds in the author's collection is also appended, and two plates, one of birds of tropical forms found in the Himalayas in the rainy and the other of Himalayan birds of European forms are given."

season,

REVIEW OF EASTERN NEWS.

No. XXXI.

THE declaration of war against the Emperor of China (which, although issued in April last, for some reason or other, was not promulgated till a few days ago), has appeared in the London Gazette. Ten years back, such a document would have been regarded as barely within the range of possibility, and classed amongst Lusus Nature, and "all monstrous all forbidden things." That a Government which proclaims its disinclination towards any intercourse whatever with other nations, which excludes foreigners as much as possible from its territories, which tolerates the visits of alien traders to an isolated part of its dominions from motives of mere kindness and indulgence towards them, which has resolutely refused all advances to diplomatic relations with European states, could afford a British Sovereign, living at many thousand miles distance, any reasonable ground for hostilities, would seem to present something very like an incongruity with common sense. We live, however, in times when the maxim "nothing is impossible" is making very considerable progress towards general adoption. We have seen ships propelled by vapour against wind and tide, intelligence brought from India in thirty-six days, and a daily newspaper of sixteen pages and ninety-six columns; we have to add to the list of wonders and "curiosities of literature,” a declaration of war against China. The ground assigned for this step on the part of her Britannic Majesty, is "the late injurious proceedings of certain officers of the Emperor of China towards officers and subjects of her Majesty," thereby meaning the highly offensive efforts made to put a stop to a system of illegal traffic which, though destructive to the health and morals of the Chinese people, was extremely profitable to her Majesty's subjects, and therefore ought not to have been molested by the officers of the Emperor of China. It is for this gross insult towards the dignity of her Britannic Majesty and the British nation, that her Majesty has "given orders that satisfaction and reparation shall be demanded from the Chinese government;" meaning thereby, that the Emperor of China shall "satisfy" those British subjects, shamefully libelled by being designated smugglers, whose opium was delivered up and destroyed, by paying them the full value thereof, and that his imperial Majesty shall make due "reparation," by giving directions to his officers to afford the utmost facilities to the admission of the drug into China. These inuendos are necessary to make the declaration intelligible.

At the very moment when this curious document was issued, the embarkation of troops, destined to enforce its requisitions, was taking place at Calcutta and Madras. Never was the wisdom of that rule of military law, which exacts from soldiers an implicit obedience to the orders of their superiors, without reference to their justice and policy, more apparent than in this case. A consideration of the causes and circumstances which have led to this expedition would unnerve many a bold heart, if it did not weaken the force of authority. We have no doubt that, if the Chinese government Asiat.Journ.N.S. VOL.32.No.127.

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