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To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal.

SIR, A writer in the last number of the Quarterly Review, taking notice, under the article of Elphinstone's Caubul, of Mr. Moorcroft's journey over the Himmaleh mountains, finds occasion to state, that Mr. M. obtained a specimen of the shawl-wool goat, as also of the Yak or Tartarian cow; but, that as the writer, he believes Mr. M. lost them when thrown into prison. The writer, in the preceding sentence, had observed, that both of these animals, but the goat especially, seemed, from the temperature of the climate, as well as from their habits, to be exactly suited for the Highlands of Scotland, or the Hebrides; but that the heats of the south of India, through which they must pass, or the inconveniencies of a long voyage, have hitherto rendered every attempt to import them ineffectual. -Permit me, Sir, to correct all these several mistakes, by informing you, that as I am authentically assured, Mr. Moorcroft brought some individuals of the shawl-wool goat, to England, where they are now living on the East India Company's farm.

The facts presently afterward adverted to by the Reviewer, concerning the resort of Russian traders to the market of Turkistan, are certainly of the first political interest. "Mr. Moorcroft," he observes, was not a little surprized to find that Russian traders were in the habit of frequenting the markets of Turkistan, and particularly that of Bokhara, to receive in exchange for their fans and clothes, silks, shawls, and other Indian commodities. Even English broad-cloths, notwith staing the prohibition of the

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Russian government, are, we believe, carried along Siberia and the deserts, to clothe the Turkomans, between whom and our Indian provinces there is but a single ridge of mountains."

I am not sure whether the following exquisite commentary is to be ascribed primarily to the Reviewer, or to his author; be this as it may, I cannot help calling your attention, and that of your readers, to the question of its accuracy: "The King of Caubul's title is Shauhee Doorree Dooraun; his court is called Derree Khauneh, which signifies the gate; implying, in the spirit of oriental adulation, that a subject ought to intrude no farther into the palace, even in his thoughts." Now, Mr. Editor, either your humble correspondent, or the writer in the Quarterly Review, must be very much exposed by a final decision upon the merits of the foregoing pieces of real or pretended information. In the first place, notwithstanding all the barbarous orthography of the author (which orthography however, I rejoice to find, the present critic follows your own in candemning) it is not pretty clear that Derree Khauneh

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Derree Khauneh is to be translated the Khan's Gate? Is not the King, Khan, or Sultan's Gate, the usual periphrasis for the royal palace, in all eastern countries? Is not the Sublime Gate or Porte the name of which we distinguish the court of Constantinople? Did not Mordecai the Jew" sit at the King's Gate? Does the European term of court do more than suffer the subject to pass the gate and enter the court or quadrangle of our ancient royal residences? And, when we reflect that this relaxa

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tion is the natural effect of the absence of the extreme eastern pri vacy, where is the provocation to the notable story about "oriental adulation?" Where is the mighty difference (though a difference there certainly is) between the king's gate and the king's court? Leveechambers and drawing-rooms imply, it must be confessed, a considerable increase of familiarity with the sovereign.

In the whole of this large vo lume," says the Quarterly Review, still speaking of Mr. Elphinstone's work," we cannot trace a single vestige of antiquarian research; nor, which is much more to be regretted, any single department of physical science, not even zoology, botany, or mineralogy." To trace "a vestige" of pure English, as well as plain sense, in this sentence, we must suppose the critic to mean, in the latter part of his complaint, "that he cannot trace a vestige either of antiquarian or physical research:" now, though Mr. El phinstone's book has no pretensions to the name of a work of science, nor even of antiquities; still, when I recollect the eagerness with which that gentleman and his associates appear to have looked for the footsteps of Alexander; when I refer to the drawing and description of the Greek architectural ruin; and I turn over several extensive chapters written on the climate and natural history of Afghanistan, I confess myself unable to comprehend the meaning affixed by the Reviewer to the term of " vestige."

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tive," by a Gentleman on the spot," is pronounced to bea" paltry composition from the London Ga zette and the daily papers." From this latter part of the sentence I dissent; nor can I avoid regarding it as evidence, either that the Re viewer never read the book, or that he read it with little of the spirit of discernment. "Paltry" it may be; but surely it contains sufficient evidence of its having been written at the court of Columbo, and with no small anxiety to praise and to magnify the reigning prince!

As to the war itself, the "Gen. tleman on the spot" is not more warmly its apologist than the writer in the Quarterly Review; neither can I well understand nor excuse, that the Reviewer, while appropriating to himself, by wholesale transcription, &c. much of the "Gentleman's" language, and very many of his statements (one of them, certainly, derived from the London Gazette, nor from the daily papers) has had the conscience to treat his authority in a manner so contemptuous! "With such a monster of depravity, who could select for his victims helpless females, uncharged with any offence, and infants incapable of crimes, it was quite impossible to establish, as General Brownrigg observes, any civilized relations, either of peace or war; and humanity, as well as sound policy, called upon him to accede to the wishes of the chiefs and people of the Candian provinces, that the dominion of them should be vested in the sovereign of the British empire." So it has been said at Columbo; and so it is repeated in the Quarterly Review; and yet, Sir, I remain unconvinced that the sentiments, upon this subject, which have been more than once conveyed in your pages, do not belong to a sounder political morality, and therefore to a school more favourable to the well-being of mankind. I hope that I shall not be suspected of looking with less grief nor indignation than others, on the fe

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rocious reign of Sri Wicreme Rajah; or that I question the right or the duty of an injured foreigner, to extirpate a power with which " civilized relations of peace or war can be established," and with which contact is unavoidable; but I deny that there is any sound logic in the proposition, that "with one who could select for his victims, &c. it is quite impossible &c. ;" and I turn with alarm and suspicion from the acquisition of provinces through the impulse of "humanity," and from wars commenced on any other than the single basis of sound policy." Surely, we have seen enough of "humanity" in the French wars of the last quarter of a century, all of which, we were told, were for the overthrow of bloody and rapacious tyrants, and the deliverance and blessing of their oppressed subjects!

For myself, I believe, that the war in Candy, and the overthrow of its sovereign, were unavoidable events. Candy, shut up, by foreign conquerors, from all access

to the sea, of the salt and fish of which it had the greatest need, owed it to its manhood to attempt to burst these bonds. But "sound policy" forbade the British government not to forbear resisting its efforts. Hence a state of irreconcilable hostility, and hence wars which could only be termina ted in the destruction of the one power or the other. Let us leave out, then, "humanity" that delusive, if not hypocritical cry, with which politicians can sanctify the foulest crimes, and all may have been very right in Ceylon.

I could continue these comments on the article in the Quarterly Review but I conclude by reverting to the literary complaints I have made, and by venturing the obvious and yet not useless remark, that neither that publication, nor its northern rival, are free from a multitude of those slips and absurdities, which, with so high a tone, they expose in, or attribute to their neighbours. I am, &c.

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lar exercise of chastisement. My author is Dr. Holland, who, in his Travels in the Ionian Islands, speaking of the situation of the English military in Zante, during its occupation between the year 1812 and 1813, observes, "Their only extraservice was the easy one of bearing a part in the religious processions of the Greek church. Besides the band of the regiment, two files of English soldiers might be generally seen with these processions, each man carrying in his hand a lighted taper, and fulfilling their parts with propriety and decency of manner. The contrast," adds the Doctor,

To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal. SIR, I am happy to find that the Christian Observer has at least paused upon its project of saying more concerning the supposed enormity at Ceylon, referred to in my former letter, and the great discovery of the Devonshire clergyman, that the Buddhists will be likely to worship the musical clock. This forbearance on the part of the accuser, makes me the less anxious to say any thing further on the behalf of the accused, a task which I might else think it a duty to pursue. But, cutting short all that might otherwise be said on the subject, I shall cite a precedent from our new acquisition of the Ionian Islands; such as, if the Christian Observer shall continue to think the conduct of Governor Brownrigg a subject for the reprehension of government, must supply it with another occasion for invoking a simi

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was striking in such cases, between the open and full countenances of the Englishmen, and the. more contracted, darker, and broader visages of the Greek religious functionaries."

CANDIDUS.

To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal.

SIR, I beg leave to transmit to you for insertion in the Asiatic Journal, a few introductory remarks to a proposed English and Mahratta Dictionary, compiled by Captain Gideon Hutchinson, of the Bombay Native Infantry, specimens of which have just been laid before the Honourable Court of Directors, with a view that the laborious and useful efforts of the compiler may meet with their favourable and liberal attention.

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I am, Sir,

Your very obedient servant,
JAS. CHAMP.

39, Marsham-Street, Westminster,
13th March, 1816.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

To a proposed English and Mahratta Dictionary, compiled by Capt. Gideon Hutchinson, of the Bombay Native Infantry.

As a linguist to a corps of Bombay Native infantry, in the performance of his official duties, the compiler has availed himself of the many opportunities thus offered, to cultivate more particularly the Mahratta language, of which he has compiled a Dictionary, English and Mahratta, as also a very considerable collection of materials for a vocabulary Máhratta and English.

The plan on which the work has been formed, is that of Johnson's smaller Dictionary, which he (Johnson) abstracted from the folio edition; and, with the exception of words merely technical, and terms of science, to which the Mahratta language affords no accurate equivalents, will be found to be a copious and comprehensive translation of that abridge

ment.

The insertion of any but Mahratta words, has, but in a very few particular cases, been studiously avoided; and the real scholar will acquit the compiler of plagiarism, if a word should occasionally be observed in use in the Hindoostanee, not having its derivation in the Persian or Arabic, the sources of that dialect, in conjunction with the different colloquial idioms of India, among which the Mahratta holds a distinguished rank. Asiat. Journ.-No. IV.

The Mahratta language may be divided into two classes; the Rooddhhee Bhasha, or that which is more immediately colloquial, and the Prakroot, which has a greater abundance of Sunscrit words, and in

which their poems, histories, &c. are composed.

It has been an object to combine the two classes; as the Prakroot is ever had recourse to, when the conversation turns to other than common topics, and rises to discussions on politics, religion, philosophy, and other subjects of import. The Prakroot is more generally understood by the lower classes than may be generally présumed. The rich and the poor of the Mahrattas are peculiarly attached to the recital of the poems celebrating the achievements of their divinities and heroes. The public reciters are numerous, and experience considerable patronage-ever engaged to chaunt in the temples-to enliven the convivialities of a marriage to add to the entertainment of public rejoicing, or the solemnities of funeral ceremonies.

On the usefulness of a work which would facilitate the acquirement of the Mahratta dialect, which is colloquially spoken between Delhi and Seringapatam, Bombay and Nagpore, and is the medium

of intercourse with not less than fourfifths of the Bombay army,, and the numerous native writers in the employ of the government at that Presidency, it is unnecessary to dilate; if, therefore, it be admitted that a more general knowledge of this language would be greatly conducive to the interests of the army, and adverting to our daily increasing political relations with the Mahratta empire-to by which this knowledge is made more the public at large-the utility of a work

accessible cannot be denied.

The Honourable the Court of Directors, by founding the Colleges of Fort William and Hertford, have manifested their persuasion, that an intimate acquaintance with the Eastern languages, on the part of their servants in India, is not only essentially requisite, both to their public and private interests, and the best means of giving to their subjects the surest guarantee of impartial justice, in the decisiVOL. I. 2-T

on of the civil magistrate, and the pecuniary settlements of the revenue collector, uncontaminated by the interested interpretations of the venal native assistants in the Adawlet and Cutcherry.

How far this dictionary was calculated to realize this advantage, the compiler requested respectfully to refer to the judgment of the Honourable the Governor in Council, Sir Evan Nepean.

Instead of a prospectus of the work, accompanied by specimens extracted from the body of it, as the most eligible method of bringing it to the notice of the government, the compiler conceived such specimens would only exhibit a partial view of its general contents, and earnest ly solicited an actual inspection of the 'whole work, following the course of the alphabet, as a mode more suitable for supplying the means of judgment to the government, resting assured, if the copy thus submitted to examination, should have been found intitled to their favoura'ble opinion, such a comprehensive, in preference to a confined, survey of it, would have been more adapted to secure him their patronage and support. Had this desired examination taken place, the compiler could have supported, by the exhibition of examples from Mahratta manuscripts, the sense of any word inserted in his Dictionary.

After having surmounted the arduous, and no common, difficulties which presented themselves during the performance of his work, and unaided as he was by the labours of others in the same line, the compiler has experienced the greatest disappointment, in consequence. of the reply received, after his letter to Sir Evan Nepean had been transmitted to the

supreme government at Bengal, “that this government (the Bombay) can give no further encouragement than by subscribing to a certain number of copies of the Mahratta Dictionary, which he (the compiler) proposes to publish."

The compiler was anxious that his labours should appear before the public; an undertaking which, unassisted by the government, he was aware it would be in vain for him to have attempted: yet in the midst of his exertions and toil, he was buoyed up by the hopes he should have met that patronage, which has of late years been so often, and liberally bestowed on similar pursuits and works, both by the Court of Directors at home, and the governments of India abroad.

Notwithstanding his expectations have not been realized, the compiler is still solicitous to submit his work to the test of examination, either in India or at home; and for the latter purpose has transmitmitted for inspection eight specimens, from the several letters A, B, C, D, I, P, S, and W.

It may be necessary to mention, that it is within the compiler's powers to form his work on a less diffuse plan; and, by rendering it no less useful to the Mar hratta student, essentially diminish the expense of publication by condensing its

bulk.

In reference to the Mahratta and English vocabulary, it will be irrelevant to say more, than that by its accompanying the English and Mahratta Dictionary, each would materially tend to elucidate the other, and prove of the highest benefit in either translating or speaking the language.

Bombay, 30th May, 1815.

To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal.

SIR;-In your last number, the east end of Java, where the noise of page 296, you have given some account of recent volcanic eruptions in the Oriental Archipelago, The following notice of the same phænomena is contained in a letter lately received from Java, and dated in August last:

*Pitch darkness," says the writer, prevailed for near two days, even over

the explosion was compared to the roar of cannon amidst continual peals of thunder. The roofs of the houses at Bangeewanzee fell in from the weight of the ashes, some light particles of which reached Batavia, where we were enveloped in a strong nitrous gas. The effects of the explosion were felt as far as Minto, in the Straits of Banca, and perhaps much further. About the same time, a

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