The practice which has, of late, been pursued by Jeffrey, Macaulay, Sydney Smith, and others, of reprinting, with their names, the most celebrated of the miscellaneous papers which they had, from time to time, contributed to the periodical press is one which, however justifiable in their individual cases, is likely to be attended with dangerous consequences to literature, if too closely followed by a class of writers, who, with mediocre pretensions, are too often prone, we fear, to estimate their productions, rather by the effects they have produced on themselves, than by the satisfaction they have afforded, or are likely to afford, the public. If the truth must be told, we apprehend that it is to this unfortunate propensity we are indebted for the volume now before us. If Captain Boileau has received, and we doubt not he has received, his meed for most of these fugitive pieces, which were published anonymously, he ought, in all justice, to have remained satisfied instead of seeking, by a republication in his own person, for a reconsideration of their merits. Compositions of an ephemeral character, unless bearing the strong impress of genius, seldom show to advantage after they have had their day; and when they are exhibited afresh they often have the effect of removing from their author a portion of that favorable opinion which the public were once wont to entertain, at least, of his judgment.

Here we must conclude. If, in estimating Captain Boileau's powers of poetical composition, we have said aught offensive, we are sorry for it, because we entertain for his scientific and classical attainments the highest respect. With many prepossessions in his favour, it has yet been our endeavour, in the exercise of an unpleasant vocation, to hold the scales of criticism with the strictest impartiality.

Voyage dans L'Inde, par Victor Jacquemont, pendant les années 1828 a 1832. Publie sous les auspices de M. Guizot, ministre de l'instruction publique. Paris, 1841, 6 tomes. Travels in India by V. Jacquemont from 1828 to 1832. Published under the patronage of Monsieur Guizot, Minister of Public Instruction. Paris, 1841, six volumes quarto,

IN France, the Government patronizes Oriental Literature to a far higher degree than the English Government does-in fact literary men hold a much nobler status in society there. The ablest men in the government have been elevated by their literary or scientific acquirements. In England, we have the aristocracy of birth or of money -in France, we have nature's aristocracy-the aristocracy of talent. The execution of the present work is an honour to France: it embodies a large mass of valuable information, given by a foreigner who looked with an impartial view on English Society in India. Victor Jacquemont was sent out on a scientific mission to India in 1828 by the Paris Society of natural History; he proceeded from Calcutta to Agra and the Himalayas and as far as Chinese Tartary. Prohibited by the inhabitants of Ladak from going farther, he travelled to Kashmir, then to Central

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India, and was about to proceed along the Malabar Coast, when death cut him off in December 1832. Three of these volumes contain his Journal: two have drawings in Zoology, Botany and Conchology; and one a series of articles on Indian Natural History.

He embarked from France in a French Corvette, much inferior in discipline to the English vessels: he touched at Teneriffe, a basaltic island, the inhabitants of which are intelligent and imitate English customs; "the half castes, through their idleness, worse than that of the Spaniards, are engaged in the most wretched occupation." Teneriffe, like all countries colonized by the Spaniards, is retrograding in civilization. He remained a short time at Rio Janeiro, with its black population, abject and indecent-its French milliners-the Portuguese aristocracy pompous abroad, poor within their houses, with the negro type in their features,"-and its licentious court pandered to by the mercantile class. Jacquemont contrasts the South American with the North American States, and thinks the former are no better now than when colonies of Spain. "What use is the liberty of thinking and acting to those who neither think nor act." He next proceeded to Brazil; he gives a description of its present political and commercial condition, " free before being worthy of freedom." He afterwards visited the Mauritius.

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Jacquemont landed at Calcutta in June 1829. The following are some of the observations he makes on North India: they deserve attentive consideration as coming from an intelligent Frenchman and one who viewed generally with a dispassionate eye" the English in India:""Calcutta is the Commercial capital of India, Benares the capital of the Hindus, and Delhi of the Mussulmans; an English capital situated in the North West Provinces would have a greater moral influence, associated with the prestige of past times.-Conversation languishes at English dinner parties, as the English do not understand the art of conversation.-Long prayers are bad in India where the climate disposes one to sleep." Jacquemont visited Chandernagur with its thirty sipahis; he found no pleasure in it owing to the entire want of society; through its elevation it is cooler and healthier than Calcutta, “the silence which reigns in places whose prosperity is stationary or decreasing, has something gloomy but affecting in it."-The Asiatic Society of Calcutta is "composed of a small number of men skilful but of little influence in society, and of men of high rank but ignorant." Jacquemont attended what was called" a crowded" meeting of the society,-it numbered 20 ! "The museum is kept without order and taste, the objects are the prey of rust and insects.* The Asiatic Society as a body is a mere cypher, there are no researches made in common, no association among the members for labouring towards a common end."-The Europeans in India give little of their leisure time to study, their night dinners dispose them to sleep, and their hours of leisure are devoted to idlensss and bodily indulgence.-The English of the middle class are not satisfied, like the French, with money sufficient to support them, but they are anxious to become wealthy capitalists.-The military are the only

* We are glad to say that, in this respect, things appear to be on a different footing now.

persons to whom there is much leisure; a few of them are distinguished in literary pursuits, the rest sleep and smoke all day.-The huka is used at all dinner parties in Calcutta, with the exception of the Governor General's.-The English ladies follow strictly the London fashions, notwithstanding the difference of climate.-Persons whom they have never seen are written to as- -Dear Sir.-The Europeans of Calcutta have little curiosity to know the country."

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Rivalries or ridiculous jealousies often produce alienation between the families at a Mofussil station: every family lives a retired life, and with the exception of occasional dinners where almost all meet, they pass the greater part of their evenings alone.-The Raja of Burdwan has built a suspension bridge between Hugli and Perua over a stream which is considered to have been the ancient bed of the Dammuda, which now flows into the Hugli at Diamond Harbour. Lord Amherst at the time of the Burmese war asked the Raja for a loan of a certain sum of money, promising to repay it at the end of 25 years, the Raja declined saying he did not know whether 25 years hence the Company would possess the country.-Burdwan is healthy owing to the elevation of the soil and its freedom from jungle.-Kankar is seen first at Dignagur where are many sugar manufactories.-Hazirabag is the residence of the political agent for the ceded territories; he has 1,000 men under his command, placed in detachments through the district which is almost one vast forest. It has a civil surgeon who is engaged extensively in the lac trade. Twelve miles south of Hazirabag 200 maunds of iron are manufactured daily by natives. Oranges and grapes are produced in abundance, tigers are very numerous. At a short distance from it there are quicksands placed over subterranean currents.-Passed one mile on the sands of the Soane before seeing a drop of water, it takes 4 hours to cross.-Sasseram is a city of Mahommedan tombs; the dwellings of the living occupy less space than those of the dead; the country between Sasseram and Benares is free from jungle and better peopled. -At Benares-attended two dinner parties where even the Champagne that was drunk in abundance could not melt the ice of etiquette which prevails at those reunions; every one the next day complained of the dulness of the preceding evening; happy are we French who are unacquainted with this horrible slavery to coteries, who know nothing of this plague of English life but its name-fashion. There is one man however who compensates for the antisocial disposition of his fellow countrymen-James Prinsep; he devotes his mornings to architectural plans and drawings, his days to assaying at the mint, and his evenings to musical concerts.—If there be any place in India where Europeans ought to associate on friendly terms with the Hindus, it is assuredly Benares; a great number of the natives possess what the English value so highbirth and fortune-and here all the knowledge of Asia is concentratedyet there is no acquaintance kept up between the Hindus of the city and the Europeans of the cantonment: the English have so few conversational powers that they cannot carry on a conversation without a supper; this resource they are deprived of in the case of the Hindus.-At Mirzapur the English unsociableness is more conspicuous by their houses

being 2 or 3 miles miles distant from one another. The trade in salt at Mirzapur has diminished very much owing to commercial monopolies. -The Roman Catholic Bishop of Agra lives in a truly apostolic style; his dinner was served up in the commonest pottery on a table without a cloth, no silver, his knives of iron, his spoons of tin,—a sight disagreeable to an Englishman, but effaced here by the dignity of poverty."

Jacquemont's remarks on Central India are very valuable, as also on the North West Provinces; he makes observations on the geology and botany of the different places he visits. Since the publication of Heber's Journal, no work has issued from the press better calculated to afford accurate information on India. The execution of the work is very creditable to the French Government The price is high-250 rupees-but we trust some public library in Calcutta will purchase it.

A Charge delivered to the Grand Jury of Bombay, September 25th, 1845. By the Honorable Mr. Justice Perry. Bombay: American Mission Press, 1845.

THE practice of addressing charges to Grand Juries has often proved exceedingly beneficial to the community. Sometimes in England political prejudices have constituted the most distinguishing feature of such charges, and then the office of Judge has been prostituted and the tribunals of Justice have been degraded. But when Judges of experience, after observing, in various circuits, the increase or decrease of particular kinds of crime, the causes of such increase and decrease, the effect of social customs, the delusions of criminals and witnesses, and the manner in which the influence of resident Justices and others can be more effectually brought to bear on the course of national improvement,-when such Judges have availed themselves of such observations, and have imparted to Grand Juries their wise suggestions and impartial counsel, they have raised the character of their office and enlarged its usefulness.

Such charges have seldom been delivered in India, but why this is so, we know not. We hail Sir Erskine Perry's brief address now before us as a sign that some among our present Indian Judges are willing to exhibit a new example. We believe that several of them are men who might very usefully enlarge their charges, and that the respect of the community for them is so great, that their advice and remarks would be received with cordial pleasure. Mr. Justice Burton at Madras, we notice, although he is the youngest of our Judges, has not hesitated to point out to a Grand Jury whom he was addressing, the influence of a sound education on sound morals; and Sir Erskine Perry in the charge before us admirably avails himself of an allusion to the progress of commercial enterprize, to point out the superior importance of moral improvement. He says:

"It is impossible for any bystander to watch the progress which India is now making in material improvement without the liveliest satisfaction. The great social discovery of modern times, of the admirable results to be obtained by

the association of numbers in one common enterprize, is beginning to be fully appreciated in this country, and native enterprize and capital may be seen quite ready to enter upon any path, which the superior experience of their British fellow-subjects has pointed out as safe and practicable. I trust, if I may be allowed to express a wish, that this new agent of civilization may be kept within its proper bounds, that the same good sense which has hitherto prevailed in Bombay to prevent any improper application of it, may still continue to be exercised, and that due commercial enterprize may never here at least degenerate into wild speculation. But however gratifying it may be to witness what is going on in India for the material improvement of the country, no thinking man can be satisfied with this alone, nor fail to admit that the moral progress of a country is far more important in its bearings on human happiness, and all that is really great in the character of a nation than the mere accumulation of worldly wealth."

We are glad also to notice the manner in which he calls attention to the relation of Justices to the Superintendent of Police. We have reason to fear, that in Calcutta, the arrangement of this relationship is not sufficiently distinct, and that considerable embarrassment and some extra official proceedings on the one side or the other, must often necessarily follow.

The only two cases in the Calendar before him, on which Mr. Justice Perry remarks in this charge, are, one of murder, in which the body of the murdered person was not found, and one of endeavouring to extort money by threatening to accuse of a felony. Some circumstances in the former case led him to make the following important observations on the value of confessional evidence :

"The point on which I wish to say a few words is as to the value of confessional evidence. At first sight, nothing appears so satisfactory and trustworthy as the confession of a prisoner who has been apprehended under suspicious circumstances. The love of life and self-preservation being so deeply implanted in our nature, it may be reasonably supposed that where a party accuses himself of a crime which calls down upon the offender the punishment of the law, his statement may be received with implicit credit. A wider experience and a more intimate analysis of the motives by which human conduct is governed, demonstrate that such conclusion is by no means universally true. Instances are upon record beyond number, where prisoners to avoid some immediate evil, have accused themselves of crimes of which they were not only not guilty, but of which they could not by any possibility be guilty, such as witchcraft for instance.

To avoid the pains of torture, to gain the favor of the authorities, to explain any suspicious circumstances by inventing others charging a more heinous offence, all these are motives likely to produce, and which have over and over again produced, a confession of crimes altogether fictitious. And as the English law had perceived that such motives are likely occasionally to operate to produce a simulated confession, it has been laid down as a general rule, that whenever any influence is held out to a prisoner to confess by those in authority, the confession made under such circumstances should not be receivable at all. The principle on which this goes undoubtedly proceeds on an accurate observation of human nature, but possibly in practice it may be extended too far, by excluding the confession altogether, instead of subjecting it to the closest examination. One would conceive that the true rule should be in all such cases to admit the confession, not as conclusive evidence, but for that which it is worth, and that it should be the duty of the