had become hateful to her, Honoria determined to encourage Captain Compton to renew the proposals she bad previously rejected.

Captain Compton was a young officer who had been thought quite a hero by the good people of Danesbury, when he came from America, the preceding autumn.

The distress occasioned by the loss of Newfoundland, in Dartmouth, Weymouth, Pool, and all the western ports—the sufferings of thirty thousand people, who had depended on the fisheries for support-had made the bearer of the French colours once hoisted on the Fort of St. John's, and of Colonel William Amherst's despatch to the Earl of Egremont announcing its surrender, more welcome than can at this distance of time be imagined.

It was known, too, that Captain Compton had been serving in Bragg's Regiment, when General Wolfe fell at its head, on the heights above Quebec, and that he had been present during the whole of the campaign, so ably planned by Major-General Amherst during the following summer. Present when the posts of Fort Levi, Isle au Noix, Isle Royale, and finally Montreal, were taken by that brave commander, and thus Canada became a British province.

RECOLLECTIONS OF AN INDIAN
MAGISTRATE.

MINOR OR NO MINOR, OR, THE MOVE FOR A HUSBAND. SOWDA MOVI DABEA, commonly called Bhoui, was a young Hindu widow of the Pirálee caste, who had been married at the early age of nine, and had lost her husband a few months after. The marriage was never consummated, and she had never lived in her husband's family, or under the protection of any of his kinsmen. She had always lived with her widowed mother and her brothers, named Hurro and Kinno, in their house at Chinsurah, where every endeavour was made to keep her happy.

"I live with tears in my eyes. Of what use is life to me? What do I live for? All around me are joyful and prosperous. My portion alone is misery."

Thus bitterly did Bhoui frequently bemoan her condition. But she always found one at her side who sympathised fully with her griefs, a mother who was never weary of listening to her complaints, never weary in doing all she could to comfort her.

"Oh, Bhoui! Be a good girl, and don't grieve for what cannot be mended. You are young; be hopeful, and life will not be altogether dark to you for all the loss you have suffered. Yes, you will, you can be happy yet, if you will only attend diligently to your books and your religious duties. Your brothers love you, and I love you also-how much I cannot tell; and our love ought to replace the love you have lost."

Bhoui never contradicted her mother, but she felt that there was nothing in her words really to revive her heart. What could books give to her, or the love of her brothers, or even that of her mother, to make up for the love and devotion of a husband which was denied to her? She was assiduous with her books, and sat up long daily with her instructress, a female convert, to make what she could out of them. But she did not benefit much thereby, for her mind had no inclination in that direction; nor did the female convert know how properly to direct it. The whole object of the latter, in fact, was to induce her to become a convert like herself. She was paid for this task by the Society she served. The plea of instruction was only the "open sesame" which gave her the opportunity to work up to the end which she had orders to attain; and all her labours were confined to reading out passages from the Bible to

Bhoui, and to explain to her all the present and prospective advantages which her conversion would confer on her.

"See, Bhoui, if you become a convert how happy you would be. You have lost a husband, but Christ himself will be as a husband to you!" "How? Does Christ descend to the earth to make love to the daughters of men as our Krishna did? Krishna had 16,000 mistresses on the earth; how many females has Christ reserved for himself?" "Oh, that I don't kaow. All I have heard from the Padree Sahebs is that the virgins who devote their lives to Christ become his brides in heaven."

"In heaven! That must be a very far place to reach, I fancy. How does that remedy our misery on the earth?"

"Why, you can have a husband on the earth also, if you wish it. You are a handsome girl and can get a Saheb for your husband." "But don't Sahebs stink? They don't anoint their bodies with mustard-oil or turmeric, as we do, and must smell very offensively. No, I should not like to have a stinking husband. I would prefer a native to a European for a bed-fellow."

"Then you can get a native very easily. There are many handsome male converts who would be delighted to have you."

"But there are no converts of the Pirálee caste, I am told. How can I get married beyond the pale of my own caste?

Ah, Bhoui! we Christians have no caste; we hold all mankind to be of one caste."

"Yes, I have heard mother say so, that the Mlech'bas are casteless, and, therefore, not to be touched, for their touch is pollution. I would lose my caste if I became a Christian, and no one would touch me."

"But why should you fear that? As a Pirálee you are casteless already. Do not all good Hindus regard the Pirálees as half-castes, a hybrid race that is neither Brahman nor Sudra? They detest you as casteless; but amongst us there are no prejudices of that kind at all."

Well, surely, it is very tempting, and I am so absurdly foolish that at times I have really a mind to go off with you. But then that would mortally offend my mother and my brothers."

"Oh, Bhoui! be reasonable. You have no more decision than a child. What do you care if your mother and brothers get angry with you? Once out of this house, I can place you where their power can never reach you; and when you get a nice husband, you yourself will not care either for your mother or your brothers."

The edifying instruction thus imparted by the tutoress had its full effect on the ignorant mind to which it was communicated; the temptations to become a convert were too great for Bhoui to resist ;

and leaving the protection of her mother and brothers, she went off with the tempter to find shelter at the Mission premises in Kámar Bógan-street, under the auspices of the Rev. Mr. Brown and a convert named Bájikar.

"They have made a goose of the silly girl. What can we do for her now?" asked one brother of the other in vexation.

"I really don't know that mu h can be done to extricate her from their toils. We had better try the law courts though, and see if we cannot induce them to interfere."

A charge of kidnapping was accordingly preferred against Messrs. Brown and Bájikar in the chief court of Chinsurah, which led to the issue of a writ of habeas corpus by it against them. To this return was made by the personal appearance of the widow in court, and the statement of the defendants that she had never been under any restraint. She had come to the Mission premises, they said, of her own free will and accord, without the use of any force, threat, persuasion, or inducement; and being of lawful age had, in the exercise of her own discretion, accepted the rite of baptism after a three years' study of Christianity.

The case represented a contest between Christianity and Hinduism, between the gospel-trumpeter and the heathen guardian, and received the greatest attention from the court by which it was adjudic ted. The Hindus attributed the conversion of the girl to the missionaries having held out to her the inducement of an early marriage with some person professin: the Christian faith; but this. charge was indignantly denied by the missionaries, who, in their turn, affirmed that the relatives of the girl had held out to her the inducement of marriage with a wealthy zemindar, in Brahmo fashion, if she would return to them. The presiding judge had after this an interview with the young proselyte, aud he stated from the bench that he found her to be very ignorant on matters of general information, and exceedingly ill informed on the subject of Christianity; and he characterised the ste, taken by her of leavin the society of those who had been about her all her life to go amongst strangers whoce very names she did not know, as very dangerous. The court, however, had only one point to consider, namely, whether the girl was o: was not possessed of a personal discretion to choose for hersele matter. The contention on one side was that she was barely fourteen years old, on the other that she was upwards of seventeer, aid rearer to eighteen. The judge held that she was above seventeen, and, therefore, outside the class of minors whom the Penal Code impliedly deprived of all choice in the matter of their own freedom. As in the eye of the law, then, there was no disqualification to prevent the girl from

choosing for herself, the application to return her to the custody of her relations was refused.

A short time after the above decision, Sowda Movi apostatised from Christianity and became a Brahmo, and she was then married by a Brahmo gentleman according to Brahmo rites.

"I left the home of my brothers for a husband," said she;" and since Christianity could render no help to me in that search, what alternative was there for me but to try elsewhere?"

THE “BIDYARATNA," OR, THE GEM OF LEARNING.

AN English traveller, named Archer, was passing by Nawab. gunge, towards Hooghly, when he saw a man suspended from a bamboo rafter in the roof of an outhouse of the thannah, with his hands tied behind his back, and screaming loudly from the effects of the beating and torture to which he had been subjected. At the time when Mr. Archer arrived at the spot there was no one about the sufferer. They had all fled on his approach, leaving their victim suspended, to be released by the Englishman if he wished it. Mr. Archer lost no time in getting him down and releasing him, and then the sufferer narrated the circumstances under which he had come to be so strangely dealt with.

A watch belonging to one Captain Rodger had been stolen from his residence at Barrackpore, and this having been reported to the police, the Daroga of Nawabgunge, who was named Gooroɔ Brassono Bidyaratna, had proceeded to the spot personally to hold the usual inquiry. The Daroga was a high caste Brahman, and a man of education, having obtained the title of Bidyaratna, or "gem of learning," from an assembly of learned pundits, after close examination. He had then accepted the office of a Daroga, but only as a stepping-stone to the higher office of a deputy-magistrate. "You must pass through the narrow road to get to the highway, Bidyaratna," were the words of his patron, Mr. Hallam, and the gem of learning had bowed acquiescence to the sage advice. "And to get released from the common track you must make yourself so thoroughly useful in your department that you might be easily picked out ;" and the gem had again bowed to this additional remark. Bidyaratna had ever since displayed great activity and zeal in the public service; but, though he was well-educated, he did not appreciate fully the difference between right and wrong, not having a fair share of common sense as distinguished from book-learning.

"Will you be able to find out the thief, Daroga ?" asked Captain Rodger, of the Bidyaratna, when the latter arrived at Barrackpore.

"Yes, sir, I hope so, provided you allow me to examine all your servants fully."