THE UNITED STATES TARIFF AND LITERATURE.

Although the Tariff Commission recommended a reduction of ten per cent. on printed books, and that all books, both those printed in foreign languages as well as English, should bear a uniform duty of fifteen per cent., and that books which had been printed over ten years should be duty free, this recommendation was not adopted by Congress, and the duties on books remain the same as in the old Tariff. A reduction of ten per cent., it is true, would not have made foreign authors' own editions of their works much more accessible to the masses, but it would have been a step in the right direction; as it is, the United States Government must still labour under the imputation of being a protector of pirates. In England we long since came to the conclusion that all taxes on knowledge were unpolitic, and there is now a memorial fund in process of formation to commemorate the abolition of the paper duty and the advertisement tax, and to do honour to the memory of the man who agitated till they were abolished. One most amusing incident connected with the proposed reduction of the duty on books was that three wellknown literary men, viz., Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mr. Whittier, and Mr. T. B. Aldrich petitioned the Senate against it on the ground, firstly," that America should not be flooded with cheap books," and secondly, "that the minds of Americans, and especially of American children, should not be perverted by foreign ideas." Now a fifteen per cent. duty is a heavy duty, although a lighter one than twenty-five, and would still keep much literature out of the country; but unfortunately for this plea, America is already flooded with cheap books, and these cheap books interfere with the second plea these gentlemen advance; they are all pirated editions of foreign authors, and have been perverting the American mind ever since the declaration of Independence in an increasing ratio. Had the second plea been advanced by natives of China or Corea against the introduction of foreign books into either of those countries, there would have been some consistency in it; but the United States as a nation is only a little over a century old, and is largely indebted to foreign immigration for its inhabitants, which element increases yearly, and to foreign knowledge for its literature.

TRIBUTE PAID TO GERMAN ORIENTAL SCHOLARSHIP IN CALCUTTA.-I am sure that I am right in mentioning, among the interesting occurrences of the year, the arrival among us of such an eminent European scholar as the Tagore Professor of Law in this University. It would be difficult to over-estimate the obligation which the cause which we all have at heart, the cause of truth and light and progress, owes to the scholars of Germany. The three great literatures of the ancient world, the Hebrew, the Sanskrit, and the Greek, alike have found in Germany their most laborious students, and their most able expositors. The names of Ewald, of Bopp, of Hermann, are household words in every country in which learning is held in honour. Those great men have passed away, but their spirit survives, and in the distinguished scholar whom we have been glad to welcome among us this year, we find no unworthy successor of the illustrious personages whom I have named. In his address last year our Chancellor told us that we were then celebrating the Silver Wedding of the East and West. Surely the closeness of the bond between the two is strongly evidenced when we see a Professor of the University of Würtzburg delivering to a Calcutta audience a course of lectures established under the will of an Indian Brahmin.-Extract from the speech of the Hon. H. J. Reynolds, the Vice-Chancellor of the Calcutta University, on the occasion of the Convocation of the University, March 10, 1883.

THE MACKENZIE COLLECTION OF ORIENTAL MANUSCRIPTS. -Lieut.-Col. Collin Mackenzie, C.B., who was appointed Surveyor-General of Madras, after he had been employed from 1796 to 1806 in investigating the geography of the Deecan, and mapping the country, was commissioned by Francis, fifth Earl of Merchistoun, to search for Hindu Manuscripts on Mathematics, and Logarithms in particular, which the Earl intended to use in a life of his ancestor, John Napier-the inventor of English Logarithms. While Colonel Mackenzie was engaged in this work, he conceived an idea that most valuable materials in the way of manuscripts might be collected in the peninsula, on which to found a History of India. For thirty-eight years he was enabled to work out this idea, and the result was that his collection became the most valuable collection of Indian historical documents ever made by any one individual in Europe or in • Professor Jolly of Würtzburg.

Asia. The Collection was arranged by the late Professor H. H. Wilson, and the catalogue published in 2 volumes in 1898; this catalogue has long been out of print, and when met with fetches a very high price. The constant demand for it har induced Messrs. Higginbotham & Co., of Madras, to reprat it in one handy 8vo. volume, to which they have prefixed a brief outline of the Life of Col. Mackenzie. Messrs. Higgin botham intend, if this reprint meets with sufficient patronage to print as a companion volume to it the Rev. Wm. Taylor able reports on the portion of the Mackenzie Collection transferred to the Madras Government from Calcutta.

REPORTS ON SANSKRIT MSS.-We have received thre very important Reports connected with the search for Sanskra Manuscripts in India. Professor R. G. Bhandarkar mai one to K. M. Chatfield, Esq., Director of Public Instruction at Poona, on work done in 1881-2 in the Maratha county the Haiderabad Territory, and Berar. In this report be gives a list of many rare MSS. on the Vedas and Vedangas t Poona, in one place he obtained a set of twelve of the s important Puranas. Besides these, the learned Profess gives lists of many interesting MSS. on Grammar, Astrono and Astrology.-Pandit Kashi Nath Kunte, compiler of Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS., Punjaub, makes a report for e quarter ending Dec. 31, 1880, to Lieut.-Col. W. R. I Holroyd, Director of Public Instruction, Punjaub, of work done in relation to the preservation and collection Sanskrit MSS. in the Punjaub. In this report he states has catalogued 550 Sanskrit MSS., 326 belonging to t Library of Pandit Jwálá Datta Prasáda, grandson of Pa Madhusúdana deceased, and 224 to that of Pandit Bhar wán Dás, Assistant Professor, Government College, Labora This latter library contains 400 books in all, of which 224 are MSS., none of which are older, however, than the sixteenth century. It is stated that the owner of this library often h a congregation of 2000 men at his door to hear him expand the Puranas. In the course of this report Pandit Kasil Kunte gives some interesting facts which he has collected the Jáina religion, claimed to be older than Buddhism, J Deva, the founder, being said to be the father of the BL This view was taken by the Brahmanas of old; though am scholars do not agree with this view, but take Jina to Conqueror, and that the Jainas were the suppressors of other religions but their own.-The third Report before 3 also by Pandit Kashi Nath Kunte on the Sanskrit MSS. examined and catalogued by him during 1881-2. The wr of the year amounted to an examination of 1606 MSS compared to 2300 in the previous year, but the Pan accounts for the difference by his being on privileged lean searching for libraries and inducing their owners to show their books. He had hopes of gaining access to the D Digambari Jaina libraries, but was put off with vari excuses; but he does not despair of ultimately gaining object. The MSS. in the libraries the Pandit was able examine and catalogue range from the 15th to the 19 centuries.

-The

A MONUMENT FOR THE LATE MR. SCHWENDLER.Committee and Members of the Zoological Gardens, Calenta have decided to erect a Monument to the late Electrician the Telegraph Department. As these Gardens were broug into existence chiefly through Mr. Schwendler's efforts, and many of the animals were presented by him from his pric collection, they are thought to be the most appropriate site fr a monument to his memory.

THE MAHABHARATA IN ENGLISH.-Baboo Protab Chand Roy intends publishing an English translation of the Malt bharata in parts monthly. The edition is to consist of 15 copies, out of which 250 will be for sale at 65 rupees per c

HINDU MYTHOLOGY.-The Rev. W. J. Wilkins, of the London Missionary Society, has published with Mess Thacker, Spink & Co., of Calcutta, Thacker & Co., London. "Hindu Mythology, Vedic and Puranic," to provide for a war which, he states in his preface, he discovered when he arrived in India. He found no reliable and portable work on Hind Mythology, although the matter which he has brought to gether in a reasonable sized volume might have been met with by consulting large and expensive works. He says he has honestly striven to keep his mind free from prejudice and theological bias, and to let the sacred books speak ir themselves, without any commentary. The engravings illus trating the mythology are faithful reproductions of the designs of Hindu artists. The work is accompanied by ♣ full index.

OLD CALCUTTA.-Under the title of "Echoes from Old Calcutta," by E. H. Busteed, Messrs. Thacker, Spink & Co., Calcutta, and Thacker & Co., London, have published a volume which carries us back to the days of Warren Hastings, Francis and Impey. Some portion of the work has appeared before in the shape of articles contributed to the Calcutta Englishman, but the latter portion of the book is published for the first time, viz.-Extracts from letters from Warren Hastings to his wife, and the chapter on Madame Grand, an incident in the Calcutta life of Sir Philip Francis, not much to his credit. Madame Grand was afterwards married to Talleyrand.

INDIA AND ITS SOCIAL CONDITION.-The East India Association have issued an extra number of their Journal for January, 1883, on the "Condition of India," being a correspondence with the Secretary of State for India, by Dadabhai Naoroji, Esq. In this correspondence Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji points out that under the present system of government the resources of India are being sapped out of her, a new edition of the fable of Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs." He says that no country can stand such a process as that India is undergoing for any length of time without collapsing; ind suggests a modified elementary form of constitutional overnment as an antidote to the process. The paper is well worthy of thoughtful reading.

INDIAN PRODUCTS.-Some idea of the productive capacity of India may be formed by consulting Messrs. Thacker & Co.'s "Indian Tea, Indigo, Silk, and Coffee Concerns, with their Capital, Directors, Proprietors, Agents, Managers, Assistants," ste, etc., and last, though not least, their factory marks. We think it a pity that the compilers did not include other adustries while compiling such a useful reference book, viz. obacco, opium, cotton, cinchona, etc., etc.

AGRICULTURE IN INDIA.-The population of India is teadily increasing, whilst through untrained cultivators who ollow the practice of their forefathers and have no knowedge of the chemical qualities of soils, the fertility of the ountry is steadily decreasing. In view of these facts Lieut. red. Pogson (Her Majesty's Bengal Army) has compiled a Manual of Agriculture for India," Messrs. Thacker, Spink Co., Calcutta, and Thacker & Co., London, for the scientific astruction of zemindars and ryots, who, as the author says, re now called upon "to make two blades of grass grow there only one grew before." Lieut. Pogson has mastered he subject he writes upon, and we recommend the English adition of his work, which is the one before us, to tropical agriculturists in all parts of the world. It is proposed to print the Manual in Hindee, Urdu, and Punjabee for the benefit of the native agriculturist, who must be instructed in low to increase food production, as the English Government as abolished the primitive way of equalizing the food and he mouths to eat it by prohibiting female infanticide. The issemination amongst the rural population of India of the ound chemical agricultural knowledge contained in this manual would tend to lessen the recurrence of the fearful amines which occur periodically in the various districts of ndia, and which are Nature's means of getting rid of the urplus mouths she is unable to feed.

KASHGARIA.-Major Walter E. Gowan has made a transation of Col. A. N. Kuropatkin's Kashgaria, the province f Eastern or Chinese Turkestan which has recently been delivered back to the Chinese Government by the Russians, who had occupied it during the troubles in China. The book makes its appearance a little late, but it will always be useful is a historical contribution on one of the most important livisions of Central Asia. Messrs. Thacker, Spink & Co., of Calcutta, and W. Thacker & Co., London, publish the volume.

CATALOGUE OF THE CHINESE TRANSLATION OF THE BUDDHIST TRIPITAKA.-Pandit Bunjiu Nanjio, Priest of the Temple, Eastern Hongwanzi, Japan, and member of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, has compiled a catalogue of the Sacred Canon of the Buddhists in China and Japan, by order of the Secretary of State for India. This work, which is a 4to. of 266 pages, is printed by the Clarendon Press at Oxford. This important collation of the sacred books of the Buddhists contains the titles of 1662 different works, 342 of them being however miscellaneous ones. The compiler gives a long and interesting introduction to his work, in which he reviews the thirteen catalogues of the Chinese Tripitaka which are at present in existence, the oldest one dating back to A.D. 502-557. The Chinese types used in the catalogue were cast at the Clarendon Press from matrices procured from China on the recommendation of Professor Legge. THE CHINESE AMERICAN. A curious periodical has reached us under the above title, printed in Chinese and English, and published by the Enterprise Publishing Company,

New York, at 5 cents per number. The editor, Wong Ching Foo, dictates the matter to a Chinese scribe, which is afterwards photographed and printed by lithography on yellow paper. Mr. Wong Ching Foo promises an English version of the celebrated Chinese historical novel, "The Fan Yong" (or Royal Slave), written by Kong Wung over 2000 years ago. JAPAN.-Messrs. D. Lothrop & Co., of Boston, have just issued "Leading Men of Japan," by Mr. Charles Lanman, of Washington, author of "The Japanese in America." This work is divided into two parts, the first containing biographical sketches of the Emperor, his father, and fifty-seven leading men who have identified themselves with the new national movement under the present Emperor. The second part gives a brief history of the Empire of Japan, an account of the Islands of Okinawa (Loo Choo), and Ogasawara (The Bonins), and an interesting account of Corea. A "foreign bibliography of the Empire" is appended.

THE ELECTRICAL REVIEW.-The Review of the Telegraph and the Telephone has changed its name to the "Electrical Review," and is now published weekly instead of semimonthly as formerly. It is somewhat enlarged in size and is still edited by Mr. Geo. Worthington.

THE HISTORY OF JEWAD.-Messrs. Wilson and McCormick, of Glasgow, announce their intention to publish, by subscription, a new work by the author of "Ottoman Poems," "The History of Jewad, a Turkish Romance by 'Ali 'Aziz Efendi of Crete, translated into English by E. J. W. Gibb, M.R.A.S., author of Ottoman Poems,' etc." The volume is a romance dealing with the adventures of a young magician named Jewad, who wanders through various countries seeking to do good. The author, 'Ali Aziz Efendi of Crete, who died near the close of last century, was learned in Eastern philosophy, and has put into his work several curious details concerning magic ceremonies and Oriental spiritualism. As is the case in so many Eastern works of fiction, there are incidental to this romance many secondary tales, which are not less interesting than the leading story itself. The manners and customs described, or alluded to, are those of the author's own time, and they serve to show the esteem in which the Occult Sciences and their professors used to be held in the Levant, as also to give a glimpse into a section of life in the Ottoman capital long before the introduction of the modern reforms, and while Constantinople was still a thoroughly Oriental city. So far as the publishers are aware, the work has never till now been translated into any European language. The impression will be limited to 300 copies, and the right reserved to raise the price, 7s., now fixed should it be found necessary.

PERSIAN WIT AND HUMOUR.-Mr. C. E. Wilson, the Assistant Librarian of the Royal Academy of Arts, has published (Chatto and Windus) a translation of the Sixth Book of the Baháristán of Abdu'r-Rahmáni 'bnu Ahmad Jami, a learned Doctor of Muhammadan law and divinity, who was born A.D. 1414 at Jam, a town in the government of Herat.. The book is curious as a specimen of Eastern wit, which is of such a dry character that it would be scarcely considered wit at all amongst the western nations.

THE PARTHENON.-Mr. James Fergusson, C.I.E., D.C.L., etc., etc., the author of so many valuable works on Architecture and Archaeology, has published with Mr. Murray, Albemarle Street, Piccadilly, "The Parthenon, an Essay on the mode by which Light was introduced into Greek and Roman Temples." Mr. Fergusson comes to the conclusion that, as a rule, all Grecian Doric peristylar temples were lighted by opaions or clerestories; that Ionic temples, except of the largest class, were lighted by windows such as were used when glass was not available; that Corinthian temples were generally lighted by hypethra, or pseudo-hypethra ; that no temple in the ancient world, with the solitary exception of the Pantheon at Rome, was lighted by a horizontal, as contradistinguished from a vertical opening. Architects and Archæologists owe their thanks to Mr. Fergusson for his efforts to elucidate a moot point in the history, as he says, of the most perfect style of architecture with which the world has hitherto been adorned."

ENGLISH CLASSICS.-In continuation of the series mentioned in our last issue, Messrs. Nimmo & Bain have issued Sterne's Tristram Shandy in two vols., with eight etchings by Damman; Reeve's Old English Baron and Walpole's Castle of Otranto in one volume, with two portraits and four etchings. These superior editions will before long become scarce, as only one thousand copies are printed of each.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH.-Messrs. S. C. Griggs & Co., of Chicago, have added another to the list of useful and educating books they publish, by the issue of Professor A. H.