for the first time (in Arabic) with critical and exegetical Notes, and an Historical Introduction by John Harris Jones. London. Williams and Norgate. The Second and Third volumes of the supplementary Despatches of the Duke of Wellington, 1797-1805. Edited by the present Duke. London. John Murray. Brialmont's Life of the Duke of Wellington, translated with Emendations and additions, by the Rev. G. R. Gleig, M. A. Maps, Plans and Portraits, vols. I and II. London. Longman and Co. Brief Narrative of the Defence of the Arrah Garrison, written by one of the besieged party. To accompany Mr. W. Tayler's Picture of the Attack. London. Thacker and Co. Short Sermons on Indian Texts. Nos. 1 and 2. The Empire of the Middle Classes. No. 3. Caste and Conversion. By Henry Meredith Parker, Bengal Civil Retired List. London. A Narrative of the Indian Mutinies of 1857. Madras. Asylum Press Geschichte des Englishchen Reiches in Asien. K. F. Neumann. Leipzig. Brockhaus. London. Trübner and Co. A Comprehensive History of India. Civil, Military, and Social, from the first Landing of the English to the Suppression of the Sepoy Revolt. By Henry Beveridge, Esq., Advocate. To be issued in parts. Glasgow. Blackie and Co. The Public and Private Correspondence of Charles Marquis Cornwallis. Relating chiefly to India, &c. Edited with Notes by Charles Ross, Esq. 3 vols. (Announced) London. Murray. History of the Afghans. By J. P. Ferrier. Translated from the Original MS. by Capt. William Jesse. (Announced) London. Murray. Handbook for Travellers in India. Being an Account of the Three Presidencies and of the Overland Route. (Announced) London. Murray. The Chinese Inland,-on the Coast-and at Sea, from 1852 to 1856. By Robert Fortune. London. Murray. PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS ON INDIA AND THE EAST. Bill for the Transfer of the Government of the East Indies to the Crown (No. 2.) Copies of Orders issued by the Court of Directors regarding the Castes of Hindoos from which the Native Army is to be recruited. Cotton in India. Part 2-Madras. Copies of Minutes and Correspondence relating to the Treaty of 1857, with Mohammud Ali Shah, the then King of Oude, &c. Copy of Despatches from the Governor General and East India Company, relating to Oude. Mutinies in the East Indies-Further Papers-No. 6. Indian Mutinies. Further Papers (No. 7) in continuation of No. 5. Bringing down the History to Nov. 30. Army Estimates (1858-59) containing the Good Service Pensions bestowed on the Indian Officers, with details of their services. Despatches Relative to Advantages to be granted to Retired Officers and men settling in the Colonies and India. Papers respecting the Public Debt of India. Statement of the Revenues of India, the Military Force employed there, and Papers concerning the raising Recruits for such Force. Letters, Despatches, and Memorials of Remonstrance connected with the subject of the Press in India. First Report of the Select Committee on the Colonization and Settlement of India, with the minutes of evidence taken before them. The Oude Proclamation with the letter of the Secretary to the Govern ment of India, and East India House Secret Committee Letter, relating to the Proclamation. Papers relating to the arrangements for a General Department of Audit and Account in India. Returns relative to the Officers of the East India Company's Army, distribution of the Forces in each Presidency, Recruiting and various other subjects. Return relative to Letters and Despatches to and from India, Departments of the East India House, with Salaries, &c. Report from the Select Committee on the Transport of Troops. Copies of Correspondence with the Indian Government, showing the Report from the Select Committee on Ameer Ali Moorad's Claim (Coffey's Petition) with Minutes of Evidence, Appendix and Index. Copies of Reports and Despatches relative to the Protection afforded by Maun Sing and others, to Fugitive Europeans, at the outbreak of the Sepoy Mutiny. Further Papers on the subject of the Despatch of Troops to India from the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon and Mauritius. Copy of a Letter from the Court of Directors to the Governor General of India in Council, dated 13th April, 1858, relating to Education Proceedings in Behar. Copies of all Acts, Notifications and Proclamations of the Government of India, concerning the Coinage, Currency, and Legal Tender of the Territories under the said Government, from 1st May 1834 to the date of the latest Accounts received. Bill for transferring the Government of the East Indies to the Crown (No. 3) An Account of the Military Force employed under each Presidency in British India in each year, from 1852 to the latest period, distinguishing the Royal Troops from the East India Company's ; and of the Royal Troops, the Cavalry from the Infantry; and of the Company's, the Cavalry, the Infantry, and the Artillery; the European from the Native Troops; and the Regular Corps from the Irregular. Second Report from the Select Committee on Colonization and Settlement (India); with the Minutes of Evidence taken. Mr. George Macnair. WITNESSES EXAMINED: Mr. Josiah Patrick Wise. William Theobald, Esq. Mr. James Dalrymple. Mr. James Thompson Mackenzie. A Map of India shewing the Products of the various districts, to ac company the Report. Indian Colonization. Third Report with Minutes of Evidence. THE CALCUTTA REVIEW. DECEMBER, 1858. ART. I.-Memoirs of the Reign of Runjeet Sing. BY DEWAN UMMER NATH, LATE PAY-MASTER OF THE SEIKH ARMY. M.S. Lahore. AN authentic contemporary history of a native court is an exceedingly rare literary article. We have high-flown eulogies on princes whose names even flattery will not preserve from oblivion; we have the most minute accounts of extinct families, who never had one interest in common with the public which posterity would care to know; we have even religious satires of which both the point and direction are now unintelligible; but we have very few authentic contemporary accounts of a native Government. The Memoirs before us favourably contrast with the general barrenness that characterises the contemporary literature of this country. The greater part of this work was written under the Seikh rule, and we are assured by the author that it was not intended for publication. It would be ridiculous to affirm that the Dewan was led to such a resolution, from a consciousness of defects in his writings. The greatest ambition of an author in Europe is his greatest fear in India. If he does not write for pay, an Indian litterateur betrays the greatest solicitude in the preservation of his work in its original individuality. He regards its publication as a positive evil, he looks on it as almost a disgrace to suffer the labour of so many years to be in the unworthy hands of an illiterate public. The mischief is increased ten-fold on the death of the author; his heirs look upon the manuscripts with that veneration with which the ancient Romans regarded the mystic books of the Sybil, and if they are ignorant of the language in which the work is written, the pertinacity with which it is condemned to secrecy is incredible. The chronicles of Boota Shah and Sohan Loll, which form the basis of Prinsep's and Murray's narratives of the court of Runjeet Sing, can hardly be compared with the Memoirs under review: men who are driven by necessity and direcDECEMBER, 1858. I I tion to confine their observation to a limited sphere of actions, can hardly supply facts of general interest. We must remember, besides, that a news-writer in an Indian court occupied a post of doubtful honor, and of little or no influence. He was watched with the jealous attention, with which we view and guard against the appearance of a suspicious character in a camp. It is a notorious fact that he was almost the last man in a foreign court who was cognisant of political intrigues, and it is certainly a doubtful question whether he was invariably less traitor than dupe. Of the literary merits of this work we cannot be fair judges. According to the canons of criticism acknowleged by Persian men of letters, the writings of Dewan Ummer Nath may rank next only to those of the famous Abul Fuzzel, and considering that a faithful imitation of the style of Ulamee has been the emulation of Persian scholars since the days of Akbar, the measure of praise that has been accorded to the works of the Dewan is certainly not contemptible. Judging from an English point of view, the very excellences which recommend this work to the Persian reader are serious obstacles in our way of epitomising it. We have the arduous task of culling facts from a bulky manuscript, written in an inflated style, full of far-fetched ideas, and tropes hardly intelligible, without a single attempt at generalisation, or even at political discussion, though almost every chapter opens with a questionable policy or a downright crime. As for the number of similes that this work contains, it is not indulging in exaggeration if we aver that almost every page, on a fair average, contains three forced similitudes; whatever might have been the object for which these figures were originally intended, they now only serve to add to the general confusion. But we are told that these are rare felicities in a Persian style, that it is the work of a master to clothe every common-place thought in learned obscurity. Yet the beauty of a style is not heightened, when the author is guilty of the literary indecorum of instituting analogies between the eyes of a woman, her gait, and her voice, and such homely subjects as the cheeks of a mangoe, the walk of a goose, and the shrill call of a heron. But we are still assured that these are rare beauties, and while we admit their rarity, we leave the enjoyment of the beauties themselves to the polished taste of a Persian critic. The value of the Memoirs, as a depository of facts and a book of reference, is unquestionably great. It is written by the pay-master of the late Khalsa Force, a young man of acknowledged powers of observation, and of immense personal |