William Jones were imparted as a practical standard of that, which all, with the same exertions, and by the same meritorious course of action, may attain ; and we have held him forth, not as one of the master-spirits whom "the seraphim have touched with the eternal fire of the altars," or to excite an awe-struck and ineffectual admiration; but to stir in the bosoms of youthful students a generous emulation of that which lies within their reach, and which, if diligently prosecuted, will not finally elude their pursuit.

We wish we could speak in higher terms of Mr. Roscoe's performance. It is neatly, but perfunctorily done; quite well enough to answer the purposes of his task-masters, who required only something sketchy, slight, and shewy, in the commodity they were preparing for the market. We know not exactly what to predict from so much cheap reading, and so much rapid authorship. The just pride of literary men, we think, is but little consulted, and the dignity of letters not at all, which must vail their lofty port, and dwarf themselves to the comprehension of the multitude. The diffusion, however, of intelligence, though administered in slight doses, is in itself a blessing; but good and evil are seldom disjoined in human affairs, and it is a result much to be deprecated, if men of genius lend themselves, for the trifling emolument of the day, to hasty abridgments, the husks and shells of history or biography, instead of labouring for the delight and instruction of all well-informed readers, both of the present day and of future times.

In looking through the volume before us, purporting to be the biography of eminent British lawyers, we found ample confirmation of our remarks. We particularly regretted to observe so meagre and inadequate a life of Lord Erskine; a man whose extraordinary powers are not to be sketched by an ordinary limner. An opportunity too was offered to Mr. Roscoe, himself a lawyer, to trace, with something of the spirit of philosophy, the causes of the wide disparity between Lord Erskine and the most eminent leaders of Westminster Hall at this day, who are comparatively insects, unworthy to crawl near the pedestal of his statue. As a proof, however, of carelessness, we will not say ignorance, in the execution of his task, we cannot help noticing to Mr. Roscoe his gross blunder, in a citation of a part of Mr. Erskine's speech upon Mr. Fox's motion to treat with France in 1792. He (Mr. Erskine), says his biographer, painted in strong colours the fortunes of the soldier, and contrasted them with those of the persons who profited at home by the calamities of war. He then quotes, as proceeding from Mr. Erskine, the well-known passage: "The life of the modern soldier is ill-represented by heroic fiction. War has means of destruction more formidable than the cannon and the sword. Of the thousands and tens of thousands that perished in our late contests with France and Spain, a small part felt the stroke of an enemy, the rest languished in tents and ships amidst damps and putrefaction; pale, spiritless, torpid, helpless, gasping and groaning, unpitied among men rendered obdurate by long continuance of hopeless misery; and were at last whelmed into pits or heaved into the ocean, without pity and without remembrance," &c. &c. &c. Who does not know that this passage, which has no affinity in diction or

sentiment to the style of Erskine, was read by him as a quotation from Dr. Johnson's Tract on the Falkland Islands? It is so notorious a commonplace, and has been so repeatedly quoted, that we are astonished that Mr. Roscoe should have been unmindful of the source from which it was taken.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SINGAPORE.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR: The widow of Sir T. Stamford Raffles having claimed the sole and exclusive merit for her husband of having established the new and thriving settlement of Singapore, I consider myself called upon to endeavour to prove to the world that I had at least a large share in forming that establishment, having recommended to Government, as far back as the year 1816, the formation of some new settlement in the Straits of Malacca to the eastward of that town, and lying immediately in the track of our Indiamen and other ships engaged in the China and eastern trade; and having, when commanding at Malacca (previous to any treaty being formed by the Rajah of Johore with the Netherlands government) obtained permission from the Rajah Mudah, or viceroy of Rhio (executive governor of all the Johore dominions) to survey the Carimon Islands in the Straits, for the express purpose of forming a new settlement, on delivering up Malacca to the Dutch. Sir Stamford Raffles happening to be present at Calcutta when Colonel Bannerman (then governor of Penang) laid the project of forming a new settlement in the Straits of Malacca before the Supreme Government; and Sir Stamford being then about to proceed as one of the commissioners to Acheen, had influence enough with Lord Hastings to get the Supreme Government to appoint him to see the new settlement formed; at the same time he was entrusted with a complimentary letter to me, hoping that circumstances would admit of my accompanying him, in order to assume the government of the new establishment, at least during its infancy. This letter Sir Stamford was himself the bearer of. I met with him at Penang, when so far on my way home, and the question was at that time discussed between us respecting the most advantageous site for the projected settlement. The Carimon Islands appeared to me, from their situation in the direct tract of all ships passing up and down the Straits, to be the most eligible situation. Sir Stamford, on the other hand, thought that the old Malay settlement of Johore, upon the peninsula, would be likely to offer greater advantages. However, the Carimons were the first place we visited; and finding they did not afford such local advantages as were expected, we proposed going on to view Johore; but I suggested to Sir Stamford, that it might be advisable to stop at Singapore on our way; and having had communication with the Toomoongong, or Malay chief, who had established himself there with four or five hundred followers, and finding the place would suit our purpose better than what we had before seen, I proceeded on the following day to Rhio, for the purpose of endeavouring to obtain permission from the Viceroy to form a new settlement there in place of the Carimon Islands, which, after some difficulty, he so far acceded to as to say that, as far as he was concerned, as governor of the dominions of Johore, he had no kind of objection, but that he had already been obliged to sign a treaty with the Dutch, by which he was restricted from granting permission to any European power to have a footing within any part of the territory of Johore; but as he had, previous to the said

treaty being signed, granted me permission to form a settlement upon the Carimon Islands, he left us to use our own discretion in establishing ourselves at Singapore. To this place I forthwith returned; and, in conjunction with Sir Stamford Raffles, concluded and signed a treaty with the native chief then present at Singapore; the British flag was formally hoisted, and the island taken possession of: Sir Stamford sailed the very next day on his return to Penang. Having stated these circumstances, I leave the public to judge whether Lady Raffles can fairly claim for her husband the sole and exclusive merit of having formed the settlement of Singapore, so as to entitle her to style it his settlement.

With respect to Malacca, Lady Raffles gives Sir Stamford credit for having laid the inhabitants under some particular obligation to him, whilst there for the recovery of his health. Now I happened to be in command of Malacca at the period alluded to; and as Sir Stamford was at that time a guest of mine, it would, one may conclude, in some way or other, have been brought to my knowledge, if such an obligation had actually existed. The truth is, that the Dutch inhabitants forwarded, through me, a petition to Government respecting the great hardship of their case, in being ordered to quit Malacca; which petition was recommended by me to the most favourable consideration of Government, in my letters of the 6th and 7th of February 1806, extracts of which are hereto annexed.

"6th February 1806. The order contained in your letter of the 11th ultimo, directing such of the Dutch inhabitants, as did not wish to proceed to Batavia on their paroles of honour, to hold themselves in readiness to remove at the shortest notice to Prince of Wales's Island or Calcutta, has been communicated to them, and has caused the greatest consternation and dismay throughout the settlement."

"7th February 1806. I now beg you will be pleased to lay before the Board the accompanying petition from such of the Dutch inhabitants as are solicitous of continuing at Malacca, and I take the liberty to recommend their general as well as individual claims to the most favourable consideration of Government; and feel it my indispensable duty to add my best testimony to their peaceable and uniformly regular conduct during the long period they have lived under the protection of the British flag.

With reference to the destruction of the fortifications at Malacca, I did every thing in my power at the time to prevent that event taking place; but was ultimately obliged to comply, in consequence of the very peremptory orders I received from Government, which were accordingly carried into effect in the year 1807. However, I took upon myself the responsibility of saving the church and government-house, together with the principal public buildings, although, up to the time I left Malacca, I never received the sanction of Government for this measure; so, without assuming more merit than falls to my lot, I may fairly claim my share in having been the humble means of preserving Malacca to this day as a settlement.

During the period Sir Stamford was employed at Malacca, as Lord Minto's agent, he obtained from me all the information I was able to collect respecting the state of the island of Java, with its resources, defences, and military forces, which formed a rather voluminous report, regularly signed by me, and trans

mitted to Lord Minto, together with a general map of the island, through Sir Stamford Raffles. The British force judged sufficient for its conquest was also noticed, and the troops actually employed corresponded with what had thus been recommended, within a very few hundred men : to these official documents reference may be had at this day, if thought necessary.

I shall conclude this statement by mentioning, that during the period I was resident at Singapore, the settlement increased more rapidly in population and commercial importance (under numerous disadvantages) than perhaps ever before took place in any other newly-formed establishment. Numerous Chinese and other inhabitants of Malacca followed me to Singapore; and upon my quitting it, in the latter end of 1823, the number of addresses, accompanied by most honourable testimonials from the inhabitants, were quite sufficient and highly gratifying proofs of their feeling themselves happy under my rule, and the regret they felt at my departure for this country.

I am, Sir, &c.

WM. FARQUHAR, Col. E.I.C.S.

LAND TAX IN CHINA.*

THE Chinese government divides the tax on land into three sorts. The first and highest tax is on ponds, where the water-lily and other plants grow, and also on fish-ponds. The second is on arable land; and the third is on land on which houses stand. A Chinese mow, or acre, contains, according to some, 240 square paces; others say 360 square cubits. Lakes and ponds that are cultivated (for so the phrase is), pay to government, including the expense of collecting, seven mace two candareens.+ They charge, moreover, six candareens for a receipt on a bit of white paper. The ground-tax varies according to the richness or poverty of the neighbourhood in which the houses stand.

To collect the land-tax, government sends officers into the country, who station themselves in village Halls of Ancestors, and thither summon the farmers. These, however, generally appoint one of their own number, and some respectable villager, to receive and pay the land-tax. There are, notwithstanding, frequent delays, and force is had recourse to by those in authority. No literary or other privilege prevents a man being arrested who owes any part of the land-tax.

By law, a part of the tax is to be paid in kind; but that practice in the south of China is now entirely disused. When owners of land let out small farms, as they very commonly do, the land-owner, not the farmer, is responsible to government.

The tax is divided into ten parts, and may be paid at different times. A keu-jin graduate, who owes fourth-tenths, is punished by degradation to the plebeian rank; and a plebeian guilty of the same defalcation is punishable with sixty blows. To owe seven-tenths subjects the keu-jin to degradation and eighty blows; the plebeian to a month's pillory and 100 blows. Inferior graduates are subject to two months' pillory.

Concerning the grain carried to Peking, defalcations are punished according to the amount with blows, or with transportation, and in some cases with death.

From the Canton Register. ↑ Equal to somewhat less than five shillings. + About 5d.

ON THE ZEND AND THE PEHLVI DIALECTS.

BY J. F. KLEUKER.

THE Zend was the predominant language all round the Caspian Sea and in Media; the Pehlvi in the countries towards Assyria, and probably in Assyria itself, whereas the Parsi originally belonged to Pars, Fars, or Farsistan. Each of these is very ancient; but which is the most so, no one can with certainty determine. Their similarities and general relation to each other authorize the idea of a common origin; and although they were cotemporary about 500 to 600 years A.C., they were perfectly independent of each other. The Parsi was the most polished of the three, and therefore survived a long time after the Zend and Pehlvi had, in succession, become obsolete.

Joshua Bar Bahlul, a Syrian, who lived in the tenth century, says, in his Syro-Arabic Lexicon, that Zoroaster, or Zerdusht, wrote his Abestago, or Avesha, in seven languages. Hyde accounted this a mere fable; but, if it be considered that Joshua Bar Bahlul compiled his Lexicon from other works then in existence, wherein he doubtless found this tradition, we may readily conceive that it had some historical basis; and probably this account partly arose from translations of the Zend books into several languages, partly from certain books which existed under the name of Zoroaster in other tongues.

Abu'lfaraj calls the language of Zoroaster a dialect of the Syriac or Chaldaic, which last he divides into the Aramaic, or the language of Aram, i.e. Mesopotamia; into the Syriac, properly so called, or that of the countries between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean; and into the Nabathaan, or that of the Assyrian mountains, of Irak and Chaldæa. The latter he pronounces to have been the language of Abraham and his ancestors, and also that of which Zoroaster made use with an admixture of the ancient Persic.

Here Abu'lfaraj makes the language of Zoroaster an admixture of the ancient Persic and Nabathæan or Assyrio-Chaldaic; but the original language of the Zend books proves it not to have been such, but to have contained more Iberian and Celtic than Chaldaic roots. It therefore seems to me that Abu'lfaraj alluded to the Pehlvi, into which the Zend books were first translated, which is actually an admixture of the Chaldaic and ancient Persian, as we shall see, and prevailed in the countries bordering on the Aramæan dialect, probably also in a great part of Assyria.

The Zend was the ancient dialect of the northern part of Media, and if it be compared with other unpolished tongues, as well ancient as modern, the same expression of nature will be every where discovered; for the Zend consists almost of merely strong, acute, highly and variously accented emphatic words, whose rhythm is as harmonious as the whole enunciation is powerful. Most of the words have, therefore, something harsh and full-toned, but at the same time many high-sounded and open vowels. Sometimes the interchange of vowels and consonants relieves the enuncia