Henry St, G. Tucker, prize in Hindustani, and with great credit in others departments. George Frederick Edmonstone, prize in Persian and in Arabic, and highly distinguished. George Anstruther Harris, prize in Sanscrit, prize in Devanagari writing, and with great credit. Gilbert Malcolm, prize in history, and highly distinguished. Thomas D.Lushington, prize in classics. Highly Distinguished: Geo. Udny Yule, M. C. Ommanney, C. Pelly, G. G. Mackintosh. Great Credit: David R. Limond, Chas. Raikes, Thomas Conway. It was then announced to the stu dents that the certificates of the College Council were granted, not only with reference to industry and proficiency, but also to conduct; and that this latter consideration had always a decided effect in determining the order of rank. It was also announced, "that such rank would only take effect in the event of the Students proceeding to India within three months after they were so ranked; and that, "Should any Student delay so to proceed, he should only take rank among the Students classed at the last examination previous to his departure for India, whether that examination should be held by the College Council or the London Board of Examiners, and should be placed at the end of the class in which rank was originally assigned to him." Notice was then given, that the next Term would commence on Tuesday the 27th of July, and that the Students were required to return to the College within the first four days of it, unless a statutable reason could be assigned for the delay; otherwise, the Term must be forfeited. The Chairman (Wm. Astell, Esq.) then addressed the Students, expressing his gratification at the favourable result of the Examination; and the business of the day concluded. Wednesday the 15th, and Wednesday the 22d July, are the days appointed for receiving Petitions at the India House, from Candidates for admission into the College, for the Term which will commence on the 27th July 1830. + PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS. CIVIL OFFICES IN THE THREE PRESIDENCIES. Abstract of the Total Number of Covenanted Assistants and Military and Medical Officers employed in the different Offices in India, on the Civil Department, distinguishing the branches, and the total expense of the same, for the years 1817 and 1827; also exhibiting the increase or decrease in the same period. From very comprehensive "Returns of all civil offices, and the establishments connected therewith, under each of the presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, shewing the number of persons and the expense attaching to each establishment on 1st May 1817 and 1st May 1827." Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 25th February 1830. Abstract of the Total Number of Europeans and Natives employed in the different Offices in the Civil Departments in India, distinguishing the branches, and the total expense of the same, for the years 1817 and 1827; also exhibiting the increase or decrease in the same period. REVENUE SYSTEMS OF INDIA. Ir no other question was in issue before the Legislature, respecting the future management of our Eastern possessions, than the mode in which the land revenue should be collected, that question alone would be sufficient to absorb the undivided attention of a very intelligent special committee, in order that all its bearings and relations, all its peculiar features and practical opérations, might be minutely considered and discussed. Whether this question will form a prominent or a subordinate subject of consideration amongst the topics connected with the renewal of the Company's privileges, or whether it will be reserved for special discussion when the charter-question is decided, cannot, of course, be at present known. It would undoubtedly be the most convenient mode of dealing with the whole matter of East-India affairs, to reserve such parts as admit of separation, and are not urgent, for special and exclusive inquiry. The revenue system of India is one of the parts which may be segregated. In the mean time, although the evidence on this question has already accumulated to a prodigious bulk, there is a real, an effectual demand for more. Time, reflection, experience, the enlargement of our knowledge in respect to Eastern history and Hindu institutions, are continually correcting past errors, admitting new lights, and ascertaining fixed points in the discussion, which it is of infinite importance should not be withheld from the world. One of the most able and (which is a prime virtue in such a case) one of the most temperate works on this question is a pamphlet* written by a civil servant of the Company (we believe we do not err in attributing it to Mr. W. C. Bruce of Bombay), on the stationary condition of the Hindus, and on the two most approved revenue systems of British India. We have recently analysed Colonel Briggs' work,t and we propose now to lay before our readers an epitome of Mr. Bruce's pamphlet. As we are not partizans, but rather claim the rare merit of being perfectly free from bias on this subject, we abstain from comment on this gentleman's remarks. The cause of the stationary condition of India forms the subject of the first of his essays, which he commences by an examination of the two theories which ascribe this stationary condition, the one to moral and physical causes- that is, to the institution of castes and the influence of climate -the other to misgovernment. With respect to the former theory, our author conceives that it is now admitted to be inadequate to the solution of the problem; the latter, the most popular amongst a certain class, he examines at some length. The dark catalogue of atrocities depicted in Mr. Rickards' "India," he assumes to be exaggerated, otherwise " in such a long course of ages, every vestige of wealth must have been swept away, and the people reduced to 事 An Inquiry into the Causes of the long-continued Stationary Condition of India and its Inhabitants; with a brief Examination of the leading Principles of Two of the most approved Revenue Systems of British India. By a Civil Servant of the Hon. East-India Company. London, 1830. 8vo. Parbury, Allen, and Co. t See p. 38. Asiat.Jour. N.S.VOL. 2. No. 8. 2 L the lowest stage of savage barbarism." Another objection he offers to this theory is, that the history of Europe displays a similar picture; and why should the result have been different in the two cases? It is answered that the European despotism was less rigorous and ferocious than that of Asia; that it was of shorter duration, and that the spirit of liberty was never extinct in the people of the West. The effect of this argument our author disputes, and he appeals to facts and to the sentiments of able writers in its refutation. The strongest and best evidence of the fallacy of the theory, which ascribes the stationary condition of India to misgovernment, he deduces from its actual condition: "a candid and impartial review of the state of their arts and literature, their political institutions, their language (the Sanscrit), and the number of large, populous, and wealthy cities to be found in India, must surely establish their claim to the possession of a very considerable share of refinement." Whence comes it they should have advanced, in 2,000 years, no further? All the ancient systems of Hindu government are admitted to have been as despotic as that to which the natives were subjected by the Musulmans. "At periods long antecedent to the Mahomedan invasion," says Col. Wilks, "wars, revolutions, and conquests seem to follow each other in a succession more strangely complex, rapid, and destructive, as the events more deeply recede into the gloom of antiquity." The theory, then, by proving too much, proves nothing. Mr. Bruce's theory deduces the chief efficient cause of the stationary condition of India from "the mode, or rather the degree, in which the wants of the state would seem to have always been supplied;" that is, to the burthensome amount of the public imposts, in comparison with the lightness of the assessments in Europe in early times. He makes out the comparative exorbitance of taxation by a brief but clear investigation of the amount of revenue derived from the subject in Europe and India respectively. As a grinding system of taxation must operate against the attainment of that degree of civilization which the Hindus did reach in early ages, he argues that there must have been-and that there is something like historical evidence of the fact-a period when the rate of assessment in India was much lower than in recent times. He illustrates his theory by reference to the examples of Holland and Spain, which declined in consequence of excessive taxation. This theory, he acknowledges, assigns the least remediable cause of the evil; he says: Under such a system of government, it is much to be feared that the charges must always be such as to admit of no very material reduction in the burthens of the people; and while such a state of things lasts, great and manifold as are the advantages they enjoy under our rule, in comparison of that of their native princes,-in security from without, in order and tranquillity and an impartial administration of justice within,all the philanthropic measures too which have been thought of, or devised, for ameliorating their condition (for no unprejudiced person can peruse the despatches of the Honourable the Court of Directors to their Indian Governments, without a thorough conviction of their earnest and anxious solicitude to promote the welfare of their Indian subjects),—all must be comparatively nugatory, as this is an evil of such |