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"A young medical man, Dr. Taylor, moderately well acquainted with Sanscrit, is now employed, under my direction, in translating one of the common treatises on logic. They use syllogism, as we know, among other sources, from the 'Lettres Edifiantes,' which you mention. If their logic should be exactly the same with the Peripatetic, there will be reason to believe that they have taken it from the Mahometans, who have the whole Aristotelian philosophy. But if there should be material differences, which, from what I have seen, I conjecture will prove to be the case, the high antiquity of Sanscrit science, though not its precise periods, may be as safely inferred from their possessing a peculiar system of artificial logic, as if the disputed questions respecting their astronomy were finally decided. On these questions I am not worthy to venture an opinion. The Edinburgh Reviewer, who attacks Bentley *, is, I believe, Mr. Alexander Hamilton, now Professor at Hertford Collegea Sanscrit scholar of the highest eminence, whose catalogue of the Sanscrit MSS. in the great French library, has, I observe, been published at Paris. Mr. Erskine, of this place, a man of science, as well as an Indian scholar, inclines to the opinion of Bentley.

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"I read with very great pleasure last year the Revolutions of the Empire of Charlemagne.' It is

one of those clear and instructive abridgments which are so uncommon in English literature. Perhaps the best way of showing my opinion of it is to mention one or two specks, which might be easily removed in the succeeding editions, which must be numerous. Why Alphonsus and Rudolfus, instead of Alphonso and Rudolf? This is one of the remains of that disgraceful ignorance of continental languages among our writers

* John Bentley, Esq.-see his Essay, Asiatic Researches, vol. vi.

in the last century, who know foreigners only by their Latinised names. In a book of Mr. Dallaway's, the other day I was puzzled by finding some mention of one Abbot Suggerius; and it was some time before I could recognise my old friend, the Abbé Suger. Unpropertied,' 'pretendant,' ' coalised,' &c., are words of more than doubtful Anglicism. In the account of the French Revolution, the Royal Session and the oath at the ‘Jeu de Paume,' are placed after the union of the three orders. They happened before it, and you will find, on reconsidering the facts, that this insertion of them is not trivial. The weight allowed to Barruel is what I should most wish you to reconsider. Do your authorities support the assertion? Condorcet only proves that there was a co-operation-not that there was a conspiracy; and that bold writers will seek to shelter themselves from the power which they attack. Mallet du Pan only proves a conspiracy of revolutionists, but not a conspiracy of writers, fifty years before. On the contrary, he has a particular essay on the subject, evidently directed against Barruel. He is very justly indignant at the attack on Montesquieu, and with equal reason laughs at the idea of Voltaire being a republican. The Doutes' of the Abbé Mably seemed to me a just attack on the politics of the economists (despotisme legale), and a weak attack on their economical system. But how does it prove any conspiracy? I have not yet read the other book of Mably, to which you refer. Have you not seen the book on the Templars, by Grouvelle? You know that Bossuet and Arnauld believed their innocencesome authority.

"I know not how soon I may be permitted to bend my steps westward. Among the pleasures of my native land, I consider the friendship and society of worthy and rational men as the first. You may therefore judge how

gladly I shall renew my intercourse with you; but, in the meantime, I hope you will not drop the correspondence thus begun.

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My family enjoy tolerable health. Lady M. desires me to offer her best remembrances to you, Mrs. Butler and family, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Hargrave, when you see them. I beg to be included in these remembrances, and I ever am,

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CHAPTER IX.

TOUR IN THE DECKAN-POONAH-PUnderpoor-BEEJA POOR-CALBERGA— GOLCONDA HYDERABAD-COurt of the nIZAM-DEATH OF MEER ALLUM -BEEDER-WYRAAG-TENT ROBBED-PATUS-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

THE reader will not, perhaps, be sorry to quit, for a short period, the desk and the study, to accompany our traveller on one of those excursions on the neighbouring continent, which commonly occupied the cold seasons. Others of these having been but slightly touched upon, it may not be improper to devote the present chapter to a pretty copious selection from a diary of a journey, which he made towards the conclusion of the year 1808 into the Deckan. His design, on this occasion, was to visit his friend, Captain Sydenham, at Hyderabad, and, in going or returning, to examine the remains of the capitals of the old kingdoms of the Deckan. He accordingly proceeded from Poonah to Beejapoor, the capital of the Adil-Shahi dynasty, and thence went on to Calberga, the old capital of the Bahminiah kings. He visited Golconda, the seat of the Kutub-Shahi princes, and on his return passed through Beeder, the second capital of the Bahminiahs. This carried him considerably out of the beaten track, by a route then, at least, little frequented.

In this journey, his attention was chiefly turned to the structure of Indian society, the quality of the population, and of the castes into which it was divided; the hereditary and other officers of districts and villages; the

degree of protection afforded by the Government, and the tenure of landed property. The speculations of Colonel Wilks had directed his attention to these important topics, and he was desirous of discovering how far the observations made in the south of India were applicable to the present state of the Deckan. This led him into minute inquiries at every village where he rested, concerning the number of persons of each caste; their religion or sect; the number and rights of village officers; the rent of land, as well as the supposed right in the soil. "In this excursion he thought," as he afterwards expressed himself, "that he had gained more of the sort of Indian knowledge of which he was in pursuit, than he could have done in five years' reading; and the result was a firm conviction, that the first blessing to be wished to the inhabitants of India was, that a civilised conqueror might rescue them from their native oppressors, and that they would find better masters in the worst Europeans, than in the best of their own countrymen." Most of these minute inquiries, new and valuable as they were at the time, it has been judged proper to retrench, many of them having been superseded by later and more correct investigations, though the general conclusions have been, as far as possible, preserved.

"November 8th.-Left Bombay at half-past ten in the evening. About eleven fell asleep-once or twice awakened, notwithstanding my flannels, by smartness of the cold. A little before five I am informed that we are in the harbour of Panwell. In about an hour, Colonel Close's palankeen came to the shore. I was carried into village, and after a few compliments from Mulna Hussein*,

The agent of Colonel Close, at Panwell. He was also a cousin of Fyzullah (Fazl-ed-din), Sir James's servant.

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