Genesis, does not pretend (as has been generally assumed) to be a cosmogony, or an account of the original creation of the Material Universe. The only cosmogony which it contains, in that sense at least, is confined to the sublime declaration in the first verse, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The Inspired Record, then stepping over an interval of indefinite ages, with which we have no direct concern, proceeds at once to narrate the events preparatory to the introduction of man on the scene, employing phraseology strictly faithful to the appearances which would have met the eye of man, could he have been a spectator on the earth of what passed during those six days.'

According to this view of the subject, the six days are six ordinary natural days, measured, like any other natural days, by the revolution of the earth on its axis. The grand objection to this literal interpretation of the 'days' was the supposed geological discovery of multitudes of pre-Adamite fossils in the Upper or Tertiary Strata, which are precisely the same as species now in existence.' At length, however, the late M. D'Orbigny, after an elaborate examination of prodigious numbers of fossils, 'has demonstrated that there have been at least twenty-nine distinct periods of animal and vegetable existence, that is, twenty-nine creations separated one from another by catastrophes, which have swept away the species existing at the time, with a very few solitary exceptions, never exceeding one and a half per cent. of the whole number discovered, which have either survived the catastrophe, or have been erroneously designated. But not a single species of the preceding period survived the last of these catastrophes; and this closed the Tertiary and ushered in the Human Period. In other words, between the termination of the last or Tertiary Period and the commencement of the Human or Recent Period, there is a complete break. Although five in every seven genera are the same in the recent as in the previous periodthere is not a single species common to the two periods. Thus the difficulty wholly evanishes'.

What an additional proof is this of the assertion already made, that Geology is still but in its infancy; and that many of its vaunted conclusions are no more than unverified hypotheses? We confess we never liked the Period-day theory and could never see our way to an intelligent adhesion to it. Before adopting it as a final and satisfactory solution of the difficulty, we preferred to pause and wait for further light. That light has now happily dawned, or rather shone upon us, through the decisive demonstrations of M. D'Orbigny; and we are

now enabled to plead the latest and most accurate results of Scientific investigation in favour of the six days, as six natural days, of the creative and formative work of which, the seventh, or sabbath is the rightly fitting periodical commemora⚫tion.

In connection with this subject our author has been led to notice and expose some of the 'hazardous assertions' so groundlessly made by two of the writers in the new, strangely and unworthily celebrated volume of Oxford Essays and Reviews ;' as well as their unfairness or disingenuousness, if not down-right dishonesty towards himself. By actual quotations he has shewn that the late Professor Baden Powell, in his unhappy zeal against the authority of Divine Revelation, has made him say the very reverse of what he did say;-and that Mr. Goodwin also has inexcusably mistaken and misrepresented some of his most clearly enunciated views. Of the volume, containing these mistakes and mis-statements with a thousand others still more pernicious, the less said the better; in itself it is not assuredly any thing very formidable. Quite the contrary. It is in sober and sad reality, one of the poorest, dreariest, driest, dullest, most incoherent and inconsequential products of the mint of modern infidelity. From beginning to end we have not been able to detect in it a single sentiment, statement, train of argument, inference, conjecture, or even gratuitous averment that has the remotest title or pretention to originality. It is neither more nor less than an unskilfully hashed-up and imperfectly re-heated medley of the stale and oft-refuted sophisms and perversions of the English Deists, French Encyclopedists, and German Neologians;

We are glad to find the author, in a valuable 'Postscript' added to this edition, dealing out some heavy and even smashing blows at the late Baron Bunsen and other Egyptologers of his rationalizing school;-men, who, with fatuous inconsistency, evermore evince the most senseless scepticism relative to the credit and authority of the Mosaic History-beyond all measure the most multifariously authenticated record of all Antiquity-while they evince an equally senseless credulity relative to some obscure, mutilated, contradictory fragments of the heathen Manetho, and some slender hieroglyphic skeletons of names 'half-guessed at and half decyphered by a doubtful means of interpretation.'

There are other subjects on which we would fain make some remarks more especially the latest spawn of a thinly disguised Infidelity, Darwin's Origin of Species, with its 'struggle for existence' hypothesis and its 'Natural Selection' surmise, on which our author has favoured us with some very judicious

comments. But our space is fairly exhausted and we must pause. If any further evidence were wanted to prove the divinity of the Mosaic account of the creation, it might be found in the contrast which it presents to all the cosmogonies of heathen nations, unfavoured by the light of Inspiration. Let any intelligent reader open the Institutes of Manu or the Vishnu Puran, and compare, rather contrast the cosmogonies so minutely and elaborately wrought out there in defiance of science and common sense, with the simple, compendious and sublime narrative of Moses, and we venture to affirm that, after a careful and candid perusal, he will be more than ever disposed, with reference to the latter, to exclaim, 'Verily the finger of God is here.'

With our author we now part, under a confirmed persuasion that in his work on 'Scripture and Science not at variance' he has rendered good service to the cause of Biblical truth. To all Christian heads of families, to all Christian managers and teachers of schools, we, therefore, earnestly recommend his most interesting and precious volume. Some of the objections therein exposed they may never hear of as actually urged; and others may be regarded as too contemptible to merit a serious hearing. But let it be remembered that the volume of Archdeacon Pratt is purposely of the nature of a miscellany-representing the thoughts, the whimsies, the speculative conjectures, and the crude unverified hypotheses of different and even antagonistic schools of infidelity. Such a volume, therefore, ought to be kept in every private and public Library, as an armoury of weapons wherewith to repel the onslaught of old objections, and a magazine of examples illustrative of the most successful modes of resisting the aggression of new ones.

THE

CALCUTTA REVIEW.

JUNE 1861.

ART. 1.-1. Selections from the Records of Government Papers

relating to the Reforms of the Police of India, 1861.

2. Act No. 5, of 1861. Passed by the Legislative Council of India.

3. Report upon British Burmak. By R. Temple, Esq., and Lieut.-Col. H. Bruce, 1860.

THAT the question of Police Reform has of late engaged so largely the attention and occupied to such an extent the thoughts of our legislators, is not to be wondered at, when we consider the great importance of the subject, and the vast influence that a right solution of the question must exercise, not only upon the present, but also on the future condition of our Indian Empire. One of the great results of the storm which recently swept over India, and of the transfer of the reins of Government from the Company' to the Crown, has been the recognition, to a certain extent, of the power of public opinion, and the gradually strengthening belief, that the voice of the people has a right to be heard, and that those who pay taxes should have a share, however small, in giving laws to the empire. With what contempt such an idea would have been received only a few years back, by the Civilian governing class in India, we need not pause to point out. Certain it is, that the men, who in former days were contemptuously looked down upon as 'interlopers,' and who were only tolerated in the company's territories as long as they were not disagreeably troublesome, are now

B

beginning to feel their strength and to make themselves heard, And in proportion as their right to do so is conceded, and their position is recognised, will India become attractive to European Settlers, and will draw to her ample bosom a band of colonists, who, in their efforts to enrich themselves, will confer a tenfold benefit upon the land of their adoption. Already from the homes of civilization, and the great marts of commerce in the far West, the restless Anglo-Saxon is looking out across the Eastern seas to the plain of Hindostan, for a field wherein to expend his inexhaustible energy and his unemployed capital. But if we are willing that he should not look in vain, if we desire to allure to our shores men with wealth to invest and enterprise to direct its investment, as well as some of their poorer, though equally hard-working brethren, we must take care that the country to which we invite them, is one where their lives will be safe from attack, and their property from plunder; where, away from the centres of civilization, on the slopes of the distant hills, or on the plains and in the jungles of the rural districts, to which doubtless many would direct their steps, they can live secure from the alarm of robbers and the murmurs of rebellion, to give their undivided attention to the development of the resources, and improvement of the cultivation of their estates. Such a state of tranquillity can only be secured by good laws, given by a wise Government, and enforced and upheld by a well organized and trustworthy machinery. That a good police forms a most important part of such a machinery no one will deny, and thus we arrive again at the point from which we started, that the subject of Police Reform is of the highest importance to the future of this magnificent empire. We propose in the following pages to give a very brief history of the steps which have led to the present prominence of this question before Government, of the progress that has been made and is making, and the results that have already been achieved.

The reform of our police administration had long been before successive Governments of India. All united in condemning the existing systems, but for a long period no serious effort appears to have been made to improve them. At last however Sir Charles Napier, after his conquest of Scinde, boldly set aside the forbodings of those, who, clinging to ancient traditions, prophesied the failure of any deviation from the time-honoured grooves of past ages and applying to the newly acquired province the principles of police he had learned and tested in England, he gave to Scinde the first good police we ever had in India. The success which has attended its working, and