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similar geological character, and which should differ as little as possible in elevation above the level of the sea.

If however some deduction be made for the superior density which it has been remarked exists at Portsoy, the compression 3 deduced from that station and Unst, may perhaps be considered as not far distant from the truth, both being situated on rocks of a similar nature; Unst consisting chiefly of serpentine, and Portsoy, of serpentine, slate, and granite; and as the ellipticity given by the experiments at Unst and Arbury Hill, is nearly the same as that resulting from Unst and Portsoy, it would be no improbable conjecture that the sudden increase of gravitation observed at Arbury Hill, may be occasioned by a rock of primitive formation, approaching the surface of the earth in the vicinity of that station.

These facts appear sufficient to explain the anomalies which have been remarked in the Trigonometrical Survey of Great Britain. For if the disturbing force in the neighbourhood of Arbury Hill were supposed to be situated to the north of that station, the plumb-line would be attracted northward, the observed latitude would be less than the true, and the length of the degree deduced from the arc between Dunnose and Arbury would be in excess, and that derived from the arc between Clifton and Arbury in defect. This last error will be augmented, if we suppose the attraction of the matter near Arbury Hill to be felt at Clifton, and the plumb line at that station to be drawn towards the south.'

If this explanation had been given earlier by the Royal Society, they would then have seen the impolicy of admitting into their Transactions the memoir of a foreigner, written with no other intention than that of endeavouring to prove that an error must have beeen committed at the station in question, because it gave an anomalous result. It may be said, perhaps, that such explanation could not be given before other operations were performed to establish the accuracy of Colonel Mudge's observations; this, however, we deny : we made the inference at the time in question, (see M. R. vol. lxxiii. p. 391.); and we do not admit that the least additional confidence is due to the former observations, because they agree with those that are now made by Captain Kater. The idea of confirming results obtained with the great zenithsector by skilful and practised observers, by means of an instrument of a foot in diameter (p. 403.), appears to us as absurd as the conclusion of Don Joseph Rodriguez himself; viz. that there must be an error in the astronomical observations, because the geodetic part was correct. Indeed, in another page, the author acknowledges that an error of 5" could scarcely be supposed possible with such an instrument as the zenith-sector, in the hands of Colonel Mudge, and the less so from its appearing that the latitude of Blenheim, deduced trigono

trigonometrically from that of Arbury-Hill, differed only a fraction of a second from the latitude obtained by observations made with Ramsden's quadrant at the Blenheim observatory.' The reduction here intimated is, we suppose, that which was made by Dr. Gregory at the time, as we are not aware of its having been proposed by any person before, although it might have been done with the greatest ease; if it had, however, the paper of Don Joseph Rodriguez could not have been admitted into the Transactions of the Royal Society.

A singular circumstance is related by Captain Kater with respect to his clock, viz. that it was found to accelerate for some days after its first erection at each station; its rate then becoming uniform. This the author attributes to the action of the sea-air on the external surface of the oil, which he observes would, of course, account for the first retardation and gradual acceleration; and hence again it is inferred that no reliance whatever can be placed on results obtained by means of pendulums attached to clocks. We do not feel quite disposed to admit this sweeping conclusion, particularly as we do not perceive that any thing of this kind was noticed in the Ordnance-clock, which, at least on the second day, "seemed to have attained its full rate." (See Dr. Gregory's paper before mentioned.) There must also, we

suspect, be some mistake in page 389. relative to the determination of the latitude of M. Biot's station by Col. Mudge; because it appears, from the article last cited, that Col. Mudge was able to proceed only as far as Edinburgh, in consequence of ill health. If this mistake be a mere inadvertency, it is of little consequence, and not worth remark: but, if the statement be intentional, and made only to keep out of sight the name of a most indefatigable and accurate observer, (Captain Colby,) it betrays a feeling which we are always sorry to see blended with matters of science. The same remark applies to the silence observed with respect to Dr. Gregory's experiments, and the results deduced from them. Can we suppose that such omissions arise from an idea that nothing is deserving of notice which has not emanated from some one of the members of the Royal Society? Should this be the prevailing opinion in a certain quarter, we believe that it is very far from being general.

We shall proceed in a future Number with the other classes of papers contained in this ample volume.

[To be continued.]

ART.

ART. VI. Researches concerning the Laws, Theology, Learning, Commerce, &c. of Ancient and Modern India. By Q. Craufurd, Esq. 8vo. 2 Vols. pp. 360. in each. Boards. Cadell and Davies.

THE

HE author of these volumes published many years ago his Sketches of the Hindoos, (see M. R. vol. v. N. S. p. 241. and vol. viii. p. 250.) and has now presented us with a wholly new work, founded less on observation but more on erudition: both, however, contain agreeable facts, various inquiries, and recondite instruction. Mr. Craufurd was one of those English gentlemen who were travelling in France at the recommencement of hostilities in 1803, and who were seized by command of Bonaparte as prisoners of war: an inhospitable severity, which was defended as an act of reprisal for similar conduct of the British government at sea, many French ships having been captured without a previous declaration of war, and the crews detained in England as prisoners. This irregular method of beginning hostilities has often been adopted by the British crown, although contrary to the law of nations; and, because all that is captured previously to a declaration of war escheats to the king as a droit of admiralty, it gives colour to the allegation that for the sake of this personal profit he is contented to forfeit the honour of a delicate justice. Parliament should put an end to this corrupt privilege on some demise of the crown; and then, if circumstances require this promptitude of predatory warfare, it can neither be founded on this motive nor tarnished by its operation.

Mr. Craufurd's learned treatise is divided into fourteen chapters, of which seven are contained in each volume: an appendix of illustrative documents, and a good index, completing the work. The first chapter discusses the geography of Antient India. Some positions of Langlès, of Rennell, and of Maurice, are examined; and a panegyric is pronounced on Dr. Wilkins and on Sir William Jones. The works of Fra Paolino do not appear to be familiar to the author; M. Dubois (see our vol. lxxxvi. p. 9.) added but little to the Systema Bramanicum. In our judgment, the Bramanic institutions are of Persian origin, have descended the Indus, and from Guzurat have overspread the peninsula. Many resemblances may be traced between the legislation of Leviticus and the Institutes of Menu; and, in the rabbinical writers of the Jews, a still closer resemblance of ritual and observance may be detected between the ecclesiastical schools of the two sects. The fundamental schism about right hand and left is mentioned by Jonah as prevalent at Nineveh; and,

at

at the time of the Magophonia, undertaken by Darius the son of Hystaspes the Mede, a vast flight or migration of the idolatrous priesthood of the Persians took place towards the south-east. At this period, probably, the fugitive Mages came with their Babylonian learning into Hindustan, and superinduced on a comparatively ignorant people the system of discipline now taught at Benares, and the Sanscrit language. The second chapter treats of the Institutes of Menu. As in the book of Genesis the world is stated to have originated in water, so in the book of Menu the Nara, or Spirit of God, is represented as moving on the waters, and thus commencing creation. In the schools of Babylon, Thales learnt the theory that the universe originates in water: the Oriental philosophers being what we should now call Neptunists. Mr. Craufurd feels inclined to refer to a more antient period than the reign of Darius Hystaspes the conversion and civilization of Hindustan; and one of the arguments urged by him is the early use of money among the Hindus: but Darius is known to have well understood the art of coining, and to have minted into drachmas the golden statue of the Babylonian god Bel, or Baal. Some commentators of Daniel suspect that the Jews Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were his masters of the mint. Jacob payed a hundred lambs (Genesis, xxxiii. 19.) for a field: the earliest coins were stamped with figures of cattle: pecunia seems to be derived from pecus: Servius Tullius, says Pliny, "ovium boumque effigie primus as signavit:" allusion is made to the oldest Greek money by the name of oxen (Iliad ii. 449.); and Herodotus ascribes its fabrication to the Croesus of the Lydians: - so that every symptom tends to refer the commencement of coinage to a period not much preceding Cyrus. Mr. Craufurd can trace his Hindu money no farther back than to the time at which the Institutes of Menu were written, where mention occurs of certain coins: but we see no reason for supposing these Institutes to be prior to the reign of Darius. The doctrine of patriarchal longevity, and of the progressive diminution of the length of human life, is taught in the Institutes of Menu (c. i. 83.). Neither Moses nor any Jewish writer before the captivity having alluded to the eleven opening chapters of Genesis, they are supposed first to have been prefixed at Babylon to the Memoir of the House of Joseph; and, as this same doctrine of patriarchal longevity occurs there also, it seems to have been, like the origin of the world from water, a tenet of Babylonian philosophy. A period of seven days is repeatedly mentioned in the Institutes of Menu, for instance (c. viii. § 108.); and, as the Ægyptians did not know the

week

week of seven days in Joseph's time, nor do the Babylonians appear to have known it before Cyrus, this is strongly symptomatic of a document at least as late as the time of Darius. The doctrine of a future state is familiar in the Institutes of Menu; the earliest trace of it in Scripture occurs in the writings of Ezekiel. A complete system of measures, weights, and coins is given in the Institutes; three barleycorns make one ractica, &c. and this is not symptomatic of early society. Ten years' prescription confers a right to a chattel, and this again implies established policy. We find regulations for those who insure risks at sea (c. viii. § 157.); mention is made of spirituous liquors (§ 159.); penalties are inflicted on those who leave lands uncultivated (§ 243.), which imply a land-tax of one sixth; wheel-carriages are mentioned (§ 291.); ferries for wheel-carriages are noticed (§ 404.); and students of theology are exempted from toll. We are persuaded that Sir William Jones much antedates this book in assigning for the æra of its composition 880 years before Christ. The conspiracy which placed Darius on the Persian throne was headed by seven persons (Herodotus, Thalia, 71.), probably from an ominous regard to sacred numbers; and to these seven persons was afterward assigned the administration of government. Now to this sevenfold division of the supreme authority, which was peculiar to the Persian empire, and which began in the age of Darius, there is a marked allusion in the Institutes of Menu (c. ix. § 294.); and this decisive circumstance strongly tends to prove both the Persian origin of the legislation, and that it was posterior to Darius. The various allusions to fire-worship unite to favour a like inference. Darius, though placed on Dr. Priestley's Chronological Chart only 500 years before Christ, is himself there placed too soon in consequence of a reliance on the very erroneous chronology frequently appended (for instance, in the Cambridge edition of 1775) to the received version of the Scriptures: so that Sir William Jones antedates by nearly 400 years the Institutes of Menu; and, if this point be conceded, Mr. Craufurd must give up all Hindu claims to coinage prior to the reign of Darius.

Chapter III. discusses the Hindu account of the Deluge. The story of Satyaurata is adduced: but this relation is now known to be of equivocal antiquity. Still, if the converters of Hindustan were originally expelled from Persia, they may have adopted from Jewish sacred books the basis of their narration.

In the fourth chapter, Mr. C. treats of the affinity between the mythology of the Hindus and that of the Greeks REV. APRIL, 1820.

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