sea, and, had we clambered over the stone circumference of the earth, might have reached Mount Meru, and perhaps seen Indra himself.

But the beauty of Benares consists not in its separate buildings, but in their picturesque grouping in the narrow streets and bazaars. The city is like Cairo ; in some respects more, in others less striking. There are, indeed, fewer bits of pretty Eastern architecture scattered about the streets; but, on the other hand, an idolatrous religion admits of more variety than puritanical Islam. Thus, red elephants, and other animals in gaudy colours, with gods and goddesses, flowers, and palm branches, are painted on the houses, which are also adorned by carved verandahs, galleries, oriel windows, and projecting eaves. The temples, too, being small, group better with the houses, and give more real variety to the streets, than the great mosques which overtop and overpower the Cairo buildings. The bazaars are full of traffic and bustle, and thronged by a teeming population of bulls and men, of whom the latter, as we made our way through them, saluted us with loud cries of Shiv! Shiv!

We became acquainted during our stay with some of the native gentlemen of Benares. There is one of considerable wealth, who received us in a handsome house fitted up in European fashion, and in very fair taste, which is not a common characteristic of the Anglicised houses of Hindus; for they generally delight in tawdry coloured prints, cut-glass chandeliers, fancy articles of Brummagem manufacture, and papier-maché furniture, much bedaubed with gilding and flaming colours. But here the decorations of the house were more sober and solid. Our host expressed a great love for the English, and a great desire to visit England. From this, however, being a Brahman, he is deterred by the fear of losing caste, or at least of a report that he had done so reaching India; "the mere thought of which," he said, "would make him nervous and unhappy during the whole journey."

a conscientious observance of his creed, till he revealed his real motive for such scrupulosity. "The truth is, that I have a great many children and grandchildren to marry, and, if people even supposed that I had lost caste, I should not marry them advantageously." He had with him a modest gentlemanly son who did credit to the Government College, where he had been educated, and contrasted advantageously with another young man, the orphan son of a dispossessed Rája, whose family, exiled from their ancestral possessions, are living on their pensions at Benares. The youth's manners were most unprincely. Pointing to one of our party, he asked, in a loud voice, Wuh kaun hai? (Who is that?) which inquiry was followed up by a string of questions about our private concerns and business at Benares, varied by a sketch of his own probable income. As he was leading a life of absolute idleness, an English friend, who took an interest in him, had advised him to apply to Government for a commission in the army, or some useful employment. "What!" he exclaimed, "do you suppose that I mean to do work?" a remark which must modify the statement that his manners were unprincely, for it is to be feared that, according to Hindu notions, such indolence is essential to princedom. He had been to no school or college, and, therefore, those who complain of learning as apt to make the Hindu forward and conceited (which indeed is often its effect on Englishmen also, unless it is ennobled and hallowed by other influences), may reflect that the want of learning is also not without its unfavourable effects.

And now it is time to ask what are we English doing for the good of these myriads-whether they still cry Shiv! Shiv! or whether, from the influence of education, they have given up Shiv, without finding any better helper, whom God's Providence has brought under the rule of a nation which worships Christ? How are we justifying our right to the possession of India, by working for the benefit of those who, when we came to

less degradation? First, something, it may be hoped, is effected by the vigorous maintenance of law and order. We have taught the professors of the two great rival religions of India, that theological discussions are not to be carried on by flinging beef down the wells attached to Hindu temples, or pork into the Mussulmans' mosques. We have shown them that tumult and disorder will not succeed in lowering the price of grain. We set them an example of the undaunted performance of duty, when in the time of greatest danger, in 1857, no magistrate would consent to abandon his post, and a missionary volunteered to perform the functions of the vacant chaplaincy, and to remain in Benares for the purpose of administering comfort, help, and divine counsel to the English soldiers and residents. At the time when the sepoy huts were blazing on the maidan, and the green flag floating in the city, and the 37th Native Infantry refused to pile their arms, we showed them that active courage was another essential element in national greatness, by restoring the British authority in three hours, and driving from the station the remnant of the mutineers, in terror-stricken flight. Whatever may be the faults of our courts of justice, arising from ignorance of the native character, and our confidence in dishonest subordinates, it is at least something that the Hindus feel a European civil officer to be absolutely incorruptible. Again, native hospitals and dispensaries prove that our Government does not neglect the bodily sufferings of its subjects, and, above all, our care for them is shown by education and missionary work, though in the latter the Government properly refuses to take part.

There are two great colleges in Benares, the one administered by Government, the other by the Church Missionary Society. The first is a somewhat pretentious Gothic building, with a dumpy tower in the middle. The internal arrangements are not so good as they

might be. The whole length of the building is occupied by one large handsome schoolroom, with class-rooms opening out of it on either side, the partitions being only carried up half-way, so that the noise of the great school distracts the class-rooms, and of the class-rooms the great school. We found the first class deep in Macbeth. Their English was not very fluent, but they seemed to understand the language well, for they explained to us very readily that puzzling passage:

"If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well

It were done quickly: if the assassination Could trammel upon the consequence, and catch,

With his surcease, success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come."

A very interesting part of the institution was the Sanscrit department, where aged Pandits with white beards were teaching just as they did before the English ráj was thought of; the pupils all seated on the ground, working mathematics on sanded boards, or reading poetry and philosophy on long loose strips held together by two pieces of wood. Some sway their bodies backwards and forwards as they work, and repeat the poetry in a monotonous singsong. Into this branch of the college reform has to be introduced warily: the stricter Pandits regard even the knowledge of English as profane. Yet some consent to learn it. One of them, a teacher of mathematics, is translating into English for the Bibliotheca Indica a Sanscrit work on astronomy, and showed us the proof-sheets. "What is

its date?" asked one of our party. The English professor who was with us interposed, and told us in a low voice that this was an awkward question to put to him, for the Pandits taught that the treatise had been revealed by the Sun himself, and was anterior to all time.

The other college is called Jay Narain's. Its founder was a wealthy native, unbaptized, but inclining to

servant of the infamous Surajah Dowlah. When about forty years old his belief in Hinduism was shaken, and he gave 500 rupees to the erection of a new church in Calcutta. After recovering from a serious illness he resolved, as a token of thankfulness, to found a school at Benares, and, by the advice of Archdeacon (afterwards Bishop) Corrie, made it over to the diocesan committee of the Church Missionary Society as its trustees and governors.1 The building, though of no architectural pretensions, yet, with its separate class-rooms opening into verandahs, is better adapted to its purpose than the Gothic aspirations of the Government college. The first class was decidedly inferior to the Government pupils in English literature, but acquitted themselves well in the plain parts of Scripture and English history. The school, or lower department, is under a native Christian head master, who seemed well suited for his work, and is highly spoken of by the missionaries and by the Government inspector, who examines Jay Narain's periodically. The map drawing and English writing were here remarkably good.

Another educational institution of importance is the school for native girls in the city, superintended by the wife of the senior missionary. She painfully but most laudably gathers them into her fold by paying women to go daily from house to house and bring them. The process is necessary, for while female education is perhaps the greatest want of India, there is no institution of the Feringhis which the Hindus regard with greater suspicion. Yet till some progress is made in it life is poisoned at its very source, and the mother is a mere spring of moral evil to her child. The average attendance at this school is about eighty. These two missionary schools are for all comers of all creeds, and are supported by Jay Narain's endowment, by subscriptions, by small fees from a portion of the pupils, and by a grant in aid from Government-the Bible being

used as a class-book, compulsory on all the pupils; whereas the Government college is supported by larger fees, and by the funds of the state, and the Bible may only be taught to voluntary classes, either before or after the regular school hours. There are other schools for Christian children only, which with the missionaries' bungalows and native Christian cottages form a group of buildings clustering round the mission church. The staff of Church of England missionaries at Benares is large. They divide among themselves the work of education, of vernacular preaching in the bazaars and native villages, of conversation with inquirers, and of the pastoral superintendence of their converts; and to these labours their whole time, and sometimes more than their whole strength, are devoted in the true spirit of willing self-sacrifice. At their head is one of the best Urdu and Hindi scholars in India, an author in both languages. His last work is a lively and fanciful sketch of a dream, in which an old inhabitant of Benares sees India converted to Christianity; hears a sermon by the Bishop of Gházipúr, who is on a visit to his brother of Benares; admires the various institutions which have arisen since the city became Christian the cathedral, the university, the blind asylum, the museum; and compares the evils of the old religion with the fresh life infused into India by the

new.

But, though this is a consummation for which all Christians must watch and pray, it seems at present but a dream. The converts of Benares form a fair congregation, chiefly from the peasantry, but are as a drop to the ocean when compared with the followers of Shiva and of Mohammed. Doubtless there is among these poor native Christians much ignorance and much sin, just as there is in an English country village. Yet it is a great thing that the true rule of life, and the true ground of hope, is placed before them and their children. And there are among them some for whose life and conversation any Chris

less degradation? First, something, it may be hoped, is effected by the vigorous maintenance of law and order. We have taught the professors of the two great rival religions of India, that theological discussions are not to be carried on by flinging beef down the wells attached to Hindu temples, or pork into the Mussulmans' mosques. We have shown them that tumult and disorder will not succeed in lowering the price. of grain. We set them an example of the undaunted performance of duty, when in the time of greatest danger, in 1857, no magistrate would consent to abandon his post, and a missionary volunteered to perform the functions of the vacant chaplaincy, and to remain in Benares for the purpose of administering comfort, help, and divine counsel to the English soldiers and residents. At the

time when the sepoy huts were blazing on the maidan, and the green flag floating in the city, and the 37th Native Infantry refused to pile their arms, we showed them that active courage was another essential element in national greatness, by restoring the British authority in three hours, and driving from the station the remnant of the mutineers, in terror-stricken flight. Whatever may be the faults of our courts of justice, arising from ignorance of the native character, and our confidence in dishonest subordinates, it is at least something that the Hindus feel a European civil officer to be absolutely incorruptible. Again, native hospitals and dispensaries prove that our Government does not neglect the bodily sufferings of its subjects, and, above all, our care for them is shown by education and missionary work, though in the latter the Government properly refuses to take part.

There are two great colleges in Benares, the one administered by Government, the other by the Church Missionary Society. The first is a somewhat pretentious Gothic building, with a dumpy tower in the middle. The internal arrangements are not so good as they

might be. The whole length of the building is occupied by one large handsome schoolroom, with class-rooms opening out of it on either side, the partitions being only carried up half-way, so that the noise of the great school distracts the class-rooms, and of the class-rooms the great school. We found the first class deep in Macbeth. Their English was not very fluent, but they seemed to understand the language well, for they explained to us very readily that puzzling passage:

"If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well

It were done quickly: if the assassination Could trammel upon the consequence, and catch,

With his surcease, success: that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'd jump the life to come."

A very interesting part of the institution was the Sanscrit department, where aged Pandits with white beards were teaching just as they did before the English ráj was thought of; the pupils all seated on the ground, working mathematics on sanded boards, or reading poetry and philosophy on long loose strips held together by two pieces of wood. Some sway their bodies backwards and forwards as they work, and repeat the poetry in a monotonous singsong. Into this branch of the college reform has to be introduced warily the stricter Pandits regard even the knowledge of English as profane. Yet some consent to learn it. One of them, a teacher of mathematics, is translating into English for the Bibliotheca Indica a Sanscrit work on astronomy, and showed us the proof-sheets. "What is its date?" asked one of our party. The English professor who was with us interposed, and told us in a low voice that this was an awkward question to put to him, for the Pandits taught that the treatise had been revealed by the Sun himself, and was anterior to all time.

The other college is called Jay Narain's. Its founder was a wealthy native, unbaptized, but inclining to