droday,) lately projected a daily paper in the same language, a specimen number of which is now before us. It is intituled, somewhat more modestly than the preceding,-probably as being deemed but the early breaking of a flood of mental light, in process of time to shine forth from similar more extended efforts,-"the Dawn of Intelligence," (Sambád Arunoday.)

The Arunoday is intended to be a daily paper. We venture to repeat below, respecting it, and indeed of the native press generally, what we have elsewhere remarked before; because our observations, though specially referring to that one paper, are strictly applicable to the whole class, the Bhaskar even not entirely excepted.

It is to be published at the same press as the Sambád Púrnachandroday, and delivered daily, at the cost of one rupee per mensem, or eight rupees per annum, if paid in advance. The price is so small as clearly to admit of no expectation of pecuniary advantage to the speculators, unless through a very extended circulation; the only chance of which is in a careful catering to the wants and tastes of the Bábus, with as small a demand as possible upon their purses, as we should say, or in native parlance, their zones; which are usually but hard to loosen for disbursements, however insignificant, even when a full equivalent is obtained. The "quid pro quo" principle is one, indeed, which they well understand; but it is not always that the quid is recoverable even when the quo has been given.

The character of the poetry in some of the native hebdomadals, is indifferent; not having always even the merit of some other ephemeral verse, of possessing at least some point and wit: while it is not seldom, as we have already said, discreditable to them and to their supporters, consisting, as it too often does, of scurrilous doggrel directed against Christian Missionaries and their procedure, and what is of far more serious moment, against our holy and divine Saviour or his benevolent system of faith and piety. The proper antidote to this is just " to let it alone," and to abound the more in patience, zeal and disinterested effort to disperse the light of truth through the surrounding darkness. We augur well to the cause of Christianity, when its grand enemy, beginning to fear for his usurped dominion of God's rightful sovereignty over the minds and hearts and services of his moral creatures, stirs up his human slaves to fight for his tottering power. For tottering it is, to its very base, and ere long will fall," nor leave, we trust, one wreck behind!"

It has long been our intention to take a succinct review of the native newspaper press. The pressure of more important duties alone has compelled us to postpone fulfilment. We have now, however, set ourselves to give effect to the design, and shall ground our general concluding remarks on a special notice of the before-named but newly projected journal.

This, as many of its compeers, is to be a half sheet of small folio, in quadripartite columns, furnishing a daily supply of four pages of multifarious matter. In a lengthy editorial, the projector exhibits his bill of fare, and the mode in which he proposes to excite the appetites of his expected bonvivans.

The press, and in particular the Newspaper press, he deems a most

important agent in the production and advancement, nay to lie at the root, of all national felicity; and from the root which it has taken in India," the germ," he thinks, " of national prosperity has already shot forth!" Candidly enough, he attributes its introduction to European intelligence, benevolence and activity; and rightly: for the first Newspaper in the Bengáli language was, as above observed, the "Samáchár Darpan," or "Mirror of News," which still issues from the Serampore Press, and was the first to excite a taste for reading in the indolent and illiterate Bábus of the capital and its vicinity; with such success, too, that not fewer than some twenty or more competitors for their patronage have since appeared, many of them yet in vigorous existence. A weekly paper he considers inadequate now to secure the full advantage derivable from these sources; whether in regard to the supply of information required upon all matters of commerce and general business, constantly extending, or to the wide spread of literature among the native population. Undertaking, therefore, to increase the supply, he writes, as if appealing to the kindlier feelings of his hoped-for supporters-" our heart expanding to furnish our countrymen with all useful intelligence bearing upon either worldly or intellectual advancement, and prompt to respond to the call of their necessities, is as yet, however, afloat on a shoreless sea of desire; should the universal ruler but send the angel of pity," (to find an entrance, it should seem, into the hearts and act upon the well-known sluggishness of the Calcutta Bábus, the niggard patrons, even for their own advancement or pleasure, of enterprises involving pecuniary outlay, and so) "to lift up the life of our hope above this sea of desire," (to save it from drowning, of course,)" then shall we not become (by our impotent struggles) an object of ridicule to the prudent and intelligent, but have our best expectations fully realized."

The wily projector, (knowing well the taste to which he must cater, and the calibre to which he must adapt his argumentation,) then gives, by way of a sop to Cerberus, a running notice, as we should say, of the policy adopted by the Anglo-Indian Government of the country, in relation to the exclusion of the natives of the soil from places of high trust or large (direct) emolument. While he admits that "no other nation of men has ever exercised such moderation and justice in the government of a conquered country as the English," he yet asserts, 1st, "That it is a fact in history, that no country has ever been altogether well and happily governed by its conquerors, and that it is impossible indeed it should be." 2ndly, That it has been with a view to enrich their own servants, though at the cost to the governed of wealth, prosperity and improvement, that the English Government have so rigidly excluded from all offices of emolument and responsibility the natives of the soil. 3rdly, That during the whole period of British rule, the practice of all Government servants, Judges and Collectors, Civil and Military, &c. alike, has been to make the acquisition of a fortune, with which to return to their father-land as soon as possible, their grand aim; that hence has India, through its vast extent, suffered a perpetual drain, to the enrichment of a small island in the west of Europe; and those resources of the country only been sought out and applied, which have tended directly to augment the revenue; while internal improve

ment has been ever a secondary object if at all attended to. Such is the general strain of remark; the particular grievance, however, and that whose mention is calculated on to propitiate the desired native patronage, is the non-employment of the natives in high judicial, revenue, magisterial, and even legislative functions. It is a marvel he did not add the military service to the civil, and lament, too, over the want of a becoming field for the exhibition of Bábu prowess, by the exclusion of the heroic sons of the soil "from the blood-red battle plain !" But why, he asks, should they be confined to those inferior employments which furnish merely the means of subsistence, while they possess powers which might be brought into effective and advantageous play at the Council Board, in the Law Commission, on the Judicial and Magisterial Benches ? nay, warmed by his subject (and his hopes ?) he takes a yet more soaring flight, and "dares to assert, that if the respectable natives were in power through the country, the condition of its population would, without a shadow of doubt, be superior to what it is!!!" He will not, indeed, absolutely undertake to decide whether the English have resolved or not to keep "the respectable natives of the country from reaching greater affluence or higher power;" but he conceives that Government takes far too great praise to itself for having thrown up some of the inferior judicial and revenue offices to native assistants; and trusts they will, in processof time, widen to them the range of admission to office still further.

Apprehending, however, (with great reason, it should seem,) that the tenor of these remarks might lead to the conclusion that he wishes for the passing away of the British dominion in India into the hands of the sons of the soil, an event which he professes unambiguously and most sincerely to deprecate, on the ground that no other people equals the English in political and governmental policy and intelligence-he avers that all be desires, is only to see natives every where associated with them in all the offices of administration! He is aware, it seems, that the strong, and in our opinion impregnable, ground of objection to yet throwing open the doors of office generally to native competition, is the fact of their incompetent education and defect of patriotic and moral principle. This fact he does not attempt to disprove by argument-he could not, and therefore dared not;-it is too glaringly notorious to admit of being so set aside; witness the numerous instances of peculation, corruption, and oppression, practised in those lower offices of munsiff, &c.; and the many consequent deprivations that have taken place. Yet he boldly, it must be owned, asserts-writing, however, for natives in the native language— that even this fact is, on his ipse dixit, to be held for nought; that it is a clear mistake; and that there is a quantum sufficit of intelligence, knowledge, literature, acquirement, patriotism and moral honesty existing among the respectable natives, to qualify them for an able and judicious, impartial and honorable, and every way advantageous, administration of every department of government throughout the whole country!!!. whereas, the consequence of their exclusion is, every where, the unchecked operation of a partiality, in European functionaries, highly injurious to the sons of the soil!

All this may be very well for a Newspaper Proprietor and Editor, who merely seeks to extend his credit and circulation among his money

loving and ignorant countrymen; but to do them or the country at large real service, demands a very different line of policy indeed; one which would fulfil the promise of the projector of this "Dawn of Intelligence,' to seek their real good by telling them as well of their faults as of their merits."

We counsel him, then, to urge upon them the practice of domestic education; the establishment and support of village and other schools on an extended scale; the employment of the zeal and active patriotism for which he so generously gives them credit, in drawing out the many almost untouched resources of the country; the expenditure of their numerous overgrown capitals, in the building of bridges, the formation of roads and canals, the better cultivation of their many immense estates; the improvement of the physical condition of their miserable ryots, by encouraging them to build better huts, to wear better clothing, to eat better food, and by setting them examples of cleanliness, industry and orderliness; instead of lavishing princely sums on impudent buffoons and licentious dancing girls; on indecent nautches, silly marriage ceremonials, and worse than useless shráddhas; or in feeding lazy brahmins, wandering vagabonds, and itinerant beggars, while grinding the honest labourers on the soil, at the loom and in the shop, or vainly displaying a puerile and gaudy pomp of tinsel dress, elephant trappings and idle retainers; instead of doing, in short, nothing really honorable to themselves or beneficial to the country, while abusing their foreign masters, (to whom alone, with all their faults, and we should be the last to cloak, the first to expose and reprove, these) they owe all the happiness they possess, a happiness never in any former period of authentic Indian history the portion of its inhabitants-full protection to life, person and property; with a liberty, moreover, to speak almost as they list, and even to abuse to their heart's content those who are at once, under Providence, their conquerors, their masters and their benefactors.

Over and above the editorials, the specimen of the paper before us exhibits the usual variety of police and A'dálat reports, accounts from the various courts and residencies, new enactments, public appointments, rumours, accidents, state of the weather, prospects of indigo, rice and other harvests, domestic occurrences, &c.

We sincerely wish the enterprizing projector all fair success; and although we have spoken freely of his editorial, we not the less sincerely desire to draw large and favourable notice to his design; and we hope, that both he and his compeers may ultimately have full reason to be convinced that the only sure as well as just expedient for gaining an extensive circulation, is an unremitting exertion to supply really useful intelligence, and to meet the growing necessity for information on all possible subjects; while his and their solemn duty is to study, by every effort, to improve the sentiments, correct the mistaken opinions, enlighten the ignorance, excite the indolence, direct the energies and improve the morals of their readers. In so labouring they will have sources of pure satisfaction within themselves, obtain the rich meed of approbation from all whose approbation is either desirable or creditable, prove public benefactors, and subserve the wondrous and gracious designs of an over-ruling Providence for good, civil, moral and religious, to the natives of India.

The Prabhákar must be noticed as one of the better issues from the Native Press. Its earlier numbers contain much well-managed and biting satire, while its very later ones give to the public, the moral essays or addresses delivered in the Tattwabodhiní Sabhá, a private society of immaterialists, arisen out of the Brahma Sabha. These are beautifully written; they are the better moralizings of a select few of the followers of Rám Mohan Ráy, who disclaim idolatry and profess a species of Theophilanthropism, which indeed is the ne-plus-ultra of the purest Hindu Philosophy-not unamiable, but powerless.

The tables below exhibit the statistics of the whole Native Press. We have necessarily depended for much of the details on the information of others, yet trust they will be found substantially correct and not a little interesting. Europeans generally are not at all aware of the extent and daily increasing power of the Native Press.

The prices of these papers are moderate; by far the cheapest, estimated by the large quantity of its letter-press and the usefulness of its contents together, is the Púrnachandroday; it has also the most extensive circulation. Latterly, too, it is much improved and deserves all encouragement. Indeed these productions require only notice and encouragement to be rendered most powerfully influential for extensive benefit to Native Society, whilst if not diligently and prudently watched over, they will as necessarily prove most mischievous. The real friends of India will do well to pay more attention to them.

CINSURENSIS.