This work, as far as our knowledge extends, is the first attempt made by a native of India to produce an elementary treatise on an intricate subject of Hindú Law, modelled after the European plan of a Catechism, written in the form of questions and answers, in the vernacular language of Bengal, with quotations in Sanskrit, from books of established authority, adduced in support of the principles advanced. The greater part of the volume is occupied by a succinct view of the law of Inheritance, according to the system of Jímútaváhana, the author of the Dáyabhága, compared with that of Vijnáneswara, the writer of the Mitákshará. Subjoined, is a short treatise on Adoption, likewise in the form of questions and answers. The following translation of a few passages will give a more precise idea of the plan of the work:—

“7th Question.—If the father is very old, so as to be unable to attend to business—have the sons a right to divide the property or not ?

M. Stanislas Julien, the worthy successor of the lamented Abel Remusát, has commenced his career as professor of Chinese literature by publishing translations of some of the popular tales that best illustrate the habits of thought and action which prevail in the celestial empire. As ours is not exactly a critical journal, we shall not offer any opinion on the merits of these works; but in pursuance of our plan of diffusing information on oriental subjects, we shall offer to our readers such abstracts and specimens of the several tales as may serve to illustrate the character of the Chinese school of fiction, and, consequently, the state of the Chinese mind—for popular tales may justly be regarded as the personification of popular principles, Want of space rather than inclination prevents us from examining, at the same time, the professor's specimens of the Chinese drama; but as he proposes soon to translate some additional plays, we shall have another opportunity of directing attention to the subject. We shall at present confine ourselves to the romances, and we shall preserve the French orthography of proper names, as we are about to give only the outlines, not the translations of the tales.

Amongst the crowned heads and princes of royal blood in Asia who have taken an interest in the welfare of the Royal Asiatic Society, we have to name the Sháh of Persia, and his second son, the Prince Royal, Abbas Mirza. The latter is lost to his country and to us; and the untimely termination of his career is both a matter of public concern, and has especial claims on the notice and sympathy of the Society, from the peculiar relation in which his Royal Highness stood with respect to it.

In presenting to the Royal Asiatic Society the late Captain McMurdo's account of Sindh, embracing the government, productions, and commerce of that country, with the customs and manners of its people, I am entrusted with the pleasing duty of briefly sketching the biography of its estimable author, and of stating in what manner I obtained authority for publishing the statistical information here communicated.

I am a native of the Siculian nation (a tribe of those Hungarians who settled in ancient Dacia in the 4th century of the Christian era), in the great principality of Transylvania, subject to his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria.

This very curious and highly-finished painting represents the court of the Emperor Jehángír at Agra, apparently at night. The name of the artist does not appear on the picture; but as the emperor's grandson, Sultán Shujá, who is here portrayed as a boy of about nine years of age, was twenty-four years old when appointed to the government of Bengal in a.d. 1639, the date of the painting may be assumed to be about a.d. 1625.

[The Catalogue of the Mackenzie Collection published at Calcutta by Professor Wilson, in the year 1828, being with difficulty procurable in England, it has been thought that the following account of that Collection might not be unacceptable to those persons who feel an interest in the subjects which it was intended to illustrate, and who may not be aware of its nature and extent.

I am possessed of particulars relating to the untimely end of a very zealous traveller in Persia, a native of Hesse; who was murdered in Kurdistán, during the autumn of 1829. He has not lived to reap the fruit of his exertions, neither have his notes and observations yet met the public eye.

The work of which the title is copied above at full length, is a specimen of the class which this department of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society was designed to make more extensively known. It has of late years become not unusual for natives of India to publish literary works in the English language; and the practice would, it is thought, become much more common, were greater extension given to the—at present—very limited sphere in which they are known. In the hope of promoting an object so desirable, in every point of view, as the cultivation of the English language among the natives of the immense possessions in the East subjected to British sway, and to encourage the publication in that language, by themselves, of their literary labours in every department, it has been determined to devote a space in this Journal, in which analyses of such works shall be inserted, and their existence and nature thus become speedily and widely understood.

Page 9, line 17, for raking stern, read raking stem.

Page 10, line 14, for prow stern, read prow stem.

Page 10, line 29, for stern head, read stem head.

Page 11, line 34, for ditto, read ditto.

Page 12, line 23, for ditto, read ditto.

Page 12, line 31, for ditto, read ditto.

Page 13, line 5, for ditto, read ditto.

Page 22, for Sindhú, read Sindhu.

Page 22, for Sindhúdés, read Sindhudés.

Page 23, line 3 from below, for Púrána, read Purána, and in other parts of the Number.

Page 23, last line, for Tohfat al Gírám, read Tuhfat at Giráni; and in other parts of the Number.

Page 24, line 22 from the top, for Sirowar, read Sarowar, (recurring in the note.)

Page 25, line 5 from below, for Susi, read Sasi.

Page 26, line 3 from below, for oriti, read Oritœ.

Page 29, last line, for Láryía, read Larica.

Page 30, line 5 from the top, for Alcbári, read Alcbari.

Page 32, for Ságára, read Ságara.

Page 46, line 17 from the top, for pharasaical, read Pharisaical.

Page 48, line 1 from the top, for Pánchayat, read Pancháyat.

Page 48, line 2 from below, for Dharamádhikari, read Dharmádhikári.

Page 88, line 7 from the top, for Síva, read Siva.

Page 88, line 12 from the top, for Dúrga, read Durga.

Page 91, line 7 from the top, for Nava Ráttiri, read Nava Rátra.

Page 117, line 22 from the top, for Akbár, read Akbar (repeatedly).

Page 117, line 22 from the top, for Arangzíb, read Aurangzíb (repeatedly).

Page 118, line 17 from below, for Habib-as-sír, read Habíb-as-siyar.

Page 122, line 7 from below, for midiním, read mediním.

Page 126, line 2 from below, for Serumenrai, read (properly) Surra-man-raá.

Page 132, line 10 from below, for Himaláya, read Himálaya.

Page 135, line 7 from above, for Aromea, read (usually) Urmiah, Oormeah.

Page 138, last line, for Patalipura, read Pátaliputra.

Page 171, line 11 from the bottom, for Cosmos, read Cosmas.

Page 173, line 22 from the bottom, for Nebuchadrezzar, read Nebuchadnezzar.

Page 200, line 6 from the bottom, for Púrán, read Purán, all through.

Page 200, line 6 from the bottom, for Púrána, read Purána, a11 through.

Page 233, line 18 & 33 from the top, for Allá-ud-dín, read Ala-ud-dín.

Page 234, line 6 from the top, for Rizák, read Rizzák.

Page 234, line 5 from the top, for Ságára, read Ságara.

Page 234, line 12 from the top, for Akbár, read Akbar (all through).

Page 236, line 21 from the top, for Mánsura, read Mansúra.

Page 267, line 7 from the bottom, for sabhásúdd'ha, read sabhásudd'ha.

Page 278, line 8 from the bottom, for srid'han, read strid'han (several times).

Page 284, line 18 from the top, for purushá, read purusha.

Page 294, line 13 from the top, for Bháratá-Várshán, read Bhárata-varshan.

Page 307, line 9 from the top, for Remusát, read Rémusat.

Page 327, line 15 from the top, for Zodaic, read Zodiac.

Page 330, line 2 from the bottom, for Badukhihán, read Badakhshán.

Page lxxi line 15 from the bottom, for Tim, read T.

Page lxxi line 10 from the bottom, for Sástrá read Sástrá.