ledge, and discernment of those, who are qualified, | that proficiency in a shorter period than two years. by their station and by personal endowments, to aid me with their counsel. Last year the longest period of study was two years and eleven months. This year the longest period has been two years and five months.The shortest period at the former examination was one year and three months.-The shortest of this year has been so little as four months, and there is another example of five. These latter instances indeed of extraordinary and successful application to studies, the difficulties of which have been acknowledged by the most able and the most diligent, should rather be ascribed, no doubt, the extraordinary efforts and abilities of the individuals to whom I allude, and whom I shall not easily forget to name in their proper place, with the honour that is due to them, than ad Supported therefore, by such authority, I am happy to commence my first discourse from this seat, by congratulating the college and the public, on the satisfactory and honourable proofs afforded in the present examination, of the growing advantages derived from this institution, and of the progress continually making towards the accomplishment of its important ends. These gratifying results are evinced both by the proficiency of the students in the different branches of learning which they have cultivated; and in the valuable additions which have been made to the general stock of eastern literature, by the learned labours, as well of able men attached to the col-duced as a fair argument of superiority in the lege, as of other studious persons who drink at the same spring. If a comparison were drawn between the present year and the three preceding, the result would be extremely advantageous to the latter period; and would justify on clear and satisfactory grounds the assertion which I am happy to think myself warranted in making, that the College of Fort William is advancing in a course of sensible improvement. But as the number of years we should have to review might render the argument somewhat complicated, and as a parallel between the present, and the last preceding year, will yield the same conclusion, I shall content myself with a few observations on that view of the subject. particular period that has happened to produce them. But, in truth, we are entitled on a general comparative average of time, at the two examinations, to claim a sensible progress in the success of this college during the last twelve mouths.. It is impossible, in this place, not to remark, that the progress of this year, which I have just established, bears a strong testimony to the wis dom of a very material alteration which has been made, since the examination of 1807, in the rules which formerly prevailed respecting the period of attendance on the College of Fort William prescribed to the students. The whole of the junior civil servants were formerly attached to the college during a fixed period of three years. The alteration to which I allude was made by section xii, regulation iii, 1807, which rescinded the former rule, and provides" that their continuance in college will henceforward be regulated by their proficiency;" and it is added, that "the patron and visitor will determine, from the reports of proficiency made to him after the public examinations, when the students may be permitted to quit the college as having completed the prescribed course of study." The first indication of progress which I have the satisfaction to remark in the present year compared with the preceding is, that a greater number of students have been found sufficiently proficient in the Oriental languages to quit college and to enter on the duties of the service. Twenty names have been reported this year competent to the functions of public business. The number which the examination of the preceding year fur nished to the service was fifteen. I observe, also, with satisfaction, that the number of students who have presented themselves for examination After the system, which now subsists for the in the Persian language, has considerably increas- education of the Company's junior servants, was ed. At the former examination the number was adopted; that is to say, when provision was made fifteen; it is now twenty-seven. In the preced-in England by instituting the college at Hertford, ing year, three students had attained a sufficient eminence in the knowledge of Persian to be ranked in the first class.-In the present year that number of eminent Persian scholars is doubled.In the former year five were placed in the second class. In the present, nine have attained the same degree of proficiency; and in the present year the same number are found in the two superior classes, as occupied three at the former examination. It is also worthy of remark, as denoting, either improvement in the mode of instruction, or increased application in the students, but indicating, either way, in effect, a very satisfactory progress in the institution itself, that a competence in the collegiate studies, qualifying the student for the public service, was found to have been obtained this year in a period considerably shorter than appeared to have been the case at the former examination.-Of the fifteen gentlemen who were qualified to leave college in January 1807, three only had attended college less than two years. Of the twenty who are this -year qualified for the service; ten have attained for the more general branches of instruction, and for an elementary and preparatory introduction to eastern learning, and when the studies to be pursued at the College of Fort William were limited to the languages of Asia, and to the laws and regulations of this presidency, it became unnecessary to detain the young men destined for the public service, in a state of inaction, during a period which, having been fixed in contemplation of a more extended course of study, would not have been too long for the completion of such a plan, but ceased to be requisite for the contracted and supplementary course reserved for this college. The competence of the student for the business of India, now the reasonable measure of his confinement to college, and its protraction beyond that point becomes unprofitable to the public, and speaking generally, detrimental to the individual. In these respects, therefore, the alteration was salutary; but it was conducive also to another nrost desirable end; for, by supplying a powerful inducement to diligence and exertion, it infu.es into the studies of the college that ardour and activity, which a distant and a fixed period of emancipation must have tended to damp and repiess, The two causes appear, accordingly, to have produced their corresponding effects; and the efficiency of the new regulation, in animating the studious efforts of our young brethren, has been signally manifested on this first occasion, when the test of experience could be applied to it. I think it on that account my duty to declare, that the sense I entertain of its importance will ensure on my part an impartial and inflexible exccution of this beneficial rule. The period of attendance on college, and that of entering on the great theatre of life, will be regulated, therefore, by the proficiency of each individual in the studies prescribed to him. Those whose diligence may have abridged the term of restraint, will not only enjoy sooner the fruit of their labour, bat even the sweets of liberty will be enhanced by honour, and they will carry into their new condition the reputation and distinction which their former merits had obtained. I refrain from the more ungracious delineation of the opposite consequences which must accompany the slow entrance of those into the world, who may have permitted a succession of juniors to pass before them, and who will have to endure the uneasy gloom and humiliations which always attend both the consciousness and the display of inferiority. It is enough, in this place, to say, that an early or a late entrance into the service are the first consequeness of meritorious or blameable conduct at college. There are undoubtedly other and more important points depending on the same criterion, but I shall speak of them in another part of my discourse. studies, he has added the difficult but valuable accomplishment of high proficiency in writing both the Persian and the Nagree characters. I should do injustice to the talents and application of Mr. Lindsay, if I did not observe, that the merit of these numerous acquirements is enhanced by the short period in which he has triumphed over so many difficulties. Mr. Lindsay entered college in the month of November, 1806, and has entitled himself, therefore, to quit it with singular honour in the short space of a year and two` months. Mr. Alexander holds the second place, and stands, therefore, amongst the most eminent both in the Persian and Hindoostanee languages, having attained that distinction by the assiduous application of little more than one year and six months.-Mr. Sisson and Mr. Macnabb have furnished other examples of the success, which attends a diligent and vigorous exercise of talents, by rising in a year and a half to the first classes of the Persian and Hindoostanee languages;-and Mr. Barwell has the distinction of possessing the first place in Hindoostanee; the third in the useful language of Bengal, and the first in the art of Nagree writing. I should indulge myself in a wider field of commendation than is warranted by former practice, if I were to recite the names, and it would be no inconsiderable number of our younger members, who have already given earnesto! future crainence, and in this honourable conflict of early talents and virtues, have already seized on stations beyond their standing. But if their claims on public approbation are not yet mature for this anniversary, do not let them imagine they are unobserved. I have a pleasure in declaring, as patron and visitor to this important establishment, that I keep even I have had the satisfaction to confer degrees of the youngest in my eye, and while we are gatherhonour, and other marks of approbation and dis-ing on this day the ripe fruit of one abundant tinction, on the gentlemen whom I am about to name. Mr. Tytler, Mr. Colvin, Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Sisson, Mr. Macnabb and Mr. Barwell. The degree of honour is itself an unequivocal testimony of distinguished merit, because the statutes of the college have wisely required such proof of excellence, in those who aspire to it, as diligence and talents united can alone furnish. I am unwilling, however, to pass, unnoticed the particular claim to distinction which each of these candidates for honour has successfully asserted. summer, I am happy to contemplate the fair blossom which in its turn is to crown the promise of another. Forbearing, however, as I do, from the premature notice of good conduct, however commendable in itself, in the first stages of academical life, I should feel far short of a duty at once sacred and grateful to me, if on this day of public testimony to merit, I should withhold from acknowledgement and applause two names, low indeed in the list of your college, but already conspicuous in the roll of its honours.-Mr. Chalmer, who entered the College of Fort William but last August, has in January been declared to possess a competent proficiency in Persian and Hindoostance, with elementary knowledge of Arabic. A progres so rapid and so remarkable, has required, and therefore evinces, a rare union of distinguished qualities. Labour would alone have conducted him to the same goal, but at a slower pace. Genius, unattended by industry, unstimulated by a liberal love of learning, and undirected by a steady sense of duty, might have Mr. Tytler stands in the highest class of indoostanee and Persian, and his name is at the head of those who have studied the vernacular language of Bengal. To eminence in two languages, and to the first place in another, his industry and capacity have enabled him to add an elementary acquaintance with a fourth; I mean the Mahratta, a language more immediately connected, indeed, with the service of other presidencies, but no unprofitable acquisition in some departments of the public service under the government of Bengal.-made less progress than even dullness itself; but Mr. Colvin has attained eminence in the Persian and Hindoostanee languages, and in the midst of those occupations, has obtained the first place, with the distinction of a medal, in the study of Arabic. Mr. Lindsay occupies the first place in the first class of Persian. He is in the highest form of Hindoostanee, and is second only to Mr. Colvin in Arabic. To these successful and various abilities and application, vigorously addressed to the discharge of duty, have opened to him the career of life almost in its dawn, and presented to him the early prospect of honour and advantage generally reserved for riper years.--Mr. Sotheby has in four months' study merited the following testimonial, which I shall read in the very words with which the learned council of the college cous clude their report of those gentlemen whom they have adjudged to be qualified to leave the college and enter on the public service: "Mr. Sotheby having attained high proficiency in the Hindoostance, and considerable proficiency in the Persian and Mahratta languages, appears to be fully competent to enter on the public service; but as he does not belong to this establishment, and as the college council understand he does not at present wish to leave the college, his name is not included in the above report."-Every line of this passage appears to me pregnant with praise of the highest quality.-Mr. Sotheby, it is observed, "does not belong to this establishment."-The circumstance is a remarkable feature in Mr. Sotheby's case. The admission of gentlemen belonging to the establishment of other presidences, to the College of Fort William, is not in strictness conformable to the regulations which it has pleased the honourable Court of Directors to appoint on that subject. But the literary thirst of Mr. Sotheby's eager and inquisitive mind, and the sound, well regulated, well directed, and ingenuous ambition of his ardent character, were not to be repressed, by a general regulation, merely of convenience, made for ordinary cases, but not inflexible, as it has proved, to the individual claims of bright exceptions. Mr. Sotheby, therefore, began by surmounting that obstacle, and was warmly welcomed into the very sanctuary which he violated. How well he Kas justified this deviation from law, and redeemed his own offence and ours, by the fruit which it has borne, the college council has just apprized us. The report which I have read states, " that Mr Sotheby having attained high proficiency in the Hindoostanee, and considerable proficiency in the Persian and Mahratta languages, appears to be fully competent to enter on the public service.” As the attainments thus reported by the college council were made in the short space of four months, and exceed so far the usual achievements of industry and capacity as to wear almost an air of fable and prodigy; no higher testimony could be borne to those qualities, and to the signal and remarkable degree in which Mr. Sotheby possesses them, than the report which I have just read. Government would surely have concurred in the conclusion which follows: "that Mr. S. was fully competent to enter on the public service;" and in conformation of that sentiment, it will not be imagined that marks of confidence and favour would have been wanting to endowments so worthy of both. The report concludes And as the college council understand he does not at present wish to leave the college, his name is not included in the above report." Eniment as the place undoubtedly is in our esteem, to which the studious energy of Mr. Sotheby has entitled him, it is, I confess, in the point last alluded to, that he stands, in my judgment, most remarkably and most honourably distinguishéd. We are all acquainted with that impatience for manhood, which is in a manner charactèrestic of youth. There are two ways of asserting that claim, and gratifying that impatience; one, and I fear the most general, is to assume in haste the forms, costume, and habits of men; to emulate their expences, without the means; to copy their ridicules, and to anticipate their vices. The other and less frequent mode of aspiring to, and hastening manhood, is to accumulate knowledge, to mature the mind, and to put on the true properties and character of man. Ile who in his desire to be, and not to seem a man, consents to prolong the restraints, the disqualifications, the privations, the dependence of boyhood or youth, is already the man that others would strive in vain to appear. To Mr. Sotheby, the door of restraint was unbarred; the world stood open to his view; and with all the enticements of novelty of favour and of honours, invited him to the fellowship of men. He has had the manly judgement, and the manly fortitude to turn his back upon those ailurements, and has chosen to merit, rather than to possess, the tempting obiects which seemed to court his acceptance. He has, indeed, made that choise, which the moral fable of antiquity bas taught us, was recommended by wisdom, and rewarded by fame and immortality. I have dwelt, I confess, somewhat largely, on what appears to me, a rare example of early maturity in judgment, talents, and character; because I have thought it, in truth, entitled to a place in the Fasti of your college, and, si quid mea carmina possunt, the name of Mr. Sotheby shall not be omitted in its tablets. If I have been silent hitherto, on the acknowledged merits of the professors and other officers of the college, it is because I felt, that the excellence of the scholar is the best praise of the master, an! that the favourable sentiments I have been so happy as to express concerning the general and increasing proficiency of students, conveyed in the least questionable, and perhaps the most acceptable form, the panegyric of the preceptor. I have great satisfaction, however, in saying disstinctly, that the skill, assiduity and learning of the professors and their coadjutors have never been more conspicnous than in the present year. I feel myself, indeed, responsible for having in one instance, withdrawn from the college, ene of its most distinguished and efficient members. But if I have despoiled one temple of its ornaments, it has been for the decoration and service of another. If the familiar and universal knowledge of Dr. Leydon in the numerous languages of the cast, and yet much more, if his profound researches into the science of eastern philology be considered, we should a cribe such extensive r dition and acquirements to the severe labour of a long life; while, in reality, their sudden and rapid attainment has resembled rather the gift of tongues, or soine peculiar privilege of his own, than the slow process and long vigils of human study. The regrets of learning, however, which fo!low the transfer of Dr. Leydon to other functions, will, I am persuaded, yield to the reflec tion, that the same acute, informed, upright, and delicate mind is enlisted in the service of the highest and dearest interests of society. I pars, now, to the notice of those accessions to the literature of the east, which have been al ready made, and of those which are in progress, either in immediate connection with the college of Fort William, or associated to it, by a similarity of liberal tastes and pursuits in their authors. A printing press has been established by the learne Hindoos, furnished with complete founts of improved Nagree types of different sizes, for the printing of books in the Sanscrit language. This press has been encouraged by the college to undertake an edition of the best Sanscrit dictionaries, and a compilation of the Sanscrit rules of grammar. The first of these works is completed, and with the second, which is in considerable forwardness, will form a valuable collection of Sanscrit philology. It may be hoped that the introduction of the art of printing among the Hindoos, which has been thus began by the institution of a Sanscrit press, will promote the general diffusion of knowledge among this numerous and very ancient people; at the same time, that it becomes the means of preserving the classic remains of their literature and sciences. guage, a work on the history and geography of India, has been encouraged by the college to print it for publication. The dissemination, by means of the press, of works composed by natives, eminent for their knowledge and practical skill in this dialect, must gradually polish, and fix a standard of excellence in a language, which, though long employed as an elegant medium of colloquial intercourse, and as the vehicle of poetical imagery, has hitherto been little used for prose composition. The college council and the Asiatic society, who formerly resolved to support Mr. Carey and his assistants in a translation of the Rámayán, bave since determined to extend a similar support to the publication, by the same persons, of the text books of one of the systems of Hindoo philosophy, entitled Sanc'hya. This will constitute a further object of making known, by means of literal versions, those works in the ancient language of India, which are held in greatest estimation by the Hindoos themselves. The compilation of an alphabetical Sanscrit dictionary, from the principal vocabularies of the language, and other authorities, had been under-step towards the attainment of the interesting dertaken soon after the institution of the college, by learned natives, employed for that purpose. The work, which comprises the etymology as well as interpretation of each term, together with examples from classical writers, has been lately completed, and a copy has been deposited in the library of the college. A dictionary, Sanscrit and English, consisting of the text of the celebrated Amera Cosha, with a translation and notes, the value of which will be understood, when I say that they are the work of Mr. Colebrooke, late president of the college council, has been long in the press. The work is now completed, and may be expected to be published in a few months. A dictionary of the Marhatta language, compiled by Mr. Carey, and printed by him in the Marhatta character, has been some time in the press. It is a work which has been long wanted, and the publication of this, with the grammar before prepared by Mr. Carey, furnishing the means of acquiring a very useful language, will be found of essential benefit, by the junior servants of the company, on the establishments of Fort St. George and Bombay. We are indebted to Mr. H. P. Forster, for two works of great labour, learning, and utility in Sanscrit philology. A plan of a comparative vocabulary of Indian languages, in imitation of that which was executed under the order of the empress Catherine, for the provinces composing the Russian empire, was proposed in the preceding year, by Sir James Mackintosh, who adorns and improves the short leisure of a laborious station, with learning and the promotion of learning. His proposal was founded on a very just view of the value and importance of the information which such a comparison may be expected to afford. A more extensive plan for the compilation of grammars and dictionaries of Asiatic languages had been also suggested by Dr. Layden, who had it in contemplation to undertake himself the task of conducting the compilation. This plan being, however, deferred, the council of the college adopted a different arrangement, with a view of furnishing the information sought by Sir James Mackintosh, and at the same time forming an useful collection of Vocabularies of all provincial languages and diaJects of India. For this purpose, a vocabulary in Persian and Hindoostanee, and another in Sanscrit and Bengallee, have been prepared, and will be printed and circulated, for the purpose of being filled up by competent persons with the corresponding terms in other languages in use in India. The printed vocabularies will be soon completed and as it cannot be doubted, that assistance will be cheerfully rendered by every gen-that portion of Ferishta's Persic history. tleman, whose local situation enables him to forward this useful undertaking, the successful -issue of it may be confidently anticipated. The first, of which about 400 pages are already printed, contains-1. An essay on Sanscrit grammar, with tables of inflections.-2. A dissertation on Sanscrit roots.-3. A translation of the Mugdabodha, a celebrated treatise on Sanscrit grammar, in which the enigmatical expres sions of the original are fully illustrated, and the rules 'exemplified. Mr. Forster's second work, which is nearly ready for the press, consists of a dictionary in the Sanscrit and Bengalee languages. The words are arranged alphabetically; with a translation into English. The etymologies are pointed out, and where necessary, confirmed and illustrated by examples. Meer Sher Ulee, the head Moonshee, in the Hindoostance department of the college, having compiled and arranged in the Hindoostanee lan Mr. Francis Gladwin has contributed to the stock of Indian philology, a dictionary of Persian, Hindoostanee and English, in three parts, composing three octavo volumes. The first part contains words in familiar use, including synonyThe second Arabic and Persian words that occur chiefly in books; compound and metaphorical allusions. The third supplies indexes to the different languages. ma. In this enumeration, I must not omit a work of Mirza Kazim Ali Juan, entitled, An historical Account of the Bhamina Dynasty of the Dekhan, being nearly a translation into Hindoostanee of There are two languages which although includ ed within the comprehensive scheme of oriental study, embraced by the College of Fort William at an earlier period of the institution, are not provided for in the modified plan of instruction to which the college is now restricted. Both lad guages, however, are spoken within the com, pany's possessions, and one of them occupi many regions scattered over a gr at space, whic is not only the seat of an active and extensiv commerce, but the theatre often of other imporfant and interesting transactions. The languages to which I allude are the Malay, and the Affghan or Pooshta. Although, on the present scale of oriental studies at the College of Fort William, other languages undoubtedly have deserved a preference to its immediate support and patronage, yet I cannot think either of those I have mentioned intirely devoid of interest; in the first place, as branches of the general and liberal pursuit of eastern learning which we profess; and in the next place, as bearing either a present and immediate, or in the many chances of human vicissitude, a prospective, and perhaps, not remote affinity to our affairs. Under these impressions, I have not deemed it wholly foreign to the occasign, that I should notice any progress that may have been made in the cultivation of these tongues. Want of room obliges us to postpone till our next the remainder of this very interesting speech of his lordship, which embraces, in the most extensive manner, the improvements made by the students in the College of Fort William. ENORMOUS SEA-SERPENT. The following subject being altogether uncommon, and the existence of the creature We c nfidently hope, that the particulars of this event will appear at full, in the Transactions of the Wernerian Society, when published. In the meantime, we add another letter that has appeared in print, which, though written in a style and manner hardly proper to a naturalist, yet contains some additional points of information. "The following account is communicated by an intelligent naturalist resident at Edinburgh, to a gentleman at Norwich: "The Serpens Marinus Magnus of Pontoppidan, has hitherto been considered as a fabulous monster, and denied "a local habi tation and a name" by all scientific and syste matic naturalists, who have affected to pity the credulity of the good bishop of Bergen. One of these monsters however (indignant, may I not say, at the scepticism of the disciples of the Linnean school? has, effectually to prove its existence, been heroic enough to wreck himself on the Orkney islands. He came ashore at Rothesholm or Rougom Bay, in Stronsa near to Shearers. It was 55 feet long; but the described having been considered as proble-tail seemed to have been broken by dashing matical by most, and, even derided by many, we are induced to insert such accounts of it, as may dissipate all further doubt, We are happy to find that it has been inquired into by scientific men, whose names authenticate the Report. been 60 feet in the whole. Where thickest, among the rocks: so it is calculated to have it might equal the girth of an Orkney horse, The hand was not larger than a seal's, and had which, you know, is a starved English poney. two spiracles or blow holes. From the back hung down numerous filaments, eighteen inches long (the inane described by Pontoppi dan): these filaments bear the most perfect resemblance to the silk-worm gut, or India sea-grass used in trouting. The monster had three pair of fins, or rather paws; the first pair 5 feet long, with a joint at the distance of 4 feet from the body. Alas! a tempest beat the carcase to pieces before men and ropes could be collected; and only a fragment (about five feet) of the back-bone, and a whole paw, are preserved. M. Laing, Esq. M. P. has got these, and is to send them to our University Museum." "Ata late meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, Mr. P. Neil read an account of a great Sea Snake, lately cast ashore in Orkney. This curious animal, it appears, was stranded in Rothsolm Bay, in the island of Stronsa. Malcolm Laing, Esq. M. P., being in Orkney at the time, communicated the circumstance to his brother, Gilbert Laing, Esq. advocate at Edinburgh, on whose property the animal had been cast. Through this authentic channel Mr. Neill received his information. The body measured fifty-five feet in length, and the circumference of the thickest part might be equal to the girth of an Orkney poney. The head was These accounts are completely in conform not larger than that of a seal, and was fur-ity to what had been already communicated nished with two blow holes. From the back by writers on natural history: and they a number of filaments (resembling in texture happily vindicate the veracity of such writers, the fishing tackle known by the name of silk-who, because they have related instances of worm gut) hung down like a mane. On each rare occurrence, have been treated as incaside of the body, were three large fins, shaped pable of just discernment, if not as immoral; like paws and jointed. The body was un-for such is the nature of the accusation of Luckily knocked to pieces by a tempest; but attempting to impose on their readers fiction the fragments have been collected by Mr. instead of truth. Laing, and are to be transmitted to the museum at Edinburgh. Mr. Neill concluded What has been published on this subject, is supported by the following testimony; |