9. The angel of death signifies the Turkish power, by which the land of Palestine was taken from the Franks, and to which it is still subject.

10. The commencement of the tenth stanza is designed to show that God will take signal vengeance on the Turks, immediately after whose overthrow the Jews are to be restored to their own land, and live under the government of their long expected Messiah. E. H.

CALCUTTA.

With an Engraving.—See page. 339.

The presidency of Calcutta, or Bengal, contains an area of two hundred thousand square miles, and a population of about forty millions. The gross produce of the land annually is estimated at forty-three millions, about a seventh part of which comes into the treasury of the British East India Company. The whole revenue is about twelve millions sterling, and the charges of the government are estimated at seven millions. The external and internal trade of the Presidency averages about fourteen millions annually, a great part of which is carried on by private adventurers, since the opening of the ports of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, to a free trade. Above six hundred vessels depart from Calcutta annually, with a hundred and fifty thousand tons of merchandize: and the same number on an average, sail up the river.

The city of Calcutta, the Capital of British India. stands on the east bank of the river Hooghly, and about one hundred miles from the sea. The river is about a

mile broad, at the city. The approach is magnificent, each bank being adorned with elegant villas and gardens. The city extends about six miles, and its numerous spires of churches, temples and minarets, its strong fortress and its great variety of public buildings gives it a very imposing appearance. The suburb of Chouringee consists of a line of Grecian palaces.-This suburb, and indeed, the city of Calcutta, is seen to the most striking

advantage from the fort. You cross a large green plain having on the left, the Hooghly with its forest of masts and sails seen through the stems of a double row of trees on the right hand is the district of Chouringee, lately a mere scattered suburb, but now almost as closely built and very little less extensive than Calcutta. In front is the esplanade, containing the governor's house, the Town Hall, and many handsome private dwellings. No native dwellings are visible from this quarter, except one extensive bazaar which occupies the angle where Calcutta and Chouringee joins.-The number of houses is estimated at one hundred thousand, and of inhabitants at six hundred thousand. The part of the city inhabited by Europeans contains about ten thousand houses, and these are the only ones that are well built. The European society is numerous, living luxuriantly and presenting a splendid appearance. Visits are generally made in palanquins, but covered and open carriages, of English fashion, are much used. Places of amusement are not numerous. There is one respecta ble theatre and an assembly room; but neither is much frequented.—All the western part of Calcutta is a vast town composed of narrow crooked streets, brick bazars, bamboo huts, and, here and there, the immense convent-like mansion of some of the more wealthy Indian merchants and bankers.-Of the public buildings of Calcutta, the Town Hall had no other merit than that of size; but the Government House is a noble structure. It consists of two semicircular galleries, placed back to back, uniting in the centre in a large hall, and connecting four splendid suits of apartments. The Cathedral is also a handsome building, the inside is elegant, paved with marble and furnished with very large and handsome glass chandeliers. The school for European female orphans is a spacious airy building well adapted to its purpose and admirably conducted. The free school is a noble institution; consisting of a school where two hundred and fifty boys and girls are lodged, boarded, and clothed. They are instructed in the ordinary English branches of education, and in the christian faith and duties, for which purpose the catechisms and other works furnished by the English Society for promoting christian knowledge, are employed. Some few of the

day scholars are Armenian christians, whose parents object to these formulæ ; and some Hindoos are allowed to attend, who also stand on one side when the catechism is repeated, though they say the Lord's prayer and read the Scriptures without scruple. The children of Roman Catholics, of whom there are also several, make no such difficulties, and even attend church with the rest of the scholars. They are in fact so ignorant and neglected, that many of them have no idea of christianity except what they learn here.-The Botanic Garden is a very beautiful and well managed institution, enriched with the noblest trees and most beautiful plants of India, besides a vast collection of exotics from every quarter of the globe. "It is" says Bishop Heber, "not only a curious but a picturesque and most beautiful scene, and more perfectly resembles Milton's idea of Paradise, than any thing which I ever saw. Among the exotics I noticed the Nutmeg, a pretty tree something like a myrtle, with a beautiful peach like blossom, but too delicate for the winter even of Bengal, and therefore placed in the most sheltered situation and carefully matted round. The Sago Palm is a tree of great singularity and beauty, and in a grove or avenue produces an effect of striking solemnity, not unlike that of Gothic Architecture. There were some splendid South American creepers; some plantain, from the Malagan Archipelago: the Pine of New Caledonia and the gigantic Adamsonia from the neighborhood of Gambia and Senegal.To the north of the Botanic Garden, and separated from it by a plantation of teak trees, stands the New College, a fine building in the gothic style, and in a beautiful situation. This flourishing institution was founded by the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," under the management and at the suggestion of Bishop Middleton.-There are a number of native Female Schools in a very flourishing condition. We extract a notice of them from Bishop Heber's Journal.

I attended, together with a large portion of the European society of Calcutta, an examination of the native Female schools. **** It was very pretty to see the little swarthy children come forward to repeat their lessons and show their work, blushing even through their dark complexions, with their muslin veils thrown care

lessly round their slim half naked figures, their black hair plaited, their foreheads speckled with white or red. paint, and their heads, necks, wrists and ankles loaded with all the little finery they could buy or borrow for the occasion. Their parents make no objection to their learning the Catechism, or being tempted to read the Bible, provided nothing is done which can make them lose caste. And many of the Brahmins themselves, either finding the current of popular opinion too strongly in favor of the measures pursued for them to struggle with, or really influenced by the beauty of the lessons taught in Scripture, and the advantage of giving useful knowledge, and something like a moral sense, to the lower ranks of their countrymen and countrywomen, appear to approve of the plan, and attend the examination of the scholars.

NATIONAL LITERATURE.

*

"We are aware that some may think that we are exalting intellectual above moral and religious influence. They may tell us, that the teaching of moral and religious truth, not by philosophers and boasters of wisdom, but by the comparatively weak and foolish, is the great means of renovating the world. This truth we indeed regard as 'the power of God unto salvation.' But let none imagine that its chosen temple is an uncultivated mind, and that it selects, as its chief organs, the lips of the unlearned. Religious and moral truth is indeed appointed to carry forward mankind; but not as conceived and expounded by narrow minds, not as darkened by the ignorant, not as debased by the superstitious, not as subtilized by the visionary, not as thundered out by the intolerant fanatic, not as turned into a drivelling cant by the hypocrite. Like all other truths, it requires for its full reception and powerful communication a free and vigorous intellect. Indeed, its grandeur and infinite connexions demand a more earnest and various use of our faculties than any other subject. As a single illustration of this remark, we may observe, that all moral and religious truth may be re