lision of ideas, by experienced remark, by positive communication of knowledge, and by approximating able and efficient characters. I would propose that the sum charged for an occasional public table be increased, in order to enable the chairman to invite to the public dinners such as they may choose to select from those introduced at their levees. The other directors, in rotation, might possess a similar privilege. A moment's reflection must shew the vast benefit that must evidently result from making the Court of Directors thus acquainted with their civil and military servants. At present they frequently know little more of each other than from a casual glance in passing along the avenues of the IndiaHouse. At the Admiralty there are rooms appropriated for the accommodation of naval officers and others who find it requisite to be there on business; in the India-House a similar apartment should be assigned for the reception of the proprietors and Company's servants who have daily occasion to appear there. I am induced to mention this want, so often felt, and which certainly ought to be remedied on even a principle of common courtesy, independent of the attention due to services or character. Mankind emerge slowly from the trammels of habit. The propriety of many meliorations in human intercourse is seen long before it leads to effect. A fear of doing wrong often retards the adopting of what is right. Excess of caution against innovation must however vanish before argument of general approbation in favour of subjects imperfectly stated; it being always recollected, that "sense is the only source of excellence," whether applied to moral or physical disquisitions.

I must here offer my tribute of sincere respect to the Honorable Court of Directors, from a just sense of their able and unwearied

exertions in the laborious discharge of high and important duties of daily recurrence. These meritorious public characters are very inadequately remunerated for their faithful services; and it would certainly redound much to the honor of the proprietors if they were to do what all are sensible ought to be done, that is, to double at least, their scanty salaries. I trust so fair a measure will soon be carried into effect.

As a proprietor, Sir, I contemplate with pride the magnificent scene presented to our view in British India. The governor-general, who to splendid talents, to my knowledge, joins an excellent heart, has been forced into a just and necessary war. On the one side, we see judicious movements on well imagined and concentrating series of operation; and on the other, hostility without concert or co-operation of forces, powerful only by tactical precision, a quality totally wanting. A Mahratta army deprived of its artillery becomes little better than undisciplined hordes, formidable only as lawless plunderers. finest and best appointed army that ever took the field in the east must lead to the complete conquest of a country thus destined, it is hoped, for future happiness, and most probably for the propagation of the Christian religion, by the distribution of the Scriptures through the silent operation of time.

The

In such exalted considerations I find an ample sanction for any insignificant expense which the suggestions I have thrown out may involve; and sensible of the strength of the ground I stand on, I feel the strongest conviction that the court and the proprietors in general will coincide with me in opinion on the eligibility of adopting requisite and unobjectionable arrangements, calculated to afford beneficial and desirable consequences.

THREE STARS IN THE HOUSE.

the advantages and inconveniences that would attend this innovation. The first important advantage is the removal of all those evils which exist under the present regulation. People might then enter the service from choice. They would no longer be inclined to desert. The desire of starving themselves and hoarding up money would therefore be weaker. As they enter voluntarily they will learn their duty voluntarily, and direct their attention towards it. Harsh treatment would never be imagined where it did not exist, and where it did, the consciousness of its being transient would render it of easy endurance. No slight inconvenience would be magnified into a hardship; hardships, on the contrary, would dwindle into insignificance. As no one would desert, no one would be deterred from enlisting by the dissuasion of deserters. The army, also, would not be so frequently recruited. The second great advantage is, the prevalence of happiness and contentment. It has ever been deemed a matter of importance to induce the people governed to acquiesce in the government. That which is to be done, will be done willingly and that which is willingly done, will be better done. Need I mention, as a third advantage, the satisfaction which generous minds will receive from the consciousness of having diffused ease and felicity over so large a part of the human race? Let us now inquire what objections may be made to this proposal. I can discern but one. It can be

said that men who may depart af-
ter eight years service will gene-
rally do so; and that thus the ar-
my will suffer an octennial depri-
vation of hundreds of its experi-
enced veterans, and consequently
an octennial burthen of paying
and instructing hundreds of raw
and useless recruits. I reply that
those men who would accept their
dismissal if they could get it, would
dismiss themselves if they could
not; and that not one man of a
hundred that wish to desert, is kept
in the service by the fear of incur-
ring the penalties consequent on
desertion. He remains from a
hope either of promotion, or ob-
taining a pension, or being admit-
ted on the invalid establishment;
and these motives would have
equal efficacy in retaining him un-
der the system proposed. We may
therefore be almost positive, that
no more men would accept their
discharge after eight years service,
than will now desert after serving
that time. Now, if a man wish to
leave the service, he will desert; if
he wish to remain, those very rea-
sons that incline him, viz. the hope
of advancement, of a pension, &c.
will incline him equally when en-
gaged for a limited time. Thus
no injury whatever can result from
this method, but the most benefi-
cial effects are inevitable. I leave
the further consideration of this
subject to persons of maturer judg-
ment and greater experience.
I am, Sir,

Your humble servant,
SIPAHI.

SIR,-The countries around the Caspian and the regions of Caucasus are at this moment, to the observer of the political horizon, not to speak too strong, very interesting; the activity observable in that quarter has led several to prognos

ticate that the Russian influence which is gathering, may at no very distant period move forward, and burst over a large and most important portion of Asia with a violence that would probably alter both the internal condition of the

states visited by the storm, and would materially affect the British relations in the east. Under these circumstances, allow me to point out to your readers, who value the information literature affords respecting the countries forming the present position and frontiers of Russia, that we have not to this day a complete translation of a useful work on this subject published on the continent, and of which, from some unknown cause, the first volume only has ever been translated into English.

The English translator of M. de Klaproth's Travels to Caucasus and in Georgia, appears indeed to be ignorant that that work consists of three volumes, for he has produced to the English public the first alone, without the smallest indication that the work will have a continuation. In that solitary first volume, he omits not only the map of one portion of Caucasus which accompanies the original, but the greater part of the passages and citations in the Arabic and Georgian characters. I imagine that I shall render a service to your readers by giving them a short notice of the contents of the two succeeding volumes.

The thirty-sixth chapter of the work, which commences the second volume, contains a general description of all the countries peopled by the Georgian nation, that is to say of Georgia Proper, which includes Kankettrie, Mingrelia, Smeretti, Ghouria, and Laz, a savage race which inhabits the country between Balhounui and Trebisond; the author here discusses many geographical questions, and has some original observations respecting the course of the Phasis, and clearing up the defective description of Procopius. It appears that the Phasis of that writer is composed of three rivers, the Tscherimela, Dsiroula, Kivirila,and Rioni from Wartsikhe to its embouchure at the Black Sea.

During his stay at Tiflis in 1808,

Mr. Klaproth had translated a considerable portion of the Georgian chronicle, extracted by one of their kings, from the shelves of the convents. The translation comes down to the introduction of Christianity into Georgia at the beginning of the fourth century, and with extracts from various Georgian and Russian works forms a complete history of Georgia, from the remotest ages to the occupation by the Russians in 1802, when that ancient kingdom became a Russian province. The Georgians pretend that Alexander the Great conquered their country; they name all the fortresses which submitted to his arms. The history contains one hundred and seventy-seven pages in octavo, and supplies a considerable deficiency in our historical knowledge. At the end are tables of the genealogy of the kings of Imerethi, Kharthli, Kaskhlettri, who reigned from 1424, when Alexander the first divided his kingdom among his three sons, from which time the troubles of Georgia commenced. The thirtyeighth chapter contains a relation of a journey undertaken by the author to discover the sources of the Terek, which flow from the base of a lofty snowy mountain called Khokhi, in the valley of Tirtsi or Throusso, a savage tribe of Ossétes. Mr. de Klaproth is the first European who penetrated into that valley and discovered the sources of the Terek, which are laid down in our maps far too much to the eastward. In the next chapter is a journal of a short journey, undertaken to refute the opinion of Reineggs, who pretends that the river Alazoni, (the Alazonius of the ancients), divides into two branches, of which one discharges itself into the Aragur, and the other into the Kour. The course of the Yori, from north to south, between the Alazani and the Aragui, proves clearly that Reineggs is mistaken, as it is impossible that a river should cross