GUIDES TO TILE EAST INDIES.

Ulna the form of Advice to persons bound for India, Miss ROBERTS has produced an interesting description of the economy and manner of life both in India and during the voyage. Begin- ning with the choice of a cabin and ladies' outfit, she lets her reader into all the practical and every-day peculiarities of a sea voyage in a great Indian trader ; which arc rightly passed over by the traveller as too minute, seeing that they must of necessity take the shape of personal complaint or remark. The expositions on domestic economy, diet, clothing, and the management of house- hold airlifts, whether in the Presidencies or at the stations scattered throughout that vast continent, present to us, in like manner, a clearer idea of the mode of living amongst the Anglo-English, the character of the Indian servants, and the nature of the climate, than narratives of a more ambitious kind devoted to the purpose : the thermometer, or a tourist's complaint of weather, does not con- vey so exact an idea as a direction for the kind of dress that will be required at a certain season. A veteran, like most veterans, garrulous, adverse to Lord WILLIAM. lius•rtsca, and with strong feelings in favour of' what his vocation was, gives a full description

of the three branches into which the Company's civil service is divided, the advantages offered by cads, and the hest course for young men to follow in order to rise in their profession. Various friends and correspondents have furnished Miss Rointars with diets and opinions relative to the conduct and prospects of cadets in the military service, which she has put together, bringing her own experience to assist in the task. We are thus enabled to get a pretty good idea of the rubs, struggles, and economics of an officer in the Company's Army, from the cost of his uniform and the cheapest way of getting it, up to the troubles and responsibilities of courts-martial. The Medical Service—said to be under-paid, ill-treated, offering very slender prospects of retirement with a competency, at least until thirty years' service, and with which the Indian Government has often broken thith—is also treated elabo- rately. Under Desultory Remarks upon the office of Chaplain, we catch glimpses of religion and religious notions in Hindostan. It appears that opinion does not allow a eh:suntan to be present at balls, or any lighter amusements : hence his circle is limited ; a few "patent Christians," arrogating to themselves the title of "religious," shut hint in, and the worldly out—to the injury, as Miss ROBERTS conceives, of religion, which is made to appear morose, and with no advantage to the lighter morals or the tone of society, both of which would be benefited by the check that inter- course with a clergyman would impose. It requires a nice judgment and delicate hand to preach before the Anglo-Indian congregations at the interior stations : the denunciation of a particular vice is considered a personal allusion to those guilty or suspected---

"Each cries, that was levelled at me."

The Mahometans and ilindoos regard an English clergyman, more properly perhaps a Company's clergyman, with high respect and reverence. Any thing in the shape of a priest, though of a rival religion, seems to impose upon the mind in a certain stage of intellectual advancement. He is probably considered a sort of agent of the Deity.

The volume closes with an appendix of specific intbrmation, and an account of the overland journey to India by Suez and the Red Sea, with its cost. The time occupied is estimated at two months ; allowing twenty days and upwards for sojourns its cities on the route. The passage to Bombay may be done, it is said, for 801. ; but a bill of an actual expenditure (page 226) snakes it 1541. Miss ROBERTS strongly recommends the excursionizing public, to extend their trips to India ; which, by attention to the seasons, can be accomplished, else says, not only without danger to health, but with comfort. A little while, however, and we shall be able to leave the heated plains behind. The establishment of a s3stematic steam navigation on the Indus, will render the Himalayas as acces- sible as the Alps.

The manner of the East India 'Villager is as agreeable as its matter is curiously instructive. To the general reader many of the facts will seem minute ; but, looking at the persons for whom the volume is primarily designed, this is a necessity and a merit. The chief defect of the book was not easily guarded against. Depend- ing for souse of her information upon interested persons, whose materials she might to a certain extent feel obliged to use, Miss ROBERTS has sometimes filled her pages with grievances, and matters not necessary to her object, and scarcely within its scope. Trajafidt. The days of fortune-making ill India are passed ;

the age of nabobs is gone. Judging from the statements and often from the specific figures in the work before us, a respectable provi- sion for life—a competence during the service in India, and a re- tiring allowance, handsome enough in mane cases, but not more than sufficient to support them in the station they have been accustomed to—is all that Indian adventurers can now hope for.

tion in the way of expending it. In the civil service, a young man should have 4001. to provide the outfit and other things necessary for his station. The first cost of the military seems less ; the pay being lower ; but the particulars are not given with sufficient fulness for the Line, at least without involving long calculations. The outfit of a Second Lieutenant of Artillery, on his first joining, is about 200/.; to which must be added, some S01. more when he takes the field. The Infantry is rather less perhaps, the Cavalry as much or more : and in this nothing is set down for casualties, or those ex- penses which though not compulsory are necessary. If these out- fits are procured by borrowing, the creditor is looked upon as a lost man : at the best, insurance and Indian interest eat bins sip ; but generally he gets into the hands of natives, who, weaving the web of debts around hint, gradually supersede his servants by their own creatures, who of course fleece him at every turn : and, if he rise in the civil service, the same system is followed in his public office, and his power is used for the purposes of corruption, till, not unfre- quently, the conscious but powerless debtor is denounced, disgraced, and dismissed. EVCII if a youth is started free from debt, it re- quires some prudence and self-control on his part to live within his income for the first few years; • the emoluments of subalterns having been so cut down by reform and retrenchment. Great interest, of course, will in India, as elsewhere, do great timings; but the good appointments within the hope of merely Company ser- vants are very few—the cream is with the Home Government and the chief' Directors. " Lucky Tom" was a lucky fellow ; and many other good things were no doubt carved out when the Charter was renewed. The Whigs have trampled upon principle, quenched the spirit of Reform, destroyed their party,, nd lost their charac- ters—but they have feathered their nests.

In the sketch of the religious feelings in India, there are some sensible observations on the impolicy of direct interference with

the prejudices of the natives ; which may be read with advantage by persons whose opinions are founded on ill-judging zeal instead of pure fanaticism, fbr the last class are inaccessible to reason. In the course of her remarks Miss ROBERTS points out one curious circumstance—

INDIAN OBSERVANCE OF CHRIETIAN FESTIVALS.

It is perhaps very difficult for persons who have never been in India to dis- criminate between the actual sanction of idolatrous practices and the necessity of keeping the peace upon occasions of religious ceremonies. Interference with the prejudices of the natives, and especially those respecting the forms pre Scribed by their creed, would he highly impolitic, and even dangerous; and though possibly, in the desire to conciliate, some of the authorities of India may have inadvertently given reason to suppose that they believed in the pre- tcm.imts put liirth by the Brahmins in favour of their gods, in general we have confined ourselves to hare courtesies, which cannot convey any impression of the kind.. The Hindoos and the Vishommedans go much further in the re- spect which they pay to our religious festivals; and no one can accuse them of regarding the Christian religion as superior to their own. Were they as well acquainted with the circumstance of our keeping Easter, they would come with their offerings; hot Christmas is the only festival belonging to the Pro- testant Church of which they are at all aware, and every European resident finds his house adorned with garlands upon that day. Large trees, plantains especially, are taken up ley the roots and stuck in the ground close to the pillars of the verandah, which are wreathed in festoons with flowers and fruit. Should the plantains take root and flourish, it is considered to be a lucky omen. and they are anxious to afford us all the advantage of it. The Ayalis delight in dressing their ladies fbr church, and the other servants attend upon the equi- pages with great alacrity ; the whole surrounding community showing by every means in their power their willingness to evince their respect for a day cele- brated by us in commemoration of great event to which we owe our salva- tion. For myself, lam not ashamed to say, that the first Christmas-day which I spent in India was ushered in IT a flood of tears. When 1 saw the house decorated with garlands, and the servants coming with flowers in their hands as gifts, and making more than their usual number of salaams, I was deeply af- fected by being thus saluted by Pagans in a Pagan land. The guns which we cause to be tired at their festivals are nothing more than a return fur these gracious offices, and are considered exactly in the same point of view.

'file fact seems to be. that with the Indians, as with the mass of uneducated men, religion is rather a superstitious habit than a faith.

MECHANICAL INGENUITY OF THE NATIVES.

Instances frequently occur when it is of consequence that some person should lie found upon the spot adequate to the undertaking of works of im- portance, which otherwise must be postponed until the arrival of an officer of Engineers. The principles of road-making should always be understood, to- gether with the construction of temporary bridges, rafts, and, in fact, an ac- quaintance with mechanics of every kind may be turned to good account in

India ; where Europeans are continually thrown amongst expert workmen, who are perfectly ignorant of science, and who, though following with great precision the instructions which they receive. can originate nothing. Many officers in India superintend the building of their (MIL carriages, turning out very handsome equipages in remote stations, where It vehicle of the kind had never been seen before ; others make up articles of furniture in the same way in their own houses; for labour being cheap, and the greater part of the mate- rials required at hand, there is no difficulty whatsoever in procuring any thing after a given. pattern. The armorer of a native regiment made some excel- lent Italian-irons from a model cut in paper, while a common carpenter con- structed very beautiful bird-cages, though he had never seen any thing of the kind before, from a pattern cut in pasteboard, and strung with cotton threads.

CALCUTTA roll CONVENIENCE.

There is perhaps no place in which every thing essential for an establishment can be obtained so easily as at Calcutta : carriages and horses are to be hired at it not unreasonable rate, palanquins by the day or half-day, and servants of all descriptions of a very respectable close also by the day ; these people arc called tisca, and if recommended by individuals of known gond character, may lie trusted. A whole house may be furnished from the bazaars in the course of a few hours, with articles either of an expensive or an economical descrip- tion, according to the means of the purchaser, a well-filled purse answering all the purposes of Aladdin's wonderful lamp. Never was there a place in which there are greater bargains ; for, if sales happen to be frequent, the most costly articles, carriages, horses, ttc. are to be bad. for a mere sung.

DIETETICS IN INDIA.

Thum is only attainable in the civil and military service ; not always The subject of diet is one in which persons going out to India rather late there ; and never without some capital to start with, and instruc- l ill life, usually feel great anxiety and alarm, and in their determination t0

avoid any thing like excess, they frequently fall into the opposite extreme. Two of the Bishops who died in Calcutta were said to have sacrificed them- selves to abstinence, tarried to too great an extent. It is of course impossible to prescribe a regimen which will suit every constitution, and each individual must be guided by experience, and the knowledge he has attained of what is hurtful, or the reverse. Many persons are afraid to touch fruit, which never- theless may be eaten in moderation, with advantage. A certain quantity of stimulant seems absolutely necessary, taken in the shape of wine, beer, or weak brandy and water, but every body should discourage as much as possible the habit of drinking between meals; iced water is to many persons a pleasant and a wholesome stimulant, soda-water, taken in moderation, is also very agreeable and salutary, and occasionally a tea-spoonful of sal-volatile in a tumbler full of cold water will be found beneficial. The native servants pre- pare many kinds of sherbets of the most palatable description, but it is ad- visable topartake very sparingly of them, a wine-glassful of milk punch in a tumbler of cold water, forms a refreshing drink, the small quantity of spirit contained preventing the acid from disagreeing. Beer is a good thing in mode- ration, but should not be drunk between meals ; it is difficult when thirst is ex- cessive to refrain, but it should be borne in mind, that the means employed are never adequate to the end, encouraging rather than preventing the evil: those who drink frequently, soon finding their thirst unquenchable. Hot ten, and all cold weak liquids bring on attacks of prickly heat, but these the sufferer must learn to bear, since there is neither prevention nor cure. The only safe allevia- tion is the application of powder, or when friction can he borne, warns soap and water rubbed with a flannel on the part affected. Prickly heat is occasioned by very minute blisters suddenly rising on the skin, and tilled with water at a boiling pitch, the pain it produces being sometimes so violent as only to be coin- pared to cutting with knives.

Mr. KERR'S Few Words of Advice to Cadets is of a more limited and directly practical nature than the East India Voyager ; but, so far as he treats of the same subjects, Mr. KERR agrees in all essential points with Miss ROBERTS. It is singular that he is more particular in his advice to young ladies touching their conduct during the voyage, than the lady ; as well as to young men respect- ing what are called "native connexions." His Red Book or official information is very full—fuller than that of Miss ROBERTS.