The British Government has officially and formally recog- nised the
King of Siam as the secular head of Buddhism throughout Asia,—a very odd incident. It has come about in this way. In January last a number of relics of Gautama Muni were found in the Nepalese Terai on a property belonging to Mr. W. C. Peppe. That gentleman placed the relics, which appear to be authentic, and include a large stone coffer weighing 16 cwt. and some crystal and steatite vases, at the disposal of the Indian Government, which offered them to the King ofiSiam as the only existing Buddhist Monarch, the other one, the King of Burmah, having been dethroned by the British. The King accepted them eagerly, and is this week sending an Embassy to receive them with all honour and ceremonial. We suppose the Indian Government is well informed, but we should ourselves have thought that the relics would have been better bestowed in some:monastery of Ceylon. Really learned Buddhists are hardly to be found elsewhere, and the priesthood of the island are acknowledged by all Buddhists to preserve the faith and its doctrines in their greatest purity. Still, his true that there is now only one Buddhist Sovereign, as there are only three orthodox Mussulmans who actually reign—the Sultan, the Shereef of Morocco, and the Ameer—and ono Christian Sovereign—Menelek—who is not of the " audacious race of Japhet." There were two till lately, but her Hawaiau Majesty is, we suppose, to-day an American subject.
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