A Short History of the Bambay Presidency. By Edmund C.
Cox. (Thacker and Co.)—This is a useful, unpretending little book, which ought not to pass unnoticed. The writer combines with the accuracy and culture he acquired at Cambridge, the official experience and close acquaintance with the natives of India which he has gained while serving in the District Police, "weak after week [as he says] never seeing the face of a fellow-countryman." With these advan- tages, Mr. Cox has compiled a concise and well-arranged manual of the history of the Presidency with whioh he is most familiar, and of which the annals are most full of incident and interest. But that is not all ; he has prefaced his account of Bombay with a brief bat vivid description of the whole country from its earliest days—its etymology, institutions, languages invasions, dynasties —down to the first coming of the English in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Here and there the pages may seem somewhat overladen with facts and details—as, e g., in the incidents of the three Mahratta wars. But when Mr. Cox comes nearer to our times, his sketches of the administration of Elphinstone and Malcolm, and Lords Auckland, Ellenborough, Harding, and Dalhousie, are short, clear, pointed, and independent in tone, It is gratifying to learn from one with such excellent opportunities for judging, that, notwith- standing all their poverty, helplessness, and excess of population, the masses both in British India and in the Native States were never better off than now in any previous stage of their history, while increased trade and improved administration tend every year to improve their condition. Mr. Cox notices one carious item in the increase of comfort,—viz., that in a single year nearly four million umbrellas were imported. We welcome this excellent little work, readable throughout, and accurate wherever we have tested it,— though, by.the.way, Vasco da Gama "sailing up to the shores of India," must have east, and not weighed (sic) anchor in the harbour of Kilikat.
Previous page
