The appointment of masters and the government of the school are vested in twelve governors, who supply vacancies in their number as they occur. No boys are admitted into the school except on the foundation, and they are all selected from the parish of Bolton. The children of dissenters are admitted if they are willing to conform to the rules of the school. The only payment is one shilling on entrance to the head master, who superintends the whole school, and has a class of thirty, who are instructed by himself chiefly in Latin and Greek. In the lower school the second master teaches English, geography, and the rudiments of Latin. The boys both in the upper and lower school attend the writing-master, and receive instruction according to their capacities in writing, arithmetic, algebra, and mathematics: French has been discontinued. The boys learn the Church Catechism and read other religious books, principally selected from those published by the Christian Knowledge Society. Among the masters who have presided over this school are Robert Ainsworth, the compiler of the Latin dictionary, and Dr. Lempriere, the author of the Classical Dictionary.'

At another school, endowed by Mr. Nathaniel Hulton, in School-street, Moor-lane, 120 boys and 80 girls are instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography, and the girls in sewing, on the system of the British and Foreign School Society. It was not founded by the testator, but established in 1794, by his trustees, in compliance with his will, out of the surplus proceeds of money bequeathed for other purposes. The children pay a small sum weekly towards their education.

Marsden's and Popplewell's Charity-school, in Churchgate, was founded in 1714, for teaching twenty children, boys and girls, reading and the church catechism, without any charge. Mrs. Susannah Brookes left a further sum to instruct twelve more in the same manner, and latterly another considerable bequest has been received from the executors of the late Mr. Popplewell, which will soon render it desirable to place the school in a situation more adapted to its usefulness to the labouring classes. (Report of Commissioners concerning Charities, pp. 155-176.) The number of private day-schools in Bolton is about eighty; of which forty-four are for children between the ages of three and nine; fifteen for girls only, from five upwards; seven for boys only, of the same age; and the rest for pupils of both sexes, between the ages of four and twelve. The number of children educated in Sunday schools is very considerable, as may be seen from the following statement, taken with some of the above particulars from the Journal of Education (No. xvii. p. 74) :—

Besides these institutions, funds are raised for the establishment of two new schools, one in each of the townships, on the system of the British and Foreign School Society, for the education of a thousand children, 600 boys and 400 girls. In addition to the school charities, considerable sums are distributed to the poor from various bequests connected with the town. From Hulton's Charity, 251.; Parker's, 5l.; Gosnell's Charity, 5l.; Crompton's Charity, 77. 108.; Astley's Charity, 31.; Cocker's Charity, 57. 98.; Aspendell's Charity, 51. 158.; Mort's Charity, 17.; Lomax's Charity, 1. 108.; Greenhalgh's Charity, 47. 108.; and Popplewell's Charity, 301. (Report of Commissioners concerning Charities, 1828, pp. 168-184.)

The dispensary was established in 1814, and is liberally supported. A clothing society, and a society for the relief of poor women during child-birth, are supported chiefly by

business of which has undergone a most extraordinary diminution since the Poor-Law Bill came into operation.

There is a large weekly market on Mondays and Saturdays, well supplied with all sorts of provisions and vegetables. There are two annual fairs, one on the 31st of July, and the other on the 14th of October, for hardware, toys, &c., and on the day preceding each is a fair for horned cattle. A fortnight fair is also held for lean cattle on Wednesdays, from the 5th of January to the 12th of May. A newspaper, under the title of the 'Bolton Chronicle,' is published every Saturday. (Communication from Bolton.)

BOMB, the original name of what is now called a shell, is a hollow globe of iron, which, when charged with a certain quantity of gunpowder, is projected from a mortar or howitzer, generally at a considerable angle with the horizon; in order that, by the momentum acquired in its descent, it may crush the roofs, and, by exploding, destroy the buildings on which it may fall. The name is thought to have been given as an expression of the sound produced either in the explo sion, or at its discharge from the piece of artillery employed to project it.

It is said by Strada, in his account of the wars in the Low Countries, that bombs were employed for the first time in 1588 by Ernest, the father of Charles, Count of Mansfeldt, at the siege of Wachtendonk, a town near Gelders. He adds that they were invented, a few days before that siege commenced, by an inhabitant of Venlo; and it is stated that the people of this city, wishing to exhibit the invention in presence of the Duke of Cleves, discharged a bomb, which falling on one of the houses set fire to it, and, the flames spreading, three fourths of the town were destroyed before they could be extinguished. (Père Daniel, Histoire de la Milice Française, liv. vii. chap. 6.) But Grose relates that a French translation, made in 1555, of a work by Valturinus, was accompanied by a print representing a cannon just fired, with a ball in the air and another on the ground, both of which were burning at the vent. A title to the print denoted that this was a contrivance for firing a ball filled with powder; and as the first edition of Valturinus is dated 1472, it appears from thence that bombs must have been invented about the middle of the fifteenth century. Blondel however, in his treatise entitled L'Art de Jetter les Bombes, remarks that bombs were used by the French for the first time in 1634, at the siege of La Mothe, under the direction of one Malthus, an English engineer, who was invited from Holland by Louis XIII., and was afterwards killed at the siege of Gravelines.

In 1688 there was cast in France an enormous bomb, which is said to have been in the form of an egg, and to have been capable of containing 7000 or 8000 pounds of powder; it was nine feet long and five feet in diameter, and the iron was six inches thick. The bomb was to have been discharged against the Algerines, and the ship in which it was embarked was to have been blown up with it. It was not however employed, probably in consequence of an opinion that it would not have had the intended effect, and no attempt has since been made to project such an immense mass of metal. While the Citadel of Antwerp was besieged by the French army in 1832, shells twenty-four inches in diameter were thrown from the largest mortar which has been employed in modern warfare; the shell or bomb was capable of containing ninety-nine pounds of powder, and when charged weighed 1015 pounds.

The word bomb being now nearly superseded, except as a component in those which express the subjects of the three following articles, and in the term bombardier, which is applied to the soldier whose duty it is to serve the ordnance from which shells are projected, the description of this missile will with most propriety be introduced under the words which denote the different species at present in use: as CARCASS, CASE-SHOT, GRENADE, and SHELL.

BOMB-PROOF. This name is given to a military magazine, or other building, when its roof has sufficient thickness to resist the shock of shells falling on it, after being projected from mortars at considerable elevation. Under the word BLINDAGE is given the construction of such buildings of timber as are intended to secure troops or artillery from the effects of what are called vertical fires; and under the word CASEMATE is shown that of the vaults which are formed in the masses of ramparts to serve for the like purposes. A bomb-proof, however, is generally understood to signify an isolated building, rectangular on the plan, formed of brick or stone and covered with a vaulted

roof of the same material. The intrados, or interior line,
in a vertical and transverse section of the vault, is sometimes
a semicircle, but now more generally a parabola; and the
exterior surface of the roof has the form of two inclined
planes meeting in a ridge which is parallel to the sides of
the building and over the middle of its breadth. By this
construction the greatest thickness is given to the crown, or
upper part, where a falling shot or shell would be most in-
jurious to the stability of the vault. It is intended to serve
as a powder, or store-magazine, an hospital, or to cover a
battery of guns or mortars; and when constructed in a
fortress for the first of these purposes, it should not only be
isolated, but should also be situated in some spot at a dis-
tance from the fronts likely to be attacked, and secured
as much as possible against accidents.

under CHEIROSTEMON. No bombaceous plants are found
far beyond the tropics.
BOMBARDIER, a non-commissioned officer of the royal
regiment of artillery, whose duty it is to load shells, grenades,
&c.; to make and fix the fuzes, and who is particularly ap-
pointed to the service of mortars and howitzers. A certain
number of bombardiers are attached to each company of
artillery.
BOMBARDMENT. This is the action of throwing
shells, carcasses, and shot into an enemy's town in order to
destroy the buildings, and chiefly the military magazines;
for which purpose mortar, howitzer, and gun-batteries are
constructed in convenient situations, generally opposite to
the most densely inhabited quarters. If the town is a sea-
port, bomb-vessels also are moored along the shore, and the
firing is kept up simultaneously on the land and sea-sides
of the place.

As the details of the construction and uses of such buildings are given under MAGAZINE, it is only necessary to observe here, that the span, or interior width of a bombproof vault, is usually about eighteen feet, and the thickness of the arch three feet at the hances or sides. But the extrados, or exterior of the vault, should be covered with a bed of earth about five feet deep, to deaden the concussion produced by the shells which may strike it; this earth should be renewed as fast as it is blown away by the explosions, to prevent the shell from falling on the naked vault, for, as each shell would tear off the masonry to the depth of two or three inches, it is evident that the building would be totally destroyed after a few successive shocks.

When an army invests a fortress, whether it proceed against it by the operations of a regular siege, or simply keep it in a state of blockade, a bombardment is one of the means resorted to in order to accelerate the surrender, by rendering its occupation dangerous to the citizens, and ruining the buildings in which the ammunition is secured, or in which the garrison while not on duty find repose. Among civilised nations it has become a principle to spare as much as possible the lives and property of individuals who are not actually engaged in the military service of the state against which an army is employed; since, besides the cruelty of acting otherwise, the end thereby to be gained, which is the final termination of hostilities, is not in the smallest degree advanced. The practice of besieging fortresses is now so far reduced to a regular process that the time of their surrender may be confidently anticipated by so employing the artillery, that, while it effectually dismounts that of the enemy, and lays the rampart in ruins in the ditch, it scarcely produces the smallest injury to any but the defenders of the works: hence the simple bombardment of towns occurs so much less frequently now than in former times, and no circumstance is considered as a justification of the measure except the absolute inability to reduce a place by other means.

BOMB-VESSEL, a ship of about 350 tons burthen, usually forming part of a fleet intended by a bombardment to destroy or compel the surrender of some town situated on the sea-coast. It carries one 13 inch and one 10 inch mortar, besides two 6-pounder guns, one 12-pounder, and eight 24-pounder carronades; the crew consists of sixtyseven men, with the usual complement of officers for ships of the same class, besides a detachment of marine artillerymen, with their officers, for the service of the guns and mortars. The mortars are mounted on their beds, which are placed on traversing platforms in the middle of the gundeck, and they may be fired over either side of the ship at elevations never less than 45°. In taking their stations previously to a bombardment, it is desirable that the vessels should keep beyond the range of the enemy's batteries, and that they should have springs upon their cables.

For particulars concerning the ordnance and stores on board of bomb-vessels, and for the management of the latter when in action, see the British Gunner, by Captain M. Spearman.

When a town is, from the fate of war, about to become
subject to a bombardment, the garrison should endeavour to
retard the calamity by the erection of advanced works about
the place, or by keeping troops in the suburbs and neigh-
bouring villages as long as possible. By this measure pro-
visions, materials, and even workmen will be obtained in
abundance for the service of the defenders; the inhabitants
of the fortress also, finding that the garrison is not shut up
BOMBA'CEÆ, a group of plants considered by some a within the walls, will be inspired with confidence in its pro-
distinct natural order, by others as a mere section of Ster-tecting power, and thus induced to suffer less unwillingly
culiaceae. They are usually large trees, with broad deep- the privations and dangers to which they must inevitably
green leaves, and flowers of considerable size. Technically become exposed. The enemy moreover will be compelled
they differ from Malvaceae in having two cells to their either to abstain from constructing a line of countervalla-
anthers, which are often doubled down upon themselves, tion, as it is called, to prevent the sorties of the garrison;
in their calyx opening in an irregular rather than a valvate or, if such is attempted, the line must be so extensive as to
manner, and in their stamens being usually collected into require a long time for its formation, and the works consti-
five parcels. Their anthers are often described as having tuting it must be so far asunder as to render it impossible
only one cell; but this is an inaccurate mode of speaking of to watch the avenues of the place with sufficient care to
them, inasmuch as they are formed upon the common two- prevent all communication between the town and country.
celled type, and merely have the cells united at the point of The power of acting offensively may thus be not wholly
the connective.
taken away from the garrison, and the enemy may be kept
at such a distance as to lessen materially the effect of the
bombardment. What has been said must not be understood
to imply that any village, suburb, or building, which, by
falling into the power of the enemy, might facilitate his
operations, is not to be destroyed before he can get posses-
sion of it; but it is evident that the object in view, which is
the preservation of the place, and of its docks and arsenals,
if it be a naval station, will be most effectually obtained by
keeping the enemy as long as possible at a distance from
them beyond the range of his artillery.

This group contains some of the most majestic and beauti-
ful trees that are known, but nothing of much medical or
economical importance is furnished by them. Their wood
is light and spongy; the long cottony substance found
within their fruit, and which has gained for some of them
the name of cotton-trees, is too short in the staple to be
manufactured into linen; and the slightly acid or mucila-
ginous qualities that occur in the group are altogether in-
ferior to those of many Malvacea. Adansonia, or the Bao-
bab tree, already mentioned in its proper place, is one of them.
It is remarkable for the excessive thickness of its trunk as The garrison must of course employ a fire of the heaviest
compared with its height, and this is a character of common artillery to destroy the enemy's batteries as soon as they are
Several American species spread enormously formed. The casemates and blinded buildings in the town
near the ground, forming huge buttresses with the angles should be repaired and multiplied; and the ammunition
of their trunk. This is especially the case with the genus should be kept in small quantities in each, in order to avoid
Eriodendron, which is moreover often defended by very the loss and damage which would be occasioned by the ex-
large conical prickles, which do not fall off till they are plosion of a large and full magazine; for which reason also,
exfoliated by the gradual distention of the trunk. Among it should be disposed in the quarters least subject to the
these plants is a singular instance of a flower resembling fire of the enemy. Wells and cisterns should be protected
the paw of some animal. The tree which produces so strange by shell-proof blindages, the fire-engines carefully secured,
a conformation is called the Manita, and will be described and companies of men formed whose duty should be to

occurrence.

proceed immediately with the engines to any spot where a
fire may have broken out. The utmost intrepidity is re-
quired in men employed on this service, which is rendered
particularly dangerous, because the enemy always continues
to direct his fire towards any spot at which flames are seen
to rise, in order to prevent if possible the defenders from
extinguishing them. When red-hot shot are thrown into a
town, men should also be appointed to seek them and, by
pincers or otherwise, remove them to places where they can
do no harm.

A strict police is to be maintained, and every precaution used to prevent conspiracies among the citizens for delivering up the place. For now, since the loss of a town does not, as in antient warfare, entail upon the inhabitants the loss of life or liberty, it is easy to conceive that their interest in their property must unavoidably lead them to desire the cessation of the bombardment, though at the price of the transfer of the town to the enemies of their country; and it must be expected that they will use every means in their power, whether of persuasion or force, to compel the commander to surrender.

The most celebrated bombardments mentioned in history are those of Gibraltar, Copenhagen, and Algiers. The first of these places was invested on the land-side by a Spanish army, which was afterwards united to that of France, and on the sea-side by the combined fleets of the two nations. The investment took place in 1779, but no remarkable actions occurred till 1782. The town was twice distressed for want of provisions; the highest works of the fortress, though 1340 feet above the level of the enemy's batteries, were destroyed by shells from the latter several times; attempts were also made by the besiegers both to fire the ships in the harbour, and to annoy the British army by gun-boats.

On the other hand, the garrison was employed in strengthening the old fortifications and adding new batteries, and in making occasional sorties against the Spanish lines. In the last mentioned year, however, the besiegers converted some of their large ships into floating batteries, which, on September 13, commenced a tremendous fire on the town, while the land-batteries cannonaded the works in flank and rear; the garrison, in return, paying little attention to these, poured on the ships a corresponding fire of carcasses, shells, and red-hot balls. This work of destruction continued on both sides till about seven or eight P.M., when it nearly ceased. The utmost confusion and distress by this time prevailed in the fleet of the besiegers; several of their largest ships caught fire, and two of them blew up with tremendous explosion. The general peace, which was made in the beginning of the next year, put an end to this memorable siege after it had been carried on nearly four years.

The bombardment of Copenhagen took place in 1807, and was effected by a British army under Lord Catheart, which closely invested the city on the land-side, while the fleet under Admiral Gambier blockaded the harbour. The fire from the land-batteries and bomb-vessels opened on the evening of September 2, and continued till the night of September 4, when a capitulation took place. In this bombardment the rockets invented by Sir William Congreve were used for the first time, and it is said that the cathedral, with above three hundred houses, was destroyed by the shot and shells which were thrown into the town. The last action of this nature occurred in 1816, when the united fleets of England and Holland, consisting of fifteen ships of war, besides gun-boats, under the command of Lord Exmouth, bombarded Algiers. The firing continued during twelve hours, in which time all the enemy's ships in the harbour were destroyed and great part of the town.

BOMBAY, an island on the western coast of Hindustan, lying off the shore of the Concan in the province of Bejapore. The town, which is at the south-eastern extremity of the island, is in 18° 56′ N. lat., and 72° 57' E. long. It lies to the south of the island of Salsette, which is considered to be a dependency of Bombay; the two islands are connected by a causeway which was constructed in 1805 by Mr. Duncan, at that time governor of the presidency.

Bombay is little more than eight miles long from north to south, and about three miles broad in its widest part. It is formed by two ranges of whinstone rock of unequal length, running parallel to each other on opposite sides of the island, and at the distance of between two and three miles from each other. The eastern range is about seven and the western about five miles long; and they are

united at the north and south by belts of sandstone which rise only a few feet above the level of the sea. The interior of the island was formerly liable to be flooded so as to give to the whole the appearance of a group of small islands. This flooding is now prevented by the construction of several substantial works which keep out the spring-tides, but as the lower parts of the island are ten or twelve feet under high-water mark, a great part of the interior is, during the rainy season, reduced to a swamp. The site of the new town of Bombay is subject to this disadvantage, so that during the continuance of the wet monsoon the houses are separated from each other by water sometimes for seven or eight months of the year: this spot was recovered from the sea in the latter part of the last century.

The natural difficulties of the island must have prevented any settlement upon it by Europeans but for the advantages of its position for commerce, and its harbour, which is unequalled for safety throughout the British Empire in India. This excellent harbour, on account of which the island received its name (Bom Bahia) from the Portuguese, is bounded on the north and west by the islands of Salsette, Bombay, and Colabba, or Old Woman's Island, which last is a small island or narrow promontory, naturally connected by a mass of rock, which rises near the surface of the water," with the south-east extremity of Bombay, and now united to it by a causeway which is overflowed at spring-tides. The cantonments for the European troops are situated on Colabba. On the east side of the harbour, about four miles from Bombay, is Butcher's Island, and behind this the island of Elephanta, celebrated for its caves and temples, and which is only five miles from the Mahratta shore. Three miles south of Butcher's Island and five miles east from Bombay is Caranja Island, on the western side of which is an extensive shoal. The entrance to the harbour thus formed is between Colabba and Caranja Islands, or rather between the shoal just mentioned and a reef of rocks surrounding on all sides the point of Colabba, and extending about three miles to the southward. The channel between these is about three miles wide, and seven to eight fathoms deep. In entering the harbour it is necessary to clear a sunken rock and a bank which occur in the passage. There is a light-house built on the southern extremity of Colabba Island, 150 feet above the level of the sea, which may be seen seven leagues off the coast.

There is no other important harbour in British India where the rise and fall of the tides are sufficient to admit of the formation of wet docks: the rise at ordinary springtides is fourteen feet: occasionally it is three feet higher.

In the age of the Periplus this island, then called Kalliena, was little frequented. It had previously been an established commercial port, but Sandanes, one of the sovereigns of Barugaza, prohibited any of the Egyptian trading vessels from entering the harbour, and if any were compelled to do so by accident or stress of weather, a guard was immediately put on board, and they were taken to Barugaza.

Bombay was ceded by the Moguls to the Portuguese in 1530, and came into the possession of the English on the marriage of Charles II. with the Infanta Catherine of Portugal. By the marriage-contract the king was to receive 500,000l. in money, the town of Tangier, in Africa, and the island of Bombay with its dependencies, together with permission for his subjects to carry on a free trade with all the Portuguese settlements in India and Brazil. A fleet o five ships of war, commanded by the earl of Marlborough with 500 soldiers on board, was sent to receive possession of Bombay, where they arrived on the 18th September, 1662. Under the pretext that the instrument by which the sovereignty of the island was made over did not accord with the usages of Portugal, but really, as it is said, instigated by the priests, who could not endure the thought of surrendering the place to heretics, the Portuguese governor refused to complete the cession, and the fleet returned to England. This matter was not arranged between the two governments until 1664, when possession was taken in the name of the king of England by Mr. Cooke, and Bombay has since that time remained in the possession of the English. The trade carried on from this settlement by officers in the king's service, who paid no freight for the goods which they received from Europe, and who consequently were able to undersell the factors of the East India Company, caused great dissatisfaction on the part of that corporation; and on

ndstone whe jea. The in be flooded

a group

ented by th ich keep he island

a great par reduced to AV 13 Subar uance of

ch other of the year tter part a

According to a valuation made in 1813 the buildings within the walls were worth rather more than one million sterling, and the rent of houses, including the annual value of the Company's buildings, was 52,7367.

Since the first occupation of the island by the English, its resident population has increased more than tenfold. At that time it amounted to about 15,000. In 1716 the number was 16,000, and in 1816, 161,550, divided into the following classes:

Do.

British residents, not military
military and marine
Native Christians, Armenians, and descend-
ants of Portuguese

Jews

Mohammedans

Hindus

Parsees

1,840 2,460

11,500

800

28,000

103,800

13,150

161,550

Including the fluctuating population, which is at all times very great, it is estimated that Bombay at this time contains 229,000 souls. The number of houses, according to the government census in 1816, was 20,786. The floating population, being drawn together by commercial pursuits from various parts of India, is necessarily of a very mixed character, and consists principally of Persians, Arabs, Mahrattas, Carnatas, Portuguese, Indians from Goa, and a great number of sailors. The lower classes of residents occupy small clay huts withoutside the fort, thatched with palmyra leaves. There is only one English church, which is within the fort. Portuguese and Armenian churches are numerous both within and without the walls; there are mosques and Hindu temples; the largest Hindu temple, which is about a mile and a half from the fort, is dedicated to Momba Devi.

the other hand, the expenses which the settlement occasioned beyond the revenue to the king made him willing to transfer the island to the Company. The instrument by which this transfer was effected bears date 1668, and states that the island is 'to be held of the king in free and common soccage, as of the manor of East Greenwich, on the payment of the annual rent of 107. in gold on the 30th September in each year.' With the place itself the Company received authority to exercise all political powers necessary for its defence and government. Bombay is therefore the oldest of the East India Company's settlements in Hindustan, and the terms upon which it was acquired first invested them with that political power which they have since exercised in India. In 1674-5 a mutiny broke out in Bombay, but was easily repressed, when the ringleaders were tried and executed, the Company then first exercising the power of enforcing martial law. Another insurrection in 1683 was not so easily quelled. The commander of the troops, dissatisfied with the proceedings of the Company, and being joined by the soldiers as well as the great body of the settlers, renounced the authority of the Company, and by a proclamation dated Dec. 27, 1683, declared that the island belonged to the king. This proceeding was not approved by the crown, and orders were sent to deliver the island to the officers of the Company, who were directed to proceed by force to their execution. It was only under the promise of free pardon to all the insurgents that possession was obtained, and at this time it was deemed expedient to guard against any similar insurrection in future by transferring to Bombay the seat of the Company's government in India, which had previously been placed at Surat. In 1687 the title of regency was given to the administration at Bombay, and unlimited power over the rest of the Com-likewise three Jewish synagogues, and a great number of pany's settlements in the East was given to the governor. The only natural vegetable production of the island, with the exception of some rank grasses, was the cocoa-nut tree, which grew very abundantly, it being a property of that tree to be uninjured by sea-water. It was necessary to clear away great numbers of this tree in order to erect the fort and buildings of the town. The spots capable of being cultivated in the island will hardly yield a week's supply of provisions for its inhabitants, who are dependent upon the farmers and gardeners of Salsette, which is well cultivated. The fort and town of Bombay stand (principally on a narrow neck of land) at the south eastern extremity of the island. The fortifications are extensive, and would require a numerous garrison for their defence; towards the sea the works are extremely strong, but on the land-side, supposing an enemy to have made good a footing on the island, they would offer comparatively little resistance. The houses within the walls are built of wood, with verandahs and sloping roofs covered with tiles. In 1803 a great fire de stroyed many houses; after which a great number of dwellings were built on a salt ground then newly recovered from the sea as already mentioned. The adoption of this spot for building ground appears to have been a matter of necessity arising from the denseness of the population in proportion to the quantity of land cleared or capable of being converted to building purposes. Many of the dwellings, both within and beyond the walls of the fort, are constructed in a commodious manner, particularly in what is called the European quarter. The shops and warehouses belonging both to European and to native merchants and traders are upon a large scale. The northern quarter of the fort, which is principally inhabited by Parsee families, is dirty and uninviting. The government-house within the fort is a large convenient building, used principally for conducting the public business. The governor has two other residences; one at Malabar point, the S.W. extremity of the island; the other at Parell, about four miles from the fort near the eastern shore of the island. The first of these, which is a cottage beautifully situated on a rocky promontory, is inhabited by the governor during the hottest season. The house at Parell is handsome, and contains rooms of noble proportions; this building is said to have been formerly a church belonging to the Jesuits, from whom it was purchased by the Company.

Niebuhr remarked that the temperature at Bombay was very moderate, owing to the sea-winds and the quantity of rain that falls in the wet season. He admits that many Europeans died suddenly, but he attributed this nearly altogether to their injudicious mode of living.

The barracks, arsenal, and docks are all within the fort.

The property of the island is principally in the Parsee inhabitants, who are active and intelligent, taller, better formed, more athletic and with handsomer features than Hindus. In early youth their females are delicate and handsome, but they very soon grow coarse in their persons, and show the marks of age sooner than Indian women in general. The principal merchants on the island are Parsees, and it is usual for every European house of commerce to contain one or more Parsee partners, who supply a great part of the capital. These people wear the Asiatic costume, but they assimilate more than other eastern people to the customs of Europeans, and nearly the whole of them speak English, their children are invariably taught the language, and many of them speak it as fluently as Europeans; at the same time they adhere most rigidly to their religious customs and observances. In the morning and evening they crowd to the shore, where they prostrate themselves in adoration before the sun. They deposit their dead in large cylindrical buildings, each twenty-five feet high, the interior of which is built up solidly with masonry to within five feet of the top, with the exception of a kind of well fifteen feet 'n diameter in the centre. The bodies are deposited between this well and the wall, and being only loosely wrapped in cloth, are speedily devoured by vultures, many of which are always to be observed hovering about these charnel-houses. From time to time the bones are thrown into the well in the centre, from the bottom of which they can be removed through subterraneous passages. There are five of these public tombs in the island, all of which are from two to three miles distant from the fort: the more wealthy of the sect have private tombs of similar construction.

The docks within the fort, although the property of the East India Company, are entirely under the management of Parsees, by whom merchant-vessels of 1000 to 1200 tons burden, frigates, and even line-of-battle ships are built. These docks were about twenty-five years ago enlarged and improved under the superintendence of Major Cooper of the Engineers. The buildings are greatly admired for their architectural beauty; the slips and basins are calculated for vessels of any size. Two ships of the line, or one ship of the line and two frigates, can be completely built and equipped in these docks every eighteen months. Bombay being situated between the forests of Malabar and Guzerat, receives supplies of timber with every wind that blows. Ships built of teak-wood are much more durable than those built with European timber; they have been known to last more than fifty years. Some Bombay-built ships, after

being emp.oyed as traders during fourteen or fifteen years, have been bought by government and added to the naval force of the country, being then considered much stronger than newly-built European vessels. From the cheapness of labour, ships may be built at Bombay for three-fourths of the cost in England. The Minden, a seventy-four gun ship, which was launched at Bombay in 1810, was constructed entirely by Parsees, without any assistance from Europeans, and since that time several frigates and line ofbattle ships have been built at these docks.

No separate account has been given of the value of the exports made from Bombay to Canton. We know the aggregate value of the shipments so made from the three presidencies, and also the number and tonnage of the ships despatched with the same; from which last information it would appear that more than two-thirds of the whole country trade between India and China is, as far as export is concerned, carried on from Bombay. In the three years ending with 1831-32, the tonnage so employed was as follows:

Ships. Tons. Ships. Tons. Ships. Tons. Ships Tons. 4,449 32 25.709 54 35,535 3,178 35 26,695 64 39,985 872 37 16,656 54 25,913

The total value of this trade in each of these three years

The goods sent from India to China comprise principally cotton wool, opium, metals, spices, dye-woods, and woollen goods. Their value has been employed chiefly in paying for the purchases of tea by the East India Company, whose agents at Canton have drawn bills upon the Indian presidencies, and upon the directors in London, for the re-imbursement of the merchants by whom the funds have been so supplied to them.

The imports into Bombay from Europe and America have been as follows:

1830-31. 1831-32.

1,106,637 902,317

30,138 26,503

33,605 19,028

.970,173 1,170,380 947,849

The value of the trade between Bombay and the Eastern Islands has been,

With the Arabian and Persian Gulfs the trade in each of the same years was,

In addition to its trade with Europe and with China, a very great traffic is carried on by coasting-vessels with all the ports on the western side of India, from Cape Comorin to the Gulf of Cutch. The vessels thus employed vary in size from ten to near two hundred tons burden, and nearly 800 of them are registered belonging to the port. The articles which form the principal part of this trade from Bombay are European manufactures and the produce of Bengal and China, the returns being made in cotton-wool and cloths, timber, oil, and grain from the northern ports, and from the south, cotton, hemp, coir, timber, pepper, rice, and

cocoa-nuts.

The merchandise thus brought to Bombay is in great part re-exported in larger ships to different parts of Europe, to North and South America, to Canton, to the Arabian and Persian Gulfs, and to the Bay of Bengal. The value of this export trade during three years ending with 1831-32, as far as relates to Europe and America, was as follows:

Through these channels Bombay receives from Persia raw silk, copper, pearls, galls, coffee, gum-arabic, copal, myrrh, olibanum, bdellium, assafoetida, dried fruits, horses, and bullion. The returns are grain, Bengal and China sugar, British manufactured goods, cotton and woollen, and spices. The merchandise sent to Calcutta from Bombay, in return for sugar, indigo, and rice, are timber, coir, cocoanuts, sandal-wood, and cotton.

usual assortment of British manufactures and metals; the The shipments from England to Bombay consist of the returns for which are made in Persian raw silk, cotton-wool, spices, gums, and drugs.

The heavy duties levied by the Ameers of Scind, at the mouth of the Indus, together with the unsettled state of Afghanistan, have reduced the inland commerce of Bombay with Central Asia to a comparatively trifling amount. The little trade now carried on between those quarters is conducted by means of a tedious and expensive land route through Surat.

Among the mercantile establishments conducted in