156 
PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES IN INDIA. 
may have been, it would be improper in me 
to remark very closely, on the unfortunate 
causes which led to the failure of this talented, 
and once enterprising, man in the noble 
design he had formed. I have said unfortu- 
nate causes ; for such must be considered, 
whatever may have led to the frustration of a 
design, from which India might have derived 
so much benefit. Even this is not all 
that is, in this case, to be regretted; for 
in a country where any advancement in 
science depends on the enterprise, zeal, and 
assiduity of individuals, rather than upon a 
large community ; the example of such a 
failure is calculated, justly or unjustly, to 
deter others from risking, not merely their 
lives and fortunes, but also their reputations, 
in a cause which has not hitherto been 
rightly estimated in India.” 
“ That such a case should ever have occur- 
ed, that an individual who surrendered his 
fair prospect of fortune and fame in his native 
land; and at the expence of a small private 
fortune, perhaps, equipped himself for a task 
of vital importance to India, should be heard 
to complain of any want of liberality, calcu- 
lated to induce him to relinquish his design, 
is more than can well be conceived : yet such 
would seem to have been the case. For some 
unfortunate reasons, it was deemed expedi- 
ent to withdraw all pecuniary support from 
the gentleman who had entered so nobly upon 
the task above referred to, and thus aban- 
doned in one of the most remote corners of 
India; a term of seventeen years have now 
passed over him, without the means of even 
transmitting his property to a place where he 
might dispose of it, and by this means return 
disappointed and ruined to that home which 
he left under the brightest auspices. A deep 
sense of the injury he conceives himself to 
have sustained has destroyed his confidence 
in man, and suppressed the utterance of any 
complaint. To those who think and feel, as 
become the sympathies of our nature, this 
tribute, to the living author of a great design, 
will neither appear indelicate, or absurd ; 
although his own wrath may be partly antici- 
pated, as the consequence of my good inten- 
tions*.” 
The above is a melancholy picture, and we 
dare not comment upon it. We shall conclude 
tliis introductory portion of our review with an 
expression of concurrence inDr.MacClelland’s 
wish that some attempt may now be made to 
remove those obvious causes which impede 
the performance of useful operations ; for there 
is but one permanent source of national 
prosperity in the words of our author, ‘'the 
cultivation of natural resources.” 
* I must here express my obligation to Mr. 
It. for the liberality with which he placed his 
valuable library at my disposal, which as far 
as books were concerned, left me little to 
complain of during the latter part of my resi- 
dence at Liohooghat ; but, unfortunately, I 
was too much employed in practical researches 
at the time to admit much reading. 
Art. II. — Transactions of the Agricul- 
tural and Horticultural Society of In- 
dia, Vol. II. Oct.pp. 288. Serampore 
Press, 1836. 
It is justly said that by bringing the art of 
Agriculture to perfection man becomes the 
Lord of the universe, subduing by his skill 
and industry every part of the surface of the 
earth and assuming that dominion which a 
beneficent Creator has allowed him. Thus it is 
through his operations that the earthismadeto 
produce abundantly and in greatest perfection 
those vegetables which are necessary for his 
subsistence and health. The importance of 
the study of Agidculture is best shewn by 
adverting to the fact that in proportion as 
this art flourished so have nations become 
prosperous. Its antiquity is beyond that of 
all other arts. It can be traced to Adam, whom 
we find tilling the ground in the garden of 
Eden. The prodigious length of life which the 
antediluvians enjoyed prove in the opinion of 
many, that the art of agriculture was at those 
early periods in a very advanced state of per- 
fection, at least it had made greater progress 
than it has in our day. In the time of Abra- 
ham agriculture was considered the most ho- 
norable employment ; and such was the super- 
stitious gratitude of the Egyptians that they 
ascribed the invention of the art to Osiris, 
and Isis and even the very animals employed 
in tillage demanded, in their opinion, a claim 
to their worship and adoration. The Kings 
of Persia laid aside their grandeur to eat 
with husbandmen once a month, and Xeno- 
phon declared that where agriculture succeed- 
ed prosperously there the arts thrived. But 
coming to the present period we may with 
perfect safety avow that as in Geology, so in 
Agriculture, Britain exceeds all other nations. 
The Royal and other Societies have done 
much to attain this end, but all modern im- 
provements are justly ascribed to the industry 
and natural genius of the people. It is there- 
fore with great satisfaction that we perceive 
our industrious countrymen who sojourn 
in India making the improvement of agricul- 
ture an object of public attention and en- 
couragement. 
Agricultural and Horticultural Societies 
are at this moment appearing in all parts of 
India, and the lively interest so eonspicuous in 
the European has been imparted to the native . 
Sugar, Tobacco , and Cotton are articles which 
