Our Masonic Contemporaries.

was occupied throughout the session of 18-58 , and the enquiry renewed in 1859 , the Committee publishing seven valuable reports , which have established the fact of the resources of our hill territories and their capabilities for English occupation . These proceedings were seduously supported by Bro .

Clarke , and he obtained an organ for the representation of colonization interests , which he edited for some time . In 1858 he read before the Society of Arts a paper "on Indian colonization , " which was followed by a discussion in which several members of Parliament took part . This was printed in the Journal and afterwards in a separate

form * . and the society appointed a Committee to promote Indian progress . In 1859 , as before stated , Bro . Clarke read a memoir " on the military defence of India" before the United Service Institution . This produced a deep impression on Indian military officers . The Government and officials have since , in consequence ofthe agitation , continued to extend the garrisons and sanitorial stations in the hills , to open new districts for occupation , to promote tea and coffee cultivation , and to

extend railways to the hill regions . One great result of the exertions of Mr . Ewart and Bro . Clarke , which of itself will exercise a material influence throughout India , is the concession of a freehold tenure of land , ancl the sale of public lands in fee simple . Thus has been broken clown the system under which the East India Company alone had a property in the soiland no individualnative

, , or English , could acquire a freehold title . This proposition was stoutly resisted by the Indian officials , and by economists , but the Government felt compelled to yield , and a resource has been provided for the developement of the capabilities of India , which of itself alone will produce the greatest results .

In India the Colonization Committee created the deepest interest , and its authors received the abuse of the old Indians and the grateful thanks of the friends of progress . In recognition of Bro . Clarice ' s exertions on their behalf , the settlers of Darjeeliug and Sikkim , in the Northern Himalayas , appointed him their agent , being the first instance of such an appointment by an Indian colony , and this example was followed by the Association of the Planters in Western India .

In a late Session of Parliament , Bro . Clarice obtained on behalf of the Darjeeliug settlers a promise from the Government that negociations should be opened with the Chinese to remove the obstructions to intercourse overland between Darjeeliug and Thibet , and between Eastern India ancl the south of China .

Bro . Hyde Clarke has been a zealous advocate of jointstock banking , and took an active part in tlie controversies in its behalf , in co-operation with the late Thomas Jopling and Mr . J . W . Gilbart . By the former he was offered the editorship of The Economist , the predecessor iu 1838 of the present journal of that name . In The

Economist , Hera - path ' s Journal , Banker ' s Magazine , and other publications will be found numerous articles on banking and currency ; but it was while acting as one of the writers for The Daily News , and in the management of the City department , that he devoted most attention to currency and banking . His articles on the question

of the relative value of gold and silver attracted much attention at the period of the great gold discoveries , a subject which he followed up for some time . Some small works of Bro . Clarke "On the California !! and Australian Gold Regions , " published by Mr . Wyld , contain valuable statistics and interesting discussions on the bullion

question . Por the Useful Knowledge Society he corrected the article " On Exchanges . " In 1836 , Bro . Hyde Clarice founded the London and

County Bank , then called the Surrey , Kent , and Sussex , as a means of extending joint-stock banking in the provincial districts within the limits of the Bank of England ' s reserved circulation . Besides the undertakings already enumerated , Bro , Hyde Clarke has been employed upon several large

financial operations and negociations , for which he had advantages in his training under the great financier , the late Baron de Goldsmicl , with whom he was occupied a ' considerable period . He likewise made an early proposition to the Government for the issue of Exchequer bonds , which was introduced to successive administrations by the Right Hon . Sir T . Wyse and the Baron de Goklsmid . The principle and details were much the same as those of Mr . Gladstone ' s recent measure .

While known among statesmen aud men of business , as a- thoroughly practical man , Bro . Clarice ' s labours and attainments in many recondite branches of knowledge are great ancl remarkable . His acquirements as a linguist and philologist are known to many . At the age of eight-and-twenty , he was acquainted with above

forty languages , and with most of the dialects of western Europe . Some of these were merely cultivated for philological purposes , or are dead languages in which there are few books ; but in many his knowledge is more than respectable . Besides writing critically several languages , he once wrote a Prench article in Lamartme ' s

paper , and on another occasion he wrote a set of verses of four lines each in ten languages , He has also addressed public assemblies of several nations . This taste for acquiring languages , began at an early age , and was fostered by his lather , but was principally exercised for about twelve years , in which time his chief acquisitionswere made . This practice gave him facility in acquiring

languages , where he already professed a kindred one , and he is stated to have learned in a fortni g ht , to translate , write , and speak one language , being engaged in other pursuits at the same time . Of one European language rarely known here , Wallaehiaii , he is reputed to have acquired tlie elements in half an hour ; a feat , howeverlittle remarkable to one who already knew fluently

, nearly every language and dialect of the European stock . He possesses a like facility in translating and interpreting oft-hand from one language to another . His works embrace considerable translations from the Prench , Dutch , Spanish , German and J . talin , and to a smaller extent from the Greek ,

RomaicLatinPortu-, , guese , Anglo-Saxon , Prisian , Danish , Swedish , Icelandic , Hebrew , Arabic , and Hindoo . So far he would be redeemed from the reproch affecting most of the distinguished linguists , and particularl y Mezzofanti . that they turned their attainments to no account ; but Bro . Clarice lias carried his labours further . In the

Handbook of Comparative Philology , he has given a very practical comparison of tlie formation of the languages with which the English has connection through the Germanic or Latin stocks , as the Anglo-Saxon , Prisian , Dutch , Low Dutch , German , Danish , Swedish , Icelandic , Latin , Italian , Spanish , Portuguese and

Prench . A knowledge of Bro . Clarke ' s philological attainments and collections led to an invitation from Mr . Weale to write the English Grammar for- the rudimentary series , which embraces the above treatise on comparative hilologyand a New Theory of English Prosod

p , y , besides many orig inal observations : this prosod y is now taught in several colleges . The Grammar led to another work of immense labour , executed in the intervals of other pursuits—The English Dictionarywhich , in a very small compass , brings together a more