The fort of those days is now hardly traceable, for it was renewed on a large scale in the early days of Sikh rule, by Sirdar Goojur Singh. The usual Imperial adjuncts, however, of a Baolee, Musjid and Hummaam, or at least the first and last, still exist and are in use at the present time. The fort is now much hemmed in by houses and streets. Its walls are 20 to 35 feet in height; it has only two entrances, and would still prove a considerable defence against an unscientific enemy.

The place grew in importance as time went on, but chiefly during the reign of the Emperor Shah Jehan. It then happened that a Pír of great virtue and sanctity, named Shah Dowla, took up his residence here. As the offerings made to him were large, so was his expenditure lavish, and a good deal was laid out on the improvement of the town and suburbs. There are yet to be seen the remains of a viaduct built of brick arches, and which seem to have extended from the north to the north east of the city, but whose use is not very apparent.

Hailan,-There are some extensive, and as reputed, very old ruins at Hailan, but nothing is known to determine their former history with any exactness, Some coins have been picked up among the ruins bearing the date of the 8th century Hijree, but nothing earlier than the Mahomedan times has been discovered. There is a large tomb still in very good order. Slabs are let into the walls bearing inscriptions. It appears to be the Tomb of Mirza Shaik Ullee Beg, an Ameer of the Emperor Akbur, who was killed in an encounter with the Ghukkurs; it is dated 999 Hijree. He founded a village close to Hailan, still called after him, Shaikh Ulleepoor, and possessed by his Mogul descendants.

Patu Kothee.-This is a very old ruin situated on the banks of the Jaba Nullah, at the foot of the Pubbee in Zail Kurriahe. The natives can give no information of its origin or use. It is of no great extent, but is reputed to be part of an oid, perhaps buried city; the bricks are of a large model, one foot square and three inches thick, such as are never found in buildings posterior to Mahomedan rule, and very finely burnt; unfortunately no researches hitherto have succeeded in finding inscriptions of any kind. The bricks have often a mark in them as if described with the finger round the thumb as a pivot.

Russool.-Russool presents some vestiges of antiquity. An old mosque here contained an inscription commemorating its erection. The date was read as 1000 Hijree or thereabouts. It was placed in the Crystal Palace by Mr. Edward Clive Bayley.

Islamghur.-Islamghur is on a very high and imposing mound, which must be very ancient. It is said to have been the head quarters of the large chourassee of villages belonging to the Varaich Jats; in later times it was converted into a stronghold. The chief Chowdrees of the Varaiches have their residence and possessions in Jelalpoor to which Islamghur is close, but the latter is situated within the limits of the adjacent village of Koolachour.

Moong.-Moong is a very old place, it is very prolific in coins of later Indo-Greek kings, Azas, and the great (nameless) saviour king of kings, particularly small copper coins.

Khawaspore Serai.-The route to Cabul through the district has still the remains of the Serais and Baolees erected by the Mahomedan Emperors. The Serai at Khawaspoor was built by Suku Khawas Khan in the year 952 Hijree. Khawas Khan was a man of power in the service of the Emperors Shere Shah and his son Selim Shah. His mother was a slave girl in the former Emperor's seraglio, and he himself was married by the Emperor to the daughter of a Ghukkur chief, and deputed to govern this part of the empire. He immortalized his later master by converting the Bhutiaras of the Serai, and dubbing them Suleem Shahees or Islamshahees, which appellation the Maachus of the village and its neighbourhood give to their caste to the present day.

Both are said to

At Kharian there are two very large Baolees. have been built at the same time, and their very different appearances now, are accounted for by the western one having been very thoroughly repaired by Sirdar Lena Singh. The eastern Baolee is in its original state, built of stones now very much worn; over the top of the steps is a massive dome with an inscription. It simply records the completion of the work in the month of Ramzan 1013 Hijree, in the reign of Akbar, who ordered it to be built by Jutyoollah son of Hajee Habeeboollah, and that it cost 11,000 Akburee Rupees, and it concludes with a prayer that the maker's sins be forgiven. Kharian bears the prefix of a Serai, but it does not appear that a Serai was ever

built here. It was a staging-place and the Baolees were provided but no Serai.

Serai Alumgeer.-The Serai at Nourungabad was built by the Emperor Aurungzebe, who gave his title of Alumgeer to it. It is improperly called the Serai of Nourungabad which is a village half a mile distant, and altogether out of the Alumgeer lands, which were granted to certain Khutrees to preserve the Serai. But during the Sikh rule there was a cantonment at Nourungabad which properly accounts for the Serai becoming known by that name also.

Chowkundee and Alumgheer.-Besides the above there are no relics of the Imperial sway, except the ruins of a hunting residence near Alumgheer in the upper part of the district. The ruined edifice still goes by the old Sanscrit derived name of Chowkundee. It was built by the Emperor Akbur Shah, in the 34th year of his reign, and was the first halting-place after crossing the Chenab, in the royal progresses from Dehli to Cashmere.

These Serais have long ceased to serve their purposes. After the decay of the empire, their utility was no longer appreciated: the materials were, to a large extent, appropriated to other purposes, and now the walls or their foundations only can be traced through the mass of plebeian habitations which cover their sites, but their remains attest their substantial construction and are still monuments of a largehanded wisdom and public beneficence, which found no imitators in the Sikh or Duranee governments which succeeded.

Memorandum on the Question of British Trade with Western China via Burmah.-By Dr. C. WILLIAMS.

[Received 24th June, 1864.]

[Read 7th September, 1864.]

The subject appears to naturally divide itself into the consideration of several sets of circumstances that may be conveniently classified under the following heads:

1st. The political state of the several countries between the Bay of Bengal and Central China;

2nd. The Physical Geography of the district proposed to be tra versed by the various lines of communication;

3rd. Their commercial condition and capabilities including population, products, former and existing trade, &c. ;

4th. The conclusion from consideration of the above three subjects, as to which is the most desirable and practicable route.

I. POLITICAL.

Pegu, Martaban and Tenasserim, with their rivers and ports, being permanent portions of British territory, and all therefore but insuperable physical obstacles, being under the direct control of the British authorities, it is needless to consider their political condition.

The state of the political relations of Burmah Proper with the British Government of India, up to the end of 1862, has, I believe, had much to do with the direction which public attention has taken in looking for the desired opening of Western China.

Up to that time, the Burmese Government, unwilling to acknowledge in any way the stubborn fact of the province of Pegu being British territory, had obstinately rejected the repeated overtures of the Indian Government to the settlement of a permanent peace, and had in fact behaved towards that Government in a spirit of passive hostility.

At the time of first turning my thoughts to a career in Burmah, and especially in Upper Burmah, one of the prospects most distinctly in my view, was that of the old route to China by the Irrawaddy being re-opened and made available to British commerce, by an alteration of the then existing feelings and intentions of the Burman Government towards the British, This is not the place to enter into a history of the changes gradually produced in the minds of the chief authorities of Burmah Proper. Suffice it to note that the political

position, as bearing on this question, is now totally different from what it was during the decade succeeding the last Burman war. The Envoy of the Viceroy and Governor-General has negotiated a treaty, wherein the British and Burmese Governments are declared friends, and trade in and through Upper Burmah is freely thrown open to British mercantile enterprize. Arrangements are there made by which our direct trade with China may be carried on through Upper Burmah without any harassing restrictions, and subject only to a transit due of 1 per cent. ad valorem, on Chinese exports, and nil on imports. A British agent resides at the Burmese court, acknowledged and conferred with by the Burmese Government, under the title in their own language of "Agent to the English minister,"-the Burmese translation of Chief Commissioner referring to his political capacity of agent to the Governor-General, being "Ayebamg Woongyee," a term only applied among themselves to the minister who has the conduct of political affairs, which minister is invariably the chief Woongyee or Vizier,—whose functions are precisely those of a Consul and Chargé d'affaires, taking his instructions from the Chief Commissioner of British Burmah.

No one acquainted with the history of the former relations between the Burmese and British Governments, can fail to see in this, the proof that there has taken place within the last three years, a substantial revolution in the political position of Upper Burmah, and that in looking for routes into Western China, that country must be now regarded in a light not only different from what was formerly the true one, but almost the very opposite. There is no longer a hostile Government shutting up its territory and excluding British trade. The Burman Government is now a friendly one, inviting British trade, and not only willing to open to it the high way to China, but fully alive to the advantages that commerce through its territory would confer both on the monarch and the people.

Burmah Proper is no longer a barrier, but a gangway, open to the use of whoever will avail themselves of it.

To the East and North-East of the frontier of British Burmah, hanging about, so to speak, the lower and middle Salween, are several tribes of various Karen races, some of them acknowledging British, others Burman Suzerainty, and others not only really, but nominally quite independent.