The census of 1872 returned the population of the district at 2,261,250, namely, Hindus, 1,637,914; Mohammedans, 581,609; Europeans, 2579; Eurasians, 5409; native Christians, 32,280; Jains, 31; and “others,” 1428. The Moplas or Maρilas, who form a leading section of the Mohammedans, are the descendants of Malayalam converts to Islam, mainly confined to the coast tract. They are fanatical and bigoted, and their outrages, partly fanatical and partly agrarian, have for long been a distinct feature in Malabar history. Many of these outbreaks have necessitated the use of European troops for their suppression. A few Syrian Christians are found in the south of the district, where they have one church. The Roman Catholics have several churches and villages, the chief occupation of the people being fishing and cultivating vegetables. The existing Roman Catholic mission dates from 1656, having been founded by the Carmelites. The Protestant Basel mission, established in 1839, has founded churches and schools at Calicut, Cannanore, Tellicherri, and Palghât, with branch establishments at Chombla and Todakel. The native Christian.population is steadily increasing, mainly through the conversion of low-caste Hindus, who gain in’social position by the change. The five largest towns, which are all municipalities, are Calicut, the capital, population 48,338; Palghât, 31,115; Tellicherri, 20,479; Cochin, 13,588; and Cannanore (Kanamir) town and cantonment, 10,265.

In 1880-81 926,359 acres were under cultivation, and 2,869,965 •were returned as cultivable. Rice, which occupied 580,281 acres in 1881, forms the principal food crop, but it is also largely imported from neighbouring districts. Other crops are cholam, ragi, chama, gingelly seed, castor-oil seed, gram, coffee, pepper, ginger, arrowroot, cardamoms, chillies, onions, cocoa-nut, areca nut, cinnamon, &c. Cocoa-nut gardens form one of the greatest sources of commercial wealth; the value of the exported produce from Madras in 1880-81 was £141,800, chiefly from Malabar, this being a decrease of 18 per cent, on the year preceding. Pepper and spices yield over a quarter of a million. As a rule, the peasantry are well off and free from debt. The district is not liable to blight, flood, oι ’ drought. When, however, the neighbouring districts to the east suffer from scarcity, Malabar, which ordinarily imports grain, is affected by the prevalence of high prices.

The district is fairly supplied with means of communication, and possesses 400 miles of good metalled roads, besides minor cart tracks. The water communication provided by the backwaters and their canals has already been referred to. The Madras railway traverses the southern part of the district for a total distance of 89 miles from Walliar to Beypur. Except cloth weaving, and the making of tiles, bricks, &c., at the mission stations at Calicut and Cannanore, and the weaving of coarse cotton cloths and mats at Palghât, there are no local manufactures worthy of mention. The weaving of calico, which derived its name from Calicut, seems to have altogether died out; while unsuccessful attempts have been made to manufacture canvas at Beypur and silk at Palghât. The principal seats of commerce are Calicut, Cannanore, Tellicherri, Cochin, Palghât, and Badagara. In 1876- 77 the value of the imports (which were abnormally increased by the famine demand for rice) amounted to £1,765,200, of which £1,118,000 was for rice; exports £2,466,000, of which £960,000 represented coffee. European banks are represented at Calicut, Cochin, and Tellicherri.

The revenue has largely increased of late years. In 1880-81 the land revenue amounted to £176,062, and the gross revenue to £332,628. The number of pupils connected with the various schools at the same date was 20,971. The principal educational institutions are the provincial school at Calicut, the mission school at Tellicherri, the Palghât high school, and the “Kerala Vidya Sala,” recently established by tnezamorin, for the instruction of the young noblemen of his family and of other influential persons in the district. Nearly one hundred schools are exclusively confined to Moplâs. There are several printing presses at Calicut and Cochin, and at the latter port are published two English and two Malayalam newspapers. The climate of the district is, on the whole, healthy; the rainfall is heavy, averaging 120 inches a year, of which about 80 inches fall in June, July, and August. The temperature varies from 60° in December to about 92° in the hot weather in May. The principal diseases are small-pox, dysentery, and fever.

Since the destruction (in 1807) of the old Portuguese fort erected by Albuquerque, the “antiquities” of Malacca are reduced to a mere name. At the foot of Flagstaff Hill, however, are the remains of the massive wall which surrounded the hill, with an arched and carved gateway. On the summit of the hill, where a fine view is had of the harbour and the Water Islands, are the ruins of the first Christian church planted in Malayan territory, and also a portion of the old convent. At the back of this hill to the right may be noted the barracks, hospital, and convict lines, and massing under some fine “ansana” trees—the shady elms of the East—we reach the garden of the old Dutch stadthouse, and then a green square, facing which are the court-house and other Government buildings, and the old Dutch church. All these buildings have sloping roofs covered with small square, tiles after the Dutch style of architecture of the 16th century. This is quite a unique example of Dutch domestic architecture in the East, and several of the adjoining streets still bear their Dutch designation, as “Heren Straat,” “Jonker •Strait,” &c. The stadthouse is approached by a fine flight of stone steps, forming a covered way to the upper rooms. These are occupied by the governor of the Straits Settlements and the judge during their annual or biennial visits, and those in the lower story are used as Government offices. From the interesting ruins of the Dutch redoubt on St John’s Hill an extensive view may be had of the country running around and to the north and south of Malacca. Its general aspect in the immediate vicinity is that of a flat country covered with luxuriant “dusoons” or plantations of fruit trees, and extensive forests of tall timber; beyond this is an open country, interspersed with •extensive plantations of tapioca, which at a distance resemble fields of clover; then follow rice-fields, and marshes or fens, and at the foot of the hills patches of virgin forest, the whole being walled in by a range of blue hills. The climate of Malacca is very healthy, and the thermometer in the shade ranges from 72° to 84° or even 90° Fahr. The population, which is not very large, consists of Malays of the surrounding countries, of Malacca Portuguese (the mixed descendants of early Portuguese settlers), of Chinese proper and a large number born of Malay mothers. There is also a sprinkling of natives of India and of Arabs. The Malacca Portuguese employ themselves as fishermen, servants, and clerks: the rest are chiefly engaged in agricultural and commercial pursuits.

In consequence of its shallow harbour, Malacca has been completely outstripped as a seaport by Singapore and Penang, though it still carries on a brisk trade with the surrounding countries in Malacca canes, stuffed birds of beautiful plumage, poultry, and large quantities of the most luscious fruits. The import and export returns, show a large apparent increase in the trade,—the imports in 1880 amounting to $3,817,848 (£812,308), and the exports to $3,634,640, as against an average of $2,505,175 and $2,577,020 respectively for 1869-72; and, though Malacca has been a drag on the revenue of the colony generally, a marked increase is shown in the principal items of revenue, viz., in land rents, tenths in paddy, tapioca, and fruits, royalty on timber, and survey fees. In 1880 the revenue was $182,323, and the expenditure $174,333, while the income and expenditure of the municipality in the same year were $22,428 and $18,899 respectively. The Government is improving the drainage of the country by clearing its natural water course. The municipality has no debts, and the general progress of the settlement during the year ending 1880 must be regarded as satisfactory, with an increase under almost every heading of revenue that bids fair to continue.

See C. A. Cameron, Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India, and Papers Relating to H. Μ. Colonial Possessions, 1879-1881.

The tradition, however, may at least be taken as implying the perception of a real affinity between the prophet and the great restorer of the law. The religious spirit of Malachi’s prophecy is that of the prayers of Ezra and Nehemiah. A strong sense of the unique privileges of the children of Jacob, the objects of electing love (i. 2), the children of the Divine Father (ii. 10). is combined with an equally strong assurance of Jehovah’s righteousness amidst the many miseries that pressed on the unhappy inhabitants of Judaea. At an earlier date the prophet Haggai had taught that the people could not expect Jehovah’s blessing while the temple lay in ruins. In Malachi’s time the temple was built (i. 10) and the priests waited in their office, but still a curse seemed to rest on the nation’s labours (iii 9). To Malachi the reason of this is plain. The “law of Moses” was forgotten (iv. 4 [iii. 22]); let the people return to Jehovah, and He will return to them. It was vain to complain, saying, “Every one that doeth evil is good in the eyes of Jehovah,” or “Where is the God of judgment?’"—vain to ask “Wherein shall we return ?” Obedience to the law is the sure path to blessing (ii 17-iii. 12).

It is not e⅞sy to say whether the law to which Malachi recalls the people is that which was established by the covenant taken under Ezra, or whether the prophet wrote before that event. It is at least the Deuteronomic law that is most familiar to him, as appears from his use of the name Horeb for the mountain of the law, and the Deuteronomic phrase “statutes and judgments " (iv. 4), from his language as to tithes and offerings (iii. 8, 10, comp. Deut, xii. 11, xxvl 12), and especially from his conception of the priesthood as resting on a covenant with Levi (ii. 4 sq.). The abuses of which he particularly complains are such as were found rampant by Ezra and Nehemiah,—marriage with foreign women (ii. 11, comp. Ezra ix., Neh. xiii. 23 sq., Deut. vii. 3) and failure in payment of sacred dues (iii. 8 sq., comp. Neh. x. 34 sq., xiii. 10 sq., Deut. xxvi. 12 sq. y ). Add to this that the position of the priests had fallen into contempt (ii. 9), and that the oral law is still one of their chief trusts (ii. 6 sq.), and we shall be disposed to conclude that, if Malachi’s work did not precede the reformation of Ezra, it must have fallen very little later, and before the new order was thoroughly established. The prophecy of Joel shows the new theocracy in much fuller development.

The object of Ezra and Nehemiah was to establish the law by means of the organs of government under warrant from the Great King. Malachi looks for reformation in another direction. He calls the people to repentance, and he enforces the call by proclaiming the approach of Jehovah in judgment agιinst the sorcerers, the adulterers, the false swearers, the oppressors of the poor, the orphan, and the stranger. Then it shall be seen that He is indeed a God of righteous judgment, distinguishing between those that serve Him and those that serve Him not. The Sun of Righteousness shall shine forth on those that fear Jehovah’s name; they shall go forth with joy, and tread the wicked under foot. The conception of the day of final decision, when Jehovah shall come suddenly to His temple (iii. 1) and confound those who think the presumptuous godless happy (iii. 15), is taken from earlier prophets, but it receives a special character from an application of a thought based on Isa. xl. 3. The day of Jehovah would be a curse not a blessing if it found the nation in its present state, the priests listlessly performing a fraudulent service (i. 7-ii. 9), the people bound by marriage to heathen women, while the tears of the daughters of Israel, thrust aside to make way for strangers, cover the altar (ii. 11-16), all faith in divine justice gone (ii. 17, iii. 14 sq.), sorcery, uncleanness, falsehood, and oppression rampant (iii. 5), the house of God deprived of its dues (iii. 8), and the true fearers of God a little flock gathered together in private exercises of religion (perhaps the germ of the later synagogue) in the midst of a godless nation (iii. 16). That the day of Jehovah is delayed in such a state of things is but a new proof of His unchanging love (iii. 6), which refuses to consume the sons of Jacob. Meantime He is about to send His messenger to prepare His way before Him. The prophet Elijah must reappear to bring back the hearts of fathers and children before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. Elijah was the advocate of national decision in the great concerns of Israel’s religion; and it is such decision, a clear recognition of what the service of Jehovah means, a purging of His professed worshippers from hypocritical and half-hearted service (iii 3) that Malachi with his intense religious earnestness sees to be the only salvation of the nation. In thus looking to the return of an ancient prophet to do the work for which later prophecy is too weak, Malachi unconsciously signalizes the decay of the order of which he was one of the last representatives; and the somewhat mechanical measure which he applies to the people’s sins, as for example when he teaches that if the sacred dues were rightly paid prosperous seasons would at once return (iii. 10), heralds the advent of that system of formal legalism which thought that all religious duty could be reduced to a system of set rules. It was left to a greater Teacher to show that hypocrisy and vain religion might coexist with Pharisaic exactness in the observance of the whole letter of the law. Yet Malachi himself is no mere formalist. To him, as to the Deuteronomic legislation, the forms of legal observance are of value only as the fitting expression of Israel’s peculiar sonship and service, and he shows himself a true prophet when he contrasts the worthless ministry of unwilling priests with the pure offering of prayer and praise that rises from all corners of the Hebrew dispersion (i. 11), or when he asserts the brotherhood of all Israelites under their one Father (ii. 10), not merely as a ground of separation from the heathen, but as inconsistent with the selfish and cruel freedom of divorce current in his time. It is characteristic of later Judaism that an arbitrary exegesis transformed this anticipation of the doctrine of marriage laid down in the gospel into an express sanction of the right of thé husband to put away his wife at will.

The style of Malachi, like his argument, corresponds in its generally prosaic character to that transformation or decay of prophecy which began with Ezekiel; and Ewald has rightly called attention to the fact that the conduct of the argument already shows traces of the dialectic manner of the schools. Yet there is a simple dignity in the manner not unworthy of a prophet, and rising from time to time to poetical rhythm.

The exegetical helps to the studyof Malachi are mainly thesameas have been already cited in the article Haggai. Reference mayalsobe made to the lengthy commentary of Reinke (Roman Catholic), 1856; to Μ. Sänger, Maleachi, eine exegetische Studie, 1867; and among older commentaries to that of Pococke (2d ed., 1692).