BUDDHISM

A religion which prevails over a great part of Asia; and, according to the estimates of some geographers, has a much greater number of worshippers than any other form of faith among mankind. China, the peninsula beyond the Ganges, Japan, and various Indian islands, are chiefly peopled by Buddhists. The founder of this religion, according to tradition, was an Indian prince, to whom the title of Buddha, or " The Sage," is a igned by his worshippers. The period to which his life is a igned is variously estimated, according to a variety of oriental traditions; but several of them coincide in referring it nearly to the tenth or eleventh century before Christ. Buddhism was expelled from India by the persecutions of the Brahmans, between thififth and seventh centuries of our, era. The doctrines of the Buddhists seem mainly to rest on the principle, that the world, and sensible objects contained in it, are manifestations of the Deity, but of a transient and delusive character; that the human soul is an emanation from Deity; that after death it will again be bound to matter, and subjected to the miseries and accidents of this life, unle the individual to whom it belongs by the attainment of wisdom through prayer and contemplation succeeds in liberating it from that nece ity, and secures its absorption into that divine e ence from which it sprang. BUDGET, in a general sense, means a condensed statement of the income and expenditure of a nation, or of any particular public department. In this country, however, the term is usually employed to designate the speech made by the chancellor of the exchequer when he gives a general view of the public revenue and expenditure, and intimates whether government intend to propose the imposition or repeal of any taxes, . [s. 184]