crowded, and in a great degree admiring, audiences. Even strangers in the university have been struck with the softened and solemn air, which reigns throughout his lettered congregation, when he is called to address them. Now this Statement ought not to be received as one of an unimportant nature; and we cannot part with the subject, without offering our congratulations, upon this actual state of things, to the parties most concerned. We congratulate Mr. Simeon, in the first place, that he has lived to weather the storm, which misconception or prejudice, taking advantage possibly of some want of prudence on his part, had raised around him. This sermon proves that he has not become immoderate in proportion to his success; that he seeks to form no party in the university; that he desires not to discredit the seminary to which he belongs, but to make it more worthy of veneration; that he passes by subordinate differences in order to secure the grand essentials, the props and pillars of true religion. Let this spirit become universal among that body of the clergy with which he is usually classed; let them cling to their national church with filial attachment; let them avoid every approximation to a party spirit; let them widen the circle of their toleration to the fullest extent of the articles and liturgy of their church; let them link mildness with zeal, and knowledge with devotion; let them venerate all the fences by which our ancestors aimed to repel the excesses of zeal and the boldness of innovation; and we do confidently hope, that, under the Divine blessing, their piety will gradually diffuse itself throughout the land; and the term "evangelical be translated, as it ought, from their petty flag to the great banner of the national church. We cannot help thinking the actual state of things equally a matter of 'congratulation to the univerBity. The perils of every institu tion, where of necessity much of form prevails, are very various. There is a danger as to religion, for instance, lest the spirit should be altogether absorbed in the form. There is danger also, whilst the form remains unshaken, lest the decay of the spirit should not be discerned. There is a third danger, lest every attempt to restore the decayed spirit of a system should be regarded as an attempt to innovate upon the form. Therefore, as we before observed, it would be no matter of surprise to us, if any university, strongly entrenched in ancient rules, should be one of the last places in a nation, either to part with current opinions, or to revive old ones. In our own country, the universities were among the last places in which Protestantism was established, or from which the doc、 trines of arbitrary power were ex pelled. We have, therefore, as we said, to congratulate the university, with which we are now more particularly concerned, upon the disposition she has discovered, in a considerable part of her body at least, to tolerate a more vigorous system of religion than that which had satisfied the nation since the time of the Commonwealth. Universities, we have seen, as to points of refor mation, have ordinarily been behind the nation. It is her honour, in this particular instance, to be as forward in the race as any part of the population. Let her continue in the course on which she has entered. Let her continue to refute the charges of a papal spirit, which either her sworn enemies or her apostate children have levelled at her, by a spirit of enlightened tolerance. Let her, indeed, watch over that ark of the national religion, of which she is one of the constituted guardians, and suffer no man with impunity to lay an unhallowed hand upon it :but let her remember, that all iusti. tutions are of human construction, and therefore liable to the detects and decays attending every thing homan; and let her receive with satisfaction any endeavour of a good honest son of her own, to restore the church to its original state of purity, and to direct it in the good old way. Let both our universities do this, and we shall then once more see them the nurseries of true religion, as well as of science, and find under their wings a shelter from every assault of impiety and scepticism. Lastly, may we be allowed to congratulate the parents of Great Britain upon such a state of one of her universities. Though we confess ourselves, on the whole, no friends to public education in the earlier stages of life, there is a period when exercises of a more public character become essential. As the youth is soon to perform a part upon the public stage of life, it is of importance to rehearse him in his part before he meets the public eye. It is useful also to the state to be informed, by a public trial of this kind, what are the comparative worth and talents of her young citizens. It is of importance to the moral habits of the individual, that he should be confrontedwith a number of his equals in rank and intellect, and should spend a part of his life in a scene where mind maintains a striking superiority over every thing external, and where talent and industry take the precedence of birth and money. Nor is it of less importance to his mental acquirements, that his faculties should be sharpened by competition; that he should be brought within the controul of wholesome discipline; that, instead of being suffered to exhaust or enfeeble his powers in desultory reading, he should be rendered patient of labour, familiar with difficulty, and qualified for a diversity of pursuits by the intense application, for a time, of his mind to one. Now the English universities are, on the whole, well adapted to accomplish these various ends. Of some improvements they would admit; but we think that those who attentively scrutinize the system, particularly of one of them, will find that it is well adjusted both to the nature of man and to the wants of society. Nor can the nation be charged with undervaluing these universities as literary institutions. But, then, many a pious parent has looked with dismay at the moral evils by which their benefits appeared to be, at least, neutralized. For a long season, Oxford and Cambridge were the reputed abode of indolence and profligacy. But of one of them, more especially, the observations already made will serve to shew, that the moral state is no longer such as warrantably to alarm the judicious parent. There is a large infusion of good with the evil. There are many calls as well as drawbacks to piety. There are many oases in the desert. There is ground for hope, that the children we commit to the arms of our "holy mother," may be restored to us improved and sanctified by her embrace. Those who in former periods have had reason to deplore the transforming efficacy of an university education upon their children; who have seen them, perhaps, in that rank soil, start up at once into a maturity of vice; who have beheld them inoculated with a new train of moral diseases, a "nova cohors febrium;" who themselves, perhaps, there originally contracted habits which have proved highly injurious to them in after life, can teach us the duty of blessing God for the ameliorated state of such an institution, and of gra titude to that man who, under the Divine blessing, has been one of the chief instruments of this refor mation. BUCHANAN'S Discourses and Chris tian Researches in Asia. (Continued from p. 238.) HAVING accompanied Dr. Buchanan, in our last number, through all the sickening horrors of Juggernaut, we will now attend him through a very different scene, a view of the Hin doo Christians of Tanjore. With much of the early history of this church our readers are already acquainted. Ziegenbalg was founder of it. The encouragement he received from King George the First, from Archbishop Wake, and from the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, has been already recorded *. In the year 1719 he finished the Bible in the Tamul tongue, having devoted fourteen years to this " grand work." He died in 1720, and was followed by a succession of other zealous and learned men, among whom were Schultz, Joenicke, Gericke and Swartz, who were made the instruments of adding many to the Church of Christ. The account which Dr. Buchanan has given of his visit to Tranquebar and Tanjore is highly interesting; and we should have found the temptation to transcribe it irresistible, had we not already given the substance of it in our volume for 1807, p. 335. We must request, however, that such of our readers as have not Dr. Buchanan's work in their possession, will cast their eye over that passage, before they proceed. They will otherwise deprive themselves of much gratifi cation. Dr. Buchanan observes, that the Tanjore mission is at present in a languishing state. The war on the continent of Europe has dried up two of its former sources of supply, the Royal College of Copenhagen, and the Orphan-house at Halle, in Germany. "Their remaining resource from Europe is the stipend of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, whom they never mention but with emotions of gratitude and affection; but this supply is by no means com mensurate with the increasing number of their churches and schools." Whence then does the mission derive its support? Dr. Buchanan answers this question; See vol. for 1807, p. 510, and for 1810, p. 329, et seq. and that answer may well shame the Christians of England, as well as the English Christians of India. "The chief support of the mission is derived from itself. Mr. Swartz had in his life-time acquired a considerable property, through the kindness of the English government and of the native princes. When he was dying, he said, 'Let the cause of Christ be my heir.' When his colleague, the pious Gericke, was departing, he also bequeathed his property to the mission. And now Mr. Kohloff gives from his private funds an anthe mission is so extended, that he gives it, nual sum; not that he can well afford it; but he told me, to preserve the new and remot● congregations in existence." pp. 171, 172. Mr. Kohloff greatly lamented the thousand Christians of Tanjore and want of Bibles for the ten or twelve Tinavelly, as well as of a printing press, that grand instrument in the diffusion of Christian light. Something has already been done to supply the want of Bibles (see vol. for 1810, p. 558, &c.), and much more, the zeal of the British and Foreign we doubt not, may be expected from Bible Society, whose attention has been particularly drawn to this quarter of India. A printing press, we trust, the missionaries will also obtain. 66 They justly observed, if you can no longer send us missionaries to preach the Gospel, send us the means of printing the Gospel." "The mission press at Tranquebar,” adds Dr. B. " may be said to have been the foun tain of all the good that was done in India during the last century. It was established by Ziegenbalg. From this press, in conjunction with that at Halle in Germany, have proceeded volumes in Arabic, Syriac, Hindostance, Tamul, Telinga, Portuguese, Danish, Psalms of David in the Hindostanee language, and English. I have in my possession the printed in the Arabic character; and the history of Christ in Syriac, intended probably for the Syro-Romish Christians on the seacoast of Travancore, whom a Danish_missionary once visited, both of which volumes were edited by the missionaries of Tranque bar. There is also in Swartz's library at Tanjore, a grammar of the Hindostanee lan guage in quarto, published at the same press; an important fact which was not known at the college of Fort-William, when professor Gilchrist commenced his useful, labours in that language." p. 173. There is so much that is gratifying in the following extract, which concludes the account of Dr. Buchanan's visit to Tanjore, that we cannot withhold it from our readers. It will serve incidentally to illustrate two points; first, that there is no such danger to be apprehended in attempting to promulgate the Gospel in India, as many have supposed; and secondly, that the happiest effects attend its progress. "Tanjore, Sept. 3, 1806-Before I left the capital of Tanjore, the Rajah was pleased. to honour me with a second audience. On this occasion he presented to me a portrait of himself, a very striking likeness, painted by a Hindoo artist at the Tanjore court*.---The missionary, Dr. John, accompanied me to the palace. The Rajah received him with much kindness, and presented to him a piece of gold cloth. Of the resident missionary Mr. Kohloff, whom the Rajah sees frequent ly, he spoke to me in terms of high approbation. This cannot be very agreeable to the Brahmins; but the Rajah, though he yet professes the Brahminical religion, is no longer obedient to the dictates of the Brahmins, and they are compelled to admit his superior attainments in knowledge.-I passed the chief part of this morning in looking over Mr. Swartz's manuscripts and books: and when I was coming away Mr. Kohloff presented to me a Hebrew Psalter, which had been Mr. Swartz's companion for fifty years; also a brass lamp which he had got first when a student at the college of Halle, and had used in his lucubratians to the time of his death; for Mr. Swartz seldom preach ed to the natives without previous study. I thought I saw the image of Swartz in his successor. Mr. Kohloff is a man of great simplicity of manners, of meek deportment, and of ardent zeal in the cause of revealed religion, and of humanity. He walked with me through the Christian village close to his house; and I was much pleased to see the affectionate respect of the people towards him; the young people of both sexes coming forward from the doors on both sides, to salute him and receive his benedictions.t." " September 4th, 1806.-Leaving Tanjore, I passed through the woods inhabited by the Collaries (or thieves) now humanized by Christianity. When they understood who I was, they followed me on the road, stating their destitute condition, in regard to religious instruction. They were clamorous for Bibles. They supplicated for teachers. We don't want bread or money from you, said they; but we want the word of God." Now, thought I, whose duty is it to attend to the moral wants of this people? Is it that of the English nation, or of some other nation?" pp. 174-176. East, a more just view of the character of Swartz's successor, the Rev. Mr. Kohloff, I shall subjoin an extract of a letter which I have since received from the Rev. Mr. Horst. Tanjore, Sept. 24, 1807-The Rev. Mr. Kohloff is sometimes rather weak, on account of so many and various cares that assail him without ceasing. He provides for the wants of this and the southern missions (Trichinopoly excepted) by disbursing an nually upwards of one thousand pagodas (about $504. sterling) out of his private purse, partly to make up the difference between the income and expenditure of this and the southern mission (of which I annex an abstract), and the rest in assisting the deserving poor, without regard to religion; and tor various pious uses. To him, as arbitrator and father, apply all Christians that are at variance, disturbed from without or from within, out of service or distressed; for most of our to law. Christians will do any thing rather than go "All these heterogeneous, but, to a missionary at Tanjore, unavoidable avocations, joinercise his mind early and late; and if he be ed to the ordinary duties of his station, ex not of a robust constitution, will undermine his health at last. Happily, several neighbouring churches and new congregations, belonging to the mission of Tanjore, afford Mr. Kohloff frequent opportunities to relax his mind, and to recruit his health and spirits, by making occasional short excursions to see these new Christians, who were professed them are now an honour to the Christian prothieves only a few years ago, and many of fession, and industrious peasants. It is pleas ing to behold the anxiety with which a great number of our Christian children inquire at such times when their father will *It is now placed in the public library of return; and how they run several miles to the university of Cambridge." "That I may give to those who are interested in the promotion of Christianity in the meet him with shouts and clapping of hands, and hymns of thanks to God, as soon as they discern his palankeen at a distance? Dr. Buchanan takes occasion to observe, in this stage of his progress, that there are five principal languages spoken by Hindoos in countries subject to the British empire, viz. the Hindostanee, which pervades Hindostan generally; the Bengalee, for the province of Bengal; the Telinga, for the Nor-Christian instruction." This then be thern Sircars; the Tamul, for Coromandel and the Carnatic; and the Malayalim, or Malabar, for the coast of Malabar and Travancore. Of these, there are two into which the Scriptures are already translated; the Tamul, by Ziegenbalg; and the Bengalee, by the Baptist mission aries from England. The remaining three are in progress of transla. tion. the missionaries at Tranquebar (p. 163). "Religion," they observ. ed, "flourishes more among the natives of Tanjore and in other pro vinces, where there are few Europeans, than at Tranquebar and Madras; for we find that European example in the large towns is the bane of " Our author next conducts us to the island of Ceylon. The population of this island, subject to the British government, is estimated at a million and a half, of which one-third is supposed to profess Christianity. The Dutch divided this population into 240 churchships, three native schoolmasters being appointed to each. It was the policy of the Dutch government never to give an official appointment to any native who was not a Christian. This wise policy is continued by his Majesty's government in Ceylon. A very contrary course appears to be pursued by the East-India Company's governments. They "do not," says Dr. Buchanan, patronize the native Christians;" nay, "they give official appointments to Mahomedans and Hindoos generally in preference to natives professing Christianity." Can this indeed be so? If it be, we cannot wonder at the difficulties which the teachers of Christianity experience in their attempts to convert the natives. Such a system must serve, as Dr. Buchanan observes, to confirm their prejudices, to expose our religion to contempt in their eyes, and to preclude the hope of the future prevalence of Christianity at the seats of government. This reminds us of a remark made to Dr. Buchanan by CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 113. ing the case, not only the influence and authority of government, as far as that influence can be exercised, short of actual persecution, but the general example of Europeans, being adverse to the propagation of Christianity, we have more cause to wonder that Christianity should have made any progress at all, than that it should have made so little. We do not, by any means, venture to say, that it would be the duty of the government of India to give any exclusive preference to persons pro fessing Christianity. But surely such persons ought not to be placed in a worse situation, by that government, for having adopted its own faith. When we consider the di rect and ample support given by a government calling itself Christian, to the institutions of Hindooism and Mahomedanism, and the favour shewn to the professors of these reli gions; and then advert to all the circumstances of discouragement under which the Christian cause continues to labour; we can only ascribe it to the divine power and efficacy of the Gospel, that it maintains even its present contracted sphere. The time, we trust, is not far distant, when a more becoming line of policy will be pursued and when the rulers of our Asiatic empire also be will nursing-fathers of the church of Christ. But to return to Ceylon. The following important extract is taken from Dr. Buchanan's Journal, dated at Jaffnapatam, Sept. 27, 1806. "I have had the pleasure to meet here with Alexander Johnstone, Esq. of the Su «Now Sir Alexander Johnstone, Chief→ Justice of Ceylon." 2 T |