for the natives, prove the best reward to these excellent persons for their sufferings; while they read an awful lesson to the haughty despot, who in his power and his ignorance cast the Scriptures on the ground, and declared "he did not want them." We shall not detain our readers with any account of the Romish tales connected with Tunquin and Cochin, of which we know little and believe less, but hasten onwards to the great field opened for missionary labour in India.

Our readers are acquainted with the Missionary exertions now going forward in our Indian possessions, so much to the credit of British Christianity. Those exertions are only recent, and with the exception of the sums expended by the Christian Knowledge Society in the Traquebar mission, nothing had been done, or even attempted, for the fulfilment of this great duty, until Buchanan, and Brown, and Martin, excited a flame not likely to be evanescent or ineffective. In the year 1728, some Lutherans established a mission in Madras, and the year after at Cuddalore. Tanjon was founded in 1766; here, and at Tritchinopoli in Madara, that eminent servant of God, Frederic Schwartz laboured, and by his evangelical example, and evangelical life, reflected honour on his profession, and eminently served among the heathen the cause of Christ. The Baptist Missionaries in Serampore, a Danish settlement, in which they were compelled to reside, on account of British intolerance, have, both by preaching and translating, done much to advance the interests of religion. In the year 1813, the feelings of the public were so excited on the subject of India, that government yielded to the expressed wishes of the people; an episcopal government was determined on for Hindoostan, and toleration declared for all missionary labourers. Since that time the work has been most rapidly increasing: the Wesleyan, the London Missionary, the American, the Scottish societies, all have agents in different parts of the country; and among these Christian labourers, the Society for the propagation of the Gospel, and the Church Missionary Society, are conspicuous. The foundation of the College in Calcutta, to which both the Church Missionary, and Christian Knowledge Society most liberally contributed, and subsequently, the wise and Christian conduct of the excellent Heber, have done much to raise the Missionary character to its due estimate, and to give a sanction and efficacy to their labours.

"The activity of the numerous Bible Societies, which provide translations of the sacred records of Christianity in all the languages of Hindoostan, and annually dis

dooism, and the Paleein Birmah, the same rank as the Latin in the Church of Rome; the religion of Birmah is that of Boredh or Buddha, called here Guadanna, probably the same superstition that prevails in Thibet, China, Japan, Ceylon, and over the entire east and south of Asia:-Its origin, its period, its nature, all are invested in obscurity; while its tenets are professed and its rights practised, by perhaps the largest collection of human beings on the globe obedient to any superstition.

tribute many thousand copies of them, promotes in no small degree the labours of the pious heralds of Christ. Hindoos, Mohamedans, Persians, Chinese, and Catholic Christians, now read the word of God-children read it in the schools-Bramins read it from curiosity; and those sublime truths, expressed in a childlike spirit, which enlighten the reason, solve the profoundest problems of life, reveal God, eternity, " and humanity, in admirable connexion, operate quietly, jet powerfully on the heart and understanding."

The education of native females began in the year 1822, in Calcutta, and has rapidly extended: the excellent person who commenced it, Mrs. Wilson, in the employment of the Church Missionary Society, entered upon this work in spite of the evil anticipations of friends, and the opposition of enemies, and the Lord was with her, and she has now above 500 pupils publicly in Calcutta, and in almost every native family of respectability, her teachers are admitted; a greater revolution, we will say, and productive of a more extraordinary change than any that India has witnessed. In truth, the question seems to be, shall we evangelize or lose India? for there has been communicated an impulse to the native mind, that we may be enabled by the powerful motives of the gospel to direct, but which we cannot counteract; and if we do not knit Hindoostan to us by the bonds of Christian affection, we shall soon experience its new born intellectual energies in the power that will wrest it from our dominion. lament to learn that Bishop James is obliged to return to Europe in consequence of ill health, and that a successor has been named; but we predict, that our prelates will either be victims, or exiles from their sees, until our government be just to India, and give to every presidency its presiding Bishop. We subjoin Mr. Shoberl's account of the Roman Catholic mission in Hindoostan, remarking, that he has all through his little work, manifested rather more respect for their tales than we think quite consistent with his usual penetration.*

We

"The chief superintendance of the Roman Catholic church in India, belongs by right to two archbishops, one of whom at Goa is styled metropolitan and þrimate of the East. The other resides at Cranganore, on the coast of Malabar, in the British presidency of Bombay: but the latter see has been vacant ever since the end of the last century, and it has hitherto been under the administration of a vicar-general only, appointed by the metropolitan of Goa.

"Under these archbishops there are two episcopal sees, that of St. Thomas, near Madras, and that of Cochin but these have also been vacant since the beginning of this century, and, as it appears, forgotten by the court of Portugal during the vicissitudes of its fortunes at home. Here also vicars-general, appointed by the metropolitan, act as substitutes for the bishops. All these prelates have invariably been nominated by the kings of Portugal, who asserted their right of patronage over the East Indian church, and even denied permission to other Catholic powers to send out missionaries. The Romish Cuira, however, regardless of this claim, appointed from the first bishops in partibus, by the title of vicars-apostolic, who, independent of the Portuguese prelates, were subordinate only to the congre gation for the Propagation of the faith at Rome. There are at present three of VOL. VIII. 2 F

these vicars-apostolic, at Bombay, at Verapalli in Cochin, and at Pondichery, who have under them missionaries for visiting the congregations of their dioceses.

"Under the immediate superintendance of the metropolitan of Goa, there are about five hundred thousand souls, but to these belong also the Catholics in the island of Ceylon, about one hundred and forty thousand in number, provided with numerous black ministers, educated in the seminary at Goa. Upwards of two thousand Indo-Christian priests and monks are under his controul.

"The bishoprick of Cranganore, which extends to Madura and the banks of the Crishna, numbered so far back as the middle of the last century, about two hundred thousand converted Hindoos; now there are no more than from thirty to forty thousand. The bishoprick of St. Thomas contains about sixty thousand, and that of Cochin only thirty thousand.

"Of the three Romish vicars-apostolic, the vicar of Bombay has scarcely more then ten thousand souls in his diocese; the vicar of Pondichery from thirty-four to thirty-six thousand; and the vicar of Verapalli eighty thousand Christians born. The missionaries of the latter alone continue to make converts among the Hindoos, baptizing annually four or five hundred adult heathen.

"Under an apostolic prefecture, appointed by, and dependent on the Propaganda of Rome, there is also a mission of Italian Capuchins at Madras. They number in their district about twelve thousand Christians.

"In the province of Tinnevelly, belonging to the Madras presidency, the Roman Catholics have fifty-three churches, the congregations of which amount to thirty thousand persons. They are divided into eight districts, each of which is committed to the charge of a country-born Portuguese priest, educated at Goa ; but about half these districts were vacant in 1822. For these thirty thousand souls there is but one school, containing about forty scholars. To the ceremonies of the Romish church these nominal Christians unite the customs of the heathen, drawing the rutt and carrying the images of the saints in procession just as the Hindoos do those of their deities. The distinction of castes is also observed among them.

"In the same province such extraordinary success has, since 1823, attended the labours of the agents of the Church Missionary Society, that in September, 1825, they had in one hundred and twenty-five villages more than a thousand families under Christian instruction."

How striking this last extract is when compared with the rest and in connexion with the following:

"Most of the Catholic Hindoos live in the grossest ignorance. With all the meanness entailed on them by their former reprobate castes they generally combine, as Christians, the debauchery and licentiousness of the dregs of European society.

"They are the same heathen as ever, only with the rosary and cross. Saints supply to them the places of the old Hindoo deities. A Hindoo and a Catholic once came to archdeacon Corrie, at Agra, that he might settle a dispute which had arisen between them respecting the cause of a recent earthquake. The Hindoo swore that the phenomenon was caused by the elephant which bears the earth on his back, lifting up one of his legs to rest it. The Christian, on the contrary, maintained that it was occasioned by the Virgin Mary's transferring the earth from her hand to that of her son, in order to take a little repose.

"The Romish ministers were in general satisfied with imparting to their converts a few obscure notions of God, the Virgin Mary, Christ, and the Saints, of

hell, purgatory, and heaven; they taught them besides to join in a few of the prayers of the church, and the Christian was complete. The adults remained without further instruction; the children without scholastic education; and all without Bible or book of devotion, whence they might have derived clearer conceptions of the nature of the doctrine given to mankind by the Saviour of the world,"

Of the Syriac churches we cannot, and need not speak much; their history is known to every one intimate with the history of Missionaries, and we may rejoice, that in the dispensation of Providence, a relic of the primitive church is found in the Alps of Piedmont, as a witness against the "Man of Sin," so the same office is performed in the Ghauts of Travancore, by the Syrian congregations. Though both fallen in comparison of former piety, each is purity itself, compared with surrounding and hostile Popish error. The writer of this article cannot leave this subject without adverting to the fact, that the College at Cotyam, which may be justly recorded as a great instrument of raising the fallen Syrian Church, is at present, by divine Providence, placed under the direction of one well known to him, and to many in this country-one who enjoyed the advantages, and shared in the honors of our University, and who was selected for the responsible situation he holds, not less for the piety and devotion of his heart, than the soundness of his judgment, and the exteut of his information-one who attracted the notice, and won the affection of Heber-who was the last individual conversed with him on earth, and first drew his lifeless corse from the bath in which he breathed his last. We receive it as a pledge of the merciful designs of Providence, that to such a person+ the College of Cotyam has been committed.

In Persia little has been done besides circulating the Scriptures. The visit of the excellent Martyn, and the more recent labours of Joseph Wolfe, have made Christianity and its sacred book well known, and there is reason to believe, more read than has been believed. Islamism seems to have a more relaxed hold on the better informed among the Persians, than on other Mahomedans, as from their national character, the freer intermixture with Europeans, and perhaps the influence of their heretical faith, Suffeeism, or Mahomedan sceptiscism, is very prevalent. The Christians to be found in Per

We have never seen the very singular circumstance accounted for, or even adverted to, that these churches, once Nestorian, are now altogether Jacobite, having passed from one extremity of opinion to the other. It would seem, however, from Buchanan, that their peculiarities are not obtrusive.

+ The Rev. John Doran, originally of a Roman Catholic family, a native of Ireland, early saw and acknowledged the truths of a scriptural faith. Under the patronage of Mr. Wilberforce, he was sent out to Hayti while Christophe was in power; but finding that nothing effectual could be done in that distracted country, he returned to Europe, offered himself as a Missionary to the Church Missionary Society, and under their patronage, entered the Irish University, and after an honorable and successful career, qualified himself for Orders. His piety, and good feelings endeared him to his contemporaries, and they parted with him with deep regret, when circumstances called for his presence in India, and their prayers and wishes have followed him thither.

sia are of the Armenian Church, and no favourable specimen of our religion; the Sabians, too, or the disciples of John the Baptist, are to be found there. We had hoped that an individual of high character for piety and talent, would, ere this, have devoted himself to the service of his Master, in Persia, for which his attainments eminently fitted him, but we fear he has been led aside from this object of trying but glorious ambition.

A brief survey of the Islands must suffice for the remainder of Asia. Ceylon, the Holy Island of the Malabars, the cradle of Buddhuism, the scene of the creation of man, and the site of Paradise, is awfully* sunk in superstition and ignorance. The Portuguese converted to nominal Christianity by the terrors of the sword; the Dutch, though they established Schools in some parts of the Island, sought to effect conversion by the bribery of office, and when the English gained the Island they neglected every expedient. In the time of the Dutch there were still between three and four hundred idol temples in Ceylon; in 1807 they had increased to more than twelve hundred. In the year 1663, there were sixty-five thousand Christians in the district of Jaffna, which in 1814 contained scarcely five thousand. According to a recent calculation, the total number of Protestant natives amounts to about one hundred and fifty thousand, that of the Roman Catholic to about fifty thousand: but how many of these Catholics and Protestants are Christians we know not."

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We fear very few. Since 1815 a better spirit has prevailed. Sir Alexander Jonston, Chief-Justice of the Island, by extending civil privileges to the natives, abolishing slavery, and encouraging Missionary exertions, has done much for the Island. The ChurchMissionary, Wesleyan, and London Societies labour here; among whom, the first is most conspicuous. The American Board of Missions have several stations; above 300 schools have been established, and conversions, both among Pagans and nominal Christians, are progressive; and the wild superstitions of the former are beginning to yield to instruction, and the fallen and degraded congregations of the latter to be again collected and restored to a Christian aspect.† The population of Java was estimated, in 1815, at about 4,500,000, of which number 86,000 were Chinese. The religion of Mohamed has acquired the ascendancy, and the Hindoos have retired to the Island of Bali. The Dutch establishments for education and preaching, overturned by the French and partially restored by the excellent Sir S. Raffles, during our brief occupation of the Island, will, we trust, become again active. While we possessed the large and fertile Island of Sumatra, something was done by our Missionaries to meliorate the ignorance of the Mohamedans and the atro

“ "Owing to the prodigious multitude of inferior deities, many of the Bramins feel themselves in danger of ultimately neither having, nor believing in, any God at all. In Ceylon the priests reckon up 120,535 gods. The polytheism of ancient Rome was a trifle compared with this."

+ We have been the less diffuse on the interesting topics of India and Ceylon, as our readers are, doubtless, familiar with the valuable Journal of Bishop Heber.