CHAP. VII. Progress of translations. whole Scriptures in little more than a quarter of a year. Besides the correctness and beauty of his types, noticed by Colonel Newall, he has so reduced them in size, that we can now print at one half of the cost of the old types." "I have to conclude my Report with the welcome intelligence of a permanent reduction in the expense of printing, involving another little interesting circumstance in connection with Mr Bailey. The printer sent from Madras we were obliged to dismiss. In the mean time, a youth, adopted some years ago by Mr Bailey as a destitute orphan child, had acquired the art of printing sufficiently to succeed as head printer, to which office we appointed him, on a salary of seven rupees per month. This little incident adds singularly to the completeness of Mr Bailey's work in the edition of the Malayalim Scriptures, to issue from our press, we trust, in a short time. The translation is entirely his own; the types formed by himself from the very mould; and the printing to be executed by an orphan boy, reared up by his charity." 28. The translation of the Scriptures Mr Bailey justly regarded as his primary object, and he gave to it as much of his time as he could spare from other duties. In 1824, he had nearly prepared the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles for the press. The remainder of the New Testament had also undergone his revision, and he was going over it again. As a considerable desire was excited among the Syrians in general to possess the Scriptures in Malayalim, the Gospel of St Matthew was printed first, and distributed among them. Before printing any other portions of the Testament, Mr Bailey was anxious to make his translation as correct as possible, to improve his types, and to obtain two or three more presses. Before the end of 1826, these three objects were attained, and during that year an edition of five thousand copies of St Luke's Gospel was finished for the Madras Bible Society. At the same time Mr Bailey was proceeding with the remainder of the New Testament, the Liturgy, and smaller works. Indeed, his presses were now in active operation, and he seems only to have wanted a regular printer from England to accomplish all his plans. of the 29. His translation of the English Liturgy was Account very acceptable to the Metran and his clergy; and, Syrian of their own accord, several cattanars read it in Church. their churches, not at the time, however, of their own Syriac services, with which the missionaries were specially careful not to interfere. At Cotym, Mr Bailey himself performed the Malayalim service, with the Metran's permission, in one of the Syrian churches, which was generally well attended. The author was present on one of these occasions, and will here give his remarks upon it at the time : "In the evening, I attended our church service in Malayalim, performed by Mr Bailey in one of the Syrian churches; about ten cattanars and one hundred and fifty Syrians were present; and they appeared to be very attentive, particularly to the sermon. It was singular to see the person who, in the morning, officiated as priest at the Syrian altar, now performing the office of clerk to Mr Bailey; this was the head Malpan of the college, who expresses his admiration of most of our prayers, and will permit no one else to read the responses. The missionaries remark upon this use of the Liturgy in their presence-"We think they will be more delighted with the constitution of the English Church the better they are acquainted with it; and it appears to us to be of growing im VOL. V. 'Missionary Register 1822, p. 426. B b VII. CHAP. portance, that the discipline and services of that Church should be fully exhibited to them, so far as it may be in our power. Not that we wish to impose any of our ceremonies on them, much less to identify them with the English Church; but a model is necessary for them in their attempts at reformation, and we know of none better than the sober but dignified deportment of the Church to which it is our privilege to belong." Acknowledging the advantage of performing public service in the language which the people understood, the Metropolitan admitted' that their Church had no canon against translating into Malayalim even their own Liturgy, except those prayers which were peculiar to the priests, which must always be read in Syriac. Many, if not all, the prayers, to the translation of which they would object, are such as it would even be desirable to preserve in Syriac; for they are addressed chiefly to the Virgin Mary; and would tend to confirm the people in error, rather than enlighten their minds and brighten the flame of true devotion. The missionaries, however, did not contemplate interfering with the Syriac services; and the Committee of the Society conveyed to them their decided judgment, that the Syrians should be brought back to their own ancient and primitive worship and discipline, rather than be induced to adopt the Liturgy and discipline of the English Church; and that should any considerations incline them to wish such a measure, it would be highly expedient to dissuade them from adopting it; both for the preservation of their individuality and entireness, and greater consequent weight and usefulness as a Church; and also to prevent those jealousies and heart-burnings In the conference with the author referred to above. which would, in all probability, hereafter arise.2 At present, the cordiality subsisting between the Syrians and the missionaries appeared to be complete. No apprehension of interference was manifested by the Bishop or any of his clergy; and the work of improvement seemed to be advancing with the fairest prospect of ultimate success. and 30. The second branch of the mission, the college College and introductory schools, proceeded with equal pro- schools at mise under Mr Fenn's superintendence. His first Cotym. report of the college pupils will shew with what encouragement he commenced his work. In 1820, he wrote "The number of students is forty-two; of whom twenty-one have passed through the five initiatory ordinations. Their improvement has been tolerably good. Some can read English as well as the generality of our own youths, and are making advances in the real knowledge of it. All have acquired some knowledge of figures; and some can go through the first four rules of arithmetic, according to our mode and in our language, with the same readiness as youth at home. In Sanscrit and Malayalim, the progress is fair. With regard to the Syriac, we have hitherto refrained from any interference in the mode of teaching; but an alteration is absolutely necessary: no grammar is taught; the progress is uncommonly slow; and the knowledge acquired of no use beyond the simple translation of the parts of Scripture which have been learnt; as the best foundation of a change, we have directed the attention of the most proficient student to the study of the Latin language. Dr Watts's First and Second Catechisms for Children are among the books which the students are learning; and, 'C. M. S. Report, 20th, p. 179. CHAP. though simple in themselves, they contain what the students have hitherto been very ignorant of. VII. "The Committee will be pleased to hear, that the application of many of the students has been very great. Many of them not more than twelve, thirteen, or fourteen years old, were up till past twelve o'clock of a night, learning the tasks assigned them. We deemed it our duty to repress this over-exertion." At the same time, the missionaries proposed the establishment of three grammar schools, as introductory to the college, where the rudiments of the English, Sanscrit, and Syriac languages should be studied, together with the elementary principles of science. Without such auxiliaries, it was obvious that the college must always remain a mere school, and the attention of its teachers be confined to the incipient branches of learning. The Madras Corresponding Committee, concurring in this view of the importance of such schools, agreed to commence with the establishment of one at Cotym, by way of experiment. A competent English master was obtained from Madras. It proved, as was expected, a nursery to the college. For some time it was under Mr Baker's charge, and two or three years after it was opened, in 1824, it contained forty-five scholars, whose progress in the acquirement of English and Sanscrit had been steady. Two boys had been sent out as schoolmasters, and thus the school had begun to fulfil another important object in its plan, besides training pupils for the college. The boys were regularly instructed in religion, and almost all of them had committed to memory our Lord's Sermon on the Mount. They would have learnt much more, Mr Baker remarked, but this was all he had ready for them in their own language. The first class had also begun the book of Genesis; had read two of the gospels in English; and the |