unknown. This fear, therefore, could not respect them as Missionaries, but merely as Europeans.

Mr. Carey says further, that "the Missionaries on the coast reckoned about forty thousand persons to have embraced Christianity." "This," says the Major, "is another direct false assertion. Dr. Kerr admits, on the 7th of Nov. 1806, that hitherto it is generally imagined few good converts have been made." (p. 70.) But though this might be generally imagined, yet it does not follow that it was true, or that Dr. Kerr thought it to be true. Or granting that he did, he might mean it only comparatively. Forty thousand people are but few when compared with the population of the country. In the letter addressed to Dr. Vincent, which was published in the Report of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, of 1800, they are reckoned at three thousand ;" and since that time, according to the Reports of that Society, there have been great accessions; whole villages casting away their idols, and embracing the gospel. Whether forty thousand be a just estimate, I cannot tell, and Mr. Carey does not determine; but till I have some better proof of his want of veracity than has yet appeared, I entertain no doubt of its being agreeable to the information he had received.

Thousands of heathens in Calcutta were willing to hear the gospel; but we, says Mr. Marshman, "are forbiden to preach it." That is, in Calcutta, where they had preached it. "This assertion says the Major, "is false; they are allowed to preach it in Serampore, and in their own house in Calcutta," But the thousands who desire to hear it could not attend in either of those places. If Major Scott Waring want understanding, who can help it? But he should not charge that as false which arises from his own misconstructions,

To say that thousands of heathens are willing to hear the gospel,

is he says, 66 a false and wicked assertion, in the way in which the Missionaries desire to be understood. Curiosity may draw, as it has done, thousands together to hear these men preach, but they are not likely to use the elegant expression of one of the coast Missionaries, to catch one (of the thousands) in the Gospel net." (p. 72.) The Missionaries never desired to be understood as if thousands stood ready to embrace Christianity, but merely that

they were willing, and even desirous to hear it it; and this, whatever were their motives, was the the truth. As to the improbability of their being brought to believe it, that is only Major Scott Waring's opinion, and stands for nothing.

*

"We have baptised," says Mr. Marshman, "about a hundred of these people, and we dare affirm that the British Government has not a hundred better subjects, and more cordial friends among the natives of Hindostan." "This," says the Major, " is a most atrocious falsehood. Of their hundred converts whom they have baptised in thirteen years, they have dismissed many for gross immorality." (p. 73.) The number of those who have been dismissed for gross immorality, however, is not so great as this writer would have thought it to be; but be it what it may, Mr. Marshman says, in the same page, "If they lose cast, and embrace Christianity, not by force, but from pure conviction, they become other men. Even those who, as it may prove, have not embraced it cordially, are considerably influenced by it. If once they lose cast, the charm is broken, and they become capable of attachment to Government.

But I am weary of contending with this foul opponent. It is time to bring this part of the subject, at least, to a close. As "the most atrocious falsehood" is charged on the Missionaries, let us here come to an issue. We will not shrink from it. Let our judges satisfy themselves of the truth of our statements. We will hold ourselves, obliged, whenever called upon by proper authority, to give proof of them. If falsehood be found on our side. let our Missionaries be ordered out of the country as a set of impostors; but if on the side of our accusers, let the burden which they have laboured to fasten upon us, fall upon themselves.

But our Missionaries are accused not only of falsehood, but with being "in open rebellion." This accusation is founded on their going out without legal authority, and by foreign ships; -on their availing themselves of the protection of Denmark; -and on their itinerating in the country without passports, and after a legal permission to do so, was refused them.

*He might have said in six.

It is easy to perceive that on this subject, the hopes of our accusers begin to brighten. Like the Pharisees and the Herodians, he thinks he shall be able to entangle us, and bring us under the displeasure of Government. Well, let him do his utmost. We acknowledge the above to be facts, let them affect us as they may. It is worthy of notice, however, that it is not owing to any thing which our accuser has written that these facts have been brought to light. The substance of them was contained in the Statement ; which Statement, was, in fact, though not in form, respectfully submitted to the very parties to whom he wishes to accuse us. He is, therefore, a day too late. Our judges were in possession of the facts before he knew of them. There is nothing left for him to do as an accusor, but merely as a counsel, to assist the Judges in forming a decision, by his comments and learned arguments. And with respect to these, we must take the liberty of wiping off a part of his colouring; and truly it can be only a part, for to remove the whole, the pamphlet itself must be literally purified by fire.

The itinerating excursions, subsequent to the refusal of a legal permission in 1805, were not in defiance of Government, but with their knowledge, and, I may say their approbation. The refusal of the Governor-General did not appear to rise from any disapprobation of the object, or of the means used to accomplish it; but merely from a hesitation whether the Government in India were warranted formally to adopt the measure. There was no prohibition whatever at that time laid upon the Missionaries, nor any intimations of even a wish for them to relax in their itinerating labours. On the contrary, when, from the hesitation before mentioned, the Governor-General disapproved of a committee to superintend the translations, he nevertheless gave full liberty to advertise in the Gazette for voluntary subscriptions; and added, "Let the Missionaries go on in their present line of action."

Our accuser, not knowing what to do with this last sentence, contrives to throw it back a year, supposing the remark must have been made prior to the autumn of 1805." (p. 93.) Certainly this supposition is necessary for his argument; but unfortunately it is not true. I cannot exactly refer to the date, but have no

doubt of its being in 1806. Never till the 24th of August in that year, was any thing like a prohibition given, and then it appears to have arisen more from apprehension than dislike; and consisted not in a written order from the Governor-General in Council, but merely in a private verbal message. If, therefore, the Major flatter himself that Sir George Barlow is of the same mind with him and his party, he may find himself mistaken.

I may add, that the protection of the Danish Government was granted at the unsolicited recommendation of the late Governor Bie, whose testimony to the good character of the Missionaries was not only sent to his own Government at Copenhagen, but the same thing conveyed in a letter to the Society in England in the following terms :-" Permit me to assure you, that I do not consider the friendship and few civilities I have had it in my power to show your brethren here, otherwise than as fully due to them. I have received them as righteous men, in the name of righteous men ; and I shall never withhold good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of my hand to do it. I am happy in possessing them, and will be more so in seeing their number increase."The Missionaries have always acknowledged the kindness of the British as well as of the Danish Government; and though at one period they expressed their concern at being forbidden to preach to the multitudes who were willing to hear in Calcutta, yet neither they nor the Society have dealt in reflections, but have contented themselves with simply stating the facts, and the arguments arising from them; and this merely to counteract the underhand measures of their adversaries.

We only ask for a calm and candid hearing. We solemnly aver before God and our country, that we are most sincerely attached to its Constitution and Government; that we regard its authority with sentiments of the highest respect, and hold ourselves bound to be obedient to its lawful commands. Obedience to the ruling powers we conceive to be enjoined in scripture; where, however, an exception is expressly made in favour of those cases in which the commands of man are directly opposed to the revealed commands of God. These are cases which, in the course of human affairs, may occur; but which no good subject will love to an

ticipate before their actual occurrence. Supposing, however, the arrival of an emergence so painful, it surely would be somewhat harsh to stigmatize with the name of "open rebellion" the reluctant disobedience, in a particular instance of those, who are only yielding to a deliberate, sober, and conscientious conviction of their duty. The apostles exhorted all Christians, rather than renounce their faith or disobey the divine precepts at the command of the state, to "resist even unto blood;" but we have yet to learn that such injunctions were intended or received as instigations to rebellion.

Were it possible to conceive (we merely suppose the case) that the Missionaries should be called to the hard duty of deciding between the service of God and obedience to man, we trust that they would be enabled to encounter, with resignation, the painful sacrifice imposed upon them; but we are thankful to say that they have as yet been spared so severe a trial.

Surely, nothing but the most uncandid and bitter prejudice would represent the refusal of an official sanction to their itinerations as an imperative prohibition of them; or would class the Missionaries as rebels merely because being denied the formal protection of the governing power, they were content with connivance, or at least with uncovenanted toleration. Numbers of Europeans are to be found residing in India, though unaccredited by the company or the British Governments; and we have never understood that all these were considered as in a state of "open rebellion." Yet we have no objection to be explicit, and will be free to confess that the legality of such a residence for the purposes of private emolument would in our view be more than doubtful, and that we should certainly abstain from it.

If upon a candid consideration of all circumstances, it be found that we have in some instances deviated from the regulations alluded to, it will be remembered that it has not been for any object of temporal advantage, the illicit pursuit of which it was doubtless the design of those regulations to prevent, though they are necessarily expressed in terms which give them a more general application. As far, indeed, as the deviation may, even under these circumstances, seem an irregular proceeding, so far we should certainly rest our defence of it