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Sacred Books into the several idioms of the country. Our disfigured Holy Scriptures were profusely diffused among the inhabitants, under such a contemptible garb; and upon this only foundation the latter were angrily required to shift for themselves, to build their faith, and reform their religion, civilization, and manners:" (pp. 149, 150.) A most unfounded charge! and, until he can support it by well-attested facts, or even by a single instance of such imprudence on the part of any Society*, I shall think it unworthy of a reply,

Contrasting the measures of the Jesuit with those of the Protestant Missionaries in India, he says, that the former established Schools for the educating of Native Catechists and Religious Teachers, and composed Tracts and Elementary Works upon Religious Topics: (p. 131.) Any person not acquainted with the proceedings of Protestants in the East, would conclude, upon reading this statement, that they neglected the use of such means; and this is obviously the impression made on the mind. But is this arguing like a fair disputant and a lover of truth? He must, he cannot but know, that Protestant

* No Institution is answerable for the conduct of an individual Member, which it does not authorise.

Missionaries have adopted these very expedients, and that to a much greater extent than the Jesuits ever did. How inconsistent, then, with Christian integrity, so to state the case, as to make a false impression!

With regard to the training of Native Catechists, Schoolmasters, and Priests, I know not a single Missionary Station between Madras and Cape Comorin, including both the Coromandel and Malabar Coasts-nine of which I myself have visited-where there is not a separate establishment for this specific purpose. This was one of the first objects to which the venerable Ziegenbalg, Swartz, and their co-adjutors, paid attention. I am intimately acquainted with several pious and intelligent Native Religious Teachers, educated at Vepery, Tranquebar, Tanjore, &c. &c. Does M. Dubois remember nothing of the first four Priests ordained by Swartz and Kohloff, some years ago? Did he never hear of the devoted Sattianaden? Does he not know, that successive Missionaries, in South India, of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, have since ordained other Natives equally promising†? Has he never read accounts of the splendid Esta

+ All these Priests are supported by this admirable Institution.

blishment at Serampore; or of the College at Calcutta, founded more recently by the late Bishop of that Diocese? I cannot think that the man who appears to have been so industrious in collecting information to the prejudice of Protestant Missionaries, needs to be informed, that they also have always "selected the best-disposed and most intelligent among the Native Converts, and established Schools for the forming of Catechists or Native Religious Teachers"—or, that they have "superintended and directed those Schools of Catechists, and made it their principal study to give them an education suited to their intended profession."

Neither can he be ignorant, that the composition and translation of Religious Tracts, and other Elementary Works, has formed a prominent part of the Protestant Missionary's labours. Has he never seen the valuable Dialogues of Swartz, in Tamul; or any of the numerous Catechisms, and other Works of various sizes, published by the Danish Missionaries, and the Agents of the Christian Knowledge Society in South India, for many years past? Is he ignorant of the thousands of Elementary and other Publications that issue annually from the various Presses in Bengal and Madras? No

several parts of his Letters shew, that he is well aware of what is going forward in this and other departments of Missionary Labour. I will therefore relate but two cases in point. Last year, the Press of the Church Missionary Society at Madras, alone, sent forth Thirty Thousand Copies of Religious Publications ! During my residence in Tinnevelly, the Madras District Committee of the Christian Knowledge Society, and the Corresponding Committee of the Church Missionary Society, sent me annually, upon an average, Two Thou sand Religious Publications, for the use of their respective Missions in that distant province! I will only add, that every* Protestant Mission in India is as well, and many are much better, supplied with Works of the same description: and that they are not published for the Catechists only (as the Jesuits' Tracts, &c. appear to have been), but are distributed among all ranks of Christians and Heathens, that are found capable of understanding, and desirous of possessing them.

There is another, and that a most promising department of Missionary Labour; to which, as far as I can learn, from the" Let

* Of course, I except newly-formed Stations.

ters" now before me, and other sources of information, the Roman-Catholic Missionaries have paid no attention-I mean the establishment of Schools for all classes of Children. I know not of a single Protestant Missionary Station in South India, where there is not an English School for the benefit of those Children whose parents wish them to learn our language, and one or more Schools in which the Children of Christians and Heathens are taught the Elements of useful and Religious Knowledge in their vernacular tongues.

To expatiate on the expediency or utility of such Institutions is, happily, quite unnecessary: for it is now acknowledged, by all who have given the subject a candid consideration, that it is of primary importance

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―to rear the tender thought;
To teach the young idea how to shoot;
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind;
To breathe th' enlivening spirit; and to fix
The generous purpose on the glowing heart."

If this be the case in Christian Countries, how much more so must it be in Pagan Lands, while the mind is yet supple, and ere it is benighted by Superstition, or distorted by Vice!

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