one-third of the whole year cannot be held as equitable-that morover, that being the period during which prices are almost invariably lower than in the following months, and also that more Fiars than one ought to be struckthe clergy being by Act of Parliament entitled to the highest Fiar prices that may be struck. The objection that may be urged by tenants who have made payment by the Fiars a matter of voluntary compact, is ably disposed of-while the pamphlet is comprehensive in itself and evidently dictated by mature consideration of the subject, points out a method of remedy, for which the author suggests, failing any other method of redress, an Act of Parliament should be demanded, as the ultima ratio. The clergy and others interested cannot but feel greatly indebted to Mr Paterson for the time and attention he has devoted to this important topic.

Tales of the Borders, Vol. I. Edinburgh: Moodie and Lothian.

The republication of the Tales of the Borders in a portable form and carefully edited, cannot but command an extensive sale; the object of the talented editor, who was also one of the contributors to the Tales, is to make a judicious selection from the larger work, and also to introduce a few papers from various authors so as to lend a degree of novelty even to readers who have perused the Tales when they first appeared, and as an inducement to them to place them on the shelves of their libraries. It is gratifying to be able to speak well of a work of fiction, for in the Tales of the Borders there is nothing to offend the most fastidious, or to raise the blush in the cheek of innocence; they are pervaded throughout by a genuine religious spirit; there is no scoffing at things sacred; on the contrary, whenever the observances of religion are the subject of topic, they are approached in a reverential spirit and with due appreciation. There is moreover a healthful morality pervading these tales, and as the young mind must have some imaginative food to feed upon, it is gratifying to be able to recommend a work which is not only calculated to strengthen virtuous resolutions, but also to inspire a love for social religion without that gloominess of aspect with which it is so unhappily associated.

The present volume, in addition to three tales by Wilson, contains also contributions from the late Hugh Miller, Professor Gillespie of St Andrews, Alexander Campbell, and, though last not least, Alexander Leighton, the accomplished editor of the present edition.

Electricity.

We understand that Mr Morrison, Dentist, Edinburgh, has discovered the perfect application of Electricity as an anesthetic-in other words, depriving any organic part of life, and consequently of feeling, in surgical opera

tions.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

THE tale of Christian progress in India fills but a scanty page in its history. In a country where for nearly four thousand years, religion has played a part the most prominent, and where so much of what constitutes its annals resolves into the strifes and struggles of faith; the light of the purest creed, that ever dawned on the world, has scarcely yet penetrated. If, however, by the help of the learned researches, that are making into India's "Past," we are now able to "read its annals right," we may chance to stumble on the answer to the question, How has it come to pass that while the West received and welcomed the Missionaries of the Cross, the East, with all its civilization and learning, should have presented so insuperable a barrier to its progress? Paradoxical as it may appear, we may find, as we have already hinted, that we at least approach an explanation of the phenomenon that has arrested so much attention, by applying to the Hindus the language of the Apostle to the " men of Athens:" "I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious," and reaching this explanation, the door may at length be opened up to us in providence, by which the blessings of Christianity are to brighten the days of India's "Future." Yet true it is, that India was one of the earliest countries visited by the light of the gospel. Modern researches are more and more strengthening the belief, that a part of the Tribe of Manasseh, which was carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, wandered by sea to the coasts of Malabar, or found their way by an easier route through Affghanistan and the Punjaub; and the visit of an Apostle to those of the lost sheep of the House

of Israel, who had wandered too far to the eastward of Babylon to return to Mount Zion, finds an appropriate and interesting place in the history of Christianity. That India was honoured by the labours of the Apostle THOMAS as early as the year A.D. 51, is certainly no way an impossible or improbable story; although we may have some difficulty in stretching our faith to the tale that he suffered martyrdom at the instigation of the priests of a religion, which in these days, as at present, regarded Heaven as a palace with many doors, at which all may enter. It is well known, however, that when the coasts of India were visited by Europeans at a far later period in history, a colony of Jews was found established upon them, and existing distinct from the native and Christian population. "The travels of St Thomas, his success in founding a Christian Church, of which both Jews and Brahmins became converts; his establishing himself at Martapan, the seat of a far famed Hindu temple, are said to be articles of faith among the Christians of the Malabar and Coromandel coasts, which it would be difficult to shake, and hazardous to deny. It is said by Eusebius, that the patriarch of India sat in the Council of Nice in 325; and the celebrated ATHANASIUS, of Alexandria, much about the same period, sent a bishop, named Frumentius, to rule over the Indian Church, who occupied for many years its Episcopal throne, and made many converts, and these, not as in after days, from among the lower classes, but from among the Brahmins and the higher and more influential orders. In the fifth century, a colony of Syrian Christians, headed by a bishop from Antioch, arrived in India, who must have made considerable progress in the work of proselytising the Hindus, as to this day, the ecclesiastical fabric which they erected, may be traced."

If the Christian Church, at its very fountain head, was early distracted by the divisions, that unhappily found their way within it, it was scarcely to be expected, that in India it should preserve its unity of faith and worship; and here also, while permitted to pray in greater peace than was enjoyed by their brethren in the west, the beauty of the picture, which ought to have been exhibited, was marred by contentions among themselves, doubtless imported from the seats, from which their clergy derived their ecclesiastical functions and authority. The labours of Frumentius are said to have been productive of but little effect in healing these dissensions; and when at length a sturdier reformer was found in MAR THOMAS-originally an Armenian merchant by profession, -an Arian in faith, but a man of singular tact and knowledge of the world, the greatest difficulties attended the work. The arrival of the Christian colony from Syria appears, however, to have been a happy event for the early days of the Christian Church in India. While the great errand of those pious colonists was to introduce the knowledge of the gospel, their services of a more strictly called secular character, secured to them many valuable spiritual immunities from the native princes. A memoir, presented within these twenty years by Captain Swainston of the Madras Establishment, to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, brings us acquainted with these immunities; and dis1 Bryce's Native Education in India, p. 204.

plays a picture of the temporal sceptre swayed by a Hindu sovereign, who in gratitude for the substantial secular benefits bestowed on him by the foreigners, who had settled on his shores, confided the spiritual to a Christian bishop, to rule in peace over such of his subjects, as had received his faith and acknowledged his authority. Thanks to Captain Swainston, the Christian traditions, that had so long, yet doubtfully, told us how nearly the realms of Brahma had been to coming under the dominion of the Cross, at the very time, when under Constantine it was first floating over the imperial eagles of Rome, have received a confirmation redolent with lessons, that may prove most useful to the power that now reigns paramount throughout them. The introduction of the Gospel into India by the first Missionaries who came to preach it, appears to have been gentle and easy; and they seem to have encountered no fiery persecution in the good work in which they were engaged. They spread a knowledge of their creed among the natives, organized churches from among their Hindu converts, and traces of their pious labours still remain. But falling into great disorder from the lack of ecclesiastical guidance, the Christians of St Thomas attracted the notice, and the commiseration of the Nestorian Patriarch of Babylon; and under his auspices the Nestorian Church arose in A.D. 825, and continued for a long time to prosper, governed by a succession of bishops who were distinguished for their piety and their learning. Exposed at length to the inroads of a rival faith, which carried its creed in the one hand, and the sword to enforce belief in it, in the other, it fell into a state of great weakness, if not of lamentable corruption.

The irruption of Alexander of Macedon into India occurred three hundred years before the Christian era; and from that period until five hundred years after that time, the realms of Brahma were but little disturbed by foreign aggression. At length, however, there burst on them a race of robbers, who although for a time plundering the East of its riches, only to return beyond the Indus, to enjoy its spoils amidst the mountain fastnesses of Affghanistan, did at last settle down in giving to the creed of the Arabian prophet a more permanent place and habitation. Mahomet, when he appeared on the stage on which he was to play so remarkable a part in the world alike of paganism and Christianity, and to influence so deeply the destinies of India, found his own countrymen in a state of semi-barbarism, and independent alienation from the rest of the world, wandering like their Ishmaelitish forefathers over wide and dreary deserts, at least all beyond the sea-coasts of their country and living under tents, which constituted the only moveable cities in which they dwelt, a state of social existence that promised anything but the conquests that awaited them in after ages, and to a great degree rewarded their valour and fanaticism in the lifetime of the Prophet himself. The Arabs, with no apparent bond of policy, or allegiance to any chief, chosen or hereditary, as the head paramount in their state, were yet enabled to unite at this period, as if by the wand of some potent wizard; and with the banner, "There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his Prophet," floating over their heads, and the sword to enforce obedience in their sturdy grasp, they went forth conquering and to