ple and definite nature of its plan, and the evident importance of its objects, that it will meet with the most extensive support.

The following noblemen and gentlemen are appointed vice-presidents of the Society: - Viscount Valentia; Right Hon. Lord Calthorpe; Right Hon. Lord Headley; Right Hon. Lord Teignmouth; Right Hon. Lord Radstock; Right Hon Lord Gambier; Sir William Pepperell, Bart.; Sir Thomas Baring, Bart. M. P.; Sir Thomas Bernard, Bart.; William Wilberforce, Esq. M. P.; Thomas Babington, Esq. M. P.; Charles Grant, Esq. M. P.

The Committee consist of twenty-four lay members of the Established Church, and of all clergymen who are members of the Society. One Guinea annually constitutes a member; but every clergyman subscribing Half-a-Guinea annually is considered a member; and every clergyman contributing a congregational collection, is entitled to receive three-fourths of the amount in books at cost prices. Subscriptions and donations are received by the treasurer, Henry Thornton, Esq., M. P., Bartholomew Lane; by the secretary, the Rev. Henry Budd, A. M., Bridge Street, Blackfriars, to whom all comInunications respecting the general objects of the Society are requested to be made; by the deputy-secretary, Mr. Thomas Smith, 19, Little Moorfields; and by the following bankers: Messrs. Down, Thornton, Free and Down, Bartholomew Lane; Messrs. Forster, Lubbock, and Co., Mansion-house Street; Messrs. Hoares, Fleet Street; Messrs. Drammonds, Charing Cross; Messrs. Hammersleys and Co., Pall-Mall; and Messrs. Birch, Chambers, and Hobbs, New Bond Street.

We are unwilling to quit this society without adding a few observations upon it, in addition to those which we ventured to make in our last number.

When we read the 55th Article of our Church, in which the Homilies are affirmed to" contain a godly and wholesome doctrine," and in which the church expressly judges them to be read in churches diligently and distinctly, that they may be understanded by the people," we cannot help feeling and expressing our astonishment that these compositions should have fallen into such general neglect. For churchmen what can be a more plain and obvious duty, than that of circulating the Homilies? It was most clearly the intention of the fathers of the Reformation, and is no less clearly, as the above article proves, the intention of the church, that the people should be well acquainted with these writings. And, in CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 125.

our opinion, the church has most wisely “judged" in this instance, and those are to be blamed who have deviated from her judgment. To the general disuse of these compositions, since the period of the Restoration, we are disposed to attribute much of the error, ignorance, and latitudinarianism, which have prevailed among us since that time. The sermons of our divines would probably not have degenerated, as has been the case in too many instances, into mere ethical disquisitions, had they been directed to the Homilies as their standard of doctrine.. Nor would the mass of our population have become so deplorably ignorant of the first principles of the Christian faith, had these expositions of it held a place in every cottage library. The Homilies were designed for general instruction, and they are admirably adapted to serve that purpose. Their theology is sound and practical. They deal not in controversy, but they speak with authority while they tell us what it is we must believe and do. They adhere most closely to the spirit and to the views of the sacred writings, aud are peculiarly marked by the same catholicism which breathes in them; by the same zeal for what is plain and practical in religion, and by the same indifference to mere party questious. Even their somewhat antiquated language, while it does not render them less intelligible, invests them with a certain venerable air, calculated to inspire respect and command attention. And if there should be particular Homilies, which are less needed in the present day than at the time when they were written, the plan of circulating them in single sermons will leave each person at liberty to select such as he may deem most likely to promote edification. He may, in short, make the same sort of selection which he would deem it right to make, if he were to read the Homilies from the pulpit, or in the family circle.

Upon the whole, as tracts for general distribution, the Homilies are certainly entitled to the first regard of churchmen; and for this reason, among others, that here there is no room for difference of opinion. Here all members of the church are agreed to approve and to commend; while in respect to no other tracts could the same universal concurrence of sentiment be expected. For our own parts, we cannot but anticipate the happiest effects from their circulation. We cannot believe, that the truths which breathed from the lips of our Cranmers, our Ridleys, our Latimers, and our Jewels; which animated them with the spirit of martyrdom; and which served to plant the seed of divine life 2 U

of whom are indebted, under Divine grace, to the translation of the Scriptures for their conversion. They are uot very easy of belief on these important subjects, especially the native Catholics, who find a vast difference between the pure word of God and the fables and wicked inventions of their blind leaders. They are there fore determined to be thoroughly satisfied now, lest they should be deceived again, and to become well persuaded that they are at last in possession of the pearl of great price.

"You have no doubt heard of a wish having been expressed by some ladies for the establishment of a school for the instruction of indigent young females, upon a plan similar to our institution for the boys. This is a most desirable object."

The English Editor of these accounts introduces at this place the following note. "It is not for us to give account of any but our own proceedings; otherwise the communications of Our brethren would enable us to speak with pleasure of the fruits of other evangelical labours in the city of Calcutta as well as our own. The above hint respecting a fe male school, was from the friends of religion in the Established Church."

We think this a perfectly fair and natural course of proceeding, for which we cannot at all blame either the Baptist Missionaries or the Editor of their transactions. It is not many months, however, since a writer in the Eclectic Review, when giving an account of the Christian Researches of Dr. Buchanan, thought proper to make the following observations. "We are not to be understood as imply ing that the Doctor has used, with respect to the Missionaries, in this or bis other works, any terms of a directly depreciating nature"-" but we read with a very perverted apprehension, if there is not a systematical avoidance to give due prominence of representation to their energy, their talents, and their performances; if there is not an obvious disposition to throw a fuller, richer light on the exertions, even the much more limit ed and less important exertions, of other scholars; if there are not, in short, some indications of a sectarian feeling, that is far from pleased that persons not connected with the Church of England should have obtained a precedence from which they never can be displaced, in the biblical literature of the East," &c. &c. Vol. vii.p. 574. Now what would this Reviewer have said of us, if, taking up the two or three volumes of Baptist Reports which have been published, we should have remarked, as we might have done with far more appearance of truth and fairness, "We read with a very perverted appre. hension, if there is not it these Reports a systematic avoidance to give due promi

nence of representation to the energy, the talents, and the performances of the Missionaries employed by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, of the Rev. Dr. Brown, the Rev. Dr. Buchanan, the Rev. Henry Martyn, and others, belonging to the Church of England, or even of the Missionaries of the London Missionary Society; if there is not an obvious disposition to throw a richer, fuller light on their own exertions; if there are not, in short, some indications of a sectarian feeling, that is far from pleased that persons connected with the Church of England, or with any other church than their own, should have taken precedence of them in the great work of evangelizing India, or should be thought to have borne or to be bearing any part in advancing those very hiblical undertakings which form their chief ground of claim as public benefactors." Had we thus written, we should have felt that we had written most unfairly. The Editor would have properly and briefly replied. “It is not for us to give account of any hut our own proceedings." But how much more unfair and uncandid is the attack of the Reviewer, thau even the case which we have supposed. Dr. Buchauan feit; as we hope and believe, a deeper interest in the exertions of the church of which he is a minister, than in those of other churches. But is it possible for any individual, whose mind is not absolutely perverted by prejudice, to read his various works, his Memoir on an Ecclesiastical Establishment for India, his Star in the East, his Christian Researches, and to say that Dr. Buchanan has systematically avoided to give due prominence to the energy, talents, and performances of the Baptist Missioners ? We shall next expect to be accused ourselves, and it would be with the same justice, of invidiously and systematically throwing the exertions of these valuable men into the shade-But we are desirous rather of apologising for the Reviewer, although, perhaps, he may thank us as little for our apology as for our censure. We take it for granted that he is a member of the Baptist Society, and great allowances should be made for him on this score. Every Baptist cannot be expected to be a Hall or a Hughes in respect to expansion of mind. The members of small divisiona of Christians generally labour under this disadvantage, that every small sect is apt to account itself the purest of all socis, and its great men the greatest of all men. The Reviewer appears to have had the whole field of his view filled up with, his own society, and probably knew very little about the proceedings of the Church of England or of the other denominations of Christians. When Dr. Buchanan, there fore, published a book giving some ho

nour to these as well as to the Baptists, he is both surprised and offended. Montaigne's fable is applicable to such a case. -"A young rat, who had lived all his life in a large chest, scrambled up to the top one day, when the lid chanced to be open, and, looking over the edge, exclaimed with great surprise, how wide the world is!" When the reviewer gets out of the chest, and takes a larger view, he will probably speak less harshly of Dr. Buchanan.

We may appear to have given a disproportionate space to this discussion, but we were desirous not to let slip so fair au opportunity of giving a lesson of candour to our Christiau brethren generally, as well as to the Eclectic Reviewer; and we trust that what we have said may prevent the repetition of such unfounded and unseemly imputations, as those on which we have animadverted. We must now return to the Baptist Missionaries.

Calcutta, March 8th, 1811.-"Our friend, Mrs. W. of the Fort, who invited the missionaries to preach in her house, made ng a visit yesterday, with some others, for the first time. I was much gratified by the zealous spirit which she evinced, as well as by her anxiety to join the church. She has hitherto waited to see if the Lord would bless her endeavours to draw her husband into the right way. See what a blessing this native woman aims to be to her European husband. She was, if I mistake not, before he took her as a slave, a Hindoo of the vilest description. This man was serjeant of artillery in the late war, under Lord Lake, and had an active part in most of the bloody conflicts of the time. This woman's attachment to her partner was so strong, that she accompanied him in the heat of every battle, and often lent him a hand when exhausted, and supplied his place at the guns. In one of these scenes Mr. W. received a musket-ball about the temples, which penetrated nearly through his skull, carrying a part of the brass hoop of his hat along with it. He instantly dropped down, to all appearance dead. She, however, neither lost her fortitude nor her affection: even in this trying moment, when, in addition to the situation of her partner, the shot were falling like bail-stones about her own head, she took him upon her back, with the intent of performing the last friendly office, that of burying him, and carried him clear out of the scene of action! It pleased God to restore him; and, to make the most grate

ful return he couceived himself capable of, on his recovery he made her his wife."

An account is afterwards given of the successful intercession of this Hindoo woman with the Commander-in-Chief, to prevent the discontinuance of the religious meetings held at her house, of which some one had reported unfavourably.

Government has given Mr. Ward leave to publish a work on the religion and manners of the Hindoos.

On the subject of biblical translations the following intelligence is given.

"In the month of March, 1811, the New Testament in the Hindee and Mahratta languages, the Pentateuch in Sungskrit, and the prophetic books in the Orissa language were finished at press. The progress of the translations is as follows:

"1. Bengalee.-The whole Old and New Testament translated and printed. A second edition of the Pentateuch in the press, and priuted to about the middle of Leviticus.

"2. Sungskrit.-An edition of one thousand five hundred copies of the N. T. translated and printed. The O. T. translated to Ruth, and printed, to the end of the Pentateuch.

"3. Hindee, or Hindoost'hannee.-The N. T. translated and printed. The O. T. translated, except the Pentateuch.

"4. The Mahratta--The N.T. translated and printed. The Hagiographa nearly translated.

"5. The Orissa-The N. T. the poetic and prophetic books, translated and printed.

"6. The Punjabee, or the language of the Seiks-The N. T. translated, and the printing of it begun. The O. T. translat ed to Numbers.

"7. The Chinese.-Matthew and Mark translated and printed.

"8. The Telinga.-The N. T. translated; and the O. T. to Numbers. N.B. A fount of Telinga types about finished.

"9. The Kurnata, or Carnata.-The N. T. translated, and the O. T. to Numbers. "10. The Gujuratte-The N. T. transJated.

"11. The Cashmeera.-The trauslation of the N. T. begun, and a fount of types about completed.

"12. The Burman.-A pamphlet containing important Scripture extracts translated and printed for immediate circulation."

(To be continued.)