knowledge, and train them up in Christian Principles? To have found Four, or even One, among 7000 or 8000, or any given number of persons so entirely neglected, capable of understanding a Christian Treatise or Discourse, would indeed have excited astonishment! This were looking for fruit from an uncultivated vineyard. Even allowing that those who first embraced the Roman-Catholic Faith were Spiritual Converts, (which is more than the Abbé himself requires us to concede,) yet how were it possible to preserve their Christian Character by such means as the Jesuits employed? Ceremonies, Images, Processions, &c. may dazzle the eye and captivate the mind, but can never inspire holy affections, or engraft one Scriptural Principle on the heart. And certainly the Hindoos, who change their own Religion for one laden with such Superstitions as these, are not likely to remain "stedfast in the Faith," when their personal comfort or safety are endangered by their Christian Profession. M.Dubois has given one instance of their apostacy under such circumstances (p. 74): and though, when the storm of Persecution blew over, the majority of them returned to the bosom of the Church, yet he has good reason for placing no greater confidence in their sta

bility, should the trial of their Faith ever be repeated: (p. 75.) But he ought to attribute the diminution of their numbers, and the degeneracy of those who continue to profess the Catholic Faith, to the neglect of their Priests to adopt proper means for their mental and religious improvement.

He is of opinion that Xavier's disappointment "ought to have been sufficient to damp the most fervent zeal of the persons disposed to enter the same career:” (p. 4.) This I concede, provided those persons were actuated by his principles, and depended upon such means as he employed. The Abbé expresses himself as fully aware that a great many over-zealous Protestants may be disposed" "to maintain that the Catholic Religion being nothing but a corruption of the Religion of Christ, and its Worship a human invention, the Divine Assistance can never attend the propagation of it; and that its failure in the business of Proselytism cannot be a matter of surprise:" (p. 24.) He declines entering into this discussion; and, in a Private Letter, his Correspondent might courteously dispense with it but, in publishing that Letter to the world, it was by no means foreign to his subject to disprove the Protestants' objection. Indeed, his Cause demanded it;

for this question is the very hinge on which the controversy turns. If he can prove that Popery is not a corruption of Christianity, and that the means used by the Papists for its diffusion through the world are lawful and scriptural, and the best adapted to promote the interests of real Religion; he will then have fair premises for his conclusion, that to endeavour to convert the Hindoos is an impracticable task. As a Protestant, I might claim the privilege of assuming, that the Cause of Christianity and that of Popery are distinct from each other; and that when the Missionaries of the latter Communion laboured to further the objects of the Holy See in India, it by no means followed that they even thought of" forwarding the interests of the Gospel," in the Protestants' acceptation of the term. But my argument does not require me to enter into the question. If the Abbé Dubois can prove that this assumption is untenable, it will turn the discussion in his favour: but certainly the onus rests with him.

All comparison, however, between Protestantism and Catholicism apart I have only to shew, that the measures adopted by the Roman-Catholic Missionaries for the evangelizing of India are unwarranted, by

the nature of the Gospel, the plain text of Scripture, the examples of Jesus Christ and his Apostles; and that, so far from being better adapted to the accomplishment of this design than any other means, they are, of all means, the least likely to make True Converts. This I have already done; and, therefore, their failure, instead of setting the matter at rest, and justifying the abandonment of India to its present state of ignorance, superstition, and vice, leads much more obviously to the conclusion, that the Almighty has purposely withheld His blessing from such human devices. And if we are to believe that God is faithful to His promises, to give unto His Son the Heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession (Ps. ii. 8.), we must infer, from the failure of the Jesuits, that other means are to be used for the completing of His gracious purposes in the East.

SECTION III.

THE NATURE OF THE MEANS WHICH PROTESTANTS USE FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE HINDOOS.

THE Abbé Dubois admits, that Christianity will prove a great blessing, even where it effects not all the saving benefits which it is calculated and intended to produce (p. 81.)— that its mere profession is much better than Idolatry (p. 82.)-and that, notwithstanding the infamous character of the generality of Native Christians (p. 63, &c.), he is "acquainted with many among them who are, in their morals, probity, and general behaviour, irreproachable men, enjoying the confidence even of the Pagans; and into whose hands I should not hesitate," says he, "to entrust my own interest:" (p. 83.) Seeing, then, that Christianity (of course he means as professed by Roman Catholics) is capable of operating, and actually has operated, in so beneficial a manner upon the Hindoos who have embraced it, can he have so little love for his Species, as to deny to any portion of them the