Catholics united with the Heathen in the Devil's-dance, and other Idolatrous Ceremonies, to avert that awful calamity.-Not an instance of the kind occurred among the Native Protestants of the same district!

The Abbé Dubois sufficiently accounts for the unsteady character of his own people. He admits that they are "ordinarily" from "among out-casts, or are quite helpless persons, left without resources or connections in Society;" that "they, generally speaking, ask for baptism from interested motives:" (pp. 73, 134.) No wonder, then, that they continue in their Christian profession no longer than they find it conducive to their interest or convenience!

He speaks of the Protestants as consisting "half of Catholic Apostates, who went over to the Lutheran Sect in times of famine, or from other interested motives:" and says, that he once became acquainted with some "who regularly changed their religion twice a-year, and who, for a long while, were in the habit of being six months Catholic, and six months Protestant." (p. 20.)

During the four years that I was in Tinnevelly, the Converts from Popery formed about one-sixth of the number of persons

received into Communion with us. I know not to what period the Abbé refers, when he charges the Members of his own Communion with going over to the Protestants from interested motives, and that once a-year; but I am certain that, for some years past, no Protestant Missionary would have acknowledged them as Christians. In South India we might have had whole Congregations of Catholics, had we paid no regard to their character, or to their object in embracing the Protestant Faith. None were received, until they had given proof of their sincerity, and until their character and motive had been carefully investigated. Contrary to the Roman-Catholic policy, they are required, as a

sine qua non, to renounce every semblance of Idolatry. As far as my experience extends, they can serve no secular purpose whatever in becoming Protestants; nor is any such inducement held out to them. Had the Abbé resided amongst them, he would have found something more than "a vain phantom, an empty shade of Christianity;" which, he confesses, is all that his own people exhibit: (p. 63.) He, no doubt, finds it convenient to stigmatize them as "Catholic Apostates:" but, upon the same principle, he would apply this opprobrious appellation to our own

ancestors, and to the German Reformers in the days of Martin Luther; for they also were Separatists from the Romish Church.

Of the Roman-Catholics he says, that "the practical virtues of Christianity are almost unknown to them :" (p. 65.) Their drunkenness and other vices are proverbial; and they are allowed by their Priests to live in this state of iniquity, without interruption, provided they make "confession” now and then, and pay for "absolution." I never knew a Native Protestant addicted to intoxication. Any one detected in the commission of sin that brought reproach upon the Christian Profession, was severely reprimanded, and suspended from Communion, until he gave evident signs of repentance.

M. Dubois complains that his people cannot understand what is preached to them: (p. 67, &c.) Among the Protestants he would have found many intelligent men and boys, and now and then a woman, who could answer him any questions put to them upon a subject on which he might have been discoursing. Some will carry home with them the whole Sermon. I know those, among our own people, who have numerous Sermons collected in this way, and written by them upon

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cadjans. Several of our Catechists were

accustomed to preach these Sermons over again.

Though (at p. 83) he says, that there are some "irreproachable men among the Native Christians, into whose hands he would not hesitate to entrust his own interests," yet (at p.164), in writing to a different correspondent, he endeavours to dissuade him from trusting, "in any capacity whatever, a Native who has renounced, or who slights the usages of his caste or the prejudices of the country. I shall, above all," he says, "never advise you to make such a man your butler, or your treasurer. In the former case, you would soon find that your liquors were fast wasting; and, in the latter, you would, ere long, find a large deficit in your chest. For you may, at the first outset, and without further inquiries, judge that a person of this description is a quite lost character, and that his first steps to improvement, after having renounced the usages and prejudices of his caste, will be to turn a drunkard and a rogué.' Since these cautions are given without any qualification whatever, they are, of course, calculated, and perhaps intended, to bring all Christians, how sincere soever they may be in embracing Christianity, under this odious imputation

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and suspicion. They will apply, therefore, to his own Converts, who, he says, are 'irreproachable," and to whom he would not hesitate to entrus this own interests"unless, indeed, he defend himself here against the charge of inconsistency, by allowing that they never" renounced the usages and prejudices of their caste." In that case they were not Christians. But, then, he may be asked again, what he means by so frequently lamenting that the majority of his Converts are of this base character? And if he thought such Christians worthy of his confidence, why does he endeavour to depreciate their character in the estimation of others? or why abandon his Mission in despair, upon the plea, that it is in vain to attempt making real Christians in India, when they may at least become "irreproachable," and worthy of being entrusted with their masters' interests? Or what does he mean by lamenting (p. 120), that "a Native Christian," "who happens to fall in the way of an European," should, "(after having been surveyed with a stern and scornful countenance,) be welcomed by him with this insulting reproach,

Why hast thou forsaken the religion of thy forefathers, to embrace a foreign worship?" -and, that "the name of a Native Chris

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