and bids her seek for and expect an immortality of blessedness in the life which is to come.

The chapter on "Education" contains very valuable statistical information on the state of education in India. It is surprising to what an extent schools are established in all parts of Hindustan. Every town and almost every village has its native school, where instruction, often, indeed, of the most contemptible and pernicious kind, is imparted by native masters. So far as the bare capability of reading and writing are concerned, there can be little doubt but that the rural inhabitants of India would bear a comparison with the peasantry of England. But how different the character of the instruction imparted! Great improvement has taken place in multitudes of districts within the few past years. The Government of India has interested itself in the question of education and established and encouraged schools in almost every direction. On the principle of non-interference with the prejudices of the natives, the Government unhappily does not allow the use of the Scriptures in the native schools, whether in the towns or villages, or whether for the simplest forms or for the higher branches of education. The secular European instruction has done much to undermine the popular confidence in idolatry but it has effected little towards conciliating the natives to our common Christianity. There are other schools, both public and private, where scriptural instruction is communicated to the rising youth of India. Dr. Duff's establishment has been successful beyond the most sanguine expectations of its friends, so far as to prove that the native population are not so averse to the use of our Scriptures as a class book as has been asserted by many. That it has been successful in the conversion of youth to Christianity and to personal religion is yet, we believe, a subject of debate between the Doctor and his opponents. The favourite positions of Dr. Duff—that the best means for the conversion of India, under present circumstances, is a sound scriptural and highly intellectual education—and that the English language is the best means through which to impart that education to the native mind, have been long and severely debated. The missionaries principally, and some of the more religious and enlightened residents in India, have taken part against what has been called "the English interest," and have contended, that preaching and teaching in the vernacular tongues are the most rational and scriptural methods by which to attempt the conversion of the natives.

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Mr. Massie warmly espouses Dr. Duff and his system; and eulogizes Lord William Bentinck, for his decree enacting that the English should be the only language taught in the Government schools, and used as the medium of official intercourse between the Governor and the governed. This decree, he says, "has brushed away the dust and cobwebs of many dark ages."

Mr. Campbell and Mr. Buyers take the opposite view of the ques tion, and prove that incalculable evils will result, if the systematic attempt to force the English language and to exclude the native tongues from the schools be persisted in. Mr. Buyers enters at length on the subject, and protests against the impolicy and folly of attempting the conversion of India by means of the English language.

Mr. Campbell was formerly an admirer of this ill-judged proclamation in favour of the tongue of the rulers of India. He now earnestly and most impassionately pleads the cause of the vernaculars, and shows, by historic facts, the utter failure of similar attempts to crush native languages and dialects in order to make way for the language of the conquerors, and to preserve at the same time the good-will of the conquered. He illustrates, in various ways, the actual and probable evils attendant on this new system. The following paragraph will suffice to show his view of this most important question:

"To some this effect is a matter of great rejoicing: to me it is a subject of the deepest regret: I shall be greatly mistaken if it is not found, in the future, that it has driven back our cause for fifty years. When the frenzy is over, when the system has done incalculable mischief, and when many a dark and gloomy day has been prepared for Hindosthan, the good will see that they must return to the old system and begin their march at the point where they forsook the right road."- Campbell, pp. 531, 532.

The representations made by disinterested parties and by the warmest friends of India have had their influence on the public mind. A re-action is said to be taking place, and there is hope that, while English may be imparted to such as are called to official duties under the Government, and to many of the native teachers and others, as Latin and Greek are studied in this country, yet the great aim and desire of all the teachers and rulers of the East will be to cultivate and improve, and sanctify the vernacular tongues, by rendering them the means of conveying sound literary, scientific, and, above all, religious knowledge to the minds of the natives.

Preaching, the viva-voce communication of religious knowledge to multitudes in their own languages and dialects, has not been entirely neglected in India. But schools, translations, tract-distribution, literature, &c. &c. have occupied too exclusively the attention of many missionaries. Others appear to have acted as though the natives must learn the English of the teachers, rather than that they should learn the language of the natives; forgetting, as Mr. Campbell justly observes, that if this had been a desirable mode of procedure originally, it would have been as easy to have caused the people of various nations assembled at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost to have understood the language of the apostles, as to confer the miraculous gifts on these servants of God to enable them to think and speak in the different languages of the congregated multitude. Whatever may be the extent to which the English language may be cultivated by civilized nations hereafter, as a kind of universal medium of communication, it does not appear probable that the Babel confusion will ever be so reduced to order as to render it unnecessary for missionaries and teachers to learn the languages of the tribes to whom they may be sent. Their first and great object should, therefore, be, to acquire a ready utterance, as well as a general understanding of the language spoken in their appointed station. Study and translation will be necessary, but more than this is needful;-a frequent attempt at conversing with the natives and preaching to them as intelligibly as possible is equally important. This is necessary not only for their work as preachers, but as translators

also. By no other means can the idioms and peculiar trains of thought and modes of illustration be so well ascertained-to know which is essential both to intelligible writing and intelligible speaking. Proofs of this can be furnished in abundance. Let one suffice. Many of the translations, and of the tracts published by missionaries in their noviciate, and before they could converse with the natives, are perfectly useless. Both Mr. Buyers and Mr. Malcolm concur in the opinion that more attention must be given to preaching in the strict and scriptural sense of the word. They both show, in a variety of cases, how little has been done comparatively in this way to carry out the great object of Christian missions, especially in the East. Mr. Buyers states, that throughout Northern India there are not more than thirty missionaries, of all denominations, both from England and America, that are preaching, or that can preach, to the na tives "the wonderful works of God," and that many of these being only young missionaries, are not able to do much in that way at present. Many of the stations are only supplied in a similar manner to the following, as described by Mr. Malcolm :

"Scarcely more direct missionary labour is expended on this city (Maulmain, Burmah) than on Tavoy. Mr. Hancock is not yet sufficiently master of the language to be able to preach, and Mr. Osgood has, of course, made still less advance. Nor do the printing-office labours of these brethren allow ther to devote much time to study. Mr. Judson has been so much engrossed with revising the translation of the whole Old Testament, and proof-reading for se veral years, as to be wholly prevented from labouring publicly either in the zayat or from house to house. Mr. Bennett is confined to the school, the labours of which are truly arduous. Thus this great city, with nominally four missionaries, has no evangelical labour done for it, except by the native assistants."Malcolm, vol. i. p. 71.

These preparatory labours are not to be despised; they form part of the means by which the world is to be illuminated and blessed. But the preaching is to be more encouraged, and, as God's own ordinance, it will undoubtedly prove, wherever it can be administered, the means of regeneration and peace. The history of all missions will furnish demonstrable proof, that it is by preaching chiefly that souls have been converted to God. Mr. Malcolm and Mr. Buyers have made investigation respecting the success of schools, and of tract distribution, &c. in the way of direct conversion; and the result of these enquiries shows, that in very few instances comparatively have these labours been attended with so desirable a result. These observations are not designed to disparage such efforts, but to approve and com mend the spirit which is rising in our missionary stations, and to encourage the determination on the part of the missionaries that, wherever it is practicable, they will more entirely devote themselves to the preaching of the cross, and to the preparation of native converts for this great and important duty.

It is gratifying to us, and must be doubly so to our missionary brethren, to learn that our "Directors" and Committees" are increasingly anxious to furnish the means of theological instruction and ministerial training to those pious and devoted and talented natives who may be thought qualified to enter on the work of the

ministry. Europeans can never convert the nations of the earth to God; they cannot be furnished in sufficient numbers, nor are they provided with constitutions suited to all climates. The work of God will be accomplished through the agency, chiefly, of the converts who may be called to the knowledge of himself by means of foreigners.

Mr. Campbell's volume is a favourite with us. It is less courtly and adulatory-less diffuse and ornate-less miscellaneous and entertaining than the volumes of his predecessor in the Mysore; but it has more simplicity, and force, and energy. It is a thoroughly English, manly, missionary book. The author writes for utility only. He has no time, and perhaps but little taste, for the graces of composition. He is anxious to put his reader in possession of his information and opinions in the shortest possible time, and to enlist his judgment and his heart in the great cause of humanity and benevolence. He had his eye on Exeter Hall, we should judge, when he penned some of the paragraphs of his volume; hence the too rhetorical and platform style of address which occurs in some of the chapters. The book is a worthy companion of the "Missionary Enterprizes"that matchless work of our Polynesian proto-martyr. Its account of the various missions that have been established in Southern India, from the time of Schwartz to the present hour-its just views of India's idolatry and Britain's obligations-its interesting and delightful episodes, in the form of biographical sketches of some of the most devoted servants of God, both ministerial and civil-its sound opinions on many topics connected with the work of missions, together with its christian and dignified animadversions on our Indian rule, and on the modern educational speculations, entitle it to the attention of all persons who are interested in the affairs of India, and are solicitous for her political improvement and her genuine conversion to God.

Mr. Malcolm's volumes are of a different order from the others already described. They contain an account of the voyages and travels of Mr. Malcolm in India, Burmah, Assam, Siam, China, &c.; of the social, political, and religious state of the Burmese, and of the state of the American mission in that interesting country. They contain sketches of various missionary stations visited by the author; and statements of the author's opinions and advice on all the topics connected with the missionary enterprise. Mr. Malcolm was employed by the Board of American Baptist Missions to inspect all their stations in the East, and to visit all others that came in his way, in order to report, on his return home, his views of the state and prospects of missions, and to suggest such modes of procedure as he should judge, from observation and personal enquiry, to be desirable for the more effective prosecution of the great work. Mr. Malcolm's book should be read, especially the latter part, by all who are employed in the missionary cause, whether as directors, agents, or collectors. Mr. Buyers' letters and Mr. Malcolm's dissertations contain valuable suggestions for all missionaries, and if acted on, would greatly promote the evangelization of the heathen.

There is a singular coincidence of opinion between these two gen

tlemen on many points concerning the failures, successes, and pros pects of the missionary work. On some of these points, too, both Mr. Massie and Mr. Campbell concur with them. They unitedly urge the importance of a larger supply of labourers, and of the education of native converts for the ministry; they are perfectly unanimous in their opinion concerning the necessity of more concentrated efforts, and consequently of a greater division of labour. How lamentable is the fact, that many a missionary's life has been prematurely destroyed by the excess of labour necessarily required by his being alone in the station; and that, on his death, the station has been neglected, if not abandoned. Some of the stations report no progress after twenty years' exertion by successive missionaries, owing to the simple fact, that on the removal of a minister, months, if not years, have elapsed before his place was supplied, and then the work had to be commenced "de novo," and by a novice too.

The opinion is unanimous among these very competent witnesses, that better localities ought to be selected in future, than many of those at present occupied. The health of the missionaries ought to be consulted, and every means should be employed to render their situations as comfortable as possible, in order that they may give all their energies to the work of the Lord.

The opinion, too, that is gathering strength in this country respecting the best fields for home missionary labour is strenuously advocated in the volumes before us. Cities and towns, with their teeming populations, rather than scattered and thinly populated districts, should be first occupied with a sufficient missionary staff, and from thence the word of the Lord should sound out to all the neighbouring regions. This is an important subject, and must engage the attention of our various “ Boards." It is needless and unwise to be lamenting over China, closed against our benevolent efforts, as though no other field could be entered, and India had but little claim to our sympathy and regard. Here alone would be sufficient scope for the energies of thousands of apostolic men. The supply of faithful labourers is totally inadequate to the wants of the country. The law of proportion is not followed in missionary calculations. The South Sea Islands, with scarcely more thousands of inhabitants than India has millions; the West Indies, with only 1 to 100 of the inhabitants of the East, are far better supplied, proportionally, than those immense territories which stretch from Cape Comorin, in the South, to the Himalayan Mountains in the North, and from Bombay, in the West, to Burmah in the East.

The former should not have fewer missionaries, but the latter should have more.

"In no other country has God presented to us such a splendid sphere for demonstrating the true character of Christianity as the power and wisdom of God for salvation as in India. Other lands may have great claims, but this is the greatest land in the world, open to every effort of christian philanthropy."— Buyers, p. 292.

Superstition and idolatry have their ministers and advocates in incredible numbers: and shall the religion of the cross have only a