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much to the restoration of his health, he is zealous to maintain that, with judicious care, a person may, in Surinam, live as long as anybody ought to desire. He mentions several instances of extreme longevity, reaching no less than 120 or 130 years. He brings his praises of the country to a climax, which will be irresistible with all his male and gallant readers: the climate is so "favourable to the ladies," he says, "that instances are not rare when they enter into the third or fourth marriage." It is, at the same time, acknowledged to be partly by their temperate mode of living that the climate is rendered so propitious to their longevity and conquests. As we are not informed respecting the proportionate numbers of the male and female inhabitants, we do not know whence the surplus quantity of husbands is obtained for so rapid a consumption.

SLAVERY IN SURINAM.

With respect to the negroes, and the slave-trade, the Baron cannot bring himself to go all lengths with our English abolitionists. He acknowledges and deplores some of the enormities which have attended that traffic; but seems to assert, that its complete cessation will be the ruin of the Surinam plantations, because the increase of the negroes in the colony will not be at all adequate to their cultivation, owing, he says, to the great disproportion between the numbers of the present black men and women. It is but very little interest that, at this time of day, an English philanthropist can take in an argument on such a point. If it were really true that this colony must either return to the slave-trade, or to a wilderness, why, let it return to a wilderness. But it stands in no such alternative. The Baron brings no proof of any great inequality of numbers between the male and female negroes, taking the whole colony into the account. He only shows that in particular parts of the plantation service, the men greatly outnumber the women; and, at the same time, he declines to controvert Captain Steadman's statement, that the plantation service, in its strictest sense, occupies only about one-fourth of the number of negroes, including all ages, in the colony. It is evident too that in the more domestic part of the service, the women are full as many as the men. It is therefore, evident that

the births will bear a good proportion to the whole number of the black population, though not exactly the same proportion as it would, if the service admitted an equal distribution of the men and women throughout all its departments. Besides, the distribution will undergo a continual modification, in consequence of that rapid progress towards an equality of numbers between the series, which is inevitable after importation has ceased. When there shall be as many females in the colony as males, which will come to be the case in a comparatively short term of years, it will prove, either something injudicious in the arrangements of the planters, or something radically and essentially bad in the whole colonial system in America, if the progress of negro population be not as considerable as that of other tribes of mankind who are placed under favourable circumstances.

Our author, however, insists on a continued importation from Africa; but then the whole method of procuring them there is to be so discreet, so generous, so humane, so free from all low pecuniary interest! All our agents in Africa are to be so kind, so conscientious, so incorruptible! The slaves are to be bought from the chiefs who have taken them captives in war; but the war is never, in the very slightest degree, to originate in, or be encouraged by, the certainty that we are ready to purchase the captives! and so forth. The whole scheme is as egregious a piece of folly, as ever a sensible and worthy man was forced upon by adopting a bad cause.

From both the assertions and descriptions of our author we must believe, that the state of the slaves in Surinam is, on the whole, a very favourable specimen of the treatment of that race; and that it is very much mended since the time of Captain Steadman's residence in the colony. This is probably, in part, the natural result of the establishment of an English government, but much of it is through the mere policy which is dictated imperatively to the governors and planters by the fear of the bush gentry, with whom, however, it is probable no policy will avail to prevent the general body of the negroes from ultimately forming a junctionexcept the policy of training them to knowledge and the Christian religion, relaxing the rigours of their servitude, and finally setting them free.

THE CHURCH AND THE MISSIONARIES.*

THE work begins with some notices of the College of Fort William, which was founded, May, 1800, began its literary operations with great activity, and prosecuted them on a wide and still widening scale till 1806; at the end of which year the India Directors, alarmed at the great expense of the institution, reduced it within much narrower limits,—incompatible with those extensive schemes of biblical translation, in the execution of which it had been for some time cooperating with the missionaries at Serampore. The College, our author informs us, is restored to a "flourishing state, and has received the final sanction and patronage of the East India Company;" but he does not state, whether its now consolidated constitution and means are such, as to enable it to resume its former designs in their whole extent. He seems, however, to have no doubt of its effectual acceptance of Dr. Leyden's late offer to "superintend the translation of the Scriptures into seven languages, hitherto but little cultivated in India; viz. Affghan, Cashmirian, Jaghatai, Siamese, Bugis, Macassar, and Maldivinian.

All good men, and indeed some who are not good, but who are not therefore incapable of admiring magnificence of enterprise, will join our author in his animated applause of this perfectly heroic project; a project at the same time quite clear of presumption, in a man possessing the talents and acquirements which we have observed to be unanimously attributed to Dr. Leyden, by his learned Oriental contemporaries. It presents a striking view of the difference of employment among human beings, that, while there are some men of powerful mind tracing on the map, perhaps at this very hour, the utmost limit to which they can venture to assume the possibility of extending conquest and desolation, and feeling a most lofty exultation in the consciousness of being the presiding and directing spirits of the design, there should be others who are daring to project a still more

Christian Researches in Asia; with Notices of the Translation of the Scriptures into Oriental Languages. By the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, D.D., late Vice-Provost of the College of Fort William in Bengal. 8vo. 1811.)

ambitious sweep of enterprise, against everything which revealed religion can find to give battle to, within the compass of a million of square miles. It is little less striking to consider, that the former class of heroes regard the projects of the latter as, compared with their own, insignificant and contemptible; and that poets and historians, who are among the most effectual moral teachers, are sure to do all they can to give confirmation and popularity to this estimate.

The manner in which Dr. Buchanan alludes to the Baptist missionaries, calls for a slight notice, in passing. If the epithet "humble" were a word of perfectly unequivocal meaning, synonymous with modest, or unassuming; if it were expressive simply of the reverse of ostentation and arrogance, and competently descriptive of the character of persons who, while they should be accomplishing great things, should speak of them in a language of the utmost moderation, then, no epithet was ever more properly applied than this would be in the above passage. But it is needless to say, that the word is often employed in a very different sense; and whoever observes the cautious parsimony of our author's allusions to the missionaries,the coolness of his style when the mention of them is unavoidable, and the management to place them in the back-ground, when their labours are to be mentioned in connexion with those of other distinguished Oriental scholars, -will be inclined to admit the suspicion, that the epithet "humble" is here applied in that sense, in which it intimates a certain degree of disparagement. Nor will this suspicion be lessened, by the reader's observing what immense importance Dr. Buchanan constantly attaches to the point of securing an active and engrossing predominance to our Established Church and its members, in the whole economy of Indian Christianity,-especially if, in addition, this reader should have heard of some circumstances in the intercourse of the reverend author with the missionaries. Should it be a correct surmise, that the expression in question conveys some sentiment of undervaluation and supercilious condescension, it will not be worth while to remark on the want of equity betrayed in such a sentiment; since this defect of justice will be perfectly harmless to the feelings and the inter

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ests of the missionaries. But it may be worth while, we should think, as regarding Dr. Buchanan himself, to caution him against the impolicy of employing, relative to these men, and their operations, a diction tending to convey any other estimate, than that which will be fixed in the permanent award of learning and Christianity; and that history, in describing, among the great modern novelties, the scheme of Asiatic biblical translation, which is now becoming so magnificent both in its practical progress and in its promises, will have to record, that with these men the attempt began; insomuch that, in all human probability, the Bible would not, but for them, have been accessible to one man of numerous millions, to whom it will be accessible before the termination of the lives of these identical missionaries. The history will at the same time state, and cannot avoid the necessity of stating, that this great design was not, as many other great designs have been, much more indebted for its efficacy and execution to other agents, subsequently drawn into the employment, than to the originators themselves; but that those who formed it, began and prosecuted its execution on an extent, and with a rapidity, evincing that they were likely (a moderate prolongation of life being granted) to accomplish the greater part of the project, even though they should have no coadjutors or successors. Nor will the account stop here; but go on to relate, that they continued to be the active leaders through all the stages of the progress thus far, and, very probably, that this precedency devolved, after their decease, to their sons, who are likely to have no superiors in the qualifications for carrying forward the great work. The history will assign to the names of these missionaries, that high and perpetual distinction always conceded as due to those, who accomplish the first successful achievement in a new province. The increasing knowledge and accuracy of the Indian school will progressively supply vluable means, for adding the last improvements to these works; but to have been the first to undertake and finish such important labours in several languages, is to have preoccupied the highest ground. We will just add, that history will also testify that these men, while gladly acceding to all liberal plans of co-operation, and accepting every kind of assistance with all thankfulness, and even "humility," did,