I hope to call the attention of the Society through you, should we be permitted to meet again. The church-building spirit which pervades our clergy here is highly praiseworthy. It seems to me peculiarly important in this district to give our churches a really ecclesiastical character, which indeed few of them possess in any part of India, except at the presidencies, and not always there. Mr. Bailey's new church at Cottayam will be the pride of the country."

Alleppie, December 12.

Slavery exists in this country, as I have already mentioned, to a very great extent. Out of a population of about twelve hundred thousand, it is calculated that at the least one hundred thousand are slaves. I am assured that they are generally speaking well treated, and do not complain of their lot: they are, however, purposely kept in a state of the most barbarous ignorance by their interested masters, who are sufficiently shrewd to foresee the consequences of allowing them to be educated. They cannot purchase their freedom, but their

masters may emancipate them. I am not aware whether the British government has ever remonstrated against this hateful system, which in its best form, (if indeed such an epithet can be applied to anything so intrinsically and irremediably bad,) is so justly forbidden by our laws, and abhorrent to our principles.

We arrived here at about eleven o'clock last night, after a row of six hours, the latter part of our little voyage on a canal, at the entrance to which we were received with the usual noisy barbaric honours. The scene was, however, unusually striking, from the fineness of the moon-lit starry night, and the moon and stars here are glorious things; the numerous torches which flashed and flamed on either side of the water, and from it, for either element seemed equally indifferent to the torch-bearers; the wild but not unpleasing discord of the drums, pipes, and cymbals, and the crowding and rushing of peons and coolies, who, whenever our boats touched ground, which occurred very frequently, dashed into the water, and with a sharp shrill cry heaved them through the mud. Thus we were upwards of an hour struggling

up this canal, preceded and followed by such a cortège as can only be seen in India. A very hospitable reception awaited us at Mr. Hawksworth's comfortable house.

As yet I know nothing of this place, and my thoughts revert to Cottayam, where I have passed eleven truly happy days, happy in the exercise of my various duties, and most happy in feeling assured that my humble efforts to do my appointed work "as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed," were understood, and viewed with affectionate interest by the clergy of the place, while there is reason to hope that they have not been thrown away upon their congregations.

During the time that I was Mr. Chapman's guest, I regularly attended divine service, both morning and evening, in the College chapel, and heartily wish I could do so every day of my life, as there is something peculiarly delightful to me in this meeting together day by day in the house of God, the house of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. My last official act at Cottayam, was a conversation which at his request I had with a Malpan, who

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had expressed a wished to speak with me on certain subjects relative to our Church and his own. The account given to me of this gentleman by the Cottayam clergy is very favourable. They represent him to be faithful to his own Church, the Syrian, but perfectly alive to the urgent necessity of its reformation: and that with this view, he had been for some time in the habit of preaching to his people; which although expressly enjoined by their canons, is unfortunately very rarely practised by the Syrian clergy, being strongly discouraged by the present Metran, who has actually suspended two or three young Cat Danars for venturing to do it without his especial permission. Among other questions of less importance, he proposed to me the following: whether and on what terms I would receive a Cat Danar into the ministry of the Anglican Church? To which I replied, that as I fully recognized the validity of their orders, there would be no difficulty on that head; but that previously to the reception on my part of any Priest of their persuasion, I should insist upon the most rigid examination into his character,

and should require the strongest testimonials in his favour from my own clergy. He appeared fully to acquiesce in the reasonableness of this, and was evidently gratified that I did not question his ordination. To the enquiry whether there would be any obstacle to the reception of a layman of their Church into ours, I answered, none whatever, so far as I was concerned. The door of the Church of England stands open to all who desire to enter in, and our clergy had undoubted authority to receive them, provided that they found them worthy of admission into our communion; it is in short a parochial and not an episcopal question. At the same time I utterly disclaimed all desire to make proselytes among the Syrians or Roman Catholics, by any other method than the force of truth, exemplified in our doctrine and discipline and above all in our lives. The Malpan then observed, that gross abuses notoriously existed in the Syrian Church, into which he wished me to enquire, with the view of my suggesting a remedy. Upon this I again positively disclaimed any