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executed, would immortalize its author, and be of immense service to literature,-he would do well to avail himself of the abilities of Messrs. Hodgkin and Ashby.

ART. XIV. Observations on the present State of the East India Company; with prefatory Remarks on the alarming Intelligence lately received from Madras, as to the general Disaffection prevailing among the Natives of every Rank, from an Opinion that it is the Intention of the British Government to compel them to embrace Christianity; the Proclamation issued by the Governor and Coun cil on this subject; and a Plan humbly submitted to the consideration of His Majesty's Ministers, the East India Company, and the Legislature, for restoring that Confidence, which the Natives formerly reposed in the Justice and Policy of the British Government, as to the Security of their Religion, Laws, and local Customs. By Major Scott Waring. 4th Edition. 8vo. 58. Ridg way. 1808.

OUR

UR opinion respecting the Missionary mania has been uniform, and we continue to think that infinitely more good intention than good judgment has been displayed by its patrons. The obstacles which presented themselves, and the inadequacy of the means to the proposed end, were not duly calculated; and experience has proved that the Missionaries were sent mostly on an useless and often on a ludicrous errand. As to the region of Hindostan, their endeavours promise to be worse than useless. Had we perused only Mr. Twining's pamphlet, we should have seen enough to convince us that much danger was to be apprehended from their indiscreet zeal but if any shadow of doubt remained on our minds respecting this point, the tract now before us must have dispersed it.

We should suppose that the most credulous bigot must be vanquished by the strong proofs which are here adduced, of the peril to which our Eastern empire has been exposed by the steps that have been taken to convert, or coerce*, its numerous population to Christianity. Fully awake to the importance of the subject, Major Scott Waring delivers his sentiments with becoming boldness and energy; and it would be a reflection. on the Government, and on the East India Directors, to suppose that his statement will make no impression. They must

The native troops in Vellore were led on to mutiny, by being told that the next measure of the British Government would be, to order them to become Christians. It is well known, that the Portuguese in the 16th century lost the territorial dominion which they had acquired by their zeal for converting the natives to Christianity.

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now be aware of the folly of risking the loss of the vast empire of the East, by the amiably insane project of conversion; and we hope that those gentlemen at Calcutta, who for certain reasons have been so forward in the business of coercing the Hindoos to change their religion, will receive a gentle rap on their knuckles. Drs. Buchanan and Kerr must know how invincible is the attachment of the natives of India to the religion of their forefathers, and how impossible it is for a few missionaries to make any impression on fifty millions of people thus circumstanced. Can these divines think it "a duty which they owe to God and Man," to expose the British subjects of India to all the horrors of a religious insurrection of the natives, for the sake of making a hopeless experiment? The account which the Missionaries give of themselves must prove, to the conviction of all men of sense, that their efforts' are nugatory; and the idea of educating the children of the Hindoos and Mohammedaus is perfectly ridiculous, since five hundred thousand free schools would not suffice for the popu lation:

• Dr. Kerr admits (says Major Scott Waring) that missionaries hitherto have "made few good converts;" I firmly believe not one. I am assured by gentlemen lately returned from India, that notwithstanding the very great increase of missionaries of late years, the case is not changed since my time; that they have not made a single Mahomedan convert, and that the very few Hindoos who have been converted, were men of the most despicable characters, who had lost their casts, and took up a new religion because they were excommunicated. Indeed, converts of no other description can be expected from a population of fifty millions, amongst whom the principle has been fixed for ages, that the greatest possible disgrace a man can incur, is by departing from the religion of his forefathers. The immediate interposition of the Almighty can alone effect the conversion of such a population. But Dr. Kerr imputes the little success of the missionaries, to their having received no support whatsoever from the British Government, a fact which I am truly happy to find so well authenticated; and I am sorry that it was not stated in the Proclamation, with an assurance also, that they never should receive any support from the British Government.'

Major S W. suspects, however, from the conduct of two missionaries, (Mr. Carey and Mr. Moore) that they were power. fully patronized, and that their great presumption can only be explained on this ground. Some specimens of their indiscre

* The writer knew a very worthy Italian priest in Bengal, who had been twenty years a Missionary in India, and who told him that in twenty years he had made but twenty converts, and that those were men of very bad characters,'

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tion are given; after which he extends a little wholesome reproof to their patron, whose prospect of an 'Asiatic Bishopric has, we believe, now vanished:

• Dr. Buchanan must, as I conceive, have been thus provoked to forget himself, by the contemptuous behaviour of the natives, to his friends the Baptist inissionaries. Would he coerce the people of India because they returned abuse for abuse? A copy of one of the pam phlets, as the missionaries call the papers they gave away, is in Eng land. In that paper, the people are exhorted to abandon their idola trous Shastah, and to embrace the religion taught by the true Shastah, the Holy Bible. Should we be surprised, if, instead of abuse, the people had thrown such madmen into the Ganges?

It is a principle amongst the Hindoos, to hold the professors of every religion in respect, and to speak with respect of every religion. They admit of no converts to their religion. Why is it then, that, in the case of these missionaries, and in their presence, they loaded the Gospel with abuse? Because in the pamphlets, so profusely distributed, the Hindoo religion was abused.

The missonaries represent to their Society, the great service that may be done to the cause by the exertions of active native converts, "who might get silent and unperceived into houses, and scatter the precious seeds; whereas, the mere appearance of an English missionary in a bigotted city would occasion the greatest alarm." After so frank a confession, can the Legislature hesitate an instant in recalling these madmen from Bengal?

Convinced that the prosecution of the Missionary labours will be followed by a general insurrection of the natives in India, and that some measures ought to be taken, in addition to the Madras Proclamation, for allaying the apprehensions of our Hindoo subjects, the Major recommends the affair to the notice of the East India Company and the Legislature; hoping that the clergy, in the pay of the Company in India, will be directed in future to confine themselves to the care of the souls of their fellow christians and countrymen, and to leave the conversion of the Hindoos to the Providence of God in his appointed time.

The Major discusses also the state of the Company with respect to its finances, &c: but, as the zeal of the Missionaries is the chief object of his animadversions, we have suffered it to engross our notice.

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Art. 15. A Letter to John Scott Waring, Esq., in Refutation of his • Observations on the present State of the East India Company,"

with Strictures on his illiberal and unjust Conduct towards the Missionaries in India. 8vo. 28. Hatchard.

Art. 16 A Reply to a Letter, addressed to "John Scott Waring, Esq." in Refutation of the illiberal and unjust Observations and Strictures of the anonymous Writer of that Letter. By Major Scott Waring. 8vo. 59. Ridgway.

If to refute and expose be synonimous with attacking and vilifying, the nameless antagonist of Major Scott Waring may plume himself on complete success; for, under the semblance of the most perfect candour and liberality, he aims many bold thrusts at the fair fame of the Major, who is charged with having no religion at all,' with being of the number of those who knowing the wrong still the wrong pursue,' and with having made an attack on the christian religion. After this ungracious preface, the letter-writer proceeds to charge his opponent with inconsistency, and to controvert the facts adduced by him; denying that the natives of India have any apprehension on the subject of their religion, and asserting that numerous converts are made, and that there are not fewer than 100,000 christians of various denominations in India; so that in his estimation the proselyting scheme is not unpromising.

Well might the Major complain of the letter-writer's virulent personal abuse; and, as the pamphlet demanded a reply, he has with proper spirit resumed his pen. With a temper of mind not un suited to fair discussion, though with some warmth, he reconsiders the points at issue; and farther evidence is adduced to confute his antagonist's representations, and to justify his own statements. It is asserted on the most recent testimony, that the mutiny at Vellore did not result from a preconcerted plan of revolt, as stated by the letter writer, but merely from the order for a change in the dress of the Sepoys but supposing, adds the Major, the existence of a plan of revolt among the native troops, the force of my argument is increased, for who would try to increase their disaffection by interfering with their religion' Recent accounts speak of conversions as rare; and the favourable representation given by the anonymous writer of the moral conduct of the converts is pronounced by Major S.W. to be an atrocious falsehood. Of the hundred converts, (says he,) which have been baptized in thirteen years, (about eight in a year) many have been dismissed for immorality, by the accounts of the missionaries themselves.'- From the conduct of the Bengal Government to the Missionaries, in refusing them permission to itinerate, the Major infers that the sentiments of that Government were in unison with his own, respecting the danger to be apprehended from their zeal.

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Art. 17. Considerations on the Practicability, Policy, and Obligation of communicating to the Natives of India the Knowledge of Christianity. With Observations on the "Prefatory Remarks" to a Pamphlet published by Major Scott Waring. By a late Resident in Bengal. 28. 6d. Hatchard.

8vo.

Art. 18.
First.

An Apology for the late Christian Missions to India: Part the
Comprising an Address to the Chairman of the East India

Company,

Company, in Answer to Mr. Twining; and Strictures on the Preface of a Pamphlet by Major Scott Waring; with an Appendix, containing Authorities, principally taken from the Report of the Society for promoting Christian Knowlege. By Andrew Fuller, Secretary to the Baptist Missionary Society.

tion.

8vo. 2s. 6d. Burditt.

2d Edi

Art. 19. An Address to the Chairman of the East India Company, occasioned by Mr. Twining's Letter to that Gentleman, on the Danger of interfering in the religious Opinions of the Natives of India, and on the Views of the British and Foreign Bible Society, as directed to India. The 3d Edition. To which is added, a Postscript, containing brief Strictures on the "Preface" to Observations on the present State of the East India Company. By the Rev John Owen, M.A., Curate of Fulham, and one of the gratuitous Secretaries to the British and Foreign Bible Societies. 3d Edition. 8vo. Is. Hatchard.

Art. 20. A Letter to the Rev. John Owen, A.M., in Reply to the "Brief Strictures on the Preface to Observations on the present State of the East India Company." To which is added a Postscript. By Major Scott Waring. 8vo. 3s. 6d. Ridgway. Though the late Resident in Bengal differs toto celo from Major Scott Waring, he opposes him with no ungentlemanly language or illiberal insinuations, but fairly argues every point in debate, and supports his side of the question with much ability. To prove that the conversion of the Hindoos is not impracticable, he adduces the cases of the St. Thomé or Syrian Christians, and of the Mohammedans,' of which latter a large proportion of the population of India consists, and which must have been converts from the faith of Brahma. Hence it is inferred that the attachment of the Hindoos to their superstitions is not invincible; and that, as it differs not from the systems of Paganism which Christianity has overthrown, hopes of success may be entertained from the preaching of the Gospel in India. To shew the policy of attempting this task, he affords a picture of the disgusting idolatry and defective morality of the Hindoo system, and states the advantages which would result to our dominion in India from the accession of a body of natives who were united to us by the bonds of a common faith; while to prove our obligation to endeavour to effect their conversion, he quotes Deut. xiii. 6-9, and deprecates the idea of our taking idolatry with all its guilt under our patronage. The latter part of the Considerations is the most weakly argued; and the author's ardor for proselytism seems a little to have blinded his judgment, when he absolutely reverses Major S. W.'s position, by asserting that the prohibition of the circulation of the Scriptures and the recall of missionaries are most fatal prognostics with respect to the permanency of the British dominions in India.'

It is asserted by Mr. Fuller, who combats on the side of the late Bengal Resident, that the gentlemen, on whose evidence Major S. W. depends, are utterly unworthy of credit'; and he does not hesitate to insinuate that the individuals, who have expressed their apprehen sions of the effects of missionary zeal in India, are unbelievers. By

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