sionary enterprise are considered. Individuals in different classes of society, may reckon this objection or the other now obsolete; because to their own minds such objections may not have occurred; or because such objections may not prevail in those circles in which they usually move. During several years past, it has been the Author's lot to have come in contact with individuals of every grade and profession in society, from the highest to the lowest. He therefore begs to assure the reader, that he has noticed no objection which he has not found influentially current among some one class or another. And as the work has been written for general perusal, he has deemed it his duty to meet and satisfy, as far as practicable, the peculiar demands of generic sections of the community. Those who still object to Indian Missions in particular, on mistaken grounds of State policy, he would refer to the learned, argumentative, and eloquent work of the Rev. W. M. Hetherington, on the "Fulness of Time,"-in which, amongst other important matters, the proposition, that "true religion is not only the source and measure of national prosperity, but the very end of national existence," is established by a resistless train of historic fact and logical infer

ence.

The sixth chapter can only be regarded as a fragment. The original intention of the Author was to enter at large into the history of the Church of Scotland's Foreign Missions from their rise to the present time. But the unexpected length to which the preceding chapters extended, left him no other alternative than to limit himself to the briefest period which could furnish an intelligible conception of the principles, working, and design of these Missions. On this account he has confined his brief notices exclusively to the station first selected-Calcutta; and in the educational department, to the operations of the first twelvemonth there; -merely glancing at the present and anticipated results.

For a year and a-half the first Missionary had to stand alone. At the termination of that period he was joined by an able and respected colleague,-Rev. W. M'Kay ;—who, entering on the discharge of his office with promptitude and power, has since almost fallen a martyr in the cause. May the Lord in mercy spare his invaluable life; and restore him to his chosen field of usefulness in the missionary vineyard. The Rev. D. Ewart reached Calcutta towards the close of 1834; and has ever since been privileged to labour with unwearied zeal and untiring energy. The Rev. Messrs M'Donald and Smith have subsequently gone forth in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace. Concerning Bombay, Puna, and Madras, where vigorous branches of the India Mission have within the last four years been established, the Author can scarcely regret that necessity has constrained him to be silent. The facts within his possession could not have enabled him to do any thing like justice to the labours of all the talented and noble minded Missionaries at these stations. Besides, though at each Presidency the general principles of the missionary system pursued be identical, there must necessarily be variations arising from local peculiarities, which tend to modify these principles in their practical application. Of these variations it would be difficult for any one else besides the living agent to furnish an adequate statement. Who but Mr Anderson could fully elucidate the occasions, causes, and applicability of the energetic measures adopted by himself and his coadjutors at Madras? Who but Dr Wilson could sufficiently unfold and vindicate the Herculean labours of himself and his colleagues at Bombay? It is fondly hoped that the day is not far distant, when these honoured servants of the Lord will be empowered to supply a connected narrative of their intensely interesting proceedings at the sister Presidencies.

What would have formed a distinct chapter in the history

of the Calcutta Mission, is, for want of space, now thrown into an abridged form in the Appendix. The subject tends to present a large and influential portion of Hindu society in so novel an aspect,-tends also to present a sphere for the application of Missionary labour of so novel a character, -that the Author could not withhold the present fragment, however unworthy of the theme. Besides, it serves the purpose of proving, if any such proof were at all necessary, that, from the earliest period, the Christian education of the young, with a view to the noblest ulterior objects, formed practically as well as theoretically only a single department of the general scheme of missionary procedure. While the Missionaries of the Church of Scotland have been sent forth with a special commission to prosecute the only means within their reach, in the absence of miracles, towards rearing a superior race of native teachers and preachers of the everlasting Gospel; they have been sent forth with an equally special commission to preach as they have opportunity,—to be instant in season and out of season, in communicating the blessed knowledge of salvation to all around them, of every class and of every grade,-and that too irrespectively of those conventional forms and modes of address, all those mechanical arrangements as to places of stated resort, which, in a Christian land, ages have served to consecrate.

It was the Author's intention to subjoin references to authorities at the foot of the different pages. This, however, would have greatly increased the size of a volume already too large. Besides, the work having no pretensions whatever of a literary character, never was designed for the use of the learned at all; but solely for the great mass of general readers, who are only very partially acquainted with the subjects treated of; and who have neither inclination nor opportunity for consulting references, even if these were redundantly supplied. Moreover, many of the minor quotations are given wholly

from memory; and though the name of the authority might be mentioned, the page or section of the book very frequently could not be furnished.

It was also the Author's intention to add a large Appendix of Notes, partly explanatory, and partly vindicatory. The bulk to which the volume has swoln, and this alone, has prevented the accomplishment of that part of the design. Without such Notes, he is conscious that many of his statements are peculiarly liable to misapprehension. To illustrate what is meant :-At the bottom of page 57, it is asserted, that "no where can a single moral attribute, properly so called, be found ascribed to the one God-the Supreme Brahm of the Hindus." In a note, the reason of the qualification expressed by the words in italics, would be illustrated-the precise nature of those generalized "qualities" which Brahm is said to assume when he awakes from his slumber, would be defined. Again, in page 99, an account is given of the Hindu theory of the nature and origin of caste. In a note, the various modifications to which in practice that theory has been subjected, would be largely pointed out; and thus, might numberless doubts, difficulties, and misapprehensions, be anticipated and obviated. In the unavoidable absence of such notes, therefore, the Author must throw himself on the indulgence of the candid reader; as in the text itself it would be plainly impossible to introduce all those minute details which might act as so many fences and safeguards of the meaning.

The train of remark in some of the following chapters having led the Author to refer almost exclusively to generic principles and modes of procedure in the history of modern missions; and his own labours having been mainly conducted within a sphere which, in the metropolis of British India, had not previously been occupied,—it did not fall in with the scope of his very brief sketches to bestow a more specific

notice on the operations of his brethren and coadjutors of other Christian denominations. Of the American Mission in Ceylon, which possesses so many features in common with that of the Church of Scotland he, at the time to which his historic observations refer, knew nothing but the name. He cannot, however, refrain from once. more doing what he has already repeatedly done in oral and written forms, he cannot help giving expression to the delight which he has heretofore enjoyed, and the profit which he has heretofore reaped, in the society of his predecessors and contemporaries in the missionary field. With the agents of all the great English societies it was his happy lot to associate on terms of the most familiar and endearing intercourse. To the Adams and Lacroixs of the Independents, the Reichardts of the Church of England, the Yates and the Pearces of the junior Baptist mission, Calcutta, he has again and again been laid under the deepest obligation for their counsels and freely communicated experience. And what shall he say as to the senior fraternity at Serampore now no more? Often since his return to Britain has he been pained to hear these devoted men accused of worldly extravagance, oriental pomp, princely grandeur, and sundry other foibles, errors, and inconsistences! Knowing, from ocular evidence, that these and such like charges were, to say the least, most grossly exaggerated, he has ever felt it a special privilege to have had it in his power to vindicate the name and memory of these venerated labourers. What!-men who, for thirty or forty years, braved the noxious influences of a tropical clime,-taught and preached the Gospel to thousands, and tens of thousands,-gave versions of the Bible in whole or in part, and more or less perfect, into the majority of the Indian dialects !-men who, besides supporting their own family establishments, actually expended, for the promotion of Christianity in India, from their own