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from Travancore, that the real efficacy of the missionaries in the preceding year had been but small.*

But even here I must modify the returns I have given still farther because I find it asserted, by an authority of great weight, and I have reason to think, that these conversions of Schwartz and his followers, were chiefly among the half-castes, or descendants of Europeans. Martyn, the same missionary whom I alluded to before, a man for whose character every one must feel the greatest esteem, and who always speaks with such liberality of others, and so simply and unaffectedly of his own failures, that we must consider him an authority above suspicion, thus writes in his private journal. "Schwartz and Kohloff, and Jönecke, kept a school for halfcaste children, about a mile and a half from Tanjore, but went every night to the Tanjore Church to meet about sixty or seventy of the King's regiment, who used to assemble for devotional purposes; afterwards he officiated to their wives and children in Portuguese."† Such is the account of his labours; how different from the one sent over at first! I do not say that it was intended to deceive; but it is evident that in some way or other, the most exaggerated picture of the success of these missions in India, and elsewhere, have been published in England.

But Bishop Heber has some very striking passages regarding their prospects of success, and what is to be expected in the present condition of India; and even those who may not acknowledge his views to be well grounded, must admit them to have been based on what he himself had seen.- -When he speaks of conversion in India as next to impossible, he must have had the experience of the past to warrant him in such a conclusion. He thus speaks of a Mohammedan impostor who was travelling about the country:-" But how long a time must elapse before any Christian teacher in India can hope to be thus loved and honoured! Yet, surely, there is some encouragement to patient labour, which a Christian minister may derive † P. 354.

* P. 165.

from the success of such men as these in India-inasmuch as where others can succeed in obtaining a favourable hearing, the time may surely be expected, through God's blessing, when our endeavours also may receive their fruit, and our hitherto barren Church may, 'keep house, and be a joyful mother of children.' """* Again, in another passage, "With regard to the conversion of the natives, a beginning has been made, and though it is a beginning only, I think it a very promising one."

This, surely, will show us sufficiently, what his feelings were regarding the barrenness or fertility of the Church which he represented. But with regard to the missions of the Church. of England in India, we have also several striking documents in the reports of different years. For instance, in the year 1827, in the report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, there is an extract of a letter from Professor Craven, in which he states, that in regard to conversion, they have as yet done nothing to satisfy the unbounded zeal, which, intent on its object, does not calculate the obstacles opposed to it: this would not surprise the Society which he had the honour to serve, but all that it was possible to do, with the divine blessing, was attempted at present, by Mr Christian, one of the Society's missionaries. In the following year, we have another report; and at p. 49, the same gentleman speaks of a mission opened by Mr Christian, among the inhabitants of the mountains which seemed to be particularly promising, from the circumstance of the natives not being under the prejudices of caste;" a prejudice," he writes, "which has been hitherto found insuperable by all the efforts of the most zealous and most exemplary missionaries." We have here the admission of an obstacle which has been found insuperable, by the most zealous and gifted missionaries of the Church of England.

Bishop Heber remarks, "Except in Calcutta itself, and its neighbourhood, there is actually no sect worth naming except the Church of England." Of course he is speaking of the † P. 144.

*Tom. iii. p. 337.

Tom. iii. p. 377.

Protestants; for I shall show you at our next meeting that there are very considerable congregations of native Catholics in some districts, and I hope you will see that there are more Catholics in some towns, than there are Protestants acknowledged to be in the whole Presidency itself, by missionaries who are necessarily interested, at least in not diminishing the number of conversions. But there is another class of Protestants exceedingly active and zealous, I mean the Baptists, of whose establishment I before spoke, and who have particularly distinguished themselves in making and disseminating translations of the Holy Scriptures. Now, a few years back, the Abbé Dubois, who had been for thirty years in India, had publicly stated that not a single convert had been made by the Protestant missionaries. He was answered, and particularly by several missionaries who had themselves been there; and I will first quote one, who has been very much distinguished as a zealous upholder of the missionary establishments there, Mr Hough, speaking of the Anglican missions. Here was an opportunity naturally and necessarily of bringing forward any examples of conversion, and thus confuting this bold assertion. Listen therefore how he, in the first place, meets it. "But while I thus explain the means which Protestant missionaries employ for the conversion of the natives of Hindoostan, and maintain, in opposition to the Abbé Dubois' assertion to the contrary, that they are more likely to accomplish that end than any which the Jesuits have used, I nevertheless beg to state, that, without God's blessing, they do not depend upon any means of success. Truly do I concur with him in opinion, as he re-states his position, that under existing circumstances, there is no human possibility of converting the Hindoos." Here, then, is the express acknowledgment of a missionary who has been among them, that, under existing circumstances, there is no human possibility of converting the Hindoos. Had conversions taken place, could he have said this? would he not have stated them, when professedly answering to such a decided denial? Mr Townley replied,

on behalf of the Baptists, and what I am going to read from his answer is interesting, because in it he speaks of what has been effected by other missionary societies: "My object is not so much to count the number of converts upon whose sincerity we may rely, as to show from my own experience that the work of conversion is actually begun in India." Actually begun in India! and he is speaking of the years 1823 and 1824, and consequently of more than thirty years after the rociety had begun its labours! He does not then even pretend to mention actual converts, but only to show that the work has begun, which he thus demonstrates: “I have given three cases at least of native converts who have come under my personal observation, and of whose real conversion I can speak with some confidence. When I left Bengal, in the month of November, 1822, there was one Hindoo, concerning whom the missionaries in Calcutta had hopes that he was really, from upright motives, seeking admission into the Christian Church; these hopes have been subsequently strengthened, and he has been actually baptised. Herein there has been a similarity between the first fruit of missionary exertions reaped by the London Society, and that gathered by the Baptist missionaries. The first Hindoo convert effected by the instrumentality of the missionaries of the Baptist denomination, was won to the cross of Christ after the society had commenced its operations in India about seven years; the London Society in Calcutta have obtained their first convert after about the same lapse of time. It may be added, that the Church Society reaped their first fruits at Burdwan also, after having the faith and patience of their missionaries put to the test, during a period of about the same duration."*

Here, then, we have an admission that three societies had been for seven years labouring before they obtained a single convert; and the writer does not pretend to say, that from this beginning any great increase subsequently followed; for

*British Crit. Jan. 1835.

on the contrary, the first passage just read by me is completely at variance with this supposition. Now a periodical particularly attached to the interests of the Established Church, takes notice of these observations, and expresses its astonishment that such acknowledgment should be made by the very individuals who make tours from time to time, to describe the fruits and success of their missionary labours, as most satisfactory, and lead their hearers to suppose that the Indians are becoming Christians by hundreds and thousands. "Mr Hough and Mr Townley," the critic says. "reply that, to the best of their belief, ten or twelve real conversions have taken place. Is this the language of Mr Townley in the sermons which he delights to preach in all the market towns in the kingdom? Is this the language of Mr Parsons, who has harangued so many Church missionary meetings in the course of the last summer? We can only say, that we never met with one of their hearers who viewed the business in this light."*

And I think that any one who recollects the statements popularly put forth, will agree that it was not the impression made on his mind, that the work of conversion had succeeded so very ill as this; that, by the acknowledgment of the missionaries themselves, they had been disappointed of their hopes; that after so many years since these societies have been established, their success is now questioned; and that after seven years labour, they only obtained one convert each, at such immense expense, with such great trouble, and with such an expenditure of personal labour.

In the year 1823, a letter was addressed by a Mr Ware, at Cambridge, to a celebrated Brahman, who some years after became better known in this country, Ram Mahoun Roy, who is often spoken of as a convert to Christianity; although there are strong reasons to suppose that he never was completely weaned from his affection for the religion of his own country One question put to him among others was, "What

* Ibid.

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