can desire. I have abandoned every thing to come and preach these doctrines to you; and tell me, is it possible that I would have undergone so much, if I were not satisfied of their truth, and of their necessity for you?" Such an answer surely was worthy of any minister of Christ's Gospel. But let us proceed.

That circumstance, to which I have alluded, of the interruption of supplies, from our funds having been involved in the destruction of the bodies which furnished them, must neessarily have been greatly felt; and it is impossible not to be sensible that, from these effects, many missions have not yet recovered, and will not for some time to come. And their loss was not merely pecuniary, but their supply of pastors was also cut off by the calamities which befell southern Europe; so that they are now slowly recovering and regaining the state in which they were previously. Nor have the religious orders themselves yet recovered the shock, which an interruption of thirty years had occasioned in their bodies.

A few words now regarding the reports of our missions. The Propaganda publishes no report whatever-no appeal is ever made by it to the public; the congregation meets privately, and although persons who take pains may procure information, there is nothing like an official document put forth, to bring what is done by its missionaries before the world. On the contrary, I, for one, have earnestly urged, again and again, the propriety of publishing the beautiful and interesting accounts received, but the answer has always been, “We have no desire to make any display of these things; we are satisfied that the good is done, and that is all we can desire." The fact is, that the Catholic Church does not fancy herself to be doing more than her ordinary and indispensable duty when she preaches the faith to heathen nations; neither does she believe that her success is more than a part of that enduring and inherent blessing, which was coupled with the command to preach it. Hence no clamour or boast is heard within her: but she perseveres in the calm fulfilment of her eternal destiny, as unconscious of any extraordinary effort, as are the celestial bodies

a very

in wheeling round their endless orbits, and scattering rays of brilliant light through the unmeasureable distances of space. She leaves it to those who find the very attempt at conversion a new thing, who, in their very statements speak of it as a fresh calling, and of an experimental effort to blazon forth every new attempt, to hoard up, in their annual reports, every gleaning of hope, and employ the orator's skill, and the democratic arts of public appeals, to keep alive the apostolic vocation. The French association does indeed publish reports, but of different form from their's. They do not consist of a yearly collection of heterogeneous materials, but appear monthly, as edifying tracts, composed almost exclusively of letters from the missionaries, generally written in a strain of simple, cheerful piety, which makes us feel, in perusing them, that they who wrote them are the successors, in spirit as in their ministry, of the ancient converters of nations. There is an absence in them of all affected phrase, and of all reliance on particular dogmas, to the exclusion of others no less important, which we too often find in the jarring narratives of other religions. These reports, too, if we ought so to call them,* do not embrace anything like the whole of our missions, but only comprise those which are supported by the French association.

The materials, therefore, which I shall use, I have been obliged to glean from such documents as have fallen in my way, or as I have been able, with some pains, to procure. One great source, however, of information, I particularly value. In my last address to you, when treating of the success of Protestant missions, you will recollect that I made use exclusively of

They appear under the title of "Annales de l'association pour la propagation de la Foi," Paris and Lyons. It is a pity that this beautiful and cheap publication is not more known in England, or rather that it is not regularly translated and republished here. It would do much to open the eyes of many to the superior spirit which animates our missionaries. But what is no less important, it would present a fund of consolation and encouragement to clergy and laity amidst their respecfive trials, and show them how the grace of the apostleship, and the prowess of the martyrs, yet reside in the Church of God. [The wish here expressed has since been complied with.]

Protestant authorities, and chiefly of the acknowledgments of missionary reports themselves. Now, therefore, in fairness, I may be allowed to use Catholic testimonials, in speaking of Catholic missions. But I wish to renounce this advantage, as much as possible, and give you the account of them, from Protestant authorities, and even from the confessions of those who allow their own failure in the same territory. This, at any rate, will place my assertions above suspicion, and will give weight and credit to the statements of our own missionaries when I quote them. But for some countries, into which they alone have penetrated—that is, for all countries where persecution rages, and where the striving for the faith is unto blood, -we must be content with their testimony; yet even for these, I hope to gather confirmatory evidence, from those who, there at least, have never entered into rivalry with them.

We will begin, as I did when speaking of the Protestant missions, with India; and the first authority whom I will bring, is Bishop Heber. You remember, perhaps, that I quoted a passage from him, wherein he said, that in the south of India was the strength of the Christian cause, and that there congregations were to be found containing 40,000, or at least 15,000, souls; but that, upon examination, these were nowhere to be found. Now, Bishop Heber acknowledges, that even in these districts, the Catholics are much more numerous than the Prostestants. "The Roman Catholics," he writes, 66 are considerably more numerous, but belong to a lower caste of Indians; for even these Christians retain many prejudices of caste, and, in point of knowledge and morality, are said to be extremely inferior. The inferiority, as injuring the general character of the religion, is alleged to have occasioned the very unfavourable eye Iwith which all native Christians have been regarded in the Madras government." Here are two or three assertions, on which I shall just now make a few observations; in the first place, that the native Catholics belong to a lower caste, and are inferior in morality to the Protestant Christians * Vol. iii. p. 460.

in India; secondly, that in consequence of this bad character of the Catholics in the south of India, the law, of which I shall say something by and by, was enacted, which does or did, not allow any convert to hold office under the government. But, at present, it is sufficient to take his testimony to this fact, that, in the south of India, where the greatest congregations of Protestants were supposed to exist, the Catholics are, considerably more numerous.”

66

In another place he says, speaking of the north of India, "the native Christians of the Catholic persuasion amount, I am told, to several thousands." Now, he could not find one nundred native Protestants in the same district, in which he says that the Catholics amount to many thousands. Again, speaking of the town of Tannah, he writes: "It is princially inhabited by Catholic Christians, either converted natives or Portuguese."†

Here then, we have an acknowledgment of the success of Catholic conversion; but there are authentic returns, which give us something like specific numbers. For instance, a parliamentary document laid before the House of Commons, a few years back, gave the number of Catholics, in one diocese of Malabar as 35,000; while another diocese is said, in the same return, to contain 127,000 Catholic natives. In one of the reports of the Church of England, a missionary writes, that in the single town of Tinevelli, there are 30,000 Roman Catholics, and mentions another village, the inhabitants of which have been converted to the Catholic religion.‡

Another eyewitness, and one whose word cannot be well called in question, the missionary Martyn, thus writes—“ Colonel N., who is writing an account of the Portuguese in this settlement, told me that the population of the Portuguese territory was 260,000, of which 200,000, he did not doubt, were Christians"-and of course Catholics; and if we allow even half of them to be the descendants of Portuguese, we have at least the other half converted Indians. "Begged the gover * Page 338. † Page 89.

Quoted in Cath. Miscell. vol. iii. p. 278

nor of Bombay to interest himself, and procure us all the information he could about the native Christians; this he promised to do. At Bombay there are 20,000 Christians; at Salsette, 21,000, and at this place there are 41,000, using the Mahratta language," consequently natives, and every one of them Catholics. So far, therefore, we have the acknowledgments of those nterested in Protestant missions, and taking a part in them, of the fact of there being many converts in India to the Catholic faith, and of their amounting to 20, 30, and 40,000 in single towns.

This is assuredly a very strong contrast to what the same writers allow, where I quoted them at our last meeting; and it will be strengthened greatly just now.

Having produced these acknowledgments and returns, in favour of Catholic success, I have now a right to make use of our own authorities, which, while they coincide with the former, give us something more positive in their statements.

The Abbé Dubois, the same missionary whom I mentioned as having resided thirty years in the country, and who is always represented as more inclined to depreciate than to exaggerate the number of Catholics and their converts,—for it is well known that he had a particular theory on this subject, which he endeavoured to maintain—says, in his examination before the committee of the House of Commons, that the native Catholic converts in all Asia may be estimated at one million two hundred thousand; and of these he supposes one half, or 600,000, to be in the peninsula of India;† and I may Page 330.

**

66

† See the Colonial Intelligencer," ubi sup. or the East India Magazine for June 1832, p. 564. This journal contrasts the readiness of the Abbé with the caution of the London Missionary Society's agents, exhibited in its secretary's note of 21st August, 1832; "None of the Society's agents now in this country from India, appear to be willing to be examined, unless they be required by the select committee." The Abbé observes that the number of Catholics has declined for some years past. The causes already assigned, and the great decline in the Portuguese power, by which many missions then in their territory were supported, will sufficiently account for this change. Thus, the two bishoprics of Cochin and Cranganore, have been vacant for the last forty years, from want of revenues, which that government used to sup ply, before the sees fell into the hands of England.