to affect him even so far as to induce an outward show of humility. His temper was perfectly simple, open, and cheerful; and in his political negotiations (employments which he never sought, but which fell in his way,) he never pretended to impartiality, but acted as the avowed, though certainly the successful and judicious, agent of the orphan prince intrusted to his care, and from attempting whose conversion to Christianity he seems to have abstained from a feeling of honour. His other converts were between six and seven thousand, besides those which his predecessors and companions in the cause had brought over. The number is gradually increasing, and there are now in the south of India about two hundred Protestant congregations, the numbers of which have been sometimes vaguely stated at forty thousand. I doubt whether they reach fifteen thousand; but even this, all things considered, is a great number. The Roman Catholics 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 Brahmins, being limited to vo luntary votaries, have now often very hard work to speed the ponderous wheels of Suon and Bali through the deep lanes of this fertile country. This is, however, still the most favoured land of Brahminism, and the temples are larger and more beautiful than any which I have seen in Northern India. They are also decidedly older; but as to their very remote age, I am still încredulous."

An original letter of the Bishop's lies before us, written, during his visit to Ceylon, to the late Rev. J. Mayor, vicar of Shawbury, Shropshire, the father of the Rev. Robert Mayor, one of the Church Missionary Society's missionaries in Ceylon. Though some of the remarks in it are chiefly local and personal, we copy nearly the whole as shewing not only the deep anxiety of the writer for the promotion of the Gospel of Christ among the heathen, but as highly encouraging to the members of the Church Missionary Society, to the character of whose missionaries the Bishop offers so warm a testimony of respect and affection. When the letter reached its destination, the revered writer was no more; and the venerable servant of God to whom it was addressed, lived only just long enough to have his last moments gladdened by a

report so gratifying to him as a Christian and a parent.

"Galle, Ceylon, Sept. 28, 1825. "My dear sir,-I seize a few moments of the first leisure which I have had for a long time (while waiting a change of wind to enable our ship to leave this harbour for Calcutta) to give you some account of those most dear to you in this island. I arrived at this port five weeks ago, in visiting the different parts of my great diocese; and had the pleasure to be greeted, among those who first came off to our vessel, by your son Robert, looking stout and well, and very little altered from what he was when I last saw him in England......Mrs. Heber and I had the pleasure, in our return from the North, of passing the best part of three days with him and Mrs. Mayor, in their romantic abode at Baddagamme, where we also found his colleague Mr. Ward, his wife, and family, in perfect health and contented cheerfulness. I consecrated their church, which is really an extraordinary building, considering the place in which, and the circumstances under which, it has been erected; and I had also the happiness of administering confirmation and the Lord's Supper to a small but promising band of their converts and usual hearers; and I can truly say, both for my wife and my self, that we have never paid a visit which has interested and impressed us more agreeably, from the good sense, good taste, and right feeling, the concord, zeal, and orderly and industrious piety, which appeared to pervade both families and every part of their establishment. Mr. Ward has in some degree got the start in Cingalese studies, but the progress which both have made in so difficult a language has been mentioned to me as highly honourable to them; and Robert, from his medical skill, his truly masculine sense, his bodily as well as mental energy, and his cheerfulness under difficulties, has qualifications of the most valuable kind for the life which he has chosen. Both of them are all in fact which you or I could wish them; active, zealous, well-informed, and orderly clergymen, devoted to the instruction and help of their heathen neighbours; both enjoying a favourable report, I think I may say without exception, from the governor, public functionaries, and in general from all the English in the colony whom I have heard speak of them.

"The cause of Christianity is, I hope, going on well here. There is among the Cingalese and Tamul population a very large

dren were partly educated and clothed by it in the metropolis alone. In 1741, more than 2000 schools were established throughout the country. And now!under its auspices, from 10 to 12,000 children are yearly assembled in the temple of the Lord, and more than 300,000 children are receiving a Christian education. This gratifying and splendid increase, under the Divine blessing, is due to the co-operation of The National School Society,' which has relieved the Society entirely from the superintendance, and in great measure from the expense, of these establishments. But still it manifests its tender regard for their success and welfare, and at very reduced prices (in some cases gratuitously) furnishes all the elementary books of instruction which are necessary for the schools. It is evident that a vast and increasing expense is thus annually incurred by the Society's fund; whilst,

"2. A still more expensive department is the distribution of the word of God, and other books and tracts calculated to promote the knowledge and practice of Christianity. The general diffusion of knowledge amongst a rapidly increasing population renders this department more important every year, at home,-while a closer union and intercourse with foreign countries presents, year by year, new channels for dispersing the same books in foreign languages;-an advantage the Society is compelled to decline, or execute very inadequately, from the limited state of its funds. Of what might, and, with God's grace, would be effected with a larger revenue, some notion may be formed from the fact, that, with its present means, within the last fourteen years at least fifteen millions of books have been distributed by the Society; of which the Book of Common Prayer formed a large proportion. And, in addition to a prodigious number of tracts, 24,000 copies of a large Family Bible have been rapidly disposed of. The demand for this spiritual food is found, in the National Schools, -in the establishment of Lending Libraries throughout the country,—in the wants of our Christian brethren in the most populous and often the poorest districts of the kingdom,-in those who suffer affliction in hospitals and infirmaries, and in those whom the laws of their country detain in prisons; whose deluded and unhappy condition has ever most warmly attracted the sympathy of the Society. It is found, also, in the wants of our navy, our armies, (who have recently drawn

very largely upon the Society,) and-which opens an unbounded field for exertionin all our colonies and foreign connexions. In 1819, when it was permitted, for the inscrutable purposes of that Divine Providence which ruleth all things, and for the trial of his church, that atheistical and infidel publications should spread abroad the poison of unbelief, not fewer than one million tracts, &c. were issued by the Society, in order to correct and refute such dangerous principles. Of these tracts, and the exertions of those pious and learned members of the church who prepared them, we have (thank God!) lived to see the good effects. Under the Society's superintendance, the Holy Scriptures have been translated into the Welsh, Irish, Gaelic, and several of the Oriental languages. And various religious tracts have been printed either by itself, or its district Committees in India ;-one of which, at Calcutta, in the present year, sends home the grateful tidings, that 'many have had reason to bless its institution, as the instrument whereby they have been brought under the grace of God to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, -adding, of this fact the frequent legacies left in its behalf by the humble soldier and other individuals afford a sufficient testimony.'-It must however be repeated, that in prosecuting the work of foreign translations of the Bible, and any other books which are upon the Society's catalogue, (a work which comes strictly within the Society's design and desire,) an insuperable difficulty must exist (until our renewed exertions shall have been blessed with large success) in the want of funds. The society has at present about 15,000 subscribing members,

a number sufficient to attest its good name and report, and excite at once our gratitude and joy, but, totally insufficient to enable it to carry forward its vast designs, or even to meet, with its wonted liberality, the daily necessities which demand its pious aid. A large proportion of the present members are clergymen; a body of men whose means are generally inadequate to meet the claims of charity within their own parishes. And yet the number of subscribers to the Society does not equal the number of the ministers of the Established Church. The laity are not yet aware of the need there is for cooperation.-The cause of the Society is not yet fully known. Its pure, and Christian, and charitable views have not yet reached the ears of thousands of true friends to the cause of virtue, religion, and our Christian church, whose hearts are

labours of both the Societies advocated in

its pages.

PROTESTANT EPISC. CHURCH IN

THE UNITED STATES. We have just received the journal of the proceedings of the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, at the General Convention held in Philadelphia last November. It is in various respects a highly interesting document; and we shall lay before our readers in the present and some succeeding Number, a portion of the information which it contains relative to the progress of this our sister church.

From the opening address delivered to the house of clerical and lay deputies by the president, the Rev. W. H. Wilmer, D. D.*, we copy the following passages. "Permit me to congratulate you on the favourable circumstances under which we are now assembled. The present number of our body, exceeding, perhaps, that of any preceding Convention, affords pleasing proof of the extending limits of our Zion, and of the increasing interest taken by her members in her concerns. The young scion, which was transplanted from the parent stem into this western wilderness, has taken deep root; it is extending its branches over the land, and beginning to spread its leaves for the healing of the nations. Our ecclesiastical system, in the test which it has given by experiment, has more than realized the expectation of its friends. By its nice adjustment of the balance of liberty and power, and the wise distribution of both among the respective orders, it has accommodated itself, with happy effect, to the genius of our civil institutions, and the habits of a free people; at the same time that it has preserved, in their unbroken integrity, those great principles which are unchangeable, because of Divine origin; and, in all respects, has proved its high adaptation to the pur

Dr. Wilmer is known to us, as the author of a valuable work published in 1822, entitled, "The Episcopal Manual; being a summary Explanation of the Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship of the Protestant Episcopal Church, designed to illustrate and enforce Evangelical Piety." The author, we notice, strongly recommends to masters of families to read to their households on Sundays one of the "plain practical family sermons from the Christian Observer."

poses of unity and peace, and to all the ends of its institution.

"Among the many causes of congratulation which present themselves, we may reckon not as the least, the harmony which has hitherto attended the deliberations of our general councils. Amidst great diversity of sentiment on important and delicate topics, the unity of the Church has still been preserved in the bond of peace. Whilst we felicitate ourselves on this retrospect, as the pledge and earnest of the future, let us offer our prayers and efforts, that peace may still dwell within our walls. Difference of opinion, unavoidably incident to human nature, arising from education, association, prejudice, and various uncontrolable circumstances, must be expected to keep pace with the increase of our numbers, and to bring, incorporated with them, elements fraught with danger to the best interests of the church. It is the prerogative of Christian charity, guided by the wisdom that is pure, and peaceable, and easily entreated, to leaven this lump, and to transmute these elements, which, otherwise, by coming in contact with their kindred affinities, would put on the forms of combustion, into sound and wholesome agencies for the general good."

The committee on the state of the Church have drawn up a report on the subject, which enters at length into the details of the proceedings, in the several dioceses, and is too long and miscellaneous for transcription in our pages; but we copy as a specimen part of the information respecting two dioceses, on which, from various circumstances, the attention of our readers has been particularly fixed-we mean, New York and Ohio. Of New York it is stated,

"The work of the Lord continues, by his blessing, to prosper in this portion of his vineyard. The diocese consists, at present, of 114 clergymen (the bishop, 92 presbyters, and 21 deacons) and 153 congregations; being an accession, since the report to the last General Convention, of 25 clergymen, and 29 congregations." "The cause of missions, from the circumstance of there being so much new country, and so many rapidly increasing settlements within the borders of this state, it ought to be expected, should excite much interest, and call forth much active exertion, in this diocese. In a good degree, and we believe in an increasing degree, this is the case. Twentysix missionaries are now employed. They are appointed by, and under the di