in ten years from the date of that last appointment, the territory over which one bishop only had had in 1824 the control, was given to behold no fewer than eight prelates ruling the British portion of God's heritage on its surface: in 1847 the sees of Adelaide, Newcastle, and Melbourne, were added to those of Colombo and Tasmania, which had been previously erected within the limits of the one original diocese.

But we have travelled out of our province, and must return to our author. Chapter III. details the constitution of the British Church in India, viz. three bishops; three archdeacons, who are at the same time occupied with the ordinary parochial duties of other chaplains an arrangement charged (as he observes) with the gravest disadvantages; and 227 clergy: little enough for the work to be done, and yet what an increase on the staff which Bishop Middleton found there in 1814, for at that time" India possessed fifteen parochial clergy! From the clergy the author goes on to the subject of churches, or we should rather say, buildings at present devoted to purposes of worship; for he mentions, that those erected by the Church Missionary Society are unconsecrated. The excuse for thus failing to set apart these buildings by a solemn act of dedication is, partly, that as they maintain clergy solely for missionary purposes, and so hold themselves bound to push continually forward and take up new ground, it would be inexpedient to adopt a course which would pledge them to the maintenance of any particular spot as a field of missionary labour; and partly, that government may some day be compelled to abandon this or that station, and therefore it would be improper to devote to the service of religion a building liable to such contingency. In arguing against a principle so wanting in faith as this last, Mr. Whitehead mentions a remarkable circumstance: he says, "it is a notorious fact, that neither a ship containing a missionary has ever been lost between England and India, nor a station containing a church dedicated to God's honour and service has ever been in even temporary occupation of the enemies of Britain."

The next point to which he draws attention is the defective state of Church discipline. It is true that the law recognizes the power of each bishop to open his consistory court, but the obstructions to its working are so great as to render it useless. These obstructions are twofold; "first, the great distance whence evidence must in many cases be procured, involving a difficulty amounting almost to an impossibility; and, secondly, the want of power to enforce the attendance of witnesses." These evils, he observes, would both be remedied by extending to India the operation of the Church Discipline Act of 3rd and 4th Victoria

(a measure which has been already resorted to by the Bishops of Jamaica and Australia); "in the first instance, by the power vested in the bishop of constituting a commission of inquiry on the spot; and in the second, by the authority entrusted to his commissioners to examine on oath all evidence which should be tendered to them by either the accuser or the accused." In order to enforce his authority at present, the bishop is obliged to have recourse to the local governments, or the missionary societies (as the case may be).

"The revocation of a clergyman's licence is indeed within the bishop's power, and it is presumed that either the Government or the Society would so far recognize revocation of licence as to withhold from the party so visited his salary and employment during the time of suspension."-p. 72.

One would have supposed so, a priori; but our memory strangely deceives us, if certain very disagreeable circumstances within the last few years have not served to dissipate such an hallucination; for there seems to be no inconsecutive reasoning in the supposition, that a Society which has dismissed a missionary for obeying the Prayer Book under sanction of his Bishop, will not hesitate to retain a Clergyman, who, for irregularity, may have been silenced by his Bishop. We suspect the Bishop of Madras is of a contrary opinion to Mr. Whitehead in respect of that society which owns a layman for its "patron," and places the Archbishop of Canterbury as its vice-patron. And as to the Government, a recent case has shown that there are foreign secretaries who care little for an episcopal licence, when opportunity offers of truckling to the clamours of puritans and schismatics.

The author next devotes a chapter to a suggestion of three measures, which he is of opinion would add to the efficiency of the Church, and remedy some practical difficulties. We must say they appear to us fair enough, and such as common sense would suggest without any minute acquaintance with India. They are as follow:-1. To erect the Church in India into a separate province, empowered to decide questions of internal arrangement, without the necessity of referring for final sanction (as at present) to the Most Reverend Prelate at Lambeth. 2. The multiplication of archdeaconries, and consequent lessening of their extent; each one being at present co-extensive with the limits of the diocese to which it is attached. 3. A declaratory act of the legislature, for settling definitely the parties between whom the Church's sanction should be necessary to constitute a legal marriage, and by whom, in a clergyman's absence, such a marriage might, for legal purposes, be performed. This would check the interference

VOL. X.-NO. xx.-Dec. 1848.

G g

with his duties, which a chaplain has now occasionally to complain of on the part of dissenting ministers; and would prevent members of the Church of England from shielding themselves in irregularities under alleged uncertainty of the law.

So far concerning the Church of the English; the last three chapters relate to the Church of the natives. We are wont in England to receive with some degree of hesitation the accounts which late years have so abundantly brought to us, of conversions from heathenism in the various parts of India. But here is one who, to much personal experience adds (we feel bound to confess) the appearance of a sober, not too enthusiastic mind: and if any thing like the numbers which he gives us be an image of the truth, we may indeed thankfully acknowledge with him, that

"the seed sown (oftentimes in tears) by Swartz and Jænickè, and Gericke, and Commerer, and Kohlhoff, all names great in Israel, has, by the good pleasure of the Lord of the harvest, and under the quickening dew of his Spirit, taken root downwards, and long since begun to bear fruit upwards."-p. 96.

We are told that "the Church of England can number at present, among the natives of the diocese of Calcutta, upwards of 6000 souls brought from darkness to light;" and it is mentioned that at Kishnagur "the ordinary morning attendance at daily prayer is from 250 to 100!" In the diocese of Madras (wherein "the parochial system among the native Christians has been more generally carried out, and better organized") we find, in its northern provinces, "Hydrabad in the Deccan, Masulepatam, Bangalore, Arcot, Vellore and its vicinity, all brought within hearing of the blessed Gospel by the agency of the Church." Farther south, "Cuddalore and its neighbourhood, Negapatam and Combaconum, and Trichinopoly, each the centre of a circle of mission villages, occupied by its pastor." Proceeding onwards, in Tanjore, "what once was a single district, cultivated by a single workman, the rich and fertile valleys of the Cauvery and Coleroon, is now, from its increasing Christian population, necessarily subdivided into five distinct districts, each with its church and resident missionary." In Tinevelly there is " "a body of worshippers already amounting to 44,000 baptized Christians." And as a proof that their Christianity is not merely nominal, we have the pleasing fact, that

"A single village has contributed the sum of 1500 rupees (1507.) towards the erection of a church, while another has come forward with the smaller offering of 500 rupees (50%.) in their hands, and prayed to have a separate and resident pastor.' And it is added, "the ordinary

wages earned by these poor agriculturists average from two to five rupees (four to ten shillings) monthly !"-p. 105.

We have a very well argued chapter on the question,—what method and style of education ought to be adopted to meet the present intellectual craving of the heathen, and to divert their minds into the healthy channel of sober faith in the truths of revelation. He asks whether," by making philosophers of the heathen, the missionary is likely to make them Christians? or is intellectual cultivation the passport to religious faith?" (p. 122.) The reader may possibly be surprised that Mr. Whitehead should devote several pages to combating a notion, which one would have thought a child could answer. But he will probably be still more surprised when he learns the reason for it, as contained in the following passage extracted from another part of his work :

"Education has advanced with rapid strides; the government of India has come forward with a zeal which only causes regret that even the indirect diffusion of Christianity forms no part of its system: the energies of the native mind have become awakened from their past torpor; and despite the drawback which a method of training presents, where every thing bearing on Christianity, its doctrines, and even its evidences, is zealously excluded, conversions have not been unfrequent of natives so taught. And while it is admitted that the natural tendency and general result of this ill-judged scheme is to make its élèves infidel, shallow disputers, certainly not idolaters, but as surely utter scoffers at all religion whatsoever, deriders of Christianity as but one of many existing forms of superstition, and classing it (in that respect) with Brahminism and Buddhism, yet" &c.-p. 99.

It is even so. A complicated and costly system of education of a high secular order has been adopted, "which forbids all direct or indirect training in Christian knowledge, which carefully excludes the Bible from its class-rooms, and forbids all instruction in it, even to those of the natives who would willingly search it." And this, upon the alleged fear, "lest the introduction of the Scriptures should drive students from their schools." Really this is almost incredible. Yet how exceeding like to the system of education forced by Her Majesty's Government on another portion of Her Majesty's dominions. And for the self-same reason too but as with Romanists in Ireland, if left to themselves, so with Hindoos in India, such a fear is wholly imaginary. In proof of this the author relates an anecdote, which strikes us as being so remarkable that we cannot resist extracting it.

"An intelligent foreigner travelling in India, visited Decca in 1846, and was introduced to some ex-students of the government College in that city. Well,' he remarked to a Brahmin, 'do you not think that

the British Government is very kind and liberal, in giving you and your countrymen so good a gratuitous education, and not compelling you to learn Christianity with it, or attempting to win you from your own creed?' The young man replied: 'No, we should prefer having the claims and evidences of Christianity at the same time fairly set before us; for the education we receive compels us to abandon most of our old notions, and so we lose our own religion, and gain nothing instead. We, who have been brought up at the college, cannot remain Hindoos : we should like, at least, to be taught what Christianity is."—p. 154.

With this we must conclude. We think Mr. Whitehead has done good service to the cause he so evidently has at heart, by this little publication. We do not hesitate to recommend it to all our readers, even as it treats of a subject which must interest them all.

11.-The Island of Liberty, or Equality and Community. By the Author of Theodore." London: Masters. 1848.

THE following story (as we are informed by the notice prefixed) was written during the Monmouthshire riots, in the winter of 1839-40, and has been revised for publication, as being applicable to the present times. The outline of the tale is soon told. Lord Eversham, a man of large property, a liberal heart, and an energetic mind, was one of those who read with enthusiasm the history of the past, and forget that times and circumstances must change. Living in an ideal world, he formed to himself scenes of perfection and bliss, where all live alike, each contributing to the assistance of the other. He saw, indeed, that the perfection he read of did not exist; and he believed that an entire change-a radical reform, would produce what he wanted, redress existing grievances, and regenerate society. He discarded Christianity, and sought for perfection where it could not be found. His liberal mind was above the narrow-minded prejudice which stigmatizes crime with disgrace, and condemns it to punishment and ignominy. He would have all men to be equal, with none to punish offences. In short, Liberty, Equality, and Charity, was his watch-word. Filled with these notions, he obtains a grant from Governmentsells his estates-charters three ships-and publicly gives out his intentions. Numbers flock to his standard, consisting chiefly of broken-down tradesmen, the discontented, and the dishonest. Upon arriving at the island to which they were bound, an equal division of land, implements, and stock is made to all; and my lord sets to, like the rest, to knock up a hut for himself and his beautiful daughter. The natural course of events soon follow. The idle become envious at the prosperity of the industrious.