ART. IV.-1. Colonial Ecclesiastical Establishment; to which is added a Sketch of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India. Humbly submitted to the consideration of the Imperial Parliament. By the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, D. D., late Vice-Provost of the College of Fort William in Bengal, and Member of the Asiatic Society. London, 1813.

2. A Practical Analysis of the several Letters Patent of the Crown, relating to the Bishopricks in the East Indies. By William Henry Abbott, Esq., Registrar of the Archdeaconry, and Secretary to the Lord Bishop of Calcutta. Calcutta, 1845. 3. A Charge delivered to the Reverend Clergy of the Diocese of Calcutta at the Sixth Visitation, on Wednesday, October 1, 1851. By Daniel, Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan in India. Calcutta, 1851.

4. The Colonial Church Chronicle and Missionary Journal. Nos. LIV. and LVI. London.

It is to be supposed, or let us say it is to be hoped, that the Ecclesiastical Establishment will attract some share of the attention of our rulers during the discussion of the Charter. If it do not, all we can say is, that the reason most certainly cannot be the absence of room for reformation. It is only a pity that room so ample for improvement has been suffered to attract so long the attention of others, and to continue so long a dark spot upon the Church of England in the East. Look at the expanse of territory, at the load of revenue, at the Christian population; look at that still unblushing abomination, the Government support of the Hindu and Mahommedan religions; and then compare the sacrifice of gratitude to the Giver of wealth and victory, which is offered in the items of church expenditure. If Claudius Buchanan could rise from his grave, we can well imagine him putting this question to the legisla ture, Where is my "Sketch of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India ?" Did I not tell you that " a period of twenty years is too long an interval for the investigation of improvements, which ought to be continually progressive, referring, as they do, to the moral condition of our own countrymen, and the general happiness of so great an pire?"-P. 187.

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It is impossible to deny that a vast improvement has been made since the day when those words were written, which have just been quoted. Let it be thankfully acknowledged. The good result of a larger importation into this country of

clergy of the Church of England, the good result of a more respectable approximation to what the establishment ought to consist of, is manifest enough to extort confession from the most hostile observer. But the observer, who, in addition to forming a judgment of honesty and candour, can feel a reverential pleasure in tracing the progress of sacred influences, will render a fuller and more favourable testimony. To what shall be ascribed that higher sense of moral restraint and social decorum, which has begun to pervade the European community ?to what those actual conversions, and that decidedly religious tone of mind, which are found in some instances among our countrymen here, though of course comparatively rare?-to what that awakened sensibility, which contributes to the support of Missions? To what shall these notable changes be ascribed? Other collateral causes, no doubt, have been at work; but surely it must be admitted that these happy changes are in great measure ascribable to an extended establishment of clergy, to a larger importation of that religious influence, which is diffused by means of ordained ministers of the church, authorized teachers of the word of God. Not indeed to those lamentable exceptions among the office-bearers of the Christian religion in this country, who have disgraced themselves even in the sight of the scorner, and been adepts in that very ungodliness they were sent out and sworn to condemn; not to hirelings, blind watchmen, dumb dogs that cannot bark, shepherds that cannot understand, do we pretend to assign the credit of successful instrumentality in producing such a salutary change; though it were wrong to doubt, that even in such cases, even with the most worthless and unfriendly instruments, some good has been effected by the great Worker of all, and by that Word, which no pollution of personal character in its ministers can alter, men have been reminded, what was being fast forgotten, that Christianity is not extinct. But let the present state of our countrymen in India be compared with what it was before the establishment of episcopal superintendence and the consequent increase of clergy; and that man must be blind indeed, or sadly jaundiced, who denies that a striking change for the better has been wrought; and instead of that sour and satanic ingratitude, which delights to bully our best benefactors, and to throw at them the stones of ridicule and obloquy, and which grudges every pice paid for their labour, truth and justice demand that the fruit of their ministry be honestly looked at and acknowledged with thankfulness. When the See of Calcutta was first erected, in 1814, the total number of the Honorable Company's chaplains in India was

thirty-five, of whom fifteen were stationed in Bengal. (Buchanan's Colonial Ecclesiastical Establishment, p. 145.) The number now is about 130, with three bishops. Ceylon, of course, is not included in this computation. Now it is obvious that this increase is much greater in proportion than the increase of Christian population, and the addition to the number of stations, which has arisen from accession of territory. How then shall we account for it? We believe it is to be accounted for upon the principle involved in this remarkable fact, that the erection of Sees in the Colonies and Dependencies is invariably followed by a large addition to the number of clergy, and altogether a more perfect organization of the ministry of the national church. We can understand the present bishop of Calcutta looking back upon his long career of Indian experience, and surveying with pleasure the change, since his first arrival, that has so improved the aspect of his own diocese; and we are willing to join him in the gratitude expressed in his last charge," Surely we may bless God for this." (p. 46.) The multiplication of churches is another feature of improvement; and though the expediency of so costly an outlay upon a single edifice, as that upon the Hobby-Horse in Calcutta, may be very questionable, when absolute wants and exigencies are considered, yet no one can deny that, in the increased expenditure upon church accommodation, the Government have evinced a progress in religious sensibility. We must not rate too highly the beneficial effects produced by the sacred ministry upon the legislation and government of India; but if councillors and secretaries have devised of later years a policy at all more consistent with the dictates of the Christian religion, than the policy of their predecessors, it will be difficult to separate this result from the operation of that ecclesiastical influence, to which other beneficial changes are partly ascribable. Again, we have another proof of advancement, in the altered character of the clergy. Let praise be cheerfully awarded, where it is due. The assertion may be safely ventured, that the Honorable Company's chaplains, as a body, have stronger claims to honour and esteem than what are commonly allowed to belong to them. A warmer spirit of zeal is now abroad among our spiritual guides, and a more general sense of responsibility, owing, doubtless, not only to the advantage of episcopal superintendence, but also to that revival, which, of late years, has imparted new vigilance and energy to the Established Church at home. And let it be acknowledged, moreover, that the talents and attainments which some of them have brought to bear against the contemptuous worldliness and insensibility

so characteristic of India, and the mental toil with which they have struggled week after week for many years, and are now struggling, against every discouragement, against an enervating climate, and against an ungrateful and disparaging world, are such as would have gained for them in England happier spheres of duty and better emoluments.

In estimating the usefulness and influence of the chaplains in India, it is necessary to bear in mind the obstacles against which they have to contend. If these difficulties be overlooked, our estimate of their work will, of course, be erroneous. Few stations of clerical duty can be conceived more painful, than that of a zealous clergyman ministering to members of Indian society. We speak not of the slothful servant, who, yielding at once to the torrent of apathy instead of resisting it, finds no impediments at all to overcome; but of the faithful watchman, who clearly observes the host of spiritual death surrounding him, and the formidable antagonists he has to fight against. Not only does he discover himself banished from the land of religious friendship and literary communion and intellectual refinement; not only an exile in spiritual solitude, cut off from much that administers at home to a clergyman's comfort and enjoyment, from refreshing contact with congenial spirits, from the sympathy of a common interest in church questions and movements of the day; not only called to work in the burning fiery furnace of a temperature which shrivels up the energies of mind and body, and to work too at compositions of that kind, which Bishop Heber, no incompetent judge, pronounced "the most difficult of all," even in the bracing air of a British latitude ;-but he has to face a society, with rare exceptions, of actual opponents, armed against all his efforts with the mail of a peculiar torpor and insensibility, a people whose "heart is waxed gross and whose ears are dull of hearing," or, to change the figure of speech, he perceives that he has come out upon the errand of striving to stop the torrent of a moral Niagara. The charge therefore of a faithful clergyman in this country is no sinecure; not that it is so anywhere, not that it is so in England; but we say emphatically of this country, that a zealous chaplain has no sinecure. The British in India, improved as they are since the days of Buchanan, are still in general opposed to anything beyond that external reformation, which has to a certain extent, as we said before, been secured by means of the establishment, regarded merely in the light of a moral police. A clergyman is not yet welcomed, is not respected, in this country, as he is at home; he has not that encouragement here, nor that value set upon his services, which

help to comfort and support him there. Many years must elapse before better things can be brought to pass; and the man, who at present comes out with the anticipation of that public regard for his zeal or his sacred calling, which does in his native land constitute some earthly compensation for his labours, reaps his disappointment in having to deal from year to year with a generation, whose lethargy, indifference, and worldliness would not be charmed away by the eloquence of a Chrysostom, nor shaken by the rousing invectives of a Tertullian.

A consideration, therefore, of these adverse and disheartening circumstances should serve to abate our wonder, that a greater amount of good has not resulted from the working of the ecclesiastical establishment, while it should enable us to appreciate more correctly the good which has resulted, and the claims and merits of the agency employed. The divine blessing so far has been conspicuous; how far it will yet extend, how far remaining obstacles will disappear, and Indian society be raised to a higher mark in the scale of religious improvement, the future only can reveal.

But this conducts us to the more important point of enquirywhat can be done for the future? Having discharged the grateful duty of acknowledging the progress, which has been made by our Hon'ble Rulers in providing for the religious welfare of their servants, we have now to be engaged with the darker side of the subject, and to direct attention to glaring deficiencies. Sufficient, indeed, at once to convict the present system of deficiency is the bare fact, that the present establishment very little exceeds in number that which was proposed by Dr. Buchanan forty years ago, but refused by the Exchequeran establishment required as urgently then, as a proportionate increase is required now. Bit by bit the present establishment has been squeezed out of the cautious generosity of our paternal rulers. But the serious question to be asked is-shall improvement stop at such a point as this?-Is the establishment sufficient for the British empire in the east ?-Is it adequate to the demands of justice and necessity ?-Is nothing more to be consecrated, out of the treasury of such a Government, to the glory of the King of kings, who has given them this wealth?

We have now three bishops in the continent of India. Look at the extent of this continent, at the distance of one station from another, at the gigantic magnitude of the diocese of Calcutta, more than twice the length of the Himalayan mountains. Looking at this diocese, one might be disposed to infer that