must have cost him, we cannot sufficiently praise his good nature. 'At Wallington, there is a portrait of Mrs. Trevelyan, by Hoppner, of which it may be most justly remarked, that had the beauty pourtrayed in the picture been less, it had been in that degree less like its amiable original.' p. 32.

Ere we dismiss our traveller, we cannot but remark his want of precision in the names of persons and places. We have Branton for Brampton, Corniston for Comiston, Willcox for Willox, Lockiel for Lochiel, Stath Lachlaw for Strath Lachlan, &c. &c. Besides this, Sir John has an unlucky vacillation and uncertainty of phrase, which sometimes leaves us utterly at a loss to comprehend him. We propound the following doubts for solution to any Edipus wiser than ourselves. Of Dunolly Castle, Sir John says,

'The remains of this castle stand on a bold rocky promontory, jutting into Loch Etive. This castle was founded by Ewin, a Pictish monarch, contemporary with Julius Cæsar. It is said that, when visitors unexpectedly arrive at this castle, and there are not sufficient provisions within for their entertainment, an hospitable telegraph, namely, a table-cloth, is hoisted upon a pole on the battlements, which is a signal for certain tenants of the proprietor to bring supplies of fresh salmon, or any other fish which may be in season.'

6

In this confusion of tenses are we to conclude that the displaying of the genial banner belonged to the times of the Pictish monarch, Ewin? or that the remains of the castle are still inhabited, and that the ceremony is of modern date? Again, p. 484, it is recorded, that the generous Bishop of Derry bestowed on a western isleman three razors, several pounds of soap, and a purse of ten guineas, which made the poor fellow pity and despise the rest of the world, till his presents were worn out and expended.' The guineas might be expended, the soap worn out, but what became of the razors? Yet again, p. 127, it is said of the Court of Justiciary, "The causes which come before this court are tried by a jury of fifteen; a majority of whom most wisely decide. Here arises a high and doubtful question for future scholiasts: are we to understand that it is most wise that the verdict should be decided by the majority, or that the majority of a Scottish jury always decide most wisely? The last supposition may account for the partiality of the Caledonians to majorities elsewhere, from their observing that they were always in the right in their own national courts. But the sentence is deeply oracular and will bear either construction.

We take our leave of Sir John, with a sincere advice to him to extend his next travels to some more distant bourne. He has long been the Stranger Abroad, we will not permit him to be the Stranger at Home. We must guard him against giving us a Hampstead Summer, Memoranda of Margate, or, the Traveller at Brighton: A top-Sir John must not be offended at the simile, Virgil compares

a queen to the same thing-a top, when it narrows its gyrations, is apt to become stationary; in which case all school-boys know it will either fall asleep or tumble down: the remedy to restore its activity, and enlarge its circuit, is a tight flagellation. We have taken the hint; but we hope that Sir John will not go to law with us for so doing we would rather whip our top any where than in Westminster Hall; and our Review is not, at least in the engraver's sense of the word, adorned with cuts.

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ART. XVII. Periodical Accounts relative to the Baptist Missionary Society. Major Scott Waring Twining, Vindication of the Hindoos, &c. &c.

HE rapid progress of Christianity during the first ages of the church, and its victory over the established forms of classical superstition, the schools of ancient philosophy, and the barbarous mythologies of the northern nations, were the united produce of the ardent piety and indefatigable zeal of the first preachers of the Gospel, and the blessing and assistance of heaven. But, it is observable that, in later times, the faith has been spread more by colonization than conversion. How is it that the latter has been so deplorably checked? The Romanists accuse the Protestants for their indifference, the Protestants retort upon the Romanists for their corruptions: there is but too much truth in the charge on either side, but the reproach is better founded than the recrimination.

This evil grew out of the reformation, and it is the only evil attendant upon that blessed event which has continued to the present times. The schism between the Greeks and Latins was less mischievous; there the parties were so little in contact, that their hatred was without exasperation; and each talked its own nonsense, without attempting to convert the other, except by the innocent and inefficient formalities of a Council. Separated from the whole Latin church by their geographical situation, by the great boundary of language, by their political relations, their pride of elder and superior civilization, and their semi-oriental manners, the Greeks were scarcely included in the idea of Christendom, and our Crusaders sometimes found them as hostile as the Saracens. But the revolution which Luther effected produced a civil war between the members of that great Gothic family, who, amid all their civil dissensions had ever till then remembered their common origin, and when the interests of Christianity were in question, acted as one body, with one heart and will. Before this struggle was over, the zeal of Protestanism had spent itself. All sects and communities of religion settle and purify after their first effervescence, then they become vapid. The Protestant churches had reached this second stage, when they were securely

and peaceably established; their turbid elements had cleared away, but the quickening spirit was gone also. While they had zeal to attempt the work of converting heathen nations they had no opportunity, and when the opportunity came, the zeal had evaporated. The Dutch indeed did something in Ceylon, a poor atonement for the irreparable evil which they occasioned in Japan. Quakerism sent forth a few Apostles to the Pope and the Great Turk, and the good spirit which animated them was so far communicated to the personages whom they addressed, that little used as they were to the benignant mood, they sent the gentle zealots safely home again. A Danish mission was established in India, where it has continued merely because it is an establishment. Assistance has indeed been given to it by our own Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; and some attempts have been made among the North American savages by the Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts. But these efforts, however laudable, have had no very extensive consequences; and Protestantism has rather attempted than effected the work of conversion.

There is, however, in all religious communities a vivacious and vivific principle not to be found in the same degree in political bodies; their hold is upon the heart of man, upon his hopes and fears, the weakness and the strength of his nature. From time to time some individual appears, who whether inspired or infatuated resigns. himself to the impulse, and laying aside all human motives at his outset, acts with a contempt of worldly maxims and worldly prudence, which insures him success in what the maxims and the prudence of the world would have withheld him from attempting. Such was St. Bernard, such were Francesco and Domingo, who saved the Romish church from revolution in the 13th century; such, in later ages, were Loyola and his mightier contemporary Luther, and such, in times which may almost be called our own, were Wesley and Whitefield. These men are the Loyolas of Protestantism. It is easy to revile, it is easier still to ridicule them; the sanest mind will sometimes feel indignation as well as sorrow at perusing their journals,—but he must have little foresight who does not perceive that of all men of their generation they were the most efficient. The statesmen and the warriors of the last reign are in the grave, and their works have died also; they moved the body only, and the motion ceased with the impulse; peace undid their work of war, and war again unravelled their finest webs of peace:-but these fanatics set the mind and the soul in action; the stirring which they excited continues to widen and increase, and to produce good and evil; and future generations will long continue to feel the effects.

It cannot here be necessary to attend to the classification of sectarianism; the Wesleyans, the Orthodox dissenters of every description, and the Evangelical churchmen may all be comprehended under the

generic name of Methodists. The religion which they preach is not the religion of our fathers, and what they have altered they have made worse but they proceed with zeal and perseverance; and the purest forms, when they are forms only, are little able to resist such assailants. Some evil they have done, and greater evil they will do ; but all evil brings with it its portion of good, and is permitted only as it is ultimately subservient to good. That spirit of enthusiasm by which Europe was converted to Christianity, they have in some measure revived, and they have removed from Protestantism a part of its reproach. The efforts which they are making to disseminate the Gospel are undoubtedly praise-worthy, and though not always wisely directed, not more erroneously than was to be expected from their inexperience in the arduous task which they have undertaken, and from the radical errors of their system of belief.

The first of these missionary associations in point of time, and the only one which has become the subject of controversy, is that designated by the name of the Particular* Baptist Society for propagating the Gospel among the Heathens. Its efforts at present are directed exclusively towards India.

This mission, which is represented by its enemies as so dangerous to the British empire in India, and thereby according to a logic learnt from Buonaparte, to England also, originated in a man, by name William Carey, who till the twenty-fourth year of his age was a working shoemaker. Sectarianism has this main advantage over the established church, that its men of ability certainly find their station, and none of its talents are neglected or lost. Carey was a studious and pious man, his faith wrong, his feelings right. He made himself competently versed in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and was then ordained among the Calvinistic Baptists. For many years his heart was set upon the conversion of the Heathen; this was the favourite topic of his conversation, his prayers and his sermons; and from the earnestness with which he seemed to feel the subject, and the remarkable aptitude which he possessed in acquiring languages, his friends were induced to think that he was peculiarly formed for some such undertaking. In the year 1791, being at a meeting of his brother ministers at Clipstone in Northamptonshire, he proposed this question for discussion, Whether it were not practicable, and our bounden duty to attempt somewhat towards spreading the Gospel in the Heathen world?' He was then requested to publish an inquiry which he had written upon the subject; and at a subsequent ministers' meeting (as these convocations are called) this society was formed, and a subscription begun for carrying its object into effect. The money then raised amounted only to 137. 2s. 6d. but want of money in such cases, is a molehill in the way of zeal.

The Particular Baptists are Calvanists. The General Baptists are those of any other description who agree in the practice of baptizing adults by immersion.

Before any plan had been formed, or any place fixed for their operations, they found that John Thomas, a member of their own church, lately returned from Bengal, was endeavouring to establish a fund in London for a mission to that country. This is the person who is called a madman by Major Scott Waring, and said by him to have died raving mad. That gentleman has been misinformed. during his life Thomas was deranged for some weeks, and the ardour and constitutional irritability of his mind evinced in him a tendency to madness, from which religion might have contributed to preserve him, by giving that ardour a steady direction towards one worthy object. There are passages in his letters and journals which may make a jester merry, and a wise man sorrowful, they spring from the insanity of the system, not of the individual; but there are also abundant proofs of a zeal, a warmth of heart, a genius,-which in the Romish church would have obtained altars for him, and which in our own entitle him to respect and admiration. He had preached to the natives in Bengal, and produced effect enough to convince him that much might be done there. Here then was a way opened for the Society: they engaged him as a missionary. Carey consented to accompany him with his whole family, and in 1793 they sailed in a Danish Indiaman.

Thomas, who was a surgeon, intended to support himself by his profession. Carey's plan was to take land and to cultivate it for his maintenance. After many difficulties, they accepted the superintendance of two indigo-factories in the neighbourhood of Malda, and covenants were granted them by the British government. Fountain, another missionary, was sent to join them here, and he and Carey, having acquired the common language of the country, proceeded with a translation of the Scriptures into Bengalee, which Thomas had begun during his former residence in Bengal. In 1799 a reinforcement of four brethren came out; permission to settle in the British territory was refused them, and Carey and Fountain therefore found it expedient to remove to Serampore, where the Danish governor protected and favoured them. Here they purchased a house, and organized themselves into a family society, resolving that whatever was done by any member should be for the benefit of the mission. They opened a school in which the children of those natives who chose to send them were instructed gratuitously. The translation was by this time nearly completed. Ward, one of the last missionaries, understood printing; they formed a printing office, and advertised for subscribers to a Bengalee bible.

Hitherto no convert had been made, but now, when some of the missionaries could converse fluently in the language of the people, and portions of the scripture and religious tracts were provided for distribution, their preaching in the town and neighbourhood soon produced considerable effect. They entered into controversy with