tion of the power of divine grace on the heart, and the ability of the Lord Jesus Christ to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him.

The author argues, that because the Roman Catholic Missionaries have failed, therefore all Protestant labourers must, à fortiori, fail likewise. His reasoning is as follows: "If any of the several modes of Christian worship were calculated to make an impression, and gain ground in the country, it is, no doubt, the Catholic form, which you Protestants call an idolatry in disguise : it has a Pooga or sacrifice; (the mass is termed by the Hindoos Pooga, literally, sacrifice ;) it has processions, images, statues, tirtan or holy-water, fasts, tittys or feasts, and prayers for the dead, invocation of saints, &c., all which practices bear more or less resemblance to those in use among the Hindoos. Now, if even such a mode of worship is become so objectionable to the natives, can it be reasonably expected that any one of the simple Protestant Sects will ever prosper among them?" (Page 18.)

The reader, remembering that success entirely hinges upon Divine co-operation, will not deem the failure of such a modification of Christianity, as that above alluded to, a sufficient cause for despair; for who can with truth affirm that he is sure, that even if unadulterated Christianity should be exhibited to the natives of India, God

would nevertheless turn away his face, and withhold his blessing? Protestants, therefore, who obey that commandment, upon which God lays especial stress, namely, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image," need not, it is submitted, despair of the divine favour, nor consequently of success.

The author complains that he himself has failed, after a persevering effort of two and thirty years. This also needs not stagger us, for it does not seem surprising that if a missionary in India should be found looking for success from human policy and power, God should teach him his impotency, and his error, by leaving him to reap disappointment as the issue of his most strenuous exertions. The Abbé, in his Preface, thus gives a brief outline both of his labours and his disappointment.

"The author has endeavoured to state (as well as his very imperfect acquaintance with the English language has enabled him to do) with freedom, candour, and simplicity, the desperateness of such an attempt. His notions on the subject are derived from an experience of thirty-two years of confidential and quite unrestrained intercourse among the natives of India, of all castes, religions, and ranks; during which, in order to win their confidence, and remove suspicion, as far as possible, he has constantly lived like them

embracing their manners, customs, and most of their prejudices, in his dress, his diet, their rules of civility and good breeding, and their mode of intercourse in the world. But the restraints under which he has lived during so long a period of his life, have proved of no advantage to him in promoting the sacred cause in which he was engaged as a religious teacher. During that time he has vainly, in his exertions to promote the cause of Christianity, watered the soil of India with his sweats, and many times with his tears, at the sight of the quite insurmountable obduracy of the people he had to deal with; ready to water it with his blood, if his doing so had been able to overcome the invincible resistance he had to encounter every where, in his endeavours to disseminate some gleams of the evangelical light. Every where the seeds sown by him have fallen upon a naked rock, and have instantly died

away.

"At length, entirely disgusted at the total inutility of his pursuits, and warned by his grey hair that it was full time to think of his own concerns, he has returned to Europe, to pass in retirement the few days he may still have to live, and get ready to give in his account to his Redeemer." (pp. vi. vii.)

I know not how it may appear to the Reader's mind; I confess it strikes my own, that if the

Abbé, holding the sentiments he does, and acting the part he did, could have come home reporting that signal success had attended his labours, my faith in some of the most vital principles of the Christian religion would have received a very painful shock. In the outline he gives above of the manner in which he prosecuted his labours, we read of his conforming to the Hindoos in their manners, customs, modes of dress, diet, and the like; of his watering the soil of India with his sweat, and with his tears, and of his being ready to water it with his blood also; but we do not read a single sentence bearing the most remote practical allusion to the great principle advocated in this chapter, and in the preceding, and laid down in these words of Scripture, "Not by power nor by might, but BY MY SPIRIT, saith the Lord.”

I may notice, that the introduction of the correct principle defeats the author's à priori argument against the practicability of establishing female schools. He thus expresses his sentiments on the subject:-" That author," (referring to the Rev. Mr. Ward, of Serampore,) "finishes his address to the ladies of Liverpool by a kind of Don-Quixote appeal to their sensibility and compassion, for the purpose of soliciting their support and assistance towards the establishment of schools to enlighten the female Hindoos.

"The ladies of Liverpool are not aware, I suppose, that such a project is merely visionary and altogether impracticable, the most deeply rooted prejudices of the country being decidedly hostile to its execution.

"The ladies of Liverpool are not aware, that even should not the prejudices of the country oppose an almost insurmountable bar to the establishment of schools for females in India, the state of poverty of the latter, and their numerous avocations, would not allow them to attend those schools.

"The ladies of Liverpool are not aware, that at least five-sixths of the Hindoo females live in such distressed circumstances, that from the age of eight or ten years to the end of their lives, they are obliged to labour without intermission, from morning till evening, and that, notwithstanding their incessant labours, they are hardly capable of saving enough to purchase a coarse cloth, of the value of five or six shillings, to cover themselves."-(pp. 205, 206.)

It so happens, that since the author wrote the above paragraphs, the proposal made by Mr. Ward has been adopted, and the experiment has not only been tried, but actually succeeded. A short time before I left Calcutta, I visited some of the Hindoo girls' schools established by Mrs. Wilson, (then Miss Cooke); and knowing, as