tations over the past, and from much personal inquiry and observation, during my residence at Paris, that I have derived a knowledge of the abuses which I have undertaken to suggest." p. 144.

Some of these abuses Mr. Walsh specifies. The creditors of the French government meet with such obstacles and delays in seeking payment, that they are very frequently driven to the necessity of selling their demands for half their value to the secret agents of the minister, or of the chief clerks of the department, who then secure full payment to themselves. The credit of the government, of course, is very low. The general receivers draw in its favour bills on themselves, at the commencement of the year, payable the 15th of every month, for the amount of the direct taxes. The minister of finance, in his report for the year 1807, complains, that he was compelled, in the course of the preceding year, to negociate the bills of the receivers at a discount of one and one-sixteenth per month, nearly 13 per cent. per annum.

Such is the account given by Mr. Walsh of French taxation, and French finance.. But how does the account stand, when this system is compared with ours?-Let us hear Mr. Walsh.

"I have carefully collated the list of objects taxed in England, particularly those which fall under the excise, with the catalogue of France; and have found that the French government has omitted none, which by any possibility could be rendered productive, In England they have studiously avoided the imposition of such taxes, as might clog the industry, or trench too far upon the necessities of the people. In France these considerations appear to have had no weight; while, at the same time, the proportions observed in England, for the alleviation of the lower classes, are there wholly disregarded. No comparison can be instituted as to the moderation and lenity, with which the numerous and complicated taxes of both countries are levied." p. 84.

We will now lay before our readrs the animated pictures which Mr.

Walsh has drawn of the present state of England and France.

"Whatever may be the representation of those who, with little knowledge of fact, and still less soundness or impartiality of judgment, affect to deplore the condition of England, it is nevertheless true, the there does not exist, and never has existed elsewhere, so beautiful and perfect model of public and private prosperity so magnificent, and at the same time, so solid a fabric of social happiness and national grandeur. I pay this just tribute of admiration with the more pleasure, as it is to me and prejudices, under which I laboured, on in the light of an atonement for the errors this subject, before I enjoyed the advantage of a personal experience. A residence of nearly two years in that country, during which period, I visited and studied almost every part of it, with no other view or pursuit than that of obtaining correct infor mation, and, I may add, with previous stu dies well fitted to promote my object, convinced me that I had been egregiously deceived. I saw no instances of individual oppression, and scarcely any individual misery, but that which belongs, under any cir all human institutions. cumstances of our being, to the infirmity of I witnessed no symptom of declining trade, or of general discontent. On the contrary, I bound there every indication of a state engaged in a rapid career of advancement. I found the art and spirit of commercial industry at their acwé; a metropolis opulent and liberal beyond example; a cheerful peasantry, well fed and commodiously lodged; an ardent attachment to the constitution in all classes, and a full reliance on the national resources. I found the utmost activity in agricultural and manufacturing labours; in the construction of works of embellishment and utility; in enlarg ing and beautifying the provincial cities. I heard but few well-founded complaints of the amount, and none concerning the collection, of the taxes. The demands of the state create no impediment to consumption, or discouragement to indus try. I could discover no instance in which they have operated to the serious distress or ruin of individuals." p. 180, 183.

After a further eulogium, in some points, we confess, rather highly coloured, but on the whole substantially correct, on the agriculture and comforts and morality of Lugiau, Mr. Walsh proceeds:

"The state of France, as it fell under my observation in 1807, exhibited quite another perspective. Combined with the evils which I have already had occasion to notice, various other causes conspired to heighten the national calamity. The extinction of all public spirit, and of the influence of public opinion, the depopulation and decay of the great towns, the decline of agriculture and manufactures, the stagnation of internal trade, the stern dominion of a military police, incessantly checked the exultation, natural to the mind, on viewing the profusion of boun ties, with which the hand of Providence has gifted this fine region. The pressure of the taxes was aggravated by the most oppressive rigours in the collection. The peasant or farmer who was a delinquent in paying his taxes, had a file of soldiers, under the name of garnisers, quartered upon him, who consumed the fruits of his industry, as a compensation for the loss sustained by the state. The grape, in numberless instances, was permitted to rot on the vine, in consequence of the inability of the proprietor either to dispose of his wine when made, or to discharge the imposts levied upon every stage of the progress of making it. I was credibly informed that families were frequently compelled to relinquish their separate establishments, and to associate in their domestic

economy, in order to lighten by dividing the

burden of the taxes.

"The effects of the loss of external trade were every where visible; in the commercial cities, half deserted, and reduced to a state of inaction and gloom truly deplorable: in the inland towns, in which the po pulace is eminently wretched, and where I saw not one indication of improvement, but, on the contrary, numbers of edifices falling to ruins on the high roads, where the infrequency of vehicles and travellers denoted but too strongly the decrease of internal consumption, and the languor of internal trade; and among the inhabitants. of the country, particularly of the south, whose poverty is extreme, in consequence of the exorbitant taxes, and of the want of an outlet for their surplus produce. In one thousand eight hundred and seven, the num

ber of mendicants in the inland towns was

almost incredible. The condition of the peasantry, as to their food, clothing, and habitations, bore no comparison with the state of the same class in England." pp. 188, 190. “Agriculture languishes in almost every part of the empire. In one thousand eight hundred and seven, the fields were princiCHRIST, OBSERY. No. 105.

pally cultivated by women: the long suc cession of wars having swept away that male population, which, under the auspices of a pacific government, would now have been the instrument of an unequalled production of the fruits of the earth. Bonaparte pur sues to the utmost possible extent, a policy recommended by all military experience; that of drawing his supplies of men from the agricultural class. The few of his victims who return, indolent in habits and dissolute in morals, are wholly disqualified for the plough, and only serve to spread the contagion of the vices which they contract in the camp." p. 192, 194.

He

We did think of making a few remarks on the effects which the French system must produce on the morals of the country; but we must satisfy ourselves with the observations which have occurred in the course of this review, and with a quotation from Penchet, given by Mr. Walsh in a note p. 193. speaks of "la guerre, qui enleve continuellement des bras aux travaux et des chefs jeunes et actifs qui sont le soutien et l'espoir des familles." "C'est bien plus," he adds, "dans les fabriques, les comptoirs, les sciences, les arts qui exigent des etudes, que se font sentir les suites des levées militaires: suites morales qui troublent le bonheur des familles, le repos de la société, et les motifs de se former un etat."

But the picture of French misery would be incomplete-it would want its most characteristic and most disgusting features, if the nature of its police and its system of espionage were omitted. What place, indeed, can there be for the exercise of the social virtues, what place for the enjoyment of that social happiness, which delights above all things in unbounded confidence, while "the domestic errors, and weaknesses, and disquietudes," for which we seek consolation in the bosom of a friend; while "the confidential endearments and communications" which bind parent to child, and brother to sister, and husband to wife," are exposed to the malignant curiosity of the vilest of mercenaries, and to 4 D

be, and strengthening the bulwarks, of our constitution; and, above all, of promoting that paramount regard for moral considerations in every political arrangement, which would afford the best security for the permanence of our blessings.

Sermon preached at the Parish Church of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe and St. Anne, Blackfriars, on Tuesday in Whitsun Week, June 12, 1810, before the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, instituted by Members of the Established Church, being their tenth Anniversary. By the Rev. CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN, D. D. Also, the Report of the Committee to the Annual Meeting, held on the same Day, and a List of Subscribers and Benefactors. Printed by Order of the General Meeting. London: Seeley 1810. pp. 161. WHATEVER comes from the pen of Dr. Buchanan on the subject of missions, cannot fail to fix the general attention. It is a subject on which he is known not only to write from an overflowing heart, but to have reflected deeply. Added to this, a residence of twelve years in India, where he had a full opportunity of witnessing the dreadful effects of the moral darkness that pervades the Heathen world, and of becoming acquainted with the various obstacles to the reception of the Christian faith, arising from the prevalence of the Pagan and Mahomedan superstitions, has given to his reflections a practical turn, which renders them particuJarly valuable.

Dr. Buchanan was first brought into public notice, as the advocate of missions, by his Memoir on the Expediency of giving an Ecclesiastical Establishment to British India. Our readers will recollect the clamour which this work, soon after its appearance, excited, chiefly among the Anglo-Indians, and the controversy which followed. This controversy was carried on for some time, with considerable warmth, but

it has ended, as we fully believe, in the almost undisputed admission, we will not say by the anti-missionary controversialists themselves, but by the public at large, of the main points which Dr. Buchanan laboured to establish :-we mean, the deplorably degraded state of our Indian subjects, as to moral culture; the sound policy, as well as the practicability, of attempting their conversion to Chris tianity; and the solemn obligation imposed on us, as a Christian nation, to make the attempt. And we cannot help hoping that the growing conviction of these truths will lead to something more efficacious than we have yet witnessed;-a vigorous, concurrent, and persevering effort to forward this stupendous object, the moral renovation of an empire.*

In the Sermon before us, we find Dr. Buchanan pursuing the same object to which his memoir was directed, with the calmness and selfpossession of a man, zealous indeed in the pursuit, but sure of ultimate success. He relies on the promise of the Almighty, and goes forward in his strength. He knows that even the " gates of hell shall not prevail" against the sacred cause he has taken in hand; he is therefore little moved by the opposition of his fellow men.

In the first passage which we shall quote from this sermon, Dr. Buchanan recurs to a subject, on which in his memoir he had entered at largethe moral darkness which prevails in Hindostan +.

"I have, indeed (he says) seen that darkness; but it is not easy to describe it. No man can know what it is, who has not seen it. It is no less dreadful, than when the Israelites beheld, at a distance, the thick darkness of Egypt, from their dwellings in Goshen,

"Whoever wishes to make himself ac

quainted with the particulars of this controversy, may consult our volumes for 1807 and 1808.

† See this subject ably illustrated in a pamphlet, published by Hatchard, entitled Christianity in India, &c." By the Rev. J. W. Cunningham.

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where there was light.' I have been in what the Scripture calls the Chambers of Imagery: Ezekiel viii. 12; and haye wit nessed the enormity of the Pagan Idolatry in all its turpitude and blood. I can now better understand those words of the Scriptures, the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty: Psalin Ixxiv. 20. I have seen the libations of hu man blood, offered to the Moloch of the Heathen World; and an assembly, not of two thousand only, which may constitute your number, but of two hundred thousand, falling prostrate at the sight, before the idol, and raising acclamations to his name. "But the particulars of these scenes cannot be rehearsed before a Christian assembly; as indeed the Scriptures themselves intimate to us: Eph. v. 12. I only wish that the Great Council of our nation could behold this darkness: then there would be no dis sentient voice as to the duty of diffusing light, I may suffice to observe, that the two prominent characters of idolatry are the same which the Scriptures describe ;--cruelty and lasciviousness;-blood and impurity, may further notice, that the fountain-head of this superstition in India, is the temple of Juggernaut. That temple is to the Hin 'doos, what Mecca is to the Mahome'dans-it is the sacred spot of their superstition.

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"It will give you satisfaction to hear that the Gospels have been recently translated into the language of Juggernaut. The Christian world is indebted to the labours of the inissionaries of the Baptist Society in India, for this important service.

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"But there is a moral darkness in the East of a different character from that of Paganism, I mean the darkness of the ROMISH superstition in Pagan lands. About 250 years ago, Papal Roine ́established her Inquisition in the East, and it is still in ope'ration; for I myself Autely visited it, and witnessed its proceedings. By this tribu-nal, the power of the Romish church was consolidated in that hemisphere.

"Besides the spiritual tyranny of the inquisition, there exists, in certain provinces, a corruption of Christian doctrine more.hei

some of the priests themselves assured me that they had never seen them.

"But the era of light," he adds, "seems to have arrived, even to this dark region; for a translation of the Scriptures has been prepared for it. This version has been made by the bishop of the ancient Syrian Chris tians; and I have the satisfaction to announce to you, that a part of it hath been already published and circulated among the people, It has been printed at Bombay, by the aid of funds, to the augmentation of which this society has recently contributed.

but

"This translation is in the Malayalim tongue, sometimes called the Malabar ; which is spoken, not only by the Hindoos of Malabar, Travancore, and Cochin, b by upwards of three hundred thousand Christians in these provinces: some of them belonging to the ancient Syrian church, and some of them to the Romish church; and who will all gladly receive the Word of God, both priests and people.

"Another remarkable event hath concurred to favour the design. The Italian Bishop of chief eminence in those parts, who presides over the college of Verapuli, which has been established for the students of the Romish church, has denied the authority of the Inquisition; and has acceded to the design of giving the Holy Scriptures to the people. I myself received from bim the assurance of his determination to this effect. So that the version executed by the Syrian Bishop, whom Rome has ever ac counted her enemy in the East, will be given to the Romish church. Thus, after a strife of three hundred years, doth the leopard lie down with the kid." And it is for the support of this work, in particular, that we would solicit your liberality on this day. It is for the translation of the Bible into a new language, which is not only vernacular to Hindoos and Mahomedans, but is the language of a nation of Christians, who never saw the Bible; and whose minds are already disposed to read the book which gives an account, of their own religion. p. 29.”

The following defence of the British and Foreign Bible Society is -seasonable; we quote it with plea

sure.

tish and Foreign Bible Society, that it is în its character universal; that it embraces all, and acknowledges no cast in the Christian religion, and it has been insinuated, that we ought not to be zealous eren for the ex