conducing to this end, will, on the contrary, increase the prejudices of the natives against the Christian Religion, and prove, in many respects, detrimental to it."

"These assertions" he endeavours to support "by such arguments and proofs as a long experience and practice in the career of proselytism have enabled" him, as he conceives," to adduce." pp. 1, 2.

His "arguments are founded upon the bad character of the Hindoos, but especially of the Brahmins-upon the extensive influence of the latter over all other castes of Hindoos-upon the nature of their superstitions and the inveteracy of their prejudices -upon the contempt into which Christianity is, from various causes, brought-upon the persecutions to which converts are exposed, &c. &c. (passim)—all of which he regards as insurmountable obstacles to the dissemination of the Gospel in Hindoostan.

His "proofs" are deduced from the total failure, as he asserts, of the means hitherto employed. If there were the slightest probability of success, it must, he thinks, ere this have crowned the exertions of RomanCatholic Missionaries, who have laboured in India for three centuries back, concealing, with care, every thing in the Christian

Religion likely to wound the feelings or offend the prepossessions of the natives, and endeavouring, in every possible way, to conciliate their minds. And since these means have proved hitherto, and still continue to prove, abortive, he regards it as the wildest of speculations for Protestant Missionaries to think of gaining upon a race of people like the inhabitants of our Eastern Empire, with a mode of worship destitute, as he declares, of all attraction.

From a review of the whole subject, he concludes, that God has predestinated the Hindoos to eternal reprobation!!-that, "let the Christian Religion be presented to these people under every possible light," "the time of conversion has passed away; and, under existing circumstances, there remains no human possibility to bring it back." p.42, &c.

If his reasoning be sound, and his conclusion fairly drawn, we behold, in the millions of human beings who inhabit the vast continent of India, a race of our fellow-creatures in as hopeless a condition as that of apostate angels: and, instead of cherishing the rising sympathies of our common nature, which would move us to stretch forth the hand of charity to raise them from so wretched a prostration of soul, it is our duty to stifle

every tender emotion that struggles within our bosoms, on beholding their hapless condition lest we should, involuntarily, speak to them in the accents of mercy, tell them of the dying love of Christ, and thus, before we are aware of it, be fighting against the purposes of Almighty God. If the Author's views be correct, then we are justified in maintaining our sovereignty over the Hindoos, without once offering them that only equivalent compensation which is to be found in the benefits of the Christian Religion!

A question involving such tremendous consequences, to so great a proportion of mankind, demands the most serious deliberation. And after perusing and re-perusing the Abbé's Letters, with that attention which the importance of the subject demands, and carefully comparing his assertions with my own "experience and practice" in the Missionary Cause for some years in India, I have arrived at conclusions diametrically opposite to those which he has drawn and I here pledge myself to prove, First, "the possibility of making real converts to Christianity among the natives in India." Secondly, that "the means employed for that purpose, and, above all, the

translation of the Holy Scriptures into the idioms of the country, are likely to conduce to this desirable object." There are those who would tell me, that I am committing myself on the very threshold of the discussion; for that, to assert the possibility of converting the natives of India to the Christian Faith, is to betray a total ignorance of their character. I have studied their character; and could, from my own experience, give a description of their moral depravity that would afflict the Christian's soul. But I find that the Abbé, if he thought it convenient to his purpose, would not hesitate to deny the accuracy of any description, how closely soever resembling his own: p. 145, &c.-I shall not, therefore, expose myself to the charge of drawing exaggerations and misrepresentations respecting the Hindoos," but will describe them in his own terms.

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"The Hindoos may be divided into two classes the impostors, and the dupes. The latter include the bulk of the population of India; and the former is composed of the whole tribe of Brahmins." p. 87.

Contrasting the character of Cornelius with that of the Hindoos, he says, their "minds seem to be hermetically shut to the

voice of truth, and to the rays of light; and their judgment is led astray by their passions, and most of their public and private institutions. I have, alas! nowhere met, among the Hindoo Brahmins, another Cornelius, whose prayers and alms are come up as a memorial before God.' I have, to this day, remarked amongst them nothing but pride, self-conceit, duplicity, lying, and every kind of unnatural and anti-Christian vices." p. 92.

"A Hindoo, and, above all, a Brahmin, by his institutions, his usages, his education and customs, must be considered as a kind of moral monster-as an individual placed in a state of continual variance and opposition with the rest of the human race,' &c. &c. pp. 100, 101.

"The leading feature of the education of a Brahmin is an universal hatred and contempt towards all the human race." He "is taught, if not positively to hate his friends, and to return evil for good, at least to conduct himself through life by quite selfish considerations, and to sacrifice all, without exception, to his private interests, without distinction between friends and foes; to be entirely unmindful of the services rendered to him, and to consider them, whatever may