pany's servants are afraid to have their actions scrutinized by competent witnesses-they dare not appear before the bar of public opinion." However, I am aware that a great deal may be said on the other side. I also know that the utmost liberality characterises the government of India on all subjects connected with literature, philosophy, and religion. It is only on political topics that the editor of any paper in India is restrained; and when I reflect upon the state of that country, and the folly of particular editors, there may be strong reasons given for the right exercised by the local authorities. In short, I doubt my own opinion on the subject.

NOTE 17.

"THE question to be considered may be reduced to these two points," says the Abbé Dubois, late missionary in Mysore; -" First, Is there a possibility of making real converts to Christianity among the natives of India? Secondly, Are the means employed for that purpose, and above all, the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the idioms of the country, likely to conduce to this desirable object?

To both interrogatories," continues the Abbé, “I will answer in the negative: it is my decided opinion, first, that under existing circumstances there is no human possibility of converting the Hindoos to any sect of Christianity; and, secondly, that the translation of the Holy Scriptures circulated among them, so far from conducing to this end, will, on the contrary, increase the prejudice of the natives against the Christian religion, and prove in many respects detrimental to it.

"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 pooja, or sacrifice (the mass is termed by the Hindoos pooja, 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," (he has before said that it was hated and despised) "can it be reasonably expected that any one of the simple Protestant sects will ever prosper among them.

"The naked text of the Bible, exhibited without a long previous preparation to the Hindoos, must prove detrimental to the Christian religion, and increase their aversion to it, inasmuch as this sacred book contains in almost every page accounts which cannot fail deeply to wound their feelings, by openly hurting prejudices which are held most sacred.

"What will a well-bred native think, when, in reading over this holy book, he sees that Abraham, after receiving the visit of three angels, under human shape, entertains his guests by causing a calf to be killed, and served to them for their fare? The prejudiced Hindoo will at once judge that both Abraham and his heavenly guests were nothing but vile pariars; and without further reading he will forthwith throw away the book, containing (in his opinion) such sacrilegious accounts.

"In the mean while he will become more and more confirmed in the idea, that a religion which derives its tenets from so impure a source, is altogether detestable, and that those who profess it must be the basest and vilest of men.

"Such are the effects which, in my humble opinion, the reading of the naked text of the Bible cannot fail to produce on the unprepared minds of the prejudiced Hindoos."

NOTE 18.

THE Marquis Wellesley founded the College of Fort William on the 4th of May, 1800. From that period till 1807, it produced about one hundred volumes in oriental literature, on subjects most interesting to mankind, and connected with the civilisation of the East. This establishment is still carrying on the diffusion of knowledge, though now on a much reduced scale. The Asiatic Society, formed by Sir William Jones, have contributed largely to information on Indian subjects; and the Bombay Literary Society also deserve the thanks of mankind for their exertions. But there is a general apathy complained of in the British public respecting their extensive empire in the East, which is deeply to be lamented. There is, in fact, no sympathy between the Western and Eastern world. In manners and customs the people of the West are a distinct race from those of the East, and it would never be suspected by a person unacquainted with history, that both originated in the same stock. Yet there is such a grand field for the expansion of benevolence and philanthropy in the consideration, that upwards of 100,000,000 of our fellow men may be eternally benefited by the interest which we take in their welfare, that the coldest heart should be warmed into a lively glow on such a subject.

ADDENDA.

On a second revision of this work, the following notes occurred to the author, not only as illustrative of the text, but as useful to young persons.

I.

IN travelling from the river Burrumpooter or, more classically, Brahmapootra, which is the largest river of India, through Bootan, Nepaul, Lahore, and Cabul, to the city of Herat, on the borders of Persia, we find these regions bounded, on the north, by one continued chain of mountains. This range from its eastern extremity, in about lat. 28° and long. 93°, on to Cashmere, runs in a north-westerly direction to lat. 35°. In this course it is known by the name of Himalaya, which means region of perpetual snow. But from Cashmere to its western extremity it bears the name of Hindoo Coosh, which is the particular designation of one of its highest snowy peaks. The highest peak in this prodigious range of mountains is called Dhawalageri. It has been ascertained to be 27,677 feet above the level of the sea. No part of the Andes, in South America, towers to such an amazing