ment of Lord Wellesley's purpose might not have been so easy as it actually proved.

It was in October 1798, that the French sepoys at Hyderabad, in the presence of a formidable array of British troops, were called upon to lay down their arms. They, who were present at this mournful ceremonial, never forgot it to the latest day of their lives. Letters, still in existence, written immediately after the event, describe it as at once a glorious and a piteous sight." Between eleven and twelve thousand French sepoys laid down their arms in heaps before our line of troops drawn up in an overawing position, and then moved off in crowds, attended by their wives, children and chattels. It was a relief to all, when the ceremony was over; for, although no dangerous resistance was apprehended, it was felt to be a painful duty that was imposed upon the British Resident, and it was not certain that it could be accomplished without shedding of blood. We have no doubt that " Civis," who went to Hyderabad a few years afterwards, has often heard it touchingly narrated.

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We have now turned the page, which brings us to the last letter of the score; and we come upon the most important subject, which is touched upon in the whole series. 'Civis," being one of the old school, is greatly alarmed at the thought of the attempts, that have been, and are being, made to convert the natives of India. He says:—

I cannot take leave of this subject without once more earnestly enjoining (and I hope for the last time) the most sedulous caution in interfering with the religion of the Indians. If it be for their good (and I am not pretending to put it as a question)-if it be for their good, that they should become Christians, it is still more for their good that they should continue so. And need I insist upon its being for our good, that the change, come when it may, should be wrought without that disastrous collision, which precipitate measures will inevitably occasion?

And again, enlarging on and illustrating the subject:

Soon after the foundation of the college at Calcutta, under the government of Lord Wellesley, a thesis was proposed to the students, of which the treatment involved a contrast between the respective creeds of the Christians and Mahomedans. In India, this was always ticklish ground; and, accordingly, the Munshis, the Mahomedan tutors of the college, remonstrated. They said, if they had been allowed to enter the lists, as the champions of their own faith, they would have been satisfied; but they complained of being made lookers-on only at a contest, in which their defence, as well as the assault upon them, was committed to their adversaries. Lord Wellesley directed the thesis to be withdrawn.

We shall be lucky if, when we do gain experience, we gain it by warning, and by warning only. A very intelligent friend of mine, who served for many years in the Indian Army, with both his eyes and his ears open,

and who, I am sure, wishes the Indians as well as I do, tells me that, in the year 1832 or 3, a number of religious tracts, and among them a disingenuous life of Mahomed, which, in order that the mischief which such a thing is capable of doing might be spread as widely as possible, had been translated into the Indian (?) language, were sent from Bombay to Jaulna, and circulated among the native Indian troops stationed there. The substance and manifest design of these tracts excited a considerable emotion, especially among the cavalry, who are almost exclusively Mahomedans; and some of the Munshis, the instructors of the officers in the native languages, were desirous of answering the life of Mahomed; but the commanding officer very prudently ordered all the tracts to be collected and burned; for, such a controversy once begun, who can undertake to say to what result it might have led ?

It seems a characteristic of the British mind in India, that it is liable to periodical attacks of panic and none appears to have been more severe-not even the Russian, or the Burmesethan the panic caused by the Missionaries. It is amusing enough to find its effects so stereotyped on the mind, as to come out, fresh as the sculptures of Nineveh, after the sleep of a quarter of a century. It would probably astonish "Civis" were he to take a voyage to the " City of Palaces," to see the Indians, as he calls them, sending their children by thousands to the Missionary schools, and Christian men and women acknowledged by many of them as their friends and benefactors. We have puzzled ourselves in vain to discover what "Civis" means by "the Indian language." Had he not mentioned the native languages immediately after, it would seem, as if he thought they had but one. His notions of "the Indians" altogether are most mysteriously hazy. They can fight well; but he is doubtful, whether they can do any thing else; and he is more than doubtful, whether they can ever be Christians. Thus he says:

Before we attempted to make the Indians Christians, we ought to have seen that they were fit-I would even say that they were capable-of being so. I never yet knew or heard of one single instance of a creditable convert to Christianity in India. I never knew an instance of one, that was not as well a reproach to the creed he was adopting, as a warning to the one he had abandoned. Such converts as have yet been made, small as their number is, have served therefore no other purpose than that of deterring others from following their example.

What "Civis" thinks of " the Indian," who dares to be a Christian Missionary, may be learned from the following curious morsel:

For the purpose of conversion, such a person was the very last that should have been chosen. A black instructor would be sure to be listened to with less respect, and to have less influence with the native Indians, than a white one. Such a messenger might repel-he certainly would not

invite; and in what character more degraded and offensive could he be exhibited to his countrymen than that of an apostate? Without more unwillingness, I hope, than my neighbours to undertake a good office, I should be very sorry to stand in this black Missionary's shoes. Ask anybody, who knows India, what he will accomplish, and I think they will tell you "nothing;" ask them what he will encounter, and I am sure they will tell you, a great deal."

Our experience of Native Christians is somewhat wider, and certainly very different. We know not a few, who have won for themselves a high place in the esteem and affection of men, no way inferior to "Civis" either in mind, or in social position; and we doubt whether any Chaplain, through the length and breadth of Hindustan, has so much influence and so much respect among the Hindus, as the Rev. Krishna Mohana Banergea. "Civis" might have learned, also that the Indians, in the field of science, had proved themselves at least equal to their European brethren; and that the highest medical prizes in the University of London had fallen to a converted Indian "with a black face."

Notwithstanding this curious little outbreak of early prejudice, we shake hands cordially with "Civis," thanking him for the opportunity he has given us of almost out-gossiping himself.

ART. VIII.-1. The History, Design, and Present State of the Religious, Benevolent, and Charitable Institutions, founded by the British, in Calcutta and its Vicinity. By Charles Lushington, Esq., of the Bengal Civil Service. Calcutta. Printed at the Hindustanni Press. 1824.

2. Hand-Book of Bengal Missions. By the Rev. James Long, Church Missionary, in Calcutta. London. 1848.

3. The Oriental Magazine, No. 6, June, 1843. A Brief Memoir of the late Mr. David Drummond. Calcutta. Loll Bazar Press.

4. The Calcutta Literary Observer; July to October, 1847. Calcutta. Carey and Mendes. 3, Loll Bazar.

READER! transport yourself in fancy to the latter part of the last century, and, in one of the quadrangles of the Fort, which adorns and protects this City of Palaces, you will see a snug little house, which is given up to those Staff Serjeants, who are employed in the Ordnance Department, by Government. Enter; and, in the ante-room, you will see a small knot of little chubby children, conning their daily lessons under the superintendence of some widow, who has long past the meridian of life, and whom the res angustæ domi have compelled to undertake the tuition of children, to introduce them into the vestibule of learning's fane, and to initiate them in the mysteries of Reading, Writing, and (perhaps) Arithmetic. "Mavor's Spelling" is the text-book. Some are forcing their way through the mystical twenty and six letters, the wonderful combination of which has astonished mankind, and changed the face of society. Others are reading the story of Frank Pitt, the great fat boy, who devoured an enormous-sized cake, and had to swallow a corresponding quantity of medicine to counteract the effects of his gluttony: while a third set, more advanced than the rest, are learning to spell such tremendous words, as "Va-le-tu-di-na-ri-an," "La-titu-di-na-ri-an;" are reading about the wolf, who devoured the pretty little lamb most cruelly; and are poring over the meaning of the contest between Eolus and the Sun, fought, like a good practical joke, at the expense of a poor unoffending wayfarer. The progress, which these children have made, is considered very satisfactory: and the poor widow, taking the mouth-piece of the húkah from her mouth, and laying down her needle-work on the mat, congratulates herself, with spec

tacles on her nose, that the education of Annie, Janet, and Margaret is nearly complete.

Let us turn hence towards a spot, now much changed from its pristine desolate appearance, and known by the name of Coolie Bazar. The pretty church, and the little white mansions, which now adorn the spot, were not then to be seen. Small bungalows, like so many mounds of straw, broke the level prospect of the situation, and were the habitations of invalid soldiers, who had fought at Seringapatam, or helped to drive Sujah from the plains of Plassey. Living upon a rupee a day, these old pensioners smoked and walked, and smoked and slept, their time away. One, more learned perchance than the rest, opened a school: and, while the modest widow taught but the elements of knowledge, the more ambitious Pensioner proposed to take them higher up the hill of learning.

Let us contemplate him seated in an old-fashioned chair, with his legs resting on a cane morah. A long pipe, his most constant companion, projects from his mouth. A pair of loose pyjamahs and a charkanah banian keep him within. the pale of society, and preserve him cool in the trying hot season of this climate. A rattan-his sceptre-is in his hand; and the boys are seated on stools, or little morahs, before his pedagogic majesty. They have already read three chapters of the Bible, and have got over the proper names without much spelling; they have written their copies-small, round, text, and large, hands; they have repeated a column of Entick's Dictionary with only two mistakes; and are now employed in working Compound Division, and soon expect to arrive at the Rule of Three. Some of the lad's eyes are red with weeping, and others expect to have a taste of the ferula. The partner of the Pensioner's days is seated on a low Dinapore matronly chair, picking vegetables, and preparing the ingredients for the coming dinner. It strikes twelve o'clock; and the school-master shakes himself. Presently the boys bestir themselves: and, for the day, the school is broken up!

These pictures are not the figments of the imagination: they are the photographs of other years and distant scenes: and, if there be any, who still have even a faint recollection of the times of which we are treating, they will acknowledge the verisimilitude of the picture, and give the writer credit for fidelity.

Such were the schools, which, soon after the establishment of British supremacy in the East, were formed for the instruction