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that in 1815, 1816, and 1817, there were destroyed, in Bengal only, 1528 widows.-Thirdly, as to suicidal sacrifices, take one specimen: One British officer states, that he saw with his own eyes, from his own window, 15 females devoted to self-destruction at the source of the Ganges. I need not refer to the Car of Juggernaut; except just to remind you of the connexion between the superstition and the horrible vices of India; vices such as no Christian tongue can utter, or Christian audience should hear. We were once informed, that the Code of India did not require all these sacrifices. When people were told this, they thought it was time to look at that code for themselves.— They did so; and Mr. Grant, in particular, has shewn how the very abominations to which I have alluded do actually spring out of this code; the fountain is contaminated and poisoned at its source; it is not an accidental circumstance, it is necessarily and inseparably interwoven with it. The fact is, the heart can only be converted, by the power of God. But how shall these people call on Him, whose word they have not heard? And how shall they hear it without a preacher? Here is the strong and mighty argument for all the Missionary exertions that have ever been made. In this climax the Apostle has put the subject beyond all controversy; and I could not state any argument that would have greater weight with this assembly. By our Missionaries we must send the pure, unmixed, and unadulterated Word of God; and not, as some who have been called "Christian" have done, an idolatrous superstition mixed with it. The fact is this, when the Devil cannot hinder the world from getting the gospel, he will mix something else with it,-if he cannot stop the stream, he will muddy it.-If these facts prove the necessity, every thing, before our eyes, abroad and at home, will show the duty of these exertions. Our ancestors were once idolaters, falling down before stocks and stones, and worshipping dumb idols. A man might have said, that these Saxons did not need the gospel, that they would oppose the gospel, or that the attempt to introduce it was hopeless. But, blessed be Gon, one or two men of GoD came and planted the gospel among us, and here it has flourished to the present hour. And if we have a feast, surely we shall not leave others starying. While we know the joyful sound, shall we feel nothing for those who never heard it? While we enjoy the sweet influences of the HOLY SPIRIT on our hearts, shall we feel nothing for them who have not so much as heard whether there be a HOLY SPIRIT? I shall never forget a discourse I heard, at the meeting of another society, by Mr. JAY, some years ago, from those words, "Blessed be the LORD GOD, the GOD of ISRAEL, who only doeth wondrous things, and blessed be his glorious name for ever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen! The prayers of DAVID the son of Jesse are ended."" As if," said the preacher," this was all his desire, and he had nothing more to ask."-Let us look also at the general solicitude of the world at large to receive the gospel. Of this we have abundant proof in the operations of the British and Foreign Bible Society; and the single circumstance of the prejudices of Caste having subsided in India is most decidedly in our favour, as well as the subsiding of opposition at home. There is now an Episcopal establishment in India; this is an important point gained; for it concedes the great principle, that there ought to be Christianity in India.— Again; look at our preservation as a nation. We remember the time when we were in danger of invasion, and when a naval mutiny broke out at the Nore; and yet God delivered us out of all these, and other perils; and are we to do nothing for him and for his cause?-Let us advert to the conduct of the Moravians, after the sufferings they had endured, when they settled in Hernhuth, and were in number only about 600. At that time when others would have rested, they began Missions to various parts of the world; and their last account states that thirty-one thousand converts have been the fruit of their labours. But why need I refer to Moravians, when I have the Methodists before me? I look at your Report, and from that I would confidently hope you will still go forward and take courage. An old Divine says, "he that has the ear of God has the hand of God;" and this is a consideration I would particularly press on our female friends, and on those in humble life. For those, who have nothing else to give, can at least assist by their prayers.-I really enjoy the opportunity of addressing so large a body of Wesleyan Methodists. I certainly consider them as the best auxiliaries of the Church of England, to which I belong. I love the memory of your Founder. I love his loyalty; it was

singular and striking. But 1 must conclude with one lesson to myself and to my Christian friends. On our parts there exists an absolute necessity of personal conversion. You may contribute to Missionary Societies, and so may 1; but let us remember that many of the heathen contributed to the erection of the Temple who were never permitted to enter its doors, or to partake of those spiritual mercies which descended on the Israel of God. So it was with many who assisted at the formation of the Ark: they were not ignorant of their danger, and of the means of safety; but they were not included among that small body who had entered into it, and who were on the right side of the door of the Ark when that door was shut, and the windows of heaven were opened. Mr. POYNDER concluded an able and energetic speech by happpily referring to the final triumphs of Missionary exertion. There is, said he, a day hastening on, which none of us may live to see, but which it will be the delight of our souls to have advanced,—a day of splendid mercy,—when that mercy shall be known by all, which has hitherto, notwithstanding all its progress, been confined to so few, and which has still so large a course so run before it covers the earth as the waters cover the deep.

W. H. TRANT, ESQ. late Member of the Board of Commissioners for the ceded Provinces in India, moved the second Resolution, and said, I should not bave had the honour of addressing this Meeting at this time, but that, having passed a great part of my life in the country to which much allusion has been made, I am desirous to state some things that have passed there; and as you, Sir, have lived many years there, I will state them under your correction. The magnitude of the object is very great; it is the temporal and spiritual welfare of a hundred millions of our fellow creatures, in the eastern part of the world. At this time of day it is hardly necessary for me to state, that the people of India are not altogether uninformed. Mr. TRANT here read some interesting documents, one of which gave a striking account of the Saadhs, a singular people in Hindostan, who have lately been induced to renounce idolatry, and other Hindoo customs, though not as yet acquainted with the true Religion. If, said Mr. T. a mere pretender to wisdom has so far succeeded among them, what may not Christian Missionaries effect? The case proves at least, that Hindoo superstition is not invincible. I can declare that Christian Missionaries, so far from having done any barm, have proved to be the greatest possible benefit to that country. They have conducted themselves with a patience, forbearance, and zeal, which are beyond all human praise. I state this, because there may be still some apprehensions as to the propriety and safety of Indian Missions; I declare before my Maker, that I entertain no apprehensions whatever. I have lived in that country the greatest part of my life, and have there witnessed the progress of Missions from their infancy. I have seen the Missionaries, and I have watched their proceedings minutely; yet I never knew any impropriety in their conduct. When I have been asked, "Where are the converts which these Missionaries have made?" I have replied, Their numbers have not yet been very great, but there is much to be done in the way of preparation. In this country the ground must be prepared and the seed sown, before a harvest can be expected; and it is the same there."-Twenty years ago, there were only MR. CAREY and MR. THOMAS in that country; little more than a year ago, in Calcutta alone, the Metropolis of India, there were 12 Missionaries; and almost the whole of the native population were under the instruction of a Society, partly composed of literary persons and partly of officers of the state, called "the Calcutta School Society." Will any one say, that, when this is the case, little has been done? And if 1, at my time of life, have seen all this, what may not the rising generation hope to see? What may not the young men, just gone or going out, hope to see? They may hope every thing. Let us go on in the true and faithful course which has been so well begun; and, I am satisfied, that, long before we once expected it, we shall have reason to say, "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes; this is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it."

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COLONEL MUNRO, RESIDENT at Travancore, in seconding the motion, said, "Most cordially do I unite in the statements just made, and hope on some future opportunity to express my sentiments more fully. The situation of India calls most pressingly for exertion, and every thing in that country appears now to conduce to the success of the Missionary cause. The political

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power of India, now so much under the authority of England, and the disposi tion of the natives, almost entirely in favour of it, seem to promise greater good than we can at all contemplate. I fully concur in the opinion, that this cause may be carried on without danger, and with the greatest hope of sucThe Mahometan religion formerly met with success in India; and surely a religion like the Christian, cannot fail of exciting greater attention." COLONEL SANDYS, the Chairman, here said, I wish to bear my testimony to all the statements just made, and to relate a fact; and I am happy to see here the REV. MR. WARD, from Serampore, who will, I have no doubt, give you some further information on this subject. The fact is this: in 1790 I was Adjutant and Quarter-Master General in the army, under MARQUIS CORNWALLIS, who brought down the power of TIPPOO SAIB. I sailed to join the army in the month of January in that year. Having on board 300 Sepoys, we laid in our provision and water for the voyage, expecting a passage of only eight or nine days. The principles of these Sepoys were well known to me, and many of them were of high caste. They were permitted to fill their own water casks, every one of which was sealed with the Brahminical seal. Their provisions and packares were also sealed; and no one touched that part of the ship where they were stowed. It was then in the infancy of the war, and it was necessary to attend to all their prejudices. We sailed; and from calms and contrary winds, the voyage proved much longer than we had contemplated.

We had been at sea 25 days. I kept account of the provision and stores, as was my duty, and I found that now we were only half way, and for these 300 men there only remained two butts of water. 1 well knew their sentiments respecting any other provisions or water; and what would be the consequence I did not know, when the scarcity should be discovered. My anxiety was so great for several days, that I was scarcely able to support it; this was observed by one of their chief personages, with whom I was on terms of the closest intimacy; and he said to me one day, "What is the matter with you? are you ill?" No, said 1, I am much as usual. "Is there any thing upon your mind?" said he, "We have been a long time at sea, how does our provision hold out?" He could not have asked a more unfortunate question. I however waved it, and it passed off for that day. I could only hope that something would soon occur in our favour; but the next day it was the same, or rather it was getting worse, and I was resolved to tell him. Accordingly 1 called him into the cabin, and said, I have a secret to unfold to you. We respect your caste, and from that circumstance all my uneasiness arises.-He asked, "What is the state of our provisions?" I replied. Of dry provisions we have plenty. "But," he asked, "how is our water?" That, I replied, I am afraid to tell you." Nay," said he, "tell me." Then here are the returns, I replied, and this has been the cause of that uneasiness you have observed in me.~ "If that be all," he said, "I will soon set you at rest," and he immediately went down and put the Brahminical seal on some butts of water, for we had plenty of it on board. When he came up, tapping me on the shoulder, he said, "Let me see a smile on your countenance." That did not require much summoning, and we sat down with much pleasure together. He was a valuable man; but we never dared to mention this circumstance to any individual. I never mentioned it to any one till I came to England Here then is a proof of the observation, that these people can be subdued by kindness, and that their prejudices about caste are not insuperable. In fact, the Hindoos are undermining the temple of their own Juggernaut. Can any one avoid seeing, that it is our duty to do all we can to wipe away the foul stain of neglect from our native country, whose "Ships, Colonies, and Commerce" ought to make us tremble for our responsibility?

The REV. W. WARD, of Serampore, said, I feel very great gratification, Colonel, in meeting you here to-day, and in hearing the sentiments already delivered, to all of which, as far as my own observation goes, I can bear testimony. It is with peculiar pleasure, that, contrasting former times with present, I can meet bere (after the lapse of more than twenty years) individuals from the same country, bearing the same testimony, and all encouraging the hands of British Christians for the good of British India. The business of this day has hitherto turned more especially towards India, where the providence of God so long stationed me. It is true, Sir, we have had, from a Gentleman who gave an account of the whole heathen world, a statement with

which all our hearts must be deeply affected. At least six hundred millions of these immortal beings are born into our world, vegetate for a few days, and then merge into eternity!-and every thirty years this awful scene is renewed. This is a most awful stateinent, and one which should fill every Christian heart with the deepest and most solemn regret. Indeed such is the state of our world, that, to a benevolent mind endued with the spirit of Christianity, the necessities of our fellow men appear to be so great that, humanly speaking, one can scarcely indulge any hope of seeing any general amelioration of our species even in our own country, and we might be still more discouraged respecting the moral condition of that country to which your attention has been so remarkably directed this day, and to which in a few days expect to return. As this is, perhaps, the last time I shall address so large an assembly on this side eternity. I will contrast for a few moments the circumstances of India twenty years ago with what they are at the present hour. India was long considered as Satan's impregnable fortress. It was conceded by many, that other parts of the world were vulnerable. The African considers himself as honoured by the approach of a white man, but not so the Indian. Again and again, we were told, we might, therefore, do some good among the slaves in the West Indies, and possibly among the Hottentots, or others; but that every attempt to promote Christianity in India must come to nothing. And indeed appearances, when I first went to India, to any mind but a mind impressed with the almightiness of DIVINE INFLUENCE, were the most discoura ging. There were Europeaus in India; but they added little to the Christianity of India; many of them added only to the darkness; and such was the fear respecting danger, which the Government at home and the civil authorities in that country entertained, that, as I have heard MR. BROWN relate, LORD CORNWALLIS once said to him. "I think the wisest resolution the East India Government ever passed, was, that they would never touch, or suffer to be touched, the prejudices of the natives." Not that they were inimical to the spread of Christianity, or to the advancement of the spiritual interests of their ludian subjects, but they were afraid of that danger which they thought inevitable if they disturbed the natives in the quiet possession of their Heathen prejudices. When I went to India, there were the greatest apprehensions that we should all be sent back. We went no where but, as Missionaries, we were received with a frown and yet, for hospitality and friendship, and every thing else that is amiable and dignified in general, European society in India will bear a comparison with that of any country in the world. But, as Missionaries, we were considered enemies; and it was supposed that the prosperity of India depended upon our being excluded. The distance, too, (15,000 miles from England,) was such as to present a formidable obstacle. The climate of India was another difficulty. Of the number of Missionaries who went out at the same time with myself, one-balf are gone to their everlasting reward. Of an after cargo of Missionaries, six have long ago, been taken to their heavenly home, and two only remain. Another great impediment to our progress was found in the languages of India. The slaves in the West Indies are taught in the English or other European languages; along the Western coast of Africa too, many know the English language, and your access to them is of course easy; but in India, there were no fewer than fifty dialects derived from the Shanscrit alone. In America the great objection had been, that to learn the language of every single tribe was dif ficult; but in India we had twice the number of languages to acquire that prevailed in the whole of America. This too was to be done by plain men, many of whom had not been in the least accustomed to the study of languages. But, blessed be God! no man can mix with that population without acquiring their language. In addition to all these, were the prejudices of the natives themselves. To convey to you any idea of this, is exceedingly difficult; but you may form some opinion of them from this circumstance, that if our gracious King himself, GEORGE the FOURTH, should go to that country, and the lappet of his robe should happen to touch the food of an Indian, be would throw it away if he were dying with hunger, and would consider it as defiled by the touch of the greatest man in the empire. How then is it possible that such men can be brought to sit with Europeans at the same table? This difficulty existed in full force in India, and no where else. Another difficulty, and a great one too, was the ignorance of the natives. When we address many

other persons we have a conscience to appeal to, and you know the effect of it well, but they have not a word for “conscience" in their language. In no Hindoo book, or Hindo custom, have I found any thing like it. Besides this, there are a number of other expressions of the real import of which they are equally ignorant. Talk to a Hindoo about GOD, and he thinks you are talking about Vishnoo or Ram, or some of his other deities. Talk about heaven, and he thinks you mean one of the heavens of his gods. Talk about a future state, and he thinks you are talking about transmigration. But in the superstitions of the Hindoos, we have a still more powerful obstacle. Hindooism can boast of her martyrs every day; of women, for instance, who sacrifice themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands. Now if even women will go to these lengths of obstinate suffering, in conformity to their cruel superstitions, surely this people are, to all human appearance, invulnerable. This has justly struck Europeans as particularly formidable; they have said, "What! will persons who suffer themselves to be drawn up in the air by means of books fastened in the integuments of their backs,-will women who thus sacrifice themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands, or destroy themselves in the Ganges,-be brought to renounce this superstition and to embrace Christianity ? Such was the feeling of our countrymen on the subject, and our object was therefore treated with derision and contempt. But the caste exceeds all the other difficulties which I have mentioned. By this they are divided into different societies with distinct observances; and there is no possibility of these intermixing with each other, without breaking caste. Every person marrying, or even eating, with one of another caste, falls from it, and can never be restored to it. Now this has always been considered by the Hindoos to be a fatal stroke; and the Christian Missionary feels the obstacle which it occasions to his success in its full force. These people are as capable of feeling the endearments of social life as any people upon earth; and for one of them to make up his mind to see his friends and even his beloved parents no more, to renounce all his former society, and to incur the frowns of all his relatives, is such a sacrifice to be made by every Hindoo convert to Christianity, that we need not wonder at our countrymen there saying, "You have indeed undertaken a hopeless task." I remember one young man, who, after he had been baptized, seemed at first to have forgotten his connexions; but he one day came and said to me, "I do not want to return to caste: I do not want to return to Hindooism; but cannot I go and see my mother again? Cannot I see my father once more?" This was impossible; and he well knew and deeply felt that his parents would have shut the door against him, if he had ever attempted to enter again the house in which he was born. With all this accumulation of difficulties we bad to attempt the conversion of that people. Our own government, the European residents in India, and all the superstitions, prejudices, and peculiar feelings of the people being against us, we do not wonder that it was said, “India is invulnerable." There were indeed a few good men in Calcutta who were labouring for the conversion of souls there; but they thought it was impossible at that time to do any good elsewhere, even if they should be able to make any progress in that city. Such was the appearance of India; and I have mentioned these circumstances to show, that, if in that part of the world, (of all others the most hopeless,) the Gospel has obtained any success, then you need not despair of Africa, of the West Indies, or of any other part of the world whatever.-And I have now to tell you, that all these difficulties, great as they appeared, have comparatively vanished into air. All of them are now, in a very considerable degree, actually surmounted! The government of India acts, as far as is prudent, entirely with us; and, in a variety of ways, they are assisting us, and that in the most powerful manner. They have established government schools for the instruction of the natives; and the name of the present GOVERNOR OF INDIA (MARQUIS OF HASTINGS) will live in their recollection to the latest posterity. And it would be unjust in me not to mention also the name of the MARCHIONESS OF HASTINGS, who is doing every thing in her power for the benefit of the female natives of that country. In our own country every facility has been kindly afforded to us, and the Missionaries can go without opposition to every corner of India. Such a door is opened there, as never was before. Every voice cheers the Missionaries as they enter. Of our own countrymen I scarcely know one individual who opposes us; on the contrary, they

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