'duced a more accomplished statesman, nor India, so fertile in 'heroes, a more skilful soldier.'

General Munro's health had suffered much from incessant fatigue of all kinds; he felt that retirement was absolutely necessary; and, resigning all his employments, he embarked for England, with his family, in January 1819, with a firm deter'mination never again to revisit the Eastern hemisphere,'-a resolution not quite unalterable, since we find him again in India in May 1820, with the high appointment of Governor of Madras. Into the particulars of his administration we cannot enter, with due regard to convenience, or to the general interest of the present article. Instead of this, we shall briefly advert to a few points, respecting which the sentiments of such a man as Sir Thomas Munro, must be held extremely valuable. He expressed a strong opinion against a free press in India, avowedly on the principle, that it is quite incompatible with the 'domi'nion of strangers.' Were the people all our countrymen,' he said, I would prefer the utmost freedom of the press.' But

what,' he asks, what is the first duty of a free press? It is 'to deliver the country from a foreign yoke, and to sacrifice to 'this one great object every measure and consideration; and if 'we make the press really free to the natives as well as to Eu'ropeans, it must inevitably lead to this result.' He then goes on to argue the question in a strain of powerful reasoning, which has, we confess, somewhat shaken the bias we used to feel towards opposite views.

Sir Thomas appears to have entertained more sanguine convictions concerning the stability of our Indian empire, than many persons of great knowledge and experience have been accustomed to express. He rejected the idea of real danger from the mutiny at Vellore, nor was he alarmed by the more formidable movement of Barrackpore. A Russian invasion, he considered as hopeless without the previous conquest and quiet possession of Persia; and, even then, with our hands clear of any other war in India-come,' he exclaims, Russians and Persians when they will.' He often exposes the propensity of military officers to over-estimate the amount of forces opposed to them; and he laughed to scorn the pretensions of the Burmese troops to the name of an army. He allowed that they were the best ditchers and stockaders since 'the days of the Romans;' but when it was said that twenty thousand of them were armed with muskets, he expressed his equal readiness to believe that they were all equipped with 'Manton's fowling-pieces.' His correspondence with Lord Amherst during the struggle with Ava, is an admirable specimen of large and decided views on military subjects; and his

exertions to supply Sir Archibald Campbell with troops and aids of every kind, received the warmest thanks of the Supreme Government, accompanied by a distinct acknowledgement, that the successful result of the Burmese war had been mainly' effected by the extraordinary exertions' of the Governor of Madras. His services in this contest were rewarded with a baronetcy; and it was probable, at one time, that he would have been nominated to succeed Lord Amherst as Governor-General, a scheme which Sir Thomas himself steadily discountenanced.

.In 1826, the illness of their second son, induced Lady Munro to quit India for England. In May of the following year, Sir Thomas set out on a visit to the Ceded Districts, contrary to the remonstrances of his friends, who were aware that the fatal epidemic of India had made its appearance in that quarter. Their fears were too well founded; for, on the 6th of July, in the neighbourhood of Gooty, he was attacked by symptoms of cholera, and in the evening of the same day, was a corpse.

On such a character, the details of his life are the best panegyric; and we have cited enough of these, to enable our readers to form their own estimate of this distinguished individual.

The Appendix of papers by Sir Thomas Munro, contains a liberal and judicious selection from his correspondence and official communications, together with other interesting illustrations of the memoir.

Art. IV. The History of the Church of Christ: intended as a Continuation of the Work of the Rev. Joseph Milner, M.A., and the Very Rev. Isaac Milner, D.D. F.R.S. By John Scott, M.A., Vicar of North Ferriby, and Minister of St. Mary's, Hull, &c. Vol. II. Part II. 8vo. London, 1830.

THE Swiss branch of the Reformation has not been so amply described by any of the ecclesiastical writers whose works are accessible to English readers, as to render unnecessary an account of its origin and progress. Mosheim's History furnishes but very scanty notices of the persons and transactions to which the communities constituting the several divisions of the Reformed Church, in contradistinction to the Lutheran, trace their rise. In Milner's work, there occur many valuable remarks relative to the Swiss Reformers and their doctrines, as compared with those of Luther; but it does not include any regular details of the events connected with the disruption of the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland from the Papal Church. In these and some other histories of the Reformation, the religious changes introduced into the Helvetian States in the early

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part of the sixteenth century, are treated as episodes, rather than as integral portions of the narratives which they comprise. Mr. Scott has undertaken to supply the deficiency. With the design which he has announced, and in part executed, of giving a more distinct and copious account of the Swiss Reformation, than is at present current among us, we cannot but express our high satisfaction. The favourable report which we have already made of his qualifications as the Continuator of Milner's History, and of the manner in which they have been exemplified in those portions of his undertaking which have already passed under our review, will have prepared our readers to receive with interest the remaining sections in completion of his plan. The pages which we are now proceeding to notice, include the History of the Reformation in Switzerland, from its commencement to the close of the year 1527: a succeeding volume is intended to bring down the history to the death of Calvin, in 1564.

Among the authors from whom Mr. Scott has derived the materials of his work, in addition to those of whom his former prefaces comprise biographical and bibliographical notices, some account is given in the preface to the present part, of Thuanus, Ruchat, Gerdes, the Hottingers, &c. He has particularly noticed Thuanus, from whose celebrated dedication of his great production, the History of his own Times, he has inserted some extracts which cannot fail of gratifying the liberal-minded reader. We have become so familiar with the expression of just and generous sentiments on the subject of religious freedom, that we expect to find, on all proper occasions, the fullest recognition and avowal of them; but such representations as are contained in that noble dedication, were not common in the times which were passing over the contemporaries of Thuanus. Nor can such representations as the following ever be obsolete.

Religion is not subject to command, but is infused into wellprepared minds by a conviction of the truth, with the concurrence of Divine Grace. Tortures have no influence over her: in fact, they rather tend to make men obstinate, than to subdue or persuade them. Confiding in the support of God's grace, the religious man is content to suffer; and the ills to which mortality is liable, he takes to himself without complaint. Let the executioner stand before him; let him prepare tortures, whet the knife, and kindle the pile; he will still persevere: and his mind will dwell, not upon what he is to endure, but upon the part which it becomes him to act. His happiness is within his own bosom, and whatever assails him outwardly is trivial, and only grazes the surface of the body. Consider the conduct of one of those who perished by torture for their religious opinions. When bound to the stake, he began with bended knees to sing a hymn, regardless of the smoke and flames: and, when

the executioner would have set fire to the pile behind him, 'Come hither,' said he, and kindle it before my face: if I could have felt dread, I should have avoided coming to this place.'

In the history of the Reformation, Germany is the scene of the transactions with which religious readers are generally most acquainted. The names of Luther and his co-adjutors fill so large a space in their view, as to obscure the fame of other intrepid assailants of the papal tyranny, whose successes materially contributed to accomplish that deliverance from its chains, which, more than a thousand victories in the wars of nations, is worthy of grateful and lasting celebration. Of Luther, every ear has heard, and the mild Melanchthon is associated with every one's recollection of the Saxon Reformer; but how many are there, who know but little of the evangelical illuminations of the Swiss people by the morning beams of Reformation,' and to whose ears the names of Zwingle and Ecolampadius are strange sounds! These were pious, learned, and illustrious 'men, who were animated with a noble zeal for the glory of "God and the good of his church,' and who risked great perils, and performed great services on behalf of truth, and of those whose eternal benefit has been promoted by its reception and influence. Mr. Scott's work will make them better known, and is an honourable memorial of their virtues and their deeds.

6

Ulric Zwingle was born January 1, 1484, (or, according to some accounts, 1487,) in the county of Tockenburg, a dependency of the abbey of S. Gallen, at a place which, from its rude and mountainous situation, on the borders of the lake of Zuric, was called Wildenhaus. He was descended of a respectable family; his father was the chief magistrate of the district in which he lived; and an uncle, by whom he was brought up till his tenth year, held the office of a rural dean, and was a man of probity and learning. From the house of his uncle, he passed into the hands of Binzlius, an instructor of youth at Basle, who rendered justice to his attainments, by recommending to his father to procure for his son, advantages superior to those which he could enjoy under his care. In consequence of this recommendation, honourable to both parties, he was removed to Berne, and afterwards to Vienna, where he resided two years. He then returned to Basle, where he went through a course of theological instruction under the direction of Wyttenbach, whose name adorns the list of Reformers, and to whom Zwingle acknowledged himself to be indebted for his acquaintance with the evangelical doctrine. On completing his theological course, and taking his degree of master of arts, he was called to the pastoral charge of the town of Glaris, in the year 1506. At Glaris, he spent ten years, and sedulously ap

plied himself to study, particularly to the study of the Scrip tures. In the library of Zuric, there still exists a manuscript which attests the care and diligence of Zwingle during this period. It is a copy of the Epistles of Paul, in the original, with numerous annotations from the principal Fathers, written by his own hand. The Works of Wickliffe, and those of Huss, were also read by him. In the year 1516, he began to preach the true Christian doctrine, according to his own account, inserted by Mr. Scott; from which we shall extract some sentences, as well for their intrinsic value, as for the relation which they bear to a question which will come under our notice immediately.

"It is not long since the great and mighty men of this world have begun to persecute the doctrine of Christ under the name of Luther; and not only to persecute it, but to endeavour to render it obnoxious; giving the name of Lutheran to every thing truly Christian, whoever may promulgate it: so that, even if a man who had never read the writings of Luther, should preach the word of God purely and sincerely, he must immediately be stigmatised as a Lutheran. I, myself, have experienced this treatment. I began to preach the gospel in the year 1516, at a time when the name of Luther had never been heard in these parts. My manner of preaching was this, while the mass was yet in use: I expounded to the people the gospel which was read' in the service of the mass: I expounded it, I say, not from the comments and figments of men, but solely by comparing scripture with scripture. At that time I was much addicted to the early doctors of the church, as more clear and pure than the moderns; though some things in them did not satisfy me. In 1519, when I had removed to Zuric, I told the venerable the provost, and the other members of the chapter, that I would publicly explain the gospel of S. Matthew, still drawing my exposition not from human sources, but from scripture itself. In the beginning of that year, no one among us had heard any thing of Luther beyond this, that he had published against indulgences on which subject he could not instruct me, as I had already learned under Dr. Wyttenbach, that indulgences were nothing but vanity and imposture . . . . I will not allow therefore, that the papists should call me a Lutheran, for I learned not the doctrine of Christ from Luther, but from the word of God If Luther preaches Christ, he does what I also do. Although by his instrumentality (thanks be to God!) innumerable persons, and more than by mine, may have been led to Christ, yet I will bear no other name than that of Christ, my only leader, whose soldier I am. He shall assign me my service and my reward, as seemeth Him good.

"All then, I think, may now understand why I am unwilling to be called a Lutheran, though no man esteems Luther more highly than I do. I will say also, that I never wrote a line to Luther, directly or indirectly; nor he to me. And why have I not? Certainly not for the fear of any man; but that it might appear to all men how consistent and uniform is the Spirit of God, when we two, placed at such