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able to our country ought not to be concealed, and that the Hindoos ought to send back these letters to the English nation.

Another letter accompanies them, of equal celebrity in India, written by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of the same Prince. This letter, often since recorded in Oriental tongues, is sent back by the evangelized Hindoos to your Grace, and to the "Society of "Bishops and Clergy for promoting Christian Knowl"edge," as a record of the honourable zeal which at so early a period distinguished that illustrious body; and as a proof, that when the appointed means are used, the blessing of God will follow. "Behold," say the Hindoos, "the divine answer to the prayer in that letter! "Behold the fruit of your rational endeavours for our "conversion! Our dark region having enjoyed, during "the period of a whole century, the clear and steady light of your Society, has now become itself the source "of knowledge to the surrounding heathen."

IV. Our present most gracious Sovereign, who has reigned, for so many years, in the hearts and affections of his subjects, both in Britain and in India; and who, by strengthening the bands of true religion in a dissolute and unbelieving age, has exhibited so perfect an example of the duty, conduct, and glory of a Christian King, will doubtless receive with satisfaction, from the hands of the Hindoos, these letters of his illustrious predecessor: and having perused the testimonies of the divine blessing on the righteous and kingly work, will finish what has been so auspiciously begun, by making a religious Establishment for his Eastern Empire, the crowning act of his own most glorious reign.

To their SOVEREIGN they look; to HIM, the supreme head of the Church, his Indian subjects look, for those religious blessings, which, by the divine favour, are in his right hand to bestow.

I have the honour to be, my Lord,
Your Grace's most faithful and devoted servant,
CLAUD. BUCHANAN.

Calcutta, March 12, 1805.

INTRODUCTION.

By the reduction of the Mysorean and Mahratta empires, the greater part of India falls under the dominion or influence of the British Government, and looks submissively for British civilization. By this event also, in connexion with the other late cessions and conquests, the number of British subjects in India will be very considerably increased.

But

Were we in the vicinity of Britain, the British Parliament would not withhold from us any beneficial aid it could afford, and we should enjoy religious advantages in common with our countrymen at home. these advantages have been hitherto denied, because we are remote. An annual account of the revenual state of India, or the occurrence of some splendid event, engages the attention for a time; but the ordinary circumstances of the people, European and native, are not always in view; and any casual or indistinct notice of their situation, fails to excite those national sentiments of humanity and Christian duty, which, in other circumstances, would be constantly alive and efficient.

It may be presumed that India has of late occupied more of the public attention than formerly, and that the minds of men are gradually converging to the consideration of the subject of this Memoir. Our extensive territorial acquisitions within the last few years, our recent triumph over our only formidable foe; the avowed consequence of India in relation to the existing state of Europe; and that unexampled and systematic prosperity of Indian administration, which has now consolidated the

British dominion in this country;-every character of our situation seems to mark the present æra, as that intended by Providence, for our taking into consideration the moral and religious state of our subjects in the East; and for Britain's bringing up her long arrear of duty, and settling her account honourably with her Indian Empire.

The perpetuity of the Christian faith among Europeans in India, and the civilization of the natives, must rest equally on a foundation which, as yet, we have not; and that is, an Ecclesiastical Establishment. The first part of this Memoir shall be wholly confined to a consid. eration of the means of preserving the Christian religion among our own countrymen.

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MEMOIR, &c.

PART I.

ON THE MEANS OF PRESERVING THE PROFESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AMONG OUR COUNTRYMEN IN INDIA.

CHAPTER I.

Present state of the English church in India.

1. THE present establishment of English chaplains for the British empire in India, is not much greater than the factorial establishment in the time of Lord Clive.

2. There are six military chaplains for Bengal, Bahar, Oude, the Dooab, and Orissa. There are three chaplains in the town of Calcutta, five at the Presidency of Madras, and four at the Presidency of Bombay. Nor is that list ever full. Two-thirds of the number is the average for the last ten years.

3. Some islands in the West Indies have a more regular church establishment, and more extensive Christian advantages than the British empire in the East. Jamaica has eighteen churches; English India has three; one at Calcutta, one at Madras, and one at Bombay.

4. At the establishment of Bencoolen, at the factory at Canton, at the flourishing settlement of Prince of Wales's Island, at Malacca, at Amboyna, and at the other islands to the eastward now in our possession, there is not a single clergyman of the English church, to perform the rite of Baptism, or to celebrate any other Christian office. The two British armies in Hindoostan, and in the Dekhan, lately in the field, had not one chaplain.

5. The want of an ecclesiastical establishment has produced a system, not only of extreme irregularity in the discipline of our church, but of positive offence against Christian institution. Marriages, burials, and sometimes baptisms, by the civil magistrate or by a military officer, are not only performed, but are in a manner sanctioned by a precedent of thirty years.

6. And as to the state of religion among the people who have no divine service, it is such as might be expected. After a residence for some years at a station where there is no visible church; and where the superstitions of the natives are constantly visible, all respect for Christian institutions wears away; and the Christian Sabbath is no otherwise distinguished than by the display of the British flag.

7. Were we, on the other hand, to state particularly the regard paid by our countrymen to Christian instruction, wherev er it is regularly afforded, it would be an additional argument for granting the means of affording it. Wherever the Christian minister solicits attention, he finds an audience. In whatever part of British India he is stationed, there will be a disposition to respect the religion of early life, when its public ordinances shall have been revived.

CHAPTER II..

Of the establishment of the Romish Church in the East.

THERE HERE are three archbishops and seventeen bishops of the Romish church established in the East. The natives naturally suppose that no such dignity belongs to the English church. In Bengal alone there are eight Romish churches; four Armenian churches; and two Greek churches. In confirmation of this statement, we shall subjoin an authentic Report of the Roman Catholic establishments, which has been transmitted by the Archbishop of Goa.

Establishment of the Roman Catholic church in the East.

Archbishop of Goa, Metropolitan and

Primate of the Orient

Archbishop of Cranganore in Malabar
Bishop of Cochin, Malabar

Bishop of St. Thomas, at Madras.*
His diocese includes Calcutta ;
where he has a legate

Bishop of Malacca

Presented by the King of Portugal.

Bishop of Macao

Bishop of Pekin

Two bishops in the interior of China

Bishop of Mozambique

[The Danish missionaries, Bartholomew Ziegenbalgius and John Ernest Grundler, in a Letter to the Society in England for Promoting Christian

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