of the reports about the sufferings of these people, if connected with free English or Scotch or Irish emigrants, have roused the lion of a free people, and excited the indignation of an incensed nation? What does this prove, but that there is no similarity between the free emigrants of Britain and the poor deluded incipient slaves of India," repairing" to the colonies of free England? The expressions employed in connexion with this trade free emigrant,"" apprentice," and the like, are as great an insult to language and humanity, as the attempts, made to cast an air of ridicule over the whole catalogue of miseries endured by these people, is callous and unmanly. We neither respect the motives of the former party, nor envy the feelings of the latter, and we can say of a truth" O Lord let us not come into their secret." We cannot but call the attention of the Supreme Government to another important topic:-Who are the parties thus inflicting injury upon their fellows, and entailing a lasting scandal on their neighbours and the British name?--who are the cooly merchants? What proportion do they bear to the whole number of our princely and liberal inerchants?-what is their standing in the mercantile world? What interests have they at stake compared with the honor and character of Britain-in a word, what are the interests at stake both here, at Mauritius, and in Guiana; what are they all combined, when put in the scale with the interests of the thousands exported and now exporting?—what compared with the character of Britain and this Government, and the people of this city?-We may still suggest to the same source our strong suspicions, that while we are fighting the battle here, and a few hundreds are being carried away in spite of our efforts, that the retired and unprotected native ports on the Coast are not left unvisited and uncursed by the traffic; for we hear there are more coolies in Bourbon and Mauritius, to say nothing of other places, than can be accounted for by all the shipments from all the regular ports put together. The chief reason assigned for exporting our Indian laborers is the unwillingness of the Africans to labor in a free condition. Now we do most cordially second the proposition of one of our contemporaries to send for the emancipated negroes to India as free servants, and we venture to affirm not only will they disprove the assertion of their task masters, but will prove the best servants and laborers that Indian Society has ever had. We speak from knowledge of the character of the negroes, that even in their worst estate, they are patient, laborious, kind, generous, ingenious, faithful and lively-attributes certainly not possessed by our Indian domestics or laborers. They are ignorant because never taught, and have been most cruelly treated, and hence their natural temperament has in many cases been changed, and where is the nature that will not change, be the color what it may, if its only reward be stripes and its only ornament chains? We say, relieve the Mauritius of the African incubus, aye but only attempt it and see how soon they will cry out "Oh but the interests of the Mauritius are at stake if you take away our African subjects." Report states that the coolies have been shipped after being brought from the hills, at the mouths of the Damudar and Rupnárain, that is, beyond the reach of the Calcutta police. If this be true, it is such a flagrant attempt to beard a Government, lenient to a fault to wards the exporters, that it should be at once inquired into and suppressed. This might easily be done by the gentlemen either of the pilot or preventive service. In looking over the regulations and minutes of Government, intended to suppress former attempts to export the natives of Bengal, (for this is not the first attempt by several,) we have been struck with the contrast which exists between the prompt and effectual steps taken by former Governments for its suppression and the timid policy adopted by the ruling powers of the present day. We can only account for this by supposing that the term "free emigrant" and the "fascinating contract,' have rendered the same thing less abominable; for in former times it was stigmatized by the strongest epithets which could be employed, and the parties attempting it were either beyond, or brought to, immediate punishment. We can assign no other reason than the one adduced for the apparently unhappy contrast, for the council of India never was composed of more enlightened, upright and devout men than at this period. May the spell soon be broken, and the spirit of the greatest happiness-principle display itself in protecting the helpless from the grasp of the oppressor, and in protecting the civil liberty of the ignorant natives of India, until they being enlightened shall be capable of protecting it themselves; for the spirit of this equitable principle, we opine, is really displayed, not in the parent letting loose his offspring in infancy and ignorance to be a prey to the wicked and strong, but in sheltering and protecting them until they shall have reached the energy and maturity of manhood. May the Government of India display this spirit on behalf of its expatriated subjects. We take leave of the subject for the present, with one more suggestion to those who alone have the power, to remedy the evils we deplore ;—while the Government are discussing the abstract right of the subject to move as and where he pleases, and while they are defending the palladium of Britain's glory, the rights of man as a citizenthe slave, dealers are violating that principle in every shape and at every hour. While the Government is zealous for the freedom of her subjects the sugar denizens of Mauritius are branding them and their posterity with the impress of accursed slavery. May that God who sitteth in the Heavens protect and defend the thousands already expatriated, from this greatest of all calamities, and so rule the hearts of our rulers that they may cease to sanction in the remotest manner any thing so fraught with evils physical, civil, moral and religious, to vast numbers of our fellow-beings, and that he may make the wrath of men to praise Him, and the remainder of that wrath restrain. Amen. φιλος. IV.-Life of Tyndale. [Continued from page 581.] "Enemyes I shall haue, many a shoren crowne Who that tellyth trouth, his head shal be broken." No sooner was this volume, the New Testament, published, than the most extraordinary efforts were made to exterminate it. The contemporary opinions expressed as to the merits of the translation, and the narrative of the attempts to destroy it, are intimately blended together. The public will now have an opportunity, for the first time, of forming a dispassionate judgment as to the reasons assigned by those nobles and prelates who sought to destroy it; and of weighing them with those of more modern prelates, highly distinguished for learning and piety, who counted it worthy to be the basis of our present version: a translation which stands unrivalled, and has proved to be the bread of life to myriads now singing the anthems of heaven. Immediately on the circulation of the New Testament, the English prelates were actively engaged in attempts to extinguish and destroy what they alleged to be the light and seed of heresy. On the 23rd of October, 1526, Tonstall, bishop of London, issued an injunction or prohibition against the New Testament in English. "Wherefore we, understanding by the report of divers credible persons, and also by the evident appearance of the matter, that many children of iniquitie, mayntayners of Luthers sect, blinded through extreame wickedness, wandring from the way of truth and the catholike fayth, craftily have translated the New Testament into our English tongue, intermedling therewith many hereticall articles and erroneous opinions, pernicious and offensive, seducing the simple people, attempting by their wicked and perverse interpretations to prophanate the maiestie of the scripture, which hitherto have remained undefiled, and craftily to abuse the most holy word of God, and the true sense of the same. Of the which translation there are many books imprinted, some with glosses, and some without, containing in the English tongue that pestiferous and most pernicious poyson dispersed throughout all our diocesse of London in great number, which truely without it be speedily forsene, without doubt will contaminate and infect the flocke committed unto us with most deadly poison and heresie, to the grievous perill and danger of the soules committed to our charge, and the offence of God's divine maiestie. Wherefore we .. command that within thirtie days.. under pain of excommunication and incurring the suspicion of heresie, they do bring in and really deliver unto our Vicar generall all and singular such books as containe the translation of the New Testament in the English tongue." On the 24th of February, 1527, Sebastian Harris, curate of Kensington, was proceeded against for heresy, he having the English Testament translated by William Hochyn (Tyndale), presbyter, and brother Roy. Not contented with calling in these dreaded volumes, the bishop attempted a wholesale destruction of them by a stratagem in which he singularly outwitted himself. Being acquainted with a merchant named Packington, who was on friendly terms with Tyndale, he employed him to buy all the copies of the English Testament. "The bishop thinking that he had God by the too, when in dede he had (as after he thought) the devil by the fiste, said, gentele maister Packington, do your diligence and get them, and with al my hart I will paye for them, whatsoever thei cost you, for the bokes are erronious and naughte, and I entend surely to destroy them all, and to burne theim at Paules Crosse. Tyndale sold him the books, saying, I shal geet moneye of hym for these bokes, to bryng myself out of debt, and the whole world shall cry out upon the burning of Goddes worde. And the overplus. of the money that shal remain to me, shal make me more studious to correct the sayd New Testament, and so newly to imprint the same. And so forwarde went the bargain, the byshop had the bokes, Pack, ington the thankes, and Tyndale had the money." Afterwards, more New Testaments came thick and threefold into England. Sir Thomas More questioned George Constantine, a prisoner for heresy, how Tyndale and his friends were supported; and he frankly told the lord chancellor, "It is the bishop of London that hath holpen vs, for he hath bestowed emonge vs a great deale of moneye in Newe Testa mentes to burne theim, and that hath been and yet is our onely succour and comfort." The destruction of these books, according to Lord Herbert of Cherbury, was on the 4th of May, 1530: this is an error, for it certainly took place in 1528. Tyndale seriously asks, what Tonstall had done for Christ's church, that he was made bishop of London and then of Durham. "Was it that he burnt the Newe Testament, callinge it doctrinam peregrinam, straunge lernynge!!" Necessity drove the Reformers to a secret circulation of these silent destroyers of popery: notwithstanding the active exertions of More, Wolsey, and Tonstall to prevent it, they were extensively distributed. Richard Herman, a merchant of the staple at Antwerp, was a consi derable exporter of the prohibited books to England, at a great sacrifice of his fortune. Dr. Barnes and Mr. Fish dispensed them in London, Mr. Garret at Oxford, and pious reformers in every part of the kingdom: all this was done in confidence seldom betrayed. In January, 1527, the Bishop proceeded into Essex, to discover how far his injunction had been obeyed. His course was marked with terror, many poor prisoners for heresy were examined before him. John Tyball deposed, that he first saw the New Testament in English about April, 1526, and at Michaelmas following came to London, and bought one for three shillings and two-pence of friar Barons, requesting that he would keep it close; that in conversation the friar made a twyte of the manuscript copies, and said: "A point for them, for they are not to be regarded toward the new printed Testament in English." John Necton deposed, that vicar Constantine, in November, 1526, directed him to Mr. Fish, of whom he bought twenty or thirty copies of the great volume; that Constantine had fifteen or sixteen of the biggest, and sold five or six to persons in London; and that about Easter, 1527, he bought of G. Usher, servant to the parson of Honey-lane, eighteen New Testaments of the small volume; and that about Christmas, 1527, a Dutchman who in Easter following was a prisoner in the Fleet, offered him 300 copies for 167. 58. this was probably John Raimund. An aged while his His house Awful were the torments inflicted upon those who, in disobedience to the proclamation, dared to read this proscribed book. labourer, father Harding, was seen reading by a wood side, more fashionable neighbours were gone to hear mass. was broken open, and under the flooring boards were discovered English books of holy scripture: the poor old man was hurried to prison, and thence to the stake, where he was brutally treated, and his body burnt to ashes. The rigour with which these books were suppressed, would naturally excite a strong desire to possess them. It was also calculated to awaken an intense interest in examining their contents. Imminent danger attending the enjoyment of religious observances has a tendency to exalt the mind to the happiest state of feeling which those privileges are capable of producing. Such must have been the case with poor old Harding, who had been imprisoned some years before on the charge of heresy, and knew that there was no mercy extended to a second offence; yet in secret, by the wood side, with the Testament in his hand, he took repeated draughts of the water of life; or, secluded in his humble cottage, he raised the floor, found the precious but forbidden book, and richly enjoyed the heavenly food. With excited feelings, he might imagine that the voice of the inspired writer was peculiarly addressed to him, "Eat O friend, drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved." The most powerful or learned of men might envy such moments, enjoyed by a poor old persecuted labourer. Many were fined, imprisoned, and put to death for reading the New Testament. Lawrence Staple was persecuted in 1531 for concealing four copies in his sleeve, and giving them to Bilney, who was burnt. Staple saved his life by abjuring. The sentence of the court VII. 4 N |