Christian and Jewish plates together make fourteen pages. A copy was sent in the first instance to the pundits of the Shanscrit college at Trichiur, by direction of the rajah of Cochin; but they could not read the character.* From this place I proceed to Cande-nad, to visit the bishop once more before I return to Bengal.”

THE MALABAR BIBLE.

After the author left Travancore, the bishop prosecuted the translation of the scriptures into the Malabar language without intermission, until he had completed the New Testament. The year following the author visited Travancore a second time, and carried the manuscript to Bombay to be printed! an excellent fount of Malabar types having been recently cast at that place. Learned natives went from Travancore to superintend the press; and it is probable that it is now nearly finished, as a copy of the gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, beautifully printed, was received in England some time ago. This version of the scriptures will be prosecuted until the whole Bible is completed, and copies circulated throughout the Christian regions of Malabar.

THE SYRIAC BIBLE.

It has been further in contemplation to print an edition of the Syriac scriptures, if the public should countenance the design. This gift, it may be presumed; the English nation will be pleased to present to the Syrian Christians. We are already debtors

Most of the manuscripts which I collected among the Syrian Christians, I have presented to the university of Cambridge; and they are now deposited in the public library of that university, together with the copper-plate fac similes of the Christian and Jewish tablets.

to that ancient people. They have preserved the manuscripts of the holy scriptures incorrupt, during a long series of ages, and have now committed them into our own hands. By their long and energetic defence of pure doctrine against anti-christian error, they are entitled to the gratitude and, thanks of the rest of the Christian world. Further, they have preserved to this day the language in which our blessed Lord preached to men the glad tidings of salvation. Their scriptures, their doctrine, their language, in short, their very existence, all add something to the evidence of the truth of christianity.

The motives then for printing an edition of the Syriac Bible are these:

1. To do honor to the language which was spoken by our blessed Saviour when upon earth.

2. To do honor to that ancient church, which has preserved his language and his doctrine.

3. As the means of perpetuating the true faith in the same church for ages to come.

4. As the means of preserving the pronunciation, and of cultivating the knowledge of the Syriac language in the east; and

5. As the means of reviving the knowledge of the Syriac language in our own nation.

On the author's return to England, he could not find one copy of the Syriac Bible in a separate volume for sale in the kingdom. He wished to send a copy to the Syrian bishop, as an earnest of more, when an edition should be printed.

The Syriac Bible is wanted not only by the churches of the Syrian Christians, but by the still more numerous churches of the Syro-Romish Christians in Malabar, who also use the Syriac language.

THE ROMISH CHRISTIANS IN INDIA.

In every age of the church of Rome there have been individuals, of an enlightened piety, who derived their religion not from "the commandments, of men," but from the doctrins of the Bible. There are at this day, in India and in England, members of that communion, who deserve the affection and respect of all good men; and whose cultivated minds will arraign the corruptions of their own religion, which the author is about to describe, more severly than he will permit himself to do. He is indeed prepared to speak of Roman catholics with as much liberality as perhaps any protestant has ever attempted on Christian principless: for he is acquainted with individuals, whose unaffected piety he considers a reproach to a great body of protestants, even of the strictest sort. It is indeed painful to say any thing which may seem to feeling and noble minds ungenerous: but those enlightened persons whose good opinion it is desirable to preserve, will themselves be pleased to see that truth is not sacrificed to personal respect, or to a spurious candor. Their own church sets an example of "plainness of speech" in the assertion of those tenets which it professes, some of which must be extremely painful to the feeling of protestants, in their social intercourse with catholics; such as, "That there is no salvation out of the pale of the Romish church."

This exclusive character prevents concord and intimacy between protestant and catholic families. On the principles of infidelity they can associate very easily; but on the principles of religion, the protestant must ever be on the defensive; for the Romish church excommunicates him: and although he must hope that some individuals do not maintain the tenet, yet his uncertainty as to the fact prevents that cordiality which he desires. Many excellent catholics suffer

unjustly in their intercourse with protestants, from the ancient and exclusive articles of their own church which they themselves neither profess nor believe. If they will only intimate to their protestant friends, that they renounce the exclusive principle, and that they profess the religion of the Bible, no more seems requisite to form with such persons the sincerest friendship on Christain principles.

At the present time we see the Romish religion in Europe without dominion; and hence it is viewed by the mere philosopher with indifference or contempt. He is pleased to see, that the "seven heads and the ten horns" are taken away; and thinks nothing of the "names of blasphemy.” But in the following pages, the author will have occasion to shew what Rome is, as having dominion; and possessing it too within the boundaries of the British empire. In passing through the Romish provinces in the east, though the author had before heard much of the papil corruptions, he certainly did not expect to see christianity in the degraded state in which he found it. Of the priests it may truly be said, that they are, in general, better acquainted with the Veda of Brahma than the gospel of Christ. In some places the doctrines of both are blended. At Aughoor, situated between Tritchinopoly and Madura, he wit-. nessed (in October 1806) the tower of Juggernaut employed to solemnize a Christian festival. The old priest Josephus accompanied him, when he surveyed the idolatrous car and its painted figures, and gave him a particular account of the various ceremonies which are performed, seemingly unconscious himself of any impropriety in them. The author went with him afterwards into the church, and seeing a book lying on the altar opened it; but the reader may judge of his surprise, when he found it was a Syriac volume, and was informed that the priest himself . was a descendant of the Syrian Christians, and bered to what is now called the Syro-Roman church,

the whole service of which is in Syriac. Thus, by the intervention of the papal power, are the ceremonies of Molock consecrated in a manner by the sacred Syriac language. What a heavy responsibility lies on Rome, for having thus corrupted and degraded that pure and ancient church!

While the author viewed these Christian corruptions in different places, and in different forms, he was always referred to the inquisition at Goa, as the fountain-head. He had long cherished the hope, that he should be able to visit Goa before he left India. His chief objects were the following:

1. To ascertain whether the inquisition actually refused to recognize the Bible, among the Romish chruches in British India.

2. To inquire into the state and jurisdiction of the inquisition, particularly as it affected British subjects.

3. To learn what was the system of education for the priesthood; and

4. To examine the ancient church-libraries in Goa, which were said to contain all the books of the first printing.

He will select from his journal, in this place, chiefly what relates to the inquisition. He had learnt from every quarter, that this tribunal, formerly so well known for its frequent burnings, was still in operation, though under some restiction as to the publicity of its proceedings; and that its power extended to the extreme boundary in Hindostan. That, in the present civilized state of Christian nations, in Europe an inquisition should exist at all under their authority, appeared strange, but that a papal tribunal of this character should exist under the implied toleration and countenance of the British government; that Christians being subjects to the British empire, and inhabiting the British territories, should be amenable to its power and jurisdiction, was a statement which seemed to be scarcely credible; but, if true, a