the serious consideration of the friends of India. From all that we can gather of the new Society, it is to be a Corresponding Society merely, and the periodical we know, is to add another to the number of our present list of periodicals with special reference to the improvement of the native community. Thus shall we have one added to the already numerous Societies and periodicals without possessing that which we are confident is a desideratum-a Society in which all the friends of India can unite, not only to correspond but practically to carry out every plan calculated to improve the land and the people; and a weekly or bi-weekly periodical which should by the comprehensiveness of its arrangement, as a periodical of literature, science, morals and religion, supply the place of all the minor publications which the interests of different sections of the community have called into existence, but which might with advantage to all parties merge their separate interests in one comprehensive periodical. As far as we are concerned we shall be happy to give our aid to any such efforts should it be deemed advisable to make the experiment. To the proposed Society we see no objection-to the periodical some may be offered, but they are such as we think may be easily obviated. A certain portion of the paper might be devoted to the discussion of subjects such as will find a place in the Telescope, or those connected with this periodical or any other, and might be struck off separately and forwarded to those whose circumstances would not enable them to afford the whole of the larger publication; or parts of the paper might be omitted if so printed on separate sheets, as the taste or meaas of subscribers might dictate, while the profit on the larger paper would enable the proprietors to render the detached portions at a cheaper rate to the native youth or the poorer portion of the Christian community. We would have such a paper to contain a digest of European, American and Indian news. The editorials, European and native, on the most interesting topics of the day extracted from the different periodicals of both countries-Extracts also from literary, scientific and religious publications-Reviews and original editorial matter;-in fact to make it, whether weekly, or bi-weekly, a complete family paper conducted on the principles of evangelical religion and on Protestant principles, but in which religion shall form the most prominent object, and in which its interests and institutions should find a ready, temperate but full advocacy, while it should contain every thing which ought to be found in the pages of a newspaper.

Such an undertaking would doubtless be attended with much anxiety, expense and trouble; but of its success we have no doubt were it commenced and carried on with the energy the importance of the subject demands we say importance, for to many in India a newspaper is almost the only mental pabulum they obtain, and hence it is desirable that such pabulum should at least be good. Had we had leisure, or had it come within our scope or design to have adopted such a plan in the Advocate, we are confident from all that we have heard and seen, its circulation would have been as extensive if not more so than any periodical in India. We have not offered these observations with any but the best feelings to the new periodical, or the Corresponding Society, but with a view to compass more effectually that which both we and the projectors of both have in view-not pecuniary profit or the advancement of party interests, but the highest interests of the Christian and native community.-Ibid.

11.-NATIVE CHRISTIANS-THE DISABILITIES UNDER WHICH THEY LABOR. The papers, daily and weekly, have been engaged in discussing the merits or demerits of certain charges which have been brought against the recent converts to Christianity in the district of Kishnaghur. They have been charged with arson, and the Missionary, the Rev. W. Deer, with defending them in their sin. That the native Christians at Kishnaghur or in any

other district in India, have their frailties we are free to admit, or that there should be amongst so large a number of converts as are to be found in the mission at Kishnaghur some who might be a trouble to the Church, would not be matter of surprise; but that the native Christians as a body, aided, sanctioned and defended by the missionaries, should perpetrate so dark a crime on the property of their heathen and Musalmán neighbours is so monstrous that we should not have hesitated to have denied it in the most unqualified manner without other testimony than the charge itself. Our knowledge of the history of the church and the nature of the charges brought against Christians in all ages by their enemies would have been sufficient to warrant us in such a conclusion. It affords us the highest satisfaction therefore to be able, on testimony the most indisputable, to state that not only is the charge brought against the native Christians utterly and entirely false, but that the crime has been brought home to one of a (heathen) party long distinguished for its violence. To the perseverance and vigilance of the magistrate, under God, is this to be attributed. This case naturally leads to a consideration of the unhappy position in which Native Christian converts stand at the present moment. It is such as calls loudly for redress at the hands of the Government. Such is it in fact that we are confident nothing short of the influence of divine grace will enable either man or woman to make or sustain a profession of Christi anity. We ask no fuvor at the hands of the supreme Government for the native converts: all we crave is the removal of unjust and oppressive laws, and the substitution of just and equitable legislation. We ask not favor but justice. The increased and increasing number of the converts will require that this subject be speedily taken under the most serious consideration of our rulers.

What are the sacrifices which are required at the hands of a native on his profession of the Christian faith? Not only is he cut off from all intercourse with his relations and friends, but he is subject to the forfei ture of all ancestral, and in all probability of all acquired property. He is hopelessly severed from the wife of his bosom whom he cannot legally claim, while he is in daily dread of the poisoned cup, or the most abominable and disgusting charges. It would be surprising in the present state of the law, even were the Hindus a more manly, courageous, and less money-loving people, if we should find them flocking to the standard of Christ.

We may state a case or two to show the working of the system and its baneful tendency should the number of converts become at all more extensive than at present. A youth, mature in judgment though still under parental constraint, becomes convinced of the errors of Hinduism. His philosophical, moral and religious training has led him to the conclusion, that Christianity is the alone heaven-born faith; he is not willing to bend the knee to Kálí or Dúrgé, and is anxious to worship the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent; and if so, what are his present condition and prospects? If he is firm, the chances are many he will be sent to Kashi (Banaras), which is equivalent to his being drugged by a process which may destroy him, but which is almost sure to make him to use a Bengali proverb-as a woman in the house, or an idiot; should he escape this terrible punishment, he knows that the moment he declares his faith in Christ as an adult responsible agent, he will be driven from his homestead, and that his property will be given to another. This has been done. Again, a man becomes a Christian in very mature life: previously to his conversion he is the owner of lands which have been in the undisturbed possession of his ancestors for centuries, but on his professing his belief in the Christian faith, a false claim is set up by his heathen neighbours, false mortgage deeds are brought forward, and he is summoned perhaps not only

to give up the cause but to pay a large amount of interest, which if admitted must involve him in irrecoverable ruin. He attends day after day at the court of the magistrate, whose attendance is prevented by indisposition or other causes, returns to his home wearied and harassed, and then he is seized and imprisoned for his contempt of court, and mulcted in additional expenses for fines; and all this is done with the perfect knowledge, by the persecuting parties, that neither his principles nor his advisers will permit him to have recourse to the common Bengali stratagem of suborning false witnesses or forging contradictory documents.

Again, a woman becomes a Christian,—she is abandoned by her husband from compulsion, however much he may love her. Caste and its advocates are imperative. He nevertheless feels that she has a claim upon him for support, and he offers a mite towards that support. No! replies caste, to render her aid is equivalent to living with her; it is an acknowledgment of her existence, while to you she is dead. Or a young man breaks through the shackles of his ancient faith and becomes a Christian? he is tenderly attached to his wife and she to him, but neither he nor his friends are permitted to see her; she is held in the strictest surveillance by her relatives, and the most disgusting lies are poured into her mind in reference to the Christian faith and its professors, some of which are not fit for repetition. In the two latter cases the matter involves the question of morals as well as the civil liberty of the subject, and should at once be rectified; for a Christian man or woman cannot and will not be able to marry a Christian without some kind of positive declaration on the part of the deluded party which it is almost impossible to obtain, or by the enactment of a law legalizing a second marriage in case of the continued and obstinate refusal of the first wife or husband to fulfil the duties of conjugal life. We have simply mooted the question and cited these few cases in the hope that the subject may arrest the attention of those who only can cure the ills of which we complain. We are aware that the subject involves the reformation of the whole of the theoretical and administrable legislation of the country, to which we are not indifferent; but it is especially for the native Christian population that we write, as on them falls with ten-fold force all the ordinary but terrible evils of the administration of Mufassal justice.-Ibid.

12. THE MAY MEETINGS.

The British and Foreign Bible Society.-The annual meeting of this Society took place on Wednesday, May 13, at Exeter Hall. The meeting was most numerously attended by individuals of both sexes and of every denomination. Lord Bexley was in the chair, and we observed on the platform the Bishop of Lichfield, Bishop of Chester, and Bishop of Norwich, Lord Teignmouth, Sir T. D. Acland, with a host of ministers of all denominations. In the report it was stated, that the receipts this year amounted to the enormous sum of £110,000, and an increase of some hundreds of thousands in the distribution of copies, which amounted to three quarters of a million this year; the Society had distributed twelve millions since its commencement. The Society was addressed in the course of the day by all the Prelates, and the proceedings lasted to a late hour.

British and Foreign School Society.-The report was very voluminous, After stating the progress of the Society, to show the great want of education, it stated that in the last year in England and Wales no less than 27,670 marriages had taken place, out of whom 8733 men could not read, and 13,624 were equally ignorant. At the late Salford sessions there were 170 prisoners-only 44 of them could read and write. In the Lewes House of Correction there were 840 prisoners-only 48 could read and

write, 250 could a little, 8 had no idea of Jesus Christ, 294 knew not a Saviour, 490 had heard of his name, and 54 heard of him through report. London Missionary Society.-The annual meeting of the London Missionary Society was held on Thursday May 14, in the great room, Exeter Hall. The meeting was one of the most crowded of the season, the hall being filled in every corner with ladies, and the platform with gentlemen. Sir George Grey, Bart., took the chair, and presided until one o'clock, when his official duties rendered it necessary that he should quit the meeting. The right hon. Baronet was succeeded in the chair by Thomas Wilson, Esq. the Treasurer of the Society. The Secretary read the report, which was of a highly satisfactory nature. The number of the Society's missionary stations is at present 361; the number of missionaries 156: and the number of assistants, native and English, in foreign parts, 451. During the past year 28 new missionaries have been sent out with their wives and families. The number of the Society's churches is at present 101. The number of communicants 9966; and the number of scholars 41,752. The receipts for the whole year have been £91,119. 12s. 10d.; and the expenditure £82,197. Os. 4d. It was announced that the munificent sum of £10,000 had been made over and placed in trust for the Society by a resident in the manufacturing districts, who most nobly gave this splendid donation anonymously. It was also stated by the same gentleman that two farms in Lancashire had been made over to the Society, and the annual proceeds, amounting to £200, secured to the funds. Two of the directors present gave £100 each, and the treasurer the like handsome sum. The boxes were handed round during the meeting, and a very large sum of money collected.

British and Foreign Temperance Society.-The annual general meeting of the above society was held in the Queen's Concert Room, Hanover Square, the Bishop of Norwich, in the absence of the Bishop of London, in the chair. The greater portion of the auditory was composed of fashionably dressed ladies, who appeared to take great interest in the proceedings. On the platform we noticed the Bishop of Chichester, Lord Teignmouth, M. P., Admiral Sir J. Hillier, the Rev. Chancellor Raikes, &c. &c. The chairman, on taking the chair, expatiated at great length, and in the most eloquent manner, on the ill effects of intemperance. His Lordship, in concluding his address, said that there was supposed to be in great Britain 23,000,000 souls, who had consumed 25,000,000 gallons of ardent spirits; among them the cost of bread for the support of that number of people would be £25,000,000, whilst the money expended for the above quantity of spirits amounted to £44,000,000. This quantity of spirits would form a river 100 miles long, 30 feet deep, and as wide. The secretary then read the report, from which it appeared that during the year ending January, 1839, 30,868,562 gallons of spirits paid duty for home consumption for England and Scotland. Upwards of 57,000 publichouses, and 47,000 beer-shops were licenced in England and Wales; twenty thousand two hundred and thirty-seven persons were taken into custody for drunkenness, and upwards of 290,000 persons were relieved by the hospitals, &c. &c., a large portion of whom required this aid in consequence of the use of ardent spirits. The report, after showing the low state of the funds, stated that the consumption in spirits had greatly decreased, but that opium was being used in the manufacturing districts in great abundance.

The Religious Tract Society-held its forty-first Anniversary, in Exeter Hall, on the 8th of May: when the chair was taken by S. Hoare, Esq., and the business of the day was introduced with prayer by the Rev. Dr. Henderson. The chairman, in his opening speech, took an encou raging view of the range of the Society's operations, and stated that

although in the year preceding the last, the issue of tracts had exceeded that of any previous year by two millions. yet the issue of last year had exceeded it by 1,400,000. Mr. W. Jones, the Secretary, read an abstract of the Report. The publications circulated at home, during the past year, amounted to 3,233,039; and their value to 2,876. 19s. 2d. Two hundred and eighty-one Circulating Libraries had been granted at home. One hundred and seventy-four new publications had been issued. The publications sent out from the Depository last year had been 19,425,002; making the total circulation since the formation of the Society, in about 86 languages, including the issues of Foreign Societies assisted by the Parent Institution, to exceed 315,400,000. The benevolent income of the Society for the year had been 6,114/ 6s. The gratuitous issues in money, paper, publications and libraries amounted to 9,0041. 12s. The total receipts of the Society had been 61,1174. 168. 8d. The adoption of the Report was moved by the Rev. Mr. Drew, and seconded by the Rev. Dr. Leifchild. The second Resolution was moved, by the Rev. D. Wil son, who spoke of the advantage of tract circulation, first as being avail able when other means of communicating the gospel were not, as now in China, Madagascar, Spain and Portugal-and, secondly, as presenting divine truth in that brief, simple, attractive and homely manner which was especially likely to catch the ear, and interest the minds of the uneducated. In his own parish, they had found that to be remarkably the case. They had been circulating during the past year upwards of 40,000 tracts, in connection with the Established Church. They had repeated instances of deeply interesting cases brought before them by the district visitors, in which those tracts had been the means of preparing the way for the minister of religion, for the study of God's word, and for attendance on the public worship of God. They had had cases of conversion, cases of awakening cases of persons induced to send for the ministers of religion, in consequence of the reading of those tracts. He trusted that the Society would be encouraged to go onward with zeal and devotion in this cause. Never was there a time when a greater necessity existed for bringing the truths of the gospel before the minds of the people. It had been strongly impressed on his own mind, as well as on the minds of others, that if there was one thing in which they were more deficient than another, it was in simplicity in their ministry, in their efforts to do good. (A true and pungent saying that.) The motion was seconded by F. A. Packard, Esq, Secretary to the American Sunday School Union. The next speaker was the Rev. Henry Hughes, Secretary to the London Hibernian Society, who in vindicating the Tract Society against the aspersions of the Tractarians of Oxford, made one of the ablest speeches we have seen amongst the reports of the Anniversaries of the year. It will not, however, admit either of abstract or quotation. He was followed in the same argument, and not unworthily, by the Rev. Dr. Urwick. The meeting was then dismissed with the customary formalities.-Friend of India.

The Baptist Missionary Society-held its forty-eighth Anniversary, in Exeter Hall, on the 30th of April. Sir C. E. Smith having been called to the chair, the proceedings were opened with Divine Worship, conducted by the Rev. S. Nicholson, of Plymouth. The Chairman spoke, in a neat and impressive manner, of the contrast between present feeling and position in respect of Missions, and the state of things when Carey entered on his enterprize, and touched feelingly on the death of Mr. Williams, as an event in which all who love Missions must have one sentiment. The Report was read by the Rev. J. Dyer. It mentioned the welcome reinforcement which the East Indian Mission had received by the return of Mr. Pearce to Calcutta, and the accession of the four brethren who ac