LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. By J. Belcher, Boston. The Fourth Volume of Doctor Paley's Works, containing Sermons and Tracts. By Samuel T. Armstrong, Boston. Christian Researches in Asia. To which are prefixed two Discourses, preached be fore the University of Cambridge on Commencement Sunday. By the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, D. D. By Whiting and Watson, New York. The Children's Hymn Book, being a selection of Hymns from various authors, designed for the use and instruction of the rising generation. By E. Sargeant, New York. An Essay on the Constitution of the Apostolic Churches, &c. &c. This Essay, founded on the Holy Scriptures, is parti cularly interesting to all disciples of Christ, not only because of its great novelty (none of the kind, perhaps, being ever published in this city before) but because of its nature; being a statement of truths and facts, in attention to which the interests of all Christians are involved. By R. Harper, Gettysburg, (Penn.) The Juryman's Right, Or, a Dialogue between a Barrister at Law and a Jury. man. Being a choice help for all who serve on juries. By B. and T. Kite, Philadelphia. Observations on the changes of the Air, and the concomitant Epidemical Diseases of the Island of Barbados; to which is added a Treatise on the Putrid Bilious Fever, commonly called the Yellow Fever. By William Hillary, M. D. With Notes by Benjamin Rush, M. D.. PROPOSED BRITISH PUBLICATIONS. To publish-Practical Remarks upon Insanity, with a Commentary on Dissections of the Brains of Maniacs. The plays of James Shirley, now first collected, with occasional notes, and a author, are printing in 6 octavo volumes. critical and biographical memoir of the Professor Playfair has in the press, a 2d edition, with additions and engravings, in a 4to vol. of Illustrations of the Hutto nian Theory of the Earth. Speedily to be published, a Historical Essay on the temporal power of the popes, on the abuse of their spiritual ministry, and on the wars which they have declared against sovereigns, particularly those who had a preponderance in Italy, translated from the French. Mr. J. P. Tupper, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, has in the press, An Essay on the probability of Sensation in Vegetables, with additional observations on Instinct, Sensation, and Irritability. Mr. Barker, of Trinity College, Cam bridge, is preparing a small edition of Ci cero de Senectute and Amicitia, with English notes, for the use of schools. Mr. Bloomfield, author of the Farmer's Boy, will speedily publish the Banks of Wye, a poem. PROPOSED AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. By John F. Watson, Philadelphia. To re-publish" A True and Complete Portraiture of Methodism," by the Rev. Jonathan Crowther, now a Methodist Preacher in England. To be illustrated by Notes descriptive of the American Me thodists. By Thomas and Whipple, Newburyport. To publish-The Coquette, Or the History of Eliza Wharton; a Novel, founded on fact. By a Lady of Massachusetts. By T. A. P. Charlton, Augusta, (Geo.) To publish by subscription-Reports of Cases, argued and determined, in the Superior Courts of the Eastern District, of the State of Georgia. By Thomas B. Wait and Co. Boston. To publish-A work, to be entitled the New England Journal of Medicine & Sur gery, & the collateral branches of science. SELECT REVIEWS OF LITERATURE, FOR DECEMBER, 1811. FROM THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. Buchanan's Discourses and Christian Researches in Asia, (Continued from p. 304.) HAVING accompanied Dr. Buchanan, in our last number, through all the sickening horrors of Juggernaut, we will now attend him through a very different scene, a view of the Hindoo Christians of Tanjore. With much of the early history of this church our readers are already acquainted. Ziegenbalg was founder of it. The encouragement he received from King George the First, from Archbishop Wake, and from the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, has been already recorded.* In the year 1719, he finished the Bible in the Tamul tongue, having devoted fourteen years to this grand work." He died in 1720, and was followed by a succession of other zealous and learned men; among whom were Schultz, Janicke, Gericke and Swartz, who were made the instruments of adding many to the Church of Christ. The account which Dr. Buchanan has given of his visit to Tranquebar and Tanjore, is highly interesting; and we should have found the temptation to transcribe it irresistible, had we not already given the substance of it in our volume for 1807, p. 335. We must 2 VOL. VI. request, however, that such of our readers as have not Dr. Buchanan's work in their possession, will cast their eye over that passage, before they proceed. They will otherwise deprive themselves of much gratification. Dr. Buchanan observes, that the Tanjore mission is at present in a languishing state. The war on the continent of Europe, has dried up two of its former sources of supply, the Royal College of Copenhagen, and the Orphan house at Halle, in Germany. "Their remaining resource from Europe is the stipend of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, whom they never mention but with emotions of gratitude and affection; but this supply is by no means commensurate with the increasing number of their churches and schools." Whence then does the mission derive its support? Dr. Buchanan answers this question; and that answer may well shame the Christians of England, as well as the English Christians of India : "The chief support of the mission is de rived from itself. Mr. Swartz had in his lifetime acquired a considerable property, * See vol. for 1807, p. 510, and for 1810, p. 3.29, et seq. through the kindness of the English government and of the native princes. When he was dying, he said, "Let the cause of Christ be my heir." When his colleague, the pious Gericke, was departing, he also bequeathed his property to the mission. And now Mr. Kohloff gives from his private funds an annual sum; not that he can well afford it; but the mission is so ex tended, that he gives it, he told me, to preserve the new and remote congregations in existence. p. 171, 172. Mr. Kohloff greatly lamented the want of Bibles for the ten or twelve thousand Christians of Tanjore and Tinavelly, as well as of a printing press, that grand instrument in the diffusion of Christian light. Something has already been done to supply the want of the Bible (see vol. for 1810, p. 558, &c.), and much more, we doubt not, may be expected from the zeal of the British and Foreign Bible Society, whose attention has been particularly drawn to this quar ter of India. A printing press, we trust, the missionaries will also obtain. "They justly observed, if you can no longer send us missionaries to preach the gospel, send us the means of printing the gospel." The mission press at Tranquebar, adds Dr. B. 'may be said to have been the fountain of all the good that was done in India during the last century. It was established by Ziegenbalg. From this press, in conjunction with that at Halle, in Germany, have proceeded volumes in Arabic, Syriac, Hindostanee, Tamul, Telinga, Portuguese, Danish and English. I have in my possession the Psalms of David in the Hindostanee language, printed in the Arabic character; and the History of Christ in Syriac, intended probably for the Syro-Romish Christians on the seacoast of Travancore, whom a Danish missionary once visited; both of which volumes were edited by the missionaries of Tranquebar. There is also in Swartz's library at Tanjore, a grammar of the Hin dostanee language, in quarto, published at the same press; an important fact which was not known at the College of Fort William, when professor Gilchrist commen red his useful labours in that language." D. 173. There is so much that is gratifying in the following extract, which concludes the account of Dr. Buchanan's visit to Tanjore, that we cannot withhold it from our readers. It will serve incidentally to illustrate two points; first, that there is no such danger to be apprehended in attempting to promulgate the Gospel in India, as many have supposed; and secondly, that the happiest effects attend its progress. Tanjore, Sept. 3, 1806.-Before I left the capital of Tanjore, the Rajah was pleased to honour me with a second audience. On this occasion he presented to me a portrait of himself, a very striking likeness, painted by a Hindoo artist at the Tanjore court.* The missionary, Dr. John, accompanied me to the palace. The Ra jah received him with much kindness, and presented to him a piece of gold cloth. Of the resident missionary, Mr. Kohloff, whom the Rajah sees frequently, he spoke to me in terms of high approbation. This cannot be very agreeable to the Brahmins; but the Rajah, though he yet professes the Brahminical religion, is no longer obedient to the dictates of the Brahmins, and they are compelled to admit his superior attainments in knowledge. I passed the chief part of this morning in looking over Mr. Swartz's manuscripts and books: and when I was coming away, Mr. Kohloff presented to me a Hebrew Psalter, which had been Mr. Swartz's companion for fifty years; also a brass lamp which he had got first when a student at the college of Halle, and had used in his lucubrations to the time of his death; for Mr. Swartz seldom preached to the natives without previous study. I thought I saw the image of Swartz in his successor. Mr. Kohloff is a meek deportment, and of ardent zeal in man of great simplicity of manners, of the cause of revealed religion, and of humanity. He walked with me through the Christian village close to his house; and I was much pleased to see the affectionate respect of the people towards him; the young people of both sexes coming forward from the doors on both sides, to salute him and receive his benedictions.' *September 4th, 1806.-Leaving Tanjore, I passed through the woods inhabited by the Collaries (or thieves,) now humanized by Christianity. When they understood It is now placed in the public library of the university of Cambridge. who I was, they followed me on the road, stating their destitute condition, in regard to religious instruction. They were cla morous for Bibles. They supplicated for teachers. We don't want bread or money from you,' said they; but we want the word of God.' Now, thought I, whose duty is it to attend to the moral wants of this people? Is it that of the English nation, or of some other nation?' p. 174176. Dr. Buchanan takes occasion to observe, in this stage of his progress, that there are five principal languages spoken by Hindoos in countries subject to the British empire, viz. the Hindostanee, which pervades Hindostan generally; the Bengalee, for the province of Bengal; the Telinga, for the Northern Sircars; the Tamul, for Coromandel and the Carnatic; and the Malayalim, or Malabar, for the coast of Malabar and Travancore. Of these, there are two into which the Scriptures are already translated; the Tamul by Ziegenbalg; and the Bengalee, by the Baptist missionaries from England. The remaining three are in progress of translation. Our author next conducts us to the island of Ceylon. The population of this island, subject to the British government, is estimated at a million and a half, of which one-third is supposed to profess Christianity, The Dutch divided this population into 240 churchships; three native schoolmasters being appointed to each. It was the policy of the Dutch government never to give an official appointment to any native who was not a Christian. This wise policy is continued by his majesty's government in Ceylon. A very contrary course appears to be pursued by the East-India Company's governments. They do not,' says Dr. Buchanan, 'patronize the native Christians;' nay, they give official appointments to Mahomedans and Hindoos generally, in preference to natives professing Christianity. Can this indeed be so? If it be, we cannot wonder at the diffi. culties which the teachers of Christianity experience in their attempts to convert the natives. Such a sys tem must serve, as Dr. Buchanan observes, to confirm their prejudices, to expose our religion to contempt in their eyes, and to preclude the hope of the future prevalence of Christianity at the seats of government. This reminds us of a remark made to Dr. Buchanan by the missionaries at Tranquebar, (p. 163,) Religion,' they observed, flourishes more a mong the natives of Tanjore, and in other provinces, where there are few Europeans, than at Tranquebar and Madras; for we find that European example in the large towns is the bane of Christian instruction.' This then being the case, not only the influence and authority of government, as far as that influence can be exercised, short of actual persecution, but the general example of Europeans, being adverse to the propagation of Christianity, we have more cause to wonder that Christianity should have made any progress at all, than that it should have made so little. We do not, by any means, venture to say, that it would be the duty of the government of India to give any exclusive preference to persons professing Christianity. surely such persons ought not to be placed in a worse situation, by that government, for having adopted its own faith. When we consider the direct and ample support given by a government calling itself Christian, to the institutions of Hindooism and Mahomedanism, and the favour shown to the professors of these religions; and then advert to all the circumstances of discouragement under which the Christian cause continues to labour; we can only ascribe it to the divine power and efficacy of the Gospel, that it maintains even its present contracted sphere. The time, we trust, is not far distant, when a more becoming line of policy will be pursued; and when the rulers of our Asiatic empire also, will be nursingfathers of the church of Christ. But to return to Ceylon. But The following important extract is taken from Dr. Buchanan's Journal, dated at Jaffnapatam, September 27, 1806: 'I have had the pleasure to meet here with Alexander Johnstone, Esq.* of the Supreme Court of Judicature, who is on the circuit; a man of large and liberal views, the friend of learning and of Christianity. He is well acquainted with the language of the country, and with the history of the island; and his professional pursuits afford him a particular knowledge of its present state; so that his communications are truly valuable. It will be scarcely believed in England, that there are here Protestant churches, under the king's government, which are without ministers. In the time of Beldæus, the Dutch preacher and historian, there were thirty two Christian churches in the province of Jaffna alone. At this time there is not one Protestant European minister in the whole province. I ought to except Mr. Palm, a solitary missionary, who has been sent out by the London Society, and receives some stipend from the British government. I visited Mr. Palm, at his residence, a few miles from the town of Jaffna. He is prosecuting the study of the Tamul language; for that is the language of this part of Ceylon, from its proximity to the Tamul continent. Mrs. Palm has made as great progress in the language as her husband, and is extremely men and children. I asked her if she had no wish to return to Europe, after living so long among the uncivilized Cingalese. No, she said; she was all the day long happy in the communication of knowledge. Mr. Palm has taken possession of the old Protestant church of Tilly-Pally By reference to the history, I found it was the church in which Baldaus himself preached (as he himself mentions), to a congregation of two thousand natives; for a view of the church is given in his work. Most of those handsome churches, of which views are given in the plates of Baldæus's history, are now in ruins. Even in the town and fort of Jaffna, where there is a spacious edifice for Divine worship, and a respectable society of English and Dutch inhabitants, no clergyman has been yet appointed. The only Protestant preacher in the town of Jaffna is Christian David, a Hindoo Catechist sent over by the mission of Tranquebar. His chief ministrations are in the Tamul tongue; but he sometimes preaches in the English lan active in the instruction of the native wo guage, which he speaks with tolerable sort to hear him. I went with the rest to But Dr. Buchanan, on his second visit to Ceylon, in March 1808, found the south side of the island in the same state of destitution, as to religious instruction, with the north. He found but two English clergymen in the island. 'What wonder,' said a Romish priest to him,' that your nation should be so little interested about the conversion of the Pagans to Christianity, when it even does not give teachers to its own subjects who are already Christians. Numbers of the native Protestants every year apostatize to Boodha. Governor Maitland expressed his conviction, that some ecclesiastical establishment ought to be given to Ceylon. Both he and the senior chaplain at Columbo, the Hon. Mr. Twisleton, afford their patronage in the most liberal manner to three missionaries of the London Society, established in different parts of the island; and the government allows to each of them an annual stipend. The whole of the Now Sir Alexander Johnstone, Chief Justice of Ceylon. |