This will appear to a European sufficiently extraordinary ;. and may lead him to suspect, as indeed the fact is, that great difficulties oppose the introduction of better knowledge into India. While so great a proportion of the natives is left to barbarism and ignorance, while a few ceremonies of the most trifling description supply the place of morals and piety, while the tribes are scattered at considerable distances from each other, and while there is so strong a principle of repulsion in activity, throughout all parts of Hindostan, we may wish for the conversion of these outcasts: but our expectations must be temperate. There is no room for exulting predictions of instant success; but there is no occasion for despair. A community yet remains to be noticed, which is neither a caste nor a sect, which sets no value on descent, which confines not its fellowship to a family or to a nation, nor considers any as better or worse for secular privileges. It is pleasing to think that the members of this community, in spite of persecution and cruelty, are yet considerable, and that force has failed of overcoming their zealous and resolute piety.

The princes of the house of Ikeri had given great encouragement to the Christians, and had induced 80,000 of them to settle in Tulava. They are all of Kankana descent, and retained the language, dress, and manners of the people of that country. The clergy it is true adopted the dress of the order to which they belonged; but they are all natives descended from Kankana families, and were purposely educated in a seminary at 'Goa, where they were instructed in the Portuguese and Latin languages, and in the doctrines of the church of Rome. In Tulava they had 27 churches, each provided with a vicar-general, subject to the authority of the Archbishop of Goa. Tippoo threw the priests into dungeons, forcibly converted to Islamism the laity, and destroyed all the churches. As the Christian religion does not prevent the re-admission into the church of such delinquents, these involuntary Mussulmans have in general reconciled themselves with the clergy, who now of course are at liberty, and 15,000 have already returned to Mangalore and its vicinity; 10,000 made their escape to Malabar, from whence they are returning home as quickly as their poverty will admit. The clergy are now busy with their flocks, whose poverty, however, has hitherto prevented them from.rebuilding any of their churches. During the government of Hyder, these Christians were possessed of considerable estates in land, all of which were confiscated by Tippoo, and immediately bestowed on persons of other casts, from whom it would be difficult to resume them. These poor people have none of the vices usually attributed to the native Portuguese; and their superior industry is more readily acknowledged by the neighbouring Hindus, than avowed by themselves. Vol. III. p. 23.

This is certainly a very honourable testimony to the character of these poor, but respectable native Christians. We could, be glad to consider Dr. B. as somewhat too harsh, in the account he gives of their presiding Ecclesiastic.

The vicar general was long continued in Jamál ábád. He speake Latin neither correctly nor with fluency, and seems very desirous of obtaining what he calls a domineering power over the sect, that his authority may be equal to that of the native Gurus; so as to keep his flock in good order, not only by the spiritual means of excommunication, but also by the temporal expedients of fine and corporal punishment.'

The scenes which pass daily before Europeans, would certainly not prepare them to expect that an Indian Ecclesiastic should have the sense to keep his flock in good order by spiritual means, by friendly advice and exemplary sanctity.

There are several lessons of importance, that we have often endeavoured to teach, which it may be possible to inculcate, by examples from this work, on minds untractable by reason. In the first place, if it were possible in this age of scriptural knowledge for any Christian believer to dream of propagating the evangelical blessings by the sword, the intolerance of Tippoo, with its horrible and fruitless cruelties, would doubtless arouse him to humanity and common sense. Let the enemy therefore of the Christianizing system, give so much credit to its friends, as to suppose them perfectly disinclined, while they are utterly unable, to prosecute their sacred work by any other measures, than those of illuminating the mind and winning the affections. At the same time, let his liberality be consistent, and cordially extend that tolerance to the Christian which he vindicates for the Mussulman or the Hindoo.

2. Let the possibility of converting the Indian natives of all ranks, without exciting any general clamour or the slightest political disaffection, which has been demonstratively proved and abundantly admitted, be remembered as an indubitable fact; and let the progress of truth no longer be interrupted by the iteration of detected falsehood and groundless alarms.

3. Let a fair comparison be made and kept in mind, of the pagan and Christianised Hindoo; and let the enemies of the gospel be considered, and consider themselves, as the advo cates of mental degradation and social brutality, of sloth, disloyalty, impiety, and filth.

Lastly, we would exhort all classes who think or speak of the Hindoo character with due reprobation, to remember what circumstances have aggravated its natural depravity. “Suppose ye that these are sinners above all others?" is the language of genuine candour. "Who maketh thee to differ?" is the reflection of grateful humility. The standard of human character in Hindoostan is at zero; there is no danger of severity becoming unjust in estimating its value, or of eloquence becoming extravagant in describing its turpitude. But let us beware that our antipathy is directed, not against the person of our degraded brother, but against the superstitions, the vices, and the tyranny that have degraded him. The Hin

doos, essentially and originally, are the equals of Swartz and Carey; and it would not be difficult to assign the circumstances, which have so reduced the general character in India as to render such an assertion paradoxical. The slavery of the mind to a detestable superstition, and that of the body to a succession of oppressors, are the obvious sources of all that is peculiarly deplorable among the Hindoos. These causes have operated in the production of evil conjointly; they have multiplied the kinds, and augmented the quantity. The intense craft of the Hindoos, for instance, may be ascribed to their precarious situation as oppressed and plundered vassals; it is the natural resource of weakness against violence: but it has been strengthened by a system of pretended religion, which tolerates fraud, which admits of ridiculous expiations, which only recognizes external conduct, and affects no influence in the heart. These causes have operated for ages; their influence is inveterate; and though they should be abolished by the dash of a pen, their effects cannot be reversed nor their power suddenly annihilated. The fetters may be broken, but the limbs are cankered and withered; the trace is almost indelible, and vigour is scarcely to be restored. There is then a peculiar difficulty to be expected in attempting the improvement of the Hindoos; an obstinate prejudice arising partly from peculiar circumstances, that should not diminish our concern for their happiness, but animate our efforts to promote it. The opponents of Missions have pleaded the same fact to a far different purpose. The very age and solidity which the empire of human misery has attained in India, is urged, not as a motive to accelerate and redouble exertions in subverting it, but as a reason for summoning the civil power of Britain to its protection! Such is the philanthropy of those, who would

leave the Hindoos in the undisturbed possession of their altars and their gods," in the chains of an infernal hierarchy, in the dungeon of impenetrable ignorance, among the pollutions of sin, and the tortures of superstition. It is a glorious distinction of Christians, from all the hordes of audacious or hypocritical infidels, a distinction truly expressing the essential difference of their characters, that the former detest the crime while they pity the criminal, the latter are merciless to the criminal but tolerant to the crime: the former would save the worshipper and destroy the idol; the latter would spare the idol, but drown or burn the worshipper!

These volumes are embellished and illustrated by a considerable number of Plates. The portraits of Tippoo's Sons are well executed, from Drawings made for the Marquis Wellesley. We have already expressed our opinion of the importance of this work to the sciences of moral philosophy, natu

ral history, and statistics, to the principles of legislation, and the pursuits of commerce; and we cannot in justice deny our emphatic commendation of the judgement which prompted the commission, of the industry which prosecuted the inquiries, and of the liberality which has published the result.

Art. IV. Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field. By Walter Scott, Esq. 4to. pp. 500. Price 17. 11. 6d. Boards. Edinburgh, Constable; Miller, Murray. 1808.

PUBLIC expectation is seldom so highly excited by the pro

mise of a new poem, as it has been, for some time past, by the repeated annunciation of " Marmion, a Tale of Flodden Field," by the author of " The Lay of the last Minstrel." Mr. Scott is probably the most popular poet living in this country, even in an age distinguished for poets of various and eminent talents. Without presuming to depreciate him in comparison with any of his less fortunate contemporaries, we may attribute a portion of his fame to the felicitous circumstance of his style and subjects being peculiarly calculated to fascinate two classes of readers, the one very select and the other very numerous, who are not generally attached to the Muses; we mean, the Black-letter-men and the Novel-readers of the age: the admirers of border antiquities, and the lovers of romantic adventures. Thus trebly armed with true powers of poetry to delight the refined and susceptible heart, with skill in obsolete literature to attract the antiquary, and with a form of language so plain, yet so fluent, as to make the novel-reader forget that his tales are in verse, Mr. Walter Scott stands unrivalled among his brethren. How far the present work may gratify that curiosity, which the somewhat officious. predictions of its approach awakened, we shall not pretend to anticipate. Had Marmion appeared before the author, by his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, had prepared the public mind for the Gothic inroad* which he meditated against the feeble provinces of modern poetry, and which he successfully accomplished in The Lay of the last Minstrel; -such a phenomenon of grotesque verse as is here exhi bited would have staggered the critics, who would scarcely have ventured to declare a free opinion of its merits (though they might have found less difficulty in carping at its faults) till the public, the slow but finally infallible judge of literary excellence, had sentenced it to oblivion or immortality. As the case stands, both the critics and the public will judge. Marmion in comparison with the author's former and favourite production; and it is not improbable that some disappointment may be felt, for eager and long-waiting expectation

*He calls his lyre the Gothic Harp.-p. 14.

is always unreasonable. In the Lay of the last Minstrel, the poet rode triumphantly through a field in which there was no competitor; on the present occasion, it is true, he has only one rival, but that rival is the most formidable with whom he could be compelled to enter the lists, for that rival is himself; and unless he has greatly surpassed his own former atchievements, he must be contented till the next generation at least, with the credit of having adventured bravely, but failed.

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Perhaps the most captivating charm of the Lay of the last Minstrel may be found in the pleasing introduction of "the last Minstrel" himself, in the scene and the company where he carolled his "Lay," and in the compassionate interest awakened in the reader's breast for the old man, when, at the opening and conclusion of every canto, he recals his own joys and sorrows, and unbosoms his individual feelings, in spontaneous and irresistibly-affecting rhapsodies. By the admirable art of the poet, the Tale or Lay" itself is delivered in the presence of a party, of which every reader imagines himself one; even in perusal, therefore, the story seems rather to be listened to than read. It was not to be expected that Mr. Scott should be so fortunate as to invent a vehicle equally advantageous for another poem of similar character: but no one could doubt that he was capable of selecting and adorning a theme of higher dignity, and more exquisite intrinsic interest, than the Lay. Such a theme, and so exccuted, is Marmion; and had the author trusted it with its own insulated merits to the public, it would have been welcomed and honoured with unhesitating applause. But being determined to encumber it with the most unnecessary support that could well be imagined, he has thrust between the six Cantos six long Epistles to friends, modern in style, subject, and embellishment; which might as well have been interpolated with the old chronicle of the "Battle of Flodden" as with this new Tale of Flodden Field. The author needs not be proud of the plaudits, nor sore at the sarcasms, of any one who can patiently read this book according to the order in which it is printed; for Marmion will have little power to dazzle or delight him, who can endure the impertinent intervention of the epistles in the most sublime and interesting pauses of the narrative. Convinced of the extraordinary worth of the latter, and the comparative insignificance' of the greater part of the former, we have little doubt that the fortune of this volume will be the reverse of its predecessor:-there the interludes afforded the highest gratification; here they will not only miss due praise, but escape just censure; for as it will require very little additional trouble to turn over twenty pages instead of one, from Canto to Canto, few readers will grudge