Prussian Russian Armenian, 50 50 Malay, and As many copies as can be procured. Attached to the Bibliotheca Biblica is a TRANSLATION LIBRARY, containing books for the use of the Translators of the Scriptures. As this Library is not complete, many of the necessary works not being procurable in India, a list of the volumes required will be published; in the hope that learned bodies and individuals having duplicates, will be pleased to present them to the Bibliotheca Biblica in Bengal. This institution was first organized by the Rev. Mr. Brown, with a full reliance on the patronage of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which has cordially embraced his views, and of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, and of the Universities in the United Kingdom, which we hope will enrich its Translation Library. The Rev. David Brown, Senior Chaplain of the East-India Company in Bengal, formerly of Magdalen College, Cambridge, has now been twenty seven years resident in India; and is the zealous promoter of Sacred Learning in the East. He is educating his THREE SONS in India, solely with the view of qualifying them for the important purpose of extending the knowledge of Christianity in Asia. Being himself a Hebrew scholar, his first object has been to ground them well in the Hebrew and Syriac Languages; rightly judging that a knowledge of these forms the best foundation for ability to produce accurate translations of the Scriptures in the other Oriental Tongues. But they have now added to these first languages the Arabic, Persian, and Hindoostanee, which they pronounce like natives of the East. They have had the advantage of the best teachers in the different languages, particularly of SHALOM, an eminent Hebrew scholar from Arabia. So that this little Institution in Mr. Brown's house, may be called the HEBREW SCHOOL in Bengal. It is understood to be Mr. Brown's intention to send his three sons to England, at the proper age, to finish their education at the University, and to enter the Church; with the view of their returning to exercise their ministrations in India. Mr. Brown himself has now seen two or three generations pass away in Calcutta, (how short is a Calcutta generation !) and has exhibited to a large and refined society the doctrine and the example of a faithful minister of the Gospel. Marquis Cornwallis first recommended him to the Court of Directors as a proper person to fill his present important situation, and this he did from a personal knowledge of his truly upright and disinterested character. In the many Governments which have succeeded, there is not one, as the Author believes, which has not recorded a public testimony to the merits of their Senior Chaplain. Marquis Wellesley, in particular, honoured him with his confidence and esteem, to the end of his administration. It was under the auspices of that Nobleman, that Mr. Brown instituted the " Calcutta CHARITABLE FUND for distressed Europeans and others;" of which it may be truly said, that it has been a Fountain of Mercy to thousands in Bengal for ten years past, it having been established in the first year of the new century.* Mr. Brown would have probably returned from India with his large family by this time, but his diffusive benevolence in private charity, and in public undertakings, both in India and England, and the frequent demands on a man in his public station, he being at the head of the Church in Bengal, have not permitted him to increase his * This Institution not only assists occasionally, but pensions permanently, Europeans, Mahomedans, and Hindoos. fortune suitably. And And now, the prospect which opens to his view of being more extensively useful than before, in encouraging translations of the Scriptures, in promoting the objects of the Bible Society, and in educating his sons for the Oriental Church, makes him willing to remain a few years longer in India. THE ARMENIANS. A LEARNED author, in a work published about the beginning of the last century, entitled "The Light of the Gospel, rising on all nations," observes, "that the Armenian Christians will "be most eminently qualified for the office of "extending the knowledge of Christianity 'throughout the nations of Asia." This is undoubtedly true. Next to the Jews, the Armenians will form the most generally useful body of Christian Missionaries. They are to be found in every principal city of Asia; they are the general merchants of the East, and are in a state of constant motion from Canton to Constantinople. Their general character is that of wealthy, industrious, and enterprising people * Fabricii Lux Evangelii, p. 651. They are settled in all the principal places of India, where they arrived many centuries before the English. Wherever they colonize, they build Churches, and observe the solemnities of the Christian Religion in a decorous manner. Their Ecclesiastical Establishment in Hindoostan is more respectable than that of the English. Like us, they have three Churches in the three capitals, one at Calcutta, one at Madras, and one at Bombay; but they have also Churches in the interior of the country. * The Bishop sometimes visits Calcutta ; but he is not resident there. The proper country of these Christians is Armenia, the greater part of which is subject to the Persian Government; but they are scattered all over the Empire, the commerce of Persia being chiefly conducted by Armenians. Their Patriarch resides at Erivan, not far from Mount Ararat. The history of the Armenian Church is very interesting. Of all the Christians in central Asia they have preserved themselves most free from Mahomedan and Papal corruptions. The Pope assailed them for a time with great violence, but with little effect. The Churches in lesser Ar * In Bengal alone, they have Churches at Dacca, Sydabad, and Chinsurah. |