198 Course of Exchange-Price of Bullion-Transfer Books. [Sept. I, Havard F. Hereford, seedsman, Sept. 10 Hirst J. J. Wood street, warehouseman, Sept. 3 Hirst T. and J. Battye, Heckmondwike, York, merchants, Aug. 27 Hodgson J. and E. Pearson, Liverpool, merchants, Aug. 30 Hughes J. Brighton, poulterer, Aug. 30 Hyam N. Duke street, Aldgate, fishmonger, Sept. 6 Lee A. High street, Bloomsbury, silk mercer, Levy L. and C. Childers, East Smithfield, slop sellers, Aug. 23 Langridge R. Painsher, Durham, colliery undertaker, Sept. 10 Marks J. Manchester, warehouseman, Sept. 10 Nettleton W. Plymouth, printer, Aug. 16 Newsham M, Ship alley, umbrella maker, Sept. 10 Probett S. Leamington Priors, stable keeper, Tanner R. Birmingham, upholsterer, Aug. 16 White W. Tonbridge, common brewer, Aug. $3 Wilson A. Foye, seedsmon, Sept. 10 COURSE of the EXCHANGE from July 2, to August 26, 1814. both inclusive. 10-2 a 11-0 10-0 a 10-19 10-3 a 11-1 22-10 a 23-40 22-30 a 23-60 22-30 a 23-60 Leghorn Genoa Oporto Agio on the Bank of Holland 3 per Cent. New Dollars, 5s. 74d. a 5s. зjd. The above Table contains the highest and lowest prices. 1814.] Government Annuities-Loan-Companies Shares. 199 Rates of Government Life Annuities, payable at the Bank of England. 3 per cent. Stocks being now 6, and under 7. 4 A single life of 35 receives for 100/ stock £4 16 O average rate 100l. money £74 N. B. The annexed is a short scale of some of the rates, upon which Government are how granting Life Annuities: they are payable half-yearly, at the Bank of England, the same as the dividends, and may be received by power of attorney. The Life-Annuity Act hating been amended, they may henceforward be purchased when the 3 per cent. Consols, er Reduced Annuities, are at or above 50. Annuities are granted on Joint Lives also. Particulars may be had, gratis, at the Government Life-Annuity Office, Bank-street; or by writing to the Superintendant, if the postage be paid. FURTHER LOAN of £24.000,000 for the Service of the YEAR 1814. Contrasted for on Monday, 13th June, 1814, by Messrs. Barnes, Steers, and Richards, and Messrs. Baring, J. J. Angerstein, and George Ward, Barwis, Ellis, and Co. 301, 3 per cent. Reduced 301. 5 per cent. Navy and Trower and Battye. 231 10s. 3 per cent. Consois, Terms. For every 1001. sterling subscribed. The interest on the 5 per cent. Navy, and on the 3 per cent. Consuls, to commence from 5th July next, and on the 3 per cent. Reduced from 5th April last; and the first half-year's dividend on each stock to be clear of the property-tax. A discount after the rate of 41. per cent, per annum for payments in full. August 4, 1814.-Mr. Hase informed the gentlemen of the Stock Exchange this day, that the Honourable Directors of the Bank of England had resolved to make the remaining payments on the loan of 24,000,000, for the service of the present year, for those persons who request it, excepting the last, which is to be made by the proprietors as usual, and to be redeemed with interest at 5 per cent, per annum, on or before the 25th of February, 1815. 1814 Bank Long Irish 3 per Ct Imp. Days July 26 Stock. Anns. 5 per Ct 258 1 163 96 2 DAILY PRICES OF STOCKS, FROM JULY 26, TO AUGUST 25, 1814, BOTH INCLUSIVE. India So. Sea So. Sea New So15 per Ct. 34 per Dy Consol St. 1ot. Imp. Anns. Om. 1814 Stock. Stock. Anns. Sea An. Ind. Bon. Ex. Bills. for Ac. Tickets. 662 3 per Cifa per Ct, 4 per Ct5 per Ct5 per Ct Reduc Consol. Consol. Navy. 1797. 868 68 68 84 97 Second 21 pr. 68 715s 14s pr5s 1s pr. 682 19/198 8 27 258 68 28 258 258 68 68 67 84 97 97 104 1 2 1 pr. 71 68 15 17 pr. 2 5 pr. 68 Do. 68 68 67 84 97 97 1612 961 66 29 67 674 67 844 3297 63 164 66 163 161 96 66 6631 679 19 18 pr. 5 3 pr. 68 7 Do. 6 67 367 161 1615 161 164% 1612 66 657 Do. 661 O CO pr. 68 73 18 17 pr.6 3 pr. 697 Do. pr. 18 17 pr. 6 3 pr. 67 Do. pr. 196 5 18 pr. 5 3 pr. 672 Do. pr. 67 671 18 17 pr. 5 3 pr. 67 Do. pr. 67 18 17 pr. 5 2 pr. 672 Do. pr. 196 5 711 67 18 17 pr. 5 1 pr. 67 Do. All Exchequer Bills dated prior to the month of July, 1814, have been advertised to be paid off, (or exchanged for New Bills at 3 per day,) on Monday, August 22, 1814, and to be taken in until and including Thursday, August 18. The interest to be cast up to the said 22nd day of August, 1814, when the interest thereon will cease. All Exchequer Bills dated prior to the month of July, 1813, have been advertised to be paid off, and the interest thereon has ceased. N. B. The above Table contains the highest and lowest prices, taken from the Course of the Exchange, &c. originally published by John Castaign, in the year 1712, and now pub. lished, every Tuesday and Friday, under the authority of the Committee of the Stock Exchange, by JAMES WETENHALL, Stock-Broker, No. 7, Capel court, Bartholomew-lane, London, On application to whom, the original documents for near a contury past may be referred to.. James Gillet, Printer, Crown-court, Fleet-street, London.] THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. 9.] OCTOBER 1, 1814. [VOL. II. MONTHLY MAGAZINES have opened a way for every kind of inquiry and information. The intelligence and discussion contained in them are very extensive and various; and they have been the means of diffusing a general habit of reading through the nation, which in a certain degree hath enlarged the public understanding. HERE, too, are preserved a multitude of useful hints, observations, and facts, which otherwise might have never appeared.--Dr. Kippis. Every Art is improved by the emulation of Competitors.--Dr. Johnson. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. a ON HINDOO CONVERSION. To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine. SIR, AMONG the many interesting articles in your last month's miscellany, I was particularlarly struck with the liberality and good sense displayed in a letter apon the present rage for conversion. Having myself been an eye-witness of the results of missionary labours in various parts of the world, I may, perhaps, without arrogating too much, claim right of judging upon this question, and even a power of judging also, to a much greater extent than even the most learned and dignified of our divines, whose sole knowledge on the subject, or nearly so, is derived from the flowery accounts of missionaries, men who would scorn to deceive, but who at the same time will naturally put the best gloss upon the result of their labours, thinking that such statements, even if they cannot amount to a pious fraud, cannot be blameable in the good cause. I will premise, Mr. Editor, that I am as sincere a friend, though perhaps not 50 zealous or enthusiastic, as any others can be to the principle of bringing all men within the pale of the gospel; but I am, at the same time, an enemy to all injudicious attempts to accomplish this godlike end, inasmuch as they must operate against its completion, to an extent which the mass of your readers will perhaps scarcely credit. Many of the difficulties that lie in the way of conversion have indeed been stated by your correspondent J. R. but there are still some of very high importance, a few of which I shall slightly allude to. To begin with the Hindoos, it is proper to mention, that their civil and religious customs are so woven together, and 50 almost inseparable, that you cannot break them of a custom, even in the common offices of life, without outraging their religion; nor can you change their NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 9. religious opinions, without interfering in their ordinary concerns, to an extent incredible to those who have never visited India, which would embitter most of the social and even many of the selfish enjoyments of life. The Hindoos are divided into distinct casts--each cast has its particular trade or occupation, which is hereditarythe individuals of different casts never intermarry-and the family likeness is therefore so great, that two individuals of any cast, of equal years, astonishingly resemble each other; whilst brothers, if nearly of an age, can scarcely be distinguished when apart. These casts are all in gradations-an inferior is not allowed to perform the common offices of life for a superior-he is not permitted to touch his victuals, or the vessels in which they are cooked-nay, sir, the Hindoos of superior cast will throw away their victuals, if seen by an European! But the Christian religion places all its converts upon an equality; it has therefore happened that the Catholic missionaries, who for centuries have been very active, have only succeeded in converting persons of the lowest casts, who, pleased to be on a footing with such as were the masters of those superior casts by whom they were contemned, readily adopted the wearing of a crucifix, or agnus Dei, and submitted to baptism, in order to raise their worldly rank in society. We also eat animal food; the Hindoos do not: though some of the very lowest and unclean casts will eat carrion, that has died a natural death; but will not take away life. We also mix indiscri minately with Moors, Persees, Mopillies, and even with Pariars; and therefore in the eyes of a Hindoo, we are uncleannay more, we eat our food with the left hand, a hand which a Hindoo or even a Persee never applies to any personal office but the most ignoble, at the same time that we apply our right VOL, II, Ee 202 On Hindoo Conversion-Missionaries at Tortola. to purposes for which they reserve the left. You and your readers may smile, Mr. Editor; but trifling as these things may appear, they are not the less important to the Hindoo: so that if one of a superior cast was converted, every relation, even his wife and children, would desert him, as otherwise they would lose cast also, and become outcasts in society, unnoticed-unassisted by all,-even shunned by their inferiors, and unable to exercise industry, they must either perish, or be supported by those whose wellmeant endeavours had brought them to this dreadful condition. In stating this, I mean not to argue against conversion, but merely to shew that something more than preaching and praying is necessary, in order to do justice to the Gospel of Christ, and to its new converts. With the Mahometans, an insuperable objection exists against us, in consequence of our eating pork and drinking wine; though I have seen Mahometans who would not refuse wine when it was called "physic," and they were permitted to hold a bottle of good madeira under their caftan,-but the pork will always be a powerful objection against their uniting with us. Auricular confession, too, has always been a great obstacle in the way of Catholic missionaries with the Mabometans; as no man will permit his wife to have a private interview with a priest or with any body else. In some parts of Africa, indeed, or amongst the Indians in America, such powerful obstacles to the propagation of the Christian faith do not exist: perhaps, however, the conduct of the Jesuits in South America may there be the most worthy of imitation-they always civilized the untutored Indian, and found him an industrious occupation, before they talked to him of the sublime mysteries of Christianity. Morals he learned by practice, before his understanding was puzzled with truths, which, however sacred, are yet not comprehensible by an uncivilized savage. That the conduct of our Christian missionaries has sometimes been very different, I shall illustrate by one fact, on which I pledge my veracity. In the last year of the last century, I was at Tortola, in the West Indies, at a time when very frequent desertions amongst the slaves were taking place, without any person being able to account for it; but as the boats belonging to several plantations were also taken away, [Oct. 1, it was generally supposed that the runaway negroes had gone to some other island. It was remarkable, however, that women and children were also amongst the runaways; and conjecture was thus totally at a loss to explain the mystery. There were then two missionaries on the island, who had built a meeting-house at an expense of fifteen hundred pounds currency, the funds being raised by subscription, principally if not solely amongst the negro slaves! Curiosity induced me one evening to go to this assembly, and there, amongst other unintelligible rant, I heard one of those gentlemen say, " My friends, when you go to the new Jerusalem, you will sit by the river Jordan-you will hang your harps upon the willows, and sing songs of praise to the Lamb that liveth for ever and ever:-there are no cane holes to dig, under a vertical sun-there are no cruel masters to drive you to your work." &c. &c. A practical illustration of this doc trine soon presented itself. One of his majesty's frigates captured a French pri vateer, and fitted her out as a tender; and whilst the little "Grinder" was cruizing between St. Thomas and Porto Rico, she fell in, at dawn of day, with a large launch, filled with men, women, and children, running before the wind, with a blanket for a sail. The tender ran down to her; and the officer hailed, "Whence come you?" "Fram Tartola, massa." "Where the devil are you bound to?" "To the new Jerusalem!" The unfortunate people were immedi ately taken possession of; and I after wards saw the two ring-leaders hanged and their heads cut off, as a warning t other misguided creatures. Previou to this, the missionaries had been sen off the island, by an order of the presi dent and council, in consequence report being made, and proper person being sent, on a succeeding sabbath, order to verify it. But if the ignorant enthusiasm of Inissionaries has been already attende with bad consequences, so I need refer the friends of religion to the tempts at conversion in the South Se in order to be convinced, that the in gular lives of many of the missionari will tend to counteract all the good by others.-This I shall illustrate by short anecdote. When the late worthy and indefati ble Vancouver was preparing his vo for the press, a deputation of clergym waited upon him for information respe |