ral local civil authorities; and stand in somewhat of the same relation to the Society at home, as the chaplains do to the Honourable the East India Company. The persons to fill the chaplaincies are appointed by the Company; and so far they may be considered as in the employment of that Company; though the administration of the episcopal functions, according to law, is vested in the Right Reverend the Bishop. I need not say more on the subject, except that the circumstance of the uniformly exemplary conduct of our Missionaries, against whom no complaints of disorder or irregularity have ever been preferred, serves still farther to commend the prudence and sobriety of the proceedings of the Society. The Archdeacon is not, perhaps, aware, that the only commendation bestowed on missionary efforts, in his Lordship's Primary Charge, is bestowed on those undertaken at the sole expense of our Society, and conducted by a converted Mohammedan, under the discreet and pious guidance of one of the honourable Company's chaplains 5. Nor has he, perhaps, been informed, that the very persons who had a large

5 "Among the Missionary proceedings of the present day, I have met with none which have been conducted with a happier combination of zeal and judgment, than one of your own body has displayed.”—Bishop of Calcutta's Primary Charge. 4to. London. 1817. Pp. 19, 20.

A note to this passage expresses that the person alluded to is the Rev. Mr. Corrie.

-perhaps the largest-share in the efforts which led to the actual establishment of the English episcopacy in India, and who fought the battle of Christianity both in and out of Parliament, when that question was agitated, were among the friends and members of the Church Missionary Society. So easy is it for a respectable person, like our author, unacquainted with the real state of a great question, to commit the most considerable mistakes at every step.

With regard to the Society's Corresponding Committee in India, let the Boards and Committees of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and of all other institutions, reply to the censures of the Archdeacon. It is obvious, that the affairs of a distant mission can be conducted only by maintaining a correspondence with its friends at home.

There are other topics on which I might enlarge; but I fear my readers may be already weary of these details. I will only add, then, on the professed zeal of the Rev. Archdeacon Thomas for the cause of missions-in which he states, that he yields to no member of the Church Missionary Society-that his ardour in that cause would at least have been more manifest, if he had himself been a member of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. But it is a singular fact, when connected with the statements of his Protest, that the

name of the Archdeacon does not appear in the last list of the Members of the Society last mentioned-a circumstance, which, though I admit it may serve sufficiently to account for the errors into which the Archdeacon has fallen, respecting the nature of that excellent institution, as well as with regard to many leading facts connected with his entire argument, does not seem equally well to explain the zeal with which he recommended this very Society to his audience, and his readiness in charging upon them an ignorance of its existence. Nor is it unworthy of remark, that these reproaches should have been directed against an assembly, the Right Reverend President of which was already actually enrolled amongst the members of that Society, which the Archdeacon was contented to admire and to recommend. I will not stop to press this circumstance to its inferences on all the arguments and assumptions of the reverend Protester.

Upon the whole, I trust that it has been shown, in the foregoing pages, that the Archdeacon's claim of jurisdiction over the proposed association at Bath, and his Protest against it, are equally destitute of any weight or authority whatever; and that his facts and arguments adduced to support his right of interference are erroneous. I flatter myself also, that his manner of executing what he imagined to be his

duty, has been proved to be as indecorous, as the grounds of it were insufficient. I hope, in the mean time, that the necessity for the establishment and efforts of the Church Missionary Society has been shown to have been urgent, the rise and proceedings of it laudable, and the objections advanced against it trifling or inconclusive.

But on such a subject this will be far from satisfying the truly benevolent mind. To have repelled the attack of a misinformed assailant is a small matter. The stupendous cause of all the unconverted nations of the earth is involved in the question which has been treated-a cause which is sometimes injured by descending to too minute details of argument. In such details we may possibly err; but, in the general appeal to the members of our church on the imperative duty of missionary efforts, it is impossible to mistake. For these reasons I have already endeavoured to restrain the warmth which I could not but feel at the harsh and even acrimonious language of the Archdeacon's Protest. Perhaps I have not been sufficiently on my guard. But my deliberate wish is to consult the great question of Missions generally. I would far rather be less triumphant in my argument, than injure the success, and diminish the universal acceptance, of this cause. I feel that the interests of millions is at stake; and I should be

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ashamed of being too much moved with our own personal grievances, when the mighty injuries sustained by these vast neglected regions of the earth, which, with a tardy kindness, we are at length calling on our countrymen to redress, are passing in review before us. There never was such an importunate cry of pity raised from all the divisions of the heathen world, as that which now addresses itself to the conscience and feelings of Britons. The whole earth is waiting for the salvation of God. A general disposition to inquire into the records of our faith is manifesting itself. Facilities for establishing missions in the most distant quarters are presented. The success which has attended the missions of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, as well as those of other institutions, inspires us with the warmest hopes. Men of holy constancy and zeal are not found to be wanting, when due encouragement is afforded them. The dawn of prophecy already breaks on our view, and invites us to new tracts of exertion and new scenes of labour. The unparalleled success of the British and Foreign Bible Society is preparing our way. And whither can the fainting eye of human misery turn, but to this great Protestant empire, which God appears to have aggrandized, at the present momentous pe