opportunities of observing, in remote, as well as in more public places, furnished him with many facilities; so that he was able to describe truly what representation they give of the doctrines of the Cross, and what means were attainable for ameliorating their condition, and removing the stigma, the reproach of their corruptions, from the name and cause of Jesus. For it is but too true, that the papacy, from whose ministers the wounded and inquiring spirits of aroused Brahmins and other Hindoos can derive no satisfaction, is spread as a mock gospel, as a foe to the truth in the East; and is, next to the wicked lives of professors, the most perplexing and dangerous to the half-informed minds. It is evident that the Indian papist can still give himself to such miserable expedients as were at first resorted to for the propagation of their system; and it is ascertained that they will cheerfully admit the votaries of heathen abomination to a share in their own miserable pageantry, and can the next day actually return the sad compliment by a willing and kindred homage to the dead and sordid gods of old Indian idolatry.

There are many of the Roman Catholics of Madras descendants of the first Portuguese invaders, degenerated, no doubt, from the primitive stock, but perhaps not more so than the inhabitants of the mother country in corresponding circumstances. They are generally in the lower stations of society, and are employed as writers or subordinate clerks in government and in merchants' offices, as mere transcribers. They are ignorant, and unambitious of mental improvement; they speak a corrupted dialect of the Portuguese language among themselves, but have generally some knowledge of English; they are extremely fond of display, and of imitating the frivolous amusements and costume of the gayer English. In this presidency they are excluded from the army, as are all Christians, and often from the most subordinate civil appointments: though the same restriction does not extend to half-caste Mohammedans, some of whom have been known to rise to the rank of commissioned officers, subidar or jemidar, in the Madras cavalry. The Portuguese were not allowed to farm ground, nor hold a plough. Some of them have attained wealth and respectability notwithstanding, rising from the lowest ranks of society to be esteemed while living, and affectionately regretted when removed from the intercourse of their friends. An old merchant of Madras, whose history I received, was a case in point. He arrived at a cantonment of British troops as a helpless and unfriended youth, without even a name, a stranger to all who dwelt there; no parent to watch over him, and no instructor to guide him. The camp or the garrison presents a truly fictitious state of society, and often yields so much the more a ready and wide field for enterprise and advancement. Here his first employment was, from necessity, of the humblest description; he procured a scanty subsistence, but he was steady; besides energy, decision, and application, he recommended himself by a readiness to serve, and a good-humoured compliance with the wishes of his superiors. He obtained friends, and found means of attaining improvement. He was known to every one by his serviceableness, and acquired a local cognomen equivalent to John of the Mount. He went with indefatigable industry through a succession of servile employments, but aspired to a higher than a menial station; he obtained a knowledge of letters and accounts; he gathered a little money, and employed it in traffic; he speedily, but cautiously, turned his first gains to second advantages. According to his means he could not be deemed parsimonious, yet his stock increased, and with it, his influence was augmented. He finally rose to affluence and respect. He was numbered among the members of the Romish com munity, but the ghostly influence of the priest over him was partial indeed; he was a singular exception to the bigotry and intolerance of his religion. His purse was open to every generous work, and his hand liberally followed the motions of benevolence: education was promoted by his aid; he contributed to institutions for this purpose when living, and bequeathed resources to be enjoyed after his death, by purely protestant establishments. He was the friend of the indigent -he was the patron of the deserving; he promoted merit, and exhibited a nobleness of mind, which rose superior to the influence of his early life; and when he died, such was the esteem in which he was held, that clergymen and laymen, of Protestant persuasions, travelled thirty miles to attend his funeral as a demonstration of their affectionate respect. Thus he proved a striking contrast to the ruined spendthrift who subsequently becomes an inveterate miser. There was in him a display of systematic and benevolent energy, that indicated a constitution of mind in which the passions are actually commensurate with the intellectual part, and are swayed by an exquisitely keen moral sensibility, and in which there is an inseparable correspondence maintained, like the faithful sympathy of the tides with the phases of the moon.

Purely native papists fill up, low as it is, the grade beneath the Portuguese, and are generally not less destitute of intellectual character; their means of information are equally limited. Their religious education is, of course, under the guidance of the priests. The Bible is forbidden to be used; and the only book of religious instruction which they possess, is a selection from the Bible, in which there is an abridgment of a few of the books, accompanied by explanatory remarks, and some accounts of the mysteries of the incarnation, passion, and resurrection, &c. No wonder, therefore, that their moral influence among their countrymen is even less than that of the worshippers of Brahma. With but few exceptions, they are excluded from offices of trust. They are never raised to authority in their own church, they are the hewers of wood, and the drawers of water-the Gibeonites of the community. Their priesthood, such at least who possess any influence, come from Europe, or are of European descent; and, according to the description which my quondam informant, the major, would give, "that monk with the pale Italian countenance, grey hair, small scull-cap, black robe, and white cords, just stepping out of the old palanquin, is the superior of the Capuchin convent-he is a native of Rome."

I have consulted a Jesuit priest, who has spent thirty years in India: he was clothed in the native costume-his head covered by a large shawl as his turban-his legs bare, and his feet shod with sandals-his body-clothes of the Indian punjam; his grey beard finely flowing over his breast, his manners corresponding with the native habit, his food the diet of the Brahmins, and in his public instructions avoiding every topic that would offend the prejudices of caste; becoming all things to all men to such a degree, that he would not permit the sensitive Hindoos to know that the prodigal's father had killed the fatted calf, or that the Mosaic law prescribed the sacrifice of bulls and goats, and would not inform them that Jesus was a carpenter's son, and his disciples fishermen of Galilee. I have examined him as to the character of that religion, which he and his coadjutors have laboured to propagate; and it seems, that the first missionaries among them, seeing the empire of the senses over these Hindoos, and that their imagination was only to be roused by strongly moving objects, judged