adopting destitute Hindoo children, with a view to their education in Christian principles, another proof of his wish to introduce a system of compulsion in India!

But the exertions of the friends of religion were successful in checking the rising spirit of jealousy and opposition occasioned by these publications; so that on the 23d of December, when the Court of Proprietors met at the India House, Mr. Twining found so little encouragement to propose his threatened motion, that he withdrew it, and the Court in consequence adjourned.

The important controversy, however, which had been thus begun, did not terminate here. Early in the year 1808, it was renewed by the publication of a pamphlet, entitled, a "Vindication of the Hindoos from the aspersions of the Rev. "C. Buchanan, M. A.; with a refutation of his arguments "for an Ecclesiastical Establishment in British India. By ❝a Bengal Officer." This extraordinary publication was distinguished by the bold avowal, that the Hindoo system little needs the ameliorating hand of the Christian dispensation to render its votaries a sufficiently correct and moral people, for all the useful purposes of civilized society. Its military author, therefore, endeavoured strongly to maintain the excellence of the moral and religious doctrines of the Hindoos, and of the moral character of the Hindoos themselves. With much pretension, however, to local knowledge, he, in fact, betrayed much local ignorance, and with some partial information as to the speculative system of the Brahminical religion and morals, great disregard to its practical influence, and total deficiency in all large and general reasonings.

The "Bengal Officer," like his predecessors in this warfare, dealt much in general abuse of Dr. Buchanan's statements in his Memoir, but adduced no one definite proof of their incorrectness. And here it may be right to observe, that while a few expressions in that work relative to the apparent absence of religious views and feelings in the Europeans generally resident in India, might be considered as somewhat too strongly and indiscriminately hazarded, no

well-grounded objection to his representations upon any point connected with his main argument was ever substantiated. So convinced was Dr. Buchanan himself of his correctness and integrity as to the statements contained in his Memoir, that in a note to his letter to the Court of Directors from Calcutta, in December 1807, which has been already mentioned, he ventured to make the following appeal upon this subject.

"The Memoir of the expediency of an Ecclesiastical Es"tablishment for British India has now been in the hands of "our Indian governments for a year and a half, and I have "not heard that any one fact or deduction contained in that volume has been disputed or disproved; which in this country, where the merits of such a work can be best un"derstood, and where only just information of the local cir"cumstances therein detailed can be obtained, and where "moreover there are fourteen weekly publications to ani“madvert on that information, may be considered as some "testimony to its general accuracy, as well as some ac"knowledgment of the necessity of the great measure "therein proposed."

The labours of the friends and advocates of diffusing Christian knowledge in India more than kept pace with those of its adversaries. Amongst others, the venerable Bishop Porteus wrote some remarks on Mr. Twining's pamphlet,. which were published anonymously, and which, in a strain of animated and well-directed irony, defended the measures of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and what his Lordship termed "Dr. Buchanan's invaluable Memoir.”

Early in the spring appeared Mr. Cunningham's "Essay "on the duty, means, and consequences of introducing the "Christian religion among the native inhabitants of the "British dominions in the East;" forming a part of the work which he had submitted to the University of Cambridge, as a candidate for Dr. Buchanan's prize. The main argument of this able and elaborate publication was founded

a See Owen's History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, vol. i. p. 350.

upon the malignant and pernicious nature of the Hindoo superstition; which was here so completely developed, as not only to form a decisive answer to the statements of such writers as the Bengal Officer, but to prove the obligation of Great Britain to communicate that divine system of faith and morals, by which alone the civil and religious character of the natives of India can be effectually improved.

Mr. Cunningham's Essay was followed by the Prize Dissertation of the author of these Memoirs; of which he will only observe, that he will ever esteem it one of the chief privileges and blessings of his life to have contributed, in whatever degree, to the accomplishment of the great end which the admirable proposer of the subject had in view; the infinite importance of which is confirmed by every year's experience, and cannot fail ere long to be universally acknowledged.

One other work remains to be mentioned of singular excellence and authority; and of which it has been justly remarked, that had it appeared in an earlier stage of the controversy, it would have superseded every other. This was the production of Lord Teignmouth; who, together with the principles of Christian piety and benevolence, brought to the consideration of the weighty subject in question the correct and extensive local knowledge and the practical wisdom and experience which were the result of the high stations he had occupied in India. The temperate and dignified manner in which his Lordship discussed the various topics connected with the controversy before us, deserve the highest admiration; nor is it too much to assert, that his "Con"siderations on the practicability, policy, and obligation of "communicating to the natives of India the knowledge of "Christianity," were not only conclusive of the temporary contest in which they appeared, but will remain a standing testimony to the duty of a Christian nation towards its ignorant and unconverted subjects.

It would be unjust to close this brief enumeration of the principal writers in this controversy, without mentioning the eminent services of one periodical publication, distin

guished by the zeal and ability with which it originally embraced and steadily supported the great cause of Christianity in India. It is scarcely necessary to add the name of the "Christian Observer;" which, whether in the examination of the productions on either side of the question, or in original communications, may justly claim a very considerable share of the praise which belongs to its successful termination.

Thus, as in the instance of the rising opposition at Calcutta, the storm which threatened to overwhelm the efforts of Christian benevolence in this country to diffuse the knowledge of the Gospel in the East was quickly dispersed; and the advocates of this important and salutary measure were for the present permitted to pursue their peaceful and charitable course without farther interruption or disturbance.

CHAPTER II.

WHILE the controversy, of which a brief view has been given, was thus carrying on, the person, whose zeal and activity had principally given occasion to it, was quietly pursuing his voyage from India to his native country. Of the incidents which occurred during the five months which intervened between Dr. Buchanan's departure from Point de Galle in Ceylon to his arrival in England about the middle of August, no memorial appears to have been preserved. The following extracts from letters to several of his friends, though they fail in expressing his emotions on revisiting his native shores, after an absence of twelve years, during which he had been employed in so important and honourable a manner, and had experienced such vicissitudes of joy and sorof repose and toil, of gratification and trial, will yet afford some notices of his proceedings. They will serve also to shew his filial affection, his wish for retirement, yet his desire of usefulness as a minister of the Gospel, and his lively interest in the progress of true religion in this country.

row,

His first visit, on his arrival in London, was to the house of Mr. Newton; "but judge," said he, to one of his correspondents, "what were my feelings, when I was informed "that my venerable friend had entered into rest some "months before. I next proceeded to Cadell's expecting to "have had the Christian Institution' put into my hands; "but here also I was disappointed."

Thus deprived of two of the principal objects of his immediate attention, Dr. Buchanan turned to others of a more private and domestic nature.

"London, 20th August, 1808.

"I arrived here two days ago, and was happy to hear that you and your family were well. I go down to North