genius, he evidently piques himself upon the suggestion, and expects, we conjecture, as the reward of his ingenuity, the Chaplain-generatship of the Order. Precedents therefore are, in this instance, accumulated, to put out of all question the expediency of its adoption, and to leave our less enterprising Church governors not a foot to stand upon in opposing it.

His first appeal, p. 29, is to the Romish Church, where he finds, generally in the Monastic Orders, and specially in the Order of Jesuits, the precise counterpart to that "disposable force" of which he wishes to be the founder in the Church of England. He does not, however, attempt to conceal what a generation of vipers he has here brought forward as the model of his proposed fraternity; for he dilates upon their knaveries, and specifically states, that though" dexterously converted into instruments of Papal aggrandizement," when employed "upon remote expeditions," it was necessary to the safety of the Church to “detach them from the Main Army" to this distance from home, as they would otherwise have " endangered its repose, and exhausted its resources." But still, not soon abashed from his purposes, he declares it, p. 30, to be "obvious that an order of men, in some respects resembling them, is a desideratum in the Reformed Churches: and he passes on to produce a Reformed Church, (viz. the Lutheran) which having "distinctly recognized as its members," "a body of Missionaries," in our author's conceit "the most pure, indefatigable, and successful that has, perhaps, ever sprung up from the bosom of Christianity," is represented by him (pp. 32, 33) as having formed an "alliance which must be allowed to place it at the head of those institutions which are endeavouring to plant the Tree of Life in the Desarts of Idolatry," and, as provoking "other Churches by a generous and Christian rivalship, to possess themselves of still more powerful and numerous instruments of conversion."

The religionists thus highly eulogised by our author, and proposed as specimens of the missionary recruits, which it is the object of his pamphlet to induce the Church of England to draft into its own body, are the Moravians, whose praise it would have been prudent in him to have confined to his own hyperboles; for implicating, as he does," all the Churches of Christendom" in the panegyrick, he only acquaints the world that RIMIUS'S CANDID NARRATIVE, and Bishop Lavington's work, entitled THE MORAVIANS COMPARED AND DETECTED, have never fallen under his observation. The application, however, which he recommends has been already anticipated by the CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, for at p. 461 of their last report, it appears that the produce of a Sermon of Mr. Basil Woodd's at York, was,

by

by previous agreement, divided between those two congenial institutions. But Mr. Cunningham will not be satisfied with the Church of England enlisting in her service that Missionary Body which the Lutheran Church has engaged; in his estimation she has by her promptitude snatched the port of honour from us, and we are to recover it by " possessing ourselves of still more powerful and numerous instruments of conversion." Here light breaks in upon us. Mr. Cunningham's project is at length glanced at with sufficient significance to render it unobtrusively intelligible, it is that the Church of England should affiliate with herself the whole Methodist fraternity, (the only religious body in this kingdom which nearly identified with the Moravians in principle, surpasses them "in number and power,") and should send them forth as her accredited Missionaries to her Foreign Settlements to propagate under her sanction their own gospel and, in truth, a little acquaintance with this fraternity will leave very little doubt that they are the "desideratum" which our author, with some circumlocution, points to, (p. 30;) for, in their domestic habits, as well their " endangering the repose as their exhausting the resources of the Church," their " resemblance" to his model, the Jesuits, is very striking, and from some specimens exhibited, it may with great probability be inferred, that detached upon remote expeditions they would supply all that is wanting to make the likeness complete, by ministering, to their employer's schemes of aggrandisement" with the same adroitness as that intriguing Order.

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The point next in importance in our author's plan to the grand feature of it, the new Corp to be created, is the "material" to be employed in its formation. He excepts it will be recollected against the quarries of literature," and we have just gathered from oblique intimation upon the subject, that a Sectarian quarry" is that which he would recommend. His au.horities put this out of all question, for having laid it down, (p. 27) that "the Dissenting Bodies," though, as a local and regular army, inferior to the Church, have certainly a larger disposable force," and "far more extensive Missionary Settlements," he assumes that their mode of "multiplying labourers in the Missionary Vineyard" must be the most perfect, and accordingly he boldly adduces their "lax System of Ordination," "the Rank of Life from which their Ministers are taken," and "the limited Education" given them, as so many- Canons by which the Church is to regulate her proceedings in this particular, or she will" continue," he forbodes, " to unfurl her Missionary banners in vain." To" a lax System of Ordination" for Missionary purposes, our author, indeed, attaches great importance, for he expatiates a second time upon it, and having described the

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Lutheran

Lutheran Church, as composed of many "independent states," and thus furnishing such "facilities" to admission into the Ministry, that " Candidates for Orders finding an impediment in one state" only "proceed to the next;" "assigns" this as specific source of the superiority" over the Church of England, for Missionary enterprize, which in his conceit she possesses.

a

There is one other suggestion of vital importance to our author's plan, which he feels it necessary to support by the citation of authority-the unlimited "sphere of operations" to be assigned to the Missionary Corps when they reach the place of their destination." Specific designation," he says, "would ensure the failure of the Mission," and thus he puts an extinguisher upon the 60 chaplains of the East India Company, whom he declares in so many words (p. 5) to be "wholly disqualified, by their situation as local Ministers for Missionary exertions." The precedent appealed to for this part of his hypothesis is highly satisfactory, it is (p. 26,) to "the Missionary Career of the Dutch" in Ceylon; whom he gravely states to have "divided” that Island into" specific spheres of operation," viz. "into. 240 Churchships, with at least one Minister to each," as a proof that Missionary efforts would be all rendered fruitless by such a distribution.

Here our author would have closed his case had he been con tented with recommending it to the patronage of private individuals; but his ambition is that it should receive Parliamentary Sanction, and be adopted as a national undertaking; and as he cannot help proclaiming his apprehensions that "the novelty of the scheme may be a ground of objection" with the Legislature, he has made laborious researches amongst our obsolete statutes, and has been fortunate enough to discover one which he sets forth as "completely harmonising with his proposed measure, and supplying Parliament at once with a precedent and a model" for it. The fact is, he has blundered upon an Act passed at the close of the American Rebellion, to provide for the immediate Spiritual Wants of the Episcopalians in that country, who, in consequence of the majority of the Episcopal Clergy having been banished as Loyalists, had long been deprived of the offices of religion. This temporary act, which expired the moment a further power was granted to our Prelates to consecrate for the American Church, Bishops of its own; our author, too ardent to travel to his conclusion, through the intermediate premises, pounces upon as strictly analogous" to his proposed enactment, and as "removing all objections of any moment," which might otherwise " have been adduced."

But still it occurs to our author that he is an obscure individual, and therefore that his plan would stand a much better

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chance

chance of respectful entertainment, if he could avail himself of the sanction of some persons of eminence, experienced in the 'spiritual concerns of India, as its recommendation. Dr. Buchanan is a host; and when the late Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Porteus are confederated with him, such authorities must challenge all the deference which, consistently with their public duty, Parliament can pay to an uncanvassed proposal. Our author, therefore, makes them partially responsible for his plan; for he states (p. 35) that "it was in part announced in a late publication of Dr. Buchanan's," but that it did not "originate with him, having been examined and approved by the Prelates above mentioned before his return from India." "It seemed," however, to our author, (as, in the presence of these great authorities, he does not hesitate to state,)" to demand as well some modification as certain alterations," and so he undertakes to put the finishing stroke to it, and thus perfected "once more, "humbly proposes it to Parliament and to the people." What was the form in which the Prelates left the plan is not specified by our author, and therefore we are unable to appreciate either its defects or his improvements. But having one of Dr. Buchanan's volumes at hand, that entitled "COLONIAL ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT," curiosity led us to examine what part of the plan he had the credit of announcing, and to our surprise, at p. 110, we read the following passage:

"The adoption of means for the instruction of the natives is not the primary point of England's duty, in relation to her Indian Empire. She owes her primary obligations to her own children. This is her supreme duty. Let us first give religious instruction to our own countrymen; and the adoption of means for the more general and systematic instruction of the natives may be expected to follow in due time. Let us first organize our own Church in Asia, and then that Church will be the fittest instrument for carry"ing on the general conversion and civilization of the natives."

Looking a little further our surprize encreases when we read (p. 162) that," if ever Christianity pervade that country, (India) generally, it must be by the ministrations of the natives," "whose instruction and ordination (p. 147) can only be accomplished by slow degrees," and (p. 28) that the providing "a power of Ordination on the spot" carries with it all that is required: and, accordingly, in " a sketch" subjoined "of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India," 3 Bishops, 3 Archdeacons, 40 European, and 60 Country Chaplains appear; but not a word about Missionaries. In short, what our author de*preciates in the Parliamentary provision, as merely "not leaving

the

the question wholly untouched," viz. the appointment of a Bishop, &c. consummates all Dr. Buchanan's desires and expectations, and is so far from "making," as our author alleges, "not the smallest provision for the conversion of the Hindoos,' that it makes the only one which the Dr. conceives will be effectual.

Returning then to the important question with which the pamphlet commences, "What part ought the Church of England to act in the great work of Evangelizing the East" we cannot refrain from expressing our regret, that his Majesty, as the Head of that Church, was not empowered by the Legislature to carry into execution the abovementioned plan of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for India, uncrippled by the reduction of the three Bishopricks proposed, to one for the whole Peninsula. Had this mutilation been over-ruled, the above interesting question dexterously raised by our author, for the serving up his salmagundi of religious principles, might have been dismissed as altogether impertinent-every thing not merely necessary but conducive to the great work, having been done by the Statute, from which occasion to raise the question was taken; and, under present circumstances, we do not see the "nodus vindice dignus" to call forth his labours, the omissions in the plan as enacted by Parliament, comprizing all that is required for its completion: nay, defining those limits where divinely appointed agency terminates; and human inventions begin, and therefore where God's blessing is withdrawn from the undertaking, and those "exacerbations," announced by our author, begin to operate, which are the sure presage of discomfiture to any purpose into which they are introduced, and bring it finally to nought.

"What part the Church of England then has yet to act in the great enterprise" in question, may be stated in a few words; she has to act the part of remembrancer to the Legislature, and availing herself of seasonable moments as they occur, to urge the completion of what the recent Statute has left defective in the Church Establishment of India, viz. the erecting into Bishopricks the two Presidencies of Madras and Bombay, for which Archdeacons only are provided, and thus besides affording them the real in exchange for the nominal benefits of Episcopal superintendence, exhibiting Christianity also in its perfect form, and with all its divinely instituted attractions in each of the seats of government instead of one only of our Eastern Empire: for Mr. Cunningham's views of Christianity must not be suffered to abrogate our Lord's description of his own religion, that it is a kingdom-a kingdom indeed not of this world—but still a kingdom-not a confused multitude, some proclaiming lo here is Christ, and others lo he is there but a universal society professing a

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