"Tonjon," a chair with a head like a gig, carried by bearers. The whole way lies between scattered bungalows, bazars, and other buildings, intermixed with gardens and mangoe groves; and three days without rain had made the direct road not only passable, but very reasonably good. As we approached Dinapoor, symptoms began to appear of a great English military station, and it was whimsical to see peeping out from beneath the palms and plaintains, large blue boards with gilt letters 66 Digah Farm, Havell, Victualler, &c." "Morris, Tailor.” "Davis, Europe Warehouse," &c. The cantonment itself is the largest and handsomest which I have seen, with a very fine quay, looking like a battery, to the river, and I think three extensive squares of barracks uniformly built, of one lofty ground-story well raised, stuccoed, and ornamented with arcaded windows, and pillars between each. There are also extensive, and, I understood, very handsome barracks for the native troops which I did not see, those which I have described being for Europeans, of whom there are generally here one King's regiment, one Com- pany's, and a numerous corps of artillery. Every thing in fact is on a liberal scale, except what belongs to the Church, and the spiritual interests of the inhabitants and neighbourhood. The former I found merely a small and inconvenient room in the barracks, which seemed as if it had been designed for a hospital-ward; the reading-desk, surplice, books, &c. were all meaner and shabbier than are to be seen in the poorest village chapel in Eng

land or Wales; there were no punkahs, no wallshades, or other means for lighting up the Church, no glass in the windows, nó font, and till a paltry deal stand was brought for my use out of an adjoining warehouse, no communion table. Bishop Middleton objected to administer Confirmation in any but Churches regularly built, furnished, and consecrated. But though I do not think that in India we need be so particular, I heartily wished, in the present case, to see things more as they should be, and as I had been accustomed to see them. Nor, in more essential points, was there much to console me for this neglect of external decencies. I had only fourteen candidates for Confirmation, some of them so young that I almost doubted the propriety of admitting them, and there were perhaps a dozen persons besides in the Church, It is very true that the King's regiment (the 44th) was absent, but the Company's European regiment, most of them young men, might have been expected to furnish, of itself, no inconsiderable number, when the conduct of those at Dum Dum on similar occasions is recollected, There are, likewise, several indigo-planters in the neighbourhood, many of them with families, and many others who had themselves never been confirmed, to whom the Chaplain of the station had long since sent notice, but who had none of them given any answer to his letters; he, indeed, (whom I found extremely desirous of contributing to the improvement of the people under his care) lamented in a very natural and unaffected manner the

gross neglect of Sunday, the extraordinary inattention on the part of the lower classes to all religious concerns, and the indifference hitherto shewn by the Company's military officers now at Dinapoor to every thing like religious improvement. While the 44th was here, a very different and admirable example was set by Colonel Morrison and his officers, and the men themselves were most of them patterns of decent conduct and regular attendance in Church, not only in the morning but in the evening, at which time their attendance was perfectly voluntary.

There had been a school for the European children and those recruits who could not read, but this had fallen to decay, because nobody would subscribe, and the Chaplain alone could not support it. The Government sent six months ago, a lending library for the use of their European soldiers, and allowed eight rupees a month to the clerk for keeping it, but the brigade major, to whom the books were consigned, had never unpacked them, alleging (of which he was not the proper judge)" that they were too few to be of any use," and "that there was no place to put them in," as if a corner of the room now used as a Church would not have answered the purpose perfectly.

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Of the European regiment, though it was in orders" that the men should attend Church every Sunday,very few ever came, and seldom any officer but the adjutant, and the neighbouring planters seemed utterly without religion of any kind, never

applying to the Clergyman except for marriage, burial, and the baptizing of their children. Mr. Northmore, who gave me this account, complained that he was often sadly discouraged, and led to fear that some deficiency in himself was the cause of this neglect of his ministry, but that he was comforted to find his attendance both acceptable and useful to the sick men in the hospital, where, indeed, I hear his conduct is marked by very great diligence and humanity. For the lamentable state of things of which he complains, there are many reasons for which he can in nowise be accountable, and which, to prevent his being discouraged, I took care to point out to him. One of these I shall probably find but too prevalent throughout the Indian army, where the early age at which the officers leave England, the little control to which they are afterwards subjected, and the very few opportunities afforded to most of them of ever hearing a sermon, or joining in public prayer, might be expected to heathenize them even far more than we find is the case.

But at Dinapoor something may be also ascribed to the exceeding bad conduct of the late Chaplain, which must have driven many from the church, whom it would be very difficult for the most popular preacher to entice back again. And the want of a decent church is the strongest cause of all. The present room barely affords accommodation for half the soldiers who might be expected to attend, without leaving any for the officers' families, or the neighbouring planters. These, therefore,