"The picture, so full of Eastern pomp and glitter, enhanced by the luxuriance of Nature, was made complete by the character of the human life that animated it. Here were not merely menials, in scanty clothing, or sepoys undergoing daily pillory in tight coats and preposterous stocks, but scores of emirs, cadis, writers, and the like, attired in silken raiment and splendidly turbaned, continually passing to and fro, with servants running before them, dividing the crowds for the passage of their elephants. The country-people were pouring into the city by thousands, laden with their produce, and the bazaars of fruit and vegetables, which seemed interminable, were constantly thronged."

He thus describes the new Imambarra of Azuf-ud-Dowlah, to which we have already referred, as one of the recent specimens of Saracenic architecture:

"On the left was the gate of the Imambarra, or tomb of Azuf-udDowlah, one of the former Nawabs of Oude, and here the carriage drew up. I alighted, and entered a quadrangle surrounded by the same dazzling white architecture, with gilded domes blazing against the intense blue of the sky. The enclosed space was a garden, in which stood two beautiful mausoleums of marble. Several feeble fountains played among the flowers, and there was a long pool in the midst, with a bridge over it, and grotesque wooden figures of sepoys of the size of life, standing guard at each end. Scattered about the garden were also several copies in plaster of classical statues, and one in marble of Acteon and his hounds. Although Lucknow is a thoroughly Moslem city, most of the inhabitants, as well as the royal family, belong to the sect of Sheeahs-the descendants of the partisans of Ali-who do not scruple to make pictures or models of living things. This is a cause of great annoyance and sorrow to the Sonnees, or orthodox Mussulmen, who hold it to be a sin in the sight of God. The idea originated, no doubt, in the iconoclastic zeal of the Prophet and his immediate successors.

"On ascending the marble steps leading to the edifice at the bottom of the garden, I imagined for a moment that I beheld a manufactory of chandeliers. Through the open marble arches nothing else was at first visible. The whole building was hung with themimmense pyramids of silver, gold, prismatic crystals and colored glass -and where they were too heavy to be hung, they rose in radiant piles from the floor. In the midst of them were temples of silver filigree, eight or ten feet high, and studded with cornelians, agates and emeralds. These were the tombs. The place was a singular jumble of precious objects. There were ancient banners of the Nawabs of Oude, heavy with sentences from the Koran, embroidered in gold; gigantic hands of silver, covered with talismanic words; sacred shields, studded with the names of God; swords of Khorassan steel, lances and halberds; the turbans of renowned commanders; the trappings of the white horse of Nasr-ed-Deen, mounted on a wooden effigy; and several pulpits of peculiar sanctity. I had some difficulty in making out a

sort of centaur, with a human head, eyes of agate, a horse's body of silver, and a peacock's tail, but was solemnly informed that it was a correct representation of the beast Borak, on which the Prophet made his journey to Paradise. The bridle was held by two dumpy angels, also of silver, and on each side stood a tiger about five feet long and made of transparent blue glass. These, I was told, came from Japan."

There is one subject upon which we must take decided exception to the views which Mr. Taylor expresses at various parts of his travels. At several stations, both in India and China, he met with American missionaries, and saw a little of their Missionary labours. He mentions these missions on eight occasions, and though he praises the conscientiousness of the men, he always speaks of their labours in disparaging terms. The following passage describes his visit, with Mr. Hall of the Benares college, to the well-known Mission of the Church Missionary Society at Sigra, on the north-west side of the city of Benares

"After visiting Mr. Reid, the Commissioner of the District, Mr. Hall accompanied me to the mission establishment of the English Church. Here there is a small village of native Christians, whom I could not but compassionate. Cut off for ever from intercourse with their friends, denounced as unclean and accursed, they showed their isolation by a quiet, patient demeanor, as if they passively sustained their new faith, instead of actively rejoicing in it, There was, however, a visible improvement in their households greater cleanliness and order; and the faces of the women, I could not but notice, showed that the teachings of the missionaries had not been lost upon them. I wish I could have more faith in the sincerity of these converts; but the fact that there is a material gain, no matter how slight, in becoming Christian, throws a doubt upon the verity of their spiritual regeneration. If lacking employment, they are put in the way of obtaining it; if destitute, their wants are relieved; and when gathered into communities, as here, they are furnished with dwellings rent-free. While I cheerfully testify to the zeal and faithfulness of those who labor in the cause, I must confess that I have not yet witnessed any results which satisfy me that the vast expenditure of money, talent and life in missionary enterprises, has been adequately repaid."

Christian missions are carried on both in India and China upon such an extensive scale, that they cannot fail to attract notice. In India alone £200,000 are annually spent upon them: they are vast public property, supported by numerous public bodies in Europe and America. Nothing can be more proper, nothing can be more beneficial, than that they should constantly be watched, by those who support them. No one will object to the most

careful enquiry and examination of their proceedings on the part of intelligent visiters, whether local residents or passing travellers. In India at least one fact is undeniable, that those laymen who know missions best, are their best supporters. But in the case of our author, no such enquiry was once made. He visited, he saw; and was everywhere determined not to believe. He makes no charges; he presents no rational arguments against the missions he saw; he makes no objections; he offers no explanations, derived from the magnitude of the work, the greatness of the obstacles with which it meets, or the character of the object at which it aims. He mentions none of the reasons, so plain to every eye, which render missions an arduous task. He simply sneers at them, as in his description of Hurdwar; or hammers away with the same assertions of unbelief in their utility, reiterated and repeated again and again. These things with sensible men will do no harm. They simply prove the intensity of his prejudices; they show that his mind had arrived at a foregone conclusion; that he was determined to believe that missions are useless and expensive; and that nothing should convince him to the contrary. Nothing else will account for the extraordinary statements in the paragraph above quoted, that the native Christians of Sigra are subdued and depressed outcasts, and that still they make a profit in becoming Christians!

No one who makes an honest and complete enquiry, can fail to discover the exact position which missions occupy in India. The managers of missionary societies have published, and continue to publish, much illustrative of this very point. From their annual reports may be compiled, not only a faithful account of the course which missions have taken; not only a record of their increase or decay, the casualties they have suffered, the hindrances they have met with, or the success they have attained; but all the circumstances under which these things have occurred, and the causes by which they are influenced, are described in detail. Missionaries know well some things by which mere observers and chance visiters are continually puzzled and misled. For instance, the opponents of missions do not discriminate between people and places as they should do. They set down all native Christians as mercenaries or as hypocrites; they assert of all places that missions are unsuccessful and have few converts. But the real truth in these matters is well known to those who make enquiry. The different districts of India are not all alike; and missionary literature not only recognises the fact, that in some stations the progress of conversion has been exceedingly slow, but indicates most clearly the causes from which the delay springs. In these works nothing is more fully recognised than

the fact that immense differences exist in the knowledge, the social customs, the religious traditions of the various tribes which people India. They acknowledge plainly that caste, and a bigotted attachment to the shastras, have been great barriers to Christianity in the North-west Provinces; while simple manners, an open disposition, and unusual social freedom, have much facilitated its progress among the Shanars and the Karens. Again, none know the discouragements of missions so well as those who are best acquainted with the mission system. The assertion often made that only the bright side of things is communicated home, and that in England, fictitious success, and the hiding of difficulties, make every thing appear couleur de rose, is a great mistake. An attentive reader of missionary literature will find stories of lamentable apostacies, of disappointed hopes, of mercenary enquiries, of difficulties among native Christians, of failure among native catechists, all causes of grief to the missionary, as well as stories of the incidents which give him joy. Mr. Taylor, like many other objectors to missions, praises missionaries as faithful, laborious and earnest men; let the view which such men give of their work be carefully studied and fully appreciated; the objectors will then find their cause fall utterly to the ground.

With the concluding sentence of the verdict passed by Mr. Taylor on the Benares and other missions, we, of course, disagree entirely. We might shelter missions under the consideration that Mr. Taylor has seen so very little of missionary operations, as to make it perfectly true, that what he saw did not correspond to the vast expenditure of money and talent, laid out on three hundred places which he did not see; and thus that the statement he makes, is literally true. But we refer rather to the obvious meaning of the sentence, that in his opinion immense sums of money have been expended on missions in India, and that taking all the results together, they do not correspond to the outlay. Of course, Mr. Taylor has no right to make such an assertion, having neither seen nor read enough concerning the wide-spread operations of missions, to be able to form such an opinion on just grounds. In all he says, it is his prejudices and prepossessions that appear, and foregone conclusions take the place of the results of enquiry.

The truth of the statement we question in toto. Far from being fruitless, the labours carried on in connection with Christian missions, have produced an immense amount of good to the country generally, in the direct purpose which they have in view. We shall not attempt to prove this now. The pages of this Review have, in years gone by, given frequent evidence of the beneficial results of missionary efforts: and those who wish for

At the same

fuller information can easily find it on every hand. time, we ask, why should missions be specially singled out as unsuccessful. Who in India have been completely successful in their schemes, subduing all obstacles, and securing the desired triumph? Has the Government been successful in drawing to itself the affections of its subjects, and securing the willing obedience of even the oldest provinces under its rule? Has it cured the mighty public evils which have prevailed for centuries? Has it been able to establish courts of real justice, to banish perjury, and appoint uncorrupt officials among its lower officers? Has it formed a faithful and vigilant police: a faithful army, a contented, prosperous peasantry? All the Governors and high officials of the land lament the contrary. Has education been successful? Has it reached the masses; has it really enlightened the few that have sought its blessings? Have its results been commensurate with the money, time and talent expended upon it? Have planters been successful in making their cultivation popular with the peasantry, while profitable to themselves? Have our merchants taught honesty in all their dealings with native traders, and been able to secure it? In all these cases, the deficiencies of the people have presented great obstacles to progress: how much more may difficulties be pleaded in the case of missions, which go to the very root of the soul's motives and principles of action. Time and effort have failed perfectly to cure numbers of the surface-evils exhibited by native society in India. Much less have they removed far deeper social maladies. Is it wonderful then that Christian missions, which deal with the deepest maladies and disorders of all, should require more time and more effort still before their full fruits can naturally be looked for? Government, in aiming at its objects, employs thousands of European agents: the Christian church sends but four hundred into the whole of India.

We would draw special attention to one statement of Mr. Taylor's, which merits the most serious consideration at the present time :

"There is one feature of English society in India, however, which I cannot notice without feeling disgusted and indignant. I allude to the contemptuous manner in which the natives, even those of the best and most intelligent classes, are almost invariably spoken of and treated. Social equality, except in some rare instances, is utterly out of the question. The tone adopted towards the lower classes is one of lordly arrogance; towards the rich and enlightened, one of condescension and patronage. I have heard the term "niggers арplied to the whole race by those high in office; with the lower orders of the English it is the designation in general use. And this, SEPT., 1857.

K