large and stately building, fitted up with much elegance. Here, as elsewhere in India, I found the Scots Clergy extremely well disposed to be on friendly terms with those of England. Mr. Lawrie, the junior minister, was, I think, one of my most constant auditors in the different Churches where I preached.

The other buildings of Madras offer nothing very remarkable; the houses all stand in large compounds, scattered over a very great extent of ground, though not quite so widely separated as at Bombay. There are not many upper-roomed houses among them, nor have I seen any of three stories. The soil is, happily, so dry, that people may safely live and sleep on the ground-floor. I do not think that in size of rooms they quite equal those either of Calcutta or Bombay; but they are more elegant, and, to my mind, pleasanter than the majority of either. The compounds are all shaded with trees and divided by hedges of bamboo, or prickly pear; against these hedges several objections have lately been made, on the ground that they intercept the breeze, and contribute to fevers. I know not whether this charge has any foundation; but, if removed, they would greatly disfigure the place; and, in this arid climate, where no grass can be preserved more than a few weeks after the rains, would increase to an almost intolerable degree, a glare from the sandy and rocky soil, which I already found very oppressive and painful.

Government house is handsome, but falls short of Pareil in convenience, and the splendour of the

principal apartments. There is, indeed, one enormous banqueting-house, detached from the rest and built at a great expence, but in vile taste; and which can be neither filled nor lighted to any advantage. It contains some bad paintings of Coote, Cornwallis, Meadows, and other military heroes, and one, of considerable merit, of Sir Robert Strange, all fast going to decay in the moist seabreeze, and none of them, except the last, deserving of a longer life.

There are some noble charities here; the military school for male and female orphans, where Dr. Bell first introduced his system, is superior to any thing in Calcutta, except the upper schools at Kidderpoor. The orphan asylums in the Black Town, though much smaller, put the management of the Calcutta free-school to shame; and at Vepery is the finest Gothic Church, and the best establishment of native schools, both male and female, which I have yet seen in India. The native Christians are numerous and increasing, but are, unfortunately, a good deal divided about castes, respecting which I have to make some regulations, which I have deferred till I have seen the missions in the south. The majority of the Missionaries complain of Christian David as intriguing and tracassier; I myself am not easily shaken in my good opinion of him; and I find good old Dr. Rottler thinks with me. I have, however, obtained the appointment of a select committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, to enquire into the real nature of the claims of caste still subsisting, and to

report to me at my return, which with my own enquiries may, perhaps, land us nearer the truth. I find there is a vast deal to do connected with the southern missions; and have had many intricate and important points referred to me, both by the Committee, Dr. Rottler, and Mr. Haubroe. My journey I foresee will not be a party of pleasure, but I rejoice that I have not delayed it any longer.

I also received very uncomfortable accounts of the new Syrian Archbishop in Travancore, who was in open war with the English Missionaries and the two Metropolitans who had till now supported them. On the whole I had abundant reason to pray heartily for health, discretion, and firmness, since in no part of India had I found so much expected from me.

The Armenians in Madras are numerous, and some of them wealthy. Mr. Sam, the principal of them, is a very sensible and well-informed man, a great traveller, like most of his nation, and who, more than most of his nation, has mixed and still mixes in good European society. He told me some curious particulars concerning his country, partly on his own authority, partly as interpreter to Mar Simeon, a dignified ecclesiastic from a convent near Erivan, whom I met with at Bombay, and who now again called on me. At Bombay they had called him Bishop, but I now found that he was only Episcopal Commissary from the Archbishop of Shirauz. I thought him now, as I had previously done at Bombay, a plain, modest man, very grateful for attention, but far less well-informed and in