think that the difference between us, though it should not interrupt our communion, is in itself a misfortune to be remedied. Nor do I feel the less love and reverence for their character and talents, when I earnestly wish them to become in all points like ourselves, except those sins of infirmity, of which I am mournfully conscious. I remain, dear Sir, Your sincere friend and servant in Christ, REGINALD CALCUTTA. TO MRS. R. HEBER. Sandheads, February 5th, 1826. I get this letter ready to send by the pilot, who expects to be able to leave us in the course of the morning. We have a beautiful day and a favourable breeze. The strenuous measures which Government took to secure my horse a passage have proved abortive. They were very kindly meant, and I have reason to believe that I have to thank for them the zeal of Mr. Lushington, who appears to have taken a good deal of trouble on the subject. I am now quite well. I cannot help thinking that both my illness and yours proceeded, in part, from the agitation of this second sad parting. I should have been unworthy of have left you without a severe pang. you could I We are both of us, however, in God's hands; and as it is not to please ourselves that we are now separated, I have hope in Him that He will bring us together again in happiness, and our separation will be much shorter than the last! God bless you, REGINALD CALCUTTA. I enclose a letter to the Bishop of Oxford, concerning the books intended for All Souls library, which I will thank you to send by the Grenville, as well as the package. Our cuddy party is, in a good degree, made up of sick officers returning to Europe, miserable spectacles, alas! from Prome and Arracan. I, at first, expected a dull and uninstructive party, but, as usual, I found persons from whom I could learn a great deal. One officer was one of the first explorers of the Macquarrie river in New South Wales, is excessively fond of natural history, and has corresponded with Sir Joseph Banks and Humboldt; another of our passengers, a young civilian, has visited many parts of Kemaoon which I have not seen, and flatters himself that he has had a sight of a real unicorn! One of the poor invalids below has died, and there are some others very weak and ill, but who will, I trust, recover strength as we get out to sea. Mr. Robinson and I take it by turns to read prayers to them, and find both them and the ship's company very attentive. I have also found the cuddy party not only willing but anxious that I should read evening prayers as on board the Grenville and Dis covery. TO HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. MY LORD, On Board the Bassorah Merchant, Bay of Bengal, It seems my fate to be able to address your Grace from on board ship only. I am now again engaged in my visitation, and hope, by God's blessing, during the next five or six months, to complete the circuit of the southern stations of the Presidency of Madras, and the Syro-Malabaric Churches in Travancore, besides, if the state of the monsoon allows, paying a short visit to Ceylon. I trust again to have the honour of writing to your Grace before the conclusion of my journey, but the immediate cause of my present letter is to request your directions and assistance in enabling the Indian Clergy to marry, under certain circumstances, without the canonical preliminaries of banns or licence. The custom was for the civil servants of the Company to obtain the permission of the Governor, and for the soldiers to produce a similar written licence from their commanding officers, while the few who did not fall under one or other of these descriptions were only required, I believe, to give a written assurance to the Clergyman that they knew of no impediment to their legal union. For several years back, however, in all marriages of civilians of rank, or of commissioned officers, and, generally, wherever there was wealth on either side, the supreme courts of judicature of Calcutta and Madras, and the Governor of Bombay, have taken on themselves to issue marriage licences. Their power to do this is very generally questioned, and seems to rest on a very unsound foundation, while the fees demanded by their officials are complained of as a heavy grievance. Still the measure, though at first opposed by the Clergy, has been at length generally acquiesced in; and Bishop Middleton, as I understood, made an ineffectual appeal to the Board of Control, to get the prerogative transferred from the Court of Judicature to the Bishop and his Surrogates. He issued, however, a letter to his Clergy, shortly after his arrival, enjoining a more careful adherence than they had formerly shewn to the regular hours of solemnizing marriages, and forbidding them strictly to perform the ceremony without either banns, or a licence from the usual authorities. And, in consequence of this order, the Reverend Mr. Goode, Chaplain at Poonah, having refused to marry a soldier who was under marching orders, and who could not remain in cantonments a sufficient time for the publication of banns, had a long and angry correspondence with Major-General Sir Lionel Smith, which was referred to me a short time before I left Calcutta to embark on my present voyage. In comparing the Major-General's arguments with the facts which he states, and those which have come to my knowledge from other quarters, it certainly does appear that the grievance complained of is neither imaginary nor trifling. A soldier may be, and often is, ordered to march, at a very few day's notice, to distances where a woman, not being his wife, cannot follow or accompany him, while months, and even years, may elapse without his being stationary for three weeks together in a place where there is a resident Chaplain. There are also many stations at which detachments of soldiers are fixed, which a Chaplain only visits alternate months, or sometimes four Sundays in the year. Indeed it has been only within the last two years, by the great exertion of Archdeacon Barnes in Bombay, and by my own influence with the Supreme Government, that even this kind of occasional and itinerant service has been provided for. But, at such places as these, it is plain that banns are impossible or nugatory, while, setting aside the fact that the Indian price of a licence is quite beyond the means of a soldier, it does not appear that persons in his situation of life, or such females as he is likely to marry, are of that "state or quality," to which by canon ci. the granting of a marriage licence is restricted. It must also be borne in mind, that these restrictions press with more severity on soldiers and the usual dependants on a camp, than on any other persons of the same rank in life. Their courtships are, in this country, proverbially short; and it is necessary that they should be so, since the number |