curable in India, a list of the volumes required will be published; in the hope that learned bodies and individuals having duplicates, will be pleased to present them to the Bibliotheca Biblica in Bengal.

This Institution was first organized by the Rev. Mr. Brown, with a full reliance on the patronage of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which has cordially embraced his views, and of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, and of the Universities in the United Kingdom, which we hope will enrich its Translation Library.

The Rev. David Brown, Senior Chaplain of the East-India Company in Bengal, formerly of Magdalen College, Cambridge, has now been twenty-seven years resident in India; and is the zealous promoter of Sacred Learning in the East. He is educating his THREE SONS in India, solely with the view of qualifying them for the important purpose of extending the knowledge of Christianity in Asia. Being himself a Hebrew scholar, his first object has been to ground them well in the Hebrew and Syriac Languages; rightly judging that a knowledge of these forms the best foundation for ability to produce accurate translations of the Scriptures in the other Oriental Tongues. But they have now added to these first languages the Arabic, Persian, and Hindostanee, which they pronounce like natives of the East. They have had the advantage of the best teachers in the different languages, particularly of SHALOM, an eminent Hebrew scholar from Arabia. So that this little Institution in Mr. Brown's house, may be called the HEBREW SCHOOL in Bengal.

It is understood to be Mr. Brown's intention to send his three sons to England, at the proper age, to finish their education at the University, and to enter the

Church; with the view of their returning to exercise their ministrations in India. Mr. Brown himself has now seen two or three generations pass away in Calcutta; how short is a Calcutta generation! and has exhibited to a large and refined society the doctrine and the example of a faithful minister of the Gospel. Marquis Cornwallis first recommended him to the Court of Directors as a proper person to fill his present important situation, and this he did from a personal knowledge of his truly upright and disinterested character. In the many Governments which have succeeded, there is not one, as the Author believes, which has not recorded a public testimony to the merits of their Senior Chaplain. Marquis Wellesley, in particular, honored him with his confidence and esteem, to the end of his administration. It was under the auspices of that Nobleman, that Mr. Brown instituted the "Calcutta CHARITABLE FUND for distressed Europeans and others;" of which it may be truly said, that it has been a Fountain of Mercy to thousands in Bengal for ten years past, it having been established in the first year of the new century. Mr. Brown would have probably returned from India with his large family by this time, but his diffusive benevolence in private charity, and in publ undertakings, both in India and England, and the frequent demands on a man in his public station, he being at the head of the Church in Bengal, have not permitted him to increase his fortune suitably. And now, the prospect which opens to his view of being more extensively useful than before, in encouraging translations of the Scriptures, in promoting the objects of the Bible Society, and in educating his sons.

*

This Institution not only assists occasionally, but pensions permá. nently Europeans, Mahomedans, and Hindoos.

1

for the Oriental Church, makes him willing to remain a few years longer in India.

THE ARMENIANS.

A LEARNED author, in a work published about the beginning of last century, entitled "The Light of the Gospel, rising on all nations," observes, "that the Armenian Christians will be most eminently qualified for the office of extending the knowledge of Christianity throughout the nations of Asia."* This is undoubtedly true. Next to the Jews, the Armenians will form the most generally useful body of Christian Missionaries. They are to be found in every principal city of Asia; they are the general merchants of the East, and are in a state of constant motion from Canton to Constantinople. Their general character is that of a wealthy, industrious, and enterprising people. They are settled in all the principal places of India, where they arrived many centuries before the English. Wherever they colonize, they build Churches, and observe the solemnities of the Christian Religion in a decorous manner. Their Ecclesiastical Establishment in Hindostan is more respectable than that of the English. Like us, they have three Churches in the three capitals, one at Calcutta, one at Madras, and one at Bombay; but they have also Churches in the interior of the country.† The Bishop sometimes visits Calcutta; but he is not resident there. The proper country of these Christians is Armenia, the greater part of which is subject to the Persian Government; but they are scattered all over the Empire, the com

* Fabricii Lux Evangelii, p. 651.

In Bengal alone, they have Churches at Dacca, Sydabad, and Chinsurah.

merce of Persia being chiefly conducted by Armenians, Their Patriarch resides at Erivan, not far from Mount Ararat.

The history of the Armenian Church is very interesting. Of all the Christians in central Asia, they have preserved themselves most free from Mahomedan and Papal corruptions. The Pope assailed them for a time with great violence, but with little effect. The Churches in lesser Armenia indeed consented to an union, which did not long continue; but those in Persian Armenia maintained their independence; and they retain their ancient Scriptures, doctrines, and worship, to this day. "It is marvellous," says an intelligent traveller, who was much among them, "how the Armenian Christians have preserved their faith, equally against the vexatious oppression of the Mahomedans their Sovereigns, and against the persuasions of the Romish Church, which for more than two centuries has endeavored, by Missionaries, Priests, and Monks, to attach them to her Communion. It is impossible to describe the artifices and expenses of the Court of Rome, to effect this object; but all in vain."*

us.

The Bible was translated into the Armenian Language in the fifth century, under very auspicious circumstances, the history of which has come down to It has been allowed, by competent judges of the language, to be a most faithful translation. La Croze calls it the "Queen of Versions." This Bible has ever remained in the possession of the Armenian people; and many illustrious instances of genuine and enlight

Chardin, vol. ii, p. 232.

Mr. Joannes Lassar, who is now making a version of the Scriptures in the Chinese Language in Bengal, is an Armenian Christian, and translates chiefly from the Armenian Bible. But he also understands English, and consults the English version.

ened piety occur in their history. The manuscript copies not being sufficient for the demand, a council of Armenian Bishops assembled in 1662, and resolved to call in aid the art of Printing, of which they had heard in Europe. For this purpose they applied first to France, but the Catholic Church refused to print their Bible. At length it was printed at Amsterdam in 1666, and afterwards two other editions in 1668, and 1698. Since that time it has been printed at Venice. One of the editions which the Author has seen, is not inferior, in beauty of typography, to the best English Bible. How far these editions might have supplied the Churches in Persia at that time, he does not know; but, at present, the Armenian Scriptures are very rare in that country, bearing no proportion to the Armenian population; and, in India, a copy is scarcely to be purchased at any price.

The Armenians in Hindostan are our own subjects. They acknowledge our government in India, as they do that of the Sophi in Persia; and they are entitled to our regard. They have preserved the Bible in its purity; and their doctrines are, as far as the Author knows, the doctrines of the Bible. Besides, they maintain the solemn observance of Christian worship, throughout our Empire, on the seventh day; and they have as many spires pointing to heaven among the Hindoos, as we ourselves. Are such a people then entitled to no acknowledgment on our part, as fellow Christians? Are they for ever to be ranked by us with Jews, Mahomedans, and Hindoos? Would it not

*Sarkies Joannes, an Armenian merchant of Calcutta, when he heard of the King's recovery from illness in 1789, liberated all the prisoners for debt in the gaol of Calcutta. His Majesty, hearing of this instance of loyalty in an Armenian subject, sent him his picture in miniature. Sarkies wore the Royal present suspended at his breast, during his life; and it is now worn by his son, when he appears at the levee of the Governor-general.