which are, of all others, the most likely means to open the eyes, and ameliorate the worldly and spiritual condition of the vast multitudes who are now not merely willing to receive, but absolutely courting, instruction. It is, in fact, the want of means on the part of the teachers, and not any of that invincible repugnance so often supposed to exist on the part of the Hindoos, which, in my opinion, must make the progress of the Gospel slow in India. Those who think otherwise have, I suspect, either never really desired the improvement which they affect to regard as impossible, or, by raising their expectations, in the first instance, too high, have been the cause of their own disappoint→ ment. We cannot work miracles, and it is idle to suppose that thirty or forty Missionaries, (for this is, perhaps, the full number, including all Protestant sects throughout all India,) can have, in ten or a dozen years, (for a longer time has scarcely occurred since the work was set about in good earnest,) so much as conveyed the name of the Gospel to more than a very small part of a nation containing 100,000,000 inhabitants, and scattered over a country of 1,500,000 square miles. It is no less idle to expect that any nation, or any great numbers in a nation, will change the ancient system of faith at once, or otherwise than by very slow degrees, and with great reluctance, a reluctance not likely to be lessened when the new creed is offered them by a race of foreign conquerors, speaking their language, for the most part, very imperfectly. But we have found, in spite of these obstacles, that some Hin

doos and Mussulmans of respectable rank, and considerable acquirements, (few, indeed, in number, but enough to shew that the thing is not impossible,) have, from motives the most obviously disinterested, (since nothing is to be got by turning Christian but the ill-will of their old friends, and, in most instances hitherto, the suspicion and discountenance of their new rulers,) embraced and adhered to Christianity. It is obvious, even to a careless observer, that, in Bengal at least, the wealthier natives are imitating the English in very many particulars in dress, buildings, and domestic economy, and that a change, either for evil or good, of a most extensive and remarkable nature is fermenting in the native mind; and I am convinced, from the success of the experiment so far as it has yet been tried, that nothing but the want of means prevents the introduction of schools, like those now supported in the neighbourhood of Calcutta and at Burdwan, by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Church Missionary Society, in every village of Bengal, not only with the concurrence, but with the gratitude of the natives.

Meantime you must not suppose that the cares of a preacher of the Gospel can apply to the heathen only; a very numerous population of nominal Christians is rising round us, the children of European fathers and native women, who have been, till lately, shamefully neglected, but who

shew a readiness to receive instruction, and a zeal, generally speaking, for the faith and the Church establishment of the parent country, which should make that country blush for the scanty aids which she has hitherto afforded them. From these a considerable proportion of my congregations in Calcutta are made up, and of these, 235 young persons whom I confirmed there the day before yesterday, chiefly consisted. All these are circumstances which may well encourage a man to exert himself.

Adieu, dear Hornby; let me hope sometimes to hear from you, and believe me,

ever your affectionate friend,

REGINALD CALCUTTA.

TO MISS DOD.

Tittyghur, February 26, 1824.

Such, my dear Charlotte, is a fair sample of the appearance and condition of some forty millions of peasantry subject to British rule; very poor, as their appearance sufficiently indicates, at least in those points where an Englishman places his ideas of comfort and prosperity. Yet not so poor, and not by any means so rude and wild as their scanty dress and simple habitations would at first lead an Englishman to imagine. The silver ornaments

which the young woman wears on her ancles, arms, forehead, and in her nose, joined to the similar decorations on her children's arms, would more than buy all the clothes and finery of the smartest servant-girl in England,-and the men are, in all probability, well taught in reading and writing, after their own manner, while the little boy, perhaps, is one of my scholars, and could cast an account and repeat the Lord's Prayer with any child of the same age in England. The plant which overshadows the cow and goat is a bamboo, the tall palm in the distance is a coco, that which hangs over the old mother of the family is a plaintain, and the creeper on the thatched cottage a beautiful fast growing gourd, of the very kind I could fancy which obtained so fast hold on Jonah's affections. The style of carrying the child astride on one hip, the manner in which the water-pot is balanced, and the red paint, a mark of caste, as well as the diminutive size and high hump of the cow, what we usually see here; and though the groupe itself is from fancy, all the different objects are as faithful representations of nature as my skill enabled me to make. The sketch may give you some little idea of the scenes we meet with in our morning rides.

At present I am not aware that I have much news to tell you, or that I have many circumstances to add to the description of Bengal which I