security except the personal characters and existence of two men well advanced in years, but their heirs or successors might shortly step into the premises, and convert them, as we before observed, into a temple of Mammon, or even of Hindooism, that which they were erected in the vain hope of destroying. It was therefore demanded, as an act of justice to the Baptist Missionary Society, and to the Christian public at home and abroad, who had so liberally contributed towards the creation of this property, that trustees should be appointed from these several bodies, to watch over the proper application of it. We are happy to add, that after so much discussion, the wishes of the public have been so far gratified, at least as to one part of the Missionary premises; an efficient body of trustees having at last been appointed for the Serampore College. These consist of eleven gentlemen; comprising one from the higher departments of the law in Calcutta, one from the civil service, and one from the mercantile circle, two in England, and two in America. The treasurer of the Baptist Mission Society is one, and if the Missionaries themselves compose the rest, they will have nearly a majority always on the spot, unless the distant members can vote by proxy. On this subject a late Calcutta paper (the John Bull,' of February 17) remarks as follows: "We are glad to see this step taken by the Missionaries, even to the extent to which it has been carried: notwithstanding the disinterested exertions of the Missionaries, or indeed of any set of men, we cannot but ⚫ question the security,' in regard to permanent property, like that of Serampore, while it rests on nothing better than the possession of unimpaired confidence;' and we think the charitable public who contributed the funds out of which the property has arisen, have a right and title to some better security than this affords; we are therefore, on these general grounds, glad to see it afforded; and, if the Serampore Missionaries will follow up the step they have at length taken in regard to the college property, by a similar measure in respect to the other parts of the premises, we shall hold them in still greater honour, and admit most cheerfully that the confidence hitherto reposed in them by the public has not been misplaced. In the midst, however, of our satisfaction at seeing trustees appointed for the college property, there come certain misgivings across our minds, when we find that what is contributed towards the College out of the Missionaries' own funds, as they call them, is generally stated, as being laid out on the ground, buildings, and permanent parts of the property-what is contributed by the public is devoted to the evanescent objects of supporting the professors, or bringing them out from England, endowing scholarships, &c. We cannot help thinking, that it would be in every way more advisable to draw no such distinction, as the door would then be most effectually shut against any claim that may arise when the present · disinterested' and ' zealous' men have passed away. The division of the proposed trustees into classes likewise appears to us a complex piece of machinery, only calculated to give rise to future disputes, as to the extent of their respective duties and rights under the trust; and we are at a loss to see the necessity for any such distinction among a body, having all but one undivided object in view-the perpetual appropriation of the property, buildings, and revenues, to the object for which public benevolence has erected themthe education of Native Christian and Hindoo youth. The first class of trustees are styled Trustees for the premises on which the College buildings are erected, measuring about thirty bigahs;' then we have 'Trustees for funded Oriental Herald, Vol. 11. Ꮮ property in America,' and Trustees for funded property in England.' &c., but not one trustee for the spacious College buildings themselves, so far as we can discover or understand the matter from the published Report.” We shall not attempt to unravel this new riddle; which is a fit companion perhaps for the investment of the property of the other parts of the premises in the Baptist Mission Society, while they reserved the occupancy and trusteeship to themselves ;---a happy solution of the famous problem which so grievously puzzled Lord Amherst and his Council; viz. How to deprive a person of the control of his own proporty, so effectually that he might never resume it again! How much wiser, in their generation, are the Serampore Missionaries, who bestow a property on the Baptist Missionary Society, over which it never had, and never can have, any control, in the whole tide of time! As to the rents and profits of which, the Missionaries tell the proprietors that they shall never touch or apply any portion, "Never, beloved brethren, never a single farthing!" We must now apologise to our readers for having allowed the pecuniary affairs of these gentlemen to occupy so much of our attention. It has arisen from a desire to show that we would make no charge against them, or any body of men, without sufficient grounds for so doing, and that the public may be able to judge how far the cause of Christianity can be promoted by trusting it in such hands. This reason, and this alone, induced us to take up the subject at first, not any personal hostility towards individuals who never crossed our path, whom we had no reason to regard with any other feelings than we should regard those whom we never saw, but who obtruded themselves on the public notice as the favoured instruments in the hands of Providence for regenerating mankind. Our sole object was to ascertain the reality of the mighty works which they pretended were going on for the improvement of the People of India; caring little who might be the "Workers" or "Co-workers," on whom we only bestowed a slight notice of a few lines. But, in their Reply,' they give out that our only object could be an "attack upon them"; assuming, with a ridiculous self-importance, that they were every thing, and the cause itself nothing! so that while nearly forty pages are devoted to themselves, not as much as ten are allowed to the latter. In these they condescend to inform us, that the number of persons baptized by them from 1800 to 1821, was 1407; of these they believe, but cannot assert, that nearly 1000 of them were Natives of India, and have ascertained that nearly 700, if not more, were Native converts. number of these in 1821, publicly professing Christianity, amounted in all to 469; about 150 more than was estimated by Mr. Adam. As a reason for not having given this information earlier, which has been for years so earnestly sought after by the public, they intimate that, as the majority of the Missionary stations were supported by their own funds, they did not consider themselves called on to render any account; as if those only had a right to hear of conver The sions who pay the expense of the machinery by which they are to be produced-Thus : · Baptist Mission Society, Cr. By cash sent for converting the Hindoos £20,000 As to the value of their translations of the Scripture, so severely criticised and condemned in India, where there are many persons capable of estimating their accuracy, they say (let us again remark, with characteristic evasion) they will "reply in Britain"--where not one man in ten thousand, or, indeed, in a million, is qualified to form any opinion on the subject! With respect to the number of versions made, they now say only six translations of the entire Scriptures were executed in twenty six years; other twentythree of them did not comprise more than the New Testament; and that the difference between various dialects was so slight as to render the difficulties of the task far less than could have been imagined. To this we shall add the information given in the Oriental Magazine,' viz.: It now turns out that the Missionaries were not the translators at all! The versions, it appears, were all made by Natives, and Dr. Carey revised them; the Missionaries having merely the merit of setting these Natives to work with the funds raised by the public. Besides this, after most of these thirty versions or fragments had been printed on the wretched materials described by Mr. Adam, so late as 1825, Mr. John Clark Marshman at last discovered that a much better kind of paper might be made at Serampore, little inferior, indeed, to that made in England; and to the few versions (they could not be many) then in the press, they give the benefit of this discovery to wipe off the reproach of consigning the Sacred Volume, for above twenty years, to the most miserable kind of 'paper that India could produce. They tell us, indeed, of the large sums they have expended from their own funds (i. e., savings) in accomplishing these objects. But what respectable mercantile house in Calcutta could not show a much larger outlay in speculations for the extension of commerce, or the improvement of the resources of the country, without the prospect of realizing for themselves half the profit which has been realized by the Serampore Missionaries? Did they not know, that unless they filled the mind of the public with reports of their manifold translations, preachings, prayings, wanderings, and other mighty projects of conversion, the primitive sources of their joint-stock would dry up? And, after all their outlay from their private funds, where are the sacrifices which entitle them to put in such large claims for piety, zeal, and disinterestedness? Had they remained in their own country, when they set out, self-devoted to the cause of God, what would their situation have been? Is it a sacrifice to exchange poverty and obscurity for luxury and splendour? In undergoing this new species of martyrdom, they claim merit for scattering over India what are pronounced to 148 Defence of the Serampore Missionaries. be wretched disfigurations of the Sacred Volume, only calculated to bring it into derision and contempt among the heathen! And who are the instruments they have employed in this work? The veriest infidels and hypocrites, such as Nathaniel Sabat, whose name was resounded through the churches of England, as the "Star of the East," the "Apostle of Hindoostan"; till this holy man, whom the Missionaries represented as a person sent from Heaven on purpose to aid them in their translations of its will,* was found to have been availing himself of his free access to their press, to print Arabic aspersions on the Christian religion as well as the British Government. Do they claim credit for allowing the contents of the Christian Volume to be prostituted and debased by the translations of such, or still more artful impostors, who have never yet been detected? By these and such means, out of a hundred millions of people, they have, in the course of thirty years, induced three or four hundred miserable outcasts to profess themselves Christians-persons so low in intellect, character, and condition, as to bring the Christian name into contempt. For we appeal to any ordinary observer, who has ever been in India, to say, whether among the pariahs and outcasts of Hindoostan, there be a class of persons held in less esteem, even by Christians, than those called" Native Converts." With this fact before us, we cannot but coincide in the opinion of the 'Calcutta Reviewer,' that the attempts of the Missionaries at direct conversion, employed, as they have been, upon the most ignorant and debased part of the people," are doing little or no good." This being the case, it signifies nothing to the world whether they have " embezzled" or merely misapplied the ample funds entrusted to their hands for human improvement. It is, unquestionable, that they have either absorbed or dissipated them, leaving the world little or none the better. That they have themselves, however, in face of the most solemn abjurations of gain, realized handsome fortunes; and, while pretending to devote these to the same cause, are maintaining an obstinate resistance to the public voice, which loudly calls on them for some better security than their own disinterestedness. If they yield this just satisfaction to the public, and devote themselves rationally and sincerely to the improvement of the Natives by education and example, we shall rejoice to see them regain that confidence which they have nearly lost for ever. But unless we see a change carried bona fide into effect, we cannot suffer the British public to be deluded into the belief that it is doing great things for the improvement of the Natives of the East by putting sums of money into the hands of two or three independent gentlemen at Serampore. Before concluding, we cannot help bestowing our tribute of praise on what they have done in promoting education, to which they have latterly directed more of their attention; and, we must add, that if they had done so from the beginning, they might, ere this, have acquired a just title to be ranked among the greatest friends and berefactors of India. 149 THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL VIEW OF THE LAW OF LIBEL IN ENGLAND AND INDIA. Practical View of the Law of Libel in England. No. VI. IN 1663, John Twin, printer, was indicted for high treason for publishing A treatise on the execution of justice, wherein is clearly proved that the execution of judgment and justice is, as well the people's, as the magistrates' duty; and if the magistrates pervert judgment, the people are bound by the law of God to execute judgment without them and upon them.' LORD CHIEF JUSTICE HYDE. "Then I will tell you, we are bound to be of counsel with you, in point of law; that is the Court, my brethren and myself, are to see that you suffer nothing for your want of knowledge in matter of law; I say we are to be of counsel with you. But for this horrid crime (I will hope in charity you are not guilty of it, but if you are) it is the most abominable and barbarous treason that ever I heard of, or any man else; the very title of the book (if there were no more) is as perfectly treason as can be." All the judges agreed that the "printing and publishing such wicked positions was an overt act declaring the treason of compassing and imagining the King's death." Twin was executed. At his execution he said: "I do not say otherwise than that my sentence was just; but as to my ignorance of the matter of intending or imagining to foment and contrive any such thing, tending to such ends, but barely for getting a little money for my family; I was as clear as the child unborn of any other design knowingly." He declared that he had been prevented by sickness reading the MS., and the third day it was searched for and discovered. In the same year, Dover, Brewster, and Brooks, printers and publishers, were tried at the Old Bailey for a misdemeanour in printing the speeches and prayers of Harrison, Cooke, Hugh Peters, and other regicides. Lord Chief Justice Hyde said: " And I tell you all three, it is the King's great mercy you have not been indicted capitally, for every one of these are books filled with treason, and you, for publishing them, by strictness have forfeited your lives, and all, to the King." They were sentenced to fine, pillory, and imprisonment during the King's pleasure. In 1665, Mr. Benjamin Keach was tried for writing a heretical |