occasion of such an assembly will be, it will be to myself extremely interesting and curious, since by no other means could I have hoped to become so intimately acquainted with this most ancient and interesting Church, which, corrupt as it is in doctrine and plunged in lamentable ignorance, appears to preserve a closer resemblance in its forms and circumstances of society, than any other now in existence, to the Christian world in the third and fourth century after our Saviour. Meantime I am visiting the principal civil and military stations, by nearly the same course which Bishop Middleton followed in the year 1816, hoping to reach Travancore early in May, and to return to Madras by the tract which he did not visit, of Mysore, Bangalore, and Arcot. The country, as far as I have yet advanced, is (though not generally fertile, and almost universally flat) as beautiful as palms, and spreading trees, and diligent cultivation can make it, and the ancient Hindoo temples, though inferior in taste to the magnificent Musalman buildings of which I sent you a description from the north-west of India, are, in size, picturesque effect, and richness of carving, far above anything which I had expected to meet with.

"Indeed I do not eat the bread of idleness in this country. Since my arival at Madras, little more than three weeks ago, I have preached eleven times (including my visitation charge), have held four public and one private confirmation, visited five schools, attended one public meeting, travelled sixty miles in a palanquin, and one hundred and forty on horseback, besides a pretty voluminous correspondence with Government, different missionaries and religion; and when Syrians have gone to the Christian College, Madras, under the Free Church of Scotland, they have returned more enlightened to illuminate their brethren in easy-going Malayâla. Think, too, of the circulation of the Bible amongst a people who, whether reformers or reactionaries, have not been forbidden by their Bishops, but encouraged, to read the Scriptures in their own tongue. During the year 1893, five colporteurs sold in the Syrian parts of Travancore and Cochin 636 Bibles and Testaments, besides 913 sold in Cottayam depôt alone, and this among a population of but three millions; whereas forty-one colporteurs sold among the fifty millions of the Madras Presidency but 705 copies in the Tamil, Telugu, and other languages. I do not here speak of 'portions.' Our Nonconforming brethren of the L.M.S. have also in their own way contributed something to the wave of Reformation in the Syrian Church.

"When, then, I see this interesting population of non-Roman Christians so open to the Word of God, when I consider their large numbers (including the Nasrânis of British Malabar, who were over 14,000 by the census of 1871), amounting in all to 350,000 baptized people, I feel thankful to be a C.M.S. missionary and to belong to Travancore. His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury cheered the hearts of the Reformers in 1893 by a letter of sympathy to their new Metrân or Metropolitan, Mar Titus Thoma."

chaplains, and my Syrian brother Mar Athanasius; and the thermometer this day stands at ninety-eight in the shade. However, I continue, thank God, on the whole, to enjoy as good health as I ever did in England. Busy as I am, my business is mostly of a kind which I like, and which accords with my previous studies. The country, the objects, and the people round me are all of a kind to stimulate and repay curiosity more than most others in the world; and though there are, alas! many moments in the day (more particularly now that I am separated from my wife and children) in which I feel my exile painfully, I should be very ungrateful indeed if I did not own myself happy. Heaven grant that I may not be useless! When at Calcutta you have added much to my comfort by sending Grey there, who, I rejoice to say, is as popular as he deserves to be. It happens now, remarkably, that all the three Chief Justices were my contemporaries at Oxford, and that I have always been on terms of friendly intercourse with all, though Grey was the only one with whom I was intimate. . .

"Lord Combermere, during his stay in Calcutta, was a great accession to our circle, and I really believe you could have found no person better suited to play the very difficult and important task which was placed in his hands, from his good sense, his readiness in despatch of business, and his accessibility, which had gone far to gain him the good-will of the Company's army, even before his success at Bhurtpoor. . . . He appears at present to enjoy a higher reputation than any Commander-in-Chief since Lord Cornwallis, or any officer who has appeared in India, except Sir A. Wellesley.

In another letter to Wynn at this time Heber hit the political danger and economic wrong which lie at the root of our increasing assessments of the land tax every generation, and which the financial strain caused by the depreciated rupee has again led the Government of India to create in the Panjab and elsewhere.

"There is one point which, the more I have seen of India, since I left Bengal for the first time, has more and more impressed itself on my mind. Neither native nor European agriculturist, I think, can thrive at the present rate of taxation. Half the gross

produce of the soil is demanded by Government, and this, which is nearly the average rate wherever there is not a permanent settlement, is sadly too much to leave an adequate provision for the peasant, even with the usual frugal habits of Indians, and the

very inartificial and cheap manner in which they cultivate the land. Still more is it an effectual bar to everything like improvement; it keeps the people, even in favourable years, in a state of abject penury; and when the crop fails, in even a slight degree, it involves a necessity on the part of Government of enormous outlays, in the way of remission and distribution, which, after all, do not prevent men, women, and children dying in the streets by droves, and the roads being strewed with carcasses. In Bengal, where, independent of its exuberant fertility, there is a permanent assessment, famine is unknown. . . . I met with very few public men who will not, in confidence, own their belief that the people are overtaxed, and that the country is in a gradual state of impoverishment. The Collectors do not like to make this avowal officially. Indeed, now and then, a very able Collector succeeds in lowering the rate to the people, while, by diligence, he increases it to the State. But, in general, all gloomy pictures are avoided by them as reflecting on themselves, and drawing on them censure from the secretaries at Madras or Calcutta ; while these, in their turn, plead the earnestness with which the Directors at home press for more money.

"I am convinced that it is only necessary to draw less money from the peasants, and to spend more of what is drawn within the country, to open some door to Indian industry in Europe, and to admit the natives of India to some greater share in the magistracy of their own people, to make this empire as durable as it would be happy. But as things now go on, though I do not detract any part of the praise which I have on other occasions bestowed on the general conduct of the Company's servants, their modesty, their diligence, and integrity, I do not think the present empire can be durable. I have sometimes wished that its immediate management were transferred to the Crown. But what I saw in Ceylon makes me think this a doubtful remedy.”

Passing into the district of Tanjor, well watered by the Kavari, Heber found himself in the heart of the earliest Reformed missions, second only to those of Tinnevelli. When halting in the dak bungalow of Mayaveram, on the river bank, and reading his Greek Testament, the Bishop was visited by a Lutheran agent of the Church Missionary Society, the head of thirty schools, with "John Devasagayam, one of the best catechists in the service of any mission." Again writes Mr. Robinson :

"We expected to have passed Good Friday alone in our tents but were agreeably surprised on arriving at Combaconum to find it the residence of a sub-collector; and, though the Bishop was expected to pass through in the night, yet the necessary preparations were soon made for divine service, and he had a congregation of twenty or thirty persons, among whom were several native Christians who understood English. Mr. Mead, a Dissenting minister in connection with the London Missionary Society, very kindly sent the desk from his own chapel for the Bishop's use, and attended the service himself."

"25th March.

"We went to bed in our palanquins, which the bearers took up at midnight and brought us to Tanjor (twenty-two miles) at daybreak, where we met with the kindest welcome from the Resident, Captain Fyfe, and his lady. The Reverend Messrs. Kohlhoff and Sperschneider, the missionaries of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, waited on the Bishop in the morning, and received his directions for the service of to-morrow. The venerable appearance of the former strongly recalled to our minds the striking and well-known expression of Bishop Middleton when he parted from him ten years before and received his blessing.1 He has now completed nearly half a century of Christian labour in India; and the simplicity of his manners and character are exactly what you would expect to see in a pupil and follower of Schwartz.

"After dinner the Bishop walked over the premises of the Mission, visited Schwartz's chapel hallowed by the grave of the apostolic man, and copied the inscription on the stone which covers it, interesting as being the composition of the Raja himself.

"The chapel is of the simplest order, with a semicircular recess for the altar at the east end: the tomb of Schwartz is just before the reading-desk in front of the altar. Before the southern entrance are the trees under which the venerable Father used to sit and receive the reports of the catechists, and examine the children just before the daily evening service. Immediately adjoining the chapel was Schwartz's cottage, on the site of which, but considerably enlarged from the former foundations, Mr. Sperschneider has built a house, which would be an excellent rectory in England. The Mission garden is very large, and we saw there

1 "The Bishop (according to his own expression), considering Mr. Kohlhoff's character, could not help feeling that the less was blessed of the greater."

many native Christians, among whom one was presented to the Bishop as one of the few who have offices under Government: he is a writer in the Raja's service."

"26th March, Easter Day.

"The Bishop preached this morning in the Mission Church in the Fort, all the clergy present assisting in the service. His text was from Rev. i. 18: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore. Many of the native Christians who understood English were there, and entreated his Lordship, after the service, that he would allow them a copy of his sermon. He promised to make some alterations in the style, so as to bring it nearer to their comprehensions, and have it translated for them into Tamil. I assisted him in the administration of the Sacrament to thirty communicants of the English and fifty-seven of the native congregation; to each of the latter we repeated the words in Tamil. The interest of this service, in itself most interesting, was greatly heightened by the delight and animation of the Bishop, the presence of so many missionaries whose labours were before us, and all the associations of the place in which we were assembled, built by the venerable Schwartz, whose monument, erected by the affection of the Raja, adorns the western end of the church. The group in white marble, by Flaxman, represents the good man on his death-bed, Gerické standing behind him, the Raja at his side, two native attendants and three children of his school around his bed.

"In the evening the Bishop attended a Tamil service in the same church, which was literally crowded with the native Christians of Tanjor and the surrounding villages. The Bishop delivered the blessing in Tamil from the altar. Mr. Kohlhoff assured me that his pronunciation was remarkably correct and distinct, and the breathless silence of the congregation testified their delight and surprise at this affecting recognition of their churches as a part of his pastoral charge. I desired one of the native priests to ascertain how many were present, and I found they exceeded 1300. . . . I have seen no congregation, even in Europe, by whom the responses of the liturgy are more generally and correctly made, or where the psalmody is more devotional and correct. The effect was more than electric: it was a deep and thrilling interest, in which memory, and hope, and joy mingled with the devotion of the hour, to hear so many voices, but lately rescued from the polluting services of the pagoda, joining in the pure and heavenly music of the Easter Hymn and the 100th Psalm, and uttering the loud Amen at the close of every prayer.

Y