esirable; that it is calculated to introduce confusion among
young converts; to hinder their spiritual progress; and to do them
vital and lasting injury. They have therefore very earnestly pressed
upon the proposers of the scheme that it shall be reconsidered; and
they trust that, as a result of friendly conference, it may be
altogether laid aside.

XI.--MISSIONS IN INDIA.

In India two hundred millions of people are placed under the indirect
jurisdiction or the direct rule of the Queen of England. The empire
is divided into many great provinces, in which are spoken ten
principal languages. All along the great rivers are scattered great
cities, surrounded by hundreds of large towns, and thousands of
populous villages. Many of them are centres of a trade growing
greater every year, and many are also headquarters of Mohammedanism
and of Hindoo idolatry. The endowments and vested interests of
idolatry are of enormous value; the Brahmin families may be counted
by millions; the Hindoo religious books were commenced 1200 years
B.C., and the system itself goes back a thousand years farther still.
Such a system is a formidable antagonist and the barriers it raises
against change are very strong. Yet even Hindooism, so powerful, so
rich, so ancient, is giving way at every point. In the external life
of the Empire, a just government, providing for every one of its
subjects complete security of person and property, and giving them
perfect religious liberty, is adapting its public laws and forms of
administration more fully to the circumstances of the time; and is
introducing the natives more numerously to those posts of duty and
of usefulness for which they become fitted. The order and peace of
the country, encouraging production and trade, have raised the wages
of labour, and given the peasant a command of comfort which he never
knew before. Englishmen have done many wrong things in India, for
which they have been justly chastised. But a new spirit has entered
into the public government of the Empire, and during the last seven
years, a degree of improvement and a solid advance have taken place,
in the course of legislation and in the material wealth of the empire,
of which none, except men who have seen it, have any idea. Three
Universities, whose annual examinations in the English and native
languages draw hundreds of native students, stand at the summit of
a sound system of education which is spreading more widely eve