254 
ley asks for evidence of this; and warns the 
president of the Linnzan Society against 
identifying himself with the heterodox An- 
ti-Linneists of France. Fired at this 
remark, Sir James writes a warm rejoinder 
to Mr. Lindley’s reply; and the latter 
answers it by an attack on the reputation 
of Sir James Smith; and asserts, that, in- 
stead of having the smallest claim to origin- 
ality, he is, and is generally considered to 
be, a mere judicious compiler of books, and 
twenty years behind his contemporaries in 
botanical knowledge. 
Correspontence relative to the Prospects of 
Christianity, and the means of promoting its 
Reception in India, 8vo.—This semi-yo- 
lume, of 140 pages, was first printed in 
America, at the Cambridge (U.S.) Uni- 
versity Press, 1824, “in the belief that 
the information it contains might commu- 
nicate more distinct views than are gene- 
rally possessed upon the subject ; and that 
it might assist in giving such a direction to 
the efforts of Christians to propagate their 
religion in heathen countries, as shall yield 
a hope of better success than has been yet 
experienced.” —‘‘ The profit to be wholly 
applied to the purpose of aiding the cause 
of Christianity in India.” It is now, for 
the same reasons, re-published in England, 
“for which there is the additional induce- 
ment, of a desire to afford those who sub- 
scribe to Missionary Societies more au- 
thentic information than it is believed they 
yet possess, of the mode in which their 
money is expended, and of the extent to 
which their views are, or are likely to be, 
realized.” 
_ We recommend it to the attentive peru- 
sal of those of our countrymen and coun- 
trywomen, who employ their zeal, and 
expend their property, in the pious labours 
of converting the pagans and idolators of 
remote regions; and we think they will 
meet with some facts (some of them a lit- 
tle startling, perhaps,) which may tend to 
shew that neither their bountiful subserip- 
tions, nor the labours of the missionaries 
themselves, are always employed in the 
way best calculated for the advancement 
of their righteous object. What kind of 
Christianity, what purity of text, or accu- 
rate simplicity of Christian faith and doc- 
trine, are likely to be produced by tran- 
slations of translations, from translations of 
other translations, from language to lan- 
guage, ad infinitum (see p. 9 to 13), may 
breed, we should think, some doubt. But 
what shall we say to the following alleged 
fact, relative to the expedients by which 
the trade of translation appears te be some- 
times promoted ! 
«<A very extraordinary circumstance respecting 
one of the Serampore versions was ¢elated to me by 
the Rev. Mr. Bardwell, whom I had frequent oppor- 
tunities of seeing in Calcutta, just before his return 
to the United States, and to whom I refer you for the 
confirmation of the following statement. The Kun- 
kun language is described by the Scrampore Mis- 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
[April 1, 
sionaries as spoken on the western coast of India; 
somewhere, I think, between Bombay and Goa, and ~ 
into this language they have made considerable pro- 
gress in translating the Scriptures. But Mr. Bard- 
well declared to me, and, as he informed me, to the 
Serampore Missionaries themselves, that, after all 
the inquiries which he and his brethren had madé 
respecting it, both amongst Europeans and natives; 
no traces of such a language could be found.” 
This system of manufacturing commo- 
dities, for which there is no market, may 
answer the purposes of the mere operative 
manufacturer well enough (for him w# 
works well, so long as he gets his wages :) 
but those whose capital is to be employed, 
either in the commerce of the world, or of 
piety and benevolence, should calculate a 
little, we conceive, by inquiry into facts, 
upon the probable vent and returns for 
their commodity. 
There are many other topics, relative to 
which the work before us is no less likely 
to awaken profitable investigation: for 
the correspondence has arisen out of the 
statement cf no less than twenty heads of 
inquiry. Several of these having direct re- 
ference to Unitarian Missionaryship, may, 
perhaps, be somewhat distasteful to more 
orthodox zeal. But the facts are neither 
more nor less provable, whether stated by 
one of those Christians who endeavour to 
reconcile their faith to their reason, or of 
those who endeavour to reconcile their 
reason to their faith. The zeal for con- 
version of the idolatrous seems to be equal 
in both ; and the facts, it is to be observed, 
are so circumstantially stated, as to be suf- 
ficiently open to confutation, if erroneous ; 
and the numbers are not small of those, 
who must have alike the means of de- 
tecting whatever may be fallacious, and an 
interest in such detection. But there is 
yet another head (a Janus head) of inquiry, 
relative to which the zeal for proselytizing 
has, hitherto, rather impeded than assisted 
all inquiry; but, without which, we very 
much suspect, that no proper direction can 
be given to that zeal, and no beneficial re- 
sults can be effected .—namely, what is the 
actual state of morals among the Hindoos, 
&e. in their unconverted blindness? and 
what the state of morals in that portion of 
Christian population with which conversion 
would be likely to bring them into more 
intimate communion? ‘The author of “ A 
Voice from India” talks of the general 
purity and simplicity of the native Indian 
population in these respects,—of a people, 
‘with few irregularities, and scarcely any 
vices ;’? and asks, “ shall we give them in 
exchange our many vices, or our very few 
virtues?” And though we do not give impli- 
cit credance to his brief generalities, because 
it is evident he writes under the influence 
of party views, and for a political purpose : 
yet we cannot withhold our conviction, 
that mere creeds and ceremonies are not 
Christianity; and that there are persons, 
and masses eyen of persons, denominated 
Christians, 
