S2 State of the Christians of Cochin and Travancore. 



their moral instruction, and their more intimate acquaint- 

 ance with the EngUsh character. 



I do not mention this as an experiment, the result of 

 which might be considered as problematical : the experi- 

 ment has been already made, and the consequences have 

 [.roved commensurate with the highest expectation which 

 reasonable men could entertain. The Danish mission, united 

 with the Society for propagating the Gospel, have sent some 

 good men into this country with the laudable view of spread- 

 ing true Christianity throughout our eastern possessions ; 

 and the names of Swartz, Gerricke, and others, will ever be 

 remembered by numbers of our Asiatic subjects, of every 

 cast and description, with veneration and affection; and 

 there are happily siill living some amongst us of the same 

 character. 



It is true, that the object they had more particularly in 

 view has, in some measure, failed ; and few good converts, 

 it is generally imagined, have been made : but let it be re- 

 membered also thai thcv have laboured under every possible 

 disadvantage ; they have scarcely enjoyed a mere toleration 

 under our government, and received no kind of assistance 

 whatsoever; that they were few in number, and perhaps I may 

 say, without injustice, that they erred (as the best might err) in 

 the meanswhich they adopted; but that they have done much 

 good by the purity of their lives, and by their zeal in spread- 

 ing instruction. This will admit of no denial ; and I doubt 

 not that I may say, without the danger of contradiction, that 

 few and poor as these men have been, without authority or 

 power to support them, a greater and more extended portion 

 of heartfelt respect for the European character has been dif- 

 fused by their means throughout this country than by all the 

 other Europeans put together. We have, in my humble opi- 

 nion, mv lord, kept ourselves too far from the natives; we 

 have despised their ignorance, without attempting to remove 

 it; and we have considered their timidity (the natural result 

 of their being trampled upon by one race of conquerors after 

 another) also as an object for our contempt; at the same time 

 that we have viewed the cunning of their character (which 



is 



