596 
litary officer, are not only performed, but 
are in a manner fan€tioned bya precedent 
of thirty years, And as to the ftate of 
religion among a people who have no di- 
vine fervice, it is fuch as might be ex- 
petted, After a refidence for fome years 
at a. ftation where there is no vilble 
church, and where the fuperftitions of the 
natives are conftantly vifible, all refpect 
for Chriftian infitutions wears away, and 
the Chriftian fabbatir is no otherwife dif- 
tinguifhed than by the difplay of the Bri- 
tify fag. The contrat of this with the 
ftate of the Romi/b church in the Eaff, is 
truly ftriking ; though the Jatter, it ap- 
pears, has now loft its zeal for converfion. 
Its pricfts, however, live refpefted, and 
in decent circumitances ; ecclefiattical dif. 
cipline is preferved, divine fervice regu- 
Jarly performed, the churches are well at- 
tended, and the benefafticns of the people 
liberal. In Bengal alone, there are eight 
Romith, four Armenian, and two Greek, 
churches ; and the Romith ecclefiaftical 
efiablifhment confifts of three archbifhops 
and feventeen bifhops. The regular ec- 
clefiaftical eftablifhment propofed by Mr. 
Buchanan for Britifh India, is by no 
. means foextenfive. It is in his view, that 
three diocefes alone fhould embrace re- 
fpeftively all our continental poffeffions in 
the Eaf& : an archbifhop and metropolitan 
of India, to prefide at the feat of the fu- 
preme government in Bengal; and one 
bifhop at each of the two fubordinate pre- 
fidencies, Madrafs and Bombay. To 
thefe he would add a bifhopric for Ceylon, 
to comprehend all the adjacent iflands, 
and alfo New Holland and the ifiands in 
the Pacific Ocean. ‘The number of rec- 
tors and curates in each diocefe to be re- 
gulated by the number of military ftations, 
and of towns and iflands containing Eu- 
ropean inhabitants; with an efpecial at- 
tention to this circumflance, that provifion 
may be made for keeping the eftablifhment 
full, without conftant reference to Eng- 
Jand, the neceffity of fuch provifion being 
Hluftrated by the following fa&: in Ben- 
gal, and the adjacent provinces, there is 
at prefent an eftablifhment of fix military 
chaplains; but that number is fometimes 
reduced one half. When a chaplain dies 
or goes home, his fucceffor does not ar- 
Five, in moft cafes, till two years after- 
owards. Of the ‘ confiderations deduced 
from the propriety or neceffity of this ec- 
clefiaftical eftablifhment,”” it is enough to 
jay that they are pious and judicious; as 
well as the chapter which confiders the 
more probable objections which may be 
likely to be made againii it. The fecoud 
me 
Retrofpcét of Domeftic Literature,—Theoligy. 
part of the work treats ¢* of the civiliza- 
tion of the natives; and the third, of 
the progrefs already made towards tt. 
This laf portion is peculiarly interefting, 
as itrelates to the exiftence of a chriftian 
church under epifcopal jurifatétion,. in 
India, for the la@ thirteen hundred years, 
on the coat of Malakar, where no _lefs 
than 150,000 natives pro‘efs that religion, 
and live under a regelar canonical difcin- 
line, occupying 119 churches. The la& 
chapter of the whele, on ‘* the xtenfion 
of Chriftianity in India by the labours of 
Prote{tant miffionaries,’? has aimott equal 
value. The exertions of the venerable 
Swartz are fet forward in a light ia waicls 
they have been rarely feen; and two 
letters trom Kirg George the Firit t6 the 
miffionaries at Tranquebar, fhow the in- 
tereft which he took in the converfion of 
the Hindoos, carly in the eighteenth cea- 
tury. An appendix, occupying 35 pages, 
finifhes the work ; and contains a variety 
of documents and fagis too curious to be 
pated unnoticed. The fir of thefe con- 
tains a record of the fuperftitious pra€rices 
of the Hindoos now fubfifling, which in- 
flict immediate death, or tend to death, 
deducted from the evidence of the Pundits 
and learned Brahmins in the college of 
Fort- William ; with notes on the practi- 
cability of their abolifhment. Another 
contains a repert of the number of women 
who have burned themfeives on the fuaeral 
pile of their hufbands, within thirty miles 
round Calcutta, fromthe 15th of April 
tothe 15th of O&tober, 1804, the total 
of which amounts to no lefs than 116. 
Other fe€tious of this appendix relate to 
the religious mendicants, the different 
Hindoo feéts in Bengal, the civilization of 
India, the exceffive polygamy of the Koo.. 
lin Brahmins, and teltimonies to the ge- 
neral character of the Hindoos ; followed 
by an account of the early Jewifa Scrip- 
tures, which are now preferved at Cochin, 
a reference of a very fingular kind to 
Shanfcrit teftimonies of Chrift, and a few 
remarks of a ferviceable nature on a Chi- 
nefe verfion of the Scriptures.—We can- 
net but hope that the memoir here offered 
tothe reader’s notice may meet with that 
attention it deferves. . 
r. Evanson, in his “ Second Thoughts 
on the Trinity,” has done butvlittle fervice 
tothe world. They coniift chiefly of ani- 
madverfions on the Bifhop of Gloucefter’s 
fcriptural teftimonies; and convince us 
that the writer, while he lays but fmall 
ftrefs on the canonical authority of the. 
Scriptures at large, is loft in his fpecula- 
tions on the Apocalypfe. He feemsto be 
(or 
