Grecian, which I think by no means the best adapted to the country, as the pillars, which are generally used in the verandahs, require too great an elevation to keep out the sun during the greater part of the morning and evening, although the heat is excessive at both those periods. In the rainy season it is still worse, as the wet beats in, and renders them totally useless. The more confined Hindoo or Gothic architecture would surely be preferable.

On Lord Wellesley's first arrival in this country, he set his face decidedly against horse-racing, and every other species of gambling; yet at the end of November, 1803, there were three days races at a small distance from Calcutta. Very large sums were betted, and of course were lost by the inexperienced. There are a few steady and practised gamblers, who encourage every species of play among the young servants of the company, and make a considerable profit by their imprudence. As those are marked characters, I wonder they are not sent away.

The most rapidly accumulating evil of Bengal, is the increase of half-cast children: they are forming the first step to colonization, by creating a link of union between the English and the natives. In every country where this intermediate cast has been permitted to rise, it has ultimately tended to the ruin of that country.. Spanish America and St. Domingo are examples of this fact. Their increase in India is beyond calculation; and though possibly there may be nothing to fear from the sloth of the Hindoos, and the rapidly declining consequence of the Mussulmauns, yet it may be justly apprehended that this tribe may hereafter be

come too powerful for controuf. Although they are not permitted to hold offices under the company, yet they act as clerks in almost every mercantile house, and many of them are annually sent to England to receive the benefit of an European education. With numbers in their favour, with a close relationship to the natives, and without an equal proportion of that pusillanimity and indolence which is natural to them, what may not in, time be dreaded from them? I have no hesitation in saying that the evil ought to be stopped; and I know no other way of effecting this object, than by obliging every father of half-cast children to send them to Europe, prohibiting their return in any capacity whatsoever. The ex pence that would thus attend upon children, would certainly operate as a check to the extension of zenanas, which are now but too common among the Europeans; and this would be a benefit to the country, no less in a moral than in a political view.

After making these observations, I turn with much satisfaction to the brighter parts of the character of my Eastern countrymen. I can truly affirm, that they are hospitable in the highest degree, and that their generosity is unbounded.— When an officer of respectability dies, in either the civil or military service, leaving a widow or children, a subscription is immediately set on foot, which in every instance has proved liberal, and not unfrequently has conferred on the parties a degree of affluence, that the life of the husband or parent could not for years have insured them. The hearts of the British in this country scem expanded by opulence: they do every thing upon a princely scale; and consequently

du

do not save half the money that might be done with a narrower economy. The beginning, however, of a fortune being once made, it collects as rapidly as a snow-ball. In seven years, or less, a capital is doubled; so that ten thousand rupees given to a child at birth, is a handsome independence by the time it arrives at the age of twenty

one.

The supreme court is held in deserved repute, and the business is conducted with due decorum. The chief interpreter has been permitred to act as a police magistrate, in consequence of which his deputy sometimes appears in causes, the importance of which calls loudly for his master. The court, when I was there, was once delayed two hours by a confusion of the terms repaid and advanced, made by this man, in a cause in which General Martin's executors were defendants. I had the satisfaction of hearing the court order them to pay two lacs and a half to the plaintiff, a shroff of Lucknow. The affair was one of the general's frauds, who had borrowed the money of him, and several other natives, to lend it to Asoph-ud-Dowlah: and on his being repaid, he refused to return them their share; and they dared not complain, as the Nawaub would instantly have scized it. They, however, kept his bond, and recovered on it with interest.

It will hardly be believed, that in this splendid city, the head of a mighty Christian empire, there is only one church of the establishment of the mother country, and that by no means conspicuous, either for size or ornament. It is also remarkable, that all British India does not afford one episcopal see, while that advantage has been granted to the province of Canada;

yet it is certain, that from the remoteness of the country, and the peculiar temptations to which the freedom of manners exposes the clergy, immediate episcopal superintendance can no where be more requisite. From the want of this it is painful to observe, that the characters of too many of that order are by no means creditable to the doctrines they profess; which, together with the unedifying contests that prevail among them, even in the pulpit, tend to lower the religion, and its followers, in the eyes of the natives of every description. there be any plan for conciliating the minds of the natives to Christianity, it is so manifestly essential it should appear to them in a respectable form at the seat of government, that I presume all parties will allow, that the first step should be to place it there upon a proper footing.

If

Since my return to England, I find that an episcopal establishment for India, upon a very large scale, has been publicly recommended by the Rev. Dr. Buchanan. Were its expediency in other respects agreed upon, I fear the present state of the revenue in that country would render such a serious addition to the expenditure unjustifiable; but the maintenance of one bishop could not reasonably be objected to; for, with a revenue of eleven millions, it becomes a duty to appropriate a part to religious purposes, and not a mere consideration of eligibility; I therefore concur with the doctor, in an earnest wish that such an appointment should take place without delay. In the contemplation of such a measure, I shall state my ideas relative to the situation, authority, and duties of a bishop for India.

I conceive it to be essentially requisite

quisite that the person appointed to this sacred office, should devote himself to it for life, renouncing every expectation of returning to England in advanced years, and enjoying himself in indolence upon a pension. He should consider the tie connecting him with his diocese as indissoluble, and place all his felicity in performing his duties with fidelity and honour. He should be free from the rage of proselyting, that he may be able to observe with impartiality the conduct of those whose zeal leads them to attempt the conversion of the Hindoos, and that he may prevent a recurrence of that violation of their prejudices, which has so recently been practised by some of the missionaries; a conduct highly reprehensible, which, if persevered in, will certainly induce them to decline all instruction, if it does not provoke them to expel the British from India. He should be invested with the full power of suspending and ordering home any of his delinquent clergy, without which it would be impossible for him to maintain effectual discipline; and if a right of appeal against his sentence were thought advisable to be granted, it should be cither to au archbishop, or to the king in council; since a power of reversal lodged in the India company, might be found as detrimental in ecclesiastical, as it is in civil affairs. Even delicacy should induce them to decline it, since it is scarcely possible that all could be unprejudiced judges in the case of a person appointed by themselves.

I should be much inclined to urge the propriety of extending to the whole clergy of India the principle of perpetual residence; but in order to induce men of real merit to accept an office requiring

them to abandon the hopes of returning to their native country, a stipend should be annexed to it, sufficient to enable them to support a mode of living correspondent to their dignity, and make an adequate provision for their families. If a pension were allowed for the widows, it would be an additional motive to the truly respectable, and would render a large salary less ne

cessary.

In every view, political as well as religious, it is highly desirable that men of liberal education and exemplary piety should be employed; who, by their manners, would improve the tone of society in which they lived, and, by the sacredness of their character, operate as a check on the tendency to licentiousness that too frequently prevails.

The splendour of episcopal wor ship should be maintained in the highest degree our church allows. On the natives of India, accustomed to ceremonial pomp, and greatly swayed by external appearances, it would impress that respect for our religion, of which, I am sorry to say, they are chiefly, by our neglect of it at present, destitute; the natural effect of which has excited a doubt in the minds of the Hindoo, of our own belief in that faith we are so anxious to press upon him.

The native inhabitants of Calcutta may indeed, from the sight of one solitary church, believe that we have a national religion; but I know of nothing that can give this information to the rest of our eastern subjects. Whilst the Mussulmaun conquerors of India have established mosques in every town of their dominions, the traveller, after quitting Calcutta, must seek in vain for any such mark of the religion of their successors.

Another great obstacle to the reception

we ascertained by the broken banks of a stream which runs meandering through it; the hills also would admit of cultivation, if the large stones with which they are incumbered were removed; but this the inhabitants are too idle or ignorant to undertake, even on the flat land; so that it is with the greatest difficulty that they are able to plough it. After descending a steep pass, from which we had a full view of the hill of Antalow, we arrived at the village of Chelicut, where we were accommodated in a house belonging to the Ras, built on a beautiful spot close to the borders of a stream. We were at this place treated with more than usual ceremony and respect, and were informed that the Ras had ordered the greatest attention to be paid to our wishes. In the afternoon we were taken out to Visit the church, attended by a multitude of priests, all handsomely clothed in white. On entering the first gate-way, they requested us to take off our shoes and hats, with which we immediately complied. I was somewhat surprized to see that the Mussulmauns were permitted to enter into the first circular 'avenue. A sufficiently accurate idea of the whole building may be formed, by imagining three concentric circular walls covered with a thatched roof, surmounted by a ball and Cross. The spaces between the two outer walls were open avenues; the space included within the central one forms the body of the church. The walls were coated with whitish-red plaister, ornamented with gilding, and covered with representations of Noah and the Ark, Christ and the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, the martyrdom of the saints, many extravagant designs

taken from the prophecies, and St. George fighting the dragon. This latter saint seems to be the national favourite, and every where makes a most conspicuous figure upon his white horse. The colouring of all these figures was very gaudy, but some of them, particularly one picture of the Virgin Mary. the face of which was covered with glass to preserve it, was executed in a style superior to the generality of eastern paintings. The infant Christ was placed in one instance in the left hand of his mother, and in another in her right.

In the outer circle of the church was suspended a very handsome glass chandelier,, presented to the Ras by the Sheriffe of Mecca. From the church we were taken to the store-room, to view the rich vestments and furniture of the offciating priests, which were of great beauty. Among other articles were eleven mitres of pure silver inlaid with gold, two dresses of black velvet richly studded with silver, a large silver drum hooped with gold, besides a rich Venetian cloth very handsomely embroidered. The priests seemed to have much pleasure in shewing us their wealth, and afterwards conducted us to the Ras's garden, which, though in a very wild state, and overgrown with grass, was enriched with many valuable fruittrees, as oranges, citrons, pomegranates, and bananas, most of which, from their names being evidently derived from Arabic, I supposed to have been originally brought from Arabia.

Chelicut is the residence of Azoro Mantwaub, one of the Ras's wives; he is a daughter of Ayto Ischias, and sister to the present king. She was extremely polite in her attentions to us, sent us many flattering