Lord Teignmouth, president of the society, which will be read with iu

terest.

"My Dear Lord,

Cavendish Square, May 2d, 1820. "Having, for some years, been reluctantly compelled by my advanced age to discontinue my attendance on the anniversaries of the British and Foreign Bible Society, I cannot but feel some apprehension, lest the cause of my absence should either be forgotten, or misconstrued into coldness for its concerns. Your Lordship will therefore allow me to request, that you will assure the meeting that my feelings on this most interesting subject admit not of being changed; or rather, that they have indeed been changed, from the confident anticipation of great future benefits, with which I hailed the earlier efforts of the society, into devout and fervent gratitude for the success with which its maturer labours have been crowned. May those labours continue to be made with zeal, and charity, and Christian meekness; and then we may be humbly confident that the favour of Almighty God will continue to attend and bless them!

(Signed)

"S. DUNELM." "P. S. I trouble your Lordship to add the inclosed draft for fifty pounds to the funds of the society."

Rev. Mr. Ward, from Serampore.

"My Lord-I feel very peculiar satisfaction in having an opportunity of presenting to the Bible Society, through your medium, some of the fruits of our labours in India. It is not necessary, considering your Lordship's long residence in India, that I should trouble the meeting with many observations; but, having resided there nearly twenty years, perhaps a few remarks from one who has been deeply interested in beholding the state of that country, may be pardoned. The inhabitants profess to worship 330 millions of deities; and some of these deities which are actually worshipped, are personifications of sins themselves. Idol worship is practised in every form, with all its most disgusting features; and cannot surely be contemplated by a Christian without producing shame, on reflecting that he is connected with creatures who are so debased.

"The whole population of India has been supposed to be about 150 millions, and the population under the British sceptre about 66 millions; but I need not tell you, my Lord, that the government of Great Britain in India has been a vast blessing, and I can add, the gift of the Bible by Great Britain to that country has been the greatest blessing she has received under that government. Thus openings have been made for the communication of that good which Britain has it in her power to afford more than any other nation. From the excrtions of the head of the government in that country, and the general exertion of our countrymen, we may hope to witness an improvement in the situation of

females in India. Their present degraded situation is a consideration that will go to the heart of every one here present. Scarcely any of them can read or write. In consequence of this state of ignorance, we see the female character there remarkable only for superstition and vice. We see mothers, especially in one tribe, murdering their female children; and I am sorry to inform this meeting, that all the efforts which have been made to suppress infanticide in that country, have been attended with but little success. Some females there, actuated by superstition, submit to be burned alive on the funeral piles of their husbands. It has indeed been said, and I wish that we had proofs that it had been said truly, that this custom is on the decline in India: I fear it is rather on the increase. In the year 1815 the number of females burned, or buried alive, under the Bengal presidency, amounted to between 4 and 500; in 1816 to between 6 and 700; and in 1817, 706 females suffered in this manner in that presidency. Now, my Lord, with these facts before us, need we any further proofs of the want of Christianity in India? With your Lordship's permission, I will now present these translations of the scriptures, in some of the vernacular languages of India. (Here Mr. Ward presented copies of the following versions, prepared and printed at Serampore:) 1. The Pushtoo; 2. the Mahratta; 3. the Bengalec; 4. the Punjabce; 5. the Telinga; 6. the Kunkuna; 7. the Sangskrit; 8. the Hindee; 9. the Chinese; 10. the Orissa.

"It would have given me great pleasure, my Lord, if I could have added the works of our fellow-labourers in this cause, and if I could have brought to your table some other proofs of Bible conquests in India. Your Lordship well knows the influence of caste on the minds of the natives; the difficulties from that and other causes have been so great, that it has been the opinion of many in this country, as well as in India, that it will be a vain attempt. But the report just read gives such evidence that it is the work of God, that we cannot doubt but that in 20 more years, under the influence of the Bible Society and other institutions, we shall all have reason to say, This is the finger of God, and the Bible is the power of God for their salvation. I could mention several facts of the good that has followed the circulation of the scriptures in India; they have been the means of convincing many of the error of their ways, and turning their feet into the way of life; and not an inconsiderable number of persons, clasping this volume to their hearts, have said, with Simeon, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for my eyes have seen thy salvation.""

Rev. Dr. Clarke, (accompanied by two converted Cingalese.) "My Lord-Though I have been long a labourer, through the mercy of God, in his cause in the world, I have never had sufficient courage to come forward to speak of the labours in which I

have taken a part. I have never attended a meeting here, without seeing every place I could have wished to occupy, occupied with the greatest effect by some other person, who has performed his part better than I could have done. The reason I now stand here, is, to give an account of the two men who are before you. Some years ago, this society granted a sum of money for the translation of the scriptures into the Cingalese language. Some of the copies got into the temple of Budhu, and the two men now by me were of the number of those who read. They were astonished; they were affected; one fact struck them; that Jesus Christ, the author of that volume, had associated with himself persons who were fishermen. They were of the fishermens' caste at Ceylon; and it struck them, that, if the author of this religion did associate with persons of that profession, and they became the means of spreading the knowledge of his gospel through almost the whole world, perhaps it might please Him to use them who are fishermen also, to make known his gospel to their countrymen. Your Lordship will see that it was extremely difficult for them to make known what they felt; one of them had been brought to the temple at five; and the other at six years old, and they had regularly proceeded through all the gradations till they became high priests; but they thought, if they could come to this country, which was a place where the Christian religion was professed, they might become thoroughly acquainted with the divine word, and see the persons who had sent this blessing to them. They went to a man, celebrated for his deep learning, and asked him if he had considered the Christian system? le said, The religion of Budhu is the moon, the religion of Jesus Christ is the This affected them deeply; and, hearing that Sir Alexander Johnson was about to return to England, on account of his lady's health, they requested permission to come with him. He hesitated, and put them off; but they were so deeply affected with what they had read, and their determination was so strong, that they left their temple, their friends, and their country, put off in a boat, came up with the ship, then under weigh, were, at their earnest request, taken on board, and arrived in England May 7, 1917. They knew not a word of English, but were well acquainted with this New Testament, which they had compared to the doctrines they had preached to their people, and the doctrines of Budhu in general, I took them into my house, laboured with them with many prayers and not a few tears. I had to encounter all the prejudices of their minds, and their subtle system of ethics; and I had to rejoice, and I am sure your Lordship and this assembly will rejoice with me, in seeing the light of heaven dawning upon their minds. They became desirous of receiving Christian baptism; but I wished to have further satisfaction. At length, I could not defer it longer: they received this ordinance according to the rites of the church of England; and I trust this solemn season will never be forgotten by them. Since then, they

sun.

have received the sacrament of the Lord's supper. I have thus the honour of presenting to your Lordship, and this meeting, some of the fruits of the labours of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The Christian society to which I belong, had the honour of their education; but we should never have had that honour, if your Lordship and this society had not, by your grant, had that book printed; and I know not that there ever came to your table more glorious proofs of the success of your endeavours. They are here before you, saved from all their superstition, saved from the belief of their doctrine of transmigration; which, as your Lordship knows, has been the grand bar in their country to all that is good; and they are saved, I trust, to every verity of the Christian religion; and this will be a ground of your Lordship's exultation, that you have been the means of sending to them this light to lighten the Gentiles."

CITY AFFAIRS.

There is no subject which ought to be more frequently, or more strongly urged on the attention of our readers, than the degraded and unchristian state of a great part of the population of our city. It is admitted, we believe, by all who have examined the subject, that there is scarcely half a supply of either churches or ministers; and that more than eight thousand children, are still without the means of instruction :-no wonder, then, at the prevalence of impiety and vice.

The facts recently disclosed, in relation to the moral condition of the people who make Walnut-street* and its vicinity their nightly haunts, added to former information, are sufficient to arouse the attention of the most lethargic and careless; and they call on parents, and guardians, and masters, with a heart-rending voice, to see closely to the ways of their own household; and upon all good citizens, to give earnest attention to the moral condition of the city.

In the want of original matter directly applicable to this subject, we gladly select the following observations of the eloquent Chalmers, in his sermon on the death of the Princess Charlotte, of Wales.

"In our own city, much in this respect remains to be accomplished; and I speak of the great mass of our city and suburb population, when I say, that through the week they lie open to every rude and random exposure-and when sabbath comes, no solemn appeal to the conscience, no stirring recollections of the past, no urgent calls to resolve against the temptations of the future, come along with it. It is undeniable, that within the compass of a few square miles, the daily walk of the vast majority of our people is beset with a thousand contaminations; and whether it be on the way to market, or on the way to the workshop, or on the way to the * We refer to proof lately exhibited in the Daily Advertiser, that this whole street is openly devoted to vice, and alluring, every night, hundreds of unguarded youth, into the way to hell; leading them down to the chambers of death.

crowded manufactory, or on the way to any one resort of industry that you choose to condescend upon, or on the way to the evening home, where the labours of a virtuous day should be closed by the holy thankfulness of a pious and affectionate family; be it in passing from one place to another; or be it amid all the throng of sedentary occupations: there is not one day of the six, and not one hour of one of these days, when frail and unsheltered man is not plied by the many allurements of a world lying in wickedness--when evil communications are not assailing him with their corruptions-when the full tide of example does not bear down upon his purposes, and threaten to sweep all his purity and all his principle away from him. And when the seventh day comes, where, I would ask, are the efficient securities that ought to be provided against all those inundations of profligacy which rage without control through the week, and spread such a desolating influence among the morals of the existing generation?-Oh! tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon -this seventh day, on which it would require a whole army of labourers to give every energy which belongs to them, to the plenteous harvest of so mighty a population, witnesses more than one-half of the people preeluded from attending the house of God, and wandering, every man after the counsel of his own heart, and in the sight of his own eyes-on this day, the ear of heaven is assailed with a more audacious cry of rebellion than on any other, and the open door of invitation plies with its welcome, the hundreds and the thousands who have found their habitual way to the haunts of depravity.—And is there no room, then, to wish for twenty more churches, and twenty more ministers-for men of zeal and of strength, who might go forth among these wanderers, and compel them to come in-for men of holy fervour, who might set the terrors of hell and the free offers of salvation before them-for men of affection, who might visit the sick, the dying, and the afflicted, and cause the irresistible influence of kindness to circulate at large among their families-for men, who, while they fastened their most intense aim on the great object of preparing sinners for eternity, would scatter along the path of their exertions all the blessings of order, and contentment, and sobriety, and at length make it manifest as day, that the righteousness of the people is the only effectual antidote to a country's ruin-the only path to a country's glory?

"My next remark shall be founded on a principle to which I have already alluded-the desirableness of a more frequent intercourse between the higher and the lower orders of society; and what more likely to accomplish this, than a larger ecclesiastical accommodation?—not the scanty provision of the present day, by which the poor are excluded from the church altogether, but such a wide and generous system of accommodation, as that the rich and the poor might sit in company together in the house of God. It is this Christian fellowship, which, more than any other tie, links so intimately together, the high and the low in country parishes. There is, however, another particular to which I would advert; and though I cannot do so without magnifying my office, yet I know not a single circumstance which so upholds the golden line of life amongst our agricultural population, as the manner in which the gap between the pinnacle of the community and its base, is filled up by the week-day duties of the clergyman-by that man, of whom it has been well said, that he belongs to no rank, because he associates with all ranks-by that man, whose presence may dignify the palace, but whose peculiar glory it is to carry the influences of friendship and piety into cottages.