their hatred to the Catholics was exercised upon their establish ments, and the Papal forms were prohibited under the severest penalties. The fame fate awaited them in Ceylon, where, according to Cofmas, as early as the fixth century, there were flourishing churches established by the Apostles and their fucceffors: these the Portuguese had endeavoured to restore; but when the Dutch feized on the island, they again fell to decay." P. 319. From fuch propagators uf Chriftianity, enflaved by avarice, and embittered by mutual contefts, little could be expected, and by them in the fpace of three centuries, little comparatively has been done. But have the exertions of the millionaries of the Proteftant powers been more effectual? Certainly not, in any proportion to thofe exertions; and Mr. C. is decidedly of opinion that, as recently carried on, even those of our own country have little chance of extenfive fuccefs. He enumerates the various obftacles to the converfion of the natives, in a chapter exprefsly devoted to the fubject, the thirteenth of this second part of his volume, and the principal ones are as follows: Speaking generally, the civil and religious laws and cuftoms of the Indians refemble those of the Medes and Pefians of old; they never vary. Some miferable wretches of the inferior outcast tribes, and fome petty rajahs, from mercenary motives, may have relaxed from the feverity of the Brahminical code; but the great body of the nation, the higher the nobler claffes, from age to age have remained unalterably the fame. The deftroying fwords of a Mahmud of Gazna, a Timur, and an Aurungzeb, could never effect the converfion of the mafs of the people. Inflicted tortures only inflamed the zeal of their devotion, and made them cling clofer to their altars. The dread of lofing their caft, that is to fay, every thing valuable and comfortable to man in his prefent state, and every hope of happiness in another, acts as an infuperable bar to that converfion. Equally in. efficacious have been the efforts from age to age, of the mildeft and wifeft of the Mogul emperors, by perfuafion and promises, to make them apoftatize from that faith which not only regulates all their religious habits, but extends its powerful pervading influence to all the ordinary occurrences of life; fo artfully, fo inextricably blended, are their ecclefiaftical and civil inftitutions. In direct oppofition, however, to the above, and many other cogent arguments honour of the Apoftle, who was reported to have been martyred by the Brahmins, on a neighbouring mount. All these Chriftians were Neftorians or Chaldæans." adduced, adduced, in the courfe of this chapter, against the poffibility of any immediate or rapid reform in the religious principles of the Hindoos, it has been recently and publicly afferted "That the British nation has a heavy arrear to discharge with the Hindus, that if our guilt be meafured by the importance of the duty neglected, the magnitude of the means, and the urgency of the motives, we may well tremble for the confe quences of our eattern refponsibility;' that it is by no means fubmitted to our judgment, or to our notions of policy, whether we shall embrace the means of imparting Chriftian knowledge to our fubjects or not, any more than it is fubmitted to a Chriftian father whether he fhall choose to inftruct his family or not ;' that a wife policy feems to demand that we fhould use every means of coercing this contemptuous fpirit of our native fubjects,' and chaftife the enormity of their fuperftition at the fountain. head." P. 354. To this bold unwarrantable statement, the whole of this thirteenth book may be confidered as an answer, and Mr. C. concludes it with benevolently remarking; "Happy indeed will it be for the British nation if its conquefts in India fhall prove the means of promoting the temporal happiness of the natives! Happier ftill, if its prudent exertions -fhall have the effect of giving them a tafte for higher enjoyments, and of leading them from the contemplation of the perfections of their Brahma, their Veifhnu, and Seva, to the knowledge of that perfect fyftem revealed in the Gofpel of Jefus Chrift. "Coercion indeed could not be attempted upon any principle of reafon or of justice, if the abfurdity did not fufficiently appear of compelling 50 millions of people to adopt the creed of 30,000 -the utmost population of the English refidents. But the means of eventually bringing about, under the fuperintendance of Providence, an event fo defirable, is of itself a fufficient motive to encourage inquiry, and to animate the pursuit of every one who feels interested in the welfare of his fellow-creatures; more efpecially if we confider this life às a state of probation to a better; and that the world in general is only one vaft ftage, where a multitude of beings are varioufly engaged in offering homage to their Maker, and in endeavouring, by fuitable fervices, to propitiate his favour." P. 355. The means, by which this great and falutary work, if ever practicable, is to be accomplished are not by any harsh or violent measures, like those which are fuppofed to have produced the dreadful catastrophe at Vellore, but by calmly and gradually unfolding to the more intelligent natives of India, as our intercourle with them grows more familiar and extended,the fublime and genuine truths of the extended Gofpel of Chrift, Z 2 and and leaving the effects of fuch representation to the operations of unbiaffed reafon; or by tranflating, as recommended by Sir W. Jones, into the Sanfcrit and Perfian idiom, thofe parts of the prophets and gofpels moft likely to attract their attention, with proper illuftrative comments, and caufing them to be studied in public fchools or colleges, instituted for the exprefs purpose of propagating Chriftianity on principles of voluntary acquiefcence among the rifing generation in India. Thofe fchools not to be conducted under the agency of turbulent fectarian miffionaries, bnt fupported by the weight, and patronized by the liberality of government itfelf, under the controul of officers properly qualified for the important duty; and commiffioned with powers to re ward, but not to urge or compel, the youthful ftudent in his laudable efforts to acquire a knowledge of European literature, and an acquaintance with its religious and civil codes. Thefe fchools fhould be a general afylum for the friendlefs, the deflitute, and rejected children of either Hindoo or Mahomedan origin, and in them the firft feeds of a glorious future harvest might be fown. Something fimilar to this project was once brought before Parliament, but met with determined oppofition on the ground of its "being inconfiftent with every notion of juftice and found policy to interfere with the religious obfervances of the people, the free exercife of which, the government was bound to protect.' The objection would have been valid, had any thing compulfory on the natives been intended by the bill, which was far from being the cafe. What, however, was then confidered as an impolitic interference, and imputed to injudicious zeal in thofe who patronized the motion may, in time, appear in a different view to the rulers of British India; for it certainly is the only rational, feafible way in which their converfion may ever be effected, and that, if at all, not rapidly, but in the courfe of ages; in a word, at that precife period, when it may best fuit the purposes of eternal Providence to accomplish it. ART. III. Poems; chiefly the Local Attachment; the Unfex'd Females; the Old English Gentleman; the Pneumatic Revellers; and the Family Picture. By Mr. Polwhele, of Polwhele. In Five Volumes. 8vo. 449 pp. Truro, printed; Lon don, Rivingtons. 1810. THREE volumes of poems were published by Mr. Polwhele in 1806*; of which the contents had but little in common with the prefent. The chief Poem which appears in both, is that which is there called "Sir Allan; or, the Knight of expiring Chivalry," and here, the "Old English Gentleman." The poem has been new modelled, and very much fhortened; it was then in fifteen Cantos; but is now comprifed in four Books. The poem entitled "The English Orator," which occupied the whole first volume of that fet, is here intirely omitted: of the smaller poems, few are common to both collections. For the fin gular thinness of the prefent five volumes, the whole of which would make no very unreasonable octavo, we can perceive no particular caufe; and, as they appear without any general preface or introduction, the author, probably, thought it not worth explaining. We fhall proceed to give a fhort account of each, with a few fpecimens. The first volume contains only the poem on "Local Attachment," which was long ago published without a name, and was praifed by us as it deferved t. In that poem the author anticipated, in fact, the fubject of a very elegant and attractive poem, which fince appeared, entitled "Home;" and Mr. P. was unfortunate in giving to his poem a more obfcure name, as well as a lefs pleafing form, namely, the Spenferian Stanza. He is alfo more metaphyfical and !efs defcriptive in the flyle of his poem, which may account for flighter impreffion which, though of confiderable merit, it appears to have made upon the public. Mr. Polwhele feems generally to be accounting for the influence of Home, or praifing the attachment, rather than painting their effects. He fel dom defcribes, except when he recurs to his own feelings; and one or two of those ftanzas are among the most pleasing in the feven books. The following, we fhould fay, was the ftanza which pleafed us moft: it is beautiful. p. 265. See Brit. Crit. vol. xxxi. 81. Z3 "Oye "O ye green wood-walks, breathing fresh delight! The fecond volume contains mifcellaneous poems of a fhorter kind, fome of them produced in very early life. The moft confiderable of them," The Unfexed Females," is a Satire on an evil that has happily paft by, the herefies of the Wollstonecraft fect, which arofe out of the licence of France, and ceafed before its oppreffion. The best feature in this volume is, perhaps, the following tribute to real genius. Mifs Trefufis, the fubject of it, was truly worthy of every encomium*; and her death, which happened, as a note informs us, about the time when this fonnet was penned, has left a chafm not easily supplied. "Sweet Maid! enamour'd of thy witching ftrain, . Would ill accord with more melodious lays, Illum'd our fields alike, our ancient bowers; And promife favor in one partial fmile!" P. 60. The poem which occupies the third and fourth volumes, is fo much altered fince its former appearance, that it is not always to be recognized for the fame. It contains, we doubt not, a faithful picture of an old Cornish fquire, of whom the following very poetical paffage gives the most pleasing idea; "The fympathetic spirit hath averr'd That human kindness draws the beaft, the bird; * See the account of her poems in the Brit. Crit, vol, xxxii, P. 126, And |