talents; they observed the common decorums of life; they did not run naked into the streets, or pretend to the prophetical character;- and therefore they were not committed to Newgate. They preached with great energy to weak people; who first stared- then listened

then believed-then felt the inward feeling of grace, and became as foolish as their teachers could possibly wish them to be:-in short, folly ran its ancient course, —and human nature evinced itself to be what it always has been under similar circumstances. The great and permanent cause, therefore, of the increase of Methodism, is the cause which has given birth to fanaticism in all ages, the facility of mingling human errors with the fundamental truths of religion. The formerly imperfect residence of the clergy may, perhaps, in some trifling degree, have aided this source of Methodism. But unless a man of education, and a gentleman, could stoop to such disingenuous arts as the Methodist preachers,

unless he hears heavenly music all of a sudden, and enjoys sweet experiences, it is quite impossible that he can contend against such artists as these. More active than they are at present the clergy might perhaps be; but the calmness and moderation of an Establishment can never possibly be a match for sectarian activity.If the common people are ennui'd with the fine acting of Mrs. Siddons, they go to Sadler's Wells. The subject is too serious for ludicrous comparisons:- but the Tabernacle really is to the Church, what Sadler's Wells is to the Drama. There, popularity is gained by vaulting and tumbling,- by low arts, which the regular clergy are not too idle to have recourse to, but too dignified: their institutions are chaste and severe,— they endeavour to do that which, upon the whole, and for a great number of years, will be found to be the most admirable and the most useful: it is no part of their plan to descend to small artifices, for the sake of present popularity and effect. The religion of the common people under the government of the Church may remain. as it is for ever;-enthusiasm must be progressive, or it will expire.

It is probable that the dreadful scenes which have lately been acted in the world, and the dangers to which we are exposed, have increased the numbers of the Methodists. To what degree will Methodism extend in this country? This question is not easy to answer. That it has rapidly increased within these few years, we have no manner of doubt; and we confess we cannot see what is likely to impede its progress. The party which it has formed in the Legislature; and the artful neutrality with which they give respectability to their small number, the talents of some of this party, and the unimpeached excellence of their characters, all make it probable that fanaticism will increase rather than diminish. The Methodists have made an alarming inroad into the Church, and they are attacking the army and navy. The principality of Wales, and the EastIndia Company, they have already acquired. All mines and subterraneous places belong to them; they creep into hospitals and small schools, and so work their way upwards. It is the custom of the religious neutrals to beg all the little livings, particularly in the north of England, from the minister for the time being; and from these fixed points they make incursions upon the happiness and common sense of the vicinage. We most sincerely deprecate such an event; but it will excite in us no manner of surprise, if a period arrives when the churches of the sober and orthodox part of the English clergy are completely deserted by the middling and lower classes of the community. We do not prophesy any such event; but we contend that it is not impossible, hardly improbable. If such, in future, should be the situation of this country, it is impossible to say what political animosities may not be ingrafted upon this marked and dangerous division of mankind into the godly and the ungodly. At all events, we are quite sure that happiness will be destroyed, reason degraded, sound religion banished from the world; and that when fanaticism becomes too foolish and too prurient to be endured (as is at last sure to be the case), it will be

succeeded by a long period of the grossest immorality, atheism, and debauchery.

We are not sure that this evil admits of any cure,or of any considerable palliation. We most sincerely hope that the government of this country will never be guilty of such indiscretion as to tamper with the Toleration Act, or to attempt to put down these follies by the intervention of the law. If experience has taught us any thing, it is the absurdity of controlling men's notions of eternity by acts of Parliament. Something may perhaps be done, in the way of ridicule, towards turning the popular opinion. It may be as well to extend the privileges of the dissenters to the members of the Church of England; for, as the law now stands, any man who dissents from the established church may open a place of worship where he pleases. No orthodox clergyman can do so, without the consent of the parson of the parish, who always refuses, because he does not choose to have his monopoly disturbed; and refuses, in parishes where there are not accommodations for one half of the persons who wish to frequent the Church of England, and in instances where he knows that the chapels from which he excludes the established worship will be immediately occupied by sectaries. It may be as well to encourage in the early education of the clergy, as Mr. Ingram recommends, a better and more animated method of preaching; and it may be necessary, hereafter, if the evil gets to a great height, to relax the articles of the English church, and to admit a greater variety of Christians within the pale. The greatest and best of all remedies, is perhaps the education of the poor; we are astonished, that the Established Church in England is not awake to this mean of arresting the progress of Methodism. Of course, none of these things will be done; nor is it clear, if they were done, that they would do much good. Whatever happens, we are for common sense and orthodoxy. Insolence, servile politics, and the spirit of persecution, we condemn and attack, whenever we observe them;-but to the learning, the moderation, and the rational piety of the Es

tablishment, we most earnestly wish a decided victory over the nonsense, the melancholy, and the madness of the tabernacle.*

God send that our wishes be not in vain.

There is one circumstance to which we have neglected to advert in the proper place, the dreadful pillage of the earnings of the poor which is made by the Methodists. A case is mentioned in one of the Numbers of these two magazines for 1807, of a poor man with a family, earning only twentyeight shillings a week, who has made two donations of ten guineas each to the missionary fund!

INDIAN MISSIONS. (E. REVIEW, 1808.)

Considerations on the Policy of communicating the Knowledge of Christianity to the Natives in India. By a late Resident in Bengal. London. Hatchard, 1807.

An Address to the Chairman of the East India Company, occasioned by Mr. Twining's Letter to that Gentleman. By the Rev. John Owen. London. Hatchard.

A Letter to the Chairman of the East India Company, on the Danger of interfering in the religious Opinions of the Natives of India. By Thomas Twining. London. Ridgeway.

Vindication of the Hindoos. By a Bengal Officer. London. Rodwell.

Letter to John Scott Waring. London. Hatchard.

Cunningham's Christianity in India. London. Hatchard.

Answer to Major Scott Waring. Extracted from the Christian Observer.

Observations on the present State of the East India Company. By Major Scott Waring. Ridgeway. London.

AT two o'clock in the morning, July the 10th, 1806, the European barracks, at Vellore, containing then four complete companies of the 69th regiment, were surrounded by two battalions of Sepoys in the Company's service, who poured in a heavy fire of musketry, at every door and window, upon the soldiers: at the same time the European sentries, the soldiers at the mainguard, and the sick in the hospital, were put to death; the officers' houses were ransacked, and every body found in them murdered. Upon the arrival of the 19th