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their enclosure. Our native Christian school-master, who has for four years been diligently engaged in a day-school, has undertaken the charge of the boys; and from his faithful conduct hitherto there is every reason to believe that, under the Divine blessing, our institution will prosper. The boys will, as far as circumstances and funds admit, be brought up to useful trades, and those who appear best adapted for it will be educated as teachers. The plan pursued at present in Mrs. Wilson's Female Orphan Refuge at Calcutta, will be followed in the female department. Our number is at present more than 100; but as we feel we could not do justice to more than that number, we shall send the surplus children to other institutions. Our monthly expenditure at present, including salaries of a Christian school-master, mistress, lalla, food, clothing, &c. is 250 rupees; besides which we have laid out a considerable sum in buildings absolutely necessary. To meet so large a monthly expenditure we must look beyond our immediate circle, and therefore appeal to your Christian benevolence to aid our undertaking by becoming a subscriber.

The Institution shall always be open to the inspection of the public, and subscribers will be furnished with six-monthly Reports of the state of the institution.

CHARLES MADDEN.

4.-ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES IN CHINA.

We strongly suspect that protestant Christians are not aware of the extent to which the Roman Catholic church is labouring in countries which to them are almost unknown. We have therefore taken the following extract from the Patriot newspaper, which may give them an idea of the perseverance and zeal manifested by the missionaries of that church, and of their success. Besides China proper, in Japan, though subject to dire persecutions, there are thousands of nominal Christians, and in Cochin China, not fewer than from 50,000 to 80,000. They are but nominal Christians it is true, and are often no better than their heathen neighbours, very often more lax; but the fact shows that these nations are accessible and may, be proselyted; and the zeal and perseverance of these devoted, though in many instances mistaken men, should stimulate many a protestant labourer. The poor converts often sustain persecutions worthy of the best days of Christianity, and the priests submit to privations of the most unheard of kind. Oh! slumbering Sion, awake! awake! put on thy strength. Arise for the help of these lands: let them not be turned, while you are inactive, from the errors of Paganism to the mummeries of Popery.

"It is now fifteen years since the Roman Catholic priests were banished from Pekin, and sent with all those who were discovered in the Chinese provinces, to Macao. Yet the French monks of the order of St. Lazarus, among whom there is no want of money, union, or enthusiasm, have been secretly labouring for the maintenance of the Roman Catholic Church in China, and their exertions have succeeded even beyond their own expectations. For some years they have annually sent two or three young

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priests to China, who quietly proceed to the head-quarters of the Missions in the interior of the country, and join in the work of conversion. There are now Roman Catholic communities in all the provinces; and in many places there are public chapels, where service is performed uninterrup tedly, since the mission have had the good sense to train native Chinese as priests. In furtherance of this object, the mission have founded two seminaries. One of these establishments is for the southern provinces, and is situated in Macao, whence the Chinese candidates are sent to Manilla, where they are ordained by the archbishop. On their return they are sent into the interior of the country, where they live in the midst of their flocks as peaceably as ecclesiastics in Europe. The other seminary is in Tartary, beyond the wall of China. In this establishment the priests destined for the northern provinces and for Pekin, are educated; for, incredible as it may appear, there is in Pekin a Catholic community amounting to more than 24,000 members! There are at this moment two French priests in the community at Pekin; for the chief direction of ecclesiastical matters cannot yet be intrusted to the Chinese priests. The provincials are therefore always Europeans, though the necessity of averting the suspicion of the government obliges them to travel clandestinely, and often places very great difficulties in the way of the Missions. Christian worship is publicly performed, even in many of the principle towns. Tschingtufu, the capital of the province of Setchuen, Christians are interred in the church-yard, and over their graves are erected crosses and other symbols of Christianity. The government, when not suspecting the presence of Europeans, observe the most perfect indulgence towards Christians. Christian communities, too, being generally remarkable for moral and peaceable conduct, are liked by the local authorities, who having once tolerated them, are greatly interested in preventing their detection in higher quarters, because they would then be called to account for their previous want of vigilance. When, therefore, a community is once formed, it incurs very little risk of being molested. An additional guarantee of its security exists in the peculiarity of legal forms in China. The first attempts to establish a community are not very readily suppressed, because the transport of suspected persons to the seat of the higher tribunal must be at the expense of the local authorities, who are, therefore, naturally disposed to wink at such matters, as long as they do not apprehend disturbance or public preachings, which might render them responsible. The reason why so little is known respecting the Chinese Mission is, that formerly the missionaries were chosen from among the most ignorant of the clergy, and on their return they were unable to write intelligible accounts of their proceedings. The Lazarists, however, have seen their error for some time past, and have sent out persons who, in addition to the possession of theological knowledge, have, like the Jesuits in earlier times, passed through a regular course of scientific education. They have now in China astronomers, botanists, &c. from whom interesting narratives may be looked for. It may reasonably be expected that ere long the Roman Catholic Missions will recover the extensive influence which they enjoyed in former times. They have, indeed, already established themselves on a better footing than they have maintained since the expulsion of the Jesuits, and should they hereafter succeed in secretly forming a native Christian clergy, competent to dispense with the direct superintendance of European provincials, Christianity will undoubtedly make rapid and uninterrupted progress; for the government seeks to suppress it not on religious grounds, but because it is an instrument of European influence. This observation is sufficiently corroborated

by the following curious fact. Some time ago the protestant missionaries distributed on the coast of Fockien 20,000 copies of Bibles, prayer-books, catechisms, &c. translated into the Chinese language. These books were sent to the Emperor who immediately issued a very severe decree on the subject of the distribution of foreign publications. But, singularly enough this decree made no mention of the religious books, and merely referred to some of the publications of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, consisting of treatises on geography, history, politics, &c. which had been distributed along with the bibles."-M. S. T. R. A.

IV.-Index to Bengáli Grammars, &c.

To the Editors of the Calcutta Christian Observer.

GENTLEMEN,

I have now the pleasure to forward the promised Index to Bengáli Grammars and other elementary books, which, with the previous one of the Dictionaries, completes my design. This was, to furnish to commencing students of the language here and in Europe, a permanent reference to the entire class of initiatory works, a fuller kind of catalogue raisonnée, in which a list of all that has been hitherto produced in that class might be obtained, together with a succinct account of the general plan, character, and merit of each publication; its extent, price, author, &c. and thus to spare to others the loss of time and money, and consequent vexation and disappointment which fell to my own lot on my arrival in this country. Of the execution of my plan, it is not for me to speak; I may only assure you that I have spared no effort to render it both accurate and complete, and I can with safety aver it to be entirely impartial. I presume not however to dictate ex cathedra, nor can expect that my individual judgment, however carefully formed and after long experience, should be held decisive and satisfactory in every instance. I have not scrupled in any case to give my honest opinion, which too has not been formed without consulting the judgment of others versed in similar studies. Let every student read, examine, and decide for himself. I hope some one of your many qualified correspondents may be induced to supply similar indices to the elementary works in Anglo-Hindustani &c. : they cannot fail to be eminently serviceable and therefore acceptable to stu dents. I am, &c.

CINSURENSIS.

No. 1. A GRAMMAR of the Bengáli language, by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed. Printed at Hoogly, in 1778: Small Quarto, pp. 216. It is not a little remarkable that this first Grammar of the vernacular language of Bengal, as was long true of the first Dictionary also, the Vocabulary of Mr. Forster, should, after so long a lapse of years, be still without comparison the best that has been published. Both authors were civil servants of the Company, and both men of eminent oriental and general literary attainments. Both, too, adventured upon the arduous task of opening up the first accesses to a

language at once the purest offset from the great brahminical stem, and yet, from the almost immemorial subjection of those to whom it was vernacular to a succession of foreign yokes, the least cultivated; a language never, even to the present hour, brought out in all its capabilities, nor ever reduced by native authority to grammatical regularity. The nearly contemporaneous application of equal talent and assiduity to the study of Indian languages and literature, by so many eminent and persevering individuals, is not a little remarkable. Among them, Halhed and Forster stand forward, entitled to a praise for oriental scholarship not inferior to that earned by Wilkins and Jones, Colebroke and Shakspeare.

Mr. Halhed, in an elegant and instructive preface, informs us that the types with which his work was printed were fabricated by his friend and fellow-labourer, the accomplished and indefatigable Wilkins, who " charged himself at once with all the various occupations of the metallurgist, the engraver, the founder and the printer ;" an instance of intelligent and persevering application rarely to be paralleled; and which must appear still more praise-worthy when the time, place and circumstances in which it was exhibited are duly weighed. Every reader, who carefully examines the typography of this Grammar, will doubtless agree with Mr. Halhed in his just and handsome tribute to the skill and ability of Mr. Wilkins.

The Grammar itself is wholly the production of the former gentleman, who writes" the path I have attempted to clear was never before trodden; it was necessary that I should make my own choice of the course to be pursued, and of the landmarks to be set up for the guidance of future travellers." The result of his application is most highly creditable to his talent, and to his research both as a general grammarian and a Bengáli scholar. From it alone, without reference to his "Code of Gentoo laws," (a translation of Manu,) it were abundantly evident that he possessed a discriminating and accurate acquaintance with the venerable Sanskrit, the parent of so many extensively prevailing Indian dialects, of which the Bengáli is both the purest and most characteristic. And to his knowledge of the parent source we are to attribute his perfect comprehension of the genius of the derivative. He had studied both, not as a qualification for office merely, but from the love of philological pursuits and a thirst for information; and he was at once an elegant scholar, a philosophical grammarian, and a diligent enlarger of the sphere of human knowledge. Hence he entered con amore into oriental literature, and read and wrote with equal taste and discrimination. This tribute we have felt it a pleasant duty to pay to the merit of one who has so largely contributed to smooth the pathway through the forest of words to his successors. The discerning reader will not only excuse but applaud the indulgence of our gratitude.

Mr. Halhed observes of his Grammar, that " it presents the Bengáli language merely as derived from its parent the Sanskrit: in the course of my design, I have avoided, with some care, the admission of such words as are not natives of the country, and for that reason have selected all my instances (examples) from the most authentic and anci

ent compositions." This we must deem a special and very high merit, the greater when characterizing a work the first of its class, and composed at a time when the language was in perhaps its very worst and most corrupt condition, a condition from which it has been gradually but slowly emerging ever since; and notwithstanding the unphiloso phical notions and retarding efforts of some, who pretend to dictate and to guide upon questions of language and literary taste while unfurnished with one single qualification for their assumed position; and the unresisting easiness of others, who indolently yield to things as they are, without an effort to amend them, or courage to withstand corrupting innovations; we do not yet despair to see the Bengali language assert ere long its just claim to be considered at once an elegant and a practicable, a pure and manageable language, capable of the highest polish and most extensive cultivation, applicable to every object of literature or business, and possessing in itself alone and in its parent source, free from all foreign admixtures whatsoever, a remarkable facility for deriving every term which the extending necessities and refinement, and the enlarging intelligence of the indigenous population, may require to be formed,

When we say that Mr. Halhed's Grammar is superior to all that have succeeded it hitherto, we mean not that it supersedes the necessity of any further contributions in this kind; but only, that in the accuracy, and extent too, of the information it communicates-in the philosophy of its plan and spirit-the elegance of its illustrations-the acuteness and discrimination exhibited in putting forward the idiomatism of the language the constant reference to its Sanskrit source, by which only it can be justly and fully appreciated; and above all in the purity of its contents, it is unmeasurably superior to all others. We are confident that a bare perusal and impartial comparison, instituted by any competent scholar, will more than justify this assertion.

Instances in point are, the rationale of the plurals of Bengáli nouns and of what may be called the poetical enclitic terminations of the cases, and 973,—the fullness and general accuracy of the syntax-the notices, incomplete as they yet are, of Bengáli versification-and perhaps more than all, the precision and clearness and discriminative propriety of the appellations of the tenses of Bengáli verbs, in regard to which particularly some subsequent writers have shewn so singular an absence of philosophical taste and grammatical judgment. We strongly recommend attention also to the decided preference given to the simple forms of verbs, over the composites with the auxiliary . The examples from the poets illustrate some of the most peculiar idioms of the language, many of which are wholly unnoticed in other grammars. Mr. Halhed observes, and in the case of Bengáli, with much plausibility, that poetical works, as necessarily composed with more than ordinary care and likely therefore to exhibit the best and most accurate specimens of the language, form the best sources of illustration: from these accordingly his examples are chiefly drawn. In his day, indeed, there were scarcely any Bengáli prose compositions of the literary class. Nearly all authors composed in verse; and the current written language of business, as not being the language of the rulers, was

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