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error has been in not having long ago established free schools* throughout every part of this country, by which the children of the natives might have learned our language, and got acquainted with our morality. Such an establishment would, ere this, have made the people at large fully acquainted with the divine spring, from whence alone British virtue must be acknowledged to flow. This would have made them better acquainted with the principles by which we are governed: they would have learned to respect our laws, to honour our feelings, and to follow our maxims; whereas they appear to me, generally speaking, at this moment, as ignorant of their masters as on their first landing on these shores. I speak not of interfering with their religious prejudices, or endeavouring to convert the natives by an extraordinary effort on the part of the British Government. Conversion, in my opinion, must be the consequence which would naturally flow from our attention to their moral instruction, and their more intimate acquaintance with the English character.

The

"I do not mention this as an experiment, the result of which might be considered as problematical; the experiment has been already made, and the consequences have proved commensurate with the highest expectation which reasonable men could entertain. Danish mission, united with the Society for propagating the Gospel, have sent some good men into this country, with the laudable view of spreading true Christianity throughout our Eastern possessions; and the names of Swartz, Gerricke, and others, will ever be remembered by numbers of our Asiatic subjects, of every cast and description, with veneration and affection: and there are happily still living some amongst us of the same character.

"It is true, that the object they had more particularly in view, has in some measure failed; and few good converts, it is generally imagined, have been made; but let it be remembered also, that they have laboured under every possible disadvantage; they have scarcely enjoyed a mere toleration under our government, and received no kind of assistance whatsoever; that they were few in number, and perhaps I may say, without injustice, that they erred (as the best might err) in the means which they had adopted; but that they have done much good by the purity of their lives, and by their zeal in spreading instruction. This will admit of no denial; and I doubt not that I may say, without the danger of contradiction, that few and poor as these men have been, without authority or power to support them, a greater and more extended portion of heart felt-respect for the European

*To give English morals to the natives in their purity, we must, I imagine, make them read English books. Translations have hitherto been very defective in the different country languages; besides, they must be extremely circumscribed in number. I do not think the natives will come to us freely but to learn English. This they consider as the key to fortune: and, on the coast, the most strict of the Brahmins will have little hesitation, as far as I can learn, in permitting their children to attend a free school for the purpose of learning it; for they despise us too much to suppose there is any danger of overturning the principles of Brahminism. But their ill-founded ri diculous principles must be shaken to the very foundation, by the communication of such liberal knowledge as a Christian can instil into the minds of youth, and fix there by means of English books; and all this without making any alarming attack directly on the religion of the Hindoos.

character has been diffused by their means throughout this country, than by all the other Europeans put together. We have, in my humble opinion, my Lord, kept ourselves too far from the natives; we have despised their ignorance, without attempting to remove it-and we have considered their timidity, (the natural result of their being trampled upon by one race of conquerors after another,) also as an object for our contempt; at the same time, that we have viewed the cunning of their character, (which is ever the natural resource of ignorance and weakness,) as the completion of all that is vile and deceitful. Thus have we continued a system of neglect towards the interests of our native subjects, in points the most essential to their very happiness, throughout the whole of our governments in this country. Fain, my Lord, would I see a change in this particular; and I seize the opportunity which the present moment affords, to press the justice and the policy of the measure on the attention of your Lordship's government.

Having the honor to remain, with the highest respect, my Lord, Your Lordship's faithful and obedient humble servant, (Signed) R. H. KERR, "Madras, Nov. 3, 1806."

Senior chaplain of Fort St. George.

THE STAR IN THE EAST,

WITH THREE NEW

SERMONS,

PREACHED ON VARIOUS OCCASIONS,

BY

THE REV. CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN, L. L. D.

A a 23

SERMON I., ·

MATTHEW II. 2.

"For we have seen his Star in the East, and are come to worship him.”

WHEN in the fulness of time, the Son of God came

down from heaven to take our nature upon him, many circumstances concurred to celebrate the event, and to render it an illustrious epoch in the history of the world. It pleased the Divine Wisdom that the manifestation of the Deity should be distinguished by a suitable glory and this was done, by the ministry of Angels, by the ministry of men, and by the ministry of Nature herself.

First, This was done by the ministry of Angels; for an Angel announced to the shepherds "the glad tidings of great joy which should be to all people ;" and a "multitude of the heavenly host sang Glory to God in the Highest, on earth peace, and good will toward

men."

Secondly, It was done by the ministry of Men; for illustrious persons, divinely directed, came from a far country, to offer gifts, and to do honor to the new-born King.

Thirdly, It was done by the ministry of Nature. Nature herself was commanded to bear witness to the presence of the God of Nature. A Star or Divine Light pointed out significantly from heaven the spot. upon earth where the Saviour was born.

Thus, I say, it pleased the Divine Wisdom, by an assemblage of heavenly testimonies, to glorify the incarnation of the Son of God.

All these testimonies were appropriate; but the Journey of the Eastern Sages had in it a peculiar fitness.

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