on the grand subjects of the soul and eternity. He would, I am inclined to think, offer himself as the first-fruits of the Nairs: but I think it better, that he should not yet make a public profession. I hope he may, in time, be prepared to enter upon the arduous duties of a Public Preacher in this his Native Country. I think this is a subject worthy of the Committee's consideration: for I am fully persuaded, humanly speaking, that the great work of evangelization must be mainly performed by native hands, such as the Lord, in His own good time, shall be pleased to raise up.

Besides this sowing of seed, as I humbly hope it is, and to which I mainly look for any permanent effects, there is, among various classes of people, a spirit of inquiry, in some degree. It may be said, indeed, that the people perish for lack of knowledge. I hope much, that the School here will be a means of rendering some of the rising generation less prejudiced than their forefathers: and, certainly, fruit may be fairly expected from some Country-born Youths, who are educating in it. I have two fine, steady, and I think intelligent Christians, in a Young Couple here, whose devout and constant attendance on Divine Worship, diligent perusal of the Scriptures, and sober moral conduct at home, do honour to their profession. The one was brought out of the errors of Popery since my residence here.

You are aware, I believe, that our Church has been finished and opened now some time. I can only beg you all to add your prayers to mine, that the Lord may, in due time, fill it with devout worshippers. It would hold upward of five hundred.

With respect to Cannanore and the Catechist Jacob Joseph, I have little to communicate. The Congregation remains pretty much in the same state. As I am but seldom there, and only for a short time together, I cannot get at their general conduct. I hope it is good. Another misfortune is, that it is a body of Tamulians, who speak a language, with which I am not acquainted. There is one thing certain, that they meet together, hear the Scriptures read, and join in devotion. The School under Johnson and the Native, I hope, is thriving: there is one bar to its more complete usefulness-the irregular attendance of the Children: this is not a matter of surprise at this season of the year, when we are inundated with rain for three months; but, I am sorry to say, it is not much better at other seasons: but I do not like to give it up, as an unnecessary burden on your funds.

VIZAGAPATAM.

The Committee, in the course of this year, received a very pleasing account of the state of the School for Country-born Children at Vizagapatam, which was formerly commenced by the Rev. Mr. Church, when Chaplain at that place; and was committed by him, at his removal to the Presidency, to the charge of a friend residing on the spot; the small expense attending it being borne by the Committee, in the absence of any other fund for its maintenance. The Committee have been assured that the improvement of the Children has been considerable, that the number of the Scholars has increased, and that the School is of much utility.

It is, therefore, still kept up at the Society's expense; and a supply of useful books was lately forwarded, to assist and extend the instruction of the Children.

The Expenditure of the Year, in the South-India

M

Mission, has exceeded the Estimate quoted in the last Report. That Estimate, including ordinary and extraordinary expenses, was 42,586 Madras Rupees: the Expenditure has been 48,167. The details here follow, reduced to the nearest round numbers in pounds sterling, reckoning nine rupees to the pound :—

Madras, 14941. (consisting of 8667. ordinary expenses, and 6281. for new buildings and fitting-up the Mission Church) — Tranquebar, 4467.-Tinnevelly, 14967. (being 9107. ordinary expenditure, and 5867. for the purchase of the Mission Premises)-Travancore, including Cotym, Cochin, and Allepie, 16557.—Tellicherry and Cannanore, 427.-Vizagapatam, 127.— Printing Department, 1557.-Secretary's Office, 521.making a total of 53527.

The excess of 5581 rupees above the Estimate consists of items not likely to recur. The Estimate for the current year, sent home by the Treasurer, amounts to 34,395 rupees; and a hope is expressed, that, should the expenditure exceed that sum, the excess will be provided for by local contributions. But your Committee cannot doubt that the friends of the Society, while they see its funds both cherished with prudence and expended with efficiency, will enable them not only to maintain but gradually to increase their exertions in this ample field.

Of the efficiency with which the funds have been expended, under the peculiar difficulties and obstacles opposed in India to the extension of the Gospel, the facts brought forward in this Report furnish abundant evidence. Of the prudence with which the funds are cherished, some remarks by the Corresponding Committee and some notices by the Treasurer, will suffi ciently prove.

The Committee state

The very great amount of the Expenditure induces an urgent application, on behalf of the Church Missionary Society, to all persons residing within this Presidency, who appreciate the benefits of the Religion which it is the Society's design to extend in this country. Of the large amount of the expenditure in last year, a considerable proportion consists of the cost of Buildings required for the Mission in Tinnevelly; and by the disbursement, for the erection of School-rooms and of a Printing

Office for the Madras Mission, of the sums formerly subscribed for the Mission Church, and afterward transferred to the general purposes of the Society: these items of expense will not again occur; nor can the Committee contemplate any material expenditure for a length of time under the head of Buildings, which bas hitherto constituted so large an item of the annual disbursements; the Society being now possessed of valuable and commodious Buildings at all their Stations fully adequate for the wants of the several Missions on their present scale. But, independently of the expenses under that head, the various Establishments of the Society involve a great and probably increasing charge; the burthen of which, it is hoped, the liberality of the Christian Community in India will not decline to share with the generous Members of the Society in Europe.

The Treasurer observes

The Committee have lately adopted a plan, suggested by the Missionaries at Cotym, and founded on a voluntary proposal of the Resident in Travancore, of circulating a Paper inviting subscriptions for the particular objects of that Mission, which, it may be hoped, will procure some material assistance toward defraying the charges of that Establishment.

I would submit to consideration, that the Missionaries at Tinnevelly be recommended to endeavour to raise collections at that place, as Mr. Hough used to do, toward defraying the charge of the Schools there; and John Devasagayam might probably obtain similar assistance, at some of the English Stations within the range of the Tranquebar Schools,

The Committee have pressed on the Missionaries at every Station, the duty of controlling the expenses of their respective Establishments, by a scrupulous regard to economy, in the minutest as well as in the greater details; and especially that no extra personal expenses which a Missionary can manage to defray himself, should, merely from custom or any authority founded upon a supposed necessity for the allowance, be charged to the Society.

In concluding the review of the Mission under their care, the Corresponding Committee thus direct the attention of the Society's friends to the Labours of the Missionaries and the Benefits conferred thereby:

The first claim upon the benevolence of the Society in this quarter of India "is urged by those who acknowledge, though generally in much ignorance, the same Lord and Master with ourselves." The CHRISTIAN NATIVES distributed over most parts

Sermon on the Duty and Policy of propagating Christianity in India, by the Rev. W. Dealtry.

of the Peninsula have hitherto, even at the best periods, been insufficiently provided with instructors; and, at this period, are, in many places, wholly without the means of instruction. It cannot be matter of surprise, that, so situated, they should exhibit but few traces of the meliorating influence of Christianity upon the habits and character of its followers. Availing themselves of the opportunities which have successively been presented, or have been sought out, within their respective spheres of duty, without intruding upon the province of other Societies, but rather cultivating a spirit of affectionate co-operation with their Members, and in some instances gladly affording assistance to help forward their plans-the Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society have collected Congregations of Christian Natives, at every place where they are stationed, to whom all the ordinances of their religion are thus imparted conformably with the Rites of the Established Church.

The situation of the COUNTRY-BORN POPULATION is an object of especial attention. Aiding the exertions of the Local Chaplains where such are stationed at the same places, and supplying their office where Chaplains are wanting, no endeavours are spared by the Missionaries to minister the functions of their office to a class of persons, whose claims on the compassionate attention of European Christians, whether from their descent or from their actual condition in a moral view, are of paramount force. The state of the Congregation at the Mission Church in Madras, affords an instance of the beneficial exertions of the Missionaries under this head.

What the Society has accomplished and is pursuing, in the connection established with the ANCIENT SYRIAN CHURCH OF MALABAR, has been so fully explained in a preceding division of this Report, that the subject need only be adverted to in this place.

The number of SCHOOLS hitherto established, in which a system of Elementary Instruction is united with Christian Knowledge, though far short of the opportunities within the compass of the different Stations, and infinitely short of the occasion for them, has been extended at most Stations as far as the Committee felt themselves justified to appropriate the funds of the Society to this object. At this period, the number of children of all classes, Christians and Hindoos, in the Society's Schools, is between three and four thousand; and probably nearly as many more have successively quitted them for various employments in life, after acquiring, through their means, the rudiments of learning and some measure of religious instruction. The eventual consequences of early instruction of this nature must necessarily remain for a long period, perhaps in the majority of cases always, unknown: but it cannot be altogether unimpressive; and proof has been given, in several instances casually discovered at subsequent periods, of the beneficial effects of the

instruction of our Schools on the minds both of Christian and Heathen Youths. To the Christian Children, indeed, the consequences are less problematical: for the Reports of the Tranquebar Schools furnish the most pleasing testimony, of the good effect of the instruction of those Schools upon the humble objects of the Society's care at that place. The Report of the preceding year presents similar proofs of improvement, resulting from the employment of the same means among the remote Christian Congregations in the Tanjore Country, for whose benefit, in the reduced condition of the Royal Danish Mission of Tranquebar, the Church Missionary Society has established or maintained the Schools of those villages during several years past*.

At most Stations, INSTITUTIONS have been established, and are progressively improving in efficiency and in the compass of instruction afforded by them, FOR TRAINING UP CHRISTIAN YOUTHS, FOR THE SERVICE OF THE CHURCH, AND FOR SCHOOL

MASTERS. These Institutions, though still in an almost infant state, have supplied some useful persons for the Native Departments of the Missions; and will, it may be hoped, become every year more important in this way, until they shall furnish men duly qualified to minister to the spiritual wants of their fellowChristians, and to preach the Gospel to the people at large, more extensively than can be expected from the most laborious efforts of the European Missionary.

In addition to the more active labours of their office, some of the Society's Missionaries are engaged in TRANSLATIONS OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES into languages in which they are as yet unknown, or in the revision of existing Versions; and in the COMPILATION OF WORKS OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION, OR OF ELEMENTARY LEARNING, for the use of Schools and the advancement of general knowledge.

An efficient PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT has been formed at the Madras Mission, which has already produced a considerable number of Tracts and portions of the Holy Scriptures, and is in active operation to multiply the means of diffusing sound religious knowledge.

For the settlement of the Missionaries and their establishments at the different Stations, extensive BUILDINGS have been found necessary, and the Society is now possessed of considerable valuable property at all its Stations. Toward the expense of these Establishments, European Liberality has contributed much; and the favour of the Local Governments, both British and Native, has supplied more. The College at Cotym and the Mission Church and House at Allepie, were mostly erected at the cost of

It was intimated in the preceding Report, that these Schools were to be transferred to the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; but they have not yet been received, and are consequently still maintained by the Church Missionary Society.