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Lord of the Treasury, he had declined to receive any salary as Chancellor of the Ex chequer. It also appeared that Mr. Yorke, who has been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in the room of Lord Mulgrave, who has been made Master-general of the Ordnance has declined to accept the annual 2000!. which was added to the emoluments of his office about four years ago Such instances of disinterestedness are well calculated to make a favourable impression on the country, and to disprove much of the abuse which is thrown on our public men, as selfish and corrupt.

would be, to diminish the number of persons in that house holding offices to which no responsibility was attached.

The motion for a Committee was negatived by a majority or 234 to 115. The arguments brought against the measure were to the following effect.

That the members of the House of Com mons, as now constituted, though not abso lutely the delegates of the people, were virs tually its representatives; and that if it were more popular it would absorb the whole power of the state, and be apt to be influenced by every popular prejudice, and every turn of public opinion;-that whenever the experiment had been tried, as in the time of Charles 1. and in France, of infusing a pres ponderance of democracy into the constitution, the issue had been the overthrow of the constitution, and in the end a military despotism

5. The only additional point which we mean How to notice (we are obliged to omit several that are important) is the motion brought forward by Mr. Brand for Parliamentary Reform. His statement amounted to this: that a moderate reform of parliament was a measure desired by a great majority of the nation, and essential to its welfare; and that it was necessary, in order to regain the confidence of the country, that parliament should be more identified with the people. It was notorious that there were seventy members of that house nominated by the proprietors of boroughs, and not chosen by the people, and who therefore represented, not the people, but stch proprietors; while, at the same time, many populous places returned no members at all. To remedy this and other evils, he should move for a Committee to inquire into the state of the representation. If this motion were agreed to, he should propose in that Committee to disfranchise such boroughs as no longer possessed property or population enough to entitle them to send members to parliament, giving a compensation to the proprietors; and to transfer their rights of election to more opulent and populous places. The only change he would propose in the counties would be, to allow a vote to copyholders as well as freeholders. In the metropolis, and other populous towns, he would give the right of voting to all resident householders paying parochial and other taxes. In the counties and towns of Scotland, he should wish to assimilate the rights of elective franchise as much as possible to what they were in England. With respect to the duration of parliament he was disposed to recommend triemial instead of either annual or septennial parliaments; and, in concurrence with this measure, he should further recommend that the votes should be taken in districts or parishes, so s to avoid the expence, delay, and contusion attendant on the present mode of conducting elections. The only other thing he should propose, would stop there; they might go on to uni

that whatever defects there might be in the construction of the House, the system went on well-that whatever new plan was substituted, evils, analogous to those now in existence, would be found to spring from it, so long as men continued the same and were actuated by the same selfish passions-that those who thought the worst of this country might be challenged to compare it with any other in the world; for, with the exception of the accumulation of taxes (by means of which, however, we had been saved in that struggle with France, under which every other country had sunk), there was nothing of which to complain ;—that the national prøsperity, in spite of every disadvantage, had advanced in an astonishing degree; and that it would be the height of rashness by untried innovations to put all our comforts and enjoyments to hazard, and to run the imminent tisk of being driven, through storms of anarchy and confusion, into the gulph of despotism. It was further remarked, that at no period whatever of our history which could be uamed, had parliaments been in a better state than now; if so, let that time be specified to which it was wished to bring parliament back: if not, it was too perilous an enterprize, to throw the British constitution into any committee of reformers in the world, m order to be new modelled, or rather ma gled, at their pleasure;-that the present time was particularly unfavourable for a measure of this sort, as the minds of men were heated by recent transactions, and had been taught o carry their ideas of reform to such heights of extravagance-that however moderate might be the plan now sketened out, there was no security that a committee

versal suffrage; and certain it was, if they did not, that they would give no satisfaction to the great reformers of the day ;-that with respect to the elective franchise, through the diminution in the value of money it was now much more widely diffused than ever it had been before-that as to the proposed reform, it would produce no diminution of taxes; these must still be paid, if we would exist as a nation; and there was this security against nnecessary and oppressive taxation, that the house, in taxing the nation, taxed itself also; that people were deceive.t in supposing that the country at large panted for parliamentary reform; that there was indeed a party who clamoured for it, but who, pretending reform, sought anarchy; that these, however, were a low and degraded set, who'magnified themselves into the nation, and diminished the nation into a faction; who declared their own infallibility, and depreciated the judgment of all others; who affirmed that they alone were pure, and all others corrupt; that as to the alleged passion of parliaments for war, the wars into which we had entered for the last century had been the wars of the people rather than of parliament: -in short, that if obliged to choose between the capricious chances of theoretical reform, and the ancient edifice which had so long pheld our rights and secured our interests, there was no room for hesitation. Let the venerable fabric which bad sheltered us for so many ages, and stood unshaken through so many storms, remain unimpaired, sacred from the rash frenzy of those ignorant innovators who would tear it down, careless and incapable of any adequate substitution,

To these arguments it was replied, That the extravagant lengths to which certain demagogues carried their views of parliamentary reform, so far from being conclusive against the motion that had been made, was the best reason for entertaining it; that by effecting, through the constitutional medium of parliament, such moderate and reasonable changes as had been proposed, all pretence for disorder and clamour would be taken away--that the real cause why so many governments had beeu overturned of late, was not that plans of reform had been deliberately adopted by the constituted authorities of the state, but that all approach to reform had been resisted by those authorities, until the storm of popular disaffection had reached its height, and with unmeasured fury levelled to the ground every ancient

institution-that if this dreadful issue wất to be deprecated, it behoved parliament calmly and uprightly to survey our state, and to consider what could be done to correct existing abuses, and thus to deprive disaffection of its aliment; that by this proceeding, the number of the disaffected would be so diminished as to become perfectly insignificant-that, for instance, it was impossible for any one to maintain that peers and others should continue notoriously to nominate to seats in that house, or that seats in that house should be openly bought and sold as an article of merchandize, while both the letter and the spirit of the constitution stood directly opposed to such a prac tice; while every honourable and patriotie feeling militated against it ;-that it was also obviously unjust and inexpedient that a num◄ ber of boroughs, boroughs only in name, with scarcely an inhabitant, should be represented in that house, while Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, &c. &c. were not represented at all; or, that in extensive counties, as in Scotland, the right of voting should be confined to thirty or forty individuals;-that the necessary effect of such a system was corruption; and that of all ima ginable political evils, corruption was most to be dreaded: it was what gave its deathblow to public spirit in those who managed the affairs of tire state; to whom also it gave an interest in propagating its poisonous taint through every class of the community; while it furnished to the enemies of social order a fair pretext for carrying on their plans of revolution and anarchy.

But we find ourselves compelled to cut short the argument, from want of room to enlarge farther.

From all that passed,we are inclined to think that the appointment of a committee is not perhaps the most adviseable course of procedure; and therefore we do not particularly regret that that motion should not have been carried. But we do hope that the business of reform will be taken up, as it were, piece-meal, and that one useful regulation, after another will be attempted, for correcting the anomalies and abuses of our constitution, until what is unconstitutional in principle, and dishonest or injurious in practice, shall be checked and discountenanced, as far as the provisions of law can effect that important object. But we must take another opportunity of explaining ourselves more fully on this important topic.

For "Answers to Correspondents," see the 2d page of the Cover.

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

No. 102.]

JUNE, 1810.

[No. 6. Vol. IX.

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

RECOLLECT to have read, some years ago, with great interest, an account of the first Protestant Mission to India, which you had extracted from the Memoir of the Rev. Dr. Buchanan *. Thus prepared, I purchased with avidity a volume which lately met my eye, containing a series of letters from the first missionaries, Bartholomew Ziegenbalgh and Henry Plutscho, to their friends in Europe, in which they give a particular detail of the early progress of their undertaking. Understanding that the book is scarce, it has occurred to me that it might prove not only acceptable to you, but edifying to your readers, and useful to the general cause of missions, to lay before the public a selection of the most important parts of these letters: such, I mean, as display the spirit of the missionaries, the difficulties they encountered, the means they used to overcome those difficulties, and the success which attended their labours.

One motive which induces me to solicit a place in your work for the following extracts, is derived from the obvious remark, that a statement of facts, drawn up many years before the subject to which they relate had become the topic of controversy, will probably be received with less suspicion, and therefore have more weight in argument, than more recent details, which, however correct they may be, the enemies of missions may refuse to admit as competent evidence, on the alleged ground, if not that they are wholly untrue,

Vol. for 1805, p. 607.
CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 102.

yet that they are coloured or exag gerated to serve the purposes of a party.

Another circumstance which makes me wish to see publicity given to these letters is this; that they are stated to have been the very means which first led the venerable Society for promoting Christian Knowledge (commonly called the Bartlett's Buildings' Society) to patronize those missions to the East Indies which they have ever since continued so honourably and so liberally to support, and which the great Head of the Church has blessed to the conversion and salvation of thousands. May their re-appearance in your work have the effect of again rouzing the dormant zeal of many!

I am, &c.

S.

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF BARTHOLOMEW ZIEGENBALGH AND HENRY PLUTSCHO, THE FIRST PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES TO INDIA.

Cape of Good Hope, April 30,1706. "The further we find ourselves removed from you, by the wonderful providence of God, the more fervent and sincere grows our love and affection to you; being assured, that, as we remember you, both before God and in our daily conversation, to our mutual joy and comfort, so you, according to your wonted love, will be no less mindful of us, and consequently will gladly receive some account of our present circumstances."

"The 29th of November, 1705, we embarked, with great joy, in a ship called the Princess Sophia Hedwigh, being dismissed by the well-wishers

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to our undertaking with tokens and presents convenient for our expedition. Thus attended with many hearty wishes, we cheerfully went on board, hoping that the presence of God would go before, and lovingly incline to us the hearts of that barbarous people, whom we were going to visit with the welcome tidings of salvation. The 30th of November we set sail, and arrived the night following at Helsingoehr. Here we lay wind-bound for eight days together. The 14th of December we sailed again. The 16th we left Norway on the right, and Hitland, with other little islands, on the left. The 22d we sailed by the Western islands, called Orcades. After this we left England and Ireland on the left hand. The 27th we entered the Spanish seas, whose towering billows received us very stoutly, the ship seeming as if it were carried through a deep vale, betwixt two lofty mountains. The sight we had of the marvellous works of God, did not a little cheer up our spirits. And the more the storms and roarings of the seas broke in upon us, the more increased the joy and praise of God in our mouths; seeing we have such a potent and powerful Lord for our father, whom we may daily approach, and as confident children, put up our prayers and petitions to Him."

"The 9th of January we drew near the coasts of Africa, where the weather began to be a little warmer. From thence sailing by Turkish Barbary, we were in danger of Pirates; but under God's protection we happily touched the Canary Islands. The 15th, passing under the tropick of Cancer, to the torrid zone, we perceived the heat to be very excessive, attended with lightnings, and terrible thunder-claps. The 20th, we came to the Souds islands. The 25th, we left Cape Verde on the left hand." "The 9th of February we at length passed the line very successfully. After this we had a contrary wind for about eight weeks together, aud were driven quite upon the coast of America," "where we werein danger

of suffering shipwreck. But by the help of God we safely got over this difficulty; which caused such an extraordinary joy in the whole company, that the next day was not only kept as a day of thanksgiving, but we had also a considerable collection made for the benefit of the poor. The 5th of March, we passed the tropic of Capricorn." "The 31st of March we came to an unknown and uninhabited island, called Tristante Conto; from thence sailing towards the north-east, we at last happily arrived here the 23d of April."

"As to the manner of spending our time all this while, we would have you know, that never a more convenient opportunity has been offered us, than even this, for obtaining some true and substantial wisdom, so much pleasing to God. For the nearer we touched upon the very brink of death, the more we endeavoured thoroughly to acquaint ourselves with the great God, and to adore him in spirit and in truth; that so we might be ready prepared, whenever the Lord should be pleased to bury us in the mercìless waves of the sea." "Morning, noon, and night, we usually had some exercise of piety in the ship, discoursing of the word of God, praying, singing, and praising the Lord for all his wonderful mercies Vouchsafed to us. And this proved an excitement to many others that were about us. The rest of the day we employed likewise in reading and pondering some Scriptures, with such discourses, as might stir up the mind to contemplate the wonders of God in the works of creation, which were now the daily objects of our senses. Sometimes we endeavoured to praise God with a concert of music, both vocal and instrumental, and by some melodious hymns awakened the inward harmony of our soul to praise and magnify the Lord. Thus we passed our precious time, both with great advantage and a delicious entertainment of our minds, so that the same seemed rather too short than too long under such useful exercises."

"After this manner has the Lord,

under various crosses and trials, more and more opened unto us the mysteries of salvation hid in the letter, and lively impressed the divine truths on our minds, to the end we might be able to deliver it unto others again, with the greater boldness, from the stock of our own experience. All which makes us entirely rely upon the paternal assistance of God, in the discharge of that office wherewith he has intrusted us, and not to be terrified at all by any sufferings, perplexities and persecutions that perhaps may attend a work of this nature." "In the mean time we trust, dear friends, you will not cease to put up your hearty prayers to the Lord on our behalf; to the end, that as we have hitherto enjoyed his blessed influence upon our souls; so we may be further encouraged, humbly to wait for the good success of our labours. We cannot sufficiently express what comfort we felt within us, whenever we remembered you and other friends, allied to us in the spirit of love, being mindful of your incessant prayer for enlarging the kingdom of Christ. Therefore we would have you know, that as you have been with us, so we have been with you, when you were offering up your supplications on our behalf. May the Lord unite our hearts in this bond of love to all eternity! May he graciously hear whatever we desire in one mind and spirit, for the increase of his glory, and the propagation of his truth!"

"The captain of the ship, in whose affection we had but a small share at first, soon after proved so kind, that he made all things common with us, God inclined bis heart, with the rest that were in the ship, in such a manner, as made him rejoice to lend us a helping hand, whenever it did lie in his way; he being within himself, by the means of our ministry and daily conversation, convinced that we were sincerely disposed for promoting the good of their souls."

We hoped we should have met with, among the Christians here, such

souls, as might have a true hunger and thirst after the word of God; most of them being German Lutherans, left without a minister: but hitherto we find little among them, besides a religion raised on maxims of state and policy, void of all that substantial piety and truth which is in Jesus. Every one pretends, he cannot serve God so well in these parts, as in his own country; and so they think they had rather put it quite off, till they come home again, On the contrary, we cannot but own, that we found the Dutch here in a far better condition as for matters of religion. They have set up a very useful exercise for the catechizing of children. They had their Bibles always ready at hand, and loved to hear us talk of piety and religion. Their minister is a learned and wise man, and very kind to the Lutherans here. We found with him many good books of some of our best divines, and hope our conversation with him will not prove altogether useless. We presented him with Mr. Freylinghausen's Fundamental Principles of Divinity, lately published. We were overjoyed to hear the children of the blacks answer so prettily to all the questions of the Christian religion; but were much amazed to see, that the Christians use their slaves so hard, and (as it was said,) deny them the very benefit of baptism, whereby they might be initiated into the Christian faith."

Tranquebar, July 12, 1706.-"Since the Lord, in his infinite mercy, has been pleased to bring us hither safe and sound; we find ourselves in duty bound, most humbly to return thanks for so signal a favour, and likewise to encourage our friends to join with us, in so noble an exercise; being fully assured, that your prayers and good wishes have all along attended us bither. We arrived in good health on the 9th July, and were received with great joy."

"This place lies under the 11th degree this side the line, and is altogether inhabited by Malabarian hea

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