SLAVERY IN EAST INDIA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER.

SIR-With respect to the extract which I made from the Parliamentary documents named "SLAVERY IN INDIA," I beg leave to say, that on a second reference to the book, I find that H. Shakespeare, whose name is attached to the paragraph, and some other magistrates who have undertaken to inquire into the matter, state that the circumstances which it details are grossly exaggerated. They however declare, that there are grounds to apprehend that the owners of Arab ships do manage to introduce slaves into the town, (Calcutta,) clandestinely, notwithstanding the penalties and the restrictions for the prevention of such practices. What the exaggerated circumstances really are, is a point into which they do not enter, but their admission respecting the Arab ships, affords abundant proof that Negro slaves were imported into Calcutta so lately as the year 1824; and that such an illicit trade had been carried on prior to that date, Judge Leycester's report fully proves. That learned functionary states, that "there are many natives of Africa, under the Bengal government, that have been imported by people holding them as slaves." (Slavery in India, p. 344.)

The paragraph signed H. Shakespeare, in "East India Slavery," was originally written by the Editor of the Calcutta Journal, and published in that paper on the 1st of March, 1824. As he refused to give up his authority, and declined appearing at the police-office, I am very willing to believe that he may have exaggerated some of the circumstances connected with the acknowledged importation of African slaves into the capital of Bengal. The very fact that the magistrates adopted measures to prevent the recurrence of similar atrocities, proves the existence of the evil. Whether they have been successful in their efforts to abolish the traffic in foreign slaves, I cannot say. The great, the enormous nuisance, is the existence of internal slavery in India.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient humble servant,
JAMES STUART, LL. D.

The author intended that this communication should immediately follow that already inserted on Slavery in East India; but it did not arrive in time to be so arranged. As he was anxious for its appearance we insert it, although out of place.

REVIEW.

Truth and Error Contrasted; being an Inquiry into the necessity of promoting the Reformation of the Roman Catholics of Ireland. In Seven Letters to the Editor of BlackWood's Magazine, in Reply to an Article in that Publication, July, 1829. To which is prefixed, an Address to the Roman Catholics of Ireland; and subjoined, Reflections on the Solemn Duties and Responsibilities, of the Bishops and Clergy of the Established Church, in Reference to the Church of Rome. By the Rev, ROBERT J. M'GHEE, A. B. Hatchard and Sons, London: Tims, Dublin: Waugh and Innes, Edinburgh.-1830. We are aware that the great subject which first gave existence to the Christian Examiner, namely the controversy between the Churches of England and Rome, has, in a great measure, disappeared from our pages; and while making this acknowledgment, we desire to assure our readers that it is neither our intention or wish to draw back from our original purpose; therefore it is with pleasure that we call public notice to the

work before us, which is not more worthy of attention from the importance of its subject, than from the able, animated, and devoted spirit with which it is written. We confess that it has ever been our opinion, that no Church can be well said to bear the marks of being a member of the General Church of Christ, that does not shew forth a Missionary character-that does not exhibit a desire to cast its light into surrounding darkness-that does not put forth its aggressive arm to enforce truth, and to raise the banner of the cross high and triumphant over prostrate ignorance and error.

ever.

We are assured that the Church of England is a true and beautiful branch of the Great Christian Church, because she claims this Missionary character because she enforces this duty upon every one of her ministersand because, moreover, whenever she has foregone this, her high privilege and duty, and left her indelible commission in abeyance, her cause has not prospered-her character has been sullied-and she approached the confines of that Laodicean state, whose lukewarmness is indicative of all zeal expiring, and all her saving light being removed and extinguished for We know there are those in our latitudinarian days, that say it is enough for Protestants to mind their own concerns, and let Romanists alone. Leaving the Apostolic example out of the question, on these, their grounds, Luther and Calvin, Zunglius and Cranmer, were very troublesome and intermeddling persons-they ought to have left the Pope alone. If Romanism be the innocent thing that they appear to suppose, why, the Protestant reformers were guilty of sin in separating; and certainly the man, let him be whom he may, who in these our days would, either by argument or practice, have it inferred that he believes there is no danger in Romanism to the immortal souls of men-or that there is no call upon Protestants to attempt their conversion-in other words, declares the Protestant reformers to be very sinful and mischievous people-he makes them amenable to the sin of schism.

The writer before us takes up with great power, the Missionary cause of the Church of England. His work consists of three parts, or it is, more properly, three different works bound up together, which the author informs us in his preface, arose out of peculiar circumstances. We shall consider them in their order. The first, which appears to have been the last written, is "An Address to the Roman Catholics of Ireland," comprised in forty-eight pages. The author has evidently studied to evince the combination of a kind and Christian spirit towards Roman Catholics, with an unsparing exposition of their errors. He makes a broad, and we think a just distinction, between the individuals and their Church; addressing them, not as "the authors, but the unhappy victims of a system which they must feel it a crime to examine, but to which, as their only hope, they are necessitated to adhere." He does not enter into the ordinary mode of refuting their superstitions, but proceeds on one principle, to which he generally adheres through the controversial part of his workthat of exhibiting the fundamental truth of the Gospel, in a direct contrast to the errors of their system; and he has adopted an expedient which must be likely to carry considerable weight to any reflecting Roman Catholic who reads it. Having appealed to the evidence of the Apostle Paul, as an incontrovertible authority, to prove what the religion of the Church of Rome was when he addressed his epistle to it, he extracts from the Douay Bible their own summary of the contents of each chapter of the epistle, which he places in the centre column of a large sheet which folds like a map; on the left of this column he ranges the index of one of their most popular and approved modern works, giving the summary of their

religion in the present day; on the right of it he exhibits extracts from the index of Sale's Koran, alphabetically arranged-and he proves from the mere exposition of these documents, that the religion of Mahomet presents a nearer approach to their own admitted exposition of the ancient Christianity of Rome, than the actual religion of Popery at this day in this very country. What an awful conclusion for a Roman Catholic to be drawn to, by the bare exposition of his own documents, that his religion is as foreign to the truth as that of a Mahometan! This, perhaps, is a needlessly offensive contrast, but still the author strongly, though perhaps sternly, brings home his accusation. The author's mode of introducing this, is perhaps a fair specimen of the style of his "Address."

"I do not, I repeat it, charge you, my brethren, either priests or people, with the ini quities of the Church of Rome: you are all, I repeat, the sufferers-the victims-but not the authors of her crimes. It has been at varied stages in the history of her apostacy, that interested powers, whether popes, or bishops, or priests, have gradually introduced that traffic for the immortal soul, in which the awful trade of sacrificing priests and mediators consists; when it was pretended that the door of mercy and of grace which Christ has opened wide to lost and guilty man, was a toll-bar committed to the priesthood; when they whose very office was appointed by the Lord, to go as messengers of salvation to mankind, and beseech them to enter in through that open door, "without money and without price,” to the mercy and the favour of a reconciled God, pretended that the door was locked, and the key committed to their keeping; and affected to sell for money, that which nothing but the blood of Jesus could have bought, and nothing but the mercy of Jehovah could bestow; as if a messenger sent with a reprieve to a convicted criminal, were to tear his master's document of mercy on the way—to extort money from the unhappy sufferer, on pretence of making interest in his favour-and then, when he had fleeced, him of his utmost farthing, were to leave him to perish by the executioner at last. I say not that this is the intention of your priesthood, but I say it is the necessary nature of that system which they administer; I say the Church of Rome, as far as she can do so, has 'shut the gates of mercy on mankind ;' and in pretending to deal forth remedies for sin, instead of proclaiming the remedy that Christ has wrought, has swept away man's only hope of mercy from his soul, and left him nothing in its place but darkness and delusion, and everlasting woe. Alas, my countrymen, my friends, compare even what she herself is forced to state, of the salvation that is in Christ, when she is thrown off her guard upon the subject, with the wretched system of worship which she teaches you, and judge for yourselves what similitude there is between them. It is not, brethren, when a man stands up to protest bis innocence, or to dress himself to advantage, to deceive, that we can form a proper estimate of his real character; it is when he is speaking his own language, giving uncontrolled vent to his temper and dispositions, that we discover the true nature of the individual; so, it is not when your church comes forward on the testimonies of her Bellarmines, her Bossuets, her Milners and her Bayneses, to tell us of her faith, hope and charity,' and all her Christian dignities and graces, that we can believe her—it is not when she comes to invite us into her pale, and tells us all that she is, and all that she is not.- No-what does she say in her own family? She talks of being the church of Christ. What does she say of Christ?-how does she go to you on your beds of pain and suffering and death? what hope does she hold out to cheer and comfort the departing sinner?—what is her religion now, compared with the religion of the ancient church-compared with the Gospel of our Lord the Redeemer? Read, brethren, and judge for yourselves."-p.p. xxxi. xxxii.

That part of his address, however, which seems to us the most important, is the charge which he makes against all the Roman Catholic hierarchythe most direct and the most awful that could be brought against men professing to be ministers of Christ, namely, that there is not one man' among them who does or can preach the Gospel, and throws down the gauntlet to

their whole Church to disprove it. We shall give the extracts in his own words:

"You will recollect, brethren, that our Lord Jesus Christ gave as his last charge to his Apostles-Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel unto every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned,”—Mark xvi. 15, 16. Now, brethren, here is a commission, on which the salvation of man's immortal soul is suspended. Your priesthood claim the succession to those who have received it; and what now, brethren, is the fact? I assert it in the face of day, my countrymen-I assert it in the face of the nation-I assert it in the presence of Him who is wore than an assembled world-THAT THERE IS NOT IN ALL YOUR CHURCH, A Priest, a ProfESSOR, OR A BISHOP, WHO PREACHES OR CAN PREACH The Gospel of CHRIST, TO YOU WHO HANG YOUR SOULS ON THEIR INSTRUCTIONS. O mark-O hear, my countrymen: I write not against your Priests as individuals-I write of them as the administrators of an awful system, which shuts out the light and the salvation of the Gospel from the miserable souls of men, I shall first explain my assertion, and then shall put it to the proof."-pp. 38, 39.

Having explained, he adds

"Now, brethren, I will put this assertion to the test, and I trust, that if truth be the object of inquiry, there are men to be found within your Church to meet it. I lay this down as an indisputable fact, that when the Lord Jesus commissioned his holy Apostles to preach bis sacred Gospel, they executed that commisson, that they did preach that Gospel to the world. Now, I lay it down as another fact, that that Gospel, whatever it be, is a certain truth, on the belief of which, the soul of man shall be saved. I lay it down also as another fact, that this Gospel is to be discovered in the recorded sermons or writings of the Apostles. And I add, moreover, that it is to be so discovered, that those who believe, can point it out, what and where it is......... Now, brethren, I will not say I challenge you, for that word has an air of hostility, or of defiance, which I disclaim in every feeling towards my Roman Catholic brethren; but I will say, invite you to find in all your Church, a Priest, a Professor, or a Bishop who will venture to put this charge of mine upon this issue. Let him take the A postolical Epistle to the ancient Church at Rome- let him study it with all the helps, and for any given time he pleases-let him take it then, and deliver either a written or an oral exposition of the whole, or of any parts of that portion of the Sacred Volume-and let him distinctly mark those passages of sacred truth to be found in it, of which he is able to say, 'This is the Gospel, the belief of which can save the soul"— he is at liberty to corroborate his positions, with references to every portion of the Scripture, but not to introduce any other authority in his exposition, though he may avail himself of all the helps which he pleases in his preparation for it. Now, if there is a man to be found in your Church, at any given time, who can venture to put it to this test, whether he can preach the Gospel or not, I shall find a minister of the Church of England to meet him, to answer extemporaneously the most scholastic treatise he can produce, and to prove one of these two truths-either that the principles which he has set forth as the Gospel of Christ, are not justly and faithfully extracted from His word, and that they are not the Gospel; or, that if he has set forth the Gospel, he has totally abandoned the whole system of doctrine of the modern Church of Rome-and let the exposition of the Priest, and the answer of the Clergyman, be submitted in print to the judgment of every honest man in the nation."-pp. 40-42.

We trust Mr. M'Ghee's invitation may be accepted. An exposition of the Word of God we believe to be beyond the capability of the best informed Roman Catholic priest. We gladly borrow a sentiment from another part of the book, to express our decided conviction on the subject.

"When they are called on to take the Word of the living God and expound it, and reconcile it to their system-when they are held firmly with an unclenching grasp, to that only test of eternal truth-when they are summoned to wield the "sword of the Spirit," it is then their weakness is exhibited-it is the sword of a giant, in the hand of a baby-it can but hurt or wound itself, but is unable to inflict even a scar upon another. I do not say this to under

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value the learning, the talents, the industry, the zeal, of any of the Roman Catholic priesthood-it is their system, that miserable system in which their minds have been enthralled and tramelled, which renders the effort impracticable to the capacities of man, and places it beyond his power to reconcile it to the Word of God."-p. 279.

While we approve of this address, as prefixed to the remainder of the volume, we fear that, in its present form, it is not likely to have an extensive circulation among Roman Catholics; but we should recommend it to the author to publish it, with some alterations, in a separate tract, and we trust it may be disseminated through every cottage in the country.

The second part of this volume consists of 157 pages, comprising seven letters to the Editor of Blackwood's Magazine, and was intended, as the author informs us, to have been published as an immediate reply to an article in that periodical; these letters were written at Harrogate, during a time of illness, from the 22d of July to the 28th of August, 1829, from a continuance of indisposition, and remained unpublished from that time. Whatever increased effect might have attended their immediate publication, we trust that the important principles of truth which they contain will tell upon the minds of those for whom they were chiefly intended-the Protestants of the Established Church. As critics, we could point out, in these letters, internal evidence of the haste with which they were composed; and we might generally observe of Mr. M'Ghee's production, that its style is more declamatory than didactic, and exhibits the mind of a man more accustomed to think as a speaker than as a writer; yet, as theological reviewers, we bail, in this day of frothy, speculative, latitudinarian divinity, a work which dwells on the great broad principles of fundamental truth, and brings them into plain contrast with those errors that are fatal to the salvation of the human soul. There are many points touched on throughout these letters-many questions of ordinary error and misconception among professing Christians, which we consider of much importance at this juncture-such as the abuse of the term Charity (pp. 17, 18), and the true definition of it, (p. 19, &c.)—many points of fundamental truth, too commonly denied, neglected, or merged in speculative trifling with the Word of God, which are enlarged on, in contradistinction to the errors both of superstition and infidelity, with much plainness and decision. The first and second letters are of a general nature, in reference to the Romish controversy; the third exhibits some specimens of the guilt of that Church, on the authority of Dr. Hornihold's Catechism, sanctioned by the imprimatur of Drs. Troy, Murray, and Hamill. The fourth treats of Penance; the fifth of the Mass; the sixth of Purgatory, as opposed respectively to the Gospel of Christ-in all of which the writer avails himself of Dr. Doyle's Catechism, which he exhibits in such colours, that if the Doctor has any thing to say in its defence, we presume he will stand forth and vindicate it, unless, perhaps, his talents are more legitimately exercised in political than religious disquisitions, and that he should deem it more prudent and profitable to agitate a repeal of the union, than to stir up an inquiry into the scriptural character of his catechetical instructions. The seventh letter is a reply to several points in the article of Blackwood, in which the author very clearly identifies, in sentiment and even in expression, the opponent of the Reformation Society with the Roman Catholic priests-proves very conclusively the extinction of Divine truth in any saving sense in the Church of Rome -exposes the folly and weakness of the projects of reformation, which the writer in Blackwood had affected to propose, and concludes with an appropriate address to the Editor of Blackwood himself.

Our limits do not permit us to give extracts from this part-we must