66 6 stance, the public press of this country, with rare exceptions, have refrained from giving colour to such wholly unfounded insinuations; while a portion of the press, the least likely to be favourably disposed to Missionary enterprise, thus states the question in the emphatic language of the Examiner :'— Missionary propagandism has been affirmed by some parties who were beating about for a reason to be the cause of the present mutiny, but for this there is obviously not a shadow of foundation. Catholic Missionaries have for 350 years been actively employed in the work of conversion, and Protestant Missionaries for at least eighty, without ever producing disturbance or revolt, or even complaint. The Mohammedans worked hard to convert, by circumcision and other unpleasant means, from the time of Mohammed of Ghuzni to that of Aurung Zeb, but excited thereby no insurrection. Almost in our own time Tippoo was a mighty propagandist, but incurred no insurrections on that account. The assertion, then, is too absurd for refutation.' "In corroboration of these views, let the private letters of persons of all classes, written from the scenes of the calamitous events that have taken place, be referred to. They are either wholly silent on the point, nothing having occurred to suggest the notion of any such thing-or they are positively contradictory of the notion, as in the following passage of a letter from Calcutta: "It is pretended by some that Missions have caused the mischief, but this is utterly ridiculous. For consider, the 19th mutinied at Berhampore. Did they show the least ill-feeling to the Mission there? When the 19th and 34th were disbanded, they might, with perfect ease, have destroyed the defenceless Missions at Serampore, Chinsurah, Burdwan, and Kishnaghur; but they did not even threaten one of them.' 666 Had the movement been occasioned, in any degree, by the Missions, they would have felt the vengeance. But hitherto they are all unscathed, except at Delhi, where there was a general movement, as destructive to civilians and shopkeepers as to others.' "J. M. S." THE BISHOP OF KENTUCKY. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE Bishop of Kentucky has recently quitted this country on his return to his remote Diocese, where he is understood to be labouring, on the very scanty income which the Voluntary System provides even for its best ministers, to build up a Christian Church almost from its foundations. The bulk of the population in his Diocese are settlers, with a small colony of Negroes. It is among the latter alone that he can be regarded as a Missionary Bishop; and even then, we have reason to believe, that the American hostility to black blood condemns him to work with tiedup hands. The following letter, addressed to our venerable Primate, has, in some way or other, got into circulation; and it presents so pleasing a view of a person who has commended himself, both by his piety and his learning, talents and vigour, to many persons in this country, that I venture to deal with it as public property, and to send it to you. The Bishop, I have understood, proposed to himself, as a primary object in visiting the parent country, to bring really devout and earnest men of various classes into closer contact. And no doubt such contact might, as all pebbles are rubbed into a spherical form in the ocean, tend to rub away some of the angular points in men of opposite minds. But the differences between High and Low Church (as these classes are most inaccurately described) lie deep, and spread wide; and we believe that men will be best brought together by each labouring to draw closer to a common centre, in the Person of the Holy Master they love and serve. Drawing closer to Him, they will of necessity draw nearer to each other. Such coalitions, of course, cannot be forced, but they may be cultivated; and in whatever degree the Bishop, in his flying visit, endeavoured to bridge over the interval between the wise and good, the Church of Christ must be regarded as his debtor. I give the letter as it has reached me, without venturing to vouch for its authenticity : "Liverpool, July 29th, 1857. "I fear that your Grace would not consider me dutiful to the relation which, as a poor Bishop of your vast Patriarchate, I had the presumption to claim, if, before returning to my far-distant Diocese, I did not make some report to your Grace of my experience and doings during my short sojourn in your peculiar Province. Permit me, then, to report my high gratification at all that I have seen and heard of the awakening of quite a new spirit of zeal, energy, and self-sacrifice in doing the work of the Church, and thus partially retrieving the sad mischief of long years of apathy and neglect. Under present auspices, I should have a very sanguine hope that two generations will not have passed away before the successors of your Grace shall preside over a Province in which separation from the dear old Church of England will be almost unknown. The good Lord hasten it in His time! But I have also my warmest gratitude to record for attentions shewn and benefits conferred, from your Grace down to the humblest Curate I have met with, as if I had borne credentials from the united dioceses of the whole of your Grace's vast American Province. I have tried to show my sense of this kindness, by rendering sight-seeing, and all other objects of my visit, quite subservient to the far higher object of saying a good word, whenever invited, for Education and Missions, for Christ and His Church; my prayer all along being, that every Christian grace might be kindled to a warmer glow in my own bosom by my intercourse with England's greatest and best men; and that, in return, I might be permitted to say some word which might tend to cement the hearts of the earnest, wise, and good, hitherto far too much estranged; and to strengthen the bonds which already unite the affections . ד of so many of the Bishops and Clergy of your Grace's world-wide Patriarchate! Renewing my expressions of veneration, affection, and gratitude to your Grace personally, and repeating the assurances that I shall never forget your kindness, or cease to pray for the long continuance of your valuable life, and of your invaluable services, I remain, Your Grace's true-hearted Suffragan, "THE BISHOP OF KENTUCKY." REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. The Life of the Rev. Robert Newton, D.D. By THOMAS JACKSON. London: Published by John Mason, 14, City Road; sold at 66, Paternoster Row. 1855. THE portrait and the historical painter differ considerably as to the amount of liberty they are permitted to indulge in, in the treatment of their respective subjects. The former must delineate the individual as he is; and although, by the exercise of a higher order of skill, he may throw over his work the charm of an unexpected interest, he is still pledged to the accurate and truthful delineation of the features and expression of the individual before him. The historical painter, on the other hand, is left to a more free exercise of his imagination, and is allowed to consult his own taste and judgment in the grouping of his figures, in the disposition of his draperies, and in the amount of ideal beauty which his genius may enable him to shed over the countenances and forms of those whom he introduces on his canvas. Now it strikes us, that in Biography and History, which, as productions of the pen, are respectively analogous to the portrait and the historical picture, a course precisely the reverse of this has been adopted by modern writers in this country. For whilst the Historian confines himself with scrupulous accuracy to the facts of the period which he describes, and never thinks himself at liberty to suppress what is true, any more than to suggest what is false, the writer of biography, instead of copying faithfully from nature, aims rather at the delineation of an ideal beauty of character. This is the prevailing defect of our English biographies. They are not, for the most part, as we think, truthful and trustworthy. Indeed, if we collect into one view all the fine things a man ever said, and all the fine things he ever did, but make no clear reference to his mistakes and delinquencies, we must necessarily produce an unreal picture of his life. Against this fallacious method of proceeding with the characters of the departed we enter our earnest protest, as against something which, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 237. 4 G his piety and his learning, talents and vigour, to many persons in this country, that I venture to deal with it as public property, and to send it to you. The Bishop, I have understood, proposed to himself, as a primary object in visiting the parent country, to bring really devout and earnest men of various classes into closer contact. And no doubt such contact might, as all pebbles are rubbed into a spherical form in the ocean, tend to rub away some of the angular points in men of opposite minds. But the differences between High and Low Church (as these classes are most inaccurately described) lie deep, and spread wide; and we believe that men will be best brought together by each labouring to draw closer to a common centre, in the Person of the Holy Master they love and serve. Drawing closer to Him, they will of necessity draw nearer to each other. Such coalitions, of course, cannot be forced, but they may be cultivated; and in whatever degree the Bishop, in his flying visit, endeavoured to bridge over the interval between the wise and good, the Church of Christ must be regarded as his debtor. I give the letter as it has reached me, without venturing to vouch for its authenticity: "Liverpool, July 29th, 1857. "I fear that your Grace would not consider me dutiful to the relation which, as a poor Bishop of your vast Patriarchate, I had the presumption to claim, if, before returning to my far-distant Diocese, I did not make some report to your Grace of my experience and doings during my short sojourn in your peculiar Province. Permit me, then, to report my high gratification at all that I have seen and heard of the awakening of quite a new spirit of zeal, energy, and self-sacrifice in doing the work of the Church, and thus partially retrieving the sad mischief of long years of apathy and neglect. Under present auspices, I should have a very sanguine hope that two generations will not have passed away before the successors of your Grace shall preside over a Province in which separation from the dear old Church of England will be almost unknown. The good Lord hasten it in His time! But I have also my warmest gratitude to record for attentions shewn and benefits conferred, from your Grace down to the humblest Curate I have met with, as if I had borne credentials from the united dioceses of the whole of your Grace's vast American Province. I have tried to show my sense of this kindness, by rendering sight-seeing, and all other objects of my visit, quite subservient to the far higher object of saying a good word, whenever invited, for Education and Missions, for Christ and His Church; my prayer all along being, that every Christian grace might be kindled to a warmer glow in my own bosom by my intercourse with England's greatest and best men; and that, in return, I might be permitted to say some word which might tend to cement the hearts of the earnest, wise, and good, hitherto far too much estranged; and to strengthen the bonds which already unite the affections of so many of the Bishops and Clergy of your Grace's world-wide Patriarchate! Renewing my expressions of veneration, affection, and gratitude to your Grace personally, and repeating the assurances that I shall never forget your kindness, or cease to pray for the long continuance of your valuable life, and of your invaluable services, I remain, Your Grace's true-hearted Suffragan, "THE BISHOP OF KENTUCKY." REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. The Life of the Rev. Robert Newton, D.D. By THOMAS JACKSON. London: Published by John Mason, 14, City Road; sold at 66, Paternoster Row. 1855. THE portrait and the historical painter differ considerably as to the amount of liberty they are permitted to indulge in, in the treatment of their respective subjects. The former must delineate the individual as he is; and although, by the exercise of a higher order of skill, he may throw over his work the charm of an unexpected interest, he is still pledged to the accurate and truthful delineation of the features and expression of the individual before him. The historical painter, on the other hand, is left to a more free exercise of his imagination, and is allowed to consult his own taste and judgment in the grouping of his figures, in the disposition of his draperies, and in the amount of ideal beauty which his genius may enable him to shed over the countenances and forms of those whom he introduces on his canvas. Now it strikes us, that in Biography and History, which, as productions of the pen, are respectively analogous to the portrait and the historical picture, a course precisely the reverse of this has been adopted by modern writers in this country. For whilst the Historian confines himself with scrupulous accuracy to the facts of the period which he describes, and never thinks himself at liberty to suppress what is true, any more than to suggest what is false, the writer of biography, instead of copying faithfully from nature, aims rather at the delineation of an ideal beauty of character. This is the prevailing defect of our English biographies. They are not, for the most part, as we think, truthful and trustworthy. Indeed, if we collect into one view all the fine things a man ever said, and all the fine things he ever did, but make no clear reference to his mistakes and delinquencies, we must necessarily produce an unreal picture of his life. Against this fallacious method of proceeding with the characters of the departed we enter our earnest protest, as against something which, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 237. 4 G |