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The Burmese cannot be considered as having a peculiar propensity to loquacity, or to inquisitiveness. But they are sociable and communicative on all common top

ity, great precaution is necessary. which combine to form the happiIn bestowing the fruits of benevo-ness of civilized society. lence, one is strongly reminded of our Saviour's advice, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rendies, and are inclined to discuss you." Under such circumstances, disputed points. They are not init is not difficult to perceive to quisitive to any laudable or profitwhat extent hospitality may be able extent, as their inquiries selsafely shown. If a traveller meet dom issue in the promotion of usea stranger in a solitary path, his ful knowledge. There are various fancy traces in him the lineaments reasons why a Burman does not of a thief or a robber, and if they indulge an inquisitive disposition pass each other merely with mu- to any great extent; one is, that tual looks of suspicion, each deems he confides in the wisdom and exhimself fortunate. ample of his ancestors. The common doctrine that a man cannot be wiser or better than his progenitors, greatly prevails. Another reason is, that the King or the offi

lize the fruits of ingenuity to themselves, to the inconvenience of the ingenious. A man excelling in any profession of art, enjoys the honour of ministering his productions to the King, or to some person of official rank; but he seldom finds the honor attended with much profit to himself. Under such circumstances, a spirit of investigation must necessarily lie dormant. Mistrust forms a barrier against inquiry. A Burman rarely gives correct information; and he never expects to receive it. Every thing new is told to an incredulous ear, and nothing but the most palpable demonstration can convince the understanding.

Travelling by boats, which affords the greatest personal comfort, presents the danger of bands of robbers, who often attack with knives and muskets, and make "acers of Government often monopoclean sweep" of whatever portable effects can be seized, to the jeopardy, and frequently to the destruction of the lives of their possessors. It is but just to add, however, that the view which these remarks would otherwise present, should in some respects be qualified. There do exist among the Burmese, friendly relations and ties of consanguinity, which, in private life, are seen so to operate as to soften in some degree the sterner features of their public character. Among relatives and friends, between whom there is a mutual and thorough acquaintance, feelings which originate generous actions, the duties of hospitality, kind deportment, and sympathy, prevail Upon ordinary topics of converover those views of mere personal sation, however, the Burmese are consideration, which govern the not reserved. On the contrary, general course of their lives in their they often display their colloquial civil connexion with one another. abilities to considerable advantage. They are certainly not incapable Not possessing much irritability, of strong attachments, or of exer- they are capable of maintaining an cising the social virtues; and argumentative discussion in a temcould their public character beperate manner. They are seldom formed in a different mould from vehement in their language; but 'that in which their system of gov- appear cool, collected, and considernment has already cast it, they erate. They are not insensible to would be found by no means desti- the power of wit, or illiberal in tute of those elementary principles their approbation of it. (To be concluded in our next Number.)

Review.

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REVIEW OF REVIEWS.

REMARKS, ON THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF
MRS. JUDSON'S ACCOUNT OF THE AMER-

arrival at Rangoon. In 1820, Mr. Colman removed to Chittagong to

ICAN BAPTIST MISSION TO THE BURMAN establish a mission at that place;

EMPIRE.

pp. 37-63.

NO. LXV. FOR DECEMBER.

and Mr. Hough, being principally engaged in the printing department, has been frequently absent at CalWe have read this article with cutta, and occasionally for a conlively interest. Its general aspect siderable period of time. We state is conciliatory, and its opinions fre- these facts not to underrate the laquently judicious. As, however, bours of Mr. and Mrs. Judson. They it is liable to leave an incorrect im- have borne from the beginning the pression respecting some matters of burden and heat of the day, and no fact, and as it advances some opin-one can possibly esteem them more ions from which we seriously dis-highly than ourselves. We merely sent, we make no apology for offer- wish it to be known, that they have ing some remarks upon it to the not laboured entirely unassisted and consideration of our readers. alone, forgotten and neglected by the American churches.

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But passing this general impression which the article is liable to produce, we find in the very commencement the following paragraph.

"But before we enter on the work it

And first, the review would lead the public to believe, that Mr. and Mrs. Judson had laboured entirely alone in the Mission to Burmah. This is evidently an unintentional error. As Mrs. Judson's work is compiled chiefly from the journals and letters of her husband, a read-self, we wish to say a few words on the er who had no other means of infor- Baptist mission to the East. It is imposmation than those which the book sible that there should be any difference afforded, might very easily fall in- of opinion as to their object, and we think to a mistake of this nature. there should be none as to the singlecorrect this impression, it will only sued; but we confess that we do enterhearted zeal with which it has been purbe necessary to state the following tain serious doubts whether those engaged facts. Mr. and Mrs. Judson arin them are following the right path to rived at Rangoon in July, 1813. effect that object. If we were to judge from the result of their labours, the conIn October, 1816, they were joined clusion would necessarily be, that they by Mr. and Mrs. Hough. Messrs. are not, and we will briefly state what we Wheelock and Colman, with their conceive to be at least sufficient causes wives, embarked from Boston in for their failure." November, 1817, and arrived in Now all this is doubtless well Rangoon in September, 1818. In meant, and is kindly said. December, 1821, Dr. Price and his reader, however, will observe, that The wife joined the mission family. In it assumes the fact that the BapJune, 1823, Mr. and Mrs. Wade tist Missions to the East have failembarked for Rangoon, with Mrs.ed, and it promises to disclose the Judson, on her return; and in May, causes of that failure. It is to the 1825, Mr. and Mrs. Boardman sail- consideration of these topics that ed from Philadelphia for the same we would for a few moments indestination. Here, however, it may vite the attention of our readers.

be

proper to state, that Mr. Wheelock died a year or two after his

1. The Reviewer assumes it as

a fact, that the Baptist Missions to

tion evidently has reference to the Baptist Missions from Europe as well as America, but we shall confine our remarks at this time to the latter,

the East have failed. This asser- || lation, no result can be expected until this task is accomplished, the version printed, and circulated among the people. And if, as the Reviewer elsewhere asserts, no Missionary ought to engage in the work of translation until he has become thoroughly acquainted with the lan

Now at the outset, we must be permitted soberly to state, that the American Missions to the Eastguage, it illy becomes him to call have not failed. The Mission to that a failure, which by his own Burmah was, before the late war, showing was absolutely indispensain most promising circumstances.ble to success. The fact is, that If we recollect aright, more than Mr. Judson did not labour in preacheighteen Burmans, some of them of ing so much as under other circummost respectable character, had stances he might have done, from a been admitted to communion upon deep conviction of the necessity of profession of faith in Christ, and a translation of the scriptures into were adorning their profession by the Burman language. He was a blameless and pious life. The aware of the uncertainty of life, New Testament had been almost and also that he was probably the translated, and was partly printed only being on the globe sufficiently in the Burman language. Religious acquainted with the language to tracts had moreover been widely translate the Scriptures into it; circulated and eagerly read. Now and therefore to this work, and to if we consider how long a time must the compilation of a grammar and necessarily elapse before an Euro- dictionary, he has almost exclusivepean, destitute of grammar and dic-ly devoted himself for several years tionary, can acquire an oriental language, and if we remember how often the labours of Mr. Judson were interrupted by sickness and necessary absence from Rangoon, and that two of the most promising Missionaries were arrested in the midst of their labours by death, we think no man will deny that the success of this Mission has been most decidedly encouraging; at any rate, it has always seemed so to the friends of Missions in this country. Besides, it is to be remembered that the first labours of a Missionary station are principally the work of preparation. They consist in lay-science which is made by the Bible; ing the foundation for the building; and it is surely premature to assert that the edifice can never be erect-us of it before this, is as utterly ed, because, after considerable toil, unphilosophical as to tell a chemist the work has not yet appeared that his experiment had failed beabove the surface. The language fore his agents had been brought must be acquired. This is a work into contact; or to insist that a of time. The Bible is to be trans-theorem was not proven before even lated. This is a work of still great- its terms had fairly been announer time. And if a Missionary de- ced. votes himself to the work of transMAY, 1826.

past. These works are now fast hastening to completion. A part of the New-Testament has been printed, and received in this country, and but for the war, it would before this have been in circulation in Burmah. When this Bible has been printed and circulated, and when tracts explanatory of it have been read, and when the gospel has been preached faithfully and perseveringly, and when after all this it is found that the Burmans, unlike human beings every where else, are incapable of being affected by that appeal to the con

then, and not till then, will it be time to talk about failure. To tell

But we need not stop here. Mr.

20

|cious, to those for whom they are intend

ed."

P.

38.

We waive the consideration of the unkind and unjustifiable epithets in this paragraph, and proceed immediately to inquire how far this allegation of haste is supported by fact.

Mr. Judson arrived in Rangoon in the year 1815. From that time till the present moment, with the exception of absences on account of sickness, he has resided constantly among Burmans, and has made the acquisition of their language the object of his most diligent and persevering application. And here let us tell the reviewer, what perhaps he does not know, that Mr. Judson is one of the most thorough-bred students that ever entered the Missionary field. Five years elapsed before any work in the language was published. Then two small

Judson devoted to preaching whatever time he could allow, consistently with his great object of translating the Scriptures. His success was such as to give the most animating encouragement to the friends of Missions. At the last accounts, as we have stated, eighteen persons had joined the Mission church, and they gave evidence of sincere piety, of that moral change, without which, the Bible assures us, "a man cannot see the kingdom of heaven." Others were inquiring. Many, and some of them the chief officers of the empire, were desirous to know something about the gospel. Christ crucified had been preached even in the court of Ava. Now all this looks to us like any thing else than failure. At least it was so considered by the friends of Missions in America. They estimated the salvation of eighteen immortal souls, and so did the Missionaries them-tracts were printed. How "indis selves, an abundant reward for all their toils and for all their expenditure. And if Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was Tost, and if there be joy in the pres-er came to the Mission-house to ence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, tell us, have not they judged correctly?

So much for the Reviewer's assumption of the failure of the Baptist Mission to Burmah. We had intended to examine his assertion in its bearings upon the Mission at Serampore; but our limits will forbid. At some future time, we may allude to this part of the subject. At present, it will be necessary to proceed with an examination of the causes to which he considers the supposed failure attributable.

The first cause of assumed failure is developed in the following paragraph.

"We consider it then in the first place, a great want of discretion, or something worse, to send forth hasty and imperfect translations of the Scripture, and of their own religious tracts, before they have acquired a competent knowledge of the languages in which they write, so that their Jabours are simply useless, if not perni

creet" the printing of these tracts was, may be known from the fact, that within three months after their publication, the first serious inquir

know what he must do to be saved, and these "pernicious" tracts brought him there. Shortly after this, the gospel of Matthew alone was printed and distributed; and from this time, the progress of the Mission was decided and encouraging. The zayat began to be well attended, and a spirit of inquiry was manifestly at work among the people. The first edition of one of these tracts was soon exhausted, and a new edition called for in 1819. In 1820, the Epistle to the Ephesians was finished, and read by the converts with great avidity. This, however, be it remembered, was not printed, but only given to them in manuscript, whilst Mr. Judson proceeded to the translation of the Acts of the Apostles. Both of them were, however, after repeated revisions with the most intelligent of the Burman converts, sent to the press at Serampore in May,

1821. By March, 1822, a new || of the work for several years, until translation of Matthew, with Mark he could be fully satisfied of his and Luke, were finished, and the own ability to convey into the Burtranslation of Romans was commen- man language an adequate version ced. Now these are all the facts, of the word of God. No one who which the whole book contains of knows any thing about him, will the progress of the translations, and accuse him of indolence, and even upon these alone does the Reviewer those who know nothing about him predicate his allegation of the Mis- will surely acquit him of haste. sionaries' "indiscreet" and " "pernicious" haste in the work. We are, however, happy to state, that by the latest accounts the transla-ical fellow citizens talk about Mistion was rapidly advancing, and that now, in the thirteenth year of Mr. Judson's residence in Burmah, it is probably completed. The gospels, we believe, have all been printed, and copies of them received in this country.

This is a serious subject; but it is really laughable to observe how confidently many of our philosoph

sionary operations, and at every
step, without perceiving it them-
selves, betray an utter ignorance
of the facts in the case, and even
of the nature of the undertaking.
We have shown on what grounds
this Reviewer has accused our Mis-
sionaries of precipitancy, when the
very book he was reviewing abun-
dantly proved that his accusation
was wholly unsupported. For the
edification of future Missionaries to
the East, we will give verbatim the
sentence with which he concludes
this part of his argument.
he" (Mr.Judson) and his worthy
helpmate, confined themselves to
the study of the Burman language"
(which by the way they did most
religiously) "while at the same
time they were instructing the na-
tives in English, their labours would
probably have been more success-
ful, certainly more judiciously di-
rected!!”

66

So far has Mr. Judson been from acting with injudicious haste, that we feel absolutely obliged to explain why he delayed the printing of the Scriptures into Burman so long. The facts are these. Mr. Judson was perfectly aware that the translations of Missionaries had been accused of inaccuracy, and he determined from the first to render his own as perfect as possible. With this view, before he attempted to translate at all, he prepared a Burman grammar and dictionary, and devoted himself almost exclusively to the acquisition of the language. This was a work of several years. As soon as he was able to converse in Burman, he began to But it is time to notice the secpreach to the natives. In this man- ond cause of the alledged failure of ner he was still more rapidly im- the Missionary undertaking. It is proving his knowledge, and render-" the humble character which these ing himself familiar with their terms for moral ideas. The Burmans are very generally able to read, and as soon as he began to preach religion, they began to inquire for his sacred books. This led to the printing of the two first tracts of which we have spoken, together with the first edition of the gospel of Matthew. The publication of these tracts was evidently attended with the very best effects. But still Mr. Judson suspended the further prosecution

teachers of the gospel assume, and
to their system of principally at-
tempting to convert, and connect-
ing themselves almost exclusively
with, the very dregs of the people.*
p. 39.

As to the humble character which the Missionaries assume, we remark,

1st. This is the only character which they can assume honestly. They are humble and poor men, and why should they appear in any

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