celebration of the Moharram, with tasteless and extravagant
ceremonies, and their forty days' fast in Ramzan, were alike
misplaced in a country where, from the movable nature of their
dates, they sometimes fell in seasons when the rigour of the
climate was such as could never have been contemplated by the
Arabian Prophet. They continued the bewildering lunar year of the
Hijra, with its thirteenth month every third year; but, to
increase the confusion, the Moghul Emperors also reckoned by
Turkish cycles while the Hindus tenaciously maintained in matters
of business their national Sambat, or era of Raja Bikram Ajit.

The Emperor Akbar, in the course of his endeavours to fuse the
peoples of India into a whole, endeavoured amongst other things
to form a new religion. This, it was his intention, should be at
once a vindication of his Tartar and Persian forefathers against
Arab proselytism, and a bid for the suffrages of his Hindu
subjects. Like most eclectic systems it failed. In and after his
time also Christianity in its various forms has been feebly
endeavouring to maintain a footing. This is a candid report, from
a source that cannot but be trusted, of the result of three
centuries of Missionary labour.

"There is nothing which can at all warrant the opinion that the
heart of the people has been largely touched, or that the
conscience of the people has been affected seriously. There is no
advance in the direction of faith in Christ, like that which
Pliny describes, or Tertullian proclaims as characteristic of
former eras. In fact, looking at the work of Missions on the
broadest scale, and especially upon that of our own Missions, we
must confess that, in many cases, the condition is one rather of