which had passed away, and as a new picture presented itself to his mind, of his peasants reading the gospel, of children hurrying to school, of priests rising in the scale of humanity. He also asked many questions concerning the doctrine and government of the Church of England. Among the most interesting of these, were his inquiries as to whether the priests of England put the consecrated bread into the mouths of the people, or communicate them with bread only. Upon it being explained to him that our forms were here similar, he was much pleased. He said he had thought that there was no church in the world which communicated as the old churches did.

"He asked concerning the penance of fasting. Davud, our Chaldean interpreter, was instructed to say, that fasting is enjoined in our liturgies on many occasions, and is almost generally practised on certain holy festivals; is observed by some on other occasions also, but disregarded by others. The bishop said, We attach importance to the act of fasting, because (quoting the leading argument) our Lord said to the Jews, concerning his disciples, "As long as the bridegroom is on earth, they do not fast, but when he has ascended they will fast.'

"We, on our parts, made direct inquiries regarding the sacraments of the Chaldean church. The bishop answered, Two sacraments only are mentioned in our liturgies, baptism and the eucharist, and so the fathers of our Church taught us; but the rest (and he enumerated more than the papists do, evidently considering the word sacrament in its original light, "holy thing or mystery," and applying it to consecration of churches, &c.) are only holy ordinances or forms of the Church. He remarked, that no layman can enter into the holy place (in their churches), for if such an intrusion took place, the bishop or priest must consecrate it again.

"The aged dignitary expressed at length his feelings of deep regret at the corruption and apostacy which had found their way into this church, a church which he enthusiastically said had stood from the earliest times of Christianity, amid all kinds of difficulties, reverses, and persecutions. Often had they seen their brethren sold as slaves, their churches pillaged, and their books destroyed. Yet,' he continued, thank God, we are still as we were, only it is a great pity there should be apostates among us.”—(vol. ii. p. 212-214.)

From the Metropolitan of Berrawi they passed into the Tiyari country, where the inhabitants are wholly independent of Turkish domination. The cottages were not all grouped together, but were scattered among groves and gardens; and being built in a Swiss style, had a most pleasing appearance. On approaching the village of Lizan, a person apparently in authority came out, with others, to meet them. He received them at first with some distrust, but when their country and pursuits were explained, they were welcomed and taken to the roof of a tower overshadowed by a huge walnut-tree. They had espied, however, half a mile from the village, and pleasantly situated upon the banks of the Zab, a neat whitewashed church, embosomed in a grove of mulberry and pomegranate trees. Here they took up their quarters, therefore, refreshed by the breezes which came from the river, and shortly after they were joined by the priest of Lizan, one of the most engaging and best-informed men they met with among the Chaldeans; quiet, unassuming, polished in his manners, but earnest in his arguments. There was nothing but his dress, says our traveller,

to distinguish him from an English country clergyman. When it was explained to the Priest and his associates that the visitors were not Franks and Papists, but Englishmen and Protestants, they eagerly asked for information respecting the forms of our Church, and expressed themselves delighted with the explanations given. At sunset they were invited to join in prayer, which they did joyfully :

"After prayer Kasha Kena, the priest of Lizan, said to the melik, 'Look at these good people; they were sent from a long distance and a far country to bring us tidings of succour, while we ourselves have so little regard to our people and to our church. They heard of our indolence in regard to educating our children, and they send to aid us. What can be greater charity than this?'

"After this we sat again in conversation. They said, they had heard about the English, but that they had not heard of their church or doctrines. They only knew that the doctrines of Europe were good in former times, but that they had had many councils and had become corrupted from the original. Kasha Kena spoke much against confession, which, he said, was the invention of man. He quoted St. James, and added, Christ wishes us to repent in the heart, and not to make an illusion with our mouth.

"The doctrine of purgatory was also made the subject of conversation. They expressed not a little dislike to what they designated as a bold innovation in the doctrines of the Church, and an emanation from the devil, being decidedly opposed to what is inculcated by the Holy Scriptures. Kasha Kena quoted St. John in proof that the blood of Christ cleansed us from all sin; and St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, was also appealed to as averring that there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ. Thus, there is not that total want of spirituality in the Christianity of the people, which has been by some persons supposed to exist.

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They also spoke concerning the marriage of priests. They were delighted to hear that the Church of England tolerated the marriage of the clergy. They repeated upon the subject of sacraments what we had from the metropolitan of Berra wi.

"It is difficult to express their gratification when we mentioned incidentally the proposed views of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The priests who were present spoke of the opening of schools as a great blessing in store for them, for which they should never be able sufficiently to show their gratitude towards those who intended to confer such benefits (holy things) upon them. Many schools, they said, might be opened, for the children were numerous.

"They protested against being called Nestorians, their true designation being Chaldeans. They said, 'Nestor was the patriarch of the Greeks and not of us. Cyril and his followers were opposed to our Church because we did not embrace their doctrines, and they calumniated us by designating us as followers of Nestorius. But our Church existed long before the schism of the Nestorians, and held by the same doctrine both before and after the patriarch whose name has been imposed upon us by a depreciatory ill will.'

"They also discussed the subject of the nature of Christ. They said, 'It is never mentioned in the New Testament that Mary was the mother of God, or that she bore the Father, but that she bore Christ. If we call her Mother of God, we mean either that she bore the Trinity, or the first Person of the Holy Trinity; when we say, Mother of Christ, we mean that she bore the second Person, who was incarnate and died for us; but when we say 'God,' we mean the everlasting being who has neither beginning nor end, who is the cause of all causes, and does not die or alter.' Thus we had also heard them chant from their liturgy at Duri, God never dies! Let the mouths of heretics be shut; let the mouth of Cyril be closed, for God never dies!'

'They said, The Jacobites and Papists blame us because we say there are two persons in Christ. There is no necessity to prove the two persons of Christ from the Fathers of the earliest time, for we can satisfy ourselves by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Spirit spoke by St. Paul, "by the killing of his person," that is, his humanity, and not his divinity, which it is impossible for man to contemplate. We do not believe, as is asserted by our enemies, that Christ was only man till his baptism; God protect us from such heresy. We believe that when the angel came to the Virgin Mary, and announced to her the miraculous conception, the divinity was united at that time with the humanity.'

“Mr. Rassam asked the priest for what object they celebrated the communion. He replied, For the commemoration of the death of Christ, as He himself ordered to be done, when he said, "Do this in remembrance of me." And we do it also, that by our repentance, and by partaking of the communion, our sins may be forgiven.''It is the greatest pledge,' said the priest, that Christ has given to us.' He further expressed his dislike to the popish doctrine of transubstantiation.

"Upon the subject of pictures the Chaldeans of Tiyari expressed the same feelings that we had met with in the Berrawi country. If the Christians of Europe and of the Greek Church,' they said, 'make pictures and kiss them, or bow down before them and worship them, where is the difference between them and the heathen?' They also quoted many passages from the Old and New Testament against the worship of pictures. And when they were told that the Church of England prohibited the adoration of images and pictures, they exclaimed, 'Certainly, this is a true Christian Church.'"—(Vol. ii. pp. 221-224.)

The population of Ashitah, the largest of these villages, which contains four churches, and may be accounted the capital of the Tiyari, or independent Chaldeans, may be estimated at 5000 souls, and the people say they can bring 1000 armed men into the field. There are twenty-three other villages, much smaller indeed, and probably containing not more than the population of Ashitah in the aggregate, giving a total of 10,000. The range of mountains, however, among which these villages are situate, varies in height from 5000 to 8000 feet; and the villages are accessible only by passes, which a few resolute men (and such are these Vaudois of Chaldea) might make good against a host.

These mountaineer Chaldeans are, in every respect, the most favourable specimen of the nation. "We have no thieves here" was their constant answer to the enquiries of the timid and suspicious travellers, who judged of the Chaldeans by their experience of the Kurds; and Mr. Ainsworth, who certainly did not journey from Dan even unto Beersheba with his eyes closed, considers that there are among them as few thieves as among most civilized people. They confide, he says, in cach other's integrity; and there is no doubt that the high sense of honour and of religious principle which obtains among them all, is a better preventive of evil than all the sanguinary punishments of the Turks and Persians. The difference was soon manifested when they once more mingled with

the Kurds. Mr. Ainsworth's description of the scene is not a little amusing:

"We crossed the river, and turned rather to the south-west, to the village of the bey. A short time after our arrival, this worthy governor, a fine but ferocious-looking old man, came to us on the roof of his house, and, without allowing any interruptions, addressed us in pretty nearly the following amiable strain, omitting the salam:-'What do you do here; are you not aware that Franks are not allowed in this country? No dissimulation! I must know who you are, and what is your business. Who brought these people here?' turning round, in a haughty, peremptory way. I,' said one of the Chaldeans, laying his hand on his breast in an undaunted manner. The bey turned again, and said, more deliberately and quietly, 'You are the forerunners of those who come to take this country; therefore it is best that we should take first what you have, as you will afterwards take our property; and he turned to his followers for approbation, which was grinned forth fiercely. Taking advantage of the hiatus, Mr. Rassam endeavoured to put in some peaceable sentences, and ultimately got the old man into a better humour. After a time he got up to go away; then turning towards me, who had been all the time sitting under a tree, where I had gone to take a few notes-an employment I was soon obliged to give up-he said to Mr. Rassam, 'You are social; but who is that proud brute in the corner?' I laughed at him, and he walked pompously away. At night the mules were huddled together, and each in his own way prepared against an attempt at robbery, not so much from the old chieftain's braggadocia, as from the whisperings and signs we observed going on among his followers; but nothing came of all this noise. The Chaldeans said that if they had robbed us, the Tiyari, as we were under their protection, would have punished them for it; but I think they did not like the risk that would have attended upon the attempt; for there were five well-armed men in our party, besides five slightly armed."(pp. 242, 243.

A much more interesting person than the Kurdish Bey, however, was Mar Shimon, the Patriarch of the Chaldeans, who does not indeed, notwithstanding his title, sustain an exclusively spiritual character, for he was at this time acting governor of Julamerik, in the absence of the Bey. Notwithstanding this, however, there was continual jealousy between the Chaldeans and the Kurds, so that the Patriarch was unwilling to receive the expedition in the town, but desired them to await his coming at Pagi, a village in the neighbourhood. He came, at five in the morning, and held a conversation with the travellers of something more than eight hours duration. "He is, in every respect, a fine man, thirty-five years of age, tall, strong, well-proportioned, with a good forehead, and pleasant, expressive and rather intelligent countenance; his demeanour was courteous but dignified. He was anxious to understand the reason why the travellers had visited them in this secluded country." The conversation that ensued is too interesting to be omitted. Mr. Ainsworth has been denounced by a critic of the day as incompetent to be an emissary of the Anglican Church, because of his uncatholic views. We should have thought that the terms in which he alludes to the American Missionaries might

have conciliated gentlemen of this school. The purposes for which he supposes them to have read the Scriptures are expressed in language very different from his usual liberality of sentiment, and are almost uncharitable enough to be extolled by the Oxford School as 'Catholic.' As to Mar Shimon himself, his honest and vehement denunciation of the crucifix will expose him, we fear, Patriarch as he is, to the risk of being anathematized by a Deacon, or, as it is now the practice to call him, THE Deacon of the Church of England:

"The Patriarch was evidently quite unacquainted with the doctrines of the Church of England, and consequently at first somewhat alarmed at the proposal to establish amicable relations with what might differ from him in principle or practice. The Pope,' he said, 'has sent people from Rome, who have seduced part of our church. His doctrine is new, but ours is old; we never changed our forms of worship, but we keep to, and abide by, what was delivered to us by the Apostles and our fathers; therefore you must know that we never change our doctrine nor our forms of worship.' It was immediately explained that it was not the wish of the society to make the Chaldean church subject to the Church of England, as the Pope makes those churches who enters into relation with subject to the church of Rome; but to help them, by educating the youths, by printing books, and by endeavouring to restore to its primitive purity the knowledge and civilization possessed by the followers of the Chaldean church; that the Church of England would be very sorry to interfere in the modes of worship in the old church; that it labours not to increase the power of any particular church or bishop, but to unite the church all over the world in brotherly love and sound doctrine; that it is not their wish to make them abandon their rites for ours, but to induce them to free and amicable relations, in order that, if they have errors, these may be rectified by themselves; but more especially in order that, by the assistance given in teaching and printing, the truths of the Gospel may be more generally diffused, and the advantage of sound, moral, and religious education, may gradually make itself felt throughout the country.

"That we had further much pleasure in informing him upon another point, in proof that we came to succour and help, and not to produce disunion, viz. that the Chaldean church and the Church of England agree in most of their doctrines. The Patriarch was exceedingly surprised at this, as he had been led to understand that the American missionaries, who are Congregationalists, and who are engaged in the good work of teaching the youth of the Chaldeans, inhabiting the plains of Persian Kurdistan, belonged to the Church of England, and yet had no Liturgy, no express form of prayer, and acknowledged no apostolic succession. We, however, informed the Patriarch that there were among us many zealous Christians who seemed to have read the Bible, rather to invent new doctrines and rebel against the Church than to give them increase of wisdom aud holiness, and have preferred following such doctrines rather than that of the bishops who are appointed to teach the nations, and with the whole body of whom the Lord has promised to be; that these persons have seceded from the Church of England and have corrupted the doctrines of Christianity; but as we do not think these corruptions so bad as to destroy the Christian faith we do not call them heresies.

"During conversation, the priest who came with us from Amadiyeh presented to the Patriarch a brass crucifix made at Rome. The Patriarch took it in his hand, and after looking at it a little while, he shook it before the priest's face, saying, 'The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands; they have mouths but they speak not, eyes have they but they see not, they have ears but they hear not, neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them are like unto them, so is every one that