general good, but for his own personal aggrandizement. His behaviour towards the congregation at Jezeerah, which has already been related, speaks volumes against him; and he is said to be in the receipt of a yearly stipend from Russia, whither he had been once sent by his predecessor to collect subscriptions in behalf of the Syrians. On his first accession to the patriarchate he published an edition of the Syriac psalter for sale among the Jacobites of Turkey and India; but this forms the sum of all the good which he appears to have attempted for the regeneration of his people. Notwithstanding this neglect, he is ever demanding remittances from the Churches, and when these are not forthcoming he issues against them the severest censures.
The Bishops generally are illiterate men, but little versed in Scripture, and thoroughly ignorant of ecclesiastical history. They scarcely ever preach, and their episcopal visitations are confined to occasional ordinations, and to the collecting of tithe from their several dioceses. All of them can of course read the Syriac of their rituals, but few thoroughly understand it. Mutran Behnâm, however, is an exception to this rule; he is a good Syriac and Arabic scholar, has a competent knowledge of the holy Scriptures, and has for the last year or two preached regularly in the churches of Mosul. He has already been mentioned in the opening of this volume as the patriarch's delegate at Constantinople, where he resided with the Rev. H. Southgate, and enjoyed for several months the benefit of his kind hospitality and assistance. Much good was expected to result from the information which he gained respecting the English and American Churches, and from the zeal which he manifested to introduce reform among his people; but I regret to say that these expectations have not been realized. Shortly after his return from Constantinople, and after our departure from Mosul, he joined with a number of his people who had held intercourse with us in 1842—44, and had been led to desire a better state of things, in writing to the Lord Bishop of London, the Anglican Bishop at Jerusalem, and the Church Missionary Society, begging that teachers might be sent out to them; but no notice whatever was taken of their request. In 1849 the American Independents answered the appeal, and although, as I am fully
