part of the people did every thing in their power to prevent their establishment, and will, no doubt, do all they can to render their continuance uncomfortable. The King, however, who seems very justly to expect very considerable advantages from the settlement of white men amongst his people, has resolutely declared, that it is at their peril that any of them molest the Missionaries. From the West Indies the intelligence recently received, is for the greater part most encouraging. In Antigua, this is especially the case. The converts lately received on trial are no less than seven hundred in number, and three thousand children are now in the schools upon the island. In Grenada the work proceeds but slowly, and through much discouragement. What indeed can be expected from heathen Negroes, when well-educated Christians set them so miserable an example, that, whilst on a Sabbath morning the church at Grenville contained but six whites, eight mulattoes, and six or seven blacks, five of whom were members of the Methodist Mission church; not fewer than two or three thousand crowded the Sabbath market, held at the same time, at the very foot of the church steps. On the children some impression seems, however, to be making; and of the rising generation, even of Grenada, we have hopes, though small indeed would be those we entertained of the adults, did we not feel assured that all things are possible with God. The little neighbouring isle of Rhonde exhibits more encouraging prospects there, in a little negro flock of simple, sincere, and stedfast followers of the Lord. The Society does not increase in numbers, though we are happy to find that it does in the graces of the Christian profession. In Demerara, the congregations are very large, serious, devout, and attentive; though in the Society at George Town somewhat of a laxity of discipline has crept in, and must be removed when a new Missionary is appointed, the island being now supplied from Barbadoes. There, amidst several discouragements in the country part of the island, the congregations at Bridgetown are largely upon the increase, and generally serious and attentive, several of the most respectable inhabitants attending at least the evening service. The schools present also one of the most promising and pleasing features in the Mission, the children rapidly increasing in numbers, improvement, and good behaviour. In Jamaica, a growing attention is very manifest, both on public and private ordinances, and the congregations have increased considerably both in numbers and serious attention. A prospect of a very important opening in the interior of Trinidad having presented itself, we are happy to find that the governor and commandant of the district (that of Sava Granda) have given every encouragement to the establishment of a Mission there, and prospectively to a second amongst a number of disbanded African soldiers in another direction; whilst a large planter has made an offer of land on his estate, for a Mission settlement, that his adults and slave children may be instructed in the Christian faith. Thus openings for two new Missionaries have been made in an island, whose colonial government but lately prohibited the Missionary exertions of this Society of every kind. In the Bahamas also, several members have been added to the Society, and are walking worthy their vocation. This success is, however, principally confined to the white population, as amongst the blacks comparatively little has been done, or is doing, here; few even of the small number who attend the preaching of the word, appearing to be under any serious concern for their eter

nal interests. This representation does not, however, apply to Turkisland, where the whites frequent divine worship by handfuls, the blacks are in crowds, and both are serious and attentive. Several of the latter appear to be sincere in their religious profession, and exemplary in their conduct. At this important, though longneglected station, a chapel is about to be erected, for which a considerable sum has been gathered on the spot. At Newfoundland, the societies and schools are increasing and flourishing; and in the wigwams of the surrounding Indians, the true God is worshipped in simplicity, but in truth.

The EDINBURGH MISSIONARY SOCIETY has, in the course of the last year, received, in subscriptions and donations, £6678. 9s. 1d. whilst its expenditure amounted to £6313. 18s. 9d. By this improved state of the funds, the result of various deputations into England and Scotland, (in the former of which countries nearly a thousand pounds was collected,) the Society has been enabled to discharge part of a debt of £1500 contracted in former years. A Missionary Seminary has also been established, in which six young men are training up as heralds of the Cross, in Tartary, Caucasus and Persia, the regions to which this Society has specially directed its attention.

The GENERAL BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, formed in 1817, has sent out their first two Missionaries. Their destination is some part of India as yet without Christian teachers, and the Assam country is particularly recommended, though they have a discretionary power, after taking the advice of the Serampore Particular Baptist Missionaries, in company with one of whom (Mr. Ward) they sailed, to fix in preference in the Punjab country, in the neighbourhood of Aurungabad, or in one of the Eastern islands as yet unoccupied. Another Missionary is engaged in preparatory studies, and an additional student has offered himself, but his services have been reluctantly declined, until an increase of funds shall warrant this infant Society in accepting him.

Most cordially do we rejoice at the pleasing prospects of the MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF BASLE, four of whose Missionaries, (two of them destined for India and two for Sierra Leone,) have been for some time in this country, in order to perfect themselves in the English language, and in the national system of education, whose benefits they purpose carrying with them to foreign lands. These devoted servants of their heavenly Master were ordained to their great work in the Cathedral Church of Stutgard, in the presence of the Royal Family of Würtemburg, (of which country three of them are natives,) and of a congregation of more than 4000 persons. We derive great satisfaction from the open and avowed patronage bestowed upon this institution by the King of Würtemburg, who four times sent for Mr. Blumhardt to his palace, for the express purpose of inquiring into the nature and proceedings of the Society, which he emphatically pronounced a Work of God, and in a letter, signed by his own hand, assured its friends of his taking every opportunity of evincing his heartfelt concern for its success. Missions to the heathen are, indeed, a work of the Lord, and we rejoice to live in days when Kings are becoming its nursing fathers, and Queens its nursing mothers. The King of Prussia, in consequence of a statement of the operations of two of his subjects in Madras, addressed to him by the Rev. Mr. Rheniei, of that place, and in consideration of the number

of useful Missionaries who have been prepared for their important task in the Berlin seminary, has also signified his intention of becoming a regular subscriber to that Missionary establishment. Three other Basle Missionaries are now in England, two of the four above mentioned having lately embarked for Calcutta.

Turning from Europe to America, we state with pleasure that the AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY have obtained a grant of land in in the Batta country, and will there, we doubt not, form an important central station for the exertions of American and European Missionaries in the surrounding districts. They were accompanied in their visits to the King by the native teachers attached to the Church of England Missionary Society, who brought back with them to Sierra Leone the son of the Bassah King, who would scarcely have been entrusted to them, had not the professions of favouring the Missionaries, which he had made, been sincere.

We are happy also in having to record the successful labours of the AMERICAN BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS, who, though they have been deprived of the labours of Mr. Newell, one of their most active agents in India, and the husband of Mrs. Harriet Newell, whose name is in all the churches, have made considerable progress in this great work. In the neighbourhood of Bombay, one of the Missionaries has preached during a tour taken for the purpose, to many of the natives, who uniformly heard him, and received the tracts with gladness. Messrs. Fish and Parsons, the two Missionaries of this Society to Palestine, have executed their commission with great zeal. They visited five out of the seven apostolic churches of Asia, distributing Testaments and tracts whenever opportunity offered, in their way. These were gladly received by the professors and students of the College of Havaili, since destroyed by the Turks; and by the priests of the Greek churches at Havaili, Tatarkucy, Cassebar, Magnisia, and by the Bishop of Elaia, who resides at Havaili. The four apostolic churches of Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia, needed equal assistance, and received it. Scarcely any of them had more than a copy or two of the word of God distributed by former agents of Bible or Missionary Societies; and Sardis contained not a single Christian family, so awfully has the denunciation been fulfilled against her, who had but a name to live, while she was dead. Separating after their return from this visit, which they were prevented by ill health from extending to the other churches, Mr. Parsons went on to the Holy City, whilst his colleague remained in Smyrna, distributing Bibles, Testaments, and tracts, in the modern Greek, in that place and its vicinity; a work of great importance, when it is considered that for many years the priests have daily been reading the services of the church, and the masters teaching the schools, in ancient Greek, of which they confessedly scarce understand a word. The books which they could read were most welcome to all classes and ranks; even the priests of the Greek church gladly purchasing copies of the New Testament for their churches. In Mr. Parson's journey to Jerusalem, touching at the island of Rhodes, the bishop thankfully received a present of tracts for distribution, as did also the Archimandrite and President of the monastery, the latter earnestly imploring blessings on the heads of those through whose benevolence the favour was conferred. At the small island of Castello Rosso, the people eagerly begged for tracts as he passed along the street; and he sold ten Testaments, five

of them to pilgrims on their way to Mecca. The Greek Bishop of Paphos, a city whose 365 churches are dwindled down to four, highly approved of the tracts brought him, and engaged to distribute them, as did also the Bishop of Larnica, who warmly expressed his gratitude for the present. The same course was pursued by the president of the monastery, at Jaffa,-the Joppa of the scriptures. At Jerusalem Mr. Parsons sold two Greek Testaments, and one Persian, one Italian, and one Armenian. The Russian Consul at Jaffa expressed to him an opinion, in whose correctness, were it acted upon, we should rejoice,—that a printing press might, without difficulty, be established at Jerusalem. The gospel was first preached there at the express command of its Divine founder; and delighted would every Christian be, if from Jerusalem, the city of the great King, the word of life should again be dispersed through regions now lying in the shadow of darkness, though thence emanated to all nations the gospel's great and glorious light. During Mr. Parsons's visit to Jerusalem, Mr. Fish took a tour to Ephesus, where he found the candlestick indeed removed_out of its place, for now no human being lives where once stood Ephesus; and Aarsuluck, which may be considered as Ephesus under another name, though not precisely on the spot of ground, contains but a few miserable Turkish huts. The fellow labourers afterwards joined company, but it was only for a while; as Mr. Parsons, who had been for some time in a declining state of health, breathed his last at Alexandria on the 10th of February. He rests from his labours, and his works do follow him.

POLITICAL RETROSPECT.

THE Agricultural Distresses of the country has formed the prominent feature of Parliamentary discussion since our last; but, for their relief little has been done, little we are satisfied can be done, by any legislative enactments. Closing the ports to foreign grain until the home price shall have reached 80 shillings a quarter, and then admitting it but on a duty of 12 shillings, whilst that price shall not exceed 70s. is a retrospective proceeding, which the goodness of God, in sending us another promising season, will, we hope, long render inoperative. With all the measures proposed for their assistance, the Agriculturists have indeed been so dissatisfied, that a county Member, in his place, declared, that “as Ministers had deserted the Agriculturalists, the Agriculturalists had no alternative but to desert Ministers." On the question of retrenchment, we rejoice that they have deserted them, and that through that desertion the useless office of a joint postmaster-general has been abolished, or at least,-for that is the most important point,-that its salary has been saved to the country. It would, however, be a gross act of injustice not to notice in terms of high commendation, the liberal conduct of his Majesty, in voluntarily directing a reduction of ten per cent. in those departments of the civil list which chiefly respect his personal comfort, and also in the salaries of certain officers paid from it, amounting together to £55,000 per annum.-Some parts of the country have been disturbed by riotous proceedings of a local nature; in Suffolk and Norfolk to

destroy farming machinery; in Wales, to advance the wages of miners; and in Hull, to resist the reduction of those of seamen: but they have been happily subdued by the aid of the military, without bloodshed in the contest, though two or three of the misguided men have since, by a public execution, been made a dreadful, but necessary example to their associates in crime.

We hail with joy the presentation of petitions from almost every part of the country, praying for a revision of our Criminal Code. Surely our legislators will not be deaf for ever to the voice of mercy! That they will not, we are disposed to argue, from Sir James Mackintosh having, by a majority of sixteen, obtained a pledge from the House of Commons to take the subject into consideration at an early period of the next Session.

IRELAND is in a wretched state: famine in some of its most populous districts, having added its horrors to calamities, standing in no need of aggravation. For this pressing want, relief has, however, been provided with a promptitude, that does the highest honour to English benevolence. Subscriptions have every where been opened, and liberally filled; and fifty thousand pounds have been placed by parliament, with the cordial approbation of all parties, at the disposal of the Lord Lieutenant, to be expended in the employment of the labouring poor in the suffering districts, in making roads through those hitherto impervious tracts of mountain and bog, which have for centuries served as the nursery and retreat of insurrection and outrage. This is a measure as politic as it is humane. The promptitude with which the provisions of the Irish Insurrection act have been carried into execution, has greatly contributed to quell the alarming spirit of revolt, but too widely diffused through that unhappy country, which will, we would yet hope, escape the horrors of a rebellion. We would, however, earnestly entreat our legislators to lose no time in redressing the wrongs of her wretched population. Mr. Goulbourn has, we see, launched, in the House of Commons, a scheme of the Irish government for lessening the evils of the ty thing system; a measurerendered doubly necessary by the imprudent and hard-hearted attempts of some avaricious proctors to introduce the tything of potatoes: into parts of the country hitherto free from that vexation we are not yet in possession of its details. The Insurrection act is to be continued; and an armed police is established throughout the country, or rather power is given to the Lord Lieutenant to establish it wherever he may think fit to do so. These are strong precautionary measures; but if more is not done than Parliament seems disposed to do, for permanently ameliorating the condition of the people for whom they are legislating (to use a vulgar expression) but from hand to mouth, they will have disappointed the expectations of the nation, and, but too probably, ruined the country they pretend, and but pretend, to save. We rejoice, however, to find, that some noblemen, and commoners of large property, are taking measures to prove that they do more than pretend to benefit their wretched country, to which, in the hour of her greatest distress, they have returned to occupy their posts as resident landlords. More we trust will hasten to follow their example. It is with great pleasure also, that we notice the exertions of the venerable and excellent Archbishop of Tuam, who is traversing his diocese, relieving and consoling disease and famine, and determined to share in the dangers and sufferings of his countrymen, which surpass, to use his Grace's own expression, "all power