happy effects of the distressing period which we have witnessed, may be manifested at the last great day! I am grieved, however, to inform you that we are threatened with a new plague, in the shape of a malignant typhus fever, which has caused greater devastations in Gallicia than the cholera itself. May God in his mercy grant, that the single chastisement which we have received may lead us seriously to repent and be converted, so that our sins may not compel him to visit us still more severely! At the same time it is cheering to see in what a manner the Lord is pleased to open a way for communicating his Spirit to the hearts of men. This is in a particular manner experienced by our Missionary Society for propagating the Gospel among the heathen, in union with which several auxiliaries and associations have been recently established. Among the rest, a communication from Glogau, in Silesia, states, that at the conclusion of the afternoon's service in the different churches, a short but energetic appeal was made to the respective congregations to cooperate in promoting the missionary cause. The superintendant, with all the clergy, put down their names as being willing to patronize the undertaking, and many followed their example. A Missionary Society has also been formed at Buntzlau, and in Pomerania; so great is the zeal in behalf of Missions to evangelize the heathen, that one minister wrote to me from thence, Only let us know, what the Missionary Society requires; tell us that you want so and so much, and you shall have it. Such an ardour tends to inspirit many here, so that the missionary cause gains an accession of friends. I do not pretend to say that all who take share in it are vital Christians; but thus much I may with truth aver, that every where in the different committees there are decided Christians, who, without imposing a test upon every individual member, unite together in humble faith on Jesus Christ as their only Saviour and Redeemer, who is God over all blessed for ever."

6

But if the alarm of pestilence has subsided, the last month has not been destitute of alarms of another kind; and well may we say, when we contemplate the evils of civil discord, and their too frequent results in war and bloodshed, "Let us fall into the hands of God, for his mercies are great, and not into the hand of man." Many a time has our beloved country seemed upon the very brink of the most terrific evils; but when the moment of extreme danger appeared drawing nigh, the gathering cloud has dispersed, and has not visited us with the full outburst of its thunders. Mediately we may justly attribute this to our national character and the excellence of our civil constitution, by means of which, when tumults and disturbances arise, which in many countries would lead to revolution

and massacre, they are timely repressed, by the adjustment of the national machinery, and pass away without the fatal consequences that were apprehended. But whatever may be the medium or instrument, the merciful Disposer is that Almighty Protector, who alone can say to the raging waves, Peace, be still, and there is a great calm. Whatever may be the views of Christians in matters of political arrangement, all must feel that we have recently had an escape from a fearful concussion, which, had it not been speedily averted, might have ended in results the most disastrous.

It would be unnecessary for us to dwell at length upon the events to which we allude. We need not inform our readers, that upon the first question which occurred in the House-of-Lords Committee on the Reform Bill-namely, Lord Lyndhurst's motion for postponing the disfranchisement of the nomination boroughs till the enfranchisement clauses had been disposed of--ministers were outvoted by a large majority; that, finding the feeling of the house to be so strongly against them that they had no likelihood of carrying the bill in a state which they considered efficient, they urged the king to promise to create new peers if found requisite; that his Majesty declining this, they tendered their resignation, which was accepted; that the House of Commons addressed the King by a large majority to choose a reform cabinet; that the King empowered the duke of Wellington to form a new ministry, but with the fullest understanding that his Majesty was pledged to a large and efficient measure of reform; that the duke undertook the task on these terms, but found it impracticable, as not only was the majority of the House of Commons against him, but all the consistent anti-reformers, including Sir Robert Peel, refused to undertake office on the condition of espousing a measure which they had so earnestly reprobated; while to add to these impediments, reform meetings and organized union clubs were being held throughout the country; and innumerable addresses were presented to Parliament praying for the suspension of the supplies, and the restoration of Earl Grey's ministry; and lastly, that the King took back his cabinet with the pledge that they should have the means of carrying through their bill, which is now rapidly proceeding; many peers, and among them the duke of Wellington, having refrained from opposing it, rather than risk a large accession to the peerage.

Such is the outline of the facts. With the pledges of Earl Grey and his colleagues, they could not do otherwise than resign when they found that they had no chance of carrying through their bill in such a state as they considered beneficial for the public interest; for though the transposi

armour of light; and we doubt not, even yet, that its triumphs will be secure in spite of all the radicals and infidels of both kingdoms.

The discussion of the Plurality Bill has not yet commenced in the House of Commons. All parties seem to view the present bill as very defective; and between those who dislike it for what is really good in it, and those who would wish to increase that good, it seems not likely to have an easy passage. Every effort will be made to prevent the extinction of the evil of pluralities, or even its partial mitigation. For ages every thing has been thrown into the wrong scale in this matter. The adherence to the valuation of livings in the king's books-that is, the assumed value in the reign of Henry VIII.—is an illustration of the artifices resorted to for the retention of lucrative pluralities. Notwithstanding two express decisions in the Court of Common Pleas in the reign of Elizabeth, counter decisions were given in the reigns of Charles I. and Charles II., making the king's books, and not the actual value, the standard. This is much such a decision as that which makes thirty miles distance to mean in practice forty-five. In the case of Clive, incumbent of Adderley, who had accepted the living of Clum, distant by measurement, from church to church forty-eight miles, and from parish to parish forty-three, it was argued that the country people called the distance only twenty-nine; and the Court of Common Pleas decided that the temporal courts make no account of distance, which is merely a matter of canonical regulation; and that, as it was the custom of the archbishops to take the lenient side in favour of the clergy, and to allow three measured miles to be called two computed miles, the court sanctioned the plurality. Thus the matter stands to this hour. Five pounds in the king's books may mean500/., and thirty miles, forty-five.

A royal commission has been formed for inquiring into the poor laws. It contains the names of several men of large and enlightened views; and at its head is placed the Bishop of Chester, a prelate so intimately versed in the question, and so eminently qualified to report upon it, that we look with the strongest hopes to the result of the inquiry. That a foundation ought to be laid for the abolition, prudently and prospectively, of the present wretched and impolitic system cannot be doubted by any man who has considered the necessary evils of the existing

enactments.

We rejoice to state, that, upon the motion of Mr. Buxton, the House of Commons has agreed to appoint a select committee, to consider the safest and speediest mode of effecting the extinction of slavery throughout the British colonies, with safety to the colonists. Lord Althorp succeeded, upon a division, in attaching to

it the words, "in conformity with the resolutions of 1823;" which mixes up the duty of abolition with the question of compensation. There can be no doubt that every reasonable claim ought to be inquired into, and fairly dealt by; but it is most irreligious to delay an imperative act of humanity and justice, till the faulty parties can agree among themselves which of them shall pay the supposed damage; for we do not believe there will be any real damage, but rather that the colonies will be more prosperous without slavery than with it. We trust that the com mittee will be equitably selected; not like the House-of-Lords' Committee, in which the great mass of the members have a direct and powerful interest in the retention of West-Indian Slavery; while of the remaining members, either neutral or anti-slavery, there are not, perhaps, two who are qualified by an intimate knowledge of the details of the question, to arrange the counter evidence; to cross-examine the witnesses; and to prevent the report being almost wholly partial and delusive. It was necessary to have a House-ofCommons' Committee, were it only to counteract the effects of Lord Harewood's House-of-Lord's committee*. But we rejoice to see that it is not a committee to inquire whether slavery ought to be tolerated, but how it can be most speedily and safely abolished. This is at least one great point gained: and we await with much anxiety the report of the committee; though, whatever it may be, one thing is clear that the system cannot long exist. It is in the power of Parliament to decide whether the abolition shall be conducted legally, peacefully, and with due regard to the interests of all parties concerned. But it is not in the power of any set of men long to prevent it; for the oppressed classes of the colonies are beginning both to know their rights and to feel their strength; and every colonist asserts, that if they once become educated and Christianized, they will throw off the yoke; and this country neither can, nor will, send over bayonets enough to coerce them back to slavery. Why not then abolish the system at once, before it lights up a conflagration that will render the colonies a prey to spoliation, famine, devastation, and massacre? Look at the state of the press in the colonies themselves. What says Lord Howick, in his recent speech on the sugar duties? 66 Formerly, in the colonies at least, the discussions on this subject were all on one side, and no one dreamt of

* A note was added to the last page of our last Number, correcting the mistake of Lord Seaford's name, for Lord Harewood's, as the mover of the committee: but as some copies, we understand, were printed off before the mistake was corrected, we repeat the erratum.

breathing a word in favour of emancipation; indeed, any one who stood forward as the advocate of the slave, would have been overwhelmed on all sides. But what is the case now? A large and influential class of free persons has grown up in the colonies, whose religious opinions induce them to adopt the notions on slavery of the hon. member for Weymouth. Among the conductors of the colonial press, powerful advocates of these opinions are not wanting. There is now a newspaper published in the town of Kingston, in Jamaica, conducted, undoubtedly, with considerable talent and ability; but, at the same time, I am sorry to say, with by no means equal temper or moderation. I do not blame the editors of this paper for the spirit in which it is written; with the example which is set by their opponents of still greater violence, it is not to be expected that they should abstain from strong language. I mention it not to censure or impute improper motives to any one, but as a fact too important to be lost sight of, that the controversy relative to the abolition of slavery, is now raging with yet greater violence in Jamaica than it is at home. The Watchman on the one side, and the Jamaica Courant on the other, urge, in the strongest language, the extreme doctrines of either party. That such a dispute, so maintained, must produce a powerful effect on the minds of the slaves, and that it must make the existing state of things one full of danger, it is impossible to doubt. It becomes, then, urgently and vitally important to determine by what course the fatal catastrophe which this state of things threatens can be avoided."

Such is the state of things abroad; and what is it at home? Witness the war of placards which has been going on the last month on our walls. Mr. Buxton disclaims these placards on the part of the Anti-Slavery Society; and we cannot but lament, for the sake of the cause itself, that any of its friends should have employed such language as appears in some of them. But still, they are signs of the times. They shew that the question is assuming a new aspect; that the public are beginning to despair of its being fairly adjusted, without a little of the spirit of agitationing, while the newspapers are bribed against them, and 6000 petitions to Parliament,-one lately pre

sented, contained 135,000 signatures, and measured, it is said, nearly half a mile, are scoffed at as so much waste of ink and parchment; and might is leagued against right, to keep the slave in his bonds, and to defeat the most obvious claims of justice and humanity. Earl Harewood, (the public have not forgotten, under this title, the well known proslavery name of Lascelles, the opposer of Mr. Wilberforce in Yorkshire,) has joined Lord Wynford in his invectives against "the saints;" because they wish for the abolition of this unscriptural and inhuman system. We are glad, notwithstanding the sneer, that the cause is taken up by "saints;" and we willingly give his lordship the advocacy of sinners. How is it that no prelate rises to put down these vulgar sneers at religion, under pretext of ridiculing hypocrisy? Bishop Horsley would have told his lordship, that the name is the exalted badge of our holy profession; that Christians are "called to be saints;" that his language is a sneer at our collect on All-Saints' day; and that before he levels his shafts at saints, he ought to know what are the principles and practices of the class of persons whom he thus stigmatizes. However, Mr. Wilberforce, with all his sanctity, was not the worse thought of by the freeholders of Yorkshire; and he achieved that victory over the slave trade which will, and must, shortly be followed up by the extinction of slavery; but whether it shall be a peaceable and legal extinction, or be wrought out in despair by the insurgent slaves themselves, with ruin and bloodshed, depends, as we before said, mainly on the timely wisdom, justice, and humanity, of the West-Indian proprietors and their friends in this country. The "saints" are not the parties who oppose the real welfare of the West Indies. Who is it that forbids the colonists to refine their own sugars, and to bring their molasses to our distilleries? It is the landed and other interests in Parliament, which say to the slave-holder, We will allow you slavery; but you must not interfere with corn and sugar refining; and if you will submit to the oppressions you labour under by the unjust restrictions we impose on the colonies, for the sake of partial interests at home, we, in return, will protect the sacred rights of slavery, and fight your battle with the people of England, who impatiently wish to abolish it.