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"In thirty-three missionary stations, in Greenland, Labrador, North America, the West Indies, Surinam, South Africa, and Tartary, there are about 32,000 Christian converts under the care of one hundred and sixty-eight missionaries, whose attention, however, is not exclusively confined to them; for they preach the Gospel also to many thousands of heathens, in their respective vicinities. "The direct expenses of all these missions amounted, in 1820, to 66771. 9s. 9d.; a sum incredibly small, in proportion to the magnitude and extent of the good effected. But there were arrears and contingencies to be added, partly for the maintenance of aged missionaries, worn out in the service, or of the widows of the deceased missionaries, or for the eduIcation of their children: these arrears, when added to the preceding sum, produced a total of 9431. 17s. 11d.

"The smallness of this expenditure is to be accounted for, not merely by the rigid economy, and self-denying habits of the missionaries, but also by the gratifying fact, that in some of the stations, trades or manufactures, carried on under their superintendance, have been so productive as nearly to cover the whole of their respective expenses. In the Danish WestIndia islands, containing 12,000 Negro converts, the missionaries have exerted themselves so effectually as even to remit 7507. during the year 1820, towards the maintenance of other missions.

"The congregations of the Brethren on the continent and elsewhere, amount not, on an average, to more than 8000 persons, and these belong chiefly to the humbler classes of society; so that their means of contributing to the expenses of the missions are very small: yet they were able, in a great measure, to meet it, until the difficulties and devastations attendant on the late war had so much impoverished the continental congregations, as to throw the burden almost exclusively on those of Great Britain. With every effort, however, on their part, they are not able to raise above 2000l. per annum; less than a fourth part of the whole annual expenditure. The Society labours, in consequence, under heavy pecuniary embarrassments, and must have long since relinquished a great part of the missionary stations, and yielded up these Christian enclosures a prey to the powers of darkness, but for the spontaneous bounty of benevolent friends, chiefly in England and Scotland; by whose aid and exertions upwards of 40007. have been collected

in aid of the missionary fund. Still an annual sum of 2000. remains to be provided for; to which are to be added, unliquidated deficiences of former years; and during the present year this deficiency has been greatly augmented, owing to the dreadful devastations produced by hurricanes on two of the South-African stations."

Since sending the above to press, we have received an account of another recent visitation which has befallen one of the Moravian settlements; the settlement of Sarepta, in Russian Asia, near Czarizin, on the Wolga. Sarepta was first established in the year 1765, by five of the Moravian Brethren from Hernhutt, in the hope that it might be the means of bringing the Calmucks and other tribes in the vicinity to the knowledge of Christian truth. The population has by degrees increased to nearly 500 inhabitants; and a small number of converts (Calmucks) have, of late years, been gathered from among the heathen. The calamity to which we allude, and which forms a new claim to Christian sympathy, is thus described by the conductors of the Brethren's missions:

"It has pleased the Lord our God, whose ways are often inscrutable, but always righteous and full of love, to visit our congregation at Sarepta in Russia with a very heavy disaster. On the 9th of August last, a fire broke out in one of the outhouses of the tobacco manufactory and as all the premises were built of wood, and by the long continued drought and heat had become like tinder, the flames spread with such rapidity, that all human help proved vain; and in four hours and a half, the shops, with all the buildings belonging to the manufactory, the apothecary's shop, the large distillery, the warden's house, the two large houses of the single brethren, with all their shops and farming premises, and twenty-four dwelling-houses (comprising three-fourths of the whole settlement) were laid in ashes. Thus twenty-eight families, all the single brethren, seventy in number, and about twenty families of workmen and servants, were bereft of their habitations. When the fire had reached the most dangerous place, between the single brethren's house and the closely adjoining out-buildings of the minister's house, it pleased God to grant success to the unwearied exertions of those who came to our assistance, and to put a stop to the progress of the devouring element, otherwise in half an hour more the whole set

tlement of Sarepta would have been converted into a melancholy heap of ruins, and all its inhabitants left without a home.'

Two lives were lost in consequence of fatigue and agitation of mind. All who have retained their houses have most cheerfully accommodated the sufferers in the best manner in their power. The church was saved, and has been re-opened.-Contributions for the relief of the suffering congregation will be thankfully received by the Rev. C. I. Latrobe, Nevil's Court, Fetter Lane; Messrs. Hoares, Bankers; Seeley and Son, 169, Fleet street; Hatchard and Son, Piccadilly.

RELIGIOUS WANTS IN THE

UNITED STATES.

Our readers will have seen in our Number for August, pp. 487-490, some portentous statements, from the pen of a highly respectable American Episcopalian clergyman, respecting the religious necessities of various parts of the United States. He mentions, that on the general estimate of one pastor to a thousand souls, there are not a sufficient number of ministers, at the present moment, in the United States to supply three millions of the population; so that there are seven millions, either partially or wholly, deprived of the means of religious consolation and instruction. This grievous deficiency is loudly complained of in various other recent American publications. The last Report of the "American Education Society" (a body composed of Christians of various denominations) states, that in every quarter missionaries and pastors are earnestly demanded for vacant churches and new districts. The necessities of some parts even of the New-England States, are considerable; but these are nothing compared with those of the South and West. On this subject, the Directors of the American Education Society, in addition to "the appalling statements and estimates of past years," mention the following facts:-"In the Michigan territory, where there are several organized churches, and several important military posts, and about 15,000 inhabitants, there is no minister, chaplain, or missionary." Again; "In the three States, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, containing a population of more than 300,000 souls, scattered over a territory almost three times as large as New England, there are but sixteen or seventeen Congregational and Presbyterian ministers." The proportion of ministers has decreased with the increasing population of the States. At the commencement of the last century, more than half the college

graduates became preachers; at the commencement of the present century, only one in six. We are rejoiced to see that the religious part of our transatlantic brethren are earnestly exerting themselves to supply these alarming deficiencies. Would that all governments would bear in mind the so-far-excellent model of some of the States, founded by expatriated Puritans, in which no parish was left destitute of a resident minister, and of a fixed provision for the education of all classes of the population!

PARIS SOCIETY FOR CHRISTIAN MORALS.

This useful and rising Society has benevolently proposed a premium of a thousand francs for the best essay in favour of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with particular reference to the circumstances of France. The Society are anxious for a liberal investigation of the whole of this important question; and to promote it, they have issued a circular, stating at considerable length the chief points to which they wish attention to be directed. They ask what are the causes of the unsuccessful issue of the attempts hitherto made by the French government to interdict the trade? Should it be said that the suppression of the trade is unpopular in France, whence arises this unpopularity? Is it that the abolition is a selfish project of England, to favour its own colonies at the expense of France? Is it that England did not abolish the trade till after she had taken precautionary measures to secure her own colonies, and to injure those of her neighbours? To refute this supposition, the Society recommends attention to the following points :-Who incited the abolition in this country? Was it the government? Was it the colonial or the mercantile interest? Rather was it not the disinterested friends of liberty, religion, and philanthropy? Did not government and the mercantile and colonial interests oppose it? Did not there require a quarter of a century to effect it? And is it not a fact that the present French colonies belonged to England at the period of the abolition, without any prospect, at that time, of cession? Is it not also a fact that no measures of precaution were ever adopted in the old colonies, more than in the conquered ones? With regard to the general apathy of the French public respecting the slave trade, may it not be traced, either to the supposition that the traffic cannot be extirpated, and may therefore be as well carried on by the French as by any other nation? or to

the persuasion that the horrors of slavery and the slave trade have been greatly exaggerated? To refute these notions, it is recommended to compare the present lamentable state of Western Africa with its condition from 1808 to 1814; during which period, England and America, dividing the empire of the seas, annihilated the traffic. It is suggested also, that the writers should notice the methods of procuring the slaves; the degree of horror evinced by them on being captured; their march to the coast; their miserable deportation across the Atlantic; the mortality that takes place among them during their passage; the short average duration of a Negro's life in the West Indies as compared with Africa, and the causes of this fatal consumption of human existence; and in what degree the sufferings of the slaves in the voyage are increased under the present contraband system. All these details are to be authenticated by recent and well-proved facts. The next point to be discussed is the argument of the planters, that slavery and the slave trade are indispensable for the culture of the colonies. It is advised to inquire on this head, whether slave cultivation has not retained agriculture in a barbarous infantile state, to the exclusion of useful implements for lightening human labour; and whether the natural increase of population ought not to be sufficient to keep up the number of slaves without importation; and if, in point of fact it does not do so, what are the causes of the deficiency; and particularly, are there any laws or usages which render the bringing up of the children of slaves onerous or inconvenient? With regard to the difficulties alleged by the French government in suppressing the traffic, several inquiries are suggested respecting the present imperfect state of the French Jaw on the subject, extending to all the

various stages of the offence. It is further recommended to consider the plan of employing efficient cruizers and co-operating with the flag of other nations for suppressing the offence; and of perfecting a slave registration in the colonies. It is also proposed that an investigation should be made respecting the system of administering justice in the colonies, in points connected with the interests of the slave population; and the best method pointed out of disposing of re-captured Negroes.

The friends of the abolition of the slave trade in this country will rejoice to find their allies on the continent sketching out so large and comprehensive a view of this great question. The extensive circulation of the forcible hints, inquiries, and inferences in this paper must, we should think, of itself produce considerable effect independently of the discussions to which it may lead. Essays for the premium are to be sent in by the 1st of July with a sealed letter containing the author's name, addressed to the President of the Society of Christian Morals in Paris, Rue Taranne (No. 12.)

While alluding to this subject, we venture to suggest to our literary countrymen, whether a history of slavery in all ages and countries, would not furnish a theme highly interesting and important, and well worthy of the pen of a Hume, a Robertson, or a Gibbon. We are somewhat surprised that while subjects the most trite, such as the crusades; or the most uninteresting, such as some point of mere historical litigation; have employed so many lives and pens, no complete history of slavery,-a topic fearfully copious in materials, and painfully replete with interest,-has yet been given to the world. We confidently recommend this theme to the rising race of historians, as well calculated to repay their most elaborate researches.

VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

FOREIGN.

SPAIN. The Constitutionalists, betrayed and deserted by many of their professedly warmest friends, unsupported by the mass of the peasantry, dilapidated in their finances, bereft of all their principal garrison towns, and unable, amidst internal discord and the presence of a powerful enemy, to hold out any longer, even in Cadiz itself, have at length been constrained

to make an unconditional surrender. The king was permitted to retire to the French lines, whence he set out in triumph for Madrid. His first measure was, by one sweeping edict, to annul the Constitution, and all acts done under it, and by its authority, from its formation on March 7, 1820. Forgetting his solemn oath to obey this very Constitution, not only has he violated and rescinded it, but has de

nounced its friends, abettors, and even its most innocent functionaries. Not the least shadow of doubt is intimated in the king's edicts, as to his full prerogative to mould, re-mould, or abolish, the laws, government, and usages of the kingdom, without the smallest reference or appeal to the wishes or the voice of the Nation. In all the proceedings since his liberation, an undisguised unmixed spirit of despotism is evinced, most grating in its aspect, and portentous in its consequences. The most enlightened, industrious, and enterprising classes of Spanish society are placed under a general ban of odium or proscription, No member of the last two sessions of the Cortes is allowed to approach within five leagues of the road to Madrid; and all the chief civil, as well as military, officers under the late Constitution are banished for ever fifteen leagues from the capital and the royal residence. The only promise held out to the country is, that the king, by his own sole intelligence and authority, will bestow such laws and adopt such measures as shall be calculated to secure the national prosperity and welfare. And all this has occurred immediately after issuing, before he left Cadiz, a proclamation, declaring solemnly his intention to model a good government, to bury past animosities in oblivion, to guarantee the payment of the debts contracted under the constitutional system, and to ensure to all officers, civil and military, their rank, pay, and honours. The king professes, indeed, that whatever he did under the late system was by duress and constraint; but what can be thought of the principles of a man who can be thus induced to consult a temporary conve nience by the expedient of issuing solemn declarations, and uttering, in the sight of God, the most sacred engagements, which he is ready, as soon as the tide turns, to disclaim and recant? Yet, amidst all this, the new edicts and proclamations are couched in the most disgusting style of religious bypocrisy; and one of the most Joyful occurrences of the revolution is, it seems, that his majesty has regained his faithful father-confessor, who, we conclude, will absolve him from these and all other sins; and the splendid mummeries of Popery are to be employed to perform a lustration for the kingdom. We sicken while we reflect how strongly circumstances such as these prejudice the minds of the ig

norant and unthinking against that holy faith which they see so awfully abused.

The conduct of the king, since his liberation, appears to be as impolitic as it is overbearing. It must necessarily disgust and repel all the talent, intellect, and public spirit of the country. The peasantry, indeed, may not at once feel the full effects of a despotic system of government, or become prepared to repel it. To them the Constitution was a matter of indifference, perhaps of dislike; for they were not qualified, either by habit or education, to discover the full value of civil liberty, and much less to weigh the merits or defects of any particular form of government. Years must have elapsed before the indirect effects of a liberal system should have been adequately felt in the remote agricul tural districts, and before the moral and intellectual elevation of the peasantry, arising from more liberal institutions and an improved education, should have enabled them to value the just-not the Utopian and revolutionary-rights of man. But the active, intellectual, commercial classes, the inhabitants of towns and cities, accustomed to the intercourse of mind with mind, initiated in the science of politics, and apprized of the state of affairs in foreign lands, are very differently circumstanced. To them the ultra-royalist system must appear an insufferable burden, and the recoil of opinion is but too likely wholly to re publicanise their already democratical ideas. These classes must continue, secretly or avowedly, enemies to the restored order of government, the early measures of which seem most impoliticly calculated to induce them to combine in opposing it. Nor are all their resources, even of a military kind, wholly destroyed. Mina remains entrenched in Catalonia; Lopez Banos, who has never submitted, has still an army in Estremadura; and the harshness of the king is driving Morillo and his other new friends into the arms of their former connexions.

On reviewing the whole of the circumstances of the war, we do not altogether attribute to the mass of the Spanish Nation so great a degree of moral blame as their supine conduct would, at first sight, seem to deserve. For, to say nothing of the actual faultimess of the late Constitution, it doubtless appeared, in their eyes, identified with ideas of anarchy in government

and atheism in religion. The priest hood, almost to a man, were hostile to it; and the increasing infidel party, almost to a man, were in favour of it. The mass of the agricultural population, and the more bigoted of the lower orders in the towns, could not disunite this unhappy association, of which such powerful use has been made by the ultra-royalists. Long, we fear, will it be before the Spaniards and some other of our continental neighbours, shall learn to understand the true Christian character of liberty, connected neither with licentiousness in matters of temporal import, nor with latitudinarian principles in the concerns of religion. Let us, at least, who are placed by a gracious Providence under more favourable circumstances, learn to profit by their monitory example!

FRANCE. A partial change has taken place in the French ministry. The duc de Belluno (Victor), one of Bonaparte's generals, has been removed from the war department, and ap: pointed ambassador at Vienna; and his post is to be filled by the count de Damas, a young ultra-royalist officer. The causes of this removal have furnished ample materials for conjecture, but are not known to the public. The ultra party congratulate themselves upon the change, and produce it as a proof of their increasing preponderance. The affairs of government are completely in their hands.-Great public rejoicings have taken place in Paris on the result of the events in Spain; but, shackled as is the French press, enough is still suffered to transpire to shew that these rejoicings are not universal, notwithstanding that feeling of vanity with which Freuchmen must naturally regard the military successes of their country.

THE NETHERLANDS.-The kingdom of the Netherlands presents a far more peaceful and hopeful scene. Enjoying, like ourselves, the blessings of a limited hereditary monarchy, and the rights of freedom and national representation secured to it by the Constitution of 1814, it continues to advance in public security and prosperity. The king has just opened the two chambers with a speech, congratulating them on the friendly footing maintained with foreign states; the increasing happiness of the people; the progress of education both among the rich and the poor; the flourishing state of the fine arts; the blessings of a bountiful harvest; and the hopeful

condition of the public finances. The Dutch, with their usual commercial wisdom, have decided on the national policy of buying their corn where they can procure it best and most cheaply.

SWITZERLAND.-The Council of Geneva have established a censorship of the press, nominally for one year. But when did such a measure, unless from extraneous force, determine its own existence at the expiration of its first appointed period? It is with pain that we witness the cautious lines of circumvallation which the continental powers are gradually drawing more closely around that bulwark of freedom, the Press. Must Switzerland also submit to the fate of Naples and of Spain?

DEMERARA. We deeply lament to say, that the newspapers have of late been filled with accounts of an insurrection among the slaves on some plantations in the Mahaica district of this colony; which happily, however, was speedily suppressed. The advices which have been laid before the public are not official; and they bear the most decisive appearances of exaggeration, originating either in fear or worse causes. As for the statement that the slaves were instigated to insurrection by what had passed in the British Parliament, on the subject of mitigating the severity of their condition, we not only conceive it to be untrue in point of fact, but we believe it to be contrary to the principles which usually influence human conduct. Had the West Indians, however, limited their statements to this single point, they might have gained credit with many persons who are necessarily too little acquainted with the extent of information among the slaves in Demerara, not to perceive the improbability of their becoming so soon acquainted with what was passing on this side of the Atlantic. But they have gone farther: they have not even hesitated to assert that the insurrection was actually planned in England, and that the Missionaries in the colony were the agents and fomenters of it; assertions so palpably absurd as to carry their own refutation along with them. It is not a little remarkable that the Governor of the colony, though himself a planter, was so far from conceiving that the inten tion which had been expressed by the Government at home to alleviate the rigours of slavery was likely to have produced the disaffection, that, in his proclamation, he brings it forward,

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