sents unusual advantages to settlers, and such as in the hands of the Portuguese, and for the uses of the South Sea whalers, have hitherto been but little improved in comparison with what may be done. In Lattakoo but little advance seems hitherto to have been made in real piety; and perhaps it is as much as we could expect, to find the missionaries well received and accommodated by the king and his people, who are said by Mr. and Mrs. Moffatt, who have arrived among them, to be much superior to other tribes of the same savage race. Of the pleasing prospects opened in Madagascar we have already given an account in our report of the Society's anniversary, and no time will be lost in endeavouring to realize then. In China the Word of life will, there is every reason to expect, ere long, be given in the native language of its millions of population, the finishing stroke to the translation of the Scriptures having been put by Dr. Morrison, on the 29th of Nov., 1819. The mission, of which he is so distinguished an ornament, notwithstanding the trials and opposition it has to contend with in so distant a region of the globe, goes on, upon the whole, so prosperously, that a species of tontine has been formed by the missionaries, for the providing a fund for their widows and orphans. It affords us satisfaction to know that they are able to do this, and that they are also willing, though we are fully satisfied that the Christian public would never suffer the wives and children of - those to want the bread which perisheth, who had been their messengers in conveying to a world lying in darkness the Word of life. At Pulo Pelang, a school for Malay and Kling children and adults has been opened by the missionary of the Society, under the assistance of a native teacher. In the East Indies the Society has sustained a great loss in the removal of Mr. Pritchett, the indefatigable translator of the New Testament into the Teloogoo language, from his labours to his rest. His former colleagues áre, however, endeavouring, by extra exertions, to make up, as far as possible, for his loss. A new chapel has been opened at Seringapatam, and a printing press erected at Bellary, furnished both with Canarese and European types, so that it is reasonably hoped, that considerable progress will soon be made in printing the Scriptures and tracts, at a spot possessing such peculiar advantages for their circulation through immense and thickly populated districts. Similar facilities for printing in the Tamul language have also been afforded to the mission at South Travancore, whence we are gratified to learn that the rajah of Tanjore has contributed 550 rupees towards the expence of a Christian place of worship now erecting at Nagarioil, whence the missionaries itinerate to the neighbouring villages with some pleasing prospects of not labouring altogether in vain. At Seringapatan, Complee, Belgam, and Hydrabad, missionaries are much wanted, and would be inost cordially received.

A tropical climate not agreeing with the state of Mr. Knill's health, he has been removed to St. Petersburgh, with an ultimate view to the deserts of Siberia, as the field of his useful missionary labours.

Shortly after the London Missionary Society commenced its operations, a similar institution was formed, on a smaller scale, in the sister kingdom, under the title of the GLASGOW MISSIONARY SOCIETY, co-operating with the former in a mission to the Foulah country, on the N.W. coast of Africa, and also sending forth, independently, a few missionaries into the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone. At both these stations the Society's agents laboured without any permanent success, and their zealous patrons at home struggled for many years in obscurity, with difficulties of no ordinary operation, successively opposed to the advancement of their design, which still, however, they did not abandon, and at length they have succeeded in establishing a regular Christian mission to the Caffres, in whose savage hordes their prin

cipal agent is now, we trust, labouring as a "minister amongst the Caffres," accredited and supported by the colónial government of the Cape, who have for some time also maintained a fellow-labourer in the same extensive, but long neglected vineyard, originally sent out from England by the London Missionary Society. It is reasonably hoped, that they will extend the same liberal and enlightened patronage to another minister, supported by the Glasgow institution, at whose cost two or three students are now training in the university of that city, for laborious exertion in this, or some other portion of the heathen world.

To our abstract of the report of the annual meeting of the CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY there is not much further information to be collected. In the Mediterranean Mr. Connor still continues his valuable labours. At Aleppo he sold a considerable number of Hebrew testaments to the Jews; but the chief Rabbi soon issued a prohibition against their purchasing the book, though a cheap edition of the Old Testament would have met with an easy sale. At Cyprus the consul has taken upon himself the distribution of the Scriptures, and the archbishop has bought and paid for 250 Greek Testaments. The Albanian translation of the New Testament is finished, and Mr. Connor proposed to spend the winter in revising Hilarion's Turkish translation, for the types of which the printer was waiting with much anxiety. He very justly considers that Jerusalem is not a proper place for a permanent mission, though he strongly recommends its being visited at the passover by one or other of the missionaries. He urges, with equal judiciousness, that nothing but the Scripture should, at least for the present, be circulated in Syria. Religious tracts, he justly observes, however well they may be intended to act, or though ever so cautiously written, would be very likely to excite jealousy in a people already sufficiently jealous of the operations of those whom they account heretics.

At the anniversary meeting of the Missionary Society at Regent's Town, Sierra Leone, on the 25th February in the last year, the gratifying spectacle was exhibited of no less than five Christian negro communicants appearing as public advocates of the cause, to which, under God, they owe their own conversion. Several pleasing instances have also occurred of deep, and it is to be hoped that they will prove lasting, impressions having been made on the minds of the Africans of all ages, and both sexes, by the preaching and reading of the word.

Under the ministry of the METHODIST MISSIONARIES in Hindostan, some of the native converts from the worship of Brahma to the faith of Christ, have died in the Lord, and one of these was a widow, who according to the horrid rites which she had abandoned, ought rather to have offered herself up a suicidal victim on the funeral pile of her husband, whose death she, on the other hand, was enabled to bear with resignation to the will of him who has promised to be a father to the fatherless, and a husbandto the widow, and in whose promises he also exhibited satisfactory evidence of a saving faith.

Directing our view across the Atlantic, we find that similarly encourag ing results and prospects crown and await the exertions of our brethren and fellow-labourers there. The two missionaries despatched to Smyrna, by the AMERICAN BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS, have arrived safely there; and are now making considerable advances in the study of the Romaic, or Modern Greek, into which, by the assistance of their kind tutor, professor Bambas, of Scio, they have already translated the "Dairyman's Daughter," with whose simple history the professor was so much affected, as to weep at its perusal, and to give a preference to her humble chamber over the apartments of the splendid mansion in which he sat. With the assistance

of this most useful man, other tracts were speedily translated and printed; and under his friendly sanction, were distributed to every student in the University, and a large elementary school attached to it; by whom they were, indeed, received gladly. Teachers of other parts of the islaud, and of other and larger isles, have applied for them for their scholars; and been partially supplied with the first books which their pupils were ever taught, at once, to read and to understand: their learning, it learning it might be called, having hitherto been confined to reading the books used in the service of the church, which is altogether conducted in the ancient Greek tongue, of which they know but the characters and the sound, as is the case with the poorer and ignorant Catholics, and the Latin prayers and responses of their sister church. To the professor the missionaries also presented Paley's Evidences of Christianity, which he promised to read attentively, not only for his own advantage, but for the benefit of his pupils; and also the "Young Minister's Companion," from which he has some thoughts of making a printed selection for the use of ecclesiastics; and which the missionaries were delighted to hear him, in the lecture room of the University, read in Greek to his pupils, who diligently wrote down what he read. Bibles and Testaments have also been distributed by them in the Grecian isles, and on the continent. Nor is it one of the least affecting circumstances.connected with the progress of this new mission, that such is the mutability of all earthly things, the once flourishing churches of Thes salonica and Philadelphia, some of the earliest scenes of the apostolic labours, have been applicants for copies of the Word of God, which com paratively few of the Greek churches possess entire, and fewer still uncor rupted. After a residence of five months in Scios, these active missionaries returned to Smyrna, which they very justly consider the fittest central station for a mission to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean-to a Christian, one of the most interesting portions of the globe. The Turkish government seems not likely to interfere with them, and against the ravages of the plague it is no longer doubtful that those ordinary precautions which the Turks are so infatuated as to despise and reject (glorying rather, as they madly deem it, in such a sudden removal to the paradise of their licentious prophet) will, humanly speaking, sufficiently protect them. "Merchants," justly do those active evangelists observe, "come with their families and reside here at all times of the year. Let not, then, the servants of God be afraid." They are naturally anxious for other labourers in this extensive vineyard, once watered by the choicest dews of heaven; but since, for ages and for centuries, choked up with the rankest and most noxious weeds. On the establishment of a printing press, for the circulation of tracts, chiefly from the first fathers of the Christian church, whose writings the Greeks hold in high estimation, they very properly lay great stress; and our readers will perceive with pleasure, from our American intelligence, that very vigorous efforts are making by the board, whose agents they are, to meet their wishes on this important point. In that department of our labours, we have also inserted the interesting letter of the king of one of the Sandwich islands to the secretary of this society; and our readers will be pleased to learn, that it was accompanied with the gratifying intelligence of the example of the Society islands having been cheerfully and promptly fol lowed, throughout the Sandwich islands, in casting their idols to the moles and to the bats,-levelling their altars and high places to the dust, and lending an attentive ear to the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace. Within six months after the death of Tamaamah, the young king, who, to preserve his succession, had been appointed high priest in his father's life-time, came to the resolution, fully sanctioned by all his chiefs, and cheerfully acquiesced

in by the people, of destroying the whole system of idolatry throughout his dominions. This determination was immediately carried into complete execution, the idols, with the buildings and inclosures consecrated to their worship, in some of which human sacrifices had not long since been offered, being consumed by the flames of fires kindled by order of the king. On the same day, the entire Taboo system, by which the king interdicted the use of certain food, the doing of certain things upon particular days, men and women eating together, or even of victuals cooked at the same fire; and, in short, whatever whim, the most wild, or the grossest superstition could prompt him to forbid, under the penalty of death, always rigidly enforced, was abolished, we flatter ourselves, for ever, amidst the shouts of the people, who had long groaned beneath so intolerable a burden. In all the islands the chiefs and people are expressing the most anxious desire for the arrival of missionaries, to teach them to read and write, as the people of the Society's islands had been taught. Tamoree, king of Attoi, the author of the letter referred to, has joyfully received back his son, who lived for some time in America; and has intimated a wish to visit Pomare, at Othaei, to see for himself the wonderful change effected there. He is peculiarly anxious for missionaries and teachers, with which, we trust, he will soon be abundantly supplied. In the meanwhile, those already stationed in Woahoo, where they arrived on the 23d of July, are proceeding prosper ously in their work. Idolatry is there abolished, and as it respects religious impressions, the minds of the people are a perfect blank; soon, we hope, to be deeply and lastingly impressed with the saving knowledge of the one only living and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. In the capital, the king is their first pupil, and already begins to read intelligibly in the New Testament, to which he devotes incessant attention, being animated with the laudable ambition of outstripping all his subjects in the acquisition of useful knowledge. Two of his wives (for polygamy is a vice which remains to be abolished by the slow, but certain, influence of the pure precepts of Christianity) and two stewards under their instruction, are exercising themselves in easy reading lessons. At another station on the island, the missionaries have about thirty natives under their instruction, amongst whom are the governor, or head chief of the island, and his wife. Here, however, as in all the islands, what is doing is trifling indeed in comparison to what might be done had the missionaries already there assistants adequate to their wants; and these Europe and America will surely not fail speedily to supply. The fields are indeed ripe unto the harvest, but the labourers are few; pray we, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers unto his harvest--for this pre-eminently is his. Yea, of this mighty revolution it may emphatically be said, "This is the Lord's doings, and it is marvellous in our eyes."

Of the progress of the interesting family sent by the UNITED FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY to the Osage Indians, of whom we gave some account in a former number of our work, we are sorry to have to report, that after voyaging some hundred miles up the Mississipi and the Arkansas, they were most of them attacked by a fever consequent on the state of the weather, and the lowness of the country, through which they were slowly bending their way; and which, notwithstanding the active and skilful exertions of the physician, carried off two females attached to the mission, and one of their boatmen. By the last advices, dated December 1, the virulence of the fever seems considerably to have abated, though in consequence of the low state of the river, most of the family had been detained at Little Rock, one of the first stations in the higher Arkansas territory, since the 23d of July, and were likely to remain there until February. Mr. Chapman, the assistant to

the misson had, however, set off in October, accompanied by several others, towards Union, the projected station of the family; but after stemming the current for 150 miles, they were compelled, for want of water, to abandon their canoe, and proceed on horseback, but no further intelligence has been received of their progress...

The AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARIES, who have laboured for some time with but little success at Rhaugon, in the Burman empire, on the succession of the new emperor, determined to approach the "golden throne," and present a petition for liberty to promulgate their tenets. They were admitted to his imperial palace" the golden foot approached," where they knelt, amidst his hundred courtiers prostrate in the dust;-they presented the word of life, as what they wished to teach, but this modern Ahasuerus, surrounded by all the pomp and splendour of an imperial court, dashed it to the ground, and all but trod it under foot. After such a reception at the imperial court, nothing but scorn was to be expected from its satellites; and the missionaries therefore returned to their former residence, gaining nothing for their toil of walking eight miles a day beneath the scorching beams of a tropical sun, but the satisfaction of having done their duty; and were cheered in the failure of its anticipated results, but in the firm conviction that all things are working together for good.

An EPISCOPAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY has been formed in America, and four of its agents, two of them, clergymen, have arrived with a new colony of emancipated negroes in the Sherboo country in Western Africa, but by the advice of one of the principal agents of the Church Missionary Society of London, they have sailed for a spot about 400 miles from Sierra Leone, situated in the Bassa country. Two interpreters accompanied them well acquainted not only with this region of Africa, but with its chiefs, and they were expected to render essential service to the infant colony,

POLITICAL RETROSPECT.

For the last six months, at least, the gloom which hung over our public affairs, and the apprehensions which, more than the existence of any very serious evil was, perhaps, the cause of it, have been gradually dispersing; and are now well nigh, if not altogether, dispersed. The unhappy affair of the Queen seems to be settled in the best way in which, after the measures imprudently and incautiously taken against her, it could be settled; except that we still think that her name ought to be restored to the liturgy, in addition to the handsome provision made for her, which she was, at first, so ill advised as to refuse, in the vain expectation that her partizans would make a suitable, if not an equal, provision for her; but soon afterwards accepted, much to the mortification of many of those partizans, who yet either could not, or would not, do any thing for her support. With the radicals she is still closely linked, though the most dangerous of this tribe are too safely incarcerated to allow of any great mischief from so unequal a connexion, beyond that which operates unfavourably but upon her Majesty herself, in keeping at a distance from her many most respectable individuals, especially amongst the Whigs; who, in consequence of their honest conviction of her innocence, would otherwise have given her-we regret to apply such a term to the Queen consort, but under the circumstances in which she is unhappily placed, it is the correct one-the countenance of their support. The coronation is, at length, fixed for the 19th of July; and