engaged in translating various homilies, tracts, and elementary books. A collection of valuable books has also been sent out for the use of the College and Mission. The learned natives are very frequent in their visits to the Missionaries, with whom they hold long conversations on religious topics; which, with the other means employed, will, under the blessing of God, issue, we trust, in the renovation of the Syrian churches.-At Tranquebar, both the Heathen and Roman Catholics are applying for the establishment of new schools, on the mission plan; those already in operation being slowly productive of much good.

The METHODIST MISSIONARIES in the East, are as little inactive as their brethren, and their activity has also been crowned with a happy measure of success. In Ceylon, the schools flourish and increase. A new one has been opened at Ratmalaburg, on the Guelda road, being the first attempt at introducing Christianity into a place where there is every prospect of its being gladly received. At the request of its Cinghalese owner, a new house was lately opened with prayer and a sermon a very pleasing substitution for the incantation of devils usual upon such occasions. The town of Cottiar has been visited, where the members of the Roman Catholic church, and some of the most intelligent of the natives, received with thankfulness the copies of the Cinghalese Gospels, put into their hands by the missionaries, and seemed willing to be instructed in their truths. A new chapel is erecting at the Negombo station, in the kingdom of Candy, towards which the British resident contributed 100 rix-dollars; others have been opened at Caltara, and in different parts of the island. At Kornegalle some Mohammedans, and several adult Buddists, attend the school; whilst two boys in that at Negombo regularly pray with their father, and read the Bible to him. From that of Alkalse, amidst some discouraging circumstances, two youths admitted in the school have joined the church, and have since walked stedfastly in the faith and life of the Christian. In the interior, the natives assemble in considerable numbers to hear the word of life; whilst, in the exterior, schools have been established; a striking alteration is perceptible in the manners and habits of the people here, who before were confined, squalid, and miserable in their appearance, becoming clean, neat, and industrious. At Madras, a new chapel has also being erected: where, as at Jaffna and Trincomalee, the site also of other new chapels, the expenses of building have been principally defrayed by subscriptions in the place and neighbourhood. Two of the Missionaries of the Society have proceeded to Bangalore, where they have been received by the Chaplain of the place, and the Missionary of the London Society, with the kindness of believers and fellow-labourers in a field too large for them all to occupy. They have received also an invitation for a Missionary to Seringapatam, where, for the want of one, a native woman, the only person in the congregation who could read Malabar, was filling the priest's office, by reading in the church the service, and part of a Tamul tract. The field is promising, the population consists of about 50,000, and we hope it will speedily, sedulously, and advantageously be cultivated.-Amongst the new settlers in South Africa, some pleasing prospects of great usefulness in missionary labours have lately presented themselves. A chapel is about to be erected at Graham's Town, the largest in the district, the greater part of the expense being provided for by subscription on the spot. The neighbouring Dutch boors have invited the Missionary

to preach in their farms, but the complete occupation of his time, until assistance shall be sent out to him in the wide field already opened to his labours, prevents his availing himself of an offer likely to lead to important results, in extending the Gospel not only amongst the Dutch, but the Hottentot inhabitants of those hitherto neglected regions. Mr. Kay and his wife have arrived at Lattakoo, where they propose remaining for some time, to obtain information as to the vast tribes of the Bootchuanas, amongst whom they purpose to settle. The Missionary to the Namaquas is faithfully discharging his duty, by travelling with the horde into the desert, on their quitting their summer residence on the mountains, and he seems not to follow them in vain.-In Cape Town, the Superintendent of the South African Mission has obtained permission from the Colonial Government to open a day-school for the use of Hottentot children and adults, and for preaching and expounding to them the word of God. He has also collected there the sum of £230 towards its erection and support, which he had every expectation of providing for on the spot.-In Western Africa, the Society has established a station close to the town of Mandanaree, on the banks of the Gambia, in the dominions of the king of Conibo, who readily gave the Missionaries leave to settle in his country, the inhabitants of which are mostly heathens, with characters marked by some of the worst vices of heathenism, and rendered, by the addition of some of the most objectionable tenets of Mohammedism to their own degrading superstition, almost, if not altogether, the worst of men. This station is additionally important, from its being within two days' journey of the borders of the Foulah country, some of whose children are expected to be sent to the Missionaries for education.-In the West Indies, the field in which the Wesleyan Missionaries have laboured, and will perhaps continue to labour, with the greatest success, the work of the Lord is in most places prospering in their hands. The Negro members of their classes, generally speaking, continue to be most correct and exemplary in their conduct, and considerable additions have been made to their numbers. The magistracy of the islands afford the Agents of the Society their countenance; nor do the Planters seem opposed to their great design of teaching the slaves on their estates their duty at once to God and At St. John's and English Harbour, in Antigua, Auxiliary Missionary Societies have been formed, in aid of which we rejoice to learn that collections of £93 and £65 were made. A number of trinkets, of which the West Indians are very fond, thrown into the boxes, evince the zeal excited in this noble cause. The chapel at Parham, on this island, is already too small for the congregation; many of the negroes who come, sabbath after sabbath, a distance of several miles, to hear the glad tidings of salvation, crowd round the doors, exposed to the scorching sun or drenching rains of a tropical climate. The overseer of one of Sir Christopher Codrington's estates lately bore honourable testimony to the good effects of the teaching of the Missionaries, and the exertions of the Wesleyan ministers. "Most of the slaves," said he to one of these devoted ministers of Christ, "are in your society, I believe; and I am happy "to say that they are very exemplary; a very great change has "taken place in their conduct since they began to think for them"selves, and to act from religious principles. We scarcely ever use "the whip now; not once in a quarter: it is not needful." Nor VOL. IV. No. 8.

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would it, we are persuaded, be resorted to as it is, to the disgrace of humanity, on other West-Indian estates, were the preaching of the gospel fully permitted upon them, as, on application for the purpose, it readily was on this.-In Tortola, three new chapels are erecting, and a hundred and fifty members have lately been added to the society, whose congregations are generally large and attentive. The schools also are well attended; the female adult class consisting of girls and women from eighteen to a hundred years old. The individual who has attained the latter patriarchal age evinced even greater anxiety to learn the child's catechism than the younger scholars.-Through the kind interference of our government at home, the prohibition laid, sometime since, on the exertions of the Missionaries of this Society, by the colonial government of Trinidad, has been removed, and the congregations and schools are slowly recovering.— In Grenada, the prejudices formerly entertained against the Missionaries have more than subsided; for every facility which the country can afford to their labours is readily granted by all classes, and progress is slowly making amongst slaves, half heathen half papists. One of the planters is about to erect a mission-house on his estate, which contains above a thousand negroes.-In Demerara, the prospects are also most encouraging. One planter declares that his negroes are much better since they were instructed; another, that he has not now a bad negro on his estate. Obeism, and other negro superstitions, alike injurious to master and to slave, are rapidly disappearing; and the negroes who attend at Mission chapels every where evince a change of conduct. We regret, however, to add that both the Missionaries have fallen victims to the climate. -A similar acknowledgment in favour of the missions, to that just referred to, was made at St. Kitt's, by one of the members of the colonial council, whose negroes have derived great benefit from their instructions. A new chapel is about to be built here, towards the erection of which, the negro children of the Sunday schools, from five years old and upwards, have each of them brought, in coming to school, as many stones as they could carry.-In Bermuda, this Society has increased, especially amongst the white members. In the Danish island of St. Bartholomew, Mr. Dale, one of the Society's most active Missionaries, has been removed from his labour to his rest; and such was the respect which his conduct had inspired, that the Governor and Council, two clergymen, several merchants, and a large concourse of people, attended his body to the grave, the colours being in the mean while hoisted half-mast high at the forts, on board the vessels in the harbour, and even at the public inns. A few days after his death, the chapel and mission house of the Society were blown down by a hurricane.-St. Domingo' is the only island in the West Indies which seems at present to present any thing like a discouraging aspect; here, since the Missionaries have been driven away, their converts have been exposed to grievous persecutions, at the instigation of the Catholic priests. For singing bymns, they have been dragged to prison by the police, whilst the harbouring them in a house, even that of their nearest relatives, has been punished by the confiscation of the goods of the offender. In the midst of all these discouragements, it is pleasing, however, to find, that they have witnessed a good confession.-At St. Vincent, a new chapel has been erected, and so highly are missionary exer

tions there appreciated, that the owner of an estate lately called upon one of the Society's ministers, to inform him that he had been requested by the negroes to solicit the favour of a sermon from him, on occasion of a dinner, which he was about to give them, at the finishing crop at harvest-home, instead of the dance and other amusements common on such occasions.-In Anguilla, collections for the Missionary cause have been made, in presence of the Governor, who is very friendly to it.

POLITICAL RETROSPECT.

THE meeting of Parliament has, of course, brought before the public several topics of great interest, prominent amongst which stand the agricultural distresses of the country. In these we certainly sympathize; but whilst the commercial and manufacturing interests, if not in a flourishing state, are rapidly approximating to it; we cannot join in the self-interested predictions of the landlord, that the ruin of the country is at hand. The agriculturists must remember that they had their day; for whilst a great part of the population had not bread to eat, the farmer was receiving the most exorbitant prices for his grain and the whole produce of his land: nor was he satisfied with that; but, in too many instances, he hoarded it up in his granaries, even till it rotted there, in hopes of wringing a still greater gain from the necessities of a people, already in many parts in a state of insurrection, from the high price of provisions, and the hard-hearted cupdity of monopolists. This was the moment at which the landlord asked, and the tenant cheerfully gave, most exorbitant rents, double indeed, in many instances, what was formerly given; and even at that price there was a competition for vacant farms amongst agricultural speculators, who lived upon the fat of the land, and conducted themselves very frequently with but too much purse-proud insolence, and unfeeling contumely, towards the half-fed or half-starved mechanics, who were ruined by their enormous gains. We recur not to these times, gone by, we hope, for ever, to upbraid, much less to insult those who are suffering privation in their turn, but to prove to them that it is only in their turn that they do suffer. We wish them to be relieved, but their relief must not, cannot, be effected, to the injury of any other interest, now beginning to look up from the heavy depression which it has long been doomed to feel. The repeal of the Malt Tax is, we think, a judicious step, because, whilst it immediately relieves the agriculturist in some partial measure, its beneficial effects will ultimately be extended to the labouring classes at large. This will also be the necessary operation of all those retrenchments which Ministers are making in the expenditure of the country, and which they must either make of their own accord, or be compelled to make, on a much larger scale. But yet these, and all parliamentary measures, will be inadequate to the attainment of the proposed object, without a large and immediate reduction of rent by the landlords, who neither can, nor must be, the sole gainers by the great change which has taken place in the circumstances of the country, on its sudden transition from an unprecedented war-expenditure to a state of peace, not likely, we hope and believe, speedily to be disturbed. One mode of reducing the weight of taxation has indeed

been resorted to, upon which different opinions will doubtless be entertained the reduction of the interest of the five per cents. Of the right of government to pay off this, or any other stock, at par, there can be no doubt; but we cannot but think that it would have been more honourable to the public creditor to reduce the interest gradually, as was done on the reduction of the four per cents, in the Pelham administration, and to give a longer time than has been allowed by the ministry for the consideration of an alternative, which will, in both ways, materially affect the fundholders in this stock; the smaller ones by diminishing an income already sufficiently limited, the larger by compelling them to accept a reduced interest upon stock which they may have purchased at very high prices, from not being able on a sudden to dispose of their money to a better advantage. The plan met with little opposition in Parliament; nor, from the difficulty last mentioned, do we anticipate that the dissentients amongst the stockholders will be numerous. Ministers are, indeed, carrying every thing before them; for by the accession of the Wellesley and the Grenville parties, the opposition ranks are thin indeed; and nothing but an act of egregious folly on their own part, can, according to present appearances, shake the existing administration. We rejoice, however, that by the secession, upon that particular question, of many of their regular supporters, who, as landlords, feel the pressure of the times, they have been out-voted in an attempt to retain two Lay Commissioners of the Admiralty, whose services, in times of peace at least, may readily be dispensed with; and we expect and hope, that during the sessions, they will either voluntarily cashier, or be compelled to cashier, many other useless officers in different departments, whose salaries will really be worth saving.

On the state of IRELAND we have so fully entered in the Review department of our work, as to prevent the necessity of our making many observations upon it here. The atrocious murder of sixteen individuals in one house, set fire to and consumed with all its inhabitants, under circumstances of ferocity, from which savages would most of them have shrunk, affords a fearful picture of the miserable state of that unhappy land, where long-continued and unheeded suffering has assumed the wildest and most cruel features of vengeance and despair. Several of the perpetrators of outrages of this description, for, we regret to say, it is but the most atrocious of a very numerous list, have already been tried by a special commission, condemned, and executed; but vengeance is threatened by their deluded associates for their deaths. Serious damage, to the crops and indications of the virulent raging of the typhus fever in many parts, add to the calamities of a people, whom we cannot view with other feelings than those of mingled horror and regret; and mingled justice and mercy must be adopted, in order, if possible, to heal their wounds. In discharging their painful and dangerous duty, the yeomanry must be temperate as well as firm, uniting with courage, conciliation. The shooting of a prisoner, of their own authority, because an attempt, in which he appears at least to have taken no active part, must neither be looked to as an example, nor passed over without investigation. The same course will, we fully anticipate, be adopted by the new Irish government, by which it is absolutely necessary that some severe examples should be made; though we are satisfied, from what has already taken place, that due discrimination will be exercised, in selecting for this purpose the most guilty, and, where it is practica