Statement of the Imports of Wheat, and the Variations in the Price of Bread from the 1st of Jan. 1781 to the 21st of June 1800. OBSERVATIONS ON THE religion oF THE CHINESE, BY AN AMERICAN TRAVELLER. THE most seemingly extravagant accounts of their idolatry and superstition, which we meet with, may be safely credited. No people are more the sport of religious contingencies, or put greater faith in lucky days. In passing the Joss* houses, I have often stopped to see them pay their devotions. There is an image of a fat laughing old man at the upper end of the room, sitting in a chair, before whom is erected a small altar, whereon tapers and sandal wood are constantly kept burning. As soon as a worshipper enters, he prostrates himself before the idol, and knocks his head three times on the ground. This done, he takes two pieces of wood that fit together, in the form of a kidney; again kneels; knocks his head; holds them to Joss; and after bowing three times for his blessing, throws them up. If they fall with both flat or both round sides up, it is good luck; but if one of each, it is unfortunate. He renews his chinchin to Joss, and tries again. I have seen this repeated seven or eight times, till it succeeded. He then prostrates himself again; knocks his head as before; and takes a small earthen vessel, wherein are many pieces of reed with characters marked on them. These he shakes together: and after holding the vessel to Joss, and bowing three times, draws out one of the sticks; if it be an unlucky one, he tries again: and when he is satisfied, he lights his taper, and fixes it before Joss: then sets fire to a piece of paper, washed with tin; presents it on the altar; bows three times; and retires. The same ceremonies are offered by the female worshippers, none of whom but the lower sort are allowed to frequent public places. Besides these joss houses, which are always open, and much frequented, there are large pagodas, or temples, where are a number of bonzes or priests, who perform daily worship. In these temples are various idols, in the form of men and women-but many times bigger than the life, and of most terrific appearance. There is one of a woman with many pairs of extended arms, which is intended as a symbol of divine goodness, that embraces all. In addition to these public places of worship, every house and sampan has its domestic deity, before whom a piece of sandal wood is constantly kept burning, which serves at the same time to perfume Joss, and to light the worshipper's pipe, who morning and evening pays his devotions with the paper and candle. Polygamy is allowed among the chinese: and a man is pleased with his favourite wife and with his maker, in proportion to the number of sons she bears him: no account is made of daughters. Synchong, the principal porcelain merchant at Canton, told me one day, with much satisfaction, that his wife had brought him a third son-and added with an air expressive of gratitude, that Joss *Joss is the name of their idol. 3 c 2 was was very good to him. " Joss loves me," continued he, "because I make him much chin-chin." The great concern of a rich Chinese, is to procure a pleasant spot for a tomb; for which, provided, it be to his mind, he thinks no price too great. It must be airy, shaded by trees, and watered by a running stream, situated on an eminence, and commanding an extensive prospect of land and water. So great is his attention to these circumstances, that a Chinese, on meeting with an extraordinary misfortune, is sometimes led to suppose, that it is because his father's bones do not rest comfortably. In this case a new situation is taken, and consecrated by the priests, and a tomb prepared, in which the relics of his father, removed from their for mer abode, are deposited with much ceremony and expense. SHORT ACCOUNT OF ST. PATRICK, THE APOSTLE OF IRELAND: Extractea from a Sermon preached March 17, 1790 in St. Mary's Church, Philadelphia, by the Rev. F. A. Fleming. AMONG those men, endowed with the apostolic spirit, who, deriving by constant succession, their authority from the immediate messengers of Christ, laboured with eminent success in the Lord's vineyard, was St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, whose feast we celebrate on this day. Different countries have disputed the honour of giving birth to this illustrious saint. Scotland and Britanny advance their pretensions. The claim of the former seems best founded. In a discourse of this nature, we had better wave the discussion of such a point. Those, who display great knowledge in controversies about the native country of saints, would render them much more ho nour, by copying their virtues, claiming their patronage, and striving to become their fellow citizens in heaven. He was born towards the end of the fourth century, and lived with his father Calphurrius, in Britain, before the evacuation of that province by the Romans. His education was christian and pious. At sixteen years of age, he was snatched from his parents by some barbarians, who sold him as a slave in Ireland: for the infamous traffic of human blood is not a modern invention. During his captivity, he felt all the rigours, which unfeeling dominion, tempered with views of interest, can inflict-the same hardships, the same severities, which many of our fellow creatures yet suffer in slavery; but with this difference, that Patrick experienced this cruel usage from unenlightened heathens, and our African brethren from those, who live in the sunshine of revelation, and join in the cry of universal benevolence. The hardships, which our young saint endured, were the source of his eminent virtue. It is the natural effect of affliction, to expose the vanity of worldly pursuits. The tears of oppressed inno cence cence clear the eyes of reason, and direct them towards heaven. The dew of divine, grace moistens the sorrowful heart, and quickens the latent seeds of heavenly truths. The harrassed youth felt the comfort of celestial prospects: and, solicited by interior illu minations, he betock himself fervently to prayer, he strengthened his good resolutions by fasting. His tender soul soon experienced all those real consolations, which always accompany sufferings, endured with patience and resignation. Such exalted virtue soon fixed the attention of providence. God was pleased to point out to him, in a vision, after six months captivity, the means of escaping from bondage. The most violent apologists of the slave trade cannot dispute the right of God, to rescue his creature from unmerited oppression, He went to the sea coast, and begged his passage from some pagan mariners: but his petition is rejected: he retires, not in that state of sullenness, which so dreadful a disappointment produces in a mind not formed to piety, but perfectly resigned under this new trial. The Father of injured innocence immediately softens the hearts of those unfeeling heathens, and they admit him aboard. I pass over the incidents of the voyage, and the dreadful hardships he suffered after this arrival at North Britain, until he reached the house of his father. These and many other circumstances of his life, I shall omit, that we may have more time to examine the distinguished features of this eminent character. The sentiments of virtue, which he had imbibed in the school of adversity, were too deeply impressed on the mind of Patrick, to be obliterated by tumultuous joy, on his delivery from bondage, and being restored to the affluent enjoyments of life in the house of his parents. His mind was not embittered against that country where he had received such cruel treatment. It is the peculiar doctrine of our amiable Mediator, to forgive injuries, to love our enemies, nay to sacrifice life for their salvation. The mind of Patrick, enlightened with a full and fervent faith, was constantly meditating, during some years, on the means of dispelling the spiri tual darkness, which overcast Ireland. He nourished the divine vocation, which he felt within him, to devote his life for the salvation of its inhabitants: he resolved to encounter every danger, in pursuing the grand object of dissipating the clouds of ignorance and superstition, which yet intercepted from them the rays of the gospel. The progress of christianity in Ireland, before the close of the fourth century, was not considerable. The great extent of the Roman empire seems to have been ordained by divine providence, to facilitate the propagation of the gospel. When the saving doctrine of Christ was once firmly established, the Father of mankind broke the iron sceptre of the Roman emperors, and called, from the frozen regions of the north, a swarm of barbarians, who revenged amply on those haughty tyrants, the insults and cruelties, exercised by them on human nature. Ireland had escaped the grasp of pagan Rome, and therefore did not partake of the horrors, which |