passed Dec. 31, 1819, are strictly cor rect: "That it appears most evident to the Committee, from various passages in the Periodical Accounts, from the phraseology adopted in the legal writings, attested copies of which have been sent us from Serampore, as well as from repeated declarations interspersed throughout the correspondence from our senior brethren, that the property at Serampore belongs clearly and unequivocally to the Society in England, and that it has hitherto been held by the resident missionaries as trustees for the Society. It is perfectly well known, that on this ground the late revered Secretary of the mission, Mr. Fuller, rested his powerful appeals to the British public; and that on the same basis have been principally founded the several applications made at various times to the British Legislature, to his Majesty's ministers, and to the East India Company." p. 67. It is certainly possible that separate funds might after all have been kept at Serampore, and Mr.Fuller not have been informed that a new Society existed there, under the designation of the 66 Serampore Missionaries." But then, not to have informed him of such an alteration, was far from being ingenuous on the part of the missionaries. It is unaccountable, too, that Mr. Ward, knowing such to have been the case, as he must have done, should have said that all the property, whether in houses or moveables, belonged to the Society. The form of agreement entered into at Serampore, Oct. 7, 1805. by the missionaries in India, viz. William Carey, Joshua Marshman, William Ward, John Chamberlain, Richard Mardon, John Biss, William Moore, Joshua Rowe, and Felix Carey, is thus alluded to by Dr. Marshman: "With regard to the form of agreement itself, that in 1805 was drawn up respecting the great principles upon which they should act in the work of instructing the heathen. In the last page of this, their former agreement was alluded to in certain expressions which, strictly speaking, went beyond it. Such were the following: Let us never think that our time, our gifts, our strength, our families, or even the clothes we wear, are our own. Let us for ever shut out the idea of laying up a cowry for ourselves or our children.' These expressions, uttered in the warmth of mutual attachment, ་ when taken literally, were found in subsequent years to be at variance with certain to those who were supporting themselves by first principles of duty, specially applicable their own labour, and who were called to provide for things honest in the sight of all pore brethren found it absolutely necessary For this reason, in 1817, the Seramto revise this agreement." p. 58. men. To enter into a discussion whether such an agreement could be so revised as to destroy its existence, is not our design at present There is, however, such a verse as the following in the inspired description of a citizen of Zion :-"He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." As the Doctor has not given the whole of the last page of the agreement, it seems proper it should be subjoined here, especially as it now appears to us almost in the light of a prediction.-"If we give up the resolution which was formed on the subject of private trade, when we first united at Serampore, the mission is from that hour a lost cause. A worldly spirit, quarrels, and every evil work will succeed, the moment it is admitted that each brother may do something on his own account. Woe to that man who shall ever make the smallest movement toward such a measure !" The resolution referred to above is thus expressed: "One of our resolutions is, that no one of us do engage in private trade, but that all be done for the benefit of the Mission." + Can any one believe, that in this solemn form of agreement all the missionaries at that time in India meant, by the term "Mission," the same as Dr. Marshman means now by that of the "Serampore missionaries ?" Impossible! It clearly intended the Society which had sent them out, to which Dr. Marshman at that time as really belonged, as Chamberlain, or Mardon, or Rowe, &c. That events have taken place since 1815, (if Dr. Marshman be right, which we by no means admit,) that have changed the relation in which himself and Dr. Carey previously stood to the Society, is confidently asserted in this Periodical Accounts, vol. iii. p. 211. + Ibid. p. 44. bright wreath of tributary flowers" on the altar of God. Memoir; these statements we cannot in our present Number proceed to examine. We earnestly recommend our After all, when we think of the young readers to peruse the last Annual Re-readers, and especially those of the port of the Committee of the Society, softer sex, who will probably be the and then read this Memoir; and if a most numerous, will the book be an careful and unprejudiced investigation Amulet? According to Dr. Johnson, an does not convince them that Dr. Marsh- amulet is both a remedy and a preservman (for to him only, and not to his ative. It prevents particular diseases; excellent colleague Dr. Carey, do these or, if that cannot be, it cures them. remarks apply,) has been totally unustifiable in his secession from the Society, we shall greatly wonder. Profit and pleasure then, to mix with art, No trivial fortune, and across the seas The publishers have spared no pains in getting up this elegant volume, and we doubt not they will meet with an encouraging compensation. The printer and the engraver have performed their parts in the highest style of excellence, and the embellishments of the publication, taken altogether, will never be easily surpassed. Many of the writers are already known as favourites of the public, and the pieces they have contributed appear worthy of them, and of the celebrity they have acquired. The Editor, too, is entitled to the warmest praise, for the zeal he has shewn to combine the interests of piety with those of literature, and to lay "the De Arte Poet. 343, Omne tulit puncam, &c. In the midst of such a wilderness of sweets, how shall we select a flower to present to our readers? Thinking of the West Indies, to which the attention of all the world must soon be directed, we extract the following touching poem by the pious and venerable Hannah More. The Petition of a Negro Boy. "There is a book, I've heard them say, Which says, Thou shalt not work nor play On God Almighty's holy day.' On Sundays, then, oh ! let me look This Book, to which you oft appeal, Thou shalt not murder, lie, nor steal." Dear Massa, you have been to me Then let your little slave-boy look But oh! before I'm grown a man, I'm sure you will, if you'll but look, We will not mind the sultry weather, Could we but read his sufferings sore, Yes, every sorrow we could brook, I'm told, this Book, so wise and good, If this be true, I then may meet The Protestant Dissenters' Catechism. The Nineteenth Edition, with an Appendix and a Preface, by WILLIAM NEWMAN, D.D. 12mo. pp. 86. Price 1s. Holdsworth. 1827, time in which we live, to enforce a truly evangelical style of conduct towards those who differ from us in these matters. The Church of England, every one may see, is too much like a house divided against itTHERE can be no doubt, that the num-divisions. The Bible Society controversy self,' to be allowed to reproach us with our ber of persons dissenting from the the Lincoln controversy respecting CalvinChurch of England is every year in- ism, in which the late Mr. Scott and the late creasing: the number of new meeting- Dr. Williams eminently distinguished themhouses, and the enlargement of the old selves-the Baptismal Regeneration Conones, prove this. It is not so evident troversy between Dr. Mant and his opponents the Peterborough controversy, octhat the principles of nonconformity are casioned by Bishop Marsh and bis Eightyproperly understood, or their import- seven Questions-all furnish indications of ance duly appreciated; and therefore a schism, the consequences of which time we rejoice to see another, and an im- will shew. If these things have contributed proved edition of this valuable manual to place Dissenters on higher ground than of the late Rev. Samuel Palmer issue disdain to dwell on little blemishes in the that on which they formerly stood, let them from the press, at a period when it is Liturgy. Let them exhibit the dignified very necessary that our children, and moderation and generous forbearance which even "children of a larger growth," must ever accompany the meekness of wisshould "read, mark, learn, and inwardPp. v.-vii. ly digest" its contents. The Rev. Dr. Newman, the worthy Editor, says, in the preface to this edi tion "In preparing this edition for the press I have made a great number of trifling corrections, which the excellent author would have made if he had been still with us. I have omitted some passages, particularly respecting the Liturgy. A minute criticism on obsolete terms and phrases, in such a composition as the English Liturgy, must appear invidious, and is not at all consistent with the candour and liberality which ought to be found among Dissenters. Some things which might be very proper, or necessary, in a controversy with a high-flying Churchman, will by no means fit the lips of a child, or any young person of either sex into whose hands this Catechism may come. I have softened one of those passages which relate to the Spiritual Courts: their thunders have long ceased to roar. dom.' These remarks are correct and judicious: the Church of England is in several respects greatly improved; but while she acknowledges a temporal head, and remains connected with the State, and admits human appointments in religion as binding upon her members, and imposes them upon their consciences, compelling them to believe as the Church believes, those serious persons who admit fully the supremacy of Christ, the spirituality of his kingdom, the sufficiency of the Scriptures, the right of private judgment, and the right of public profession and worship, must be Dissenters; for "whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." And the univer-The Substance of an Argument to prove the Truth of the Bible; drawn from the Fitness and Harmony of its Subjects. By DAVID M'NICOLL. sities are certainly in a much better state than when this little work was written. Much greater attention is now given, both at Oxford and Cambridge, to the Hebrew and the Greek Scriptures, and to theology in general. And if Mr. Palmer were now living, he would rejoice to hear that not long since, some of the students at Cambridge were examined in Dr. Doddridge's three Sermons on the Evidences of Christianity, as well as in Beausobre and Paley. "After all, I have left unaltered many lines which some perhaps will think had been better blotted out. In addition to the reasons which operate at all times, there are some derived from the circumstances of the We do not recollect that it was ever our good fortune to read a book that better answered its title, or that more fully, considering its size, effected what that title proposes, than the work now on our table. It is elegantly and powerfully written; and, supposing mar to be what he is, and his Creator wha the is, and the Scriptures not to exist, this author appears to us to have shew r, that of conceiving higher degrees of excellence and of happiness than what the Bible preGod, and the still more lofty, and diffusive, sents to the mind; the power of the fear of and practical character of love to God, as principles in the moral system, and peculiar to the Scriptures; difficulties solved as easily as those connected with creation and the various kinds of evidence usually offered Providence; the harmony subsisting among in favour of the Christian cause, and the just such a book as the Scriptures fur-existing state of things; the impossibility nish would fully reach the spiritual wants of the human race, and agree with the divine character:-that, in fact, just such a book as the sacred oracles present, it would be glorious for God to give, and salutary for man to possess. We do not say that the volume we thus commend is adapted for the less educated among us, who are least able to think closely, and are not accustom-palpable incoherence of infidel opposition; ed to such labour; but it should be pe- the futility of the objections brought against rused by all who can appreciate a well- the sort of reasoning we have employed; connected and much-compressed arguthe absurdity of supposing, that if Christiment on the most important of all liar character and extent of reception, which anity be false, it should obtain that pecusubjects. And if any sceptic should its unquestionable history so amply records; ever see this page, or any believer, and the obvious fitness of the whole of the wishing to turn one so benighted "from extensive and complex plan for the purposes darkness to light," we say to the for-designed, as clearly illustrated in the refermer, Patiently read this proof of the truth of the Bible; and to the latter, Send it without delay to him whose conversion you so much desire. As the author has justly remarked, no one should judge of his subject "from a simple glance at some remark seen unconnected with the rest, but from an attentive survey and minute examination of the whole." Our advice is Read to the end of the work; study severely as you advance; and if no great good is obtained, we have no power of thought, or he has none who has labour-one of the richest in the West Indies. ed thus in vain. ence we have made to a vessel in a state of correct and beautiful equipment." These are the several parts of the argument here employed, and we think most successfully employed. Sketches of Hayti, from the Expulsion of the French to the Death of Christophe. By W. W. HARVEY, of Queen's College, Cambridge. 8vo. Price 10s. 6d. THE island to which the work before us refers, is the second in magnitude, and Columbus discovered it, and gave it the We will give an outline of the Argu- name of Hispaniola; it afterwards rement before us, in the words of the an- ceived that of St. Domingo, and is now thor. Addressing the sceptic, he says, called Hayti, or high land. It was "Let him place before his observation wholly possessed by the Spaniards durthe importance of the fitness in question, ing a hundred and twenty years, under whether the writings themselves be true or whose misrule the inhabitants endured false, and the cases examined to establish injustice and cruelty in every form. its reality; the multitude of harmonies, both in the scheme and composition of those They so rapidly wasted away, that one writings; the evidence of experience, of million were in the first fifteen years of intuition, and of rational deduction, as ap- their subjection reduced to sixty thouplied to determine the instances; the piti- sand; and to supply this waste of popuful state of nature in the absence of revelation, negroes were at different times lation, and the horrors involved in the contrary of all that is there revealed; the knowledge of the subject elicited by the common opinions; the abundant and unquestionable testimony of those who have tried both scepticism and Christianity; the confirmation of history, as a record of the effects of the faith; the value of a written document above what we have called the pantomime of nature; the importance of the light reflected between Scripture and the transported from Africa, to endure tyranny and cruelty from white men, and pretended Christians. In 1795, the French got possession of this valuable island, and in 1791, a hundred thousand blacks were in arms, endeavouring to break their chains on the heads of their oppressors. It is now a free and independent country, and, we believe, in a state of considerable prosperity. May it gradually improve, and never be again brought into bondage! The present volume chiefly relates to the period since the negro and coloured population gained their independence, in which they, from scenes of confusion and bloodshed, returned to habits of industry, peace, and order. And it represents them, to use the author's words, which will serve as a specimen of his style, as Mr. Orme has executed his task with his well-known ability, intermingling judicious remarks with his narrative, and making John Urquhart, as much as possible, his own biographer: we only regret that more care was not bestowed on the correction of the press. Page 4, line 6. The babe in Christ is as much [better, as really, or truly] a Christian, as the hoary-headed saint. Page 57, line 10, for morally, read physically. To be morally able, in the language of metaphysicians, is equal to being willing. We earnestly hope that this work, in many successive editions, will be of incalculable utility to our theological students. Oh, that we could see them all 'Steadily aiming, amidst frequent reverses, to establish a regular and independent government; and under circumstances of difficulty, with confined resources, labouring to improve their agriculture, to repair an exhausted population, to form commercial connexions, and to introduce a knowledge of the arts and sciences; thus laud-ambitious of imitating this amiable ably endeavouring to lay the foundation of an empire which may, perhaps, be compared hereafter with nations the most celebrated for their civilization and refinement." youth in the humility, spirituality, and simplicity of his mind; the celestial ardour of his zeal, and the reverential and affectionate regard which he cherished for all "the truth as it is in Jesus.' " Our Ministers, our Missionaries, our Sunday-school teachers, and the most The author has resided on the island whose affairs and circumstances he describes, and has possessed other good sources of information; so that we think his facts may be relied on, as justly re-intelligent members of our churches, presented. We deem this an entertaining, instructive, and well-written book. Memoirs, including Letters and Select THESE Memoirs introduce us to an intimate acquaintance with one of the most extraordinary young men that has appeared in this, or any other country. When it is considered that he lived only eighteen years and six months, we are compelled to infer that his native powers were of the highest order; that his diligence was great and indefatigable; and that a peculiar benediction of heaven rested upon all his studies. may learn here the most valuable lessons. We are precluded by our limits from making extracts, but we must make room for Dr. Chalmers' interesting letter to Mr. Orme : "St. Andrew's, Feb. 12, 1827. "My Dear Sir. - I received your letter some days ago, but have been prevented, by various engagements, from replying to it so soon as I could have wished. I had been previously applied to, from another quarter, for a Memoir of John Urquhart; and felt myself obliged to decline, have less difficulty in pleading the same in consequence of other engagements. I apology to you; for your superior opportunities, and earlier acquaintance with him, point you out as the person on whom the task is most properly devolved. He is altogether worthy of the biographical notice which you purpose. My first knowledge of him was as a student, in which The soundness and ripeness of his capacity be far outpeered all his fellows; judgment surprise us more than all the and in a class of uncommon force and brilastonishing acquisitions he made in lite-liancy of talent, shone forth as a star of the first magnitude. rature and science; and, what is best of all, his proficiency in evangelical piety appears to have been equal to all his other attainments. I do not recollect the subjects of his various essays, but the very first which he read in the hearing of myself and of his fellow-students, placed him at the head of |