that vessel, ordered a fresh search.

The result was, that a Negro man, not however one of the twelve, was rescued from death. A platform of loose boards had been raised on the water-casks of the vessel, so as to form an entre-pont, or betweendecks, of twenty-three inches in height, which was the only space allotted for the accommodation of the unfortunate cargo of human beings whom M. intended to procure and carry from the coast. Beneath this platform, one of the boards resting on his body, jammed between two water casks, appeared the above wretched individual, whom it was a matter of astonishment to find alive. Sir George Collier was inclined to remove him on board the Tartar, as be had done the two girls: but M. having proved that the poor African had been bought by him for eight dollars-worth of brandy and iron, Sir George did not feel himself authorized to do so; although, had the vessel been capable of beating up to Senegal, he would have sent her thither for judgment, as he had done two former ships. With respect to the other twelve slaves taken by force from Trade Town, no distinct in formation could be obtained beyond the assertion of M., that he had been plundered of them by a Spanish pirate. But it was recollected with horror by the officers of the Tartar, that when they first began the chase of La Jeune Estelle, they had seen several casks floating past them, in which they now suspected that these wretched beings might have been inclosed, having been thrown overboard by this man to elude the detection of his piratical proceedings. It was now impossible, however, to ascertain the fact, as the chase had led them many leagues to leeward; nor was there the slightest probability that any of the slaves inclosed, if they were so inclosed, would be found still alive.

If enough had not been said to shew the enormous extent to which the slave trade is carried on under the French flag, not only from Senegal and Goree, but along the whole extent of the African coast, for the supply of the colonies both of France and of other powers; this point might be further proved by almost daily occurrences in different ports of France itself, where associations are formed with little or no disguise, and vessels fitted out for the prosecution of this nefarious traffic. The Appendix to the last Report of the African Institution, gives a copy of a printed mercantile proposal, lately circu lated at Havre and in Paris, for an expedition to Africa to take in a cargo of mules (slaves) for the West India market. It will readily be conceived, how notorious must be the impunity with which the traffic is carried on, when so clumsy and barefaced an expedient as this was thought amply sufficient to avoid the law; an expedient which in this country a poacher would think too inartificial to protect the sale of a partridge!

We shall only add further, in proof of the vast extent to which the slave trade on the west coast of Africa continues to be carried on, that it is proved, that from March to July last year, there had usually been in the river Bonny from nine to sixteen slaving vessels of all descriptions at the same time, each capable of carrying from 300 to 700 slaves; and that two of these vessels, which were there in March, and had then sailed to the West Indies, had returned in July, and were engaged in their second voyage. During the above period of five or six months, 120 sail of French, Spanish, and Portuguese vessels had visited the river Bonny for the purpose of procuring slaves; in consequence of which, the preparation of palm oil is said to have been totally neglected by the na

tives.

A gentleman on board the Cyane, an American sloop of war, states, that the number of vessels engaged in this inhuman traffic is incredible; and that probably not fewer than 200 sail were on the coast at the date of his letter, all of them fast sailors, well manned and armed, and many of them owned by Americans, though under foreign flags.

The Spanish slave-trade, though no longer legally tolerated, is still extensively carried on, and chiefly under the flag of France.

The period for the abolition of the slave trade by Portugal remains still undetermined. A flagrant instance of the barbarities which a familiarity with the slave trade has a tendency to produce, recently occurred in the case of a Portuguese vessel called the Volcano do Sul. She was captured by his Majesty's ship Pheasant, with 260 slaves on board; and in the passage to Sierra Leone, her captain and crew rose upon the British officer and sailors, murdered them all, and then carried the vessel into Bahia, where the slaves were landed and sold.What may be the effect of the recent changes in the government of Portugal, as respects the slave trade, it is impossible at present to say; but the Directors of the African Institution have humanely availed themselves of the opportunity of distributing information in Por tugal, by means of the press, respecting the real nature of the slave trade. It were most earnestly to be wished that the pecuniary resources of the Institution were such as to allow its conductors to do this to a far wider extent than is at present feasible; as the public mind in other foreign countries besides Portugal, is even yet but ill-informed respecting the nature of the traffic. We are glad to perceive that the Directors have turned their attention to the best means of dif

fusing such information, with a view of exciting in those countries that moral abhorrence of this commerce, to the prevalence of which in England must be attributed, not only our acts for its abolition, but the degree in which those acts have proved effectual to their object. The circumstances hitherto related have been almost entirely of a painful kind: there are however several others of a favourable and encouraging aspect, a statement of which we must defer to a future Number. But we cannot omit to mention among them, the very honourable and humane attitude in which our country and ourGovernment appear among other nations and governments, as respects this disgraceful and barbarous traffic. The papers laid before Parliament exhibit, on the part of our Government, a constant and painful struggle with foreign courts, for the effectual abolition of the trade; while in other countries the men in power, with few exceptions, appear to have contented themselves with bare professions, and to have made few or no spontaneous exertions in this cause. Even some of the best disposed among them have appeared rather resentful of complaint, as if it implied a charge of insincerity, than earnest by their conduct to obviate the possibility of such an imputation. Nay, it is credibly stated, that instances are not wanting, judging from appearances, where they have sought rather to excuse criminals than to discover, to punish, or even to restrain them. And when such are the dispositions manifested by persons in high station, it were folly to indulge any other expectation than that the subaltern agents, both abroad and at home, should be not only generally supine, but too frequently conniving and corrupt.

(To be concluded)

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Aged Minister's Encouragement to his Younger Brethren. Two Sermons, occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Thomas Scott late Rector of Aston Sandford, Bucks, preached at St. John's College, Bedford-row, on Sunday, April 29,1821. ByDANIEL WLSON, A. M., of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, &c. 8vo. pp. 90. London: Wilson.

IN examining the records of Christianity scarcely any evidence has struck us as more triumphantly demonstrative of its truth than the discrepancy, judging from analogy alone, of the sentiments of the Apostles with the circumstances in which they were placed. Follow St. Paul, for instance, into the presence of his judges. Analogy and experience would teach a person uninitiated in the Gospel to expect from the judge the language of rebuke and exhortation, and from the prisoner that of concession and regret. But, how opposed to such anticipations is the scene presented to us in Scripture! The language of the judge is, "Almost thou persuadest me to be what thou art"-a Christian; and that of the prisoner, "I would that thou wert not only almost, but altogether such as I am, except these bonds." Again; follow the Apostle to the depths of a dungeon, and there, if he is not cheering the midnight hour with the songs of gratitude and joy, he is dictating the most urgent counsels to all around him to adopt the very principles, and pursue the very practices, which have consigned himself to linger ing bondage and premature death. It is worthy of observation, that, far from veiling his "bonds and imprisonment" to the eyes of those around him, it is as a prisoner that he chooses peculiarly to address them. "I Paul, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk

worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." Few things, we conceive, can convey a stronger testimony to the authenticity, the power, and the immeasurable value of a faith which would allow its champion thus confidently to display to his disciples the very chains already fastened upon himself, and almost infallibly prepared for them, if they should comply with his injunctions.

Somewhat akin to the frame of mind by which such a line of conduct is prompted, is the feeling of the minister of religion who chooses the very grave of his predecessor as the spot where he shall pronounce the lesson which is to stimulate the multitude around him to enlist all their powers in the service of God. The most philosophical and enlightened inhabitants of the ancient world conceived the mention, not merely of the word "death," but of the word "sleep" as an approximation to "death," to be "ominous," and carefully interdicted it. Philosophy is afraid of death; Christianity glories and triumphs in it. It is to its chambers, and even to those chambers, when, as in the present instance, not illuminated, perhaps, at the moment, by the very brightest beams of Christian triumph, that the Christian teacher chooses to carry us, that he may shew us a "father in Israel" expiring there, and call upon us, in the contemplation of his dying hours, to devote ourselves afresh to the service of the Redeemer.-These ideas have so strongly impressed themselves upon us during the perusal of these two admirable sermons that we could not avoid presenting them, trite as they may be, to our readers. And if they serve to conduct but one individual to a somewhat new point of observation-to a point whence he may contemplate the principles of which the writer and the subject of these sermons have been such

powerful advocates, with more advantage to his own soul-our end will be fully answered. Having discharged this duty, we shall now proceed to call the attention of our readers to the sermons of Mr. Wilson, and more especially to the revered individual who is the subject of them.

The text which the author has chosen for his discourses on the death of Mr. Scott is that truly sublime declaration of St. Paul to his favourite disciple-" I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." In pursuing his object, Mr. Wilson considers, first, the animating testimony of St. Paul himself; and, secondly, the testimony of the revered friend for whom the author is so sincere a mourner.

On that part of these discourses which more especially respects the testimony of the Apostle, we shall not find it practicable to dwell. We cannot, however, deny ourselves the satisfaction of extracting for our readers the following striking exposition of the expression in the text, "I have fought a good fight."

"St. Paul had, from the time when Christ had called him to the apostleship, fought the good' and honourable fight.' As a Christian, he had valiantly contended against sin and Satan. He had waged war against his old habits, and his inward disorders of mind and temper; he had been engaged in subduing the whole body of sin; he had wrestled against the snares and assaults of Satan, and the frowns and seductions of the world. As an Apostle, also, he had at Christ's command entered on the combat against the kingdom of darkness, and had struggled, by every lawful effort, to subvert the power of Satan in the hearts and lives

of men, and to establish the kingdom of Christ in its stead. For this purpose be had girded on the armour of righteous

ness;' he had braved all the power of of the enemy; he had endured the fierce malice of the Jew and the scornful calumnies of the Gentile, and the cruel persecutions of both. And now at the close of the combat, he looks back, not with shame or regret, as one who had entered on an unworthy contest, or had proved irresolute in a good one, but The with gratitude and exultation. fight might indeed seem to those who judged of it by outward events, disastrous. It might be considered as presenting nothing but scenes of calamity and affliction; the philosopher of this world might turn from it with contempt, and the warrior with pity. But to the eye of faith no combat would appear so noble and excellent. It was good in the end at which it aimed, as well as the means which it employed; yea so good, that nothing else could appear valuable when compared with it. It was not, like other contests, for human ambition or praise, but for the honour of a divine Saviour and the welfare of men; it was not for the overthrow of any earthly competitor, but for the subversion of misery and sin; it was not to inflict disgrace or death on a fellowcreature, but to convey life and pardon and holiness and consolation to a ruined

world; it was not to accomplish a temporary and contracted and short-lived victory, of which the effects would be inconsiderable, and the memory brief; but to achieve the noblest of all spiritual conquests, to establish the widest and most permanent and most heavenly of all dominions,-to erect the universal kingdom of Christ-to gain the salva. tion of mankind." pp. 10-12.

In proceeding to apply the text to the case of Mr. Scott, the author notices, first, Some of the chief circumstances in the public and private character of Mr. Scott; 2dly, The manner of his departure; 3dly, The glory of his crown. We shall give our readers a few extracts under each of these heads, and perhaps may be induced to shelter a few of our own remarks under the observations of Mr. Wilson upon each of them.

In a note under the first head we find the following facts which