Register, to which we refer those of our readers who wish to examine the detail of proceedings at each particular station.

The shores of the above-mentioned seas are inhabited chiefly by two great classes of persons- Mohammedans and non-Protestant Christians. Access is obtained by these seas to all the strongholds of Mohammedanism; and they wash the shores of all those nations which form the strength of Popery, and of those other countries also whose Christianity has suffered under its blighting influence or its corrupt example. There has been an almost simultaneous movement, of late years, for the benefit of these regions, among the three great divisions of Protestants-those of the United Kingdom, of the Continent of Europe, and of the United States of America. At the beginning of the present century, not a single missionary from these quarters could be found throughout these vast regions: there are now more than forty, a considerable number of whom are married, actually engaged in the different labours appropriate to these countries or on their way thither; and many of these are men of high character, not only in respect of piety, but of talents and attainments also. The number would have been, however, still greater, had not some difficulties led to the withdrawing of about twelve missionaries from the territory of Russia; part by the United Brethren and the London Missionary Society from Sarepta, and the rest by the Scottish Missionary Society from Karass, the Crimea, Astrachan, and Orenburg.

Many circumstances combine thus to attract the hopes and efforts of the purer part of the Christian church to this quar

ter.

The field is indeed of a nature so different from that offered throughout the many hundred millions of the pagan world, that it requires a course of proceeding in some measure peculiar to itself, as there are special difficulties and obstacles in the way such progress has, nevertheless, been already made, as to offer the fullest encouragement to increased exertions. On these several topics we shall dwell a little: for we are anxious to see a great augmentation of able and devoted labourers in this field, and to awaken fervent prayer for the abundant influences of the Holy Spirit on these now benighted regions, preparatory to that signal overthrow of antichrist which shall take place in the predicted battle of that great day of God Almighty.

The course of proceeding required in these parts is sketched in the Instructions of the Church Missionary Society delivered to the Rev. W. Jowett, in the year 1815. The proper object and present work of missions in these seas are there stated to be twofold: 1. Acquiring information, by correspondence, conference, and observation, on the state of religion and of society, and on the best means of meliorating that state; 2. The propagation of Christian knowledge; by the press, by journeys, and by the education of natives ;-such journeys being prosecuted not only with the view of extending the sphere of conference and observation, but to communicating Christian knowledge, by the circulation of books, by the declaration of truth wherever practicable, by promoting the establishment of schools and searching out young natives to educate for the Christian ministry. This course of proceeding is amply developed in the two volumes of Researches since furnished by Mr. Jowett; and its advantages are fully confirmed by the experience of other missionaries.

By the instrumentality of Protestant Christians only, is there any reasonable hope that the full power of religion will be felt throughout these regions. The fallen churches will not reform themselves, till stimulated by those which are already reformed; nor will the Mohammedan antichrist be subdued but by that sword of the Spirit which reformed churches alone can and will wield with effect. But Protestant Christians have, in almost every part of these countries, to make their way with difficulty. The character of their proceedings must, perhaps for a long season, be migratory, rather than fixed and local; and their work preparatory, rather than that of open and avowed ministers of the Gospel. They have to communicate truth in the very regions where the Apostles first diffused it, but under very different circumstances: they are not only devoid of that authoritative commission, sanctioned by constant interpositions of the Divine power, which demanded obedience; but they have to labour among a people, not merely indifferent or contemptuous as the ancient Pagans were, or prejudiced as the Jews, but among Mohammedans hostile to Christ, and among professed Christians, many of whom are determined against all reformation.

To the direct exercise of the ministry among the natives, there is, indeed, in most of these countries, an almost insuperable bar. Scund principles of civil

liberty will, however, wherever they prevail, relax the bonds of religious intolerance: Mr. Lowndes, Mr. Hartley, and others, begin to feel this with respect to the Greeks: but till the time shall come when the public preaching of Christ crucified shall bless these regions, enlightened and devout ministers may still in various ways become the means of effecting incalculable good.

The restraints on the exercise of the Christian ministry form, however, but a part of the obstacles opposed, in these countries, to the propagation of the Gospel. The circulation of the Scriptures is becoming an object of dread both to Roman Catholics and Mohammedans; and from Rome and from Mecca, systematic and determined opposition is shewn to the enlightening of these regions Where the Pope can exercise authority in directly crushing the circulation of the Scriptures, he exercises it without reserve; but where his subjects live under Mohammedan governments, he employs the arm of the latter. The arrest and temporary imprisonment, in this manner, of the American Missionaries, the Rev. Pliny Fisk and the Rev. Isaac Bird, at Jerusalem, are known to our readers. Another instance of the fears and hostility of the Romanists has occurred in reference to the College of Antoura on Mount Lebanon, which the Rev. Lewis Way rented for the use of missionaries, who have been obliged to leave it, through the interference of the College of the Propaganda at Rome. The anathema of the Maronite Patriarch against the Scriptures and against the Protestant missionaries, (issued in January 1824,) is a most hostile edict; utterly forbidding all the Maronites, of whatsoever state or condition, whether secular or regular, monk or nun, from holding intercourse with the missionaries, or receiving their Bibles or tracts. Mr. Lewis, a missionary,remarks on this anathema, as connected with the Firmân of the Porte; "The Patriarch and Council took great care to prevent this production from falling into our hands. However, notwithstanding every precaution, we have at last obtained it; and now I give it for the benefit of the British public, as a specimen of a Mount-Lebanon Bull. If the people of the Roman-Catholic persuasion (whether they wish it or not) must be debarred from the use of the word of God, is this a reason why thousands and tens of thousands of others, of different persuasions, and unconnected with the Roman Church, should be likewise deprived of the sacred

Scriptures? Why should not the Armenians, and Syrians, and Copts, and Abyssinians, as well as the thousands of the Greek Church, be permitted to avail themselves of British benevolence, and of the bread of heaven; famishing, as they are, in want of the staff of life, and willing to receive it when offered to them? And is the Gospel of the blessed Saviour to be denied to the Jewish people scattered throughout the Ottoman empire? Such, however, and more, are the evil consequences intended to be the result of the present prohibitory Firmâns."

Of the influence of these violent measures, however, the American Board take a different view, which circumstances have since confirmed. They remarked; "Difficulties, great and many, do indeed lie in the way. The errors of a thousand years are not to be easily and at once eradicated. The sons of the false prophet will not be inclined to rejoice in the progress of truth; nor can the disciples of the man of sin be expected to favour the growth of righteousness. With regard to the Firmân of the Grand Seignior, though by far the most serious instance of opposition which has hitherto occurred, the prevailing belief of the missionaries is, that it will not long operate as a material hindrance to their proceedings. At Aleppo, although the people who had received copies of the Scriptures were threatened with death if they refused to give them up, it was not ascertained that a single copy was given up, or that a single individual suffered injury on that account." Of the progress which has been already made, the Board say; "At Malta, at Alexandria, along the banks of the Nile, at Jerusalem, and on the shores of the Mediterranean, from El Arish on the south to Tripolis on the north, tracts filled with Divine truth, and the holy Scriptures, the fountain of truth, have been disseminated; and, in numerous instances, have been placed in the hands of those who will carry them into remote and still more benighted countries. In Jerusalem, the ancient capital of the visible church, the standard of truth and righteousness has been erected—it is hoped never more to be permanently removed. Among the mountains of Lebanon, the Gospel has been proclaimed to Druses, Maronites, Syrians, and Greeks. Jordan and the Dead Sea have heard the sound, and Bethlehem, Capernaum, and Nazareth. In that most interesting portion of the world, the light of life, after having been for ages quite extinguished, has been rekindled."

We might greatly extend this record of beneficial operations. The islands and continent of Greece, Asia Minor, Constantinople, the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas, the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, and remote Abyssinia, with some of the Barbary States, have all, in a greater or less degree, felt the advantage of the recent researches and exertions of Christian societies.

In the acquisition of information for the wise adaptation of measures to varying circumstances, advances have been made beyond all expectation. The communications made to the Church Missionary Society, to the American Board, and to the Jews' Society, by their respective representatives, are full of interest: those to the Church Missionary Society have been rendered peculiarly useful by having been embodied in the two volumes of Researches by Mr. Jowett; in each of which he has furnished hints and suggestions for shaping future measures, occupying nearly a third of his first, and more than a fourth of his second, volume, which could not have been supplied but by experience and observation in the midst of the people for whose advantage he labours, and which will incalculably assist those who may follow.

Not discouraged, therefore, with the difficulties in their way, the progress already made, and the opportunities for new exertions opening before them, incline the great body of missionaries, not only to patient perseverance in that course of proceeding which the peculiar circumstances of these countries require, but to plead earnestly for an increase of labourers.

NEW ORLEANS MARINERS'

CHURCH SOCIETY. There annually visit New Orleans, from seven to ten thousand seamen; and their number is constantly increasing. They are principally natives of Great Britain and of the Northern States of America. For the moral and religious instruction of this large and important class of strangers, no provision whatever is made. On the contrary, the temptations to vice are numerous and pressing, especially on the Sabbath. Some benevolent merchants and other persons in New Orleans, on learning what has been done in London, Dublin, Liverpool, New York, and elsewhere, for seamen, have, in order to cooperate in the same work, formed themselves into a Mariners' Church Society. For six or eight months of the year, from

fifteen to twenty British ships are constantly in New Orleans. Recently, on board one of these, the London, were eleven youths, apprentices. Few, if any seamen, belong to New Orleans. These facts shew, that though the edifice of the church will be placed in that city, those who will derive benefit from it are chiefly persons from abroad. It is intended that the church should be used for the accommodation of a Sunday-school, and also as a depository for Bibles and Tracts. The connexions of Louisiana with the adjoining and the Western States, and with the new Republics of Mexico and Guatemala, are so numerous and intimate, that greater facilities for the circulation of the Scriptures in these countries are possessed at New Orleans than in any other American city. South of the United States, and north of the Isthmus of Darien, is a population of about nine millions, who are, with scarcely an exception, destitute of the word of life. The recent political changes in these and the other Hispano-American States, have broken down many barriers which have hitherto obstructed the circulation of the sacred writings. The door is now opening through which the Bible is to pass to the American Catholic Church. So liberal are the Catholics in Colombia, that a Bible Society has been organized in Bogota, which has for its President, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In Mexico, a kindred liberal spirit is extending. In Tampico, Alvarado, Rio Grande, and other towns on the Gulph of Mexico, the inhabitants have purchased, at advanced prices, many copies of the New Testament, sent thither in vessels from New Orleans. A short time since, a Spanish gentleman, from Havannah, called at New Orleans, and purchased fifty Spanish Testaments to take with him. In Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, the priests are stated to be desirous not only of purchasing the Scriptures for themselves, but of circulating them among the people.

To procure land, erect a suitable building, and endow it with funds adequate to the support of a minister and of an agent for the Bible Society, a large sum will be required. Liberal assistance has been already offered in the United States; and whatever sum is collected in Great Britain is to be deposited in Liverpool, or London. The Rev. W. Shedd, the agent of the Mariners' Church Society and the Louisiana Bible Society, has come over to this country to solicit contributions towards this excellent object, and has issued

an address to the British public respecting it, accompanied by a strong recommendation from various well known and highly respectable individuals, who have examined into the merits of the proposed plan. Subscriptions will be received in London, by Mr. Skinner, Secretary to the Religious and Charitable Institution House, 32, Sackville Street, Piccadilly; by Colonel Aspinwall, the American Consul, 1, Bishopsgate Church-yard; by R. H. Marten, Esq., Mincing Lane; and by Professor Shedd, 20, Keppel Street, Russell Square. Mr. A. Hodgson, of Liverpool, in one of his letters from North America, published in our work, says, " My personal observation enables me to bear my testimony to the deplorable state in which the seamen are left in New Orleans,and the urgent necessity of some effort to diminish the demoralizing influence to which British and other seamen are exposed while in that place."

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL. Prefixed to the last Report are several general notices, in which it is stated, that there are now more than one hundred missionaries employed in the service of the Society in North America; that great assistance has also been extended, whenever applications have been made, in the erection of churches, and small salaries granted to a numerous body of catechists and schoolmasters, and that the people at large have been supplied with Bibles, Prayer-books, and religious tracts, as their wants have been made known. Of late years, the National system of education has been introduced into the three principal provinces dependent upon England; and the advantages already derived from it, sufficiently prove its great influence in the improvement of the moral and religious character of the people. At Halifax, Nova Scotia, St. John's, New Brunswick, and at Quebec, establishments have been formed, which promise to be the means of spreading the knowledge of this powerful engine throughout the several provinces of which these cities are the capitals, and will secure to the rising generation every facility for the more general instruction of the people at large.

At the commencement of the last century, General Codrington, bequeathed two plantations in the island of Barbadoes to the Society, with direction "that a convenient number of professors and scholars should be maintained there, leaving the particulars of the constitution to the So

ciety composed of wise and good men." Since that period, after many difficulties, an establishment has been formed and supported with the produce of the estates, consisting of a principal and twelve scholars; stipends being allowed to those who may be desirous of prosecuting their studies in England, either in divinity, law, or physic. A minister has also been provided for the Negroes, whose whole attention is to be directed to their improvement in moral and religious knowledge. Schools upon the National system have been formed, under the superintendance of the chaplain; and a code of regulations has been prepared, with the sanction of the attorneys, by which, it is stated, sufficient time will be allowed the Negroes during the week for the cultivation of their own provision grounds, to enable them to attend to the religious observance of the Sabbath without interruption. We respectfully suggest to the incorporated members of the venerable Society, whether it would not be eminently consonant to the propagation of Christianity, whether in truth the spirit of Christianity does not imperiously require, that they should shape their way at the earliest possible moment to the emancipation of their slaves. are aware, that it will be replied, that much has been done for their religious instruction since the time when Bishop Porteus so justly remonstrated on the subject; but still, to our minds, the very institution of slavery is unchristian and revolting, and we dread and deprecate that any religious society should give it their countenance, or pollute the funds of charity with any portion of the produce extracted by it from the toils of its miserable victims, by whose labours, as we learn in the Report, "the produce of the estates, for the last ten years, is nearly quadruple to that of the previous period, and the addition of stock [under which term are we to conclude, that the writer of the Report classes human and immortal beings with brutes?] far exceeds that of any other estate on the island."

We

Among the miscellaneous items of the Society's proceedings, we notice their benevolent agency for the Vaudois clergy. In the year 1768, his Majesty granted letters patent, in favour of the Protestants of the Vaudois churches, in the valleys of Piedmont, to empower them to solicit the contributions of well-disposed persons in this country, "to enable them to maintain the ministers, churches, schools, and poor, which they were not able to support in

any tolerable manner. " His Majesty was also pleased to direct, that the amount of this charitable collection should be paid into the hands of this Society, and be invested in government securities, the interest of which should be appropriated to the religious uses of the Protestant inhabitants of the valleys of Piedmont. In obedience to those directions, annual stipends have been regularly paid to thirteen pastors of the valleys of Piedmont, independently of certain small allowances to the widows of the deceased ministers. The capital sum has been raised to 10,000l. 3 per cent. Bank Annuities, which has enabled the Society to extend the gross amount of the salaries to 2927. per annum.

We have already abstracted that part of the Report which refers to the Society's proceedings in India. But the most exten. sive sphere of its exertions is North America. Our limits forbid us to narrate the various minute local details of particular stations, and there is no general syllabus of the results: we shall therefore endeavour to give our readers a general idea of them by means of some extracts from an interesting letter addressed to the Bishop of Nova Scotia, by one of the Society's Missionaries in Nova Scotia, the Rev. J. Cochran, describing a journey which he had undertaken in the service of the institution.

"Windsor, Nova Scotia, Jan. 12, 1825. "My Lord,-My letter to the Secrecretary of the Society, early in October, will have informed your lordship of my arrival, and of the result of my visit to Rawdon. The first Sunday after my return I preached at Falmouth; on the next, I officiated at Cornwallis, where I assisted Mr. Wright in administering the communion. Congregation about one hundred. Communicants twenty-five. Having heard that Mr. Aitken's health was in a bad state, on Friday the 15th I went through the woods to Chester, and the next day to Lunenburg, where I offi. ciated twice on the Sunday. On Sunday the 24th, according to previous notice, I officiated twice at Chester, and gave the communion to forty persons. The whole number of communicants on Mr. Shreeve's list exceeds sixty. I was much pleased with the state of his congregation. Among them are many who appear to be truly religious, and they are all attentive and orderly in their behaviour at church. The greatest cordiality and attachment subsist between the pastor and his flock; and I may safely add, that the interests of our

church are here in a flourishing condition. The church is not yet painted, nor the steeple erected; but Mr. Shreeve expects that both these objects will soon be accomplished. The congregation are in general poor, and unable to contribute largely in money. On Saturday the 23d of October, I was sent for from Mahone Bay, twenty miles distant, to administer the sacrament to a sick woman of Mr. Aitken's flock, whom he was unable to visit.

"Mr. Twining having informed me of a settlement called Wellington, composed of disbanded soldiers (on the new line of road opened through the forest from Hammond's Plains to Annapolis,) as being very destitute of spiritual instruction, I gave notice that I would preach there on Friday the 5th of November. I accordingly officiated, and,but for some defect in the notice, should have met a large congregation. These people had not been visited before, during the seven years the settlement has existed, by any minister of our church; and, being all members of it, they expressed great thankfulness for my coming among them, and an earnest desire that I should repeat the visit, which I promised to do. Most of the men had served in the peninsular war under his Grace of Wellington, and had therefore named their settlement after him. It is situated about twenty-two miles northwest from Halifax, and contains upwards of one hundred souls. I urged them to erect a small building for the purpose of divine worship, a project into which they entered with seeming eagerness, promising to have a subscription ready for me when I should come again. Several of them expressed the strongest attachment to the Established Church, and a feeling sense of the spiritual privation under which they labour. The missionary at Sackville might occasionally visit them, the distance from his church being not more than eleven miles, and in a straight line not more than six or seven. And if there should be a clergyman at Sherbrooke, which is about eighteen or twenty miles to the northward, he also could give them some attention. I begged them, however, in the mean time, to meet together on the Sabbath, and read the service of the church. I visited the school for the Black settlement in this neighbourhood, kept by Mr. Campbell, who reported the attendance of the children to be irregular, but their capacities for learning encouraging. These Blacks are said to amount in all to nearly five hundred souls.