1826), he was admitted at Néve into the bosom of the Protestant church; and we have the satisfac. tion of learning that he has remain ed a stedfast and worthy disciple of that church. He has learnt experimentally, and in his own person, the truth of that passage, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution;" but this has tended only to give greater notoriety to the fact, and greater circulation to the history of his conversion. His little book has excited much attention in the south of France: a very considerable number of Catholics have embraced the Protestant faith; and there are some symptoms (and symptoms of a nature to inspire very joyful confidence), that pure and undefiled religion is gaining ground in that quarter. We do not despair of seeing, within our days, true Christianity spreading very widely amongst those who have so long been the professors and the victims of infidelity: and we think that no help could have been more opportune than this work, which gives so clear, and (if we may, on so serious a subject, use the word) 'so entertaining a history of the conversion of its author, from scepticism to natural religion, from natural religion to revealed; and to that form of revealed religion which we have the happiness to possess, and all this accomplished by the Bible; and moreover, as we have had the satisfaction to see, not a mere conviction of the understanding, but also a true conversion of heart to the faith of Christ, and the service of God. We think that great advantage might result from the circulation of this tract in Ireland. A strong disposition to inquire prevails among the Catholic population; and we know that they have sometimes asked their priests with great significancy, Why will you not let us read the word of God? For a people thus disposed, a publication has been wanting so plain as to be quite

intelligible, and yet so powerful as to carry conviction along with it. The work of Bayssiere is short, familiar, clear, and cogent. The most ignorant among its readers can understand it, the most learned cannot refute it; and it has this preeminent recommendation, that it appeals to nothing but the Bible. If the Catholics of the sister kingdom can be persuaded to search the Scriptures, the result is not problematical. There is much truth, as well as naiveté in the exclamation of the French Catholic commander, in the times of Henry the Fourth, who threw away the Bible; saying, "That book ought to be suppressed-it is all against us."

We must not fail to add, in justice to the anonymous translator, who we understand is a young lady, that the translation is faithful, simple, and vernacular, the absence of which last quality renders many translations scarcely readable. Some of M. Malan's tracts, for example, are greatly disfigured, and are often almost unintelligible, for want of being made vernacular.- We do not allude merely to such gross blunders as calling poor little itinerant image boys "stucco merchants," but to the general strain of the ren dering, which is giving English words for French, but retaining the French idiom ; so that "a week," becomes 'eight days;" a fortnight "fifteen;" "thinking" is "finding;" the Bible denounces us as "fearful rogues," instead of flagrant sinners; "credible person becomes "creditable" person; we read of, "it is what I have not been able to make myself sure of;" in short, we have scarcely a complicated sentence which is not bald, confused, inelegant, or unintelligible. The 'translation of Bayssiere is executed in a very different taste, and we hope will shew the translators of tracts from the French how much is gained by putting them into a 'befitting dress.

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GREAT BRITAIN.

In the press, or preparing for publication : -Seven Sermons on the Temptation of Christ, grounded on those of Bishop Andrews; by the Rev. W. Kirby ;-Lectures on the Apocalypse; by Mr. Jones; -Poems; by M. A. Browne.

The mass of printing and publishing upon the Roman-Catholic question during the last two months has been almost incredible. We began compiling a list of pamphlets on the subject; but we could not make it complete, and it was already too long for our insertion. We have thought it most impartial' not to attempt to make a selection.

Mr. Hume, as rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen, has offered two prizes for essays on the following subjects:- "The Evils of Intolerance towards those who differ from us in Religious Opinions; and on the comparative Importance of Scientific and Classical Instruction in the general Education of Mankind."

Captain Sabine, after seven years, has repeated his experiments in the Regent's Park, on the dip of the magnetic needle; by which he finds a decrease of 17. 5. for that period, averaging 2. 5. annually.

To detect the fraudulent admixture of cotton in woollen fabrics, it is recommended to boil a sample in a solution of caustic alcali till the wool is thoroughly dissolved, leaving any cotton, linen, or other vegetable fibres which may be present, undecomposed.

At the last meeting of the antiquarian society Mr. Amyot read a translation of a curious epistle preserved in the British Museum, from Sultan Mohammed the Third to Queen Elizabeth, relating most bombastically the success of his arms in Hungary, for which he concludes her majesty would order cannon to be fired throughout her empire. Her majesty's Mohammedan ally concludes with his hearty congratulations for her majesty's success over the Spaniards.

In Wrexham church, Derbyshire, is an epitaph on a gentleman well known about a hundred years ago, as the wealthy and despotic Elihu Yale, president of Madras, who hanged his groom for exercising a favourite horse without his permission, and narrowly escaped the same punishment for the murder by means of a legal

quibble. The following two lines of the epitaph express a sentiment too common in similar productions, and which we quote in hopes that the startling impropriety of such a sentiment in this case may lead the reader to detect it in others, where, though less grossly revolting to the ear, it is not less unscriptural. "Much good, some ill he did; so hopes all

even,

And that his soul through mercy's gone to heaven!"

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The last two Numbers of the Gentleman's Magazine exhibit some most portentous averments. First," An Old Clergyman" informs us, that the "revolting impression produced by evangelical preaching and saintship writings, is that our holy Saviour does not condemn vice; but only music, painting, the drama, poetry, profane literature, the mathematics, and the arts and sciences." Another correspondent maintains, that "the violent abolition of the slave-trade (we thought it had been abolished more than twenty years ago) would take from the British crown the West Indies;" that Missionary Societies urged in the same manner would detach the East Indies from our empire, and occasion the flight or massacre of all the Europeans;" that " the Bible Society spreads spurious versions of the Scrip tures;" that "evangelical preaching makes men regardless of their actions, and teaches them to depend upon profession only for future happiness" and that "religious enthusiasm," of which the above are meant as illustrations, leads to "the most atrocious crimes, even murder, arson, as at York Minster, and the like!" The conductors of the work inform us, that "they have heard that certain professors of divinity in our universities will not permit any students who are candidates for holy orders to attend their lectures, if they refuse to abjure Calvinism." As we have never ourselves heard this absurd story, and cannot find any person who has, we dismiss it with the above-mentioned modest fictions; only wondering that in the present day any respectable publication should be found to aver, or any reader to believe, such figments.

FRANCE.

We learn with much pleasure, that Mr. Horne's invaluable Introduction to the

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Holy Scriptures," is about to be translated into French. A French edition has just been published of Newton's "Letters to a young Person." Miss Edgeworth's five series of publications for children are also being published in French. M. Lacoste, a strenuous Catholic, and vicar general of the diocese of Dijon, has lately published an edition of Abbadie's celebrated work on the evidences of Christianity, with high encomiums on the author, notwithstanding Abbadie was a Protestant, and wrote a treatise in defence of Protestantism. Abbadie's work, it is hoped, may be quite as useful to French Protestants as to Catholics, especially as he regards the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ as the centre of the whole Christian system; a doctrine which too many continental Protestants have doubted or impugned.

A recent traveller, after remarking that the fine arts are more attended to in France than literature, adds, that he had never heard of a single instance of a book club, of which in England there are probably a thousand.

SWITZERLAND.

A volume of highly interesting original letters by Fenelon has lately issued from the press of Geneva.

GERMANY.

Miss Kennedy's popular "Father Clement" has been translated into German, and published at Frankfort. Most of Miss Kennedy's works have been widely circulated in French.

UNITED STATES.

A Female Society has been instituted in Ohio, for promoting temperance. The members pledge themselves to reject the addresses of any suitor who shall be known to drink ardent spirits, "either periodically or on any public occasion;" and to use their influence as mothers, daughters, and suitors, to prevent the connexion of any of their friends with a spirit drinker. The New Hampshire legislature has adopted the following preamble and resolution:-" Whereas great efforts are now in operation to lessen the use of ardent spirits, and the members of this house feeling disposed to aid the good cause by their example,-there

fore, Resolved, That we will make use of no ardent spirits in our respective boarding houses during the present session of the legislature.' The resolution passed without opposition. The American papers also state, that a bill is before the legislature of North-Carolina for the relief of women who are so unfortunate as to have drunken husbands!

A bill has passed the legislature of Kentucky, which makes it perjury for any one holding an office, having taken the oath prescribed, to give, accept, or carry a challenge, without first resigning his office; or if an attorney, entering on the record his withdrawal from practice. In some of the States no man who has fought a duel, or conveyed a challenge, can hold a public office.

Charity Bazaars, or, as our American friends call them, "Ladies' Fairs," are becoming as popular in the United States as in England, and large sums are collected for various objects of piety and benevolence.

A circular brick-tower, 234 feet high, the wall of which was built without scaffolding, has been erected in Baltimore for making shot. The immense quantity of lead used in the United States is the produce of native mines.

Such is the rapid progress of the arts and of manufactures that it is stated, that there are twenty piano-forte manufacturers in New-York; whereas ten years ago, every piano-forte was imported from Europe.

PITCAIRN'S ISLAND.

The most recent accounts from Pitcairn's Island describe that little colony as existing in great harmony, and in full contentment with its produce. The population now comprises sixty-nine persons. John Adams was in good health, but rather infirm from age. He expressed, it is said, a desire to return to his native land.

PERU.

By the new constitution adopted in Peru last year, elementary instruction is to be afforded gratuitously by the state to all classes of the people; and it is decreed, that "no person is born a slave in the Republic:" and that "all slaves coming from abroad become free."

THEOLOGY.

Sermons. By the Rev. E Bather, Archdeacon of Salop. Vol. II. 12s.

Sermons. By the Rev. J. Edmonson. 2d vol. 8s.

Sermons. By the Rev. T. Arnold, D.D. 10s. 6d.

Sermons. By the Rev. Dr. A. Thomson. 12s.

Writings of Bishop Hooper, the Reformer and Martyr. 4s. 8d.

Scripture History for Youth, with engravings. ByEsther Hewlett (now Copley). 2 vols.

CHURCH ANNIVERSARIES. THE general Meeting of the National Society will be held in the Central Schoolroom, on Thursday the 21st of May; the Meeting and Sermon for the Sons of the Clergy, on Thursday 14th May; the Anniversary Dinner of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, on Tuesday 19th May; the Examination of the Children of the Clergy Orphan Society, in St. John's Wood Road, on Friday 22d May; and the Meeting of the Charity Schools, in St. Paul's Cathedral, on Thursday 4th June. The day for the general Meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts has not been

fixed.

The Sermon before theChurch Missionary Society will be preached by the Rev. Dr. Singer, of Dublin. Another anniversary of this institution has arrived before we have found sufficient space to give, at the length it would require, an abstract of its last Report; and the information will now be superseded by later intelligence: but we the less regret the deficiency as not only is the Report itself widely circulated, but as the chief facts may be found both in that invaluable repository of religious intelligence, the Missionary Register, and in the monthly papers issued by the Society. The great multiplication of religious institutions prevents our devoting more than a very brief space to any one in particular; but should the society adopt the plan of circulating either their Report abridged, or an occasional sheet, beyond the limits of their own subscribers, we should most readily include it among the documents appended to our Numbers. We would recommend the members of this and other institutions, as an excellent preparative for celebrating the approaching anniversaries

in a right spirit, to re-peruse the Bishop of Winchester's affectionate and interesting sermon prefixed to the last annual Report, especially the concluding "practical reflections." May the appropriate text of that discourse be the motto of all Christians, and all Christian institutions, especially those connected with our beloved church. "We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."

PRAYER-BOOK AND HOMILY** SOCIETY.

The Appendix to the last Report of this valuable institution gives the following extract from a letter from a clergyman in Ireland: "There are many Protestants so totally ignorant of what our Prayer-book contains (and this arising from their being kept from public worship by the local circumstances of the country in which they reside), that when the Roman Catholic charges our Prayer-book. as containing prayers for the dead, and enjoining prayers to the Virgin Mary, they are not able to contradict him. But should your Society enable me to distribute a fewPrayer-books, and books of the Homilies, amongst my people, I am convinced that they will soon be more enlightened; and who knows but that their Roman-Catholic neighbours might also partake with them that light which banishes all darkness from the heart ?"

At a time when so many societies are exerting themselves for the benefit of Ireland, the claims of the Prayer-book and Homily Society ought not to be forgotten.

SCHOOLS IN DENMARK. The last Report of the National Education Society states, that the committee have received an interesting account of

the progress of schools in the kingdom of Denmark, by which it appears that 2,003 schools are already formed, and 368 now in progress; the former of which contain an amount of 132,786 children.

PARIS MISSIONARY SOCIETY. This rising society is sending out three missionaries to the Hottentots of the Cape of Good Hope, under the friendly superintendence of Dr. Philip. They will be stationed at a village twenty-five miles from Cape Town, which is inhabited by the descendants of French fugitives after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, to instruct the Hottentot slaves.

LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE IN FRANCE.

A French Protestant lately refused to take an oath in a court of justice, stating that he conscientiously scrupled to do so, and pleading the indulgence which is shewn to Quakers in France as else, where, It was contended on the other hand, that he was not a Quaker, except so far as that he had imbibed this scruple; but the court, finding that he had entertained it for a long period, and consistently, so as to make it evident that it was not a mere excuse in the present case, decided that he might be legally examined upon his solemn affirmation.

PERSECUTIONS IN THE CANTON

DE VAUD.

The spirit of intolerance may appear to sleep in a country for a time; but so long as the law allows of its operation, instances of its excesses will occasionally occur. The intolerant edict of 1824 still permits the exercise of religious persecution in the Canton de Vaud; and an instance lately occurred in which it was applied for the arrest of a person not of that canton who had presided at a Missionary Prayermeeting in a private house. After being detained twenty-four days, partly in prison and partly in the hospital, where he was obliged to be sent on account of illness, he was expelled the village, to await his trial at the district tribunal; narrowly escaping from the anger of the populace. And this in Switzerland, in the nineteenth century; Switzerland, the cradle of civil and religious liberty; and worst of all-deducting the popular outrage under the odious sanction of law!

GENEVA SERVICE FOR MIS-
SIONS.

It has been determined by the company of pastors at Geneva, that on the first Tuesday of every month there shall be a

service for the special object of promoting Christian missions among the heathen.

NORTH-AMERICAN INDIAN
MISSIONS.

The Methodist missionaries in Upper Canada have about 1200 native Indians under their instruction, who have received Christian baptism. Eight hundred and twenty of these have been formed into classes. Many of their children are walking in obedience to the precepts of the Gospel. NEW-YORK EPISCOPAL MISSIONS.

Bishop Hobart presented a report at the last convention, from the committee of the Protestant Episcopal Church for propagating the Gospel in the State of NewYork, in which it is stated, that the missionaries employed by them during the past year have been thirty in number, being four more than those of last year, and that the number of missionary stations has also been enlarged from thirty-one to thirty-six.

The report concludes with the following statement and appeal to the liberality of Episcopalians:-" Greater exertions than usual on the part of the friends of the church will be necessary, to enable the committee of the ensuing year to meet its engagements. The rapid extension of our church, in the new settlements of our country, calls loudly for new and enlarged means of support. The members of our communion are there comparatively few; and unless their zeal be supported by missionary aid, they will be swallowed up by the more prevalent denominations. It is under such circumstances that the service of missionaries becomes indispensable, since in no other way can the church be preserved among its scattered members; and unless we are prepared to see it extinguished in the rising villages of our state, we must keep the number of missionaries in some degree proportionate to the demand for them; they must grow with the growth of our population, so that no section of our country may be without the occasional services of a minister of the church, to keep alive the attachment of its members, and to prepare them for future union. But in so good a cause your committee cannot believe that funds will long be wanting: zeal will call forth means: means of support will raise up missionaries; and under the blessing of God upon their labours, missionaries will be to our church, as the sinews of her strength, as the labourers who sow that good seed which bringeth forth an hundred fold."