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a night-glass, it appeared to have a bright nucleus surrounded by a coma. The mean time of its transit was 6° 24′ 7", with right ascension 11s 25° 6′ 49′′, and south declination 23° 41′ 8′′. On the following evening it was locked for again; but, though the sky was clear, it could not be seen. It is probable, therefore, that it may be moving toward its perihelion; and, should that be the case, it may be found again in its return from the sun.

GERMANY.

M. FISCHER, of Vienna, has discovered a new process of Bleaching Straw. Instead of smoking it with sulphur, as heretofore,

he steeps it in the muriatic acid saturated with potash. The straw bleached by this process, never grows yellow, and is equally white, besides that it acquires a great flexibility.

On the 22d of October, Mr. iluтн, of Frankfort on the Oder, discovered a comet in the hindmost foot of Ursa Major; which was scarcely visible to the naked eye, but might be seen with a common telescope. When magnified 350 times, it did not show any nucleus. Its course is southerly somewhat by west. It was discovered also by Professor BODE, on the morning of the 23d, at the Berlin Observatory.

** Part of the Literary and Philosophical Intelligence is unavoidably

postponed.

LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THEOLOGY.

OCCASIONAL Sermons and Charges. By the Rev. A. Burnaby, D. D. Archdeacon of Leicester, &c. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

The Destruction of the Combined Fleets of France and Spain, as described in the Revelations; a Sermon preached on the day appointed for a General Thanksgiving. By John Evans, A. M. 1s.

The New Boethius; or, Of the Consolations of Christianity. 5s.

A Sermon preached on the Thanksgiving Day at the Meeting in the Old Jewry. By

the Rev. John Edwards. 1s.

A View of the Evidences of Christianity at the Close of the pretended Age of Reason, in eight Sermons preached at the Bampton Lecture, in 1805. By Edward Nares, M. A. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

MISCELLANIES.

Virgil's two Seasons of Honey, and his Season of sowing Wheat; with a new and compendious Method of investigating the rising and setting of the fixed Stars; by Samuel Lord Bishop of St. Asaph, 4to. 4s. 6d. Evening Amusements for 1806; or, the Beauty of the Heavens displayed. By W. Frend, Esq. with six Plates of the principal Constellations. 3s.

Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, Esq. written by himself; containing an Account of his Life and Writings, with Anecdotes and Characters of several of the most distinguished Persons of his Time, with whom he has had Connexion. With Portraits. 4to. 21. 2s.

Conversations on Chemistry, in which the Elements of that Science are familiarly explained and illustrated by Experiments. With Plates by Lowry. 12mo. 14s. boards.

A concise Account of the Commerce and Navigation of the Black Sea, from recent and authentic Information, 2s.

Logarithm Tables adapted to the Calculation of Exchange and Bullion; with Instructions for their Use. By P. L. D. Bonhote. Royal 8vo. 6s.

A comparative View of the new Plan of Education promulgated by Mr. Joseph Lancaster, and the System of Christian Education founded by our pious Forefathers for the Education of the young Members of the Church in the Principles of the reformed Religion. By Mrs. Trimmer. 3s.

A Plan for the Establishment and Regulation of Sunday Schools. 8vo. 2s. 6d.

The Secret History of the Court and Cabinet of St. Cloud, in a Series of Letters, written during the Months of August, September, and October, 1805. 12mo. 3 Vols. 11. 1s.

Mr. Francis's Speeches on the Mahratta War. 2s. 6d.

Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester. Vol. I. of the 2d Series. 8vo. 7s.

Christ's Lamentation over Jerusalem, a Seatonian Prize Poem. By Charles Peers, of St. John's College, M. A. and F. S. A.

A Description of Latinm; or, La Cam pagna di Roma. With twenty Etchings by the Author, and a Map. 4to. 11. 11s. 6d.

Letters from Paraguay, in South America. By John Constance Davie, Esq. 8vo. 5s.

Par

La Priere, &c. nouv. edit. augmentée d'un
abrégé de la Doctrine Chrétienue.
M. De la Hogue, Docteur de Sorbonne,

La Journée du Chretien, sanctifiée, par reliée. 2s. 6d.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

men,

NEW SOUTH WALES.

In our number for September, a correspondent signing himself R. Y. inquired whether the British and Irish inhabitants of New South Wales are sufficiently supplied with Bibles? He also asked, Where are the spirit and courage of our young Clergythat an additional chaplain, though long wanted for that important station, has not yet been supplied? To these inquiries of R. Y. we have received an answer written by the Rev. R. Johnson, who was the first appointed Chaplain of that Colony, and who resided in it for the first thirteen years after its formation. We should gladly have inserted the whole of this letter, but our limits will permit us only to give an abstract of it.

Mr. Johnson states that the benevolence of the venerable Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, by whom he was appointed a corresponding member, left him no room to complain of the want of Bibles, Testaments, and other religious and school books. With these he was from time to time libe. rally supplied by the Rev. Dr. Gaskin the secretary of that society. On his representation supplies of the same kind have, since his return, been sent to the Rev. Mr. Mars den, at present sole Chaplain of the Colony. To the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign Parts, he was also indebted for supplies of books, and for £40 annually for four schoolmasters, two at Port Jack son and two at Norfolk Island, which grant is still continued. He received likewise two large cases of books, chiefly bibles, out of the public stores, sent out by order of Government; and bibles had also been sent him by his "greatly revered and deeply lamented friend and benefactor the late John Thornton, Esq." What Mr. Johnson therefore had to lament, was not the want of religious books. What he had chiefly to lament, was the almost universal disinelination to read them. A few exceptions there were, and only a few.

Mr. Johnson's plan was to give to each hut inhabited by convicts a Bible or Testament with some religious tracts. To each of the convicts also who was married, or

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who, after his term of servitude had expired, became a settler, be likewise gave a bible, a prayer-book or psalter, Burkitt's Guide to Families, and some other tracts. The Colony has greatly increased since Mr. Johnson left it, and much larger supplies will now of course be wanted. These he trusts, may be obtained to a considerable extent, on proper application to the societies already named; whose liberality may be advantageously assisted by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and by the benevolence of individuals.

Mr. Johnson very much laments, that no other clergyman has yet been sent out to the Colony, and could he have foreseen the circumstance, weak and debilitated as he was when he left it, he would have remained there. A clergyman of steady, active, piety is greatly needed to assist Mr. Marsden. Nay, were two or three sent out, there would be ample scope for their labours; for the settlement, when he quitted it five or six years ago, had already spread itself over an extent of forty miles.

Mr. Johnson states, as a possible cause of the backwardness which is manifested by clergymen to engage in this service, the circumstance that he himself, after an absence of 14 years from his friends and native country, during which, besides traversing the circumference of the globe, he had to encounter difficulties, and suffer hardships, that few clergymen of the present age can have experienced, has been refused any compensation for his services; and though he has been at home near five years, and to this day labours under great bodily infirmities, occasioned by the arduous service in which he was engaged, he continues, notwithstanding repeated and painful applications, wholly unprovided for, and under the necessity, though with a family to maintain, of officiating as a country curate. The hardship of his case, he adds, is the greater, as all that he solicited was a living of moderate value, where he might continue to discharge the duty of a clergyman during the remainder of a short and uncer. tain life; and be appeared the more entitled to this indulgence, as Governor

Hunter had not only given a written testimony to the exemplariness of his conduct and the greatness of his labours and sufferings, but had certified that the state of his bealth rendered his return to Europe absolutely necessary.

Mr. J. however labours to obviate the effect which these circumstances may have produced on the minds of his brethren, by stating, that no clergyman who may go out to Port Jackson will now meet with the difficulties which he experienced. We had been obliged to live for a time in a tent, and for a course of years in a wretched hovel. Now a comfortable and substantial house, with other requisite accommodations, is provided for the chaplain. Mr. J. had had no place of worship but a temporary building, which had been erected by his own labour and exertions, and which was afterwards wilfully set on fire. But now a spacious and comfortable Church is nearly completed. In the early periods of the colony, the inhabitants were often reduced to the greatest straits for provisions, and put upon the shortest possible allowance, with the prospect only of absolute famine, while other necessaries' and comforts of life were exorbitantly dear. Now the wants of the colony are well supplied, the necessaries and comforts of life are in great abundance, and to be obtained on moderate terms *. The salary of the first chaplain has been doubled since Mr. J.'s return, and that of the assistant would probably be proportionably raised.

The climate, Mr. J. thinks, is very healthy. He does not attribute his ill hearth to the climate, but to those severities which he endured, and which none who succeed him are likely to encounter.

Mr J. concludes with expressing his earnest wish that some young, but by all means marrie 1, Clergyman of steady active piety (for any other would be of little use, but rather prove hurtful to the cause of religion and virtue) may come forward to fill this highly important office. And to any one who is inclined to offer his services, and who wishes for further information, Mr. J. will be happy to communicate the result of his own observation and experience respecting the situation.

It appears to us a most deplorable, we had almost said disgraceful circumstance, that those miserable wretches, whom the lenity of our laws has permitted to live, should yet be precluded from receiving

* Fruits both of English and Tropical growth thrive and abound in the colony. CHRIST. OBSLRY, No. 49.

the chief benefit to be derived from that lenity, by their almost entire destitution of the means of Christian instruction.

TARTARY.

Letters have been received from Mr. Brunton, dated the 2d of November last, from Karass, in which, speaking of his endeavours among the natives, he says, "By our means some of the poor have the Gospel preached to them, and some of them, we have good reason to think, have received it without hypocrisy. We have brought to our house some poor who are worse than outcasts, and we hope that God will bless them.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

The accounts from Dr. Vanderkemp represent the extension of the Gospel to be progressive among the Hottentots: 5 men, 17 women, and 14 children had been baptized by him in 1804. A catechism has been drawn up and printed in the Hottentot language, containing the outlines of the Christian Religion. The Dutch government seems to manifest a laudable attention to the interests of religion.

MISSION SOCIETY TO AFRICA AND THE EAST.

On the 13th instant, at a meeting of this society, an excellent and impressive address was delivered by the Rev. John Venn to the Rev. Messrs. J. G. F. Schulze, G. K. Nylander, L. Butscher, and J. G. Prasse, ministers of the Lutheran Church, (who had been appointed missionaries by this society,) previously to their departure for Africa, for which they are now on the point of sailing. They will proceed in the first instance to Sierra Leone, and thence, along with their brethren now in that colony, to their ultimate destination in the Soosoo country.

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN

KNOWLEDGE.

The annual report of this society has lately been published. It thence appears that the number of children at school under their patronage is 7,108; that 8,360 Bibles, 11,044 New Testaments and Psalters, 15,418 Common Prayers, 19,856 other bound books, and 108,776 small tracts have been dispersed by the society; and that 163 subscribing members have been added to their list since the last report, making the whole number upwards of 2,700.

The death of Mr. Gericke seems to have been attended with no small injury to Ι

the interests of the Society's Mission in the EAST INDIES. That eminent servant of God, whom Providence bad blessed in a very extraordinary manner with the goods of this world, had been in the habit during his life time of liberally supplying the wants of the poor, and of his colleagues in the mission, several of whom were greatly indebted to him for their support. Now however the missionaries, deprived of this source of pecuniary aid, begin to feel the allowance of the society inadequate to the supply of their wants. And although Mr. Gericke had left his property to the Church, without which the Vepery mission must have been given up, the interest of that property was still insufficient, though amounting to upwards of £500. per annum, to defray the expence of that mission, servants, catechists, schoolmasters, charity children, widows, orphans, and other poor. The mission at Cuddalore had also declined from the same cause, there being no funds since the death of Mr. Gericke, wherewith to pay the catechist and school

master.

We cannot help here expressing our hope that the venerable society in Bartlett's Buildings will be induced to supply most liberally the means of maintaining and extending the institutions so happily formed in British India; and that if their own funds are insufficient, they will make a call on the public for the requisite aid. The call we are persuaded will not be ineffectual. It would indeed be a most opprobrious stigina on the benevolence and religious zeal of this country, if they should prove inadequate to supply the deficiency of the means of Christian instruction, in so important a part of our Indian Empire, which the liberal spirit of a single individual had previously furnished from his own income. The society has already sent £50 to assist the Cuddalore inission.

The Rev. Mr. Pezold who had been employed in teaching the Tamulian language at the college of Calcutta, returned to Madras in August 1804, when he entered on the charge of the mission at Vepery, which had been previously undertaken by Mr. Rottler, one of the missionaries from Tranquebar. The Rev. Mr. Rottler was employed at the same time as secretary to the Female Asylum at Madras, in the

room of Mr. Gericke, continuing however to assist Mr. Pæzold in the business of the mission. The catechists David and Canagurayon, with the other assistants, continued their labours, and it was hoped that the schools would furnish a farther supply of useful assistants.

The Rev. Mr. Pohle who is stationed at Trichinapally, had enjoyed a very indifferent state of health, which often prevented his officiating. He had however been kindly assisted by the Rev. Mr. Ball, one of the company's chaplains, who after leaving Trichinapally, had also assisted at Vepery. The catechist and schoolmaster had made frequent excursions round Trachinapally, and in company with another from Tanjore, had gone to Dindegal and Madura, to converse with and instruct the Christians and others. They took with them books for distribution on their journey. When Mr. Pohle could obtain no other assistance during his illness, the catechists officiated in the congregations, for which purpose he furnished them with his sermons.

It had been stated to Mr. Pohle by the Rev. Dr. Kerr, that it was apprehended in England, that the native Christians mixed heathenism with their Christianity. He denies that the charge is applicable to protestant, but only to Popish converts. “ 0 that our European Christians," he adds, "were not chargeable in that respect, who spent the 24th of December and Christmas day, numerously, at the famous, or ra'ther infamous Sokkawasel feast of the heathens, at Sirengam, not attending divine service at Chureh.

At Dindegal and Trichinapally 95 persons, including 11 heathens, had been baptized, and at Cuddalore, 20 including 2 heathens.

The Court of Directors of the East India Company had interfered to prevent any persecution of Christian couverts similar to what had taken place in the Tinnavelly district, and to protect the persons and labours of the missionaries.

The society has not succeeded in pro curing any new missionaries, although many efforts have been used to find out suitable persons, to be employed in this labour of love.

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VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

CONTINENTAL INTELLIGENCE.

THE events which have transpired during the course of the present month, have been exceeded in gloomy importance by few which the present eventtu. age has witpessed. At the close of the last month, it was generally believed, that, though the French on the 2d of December had defeated the allies on the plains of Austerlitz, yet on the three succeeding days, they had been attacked by the Russians, and defeated in their turn. The hopes raised by this report, too hastily accredited by his Majesty's ministers, soon proved to be fallacious; no engagement of any moment having taken place subsequently to the 2d. No account of this disastrous combat, which can be entirely relied on, has yet reached us. From the bulletins of the French army, divested as much as possible of French embellishment, but still, it must be admitted, forming a very dubious ground of reliance, we collect that Bonaparte had had the address to produce in the minds of his enemies a persuasion that he was paniestruck, and was meditating a rapid retreat; -a persuasion that produced the precise effect which he desired. The allies were induced to depart from the cautious policy which they had hitherto pursued. Instead of avoiding a general engagement, every day's protraction of which, if the means of subsistence were attainable, must have added to their strength, while it increased the difficulties of Bonaparte, they rashly resolved on becoming the assailants. Deceived by the movements of the enemy, they are represented as having unhappily exchanged that wary and vigilant circumspection which had guided their previous measures, for a vain confidence in their own prowess. No longer content with rendering abortive Bonaparte's unceasing efforts to produce a general action, they thought only of preventing his escape. Aud under this delusive impression they staked the happiness and independence of Europe, and the hopes of the civilized world, on the issue of a battle, in which the physical force of the opposing armies was so equally poised, and success consequently so precarious, that even had there been no superiority of military skill on the part of the French, and no advantage accruing to them

from their uninterrupted career of victory, it would have been madness, except on grounds of imperious necessity, to have risked interests of very inferior moment. That such necessity did not exist we are incompetent to affin. The Russian statement, when it reaches us, may possibly exhibit a very different view from that of the French.

But

The battle, as might be expected, was fiercely and obstinately contested. the skilful combinations of Bonaparte seem to have baffled every effort of Russian valour, and he remained, after a long and bloody conflict, undisputed master of the field. Still however, the calamity which the allies had sustained in this defeat, seemed capable of being repaired. The resources of the Russian Empire were immense and contiguous. Those of Hungary and even of Bohemia were almost untouched. Prussia, there was strong reason to hope, in case the war were prolonged, would join the coalition. The army of the Archduke Charles was advancing in full force to the assistance of his brother, and had already reached within ten or twelve days march of his quarters. The Russian armies were likely to receive continual augmentations. The Hungarian levy was rapidly organizing. Fresh reinforcements might be expected daily to arrive from other quarters. And the cause was worthy of a protracted struggle.

All these considerations, powerful as they appear to us to be, and others of scarcely less weight might be enumerated, proved too weak, to counteract the effect of the consternation produced in the Austrian Cabinet by the disastrous termination of the battle of Austerlitz, and to prevent the Emperor of Germany from forming the resolution, which only despair could have dictated, of submitting to Bonaparte, The two Emperors met on the 4th. An armistice or rather a capitulation was agreed to; which has since issued in a treaty of peace between Austria and France. The particulars of this treaty are not fully known, but little doubt can be entertained of the entire prostration of the former power. Austria, it is believed, besides consenting to pay a large sum of money towards defraying the expences of the war, has

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