will, I think, have frequent occasion to testify against intemperance; and my hope is, that if you will please to insert the following in your excellent "PILOT," it may strengthen the argument, when a sailor's advice and caution may be found needful against intemperance.

On intemperance, the following is the opinion of practical physicians:

1. Distilled spirit is useless for persons in health.

2. Distilled spirit, from its violently tempting and highly intoxicating qualities, is disqualified for use as a customary beverage.

3. Distilled spirit, instead of being, as has been in time past erroneously imagined, good and wholesome, is in its own nature injurious to the human constitution, and destructive in its customary use to the best interests of society.

4. Moderate spirit drinkers give the whole respectability to the manufacture and sale of distilled spirits.

5. Moderate spirit drinkers give the whole strength and the fatal influence to those false notions respecting the imaginary uses of distilled spirit, which lead multitudes first to use it for health, and afterwards for drunkenness and ruin!

6. Moderate spirit drinkers give the whole respectability and permanence to those drinking customs, such as treating, footings, &c. &c., by which drunkards are trained; and by connecting the use of distilled spirits with hospitality, sociality, friendship, with mercantile, social, and sometimes even with religious intercourse, they are head-masters in the school of drunkenness, and incur a fearful responsibility, by throwing temptation in the way of their brethren.

"Christian sailor, withhold not good (example or precept) from them to whom it is due, when it is in thy power to do it." Prov. iii, 27.

I am, Mr. Editor, thankful for your exertions, and also A WILLING CO-OPERATOR.

TEMPERANCE INDIAMAN, THE "ADELAIDE."

Sir,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PILOT.

ACCORDING to promise, I send you the substance of my conversation with Captain Guthrie, of the ship Adelaide,

burthen 700 tons, lately returned from India. I asked him how he liked the Temperance system? He said he had never before experienced so much real comfort and satisfaction on board ship: the men conducted themselves in the most exemplary manner; they were permitted to go on shore in the country, and returned on board in a sober, steady manner, thereby setting a good example to British seamen in a foreign country. Captain Guthrie observed, the voyage was performed without serving out one drop of spirits, and was the most pleasant and satisfactory he had ever experienced, in fact it was a complete voyage of pleasure; and that the men were all anxious to sail with him again upon the same principle. He told me he had a puncheon of rum in the ship, but finding he did best without any spirit, sold it at Bombay. I am much pleased with your work, and hope it will prove a blessing to many. I hope eventually to become useful in the service of my blessed Master; at present I am only a babe, and need feeding with milk. Pray for, and believe me to be, Your Christian friend, THOMAS HILLMAN.

Poplar Terrace, Jan. 21, 1837.

SAILING FROM PORT ON SUNDAYS. T

"SAILING from port on Sunday," is a general custom in London. To pious passengers this is a subject of extreme regret; and no less so to those who fear God, among seamen and even ship-owners.

"I will give you ten guineas, as a donation to the British and Foreign Sailors' Society," said a Christian ship-owner to the writer of this, only a few months ago, "if you can put a stop to the practice of sailing from port on the Sabbath. For I cannot be satisfied with deriving profit from a custom, though so generally practised, by which we violate the law of God."

This is the feeling, we believe, with very many: and pious men, interested in shipping affairs, ought determinately to set their faces against it. This atheistical practice prevails also in America; and the following paper from the American Sailors' Magazine, will, we hope, have some beneficial influence among many in England.

"Whatever may be men's views of the particular providence of God, all must admit that He has left on solemn record Him that honoureth me, I will honour.' Experience too abundantly shows, that 'godliness has not only the promise of all things, both of the life which now is, and of that which is to come,' but also the actual possession of many. A conscientious obedience to the commands of God, while it brings present inward peace and future blessedness, is often likewise followed with great measures of outward prosperity even in this world. How much then is it to be regretted, that a large majority of the voyages from many ports are still begun on Sundays. Surely, shippers and masters, if they had the fear of God suitably before their eyes, or even a proper regard to their own interests, would so arrange it, that in nine cases out of ten, "instructions" should be given and received on Saturday evenings.

Suppose, however, the master of a vessel has it in his heart to sanctify the Sabbath, might he not, as Captain C. of the brig O. once suggested, save himself the pain of disagreeing with his owners, by saying to them when first entering their employment, Gentlemen, if I engage in your service, I shall endeavour conscientiously to make your business my own. I wish, however, this condition to be understood between us, that you will never insist upon my sailing from port on Sunday.' In a few instances, such men, perhaps, would fail of obtaining employment, but in the end, like temperance masters,' they might be in the greatest demand. Passengers, too, who were likeminded, might often be placed in such circumstances, that a request of this nature made in the outset would be favourably received."

SEAMEN'S HOSPITAL ON BOARD THE DREADNOUGHT, OFF GREENWICH.

THE sixteenth Report of this noble institution has just come to hand. It is just published: and we know no document of eight pages, relating to any charitable institution, so truly interesting. Should this reach the eye of any member of its Committee, we would beg to recommend most strongly the provision of a Library of choice religious books, for the use of the inmates of the Dreadnought.

This, we have no doubt, would be an invaluable addition to the improvement and comfort of the patients: and such provision has the cordial approbation and sanction of Sir William Burnett, physician general to the royal navy, as declared by that benevolent individual to the writer of this paper.

We give the following extracts from this instructive Report:

"The Committee are persuaded that, when the founders of this Inter-national Hospital' first contemplated its institution, and opened wide its doors to seamen of all nations, they had an imperfect idea of the amount of human misery, which it was destined to alleviate; its success is most gratifying to them, and to all who take an interest in the management of the institution; they, and the patients, join in feelings of gratitude to God for its prosperity; they look forward with hope that the mercy which has been extended to it in its early days, may continue to support and nourish it; that the benefits it confers, and the claims which it possesses, may continue to be appreciated and acknowledged, and lead to more extensive blessings."

"The appearance of the noble ship Dreadnought must draw every reflecting mind to consider to what defence, how much when at war, this country is chiefly indebted ;· England has to thank her undaunted seamen for her present position; to whose exertions, in time of peace, she is equally indebted for her commercial wealth and prosperity. A contemplation of these facts cannot but lead to a just and favourable opinion of the value of the Seamen's Hospital."

"That the prevailing complaint, Influenza, has been most severely felt by seamen may be imagined, when the vicissitudes of climate to which they have been exposed, and their friendless situation is considered, to them this Hospital has afforded extensive protection and

fort.' ""

com

"The number of patients admitted during the past year is 2,510; and advice, medicines, and medical stores have been provided, during the same period, for 1,272 out-patients, making the total number of seamen relieved by this Hospital during the past year, 3,782: since its first establishment, the number relieved has amounted to 37,369 !"

BRITAIN'S GLORY IN THE EVANGELIZATION

OF HER SEAMEN.

By T. Timpson, Secretary to the "British and Foreign Sailors' Society."

THIS work, containing 252 printed pages, price three shillings, cloth boards, will be ready for publication on the first of March. Its various contents will be comprised under the following heads or chapters.

I. Preliminary remarks on seamen.

II. The importance of our maritime population.

III. The general character and moral condition of our mariners.

IV. The existing means of the moral and religious improvement of seamen.

V. The special means of the evangelization of sailors. VI. The means which are required to evangelize

seamen.

VII. The biography of some of the Christian friends of

seamen.

VIII. Our obligations to evangelize our seamen.

IX. The motives to excite Christian zeal in evangelizing seamen.

Besides the several chapters, the volume will contain various important papers in an Appendix.

REVIEW.

A

The Trials, Duties, and Encouragements of Seamen. discourse delivered in Brunswick Chapel (Methodist new connection) Yarmouth, on Sabbath evening, Jan. 1, 1837, occasioned by the late storm. By Thomas Jackson. 8vo. pp. 32. Wightman, London.

This discourse indicates an intelligent, pious, and ardent mind; its subject is truly worthy of a minister of the gospel, and the style of address in many parts is superior and eloquent. Our present limits will not permit us to say more concerning this valuable “ discourse," except