fatal vice enervates the mind, sours the disposition, inflames the passions, produces insanity, renders the heart callous to the feelings of humanity, and leads to neglect of wife and children, who are often left to want the common necessaries of life; and to this country it furnishes death with more victims than all other causes of premature mortality Many of these considerations acquire additional force, when the form of our government and the political institutions of our country are taken into view: as the annals of history attest, that almost every free state of antiquity lost its liberty in consequence of the corruption of the poorer classes of its citizens; and scarce an instance can be found of a popular government which survived the morals and manners of the people. Surely, then every one who is interested in the preservation of the peace, the welfare, and the liberty of his countryevery one who reflects on the spirit, the laws, and sanction of the holy religion which he professes, must be impressed with the necessity of the duty of endeavouring to arrest the progress of so destructive a vice, and to restrain the practice of unnecessarily granting licenses for the express purpose of furnishing to our fellow-citizens a poison so fatal and so baneful in its ef. fects.

In order to exhibit the immense wants occasioned to the community by the practice which is the subject of our present research, a calculation has been made of the sum yearly squandered in this city by the baneful use of ardent spirits. The number of houses licensed for the purpose is computed to be eighteen hundredSuppose that each of these retail to the amount of two dollars and fifty

cents a day (which will evidently ap pear to be a very moderate assumption,) the sales in this article will amount to 1,642,500 dollars per annum, worse than squandered in the course of the year. If this sum were laid out in flour, it would, at the rate of ten doilars per barrel, purchase 164,250 barrels; a quantity sufficient to supply the whole population of New-York with bread for the same space of time. If the sum of one dollar be added thereto, (which yet must be deemed moderate,) the sum would then be sufficient to purchase 300,000 loads of wood; a quantity sufficient to supply the whole city and county for that period. Thus it would appear that the money, which is idly thrown away in drams, would be sufficient to furnish, not only the poor, but the whole population of this city, both with bread and fuel throughout the year.

An additional lamentable circumstance which cannot be too forcibly impressed on the mind of every member of the community is, that the children of the poor are employed and constantly sent by their parents to these tippling houses for the purpose of procuring liquor. Thus the rising generation of the poor are initiated into the principles and the practice of immorality; they become habituated to profane cursing and swearing, and every species of vice is thus rendered familiar to their minds. A melan. choly prospect is thus presented of what must be expected from the rising generation when they arrive at years of maturity, contaminated and polluted as they must be in their progress to manhood, by every kind of profligacy, which can render them. not only useless, but pernicious members of society.

FRANCE.

termination of the French Government to abandon the liberal principles on which they set out; to shut the door of the new schools against children of all those parents who cannot conscientiously consent to have them educated under the direct influence of all the peculiar tenets and practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

Every additional inquiry which those really liberal men and philanthropists, who compose the "Society for Elementary Instruction" formed at Paris, have made, give new proofs of the neglected state of popular education in that country; and set the great extent of the advantages likely to result from a general adoption of the British System, in a still clearer light.

From the Report of that Society, read at their General Meeting on the 19th of February last, it appears that two thirds of the children of age to attend schools, amounting at all times to upwards of two millions, are growing up in ignorance; and, of the whole mass of the, inhabitants of France, about sixteen millions are unable to read or write.

Your committee are, however, far from considering the progress which has been made towards spreading the British System in France as useless. They can still rejoice at having been the means of transplanting it; being firmly persuaded that thereby benefits have been bestowed on France, which neither time nor circumstance will be

able entirely to destroy Masters have been trained and qualified, by Mr. Martin and his associates, for carrying on the great cause. In fact, the system has been exhibited to the view of the French nation; and your Com mittee feel assured, that its simplictity, beauty, and economy, will appear so evident to the quick and lively perception of that people, that its ultimate success is infallible.

SWITZERLAND.

Your Committee have been informed by Dr. Marcet, that many enlightened individuals in Switzerland are at this moment engaged in promoting schools, upon the British System.

Mr. Pictet, brother of the learned and amiable Professor of Geneva, has, by his truly patriotic and noble example, kindled a zeal, which your Com

mittee trust will produce most gratifying results.

This gentleman was the Swiss Plenipotentiary at the late Congress; and defended the interests of his country with such talents and success, that on his return, the Council of Geneva voted him a national present. This he declined to accept; but requested that the intended sum might be applied as the commencement of a fund, which might be afterwards increased, for the purpose of establishing a National School on the model of the British Free Schools, the organization of which he offered to superintend. The Council of Geneva acceded to his plan; and, thus seconded by the Government, and by all the persons of education and public spirit in that city, no doubt success.

entertained of his complete

ASIA.

On account of the loss of our inval. uable Secretary, at the very time when he was about to arrange his materials for the Report, the information respecting the proceedings of the Society in foreign parts will be much more scanty than would otherwise have been the case.

Favourable accounts have been received from the European Settlements in Asia, where the British System has been applied; and that highly respectable Society for Baptist Missions, which has so nobly exerted itself in aid of the views of the British and Foreign Bible Society in India, has engag ed Mr. Penny, one of the Masters ed. ucated in the British System, to go out in one of the first ships to India, in order the more perfectly to establish this efficacious and economical plan, in the numerous Schools which the Baptist Missionary Society have erected in that country; and to train Teachers for carrying their truly Christian and highly benevolent designs to the greatest possible extent, by the judicious regulations which they have adopted. While they avoid every thing which could hurt the feelings or shock the prejudices of the natives, they are now actually diffusing light. and knowledge among those who have for ages sat in darkness to an extent unexampled in the annals of civilization; and are thereby preparing the minds of the heathen to understand

Your Committee cannot deny them selves the satisfaction of noticing the efforts which are now made to introduce and spread civilization, by the only method which can be successfully attempted an improved and universal religious education in the new kingdom of Hayti

The philanthropist watches, with a peculiar attention, and not without considerable anxiety, the steps by which we hope and trust the people of that interesting country are gradually emerging from the miseries of oppression and the horrors of destructive warfare and what is better calculated to encourage these hopes than the observation, that the Chief of that na. tion seems to be convinced that the surest means of healing the wounds of long protracted warfare and sanguinary conflicts of establishing and strength ening the social ties, and of introducing happiness, are to be found in the general diffusion of knowledge, and the dissemination of the Scriptures ?

The following passage is quoted from his public Proclamation in the Gazette of Havti.

"History informs us, that every people, before they were civilized, were plunged in the darkness of barbarism; that they became civilized, after a lapse of time, only by the introduction of knowledge, the fruit of instruction and experience. To acquit ourselves of the first debt of Government, Public Instruction has eminently engaged our attention. We have requested from other nations, learned Professors and skilful Artists of every kind, to introduce into the kingdom the sciences and arts.

"The Professors and Artists who come to devote themselves to the instruction of youth, shall be effectually encouraged and protected They shall experience complete toleration. The difference of nation, or of religion, shall form no motive of exclusion. We shall attend to nothing but merit and abilities. The deserving manno matter what the country which gave him birth, what the crced in which he has been trained-shall always be well received, and shall enjoy the advantages of safety and protection which

our laws accord to strangers of all nations inhabiting the kingdom.

"Haytianshe cries, as he ap proaches the conclusion, " twenty-six years of revolution, as yet without example in the history of the world, thirteen of independence gloriously obtained, have purchased these great events. No, we are not the same per. sons! What a prodigious change has been effected in all that surrounds us! Formerly, with humble brow, with eyes attached to the ground, assimilated to the brutes, crouching to the lash of the tormentor, we lived indeed, but we were dead to the universe; we had faculties, but those faculties were crushed under the load of servitude and of ignorance! The cry of liberty was heard--we burst our chains. With elevated front, with eyes directed to the heavens, we can contemplate the works of Divine Munificence! Restored to the dignity of man and society, we acquire a new existence; our faculties unfold themselves; a new career of happiness and glory is opened before us. Almighty God! superior Arbiter of the Universe, thanks be to thee forever! receive our Vows and our devotion! Ye virtuous philanthropists, friends of humanity! contemplate your work, the fruit of your cares and labours. Redouble, if that is possible, your zeal, your activity, in the cause of the human race. The Haytians will justify your generous endeavours by living facts and examples.

"In vain, hereafter, will the detraetors of the human race urge their sophisms and exceptions: instead of answering. let us march with rapid strides towards civilization. Let them, if they please, contest the existence of our intellectual faculties, affirm our partial or total inaptitude for the sciences and arts: let us answer them

by irresistible arguments; let us convince the impious by facts and examples, that the Blacks, in like manner as the Whites, are men, and the workmanship as well as they, of Omnipo. tent Wisdom."

Agreeably to these views, the king of Hayti has commissioned some distinguished philanthropists in this country, not only to engage proper persons to form a complete seminary of education, calculated to teach all the

branches of art and science, and adapted to the richer classes, but also to obtain what asssistance is practicable for affording education to the great body of the people and this Society has also been called upon to aid this excellent cause, by supplying Masters for Elementary Schools.

In this region, therefore, a new field appears to be opened. And if it is an undeniable fact, that the British System is peculiarly calculated to surmount the great difficulties that oppose themselves to the introduction of knowledge where it has before been quite neglected, and that its acquisition will not require great expense of time or money-how important an instrument may it not become, in the hands of Divine Providence, to a large community of those of our fellow men, who have too long been considered as incapable of being raised to the dignity of men, to the invaluable blessings of civilization, and to the ability of strengthening their faith, hope, and charity, from those sacred oracles which, by divine aid, were destined to become the means of salvation for them as well as for ourselves!

ORDINATIONS.

In Marshfield, the Rev. Martin Parris.

At St. John's Church, Providence, April the 13th, Rev. Jonathan Wainwright, resident at Cambridge, was admitted by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Griswold, to the Holy Order of Deacon.

At Chatham, Rey Stephen Raymond.-Rev. Mr. Shaw, of Eastham, made the Introductory Prayer; Rev. Mr. Thompson, of Rehoboth, preached the Sermon; Rev. Mr. Lincoln, of Falmouth, made the Consecrating Prayer; Rev. Mr. Burr, of Sandwich, gave the Charge; Rev. Mr Simpkins, of Brewster, addressed the Church and Society; Rev. Mr. Johns, of Orleans, expressed the Fellowship of the Churches; and Rev. Mr. Hayward, of Barnstable, made the Concluding Prayer.

OBITUARY.

In Hanover, N. H. John Wheelock, L. L. D. President of Dartmouth University.

In Boston, Caleb Bingham, Esq.

In Philadelphia, Rev. Emmanuel Nunez Carvalho, pastor of the Hebrew Congregation.

In Saco, Hon. Cyrus King, late member of Congress.

In Richmond, Virginia, Ebenezer Preble, Esq. of Boston.

In Roxbury, Con. widow Deborah Armstrong, aged 63: she fell into a well while drawing water, and was drowned.

In West Chester, Penn. Lewis Pen. nock, aged 92, a respectable member of the Society of Friends.

In Palmer, Deacon Alpheus Converse, aged 65: On his way to his barn, he dropped down and expired in a few minutes.

In New-York, Richard Fisher, aged 28, in a fit of insanity brought on by intemperance, went down a chimney where he died from suffocation.

In Boston, Mrs. Mary, wife of Mr. George Gould, aged 36--burnt to death by her clothes taking fire.Miss Clarissa, daughter of John Wells, Esq. aged 19. Mr. Wells has lost four children in five months, of consumption, between the ages of 17 and