nomy an approach to the miraculous. Yet the alternatives of life and death, wealth and ruin, are daily and hourly staked with perfect confidence on these marvellous computations. Mr. Herschel, in Dr. Lardner's Cyclopedia, gives the following illustrative anecdote communicated by a naval officer (Capt. Basil Hall) distinguished for the extent and variety of his attainments. He sailed from San Blas on the west coast of Mexico, and after a voyage of 8000 miles, occupying 89 days, arrived off Rio de Janeiro, having, in this interval, passed through the Pacific Ocean, rounded Cape Horn, and crossed the South Atlantic, without making any land, or even seeing a single sail, with the exception of an American Whaler off Cape Horn. Arrived within a week's sail of Rio, he set seriously about determining, by lunar observations, the precise line of the ship's course and its situation in it at a determinate moment, and having ascertained this within from five to ten miles, ran the rest of the way by those more ready and compendious methods, known to navigators, which can be safely employed for short trips between one known point and another, but which cannot be trusted in long voyages, where the moon is the only sure guide. "We steered," says Capt. Hall, "towards Rio de Janeiro for some days after taking the lunars above described; and having arrived within fifteen or twenty miles of the coast, I hove to at four in the morning till the day should break, and then bore up; for although it was very hazy, we could see before us a couple of miles or so. About eight o'clock it became so foggy that I did not like to stand in further, and was just bringing the ship to the wind again before sending the people to breakfast, when it suddenly cleared off, and I had the satisfaction of seeing the great Sugar-Loaf Rock, which stands on one side of the harbour's mouth, so nearly right a head that we had not to alter our course above a point in order to hit the entrance of Rio. This was the first land we had seen for three months, after crossing so many seas and being set backwards and forwards by innumerable currents and foul winds. The effect on all on board was electric; and it is needless to remark how essentially the authority of a commanding officer over his crew may be strengthened by the occurrence of such incidents, indicative of a degree of knowledge and consequent power beyond their reach." AFRICA. We have noticed above, the successful voyage of the Landers, in Africa. Among their observations, is one which has been often made by former travellers in the western regions of that continent; that while in the countries bordering on the sea-shore the inhabitants are generally suspicious and ferocious, in the interior they are distinguished for hospitality and kind and peaceful manners. The phenomenon undeniably arises from that brutal traffic by which Europeans, we dare not say Christians, have barbarized and desolated those once comparatively peaceful abodes, causing terror, and war, and bloodshed, and perfidy on every side; with rum and gunpowder maddening the natives to every thing that is evil, and then, after transporting them to our colonies to work under stripes and oppression, complaining that they are debased; just as a poor brute animal is goaded till it is mad, and then hunted down and destroyed for being So. If the African character in the West Indies is such as the friends of slavery describe it (not that we believe it is so, far from it, but taking their own shewing), how comes it that it has so degenerated from the representations of Lediard, and Parke, and the Lauders, by reason of intercourse with our enlightened and humane Christian colonies? ST. HELENA. A missionary mentions the following incidental instance of the kindly effects produced by the intercourse of Bible and missionary institutions. "In 1819, two missionaries, one of them with his wife and child, and the other single, landed on the island of St. Helena. Soon after one of us had reached the inn, the excellent chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Vernon, called, and with peculiar kindness offered to do every thing for us to make our visit pleasant and beneficial. Several officers also came, all of them evidently men devoted to God. We spent four days on this island, and found it particularly refreshing to our enfeebled bodies and our wearied minds. On our departure, Mr. Solomon, the innkeeper, said to us, Gentlemen, you have nothing to pay.' The residence of Bonaparte on the island made every thing exorbitantly dear: thirty shillings a day was the lowest price for strangers at the inn; consequently my bill was 61., and my brother's and his family 151.; therefore to hear that we had nothing to pay made us astonished. Whence this kindness? chaplain and officers had defrayed our expenses. The feelings produced by such unexpected liberality cannot be expressed on paper; but although it is nearly eleven years ago, I feel my heart heave with gratitude at the recollection of it. We belonged to different societies, but neither of us to the Church Missionary Society. Oh, how refreshing it is to see Christian principles rising above all little selfish party feeling, and reiterating the apostolic benediction, Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen."" MADAGASCAR. The true "A female rebellion took place a little while ago, in consequence of the following extraordinary grievance :—It was the privilege of persons of that sex to dress the king's hair; and in the beauty of their long black locks both men and women take great pride. When Prince Rataffe returned to Madagascar from England, his head had been shorn of its barbarous honours, and converted into a curly crop. Radama was so pleased with this foreign fashion that he determined to adopt it, to rid himself, probably, of the periodical plague of hair-dressing, which, according to the costume of his country, was a work of no little labour on the part of his female barbers, and of suffering patience on his part. His first appearance in public, so disfigured, threw the women, whose business was thus cut up, into equal consternation and frenzy. They rose in mass, and their clamours threatened no little public commotion. But Radama was not a man to be intimidated. He surrounded the whole insurgent mob with a body of well-disciplined soldiers, and demanded the immediate surrender of four of their ringleaders; and his guards rushed upon these poor creatures, and slaughtered them at once. Radama then commanded the dead bodies to be thrown into the midst of their companions, who were kept three days without food in the armed circle of military, while the dogs, before their eyes, devoured the putrid corpses of their friends. Infection broke out, some died, and the rest fled, and returned to their homes." ― Bennet and Tyerman's Voyages. SOUTH-SEA ISLANDS. "A marriage has just been solemnized here. The ceremony commenced with reading a portion of Scripture, from St. Matthew's Gospel, concerning marriage. The young couple, who had first taken their seats on a bench in front of the pulpit, the woman on the left hand of her intended husband, now stood up. The bridegroom was then directed to take the bride's right hand in his own, and answer the question, Wilt thou take this woman to be thy wife, and be faithful to her till death?' Having replied, I will,' the converse of the question was put to the bride; she, at the same time, taking his right hand into hers, and answering, I will.' The missionary then told the congregation that these two persons were man and wife. A charge on their mutual duties was addressed to them, and the ceremony was concluded with prayer. The names of the parties, with those of two witnesses, were then registered in a book kept for that purpose. In all the islands marriages are performed in this simple manner, the banns having been once previously published in the congregation to which the families belong. When we came out of chapel, we saw the provision made for the wedding dinner. It consisted of a large hog, baked whole; about sixty baskets of bread-fruit and cocoanuts; many fishes, of different kinds; and CHRIST. OBSERV, No. 354. several wooden dishes containing papoi, a kind of pudding, and other delicacies. Several hundred guests had been invited, and it was expected that all the provisions would be consumed."—Ibid. "Mr. Nott assured us, that three-fourths of the children in Otaheite were wont to be murdered, as soon as they were born, by one or other of the unnatural parents, or by some person employed for that purpose-wretches being found who might be called infant-assassins by trade. He mentioned having met a woman soon after the abolition of the diabolical practice, to whom he said, 'How many children have you?' This one in my arms,' was her answer. "And how many did you kill?' She replied, 'Eight!' Another woman, to whom the same questions were put, confessed that she had destroyed seventeen! Nor were these solitary cases. Sin was so effectually doing its own work in these dark places of the earth, that, full as they were of the habitations of cruelty and wickedness, war, profligacy, and murder were literally exterminating the people. But the Gospel stepped in, and the plague was stayed. Now, the married among this Christianized population are exceedingly anxious to have offspring, and those who have them nurse their infants with the tenderest affection."—Ibid. INDIA. "Some idea of the prodigious multitude of pilgrims that annually visit the holy city of Benares, may be formed from the circumstance that there are four hundred barbers in it, who are supported, principally, by shaving the heads of bathers in the sacred waters of the Jumna and the Ganges; such purification being indispensable before venturing upon an ablution which is supposed to reach the very soul, and cleanse it from all defilement. A small tax is levied by the British government on each of these strangers; and, at festival times, the office, where it is received and licences to bathe are issued, is thronged with eager applicants, who grudge no labour, suffering, or expense, that they may obtain heaven by such means as are here required for the purchase of it."—Ibid. We feel grieved and ashamed that our government in India should thus encourage, even indirectly, the superstitious, and often cruel and licentious, rites of the Hindoos, whether at Benares, Juggernaut, or elsewhere. We earnestly wish success to the zealous efforts of Mr. Poynder, to awaken the attention of the East-India Company to this subject. Infanticide has been abolished; the burning of widows is at length forbidden; and slavery is dying away; and though it might not be justifiable at once to interfere, by direct legislation, with those practices which are not immediately opposed to the law written in the natural conscience, or the purposes for which civil 3 C society is framed, yet no sanction ought to be given to them; for a taxed licence is a sanction;-rather ought they to be reprobated and exposed; the gain derived from them accounted accursed, and every effort made to put them down by persuasion; and above all by the inculcation of a purer faith. UNITED STATES. Mr. Quincy, president of the University of Cambridge, in his address at the late centennial celebration in Boston, says:" Ever since the first settlement of the country, arms have been required to be in the hands of the whole multitude of New England; yet the use of them, in a private quarrel, if it have ever happened, is so rare, that a late writer, of great intelligence, who passed his whole life in New England, and possessed extensive means of information, declares, I know not a single instance of it.' She has proved that a people, of a character essentially military, may subsist without duelling. New England has, at all times, been distinguished, both on the land and on the ocean, for a daring, fearless, and enterprising spirit; yet the same writer asserts that during the whole period of her existence, her soil has been disgraced but by five duels, and that only two of these were fought by her native inhabitants." A New-York livery-stable-keeper advertises, that he supplies horses and carriages, "at all times excepting the Sabbath." The following is a list of the Episcopal periodical publications in the United States:-The Philadelphia Recorder; the Auburn Gospel Messenger; the Episcopal Watchman; and the Gambier Observer, all weekly: and the Charleston Gospel Messenger; the Children's Magazine; and the Protestant Episcopalian, monthly. The Family Visitor is announced to be discontinued "for want of encouragement; and the Christian Journal because, though subscribers are plenty, they do not pay their bookseller's bills. Proposals have been issued for publishing, at Washington, a weekly paper, to be devoted to the abolition of Negro slavery, and the improvement of the Coloured people. The Episcopal "Gospel Messenger" adverts with much gratification to the importance of female exertion in lending aid, under the supervision of the clergy, to the institutions and benevolent labours of the church. The journal of the New-York Convention mentions numerous female associations now embodied within the pale of the Episcopal communion; such as "sewing societies," and subscription societies for various objects; among which we find supporting a missionary, educating a religious student, assisting Sunday schools, relieving the sick poor, and the favourite one of constituting their pastor a life member of religious and charitable institutions. The late Rev. M. Tate, of Beaufort, South Carolina, three days previous to his death, added a long codicil to his will, in which there is the following paragraph: "I enjoin it upon my executors to publish it in all the newspapers in Charleston, that I departed this life under the full persuasion that if I died in possession of a slave, I should not conceive myself admissible into the kingdom of heaven." NORTH AMERICA. "Captain Beechey, in the Blossom frigate, was ordered to winter in Kotzebue Inlet, and in the summer of 1826 to endeavour to find a passage eastward, round Icy Cape, so as to meet the expedition of Captain Franklin. The ship, however, was prevented by ice from doubling Icy Cape; but Mr. Elson, the master, was sent in the barge, to prosecute the voyage. On the 22d of August he arrived at a low sandy point, on which the ice had grounded; and, as a compact field of ice extended northward as far as the eye could reach, he was obliged to relinquish all' thoughts of proceeding farther. This point, which is the most northern part of the continent yet known, is 120 miles beyond Icy Cape. The point from which Captain Franklin commenced his return to the Mackenzie, on the 18th of August,' is only 160 miles from the point reached by Mr. Elson four days later. Had Captain Franklin been aware that by persevering in his exertions for a few days he might have reached his friends, it is pos sible that a knowledge of the circumstance might have induced him, through all hazards, to continue his exertions. Thus, with the exception of this short space of 160 miles, a continuous line of coast has been explored by British hardihood and perseverance, from Behring's Straits to long. 1089."-Lardner's Cyclopædia. Maritime Discovery. ITALY. Mr. Lyell, in his Geology, notices the following particulars of the excavations of Pompeii. They furnish an affecting illustration of what will be the condition of the world at the last day.—“ In the barracks were the skeletons of two soldiers chained to the stocks; and in the vaults of a country-house in the suburbs, were the skeletons of seventeen persons who appear to have fled there to escape from the shower of ashes. They were found inclosed in an indurated tuff, and in this matrix was preserved a perfect cast of a woman, perhaps the mistress of the house, with an infant in her arms. thing but the bones remained. To these a chain of gold was suspended, and rings with jewels were on the fingers of the skeleton. The writings scribbled by the soldiers on the walls of their barracks, and the names of the owners of each No 1831.] Lit. Intell.-Letter of George III....Superstitions of Sailors. 379 house written over the doors, are still perfectly legible. The colours of fresco paintings on the stuccoed walls in the interior of buildings are almost as vivid as if they were just finished. Some animal and vegetable substances of perishable kinds have suffered much change and decay, yet the state of conservation of these is truly remarkable. Fishing-nets are very abundant, often quite entire; and their number at Pompeii is the more interesting from the sea being now a mile distant. Linen has been found at Herculaneum, with the texture well defined; and in a fruiterer's shop in that city were discovered vessels full of almonds, chestnuts, walnuts, and other fruits, distinctly recognizable from their shape. A loaf was found in a baker's shop, with his name stamped upon it. On the counter of an apothecary was a box of pills; and by the side of it a small cylindrical roll, evidently prepared to be cut into pills. In 1827, moist olives were found in a square glass case, and caviare,' or roe of a fish, in a state of wonderful preservation. An examination of these curious condiments has 'been published at Naples, and they are preserved hermetically sealed in the museum there."—Mr. Lyell might have added, what we believe is not generally known, that there is a collection, not shewn promiscuously to strangers, of works of art excavated from these devoted cities, 'which awfully illustrate the licentious character of the most polished nations of classical antiquity, and furnish a fearful comment on St. Paul's most painful descriptions, and the necessity of a Divine revelation, were it only to purify human morals. Men too little think how much, in a professedly Christian nation, we owe to the indirect influence of the Gospel, even where it is not truly received in the heart as the power of God unto salvation. THE Bishop of Limerick, in his "Pastoral Instructions on the Character and Principles of the Church of England," just published (a most interesting and valuable selection from his lordship's former publications, and which, greatly as we differ from him on some points; as, for instance, respecting the Book of Homilies; we have not read without much edification, and much admiration at the devout spirit, the faithful and affectionate exhortations, and the unction and pathos which pervade it), has inserted the following letter, addressed, in the year 1772, to Archbishop Cornwallis, by his Majesty King George III. "The spirit of this letter," justly adds Bishop Jebb, "should be deeply engraven on the hearts of all, who, in whatever station, high or low, rich or poor, are called to serve at the altar of a self-denying Master." It will probably be new to most, if not all of our readers. "My good Lord Primate,-I could not delay giving you the notification of the grief and concern with which my breast was affected, at receiving authentic information, that routs have made their way into your palace. At the same time, I must signify to you my sentiments on this subject, which hold these levities and vain dissipations as utterly inexpedient, if not unlawful, to pass, in a residence, for many centuries devoted to Divine studies, religious retirement, and the extensive exercise of charity and benevolence; I add, in a place where so many of your predecessors have led their lives in such sanctity, as has thrown lustre on the pure religion they professed and adorned. From the dissatisfaction with which, you must perceive, I behold these improprieties, not to speak in harsher terms, and on still more pious principles, I trust you will suppress them immediately; so that I may not have occasion to shew any further marks of my displeasure, or to interpose in a different manner. May God take your Grace into his The following illustrations of the superstitions of sailors, are mentioned in a highly interesting and entertaining work recently published, Bennet and Tyerman's Missionary Voyages, compiled by Mr. James Montgomery. Such passages are useful, as shewing the mistaken foundation on which many a tale of wonderment is built; thus fortifying the youthful mind against idle and superstitious terrors. Few things have done more to disparage the records of sacred truth in the eyes of shallow sceptics, than confounding faith with credulity, and disparaging the evidences of revelation by blending them with baseless fantasies. The answer to this is, to distinguish things that differ; and not, as some weak-minded Christians do, to treat with reverence a ghost-story or modern prodigy, from a weak latent fear of a recoil upon what is sacred and impregnable. If indeed any professed Christian has no better reason for his hope, than the credulous for his superstition, he may naturally feel alarmed lest the light which exposes the one should endanger the other: but the well-informed believer has no such fears; he finds no opposition between reason and faith, between nature and revelation, the word of God and the ways of God; and what he does believe, he believes more intensely, because he has learned to discriminate between prejudice and truth. Would parents take more pains to ground their children in the solid evidences of Christianity on the one hand, and to guard them against every species of credulity and superstition on the other, we should have fewer seepties to scoff at religion, and fewer wellmeaning fanatics to disparage it. But to proceed to our extract: "Our chief mate said, that on board a ship, where he had served, the mate on duty ordered some of the youths to reef the main-topsail. When the first got up, he heard a strange voice saying, It blows hard.' The lad waited for no more; he was down in a trice, and telling his adventure ;-a second immediately ascended, laughing at the folly of his companion, but returned even more quickly, declaring that he was quite sure that a voice, not of this world, had cried in his ear, It blows hard.' Another went, and another, but each came back with the same tale. At length the mate, having sent up the whole watch, ran up the shrouds himself; and when he reached the haunted spot, heard the dreadful words distinctly uttered in his ears: • It blows hard.' Looking round, he spied a fine parrot perched on one of the cluesthe thoughtless author of all the false alarms-which had probably escaped from some other vessel, but had not previously been discovered to have taken refuge on this. Another of our officers mentioned that, on one of his voyages, he remembered a boy having been sent up to clear a rope which had got foul above the mizentop. Presently, however, he came back, trembling, and almost tumbling to the bottom, declaring that he had seen Old Davy,' aft the cross-trees; moreover, that the evil one had a huge head and face, with prick-ears, and eyes as bright as fire. Two or three others were sent up in succession; to all of whom the apparition glared forth, and was identified by each to be Old Davy, sure enough.' The mate, in a rage, at length mounted himself; when, resolutely, as in the former case, searching for the bugbear, he soon ascertained the innocent cause of so much terror to be a large horned owl, so lodged as to be out of sight to those who ascended on the other side of the vessel, but which, when any one approached the cross-trees, popped up his portentous visage to see what was coming. The mate brought him down in triumph, and Old Davy,' the owl, became a very peaceable ship-mate among the crew, who were no longer scared by his horns and eyes; for sailors turn their backs on nothing when they know what it is. Had the birds, in these two instances, departed as they came, of course they would have been deemed supernatural visitants to the respective ships, by all who had heard the one or seen the other." A patent has been taken out for obtaining alcohol from dough. A tube communicates with the oven in such a manner as to collect the vapour which rises from the bread during the process of baking. This is then conveyed to another apartment, and made to pass through a worm surrounded by water, where it is condensed. The product is redistilled, and yields, it is stated, about three-fourths of an ounce of spirit from cach quartern loaf. The loaf, it is added, may be sold considerably under the usual price, by deducting the profit obtained on the spirit. RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. NEWFOUNDLAND-SCHOOL SOCIETY. We have often noticed the claims of this society, and we more especially feel their importance since it has resolved to take the whole range of British NorthAmerica within its sphere of operations. We rejoice to learn that the society's heavy debt has been much reduced, and that nothing is wanting but the pecuniary liberality of those who appreciate its object, to enable it to fill those many posts of spiritual benefit which in the providence of God are opening before it. Our readers will see by the society's advertisement on the cover of our last Number, the position which it at present occupies, and we feel much satisfaction in seconding its appeal. GAELIC EPISCOPAL SOCIETY. A society has been established in Edinburgh, under highly respectable patronage, to assist the Gaelic Episcopal congrega tion in the Highland districts of the country, by the establishment of Gaelic schools, and the support of Gaelic students for the ministry, and of catechists, or Scripture readers, and for other general purposes. The resources of the Episcopal communion in those dictricts are not sufficient to maintain the church upon a scale adequate to the proper instruction of the people, and to the raising up a succession of Gaelic ministers; and it has been thought desirable, on the recommendation and with the direct sanction of the bishops of the Gaelic dioceses, to form a society for these purposes. Among the important objects which would come under the immediate attention of the society, is the more extensive circulation of the Gaelic Prayer-book; the poverty of the Gaelic districts being such, that the people cannot supply themselves at even a very low rate; and at the same time, the demand for the Prayer-book is increasing. On these grounds, the com |
