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Emigration.

CHRISTIAN EMIGRATION A DUTY.*

AMONG all the works that have yet appeared on the subject of Christian emigration, the present bears a stamp the most scriptural and apostolic. The writer has viewed the subject with the eye of philosophy, enlightened by revelation, and throughout the pamphlet there is a beautiful blending of patriotism with philanthropy. In five propositions we have the elements of a large treatise. These propositions are- emigration, the first public duty enjoined by God on man at Eden;-emigration, the first law at Ararat; the relations of Patriarchism and Judaism to emigration;-the bearings of the Gospel on emigration, and of emigration on the Gospel;-and the aspects of Providence in England on Australia in relation to Protestantism and Missions.

Such are the propositions which the writer of this admirable pamphlet purposes to work out; and to this he has begirded himself with zeal and power. It will be seen, at a glance, that great principles are contained in these propositions, and these principles are developed with much force. The publication has claims on all, on the statesman, the philanthropist, the Christian pastor, and the Christian parent. There is much in it we should like to cite, but since there is a studied condensation, and since the work is very cheap, we should deem it hardly fair to emasculate it. We, therefore, prefer earnestly to recommend it to the purchase and the perusal of all and sundry who are interested in its important theme.

DR. LANG'S VIEWS.+ AMONG the many publications of this sort which have recently appeared, a first place is due to this. There are others much more copious and various, and, in their own way, very valuable; but Dr. Lang, from his talents, knowledge, and position, both ecclesiastical and political, is the most trustworthy guide that has yet appeared, at the same time that he is the last writer.

We shall cite a passage or two, in themselves valuable, which will illustrate

"Christian Emigration to Australia, Present Duty to Christ." By A PURITAN. Effingham Wilson.

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the business-like way in which the Manual is written. The first section is entitled

THE WAY OUT.

When so many first-class ships are sailing for Australia, from all parts of the United Kingdom, it will not be necessary to say much about what port the emigrant should sail from; what ship he should go by; and what rate of passage money he will have to pay. The cost of passage is pretty much the same all over the three kingdoms, varying at present from £18 to £25.The emigrant should suit his own convenience as to the port to sail from, and he ought, by all means, when treating for a passage, to go to a respectable and established house, as such a house will not, for its own sake, send an inferior vessel to sea on such a voyage, or supply it insufficiently. The Government scale of provisions is generally followed now in private ships with slight additions occasionallyand it is quite sufficient for health and comfort; as every well-furnished ship has a certain allowance of medical comforts in addition, for the use of the sick. The emigrant should be furnished with a copy of the dietary scale, which, under the new Act of Parliament, is imperative, before embarking; and if he has the means, he can easily add a few extra comforts for himself, especially if he is a married man with a family. There are ships fitted up with close cabins for families, on the uniform principle, as it is termed, every adult paying £25, and no second class. The ship I came home inthe "Wandsworth," of Glasgow-was, after discharging her cargo in the London Docks, chartered by Messrs. Hall, Brothers, of London, and fitted out on that principle for Port Phillip, whither she sailed on the 4th of this month (Sept., 1852). I went on board, on the invitation of the captain, to see the ship when she was ready for sea, and was much pleased with the arrangements. They were remarkably suitable for respectable families of limited means; and, although the rate of passage is now considerably higher than it was for years before the gold discovery, it is still much lower than it used to be many years since. My father's family carried out with them a female servant to Sydney, in the year 1824, whose passage, in the steerage, cost £40. The best time for leaving this country is in the fall of the year, or in spring. The only dangerous part of the voyage is the English Channel; for when a vessel is once fairly out at sea, there is, generally speaking, nothing to fear.

It is of little consequence at what season of the year an emigrant arrives in Australia, for the country is remarkably salubrious, and there are no acclimating fevers. Still, however, it is better, if it can be so arranged, for an emigrant to arrive in that country in the winter half year, as he will then be pre.. pared for the greater heat of the summer when it comes. The summer months of this

country are the winter months there. In general, there is both hot and cold weather on the voyage out, and the emigrant must make provision for both; but he ought not to carry out with him much extra clothing of any kind; and as to merchandize, unless he is going out to open a shop or a store, and is carrying his goods with him, he ought on no account to lay out a single sixpence in the purchase of anything to sell in the colony. There are long-headed people enough there already, who know far better than an emigrant going out for the first time, what is likely to be in demand, and who order out a stock in time accordingly. I once advised an intending emigrant, who was going out to Australia with a capital of £1000, and who consulted me as to how he should carry out his money, not to expend one farthing of it in merchandize. But he preferred taking the advice of the captain, who had never been in Australia more than himself, and he accordingly invested the whole of his funds in goods. The result was, he lost upon everything, and was ruined.

In answer to the question, "Where am I to go?" Dr. Lang gives a short description of each of the colonies. One of the emigrants, supposed to have made choice of Port Phillip, and to have reached it, asks again, “Shall I go to the Diggings?" and the following is the answer:

There are certain mawkish sentimentalists in this country-certain people who pretend to be a great deal better than everybody else -who strongly encourage emigration to Aus tralia, but who endeavour to persuade the emigrant in a sort of whining tone by no means to go to the diggings, as if there was something morally wrong in going there! Now I should like to know where these wonderfully good people can find either reason or Scripture for such advice. Are we not told in the word of God that the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof? The silver and the gold it contains are His, for He made it, that is, the earth, and deposited these precious metals in it, as in a bank of deposit, thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of years ago, that they might be searched for and found, and drawn forth, and turned to account by intelligent, enterprising, and energetic men. It is the peculiar character of the government of Him who is Governor among the nations, that He does nothing in vain; but He must necessarily have done something in vain, if there were anything either morally wrong or in any way reprehensible in going to the diggings. The question as to whether any person should or should not engage in the direct search for gold, is a question not of morals, but of expediency, which every person to whom it is presented must decide for himself. No man is to be condemned merely because he thinks it his interest to abandon his actual employment and betake himself to the gold mines, and who acts accordingly; neither is any man to be commended who thinks it his interest to continue in his ordinary employment, and who does so accordingly. There may be much worldly wisdom and prudence

in the one case, and much folly and rashness in the other; but there is nothing inherently good or bad in either.

Considering the question then-Shall I go to the diggings?as a mere question of worldly policy, which any person has a right to ask and answer for himself, I can see no harm whatever in a young man who emigrates to Australia trying his fortune at the gold mines and if, as is very likely, with so great an influx of people, there may be no eligible situation open for him otherwise, he may have no alternative, and be obliged to go, whether willing or not. But, for the father of a family, carrying out his wife and children with him, to go to the diggings, would be very absurd. For as gold mining has always been, is still, and in all likelihood will ever be, a mere lottery, in which one draws a glittering prize, while several others draw blanks, it would be morally wrong for the father of a family, as well as utterly indefensible as a matter of common prudence, to make the subsistence and comfort of a whole household dependent on such a contingency. The yield of gold in Port Phillip has doubtless been extraordinary; the quantity exported up to the 22nd of May last, having been not less than 32 tons, 4 cwt. 2 qrs. 19 lbs. 8 oz., which, valued at 65s. per oz., is returned

£2,328,908. The value of the shipments from Sydney and Melbourne together, in the London market, is already estimated at £4,000,000; the mere licenses to dig for gold in both colonies having realized to the Government not less than £120,250, up to the 31st of May last. It must be recollected, however, that the number of people at the diggings in both colonies is very great, and it takes a large sum to divide well among a multitude of people, so as to give every one a moderate share of it. It was estimated, for example, on the 1st of April last, that there were not fewer than 50,000 people at the Port Phillip mines, and the yield of gold at the time was ascertained to be about £100,000 in value every week. But this was only £2 a-week for each person; and as a considerable, perhaps a large number were getting much more than this average, it is evident that a still larger number must have been getting less. In these circumstances, the prudent man who can always turn his skill and labour to a noble account at such times in his ordinary employment, should weigh it well beforehand, whether he should throw away this certainty for the chance of drawing a prize at the diggings, when the probability is that he may only draw a blank. If he is a young man and has set his heart upon going to the mines, I would say, "Go, by all means; you can easily find your way back again, if unsuccessful;" but if the emigrant happens to be the father of a family, and has a good business of his own, which

he can turn to much better account than at other times, I would say, "Go, if you will; but you will probably be a great fool if you do." Supposing then that the emigrant has settled this point with himself, either before his arrival, or as soon after it as possible, the first step in the process, whatever he determines on, is to get up to Melbourne.

That class of people whom it is most desirable to send forth, will be interested to know something of the moral condition of the country, and they may obtain some light from Dr. Lang's section on

RELIGION AND EDUCATION.

There are two systems of education in operation in New South Wales, viz., the National, based on the universally received principles of the Christian religion, but open alike to all parties and peculiar to none; and the Denominational, consisting of schools belonging to the principal religious denominations. The former of these systems is rapidly acquiring the confidence of the public, and is likely to supersede the other very shortly, at least in all the thinly-inhabited parts of the country. A school under the National system was established at the Clarence River on the 1st of January last, and there is no difficulty in getting a school established on that system wherever there is a considerable population. The Government contributes two-thirds of the cost of the buildings, and gives the schoolmaster a free house and school, and a salary of £40 a-year to begin with, independently of the school-fees. The system in Port Phillip is pretty much the same, although yet not so fully in operation.

The principal denominations of New South Wales are as follows:

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Total population

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93,137

56,899

18,156

10,008

6,472

979

852*

740

187,243

Of whom there are, Males 106,299
Ditto Ditto Females 81,014

Most of the denominations above-mentioned have ministers and places of worship, both in town and country, all over the territory, although in many of the more recently settled localities, the provision is still very deficient. It is much easier, however, to make provision for the support of the ordinances of religion in an agricultural community, where the population is comparatively dense, than in a pastoral community, where it is widely dispersed. There would be no difficulty, therefore, in settling a minister of their own communion in any particular locality, if a number of families were emigrating and settling together.

*This item has been much increased of late from numerous importations of Chinese labourersa very questionable importation indeed.

Popery.

ROME AND MAYNOOTH.

IN common, we presume, with multitudes of the enlightened Protestants of these realms, we rejoice to perceive, that the profound and philosophic Author of "The Advancement of Society in Knowledge and Religion," James Douglas, of Cavers, has entered the lists against the great Enemy of human kind. Much have we regretted that, for many years past, a man of endowments so rich, so rare, and so eminently suited to the instruction of the world, has made so small a demand on the Printing Press; our gratification is, therefore, the greater, to find on our table two publications bearing his honoured name : the one entitled "Rome and Maynooth;" and the other, "Popery and Infidelity.' Although they differ in magnitude, both are, we presume, intentionally brief, in order to extended usefulness. At present, we can find space only for the following extracts from "Rome and Maynooth:

Thus nobly distinguished among the nations by having no representative at the Papal Court, we are yet bound, by one fatal link, to the city of destruction-the Grant to the College of Maynooth. The sums that are lavished in educating a Popish clergy, whose only return for the benefits bestowed

upon them is, that they add to the intense hatred, which they always feel toward England, greater powers of injuring her from the education she has given them.

Sever this link of Maynooth, and throw open the prisons of nunneries and monasteries, and we stand aloof, alike from the crimes of Babylon, and from the punishment which these crimes are necessarily drawing after them.

But there is a deplorable division of opinion upon this vital subject-the great majority of the country are evidently against the Grant to Maynooth; and as evidently, the great majority in Parliament are in favour of it. The Parliament upon this question does not represent the country! They are guided and governed by two different principles. The people are led by DUTY; the Parliament are misled by a supposed EXPEDIENCY. The people are under the safer guide. In enlarged minds, of which there are but few who take in the whole series of affairs, duty and expediency ultimately coincide It must be so under the government of a good and holy God. But those who are governed by expediency generally attend to an immediate, not to an ultimate expediency; and are at the mercy of varying events Looking to duty alone, we possess what is equivalent to the extended view of an archangel, nay more, even the mind of God himself! They who first proposed Maynooth were men of expediency, and consequently men of disappointment. Mr. Pitt doubtless expected,

in his not unjust horror of the French Revolution and French principles, that by withdrawing Irish students from the institutions of France and the Continent, they would become more loyal, and, perhaps, not only better subjects, but better scholars. In all points of view, the disappointment has been great. The priests educated in Ireland are inferior to those that the Continent produced. Many of these were gentlemen, and not ruffians-not only refined in their manners, but in their minds; in some instances excellent scholars, and, saving their blindfold adherence to the Church of Rome, (which, however, was often not brought very prominently forward,) were liberal in their opinions, and loyal in their principles. While attached to their own country, Ireland, imbued with its historical recollections and a sense of its misfortunes, they were neither unjust nor ungenerous towards England, but would gladly have witnessed the prosperity of both. The reverse is the character of that priesthood which the ill-judged liberality of England, towards Maynooth, has produced.

These admirable sentiments are a clear exposition of the universal opinion of the enlightened Protestantism of Great Britain. The following deserves the attention of Lord John Russell, and all political trimmers, in their dealings with the Vatican:

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We would willingly look with gratitude to Lord John Russell, both for the sake of the name he bears, and for his personal merits; but in himself he contains two manner of persons. The passer of the Reform Bill has evidently no deep sympathy with popular opinion, or fellow-feeling with conscientious dissent. The voice of oppresed Europe is to him but the "jargon of nationality. In the case of Papal aggression, we saw how a touch of generous anger brought him for a moment into communion with the national mind-but for a moment; for we saw with grief how soon he was ready to eat in his own indignant words. It is a dangerous, as well as ungraceful operation, that of backing. He denied that he applied the expression "mummeries to Popery. Did the people go along with him in that denial? far from it. If not to the Papist, to whom was it to be applied? To the Puseyites in whose "mummeries he himself had lately been a partaker-while his devout attendance at the commination service of Ash-Wednesday had so recently called forth the hopes and the prayers of that mastermummer, his recent pastor. Lord John Russell was roused by one act of agg.ession into something like magnanimity, but he tamely passed over a thousand acts of daily, hourly aggression, because they were only of continual recurrence. His Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was a mere receipt and acknowledgment of having received an outragenot a cancelling of it-and it resembled a quarrel in the streets, where both the parties aggrieved have their wounded honour soothed by a mutual exchange of insults. The nation, we trust, entertains a far deeper

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sense of the ill-judged act of the Papal Court.

Mr. Douglas is fully alive to the present position of the Irish nation, and most thoroughly apprehends the relation which obtains between its Popery and its misery! According to him, the canker of the country is the priesthood; and who can doubt it? Let us hear a few words of unvarnished truth:

We are called upon for justice to Ireland -and we would obey the call. Justiceeven-handed justice to the priesthood; and more than justice-mercy to the people. We would cherish a deep sense of the wrongs and wretchedness of Ireland, never forgetting the principal source of these miseries-the priesthood. It is impossible to conciliate these men; enslaved themselves to the Hierarchy of Rome, they have no purpose but that of enslaving others, and linking them to the Car of the Papal Juggernaut. The first principle of Popery, avowedly, is blind submission-to hear what the false Church says, and to hear nothing else. The object of the priests is to aggrandize Rome, even to the betrayal of their native country. Every concession to such men immediately becomes an instrument of farther aggression. Conciliation only inspires them with new hopes, and is replied to, on their part, by a farther attempt at intimidation and extortion. There can be no peace-not even a truce between religious freedom and Popery: no more than between the principles of light and darkness -of good and of evil.

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The Papists avow that it is a war of extermination, and we gladly accept the condition. We ask no weapon but the Word of God, and we seek no greater eminence for Britain, than that it should be the watch-tower of the ocean, holding forth the Light of Life to the benighted nations.

The true position of Britain is to be the head of civil and religious liberty through. out the world. Her prosperity is connected with her assuming this position. She dates her glories and her preponderance from Elizabeth, from Cromwell, from William, Her years of shame and degradation were owing to her connection, through the Stuarts, with despotism and Popery. Whenever she has been a truly Protestant power, she has been everywhere pre-eminent. A shade now threatens to come over her greatness-she has ceased to spread her protecting wings over the oppressed in Europe. The king of Prussia pleads openly for the Madiai, and Britain is still silent; if she pleads at all for them, it is secretly and tamely, not with the voice which, from the mouth of Cromwell, arrested the sword of persecution, and made the Pope with his confederate kings, tremble through all their recesses of darkness.

The apologists for Maynooth plead for it as a literary institution ;-what a literature! The science of casuistry and the confessional! No depths of knowledge, save "the depths of Satan." The devil's great art consists in presenting corrupting thoughts to the mind; the priests follow in the wake of the tempter, but with more authority, and therefore

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greater success. The very thoughts which the tempter has suggested, and the tempted have repelled, are systematically recalled by the priests to the memory, dwelt upon with every form of emphasis, and every shade of aggravation-forced back upon the attention, under the sanction of superstition, and thereby infixed in the polluted imagination. This is the science, this the employment which Britain sanctions by its subsidy to Maynooth: and this the corruption which Protestants, by their Parliamentary contributions, spread over the length and breadth of the land!

Maynooth is no boon, but a curse to Ireland. It has in no wise answered the purpose for which it was projected. It neither civilizes nor instructs-it only corrupts the morals and inflames the passions. Far from promoting loyalty, it promotes only a degraded adherence to Rome, and a deep-seated hatred to Britain. Can any nation come under the immoral and suicidal obligation to spread the corruption of the Confessional, and to purchase and to arm future enemies to herself?

Maynooth is no boon to Ireland, but enlightened education would be the greatest of blessings. In withdrawing the grant from Maynooth, the sum should be doubled or trebled for imparting knowledge to the Irish nation. We are too apt to confound the interests of Ireland an d of the Irish priesthood. They are opposing interests. The priesthood has been the bane of Ireland ever since the Pope, indignant at the comparative independence of the 11th Church, betrayed Ireland into the Inglish sway.

Mr. Douglas is a worthy representative of Knox, and the mighty men who, Joused by his martial notes, accompanied him in his glorious assault on the Popedom. Mr. Douglas says:

To sum up all,-Protestants must have war with Rome. If we wait for it, the battle will come to our own gates. If we rise up immediately, we may roll back the contest upon our enemies, and the aggressions of Rome may be more than repelled by the hosts of enemies we have the power of rousing up around her and within her. We may say of Rome, as Epaminondas of Spartashe is powerful at a distance, but weak at home. Wait for her, and she comes with all the forces of her tributary cities. Advance upon her without delay, and you may break down her ramparts of mud, and set fire to her cottages of straw. Her fortresses are illmanned, while her prison-houses are crowded with victims. There are thousands upon thousands, even in the seat of her sovereignty, who are sighing for her destruction. We must have war, but it need not be an interminable conflict, and every step in advance leads us to final victory.

But it is said, "We are pledged to Ireland to maintain Maynooth." "In justice to Ireland, Maynooth must be supported." It is a strange mistake to confound the victim and the destroyer-to perceive no distinction between the people and the priesthood. The priests, so far, have identified themselves

with a part of Ireland, that no injustice, outrage, or murder is committed without the priest being, in Scotch phrase, art and part in it-privy to it, if not participant in it. If any man have not the mark of the Papal Beast, he is deprived of employment-if he dare to continue faithful to God and the truth, his life is in danger. The Government is weak and at a distance; the priests are ever present, and by the terrors of the Confessional, and an organized conspiracy, secret but effectual, have become the actual rulers of the country! We trust this state of anarchy will be terminated, and that by justice to Ireland, real substantial justice, the tyranny of this priesthood of Baal will

be restrained.

Mr. Douglas has been, by his meditations on the facts of the history of past and present times, led to the conclusion, that Protestantism is on the eve of a great conflict; as will appear from the following:

The struggle between Popery and Protestantism is inevitable, and without our choice; it is also incessant, since Papal aggression is without pause. We could not obtain a truce, even if we implored it. Popery is making its final struggle for existence-and in order to exist in the present state of the world, it must be universally coercive and predominant. It must exterminate us, or we must extirpate it. Its strength no longer proceeds, as in its youth and maturity, from an existence in accordance with the spirit of the age; it is but the last rally of shattered powers that are making a desperate, an agonizing effort to recover their carly vigour. A reaction of superstition, encouraged and supported by a political reaction, endeavours, by repairing the ancient dykes and bulwarks, to repel, for a season, (it can but be for a season,) the overwhelming tide of innovation that is rushing in upon the world.

These extracts are from what may be termed the doctrinal parts of the Tract; but Mr. Douglas is a man of business, and hence he gives the whole a practical turn, pointing out the best methods of carrying on the war of truth and liberty, reason and religion, against the inveterate enemy of them all! These practical counsels he introduces by the following emphatic words:

To give a practical application to the few observations that have been made,- we have come to a crisis both in the affairs of religion and of the world; and we must be prepared to meet it, and without delay--the time is short, the struggle must soon be at an end Resistance is victory; acquiescence-subjection and destruction.

It will be obvious, that the circulation of this Tract-sold for a penny-to the greatest possible extent, is a matter of the highest moment to the interests of Protestantism.

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