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the deliverance from the cholera, devoted a marked portion of their attention to the sorrowful sighing of the captive in our colonial possessions. Let not the members of the Church of England be the only portion of his Majesty's subjects who regard with indifference the affecting appeal of nearly a million of men made of one blood with themselves, and imploring,both for body and soul, deliverance from that inhuman oppression in which they are at present held.

The case of the emancipated bondmen of South Africa, furnishes a striking illustration of the ease and safety with which a large body of disaffected and degraded serfs may be transformed to loyal and rapidly improving free citizens. On the promulgation of the emancipating Ordinance of 1828, this class of men were liberated at once from the iniquitous laws, regulations, and disabilities by which they had been placed under the foot of the White colonists; and the predictions of those who maintained that they would generally betake themselves to vagrancy and robbery were completely falsified. Some of the farmers, who in their day of power had treated these people like dogs, complained that, owing to their refusal when freed to continue in their service, they," the Christian men," were obliged to drive their own waggons, and send their children to tend their own flocks the latter task being considered in that colony too servile for White men to perform. All the crimes, too, which occurred in the provinces were, without hesitation, ascribed to the free coloured class; and, though the official reports of the circuit courts of justice told a somewhat different tale, a violent outcry was kept up on this topic for a considerable period; and a revocation of the obnoxious ordinance was clamorously advocated, as a measure imperatively required to save the White colonists from ruin.

Happily for the Hottentots and the colony, these preposterous clamours were not listened to by the home government; and the local authorities had no power to act on their own discretion. The obnoxious ordinance was allowed to take effect: and, after a time, the fierce vituperations and sinister predictions of the "SouthAfrican Patriots," as they termed themselves, subsided. Their hostility was not extinguished; but the quiet and orderly conduct of the maligned Hottentots left them without any rational pretext for its avowal. The general condition of these emancipated bondmen, after four years of freedom, is described in the most glowing terms by very competent wit

nesses.

Another urgent question to which the attention of Parliament will, we trust, be early called, is the cruel exaction of infant labour in our factories. This is no new theme in our pages; for those of our

readers who have perused our volumes for a quarter of a century past, well know how often and earnestly we have urged the subject upon every ground of religion, humanity, and political wisdom. We rejoice to find that the afflicting expositions in the evidence on Mr. Sadler's humane Factory Bill have at length produced so powerful an effect upon the public feeling and intelligence, that some measure for limiting the hours of infantile manufacturing labour seems likely to be carried during the ensuing session. In lately adverting to the subject, in our Review of the Bishop of Lichfield's Charge, we shewed, against the JosephHume school of political economy, that such a measure is wise, just, and necessary-on the general ground, that the principle of non-interference between masters and workmen does not apply in a case like this; the children being practically in the condition of slaves, and not, like adults, able to contend for their own rights. Their parents, also, are nearly powerless; their necessities pressing them on, and the system having grown too gigantic for individuals to contend with, without legislative protection. At the same time we admitted, that the limitation of hours would lessen the children's gains; and that hence those thoughtless or selfish parents, who looked merely at the number of pence earned, and did not consider the ultimate welfare of their children, in soul, in mind, and in body, would be the first to complain of the restriction, and be ready to unite with a selfish master to exceed the limitation. We therefore warned the friends of the measure to be prepared for some disappointment, and perhaps ingratitude; but not to let this weigh with them to impede a measure so humane and Christian; a measure necessary to rescue our highly-favoured land from a system of the most grinding and oppressive barbarity. It is not, indeed, strictly slavery; because the parent has his option to send his child to the factory, or not, as he pleases: but, with regard to the child, it involves the worst features of slavery—ignorance, vice, cruelty, misery, and irreligion. We should be grieved, therefore, if our measured reply to the cold-blooded Political Economists should be thought to comprise all that we feel or think upon the subject. It is a question in which all the arguments of Mr. Hume are as weak, sophistical, and hard-hearted as his apologies for Negro Slavery. We trust that his Majesty's Government will itself take up Mr. Sadler's lapsed bill, and prosecute it to its consummation.

We have before mentioned that a bill, as we trust, is likely to be brought in for the better observance of the Lord's day. The Report and Evidence of the late House of Commons have had a powerful effect in calling the attention of the country to this important topic : Sabbath

Protection Societies are springing up in various places; and some even of our newspapers are urging the necessity of protecting the poorer classes from the evils which fall upon them in consequence of Sunday trading. These are but secondary motives and the Christian will mainly consider the express command of God, and the welfare of the souls of men; but, even as a social, physical, and political arrangement, the observance of the Lord's day is a benefit of such incalculable moment that, we trust, many statesmen, and others, who may not be adequately impressed with the religious obligation, will be disposed to favour the introduction of a bill to secure the general object. It is requisite, however, that in petitions to the Legislature, and also in their private representations, the friends of religion, while they duly urge secondary motives, should keep prominently in view the higher obligation, and explicitly ground their proceedings upon the revealed will of God. Nor in the discussions in the Legislature, or in any proposed bill, ought this ground to be relinquished: for sure we are, that the more Christians act with simplicity of heart upon the plain dictates of faith and duty, the more likely are they in the end to attain their object. "Them that honour me I will honour," is a scriptural declaration which applies to all efforts made to promote any good and holy cause in a sinful world. This, however, precludes not the proper use of other motives; and we rejoice, therefore, that tradesmen should protect each other in the observance of the Sabbath, more especially as many, who viewed the matter at first only in a secular light, may find the rest of the Sabbath blessed, by the mercy of God, to their spiritual and eternal welfare.

We wish again to remind our readers, and particularly clergymen and laymen of influence, of the importance of turning their minds in time to the consideration of the great question of National Education. Lord Brougham's proposed measure of 1820, which confided the guardianship of popular instruction to the clergy, and identified the schools with the Church of England, failed through a singular concurrence of circumstances. The Dissenters opposed it because it required that the master should be a churchman, that he should be recommended by a clergyman, and that though the election was to be in the householders of the parish, yet that the clergyman should have a veto upon the appointment. The Dissenters, however, could not have frustrated the bill, and great numbers of the most religious and well judging among them would not have attempted to do so, had not the government and the clergy fomented the feud; the government in a mere party spirit, and with a hearty rejoicing in mortifying a

political opponent who was thwarting them in all their measures, and particularly in the proceedings against Queen Caroline; and the clergy, we doubt not, with a very sincere apprehension as to any plan which should originate with any member of the then opposition party.We remonstrated against this miserable short-sighted policy at the time, and we now bewail it more than ever, since we have little hope that a measure so good and so favourable to the Church of England can now be hoped for. But let the friends of Christianity and of the Church of England, be admonished once more, before the evil day arrives in which it shall be proposed to found a system of National Education from which religious instruction shall be systematically banished. If we cannot recover all that Mr. Brougham proposed to give us, let us at least be awake before we are threatened with the infidel schemes of Mr. Owen and Mr. Hume. We have no fear, indeed, that the latter will be allowed to be carried into effect; but we have many fears that they may be so urged as materially to obstruct the accomplishment of any measure for public education founded upon right and scriptural principles.

The misunderstanding among the American States still wears a painful aspect; but we trust the question will be adjusted without the horrors of civil war. Even a peaceful separation between those States whose interests differ would, for many years to come, be attended with manifold evils. It would divide some of the strongest ties both of private life and of public society. Among others, our brethren of the Episcopal Church will be exposed to a very serious trial. They are one church; they meet together from all parts of the Union; and they have just held their triennial General Convention at New York; all the states sending their

* The General Convention has accepted Bishop Chase's resignation: and Dr. Mlivaine is the new bishop. Those of our readers who had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with Dr. M'Ilvaine when he visited England will rejoice with us that the choice has fallen upon a clergyman so eminently qualified to adorn that sacred office; and those who had not that privilege will judge of the spirit of the man by the following extract from a letter to a friend in England.

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Brooklyn, Nov. 6, 1832. "My dear friend, I have delayed writing you till our General Convention should decide upon my future residence. The decision for life is made. My consecration as Bishop of Ohio took place last week. May it be daily renewed under the imposition of the hands of the great High Priest, and the anointing of the Holy Ghost.

representatives to meet in peaceful discussion for the common cause. To have this union destroyed would be mournful indeed. The writer of these lines, in frequent conversations with Bishop Hobart and Bishop Chase when they were in England, respecting the controversy between them in regard to the theological seminary in New York, and the projected college in Ohio, and some sectional feelings which had arisen out of the controversy, once remarked to Bishop Hobart, that the Union carried with it the seeds of ultimate dissolution; that a Dehon in Charlestown, and a Hobart in New York, would before long, though brethren in spirit, not be members of one State, or perhaps of one church; for that it was unlikely that the habits and interests of the manufacturing, agricultural, and commercial states would not fail to produce a separation. We shall never forget the energy with which Bishop Hobart replied, "I do not say that this is improbable; but let it happen whenever it will, may the members of the church have no hand in it." It may not be displeasing to our fellow-episcopalians in the United States to be reminded of this sentiment of their fellow-patriot and fellow-churchman. Whatever may be the political strifes of the country, let them cleave together in spirit as members of one church, and not be induced in the most extreme case to admit a separation even of their external organization without an absolute uncontrollable necessity. They have begun, by the mercy of God, to be a flourishing church; let them take heed that the enemy of all good sow not strifes among them.

The American Temperance Societies have agreed to hold simultaneous meetings of all the friends of temperance, in

I desire to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. To leave this beloved, harmonious, most affectionate, congregation, where we enjoy every comfort and blessing; and go 600 miles beyond the mountains into a new, rough, and often wilderness, country; where habits, society, modes of living are all new; to leave all our relatives, and encounter a life altogether untried, is, indeed, to Mrs. MIlvaine and myself, a severe trial. We feel it deeply; but we are ready, we trust, to go out, as Abraham, to a country to which we are sure the Lord has called us, walking by faith. We greatly need your prayers.

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"The season is too far advanced for the present removal of my family. shall, therefore, set out next week with out them, and make a visit of abontwo months to the Diocese and Kenyon College, for the purpose of doing what episcopal duties are immediately needed, and of making arrangements for my house hold. About May we expect to take our final leave of this dear people."

every village, town, city, and hamlet in the United States, on Tuesday, the 26th of February, and they have stated that it would be highly gratifying to them if similar meetings were held in England, Scotland, and Ireland on the same day. — "Nothing," say they, “could be more encouraging to the heart of the philanthropist, while engaged in the benevolent work of rescuing his fellow-men from the degrading vice of intemperance, from temporal and eternal ruin, than the reflection, that a million of hearts, both in Europe and America were at the same moment animated by the same spirit, and were beating in unison with his own." We understand that this wish had been anticipated by the Temperance Society in London, and that it is recommended to be carried into effect.

It appears that State Temperance So. cieties have already been formed in twentyone of the United States of America, in connexion with the American Temperance Society as a general head. In the State of New-York alone, where the State Society was formed only a little more than three years since, there are already more than eleven hundred Auxiliary Societies in the several counties, cities, towns, villages, and common school districts, containing more than one hundred and sixty thousand members, pledged to the principle of total abstinence from the use of ardent spirits. Among this number will be found the greatest part of the most respectable and influential citizens, judges, legislators, and magistrates. And what is still more important in reference to the future, nearly all of the respectable young men, whose habits were not previously corrupt in this respect, have totally abandoned the use of spirits, and have become members of some of these societies. Already are the beneficial effects of this great combination of moral force felt in the manifest diminution of pauperism and crime, in the improvement of the condition of the labouring classes of the community, and in the extension of peace and righteousness, and the kingdom of our blessed Redeemer. In the desolating pestilence which recently visited New York and many other parts of the State, and which swept off thousands of those who were in the habit of using ardent spirits, the members of Temperance Societies are stated to have almost uniformly escaped.

The Government of the United States has made an effort to produce in its armies, by compulsion, that abstinence which the people have elsewhere adopted from choice. The Secretary of the War Department has issued the following order :-"1. Hereafter no ardent spirits will be issued to the troops of the United States, as a component part of the ration; nor shall any commutation in money therefor be paid to them :-?. No ardent

spirits will be introduced into any fort, camp, or garrison of the United States, nor sold by any sutler to the troops, nor will any permit be granted for the purchase of ardent spirits:-3. As a substitute for the ardent spirits issued previously, or the commutation in money, 8lbs. of sugar and 4lbs. of coffee will be allowed to every 100 of rations; and at those posts where the troops may prefer it, 10lbs. of rice may be issued to every 100 rations, in lieu of the eight quarts of beans allowed by the existing regulations."

Nothing has been settled respecting the dissensions between Holland and Belgium, but it is confidently stated that they are in a hopeful progress of adjust

ment.

The Turkish empire appears tottering to its foundations. The military successes of the Pacha of Egypt, have reduced it to powerless decrepitude, and its future condition will probably depend upon the regulations of the European cabinets, rather than upon its own volitions. We are not confident expositors of the minute details of prophecy, but it is impossible not to see in the present circumstances of the whole Mohammedan superstition, of which Turkey is the great upholder, a striking illustration of the general correctness of the well-known applications of the denunciations of the prophetic page to the false prophet of Arabia.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

R. M.; C. L.; M.; R. D.; PHILALETHES: Exaxicos; P. I.; J. W.; S. T.; J. J. ; J. H. A.; M.; W. A.; AMICUS ECCLESIÆ; M. G. H.; P. T.; are under consideration.

SUPPLEMENT TO RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

NOT passing by the other communications in the accompanying Extracts, we strongly recommend our readers to notice the first, because it relates to that very valuable institution, the Merchant-Seamen's Bible Society; the claims of which we have often urged, and cannot urge too zealously.

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BIS BISHOP DAVENANT was one of the remarkable men of a remarkable age; but, though his name is familiar to divinity students, more especially in reference to the part which he took at the Synod of Dort, the particulars of his personal history are not much known. We are indebted to Mr. Allport, who about two years ago published a translation of the Bishop's Commentary on the Colossians, for a collection of the chief passages of his life, from which we abridge, chiefly in his own words, the following narrative. We shall feel gratified if the perusal of it shall induce any of our readers to refer to Mr. Allport's faithful and excellent translation of the Bishop's great work, which, though too discursive and dissertational to please the popular taste of this "penny-magazine" age, abounds in remarks, criticisms, and disquisitions, highly valuable to the Biblical student, and which Mr. Allport has now for the first time transferred to the vernacular tongue, for the benefit of the English reader, adding, with much research, a variety of biographical and critical notes and illustrations.

The Davenants were a family of great antiquity and respectability, residing, from the time of Sir John Davenant, in the reign of Henry III., on a domain called Davenant's Lands, in the county of Essex. Our prelate, who was one of a numerous family, was born May 20, 1572, in Watling Street, London; of which city his father was an eminent merchant. "When a child," says his nephew Fuller, "he would rather own his own frowardness, than another's flattery; and, when soothed by servants that not John, but some one of his brothers, did cry,' he would rather appear in his own face, than wear their disguise, returning, 'It was none of his brothers, but John only did cry.'

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In 1587, at the age of fifteen, he was admitted of Queen's College, in Cambridge, where he took his degree of A. M. in 1594, after giving such testimony of future eminence, that the learned Dr. Whittaker, pronounced that he would in time prove an honour to the university. In that year a fellowship was offered him, which his father would not permit him to accept, on account of his plentiful fortune; which course our Bishop afterwards adopted, when president of the college: for, having given his vote against one of his own rich relations, he said, "Cousin, I will satisfy your father that you have worth enough, but not want enough, to be of our society." However, in 1597, he was elected Fellow against his will: the president replying to his objection, that "preferment was not always a relief for want, but sometimes an encouragement for worth." In 1601, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 375.

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