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Emigration, held recently at Sydney, that within five years from this time 60,000 labourers and servants will be wanted and must be had; and when it is considered that these emigrants are dispersed in the wilderness of New South Wales on their arrival, many of them going to cuttle runs 2000 miles off, where never a priest appears, and vice and drunkenness abound,—it would be an act of Christian charity, if emigrant ships could be supplied with proper religious instructors, and not be left to the mercy of Unitarian or infidel surgeons, who either cannot or will not undertake the cure of the soul, as well as the killing of the body. Yet there are religious men at sea; and to mention one with honour, there is a Dr. Browning, on board H.M.S. Hercules, who has three times been out with convicts and emigrants to this country, and who has done much good in his generation and day, by precept and example. We also spoke and boarded the barque Albyn, from Greenock to Bombay, in February. The captain could not come to my service, because he had one of his own every Sunday. He told me, that he had morning prayers every day, and not one of his crew was absent, who was employed about the ship. Why should not chaplains as well as doctors be engaged for emigrant ships? Whilst I had health, I found a wide field of usefulness, and I must say, with some few exceptions, I found the people willing and anxious to be taught. Many of them readily sought for books of instruction, and none seemed so desirous of them as the Romanists. What good might not a person, armed with power, as a superintendent is, to do almost as he likes, effect, if instead of opposing a volunteer clergyman, he steadily set himself to oppose error and iniquity, of which in an emigrant ship there is sufficient to make the thinking man tremble for the consequences. After we left the line, we had calmer and light winds, the thermometer frequently marking 100° of heat, and between it and the Cape I was called on to perform the last duties over five of the children. After we left the Cape, where there were on our arrival 6,600 cases of measles, diarrhoea and dysentery, death made greater havoc amongst us, and notwithstanding ten more, amongst them five adults, died, still there was no recognition of Him who sent the infliction, save in the prayers over the dead, slovenly read by any one who would officiate in the doctor's place. This is not, I find, a solitary instance; the custom is in the emigrant ships to send out a Scotch doctor, a youth just out of college, and who often has as little to recommend him as can conveniently be carried to sea. Now emigration is a national concern, and if our peasants and artisans are by government agency and connivance shipped off by thousands, year after year, is it right to send them out to such a colony as this, without a due consideration to the good or harm they are likely to contract on the voyage? If England and Ireland be thus relieved of their surplus population, let them give in exchange proper religious instruction to those of whom they are relieved. In an emigrant ship (and in all but Mr. Marshall's, the sexes are indiscriminately mingled in one common sleeping apartment) there are plenty of incentives to every kind of wickedness, and it is a positive duty to a mass of people, as numerous as the inhabitants of an ordinary country parish, and to this colony also, to remove as much as possible all the opportunities of irreligion. Bad as the ship was, I have no hesitation in declaring, that so

long as the Sunday service was performed, it was freer from vice than afterwards. The very words of our incomparable Liturgy have a charm in them, to restrain the indulgences of the sinner; but what must a ship be, containing all sorts, all tempers, and all dispositions, when the Lord's day is openly profaned, or only remembered as a day of licentiousness, the public recognition of it set aside, and religion jeered at by those who ought to be made responsible for its culture? It is but fair to Mr. Marshall to say, that he has provided on paper for the contrary; if he would institute a proper inquiry into the religious principles of the captains and superintendents he employs, his vessels would be incomparably better managed than those of any other consigners of living cargos to the settlers in Australia.

Yours most truly,

W. B. C.

PSALM CVII. PART 4.*

THE SEA.

THEY who go down in daring bark,
And plunge in rage of ocean dark,
Their daily harvest reap
Amid the many waters, they
The mighty works of God survey,
His wonders in the deep.

He spake; high swell'd the whirling blast,
The waves of God so high and fast

Ascend, to heaven they rise;
Then down amid the deeps below
They sink; in self-consuming woe
Their spirit melts and dies.

They reel as revellers to and fro,
And like a drunkard staggering go;
Their deep device and skill,

To their own heart dismay'd return :—
For God in prayer they ask and yearn
In that dark hour of ill.

They call'd the Eternal, and he free'd
And sav'd them in th' o'erwhelming need;
The whirlwind's ruthless wing
He stay'd-in calm it dies away,
And the hush'd waves in peace decay ;-
Their hearts for gladness spring.

Glad are they, for they are at rest:
So to the land they love the best,
The port of their desire,

He guides them; where to Israel's Lord,
His tender love, His ways ador'd,

Their anthems shall aspire;

• Verses 23-32.

And tell His wonders, wrought in need
For children of our mortal seed;
So may His holy Name

Find glory, where the people meet;
The elders in the judgment seat

His endless might proclaim.

From "The Psalter in English verse,” by PROFESSor Keble.

REPAIR OF FOOTPATHS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER.

SIR, A correspondent in a late number of the British Magazine remarks that church-going, so far at least as regards pedestrians, depends in some degree upon the footpaths. This is true; and I am persuaded that the clergy and other influential individuals cannot perform a more acceptable service to their poorer neighbours than by enforcing the repair of the common footpaths. When we consider the number of persons who are compelled to travel on these paths, winter as well as summer, and often carrying burdens, we see the charity there is in making some exertion that they be kept in good repair. In general it is hoped the surveyor would immediately attend to any proper application, but should he prove restive, I beg to refer your readers to 5 & 6 William IV. c. 50, sect. 94. It is there provided that any person may lay an information before a justice, if a highway (which includes a footpath) is not "in thorough repair." The information may be made before any justice, but must be upon oath, and sixpence, and no more, can be demanded for it by the clerk. This being done, the informant has nothing further to do. The Act requires the justice to issue a summons to the surveyor to appear at the Special Sessions for the Highways; at which sessions the justices either appoint a person to view the highway complained of, or they view it themselves, and then at the next sessions they adjudicate, and must fine the party and compel the repair. The Clergy so often appear as the poor man's friend, that I am sure you will gladly insert this in your next number. I have the honour to be, your obedient servant,

Newcastle-on-Tyne, Oct. 12, 1839.

W. C. W.

CHURCH SOCIETIES.

MR. EDITOR,-I have read with much satisfaction in the Ecclesiastical Gazette for August, the following notice. The plan detailed is so simple and so excellent, and the direct and indirect advantages that would result from its general adoption are so apparent, that upon being made acquainted with it, every right-minded clergyman and layman must feel constrained to go and do likewise. With this view, Mr. Editor, I would request you to re-publish the article.

Yours, faithfully,

X.

UPPER CLAPTON AND STAMFORD HILL CHURCH FUND.

The remarkable success which has attended the establishment of this fund induces us to bring the plan under the notice of the Clergy generally. In consequence of a recommendation contained in the charge of the Bishop of London last year, with reference to five Church Societies, an address to the members of the congregation of Stamford-hill Chapel was drawn up by the Rev. C. J. Heathcote. Its object was to explain the nature of the five Societies named by the Bishop, and to exhort every one to contribute something. Mr. Heathcote also waited upon the master or mistress of every family, and endeavoured to interest them in the object.

In the address it is stated that, "though the importance of collecting a large sum must not be overlooked, it is much more desirable, that we should all, out of one common feeling for the Church of which we are members, give something, than that a few only in comparison should give largely.

"It is, however, the heads of families among us, the masters and mistresses of households, who are more especially called upon for their cooperation in this work; nor is their own individual support of the Church fund more earnestly requested, than that they would recommend it to the different members of their families and households, that they would interest themselves in explaining to them the great christian purposes to which they are invited to contribute, and, as far as their own households are concerned, take the charge of the collection upon themselves.

"And to what better end, it may be asked, could the influence of that station be directed, in which it has pleased God to place every master and mistress of a family? or what would better become the christian heads of christian households, standing as they do before God in something of the light of his ministers to the Church, in their own houses, than the coming before him once a year, and laying upon his altar the united tribute of themselves and their families to the service of his Church?"

The congregation consists of about one hundred families. The amount of the contributions to the several Societies during the year is as follows:

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TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER.

MR. EDITOR,-It may be satisfactory to your correspondent X, whose letter you have been good enough to communicate to me, and to others, who, with him, see the great importance of such "Church Funds" as those noticed in the above extract from the Ecclesiastical, if I state a little more in detail the steps taken in the formation of it. And I will do this, with your leave, by making an extract from the notice prefixed to a pamphlet of a few pages, just published, containing the Sermon recommending the formation of the Fund; the Address circulated; the Rules adopted for the management of the Fund; and an Account of the Subscriptions to it.

*

Living in the diocese of London, I was happy enough to be able to carry with me the Bishop's recommendation of these Societies in his last charge, and his injunction to his Clergy to recommend them to their flocks. With his sanction thus secured to the undertaking, I called upon the master or mistress of the households composing my congregation, entered generally into all necessary particulars on the subject, but specially urged their taking upon themselves, as the christian heads of christian families, the making a yearly collection from their households for the Church-in support of these Societies: not, be it observed, for this or that Society, but for the Church as at work through them I then left behind me one of the circulars, containing, on the fourth page, a manuscript list of the subscriptions already received, apportioned out, in different columns, to each Society; requesting that it might be returned, with such additional sums, similarly apportioned, as the different members of the family might think fit to contribute. When these circulars had all been returned (and this was soon the case), a meeting of the subscribers was called, and the necessary arrangements for the management of the Fund completed.

The good resulting from the union of young and old, rich and poor, master and servant, in such an association, is not to be measured by the money's worth contributed. An interest in the proceedings of the Church is thus often kindled, where little or none had been felt before; personal affection for her substituted for lukewarm approval, or mere prepossession in her favour; and more and more felt of that one heart, and one mind, that so remarkably distinguished the early Church. God increase it in the disciples of his Son here, and all over the world!"

ON IMAGE WORSHIP.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER.

SIR, I cannot but think that your correspondent, Presbyter Anglicanus, in your last Number, takes somewhat dangerous ground as the apologist of "graven images," and the "likenesses of things in heaven above and in the earth beneath." It is true that he acknowledges the absurdity of image worship, and admits that they are guilty of idolatry who follow ROMISH image worship. But is your correspondent aware that the Romanists adopt the self-same excuses for the respect paid by

* A Review of this excellent Sermon will be found in our present Number.

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