ties of the age, and the impracticability of perfectly accomplishing the objects of one society, without the aid of all the others.

Two great objects are now before the American Bible Societyto re-supply, as speedily as may be, all the destitute families in the United States with Bibles. The destitution now existing is great, and is constantly increasing. Multitudes of emigrants from foreign lands are unsupplied. In the hurry of the former supply, the work was often imperfectly done, many families being wholly overlooked. Many of the Bibles were manufactured in haste, and sent out in a green, unfinished state, and of course cannot prove durable. A thorough re-examination and re-supply is therefore imperiously demanded. The other object, is the adoption of preparatory measures for supplying all the families of the earth with the Bible, in the shortest time practicable, and within a definite period. Correspondence on this subject will be holden with the principal foreign Bible Societies. The receipts of the American Society, last year, were about $95,000, of which $37,464 were in payment for books. The issues of Bibles and Testaments were 91,168. It is gratifying to notice that the Society is commencing editions of a superior quality in respect to paper and printing. In our opinion, the Bible and Tract Societies have not hitherto paid sufficient attention to the neatness and beauty of their productions.

The temperance reformation is making rapid progress. The late convention at Philadelphia, embracing between 400 and 500 members, from all parts of the United States, many of whom are gentlemen of the highest respectability and worth, excited great interest, and has been attended with important effects. A very vigorous debate was had upon the question of the immorality of the traffic in ardent spirits. It was finally decided in the affirmative by an overwhelming vote. We are astonished that any respectable man could maintain the contrary. A prominent effect of the discussions, was to produce an unanimity of views and feelings. The delegates returned home, prepared to act with greater zeal and unanimity. The true doctrines in regard to the subject were diffused where they were previously much needed. The editors of political papers, who had previously stood aloof, reported at length the proceedings of this convention. The friends of temperance, also, had the opportunity to declare that they had no other design in view, but the extirpation of the evils of intemperance from the land and world; a declaration which was probably needed in some portions of the United States.

Mexico.

On the declaration of independence by the Mexican provinces, a law immediately followed for the entire abolition of slavery. Each

of the provinces arranged the details of the process of emancipation for itself; but the principles and the most important details are substantially the same. The master enters into an account with his slave, whose value, with that of his family, is estimated as a debt due from him to his master, which debt the slave and his family cancel by their labors. The duties of the servant and of the master are fixed by law as definitely as the nature of the case admits, and magistrates are appointed in every neighborhood for the express purpose of enforcing them. As the results of this system, the servants worked out their freedom and that of their families in a few years. During the process, they acquired habits of forethought and economy. The hope of bettering their condition gave a spring to their minds, and an elevation to the whole character, and thus they were fitted for the enjoyment of perfect liberty, by the very process of acquiring it. They have chosen generally to remain, as hired laborers, on the plantation to which they belonged.

West Endies.

When the late insurrection broke out in Jamaica, the English Baptist missions on that island numbered 10,800 members, and about 20,000 serious inquirers on the subject of religion. In the closing week of 1831, an insurrection broke out among the negroes in the parishes of St. James and Trelawney, which afterwards extended in a less degree to some of the neighboring parishes. Such an alarm was excited, that the governor proclaimed martial law, the whole military force of the island was called out, and the disturbances were not quelled till the beginning of February, 1832. In the interval, property to a large amount, on nearly 200 estates, was consumed by fire. About 2,000 of the poor, misguided slaves, are computed to have forfeited their lives. Scarcely any blood seems to have been shed by the negroes; their object appears to have been the attainment of freedom, which they erroneously supposed to have been granted by the British government, but withheld by their owners. The opponents of the religious instruction of the slaves, seized on this opportunity for accusing the missionaries, particularly the Baptist, as accessories to the revolt. The most unremitting efforts were employed to rouse the white population to destroy all sectarian places of worship, and to expel the preachers from the island. Many acts of atrocious outrage were committed. A colonial church union, for the purpose of expelling sectarianism from the island, was formed in eleven parishes. Three of the missionaries were apprehended, Burchell, Knibb, and Gardner; the bill of indictment against the former, was thrown out, and the evidence against the two latter was so futile

that the attorney general refused to proceed. The loss of property, and interruptions occasioned to the missions, were very great. The amount required to rebuild the places of worship destroyed, without including the heavy legal expenses incurred in defending the accused missionaries, is about £17,000.

South Sea Eslands.

The American Mission at the Sandwich Islands was never an object of greater interest than at the present moment. The inhabitants of Christian countries are by no means aware of the difficulties of raising up a savage people to the enjoyment and character of a civilized society. Paganism disarranges the whole intellectual structure of man. It renders it impossible for the gospel to gain a complete triumph in one generation. Real piety may be possessed, where the memory is filled with loathsome recollections, the imagination burdened with degrading images, the mind totally destitute of refinement, and the whole body very imperfectly controlled by the authority of the will. In a country, where Christianity has been long enjoyed, an influence exists, which is derived from unseen, abstract, immaterial objects, imparting an elevation to the purpose, a dignity to the motive, an intellectual character, even where the gospel does not exert its highest influence. No such thing exists in pagan lands. This mental and moral influence is to be created. In fact, the very foundations of society are to be laid anew. You cannot transfer a community from a savage to a civilized state. That community must be formed again. The idols at the Sandwich islands are destroyed, but the intellectual idolatry exists;—that is, idolatry has poisoned the soul; its contaminating influence will end only with life, and not then, unless the grace of God has intervened. Our brethren at the Sandwich Islands have performed a noble work, but the battle is not yet fought. The paganism of the mind and soul remains. We, in Christian lands, must study the difficulties with which they have to meet. We must look often at the melancholy side of the picture. We must be prepared for temporary reverses. We must encourage their progress by fully appreciating the appalling obstacles, with which they are called to contend even after Christianity is nominally established. We must not give full credit to every sanguine reporter of facts. We must compare and weigh accounts. It requires sound discretion, and no small measure of Christian philosophy, for a man on the ground to convey a just impression of the real state of a mission.

The above remarks will apply in their full force to the Society and Georgian islands. The habits of the people, fixed for ages, are to

be broken up. The devil has erected his throne in the very constitution of the soul, and he will not be expelled without a desperate struggle. Over these islands, the fire of ardent spirits has also burned, and it is still burning. The Temperance reform, and it is not strange, has hardly reached that distant quarter of the world. Public opinion in England does not yet send a full measure of regenerating influence to the colonies and missions.

Africa.

A number of circumstances are conspiring to direct public attention to this continent. It was ascertained by the Landers, that the river Niger below Boosà, after wandering four or five hundred miles through the heart of western Africa, and receiving the contribution of many navigable streams, empties itself into the ocean, by several mouths, through the gulph of Guinea. The Nun river, by which the Landers descended to the sea, discharges its waters near cape Formosa; a promontory separating the bight of Biafra from the bight of Benin. By the Nun, the Niger is navigable for the whole four or five hundred miles between Boosà and the ocean. Though above Boosà, the channel is obstructed by rocks, yet little doubt exists of its having a communication with Timbuctoo. It appears highly probable that the whole course of the Niger is through a thickly populated region, studded with towns and villages hitherto unvisited by Europeans. Soon after the results of the expedition of the Landers were communicated in England, an expedition was planned at Liverpool for the purpose of exploring the Niger, and for establishing a settlement, if thought expedient, at Patàshie, a large and beautiful island in the Niger, one day's journey below Boosà. The command of the expedition is intrusted to Richard Lander. It is composed of two steamers and one sailing vessel. The largest steamer, commanded by Mr. Herries, is called the Quôrra, and is of nearly 150 tons. The other is of wrought iron, and is called the Alburkah, an Arabic word, which signifies blessing. She draws but two feet of water, and carries fifty tons, and will be capable of ascending the Niger much farther than her formidable companion. The sailing vessel, called the Columbine, will furnish the steamers with the necessary fuel, goods, &c. The expedition is amply supplied with chronometers and other instruments for making the necessary scientific observations and surveys. The British and Foreign Bible Society availed itself of this first opening into central Africa, to send thither copies of the Bible, and the merchants themselves, who planned the expedition, consigned presents of the Scriptures to the principal chiefs on the river. One of these merchants is Adam Hodgson, Esq., well known in the United States for

his liberal views and Christian feelings. It is gratifying to reflect that Liverpool, a city deeply implicated in the slave traffic, is leading the way in efforts to communicate the blessings of learning and christianity to the interior of that continent. The expedition reached Cape Coast castle on the 7th of October last, and soon proceeded up the Nun.

In the train of this expedition, it is highly probable that Christian missions will follow.

Perhaps no portion of the unevangelized world is making more rapid advances towards civilization than South Africa. The British government is more enlightened and liberal than in past days. The "Bible and School commission," formed in 1813, have established schools in the principal village of each district of the colony. In two schools in Cape Town, and twenty-four elsewhere, belonging to the Commission, there are 1,267 scholars. In Cape Town, there are twelve private schools for boys and ten for young ladies; two schools of industry have one hundred and forty scholars; an infant school has sixty pupils; a grammar school, begun in 1824, is supported by government; a college begun in 1829, supports itself, and is the first institution in the colony which has rendered it unnecessary to send children to Europe for education, and will be the means of raising many competent teachers for the district schools. The Dutch have a school, preparatory to the college, with 180 scholars. All these schools are independent of the various missionary and Sabbath schools. Temperance societies are about to be established in several places. It seems that the Hottentots have frequently been paid for their services in brandy alone. Among the Caffre tribes, occupying several hundreds of miles of the coast from Keiskamma river to the vicinity of Dalgoa bay, there are eleven missionary stations. Thirteen missionaries, connected with these stations, have lately requested the British and Foreign Bible Society to aid them in printing the Bible in Caffre. Many of the stations in Caffreland have, during the past year, been visited with the special influences of the Holy Spirit. At Lattakoo, 630 miles north-east of Cape Town, a printing press was established in June, 1831, which is now occupied on various small books.

The island of Madagascar is supposed to contain 4,000,000 of inhabitants. The queen, by an order of May 20, 1831, gave the missionaries of the London missionary society, liberty to preach, and her subjects permission to act according to their convictions. The printing of the New Testament in Mallagasse, and a considerable part of the Old, is completed. The number of scholars in the schools is about 2,500; and of communicants, 100.

Abyssinia, the scene of so many destructive wars, is in an unsettled