a text book in some of the universities of Scotland, and which has met with the decided approbation of the most competent judges. His literary character, particularly as a linguist, stood so high that the university of Glasgow, in which he had been educated, conferred upon him the degree of doctor in divinity, an honour as unexpected as it was unsolicited. From 1797 to 1818, he was the Presbyterian minister of Dundalk, from which place he removed in the latter year to Belfast.

Ecclesiastical Preferments. Rev. R. M. Mant, Mountsea V. and Killodurwan R. in the diocese of Killaloe.-Dr. Laffin to be archbishop, and the very rev. Dr. Wright to be vicar capitular of the Roman catholic archdiocese of Cashel.

IN resuming our Summary of Missionary Proceedings, unavoidably omitted in the last Number, we are happy, on the whole, to have abundant cause for congratulating the Christian public on the encouraging complexion of the information communicated by the various societies, within the last six months.

The SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE has recently received a very large addition to its funds, in the munificent legacy of £20,000. 3 per cent consols, bequeathed by the rev. Edward Parkinson, late rector of Great Leigh, Essex; and of other considerable bequests. Of its large, though not rapidly increasing revenues, £1000. has been granted to the special fund, for counteracting infidel publications, whose operations, if they have not been as effectual as could be wished, have, at least, been most zealous. In India there are now five diocesan and district committees in connexion with this society, and they are actively engaged in the establishment of schools, in circles consisting of five native, and one central English school. The first circle in the neighbourhood of Calcutta is nearly completed: and, under the direction of the active bishop of that diocese, a Christian school, somewhat on the footing of an English parochial one, is about to be erected on a spot, liberally granted by government—from funds left by will at his lordship's disposal, for some charitable purpose. Depots for the sale and distribucion of the books and tracts of the society, have also been established in different parts of Bengal, and new ones are establishing, for the supply, amongst others, of the military hospitals, orphan schools, and other public establishments; and also of the pilot schooners, of this extensive and thickly populated commercial district. A considerable increase has lately been observed with pleasure in the demand for Bibles, a supply of which, with other religious works, has been sent to John Adams and his little interesting colony on Pitcairn's island-whence it is hoped, that some opportunity will, ere long, be found of conveying the knowledge of the Christian religion to some of the neighbouring islands, whose inhabitants never heard the name of God or of his Son. Eight hundred school books have also been placed at the disposal of the chaplain at New South Wales, who estimates the number of children of European parents there, at 5,000. To meet the increasing demands of these new fields of operation for its exertions, the society has placed a further sum of £1,000. at the disposal of the bishop of Calcutta, and also voted £5,000. towards the establishment of a missionary college in the metropolis of that see. The district committee at Bombay has lately had a considerable augmentation of its resources, in an annual grant of the governor in council, of 842 rupees, for the supply,

through the committee, of a certain number of books to the English troops in hospital, and the English seamen of the company's cruisers. Co-operating most cordially with the Bombay education society, they have also engaged to supply all schools in any way connected with it, with books gratuitously, as they accordingly now do for 600 children, of whom about 200 are natives. The committee at Madras are also equally active with the two already referred to; they are carrying on the establishment of book depots with vigour, and the ancient missions of this venerable society in their district are about to be re-established and increased with every prospect of success. On their behalf, the chaplain at Palmacotta has recently visited those in that remote district, and reports of the condition of the two stations, Nazareth and at Mothalloor, that he had seldom witnessed so much religion in a town in England, as was conspicuous there; indeed, such was the effect of the order observed in these two protestant villages in the midst of a pagan land, that some of the Hindoos of the neighbourhood candidly admitted that they were very quiet and safe places. At present they are under the sole care of the native priests; one of them (Vissivarsemadur) converted since the last report of this society, a man of considerable abilities, as well as of genuine piety, the chaplain heard deliver a sermon to his own congregation, that would have done credit to a minister of superior and more regular clerical education. Both to him and to Abraham, (the other native priest) their flock and the surrounding Christians seem to be very warmly attached, and if properly encouraged, they may be the means of doing much good. By a religious tract society, established in this presidency, in 1818, and having now an annual revenue of about £140. three tracts, of 4,000 copies each, have been printed in Telogoo and Tamul, in which last language Dr. Rottler has completed a translation of the liturgy of the church of England, now about to be introduced among the Palmacotta churches.

Our MORAVIAN brethren are still proceeding slowly, but surely, in their honourable work of at once eva gelizing and civilizing the Hottentots of Southern Africa. At their flourishing settlement of Gaudenthal, a garden in the midst of a desert, they have now 1,400 inhabitants, and 500 communicants, and are frequently cheered in their exertions by the dying testimony of these converted savages to the truth in Jesus. The whole settlement evince in their conduct, the beneficial influence of the instruction they have received, in changing them from worse than idle rovers, into industrious labourers, and useful members of society. In the re-established settlement of Eanon, rapid progress is making towards providing the missionaries, and their interesting protégées, 162 in number, with the necessaries, and such of the conveniencies of life, as are to be obtained in a region where the tiger, the elephant, and the lion, dispute with them the possession of the soil, and the property in their flocks and herds, whilst they must live in constant jeopardy of a repetition of the marauding incursions of more cruel men, by which they were recently driven from their humble and peaceful colony in the pathless wild. Well, indeed, may it be said of them, that they go forth to their great work with their lives in their hands, but they go forth, we rejoice to know, beneath the guardian protection of Him who never slumbereth, but whose eyes are always upon those who do his will, and that to bless and to protect them. By His blessing on their endeavours, the prospect is widely changed since they came hither. Corn is now growing, where, four mouths before, the bushes were so thick, that a dog could scarcely have made his way through them. The Caffrees have not yet exhibited any symptoms of a wish to break the treaty of peace they have entered into, and hopes are entertained that this disposition will be lasting. In this hope we the more willingly indulge, in that a race as wild,

4

seem in another part of the world to have been subdued, by the blessing of God on their exertions, to habits of peace, order, and religion. The mission to the Cherokee Indians, after nearly twenty years of patient waiting for the out-pouring of the spirit, and of hoping against hope, has recently proved a most eminently successful one. Chiefly by a steady perseverance in educating the children of the natives, even after many of the warm friends of the mission had considered the measure hopeless, a general inquiry after the better road in which they were taught to tread has been excited in their parents, especially in their mothers, who have here, as every where, the greatest influence over, and connexion with, the rising generation. A new station is about to he formed at Oustolochy, the capital, as it may well be termed, of the Cherokee nation, for there the national government holds its meetings in a new council-house, which, before the first talk was held there, was, at the request of the assembled chiefs, dedicated by prayer and a sermon, to the living God. With that liberality and sound policy which so eminently marks its conduct in christianizing and civilizing the savage hordes by whom its states are surrounded, the American government has made this mission an annual allowance of 250 dollars, with a promise of an increased contribution, and an engagement to defray two thirds of the expences of whatever buildings may be erected by its agents. By the continued and combined exertions of those agents, and of the government resident amongst the Cherokees, this wild and savage race are daily advancing in civilization. The English is now the official language of the country, and not a few of its chiefs have adopted it as their vernacular one, discarding with their Indian speech, the more objectionable national customs in which they have most of them been trained from their youth. Many of them have quitted the bow and the spear, for the scythe and the pruning-hook, and from mighty hunters, have been converted into peaceful husbandmen. All their chiefs, the younger ones especially, zealously espouse the cause of civilization and instruction; as the principal means of promoting which, they look with favour and with confidence to the schools and chapels of the missionaries.

In the great field of its exertion, the East Indies, the BAPTIST MISSION is still, we hope, making progress, though, from the deep-rooted prejudice of the people, that progress must, to all human apprehension, necessarily be slow. The Scriptures and religious tracts are widely distributing, and seem to be exciting inquiries in every direction, though but one here and there seems openly to embrace the truths they inculcate. To our apprehension, however, one of the most encouraging prospects which presents itself for the general diffusion of the Gospel amongst the countless millions of Hindostan, is the rapid progress evidently made amongst the higher classes by the Vedantic or monotheistical doctrines of their own philosophers; for certainly pure Deism itself were far better ground to work upon, than the complicated and abstruse mythology- the numerous rites and ceremonies, and purifications and casts of the followers of Brahma, and his ten thousand gods. One of the missionaries, who has travelled more than 200 miles N.W. of Delhi to the borders of the Punjab, distributed, in his way through this fruitful but benighted region, a thousand religious books and tracts, and amongst them copies of the Scriptures, in the various languages spoken' by the people whom he was likely to meet with in his intended route, and who generally received them with thanks, as was especially the case with the Sikhs. At Benares, and in its neighbourhood, and indeed in many other districts, several Brahmins and Mussulmen are visiting the missionaries to get instructed in the new way of salvation of which they have lately' heard; and for the most part, receive gladly the copies of the Scriptures and VOL. III.-No.5.

tracts presented to them. At Serampore several converts have recently been added by baptism to the visible, as we hope by regeneration they are added also to the invisible, church of God, some of whom are Brahmins, one a Chinese, and another, the devotee mentioned in the last summary. An Ascetic has also been baptized, who lived for years in the Sunderbunds, among the wild beasts, wearing round his neck an amulet made of the vertebræ of serpents. At the valuable mission press there the Mahratta Bible is almost finished, as are also the historical books in Punjabee, and the Pentateuch in Telinga, Pushtoo, and Kunkeena. Ere this we have also every reason to conclude that the New Testament has been printed there in Goojurattee, Bikaneer, Kashmeer, and Kurnata. Five native young men have offered themselves as missionaries in the neighbourhood of their respective dwellings, and tender their services gratuitously. In Java no very visible progress is making, excepting the preliminary measure of translating the New Testament into Javanese, which is already done, as far as the epistle to the Colossians. Four members constitute the whole of the church there, but its paster is diligent in preaching and teaching, and is labouring hard at the Herculean task of reducing the Malayan language to some regular rules of orthography, and is translating from writings in it. At Sumatra a wider field has opened. Not long since the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands of Pulo Nias, containing a population of 100,000 souls, sent to Sir Stamford Raffles, to ask of what religion they should be, a question to which the most appropriate answer was returned, when, at the suggestion of this enlightened governor, one of the two missionaries of this society lately arrived in Sumatra, determined to commence his labours amongst them; with how fair a prospect of success Sir Stamford's letter to one of the editors of this work, published in our last number, will evince.

In Jamaica large congregations are collected, and larger still might be gathered, could accommodations be provided for the hundreds who are obliged to go away from the missionary chapels unable to get adinission there. Rules have been drawn up for the moral conduct of the negroes, and notwithstanding the opposition of some of their leaders, we are happy to hear that they are very generally observed. As many as 74 of this oppressed and long neglected race have at one time been received into the Christian church by baptism, and there is good reason to conclude, from the report of the missionaries, that due precaution is taken previous to the administration of this initiatory rite. Two nights in the week, for six weeks, had they been entirely engaged in examining candidates for communion, between forty or fifty of whom were remanded on further probation, in the hope that many of them would soon be able to give more satisfactory answers to the questions propounded to them.

Of the extended exertions and encouraging prospects of the LONDON, MISSIONARY SOCIETY we have already given a summary account in another, part of our work, and to that we have comparatively little here to add. The protecting hand of a kind Providence has again been manifested in preserving Mr. Campbell from all harm, on a journey 250 miles farther into the interior of Africa than any European had previously penetrated. The districts he visited are evidently more civilized than any of the native states of Southern Africa with which we are acquainted, and there is therefore reason to hope that the missionaries whom the chiefs of Kurruchanee have consented to receive, may be the means of doing much good more speedily than has hitherto been the case in these inhospitable regions. It is probable also, that the establishment of this new and most important mission may lead to the settlement of an English colony at Delagoa Bay, which pre

sents unusual advantages to settlers, and such as in the hands of the Portuguese, and for the uses of the South Sea whalers, have hitherto been but little improved in comparison with what may be done. In Lattakoo but little advance seems hitherto to have been made in real piety; and perhaps it is as much as we could expect, to find the missionaries well received and accommodated by the king and his people, who are said by Mr. and Mrs. Moffatt, who have arrived among them, to be much superior to other tribes of the same savage race. Of the pleasing prospects opened in Madagáséar we have already given an account in our report of the Society's anniversary, and no time will be lost in endeavouring to realize them. In China the Word of life will, there is every reason to expect, ere long, be given in the native language of its millions of population, the finishing stroke to the :translation of the Scriptures having been put by Dr. Morrison, on the 29th of Nov., 1819. The mission, of which he is so distinguished an ornament, notwithstanding the trials and opposition it has to contend with in so distant a region of the globe, goes on, upon the whole, so prosperously, that a species of tontine has been formed by the missionaries, for the providing a fund for their widows and orphans. It affords us satisfaction to know that they are able to do this, and that they are also willing, though we are fully satisfied that the Christian public would never suffer the wives and children of those to want the bread which perisheth, who had been their messengers in conveying to a world lying in darkness the Word of life. At Pulo Pelang, a school for Malay and Kling children and adults has been opened by the missionary of the Society, under the assistance of a native teacher. In the East Indies the Society has sustained a great loss in the removal of Mr. Pritchett, the indefatigable translator of the New Testament into the Teloogoo language, from his labours to his rest. His former colleagues are, however, endeavouring, by extra exertions, to make up, as far as possible, for his loss. A new chapel has been opened at Seringapatam, and a printing press erected at Bellary, furnished both with Canarese and European types, so that it is reasonably hoped, that considerable progress will soon be made in printing the Scriptures and tracts, at a spot possessing such peculiar advantages for their circulation through iminense and thickly populated districts. Similar facilities for printing in the Tamul language have also been afforded to the mission at South Travancore, whence we are gratified to learn that the rajah of Tanjore has contributed 550 rupees towards the expence of a Christian place of worship now erecting at Nagarioil, whence the missionaries itinerate to the neighbouring villages with some_pleasing prospects of not labouring altogether in vain. At Seringapatan, Complee, Belgam, and Hydrabad, missionaries are much wanted, and would be most cordially received.

A tropical climate not agreeing with the state of Mr. Knill's health, he has been removed to St. Petersburgh, with an ultimate view to the deserts of Siberia, as the field of his useful missionary labours.

Shortly after the London Missionary Society commenced its operations, a similar institution was formed, on a smaller scale, in the sister kingdom, under the title of the GLASGOW MISSIONARY SOCIETY, co-operating with the former in a mission to the Foulah country, on the N.W. coast of Africa, and also sending forth, independently, a few missionaries into the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone. At both these stations the Society's agents laboured without any permanent success, and their zealous patrons at home struggled for many years in obscurity, with difficulties of no ordinary operation, successively opposed to the advancement of their design, which still, however, they did not abandon, and at length they have succeeded in establishing a regular Christian mission to the Caffres, in whose savage hordes their prin