continue in their idolatry, by visiting with severe disabilities those who become Christians. How is it that no proprietor of East India stock has brought this matter distinctly before the court? It might not be too late even now to move for the Judge Advocate General's opinion in the case of sepoy Dooming, as a text for a weighty comment. This man, who professed to be a Christian convert, was a sepoy musician in the 60th regiment of Bengal Native Infantry. He deserted, but returned, and being brought to trial before a European court martial, was sentenced to receive corporal punishment. The sentence came before the Brigadier commanding, for his confirmation; but this officer, looking to the general order of Lord Bentinck,considered himself barred from giving his assent to the sentence of the Court, as, according to his judgment, the order was meant to apply to all soldiers in the Native army. But he laid the case before the Judge Advocate General for his opinion, and that officer decided as follows:-" Sir, I have the honour to return the proceedings of a European Court Martial, held in the 60th N. I. upon sepoy and musician John Dooming. I conceive that the prisoner Dooming was correctly sentenced to corporal punishment, and that Lieutenant-Colonel Tulloch might have carried the same into effect without any reference to you, the award not exceeding 300 lashes. The general order of the 24th February, 1835, does not extend to Christian drummers or musicians, who are governed by the rules laid down in the articles of war for the European troops. It only affects Native soldiers not professing the Christian religion." (Signed, G. Young, Judge Advocate General, Judge Advocate General's Office, Fort William, 16th April, 1836.) In this decision, the Judge decides that, by the Company's regulations, the profession of Christianity exposes a man to a military flogging, who would have escaped by being an idolator. The man's character has nothing to do with the question. He is liable to be flogged, not for desertion, but for being a Christian; for had he deserted, but had not been a Christian, he would not have been liable to be flogged. His desertion did not indeed indicate that his Christianity was very deep (though be perhaps met with much persecution from his comrades, and no countenance elsewhere); but even the bare recognition of the Gospel was sufficient to expose him to the lash. We are not among the advocates for military flogging, which we believe might be safely done away with, if suitable rewards,

religious culture, and more salutary punishments, where necessary, were substituted; but if British soldiers are to be flogged, and Indian soldiers not, at least do not make the reason of the difference to be, that flogging is a Christian privilege; so much so that a sepoy, upon his being baptized, becomes entitled to it, though he would not have had that advantage had he professed idolatry. A distinction so deliberately insulting to the Gospel we do not believe was ever adopted by any nation calling itself Christian. The East India Company does not pretend that the sepoy acquires by baptism any privilege; and yet it subjects him to the liability of corporal punishment! He is an outcast from his family, his friends, his country; a wretched persecuted fugitive; and the only visible indication which his Christian masters give, that they recognize his having been signed with the sign of the cross, is that he is now subjected, in case of blame, to the discipline of the cat-o'-nine-tails!

And here perhaps it may not be too wide a digression to lay before our readers a document lately received from India, which relates to that great cause of military crimes-intoxication. The Duke of Wellington has recorded, as the result of his large experience, that almost all the offences which lead to the infliction of the lash in the military service, originate in drunkenness; and something has been done, both in the army and navy, towards lessening the consumption of ardent spirits. But hitherto the experiment has been very inadequate; and there seems to exist a lingering notion, that a daily portion of alcohol is necessary as an ordinary beverage for soldiers and sailors upon service; necessary in hot climates because it is hot, and in cold climates because it is cold. This notion is declared to be unfounded by innumerable witnesses, especially medical officers, from a large induction of facts in every region of the globe; but as the prejudice still clings to the minds of many estimable persons, we are glad to be able to present for their consideration the following attestation from the victorious army of the Indus.

"Camp Cabool, Sept. 9, 1839. "We, the undersigned, hereby declare to the British army and the world, that through Divine Providence and with the aid of steady habits of abstinence from ardent spirits, we have been enabled to arrive at Cabool, the capital of Affghanistan, with the army of the Indus.' And it is our opinion, that ardent spirits are not necessary as a beverage for soldiers on actual service,

but are, on the contrary, liquids exciting to crime, and leading to disease and death.

"We likewise beg to bear our testimony to the following facts. The marches of the army have been often long, from fourteen to eighteen miles per diem; and on one occasion, in Cutch Gundava, the Bengal regiments completed a march of twenty-six miles across a desert, and those from Bombay made one of about forty-six miles. It is estimated that the troops have traversed upwards of 1300 miles. Water has been sometimes scarce, and very generally brackish and bad on the road, and for some time the troops were put upon short rations, and had neither tea nor coffee to drink. There has been much sickness in the force, but the medical men have attributed this to fatigue, exposure to the sun, and to the want of a good vegetable diet. It is but fair to add, that some of them have been of opinion, that weakened men sunk faster, in consequence of suddenly being deprived of the stimulus of spirits on the route between Candahar and Cabool. At this present writing, now that vegetables are plentiful, and the weather moderate, the health of the army is improving, without arrack or spirituous substitute. The army, since its formation, from the 1st of November, 1838, has had to endure many privations, which are common to troops on field service.

"The European soldiers were put upon one dram per day on the 6th of May, and since the 8th of July none has been issued to them. The rear brigades made forced marches for some days, in order to reach Gheznee in time for the assault; and came up in excellent order without the aid of any spirit rations.

"On the morning of the 23d of July the force attacked the fort of Gheznee, and in about three hours it fell. When this place was carried by storm, a crowd of unfortunate women were found in the citadel, within the harem or zunanu of Hyder Khan, son of the Ameer of Cabool, to not one of whom a single insult was offered. This not only elicited the admiration of every officer in the army, from the commander-in-chief downwards, but also astonished the van. quished. The result might have been far different if the troops had entered the fortress primed with arrack, or had found any ardent spirits within its walls.

"There has been a great diminution of crime in the regiments of the army; since, from the circumstance of the commissariat stores of arrack having failed, no spirit ration has been issued.'

This document is signed by nume

rous non-commissioned officers and privates, and by some medical officers of several regiments; and is countersigned as follows:

"I entirely concur in the sentiments above expressed, and bear my testimony to the general correctness of the facts stated. H. HAVELACK,

Capt. 13th Lt. Infantry."

"In signing this declaration, I would briefly record my opinion that under any circumstance, save that of sickness, intoxicating liquors are detrimental to the human race; an opinion that has been confirmed by my observations during this arduous campaign.

"R. S. SIMPSON, Lieut." "I fully concur in opinion with Lieutenant Simpson respecting ardent spirits. R. BABAN,

66 Capt. 48th Lt. Inf." "I bear willing testimony to the statements herein contained.

"GEORGE Piggott, "Chaplain Bomb. Est. Army of Indus."

"Without adverting to the other parts of the declaration, I merely record my opinion that ardent spirits are not only unnecessary, but deleterious; and it would be for the good of the soldiers, if the spirit ration was entirely done away, both in quarter and on service. "J. ROBERTSON, M.D. "H.M. 13th Infantry."

Compare the conduct of these gallant men (after the siege, the conduct of their fellows in arms under the influence of ardent spirits. The following illustrations are taken from Colonel Napier's history of the Peninsular war.

"Now (after the storming of Badajos) commenced that wild and desperate wickedness, which tarnished the lustre of the soldier's heroism. All indeed were not alike, for hundreds risked and many lost their lives in striving to stop the violence; but the madness generally prevailed, and as the worst men were leaders here, all the dreadful passions of human nature were displayed. Shameless rapacity, brutal intemperance, savage lust, cruelty, and murder; shrieks and piteous lamentations, groans, shouts, imprecations, the hissing of fires bursting from the houses, the crashing of doors and windows, and the reports of muskets used in violence, resounded for two days and nights in the streets of Badajos! On the third, when the city was sacked, when the soldiers were exhausted by their own excesses, the tumult rather subsided than was quelled. The wounded men were then looked to, the dead disposed of."

"The scene that now commenced surpassed all that can be imagined; drunkenness, cruelty, and debauchery, the loss of many lives, and great de struction of property, was one boon for our victory. The officers had lost all command of their men in the town; those who had got drunk and had satisfied themsleves with plunder, congregated in small parties, and fired down the streets. An officer of the Brunswickers, who was contending with a soldier for the possession of a canary bird, was shot dead by one of these insane drunkards."

The following extract is to the same purport. It relates to the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo. "Throwing off the restraints of discipline, the troops committed frightful excesses. The town was fired in three or four places, the soldiers menaced their officers, and shot each other; many were killed in the market-place; intoxication soon increased the tumult, disorder every where prevailed; and at last, the fury rising to an absolute madness, a fire was wilfully lighted in the middle of the great magazine, when the town and all in it would have been blown to atoms, but for the energetic courage of some officers and a few soldiers who still preserved their senses."

With such direful results of experience, most earnestly is it to be hoped that strenuous efforts will be made to abolish the use of ardent spirits in the army and navy, except by the prescription of a medical officer.

The House of Commons has taken the course which it behoved it to have commenced with, of obtaining a legal protection for its agents in the publication of its papers. That both houses of Parliament should have the power of issuing whatever intelligence they consider proper, is essential to the uational welfare; and their officers ought to be protected against actions for carrying out their directions; but we still think that parties injured or aggrieved by false and malicious libels ought to have redress. It would be impracticable for either house, or a committee of either house, to agree as to what in every case is libellous: for those members who felt their cause pinched by strong facts, would urge their suppression, as being injurious to individuals (which the opposite party would not consent to). Some remedy might surely be given, upon proving malice or culpable mistatement upon the part of a deponent; which would also be a protection to Parliament itself against false averments.

The cause of Church extension is making solid progress throughout the country. Thoughtful men on all sides acknowledge that our present position is wrong. If a national church is a proper institution it ought to be made commensurate with the sphere of its duties; if other wise, it ought to be abolished. At present it as much offends those who oppose it, as though it pervaded every nook by its expansive power; while it falls far short of the demands justly made upon it. Now, as few men have seriously persuaded themselves that it would be right to become nationally atheistic, as we should be if we suppressed all public recognition of religion, most persons who seriously consider the matter, admit that a national provision for divine worship ought to be adequate to its professed object; though of course this does not imply in all cases a corresponding anxiety for promoting the object, or willingness to make the required pecuniary sacrifices. But it is much to secure the firm acknowledgment of a sound principle; and we know of no question in which free discussion is more favourable to the cause of truth. The common-places about the discrepancies of sects, injustice to dissentients, and the like, are on the surface, and strike the mind at once; but a larger, a mose statesmanlike, above all a more scriptural, survey of the question exposes the hollowness of these specious fallacies; and shews that there is no greater difficulty, at least in principle, than may be alleged against all legislation. No man's private conscience is offended. Why does a Quaker or Baptist pay his queen's taxes to help to levy war upon China, and yet refuse to discharge his parish rates, which certainly are not appropriated to any object more iniquitous?

We think we are right in asserting that the public consideration of the question has already done much good. The numerous petitions which have been presented to parliament, and the many others in progress, in furtherance of Sir R. H. Inglis's intended motion, shew that there is a growing conviction in the land that the National Church system ought to be not only supported but largely extended. The extraordinary interest excited by the lectures of the Rev. H. M'Neile, cannot be resolved into a mere tribute to eloquence-though eloquent he is, and with that high eloquence which is the index of a speaker's own intense feelings of the importance of his subject ;-but it was the result of widely-spread conviction that the question is of immense weight and pressing urgency; and this conviction,

the back as well as the edge. It can be concealed under the coat, ready for use. Nor is it a rough blacksmith's dagger; but a costly weapon of the finest materials and of exquisite workmanship; the handle being carved ivory, and the mounting silver; and on it is beautifully embossed the emphatic watchword, "DEATH TO ABOLITION." It were vain to urge that such elaborate pieces of cutlery are a jest;-if they are, they shew the more strikingly what is meant in earnest. Of course there are rougher weapons for plebeian hands.

We wish we had space to point out the direful character of American Slavery. We have often done so in former years; but the question is still fresh, and heaps of new facts are before us. What, however, is one of the most appalling and humiliating features of the case is, that men who make high pretensions to religion, and that churches and ecclesiastical synods, array themselves on the side of this inhuman institution. Nay, worse, if possible; the free coloured people are so grievously oppressed by barbarous laws, and still more by usage and public opinion, that nominal liberty is bitter bondage. In Georgia, if a White teach a free coloured person to read or write, he incurs a protracted imprisonment and a fine of £100; if a coloured person teach another, even a father his child, he is to be fined or flogged. If a free coloured man preaches, he, and each of his hearers, is to receive thirty-nine lashes. In Louisiana the penalty for teaching a free coloured person to read in a Sunday school is, for the first offence, 500 dollars; for the second, death. Every where the free coloured people are treated as vile outcasts from society.

This spirit extends to the literary and religious institutions. We will select, among numerous recent facts, only two; and to be impartial one shall be in an Episcopal and the other in a Presbyterian college; and both in free states,New York, where slavery has been long abolished, and Ohio, where it never existed. Last summer a coloured student applied for admission to the episcopal theological seminary of New York, which is governed by the whole of the bishops, and a hundred clerical and lay gentlemen; but was rejected for the crime of having a skin of the same hue perhaps as St. Cyprian or Tertullian, and the majority of the members of the council of Carthage. It was a cruel case; and this candidate is thus prevented qualifying himself for becoming a minister of Christ in the Episcopal Church, while millions of his fellowmen

are being destroyed for lack of knowledge. We say of his fellow men; for we know not why we should do so much honour to aristocracy of skin as to add, men of his own hue; though even with that restriction the remark holds good, for among the neglected Black and coloured population, millions are perishing in vice and ignorance, and thousands of ministers are wanted. We may add, that to say of his own hue might be a severe reflection upon our slavery-loving White brethren; for among the men, women, and children, bought and sold in the American slavery shambles, many have had White paternal ancestors for ages, and are as fair as Europeans. In England, ladies and gentlemen may be seen in polished circles of society, with whom a Yankee pedlar would think himself too good to sit down at a steamboat dinner; and whose presence at the Lord's table would drive away all the other communicants. We have seen gentlemen of refined habits sitting at table with English noblemen, who in New York could not find a white barber who could condescend to shave them. Of all cants we know of none more false and disgusting than that of calling the United States of America "the land of of liberty."

The second case we will mention is that of the Lane Presbyterian theological college at Cincinnati, Ohio, in which the professors tyrannically prohibited the students from even conversing upon the subject of slavery “on ordinary occasions or elsewhere." What would be said, if in any English college the superiors endeavoured thus to "gag" the pupils in their walks or private rooms? More than forty of the most pious and able students declined submitting to this restriction; and were in consequence compelled to self-expul sion; thus sacrificing all their prospects in life to their conscientious sense of duty. The abolitionists in various parts of the Union took up the matter, and founded a college for White and Coloured students, to which they gave the name of Oberlin. The college is testified to be in full efficiency. It contains more than 450 students, and twenty-six professors and teachers. The education and course of discipline are stated to be religious, and what is understood by the term "evangelical." The institution, it is trusted, will form a valuable and much-needed nursery for instructors, literary and religious, for the coloured people; and already it has sent out many missionaries. The professors, though affirmed to be equal in ability to those of any other college,