year while the number of Homilies as tracts sent out from the depository, or printed abroad, during the same period, has been one hundred and thirteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-five; being an increase of more than eleven thousand beyond the issue last reported.

No additional charge is now made for the Ordination Services, which are inserted in every Prayer-book which this Society issues. In addition to this, a very considerable reduction has been lately made in the prices affixed to several Prayer-books on the Society's list.

We deeply regret that the funds of this highly useful Church-of-England institution continue to fall very far short of what is necessary to give due effect to the operations of the Society. New prospects of benefit, especially in the article of foreign translations, are widely opening; but the state of the Society's funds necessarily limits its exertions within much too narrow bounds. We strongly recommend the Society to the best wishes and prayers and liberality of our readers.

RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY. A circular has been issued by the Committee of this Society relative to its foreign objects; in which they state, that, since the year 1808, the Society has printed tracts in no less than forty-two different languages. They add the following, among other very interesting notices on this subject:

The Missionaries in China write;"It will gladden your heart to hear that many, both Chinese and Malays, have lately called and entreated for the word of life. We sent lately to Cochin-China, nearly three thousand volumes of Chinese books. They were eagerly read by the Cochin-Chinese, and many of their great men came to the college, with a great body of servants, and requested books. As a proof that the books sent to that country have been read and understood, we may state, that they had copied the names of many of them, in order that they might be supplied with books of the same kind. Indeed there appears an increasing desire, in all classes, to obtain our books. Our weekly tract is continued, and is much sought after by the Chinese." Animated by this information, the Committee placed the sum of 3001. at the disposal of Dr. Morrison and the missionaries at Malacca; which though a liberal grant, considering the Society's very limited funds, is but a small sum to

new

wards the instruction of three hundred millions of a reading heathen population. A correspondent in India writes to the Society: We want English tracts, paper, and pecuniary assistance, to print tracts in the Bengalee and Hindoostanee languages. Had we funds, we could do much in the circulation of tracts: fields are opening before us daily. Pious officers and gentlemen, in the Upper Provinces, when they leave Calcutta for their destinations, wish to furnish themselves with tracts. As an instance, I can state, that a military conductor has dis-, tributed, in a few months, four thousand tracts, and requests more."-The American Missionaries at Bombay write;"The thousands of tracts which we have already distributed, have only shewn us, that tens and tens of thousands more are needed, which we cannot supply for want of pecuniary means. The demand for tracts in the Mahratta country, and the facilities for distributing them, appear to us to be almost unlimited."

With a view to the benefit of South America, the Committee, notwithstanding the narrowness of their means, have devoted about 3007. to the publication of various tracts in pure Spanish. Other tracts are also translated, and only wait for funds to be published.

From Germany, Dr. Leander Van Ess writes;-"For the sake of the kingdom of the Lord, and the everlasting salvation of our brethren, purchased at so infinitely high a price, I repeat my most earnest request for a fresh supply to my little tract fund." The Committee have made a grant of 100. to assist his object.

FEMALE EDUCATION IN INDIA.

In our Number for March we announced the formation of The Calcutta Ladies' Society for Native-female Education. In December last an examination of the children took place, in the presence of numerous ladies of the presidency. The girls, divided into four classes, had been previously assembled in an adjoining room, about 100 in number; one class of which, beginning at the lowest, was conducted into the room as soon as Lady Amherst and her suite had arrived. The children were examined by the Rev. Mr. Wilson, Mrs. Wilson, and the Rev. Dr. Carey. The whole of the examination was in Bengalee; and the classes were successively questioned on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Watts's Catechism, Pearce's Geography, and a very useful work defending and

stating the benefits of female education, written by a learned native. Specimens of writing and needle-work were also exhibited. The children have given general satisfaction to those friends who are most actively engaged in promoting their wel

fare.

It appears that in less than three years, thirty native-female schools have been formed, and between 500 and 600 girls are under instruction in the different schools supported by the Ladies' Society for Nativefemale Education. Several of these have made rapid progress in reading the Bible: the first classes can all write; and many of them can perform interesting specimens of needle-work. An Association has been formed in Calcutta, in aid of the Ladies' Society. The ladies who form the Committee of this Association have undertaken

to superintend Native-female Schools in their own neighbourhood, and to collect funds for the enlargement of their plans.

In reference to this Association, and to the general progress of female education, Mrs. Wilson thus writes:-" I hope that we may get at least six schools formed in the European Town, which will be supported and superintended entirely by ladies of the Association. Several young ladies are learning to read the Bengalee: many already understand it. Thus, in a month or two, they will be perfectly qualified to take charge of a school or two each. Mrs. Reichardt has taken charge of ten of my first schools, and is very happy in her work. The Ladies' Society has now thirty small schools; and we have opened two this morning, for the Association."

FOREIGN.

FRANCE. The chief subject of public interest in this country at the present moment seems to be the struggle which is taking place between the intolerance of the Catholic priesthood and the general feeling of French society. The church, with a most impolitic zeal, is urging its long-exploded claims, and endeavouring to reduce the people to the yoke of the ancient ecclesiastical discipline; for which end the decrees of the legislature, and the arm of the police, are called in as auxiliaries. There can be no doubt that the doctrines and discipline of the Church of Rome have of late, and principally by means of the Jesuits, made considerable progress among the people at large; a vast proportion of whom, being educated in the infidel school of the Revolution, had their religion yet to choose, and might be easily captivated, at least the more unenlightened part of them, by the sophistries and spectacles of the papal creed and worship; but, to the large mass, the verities of religion, as well as the superstitions appended to it, are matters of such perfect indifference, and even of distaste and repulsion, that we cannot think the French public by any means ripe for the adoption of the principles and habits which the priest hood, in conjunction with the ultraroyalists, seem determined to impose upon them. A crisis may be impending

which shall, before long, bring the question to a decision, and lead, like the events which followed the restoration of our Second Charles, to another and more benignant revolution.

SPAIN. The late revolution in the Spanish cabinet has not hitherto given rise to any measures of much public importance. One truth, however, is very clearly to be inferred from the whole train of proceedings in that distracted country, that neither the efforts of Ferdinand and the native priesthood, nor the arms of their French allies, can eventually perpetuate the dominancy of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny, which have long since received their mortal wound, protracted as may be their expiring struggles.

GREECE.-There is no intelligence of a decided nature from the Morea; but the general complexion of events, we fear, has of late been in favour of the invading army.

UNITED STATES, &c.-The religious and philanthrophic portion of the inhabitants of the United States, we are happy to learn, are becoming greatly interested in the cause of the unhappy Negroes and their descendants in that country. Emigrations both to Africa and to Hayti are widely encouraged. The affairs of Hayti at present occupy much of the attention

of the public and politicians of the United States, in consequence of the late recognition of its independence by the French cabinet; and both their own Government and ours are freely animadverted upon in some of the journals for not long since acknowledging the independence of Hayti. It is stated, that the commerce of the United States with that country has been of greater advantage to them than half their joint commerce with the nations of Europe; of the greater part of which they expect to be deprived by the commercial advantages given by the treaty of recognition to French merchandize. With regard to this country, it is added, that the French will imitate the English style of goods for the Haytian market, with the advantage for six years of paying but half the scale of duties imposed on other nations; by which, to a great extent, they will gain a monopoly of the market. The Slave States in the American Union seem to feel as sensitively as would our own West-India colonies in the prospect of receiving Black or Coloured official agents -the very thought of such a contamination revolts their imagination. Yet, amidst all this narrow and invidious prejudice, not a single charge of bad faith or improper conduct is adduced against the HaytianGovernment, notwithstanding the protracted course of oppression and injustice which has attended its efforts in the cause of liberty. The following circumstance, related in the American journals, evinces at once the wisdom, the integrity, and the patient firmness of their conduct. It is stated as a well known fact, that a large sum of money has been appropriated for many years, and now lies useless in a vault for the payment of the balance of claims which American citizens hold for losses of property in their transactions with Hayti. The Haytian Government has repeatedly acknowledged that a large balance is due to American citizens; but that they could not and would not pay it until the amount was settled by a convention to be adjusted by commissioners of the two nations, duly accredited. "The claimants," add the American journalists, "have been kept out of their dues for many years because our representatives have deemed it inexpedient to acknowledge a nation of a little darker complexion than some of their constituents, lest it might give offence to the gentlemen of the South." Whatever excuse may be urged as respects the line of policy adopted by Great Britain, in reference to Hayti; and we have heard of none which has any weight;

We

"I thank God that I have lived to see this worthy people take their seat among the nations of the earth. For the last twenty-seven years I have been an inhabitant of this island, and am now the oldest White resident in Hayti. During that period I have been an eye-witness to all the bloody and ruinous revolutions which have taken place, and have seen with what devoted patriotism, untiring perseverance, and unfailing bravery the Haytians have broken the iron arm of slavery, which for a century and a half had bound them down to the dust of oppression and bondage. It is true France has at length done an act of justice, and awakened the Haytians to joys hitherto unknown. For this proceeding she will command the approbation of all who value the blessings of liberty, and who are capable of estimating the deserts of a people who have, unaided by any power but their own moral courage, literally severed their own bonds, driven from the land the tyrants who oppressed them, and, rising from actual servitude,established a liberal form of government, and a system of laws the best calculated to promote social order, and rational and elevated character. But when I call to mind the innumerable evils France has inflicted upon the Haytians, it seems but a poor reparation that she should be the first to recognize their political independence. History will transmit to posterity a tale of long continued misfortunes, and of horrible, disgraceful, and iniquitous tortures endured by the Haytians while under the colonial system, with which

no parallel can be found, and for which no commensurate atonement can be made."

A paper, issuing from New York, has been widely circulated, and some interpreters of unfulfilled prophecy seem inclined to attach an importance to it which, in that light at least, we should not have thought it deserved. It is entitled a Proclamation to the Jews, by Mordecai Noah," Citizen of the United States, late American Consul at Tunis, High-sheriff of New York, and [selfelected] Governor and Judge of Israel," by which the Jews throughout the world are invited to emigrate to a tract of land in the State of New York, called Grand Island, on the Niagara river, where Major Noah intends erecting a city of refuge, to be called "Ararat," for the revival of the Jewish government, after the dispersion of that people for nearly two thousand years. The proclamation does not dwell much upon theological considerations; but addresses the Jews by the tangible arguments of a salubrious climate, a rich soil, extensive trade and commerce, inexhaustible resources, equal political rights; of a land, says the circular, "where industry is encouraged, education promoted, good faith rewarded, a land of milk and honey, where Israel may repose in peace, under his vine and fig-tree, and where our people may familiarize themselves with the science of government and the lights of learning and civilization, as may qualify them for that final restoration to their ancient heritage which the times so powerfully indicate." The Jews, we imagine, will pay little attention to the decrees of this self-elected dictator; who commands a census of the people, and imposes a capitation-tax on them in every part of the world; but undoubtedly, to a Jew of liberal mind, the Western world, with its free apportionment of rights, citizenship, and freehold soil, affords attractions which are not to be found in countries where he must continue for life an alien, subjected, whatever may be his moral character or public virtues, to various inconvenient and degrading restrictions and disqualifications. But we will not dwell upon these and other considerations which occur to us on perusing this singular proclamation; we will only remark that it is most harsh and inconsistent for Christians to reproach the Jews, as for ages they have done, for their sordid venality, their attachment to mere money-getting, their alleged dislike for the occupations of pasturage and agriculture; their preference for corrupt towns and cities, above the boasted pu

rity of rural life; when the policy of ail Christendom for more than a thousand years, with only a few modern exceptions, has been to force them from all the more reputable and dignified scenes of industry, and even to forbid their occupation of a single patrimonial acre.-To those of our readers who may have adopted the opinion of various writers, and particularly of Dr. Boudinot, that the North-American Indians are the descendants of the ten dipersed tribes, the following passage from Major Noah's address may appear worth transcribing.

"The Indians of the American continent, in their admitted Asiatic origin, in the worship of one God, in their dialect and language, in their sacrifices, marriages, divorces, burials, fastings, pu rifications, punishments, cities of refuge, division of tribes, in their high priest, and in their wars and in their victories, being in all probability the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, which were carried captive by the king of Assyria, measures will be adopted to make them sensible of their origin, to cultivate their minds, soften their condition, and finally to re-unite them with their brethren, the chosen people."

BRAZIL.-A treaty, we are most happy to state, has been ratified by the mediation of Great Britain, between Portugal and her late colony of the Brazils; by which the king of Portugal acknowledges the independence of the empire of Brazil, reserving only the honorary title of emperor to the present sovereign of Portugal. This treaty, besides its direct advantages, will, we trust, be useful as a precedent for the imitation of Spain. The whole South-American continent is rejoicing in the stability afforded to its independence by the late recognitions, and is most warm in the praise of Great Britain for its wise and liberal policy, in this important respect.

DOMESTIC.

Scarcely any subject of domestic interest calls for notice; unless it be the visible decline of the system of unlawful combinations among various classes of mechanics; and a decisive check which has been given to the wildness of speculation in joint-stock companies, by some recent exposures of the futile or fraudulent manner in which some of them were constructed.

On the first of January will come in operation, the new act for regulating weights and measures, the provisions of which are as follow.