Such indeed is the interest which the British and Foreign Bible Society has justly excited, that the prayers and benedictions of thousands attend its progress, and are offered up for its success; and a suspension of its functions would be felt and lamented as a calamity in every quarter of the globe.

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. THR Report of this Society for the last year contains an unusual por tion of religious intelligence; the principal parts of which we shall Jay before our readers.

WESTERN AFRICA.

Reference is made to the Special Report and the Journal of the assistant secretary, the principal parts of which have appeared in our voJume for the present year. After Mr. Bickersteth's return, the Committee lost no time is laying the substance of his communications before his Majesty's Ministers. A deputation accompanied his lordship the President, in presenting a memorial to Earl Bathurst; in which a plan, formed by his excellency Governor MacCarthy, for dividing the colony of Sierra Leone into parishes, was recognized; and offers were made, on the part of the Society, to assist in bringing that plan into full execution. His lordship received the deputation with great courtesy, and expressed his cordial wish to support the designs of the Society for the benefit of the colony. By a subsequent communication from his lordship, the Committee learnt, with pleasure, that measures would be immediately taken for the erection of two churches in Free Town, and afterward churches in the several country parishes of Sierra Leone. The state of public affairs limits, however, for the present, the means in the hands of government. The Committee will not fail to exert them selves to the utmost, in giving ef feet to the wise and paterual plans of the governor, and in following

up the suggestions of the assistant secretary.

The accounts of the year will shew, that more than a third of the Society's whole expenditure has been directed to Western Africa. The greater part of this expenditure has indeed been occasioned by the Society's settlements formed among the heathen, and beyond the precincts of the colony and the Committee grieve to state, that so great is the demoralizing effect of the slave trade, and so inveterate the evil habits which it has generated, that it is not improbable but it may be necessary to withdraw wholly, for the present, from the Rio Pongas.

The Committee relate an affecting instance of the mischiefs arising from the slave trade.-A chief on the Rio Nunis had, for several years, placed his sons in the Bashia school. He was long a determined friend of the abolition of the slave trade, and would admit no slave vessels into the Rio Nunis; but he has been overcome. He has withdrawn his four sons from the Society's schools; and the elder of them is compelled to employ the acquisitions which he has made under the Society, in assisting his father to carry on this degrading traffic. A boy who could express himself as this poor youth did in a letter to the secretary, could never be brought, without violence to his conscience, to engage in this flagitious employment.

"Sir-I thank the Society for sending Mr. Bickersteth out to see us. Oh, how kind is our Society to us poor Africaus! May God enable us that we may know the ways of Jesus Christ our Lord; and not only know them, but walk in them, all the days of our lives!

"Oh, may God bless the Society, and the Missionaries which they have sent out to teach us! O Lord, bless us also, poor Africans; and teach us to know thy ways; that, in due time we may spread abroad, and preach thy Gospel from shore to shore farmoni ziyammate

It is obvious, that an entire and final abolition of the slave trade is indispensable to the effectual melioration of Africa. To this hour the truth of an observation made ten years since by an intelligent Mohammedan native, to one of the Society's missionaries, recorded in the Eighth Report, has been fulfilled. "Our kings and headmen have little regard even to a civilized manner of life, so long as they can sell slaves for rum, and other commodities; and, for this reason, they will scarcely suffer you to stay here, and to instruct the people, although your intentions, and the intentions of your society, are very good towards your fellow-creatures."

The state of the Society's general funds we have before noticed. Of the school and ship funds, it is reported that they have advanced with a steady pace during the year. The Committee proceed to mention the opportunities of usefulness among the recaptured Negroes which the colony of Sierra Leone affords the share which the Society has taken in the education and religious instruction of the colony its further plans - the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Garnon, and the different persons sent out by the Society, at Sierra Leonethe death of Mr. Jost-the formation of the Auxiliary Bible Societyand the laying of the foundation of a new church at Free Town.

At different stations within the colony, various persons, sent out by the Society, are now labouring; as at the Christian Institution on Leicester Mountain, at Regent's Town, at Gloucester Town, and at Kissey Town.

The settlement at Bashia having been given up, and the children and family removed to Canoffee, the mission among the Susoos, is now confined to the two stations of Canoffee on the Rio Pongas, and Gambier near the Rio Dembia. Difficulties have so alarmingly increased, by the rapid

revival of the slave trade, and the rapacity and eagerness with which it is pursued, that it is much to be feared, that even Canoffee must, for a season at least, be abandoned, which is the more to be regretted, as the prospect of usefulness was opening in a very promising degree.

Of the station at Gambier, it is said, "There seems to be a salutary impression on the minds of the elder children, both boys and girls. They are frequently heard uniting, respectively, in prayer, before they retire to rest. The chief and other natives occasionally attend Divine service. Some of them acknowledge that they should be present more regularly, but that what they hear makes them uneasy about their sins. There is a peculiar advantage attending this station." It opens a free intercourse with many strangers from the surrounding countries, from which many chiefs and bookmen visit them, who are very desirous to obtain the Scriptures; so that Arabic Bibles and tracts will be widely circulated in the interior from this station."

With regard to the Bullom Mission, besides the superintendence of the school, and the management of the secular business of the settlement, Mr. Nyländer, indefatigable and devoted to his work under much bodily infirmity, has added the translation of the Gospels of St. Luke and St. John into Bullom, and has thus completed the Four Gospels in that tongue. He has also written a tract on the Scriptures, compiled from Mr. Bickersteth's "Scripture Help;" and tras composed several hymns in Bullom.

At Goree, under the fostering care of the commandant, Lieut.Colonel Chisholm, and the diligent attention of Mr. and Mrs. Hughes, the scholars had increased to 112. The children were rapidly improving, and there seemed every rational hope of much success. These promising prospects are now, however, nearly closed. On the 18th of July, four French corvettes, with

troops on board for Goree and Senegal, arrived to resume possession of these settlements, according to treaty. At the date of Mr. Hughes's letter, on the 10th of January, the French flag was not hoisted; but it was expected that formal possession would be given in a few days. His scholars had, during this interval, gradually left him, and were then reduced to thirty-two boys and thirty-one girls; as their parents and friends wished them no longer to learn English, but French.

Before the Committee quit the subject of the West African Mission, they direct the attention of the members to some considerations arising out of the circum stances which they had reported.

The following passages of the Report must, doubtless, affect our readers:" The missionaries settled in the Rio Pongas, after surmounting difficulties and surviving inju ries of a kind and degree unknown to their fellow-labourers in any part of the world, had just attained, what they had so long sought, the free consent of the natives to preach to them the everlasting Gospel. They had patiently laboured with the children, while the parents would barely tolerate their residence in the country; and their success with the children, in the judgment of those who know the true value of things, has been an, abundant remuneration for all that has been expended and endured.

"Atlength the adult natives themselves are become willing to hear! They have witnessed the lives of these men among them for many years. They saw them sit down in the midst of them, at the very time when the slave trade was a traffic sanctioned by the laws of this country, and by those of the whole civilized world. They had never before seen White men but as panders to their passions-stimulating them to a cruel and iniquitous sale of their fellow-creatures, by a libe

ral return of such articles as gratified their appetites or their vanity. They utterly disbelieved, therefore, the professions of the missionaries; that they asked permission to settle among them for no other end than to do them good; because they had no rum, nor guns, nor powder, wherewith to inflame their passions, and to enable them to gratify them when inflamed; and because they found them measure out their cloth and their tobacco, not by wholesale as the price of a kidnapped human being, but retailed day by day as the equitable purchase only of the food on which the self-denying missionary was to support life. And when, at length, they were brought, by the patient and consistent conduct of the missionaries, to believe their professions, yet so utterly debased and degraded were their minds by that traffic which our nation in particular had so long maintained with them, that they had no other value for the education offered to their children than as it would enable them, as they conceived, to become more cun. ning than their neighbours! But the missionaries, borne down by disappointment, and looking round them almost with despair of benefiting a people so deeply degraded,' seized the offer of these children as a gift of God; and gladly became teachers of these babes, in the bope that they should outlive the difficulties which then opposed the fulf discharge of their mission.

"The Act of Abolition seemed fo open a bright prospect to the friends of Africa. The numerous slave factories which crowded the Rio Pongas vanished, and Christian churches began to spring up in their room. But the European and American slave-traders, while they carried on their legalized traffic in the river, had employed all their influence to thwart the objects of the mission, and had strengthened the prejudices of the natives; and were now ever on the watch to carry on an illicit and smuggling

trade. While there remained an opportunity of engaging in such a trade, no sincere and persevering exertions could be expected on the part of the natives to substitute a more generous and humane commerce; for the seizing a single fellow-creature, and consigning him to these men-stealers, was rewarded with an immediate and abundant supply of articles which indulgence had made almost necessary to them; while no adequate motives were yet offered to stimulate them to industry, the returns for which must at best be slow and gradual. As his majesty's ships pursued the smugglers with laudable energy, and often captured them, the missionaries became stigmatized as spies and informers; and, notwithstanding the clearest evidence that they were with integrity and simplicity pursuing the sole ob. jects of their mission, wicked men, feeling that the success of the mission would destroy the slave trade, persisted in poisoning the minds of the natives against them; and they were pointed at, with the finger of scorn and anger; as the spoilers of the country.'

"Yet they persevered; and the country was gradually opening itself to their instructions, when the revival of the trade by some of the European powers has proved a temptation too great to be resisted. Men, who had for years persevered in an honourable determination to rid their country of this pest, have again become its enemies. At the moment when the natives began to open their towns, to assemble under their temporary shades to hear the missionaries preach the glad tidings of the Gospel, and themselves to erect houses for the worship of the True God-at this moment the enemy comes in like a flood, and will drive away, it is to be feared, for a time, those who have opposed his kingdom!

"In no part of the heathen world does the enmity against the esta blishment of the benignant reigu CHRIST, OBSERV. App.

of our Lord display itself with such rancour as among the Pagans of these shores. Great consideration, indeed, is due to the natives, even when we are judging of their acts of ingratitude and cruelty. Let it be remembered, that, if they are degraded in feelings and morals below other men, we have mainly contributed to the degradation: and we must bear, therefore, with their ignorance of their true interests, till we can, by the Divine blessing, enlighten their minds; and we must endure their ingratitude and cruelty, till we can, by the same blessing, bring them to feel that we are their best friends."

The Society, in the midst of these discouraging circumstances, augur well of the spirit of inquiry which discovers itself among the Mohammedan Natives. The Mohammedans have some knowledge of the principal characters and facts of the Bible; and they have, in various instances, discovered willingness to examine Christianity, and have received with gratitude copies of the Scripture.

Turning from Africa to India, the Committee congratulate the Society on the increasing calls for expenditure in the East; as they are satisfied that the funds appropriated to that sphere of its exertions, cannot any where be employed with a better prospect of suecess; and that they will be applied in the most wise and effectual manner by the respective corresponding committees.

After adverting to the happy effect on the European residents in India of the increasing zeal at home in the cause of missions, a view is given of the different stations under the respective corre sponding committees of Calcutta and Madras.

CALCUTTA.

The Report notices the departure for India of Messrs. Schmid and Adlington, with Mr. Corrie-the arrival of Messrs. Greenwood and Schroeter at. Calcutta, and their 5 S

settlement in the house of the Society at Garden Reach. At Kidderpoor, a village near Garden Reach, a native having given ground for the purpose, a schoolroom was erected, and a teacher was appointed to carry into effect the new system of instruction. Some Brahmins, who witnessed the opening of the school, expressed their approbation of this attempt to diffuse knowledge. The school opened with thirty-three children, but soon increased to 100. It is under the care of the Missionaries; but is not likely to alarm prejudice, as the schoolmaster is not a Christian: he is, however, strongly recommended by Mr. May, for his qualifications as a teacher. From this school will arise, it may be expected, youths adequately prepared to act as schoolmasters throughout the populous vicinity.

Prince of Wales's Island has been urged on the attention of the Committee, as a promising station for intercourse with the whole Eastern Archipelago. Colonel Bannerman, before he sailed to take on him the government of the island, very kindly offered to promote the ob. jects of the Society. The Committee have referred this subject to the Calcutta Committee.

We extract the following remarks respecting Abdool Messee at Agra.

"An intelligent officer, stationed at Agra, watches over the schools, and renders every assistance to the native church. He is in regular communication with the Corresponding Committee at Calcutta.

"An extract from one of his letters will enable the Society to judge of the difficulties which, at present, oppose the progress of the Gospel in this quarter. Speaking of the little success which attends the exertions now making to rouse the natives, he says, Whenever I converse with Abdool on the subject, he seems to suffer grief as unfeigned as minc: and though he labours

effectually as a physician to the body, that alone engages the people to come to him, and little benefit is done to the soul. In the course of the last two monthsnamely, April and May-he cured 100 people, and many of them in very difficult cases; yet not one of them returned to the kuttra to give thanks to God. Nay, not even one of them thought of thanking the man who has thus been the instrument of Almighty Goodness. When I tell you that I have reason to think that a great portion of his salary is expended in the purchase of medicines, you will not think it ill bestowed. The mortality in the town has been great, since the beginning of May; and still rages with unabated violence. Abdool told me, that, in the course of one day during the last month, he ob served sixteen corpses carried along the narrow street that passes by the kuttra. I could not," he observed, 'see these poor people dying like dogs, without knowledge and without a Saviour, but with heartfelt grief.""

The schools, which had considerably diminished in the number of scholars, have revived, under the care of the officer before referred to.

Of the natives who made a profession of Christianity when Mr. Corrie left Asia, the Hukeem, a man frequently mentioned in the Journals of Abdool Messeeh, has yielded to a high and unbroken spirit, and has apostatised from his profession. Molwee Munsoor, whose character had excited some uneasiness, seems to have been recovered to a circumspect deportment. Burruckut Ullah, there is reason to apprehend, is departed to his eternal rest.

"He was a

man," says Mr. Thomason, "lovely for his Christian meekness, and consistent in his behaviour to the end." Other native Christians have also died in the faith of Christ.