children, feelings of reverence and gratitude towards their Creator and Redeemer; to impress upon them a sense of their moral responsibility; to convey to them a knowledge of the leading truths of revealed religion; and to familiarize them with the bright examples of piety and benevolence which the Scriptures furnish, ought to form leading features of the system of instruction pursued in these infant schools. It would be difficult duly to estimate the effects on society, and, amongst many others, the diminution of private vice and of public delinquency, which, under the Divine blessing, must follow the general adoption and steady prosecution of such a system of infant training. At present we behold the streets, and lanes, and alleys of the metropolis, and other large towns and villages, crowded with squalid children, left, in utter neglect, to wallow in filth, to contract disease, and to acquire habits of idleness, violence, and vice. Almost the first language which many of them learn to lisp, is that of impurity and profaneness. Almost the first science in which many of them are instructed, is that of depredation. Abroad, they are exposed to every vicious seduction; at home, they too often suffer from the caprice or violence of parents incapable of instructing their ignorance, whose poverty makes them discontented and irritable, and who feel the very presence of their children to be a drawback on their efforts to earn a subsistence. From such a course of education what can be expected but a proficiency in vicious propensities and criminal practices;-what, in short, but that mass of juvenile delinquency which, in the present day, we have been forced to witness, and to deplore? But if we contrast with this state of things the effect which may be anticipated from the general establishment of infant schools, conducted on the principles which have now been developed, what heart but must exult in the prospect? Let those who regard such expectations as visionary, only take the pains of personally and minutely inspecting those receptacles for infants which have been already formed at Walthamstow, Whitechapel, Vincent Square, Westminster, Blackfriars, Brighton, Bristol, and Liverpool. Let them view the children, clean, healthy, joyous; giving free scope to their buoyant spirits; their very plays made subservient to the correction of bad and the growth of good dispositions; and the happiness they manifestly enjoy employed as the means of training them in habits of prompt and cheerful obedience, of mutual kindness, of unceas ing activity, of purity and decorum. Again, let them watch the return of these children to their homes at noon and at night, and witness the pleasurable sensations with which they are received, so different from the scowling looks and harsh tones with which their teasing importunities and interruptions, during the hours of labour, are apt to be met. And let them, moreover, contemplate the striking reaction of the improved manners and habits of the infants on the older branches of the family. Let them view and consider all this, and they will no longer doubt the beneficial influence of the proposed institution. We are persuaded that no further motives will be wanting to induce our readers zealously to promote the establishment of such schools, wherever they may be needed, within the sphere of their influence; and with that view to assist in carrying into effect the special object for which this Society has been formed, which is, to establish, in some central part of the metropolis, an Infant School which may exemplify the principles now explained; and which, while it dispenses its benefits to the adjoining population, may also serve as a model of imitation with respect to its mechanism, and as a seminary for training and qualifying masters and mistresses to form and superintend similar institutions. In the mean time, and until sufficient funds shall have been obtained for accomplishing this object, the Committee have resolved to accept the liberal offer of Mr. Joseph Wilson, to employ his Infant School in Quaker street, Spitalfields, for teaching the mechanical parts of the system to such masters or mistresses as may be sent thither for instruction; applications for which purpose may be addressed to Mr. James P. Greaves, at Quaker street, Spitalfields. The Committee have engaged Mr. Wilderspin, of the Spitalfields Infant School, to go into the country, at the request of any person intending to open a school according to the method now in practice. Subscriptions will be received at the Infant School, Spitalfields; by the Treasurer, S. Hoare, jun. Esq., at Messrs. Hoare, Barnett, and Co.'s, Lombard street; by Messrs. Smith, Payne, and Co.; Sir John W. Lubbock and Co.; Messrs. Hammersley and Co.; Messrs. Drummond and Co.; and Messrs. Jones, Lloyd, and Co. CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. In the Appendix to our last volume, we abstracted a portion of the Society's Twenty-third Report; but have not hi therto found an opportunity of giving the substance of the remainder. The following are among the chief particulars. Calcutta and North-India Mission. In reference to India, the Society mention, the lamented removal of the first bishop of that extensive see from his labours; and the appointment of a successor, who had already given an ample pledge, in his long-tried zeal in support of missions, that the interests of Christianity in India would be an object of his unfailing solicitude. The Corresponding Committee at Calcutta present the following review of the progress by which the Society's affairs in the north of India have attained their present importance : "From the establishment of the Church Missionary Society in 1800, opportunities have been carefully sought by the Committee, of entering on missionary labours in India. It was not, however, till 1807, that any direct part was taken by the Society in the propagation of Christianity at this presidency; and so unfavourable were circumstances at that time to the subject of missions generally, that the Corresponding Committee could find no opening for pursuing the direct objects of the Society. The funds placed at their disposal were, therefore, in the first instance, appropriated to assist in translating the Scriptures: afterward, assistance was afforded toward the establishment of native schools; and various friends of Christianity were supplied with means to improve opportunities of imparting religious instruction in their respective circles. Thus missionary stations began to be formed, and pressing applications were sent home to the Parent Society for missionaries to cultivate the ground thus broken up. All the stations occupied by the Calcutta Corresponding Committee have been formed in this manner; and, in some other promising spheres of labour, where already partial assistance has been afforded, the Committee hope that the Parent Society may be able eventually to supply the necessary aid of an ordained missionary. At six stations, missionary labours are pursued; and, at two others, schools are maintained. In the schools at the different stations, upward of 2000 children are receiving education." In reference to the state of education in this mission, the Committee remark, that a great number of facts might be adduced, in proof of the efficiency of the schools in the improvement of the habits and the enlightening of the mind. Mr. (now Archdeacon) Corrie writes: " If funds were forthcoming, we might have all the youth in the town under our tuition." And Mr. Jetter adds: "Wherever a boys' school is established, the natives are now happily beginning to expect, as a matter of course, that a girls' school shall also be formed!" We pass by the incipient details on this subject, as we have laid before our readers the results at later dates. The want of suitable teachers for the female schools was likely, in a great measure, to be supplied; for several of the elder girls at the Asylum for the Female Orphans of European Parents, who had given good evidence of having become truly religious, had gladly entered on the study of Bengalee, in order that, under Mrs. Wilson's instructions, they may be prepared to act as teachers of the female schools. In Mr. Thomason's zealous exertions to establish that asylum, he always hoped that it might be rendered subservient to the interests of Christianity in India; but he could scarcely look for so early and gratifying a fulfilment of his wishes. Madras and South-India Mission. The number of children of all classes, Christians and Hindoos, in the Society's schools connected with this station, is between three and four thousand ; and probably nearly as many more have successively quitted them for various employments in life, after acquiring, through their means, the rudiments of learning, and some mea sure of religious instruction. The native congregation, which assembles at the mission church in Black Town on Sunday morning, consists of from 90 to 100 persons, beside the children of the mission schools. The communicants have been from twenty-five to thirty persons monthly. Two Heathens have been received into the church during the year. In addition to the means of instruction previously established, a meeting for reading and explaining the Scriptures has been commenced at one of the school-rooms situated in a populous part of the town, at which the Christian natives of the neighbourhood attend, and many Heathens. The printing-office and depository are increasing in efficiency and importance. Upward of 30,000 copies of Christian tracts and school books, and some larger works, have been struck off during the year. A large edition of the Tamul New Testament had been undertaken, on very moderate terms, for the Madras Auxiliary Bible Society. 1 In reference to the Syrian Church at Travancore, the Committee report, that the various labours of the missionaries in its behalf are carried on under the full sanction and encouragement of Colonel Newall, the present British resident at the court of Travancore; and they receive the most encouraging testimonies to the good effect of the Society's labours. Measures had been adopted in the preceding year for extending the benefit of parochial school instruction throughout the country occupied by the Syrian Christians, and for establishing a grammar-school as an intermediate step between the parochial schools and the college for youths designed for the service of the church, or for whom a better scale of education is desirable. The number of students in the college is fifty of this number, twelve are ordained, the remaining thirty-eight unordained. The conduct of the students has been remarkably good; and, if present hopes do not prove fallacious, in less than ten years there may be fifty or one hundred learned priests belonging to this venerable church," nourishing their flocks, and spreading the triumphs of the Gospel around them." : In the Bombay and Western-India Mission There were about 150 boys under religious instruction in the native schools. Upward of twenty attended Mr. Kenney at his house, to learn Mahratta and English; and thus afforded him an opportunity of conveying to them a knowledge of the Gospel. With prudent zeal, schools may be established to a very great extent. Ceylon Mission. The Society's missionaries had continued their labours at the three stations-Nellore, in the north, among the Tamul population; Kandy in the interior, and Baddagamme in the south, both among the Cingalese. At these stations were twelve European teachers, with seventeen native assistants, and upward of 600 scholars, of whom nearly one-eighth were girls. A press, which had been sent from this country, had arrived, and was established at Nellore, for the use of the Tamul part of the mission. The church at Kandy was nearly finished, and was about to be opened. The experience of the first year, in the superintendence of the schools, has confirmed the missionaries in their views respecting their great utility. The improvement of the schoolmasters has been a main object of attention with them. It was resolved that measures should be taken for procuring the consent of Government to the establishment of a press at Jaffna, under the responsibility of the Society's missionaries. Australasia Mission. The missionaries and settlers employed by the Society, and stationed at Rangheehoo and Kiddeekiddee, in New Zealand, were seven. We need not repeat the circumstances already detailed in our pages respecting the ferocious proceedings of the native chief Shunghi, and the various adverse occurrences in the mission. "Under all these circumstances," remark the Committee, "there are not wanting ample encouragements to persevere. In the midst of all the evils which have attended the mission, it has already made, in various respects, a beneficial impression on the natives, and is gradually opening the way for the diffusion of Christian truth, with all its attendant blessings." Mr. Shepherd was paying particular regard to the preparation, in the New Zealand tongue, of portions of Scripture, for the use of the children and adults who may learn to read. West Indies Mission. No regular return of the Society's schools in Antigua had been received; but Mr. Dawes writes, "The schools prosper in every quarter. Some of the first cha racters in the island openly advocate our cause, and others rapidly lose their prejudices." North-West America Mission. Respecting the recent mission to the Indians of North-West America, the Committee had as yet but little to report. The expressed interest and co-operation of the Hudson's Bay Company afforded facilities, which otherwise could not be obtained, for extending the light and influence of the Christian religion among the natives of this vast territory. Mr. West sent home a specimen of writing by an Esquimaux Indian, who had accompanied the Arctic expedition as a guide, and who had been taught to read and write by the officers. Captain Franklin, on his return, called at the Society's house; and strongly urged on the Committee the prosecution of this mission in behalf of the various tribes which roam over the vast plains through which his adventurous expedition was conducted. The Committee had added, during the year, to the list of the Society's Vice-Presidents, the Provost of Oriel College, and the Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford— and, at Cambridge, the President of Queen's College, Vice-Chancellor of the University; the Master of Corpus Christi College and Sir Robert Harry Inglis, Bart. VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. FOREIGN. FRANCE. This fair and fertile country seems to be retrograding towards monkish superstition and arbitrary power. The King has just issued an ordinance restoring the censorship of the periodical press and so strictly is this power exercised, that not a syllable seriously offensive to the government is suffered to transpire. Even an advertisement of a pamphlet of M. de Chateaubriand, the late minister of foreign affairs, has been refused admission. The opposition journals appear daily with wide gaps, indicative of the portions of matter excised from the proof-sheets by the government curators. The measure appears to be a studied and deliberate advance towards a systematic restriction of public liberty; or to meet some anticipated exigencies. There was nothing, at least on the popular surface of French affairs, at the present moment, that could be alleged as an overpowering reason for a measure so odious and oppressive. It has been followed up by a decree appointing a commission for revising the public decrees and decisions prior to the restoration of the present dynasty; with a view to rescind whatever displeases them, and to draw up the project of new ones in their place. If such commissions act in the true spirit of their appointment, and the press is suffered by the public to remain muzzled, farewell to French liberty; and as for the rights of the present owners of property, or the stability of any thing that has been established since the Revolution, it will be a matter of mere prudence and policy, and not of inclination, if any portion is allowed to be retained. We view the whole course of these affairs with the deeper emotion, because we fear that in them we perceive the germ of new commotions and revolutions, which await only the moment when the grievances daily accumulating become at length no longer tolerable, and some favourable concur rence arises to enkindle the torch which will fire the whole train of combustible elements, and again shake France to its very centre. We rejoice, however, to perceive, amidst all, that there is a gradual increase of persons of a better staple, so to speak, than the usual order of public men in France. Hitherto infidelity and ultra-liberalism almost exclusively have disputed the palm with civil despotism and pseudo-religious bigotry, superstition, and intolerance. The well informed have too generally sided with the former, while the latter has boasted chiefly of persons ignorant or interested. But we trust-thanks, in no small degree, to the religious and philanthropic institutions which originated in Great Britain, and have begun to take root in France-that that country will, before long, possess a race of men who, to an ardent love of true liberty, and an energy of intellect capable of making a deep impression on the public mind, shall unite a devout adherence to the principles of Christianity, and know how to compass right ends by right and Scriptural means. It is by well-directed efforts to increase the number of persons of this description, who, with the irresistible force of superior moral strength, may interpose between the two leading irreconcileable factions which divide France, that our best hopes are founded for the permanent repose of that unhappy country. We are glad to learn that permission has been obtained from the French government to open a Protestant Episcopal chapel for the benefit of the English visitors and residents in Paris. AUSTRIA. A document has been copied into the journals, purporting to be an official ordinance of the government of Austria, forbidding by name the entrance into the Austrian territories of Lady Oxford, Mrs. Hutchinson, the Countess Bourk, Lord Holland, and Lady Morgan! There is an imbecility in this proceeding, if really it be not a fabrication, which is not much to the credit of the manliness or selfpossession of the Austrian government. There might, or might not, be good reasons for excluding these individuals; but if the Holy Allies have no better weapons than such chivalrous edicts as this, despotism must soon verge to its decrepitude. The charge against Lord Holland, of uttering insolent abuse against the allied monarchs in the British parliament, were it worth noticing by our government, might draw forth a just remonstrance to the Austrian cabinet, for not confining itself to a better course of diplomacy than that of interfering with the internal concerns of a foreign and independent legislature. GREECE.-The small island of Ipsara, in the Archipelago, has been reduced by the Turks, who attacked it with a large armament, and overpowered it, after an obstinate resistance from its scanty garri son. Some recent rumours speak of a subsequent naval victory by the Greeks, and the re-possession of the island. SOUTH AMERICA. Various rumours have been alternately circulated and contradicted, respecting the affairs of the new governments of South America, particularly the circumstances of the Columbian army in Peru; but scarcely any official or certain intelligence has arrived. The message of the Buenos Ayres executive to the legislative assembly, gives a most hopeful account of the present state and prospects of that republic. The government seems highly pleased with the line of conduct adopted towards South Ame rica by the cabinets of Great Britain and the United States. DOMESTIC. We are happy to learn that the effusion of human blood, which might have ensued in consequence of our difference with Algiers, has been prevented, by the timely submission of the Dey to the terms of the Exmouth Treaty. In the East, we shall be rejoiced speedily to announce a similar result as respects the war with the Burman empire. The issue, indeed, cannot for a moment be doubtful; but in the mean time many lives may fall a sacrifice. Our incipient operations in that quarter appear to have been attended with some partial reverses. From a report of the select committee of the House of Commons on the criminal laws, lately printed, we are glad to find that it is determined to consolidate all, the existing statutes, and also to amend them where they may appear anomalous or defective. The two provisions are independent of each other; and the former, which, from the multifariousness of our laws, was greatly needed, will form an excellent basis for the latter. An extraordinary and most afflicting trial has taken place at Wexford, in Ireland, of a Catholic priest, named Carroll, for the murder of a child, under the idea, or the pretence, of expelling a devil. Five persons who, among many others, were present at the protracted operation, and heard the child's screams and entreaties, without interfering, were arraigned with him as abettors of the murder. The priest was acquitted, being proved to be insane; and his fellow-prisoners, on the ground that they were not aware of the child's danger, and firmly believed that the fanatic rites of Carroll were salutary exorcisms for its benefit. Indeed, the parents themselves assisted at the scene. We allude to the circumstance, as strongly indicative of the dreadful state of imbecility, superstition, and fanatic credulity, into which the Irish peasantry are sunk, and the consequent duty and necessity of redoubling every effort for their improvement. Ignorance, utter ignorance, of all that it most concerns mankind to know, is at the foundation of all their miseries and their vices. How imperative, then, the call on British Christians, and on their own better-informed countrymen, to exert every effort to enlighten them; above all, to give them the best of all books, and the education that shall enable them to read it and appreciate its value ! OBITUARY. MISS CUNNINGHAM. On Friday, August 13th, at the age of seventeen, at her uncle's house at Pakefield, Suffolk, it pleased God to remove from this world of temptation and sorrow, by a typhus fever, JANE ANNE, the eldest daughter of the Rev. J. W. CUNNINGHAM, Vicar of Harrow. Those of our readers who remember the notice of a heavy affliction in the same family in our volume for 1821 (pp. 67, 210), will not withhold their sympathy and prayers in behalf of this mourning family, so soon recalled to the chamber of mourning and death. It is our anxious desire to embrace such occasions of holding out a solemn warning to parents and to children;-to call upon the guardians of youth, in this world of change and death, to educate them for eternity; and upon the young themselves, to live for God, that, when the frail thread of life is broken, they may enter into his glory. It will be a satisfaction to many of the friends of the family of this young person to know, that the last months of her life, the only period of her release from the duties of education, had been much devoted to watching over the temporal and spiritual wants of the poor; and that, whilst through the successive stages of her illness she lost no oppor tunity of expressing the conviction of her own guilt as a sinner, she fell asleep, casting herself calmly, thankfully, and joyfully, upon the love and all-sufficiency of her Redeemer. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. J. M. W.; CLERICUS; A. B.; O. J. K.; SEPTUAGENARIUS; RUSTICIA H/W. H. TN; G. M.; and D. D.; are under consideration. The Memoir of the Rev. T. Cotterill in our next. |