inefficiency of foundling hospitals to preserve life is therefore undeniable. Nor is that result surprising, when the necessary exposure, perhaps to piercing cold, the loss of natural food, and the difficulty of bringing up a child by hand under the most favourable circumstances, are taken into consideration. But notwithstanding this, the increase in the number of foundlings is such, that it is calculated that if the system be still pursued, there will twenty-five years hence be no less than 250,000 foundlings in France, and proportionate numbers in other countries. And what is the fate of this unfortunate class, brought up by hirelings, and sent out into a world to which they are bound by none of the ties that sweeten life to others? Parent Duchatelet, in his Researches on Prostitution, states, as an ascertained fact, that most of the female children reared in foundling hospitals were afterwards found on the paré amongst the most common prostitutes; and as for the males, every jail can give an account of them. Is it surprising that those who have been abandoned by the world should make war on it? Let us now return to M. Von Raumer.

In relation to a classified table of the amount of crime committed in the government of Milan during the last ten years, the professor remarks that "Child-murder is not enumerated, but in its stead we find the heading Dangerous exposure.' This is natural enough; when exposure, without danger, is a thing of every-day occurrence, and encouraged by a false notion of humanity, that that which is dangerous can alone be punished. Child-murder, moreover, would be a very superfluous crime in a country where there are means of relieving one's conscience in a much more convenient manner. This must not, however, blind us to the dark side of the picture. In 1831, no fewer than 2625 children were brought to the foundling hospital of Milan, although, in the whole district, only 1576 illegitimate children were born in that year. Even supposing, therefore, (which would be a very erroneous supposition,) that all illegitimate children had been brought to the foundling hospital, there must even then have been 1049 legitimate children among the foundlings of that year. In 1836 the foundlings at Milan were in number 2963, of whom 1764 died. The number of children maintained that year in the hospital was 9892. One-third of all the children born in Milan, or one fifteenth of all those born in the country, were, therefore, unfeelingly abandoned by their parents. What immorality! What a senseless expenditure of public money! On this point much more effect might be relied on from legislative interference, than from most well-meant endeavours to diminish crime: and are not fraud and theft, crimes against the goods and gold of strangers, acts of innocence when compared with the fraud thus committed by parents against their own children ?"

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M. Von Raumer then goes on to remark upon the improvident marriages so usual in Italy, and which, though perhaps not directly caused, are, with all the long train of evils attendant on them, decidedly encouraged by the foundling-hospital system. "There is," he says, one subject connected with the last, which deserves to be pointed out. The proportionably small number of illegitimate children was explained to me as arising from the levity with which early marriages are contracted, as also from the strict control under which young girls are kept. I was assured that it is generally deemed a more venial offence to intrigue with a married woman than with an unmarried one, and the same opinion prevails among the women. Hence it is believed that the number of foundlings is very much augmented by the illegitimate children born in wedlock. Thus the cost of maintaining illegitimate children is avoided, while, for those born in wedlock, the law points out a father, who, if they were not abandoned, would be forced to provide for their subsistence. These sentiments, I own, appear to me a refinement of immorality; a smaller evil is made to give way to a greater, and the devil is driven out by Beelzebub the prince of devils."

The large number of apparently legitimate children living in foundling hospitals wherever they exist, is too clear a proof of the effect of the system in maintaining the demoralization just alluded to. The husband, himself probably too attentive to his neighbour's wife, is willing to wink at the irregularities of his own, and perhaps to share in the gains of her iniquity, so long as the all-receiving wheel of the foundling hospital stands open to swallow up the innocent offspring of guilt, abandoned by parents who, had not that tempting easer of conscience existed, might have remained themselves virtuous.

But the evil produced by the facilities for the concealment of crime afforded by these institutions-striking down as they do one of those bulwarks so necessary to the defence of human crime, we mean the fear of shame-has as direct a tendency to promote profligacy among the unmarried as the married, and yet the principles of mistaken charity induce a defence of these mischievous establishments, on the very ground that they afford such a ready concealment for those unhappy evidences, who, but for that convenience, had probably been spared the torment of a wretched life, and miserable and premature death.

"Christian love," says M. Von Raumer, when noticing the frightful mortality in the foundling hospitals at Naples, "Christian love is as mistakenly applied in the case of foundling hospitals as in that of street beggary. Instead of repeating my oft-expressed sentiments on this subject, I shall merely quote the defence set up by a lady: But for the foundling hospital,' said she, 'a girl who

being entirely voluntary. We had scarcely laid down our plan, when Aaron Joseph, the chief, set áll in motion." Mr. Hamilton went to work, and constructed the carpenter's work; the roof was put on, and though commenced in February, the schoolhouse.was finished in April 1829, and was on its opening crowded. By this time also the natives had, under the instruction of the missionaries, improved their gardens, so as to make them very productive both men and women became more industrious. Polygamy was slowly abandoned, and European clothing substituted for the filthy attire hitherto worn. Moffat had translated the Gospel of St. Luke, and other portions of Scripture, which were printed and freely distributed in and around Lattakoo; and the whole aspect of things wore an improved appearance. Thus the first ten years of Mr. Moffat's and his companion's residence were neither negligently nor unprofitably employed,―ten years of unflinching energy, aided by the light and power of the Gospel, partially dispelled darkness and overcame prejudices which had existed from "the beginning!"

The school-house, which was also used as a place of worship, was soon found too small for the congregation that flocked to the ministry on the Sabbath, and the want of a sanctuary was much felt. On the 28th of March, 1830, the foundation of one was laid; the parent society having supplied part of the necessary funds, while the natives freely subscribed the rest. This fact speaks volumes for the earnestness with which the Bechuanas desired spiritual instruction. Unfavourable circumstances, however, retarded the completion of the building several years; but in the mean time the duties of the two missionaries had, happily, become so heavy, that assistance was requisite, and they were joined by the Rev. Mr. Edwards. The edifice was at length finished, and on its opening was crowded with from four to five hundred hearers. Regular services are now performed, and a school daily filled with pupils is in active operation.

We have stated in what condition Mr. Moffat found the Bechuanas. Let us hear from himself how he has left them. He has returned to his native country; he has rendered an account of his twenty-three years' stewardship, to prove himself in every respect a "good steward." This account, though rendered by himself, of himself is a true one. The testimony of every South African traveller who has visited the scene of his labours, corroborates it. We have seen the notes of Dr. Andrew Smith's expedition, undertaken in 1835; we have read Captain Harris's published "Narrative," besides other authorities, and all confirm every particle of the following passages from Mr. Moffat's sermon before quoted ;

"Polygamy and oppression are arrested in their progress, and population is increasing. True so

"Their language has been acquired and reduced to system and to writing, and brought under the operation of the press. Many elementary works, tracts, and considerable portions of the sacred volume, have been translated and printed in the language. A printing-press on the station supplies the increasing wants of readers; and at the present moment the New Testament and the Book of Psalms are, through the munificence of the British and Foreign Bible Society, being conducted through the press in London. Nor is this all: we have to record, to the praise of our blessed Redeemer, that the word of divine truth has had free course and has been glorified; churches have been planted in which there are hundreds of believers growing up in the faith and hope of those doctrines which they once contemned as chimerical and visionary. Where naught was heard before but heathen din, the festive dance, the obscene song, the doleful requiem, dirging sorrow without hope, and lamentations over rapine and slaughter, there is now heard the church-going bell echoing in the vale; and there may now be seen companies of men, women, and children travelling a hundred miles or more to Missionary stations, and saying as they go, 'Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.' And when they encamp for the night, they make the lonely desert vocal with their evening hymn. Instead of the revelry of bestial pleasure, there are heard the songs of Zion, not only from the places of public worship, but also from the lonely hamlets, and from many a family altar in morning and evening sacrifices to Jehovah. To those of us who have striven and toiled with prayers and tears to maintain our ground during the infancy of the Bechuana Mission, exposed for many long years to suffering, danger, and scorn, the contrast is overwhelming. We feel as those that dream, while we realize the gracious promise that 'they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.""

Here, then, is a new testimony of how true Christianity is the parent of civilization; of its efficacy in producing the temporal as well as the eternal welfare of man.

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and far exceeded its original in fantastic folly.

He moves slowly forward towards the dresser, as if unable to offer any defence, but giving himself up as an unresisting sacrifice. The murderer raises his weapon from the floor, strikes a fatal blow, and the doomed one lies a dying man at his feet. The wife vainly strives to interpose, and shrieks for pity and for aid. She is threatened with the same fate if she raise an alarm, and the blood-stained villain escapes in silence.

Here is a picture which thrilled us with horror as we read it, and set us pondering how such things could be in a land professing Christianity-how it comes to pass that the cry of the widow is so often heard raising the death-wail, as she sits beside the coffin of her murdered husband at her cabin-door, imploring the charity of the passer-by, to aid her in giving a "decent" wake and burial to him who should have been her support, but now lies cold and stiff at her feet, the victim of an assassin, or the furious rage of a "faction fight."

To comprehend how it is that so much of barbarism still continues to characterize the Irish peasantry, we must glance at the history of civilization itself, and must take into account the evil example which has been too frequently set them by the educated classes of their countrymen. Chivalry, by introducing and sedulously enforcing rules of conduct founded upon the higher and more generous feelings of our nature, curbed the lion in his mood, and by somewhat humanizing the monster barbarism, advanced mankind at one step on the road to civilization. And although, at length, the stringency of its forms became burdensome, and hindered the advance it had once been instrumental in assisting, still much of the nobleness and generosity of the English character may be traced to the influence of chivalry. Its spirit was never universally diffused over Ireland, and when in process of time the country became, in a degree, civilized, the chivalric code of honour in use among other European nations became strangely enQuery?we know not the nature of this weapon.

Many disadvantages attended the Irish gentry of the last century. The disabilities which weighed on the Catholic families forced them away from honourable competition to something approaching a return to the barbarous state and hospitality of Celtic chieftains. This, added to the natural insouciance of an Irishman's character, and the habits of deep drinking, which date from the days of the cavaliers, led to those scenes so admirably described by Miss Edgeworth in her "Castle Rackrent," and which caused the deep incumbrance of many an Irish estate; and to that system of duelling as accurately arranged as the Euphuist's code of quarrelling, ridiculed by Touchstone, when they ❝quarrelled in point by the book," which made it absolutely necessary for a gentleman to have "blazed," at least once in his life, in order to establish a character in society, and was regulated by "the thirty-six commandments of the Fire Eaters."

The state of Irish society in the latter part of the last century is nowhere better illustrated than in that singular production "The Life and Times of Sir Jonah Barrington ;" and we must find room for a short extract relating to Irish duels.

"It is, in fact, incredible," says Sir Jonah, "what a singular passion the Irish gentlemen (though in general excellent-tempered fellows) formerly had for fighting each other, and immediately making friends again. A duel was indeed considered a necessary part of a young man's education, but by no means a ground for future animosity with his opponent.

"One of the most humane men existing, an intimate friend of mine, and at present an eminent public character, but who (as the expression then was) had frequently played both hilt to hilt,' and muzzle to muzzle,' was heard endeavouring to keep a little son of his quiet who was crying for something;- Come now, do be a good boy! Come now,' said my friend, don't cry, and I'll give you a case of nice little pistols to-morrow. Come now, don't cry, and we'll shoot them all in the morning.' 'Yes, yes, we'll shoot them all in the morning!' responded the child, drying his little eyes, and delighted at the notion. I have heard the late Sir Charles Ormsby, who affected to be a wit, though at best but a humourist and a gourmand, liken the story of my friend and his son to a butcher at Nenagh, who in like manner wanted to keep his son from crying, and effectually stopped his tears, by saying,- Come now, be a good boy! don't cry, and you shall kill a lamb to-morrow? Now, won't you be good?'-'Oh yes, yes,' said the child, sobbing; 'father, is the lamb ready?'”

With such examples before them, it is not to be wondered at that the Irish peasant possesses so few of the attributes of civilization; that he is improvident of the scanty means of life which he