dation, being directed by dissenting hands-the Established clergy may take their portion of the management of it, and direct it to the general good, or they may counteract it by another sect or society, or they may neglect it altogether; and we leave it to common sense, and common Christianity, to say which course is the more expedient, but any thing short of absolute fatuity must acknowledge the necessity of taking some active measures. Let the clergy look coldly on lay co-operation-let adult classes and Scripture readers, and Sunday schools be discountenanced-the mass of zeal and energy is not repressed, but it is no longer under the direction of the minister-it is separated from the service of the Church-it is prepared for the power and the influence of the dissenter-it becomes charged with indifference or hostility to the Establishment. Let not the blame of such a state of things be laid upon the evangelical clergy, or time be wasted in tracing its cause; -such is the state of things, and if our bishops and clergy feel the awful situation of the Establishment, and can judge of the signs of the times, they will apply a remedy, not by seeking to counteract, but to direct the awakened energy of the laity of the Church.

Our feelings have carried us beyond Mr. Sims, and perhaps farther than he would accompany us; he, however, knows a little of Ireland and Irishmen, and will forgive our warmth. Our country, we again and again repeat it, is a missionary country, and must be dealt with as such, and it seems to us as great a solecism in ecclesiastical jurisprudence,, to apply to Ireland the strict and unbending rules of canonical discipline, as it is to seek to govern the insurgents of Clare by the terrors of the Riot Act, or the cabalistical wisdom of the constable's staff. If Irishmen have souls, they should be looked after, and while we think the work should be done by the Church, while we see its facilities for the work, and cannot avoid connecting pure and undefiled religion with its offices and ministration, we yet rejoice that the work is done, and if the churchman will not do it, that the dissenter will. We close our notice of this little volume by again thanking Mr. Sims, by recommending it most highly, and by two extracts, one connected with our own country, and Mr. Sims' view of what would benefit it; and another, an interesting account of a remarkable French Roman Catholic, assuring our readers that they will find most valuable notices of both benevolent and religious institutions both among Protestants and Roman Catholics.

"I am deeply convinced that the condition of Ireland is such as to present obstacles of a formidable kind to any improvements that may be attempted from the purest motives, and on the most judicious plans. Antipathies arising from the political and religious differences of its inhabitants have a tendency to thwart the most benevolent efforts. Still these efforts should be made with untiring patience and perseverance. The gradual diffusion of scriptural instruction, however checked occasionally by superstition, bigotry, or infidelity, will at length achieve the noblest triumphs, and raise that country from its present degraded state. It remains to be seen whether the British Government will sanction three great measures which the poverty of a redundant and unemployed population may perhaps render indispensable-namely, emigration to foreign countries on a large and well-regulated system, the establishment of poor's rates, and the formation of home colonies.

"But whatever other measures may be contemplated, well-conducted visiting associations cannot but be highly useful; and in order that it may be seen, by the statement of a few particulars, expressed in a concise manner, how benefits which Ireland urgently requires may be conferred, and existing or impending evils averted by means of such associations in cities, market-towns, and villages, the following remarks are submitted for consideration.

1. "Visiting Members of Associations, by relieving the destitute at their own houses, will be able to check that disposition which prevails among poor Irish families to wander over the country, and depend on the precarious supplies which the bounty of others affords.

2. The influence and counsels of Visiting Members will probably avail, to a great extent, to check that habit of contracting premature and indiscreet marriages, which has been the too frequent source of a redundant population, and of much of that distress from want of employment which afflicts Ireland.

3. The prudent advice of Visitors, who shall have acquired the necessary information, may induce the poor, by careful attention to the most approved systems of cottage husbandry, to cultivate to much greater advantage than at present their small allotments of land; and thus guard them against exhausting the ground by an injudicious succession of crops, or using seed of an inferior quality.

4. Visiting Members of Associations will likewise have opportunities of encouraging habits of industry.

5. Visitors will naturally inculcate economy as well as industry.

6. Visitors, who, no doubt, will in the majority of instances be Protestants,-by exemplifying the virtues which the Gospel enjoins, may largely contribute to dispel the prejudices and antipathies which exist amongst Roman Catholics against the Clergy and Laity of the Established Church."-pp. 144,— 147.

"I therefore think that no apology will be deemed necessary for introducing, at tolerably full length, an account of SŒUR MARthe de BesançON.

During the late wars, Besançon was one of the principal stations for English, Russian, Prussian, and other prisoners. I have heard, several years ago, of the benevolent Sœur Marthe, and most gladly availed myself of an opportunity to obtain correct information respecting her on the spot.... Her family name was Biget. She was born at Thoraize, a village two leagues from Besançon; her father possessed a little property in that rural district. Sœur Marthe, though she had taken vows, was not a cloistered nun, but a • Sœur du dehors,' an out-of-door sister, attached to the Convent of the Filles,' or Nuns of the Visitation. It was her office to provide for the temporal wants of the convent. When the convent was dissolved at the Revolution, and annexed to the hospital of St. Louis, this worthy woman made it her occupation to attend at the hospitals, and succour the needy. The Russians, made prisoners at the battle of Zurich, were the early objects of her compassion, as were those of other nations afterwards in succession, and amongst them English sailors; for though the sailors taken in ships of war received an allowance from the British Government, those taken in vessels engaged in trade stood often in great want of assistance. By her kind interposition, she not only procured clothes and food from charitable persons in the city, but also the General's permission that they might work by day in the town. The sick prisoners of other nations, however, were more numerous than the English. The kind attention which she had for many years given to the wants of the prisoners of war, procured for her so much respect from the Allied Sovereigns and Generals, after the peace of 1814, that she received several presents from them, and honorary decorations, as tokens of esteem ...She afterwards endured a protracted illness of four years. She had been accustomed to read the works of François de Sales, and other pious works for devotional purposes ; and it may be hoped, that, though she abounded in good works, she had learnt, in the spirit of true humility, to rely for eternal life on the merits of the Redeemer ouly."pp. 110,-113.

*We fear Mr. Sims is too sanguine with regard to the effects of Visiting Societies, at least, at present. When they can be established, we have no doubt they will be eminently useful, but the situation of our peasantry, the influence of the priesthood, who are unwillling that their flocks should be benefitted but from their own hands, and the disturbed state of the Roman Catholic districts, must limit much the advantages to be derived from such a system.

Journal of Voyages and Travels, by the Rev. Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet, Esq. By James Montgomery, in two vols. 8vo. London: F. Westley and A. H. Davis, 1831.

It being our privilege not long ago to be in company with Mr. Bennet, the surviving member of this great missionary deputation, and to hear it announced by him that the publication in question was passing through the press; we could not but anticipate from the clearness of his understanding, from the extent of his information, and more especially from his bright Christian views, and devoted attachment to the missionary cause, that the forthcoming work would be fraught with interest and instruction; and we have been on the anxious look out for it, not only as likely to afford amusement to ourselves in its perusal, but to supply interest to our periodical, by the notice we should take of it, and the extracts we might make from it. It is, however, a cause of regret, that we have been furnished, by the publisher with a copy but within a few hours of the last sheets of our present Number's committal to the press. Our notice, therefore, must be brief, and confessedly inadequate, just sufficient withal, to stimulate the appetite for the perusal of the whole work; and after that is done, and after mastering the materials which Mr. Ellis has given in his Polynesian Researches, there can be no Christian reader, we venture to say, who will not sit down satisfied with the information he has acquired, and moreover bless his God, that he has been born in a period when the cause of his Redeemer has won such victories, and the banner of the Cross has floated in triumph over the prostrate idolatry, that caused on those far distant isles, "the abomination that maketh desolate."

The introduction to the work states, that the Rev. Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet, Esq. were deputed by the London Missionary Society, to proceed and visit in the uttermost parts of the sea, the various stations that were already established for the propagation of the Gospel; both for the purpose of cheering the hearts, and strengthening the minds of missionaries, and as representatives of the Church at home, to report what great things the Lord had done for them there. Never had a deputation so wide a range-never an embassage a happier or a holier character-never has there been a report returned of a more cheering nature. The following quotation from a circular, issued by the Directors in 1820, will show their intentions in making the appointment, which at first embraced the South Sea Islands only, though in the sequel it included their stations in other parts of the world:-"The great object of the deputation will be, to make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the state of the missions and of the islands, and to suggest, and, if possible, carry into effect, such plans as shall appear to be requisite for the furtherance of the Gospel, and for introducing among the natives the occupations and habits of civilized life, the establishment and improvement of schools, for the children of the missionaries and of the natives, and eventually trades, and a proper and constant attention to the cultivation of the ground."

These objects being fulfilled, they were to proceed to Java, the East Indies, Madagascar, and South Africa; and thus having accomplished their embassy of good will, and friendly inquiry, over the Society's numerous establishments, both insular and continental, they were to return home. What an ecumenical visitation was this! What an honourable enterprize of Christian circumnavigation! Mr. Tyerman was suddenly removed by death, at Madagascar Mr. Bennet returned home in 1829, and his journals, and those of his fellow-labourer, were committed to the care of the

celebrated Christian and Poet, James Montgomery, as compiler and editor, who, as he says himself, in making use of the journals of the travellers, "has trod step by step after them, confining himself as faithfully as possible to the order of the subject, under the original dates, and recording the actual impressions and feelings of the original writers." And, indeed, in our opinion, he has amply succeeded, and even independent of the paramount interest which these gems of the ocean excite, in a religious point of view, we have in those volumes presented before us, such interesting anecdotes, illustrative of personal character-such striking representations of what these islands were when submitted to the cruelties and licentiousness of Paganism; we have also, such lively pictures given of the extraordinary scenery, and paradisaical beauties of these isles, and such interesting details of providential escapes from murder and shipwreck, that attended these œcumenical inspectors-that few books, we have ever read, have won on our attention so much—we thought, for a time, Mr. Ellis's Researches surpassingly interesting, but this work, perhaps, from the wider extent of its range, has pleased us more.

It has been but too much the desire of voyagers and circumnavigators, who, for the purposes of science or trade, have to pass over the Pacific, and touch for refreshment at Tahiti and others of the Christianised isles, to misrepresent, or speak disparagingly of the effects of missionary exertion. And traders, and even men who have approached those shores for the purpose of promoting the cause of science-even after they have communicated to the poor, untutored, and susceptible beings, their own vices-the diseases incident on those vices, and the greatest curse of all, the knowledge and taste for spirituous liquors-they in revenge, because they are not now, as well as formerly, allowed to indulge on the regenerated islands in all the licentiousness that was formerly permitted; have, in very many instances, given false or discoloured statements, with respect to what they observed. As an instance, in the introduction to these volumes, notice is taken of what the Russian Captain Kotzebue has written, concerning Tahiti, in his new Voyage round the World, wherein the writer has thought proper to assert as historical facts, what never happened-to express sentiments with respect to the missionaries and their converts, which no man could entertain, who was not under strong prejudice, if not actual delusion. We are glad to have it announced by the compiler of this valuable work, that the slanders, sarcasms, and insinuations of this Russian believer, who set the Tahitians an example both in his person and that of his chaplain, of Sabbath-breaking, if not worse, which they would not follow, but indignantly reproved; are about to be exposed in a forthcoming reply. In the mean time, as it is most important that all friends of missions should be aware of the broad and frontless enmity which all irreligious people bear to the propagation of Christianity, and that more especially when it is opposed, whether in the West Indies, or in the islands of the Pacific, to the indulgence of their own vices, or the promotion of their own profits, we must adduce what is said in page 195, Vol. I. on the subject: "Dec. 10. To show how little confidence is to be placed in the reports of worldlyminded strangers, who visit these islands, and are ill disposed towards the moral revolu tion which has taken place since the old licentious times, we state the following circumstances. Captain R. having given out that one of the principal chiefs here had asked him for rum, which is a prohibited liquor,-on investigation of the fact we found that the chief inquired if we had any wine, the Missionaries having advised him to obtain some, to take medicinally. The captain therefore insiduously set before him a glass of rum, which the honest man, as soon as he perceived to be spirit, set down upon the table, and

resolutely refused to taste it, nothwithstanding the importunity of the captain. This makes us suspect the truth of the strange affair which was told us as having happened at Tituroa. Too many seamen, who touched at these islands, expecting to revel, as of old, in all manner of impurity, are ready, in their rage and disappointment, to propa gate the most atrocious slanders against these islanders and their Christian instructors.. A Captain P., of the ship W., was so horribly provoked, when he was off here, that he threatened to fire a broadside at his departure, on the innocent inhabitants, because they were more virtuous than himself, impudently telling them, that if any of them were killed the Missionaries must bear the blame....These things would be too disgusting to record, but truth and justice require that the British public should know of what spirit those men are who bring home evil reports of these Christian converts, and vilify the change of character and manners wrought by the gospel upon these quondam idolaters, who then were all that reprobate visitors could desire, and now are all that they hate."- Vol. I. pp. 194, 195.

Now, let us show what, according to the report of Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet, was the state of these islands before the introduction of Christianity, and first, with respect to infanticide:

“ While going to Mr. Wilson's, in the morning, we conversed with Mr. Nolt, who has resided here from the commencement of the mission, on the subject of infanticide, and learned with horror, that it had been practised to an extent incredible except on such testimony and evidence as he, and the brethren on other stations, have had the means of accumulating. He assured us, that three-fourths of the children were wont to be murdered as soon as they were born, by one or other of the unnatural parents, or by some persons employed for that purpose-wretches being found who might be called infant-assassins by trade. He mentioned having met a woman, soon after the abolition of the diaboli. cal practice, to whom he said, How many children have you?' This one, in my arms,' was her answer. And how many did you kill?' She replied, Eight! Another woman, to whom the same questions was put, confessed that she had destroyed Seventeen !' Nor were these solitary cases. Sin was so effectually doing its own work in these dark places of the earth, that, full as they were of the habitations of cruelty and wickedness, r, profligacy, and murder, were literally exterminating a people unworthy to live; and soon would the cities have been wasted without inhabitant, the houses without a man, and the land been utterly desolate.' But the gospel stepped in, and the plague was stayed. Now the married, among this Christianized population, are exceeding anxious to have offspring, and those who have them nurse their infants with the tenderest affection."-Vol. I. pp. 71, 72.

war,

Aud again,

"May 10. We went on shore at Fare Harbour, Huahine, to bid farewell to our brethren and sisters there. When we landed, a trial was holding on a charge of infanticide, against a widow who had unhappily abandoned herself to a loose life. Though acquitted, from a defect in evidence, the culprit afterwards confessed her guilt, and pointed out the place-a land-crab's hole-in which she had deposited her untimely birth, wrapped in a piece of cloth. On examination the cloth was found, but the body had disappeared, having been devoured by the crabs. Circumstances of this atrocious nature were too common, under the idolatrous system, to excite attention, but now this crime filled every bosom with horror, and even the tranquillity of the island seemed to have been distres, singly interrupted by its occurrence. Indeed the diminution of the human species by infant-murder was lately so notorious that a prophecy was remembered, and, to some extent, believed, among the islanders, which must have been fulfilled, at no very distant period, had not Christianity come to rescue the whole race from destruction. • Etupu fiau, etoro te farero, Eore te taata.' — The fiau-trees shall overspread the land, and the branching corals fill the deep; but extinct shall be the race of man.' There is a dark and terrible sublimity in this prediction, rarely to be met with, either in the eloquence or the poetry of a barbarous people, figurative as these almost necessarily are :—the VOL. XI. 30

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