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victims of the slave-trade ever become | seen in every direction, and it was painfully slaves. Taking the Shire valley as an ave- interesting to observe the different postures rage, we should say not even one-tenth ar- in which the poor wretches had breathed rive at their destination. . A small their last. A whole heap had been thrown armed steamer on Lake Nyassa could easi- down a slope behind a village, where the ly, by exercising a control and furnishing fugitives often crossed the river from the goods in return for ivory and other products, east... Others lay in their huts, with break the neck of this infamous traffic in closed doors, which when opened disclosed that quarter; for nearly all must cross the the mouldering corpse with the poor rags lake, or the Upper Shire." round the loins - the skull fallen off the There is nothing in all this book more touch-pillow-the little skeleton of the child, ing than the engraving opposite page 356, that had perished first, rolled up in a mat which represents a gang of captives on between two large skeletons. The sight of their way to Tette. They form a long line this desert, but eighteen months ago a wellof men, women, and children, manacled and peopled valley, now literally strewn with chained to each other, the men, in addition human bones, forced the conviction upon to their chains, being fastened together in us that the destruction of human life in the pairs by means of beams of wood with middle passage, however great, constitutes forked extremities, the forks being fitted to but a small portion of the waste, and made us their necks, and riveted upon them. The feel that unless the slave-trade - that monwomen are compelled to carry baskets on ster iniquity which has so long brooded over their heads, in some cases in addition to Africa- - is put down, lawful commerce cantheir infants, which are bound round their not be established." bodies with a cloth. Slave-drivers, armed with guns, staves, and other implements, accompany the gang, and urge them on. The gang, which numbered eighty-four, was met and liberated by Dr. Livingstone, who learned that the day before two of the women had been shot for attempting to unfasten the thongs. One woman had her infant's brains knocked out because she could not carry her load and it; and a man was despatched with an axe because he had broken down with fatigue.

The awful desolation of a once-populous country after a slave-seizing raid, and the terrible scenes that indicate the sacrifice of life, cannot be read or heard of without a shudder. Dr. Livingtone describes what he saw in the valley of the Shire after such an Occurrence. "Instead of smiling villages and crowds of people coming with things for sale, scarcely a soul was to be seen; and when by chance one lighted on a native, his frame bore the impress of hunger, and his countenance the look of a cringing broken-spiritedness. A drought had visited the land after the slave-hunting panic broke over it.... Large masses of the people had fled down to the Shire, only anxious to get the river between them and their enemies. Most of the food had been left behind; and famine and starvation had cut off so many that the remainder were too few to bury their dead. The corpses we saw floating down the river were only a remnant of those that had perished, whom their friends, from weakness, could not bury, nor overgorged crocodiles devour. Wherever we took a walk, human skeletons were

No wonder though Dr. Livingstone is saddened and almost broken-hearted. The sanguine hopes of his earlier days for Africa are blighted by this atrocious slave-trade. If anything is to be done for this great territory, effective measures must be taken to sweep away the cause of its misery and desolation. The suppression of the slavetrade is one of those objects for which all classes of British statesmen are proud to use the power of their country. May they be guided to wise and effectual measures for this end in the East of Africa, and from all our churches may prayer rise with a hundredfold greater earnestness on behalf of those dark places of the earth that are full of the habitations of cruelty.

The Africans have learned to understand England's hatred to slavery. In this respect, our country bears an honourable name, and her prestige is favourable to her missionaries. Her national truthfulness is another distinction in her favour, contrasting for example with the laxity of the Portuguese, whose word cannot be relied on. But other characteristics of a less favourable kind have come to be attached to the English name. In one place, a man's being intoxicated is described by the phrase "he speaks English." The national failing was unconsciously confessed by a sailor of Dr. Livingstone's, who, on it being remarked that certain trees were very like the steeples of England, said, "the picture would be complete if there was only a grog-shop near the church.

Dr. Livingstone cannot doubt that, under God's blessing, Christian missions would be

as prosperous on the East coast of Africa as they have been on the West. On the West, sixteen societies are at work: six British, seven American, two German, and one West Indian. These maintain 104 European or American missionaries, have 110 stations, 13,000 scholars, 236 schools, and 19,000 registered communicants representing probably a Christian population of 60,000. "It is particularly pleasing," he adds, "to see the zeal of our American brethren; they show the natural influences and effects of our holy religion. With the genuine and true-hearted it is never a question of distance but of need. The Americans make, capital missionaries; and it is only a bare act of justice to say that their labours on the West Coast are above all praise. And not on that shore alone does their benevolence shine. In China, India, South Seas, Syria, South Africa, and their own far West, they have proved themselves worthy children of the old country, the asylum for the oppressed of every nation, the source of light for all lands."

clean, and the sun rising shows a drop of dew on every blade of grass, and the air breathes fresh,- that is holiness." The resemblance to the imagery of the Bible is very striking-especially to David's picture of the Holy One "He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain." (2 Sam. xxiii. 4.)

Among the birds of the country, the "honey-guide" seems almost designed as a type of the Christian missionary. "The honey-guide' is an extraordinary bird; how is it that every member of its family has learned that all men, whether white or black, are fond of honey? The instant the little fellow gets a glimpse of a man, he hastens to greet him with the hearty invitation to come, as M. Cia translated it, to a bee's hive, and take some honey. He flies on in the proper direction, perches on a tree, and looks back to see if you are following; then on to another and another, until he guides you to the spot. If you do not accept his first invitation, he follows you with pressing importunities, quite as anxious to lure the stranger to the bees' hive as other birds are to draw him away from their own nests. Except when on the march, our men were sure to accept the invitation, and manifested the same by a peculiar responsive whistle, meaning, as they said, All right, go ahead; we are coming. The birds never deceived them, but always guided them to a hive of bees, though some had but little honey in store." We will not go into any curious inquiries as to the motive and pur

We might prolong our "evening with Dr. Livingstone" to the small hours of morning, but the best of friends must part. We conclude by noting two or three interesting illustrations of Scripture, culled from his volume. The shadow of a great rock in a weary land (Isa. xxxii. 2), and the sleep God gives to his beloved (Psalm cxvii. 2), are both illustrated in the following account of an ascent of all but perpendicular rocks. "The strain upon the muscles in jumping from crag to boulder, and wriggling round projections, took an enormous deal out of the party, and they were often glad to cower in the shadow formed by one rock overhang-pose of the honey-guide. We would rather ing and resting upon another; the shelter induced the peculiarly strong and overpowering inclination to sleep that too much sun sometimes causes. This sleep is curative of what may be incipient sun-stroke; in its first gentle touches it caused the dream to flit over the bolling brain that they had been sworn in as members of the Alpine Club; and then it became so heavy as to make them feel as if a portion of their existence had been cut from their lives."

A native's idea of "holiness" is worth recording. "When copious showers have descended during the night, and all the earth and leaves and cattle are washed

see in its singular proceeding a lesson for ourselves. To us has been given the knowledge of a treasure "more to be desired than gold, yea than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey from the honey-comb." And to us there is committed the function of the honey-guide- by our Christian missions to lead the starving African to the Bread of Life; and if he do not accept our first invitation, to persevere with pressing importunities, until at last he finds the hid den manna, and his soul is filled as with marrow and fatness.

W. G. BLAIKIE.

650 FINAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION.

From the Boston Daily Advertiser.

THE FINAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE

CHRISTIAN COMMISSION.

read a report of the operations of the commission since its organization.

After the reports were made, Mr. Stuart presented letters from Secretary Stanton, Lieutenant-General Grant, Vice-Admiral Farragut, Chief Justice Chase, Generals Sherman, Howard, Meigs, Butler, Ord, Thomas, Barnes and others. Mr. Stanton thanks the chairman for his invitation, but declines to deliver an address at the meeting, though he cannot refrain from putting on record his high appreciation of the services of the commission, and his thanks for the intelligent and efficient manner in which it has done its work.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 1866. ALL the people who could by any possibility of energy and interest be crowded and packed within the four walls of the great Representatives' Chamber were present at the fourth and final anniversary of the Christian Commission, this evening. Besides these thousands, there were as many more who surged up and down through the halls and rotunda, for two or three hours, hoping against hope for a chance to look in- "Lieutenant-General Grant," said Mr. to the chamber, and still a great crowd Stuart, "we had hoped to press into service more which went found every available for this evening, but he never speaks except square foot occupied, and returned home on the battle-field, and the world knows of before the exercises began. The following what effect his words are there. We have, was the order of exercises for the evening: however, a letter from him written by his Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the own hand, which I will read. General House of Representatives, in the chair; Grant says, on the eve of the closing of singing, under direction of Mr. Phillip a work which he hopes there will never be Phillips of Cincinnati. 1. Singing, "Jesus an occasion for doing again, he takes pleas shall reign where'er the sun," &c. 2. Pray-ure in acknowledging the great services of er, by Rev. C. B. Boynton, D. D., Chaplain the Christian Commission. He personally of the House. 3. Reading the Scriptures, by Rev. W. J. R. Taylor, D. D., secretary of the American Bible Society. 4. Introductory remarks by the chairman. 5. Abstract of the annual report, by Rev. Edward P. Smith, secretary of the American Missionary Association. 6. Statement of the work by George H. Stuart, chairman of the Christian Commission. 7. Address by Hon. Charles Demond of Boston. 8. Address by Hon. James Harlan, Secretary of the Interior. 9. Singing, "Your Mission," by Mrs. Phillips. 10. Address by Rear-Admiral Chas. H. Davis, U. S. N. 11. Address by Rev. Herrick Johnson of Pittsburg. 12. Singing, "We are rising as a people," by Mr. Phillips, the audience joining in the chorus. 13. Address by Senator Doolittle. 14. Address by Major-General George G. Meade. 15. Singing, "America," by the audience. 16. Address by Rev. Bishop Matthew Simpson, D. D., of Philadelphia. 17. Singing, "Home of the Soul," by Mr. Phillips. 18. Prayer, by Rev. Prof. Lemuel Moss, of the University at Lewisburg, Penn. 19. Doxology.

In presenting the final report of the commission, Mr. Stuart happily alluded to the fact that when the last annual report was made, General Grant, now on the platform, was in front of Petersburg, but soon thereafter found a way to relieve the commission from further service by compelling the surrender of one Robert E. Lee. He then

knows that their labors saved much suffering, and does not doubt that it saved thousands of soldiers' lives. The army feels the same gratitude to the Christian and Sanitary Commissions that the American people feel to the army."

Chief Justice Chase says it was not his privilege to aid or see much of the work of the Christian Commission, but he knows by most unquestionable testimony that no such humane and loving beneficence was ever before organized and executed. He is certain that it could have existed in none but a Christian land, and he doubts if it could have been successful in any land but our

own.

Vice-Admiral Farragut, writing from New York, said the navy never had so much occasion as the army to need or know the services of the Christian and Sanitary Commissions; but they always knew they could have the latter had they felt the need, and they rejoiced that the boys of the army were so well cared for. Wherever he went he heard the organization much extolled, and could bear his testimony to the patient industry with which it had done its labor.

General Sherman says that the people of this country should have added contributions to the value of more than six millions of dollars to all their efforts and sacrifices of the war, he counts as one of the wonders of the world.

Mr. Demond was the first speaker, and

very properly related the circumstances which gave birth to the Christian Commission. He was one of the seven who originally met in Washington on the 10th of November, 1861, to see what could be done for the spiritual welfare of the army. He briefly told the history of the work they begun on that day, and spoke for fifteen minutes in explanation of the causes which led to the great success of that work, and the incidental results which it accomplished. Mr. Colfax, on rising to announce the song, said that a year ago there was one here whose absence we all now mourn more than we could mourn the absence of relative or friend. He paid a most touching and eloquent tribute to the memory of Mr. Lincoln, and added that during the exercises of the anniversary meeting of a year ago there was sent up to him as presiding officer a programme on the back of which was written, in the peculiar style so well known to all men, the words: "Near the close let us have the song, Your Mission,' by Mr. Phillips. Don't say I called for it. Signed Lincoln." "That song," said Mr. Colifax," was sung then, and will be again sung now." It was received with hearty and repeated and long-continued applause. Mr. Harlan being absent, the next speaker was Admiral Davis, who spoke very briefly, and was followed by Rev. Mr. Johnson, who related many instances which came under his observation while through the Army of the Potomac as one of the agents of the Commission, who in turn gave way to Senator Doolittle, who spoke in an eloquent and forcible manner for about ten minutes.

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General Meade was the next speaker announced, but Mr. Stuart said he was unable to be present on account of sudden sickness in bis family. He had however sent a letter, which was read. He says he bears testimony to the value of the Commission in the Army of the Potomac, ministering not only to the spiritual but to the bodily wants of the soldiers, and adds that one of the brightest pages in our history will be that on which is written the record of the noble manner in which the people supplied the wants of their armies.

General Auger was next called upon, and made a brief, modest, soldierly address of thanks to the people for their loving and constant remembrance of the soldiers, and he was followed by Rev. D. A. Chidlaw of Cincinnati, who had seen much service in the Western armies as an agent of the Commission, and made a most telling and thrilling address in a fervid Western manner, which won round after round of applause.

Bishop Simpson's was the principal address of the evening. He called attention to the services which the Commission had rendered the Government and the country. It had sanctified the war in the hearts of the soldiers and the people, and its influence was of such increasing effect that one-fourth of all the contributions made were tendered in the last six months of the war. The success of the Commission had given proof of the power of the influence of the spirit of Christ, and he noticed as an astounding fact that the aggregate of the labors of all the agents was one hundred and eighty-one thousand days. The work of the Commission had presented the world with a true specimen of Christian brotherhood, all sects and religious organizations being represented among its officers and agents.

THE BURNING OIL-WELL.

Franklin, Pa., February 13, 1866. IT occurred to me that a more detailed account of the 'Burning Well,' referred to by your correspondent from this place, a few days ago, would be interesting to your readers. It is certainly one of the greatest curiosities to be found in the oil-region. It yields an interest to none of the great phenomena found in other lands, and richly repays one for the trouble and fatigue endured in visiting it. The well is situated on the eastern bank of the Alleghany, at the mouth of Mog's Run, or as it is sometimes called, Pine Hill Run. The distance below Franklin is about twenty miles by the course of the river, or across the hills about twelve miles. The mode of travel by your correspondent was by the river, on the ice about half the distance, the remainder over the hills.

As you approach the region of the well the country becomes rough and romantic in the extreme. High hills and abrupt precipices are covered and overhung by immense masses of detached rock, that seem scattered at random on the hill tops and on the sides of the acclivities. If the glacial theory of Agassiz be correct, then the icebergs that were anchored here were thickly laden with mighty boulders from the North. Be this as it may, the rocky masses are lying here in wonderful confusion.

Before you approach near enough to the well to see the flames, your ears are saluted with the roaring sound similar to that

which Ross Brown describes as peculiar to the Geysers in Iceland. It seems to be due chiefly to the rush of gas from the depths below, but may be in part from the flame itself as it rises high in the air.

Like most great curiosities, this well suffers from surrounding circumstances. There is no good object near with which it may be compared as to height. Added to this, the hills all around it are from six hundred to a thousand feet in height, affording as a back ground rocks and shrubs and stunted trees, that tend to diminish its effect on the eye and imagination.

The well was of course bored for oil. It had reached a depth of some five hundred feet, when the column of gas, that must be immense, rushed up and became ignited from the furnace of the engine. Soon, of course, the derrick, engine house, and fixtures were consumed, and the engine itself a wreck. The top of the conductor which emerges from the pit, being of wood, was burned off, when an attempt was made to fill up the pit with earth and extinguish the flames. This proved a failure, as the pressure of the gas was too great to be easily filled up.

As it is seen at present, the gas rushes through the loose earth in a thousand jets, and the result is that a column of flame constantly emerges from the pit equal to its size, which is, perhaps, eight feet square. This column rises to a height of from fifty to one hundred feet, varying every few seconds from the minimum to the maximum height. The pillar is not regular in form, but rough and jagged. Sometimes it is divided, and sends its tongues of flame out in every direction. As it reaches its greatest height, the top of the flame leaps off and is extinguished. This is the appearance in daylight. At night, and surrounded by the darkness, its appearance must be awfully grand and imposing.

I am inclined to think that there is some oil mingled with the product of the well, inasmuch as every three or four seconds a cloud of dark smoke rolls up with the flames; and is swept to its very summit, when it disappears.

Some visitors compute the height at one hundred and fifty feet. This is probably correct at some periods, as the day I visited it, the air was damp and unfavorable to its reaching its greatest height.

and fresh as in April, while the very ice on the river has melted and disappeared.

The well has been burning about three weeks, with no apparent diminution in its power, or in the quantity of gas, so that at present it bids fair to afford light to the people for some time to come.

Although the fire is surrounded on all sides by hills of such lofty proportions, yet at night the light is seen at a great distance. At Franklin it lights up the southern horizon with a bright, tremulous glow.

This light assumed a very strange appearance one evening last week. It was somewhat cloudy, and in addition to the usual ruddy # glow, the light appeared to concentrate itself into a bright lance-like figure about four or five degrees in length, that remained stationary about midway between the horizon and the zenith, where it continued all the evening. — Meadville (Pa.) Republican.

From the Spectator.

CHARLES LAMB.*

MR. FITZGERALD thinks it necessary, because he writes about Lamb, to affect to be Lambish, just as persons writing about Carlyle are often absurd enough to be Carlylish, and to discourse on "the great fact of the man Cariyle." Because Lamb loved rambling on without any method but the turns of his own humor, Mr. Fitzgerald rambles on about Lamb without any method at all. "Is it fanciful," he says, "to suppose that a treatment a little fitful and rambling would be almost in keeping with Lamb's own nature, which might have shrunk from the more formal honours of official biography?" We should say it is fanciful,-quite fanciful, — in any one to whom the "fitful and rambling" treatment is not the natural and fitting literary expression, which it was to Lamb. Mr. Percy Fitzgerald's fitfulness and ramblingness are a little like an elderly spinster's girlish ways, like Merry Pecksniff's early fascinations. When Mr. Pecksniff showed Martin Chuzzlewit round his new home, he just opened the bedroom door where the Miss Pecksniffs slept, and said to Martin, "Birds, flowers, you see, Martin, — such things as girls love!" but the birds were, says the biographer, limited to a lame spar

The roaring sound is constant, and almost resembles the sound of distant thunder. The climate in the neighbourhood is very mild and summer-like. The buds on the shrubs are expanding and the grass green don: Bentley.

*Charles Lamb, his Friends, his Haunts, and his Books. By Percy Fitzgerald, M.A., F.S.A. Lon

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