as to the prudence and policy of their procedure, or the special demands which they made. While the harmony was undoubtedly wonderful, it was not entirely unbroken. Sometimes, in the provinces, the subsidiary men had lost the old key-note, or had not got the new one in time, and there was a little discord-or Mr. Bruce of Kennet refused to blow with sufficient violence, and Mr. Hog of Newliston sent forth a querulous note-or Mr. Maitland Makgill was too high set, and Lord Breadalbane too low-or the wooden edifices that were talked of, were not the platform on which some of the company were very ambitious of exhibiting— or Dr. Chalmers himself, who was the nominal leader, was now and then giving forth an uncertain sound. Indeed, at no period of their mutual engagement, was there implicit confidence placed in him; and at one period in particular, he cost his friends no little trouble. At the time when Lord Aberdeen's bill was about to be introduced into Parliament, Dr. Buchanan of Glasgow was in London. He was the residuary member of a deputation which had been there for some time previously, and who, unable to remain any longer, bequeathed to him, in parting, their best wishes and their advice. He was all but plenipotentiary; and he made use of his privilege. In conference with Lord Aberdeen, we have reason to believe that he expressed no dissatisfaction with the proposed measure; as we have also reason to believe, that, being present in the House of Peers on the night when his lordship introduced his bill in a lengthened speech, so much was the reverend gentleman pleased with it, that he declared to a friend near him at the bar, that he was off for Scotland, and hoped to obtain Dr. Chalmers' concurrence. Accordingly, down he came; and, as I understand it, he came first to Edinburgh. Dr. Chalmers was not there; he was across the Firth at his residence at Bruntisland. But Drs. Cunningham and Drs. Candlish were; and if Dr. Buchanan was not allowed to cross the ferry, he was made to feel he had crossed his friends. They took him to task-they told him he was mistaken, and, like an obedient son of the Church, like a well-disciplined member of the band, he emptied his pockets, discharged himself of his London harp strings, and betook himself (with a slight variation now and then, to give his music the air of independence) to his old well-poised cadences and monotonous tones. But Dr. Chalmers was not so easily managed. As he was a much more important, he was also a much more difficult person to keep right. No pains, therefore, were to be spared that he might be retained, having brought them much more popularity-as since he has brought them much more money-than any one else. Accordingly, as there was some reason to fear that he might chime in with the overture of Lord Aberdeen, he was privileged, for about ten days, with a special coast-guard, or rather body-guard. Every morning, by the first boat, some friend or other paid him a visit; he remained with him all day, and returned by the last boat at night, to make his report. Regularly as the evening came round, a small party assembled at 13 Queen Street, to hear progress. Mr Bruce, late of St Andrew's Church, was especially in request on the occasion. It was an anxious time; and, it is proper to say, that their assiduity had its reward. While tides were ebbing and flowing, Dr. Chalmers, if not the leader, yet the great composer of the company, was kept in tune, and Lord Aberdeen's bill was condemned as not in their way."

We add the note as illustrative of the organised control which the leaders of the Free Church exercise over all who serve under their banner

"As confirmatory of the statement, that for two or three days, at least after the introduction of Lord Aberdeen's bill, there were men bold enough, or rather foolish enough, to think for themselves, we may mention the fact, that the first article of the Scottish Guardian, after the bill appeared, was not against it. While it acknowledged it was not such a bill as they would have sought-they yet thought it was such a bill as the Church could receive and act under. So said, for two or three days, the clergy of Glasgow, almost to a man. But their masters in Edinburgh thought otherwise. Having shaken Dr. Buchanan into submission, Dr. Cunningham made his appearance in Glasgow, and there performed the same piece of duty to others of the brethren. The bill was pronounced intolerable, and the Scottish Guardian resumed its grumblings."

"The Reign of Intimidation" is the title of the Sixth Chapter-but that title would also have well applied to the next section, which is headed "the Confederacy," in which the getting-up and the conducting of the baneful and insidious "Convocation," is told with much skill. It was here that the timid were overpowered by the bold, and the simple deluded by the unscrupulous and the cunning. It was here that a grand organized attempt

was made at once to deceive and to bully the Government of the country into schemes which we hesitate not to say would have placed the liberties of the people as much at the feet of the clergy as ever they were in the darkest and most degraded periods in history. Till this deep-laid plot failed, all the boasts about throwing stipends to the winds, were unquestionably mere hypocritical vapouring, and it was only after the failure of the Convocation that the leaders did set themselves to consider how they might best thrive on that which they themselves had hitherto constantly represented as a most uncertain and very undesirable source of revenuethe liberality of the Christian public."

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"The Secession," and "The Church of the Secession," followed by some "Concluding Remarks," complete this very able and very valuable workto which we trust that the short abstract that we have given of its contents, and the few extracts which we have made, will contribute to direct public attention. We have already expressed a complementary regret that the work is not double the size that it is. We cannot doubt that it will attain a second edition-which we trust will be an enlarged one-and in that event we would recommend to Mr. Macfarlane a more careful revision of the press than has been exercised in the case of the present volume.

Record of Missions.

GENERAL SURVEY OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS THROUGHOUT

THE WORLD.

Great Britain has the honour of being the grand colonizing nation of modern times. "North and south the snows of the poles fall upon her dominions, while east and west the sun never sets upon them." Nor is the fact that she has had a population with which to carry on the great work of colonization a proof of exhausted internal resources. The chief mart for the products of her industry and skill must long be found at home, and her soil might have been made sufficiently productive to sustain a large increase of population. Yet most wisely have the three kingdoms been subjected to a moderate depletion, first to plant, and since to invigorate widely distant colonies; not merely as a means of shelter for a supposed surplus of human beings, or as a speculation of national aggrandizement and individual gain, but as the appointed method of extending the empire of civilization.

It is, however, painful to reflect, that Britain is scarcely yet entitled to claim that which should all along have been her chief honour, as the greatest modern colonizing nation-the exhibition of Christianity as the only effectual means of civilization. Her merchant princes, in directing the government of the millions of India, till lately made no use of pure and undefiled religion as the means of securing elevation and happiness to these millions. The history of our North American settlements is a memorial of the improvidence of allowing a colonial population to grow into strength in ignorance of the beneficial effects of Christian teaching and influence.

In Australia, while no regard has been given to the territorial rights of the aborigines, or any effectual measure taken to promote their intellectual improvement and social comfort, both the convict and emigrant inhabitants of the Southern hemisphere have for a long succession of years been exposed to all the consequences of neglect and deterioration.

But let us rejoice that at length it is all but universally acknowledged, that apart from that which is due to the emigrants who leave our shores, there is a sacred duty incumbent on us, in respect to the aborigines of all the colonies of the Empire; whether the untutored tribes of a thinly peopled country, or the densely settled millions of semi-civilized men. On the low scale of promoting their improvement and happiness, the sound opinion of Burke has been forced upon statesmen, who know and care little about Christianity beyond its more immediate temporal tendencies—“that in the amelioration of the state of mankind more is to be trusted to the effects and influence of religion than to all other regulations put together.” Hence the younger and recent colonies are deriving advantages from the more liberal admixture of Christianity as an element in civilization. Attention is now avowedly given to the religious claims of the emigrant and aboriginal inhabitants scattered over the vast territories of Australia: while New Zealand, from her earliest connexion with Britain as a colonial domain, has been receiving the benefit of more than an usual amount of spiritual instruction and care.

In consequence of our Record of Missions having been confined to Missionary enterprise among the heathen, the efforts which have been made to preserve and extend the blessings of Christianity among our emigrant countrymen and their descendants, have not been brought into view. In fact, we have not noticed, even incidentally, the unspeakable benefits which many of the European population, military as well as civil, have experienced through the labours of Missionaries in foreign parts. Nor do we intend now to direct attention to the provision for religious worship and education within the reach of our countrymen in the colonies of the Southern hemisphere. This provision is, however, most important, as causing colonization and Christianity to go hand in hand. It enables us to form new communities of our surplus population, into which the aborigines may in time be incorporated, and to make suitable endeavours to promote their welfare, by securing their conversion, whilst, in the execution of the duty, if possible more bounden, we are taking measures for supplying the spiritual wants of our own people. But notwithstanding the specialty of the case in regard to these younger colonies in the Southern world, we must continue the restriction, and only notice the history and results of Missionary labour among the Aborigines, or as directed to the emigrant and native population together.

Nothing, indeed, can be more grateful than the prospect of each settlement in these colonies becoming a Christian nucleus to the intermingled and surrounding heathen; nothing could be more saddening than the conviction that progressive deterioration, and ultimate extinction, must be the inevitable doom of an uncivilized people before the progress of emigration. Yet, how stand the facts? What have been the consequences of the protracted systematic aggressions of our countrymen among such savage tribes? Where are now the Caribs of the West Indian Isles? The North American Indians have almost entirely disappeared from New England. While cities are growing up in Australia, and thousands of Europeans are settling along her fertile shores, the black natives are no longer found in the haunts of their forefathers. In every direction the contagion of vice and the decrease of game, in consequence of the advance of the white

population, have had the effect of diminishing the numbers of the Aboriginal race. We must, therefore, admit that depopulation has been the tendency hitherto of this course of occupancy in regions thinly inhabited by uncivilized tribes: though we readily grant, at the same time, that it never could be the intention of God that these vast territories should remain in waste solitude through all coming ages. On the contrary, we devoutly believe that the human kind are destined to replenish the entire habitable globe, and that the clear and refreshing spring, the grassy plain, the rich mould, the waving trees, the mineral riches, the navigable rivers, the safe harbours, are but furnishings and supplies in a house waiting to be occupied by intelligent man." Nor is there any embarrassment in the subject when viewed in connexion with the issues of well directed Christian effort. From such experience we find that there is no necessity that savage tribes should become deteriorated by intercourse with the natives of European governments; far less that their co-occupation of the soil should lead to the extermination of the aboriginal inhabitants. We are conducted to a conclusion the very reverse. The introduction of Christianity has prevented the demoralization and waste of life previously in process among the native tribes. The various means of improvement which, under the benign influence of pure religion, can be employed on their behalf, is more than a compensation for any temporary injury they may sustain. Wherever continuous endeavours are made, with discretion and in good earnest, to dispense the benefits of the Gospel economy, the Aborigines are delivered from their unsettledness, their miseries and degradation, whilst they are brought to the knowledge and favour of their reconciled God. These effects go together. Nothing less than the power of divine grace can touch the heart of savage men; but after that the mind is susceptible of those instructions which teach them to adorn the Gospel they profess, in their attire and diligence as well as in their spirit and conduct.

Nor is this a matter of theory only; though as such it could be accredited by reference to explicit predictions in the sacred Scriptures, and the early history of the Christian faith among the nations of Europe; it is a fact in the experience of modern Missions, that some of the most savage tribes have been more easily brought under the influence of our Divine Religion than those nations that have been for ages in a state of semicivilization. No sooner does the Gospel begin to operate upon the mind of the uncivilized, than it leads to the first step in civilization. It is shortly seen to be indecorous aud improper to meet together in a state of filthiness and comparative nudity in the public worship of Almighty God. The people themselves are soon made to feel, under the teaching of the Missionaries, that a more decent exterior is necessary; and thus the first step is taken by the introduction of clothing. As the next step, the Gospel induces a settled course of life, and tends to promote industry. The people having become desirous to hear the Gospel preached, find it necessary to renounce their wandering life, and to have a settled abode, in order that they may enjoy the regular ordinances of religion. That follows as a kind of necessary consequence. They cannot attend the ministry of the Gospel, the influence of which they are beginning to feel, and the ministry of which they are desirous to enjoy, without changing their mode of life. Having changed their mode of life, so far as to take up a settled abode, industry becomes necessary for them to maintain themselves; and industrious habits are consequently formed. Education, which is another step in the process, seems naturally to follow. The Missionary in preaching, does not deliver his own opinions: he does not speak upon

his own independent authority; but he tells the people whom he addresses that the doctrines he delivers are all found in a book, which he holds in his hands, and which he calls the Word of God; and that book, he tells them, it is important that they should be able to consult. Thus there is created in their minds a desire for school instruction, and many are soon found in the character of pupils, anxiously endeavouring to learn to read the Word of God—that God who has so lately been made known to them. Then follows another stage; the Gospel originates the moral virtues, truth, honesty, faithfulness, chastity, and the renunciation of polygamya fruitful source of evil among savage people; and by thus maintaining the sanctity of the marriage vow, it produces as its direct and proper effect the virtues which constitute, to so great an extent, the strongest bond of civilized life. In intimate connexion with these moral virtues, the Gospel brings in the social humanities. While it enforces that the husband shall be faithful to his one wife, it enjoins also that he cherish her as his own flesh, and in this way it raises woman from that state to which heathenism invariably depresses her. The Gospel also teaches parents to love their offspring, and to regard them as immortal beings confided to their care, and which they are under obligation to train not for time merely but for eternity; and no sooner is the mind of the heathen brought under the influence of this teaching than infanticide begins to disappear. The Gospel likewise imposes on children a corresponding obligation to love and reverence their parents, and whenever this obligation is felt by the heathen, then they are seen comforting and tending their aged parents instead of leaving them to perish. Then, again, the Gospel enjoins on all to be merciful and forgiving one to another, as they hope to be forgiven of God, and no sooner is this admitted, than effectual discouragement is given to violence and deeds of blood. Thus we trace a necessary connexion between Christianity and Civilization, and perceive how the former originates and moulds the latter. The heathen themselves occasionally reflect on this influence. An African, writes Moffat,* who though a stranger to the power which converts the soul, seemed aware that it required some superior energy to reform the manners, addressing me, when tracing civilization to its proper source, said, “What, is it the precepts of that book which has made you what you are, and taught the white people such wisdom-and is it that mahuku a malemo (good news) which has made your nation read, and clothed you, compared with whom, we are like the game of the desert?"

In New South Wales, on the eastern coast of Australia, regarded as a penal settlement, in which character it was at first made the site of a British colony, soon after the separation of the thirteen colonies of America from the mother-country, it becomes at once obvious that the Aborigines must from the outset have been liable to many disadvantages. The first fleet, containing the convict criminals with the soldiers, and a few free emigrants destined to form the new colony, arrived at Botany Bay in 1788, and when they all landed at Sydney-Cove, there were one thousand and thirty persons. Governor Philips did every thing that lay in his own power for the encouragement of industrious habits, and the suppression of open immorality; he uniformly punished wanton aggressions against the natives, and endeavoured to conciliate them by kindness and forbearance. But it was not

* See the Evidence given before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, "ON ABORIGINES," appointed in 1835; “to consider what measures ought to be adopted with regard to the native inhabitants of countries where British Settlements are made, and to the neighbouring tribes, in order to secure to them the due observance of justice, and the protection of their rights; to promote the spread of civilization among them, and to lead thein to the peaceful and voluntary reception of the Christian religion."