consent, for framing certain resolutions, to be carried into effect for the eventual Emancipation of children born of slaves, held at Colombo, on Monday the 15th July, 1816-thirteen gentlemen present Resolved unanimously "1st. That all children born of slaves, from and after the 12th of August next ensuing, shall be considered free. "2d. That if a female slave be sold, who has a child or children born free, they shall go with her into the hands of the new master, if they have not completed their second year. "3d. That of all children who have passed their second year, it shall be at the option of the master to return them, notwithstanding the sale of the mother. "4th. That all children who are born free shall remain in their masters' house, and serve them without any wages, save and except their food and raiment, which shall be at the expenses of the masters-a male till the age of fourteen, and a female till the age of twelve. "5th. That when free-born children have completed the fourteenth and twelfth year of their age, as aforesaid, they shall, from that day since, be emancipated from their masters. "6th. That if a master manumits his female slave, who has a free-born child, or children, above two years of age, it shall be at the option of the masters to retain themnamely, the female till the age of twelve, and the male till the age of fourteen-or allow such child, or children, to follow the mother; in which latter case the mother shall be obliged to support the child or children. "7th. That in case any master, through manifest poverty, or from the incorrigible depravity of the free-born children, or for any other causes, finds himself unable to retain them any longer under his care, application shall be made by such masters to any charitable funds, or the magistrates, that they may be otherwise disposed of. "8th. That, in order to prevent any fraud to the prejudice of the free-born children, all heads of the families in whose houses any child of that description is born, shall have the birth of such child registered by the constables of his division, at least within three days thereafter. "9th. That every constable shall, for the same purpose, open a register, in which shall be specified the sex and names of the parents and masters; and a list thereof shall monthly be transmitted to the office of the sitting magistrate, to be entered in a general register of the free-born children. “10th. That in the register to be kept by the constable, an entry shall likewise be made by him of the death of every free-born child, upon the information to be given by the heads of the family within the same space of time aforesaid; and a monthly list thereof shall be transmitted to the sitting magistrate's office, to be entered accordingly in the general register. 11th. That of both the general registers of births and deaths, quarterly returns shall be made to the chief secretary's office. "Lastly, resolved unanimously "That the foregoing resolutions be forwarded to the honourable the chief justice, to be submitted to his excellency the governor, in order that the same may be made a rule, under such alterations, amendments, and modifications, as his excellency may deem expedient for the furtherance of the beneficial object in view. "An additional article proposed, but not consented to unanimously, with this provision, that it shall be inserted at the end of the foregoing resolutions, with the signatures of the members voting it "That the free-born children shall, as a token of their freedom, be brought up in the habit of their native ancestors, and not wear any European dress; and be farther taught, by such as may be capable of affording it, to read and write some native language." Signed by three persons. No. 4.—Copy of the answer of the Hon. Sir Alexander Johnston, to the address of the Dutch special jurymen. Colombo, 21st July, 1816. "Gentlemen-I have had the honour to receive the resolutions which you have sent me by Mr. Kierkenbeek, and by Mr. Prins, and shall with pleasure present them, as you desire me, to his excellency the governor. "I beg leave to offer you my warmest congratulations on this interesting occasion. The measure which you have unanimously adopted does the highest honour to your feelings. It must inevitably produce a great and a most favourable change in the moral habits and sentiments of many different classes of society in this island; and generations yet unborn will hereafter reflect with gratitude upon the names of those persons, to whose humanity they will owe the numerous blessings which attend a state of freedom. "I return you my sincere thanks for the honour you have done me, by making me the channel through which your benevolent intention is to be communicated to his excellency the governor. As an Englishman, I am bound to feel proud in having my SLAVERY ABOLISHED IN CEYLON. name associated with any measure which secures the sacred right of liberty to a number of my fellow-creatures. "I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your most obedient and humble servant, "ALEXANDER JOHNSTON." (Signed) No. 5.-Copy of the Answer of the Hon. Sir Alexander Johnston, to the Address presented to him by the Jurymen of the different castes of Natives at Colombo. Colombo, 22d July, 1816. "Gentlemen-I have had the honour to receive the resolutions which you have respectively passed, declaring your unanimous acquiescence in the measure which has lately been adopted by the Dutch special jurymen. "I take the liberty to enclose you, as the best way of conveying to you the sentiments which I entertain upon the subject, a copy of a letter which I have written to those gentlemen. "Allow me to add, that I am fully aware of the anxiety which the jurymen of all castes have shewn to emulate the example set them by the Dutch special jurymen; and that it will be gratifying to the friends of humanity to know, that whatever difference of religion, or whatever difference of caste, may prevail among the persons who are enrolled on the list of jurymen of this place, no difference of opinion has for a moment prevailed among them as to the propriety and justice of the measure in question. "I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your most obedient and humble servant, (Signed) "ALEXANDER JOHNSTON." SILVA. Your tree's sweet juice, drunk to excess, That Tree which more than all can bless, The Cocoa's juice distracts the brain, SILVA, holding out a Bible. O blest exchange for fragrant groves, It yields a trade of noblest gain, This shews our FREEDOM how to use, Then let our masters gladly find A FREEMAN works the faster ; When soul and body both are free, O give us Silva's precious Tree, We'll shew that we indeed are FREE, 2 R 151.-VOL. XIII. O give us Silva's Holy Book, The Twelfth of August then shall be From this blest period we are FREE, For ever and for ever! Chorus. Bless the day that sets us FREE! Hail the morn of LIBERTY! CREATION.-NO. V. The IN Essay No. IV. p. 257, we stated as follows: "That powerful agent, light, called into exercise, in the hands of the Creator, performs wonders; while affinity, attraction, repulsion, gravitation, with all the progeny of light, co-operate, and, under the wisdom and power of the Great Operator, produce an expansion of the atoms, and form a firmament as endurable as time itself. huge mass of atoms becomes many masses, each assorted and disposed, in infinite wis dom, into a sphere, and placed each in an orbit, at such distances from the central orb, and from each other, as would form due balances, each, to each and perfect equipoise to the whole system." It now be comes our province to particularize these orbs. If all the materials already created were on this day brought into use, and every portion thereof had its post assigned, in due order, that order ought to be pointed out. "In the beginning," the sacred volume declares, "God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form, and void, the expansion divided the fluids from the fluids, and Elohim denominated the expanse heaven." Here, then, we have the heaven above, and the earth beneath-a division of matter into spheres, and a separation between these by others, terrestrial and celestial. In whatever sphere the observer stands, this is terrestrial; and whatever sphere he beholds at a distance, that is celestial. The whole expanse, the ethereal, containing the universe, would therefore be celestial or heaven, to an observer at the extremity of any one atmosphere. The sphere destined to become the Sun of the whole system is the largest body in the universe; indeed, such is the magnitude of this central orb, that it contains a much larger portion of matter than all the other spheres therein. The attraction of this immense mass of matter is calculated to be amply sufficient to retain all the planets in their several orbits. It moves round its own axis, from west to east, in somewhat less than twenty-six of our days, and the influence of the immense vortice created by this motion ought not to be lost sight of, on viewing the motions of the planets, all of which move in the same direction. Consi. dered as a sphere, no reason existed, on the day it was formed, why it might not become as prolific, in respect of vegetation and animation, as any other orb in the solar family: for on this day it did not become the sun, but was the central sphere of the system. Considerably more than a moiety of the created atoms being retained in the centre, where it is probable they were created, economized the labour in the construction of the universe most materially. If considerably more than half of the materials created by Elohim were consumed in the construction of this single sphere, it is not probable that so large a portion of this creation would be doomed to continue, throughout the ages of time, a lump of dead matter, subservient in toto to the other dead matter of the system; and, as will hereafter appear, no such alteration took place in the body or in the atmosphere of this immense sphere, when the Creator converted it into a great light or sun, as to subject this orb to perpetual sterility. It may, therefore, be as fertile, and possess as rich abundance of animated creation, as any of the planets. The first planet we shall notice, is that whose orbit is nearest to the sun. In high antiquity this wandering orb was called Mercury, and it still retains the name. The diameter of this planet is about three thousand two hundred miles; it is supposed to revolve round its own axis from west to east, but in what time, owing to the uniform smoothness of its surface, has not yet been clearly ascertained; and it moves, in the same direction, in an elliptic orbit, round the sun, in somewhat less than eighty-eight of our days. Its mean distance from the sun is about thirty-seven millions of miles. and Launched into the ethereal, by the Great Creator, on this second day of creation, the day on which He constructed the universe, hitherto this nearest neighbour to the sun has undeviatingly kept its course; small as it is, compared with that huge mass of matter, the laws of creation, established by Infinite Wisdom and Power, have stood fast; and it has neither been, by the vast attraction of the immense matter of the sun, absorbed by that sphere, nor even impeded in its course. That planet which is nearest to, and that planet which is the most distant from, the sun, appear to us in the greatest peril: the first, from its immediate vicinity, of being attracted to, and absorbed, in the stupendous central orb; and the last, from its immense distance, of losing this attraction in so great a degree as to endanger its stability, and leave it, if it moved at all, to wander at large. But, no; the edifice, although founded on ether, is stable in all its parts; and to this day remains as at the beginning. The second planet in the system has for ages been denominated Venus; and it is the only primary orb which, from high antiquity, received a female name. Perhaps the beautiful appearance of this evening and morning star induced the ancient sages to crown it with a female appellation, as the most lovely of the heavenly train. This planet is nearly seven thousand seven hundred miles in diameter; it revolves round its own axis, from west to east, in nearly the same time as the earth; and it moves in the same direction, in an elliptic orbit, round the sun in somewhat less than two hundred and twenty-five of our days. The mean distance of Venus from the sun is about sixtynine millions of miles. Mercury and Venus are the only planets which move in orbits between the earth and the sun. To us, therefore, they form a contrast with those planets whose orbits are more distant from the sun than ourselves; affording together a rich variety, and, when the whole are contemplated in their vastness, presenting scenes of sublimity which none but the heavenly orbs can furnish to mankind. These two planets, now behind the central orb and now beside it, anon passing over its face, and presently on the other side, not together, but in swifter and in slower motions, as the orbit of the one exceeds the orbit of the other in its circumference, separately, yet jointly, form the quick time of that mystic dance composed by all the orbs which move in measured mazes, one unison to music of ethereal compound, "the music of the spheres." The next planet which claims our notice is the Earth; so called by Elohim and by us, because it is our terrestrial-the terra firma of our abode: yet firm as we experience it, and stable, like the other planets, it moves, unknowing rest. The Earth is nearly eight thousand miles in diameter; it revolves round its own axis, from west to east, in somewhat less than twenty-four hours; and it moves in the same direction, in an elliptic orbit, round the sun in three hundred and sixty-five days and about six hours. The mean distance of the Earth from the sun is more than ninety-five millions of miles. With the Earth begins that variety of orbs which we term secondary, viz., a planet revolving in an orbit round a planet, and these two in one orbit round the sun. The secondary planet which revolves round the Earth we call the Moon; its diameter is about two thousand one hundred and eighty miles; it revolves round its own axis in twenty-nine days and nearly thirteen hours, and round the Earth in the same time; hence the same face is always towards the earth. The mean distance of the moon from the earth is two hundred and forty thousand miles, and its mean distance from the sun, seeing the earth is nearly in the centre of its orbit, may be deemed the same as that of the earth. The Here we behold the first example of complex motion in the solar system. The motions of the two planets, Venus and Mercury, already noted, are simple-they individually move round their own axis and round the sun, in elliptic orbits, without impediments; while the earth, revolving on its axis, carries round the sun a large orb, distant from its centre two hundred and forty thousand miles, which moves round it about thirteen times every year, and round its own axis nearly the same number of times. centre of gravity in Mercury and Venus is within and near the centres of these planets, but the centre of gravity, amidst this complex motion, is neither in the earth nor in the moon; but lies between these two orbs, at that point where the relative weight of each is in perfect equipoise. The moon being smaller, and of course lighter, than the earth, the centre of gravity is considerably nearer to the earth than to the moon. In the progression of these two spheres round the sun, the earth being accelerated and retarded in its progress by the ceaseless changes in the position of the moon, which is then on that side and now on this, in its incessant revolutions round the primary sphere, is acted upon in contrary directions, and considerable eccentricity is induced in the progression of the earth throughout its orbit. Yet here we behold the laws of creation operate upon the universe with as much regularity as amidst the simple motions of the former planets; for the earth fulfils its appointed task, complicated as it is, with a precision similar to Venus and Mercury. Superior to all that is adverse or inert in matter, by His manifold wisdom, the Great Creator, in rich variety of modes and forms, erected the universe; and the wisdom of every age, in the experience of its working together in all its parts, confirms the omniscience and omnipotence which created and formed the whole. In our notices of the planets, we have hitherto progressed from smaller to larger spheres, but the time is come when we must retrograde, for the orb next in succession is smaller than either Venus or the Earth. This planet is called Mars; which name it received from the ancients, probably in consequence of its red or fiery appearance at certain seasons. Mars is nearly four thousand two hundred miles in diameter; it revolves round its own axis, from west to east, in twenty-four hours and nearly forty minutes; and it moves in the same direction, in an elliptic orbit, round the sun in about twenty-six minutes less than six hundred and eighty-seven of our days. The mean distance of Mars from the sun is more than one hundred and forty-five millions of miles. The planets Mercury and Venus, whose orbits are within that of the earth, are called, by astronomers, inferior; while those planets whose orbits are without that of the earth, are called, superior: Mars is, therefore, the first in the order of superior planets, his or bit being next in succession to the earth from the sun. This distinction arises out of the circumstance of all the astronomers, whose works have reached us, being situate upon the earth. If an astronomer situated in Mercury had noticed this circumstance, all the other planets would have been denominated superior, because they are all more distant from the sun than Mercury; and if an astronomer situated in the Georgium Sidus had noticed it, all the other planets would have been denominated inferior, because are all included in its orbit; and so on of the rest. In our progression from the sun, we now arrive at a group of spheres, which, although they are severally primary planets, are diminutive, compared with any other in the system; indeed, so dispropor. tionate are they from all the rest, that they excite peculiar interest in the contemplative mind. Owing to their distance when in certain portions of their orbits, and their minute size, the ancients seem to have overlooked these planets altogether, seeing we have no notices of their existence which bear an earlier date than the present century; for it was in the year 1801 when the first of these was discovered. These planets have been named Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta; their orbits lie between Mars and Jupiter, from two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions of miles in distance from the sun; and their diameters are severally from about one hundred and ten to about one hundred and sixty miles, while their distances each from each are about fifteen millions of miles; whereas the nearest of the other primary planets, viz. Venus and the Earth, are upwards of twenty-six millions of miles apart. Launched into ether, these minute orbs have survived the rush of ages equally with the larger spheres; yet do they seem to us sprung up yesterday, so completely have they for ages been hidden from us. More of the Great Creator's works yet may lie concealed, which, when they are discovered, will yield to us, or to succeeding ages, like wonder and admiration; and, with the psalmist, we or they may say, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!” WM. COLDWELL. King Square, May 25, 1831. ANNIVERSARIES OF BENEVOLENT INSTI- THE annual meeting of this institution was held at Exeter Hall, on Monday, May 9th, W. Allen, Esq. in the chair. It was numerously attended, and happily exempted from that turbulence and commotion which, at some other anniversaries, a few intolerant and restless spirits excited. Among the numbers who attended, it is not improbable that many were allured thither from an expectation that Lord John Russell would preside. His engagements, however, occasioned by the election, rendered this impracticable, and an apology for his absence was candidly and peaceably received. The report stated, that his Majesty William IV. had condescended to become the patron of the society, and had engaged to subscribe one hundred pounds annually towards its support. On a general survey which the report took of the various schools standing on this broad foundation, the accounts were pleasing and satisfactory. To children, both at home and abroad, it had extended its operation; and that its labours in foreign parts were not unnecessary, the following fact will most forcibly prove. It has been extracted from the memoirs of the pious and Rev. John Frederic Oberlin, minister of a mountainous canton in the north-east of France; and perhaps parallel cases may be found in many villages much nearer home. "When Stouber, the predecessor of Oberlin, first went to the Ban-de-la-Roche, he began by inquiring into the manner of education there. Asking for the principal school, he was conducted to a miserable hovel, where there were a number of children crowded together without any occupation, and in so wild and noisy a state, that it was with some |