of without inconvenience to the public. The business of the session has not sufficiently commenced to elicit as yet much debate on any of these topics; and in general both chambers seem so subservient at present to the views of the government, that much serious opposition does not appear to be apprehended. To grant a reasonable compensation to individuals unjustly and violently deprived of their property in the moment of revolutionary phrensy, is doubtless, simply considered, an act of national justice; but the measure is too closely connected with deeply rooted associations not to be viewed by numbers with suspicion and alarm.-The proposed regulations for advancing the interests of religion, if we may judge of them from the project for securing reverence to the consecrated wafer or Host, by means of the penalty of death, are likely to be more akin to the darkness of the middle ages, than to the present period of light and liberality. We may have occasion to recur to the subject, when the intended measures are more fully developed: in the mean time, it is painful to be. hold large bodies of men retrograding in the scale of civilization. In past ages we witness many fluctuations in knowledge and liberal institutions. The most refined nations of antiquity relapsed into ignorance and barbarism, and this in the midst of those vestiges of art and literature which we might have supposed would have preserved them from degeneracy. In modern times, one great promoter of such retrograde movements in society has been the spirit of Popery. We cannot, however, believe that, with those powerful instruments for perpetuating knowledge, the press, the diffusion of education, the distribution of the holy Scriptures, and all the social and commercial relations of modern times, the gloom of ignorance can ever again become very deep or widely diffused. Still, the wish to prevent even the partial return of intellectual or spiritual darkness, should stimulate Christians, and all who wish well to the best interests, civil or religious, of their species, to "work while it is called to-day;" to labour to diffuse more widely the light of Divine truth, and, in the spirit of our revered Reformers, to endeavour not only in England, but throughout the world, "to kindle a torch which shall never be extinguished." SPAIN. We have not much intelligence from Spain. The king continues to complain of being surrounded with a wretched set of ministers, though he has changed them often enough to suit, we might think' the most capricious taste. Vengeance continues to glut itself upon its political victims; and large numbers of persons of wealth and rank, including, it is said, many not by any means prominent as Constitutionalists, are suffering the penalty of confiscation, banishment, or a dungeon, for acts committed, or for holding offices, under that system of government. The Constitutionalists, thus most impolitically driven to revenge or despair, are stated to be making efforts on the adjacent coasts of Africa to organise another expedition to regain their liberties. GREECE. The reports from Greece state that a considerable victory had been gained by the Patriots over the fleet of the chief admiral of the Porte, Ibrahim Pasha, in the neighbourhood of Candia, whither the Turkish fleet, it is said, was bound to. take in troops to invade the Morea. Subsequent reports allege that Ibrahim was encouraged to this rash attempt in consequence of having gained over the son of Colocotroni, one of the Greek generals; but it is added, that the treachery being discovered, the mutinous troops were vanquished, and their leader put to death. The whole account, however, is very vague. UNITED STATES.-The President's Speech exhibits a glowing description of the condition of the country. The native population are increasing; commerce, manufactures, agriculture, and inland trade flourish; and the naval, military, and financial arrangements of the Union are in the most favourable condition. The foreign relations are spoken of as pacific, though some points remain unadjusted; among which we regret to state is the treaty with this country for the suppression of the slave trade; the Senate refusing to grant a mutual right of search on the shores of America, though the clause, Mr. Canning states, had been proposed by the American ambassador himself, and the treaty containing it, and which conceded a similar right on our part on the shores of our WestIndia colonies, had been conditionally ratified in London. We are happy however to add, that the President does not consider the difficulty" of sufficient magnitude to defeat an object so near to the heart of both nations, and so desirable to the friends of humanity throughout the world." MEXICO. The constitution of Mexico has been adjusted upon a plan somewhat similar to that of the United States. General Victoria is chosen President, and General Bravo Vice-President. 62 South-American Independence-Irish Catholics-Missionaries. [JAN. DOMESTIC. The only domestic article of public intelligence is the gratifying announcement of the determination of Government to recognize the independence of the SouthAmerican States. The recognition extends hitherto only to Mexico and Columbia; but is expected to be applied speedily to Buenos Ayres, and to the other States, as soon as their stability is considered as sufficiently demonstrated. A bill of indictment preferred by the Attorney-General of Ireland against Mr. O'Connell, for constructive sedition, contained in one of his speeches at the Catholic Board, has been thrown out by the Grand Jury, who consisted, it is said, entirely of Protestants. The prosecution is thought to have been ill-advised.-The Roman-Catholic opposition to the free distribution of the Scriptures appears to become more determined and systematic, as will appear from the following passages from the Annual Pastoral Charge of the Irish Roman-Catholic prelates. We need make no comment on such a document. "In this church, dearly beloved brethren, you possess the fountain of all true knowledge, and the tribunal where God himself presides. He speaks to you by the mouths of all her pastors, whom when you hear, you hear him. Never deviate from her decisions; they are the decisions of the Holy Ghost, who governs her, and always preserves the purity of her doctrine." "Our Holy Father recommends to the observance of the faithful, a rule of the Congregation of the Index, which prohibits the perusal of the sacred Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, without the sanction of the competent authorities. His Holiness wisely remarks,' that more evil than good is found to result from the indiscriminate perusal of them, on account of the malice or infirmity of men.' In this sentiment of our head and chief we fully concur; and a sad experience of its justice is found in the excesses and conflicting errors of those sects amongst whom such perusal is unrestrained. With us it is not so; and approved versions of the holy Scriptures, with notes explanatory of the text, are read by many of you with edification and advantage. We rejoice, dearly beloved, that the Word of God should dwell abundantly with you; it is useful to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice; and when read with piety and devotion, especially in families and at the time of prayer, it assists the man of God whose heart is humble and whose understanding is captivated to the obedience due to Christ and to his holy church, to become perfect, and to be furheresies have arisen, and perverse docnished unto every good work. But as them into the abyss, have been broached trines, ensnaring souls and precipitating only when the good Scriptures have been badly understood, and when that which boldly asserted; it is necessary that such was badly understood was rashly and passages as are hard to be understood, and which the ignorant and unsettled daily received in that sense which the church wrest to their own perdition, be always is the same that she has been taught by of God has assigned to them, and which the Holy Ghost." by the Bible Society, under the names of "As to the books which are distributed Bibles, or Testaments, or tracts, or whatsoever name may be given to them, as they by us, or by any competent authority in treat of religion, and are not sanctioned the reading, or retaining of them, is entirely. the Catholic Church, the use, the perusal, and without any exception, prohibited to you. foreign to our purpose: such of them as To enter into their merits or demerits is plete with errors, many of them are herehave come under our observation are retical, and generally they abound in calumholy religion as such, they are carefully to nies or misrepresentations against our pen to be in your possession, they are to be avoided; and should any of them hapbe restored to the persons who may have destroyed, except only Bibles or Testabestowed them to you, or otherwise to be ments, which, if not returned to the donors, are to be deposited with the parish priest. execrated by the Catholic Church; and hence "Such books have been, and ever will be, those salutary laws and ordinances, whereby she has at all times prohibited her children to read or retain them; nay, why she has frequently ordered them to be committed to the flames.' Two documents have been widely cir- at a meeting of Wesleyan missionaries in Jamaica, in a similar spirit, warmly panegyrising the colonists, and as warmly reprobating the conduct of the abolitionists. Of the former an official disavowal has been published, stating the pain of the United Brethren that other missionaries should have been disparaged, or their own applauded by invidious comparisons, and adding that a remonstrance had been sent out to the offending party, which would be followed up by his removal. The disavowal of the Methodist society is still more strongly explicit, and embraces some points which we could have wished had been touched upon in the Moravian disclaimer, especially at a time when an appeal is being made to the public to contribute to a fund for enlarging their WestIndia missions. The whole document does great honour to the members of the Methodist society; and we feel great pleasure in copying the following passages, which we recommend to the serious consideration of all the friends of Christian missions. "In particular, the Committee are imperatively called upon by this unguarded and improper act of a very few of the missionaries employed by the society in Jamaica, to object: "First, to the equivocal manner in which the persons who passed the said resolutions, declare their belief, that Christianity does not interfere with the civil condition of Slaves, as Slavery is established and regulated by the laws of the British WestIndies. If no more were meant by this, than that all slaves, brought under the influence of Christianity, are bound by its precepts to obey their masters, and submit to the authorities of the state, conscientiously and constantly, this is no more than the missionaries have been explicitly instructed to teach, and which the Committee sacredly enjoin upon them to inculcate, upon all to whom their ministrations may extend; but if it was intended as a declaration, that the system of slavery, 'as established in the West-Indies,' or any where else, is not inconsistent with Christianity, the Committee, and 'the Wesleyan body,' whose name the framers of the resolutions have thus presumed to use without any authority whatever, hold no such opinion; but whilst they feel that all changes in such a system ought to ema nate solely from the legislature, they hold it to be the duty of every Christian government to bring the practice of slavery to an end, as soon as it can be done prudently, safely, and with a just consideration of the interest of all parties concerned; and that the degradation of men merely on account of their colour, and the holding of human beings in interminable bondage, are wholly inconsistent with Christianity. "Secondly, That the Committee feel bound in justice to disavow the sweeping charge made against persons in this country, comprehended under the general term of 'Emancipatists and Abolitionists,' in the said "resolutions, as written under evident ignorance of the opinions on that subject which are held in this country, by those excellent and benevolent men who have of late most distinguished themselves by advocating the amelioration of the slaves in the West-India colonies, with a view to the ultimate extinction of slavery. The Committee conducting the Wesleyan missions take no part in such discussions, as not being embraced by their one object, which is to extend the benefits of Christian instruction among the Black and Coloured population of the colonies; but they can never permit any of their missionaries to use their name, and the name of the Wesleyan body,' in casting censures upon many of the most excellent of their fellow-countrymen, by representing them as holding sentiments on the subject of the emancipation of slaves, and forming designs,' which, if carried into effect, would produce the consequences enumerated in the very unguarded and blameable resolution referred to. The character and objects of the persons to whom allusion is there made, are too well known by the Committee, for them to suffer such unjust recollections to be given to the world in their name, and not strongly to censure the said missionaries for thus adopting the language of violent party men. "Thirdly, That the Committee have read with great grief the very blameable language of the fourth of the said resolutions, though they consider the whole to be the production of a very few only of the missionaries in Jamaica; two of whom had been placed by the last Conference under censure, one being recalled and the other removed from that island, for the manner in which they had surrendered themselves to the party-feelings excited there in opposition to the measures of his Majesty's Government, and the proceedings of the British Parliament; and that so far from that resolution speaking the language of "the Wesleyan body," as it most unwarrantably professes, that body, whilst it has exerted itself for nearly forty years to promote the instruction of the Slaves of the West Indies, and to render them mo ral and peaceable, and has always distinguished itself at home and abroad by its inculcation of the principles of entire obedience to masters, magistrates, and all other legal authorities, yet, after the example of its venerable founder, who was among the first, by his writings, to lift up his voice against that long-continued national sin, the Trade in Slaves, has ever regarded the system of slavery as a moral evil from which the nation was bound ultimately to free itself; and, throughout the kingdom, has hailed with the greatest gratitude and satisfaction, the incipient measures adopted by his Majesty's Government, for ameliorating the condition of that class of their fellow-subjects. These are measures which, as a religious body, they have felt a deep interest in, not as connecting religion with politics,' as stated in the resolution, but as they are essentially connected with the promotion of religion and morals, by regulations which refer to the observance of the Sab bath, to the marriage of slaves, and to their general protection. "The Committee, attentive only to the spiritual concerns of the missions confided to their management, would not have thus entered upon these topics, had they not been forced upon them by the publication of the resolutions in question." It was our intention to have offered a few observations on two recent trials; in one of which an actor, and in the other an actress, of theatrical celebrity were conspicuous parties; as forcibly shewing how little the stage either is, or is ever likely to become, practically, what its admirers affect to call it, "a school for virtue." But our limits forbid the discussion; and we would trust it is not necessary, certainly not to those who take the Scriptures as their standard of morals, and who seriously pray not to be led into the temptations of "the world, the flesh, and the devil." OBITUARY. WILBERFORCE RICHMOND. DIED on Sunday, January 16, aged 18, Wilberforce Richmond, second son of the Rev. Legh Richmond of Turvey. He was a youth of much promise. He possessed strong intellectual faculties, and had acquired very considerable knowledge in various departments of study. But, above all, he had a deep acquaintance with the word of God, which was eminently blessed to his soul, and enabled him to depart in perfect peace, leaving behind him a bright train of evidences that his Saviour had prepared a place for him in the mansions of his heavenly Father. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. J. S.; G. B.; B. L. W. T.; E. G.; CANDIDUS; E.; J. B.; SPES; F.; R. T.; J. É. O. E.; F. G. H.; and some papers without signature, are under consideration. We are very much obliged to our correspondent B. G. B. for having drawn our attention to the terms in which, in our last Number, we expressed our opinion of the duty of abstinence from slave-grown sugar. We admit them to have been much too absolute and unqualified-much more so than we intended; a circumstance which must be ascribed to the hurry of the closing hour of publication. What we meant to say was this, that it is the duty of Christians to do what may be in their power to put an end to slavery ;-that, in order to effect this, it is highly expedient to discourage the use of slave-grown sugar, and to encourage that produced by free-labour ;— and that, therefore, all practicable means should be resorted to, of carrying into effect this distinction. We did not intend, by representing the use of slave-grown sugar as sinful in itself, to frame any snare for tender consciences; but we were anxious to lead our readers carefully to consider what each in his station could do, by giving encouragement to free-grown sugar, and discouragement to slave-grown sugar, in contributing his aid to that most desirable consummation, the termination of slavery in the British dominions. We intend to explain ourselves at greater length on this important subject, probably in our next Number. CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. No. 278.] FEBRUARY, 1825. [No.2. Vol. XXV. RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS. For the Christian Observer. ON THE SUPERIORITY OF THE what the mere man of the world understands by that term; and by SCRIPTURES, AS PRESENTING A happiness, that only which results RULE OF ACTION THE BEST FOR (Continued from p. 10.) THE justice of the Divine precepts comes next under notice. According to the meaning of the term in the sacred language, justice is the equal poising of a balance. It is to give a full weight, an exact compensation. There is, as it were, a balance to weigh our actions when they are of full weight, they are just; when they are wanting, they are not just. But our present consideration is to examine whether there is justice in the injunctions of the Bible, whether the balance in which our conduct is weighed is a right balance. To revert a moment to what has been already in a measure discussed, let the justice of the first table of the Ten Commandments be considered. Some persons complain of their strictness.But are their requirements more extensive than the just demands of a Creator, or than the just debt of a creature? Are the love of the whole heart, and the obedience of the whole conduct, more than what is due to Him whose we are, from whom we have derived our very existence? Does not an entire dependence on another most justly require an entire submission to his will? But these demands, it is alleged, are incompatible with our interest, and destructive to our happiness. If by interest is meant, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 278. from sensual and illicit pleasures; there is some truth in the sentiment but who would admit this as a valid objection? In this world sin has evidently a wide dominion, a mighty influence: hence there prevail injustice, oppression, and a continued opposition to every thing that is good. Obedience therefore to God does not meet with popular approbation, but rather displeasure; and through the enmity of a world which lieth in wickedness, our temporal interest may at times in some degree be injured, or worldly losses sustained, for the "sake of the Gospel." But these inconveniences are, in comparison, but "for a moment." And is it right to violate the plainest and strongest obligations, that a temporary interest may be secured; to deny our Creator, for the purpose of conciliating the favour of sinful creatures? So much for the appeal to our supposed interest: then as to the other objection, that the Divine precepts are destructive to happinessdoes not such an objection argue a state of mind utterly degraded, and unbecoming a rational being? What, to love and serve the Most High injurious to the enjoyments of a creature, formed by his hands, and after his image! Has the Almighty made any thing more worthy to be loved than himself? Is there greater value, or beauty, or grandeur, in the things that are made than in Him who made them? Is there any thing, or any being, which man is K |