BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES.

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ing, for about an hour before the forenoon service; the teachers then walk with their pupils to church and sit beside them during worship; at dismission, school exercises are resumed, and in the afternoon, they again take their place in the church. This completes the exercises of the day, for none of the schools are open in the evening; so different is the system in America and in Scotlandwith us the evening is the principal period of instruction, and only a few schools have a summer morning meeting. The New York Sunday School Union was established in 1816, and has now a great number of schools in connexion with it.

The anniversary meetings of Religious Societies are conducted in a different manner from those at home. Ours have more the character of popular assemblies, theirs of devotional meetings. Those at which I have been present here have always been held in a church. The business was introduced by singing and prayer; the report was read, and the speakers, principally clergymen, then addressed the audience. The peculiar form of the more modern American pulpits, makes the churches much better adapted for meetings of this kind than ours are. A collection was then made, and another hymn and prayer, with the usual benediction, terminated the proceedings, The introduction of religious services has the effect of considerably lessening the number of those who attend ;would it not be better that these meetings should

be made as inviting as can be done, without the compromise of principle, to persons of every description of character?

Abstract remarks upon the character of American religion appear to be unnecessary, after the information as to facts, which has been communicated throughout these letters. No one of reflection and candour can fail to be convinced that truth and righteousness do to a very important extent prevail, and that their principles are in a state of increasing progress and development.

No

I must now soon take leave of America. one who rightly studies the people of this country can be otherwise than persuaded that they are a growing nation; destined ultimately to attain, and probably long to enjoy, a commanding and. salutary influence upon the other families of the earth. It is natural that we should expect this; and it cannot but be disgraceful to Americans should such anticipations be disappointed. They. have had advantages which no other nation ever had results must accrue from these such as no nation has yet exhibited. Instead of laboriously climbing the steep ascent, by which others have risen from darkness and barbarity to light and civilization-groping for the right path and often mistaking it in the labyrinths among which it was concealed - they have been happily transferred

from the lofty peak to which we had attained, to another equally high, there to commence their efforts for further advancement;-with all the memorials of our slowly acquired wisdom recorded for their use, all our errors detailed for their warning, all our present imperfections and half matured plans conspicuously exhibited before them. Hitherto their advancement has been comparatively but necessarily slow;-they had an untamed land to subdue, they had the necessaries of life to struggle for, they had a civil system to establish, they had errors in European principles to reform, what was still worse, they had strong counteracting efforts on our part to resist. In the face of all this, the wonder is, not that they have done so little, but that they have accomplished so much; and the vigour of the infantine grasp, which in the cradle has triumphed over such opposition, gives promise of a matured and exalted energy, which will hereafter aid in washing away the moral pollutions of the world, and crushing the many-headed monster which has so long preyed upon the temporal and eternal interests of man.

But while from America so much may be expected, we may reasonably hope that she will not be solitary in such achievements. My heart still clings to my native land with unabated fondness; and as she has already been honoured to do great things, in emancipating from mental thraldom the fair globe on which we dwell, it is not surely

unreasonable to hope that all this is but a pledge of greater exertions, and more brilliant success ;that there is a day coming when she will stand still more conspicuously forth as the benefactor of our species, and when the blessing of many ready to perish shall come upon her.'

6

Let not the people of either country disdain the fellowship and good offices of the other;-sprung from the same stock, speaking the same language, common participators of civil liberty and equal laws -let us regard each other as brethren, cordially unite for counsel, co-operation and sympathy; and give to the world a brighter and more beneficial demonstration than it has hitherto seen, that knowledge is power, union is strength, and pure religion inseparably connected with national prosperity and individual happiness.

THE END.