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SUMMARY OF MISSIONARY PROCEEDINGS.

SINCE the publication of our last Number, most of the Societies formed for the promotion of missions to the heathen have held their anniversary meetings in the metropolis; and cheering, and delightful, on the whole, is the retrospect of their last year's proceedings, at which our limits will permit us but the merest glance.

Those of the SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS have been already noticed in our last Summary; and to the information then given, we have but to add the recent appointment of a Principal and a Professor in the Mission College at Calcutta, about to be erected, in a fine situation, three miles below the town, on the opposite bank of the Hoogly, upon a piece of ground liberally granted for the purpose by the East India Company.

From the last annual report of the SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, we are sorry to find that its funds have decreased more than £3000; its receipts, during the last year, having been £52,684. 7s. 7d., and its expenditure £52,366. 1s. 5d. Great part of its energies have latterly been directed to the circulation of cheap tracts, for the counteraction of those infidel principles so industriously, and we fear but too successfully, promulgated amongst the lower orders of the community. We hope that the antidote which their Christian zeal has copiously provided, will, in some happy measure, destroy the effects of the subtle poison, administered at least with equal zeal and equal abundance by the enemies of Christianity and the best interests of society.

The Missions of the UNITED BRETHREN, by which so much has quietly and unobtrusively been effected, in the great common cause of evangelizing the world, has lately made a powerful, and we trust it will prove an effectual appeal, to the liberality of the Christian public, in support of its laborious and continued exertions. Comparatively limited in their number, this highly respectable sect of Christians long since discovered, that even the most liberal contributions from their own body, far from an opulent one, would be totally inadequate to the support of so many missionaries as they had been the honoured instruments, in the hands of Providence, of sending to some of the most inhospitable and unenlightened regions of the globe. This discovery, however, abated not their zeal ; but, like the apostles of old, their missionaries strove to administer to their necessities by the labour of their own hands; and many of these faithful and devoted servants of the Most High established themselves in various trades, for the support of the mission to which they were attached, in some cases with such success as entirely to defray all its expenses. But the fluctuations of commerce, the depression of the times, and a variety of circumstances of a local nature, have considerably injured this last species of laborious exertion, which we could have wished to have withered beneath their blighting touch; and unless Christians of other denominations come forward to their help (and we rejoice to be enabled to say that they begin to do it liberally), these venerable leaders of our missionary band-these, the civilizers of Greenland, the apostles of Labrador-must materially straighten the field of exertion, which it were a blot on the Christian character not rather to extend.

Our BAPTIST brethren, to whom justly belongs the place of honour in the East, have been proceeding with their wonted activity in India, that

exhaustless field of missionary labour, on which alone, during the last year, ten thousand pounds have been expended. During his residence in England, Mr. Ward, one of the labourers at Serampore, to whom we owe so much for their gigantic achievements in the translation of the Scriptures, has been most strenuously exerting himself, in furtherance of a plan which his practical knowledge and experience induces him confidently to recommend as preferable to all others, for the conversion of the Hindoos. It is that of training up and employing native preachers in the work; which he assures us may be done at the expense of ten pounds per annum for each individual; a cheap mode, most certainly, of effecting the most extensive good. His brother missionaries and himself have established a seminary for this especial purpose; and we are convinced that the Christian public will not suffer it to want support. Some congregations and individuals have already subscribed the sum of two hundred pounds, the interest of which, when placed in a fund formed expressly for this purpose, will send out one labourer into the vineyard of the Lord. Others, we are persuaded, will not linger in following so good an example. Great, indeed, is the field that opens before us, when we recollect that no less than fifty different versions of the word of life are necessary, before the wants of the teeming population of Hindostan are supplied, and its one hundred and fifty millions of inhabitants can be taught the worship of the only living and true God, instead of the three hundred and thirty millions of deities to whom they now profess to bow the knee.

Notwithstanding the pressure of the times, the income of the LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY has, we rejoice to say, amounted, during the last year, to 25,4097., exceeding by two thousand pounds that of any former year; yet, such is the extension of its exertions, falling short by 7361. of the expenditure. While these exertions are crowned with the success which now attends them, we do not doubt, but that this, and a much larger excess, will be provided for by the exhaustless funds of Christian benevolence. Good tidings are every day reaching us from far countries. On one of the first Sabbaths of the year, the slaves of Cape Town, goaded by the oppressions and exactions of their priests, in a body of at least a thousand, publicly renounced the religion of Mahomet as an imposture, and afterwards expressed their willingness to be instructed in the Christian faith, if the missionaries, who applied to them for the purpose, could get the consent of the Government, and of their masters, to teach them its principles. The latter there is at present no prospect of obtaining; but the ground is prepared, and we doubt not, that in spite of the heathenish objections of the planters to the enlightening of their slaves, an opportunity will ere long be found for sowing the good seed. The chiefs of Madagascar have consented to the establishment of schools among them; the precursor, we may be assured, of their initiation into the Christian faith. From the scene of the society's great labours, the field of its noblest triumphs, the intelligence every day deepens in interest and importance. Pomare, the king of Otaheite, was baptized on the 14th of May, 1819, in the presence of five thousand of his subjects. He has promulgated a code of laws, founded on Christian principles, which have been gladly accepted by his chiefs and people. He has erected an immense mission chapel, capable of holding between five and six thousand people, and furnished with 3 pulpits, 260 yards apart, so that three ministers can preach at once without disturbing each other; and in this vast edifice, set apart to the worship of the true God, did he preside at the first anniversary of the Auxiliary Missionary Society of his dominions, at which the various resolutions were moved by the missionaries, and regularly seconded by the native chiefs, The same

scene was exhibited, on a smaller scale, at Raideta, and Huhaeine, two of the Society Islands; at the latter of which it was resolved to print the Report, the missionary press having been removed thither from Eimeo. There 6000 of the natives can read, and are impatient for the Scriptures in their native tongue. Many of the inhabitants of the neighbouring isles have thrown away their idols, and are pressing with the greatest anxiety to obtain instruction in the great truths of Christianity and the arts of civilized life. In short, the whole range exhibits a delightful picture of a moral and spiritual renovation, so wonderful as to constrain the most casual observer to exclaim, "What, indeed, hath God wrought!" In China, India, and other parts, our limits will not permit us, at this time, to notice the successful operations of this Society.

Of younger date, but commanding far greater resources, the CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY has already outstripped most of its precursors in the amount of its annual contributions to this noble cause, for which, during the last year, 30,000l. have been raised, and 31,000l. expended; the excess of its income having been the saine, in comparison with that of the preceding year, with the London Society. Nor have its exertions failed to keep pace with its means. At Sierra Leone, the liberated negroes, under its protection, are making rapid advances in the arts of civilized life; and not a few are giving good evidence of a well-founded hope of sharing the felicities of a life to come. Thirty-one pounds have been collected from them, as their contribution for the conversion of their fellow-heathens, during the first year of the existence of their Auxiliary Missionary Society. Other settlements in West Africa afford prospects equally encouraging; and letters have been received from negro teachers in some of these that would do no discredit to old and experienced Christians. In the Mediterranean and the Grecian Archipelago, a printing press, attached to the school at Scio, is in full operation; printing, among other things, the school papers of the Lancasterian plan. The prelates and clergy of the Greek church seem inclined warmly to countenance the views of the Society; and several of its bishops have undertaken to superintend the sale and distribution of the modern Greek Scriptures. The Rev. James Conner, the Society's active and indefatigable agent in those parts, has it in contemplation to visit the churches on the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, proceeding as far as Bagdad and Bassorah, travelling, for safety on his benevolent mission, in the Oriental dress. In India the Society is prospering in the attainment of the objects of its institution. The education of native youths promises to form future teachers well fitted for their work. Converts are slowly adding to the church of Christ, as slow we must expect them to be made, where there are such deep-rooted prejudices to surmount, and such a powerful priesthood to oppose; but we are happy to see that a spirit of inquiry is excited by the conduct of these little bands of native Christians, both among the Mussulmen and Hindoos. Great hopes may be reasonably entertained of the success of the Gospel amongst a singular theistical sect now spreading in India, abhorrers of idolatry, simple in their worship, and, in many other respects, singularly resembling the Quakers amongst us. Two native converts have been favourably received by them, and they promise to visit the missionary settlements to inquire into their tenets.

The WESLEYAN MISSION is treading in the steps of its elder brethren. The two Cingalese priests, most intelligent and interesting young men, we can testify, from personal communication with them, have been baptized, and at the annual meeting of the Society, took their leave of their kind patrons, and have sailed for their native shores; there, we hope, to preach with zeal and much success, to the worshippers of Buddh, the

Saviour of the world. In South Africa the cause is prospering in the hands of their missionaries, especially amongst the Namaqua negroes; one of whom seems to be a native teacher, well instructed in the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and zealous in making them known to others.

To the EDINBURGH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, the wide, important, but waste uncultivated field of Northern Asia seems principally to be allotted; and they are proceeding with great diligence in the work of its cultivation. Their active and most intelligent missionaries, when the last accounts were received from them, had in contemplation several distant tours amongst the Tartars, and the tribes which lie scattered on the borders of the Caspian Sea, in order to collect information on the state of the country, the expediency of establishing missions, the situation of the Jews, and the distribution of Bibles and tracts, an object which is always associated in friendly conjunction with missionary labours.

POLITICAL RETROSPECT.

OUR labours commenced at a most eventful crisis, both to our own country, and to many other states. The very day on which our first Number made its appeal to the public patronage, was marked by the execution of five unhappy wretches, who had formed one of the most diabolical plots of assassination that ever was formed in the heart of man. The whole cabinet council were to have been the victims of that bloodthirsty disposition, to which they themselves were, happily, the only sacrifices. With one solitary exception, their deaths were awful, as their lives had been vicious, turbulent, and depraved; and the traitors to their earthly king, appeared, there is but too much reason to imagine, before the judgment seat of their heavenly one, to learn there a lesson which the countless ages of eternity, and the torments of another world, will but the more durably impress-that the mouldering away of their bodies is not annihilation-nor death but an eternal sleep. Fearful, indeed, were the horrid blasphemies which these misguided disciples of the infamous Paine uttered, at the very moment that a public execution of the most appalling description that the mild law of this country permits, was about to launch them into an eternity, unknown and unbelieved in. Whilst our second Number was in the press, other trials for high treason and insurrection in Scotland were proceeding; and at least two victims, selected by the clemency of the Crown from several others condemned by the law to the same dreadful sentence, will, we fear, fall victims to the dangerous principles which a few desperate men have sedulously circulated throughout the country, to undermine and to destroy that faith in the truth of revelation, which is always the best, and the firmest security against the prevalence of disloyalty and sedition, with which it never can subsist. Perhaps it will not consist with the safety of the sister kingdom, in which principles and practices diametrically opposed to the national character have lately been most widely and alarmingly diffused, to save her this further effusion of human blood. We cannot but wish, however, that the experiment may be tried; whilst our personal knowledge of the state of the north of England, at this moment, fully warrants us in most strongly recommending the extension of the royal mercy to the prisoners now confined in the castle of York, should they, upon their trials, which will soon commence, be

convicted of the serious offences laid to their charge. With one or two exceptions, the chief fomenters of the late disturbances in those districts have met with a punishment, though inadequate to their deserts, sufficiently operative as a restraint, for a while, upon their power of doing further mischief. With the imprisonment of their leaders, and the partial revival of trade, we are satisfied that the spirit of radicalism is dying rapidly away, if the exertion of an unnecessary severity on the part of government, or the over-officiousness of a foolish, restless ultra-loyalism, which has already done so much mischief in some parts of the country, shall not awake its smothering embers.

But even these ultra-alarmists, on the one hand, and the ultra-reformers on the other, have, within these last two months, suffered their hopes and their fears, their meetings and their dispersings, to be calmed into silence, by a matter of weightier interest, which now agitates every bosom, and furnishes the chief topic of conversation in every circle. These considerations, however, move not us to depart from the determination we had long since arrived at, to give no opinion whatever upon the heavy charges brought against the Queen, and upon which she is now upon her trial before the highest tribunal in the country, until we have before us the whole evidence by which the propriety or impropriety of the proceedings instituted against her, and every part of them, can alone be decided. To all ex-parte statements, to all pre-judicial decisions, we have an habitual and insurmountable aversion: and we want language sufficiently strong to reprobate the hardihood and the injustice of those conductors of our public journals, who, on the one side, and on the other, have erected themselves into self-constituted judges, to condemn without evidence, or to acquit without knowing what or how numerous are the acts or offences with which the party accused is charged. This much, however, we may say, without violating the rules which we have laid down for ourselves; that if one half of the statement made by the Attorney-General, in his speech of to-day and Saturday, is supported by credible evidence-and by credible evidence we mean such as would be believed by a jury in any case, between subject and subject, whose innocence and whose rights in this happy country, are protected by the same laws as those of Kings and Queens there cannot be a shadow of a doubt as to her guilt of the crimes laid to her charge, or of her utter unfitness to preside over the morals of any court or kingdom in the civilized world. But, if, on the other hand, that evidence fails, when subjected to the sifting and searching process of an English court, whilst we shall most cordially rejoice in the triumphant establishment of her Majesty's innocence, we shall think, and thinking we shall not fear to declare, that she has been one of the most injured women under heaven, and that no punishment can be too severe for those who have been her calumniators, and who will have suborned perjured witnesses to swear away that which ought to be dearer to her than her life.

Turning our attention to the other countries of Europe, France affords a melancholy prospect. There, plot succeeds to plot, and a successful attempt at assassination is followed but by one that only does not succeed. Neither are we alarmists, nor revolutionists, nor political prophets, "foreboders of a thousand direful ills;" but we cannot avoid thinking, that the dynasty of Bourbon, and even the branches of it now in existence, have not, in that ill-fated country, as yet experienced all the vicissitudes which will mark, as they have marked, its eventful history. It will be long ere the French become a settled and a peaceful people. Generation after generation must be swept away, ere the military spirit,