The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. Vol. IX. 4to. £.1. 6s. 6d. boards. An Inquiry into the Nature and Origin The Annual Register for the Year 1802. of Public Wealth and into the Means and 10s. 6d. boards.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

"The Bishop of Amiens has lately opened in his see a subscription, intended to provide for the education of young men destined to take orders. In imploring the charity of the faithful, the prelate exposes in a moving manner the wants of the church, and the necessity for the continuance of religion; to continue the clerical order. As a father,' says he, who opens his heart to his children, we unload in your bosoms the whole weight of our melancholy inquietude. Already since our advancement to the episcopacy, sixty priests under us have died! and who are to fill their places? Others, and those in great numbers, are advanced in their career, afflicted by infirmities: who are to succeed them? Good God! the piety of our ancestors, is it replaced in us by a mortal indifference? Exclusively fond of ourselves, will we fix all our thoughts, all our affections, upon the present moment, without having any solicitude for our posterity? And are we to see the happiness of future generations sacrificed to our indifference, egotism, or irreligion; by neglecting all means to bequeath to other ages the religion of Jesus Christ, with the great virtues which it alone inspires, and

with the abounding heavenly consolations

which religion alone gives and affords? The deplorable times will then soon come, when the night of ignorance, superstition, profanation, and all the shocking vices, their attendants, will cover the church of France! Her churches will stand; but no priest will be found to officiate at their altars, to sing with the people the praise of the Almighty, to explain to them their duty, and to shew them the way to eternal happiness! All charity will be extinguished. Orphans, widows, and the children of the poor will in vain stretch out their hands for a morsel of bread. All hearts are shut to pity. The afflicted will in vain look for consolation-they will find none. The sick, in their sufferings and agonies; the old man near to breathe his last; the repentant agonizing sinners; all in vain will call for the consolation and support of religion! Fathers and mothers, if you have any tenderness for your off spring; if a desire to preserve them from the worst of wretchedness in this world, and of misery in the next, inspires your generous humane sentiments; if you do not see with indifference the extinction of the christian faith, the total cessation of instruction in the evangelical religion in your families and in France; if you tremble in thinking on that fatal hour, on that disastrous moment, when religion descends into the tomb with the last of its ministers; remain not insensible to our prayers: do not refuse a small donation to our pressing solicitations, which the preservation of the most invaluable of all things and your own great interest claim imperiously."Jourwal des Debats.)

"Such is the indifference to religion, caused by the persécution of our revolutionary philosophers, and our philosophical barbarians, that of five thousand curacies, vacant in the French Republic, not fifty proper subjects are found to fill them up. The faithful are, therefore, forced to travel forty, fifty, and sixty miles to find a church where a priest officiates. What a blessing would not our valorous chief magistrate receive, was he to change some of our military schools or pritances into religious seminaries, and convert some of our military conscripts into religious students. All sort of glory is reserved for him! he will therefore not leave unfinished what he has so devoutly begun! His reign will, therefore, by the faithful of all future ages, be called the reign of the second resurrection of Christ."-(Gazette de France.)

The impiety of this last sentiment will not be thought less indicative of the degraded state of religion in France, than the complaints of the Journalists or the remonstrances of the Bishop of Amiens.

The Chinese Mission, mentioned above, is very likely to have origi

nated in an idea which seems to have been adopted by the French Government, that the various Missions which of late have been undertaken in this country proceed entire ly from political speculation. In the same paper, Le Journal des Debats, from which one of the above extracts has been transcribed, a detailed acCount was lately inserted of the vari ous societies for Missions established in this country, and of some of their proceedings; particularly the Missionary journey into France, in the year 1802, with the resolutions to which it led, of which we gave an account in our volume for that year, p. 744. The whole closes with the following observations, which betray a gross ignorance of the subject, and shew the low state of general information in France.

"These details fully prove that England is at last occupied with an object to which she has hitherto appeared indifferent; and one cannot but ask her, How this spirit of religious proselytism has reached her so late? We are far from thinking that these Propaganda of London and Edinburgh will ever rival that of Rome. We think the Episcopalians too lordly ever to take up the trade of our poor Franciscan Friars. The Methodists are too dry, and too much lack that unction of piety so necessary to success in persuasion, ever to work great marvels in this way; and, in the doctrine of Puritans and Presbyterians, there is too

much philosophical alloy for them ever to manifest a very strong desire to water, with their sweat or their blood, the lauds of either the south or the north. But whatever we may think of this information, or of their success, it is easy for any one, who knows the dominant spirit of our English rivals, to see that in all this they only second the English ministry: and that this new Missionary Society is not formed so much for the extension of the kingdom of Christ, as for extending the empire of the British Leopard; who hereby only seeks to unite all his moral and physical powers, the better to hold in his grasp all his distant conquests."

We cordially wish that the dreams of this Journalist were realized, and that our government were as eager to extend the boundaries of christianity as they are here represented to be. We fully agree with the Journalist, that it would prove a good speculation even in a political point of view.

EAST INDIES.

It is with the truest concern we announce to our readers the death of the Rev. Mr. Gericke, the successor of the apostolical Swartz. He died after an illness of three days, leaving the numerous churches in India, which he bad planted and watered, to mourn the loss of a faithful pastor and unwearied evangelist. May the Great Head of the church speedily supply the void which his departure has caused, and send forth labourers to reap those Indian fields, which our readers will perceive, from the account given in our number for August 1803, p. 506, are already whole for the harvest.

GREAT BRITAIN.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

We transcribe, for the information of our readers, a farther account of this excellent and truly christian institution, which has reached us in the course of the present month.

"A society having been formed with the above designation, it has been judged expedient to submit to the public a brief statement of the reasons which exist for such a society, of the specific object which it embraces, and of the principles by which its operations will be directed.

"The REASONS, which call for such an institution, chiefly refer to the prevalence of ignorance, superstition, and idolatry, over so large a portion of the world; the limited nature of the respectable societies now in existence, and their acknowledged insufficiency to supply the demand for Bi

bles in the united kingdom and foreign countries; and the recent attempts which have been made on the part of infidelity to discredit the evidence, vilify the character, and destroy the influence of christianity.

"The EXCLUSIVE OBJECT of this society is, to diffuse the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, by circulating them in the different languages spoken throughout Great Britain and Ireland; and also, according to the extent of its funds, by promoting the printing of them in foreign languages, and the distribution of them in foreign countries.

"The PRINCIPLES, upon which this undertaking will be conducted, are as comprehensive as the nature of the object suggests that they should be. In the execution of the plan, it is proposed to embrace the common support of christians at large; and to invite the concurrence of persons of the scriptures as the proper standard of every description, who profess to regard

faith.

"It may be necessary to add, in soliciting the countenance of the public, that instruction, which the lower classes in this in consequence of the enlarged means of country have enjoyed of late years, a desire of perusing the scriptures has considerably increased among them; and also that in Wales, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, and other parts of the world, Bibles are greatly wanted, and, in some, are sought for with an eagerness, which, but for authentic assurances to that effect, would scarcely be credited."

members; of twenty pounds, members for life; of five guineas annually, governors; of nifty pounds, governors for life; governors being entitled to attend committees, and each member being entitled to purchase Bibles for gratuitous distribution at the Society's prices, which shall be as low as possible. The following are the names of the president, treasurer, committee, &c. President, Right Honourable John Loid Esq. M. P. Committee, W. Alers, Esq.; Teignmouth. Treasurer, Henry Thorntou. T. Babington, Esq. M. P.; T. Bernard, Esq.; J. Benwell, Esq.; W. Birkbeck, Esq.; H. Boase, Esq.; J. Bunnell, Esq.; J. Butterworth, Esq.; R. Cowie, Esq.; C. Crawford, Esq.; J. Fenn, Esq.; S. Fridag, Esq.; C. Grant, Esq. M. P.; C. Grill, Esq.; J. Hardcastle, Esq; W. H. Hoare, Esq.; T. Hodson, Esq.; J. D. Hose, Esq.; R. Howard, Esq.; R Lea, Esq. Alderinan ; 2. Macaulay, Esq.; A. Maitland, Esq.; A. Martin, Esq.; S. Mills, Esq.; J. Reyner, Esq.; H. Schroder, Esq.; G. Sharpe, Esq; R. Stainforth, Esq.; J. Stephen, Esq.; R. Steven, Esq.; C. Sundius, Esq.; J. Smith, Esq; A. Wagner, Esq.; W. Wilberforce, Esq. M. P.; J. Wilson, Esq.; G. Wolff, Esq Secretaries, Rev. J. Owen, M. A. Fulham; Rev. J. Hughes, M. A. Batter

Subscribers of one guinea annually, are

sea; Rev. C. F. Steinkopff, M. A. Savoy, object more entirely mexceptionable
for the foreign department. Assistant sethan that of this society; nor one in
cretaries, Mr. J. Tarn, Spa Fields; Mr. which every individual, who is enti-
T. Smith, No. 19, Little Moorfields.
It would be difficult to conceive an more cordially unite.
tled to the name of christian may

FRANCE.

THE most remarkable event of the present month has been the exaltation of Bonaparte to the throne of the Bourbons, by the title of EMPEROR OF THE FRENCH; a measure which has been adopted by the different legislative bodies, with only one dissenting voice, that of Carnot. The speeches and messages delivered on this occasion are highly ridiculous, and exhibit the actors on this great theatre more in the light of puppets than of men. The great argument employed to render this change palatable to the French was this: that the unfettered wish of the nation had declared in 1789, its preference of hereditery monarchy; that although the misconduct of the Bourbons had excited the eternal hatred of Frenchmen to their family, and the revolutionary phrenzy had, for a time, implicated in their guilt the good cause of single and hereditary rule, it was now time to give full effect to the clear and unambiguous decision of the great and free nation; that besides all this it was necessary, in order to consolidate the revolution, to extinguish every hope of the exiles abroad or the factions at home, which could only be done by making the impe. rial dignity hereditary; and that the Bourbons, being the objects of the eternal hatred of France, and Bonaparte of its eternal gratitude, no one was so proper to stand at the head of a new dynasty which should establish, and for ever secure, the greatness, the liberty, and the happiness of Frenchmen? In the resolutions adopted on this occasion, by which it is decreed that Napoleone Bonaparte shall be proclaimed Emperor of the French, and that that title, together with the imperial power, shall be hereditary in the male line; the constituted authorities are, at the same time, directed to make all due provision for preserving equality, liberty, and the rights of the people!!

The period of invasion is still protracted, and from an expression in the Moniteur, it would appear as if Bonaparte had begun to apprehend that our present state of preparation rendered it adviseable, at least to wait a more favourable opportunity. "When we judge it to be convenient," says the Journalist, "we certainly shall CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 29.

make the descent and if we shall defer it for several years our success will be but the more certain." Such expressions, false security, or abate, in the smallest however, we trust, will not lull us into a would, in that case, effectually serve the degree, the national vigilance. They purposes of Bonaparte.

SWITZERLAND.

in this country seem to have been quelled. The disturbances which had broken out The French ambassador has lately taken portation of English goods into any of the some strong measures to prevent the imCantons.

NORTHERN POWERS.

tive to the Duke d'Enghein, seem to have
The late proceedings of Bonaparte rela-
the North. The Courts of Petersburgh
made a deep impression on the powers of
and Stockholm went into mourning for a
week on the death of that prince; and the
Russian minister has recently made a com-
indicates the deep displeasure of the Em-
munication to the Diet at Ratisbon, which
territory, and the murder of the Duke
peror at the late violation of the Germanic
D'Enghein. "The event which has taken
place," observes the Russian Minister, "in
the states of the Elector of Baden, the con-
has occasioned the most poignant grief to
clusion of which has been so melancholy,
expected that a power, which had under-
the Emperor."-"He never could have
taken, in common with himself, the office
of mediator, could have departed in such
a manner from the sacred principles of the
lately taken upon itself."" The Emperor
law of nations, and the duties it had so
considers it as his duty solemnly to protest
against such an attack on the tranquillity
and security of Germany."" He is con-
vinced, that the Diet and head of the Em-
pire will unite their endeavours with his,
take such steps and measures as the viola-
to prevail on the French Government to
maintenance of their future security may
tion of their dignity may require, and the
render necessary."

believe, that the Danish and Swedish Go-
In these sentiments there is reason to
be supposed, that the Emperor of Germa-
vernments fully participate. Nor is it to
Tt

lin there is likewise a good understanding upon the present occasion.

THE dominion of the Porte in Egypt is said to be completely restored in consequence of some dissensions between the Beys and Arnauts, which terminated in the death, capture, or dispersion of almost all the Beys.

An insurrection is reported to have broken out in Servia.

GREAT BRITAIN.