disposed of. The Central Society at Nuerenberg manifests great activity: it has already 12 Auxiliaries, and others are forming. The city of Ratisbon is again the seat of a Bible Society. In their first year they had circulated 1,941 Bibles and 733 Testaments. As one fruit of Dr. Pinkerton's visit, a society has been formed at Ebersdorf, and has been aided by 100 Bibles and 300 Testaments. At Stutgard the total number of copies distributed has been 135,786. In the last Report, it is mentioned that 246 copies have been supplied to the sufferers by the inundations; and that at the head of the benefactors to the Würtemberg Bible Society, the king of Würtemberg's name appears for a sum of 500 florins. The collections from house to house have produced more last year than in many previous years. From the Auxiliary at Liebenzell, where the inundations had been most severe, not a single member had withdrawn.

From the grand duchy of Baden the president, Prelate Hebel, writes: "Since Dr. Pinkerton's visit, we have called upon the Auxiliaries to inform us of their respective wants; and it is satisfactory to know, that, where the zeal of the directors is duly appreciated, handsome subscriptions are collected."

At Hesse-Darmstadt pressing applications were received for New Testaments during Dr. Pinkerton's stay there, which the committee could not have complied with, had it not been for the encouragement afforded by the London Bible Society. From Frankfort, the president of the Bible Society writes: "So long as we have money in our treasury, or Bibles in our depôt, we purchase and distribute Bibles and Testaments to those who apply for them, without respect to nation or persuasion; for we hold it to be the duty of every Bible Society, after supplying the wants of its own sphere, to extend its usefulness as far as possible." This society distributed 1,200 copies of the Testament last year among the pilgrims, which were received with the greatest avidity; and they have been the means of getting it introduced into the schools in several places. The demand for the Word of Life steadily continues. The Wisbaden Society had applications before its committee for more than 1000 Bibles. An Auxiliary was proposed at Herborn, and has since been formed, and 600 Bibles have been given. At Neuwied, a fire had reduced 300 families to distress, and consumed the depôt of Bibles. To

repair this loss, and to comfort the sufferers, 400 Bibles and 400 Testaments have been cheerfully voted.

In concluding his tour in Germany, Dr. Pinkerton observes," I cannot sufficiently bless God for the innumerable proofs which I have had that every where (and I have visited the chief societies in Germany) the work of Bible distribution is proceeding with more or less vigour ; and that every where it is productive of good, more or less, and is acknowledged to be a powerful instrument in the hand of Providence, in these awful times, for preserving alive among the people the faith and practice of genuine Christianity." He adds, "Throughout my whole journey I have made it my chief object, in visiting Central Societies, to encourage the formation of new Auxiliaries, being persuaded that without them the object of our institution can never be but partially attained in any country; and, in visiting societies of less extent, I have pressed upon them a special examination into the state of the Scriptures in every family, particularly among the lower orders, and that they should never consider their object as even partially realised, until they could say, that they knew that every poor man's family in the circle of their labours had a Bible."

In Germany there remains to be noticed the important labours of Leander Van Ess. In one of his letters he writes, -"I continue, by the blessing of God, to enjoy a rich delight in the work of the Lord, and in the dissemination of his Divine Word." He proceeds to increase the means of scattering the good seed, particularly among Roman Catholics.

He had undertaken a short journey to parts of the Black Forest in which, besides meeting with several individuals to whom copies of the New Testament might be confided, he had the happiness of making arrangements for its introduction into several Roman-Catholic schools. One individual on whom he called, a rural dean, has twenty-four parishes under his superintendence, and was truly delighted with the prospect of obtaining the Scriptures. He likewise visited in person several cottages of the poor:-" Generally," he writes, "I found the inmates to be pious, well-meaning, docile, and industrious people, but in the lowest state of poverty. The Testaments which I distributed were received with marks of undissembled joy: many actually came to me from several miles distance to repeat their grateful acknowledgments, and

the Bishop, at Bhagulpore, in Bahar, where he is diligently engaged, and at present with the most favourable promise of success, in the promotion of a circle of schools among the Hindu children in that neighbourhood, and in acquiring the dialect and confidence of the mountain tribes near Rajmahl, an interesting race of men, whose freedom from caste, and their indifference towards the idolatry practised on the plains, seem by the blessing of God, to afford a favourable prospect to the labours of Christian Missionaries. Mr. Christian has already three candidates for baptism. Mr. Morton is engaged in the formation of a mission at Chinsurah, while Mr. Tweddle is occupied in the superintendence of the extensive range of schools in the immediate neighbourhood of Calcutta, hitherto supported by the diocesan committee of the Society for promoting Christian knowledge. The remaining establishment of the college consists of

a Sanscrit and a Bengalee pundit, a moulavie, who gives lessons in Hindoostanee and Persian; to which it is proposed to add, as soon as the funds of the institution can bear the expense, native teachers of the Mahratta, Tamul, and Cingalese languages.

The present establishment will have been completed by the arrival of Professors Craven and Holmes, together with a fourth ordained missionary, the Rev. Mr. de Mello, who, agreeably to the statutes, will reside in the college during his first year in India.

Prayers are read daily in the library, and are attended on Sundays by a small but highly respectable congregation from the neighbourhood. The daily course of lectures, by the principal and by the native teachers under his inspection, is stated to be unintermitted, and the progress of the pupils satisfactory. We trust, that this institution will prove an extensive and permanent blessing to India.

FOREIGN.

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FRANCE. The Count Montlosier, who was one of the emigrants at the Revolution, and has always maintained a strong devotion to the Roman-Catholic faith, and the high royalist party, has presented to the chamber of accusation and the counsellors of the royal court of Paris, a singular document, in which he denounces what he denominates religious and political system tending to overthrow religion, society, and the throne; a system resulting from the four following evils:-1st, A chain of religious and political congregations throughout France;-2d, Divers establishments of the odious and prohibited society of the Jesuits; 3d, The open or disguised profession of ultra-Montanism;-4th, The spirit of invasion of the priests, resulting from their continual encroachments upon the civil authority, as well as from a multitude of arbitrary and tyrannical acts exercised over the faithful." In confirmation of his charge, he proceeds to specify various proceedings of the denounced parties. The " gregations," he says, "tend, by divers engagements, promises, oaths, or declarations, to form within the state a particular influence, by means of which it is hoped to dominate over the ministry and the government." The Jesuits have

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an establishment called Mont Rouge, situated in the precincts of Paris, in vio

lation of the ancient and modern laws of the kingdom, which proscribe all monastic orders, and particularly the order of the society of Jesus." Several bishops, whose names and mandates he specifies, he denounces as "abetting the Jesuits, and thus attacking the obedience due to the king and to the established laws." And with regard to the Catholic clergy in general, he states, that he has "a mass of five hundred facts, the one more singular and ridiculous than the other, which are so many attacks on the part of the priests, of an inferior class, against the tranquillity of citizens; attacks which are constantly being renewed, and which, unless restrained by the wisdom of magistrates, will multiply until they produce an explosion. Here, we have refusals of communion; there, violence in churches against citizens, against old men, and against women; in other parts insults and violence out of churches, and particularly in processions. Here, for the purpose of humiliation, we have disputes on the occasion of baptism, or the presentation of a godfather or godmother; there, other disputes, for the purpose of revenge, in the administration of the sacrament or the ceremonial of interment ; elsewhere we see a patient, in the last agonies, having to contend not only against pain and against death, but pleading against his rector with a bishop who cannot command the obedience of that

rector. We have various refusals of sepulture; and we denounce the doctrine by which they supported their refusals.”—The object of the Count's denunciation is to induce the public authorities to interfere "to prevent these scandals;" that is, to put down intolerance with its own weapons. The moderate Catholic would expel the ultra, and the ultra the moderate: the Abbè de la Mennais would proscribe the Count Montlosier, because he is not an abettor of the authority of the pope over that of the constituted authorities of the country; the Count would return the proscription, because the Abbé is a friend to Jesuitism and ultraMontanism. Ought not these disputes to convince every friend of religion and of his country, that the true remedy for such evils is in a genuine spirit of toleration; not merely of a legislative kind, which already exists in France, but in the feelings of the community at large; and not resulting from scepticism or religious indifference, but from Christian charity, and accompanied by an active zeal in supplanting false opinions by building men up in those which are true; and thus subverting error and superstition on the one hand, and vice, irreligion, and infidelity, on the other, by the inculcation of a truly scriptural faith and scriptural practice. When, indeed, the operations of any sect become injurious to the public peace, as some of the proceedings of the Jesuit and high Catholic party in France are stated to have been, they ought, without doubt, to be promptly checked by the civil magistrate; but to punish men merely for opinions and "tendencies" has never been found the true way to suppress them. And it is lamentable to reflect, that while the champions of counter-political sects in Popery are thus denouncing each other, the false doctrines and unscriptural practices common to both are gaining ground. Too many of the present race of Frenchmen were educated in no religion whatever; and are therefore prepared, if they receive any, to accept the first that makes a vigorous appeal to their understandings or their feelings. Under these circumstances, Popery, with no little pomp and pretension to authority, comes forward, urges its claims, and is acknowledged almost without opposition; not because it is the best religion, but because the recipient knows of nothing better. What an appeal does such an aspect of circumstances make to every friend of genuine scriptural Christianity in France and may the number of such be rapidly multiplied to use every effort to lay a foundation for a better state of affairs!

The proceedings of Bible Societies, of societies for extending education, societies for promoting Christian morals, and other benevolent institutions, will, we trust, effect much in this respect. We are happy in announcing, in another department of our present Number, the addition of a new and most powerful in strument of moral and religious benefit in France, by the institution of a committee for the establishment of Sunday schools throughout the Protestant communities of that country. Such beginnings may be but small; but we trust that the day is not far distant when their influence will be powerfully felt in every part of the French empire. There will be little need for hostile sects to persecute their neighbours for their theological opinions, if they will only strive to "outpreach them and outlive them ;" and to prevent the entrance of evil by pre-occupying its place with what is good.

PORTUGAL. The new constitution has been sworn to by the infanta regent, and the public authorities throughout the land. There has been some opposition to its recognition on the part of some of the abettors of the ancient system, but not of a very formidable kind. The provisions of the charter are conceived in a liberal spirit; with less of democratical partiality than appeared. in the code known by the name of the Spanish Constitution; but with a degree of practical liberty, even more extensive than the Portuguese nation are perhaps at present generally prepared by education and habit to appreciate. They will, however, doubtless rapidly improve under the influence of their new institutions; the benefits of which to the rising generation, and to successive ages, we may trust, will be most extensive and important; not only in a political, but we hope also in a moral, intellectual, and religious aspect. The following are the leading provisions of the new constitution or charter. The Roman-Catholic religion is to be the established one, but all others are allowed to foreigners, provided that there is to be no exterior form of temple. The legislative power is to belong to the cortes, with the approbation of the king. The cortes is to consist of two chambers, peers and deputies. The powers of the cortes are:-i. To receive the oath of the king. 2. To elect the regent or the regency, and to mark the limits of their authority. 3. To acknowledge the prince royal as heir of the throne in the first session next after his birth. 4. To appoint a tutor to the king when a minor, in the event of his father not having appointed

one by his last will. 5. In the event of the throne being vacant, to establish a council of administration, to inquire into and reform the abuses which may have been introduced into it. 6. To make laws, to interpret them, to suspend them, and revoke them. 7. To watch over the constitution, and to provide for the general good of the nation. 8. To fix annually the public expenses, and to apportion the direct taxes. 9. To grant or refuse the entrance to foreign forces, by land or by sea, into the interior of the kingdom or into its ports. 10. To fix annually and according to the report of government the land and sea forces, ordinary and extraordinary. 11. To authorise the government to contract loans. 12. To procure and establish proper resources for the payment of the public debt. 13. To regulate the administration of the national domains, and decree their alienation. 14. To create or suppress public offices, and to fix the emoluments. 15. To determine the weight, the intrinsic title, value, inscription, type, and denomination of moneys, as well as the standard of weights and measures.-The opening of the session is fixed to the 2d of January. The privileges of the peers somewhat resemble those of our House of Lords, particularly in their powers of being judges of impeachments. The deputies are obviously modelled from our Commons. The citizens in general vote for electors, who appoint the representatives. The exclusions from the right of voting are as follow:-Minors under twentyfive, unless in the case of married men, or military officers, whose majority is fixed at twenty-one; or in the case of bachelors licentiate, or ecclesiastics. 2. Sons in their fathers' households, unless they be in public employments. 3. Domestic servants, with some exceptions. 4. All monks, or persons in cloisters. 5. All persons not possessing a net annual revenue of 100,000 rees (about 24/.) arising from funded property, industry, commerce, or employ

ment.

The system of juries is adopted, and judges are rendered irremoveable at the will of the crown. A right of continual reform is admitted as a primary article. The inviolability of civil and political rights is guaranteed in the following manner-1. No citizen shall be obliged to do, or be hindered from doing, any thing whatever, unless by virtue of a law. 2. The disposition of a law cannot have a retrospective effect. 3. Every one may communicate his thoughts, whether verbally or by writing, and publish

them in print; always, however, being responsible for any abuses which he may commit in the exercise of this right, according to the forms determined by the law. 4. No person can be persecuted for the sake of religion, as long as he respects that of the state, and does not offend against public morality. 5. Every man may remain in the kingdom, or depart from it, carrying with him all his property; conforming, nevertheless, to police regulations. 6. Every citizen's house is an inviolable asylum, &c.;

with many other similar provisions; the most important of which is the abolition of the privilege, which the nobility possessed, of being exempted from taxation. Torture, the use of the lash, and branding with hot iron, are formally abolished.

UNITED STATES.-On the fourth of July,--a day always celebrated throughout the United States with great solemnity and festivity, as being the anniversary of the Declaration of their Independence, but this year with more than usual interest, from the circumstance of its being the fiftieth commemoration of that event,-expired, the one in Virginia, the other at his residence at Quincy, Massachusetts, Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Adams, both of whom had been among the leading actors in achieving the separation of their country from Great Britain; who were actually the sub-committee appointed for drawing up the Declaration of Independence; and who, besides many other coincidences, had each filled the highest station known to the constitution of their country, and had each retired at an advanced age to a tranquil seclusion from the affairs of a busy and eventful life, to prepare, we would trust, the more calmly and deliberately for that important change in comparison with which all sublunary events are but momentary trifles. A mathematician is stated to have taken the pains to calculate that the probabilities, at the time of their signing the Declaration, against their both living to the date of its fiftieth anniversary, and both expiring on that very day, were many hundred millions to one. Both lived to see their country rich, powerful, and standing on the strongest basis of human stability; and, we wish we could add, had witnessed the wearing out of every vestige of those reciprocal jealousies and prejudices which the era of the Revolution deeply infixed on both sides of the Atlantic, between two nations sprung from one common ancestry, and united by numerous ties of kindred, principle, and feeling. We trust that these mental hostilities are rapidly lapsing to decay,