"All other nations seem to have nearly reached their natural limits, and only to be charged with the maintenance of their power; but these are still in the act of growth, all the others are stopped, or continue to advance with extreme diffi.

culty; these are proceeding with ease and with celerity along a path to which

The moving power with these vast bodies of men is the lust of conquest, and a passion for southern enjoy ment. Democracy is unheeded or unknown amongst them; if imported from foreign lands it languishes and expires amidst the rigours of the climate. The energy and aspirations of men, are concentrated on conquest; a passion more natural, more durable, more universal than the democratic vigour of advanced civilisation. It speaks a language intelligible to the rudest of men; and rouses passions of universal vehemence. Great changes may take place in human affairs; but the time will never come when northern valour will not press on southern wealth; or refined corruption not require the renovating influence of indigent regeneration.

This then is the other great moving power which in these days of transition is changing the destinies of mankind. Rapid as is the growth of the British race in America, it is not more rapid than that of the Russian in Europe and Asia. Fifty millions of men now furnish recruits to the Moscovite standards; but their race doubles in every half century; and before the year 1900, one hundred millions of men will be ready to pour from the frozen plains of Scythia on the plains of central Asia and southern Europe. Occasional events may check or for a while turn aside the wave; but its ultimate progress in these directions is certain and irresistible. Before two centuries are over, Mahometanism will be banished from Turkey, Asia Minor, and Persia, and a hundred millions of Christians will be settled in the regions now desolated by the standards of the Prophet. Their advance is as swift, as unceasing as that of the British race to the rocky belt of Western America.

"There are, at the present time, two great nations in the world, which seem to tend towards the same end, although

they started from different points: I al

lude to the Russians and the Americans.

Both of them have grown up unnoticed: and whilst the attention of mankind was directed elsewhere, they have suddenly assumed a most prominent place amongst the nations; and the world learned their existence and their greatness at

almost the same time,

the human eye can assign no term. The American struggles against the natural obstacles which oppose him; the adversaries of the Russian are men: the former combats the wilderness and savage life; the latter, civilisation with all its weapons and its arts: the conquests of the one are therefore gained by the ploughshare; those of the other by the sword. The Anglo-American relies upon personal interest to accomplish his ends, and gives free scope to the unguided exertions and common sense of the citizens; the Russian centres all the authority of society in a single arm; the principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter, servitude. Their startingpoint is different, and their courses are not the same; yet each of them seems to be marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe."

There is something solemn and evidently providential in this ceaseless advance of the lords of the earth and the sea, into the deserted regions of the earth. The hand of Almighty Power is distinctly visible, not only in the unbroken advance of both on their respective elements, but in the evident adaptation of the passions, habits, and government of each to the ends for which they were severally destined in the designs of nature. Would Russian conquest have ever peopled the dark and untrodden forests of North America, or the deserted Savannahs of Australasia? Would the passions and the desires of the north have ever led them into the abode of the beaver and the buffalo? Never; for aught that their passions could have done these regions must have remained in primeval solitude and silence to the end of time. Could English democracy. ever have penetrated the half-peopled, half-desert regions of Asia, and Christian civilisation, spreading in peaceful activity, have supplanted the crescent in the original seats of the human race? Never; the isolated colonist, with his axe and his Bible, would have been swept away by the Mameluke or the Spahi, and civilisation, in its peaceful guise,

would have perished under the squadrons of the Crescent. For aught that democracy could have done for Central Asia it must have remained the abode of anarchy and misrule to the end of human existence. But peaceful Christianity, urged on by democratic passions, pierced the primeval solitude of the American forests; and warlike Christianity, stimulated by northern conquest, was fitted to subdue Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The Bible and the printing press converted the wilderness of North America into the abode of Christian millions; the Moscovite battalions, marching under the standard of the Cross, subjugated the already peopled regions of the Mussulman faith. Not without reason then did the British navy and the Russian army emerge triumphant from the desperate strife of the French Revolution; for on the victory of each depended the destinies of half the globe.

Democratic institutions will not, and cannot, exist permanently in North America. The frightful anarchy which has prevailed in the southern states, since the great interests dependent on slave emancipation were brought into jeopardythe irresistible sway of the majority, and the rapid tendency of that majority to deeds of atrocity and blood -the increasing jealousy, on mercantile grounds, of the northern and southern states, all demonstrate that the union cannot permanently hold together, and that the innumerable millions of the Anglo-American race must be divided into separate states, like the descendants of the Gothic conquerors of Europe. Out of this second great settlement of mankind will arise separate kingdoms, and interests, and passions, as out of the first. But democratic habits and desires will still prevail, and long after necessity and the pas sions of an advanced stage of civilisation have established firm and aristocratic governments, founded on the sway of property in the old states, republican ambition and jealousy will not cease to impel millions to the great wave that approaches the Rocky Mountains. Democratic ideas will not be moderated in the New World, till they have performed their destined end, and brought the

Christian race to the shores of the Pacific.

Arbitrary institutions will not for ever prevail in the Russian empire. As successive provinces and kingdoms are added to their vast dominions-as their sway extends over the regions of the south, the abode of wealth and long established civilisation, the passion for conquest will expire. Satiety will extinguish this as it does all other desires. With the acquisition of wealth, and the settlement in fixed abodes, the desire of protection from arbitrary power will spring up, and the passion of freedom will arise as it did in Greece, Italy, and modern Europe. Free institutions will ultimately appear in the realms conquered by Moscovite, as they did in those won by Gothic valour. But the passions and desires of an earlier stage of exist ence will long agitate the millions of the Russo-Asiatic race; and after democratic desires have arisen, and free institutions exist in its oldest provinces, the wave of northern conquest will still be pressed on by semi-barbarous hordes from its remoter dominions. Freedom will gradually arise out of security and repose; but the fever of conquest will not be finally extinguished till it has performed its destined mission, and the standards of the Cross are brought down to the Indian Ocean.

The French Revolution was the greatest and the most stupendous event of modern times; it is from the throes consequent on its explosion that all the subsequent changes in human affairs have arisen. It sprung up in the spirit of infidelity; it was early steeped in crime; it reached the unparalleled beight of general atheism, and shook all the thrones of the world by the fiery passions which it awakened. What was the final result of this second revolt of Lucifer, the Prince of the Morning? Was it that a great and durable impression on human affairs was made by the infidel race? Was St Michael at last chained by the demon? No! it was overruled by Almighty Power; on either side it found the brazen walls which it could not pass; it sunk in the conflict, and ceased to have any farther direct influence on human affairs. In defiance of all its efforts the Bri

tish navy and the Russian army rose invincible above its arms; the champions of Christianity in the East and the leaders of religious freedom in the West, came forth, like giants refreshed with wine, from the termination of the fight. The infidel race which aimed at the dominion of the world, served only by their efforts to increase the strength of its destined rulers; and from amidst the ruins of its power emerged the ark, which was to carry the tidings of salvation to the Western, and the invincible host which was to spread the glad tidings of the gospel through the Eastern world.

Great, however, as were the powers thus let into human affairs, their operation must have been comparatively slow, and their influence inconsiderable, but for another circumstance which at the same time came into action. But a survey of human affairs leads to the conclusion, that when important changes in the social world are about to take place, a lever is not long of being supplied to work out the prodigy. With the great religious change of the sixteenth century arose the art of printing; with the vast revolutions of the nineteenth, an agent of equal efficacy was provided. At the time, when the fleets of England were riding omnipotent on the ocean, at the very moment when the gigantic hosts of infidel and revolutionary power were scattered by the icy breath of winter, STEAM NAVIGATION was brought into action, and an agent appeared upon the theatre of the universe, destined to break through the most formidable

barriers of nature. In January 1812, not one steam-vessel existed in the world; now, on the Mississippi alone, there are a hundred and sixty. Vain hereafter are the waterless deserts of Persia, or the snowy ridges of the Himalaya-vain the impenetrable forests of America, or the deadly jungles of Asia. Even the death bestrodden gales of the Niger must yield to the force of scientific enterprise, and the fountains of the Nile themselves emerge from the awful obscurity of six thousand years. The great rivers of the world are now the highways of civilisation and religion. The Russian battalions will securely commit themselves to the waves of the Euphrates, and waft again to the plains of Shinar the blessings of regular government and a beneficent faith; remounting the St Lawrence and the Missouri, the British emigrants will carry into the solitudes of the far west the Bible, and the wonders of English genius.

Spectators of, or actors in, so marvellous a progress, let us act. as becomes men called to such mighty destinies in human affairs; let us never forget that it is to regulated freedom alone that these wonders are to be ascribed; and contemplate in the degraded and im potent condition of France, when placed beside these giants of the earth, the natural and deserved result of the revolutionary passions and unbridled ambition which extinguished prospects once as fair, and destroyed energies once powerful, as that which now directs the destinies of half the globe.

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In the present paper, the modest pronoun "I" must be used, and the jaunty confident dogmatic "We" rejected, as all I have to communicate is either what I have seen myself, or learnt by personal enquiries. The stately ex cathedra " We" would give my subject a bold afterthought aspect which it must not have. I had no idea of the warm interest of the new and exciting prospects, of the delightful hopes which this subject enfolds, till I came upon the spot where I am now. From Chalons sur Saone, to the Lower Alps, taking in the depart ments of the Isere, the Drome, and the Ardeche, there has been of late years a religious movement among the inhabitants of a very peculiar and most hopeful character. To these departments I shall limit the tour of observation I am now making, and to Lyons and the new churches within a day's journey therefrom, I shall confine my present communication. Instead of presenting a general picture of the Protestant population and its ecclesiastical establishments in these districts, as I had intended to do, I shall follow the more interesting track of the new religious excitement which has recently taken place. I shall commence by announcing a fact of which I feel quite sure my readers were previously ignoranta fact which will give them as much delight as surprise, viz. that Reformed churches have been established within the last two years and a half at Chalons, Macon, Turnus, Luhaus, and Givry, towns varying in their population from fifteen to four thousand inhabitants, whereas before that time almost every individual residing in those places was a Roman Catholic. Besides this, at Lyons and St Etienne, where there had always been Protestants, a correspondent movement has taken place, and a multitude of conversions have been made. In fact, there is a spirit abroad which has not been known in France since the time of the Reformation. At present it is creeping quietly along the ground and nestling itself in the humblest settling places; but by and by gather

VOL. XXXIX. NO, CCXLIII.

ing strength and growth in these small resting spots, it may expand, I hope, its influence, and mount into higher places. The manner in which this spirit was first excited is very remarkable, and very striking and touching from the simplicity of the means used. Colporteurs, or hawkers, whose business it is to sell Bibles and tracts, in excursions made for that purpose over the country, introduced themselves, a little more than two years ago, into the house of a most bigoted Roman Catholic at Turnus. Almost all the inhabitants of that place are of the lowest rank of life, and the family alluded to was of this class. The reading of the Bible, however, and the conversation especially of one particular colporteur, converted the whole family. A conversion of this kind, it may well be imagined, where there was no advantage to be gained, but much persecution to be sustained, which indeed followed, could only have sprung from the liveliest convictions. There was one family there, consisting of four persons, ardent and enthusiastic for the Gospel in the midst of a population of five thousand inhabitants. This was a beginning; the colporteurs had thereby a pied à terre: they could read the Bible publicly, and speak to those who, out of curiosity, came to hear them. This they did with some effect, till an audience being prepared, a preacher was sent to address them. I am told that the first time the gospel was regularly preached in the town, crowds flocked to hear it, and that a very great sensation was produced. There is at present a permanent church established, and I saw myself a congregation assembled, though on a week-day evening, of about fifty persons. I must mention that this work, commenced originally by the humblest instruments, has not owed its spread and its success to that impulsion which very rare and superior gifts and talents may sometimes, in a happy moment, communicate to a mass. If there had not been a secret disposition towards, and a want of religion previously existing, the gospel could not have been received as it has been receiv

ed, especially in the midst of all obloquy and reproach, for such is the gross ignorance of the people of this town, that the only true Christians in it are called, and by many believed to be, Saint Simonians. An anecdote was told me of a lady formerly residing in this place, whose name I forget, which I think sufficiently interesting to relate. She had been so zealous and devoted a Roman Catholic, that during the Reign of Terror she is thought by her influence to have kept the church of the town open, and when the priests were all banished, officiated herself, as far as prayers and exhortations went, in that edifice. She has since been converted, and has sent all her beads, relics, images, and crucifixes as a trophy to Geneva. This lady resides actually at Macon.

From Turnus the movement spread to the surrounding towns, and by the same means. The beginnings were always extremely feeble. When the pastor at Chalons first attempted to establish a worship there, he could only get three or four persons to promise to attend, and was rejected rudely by the few nominal Protestants to whom he addressed himself. He has now a congregation of about sixty persons, and an audience usually of one hundred, as many as his place of assembly can hold. The regular congregation or flock at Macon amounts to about one hundred, and the audience sometimes to double that number. In both places they are all, with a very scanty exception, converted Roman Catholics; and among these persons, decidedly separated from the Church of Rome, there exists a little corps of Christians quite of the John Bunyan stamp. If I had not seen this, I should have been comparatively but little delighted with a formal separation from Popery, however honest it might be; for Protestantism without piety is what Catholics would universally represent it to be mere negation-and a change from the Roman to the Reformed doctrine, occasions what Dr Johnson has called such a laceration of mind, that without a conviction, deep, warm, and vital, not in what Protestantism denies, but in what it affirms, I can not conceive how the immense space which Popish ceremonies occupy in

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the imagination and affections, or at least emotions, can be filled up. Protestantism without devotion is to one who has been a Roman Catholic, a mere retrenchment, an absolute privation. A great deal is thrown away but nothing is gained. I have been, therefore, particularly anxious to discover a warm genuine pietywarmer and purer than what is generally met with—and if I had not discovered this Ishould have thought I had discovered nothing. Far, however, from being disappointed in this particular, I must say that the cold, flagging, almost conventional assent to the truths of the gospel, which distinguish those long and even piously habituated to their influence, has been utterly put to shame by what I have witnessed since I have been here, in the very humblest abodes of the humblest class of society. I have visited the family alluded to above, at Turnus, and was not five minutes under the roof which shelters them, in the most rigorous but decent poverty, without feeling how beautifully the heart can illuminate a hovel. To give an idea, not so much of the sweetness of my own emotion as of the spectacle which excited it, I must mention that I thought at the time within myself, that probably during his sojourn on the earth, our Saviour had often frequented such abodes, and partaken, perhaps, of the humble meal of their inmates, and whilst I was warming myself with the faith and love which beamed from coarse labour, begrimed faces, beautified wonderfully by the expression of glowing serenity and contentment shed over them, grandeur seemed to me, in the comparison, to have changed places with poverty, and to look squalid, cold, shivering, and forlorn. Another example I met with at Macon was still more touching. I visited there a very aged woman. On approaching the door of the room in which she resides, I looked in and saw her quite alone reading the New Testament. On entering I found her, though the weather was very cold, without any fire. Her chimney smoked, and the proprietor of the house would not repair it. The old creature has a family of children, but they are all away from her. It soon appeared that all that is earthly in her heart is