stant prayer to God, we might hope to witness a happy result.

In taking our leave of this subject for the present we would earnestly press upon our Christian readers the duty of cultivating a lively affection towards this despised and outcast people. Let the example of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, who, for the sake of his "brethren, his kinsmen after the flesh," had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart," and "could wish that himself were even separated from Christ;" reprove the shameful indifference and unfeeling negligence with which they may justly charge us; and excite us to emulate his zeal and love. And let us with bim constantly make it our "hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel, that they may be saved." Is it possible for us to open our Bibles, and not meet in every page with motives and encouragements to this duty? They are "Israelites" for hom we plead; to them pertained" the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises." Theirs also were the Fathers :" and of them, be it ever remembered with gratitude, "as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all God blessed for ever." Let us then fervently engage in supplications to the God of all grace, that the Deliverer who is come out of Sion may "turn away ungodliness from Jacob :" so that "all Israel may be saved."

EDINBURGH SOCIETY'S MISSION TO

TARTARY.

Letters have been received from the Missionaries of this society dated at Karass, the 23d of November, 1805, from one of which we extract the following interesting particulars.

"The state of the country around us is still very unsettled, on account of the differences betwixt the Russians and Kabardians, who have never yet come to an agreement. For this reason, it is not » safe to go any distance from the village, as the Circassians, who are a fierce and cruel people, never scruple to kill and plunder any whom they happen to meet, connected with the Russians, if they are able to master them. There has been much sickness and mortality, both among the Tartars and Russians this season, as you may read in the countenances of many of the people. The ague and dysentery have been particularly severe among

them, and though our family has been much healthier than any around us, yet we have not altogether escaped."

"I informed you in my last that we had unanimously resolved to comply with the request of three of our ransomed natives, who had expressed a strong desire to be admitted by baptism into our Christian fellowship. We were all of opinion that their improvement in religious knowledge, their good profession, and Christian behaviour, entitled them to this privilege. At the same time, we thought it expedient before baptizing them, to examine them publicly before the whole family."

"After the examination of our three candidates, with whom we were much satisfied, it was resolved that they should be baptized on Sabbath the 19th Nov. O. S. Accordingly, we all met for that purpose about six in the evening, when the three being placed before Mr. Brunton, we sung an hymn. Mr. B. then addressed them for some time in their own language. They were much affected with what he said; and having again expressed their desire to be received by baptism into the Christian church, and professed their determination rather to die than forsake the Lord Jesus, we all joined in prayer. Mr. B. then read the warrant for baptism, which Christ gave "Go to his disciples, Matth. xxviii. 19. ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," &c. After which, he baptized them by sprink ling; when we again joined in prayer, commending them to the care of Him, to whom they have devoted themselves, and pleading that what we had done on earth, might be ratified in heaven. We again sung an hymn; after which we all congratulated our newly baptized brethren. was truly a solemn season. I cannot describe to you what I felt. Let our friends in Britain take comfort from these beginnings. Let them continue to pray for us, yea, to cry mightily to God, that Heathen and Mohammedan darkness may fly before the glorious light of the gospel, that so the deserts around us may rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

It

"We have set up our printing press, which is at work with a tract that Mr. B. has written against Mohammedanism. We are eager to commence the printing of the Scriptures in the Turkish language, and our only hindrance at present is the want of paper, which, I fear, we shall have to commission either from Petersburgh or Moscow. This will be attended with a

heavy expence, and Mr. B. I suppose, has written you before this, that our money is done, and our credit nearly exhausted. But we trust that the friends of religion will not suffer this important work to fall to the ground, for want of means to carry it on."

To these extracts we think it right to add the following observations of the directors of this society respecting the state of their funds.

"It is with extreme regret that the di rectors find themselves under the necessity of calling the particular attention of the friends of religion, to the present state of the Society's funds. At an extraordinary meeting held on the 4th current, in consequence of some dispatches received from their missionaries in Tartary, there was laid before them a state of their funds; from which it appeared, that the whole unappropriated funds belonging to the Society did not amount to more than £345, from which they have since remitted to Petersburgh, £260. to answer an immediate and pressing demand, which leaves a balance in their hand of no more than

eighty five pounds Sterling. The directors had hoped, that, before this time, the missionaries at Karass, would have been able to do something considerable towards their own support: but circumstances which could not be foreseen, and particularly the unsettled state of the country, in consequence of a war betwixt the Russians and Cabardians, have rendered it impossible for them to raise almost any thing for their own maintenance; so that their large family, consisting of not fewer than thirtynine persons depend for their subsistence, almost entirely on what can be sent them from this country.

"Besides the expense of supporting the family at Karass, the Society are educating three young men for Missionaries, one of whom has nearly finished his studies at the Divinity Hall, and is now attending the me dical classes in the university of Edinburgh.

The bare statement of these facts will be sufficient, it is presumed, to secure the assistance of those who are interested in the success of the gospel."

THE Continent continues in a state of very great agitation. On the cession of Dalmatia to France a Russian detachment took forcible possession of Rocca di Calabro, a place which commands the mouth of the Cattaro, and affords them an opportunity of obstructing the march of French troops from Venice into European Turkey, The surrender of this place by the Aus trians has given occasion to sharp remonstrances on the part of Bonaparte, and the Austrians have been required to retake it, or to afford a passage to French troops through the Austrian territory for that purpose. Their hesitation to comply with these requisitions, has been followed by the re-occupation of Braunau by a French force, and by the march of Marmont's division into Dalmatia. It is not unlikely that this incident may lead to a renewal of the late conflict. The possession of Rocca di Calabro will at least be sharply disputed between the French and the Russians, who derive great advantages from the vicinity of a large force at Corfu. The Neapolitan army in Calabria appears to have made a more determined

resistance than could have been hoped for. The fortress of Gaeta, commanded by the Prince of Hesse, still holds out, and the war appears to have been hitherto prosecuted with various fortune. We almost regret that the Russian and British force should have quitted that country.

The great object which Bonaparte appears now to have in view is to exclude England from the North of Europe, and even to shut the Sound against her. With this view he has induced the king of Prussia to accept Hanover as his indemnification for the cession of Anspach and Bareuth, and to shut all the ports in his dominions, or within his control, against the English commerce. The communication between this country and Hamburgh, Bre

men,

Emden, &c. is therefore at an end. And an embargo having been ordered by his Majesty, we may now consider our selves as actually at war with Prussia. Some demonstrations have also been made by a Prussian force, with a view to driving the Swedes from Pomerania. These however still maintain their position; and will probably be supported in maintaining it by a large Russian force. The treache

rous conduct of the Prussian court towards this country, though experience might have taught us to expect treachery at her hands, has far exceeded in its enormity the ordinary measure of political profligacy. Her conduct appears to have been almost without a precedent in the worst of governments, in the worst of times. We were at peace and in alliance with Prussia. She had engaged to assist us in the war against France, and was to receive from us a subsidy. Yet at that very moment she agrees to cede part of her own territory to France, and to take Hanover as an equivalent.

When his Pruss an Majesty's intention of shutting the German rivers against us was announced, almost all our shipping in that quarter effected their escape. A great many Prussian vessels have however been detained in our ports, and a great

SUNDAY DRILLING.

many more have since been brought in for adjudication. The annihilation of the Prussian commerce cannot fail to be a speedy consequence of the base and contemptible policy pursued by that court.

Bonapa.te has given to his brother-inlaw, Prince Murat, the sovereignty of the countries of Cleves and Berg, with the title of Joachim (the first we suppose) Duke of Cleves and Berg. The new Duke made bis formal entry into Dusseldorff, on the 25th ult.

Considerable apprehensions are entertained of an attack being made by Spain on Portugal, at the instigation of France.

THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

The whole of this colony is now in possession of his Majesty. General Jansens and his army capitulated without risking a second engagement.

OUR readers will recollect that when the present war first broke out, an act was passed in parliament for training the mass of the population to arms, provided a certain number of volunteers did not come forward and offer their services. The spi- . rit of the nation was such as promptly to produce a voluntary force which considerably exceeded the specified proportion, and the operation of the act in question, as far as respected the general training, was therefore suspended. This act empowered the Privy Council, or the Lord Lieutenant of the county, to appoint Sunday as a day of exercise, even in ordinary

times: at least it did not restrict the exercise of this power, to times of extraordinary emergency. On the substitution of the volunteer system for the levy-enmasse, the spirit of the enactment respecting Sunday drilling was transfused into the orders issued by the executive government for training the volunteers. So solicitous indeed did his Majesty's ministers appear to establish this practice, that they directed a shilling a day for twenty days drill to be paid to the volunteers, provided they had been drilled on the SUNDAY preceding the day for which they claimed pay. This order, the object of which seems to have been to hold out a strong temptation to exercising on Sundays, was happily not adhered to in practice; and we do not believe that the usual allowances were withheld from any corps, merely because CHRIST, OESERYER, No. 52.

they had resisted this temptation to violate the sanctity of the Sabbath. In consequence, however, of the decided preference, which had been shewn, both by the legislature and the executive government, to Sunday as a day of exercise, the practice of drilling the volunteers on that day soon became general.

On the first intimation of an intention on the part of ministers to legalize this infraction of the Sabbath, we deemed it our duty to raise our voice against it. If the reader will turn to our volume for 1803, p. 445, he will find a summary of the arguments against its adoption, and a specification of the evil effects which, it was apprehended, would result from it, and which, as will presently appear, have since been unhappily realized. Many good mea indeed were induced at first to tolerate the practice on the ground of an alleged necessity. The preparations of Bonaparte were begun on a scale of alarming magnitude, while our means of defence appeared to be comparatively feeble. But it soon became evident that there was no intention of limiting the practice of Sunday-drilling to times in which the plea of necessity might colourably be preferred. Long after the menace of invasion had ceased to excite any alarm, and the volunteers bad attained a respectable state of discipline; even after the French armies had removed into the heart of Germany, and the glorious victory of Trafalgar had created a general sense of security throughout the kingdom, Sunday continued, nay it has M m

continued to the present moment, to be selected, in many places, as the only day for drilling and inspecting the volunteer corps.

Still, however, the friends of religion had the satisfaction of thinking that the evils arising from Sunday-drilling were partial in their extent: in a number of great parishes there were no volunteers at all; and many volunteer corps, particularly in the metropolis, and its vicinity, abstained entirely from the practice. They also indulged a hope that it might be of no long duration, the volunteer force being considered as of a temporary nature. But the question seems now to assume a much more serious aspect. Mr. Windham's plan for general training, as far as it has been hitherto developed in the house of commons, is evidently intended to be per manent, and it will extend to every parish in the kingdom. If therefore Sunday drilling should make a part of this new system, the mischiefs arising from it must prove much more formidable than any which have been hitherto experienced.

Mr. Windham, in explaining his intentions to the house, did not, it is true, make any distinct reference to this point but Mr. Fox supplied the omission, and stated it to be the intention of government to exercise the compulsory levy proposed by the bill on Sundays, adding this argument as a recommendation of the measure, that, as the men would be paid for drilling, every Sunday employed in that exercise would yield them a clear gain of a shilling.

But even if there had not been this explicit avowal on the part of Mr. Fox, of a design to legalize and perpetuate the systematic violation of the Sabbath over the whole land, we should have equally deemed it our duty to call the attention of the public to this momentous question. When we consider the extent to which Sundaydrilling has prevailed, and the countenance it has received from the legislature and the government of the country, we can indulge no hope of its being abandoned, unless there should be an authoritative interdiction of the practice in future, except on very extraordinary emergencies. If a discretion is even tacitly left to a commanding officer, or to a Lord Lieutenant, on this point, we cannot doubt, after the experience of the last three years, that Sundaydrilling will become the prevailing practice. It must be obvious, therefore, that the omission of any reference to Sundaydrilling in the present bill will be an illusory concession. In that case the appoint

ment of Sunday as a day of exercise will, as we admit, neither be directly enjoined, nor expressly permitted, by the law of the land. This however will prove but a very inadequate remedy of the evil: it will, in fact, be no remedy at all. It is evident that under existing circumstances, nothing short of a clause prohibiting (except in cases of very peculiar urgency, such as the immediate prospect of invasion) both Sunday-drills and Sunday inspections, is likely to be of any avail in preventing the continuance of the practice. We earnestly call, therefore, on the friends of religion and virtue of every name, to employ their utmost efforts in endeavouring to promote this desirable object.

When we had occasion first to consider the practice of Sunday-drilling,we expressed a clear and decided opinion, (Vol. for 1803, p. 445) that it was directly calculated to produce a great increase of profligacy, not only as it would lessen the general respect for the sacredness of the Sabbath, but as it would serve to collect together all the loose and profligate of both sexes. This anticipation, as we have already intimated, has been but too faithfully realized. The clergy who are entrusted with the care of parishes where this practice has prevailed, speak in strong and unequivocal terms of the evils that have flowed from it. A great mass of authentic evidence might have been produced in corroboration of this statement. A number of letters have been received from respectable clergymen in different parts of the kingdom full of the most inelancholy details respecting the pernicious effects of Sunday-drills and Sunday-inspections. From these letters it clearly appears that an habitual neglect of public worship; a striking increase of levi, ty and profaneness, of drunkenness and tumult on the Lord's day; and a growing contempt for religion, its ministers and institutions; are among the bitter fruits of this system. The very men who were disposed at first to tolerate the practice, now very generally deprecate its continuance *.

* Our limits will not allow us to give long extracts from the various documents which are alluded to in the text; but we subjoin a few for the purpose of substantiating our representations.

"The evil of Sunday-drilling," observes a respectable clergyman, "I think incalculable. For not only have the volunteers themselves and their officers got into a habit of abstaining from attendance on Divine Service, but others also, from ex

It may not be improper to state distinctly on this occasion, the grounds on which

ample, from indolence, or from a curiosity in going to look at them, absent themselves; many of whom certainly used to be more frequent attendants at Church. The practice commenced in July 1803, and conceiving in my own mind, there might be some necessity for extraordinary exertion, I did not at first oppose it. But soon, very soon indeed, I found the mischief of it. It was like the letting out of water; and we ought to have remembered the advice of the wise man, and have left off, not simply contention, but immorality, before it be meddled with. The crowds that came to see them, the levity that followed and has since continued, and the inroads made on the more decent and orderly manner of observing the Sabbath, struck me with shame and dread. I applied to the officers. I begged their interposition, and they promised it; but most unfortunately the executive government, if not the legislative, countenanced, or was thought to countenance, the practice. From that moment my interference with the officers was vain. The result only was offence on my part to them, and a change of the hour to the very hours of Divine Service both morning and afternoon. I appealed with earnestness to the commanding officer, who was kind enough to put a stop to the going out in the afternoon to exercise: but this was all I obtained; and this was much more than counterbalanced by the inspections themselves being now appointed on a Sunday. And thus have matters remained for two years and a half.

"Such, Sir, are the melancholy effects of Sunday-drilling. The serious and well disposed in my parish, which is extremely populous, lament it as much as I do. Evil is by these means introduced into private families. Preparations for drilling, the cleaning of arms, with a long &c. generally done on the Sunday morning; the absence of servants, or of a master of a family occasioning others also to be employed, and to stay away from public worship; and the consuming almost the whole of that time in secular affairs, which, or at least some part of which, had wont to be devoted to more serious employments, add greatly to the mischief."

"I really fear the bad effects of the system, and the dissipation of time and religious principles it has introduced, will last for many many years to come. I look upon it, Sir, as one of the greatest evils,

we have been induced to express an opinion so decidedly hostile to the practice of Sunday-drilling.

and most unfortunate circumstances for the interests of religion, that ever happened to this part of the kingdom. I deprecate it as worse than all the atheistical opinions that were promulgated by the visionary philosophers of the close of the last century."

"Another evil resulting from Sunday-drilling is the encouragement it gives to frequenting public houses, and also to keeping open shops which might otherwise be shut."

The above statement is confirmed in every essential point by all the communications which we have seen on the subject of Sunday-drilling. We will briefly notice some of the expressions by which its injurious effects are characterized. "An increase of irreverence and disrespect for the Sabbath, of drunkenness, and of every description of vice," have, according to one clergyman, been its grievous result. Another observes that whenever "Sundaydrills have taken place the churches are thinned, the fields and alehouses crowded, and the town extremely loose and disorderly." "A diminution," remarks a third, "in the number attending public worship, and increased licentiousness and debauchery have, invariably, as far as I have been able to learn, accompanied this measure.""The Sabbath-day," is stated by a fourth to have "lost very much of its decency, stillness, and solemnity," in consequence of Sunday-drilling, and to have "all the appearance and disorder of a fair."-" Sunday-drilling," says a fifth, " has been extremely hurtful to the cause of religion, and there is evidently an increase in immorality, and in the neglect of the duties of the Sabbath, wherever the system was adopted in the neighbourhood." The following evils are enumerated by a sixth as flowing from Sunday-drilling. 1. "A visible diminution of my congregation."

2. "Fondness for drinking, rudeness of manner, contempt for advice." 3." A daring violation of the Sabbath, and a contempt even for common decency." 4. "Irregularity in the public houses." Similar testimonies might easily be multiplied: but we forbear. The letters which have furnished these extracts will be found at the close of a pamphlet which has recently made its appearance, entitled, "Observations on the Plan for training the People to the Use of Arms, with reference to the subject of Sunday-drilling, by Thomas