dresses at public meetings, might be expected to pervade the more copious intelligence contained in this volume; and we can assure our readers that they will not be disappointed. It is our design to present, in a future number, a more elaborate notice of the work; but we deem it a duty devolving on us, to the cause of missions in general, and to Mr. Ellis in particular, to direct the immediate attention of all classes to this interesting narrative. The author has more than ordinary claims on the liberal notice of the public; and we trust, for his sake, and for the honour of the cause of missions, the sale will be commensurate with its merits. The volume is respectably printed, and the price, we fear, such as to afford a very inadequate and deficient remuneration. MISSIONARY PORTRAITS; or, Brief Memoirs of the late Rev. Robert Hampson, and the Rev. John Ince, employed in the East, under the Patronage of the London Missionary Society. By W. Roby. 12mo. pp. 97. Price 1s. 6d.-The above named missionaries were members of the church under the pastoral care of the highly-esteemed author, who has presented this interesting memorial to the public. It is in every respect such as might be expected from the pen of Mr. Roby. The "portraits" are drawn with fidelity, and exhibit the features of moral and intellectual character, in that style of expression, and with that good "keeping," which are most accordant with an enlightened and judicious taste. The deceased missionaries were men of re spectable attainments, and eminent spirituality; and mysterious were the dispensations of Providence, which so soon removed them from the spheres of their honourable labour. From the dedication of the work before us, it appears that no less than twelve members of Mr. Roby's church have "devoted themselves to the arduous work of evangelizing the heathen." We congratulate our respected friend on this distinguished honour, and trust that still "greater things than these" will crown the evening of his life, and constitute on earth his rich reward for the eminent services which he has so uniformly and so efficiently rendered to the cause of christian missions. To all who are interested in that cause, we cordially recommend these "Brief Memoirs." THE CONNEXION BETWEEN MINISTERIAL CHARACTER AND SUCCESS; a Discourse, delivered at Ebenezer Chapel, Shadwell, on the Occasion of the Death of the Rev. John Hyatt. By Charles Hyatt. 8vo. pp. 56. Price 1s. 6d.-This is an affectionate and honourable tribute by Mr. Hyatt to the memory of his brother. Some particulars, we think, might with advantage have been omitted; but we doubt not that the author had reasons for all his disclosures. As a more extended account of Mr. Hyatt is expected, we forbear making extracts from the memorial before us. As a funeral sermon, it differs, we think advantageously, from ordinary discourses of this kind, by a more copious detail of biographical illustration. In the present instance, the fraternal relation of the preacher to the deceased, gave him ample sources of information; and his narrative will be read by the friends by his departed relative with interest and satisfaction. As DEISM REFUTED; or, Plain Reasons for being a Christian. By T. H. Horne, M. A. Seventh Edition. pp. 245. — At a time when infidelity, overpowered by the weight of those arguments which it has so long endeavoured to crush, is become sceptical of its own scepticism, and no longer attempting to convince the judgment of man, has taken refuge in the unhallowed recesses of his passions, it becomes, more than ever, the duty of every Christian, to endeavour to expel it, from this, its last and strongest hold, since the more it addresses itself to the depraved propensities of mankind, the more pernicious must be its influence, and the more disastrous its results. long, indeed, as infidelity proclaims to its deluded followers an emancipation from every moral and religious duty— as long as it enables them to grasp the pleasures of this world, without awakening in their bosoms the sting of the worm that dieth not, it will never want the effective co-operation of the passions of mankind-it will never want countenance of the profligate and the unprincipled for its admirers and disciples. Religion sanctifies and ennobles the character, and imparts a moral grandeur to the whole man, which is but vainly attempted by the feeble helps of philosophy. The enemies of Christianity have perceived this, and endeavour, by giving an unbounded licence to the passions, to lessen and destroy the dignity of virtue, that on its ruins they may erect their temple to vice and immorality; and it is consequently the young, and the heedless, and the base, who too often fall a sacrifice to the in the fluence of their powerful but erring appeals; and to them the present volume may prove a valuable blessing. If they will separate, for an instant, their judgment from their passions-if they will carefully weigh and examine the comparative evidences of Christianity and infidelity, as they are found in this volume, we do not fear the result. Mr. Horne's work has been so long before the public, and its merits so universally allowed, that any analysis of it would be superfluous. The rapid sale of the former editions will be a sufficient recommendation. MEMORIAL OF THE LOSS OF THE COMET STEAM PACKET. By A. Perrey, A. M. 18mo. 96 pp. boards. Price 1s. 6d. -This cheap little volume consists of three parts. The first is a narrative of the fatal catastrophe, which is related with much feeling, and must excite a deep and sympathizing interest in the mind of every reader. The second and third parts consist of two discourses, which appear to have been delivered with a view to the religious improvement of that mysterious providence; but we have no information to what audience they were addressed. They contain many impressive and eloquent passages, and we trust this Memorial will prove extensively useful. THE LABYRINTH, OR POPISH CIRCLE; being a Confutation of the assumed Infallibility of the Church of Rome. Trans"lated from the Latin of Simeon Episcopius. By Richard Watson. 8vo. 24 pp. Price 6d.-Episcopius was the first professor of theology amongst the Arminians, and by his learning, genius, and eloquence, placed himself amongst the remonstrant divines, second only to the founders of that denomination. The tract before us was originally designed for popular use, and was therefore written in the Dutch language. It was afterwards translated into Latin, and with his other works published, in two volumes folio, at Amsterdam, 1650. We think Mr. Watson has done well in translating it for cheap circulation; for, as he observes, "it is perhaps one of the best specimens of the dilemma or corrected kind of argument which can be produced; and it possesses the merit of uniting brevity with a plainness which lies level to every capacity." PROCEEDINGS at a Public Dinner given to Mr. James Montgomery, in approbation of his public and private virtues, held at Sheffield, Nov. 4, 1825. Price 1s. NEW SERIES, No.16. -On the 4th of November Mr. Montgomery attained his fifty-fourth year, and it was a splendid anniversary for him, as he then received a public, cordial, and unbought tribute of respect from his fellow-townsmen of every rank in life. On that occasion, they united to celebrate, at the festive board, the birthday of one who for thirty years had dwelt amongst them, not only to give classic associations to their town, by his poetry and patriotism, but by his piety and philanthropy to advance the progress of every benevolent and holy work which has grown up amongst them during that interesting period. We are happy that the eloquent speeches delivered by Lord Milton, Mr. Montgomery, and the other gentlemen who took part in that festival, are thus preserved. Indeed, Mr. M.'s address, which includes a review of his public life through more than twelve pages, must be interesting to every one who admires,--and who does not admire?-his poetry. To the report of the "Proceedings," is added Mr. M.'s "Farewell Address" to the readers of the Sheffield Iris, which was published in the last number of that newspaper before he resigned the office of editor, which he held for one-and-thirty years. PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. An Enquiry into the consistency of those persons who call themselves Baptists, with reference to the late publications of Messrs. Gibbs, Birt, and Cox; to which is added, a Brief Statement of Baptism, by question and answer, By Thomas Eisdell, of Twyford, Berks.-A volume of sermons, by the Rev. J. G. Foyster, A. M. minister of Trinity Chapel.-An Address, delivered to the Young Gentlemen of the Protestant Dissenters' Grammar School, Mill Hill, Feb. 2, 1826. By the Rev. William Orme. A Course of Lectures, contemplating the Christian in Christ, in the Closet, in the Family, in the Church, in the World, in Prosperity, in Adversity, in his Spiritual Sorrows, in his Spiritual Joys, in Death, in the Grave, and in Glory. By William Jay.-A few further Remarks on the subject of the Turkish Version of the New Testament, printed at Paris in 1819, in reply to certain positions advanced by Dr. Henderson in defence of his Appeal to the Bible Society.-A new and improved edition of Morris's Life of the Rev. Andrew Fuller; with an Appendix, containing some pieces never before printed.-A brief descriptive History of Holland, in letters from Grandfather to Marianne, during an excursion in the summer of 1819. 2 F RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. ་་་་་་་་་་་་ EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM ITALY. Italy not romantic--Artists are sacred characters--The union of superstition and crime-Sacred puppets--The amusement called Tableaux--Its profane application. Italy, Jan. 8, 1826. My romantic friends in England will be wofully disappointed, if they calculate on hearing the adventures of a captured wanderer, or expect that I shall, on my return, describe to them the interior of a robber's cave, or detail the secrets of a horde of banditti. Banditti do exist in these places, and robberies and murders are sometimes committed; but not in any degree equal to the imaginations of our English novel readers. Travelling in Italy, I fear, would be a dull thing to a young lady from an English boarding-school. She might go right on from Mont Cenis to the extremity of Calabria, without once being put in terror for her life, or having any account to write home to her friends more awful than that of having been overrun with fleas and bugs, and well bitten by musquitos. Even Vesuvius has grown sulky. He who once did growl and smoke, and has oftentimes vomited fire, and ashes, and burning lava, for the amusement of the ladies, and the destruction of the inhabitants; even he has given up his character of terror, and sits in silent majesty, bearing vineyards on his bosom, and spreading around him abundance and joy, unmoved by the prayers, sighs, and wishes of the northern sentimentalists. In sober truth, the poetry and the romance of Italy depend on the minds people bring to it; and if they cannot find enjoyment in the simple scenes of nature, let them do it up (as the phrase is) as fast as they can, and get back to novels and tea-drinking. An artist has great advantages in Italy. He is, like the bard of old, a sacred and protected character. Painting mingles up so much with their devotion, that the professors of it come in for a share of their respect. I never heard of but one artist falling among thieves; and he only from his unfortunate resemblance to Murat's secretary, for whom they took him. The robbers kept him some time confined in the recesses of the mountains, until he convinced them that he was not the person for whom they had mistaken him. They were at length satisfied; and, after making him draw all their portraits, let him go, without exacting any ransom. You will possibly be shocked at my connecting robbers with religion; but, however dreadful, it is nevertheless true, that devotion, in Catholic countries, is made to consist with the indulgence of every vice, and the commission of every crime. The genti di coltillo (men of the knife) are mur amongst the most devout of the people; and in the worst times of the banditti, in the worst place, the neighbourhood of Moladi Gaeta, whoever went to a certain chapel amongst the mountains were sure to go and return in safety, though, had their business been other than devotion, they would assuredly have beem dered. I have seen the people here rushing from the festivities and debaucheries of Christmas eve, to the solemn mass of the Nativity, and staggering up to the altar in a state of stupid intoxication; their rooms, in which they eat and drink on the occasion to a most disgusting excess, are lighted only by the brilliant tapers that surround the image of the Virgin-a necessary piece of furniture in every house, even in the tavern and brothel; so that their very excesses are committed, as it were, by a religious light. When they have spent their last farthing in the lottery, and robbed their families of the hope of to-morrow's food, they go to the Virgin, tell her what numbers they have purchased, and intreat her to make them come up prizes. These are things that we know little of in England. Religion, I grant, is not unfrequently, even in England, taken up as a mask for villany; but this mixture of crime and devotion, vice and piety, are only to be found where the Pope is the head of the Church, and the priest the master of the conscience. The first instance of this extraordinary sort of mixture was presented to me long before I got into Italy. It was at Martigny, in the Catholic part of Switzerland. A sort of fair was going on in the village; and in front of one of the booths was a Punchinello, which was made to hold a conversation with the clown of the show. This conversation consisted of the grossest ribaldry, and the most offensive jokes. I was retiring from it in disgust, when the clown suddenly stopped, and, addressing the people, told them they were only taking up their time, while they should be within witnessing the show, which, he assured them, would be edifying and amusing, as it consisted of matters connected with their salvation. He told them that the puppets were to represent the history of our Saviour; beginning with the adoration of the shepherds, and ending with the agony in the garden, and the dreadful tragedy of the crucifixion; all of which he described with precision, feeling, and energy. I could hardly believe they were the lips which, the moment before, had been the vehicle of indecent jokes and blasphemous merriment. Nor is this mixture of things sacred with things profane entirely confined to the lower classes. I was at the other night, where were assembled all the beauty and fashion of the place, to witness what is called Tableaux. This is a species of amusement unknown in England. The end of a large room is formed into a stage, on which pictures of Raphael, Correggio, and other celebrated painters, are represented by beautiful living characters, who place themselves so as to form the composition of the picture. The actors, in the present instance, were the lovely family of the host. To a painter's eye, nothing can be more fascinating. The curtain is drawn only for a few moments, and the fleeting vision of beauty and grace affects the mind like the work of enchantment. To see the finest inventions of the best painters made tangible-put into flesh, and blood, and substance-it was so new a thing to me, that my imagination was carried away with it. I was in a trance of delight. Unhappily, the illusion was abruptly destroyed by an instance of bad taste, that turned the whole current of my feelings, and made my blood run cold. They had represented many subjects, classical as well as sacred. At length they came to a fine composition, of Albert Durer's, of Christ in the garden. The whole was beautifully arranged. The three disciples were asleep, and the figure of our Saviour in the attitude of prayer. the bill of the entertainment that was circulated in the room, there was put at this subject the word "Pantomime," which we were soon made to understand. The man who represented the figure of Christ began to act the passion of our Saviour !! I quite started back with horror; but so little were my feelings entered into by the foreign part of the audience, that the curtain dropped amidst clapping of hands, and every demonstration of applause. THE DISSENTERS PETITION AGAINST SLAVERY. In On Tuesday evening, March 7, Mr. W. Smith presented the following petition to the House of Commons, from the Dissenting Ministers of the Three Denominations in and about London and Westminster, as agreed to at their meeting in February last. "That your petitioners feel it to be their duty to express their deep and painful regret that slavery should continue to exist in any part of the British dominions; because they consider such a degraded condition of society utterly incompatible with the principles of natural rights, directly opposed to the genius of Christianity, and hostile to the spirit of the British constitution. That your petitioners regard it as in the highest degree dishonourable to the character of their country, that upwards of eight hundred thousand of their fellow subjects, equally entitled with themselves to share in the advantages of freedom, and the blessings of religion, should still wear the oppres sive and galling yoke of slavery, and, with their yet unborn progeny, be doomed to endure all the physical and moral evils incident to such a state, without any adequate protection by law, and without any effective means of redress, and to be virtually excluded from the blessings which flow from early moral instruction, from the acknowledged sanctity of the marriage life, and from the exercise of the rights of conscience, and uncontrouled religious worship. That although your petitioners might call the attention of your Honourable House to the manifold objections which obviously suggest themselves to the monoply granted to the West India planters in the British market, and to the enormous burthens thus imposed upon the people of Great Britain, they nevertheless content themselves with most humbly urging upon your Honourable House the still higher considerations of humanity, liberty, and religion, not doubting that these will have their due weight in procuring for the negro slaves that legislative protection which is pledged to this unhappy portion of our fellow subjects, by the unanimous resolution of Parliament of May 1823, that so they may be delivered, at the earliest moment that the claims of justice will allow, from the incalculable evils of a state of bondage, and be raised to a full participation of the civil and religious rights and privileges which are enjoyed by any other classes of his Majesty's subjects. "And your petitioners will ever pray, &c." FURTHER SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR THE We are requested by the Committee to acknowledge the following subscriptions received since our last. RETURN OF HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP BLONDE FROM THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. By the return of His Majesty's ship Blonde from the Pacific Ocean the public will obtain some additional information respecting the Sandwich Islands. After having visited Woahoo, with the remains of the late King and Queen, the Blonde proceeded to the island of Owhyhee, (about three days run,) and refitted there; she anchored in one of the finest bays in the world, now called Byron's Bay. It is a most safe position, and its rich and beautifully varied scenery, has obtained for it the appellation of "The Eden of the Sandwich Islands." In the neighbourhood of this bay the island is in the highest state of fertility; but the natives are in nearly the same state as when discovered by Captain Cook in 1779. An American Missionary had arrived there about six months since, whose instructions, under the divine blessing, it is to be hoped, will advance their civilization, as has been the case with the natives of Woahoo. The Blonde then returned to Woahoo, and Lord Byron took leave of the King, Regent, and Chiefs, and fulfilled the purport of his visit to the islands, in the highest degree satisfactory to them, and beneficial to the country. The Blonde was literally laden with stock and provisions of every kind by the natives, who refused payment for any thing they could supply the ship. Ld. Byron then visited Karakakoa Bay, where Captain Cook was killed, and erected a humble and simple monument to the memory of the great circumnavigator. The natives of the island having embraced Christianity, the Regent gave permission to visit the sacred sepulchre, and take therefrom whatever relics of their former religion he wished to possess. The sanctuary was filled with their various gods, "the work of man's hands;" some manufactured of wicker work and feathers, others carved of wood, with numerous articles which had been made sacred, by being offered to them, in acts of gratitude, for success in fishing, hunting, and the other occupations of their simple life. But the article which most struck the visitors as remarkable, was an English consecrated drum. The temple was despoiled of most of its former sacred treasures, which are brought to England in the Blonde. SPEECH OF H. COCKBURN, ESQ. ON SLAVERY. [We have received from a correspondent in Edinburgh, the following verbatim report of a truly eloquent and heartmoving speech, delivered by HENRY COCKBURN, Esq. advocate, at the meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society in that city, on the 2d ult] The learned gentleman, in addressing the honourable Chairman, Lord Roseberry, spoke as follows :- My Lord,--I hold in my hand a peti tion, which it is proposed to submit to this meeting as proper to be adopted; and, after what you have heard, I have little more to do than to say, that it embodies the resolutions which have now been passed, and that from the bottom of my heart, I do most sincerely approve of all that the Society has done of all that it is now doing-and of the great work, which I trust it is yet destined to accomplish. (Applause.) The fact is, my Lord, we have now come to that stage in the history of this great question, at which all doubts as to its material features are removed. I do not say, that we have come to the time at which the railer is to be silent, or the selfish man is to avow that he is confuted; but I do say, that we are come to that stage in which no person, without plainly professing to resign his understanding-can say, "I am still a friend of the slave trade." (Immense applause.) · About a year or two ago, his Majesty's Government required the Colonial authorities to send to Parliament a statement of what had been done for the amelioration of the slaves. They have sent that statement, and we now see, under their own hand-writing, how true the former statements were-- -(and if we should only know them by their own account, we must surely judge the more candidly of them!) We have it on the official report of the local authorities in the West Indies themselves; and the essence of these reports is to be found in a book lately published, the name of which, you will all observe, for I beg you will all read it for yourselves, it is entitled, "A Picture of Negro Slavery, drawn by the Colonists themselves." This pamphlet any body may read in the course of about two hours; it consists of about 150 pages, of which I should suppose, upon a guess, not twenty are written by any other persons than the colonists themselves. These pages contain the evidence, by the West Indian planters, why Great Britain should not now interfere! These pages contain the proofs, that they are now going on perfectly well! Now, my Lord, if there be one person in the room, who has not yet read every page of that terrible record, that person has not donewhat charity asks; but what justice demands on behalf of the family of man. (Applause.) Since the commencement of the long annals of human atrocity, I do not believe that such a picture ever met the human eye! There was an old Italian poet, who had passed through many personal sufferings, and who lived in the most troublous era of his country's history, who was possessed of a fertile and gloomy imagination, and who with the pen of fiction sat down to embody in words all the terrible concep tions of his soul. This man chose to exercise his genius, by supposing his enemies and human criminals placed in an aerial |