you must.' The cadet died in Madras, in consequence of the miseries which he had endured during those four years."

A committee has been formed, under the presidency of Lord Milton, to carry into effect the project for a General Cemetery Company, for providing places of interment secure from violation, inoffensive to public health and decency, and ornamental to the metropolis. The capital is to be 200,000l., in shares of 251. each.

Since the publication of the original prospectus, much additional information has been obtained; and, on the eighth of February last, a meeting of the friends of the measure was convened, at which a provisional committee was appointed to make the necessary arrangements. An eligible site, it is stated, has been offered for the purpose. The grounds will be laid out and planted, after the manner of that of Père la Chaise, Paris; and properly watched and guarded. Parishes, public bodies, and individuals, may obtain ground for the purpose of interment, with liberty to erect monuments after their own designs. Vaults and catacombs also will be constructed for general use. There will be also a chapel for the celebration of the funeral service, and the reception of monuments.-The annual number of interments in the metropolis, including Paddington, St. Mary-le-bone, and St. Pancras, amounts to about 40,000. In Bunhill-Fields alone, upwards of 1000 persons are buried annually.

IRELAND.

A society has been formed in Dublin for suppressing the absurd and barbarous, as well as impious practice of duelling. We fear that, where better principles do not prevail, nothing will speedily check the custom, but making it in some way as conventially disgraceful as it is wicked. A court of honour might do something; but we doubt whether there would be many appeals to it, as the exciting causes of duels, especially in the army, are often too ridiculous to bring before a tribunal, Captain A. after dinner disparages Colonel B.'s pointer, and says he would not give three hairs of his roan's tail for twenty such dogs. Colonel B. retorts, a quarrel ensues; and though both parties feel themselves next morning to have acted most absurdly, and would be glad to forget the matter, their own honour, and that of the regiment, require blood to expiate the of fence. The Anti-duellist Society, we are glad to perceive, takes up the matter on truly Christian grounds: their wish is to inculcate truly scriptural principles, which

alone can effectually reform the world; at the same time they will use every other lawful means for effecting their object, and they propose to appeal to parliament, to the church, and to the aristocracy of opinion among the higher ranks of society. FRANCE.

The conductors of the Revue Protestante, the organ of those who call themselves the liberal party in the French Protestant Church, give the following as the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel of Christ: "The unity of God; the government of the world, having for its object the salvation of men, and their moral elevation, by means of religious knowledge; the liberty of man, or his capacity for good under the assistance of God, teaching him to withdraw himself from the power of sensuality, and by preserving the dignity of the intellectual man, to arrive at peace of conscience and the rewards of eternity." And is this all? and can it be wondered at that while Protestant Christianity has so widely degenerated on the continent into a system meagre and frigid like this, it has been involved in a death-like slumber, and had well-nigh been forgotten on the earth. Our hope for the French Reformed Church is, that a more evangelical spirit is finding its way among its members; and that every year is adding to the number of those who have been led to adopt infinitely higher views of the designs and effects of Christianity.

An ordinance was issued in France in 1814, under M. de Beugnot, enjoining the religious observation of the Lord's day, and imposing a fine upon tradesmen keeping open their shops. The French stigmatise it as an English law, which has not and cannot be carried into effect in their free and liberal country.

SWITZERLAND.

In the Registry of the Council of State of Geneva, there are a number of minute entries relative to Calvin, Beza, Farel, and Viret; some of which may be useful to the historian. They were extracted some years since by the Baron de Grenus, and have just been printed at Geneva in a detached form. We have procured the pamphlet, and will present a specimen of its contents to our readers.

GERMANY.

Dr. Block, who holds the high office of Pastor Superintendant General of the kingdom of Hanover, has recently published three volumes entitled, "The Continuance of the Reformation, as respects Theology, Religion, and the Church." The work is highly eulogized by the so

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called rational enlightened part of the Protestants of France, Germany, and Switzerland. Dr. Block is pleased to consider that the Reformation is only begun, and that it ought to be the earnest effort of every Protestant to hasten on an ulterior reformation" by purifying theology from Judaism, Divine worship from routine services, and the ministry from mechanical priest-craft." He lays down as his first principle, that the human mind has the power to discern what is spiritual, holy, and perfect; and that the way to arrive at true religion is to use our intellect, free will, and conscience, and not to appeal to authority, or history: the Bible, we need not remark, is both authoritative and historical. Christ and his Apostles merely exhibited fundamental truths in an elementary manner, leaving their complete development to the powers of human reason! Christianity, he says, proves its Divine origin by its conformity to what our reason tells us is Divine; an argument to which we have always objected in works on the evidences, as trying the Infinite Mind at the bar of man's feeble intellect. It is also subject to recoil; for the Socinian, for example, says that the doctrine of the atonement is not, to his mind reasonable but is it not scriptural? Dr. Block denies the doctrine of Divine influence, which he maintains to be irrational and superstitious. He considers religion greatly impeded by various errors; such as, first, receiving the whole of the Bible as our religious code; whereas he tells us that the Old Testament and the New are quite different in their spirit: secondly, making the Bible the only source of religious knowledge, to the exclusion of human philosophy: and, thirdly, the Bible not being set before the people in a proper form and translation, so as to convey just ideas. There is not, we presume, in French or German, so radically "improved" a version as the English Unitarian translation; where, for instance, in the place of "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned," we read, "He who professes faith in me shall be admitted to the privileges of the Christian community; he who does not believe shall remain under the disadvantages of a heathen state." Such a translation, we presume, would exactly meet the Superintendant-General's ideas. The wish of Dr. Block, and his brother Protestant reformers, of the enlightened school on the continent, may be gathered from a single sentence: "If preachers," he says,

were formerly accustomed to speak of the death of Christ rather as an immediate cause of the pardon of sins, than as a means of arriving at purity, and as a motive to conversion, this should not hinder the present race of preachers from taking a contrary course, and insisting less on juridical than moral considerations." It is deeply mournful that such sentiments should be widely promulgated on the continent as the consummation of Protestantism. We need not add what advantage they give the Papist, who, familiar with such perversions of the Reformed religion, sees in the Reformation only the seeds of impiety, infidelity, and every evil work.

A zealous contest is in progress throughout Germany, between the Neologian and Evangelical, or, as the Neologians are pleased to call it, the "mystical" system. The pastors of the circle of the Rhine, who claim to themselves the honour of being chiefly of the so-called rational and enlightened class, in the synod in which the Lutheran and Reformed branches were united, the former giving up consubstantiation, and the latter predestination, resolved that they adhered to the doctrine of the New Testament, and disclaimed all confessions of faith. The object of this well-sounding resolution, was virtually to get rid of the doctrine of the Trinity, the Divinity of our Lord, and of the Holy Ghost, original sin, justification by faith, and, in short, all "mysteries." The Old Testament was also wholly set aside as to doctrinal authority. There is likely to be a powerful struggle between the philo. sophical and the scriptural parties, at the synod of 1831, especially if the latter pro. pose Luther's shorter catechism as the basis of instruction. The German Neologians say of this and similar documents, including their own creeds, what some among ourselves say of our own Articles and Homilies, that they were very well for the times in which they were drawn up, but are very ill suited to this enlightened age. Religion, like all other things, is to march forward, and in particular to be defecated of all "mysteries."

GREECE.

Mr. Leake, in his travels in the Morea, mentions the following vestige of an ancient custom :-"The misery of these Kakavuliótes is extreme. To the inquiries of my servants for the commonest articles of provisions, the answer constantly is,

Where are we to find oil, or vinegar, or wine, or bread?' as if such things were Juxuries in which they never indulged. The chief instrument of household furni

ture is the handmill, in which the kalambókki is ground. This is the employment of the women at night, who generally accompany the work with a song in lamentation of some deceased relation, who has been killed perhaps by a hostile house; and it is their custom to continue these songs during the whole period of mourning, and the men let their beards grow on the same occasions. The xpoμuλov is a lineal descendant of the ancient hand-mill, as the songs which accompany the grinding are of the ωδαι επιμύλιοι.”

MALTA.

An American Missionary states, that during almost seven years that he resided in Malta, he was witness regularly on Monday morning to a solemn and admonitory scene. A man passes through the streets ringing a bell in one hand, and rattling a box in the other, crying at every corner," What will you give for the souls? What will you give for the souls?" The children and women come out of the habitations of poverty, and cast their mites into the box. When it is full of money it is carried to a neighbouring convent, to pay the priests for praying the souls of the dead out of purgatory. We exhort Protestants to "give money for souls" in a far different manner; by assisting Christian missions, and the circulation of the word of God.

BRAZIL.

We are concerned to read in Dr. Walsh's tour, the following account of the Protestant Chapel at Rio Janeiro:"This chapel was never entirely finished; and at present it exhibits marks not only of neglect but decay. The rain has rotted the roof, which is continually falling on the heads of the scanty congregation who attend it: the windows are broken, and instead of the neatness and propriety which always distinguish the house of God in England, it has an air of dirt and neglect, quite painful to contemplate; and the congregation, as if to confirm the prediction of the Bishop of Rio, seemed to take no interest in it when it was built, notwithstanding their zeal to have it established. It is capable of containing six or seven hundred persons, and there is that number of the Reformed Church at Rio to fill it, yet I never counted more than thirty or forty. I have often reflected with great concern on this indifference to public wor

ship among our factories abroad, and I refer you to Spon and Wheeler for what they witnessed in the Levant, in their day. I have even thought it was one great impediment to the progress of the Reformation in Catholic countries. Instead of letting our light so shine before men,' on the Sabbath, that they seeing our good works,' might be led to 'glorify our Father in heaven,' after the same manner; they only consider our separation from their church as an abandonment of all worship, and point out our conduct in proof of it. There is nothing which more strongly marks the growing feeling of toleration in the world, than this concession among a people, formerly distinguished for their spirit of persecution."

UNITED STATES.

A benevolent individual has placed in the hands of the Committee of the American Temperance Society, the sum of 250 dollars, for the author of the best tract on the following subject; namely, "Is it consistent with a profession of the Christian religion, for persons to use, as an article of luxury or living, distilled liquors, or to traffic in them? And is it consistent with duty, for the churches of Christ to admit those who continue to do this, as members ?"

Since 1811, when Bishop Flaget arrived in Kentucky, thirty Catholic churches have been built in the diocese of Bardstown alone, besides several colleges, nunneries, &c. The Bishop has been aided in accomplishing this work by the contributions of the Kings of France and Naples, the Queen of Sardinia, and the Duke of Modena. During the year 1828, the sum of 120,000 francs was voted by the Association for the Propagation of the Faith, towards the support of Catholic missions in the United States; and the enterprise of bringing the population of the valley of the Mississippi under the spiritual authority of the Pope, is stated to be a subject of frequent and earnest conversation in the northern parts of Italy.

An American journal remarks: "General Jackson regularly attends church (the Presbyterian) on Sabbath mornings. Mr. Adams' attendance was divided between the Orthodox and the Unitarian. Mr. Monroe seldom went to church at all. Mr. Madison was not particularly distinguished for his attendance."

"The Present State and Future Prospects of Christianity," a Sermòn. By the Rev. C. Craven,

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Discourses on the Power of Faith. By the Rev. T. Binney. 10s 6d.

"National Mercies a Motive for National Reformation." By the Rev. H. Blunt. 1s. The Psalmist; a Selection, by the Rev. H. and the Rev. J. Gwyther.

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The

NOS AYRES.

We are happy to convey to our readers the following intelligence; and we trust the result will be very different to that which we have mentioned in another part of this Number, respecting the Protestant Chapel at Rio Janeiro.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

It is now nearly eighteen years since, through the medium of your excellent publication, I made known the erection of the first Protestant Church in Spanish America. I have now the pleasure of informing you, that on the 5th April the foundation-stone of probably the second Protestant Church in the same extensive country was laid in this city, by his Britannic Majesty's Charge d' Affaires to the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, for the use of his British subjects resident in this country. The church in Honduras, though built within the dominions of Spain, was immediately under the control of the British Government, Honduras being a British settlement; but that now erecting in Buenos Ayres is in the very heart of a Roman-Catholic city and it is moreover a pleasing and promising circumstance in connexion with this event, that to the generosity of the Government of the province the residents are indebted for the site of ground on which their church is building; a strong mark of the growing liberality and tolerant spirit of the country.

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It is deeply to be regretted that the demon of civil discord should stalk so fiercely throughout these countries, depopulating them of their inhabitants, which they can

and growing improvement in industry and civilization which are so essential to national prosperity, as well as individual comfort and security. But so strongly is this enemy supported by the virulence of factious spirits, trained in the school of revolution, that I fear his death may not be looked for until the present generation shall have passed away. In the mean time, however, the cause of God may gradually, though privately, make its way; and a foundation may be laid on which other generations, more favourably circumstanced, may build a superstructure which shall at once adorn the land and proclaim the glory of the Most High.—I am, &c.

JOHN ARMSTRONG,

British Chaplain, Buenos Ayres.

PROPOSED FOURTH MORAVIAN MISSION.

The mission of the United Brethren among the Esquimaux, on the coast of Labrador, has existed for nearly sixty years. Of its origin and progress to the present time, authentic and circumstantial accounts have been frequently laid before the Christian public, and have tended, by the Divine blessing, to excite great interest in its prosperity.

The first settlement was formed in fiftysix degrees north latitude, and called Nain. It soon became the resort of a number of Esquimaux families, to whom the missionaries preached the doctrine of a crucified Saviour, and whose affection and confidence they gained. The success with which it pleased God to crown their labours, induced them, in the year 1774, to take measures to extend the mission.

Notwithstanding the loss of two brethren, who perished by shipwreck, in the first attempt to explore this dangerous coast, the survivors ventured, shortly after, upon two similar voyages, which eventually led to the establishment of a second station at Okkak, about one hundred miles to the north of Nain, in the year 1775, and of a third at Hopedale, nearly the same distance to the southward, in 1783. The congregations of Esquimaux, at the three settlements, now number eight hundred and six persons, of whom two hundred and eighty-one are communicants.

For several years past, the establishment of a fourth missionary station, at a place called Kangertluksoak, about eighty miles to the north of Okkak, has been seriously contemplated; but various difficulties have hitherto prevented the execution of this purpose. The number of inhabitants belonging to Okkak, amounting to nearly four hundred, and gradually increasing, is too large, when compared with the scanty supply of provisions which its neighbourhood is capable of affording. It is also hoped, that, by the occupation of another, and a more northern station, an opportunity may be given to the brethren of proclaiming the Gospel to many heathen tribes scattered at intervals along the coast. Several missionaries have cheerfully offered themselves for the work; and all that now remains for the society is to provide the requisite means to carry it into execution. Its members acknowledge, with humble gratitude to the Lord, that he has hitherto been pleased to "bless their substance, and accept the work of their hands." He has enabled them, by means of a casual and apparently inadequate traffic with the Esquimaux, carried on by brethren appointed for that purpose, and who have performed their work "with singleness of heart, as unto the Lord," to defray the extraordinary expense occasioned by the outfit and voyage of a small vessel, which the want of every other communication obliges them to send annually to the coast of Labrador, and even to contribute to the support of the three existing stations. But, for the establishment of a fourth, their funds are wholly insufficient; though they have reason to believe, that, when once formed, the expense of its maintenance will not prove considerable. The society therefore, desire, in the spirit of their predecessors, who, in the year 1771, with yet more slender resources, and a prospect of ultimate success far less encouraging, undertook the establishment of a mission on the coast of Labrador, to cast their care upon the

Lord, and to expect from his gracious and bountiful hand the needful means for its extension. Being convinced, after careful inquiry, and mature deliberation, that it is of importance to take immediate steps for the formation of a settlement at Kangertluksoak, and having further ascertained, that a considerable saving of time, labour, and expense, will result from the early purchase and transport of building materials and other stores, they are very anxious that the requisite purchases should be made without delay, and a vessel chartered for their conveyance to the place of destination.-We need not add one word to this interesting statement, to induce those of our readers who have it in their power to assist this enterprise of Christian mercy. Donations towards this specific object, will be thankfully received by the Rev. C. I. Latrobe, Bartlett's Buildings.

INDIAN BIBLE AND TRACTS. An officer, who has employed himself in translating the Bible into the language of the Chippeway Indians, writes:

"The fourth and last of the Evangelists I have now in hand: Matthew, Mark, and John, Genesis and Jonah, are finished; and some detached passages in other books. About a month since I commenced reading my version publicly to the Indians on the Sabbath. They understand without difficulty, as I am assured by themselves, and by very intelligent interpreters. It appears to me that missionary associations would derive essential advantage from small Tracts in the languages of the people addressed, and accompanied with pictures. There is at this place a very old French edition of the Bible with pictures: and among those persons who speak the Indian only, and who know something of the Scripture history, those passages which are illustrated by engravings, have made by far the most deep and lasting impressions."

AMERICAN EPISCOPAL MISSION IN GREECE.

The Rev. Mr. Robertson, an American Episcopal Missionary in Greece, gives the following as the results of his investigation of that country, with reference to missionary and educational operations :— 1. It is very desirable that there should be missionaries in Greece; but they should be men whose zeal should be tempered with prudence, and who to personal piety add a good degree of intellectual cultivation. 2. Ministers of the Protestant Episcopal Church will have more advantages than those of other denominations; but