should entertain, in a Christian spirit, the most determined opposition to Popery, watch against it, and ward off its dangerous influences from their children, as they would keep from their reach a sweet poison, or guard them from the attack of a venomous reptile. Rather stand at the uttermost distance from all its associations, than try how near we can approach the evil without danger. "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

bishops of Her Majesty Queen Victoria are 27 in number, or, in other words, twenty-seven times too many in our humble opinion, they have each, on an average, a flock of some 650,000 souls, assuming, of course, that every Jew, Turk, infidel, and heretic in their respective dioceses belongs to their elastic and capacious communion. In England there is 1 Protestant "bishop' to every 650 Protestant clergy; in France there are 84 Catholic bishops against some 40,000 secular clergy, giving 1 bishop to every 482 priests. In England we have 13 Catholic bishops, and, according to the "Catholic Directory" for last year, there are 985 priests, or 1 bishop to every 76 priests. The "Protestant Reformed Episcopal Church" in North America numbers 30 dioceses, superintended by 39 bishops (some of whom are coadjutors), and 1,723 other words, testant clergymen, or, in clergymen. Still larger is the proportion of prelates in the Protestant Episcopal Communion in Scotland, where we find only 151 clergymen, superintended by 7 bishops, which gives an average of only 22 clergy to each bishop.

THE number of languages spoken in the world amounts to 8,064; 587 in Europe, 896 in Asia, 276 in Africa, and 1,264 in America. The inhabitants of the globe profess more than 1,000 different religions. The number of men is about equal to the number of women. The average of human life is about 30 years. One-quarter die previous to the age of 7 years; one-half before reaching 17. To every 1,000 persons, only one reaches 100 years of life; to every 100, only 6 reach the age of 65; and not more than I in 500 lives to 80 years of age. There are on the earth 1,000,000,000 inhabitants; of these 333,333,333 die every year, 91,334 every day, 3,780 every hour, and 60 every minute, or 1 every second. These losses are about balanced by an equal number of births. The married live longer lives than the single; and, above all, those who observe a sober and industrious conduct. Women have more chances of life in their favour, previous to being fifty years of age, than men have, but fewer afterwards. The number of marriages is in the proportion of 75 to every 1,000 individuals. Marriages are more frequent after the equinoxes, that is, during the months of June and December. Those born in the spring are generally more robust than others.

Births and deaths are more frequent by night than by day. The number of men capable of bearing arms is calculated at onefourth of the population.

THE VALUE OF STATISTICS. NATURE seems to have her forces arranged on a sort of averaging system, any overaction at one time in a particular direction being corrected by counteraction at another. The statistics in relation to the rate of mortality in England afford a proof of this principle of compensation. Dr. Granville, in the "Medical Times," states that it appears that the total number of deaths in the cholera year (1849), for all England and Wales, was 440,839; but in 1850 the number of deaths fell to 368,995, being not only 71,844 less than in the cholera year, but even less than the number of deaths of the year preceding that of the cholera, by as many as 30,833 ... If we take the deaths of two years together which preceded the cholera, and strike the mean, and treat the year of the cholera, and the compensating year that follows, in the same manner, we shall find that the four years present nearly the same average. So that, in reality, it is found, when the aggregate of the four years is taken, either

for the whole of England or for the metropolis only, that no greater number of people died in those years, because of the cholera intervening, than if the cholera had not visited us.

NUMBER OF THE DEAF AND
DUMB.

IN Great Britain 12,553 persons (6,884 males and 5,669 females) are returned as deaf and dumb. Of this number, 10,314 are in England, 2,155 in Scotland, and 84 in the islands in the British seas. In Great Britain, 1 in every 1,670 inhabitants is a deaf mute; in England, 1 in 1,738; in Scotland, 1 in 1,340; and in the Islands, 1 in 1,704. According to the most recent returns, the average proportion of the deaf and dumb to the population of Europe generally, is found to be l in every 1,593 persons. In Holland, Belgium, and other states presenting chiefly a flat surface, the proportion is much smaller than in Norway and Switzerland; indeed, in some of the Swiss cantons, where cretinism is prevalent amongst the mountain passes, there is 1 deaf mute in every 206 inhabitants. In Ireland, the average is 1 in 1,380 persons; and in the United States of America, where, however, the returns are admitted to be very defective, 1 in 2,366. Looking at the distribution of the deaf and dumb over the face of Great Britain, we find them to be more common in the agricultural and pastoral districts, especially where the country is hilly, than in those containing a large amount of town population.

CRIMINAL RETURNS FOR THE METROPOLIS.

THE Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police have issued a return of the number of persons taken into custody by the Metropolitan Police, and the results, in 1856. It appears from this return that the total number taken into custody amounted to not less than 73,240, of whom 45,941 were males. Of that number, there were discharged by the magistrates 36,551; those summarily disposed of amounted to 33,451; and 3,238 were committed for trial. The proportion of male and female prisoners committed was 2,502 of the former, and 716 of the latter, and the total of both convicted was 2,053 males and 534 females. Of the prisoners taken into custody, 12 were charged with murder, 79 with cutting and wounding, 10 with manslaughter, 6,763 with common assaults, 2,914 with assaults on the police, 185 with burglary, 2,501 with having stolen from the person, 18,720 with drunkenness and disorderly conduct, and 3,259 were taken into custody as vagrants.

PUBLIC LOSS BY THEFTS.

Of the loss to the public in property stolen, it is not possible to form any correct estimate. Some approximation, however, to the probable amount may be arrived at from such facts as the following: The total num

ber of convicts-that is, persons sentenced to transportation annually in England and Wales, has been, communibus annis, about 3,000. Now, in one year, it was ascertained that 500 prisoners of this class, taken as they stood in order in the register book, had stolen property to the value of 10,000l., as estimated upon their trial. But, as these men had, on an average, been convicted once before, this sum may be safely doubled on that score, which will give 120,000l. as the aggregate discovered amount stolen by the total number of convicts. Now, to this may be added, at the most moderate calculation, as much more, on account of depredations committed by the same parties when they escaped detection, making, in all, about a quarter of a million's worth of property taken from its rightful owners by 3,000 convicts; i. e., by about one-thirtieth part of the total of individual criminals who annually pass through our prisons; so that it does not appear unreasonable to suppose - making very large allowance for the more advanced stage of crime in the convict or transported class-that the entire loss to the community, in annual depredations, does not fall short of 2,000,000l. sterling.

DENOMINATIONAL PRO-
PORTIONS.

LONDON has over 800 evangelical places of worship, or one to 3,500 inhabitants, with average accommodation for about 800 hearers. The Established Church maintains 371 of these places of worship, averaging over 1,000 seats. Of the principal Dissenting denominations, the Independents have the largest chapels, and accommodate the largest aggregate of hearers; the Methodists have the most numerous chapels, but nearly the smallest aggregate accommodation. There are 140 Independent chapels, averaging about 800 seats; 130 Baptist, averaging 420; 154 Methodist, averaging 380. The Roman Catholics have only 35 chapels, averaging about 1,000 seats.

FREE CHURCH TEMPERANCE

SOCIETY.

THE Free Church Temperance Society, as we learn from official documents, now numbers in its membership 125 ordained ministers and missionaries 18 of whom have been added during the past year-38 probationers, and 102 Divinity Students. The Committee have engaged Mr. Alexander Robb, Divinity Student, who has had experience in Home Missionary work, both in England and Scotland, for years, as travelling agent. "His duty," says the Committee," will be to visit different towns and country districts, diffusing information, privately and publicly, as to our views, organising helpers to us, procuring funds, and the like. He has just entered on his work." Generally, the Society seems to be thriving and vigorous.

LAST AMERICAN CENSUS. THE States then contained 23,191,176 in

habitants, being only 4,389,571 less than the united population of Great Britain and Ireland. Of the above, 3,204,313 are slaves. The number of children attending school was 4,089,507. There were of the free population adults, upwards of twenty years of age, 1,053,420 who could not read nor write. Of" libraries other than private" there were 15,615, containing 4,636,411 volumes. Of newspapers and periodicals there 2,526, issuing annually 426,409,978 copies. Of these, 254 were daily papers, with an average circulation of nearly 1,000,000 copies each per annum. In round numbers, the States contained 27,000 clergy men, 24,000 lawyers, and 41,000 physicians and surgeons. The live stock included 4,336,719 horses, and 6,385,694 milch cows.

were

FRENCH LUNACY.

DURING a period of 18 years-from 1825 to 1843-it has been shown that in France, out of a population of 34,000,000, there were 200,000 lunatics or insane persons shut up in asylums, 3,000 suicides, 100,000 individuals daily kept in the hospitals by illness or infirmity, 800,000 dependent on charity, and 100,000 in prison for various offences.

THE POPULATION OF CHINA. THE Census of 1852 showed a total of 396,000,000 inhabitants, so that at presentmaking all due allowance for civil war and emigration we may safely set down the population of China at 400,000,000. Many of the provincial capitals have a population ranging from 500,000 to 1,000,000.

A WORD TO PARENTS. WHAT the princess of Egypt said to the mother of the babe that wept in its ark of rushes on the reedy Nile, the voice of the Almighty addresses to every parent on whose bosom is laid a bud of immortality :-"Take this child, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages."

"Nurse it for me." For the "King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God." Are you able? Will you engage to make it his loyal subject? Then labour night and day, at the dawn and in the dews of evening, with sleepless prayer and a patience next only to that of redeeming love.

"I will give thee thy wages." Do you accept the conditions? Do you believe the promise? Years may pass, and you see no recompense, reap no harvest, but tears. Still go forth, weeping, if you will, yet bearing precious seed; for, unless the treasury of heaven be empty, or the truth of God can fail, your toil shall find payment.

But you must be faithful to the articles of agreement. "Nurse it for me," not for the world. The world hath wages too; yea, and she will doubtless pay those who train up their child after her fashions, in the broad road where thousands go. She hath a variety of wages, suited to the degree of service that may have been rendered,-apples of Sodom, wood, hay, stubble, the whirlwind, "the worm that never dies, and the fire that is never quenched."

UNEDUCATED WOMEN.

THERE is no sight so truly pitiable as that afforded by a rising family of children under the guardianship of an ignorant mother. I would be understood, in the use of the term ignorant, as wishing to convey the picture of a mother whose maiden days were devoted to the acquirement of fashionable accomplishments, to the exclusion of solid mental culture and acquirements. The woman who reigns the queen of the ball-room is very seldom

found capable of being the governess of her own children; and the time spent at soirée and rout will be bitterly regretted when age brings experience, and consequent remorse for the evil she has inflicted, and her incapacity to discharge properly the interesting and important duties of her station, when it was her natural duty to be at once an instructor and example. I ever look with pain upon that young wife who enters upon her second era with fashionable ideas of society. Her first era has been devoted to the attainment of certain rules and systems which are scarcely pardonable in the girl, certainly censurable in the wife, and criminal in the mother.

The following remarks by Hannah More so forcibly express my views on the subject, that I give them in lieu of anything further from myself:

"When a man of sense comes to marry, it is a companion whom he wants, not an artist. It is not merely a creature who can paint and play, sing and dance; it is a being who can comfort and counsel him, one who can reason and reflect, and feel and judge, and discourse and discriminate; one who can assist him in his affairs, lighten his sorrows, purify his joys, strengthen his principles, and educate his children. Such is the woman who is fit for a mother, and the mistress of a family. A woman of the former description may occasionally figure in the drawing-room, and attract the admiration of the company; but she is entirely unfit for a help-mate to a man, and to train up a child in the way it should go."

TO MARRIED PEOPLE. THE following contains much truth, and it would be well for all young and newlymarried couples to bear it in mind. There is nothing that tends so much to keep the fire of love burning brightly as those little attentions which, before marriage, the two parties would consider themselves inexcus

able in forgetting:-" People should not stop courting when they get married, but, on the contrary, should learn to court the more. This laying aside the little endearments that nursed love into being, the very moment that you have sworn to live on it for ever, almost perjury. Where people are joined for life, it is their mutual interest and duty to render themselves as interesting objects to one another as possible."

"A FINE WOMAN."

THE inspired author of the Book of Proverbs has given us a description of a fine woman; so have modern writers; and it is curious to observe how very widely these descriptions differ. The moderns confine their praise chiefly to personal charms and ornamental accomplishments; the author of the Proverbs celebrates only the virtues of a valuable mistress of a family, and a useful member of society. The fine woman of the moderns is perfectly acquainted with all the fashionable languages of Europe; the other opens her mouth with wisdom, and is perfectly acquainted with all the uses of the needle, the distaff, and the loom. The business assigned to the modern fine woman is pleasure; the pleasure of the other is business. The modern is admired abroad, the other at home. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also praiseth her." There is no name in the world equal to this; nor is there a note in music half so delightful as the respectful language with which the grateful son or daughter perpetuates the memory of a sensible and affectionate mother. Let us but have a majority of wives and mothers such as Solomon describes, and the evils which now prevail in society would soon cease to exist.

66

HEALTH OF CHILDREN. RISING early is a habit of high importance to fix in children, and in forming it there is far greater facility than in other cases. There is a natural propensity in children generally to early rising, which needs only to be gratified and encouraged. They usually retire to bed some time before their parents, and at daylight, or at least sunrise, are generally awake and anxious to rise. Many of them are actually bred up with difficulty to the habit of taking a morning nap, which, when once formed, generally prevails through life. Let the father deny himself so far as to retire early, and become an early riser also. His health, enjoyment, and usefulness, he may depend upon it, will be perceptibly benefited. And this may be connected with another preventive of disease-active employment. The morning is the season for activity; the frame, invigorated by repose, is prepared for exertion, and motion gives pleasure. The pure atmosphere, so much more bracing than at other hours, so much sweeter and more exhilarating than the air of a confined chamber, has been prepared to be breathed; and, like all Nature's medicines, it is superior to any which science can produce. Early rising and early exercise may more properly be called food than medicine, as they are designed for daily use, and to protect us from disease, rather than to remove it. Everything except mere sloth invites us, nay, requires us, to train up our children to use them. morning is the most favourable season for exercising the frame, as well as for making useful impressions on the mind and heart; and whoever tries to conduct the education of his child independently of this practice, will lose some of the most favourable opportunities.

The

THE MOTHER OF ALFRED THE GREAT.

ALFRED the Great had reached his twelfth year before he had even learned his alphabet. An interesting anecdote is told of the occasion on which he was first prompted to apply himself to books. His mother had shown him and his brothers a small volume, illuminated in different places with coloured letters and such other embellishments as were then in fashion. Seeing that it excited the admiration of her children, she promised that she would give it to the boy who should first learn to read it. Alfred, though the youngest, was the only one who had spirit enough to attempt obtaining it on such a condition. He immediately went and procured a teacher, and in a very short time was able to claim the promised reward. When he came to the throne, notwithstanding his manifold duties and a tormenting disease, which seldom allowed him an hour's rest, he employed his leisure time either in reading or hearing the best books. His high regard for the best interests of the people he was called to govern, and the benevolence of his conduct, are well known.

THE EDUCATION OF THE
NURSERY.

THE ignorant nursery-maid is an educator; her look, and tone, and gesture, are aids to the development of faculties perhaps of the highest order. Let not the fond parent who trusts her little boy to the temporary care of the servant-maid fancy that the girl is "only getting him ready for school." The girl is educating him, morally, mentally, and physically. The cold water which trickles from his head down his healthy, chubby limbs would provoke him to try the strength of his lungs, to the no small disquietude of the house, were it not that Betty is amusing him " by such a pretty story about a great big black giant eating little boys and girls as if they were herrings." Scarcely a sentence does she utter but she exercises or developes some moral or mental faculty in such a manner as not only to counteract the good which the morning ablution might do as regards physical development, but also to do a positive injury. Now, had the girl been properly educated and instructed, her influence with the child would not have been less-possibly it might have been greater; and oh, how different would the result have been!

Outlines of Theology. Designed for the Use of Families, and Students in Divinity. Ward and Co.

WE are not a little pleased, at length, to meet with Mr. Clark again, bearing in his hand Volume II. of his very important work. If its appearance has been delayed considerably beyond what his readers had reason to expect, on opening and examining the volume they will find abundant compensation for the delay. It is, we think, even superior to its predecessor in execution, while its materials constitute the very essence of the Christian system. Volume One we have already noticed in terms of high commendation; and the two may be considered as a valuable addition to the genuine theology of the British nation. It is well entitled to the place which its author claims for it, when he offers it to families, students, and all intent on thoroughly examining into the pages of Were it to obtain a inspiration. Were it place in every Christian family in these Isles, and a thorough perusal, the result would, doubtless, be most advantageous to the cause of truth. Lay preachers, deacons of churches, Sunday-school teachers, young men contemplating an entrance on academic life preparatory to the ministry, all will find here a most valuable "Outline of Theology," thoroughly digested, and clearly presented. When the third and last volume shall have been completed, and added to the set, the work will constitute one of the best systems of theology anywhere to be foundnot Negative, we rejoice to say, but as thoroughly positive as the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles, whence it is derived.

The Acts of the Apostles Explained.

By J. A. ALEXANDER, D.D. Nisbet. THIS is exposition at high pressure. Dr. Alexander would seem to have aimed at the solution of the problem, how much matter may be crammed into a given space. Seldom before has any writer, of the same class, attempted so much and succeeded so well. The work is one of the same class with the invaluable expositions of Dr. Hodge; in truth, it would have passed for the production of that very able

man. It is framed on the same principle, conducted by the same rules, and bears the impress of the same character. There is in it the same solidity, the same comprehensiveness of view, and the same terseness of expression. The essential character of the work is, exposition. The writer labours to set forth the spirit of the book, leaving its application to the heart and life to the reader himself. It is a fact worthy of notice, that the materials of the work were collected in a course of academical instruction, and actually prepared for publication, with a view to the peculiar wants of ministers and students. Such a work from such a hand would, doubtless, have been a great boon to these important classes of individuals; but Dr. Alexander saw reason to change his course, even after the first chapter had been in type; sacrificing all his labour, therefore, he recommenced on a new plan, with a view to render the publication more generally useful by the reduction of its size, and the rejection of all matter of an exclusive and scholastic character, interesting only to professional and educated readers. In this the Christian Church at large will have reason to rejoice. We do trust, the author will be spared, and disposed to prosecute his labours, till he shall have covered all those portions of inspiration which Dr. Hodge has failed to overtake. In that event, the great undertaking will be homogeneous, and the writers will take rank in their own line with Patrick, Lowth, and Whitby.

The Tract Society's Almanacks for 1858. WE have here three Almanacks, each pos sessing peculiarities and excellencies of its own. There is, first, the "Christian Almanack," already well known to multitudes throughout the world. We have, as usual, a considerable amount of Astronomical and other matter, valuable and instructive; to which is added the calendar, with texts for every day in the year. The rest of the Almanack is taken up with things appertaining to the Farm and the Garden, the Household and Social Life, Public Business, Post Office Regulations, and the more important new Acts of Parliament. To this succeeds the " Young People's Pocket-book," containing an Almanack and a large amount of important general matter. Lastly, there is the "Scripture Pocket Book," which may