them only the Vacancies, which from time to time occur in the Corporate Body, will be filled up by ballot.

Bishop, in the execution of such plans, as, in concurrence with the Governing Autho rities in India, his Lordship may be inclined to recommend; and to place at his disposal a sum of money, in order to enable him to avail himself of any opportunities of furthering the objects of the Society, without the loss of time which must necessarily be incurred by previous communication with Europe. Some time, it is obvious, will elapse before an answer can be received to this application. It may be sufficient, in the mean while, to observe, that the Island of Ceylon in particular, which has lately been placed under the Bishop's jurisdiction, would alone supply ample employment for the immediate exertions of the Society.

In this Island, one-third of the popu. lation is said to be nominally Christian; though their faith is imperfect, and debased by gross superstitions: and the Pagan

Inhabitants are happily exempt from those artificial prejudices, which still continue to retard the progress of Christianity in Hin

doostan.

For the means of accomplishing these important designs, the Society must have recourse to the liberality of such pious and well-disposed persons, as are zealous for the Propagation of the Christian Faith in its purest form. To divert its present revenues from the purposes to which they have been so long and so usefully appropriated, and are in a manner pledged, would be not only inexpedient, but unjustifiable. But, with such objects in view, an appeal is made, without hesitation, to the Public, in the fullest assurance that

the spirit of piety, which in the beginning

created and has hitherto sustained the So

ciety, will be exerted with equal effect in promoting the enlargement and extension of its plans.

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING.

A SPECIAL General Meeting was held at the House of the Society, on the 8th of March-Sir ALEXANDER JOHNSTON, Knt. one of the VicePresidents, in the Chair-for the purpose of taking into consideration several points submitted to it by the Committee.

Alteration of the Time of the Annual "

Sermon.

The Regulation of the Society, by which it was provided that the Annual Sermon should be preached on the Morning of the Day on which the Annual Meeting should be held, had been found productive of inconvenience. The Special Meeting, therefore, gave the Committee power to fix the preaching of the Sermon at such time as they shall determine.

The Committee have, in consequence, fixed the Sermon, for the present year, for the Evening preceding the day of the Annual Meeting. The Hon. and Rev. Gerard Thomas Noel will, accordingly, preach at St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street, in behalf of the Society, on Monday Evening, the 3d of May. Divine Service will begin at half past Six o'clock.

Closing of the School Fund.

A change of circumstances in Western Africa induced the Meet

ing to close the Separate School Fund.

The Society having been compelled, by the revival of the Slave Trade, to relinquish its Stations in the Heathen Country in West Africa, and being about to charge itself with the education of all the Children liberated from Slave Ships and collected in the Colony of Sierra Leone, while Government

The suspension of the Society's Settlements among the Heathen in West Africa, and the increased facilities of intercourse with Sierra Leone, having considerably diminished the force of the motives which first led to the opening of the Fund for establishing a regular intercourse by a particular vessel with that coast, the Meeting took the subject of that Fund into consideration.

It appearing that the Fund amounts to upward of 40001. and is vested in Government Securities, the Meeting, considering that circumstances with respect to Africa may again entirely change, resolved that any further contributions to the Ship Fund should not be -pressed for the present, but that the Fund already raised should be left to accumulate by re-investment of the interest; and that should it March, 1819.

be found ultimately unnecessary or inexpedient to apply the Fund as originally intended, it should be appropriated to the similar object of maintaining intercourse with New Zealand, which is now done at a very great expense, or should be returned to such Contributors as might not approve of the said appropriation.

SYRIAN COMMITTEE.

AMONG the singular occurrences of our day, the visit to this country of an Eastern Ecclesiastic of high dignity, with the view of obtaining

assistance in the melioration of the state of his people, is not a little remarkable. The Circular which follows will explain itself. It has been issued by some Gentlemen, who considered the opportunity of benefitting Syria, offered by the visit of the Archbishop, as too promising to be neglected.

Intellectual and Moral Improvement of Syria.

March, 1819, at Mr. Hatchard's, PiccaAt a Meeting held on the 11th of dilly,-Sir Alexander Johnston, Knt. F. R. S. (late Chief Justice of Ceylon), in the Chair, the following Resolutions were passed unanimously:

1. That it appears to this Meeting, from various Testimonies submitted to it, that the Syrian Archbishop of Jerusalem, the Most Reverend Gregory Peter Giarve,

now in London, has visited this Country for a purpose which lays a forcible claim to the support of Benevolent Persons;that purpose being, the Intellectual and Moral Improvement of a numerous Body of People.

2. That this Meeting gives full credit to the following Statement, which has been laid before it, of the Condition of the said People:

:

"There are, in Syria and the Neigh. bouring Countries, about One Million of Persons who use the Carshun Language; that is, they speak Arabic; but, in writing it, they employ the Syriac Character. These People have very few Books among them; there being printing.

T

presses for the Carshun no where but at

PROCEEDINGS OF THE DEPUTATION TO LONDON.

3. That the state and condition of the People for whom this benefit of Instruc. tion is sought, are peculiarly worthy of commiseration and relief; as they inha

bit, under circumstances of much diffculty and oppression, those very Countries from which our own highest advantages were originally derived.

4. That the Syrian Archbishop of Jerusalem having proposed to form a Printing Establishment at the place of his resi dence on Mount Lebanon, for the purpose of printing, in Carshun, Elementary and other Books, with the Holy Scrip tures, in order to promote Education and Christian Knowledge wherever the Carshun is used, this Meeting cordially ap proves the said design.

5. That a Fund he now opened, for enabling the Archbishop to effect the ob jects proposed, and for promoting the intellectual and moral improvement of Syria; and that the application of the said Fund be entrusted to the charge of a Committee.

(Signed) ALEXANDER JOHNSTON, Chairman.

WE reported, in our last, the visit to London of a Deputation from the Society, in order to obtain assistance to its funds. The operations in Russian Tartary have lately subjected the Society to a heavy extra expenditure, amounting to about 3000/. This demand the Directors were quite unprepared to meet, the funds having been previously entirely exhausted. Every exertion had also been lately made in Scotland for raising funds for the regular expenditure of the Society, which is not now less than 4000l. a year; so that they had no alternative but to make an appeal to their Christian Brethren in England.

The Deputation consisted of the Rev. David Dickson, one of the Ministers of St. Cuthbert's, and the Rev. Henry Grey, of St. Cuthbert's Chapel; both of the Established Church of Scotland: and the Rev. Alex. Beattie, of Kincardine, and the Rev. John Brown, of Biggar; both of the Associate or Burgher Synod.

They were received, by Christians of all Denominations, with the utmost cordiality; and preached, in the short space of four weeks, in Sixty different Places of Worship.

A Public Meeting was held on Tuesday the 16th of March, at the City of London Tavern, for the purpose of appointing a Committee to superintend the Society's interests in London-Charles Grant, Esq. in the Chair. Mr. Dickson gave a clear and concise view of the origin, progress, and present state of the Society; and was followed by Mr. Grey, with much eloquence and feeling.

Sir Thomas Baring, Mr. Wilberforce, and other Gentlemen, took a part in the business of the day.

A Committee of Correspondence

was appointed; of which Mr. Grant is Chairman. Robert Steven, Esq. is appointed Treasurer; and the Rev. Dr. Manuel, Secretary.

The Meeting was numerous and respectable. A liberal Collection was made at the doors; and several large Donations, with a number of

Annual Subscriptions, were received.

About 20001. had been raised by the Deputation; and it was hoped that the remaining part of the sum wanted would be contributed in London, and in other places which they had still to visit.

AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY.

Translations of Scripture for the Indians. FROM the Second Report of the Society, we rejoice to observe that attention is awakened to the spiritual wants of the Indians. The following extract leads us to hope for continued and enlarged exertions in their behalf.

While using their endeavours, that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified throughout the United States, and especially in those parts where there is an incredibly swarming population, the Board have not been unmindful of their BRETHREN OF THE WOODS. The condition of these Natives, divided from us by their language, their manners, their ignorance, their degradation by every thing which distinguishes savage from civilized man-too often by the fraud and other injuries of profligate whites-addresses to us a mute, but piercing expostulation, for that help which they can obtain only in very small portions from any other quarter.

The principal difficulty in the way of the Indian Translations of the Scriptures arises from the multiplicity of the Indian Dialects. It is long since the researches of Philologists have exploded the greater part of what were supposed to be radically distinct languages. Those of the Indians are ascertained, in many instances, to be dialects so near akin, that, unlettered as he is, a young Indian can make himself master of several.

The branches to which the Managers would more immediately bend their attention, are, the Mohawk and the Delaware. The Mohawk would serve for the Five Nations, the Tus

The Delaware is of higher importance, as it has extended itself further than that of any other northern tribe. It can convey the Scriptures to many kindred tribes, that are strewed along the frontier of the United States, from Canada to Georgia. These are, the Monsees, the Shawanese, the Kickapoos, the Kaskaskias, the Twightwees or Miamis, and the Chippewas, Hurons or Algonquins. This last is said to be the most numerous tribe on the northern borders of the United States.

In their efforts to bring in these outcasts, who are indeed afar off, the Managers must submit to their circumstances, and take such parts of the Bible as, from time to time, they can procure to be translated. A beginning has been made. The Rev. Christian Frederick Dencke, one of the Missionaries of the United Brethren to the Delawares, stationed at New Fairfield in Upper Canada, has completed, and forwarded to this Board, a translation of the Epistles of John; and has also finished a translation of John's Gospel, and commenced that of Matthew; both which will probably be received in the course of the year.

Of

the Board ordered an edition of 1000 In consequence of this acquisition, copies, with the English on one page and the Indian on the other. these, 300 are to be sent to the Rev. Mr. Dencke at New Fairfield, and 100 to Mr. Leuchenbach, Missionary in the State of Ohio, to be by them distributed among the Aborigines.

The Board has also voted a donation of 100 Dollars to the Rev. Mr. Dencke, to encourage him in the prosecution of his work.

With regard to the Mohawk Lan

guage, the Managers find that the Gospel of Mark has been translated by the celebrated Indian Chief, Brandt; and the Gospel of John by Captain Norton, a Resident of Upper Canada. Should further assistance be required, it may be obtained from the Rev. Mr. Jenkins, formerly a Missionary among the Oneidas; and perhaps from Cornplanter himself, who is represented as very favourable to such an undertaking.

In the mean time, the Managers have ordered an edition of 1000 copies of Brandt's Translation of Mark, and Norton's of John, to be struck off, and distributed among the tribes usually denominated the Six Nations.

VIRGINIA BIBLE SOCIETY.

Influence of Bible Societies on the
State of the World.

THE Fifth Report of this Institution has an eloquent passage of this subject:

The four Quarters of the World witness the liberality and zeal of Christians, employing their united efforts in promoting the highest interests of their fellow-creatures. And it

is a scene of moral grandeur, which none can contemplate, without feelings of rapture and exultation. On glancing over the history of mankind, and especially surveying the events of the last twenty-five years, in which the highest energies of the human mind and the utmost force of man's physical power have been employed in the work of destruction, it is delightful to turn and behold so many Institutions springing up in all parts of the world, which, by the unity of their design, the benevolence of their purpose, and the salutary tendency of all their means and results, are calculated to excite common feelings in all who bear the Christian Name, to soften and subdue the malignant passions of the heart, and to bestow the blessings of civilization and a pure religion on all who dwell on earth.

The Bible Society enables Christians of every different form of worship to unite in promoting true religion. It is but ONE INSTITUTION in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. It is the same in Britain and Russia, in Bengal and the United States of America.

Surely we may well rejoice, when we see an Association breathing the spirit of Heaven itself, stretching its arms over seas and continents, hold ing in its embrace the most distant nations, and infusing into them its own charities. The time is not distant, when the blessed effects of this Book shall be felt from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; when the lessons which it gives shall be learned, the hopes which it inspires be enjoyed, the consolations which it affords be received, by free men, spread through our vast regions, and making the Western Wildernesses vocal with the praises of Him who was, and is, and is to come, the only true God, our Saviour.

POLYNESIA.

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. NARRATIVE OF THE MISSION TO THESE ISLANDS.

In the "Survey of Missionary Stations," p. 44, we promised to give an abstract of such particulars of a Narrative of this Mission, lately published, as had not appeared in our pages. We proceed to fulfil that promise. On the Map annexed, our Readers will see the situation of the Nine Islands converted to Christianity.

On the 28th of July, 1796, THIRTY Missionaries were designated to the work of planting the Gospel in the Islands of the South Pacific Ocean, One only excepted, they embarked on the 10th of August, on board the ship Duff, commanded by Captain James Wilson. In March 1797, Eighteen landed at Otaheite; Ten at Tongataboo, in the following month; and One at Santa Christina, one of the Marquesas, in the succeeding June.

The Mission at the Marquesas terminated in 1798, and that at Tongataboo in 1800; but the Mission to Otaheite has been attended with more auspicious results.

In December 1798, the Duff was again despatched, under the command of Captain Thomas Robson, in order to reinforce the Missions. Twentynine Missionaries, ten of whom were married, embarked, with this view: but it pleased Divine Providence to