returned to them by its produce: four acres of waste land have been cultivated this year, not only without loss, but with a considerable profit-97. 7s. 4 d. The third year has by no means disappointed their hopes, and although the weather has not been very favourable for the potatoe crop, yet by a still greater profit than in either of the former years, they are led to infer both the utility and soundness of their plan.' The subjoined is an extract from the committee's report in December, 1839: This year the actual profits amount to 127. 1s. 9 d., while the gross produce of the land now cultivated, is 205l. 19s. 51. The objects contemplated by the society are fully effected. Every man of good character upon application has been employed. Twenty-six men, and two women, with their families, have been employed on fifteen acres of land this year, and a produce of 2061. has been realised on a tract of land, which four years ago yielded no return to the proprietor.' If the original subscriptions were divided, there would be a considerable bonus to each member, and it is therefore clearly shown what may, with good management, be effected towards employing deserving labourers, and enabling them to support themselves without parochial aid, or loss to any individual."-Salisbury Herald.

ON SPIRIT-DRINKING IN THE ARMY.

THE Duke of Wellington has recorded, as the result of his large experience, that almost all the offences which lead to the infliction of the lash in the military service, originate in drunkenness; and something has been done, both in the army and navy, towards lessening the consumption of ardent spirits. But, hitherto, the experiment has been very inadequate, and there seems to exist a lingering notion, that a daily quantity of spirits is necessary for soldiers and sailors upon service; necessary in hot climates, because it is hot, and in cold climates, because it is cold. This notion is declared to be unfounded by innumerable witnesses, especially medical officers, from a large number of facts in every region of the globe; but as the prejudice still clings to the minds of many

estimable persons, we are glad to be able to present for their consideration, the following attestations from the victorious army of the Indus.

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Camp, Cabool, Sept. 19, 1839. WE, the undersigned, hereby declare to the British Army, and to the world, that through Divine Providence, and with the aid of steady habits of abstinence from ardent spirits, we have been enabled to arrive at Cabool, the capital of Afghanistan, with the army of the Indus. And it is our opinion, that ardent spirits are not necessary as a beverage for soldiers on actual service, but are, on the contrary, liquids exciting to crime, and leading to disease and death.

"We likewise beg to bear our testimony to the following facts. The marches of the army have been often long, from fourteen to eighteen miles per day; and on one occasion, in Cutch Gundava, the Bengal regiments completed a march of twenty-six miles across a desert, and those from Bombay made one of about forty-six miles. It is estimated that the troops have traversed upwards of one thousand three hundred miles. Water has been sometimes scarce, and very generally bad and brackish on the road, and for some time, the troops were put upon short rations, and had neither tea nor coffee to drink. There has been much sickness in the force, but the medical men have attributed this to fatigue, exposure to the sun, and to the want of a good vegetable diet. It is but fair, to add, that some of them have been of opinion, that weakened men sank faster, in consequence of being suddenly deprived of the stimulus of spirits, on the route between Candahar and. Cabool. At this present writing, now that vegetables are plentiful, and the weather moderate, the health of the army is improving, without any spirituous liquor. The army, since its formation, from 1st November, 1838, has had to endure many privations, which are common to troops on field service. The European soldiers were put upon one dram per day, on the 6th of May, and since 8th of July, none has been issued to them. The rear brigades made forced marches for some days, in order to reach Ghuznee in time for the assault, and came up in excellent order,

without the aid of any spirit rations. On the morning of the 23rd of July, the force attacked the fort of Ghuznee, and in about three hours it fell. When this place was carried by storm, a crowd of unfortunate women were found in the citadel, with the harem of Hyder Khan, son of the Ameer of Cabool, to not one of whom a single insult was offered. This not only called forth the admiration of every officer in the army, but also astonished the enemy. The result might have been far different, if the troops had entered the fortress primed with spirits, or had found any ardent spirits within its walls.

"There has been a great diminution of crime in the regiments of the army; since, from the circumstance. of the commissariat stores of Anach having failed, no spirit ration has been issued."

Compare the conduct of these gallant men after the siege, with that of their fellows in arms, under the influence of ardent spirits. The following illustrations are taken from Colonel Napier's history of the Peninsular war. "Now (after the storming of Badajos,) commenced that wild and desperate wickedness, which tarnished the lustre of the soldier's heroism. All, indeed, were not alike, for hundreds risked, and many lost their lives in striving to stop the violence; but the madness generally prevailed, and all the dreadful passions of human nature were displayed. Shameless rapacity, brutal intemperance, savage lust, cruelty and murder; shrieks and piteous lamentations, groans, shouts, imprecations, the hissing of fires bursting from the houses, the crashing of doors and windows, and the reports of muskets used in violence, resounded for two days and nights in the streets. of Badajos!

"The officers had lost all command of their men in the town; those who had got drunk, and had satisfied themselves with plunder, congregated themselves in small parties, and fired down the streets. An officer of the Brunswickers, who was contending with a soldier for the possession of a canary bird, was shot dead by one of these insane drunkards."

The following extract is to the same purport. It re

lates to the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo. "Throwing off the restraints of discipline, the troops committed frightful excesses. The town was fired in three or four places, the soldiers menaced their officers, and shot each other; many were killed in the market-place, intoxication soon increased the tumult, disorder every where prevailed; and at last, the fury rising to absolute madness, a fire was wilfully lighted in the middle of the great magazine, when the town, and all in it would have been blown to atoms, but for the energetic courage of some officers and a few soldiers, who still preserved their senses."

With such direful results of experience, most earnestly is it to be hoped, that strenuous efforts will be made to abolish the use of ardent spirits in the army and navy, except by the prescription of a medical officer.-From the Christian Observer.

EFFECTS OF OPIUM.

THOSE Who begin its use at twenty, may expect to die at thirty years of age. The countenance becomes pallid, the eyes assume a wild brightness, the memory fails, the gait totters, mental and moral courage sinks, and frightful marasmus or atrophy reduces the victim to a ghastly spectacle, who has ceased to live before he has ceased to exist. There is no slavery so complete as that of the opium-taker; once habituated to its doses as a stimulant, every thing will be endured rather than the privation; and the unhappy being endures all the consciousness of his own degraded state, while he is ready to sell his wife and children, body and soul, for the continuance of his wretched and transient delight-transient, indeed-for at length the utmost effect produced is a temporary suspension of agony; and, finally, no dose of the drug will remove or relieve a state of suffering, which it is utterly impossible to describe. The pleasurable sensations and imaginative ideas arising at first, soon pass away; they become fainter, and at last give place to horrid dreams, appalling pictures of death; spectres of fearful visage haunt the mind, the light of heaven is converted into the gloom of hell-sleep, balmy sleep, has fled for ever

night succeeds day only to be clothed with never ending horrors, incessant sickness, vomiting, diarrhoea, and total cessation of the digestive functions ensue, and death at last brings with it annihilation of the corporeal structure, the sole relief to the victim of sensual and criminal indulgence.-Colonial Magazine, "The Opium Trade."

CAUTION TO PARENTS.

WE have no pleasure in relating distressing accidents, but it is often profitable; and, if a danger pointed out may serve as a warning to others, many distressing accidents may be thus avoided. It is very common for parents to leave their children in a room with a fire in it; and we are constantly hearing of grievous accidents from this cause. It is true, that a poor woman is often obliged to leave her home, and she has, perhaps, nobody to look after her children, and she therefore leaves them to themselves; and coming home, perhaps she finds all safe and then she concludes that there is no danger. numerous accidents, however, which we hear of, shows us that there is danger. We give the following distressing account, which we have just read in a London newspaper.

"THREE CHILDREN BURNT TO DEATH.

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"Yesterday a woman named Farnell, residing in Felixstreet, Islington, having occasion to leave home, imprudently locked her three children into a room in which there was a fire. From some cause or other, not ascertained, the room caught fire, and all three were suffocated, or burned to death!"

It surely is not needful to expose children to such dreadful danger, and to the loss of life, when there is now, in almost every place, an infant school to which children may be sent as soon as they are able to walk. V.

THE GATHERED FRAGMENTS.

JOHN vi. 12.

"GATHER up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost."