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this means the preacher addresses three hundred or more slaves instead of one hundred or less. Economy of this kind is absolutely essential where the labour of the missionary is so much needed and demanded.

"On the Lafourcade and Bayou Black Mission-work several chapels are in process of erection, upon a plan which enables the slave, as his master, to make an offering toward building a house of God. Instead of money, the 'hands' subscribe labour. Timber is plenty; many of the servants are carpenters; upon many of the plantations are saw-mills. Here is much material; what hindereth that we should build a church on every tenth plantation? Let us maintain our policy steadily. Time and diligence are required to effect substantial good, especially in this department of labour. Let us continue to ask for buildings adapted to the worship of God, and set apart; to urge, when practicable, the preaching to blacks in the presence of their masters, their overseers, and the neighbours generally."-Southern Advocate.

GOVERNMENT PATRONAGE IN IRELAND.

THE Irish Presbyterians have issued an address complaining that in the distribution of government patronage they are unfairly neglected. They say: "There are twenty-two Episcopalian assistant barristers and one Presbyterian. There are about two thousand Episcopalian magistrates and sixteen Presbyterian. There are sixty thousand children of the Presbyterian church attending the schools of the National Board of Education, and 24,000 of the Church of England; but the latter have six commissioners on the board, and the former only two. In the Queen's colleges, Presbyterian students greatly outnumber those of the Established church, and in the Senate there are ten of the one to two of the other. On the Board of Charitable Bequests there are seven Episcopalians and one Presbyterian, and on all the other boards of a national character the Episcopalians have a number of members and the Presbyterians none."

IMPORTANT CHURCH DECISION.

THE Rochester Union says:-"In the Circuit Court, before Judge Smith, a suit was tried and decided which excited considerable interest, inasmuch as it involved the question whether a man can repudiate a subscription to a church-fund on the ground that a change was made in the ecclesiastical government of the church after he had subscribed. The parties were 'The Trustees of the Lower Falls Presbyterian Church vs. Aristarchus Champion.' The defendant, with others, subscribed $300 to a fund for the erection of a church in School-district No. 7, near the Lower Falls. He disputed his liability to pay the sum subscribed on theological grounds, alleging that his subscription was to be operative on condition that the ecclesiastical form of government of the church should be 'new school.' The church connected itself with the 'old school' organization, and demanded of defendant the amount of his subscription. He declined to pay; hence the suit. The court ruled out the defence, and the jury found a verdict for plaintiff of $329.75."

RELIGIOUS MATTERS IN SPAIN.

IN the Madrid Chambers, on the 23d Feb., Mr. Batles, one of the deputies, demanded why the government, upon the request of the ecclesiastical vicar, had prohibited the circulation of a Bible recently printed at Madrid, the text of which conformed to the approved text? M. Batles prefaced his query by a profession of Catholic faith:-"I was born a Catholic," he said, "and I hope to die in that belief; but, if Protestantism consists in protesting energetically against the numerous vices, the unparalleled excesses, the culpable egotism, the scandalous frauds, the notorious bad faith, the audacious resistance to the laws, the deadly influences of the court of Rome upon Christianity, the abuse of power, the unjust and illegal intrusion of that court in the rights and privileges of nations and monarchs,-if Protestantism consists in denouncing the shameless and criminal disobedience to the constituted authorities, preached without ceasing, and to-day with more scandal than ever, by a great number of ecclesiastics, I declare boldly that I am a Protestant, and I am certain that my opinion is shared by all good Catholics who desire the triumph of the cross and the propagation of the doctrine of Christ throughout the nations of the earth."

The Minister of the Interior having admitted the fact denounced by M. Batles, and having attempted to justify it by an unrepealed law of 1820, expressed himself in these terms:-"There was no need for M. Batles, in making his interpellation, to deliver such a speech. There was no necessity to accumulate grave charges against all the ministers of the church, and against the Roman pontiff, visible head of the church of Jesus Christ, and temporal sovereign.-(Violent murmurs of dissent.)— These murmurs will not prevent me from expressing my opinions. These interruptions come not from the Spanish nation, eminently Catholic. A minister of Isabella II., Catholic Queen of Spain, cannot allow any one to insult, without a pretext, the chief of the religion which the Spanish people profess. How can he do otherwise, when without provocation, without authority, and so inopportunely, a deputy allows himself to outrage, in the midst of parliament, the chief of the Catholic church? What! representatives of the Constituent Assembly, have you forgotten so soon your vote declaring the religious unity of the Spanish nation? Do you wish to give your enemies the pretext of saying, as it already has been said, that your constitution does not ratify this unity? Even if you had voted the toleration of other religious worship, it would be none the less improper to censure the chief of a religion which has civilized Europe."

These remarks of the minister gave little satisfaction, especially as they were supposed to indicate an approaching resumption of the former intimate relations between Spain and the court of Rome.

MISSIONARY LABOURS IN THE PACIFIC.

ON the islands of the Pacific, comprising the Sandwich, the Fejee, and Friendly Islands, New Zealand, and the various groups occupied by the London Missionary Society, there are connected with the London, the Church, the Wesleyan, and the American Missionary Societies, 119 missionaries, 45,929 communicants, 239,900 professed Protestants, and

54,708 scholars. Connected with the Protestant missions in India there are 443 missionaries, 18,410 communicants, and 112,191 professed Protestants; showing that to each missionary in India there is an average of 253 professed Protestants and 41 communicants, while in the Pacific each missionary has an average of more than 2000 professed Protestants and 385 communicants.

THE SULTAN'S VISIT TO LORD STRATFORD'S BALL.

As the Sultan proceeded to the Embassy, the priests howled, shrieked, and wrung their hands in despair at the disgrace which had befallen the successor of their prophet. At length, unable to restrain their frantic rage, the priesthood, en masse, went to Scutari, and burned down the quarters of the 13th regiment.-Morning Advertiser.

PRAYERS TO NOAH!

THE following article appeared some months ago in the Semaine Religieuse, (religious weekly,) a French journal, under the heading of "Prayers to Noah:"

"Tuscany, like all lands of the vineyard, has experienced for several years much calamity from the odium, or vine disease. To combat this pest, the Archbishop of Florence has composed a collection of eighty-five prayers. In view of the special object of these prayers, they are not addressed to God, but to Noah.

"Most holy patriarch Noah,' says one of them, among others, 'you who were employed, during the course of your long life, in planting the vine, and in gratifying humanity by the precious liquor which quenches our thirst, nourishes and renders cheerful all, cast your eyes upon our vines, which, after your example, we have up to this time cultivated, and, seeing them languish and wretched by the effect of the devastating pest, which, before their ripening, destroys the fruits, in severe punishment for so many blasphemies and other enormous sins which we have committed; be moved by compassion towards us, and prostrated before the high throne of God, who has promised his sons the fecundity of the earth and the abundance of corn and the vine, pray to him in our favour, promise to him in our name that, with the assistance of his grace, we shall quit the road of vice and sin, and that we shall scrupulously respect the holy law, and that of our holy mother, the Catholic church.'

"The ninth prayer is directed to the Virgin :

"Address yourself, O Mary! to your well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in repeating to him, as at the marriage of Cana:-They have no more wine;' and may He who, at your demand, worked the wonderful prodigy of changing water into wine, renew this miracle in curing our grapes of the malady which consumes them,' etc.

"The prayer-book is ornamented with a vignette which represents Noah presiding at the operations of the vintage, and contains the archbishop's counsel, allowing forty days of indulgence to those who shall devoutly recite the prayers in question."

Statistics.

GIRARD COLLEGE.

FROM the annual report of the Directors of Girard College we glean some interesting facts. The appropriations to the college, and expenditures, last year, were as follows:

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The following statement shows the occupations to which the pupils have been placed:

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The number of pupils in the institution is as follows:-
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In the principal department.......

In the primary school, No. 1...

In the primary school, No. 2.

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119

313

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Of the whole number, 300 were born in Philadelphia, and 13 in other places.

RAILWAY EXTENSION IN RUSSIA.

ONE of the most striking evidences of the pacific turn taken of late by the Russian press is afforded by the Northern Bee of February 1, containing a long article devoted to foreign commerce, and more especially to the construction of railways in Russia as a means to the development of the former. Among the lines the Court Journal considers most important and pressing for immediate construction are-1. The line from Moscow, by way of Toula, Orel, Koursk, Kharkoff, Pultowa, and Krementschug, to Odessa; (this line has been already decided on by the government, and the necessary surveys are about to be made;) 2. A branch line from Moscow to Saratow, (on the Wolga;) and, 3. Another branch line from Orel to Witebsk, by way of Smolensk. The construction of this latter would open up the corn countries in the southeastern governments of Orel, &c., and convey their produce to the Baltic at the

port of Riga, for the Northern Bee lays it down as an indispensable condition of the concession of this line to be made to any company, that it should undertake to make the Duna (Dwina) navigable, both up and down the stream, and also dredge out the Dnieper and make it navigable from Smolensk to Rogatschew. Further, a communication would be opened with the Black Sea by means of the railroad from Moscow to Odessa, and with the Caspian Sea by way of the Moscow Railroad to Saratow. In all cases the river-navigation is calculated upon as ancillary to this railway ramification; the Dwina, the Dnieper, the Oka, and the Wolga, are all to be made serviceable in the bearing of rich burdens of grain either from one part of the empire to another, or from the empire of Russia to the States of the famishing West. Without for the present thinking of foreign commerce, it appears that neighbouring governments in Russia itself are hadly enough in want of means of communication; in Mohilew, Smolensk, Witebsk, Pskow, and others near them, dearth is said to be the normal state, while in others-Tamboff, for instance there is a superfluity of grain. In the latter the price is fifteen copecks, in the former eighteen silver roubles. But where is help to come from, in the way of capital and skill, to build these railroads? For the present the eyes of Russia are directed for the gratification of these desires to the friendly United States of America; but whenever peace has been concluded we may be sure that English and French capital will be as welcome there as German skill has ever been.

EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN RUSSIA.

THE Almanac published by the Academy of Science of St. Petersburg, for 1856, furnishes the following interesting details respecting intellectual progress in Russia. There are in the empire, exclusive of Poland and the Caucasus, 2410 educational establishments dependent on the Minister of Public Instruction, 4130 students in the universities and other establishments, and 122,553 pupils in the gymnasia and secondary institutions. These figures, however, do not convey a complete idea of the number of scholars receiving instruction, as there exist also several private, special, or primary establishments, dependent on different administrations. As, for instance, there are

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For female education................

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6,965

In the villages of the crown peasants...................................................................................... 2,949

170,575

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299

53,930

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516,374

7,502

Thus, upwards of half a million of individuals are instructed in the government establishments, exclusive of the great numbers brought up at home.

PENNSYLVANIA COAL.

ELABORATE Statistics of the quantity of anthracite coal sent to market during the last year from the Pennsylvania coal regions are published. The aggre gate amount for several years is shown by the following:—

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