ance.

crasy in journals, that you can't judge of their age from their appearThere are exceptions, of course. Anybody, for instance, could tell that the 'Post' was born in Beau Brummel's time, and people do say that Beau Brummel's ghost edits it to this day. The "Tizer,' again—you could fix to a minute when it passed the grand climacteric-namely, when the Speaker's hour-glass was turned for the Division of 1829: the poor old lady has been wheezing ever since. So the 'Assemblée Nationale' tells its birthday in its name. But, as a rule, a journal has no business with time past. Like the sun, it should be new every day-as new to-day as it was on the first morning of its creation, and now, as then, as ready to do its full appointed work

But even Sol is expected to give some account of himself. Whereever, day after day, has he run his course? Has he tempered the winter, brought forth the spring; lit the flowers stars of the earth;' ripened the fruits? Wherefore? It is the question of existencethat unanswered leaves man as the brutes that perish,' and nature but an unwritten book. We will strive, in few but serious words, to answer it for the course the CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR has run since we last addressed the reader :'

6

1. We trust this Journal has done something to bring a wanderer or two out of Midnight' into 'Dawn.' That we have Doubters amongst those who look over our pages, we know, and we rejoice to know it. Are we saying too much in expressing an opinion that this Journal is the only religious periodical which a doubter would read without offence, with assurance of intended sympathy, and therefore with confidence of help and profit? For without sympathy-aye, and a wiser and tenderer sympathy than is very common to pastors and deacons of Dissenting churches, the doubter can never be helped on his painful way to a loving conviction and knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

2. We have not hesitated to lay bare, though, we trust, it has been with no rough hand, some both of the graver and lighter defects in the inner life of Dissent. The experience of John Paul Churchless' is the experience of thousands, to whom the Almighty has given a God-created intellect, as well as a Christ-loving heart, and who can find in the ordinary teachings of the pulpit nothing on which its fires can feed. Is not pulpit plagiarism' the natural result of such a condition? Are not 6 Fancy Fairs' signs of our vitiated life? 'Modern Fables'-have they told no sad truths? For which do we now most care, the Church' or the 'Cause,' 'Prayer or Prayermeetings,' Religion, or the 'Religious Societies?'

3. Nor have we wilfully neglected one of the most specific functions of the Christian Journalist, to trace 'Religion in History,'' the progress of Theology,' to vindicate the slandered reputations of great teachers, whether dead, like the author of the Moral Philosophy' and the 'Hora Paulinæ,' or living, as the late professor of Biblical Literature in Manchester College; to show the relations of vigorous and healthy life in 'Work and Play,' and to tell of lights in Dark Ages, and in less remote, down to the light of Cambridge and the light of Africa.

4. The broader paths of literature we have sought rather than avoided, and have found them often to yield a freer air than the cloisters can ever boast. Here we have scented of 'Flowers,' gazed on 'Pictures' and 'Sun Pictures,' have gambolled and lived with 'Children;' read all the 'Poetry of the New Year,' and pondered well the Wisdom of the Poets. The names of John Halifax,' 'Richard Baxter,' and 'John Sterling,' with an Invalid's Winter' and the 'Fêtes of Boulogne,' will remind the reader of other wanderings.

What shall we say more? Have we vindicated our right to existence? Have we put forward a valid plea for continued life? and shall we be considered ungracious if we remind our readers that we have now got our Articles' back, and-ahem! that if we are worth any wages, we should be very happy to know what they propose to offer us for the future? Or shall we say nothing about it, but trust to their generosity? We stand before you, gentle reader, and humbly wait your reply! Will ye, or nil ye, having laboured for you these many years, we proffer you our continued love, confidence, and service.

Record of Christian Missions.

WE recollect, some time ago, writing a very few words in disparagement of the Anti-Slavery Society and its work, or rather its idleness. Having nothing to do, and leaning on the credit of its old reputation, it managed to absorb some portion of the sympathies of men, but could never carry those sympathies further than itself. They were not brought to bear either on society or on the State. The association had become a mere absorbent of benevolent feeling, which, but for it, might find a channel of real practical usefulness. This, we think, was the substance of our remarks at that time, and we have now a grave case against the society. The slavetrade and slavery, under the most specious form in which they have been presented to the world, are threatened with an extension which bids fair to balance the reater part of the sacrifices we have made for their extirpation. The rench

Government has put forth what it calls a scheme of African emigration. It proposes to invite the blacks, under special contracts for life service, to leave their own countries, and settle in various parts of the West Indies, and other places where inferior cheap labour is in request. The Daily News' had done something to expose this nefarious proposal; the Anti-Slavery Society, as far as we can learn, has done nothing. A scheme fraught with more danger to the personal liberty of the black races than any that has been proposed since the slave-trade was abolished a scheme that, if carried into operation, will intensify, under the most hypocritical pretences, every horror of the old slave-trade, fails to receive the least notice at its hands.

Looking through the missionary journals this month, we are glad to find that what the Anti-Slavery Society has neglected, one Missionary Society, at least, has taken in hand with a highly commendable spirit of philanthropic enterprise. On hearing of the proposed French scheme, the Rev. Dr. Hoole, corresponding Secretary to the Wesleyan Missionary Society, addressed special inquiries to the missionaries of all stations in the North and West African coasts. We have some of the replies in the current number of the 'Notes.' The majority of the writers appear to have heard little or nothing of the proposal, but give some valuable information regarding the movements of the French Government in those quarters. It is not a little gratifying to find that its efforts have almost entirely failed. Thus Mr. Weatherstone writes from Sierra Leone, under date of August 20th, that in May a French vessel touched at Fernando Po, with between three and four hundred 'emigrants' on board. A French bark had also called at Sierra Leone, offering to take people to the West Indies, but only about twenty-five could be induced to go. In another letter, of later date, the same writer states that the subsequent attempts of the French Government to obtain native emigrants had been a failure. Nothing is communicated from Freetown, but from the Gold Coast, Mr. West, Wesleyan missionary, writes as follows:-'It is evident that the scheme itself can only be regarded as mischievous and calamitous, so far as Africa itself is concerned. By whatever name it may be called, it is, in fact, nothing less than a scheme to legalize the slave-trade, with all the bloodshed and misery connected with that abominable traffic; while its effect on the legitimate commerce, which at present promises so fair to be a blessing to, and a powerful means of promoting the civilization of, the oppressed millions of this ill-fated land, must be either to cripple or destroy it. To call the French scheme a scheme of emigration, is to trifle with language. It is well known to all who know the coast, that, from Liberia to Calabar, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find a free man who would emigrate to the West Indies; and to talk of the slave of an African chief, or of a captive whom he may have taken in war, emigrating, is simply ridiculous. It must be a case of bargain and sale, to all intents and purposes, at least the owners of the poor unfortunate creatures will regard it in no other light.' It is with deep regret that we learn from the letters of the same missionaries of the open and very extensive revival of the old slave-trade. Two slavers had recently been captured; one of them-the Abbot Devereux-Mr. Weatherstone visited. The following is his narrative of what he saw :

'On her arrival here, I went on board to see these poor unfortunate people; and such a disgusting sight I never saw, and never wish to see again. The men

were quite naked, and so were the boys and girls; and the women had nothing but a piece of canvass, which the English sailors had given them, to put round their loins. I went down into the hold, and tried to pass from the main to the fore-hatchway, but could not, the slaves being packed so closely together, and the height between decks being only thirty-three inches. Report says she was destined to take four hundred; but, being alarmed by her Majesty's steamer Teazer she crowded all sail, cut across her bulwarks on either side down to the deck, to give her speed, and threw everything overboard, to lighten her; all to no purpose. How four hundred human beings could be packed in a vessel of such small dimensions, cannot even be imagined; it must certainly have led to the death of many during the middle passage.'

Mr. Weatherstone adds :-' The facilities the foreigners have of obtaining slaves at a low figure from the native chiefs, have actually revived, to a very serious extent, the accursed traffic which is now carried on so profitably with Cuba. Then, on the other hand, there is the trade carried on in canoes from the Sherbro to the north of this colony.'

Mr. Teal, of Freetown, visited the same ship, and conversed with some of the slaves, one of whom told him that 'the king of Dahomi had plenty more slaves in the barracoons, ready to ship when they came away; and that he had ordered them all to be cleared out, and a fresh lot to be procured.' So that this accursed traffic, with all its horrors, and all the barriers it erects to the spread of the gospel, bids fair to spring again into life. Between the Christian emperor and the heathen king, the one being as ready to buy as the other to sell-who shall determine the moral difference?

We take the line laid down for the voyage of the emigrants, and pass from West Africa to the West Indies. We have from one place in this usually pestilential quarter, a place which Englishmen will ever regard with interest, viz., Demerara, two communications. The first is from Mr. Brown, of the Wesleyan Mission. He reports a gratifying, and indeed, as far as outward appearances go, a splendid success of the gospel, but we remember that unstable as water' is the West Indian character, and must, therefore, reluctantly take much from the apparent effect of the intelligence he describes :-'Nearly every week accessions are made to the church, of hopeful members, most of them from among the young. We have, indeed, sometimes to mourn over the apostasy of those who joined the church during the prevalence of cholera, and who were probably influenced, in the step they took, more by terror than any higher motive. We have also lost a considerable number by that fearful pestilence. At Friendship, out of a society of about four hundred, we have lost between fifty and sixty; and at Mahaica eighteen or twenty have been cut down by the destroyer, among whom are three of our leaders. At Victoria and Golden Grove, too, a considerable number have been removed by the same fearful malady. But the loss sustained by these causes has been more than made up by the addition of others from the world. At Mahaica we have had, during the past three months, upwards of sixty added to us, and at most of the other places there has been an increase.'

This is gratifying, but Mr. Brown cautiously adds:-The class among whom we labour in these colonies generally are, to a far greater extent than our people at home, creatures of impulse,-often easily excited by religious truth, but, alas ! also

easily diverted from it; so that they require a more diligent pastoral oversight than would be needful for the same number of persons at home, placed under similar circumstances.'

The other communication is from Mr. Wallbridge, of the London Missionary Society, and appears in the Chronicle,' enclosing 301. from members of his congregation, and others, in aid of Dr. Livingstone's new mission to Central South Africa. He states that his own station would, in all probability, by the close of the present year, realize the position of entire self-support.' We quote this with unusual pleasure, not on account of any relief it may give to the present Society, but for the indication which it affords of the gradually strengthening character of Christian operations in one of the most difficult fields of labour to be found in any quarter of the globe.

Having referred to Dr. Livingstone, we may take advantage of the connexion of his name in this place to direct attention to a letter, recently received from Mr. Moffat by the directors of the London Missionary Society. It appears in the current number of the Chronicle,' and we dare say will be new to most of our readers. We, therefore, quote it almost in extenso. It is dated, 'Kuruman, July 15th

'With regard to your proposal that I should accompany my son John and another young brother, and devote about a twelvemonth of my time and experience in assisting them to establish a mission among the Matabele, I am perfectly willing. No duty can appear plainer. As to Mrs. Moffat, it would be out of the question for her to accompany me at all-her strength being now quite unequal to such an undertaking; she, however, most cordially approves of the measure proposed in the Resolutions, and will consider no sacrifice too great for the accomplishment of an object of such vast importance to the interior tribes. Thus, in the event of the directors succeeding in raising funds (and who can doubt it ?), they may, if I am spared, fully rely on the vigorous exercise of all my faculties, mental and physical. As to my present state, it is such as any one might expect from the nature of the work in which I have been engaged― a head jaded with study and a heart often palpitating with irregularity from much anxiety in labouring to give a correct translation of the sacred volume in the Sechuana language, a work which has involved an amount of application for which I was not prepared. The incurable buzzing in my head still continues, but I have got accustomed to it. I have had exercise and manual labour too, sometimes more than I could have wished, while the translation was in hand, and probably, but for that, I might have broken down altogether before the work was completed. As before stated, I have received important assistance from Mr. Ashton, my colleague, whilst revising the manuscript. The last sheet will be turned off this week, and I think I can say with all my heart, "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" My mind having been kept for such a time on something like a rack, I feel thankful that another spirit-stirring subject will now occupy my fervent thoughts and prayers. I felt a kind of nervous dread of cessation, and, but for what is about to follow, would have devoted all the time spared from public duties to a revision of the New Testament. I had long promised to our native teachers and Sechele that 1 should visit them. I had intended to leave this day for that purpose, but, after much deliberation and prayer for