The Rev. J. T. Baylee, the indefatigable Secretary of the Lord's Day Observance Society, has in readiness for the press a History of

the Sabbath, which aims at combining brevity and comprehensiveness, and embraces recent events in this country and on the Continent.

RAPID GROWTH OF CANADA.-In the Eastern hemisphere States are the growth of centuries; in the Western hemisphere they spring into existence with a rapidity which keeps pace with the growth of individual man. A thousand years after the Saxon conquest we find England just beginning to emerge from barbarism and to become powerful. It was only in the age of Columbus and Vespucius that the Spanish kingdoms, after eight centuries of internal strife, coalesced into a mighty monarchy. It was not till the reign of William and Mary in Britain that Prussia was elevated to the dignity of a kingdom, and numbered among the great Powers of the earth. In America, however, the case is other wise. Here populous States suddenly appear in regions which a little while before were overshadowed by the forest and ruled by the Indian. On the shores of the Pacific, California, which is now a powerful republic, was, less than twenty years ago, a lonely wilderness, and, at the opening of the nineteenth century, hardly one of those opulent and prosperous commonwealths existed that adorn in our days the banks of the Mississippi and her tributaries. Nor is it alone in that part of the American continent which is under the dominion of the United States' Government that communities spring up and prosper with a rapidity utterly unknown in Europe. Even in that portion of our western world which is still in colonial dependency, there may be found instances of progress in material wealth and wellbeing which almost rival anything in that line that democratic America can exhibit, Canada will serve as an example of what they have been doing for the last quarter of a century beyond the St. Lawrence and the Lakes. Canada East, or French Canada, has been long settled; but the settlement of Canada West, or British Canada, has been comparatively recent. As it is from the enterprise of the latter, however, that the progress and prosperity of the whole have almost altogether sprung, we shall mark the growth of the

In

Western province ere we proceed to illustrate that of the entire colony. The first and great essential to the improvement of a country is population. Without men to till the land and develop its natural powers, it must remain unproductive and valueless, no matter what may be its fertility and capabilities. Accordingly, we find that immigration and increase of population preceded and produced, in the case of the Canadas, that improvement and prosperity which have so much surprised economists and statisticians. In 1829, Western Canada was sparsely and thinly populated. Its whole population, at that period, numbered only 196,000. In 1854, however, the number of its inhabitants was widely different-it then amounted to 1,327,600-a very tolerable increase in the short space of twenty-five years. But if the population of Western Canada increased greatly in the abovenamed period, the real and personal estate of its people still more increased. 1829, the total assessable property of that province was estimated at only £2,500,000; whereas, in 1854, it amounted to no less a sum than £50,000,000, exclusive of the value of public lands, public timber, and minerals. Nothing, however, tends more to illustrate the rapid growth of this province than the difference between its exports of wheat in 1838 and in 1852. In 1838 the quantity of wheat exported from Canada West amounted to only 296,620 bushels; in 1852 the quantity exported from the same province reached the comparatively enormous amount of 5,496,718 bushels, being an increase of more than eighteenfold in the brief period of fourteen years. We shall now proceed to illustrate the commercial and industrial progress of the two provinces of universal Canada, by contrasting the amount of their imports and exports in 1834 and in 1853. The amount of a nation's exports and imports is an excellent criterion by which to judge of the extent of its business and the greatness of its wealth. Let us gauge the prosperity and well-being of Canada by this test; in 1834 the sum total of

her exports and imports amounted to but -£2,082,567; in 1853 they reached the sum of £13,945,684, which was nearly seven times their amount in the former period. The commerce and wealth of Canada must have consequently increased nearly sevenfold, according to our criterion, in the short term of nineteen years! From all these facts it is evident that our brethren beyond the Lakes and St. Lawrence have not been slumbering and idling in these latter days; and that in population, agriculture, commerce, and opulence, the growth of Canada has been unprecedentedly rapid and vigorous for a colony and province.-New-York Times.

A MIRAGE LANDSCAPE.-We passed, on the left of our route, the large and populous villages of Harista and Duma, and at the end of three hours emerged from the gardens and orchards. We felt the loss of the agreeable shade and cool air; but we did not regret them, owing to the extent and beauty of the prospect that now opened up to us. On our left rose abruptly the steep and naked declivities of Anti-Lebanon, deeply furrowed by the beds of winter torrents, and here and there laid open by yawning ravines. In front was the lofty hill called Jebel Tinlyeh, cone-shaped, like Tabor, but completely destitute of verdure; while far away to the east and south stretched the vast plain-eastward reaching to the horizon, but on the south bounded by the blue mountains of Bashan. At four hours, we had the village of Adhr'a about half an hour distant to the north-east: at this point we turned nearly due north, and began to ascend diagonally the lower slopes of the mountain-range. The view over the plain now became almost inconceivably lovely. Its beauty was enhanced, and in a great measure created, by a cause, the magic operation of which can only be fully understood by the eastern traveller. Lakes of great extent, whose shores were fringed with gigantic reeds and graceful poplars, seemed almost to cover the plain. Numerous islands studded their surface, clothed with verdant groves whose foliage quivered in the gentle breeze that rippled the surface of the water. Villages, too, occupied peninsulas, or were perched upon islands, and encompassed by their luxuriant gardens and orchards. It was altogether a picture such as I had never before gazed upon; but there was no reality in it-it was the MIRAGE.-Five Years in Damascus.

THE CRIMEA IN OLDEN TIMES. -Whatever difficulty may attend the geo

graphy of Homer, there can be but little doubt that the Crimea was before his mental eye when he described Cimmeria, the neighbouring cannibals, and the oneeyed monsters, the tradition of whose existence in Scythia was strong, five hundred years later, and finds its place in the narrative of the father of Greek history. From the Phoenician merchants, as they fled from these inhospitable coasts at the approach of winter, he heard of the tempests that swept over the sea, the impenetrable fogs, and frequent shipwrecks, of the eight months' gloom of winter, and of hordes inaccessible to pity, who were a terror to the mariner, and whose character was shortly and not pleasantly summed up by the Greek geographer, some thousand years later, as being "murderers of strangers, cannibals, and using skulls for their drinking-cups." From them too he heard of that land-locked bay, which travellers identify with the little port of Balaklava, poetically called by the ancients, Borea antrum, "the cavern of Boreas," and which he thus depicted :"Within a long recess a bay there lies,

:

Edged round with cliffs, high pointing to the skies;

The jutting shores that dwell on either side
Contract its mouth, and break the rushing tide,
Our eager sailors seize the fair retreat,
And bound within the port their crowded fleet:
For here retired the sinking billows sleep,
And smiling calmness silvers o'er the deep."
Odyss. i., 101-108.

And yet the bright fancy of the Greeks made this dismal coast the scene of one of the most beautiful of its many tales. The rugged cliff between Sebastopol and Balaklava is the scene of that touching tale of the friendship of Pylades and Orestes, which forms the subject of one of Euripides' tragedies, "The Iphigenia in Tauris," and has been reproduced in almost every civilized tongue.

Whatever may have been the actual truth or fiction involved in the tale, there was at least signified by it, as Gibbon remarks, the humanizing influence of Greek intercourse on the Scythian barbarians of the Crimea. While the Athenians, in their beautiful and glorious city, melted at the tale of their poet, the moral of the tale was not lost for centuries among the Scythians, but the inviolability of friendship was ever observed by them with religious fidelity. The poet Ovid heard the story from the lips of a Sarmatian; and the Oresteum with its frescoes, representing the affecting contest of the two friends, was standing in the days of Lucian. It was near that spot now occupied by the monastery of St. George, on the promon

tradition has consecrated one of the best sympathies of the human heart, and exercised so great an influence on the civilized life of nations.—Anthony Grant, D.C.L.

tory of the same name, between the English and the French camps; and many a traveller has visited, with almost the reverence of devotion, that spot whose

Amid the noblest of the land

Men lay the sage to rest,

And give the bard an honour'd place,
With costly marble dress'd,

In the great minster-transept,

Where lights like glories fall;

And the choir sings and the organ rings Along the' emblazon'd wall.

This was the bravest warrior

That ever buckled sword; This the most gifted poet

That ever breathed a word; And never earth's philosopher Traced with his golden pen

On the deathless page truth half so sage As he wrote down for men.

And had he not high honour ?

The hill-side for his pall,

To lie in state while angels wait
With stars for tapers tall;

And the dark rock-pines like tossing plumes

Over his bier to wave,

And God's own hand, in that lonely land,
To lay him in the grave.

In that deep grave without a name,
Whence his uncoffin'd clay
Shall break again-most
thought!-

wondrous

Before the judgment-day;
And stand, with glory wrapp'd around,
On the hills he never trod,

And speak of the strife that won our life
With the Incarnate Son of God.

O lonely tomb in Moab's land!
O dark Beth-peor's hill !
Speak to these curious hearts of ours,
And teach them to be still
God hath His mysteries of grace,

Ways that we cannot tell;

He hides them deep like the secret sleep Of him He loved so well.

SWEDEN. BISHOP

THOMANDER AND HIS FIRST PASTORAL.-There is a peril in speaking or writing anything to the praise of another frail mortal, a fellow-sinner, during his life-time. But, on the other hand, it is very pleasant, now and then, to trace the good which that same grace of God effects through some such frail mortal, and how it shines through the perishable vessel. This pleasure has probably been felt by many on realing the pastoral letter which has lately been written to the Clergy of the diocese of Lund, in Sweden, by their new Bishop, Dr. John Her ry Thomander, or, as he has been called, by one who knew him well, "the Swedish Dr. Chalmers."

Before introducing part of this letter to our English readers, some words about the writer may not be out of place. He alludes himself to his having been brought up in much poverty. He was a sickly child, not expected to live. An aged relative used to take him to church three times every Sunday, which made him fairly tired of hearing sermons, and almost gave him a distaste for the word of God. Notwithstanding, at the age of twelve, he began himself to preach, whenever he found himself alone in some garret or other out-of-the-way place. Many circumstances connected with his early history are exceedingly interesting, but personal delicacy forbids touching upon them. As a youth, he soon showed signs of superior talent, and rose in degree at the University till he became Professor of Theology.

Such was his position in life when he was first seen by the writer of these lines. He used to come to the English service in the Wesleyan chapel at Stockholm, to hear Mr. Scott. His striking appearance, and the marked attention with which he listened to the Preacher, excited curiosity. On inquiry, he was found to be Professor Thomander, already known as a distinguished writer on various subjects, and then in Stockholm at the Diet as representative of the University of Lund. He soon became known as a powerful

Preacher; and, ever since, his name has been enough to fill the largest churches in the capital, when he has occasionally been preaching there.

The writer has heard him when some two or three thousand people have been hanging, as it were, in breathless suspense on his words. Such an occasion was a Missionary sermon preached in the largest church in the city, on the evening of Twelfth-day, 1845. Not only was every sitting occupied, but every inch of standing-ground where he possibly could be heard. The pressure of the crowd was great; but the interest felt seemed to be greater, for the most perfect silence reigned throughout the venerable old church, among the thousands who were listening. The text was from Isaiah lx.: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee;" &c.

The writer has met with many who, like herself, remember what they heard that evening, as one of the most sublime effusions of eloquence that ever reached their ears. Magnificent as were his sermons in those days, it is pleasant to be able to add, that, as the Preacher has advanced in age and in Christian experience, he has become more and more simply evangelical.

At the time above alluded to, the revival in Sweden had begun, though it was proceeding slowly, and mostly among the lower and middling classes. The "readers" began to be talked of. Wherever they were mentioned in his presence, Professor Thomander was sure to take their part, + and openly showed that he scorned not to associate with them. If anyone made a remark on this extraordinary conduct, he would answer, "I am one of them: do not you know that I am a reader?" It was mostly looked upon as a joke. The world would not believe that a man of so much genius could be one of so despised a class. His boldness in avowing his sentiments has always been one of his characteristics. Diet after Diet he has stood on the side of liberty and toleration in every depart

ment, but more especially in that to which he more immediately belongs.* He has fought for years against the Conventicle Act, and most relentlessly assailed it on all its weak sides. It has been told, that after one desperate but unsuccessful struggle in the House of the Clergy, some years ago, when he wished to have this law abolished, or at least altered, he said, after their decision to keep it as it had been, "Well, gentlemen, good bye for to-day: I have the honour to tell you that I mean, this evening, to go to a conventicle at the house of Mr. B."

On several occasions he has shown his catholicity of mind in a way which, in Sweden especially, has been very striking. When the before-mentioned Wesleyan chapel was built, the part of it destined for the English service was opened by Dr. Baird, from America, who happened to be in Stockholm; and when the larger chapel, intended for the Swedish service, was ready, Dr. Thomander preached the first sermon, from 1 Cor. i. 12, and some following verses.

During the time of the persecution against Mr. Scott, previous to his leaving the country, Dr. Thomander never failed in showing him the same friendship and esteem. On one occasion Mr. Scott, from delicacy of feeling, parted from him, on leaving a house where they had been together. "Are we not going the same way?" asked Dr. Thomander. "Yes, Doctor; but I thought it might harm you to be seen walking with me in the streets." This was enough to make him take Mr. Scott's arm, and walk with him much farther than he otherwise would have done. +

In 1850, Dr. Thomander was called by the town of Gothenburg to be its Dean. There he has had new churches built, and several measures taken for the Christian instruction of the people. He has been brought a good deal into association with the English and Scotch families resident there, and has several times, with seeming pleasure, adverted to their readiness to join in such benevolent measures. This year he has been called to a still more important part. The bishopric of Lund being vacant, the

Clergy of the diocese had to choose three candidates, one of whom the King was to nominate Bishop. Dr. Thomander was first on the list, and was appointed to fill this most important calling. It is so specially at this time; for in his diocese, which comprehends the province of Scane, the richest and best-populated province in the country, as well as that of Blekinge, known for its beauty and the quick but excitable race by which it is inhabited, some of the most remarkable religious movements are taking place. With the students of the University of Lund he has always been a favourite, and they will certainly hail his return to them with enthusiasm.

And now that the poor student of former days is come to take up his abode in the Bishop's palace on Helgonabacken, § and, instead of preaching to the empty walls of the garret, will have to proclaim the Gospel in the fine old Cathedral of Lund, would it not be interesting, even to English readers, to know what such a man, in a country like Sweden, and in a time like this, has to say to his Clergy, when he addresses them for the first time after entering on his important and responsible office?

Pastoral Letter. This begins as follows:

"An humble fellow-labourer, never despised by you from the days that saw him grow up among you in poverty, salutes you, dear brethren, wishing you the grace and peace of God, now that, after a short absence, on your renewed call, and through the magnanimous confidence shown him by his Sovereign, he again enters your consecrated and beloved circle. Grace and peace we all are in want of; he ought best to have observed how indispensable they are to him. In common we hold a responsible calling. His account will be the heaviest in that his precedence consists.

"The Swedish Church is at present in a position hitherto unheard of. From the time that an evangelical church began to exist in this country, no such decided and extensive movements and separations have taken place within her as at the present. The subjects in question are mostly the same as they

§ A Park outside the town of Lund.