peared that twelve schools had been received into the Union during the year, nine of which were new schools, and had been assisted with grants of books. The number of schools now in the Union is 162, with 3,606 gratuitous teachers, and 13,480 children, and 121 adult scholars. In Hull there are 22 schools, 676 teachers, 3,384 children, and 121 adults, on the books. The average attendance in the morning is 2,053, and in the afternoon 2,495. There are 22 libraries, 10 select classes, 303 teachers were formerly scholars, 513 teachers are members of Christian churches, and 32 persons have been admitted into these churches during the year who were formerly scholars in the schools. In the country there are connected with the Union 140 schools, containing 2,930 teachers, and 10,096 scholars; the average attendance in the morning 7,808, and afternoon 7,777; 95 of the schools have libraries; 14 select classes for elder children, 1,153 teachers were formerly scholars, 1,605 teachers are members of churches, and 134 scholars have joined the churches during the year. From the depository during the year have been issued 29,120 publications, including the extraordinary number of 1,266 bibles and 2948 testaments, also 165 library books. Grants to the amount of £7 2s. had been made in books, including donations for Canada and emigrant children from this port. The quarterly prayer meetings have been better attended than formerly; various interesting extracts from the reports of individual schools were read. The treasurer's account exhibited receipts amounting to £457 17s. 4d., of which £21 3s. were subscriptions, £6 16s. 6d. collections, and £429 17s. 10d. from the depository. The balance due to the treasurer is £40 13s. 1d. Addresses were delivered by the Rev. Thos. Stratten, Mr. Riggall, Rev. E. Morley, Rev. J. B. Pike, of Newbury; Rev. W. Sanderson, Mr. J. G. Kidd, Rev. Newman Hall, and several others, including a gentleman from Manchester, superintendent of a Wesleyan Sunday School of 500 children, who testified to the falsehood of the data upon which the educational clauses of the factory bill are founded. A very strong and unanimous feeling against all the clauses of the bill which affect the civil and religious liberties of the poor was expressed by all the speakers, and the meeting at large.

Leeds. The Rev. Thomas Todd, M.A., is about to remove from St. Peter's, in this town, to Holy Trinity Church, Manchester. His congregation, and his brethren the clergy, have presented to him various tokens of their high respect. The teachers of the Sunday School presented a handsomely embroidered surplice with stole and bands. It was accompanied by a very suitable address from H. Hall, Esq., at the farewell tea party held on Tuesday, April 25th.

London.-SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION.-The annual meeting of this noble institution was held in Exeter Hall on Thursday, May 4th, the Right Honorable Lord Morpeth in the chair. The meeting was one of unusual interest. The indignation expressed against the projected Factory Bill, with its insulting amendments, was perfect. We regret our inability to give even an abridged outline of the addresses delivered, but we advise our readers to procure them, as they will be published by the Parent Society. The sales of the society had fallen off from the preceding year above seven hundred pounds. This has been occasioned by the distress of the manufacturing districts. The receipts of the benevolent fund were £1474 10s. 74d. The operations of the society, both at home and abroad, had been marked by their usual benevolence. We rejoice to find that the vast assembly applauded the determined efforts of the committee against the odious Education Bill now before Parliament.

THE Husbandman belongs to a privileged class of the population in China. In importance, immunity and honour, he is next to the Mandarin and the man of letters, and from the remotest antiquity, his avocation has been styled "The grand science of the citizen and of the prince.' The great maxim of the government has been that agriculture is the true source of national prosperity and wealth, and, keeping this principle in view, they have in practice afforded every possible encouragement and security to the cultivators

H

of the soil. Even the Emperor himself, the Son of heaven,' thinks it not beneath him once a year to be a tiller of the ground, for on the arrival of spring-time, he repairs in splendid pomp to a piece of land, marked out for the purpose, attended by his suite of officers, and after prostrating himself on the ground nine times, in a prayer prepared by the Court of Ceremonies he invokes the benediction of Tien, the God of heaven, on the industry of himself and of his subjects. Then as the High Priest of the Empire, he sacrifices a bullock, during the offering of which a plough, drawn by a pair of oxen, and richly ornamented, is brought to the Emperor, who, throwing aside the robes of majesty, puts his hand to the plough, and, in the presence of his princes, mandarins, and peasantry, opens up a few ridges of land, and casts in the first seed of the season,-a ceremony which is performed on the same day by the viceroys of the different provinces throughout the kingdom.

Perhaps two thirds of the inhabitants of China are employed in the manual labours of the field, and, without exaggeration, they may be spoken of as the happiest and the most independent of the nation, for although they pay to the amount of a tenth annually to the Emperor, they have neither priesthood, nor poor to support, unless the poor of their own families, for whom all classes are bound to provide. The monarch is the universal Emperor of the soil, and the tithe exacted from it is the whole rent paid by the farmer. But though the cultivator is thus in a manner tenant at will, he is never disturbed in his possession, so long as he continues to pay his land-tax, and he has the power of letting out any part or the whole, if he pleases, to another.' By this means the lands are almost equally divided among the growers of grain, and there are no immense farmers or monopolizers of produce who can command the market, while they exclude others of less capital and enterprize. Of the extent of land brought under culture it is impossible for us to speak with precision, but from the latest census published by order of the government, it appears that there are about 640,576,381 English acres under proper tillage, the greatest part of which is devoted to the production of food for man alone. In China,' observes Mr. Medhurst, the natives make no use of butter or cheese, and very seldom of milk; the principal animal food is pork, which is generally home-fed; they have few horses for travelling, pomp, or war; and the only cattle they keep are such as are needed in husbandry; hence there

are no grazing farms, no meadows, and very little pasture; while every acre of ground capable of cultivation is turned up by the spade or plough in order to afford sustenance for the teeming inhabitants. A common is quite unusual throughout the eastern half of China; while parks and pleasure grounds are proportionably scarce, as the anxiety to satisfy the appetite prevails over the desire for amusement.' * * Against the eating of beef the Chinese have a strong prejudice, not so much on account of religious scruples, as because oxen are used in husbandry, and they think it a shame, after a poor animal has been labouring all his life in their service to cut him to pieces at last, and then to feed upon his flesh, and make shoes of his hide!'-Hence in some of the Buddhistic tracts, which are sold far and wide throughout the empire by begging ped-. lars and priests, we have the picture of a cow, which is supposed to represent the lowing tribe, and to set forth their complaints in a ballad, commencing and closing with the following lines :—

'Please, noble sir, hearken to my tale, and all my complaints.

In the wide world, none has sorrow like the poor cow:

Through spring, summer, fall and winter, driven to my utmost strength;

My bitter woes, through the live-long year, see not a day's respite.

The plough yoke upon my back, a thousand catties strong;

The hide whip's ten thousand strokes my back and heart provoke,
With vile and brutal words, a thousand times I'm urged;"

Their hooting sounds, and my forc'd steps, unceasing, never rest.

*

*

*

Those who sell me are never the richer,

Those who eat me are never the fatter,

*

Those who kill me certes they're not good,

They take my skin and stretch it on a drum to beat,

And at the din the sprites and ghosts of earth do quake.

Pray look at these, who think and plan, such wickedness to do,

In a coming life, and I've my wish, they'll all be ploughmen's cows.'

The great staple article of food is rice, of which there are two crops annually, but besides this, in some districts, the Chinese agriculturist cultivates barley, maize, millet, wheat, peas, beans, and other garden vegetables not indigenous to Europe. In the culture of the first mentioned article, which is their staff of life, the growers display great industry and ingenuity in their system of irrigation, and their economy of the limpid fluid,' which is indispensable to its produce.

Besides their canals and artificial rivulets, which intersect every part of the Empire, they dig reservoirs to catch the rain or the water that may descend from the upper lands, and this they distribute by means of wheels, levers, chainpumps, swinging buckets, and by other hydraulic machines, worked by the hands or feet, and sometimes by a buffalo. On their implements of husbandry, much praise cannot be

expended. The plough is very simple in structure, and is inferior to the worst of ours fifty years ago. Even their best plough does not turn up the earth to the depth of more than six inches, so that new soil is never reached, and being worn out, the mould requires the addition of an immense quantity of manure, in the procuring of which the Chinese are astonishingly industrious, for "among this extraordinary people even the hair of the human head and the shavings of the beard are collected and preserved for the purposes of agriculture. Every barber-a numerous body in China, where all the head being shaved, except a lock behind, few men have dexterity enough to shave themselves-is always provided with a small bag in which he carefully deposits the locks and shavings he cuts off, which are indeed considered excellent manure. According to the missionaries, they cut off the bristles and even shave their swine, the hair of which is esteemed most valuable for giving strength and vigour to their rice lands. 'In short,' as Mr. Barrow remarks, 'It may be literally said in this country, that nothing is permitted to be lost."

ووو

OUTLINES OF A LECTURE, BY THE REV. JOHN TODD. Delivered to the Teachers of New York, on January 26th.

[From our American Correspondent.]

Mr. T. said that it is difficult to find new topics for discussion concerning the duties of Sunday School Teachers, and he said this, in order that his audience should not be disappointed, if they did not hear any original startling propositions or thoughts upon this interesting subject. The Bible works by continued impressions, and not by great and wonderful movements, and from its constant action produces great results. Great sermons do not always produce the greatest results, and to expect their influence to be permanent, would be as rational as to expect that eating one great meal would last for a whole season. Society cannot be revolutionized by one great effort; the change must be effected by continued impressions. It is thus in the operations of the Spirit of God; there has been but one Pentecost-its operations are like the gentle dew which falls around, almost unseen and unnoticed, but which exhibits its power in its glorious effects.

This principle is beautifully manifested in the Sabbath school. Mind is matured slowly, and the Sabbath school retains the pupils from year to year, brings them under the