are to consider this rule as binding upon you, and all foreign missionaries in our connection. We wish you to be at the remotest distance from all temptations to a secular or mercenary temper. 'No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath called him to be a soldier.' Independently of the moral and religious considerations which enforce this principle, we here take occasion to remind you, that all your time and energies should be the more sacredly devoted to the duties of your mission, because the committee feel themselves fully pledged to pay an affectionate attention to all your wants, and to afford them every reasonable and necessary supply. And this pledge, they doubt not, the generosity of the friends of missions will, from time to time, enable them to redeem, so long as you continue to regulate your expenses by as much of conscientious regard to economy as may be found to consist with your health and comfort, and with the real demands of the work of God."

F.-p. 20.

As the author entertains a great respect for the Rev. Mr. Le Brun (the missionary of the London Society), he can intend no disparagement of his ministry or character, by this slighting allusion to his chapel, which is the lower floor of a store, used as a school during the week, and presents, indeed, no attraction of coolness, neatness, or sanctity, and is, in fact, as little inviting as possible. He believes that Mr. Le Brun would rejoice, if the slaves could be brought within the sphere of his ministry, and on every occasion that an opening has presented itself, he has been desirous to take advantage of it; his labours, however, have been limited by circumstances, and are chiefly confined to a small congregation of free coloured people at Port Louis, and another ten miles distant, and to the superintendance of a considerable school for children of the same class. As one proof of the good effect of his ministry, the instance of a female slave may be adduced:-this person

had assiduously attended the chapel for three years, and with evident increase of religious knowledge and personal happiness; and the fact that her master (who had at first shown some aversion to her attendance at the chapel) during that period gave her her freedom, justifies the conclusion, that her moral conduct had "adorned the doctrine" she had received. After an attendance of two years, she expressed a desire to partake of the Communion, but a compliance with her wishes was delayed by the prejudices of the free coloured people, and perhaps by the constitution of the Independent Church; a few months the ago poor woman sickened and died. Mr. Le Brun, at the master's request, visited her in her illness, and was highly gratified to find her mind in a state of tranquillity and Christian hope; he officiated at her interment, which was attended by her master and his household; her master was also present at a funeral sermon preached on the occasion, and there is reason to believe he has encouraged his slaves to attend the chapel.

As the respectable gentleman alluded to is a Catholic, it may be supposed the conviction was strong that led him to act in this manner; but the inhabitants of the Mauritius are not bigoted, and though their prejudices have been strong against missionaries (and perhaps have not subsided), they have been caused more by their supposed connection with the emancipators in England, than by any spirit of impiety or religious bigotry. Let missionaries be sent—such as we have attempted to describe, and they will soon conquer prejudice, and be estimated as they deserve.

G.-p. 26.

As an instance of the exaggerated tone of feeling which has sometimes been indulged by good men on the subject of slavery, the excellent Cowper may be cited, who has not hesitated to declare that

"Patience itself is meanness in a slave !”

A more direct contradiction, both in spirit and in the letter, to the apostolical precept can hardly be imagined. The exhortation of St. Peter to slaves is, "Be subject to your

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masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but "also to the froward: for this is thank-worthy if a man "for conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully; for what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently? but if when ye "do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently; this is "acceptable with God."-(1 Peter, ii. 18-20.) And again, when the poet further adds, what may be taken as a hint for Maroons

"Wait for the dawning of a brighter day,

"And snap the chain the moment when you may;"

he seems in as great opposition with another apostle. St. Paul says nothing to slaves about snapping the chain; but after exhorting every man to abide in the same calling wherein he was called," adds, "Art thou called, being a "slave, care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use "it rather." It will be allowed, there is some little difference between the slave being made free and snapping the chain himself. And was not the example of the apostle in harmonious agreement with his doctrine ? Having converted the runaway slave Onesimus, as a proof on the part of his "convert of penitent humility, and on his own of impartial

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equity, he sends him back to his master, Philemon.” He would gladly have retained his affectionate services, to have "ministered unto him in the bonds of the Gospel;" but "rectitude with St. Paul was always the prevailing principle" -his zeal for his convert, and a regard for his own conscience, " never made him lose sight of the duty of restitution." Both the slave and the master owed their salvation to him, both were members of the Christian Church,——— yet he does not hint at severing the civil tie that connected them, or dissolving their relative situation by any imaginary

theory of the "Rights of Man," or the abstract injustice of slavery. Doubtless the tenour of his parting admonition to Onesimus was similar to this, "Let as many slaves (dovño)

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as are under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all "honour; that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let "them not despise them, because they are brethren, but rather "do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, par"takers of the benefit.”—(Tim. vi., 1 & 2.) And then pouring forth his affectionate heart in a fervent recommendation of the penitent slave, and committing him in a strain of the most touching pathos to the Christian benevolence of his master, he leaves him un-emancipated! We know that, on account of "the hardness of their hearts," the Jews were permitted some relaxations of the perfect moral law, which the uncompromising purity of the Christian dispensation has entirely rescinded; and therefore, in justification of the continuance of slavery, we would never allege the authority of Moses, or the example of God's chosen people; but, if there were that inherent impiety and moral turpitude in the system which the unmeasured statements of many good men seem to assert, it is incomprehensible how the apostles could leave. the Primitive Church in so grievous an error! We perceive at once, that the Slave Trade would have met their abhorrence, for " men stealers” are ranked in a catalogue of crime with "murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers;" and their frequent admonitions to masters show that they never gave the least countenance to the abuse of slavery.

But if the system itself—if the abstract status, per se, were an abomination-how has it occurred that those holy men, whose high-toned preceptive morality embraced all the social, personal, and relative duties of life-who have omitted no subject of exhortation, from "the weightier matters of the law," to the very decencies of life, and the avoiding "the appearance of evil,"-should have left the Christian Church in

darkness upon the subject, unenlightened by a hint of " more excellent way? ?"

H.-p. 37.

This experiment may well be called "hazardous," both as it regards the general state of the colony, and the interests of the individuals who have made it. The Chinese, from Sincapore, appear to be an inferior class, and are turbulent and ill-conducted; not long after their arrival, one of them murdered his companion, and another committed a violent assault upon an overseer, whom he nearly killed. A few days ago, one of them was guilty of gross insubordination towards the overseer on the estate of Madame Husson, one of the richest proprietors of the island; the Chinese followed the overseer with a drawn knife, but the slaves in the sucrerie (some of the poor wretches represented as treated with so much barbarity) seized the man, and would have thrown him into the boiler, if the son-in-law of Madame Husson had not fortunately arrived in time for his rescue. The planters are by no means satisfied with their labour; their wages are a daily ration and some clothing, and six Spanish dollars per month.

The small-pox broke out in the Madras ship, and the Malabars, passengers, &c., have been landed, and are confined within a strictly guarded cordon in close quarantine; some deaths have occurred, and fresh cases continue to appear. They have engaged at a lower rate than the Chinese, and are to receive a ration, some clothing, and seven Madras rupees per month.

I. p. 39.

The annexed Table will abundantly prove the facts asserted, of the advancing prosperity of the Island, and the increased importance of this colony to the mother country. From the augmentation in the export of sugar (which has doubled since 1824), the charitable inference has been drawn, that the