what they have been enabled to accomplish within the short space of a twelve-month. During that period, viz. from Jan. 1st, 1816, to Jan. 1st, 1817, there have issued from the Missionary Press"800 copies of a Turkish Tract, containing the first three chapters of Genesis. 800 copies of an Arabic Tract, containing the twentieth chapter of Exodus and the fifth of Matthew. 2000 capies of a Tartar Tract, for the Orenburg Mission. 2000 copies of an Arabic Tract, containing a Short History of the Bible; with a small Catechism annexed. 4000 copies of a Tartar Catechism, for the Kirghisians, &c. at Orenburg. And 5000 copies of Luke's Gospel, of the Karass Translation, for the Russian Bible Society: making in all Fourteen Thousand Six Hundred copies of various religious publications.

"During the same period, they have bound and prepared for dis tribution, 904 copies of the Psalms in Turkish (printed the preceding year); 134 of the Karass New Testaments; and 3100 of the Gospel by Luke:, besides stitching, &c. the Catechism and Tracts.

"Nor have these publications been suffered to lie by them: for, with the addition to the above, of about 600 copies of the Scripɑtures in various languages received for distribution from the Russian Bible Society, they have sold, circulated gratis, sent to Karass, to Orenburg, to the government of Cherson, to Theodosia and Sympheropol in the Crimea, or given to the Bible Committee in Astracan, no fewer than 2566 copies of the New Testament in whole or in part, or portions of the Old Testament, together with 6548 Catechisms or Tracts; in all 9114 copies.

"The number," say the Missionaries, "is much greater than" (till they had calculated the amount at the end of the 66 year, we expected it would have been ; and, when we consider that many copies of the Holy Scriptures have been issued by the Astracan BiLe Committee also, we cannot but rejoice that so much of the precious seed of the Word has been scattered in these barren regions." Yes! and in regions, it may be added, in which, little more than twelve months ago, the sound of the Gospel was scarce

ly known, and many of the miserable and blinded Natives were almost as ignorant of the very existence of such a volume as the Bible as if it had never been published among men.

"Through the medium of the Astracan Committee, and by the constant co-operation of the Missionaries with the Russian Bible Society, and its now numerous and daily increasing branches in the southern province of the Empire and the Tauridan Peninsula, a door is indeed set open, and we trust by God himself, for the circulation of the Scriptures: and if He shall keep it open, as we fervently implore that He will, no man will be able to shut it, till, throughout the widely extended region of which Astracan is the centre, the people of every religion, and language, and tribe, to the east and the west, to the north and the south, hear and receive, in their own tongues, the inspired record of the wonderful works of God.

"The Committee of the Russian Bible Society have engaged the Missionaries at Astracan to print a new edition of the TartarTurkish New Testament, translated by Mr. Brunton at Karass. This important work has, in all probability, by this time commenced; the British and Foreign Bible Society having, on application from the Committee of the Russian Bible Society, with their wonted liberality, furnished a new fount of types for the purpose, which, the Directors have lately learned, were some time ago on their way from St. Petersburgh.

"Nor has the generosity of the Parent Institution stopped here. Having heard of the exhausted state of the Edinburgh Society's funds last year, and consulted how they might most efficiently aid the Mission consistently with the object and plan of their own Society, they voted a sufficient quantity of paper, through the medium of the Russian Bible Society, for 5000 copies of the Tartar Old Testament, which they understood was preparing by the Missionaries at Astracan. To this translation Mr. Dickson began to apply himself, after the printing of the Book of Psalms was finished ; and intended to publish separately, from time to time, such parts of it as he might be able to accomplish. With this view, he commenced

with the Book of Job, purposing to have this, together with the Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and the Song of Solomon, printed before proceeding to the Pentateuch. On learning, however, that there was every probability that the expence of publishing the whole of the Old Testament would be defrayed by the Bible Society, he began with Genesis, the translation of which he had finished in December last,

"In the mean time, the printing of the SECOND edition of the New Testament, for the Russian Bible Society, will be going on; and Mr. Dickson, during the intervals from correcting the press, &c. which he may enjoy, will be proceeding with the translating of the Old, which perhaps may be completed, and ready for being put to press, by the time that the printing of the New Testament is finished. There can be little doubt, indeed, that by that time the Pentateuch will be completely translated and carefully revised; as the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society have judiciously recommended should be done, before any of the paper which they have furnished for the edition of the Old Testament be actually employed.

"In this translation, Mr. Dickson will derive great assistance from the manuscript Tartar version, written in Hebrew characters. for the use of the KARAITE Jews of the Crimea, which Mr. Pinkerton, during his tour last summer, discovered and purchased at Bakcheserai, the ancient Tartar capital of that peninsula, and the whole of which he has already sent to Astracan. Along with the last volumes of this valuable work, he has also sent them the first four books of Moses of the Turkish Bible now printing at Berlin; so that, to use his own expressions, the Missionaries are "thus possessed of every possible help, almost, for producing a correct version of the Old Testament in Tartar."

"In addition to these proofs of the peculiar interest which Astracan is at present calculated to excite, in regard to the printing and circulation of the Scriptures, it must be gratifying farther to know, that the Archbishop of that city has applied to the Missionaries to undertake an edition of the Georgian Scriptures, of

which country he is himself a native ; and that he has communicated his anxious wishes on this subject to the Committee of the Russian Bible Society. So desirous is he to have this work accomplished, that he has resolved to take the whole trouble of correcting the press on himself; and is determined to leave nothing undone, that shall be in his power to expedite its accomplish

ment."

The two following articles from Bell's Weekly Messenger, have been sent us by a highly esteemed friend, of whose favors we beg to request a continuance.

VII. Idolatry abolished.

"Letters have been received by the London Missionary Society, stating that idolatry is completely abolished in Otaheite and Eimeo, and, in a considerable degree, ia other islands adjacent. The king, Pomarre, has sent all his family idols to the missionaries, desiring them either to destroy them, or send them to Europe, that the people of England may see what "foolish gods" they formerly worshipped."

VIII. Merchant Seamen's Auxiliary Bible Society.

"On Thursday (29th Jan. 1818) a numerous meeting took place at the Egyptian-hall, Mansion-house, for the purpose of forming a society for the distribution of Bibles amongst merchant seamen. The Lord Mayor was in the chair; who stated the purpose for which they were assembled.

"Admiral Lord Gambier addressed the meeting upon the resolution for forming the society.

"Mr. John Thornton seconded the resolution, the object of which was to serve 120,000 of our uninstructed countrymen. It was admitted by the Committee who met every day to remedy the grievances existing amongst seamen, that the present state of

poverty to which they were reduced, was the result of that system of profligacy which invariably was consequent upon a neglected moral education.

"Mr. J. Stephen congratulated the Lord Mayor upon being, in a manner, the Patron of this Institution, originating as it did in the present Mayoralty. Never was there a nation more indebted to her seamen than this, and never was there a generation of Englishmen more indebted to them than the present. There was nothing, he contended, in the character of the sailor opposite to religious feeling. He constantly saw the wonders of the deep, where danger was the most eminent, and deliverance the most miraculous. Infidelity was not a part of his character. He was more liable to superstition; and from the neglect of his mind, was in the habit of calling that fate, which was the effect of direction.

"Mr. Wilberforce said, that if the eyes of the nation were turned from the sea to the land service, it was because the members of the former had already cleared the ocean of the enemies of their country, and had, of course, left opportunities to the army of shewing similar prowess upon their element. (Applause.) He described the seamen as thrown upon the wide world with Providence alone for their guide, and with their country for a debtor for its glory and existence. They were exposed to all manner of vice in distant countries, and associated with the common refuse of mankind; but if they were to be exposed to foreign venom, they should be furnished with an antidote within, by which its influence might be counteracted. (Applause.) That man was little acquainted with human life, who supposed that the careless spirit of a seaman should be preserved in order to make him fight. True courage was not built upon so flimsy a foundation.

"The resolutions were carried unanimously, after which the Meeting separated."

IX. Instance of Religious Liberality.

The following incident which lately occurred in Ireland, res