The members of some of the Presbyterian churches in the United States have formed themselves into Temperance Societies, unanimously resolving that they will not be engaged in the manufacture or sale of spirituous liquors, or suffer any intoxicating liquor to be drunk in their families, except in case of sickness. They have also resolved unanimously, that they will make it an indispensable prerequisite to admission into their pale, that the candidate or candidates shall agree to the above regulations. The Rev. Mr. De Ferneaux, a French Protestant Missionary lately appointed to New Orleans, states, that he has great prospects of usefulness in his station. The French population in New Orleans is 30,000 souls, the majority of whom are descendants of the Huguenots who were driven into exile by the revocation of the Ediet of Nantes. Amidst the dissipations and vices of the place, the Missionary states, that many of these people, poor but worthy, were exceedingly rejoiced at his arrival, and are anxious, under his pastoral care, to worship God after the manner of their fathers. In furtherance of this object, they have subscribed about 3000 dollars for the erection of a church, and have promised an additional sum. Mr. Joseph Lancaster has returned to the United States. He has been in South America for several years, endeavouring to introduce schools in Caracas and other places in Colombia, but the civil dissensions have interrupted his labours. NORTH AMERICA. In the year 1820 the Cherokee nation was organized, and divided into eight districts, by a resolve of the national committee and council. By a recent resolu tion of the council, a meeting of the people has been held in each of these districts, for the appointment of three delegates to a convention, to commence forming a Republican constitution. The election in some districts was very closely contested. Most of the delegates speak the English language, and few only are full-blooded Cherokees. This is, we believe, the first attempt of a tribe of American Indians to form a written constitution. LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. THEOLOGY. The Character of David: a Series of Essays, addressed to Youth. By J. Newstead. 18mo. Is. Mission to the Indians of Nova Scotia and Upper Canada. By the Rev. John West. 8vo. Defence of Missions in the Sandwich and other Islands, in reply to the article on Missions in a late Number of the Quarterly Review. By the Rev. W. Orme. 8vo. 3s. Remarks on the Mustard Tree mentioned in the New Testament, with a coloured Plate. By John Frost, F.A.S. F.L S. 1s. 6d. MISCELLANEOUS. An Historical Essay on the Laws and Government of Rome, designed as an Introduction to the Study of the Civil Law. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Origin and Affinity of the Principal Languages of Asia and Europe. Lieut. Col. Vans Kennedy. 4to. By Self-Denial, a Tale. By Mrs. Hoffland. 1 vol. 12mo., with a frontispiece. Conversations on Animal Economy. With plates and wood-cuts. 2 vols. 12mo. Flora Australasica. By R. Sweet F.L.S. No. 4. 3s. The Chronology of Ancient History, in Questions and Answers. By Mrs. Sherwood. Vol. 2, and concluding volume. 12mo. 6s. Buchanan's History of Scotland, continued down to the present time. By John Watkins, LL. D. 1 vol. 8vo. 15s. Chronicles of London Bridge. 8vo. 28s. Large paper, 21. 8s. A Catalogue of the Library of the late Rev. and learned Dr. Parr, with his Notes on Books and their Authors. 8vo. 16s. The State of Society in the Age of Homer. By W. Bruce, D.D., of Belfast. 8vo. 5s. 6d.. Foreign Quarterly Review. No. 1. 7s. 6d. Lyrical Essays on Subjects of History and Imagination. The Journal of Beckington and Roos, during an Embassy to negociate the Marriage between Henry VI. and a Daughter of Count Arminack, in June 1442; from a contemporary M. S. By N. Nicholas, F.S.A. 1 vol. 8vo. 1 RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE SO CIETY. THE Report of the Barking District Committee of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, read at the anniversary meeting, shews how much good may be done by active local committees connected with this highly useful institution. The sum of 3777. has been expended during the year in this deanery, partly in aid of the society's general designs; and partly for the following objects 1. Sale of Books.-Bibles 275; Testaments 99; Prayer-Books 357; Bound Books 503; Tracts 2094; besides books purchased of the society, but not through the committee. These have been distributed by members (being, in general, sold at reduced prices); for the use of schools; in lending libraries for the benefit of the public; or in the committee's shops; in which latter the decrease of the stock in hand (13.) shews a proportionate increase, beyond the above statement, of books dispersed. 2. Shops are kept at Stratford, Leyton, Walthamstow, Woodford, Barking, and Ilford. The books are sold retail to the poor, and to members, at the society's prices; to the public at a fixed increase upon that price. Applications for two new shops, and an increasing demand for books, afford evidence of their utility. 3. Lending Libraries.—Libraries have been established at Leyton and Barking; and attempts, on a smaller scale, have been made at other places. Some private families have made the same experiment, t as an interesting and improving resource for servants. ,, 4. The Lord's Day.-In the last Report, the gratifying state of education in this deanery was noticed, as a subject which came within the cognisance of promoters of Christian knowledge. For a similar reason, but with very different feelings, the committee now advert to the profanation of the Sabbath-day. During the last year, a letter from the clergy of the district brought this subject forcibly to view. Some improvement, it is hoped, has taken place; but much is wanting; there are still many works, neither of necessity nor charity, which continue to be done, and many duties which are left undone. On such a subject the committee feel the great benefit of example and ex hortation; and they entreat all persons, especially their own members, to sanctify the Sabbath, as the best means of promoting Christian knowledge. There are many papers and tracts, on the society's catalogue, well calculated to advance this most desirable object. The committee mention with pleasure that they have received separate donations to the amount of 57%. in aid of the fund for Native Schools in India. "The immense importance," they remark, "of calling others into the marvellous light we enjoy, and the comparative facility of training up a child in the way that he should go, has long since rendered the schools in India an object of primary importance. The committee, therefore, commend the cause to a discerning and Christian public. They feel, however, that the general designs of the society have the first claim to attention; and they confidently submit them to the inhabitants of this populous district. The funds they now possess, are, indeed, sufficient for its own immediate exigencies; but the necessities of our poorer brethren in many parts of the United Kingdom; the continued applications from the colonies for gratuitous grants; the supply of Missionaries who are under the protection of other societies; the enormous demands of India for instruction and improvement; and the immense multitudes, whom, by these and other means, the society is anxious to feed with the bread of life:-these are pleas which they adduce to move the hearts of all men. They invite the humblest to throw his mite into the treasury; they entreat the rich to give freely, as they have received. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." garden had been formed; which, with a plat, cultivated for wheat, comprised about four acres. The whole premises were surrounded by a good fence; and constituted a respectable specimen of English civilization, in the midst of a barbarous people. The natives who resided in the valley amounted to nearly 200, and were called the Ngatehuru tribe: they were headed by several chiefs, of whom the principal was Tepui. At a distance of five miles dwelt another tribe, called the Ngatepo; which contained 600 or 700. To these two tribes the missionaries directed their labours. Having made some proficiency in the language, they regularly employed the Sabbath, and as much of their time on the other days of the week as could be spared from other occupations, in communicating to them Christian instruction. A school was also established, which was attended daily by about twenty youths: eight of these had learned to read and write their vernacular tongue; and on their minds, as well as on the minds of many of the adult population, the truths of God had been assiduously inculcated, and in some cases received, with much apparent interest. poultry, were all killed-and that, not content with what they found above ground, the barbarians had dug up the body of Mr. Turner's child, which had been interred a few months before, merely for the sake of the blanket, in which they supposed it was enveloped; and that they had left the corpse of the infant to moulder on the surface of the earth, a monument of their relentless cruelty. Shunghee had been shot through the body, but was not dead. The Church Missionaries considered their situation in New Zealand as so precarious, that they shipped about twenty tons of goods to be conveyed to Sydney; and, of the rest, what was of any value, and not required for immediate use, they either buried under ground, or deposited on board a vessel in the harbour. They adopted these precautionary measures, to secure what might be requisite for their voyage: deeming it not improbable that they should be compelled to flee to Port Jackson. Notwithstanding these mournful occurrences, the missionaries add, with a degree of faith and patience worthy of their arduous vocation: "We desire it to be distinctly understood, that our mission to New Zealand, though suspended, is by no means abandoned. While we are not blind to the difficulties which at present obstruct its progress, we are convinced that it may yet be prosecuted, with rational hope of extensive and lasting usefulness." Mr. Marsden was on the point of sailing from Port Jackson, on a visit to New Zealand, to render advice and assistance to the missionaries. For some time, rumours had been circulated through the valley, as to some project which the celebrated chief Shunghee had in view. It was stated by some, that he had sent to Tepui, commanding him to remove to some other part of the country, to make room for him, as he intended to take possession of our valley; by others, that he determined to fix his residence among the Ngatepo. Though these vague reports could not be depended upon, it was evident that Shunghee was preparing for some important movement; CHURCH OF ENGLAND TRACT and, from his well known character, the more sagacious suspected that his designs were mischievous; especially as he had been driven almost to a state of desperation by overwhelming domestic calamities, of which his countrymen had taken advantage to plunder him of his property. These conjectures were but too well founded. War ensued among the natives, in the atrocities of which the missionaries were exposed to the attacks and spoliations of both parties. With great difficulty they escaped from personal violence; and, after a most harassing journey, found an asylum at the Church Missionary station at Kiddeekiddee. They afterwards learned that the mission premises, together with about 100 bushels of wheat in the straw, were burnt to ashes-that the cattle, the goats, and SOCIETY. The last report states the contributions for the year at 171., and the sales at 1947.; the payments were 4241. The following tracts have been added: The Parochial Clergyman's Ordination Vows; or, an Appeal to those of his Parishioners who are disposed to censure his anxiety about their Salvation as unnecessary and excessive-The Necessity and Nature of Repentance toward God, as enforced by the Commination Service of the Church of England-The Seventh Commandment; or, the Compassion of the Divine Saviour toward those who have transgressed it-A Manual of Instructions for the Time of SicknessThe Churchman's Devotional Exercises, especially, in the Time of SicknessSelect Passages of Holy Scripture, for the Use of Sick Persons-The Young Christian's Reasons for believing the Bible to be the Word of God. The total number of tracts published during the year amounts to 144,500: the total number sold and granted has been 87,084. The following remarks in the Report deserve serious consideration. "It has been said, that there is a want of liveliness and interest in the composition of the tracts; that the imagination is not sufficiently called in to embellish and render palatable the truths inculcated; that the object of instruction is too rigidly kept in view; and that the means, which might be resorted to in order to render novelty the handmaid of edification, are too much neglected. Your Committee, without absolutely pleading guilty to the charge thus brought against them, would simply remark, that, even were they not confined by the rules originally laid down for the regulation of their proceedings, it is a a question which your Committee would seriously propose for the consideration of that part of the Christian public who may take an interest in their operations, whether the multiplication of such composi tions as have for their object the introduction of religious sentiment under the guise of fiction-or, at least, an artificial display of the grand doctrines of the Go spel, dressed out in all the pageantry which the human imagination can supply -be beneficial to the mind, or productive of sound religious feeling. That the interest thus excited is far greater than that caused by a more simple and unadorned statement of the same truths, cannot be denied ; but it does not always happen, that the most high-wrought impressions are the most salutary or abiding. In proportion, too, as the mind is accustomed to delight itself in the contemplation of truth thus decked out in order to render it attractive, it becomes indisposed to listen to the plain appeals which may be made to it, however sanctioned by the weight of a Divine authority; and there is no small danger, lest ultimately the Scriptures themselves should be laid aside, as inferior, in point of interest, to the ephemeral productions of human genius. A false and vitiated taste in religion, as well as in other things, is more easily formed than corrected; and your Committee conceive, that, as the avowed aim of their plan is the diffusion of sound religious knowledge, they might be justly censured as acting inconsistently with the principles by which they profess to be guided, were they to adopt any other than such sober means as become the character of the Church with which they are more particularly con nected. Besides, they are not anxious to take up the ground occupied by other societies, from whose depositories tracts written in a style more calculated to amuse and interest the imaginative reader may be procured." PARIS TRACT SOCIETY. At the last anniversary of the Paris Tract Society, M. Marron having opened the meeting with prayer, M. Stapfer, President of the society, offered some introductory remarks; in which he represented the Bible Society, the Society for promoting Christian Morals, and the Missionary Society, as expressions of the three Christian graces, and the Tract So ciety as the handmaid and auxiliary of them all. "There is no Christian mơrality," said he, "without the Bible, and no charity without faith; and if we have faith and charity, we shall desire that others may possess these blessings; and Christian missions will testify our hope of the conversion of the world. Thus our societies are united together, and in this chain of mercy we are the first link." The Report stated, that the society had endeavoured to fulfil their pledge, by pub lishing tracts on the distinguishing doc trines of Christianity; among others, on the Divinity of Christ, on the Corruption of Human Nature, and on Justification by Faith. The society had associated itself to the labours of the Bible Society, by the publication of two tracts from the pen of two very distinguished friends of the Bible, Quesnel, and Professor Francke. They had published four new historical tracts. The Roman Catholic Jubilee had led to their publishing a sheet tract on "The True Jubilee, the free pardon of penitent sinners through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." Three centuries ago, a similar placard had produced a great effect at Geneva. Not less than 12,500 copies of "The Almanack of Good Advice" had been printed, and not a single copy remained. A few months ago, the society was in debt above 8000 francs; but the confidence of the committee did not slacken in their operations, and that confidence was not disappointed. An appeal was made to its friends, and was answered promptly. The rich gave of their abun dance, and the poor of their little; new societies were formed, new collections made; and the committee have the satis faction to announce the debt paid, and 360 francs in hand. It has now depots in twenty-seven departments, of which some have circulated many tracts. The total number distributed during the year has been 150,000, being 20,000 more than last year, and making the number from the beginning 560,000. The Report terminated by some striking instances of the spiritual good which the tracts had produced. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. A large number of tracts, either original or selected, have been examined, and considerable additions made to the series. The number of tracts stereotyped during the year, is forty-five; making the whole number now stereotyped and printed, two hundred; containing an aggregate of 2,476 pages. Besides the above, the Committee have proceeded to the preparation of several series of small tracts for children. The Committee have continued the publication of the American Tract Magazine, of which 3,750 copies are now regularly issued, once in two months. Of the Christian Almanack for 1827, no less than ten distinct editions were issued, adapted to the meridian of latitude of as many different localities in various parts of the United States. During the year ending in May, the society have printed, in the English language, 2,629,100 tracts; in French, 14,000; in Spanish, 13,000. Total, during the year, three million, fifty-six thousand, and one hundred tracts; comprising thirty-five million, eight hundred and eight thousand, five hundred pages. The Committee urge the importance of further efforts in this cause. "To very few, comparatively," say they," of our 6000 post-towns and villages, has a single tract found its way. Large and populous states remain almost wholly unsupplied; and especially almost all the newly settled parts of the country, whose population is rapidly increasing, and many of whom have scarcely any other means of Gospel grace. Luto all the states west of the Alleghanies, including Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, with a territory greater than all the other states in the union, and a population, in 1820, of 2,200,000, and now probably not far from 4,000,000, tracts to the value of only 700 dollars have yet been sent! Yet a large portion of the population have not the Bible, nor any place of worship, nor any stated preaching of the Gospel. And, not to mention the wants of other parts of our country, in which there are hundreds, if not thousands, of parishes and neighbourhoods without the stated means of grace-not to mention our do mestic and foreign shipping, our French and Spanish and German population, for whom very few tracts have yet been provided--there are, beyond our own borders, the millions of Mexico, the West Indies, and South America, committed, as it were, to our charge by Divine appointment; many of them now adopting forms of government assimilated to our own, with whom we hold frequent intercourse, and to whom our facilities of access are very great." PROGRESS OF WESLEYAN METHODISTS. It appears, by the proceedings of the Wesleyan Methodists at their late annual conference, that their increase in the course of the past year is 8,189. Of these, 1,995 have been added to the societies abroad, by Missionary exertion; and 6,194 in Great Britain. LANGUAGE INSTITUTION. The Second Report states that one principal part of the duty of the Committee has been, to obtain the assistance of persons qualified to communicate instruction in the languages, which those who applied to them for assistance were desirous to study. In this point, they have in general met with success; though in some instances their wishes have been disappointed. Mr. Johnson, of the East-India Company's College, has continued to attend at the house of the Institution, and has had five pupils in Sanscrit, six in Arabic, and two in Bengalee. The Chinese class, formed by Dr. Morrison, was taken up, after his departure from this country, by two of his pupils, whom he had himself recommended as his successors, Mr. Wilkins and Mr. Dyer, and since by Mr. Huttman. Mr. Huttman has five pupils. One pupil has been instructed in Cingalese, by the Rev. Robert Newstead, lately returned from the mission of the Wesleyan Missionary Society in Ceylon; and one in Malayalim, by the Rev. John Smith, a missionary of the London Missionary Society, from Quilon, The Rev. William Reeve, likewise connected with the same society, instructed two pupils in Tamul, and one in Teloogoo, during a temporary residence in England in the past year. Of the whole number of pupils above mentioned, eight were from the Institu |