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help regarding this as a fresh illustration of that providential kindness which so frequently ordains the proximity of the bane and antidote. The preceding particulars will convince you that some indications of genuine, influential, religious principle, occur, even to the rapid traveller, in almost every part of the United States. During my residence in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston, I have seen that there is in each of them an extensive society of exemplary Christians; and I have had the pleasure of forming an acquaintance with many whose virtues I would gladly emulate, and whose characters are an ornament to their profession.

But you will wish to know in what degree vital piety prevails in the community; and I regret that I cannot tell you more explicitly: the subject does not admit of precision. The extent in which reliligion prevails here is known only to the Searcher of hearts; but there is the strongest reason to believe that it is very considerable. Indeed, I am disposed to think, that a cursory traveller visiting England and America, without prejudice, and with equal opportunities of observation, would draw a more favourable inference with respect to the state of religion in the Atlantic cities of the latter, than in the towns or cities of the former. Whether a long residence in the respective places would not lead to some change in his opinions, or at least hold them in suspense, I am at a loss to decide; but I believe it would.

I confine my supposition to the Atlantic cities, because the benighted shores of the Gulph of Mexico, and many portions of the western wilds, possess few features in common with our favoured country, and should rather be compared with our colonial possessions in the East or West Indies ;-indeed I might include extensive districts in the back parts of many of the Atlantic States, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 246.

where population is thinly scattered, and opportunities of public worship occur only once or twice a-month. In some of these, I thought I observed great coldness in religious concerns; the unfrequency of public ordinances rendering the inhabitants rather less. willing than more so to avail themselves of them when offered. I felt more disappointed in such districts than in the frontier settlements. In the latter, some spiritual as well as temporal privations are naturally to be expected; though I thought their inhabitants exhibited much greater solicitude for schools and churches than those of the former. In fact, the new settlers from the Atlantic States, have, in many cases, participated in the advantages of that general revival of religion which promises to be the characteristic of modern times; and, before their zeal has had time to cool in solitude and separation, it has often secured a provision for those religious ordinances by which it may be cherished and sustained. But the back parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia were settled in less auspicious days; and we must not be surprised if the flame of piety, burning less brightly at that time even ou the coast, should grow pale and sickly when removed into an atmosphere which ministered little to its support.

Generally speaking, it has appeared to me, that the style of preaching in this country is more Calvinistic than with us, and that there is also less opposition to the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel among men of the world. It is owing partly to this circumstance, that the profession of religion involves less of that mitigated persecution of modern days which a decided Christian must often encounter with us in the regrets or remonstrances of opposing friends, or the ridicule or distance of sneering companions. A religious profession might, therefore, be supposed to be more common; and perhaps 2 Z

may be rather so, though this has hardly struck me.

Whatever may be the actual state of religion in this country, I am quite satisfied that it is on the advance. There may be local exceptions; but my inquiries and observations in every part of my route have led me to a coufident conclusion as to the general fact. Many of the societies for the promotion of religion are of recent origin; but they are gradually diffusing themselves over the Union, and the sympathy which was first kindled by commiseration for the Otaheitan or Hindoo, instead of being exhausted on distant objects, seems to derive fervour from its very expansion, and is now visiting the hut of the Aborigines, the log-cabin of the Backwoodman, and the habitation of the careless or uninstructed" neighbour." In New Orleans, in March 1815, there was not a Bible to be found, either for sale or to be given away; and the only Protestant place of worship was in an upper room belonging to an individual, Now, a Louisianian Bible Society is in regular operation, and the inhabitants have a handsome Episcopalian and Presbyterian church. The Sabbath is still dreadfully and generally profaned there; but it is religiously observed by many, the influence of whose example is daily extending. At the boarding house where I lodged, were several naval and military, as well as mercantile, gentlemen; and I remember an officer who had been drilling his rifle corps one Sunday, remarking on the strong representations which the Presbyterians had been making to him on the subject. He defended the practice by those arguments of expediency which have been worn thread-bare by the commanders of our volunteer corps. A few years since, no remonstrance would have been hazarded; or, if hazarded, the summary argument of a pistol would probably have silenced the interference.

Unhappily, however, while reli

gion is extending its boundaries in the United States, Unitarianism is but too successfully urging what we consider its conflicting claims; but this, and the state of morals, must form the subject of another letter. This letter is already sadly too long. (To be continued.)

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

YOUR correspondents MARINUS and LEB. TR. in your Numbers for last September and December, have entered upon a subject of great moment, and have very properly exposed the evil consequences of smuggling, and, in general, of evading the laws of the country. But line upon line, and precept upon precept, are here needful: I therefore tender for insertion the following detached hints, which were drawn up before I had read your Number for December.—

If there were no purchasers of contraband or smuggled articles, there would be no contrabandists or smugglers; and as too many of those who buy illegal goods are of a higher rank in life, and are in possession of greater knowledge, than the smugglers and venders, they are guilty of a higher crime than those who are more immediately, not more essentially, concerned in the traffic.

Many persons, perhaps, have never considered the matter farther than that they procure what they want at a lower price than from the regular trader: but do they not thus encourage unfair dealing, aud sanction in others, as well as commit themselves, a direct breach of the laws of their country? Smuggling, whether in the first or second intention, is equally fraudulent and dishonest: it is a robbery of all who pay either directly or indirectly to the taxes; so that not only the king, as the phrase runs, is cheated, but, in some degree, every individual in the nation.

Do the encouragers of smuggling ever reflect on the great expense incurred to support the laws and protect the fair dealer? And have they ever heard of the daring outrages and open violence occasioned by smuggling transactions, attended in not a few instances with bloodshed and murder? Must not every Christian, every humane, every patriotic heart, shrink from a practice which causes such dreadful violations of every moral, social, and political obligation? I trust that none of the grumblers at taxation are among the friends of smuggling.

--

With regard to the wealthy female -purchasers of lace, shawls, and silks, who have not even the excuse of economy for their offence, but who often give higher prices for smuggled foreign articles than for British goods of the same kind, and perhaps equal in quality, and who, in fact, are often deceived, by giving foreign prices for home manufactures, and their lords, who encourage and allow the breach of the laws themselves have made; I would not only increase the penalties, but endeavour to attach inconvenience and disgrace to the com-mission of any act of smuggling.

How would a female of common humanity, vested in Lyons silks, French shawls, gloves, and stockings, feel on attending the trials of those whom she had encouraged to employ personal resistance, and perhaps murder, in the course of their violation of the law, in order to import those illegal articles of luxury?

We have many admirable societies formed for the encouragement of moral and religious improvement; and if one more were added, founded on a resolution never, directly or indirectly, to encourage smuggling, but, on the contrary, to use every fair means for suppressing it, I consider that much benefit to the public might result from such an institution. Much good might also arise from serious expositions of the evils which flow from the

breach of our revenue laws, from the pulpit.

one

But while I reprobate offences against the revenue, I would recommend to our financiers to view the subject of taxes in a moral as well as pecuniary light. Hogarth's pictures of Gin Lane and Beer Street, might be sufficient, would think, to induce public men to devise measures to check the prevalent use of ardent spirits. It would also be an act of deep moral and religious advantage, to diminish the litigation and perjury arising from our revenue laws. I might add much on a variety of kindred topics, but, for the present, only suggest these brief hints for the consideration of your readers. C. V. P.

To the Editor of the ChristianObserver

Good Mr. Editor,

I HAVE always fully concurred with you in the enormity of the African Slave-trade, because I have no interest in doing otherwise; but am grievously offended at your venturing, as you seem to do in your last Number, to attack the very principle of slavery, and to wish for the immediate amelioration of the condition of the slaves in our colonies, and the ultimate abolition of the system itself. I am persuaded you cannot have given due attention to the many excellent arguments which have been urged in favour of slavery in general, and of Negro slavery in particular. I could detail to you many powerful syllogisms of my own on the subject; but as they might lose some of their weight for want of my name being appended to them, I shall content myself with translating the following valuable chapter from Montesquieu's Esprit des Loix, for your edification, and that of your readers. His reasoning appears to me quite conclusive. The last sentence is an excellent anticipatory censure on the Congress of Vienna, and especially on our own government, for troubling

their heads with these matters. The general one on the side of mercy and French cabinet understand Mon- pity?"-Montesquieu, De L'Esprit tesquieu better. des Loix, liv. xv. c. 5.

PHILO-DOMITIAN.

"On Negro Slavery.

"If I were called upon to defend our right to make the Negroes our slaves, I should say as follows:

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The good people of Europe, having exterminated the natives of America, are bound to make slaves of those of Africa, in order to reduce such a quantity of land to cultivation.

"Sugar would be too dear if we did not employ slave-labour on the plantations.

"The creatures about whom all this stir is made, are black from head to foot; besides which, they have such snub noses that it is impossible to feel pity for them.

"We cannot for a moment imagine that the Deity, who is an allwise Being, could have placed a soul, and much less any good or generous principle, in a body all 'over black.

"We may judge of the colour of the skin from that of the hair, which, among the Egyptians, the best philosophers in the world, was a matter of such importance that they put to death every red-haired person who fell into their hands.

"It is a proof that the Negroes have not common sense, that they think more of a necklace of glass beads than of gold, which, among civilized nations, is of such vast 'importance.

"It is impossible to suppose that these people are human beings; for if we could suppose them to be human beings, it might begin to be thought that we ourselves are not Christians.

"Persons of little minds exaggerate the injustice which we inflict upon the African race; for if the matter were as they say, how is it that it has never entered the heads of the princes of Europe, who are always making so many useless treaties among each other, to make a

For the Christian Observer. `

QUAKER ADDRESS ON THE SLAVE TRADE.

THE Society of Friends, whose humane and zealous exertions for the suppression of the Slave Trade need no panegyric, have just issued an energetic "Address to the Inbabitants of Europe, on the iniquity" of that direful traffic, which deserves extensive circulation. After stating that regulation was made upwards of sixty years ago, which has continued in force to the present time, that those who persisted in the unrighteous traffic in Negroes, when pains had been taken to con vince them of their error, should no longer be considered as belonging to the society; and that, from their known principles and conduct relative to this great question, they can have no commercial or political end whatever to answer by thus advocating the rights of the oppressed, they proceed to plead the cause of Africa, 66 on the simple, but firm, basis of Christian principle."

"We have rejoiced," they remark, "to bear that the respective governments of those countries, whose subjects are still implicated in the traffic, have proceeded so far as they have hitherto done towards its abolition; but we have learned, with deep regret and sorrow, that it is still pursued to a great and truly lamentable extent, and that under circumstances of aggravated cruelty, by the subjects of those very powers. We bear that numerous vessels are still hovering along the shores of Africa, to procure cargoes of human beings, and transport them to distant lands, whence they are designed never to return; and that the trade which the Congress at Vienna in 1814 pronounced to be the desolation of Africa,

to spread terror and desolation through their peaceful dwellings. He foments wars between neighbouring chieftians, in order to supply himself with their subjects, the victims of his avarice. Having thus either stolen or bought bis fellow-men, who are equally with himself entitled to their liberty, and of which he possesses no right whatever to deprive them, he hurries them to the vessel that may be waiting in some adjoining creek, to receive the objects of his cruelty; or he chains them with iron fetters, or loads them with heavy yokes, and drives them, like the beasts of the field, to the shores. There new distresses await them: they are violently conveyed on board the ships stationed to receive them, stowed beside each other, like bales of goods, and conveyed across the Atlantic to the place of their destination. The horrors of this passage cannot be adequately describ

the degradation of Europe, and the afflicting scourge of humanity,' has been carried on with increased eagerness in the course of last year. "It is under the influence of Christian love and good will, that we are now engaged to express our interest on behalf of this injured people. In thus introducing ourselves to the notice of our conti.nental neighbours, we feel that we need not offer any apology, considering them as our brethren, as the children of one universal Parent, as fellow-professors of a belief in one and the same merciful Saviour. The same feelings which lead us to consider the natives of France, of Spain, of Holland, of Portugal, and of the other nations of Europe, as our brethren, induce us to extend this endearing appellation to the inha-bitants of Africa. Our heavenly Father has made of one blood all nations of men that dwell upon the face of the earth; and we are all the objects of that great redemp-ed, even by those who have been tion which comes by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And although the kindreds of the earth are divided into distinct communities and nations, we are all bound one unto another by the ties of love, of brotherly kindness, and compassion. But the nations of Europe are united by an additional bond. To them has been granted a blessing, which has not hitherto been enjoyed by the greater part of the natives of Africa: this blessing, this invaluable treasure, is the Bible in which is contained the record of the Gospel of Christ.

"Permit, us, then, as fellow-professors of the Christian name, to remind you of the complicated iniquity of the Slave Trade. Possessed of a superior force, which he has acquired by a greater knowledge of the dreadful arts of naval and military warfare, the slave-trader visits the coasts of unoffending Africa. He employs his agents to tear her inhabitants from their country, their families, and their friends; to burn their villages, and ravage their fields;

witnesses of them. Faint, then, must be the idea we can form of the situa tion of upwards of three hundred human beings, in a comparatively small vessel, each limited to so narrow a space, that it often happens they cannot lie on their backs. Here they are subjected to miserable reflections-for the power of reflection in common with us they undoubtedly possess-on the past, the present, and the future. Their shrieks, and cries, and groans, ought to be sufficient to excite pity in the hardest heart. Arbitrary, cruel power, is often exercised to prevent those attempts at insurrection to which their situation prompts them. And such is their state of desperation, that they are often ready to have recourse to suicide. The noxious and pestilential effluvia that arise from their close confinement between decks, (which are often not more than three feet apart,) or from the illness of their companions, produce loss of appetite, disease, and, in many instances, suffocation, and other dis

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