against Sunday-drilling as a profana- dertake to vouch for the truth of eition of the sabbath, and an impedi- ther of these representations. But ment to public devotion! each party must evidently allow that a Praying-Machine is perfectly suited to the other. And what each admits to be perfectly suited to the other, an impartial observer may assume to be suited to both. Then what ease and comfort would accrue to the whole body of the clergy! The bishops, freed from visitations no longer requisite, and the inferior dignitaries, liberated from their present shackles, would truly enjoy otium cum dignitate. A deputy archdeacon might now and then make a circuit to inspect the state of the Machines, to direct the necessary repairs, and to reprove the parish carpenter, (who under the new regime would be substituted in place of the parish clerk) when he should be found chargeable with negligence. The whole body of rectors, vicars, and curates would then obtain, without the shadow of objection, a blessing which their most eminent friends and encomiasts have not found it practi cable in the existing state of things entirely to secure to them, a complete dispensation from residence. As the superiority of our artists over the Cal-, muc mechanics would so construct the Machines on principles of clockwork, as not to require the attendance of the minister to move them by hand, he might gravely smoke his pipe, even during the hours of divine service, in a distant county. Or if he should prefer hunting, or shooting, or dancing, or cards, to the delights of tobacco, there could not be any grounds for limiting him as to the choice of a recreation. The adoption of this institution, Mr. Editor, would be, I confess, an innovation : and, as such, may be thought likely to offend those who are attached with reason or without reason to every ancient custom. But I believe that the innovation will prove, on close scrutiny, much less than it seems on its first appearance. If, as is reported, but it may be slanderously, there are parishes in which the existing clergyman is himself a mere Praying-Machine: in such places there will be no innovation. Then of the two sects into which the established church is divided, one of them, I am informed, charges the other with making man a machine, and, consequently, all his proceedings simple acts of mechanism: while the latter retorts that the devotions of its accusers are altogether formal, lifeless, and mechanical. I by no means un As to Dissenters of all denominations, they, no doubt, in the true spirit of universal dissent will object to the establishment of these machines, as to every thing else which is esta blished. But the opposition of the Dissenters is of itself a sufficient reason for the approbation of true churchmen: and the church, easy and happy, will have the genuine gratification of seeing its adversaries experience, in continual labour, the just punishment of their obstinate blindness. To constrain or induce men, Sir, to employ the whole of the Sunday in religious exercises has ever been found an impracticable scheme: and like other absurd attempts has terminated in mischief. The hours which the people have been compelled to give up to idleness they have always de voted to vice. Hence the peculiar riot and dissoluteness which prevail on the sabbath. Take away the idleness, and the vice will disappear. The universal tendency of men to occupy themselves in worldly business on the Sunday, in the face of prohibitions and penal statutes ecclesiasti cal and civil, furnishes a sufficient guarantee that, when by transferring the obligation of devotion to the Praying-Machine, you shall have given to the individual the seventh day for himself, he will employ it no less beneficially than the other six. You will have observed that the te nor of my argument, whether it has turned upon the ease of the clergy or the comfort of the laity, the emolument of individuals or the welfare of the state, has supposed the PrayingMachine to have also taken upon itself the office of the preacher. It is unnecessary to waste your time, and that of your readers, with a regular proof of the following plain proposi tions: that if the motion of a winde mill, of a cylindrical box, or of clockwork, be competent to discharge the duty of prayer, it is equally competent to the office of instruction: and that he who can duly render his pray ets without the opening of his lips or the application of a thought, may no less efficaciously receive instruction without the attention either of his ears or of his mind. On the signal advantages which would attend the use of Praying-Machines in our universities, by gaining for logic and mathematics the hours now confessedly wasted, or worse than wasted at chapel, I forbear to enlarge. Neither will I dilate on the benefit which would accrue to our public schools from the adoption of them, by securing the time now spent in hear ing christian precepts and attending christian worship, for advances in pagan principles and pagan mythology. Neither are many words requisite to evince the favourable consequences which would ensue from their establishment in manufactories. The cry raised by designing enthusiasts against those sources of our wealth, as breeding up the rising generation in neglect and ignorance of religion, would instantly be quashed. Nay, Sir, let but a few Praying-Machines be erected in our West Indian colonies, and there follows an immediate demonstration of a fact which, however loudly asserted by myself or other friends of the slave trade, we, I confess, have found a difficulty in proving; namely, that our anxiety to steal men from Africa is, in other words, zeal for their introduction to the light of the gospel.. . It remains to advert to the importance of constructing smaller PrayingMachines for the use of private families. When once a man should have established in a closet, or at the top of his house, a petty oratory, where morning and evening prayers, or devotions of any required length or frequency, shall be regularly performed for himself and his household by mechanism with what freedom, with what undeviating attention, may he dedicate himself to his business! In-. stead of longer discussion, accept, Sir, by way of illustration of the subject, a story concerning my great aunt. One Sunday evening a friend found her assiduously employed in hearing her children say their prayers: and sitting down to wait the conclusion of their devotions, discovered, with extreme astonishment, that each child repeated its set of prayers fourteen several times. An explanation being requested, my aunt replied, that the day being an idle day she caused her children to say by antici pation, on that afternoon, their morning and evening prayers for the ensuing week. How much time, Mr. Editor, would have been saved, even to this notable contriver and her family, if Praying-Machines had then been known! P. Q. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE account of Mr. Mackenzie's Travels in America may not fall in the way of many of your readers, and it seems not to come within the scope of your review. I have, however, thought that a few extracts from it might not prove unsuitable to your miscellaneous department. The first I shall give respects the labours of the Roman Catholic Missionaries in Canada, during the time when that province was under the dominion of France. "As for the Missionaries," says Mr. M. "if sufferings and hardships in the prosecution of the great work which they had undertaken, deserved applause and admiration, they had an undoubted claim to be admired and applauded: they spared no labour and avoided no danger in the execution of their important office; and it is to be seriously lamented, that their pious endeavours did not meet with the success they deserved; for there is hardly a trace to be found, beyond the cultivated parts, of their meritorious functions. "The cause of this failure must be attributed to the want of due consideration in the mode employed by the Missionaries to propagate the religion of which they were the zealous ministers. They habituated themselves to the savage life, and naturalized themselves to the savage manners, and by thus becoming dependant, as it were, on the natives, they acquir ed their contempt rather than their veneration. If they had been as well acquainted with human nature as they were with the articles of their faith, they would have known that the uncultivated mind of an Indian must be disposed, by much preparatory method and instruction, to receive the revealed truths of christianity, to act under its sanctions, and be impelled to good by the hope of its reward, or turned from evil by the fear of its punishments. They should have begun their work by teaching some of those useful arts which are the inlets of knowledge, and lead the mind by degrees to objects of higher comprehension. Agriculture so formed to fix and combine society, and so preparatory to objects of superior consideration, should have been the first thing introduced among a savage people: it attaches the wandering tribe to that spot where it adds so much to their comforts: while it gives them a sense of property and of lasting possession, instead of the uncertain hopes of the chase, and the fugitive produce of uncultivated wilds. Such were the means by which the forests of Para guay were converted into a scene of abundant cultivation, and its savage inhabitants introduced to all the ad vantages of civilized life. "The Canadian Missionaries should have been contented to improve the morals of their own countrymen, so that, by meliorating their character and conduct, they would have given a striking example of the effect of religion in promoting the comforts of life to the surrounding savages; and might by degrees have extended its benign influence to the remotest regions of that country, which was the object, and intended to be the scene, of their evangelical labours. But by bearing the light of the gospel at once to the distance of two thousand five hundred miles from the civilized part of the colonies, it was soon obscured by the cloud of ignorance that dark ened the human mind in those distant regions. The whole of their long rout I have often travelled, and the recollection of such a people as the Missionaries having been there was confined to a few superannuated Canadians, who had not left that country since the cession to the English in 1763, and who particularly mentioned the death of some, and the distressing situation of them all." In another part of his work Mr. Mackenzie gives an account of the mythology of the Chepewyan Indians, in which it is not a little curious to trace the resemblance which it bears, in some very important particulars, to the Mosaic history; a circumstance which, when the position of the Chepewyan country is considered, serves not a little to corroborate the truth of that history. See, on this subject, Faber's Hora Mosaicæ, p. 12, and your review of it, Vol. 1802, p. 588. "The notion which these people entertain of the creation, is of a very singular nature. They believe that, at the first, the globe was one' vast and entire ocean, inhabited by no living creature, except a mighty bird, whose eyes were fire, whose glances were lightning, and the clap. ping of whose wings was thunder. On his descent to the ocean, and touching it, the earth instantly arose, and remained on the surface of the waters. This omnipotent bird then called forth all the variety of animals from the earth, except the Chepewyans, who were produced from a dog; and this circumstance occasions their aversion to the flesh of that ani mal, as well as the people who eat it. This extraordinary tradition proceeds to relate, that the great bird having finished his work made an arrow, which was to be preserved with great care, and to remain untouched; but that the Chepewyans were so devoid of understanding as to carry it away; and the sacrilege so enraged the great bird that he has never since appeared. "They have also a tradition a mongst them, that they originally came from another country, inhabited by very wicked people, and had traversed a great lake, which was narrow, shallow, and full of islands, where they had suffered great misery, it be ing always winter, with ice and deep snow. At the Copper-mine River, where they made the first land, the ground was covered with copper, over which a body of earth had since been collected, to the depth of a man's height. They believe also that, in ancient times, their ancestors lived till their feet were worn out with walking and their throats with eating. They describe a deluge when the waters spread over the whole earth, except the highest mountains, on the tops of which they preserved themselves. "They believe that immediately af ter their death they pass into another world, where they arrive at a large river, on which they embark in a stone canoe, and that a gentle cur rent bears them to an extensive lake, "They have some faint notions of the transmigration of the soul; so that if a child be born with teeth they in stantly imagine, from its premature appearance, that it bears a resemblance to some person who had lived to an advanced period, and that he has assumed a renovated life with these extraordinary tokens of maturity." Iobserve that the hope of finding a north-west passage to the Pacific Ocean, which your correspondent ANGLICANUS, (Vol. 1802, p. 358,) endeavoured to revive, is completely extinguished by the result of Mr. Mackenzie's persevering researches. Not a doubt can now remain on the subject. and Meeting houses for ers. Syna gogues. tants, for Foreign Roman Catholics, and for those of the Russian or Greek Church. } 6{ For the Jewish Re Total 428 Places of public Worship. I subjoin for the information of your readers, a few particulars extracted from the same interesting work, which seem to have some connection with the subject of Memor's inquiry. In the metropolis there are 62 Public Seminaries, 122 Alms-houses and Asylums for the Indigent and Helpless, Hospitals for Sick, Lame, and Diseased, and for pregnant. Women, 17 13 Dispensaries, 704 Friendly Societies, and other Institutions for charitable and Besides a number of societies for the humane Purposes. purpose of promoting the interests of religion and morality. JOSEPHUS. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I AM a man now drawing near to fifty, and I am going to tell you how I have passed my days. When I was about twenty-two, I was young; er partner in a manufactory situated in one of our great borough towns. We were then in the midst of the American war, and I well remember that we had a general election in the year after I rose to be a trader on my own account. I was for the time very great with our opposition candidate, and I thought, as he did, that the war was unjust, and that we should never thrive till that wicked ministry was overthrown. It was my firm persuasion that we might have overturned them a twelvemonth sooner than we did, if we had but pushed our victory; for when it was voted that the influence of the crown was increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished, it followed of course, as I used to say, that minis try ought at once to resign. In about one year more, however, we completely did the business. You are not to suppose that I was myself in parliament. I was, nevertheless, as great a politician as any there, and always thought that the strongest opposition speeches were the best. I myself drew up the petition for a reform, which went from our town, and a most determined one it was; for it said, that nothing short of this could save the country, or secure those unalienable rights and privileges which belong to every British subject. Well, Sir, after a few years more, I grew cool on these political topics; for Mr. Fox's India Bill exceedingly dissatisfied me, and I was not well pleased at the coalition. At the following election I slipt out of town, and though much solicited gave a vote for neither candidate; and I have been almost equally indifferent in all succeeding elections." Mr. Pitt," I was used to say, "may be a very able man, but there is much to be said on both sides; and, on the whole, it is but a thankless task to take up either one party or the other. Once in seven years, indeed, our members are wonderfully civil, but during the other six it is well if we are not quite forgotten. In short,what business have we men in trade with political matters? Which ever side rises to the top it is much the same to us country manufacturers." I was moreover called away from politics by my being much occupied, about this time, by some questions in chemistry and natural philosophy, to which, indeed, the nature of my manufacturing business in some degree justified an attention. Do you know, Sir, that I myself wrote a paper on the subject of Phlogiston, which I, at that moment, conceived to be one of the most important of modern discoveries; and when all the new modes of making air were invented, I was one of the most busy in those experiments. Once I myself assisted in filling a balloon with gas, and thought of mounting in it. To my great grief, however, our the ory of phlogiston was controverted, and has since nearly been overthrown: and as to balloons, from which I had expected so much, I must own that I myself came over to the opinion that they never could be turned to any material use. In short, I grew sick of all philosophy. It now, indeed, became inconvenient to pursue it, for my partner died, and my family in creased; and under such circumstances I thought it necessary to look a little to the main chance. Instead, therefore, of inventing theories, which never put a shilling into a man's pocket, I betook myself to my own proper trade. My whole pride con sisted in seeing that my manufactory was well conducted; that my cus tomers were pleased; that my article was of the very best quality; and, above all, that the nett profits came in to me in sufficient quantity. In about two years, by severe labour, I rose almost to the very top of my profes sion; and in five or six years more I gained near twenty thousand pounds, which was a great comfort to me. At this time I spent little, and as to charity, to say the truth, I had not time to think of it; for I scarcely spoke to any one except on affairs of business, so that whatsoever I said or did turned into money. Now and then indeed my conscience whispered that I was pushing too far this pursuit of gain: but I excused myself by pleading that it was in my nature to be eager, and, at length, I enjoyed the satisfaction of reflecting that my covetousness, if such it was, had completely left me. My dear wife died, as did also my eldest son, for whose sake, principally, I had wished to amass a fortune. Well, Sir, what was now to be done? I resolved to quit business altogether. So I sold my share in the manufactory to the junior partner, and having a consider able sum of money in hand I bought some land in the neighbourhood, and soon became an excellent agricultu rist. Agriculture, I now said, is the true support of this and of every other country. The extent even of |