Besides others, so numerous it would be tedious to carry on the list; and these will be amply sufficient to prove the importance of the object.

With scarcely any exception, all these have no religious instruction whatever. In some cases they are annexed to parishes on the main land, which is worse than useless, as the idea they are thus provided for, prevents any further exertion on their behalf, and the distance often of ten, fifteen, or twenty miles, utterly prevents their deriving the smallest good from this arrangement. Then it remains to be asked, how can we best assist them? Anderson inquires, ‘Why may not every island, containing fifty immortal beings, have a circulating Irish teacher?' And why not? the expense would be trifling. Let the plan once be begun, by those whose names will guarantee their conduct, and we shall see contributions flow in for its support.

We have sufficient reason to know the poor natives would welcome those who would read to them, and teach them to read for themselves the story of peace,' as their language expresses it. The same writer

mentions an instance of a school-master who was in the habit of reading the New Testament to his neighbours, and as a proof this labour was not lost, one of them brought a candle to him alternately, and they would interrupt him, by calling out read it

again, read it again,' when he came to their favourite passages. Such has been the eagerness to obtain education, that children have been known to acquire the first elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic, without a book, without a pen, without a slate. Their place of meeting was a grave-yard, the inscriptions on the stones were used instead of books, while a bit of chalk and the grave-stones served for the rest,' 'Then we can mention evening scholars who have endeavoured to go on by the help of moonlight for want of a candle, and even adults who have learned to read in so short a period, that until the facts are examined or witnessed they may seem incredible.' "They are naturally shrewd, and as far as education goes, superior in quickness of perception to any peasantry in the empire; often cheerful under circumstances which in others would have induced habitual melancholy, retaining a buoyancy of mind under frequent extremity, and so susceptible of gratitude for disinterested kindness, there are none who know them thoroughly who would not say

'And I have loved them better still

E'en in extremity of ill.'

But in this proposed plan of instruction, it must be the Irish language that will touch their hearts, it must be in the tongue their mother gave them ' ' that they will hear the words of life, for surely none but the one we think in, will be likely to awaken feeling, or go home to the conscience with power. Most of these islanders do not understand English, and ought we to delay the glad tidings of salvation until they have acquired a new language, when we know that

1 Native expression.

man "is as the grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth." And those who are in some degree acquainted with English have no feelings touched by it. Take as an illustration, an anecdote in Otway's Sketches in Ireland.'

'And

And

'A shower of rain drove us to seek shelter in the house of the man who looks after the pheasants. He was alone; and with all the civility that never deserts an Irishman, he welcomed us, in God's name, and produced seats which he took care to wipe with his great coat before he permitted us to sit on them. On enquiring why he was alone, and where were his family, he said they were all gone to Watch Mass. (It was the Saturday before Easter Sunday.) · And what is the Watch Mass?' He could not tell. what day was yesterday?' He could not tell. what day will to-morrow be?' He could not tell. What! cannot you tell me why yesterday has been called Good Friday, and to-morrow Easter Sunday?' 'No.' Turning to my companion I observed how deplorable it was to see men otherwise so intelligent, so awfully ignorant concerning matters connected with religion. Not so fast with your judgment, my good sir,' said my friend,' what if you prove much mistaken in this instance; recollect you are speaking to him in a foreign tongue. Come now, I understand enough of Irish to try his mind in his native dialect.' Accordingly he did so, and it was surprising to see how the man brightened up as soon as the Irish was spoken, and I could perceive from the smile on my friend's countenance how he rejoiced in his success, and he began to translate for me as follows: 'I asked him what was Good Friday?' 'It

was on that day that the Lord of mercy gave his life for sinners a hundred thousand blessings to him for that.. What is Watch Saturday?' It was the day when watch was kept over the holy tomb that held the incorruptible body of my Saviour.' Thus the man gave, in Irish, clear and feeling answers to questions concerning which, when addressed in English, he appeared quite ignorant and yet of common English words and phrases he had the use, but like most of his countrymen in the south, his mind was groping in foreign parts when conversing in English, and he only seemed to think in Irish;the one was the language of his commerce-the other of his heart.",

ALEPH.

[Our correspondent seems not to be aware of the missionary settlement, now beginning to flourish, in the island of Achill; or of the fact that the readers of the Christian Lady's Magazine have already contributed sufficient to prepare one divinity student for the blessed work of evangelizing these people. Their situation, characters and wants, are faithfully and graphically displayed in that invaluable work from which we find, on examination, that the matter of Aleph's letter is fairly extracted, though not always verbatim. Christopher Anderson's Historical Sketches of the Native Irish and their Descendants,' has been for six years our own favourite guide, and our unfailing encouragement in the humble endeavour to promote the spiritual good of these our neglected, but most interesting fellow-subjects.— EDITOR.]

CROSS WRITING.

PERCEIVING that the pages of the Magazinę are so impartially thrown open to Reprovers; and knowing that nothing is so easy, so natural and philanthropic as finding fault; I am inclined to invite the attention of the Editor and her readers to a matter, trivial in itself, and perhaps, to the great bulk of mankind, quite indifferent; but which, as it nearly concerns a reasonable portion of the reading public, is not unworthy the attention of the writing portion thereof.

The

Of late years a custom has been introduced, and is daily gaining ground, which I would fain protest against; assured of carrying with me the hearty, though perhaps concealed assent of many a friend whose visual organs, like nine, are somewhat the worse for wear. I allude to the practice of crossing the lines in letters; for I don't think it has yet proceeded into the higher fields of literature. good old days of epistolary black-letter, when every character was as round and as well-defined as the deliberate pen could mark it, I no more expect to behold again, than I look for a restoration of the reign of periwigs: but it is rather hard upon such as I, when the delicately cut lines of a patent pen, dipped in ink that perchance scarcely tinges the paper, are farther mystified by the endless intersections of transverse bows and flourishes, rendering it