disposed to give them a hospitable reception, have received instruction with gratitude, and have readily granted such portions of land as have been fairly purchased. So notorious has this truth become, that it was early remarked by the voyagers on the South Sea, that an unfriendly reception by the natives was a sure sign that white men had already visited them. It was the wanton violation of the most sacred rights of the Aborigines-since their right to all the extent of country actually occupied and made use of by them in any shape, cannot be denied without shaking the foundations of all property whatever-it is then this wanton viviation of the rights of the Aborigines that has swept whole nations from the face of the earth, thinned the ranks of their oppressors, embittered the natures of men with deadly hatred against each other and checked the whole course of civilization. It is melancholy to reflect that much of the unwise and inconsiderate conduct, which has almost, without exception, characterized the conduct of settlers among uncivilized nations, may be traced to a false conception of the nature of the doctrines of Christianity. When Columbus first proclaimed the existence of a new world, the Portuguese had already made advances in discovery towards the east, as he had in the west. The Pope claimed in right of his spiritual capacity as vice-gerent of Christ, dominion over the whole world, and the right of ejecting any monarch or nation who did not submit to his authority. This pretended power, although never much relished, had on more than one occasion been acquiesced in, even in Europe; it is not surprising, therefore, that the rulers of Spain and Portugal received with gratitude the investiture of one-half the world, which his Holiness graciously granted between them. These colonies went forth, not as peaceable settlers, but as lords and masters of the lives and properties of the natives, who, if they dared to complain, were treated as rebels. The insolent and overbearing conduct of the Spaniards soon roused the natives, who had received the strangers with such kindness and hospitality, that Columbus himself had declared "there was not a better people in the world." Hispaniola was the first scene of Spanish violence, and this very Columbus, at the head of 200 foot, 20 horse, and 20 large dogs, attacked the assembled army of the natives in the night, routed them with much slaughter, but without the loss of one man on his own side, reduced many to slavery, and utterly broke the spirits of the rest. "In vain the simple race Kneel'd to the iron sceptre of their grace, Or with weak arms their fiery vengeance braved; They came, they saw, they conquer'd, they enslaved, And they destroy'd! The generous heart they broke; They crush'd the timid neck beneath the yoke ; The cruelties of the Spaniards and Portuguese are notorious, and the names of Cortez and Pizarro have become bye-words; but other nations were not behind them in the race of oppression. To be a heathen was crime sufficient in the eyes of protestants as well as papists, although without the same specious pretext to cast a man out from all claim to equality with a Christian; and accordingly protestant princes were as liberal in their gifts of other people's property as the popes, and their subjects quite as ready to act upon them, with the usual results. Of all classes of emigrants, that body known and venerated under the title of " The Pilgrim Fathers," a body of men who were the victims of oppression, might have been expected to have acted with justice towards the Indians; but so far was this from being the case, that their first possessions were obtained by force, and all they purchased afterwards was first occupied and then bargained for at their own price. One worthy exception there was. Roger Williams, the pastor of a company who followed the first-comers, and established themselves in Providence and Rhode Island, refused to set a foot in the territory before it had been honestly bought and paid for. His name, and that of William Penn, will go down coupled together as two of the brightest ornaments of humanity. Disputes between the New Englanders and the Indians soon ran high; they were from the first unwelcome visitors, the Indians having already suffered from the kidnapping propensities of one Captain Hunt, who had carried many of them off and sold them for slaves. The few purchases that were made were agreed to reluctantly by the Indians, who were further exasperated at the aggressions made by the whites in occupying unpurchased lands. A general league was made by them to drive out or exterminate the English, and a war carried on with the utmost barbarity on both sides, and in which the English showed themselves no whit behind those "devils incarnate," as the Indians are termed by Cotton Mather, who says, unless he had "a pen made of a porcupine's quill, and dipped in aqua-fortis, he could not describe all RIGHTS OF THE ABORIGINES.-OUR PEASANTRY. their cruelties." The assembly granted rewards for scalps of men, women, and children, at rates varying in different years, and on one occasion rising to the enormous price of 1000l. for every scalp brought in by a volunteer; and consequently scalp-hunting was much followed as a profitable sport, and such scenes as are represented at the head of this article were frequent. In 1722, when the premium was 100%., a certain Captain Lovell "collected," says Raynal, "a band of settlers as ferocious as himself, and set out to hunt savages. One day he discovered ten of them quietly sleeping around a large fire. He murdered them, carried their scalps to Boston, and secured the promised reward, of course 1000. Who could suppose that the land of the Pilgrim Fathers, the land of the noble Roger Williams, could have become polluted with horrors like these?" The same system has, however, continued in operation even to our own days. The troops of the United States are even now hunting the Seminoles of Florida with bloodhounds, even as Columbus hunted the Caribs of Hispaniola. The execrable system of Commandoes,-combined bodies of colonists and troops who hunted the Caffres from district to district, carrying off cattle, burning villages, and destroying crops on the slightest pretext, has not long been done away with. It is, however, cheering to know that very different feelings with regard to the rights of aborigines are beginning to be entertained. The great triumph over blind prejudice was, the abolition of Negro slavery; and its fruit is not confined to the West Indies. A better treatment of the natives of the Cape has been adopted successfully: part of their lands have been restored to them; and in some places protectors of the aborigines have been appointed. At home, an Aborigines' Protection Society has been instituted; but no plan ever devised or suggested for the amelioration of native tribes can surpass that adopted by the New Zealand Company, who have in this respect set the world a most noble example. In every division of the lands they have purchased,—and by no other means can they acquire a foot of ground,-one tenth part of both town and country lots is set apart for the natives, and distributed among them, not in one block, separated from the portions of the settlers, but mingled with theirs. The natives are thus put upon an equal footing with the new-comers; no invidious distinctions are kept up; but natives and settlers, being next-door neighbours, will, it is hoped, live in peace and unity, deriving mutual benefit from the peculiar knowledge and qualifications of each other; and thus being amalgamated in one society, possessing the same interests, will eventually become one people,-brothers, not in name only, but in reality, and become the progenitors of a great nation. Such is, indeed, the triumph of Civilization!-E. OUR PEASANTRY. 115 I INVITE you now to reflect on the state of our remoter hamlets, and the villages scattered through every rural province: for these-though less terrific in many of the manifestations of the force of national depravity, or the direct causes of danger to the commonwealth, than those of our crowded towns and great manufacturing districts-possess features of peculiar exigency, and claims the most urgent on your sympathy and prompt regard. There, truly, you do not usually encounter the menacing and gigantic forms of an active and virulent infidelity, or of a total disregard of social order,—or of the ceaseless perturbations of political disquiet,—or of a shameless and unblushing hardihood in vice, which evinces as much the obliteration of our instinctive propensities, as the destruction and denial of all the laws and sanctions of morality. To the casual observer you find not there revealed that fury, not of the passions, but the principles of moral turpitude, from which we shrink away heartstricken and appalled, so that no hope remains, nor any remedy might seem proportioned or adapted to a case so terrible. You do not witness that calm ferocity, that theoretic baseness at once of sentiment and feeling, which makes you shudder as if in presence of a fiend. You are not met at every step by that arrogant and vulgar defiance, which seems to dispute your passage, or forbid your approach, and to be secretly measuring its own brute strength against all the protections of the law and the safeguards of civilized society. You are less in apprehension from the nightly robber, or the dagger of the assassin, and the deadly stroke of popular revenge. You do not breathe infection from dwellings crowded with all that is loathsome and obscene. Effrontery and blasphemy do not seem the only confederated powers by which all is commanded, and into whose dark domain no holier or kindlier influence could find admission. The debauchery you witness is not allied to homelessness, and tatters, and disease. The sepulchre is garnished, and the corpse bestrewed with flowers. But, oh! forget not that you are still treading within the confines of misery and of spiritual death. I do not remind you of the incendiary, consuming the very harvest his own hands may have contri|buted to reap. I say nothing of the rare and casual murderer. I will not weary you with the recital of the unnumbered acts of tyranny on the one hand, and of the deep and brooding hatred on the other, which would be found amongst the different orders of our agricultural population. But I must point you to the fact, so humbling, yet so indisputable, that where you might have hoped to discover only the abodes of rustic quiet and simplicity,-amidst smiling orchards and fields of richest fragrancethe fairest landscapes and the loveliest cottages,you discover a new form of evil, almost unknown I 2 to cities, and scarcely ever seen in equal power in the seats of commerce and of manufacturing industry. It is not its active, but its passive forceits vis inertice and mere immobility of nature,-that power by which it repels all that is gentle, and quenches all that is ardent, while it remains impenetrable to all that is energetic in benevolence. There it is, pre-eminently, that you are thwarted by the insensibility of the vulgar mind, and see the different classes on which you desire to operate cramped by the most sordid avarice, or chilled by poverty into apathy for all but brutal appetites, and the supply of physical necessities. Man's affinities seem elsewhere those of the demon; there, of the beasts that perish. There may seem less to fear; but there is less also to hope. The state of our peasantry is in many places that of gross and palpable superstition, bordering on the paganism of other ages, and little removed from the idolatry which they were so long instructed to regard as Christian worship. Their hopes and fears of immortality are alike inoperative; their belief in an unseen state only a modification of the most puerile delusions; their conceptions of religious duty the feeblest and the most obscure; and their trust for the forgiveness of sin and the enjoyment of future happiness, reposed on the performance of a ceremonial, not more intelligible to them than the mummeries of an enchanter, nor having a whit more of sanctity before God than the feasts of the New Zealander, or the sacrifices of the Hindoo. They cherish, undoubtedly, a reverence for forms, and services, and hallowed places, and the functions, not perhaps the persons, of the priesthood; but of the meaning and design of anything which they thus do or acknowledge, or of the nature, will, and mercy of the Deity, and especially of that method of reconciliation he has promulgated in the gospel, they are profoundly and invincibly ignorant. To multitudes among them the tidings of salvation are as strange a sound, as if the very name of Jesus had never been uttered amongst men. Every fact connected with the history, every principle included in the doctrine of redemption, is positively non-existent to their minds. The Sabbath is utterly neglected, except as it furnishes opportunity for idleness or sinful merriment. The Scriptures are unread, and unknown to tens of thousands. The intemperance which breaks forth in riot and wanton violence in our more populous towns, is there converted into stupid and beastly intoxication. The fierceness which is elsewhere exhibited in the ebullitions of maddening fury, scattering devastation and death at every step, is there beheld collected, cool, and pitiless, as it gloats over the brutality of private contest, and derives from the bloodshed of some ignoble strife its sweetest pleasures and most stimulating luxury. The most sanguinary sports afford their highest recreation, and profaneness and cruelty their most cherished indulgence. In no circumstances do you see exemplified more strikingly that solemn declaration; they are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and there is no illustration more impressive of the import of this statement: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. If, now, collecting your observations, and seeking to ascertain the total amount of sobriety, of moral purity, and of the fear of God, throughout the habitations of our English peasantry, you reflect what are the proportionate numbers of those who seriously attend upon his worship, to those who witness it with irreverence and thoughtlessness, or else utterly neglect it, or what the character of those public ministrations to which, in many an extensive neighbourhood, they are called to listen, or what provision is made for their personal or domestic instruction, or for the religious education of their children, of such a kind as to give any promise that it shall ever issue in their salvation,— or what the degree wherein the direct care of these perishing and necessitous beings has hitherto engaged the solicitude, or called forth the exertions, of their most zealous and generous countrymen,— I am persuaded you will unite with me in the humiliating acknowledgment, that their state is one of deep and complicated wretchedness; and that it behoves us all to give to it our most deliberate and earnest attention.-Rev. Dr. Mc AU. MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR INVENTION. IT is indisputably evident that a great part of every man's life must be employed in collecting materials for the exercise of genius. Invention, strictly speaking, is little more than a new combination of those images which have been previously gathered and deposited in the memory; nothing can be made of nothing. He that has laid up no materials, can produce no combinations.-Sir J. Reynolds. A CONTRAST. THE small kingdom of Saxony contains 63 printing establishments; 46 for lithographic printing, and 9 for copper-plate. Of these Leipsic alone is said to contain 39, with 120 common presses and 10 printing machines, employing 614 compositors and pressmen. Contrast with this the town of Lorient, in France; it has a population of 20,000 souls, and yet publishes not so much as an advertising sheet.-Publishers' Circular. A CHAPTER FOR THE YOUNG. A CHAPTER FOR THE YOUNG. SWARTZ, THE MISSIONARY. NO. II. ALREADY We have contemplated this illustrious man, as he proceeded hither and thither on his errand of mercy. The usual conveyance in India, one particularly suited to the climate, and equally agreeable and indulgent, is the palankeen. Of an oblong shape, having on both sides two sliding doors to be shut or opened at pleasure, and a wooden canopy above, sheltering from the sun, it furnishes either a good seat or a comfortable bed. A long pole fixed in either end, and fastened with iron rods to the body of this conveyance, supplies the support with which three bearers before and three behind bear its inmate along, answering to one another, first in a low murmur, and then in a regular shout, by way of encouragement in their labour, and to keep time and tune as they advance. It is at once a striking proof of the self-denial and energy of Swartz, that for twenty years he refrained from the use of a palankeen, travelling with a single attendant, who carried his small stock of linen; but this was accordant with his whole character. In the simplicity of his habits, and in his refusal of comforts which to most, if not all his successors, must be absolutely indispensable, he approximated in spirit to the great apostle, who said, "I seek not yours, but you." Like Paul, also, it was given to him to suffer for the sake of Christ. In a letter to a friend, he says: —“By the mercy of God we stand and are preserved. By Him only; for if the enemy had power, he had swallowed us up long ago. Last Sunday happened a peculiar case to us. A young man who came to us with his father and mother, six months ago, grew in true wisdom; and besides showed a truly Christian spirit, almost above any of our catechists. The Roman Catholic people have tried to delude him by persuasion, bribes, and at last threatenings. All proving ineffectual, they fell, twenty or more of them, upon the young man last Sunday, and nearly killed him. For three hours the poor creature was senseless. I heard it at ten o'clock, but could not see to him till twelve. I went with the doctor and found him senseless, but after bleeding he came to himself. His chest is miserably hurt. The occasion was shortly this: One of the young man's near relations came from the country and fell sick. In his sickness he called for this young man, Nyánapracásam, who was reading to him, and praying with him for three days. In the course of Saturday night he died. Then came the papists to bury him; but seeing this young man, desired him to go away, on account of his having received the parrei, or law. He replied, 'If your catechist comes and tells me so, I will go.' As soon as the catechist came, he struck the young man 117 with his slippers, and then all fell on him, dragging him through the street. The heathens cried out, "Will you murder the young man?' They are of their father the devil, and of the pope. However, the young man praiseth God, and is not dismayed." Joys were, however, mingled with the missionary's sorrows. While he had to acknowledge, which he did most ingenuously, that some of whom he hoped well, professed Christianity only for a time, some converts gave the most pleasing and satisfactory proofs of sincerity. The following is an instance of this kind :— A young Pandaram, who, for nearly seven years, had resorted to all the celebrated pagodas and reported sacred orators, without finding rest to his soul, was accosted by Swartz one afternoon, near the river. He acknowledged that he had often entertained doubts as to the whole of the heathen ceremonies. A Roman Catholic had given him a little brazen crucifix: this he had carried about him, and often, as he stated, he had placed it before him for worship. "To-day," he said, "I was at the river, and, beholding the numerous pagodas of Sirengam, I thought within myself, What is all this? What can it avail? Just as I was thinking thus, your catechist approached and recommended Christianity to me. I will now see what effects your doctrines will have. If I discover in them anything better than I have found in heathenism, I will cheerfully embrace them." Swartz recommended the inquirer to remain with him and his friends for a fortnight; to attend to his doctrines with becoming seriousness and prayer; honestly to state the doubts he might at any time feel; and when he had acquired some Christian knowledge, to determine what he would do. Pleased with the proposal, he did so, and at length voluntarily laid aside his Pandaram's habit, and gave up his string of a particular kind of corn, which both pagans and papists use as a rosary, counting by the beads which form it the number of prayers they repeat. What a reward was here for much solicitude and toil! Another instance of usefulness may also be given. A young man resolved to attend the devotional exercises of the missionaries one evening, heard the word of God explained, joined in prayer, and determined to cast in his lot with the followers of Christ. He had been seeking true happiness, and he believed he had found it here in true religion. He was engaged to marry the daughter of a rich man at Seringham, and told his mother that he would fain do so, but not with idolatrous rites; and her reply was that of a heathen, "I wish I had killed you as soon as you were born." "His relatives got him cunningly," says Swartz, "and kept him a close prisoner, but he found an opportunity of making his escape, and came hither to Tanjore. His mother and others made a great noise, and came and begged I would not admit him. I replied, in the presence of the Brahmins and a num ber of people, that I never forced anybody; but that I could not eject him if he desired me to instruct him. Further, I said, there he is; ask him whether he likes to go with you or stay with us. The young man said, 'Mother and friends, if you will show me a better way to heaven I will follow you; but I will not live any longer in idolatry.' I remained in my house; the young man went out, his relations followed him, and fairly carried him | off to Vellum; but he again contrived to make his escape. After that I instructed him daily, and baptized him. May Jesus triumph over all his enemies shortly!" On the death of Hyder Ally at an advanced age, he was succeeded by his son Tippoo, who inherited his father's ambition and relentless hostility to the English. The scourge of war, therefore, continued to be felt. At length the sultan, as he styled himself, proposed negotiations for a treaty of peace, and Swartz was requested by the governor of Madras to join the commissioners as their interpreter. Anxious to be useful in any way, he acceded, but after suffering many inconveniencies in his journey, peace was suddenly concluded before he reached its end. To some friends he afterwards writes "To this day I do not know why I was not permitted to proceed. One said it was because Tippoo would not treat till Mangalore was in his possession. Some entertained other conjectures I thank God for his mercy and providence over me. I should have been very glad if I could have been an instrument in that great work of peace-making. But who knows but there might have been temptations too great for me? In short, whatever God does is right, and the best for us." It must not be supposed that any change for the better had passed on Tippoo. He surpassed his father in enterprise, and augmented his army every day. He ordered every commandant who surrendered a fortress to the English to be hung. He compelled 12,000 children, carried captives from Tanjore, to become Mohammedans. He did all in his power to destroy the Malabar Roman Catholics. In the bitter and relentless spirit of his creed, he would have no subjects except pagans, or the followers of the false prophet. Swartz discovered great zeal in the education of the young, for besides their own need of the blessings of the gospel, he recognised in them the parents of the next generation. Another pleasing fact he thus communicates :-" As to the Malabar church which I have been building in the suburbs, General Munro encouraged me by giving me fifty pagodas; but when I found that the stones I needed for the foundation cost twenty-five pagodas, without chunam, I thought I should soon stop my mill for want of water; but the rajah having given me some gold cloths at the time of Lord Pigot's arrival, | when the general was lately here, I took them to the merchants, who, to my agreable surprise, valued | them at one hundred and thirty-six pagodas; so that I could prosecute my plan without interruption. I hope that God, who has so graciously furnished me with the means to build a house of prayer, will fill it also with spiritual children, to the praise of his name. He is strong who has promised us such glorious things. Read for that purpose my favourite chapter of Isaiah, xlix., verses 4-7, 18-20. I cheerfully believe that God will build the waste places of this country. But should it be done after we are laid in the grave, what harm? This country is covered with thorns; let us plough and sow good seed, and entreat the Lord to make it spring up. Our labour in the Lord, in his cause and for his glory, will not be be in vain." On the restoration of peace to India, Tanjore was in a deplorable condition. War had reduced the rajah to great distress; and to this, incurable disease and poignant bereavement were added. Unhappily, Tuljajee, regardless of the consolations of true religion, shut himself up in his palace in hopeless despondency. Avarice now became his ruling passion; and his upright sirkeel, or chief minister, was succeeded by one notorious for his rapacity. Groaning under the rigours of accumulated oppression, the people appealed to the rajah for redress, but in vain. At length they abandoned their country, and fled in crowds to neighbouring districts, in one of which, then possessed by the French, they were received with the utmost kindness. Several populous towns and villages were deserted, and whole districts lay waste for want of culture. The rajah, after some delay, announced his intention to do full justice to his people; but they distrusted his promises, and rejected his offers. He then had recourse to the missionary, and requested him to assure them, in his own name, of his highness's protection; and such was their confidence in his integrity, that 7000 of the emigrants at once returned: others soon followed; and on his reminding them that the best season for the culture of the land had nearly elapsed, they replied, "As you have shown kindness to us, we intend to work night and day, to manifest our regard for you." And so great were their efforts, in accordance with this declaration, that the harvest surpassed that of the preceding year. The confidence thus displayed by the people, was remarkably exhibited also by the rajah; for, having adopted a boy, whom he loved with the fondness of a father, he thus addressed Swartz :-" This is not my, but your son; into your hands and care I deliver the child." The charge thus entrusted to him was, however, the source of many and great anxieties. Age was rapidly advancing; but this devoted man was still unwearied in labour. "I am now," he writes, “at the brink of eternity; but to this moment I declare that I do not repent of having spent forty-three years in the service of my Divine |