never, for a moment, contemplate the dearest one I have lost, but as a glorified spirit! Oh, may I be permitted to follow in the Lord's due time, and have my lot with her for ever! Oh, Shepherd of Israel, gather me and mine into thy fold, and preserve us to the end."

Being now bereaved of his greatest earthly comfort, a privation which can be fully appreciated by those only who have experienced it, the mind of our friend was evidently drawn to seek with greater intensity of desire, a nearer access to the Fountain of unfailing consolation; and the prospect of engaging anew in the active concerns of life, was one from which he was ready to recoil. His employment as a public lecturer appears to have been particularly burdensome, and none the less so from the plaudits which those lectures frequently elicited. But he apprehended his duty required the sacrifice. And we may easily conceive that a public teacher whose mind was so copiously replenished with the treasures of science, and so accustomed to look through nature up to nature's God, would render his communications doubly instructive. Indeed, the sketches of the introductory or concluding portions of his lectures, which we find scattered through these volumes, authorize the conclusion, that the withdrawal of his instructions would have been a serious loss to his auditors, in a religious as well as scientific point of view. And it can scarcely be doubted that a mind so keenly sensitive and habitually active, as that of William Allen, required some definite and interesting object on which to employ its energies, and prevent the painful corrosion of thought which his recent bereavement was likely to produce.

At the end of 1816, he remarks: "the year which has now closed has been singularly awful to me. In it I have lost my precious Charlotte, who was the balm of my life, my comfort and support under all my trials and labours for the good of others. In this year also, I have lost my dear fellow-labourer in the great cause of the education of the poor, Joseph Fox; and here am I left behind; yet truly, I must acknowledge that the Almighty hath been good to his poor afflicted servant. Lord, preserve me!"

in the work of moral and physical reforms. Acting himself on the broad principles of Christian benevolence, he retained his influence with men who were estranged from each other by political jealousies. Hence he appears to have acted as a medium for producing an union of effort among individuals, who, without such a medium, could not easily coalesce. And while he improved his intercourse with men occupying the most elevated position in society, to sustain and advance the general good, he was evidently solicitous to maintain an unflinching testimony to the plainness and simplicity of his own religious profession.

In the summer of this year (1817) W. Allen accompanied two female ministers from America, H. Field and E. Barker, on a religious visit to the little society professing with us, in the south of France. They had the company of Josiah Forster, who frequently acted as interpreter for the women Friends. In the narrative of this service we may clearly perceive the evidence of an increasing concern, in the subject of this review, to become more fully refined from the dregs of the first nature. His exercises were evidently preparatory to a more public espousal of the Master's cause than he had hitherto ventured to make. The subsequent incident shows the coincidence of exercise, which is sometimes experienced among those who are labouring in the cause of the gospel. Passing through a small town, where they had been a short time before, they stopped to allow their horses to be fed, "when a great number of tender people soon crowded into the room, and we settled down and had a very sweet and solemn meeting with them; love flowed towards them so freely in my heart, that if I had not been afraid to trust myself, on account of the language, I should have addressed them, and believe it would have been better if I had attempted it: dear H. Field, however, commenced with the very subject which was upon my mind, and was much favoured with best help in her communication. E. Barker afterwards spoke; the dear people seemed reached and affected, and I was thankful for the opportunity; surely the fields are white unto harvest."

At Congenies they found that, small as was the company, the accuser of the brethren had obtained admittance among them. There were two friends between whom some misunderstanding had arisen; on this William Allen remarks:

This affair is such a burden on my mind, that I cannot hope for any good until it is removed; for I clearly see that unless this be accomplished, it is vain to endeavour to build them

"In the evening we met the friends concerned; my anxiety was great for the re-establishment of harmony. I requested that we might have a pause before entering on the investigation of the matter, that we might seek

that divine help in which alone our strength consists. After some time dear H. Field spoke excellently. Josiah interpreted. I was pressed in spirit in much affection to address them. Josiah and E. Barker also spoke very suitably. We endeavoured to convince them of the importance of burying in oblivion, all that had caused any disunity amongst them. I think that on no occasion, since we came from home, have we so sensibly felt the presence of our Lord as at this time.

"After a good deal more had passed, we had a hope that they were disposed to a reconciliation; at length, the parties embraced each other with tears, and we separated under a precious covering of love. It is the Lord's doing alone, for without his gracious assistance, we could have accomplished nothing; whether the fruits will be permanent or not must be left, but we are clear, having done what we could; and it has, unquestionably, been a time of renewed divine visitation to the Friends of this part."

After an absence of nine weeks, during which time they travelled by land and water nearly two thousand miles, our friends returned to England with minds peaceful and thankful for the favours received.

One remarkable tendency in the mind of William Allen, discernible in almost every part of his diary, and which may be advantageously imitated by those who have occasion to mingle with men of various habits, conditions and education, was to observe and bring into view the amiable and valuable traits of character of the persons with whom he associated. This evident disposition to be pleased himself could not fail to render him an agreeable companion. And the urbanity of manner, which this disposition habitually cultivated necessarily produced, must have added greatly to his influence over others, and enabled him to prosecute much more efficiently, and with the aid of more numerous coadjutors, the numerous plans for the melioration of civil society which constituted a large portion of the business of his life.

(To be continued.)

For Friend's Review.

CHARLES SIMEON.

The name of Simeon is familiar to those who have watched the progress of vital piety, and, we may add, of religious controversy, in England during the last thirty years. He held opinions from which we wholly dissent; he sometimes taught as doctrine, what we cannot esteem other than the commandment of men-he verily believed himself called to do some things which we regard as tending to obstruct the spreading of the Gospel in its primitive purity. Yet his life was devoted to the promotion of the highest interests of his fellow man in that way

We are convinced that to us has been shown in many respects "a better way;" but we feel that if we have any claim to the name of a disciple, we must needs love him who was so eminently one of "the brotherhood."

Charles Simeon was born in 1759. His family was a highly respectable one; and having been educated at Eton and Cambridge, he subsequently became a Fellow of Kings' College, in that University, where, with the exception of occasional excursions, his long life was passed. Neither the training of his boyhood, nor the example of his family, contributed to promote religious sensibility, and at Eton he seems to have led a life, not of profligacy, but of reckless indifference to serious things. Yet even here he records that he was the subject of Divine visitations, and expresses his belief that "God would at that time have communicated rich blessings to him, if he had not resisted the operations of his grace and done despite to his blessed Spirit."

On entering College, in his 21st year, he was unexpectedly told that he must make a profession of religion, not by a continued course of selfdenial and humble, consistent walking with his Maker, but by taking the Sacrament, as it was termed, in compliance with that absurd canon of the English Universities, requiring under penalty of exclusion from the benefits of their course of instruction, a profession of sentiment which many of the students wholly reject, and with regard to which the greater number have no opinion at all. Simeon's ingenuous mind was struck with his own utter unfitness to take part in such a ceremonial, and, in his case, the very unusual result appears to have been a deepened conviction of his own sinfulness, and a sincere application of heart to the Saviour, and through the power of Divine grace, repentance and amendment of life. Half a century had passed since Wesley had found, upon entering Oxford, the same formal profession of Christianity and the same contempt of its restraints; the same haughty rejection of all who did not recognize the symbols of religion as by law established; the same bitter scorn of those who, professing the creed, deemed it their duty to make their lives conform to its requirements. Methodism was a recognition of the right of Christianity to control the lives of men. Its founders were slow to reject the ceremonials of the church, much less did they desire to separate from it. But the church soon rejected them, and though for a

time the influence which they had exerted for good within its precincts, lingered around them, the final withdrawal of so many serious and devout men, seems to have left the establishment to the lethargic sleep of another generation, from which its hierarchy was to be reluctantly aroused by the sound of those controversies with which its walls still reverberate.

Simeon's was not a mind to be easily brought under the drowsy influences which surrounded him. He saw the clergy hurrying irreverently through their appointed tasks to devote themselves to sensual or intellectual pleasures; he saw their smile at his devout participation in those rites, which their common creed described as a means of sanctification; he was shocked to find that nothing so surely brought down upon a member of their order the reproaches of his superiors, as an earnest and faithful performance of those duties which their vows imposed. The students were such men as the example of their spiritual guides was likely to make them. Open profanity, the disturbance of public worship, and the application of every species of annoyance to those who taught and those who acted upon sounder views of religion were the ordinary indications, by which persons who, by their own act, or that of others for them, were said to have renounced the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, showed the validity of their claims to be Christians. Such scenes only stimulated Simeon to more faithfulness in the performance of his duty. He seems to have had little opportunity of religious communion with those who were "like minded." The only clergyman in Cambridge whose views approached to the truth, as he understood it, was deterred, by the general 'character of the gownsmen, from inviting him to his house; and so much did he long for intercourse with serious persons, that he had almost determined to insert an advertisement in the public papers to promote the object. We give his proposed advertisement as a most striking indication of the state of things then existing at one of the great seats of learning in England, from which many went forth annually, professing to be "Ministers of the Word."

"A young clergyman, who felt himself an undone sinner, and looked to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation, and desired to live only to make known that Saviour unto others, was persuaded that there must be some persons in the world whose views and feelings accorded with his own, though he had now lived three years without finding so much as one; and that if there were any minister of that description, he would gladly become his curate and serve him gratis." He, however, resolved sedulously to apply himself to what he deemed his allotted duty; and if his zeal was not always according to true knowledge, it was the result of great sincerity; and being accompanied by watchfulness over himself, appears to have been often blessed to

the great good of others. On the first day that he preached in public, while returning home, his attention was arrested by the loud wrangling of a man and his wife; the door being opened, he entered and earnestly expostulated with them for absenting themselves from public worship, and for their unseemly conduct, and closed by kneeling down and praying for them. He soon became known to a few serious persons in the vicinity, and was enabled to derive instruction from social intercourse with some who, there was reason to believe, had "been in Christ before him."

Nor was it on public occasions only that he manifested his zeal for the promotion of piety. He thought it right to show forth the fruits of the Spirit in his domestic intercourse, and to reprove, with faithfulness, the levity of his family connections. They, in turn, expressed their fears that he was about to lose all common sense. Yet his patient assiduity seems at length to have given him an interest with all his associates-whether visiting from house to house, affording to servants the opportunities of religious instruction, in prison with the convicted felon, or arresting by his timely Christian caution the meditated suicide-in all things he endeavoured to be about his Father's business. "This," remarked a cotemporary, "is the young man once so vain of dress, that he constantly allowed more than £50 a year for his own person; now he scruples keeping a horse, that the money may help the saints of Christ." "Oh! to flame, as he does, with zeal, and yet be beautiful with meekness."

Abridged from the North British Review, for Friends' Review.

CHINA.

(Continued from page 134.)

Mr. Fortune, while at the Shang-hai, was particularly anxious to visit the famous city of Soo-chan, situated about fifty miles inland. As this was far beyond the limits that strangers are permitted to proceed from any of the free-port cities, Mr. Fortune resolved to adopt the Chinese dress, and visit it incognito. In this he succeeded, and found this grand city, which is the great emporium of the central provinces of China, very similar in its general features to the other towns he had visited, only it appeared more the seat of luxury and wealth, and has none of those signs of dilapidation and decay which are appa rent in such towns as Ning-po. A noble canal, as wide as the river Thames at Richmond, runs parallel with the city walls, and acts as a moat, as well as for commercial purposes. This canal is carried through arches into the city, where it ramifies in all directions, sometimes narrow and dirty, and at other places expanding into lakes of considerable beauty, thus enabling the inhabitants to convey their merchandise to their houses from the most distant parts of the country. Junks

and boats of all sizes were plying on this wide and beautiful canal, and the whole place presented a cheerful and flourishing aspect. The city gates were well guarded, and the streets and lanes inside were intersected at intervals with gates, which are closed at nine or ten o'clock at night. Groups of gay and cheerful-looking people loitered on the bridges, and sailed along the canals. The ladies here are considered by the Chinese to be the most beautiful in the country, and judging from those seen by our traveller, they deserved this character. Their dresses were of the richest material, and made in a graceful and elegant style-the only faults he could discern were their small feet and the white powder with which their faces were too unsparingly covered.

Hong-Kong is a mountainous, rocky island, about ten miles in length and five in breadth. Its northern side bends into a capacious bay, well adapted for shipping, and forming a secure harbor. Only small portions of the surface of the island are capable of tillage, the greater part consisting of bare rugged cliffs, with only a partial vegetation of green herbage during the rainy season. Already has British enterprise cut roads and streets out of the solid rocks, and the town of Victoria has risen up, containing many buildings of magnificent structure. The native population has more than trebled since the English gained possession of it, and it is now entirely under British rule and jurisdiction. The powerful heat of the sun on this bare and rugged spot, the want of a free current of ventilation from the hills of the adjoining mainland, and the noxious exhalations from the surface, all conspire to render this a trying climate for Europeans, and latterly the health of the inhabitants has suffered greatly.

Notwithstanding their inherent suspicion of all strangers, the Chinese are neither unkind nor inhospitable. Mr. Fortune, whose botanical pursuits frequently led him into the country, almost invariably met with a good reception from the peasantry, and from the inmates of such temples and religious houses as he visited. One of these excursions we shall detail in his own words, as it affords a characteristic sketch of the timid yet inquisitive and kindly manners of the Chinese peasantry :

-

"I was one day travelling amongst the hills in the interior of the island of Amoy, in places where I suppose no Englishman had ever been before. The day was fine, and the whole of the agricultural labourers were at work in the fields. When they first saw me they seemed much excited, and from their gestures and language I was almost inclined to think them hostile. From every hill and valley they cried, Wyloe-san-panfokie,' that is, 'Be off to your boat, friend;' but on former occasions I had always found that the best plan was to put a bold face on the matter, and walk in amongst them, and then try to get

them into good humour. In this instance the plan succeeded admirably; we were in a few minutes excellent friends, the boys were running in all directions gathering plants for my specimen-box, and the old men were offering me their bamboo-pipes to smoke. As I got a little nearer to the village, however, their suspicions seemed to return, and they evidently would have been better pleased had I either remained where I was, or gone back again. This procedure did not suit my plans; and though they tried very hard to induce me to wyloe' to mysan-pan,' it was of no use. They then pointed to the heavens, which were very black at the time, and told me that it would soon be a thunder-storm-but even this did not succeed. As a last resource, when they found I was not to be turned out of my way, some of the little ones were sent on before to apprise the villagers of my approach, and when I reached the village every living thing, down even to the dogs and pigs, were out to have a peep at the Fokie.' I soon put them all, the dogs excepted, which have the true national antipathy to foreigners, in the best possible humour, and at last they seemed in no hurry to get rid of me. One of the most respectable amongst them, seemingly the head man of the village, brought me some cakes and tea, which he politely offered me. I thanked him, and began to eat. The hundreds who now surrounded me were perfectly delighted; He eats and drinks like ourselves,' said one. Look,' said two or three behind me, who had been examining the back part of my head, look here; the stranger has no tail!' and then the whole crowd, women and children included, had to come round me to see if it was really a fact that I had no tail. One of them, rather a dandy in his way, with a noble tail of his own, plaited with silk, now came forward, and taking off a kind of cloth which the natives here wear as a turban, and allowing his tail to fall gracefully over his shoulders, said to me in the most triumphant manner, Look at that!' I acknowledged that it was very fine, and promised if he would allow me to cut it off I would wear it for his sake. He seemed very much disgusted at the idea of such a loss, and the others had a good laugh at him."-Fortune. pp. 39, 40.

.

The tea districts are situated in the provinces of Canton, Fokien, and Chekiang. There are two species, or probably only varieties of the tea shrub, the Thea Viridis and Thea Bohea of botanists. It has been frequently stated and believed that our black teas are derived from the Bohea shrub, and the green teas from the Thea Viridis. Mr. Fortune, however, ascertained, by actual inspection, that both shrubs yield green and black teas, and that, in fact, although the Bohea plant is that which grows in the southern districts, and the Thea Viridis in the northern, both green and black teas are regularly prepared in all the localities, and that the difference arises from the quality and mode of preparation of the