Testament, 3000 copies commenced.-6th, The Catholic French Bible resolved on, and measures taken for printing it.-th, The Selavonian Bible, with standing types. This I proposed at our last meeting; my plan was Immediately adopted; our worthy president was requested to make the necessary arfangements with the holy synod. He obtained the metropolitan's consent, and things are now in a train. This is of more real value than all the rest, and will prepare the way for something still farther. All these are executing here, and the entire direction of them is committed to me.—8th, The Dorpatian Esthonian New Testament.--9th, The Revalian Esthonian Testament.--19th, The Lettonian Testament—All commencing under the direction of the committees in Dorpat, Reval, and Riga. If to these you add the Icelandic, Swedish, and Lapponian, you will find the Scriptures are printing in thir teen different languages. This must be encouraging to our friends, and excite them to thank God for his great mercies, in countenancing their endeavours to spread the knowledge of God's word throughout the world."

NEWFOUNDLAND.

We have been favoured with a communication from this colony, which represents, in feeling terms, its destitute state as to spiritual instruction. The writer laments, that while British benevolence is so laudably exerting itself in every direction for the propagation of Christianity, Newfoundland should seem to be overlooked in its excursive range. Our situation, he observes, "is not generally known at home. The good people of England are better acquainted with the state of religion in the islands of the Patific Ocean, than in Newfoundland. I have spared no pains to obtain correct information on the subject, and I can pronounce it to be truly deplorable. The means of grace are not enjoyed by more than one third part of the Protestant inhabitants of this country. The population is computed at one hundred thousand souls, increasing rapidly, and is scattered along a sinuous and extensive coast, literally as sheep without a shepherd. The most populous of the out-harbours are principally and some exclusively Protestant, The name, however, avails little as long as

By births and an annual influx of youngsters, as they are called, from the mether country, the population of St. John's is trebled in fourteen years.

CHRIST, ODSERY. No. 146,

they never see a minister. There are but three clergymen of the Church of England in the island. To the southward of St. John's, there is not a Protestant minister of any denomination. Many of the natives are far advanced in years without ever having been admitted within the pale of the Christian church by baptism. The Bible is to them a sealed book. The church-going bell never summons them to the house of prayer. The joyful sound of the Gospel never saluted their ears. They have repeatedly expressed an anxious wish to have clergymen among them; but they know not how, or to whom to apply. In their name, and on their behalf, I call on the clergy of the Church of England, and conjure some of them to come over and help us. The passage is short; the climate, though cold, is healthy. The harvest is great, the labourers are very few. The pleasure arising from a consciousness of extensive usefulness, the satisfaction experienced in preaching the Gospel to those who have never heard the word of God, will compensate for the sacrifices they shall have made, and the privations they must submit to

The

"Two old established missions, Ferryland and Placentia, are vacant. At the latter is a beautiful church, in which Divine service has not been performed for many years. salary is 150l. per annum, besides fees and voluntary contributions. As the planters are growing very rich, it is to be hoped they would cheerfully devote a portion of their wealth to the support of a regular ministry. However, as no great dependance can be placed on so precarious and fluctuating a provision, Government will no doubt augment the salaries. All the necessaries of life are excessively dear here, more so than in any other part of British North America. There are ten or twelve Roman Catholic priests in the island, with a bishop and vicar apostolic at their head, who, with a zeal worthy of emulation, visit every cove and creek, and every inhabited spot, and make a great many converts. There should be at least two itinerant or auxiliary clergymen appointed to visit settlements, that are re mote from the established missions, and who should winter alternately in the most popu lous parts. I have seen children brought the distance of sixty miles to St. John's, to be christened. Now they begin to consider

the formation of a committee in London, To relieve the distresses on the Continent.

By the generosity of the British public, and with the aid of several respectable foreigners, resident in this country, the sum of nearly 50,000l. was remitted to the Continent; which rescued multitudes of individuals and families from the extremity of dis tress, and the very brink of ruin.

The committee received, both from Germany and Sweden, the most satisfactory documents, testifying that the various sums which had been transmitted, had been received and conscientiously distributed: but at no period since the existence of this committee, has the mass of every kind of misery been so great; never has the cry of the distressed Germans for help been so urgent, their appeal to British benevolence so press ing, as in the present moment. Who could read the reports of the dreadful conflicts which have taken place in Germany, during the last eventful year; of the many sanguinary battles fought in Silesia, Lusatia, Bohemia, Saxony, Brandenburg, and other parts; and peruse the melancholy details of sufferings, almost unexampled in the anuals of history, without the most lively emotions? Who could hear of so many thousands of families barbarously driven from Hamburgh, in the midst of a severe winter; of so many villages burnt, cities pillaged, whole principalities desolated, and not glow with desire to assist in relieving distress so multifarious and extensive?

To the alleviation of sufferings so dreadful, to the rescue of our fellow-men, who are literally ready to perish, the views of this committee are exclusively directed.

Many well-authenticated afflicting details of the present distress having been, on the 14th of January, 1814, laid before the committee, it was immediately resolved, in reLance on the liberality of the British public, to remit, by that post, the sum of 3,500l. to respectable persons, with directions to form committees of distribution at the folwing places:-To Leipsic and its vicinity, 5001; to Dresden and its vicinity, 500l.; to Bautzen and its vicinity, 500.; to Silesia, on the borders of which seventy-two villages were almost entirely destroyed, 500; to Lauenburg, Luneburg, and the vicinity of Marburg in Hanover, 500l.; to the many thousands who have been forced from their babitations in Hamburgh, 1000.; and, at a ubsequent meeting on the 18th of January, Erture and Naumburg, and their vicinity,

5006

The committee, on calling on the public

for aid, laid before them a variety of information, &c. recently received from the Continent, from which we shall now make a few extracts.

A memorial, addressed by the City of Leipsic to the independent and benevolent British Nation, in behalf of the inhabitants of the adjacent villages and hamlets, who have been reduced to extreme distress by the military operations in October, 1813, states as follows:

"Our resources are exhausted, and we have yet here a prodigious number of sick and wounded; upwards of 30,000 in more than 40 military hospitals, with our own poor, to be provided for."

"We have before our eyes many thousands of the inhabitants of the adjacent villages and hamlets, landed proprietors, farmers, ecclesiastics, schoolmasters, artizans of every description, who, some weeks since, were in circumstances more or less easy, and at least knew no want; but now, without a home, and stripped of their all, are with their families perishing of hunger. What the industry of many years had ac. quired, was annihilated in a few hours. All around is one wide waste. The numerous villages and hamlets are almost all entirely or partially reduced to ashes; the yet remaining buildings are perforated with balls, in a most ruinous conditiou, and plundered of every thing; the barns, cellars, and lofts, are despoiled, and stores of every kind carried off; the implements of farming and domestic economy, for brewing and distilling-in a word, for every purpose--the gardens, plantations, and fruit-trees-are destroyed; the fuel collected for the winter, the gates, the doors, the floors, the woodwork of every description, were consumed in the watch-fires; the horses were taken away, together with all the other cattle; and many families are deploring the loss of beloved relatives, or are doomed to behold them afflicted with sickness, and destitute of relief. The miserable condition of these deplorable victims to the thirst of conquest, the distress which meets our view whenever we cross our thresholds, no language is capable of describing. The horrid spectacle wounds us to the very soul.

"All the countries of our Continent have been more or less drained by this destructive war. Whither then are these poor people, who have such need of assistance; whither are they to look for relief? Ye free, ye beneficent, ye happy Britons, whose generosity is attested by every page of the annals of suffering humanity; whose soil has been t:od

dew by no hostile foot; who know not the feelings of him that beholds a foreign master revelling in his habitation ; of you the city 'of Leipsic implores-relief for the inhabitants of the circumjacent villages and hamlets, ruined by the military events in the past Month of October."

Count Schönfeld, Saxon nobleman, many years ambassador, both at the court *of Versailles before the Revolution, and till within a few years at Vienna, thus writes →→

This same Saxony, which three centuries ago released part of the world from the no less galling yoke of religious bondage; that same Saxony is now become the cradle of the political liberty of the Continent. But a power so firmly rooted could not be overthrown without the most energetic exertions; and, while millions are now raising the shouts of triumph, there are, in Saxony alone, a million of souls, who are reduced to misery too severe to be capable of taking any part in the general joy, and who are now shedding the bitterest tears of abject wretchedness and want."

A letter from the Right Rev. Dr. Salfeld, abbot of Loccum, and first counsellor of the consistory of Hanover, states as follows:

The inhabitants of the principalities of Lauenburg, Bremen, and Luneburg, have suffered most, and are still suffering dreadfully; but all over our country poverty and distress are visible to such a degree, as no one would believe who is not an eye-witness. All our funds, of whatever description, have been exhausted, and most of our public in stitutions for the relief of the poor destroyed. The number of those who are still able and willing to succour their suffering fellow-creatares being so very small, how shall we bear the sacrifices required for the public safety; and, at the same time, save so many wretched families from "perishing, with hunger and cold?. But we do not despair, while we can indulge the hope that British charity is ready to assist us,"

* A letter from Mr. Kaufmann, counsellor of the regency of Laucuburg, has the following passage::---

*. We have suffered here beyond all be dief. Only our lives are saved; and if Providence preserves us from the epidemical diseases, which begin to spread around us, as the effects of our wants, anxiety, and grief, we shall be thankful. The two last harvests are entirely lost to us; and many fields could not be cultivated for want of labourers, cattle, and seed. Thousands of horses and waggons, cows and sheep, have been taken from us ; and we have been, for

these three months past, exposed to all kind of exactions and cruelties. Even now. we "stand helpless and forsaken. But God will have mercy upon us, and our countrymen will pity and assist us whenever they can reach us. Had we only some money to buy bread and fuel! All our wooden fences are destroyed by the French in their watchfires. Our situation is such that we fear a famine.”

Extract of a letter from the Rev. Mr. Wynecken, superintendant of Ratzeburg.

I will not hurt your feelings by a minate description of the incredible sufferings of this little country, which has been occu pied these three months past by almost the whole of the French and Danish: armies ; 11,000 of whom were, in one instance, quartered for several days on the small town of Molin, containing no more than 250 houses. Our ruin seems inevitable; every thing around us is destroyed, our fields and gardens laid waste, our houses emptied, 10,000 head of cattle consumed. by the enemy, who barbarously shot three of our honest peasants, for not willingly surrender. ing the last of their property. Epidemic dis. eases begin to complete our misery: but God will help us over the hills, since we have surmounted the rocks, being now free from the enemy."

Extract from a letter of the Rev. N. N, superintendant at Eckhartsberg in Saxony, addressed to the Rev. W, Kuper, in London.

"After the battle of Leipsic, the great mass of the retreating, as well as the pursuing armies, passed through our neighbour, hood; and my diocese, consisting of thirtyseven parishes, suffered the most dreadful calamities. The fate of the clergy is peculiarly distressing. The doors, shutters, floors, and even the roofs of the houses, were seized, and burnt at the bivouacs by the Freuch; who, in their flight, also carried off all utensils, beds, and clothes. Though the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians, deserve high praise for the discipline which was maintained in their armies, yet a great number of inarauders scoured the country, and took away what the inhabitants had endea voured to hide in the woods. Many clergymen were personally compelled to drive their cattle after the French armies, and, when permitted to return, were stripped of their coats, boots, or shoes. To most of them not a shirt, coat, bont, or bed was left. Some, far advanced in years, cannot yet recover from the effects of this cruel treatment. The wives of some of the clergymen of my dia cese are newlying on nothing but straw, ex

pecting the birth of infants, for whose covering they have hardly a few rags left, nor have they even the means of keeping a fire in their rooms: indeed most of the houses of the clergy are burnt, and they have been obliged to take shelter in such huts as we 400 wretched to attract the notice of the French soldiers. The churches afforded no refuge; for even they were plundered, and the pews used as fuel. It is impossible to obtain, in our own country, the means of relief; for the distress is too widely extended, and the inhabitants too much impoverished. May we then not hope, that from England the hand of charity will be stretched out for the relief of the distressed; and that also the suffering clergy of my diocese will find some alleviation of their misery in the Christian sympathy of our English bretren?

Extract of a letter from Dohna, near Dresden.

.-." It is calculated that, on an average, no less than 500,000 soldiers passed through Dohna, at different periods. Four engagements took place near it. At the first, nine farms and five houses were burnt down. The corn was destroyed; partly whilst standing in the fields, partly after it had been housed in the barns. Cattle of every description were forcibly taken away. In some large stables, which contained no less than forty or fifty horses, oxen, &c. not one is left. Our fields and gardens are laid waste. Some willages have been entirely burnt; others in -parte. We have been plundered three times: but thank God we have escaped with our lives. Provisions are extravagantly dear. A famine is apprehended."

- A public meeting was afterwards held at the City of London Tavern, which was numerously attended, and at which it was resolved to call loudly on the public, and particularly on the clergy throughout the kingdom, to come forward in aid of their suffering brethren on the Continent. The appeal has not been made in vain. Upwards of 30,000!, have been already obtained, and we may hope that the benevolence of the British public is far from being exhausted. Scarcely any congregational collections have yet been made, and to that source we look with confidence for a large addition to this fund of mercy. When we look back to the period of the Reformation, and reflect on the annumbered benefits of which it has been the source to this country, as well as to the world at large; and then contemplate, the miseries and desolation to which “the cra

", of: that Reformation, the birth-place of

Luther, and the scene of his magnanimous labours, is now subjected;→ when we refleet also, that our battle has been fought on German ground; that through the sufferings of Germany, the tide of war has been turned from us, at least that its duration has probably been shortened; that if our commerce has been revived, and our hopes brightened; if we may look forward with confidence to an early diminution of our present burdens, if we may reasonably anticipate the near approach of the period when our blood and our treasure shall cease to flow, in order to maintain our own safety and independence, or to vindicate the wrongs of others;-when we reflect on all this, we shall surely not be indifferent to the powerful motives which call upon us not merely to pity, but to relieve; which demand not our sympathy merely. but our active charity; which claim from us a few drops from that full cup of blessing with which the bounty of Providence has distinguished our lọt among the nations of the earth.

MISSIONS OF THE UNITED
BRETHREN.

We find we are greatly in arrear in our reports of the progress of these admirable and interesting Missions. Five Numbers of the printed Periodical Accounts of the Missions of the Brethren's Church (No. Ixiv to lxviii) are now on our table filled with gratifying intelligence from almost every quarter of the globe. The work of the Lord prospers in their hands. But it is conducted under many discouragements arising from the in creasing deficiency of their means. Something, indeed, has been done in this country to supply the almost total failure of their continental resources. Near 1500l. have been received by the Rev. C. I. Latrobe, No. 10, Nevil's-court, Fleet-street, since publie notice was given of the deplorable state of destitution into which their missions have sunk. This, we trust, however, is but the first-fruits of British liberality, How inadequate this sum must be to meet the necessities of thirty-one settlements conducted by 157 missionaries, it is scarcely necessary to point out. We entreat our Christian brethren throughout the kingdom to lay to heart the emergency of the case, and according to their ability to aid this blessed workt.