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In this plan ample accommodations are made for the National School; 80 of the children of which, upon an average, belong to this Parish. This consideration of the School, so contiguous to the Church, cannot fail to interest the benevolent supporters of that institution, who have now for so many years manifested so warm an interest in its welfare and prosperity. The children of their adoption will not fail to have their protection on a point so essential to their future welfare.

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN FRANCE. Application has been made to the Rt. Rev. Bishop Luscombe, to consecrate a new Church at Havre,

built at the united expense of the French Protestants and English residents. In this request the French Protestants have joined.

In the Diocese of Bath and Wells a Clerical Annuitant Society will shortly be formed, under the sanction of the Bishop. Its object will be to enable clergymen, by the payment of a yearly sum during their lives, to ensure an annuity to their widows. It is not intended to be looked upon in the light of a charitable institution, but as one from which each who is a member, will secure a provision for his widow proportionate to his subscription.-Gloucester Journal.

THE SOCIETY for the CONVERSION and RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION and EDUCATION of the NEGRO SLAVES of the BRITISH WEST INDIA ISLANDS.

THE Report of this Society for 1825 has just appeared.-An important alteration under the sanction of the Bishops of the West India Islands is about to be effected by the Governors. It is calculated that the Clergy provided by his Majesty's Government, in addition to those previously resident, will be sufficient for the wants of these Islands. Thus the funds of the Incorporated Society, which have been hitherto applied to the support of Chaplains, will be set at liberty for the more appropriate purpose of providing Catechists, in aid of, and in subordination to the established Parochial Clergy; and to be so stationed by the Bishop's appointment and licence, as to be able to assist in the instruction of the Negroes upon every estate upon which their services may be required.

The total number of Catechists which will be necessary upon this system for the diocese of Barbados alone, is estimated at 100; and assuming the expense of each to be 50l. per ann., the sum which the Governors are able to expend in this diocese, will afford provision for thirty. The sum which the Governors are able to expend in the diocese of Jamaica, will support twenty Catechists upon the same estimate: its wants, though inferior, are probably not far short of those of Barbados and the Leeward Islands.

It is expected, when a knowledge of this measure shall be extensively circulated, and its applicability to every property shall be generally understood, that the Governors may look with confidence to larger contributions to the Parent Society, and indulge the pleasing hope of seeing the work complete.

Offers have also been made to the Governors of the Society of assistance for the support of Ministers upon the estates of some private individuals, which they were not at the time prepared to accept, not knowing how far such local arrangements might interfere with the general system of education which was contemplated by the West India Bishops. They trust that their cause will not suffer in consequence of a disinclination to engage in measures which must, as has been proved, have been speedily abandoned; and that the highly respectable individuals, with whom it is their intention to revive the subject, will not withhold contributions which may be now applied with greater effect and increased advantage.

As it is also known to the Governors, that without any connexion with their body or with any other, there are several benevolent persons who are at the present time supporting Ministers upon their plantations for the instruction of their Negroes,

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Ladies' Society for Promoting the Education of Negro Children.

they would suggest (they trust without any improper interference) the increased benefit that would arise from uniformity and co-operation, and the expediency of uniting, as circumstances may permit, in the system which they have adopted under the sanction of the Bishops.

An expenditure incurred in conjunction with the Society, and administered through its agency by the regular ecclesiastical authorities, would,

it is imagined, be less burdensome and more efficient than it could possibly be otherwise made. The proprietor of the most extensive estate, while he is doing good to his own property, will be extending a benefit to his less opulent neighbour, for which he will be amply recompensed in the general improvement of the Negroes in his vicinity.

The governors have received very satisfactory accounts from their Chaplains in the two dioceses.

LADIES' SOCIETY for PROMOTING the EARLY EDUCATION and IMPROVEMENT of the CHILDREN of NEGROES, and of PEOPLE of COLOUR, in the BRITISH WEST INDIES.

ALTHOUGH there is much in the constitution of this Society which we by no means approve, yet, knowing as we do that the best means of benefiting the race of Negroes in our colonies is by educating their children, and perceiving that this Society has already afforded assistance to those schools which are under the superintendance of our West-India Bishops and their clergy, we readily notice its 'first Report.'

The ground upon which the Society rests its claim to support is this:

"It has been estimated, by persons well acquainted with the subject, that the whole number of Negro children now under instruction, does not amount to 10,000; while, on the most moderate computation, there are not less than 150,000 of the slave population under ten years of age in our West-India Colonies, so that only one child in fifteen is receiving the blessing of education in a country where, from the depraved habits of the parents, it is so peculiarly needed."

"The claims of another numerous and destitute class, the free children of colour, are also most urgent; many of them are in a lamentable state of poverty and wretchedness, and stand peculiarly in need of Christian instruction. But every effort for their improvement is impeded by want of funds; and without liberal contributions from this country, they, no less than the slaves, will remain in their present state of ignorance and degradation.

"Under these impressions, a Ladies' Society has been formed, the object of which will be to establish Schools, and, further, to assist such Schools already established as may be approved by the Society and sanctioned by the owners and superintendents of estates. In all its proceedings, the Society will consider the latter condition indispensable. The Society will thankfully avail itself of the counsel and assistance of the established ecclesiastical authorities, wherever it can procure them; and, aware of the importance of a regular system of inspection, will endeavour to engage those authorities specially in this service; and where this is not practicable, will place its schools under the superintendence of the agents of the Church Missionary and other Societies.

“In making grants to institutions already established, the Society will always deem such of them as are connected with the Church of England to have the first claim, but will not refuse its aid to those which are under the care of Christian Missionaries of other denominations."

The following proposal of the Committee we think excellent:

"The Committee have it in contemplation to devote their energies more particularly to one department hitherto unoccupied-that of infant schools.

"The friends of this system will, doubtless, rejoice to see its benefits

communicated to the Negro, and even those persons who may question the propriety of removing English infants from their mother's care, can have no such objection in the West-Indies. There the laborious employment of the women occasions a separation from their young children, who are generally committed to the care of an old woman on the estate. The ease with which the children, thus collected together, might be instructed in all that they are capable of learning, and the mind prepared by habits of order and attention for receiving the elements of useful knowledge, is most obvious; and the circumstance that they themselves will be required to work in the fields at the age of six or seven, makes it the more important that this opportunity for early instruction should not be lost."

Such are the objects which the excellent individuals, the members of this Society, propose to effect.

If the Society had proposed to confine itself to assisting schools already established, and under the superintendence of the Clergy of our Church, it would have had our entire approbation. The influence and exertions of the noble and benevolent persons

by whom it is patronized would then have been most usefully exerted, and the subscribers would have been assured that their contributions would be applied in the most beneficial and judicious manner. We indeed entreat the managers of the Society, in this early stage of their proceedings, to consider whether the establishment of schools is not beyond their sphere. Much prejudice would be excited against their excellent cause if any blunder was committed in such a matter; and we are sure that nothing in reality could be gained by their pursuing this part of their object; for let them but place their funds at the disposal of our Bishops and Clergy, and they will not hesitate to afford all their influence and local knowledge to carry into effect so good a purpose. And it is not in an illiberal or party spirit that we observe, that if the institutions connected with the Church of England are to have the first claim, they will have the only claim; for confident we are, that that Church, whose doctrines we deem the purest and the best, affords channels wide and capacious enough to dispense the most bountiful supplies of the Ladies' Society.

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL REPORT.

IT is said that the learned Abbé Rosch, who is employed in the library at Pisa, has just discovered, in the charters of a Capuchin convent, fifteen of the lost books of Livy's Roman History.

Mr. D'Israeli will shortly publish the Private Life of Charles the First. The design of this work is to develop the genius, the character, and the principles of the times, and form a supplement to the popular histories of Tories and Whigs, Republicans and Cromwellians.

The Rev. Henry Thompson, M. A. Assistant Minister of St. George's, Camberwell, is preparing for publication a volume of Practical Sermons on the Life and Character of David, King of Israel.

Mr. Farraday has in the press an octavo volume, to be entitled Chemical Manipulation, containing instructions to students in chemistry, relative to the methods of performing experiments, either of demonstration or research, with accuracy and success. It will be illustrated with numerous engravings of apparatus on wood.

Sir Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon is proceeding with so much celerity, that we have reason to believe the six volumes will appear within a few weeks after Christmas.

Royal Poet.-It is said that the Queen of Spain, although a Saxon by birth, has written, in the Castilian language, a number of poems on sacred subjects, which are about to be published.

Hebrew Literature.-The Society formed in Amsterdam for the cultivation of the Hebrew language and literature, continues its researches and its publications with perseverance and success. The different numbers which have appeared of the proceedings of this society, are full of poetry and of philosophical dissertations, distinguished by pure, correct, and elegant Hebrew, and by a profound knowledge of Jewish antiquities.

Specimens of Sacred and Serious Poetry, from Chaucer to the present day; including the Sabbath, &c. of Graham, and Blair's Grave; in a neat pocket volume, with Engravings on Steel by James Mitchell, from Drawings by J. M. Wright, will soon appear: the whole illustrated by Biographical Notices, and Critical Remarks. By John Johnstone.

Nearly ready, Discourses on the Duties and Consolations of the Old. By the Rev. Dr. Belfrage, of Falkirk.

A Greek Gradus for Schools, by the Rev. J. Brasse, B. D., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, is in the press.

Transmission of Sound.-" The extreme facility with which sounds are heard at a considerable distance, in severely cold weather, has often been a subject of remark; but a circumstance occurred at Port Bowen, which deserves to be noticed, as affording a sort of measure of this facility, or at least of conveying to others some definite idea of the fact. Lieutenant Foster having occasion to send a man from the observatory to the opposite shore of the harbour, a measured distance of 6,696 feet, or about one statute mile and two tenths, in order to fix a meridian mark, had placed a person half-way between, to repeat his directions; but he found on trial that this precaution was unnecessary, as he could, without difficulty, keep up a conversation with the man at the distant station."-Parry's Voyages.

Modern naturalists generally, and among them the celebrated Cuvier, have rejected the notion of the toad's venomous qualities, as a vulgar prejudice or superstition; but it has received confirmation from Sir Humphrey Davy, who found, on dissection and analysis, venomous matter contained in follicles

in the cutis vera, and round the head, and even upon the extremities.

Ephemera. The insects known by the name of ephemera, and which live only for a few hours, or at most for a day or two, have hitherto been supposed to be destitute of all the parts of the digestive canal. This supposition has lately been proved to be wholly without foundation. It has also been found that during their brief existence their skin is twice entirely changed.

The Heart.-M. Larry, the wellknown French surgeon, lately presented to the Academy of Medicine in Paris, the heart of a man who, in a fit of derangement produced by grief, stabbed himself with a watchmaker's file. After having penetrated several inches, the instrument broke off level with the skin. The unhappy being was conveyed to an hospital, where it was determined that no operation could be attempted. He survived for twenty-one days, in but little pain, and without feeling any difficulty in changing his position. On opening the body, it was seen with surprise that the file had not only pierced the pericardium, and one of the coats of the heart, but that, entering that organ at three inches from the point, it had passed obliquely, from the left to the right, and from the lower to the higher part; crossing the left cavity, the middle membrane, and the right cavity!

A new process has just been employed with much success by its inventor, M. de Succi, of Imola, to transfer fresco paintings to canvass without stripping the walls of them (sans en dépouiller les murs.) In the presence of M. Cammuccini, Inspector of the Fine Arts, and a great number of connoisseurs, M. Succi has made a new trial of his process on the painting called the Chronology of the Sovereign Pontiffs, in the ancient library of Sixtus IV. The same artist has been equally fortunate in transferring to canvass a beautiful fresco painting by Peter della Hanceisca (?), representing the same Pope Sixtus IV. in the midst of several other figures, and which is now to be seen among the other chefsd'auvre which adorn the gallery of the Vatican.

Russian Voyages.-Another Russian voyage of discovery is now in progress. The ships of war Moller and Seniavin, commanded by Captain Stanjikowich and Litke, are under orders to survey the coasts belonging to Russia in the North Pacific: the former taking the north-west coast of America and the Aleutian Islands; and the latter the eastern coast of Asia, Beering's Straits, &c. The coast of Kamschatka, the Caroline Islands, the Sea of Otschosk, &c. &c., are all to be examined by the expedition, for the completion of which four years are allotted.

The Federal Republic of Central America has entered into a contract with a company at New York, for the purpose of cutting a canal to effect a navigable communication between the The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. undertakers are very sanguine as to the practicability of the scheme.

The beautiful Cathedral of Lichfield has been some time undergoing a very extensive and necessary repair, which cannot be completed for several months. The new work, as far as it has proceeded, is well executed, and faithful, in its ornamental carving, to the original model. This splendid structure was erected in 1130, and is crowned with a principal and two lesser spires; the former, from its lofty elevation, greatly impresses the beholder. The portico in the front, and the entrances on the south and north, are rich in fine sculpture, and entitled to the highest admiration. The interior of this majestic edifice will also receive some repairs, as well in its carved work as the more substantial parts.

The pile of public buildings lately erected in the gardens of the British Museum, for the reception, we understand, of the Library given by the King to the Museum, is nearly in a finished state. The front of the building looking towards Bedford Square is faced with stone, and the projection in the centre is ornamented with four half columns of the Ionic order, which

support a pediment. The cornice, &c. of the order is placed at the top of the wall, along the whole of this side, wrought in stone. The entrance is at the end of Montague Place. The first apartment on the right is of very great length, extending to the projection in the centre of the building, into which it leads. That part of the room which corresponds to the centre division of the exterior of the building, is ornamented on each side with two superb Corinthian columns, the shaft and base of which are of marble, very highly polished. The capitals of the columns are not executed in the same sort of marble, but are variegated, and are extremely beautiful; they also have a very high polish. The adjoining room is nearly equal in dimensions to the first, beyond which there are two other rooms. The whole of this noble suite of apartments, which are very lofty, are of an equal height, and decorated at the top with an enriched cornice, frieze, &c. which encircles the whole of the rooms. The cielings are of a most magnificent description, being richly ornamented in a light and elegant manner. The frame-work which supports this cieling is entirely of iron, which renders the building fire-proof. Very strong iron girders are placed at intervals across the walls to support the work. The rooms are lighted by a row of windows on both sides, of equal dimensions, and extend the whole length of the building. The party-walls which divide the apartments are decorated at the angles, with double-faced pilasters of highly polished marble. A broad stone staircase in the entrance-hall leads to a corresponding suite of rooms above, of the same extent as those below, though much lower. The cielings are ornamented in a very chaste style. Lights are admitted into these rooms by skylights in the roof. The principal part of the roof is of cast iron; it has a very low rise, so that it is not seen from the ground; it is covered with

copper.

VOL. VIII. NO. XII.

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