weeks. We entered the Gate of Irkutsk precisely eight weeks after leaving the Imperial city, of which eight weeks we spent two at various resting places on rest the road. The remaining six were spent in travelling day and night. We remained nearly a fortnight in Irkutsk, and performed the journey from that city hither in two days, (a distance of 430 versts.) I may state in general, that as this journey has given us a view of Russia upon a large scale, the impressions upon our minds, as to the necessity of the exertions at present making for putting into the hands of the people the Holy Scriptures, and the means of reading them, has been much deepened. I have had opportunities of conversing with persons of all ranks, at different places upon the subject of Education, and have heard very few theoretical objections started. The practical ones which were frequently held up, will, I trust, be speedily removed by the munificent hand of our benevolent and beloved monarch.

We proposed, before leaving Petersburg, to make the moral and religious state of the Tartars and other tribes, inhabiting various parts of Russia, through which we were to travel, a particular object of inquiry. In Casan and its neighbourhood there are 300,000 Tartars. Casan is in fact the ancient Tartar metropolis; and here they have still Churches, and not less than twenty Schools. According to the best information I could obtain, a very large proportion of these Tartars can read their own language, and many of them also the Russian. Indeed, reading and writing are almost universal accomplishments among them. Many, or rather most of those who live in the city, are engaged in trade, and possessed of considerable property. I should be inclined to suspect, however, that the inhabitants of the villages, are, in many instances, ignorant of letters, as well as very poor. We successively travelled through the districts inhabited by the Chabastithians, Churnussians, Voileakes and Baskkovians, and skirted the immense tracts where the Kirgesians roam about with their cattle. Education is at a very low ebb with most of these poor people: they are ignorant of almost every thing but their own little concerns. The translation of the Scriptures into some of the languages of these tribes has lately been undertaken by persons qualified for the task, so far as concerns a knowledge of the languages. These translations are of course

at the expense of the Russian Bible Society, and are to be printed in the Russian character, the language having previously never had a written form.

You will be gratified to learn that the gospels of Matthew and John, which have been translated, and printed print in the Mangolian language, are eagerly received by the Buriats, among whom we now dwell. I have made two journeys during the present month, along with my dear fellow-labourer, Stallybrass, to two of their great temples, one situated about 30, the other about 80 versts from Selinginsk. We carried along with us a large supply of the gospels, and also of a tract which has been published for their use, to distribute among the Lamas or priests, who were celebrating at their temple their great annual festival, which is kept in the white month, (answering nearly to our February.) Their Sacred books were all in the Tibitan, or Tangat language and character; we saw hundreds of volumes of them at the temples, and, in a tent adjoining one of them, a quantity of wooden blocks with which they print them. The Lamas, however, are as ignorant of the language itself, as many Roman Catholics are of the Latin in which their books are written. The Buriats lead a monastic life; their wealth consists of their flocks and herds, and for the sake of pasture they are compelled to live far separate one from another; we seldom find more than ten or twelve tents in one place, generally not more than three or four. The people are of a mild, hospitable, obliging character, and receive us as friends.

their

All Siberia is ringing with the praises of the new Governor General Speransky. He is a man of a most liberal and benevolent mind-the decided friend of the Bible-and, like every consistent friend of it, favourable to the cause of Edu cation. He showed us much kindness in Irkutsk, and since, he has done us the honour of a visit at our own house, when on a tour through these parts to the south of the Baikal. He has within these few months established a Bible Society in Irkutsk, and likewise school for the soldiers upon the principles of the British System. Some of the soldiers, he told me, had learned to read and write tolerably, during the four months they had already attended. There is a similar school in Selinginsk, and conducted upon the same plan. His Excellency has been here since our arrival, (as I have already noticed) and

a

lowing day Mr. B. Byron (from Hoxton Academy) was ordained to the pastoral office over the newly-formed Church assembling in the above Chapel. Mr. Parsons delivered the introductory discourse, proposed the usual questions, and gave the charge. Mr. Gilbert offered the ordination-prayer, and preached the sermon to the Church and congregation. The following ministers assisted in the devotional services:Messrs Thonger, Cubit, Perkins, Rust and Gladstone. The different services were numerously attended, and highly interesting.

Nov. 22d, a small neat Meeting-house was opened at Fovant, (between Tisbury and Wilton) Wiltshire, where preaching has been for some time carried on statedly and gratuitously by a Mr. Best, of that village, who fitted up his own house for a preaching place and school-room; but the premises having gone into other hands, a friend to the cause gave a piece of freehold ground for a Chapel and burying-ground, beside a handsome donation to the building. Several other inhabitants and neighbours subscribed, and others contributed by their labour, so that rearly half the expense (the whole being 300l.) has been defrayed. Three sermons were preached at the opening, by Mr. Jay of Bath, from Heb. xiii. 9; Mr. Good of Sarum, from 1 Thess. iii. 8; and Mr. Bristow of Wilton, from John x. 10. The other parts of the service were conducted by Messrs. Ed. Jay, Waters, Hannaford, Bailey, Gunning, and Hopkins.

AUXILIARY MISSIONARY SOCIETIES.

(Omitted in Chronicle for want of room.) SEPT. 19, a meeting was held at Newport Pagnell, at the Rev. T. P. Bull's meeting-house, for the purpose of forming an Auxiliary Missionary Society. J. H. Handscomb, Esq. having been called to the Chair, in the afternoon, the Rev. G. Burder gave an interesting account of the nature and proceedings of the London Missionary Society, after which, it was resolved, that a Society should be formed, called the North Bucks Auxiliary Missionary Society; several suitable resolutions were passed, and the meeting was addressed by the Rev. Dr. Waugh, Messrs Hillyard of Bedford, Rennals and Davis of Wellingbro,' Aston of Buckingham, Morris of Olney, West of Harrold, Morell of St. Neots, Gauntlett, vicar of Olney, T. P. Bull and Ward of Newport. Rev. T. P. Bull was appointed Trea Treasurer, and the Rev. D. W. Aston, of Buckingham, Secretary.

Mr. Burder preached in the morning

from 2 Chron. xvii. 6; and Dr. Waugh in the evening from John ix. 4.

Dublin, Oct. 6. After the monthly Missionary prayer-meeting, a Ladies' Association was formed here in aid of the London Missionary Society, the Rev. N. Hellings presiding. The liberal and Christian spirit which was so manifest at the general meeting of the Society held in Dublin on the 5th July last, in the united exertions of Christians of various denominations to promote the same great end, seems to be extending itself to towns and villages far remote from the metropolis, and was very conspicuous on this occasion. It is highly encouraging to the friends of missions to witness all minor differences absorbed in compassion and sympathy for the heathen world, and persons of all denominations coming forward together "to the help of the Lord against the mighty." [See E. Mag. for Sept. last]

THE third Anniversary of the Brigg Auxiliary Missionary Society was held on Wed. Oct 18. At the public meeting of the Society, in the afternoon, for hearing the report, &c. W. Rust, Esq. of Hull, was called to the Chair, who powerfully urged the paramount importance of the Missionary cause. Several resolutions tending to promote the object of the institution were successively proposed and supported in an appropriate and impressive strain by the Rev. Messrs. Eccles, Gilbert, Sykes, Nettleship, Winterbottom, Nicholson, and Lilly; and in the evening an excellent discourse was delivered by the Rev. J. Gilbert of Hull.

On the following Lord's Day the Rev. W. Eccles of Camberwell delivered appropriate and impressive discourses in aid of the Society. The attendance on those occasions, and the liberality displayed, evince an undiminished zeal in the cause of Missions to the heathen.

"THE Senatus Academicus of the Marischal College, Aberdeen, has, we understand, conferred the degree of LL.D. upon the Rev. R. Cope, A.Μ. tutor to the Irish Evangelical seminary at Dublin.

Caution. Two young women, maid servants at the Node, near Coddicut, Herts, were lately found dead in their bed, in consequence of a pan of charcoal being left burning in the room.

Caution. A boy was sent to a shop to buy some oil of vitriol, which he brought home in a cup; a fine little girl, of about two years and a half old, coming in, and mistaking it for water, drank it, and died in a few hours. Such dangerous articles should be kept in a bot tle, fairly labelled.

1

A house divided cannot stand,
And peace and safety fly the land

Where endless discord grows: The tempest may be hush'd to sleep, Still, billows roll the troubled deep, Till time shall bring repose.

The pillars of Judea's state
Dissolving, sunk beneath the weight
Of infamy and guilt;
But He who nature's course maintains,
The pillars of the house sustains

That on the Rock he built.

And Lot escap'd the vile abode
By holy angels led.

[space,
Though slaught'ring War hath ceas'd a
Still nations tremble to their base,
And totters many a crown;
Yet ev'ry shock the bounds extends
Of truth, and freedom's faithful friends,
And hurls oppressors down.

Thus Time proceeds, and with it brings Perpetual change to earthly things, Uncertain, insecure;

But truth divine, and heaven above, Nor change, decay, nor end shall prove, But endless years endure.

OMNIPOTENT Author of all,

The Fountain of being and bliss,

Thy love it is sweet to recal,

And doubt from our bosoms dismiss. Rich streams of thy grace we perceive Pervading the years that are past,

And joyful look on, and believe

Thou wilt not forsake us at last.

When bow'd with affliction and pain,
And pining with sorrow and grief,
Thy comforts reviv'd us again,
And fear was surpris'd with relief;
The lion roar'd loud from his den,
And threaten'd the flock to devour,
But thou didst deliver us then,
And wilt in each perilous hour.

REV. iv. 1.-1 will