had a good deal to do, in the way of business, in rail roads, makes the following observations respecting them, which will not be thought uninteresting.

There can be no doubt that these Railways will be highly beneficial to the commercial prosperity of the country; the improvement in the common roads has worked wonders since I was in England, by increasing the facilities of communication, and consequently the traffic, the enlargement of towns and general growth of trade and when Railways are made all over the country, as will undoubtedly be the case eventually, a much greater revolution will take place.

There are several Railways in the north of England already, from one town to another, and one in Ireland; and there are now constructing one from London to Birmingham, one from London to Southampton; with the London and Greenwich, from which are to branch one to Gravesend and Dover, and one to Brighton. And there are two companies formed by Bills in Parliament, for one Railway, London to Bristol, to branch eventually to Exeter and Plymouth and to Wales or the Severn, so as to communicate with Bantry Bay to the south of Ireland, which when effected, an immense change is expected to be brought about in that port and others, from its great preference as a port of safety. The other company is formed for constructing a Railway from London to York.

Steam packets have also increased the facilities of communication with all places on the continent; trips to France, Belgium, up the Rhine, and even to Hamburg, St. Petersburg, and Stockholm are performed with greater ease and less time than could formerly be taken in going to the Isle of Wight or Margate.

As my new business is connected with St. Petersburg and Hamburg, it is not unlikely but I may pay them a visit some of these days. We write to Hamburg on a Tuesday, receive a reply with samples of goods in the course of the same week, send our orders back, and sometimes get the goods, the next week.

I have thus attempted to give you some idea of the advances making in the mechanical and worldly prospects of our country; I wish I could give you as full an account of the progress making in more important things, those which are connected not merely with the temporal but the eternal welfare of our countrymen. My ignorance, however, of all such matters before I left England precludes me from giving an opinion as to the advances made; but I can say, I have been greatly astonished at the numerous plans and associations now existing for the promotion of religion among the people, as well as for other benevolent purposes. You are probably aware of some, if not of all of them; but as some of our friends may not be, I enclose a list of the public Anniversary Meetings that have been held lately up to this time, principally during the month of May; as a knowledge of the active engagements of Christians here may stimulate to increased energy with you. I have been present at several of these meetings, (at all it is impossible, and very fatiguing to be at many,) and I can say it was a grand and interesting scene to witness about 3000 persons in one room, (Exeter Hall new building, erected for such public assemblies,) with but one gallery at the end, called the platform, on which the speakers, committees, and friends sit.

I shall add a few more lines on the subject of Christian Associations, and the constant occupation of individuals and Churches in various ways, in order to promote our Divine Redeemer's kingdom and the eternal happiness of mankind. My experi ence, however, as you may suppose, is but small at present; still the statement of what little I have been called upon to do, and what I see the Church I am now connected with doing, may perhaps stimulate some of our dear Christian friends (to whom you may communicate some of these particulars), and encourage them to go on, looking unto Him who alone can prosper them for his blessing on their efforts. As mentioned, I am on the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society, at whose rooms I have to attend every other Thursday from 10 o'clock till 2, and more frequently 3 o'clock, beside sometimes oftener on Sub-Committees. I am also now on the Committee of the Tract Society, where I have to attend every Tuesday morning from 8 o'clock until 10 o'clock, and have to go four miles to the place of meeting at an hour when public conveyances cannot be had; how I shall get through the winter I cannot at present tell, but I hope I feel such pleasure in it as to make me bear all the inconveniences. I am now obliged to be absent for two or three meetings, but I am going to town next Monday, on purpose to be there on Tuesday, and return next day.

Our good friends at Camberwell have also done me the honour lately to elect me (with Mr. M. Leopard Smith) a deacon of the church, which brings with it several duties which I shall not trouble you by enumerating; but you will thus have the satisfaction of perceiving that I have not given all my time to worldly pursuits, and if I do not come up to what my good friends here may have expected from your kind

introduction of me, I hope I shall not be entirely useless as a member of the Christian community.

For the information of some of our brethren of the Circular Road Church, the prosperity of which I shall always feel a deep interest in, I will state a few particulars relating to the Camberwell Baptist Church, which I hope may be interesting to them, and tend to excite them to like exertions. When Mr. Steane took the pastoral charge of the church 10 years ago, there were only 10 members; there are now above 250, besides about 100 communicants not members, principally Independents, and the chapel built since then (and paid for) holds about 600 persons, and is filled every Sabbath. We have a weekly prayer-meeting every Monday, and the Missionary prayer-meeting is held every month alternately at our chapel and Mr. John Burnet's (Independent): we have also a lecture every Thursday evening. On Sabbath day there is a prayer-meeting in the vestry at 7 o'clock A. M., from 8 till 10; and from 3 to 4 o'clock, the Sunday School of between 2 and 300 children is attended to by young men, members of the church. On the ordinance Sabbath the afternoon Sunday School gives place to an extra service for the church, in addition to the morning and evening service.

Several of our lady members give their time in superintending a school in the vestry for young females two days in the week; and a larger number of our ladies form a Beneficent Society, and meet once a month at each other's houses alternately to tea, and to make clothes for poor people, whom they visit during the month, each taking a particular district, relieving them, conversing with them on religious subjects, distributing tracts, &c. Our church meetings are always held on a distinct evening (Friday before the ordinance), and our Pastor has a Deacons' meeting on another evening previous, to consult on all matters to be brought before the church, that every thing may be done orderly.

Although not exactly connected with church duties, yet as tending to keep up a friendly intercourse among the members, I may mention, that there are two or three Book Societies, to which each member subscribes £ 1.1, entrance, and £ 1.1, annually; they meet every month to tea at some one or other of the members' houses, when absentees are fined: each member proposes a new book, and other matters of the Society are arranged, and a half yearly sale of the books by auction among themselves take place.

I have mentioned all these things, thinking some of them may be thought worthy of adoption at Circular Road. And I must not forget to mention particularly, that it is most gratifying to observe how well our weekly prayer and lecture meetings are attended, particularly the former; members who cannot generally leave their business till 8 o'clock in the evening, and others very much engaged, some from 6 and 7 o'clock in the morning, come all the way from town (without going home first) to be present. I think the great advance of Mr. Steane's church and congregation may be considered, under the blessing of God, to be owing to his having his hands. held up by a praying people. I often think, my dear friend, of your discouragements; and wish I could hear of your faith being strengthened by witnessing the fervent persevering prayers of those around you for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I fear too many trust to what man can do, and do not look above, as they ought, for the blessing of our Heavenly Father upon the labours of his servants: I pray most sincerely that you may yet behold great things, and not have to think that you have spent your strength for nought. This indeed I know, your own faith will not permit you to suppose; and though you see not the fruit in your day and generation, you have the satisfaction of knowing that the Lord will not send forth his word in vain, that it shall not return to him void, but in due time, when he seeth fit, it shall accomplish that whereunto he hath sent it.

UNITED STATES.
7.-MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

We are indebted to the ORIENTAL CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR for December, for the following interesting extracts from letters recently received at Bombay, from Rev. W. Ramsey, late of that station.

"The spirit of Missions is on the increase in America. Yet still we cannot find men enough to go on Foreign Missions. The attention of the young men has been turned to the subject of home missions more of late than formerly, and this leads multitudes of the people and ministers to go out to the valley of the Mississipi. The Roman Catholics are pouring in their hundreds and thousands of ignorant and bigotted Papists into our land; it is important to counteract their influence, or they may ere long ruin the country. I have sent Mr. Wilson a copy of the Romish New Testament, which had not got into hands of Protestants here till lately. It is the essence of bitterness against Protestantism. Look at the notes, and you will see the spirit of popery.

"The Shepherdess' was to have taken out four Missionaries to Ceylon, and three to Bombay. Some of them have failed to get ready. They will go in the autumn, if well.

"A spirit of Missions has got into our Sabbath Schools, and much good is doing. One part of the instruction now given in these schools is on the subject of Missions. The world is the field; and the American churches begin to feel it.

"Every thing seems moving on. Sin and holiness increase, for the day of the Lord draws nigh. Oh may we be prepared to act our part, and receive our reward at last in the kingdom of God!

"I have lately perused a book called 'American Antiquities,' which I hope to send you. The author endeavours to prove that America was peopled shortly after the flood; and that subsequently colonies from Europe and Asia, immediately before and after Christ, came to this country. A tribe of Indians have lately been discovered in the west, who speak the Welsh language. Phylacteries have also been dug up out of some of the old Indian mounds (or burying places); and when the pieces of parchments were opened, the usual Hebrew verses were found written on them. Silver and gold coins with Persian letters on them have also been dug up. But I hope to send you the book. The author is a layman living in New York, and holds some strange sentiments; but the facts which he records, are curious and interesting."

8.-AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.

The following extracts from an Abstract of the late Report of the American Tract Society, will give our readers some idea of the activity and zeal with which this Association is prosecuting its benevolent objects.

RUSSIA. The friends of the Tract cause at St. Petersburgh appear to be more active than ever before. In the year 1834, they printed 175,000 tracts in Russ, besides 5000 in Swedish, and 1000 in Mongolian. A number of new Tracts are in preparation, and they earnestly desire to issue such volumes as the Young Christian, Mother at Home, &c. Permission has been readily granted to print the Tracts presented to the Censor. The Russian Church, unlike the Roman Catholic, is friendly to the diffusion of religious knowledge_through the press; religion is every where treated with external respect; and no Russian peasant has yet been known to refuse a Tract. Intemperance lamentably prevails, and Temperance Tracts are extensively circulated. The communications from St. Petersburgh are full of interest and encouragement. Friends there appear to have been governed by the most expansive benevolence. Their letters and appeals to this Society, on which they now chiefly depend for funds, are of affecting interest. They state, that from Dls. 2,000 to Dls. 3,000 annually could be well used. They express great joy in the proceedings at the Society's last anniversary for supplying foreign and pagan lands; and beg Christians of this country to go forward with unshaken confidence in God.

A number of valuable communications addressed to friends in St. Petersburgh are inserted in the Report, all of a cheering character-from Moscow, Esthonia, Finland, Sweden, the neighbourhood of the Black Sea, Astrachan, and Siberia.

The design has even been formed of entering China through Russia; and Chinese tracts have been ordered from Canton to be sent to St. Petersburgh, and thence by the numerous Russian traders, who meet the Chinese merchants at Kiachta, a town near the Chinese frontier, where all the immense trade between the two empires is conducted. The Rev. Mr. Swan, Missionary in Siberia, is familiar with the Mantchu Tartar language, which is extensively used in the north of China, the Emperor himself being a Mantchu Tartar. It is an interesting fact, that the Rev. Mr. Swan found in the Royal Library at St. Petersburgh a copy of the Bible in Mantchu Tartar, and obtained permission to transcribe it.

MEDITERRANEAN.-A most interesting letter had been received from Rev. William G. Schauffler, Missionary to the Jews at Constantinople, and very valuable communications from Rev. J. J. Robertson, D. D., who has the direction of the American Protestant Episcopal press at Syra in Greece. Among the works he has recently printed, are Horne on the Internal Evidence of the Scriptures, and Robinson's Scripture Characters from Adam to Joseph, translated into modern Greek. He has issued, in all, 30,255 copies, or 2,703,945 pages. It is believed the recent law regulating the press in Greece will not very essentially retard the circulation of Tracts. Letters from Mr. and Mrs. Hill at Athens, state that the king has personally visited their school, expressed his decided approbation, and that a niece of the prime minister Colette is now placed in their family to be educated by Mrs. Hill.

Communications from Rev. Mr. Temple and Rev. Mr. Brewer at Smyrna show, that much is doing in that vicinity. Rev. Mr. Brewer had personally visited Colosse, and other parts of Asia Minor, and some of the Epistles has been translated into modern Greek and Græco-Turkish, and given anew to the inhabitants of the places to which they were originally addressed.

BARMA H.-The Missions of the American Baptist Board here are prosecuted with great energy; four presses and a stereotype foundry are in operation; and every thing affords encouragement to persevere in the arduous work of Barmah's conversion. The Board of the Baptist General Convention have gratefully acknowledged the co-operation of this Society, and used every means to render its appropriations in the highest degree useful. One of the presses has recently been removed to Ava, the "Golden City," and the capital of Barmáh, where on some days Mr. Kincaid and his brethren have had from 800 to 900 hearers in two of the Zayáts. The distribution of Tracts from all the stations is active and promising. Some of the Barmáhs have been known to copy upon the palm leaf Tracts which had reached them in distant villages; and the Karens have sold their fowls to buy them.

An interesting history is given of the conversion of an able Búdhist preacher, entirely familiar with all their sacred books, whom, as he read the "Catechism,' and "View of the Christian Religion," truth pierced to the heart. Every thing indicates the importance of vigorously pursuing Tract and Missionary operations in Barmáh, now while the door is open.

SOUTH-EASTERN ASIA.-At Bankok, in Siám, Tract operations are commencing under favorable auspices by American missionaries.

The American Mission at Singapur have a type foundry, presses, and complete founts of type in several languages. It is a free port, under the protection of the English government, and is visited monthly by not far from 140 junks and other native craft, from upwards of forty different ports of China, Siam, the Malayan peninsula, and the numerous islands of the Indian Archipelago.

Valuable communications have been received from Rev. Messrs. Robinson and Johnson, from the lamented Rev. Henry Lyman, Rev. Mr. Medhurst, and Rev. Mr. Tomlin, showing the immense importance of the Indian Archipelago as a field for Tract and missionary labor, and the favorable circumstances in which many Tracts have already been distributed.

CHINA. It is painful to reflect, that a cheering letter received a few months since from the lamented Dr. Morrison is the last communication the Society are to expect from that beloved man. His last suggestion to American Christians which we have observed, is the sending out from that country a ship to navigate the shores of Eastern Asia, freighted with the word of salvation on the printed page.

The report contains interesting communications from the Chinese evangelist, Leang Afa, who has for ten years been faithfully laboring for his idolatrous countrymen; and now has about ten Chinese converts joining him in the worship of the true God. He has been a most efficient and fearless Tract distributor; and amid the persecutions excited by the late collision with the British government was obliged to flee to Singapur, where he has a wide field of labor. It is hoped that the political embarrassments may ere long subside, and he return to labor among the millions of his native land.

The devoted Gutzlaff still pursues his work with quenchless ardor-making tours for distribution, preparing original Tracts, and pouring his appeals upon Christendom to rouse her from her slumber over the wants of from three to four hundred millions of souls. So entirely has he identified himself with the Chinese, that they have even supposed him to be a native feigning himself a foreigner; and his acquaintance both with their common and classic language, and their habits of thoughts, is such, that as he throws out upon the multitudes his terse and thrilling appeals, he is often interrupted by shouts of immoderate applause.

The winter of 1833-4 he spent in Fokien province, where he distributed several tens of thousands of books; and in July last he commenced another extensive tour along the Coast of China and to the Island of Formosa, where hundreds and thousands of books were from time to time scattered among the ravenous multitudes almost in a moment, till he was stripped of every leaf. A number of communications just received show that he was never more active; and with steadfast reliance upon God, was never more assured of ultimate success.

He and his fellow-laborers are confident that the three Chinese walls, material, political, and moral, as Mr. Abeel has described them, may and will be broken down, and that the churches have only to trust in God, and go forward to the conquest of this mighty nation.

Every onward movement of the Society has but shown the field of its operations to be open wider and wider. That the hand of God is in it none can doubt. Let all Christians pray, and contribute, and labor as they ought, and by His powerful blessing, ere long they shall teach no more, "every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know thou the Lord; for they shall all know him."

Many evidences of the Divine blessing on the small Tract, the evangelical volume, and the labours and prayers of Christians, connected with Tract distribution, are added, which we are compelled to omit.

AFRICA.

9.-LIBERIA.

The following letter gives on the whole a very pleasing account of the moral and religious condition of the interesting colony of Liberia, which, it will be recollected, consists of colored persons and liberated slaves from the United States. It is written by Dr. Skinner, a Baptist Missionary, to his friends in America.

1 arrived at this place on the first day of this month, and you are aware of the appalling intelligence we met, when we arrived, in the death of the Missionaries who were on the ground before us. Since our arrival, brother Waring is dead; he died on the 13th, and was buried on the 14th of the month. In him, I have lost a friend, his family an affectionate husband and father, the poor a benefactor, the First Baptist Church a beloved pastor, and Monrovia, one of her most active and valuable citizens. He died, after an illness of fourteen hours, of cholera morbus.

There are two Baptist churches in this colony, both in Monrovia, though members of the first church are spread over the colony; the second is composed of twelve members, under the pastoral charge of brother Teague. There are ninety-one members, of the first church at New Georgia or Carey Town, distant four miles from this place, all recaptured Africans, and exhibiting a glorious evidence of what Divine Grace can do, in subduing the heart and removing idolatrous superstitions from the mind. At Caldwell, distant 8 miles, there are 21 members of the same church; at Millsburg, there are 11 members; at Big Town, near Cape Mount, amongst the Veys two, one an exhorter, both natives-where brother Revey has taught a school, for a considerable time, and numbers have learned to read. The Vey language is extensively understood. The Bassau language still more so. It is believed, that more than an hundred thousand understand this language. King Boatswain wishes a school in his territories, distant from this one hundred and fifty miles. I shall visit him, if my life and health are spared, when I have selected a place for a medical and high school. It is calculated that the people, who understand this language, are about thirty thousand.

I have forwarded to you a copy of the Liberia Herald, where you will see what ought to be done, without delay-this field is an important one in every point of view, There are three ordained ministers here, of our denomination, and three licentiates. The morals of Monrovia are not so bad as I anticipated. I have not heard a profane word, since I have been here; nor seen a drunken man, nor had a drop of spirit offered me, nor seen it used by others. There is a general and strict attention to the Sabbath, and as good society here, as in New England; the extravagance of this place has evidently decreased, at which I sincerely rejoice. I bless God I am here, and that at present I enjoy good health. I do not believe that the atmosphere of this place is less salubrious than India. You may inquire then why has it been more fatal? I answer, there they bleed, and treat the disease (which is precisely the same as we have here) with calomel and the antiphlogistic course. Here they give opium and bark, and thus help on the fatal effect of the contagion. I bleed without fear, and with uncommon success.

May God send a host of laborers into this field, and our denomination not be behind-hand. There are of the Baptist denomination in this colony, 243. The meetinghouse of the first church in this village should be finished. The walls are laid of stone, up to the roof. It is designed to continue the gable ends with stone. The building is 34 by 44 feet. It is calculated that it will cost 1200 dollars to complete the house. I believe that duty to God and his cause requires that our brethren in America should help us in this work, and do something towards building this house. Dear brother, I am surrounded by intelligent beings bound to the bar of God with me, who are literally worshipping the devil, a Bad Spirit; as they believe the Good Spirit to be so good, that they need not regard him. All their acts of homage are designed to make the Bad Spirit good-natured. To him they offer pipes, tobacco, and rum, when any adverse fortune attends them, or they get into any difficulty. It is but a few miles to where they worship sharks, and yearly offer up a child to them of 9 or 10 years old, who is devoured by them. My God, shall Christians be idle in such a case? Shall money and men be wanting? May God help us to do what our hands find to do, with our might. I feel as though I wanted to be at the Bight of Benin, preaching the gospel, and to stop, if possible, the sacrifice of another human being to the voracious sharks.