"the knowledge of God?" Was it not meet that the angels should announce the birth of Christ with songs of "Peace on earth, and good will to men?" What is wanting but the universal diffusion of this Gospel, and its reception into all hearts, to quell every strife, to banish every evil, and to fill the world with one family of peace? Are not Christian missions, then, entitled to the most zealous and munificent support of the wise and good of every rank and class amongst us? Ought not every friend of civilization, of commerce, of liberty, of peace, of literature, of science, and of humanity, to hasten to swell the ranks of the friends of missions? If I might hope that your lordship had read the "Missionary Enterprises" of the late Rev. John Williams, I should address you with still greater confidence. I know you received a copy of the work, and politely acknowledged it; for your letter was proudly shown me by my friend, who was fain to believe it might be the means of introducing the subject of Missions to your lordship's notice, and enlisting your powers and influence in its behalf. If you have been able to command leisure sufficient for its perusal, it is needless for me to utter a syllable in its recommendation. If you have not, I would most earnestly press it upon your attention. It is strange, my Lord, that the Northern Review has not yet in earnest taken up the subject! A number of works of the highest importance have already issued from the pens of the London Missionary Society's agents—a number greater, indeed, by far than those of all other missionary societies united--relative to Polynesia, Africa, Madagascar, Greece, India, and China, which, alone, suffice to rebuke and abash the opposers and despisers of Missions,

and to propitiate the whole world of literature and science. The missionaries of that Society have done much to enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge, and to increase our acquaintance with the most important sections of the human race. To many tribes, of divers tongues and climes, they have given the first knowledge of letters; they have reduced their languages to grammar, and translated into them the oracles of God. Your Royal Society, your Royal Geographical Society, your Useful Knowledge Society, and all societies of a kindred character, are but bodies of polished, petty triflers, in comparison with our Missionary Societies. Their extinction—although a loss— would not be a very great calamity to the world, and that loss might in various ways be repaired; but the destruction of our Missionary Societies would be a crushing of the rising hopes of all nations!

There are two special grounds, my Lord, on which the friends of missions may claim the support of your lordship. From your earliest years, you have been the implacable adversary of Slavery, and the devoted friend of Education. Now, the bearings of the Missionary Enterprise upon both these objects are incalculable. It is to be remembered, my Lord, that Europe itself was once the theatre of missions, for all ecclesiastical establishments are only the legalized consolidation of the triumphs of missions. Was not Christianity the power which assailed and overthrew the slavery of Europe? Your enlightened and philosophic friend, GUIZOT, in his sixth lecture on civilization, is compelled to confess this fact. In reference to the doctrine of the Christian mission, he says, "It had a greater influence, and acted in a more efficacious manner,

It reso

towards the amelioration of the social state. lutely struggled against the great vices of the social state, for example, against slavery. It has often been asserted that the abolition of slavery, in modern Europe, was exclusively owing to Christianity. I think that is saying too much. Slavery long existed in the heart of the Christian society, without greatly exciting its astonishment, or drawing down its anathema. A multitude of causes, and a great development in other ideas of civilization, were required to eradicate this evil of evils, this iniquity of iniquities. Yet it is indubitable that the church employed its influence in restraining it. There exists an unquestionable proof of this fact. The greater part of the formulas of enfranchisement, made out at different eras, are founded upon a religious motive; it is upon the invocation of religious ideas, of hopes of eternal bliss, and of the equality of man, in the eyes of Heaven, that the enfranchisement is almost invariably pronounced."

The Minister of Public Instruction is obviously disposed, if possible, to question the claim of Christianity to the undivided honours of this most splendid triumph.

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Slavery long existed in the heart of the Christian society." Granted: the spirit of old Despotism was stronger than the spirit of young Christianity; but when the latter reached the vigour of manhood, the former was worsted, and fell to rise no more. "A multitude of causes," is a very indefinite expression, and is, besides, very inaccurate. Causes, like the friends, of humanity, were not in those days "a multitude." If "a great development in other ideas of civilization" was required, how were those "other ideas" produced? History replies, By Christianity, and by Christianity alone.

K

The Minister of Public Instruction, in the latter part of this passage, confounds restraint with extinction; for he himself shows that "the greater part of the formulas made out at different eras, are founded upon a religious motive." My Lord, M. Guizot had risen nearer to the truth of history, had his declaration been absolute. No point is more satisfactorily attested, than that the abolition of slavery in Europe was effected solely by the influence of Christianity, and that the first Christian missionaries began what the abolitionists, so called, completed. The former laboured, and the latter entered into their labours. Let the missionary be despatched to every land where slavery exists, and his arrival on its shores will be the first step of a process which will infallibly issue in its utter extinction. The period may be remote, but the result is sure. From the hour when the missionaries of Gregory set foot in England, commenced that anti-slavery war in whose later triumphs your lordship has so largely and so generously shared.

Let us glance at the subject in recent times, when the conflicts of Christianity and slavery have been more distinctly noted, and we shall have additional proof of its liberal tendencies. The facts that certain missionaries have been doubtful enemies, and others even promoters of slavery, do not militate against me; they are the exception, not the rule, and are to be ascribed to the absence of Christian principle. Such men did not exThe names of Cardinal

emplify but belie Christianity! Ximenes and Pope Leo X. will be lasting as letters; and the fact that they were the foes of slavery, will be remembered, and redound to their glory when all their other deeds shall have been forgotten. As a Christian, I

survey with intense satisfaction the history, and minute down the names, of Morgan, Godwyn, Richard Baxter, Thomas Tyron, George Fox, William Edmundson, Primut, Hutcheson, Foster, Mifflin, Burling, Sandiford, Lay, Woolman, Benezet, Sewel, Rush, Winchester, Dillwyn, Sharp, Hughes, Hayter, Philmore, Warburton, Day, Beattie, Millar, Raynal, Paley, Porteus, Gregory, Wakefield, Ramsay, Smith, and Robertson the historian, your illustrious ancestor, who, in his immortal works, rendered signal service to the great cause of abolition.* These are the names of men of divers ages, countries, professions, and religious connexions, but all were animated by Christian humanity, and each, in his own way, bore emphatic testimony against the abominable traffic in the bodies and souls of men! The same principles, in a happy hour, led to the formation of the first Anti-slavery Society; and while some of the leaders have been mere philanthropists, who had but little sympathy with evangelical religion, the masses, the men who did the work, who encountered the difficulty, and made the needful sacrifice, were men imbued with religious principles. Without undervaluing the influence and eloquence of English statesmen, I affirm unhesitatingly, that it was Christianity that abolished negro slavery. The Christianity of England did much, but the Christianity of the West Indies did still more. Knibb, Burchell, and their brethren, the Baptist and Wesleyan missionaries; these, my Lord, these were the chief instruments in effecting emancipation! It was the missionaries that kindled the spirit of

* I beg to recommend to my readers the "History of Slavery, and its Abolition;" an accurate and invaluable record of a mighty enterprise, by the useful pen of Esther Copley.