be excused from bringing forward anything in the way of confirmation of them. But if any one were inclined to doubt the influence of British commerce over the British and Irish people, and the other nations of the world, I should just take the liberty of pointing him to a numerous standing army, powerful fleets, and extensive civil establishments, and I would then ask such a sceptic, if he could, to tell me for what purpose these exist? I maintain, then, that the glory of the British empire is derived not so much from the skill and prowess of her armies, or the science and valour of her navies (although these have not been without their important effects), as from the patient activity, in other words, the honest industry of her poor and frequently too much neglected people. Of these (the people), I might notice the condition of the operative classes, of the agriculturists, the manufacturers, the tradesmen, the mechanics, &c., were I not called upon more particularly to advocate the cause of the poor operative sailor or navigator in the princely merchant service. Poor and unprotected as merchant seamen are, in a temporal point of view, they are still poorer, and still more unprotected with respect to spiritual things. Many of them cannot read, and can scarcely sign their own names-consequently they cannot (even if they were inclined), read the Bible, and other good books. Of those who can read, such is the temptation presented to them to become or to continue irreligious, and consequently immoral, by the industrious circulation or cheap sale of bad books, calculated to excite or to inflame the worst of passions, that it may be fairly called irresistible, without the faithful and effectual external ministry of the word and ordinances of God. If to the temptation arising to the sailor from not being able to read, or from reading bad books (in the absence of the external ministry of God's word and ordinances from without), we add what arises to him from vain and idle, if not from worse conversation among his companions (which is frequently the natural result of a welldisposed man having no means of privacy on board of a ship), and if we add these to the temptations which result from the sailors' intercourse with the class of people with whom he is almost inevitably thrown in contact while ships are loading or discharging their cargoes in foreign and colonial ports, as well as at home, and during his absence from the ship on shore,-I think it will appear to the conviction of all who are not ignorant of the power of such temptations over the ignorant-that is, over the mind unfortified by useful study, religions meditation and prayer,--that the sailor has an amount of moral and spiritual evil to contend against, which should entitle him, not only to the best sympathies, earnest prayers, and honest exertions of all those who know what it is to be tempted, but also to the liberal contributions of their money for his religious instruction and comfort, of all those who are in any way benefited, in a temporal point of view, by his labours and sufferings. The Rev. Dr. Boaz then moved the following resolution :- "That this meeting, considering the importance of the seamen's cause, both for the sake of the large class of men whose benefit it directly contemplates, and because of the influence for good or for evil over others, desire to express their hearty sympathy with the efforts of this Society, and with all the labours of kindred societies throughout the world, and unite in prayer to God that the multitude of the sea may be speedily converted." He said he had great pleasure in doing so, as it referred to the importance of the seaman's cause, and what cause could be more important than that which had for its object the spiritual and moral welfare of three hundred thousand souls who constitute the bulk of the British Naval and Merchant Service alone, independently of the services of other nations, for whose welfare likewise this Society had been established? This Society expresses a hearty sympathy with all kindred societies-they had come together this evening to sympathise with each other in the glorious yet arduous undertaking now before them-he recollected an anecdote illustrative of this matter. A man had just returned from sea and was approaching his brother's cottage when he saw the figure of another man, but of gigantic size, coming towards him; as may be supposed, he was in great alarm at this apparition, but when it came up to him, he was surprised to find this enormous giant none else but his own brother, who had been magnified by a false medium-the mists peculiar to those climes. So we, on setting out in such undertakings as the present, are apt to regard each other through a distorted medium, but the nearer we approach in Christian truth, the more distinctly are we able to recognise in each a Christian and a brother. He had great pleasure in seeing such a large attendance on this occasion-in fact, it was the largest he had ever witnessed of this Society in India. The sacred Scriptures said, "A good report maketh the bones fat;" that is, it cheers and encourages. The report just read was a very good one, and the attendance was in every way worthy of such a report; we may thank God for his mercy in causing an interest in the minds of so many Christians in this good work. Sailors were once in a degraded position, they were considered by landsmen as a class only fit to be plundered, and kept out of decent society. They were now no more a distinct body, and he was happy to find they were treated more as other men. He would ask the sailors present, if, as a body, they did not find themselves morally better than what they were twenty years ago? He had travelled some thousands of miles and addressed thousands of people since he left India, and although he had travelled in the cold climes of the West, he returned to this country of the sun with a heart as warm as it had ever been in the cause of everything good connected with India, and especially to sailors, though he could say, "England, with all thy faults, I love thee still," and having seen other countries, "Love thee better than before," yet he loved India none the less. He had but a slight acquaintance with the worthy secretary previous to his departure to England, and had that gentleman known him better, he would have recollected a proverb applicable to an ancient bishop, that if you wanted him to do anything, you must strike him, i.e., not praise him. He had seen an advertisement in the papers announcing that he purposed giving them interesting information about the state of seamen at home; had he been asked to speak about India generally, or missions in India, he could with facility have spoken till midnight, but this was a new theme imposed upon him, immediately on his arrival in the country; he would, however, do his best, and if not done so well as it ought to be, he could not be blamed for doing badly what he had not really promised to do. To some minds it was pleasurable to trace mighty rivers to their sources; to the Hindoo it was a gratification to stand at the fountain head of the sacred Ganges. So with the Christian-it was pleasurable to trace benevolent institutions to their simple origin. To us it would be pleasant to mark the progress of religion among seamen. Some few years ago the Christian church regarded not the cause of the sailor-if one sailor had been seen in a church, he would have created quite a sensation; for instance, in a certain large seaport in Britain, a sailor entered a fashionable chapel, and seated himself, as he thought he had a right to do, in the front of the gallery, or to him, the quarter-deck :-overcome with fatigue, and unaccustomed to public worship, he fell asleep, and did what sailors and some other folks do, under similar circumstances, began to snore. The clergyman being a nervous man, and unable to proceed with his sermon, said to a friend-"Wake that sailor." The friend gave Jack a shake, and said, "My man, do you know where you are?" No," ," said he. "Why, you are in a chapel, and the minister is speaking to you." "The deuce he is," said Jack. It only proved the necessity of constructing places of worship adapted to their habits, where they would hear the Gospel preached to them in a lively manner. Amongst the early labourers in this cause might be enumerated the celebrated Whitfield, who never omitted an opportunity of preaching to sailors. On one occasion he was addressing a large concourse; the subject was a storm at 66 This sea; describing, in his own eloquent language, a vessel, compass lost, pilot drowned, captain absent, and the vessel just in the act of foundering, he called out to the drowning sailors, "Here is a rope long and strong,”—this rope was Christ and the Gospel: the effect produced was electrical; with one voice his congregation exclaimed, "Give us the rope." Dr. Hawes, a man well known in missionary history, when curate of Bedford, exerted himself materially in this good work. Dr. Ripon, the celebrated Baptist minister, whose church was on the south bank of the Thames, excited his congregation at this early period on behalf of the sailor. These were missionary men, and none care for sailors, generally speaking, but those with missionary hearts. The chaplain of the Dreadnought, called the Saucy Dreadnought, at this time, published the first volume of sermons addressed to seamen. volume is now a curiosity. The Spirit of God moved the hearts of a few pious captains connected with the northern ports in this work; one of the most conspicuous was a Captain Simpson, whose vessel appeared in the Thames in 1814, with the then novel, but now well-known Bethel flag flying at the mast-head;-this flag excited the suspicions of the police; at night they saw not only the flag, but a lighted-up cabin, where the men were assembled for prayer; the police-boat pulled alongside,-to their astonishment they heard the sailors praying-a novel scene; they listened, and among other things heard them praying for the king, the ministers, and the country-they departed, saying,There could be no wrong where men prayed for their king and country." This was the commencement of Bethel meetings in London. In connexion with the immediate object of this Society during his visit to England, immediately on his arrival he had an interview with the Directors of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society, and pleaded the cause of sailors in the East at their anniversary meeting, a day or two after his arrival in London. The object was cordially entertained. For two successive anniversaries the same cause was pleaded by him. The London Directors were anxious to assist, but, owing to the pressure of the times, were unable to comply with the request of the Calcutta Committee. The debt of the London Society at the last anniversary was £800. When commerce shall again become elastic, and free-trade shall confer those benefits on the country which its parents have prophesied, we may rest assured that the London Society will do all in their power towards the furtherance of our object. With reference to the cause in Calcutta, he rejoiced to find that the Bethel ship, which was once thought so great an undertaking, was now deemed a very small affair. You have expressed a wish for a large and commodious church on shore-this is good, it is a step in the right direction: sailors are materially improved, they had begun to feel they were not a distinct class, they had enough of ship when at sea, and wanted, when on land, to worship as landsmen. The report, though very good, had, in his estimation, committed one mistake, it spoke of a gradual subscription for a new church, lest the regular income of the Society should be infringed upon. There is nothing like striking while the iron is hot; get your ten thousand rupees at once! "I am sure,' said the speaker, "there are plenty of people in India, who could give that amount without feeling a bit the worse for it; begin to-night, and I hope the treasurer may be able to report half the needed sum." He rejoiced in the proposed erection of the new church--while sailors wish to worship as landsmen they have an equal dislike to be preached to as sailors, by men who are ignorant of nautical affairs; nothing was so unseemly or ridiculous in the estimation of sailors as ministers talking of anchors and cables, tacks and sheets, and the like, who evidently knew nothing about the locality and real application of such things. In a mariner's church where he had attended in early life, he had heard not a few preachers who had addressed sailors from Acts xxvii. 29. "They cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day,"--a somewhat novel fashion for these days, but which the good men thought very applicable to sailors, but unfortunately were not very successful in their application. Preach to sailors, as to men and sinners, the simple Gospel, and they will feel that it is adapted to their wants and desires, and you have hope of their conversion. The sailors particularly expressed their approbation during the Rev. Dr.'s speech in their usual hearty manner. Miscellaneous. THE BRITISH SAILOR. By an Old Seaman, now in the Coast-guard Service. Those who have seen a British tar only amidst his wild revels ashore can form but a faint idea of his real character. In order to estimate his sterling worth, we must behold him at the moment when the anchor is weighed, and the cliffs of Old Albion are receding from his view. 'Tis then his moral nature undergoes a complete transformation, and he becomes, from the most thoughtless, the most anxious of human beings. Every duty connected with his station, more or less important, is attended to with the strictest punctuality. Is the watch to be relieved while he is below in deep repose? Let the signal be given in a whisper, and in an instant all his consciousness returns; in a moment he throws off the soundest slumber, as if nature required no such refreshment, and beguiles the hours of duty or danger by humming or listening to the simple melodies of his native land. But see him roused by a storm; the winds rise and rave, the sea foams and boils till the mainmast rocks like a willow in the breeze: and lo! he springs from his hammock with the whole ship's company, who, stimulated by the law of self-preservation, act jointly, as though animated by but one soul. The storm is hushed, and every mind again resembles the ocean,- -a perfect calm. He is now far off at sea, and the object apparently nearest him is a star. He gazes on the expanded sky and extended ocean-two of the sublimest scenes in nature; and beholds with peculiar emotions the sun rise and setthe moon wax and wane-and as the faithful compass points to the north, so turns his heart to the land he is leaving. At other times he thinks of the far country whither he is bound-of the progress the gallant ship is making-of the enchanting and diversified scenes that await him--of the many curiosities he may purchase, and of the presents he will feel such a pride in bestowing, should he live to revisit the happy home to which he is attached by ties even more tender than those of blood. And when the outward voyage is completed, and the homeward one commenced, how many delightful anticipations dance through his mind, and thrill his soul with joy! When the welcome sound is given, "land ahead," and that land Old England, the emotions excited repay a thousand times the longest period of privations and toil. Cliffs, venerable for their antiquity, in the foreground, with smiling villages in the rear; old father Thames, bearing on his bosom the concentrated wealth of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; and London, with its endless array of streets, towers, churches, and monuments, gleaming in the rays of the morning sun, ere the ear is deafened by the bewildering din of its multitudinous population, form a succession of sights, or rather one magnificent whole, which no man can look upon without emotion: and though the brave sailor may be only an integer in the mighty sum of this world's arithmetic, his character is ennobled by the dangers he has encountered; and he paces the deck, or trips along the quay, like one who is conscious that he again breathes the atmosphere of freedom, and feels that he is every inch a man. And should the generous tar thus revisit the land of his birth, and after spending his strength in the service of his country, be neglected, despised, and denied a place in the warm British heart? Reason, love, justice, gratitude, alike forbid! W. E. SAY YOUR PRAYERS IN FINE WEATHER. Returning by the Belfast night-mail to my distant parish in the north, from the Dublin clerical meetings for the year 1839, I found myself placed opposite to a gentleman whose appearance engrossed rather than attracted my most profound attention. His age, as he afterwards told me, was sixty, and perhaps I should have conjectured as much, though exposure to weather, cares, anxieties, and dangers, with a certain air of seriousness which seemed as it were to preside over them all, spoke, more than the effects of time, the progress of my fellow-traveller's earthly pilgrimage. In truth, his countenance was such a one as no observant physiognomist would contemplate without interest, or mark its amiable and diversified expression without respect and love. The coach in which we sat had scarcely cleared the pavement, and was rolling along the comparatively silent highway, when my companion addressed me with great ease and politeness-a few minutes sufficed to show that the predominating sentiment of his heart was religion. His conversation was almost exclusively of that character, and as he poured out the rich stores of Gospel truth and experience from the exhaustless treasury of a converted soul, the night had insensibly wore away, and the sun had long risen; as we changed horses at the last stage, little more than an hour remained, and I must probably part for ever from a man by whose conversation I had been inexpressively captivated, I felt, as may be easily conceived, a strong desire to learn his history, and thus fix more permanently on my mind the impression he had made. Accordingly, I asked him whether the turning of his heart to God had been caused by any sudden danger, or merely connected with his seafaring life (he had already told me that he commanded a vessel trading between Liverpool and America), or was of gradual growth. My question seemed to please him, at least he replied to it with the utmost courtesy, saying-that in the last year but one of the late war, he was waiting in port with a fleet of merchantmen, till convoy should arrive, it being deemed unsafe to sail without such protection. His habits, he observed, had always been exceedingly irregular, to give them no stronger term, and he passed the period of detention in practices he could not look back on without sorrow. At length the signal to weigh anchor was made. His ship, as were also many others, was so short of hands that he gladly accepted of any person who offered himself, however inexperienced he might be in navigation; at the very instant of departure, a boat came alongside, out of which a tall robust man climbed actively upon the deck, and gave himself in as a seaman willing to engage for the voyage; the boat which brought him had returned to the shore, and the wind was blowing nearly a gale, but under every circumstance, my friend said he was glad to get even the addition of one equivocal hand to his scanty crew. His pleasure, however, was of short duration, for the new comer was soon found to be of a most quarrelsome, untractable disposition, a furious blasphemer, and, when opportunity offered, a drunkard. Besides all these disqualifications, he was wholly ignorant of nautical affairs, or counterfeited ignorance to escape duty. In short, he was the bane and plague of the vessel, and refused obstinately to give any account of himself, or his family, or his past life. At length a violent storm arose, all hands were piped upon deck, and all, as the captain thought, were too few to save |