Marseilles, there are also several. Schools have likewise been established at Maisons and Bourg la Reine, near Paris, and there is every probability that the number will increase. The Society intends to call the attention of its correspondents every where to the establishment of evening and Sunday schools for adults. Satisfactory information is given of the schools established in the prisons. At Saint Denis 144 young prisoners were admitted into the school during the year 1821: fifty-three have left who are able to read, write, and cipher; and their minds are impressed, it is added, with good principles and pure morals. They have all entered into some description of trade. In reply to the objections made to the general education of the poor, the Committee ask; "Who will venture to assert, that among fifteen or eighteen millions of individuals in France who can neither read nor write, there is more piety, morality and virtue than among those who have been instructed? How shall we reply to the argument deduced from the judgment of the courts of assize, that out of every ten persons condemned, scarcely one can read and write? or how account for the reformation of those who have been confined in prisons which are provided with schools? Let us then persevere in spite of this unjust opposition, in the good work which we have undertaken, and not rest satisfied until we are confident that the means of instruction are given to the whole population of France. What remains to be done is immense but let us not be discouraged; what we are obliged to leave undone, our children may accomplish after us."

In consequence of the interest of the first magistrate of the department of the Seine and the increasing zeal of the masters, the number of schools in this department has augmented. The total number is more than 100, including those of

every description,-city, village, Catholic, Jews, or Protestants; and lastly, schools for adults as well as children; to which may be added, a Normal School for each sex. At the head of the new establishments is a large free school founded at the expense of the city of Paris for 400 boys, situated in a very populous part. Scarcely was it publicly made known, before a large number of children applied for admission. The master was selected from a large number of applicants, after a very strict examination made of adult schools at Paris. The village schools in the department, have increased in number and made much progress during the last year.

"It is due," observe the Committee, "to the philanthropy of the English to say that they continue to be, as they ever have been, the principal promoters of universal education. It is by their exertions that the truths of the Gospel are now spreading over every part of the globe. The desire of reading the holy Scriptures has been the means of schools being established in every part of the world; and the people, once acquainted with the art of reading, receive this valuable treasure with an eagerness which daily increases. The object. of the Bible Society is closely connected with ours. We are bound in gratitude to mention the gift lately bestowed upon us by the Bible Society through Professor Kieffer. Six thousand copies of the New Testament have been sent to the Society at Paris, which have been distributed to our different correspondents throughout the kingdom."

On the 1st January, 1821, of 2,882,000 boys from five to fifteen years of age, 1,070,500 attended the primary schools: the number of villages provided with schools was 24,724, and that of schools 27,851, managed by 28,945 masters. The number of schools belonging to the Frères was 187, attended by about

30,000 children; each conducted by three masters. The schools on the common plan contain thirtyeight scholars each; those on the new system 104. The expense of 27,581 schools is estimated at seventeen millions of francs per annum: by adopting the new method, it could be reduced to five. The num ber of boys without instruction

MORAVIAN

THE state of the Mission of the United Brethren at the Cape of Good Hope, has engaged the attention of many friends to the propagation of the Gospel among the heathen, ever since its renova. tion in 1792, and more especially since that colony has been united to the British empire. The change effected in the mauners of the Hottentots bas also attracted the notice and approbation of the colonial government, and of all intelligent travellers who have visited Gnadenthal, Groenekloof, and Enon, the three settlements of the brethren now existing in that country. From numerous benefactors liberal contributions have been received towards the support of the mission, especially after the destruction of Enon by the Caffres in 1819.

Another severe visitation, we regret to learn, has befallen this mission by a late dreadful hurricane and floods, and likewise by famine, occasioned by successive failures of the crops. The following extracts from letters from the Rev. H. P. Hallbeck present some affecting details of the late calamities.

Groenekloof, July 25, 1822.— "My letter of the 22d gives you some account of the damage done by the rains and floods here at Groenekloof. Not only the gar dens are almost totally ruined, our large pond filled and turned into a sand hillock, several Hottentot cottages thrown down and their gardens swept away, but the northwest gable-end of our beautiful

amounts to 1,818,081. In order to instruct them, fifteen or eighteen thousand schools would be necessary; the annual and total expense of which would be from fifteen to eighteen millions. Half of these establishments would support themselves, and there would remain to the state an annual expense of from eight to ten millions more.

MISSIONS.

church is changed into a heap of ruins. Many thousand dollars will be required to repair the loss sustained; and no time must be lost, in order that we may save the other walls and the roof. But we live now at a time, when provisions can hardly be had for money, and the expense and trouble of providing for a number of labourers will be very great. God only knows how we shall find our way through the surrounding darkness. But after all, there is only one way for us open, which is, not to cast away our confidence, but to keep close to Him who alone is able to heal the wounds His band inflicts. None of the inhabitants remember such a rainy season as has been experienced in this part of the country this year. It is quite like the rainy monsoon of the East Indies. Among the Hottentots, who are now busy in clearing away the rubbish, no other word is heard, but the repeated ejaculation, Alas! our church, our beautiful church !'— Like them, my mind is quite harassed by the scene of desolation before my eyes. Farewell for the present: you shall hear from me again, as soon as I arrive at Gnadenthal."

The Rev. C. I. Latrobe adds to this account-"The loss sustained by the damage done to the church is so great, that the expense, added to that of restoring the gardens and the reservoir, which must be immediately done, will bring on us a burden not to be supported but by the kind assistance of our bre

thren and friends, to whose liberality we recommend this case of distress."

dency. Thus we received very lately, a very seasonable and unexpected present of two hundred and fifty rix-dollars from the directors of our missions, by which we shall be enabled to prepare a meal three times a-week for all the poor women and children without exception, for the space of four weeks. Upwards of two hundred are partakers of this charity: we, however, always set them to do some work for their own and the public good, before they are fed; for instance, to clean the water-course, enlarge the burial-ground, clear the chanuel of the Bavian's Revier, in order to prevent inundations, &c. What we are to do, when the above sum is exhausted, I do not know; but it appears to me as if we should be obliged to continue this distribution for a couple of months longer, from whatever quarter the means may be obtained. The wretched sufferers may indeed protract their existence for a few days by eating grass, as they do at present; but unless they get a meal of warm and nourishing food now and then, they cannot live long in that way. And rather than suffer them to perish under our eyes, we must sacrifice whatever we have to dispose of."

The accounts from Gnadenthal are still more distressing. The followingisan extract from another letter from Mr. Hallbeck, dated Goadenthal, August 26, 1822.-" The severe weather which made such havock at Groenekloof and the surrounding country, has been no less detrimental to Guadenthal and its neighbourhood. By the mercy of God, however, none of the missionaries' buildings had fallen. But our poor Hottentots have suffered most severely; forty-eight houses have been very materially injured and rendered uninhabitable for some time, and of this number upwards of twenty lie quite in ruins. Besides the loss sustained by the falling of houses, our poor Hottentots have also lost a great many head of cattle by wet and cold. In brief, we are ruined outright, and all the fond hopes of progressive improvement, which once cheered the spirits of us missionaries, are entirely blighted, unless God disposes the hearts of benevolent friends to come to our assistance. But why do I torment myself with looking into dark futurity? Is not the misery of the present moment more than enough for my feeble strength? Often have I used that expression, emaciated with hunger; but never did I feel the force of the phrase so powerfully as in these days, when my door is incessantly besieged by women and children, who present to my eyes the frightful reality of what was hitherto only a faint pic ture in my imagination. Indeed, I wonder that after all the distress of mind which we have experienced, some of us have not long ago been laid up with sickness, and rendered unfit for further exertions. It is alone by Divine assistance, and by various proofs of God's kind providence, that I and my fellow labourers here are thus far preserved in health,and have not wholly sunk into despon

The same missionarywrites, Aug. 28, 1822;-" I had hardly sealed and dispatched the letter to your father, when the doleful lamentations of the wretched and emaciated sufferers at mydoor again began to shake my cofidence, knowing that our means are so very insufficient to meet the exigency of our situation. But all at once, a Hottentot made his appearance, and handed over a letter, which he had received in Caledon, stating, that as a surplus of eighty rix-dollars remained out of the fund appropriated by Government for the supply of grain to the poor of this district, the Landrost had determined to send it to Gnadenthal, to buy rice for distribution among the poorest in that settlement. With