marked the rise of any other nation from a state of absolute barbarism; and they exhibit all that simplicity in form and language, which always characterizes the productions of a people in the incipient stages of civilization. A complex system of jurisprudence, is the price of great improvements in the social and civil state. Mr. Kingsbury remarks, that some active and well disposed young half-breeds, (particularly Joel Nail,) were instrumental in procuring these laws. MISSION AT THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. JOINT LETTER OF THE MISSIONARIES. This letter, which bears date of February 1, 1822, states, that the whole number of regular pupils under the instruction of the missionaries, was then about 65. About 40 of these were at the station of Woahoo, and about 25 at Wymai. A new station was contemplated, as soon as the chiefs should point out a desirable place for it. Several places seemed to be, in many respects, inviting: among others, Ohido, on Owhyhee; Lahinah, on Mowee; and Hanapapa, on Atooi.-We give but brief extracts from the letter. A Reinforcement needed. We are more than satisfied with the high ground taken by the Prudential Committee, with respect to the laborers for this field. You are doubtless well aware that, in the present state of this nation, the exigencies of this mission demand the aid of no ordinary talents. A considerable number of laborers, who are emphatically prudent, tried, and faithful men, could now, we believe, be very advantageously employed in this field, and we earnestly request that they may be sent to our aid. We desire further, that among the missionaries of the Board, our case may be regarded as, in a very important and striking sense, peculiar, and having peculiar claims. The letter urges this point with considerable earnestness, by instituting a comparison of the claims of the different missions of the Board. Printing and Translations. We are happy to announce to you, that, on the first Monday of January, we com menced printing, and, with great satisfaction, have put the first eight pages of the Owhyhean spelling-book into the hands of our pupils, copies of which we now transmit for the examination of the Committee, and as little curiosities from these dark isles. By the next conveyance, we hope to send complete copies, with a preface. We intend to print a catechism historical and doctrinal, a Scriptúre tract, and a grammar and vocabulary, as we make advances in the language. Our pupils will devour books in this language, as fast as we can make them. The translation of the Scriptures into any language, is a great work; especially if there be no learned men, to whom the language is vernacular. Of such there are none here. Add to this the great apparent poverty and ambiguity of the Owhyhean language, which needs the aid of gesticulation to make it clear and forcible:-and a good translation of the entire Bible into it, ought not to be expected for many years to come. Probably our eyes will never be gladdened with such a goodly sight. EMBARCATION OF NEW MISSIONARIES TO THESE ISLANDS. IN our last number, we promised a more full account of the circumstances of the embarcation which took place at New Haven, Con. on the 19th of November; and of the solemn and interesting services, which preceded it. Excepting Stephen Popohe, a native of the Society Islands, and William Kummo-00lah, Richard Kriouloo, and Cooperee,* natives of the Sandwich Islands,-the names of all the male members of this mission family are to be found in the survey of missionary stations, at the beginning of this number. All who are there named, except Mr. Chamberlain, are married, and are accompanied by their wives. Connected with the family, is a pious colored woman, Betsey Stockton, who is qualified to teach school, and take charge of the domestic concerns. The whole number that embarked, was eighteen. The ship Thames, captain Clasby, in which they took passage, having been originally designated and used for a packet between this country and Europe, affords superior accom. modations. The embarcation took place on Tuesday. On the Sabbath evening preceding, a meeting was held for prayer. The Rev. Mr. Bard * These four natives are hopefully pious; though only the two first are united to the church. ་ well, formerly missionary to India, addressed the mission family, and the Rev. President Day addressed the people. Monday evening being the time appointed for delivering the Instructions of the Prudential Committee to the missionaries, the church was crowded at an early hour; and the messengers of the churches, "ready to depart on the morrow," united,―for the last time, in a Christian land, with each other, and for the last time, on earth, with their patrons and friends,—in the public worship of God. Mr. Richards, preached an appropriate discourse from Isaiah Ix, 9;-"Surely the isles shall wait for me;" after which the Corresponding Secretary delivered the Instructions of the Prudential Committee. It was a season of intense interest,-one which must have affected the hearts of all present, and will never be forgotten by the professed disciples of the Lord Jesus, whose dying love, six or seven hundred, on that evening, sat down to com. memorate at his table. "A collection was taken up for the mission," says the Christian Spectator, "amounting to $334. In addition to this, donations were made from different individuals of the city and its vicinity, to the amount of $1,000, the inhabitants of all classes uniting their contributions for the support and comfort of the mission family during their long voyage, and after their arrival. "On Tuesday afternoon, a large concourse of people assembled on Tomlinson's wharf to take leave of the devoted little band, who had for several days occupied nearly all their thoughts. A circle was formed around the missionaries with their own nearest relations and friends just back of them, and the clergymen and others who were to officiate on the occasion, directly opposite. A hymn composed by William B. Tappan, was then sung. No heart could be so insensible, as not to thrill with emotion as the loud hallelujah of praise ascended to the Most High: Wake, Isles of the South! your redemption is near, Alleluia to the Lamb who hath purchased our par don; We will praise him again when we pass over Jordan: We will praise him, &c. The billows that girt ye, the wild waves that roar, The zephyrs that play where the ocean-storms cease, Shall bear the rich freight to your desolate shore, Shall waft the glad tidings of pardon and peace. Alleluia, &c. On the islands that sit in the regions of night, The lands of despair, to oblivion a prey; The morning will open with healing and light, The young star of Bethlehem will ripen to-day. Alleluia, &c. The altar and idol in dust overthrown, The heathen will hasten to welcome the time, And thou OBOOKIAH! now sainted above, May blossom as Sharon, and bud as the rose! We will praise him again when we pass over Jordan: We will praise him, &c. "The missionaries were then feelingly commended in prayer, by the Rev. Mr. Merwin, to the care and protection of Him who 'rides upon the whirlwind and directs the storm.' "Notice was then brought from the ship, that but a few minutes remained before the time appointed for their embarcation. These moments were spent in singing, Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love; The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above. We share our mutual woes: Our mutual burdens bear; And often for each other flows The sympathising tear. When we asunder part, It gives us inward pain; "The solemn stillness that had pervaded the assembly during the religious exercises, was followed by a convulsive throb of sympathy when the parting embrace was given. One could scarcely fail of being reminded of St. Paul taking leave of his friends at Miletus, when he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him; sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship." "As the boats receded from the shore, the missionaries doubtless dwelt with agonizing eagerness on the lessening forms of those who watched their departure. But no want of resolution was perceived on either side. Fathers and mothers gave up their children to the noble work, praising God that they were accounted worthy to labor in such a glorious cause; and the missionaries themselves with a cheerful courage, bade farewell to their native land, relying with undoubting confidence on the promise of Christ-'I will be with you even to the end of the world.” ” AMERICAN EDUCATION SOCIETY. SEVENTH REPORT. Rev. ASA EATON, Boston, Clerk. Rev. Louis DWIGHT, Andover, Mass. RESPECTING the anniversary meeting of this Progress of the Society. besides a bequest of $2,500, and important aid to a large amount in board and clothing, tuition and classical books, making a total in cash, of $76,000. This Society has now a permanent fund of $21,800, and has afforded assistance since its organization, to three hundred and fifty-four young men.-"GREAT EFFECTS RESULT FROM LITTLE CAUSES." Receipts. The subscription opened, at the last an nual meeting, amounted to nearly $2,000, of which $700 were the annual subscriptions of seven individuals, and $350 of seven others. The whole amount of annual subscriptions obtained, that week, is equal to a permanent fund of $20,000 during the life-time of the subscribers. This is an honorable example of liberality. The whole amount of receipts in money, for the last year, is stated above, to be about $17,000. Important aid has been received, also, in board, clothing, tuition, and classical books. 1. In Board. This aid is afforded by those, who live in the vicinity of Academies and Colleges. About 20 beneficiaries have been thus aided by individuals and families. 2. In Clothing.-Many boxes of valuable articles have been presented to the Society; and these articles have been distributed among grateful recipients It is pleasant to be able to record here, a remark of the President of Yale college; with which the testimony of other officers corresponds, in relation to the gratitude of Beneficiaries. To any one who doubts their gratitude, "it would be satisfactory to attend a meeting of indigent youth with the committee of appropriation, and see how gratefully they receive the articles appropriated to them; and how reluctantly they disclose their wants; and how the most affecting circumstances are disclosed incidentally." In the summer of 1815, a few young men in Boston thought it their duty to educate a pious young man for the ministry. They met the first time for consultation, at the study of our lamented friend and brother, the Rev. Joshua Huntington. The subject magnified in importance; and at an adjourned meeting, several other gentlemen were invited for the purpose of ascertaining, whether it was not their duty to educate more than one; and if so, how many; and in what manner? The subject here opened in still greater magnitude, and at another adjourned meeting, in the Vestry of Park Street Church, where the neighboring clergy and others had been invited to attend, the American Education Society was formed, August 29, 1815; and the Act of Incorporation was obtained, December 6, 1816. Fear and trembling then mingled with ardent hope. The difficulties to be anticipated from the novelty of the undertaking, and from the jarring elements of denominational and local feeling, assumed in the eyes of many an imposing 3. As in board and clothing, so in Tuaspect; and some sincere friends of the ob- ition, essential aid has been received, and ject more than doubted the practicability still further aid may be expected. In Bow of uniting, in its favor, the energies of any doin College, by a regulation of the Trusconsiderable portion of the Church. But, tees, the term bills of one half the students the providence of God had proclaimed that if they are indigent, may be remitted. In "something must be done;" many hearts Amherst Collegiate Institution and Acaderesponded, "something shall be done." my, the Trustees have offered tuition graHeaven smiled on the incipient measures tuitously to forty of the Society's Benefithat were adopted, and in the first year of ciaries. In Union College, fifty dollars a its existence, the Society received into its year is granted to each from the College treasury $5,000; the second year, $7,000; fund. The Trustees of Williams College the third year, $6,000; the fourth year, are enabled to remit half the term bills to $19,000: the fifth year, $9,000; the sixth, all the indigent students. In Phillips, $13,000; the seventh and last, $17,000, || Bradford, Wrentham, Londonderry, Exe ter, Lenox, and some other academies, tuition is gratuitous to the Society's Beneficiaries. 4. Classical Books, also, which may be estimated at seven hundred dollars, have been presented by gentlemen in Newburyport, Boston, New Haven and elsewhere; and classical libraries, for the use of indigent students, have been commenced in Stockbridge, Hopkins, Wrentham, Bradford, Newburyport, Saco, Union, and Pembroke academies. These are all the property of the American Education Society, and are placed under the care of the instructors, for the exclusive use of the Society's Beneficiaries. In each book, these circumstances, together with the name of the donor, are written. Classical libraries had been previously formed, and the Beneficiaries have received the benefit of them, in Yale, Union, Williams, and Middlebury colleges, and in Brown university; and measures are adopted to form another in Bowdoin College; so that the library of the American Education Society, will now be an object of distinct consideration; and we cannot but hope that it will receive the attention of those, who have long since completed their education, and have on hand classical books, which they do not want; also of those who are about to close their college life, and of booksellers friendly to the object. The books most needed for the Society's Library, are classical books for the first and second stages of education; that is, for the Academic and Collegiate stages. The Appendix names the following as some of the most important:— Grammars, Dictionaries, Lexicons, Greek Testaments, Virgil Delphini, Cicero's Select Orations, Græca Minora and Majora, Blair's and Priestley's Lectures, Day's Algebra, Webber's Mathematics, and Playfair's Euclid; Enfield's Natural Philosophy; Day's Surveying and Navigation; Sallust, Horace, Cicero De Oratore; Paley's Moral Philosophy, and Evidences of Christianity; Locke on the Human Understanding, and Stewart and Brown on the Mind, Butler's Analogy, &c. &c. Principle of Expenditure. Notwithstanding the prosperous state of the funds, it has been deemed inexpedient to suspend the rule adopted last year, requiring from each Beneficiary a promissory note for one half of the sum allowed to him; and equally inexpedient to increase the ratio of appropriations. The principle, hitherto maintained by the Board, may never be lost sight of-viz. that no more can be done for the assistance of any young man than is necessary to preserve him from discouragement, and insure success to his personal exertions. On the scale of appropriation hitherto adopted, it is impossible for any Beneficiary to complete his education without very strict economy and diligence, unless he have other resources than those known to the Directors. And when to this is added the fact, that every Beneficiary renders to the Board an exact account of all his receipts, and of all his expenditures, at the close of each quarter, and that this account is examined and approved by his Preceptor, the friends of the Society will feel entire confidence, that their free-will offerings are not squandered and lost. Objections to the Society. The Report considers several objections to the Society, as existing in the minds of many well disposed persons. Such are the following: -That the beneficiaries are improvident, and do not what they can to assist themselves;that, in some cases, there is a want of satisfactory evidence, that the beneficiary is indigent; -also, with respect to his talents, piety, and progress in learning;-that the Society assists students in the Theological Seminary at Andover; and that there are ministers enough already educated, who are unemployed. To the first objection it is answered,—that the ground of the objection is, in most cases, rather apparent, than real; and that much has been done, during the past year, to remove any apparent ground, which there might be for it. In Williams, Amherst, Yale and some other colleges, the students cultivate missionary fields. Generally, they cut their own wood. Eighteen Beneficiaries, at one of our most respectable literary institutions, during one quarter of the last year, earned by their own personal exertions one fourth of their support; and ninety-five, in different academies and colleges, during another quarter, earned $2,100. And there is reason to believe that the great majority of the Society's Beneficiaries are prudent and industrious. In reply to the second objection, the Directors state their precautions to prevent, and their efforts to detect, imposition. They are certainly such as leave no ground for complaint. The Directors request any, who may have proof, that a beneficiary is not indigent, to forward such evidence to the Clerk at Boston, without delay. Extracts of letters from the Officers of the several Colleges, sufficiently refute the third objection. To the fourth objection it is replied, that though (as may be seen in the Appendix to Professor Stuart's Dedication Sermon,) the funds of the Seminary at Andover are quite inadequate to the support of all its indigent students, not a farthing has ever been con. tributed by the Society, to any of their beneficiaries, after they had entered that sem. inary. The reply to the last objection is briefly this:-That if there are preachers wholly unemployed, it is not because there is nothing to be done. It appears, however, from exam ination, that, in Connecticut, the number of unsettled ministers and licenciates was no greater the last year, than it was 20 years ago; which is remarkable. Influence of the Society. Not only are the resources of the Society increasing, but it is already exerting a powerful and salutary influence on colleges, academies, and schools. Many of the Beneficiaries teach a part of the year, and not unfrequently they have been instrumental of revivals of religion in their schools. But when so great good as this has not resulted, they have in all instances, it is believed, instituted morning and evening prayers, and the reading of the Scriptures with their scholars, and communicated much religious instruction; it is impossible to tell how much fruit the seed thus scattered shall produce. Their influence upon the academies is learned not only from the testimony of their instructors, but in the anxiety of the people to get this class of young men into their academies, and their readiness to assist them when they are there. Their influence, on the colleges, all the officers agree in saying, is most salutary; and the following facts speak volumes on the subject. In the lapse of two years, previous to 1821, there were revivals of religion in seven colleges, in which more than one hundred and eighty students were added to the churches. How much of this effect is to be attributed to your beneficiaries, it is not possible to tell; but the following extract of a letter from an eyewitness, and one of the professors in Yale college, accords with the testimony of the officers of other colleges, and is highly satisfactory to all the friends of Education Societies. He writes; "We are again blessed with a revival of religion. The influence of the Charity Students in producing this state of things, under the divine blessing, has been very great. Indeed, No one what could we do without them. can speak on this subject but an officer of college. Every year increases our conviction that the church would be amply repaid-doubly paid, for all its expense in supporting charity students, were the effect confined to the walls of a collegewere every Beneficiary to die the moment he leaves us." As from the letter, so by a comparison of the present religious state of the colleges, with their religious state twenty years ago, the same truth is evident. Last year, in the colleges of New England, New York, and New Jersey, there were 1821 students, of whom 546 were hopefully pious, which is almost one third of the whole number. From the same colleges during ten years, from 1800 to 1810, only one sixth were pious. This is a very cheering view. To witness the benign effects of this charity, we are not compelled to go forward into future ages: nor abroad into distant nations. But, before the young men have come forth as preachers of the Gospel; before they have settled down as pastors of churches, or gone abroad as heralds of salvation; in the early stages of the charity, and almost at the outset of the preparation for usefulness,-there is an ex tensive developement of happy influences. No sooner is the seed sown, than there is a luxuriant growth, and a whitening harvest. The fact is indisputable;-as soon as Education Societies had brought a moral power to act on many of our colleges, novel and sur. prising changes were beheld taking place in the religious state and character of those colleges. But it is not in the Colleges alone, that the beneficiaries have become a blessing. The Report speaks of their usefulness as members of Academies, and as teachers of Schools. Of the influence which they exert, in this last capacity, enough, we conceive, has not hither. to been said. As the beneficiaries have no funds of their own, and do not receive sufficient aid from the Society to meet their ordinary expenses, they are generally obliged to teach a school, some part of each year. Doubtless this is, on all accounts, a desirable necessity. While it is a real advantage to the young men, it raises the standard of education in the country, by increasing the number of competent instructors; and, also, does much to promote true piety, by bringing religious doctrines and precepts into frequent contact with many minds. In most parts of the country, the schoolmaster is regarded as an |