school has been reduced to fortythree in the Black Jews' school there are thirty. In Bombay the White Jews are not numerous : those called the "Beni-Israel" are much more so; perhaps about 10,000 along the western coast of Hindostan, sunk into the lowest state of moral degradation. Mr. Sargon has succeeded in establishing a school for Jewish children at Bombay, in spite of a very serious opposition from some of the most respectable Jews in that place, many of whom have now had their prejudices softened, and in some few instances so far removed as to be induced to send their children to the schools, and to recommend others to do so likewise. The number of children at present on the school books amounts to forty. There is still great aversion among the Jews to the reading of the New Testament, and even to tracts. The schools of the American missionaries contain upwards of 100 Jewish children, and they have ten Jewish teachers. These schools, of which there are thirty-five, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Bombay, containing upwards of 1800 children, have proved of essential benefit to the Jews.

IRISH THE object of this highly useful society, our readers are aware, is to promote the education of the native Irish, through the medium of their own language.

In reporting the progress of the society during the year, the committee consider it no longer necessary to labour the establishment of first principles, but take it as an admitted truth, that the Irish language is the most proper medium for conveying scriptural knowledge to all Irish adults to whom it is known; and that every objection that has been hitherto raised against its use, has fully met with refutation in experience.

The operations of the society relate to the progress of its schools, and the distribution of books.

In concluding the Report of their transactions at home and abroad during the year now past, the committee say," To those who would inquire, How many Jews have been really converted to a saving know ledge of Christ through the instru mentality of your exertions? we reply, This is a question which will never be satisfactorily answered, until the day when the Great Searcher of hearts shall bring all things to light; and then, they trust that many will appear as your hope and joy, and crown of rejoicing, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. We have reason to believe that some have al ready died in the Lord. Others are now adorning the Christian doctrine, and even preaching the Christian faith. At this very time some are suffering for the sake of Christ. The committee regard it as no slight encouragement, that ten converted Israelites are now labouring in connexion with the society. And, we doubt not, there are many of whom we have never heard, of whom the Saviour will declare, They are mine,' in that day that he makes up his jewels."

Under the first head, the Report commences with the Kingscourt district, which extends itself into the counties of Meath, Westmeath, Louth, Cavan, Monaghan, and Armagh. In this district there have been, since the commencement of the society's labours, 165 schools established, in which 11,988 individuals, children or adults, have been taught to read the Scriptures in the Irish tongue. There are fifty-three schools, in each of which there is at least one scholar of 60 years or upwards; twenty-three in which the oldest scholar is past 70; five in which are persons of 80 years age; and in one of them is a pupil of the age of eighty-four. It was from this district that was presented the resolutions of 375 Roman Ca

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dressed race of Africa. The necessity for such an institution is far, very far, from being supersededwould that it were!-either by the actual abolition of the traffic in fact as well as upon paper, or by such improvements in all those parts of the world in which slavery has been introduced, as would take away from the slave trader every inducement to continue his blood-thirsty traffic.

FRANCE.

France has at length improved her legislation for the repression of the Slave Trade; and although the measures she has adopted are far from being fully adequate to the exigency of the case, they unquestionably indicate a better spirit on the subject. A law has passed, by which all who co-operate or participate in any manner whatever in the Negro Slave-trade, are subjected to banishment, and to a fine equal to the value of ship and cargo, to be inflicted jointly on the individuals concerned; the ship and cargo being, moreover, confiscated. The captain and officers are, besides, rendered incapable of serving either in the royal or mercantile navy; and the mariners, those excepted who, in fifteen days from the time of their arrival in port, shall disclose the facts of the case, shall be imprisoned from three months to five years. And these penalties are to be independent of such as, by the existing penal code, may be incurred for other crimes proved to have been committed in the course of the voyage; such as the murder of slaves, &c.

The discussion of this measure in the chambers was rendered remarkable by a speech of the Duke de Broglie, which will bear a comparison, for acuteness of reasoning, force of eloquence, and comprehensive knowledge of the subject, with any thing which has appeared upon it. He laboured to persuade the legislature to substitute imprisonment and forced labour for banishment; on the ground that to many, especially if they were foreigners

trading under the French flag, exile would be no punishment at all; and even with respect to Frenchmen, it was driving them abroad with an opportunity of renewing their crimes on the coast of Africa, or in some other quarter of the globe. In this attempted amendment the Duke did not succeed.

That this law may produce a considerable effect in checking the trade from the ports of France is very probable; but if a great change shall not be effected in the mode of administering justice in the French colonies, the trade, it is to be feared, will still be carried on thence. Whatever may be its future effect, the annals of the past year had exhibited little or no diminution of French slave-trading on the coast of Africa. The list of French slaveships boarded by our cruisers shews this.

Since the French cruisers have been more active in making captures on the coast, it has become the practice of the French slave-traders to fortify themselves with double sets of papers and flags; their own, and those of some other nation,-the Dutch for example. With the latter they have been supplied through the criminal connivance of some of the Dutch colonial au thorities. These Dutch documents are held in readiness, in the case of being boarded by a French cruiser, while the French papers and flag serve to elude English capture.

One of the Sierra-Leone Gazettes relates a fact of peculiar atrocity, unexampled except in the annals of the Slave Trade, as having been perpetrated on board a French slave-ship called the Perle, which, in July or August 1826, carried off 250 slaves from the Gallinas, "This same vessel," it is affirmed, " on the voyage previous to this, while lying near Point-a-Petre, Guadaloupe, succeeded in landing part of her slaves: sixty-five, however, still remained on board, when an armed French government-cut ter was observed standing towards

her. The brutal captain, to avoid detection, and consequent capture, threw the whole of the wretched victims over board, and every one perished."

Through the persevering efforts of the Society of Christian Morals, formed at Paris, public feeling has of late been greatly excited on this subject in France; and we may fairly look forward to such further measures of legislation in that country, as will at length cleanse it from the reproach of tolerating this traffic.

NETHERLANDS.

The Netherlands government have acted with good faith and cordiality in acceding both to the mutual right of search, and to the right of capture and condemnation, not only where slaves are actually found on board, but where an intention to trade in slaves is clearly apparent; but some of its colonial functionaries continue to place themselves in opposition to the wishes of their government, and to lend the protection of their official character, to the nefarious speculations of the slave-trader. Of nominally Dutch, but really French or American, slavers, seven have been lately condemned at Sierra Leone.

SPAIN.

The conduct of Spain, with respect to the Slave Trade, has evinced one unvarying course of evasion, on the part of the colonial functionaries, and of indifference, if not faithlessness to engagements, on the part of the government. The papers laid before parliament exhibit, in every rank, from the highest to the lowest, an absence of moral restraint, and a recklessness of human misery, which are perfectly sickening. The number of Spanish slave-ships condemned at Sierra Leone, in the last year, amounts only to six. The number boarded, but not detained, was immense they appear to have swarmed on the coast. The treaty with Spain unfortunately does not admit of their detention, unless slaves are found on board; so that our cruisers who visit them (although

the indications of their slave-trading purposes are as clear as the sun; and these purposes are in many cases even avowed), are obliged to leave them unmolested to pursue their criminal traffic; and when a fair opportunity of escape offers, they take their slaves on board in a few hours, and set sail for their destination.

The number of slaves captured in these six ships was 1360; but one of them being overset in a tornado, the slaves on board, to the number of 197, perished. The crowded state of these ships, and the suffering of the slaves from that cause, and from the ravages of dysentery and smallpox, are now become such necessary incidents of the trade, that they excite no surprise. One case, however, which occurred in February last, may be specified. The Paulita was captured off Cape Formosa by his majesty's ship Maidstone, with 221 slaves on board. Her burden was only sixty-nine tons; and into this space were thrust eighty-two men, fifty-six women, thirty-nine boys, and forty-four girls. The only provision found on board for their subsistence, was yams of the worst quality, and foetid water. When captured, both small-pox and dysentery had commenced their ravages. Thirty died on the passage to Sierra Leone, and the remainder were landed in an

extreme state of wretchedness and emaciation.

Some of the atrocities practised by the Spanish slave-traders on the coast, are forcibly and succinctly described by Mr. Canning, in a letter to our ambassador at Madrid, dated October 3, 1826. "It appears," he says, " that it is the custom of the owners of these Spanish piratical vessels, the greater part of which there is reason to suppose are equipped at the Havannah, to send them outfitted both for trade and for war: but their trade is the proscribed trade in human beings, and the war they wage is a war of piracy. It is their practice to hover on the coast of Africa, where, if they can