truth lies in its being the real expression of the counsels, acts, and decisions of the Blessed God. Devotedness to him will cause us to love truth for this very reason, and to study it, not as a barren theory or a refined speculation, but with that warmth of just feeling which is the same, in the matters of religion, as a correct taste and a noble enthusiasm are, in relation to the beauties of nature, or the exquisite labours of genius and art. A Michael Angelo differs not more from the most grovelling barbarian, than does a holy Christian from an unsanctified speculatist. "My doctrine," said the Lord Jesus, " is not mine, but His who sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." pp. 17-19.

We are anxious that this Sermon should not be considered as an ephemeral publication. It forms a most useful tract to be put into the hands of every student on his entrance upon theological inquiries.

Art. X. Cursory Remarks on the Evil Tendency of unrestrained Cruelty; particularly on that practised in Smithfield Market. 8vo. pp. 25. London. 1823.

WE have heard much,' says the benevolent Writer of these Remarks, of the barbarities and horrors of slavery,of the savage and brutalizing exhibitions which degrade and disgrace other ages and other countries of the Spanish bull-fights-of the gladiatorial combats, and other barbarous shows of the Roman amphitheatre ;-but, on no part of the globe, in no age of the world, can I imagine scenes of more ' atrocious cruelty, of more fiend-like depravity, than those 'exhibited in Smithfield Market.' We believe that this is not too strongly put. In the exhibitions alluded to, there was, for the most part, a display of strength or of courage,—with the exception, indeed, of the barbarities inflicted on slaves. But the atrocities to which this pamphlet refers, are characterized by unmixed, wanton, useless, dastardly cruelty. They are such as seem to leave a reflection on the very countenances of those who are inured to them. There is nothing in human nature so expressive of brutal callousness combined with worse than brutal ferocity, as the countenance of the Smithfield droIt is impossible to meet one of those wretched beings without shuddering. They always recal to us the pike and the guillotine of the days of Robespierre. Or rather, the fiends who kindled the flames of martyrdom in the very spot still consecrated to cruelty, might seem to survive in these men.

ver.

Cruelty to a beast cannot be placed on a par, as an evil, with cruelty to a fellow being: it can scarcely, however, be VOL. XIX. N.S.

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regarded as an inferior crime. The moral turpitude involved in either modification of cruelty, differs scarcely in degree. Our treatment of animals,' it is well remarked, may be regarded as an accurate criterion of our humanity towards our own species. Whoever, from motives of interest, vanity, passion, or caprice, subjects them to oppression or unnecessary suffering, will, from the same motives, oppress and afflict his own species, whenever he can do it with impunity.' This is the true light in which to view the subject. Human laws, having for their object the protection of human life and property, can take cognizance, in many cases, only of the amount of loss or injury incurred, even when the crime is of the blackest dye. But the scale of moral turpitude is regulated by other considerations: it is the disposition from which the act proceeds, that constitutes the essence of criminality. It is not what the brute suffers, but what the man becomes, that forms the most dreadful part of the effect of cruelty towards animals. The Writer judiciously seizes this point.

The con

It deducts nothing,' she remarks, from the barbarity of those fiend-like tormentors, to imagine that their patient victims have a less acute perception of bodily pain than themselves; that their sufferings, whatever they may be, will soon be over; for such considerations have no place in the mind of the brutal drover. He goads the patient animal in the most tender and sensitive parts of his body: he strikes it upon the head and the horns, not because he hopes it does not, but because he sees that it does feel acutely. sideration that their sufferings will soon terminate, is, indeed, soothing to those who deeply sympathize with, but have no power to relieve them; but it does nothing to palliate the guilt of imbittering the concluding period of their short existence of prolonging and aggravating the pains of dissolution. But it is the dreadful effects produced by the practices I have described upon our own species, upon the agents rather than the victims of cruelty, which demand the most serious consideration. On the sufferings of the animals, perhaps, I have dwelt too long; for, being as much as ourselves the creatures of God, we may be assured they cannot escape his observation. "His tender mercies are over all his works." "Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without his knowledge." Consequently, He will not suffer them to be abused and tormented with impunity.'

The subject demands the attention of every Christian philanthropist. It is connected with personal duties which cannot be devolved on the Legislature. The act recently passed for the prevention of cruelty to animals, on which the friends of humanity have been congratulating themselves, is important chiefly, perhaps, on account of the principle which it recognises. Its efficiency must depend on the state of public feeling,

in concurrence with the efficient vigilance of the magistracy. But there are numberless cases which legislative enactments cannot reach. The only effectual remedy of the evil is to be found in the most rational means of bringing about a change in the feelings of the lower classes themselves-by the huma nizing effects of moral and religious instruction. The Writer earnestly advocates, as a most efficient exercise of benevolence, the visiting of the habitations of the poor.

• The labours of Christian missionaries,' she remarks,' are as much wanted among the poor heathen at home as abroad. The great store. house of Christianity will furnish abundant means of softening and humanizing the hearts of these savage drovers. They themselves may never have experienced the genial influence of sympathy and kindness; their hard and rugged fate may have stifled the feelings of humanity, which Christian charity will easily find the means of rekindling. To the fastidiousness of selfish refinement, such visits may appear offensive and revolting; but Christian refinement makes different estimates, and will shrink from no labour of love, by which a fellow-heir of immortality may be rescued from moral degradation and misery.'

Surely, Newgate or the crowded gaol is not a more promising or advantageous sphere for such a moral experiment, than the separate tenement of the individual who has not broken the laws of his country. The great example of Mrs. Fry will be more than half lost upon us, if it is not followed up without the walls, as well as within the gloomy precincts of our gaols,-in the alleys of our towns and the cottages of our hamlets, as well as in our prisons and penitentiaries. In the mean time, whilst the work of Christian instruction and civilization is gradually going forward, the exercise of authority ought to be immediately interposed.' The barbarities almost peculiar to Smithfield market, might, as the Writer shews in de tail, be greatly mitigated, if not wholly prevented. Other scenes of cruelty might be, to a great extent, put a stop to by the combined interference of a few active individuals of nerves strong enough to steel them against the world's dread laugh.'

The suggestion has, we believe, been thrown out, and it is a most valuable one, that an immense nuisance to society would be considerably abated, were Smithfield market-day to be changed from Monday to Tuesday. The scenes of cruelty and horror which are detailed in this pamphlet, commence on Sunday evening; a shocking conclusion,' it is remarked, of the 'Christian sabbath.' But the conclusion answers to the beginning as it is passed on the Road. These unhappy drovers are Sabbath-breakers by a sort of necessity, but it is a neces

sity of man's creating. The extent to which the Lord's day is openly disregarded, owing to this single circumstance of Monday's being market day, is almost incalculable; while such is the state of the roads, that the opulent and the polite cannot travel on the Sunday without annoyance-a consideration which, we are not without hope, may have its use in leading to some redress of the evil.

Art. XI. Journal of a Tour from Astrachan to Karass, North of the Mountains of Caucasus; containing Remarks on the General Appearance of the Country, Manners of the Inhabitants, &c. with the Substance of many Conversations with Effendis, Mollas, and other Mahommedans. By the Rev. William Glen, Missionary, Astrachan. 12mo. pp. 228. Price 4s. London. 1823.

THE Tour from Astrachan to Karass,' the most attractive

feature of the title page, is the least interesting part of the contents of this little volume. Till the Travellers came within sight of Beshtow, the first of the Caucasus chain which becomes visible on approaching Karass, a Tartar village, or Calmuc cavalcade, here and there occurring, was nearly all that broke the dead monotony of the route. Incidents in a desert are not to be looked for; at least, are not to be desired, as they are most likely to be of a kind for which the traveller would pay dearly. But the Author met with no worse assailants than moschitoes, and arrived in due time at the interesting missionary colony which has planted itself on the Northern confine of Caucasus. A description of the settlement is given by Mr. Glen, which will be found interesting. The

climate in these valleys,' he says, differs not materially from that of the valleys among the hills in our native country.' The soil is a rich black loam, and the lands are exceedingly well watered with a great many excellent springs. A few Scotch farmers might, with a few thousands to begin improve'ments,' bring the Colony, says the Author, to a pitch of respectability which would be highly honourable to their country. The German settlers, it appears, with the exception of a few families, are ordered to leave the Colony, and settle elsewhere.' It would have been as well if Mr. Glen had explained the circumstances which have led to this apparently arbitrary and oppressive exercise of absolute authority. During pleasure is a very precarious tenure for settlers in the Russian dominions; and some security would require to be given to the Scotch colonist, that he should not, when he had sunk his few thousands,' be sent away after the Germans.

The larger and most valuable portion of the volume is occupied with missionary details. The Christian missionary is here brought into contact, not with the brutal stupidity of heathenism, but with the more subtle and specious infidelity of Mahommedanism. It is here that the best field would seem to present itself for commencing a direct attack on Islamism, under the shelter of a Christian power. This consideration gives peculiar importance to the Mission which has chosen for its sphere this remote mountain region. At the time of Mr. Glen's arrival at Karass, the chief thing that occupied the attention of the Cabardians and the other Mahommedans on the lines, was a kind of circular letter from Mecca, warning all good Mussulmans that the Day of Judgement was at hand, ⚫ and solemnly exhorting them to repentance.' This document is described as altogether

one of the most glaring impositions ever practised on the credulity of the ignorant, and absolutely below contempt, were it not that the interest which the ringleaders of Islamism take in promoting its circulation, serves to shew the idea which they have formed of the blindness of the common people; while the credit it met with, and the alarm it is said to have excited, go far to prove that their ideas o this point are not far from being correct. Among other methods prescribed for escaping the wrath to come, the following is worthy of notice;-paying fifty copeïks to a writer for transcribing a copy of the circular for the use of the faithful. Of this part of it, Shorah himself seemed to be ashamed.'

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Shorah was a Cabardian nobleman. The conversation with him is a fair specimen of the objections and reasonings of the acuter Moslems.

Having disposed of preliminary topics, Mr. Galloway asked him whether he had been reading the New Testament he had received from the missionaries, and how he liked it? In reply, he had no faults to find with the morality of the gospel; but he could not believe that Jesus was the Son of God. It was impossible in the nature of things that it could be so. How could God have a son! The idea he could not comprehend; the doctrine he could not receive. After directing his attention to what the Scriptures teach respecting the constitution of our Saviour's person, as being " Immanuel, God with us," we told him, that though we firmly believed the union of the Divine and human nature in the person of Christ, on the authority of God's own word, we did not profess to comprehend the nature of the union, nor pretend to explain it; adding, at the same time, that the incomprehensibility of the doctrine furnished no more reason for refusing to embrace it, when plainly revealed, than our inability to comprehend the nature of the union of soul and body, did for denying the obvious fact, that the body which we know to be a material substance, is animated by a spiritual substance named the soul. He