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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmte d des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grsnd pour dtre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 d partir de i'angle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants iliustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 32X ■><■*, REMARKS ON THE CLAIMS OF SCOTSMEN ABROAD, ON THE . '■/i^y CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY AND EXERTIONS OF THEIH COUNTRYMEN AT HOME. w> By WILLIAM RINTOUL, A.M. MINISTER OF THE SCOTCH CHURCH, MA&YFORT, CUMBERLAND. " Go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." \0 |V ^ ' ' EDINBURGH: AVNTED FOR WAUGH & INNES; »'^ M. OGLE, GLASGOW; AND JAMES DUNCAN, LONDON. ^f ^. 1836. r k r- \ ^ u- i' UNTO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE, EARL OF DALHOUSIE, G. C. B. CAPTAIN-GENERAL AND GOVERNOR OF THE BRITISH PROVINCES IN NORTH AMERICA, &C. &C. &C. PATRON ; AND THE HONOURABLE^ RIGHT HONOURABLE, AND REVEREND, THE PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESIDENTS, AND DIRECTORS, r- \ ^ OF THE GLASGOW SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE RELIGIOUS INTERESTS OF THE SCOTTISH SETTLERS IN BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, THESE PAGES, AS A MEl-IRIAL OF THE AUTHOR's ESTEEM, FOR THE CHRISTIAN AND PATRIOTIC PRINCIPLES OF THEIR SOCIETY, AND OF THE DESIRES WHICH HE CHERISHES FOR THE DIVINE BLESSING TO REST UPON IT, ARE BY HIM, 3IOST HUMBLY AND RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. ADVERTISEMENT. It was only lately that the writer of these pages received the first annual Report of the Glasgow Society fou PROMOTING THE ReLIGIOUS INTERESTS OF THE SCOTTISH Settlers in British North America, and not before he had almost finished them for the press: and after perusing it, he felt some hesitation as to whether he should prosecute his first design of publishing them, as that report containt.^a very powerful appeal to the Scot- tish public partly coincident with that here attempted to be made. Yet, as he is desirous that the expediency of a Society more comprehensive in its object tha/i what either the Glasgow Society, or the Society of a similar kind lately formed in Edinburgh is, should be seriously considered : and as he knows that no particular case of Christian benevolence can be injured by repeated ad- vocacy, he hazards these remarks, such as they are, be- fore the public. It may be thought that he has indulged in a style too discursive for a mere religious appeal, and in this he may be faulty ; but the train of reflection which he pre- scribed for himself was something like the following; Some general views of emigration — the propensity of vl Scotsmen to emigrate — the character of Scottish emi- grants — an estimate of the religious exertions made in their behalf — the importance of a Colonial Missionary Society — encouragements to the formation of such a so- ciety — the character of suitable missionaries. He commends these pages to the candid judgment of the Christian Public, and the blessing of his Master. ^^^ The eventual profits of this pamphlet will be appropriated to the funds of a Scottish Chapel, which have been greatly dila- pidated by a suit in which the Managers of the Chapel are de- fendants, against an attempt to wrest the Chapel from them, and appropriate it to a connexion, diifercnt from that in which it was founded, and yet remains. REMARKS, &c. HSaS!— "• There are numerous causes in constant operation, which prompt men to emi<;rate from the soil on which they have been reared ; but the chief of these undoubtedly is, the tendency of population to increase beyond the capability of the district in which they are located for providing for their sustenance. There are many pro- vidential checks to this tendency ; and these, with the moral and physical hinderances to emigration, have alone prevented the globe from being thickly peojiled with inhabitants, in the advanced age which it has now reached. Of moral hinderances to emigration, the most powerful appear to be, the jealousies of states of each other, and their ambitious pretensions, which lead to wars, and otherwise directly prevent their subjects from settling in vacant territory. While the difficulties of communication and intercourse between different parts, of the earth, are obviously the greatest phy- sical hinderances. The Goths, Huns, and other nations, that, like a flood, burst in upon the Roman empire, might perhaps, long before the period of its declension and fall, have gradually poured out their super- abundant population into the thinly peopled regions of the empire, had they been pacifically inclined, or had the Romans been dis- posed to welcome such visitors. But when the power and virtue of Rome became enervated together, the mass of population, which had long been accumulating in northern Europe and in the west of Asia, broke through the restraints by which it had been pent up, sweeping down all opposition, and flowing into the heart and even the remotest extremities of the empire. And doubtless the islands on the coast of America, and that vast continent itself, would, at an earlier period than the end of the fifteenth century, have begun to receive the superabundant population of Europe, had a Columbus sooner arisen ; and would at this day receive a greater portion of that population, were any less serious obstacle interposed, than a voyage across the Atlantic. It can hardly be cxpcclcd, timt in the future history of the world, the emigration of communities, on so largo a scale as those just alluded to, will again occur. The surface of the earth is now distributed amongst a greater number of states than it ever was before ; and one nation is therefore less likely to be permitted to dispossess another of its territory ; and the spirit of the Gospel, it is hoped, is now beginning to pervade more extensively the councils of nations — to place political economy on its true basis, or rather to evolve a new economy for the regulation of society. To affirm that those nations arc destined to the highest and most durable pitch of greatness, whose laws and policy, foreign and do- mestic, shall be most thoroughly imbued with Christianity, and regulated by it, is no prediction ; for an inspired king hath de- clared, that " righteousness exalteth a nation." And while the most powerful nations must ever possess the greatest resources for sending forth colonies, nations governed by sound and enlightened principles will never send forth emigrants under leaders like At- tila or Cortez, the latter of whom, as appropriately as the former, might be called the " scourge of God." Emigration and colonization have been important means of ci- vilizing the world ; and they are equally important means for promoting an end still higher, and inclusive of this — the evangeli- zation of it. Fugitives of the Phoenicians, who, with the other inhabitants of Canaan, were devoted to destruction for their crimes, seem to have been the first colonists of the north of Africa.* Asia Minor received the arts and sciences of Greece from Gre- cian colonists. The central regions of America, and the whole of its vast southern peninsula, received Christianity, though, alas, greatly alloyed, from its Spanish and Pjortuguese conquerors. North America received a pure Gospel from the men whom eccle- siastical and civil tyranny had driven out of England; and the north of Ireland is indebted for its peaceful, mdustrious, and religious po- pulation, to emigrants from Scotland, many of whom the same ruthless oppression had expatriated. It were sound wisdom in every nation to encourage emigration. It is, in general, these ■' • The historians of Carthage seem to allow, that Dido did not lead the first Phoe- nician colony to Africa. Selden, in his interesting treatise De Diis Syris, proves, that the Punic language was a dialect of the Hebrew, and quotes from Procopius on the affairs of the Vandals, the following Greek inscription, said to have been found in the Phoenician tongue on two pillars in Tingitana. HfMug eSfJ^iv 0/ (puyovrcg Tou XrjffTOU viov Naujj, The Canaanites could scarcely be expected to apply any other epithet to Joshua ; %nd this origin of the Carthaginians. readily accounts for the term Obea, (see 1 Sam. xxviii. 7. Heb.) signifying witchcraft, passing into the language of the tribes ia ventral Africa, and thence, with the negroes, into our West Indian colonies. who are poor, or of unsettled and idle habits, who will embrace the opportunity of removing to a new country. There, a compe- tence IS certain to the industrious ; and there, in fancy at least, adventurers sec more than a tonipctence awaitinor them. All countries, and thickly peopled countries more cspccially> ore sub- ject to occasional scarcity of provisions, and, to what is in many cases equivalent to this, scarcity of employment to the labouring population : ond either of these evils, when the population has far outgrown the instrumentality for their sound moral and reli- gious instruction, as is confessedly the present case of all the large cities and manufacturing districts of the United Kingdom, must always be attended with imminent danger to the peace of the community. Our government, it is presumed, might diminish the danger to which it is exposed, by encouraging emigration ; and might perhaps save itself the expenditure necessary to form new colonies, or that might be incurred in conveying emigrants to the old ones, out of a diminished military police at home. But as our present colonies are not retained on the score of profit to the go- vernment, so emigration ought not to be discouraged, merely, be- cause it might not bring an equivalent pecuniary return to the Exchequer. And v/hile governments, by encouraging emigration, would rid themselves of that portion of the population that had impaired the general vigour, they would, at the same time, by the foundation of new communities in other lands, even though these were indepen- dent states, and not mere provinces, augment their moral strength, from the strong attachment which such affiliated communities would bear towards them. The citizens of the United States, much as they have been alienated from Great Britain by her re- luctance to acknowledge their independence, by the hard sacrifices which that independence cost them, and by the bitter scorn with which too many public writers and speakers have treated them, are, nevertheless, more attached to Britain than any ouc of those European nations, whose independence she has again and again purchased for them, with her gold and her blood. But if emigration is interesting to the politician, it is not less so to the Christian. If the former should encourage it, and allow the redundant population to flow readily over the mounds that enclose the community, lest these should be violently torn away, to the ruin of the community itself; the latter ought to watch over the stream of emigration, and throw into it those seeds of Christ- ian principles and institutions, which may spring up and flourish in the moral and natural wilderness in which they may be de- posited. The Scotch have long been famous for their emigrations. A rugged mountainous country, and ungenial climate, compel mul- titudes of every successive generation to seek a subsistence, or to pursue their anjbitious schemes, in countries possessing more na- tiiral or acquired resources. And yet, how singular is it, that the rugged scenery of Scotland, which repels many of her chil- dren from her bosom, acts with so attractive power on their affec- tions. If there is any reality in national characteristics, the Scotch are devotedly attached to their country, and even vain- glorious of it ; and he is an anomaly amongst his countrymen, who, on quitting her border or her shores, to settle in some other country, has no longing wish to revisit her, and there terminate his earthly pilgrimage. It is true, that the inhabitants of the southern division of the island — who arc disposed to be merry at our national propensity to emigrate, say, that when we leave Scot- land, we seldom find our way back to it ; and it may be so ; for an emigrant soon acquires a new country, and becomes bound to it by numerous ties ; and these in general are strong in proportion to his prosperity in his adopted country. Naomi thought of Beth- lehem of Judah, and returned to it from Moab, only after she had become widowed, and childless. And it must be acknowledged^ that the English have often had reason for the bitterest animosities at the immigrations of the Scotch ; for, from the days of the Ro- man conquest of South Britain, down to the period of the Refor- mation from popery in Scotland, the visits of the inhabitants of the north to the south were of a predatory kind. But the Reforma- tion at once Christianized and civilized all the parts of Scotland that came under the full influence of it. Then, through the in- strumentahty of faithful and intrepid ministers of the Gospel, the spirit of Christianity was largely infused into the whole frame- work of Scottish society. Schools were established throughout the whole country, and in one generation Scotsmen became comparatively enlightened. And from the time of the Reformation downwards, till within these twenty years, if not until this very day, they have maintained a pre-eminence in religious and general knowledge, as well as moral habits, over their southern neighbours. And thus, in modern times, the character of the people has conspired with the general circumstances of the country, to lead them to emigrate. Their information renders them enterprising, and their moral habits, for which they have in general obtained full credit, render them trust-worthy.* And the prosperity which the natives of Scotland have attained in other parts of the United Kingdom, as well as in foreign lands, has operated, and still operates, to allure multitudes to quit their home and ihiir country. Nor, in ad- verting to the causes which lead Scotsmen to emigrate, should the writer omit to mention the law of primogeniture, and the • The writer of these remarks, m viewing an extensive pu1)lic work in England, of which the siiperintendant, as well as several subordinate overbeers, were Scots- men, and many of the labourers Irish, thought he had before him a striking illus- tration of the different results of tlie very opposite systems of civil and ecclesiastical Uiscii)line, to which Scotland and Ireland have been respectively subjected. 5 number, and rigid nature of Scotch entails, from the operation of which, the younger sons of landed proprietors are generally com- pelled to quit the mansion, and the fields in which they have been /eared ; and until lately, civil or commercial pursuits at home af- forded but a small opening for those, who were impelled forward in pursuit of honours and emoluments. The army and navy, the civil administration of the colonies, and foreign commerce, or the armies of Foreign states, received a greater number of such as- piring Scotsmen. The same effect has Hkewise been produced upon the peasantry of the Highlands, by the abrogation of the system of vassalage. For upwards of half a century the High- land lords having no occasion for the military service of their ten- ants, and being at the same time incapacitated by law from avail- ing themselves of it, have been dispossessing the faithful clans- men of their cots, and their fields, to make way for the more profitable tenants — sheep and cattle graziers. Many a glen has under this system been depopulated ; and thousands of families, with the mournful strains of the pibroch, have embarked on ship- board for the wilds of North Amoiica. It would be an interesting point in Scottish statistics, if a com- putation could be made ot the numbers of Scotsmen who have successively emigrated, and are now settled in other parts of the United Kingdom, and in Foreign lands. At best, only an ap. proximation to the truth could be made, and the writer regrets that he has no means of making it.* From a statement made by the under Colonial Secretary of State, on a recent occasion, in the House of Commons, it appears, that Britain has not less than thirty-tour colonies. These, it is believed, are exclusive of the dominions of the Honourable East India Company. Now it may be presumed, that the greater part of the European population in these Foreign possessions is originally from the British islands ; and of the British population, the Scotch will be allowed to hold a proportion to the whole, considerably more than what the inha- bitants of Scotland bear to those of England and Ireland. Since the disjunction of the United States of America from the mother country, the stream of emigration from the British islands has flowed strong and full towards Canada, and the adjacent pro- vinces; so that the British settlers in these, are said to amount to 1,200,000, a very large proportion of whom are Scotch. Of the cluster of British colonies in the West Indies, Jamaica is the oldest, and first in importance. The white population has been estimated at upwards of 30,000 souls; and from the intimate connexion between it and the west of Scotland, a great propor- tion of its planters, overseers, raercliantr., and arti^a^s, are Scotch. And though there may not be so large a proportion of Scottish • In the address of the minister and ciders of the Caledonian Church, London — . which should receive a kind and cordinl reception in Scotland, it is stated that Scotsmen and their descendants in London amount to 100,00'). •ettlers in the other West India islands, still, it may safely be stated, that in them all, they bear a fair proportion to the Irish and English. The Cape of Good Hope, another important colony, has received a considerable number of emigrants from Scotland ; and then it must be recollected that the Dutch settlers are like ourselves, Presbyterians. New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land are receiving large additions to their civilized and free population, from Scotland ; a company in Leith having now, for several years, been actively engaged in forwarding emigrants, as well as goods, to that remote region of the world. In the East Indies a wide field extends for British enterprise and ambition ; and many of those who direct the councils of Britain there, who lead or compose her armies, or are engaged in commerce, have been reared in the glens and mountains of Scotland. And so too, the armies and navies of Britain have received a full pro- portion of Scotsmen. Nor is it only in the colonies of Britain, that Scottish emigrants are to be found ; they are also collected in considerable numbers in many foreign cities, in which British commerce has established agencies. This is particularly the case in Petersburgh, Hamburgh, Alexandria, Buenos Ayres, and Rio Janeiro. In adverting to the distribution of his countrymen throughout the world, and their success in all the paths of human ambition, the Scotsman may feel a momentary gratification to national vanity. Yet the Christian, with all permitted partiality to his country, must know and feel that the glory of mere wealth and power, or of the arts and sciences, which terminate only in time, is utterly empty and vain : forming his estimate of men and things according to the light of divine truth, the only true nation- al glory which he knows, is that, which flows from a nation's en- ergies being consecrated to the advancement of truth, holiness, and peace, tiiroughout the world : and the enlightened Scottish Christian, in considering the spiritual condition of his emigrant countrymen, will find much to humble and sadden him. They have left their native land, and most of them have left it for ever, in quest of a more genial climate, and richer fields, and higlier rewards of industry and ambition. Comparatively few of them, it is to be feared, are decidedly Christian characters ; few of them are men, who practically regard the salvation of the soul as the one thing needful, or a possession of the covenanted mercies of Je- hovah — their best riches. Some of them have been unsuccessful in their pursuits at home through improvidence — some are men of unsettled habits, and of ardent and speculative minds; not a few, it is willingly believed, are men of good moral habits, and of a cal- culating worldly prudence, which is found singularly to temper, and harmonise with the sanguineness of Scotsmen, — the " per- Jervidum ingenium Scotorum.'''* And some too, it is as willingly believed, are true pilgrims — men who, while they seek a better f country on earth, have their aims directed to one itill better in the heavens. Yet still the writer fears that the great multitude of his countrymen in emigrating, lose sight of their spiritual inter- ests, and greatly injure and endanger them. Scotland of old was looked to as a Goshen among the nations ;* and the writer is un- willing to think of it otherwise than as a "land of vision." It is a land of schools and of Bibles. Her national church, from which at one time dissent was almost unknown, and which abounded with ministers, zealous and powerful in pleading their Master^s message of reconciliation, and with elders tenderly alive to the ex- tension of Christ's Church, and with saints who were her glory, has still a large body of faithful office-bearers, and embraces with- in her pale multitudes of the excellent of the earth. The churches which have grown up in her image, amongst those who have se- ceded from her, afford excellent and widely diffused spiritual privileges ; and religious habits have still a strong hold of the Scottish population. How deep must have been the impression made on the character of the people at the Reformation, when, even yet, amongst the country population, where the spirit of god- liness may have departed, family worship is very generally observ- ed, and the Sabbath evening fireside, as Scottish ministers were wont to urge, presents the aspect of a domestic Sabbath school. The Scottish emigrant, however, separates himself from all his coun- try's religious privileges. He goes forth to spend a considerable portion, or the whole of his life, in countries in which Romish superstition spreads a spiritual darkness, and fosters the grossest profligacy. Or he goes to heathen countries, where sin and crime flourish rank and strong under the unmitigated influence of the Prince of Darkness. And there, unless his lot be cast in those places, in which his countrymen are to be found in large bodies — as in the capitals of the different presidencies of Hindostan, he is either entirely without the public ordinances of the Gospel, or he must receive them from the casual visits of the missionaries, whom his countrymen have compassionately sent to the heathen. Or the emigrant goes to the West India Islands — so fertile in all the most luxuriant fruits of the earth, and so lovely in their exter- nal scenery, that in them the fabled islands of the west might seem to be realized ; but in which, nevertheless, the primeval • Cotton Mather of New England, in the Preface to his excellent " Es«ays to do Good," has the following passage, the predictions contained in which, some may perhips think, are yet after more than a century very partially fulfilled. " In tha meantime, North Britain will be distinguished, (pardon me, if I use the term Goshenised,) by irradiations from heaven of such a tendency. Ther^ will be found a set of excellent men in that reformed and renowned churcli of i^cotland, with whom the most refined and extensive Essays to do Good will become so natural, that the whole world will fare the better for them. To these this book is humbly presented, by a great admirer of the good things daily doing among them, as know, ing that if no where else, yet among them it will find some icception ; they will " not be forgetful to entertain such a stranger." See page 16th of Preface. 9 curse is strikingly seen, in a climate baneful to health, and in those devastating storms and tornadoes to which they are ex- posed. To these islands, many Scotsmen repair, to wring a for- tune out of the sweat and groans of their enslaved negro brethren, or to be artisans, and negro drivers, or overseers, in the hope of ultimately becoming negro owners. What a change ! from the Scottish village, where youthful purity has many a fence, to the West Indian Plantation, where the white man is absolute lord and owner of the bodies of his fellow creatures. What a change ! from the town or city at borne, where the ministry of a pure gos- pel had been, or at least migKt have been enjoyed, to the West Indian villa or city, in which, if credible witnesses may be trust- ed, virtue is laughed out of countenance — and where the labours of ministers of the gospel have been by some thought to be use- less, for the same reason, that the utility of chaplains in our men- of-war has been denied, yiz. the prevalence of the grossest profli- gacy. Or Scottish emigrants settle in the land of convicts, or in the midst of North American forests, where population is as yet scattered and scanty, and where few ministers are to be found dispensing the life-giving word and ordinances of the gospel. And what can be expected of our countrymen in circumstances such as these ? Not, that they should retain their morals uncor- rupted — not, that they should retain the forms of godliness, and through these realize its power — not, that they should grow in the fear and knowledge of God, and in a meetness for death, to •which in manifold forms they are exposed. Alas ! sooner might we expect that the flower transplanted from the cold, mossy side of a Highland mountain would flourish under a scorching tropical sun — or that the majestic trees of an American savannah would grow amongst the rocks and stones, to which our pines can attach themselves. Our Scottish emigrants, it is to be feared, very generally leave their religion, with their country. Religious persons from Eng- land have often expressed their disappointment in the character and conduct of Scotsmen in foreign lands.' They have Wonder- ed to find them, notwithstanding the boasted religious character of Scotland, nothing better than their own countrymen ; and often, perhaps, worse, just because they were sinning against greater knowledge. And the writer is too well acquainted with the cha- racter of his emigrant countrymen in England, to believe that in foreign lands they will be greatly distinguished for true worth, above English emigrants. Often has he noticed and deplored, how readily the Scotsman assimilates himself to thbse amongst whom he settles, in parting with the creditable characteristics of his nation. It is seldom that in England he retains the frugal and economical habits of his native home, or sets the same value on the education of his children, or on spiritual privileges for him- self and them that his countrymen generally do. If his habita- I \ 9 /' tion be even a few miles remote from a Scotch chapel, (and there are very few of such in England) or from any English dissenting chapel, wliose doctrines and mode of worship are in general sub- stantially the same with those of the Church of Scotland, he thinks the journey on Sabbath more formidable than he had thought the same distance at home, and he settles down, perhaps, into an entire indifference about religious ordinances. Or he may • attend the established church, but cherishing the prevailing aver- sion' of his country to its liturgy, and hearing, it may be, dis- courses but partially imbued" with the spirit of the gospel, he is not likely, in these circumstances, to be greatly benefited. And not a few of our Scottisli emigrants, who had been professedly good Presbyterians before they had left their country, are un- willing to bear the reproach of dissent, that attaches to their deno- mination in England, and join themselves to the Episcopal church, even where they might have had access to a ministry of their country's communion. It is willingly conceded, that there are many honourable exceptions to the above description of the emigrant Scotch in England — that many of them, retaining in their adopted country the religious principles with which their minds had been early imbued, have become ornaments to their Christian profession, and, in many instances, the founders of Christian churches. And it is a happy combination, not un- ffequently realized, Aviien the knowledge of the Scottish religious professor is animated and warmed with the fervour of English- piety. And it is due to such Scotsmen to state, that in general, they ace very liberal in their religious. sentiments, and when there •• is no Scottish Presbyterian church in their neighbourhood, they may be found under an evangelical ministry in the church, or amongst the dissenters : and the annals of modern religious bio- graphy record not a few names of Scotsmen, who, like Buchanan . and Bogue, have been bright ornaments to both of these denomi- nations. And, while the fact that many of our countrymen re- tain and improve their religious character in England, may lead to the inference that many of them, will retain it also, even under more unfavourable influences in .foreign lands; the fuct first adverted to — that more of them shake off when in England the re- ligious habits, which custom and e'xaraple had imposed upon them at home, warrants an unfavourable conclusion as to the moral and religious character of the greater number of them abroad. If at home, their reverence to the Sabbath, displayed itself only in ex- ternal services, and was raeri.lv. the result of education and of public opinion, can it be exj)ected that thpy. will consecrate that' day'to spiritual exercises, when .residing amongst the heathen, to whom the Sabbath is unknown; or in Roman Catholic countries, in which it is a day of unhallowed festivity ? And if at homj?, they felt nothing of the importance of divine truth, or of the so- lemn concerns of eternity,, can it either be expected that they 10 should make any spiritual improvement abroad, where they have few opportunities of hearing the message of reconciliation pro- claimed, and the precepts of the divine law inculcated, and where they are almost entirely shut out from private Christian inter- course, as well as from church communion ? Under these religi- ous privations, we can only expect that the natural darkness of the emigrant'*s mind should thicken, and the enmity of his heart to God increase, and with it a general laxity of morals. And powerful are the positive influences to which he is exposed, that directly tend to produce profaneness and immorality. Sensuality in many a form allures him ; and he may wallow deep in its mire, without becoming a reproach to his fellows. In pursuing riches and honours he may, in many foreign settlements, be guilty of op- pression and cruelty without oft'ending against the laws, or public opinion, while, from the sacrifices which he has made for these objects, they become identified with the chief end of his existence, and all the heaven he seeks, is a prosperous settlement in his adopted country, or a return, with wealth and honour, to the country of his birth. But the deteriorated character of emigrants abroad, as consti- tuting a case lor the sympathy and benevolent exertions of their countrymen at home, must be proved in a more direct and affect- ing way, than by analogical reasoning. And such proof we have in the testimony of competent observers. The Rev. John West, late a chaplain of the Hudson's Bay Company, and agent of the Church Missionary Society, who has just pubhshed a journal of his residence at the Red River Colony, where the late Earl of Selkirk had located many of our countrymen, thus speaks of the settlers : " The blasphemy of the men, in the difficulties they had to encounter, was truly painful to me. I had hoped better things of the Scotch, from their known moral and enlightened education ; but their horrid imprecations proved a degeneracy of character in an Indian country. This I lamented to find was too generally the case with Europeans, particularly so in their bar- barous treatment of women ; they do not admit them as their companions, nor do they allow them to eat at their tables, but degrade them merely as slaves to their arbitrary inclinations ; while the children grow up wild and uncultivated as the heathen.'* (See Mr. West's Journal, p. 15.) " The Indians have been greatly corrupted in their simple and barbarous manners, by their intercourse with Europeans, many of whom have borne scarcely any other mark of the Christian character than the name ; and who have not only fallen into the habits of an Indian life, but have frequently exceeded the savage in their savage customs. When a female is taken by them, it does not appear that her wishes are at all consulted, but she is obtained from the lodge as an inmate at the Fort, for the prime of her days, generally, through that ir- resistible bribe to Indians, rum." (lb. p. 53.) The Rev. Wil- '■^ 11 V- liam Bell, minister of the Presbyterian congregation, Perth, Up- per Canada, in a small volume lately published in Edinburgh, under the title of " Hints to Emigrants," draws a similar picture of the state of religion amongst the Canadian settlers. " It is true," says he, " there are few new colonics in which some per- sons are not to be found, who feel the power of religion, but even they discover how soon evil communications corrupt good man- ners. Professing Christians themselves, when they are placed where no Sabbaths are observed, and no religious ordinances ad- ministered, soon become lamentably deficient in the discharge of Christian duties. Though religion in Canada is at a low ebb, it is evidently upon the advance ; and when the want of faithful labourers in different parts of the country is supplied, by the blessing of God we may expect a great reformation to take place. The people are not so destitute of speculative knowledge as of moral habits and religious principle. I have met with many of the old settlers, who have lived from twenty to forty years in the country, and who could talk fluently and even correctly, in praise of religion, and yet they would drink, swear, profane the Sab- bath, and neglect the duties of religion, as much as the most ig- norant of their neighbours. Occasional instruction will riot suf- . fice, there must be line upon line and precept upon precept be- ''fore we can expect to see vice wither and religion flourish. Pro- fessing Christians must be collected into congregations, and su- perintended by pious, active, and faithful ministers. But how is this to be effected ? The people are neither able nor willing to support ministers at their own expense ; and there is no provision of a general nature made for them, either by public authority or private exertions. The few ministers that are here are making every effort to disseminate the good seed of the word, but what are they in such an extensive country ?" (See Hints, &c. pp. 89, 90.) The same author thus describes the moral aspect which Perth, the field of his own labour, presented to him on his first visit to it : ** On looking round me, I saw a moral as well as a natural wilderness, requiring cultivation. With regard to a great majority of the settlers, religion seemed to occupy no part of their attention. The Sabbath was awfully profaned, and drunkenness, swearing, and other vices, were thought matters of course. The number of those inclined to attend public worship was small, and of those possessing real piety, still smaller. As soon as I could obtain a little leisure, I paid a pastoral visit to the families in the Scotch settlement, from whom I received a welcome reception." (P. 103.) Many similar testimonies to the irreligious character of the settlers in the North American provinces, may be found in the correspondence of the excellent society in Glasgow for promoting the religious interests of Scottish settlers in North America. The Rev. Dr. Burns of St. JohnX New Brunswick, thus writes : 12 ** The great body of the people of this province are emigrants from Scotland, and naturally attached to the institutions and forms of their native country, but, in consequence of their pecu- liar circumstances, are prevented, in a great measure, from enjoy- ing those religious privileges to which they had been accustomed in their natfve land ; and there is reason to fear, that in conse- quence of the continued want of the means of religious improve- ment, many of them have been tempted to lay aside the profesaion of religion, and are gradually sinking into a state bordering upon heathenism. There are various large settlements entirely Scotch, which are utterly destitute of all religious worship or instruction." And in a similar strain the Rev. John Sprott, Windsor, Nova Scotia, writes, " It is long since the banners of the cross were un- furled on the rugged shores of Nova Scotia, and compared to the regions to the west of it, it may be regarded as a moral and re- ligious country, but compared with our dear native land, it is a moral wilderness. Many new settlements have scarcely yet been visited with the divine lii^ht of Christianity, and the settlers are sunk in ignorance and depravity, without Christian Sabbaths or Christian ordinances of any kind. You have many ministers in Scotland who are friendly to missions ; I wish we could enlist their sympathies, and procure their friendly regards in favour of Nova Scotia."" The Rev. James Thomson of Miraraichi, New- Brunswick, represents the settlers there as " greatly in need of both moral and religious instruction," and his statement has been fully confirmed to the writer of these remarks, by the oral testi- mony of several pious seamen who have frequently visited that port, and were there during the late terrific conflagration — a ca- lamity which, according to them, was very generally attributed by the survivors to the just vengeance of Heaven, for the profaneness, and crimes of the settlers. The following most affecting account is from, the Highland settlers at Three Rivers, Prince Edward's Island : " If we may be allowed to state the truth concerning the greater part of the inhabitants of this isle — how little knowledge they possess — how few their religious privileges are — how small their pecuniary means of having these enlarged — the immoral habits they have contracted, and their deadncss and insensibility, notwithstanding they are in such a deplorable condition — we may say, although they cannot absolutely be called heathens, yet their situation is so destitute in all these respects, as certainly to render our isle an object of Christian commiseration and Mis- sionary eftbrt." See Scottish Missionary Register, vol. vi. p. 1G7 8. A darker picture of the irreligion and vice of the colonists in the West India Islands might be furnished from the testimonies of various writers. We shall only quote that of the Rev, Thomas Cooper, a Unitarian minister, who spent three years instructing 4 13 the slaves on a plrintatiori in Jamaica,* •* The state of inorala and religion"''' lie affirms *'is as bad as can well bo imagined, both among ' . Iiites and blacks. With scarcely any exceptions, all of the formtr description, whether residing on the plantations or otherwise, live in a state of open and avowed concubinage with black and coloured women. The general profligacy in this re- spect is perfectly notorious and undisguised.'* " It is well known that the morals of nineteen out of twenty men arc ruuied before ihcy have been a month in the island. They j;et into habits of debauclury, and every idea of religion vani>hes." In an a{)pondix, Mr. Cooper writes in regard to the passage of which the above is an extract, " What I have pub- lished on this head has given much offence to certain individuals in this country, interesied in West India affairs. My language is undoubtL'diy strong, yet I see not how I can soften it. Why should not the truth be known ? And what I have said, is the truth, and nothing but the truth ; and those who have reported on the same subject, have gone quite as far, if not farther, than I have done. Mr. Stewart, wiio resided very many years in Ja- maica, and who is certainly no enemy to the planters, declares, in his view of the past and pre.-ent state of Jamaica, p, 173, that if slavery and its attendant abuses did not exist there, no great ad- ditional improvement in the state of society, could be expected, while the most gross and open licentiousness continues, as at pre- sent, to prevail among all ranks of the whites."" P. 8, 35, 3(). It would have been unreasonable to have expected that the emigrant pojuilation of New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land should present a more favourable moral aspect ; and so we find that the published accounts of these settlements generally concur in representing the colonists as greatly depraved. The following extract is taken from a letter of an emigrant to his friends in Scotland, dated Hobart Town, September 4th, 1825, and signed W. that appeared in the Scotsman of the 22d April, 1826. " The first and greatest curse of this country is the vast number of convicts. Of a population of fourteen thousand souls they constitute about two-thirds. Unluckily, they not only pre- dominate in numbers, but give the tone to the manners, the morals, and even the language of the colony. Thieving, drink- ing, and debauchery, prevail here in a frightful degree ; and those who arrive with good dispositions and honest intentions, are ultimately compelled to assume the habits of sharpers, in self- • See a pamphlet entitled " Facts illustrative of the coriflition of Negro Slaves in .Jamaica, by Thomas Cooper." The religious system of this missionary will be to most persons a satisfactory reason for rhc complete failure of iiis endeavours to enlighten the negroes, which he himself acknowledges, although neither this nor the attempts that have been made by some of the advocates of slavery, both in Ja- maica and in London, to blacken Lis chcracter, constitute sufficient grounds to doubt the truth of his testimony to the moral state of the inhabitants of Jamaica. 14 defence. Hence, it is a common saying, that no man brings his conscience across the line. The habit of excessive drinking is Jamentably common. This, however, is a much less evil to sober- disposed emigrants, than the sharper-hke practices of every one he deals with. The colony is ruled by military law, or something very analogous to it. Indeed, it is difficult to see how it could subsist, under a less rigorous regimen." It is not insinuated by any of the foregoing remarks or quota- tion?, that there is any peculiar depravity in British colonists. In the deepest moral and spiritual debasement into which any por- tions of them have sunk, we see the genuine issues of the tenden- cies of the natural heart unsubdued, and almost unchecked by any exhibition of divine truth. Many nominal professors in christian communities, have no inward principle of holiness, to cor- rect their own depraved affections ; but a restraint is laid upon these, by the gracious influence, which emanates from the con- duct of holy men, and from the christian ordinances, observed amongst them ; but the ungodly emigrant frequently places himself beyond these restraints, and thus arrives at an almost heathenish pitch of wickedness. Our countrymen, in foreign lands, have surely strong claims on the commiseration and exertions of the churches at home. Their spiritual necessities are, in many cases, as urgent as those of the heathen, in whose lands they have settled. We may say of them in the words of the Prophet, " My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." And we may take up the same complaint of them, in reference to the heathen, which he made of Ephraim, " He hath mixed himself among the people." And they have, on many other accounts, stronger claims upon us than what the heathen possess. They are not merely our fellow subjects, but our coun- trymen, it may be, kinsmen ; and they have encountered all the dangers and privations of emigration, in some respects for the common benefit. And as the eminent Butler has well observed in a sermon, in which he pleads the claims of the colonies, for re- ligious instructors from the mother country : " Incidental circum- stances of this kind appropriate all the general obligations of cha- rity to particular persons, and make such and such instances of it, the duty of one man rather than another.'"' Besides, our emigrant countrymen have a special claim upon the church at home, in this respect, tliat their conversion would be a most important step towards the evangelization of the heathen, amongst whom many of them are settled. The first propagation of the gospel amongst the Gentiles was greatly promoted by the general dispersion of the Jews throughout the Roman empire. It is evident, from various allusions in the New Testament, that in the apostolic age, they were to be found in considerable numbers in every province between Rome and the Euphrates ; and they seem to have been the foundation of almost all the primitive 15 churches. And were our countrymen abroad, more generally Christians in reality, rather than in name, then, undoubtedly, the gospel would sound out from them, to the heathen around them. They are, however, to use the Saviour''8 similitude, *< Salt that has lost its savour," and they exert no purifying, nor even corrective influence, on the heathenish corruptions with which they come in contact. About thirty years ago true religion appears to have been all but extinguishea amongst the British residents in India. About the year 179U, Mr. Thomas, previously to his connexion with the Baptist Missionary society, advertised in one of the Calcutta news- papers for a Christian. *' It had for some time previous to the appearance of this advertisement,'"' says the late excellent Wil- liam Ward, in his Farewell Letters, *' become a jocose remark, that every European in his way to India, left his conscience at the Cape of Good Hope." »' And," adds he, ** amongst all the Eu- ropeans at Calcutta at the time Mr. Thomas advertised, not more than three or four persons could be found, who could be persuad- ed to meet together for social prayer, and the whole country around them was one continued interminable moral desert." The late Dr. Claudius Buchanan, in a letter written in the year 1798, and preserved in the Memoirs of his life, affords a striking con- firmation of the justness of the views of Mr. Thomas, regarding European society in Calcutta. " Mr. Obeck in Calcutta, is like Lot in Sodom. I asked him one day if he could produce ten righteous to save the city ? He said he was not sure he could pro- duce Jten, but thought he could produce five."* Now, allowing con- cerning Mr. Thomas, and Dr. Buchanan, and Mr. Obeck, what the writer of the Memoirs suggests of the two latter, that all these ex- cellent persons " partook too largely of the spirit of the prophet, who thought that he was the only true worshipper of Jehovah in a corrupt and degenerate age ;"" it must yet be admitted, that Christianity was very generally practically renounced by the Bri- tish residing in Calcutta at the aforesaid period. And there is no reason to suppose, that it was then in a more prosperous state, in any other part of the British dominions in India. It would have been utterly unreasonable, to have expected any favourable impression on the Hindoos, in behalf of Christianity, from the conduct of those who then nominally professed it. The religion of Christ would hold the same place in the estimation of the Hin- doos with that of Mahomet, as exhibited by their former conque- rors. And while British residents in Heathen lands have, in most cases, been doing nothing to diffuse around them the knowledge of Christ, the dishonour which their conduct has cast on His precious name, has greatly counteracted the exertions of Missionaries. The history * Memoirs of Claudius Buchanan, D. D. p. 166. IG of every Missionary station in any of the depcndancics of the Bri- tish empire, would furnish many instances of obstacles thrown in the way of Missionary labours, by tlic wicked example of id by Mr. of an interview with the chief of the Red River Indians, and of the settlers, similar to that mentioned by Mr. West. Speaking the instructions he gave him, he says, ** I added, that it was the will of the Great Spirit, which he had declared in his book, that n man should have hut one wife, and a woman but one husband. He smiled at this information, and said, that he thought there wa» no more harm in Indians having two wives, than one of the set- tlers whom he named." Sec Journal, p. 104. Of the causes which have hitherto retarded the diffusion of the gospel in India, doubtless, the immoral and unchristian conduct of the European residents there, is not the least powerful; and now when Christian missions to that country begin to assume a more promising aspect, it is important to notice, that a great im- Srovement has first been made in European society there. The lijsionaries there, aiul in other British possessions, deserve well of the government and the country, if it were only for the spi- ritual benefits they have conferred on our emigrant countrymen. But much of tlie improvement in India is undoubtedly attributa- ble to the instrumentality of the English chaplains of the Honour- able East India Company. The spiritual necessities of our countrymen abroad have not, however, been altogether neglected. Some exertions have been made in their beh.df by various societies and churches in Britain. Not a few ministers have gone forth to them under the impulse of their own zeal, or in the mere spirit of worldly adventure. And emigrants have, in many instances, either carried out ministers with them, or sent for them, after settling in foreign lands. Go- vernment has done much for the Church of England in the eccle- siastical establishments, which it has provided for the East and West Indies, and for the army and navy, disposed in almost every latitude, between the arctic and antarctic circles. Yet even these establishments are scanty, compared with the civil establishments of the colonies, and with the great numbers of our soldiers and sailors. And as to the Presbyterian establishment provided for Scotsmen abroad, it seems to be confined to the support of three ministers, with one or two assistants, for Bengal, Bombay, and Fort St. George in the East Indies : — an establishment not more adequate for the Scotsmen in the public service, than the church establishments in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, would be for the whole of Scotland. The Society in London Incorporated for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts, appears to be tiie principal Religious bo- dy that has directed its attention to the foreign possessions of Britain. And the North American provinces form an ample, and seemingly the chief field for its exertions. According to a late I 1 rcpt^il of llint Society, its lMi>rioijarKs were as I'oIKjws: In N'tw- ioimdland, six for (ourft'tMi statiouH ; in Novu Scotia, twt'Wly lor thirty-four stations, with one vi>iting Missionary ; in New Unins- >\icl\, I'ourtccn Missionaries for ciglileen stations ; at Capo llreton, one Missionary for two siai" ns; in Prince KdwartPs I.-.'an(l, two Missionaries; in Upper Canaclii, seventeen, and in Lower ('ana- e des- tined to this servile. It apper*- that there is a syuoe Kirk in England, appears in some cases to be increased seemingly because she is there poorer in externals, and destitute of the adventitious support which a state endowment affords her at home. * In England there is scarcely any general Missionary Associations like the Bible and Missionary institutions of our Scottish Parishes, and provincial towns. The principle of those in Scotland may appear more Catholic, but that of those in Eng. land is undoubtedly more effective. 86 And Scotsmen carry these same feelings with them across the Atlantic to Canada, and to the West Indies. The Rev. William Bell, in his Letters from Upper Canada, already quoted, men- tions an attempt, (from his account, not very creditable to the agitators,) that had been made to dispossess him of his church, on the ground that he had not been a minister of the Established Church of Scotland. And after describing a visit which he had made to Kingston, he adds, " In such a country as this, one would expect to find nothing like party-spirit in religious matters ; but the case is quite otherwise. The inhabitants are emigrants from all the religious denominations, and all zealous for their own sect or party," p. 132. And while emigrants retain the party predilections of their na- tive land, it may fairly be presumed, that the greater number of Scottish emigrants have belonged to the Established Church. Mr. Blyth candidly acknowledges, that in Jamaica a preference would be given to missionaries of that communion. Besides, it is ap- prehended, that the administration at home, and the local Govern- ments abroad, would be disposed to favour a society in connexion with the Established Church, rather than another not in that con- nexion. But the formation of the society recommended, would not preclude other bodies of Christians from uniting in the same work. The language of the Lord to the veteran Joshua is strict- ly applicable to the colonies as fields of spiritual labour, " There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed ;" so that all the tribes of our British Israel may arise and march under their seve- ral standards to the occupancy of it, and each may find territory and work sufficient for itself, without occasion for jealousy of ano- tlier. Great Britain, as becomes a mother country, is now sedu- lously fostering the civil and temporal interests of her many affili- ated provinces ; and let her also affectionately cherish their reli- gious and eternal interests, and then undoubtedly the ties by which they are bound to her will be strengthened an hundred fold. Let her communicate to their inhabitants spiritual privileges, in the same ample measure that they are enjoyed by her own inhabitants, and we may be assured, that, through the blessing of the King of kings, hers will be an old age that will not know the usual decay and dissolution of nations ; and thus, as her children will never lose a mother, they will never cease to venerate and respect her as such, even when they have grown up to an independence of her protection and support. The writer is well aware that he could have made out a much stronger case in behalf of his emigrant countrymen, had he pos- sessed access to more documents on the moral state of the colon- ies. But scanty as the facts are which he has gleared, he is con- fident that they warrant a much deeper interest in the religious public of Great Britain, for the spiritual necessities of the colonies, than what has yet been entertained. And whether such a society '^ Jk' .fc- '4^ ^ 2T . " ^ as he has ventured to recommend should be formed or not, he is not less confident, that the excellent, though limited, societies in Edinburgh and Glasgow, will be profited by a discussion of the subject, to which the attention of British, and more especially of Scottish Christians, is here invited. These societies well deserve to have tributary associations in every town and parish in Scot- land ; and it is conceived that they only require agents to ,verse the country, and explain their objects, to obtain extensive and permanent support. If the writer may be indulged with a remark concerning the character of the ministers whom the colonists require, he would say, that they ought to be men of a missionary spirit — men who are themselves conscious debtors to the redeeming love of a cove- nant God, and whose whole sympathies and desires have been re- ined and exalted by the influence of it — men, in short, partaking largely of the spirit and mind that were in Jesus, and who, burn- ing with something of his love to the souls of men, and with zeal for the honour of the Father, are, as it were, " thrust forth into the Gospel harvest."* The minister who, at his ordination, can avouch, with an enlightened and good conscience, that " zeal for the honour of God, love to Jesus Christ, and desire of saving souls, are his great motives and chief inducements to enter into the function ol' the holy ministry, and not worldly designs and in- terest,"! possesses all the elements of a missionary spirit. The following observations of a distinguished writer on Christian Eco- nomlcs contain important, and, to preachers and ministers, awak- ening truths: " While the belief of truth impels to the communica- tion of truth, we shall never want preachers. * I believed, and therefore I have spoken.* Here is a measure derived from heaven to judge of the sincerity of belief. The laws of the human mind are not circumscribed within degrees and parallels. He who has no desire to proclaim the Gospel abroad, has none to proclaim it at home, and has no belief in it himself; whatever professions he may make are hollow and hypocritical. Bodies of Christians who make no eftbrts to christianize others, are Christians but in name ; and the ages in which no attempts are made to send the glad tid- ings to heathen countries, are the dark ages of Christianity, how- ever they may suppose themselves enlightened and guided by phi- losophy and moderation.''^ In marking the triumphs which the cause of missions has for a quarter of a century been gaining, and which it is yet rapidly ♦ Matthew ix. 38, here alluded to, is in the translation from the Syriac by Tre- mellius " ut extrudat operarios in Messem suam ;" and in that of the Genevese French, " qu'il pousse des ouvriers en sa moisson." f This declaration every minister of the Church of Scotland, at his ordinationi qaakes before th« Presbytery, and the church over which he is ordained. X See Hints on Missions, by James Douglas, Esq of Cavers, p. 105—6. «s gaining, over the spirit of infidelity, which has too long been lurking under the form of a rational Christianity — falsely so call- ed, it is delightful to observe that the students of Divinity in our four Scottish universities have avowed themselves to be its sup- porters, by the formation amongst themselves of Missionary As- sociations. This is a circumstance hopeful to the church in the coming years in which these students shall become ministers. And some may perhaps see in it a promise that our Divinity HalU shall yet become nurseries of Missionaries. At least it is not ex- pecting too much, from the power of divine truth, that, when the moral and spiritual wretchedness of the heathen, and necessi- ties of our own countrymen in heathen lands, and the means of alleviating these, are discussed in essays and debates by ardent and pious youths, some should catch a holy missionary zeal, and resolve to consecrate themselves to the honourable service of Christ in Foreign lands. Students have often had awakened within them, in the debating society, the ambition for mere rhe- torical eminence, or for distinction in the contentions of ecclesias- tical politics. And now too, in their Missionary Associations, may we hope that there will be imparted or fanned into energy, in some bosoms, the same heavenly flame that burned in Whit- field, and Brainerd, and Martyn, and a host of others whose names are precious to the whole Christian Church. It is melancholy to think of the number of those admitted by the Church of Scotland to be preachers, who are yet only Very casually employed in preaching; and are very generally se- cularized in pursuits extraneous to their own profession. They have passed through a long course of preparatory stud -, and they have been solemnly invested with the office of preaciiers of the everlasting gospel, and yet they settle down into teachers of children in the veriest elements of the knowledg*^ of this passing world. That so many should professedly direct their views and studies to the ministry, on which they are never perhaps to enter, could only be a subject of regret, from the misdirected studies of such individuals — if indeed studies in divine revelation ever could be misdirected — and from the bitter, often heart-breaking disap- pointments thereby occasioned, were there no lack of ministers in other countries. But when we consider that many hundred mil- lions of the heathen are sinking under sin into the second death, from the want of the gospel, and that tens of thousands of our own countrymen abroad are ready to perish, with more know- ledge than the heathen to enhance their condemnation ; how de- plorable is it, that the love of ease or wealth, or home or country, should stay the accredited heralds of the gospel from rushing forth on the embassy of infinite mercy ! But the question of the Apostle recurs, " How shall they preach except they be sent ?" Before preachers can go out S^ r 29 4^ 1 9 w as jMissionarics they must Iiave a Commission fVoni ;* clu' cb. Since the formation of societies for evuiiyvliziii