The following are calculated as the proportions in which different languages prevail in the new world. The English language is spoken by 11,647,000; the Spanish by 10,504,000; the Indian by 7,593,000; the Portuguese by 3,740,000; the French by 1,242,000; the Dutch, Danish, and Swedish, by 216,000 persons; making, altogether, the number of 27,349,000 speaking the European languages, and 7,593,000 the Indian. As an illustration of the scattered state of the population in many parts of South America, it is calculated that the metropolis of Great Britain alone is supposed to contain more inhabitants than all the provinces of La Plata, extending over 28 degrees of latitude and 13 of longitude. Christ. Obser. for Feb. 1826. A lady, residing in Edinburgh, has sunk two hundred pounds, the interest of which is to be given to some distinguished clergyman for preaching an annual sermon against cruelty to animals, and we subjoin a short account of the first discourse that has been preached on that subject, in consequence of this benevolent appropriation, by the celebrated Dr. Chalmers:"Yesterday fore-noon (Sunday, March 5) the Rev. Dr. Chalmers preached in the High Church, a sermon from Proverbs xii. 10. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, being the first annual sermon against cruelty to animals. The discourse was distinguished for that powerful eloquence and impressive manner which characterize the composition and the style of the Rev. Doctor, and was listened to with breathless attention by a most crowded audience. He took a luminous and comprehensive view of his subject, reprobated the cruelty to which various animals are subjected, to pamper the appetite of the epicure and the sensualist; condemned the sports of the field and of the turf, as being the means of blunting that sense of feeling which man should possess to animals subject to his power; and contrasted the cruelty which was exercised by man on the inferior animals, to the beneficence and goodness which mark the character of the Divine Being to the human race. So early as nine o'clock people began to collect round Philosophical Questions.-M. de la Place, in one of the last sittings of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, proposed the following four questions for examination and decision, by a commission of that philo`sophical body. 1. The actual intensity of the terrestrial magnetism. 2. The exact proportion of the two gases which constitute our atmosphere. 3. The exact pressure of the atmosphere at the surface of the sea; and 4th, the heat of the terrestrial globe at different depths, following latitudes and other appreciable differences. The ingenious academician allowed, that two or more of these points had been already examined by the greatest philosophers, and had been considered as sufficiently settled for most practical purposes; but he thought that results sufficiently accurate to be appealed to by posterity ought to be established, after still more rigorous inquiry. Unless a more decided and more generally admitted statement of the facts involved in these questions could be made, future ages would want the means of ascertaining or measuring the changes which may take place on the surface of our globe. A commission was accordingly appointed to make experiments to ascertain the above mentioned points, and MM. de la Place, Poisson, Gay-Lussac, and Arago, were nominated members. Improved Mechanical Powers.-Dr. Birkbeck, in delivering a lecture lately on the general principles of mechanical science, took a review of the earliest rude specimens of mechanics, and traced their rapid improvement down to the steam engine. He pointed out how the influence of the sun and moon, by changing the elevation of the ocean, had been converted into a mechanical power, and by its means, vessels with their cargoes, sunk to ocean's bed, had been raised to its surface, and restored to the use of man; and he exhibited a drawing of a sunken vessel to which cables were, by means of the diving bell, fastened to empty casks on the surface of the water at ebb tide, by which means as the tide rose, the vessel rose also, and at the flood was floated into shallower water, and brought to shore. He said, that there was one combination of power lately arrived in this country, which was completely original, and wonderfully effective. It was the invention of Mr. Dier, a watchmaker in Boston (America). The patent by which he means to secure his great invention is not yet extended to France, which makes some caution in its illustration necessary; but enough could be exhibited to show that it was scarcely possible to imagine that any machine could be constructed more simple or more powerful in equal space. Mr. Dier, the inventor, has applied his contrivance to his own art in clock making, and had, by its means, constructed clocks with but three wheels, which with a very small motive power, went twelve months without winding up. The Doctor exhibited one of the clocks, and also one of the machines for raising heavy weights, which consisted of a single wheel, of six inches diameter, on a barrel, round which a chain, to which the weight was suspended, was fastened. The wheel had on its periphery fourteen wheels, placed obliquely, which worked in a spiral groove in a parallel arbour or spindle, which was turned by a handle, and communicating motion to the wheel, and by consequence to the barrel on which the chain was wound, raised the weight. Four pounds on the handle of the spindle balanced five hundred pounds at the end of the chain, and eight pounds on the handle completely raised the five hundred pounds. Submarine Forest.-The submarine forest, at the mouth of the Char, is about half a mile in breadth; the sea prevents its being traced any further in a southern direction, about a quarter of a mile from its first appearance. The fossil marl is very thick, and, as geologists know, is wholly composed of such matter. The different kinds of fern remain very perfect, and nuts are found scattered about in a petrified state. mical fact has been discovered by Mr. J. Astronomy.-A very important astronoW. H. Herschel and Mr. South. The late Sir William Herschel directed the attention of astronomers to the importance of determining the distances and positions of double and triple stars; or stars which appear single to the eye, or when seen ed with one of higher magnifying powers with an inferior telescope, but when vieware found to consist of two or more distinct stars. Sir W. H. published descriptions and names of 702 such double and triple stars. The above gentlemen instituted a series of observations to determine the existence and amount of annual parallax of these stars; but the object was soon lost sight of amid the more extensive views of the construction of the universe, which gradually unfolded themselves. They have clearly established the existence of binary systems, in which two stars perform to each other the offices of sun and planet. They have ascertained with considerable exactness the periods of rotation of more than one such pair. They have observed the immersions and emersions of stars behind each other, and have detected among them real motions, sufficiently rapid to become measurable quantities in very short intervals of time. Religious Intelligence. Within a few days past we have received the twenty-first Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, for the year 1825, with an Appendix. We know not why this important and interesting document does not usually reach this country till toward the close of the year, subsequent to that of which it contains the report of the Society, and the detail of its operations. We should be glad to extract copiously from the Report before us; but are obliged to confine ourselves to a few quotations. The summary, which forms the last of our extracts and the conclusion of the Report, will be particularly gratifying to those who take a deep interest in the diffusion of the sacred scriptures. "The Paris Bible Society has continued to receive many testimonies of the utility of its labours to the Protestant communions in France. The Associations in connexion with itself, or its Auxiliaries, have gone on increasing. The scriptures have been received in many instances with demonstrations of the most lively joy; and their perusal is reported to have produced beneficial effects. Many among all classes of Protestants, among the clergy and laity, the rich and the poor, the aged and the young, continue to maintain an interest in the work. The monthly bulletins are enriched with several of which have been transferred pleasing and edifying communications, to the pages of your own monthly extracts, and are therefore not noticed here. Among the works completed by the Paris Society during the past year has been Ostervald's Bible, stereotyped, the first copy of which was presented to the son of your venerable president, who happened to be in Paris at the time of its publication, and the second has been placed in your own library, as an expression of gratitude on the part of the Paris Committee. Their last anniversary was held on the 14th of April, and was more numerously attended than any preceding. Mr. Monod, sen. has arrived as their representative on the present occasion, and has interesting communications to make to the meeting.* "Your committee have pleasure in stating, that extensive distributions of the scriptures take place from your society's depôt at Paris. An important application, from an island in the Mediterranean, for 300 Bibles and 3000 Testaments, for the use of schools, has been met from this source; and many thousand copies of the French Testament of De Sacy have been circulated. The depository, formerly occupied, having been found very inconvenient, a new one has been engaged, in which the various editions belonging to your society are now safely and advantageously arranged. To replace the editions which have been exhausted, 10,000 Testaments and 10,000 copies of the Gospels and Acts, of De Sacy's version, were ordered at Paris during the past year. "In Spain, Portugal, and Italy, little can at present be done towards disseminating the holy scriptures." "Every letter that has been received from Dr. Leander Van Ess has borne testimony to the prevailing desire for the holy scriptures, notwithstanding the difficulties which have arisen in the way of their circulation. These very difficulties have in many instances been overruled for good. He has been supplied with the following grants, 10,000 German Testaments of his own edition and 2000 of Gossner's, 1000 Lutheran Bibles, besides some smaller quantities in the Hebrew, Greek, and other languages. An opportunity of supplying the Roman Catholick schools in the kingdom of Wuertemberg having occurred, the professor has applied for 10,000 Testaments for this important purpose, which your committee readily granted. The zeal of this individual has stirred up others; and your committee have heard with pleasure, that another professor in the Roman Catholick communion has prepared a version of the New Testament, which has been approved by some ecclesiastical authorities in that church. The author, in a concise preface, remarks that it is intended for Christian schools and for edi-. fication in private families. Dr. Van Ess, in speaking of this work, observes, that the translation is good. It would seem,' he adds, that several of the Episcopal vicars favour it, a circumstance which will give me real pleasure, for it is certainly all one whether Christ be preached through the medium of a version by Kistemaker, Van Ess, or any other, provided only that his gospel be faithfully published. In these sentiments your committee most heartily concur. "The minister of finance in the grand duchy of Darmstadt, has waved the duties in favour of the Bible Society, as well as of the professor himself, and other individual distributors; and duties previously paid have been returned. . "The same accuracy and care continue to distinguish his accounts; the minutest as well as the largest distributions are marked in his statements; there are items such as sundry poor travelling journey. men 43 Testaments and 7 Bibles,' and such as, a clergyman in the Black Forest, 3228 New Testaments.' The extracts of his correspondence with different individuals, in parts remote from Darmstadt, give solid proof that the blessing of God accompanies his extensive distributions of the scriptures. They have amounted now in the whole to above 550,000 copies." "With mingled feelings of regret and delight your committee now turn to Russia; regret at the difficulties which have arisen in that quarter, and delight at the retrospect of the labours of the Russian Bible Society. His excellency Prince Galitzin having resigned the office of president, his eminence Archbishop Seraphim has been appointed his successor by an imperial rescript. Your president, at the request of the committee, has addressed the archbishop on this important occasion. At the first meeting of the committee at which his eminence presided, the members present rose and congratulated him; and in reply he expressed a lively hope that the Lord would be pleased to shower down his blessings on the united and important labours of the committee, and vouchsafe to them his almighty aid. His excellency Prince Galitzin has written to your president a letter expressive of the interest felt by him in all the operations of the Bible Society in every part of the world, notwithstanding he has resigned the situation which he before occupied. By the Russian Society a periodical monthly paper has been isSee Mr. Monod's Address in the sued during the past year. In the first Monthly Extracts for May. number a general review is taken of the operations of the society since its com mer.cement; from which it appears that, in the space of eleven years, it has purchased or printed versions of the entire scriptures, or the New Testament, or parts thereof, in forty-one different languages or dialects, and distributed 448,109 copies, and has collected and received 3,711,376 rubles; and that there are in different parts of the empire 289 committees who mutually co-operate, and in union with the St. Petersburg committee, like numerous arms of one and the same body, dispense throughout the whole extent of the Russian dominions the bread of life. Among its most important versions, that into the modern Russ certainly deserves to be mentioned; 50,000 of the modern Russ and Slavonian New Testament have been published, and 20,000 of the modern Russ alone. These journals contain many pleasing testimonies of the good produced by the labours of the society. In No. 3, it is mentioned, that the first pages of Matthew, in the Wjatka, were printed about the season of Advent. Twenty-seven parishes were furnished with them, and the lessons appointed for the first Sunday in Advent were read in this dialect. The people were equally astonished and delighted, and many declared the translation perfectly intelligible, and requested the lessons to be read to them again. Among the different committees, that of Moscow is well worthy of a record. This committee has printed sixteen editions, in five different languages, and copies to the amount of 79,500. In No. 5, a very interesting account of the Moscow anniversary occurs. More than 1400 persons attended, and among them about 500 were of the poorer classes. His eminence the Archbishop Philaret gave an excellent address upon the occasion, and, in imagining himself replying to those who demand, What moral benefit has arisen from their labours? among many other very excellent observations, remarks" Is not the very desire to read the holy scriptures, which is awakened by their circulation, a strong pledge in favour of the moral improvement, I will not say of every one, but assuredly of many into whose hands they fall, as a return of appetite and corrected taste are symptoms of convales. cence in diseases of the body." In No. 8, various parish ministers are stated to have delivered in their reports of the number of heathen, who have been led to embrace Christianity from among the Tscheremissians; one mentions eleven, another thirty-eight, a third one hundred, and a fourth fifty-two; and this has been ac complished in some instances exclusively, and in others principally, by reading the VOL. IV. Ch. Adv. gospel, translated in their vernacular dialect, and put into their hands by means of the Russian Bible Society. Who that reads such accounts, your committee may ask, but must regret that any difficulties should have arisen? The work however has not been standing still; 70,000 copies of the scriptures, in different languages and dialects, have been printed, and 31,163 distributed, during the past year. "In the Turkish empire the operations of your agent, the Rev. H. D. Leeves, have not, from the difficulties which have arisen, been quite so successful during the past, as in the preceding year. There is, however, much to demand your gra titude, and much to encourage you. For the benefit of the Greeks who speak the Turkish language, the New Testament is now preparing in Greek characters, by an individual of whose competency to the work Mr. Leeves has received every testimony that could be desired. With very slight alterations, indeed, this same work, transcribed in Armenian characters, will serve for the Armenians speaking Turk. ish. * * * printing at Paris. Carshun New Testament Carshun and Syriac ditto Ancient and Modern Armenian ditto, (just completed) Albanian and Modern Greek New Testament, printing at Corfu. Gospel of St. Matthew in the Basque language, printing at Bayonne. In closing this review of the Society's proceedings, your Committee feel that they cannot, as on some former occasions, indulge in the language of unmingled triumph and exultation. You will have learned from the Report, that in the past year difficulties have arisen in a part of the Foreign operations of the Society. But be the event of these difficulties what it may, let them altogether subside, or let them altogether increase, your Committee will have but one duty to perform, "to hold on their way;" remembering that, again and again, they have had occasion to notice that when their own operations have for a season been bound, the word of the Lord has not been bound. Often have they beheld, with sacred pleasure, all things working together for good, and events, which appeared to be making against the cause, essentially furthering it. In this your Committee do rejoice, and will rejoice. There are, however, many other causes of rejoicing unmingled with regrets such as those to which allusion has been made. In many parts a most pleasing desire for the Sacred Scriptures has been manifested, and they have been received with the most lively joy. As an instance of this your Committee refer to a letter received within these few days from the Deputation sent out by the London Missionary Society, to visit the Missions in the South Sea Islands. It is therein stated: "In times of the greatest distress in England we have never seen greater solicitude to obtain food or money, than these people have shown to be permitted to purchase the Sacred Scriptures. Their care of their Bibles, and their diligence in perusing their sacred contents, are as great as their solicitude to obtain them." If a parent may rejoice in the prosperity of his children, if no tidings can be more welcome than that they are doing well, surely your Committee may call upon you this day to rejoice in what you have heard, and in what you may yet hear from the representatives of various foreign Societies, now in the midst of you. Kings and queens, and many of the noble and illustrious, account it their honour and their privilege to foster the interests of your Institution. Others of humbler degree, continue their labours unwearied, both at home and abroad, and cause multitudes to invoke the benediction of heaven upon it. Another just cause of rejoicing is the unexpected openings made both for circulating received versions of the Scriptures, and preparing new ones; openings which no wisdom or foresight on the part of your Committee could ever have discovered, nor any exertions of their own have effected. Combinations of events over which they have no control, have sometimes made a way in the desert, and a high way for our God. Your Committee have been led step by step, in the train of others whose pursuits are widely diffe rent; but among whom many have been unexpectedly found willing to render assistance. Merchants, soldiers, statesmen, and literary travellers, have each pursued their own avocations, and have left a path where all was trackless waste before, in which the peaceful labourers of your Society might follow and make known that word by which, all that is lawful and all that is good in human affairs, may be used so as not to be abused, may be sanctified to the glory of God and the comfort of man, while all that is evil may be corrected. Such are some of the benefits already realized. Without indulging in too sanguine hopes, your Committee still feel encouraged by past experience to anticipate even greater things than any they have yet seen. The mountain shall become a plain, the valley shall be filled up, and many people shall go and say, "Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." May the Society continue to be one of the favoured instruments of the providence of God in hasten |