Resolved-That it is expedient that an Auxiliary Bible Society be forthwith formed, to be named "THE MERCHANT-SEAMEN'S AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY, FOR SUPPLYING BRITISH MERCHANT-SHIPS WITH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

That a Public Meeting be called for this purpose on Thursday, the 29th January, 1818, at twelve o'clock precisely, (by permission of the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor,) at the Egyptian Hall, Mansion House.

That the Address to the public on the subject, which has now been read, be adopted, and widely circulated.

EXTRACTS OF THE ADDRESS.

Among the charitable institutions of this country, it would be difficult to point out one so simple in its nature, and so important and beneficent in its object, as the British and Foreign Bible Society. The only purpose of this Society is to circulate the word of God; and the blessing of God has rested largely upon it. In the course of a very few years it has excited the attention of many nations, and has extended the light of Divine knowledge to many distant lands. After a period which might seem hardly sufficient to accredit a new institution, even in the country which gave it birth, the Bible Society finds itself surrounded by a large family of kindred institutions, which have sprung up not only in Great Britain and Ireland, but in almost every region of the earth, all formed on the same principle, all animated by the same spirit, and all occupied in the same righteous cause.

It was, doubtless, from a sense of the duties which, as Christians, we owe to persons thus unfavourably situated, that the Naval and Military Bible Society derived its existence. This excellent Institution was formed with an exclusive reference to the destitute condition of that deserving class of men who are engaged in fighting the battles of their country by see and land; and to them it has proved, by the blessing of God, a distinguished instrument of good.

But there is another class of men, whose claims on the public regard, (and this is saying much,) are not inferior even to those of our Navy and Army, but whose spiritual necessities have hitherto been either wholly neglected, or very inadequately provided for we mean the seamen belonging to the mercantile marine of Great Britain. These can derive no advantage from the Naval and Military Bible Society. On the contrary, numbers, who, during the late protracted war, were the constant

objects of its Christian care, having, on the peace, been discharged from the Navy, necessarily ceased to participate in its bounty. These, we may presume, have since entered into the merchant service.

After many meetings, and much anxious deliberation, it was the opinion of gentlemen that measures should forthwith be taken to establish in London an Auxiliary Bible Society for the supply of British merchant ships with the Holy Scriptures; and that this Society, while more immediately occupied in supplying the wants of the Seamen belonging to the Port of London, should also endeavour to procure the formation of similar Institutions in every out-port of the Empire.

How different might have been the scenes which have afflicted humanity, in various regions of the earth, if our seamen in times that are past-instead of propagating vice and misery, or extending the hand of ravage throughout the range of their discoveries, and thus blighting as with the breath of a pestilence the happiness of many a smiling land-had exhibited to the view of the confiding natives, the purity and the justice, the kindness and forbearance of the Gospel of peace!

Seamen are necessarily deprived of many advantages of instruction enjoyed by persons who live regularly on shore. Once at sea, a Seamen has no choice of associates; he is fixed to his shipmates, and thus for the most part secluded from any society but that of the profane and dissolute. The privilege of resorting with their families to the house of God, with the congregation of Christian worshippers, is, in a great measure, unknown to them. The seamen remain, therefore, for the most part, as ignorant of the things which accompany salvation, as if the will of God had never been revealed to man-and even the hardships of a seafaring life, and the thousand perils peculiarly incident to his profession, instead of awakening his mind to serious reflection, too often produce in him, from the want of Christian instruction, a contrary effect, and lead him to dedicate almost every moment of his time, while on shore, to the most sordid, and debasing, and ruinous indulgences.

Is not the seaman, then, formed by the same hand with ourselves? Is he not capable of being moved by the same feelings and affections? Does the volume of Divine Truth appeal so forcibly to all other men; and is he alone, by some law of creation, or by some hard condition of his lot, to be regarded as excluded from the common range of his Maker's bounty, and as inaccessible to the influence of his word and Spirit? With the evidence before us of Pitcairn's Island-an island far removed from European civilization-where the descendants of a British seaman, who was happily possessed of a Bible, trained, by means of that blessed book, in the fear and love of God, are now exhibiting an example of piety which might well put even Britain to the blush: with such an example before us, can we doubt for one moment that the Word of God is still capable, under

every variety of circumstance and situation, of answering the high and ennobling purposes for which it was given to mankind? The owners of the vast mercantile marine of Great Britain, and the merchants, manufacturers, and traders of every description whose property is confided to the hazards of the deep, or whose prosperity is connected with foreign commerce, together with their numerous dependents; and the insurers of the almost incredible amount of merchandize and shipping entrusted to the care of British seamen, are all deeply interested in using their utmost exertions that those seamen should be raised from the degradation of their present acknowledged state of ignorance and profligacy, improvidence and insubordination.

The masters and mates of merchant ships, and all passengers by sea, with all persons related to them, or dependent upon them; together with the parents and friends of the numerous youths, who in this commercial island are educating for a seafaring life, must all likewise feel, that their personal comfort, as well as their interest, is deeply involved in the character of sea

men.

But the present appeal calls on Christians of every name; on all who profess attachment to the Scriptures as a communication of the will of God; on all who, in obedience to their Saviour's command, pray to their Father who is in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name! Thy kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven!' to unite heartily in this labour of mercy, in humble dependence on that gracious power who alone can give effect to his word, and make it subservient to his own glory, and the eternal salvation of those who receive it; being assured, that " as the rain cometh down and the snow from Heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall be the word of the LORD which goeth forth out of his mouth; it shall not return unto him void, but it shall accomplish that which he pleases, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto he sends it."-Isa. lv.

SAILORS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

JUDGE SIR JOHN JEFFCOTT.

Sailors in Foreign Ports, occasion to serious Christians many painful lamentations, by their disorderly and immoral conduct. But how can better things be expected, unless they are instructed by the preaching of the gospel in their native country ? From the second number of the South Australian Gazette,' June 3, 1837, (the first printed in the Colony,) we give a few extracts

of the speech of Sir John Jeffcott, Knt., Chief Judge of the Province, to the Grand Jury, at the first Goal Delivery, May 13, 1837; as shewing the necessity of the operations of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society :

"Upon looking into the calendar, I am sorry to perceive, that the list of prisoners is much more numerous than I had expected; and the offences of a graver character than I had anticipated, in this early stage of a Colony. It is, however, satisfactory to know, that the prisoner who is charged with the most serious offence in the calendar, I mean the individual charged with burglary, is not one of our colonists, but an importation from Van Dieman's Land. Two others are in the same situation, being SAILORS charged with riot and rescue. So that, out of seven prisoners for trial, only four, or little more than half the number, are of the class of the immigrant population, and the offences with which they are charged are of a comparatively light complexion.

"The prisoner JAMES BURT, is charged with a riot and rescue, originating in the following manner;—the prisoner, who is a sailor, was seen on the 22nd March, in a state of intoxication, patting one of those poor natives on the back with one hand, while with the other he held a bottle containing rum, or some other spirituous liquor, to his mouth, and encouraged him to follow his example.

"The Advocate General, Mr. Mann, passing by at the time, seeing what was going forward, and being very properly desirous to check this improper conduct, and protect the native from this attempt of the prisoner to debase him to his own level, approached the prisoner, and, in mild terms, requested him to desist. He, however, received much abuse, and was threatened with personal violence by the prisoner, who called several of his companions around him, and by them the riot, rescue, and escape, which are charged in the indictment, were effected. I have before had occasion to remark, that much of the demoralization which prevails here among the working classes IS ATRIBUTABLE TO THE SAILORS

OF THE DIFFERENT SHIPS, who, on coming on shore, are invariably seen devoting themselves to drunkenness and debauchery, and, by their example, corrupting the well disposed, and industrious part of the population. If the effects of this pernicious example were confined to their own countrymen, it would not be so much to be lamented, as when, as, in the present case, they endeavour to do such serious injury to the hitherto uncontaminated nations.

"I have already adverted to the mode in which, in the neighbourhood of this Province, the natives have been treated; and I have said, that I do not wonder that they have occasionally retaliated upon their oppressors, or, what is the same to them, on the countrymen of their oppressors, who may possibly have done them no injury. It is only within the last few days, that we heard of the sacrifice of two valuable lives at Port Philip, to the blind fury of the natives; and I believe there would be no difficulty in tracing this lamentable event to the previous ill conduct pursued towards them, on the part of the white men,-not of their victims, who were most respectable gentlemen, whose loss will be long felt by their families, their friends, and the public,-but of a class of men similar to those lawless and abandoned characters, so forcibly described in the report from which I have already quoted, squatters, run-away convicts, and deserters employed in the whale fisheries.""

YOUNG SMUGGLERS.

Christian Instruction Societies should give special attention, in our sea-port towns, to those families who are employed in the various occupations on the coast, as they are of a nature to prevent any regard to the saving knowledge and habitual worship of God. Smugglers, it is believed, are still numerous, especially on the coasts of the southern counties; and the following paragraph from a late number of the Dorset Chronicle, will painfully exhibit the depraving influence of the smuggling system :