they call Laou-sze Foo. There is one expounds, sitting, on the sabbath. Thirty or forty attend at Nan-chang foo. Require the people to pray five times a-day; the prayers are not translated from the Arabic. There are no books in Chinese containing the service or doctrines of the sect. The term in Arabic answering to the Chinese Hwuy-hwuy, he understands to be Moo-se-ne-ma-na, probably Musselman. Return on sabbath from the Mosque to their usual avocations.

The young officer said many of the sect were not very strict. He himself took a little wine to strengthen his arms for shooting with the bow.

Religion and Morals.

In passing through a country, secluded from general intercourse with its inhabitants, little can be ascertained as to the effect of religious or moral principles on the human mind.

The very frequent decay and ruin in which the temples of superstition were found by the present travellers, seemed to denote a decay of the sentiments which prompted the rearing of those edifices.

What the prophet Isaiah said of Judea two thousand years ago is still true of China," their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands-that which their own fingers have made." Is. ii, 8.

The sect of Fuh or Buddah, is more prevalent than that of Taou. There are some temples of the latter which appear occupied by the priests of the former. One temple occurred to the writer of this which seemed to be of neither sect. Bloody sacrifices had been offered to the idol, the steps to whose altar were yet red with gore. Time did not permit a fuller investigation, as there was no person on the spot who could give any satisfactory account of it. A calculator of the fates of men sat at the gate, with his apparatus about him, but he could not tell to whom the temple was dedicated. The fortune-telling superstition seemed very prevalent in some towns; the professors of the art kept regular shops.

'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume;
And we are weeds without it. All constraint
Except what wisdom lays on evil men,
Is evil; hurts the faculties, impedes

Their progress in the road of Science; blinds
The eye-sight of discovery; and begets
In them that suffer it a sordid mind
Bestial, a meagre intellect, unfit

To be the tenant of man's noble form.

Cowper.

China does not enjoy liberty. Her government is a military despotism. Her virtues and her vices are those of slaves. Always artful, suspicious, intriguing, the Chinese are complaisant and servile, or insolent and domineering, according to circumstances. They affect great care to prevent irregular intercourse of the sexes; and yet are well known to be very debauched. Indecent representations were found everywhere exposed the same as at Canton. The strong arm of power intimidates them, and they acquire a habit of departing from the truth. Of this numerous instances occurred in the course of the journey.

The Tartars were generally more proud and haughty than the Chinese.

If "barbarity" or being " barbarous" expresses something savage, rude and cruel, the present inhabitants of China do not deserve the epithet; if it expresses a cunning selfish policy, endeavouring to deceive, to intimidate, or to brow-beat, as occasion may require, connected with an arrogant assumption of superiority on all occasions, instead of cultivating a liberal, candid, friendly intercourse with men of other nations, they are barbarians,

ON

PARISH REGISTERS

AND THE

MARRIAGE OF NON-CONFORMISTS;

WITH THE

OUTLINES OF A BILL

(HUMBLY PROPOSED)

FOR ESTABLISHING A MORE CERTAIN AND GENERAL REGISTER OF MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND DEATHS IN EACH PARISH.

TO WHICH IS ADDED THE

CELEBRATED EDICT

OF

LOUIS XVI.

KING OF FRANCE,

IN 1787,

FOR THE VERIFICATION OF THE MARRIAGES, BIRTHS, AND DEATHS, OF THE NON-CATHOLICS.

ORIGINAL.

LONDON:

ADVERTISEMENT.

The author of the following pages was at Paris when the cele brated Edict of Lewis XVI. concerning the registering of the marriages, births, and deaths, of those who do not profess the Romau Catholic faith, came out, which received universal attention, and the approbation of all, not blinded by bigotry. The plan now humbly offered was drawn up soon after, founded thereon. Whatever may be its demerits, the translation of Lewis's Edict, it is presumed, will be perused with satisfaction.

ON

PARISH REGISTERS.

EVERY plan for facilitating the means of verifying marriages, births, and deaths, it is humbly presumed, may have some little claim to attention, especially when the inaccuracy of our present parish registers is so often and so justly complained of.

In a country where the mild laws of religious toleration are so much approved and so thoroughly established, it is surprising that the marriage ceremony should be confined wholly to the Established Church, except in two instances, viz. Quakers and Jews. Yet it cannot be denied surely that other dissenting congregations have an equal claim to similar indulgence.

However, it is much to be wished that, whatever ceremonies may be thought necessary by the contracting parties and their particular friends to render this union complete, there should be one form in law so simple in its structure and so easy of verification, as to be perfectly unobjectionable to every religious persuasion. The wise edict of the unfortunate Louis XVI. dated at Versailles in the month of November, 1787, and registered in the parliament of Paris the 29th of January following, was of this description, and gave universal joy throughout his dominions. His non-catholic subjects were thereby enabled to contract legal marriage without conforming to the established worship, and to have their births and deaths regularly verified. Yet the defect of this edict seems to be the want of one general register; for, while some declarations of marriage, birth, or death, were made before one court, others before another, and some before a third, it must render the verification more difficult to posterity than if there were but one register in each parish, to be referred to.

As things now are, if a couple happen to marry in the Quakers' Meeting, and afterward change their religion, (a circumstance far from uncommon,) their posterity, in few generations, VOL. XV. NO. XXIX.

Pam.