THE SAILORS' MAGAZINE AND Nautical Entelligencer: UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN SAILORS' SOCIETY. 1848. VOLUME X.-NEW SERIES. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY T. WARD AND CO., 27, PATERNOSTER-ROW. MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. PREFACE. of That the income of the BRITISH and FOREIGN SAILORS' SOCIETY has increased during the last twelve months will be evident to all who have watched their progress in the pages this Journal; and the Secretary and Editor having resigned his office, and being therefore shortly about to retire from the field of his labours, may not perhaps be accused of any excess of vanity if he attribute some portion of this prosperity to the earnest advocacy and well-acquired influence of the SAILORS' MAGAZINE. That the financial difficulties of the BRITISH and FOREIGN SAILORS' SOCIETY, which unfortunately co-exist with their increased income, will be overcome by those gentlemen who have undertaken the future responsibility of conducting the affairs of that Society, is the earnest wish of the Editor; and at all events he can quit the office he has held for one year with the happy consciousness that his own has never been "eye-service' -offered to gain the passing suffrages of men; but that he has been, by the grace of GoD, "the servant of Christ, doing the will of GOD from the heart." It is proper to notice here, that the acting Board of the BRITISH and FOREIGN SAILORS' SOCIETY have decided that their Magazine shall in future be reduced to one sheet—or sixteen pages; to this alteration they have been guided by very proper motives of economy; for it is supposed that sixteen pages will be found sufficient to record all the monthly proceedings and services of the Society, to which it will be necessary to give publication. THE SAILORS' MAGAZINE. No. 109. JANUARY-MDCCCXLVIII. NEW SERIES. PROPOSED SAILORS' HOME AT NEWCASTLEUPON-TYNE. This very important proposal is one so intimately connected with the great objects of our Society, and so likely, by the Divine blessing, to promote both the temporal well-being, and the eternal interests of our seamen, that we offer no apology in again presenting it before the readers of the Sailors' Magazine. No doubt the supreme concern of our Society, and of all its Auxiliaries, is to promote the salvation of the sailor, and, therefore, our chief effort is to preach to him the blessed Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But no effort should be despised which may tend to remove from his way temptations powerful in leading him astray to paths of immorality and vice, and hindrances effectual in closing his heart against all the influences of religious instruction. Humanly speaking, what good effect can we expect from occasionally holding forth the word of life to the poor seaman, if we leave him, at all other times, to the mercy of the abandoned companions, amongst whom he has to dwell, in those dens of iniquity in which he has to lodge? Besides, if there were no evil influences, destructive to all religious impressions, from which "Sailors' Homes," and similar institutions are calculated to deliver the seafaring population, and if such institutions were only productive of temporal good to the sailor, we still think they are deserving of the zealous support of all friends to his religious improvement; for, how can we better open the sailor's heart to receive our counsel and advice on soul-matters, than by first convincing him that we are his real friends, by ministering to his temporal wants, and promoting his worldly comfort. A case in point is well-known to the writer. A sailor had been often B |