talists and extensive merchants of our southern cities, and move in the highest social circles.

The other class consists of the agents and pimps of these gentry, who are constantly scouring the breeding states to gather fresh supplies for the slave-prisons and slave-ships; and also of traders of limited capital, who buy up small gangs, and drive their own coffles. The latter class are generally despised even in the slaveholding states, and they are doubtless horribly base wretches of vile origin, and viler lives.'-Ib. pp. 66-68,

It must be added, that even this accumulation of crimes and sufferings does not satiate the cupidity of American slaveholders. The authors of the Replies assert (p. 18) that there are frequent 'importations of slaves into the United States from Africa.

The following testimony of the Rev. Horace Moulton, now a member of the Methodist episcopal church in Marlborough, Massachusetts, who resided some years in Georgia, reveals some of the secrets of the slave-smugglers, and the connivance of the Georgia authorities at their doings. It is contained in a letter, dated February 24th, 1839:

The foreign slave trade was carried on to some considerable extent when I was at the south. Were you to visit all the plantations in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, I think you would be convinced that the horrors of the traffic in human flesh have not yet ceased. I was surprised to find so many that could not speak English among the slaves, until the mystery was explained. This was done, when I learned that slave cargoes were landed on the coast of Florida. They could, and can still, in my opinion, be landed as safely on this coast as in any part of this continent. When landed on the coast of Florida, it is an easy matter to distribute them throughout the more southern states. The law which makes it piracy to traffic in the foreign slave trade is a dead letter. I will notice one fact which came under my own observation. It is as follows: A slave ship, which I have reason to believe was employed by southern men, came near the port of Savannah with about five hundred slaves, from Guinea and Congo; and the crew ran the ship into a bye place, near the shore, between Tylee Light and Darien. Well, as providence would have it, the revenue cutter, at that time taking a trip along the coast, fell in with this slave ship, took her as a prize, and brought her up into the port of Savannah. The cargo of human chattels was unloaded, and the captives were placed in an old barrack, in the port of Savannah, under the protection of the city authorities, they pretending that they should return them all to their native country again, as soon as a convenient opportunity presented itself. The ship's crew were arrested, and confined in jail. Now for the sequel of this history. About onethird part of the negroes died in a few weeks after they were landed, in seasoning, so called, Those who did not die in seasoning must be hired out a little while to be sure, as the city authorities could not

afford to keep them on expense doing nothing, As it happened, the man in whose employ I was when the cargo of human beings arrived, hired some twenty or thirty of them, and put them under my care. They continued with me until the sickly season drove me off to the north. I soon returned, but could not hear a word about the crew of pirates. They had something like a mock trial, as I should think, for no one, as I ever learned, was condemned, fined, or censured. But where were the poor captives, who were going to be returned to Africa by the city authorities, as soon as they could make it convenient? Oh, forsooth, those of whom I spoke as being under my care were tugging away for the same man; the remainder were scattered about among different planters. When I returned to the north again the next year, the city authorities had not, down to that time, made it <convenient' to return these poor victims. The fact is, they belonged there; and, in my opinion, they were designed to be landed near by the place where the revenue cutter seized them. Probably those very planters for whom they were originally designed received them; and still there was a pretence kept up that they would be returned to Africa. If all the facts with relation to the African slave trade, now secretly carried on at the south, could be disclosed, the people of the free states would be filled with amazement.'

'It is plain, from the nature of this trade, and the circumstances under which it is carried on, that the number of slaves imported would be likely to be estimated far below the truth. There can be little doubt that the estimate of Mr. Wright, of Maryland (fifteen thousand annually), is some thousands too small. But, even according to his estimate, the African slave trade adds one hundred and fifty thousand slaves to each United States census.'-Ib. pp. 22, 23.

Such is the dark and melancholy portraiture it has been our duty to exhibit. We have for the most part withheld ourselves from the quotation of particular facts (although they excite a deeper immediate interest, and bring a representation more vividly home), because they leave an opening for the allegation that they are merely isolated cases, and that they cannot prove a general rule. Within such limits as ours, we could not compress a sufficient number of facts to avoid altogether the force of such an allegation; we have therefore quoted the general descriptions given in the Replies. We have to add, that they are abundantly sustained by cited cases in the work from which we have quoted, and still more largely so in the second work on our list, American Slavery as it is.

One could not but have hoped that the 'pure and undefiled ' religion,' of which we have often blessed God for preserving so large a portion in the United States, would have demonstrated its power as an antagonist element to the pro-slavery spirit. But 'professors of religion, both in the free and slave states, are deeply implicated in the guilt of slavery,' Replies, p. 131. The facts cited in support of this allegation are unutterably painful;

but we cannot extend our quotations. Alas! religion is no longer in the United States either 'pure' or 'undefiled.' Generally speaking, it has become the ally, the vindicator, the bulwark of the system of slavery itself. There have, indeed, been honorable exceptions throughout, and the number is now rapidly increasing. But it is to our minds a most fearful evidence of the predominance of the pro-slavery spirit, that it should not only have neutralized an element so essentially opposed to itself as Christianity, but have accomplished an amalgamation with it. If there is one hope in this respect dearer or stronger to us than another, it is in the spreading revival of tenderness of conscience among religious professors.

Art. VII. 1. What ought the Dissenters of Scotland to do in the Present Crisis? By JOIN BROWN, D.D. Edinburgh. 1840.

2. An Humble Attempter to put an End to the Present Division of the Church of Scotland. By the Rev. LEWIS ROSE, A.M. Glasgow. 1840.

3. Letter to John Hope, Esq., Dean of Faculty. By WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, Minister of Trinity College Parish. Edinburgh. 1840.

In

ECCLESIASTICALLY considered, Scotland is a cauldron with a very brisk fire underneath; many hands, lay and clerical, among whom we perceive noble peers, learned judges, and reverend gentlemen in great abundance, gathering fuel, blowing bellows, and stirring potently the mighty mass. the boiling fluid, ecclesiastical independence and non-intrusion are the precious solids subjected to the action of the heated element, and are seen tumbling about in all fashions. Whether the result of the process shall be 'some dainty dish,' fit to be set before Queen and country,-or whether the old adage shall have its fulfilment, 'too many cooks spoil the broth,'-or whether there shall be no broth at all, the heat, from its intensity, evaporating the fluid, and leaving the impracticable and nondescript solids pretty much as they were before the stir began, remains to be determined. Certain it is that the process is sufficiently critical to keep all the chief agents on the alert, and even to induce curious on-lookers and peaceable passers-by to guard against jeopardy.

For the instruction of our readers we propose to set forth our views of these very remarkable Scottish transactions, involving principles and interests to which no part of the empire ought to be insensible.

What are the Scottish clergy about? What is meant by

these northern phrases, ecclesiastical independence and nonintrusion? What do they want parliament to do, or not to do? What sort of means and expedients are they employing to accomplish these darling objects? What is the state of parties among our northern neighbours? And how do prognostics and prospects look? Our readers will not expect that we should answer these questions in the order in which we have propounded them, or by any separate consideration of the matters classed under each; but we have put ourselves to some pains for the purpose of supplying materials, by which, if our readers choose to avail themselves of them, they may answer these and many queries besides, on the vexed question of Scottish ecclesiastical affairs.

The present movements are of very recent origin. The surface of the northern waters was long smooth enough, and it is but lately that these breezes have sprung up, which have subsequently freshened into gales, and lashed the waters into perilous agitation. There had been discussions about patronage, in which many strong things had been said, by none more so than by the late Dr. Thomson-some societies had been formed on the unworkable and hopeless principle of purchasing patronages by voluntary contribution-a slow and expensive, and, withal, not a very Christian mode of arriving at spiritual liberty-and many severe things had been uttered touching patronage and patrons, even by stout and orthodox churchmen. But the two great causes assigned by Dr. Chalmers in his late pamphlet, What ought the Church and People of Scotland to 'do now?' were ab extra, to use his own phrase on another subject,-namely, the popular movement,' which produced the change in the political constitution of the country' in 1830, and the spread of voluntaryism, with her fierce and 'noisy menaces.' In such circumstances, it was deemed expedient, or felt to be necessary, by the lords spiritual of the Scottish church, to concede somewhat to the spirit of the age' and to set about the awkward work of 'popularizing our 'ecclesiastical constitution,' as the Doctor has it.

But how was this to be done? In the first place, the clergy began to meditate on their high position as the only legal instructors of the Scottish nation, with somewhat of the air which our apostolicals assume in England; they awoke as if from a dream, to the touching contrast betwixt their own capabilities, and the overgrown population with which they saw themselves surrounded; they proclaimed, trumpet-tongued, the favorite maxim of ecclesiastics, that the established church must have churches sufficient to accommodate, and clergy in numbers sufficient to instruct, the whole people of the land; and that a church and a clergyman should, on this principle, be provided

for at least every 2000 souls, where the population is dense, and for a much smaller number where it is more scattered. Church extension became the order of the day; the great watch-word of clerical agitation. At least one-third of the accommodation existing in the church, was unoccupied-that was nothing; a large proportion of the population, probably larger than in England, belonged to the Dissenters-that was less than nothing; the whole country was already parcelled out in their parishes, the whole population were their parishioners, their people to whom they were bound to furnish 'reli'gious instruction and pastoral superintendence;' and accommodation must be made, and endowed clergy obtained, for the benefit of every soul of the entire population. Petitions loaded the tables of parliament; the hard-hearted legislators demurred; and rested on their oars while a commission appointed by them visited Scotland. These commissioners did their work with much pain, and at great expense, and terminated their labors, as is usual in such cases, by laying information in massive folios on the tables of the House. Meanwhile Dr. Chalmers was not idle. To use his own phrase, he took a leaf out of the book of O'Connell, and began the vocation of agitation in right good earnest. How he wheeled his way from city to city, and parish to parish, with his speech, refuted and repeated he himself knows not, and no other man knows, how often, is fresh in Scottish recollection. Great sums of money, however, were raised; many new churches were erected; and, by petitions and deputations, loud demands were made for endowments to their ministers from the public purse, which government and parliament, whether from principle or poverty, have hitherto refused.

The popular mind was thus amused; but two important questions remained to be disposed of-what is to be done with patronage? for to 'popularize the Establishment,' and to retain patronage as it is, was seen to be impracticable; and how are the ministers of these new churches, and others similarly situated, to be provided for?

As to the first, patronage. In Scotland, patronage (advowson) is vested, with two or three exceptions, either with the crown, or with individual proprietors, or with corporations. Induction to a living can take place only in consequence of presentation to it, by the patron. On this presentation or nomination by the patron, the candidate, if he has not been previously ordained to the ministry, is taken on trial by the presbytery; that is, he is examined on his literary and theological knowledge, and delivers discourses on certain prescribed subjects; and if these trials are finished with approbation, he is inducted into the charge in the prescribed order.