result. Nor, among other acts of christian charity,
will a faithful member of Christ's visible Church ever forget to pray
for those unhappy men whose extraordinary professions of religion are
too often found to end in fruits like these,--in opposing all extension
of what they deny not to be, in the main, a scriptural Church, in
straining at the smallest particle of endowment, or public assistance
for religious objects at home, whilst abroad they can swallow a whole
camel's load of public money or church plunder, when it serves their
occasion! May God, in his wisdom, overrule the mischief, and in his
mercy forgive the evils of which men of this description have recently
been the occasion, both in England and in its colonies!

[188] The following striking testimony in favour of the _system_ of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts comes from a
quarter by no means unduly biassed in its favour. "How have thousands
and tens of thousands been raised in Scotland, for the last forty years,
to fit out and to maintain beyond seas whomsoever the dissenting
ministers of London chose to ordain as missionaries to the heathen? God
forbid, that I should ever whisper a syllable against missions to the
heathen! But I have seen too many missionaries, not to have seen more
than I choose to mention, whom men possessed of the least discernment
would never have presumed to send forth on such an errand! _The colonies,
however, were the first field to be occupied; and if that field had been
properly occupied, it would have afforded much assistance to missions
to the heathen._"--LANG'S _New South Wales_, vol. ii. p. 260.

If any reader of this passage should feel disposed in his heart to help
in a good work, which greatly needs his assistance, let him take at
once his humble mite, or his large offering, as the case may be, to the
clergyman of his parish, or to the office, 79, Pall Mall, London, for
the use of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.

CHAPTER XII.

CONVICT POPULATION.

Whatever may be the natural charms or advantages of any region, these
are nothing without inhabitants; and however abundantly the means of
riches, the comforts, luxuries, or necessaries of life may be scattered
around, these are comparatively lost without man to enjoy and to use
them. The garden of Eden itself was not perfected until beings were
placed in it capable of admiring its beau