194 \' \ . ■ Smme ©vaagrtwt. THURSDAY. AUOUST 8, 18BJ. aa-HEW. MEARS> ED IT 08. ASSOCIATED WITH ALBERT BARNES , GEORGE DCFFIELD, Jn THOMAS BRAINERD, / JOHN JENKINS, HENRY DARLING, I THOMAS J. SHEPHERD. ANOTHER WORD WITH OUR FRIENDS. Beyond our expectations, we have been enabled to get ont two papers in succession. This is as far as we can go with onr present means, and we therefore shall issue no paper next week. After that, we hope to go forward regularly, although it is not impossible but that one or two more inter ruptions will be found necessary. Meanwhile we earnestly renew our request to all subscribers and friends of the paper, to increase their efforts in its behalf. Send on your remit tances and help us through these dark days to the light we think we can see beyond; Below we give another of the letters, covering a remittance, which we have received in response to our appeal. Pa., August Ist, 1861. Bev. John W. Mears, Editor American Pres bylerian ; Dear Sjr, . . . The Church and the na tion cannot afford to have your paper suspended, and thus lose its clear, out-spoken utterances in favor of constitution#! liberty and the preservation of our government. Your sound, Christian, patriotic views in regard to our country's crisis, have been received with de light among the hills of north-eastern Pennsylva nia, and while we will be content to forego the pleasure of their weekly perusal, if need be, yet they must not be suspended. a THE GLASS OP PROVIDENCE IN WHICH THE NATION MAY SEE ITSELF. ' God punishes us not only for our sins, but often in our sins and by our sins. The lash uplifted to scourge us is composed often of the very sins for which it is applied, Jeremy Taylor says: “It were easy to mnke a catalogue of sins, every one of which is a disease, a trouble in its very consti tution and its nature; which, if a man were to curse his enemy, he could not wish him a greater evil than these,” Hence it is, that in great crises in individual or national life, especially in those involving dis aster, the sins of the suffering party are thrown out into wonderful relief, A secret evil whieh was operating unsuspected, or against which le mons trances had been vainly raised, conies sud denly to light, and compels universal recognition hy the greatness of the disaster which it unmis takably works in a critical moment. Compara tively harmless for a long period, it is now seen to have been treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Thus God’s providences become great moral lessons, and may be compared to the Word as a reflector of the natural face of man or of na tions. We cannot hut feel that the nation, by looking carefully into the recent disastrous issue of its armed preparations, will see some of its sins clearly reflected there; and we may not be wrong in affirming that as God, in all probability, de signs to give victory to the cause of the Constitu tion at last, he intended this repulse as a fatherly chastisement, to rouse us as a nation by the most startling means and the most pointed and terrible applications of loss and humiliation, to the acknowledgment and forsaking of theme self uvenging sins. 1. No reason as yet has been assigned, justify ing, in a military point of view, the choice of the Sabbath as the day of attack. We do not be lieve there was any. Johnston was known to have left Winchester previously for the Junction, and it could not have h.een expected that the arri val of his reinforcements would be anticipated. That object might have given color of justification to a Sabbath movement. We believe, on the con trary, that it resulted from that prevalent dispo sition simply to ignore the sacred claims of the day which has been a vice of our public men and a blot upon our national policy. More than once the closing scenes of Congress, frequently a scan dal and a disgrace to the republican name, have been made still worse by being allowed to fall upon the Lord’s day, and the demoralizing exam ple has come down upon the nation from its high seat of power and dignity. Attempts to bring our mail service more into conformity with the fourth commandment have been repulsed with dis dain. Our nation, as such, is guilty of formal disrespect towards the Sabbath. This sinful tendency took a great field on whieh to display itself; the first great battle-field in the war of the Constitution—and in throwing forward an army of fatigued and famishing men upon an unknown territory, it drew upon itself such a punishment as it had never received before: a punishment which has made the ears of all that heard it to tingle. God meant to chastise us for our national sin of Sabbath-breakiDg, and ho suf fered it, in His providence, to involve us in one of the greatest of national disasters. Preachers may be silent, the glass of the Word may be set aside for the moment, while the judgments of God are teaching the people righteousness. 2. It is asserted on high -authority that the rea son why onr reserves were not promptly brought into action to retrieve the fortune of the day, or to temper the humiliating character of the retreat, was the intoxication of an officer .high in com mand ! We know this has been denied by the officer in question, and the matter is in the hands of a court of inquiry;, but if this be the fact, as is generally believed, what a retribution is here brought by one of our national sins upon ourselves! The minor and less significant evils of intempe rance have not been sufficient to arouse the people to effectual means for its suppression. Multi tudes upon multitudes have cherished a rooted in credulity as, to the greatness of these evils. Pub lic. men, especially, have considered themselves .under no obligation of abstinence, nor. has the na tion sought for men of temperate habits to serve •it; and so the evil has fun on and run out, until -?tbe critical 1 hour of our nation comes, and affords u new and vast field on which to exhibit its cala mitous tendencies; Let the nation rjad in large ■'characters, in the smoke, and carnage, and humi liation of a lost , battle, what vast-possibilities of evil are bound .up in intemperance. Let it here after be charged, among its less marked accounts, with the defeat of our army In the first pitched battle against rebellion. Let it be branded as a traitor, ip the general’s confidence, at the critical moment —an enemy put-in bis‘*mouth to steal .away his brains at a time when his, soldiers, his country, his. race, demanded with intense and awful emphasis, their dearest use. 3. The nationalsins of overselling selftconfi dence, and consequent levity in view of danger, were here illustrated and here brought on them their own punishment. Doubtless the repose of a Sabbath day would have been acquiesced in as a necessary preparation for a general- engagement, had it not been for a silly under-estimate of our enemy and a crude confidence in the invincibility of northern prowess. It was this which led to the ill-judged rapidity with which our troops were brought up for miles to the attack. Wearied as .they were, it was believed that their onset would overthrow the- enemy in his mtrenebments and behind bis tiers of artillery, on his own chosen ground. It was this spini which induced the premature forward movement of teamsters close to the rear of the engagement. It was this which led to the ignoring of the important fact of the. junction of Johnson’s with the main force of the enemy. It was this which led to the ostentatious adjournment of the House of Representatives, and brought upon the field a vain crowd of civilians to share in the exultation of a victory. That holiday spectaclo on which the sun of the Sabbath morning looked down, and in which the chief dignitaries of our laud and even ladies, shared, was just such an exhibition of pride as might be followed by destruction. It is well known that it constituted one of the grand causes of our panic, if not of the defeat itself. Some of the party are now dejected prisoners in the hands of the rebels whose overthrow they broke the Sabbath in order to witness. These -are the national errors and sins which drew after them such terrible retribution, and which are now written down in fearfully legible characters of carnage, of a lost battle-field ensan guined with the blood of our brethren, and of a blotted page upon our country’s noble history. Into this glass we have been called as a nation to look, aud we have seen and been startled as this generation never was before. God grant that we may not merely behold ourselves, and go our way and straightway forget what manner of nation we were! As to the last point—the national self-confi dence and levity —we must look well to it. "We* aro in the midst of a great crisis, and trifling will not do. We have probably the most serious bu siness on hand that Providence has ever awarded to any nation; to prove-that a republican govern ment is capable of preserving itself against anar chy and rebellion. Five millions of resolute peo ple are iu active and armed insurrection against the government. They have staked their all on their mad plans, an'd we must devote ourselves, our energies, our resources to defeat them. We must make up our minds to meet revolution in the spirit of revolution. What our fathers under went to establish oar liberties we must be pre r pared to undergo to perpetuate them. They t}id a work of true heroes; it will take nothing less than heroes to preserve it. The whole current of our thoughts and of jmr activity iu secular mat ters, must be turned to this as the only grand ob ject of our existence, so far as this life is con cerned. We believe we shall see far more of this spirit in every friend of our Union, from the Pre sident to the humblest citizen, and to the women, before the great object of the war is gained. We may need more disasters still to develop it. THE PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY RE VIEW. As a means of cultivating in our ministry and the reflecting portion of our laity, a warm and in telligent attachment to the great principles of Presbyterianism, and of our own branch of the Church, we regard this Review as pre-eminent Its efficiency in the important work of consolidating the Church, educating its denominational feeling, and inspiring a just degree of self-respect and self-confidence in our people as members of the constitutional Presbyterian (jhureh, is worthy of all commendation. We make these remarks in this connexion, because they are especially appro priate to the number just issued. The opening article— -The Tercentenary of the General Assembly —is the Address of the Editor, Rev. Dr. Wallace, delivered by appoint ment of the Presbyterian Historical Sooiety, be fore the recent General Assembly. It discusses the antiquity ofPrcsbyterianism—skilfully tracing the historical connexion between the Culdees and the Presbyterians of a later date, and showing that Presbyterianism in Scotland was not strictly and purely an out-growth of the Reformation. Next it groups the faots and characters connected with the First Assembly of 1.560, and concludes by specifying the cbaracteristics-of Presbyterian ism,—everywhere “substantially the same,” —as follows:—it regards Christ as supreme; it is spi ritual; it leads to severity of morals and purity of life; it is reliable, intellectual, republican, philan thropic. The writer is an enthusiast for his Church, and must he understood as developing in this part of the address the true tendencies of the great principles on which Presbyterianism rests. He would not be understood as doubting or denying that many, bearing the name and glo rying in .it, have sadly failed in exhibiting the thing, as a subsequent article clearly shows. JEsthbtxos briefly, but eloquently, discusses some of the general principles which lie at the foundation of the Fine Arts. Especially on the topic of the connexion of religion with art, is the essay instructive, liberal, and yet guarded, nobly vindicating a place for the beautiful in the created universe, and in the nature and activity of man as a worshipper of-its Creator, while it exposes the error of those who have reversed the true order, and put sesthetics before, or in place of, religion. It is a welcome contribution to the pages of the Review. Dr. Mills’ Sermon, as retiring Moderator in the last Assembly,— Tiie Divine Life in the Church —has already been referred to in these columns. Its vein of thought is elevated, un worldly, and spiritual. No believer can read it without receiving inward profit, in the form of re verence and rejoicing for the Church, as God de signed it, and of a strengthened purpose to labor in his sphere to approximate the Church to the divine standard. In dignity of manner and finish of style, and in general hoiniletio and rhetorical ability, this discourse will bear comparison with any uttered on a similar occasion. The Assembly of 1861 is the usual summary of acts'and discussions which transpired duriiia the session. i he Rationale of Prayer is a skilful and pleasingly-written re-statement of the great argu ment for the utility and efficacy of prayer to a Sovereign and Infinite Ruler: an argument which the pertinacity of the enemy and the weakness of our faith require to have re-stated over and over again, convincing though it be. The Early History of the Presbyterian Church IN Missouri i aa praiseworthy attempt to preserve memorials which become increasingly valuable ; and, at the same time, more difficult of preservation every day they are neglected. We Jimnirau if tt flfrgtitiaw and tste (Srattpligt, are pleased to learn that the first Presbyterian preaching distinctly mentioned as occurring Missouri, was done by two missionaries sen ou by the Philadelphia Bible and Missionary So cieties. Their names were Mills and Daniel Smith, and the date of their labors is 1814- J.nc true pioneer of our Church there, whose labors had a permanent issue,;was Rev. Salmon Giddings, of Hartford, Counectieiit. He organized the first church in Bellevue-Settlement, eighty miles from St. Louis, August 2d, 1816, just 45 years ago. The State of. the Country is a remarkable article. After exhibiting, with unsparing bu just severity, the extraordinary tergiversations of the distinguished author of an article in the-Prince ton Repertory, on the same topic—which has been extensively noticed both in our, own columns and those of other religious papers—and after bring ing home such vacillations on great and trying occasions as characteristic of the author, our re viewer holds up the Exscinding Acts of ’37 and ’3B in the terrible light of the Secession mover ment of our own day. Never, perhaps, did two eras in history —the one political, and the other ecclesiastical —so admirably illustrate and parallel each other, and the reviewer has made skilful-and crashing use of tbe parallel. It is just; for the injustice and lawlessness of the ecclesiastical act doubtless was a great influence operating to pre pare the popular conscience,, so far as it regarded the Church as a pattern, for the .political act which resembles it. ‘And the South, which is now wallowing in the Blough of political anarchy, had been nearly unanimous in adhering to and applauding that branch of- the Church which had trampled upon the constitution, and broken up the body by revolutionary violence. Only now we behold the strange spectacle of an organ of that branch of the Church in Kentucky, whose editor was the leader in those scenes of ecclesias tical violence, protesting with fervid and powerful rhetoric against revolution and rebellion in the State; while the editor of the Princeton Repertory x who only reluctantly, and after strenuous opposi tion, yielded to the policy of .the Exscinding Acts, is laboring, with equal zeal, if not with equal elo quence, to confuse the minds of his brethren on the great -political question of the hour, and to break the force of the Assembly’s testimony to the duty of patriotism and loyalty, on the part of all Presbyterians, to the assailed and jeopardized Constitution of their country! Sed tempora mu. tantur, et'nos mutamur iw'illis. The literary articles, criticisms, and intelligence, are admirable, as.usual. EDITORIAL JOTTINGS. The Sabbath in War.— lt will notdo to sub scribe loosely to the sentiment, that “ there are no Sabbaths' in War,” and then stand idly by, not only when movements absolutely admitting of no delay are made, hut when ostentatious parades take place, and when the regular business of war is pushed on with a profane and a suicidal disre gard of God’s appointed period of rest for man and for beast. Here is a brief extract from the life of that brave and successful soldier, Havelock; it refers to the last and boldest of his military operations, the march to the relief of Lucknow: — “It was Saturday afternoon . . . The next was the day of rest; and except that the volun teer cavalry, went out to reconnoitre, the army were permitted to rest. Many great battles have been fought on that day ; hut General Havelock in his own practice avoided fighting on the Sab bath whenever he could.” A correspondent of the New York Observer gathers the following list of instances in which a Sabbath assault has proved disastrous to the at tacking party:— “Montgomery made the attack upon Quebec on the Sabbath, was slain and his army defeated, and turned back. “The Americans commenced the battle of Mon mouth on the Sabbath and were worsted.” [They were seized with a .panic.] “ The British began the engagement on Lake Champlain on the day of God, and were complete ly overwhelmed. “ They did the same at New Orleans, and were entirely routed. “Bonaparte commenced the battle of Water loo on the Sabbath, and he was defeated, and his army almost annihilated. “And we now have another painful ease to add. Our forces began the conflict at Bull Run'bn the Sabbath, and were defeated.” The Northern and Southern Spirit.— We think it is manifest beyond any dispute, that the North is forbearing and the South insolent; the North hates and defers war, the South covets and precipitates it; the North has borne with Southern pro-slavery aggression for more than a generation for the sake of the Laws and the Con stitution, which it reverences, the South is so in censed at the first indication of Northern supre macy gained by constitutional methods, that it throws the Constitution to the winds* tramples on all the saered associations of our history, and gathers its strength to give a death-blow to free Institutions in the world/ the'North has'gone to the verge of compromising : its dearest convictions upon the personal and civil rights of men, and has well nigh surrendered the first principles of the Declaration: of; Independence to conciliate the South; thfe South-has proclaimed the holding of one race in perpetual and absolute bondage by another to be the very corner stone of society and of the most perfect political system, and she forces the alternative of war, or of this doctrine on .the North; the war upon which the North has en tered with reluctance, she prosecutes as against misguided brethren, with a humanity" amounting almost to weakness; the South rages with blopd thirsty and destructive violence, as savages against their hereditary foes- the North has held a rebel lious city utterly at its mercy for three months, a city whose pavements were spattered with the blood of unarmed men or peaceful soldiers, yet she has not hurt a hair of any one’s head; would the South act in the same manner towards a northern city in her power? ‘the North has mag nanimouslydis charged its. rebel captives, of whom General M’Clellan took a thousand at one time in Western Virginia, and has sent them to their homes on their word of honor (?) not to fight against the Government; the South has sent our men who have fallen into her bands to work in the trenches with her slaves;.,the progress of the Northern army has been marked by the. restora tion of order and the rchabitation of the material interests of the country, while extortion, plunder, and ruin to farms, to bridges, to canals, to rail roads, have marked every step of the movements of the rebels; once more, the dead and .the wounded of the foe'have 1 received the tenderest care at our hands; the body of a slain General, de serted by the fugitive troops, was carefully and respectfully returned to his friends, without wait ing for their asking; but as to their treatment of our dead and wounded, let the atrocities of Bull Run testify, and the-vain efforts of bereaved rela tions, including the Secretary of War himself, to recover .the remains of lost loved .ones, from the grasp of those whose, vengeance extends even r to the dead. Masked batteries and ambuscades,''and unpa ralleled misrepresentations may serve their turn tor a time, but as sure as there is a God 6f order, of justice, and of benevolence: in the heavens, their day of retribution slumbereth not.. ‘ General M < CHBura'ifi«^Now'that J this “Philas delphia-born General has risen to such a command ing position,, thole who confide iujovtr leading inen in proportion as they confide in God, will recall with pleasure' 'B'if "htfefjteifffc Jii his "history which took place -before he could have anticipated,the' elevation which he has; so suddenly attained. Read in connection with his after career in West ern Virginia, it- is peculiarly encouraging. We reproduce from our own columns. : r Rev. Dr. Thompson, -Second Presbyterian Church,.; Cincinnati,, was jrecently iseated an his study, when a- strange gentleman requested an in terview, which was granted. He cauie.toldiseuss of the, country, expressing his; anxiety about its. condition, and at length requested the Doctor-to pray for the. Republic and for met The Doctor, of course, complied, and;after further con versation on this theme, the gentleman requested the minister to pray with him. They'knelt upon the floor, aud; the .visitor, in a devout and: eloquent petition, invoked the aid and protection of the Almighty .in the : struggle in which the Republic is involved, Major; General George B. M‘Clel lan was Dr. Thomson's visitor. ; ■ '■ THE HUNTER’S SUNDAY REST. The Messrs, iHarper have just re-published, in elegant style and .jvith fine illustrations, an Eng lish work of travelsTentitled, Seasons with the Sea Horses, by James Lamont, F. G. S.'V As the author appeared to be mainly in pursuit of pleasure;, and had ‘but’ the brief. Arctic summer in which to seek it, we were not prepared to notice any marked recognition of a day of rest-in the ac count of his travels, still less to find a decided testimony to its practical value in the very cir cumstances of the voyagei He says in the begin ning of Chapter VI.: V Sunday, tbe 17th, .was calm, with heavy banks of fog hanging "about. , . . : Did not leave the ship, hut read morning service in the cabin. We never hunt on Sundays, although sometimes the appearance of a fat seal, or a troop of walruses floating past, is eminently tantalizing, andseverely tries our respect for. the fourth commandment. I am sorry to' say, that the greater part of the sealing vessels make no distinction between the seventh day and the rest of the week, although some of thein compromise with their consciences - by re fraining from searching for animals with the boats, merely attacking those which come in sight of the vessel. I must, leave: ,to theologians to' decide how far these men ,a)fe justified by the peculiar nature of their occupation in this entire or partial desecration of the Sabbath, but of one thing I am certain, and that is,'that they are no gainers by it in. the long run, for whether it was attributable to our energies, mental and bodily, being recruited by a aay of rest, or to the fact of the animals, the objects of pursuit, haying time to settle during twenty-four hours’respite from bullets and har poons, somehow Monday always was, with us, the most successful day of the week. Verily, a day of rest once a week is of essential importance to man and beast, even if on no other grounds than those of physical requirements. , We always considered Sunday to terminate punctually at midnight; in these regions it is just as light in July at midnight as midday, and it was a singular circumstance (might I not venture, without being deemed presumptuous, to suggest that this might be more than merely accidental ?) that we saw our first bear a few minutes after this Sunday had expired. RECEIPTS OF THE AMERICAN BOARD. The receipts fordone were.524,966.25 —=a1l do nations but $1,67,7 -6ft;, The total from August, 1860, to June 30th, 1861, is $282,968.51. The Herald announces that the financial year will be changed so as to close on the 31st of August. The Herald adds : V “This will give the patrons of the Board one month more for effort, this year, to prevent the necessity for reporting serious embarrassment in the condition of the treasury. But it must be re membered that the expenses of the Board will be going on during that time, while the added month (August,) is usually one of very small receipts. The obvious danger, therefore, is, that the financial condition which must be reported will be worse than if the year bad closed at'the usual time. Yet surely this need not be, and all will feel how undesirable it is that it sliould be. Will-all, pas tors and people, do what they can—as unto the Lord, and not unto man—to cause that it shall not be? CAN IT/'BE TRUE? We saw, a few dayw-ago, a letter from a volun teer in our army, who speaks of the chaplain of his regiment as a scandal to the sacred office. He rarely preached, and had been seen drunk, play ing cards, ,&e. At a recent engagement, he suf fered the regiment to march to the scene of dan ger and of duty, while he remained miles; away in camp. We know not the faets, but wb are in clined to believe,from the circumstances in which wg found the letter, that its statements are relia ble, and the lamentable story true. If so, the matter demands the attention of the military au thorities. It is quite as important that- the men be under good moral and religious influences, as that they be well fed dr well’handled in ah en gagement, Let each religious body to which the chaplains profess to belong,-be empowered to in quire into their standing, and report unworthy men to the Secretary of. War or the Coramander io-Cbief. DR. BRAINERD £T KNOX COLLEGE. A correspondent of the Chicago Presbyterian Recorder thus speaks of Dr. Brainerd’s recent ad dress at the Quarter-Century Celebration of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois : - 1 ‘ “ It was a perilous undertaking to stand up be fore a tired assembly, who had been sitting already three hours, and to attempt to hold them willing listeners stiil. Most men in such circumstances would have tailed. But the doctor, in his happy way, by affew well-told anecdotes, (and he seems to have one all fitted to the place, and adapted to every emergency, and no one can tell a story bet ter than he,) soon put his hearers in good humor— pleased wish him, with themselves, and with the world generally. i : Dr. Braincrd speaks like no other man. And this address was a good example of his many ex cellencies. It was fall of important thought, ar ranged in compact' argument, with apt apd forci ble illustrations, and then delivered in his easy and yet impressive manner.” A VOLUNTEER'S ADIEU. , :r;i N. Y.; Aug. 2h, 1861. Mb. Meaus: — DcarSir: Rant about leaving for the seat of war. I wish to settle all my affairs before going. I discover lam indebted to you for your paper. . Enclosed please find the amount, for which please.send- me; a receipt in full. ‘lf I should retufn.T-shall want it again; if not, rest assured one life has been given in de fence of our glorious flag. Yours fraternally, - —. PHOTOGRAPHS. ■ We call attention to_Messrs. Ministers’ adver tisement, in another column, of card photographs. Mr. Duffield’s likeness may he seen in ohr office. No ode need 1 be iwithout^tHeSe^hbice' memorials of,friends or of distinguished men. For tbe ArourJcan Presbyterian. COMMJ&ATI7E STATISTICS 0F XObIOK SCHOOLS. Many persons desire to know how the educa tional work of the’American Board compares with ftthefcoCnther,miBsionany-societies.-vEor:the,infor mation of,-such, the following,, statement has been l. if ;. ? | : ' 4 ‘ Tlie three societies mentioned below report the iWholeinumber of pupils in their schools, 5 of 1 every class, and the total expenditures in the fiscal year 1859—60, as follows; Board of Presbyterian'General Assembly (O. S ) - - - 4,524 $284,037 Baptist Missionary TJnion, - 2,678 96,214 Board of Episcopal Church, - 1,018 89,738 The. educational work of these institutions of the American Board, in respect to the number of pupils.taught as compared with their entire ex penditure, stands thus:— . , . . , ■ Pupils. Expenditures. The three societies named, - 8,220 $119,989 American Board (exclusive of Sandwich Islands,)- - 10,615 361,959 If we add to :the above the Board nf, the’Re formed Dutch Church, the foreign department of the. American Missionary Association, and the fo reign missions, excepting the South American and European, of the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society, the comparisons will be as follows: ' . ' Pupils. Expenditures. The six societies named (about,)' 9,800 $600,000 American Board, - 10,615 361,959 It appears from these figures that the. American Board has a : considerably jarger=number of pupils iu the schools of its mission, in proportion to its total expenditure, than any other foreign mission ary organization in this country report,—seventy nine p'er cent, more than the above-mentioned six societies when taken together. - , The reports ofsome of these sbeieties do not enable us to determine with exactness the compa rative number of pupils in the different grades of schools. ‘ It is ascertained, however, that in the missions of the Episcopal Board more of the ag gregate reported are in boarding-schools, than is the- proportion in the boarding-schools; and higher seminaries of the American-Board. The same, is true of the General Assembly’s Board, including schools in the Ihdian missions, for which aid is received from the U. S. Government ; but in the missions of that Board elsewhere, the-proportion falls a little below that in similar missions of the American Board. T.he proportion is doubtless smaller in other societies. Com paring the diffe rent objects of expenditure, the American Board is seen . to. be doing more proportionally in the educational department, than other American mis sionary organizations have been led to undertake in missions'beyond 5 sea. A tract has recently been issued from the Mis sionary House, giving an exposition of the educa tional work of the American Board, and the rea sons for certain-modifications of it which have been made from time to time in some of the missions. The writer makes this declaration: —“The educa tion in the missions under-the care of the Board, regarded as a whole, was never so effective, in a missionary point of view, never so valuable as at the present moment.” This is believed to be true, notwithstanding that, the number of pupils is smaller than in. former years. The changes which have been made, have resulted from, no un friendly feeling toward schools, ( but from a desire to make them more effective, and to secure a wise economy in the administration of funds. Curtail ments in this branch of missionary operations, im posed by a falling off in;the income of the Board, are deemed a calamity. W. » LETTER PROM BOSTON. Boston, July )6th, 1861. - Mb. Editor: —You may like to hear something from this “ Old Puritan” city, and, as some of your readers were originally from New England, it may be specially pleasing to them to know what is transpiring in these scenes of their youth. Allow me then to say, first, business is dull, very dull; never have I seen Boston so desolate. Ihave met man after man, who has said to me, “Did you know I had failed? Did you know I was in chancery?” Now, this is exceedingly trying. But the hand of God is in it. By it, He is saying, “Cease jefrom man.” Oh! that we would lay it to heart! . The schools of Boston are her glory. No where on the face of the earth will you find better schools, than in this good Old Pilgrim city. Last Saturday, T visited the Latin School. This school has existed from the early settlement of the city. In it have been trained many of the most prominent men of the country, in Church and State. Its reputation is good, and two hun ■dred lads and young men, are now enjoying its privileges. - Yesterday I visited “ The Boys’ High School.” This school takes the pupils from the gram mar schools, and gives them three years’ more training, in the higher branches. It was their exhibition. Had Jeff. Darn’s, and liis colleagues .been present, they would liave found them selves nearly annihilated. Their themes were such as these: “ The Pen and the Sword,” in which it was well stated that the pen now nerves the arm that Bears the sword. “Treason never Prospers,” in which this sen timent was shown to be true from Judas, the chief of Traitors, through Benedict Arnold, down to Jeff. Davis, and all his coadju tors. It brought down the house. The Bos ton boys, like the Philadelphian, are ~ a unit against the traitors. “Is Privateering justi fied by the laws of morality?” This was shown to be a violation of all moral law; and the rebels again camp in for their share. “ The Revolution of 1776, " and- the Rebellion of 1861.” The disparity between the former, and the latter was well displayed. These subjects show how the mind of this com munity is operating. There is but one mind on this rebellion,and its final result. . Boston, like Philadelphia, lias its places of amusement. I have visited the AquabiAl and Zooi.ogioad Gardens. This is something new. Indeed it has come up, within two or three years. It has in the lower department, a menagerie of wild animals, with all their appurtenances, with an edtieated-Seal; and educated beasts, and horses. In the next department above, it has abundance of fishes, and one live whale. One Wm. Putting, has opened this -aquariuih, and I judge he is making money from it; for, in these * 1 hard times,” there were some five hundred present, men, women and children. This whale is ah inhabitant of the Northern seas, and it is rarely found south of the mouth of the St. Lawrence. It is a white whale, and was called by Martens in his journey to Greenland and Spitsbergen, in 1671, wciss-fisch. He belongs to the class of mammalia, and not that of fishes., .It was a grand -Yankee achievement .to bring.alive..whalc.Rirce.hundred;miles, on; land, and then put it up in a large tub of water, where hundreds can go every day, and .see it swim and: spout, and sivallow small fish. When you?come “to Bdston, go tfhd see.it. . 1= , W:S«A ? HI>- MAGAZINES^ The Atlantic Monthly ia entering largely;, upon the issues of the day. Each numbercontains' ! several articles upon such topics as arc brought fJ&tftrfSgfewtO* 1 have bcllion, which arc generally treated in a luminous and*highly instructive manner.’ In the number for August, we notice “ Eibrilla,’’ an essay on the various materials now employed in the ‘manu facture of textile fabrics. “Jute” is a new ex port from India, and is now among the chief ex ports of the country. ; It is made from a fibrous plant which matures in.four months, and israised at one fifth of the cost of .cotton. It has been spld in:lndia as low as one cent a pound. . ,The average yield in fibre the acre is from fopr ,to seven hundred pounds. It is largely used in wool and cotton manufacture to' cheapen the ; fabric. Gunny cloth is made from the: refuse fibres. The writer urges the introduction of the culture of this plant in America. The proeess of cotton nizing flax, now going on in, Boston - , is referred to hopefully. ... Nat Turner’s’ Insurrection is the second Atlantic Monthly sketch of memo rable slave insurrections. The one here de scribed broke out -in Southampton Co., Vir ginia, one of the Southern tier of counties, near Norfolk,, in 1831. .We learn from this account the improbability of the negroes ever being able to organize a general and successful insurrection; but we also perceive what a dire and demoralizing panic their scattering, demonstra tions may create over vast regions of slave-holding country among a sparse white population, the Separated families of which are to a great extent at the mercy of their slaves. We are thus signi ficantly pointed to a rod, which we yet may be compelled to hold in terrorem over the rebels. . . Mail Glad Steamers follows up the article on the Increase of the Navy a month or two ago. Its suggestions deserve to be well considered. "While we write, the Committees of Conference in the Senate and House .are endeavoring to come to some understanding on the subject. The writer argues that for home-defence, and especially for service, against the rebels, iron-elad vessels are necessary; while for long voyages and convoys the lighter steamships of wood will answer. He com putes our wants in this line at six mail-clad steam frigates, twelve steam sloops of war, and twelve steam gun-boats similarly armed. Besides these, a dozen steam frigates and as many steam sloops of war, like the best now in serviee, built ,of wood, are needful to remove all solieitude as to foreign intervention in our domestic affairs. Our navy certainly requires enlargement and the adaptation of .the latest improvements, in that line should be insisted on at any cost.:. . . Where will the rebellion Leaye us? refers to the course, taken by the loyal men of Virginia, for a solu tion. When by such a course the proper rela tions and' functions of each State should be resumed, there would no longer be any mat-, ter of State pride to interfere with the abso lute assertion of national authority. The new State. Government would be protected against armed assailants at home and invasion from abroad; they would apply for and obtain assis tance to suppress domestic insurrection; every misguided insurgent would have opportunity to return to hi? duty under the protection of his own local authorities; appropriations for the army and navy could be passed with the aid of Tennessee and Alabama votes in Congress, and Davis and Tyler and Mason be hung upona verdict of a jury of the vicinage.’’ South Carolina would indeed be likely to give trouble. ‘‘ That fiery little Commonwealth is remarkably constituted! Tl# State is inhabited principally by negroes, and the remaining minority may be divided into two classes, whites who are dependent upon negroes for a subsistence, and whites whose chief distinc tion in life, and great consolation is (hat they are not negroes. . . . They seem now to be united, and : substantially unanimous. . What elements a -little adversity would develop .in them, time must de termine.” . . Theodore Winthrop’s unfinished contribution to the Atlantic, written on the day the fatal expedition to Great Bethel was planned, creates a keen regret at his early disappearance from the scene in which he took such an intense interest, and of which he had been and promised to be the most brilliant chronicler, the Russell of our war literature. We learn from the notes ac companying these sketches, that Winthrop came fairly by his brilliant endowments. His mother was the great grand-daughter of. old President Edwards, and among his ancestors on the maternal side, he could count seven Presidents of Yale. He was a man of pure Christian character, having been deterred from the study of the ministry by poor health. His scholarship at Yale College, where he was graduated in 1848, was brilliant and suc cessful. He was of a roving disposition, and tra velled over a large part of Europe, walking a: great part of the way. He had also visited Vancouver's Island, and the Hudson Bay settlement, besides the Pacific country generally. At one time he gave himself up for dying on the Plains, and was with Lieut. Strain’s Expedition to the Isthmus in 1854. He is described as possessing the Yankee “ knack of doing every thing.” The Knickerbocker: doffs its old-fashioned familiar blue tint, and assumes the rich orange of the English Gornhill. It is a much better tint for a magazine, hardier as well as brighter—-but many will miss the old tint by which at a glance they had long been accustomed to recognise : it. The pressure seems to have told somewhat on its dimensions. Its tone on the great crisis is clear and manly. “What,” asks one of its contribu tors, writing on this theme, “what is history, but the record of the gradual progress of Labor? . . . .Every.fresh strife bet ween. Conservatism and Pro gress has been a battle between Free Labor and Laziness. . . never yet did it assume so clearly mch a form as it has done in the contest between the United and the Confederate States of Ame rica.” We do not know but that this is the clearest presentation of the question at issue we have yet seen. Pupils. Expenditures. EDITOR’S TABLE. Phill? Thaxter, published by Messrs. Rudd & Carletoh, of New York, is a work of fiction by a new and anonymous author. It is a stirring book, thoroughly American in plot, characters and handling, the scene being laid in great part in California, when law had as yet but imperfectly extended its'sway over the larger portion of the country, and when Northern men were denounced ;as Yankees-and abolitionists—-as cowards, who .slunk from fight and.political strife, and only .asked to be .let alone to make money; when juries and courts, were extemporized, and mobs thirsting for blood were called upon to vote on the guilt or innocence of the prisoner— when gamblers and duellists; overawed the good and swayed the desti nies of the State. The work is intensely interesting, written in good'style, and with a healthful purpose. It • would prove anything hut palatable to persons of decidedly Southern tastes and prejudices; but in .this part, of- the country we expect it to have a good run, even in these times of financial trou ble. Por sale by J. 15. Lippiocott & Co. ‘ . The" American Trac*. Society has issued its Almanac eor 1862, in the well-known handsome style of that popular brochure. It totally ignores the great crisis in which wo are living; and the vast-questions which constitute the staple of every thinkiug. Wc would also advise those' who seek for accurate information as to Charitable and Religious Institutions, and especially those of cur own church,' not to suffer themselves io be misled by the information pretended to be- given bv the Society on_ these points. Pago 58 is, doubtless, stereotyped for perpetual use, and is not open for additions or corrections. . Vi cars, the beloved "Christian Captain. the faithful pljristlan friend., No recent uninspired books have done so much to cfuickeii 1 the‘interest'of the public* in the spifil tual welfare of the soldiers, or to teach soldiers Havelock, tHe intrepid Christian Genera] themselves howfo livea s Chrislian life and die a Christian death’, as the three memoirs here no ticed. . Our religions community! have read them with avidity and with great profit; and they have been specially welcomed in the army, and by those who have friends in the, army. Into this last .class,,.unhappily,.the breaking out of the rebellion has brought us all. There are none but wish to learff plow soldiers liye, and feel, and act, in the camp and’oh the battle-field; what they do and what they suffer; none who have not friends in "we desire. Ever one should have these invaluable memoirs both for home and forfr'eamp. and hospital use. Ti le editions just published by the American Tract So ciety, and for sale.by H. N. Thissell, 929 Chest nut St., are admirable-abridgments of the larger works; and are not only included in the “ Camp Library” for soldeirs, but issued separately for ge neral circulation. v Messrs. ''Haupf.r & Brothers, of New York, display an unwonted degree of enterprise in the present depressed state of business generally. In books of travel they have just issued: Carthage and her Remains, au ; octavo of 540 pages, with maps and a number of en gravings on wood and copper—the latter quite indifferent in character. It is an aeeonnt of the excavations and researches of an English anti quarian, I)r. N. Davis, on the site o'f the re nowned Phenician metropolis, and other adja cent places. These researches were highly suc cessful, and brought to light some of the finest and best-preserved colored mosaics in existence, which were transported to London, besides other remains of the most extensive character. The volume, besides describing particularly the diffi culties overcome by the persevering traveller, enters fully into the history, the poetry; the my thology, and the scriptural relations of the scenes be visited, forming a complete eompend of information upon the subject. While Dr. Da vis has the faculty, not uncommon in this class of travellers, of gathering up and interweaving a multitude of details sometimes irrelevant, and thus uselessly incumbering his book, on the whole, the general reader will feel indebted to him for bringing together a-mass of matter on an unfamiliar, yet important topic, and for making his discoveries the basis of a complete manual of Carthaginian Antiquities. Seasons with the Sea. Horses is another octavo, of travel, with the object of excitement and “sport,” yet on a scene so novel, that much instruction, as to the natural history of the re gion, is necessarily communicated in what claims to be little more than a sportsman’s jonrnal. The writer is James Lamont, an Englishman or Scotchman, of means and leisure, who spent a summer in the sea around Spitsbergen, and the northern coast of Norway, hunting seals and walruses (sea horses) occasionally turning aside to the polar bear and other land game of that region. Many of the encounters described are of thrilling interest. Mr. Lamont and his par ty did not destroy God’s creatnres'for the sa vage pleasure which some appear to take in such a work, but "Kept an eye to the commercial bearings of their voyage, interspersing the ro mance of the hunt with the very practical and disagreeable business of stowing away blubber. The wanton destruction of animal life in those regions Is described as fearful and scandalous to the higher creature by whom it is practised. Mr. Lamont gives decided testimony to the va lue of temperance principles, in the severe and perilous labors of the fishermen, and corrobo rates the testimony of Arctic explorers to the superior virtues of tea or coffee over alcoholic stimulants, in supporting the system against the effects of extreme cold. Still more inte resting is his testimony to the value of the Sab bath as a day of rest, and the consequent entire cessation from labor, observed on that day by himself and crew. We deem his words of suffi cient importance, as a new testimony, to. quote in another column. .Thre?jncw volnmes of Harper’s Greek and Latin Texts, with their flexible covers, admi rable typography and paper, and careful revi sion by recent English scholars, will be cordially welcome. They are Cajsar’s Commentaries, by Geo. Long. Cicero 1 de Seneotute, de Amioitla and se lect letters; by the same. Lucretius de Rerum NaturA, by H. A. J. Munro. Price 40 cents each: The same publishers give ns another of Jacob Abbott’s Historical Tales for young people. The heroine is Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Edward 6th of England. .It is beautifully and profusely illustrated, and will be gladly re ceived by the numerous readers’ of the series. Phi mart Object Lessons, by IST. A. Cal kins, published byHarper &' Brothers, is a manual of instruction for teachers and parents on the Pestalozzian plan of education, by ques tioning, as if the literal drawing out of the child’s mind by responses to interrogatories were the essential matter in education. A child’s ideas and faculties, of course, must be roused, but this is done by stimulus which may be administered > in the form of assertion, quite as effectually as by interrogation. . We do not believe that it will be to .the advantage of the child, as a general thing, to withhold from it the sources of instruction and discipline found in books, during the entire three , years in which this course of instruction is proposed to be fol lowed out. . This is what, Mr. Galkins expects ns to do. There is this truth iu the book and in the Pestalozzian system on which it is based; viz that the child’s ednc.ation is not accom plished by a severe and*indiscnminate course of cramming, but the cure must not be sought by going tof a.contrary extreme. Teachers who desire to guard against the first error will find the book profitable as a corrective. * Pramley Parsonage, by Anthony Trollope. Tom Brown at Oxford, part 2d and last. The above publications of the Harpers may be had of Messrs. J. B. Lippincott & Co. Poems'by Mrs. Vihginia Qttabi.es. There is much that is truly poetical in this dainty vo lume. The authoress wields the simple Faxon of our toDgue effectively, and her verses more easily along. is much tender §race, an inclination to Pope’s melancholy rbymingdtera tion, and a general preference for themes of a soberer cast. There is an invocation of de ceased friends, which reads more like Popish saint-worship, than the apostrophe of strong poetic feeling. The frequent -appeals to the “Virgin ” confirm usinthebelief of the Popish origin of the work. , - Published by Rudd & Carlbton, New York. Por sale by J. B. Lipplncoit & Co., Phila. Mr. Wm. S Young, 1023 Race St., has is sued the F ourth. Edition of The True I’salm ooy, or the Bibie Psalms the Church’s only Ma nual of Praise.- ; Tfiis popular little work is to vindicate the strictness of those bodies of Christians which reject all merely human composition in their services of song. T “ ei J , anxi °us .scrupulosi ty on this subject is painful to-ns, .especially when it leads them to the use of a 1 work so loaded down with human blemishes and-so unworthy the majesty and po ptic beauty of the inspired original, as Rouse’s Version of the. Psalms. If they would restrict themselves to chanting the Psalms as they stand in our noble prose version, we could sympathize and join with them. ! We cordially agree in their laudatiom of the Book of Psalms as a ma nual of devotional poetry. The .same publisher has issued the Third Edition of Rev. P. B. Chamberlain’s Seb mon ox Secret Societies. The au thor is pas tor of the Pirst 'Corigregational Church, in Portland, Oregon. The work is distributed gratuitously to clergymen. Tr. Act Society have issued hiMiLY And-her-IJncle Uanse, by the author ?of Amymnduher brothers, the Blue Flag, &c ' V«r ypung readers liave had a taste of the qua lity of this author, and will'need no urging to cultivate'a further acquaintance. For sale by H. N. Thissell, 929 Chestnut St. .. Aug. 8,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers