tice of this valuable work. There are some points of minor importance, that we might mention, on which we do not entirely coincide with the author's views, and some others, in regard to which we are doubtful whether he has correctly stated the whole truth. But on the whole, as we have said, we consider the work as greatly superiour to any of the books hitherto in use for academical instruction.

ART. III. LETTER ON COLONIZATION.

From Rev. ALEXANDER PROUDFIT, D. D. Secretary of the New-York Young Men's Colonization Society.

To the editor of the Lit. and Theol. Review.

VERY RESPECTED FRIEND,

WHEN any question in science, or politics, or religion, is agitating the public mind, it is the privilege of every citizen, as opportunity offers, to communicate his own views; and, if these are correct, the honest enquirer after truth may be brought to a proper conclusion, the wavering may be confirmed, those who have erred in opinion may be reclaimed, the objections of the caviling may be silenced, and the great interests of society advanced. There is perhaps no question at present of deeper solicitude to the American community, to the patriot, or philanthropist, or Christian, than the interests of our coloured population, and the most eligible mode of promoting them. We all sympathize with them in their present degraded condition; we are all anxious to elevate their intellectual and moral character; but, among their professed friends, it is the great and embarrassing question, by what means this object may be attempted with the greatest probability of success? As I am associated with those who prefer restoring them to the country of their fathers, I will therefore, through the medium of your valuable periodical, give a very cursory view of the history of colonization, in different periods of time, and afterwards contemplate the advantages which would probably result to the coloured people among ourselves, and ultimately to the nations of Africa, by reinstating them, with their own consent, in the homes of their ancestors.

It is obvious from history, both civil and ecclesiastical, that the custom of colonizing is almost coeval with. the creation of the world, and is intimately interwoven with the progress of society in every age. Soon after men began to multiply upon the face of the earth, we find different families forming themselves into little groups or associations, and, as adventurers, going abroad into some foreign region for the purpose of promoting their interests by agricultural, or commercial, or other occupations: and it has been noticed by naturalists, that as the animal tribes are frequently improved by a change of local situation, transitions of this nature tend equally to the benefit of man; that by a change of soil, of climate, of the mode of living, and of other associations the health of the emigrants is promoted, the period of human life is protracted, and other motives for enterprize are presented, which conduce to the greater expansion and improvement of the human mind. By indulging this propensity for migrating from country to country, the various members of the great human family are brought moreimmediately into contact, and become acquainted with each other; the bond of union among the different kindreds of the earth is strengthened; man is led to feel more intimately related to man, and the consideration that we belong to a particular country or tribe is merged in the more generous reflection that the world is our home, that all kindreds are our brethren, and rising superiour to sectional considerations, we feel obligated to advance the interests of the whole. Í have remarked that this transition, from one country to another frequently conduces to the improvement of health, and to protract the period of human life; and this fact is confirmed by the history of our own ancestors. Our fathers, who emigrated to this continent from the old world, have probably enjoyed more health, and in many instances have lived to a greater age than their cotemporaries whom they left in their native country.

The history of the world, during a period of four thousand years, consists, in no inconsiderable degree, of a history of colonizing; of tribes removing from one region to another, actuated by motives of avarice, or ambition, or inspired with a hope of improving their condition, religious or civil. Thus we find a colony of Phenicians, at an early period, leaving Asia, their native residence, pushing their adventures into Africa, under the auspices of Dido their princess, founding the city of Carthage, and soon becoming competitors with

Rome, the mistress of the world. We find the offspring of Abraham colonizing from Canaan to Egypt with Jacob their father, and after the lapse of four hundred years, by the divine direction and with Moses their commander, returning as a colony from Egypt to Canaan. And immediately after the discovery of this continent by Columbus, in the fifteenth century, we find some from almost every kingdom in Europe associating together, and as colonists seeking an asylum in the new world, and in various instances this migratory spirit has been overruled for advantages the most important both to the church and society. The Jewish nation amidst all their wanderings, from the exit of Abraham their ancestor out of Urr of the Chaldees, until their tribes, "multiplied as the stars of heaven," obtained the possession of the promised inheritance, were a "light shining in this benighted world;" they were honoured during a period of more than fifteen hundred years to be the repository of divine truth, diffusing the knowledge of the living God among the nations with whom they sojourned. And who can conceive the benign results to individual happiness, to the improvement of civil society, to the extension of the Christian church, and to the illustration of the rights of man which have been already produced, and will probably through all coming ages be produced, by the enterprize of our pilgrim fathers who came, as colonists, to this western continent? They have introduced a new era in the civil history of our world; they have opened an asylum for the reception and repose of the oppressed from every nation; they have exhibited in a new light the doctrine of the rights of man, and formed a civil constitution which, if preserved by us their offspring, will probably be imitated as a model of free government by other kindreds to the end of time.

But in the whole history of colonization, through all preceding ages, there is perhaps not a solitary instance in which the experiment has incurred less expense, has experienced less disaster, has been less accompanied with the sacrifice of human life, and few which under the continued smiles of a benignant Providence promise more extensive or lasting advantages, than the colonies planted by American philanthropists on the margin of Africa. Although the Jewish nation emigrated from Egypt by the immediate command of Heaven, and had "the pillar of cloud and of fire," the pledge of the Divine presence, to direct them in their journeyings, yet their VOL. II.

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history is little else than a history of disaster, of disappointment, and suffering. So grievously were they tried by Pharaoh, at the Red sea, at the waters of Mara, by fiery serpents, by the invasion of the Amalakites, and other enemies, that they "murmured against Moses and against God, asking if there were no graves in Egypt, that they were brought to die in the wilderness;" and of the many thousands who departed "from this their house of bondage," two only survived to reach the land of promise. And all who are acquainted with the origin of the first settlements in this country will acknowledge, that the discouragements hitherto experienced by the Colonization Society, in its benevolent designs, scarcely admit of a comparison with the appalling difficulties encountered by our fathers who, as pioneers, first penetrated the forests of America. "The colony planted at Jamestown, Virginia, in May, 1607, consisted of a hundred persons, and before September of that year was reduced to fifty, and soon after to thirty-eight, when it was reinforced by the arrival of one hundred and twenty. In 1609 a farther addition of one hundred persons was made, and the colony then amounted to five hundred souls, but by imprudence, extravagance, and dissipation they were reduced in six months to sixty persons. In 1611 the colony had increased to two hundred. In 1622 it had become still more populous, when it was at tacked by the Indians, and three hundred and forty-seven men, women, and children, were cut off. About one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling had been expended in planting the colony, and more than nine thousand persons had been sent from England; and yet at the expiration of seventeen years it consisted of one thousand and eight hundred persons; while on the coast of Africa, with no governmental patronage and without royal smiles or favour, against wind and tide, against scorn and prejudice, in thirteen years, there are connected with the colonies about four thousand souls."

Probably there has rarely appeared in our world a generation more self-denied and holy; more solicitous to preserve the purity and promote the prosperity of Zion, than the Puritans who first touched the shores of this continent on the rock at Plymouth; and how appalling in their nature and rapid in succession were the difficulties which they were called to endure? Wave of adversity after wave met their little bark, and threatened to overwhelm them at every move

ment in the execution of their enterprize. Obstacles, insurmountable to the eye of sense, were thrown in their way by the hand of heaven and of earth, as they attempted to retire from England to Holland, afterwards at their embarkation for this country, during their voyage over the Atlantic, and after they reached the shores of America. Many of them died by disease, others fell sacrifices to the severity of the climate, others perished with hunger, and others were cut off by the relentless hand of the savage. They were men of no ordinary resolution, and destined by divine Providence for the execution of no ordinary purposes, or their faith must have failed amidst trials so complicated and long continued. Preferring "the flesh pots of Egypt" to a grave in the desert, they must have abandoned their undertaking, and returned to their native country.

I therefore repeat the assertion, without the apprehension of being charged with extravagance, by any who are acquainted with the history of colonization, either in ancient or modern times, that all the discouragements experienced by us in relation to the colonies in Africa scarcely admit of a comparison with any similar attempt recorded in the annals of the world. And if we can ascertain the favour of God by the smiles of his providence, we may conclude that our purpose has been accepted of him, and has received his benediction. And if our motives are pure, and our measures are pursued with prudence, and patience, and perseverance, why need we doubt of success in the issue? The object of the Society is to relieve the oppressed; and will not this design meet the approbation of Him "whose tender mercies are over all his works;" who has commanded us to "undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free?" Through these colonies, as a moral light-house erected on the shores of Africa, we wish to pour the radiance of divine truth on her benighted population, and bring another portion of our globe within the sphere of the "Sun of Righteousness;" and can this design fail to enjoy the favour of HIM who has "sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world; to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and for salvation to the ENDS of the earth."

In a recent communication, I represented the condition of the colonies in their spiritual aspect; the large proportion of them who have come out of the world by a visible profession of religion, and their uniformly exemplary