The Children's Corner. SAILOR BOYS.-Boys who live in towns or villages where there are no boats or ships, can have no proper notion of what lads on board of ship have to endure, and to what dangers they are exposed. They have a sad life of it you may depend on it, both from master and men. For they are made to do anything and everything that comes in the way. A sailor boy is expected to "look alive," as they call it, and be as nimble as a cat or a monkey in climbing the rattlings, which are ladders made of ropes, to the top of the masts; and where there are no rattlings, to swarm up the ropes; or hang over the yardarms with his arms and breast, and nothing for his feet but a single loose rope. Only think of that on a dark, cold, snowy, frosty, night! One would wonder how he could keep his hold of the slippery ropes and yards. But he must go, for if he "skulks," as they call it, they would chase him up to the top with a rope end. Ah! many a poor lad, after such a night, when his turn comes to go down below, wishes, when he has tumbled into his hammock, that he was at home with his mother who took such care of him, and thinks how silly he was to wish to be a sailor boy, and wear blue jacket and trowsers, and a glazed hat, and go to sea to see foreign countries. He finds out now that a sailor's life is not always sunshine and fair breezes and nice riding in a ship. So it is that some lads are cheated by such things. Well: we must have sailors we know; but little boys should not be tempted to go, for if they do they will repent. Young men should go who bave strength and courage to endure the dangers of a sailor's life. These are the most likely to succeed in such perilous undertakings. There is no harm in being a sailor; but the harm is in running away to be one, and in going before a boy is old enough to do such dangerous work. THE QUEEN AND THE SLAVE-MISSIONARY. ABOUT twelve years ago, an intelligent native African of the Yoruba country-who had been instructed by the Church of England missionaries in his own land-visited this country; when his piety and talents secured for him so much esteem and approbation that, after receiving further instruction in England, the Bishop of London ordained him in 1843. He had taken the name of a pious clergyman-Samuel Crowther, and after a time returned to his own country; for the Africans are always distinguished by an ardent attachment to the land of their fathers, and he was anxious to do all the good he could among his own countrymen by preaching the good news of salvation for man by Jesus Christ our Lord. The following letter from a christian lady in Bath, to a chaplain on the Bombay establishment, relates to a second visit of Mr. Crowther to England in 1851, and details the particulars of an interview between this remarkable man and Queen Victoria, the circumstances of which do honour alike to the African missionary and to the English Queen. We will premise, however, another anecdote of Crowther, not less honourable to the parties concerned, one of whom is the present much-respected commander-in-chief of the Indian navy. Sir Henry (then Captain) Leeke was first officer of a British cruiser which had the good fortune to capture a slave-vessel, and restore its miserable cargo to light and liberty. Among the slaves thus rescued, was one, a boy, whose frank intelligent countenance attracted the notice of the English captain, who caused him to be washed and dressed, and gave him access to his private cabin. Such was the beginning of Samuel Crowther's fortunes, and such his first introduction to the society of white men. From the hour when Captain Leeke landed his liberated cargo on the shore of the British colony of Sierra Leone, the poor slave-boy and his deliverer never met again until they met in 1851, in the Church Missionary House, Salisbury Square, London! Crowther had made much inquiry and many efforts to find out his benefactor at the time of his former visit to England, but in vain. On this latter occasion he went down, after they met, to Sir Henry's place in the country, and had the happiness of preaching the gospel, on the following Sunday, to the very young ladies with whom as children he had been permitted to No. 83. 49 THE QUEEN AND THE SLAVE-MISSIONARY. "B play, as a rescued slave-boy, in their father's cabin. On his return to London he expressed himself as now without an unfulfilled desire. He had previously in the same week seen the Queen, and to this the following letter particularly refers. 18th December, 1851. My dear Mr. FI often think of your missionary meetings, and in connection with them send you a little notice of the Rev. Samuel Crowther, once a liberated slave at Sierra Leone, now a minister of our beloved church. I am aware you are well acquainted with his name, his capture as a boy, his sale as a slave, his deliverance, his education at Sierra Leone, his acting as a catechist, his finding his mother and her becoming a christian, and his studying in the Church Missionary College at Islington, his having been ordained a few years since by the Bishop of London. I now only refer to his present visit of the last three months to England, with his wife and son (a remarkably fine young man), and the deep interest he has excited for the Church Missionary Society's work in Africa. He comes as her 'Epistle,' preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ, and the wonders of God's grace to his countrymen. Mr. Crowther was in B. last week, and preached at St. M- -'s church. My brother A- T- curate of St. M-'s, was deeply touched and gratified, and had much intercourse with him. About ten clergymen heard him preach, and returned thanks to God, and praised his holy name. Mr. Crowther, in private, related a visit he had just paid to the Queen, which I now repeat, that prayers may be made for her who really does seem to make the religious interests of her people an object. Mr. Crowther was at a church missionary meeting at Windsor. After the meeting, Lord Wriothesly Russell (brother to Lord John, a pious clergyman, and a member of the Evangelical Alliance), told him that her Majesty wished to see him at Windsor Castle. When at the palace, he met one of the ladies in waiting who was a collector for the Church Missionary Society, and who addressed herself to him as such, and as one deeply interested in the progress of the society, and anxious to shake hands with him as her brother in the Lord. He then passed on to a room in which was Prince Albert, who immediately addressed him most kindly; and they were deep in conversation on missionary subjects when a lady walked in and joined in the conversation. Mr. Crowther taking it for granted it was the lady he had met in the ante-chamber before, THE QUEEN AND THE SLAVE-MISSIONARY. took no particular notice of her, further than continuing in most earnest discourse, pointing out places on the map, and describing the various stations. At length Lord W. Russell said something apart to make Mr. Crowther aware that he was speaking to the Queen of England. He was a good deal abashed, both at the presence of royalty and the honour conferred upon him. In the gentlest, sweetest manner, (like a most loving mother to her people) her Majesty set him quite at his ease, and continued her close inquiries on subjects connected with the Church Missionary Society, and Sierra Leone. They had not quite light enough at the table where the maps were spread out, and the Queen fetched a light from another table, which Mr. Crowther, in turning over the leaves of the atlas, put out, to his great distress; but the Queen (evidently not wishing the delay and interruption of calling a servant) immediately lighted it herself, and continued the conversation, asking many questions about the African missions. My brother asked Mr. Crowther what sort of questions the Queen asked. He replied, 'A devoted lady-collector could not have asked closer questions on the spiritual wants of the people, and the working of the missions.' Her Majesty also inquired about the appointment of a bishop, and the suitableness of Mr. Vidal, recently nominated. In giving his very decided testimony to their need of an overseer, and the peculiar fitness of the bishop-designate, Mr. Crowther particularised his wonderful knowledge of languages, whereupon her Majesty turned to the Prince and said with a smile, 'Ah, Albert, you see there are other good linguists besides Germans!' I need hardly say that Mr. Crowther was much encouraged by this interview. To my mind, it is a call for all her christian subjects to pray with one accord for the Queen, that in her faith may be revealed to faith, and grace added to grace.' J. T. Some of our readers may be inclined to fear lest Crowther should himself be injured by the many and extraordinary attentions shown him, and they will therefore rejoice to hear his own opinion about it. He said to a christian friend; "When I receive all this favour, and these great attentions, I feel like a little boy with a man's hat thrust upon his head. A simple but striking image of conscious disproportion,-a modest mind overwhelmed and lost in what it judges unbefitting praise. We will now add one or two particulars relative to the West Africa Mission, which, we trust, will be perused with interest. And First, it is pleasing to know that the immediate THE QUEEN AND THE SLAVE-MISSIONARY. result of Samuel Crowther's interview with our 66 most religious and gracious Queen," was a donation of £100 from her Majesty and H. R. H. Prince Albert to the Sierra Leone Bishopric Fund. Secondly, the Rev. O. E. Vidal has been consecrated first bishop of Sierra Leone, and is now on his way out to the scene of those labours, for which, unknown to himself, God has for years been fitting him. Thirdly,- -we need not remind our readers of the attack made in March, 1851, upon the people of Abbeokuta, by the powerful king of Dahomey and his Amazon troops, and of the signal defeat and repulse of the invading army. The readers of the late Captain Forbes's "Dahomey and the Dahomans" will rejoice in the following paragraph from her Majesty's speech at the prorogation of Parliament on 1st July: "Treaties have been concluded by my naval commanders with the King of Dahomey, and all the African chiefs, whose rule extends along the Bight of Benin, for the total abolition of the slave-trade, which is at present wholly suppressed upon that coast." Thus, in the good providence of God, has the slave-trade furnished the materials for its own suppression. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain.' means The above pleasing narrative is from the Overland Christian Spectator." This is an illustration of what that scripture 66 Queens shall be nursing mothers." In this way kings and queens can help on the good cause of religion in the world. And when they act as our beloved Queen and the Prince did to the slave-missionary, all good people will approve their conduct. Not in this way did Queen Mary act, who sanctioned the burning of her Protestant subjects because they were not of her religion—and not in this way did Queen Elizabeth act, who refused to prevent the burning of the Dutch baptists in Smithfield! Blessings on the head of our own beloved Queen! May God long preserve her to reign over us in peace and righteousness. And let us also from our inmost souls pray in the language of the poet "Smile, Lord, on each divine attempt Oh, when shall Afric's sable sons, Bow down at our Immanuel's feet, |