Miss Wagner, Brighton, and a Friend by her, 100 Prayer-books.

Rev. H. V. Elliott, of St. Mary's, Brighton, Books of the Religious Tract Society, to the value of £10.

Mr. Hamilton, Paternoster-row, two Sets of Cottage Sermons, by Rev. Charles Davy, 4 vols. each, and other useful Books. Religious Tract Society, a grant of Tracts, value £2.

From the Hon. Lady Grey, Sir Thomas Blomefield, Bart., Mrs. West, and Capt. and Mrs. Young, Donations were received in Money, which was expended in Spelling-books, other Books, Spectacles, &c., according to account already rendered.

After the statements made in the foregoing pages, it is unnecessary for me to add many words in reference to the amount of good actually or apparently accomplished, through the Divine blessing, during our voyage. The whole of the prisoners who landed in the colony were, with one exception, capable of reading the Holy Scriptures; 187 of whom could not read at all, and 77 only imperfectly, when they came on board. With two exceptions they all landed in the possession of a Bible or Testament, and other valuable and instructive books; and most of them received also a Prayer-book.

Even those who gave no decided evidence that they had received the truth in the love of it, received, nevertheless, no inconsiderable benefit from the system of instruction and discipline followed out during the voyage. All were, more or

less, instructed in the knowledge of the true God -His word, His works, and His providence; all had felt the influence of an intellectual and moral system of government and discipline. They had all received instruction calculated to fit them for answering the grand end of their existence; to qualify them for discharging all their personal and relative duties; and to prepare them for participating in the purest and most ennobling enjoyments; and though they may have hitherto, in their unbelief, put away from them the salvation of the gospel, and thus aggravated their guilt and increased their danger, yet the instruction they have received on board may still, through grace, at some future time, either in health or sickness, be made effectual to their conversion to God.

The great body of the prisoners gave unequivocal evidence of improvement, both intellectual and moral. Their behaviour towards each other and towards all on board, was in a high degree satisfactory. Nearly all of them had, in some degree, acquired a habit of application, and the love of useful knowledge. They became thoughtful, learned to command their temper, to be obliging and courteous, and, generally speaking, conducted themselves in a manner that would have done credit to any portion of the labouring community of England. With scarcely an exception, their conversation was remarkably correct and manly; only on one or two occasions, during the whole of the period they were on board, did I hear an improper expression

proceed from their lips and I hesitate not to say, that I should rejoice to observe every little community of men, whether at sea or on shore, characterized by a corresponding tone of decorum.

With reference to those men, [114 in number,] whose enmity to the gospel appeared to have been subdued-who professed to take up the cross and to follow Christ, and whose temper and conduct, conversation, tastes, and habits, while on board, tallied with their profession; we dare not doubt their convictions of sin, their persuasion that in the Lord Jesus alone they have pardon and life; that they derived peace and consolation from the truth which they appeared to believe, and that by that truth their spirit and conduct were influenced; but to which of the classes specified in the 13th chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel they positively belonged, it is not for us to say: "They shall be known by their fruit."

They had no encouragement to act the part of the hypocrite; quite the reverse. Of such unworthy and perilous conduct they were constantly warned to beware, and were faithfully shown that the course of the hypocrite only involves him in greater guilt and wretchedness, and that his hope must perish for ever!

But whatever may be said of the sincerity or insincerity of any of the prisoners, in their profession of faith in Christ, and of obedience to him, they must stand by the decision of their lives, and of the great day.

Here it ought to be stated that I never report a prisoner as a reformed character, unless his spirit and conduct, and apparent experience of the power of Divine truth, are found to correspond, as far as can be perceived, with the records and requirements of the sacred Scriptures. And I would add, that were the temper and behaviour of some people, esteemed respectable, who make a great profession of Christianity, and are regarded by many as being Christians, to be transferred to one of my convicts, that convict I could not conscientiously report as being a reformed man.

We can now only leave them in the Lord's hands, bear them on our hearts at the throne of Divine mercy, implore the great Shepherd of the sheep to take care of them, and to raise up spiritual and faithful men, who will, by scriptural teaching, and consistent and holy example, prove instrumental in leading them into a closer and more influential acquaintance with the blessed Saviour, and contribute to their preservation in the cheerful and habitual obedience of faith and love. When we commend to God's fatherly goodness "all those who are anyways afflicted or distressed, in mind, body, or estate ;" and when we implore the Lord "to show his pity upon all prisoners and captives;" let us have a special regard for all despised and unhappy convicts, whether men or women; who should ever be the subjects of the most earnest and believing prayer.

It has been hinted that the prisoners, on debark

ing from the Earl Grey, were placed in circumstances most unfavourable to the furtherance of their moral and spiritual improvement.

The Probation system which has been for several years in operation in Tasmania, places convicts in masses of from 300 to 400 or more. And when we remember the lamentable paucity of faithful labourers in the gospel, that continues to be a prominent feature in the character of our penal colonies; when we keep in view the extreme difficulty, if not impossibility, of obtaining pious and suitable men to fill responsible situations at probation stations; the character and habits of a vast majority of convicts, and their corrupting influence, when not placed under an efficient system of scriptural instruction and moral discipline; we shall not be surprised if we hear that many of the prisoners by the Earl Grey, even of those who appeared to have been reformed, have been again seduced for a time into sin, and subjected to punishment. Yet the Lord will search out his own people and recover them from their wanderings: and though they will thereby have pierced themselves through with many sorrows, he will yet restore them to walk in the path of holiness and peace.

We would say then, that the amount of positive and lasting good accomplished by the word and Spirit of God in the Earl Grey, cannot be fully known until "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming