living,―the welfare of all my dear friends and relations?-are all questions I should propose, and are important; but my great concern is to know as to the health of your precious and immortal soul. The love of Christ is to the humble penitent the never-failing source of true comfort. Nothing else but the Gospel of Christ received into the heart by faith can give us a happiness that will remain uninjured by all the changing scenes of this changing life-that will enable us to rise above the trials and troubles of this world. This happiness only is built on the true Foundation, and it will abide for ever. It will not deceive us nor desert us in the time of need. Blessed be

God! I find it so. I trust you do; I cannot wish you a greater blessing. It will grow and abound as we grow and abound in the fruits of the Spirit, in love to the Saviour, and preparation for his kingdom. In difficulties and distresses this source of happiness will be our refuge and consolation, will outlive the ruins of a dissolving world, and our happiness will flourish through eternal ages. However tried, persecuted, afflicted, tormented, we may be, if our souls are under the protection of Jesus, nothing can hurt them. His peace, you know, my dear, is not to be destroyed by the varying circumstances of life. Peace reigns in the heart, where the powers of man cannot reach; it cannot fail us, it is fixed on the Rock of Ages, and will last for ever. How it is with you I know not, but I find my heart unwilling to believe that God

hath done and can do, in the dispensations of his grace, such great things for sinners. I feel that I am greatly ignorant of the freeness and fulness of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I am not made perfect in that love which casteth out all fear, and is the only source of true and abiding happiness in the soul. To my deep regret (and I attribute my downfal to this cause), I have not been diligent in the use of all the means of grace, especially watchfulness and prayer, and have been wisely permitted to feel and to suffer the sure consequences of my own conduct.

"Once more,-it may be for the last time,-let me entreat all who profess to believe in, and follow Christ, to value private and public means of grace. Though there is an inexhaustible fulness of grace and blessing treasured up in Christ for all who hunger and thirst after righteousness, yet we often, like Hagar in the wilderness, sit weeping near the well of consolation, and will not lift up our eyes to see, nor raise our hands to receive from the Fountain of Life, the waters of comfort, to the joy and refreshing of our souls. Let us not do so foolishly, but be active and diligent in the service of him whose we profess to be, and whom we serve. Let us endeavour, having no confidence but in Christ, his Spirit and grace, to do all the good we can to our fellow-men, bearing in mind the evil we have done in the world, and our obligations to him who has saved us from hell by his blood. May you, dear, draw from him by faith, who is

the Fount of every blessing, daily supplies; and the water he will give you shall be in you a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life. So prays your truly affectionate,

It is impossible to tell with what trying severity transportation as a punishment for crime-though rendered, by Divine grace, subservient to the advancement of the soul's spiritual and everlasting welfare,―operates on all convicts, and especially upon such men as the writer of the above letter; —a letter which is calculated at once to show us the power of vital Christianity, to sustain the mind and the heart under such an overwhelming and agonizing chastisement; and to warn every man and woman in Great Britain and Ireland, against violating, in any way, the laws of the land, and thus voluntarily subjecting themselves to a punishment so terrible, so likely, in ordinary circumstances, to prove disastrous to the soul, and which is, in every respect, to be regarded with so much dread!

APPENDIX

TO THE

SECOND EDITION OF THE "CONVICT SHIP."

MANY enquiries have been made respecting the conduct, in the colony, of those prisoners who appeared to have received Christ, and to have dedicated themselves to him, before they debarked from the transport. Of the men who arrived by the Earl Grey, I received when last at Hobart Town, after they had been two years and a half in the colony, the most pleasing reports. Several of them, including two who were most active and useful during the voyage, I saw, and was delighted with their apparent steadfastness in the faith and obedience of the gospel; moreover several of those men who did not appear, while on board, to have been deeply impressed by Divine truth, were credibly reported to me as having turned to the Lord since they landed, or rather since they had been emancipated from the baneful influence of the probation gang. It was the intention of the late Comptroller-General, Captain Forster, to supply me with a list of my men, exhibiting their colonial character as it stood in his books; but that officer was removed by death before his intention was accomplished. Those who understand the nature of such official reports, know that they can but imperfectly assist us, in forming a just estimate of the moral principles and character of the men to whom they refer.

By a minister of Christ it was lately testified to me, on his own knowledge, that one of my men by the Elphinstone, a shepherd by occupation, had walked most consistently according to the spirit and precepts of the gospel, for a period of three years and a-half prior to the date of his communication, and, that in the district in which his lot was cast, he was known amongst the people as the "Good shepherd;" a designation which they had derived from his occupation and Christian character.

The subjoined extracts from a letter of one of my men, by the Earl Grey, after he had, with five of his shipmates, been for some months stationed up the country, shows the satisfactory tone of his mind, and proves, along with other evidence which I received, that he had so far stood the test of close contact with unreformed convicts of the most wretched and debased character:

"Honored Sir,-. We often speak of your exertions, and hope that they will not be like water poured out upon the rock, which softeneth not, nor can be gathered again; but that being watered by the grace of God, they may bring forth fruit, even the salvation of each of our souls. As we feel the advantages derived from your affectionate addresses and instruction, so we earnestly recommend you to his care whose mercy was never solicited by the prayer of faith in vain.

I have just heard that we may have the delight of seeing you within fourteen days. This is cheering, for two reasons: first, your recovery; and, in the second place, the pleasure of seeing and hearing from the lips of a devoted friend, the gladdening sounds of salvation, and the way of life pointed out even to the veriest

sinner.

"I said our superintendent was civil;_and almost any manual labour to which I may be put I can perform as well as many, and it shall be my care, whether in his presence or absence, to do my duty to my sovereign and my country, as unto my Lord and Saviour, who shall be my witness.......