And the foreign ships trading with Great Britain, have, in these states, increased during the same period as follows: The increase of shipping in the colonies has, in the meanwhile, increased at such a rate as to form some compensation for the diminished number of vessels employed in the trade with foreign countries. Between 1820 and 1836, Australia augmented her tonnage from 1291 to 19,195; and Canada from 691,720 to 1,172,335.* Such details will not seem out of place, when viewed in connexion with our remarks on the trade of the Pacific, which is capable of great extension, and must one day prove of immense importance to this country. Our limits forbid more ample details on the commercial prospects of Polynesia, a portion of the world which presents itself to us in the most interesting light, when we consider the means that ought to be employed for its moral and religious improvement. Both good and evil are in our hands, and the natives cannot enjoy the one without being exposed to the malign influence of the other. The national mind, more especially in New Zealand and the Sandwich Isles, has been put in motion; and we doubt not that the result, under the direction of Infinite Wisdom, will prove most beneficial. In contemplating the happy progress which mankind have already made in knowledge and refinement, the reader will find pleasure in perusing the following remarks, equally pregnant with intelligence and hope. Describing the progress of the Romans in Britain, the historian of their empire observes, that "the hostile tribes of the North, who detested the pride and power of the King of the * Compiled by Archibald Alison, Esq., from Porter's Parliamentary Tables. See a pamphlet entitled, "Ships, Colonies, and Commerce." London, 1839. World, suspended their domestic feuds; and the barbarians of the land and sea, the Scots, the Picts, and the Saxons, spread themselves with rapid and irresistible fury from the wall of Antoninus to the shores of Kent. Their southern neighbours have exaggerated the cruel depredations of the Scots and Picts; and a valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti, the enemies and afterwards the soldiers of Valentinian, are accused by an eyewitness of delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the woods for prey, it is said that they attacked the shepherd rather than his flock, and that they curiously selected the most delicate and brawny parts of both males and females, which they prepared for their horrid repasts. If, in the neighbourhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow, a race of cannibals has really existed, we may contemplate, in the period of the Scottish history, the opposite extremes of savage and civilized life. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas, and to encourage the pleasing hope that New Zealand may produce, in some future age, the Hume of the southern hemisphere." Such were the words of prophetic genius seventy years ago; but what would the historian have said if he had lived to the present time, and seen within that short period so vast a change in human affairs, that the event which he then regarded as so improbable is already accomplished, and the descendants of the cannibals of Caledonia are setting forth from the shores of the Clyde, to convey to the cannibals of New Zealand the wonders of European art and the blessings of christian civilisation? These marvellous changes do indeed enlarge the circle of our ideas, for they carry us back to primeval days, and the first separation of the different races of mankind upon earth. For what said the Most High in that auspicious moment when the dove brought back the olive-branch to a guilty and expiring world, and the "robe of beams was woven in the sky which first spoke peace to mañ”"God shall increase Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." God has multiplied Japhet, and well and nobly has the race of that son of Noah performed its destiny. After conquering in the Roman legions the ancient world— after humanizing the barbarism of antiquity, by the power of law, the "Audax Japeti genus" has transmitted to modern times the glorious inheritance of European freedom. After having conquered in the British navy the empire of the seas, it has extended to the utmost verge of the earth the influence of humanized manners, and bequeathed to future ages the far more glorious inheritance of British colonization. But mark the difference in the action of the descendants of Japhet-the European race-upon the fortunes of mankind, from the influence of that religion to which the Roman Empire was the mighty pioneer. The legions conquered only by the sword; fire and bloodshed attended their steps; they gave peace only by establishing a solitude. But our colonists set out with the olive-branch, not the sword in their hand; with the Cross, not the eagle on their banners; they bring not war and devastation, but peace and civilisation around their steps; and the track of their chariot-wheels is followed, not by the sighs of a captive, but the blessings of a renovated world. "He shall dwell," says the prophecy," in the tents of Shem." Till these times, that prophecy has not been accomplished: the descendants of Shem-the Asiatic race-still hold the fairest portion of the earth, and the march of civilisation, like the path of the sun, has hitherto been from east to west. From the plains of Shinar to the isles of Greece -from the isles of Greece to the hills of Rome-from the hills of Rome to the shores of Britain-from the shores of Britain to the wilds of America, the progress of civilisation has been steadily in one direction, and it has never reverted to the land of its birth. Is then this progress destined to be perpetual? Is the tide of civilisation to roll only to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and is the sun of knowledge to set at last in the waves of the Pacific? No; the mighty day of four seas. : thousand years is drawing to its close; the sun of humanity has performed its destined course; but long ere its setting rays are extinguished in the west, its ascending beams have glittered on the isles of the eastern We stand on the verge of the great Revolution of Time-the descendants of Japhet are about to dwell in the tents of Shem-civilisation is returning to the land of its birth, and another day and another race are beginning to dawn upon the human species. Already our arms in India have given herald of its approach, and spread into the heart of Asia the terrors of the Engglish name and the justness of their rule. And now we see the race of Japhet setting forth to people the isles of the east, and the seeds of another Europe and a second England sown in the regions of the sun. But mark the words of the prophecy "He shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." It is not said Canaan shall be his slave. To the AngloSaxon race is given the sceptre of the globe, but there is not given either the lash of the slave-driver or the rack of the executioner. The East will not be stained by the same atrocities as the West; the frightful gangrene of an inthralled race is not to mar the destinies of the family of Japhet in the Oriental world; humanizing, not destroying, as they advance; uniting with, not enslaving, the inhabitants with whom they dwell, the British race may be improved in vigour and capacity in the Eastern Hemisphere, and the emigrants whom we see around us may become the progenitors of a people destined to exceed the glories of European civilisation, as much as they have outstripped the wonders of ancient enterprise.* * 66 Ships, Colonies, and Commerce," containing an address by the accomplished historian of the French Revolution, to persons connected with New Zealand colonization. Such views, as he well remarks, promise to realize the beautiful anticipations contained in the " Pleasures of Hope" "Come, bright Improvement! on the car of Time, The latest accounts give a favourable view of missionary exertion at all the stations, though success is sometimes clouded by the careless habits of the natives, and occasionally by opposition from the Roman Catholics. In New Zealand, it is remarked “the Papists are on the alert. Their establishment now is one bishop, eight priests, and two catechists; and a French ship of war is expected to bring, it is said, ten more." The American teachers at the Sandwich Islands indulge in similar complaints. One of them writes, that since the triumph of the French over the government, in July 1839, the moral aspect of things has been deepening with gloom. The repeal of the law forbidding the importation of alcohol into the kingdom, effected by the French treaty, was followed by a large importation and sale of the article by the French consul and others. The consequences were disastrous. The formerly quiet town of Honoruru became a scene of revelry and noise, and the resort of the vicious was never before surpassed. Many members of the churches were drawn into the vortex, and were cut off. The example so boldly set in the metropolis at length began to spread to other parts of the island. Matters grew, for a time, worse and worse. The congregations dwindled, the love of Christians waxed cold, and with the introduction of intoxicating drinks, the other concomitant vices of heathenism were also revived. In the month of October, when this state of things was at its height, the king made a visit to this island from Mowee; and, being supported by Thy handmaid-arts shall every wild explore, |