phemy was revived, proscribed blasphemy republished, foreign blasphemy imported, and new blasphemy invented, to produce the intended effect. Temples of Reason, so called, were opened, and some of the worst scenes of the French Revolution seemed to be confidently anticipated by the leaders of the anti-social and anti-Christian party. Where the contagion would stop, none dared to predict; while every wise and good man felt deeply distressed, and not a little alarmed, at the aspect of the country.

The

The conviction of Carlile, accompanied as it was by a burst of public approbation, cast a gleam of light on the general gloom. But it was to the meeting of Parliament that the public looked with the most anxious expectation. With the issue our readers are already acquainted: to the decisive measures adopted by the Legislature, as well as to the impression produced on the public mind by their proceedings, we must, under God, attribute the present tranquillity which we enjoy. year, after all its vicissitudes, has closed in peace; and from the very elements of strife and blasphemy, we trust that we shall have shortly to report, have arisen blessings of no limited or temporary kind. The attacks on Christianity have given new vigour to its friends; and ancient institutions are beginning to contend hand to hand with the impugners of our holy faith. We trust, in some ensuing year, that we shall have to record that fresh victories have been gained in the cause of universal education; that the blasphemy and sedition which threatened us have arisen only to add new accessions of strength to the Bible and Missionary cause; that our Legislature, warned by the past, have taken up in good earnest the state of the poor, and the care of their morals and religion; that Sunday newspapers and similar nuisances are unknown; that in every town and village there are churches and schools adequate to the population, and duly managed for their improvement; that every cottage contains a Bible, a Prayer-book, and a stock of unexceptionable tracts; and that its inmates, feeling the value of these blessings themselves, are anxious for the extension of the Gospel of their Saviour throughout the world.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

VOL. XVIII.

BEING FOR THE YEAR 1819.