"And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into spades; nation shall not take sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.

"And every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make them afraid."

"I will give my laws into their mind, and I will write them in their heart; and I will be their God; and they shall be my people."

Peace on earth, good will toward men, still peal the Christmas bells, until the frosty air seems quivering with the new joy of humanity.

Fair voyage through the realms of Space, the universe of stars, the passionate throbs of Time, with thy precious human freight, O lovely Planet, cradling our dead in thy green bosom, and uniting the living in one great nation; and may the brightest sunshine fall upon thy flowers until thy young Immortals are all landed in the Port of Heaven!

'COR UNUM, VIA UNA.'

GOD BLESS OUR NATIVE LAND!

From every clime, and name, and race, The thronging myriads came, A mighty Empire's bounds to trace, A wilderness to tame! Chorus—From mountain peak to sear-girt shore, Let Freedom's noble band Uplift the song thrills each heart's core: God bless our native land! Columbia's plains are broad and fair, Each coast an ocean laves, Vast lakes and streams fleet navies bear Upon their sun-lit waves. Chorus. Her mountains towering meet the skies, Her vales are clad in green, Her leafy forests proudly rise, Pure gold her grain's bright sheen. Chorus. United flows our mingled blood, And Freedom guards the land, While linked in closest brotherhood, Invincible we stand! Chorus. Unfurl our banner! Let it wave From every plain and crag! Its beacon light our fathers gave,— All hail! our glorious flag! Chorus—From mountain peak to sea-girt shore, Let Freedom's noble band Uplift the song thrills each heart's core: God bless our native land!

1

Sir Frederick Bruce, in a recent report to the Foreign Office, says:

'The growth of Shanghai is wonderful; its population is estimated at 1,500,000, and it bids fair to become soon the most important city of the East. The Chinese flock to it on account of the security it enjoys; and the silk manufacture, which was destroyed by the Taiping occupation of Soochow and Hangchow, is taking root at Shanghai.'—Pekin, 30th April, 1863.

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2

Civilized nations profess to look with abhorrence on the Chinese crime of infanticide, and to believe that the statements of travellers and missionaries are incredible; but a careful examination of the mortuary tables of London, Paris, New York, Dublin, Moscow, and other cities, will show that infanticide is far more common than supposed. It is a crime easily hidden and hard to trace. Take the foundling hospitals as a guide to some approximate estimate of the amount of infanticide in France. We find that she has upwards of 360 hospitals; that in Paris alone, in five years, from 1819 to 1823, 25,277 children were received, of whom eleven thirteenths died, and that the annual number of enfans trouvés ranges from 3,800 to 4,500. These children, but for the hospital, would have been murdered. Who can tell how many are thrown into the sewers of Paris? A recent writer states the number at 10,000, but we deem this an exaggeration. It is significant that the percentage of births and deaths in all France is less far the births and greater for the deaths than in England. These tables we annex.

It is still more significant that the returns of foundling hospitals, from widely different countries, show that these institutions, however charitable and humane their object, are to be viewed as conveniences for murdering an infant without the actual violence at which humanity revolts. The proportion of abandoned children who live is so exceedingly small, that abandonment of a child to a foundling hospital is scarcely less than murder. If the child live, it may be viewed, almost, as a direct act of Providence.

Of 62,000 children brought into the Paris foundling hospitals, 52,500 died.

In Dublin, 19,420 children were received in ten years, of whom 17,440 died.

In Moscow, 37,000 children were received in twenty years, of whom 35,000 died.

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