and in view of the wisdom of his counsels, an assembled universe will yet exclaim" Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty-just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints!"

March 15th. We think it probable our friends in America will feel some solicitude, lest the death of the king should prove an occasion of insurrection and bloodshed in the islands-but of this we have scarce had a thought, much less an apprehension. So long as the Prince Ke-au-i-ke-ou-li lives, the right of succession is indisputable. Rihoriho in his council with the chiefs, previous to his embarkation, formally and publickly appointed him successor, in case he should never return and from the time of his departure the lad has been regarded, and officially addressed by the chiefs and people, as their king. This has been more especially the case of late: so that the intelligence has produced little or no change in his standing in the government-and none in his title, except the assumption of the name of Tameamea (or Tamehameha) III., as the official signature of the successor of Rihoriho.

Indeed, my dear M., in every respect our covenant God seems to have been preparing the way most happily for the arrival of the tidings; and the chiefs in power were never before in a state so favourable to political integrity and peace. Auspicious as the whole history of this mission has been, ever since (and even before) its first establishment on these shores, still the last three months must be regarded as the commencement of a new and more happy era in its progress, than had previously been known.

We have every reason to believe that the principles of eternal truth, with its sanctions from which they are inseparable, which for near five years have been enforced on the minds and the hearts of the leaders of this people, are beginning to

bave their destined and desired effect on their characters and lives; and that many of the most powerful of them, from the fear of God and a sincere love of his righteousness, are ceasing in heart to do evil, and learning to do well.

I think I can safely say, that we have good and satisfactory evidence of genuine piety, in the cases of a large number of the most influential personages in the nation; while all the rest are, in a greater or less degree, our avowed friends and followers in belief and practice. We' cannot but think, the once imperious, haughty, and even scornful regent, Kaahumanu, a sincere Christian; she certainly is a most altered woman; and we have reason to hope the alteration arises from that change of heart, which humbles all who experience it at the feet of Jesus.

Her husband, Keariiahonui, a son of the lamented Taumuarii, (Tamoree,) gives still more decided evidence of love to God and man; and daily performs the part of an active and zealous missionary, by going from house to house in every direction, teaching, exhorting, and praying with the people. Opiia, another of the queens dowager of Tameamea, and Laanui, her husband, are equally exemplary in every respect, as are also Tapuli the exqueen of Tanai, and her husband, Kaiu. To these may be added Karaimoku, Karaikoa, and many others of less note; (I speak now only of the high chiefs at present at this place) and this number includes the power of the kingdom. These, with the young king, and every chief of any importance, have regular family worship with their respective households twice a-daynever take a meal without having a blessing asked and thanks returned-observe the Sabbath with becoming propriety-attend all the religious instructions of the week, both private and publick-and studiously avoid every kind of amuse

The character and measures of the emperor Alexander, of Russia, lately deceased, have become more interesting to the friends of religion than they would otherwise be, from the part which he once took in the promotion of Bible Societies and evangelical missions, and from the lamentable change, at the close of his reign, of a course which seemed to be so favourable both to his own happiness and to that of his widely extended empire. The following article, extracted from the Eclectic Review for May last, contains remarks and information relative to this distinguished monarch, which we think will prove interesting to our readers. For ourselves, we do not altogether agree with the Reviewer, whose work we quote, in regard to Alexander's character. We grant that he wanted firmness, and admit that this was a great want; yet, on the whole, we think he had more talent and less virtue, than is conceded to him in the following article. While we are satisfied of the justice of the observations with which this article is introduced and closed, it is our opinion, that if Alexander's good principles had been as deep and efficient as they once seemed to be, he did not lack the talents and address necessary to ensure success to the measures which those principles had dictated. Neither is our estimate of the character of Prince Galitzin, in perfect accordance with that of the Reviewer. We regard that prince not only as an amiable man and a devout Christian, but as an able statesman, who wanted nothing but the steady and decided countenance, support, and co-operation of his sovereign, to have effected as much for the benefit of his country, as the peculiar and unhappy state of society there existing would have permitted.

We are unwilling to believe-we do not believe-that the emperor Alexander was a deliberate political hypocrite, in his acknowledgments of the signal interposition of Divine Providence, in preserving Russia when assailed by the mighty power of Buonaparte, and in all that he did for the propagation of revealed truth. We believe that in all this he acted as he felt at the moment; but that his feelings were of that temporary and transient kind which princes, as well as private individuals, have often experienced and manifested, and which are extinguished and lost when temptations and trials assail them.

We also think that the writer of the following review, ought to have noticed the influence of the clergy, as a fourth obstacle to the work of reformation in Russia. It was their influence, quite as much as that of the lay nobility and the officers of the army, which operated to deter Alexander from continuing to yield to the counsels of Galitzin. The Pope, too, had a considerable agency in opposing the diffusion of the Scriptures; and it was the combination of the whole of these causes which made the unhappy emperor think that his power, and perhaps his crown and his life, would be endangered, if he did not change his course. He wanted the firmness and the strength of principle necessary to carry him forward, in the face of all this array of hostility. He yielded, and by yielding we verily believes he has done that which will issue in the event which he dreaded. We pretend to no special sagacity in foreseeing the effects which must follow from their proper causes, in morals and in politicks. But without such pretension, we venture to prognosticate, that Russia will not long remain in its present state

that convulsions of a very serious kind are not far distant; and that the proper preventive of these would have been a continuance, under prudent guards and with wary but fearless steps, in that very course which Alexander abandoned, and in which his brother, it appears, is following his example. If absolute monarchs will not gradually relax the gripe of power, and by degrees prepare their subjects for the blessings of knowledge and freedom, the people, as soon as they have the opportunity, will seek to right themselves, and to trample their oppressors in the

dust.

If it be at all times, and under all circumstances, far from easy to form a correct estimate of the character of monarchs, the difficulty increases in a tenfold degree when the qualities of a Russian autocrat are subjected to the investigation of his contemporaries. We are too apt to imagine that a despotick sovereign is perfectly unshackled; that his counsels are free from the distraction of conflicting, or the embarrassment of overbearing interests; that his measures, whether for good or for evil, are selforiginated and unimpeded; that his choice of instruments depends entirely on his own judgment; and that the principles of his rule may be fairly inferred from the moral aspect of his reign, the effects of his political system, and the general condition of his people. It may be true, that these are the only materials within our reach, and equally so, that they shall prove quite insufficient for the specifick purpose. The veriest tyrant is more or less under restraint. VOL. IV. Ch. Adv.

There are considerations of inevasible urgency, impulses and resistances that set arbitrary power at defiance, controlling influences to which the most absolute will must yield; and no history can exemplify the operation of these circumstances more emphatically than that of Russia. There are three tremendous agencies, of which the Tsar must be in continual dread,

the nobility, the army, and the people. Among the first, there has hitherto been no difficulty in finding conspirators and assassins; the second is a two-edged weapon, as dangerous to the unskilful wielder as to the enemy; and for the third, no mob is so irritable and sanguinary as a rabble of slaves. It is vastly easy to sit down in the safety and quietness of private life in a free country, and define the canons of policy and morality by which a ruler thus situated shall regulate his conduct; but it would-we do not say that it should become a very different affair, were we personally concerned in the matter. Commanding intellect, unyielding firmness, consummate intrepidity and self-possession, above all, stern and uncompromising moral principle must combine with kind and beneficent feelings, to make up a temper equal to the full requisitions of so trying an elevation.

We have no inclination, certainly, to depreciate the character of the late Emperor Alexander, but we cannot take it even as approaching to our beau idéal in the present case. That he was a man of good intentions and respectable talents, we are quite willing to believe, but it must be kept in view, that a much higher order of faculty is required in the master of a realm of slaves, than will be efficient in the governor of a free and represented people. The former has no check to his caprice, but in the exercise of his own judgment; no aid to his administration in open and unrestrained counsel and rebuke: the latter has an ad3 A

viser in every subject,through the different media of publick discussion. The chief of a popular government is the president of a well-ordered mechanism, and has little more to do than to watch over the regula rity of its movements, and to provide for the maintenance of its integrity and activity; while an autocrat is himself the machine, if that can be rightly so termed, which is subject to no prescribed law of action, and of which the principles are altogether uncertain. Hence, if a despotick monarch be of a character distinguished by moral and intellectual excellence, his sway may have some advantages, in unity of counsel and promptitude of execution, over the administration of a constitutional chief. Happily, however, for mankind, the value and efficacy of government are not to be estimated by the exception, but by the rule: for one Titus, there are twenty Domitians; and were the proportion reversed, there would be more lost, on the despotick system, in stability, strength, and energy, than might be gained in less essential qualities of security and power.

From all, then, that we have ever heard of the Emperor Alexander, he appears to have been a striking instance of the incompetency of excellent dispositions and fair abilities to struggle with the inherent difficulties of an arbitrary government. We have not the smallest doubt of the purity of his intentions, nor of the sincerity of his earlier exertions in behalf of his degraded people. Had he been a free agent, or had he possessed that higher order of faculty and determination which would have enabled him to "trample upon impossibilities," we have assurance that his plans for the intellectual, moral, and political advancement of his people would have been triumphantly followed up, and that he would never have yielded to the

fatal influences which suspended his career of glory. Nor were his deficiencies adequately supplied by his choice of a minister, although that choice reflected the highest honour on the motives and feelings that prompted it. The spirit of the amiable and excellent Gallitzin seems to have been better suited to the offices of that warm and sacred friendship which, as he never abused, so he never lost, than to the mastery of a turbulent nobility, a ferocious soldiery, a people ignorant and shackled, and, from those very circumstances, requiring the incessant vigilance of a jealous police. The following illustrations of Alexander's affectionate feelings are, we suppose, authentick; but, even if otherwise, they speak strongly in favour of the monarch respecting whom such anecdotes are circulated with acceptance.

"From his earliest years, he was remarkable for his respect and attachment to the persons entrusted with his education, and for his exemplary conduct towards his mother, the Empress Maria, which truly deserved the name of filial piety, being in him a feeling next akin to religion, a holy flame which burnt with unvarying splendour from his childin him was this feeling, that he beheld hood to his grave. So entirely innate with abhorrence, and, when the occasion served, marked by his serious displeasure, any violation of the Divine precept, Honour thy mother; and it was but a few months before his death, that a young prince, who had treated his mother with disrespect, received orders to reside only in Moscow, under the special superintendence of Prince Golyzin, the military governor-general, and of the guardians appointed for him, who were at the same

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time commanded to take the administration of his property into their hands. He not only treated his tutors with respect while under their care, but continued through life to give them proofs of his gratitude and affection. For Count Sol

tikoff he showed unabated veneration during his life, and in 1818, followed his corpse, on foot and bareheaded, to the grave. Of his regard for Colonel Laharpe, many instances are recorded, of which the following may find a place here.

"His attachment to Laharpe was rather filial than that of a pupil; his greatest de