the Turkish commissioners at Akerman. By the convention thus entered into, these principalities will be restored to the condition of the distinct states. They will exercise their own government, religion, and laws; in a word, they will regulate their own affairs. They will however still be tributary to the Grand Seignor, according to the conditions of the treaty which they were compelled to accede to in their former struggles with the Turks. They have always considered Russia as their natural protector.-Servia is also included in the late convention.

Russia and Persia.-A proclamation of war against Persia, was issued by the Emperor of Russia, on the 28th of September. Hostilities had previously commenced on the part of Persia, by an invasion of the Russian territory. The causes of the war are not distinctly understood. The Russian Emperor himself declares he cannot even divine them. He gives a sketch of the existing relations of the two powers, and of their negociations since the peace of 1813: in all which nothing appears to justify the present rupture. At the close of his declaration

however, the Emperor mentions that

the emissaries of the Persian sovereign have excited his Mahometan subjects in the frontier provinces to revolt, and that Persian proclamations announce a religious war. This is the Russian view of the matter, but it is probable that something further remains to be known respecting it. In the mean time offensive operations are going forward on the part of Russia with the characteristic military energy of that nation.

Africa-Dispatches received in England, mention another invasion of the British possessions in Africa by the Ashantees. They had come down in the month of August, in a body of 25,000, and were met by Col. Purdon with a force of 11,000, composed chiefly of native troops. The battle, which lasted an hour, and was at one time of doubtful issue, ended in the total rout of the Ashantees, who sustained a loss, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, estimated at 5000. The loss of Col. Purdon is stated at 800 killed and 2000 wounded.

MISCELLANEOUS. A LOTTERY has been granted by the Georgia Legislature for the purpose of erecting a monument to Greene and Pulaski. A lottery for a similar purpose was granted at the last session of the Legislature of Connecticut, namely, the erection of a monument at Groton. Now it is undenied, and undeniable, that lotteries have a pernicious effect on the morals of the people. It would seem, therefore, that our wise legislators deem it more important to celebrate the virtues of the dead than to preserve the morals of the living. In our view, the granting of lotteries for such purposes is about as inconsistent with enlightened republican legislation as the sale of indulgencies to erect churches is consistent with the Christian religion. In both cases the policy adopted tends to destroy the foundation on which the institutions both of republicanisin and Christianity rest.

The Royal Lottery of England, established in the reign of Queen Anne, made its last drawing on the 18th of October, when it was terminated.

The two hundred and sixth anniver

sary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth was celebrated at that place, and also at New-York, on the 22d of December.

The growth of our country may be seen from the rapid extension of the post-office system. Thirty-six years ago, (1790,) says the National Intelligencer, there were only seventy-five post-offices in the whole of the United States; their number now (1826) exceeds six thousand five hundred. The extent of post roads was then less than two thousand miles; they now exceed ninety thousand. The total amount of postages did not exceed thirty-eight thousand dollars; they are now more than twelve hundred thousand dollars. The transportation of the mails then cost about twenty-two thousand dollars annually; they now cost nearly eight hundred thousand dollars; and the compensation to post-masters has increased from eight thousand, to nearly four hundred thousand.

Meeting of Friends.-From the Address of the Yearly Meeting of Friends in North Carolina, held in November,

we take the following extract on the subject of the removal of their slaves to free governments.

"It appears from the proceedings of our meeting for sufferings, as presented to this Meeting, that there have been conveyed to free governments since last year, about 300 of the people of colour under the care of this Yearly Meeting; having been left to their choice of places. Upwards of 40 have been taken to Liberia; 119 to Hayti; 11 to Philadelphia; and the remainder to Ohio and Indiana: the expenses of which have been about $3,500. About 600 are still remaining. It also appears that the following donations have been made us, to aid in this benevolent work: viz. $2,914 16 cents from an individual in the city of Philadelphia; $250 from the Yearly Meeting of New-York; $1,000 from the Yearly Meeting of Rhode-Island; $500 from the meeting for sufferings of Philadelphia; and $100 from an individual of Burlington, New-Jersey. It further appears from the reports of the agents, that about 500 of the remaining people of colour are willing to emigrate to free governments;upwards of 300 to Liberia; and the other 200 or thereabouts, to other places. All that is wanting are sufficient funds and opportunity. A donation of $500 has been made by our meeting for sufferings, to the Colonization Society, to assist them in chartering a vessel the present fall, and 300 more pledged in case their funds should not be adequate. Although it appears from the above statement, that a part of our stock has not yet been expended, yet, it will fall far short of completing the operations in view, in regard to this momentous work. We have therefore cordially united in this Meeting, to endeavour to raise the sum of two thousand dollars: and although this is double what we directed last year, yet we think the importance of the subject, and the danger of delay, require it."

The Manumission Society of North Carolina embraces 47 branch societies, and about 2000 members.

The Governor of South Carolina, in his address to the Legislature, recommends that slaves be tried by jury in

capital cases, in a public manner, and that the masters have the right of challenging. The old and barbarous custom of capital punishment by burning, he recommends, should be abrogated.

The people of colour in Baltimore at a numerous meeting in the African church, on the 11th of December, adopted a Memorial to the white people of that city, respecting African emigration.

"We reside among you, (say they,) and yet are strangers; natives and yet not citizens: surrounded by the freest people and most republican institutions in the world, and yet enjoying none of the immunites of freedom.

Of the many schemes that have been proposed, we must approve of that of African Colonization. If we were able and at liberty to go wheresoever we would, the greater nnmber, willing to leave this community, would prefer LIBERIA, on the coast of Africa.

The emigrants may readily be enabled to remove, in considerable numbers every fall; by a concerted system of individual contributions, and still more efficiently by the enactment of laws to promote their emigration, under the patronage of the State. The expense would not be nearly so great as it might appear at first sight; for when once the current shall have set towards Liberia, and intercourse grown frequent, the cost will of course diminish rapidly, and many will be able to defray it themselves. Thousands and tens of thousands, poorer than we, annually emigrate from Europe to your country, and soon have it in their power to hasten the arrival of those they left behind. Every intelligent and industrious coloured man would continually look forward to the day when he or his children might go to their veritable home, and would accumulate all his little earnings for that purpose."

A Liverpool paper states that there were 26,533 slaves embarked on board Brazilian vessels on the African coast between the first of July 1825, and the first of July 1826, for the Rio de Janeiro market. Of these poor creatures, 1,540 died on the passage; and 24,728 were landed at the Brazilian. capital.

A petition to the French Government, last February, stated that “it is established by authentic documents, that the slave captains throw into the sea, every year, about three thousand negroes, men, women, and children; of whom more than half are thus sacrificed while yet alive, either to escape from the visit of Cruizers, or because worne down by their sufferings, they could not be sold to an advantage."The French are at length taking more decided measures for the suppression of the trade.

A fire broke out at Constantinople,

on the last of August, which raged unchecked for thirty hours, and destroyed a sixth part of the city.

The British Government has established a new town in one of the provinces ceded by the Burmese, by the name of Amherst, in honour of the Governor-General of that name. In company with the British authorities who left Rangoon, to assist at the establishment of the new town was Rev. Dr. Judson, of the American Mission. Selections were made from the 60th chapter of Isaiah.

Sept. 20.-The Rev. SAMUEL W. MAY, over the Presbyterian church at Hoosick, N. Y. Sermon by the Rev. Thomas Fletcher of Schaghticoke.

Oct. 13.-The Rev. ISAAC REED, over the Congregational church in Moriah, N. Y. Sermon by the Rev. D. O. Morton.

Oct. 25.-The Rev. SAMUEL T. MILLS, over the Presbyterian church in Petersburgh, N. Y. Sermon by the Rev. J. Brown of Cazenovia.

Oct. 26.-The Rev. WILLIAM COLLINS, over the Baptist church in Chardon, Ohio. Sermon by the Rev. Jesse Hartwell.

Nov. 1.-The Rev. HENRY A. MERRILL, Over the Congregational church in Norway. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Merrill of Otisfield.

Nov. 22.--The Rev. STEPHEN CROSBY, Over the church in Granby, Mass.

Nov. 23.-The Rev. GEORGE SPRATT, Over the Third Baptist church in Philadelphia. Sermon by the Rev. J. L. Daggett.

as Pastor of the church in Wadsworth, Ohio. Sermon by the Rev. Giles H. Cowles.

Dec. 7.-The Rev. CYRUS MASON, over the Presbyterian church in Cedar Street, New-York. Sermon by the Rev. Dr. McAuley.

Dec. 12.-The Rev. CALVIN PARK, D.D., over the Congregational church in Stoughton. Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Emmons of Franklin.

Dec. 13.-The Rev. JOEL MANN, over the First Church and Society in Suffield. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Vernon of Rehoboth.

Dec. 13.-The Rev. ASAHEL COBB was ordained at Rochester. Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Codman of Dorches

ter.

POPE LEO THE FIRST.

LEO, denominated the Great, after having exercised the office of Archdeacon of Rome during the term of twenty years, was elected successor to Sixtus the third, A.D. 440. His works are in the finest style of Latin; of the Greek his knowledge was defective.* Possessing unusual qualifications in point of knowledge, influence, experience, and eloquence, he evinced by his uniform conduct a disposition to extend the papal jurisdiction, equally by courtly address or daring enterprise, truth or falsehood, right or wrong, to the utmost

extreme.

Having claimed and held an unscriptural superiority to the presbyters of Rome, and thereby the closest intimacy with the pontificate, through a term of twelve years prior to the elevation of Sixtus, his talents being also occasionally had in requisition by the Emperor, in promotion of the public weal, he must have concurred in the craft and violence displayed by that bishop in retaining the diocess

*-injungo-ut universa facias-in Latinum translata, ut in nulla partè actionum (seil: concilii Chalcedonensis) dubitare possimus. Leon: ep. 90.

+ Etius, ab officio archidiaconatus per speciem provectionis (scil. ad presbyteratum) amovetur. Leon. op. 133. Qui primus fuerit ministrorum et à Pontificis latere non recedit, injuriam putat si presbyter ordinetur. Hieron. Ex. 48. VOL. I.-No. II.

8

of Illyricum, contrary to a canon of the council of Ephesus of 441.*

Because Rome was declining, the empire divided into two, and the enemies of both increasing in numbers, power, and military skill, it was attempted by Leo to render the claim of ecclesiastical precedence more permanent, by founding it on sacred authority. The superior dignity of the Roman see was therefore alleged to have arisen from a higher commission given to the Apostle Peter, whose bones, left in that metropolis, perpetuated the right of supreme authority, whatsoever might be the diversity of the merits of the bishops in the seat itself. Peter being ever an apostle, and still having by an ubiquity of presence the pastoral care of the whole church, has a more special regard for his favourite church where his body sleeps, and intercedes for them by his prayers in heaven.† And therefore the representative of Peter has prece

* Concil Éphes. can. VII.

t-cui ter dixit "pasce oves meas:" quod nunc procul dubio facit, & mandatum Domini pius pastor exequitur, confirmans nos cohortationibus suis, et pro Si autem hanc pietatis suæ curam omni nobis orare non cessans. Leon: op. p. 4. populo Dei, sicut credendum est, ubique prætendit, quanto magis nobis alumnis suis opem suam dignatur impendere,apud quos, in sacro beatæ dormitionis thoro requiescit. Ibidem. Etsi enim diversa nonnunquam sint merita præsulum,tamen jura permanent sedium. idem. p. 137.

dence of all bishops in the church* universal. Such dialectical skill had not been attained by the bishops of the first general council of Nice, for they confirmed by their canons the jurisdiction of the bishops of Alexandria, Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem, over the same regions respectively, which they had gained by ancient custom. Nevertheless higher objects than the heresy of Arius convened the first oecumenical council; and their decrees, established by Constantine as the supreme law of the empire, effected, as he had designed, a Christian establishment instead of the Pagan, and conformed to its features; in which the diocesses of the empire had their patriarchs, the capitals of the provinces their metropolitans, and the cities their suffragan bishops; the grade of civil authority in each of the cities becoming the standard of the jurisdiction of their bishops; which hierarchy has been, as far as the revolutions of the nations would allow, continued unto this day. The second general council did therefore decree, "that the bishop of Constantinople should have the birthright of honour, next to the bishop of Rome, because she is New Rome." Also the council of Chalcedon, in number the fourth, which consisted of more than six hundred bishops, and in which Leo appeared by his legates, have shown this same ancient opinion of the origin of the dignity of the church of Rome, alleging that the precedence given to that church had been because the city was imperial, and that they, for the same reason, gave equal privileges to the holy see of New

-cunctis ecclesiæ rectoribus Petri forma praeponitur. Leon. op. p. 3. + Conc. Nic. can. VI. and VII. 1a apχαια έθη-ουλο συνηθές εστι

Conc. Chalced. can. XVIII. Sia 70. βασιλεύειν την πολιν.

Rome, that is of Constantinople.* The councils of Nice, Constantinople, and Chalcedon, had consequently no idea of the divine right which the bishops of Rome have claimed, to sustain an authority likely to decay with the declension of the dignity of their city. The jurisdiction given to the See of Constantinople by the council of Chalcedon, over Pontus, Asia, and Thrace, and the bishops of those diocesses, who were among the Barbarians, was violently resisted by Leo, but ineffectually, because founded on the known rule, that upon a division of a province the bishop of the new metropolis took rank, and power, as a metropolitan. Thus, in the diocess of Thrace, the suffragan of Byzantium had become the archbishop of Constantinople, to the exclusion of the exarch of Heraclea, when Constantine made it the seat of his empire. At length also the metropolitans of the respective diocesses of Pontus and Asia fell under the bishop of New Rome.

These things Leo pronounced wicked attempts, "ausus improbos," but to the decrees of the council of Nice he ascribed the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Accordingly the canons of the six hundred and thirty bishops convened at Chalcedon by the authority, and ratified by the decree of the Emperor, are to this hour held, by the western church, to have been wholly void of authority, except as to matters of faith,‡ because rejected by this haughty prelate, who chose to consider the canons of the council of Nice incapable of repeal.§ Yet Leo found