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state, we cannot offer a more recent view than what is contained in a report published at Washington on the 27th of September last, and reprinted in the‘Liberia Herald' of last February; we give it just as it is, and without any comment. Having been requested by the free-coloured people of Natchez to visit Liberia, and see for ourselves the true state of things, that we might make to them a correct and full report in regard to the prospects opening before free men of colour, who may settle in that colony, and having just returned from Africa, we present our coloured brethren in the United States with the following brief statement. On the 30th of June, we anchored at Monrovia, and remained in the colony nearly three weeks, during all which time we were engaged in making inquiries and observations, and endeavoured to learn the true condition and prospects of the people. * * * When we arrived and set our foot on shore, we were treated with a kindness and hospitality far beyond our most sanguine expectations, and which made us feel ourselves at home. There was not a man who did not take us by the hand and treat us as brothers. We felt for the first time what it was to be free and independent. The people there possess a spirit of liberty and independence, such as we have never seen among the coloured people of this country. As a body, the people of Liberia, we think, owing to their circumstances, have risen in their style of living and their happiness, far above those of their coloured brethren, even the most prosperous of them, that we have seen in the United States. They feel that they have a home. They have no fear of the white man, or the coloured man. They do not look up to others, but they are looked up to by them. Their laws grow out of themselves and are their own. They truly sit under their own vine and fig-tree, having none to molest and make them afraid. Since our return we have been in the houses of some of the most respectable men of colour in New York and Philadelphia, but we have seen none, on the whole, so well furnished as many of the houses in Monrovia. The floors are, in many cases, well carpeted, and all things about these dwellings appear neat, convenient and comfortable. There are five schools, two of which we visited, and were much pleased with the teachers, and the improvement of the children. We noticed very particularly the moral state of things, and during our visit, saw but one man who appeared to be intemperate, and but two

who used any profane language. *** The sabbath is very strictly

observed, and there is great attention to the things of religion. We attended church several times, and one of us being a minister of the Gospel, of the Methodist Church, preached three times to large and very attentive congregations-all well dressed and apparently respectable persons. We visited the poor-house, and found there four sick and infirm persons, one of whom made a good deal of com

*This is the eleventh monthly number of the third volume. In the 'Marine List,' the names of seventeen vessels arrived,' and seventeen sailed' are given, as the return of the movements in the port, from the 11th January to the 11th of February, 1833.

plaint for want of supplies and attention. We found only two other persons in the colony, who expressed any dissatisfaction, and we had much reason to doubt whether they had any good cause for it. The soil at Caldwell and Millsburg is as fertile as we ever saw, and much like the land on the Mississippi. We saw growing upon it, pepper, corn, rice, sugar-cane, cassada, plantains, cotton, oranges, limes, coffee, peas, beans, sweet potatoes, water-melons, cucumbers, sousop, banana, and many other fruits and vegetables.-We saw cattle, sheep goats; also swine and poultry in great abundance. Wherever we went the people seemed to enjoy good health; and a more healthy-looking people, particularly the children, we have not seen in the United States. *** Our own health whilst in the colony was perfectly good, although we were much exposed to the night-air. We must say, that had what we have seen of the prosperity of the colony of Liberia been reported to us by others, we should hardly have believed them; and are, therefore, prepared to expect that our own report may be discredited by our coloured brethren. We wish them to see and judge for themselves. Whatever they may say or think, it is our deliberate judgment, that the free people of colour will greatly improve their character and condition, and become more happy and more useful by a removal to Liberia. There alone can the black man enjoy true freedom; and where that freedom is, shall be our country.

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CHINA.

The Kalendar, &c.-Even in this distant quarter of the world, a little republic of English literati has been formed, with our deservedly esteemed fellow-countryman, Dr. Morrison, at its head. The Canton Register' has long afforded a source of intelligence on the habits and manners of every-day life in the Celestial Empire, which many of our readers must have noticed in the extracts so frequently given in our daily prints. Nor has the excellent precedent, established by the Society for promoting Useful Knowledge, been less influential on the shores of the bay of Canton, than in the New World. Macao, like Boston, has now its Kalendar and Companion; and copies of its first publications of this kind are lying before us, in the shape of The Anglo-Chinese Kalendar and Register for the year of the Christian Era, 1832, corresponding with the Twenty-ninth year of the Chinese cycle of Sixty Years, which 29th year commences on the 2d of February, 1832;' and of A Companion to the Anglo-Chinese Kalendar, for the year of our Lord, 1832: corresponding to the Alexandrian year of the World, 7334, and the Chinese cycle year, 4469; being the xiiith year of the reign of Taoukwang.' Both bear the imprint, Macao, China: printed at the Honourable East India Company's Press.' The dedication of the former points at the example in which it has originated: it is To the East India Company, who have ever considered the advancement of Useful Knowledge as the most sure support of their political power.' The Chinese

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and English Kalendars are made to run parallel with each other, the former occupying the right-hand side of the first, and the latter the left-hand side of the second page; there are two pages to each month, succeeded by two other pages of daily spaces for memoranda for the use, on the right, of the Chinese, and, on the left, of the Englishman. Then follow, Popular Holidays,-Chinese and Mohammedan,'-'The Chinese Cycle of Sixty,'-'Chinese Chrono logical Characters,'--'Table of Chinese Dynasties,' and 'List of Monarchs of the present Chinese Dynasty; the whole filling sixtynine pages. The subsequent extracts are as fair a specimen of the contents of the Kalendar as could be selected.

The year 1832 corresponds to the year lin-shin, or the 29th year of the Chinese 75th Cycle, which is the 12th year of the reign of the Emperor Taoukwang; it corresponds also to the year of the Hegira, 1247-48, the year 1248, commencing about the 1st of June; and to the year of the Persian Era of Yezdezerd, 1201-02, the year 1202, commencing about the 4th September, according to the Chureegur reckoning,-or about the 4th October, according to the Saharsovee reckoning.'- The Chinese Cycle of Sixty years was invented and first used by the Emperor Hwang-te, 2637 years B.C. The Chinese compute also by the year of the reigning monarch, frequently joining to it that of the cycle. The Chinese year is lunisolar, consisting of twelve lunar months, to which an intercalary month is added, when requisite to preserve correspondence with the solar year there is an intercalary month in the year 1832, introduced after the 9th moon.'

Popular Holidays.-' JANUARY. The 12th moon being the close of the year, great preparations are made for the approaching New Year. All public offices close several days before, and continue closed for some time after New-year's day.'-'FEBRUARY. 12th moon, 30th and last day. The year is concluded with general worshipping of the deities, with feasting, noise, and merriment. Many persons sit up all night to "watch for the New-year."— 1st moon, 4th day. Leih-chun term. There are made at the expense of Government two clay images of a man and a buffalo. On the day preceding the term, the Che-foo of each provincial city goes out in state "to meet spring." On this occasion a number of children are carried about on men's shoulders; every one vying with his neighbours to dress them most gorgeously and fancifully. On the day of the term the Che-foo again appears as Priest of Spring, in which capacity he is the greatest man in the province. He takes a whip, and strikes the buffalo two or three times, in token of commencing the labours of agriculture; and the populace then stone the image until they break it to pieces. The festivities continue for ten days, during which families worship at the temples and ramble about the country. APRIL. 3d moon, 5th day. Ising-ming term. Every one repairs to the tombs of his ancestors and relatives, to make offerings to the departed spirits, and to sweep and repair their sepulchres.' JULY. 6th moon, 6th day. Teen-Kwang, or "airing of

clothes." On this day every one airs his clothes, from a tradition, that, by so doing, the clothes will not be liable to be injured by insects.'7th moon, 1st day. Shaou-e, "burning clothes" made of parti-coloured paper commences, and continues till the 15th day of the moon. This custom arises from a tradition concerning a young man, who obtained admission to Tartarus, and brought his mother from thence. Paper garments are burnt, that they may pass to the invisible world, and prayers are recited for the deliverance of tormented spirits from purgatory. Food also is offered, and prayers recited, for the spirits of those who have been drowned at sea.'' OCTOBER. 9th moon, 9th day. Chung-yang. Parties go to the hills to drink and amuse themselves, and make fancy kites, which they let fly wherever the wind may carry them, to denote that they give their kites and their cares together to the wind.' The particulars of the other popular holidays are equally characteristic of the habits of the Chinese, in social and religious matters.

The Companion to the Kalendar' contains a variety of businesslike details of the Imperial family and government; the Royal family, ministry, Board of Control, &c. in England; the heads of government, and literary institutions in British India;-the merchants, residents, and foreign establishments at Canton;-and the monies, weights, and measures in China, India, &c.,-besides a variety of most useful information both for the trader and general reader. This little volume extends to 160 pages, and the following selections will afford some idea of its value.

Climate, &c. The southern part of China, to which alone Europeans have access, or in which they are allowed to reside, has in all periods of Chinese history been considered damp and unhealthy, so much so, as to be the place of transportation selected for state prisoners whose speedy death was desired. This ancient opinion of the climate is not correct in modern times. The increase

of population, and almost universal cultivation must have greatly ameliorated the climate. Canton is nearly on the same parallel of latitude with Calcutta and Bombay, but it is generally allowed to be a pleasanter and more salubrious climate than either of those places. *** We have a tolerably good winter in China, from November to February. The four months-June, July, August, and September, are, indeed, rather hot; but the rest of the year is temperate. **In winter, the variation from noon to night is ten or twenty degrees, and that frequent and sudden.-Ice, produced naturally, is very rare in Canton. It is sometimes obtained about the thickness of a dollar; then the natives buy it and bottle it up, to be taken as a febrifuge in hot weather!'

Population. From the statement of the population, according to a census taken in the 14th year of Keaking, A.D. 1813, it appears that the number of the inhabitants of China and its colonies was, in that year, 381,693,879, besides 188,326 families belonging to foreign tribes, colonies, and dependencies of the Chinese crown in Teitcihar, Kokonor, Thibet, Ele, Turfon and Lobnor, and the Rus

sian border. The "Companion" enumerates the population of each province, and adds, this statement contained in the latest edition of the Tatsing Hevuy-teen, or collection of the statutes of the Ta Tsing dynasty, published in 1825, will probably serve to set at rest the numerous speculations concerning the real amount of population in China. We know, from several authorities, that in China, the people are in the habit of diminishing rather than increasing their numbers, in their reports to government. And it is unreasonable to suppose, that, in a work published by the government, not for the information of curious inquirers, but for the use of its own officers, the numbers so reported by the people should be more than doubled, as the statements of some European speculators would require us to believe. The above amount of population, when compared with the amount given by the census in 1792, viz., 307,467,200 shews an increase of little more than a fifth in twenty years. The disparity of these two censuses, compared with all previous ones, may easily be accounted for by a reference to the capitation tax, which was not abolished till the 50th year of King-he (A.D. 1708.) At that period, the number of individuals reported to government was but 23,312,000, which included, we believe, only the peasants paying taxes, though it certainly appears far below their real number; but it must be remembered, that this was soon after long-continued and destructive wars; that many families and bands of men, in several parts of the empire, probably still refused submission to the established government; and, above all, that the people were then influenced by the existence of the capitation-tax, which would prevent the far larger portion of them from giving in faithful reports of their numbers.'

British Museum. This institution was established at Macao, in conformity with a resolution passed by members of the British factory on the 21st February, 1829. The object of the museum is the collection of specimens of natural history and of the productions of art. It is supported by annual subscriptions of thirty dollars each, the subscribing members being British subjects alone. Natives of other countries are eligible as honorary or corresponding members. The committee of management is composed of a treasurer, a curator, and a secretary.

Anglo-Chinese College, Malacca.- - This institution was established by the joint efforts of the Rev. Dr. J. R. Morrison and the Rev. Dr. Milne, in the year 1818. The foundation-stone was laid by Lieut. Col. Farquhar, on the 11th of November in that year, and the first student was admitted in October 1819. The object of the institution is the reciprocal cultivation of Chinese and European literature, and the instruction of native youths in the principles of Christianity. The native Chinese students, in the college, generally average from twenty-five to thirty, all of whom are on the funds of the institution, receiving a small monthly allowance each. Since the year 1823, annual reports of the students' progress, &c., have been published, with occasional appendices, containing interesting