niscences we must lay aside, in order to conclude this hurried sketch, with a short account of his last days. Dr. Kidston died as he lived, in the faith of a Divine Redeemer, and in the hope of mercy through his righteousness alone. His last days on earth were spent in the privacy of his family, amid their affectionate and tender contributions to his comfort, and his own earnest preparation for his approaching change. I have not had time to certify the correctness of the following dates, but I have reason to consider them accurate: -The last sacrament at which he assisted, out of this church, was at Stowe, in the summer of 1850, where he revived the old recollections of his father's house and his native district; and where the visit referred to was made to his father's grave. Among the last services he performed as a member of Presbytery, as I have already noticed, was his going to Northumberland, to secure, by all the influence he could command, Mr. Ker's acceptance of your call; and his subsequent attendance upon the induction services. The last sermon he ever preached was in the United Presbyterian Church at Moffat, on June 16, 1850. His text was—“ Our friend Lazarus sleepeth;" and his subject was the death of Christians, and their reunion in heaven. He startled the people by telling them that it was just sixty years since he had preached from that pulpit. One who was present testifies that he never preached better, or with more animation and ease, and appeared in good health. It was the latest effort of a singularly active and acute mind, ere it descended into the silence and solitude of the dark valley; for on the Friday following this he was visited with that threatening of apoplexy which ever afterwards incapacitated him for public exertion, or indeed for any exertion whatever. He had a partial recovery from the effects of this stroke; and the first use he made of it was to come up and worship with you in this holy temple. He did this when prudence suggested another course; but when he had once made up his own mind, he generally adhered to it, and it was found no easy thing to persuade him to remain at home. His two last appearances amongst yourselves was upon the melancholy occasion of his colleague's funeral sermon being preached, and in the afternoon of the communion in April last. From the period of Mr. Brash's death he gradually sunk. That solemn event made made a very deep impression upon his mind; and, though he spoke little, it was very evident that he was almost overpowered with it. Once or twice after this, such was his love for ordinances, he went down to our church at Govan, which lies near to his dwellinghouse; but even this he was obliged to relinquish, and to spend his remaining Sabbaths at home; and these Sabbaths were well spent by him, though not in the house of God. His principal exercises were reading the Scriptures, meditation on them, and prayer. The eye of affection now discovered the slow but sure sinking of his remaining strength; and it seemed to want but some painful wounding of his affectionate nature to precipitate him still further down towards the grave. And it came. On the 24th of July last, his early and attached friend, the Rev. James Elles of Saltcoats died. Mr. Elles had been brought up, as you know, under Dr. Kidston's ministry, and he ever regarded him with the reverence and affection of a father. It was reciprocated. Dr. Kidston had a great regard for that warm-hearted, public-spirited, sound-minded, and, in many other respects, most estimable man. Their affection for each other had almost grown with their growth, and strengthened with their strength; but Dr. Kidston had never premeditated that his friend should predecease him. Hence the sudden character of his death I was felt to be a severe blow. Somewhat more quickly now did his failing strength forsake him. His mind waited daily upon death, and his exercises were suitable to his solemn expectations. Much of his time was given to the Bible, and to pious books, but especially to the Bible itself. His reverence for that blessed book was great, and increased as he drew nigh to death. One Sabbath morning lately, as a friend was leaving him to go with the family to church, that friend expressed his regret that he was to be left alone; and somewhat jocularly said, "That he would just require now to take up and read one of his old discourses." "No, no," he replied; "they are not worth reading. I go now always to the Fountain of Life -to the Bible-to the Bible alone." Indeed, his ardent love of God's Word is one of the most memorable features in his character. His family may forget many exemplary points in their father's life; but his daily morning seat, for an hour or two, over the sacred volume, they can never forget. It must be stereotyped for ever in their minds. The consequence was, that few men knew better than he the Scriptures of Truth, or could handle them more accurately, or at better chosen periods. This was specially observable in his prayers, and in his counsels to the afflicted. Public duty called me to London about the middle of September last, when he was in his ordinary frail condition. He said at parting that we should never meet again on earth. I soon heard that a decided change to the worse had taken place, and hastened home. It was indeed but too evident that death was at hand. I arrived on Saturday evening, that day two weeks before his decease, and found his strength greatly reduced. It was the last night that he passed with • his family out of his bed-room. As it happened, the place for singing in the usual course at family worship was in the 8th paraphrase, commencing with these solemn words 66 a presumptuous or even confident man; and if he erred at all, it was on the side of caution in expressing religious expe riences or hopes; hence his words on a death-bed were few indeed, but these were well-ordered and sure." He was told that many friends were calling and inquiring for him; and he replied, "It is very kind; I hope they pray for me. What a mysterious thing is the influence which the intercession of others has! it certainly has power." "You are no doubt," it was said, "resting on Christ's atonement and intercession for your pardon and acceptance?" "I can much more easily tell you," he replied, "on what I am not resting-not on myself." "But surely Christ is all your salvation?" "All!" he answered, with feeble emphasis. "And he, too, is all your desire?" "Yes." He was told that an aged member of his congregation was dying, and wished him to know it. He seemed much interested, saying, "Then we shall soon meet in heaven." The propriety of dying saints speaking in praise of Christ was mentioned; and I told him that when I visited Dr. Mitchell in his last days, I was much struck with the beautiful simplicity of one of his remarks to me-viz., that "he could do little now for his Divine Master, but he could at least speak a word in his praise." He seemed pleased with the idea, and said, in the words of the Psalmist, "O Lord, open thou my my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.' He had very lowly views of his own character, and was frequently found with the words of the 51st Psalm on his lips. On these occasions he used to say, "I just go to him as a chief sinner, and cast myself on his mercy. What a wonderful love was that which gave the only-begotten Son of the Father to suffer and to die for such as we are! What a hard heart I must have when it does not melt under such love!" On the Thursday evening before his death, he was overheard saying, "O, it will be a grand thing to take a journey to that better land." "Yes," it was rejoined, "an entrance into heaven will make up for all our pains and sorrows here; and there, has long been familiar—a man who was, in his day, an ornament and a blessing to the large denomination of which he was a minister, and who moved in society to animate by his example, direct by his wisdom, and bless by his benevolence. He is gone now-gone to his reward gone to that blessed Saviour, whom, having not seen, he loved and served-gone to that happy assembly who, like himself, have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb-gone and left behind him a name of which neither his kindred nor his church need to be ashamed, but which shall long be held in affectionate remembrance. In the language of a beloved Christian minister in the south of England, who wrote to me on hearing of his death, "What a mercy to have finished his course without a stain on his reputation, either as to the soundness of his faith or the unsullied purity of his character!"* * Rev. Mr. Adkins, Southampton. CAFFRARIA. We have of late said very little concerning Caffraria; but, from the arrangements we have made, we hope henceforward to give our readers portions of the latest intelligence from South Africa. By the last mail the Caffre war seems in a great measure ended. Their armies are broken up into small detachments. Their ammunition has failed. Provisions among them have become exceedingly scanty. The women and children are dying of famine, and the chiefs, each with a few followers, are ransacking the country, and stealing a few cattle from the colonists when they can get possession of them. Some of their acts of plunder are daring and cunning in the extreme. In as far as the Caffre war is concerned, it would be speedily brought to a close were the promised constitution only sent out to the colony, and the most able men allowed to meet in council, and to consult for the settlement and defence of the country. In the most unaccountable way it has been detained by the late government, and things have long been kept in a most uncertain and disorganized state. A new ministry, however, having been formed, and not a few of its members having constituted a part of that government which enacted the outlines of the promised constitution, it may be expected to be sent out forthwith, and the best of consequences to colonists, Caffres, and missionaries may be speedily expected to follow. It is to be deplored that when the Caffre war has spent its strength, a new war, on a far more extensive scale, with native tribes behind the Caffres, is looming in the distance. General Cathcart, with upwards of 2000 soldiers, has entered the Orange River Sovereignty to chastise some of the native chiefs, and to repress some outrages committed by Dutch Boers, or farmers, residing among them. By a letter which we have seen from South Africa, upwards of 2,000,000 of natives are in a state of warlike excitement, and unless great firmness, impartiality, and prudence are exercised, the whole country may be thrown into a blaze, and all the military force in the colony will be utterly unable to quench the flame. It may not be known to many of our readers that behind the colonial line there is an immense piece of territory, consisting of from 40,000 to 50,000 square miles, lying between the Orange and Vaal rivers, which does not belong to the Caffres, nor to the colony of the Cape, but which, under the designation of the Orange River Sovereignty, has been added, by a feeble tenure, to the possessions of Great Britain. Its acquisition and government are altogether singular. So far back as the year 1836, a number of emigrant Boers left the colony of the Cape, went first to Natal, and ultimately settled themselves down in this fertile district. Under Pretorius as their leader they assumed absolute independence, and established a species of government for themselves. They disclaimed being amenable either to the colonial or the government of the natives, within whose territory they had taken up their residence. They possessed themselves of much of their land; and discord, and violence, and crime, pervaded the immense district. Sir Harry Smith marched an army against them, compelled the Boers to submit to British authority, recognizing, to a certain extent, the government which they had set up for themselves, and prescribing boundary lines and certain civil arrangements to be observed between them and the native tribes. The original regulations between the Boers and the natives have since been frequently modified and changed, and always to the disadvantage of the poor natives, taking from them fresh slices of territory, and depriving them of some of their rights and privileges. So late as the year 1851, the assistant commissioners of Sir Harry Smith went into the sovereignty to adjust differences which had sprung up between the Dutch Boers and the natives, and also between some of the native tribes themselves. At this time they entered into a convention with Pretorius and the Dutch Boers of a very extraordinary kind, and which comprehended within it the safety and well-being of tribes lying still farther away from the colony than the Vaal river, and in the direction of those internal lakes which have been discovered by Dr. Livingstone the missionary. One of the extraordinary articles of this treaty was, that while they, the Dutch Boers, should have free access to the colony to purchase guns and ammunition, that the native tribes beyond the Vaal river should be denied this privilege, and that her Majesty's government should enter into no arrangements with these native tribes, save through the cognizance of the Dutch Boer government. In this manner all these native communities were handed over, in the most defenceless state, to Pretorius and his grasping government. The Lakes, and the population teeming around them, have of late become objects of deep interest to British travellers and colonial traders. In passing to them through the territories of these native chiefs, they have readily given and sold them warlike implements and all kinds of goods, so as to secure their friendship and protection. These things have roused the ire of the Dutch Boers, who have made one of the most unprovoked onslaughts against the town of Sechele, a converted native chief, that has for a long period stained the name of civilized men. They fired the place, killed sixty of the natives, and carried away hundreds of women and children into captivity. They also broke into, and destroyed the station of Dr. Livingstone in his absence, tearing his books, and smashing everything to pieces. A full account of the outrage will be found in the London Missionary Chronicle for February, and we are glad to perceive that the directors of the London Missionary Society have me morialized government upon the subject. They A friend has favoured us with a letter of Duk wana's, the native elder at Chumie, in which he gives us an account of his sufferings while there; of his expulsion from thence, and of what has befallen the station, and the native converts. Not a few of them have died. They were cruelly stripped of all their property and clothing, and have since been labouring to procure a scanty subsistence. are scattered as sheep without a shepherd. Notishi has left Somerset in the colony, where she was teaching a school, and has gone to King William's town, where Dukwana and several of the converts are residing, that she may consult, sympathize with them, and do them good. We are glad to hear that several sums of money have been sent of late from this country to alleviate their necessities; and as some of the missionaries connected with the London Missionary Society have begun to refit their stations, we hope and trust that the Caffrarian Mission of the United Presbyterian Church, will be encouraged to resume its labours among those Caffre converts who have given themselves to the Lord, and to the Synod's protecting and fostering care. Missions, as well as individual Christians, must struggle through difficulties if they are to reap their rich reward. THE UNION OF THE CROWNS OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. MARCH. THE subjugation of Scotland to the English sceptre had been for centuries the aim of the English Government; but, on the accession of the Stuart line to the English throne, the union of the two crowns was regarded as politically expedient. Charles I. and II. had not only been crowned at Westminster, but also at Scoone Palace; thus recognizing Scotland as a distinct kingdom. James VII. was proclaimed King of Scotland. When William Prince of Orange was invited to occupy the throne of England, VOL. IV.-No. 39, N.S. G W. LEASE. the Duke of Argyle and Sir John Dalrymple were sent up to London to present to him the crown of Scotland, and to administer the coronation oath; but when Anne succeeded to her brother-inlaw, the incorporated union of the two kingdoms came to be seriously discussed. Many of the Scottish nobles had no objection to a federal union, as thereby they might retain their national parliament in Scotland, and the other prerogatives of their time-honoured monarchy, for the defence and preservation of which their forefathers had shed their blood and sacrificed their all. The principal MARCH, 1853. |