Literary Record. THE Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, one of the oldest literary institutions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, continues to flourish finely under the care of Rev. Miner Raymond. It reports nearly five hundred students. At a late public meeting, held at Birming ham, England, it was decided to establish a Literary and Scientific Society on an extensive scale. A letter from Mr. Charles Dickens was read, in which that gentleman proposed to read his Christmas Carols, the proceeds to be appropriated in aid of the proposed institution. It is designed to erect a spacious building at a cost of $100,000. Professor Petermann, of the Berlin University, is at present engaged at Damascus in copying, with the aid of other learned men, a Syriac New Testament of the sixth century, which, it is said, there is reason to believe was itself translated verbally from one of the earliest and most authentic Greek manuscripts. Rev. F. Hodgson, so well known in his earlier time to the readers of the Byron Memoirs, and of late years Provost of Eton College, died recently in his seventy-second year. Mr. Hodgson was not only a friend of the author of "Childe Harold," but a brother poet. His poem on Lady Jane Grey is, perhaps, the most notable of his original efforts; but his most accepted work is the translation of Juvenal. A new edition of the Fathers of the Church is in course of publication in Paris, under the revision, and with the notes, of the erudite Abbé Caillau. From the report of the Leeds Mechanics' Institution, it appears that this is the largest and most flourishing establishment of the kind in England. The number of members and subscribers is now upward of two thousand one hundred. Besides numerous journals and periodicals, the library contains nearly nine thousand volumes. Dr. Max Müller has been appointed to a lectureship of modern literature at the University of Oxford. The fifth and concluding volume of The Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield, including some new letters now first published from the original manuscripts, under the editorship, as before, of Lord Mahon, are about to appear in London. Two volumes of Letters of the Poet Gray, announced by Mr. Bentley, are also to be issued during the present season. They will be edited by the Rev. J. Mitford, author of " The Life of Gray." Mr. Walter Scott Lockhart Scott, only son of Mr. Lockhart, and only surviving male descendant of the author of "Waverley," died recently, aged twenty-seven years. The ecclesiastical publications, to appear under the title of The Church Historians of England from Bede to Fox, are about to be issued from the London press. Between these two celebrated authors, in an interval of eight hundred years, there were many ecclesiastical annalists and historians in England; but their works are almost unknown, except to a few antiquaries and authors. Those parts, of the histories relating only to secular affairs will be omitted, and notes, explanatory or illustrative, be appended by the editor. A new edition of Foxe's Acts and Monuments is to be given. The books are to appear in volumes, published occasionally, at intervals extending over five or six years, by annual subscription, as with the publications of the Parker Society, the Library of Anglo-Catholic Divinity, and similar works. It is estimated that the historians of the Pre-Refor mation period will occupy eight octavo volumes, edition of Foxe's Acts and Monuments will conof about eight hundred pages each, and the new sist of the same number of volumes. A late number of the Hebrew Christian Magazine, published in England, mentions the discovery of some interesting MSS. in that language, which, it is said, are not unlikely to come into the market. The titles and contents of five works are enumerated:-1. "The Mantle by Rabbi Jacob Elijah, circa Charles II of Elijah-a commentary on the Pentateuch, 2. "The Gleanings of Paradise"-a collection of Cabalistic pieces, explanations of difficult passages in the Hebrew Scriptures, moral aphorisms illustrated by allegories, and a treatise on Hebrew Grammar. A MS. of this work-but thought to be a copy-is now in the Bodleian Library. 3. Eight MS. works, by the late Rabbi Natta Ellingen, of Hamburg. 4. Three volumes of the work called Great Understanding"being a commentary on the obscure passages of the Medrash Rabba, with an explanation of all foreign words not in the Rabbinical Lexicon "Aaruch." 5. A book of names-written by R. Solomon Ben Aaron in 1676, being an analysis of the Cabala, with an illustration of the Cabalistic alphabet. At Calcutta there are not less than forty native presses, established for the purpose of publishing Bengali books, which send out thirty thousand volumes annually. It is fifty-one years since the Serampore missionaries published the first book in the Bengali language. Within this period, every ancient Bengali book but one, all of which were full of idolatry, has ceased to be published, while nearly four hundred works have taken their place. The society formed about ten years ago, to circulate the writings of M. Victor Hugo, has just parted with the copyrights of MM. Lebigre and Delay hays. The purchase money is said to be 82,000 francs. The Benedictines of France, though much they used to be, are very creditably mainless numerous and much less wealthy than taining the long-established renown of their order for learning and literary industry. In addition to the recent publication of several works, highly appreciated by all who occupy themselves with ecclesiastical matters, they are busily engaged in completing their famous Spicilegium Solesmense-a vast repository of un published documents on the religious history of the past centuries of the Christian era. They have just deputed one of their body, Don Pitra, to visit the library at Valenciennes, that of the English Benedictine Convent at Douai, and those of the convents and other public establishments of Holland and Belgium, to look for papers. Since the 1st of June, 1852, the Methodist missionaries in China have published the Gospel by Matthew, 2,000 copies; by John, 2,000; and of the Acts of the Apostles, 4,000. The Literary Examination was held in Fuh-Chau about the time these portions of Scripture were pub lished, and from six to seven thousand graduates of the first degree were present; they came from all parts of the province, and the occasion furnished excellent facilities for circulating the Bible among them. The last catalogue of Dickinson College shows that venerable institution to be flourishing under its new and able president, Dr. Collins. It reports one hundred and fifty-five students, including forty in the preparatory department. The thirty-second annual report of the NewYork Mercantile Library Association shows a large increase both in members and volumes in the library. It is now the fifth in the United States, and is surpassed in this city only by the Astor Library. The amount expended for books during the past year is nearly $5,000. The number of volumes added to the Library is 4,346. The whole number of volumes is 37,486. Of the number added during the past year, 1,063 are in History and Geography, 138 in Theology, 814 in Mental and Moral Science, and 1,656 in fiction. The profits derived from the lectures during the past year, amounting to $1,500, have been permanently invested for the benefit of the Institution. The Howard High School, Fayette, Mo., under the care of Rev. W. T. Luckey, reports three hundred and thirty-eight students, of whom one hundred and sixty-six are females. The course of study is thorough, and the faculty efficient. An article from the pen of Dr. Hickok, in the last number of the Bibliotheca Sacra, states that Union College has about $150,000 of productive capital, besides its buildings, books, apparatus, and three hundred acres of land contiguous to the College, under cultivation as an ornamental garden, an experimental farm, &c. There has been conveyed to the College, by a deed of trust, property from which there can hardly fail to be realized $500,000—and, probably, much more for educational purposes. At the recent sale of Major Douglas's library, in this city, many of the most important works in Civil Engineering were purchased for the library, which makes their collection of such works (in connection with the private library of Professor Gillespie) one of the best in the country. There were seven daily papers in this city in 1816, whose aggregate circulation amounted to nearly nine thousand copies. In 1853 the aggregate circulation of three of the New-York dailies is more than one hundred thousand. The Rev. Wm. Bishop, of Ohio, has published an eloquent sermon on the death of Daniel Webster, in which he asserts the religious character of the great statesman against "Rumor, which represents him otherwise." One of the most flourishing libraries, for its size, in the State of Massachusetts, is the Taun ton Social Library, incorporated in 1825, and ever since in active operation. It numbers about thirty-five hundred volumes, and three thousand volumes are annually taken out. The Oneida Conference Academy, at Cazenovia, N. Y., reports a numerous and effective faculty, under the presidency of Rev. Dr. Bannister, and nearly five hundred students. In the United States there are 119 colleges, 989 instructors, 11,296 students, or on an average 94 students to every college; number of volumes in the different college libraries about 500,000, or on an average nearly 4,000 to each. Of these colleges 15 are under the direction of the Baptists, 8 of the Episcopalians, 14 of the Methodists, 11 of the Catholics, 7 of the Congregationalists, 8 of the Congregationalists and Presbyterians united, and about 20 under the control of the Presbyterians exclusively. A new college, under the auspices and control of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the diocese of Wisconsin, has been opened for the reception of students at Racine, Wis., from which place it takes its name. Rev. Roswell Park, D. D., a graduate of West Point, is president. From the seventeenth annual report of the Providence Athenæum, we learn that its library now numbers 17,377 volumes, of which 775 volumes have been received during the last year. The Athenæum building has been recently repaired and enlarged. Columbia College, N. Y., is to be removed from its present position in the heart of the city to a new and sightly location three or four miles up-town. This college was chartered ninety-nine years ago, and is the oldest literary institution in the United States, with the exception of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. The total number of newspapers and periodicals published in the United States is 2,496, having a circulation of 3,825,647. The total number of public libraries is 1,262, containing 1,212,858 volumes. The total number of public school libraries is 10,605, containing 1,321,349 volumes. A new institution, called the "Model School for Boys," has been started at Lima, N. Y., designed to afford a thorough "physical" and At a recent meeting of the New-York Histor-"moral," as well as intellectual education of ical Society, Professor Koeppen read an interesting paper on the late archæological discoveries in the Piræus, illustrating the naval supremacy and the commercial and colonial development of the Athenian republic. the pupil. Its scheme has been fully developed in a "general circular," and is admirable. Messrs. Slaughter and Depuy are the associate principals; they are gentlemen fully competent for the experiment. Religious Summary. Rev. J. Mullen, of the London Missionary Society, now laboring in Ceylon, gives the following interesting statistics:-At the commence ment of 1852 there were in India and Ceylon, under the direction of 22 missionary societies, 443 missionaries (of whom 48 were ordained natives) and 668 catechists, who were employed on 313 missionary stations. There were 331 native churches, containing 18,410 communicants, in a community of 112,191 native Christians. The missionaries maintain 1,347 day-schools in the native language, in which were 47,504 boys; and 93 boardingschools, containing 2,414 Christian boys. They also sustain 126 superior day-schools in the English language, in which are instructed 14,562 boys and young men. They have 347 day-schools for girls, containing 11,519 scholars; and 202 female boarding-schools, containing 2,779 Christian girls. The entire Bible has been translated into ten languages, the New Testament into five others, and separate Gospels into four others. Besides numerous works for Christians, thirty, forty, and even seventy tracts have been prepared in some of these different languages, suitable for Hindoos and Mussulmans. Missionaries maintain in India twenty-five printing establishments. The greater part of this vast missionary agency has been brought into operation within the last twenty years. It is supported at an annual cost of $900,000, of which about one-sixth is contributed by European Christians resident in the country. By the report of the treasurer of the Boston City Missionary Society, it appears that the receipts of the society for the past year were $6,329 08, and the expenditures $6,670 66. There are 715 churches and 283,000 members of the society of Friends in the United States. Of these, Pennsylvania has 141, with 60,000 members; New-York 132, with 49,314. Indiana has 35 churches, with 43,000 members. A grandson of the celebrated William Paley was ordained recently in England. He is going out to Africa as a missionary of the Established Church. Under the control of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, South, at the present time, are 299 missions, 273 missionaries, 229 churches, 6,368 church-members, 136 Sabbath schools, 19,894 children under religious instruction, with eight manual-labor schools, and 489 pupils. The total missionary contributions for the past year amounted to $125,000. The Young Men's Christian Association of New-York has about eight hundred members, and nearly one hundred are added at each monthly meeting. They have a library of about five hundred volumes-constantly enlarging and their regular meetings are fully attended. The number of Baptist Associations in Pennsylvania is 16; of churches, 332; of ordained ministers, 251; of licentiates, 46; of baptized within the year, 1,852. Net gain, 568. Total of membership, 30,053. There has been a net increase of fifteen hun dred persons in the German Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States the past year. The whole German Methodist membership is now about ten thousand. The membership of the South Carolina Meth odist Conference numbers 32,828 whites, and 40,358 colored; increase in the former year 435, in the latter 2,877. The amount contributed for missions is $22,320, exclusive of $1,000 and upward, given for the erection of churches on the missions for the service of the blacks. Twenty-four ministers of the conference are stationed on missions to the blacks, besides a supply of five local preachers under the supervision of the superintendents of the missions. No annual conference in the United States gives so much to the missionary cause as this conference. In 1752 there were 53 ministers and about 96 Protestant Episcopal churches in America. Now the Episcopal Church in this country is divided into 20 dioceses. Two years ago, the date of its last report, it numbered 1,558 ministers, 1,500 parishes, 92,238 communicants, and 120 candidates for orders. Its present membership is estimated at 100,000. George Hadfield, of Manchester, England, member of Parliament, has offered $25,000, to be appropriated in sums of $500 for churchextension among Congregationalists; thus giv ing "material" toward the erection of fifty churches. There are 40,000 Baptists in Mississippi. The sum of $30,000 was subscribed by the recent Baptist Convention toward the endowment fund of $100,000, proposed to be raised for the Literary and Theological Institute, located at Clinton, besides several thousands for other interests, home and foreign, under the direction of that body. The Protestant Episcopal Church have in China one bishop, three clergymen, four female missionaries, one native deacon, one American and two native teachers. In Africa they have also a bishop, six clergymen, ten American and nine native teachers. There are fourteen Protestant schools in Con stantinople, and twenty-six Protestant sermons are preached in or near that city every Sunday. We learn from the annual register, recently published by the Unitarian denomination at Boston, that there are in the United States two hundred and twenty-two ministers belonging to that denomination, and about the same number of societies, located in twenty-one states. The Louisiana Methodist Conference has 4,872 white and 4,890 colored members. There are 19 traveling preachers in the French Methodist Conference, 34 local preachers, 4 catechists or evangelists, 873 Church mem bers, 1,582 scholars in schools receiving religious instruction. From the late report of the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, we learn that the receipts during the past year amounted to $7,258, being $690 in advance of the former year. The report also shows an increase in the number of schools of 368; of scholars, 31,368; of teachers, 4,470; of Bible classes, 1,179; of volumes in libraries, 141,452. From the report of the Baptist Mission in India, we learn that the distribution of the Scriptures for five years ending with 1851 amounted to 222,796 copies, which, added to those previously put in circulation, make a total of 609,906 copies of the word of God or portions of it issued from their press. About fifty Mormon missionaries lately embarked at San Pedro for San Francisco. They will take their departure from that place, some for the Sandwich Islands, and others for the East Indies and Australia. has been enabled to appropriate to benevolent purposes above thirty thousand dollars! and this, too, from operating with a capital of but five thousand dollars. Another man in the Methodist denomination in Boston has been enabled, during his business life of fifteen years, to appropriate thirty-nine thousand dollars! The English residents of Alexandria, in Egypt, have been making strenuous efforts of late to complete their church, the foundation of which was laid in 1839. The ground upon which it stands was the gift of Mehemet Ali to the English community. It is stated that the King of Prussia is causing a residence to be erected for the Anglican Bishop at Jerusalem. We learn from the New-York Independent, that there are in Lyons, France, six evangelical congregations, embracing about 2,000 souls, with 460 communicants, and 100 candidates for admission to Church fellowship. These Churches make evidence of regeneration a con members are converts from Romanism. For five years a new place of worship has been opened every year. Under the supervision of the Methodist Epis-dition of membership. Nine out of ten of the copal Church there are eight colleges, with property and funds to the amount of $494,063. The oldest of them, at Middletown, was founded in 1830. There are forty-five academies and seminaries. In twenty-nine of these there are 4,946 students, an average of 178 each. The anniversary meeting of the French Canadian Missionary Society was held in Montreal a short time since. This society was organized in the year 1839, and has a number of auxiliaries in different parts of the province. Its income for all objects and from all sources, in 1852, was $12,740. The disbursements, including a debt of over $1,315 paid off, amounted to $10,670. The total membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States is now one million two hundred and sixty thousand. The increase in the Methodist Church, South, is about twelve thousand yearly. The Reformed Dutch churches at the Cape of Good Hope are represented as being in a very flourishing condition. The last Synod numbered sixty-six ministers and elders, and claims to be the oldest and most numerous religious body in South Africa. The Board of Managers of the American Bible Society have appointed the Rev. J. H. McNeill, of North Carolina, an assistant secretary. The new Bible House is expected to be ready for occupation in May, and the prospect of raising the $60,000 sought toward paying for it is good. In Nova Scotia there are belonging to the Church of England, 36,482; Roman Catholics, 69,634; Kirk of Scotland, 18,867; Presbyterian Church of the United States, 28,767; Free Church, 25,280; Baptists, 42,243; Methodists, 23,596; Congregationalists, 2,639; Lutherans, 4,087. According to the recent census, this province has a population of 276,117. In a recent acknowledgment of a donation to the Methodist German Mission, it was stated that the donor twenty years ago resolved to use a certain portion of his yearly income for the spread of Christianity. In that period he Thirty Jesuit priests are sustained in Oregon for the conversion of the Indians and whites, by the weekly penny contributions of the Papists of France chiefly. The following summary exhibits the number of Baptists of all kinds in the world:-Churches in North America, 16,709; ministers, 13,144; members, 1,237,621; Europe, 2,052 churches, 1,700 ministers, 196,824 members; Asia, 170 ministers, 380 churches, 12,297 members; Africa, 26 ministers, 22 churches, ministers, 15,176 churches, 1,447,984 mem1,242 members. Total in the world, 18,958 bers. The whole number of Theological Seminaries in the United States is 44. Number of professors, 125. Whole number of students, 1,341. Number of volumes in the different libraries, about 200,000. The committee of the Baptist Missionary Society in England have determined on an augmentation of twenty men to their mission in British India. Half of these are to be sent from England, the other ten will be native ministers. A society in England, consisting of a large has been formed for the purpose of effecting a number of influential clergymen and laymen, "thoroughly conservative reformation" in the government of the Church of England. We learn from the London Missionary Maga eine that the Prince of Madagascar, who professed Christianity in 1845, and has since ex erted himself to the utmost for the relief and protection of his suffering brethren, is admitted to a joint share in the government with the queen, his mother. Through his influence, two important measures have been carried: 1. That the ports of Madagascar shall be opened to all nations. 2. That all the subjects of Madagas car, who have been obliged to seek refuge in other lands, shall have liberty to return to their country. Art Intelligence. MR. CRAWFORD is at work, in Rome, on the United States national monument to Washington. It will be the largest monument of the kind existing. Rauch's statue of Frederick the Great, at Berlin, is of considerably less proportions. The base of the Washington monument is a complete circle; on this a star, with six points, is raised, and on this rises the actual base to the equestrian figure. Six eagles surround the steps on the circle, and six colossal statues of eminent Americans surround the pedestal-Henry, Lee, Mason, Marshall, Allen, and Jefferson. The whole is on a gigantic scale, from sixty to seventy feet high. The figures of Jefferson and Henry are completed, and forwarded to Müller's foundry, at Munich, to be cast in bronze. The artist is raising the figure of Washington's horse- -a mound of clay. Gibson's statue of Sir Robert Peel, to be placed in Westminster Abbey, is in course of execution. It will be finished in three months. The sculptor is likewise engaged on another work of national interest. It is to be of colossal proportions, representing Queen Victoria seated on the throne, with attendant figures at each side, the one of Clemency, the other of Justice. The statue of the Queen is at present being raised in clay. An engraving has been made of the Sully portrait of Jackson, in the possession of Francis Preston Blair, taken soon after the close of the Seminole war. It is similar to the large head of Washington, from Stuart's original portrait; it is consequently more youthful than the portraits familiar to the public, taken later in life. The habitual energy and vivid qualities of Jackson are well conveyed. It is engraved in an effective mixed line and stipple, by Mr. Welch, who executed the Washington head. At the recent sale of the gallery of the late Duke of Orleans, at Paris, Ary Scheffer's "Francesca di Rimini," so well known through the fine engraving executed of it, sold for nine thousand francs. The State Legislature of Pennsylvania has passed a bill, making an appropriation to aid in the erection of a monument in Independencesquare, commemorative of the original thirteen states, and the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The recent exhibition of photographic pictures at the Society of Arts-the first of its kind in London-has proved eminently attractive. The collection was a very large one, including seven hundred and seventy-four specimens the results of the several processes known as Talbotype or Calotype, Waxed Paper, Albumened Paper, Albumenized Glass, and Collodion. They have been contributed by French, German, and English photographers. An association has been formed at NewOrleans for the erection of a monument to Henry Clay in one of the public squares of the city. The monument is to be a colossal statue which shall cost not less than $50,000, and the association is now in correspondence with several distinguished sculptors in this country and abroad, and have offered $250 for the design which shall be adopted by them. Professor Koeppen read lately a most inter esting and instructive paper before the NewYork Historical Society on the "Monuments of the Acropolis, the discoveries made during the recent excavations, and the restoration of the temples by the direction and at the expense of the government of King Otho." Professor Koeppen was for years a Professor of History, Ancient Geography, and the Languages, at the Military College at Athens. At a recent meeting of the United States Agricultural Society, at Washington, the erection of a monument to the late unfortunate Mr. Downing, who perished by the burning of the Henry Clay, was determined upon by the farmers and horticulturists, to be located in the Smithsonian grounds, themselves rare memorials of his genius and taste. The Society of Antiquaries of Picardy, in France, announce that, by a decree of the government, they have been authorized to erect a statue in bronze of Peter the Hermit, in one of the public places of Amiens. Their circular states, that although that great event of the Middle Ages, the "holy war," has obtained a place among the recorded "glories," the apostle of the crusades has not yet a monument in his native city. It states, however, that Peter the Hermit belongs not to France alone, but to the whole Christian world, and that all the "friends of religion" are bound to subscribe something toward the accomplishment of this object, most worthy to be recorded, as the French chroniclers word it, among the Gesta Dei per Francos! This is an emanation of religious madness. A statue, by Rude, of Joan of Arc, or rather Joan Darc, has recently been erected in the garden of the Luxembourg, in Paris. The sculptor has attempted to reproduce the heroine's likeness from the sole portrait which exists of her-a pen-and-ink sketch, taken down tories by the clerk to the examiners. We also in the margin of the record of her interrogalearn that more mural paintings have been discovered in the ancient church of Saint Eustache at Paris. It now appears pretty positive that the entire of the vast edifice was decorated with such paintings, and that they, a century or two after, having fallen partially into decay from damp, were, though of considerable artistic and historic value, barbarously covered with whitewash or plaster. The Hotel de Ville, at Paris, in addition to its historical importance and architectural beauties, will shortly be one of the most gorgeously and at the same time most tastefully art-decorated monuments in Europe. Several distinguished artists have executed allegorical and historical paintings of great beauty on the walls and ceilings of the principal apartments. |