The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-18 00:00:00

/FLAME A PLAN, &C.

I. Your Committee submit, that in order to meet
the first rule adopted by the Hon. Governors, the re-
ligious instruction of the children must be divided into
two parts ; the one general, the other particular ; the
one embracing the fundamental truths of Christianity,
as they are held in common by the five great existing
divisions of Christendom enumerated in the rule ; the
other relating to discipline, Church Government, the
sacraments, and other matters on which differences more
or less important exist. Your Committee consider
that the first part should be taught daily and publicly
to all the children by the Head Master of the school ;
the second, privately, and on particular days, by the
mithsters and teachers whom the parents of the respec-
tive childien may, with the approbation of the Go-
vernors select.
11. The following are the main truths held in com-
monom which the public religious instruction should, in
your Committee's opinion, proceed :-
1. The beinc, of God ; his unity and perfections.
2. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New
Testament, a revelation inspired by the Holy Ghost.
3. The mystery of the adorable Trinity.
4. The Deity, Incarnation, Atonement, and Inter-
cession of our Lord and Savious Jesus Christ.
5. The fall and corruption of man his accountable-
ness and guilt.
6. Salvation through grace by the meritorious sacri-
fice and redemption of Christ.
7. The personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit,
and his operations and grace in the sanctification of man.
8. The indispensable obligation of repentance to-
wards God, faith in Christ, and continual prayer for the
grace of the Holy Spirit.
9. The moral duties which every Christian is bound
to perform towards God, his neighbour, and himself, as
they are summed up in the Ten Commandments, and
imlarged upon in other parts of the Holy Scriptures ;
all based on the doctrines above specified, and enforced
as their proper fruits.
111. As to the first of these branches of the religi-
ous instruction—the public and general—the Com-
mittee recommend that it be chiefly drawn from the
lioly Scriptures themselves ; such simple instruction
being given by the masters and mistresses in a cateche-
tient form as may be adapted to the capacities of the
children, on the points which fall within the limits of the
public teaci,ing ; all matters which belong to the pri-
vate, or which touch on controversy, being sedulously
avoided.

With respect to versions of the Scriptures, your Com-
mittee will offer their opinion under a subsequent rule.
V. The second branch of the religious instruction—
the private and particular—will require no regulations
from your Committee ; it will be merely supplementary ;
so that what is, in the judgment of the parents and
guahlians of the respective children, omitted, or insuffi-
ciently taught in public, may thus be supplied. In this
private teaching the entire Catechisms of the different
Churches, and the versions of the Holy Scriptures ap-
proved by them, may of course be freely used.
VII. We come next to the subject of family devo-
tional exercises, ami the public worship of Almighty God.
The daily morning and evening family prayers, your
Committee suggest, should be read by the Head bias•
ter, from a Form of Prayer extracted from different
liturgies, which we have prepared, and which accom-
pan'.es these rules. On these vccasions all the children
of both sexes, and all the masters and mistresses, with
all the Christian members of the household, should
attend.

The fa►nily devotions should not exceed teu or fifteen

minutes altogether in length,
Tile masters and tdstresses are to allow also a few
minutes to the children for private prayer, before they
retire w bed at night, and when they rise in the
morning-.

I On Sunday mornings, your Committee think all the
children should be conducted to their respective churches
.and chapels, for the worship of the Almighty, in the
manner and after the rites approved by their parents.
On Sunday evenings they recommend that the ordi-
nary family devotions be read, with the addition of a
Imitable sermon, to be approved of by the Governors.
The same to be don.; also on Sunday mornings,
when circumstances may prevent the children from
going out ; with the addition of a Litany extracted from
one or more of the Liturgies of different Churches.
VIII. As it respects versions of the Holy Scriptures,
your Committee are not aware that the Greek and Ar-
menian Churches have any English version of their
own. The English and Scotch Churches use the autho-
rised English version. It remains only that the case of the
Church of Rome be considered, which has long possessed
an English version of its own—that of Douay and Rheims;
we recommend that, whenever the Roman Catholic
children are required to have the Holy Scriptures in
their hands, and to learn lessons or receive direct reli-
gious instruction from them, this version be permitted
to be employed ; the copies being, of course, without
notes or indexes which touch on controversy, and the
master taking care to range the children in different
classes, so that no confusion may arise by the variations
in the readings.
As this, however, could not be done in family prayer,
where all the children of all classes and each sex, as
well as the Christian household, are assembled together,
we are of opinion that the portions of Holy Scripture,
directed to be read as a part of the doctrines, should be
taken from the authorized English version : the selec-
tion being, of course, subject to the provisions of the
foregping rules.
Your Committee do not know that they need proceed
more into detail. Much will and ought to be left
to the Head Master, if he be a man of piety, talent,
discretion, and temper. His suggestions, founded
on experience, will be of the greatest value. Much will
also depend on the number, description, age, and ca-
paeities of the children. But your Committee feel a
great confidence that by this union of public and reli-
gious instruction., on the basis of the great doctrines of
redemption held by the universal Church, with the pri-
vate inculcation -of what regards church discipline, the
sacraments, and other matters of controversy, the prac-
tical blessings o.:f a Christian education may be con-
veyed to the chiLldren, without indifference and latitu-
dinarianism on the one hand, or a spirit of debate and
proselytism on the other.
DANIEL CALCUTTA.
ROBERT S. LEGER, V. A.
Aug. 31, 1835.. JAMES CHARLES.
It is scarcely rie'cessary to add, thai this Report is not
inserted in this pitace, on the presumption that it anti-
cipates in all its details the plan which the Committee
of Council had prepared. On the contrary, we have
'beady been pujblicly informed, that on no occasion
did the Committis a of Council intend that different ver-
s"'" of the Scriptures should be used in the same
Partment in the: model school, but only in separate
rooms. We detailsneei.l not more particularly allude to other
fexpressedPcieno whirch the Committee of Council have
tracts from hi.°P.,,,14 ion ; but we have quoted these ex-
- niere, tostoles zit;i.,port of the Committee of the Marti-
prelates that ever asthone of the ablest and most pious
and highly cultivaitedd the. lustre of a comprehensive
virtues on society and the and of eminent Christian
rity of his name -to the regulations conceived bas len t the
ianu t
the
e-
same spirit of Christian charity,
nute of the Coninxittee of Council of
part of the mi-
thhe 11th of April,
by which the religious instruction onftt e chiil,dren in the
blessings
the
model school was to be regulated.
Bishop of Calcutta believes "the praCrtiscuatll
a Christian education may be conveyed to the childrensgsnf
without indifference and latitudinarianism on the one
hand, or a spirit of debate and proselytism on the other"
This Report may at least serve as a complete sa,•swer
to the question which the Archbishop of Canterbury
asked in the House of Lords, respecting" the tnenaiog
of general instruction in Christianity." We refer biro
to the Bishop of Calcutta's solution of that question.
" Then as to the minute, Religion to be combined
with the whole matter of instruction, and to regulate
the entire system of discipline,'" the Archbishop said,
" he was at a loss how this was to be carried into
effect." The ansv..er is contained in the Report signed
by the Bishop of Calcutta.

ACCIDENT.-Between three and four o'clock on
the afternoon of Thursday last, a
little girl, about four
tears of age, daughter of Mr. Stephen,
manager of Mr.
Thomson's spinning
mill, Hutchisontown, met her death
at the south end of Hutchison'- bridge, under the following,
' clreurnstalices :—A carter was making the turn from
Adelphi to Crotrl.street, when the deceased, by some
means, stumbled 19 before the wheels, which passed over
her, and she was lifted a corpse. The carter was at the
horses' head at the time.—Glasgow Herald.

IMPORTED LABOURERS AT DE-

MERARA.

REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED TO IN-
QUIRE INTO THE STATE OF THE GERMAN, PORTU-
GUESE, COOLIE, AND MALTESE IMMIGRANTS.
To his Excellency Henry Light, Governor and Com-
mander-in-Chief in and over the Colony of British
Guiana, &c., and the Hon. the Court of Polic
y.
The undersigned Commissioners, appointed by his
Excellency the Governor, on the resolution of the Court
of Policy, bearing date the 15th of May, having for
its object an inquiry into the state, condition, and
general treatment of the Maltese, German, Portuguese,
and Coolie indented emigrants, have the honour to
report,—
That they visited all the estates in the counties of
Demerara and Essequibo, where they knew, or were
informed, emigrants of the above description were lo-
cated, and are happy in being able to report, in general
terms, with few exceptions, favourably of their state,
condition, and treatment.
Your reporters deem it necessary to recapitulate here
the different estates they visited, the number of emi-
grants submitted to their inspection, and the casualties
occurring since their arrival, but refer your Excellency
and Hon. Court to the minutes taken on the spot, and
hereunto appended, for that and other information.
That it is evident to your reporters that much care
and attention has been bestowed on some of the Coolie
emigrants, whilst others of the same country have been
treated with neglect. Your reporters need only instance
the condition of the Anna Regina people as compared
with those on Bellevue, as a proof of this. On the former
estate there is not a sore or a sick person; and only one
man has died since their arrival, and that person was
labouring under a disease at that time ; on the latter
20 have died of diseases contracted in the colony, and
29 are now in a wretched state from ulcers, many of
whom in all probability will die, and should they survive
they will, some of them, be rendered unfit to support
themselves, from the loss of their toes and parts of
their feet. The sick-house presents a spectacle pitiable
to behold. These poor people are in a state of great
misery, and, from whatever cause it may have sprung,
the effects are so appalling, that humanity calls loudly
for the interference of the Executive. The Coolie
emigrants generally, when not affected with sores, are
contented, and doing their work cheerfully, some of
them boasting in their capability of performing as much
work as is done by their more sable brethren.
Your reporters cannot help remarking on the im-
propriety of conduct of the interpreter Jacobs, on
Vreed-en-Hoop estate, who, unknown to the manager,
caused some disturbance among the Coolies, by beating
several of them, and extorting money from others.
The Portuguese emigrants who have been in the co-
lony, the greater part of them for nearly four years, are
a respectable class of labourers ; they were on their ar-
rival subject to sickness, and a considerable number of
them died ; but your reporters believe their illness ori-
ginated, not so much from the climate, as the want of
accommodation on their arrival. They were huddled
into apartments unfit for their reception, and, if fit,
crowded to an excess which produced disease, of which
many of them fell victims. They are now well housed,
and are healthy, doing their work well and contentedly.
Your reporters may make the same remark with re-
gard to the habitations of the Maltese located on Hi-
bernia estate. S;ekness will, in all probability, attend
them ; they are pent up in a house, six times in number
of that which it can with comfort contain ; they are
discontented, and doing scarcely any work. They have
a priest and a medical attendant from Malta, indented
along with them, and it seems the emigrants are entirely
under their control and influence. Your reporters arc
decidedly of opinion they are not located as they ought
to be, and have just cause of complaint.
There are but few German emigrants, and some of
them hive worked out their indentures, and re-engaged
themselves on the same estate for twelve months at an
increased rate of wages.

From what your reporters have already stated, your
Honourable Court will perceive that the chief excep.
tions made to the general good treatment, state, and
condition of the indented labourers referred to, are on
Bellevue and Hibernia estates.

Your reporters see no reason to doubt the capability
of such indented labourers to performing the customary
task-work on estates with healch and contentment.
The Portuguese who have become accustomed to the
climate. and the Coolies of only one year's standing,
are daily perfOrtning the full quantum of labour, and
some of them are earning wages from extra work.
Your reporters are of opinion that the inconveniences
the indented labourers have been subjected to have
principally been the want of proper dwelling. houses and
bedding, and too hurriedly sent to work after th it
arrival ; that many casualties have resulted therefrom.
From what has come under the observation of your
reporters, they respectfully, but urgently recommend,
that all emigrants to arrive in the colony should not be
permitted to be located on any estate or elsewhere,
until the agent for emigrants, or some person ap-
pointed for that purpose, first see and ascertain that the
dwellings to be appropriated for their reception are in
every way suitable and comfortable, and that the labour
required of them should be apportioned to their several
circumstances. and not be called upon to perform a
full day's work for several months after their arrival ;
and, if practicable, the wages allowed to them should
not be less, in proportion to the labour performed, than
is paid to the other labouring classes of the community.
All which is respectfully reported by

C. ROBINSON. .
M. TURK.
C. R. WHINFIELD, Sheriff of Berbice.

Minutes of the proceedings of the Commissioners ap-
pointed by his Excellency the Governor for the pur.
pose of ascertaining the state, condition, and general
treatment of the Maltese, Coolies, Germans, and Por-
tuguese, under contract or indenture in this Colony.
(No. l.)-THE MALTESE.
On Sunday, May 19, we inspected the Maltese on
plantation Hibernia in Essequibo. The number of these
people located on this estate is as follows :
Men. Women. Children.
On February 27, 1833 ... 43 ... 25 ... 34
Since dead

Remaining this day ... 40 ... 24 ... 33

Total ... 97
Living in the Old Hospital go
Ibid in very'indifferent cottages, badly situated 15
The doctor and interpreter, also indentured, reside
with the manager. The number still is 15.
The indentures were originally entered into at Malta,
for a servitude of five years ; but under the operation
of her Majesty's Order in Council, bearing date the 7th
of September, 1838, they became null and void.
Others, however, were entered into after the form re-
quired by the said Order in Council.
Term of indenture—one year.
Wages for a day's work of 7i hours, monthly, dol.
4, each adult.
Rations weekly-31b. of salt fish, lib. of beef, with
as much rice, corn, meal, or biscuit, as can be con-
sumed without waste.

Daily, when working—Twe glasses of rum or
beverage each.
Clothing, annually.—To the men : one blanket, one
hat, two caps, one cic th jacket, one duck jacket, two
pairs of trowsers (one cloth, one duck), two shirts (one
of flannel and one check), one knife, one razor ; all of
the description formerly issued to apprenticed laltourers.
To the women—One blanket, one hat, one cap, two
handkerchiefs, two shifts, two petticoats, two cloth
wrappers, one pair of scissors, and needles and thread.
These people all express themselves much disap-
pointed with their situation, and there is evidently much
discontent existing.

The general state in which we found these people is
much to be deplored. No attention whatever seems to
have been given to render their situation comfortable ;
they are, with but few exceptions, without bedsteads or
bedding, and are kept in a very dirty condition. They
are so excessively crowded that unless immediate mea-
sures be adopted for supplying them with good and
suitable dwellings, there can be no doubt of the result
being great sickness and mortality. Indeed, if they be
not provided with such dwellings, they are fully entitled
to be released from their indentures, for which they ear-
nestly pray.

(NO. 2.)—'PEE ANNA REGINA.
Monday, May 20.—We visited Anna Regina, on the
Arabian coast of Essequibo. On this estate there are lo-
cated the following number of Coolies, viz. :—Men 45,
women 3, children 6.—Total 54.
All in perfect health. Lost but one man by death
since their arrival in May, 1838, who was ill of dysen-
tery at the time of their landing.
The men alone are indentured, and these for a ser-
vitude of five years from the date of the contract (Ist
of January, 1838), which was executed in Calcutta.
Their wages, five rupees monthly, payable in dollars, at
the exchange of two rupees to a dollar. One rupee per
month, however, is deducted to form a fund to secure
the proprietors from the responsibility of their becoming
a burden to the colony. This responsibility no longer
existing, ordinance No. 74 having been repealed by her
Majesty's Order in Council of the 7th of September,
1838, all deductions made should be now paid over, and
in f,
future discontinued. In addition to wages, they have
' each daily rations, viz.:—
Rice,
,14 chittacks ; dholl, two ditto ; ghee or oil,
11,0 ditto ; salt, quarter ditto ; temerie and tamarinds,
one ditto onions and chillies, h ditto ; dried fi
one ditto.
estates, as inTiphoerpterdopferrowmeieghaltesu,
Annual clothing.—Blankets ',ltnttaci'w.mo th
one
Alisaocki
sestueadn dananucisl
y.
o
medicine, and
bowl.
e; a sduhroeostai
ors: on
tw e;
;Medical attendance'
stipulated for under their conctirnaeel.and houses, are also
There were no complaints,
atilllemurgvienrgy
kindly.
tltyheir
Theyl
v
ma-
nager, e
r
.Nidckal.,
on every matter connected
with 0
were questioned
Al
present situations. Their answers were all truly gra-
tifying and satisfactory. That to the last question put

to them was, " All we get from Mr. Mackay is very
good. Our food is very good. Our clothes are very
good. Our houses are very good. We are quite
happy ; our manager is very good to us. What can
we say more ?" _

They are employed on the general work of the estate,
saving trenching, and execute it most cheerfully and
satisfactorily. They appear much delighted with the
circumstance of their being able to do the work re-
quired of them in the proportion performed by the other
labourers. Many of them expressed themselves with
great earnestness on this point.
Their treatment by Mr. Mackay, the attorney and
manager of the estate, has been highly judicious in every
particular, and deserving of great praise.