I have just obtained some of Mr. DAVID MOORE's leather, tanned at bis place on Bushrod island, which I send as a specimen of Liberian manufacture.

With the highest respect and consideration,
I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
THOS. BUCHANAN.

Hon. SAMUEL WILKESON,

General Agent, &c., Washington City.

P.S. I am exceedingly anxious about New Cesters, the more so as I have just learned from Lieutenant SEAGRAM Some facts that leave no doubt on my mind of the intention, as far as the authorities on this coast are concerned, to keep it under British subjection, (though he says not.) CANOT has received a letter from the new Governor of Sierra Leone, Sir JOHN JEREMIE, and has hoisted the British flag at his door. I suspect negotiations are in progress to connect him with a great London trading house, and to make New Cesters the head-quarters of English trade on the coast.

T.B. NOTES OF AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE REV. G. W. BETHUNE, D. D., AT THE UNITARIAN CHURCH, CITY OF WASHINGTON, JANUARY 21, 1841.

WE expected before this time to have been able to give to our read. ers the eloquent address delivered by the Rev. Mr. BETHUNE, in this city, during the annual meeting of the American Colonization Society, in January last, but have been unable to obtain a report of it, and have to content ourselves by giving a very imperfect sketch of a part of it, from notes taken by an unpracticed hand;

In the long history of the Jews, there was scarcely an administration more wise, prosperous and happy, than that of Samuel; and yet the ac count of it is very brief. It was so wise, so prosperous, that the historian has but little to say.

I remember reading the journals of two gifted friends who crossed the Atlantic. One had written a volume of incidents. When he left the port portentous omens were in the sky. The first night out was one of trouble and distress; soon there were storms of thunder and lightning, and rain and hail, and the winds were fierce and contrary, and the vessel sprung aleak, and all lives on board were greatly endangered. This is but a specimen of what he experienced from the beginning to the end of the voyage.

The journal of the other was very brief, recording that on such a day they saw a shark; that on another a bird flew past the ship; the wind was fair, the sky clear, and scarcely a sail was changed from the time they left one port till they reached the other, so prosperous was their voyage.

For the same reason, I have little to say to-night of the history of this Society during the past year. It has been so prosperous, has accomplished so much, has met with such favor in the community, that its story can be told in few words.

While the country has been embarrassed, while pecuniary distress has crippled all other benevolent enterprises, and while storms have raged in other seas, the course of this Society has been marked by unwonted prosperity, as is known by its receipts being larger than during any preceding

year.

It is a principle every where acknowledged, that those virtues and events which are quiet in their operation, and make the least noise, are the most

useful. God moves the vast machinery of the universe silently. The Gospel, in achieving the most wonderful transformations of human character, operates through a "still, small voice."

Such has been the course of this Society the past year. No loud hurrahs have heralded its march. No thunder of artillery has announced its victories. Silently its peaceful publication has entered the family circle, and called forth the liberal contribution; or the quiet letter, describing its wants and its prospects, has been placed in the hands of the liberal and philanthropic, and has received a welcome reception, and secured an encouraging response.

My honorable friend who has just sat down said, he would leave abstract principles to theologians. I am a theologian, and I believe in a species of universal equality. I hear it proclaimed by the voice of the Almighty, that all men have sinned; and the precepts of my Saviour teach me to love my neighbor as myself. Wherever a human heart beats, there is my brother, no matter how sable his hue; and as such it is my privilege, as a Colonizationist, to do him good. Slavery existed when our Saviour was upon earth, but he did not heap anathemas on those who, I must say, were so unhappy as to be masters; and his chief Apostle, when he had in his care a slave, sent him home to the hand and the heart of his master, as a "brother beloved." I think the Epistle to Philemon is an example of the manner in which we should act and feel in similar circumstances.

It cannot be doubted that, in promoting the scheme of Colonization, we fall in with the general spirit of Christianity, which promises the universal triumph of peace on earth. This promise, like a day-star from on high, has visited us, and, like the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, it leads us on, under safe protection, and with sure pledges of final triumph.

My friend has said that the whole world was colonized from Eden; that Colonization has led out the spirit of civilization and improvement in all ages of the world. I do not expect to present any thing new on this subject, but there is one striking instance of Colonization to which I will direct your attention. There was once a time when the Jews, the chosen people of God, were all slaves, under the most cruel bondage; and though they, by a peculiar regulation of the country, were separated, to live by themselves, and were taught their own religion, yet they were degraded in the extreme. God determined to free them. How did he do it? He put a sea between them and their oppressors. They became refractory and rebellious, and even sighed for the flesh-pots of Egypt. But God did not abandon them. For forty years he educated them in the wilderness. He taught them by the trials they endured, and prepared them for the enjoyment of freedom.

Let those who become discouraged, or who object to the Colonization of Liberia because so many die, think how many of the children of Israel perished in the wilderness! Of all that vast number that came out of Egypt, only two lived to enter the promised land! Surely, reasoning according to some modern rules, this must have been a very unjustifiable, unpatriotic scheme! Only to think, too, that these poor, deluded creatures, who were thus cheated into the wilderness to die, were the native-born children of the land they left, and were actually expatriated.

But it is said there are difficulties about this subject, both in this country and in Africa. We admit this in all its force. There are difficulties; and these difficulties are the very best parts of the system. Necessity is the most effectual teacher. The fabulous history of Rome represents that its founder was nursed by a wolf; and no man and no nation ever has become great, that was not nursed at the shaggy breast of difficulty!

i

It is said that we have been able to colonise these people but slowly. This is true, and I am glad of it. It would have defeated the very object we had in view, if it had been otherwise. We are all slaves to sin. But God does not emancipate us in an hour. There is first the tender shootthen the blade-then the ear-then the full grown corn in the ear. It is always impolitic, as well as immoral, to despise the day of small things. The progress of this Society, and its Colony, may have been slow; but it has been steady and sure. In our school boy days we were taught a lesson of practical wisdom, well to be remembered in our riper years:

"Tall oaks from little acorns grow,"

but the acorn does not become an oak in a day. The poplar grows rapidly, but is fragile and spongy at heart, and soon decays. The oak is the growth of a century. But see what a might there is in its broad branches-how it resists the fiercest blasts, and braves the furious storms of winter.

"When an hundred years are gone,"

Liberia shall yet be that oak! Who would say to that mother, as she sits rocking her tender, helpless, perhaps sickly, infant, and as she carefully watches over it for many long and anxious years,-why do you thus labor in vain? your labor is one of difficulty never to be repaid! It is a useless effort, you never can raise that child, cease your vain attempts. Go into the street and take some one already grown, and lavish all your attention and love on him? Who would say this? none! not the most scepticalnot the most thorough immediatist! No! rather wait. Do you see that man, acknowledged by all to be first among his brethren? That noble form once lay in helpless infancy on its mothers arm, as she fondly thought of its future manhood. So they who rock the cradle of young Liberia, of its future greatness dream? No! see pledge and promise irresistible.

It has been a question whether circumstances make men, or men sieze upon circumstances to accomplish great purposes; I think neither. I believe that God makes both the men and the circumstances, which united are adapted to the achievement of great ends. He has raised us up the very men that we wanted in times of our greatest need. There was ASHMUNa man whose name shall not be forgotten, he determined to go, amid difficulties enough to have daunted the bravest; he successfully laid the foundations of an empire not to perish.

Again, when all seemed darkness and uncertainty he sent forth a Cox who labored, sickened, and, as he was dying said, some one must come and take my place! Thousands may perish, but Africa must not be given up. It were easy to suffer martyrdom, when all is done in a moment. But who can anticipate the long disease, in a land of strangers, and not shrink back? Who can think of him who moved forward amid such discouragements to accomplish so great an end, and not admire his fortitude and benevolence?

This kind of fortitude, and self sacrificing benevolence, have been greatly exemplified in our present Governor, BUCHANAN, who, after devoting a year in the arduous and perilous task of re-establishing the Colony of Bassa Cove, when it had been broken up by hosile natives, ventured to return to Liberia in the service of the American Colonization Society, at a time when its affairs, both in this country and in Africa, were most discouraging. By the wisdom and energy of his administration, the despondent Colonists have been inspired with new life, and the operations of the Society in this country have been carried on with confidence and success.

JUSTICE to Mr. TEAGE, editor of the Liberia Herald, requires the publication of the following letter, in reply to one from Judge WILKESON, relative to an exceptionable article in a former number of his paper:

Hon. S. WILKESON ;

MONROVIA, DECEMBER 10, 1840.

DEAR SIR,-Your favors of July 21st and September 22d, respectively, arrived safely by the Hobart. Permit me first to thank you for the interest you have manifested to extend my subscription list, and especially for increasing the subscription of the Society one hundred copies. I trust I shall never lose the sense of the favor done me in this instance.

In regard to the offensive article to which your letter of 22d September alludes, I am happy in being able to say, most truly, that, in the press and hurry of other engagements, its tone and manner, and probable effects, in America, altogether escaped my attention. The writer of the article, ever since he has been in the Colony, has been almost constantly in the Society's employment, and surely, if he is thus regarded and treated by the Society, if I had published it with its effect in America full in view, I might be supposed as merely joining my confidence to the confidence of others. As I will not regard your letter as dictatorial, but merely as advisory, in regard to the accomplishment of certain objects, and to prevent certain consequences, I beg to assure you that I shall do nothing that may operate unfavorably against my adopted country, or weaken the hands of its friends on either side of the great waters. In common with colored men, I have certain sentiments. These sentiments, however, as I do not think their being made known could possibly do any good, but would most probably do an injury, I think it proper to repress, reserving to myself, however, the right to enjoy my sentiments, and, when justice and honor require it, to speak them out. I should be altogether unworthy of your confidence and respect, if I should at any time forget for a moment that this is my indefeasible right, or so base and mean-spirited as not to claim to exercise it whenever circumstances should demand it. The scheme of Colonization enjoys my highest confidence and respect, and the circumstances are not easily anticipated that would lead me to speak or write any thing that shall compromise it. Your most obedient servant,

DEAR SIR,--The Bassa Cove Sunday School Union held its first anniversary at the Baptist Church in this place, on Monday evening, the second of November.

Although the meeting was unavoidably postponed until a late hour, such was the interest felt in it, that a pretty general attendance of the citizens was realized.

The Superintendant, Mr. CHARLES GRAY, then signifying his intention to remove with his family to Bexley, tendered his resignation, which was therefore accepted: whereupon, HENRY J. ROBERTS was unanimously elected to that office. Other officers in accordance with the constitution were then elected as follows:

LOUIS SHERIDAN, Secretary; A. P. DAVIS, Librarian; BERRYMAN JOHNSON, Treasurer; HANSON LEPER, DAVID MADISON, JOSEPH CLARIDY, Mrs. FLORELLA DAVIS, ROSANNA MADKINS, and THERESA DONALSON, Managers.

The number of regular attendants às learners in this school have been about forty, although a much larger number held connexion with it. This institution owes its origin to his Excellency, Governor BUCHANAN, who informed the writer that he had in his possession a set of Sabbath School Books, published by the American Sunday School Union, which he would bestow on any similar institution in Liberia, but as he knew of none but such as were decidedly sectarian, he could not consistently give them to any. An effort was then made to form such an Union, and establish the present school, which has, under God, so far happily succeeded. Many things in the course of the past year, have occurred to retard the progress of our chil dren in learning, and none has had a more hurtful influence than the want of co-operation on the part of their parents. Unhappily for the greater part of them, their own want of information may serve as an excuse; but could they divest themselves of their sectarianism and feel that need of instruction as others can and do feel for them, they too, would avail themselves of so good an opportunity of learning something more than the natives of these lands, and would, by their attendance at the place of assembling, set up an impassable barrier to the tendencies of the Sabbath day's intercourse with the natives, which has been continued in spite of our laws, police, and regulations to the contrary: but let this suffice.

Our number has increased to about seventy, who are instructed in the ab phabet, spelling, reading and recitation of the Scriptures in the fore and afternoon of each Sabbath day, and we trust that an influence will be given to the habits and taste of those connected with the institution, such as will guide and control their pursuits in after life.

After the close of the business of the meeting, a vote was taken on the propriety of offering our public thanks to Governor BUCHANAN, for having been thus unostentatiously the means of breaking the cord of sectarianism, and placing within our reach, the use of so many valuable tracts as are to be found in the Library of the Bassa Cove Sunday School Union, which was productive of the following resolution :

Resolved, That the officers and managers of the Bassa Cove Union, do hereby tender to his Excellency, Governor BUCHANAN, their most unfeigned and hearty thanks for his invaluable gift of four hundred and three volumes of books, besides many useful maps, cards and plates, now in use in their school; but more especially do they cherish sentiments of respectful regard for the evidence of dignified impartiality by which we have been taught to cast away the cords of prejudice, and unite together in one effort, having for its object the good of all, preferable to the benefit of a few. Signed in behalf of the officers and managers of the school.

HENRY J. ROBERTS, Superintendant.

LOUIS SHERIDAN, Secretary.

WE beg the attention of our readers, in the South and South-west, to the notice" that an expedition will sail from New Orleans about the 15th of April next. We hope all our exchange papers will insert this notice.

Let the Emigrants on all the tributaries of the Mississippi be ready at that time; and, let the patrons of the Society remember, that the expedition just sailed, has drained our treasury. Our funds, then, must be increased, and that immediately. Let all our agents redouble their diligence, as we are doing at this office, to raise money. It will require' every possible ex ertion to provide the means to send off the contemplated expedition.