sembled one
evening at their religious exercises, the various communities were
suddenly arrested, to the number of eight thousand, and condemned to
death. Eighteen of them had already been executed, when the rest
escaped, and surrounding the palace of the young Prince, the heir to the
throne of Madagascar, implored his protection. The Queen sent orders
through the Prime Minister that they should be given up. The Prince
refused, and in the dispute which followed, drew his sword and aimed a
blow at the Minister's head, cutting off one of his ears. When the Queen
heard of this, fearing a revolt in the province of Imirena, to sustain
the Prince, she suffered the Christians to return to their homes and
worship as usual. They have since been visited by the Prince, who
declares his intention to protect them.

The Republic of LIBERIA was in a flourishing condition at the
commencement of the year. Several explorations of the interior have been
made, to the distance of two or three hundred miles from the coast. The
parties brought back enthusiastic accounts of the richness and beauty of
the country and the salubrity of the climate. President Roberts had sent
his message to the Liberian Congress, giving a very favorable account of
the condition and prospects of the country. The agricultural operations
at Bassa Cove and Bexley have produced very satisfactory results. The
slave trade is said to be almost destroyed in the neighborhood of
Gallinas and Ambrize.

Recent Deaths.

THE REV. WALTER COLTON was born in Rutland, Vermont, about the year
1797. When sixteen years of age he determined to acquire a liberal
education, and commenced with industrious energy his preparatory
studies. In 1818 he entered Yale College, where he received the
Berkleyan Prize in Latin and Greek, and delivered the valedictory poem,
when he graduated, in 1822. He soon afterwards entered the Theological
Seminary at Andover, where he remained three years, giving much of his
tune to literature, and writing, besides various moral and critical
dissertations, a _Sacred Drama_, which was acted by the students at one
of their rhetorical exhibitions, and an elaborate poem pronounced when
his class received their diplomas. On being ordained an evangelist,
according to the usage of the Congregational Church, he became Professor
of Moral Philosophy and Belles-Lettres in the Scientific and Military
Academy at Middletown, then under the presidency of Captain Alden