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had visited the Society this year. It appeared that the greatest hindrance to the progress of missionary efforts amongst the Mahommedans of that country was the fear of death; for, by law, the man who changes his religion is put to death. The labours of the missionaries, therefore, in that country were chiefly directed to the benighted Christians.

In Abyssinia, the missionary of the Society had found such favour with the chief of that part in which he resided, that great hopes were entertained from it of advantage of future missionary labours.

In Calcutta and Northern India, there had gone to communion thirty-five natives; and of these, thirty-two had been in the open practice of idolatry only a short time before. At Meerut a chapel had been built by a native princess, at an expence of 7,000 rupees, which was attended not only by Christians but by Hindoos and Mussulmans. It appeared that a missionary had attended one of the great fairs, where crowds thronged to his tent from morning to night to hear his discourses, and many gladly accepted his tracts.

In Madras and Southern India the labours of the Society had been attended with great success. At Tinnevelly, of which so much had been heard of late years, great numbers had been converted from idolatry, One large body of Hindoos had, as a proof of their sincere conversion, brought forth from their temple the idol which most of them had worshipped from their infancy, and destroyed it. This was no small test of their conversion. At Bombay, Ceylon, and other parts of India, the Society had made considerable progress in the course of the year. In Australasia, they had been equally successful, and not less so in North America. Speaking of the West India mission, the Report noticed the absurdity of ascribing to religious instruction those lamentable events which such instruction was calculated to prevent.

In conclusion, the Committee noticed the great liberality of the public in the past year, as evinced by the unprecedented increase in their income as compared with former years.

The Meeting was addressed by the Bishop of Chester, the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, Rev. Hugh Stowell, the Bishop of Winchester, Rev. E. Bickersteth, the Marquis of Cholmondeley, Rev. George Hazlewood, Secretary to the Hibernian Church Missionary Society, Rev. H, Venn, and the Rev. Edward Ward.

RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

THE Western General Meeting of this Society was held at Willis's Assembly rooms, on May 2nd. The Marquis of Cholmondeley, Chairman. 36,000t. had been received during the year, by the sale of the publications, and 40007. in the way of donations. During the past year, Leanga-Fa, a converted Chinese, had written nine new tracts, which had been widely circulated among his countrymen. The Society had issued 1,300,000 children's books, and 1,000,000 true narratives. The Bible Catechism had been just translated into Malay. Upwards of 100,000 tracts had been circulated in China; and such was the demand for them, among the Coreans, to whom 500 were sent, that they cut them into pieces, that all might read. In the Burmese Empire, Calcutta, and other places in India, they had been found especially useful, in converting upwards of 300 to Christianity. There was a large circulation of tracts in Armenia and Georgia, and 507. had been granted to the Society at Shushi to print tracts. In Van Diemen's Land, the Georgian and the Society Islands, similar results had occurred. In the Sandwich Islands, were 52,000 persons were able to read their own language, the Society was in active operation. At Cape Town, Graham's Town, and Lattakoo, the printing presses were actively engaged. At Madagascar, the reading of a tract by VOL. III.-June, 1833.

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a child to her father, caused him to dig a hole and bury all his household gods. The negroes in the West Indies read the tracts with avidity. During the last two years, 1,000,000 tracts had been circulated by the Paris Tract Society. The Hamburgh Tract Society sent to Bavaria 20,000 during the past year. An order was sent to the Roman Catholic priests to collect them together and burn them. That order was read from the pulpits and put into execution; a number of Testaments and 1200 tracts were collected and burnt; but the effect was an increased desire on the part of the people to read them, and a new supply of 20,000 had been received with avidity; 457,000 tracts had been circulated in Russia, and two dignitaries of the Russian Church had translated Baxter's Call and the Saint's Rest. In the Mahommedan countries, also, the Society was making rapid and flattering progress. In the first year, the tracts distributed amounted to 200,000, and the income of the Society 400/.; during the past year it had sent from its depôt 12,595,241 tracts, (being an increase on any preceding year of 880,276,) eighteen thousand volumes on Church History, 51,000 of Christian Biography, 10,000 of the works of British Reformers, and 15,000 of the Commentary on the Scripture. The Society also had published a periodical, called the Weekly Visitor, at the price of one half-penny; 427,000 of which had been sold since last January. The foreign grants of money amounted to 41847.; being 1147. more than the Society had received in the way of subscriptions from the Christian public. The receipts of 1832 were 31,3767., but those of the present year were 40,000l., being an increase of 86241.-The Speakers were the Rev. E. Bickersteth, Dr. Pinkerton, the Rev. W. Edelman, the Rev. J. E. Giles, J. Shepherd, Esq., Dr. Steinkopff, Dr. Morison, and the Rev. G. Schwabe.

INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ENLARGEMENT, BUILDING, AND REPAIRING OF CHURCHES AND CHAPELS.

A MEETING of this Society was held at their chambers in St. Martin's Place, on Monday, the 20th of May; his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Chair. There were present, the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of London, Winchester, Lincoln, Chester, Lichfield and Coventry, Bangor, and Rochester, Lord Kenyon, Rev. Archdeacon Cambridge, Rev. Archdeacon Watson, T. G. Estcourt, Esq., M.P., Rev. T. Bowdler, Wm. Cotton, Esq., Rev. Dr. D'Oyly, James Cocks, Esq., &c., &c.

Among other business transacted, grants, varying in amount according to the necessity of the case, were voted towards rebuilding the chapel at Woore, in the county of Stafford; building a chapel at Brighton, in the county of Sussex; building a gallery in the church of St. Mary, Maldon, in the county of Essex; restoring the church at Kirkstall, in the county of York, damaged by lightning; building a gallery in the church at Toppesfield, in the county of Essex; enlarging the church at Leamington, in the county of Warwick; enlarging, by rebuilding, the church at Ide, in the county of Devon; enlarging the church at Darlaston, in the county of Stafford; rebuilding the chapel at Newton Harcourt, in the county of Leicester; building a chapel at Quernmore, in the parish of Lancaster; new pewing the church at Madley, in the county of Hereford; enlarging, by rebuilding, the church at Hay, in the county of Brecon; enlarging, by rebuilding, the chapel at Markyate Street, in the county of Hertford; enlarging, by rebuilding, the church at Holdenhurst, in the county of Southampton; repairing and re-arranging the seats in the church at Hose, in the county of Leicester; building a gallery in the church at Brimfield, in the county of Hereford.

Report made to the Annual General Court of the Society for Promoting the -Enlargement, Building, and Repairing of Churches and Chapels, May 24th, 1833, being the fifth after its Incorporation.

IN presenting to the General Court their annual Report of the proceedings of the Society, the Committee are under the necessity of stating that they have no information to communicate which will interest by its novelty; and that, of the cases which have come before them, there are none of such a nature as to deserve particular notice. They must content themselves with repeating what has been said in preceding Reports, that the Society has continued in this, as in former years, to carry into effect the important purposes for which it was established, by a careful consideration of the different applications for aid, and by such grants of money as the state of their funds permitted, and the exigency of the cases required.

There has been a considerable variation at different times in the number of applications and grants: in the last year the applications have been more numerous than they were in the one immediately preceding, being 118 in 1833, and 78 in 1832; but the grants were more numerous in 1832 than they have been in 1833 in the one they were 78, in the other only 58. Besides these 58 new grants, additions have been made in 15 cases to sums previously voted, where the plan originally proposed has been altered and more accommodation has been provided.

The amount of monies voted by the Committee during the last year is 92601., and with this aid 14,643 additional sittings are secured; of which, 11,024 are free and unappropriated.

Looking to the operations of the Society from its origin to the present time, the result of them cannot fail to be contemplated with satisfaction by all its supporters and friends. The number of places which have been benefited by its assistance does not fall much short of 1000. It has contributed to the building of 22 additional churches, and 98 additional chapels; to the rebuilding of 94 churches and 55 chapels with enlargement; and in a much greater number of cases to the increase of accommodation by the extension of the structure, or by a better arrangement of the pews. In this manner, by grants of different magnitude to the amount of 157,9207., the Society has been instrumental in procuring 239,867 additional sittings, of which 179,322 are free and unappropriated. The disposable balance on the 31st March last was 90691. 38. 7d., and it may be calculated that this sum will be increased by 2000l. or 2500l. in consequence of some of the grants which have been voted not being claimed. It may be considered, therefore, that the Society, having still more than 11,000l. applicable to its purposes, will be enabled to carry on its operations during the current year to the same extent as in many former years.

But when this balance shall have been expended, it must not be supposed that the Society will have accomplished all that it was designed to effect, and will receive no further calls for assistance. Judging from the fifteen years which have elapsed, a very different conclusion must be drawn. For it appears that in the first five years of that period, the average number of applications for assistance was, in each year, 91; in the next five it was 96; in the last five it has been 121; and it appears also that the applications during the year last past exceed those of the year immediately preceding by 40. It may then not unreasonably be presumed that the Society is now only in the middle of its course; and that, if adequate means be but supplied, it will probably extend its aid in the next fifteen years to as many places as it has already benefited. And when the growing population of the country is considered, when additional houses and cottages are seen to spring up in almost every town and every village, can it be doubted that the want of church accommodation will ere long be felt in many places in which it does not at present exist, and that, in proportion as the benefits which have been already conferred upon the country

by this Society become more generally known, applications may be expected to increase? The Society, therefore, has as strong a claim as ever to the support of all who are interested in its welfare and are anxious to further its designs,of all, in a word, who wish prosperity to the Established Church of this country. To those who may be desirous of promoting the objects of the Society, by bequests towards the building, enlargement, or improvement of churches and chapels, in any particular neighbourhood, it may be proper to suggest, that the Society, being now incorporated, can act as Trustees, to carry into effect the desired application of any funds intrusted to its charge.

KING'S COLLEGE.

THE annual general court of the governors and proprietors of this institution was held on Tuesday, April 30, in the large theatre of the College, to receive the report of the council. The meeting was very numerously attended, including the Earls Howe and Brownlow, the Marquess of Bute, Lord Bexley, the Dean of Chichester, Rev. Dr. D'Oyly, William Cotton and William Sotheby, Esquires, besides several other distinguished individuals. Shortly after two o'clock, the Archbishop of Canterbury, visitor of the College, took the chair; and the minutes of the last general court having been confirmed, the Secretary proceeded to read the Report.

It was very satisfactory to learn by this statement, that the College, as regards its various scholastic departments, is in a flourishing condition; the total increase of regular and occasional students of all denominations over those of the preceding year being no fewer than 170; the whole number of whom may be thus divided :—in the senior department, 109 regular, and 196 occasional; in the junior department, or school, 319 regular; and in the medical department, 77 regular, and 233 occasional students.

The pupils in the junior department have now opportunities afforded them of attending popular lectures on chemistry and natural and experimental philosophy; which are delivered by the professors of those branches of science, one day in each week, after the usual business of the school has ceased.

With regard to the fiscal concerns of the College, the council entertain no doubt that the income accruing to the general College fund out of the fees derived from students in the academical year between Michaelmas 1832 and Michaelmas 1833, will be sufficient to meet the current expenditure of the establishment for the like period; so that the College will be enabled permanently to maintain itself by its own resources.

There was, however, one point as connected with the funds of the corporation that elicited strong marks of indignation from the court. This was the announcement that, of the large sum of between 13,000l. and 14,000l. owing by some of the original subscribers at the period of the last annual court, a very insignificant portion had been received to the present time; and hence, the council, despairing of recovering these subscriptions, which, had they been forthcoming, would have more than sufficed to meet the present exigency, were under the necessity of making a fresh appeal to the liberality of the real friends and well-wishers of the institution, to place at their disposal the necessary funds for enabling them to complete the river-front of the College, which, by their agreement with his Majesty's government, they are bound to do by the summer of 1834, and thus place the possession of the building on a sure and staple footing.

Mr. Cotton, a member of the council, deprecated the conduct of these defaulters in severe terms, but hoped it would act as a stimulus to renewed exertion; and he considered, therefore, that it behoved each proprietor to put forth his best individual endeavour to aid the efforts which the council had made, and were still making, to promote subscriptions for shares, &c., so as

by their united efforts to raise the necessary funds (about 80007.), and thus render themselves independent of those who had deserted them.

The unanimous thanks of the meeting having been voted to his Grace of Canterbury, it broke up, having balloted for the council &c. for the ensuing year.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY.

SOME notice was taken of the present condition of the British and Foreign School Society in vol. I. p. 292, where its Twenty-seventh Report was mentioned. But on nearer inspection of this Report, it appears to deserve more particular notice. The Society says, (p. 33,) that schools are now called for and supported by persons of very different views from the majority of those who at first advocated their existence. The lover of novelty has found a newer toy, the political agitator and the decided infidel, who said "You teach them to read, and we will afterwards furnish them with books," have been disappointed in the results, and withdrawn their protection.* Now they are supported by men of DECIDED PIETY. Accordingly it will be found that now the education is to be sound and scriptural-conducted by persons of sound religious principle—that the children are to be taught to recognise the depraved state of the affections-that the interrogative system, by which a meaning is to be put on Scripture, is to be widely pursued-and that heavy complaints are made where its introduction is objected to (p. 31)—that libraries of books on moral, religious, and useful subjects are attached to the schools, in one case (p. 20) chiefly furnished by the Baptists and Independents, and district visiting Societies connected with them (p. 48). The Society's agents appear, as might naturally be expected, to commuuicate principally with Dissenters and Dissenting ministers. Now there cannot be the slightest objection made by Churchmen to Dissenters having Dissenting schools, just as they themselves have Church schools. But will it be contended for a moment, if a meaning is to be put on Scripture, if religious books are put into the children's hands, if they are taught to recognize certain great doctrines, on which men differ, that the Society can any longer preserve its impartiality to all sects, that the master of sound religious principle will not explain things as he conscientiously believes them to be, in consistency with the views of the sect which appointed him and to which he belongs, i. e. give the scholars his own views, and then that those views will not be strengthened by the sectarian books put into the children's hands? That the Society still professes to be willing to co-operate with churchmen is very true, because schools cannot go on without money, and churchmen have most property in the country. But how churchmen can be blind to the statements of the Society itself, it is a little difficult to see. Political agitators and infidels, it says, supported its early years, when it profest to avoid any bias whatever, or the inculcation of any peculiar doctrines. Now it is in the hands of persons of decided piety. Dissenting ministers are the first persons consulted and resorted to for information, and yet the Society asks for the support of churchmen, while it expressly declares in many places that the narrow principles of the National schools cannot be endured. That is, there is to be a system of doctrine delivered to the children, and religious books are to be put into their hands. But it is not to be the church system, whatever it is.

It must be added that this Society states that England is yet uneducated, although the Report of the National Society shews that near 900,000 children are educated by the church alone, and Dr. Chalmers states one fifteenth of the population as the proper proportion which should be at school. Surely this is not very proper.

* What violent abuse was poured, a very few years ago, on any churchman who hinted at any thing like this. But what churchman would have dared to say that the Society was under the protection of political agitators and decided infidels ?

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