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contribution of one penny* ; and from friends in and near Inverkeithing, a larger sum has been received, which was collected chiefly in the same manner.

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In fine, copies of the sacred oracles are multiplying at home. They are conveying to the most distant heathen nations, and are even in the course of return to those countries, where they were received from above, and whence they were originally disseminated. Numerous efforts are making on behalf of the Pagan world, while the Greek and the Jew have again become the objects of commiseration. We behold, at the same anoment, the light of divine Revelation struggling for the mastery in the East, and its rays about to penetrate into the darkest countries of Europe. The millions of India and China are placed before us in the same affecting point of view with the Tartar tribes, and the shivering inhabitants of Iceland, of Lapland, and Labrador.

Asia appears full in view, as appointed to receive in all her languages the sacred volume; and Africa, too long forgotten, has come up in remembrance before the present generation. The blessings of divine Revelation have not only visited her shores, but, through Abys sinia, they may, at no distant period, find access to the centre of that deeply injured continent.

America, alive to the importance of the exertions in this kingdom, has received an

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Some time ago, a few female servants in Aberdeen, desirous of testifying their good will toward the support of those excellent institutions formed of late in this country, for sending the Scriptures, and, by them, the knowledge of salvation, to such as are yet destitute of that interesting privilege, resolved to meet together, and contribute a little in aid of the funds of such institutions. Their numbers increasing, and having obtained the consent of some ministers of the Gospel to preside at their meetings, they did, on the 16th of August, 1809, form themselves into a society, to be called The Aberdeen Female Servant Society, for promoting the Diffusion of the Scrip tures."

The first donation of this society was presented to the Edinburgh Bible Society, amounting to 201. sterling; aud 20. 1s. bave been lately given towards aiding the translations of sacced Scripture, now carrying forward by the Missionaries at Se rampore, in the East Indies.

impulse corresponding to the magnitude of the object proposed.

On the continent of Europe, the holy Scriptures are circulating, and the Gospel of Peace is received with joy in the time of war. We have lived to see the day when the members of the Romish church have, in ́ various European languages, received and circulated the sacred volume; and when even a Bible Society has been established by the people of that persuasion.

After this slight detail, the Committee conceive that many in the four continents of the world may with propriety be said to understand each other, to be animated by the same principles, and pressing towards the accomplishment of the same design. Let it be observed, that the population alluded to in the foregoing Report amounts to not less than several hundred millions; and with this may now be connected the remarkable fact, that the holy Scriptures, in not less than FIFTY different languages or dialects, are proposed for execution. Nay, a number of these are in circulation; others are just completed and, what is still more animating, we now behold the inhabitants of different countries in the very attitude of receiving, for the first time, the oracles of God!

NORFOLK AND NORWICH AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY.

A meeting was held at the Guildhall, Norwich, on the 11th of September, the Mayor in the chair, for the purpose of instituting an Auxiliary Bible Society. The business was opened by the Mayor; after which the Bishop of Norwich rose, and, in a concise but impressive speech, laid before the assembly a luminous view of the nature and advantages of such an institution, congratulating them at the same time on the union of enlightened Christians of so many different persuasions. The secretaries of the parent society were present, and addressed the meeting with their accustomed energy and effect. Upwards of 8001, was immediately subscribed. The Bishop of Norwich was chosen president of the institution. The vice-presidents are: the Earl of Orford; Lord Calthorpe; Sir J. H. Astley, Bart. M. P.; T. W. Coke, Esq. M. P.; J. Pattison, Esq. M. P.: W. Smith, Esq. M. P.; and the Mayor of Norwich.

The address of the society states that, "from observations lately made (chiefly in the neighbourhood of Norwich), it has been ascertained, that, amongst the poor families, containing individuals who have been taught to read, a very great proportion

are without either Bibles or Testaments; and it is supposed, upon the most moderate calculation, that there are at least 10,000 families in the county in this truly lamentable condition. The question, therefore, here agitated, is not, whether it be right to instruct the poor, if that can be a question; but whether it be not our duty to give instruction already received its proper direction.-The Committee trust, that a consideration of the important facts here detailed, will be sufficient, with the Divine blessing, to insure the Norfolk and Norwich Auxiliary Bible Society the support and patronage of all within the limits of this county, who wish. well to the best interests of their neighbours, and the great cause of truth upon earth.”

THE HIGH WYCOMBE AUXILIARY BIBLE

SOCIETY.

A meeting was held on the 26th inst. at Wycombe (Bucks), for the purpose of forming an Auxiliary Bible Society, in co-operation with the British and Foreign Bible Society, which was most numerously and respectably attended. Viscount Mahon having been called to the chair, delivered a very able and impressive speech, detailing the reasons for such an institution as it was proposed to form; and concluded by reading letters from several persons of distinction, among whom were the Marquis of Buckingham, and Lords Carrington and Grenville, expressing their approbation of the measure, and their regret at not being able to attend. The Vicar of Wycombe, the Rev. W. Pryce, then moved a string of Resolutions, after prefacing them by au address characterized by neatness, piety, and feeling. The London secretaries were then called upon, and Messrs. Steinkopff and Hughes, having been introduced by the Rev. Mr. Owen, laid open more particularly the character and proceedings of the parent society and her auxiliaries. The several votes of thanks were moved by Sir Thomas Baring, member for the town; R. Lowndes, Esq. meniber for the county; the Rev. Messrs. Scott, Marsh, &c. with appropriate and animated addresses. The thanks to the London secretaries were acknowledged by the Rev. Mr. Owen,who took that occasion of corroborating the statements made by the several speakers who had preceded him, and delineated the characteristic features of the institution, and the honourable attitude in which it placed Great Britain, as extending the everlasting Gospel to every nation and kindred and tongue and people. Nothing could exceed the harmony and Christian feeling which per

vaded the meeting. The Marquis of Beck ingham was appointed president of the Auxiliary Society;-the Lords Carrington, Mahon, Grenville, Gardner, Cardigan, and Hampden; Sir Thomas Baring, and Sr E. Dashwood King, barts. ; and W. Lowndes, Esq. M. P., vice-presidents, &c. Upwards of 400% were subscribed before the com pany left the room.

We are happy to learn that the Bishop of Chichester has given his countenance to the Sussex Bible Society, by enrolling himself a subscriber.

EDUCATION OF THE POOR,

We are happy to understand that a me ing has been held with a view to the formation of an institution for extending the benefits of Dr. Bell's plan of education as widely a possible throughout the kingdom. The meet ing was attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and may other persons. A liberal subscription wa immediately entered into.

METHODIST CONFERENCE.

The sixty-eighth annual Conference of the Preachers late in connection with the Rev. John Wesley, was held at Sheffield on the 29th of July last. The numbers in the society in Great Britain, this year, are stated to be 145,614, being an increase since the for mer conference of7617; in Ireland, 28,149, being an increase of 393; in the British dominions in North America, 1390; in the West Indies, 11,892, of whom only 425 are white persons, the rest coloured people and blacks; in the United States of America 170,000.

In the course of the conference it is inquited, "Can any thing be done in order more effectually to promote family religion among our people?" To this it is answered,

"We again earnestly enforce upon all the people under our care, a consciention and uniform attention to this important subs ject; and solemnly exhort them to maintain the practice of daily prayer in their houses; to have stated times allotted for this purpose; to fix their morning worship, for instance, just before breakfast, and their evening wor ship just before supper; to make the daily reading of the holy Scriptures a constant part of their domestic devotion; to require not only some, but all the members of their re spective families, to be present at the time of family worship; and to allow of no excuse, except in case of sickness, or other uns. voidable emergencies; and once, at least, in

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every week, to catechise their children and servants, and converse with them individually on the business of religion. We require all our preachers to make particular inquiries into the state of family religion in their circuits; to enforce the duties abovementioned in the leaders' meetings, and in the society meetings; and to speak on the subject closely and strongly to every class, in their quarterly visitations of the societies."

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PARISH REGISTERS.

It was prematurely asserted in our Num. ber for June, that a bill for the regulation of parochial registers had passed through the legislature. We understand that the provisions of the proposed act are so obnoxious to the clergy as to have occasioned among them a resolution to oppose its passing into a law. A pamphlet on the subject may be expected from the Archdeacon of Sarum. In the mean time, we have been desired to give publicity to the following address, drawn up on the occasion by a respectable clergyman in the west of England.

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"To the Parochial Clergy and Others.

It is submitted to the serious consideration of the parochial clergy, whether the Bill amended by the Committee of the

House of Commons, at the close of the last

session, entitled "A Bill for the better regulating and preserving Parish and other Registers of Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials," be not fraught with such inconveniences to the Clergy, and whether it does not, in many cases require of them things so Impracticable that they ought to awaken in them the exertion of all the influence which they may have with the Members of either House of Parliament, to prevent the same from passing into a law.

"By the fifth section it is required that at the end of every year the clergyman officia. Ling in any parish, do make oath before a justice of the peace, in order to verify the entries made in the respective registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials. Now, not to mention the humiliating circumstances with which this requisition is attended, by placing the clergyman on a level with the interior officers of civil police, and that it takes him out of the hands of the ecclesiassical superior and ordinary to whom he is amenable with respect to the matter of regisrers; it seems impossible that in many cases parochial registers can be thus verified on path, because in the course of the year, several clergymen may be employed successively in the duty of the same church, and

before the expiration of the year removed. perhaps, to a distant part of the kingdom.

"If it should he expected that each clergy man must verify his own entries, it would, surely be vexatious and unreasonable in the extreme, to require a clergyman who may serve a church for an absent or sick friend, to repair the following week to a justice of the peace to verify on oath an entry made by him in the parish register of a baptism, or marriage, or a burial, at which he may hap pen to have officiated the preceding Sunday.

"By section ninth, the clergyman is required to receive memorandumus from persons not using the rites of the Church of England as by law established, and to transmit them to the register general. By which direction the clergyman must be subjected to the caprice of persons perhaps hostile to his character as a clergyman; and in addi tion to the trouble of keeping the register of baptisms, marriages, and burials, at which he has officiated himself, have the care of a multitude of certificates or memorandums, of the accuracy of which he has no means of being ascertained.

"By section twenty-seventh the clergyman is required in fact to turn informer upon oath against all persons who may refuse to give in an account, or may neglect or refuse to deliver memorandums of the several particulars required to be inserted in the respective registers, that the persons so neglecting or refusing may be prosecuted and punished by fine or commitment to the house of correction. Besides the invidiousness of such a requisition as it respects the clergyman, it ought certainly to be considered, that in extensive manufacturing parishes and in large and populous cities, there are vast numbers of poor and ignorant people; many of these would not be able to recollect the several particulars required; and they are also often changing the place of their abode. In places also of polite resort, where, parties reside only for a short time, it would not be easy to ascertain every birth which takes place; unless it be the will of the legislature to institute something like domiciliary visits, and render the clergyman as it were the officer to make them; or to adopt a prying add scrutinizing police, well suited to the genius of the government of a neighbouring country, but very inconsistent with the mild and liberal principles of the British government, and that freedom from suspicious ob servation to which the happy, inhabitants of this kingdom bave been so long accustomed, When all this is rightly understood and se riously considered, it is presumed that the

lity will not any more than the clergy wish this bill to pass into a law.

"The removal of all parish registers now extant, required by section thirtieth, to the general office in London or York, will deprive every parish in the kingdom of all local records, and render it impossible for a poor jan, without an expense and trouble which He is not able to beur, to obtain information of many particulars, relative to his ancestors and family, the knowledge of which may be very necessary at least to his comfort and satisfaction. To which add, that after the commencement of the Act, the clergyman is inhibited from giving any certificate or copy of the register of any birth, marriage, or Burial: What then is to be done, if the certificate of the register of any birth, marriage, or burial, which may take place in the course of the year, become necessary before the book be verified on oath after the end of December, und transmitted to the office of the register general?

As to dissenters, might they not be encouraged to transmit to some proper office or repository of their own, copies or duplicates of registers of births, or baptisms, or burials, attested by the ministers or others of their respective congregations, and due authority given to such registers, as was the case when such registers were subject to the duty imposed on the register of baptisms and burials?

Upon the whole, every valuable purpose for which this Bill is intended to provide

may, it is presumed, be effectually secured by the due execution of the laws and canoes already in force.

"Copies of the parish registers, attested by ministers and churchwardens, are every yea returned at the bishops' or archdeacon's riitation, and deposited in their respectiv courts. And if any clergymen have been remiss in this business, they are liable to cutsures, which no doubt ought to be inflicted. But surely the negligence of some indivi duals ought not to operate to the disgrace of the whole body, or be considered as a reason for enacting rules, the observation of which will be attended with much difficulty and perplexity, and in many cases from a ve riety of causes be totally impracticable."

CHINA.

Intelligence has been received by the London Missionary Society, that Mr. Mime son, their missionary at Canton, has printe! one thousand copies of the Acts of the Apostles in Chinese. The expense of prist ing was about one hundred pounds sterling but from the same wooden types, with only occasionally retouching them, one hundres thousand copies may be taken. Mr. Moriss having learnt that the Gospels and Epistles were preparing at Calcutta, had begun the translation of Genesis and the Book Psalms. He has sent home some speciur of Chinese literature from the maxims Confucius and the history of Foe.

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FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. THE blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo, by Lord Wellington, Induced the French general, Marmont, to bring together a large force from different parts of Spain, with a view to effect its relief. In this object he has suċZeeded. Lord Wellington, finding himself sutnumbered by the enemy, retired behind The Agueda, and took a position on the Coa. On this occasion there was some smart skitmishing between our forces and those of the enemy. Our loss, however, was slight; consisting of 47 British and Portuguese killed, 180 wounded, and 57 missing. Marmont, after relieving Ciudad Rodrigo, did not at tempt to follow Lord Wellington," but im

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mediately retired, as had been done it the case of Badajoz; one part of his army marching towards Salamanca, and another part towards Placentia. This is the only movement of any moment which has recently taken place in the Peninsula. There seems no doubt that the French have received cunsiderable reinforcements.

The Spanish colonies in South America appear to be in the most unsettled state. A second revolution has taken place in the Caraccas, where they have thrown off all allegiance to Ferdinand the Seventh, or th the mother country, and have provlarined themselves independent. They have issued also a declaration of their rights, which is s much in the French revolutionary style, that

we dare not augur much good from it. There is a part of the province which is indisposed to submit to the new regime, and a civil war is the consequence. The state of things in the river Plate is still worse. While the Junta of Buenos Ayres blockade Monte Video by land, the Governor of Monte Video is bombarding Buenos Ayres by sea.

The Cortez are said to have accepted the mediation of Great Britain to bring about an amicable understanding with the Spanish colonies in South America. This report seems to be confirmed by the appointment, which has appeared in the Gazette, of C. Stuart, G. Cockburne, and J. P. Morier, Esqs, to act as commissioners in South Ainerica, in conjunction with commissioners appointed by Spain. We trust that the terms of our mediation are such as will, in no case, involve us in any hostile collisions with those colonics.

Bonaparte has pursued his journey along the coast to Holland. From Boulogne he went to inspect his squadron in the Scheldt, where he was detained on ship board three days by the equinoxial gales. The bulletins of his route are filled with minute and vaunting accounts of the strength of the fortifications at Antwerp, and other places which he visited, partly intended, perhaps, to deter us from renewing our attempt on the Scheldt. He is expected to return to Paris between the 15th and 20th instant.

The only intelligence from France, respecting the proceedings of the great eccle. siastical council, is, that a deputation of patriarchs, cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, had set off for Italy, probably to make some fresh attempt on the firmness of the Pope, and to induce his compliance with the wishes of Bonaparte. A circular letter was sent by Cardinal Fesch to the bishops, announcing the death of a member of the council, the Bishop of Feltri.

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The unexpected return of Lord. William Bentinck from Sicily, whither he had gone to take the command of the British forces, has given rise to many suruuses with respect to the state of things in that island, The probability seems to be, that the Sicilian Government is not disposed to admit of British interference in its affairs, and is, perhaps, even averse to British connection and inclined to fraternize with France. If such should appear to be really the case, our Government will certainly have a difficult part to act. The great body of

the Sicilian people, it is believed, are much disaffected towards their own government, which is, perhaps, one of the most oppressive in the world-certainly the most oppressive and vexatious in Europe. The Sicilians also dislike the French almost as much as they do their own government, and would gladly unite with us against both. We have hitherto supported the government against the people. Now that the government nuost unnaturally and treacherously takes part against us (assuming the fact to be so), and attaches itself to the cause of France; it will probably be found not only expedient, but just, that we should unite with the people against the government and France, its ally. Lord W. Bentinck has returned to Sicily, to resume the command there.

It is rumoured that the Government of the United States is about to re-enact its embargo,

Parties ran so high in that country, and the newspapers speak a language so widely different, according to the party to which they belong, that a correct judginent can hardly be formed of the state of the public mind in that country.

Accounts from India state, that the second son of Tippoo Sultaun had shot himself at Calcutta. No reason is assigned for this

act.

GREAT BRITAIN.

THE following is represented as the sub. stance of the last Report of the Queen's Privy Council on the subject of his Majesty's health, viz. "that His Majesty's health is not such as to enable his Majesty to resume the exercise of his royal authority; that his Majesty's bodily health does not appear to be essentially altered since the date of the last Report that his Majesty's mental health

appears to be materially worse than it was at that period; that from the protraction of the disorder, its present state, the duration of its accessions, and the peculiar character which it now assumes, one of his Majesty's physicians thinks his Majesty's recovery improbable, and the other physicians think his recovery very improbable; and that on the other land, from the state of his Majes

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