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great advantages afforded by a residence in these admirably conducted establishments!

The College of St. James continues to satisfy all my desires, as regards its management and the results. Its increased numbers have occasioned no lowering of tone nor any relaxation of discipline. As a place of religious and intellectual training, it has attained a steady efficiency which I suppose nothing but a combination of favorable circumstances rarely to be found, certainly nowhere in this country, would make it possible to surpass. The recent organization of the classes in the College left it without a graduating class this year; but the examinations, both of the College and of the Grammar School, were rigorously conducted and completely satisfactory, and the Commencement exercises by the Junior Class, and other proofs of the proficiency of members of both departments, gave sufficient earnest of what is to be expected from the participants.

Nor am I less gratified with the condition of the Patapsco Female Institute. The able headship of its Principal, Mrs. Phelps, and the efficient and zealous pastoral care of its Chaplain, render it all that need be looked for, as a place to which the daughters of the Church may resort in pursuit of the highest grade of intellectual accomplishment in combination with the purest and most thorough instruction and training in religious duty.

St. Timothy's Hall continues to maintain its high character, and increase the numbers of its inmates. The improvements in progress at the last Convention have been completed, and few establishments in the country can surpass the convenience, comfort and perfect order now manifest in this.

Of Schools not diocesan, but managed strictly on the principles of the Church, we have St. John's Institute, near Georgetown, for boys, and the Hannah More Academy for girls, both excellently well conducted. Of the former the Rev. Mr. Ten Broeck, late of the diocese of New Jersey, has taken charge, and if thorough qualifications and unwearied diligence, with a well

established reputation, can ensure success, will not fail of it. In the Hannah More Academy, Mrs. Lyons is receiving her well earned reward in a steady growth of the school, and in the realization of her best hopes in the development of its influence on the scholars, six of whom have been confirmed and admitted to communion within the year. Of the Landon Female Institute, under the Rev. Mr. Phillips, I have received no report and had no personal knowledge within the year; but I believe it to be going on successfully, and still deserving the approbation heretofore expressed to the Convention. Ingleside School for girls, near Catonsville; Rock Hill Institute at Ellicott's Mills, for boys; and several more or less strictly parochial schools for one or both of the sexes, deserve more than the mere mention of their existence, which alone I am able to make in this Address. But even studied brevity would not excuse me for passing by the male and female schools established in Baltimore for the education of the children of residents in that city under the superintendence of of the Church. St. Mary's Hall, for girls, was established at my instance by Mr. and Mrs. Sargeant, in the autumn of 1846, and has been ever since slowly but surely earning for itself support and reputation. Trinity School, under the Rev. Mr. Riley and Mr. Hamilton, opened last September, and has filled up with a rapidity surpassing the expectations but not the deserts of its founders.

These day schools, in connexion with our College and boarding schools, complete the provisions of the Church in this diocese, for the higher kind of education for her children. We yet want schools of a lower grade of expense, and proportionately inferior pretensions, for the multitudes who cannot afford the price of the first class. Whether parochial or general, or both, they might be had, and well maintained, at the outlay of a little effort, if the sense of duty, and clear views of its direction, were sufficiently strong among us. It is cheering to perceive, at present, that the tendency is in the right direction. I trust it will not be very

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long before a still more general agreement among the sons of the Church, as to the propriety and necessity of providing among ourselves for the training of all our youth, of every station in society, for eternity as well as the duties of this life, will enable us to institute and effectually carry on a complete series of Church Schools, from the College down to the charity and infant school, and House of Refuge. In order to that most desirable result, union and hearty co-operation is all we need. Am I asking too much of you, brethren, when I entreat you, laying aside individual preferences and aims, to work together zealously, each in his station and sphere of influence doing all he can, for so good a cause?

The mention of union and co-operation, and the preference of the general good to private views and inclinations, naturally suggests a reference to our diocesan paper. It continued to be edited, until near the close of the second volume, with his wonted ability and energy, by the Rev. Mr. Franklin. A change in his other engagements having compelled him to resign the charge, I have been happy enough to obtain the valuable services of the Rev. Mr. Van Bokkelen, in order to the continuance of the paper. I am daily more sensible of the importance of its maintenance to the prosperity of the diocese, in which its general circulation will keep up and extend a unity of feeling and action, a lively interest of the parts in each other and the whole, a prevalent sympathy and harmony, to which nothing else will tend so directly or so effectually. The agency of my brethren of the clergy in bringing about a general circulation of the paper, such as is absolutely necessary for its support and usefulness in the desired way, has already been besought in a private circular. I now address myself to you, laymen of Maryland, and ask you for the love of peace and prosperity in our borders, as you desire the consolidation and extension of the Church among you, to lend me your aid in this undertaking, and here and at home by your own subscriptions and by the use of your influence with

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your friends and neighbors, to assist in providing a means of circulating ecclesiastical intelligence and profitable religious readsing in every parish and neighborhood in the diocese.

Of our missionary doings in the past year, I have little to say that is encouraging. In compliance with a request of each of the Committees of the General Board of Missions of the Church and with a resolution of the House of Bishops, I addressed Pastoral Letters to the diocese, recommending collections for the Domestic Missions on a Sunday in Advent, and for the Foreign Missions on a Sunday after Epiphany. The recommendations were pretty generally complied with, and, I believe, with results equalling the average returns from other dioceses. That such special efforts should have been needed, is matter of painful reflection. It will be still more so, if, as I fear, there should have been a subsequent general relapse into former inattention to the duty of regular contributions to these branches of the work of the Church.

Such inattention to a still more obvious and binding duty, the prosecution of Missionary efforts in needy parts of our own diocesan field, called forth from your Board of Missions, not long since, a request for a Pastoral Letter on the subject to the diocese. It was accordingly addressed; and has met in some instances with a most gratifying and prompt response; in most of the parishes and congregations, as I hope and believe, (although the returns do not yet show it,) with willing assent to the proposed collection. I wish the limits of this communication allowed me to enter upon a statement of the reasons why the diocese should be up and doing in provision for its many neglected, or decayed parishes, feeble congregations, and untouched wastes. A tale might be told, of destitution on the part of brethren of your household, of the stranger brought in to dwell among you, and of the wretchedly ignorant and poor; and of corresponding fearful responsibility for their condition resting upon you; that would startle the most indifferent, and sound too large to find easy

belief. Yet of the eight clergymen that are doing missionary work under appointment of the Ecclesiastical authority, five receive no assistance from the Diocesan Board; and several of the vacant clergy, who would gladly labor wherever they were sent, remain idle for want of provision for their maintenance at some missionary post. How long shall this disgraceful state of things continue? How long shall we be asked for bread, and give our brethren stones? I am persuaded that the disposition to do right in this matter prevails amongst us, extensively and strongly. The liberal heart that deviseth liberal things is not wanting to the laity of Maryland. But for want of efficient organization and uniform action, liberality and zeal are smothered in the bud, and every branch of the working of the Church for the extension of its public services, multiplication of its means of grace, consolidation of its discipline, and dissemination within itself and around it, of the knowledge of its doctrines and distinctive principles, must be reported as yet lamentably deficient in most parts of the diocese. For improvement in this respect, much depends upon the parochial clergy, with whom all that is well and properly done, must originate, and by them be guided and directed. But they need the stay of some central action beginning here, and can never be expected to work together vigorously and harmoniously, except in a mode devised and sanctioned by this body. To the Convention, then, I look for the development of the energy of the Church in all that is necessary, as material and machinery, for her inner and outer growth. Provision for missions, for the distribution of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer and Homilies and religious tracts, and for the encouragement and support of Sunday Schools, and if there be any other good work, parochial or diocesan, for that too, must be made here, to be general and effective. Until it is made here, we shall have, as heretofore, you to hear and I to tell, a miserable tale of neglected duty and work undone.

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