because Christianity was reproductive, and the moment that a man had felt the power of religion in his own heart, he has to extend it to others. The more they permeated the Colonies, and especially Australia, with Christian truth, the more work they took off the hands of the London Missionary Society, and this was another reason why they should support the Society.

The Rev. T. JAMES read an abstract of the report, as follows:

"From the nature of the case, the beginings of the Society were few and feeble. For many years its operations were conducted chiefly in British North America, but little was even attempted for the more distant Colonies of Australia. The population of those regions was then comparatively small, and until the mighty impetus which the discovery of gold gave to emigration, its increase was slow and inconsiderable. But even then the Committee, guided, there can be no doubt, by the providence of God, selected and sent Dr. Ross to Sydney, and Mr. Stow to Adelaide, men eminently qualified, not only for the present exigency, but to meet the truly wonderful and rapid succession of events which, ere long, set in upon them. The work accomplished by those noble men will cause their names to be had in grateful remembrance by generations yet unborn.

"On a review of the operations of the Society from its formation eight-and-twenty years ago, the Committee are thankful to notice its progress. Although it has not accomplished all its friends could desire, yet it has effected, by the blessing of God, an amount of good which should awaken intense gratitude for the past, and prove a powerful stimulus for the future. During the first fourteen years the gross amount of its receipts from all sources was £37,816, or little more, on an average, than £2,700 per annum; its disbursements for the same period being £38,338, or £2,738 per annum. During that time the number of ministers sent from this country-or, being already in the field, were assisted by the Society's funds, of which there were ten-was sixtynine. During the second period of fourteen years, the gross amount of receipts has been £72,878, or an average of £5,205, and of disbursements £70,690, or an average of £5,049.

The number of ministers sent

under the auspices of the Society, or educated at its expense, in the mission-field, has been 127. In addition to this, during the second period, several thousand pounds were collected for the Society's purposes, but not passing through its books, are not included in the amount specified. So, also, many ministers have gone out on their own resources, who, on their arrival, have united with their brethren in promoting the great object the Society labours to advance; so that there are now about 180 faithful servants

VOL. XXI.

of Christ, in fourteen British Colonies, preaching the glorious Gospel of the blessed God to many thousands of their self-expatriated fellow-countrymen. God is giving testimony to the word of His grace; multitudes have been gathered into the fellowship of His Church, and are striving with their pastors to diffuse the knowledge of Christ and His salvation in the regions around them.

"During the past year fifteen ministers have given themselves to this service, including two of the students of the College in Toronto, who are settled in Canada; the Rev. Alexander Fraser, late of Glasgow, who proceeded to Melbourne at his own cost; the Rev. John Fraser, who studied for the ministry under the auspices of the Society at Toronto, and who emigrated from Canada to New Zealand, and is settled under hopeful circumstances at Port Chalmers, in the province of Otago; the Rev. John Maze, who has just embarked for St. John's, Newfoundland; and the Rev. John Graham, who has gone to take charge of the church in Pitt-street, Sydney. Of these, eleven have been sent wholly, or in part, at the cost of the Society. The Committee were induced to send so large a number by the impassioned appeal of their friend, Mr. Poore, I would urge and reiterate the plea--nay! demand in Christ's name that His messengers be sent.' Such was his language, and the Committee could not resist the appeal. Accordingly, four have been sent to Victoria, two to New Zealand, two to New South Wales, and one to South Australia. Although, by the timely arrival of these brethren, who, the Committee believe, are adapted for the work to which they have devoted themselves, the immediate wants of the Colonies are supplied, yet the rapid increase of the population, and the growth of new settlements, demonstrate the necessity of continued and even greater effort by the Society than it has hitherto put forth.

"VICTORIA.

"The churches in Victoria continue to prosper. They have hailed with gladness the arrival in Melbourne of the Rev. Messrs. Davies, Cuttle, Wilson, and Holt, sent by the Committee; and the Rev. A. Fraser, who proceeded thither on his own charges.

"The College recently established in Melbourne is progressing as favourably as its preliminary circumstances will admit. Until the services of a competent tutor are obtained, the ministers in the city render valuable assistance in directing the studies of its alumni. Five young brethren are now, in the institution, and others are seeking admission. The Committee regard the establishment of the college as a matter of the greatest importance; and would, therefore, respectfully, but very earnestly, commend to the friends of the Society this infant institution.

S

66 SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

"The Committee continue to receive satisfactory intelligence of the state of the churches in South Australia.

"The Committee have great pleasure in stating that the friends in Adelaide, wishing to do honour to the memory of the late Mr. Stowe, to whose devoted labours the Colony owes so much, resolved to erect a memorial church, which might testify to future generations the estimation in which he was held by his fellow-citizens. They have succeeded in their efforts to raise the necessary funds, towards which our friend, Mr. Binney, has remitted £1,000, a moiety of which was contributed by a gentleman from Adelaide, at present in England, and the remainder was obtained from friends in this country who sympathised with the

movement.

"QUEENSLAND.

"This Colony, the most recently organised of all the Australasian group, bids fair to rival many of its sister communities. Its progress is most rapid and satisfactory. The churches gathered by the labours of ministers sent by this Society are all peaceful and prosperous. The great desire there, as in other settlements, is for additional labourers to enter on the harvest-field, which is ripe and promising.

66 TASMANIA.

"The Committee have nothing to report concerning the churches in Tasmania, except only that the church in Hobart Town, formerly under the pastoral care of the late highly-esteemed minister, the Rev. F. Miller, invited the Rev. W. C. Robinson, of William's Town, who, having accepted their call, has entered on his duties with every prospect of comfort and great usefulness.

"WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

"The brethren in Western Australia are labouring with diligent assiduity and no small measure of success. They have to struggle with great difficulty and discouragement, owing chiefly to the continuance of convictism in the colony. They ask, which the Committee think they deserve, the sympathy and assistance of their friends in the mother country.

"NEW ZEALAND.

"The unhappy war that still rages between the colonists and the natives in the northern island, proves a great hindrance in the way of the evangelistic labours in which the churches are engaged. The friends in Auckland, feeling desirous that an additional minister should be sent for that province, remitted £100 towards the cost of sending him. The Committee were about to fulfil the commission entrusted to them, when they received a letter from the secretary, requesting them to delay for the present to carry into effect the resolution they had

adopted, as the unhappy war had temporarily shut up the places they hoped to occupy." Their contribution is therefore reserved until the time shall arrive when missionary efforts may be safely renewed.

"The Committee have thus given a rapid sketch of the present state of the churches in the Australasian Colonies. They cannot but regard it as of a most hopeful character. They feel constrained to thank God and take courage. Still, however, they feel there is much land to be possessed. Greater efforts still must be put forth to meet the increasing claims which new settlements will occasion. Measures are already taken to colonise the north-western portion of the vast island-conti. nent of Australia; and the British churches should be prepared to send the faithful missionary of the Cross with the first settlers of that new territory. So, too, in New Zealand, especially in the middle island, ministers will be required. In the provinces of Southland, Otago, and Canterbury, they might at once be introduced, and in a very short time would gather congregations around them, listening with attention to the joyful sound, and sustaining in comfort the messengers that bore to them the glad tidings of salvation. Perhaps there never was a finer or more promising field for missionary enterprise than these fair and attractive regions now present.

66 NATAL.

"Under this head the Committee report the undertaking, by Mr. Jefferys, of a ministry in the Trans Vaal, and the departure of the Rev. W. H. Mann, to take his place at Durban.

"Mr. Reynolds continues his labours with much encouragement at Pietermaritzburg, the seat of government of the Colony. His greatest difficulty arises from the unfinished state of his chapel. The available resources of his friends are exhausted, and it requires no less a sum than from £500 to £800 to finish it, so as to accommodate all who are desirous of attending. There is, perhaps, no colonial chapel which needs the assistance of British Christians in a greater degree than this.

denying efforts cannot be too highly appreciated. The annual meetings of the Canadian Congregational Union and Missionary Society are held in the month of June, so that the information concerning the state of the churches which the Committee obtain in a condensed form is nearly a year old. At their last meeting, held in the city of Hamilton, accounts were received from the different districts of the country, from which it appeared, to use the language of their report, to have been a year which had not been remarkable for success, though it had not been without encouragements. There had been forty-seven missionaries on the list in Canada, and eight in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; of these, two were theological students, who had laboured in various parts of the whole field during their vacation.' For the more systematic and effective conduct of missionary operations, the churches are divided into four districts, analogous to the county associations in this country. A Committee is appointed, consisting of ministers and laymen, one of the former acting as secretary. On a review of the reports furnished by these several districts, the Committee have pleasure in stating that a large amount of itinerant and exploring work has been accomplished in Lower Canada, and that several new and promising spheres of labour have been entered upon in different localities. This is the more satisfactory, as it is in this province that Roman Catholicism has its stronghold. It is the residence of the French-Canadian population, who exercise a powerful influence, against which the faithful missionary has constantly to contend. In not a few places it is in the Congregational chapel only that the light of truth shines forth, to maintain which, though it involves a long continued grant from the Society's funds, the Committee consider a matter of supreme importance. The amount raised during the past year by the churches throughout Canada by their missionary collections, as distinguished from their contributions in support of their pastors, is £443 15s. 3d.

"The Collegiate Institution at Toronto continues to flourish under the able superintendence of the Rev. Dr. Lillie.

"VANCOUVER'S ISLAND.

"The mission to Vancouver's Island and British Columbia was commenced under circumstances that appeared most hopeful, but it very soon appeared that the representations which had been made were enormously exaggerated. The number of settled inhabitants in Victoria but little exceeds 2,000, and but a small proportion of these can be induced to attend public worship. Mr. Macfie, the highly-respected minister, who was sent from this country in the year 1859, has devoted himself to his work with praiseworthy zeal and perseverance. He has conducted himself with so much consistency as to secure the respect of all classes of the community. Still, with so little prospect of increase in the congregation, and the large expenditure that the mission consequently involved, the Committee deemed it expedient to request Mr. Macfie to report to them in detail the state of affairs in the colony, that they may be able more accurately to determine whether it would be right to continue the mission. There is good reason to believe that ultimately the Colony will acquire a considerable degree of strength and importance; but its distance from the mother country, and the great difficulty of access to it, will render its progress extremely slow. Under these circumstances the Committee, with its comparatively slender resources, could not feel justified in continuing the mission at so large an outlay, probably for many years to come. In the meantime, Mr. Macfie has been requested by the local government to visit Britain, to endeavour, by lecturing and otherwise, to create an interest on behalf of the colony. He may, therefore, be shortly expected in this country, and the mission, if not entirely relinquished, will cease to be any cost to the Society.

tions, which, not having realized their expectations so speedily as they anticipated, a friend, present at the public meeting for British missions, held at Liverpool, offered to give £300, provided nine others would give the like sum, and so secure £1,000 for each of the three British Mission Societies. This proposal was responded to, and the amount was realised. Other friends contributed smaller sums, so that the Committee, by this special effort, received no less a sum than £1,193 6s. 8d.

"The total amount received from all sources is £6,718 5s., including the sum of £741 8s. Id., contributed especially for the Melbourne College, and £235 10s. remitted by the Australian Colonies in aid of the expenses incurred by sending the ministers who have gone.

The total amount of disbursements for the year is £6,116 4s. 10d.

"There is a cash balance in the treasurer's hands of £602 Os. 2d., but the sum of £350 13s. is held to the credit of Melbourne College, and £16 11s. specially contributed for colonial chapels, and £100 reserved for sending a minister to Auckland, which leaves a credit balance of £134 16s. 2d. But the treasurer is under acceptances, payable at different dates between the present time and the month of July, of £433 8s. 8d., so that there is in reality a balance against the Society of £318 12s. 6d. These facts show the importance, yea, the absolute necessity, for the Society to possess a reserved capital, that the Committee might be able to conduct its affairs during the first half of its financial year, without the anxiety by which they are sometimes perplexed.

"Before passing from the subject of finance, the Committee have great pleasure in acknowledging the generosity of certain ship-owners, especially the firm of George Thompson, junr., and Co., for abatement made in the charge for conveying our ministers and their families to their destination. In former years the like kindness has been shown, by which considerable advantage has accrued to the Society.

"The Committee, in thus surrendering their charge to their constituents and friends, are unable to express in language sufficiently strong, the deep sense they entertain of the importance of the work in which the Society is engaged."

The Rev. Messrs. Allon, Cuthbertson, Binney, Raleigh, Dale, and Clarke, addressed the meeting, and Mr. Poore spoke to the following effect:-He was once an Independent minister, but he had returned to this country to find himself in bonds, and he had con. sented to wear those bonds for twelve months. However, he wished to do his duty to the Society because he loved his countrymen, and because in the British Colonies he saw undoubtedly the germs of great empires. He was very sorry to be absent for any

considerable time from Australia. His business there was to act as a pioneer, and to push things forward, God blessing and helping him, somewhat faster than they would advance if left to the spontaneous action and growth of nations. He had left Australia with the idea that he should be absent for some time, because he intended, after spending some few months in England, to go back by way of the Cape, and to spend a few months in South Africa, where he had been advised that there were many favourable openings for the introduction and settlement of Independent ministers. Instead of that, however, he had been requested to remai in this country. Mr. Allon had said that many of the churches were shy of this Society, and he had proved it. This was especially the case with the ministers who seemed to think that they held the pursestrings of their congregations, whereas he had always felt it his duty to let every Christian enterprise be pleaded right heartily before the people, for they knew very well how to refuse, and how to give very little, though some of them knew how to give very much. Many "effectual doors " had been opened in the Colonies, and efficient men had gone and occupied them. One of the great weaknesses of Independency was, that they depreciated one another, while they extolled everything and everybody else; and he had found that amongst the most uncharitable men in Australia were certain local preachers, who, because they could command an audience of fifty persons, and feed them with other people's sermons, looked depreciatingly upon the efforts and struggles of ministers who did a vast deal more than they did. They had many good, hard-working, and useful ministers in Australia, but it could not be expected that they could get such men all at once. There was a law of progress everywhere; even in this country congregations and churches did not spring up in a month, and for the most part our ministers of eminence were not found in new places, but where the seed had been sown centuries ago. But God had helped them onward. Mr. Graham had gone to Sydney, and he would be no mean man there. Mr. Cuthbertson was always considered to be the foremost man in Sydney; whatever the occasion was, he was always expected to be present and to make a speech, and he did it, and though in Melbourne they had not just now a man like Mr. Graham, still, in that city of 120,000 inhabitants, they had thirteen churches, who, with their pastors, were all sustained by themselves, so that it was a calumny to speak in a depreciating manner of the position of Independents in Australia. Still, the battle was hard, and the Independents did not always have the best of it at the beginning, because they could not begin as the great organised and corporate churches did.

They could not send a man there sustained by thousands of pounds, and give him the title of bishop, and they could not do what those could who had the contributions of the whole Catholic Church to support them. They had to feel their way; but they had kept on, and had won some fights, though they often had to combat at a disadvantage. It was considered the most shocking thing imaginable that they should dare ever to say a word there about the Bicentenary movement, and celebrate the memory of their fatbers who had suffered. The good Bishop of Melbourne was greatly scandalised at this, and refused to recognise the church-life and standing of any one who had dissented from the Church of England. Still they held their own, and if there was any one more held in esteem throughout the Australian Colonies as a Christian minister, it was the Independent or the Baptist, the man who, by the force of his piety and the gifts which God had bestowed on him, could hold his own against the State. They had much to encourage them though they had still much hard work to do. The fathers continued not by reason of death, and there was a great need of new men to take their places. He could not sit down without saying one word about Mr. Newland. It would be a good thing if many more went out to Australia as he did, both to cultivate the soil and to preach the Gospel. He combined in one man a settler, ploughman, shepherd, road-maker, magistrate, councillor, and builder of chapels, and at last fell, ripe in honour and full of years; and to his (Mr. Poore's) mind there was nothing painful in the way in which God had taken him. It seemed the fittest close to the life of such a man as Nelson, that he should fall upon the deck of his ship in the hour of victory, and in the last great naval fight; it seemed that the best tomb for Sir John Franklin was amid the eternal ice, through which he had found the north-west passage, leaving to others nothing but to build his monument and verify what he had done. And so, a man like Mr. Newland, who lived on horseback, and who was always travelling, it seemed more fitting and appropriate that he should die as he had done, than that he should lie down and rest in his bed. He thanked God for the life-long labours of that true-hearted man, so full of love and zeal for Christ. The way in which he had lived for years was this. He would leave home on the Monday morning, and go to the hills, and there remain till the next Sunday morning alone, feeding his flocks and caring for them, and he had shewn him (Mr. Poore) the mound where he used to spend his days studying John Owen and John Howe, whilst he was at the same time tending his sheep. Then on the Sabbath-day another would take his place, and he would go and preach the Gospel to three different congregations.

for

He was a man of apostolic zeal, and of heroic constancy to his principles, and served his generation according to the will of God. A glorious country was Australia, and he longed to be there again, for he believed he had yet a work there to do. The Committee wished him to stop here, but he wanted to sow seeds there. If the child was father to the man, then those countries would be by-and-bye what, by God's grace, they made them now, and if they could only succeed in establishing their missions and their principles all over those Colonies, they would by-and-bye have not only perfect civil and religious freedom, but a spiritual race, sending forth light and radiance into all the heathen regions around.

LONDON CONGREGATIONAL

ASSOCIATION.

THE annual meeting of the eastern district of this Association was held in Wycliffe Chapel, Commercial-road, on Monday evening, May 2nd, N. J. Powell, Esq., presided; on and around the platform were most of the Congregational ministers of the East of London, and several influential gentlemen representing the associated churches.

This Association is but in its infancy. The eastern district has been formed about two years. There are at present four evangelists, and one female agent, most usefully engaged in the respective districts of Shadwell, Mile End-road, Queen-street, Ratcliff, and Poplar. These, however, are not the only labourers of their order, who are supported by the Congregational churches in the East of London, or working under the superintendence of their pastors. There are several other missionaries in this position, who are seeking the same ends, by the same means, and enjoy the same blessing.

The general report and the report of their year's labour, given by two of the evangelists, contained statistics and facts of the most appalling nature on the one hand, and instances of successful labour the most encouraging on the other.

It appears that in the Eastern Union, comprising Bethnal-green, Mile-end Old-town, and Poplar districts, there are 300,000 souls, an increase since the census returns of 1851 of 63,983, being in itself the population of a large town, without the barest approach to any corresponding increase in the means of grace. The average population to a square mile in the metropolis is 22,983, but in the east the population is much above the average, in "St. George's-in-the-East" the people are packed together, to the number of 180,000 to the square mile. The whole population of the county of Suffolk is 337,070, and these scattered over a district of 1,500 square miles. Two miles, such as St. George's-in-the-East, would contain 22,930 souls more than the whole population of the county of Suffolk. Not quite thirteen per cent. of the population of this parish attend Divine service. following resolution was passed :-"That this meeting, deeply impressed with the deplorable spiritual condition of the East of London, and

The