new church in the Tenter-ground, Goodman's Fields, capable of accommodating about 1,200 persons, according to the sizes of seats adopted by the church building commissioners, but not more than 1080 according to the increased size of pews and free seats decided upon by the committee. It comprises a tower and spire one hundred feet high, and the cost is estimated at 3,8007. A new church is also to be built in Curtain-road, for the parish of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch.Morning Post.

IRISH EDUCATION.-The fourth report of the commissioners of national education in Ireland, just laid before parliament, states 1,300 schools to have been in operation last March, and the board had built one school-house. They have completed a normal establishment, consisting of two departments-one elementary, one scientific, including husbandry and baudicraft; where the pupils are also to be boarded and lodged. They purpose having a school for industry near Dublin, with workhouses and a farm of fifty acres attached. They intend dividing the whole country into twenty-five principal school districts, appointing a superintendent for each, and establishing in each a model school; the superintendent to receive a salary of 125l, and to be provided with a horse for his visits, and be allowed 5s. a day travelling charges. The eight inspectors, who now receive 3001. each salary, are to be dispensed with. The head master of each model school is to have 501. salary, and the pupils are to contribute 1s. 6d. per quarter. The commissioners will henceforth allow the scriptures to be read during school hours. In Munster the commissioners have 255 schools, 23,321 boys, and 16,673 girls, under instruction, and 208 male, and 178 female teachers.-Times.

RATING TITHE RENT-CHARGE.-The following correspondence, which contains the rule on which the poor law commissioners consider the tithe-commutation rent-charge ought to be rated under the new assessment act, will be found useful to our agricultural readers ;

"December 26th, 1837. "GENTLEMEN,-I have seen a paragraph in various newspapers, represented to be the opinion of the poor law commissioners respecting the rating the tithe commutation rent-charge under the parochial assessment act; in the paragraph above referred to, it is stated that the assessment for the tithe ought not to be on the full rent-charge, but on the net annual value of such rent-charge after VOL. XIII.-March, 1838.

deductions made for parochial rates.' Under these circumstances, I trouble you for your opinion in the following case.

"The landowners of this parish have entered into an agreement for the commutation of the tithes, by which agreement they give 500l. by way of rentage in lieu of tithes, 4001. of which sum is the annual average amount of composition actually paid for the seven years ending Christmas 1835, and 1004. is one-fifth of the annual average amount of the poor and other rates for the like period. consequence of the introduction of the poor law amendment act, one-fifth of the annual average amount of poor and other rates for the year ending Christmas 1837, is 50l.; therefore the opinion I wish to obtain is, what proportion of the 5007. (the full rent charge) should be deducted for parochial rates?

"I am, gentlemen, &c. "A. G. W."

In

"Poor Law Com. Office, Somerset House January 19, 1838. "SIR,-The poor law commissioners for England and Wales have to acknowthe receipt of your letter of the 26th ult., and having had under consideration the case on which you request their opinion, they desire to state, that in determining the amount at which the rent-charge for which the tithes of a parish have been commuted should be assessed, it appears to them that the estimate of the rates and taxes to be deducted should be made on the basis of the year immediately preceding, that being the best mode for judging of what they will be in the next year.

"It would not be proper to estimate the amount to be deducted by reference to any expectations of an increase or decrease of rates founded on mere opinion, such as the expectation that the operation of the poor law amendment act will, during the course of next year, reduce the rates below the amount of the preceding year; for on this opinions may very reasonably differ, while the amount of the rates of the preceding year is certain, and if applied to all property in the parish can do injus

tice to none.

"Signed by order of the board, "E. CHADWICK, "Secretary."

"Mr. A. G. W."

[We hope A. G. W. finds Mr. Chadwick's answer to his very definite question intelligible. If he is not cleverer at unravelling mystification than we are, he must be a little puzzled by the verbosity of the poor law secretary. Will he be so good, if this notice should meet his eye, to translate for us the epistle of Mr. Chadwick 2 Y

into plain English, and a plain answer to his question?-Ed. Camb. Chron.]

At the levee held at St. James's Palace, on February 21, an address was presented to her Majesty by Archdeacon Hoare, praying her Majesty to stay the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, until the sense of the church shall have been expressed on the changes contemplated. It was signed by the Archdeacon and 235 of the clergy.

At a meeting of the committee appointed to consider of a proper testimonial to Dr. Blomberg, (Vicar of the parish of St. Giles Without, Cripplegate,) for his munificent aid of 750l. to the poor's rate, held on the 22nd of November, 1837-it was resolved unanimously, That a candelabrum, of the value of 100 guineas, be presented to the Rev. Dr. Blomberg, and that the following inscription be engraved thereon, viz, Presented by the inhabitants of St. Giles Without, Cripplegate, to their much esteemed vicar, the Rev. F. W. Blomberg, D.D., as a grateful testimony due to him, for his liberal, generous, and considerate conduct to the parishioners. February 15th, 1838. Peter Earnshaw, Vestry Clerk."-Times.

The collection at the church of St. Dunstan in the East, on Sunday, the 11th Feb., after a sermon by the Bishop of London, in aid of the Metropolis Churches Fund, amounted to 105l.-Post.

The Registrar-General of Births and Marriages under the new act has decided that parties residing within a registrar's district, though at a distance from the parish in which the ceremony is performed, may be married at any church or chapel, being duly registered, within the district, and that it is compulsory on the minister to perform the ceremony. The case which gave rise to this decision occurred at Whitehaven.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.

REGISTRATION.-The poor have been over and over again told that in case of the birth of a child they are compellable to register such birth, or, in default of so doing, are liable to the demand of 7s. 6d. That there is no such compulsory power on the part of the registrars, nor any the slightest pretext for the demand of such a fee (unless persons desire the registration of their children within forty-two days of the birth of such child, and within six calendar months next after the birth) the following letter from head quarters will prove :

"Gen. Reg. Office, Feb. 2, 1838. "REV. SIR,I am directed by the Registrar-General to acknowledge the re.

NORTHUMBERLAND.

The inhabitants of the populous district near Tynemouth have long felt the want of a chapel-of-ease in connexion with the established church. We are happy to say the rev. the vicar of Tynemouth has set a subscription on foot for the erection of a suitable place of worship, and the Church Building Society have contributed the munificent sum of 300l.; the Diocesan Church Building Society have also subscribed 100l.; his grace of Northumberland, 2001.; and a friend of religion, 500l. -Sunderland Beacon.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.

The sinecure prebend of Norwell Overhall, in the collegiate church of Southwell, having been recently resigned by the Rev. C. G. V. Harcourt, the Archbishop of York has relinquished the patronage, in order that the proceeds of the prebend may be made applicable to the augmentation of poor livings.-Notts Journal.

preacher for the occasion, was taken from the 10th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, the 13th, 14th, and part of the 15th verse. Previous to the sermon, Kent's appropriate anthem from the 101st Psalm, "My song shall be of mercy," was beautifully executed by Miss E. Cole and Miss Arthur, in which the fine devotional spirit of the composition was preserved with great judgment, taste, and feeling.

The Fourteenth Anniversary Meeting of the Society was held at the Assembly Rooms, on Friday. The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of the diocese presided, and commenced the proceedings by reading the usual form of prayer.

The Rev. G. A. Baker, the secretary, read the report, an able and interesting document, which was received with the highest approbation; after which, some excellent speeches were delivered by the following gentlemen :-Sir W. S. R. Cockburn, Bart., the Ven. Archdeacon Moysey, Captain Campbell, the Rev. J. Algar, E. Tottenham Gisborne, J. H. Pinder, W. Elliott, W. M. Pinder, Esq., and the Rev. W. B. Whitehead. Col.

Daubeney moved the thanks of the meeting to his lordship for his kindness in taking the chair, which was seconded by J. Phillott, Esq.

His lordship, in returning thanks, said that he always felt the greatest pleasure in coming among the inhabitants of Bath for any good purpose, and he hoped that whenever they might require his attendance at any future period, he should be able to render it. His lordship then gave his benediction, and the meeting separated. The collection at the Abbey amounted to 17. 14s. 1d., and at the Rooms, to 271. 12s. 9d., in addition to which, a donation of 5l. was received from the Rev. W. Battell.

WILTSHIRE.

At Devizes, on Monday, 22nd Jan., Mr. Mayo put and actually carried a motion at the meeting of the charity trustees, that "all the charity trusts for the education of children in the creed of the Church of England be taken from the clergy of the Established Church, and put under the control of the British Dissenting School Committee." Who will deny that this is excessively liberal ?-Wiltshire Herald.

WORCESTERSHIRE.

The Bishop of Worcester has sanctioned the appointment of a clergyman of the Church of England, whose province will be to give religious instruction to the water

men on the river Severn and Worcester and Birmingham Canal. The Church Pastoral-Aid Society has contributed towards the chapel, and stipend for the clergyman.-Worcester Journal.

YORKSHIRE.

On Thursday, Feb. 1, the anniversary of the LEEDS DISTRICT SOCIETY for PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE was commemorated. The public meeting took place in the Music Hall, Albion-street, at eleven o'clock, when the Right Reverend Bishop took the chair.-The Vicar of Leeds having read the prayers prescribed for the occasion, the Rev. JAMES FAWCETT read the report, which, in addition to the proceedings of the Leeds District Society, contained an abstract of the report of the Parent Society for the past year.

The Rev. Dr. Hook, Vicar of Leeds, having been called upon to move the first resolution, said he begged to congratulate his lordship and the meeting on the report which had just been read; and, after a speech of great ability and power, concluded by moving,-" That the report now read be adopted and printed for circulation under the direction of the managing committee."

Mr. Alderman HALL said he considered it a great honour that he had been commissioned to second the resolution which had been proposed by their respected and reverend Vicar.

The Rev. J. HOLMES, after a long and able speech, moved the second resolution: "That the measure of success which has attended the society's labours, both at home and abroad, is a cause for devout gratitude to Him by whose blessing alone any good result can be expected."

J. GOTT, Esq., in an excellent speech, begged leave most cordially to second the resolution of the thanks of the meeting to Almighty God for the blessings which had attended the institution. (Applause.)

The Rev. J. FAWCETT wished to make a few observations before the resolution was put to the meeting. The subject of the observations was not a pleasant one, but it appeared to be a duty, and therefore he would not shrink from it. It would be known to many who were present, that for a considerable time past there had been a systematic and persevering course of attack made on the society by a London newspaper, (the Record,) and those attacks could not be passed over in silence, as it had a considerable circulation, and probably no small influence, in this

neighbourhood. Mr. F. stated that some months ago he was in the habit of frequently seeing that publication, and was grieved at the spirit which was manifested in its attacks; that he had repeatedly examined into them, and usually (indeed he could not recal an instance in which it was otherwise,) found the assertions made were untrue. Having made no memoranda, he would not trust to memory, and therefore would not state the substance of any of those former attacks; but he would request the attention of the meeting to two which had been recently made, and which had not been selected by him as favourable for his purpose, but had been brought under his notice as secretary. One was a letter, dated December 7th, which professed to come from a parochial clergyman, and which was peculiarly offensive, as the tendency, he might say the design, was to impede the course of that benevolence which had been called forth by the sovereign, and urged by the bishops of the church, in aid of the education of the poor. Such being the nature of the letter, he thought the clergyman who had written it had cause to be ashamed of his work, and did well to conceal his name. Mr. F. read an extract from the letter, which stated that it was impossible for the clergy to discharge their duty in the religious training of children if they were confined to the tracts of the society; and referring to that portion of the catalogue of the society's works which apply to education, Mr. F. remarked, that if the writer could not from those works supply what was fit, it was not from any defect in the list, but because he was incapable of giving instruction. The other instance to which Mr. F. requested attention, was a letter in the Record of December 28, which contained several quotations, which it called sentences, from a tract, No. 303, entitled "An address to a young woman after confirmation." Many of these were only half sentences, and when read as they stood in the tract conveyed a very different impression from what they did as they appeared in the Record. He would not quote any of those passages, however, because their being proper or improper might be matter of opinion, and he wished to rest his case upon facts. This letter then stated that "in the whole of its 32 pages, the blessed Saviour is but once alluded to otherwise than incidentally." When it was shewn to him, he said he would read the tract and judge by it; he had done so, and the tract was then in his hands, and he would read a few extracts from it, by which the correctness of the

above assertion might be judged. Mr. F. then read seven or eight extracts from the tract, all of which pointedly referred to the Saviour, and one of which occupied above half a page, and stated clearly, though concisely, the great principles of the Gospel. Mr. F. then put it to the meeting whether he had not established his case, and whether it was not altogether unjustifiable to designate (as the Record had done) a tract containing so clear, so beautiful, and so scriptural a statement of Gospel truth," an abominable tract." Mr. F. added that be never had asserted the tracts of the society to be perfect, and he did not then do so; he did not pledge himself to an entire approval of the tract before them; many expressions might be advantageously altered, and in many parts it might be rendered much more clear. But he had shewn that it was greatly misrepresented, and in this he had come forward as a matter of duty, very much against inclination, because he considered silence under such attacks to amount to a plea of guilty; and he felt warranted in calling upon the meeting, when they heard or read attacks on the society from the same quarter, to give no credit to them until they had examined for themselves.

The Rev. W. SINCLAIR concluded a very energetic address by moving the next resolution:-"That the clergy of the town and neighbourhood be requested to bring the society's claims before their congregations, with the two-fold object of making it more extensively known and increasing its funds for local purposes." H. SKELTON, Jun., Esq., one of the secretaries, seconded the resolution.

The Rev. J. C. FRANKS, Vicar of Huddersfield, in moving the next resolution, said he had peculiar pleasure in being present with them that day, more especially as it was his happiness to be present on a late occasion on which they were assembled in that room, and to witness at those periods the great efforts made on behalf of that venerable and religious society, the most pre-eminent of all the religious societies of the land, as connected with the Church from which it emanated-the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. They were sometimes told that the members of the church of England were opposed to the education of the poor; but it could not be true, for there was a Society in connexion with the church which had been established for that purpose more than half a century before any other society existed for the same purpose. It would also be found that this was the first Bible Society, the first Prayer-Book So

ciety, the first Tract Society, and the first School Society; and whatever good had resulted from such institutions, it should ever be remembered that the example had been set by our apostolical, christian, pure, and scriptural church. (Hear.) The

rev.

gentleman then referred to the attacks upon this society alluded to by Mr. Fawcett, and also to the attacks on the church itself, and said that he had read more against the church than he had for it, and if he did not still like it, he would leave it. (Hear.) He would, however, caution them against taking for gospel all that the Record newspaper said, for however it might defend the cause of the establishments of their brethren in Scotland, they could not expect that journal to advocate episcopalian establishments, for the editor was a Presbyterian.* Reverting to the immediate object of the meeting, the rev. gentleman said he rejoiced in the public and popular meetings of this society, for he was present at the first public meeting of the society held in the kingdom, and certainly at the first in the West Riding. He advocated them before he left college, and he got one held at Huddersfield as soon as he possibly could. In 1828 they only circulated 993 books and tracts in the Huddersfield district; according to the last year's report they surpassed Leeds, but now the Leeds society had outstripped that of Huddersfield. (Applause.) Their success was the result of their having brought it publicly forward as they had done, and thereby they had at length done tardy justice to the most ancient Bible and Prayer-book and Tract and School Society in the land in which they lived. (Hear.) Some of the earlier tracts of the society were signalized by a want of that evangelical truth which now characterized the clergy; and as that want of evangelical knowledge in their writers deteriorated the instruction conveyed in

N.B. It is proper to say that Mr. Franks, in the same number of the Leeds Intelligencer, from which this account is taken, has retracted the charge of any Presbyterian having a share in the editorship of the Record, on the authority of the denial lately put forth by that paper, while at the same time he conceives that the admission (made in that denial) that a Presbyterian forms one of the 14 gentlemen in whom the ultimate management of the paper is vested, must always make their advocacy of certain great church principles a feeble one. He further wishes to know how long the Record has been enabled to make such a statement. In the following number of the same paper is a correspondence between the Rev. E. Churton and Mr. Franks, relative to the Oxford Tracts; Mr. Franks did not mean to apply the word heretical in its strong sense, even if he had applied it to them; and he regrets its mention at all.

early writings, so the increased biblical and scriptural education of the clergy of the present day would tend to raise the standard of divine truth, and whatever was defective would be supplied, whatever was erroneous would be amended, and they might cordially support the society in the hope that, though not perfect, it would more and more approach perfection. (Hear.) The reverend gentleman then stated the progressive income of the society for a long time past. Their worthy Vicar had truly said that district societies were generally in debt; but they ought not to be so; for if they were not in debt they would be able to distribute a greater number of tracts in the workhouses and infirmaries; aye, and they could furnish the free sittings in their churches with prayer-books. (Hear.) When he was once at Liverpool, he observed in St. Paul's church there, that all that part of the congregation which occupied the freesittings were furnished with the society's prayer-books. He resolved to introduce the plan into his own parish church, when it was rebuilt, and the result had more than answered his expectations. The poor had been interested, and they joined in the service with better understandings, and with more attention and pleasure. (Hear.) After some further observations, the Rev. Vicar moved his resolution:-" That the attention of the members of the society be earnestly requested to the importance of extending its efforts among all classes of society, and their aid be therefore requested in the formation of district sub-committees in the town and neighbourhood." W. D. SKELTON, Esq., seconded the resolution in an animated address.

The Rev. J. BELL, of Oulton, in a neat speech, moved that the Lord Bishop of Ripon be requested to continue his patronage.

E. J. TEALE, Esq., seconded the motion. The Right Reverend Prelate having vacated the chair, it was taken by the Rev. Dr. Hook.

The Rev. R. NEWLOVE, of Thorner, briefly proposed that the cordial thanks of the meeting be given to the Lord Bishop of Ripon, for his kindness in taking the chair.

G. BANKS, Esq., seconded the motion, and it was carried almost by acclamation.

The Bishop of RIPON then addressed the meeting, and pronounced the usual benediction, nearly all the company kneeling; and the meeting broke up about two o'clock.

A handsome sum was collected at the doors in aid of the funds of the society.