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own Communion, twenty-five additional Missionaries would every year be required. But the existing population in the Colonies has long outgrown the spiritual provision which has been made for it; and it is increasing with wonderful rapidity; while from fifty to seventy thousand new settlers are likely to be added to the population every year.

The machinery which has been found by experience most efficient for diffusing information on the subject, and obtaining the necessary funds, is that of Parochial Associations; and the Society, therefore, again ventures to recommend to the Clergy generally, the adoption of this system. Where, as in few cases, valid objections exist to it, an Annual Sermon, (with a collection,) might, it is thought, be preached with advantage; but surely, in some way or other, every congregation ought to contribute first towards the support of the Church among our own brethren in the Colonies, and secondly, to the propagation of the faith of Christ in heathen lands.

Among the events of chief interest during the present year, and tending to strengthen and assure the hearts of those who desire the well-being and extension of our Missions, is the consecration of St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. This great work, the evidence and result of so much zeal, devotion, and sacrifice, will, it is hoped, be the commencement of a new era in the history of the Missions of the Church: and what has been our great want hitherto, a supply of men well trained and qualified to act as Missionaries in heathen countries, will now, we trust, be secured. The consecration, by the Primate of all England, of a College for exclusively Missionary Students, may also itself be regarded as a more complete and solemn acknowledgment of the debt which we owe to the heathen world, than any that had previously been afforded.

Another formal, and most gratifying recognition of Missionary obligation, has been given, in the acceptance by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, of an endowment, in virtue of which it is provided that a Sermon shall be annually preached in full term, at both Universities, on the subject of "Church Extension over the Colonies and Dependencies of the British Empire." The Society has the satisfaction of knowing that this endowment, which may, not improbably, be pregnant with important benefits to the Colonial Church, was affected inainly by the exertions of J. H. Markland, Esq., late Treasurer of the Society, through whose hands the necessary endowment-fund was paid.

The reports from the several Colonial Dioceses will, it is believed, be regarded as sufficient evidence that the Church of England is by no means slumbering and idle in her distant posts. Everywhere there is activity and expansion, and the zeal and energy of the Clergy and laity are now in almost every Colony receiving direction and organization, and therefore acquiring double force, from the presence and oversight of their several Bishops. But if the statements which are now made public are in some sort calculated to encourage and give us heart, they supply reasons for largely increased efforts, and a union of all hands to relieve the appalling spiritual destitution which is growing with the growth of the Colonies. To say nothing of the need of many more Missionaries for the instruction and conversion of millions of Hindoos and Mohametans, there is the western coast of Newfoundland with but one Deacon within a distance of 200 miles; the coast of Labrador utterly unprovided with the ordinances of religion; Canada requiring at least one hundred more Clergymen; and a Church even at Sydney without a Minister, and depending for its weekly services on the personal ministrations of the Metropolitan. Surely, if these facts were generally known, the Society would not be left without the means of answering the frequent and earnest appeals for help which it is every month receiving,

The ten thousand endowed Parishes of England may fairly be called upon to do more than ever they have yet done for the altogether unendowed Church of the poorest of our own countrymen in the Colonies; and it is no exaggeration to say, that on the timely supply of the means of education and the ministrations of religion to the rising settlements of our Colonial Empire, may, under Providence, depend the future temporal and eternal well-being of many nations of the same blood and language as ourselves. The present is a great crisis in the world's history, and unequalled facilities are offered to England, in the universality of her commerce, the extent of her colonial possessions, and the spread of her language, for the propagation of the Gospel according to the pure teaching of her own Church. It is not a little straitness or commercial depression that should prevent her from seizing this providential opportunity. "The times," says the Bishop of Fredericton, "no doubt, are distressing; but when we find men's hearts failing them for fear,' when many run to and fro, and knowledge is increased," when the witness of the Gospel is extending through the world, we who look out for the signs of the coming of the Son of Man, should feel that this is not a time for retrenching charity, but for retrenching superfluity and waste; and that the nearer we draw to the day of the Lord,' the more diligently we should strive to be faithful and wise stewards, giving to every one his portion of meat in due season."

6

79 PALL MALL, September 15, 1848.

The income of the Society for 1848, including the proceeds of the Royal Letter, is estimated at £80.000, or nearly $400,000. The following is a summary of the Society's operations during the past year.

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We shall give interesting details from the several Missionary fields hereafter.

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

The Forty-ninth Annual Report of this Society exhibits a marked increase in its labors and success. It enters now upon the fiftieth year of its labors. We are compelled to defer a full summary of its doings until our next number. Its anticipated receipts for 1848, are one million of dollars, or about double the average sum. The vigor with which our Venerable Mother Church is prosecuting the missionary work in all parts of the world, is cause for gratitude and hope. We believe she is doing more to spread true religion in the world, than all other visible instrumentalities combined.

IMPORTANT LETTER.-The Right Rev. Dr. Tomlinson, Bishop of Gibraltar, who is at present in England, has addressed a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, containing a scheme for a considerable extension of the episcopate, and the clerical body in the colonies of the British Crown. The bishop remarks, that, by the Act of Uniformity, passed in the 2d of King Edward VI., A. D. 1548, it was ordered that the Book of Common Prayer, and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, which had been recently prepared "by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and certain of the most learned and discreet bishops, and other learned men of this realm," should be used in all the churches throughout the King's dominions, from and after the feast of Pentecost next ensuing -that is, in the year 1549. Consequently, Whitsunday next, 1849, will be the three hundredth anniversary of the English Prayer Book.

The Bishop of Gibraltar suggests to the Archbishop that the approaching anniversary shall be made the occasion of a great, simultaneous, and universal effort, on the part of the members of the Church of England for the wider extension of its ministry and services abroad. He proposes, therefore, that on Whitsunday next, collections should be made in every Church and Chapel throughout the empire; that the Clergy, both at home and in the colonies, should be requested by their diocesans to preach upon the subject, and to call upon every member of the Church in their respective parishes, to contribute; that the whole of the contributions should be paid into one common fund, and placed at the disposal of the committee of Archbishops and Bishops already established for the Colonial Bishops' Fund, to be divided and applied as they shall see fit, to the two-fold object of providing additional Bishops and additional Clergy for the Church in the Colonies, and as Missionaries in foreign countries: the additional Clergy to be appointed on the application of the colonial Bishops through the medium of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and of the Church Missionary Society.

Bishop Tomlinson alludes to the startling fact, that "the Queen of Eng land, the temporal head of the Church of her own kingdom, rules over more than one-seventh of the whole human race; including a hundred millions of pagans and unbelievers." He suggests that from the 20,000,000 belonging to the English Church, a collection might be made sufficient to provide ten additional Bishops, and one hundred additional Clergy.

DIOCESE OF NEWFOUNDLAND.

The Bishop of Newfoundland has recently made a protracted voyage of visitation to some of the more remote portions of his Diocese; visiting in the Church ship the distant coast of Labrador; administering the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; holding Confirmations; solemnizing Mar

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riages; collecting and preaching to congregations of the Esquimaux Indians. Some populous settlements had never before been visited by a Clergyman of the English Church. The Bishop represents the spiritual destitution of that portion of his Diocese as very great. He seems every where to have been received with overflowing kindness, and his labors to have been abundant. After a journey of more than 2000 miles, and an absence of more than fourteen weeks, the Bishop and his companions reached home in safety, and on the morning after, returned public thanks for preservation, and received together the Holy Sacrament.

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF EDUCATION ON CHURCH PRINCIPLES.

In the failure of the British Parliament to do the work entrusted to it by the English Church, and in its determination to adopt and carry out an infidel system of education, as the correspondence of the Committee of Parliament with the National Society shows, the above named Society has sprung into vigorous existence.

The society was established so long ago as 1811, for the declared purpose of promoting the education of the poor in the principles of the Established Church Since that time it has gradually increased in importance, and now carries on its operations on so considerable a scale, as to deserve in some measure the name of National, which it has assumed. We say, in some measure, because it will still be remembered that there is nothing national in the constitution of this society, it being supported principally by voluntary effort and private contributions. The funds are derived from donations and subscriptions, aided by a parliamentary grant, and occasionally by a Queen's letter. By far the largest share of the parliamentary grant is received by the National Society, because of the magnitude of its own efforts; and the collection made for it last year, under the authority of a Royal letter, amounted to upwards of £27,000.

The Training College of St. Mark's, Chelsea, is one of the most important of its institutions. It was founded in 1841, for training youths of an early age, for a period of not less than three years, to qualify them for the office of schoolmaster. Since that time, about 80 students have been trained and placed in charge of schools, and have given satisfaction. A plan has now been matured, to provide accommodation here for 150 students; and in the past year boarders have been received, forming a kind of commercial school, as a feeder for the training department. Mr. Mosely, the government inspector, who examined this college, thus reported of it in the autumn of last year:

"Its founders were men in earnest; they had a confidence in the principles they embodied in it, and have laid its foundations deeply. Its system appears to me to be based in a profound sense of the sacredness of the office of the teacher, a just appreciation of its responsibilities, and a firm faith in its destinies. A solemn and a religious character pervades it. It is to be seen in the grave but gentle deportment, and dedicated spirit of the student, the general good order maintained, apparently without effort; and a sense of duty every where present and operative. To this religious character of the place, of which every one who has had an opportunity to form an opinion in respect to it, must, I think, have become conscious, the daily services of the Chapel can not but have contributed. Its influence in the formation of the character of the elementary schoolmaster is, in my judgment, priceless. Receiving its students at so early an age, its success with reference to the purposes to which it was established, can not, I think, be fairly judged of until a period of at least ten years shall have elapsed from its foundation. My

own impression is, that it will by that time be found to have created a body of men, grave, devout, earnest, and of a dedicated spirit.”

The training College at Battersea, was transferred to the National Society in 1843. Its object is to supply masters to schools in the manufacturing and mining districts. In the last five years it has sent out 125 masters, many of whom have received certificates of merit from the Government Inspector, which will entitle them to grants in aid of their salaries.

There is a training institution for schoolmistresses at Whitelands, Chelsea, which is full of pupils, though the site is small. The result of the last inspection by Mr. Watkins was highly favorable.

Boarding houses are maintained at Westminster, for the purpose of supplying good masters and mistresses to the country schools. In the past year 68 men and 59 women, here instructed, were placed in charge of schools by the society. Yet the demand for good teachers is far greater than the supply thus afforded; a strong proof of the usefulness of the training institu tions. The boys', girls', and infants' practising schools, in connection with these boarding houses, deserve honorable mention for their efficiency.

The supply of duly qualified teachers is an object of such deep importance to the progress of sound education, that no exertions should be spared to secure it. But it is manifestly desirable that, in addition to such central training institutions as the National Society possesses, there should be many similar ones all over the kingdom. It appears from inquiries set on foot by the society, that there are now thirteen diocesan training schools efficiently conducted at the following places, namely:-York, Chester, Durham, Winchester, Chichester, Oxford, Exeter, Lichfield, Warrington, Salisbury, Brighton, and Kidlington; and others on a limited scale at Canterbury, Bristol, Lincoln, Newport in Monmothshire, Norwich and Winchester. Others, also, are in contemplation. The society have resolved to make such grants as their means will allow towards the support of such institutions in the mining and manufacturing districts, at the rate of from £10 to £25 for every student whom the institution can accommodate.

Grants are made out of the funds of the society on a considerable scale towards the support of schools in the country, towards the building of school houses, and teachers' residences. In the past year the grants of the society to schools established in 243 different places amounted to nearly £21,000. The Archbishop of Canterbury has recently made a private donation to the society of about 1000 dollars.

RENUNCIATIONS OF POPERY.

On a recent occasion two ladies, residents of Liverpool, openly renounced the errors of Popery, in Holy Trinity Church, Birkenhead; and during morning service at the same Church, the Rev. Dr. Butler, Chamberlain to 'his Holiness the Pope,' read his recantation, and was admitted into the communion of the 'one Catholic and Apostolic Church,' happily established in this land. About seven years ago, the Rev. J. Baylee, incumbent of Trinity Church, engaged in controversy with Dr. Butler, on the errors of Romanism; the Doctor has since been to Rome, and latterly to Ireland, on his return from which he called upon Mr. Baylee, and voluntarily expressed his intention of becoming a member of the Church of England. His conversion has made a great sensation, as he was accounted one of the most able disputants in the Romish Church.

On Sunday, Oct. 1, a class of four respectable men publicly renounced the errors of Popery, in St. Thomas' Church, Dublin, in the presence of a large and attentive congregation. They partook of the holy communion,

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