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"When you shall be far distant from us, our best wishes will still attend you, and we shall continue to feel the most friendly solicitude for your welfare. We have the satisfaction of knowing that you will every where carry with you many of the best ingredients of happiness. The Divine blessing will, we doubt not, every where attend you; that blessing we now unitedly implore upon you.

"In speaking thus on behalf of our fellow-worshippers in general, may it be permitted to me individually, as the minister of this congregation, to express my own sense of personal loss in the removal of one for whom I entertain so much personal esteem, and from whom I have experienced in numberless instances, a kindness characteristic of the worth which prompted it. But I must bring to a close that, to which, it is (it seems) somewhat trying to the feelings, to give utter

ance.

"Will you, then, accept from us this box with its contents, in testimony of our gratitude for your valuable services to this congregation, of our respect for the sterling worth of your character, and of the place you hold in our affectionate regard and will ever retain in our remembrance as a Christian brother?"

To which Mr Fryer replied," Mr Ashton and Gentlemen, I cannot find words to thank you as I could wish for this beautiful testimonial of your kindly feelings to me. I shall set a high value upon it, and hope it may induce others to follow in the same course of usefulness. I shall always regret that circumstances have caused me to leave this society, I have been so long and happily connected with, and which is endeared to me by so many pleasing recollections. I wish you all health and happiness, and again return you my thanks."

-Preston Chronicle.

BOLTON DISTRICT UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.-On Thursday the 28th of April, the thirty-second half-yearly meeting of this association was held in the Presbyterian Chapel, Cockey Moor. The Rev. H. Clarke of Chorley, conducted the devotional part of the service, and the Rev. J. Ragland of Hindley, preached an excellent discourse to a numerous congregation, from Hebrews, i. 3, in which the preacher vindicated the text from popular misinterpretation, and insisted that it did not teach the Deity of Christ, but only asserted his messiahship—his being called the image of God, referring to his miraculous powers, the truths which he revealed, his moral virtues, his habitual holiness, the perfect beauty of his character. Having clearly developed this exposition of the passage, he enumerated, under separate divisions, the leading obstacles which

operated against its reception, and dwelt very ably upon the partial conceptions which are prevalent respecting the nature of Christ's mission and character, and the unfavourable influence of scholastic systems. After service, the friends of the association, to the number of nearly three hundred, took tea in the spacious school-room adjoining the chapel-yard. The Rev. James Whitehead, minister of the Congregation, was in the chair, and brought before the meeting a series of sentiments illustrative of the views and objects which these agreeable assemblings are intended to promote. Many able and animated addresses were delivered by the reverend gentlemen, and others present, among whom may be mentioned, besides the chairman, the Revds. James Taylor, H. Clarke, J. Ragland, F. Howorth, J. Harrison, P. P. Carpenter, F. Baker, and C. J. Darbishire, Esq.

The secretary read over the correspondence which he had had with the Registrar-General on the new regulations for obtaining certificates from the non-parochial registers; the Lords of the Treasury having refused to allow any copies of the deposited registers to be made. No notice being taken of the complaints respecting the agency, and the agency charges, it was unanimously agreed to forward the subjoined petition to the House of Commons.

"To the honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled.

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Humbly Sheweth,

"That your Petitioners, being Protestant Dissenters and members of an association called the Bolton District Unitarian Association, representing ten congregations in the County Pa. latine of Lancaster, feel themselves aggrieved by the new regulations issued by the Registrar-General in respect to the application for certificates from the non-parochial registers.

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That in consequence of these regulations your petitioners cannot obtain a certificate at a cost of less than seven shillings and sixpence, nor make an application for search at a cost of less than five shillings; and, further, that both the search and certificate can only be applied for through a London agent.

"That your petitioners respectfully request your Honourable House to give them access to their registers without the trouble and expense of employing an agent in London, and also to render the charges as low as the charge for certificates from parochial registers."

It is hoped that, if the matter can be fairly brought under the notice of Parliament, some modification of the new arrangement may take place with the concurrence of the Lords of the Treasury and the Registrar-General. At the autumn

meeting of the association, which will be held at Hindley, on the 22d of September, the Rev. J. Harrison and the Rev. H. Clarke are expected to conduct the religious services.

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F. BAKER, Sec.

PORTSMOUTH HIGH STREET UNITARIAN CONGREGATION. A social meeting of the members and friends of the Unitarian Congregation, High Street, Portsmouth, was held March 25, when upwards of three hundred persons took tea together. After a hymn of thanksgiving had been sung, the Rev. J. Fullager of Chichester was called to the chair, and opened the proceedings of the meeting with his usual cheerful urbanity. The Rev. E. Kell of Newport, Isle of Wight, proposed the first sentiment,-" Unitarian views of Christianity, and may its professed friends deeply feel their duty to their Saviour in existing circumstances.' Mr John Sheppard spoke to the following sentiment," Christian liberty, may its light and joy speedily gladden all the families of the earth." The chairman proposed "Prosperity to the High Street Congregation, and health and happiness to their esteemed minister," which was responded to by the Rev. H. Hawkes. Mr Gumb, a teacher in a Sunday school connected with the Independents, made some remarks on universal Education. The Rev. M. Davison addressed the meeting on "Unitarianism in Ireland." Mr Good, the secretary of the congregation, spoke of the prosperity of the Sunday schools connected with it. From the first they had gone on flourishingly, and they were now doubling the size of the building for the accommodation of the children. In the course of the evening, the library belonging to the chapel was stated to number 1300 volumes. Prosperity to the General Baptist Congregation, St Thomas Street, and health and happiness to their esteemed pastor, the Rev. T. Foster," was briefly acknowledged by Mr Isaac Jeffery. Thanks were given to the friends who had conducted the arrangements for the meeting; to the choir, who had kindly performed various pieces of vocal and instrumental music, and to the chairman.

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IRISH UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN SOCIETY.-On Monday Even. ing the 18th April, the Annual General Meeting of this Society was held in Radley's Public Rooms, Dame Street Dublin.

The president not being able to attend, Brindley Hone, Esq. was called to the Chair, and the Meeting opened with prayer by the Rev. Joseph Hutton.

The Secretary Mr Robert Andrews read the Report of the Committee for the past year.

The following Resolutions were then submitted to the Society for adoption, and carried.

Moved by the Rev. Edward Fitzgerald Day, seconded by John Strong Armstrong, Esq.

"That the Report now read be received, approved, and ordered to be printed."

Moved by the Rev. Dr. Drummond, seconded by Stephen Pilcher, Esq.

"That the thanks of the Society are eminently due and are bereby presented to the Rev. William Crozier, for his able, instructive, and truly Christian discourses preached before this society yesterday.

Moved by John Armstrong, Esq. seconded by Hamilton Rankin, Esq.

"That this Meeting records its solemn protest against the recent decisions of British Courts of Equity respecting trustproperties which have regularly descended to Unitarians from their predecessors, because, by admitting extrinsic evidence of opinion or of circumstances from which opinion is implied, they defeat the natural and positive import of written instruments, and subvert the soundest rules of legal construction, based upon the first principles of good faith between man and man; because they have a direct tendency to perpetuate error and arrest the progress of truth; because they are contrary to that sound public policy which Courts of Equity have deemed it necessary to preserve, inasmuch as they undermine the security of long and peaceable possession, and encourage infinite litigation with every bad species of legal diligence,' because they countenance spoliation of property, inconsistent with British liberty, which inflicts no pains or penalties on the worship of God, according to the conscience; because they are opposed to the manifest intentions of the legislature expressed by the total repeal of the penal code and all religious disabilities, and expose the present generation to the penal consequences of laws long since abrogated by the community as mischievous and unjust; and because they are wholly inconsistent with the history, spirit, and meaning of Protestant Dissent.

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Moved by the Rev. George Allman Armstrong, seconded by the Rev. Thomas Hincks,

"That while the immediate object of this Association is the inculcation of the Unity of the Supreme Being as a foundamental doctrine of uncorrupted Christianity, believing at the same time that the free and unshackled investigation of the Holy Scriptures is the only sure means of arriving at this or any other truth of revealed religion, we feel it our pleasing duty to express fraternal sympathy with that portion of the Methodist church in England which has lately shaken off every

fetter of unscriptural authority, and we hail with delight their recent recognition of a principle which we look upon as the only true foundation of genuine Protestantism, which acknowledges no master but Christ, no rule of faith or practice but his holy word, and enjoins it as the sacred duty of all, while they claim for themselves, to concede to all others, their inalienable right of searching and judging and interpreting according to the light and capabilities which God has respectively vouchsafed them."

Moved by James Haughton, Esq seconded by William Antisell, Esq.

"That regarding slavery as one of the greatest evils that have ever afflicted mankind, and deeming the act of making and holding as slaves those whom the Great Father of all created, equally with ourselves, in bis own image, a sin of the deepest dye, revolting to every better feeling of humanity, as it is in daring opposition to the precepts of our Redeemer, we feel ourselves bound to record our unqualified abhorrence of the system, wherever it exists, and to declare our conviction that no church by which it is supported, be its professions of Christianity what they may, is really animated by the spirit of Christ, or worthy of fellowship with true Christians, till it have learned to purge itself of this great iniquity. And we earnestly entreat that our Unitarian friends everywhere may be truly zealous in their endeavours to do it away at once and for ever, by uniting with us in petitions to Parliament for its speedy overthrow in India, where it exists to a fearful extent, and by affectionately entreating our American brethren to assist abolitionists there in their endeavours to wipe away this sad stain from the otherwise fair fame of their country, in which slavery exists in its most degrading form, a highly civilized and a highly professing people being the direct actors in the deep iniquity."

Address of the Unitarian Congregation at Yarmouth, in the County of Norfolk, to the Unitarian Public.

FELLOW CHRISTIANS,-In the name, and on behalf of the Congregation assembling at the Old Meeting, in this town, we venture to lay before you a statement of our present circumstances, appealing to your liberality in aid of the cause to which we are attached. While we appreciate the generous support you have afforded in other urgent cases, we are aware of the impropriety of soliciting a repetition of it, except from absolute necessity.

The building in which we meet for public worship, the old

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