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The preceding table has been compiled with great care. The list of churches and ministers has been revised by the list published in the Congregational Almanac for 1846, and has been arranged according to the localities of the ministers in the six hundreds of the county.

From this table we learn the proportion of children under five, ten, and fifteen years of age to the whole population-and the number that ought to be found in daily schools if education were in a prosperous state. It also furnishes a list of all the parishes in the county, with the several amounts of their populations, and may prove an incitement to some persons to aid in collecting the educational statistics of some parishes in the county. It presents to us, also, the number of Congregational ministers to the whole population, and discloses the facts that in many parts of the county Home Missionary and educational labours are greatly needed. Even in Liverpool, such has been the rapid increase of population that, largely as the influence of Congregational Dissent has spread, and greatly blessed as have been the labours of Dr. Raffles and his brethren, there is at the present time only one Congregational minister to every 40,926 of the population. The statistics of education throughout the county cannot be given, for they have never been prepared. The Congregational Board of Education issued last

year eighty-nine circulars in Lancashire, with the view of collecting statistics, but only twentythree of them were returned at all available for the object contemplated. Some parts of the county have been examined by local societies at great expense and with considerable minuteness. In the evidence given by J. P. Kay, Esq., M.D., to the Select Committee on Education of the Poorer Classes, Feb. 28, 1838, and printed by order of the House of Commons, we have the following statements.

Dr. Kay reckoned that in Manchester, in 1838, there were 26,265 children "totally uneducated, or very ill-educated;" in Salford, 6509; in Liverpool, 20,754; and in Bury, 2508. It also appears that at that time the Independents had nine Sunday-schools in Manchester, with an average attendance of 2864 children; in Salford, four Sunday-schools, average attendance 1138; in Liverpool, ten Sunday-schools, average attendance 1747; and in Bury, two Sunday-schools, average attendance 840 children.

The tables prepared by Dr. Kay, from which these facts are taken, are here subjoined.

It must be borne in mind that they are upwards of seven years old: and that both the population and education have increased since that period; but the former, it is to be feared, proportionally than the latter.

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Salford .... 55,000 Liverpool... 230,000 Bury..... 20,000

300,190 53,200

*This calculation was in 1838, but in 1841 the number was for the parish and borough...........

Salford towII.............

The following table contains the number of Sunday-schools belonging to the Established Church, to various classes of Dissenters, to Catholics, and schools unconnected with any reli

gious body, and the number of children on the books, and the average attendance in each of the undermentioned boroughs :

Liverpool Bury

.......................................

286.487

20,710

660,587

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viour's name, and unable to repeat the Lord's prayer;" or 39 per cent. of all the prisoners exhibited this awful state of ignorance. There were 454 males and 68 females, or 51 per cent. of the whole, who "knew the Saviour's name, and were able to repeat the Lord's prayer, more or less imperfectly." There were only 95 males and 7 females who were acquainted even with the simple outlines of our Lord's history. There was only one male who possessed "that general knowledge of religion level to the capacities of the poor and unlettered." And not one out of 1025 prisoners who was familiar with the Scriptures, and well instructed in Christian doctrine. It is further stated by the same authority, that out of the 1025 prisoners, 547 males and 109 females could neither read nor write; 112 males and 26 females could read, but not write; 216 men and 11 women could read, but write badly; only four men out of the 1025 prisoners could read and write well; and not one out of the whole number had had a superior education. The total number of criminal offenders last year in the county of Lancashire amounted to 2893: of these only 159 men and women could read and write well, and only 7 men had received a superior education. For the five years, from 1835 to 1839 inclusive, the total number of prisoners in Lancashire was 13,214; and for the five years, from 1840 to 1844 inclusive, the number was 18,560, being an increase of 5,346 prisoners during the last five years,

From the Registrar-General's report for the year 1844, it appears that out of every 100 men married in Lancashire in 1842, there were 36 who signed the marriage register with marks, and 65 out of every 100 women; and for the whole of England the average was 32 men and 47 women out of every 100 men and every 100 women married during that year. This is a state of society that cannot be suffered to remain. The disclosure of such facts is painful; but if they were universally known among the intelligent and religious portion of the population, they would very soon be facts no longer. The property and Christian principle of Lancashire, with the intelligence and skill of the leading persons in every town of the county, would very soon, by God's blessing, bring about a different state of things. There is abounding liberality in the county, and abounding wealth. From the property-tax return, printed by the House of Commons, in May, 1844, it appears that the annual value of the real property assessed under schedule A in the county amounted to the large sum of £7,105,248 10s. 4d., and this is, of course, independent of all kinds of personal property.

If all the children of the county that ought to be receiving daily education were in humble life, the number being 403,157, the cost of their education would be £302,368 annually; and if each child paid twopence per week, they would pay for their education annually £174,701 6s, leaving £127,666 to be provided by the friends of education.

If we deduct one-third, or 134,385, as children that would not attend even superior British schools, then provision would be required for 268,772. The cost of their education would be £201,579 annually, and, at twopence per head per week, they would contribute £116,177 178. annually, leaving £85,102 to be raised annually for county education. A voluntary offering of

threepence in the pound annually on the sum of £7,105,248 (being the annual value of the real property of the county) would raise £89,648 188., a sum adequate to the purpose; but in this calculation we suppose all school-houses to be built and kept in repair from some other funds.

The amount contributed and promised by the Congregationalists of Lancashire in the recent educational movement is at present £13,840 108.

Thus has the Board of Education endeavoured to place before you some facts relative to Lancashire, which cannot but make a deep impression upon all Congregationalists who advocate the voluntary principle, are anxious for the spread of education, and desire to see the land of their birth aggressively acted upon by the gospel, until at least the number of ministers and the accommodation in the house of God, and the number of schoolmasters and the accommodation in schools, are adequate to the lamentable necessities of our population.

If the friends of free and religious education voluntarily sustained throughout the country do not, within the next two or three years, accomplish what might be expected of them; if they do not redeem their promises made when opposing Sir James Graham's bill; if they do not prove that they did advocate, and do advocate, voluntary education upon principle, and with a strong desire to witness its universal prevalence; then the Government will again propound a scheme more or less offensive than the last, and one which must and will be carried,-for the country cannot be permitted to continue in its present state, nor the enormous sums of money at present expended upon prisons and police be paid out of our borough, county, and national treasuries. All are agreed that it is better to prevent crime than to punish it; and the astounding facts that in the year 1844, including England and Wales, out of 21,549 male prisoners only 109 had had a superior education; and out of 4993 females, only two had had a superior education, ought to settle the question for ever as to the moral efficacy and the political and social advantage of thoroughly educating the whole population.

Permit the Board respectfully to suggest to you the desirableness of a county conterence, where measures might be concerted for efficiently obtaining statistical information, and for canvassing the county from town to town to form an educational fund. Whatever aid is at the disposal of the Board will be most cheerfully rendered; and right glad will be the Congregationalists of Lancashire when, by contributing £50,000 for the education of their county, they will have vindicated the sincerity of their opposition to a Government measure they could not approve, and have proved to the world that they are in practice, as in theory, the generous advocates and supporters of voluntary education.

The Board will, in conclusion, commit the sacred work to the blessing of Almighty God, and to the wisdom, zeal, and piety of honoured brethren who can attempt and accomplish great things.

Signed by order and in behalf of the Board,
S. MORLEY, Chairman.
R. AINSLIE, Secretary.

Congregational Board of Education,

4, Coleman-street-buildings, Moorgate-street.

THE CHRISTIAN WITNESS.

TO ADVERTISERS.

THE guaranteed Monthly Sale of the CHRISTIAN WITNESS being upwards of Thirty Thousand Copies, diffused throughout the three kingdoms, renders it incomparably the most advantageous medium for Advertisements of Books, Schools, Sales of Property, Charitable Institutions, Apprentices, Servants, or Situations Wanted, and General Business.

THE FOLLOWING IS THE VERY LOW SCALE OF CHARGES:

Five lines and under, 8s. 6d. ; and Two Shillings a line beyond. Bills of two leaves stitched in, Five Pounds; four leaves and upwards, Five Pounds Ten Shillings.

*** Advertisements cannot be inserted until paid for (if from the country) either by a remittance, which may be made through the Postmaster in any post town, or by an order for payment in London.

The insertion of Advertisements received after the 21st cannot be secured.

N.B.-All Advertisements and matters relating to business to be sent to the Publisher. All Communications, Books, &c., for the Editor, to be addressed, post-paid, to him at the Publisher's.

LONDON, MARCH 2, 1846.

THE PENNY MAGAZINE.

OUR friends are entitled to be informed of the success of their endeavours. We have the gratification, then, of stating that the Number for January has been printed three times within the month, and a total of more than One Hundred Thousand copies struck off. The first and second impressions, comprising upwards of Eighty Thousand, were sold in the space of three weeks. In the history of Penny Magazines this fact has no parallel. The result sufficiently vindicates the measure, and renders preposterous the utterance of another word. But that this fact may be rightly estimated, it must be viewed in connection with another,-the circulation of the CHRISTIAN WITNESS has not only SUFFERED NO DIMINUTION, BUT RECEIVED A VERY CONSIDERABLE INCREASE. The establishment of the PENNY MAGAZINE is therefore so much clear gain to the cause of Public Instruction in the best and most needful kind of knowledge. The Number for February, the first impression of which, consisting of Eighty Thousand and upwards, was sold in a few days, has been reprinted, raising it to a total of upwards of One Hundred Thousand.

We already see our way clear to our minimum monthly circulation of a Quarter of a Million. A number of our Correspondents state facts, and ground on them the conclusion that a full Million might without difficulty be diffused. If their admirable spirit were to become general, and their example to be imitated, this glorious consummation would be realized within the space of six months. Shall we press the trial? To multitudes it is unnecessary; the statement will be enough. They will not be wanting to us, nor to the cause with which our hearts are bound up. They are already an example to the whole world! Never since periodical literature was known among men did a multitude so vast

VOL. III.

betake themselves with a zeal so enlightened, intense, and vigorous, to sustain the efforts put forth to serve them. Let this simple statement be received as a most heartfelt acknowledgment of our obligations for their generous and energetic co-operation. We consider it all-important. Instrumentally, it is everything! In every stage of our progress they have more than realized our expectation. Our confidence they merit, and our confidence they have, wholly and for ever. But we wait, we long for an increase of obligation-for the hour when it shall be our privilege to report-a QUARTER OF A MILLION !

BYRON AND HIS ADMIRERS.

In our last Number a scrap was wanted to fill up a page ending a division of the Magazine, and for that purpose a piece of poetry was handed us by an assistant, printed in a foreign paper, with the initials, J. H. S. From this we took a few lines, and subjoined the initials; and the result has been to raise such an outcry among our readers as baffles description. We have had little short of forty letters about it, in all sorts of moods-indignant and foolish, calm and reasonable; the latter constituting the great majority. Our friends have supplied us with some amusement; several have laid themselves open to a little soft remark, but they must be allowed to pass. The lines turn out to be those of Byron, some of them grossly mangled, a deed which has roused the wrath of his worshippers! We confess to sympathy with the exasperation. The act is atrocious; and if we could fix upon the perpetrator, we should forthwith consign him to immortal infamy! One or two of our correspondents have shown both their sense and their charity by charging us with the foul deel. Nor should this appear strange when it is

K

remembered that the Methodist Watchman newspaper, on observing it, hastened to proclaim our literary fraud !" We leave the conductor of that obscure and feeble concern to boast, if it please him, of having Byron by heart; our preferences lie among the prophets of God and the apostles of Christ.

We have said we have been a little amused by the correspondence which this, on our part, most innocent deception, has produced; but our amusement was largely mixed with bitterness, not with the thing itself, which is, after all, a contemptible affair, but to find among generous, educated, and perhaps mostly pious young men, so much impassioned zeal for the honour of a poet whose misapplied powers rendered him less a blessing than a curse to the world. Would that they were as zealous for the glory of Him who came to bless mankind, to make them happy, by turning them from their iniquities! We Young men of England! hearken to us. will give you counsel, and point you to a more excellent way. Turn away, then, from the poetry of pride, selfishness, and sin! Come and aid us in promoting the good of the millions of our common country. You now see what is wanted for the several departments of the PENNY MAGAZINE, and if you will keep it in mind, in the course of your reading and observation, it is in your power to render us most important literary assistance. Many things will occur to you worthy of transmission to us on the ground of their adaptation to usefulness. When you meet with a striking anecdote or providence, a remarkable calamity or deliverance, a death more than ordinarily stamped with hope or despair, just think how such matters might be rendered available for the PENNY MAGAZINE. When, in the course of events, any special subject presses itself upon your notice, just sit down the first leisure moment you can command, and put your thoughts together, and send them to us. By sending us a variety and an abundance of terse, racy articles for the "Cabinet" and the "Letter Box," you may exceedingly contribute to the public good. For this you are here presented with a medium immensely superior to everything of the kind extant. Then there is the "Gallery." What a field for usefulness opens here! Come, then, and worthily occupy it! In both our Magazines we apply to the work of Popular Instruction the noble sentiment of Napoleon, in his early years, concerning government: "I will not govern," said he, "by means of a party; I have opened a wide road for all capable men who choose to walk with me. I have in my Council of State moderate Constitutionalists, or Feuillants, as they were

once called; I have also some Royalists; and, lastly, I have some Jacobins too. I like honest men of every party and colour." Come, then, one and all who love the truth, and are devoted to the welfare of the Millions of England,-come and welcome!

REPORTS OF PENNY PROGRESS. To be denied the privilege of speech when the heart is full to bursting is no slight hardship. Elihu felt it to be intolerable. But the matter is not greatly, if at all, mitigated by substituting the pen for the tongue, if refused the power of using it. Never had we before us such a multitude of letters, nor the half of them, as at this moment, each deserving, though none of them demanding, a separate reply. But to be the passive subjects of so much brotherly kindness, and something more that we cannot briefly describe, excites emotions allied to pain. In our situation, however, individual reply is utterly impossible, and, therefore, we do not attempt it. We hope our beloved, honoured, and obliging brethren and friends will understand us, and take the will for the deed. One thing, however, we can do which will be a satisfaction to them. We can to some extent telegraph the operations of zeal in one county to our friends in all other counties, and thus permit them to encourage each other in a good work, and to rejoice toge ther in their mutual success in the diffusion of truth. We can afford room at present for only a few brief illustrations, and these we shall take chiefly from small places and thinly-peopled districts, for which primarily the Magazine was intended.

"Mr. C. has already disposed of 100, and hopes to be able to circulate 150 per month; the num ber of the CHRISTIAN WITNESS is 25, which, permit me to say, is one of the wonders of the day."

"I received an order for 60 copies of the New Magazine, in addition to the full complement of its two predecessors, and this from a village and neighbourhood proverbial for its ignorance and poverty."

"With reference to the supposed injury the FRIEND Would do to the WITNESS, I gave out the PENNY MAGAZINE from the pulpit three Sundays, twice each day, and 160 copies are taken in, while not six of the WITNESS are given up. May the one be as great a blessing as the other ! If our ministers did their duty, this would be the chief Penny Magazine in the world." [It is so already, incomparably, in point of circulation, in spite of those who neglect their duty. Thanks to our friends who do it!

"The oldest teacher in our schools sells monthly 75 numbers of the PENNY MAGAZINE,

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