for China, by £1,902 13s. 9d. The legacies amounted to £1,111 10s. 4d.; the cash for sales, £16,697 9s.; the total receipts, £56,110 13s. Sd., being an increase of £2,005 19s. 5d. beyond the preceding year. The Report concluded by referring to the unprecedented activity of the press, and enforced the momentous truth, that the cross of Christ is the only conservative principle of our literature.

Very excellent speeches was subsequently delivered by the Rev. A. Sydney, J. Stoughton, Dr. Leifchild, Dr. Legge, W. W. Robinson, Dr. Morison, and others.

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. THE fifty-second Annual Meeting of the subscribers and friends to this institution was held at Exeter-hall, on Thursday morning, the 14th of May. The weather was extremely favourable, and at an early hour there was a very large assembly present. Sir C. E. Smith, the Treasurer, occupied the chair.

The Rev. A. TIDMAN, Foreign Secretary of the Society, read an abstract of the Report, which was generally considered a document of superlative excellence, and formed the theme of fervent eulogy in many circles throughout the missionary week. Its reception from the great audience fully verified our allegation on the subject, in a recent Number. It told on the dense mass, with all the power of a first-rate speech; and when towards the latter part, because of its inevitable length, from the magnitude of the Society's operations, it was discreetly proposed to curtail it, the assembly with acclamation demanded to hear the whole,-an event of infrequent, if not unprecedented occurrence, and which augurs well for the work of Missions. Had it not been that the peculiar character of the proceedings connected with the late Anniversary renders it of the first importance to publish, entire, the speech of Mr. Baines, we should, as we did in the case of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, have omitted the whole of the speeches, and have given the chief portion of the Report. As it is, we must confine ourselves to the following facts and figures.

The number of stations and outstations, supported by the Society in different parts of the world, was 460, connected with which there were 150 churches. The Society employed, among the heathen, 165 European missionaries and 700 European and native assistants. The number of printing establishments in operation was fifteen. In the past year the Directors had sent forth to various parts of the world missionaries, with their families, amounting, exclusive of children, to eighteen individuals.

The total amount of receipts, during the past year, had been £79,745 18. 1d.; the expenditure, £74,497 78.

The Rev. Dr. VAUGHAN, having moved the first resolution in a copious and noble speech, was ably followed by C. Hindley, Esq., M.P., after which came the exposition of the Society's affairs.

E. BAINES, Esq, jun., of Leeds, in supporting the resolution, said: I have a duty to perform which will preclude me from making any general remarks on the work of missions. I will only, in one brief sentence, say that I regard this enterprise of Christian benevolence as one

VOL. III.

of the clearest of the duties that we owe to our Creator, to our Redeemer, and to our fellowmen, as a noble and glorious enterprise, dignifying and blessing the age in which we live, and worthy to engage the best affections of every Christian. The special duty, Sir, which I am called upon to perform, is one entrusted to me by the Directors of your Society, and also by a Committee which has lately been sitting in London for the purpose of investigating its affairs. (Hear, hear.) I need not remark to a meeting like this, that, in all our great voluntary associations, it is essential that the Directors should be responsible to the subscribers for the management of the affairs of the Society; and it is quite certain, that no such Society can prosper unless there is full confidence and mutual satisfaction on the part of the constituents and the executive. Your Directors, conscious of this truth, have taken a step which I am sure will meet with your approbation. They were desirous to lay the whole of their affairs, and especially the whole of their expenditure, before a Select Committee, consisting of gentlemen from various parts of the country-laymen, men of business, and men wholly unconnected with themselves, except as members of the institution. They therefore selected a Committee of that nature, and sent invitations to seventeen gentlemen. That Committee met, to the number of twelve, on Friday last, in this city, and that you may be able to judge of what materials it was composed, I will read the names of the members:-Mr. Samuel Fletcher and Mr. Alderman Kershaw, of Manchester; Mr. W. A. Hankey and Mr. Trueman, jun., of London; Mr. Nunneley, of Leicester; Mr. Ray, of Ipswich; Mr. Penfold, of Brighton; Mr. D. Derry, of Plymouth; Mr. S. Job, of Liverpool; Mr. W. D. Wills, of Bristol; Rev. J. G. Miall, of Bradford; and Mr. E. Baines, jun., of Leeds. I ought to mention, that Mr. Miall, of Bradford, being a minister, was not originally invited to be a member of this Committee, the Directors being very anxious that it should, as I have said, consist wholly of laymen. Being secretary of the Auxiliary Society of the West Riding of Yorkshire, he attended the Committee, by invitation from the officers, and was requested, by the remainder of the gentlemen forming the Committee, to take part in the proceedings. I may say that the whole of these gentlemen are firm friends of the Society, and some of them its most liberal supporters, but that they were all perfectly unconnected with the Directors, and that most of them were unknown even to each other until they met on this occasion. As the Secretary of that Committee, I have been requested to report to you, at your Annual Meeting, and through it to the friends of the Society throughout the whole country, the result of their investigation: and I am sure, from what I saw, I may say for the whole of those gentlemen that they came to that Committee with the same determination which I myself expressed to the Directors, in reply to their invitation to serve upon it, that if we found anything wrong we would correct it, but if we found things right we would say so. The Committee sat ten hours on the first day, and six hours on the second day; they inquired freely into everything; into the state of the finances, into the expenditure at the mission stations, into the extent and cost of the establishment of the Mission-house, into

Y

the nature and expense of the district agency which has recently been employed; and such was their curiosity that they even ventured to inquire into the conduct of the Directors themselves (laughter)-into the duties that they set themselves to perform, and into the manner in which they performed those duties. I feel bound to say, Sir, that the Secretaries of your Society, and two gentlemen of the Finance Committee who attended to give information, frankly and explicitly answered every question that was put to them, threw open to us their books and documents, and manifested every desire to promote the fullest and the most perfect investigation into your affairs. Our scrutiny was close, strict, I may almost say severe, though not uncourteous; and I am confident that the gentlemen on your Board of Direction will bear me out when I say that that Committee manifested a determination to become acquainted with everything, in order that they might act in the spirit which I have already expressed. That Committee, it will be satisfactory to you to know, composed of such various materials, and drawn from all parts of the kingdom, were perfectly unanimous in the resolutions to which they came, and those resolutions were drawn up, discussed, and decided upon, in the absence of your Secretaries, and of the members of your Board of Direction. I think it my duty to testify to this meeting, and to the friends of the London Missionary Society generally, that if we had discovered unnecessary expenditure at your mission stations; if we had found that your officers here were under-worked or over-paid; if we had discovered that your Directors were negligent of the duties which you had committed to them, we should have thought it our bounden duty, as honest men, to report the opinion that we had formed. We should have thought it, however unpleasant, a sacred duty to the Society, to the cause of the perishing heathen, and to God. But, on the other hand, if we discovered the reverse of these things, we then equally felt that it was our duty to come forward and frankly pronounce our judgment. I need not, Sir, remind this meeting, after the Report which they have heard, of the extent and variety of the field occupied by your missions: the territory, I cannot say occupied, but at least visited, by the London Missionary Society is, in cne respect, like the colonial empire of England. The sun never sets upon it. You assail the greatest empires, and stoop to the humblest communities on earth. You lay your hand upon the vast and patriarchal empire of China, a world within the world; you plant your agents among the crowded cities of India, amid an effeminate, dark, and idolatrous population; your missionaries correspond with, and comfort, and hover round, those whom I may call the living martyrs of Madagascar; you soothe the warlike Bechuana and Caffre, and raise the oppressed Hottentot; you gaide the lately emancipated negroes to a spiritual enfranchisement; and, in the beautiful islands of the South Seas, you have converted many a howling wilderness into a garden of the Lord. Nor can I refrain from saying, that the outraged inhabitants of Tahiti seemed to have imbibed the spirit along with the religion and civilization of England; that they manifest the same chivalrous regard to their Queen, although banished from her territories, that Englishmen

would to theirs-the same regard for liberty, right, and independence; and I must add, that Queen Pomare, by her spirit and her gentle virtues, has proved herself no unworthy sister of Queen Victoria. (Cheers.) To preside over a field so vast as this, obviously requires men of large capacity, of great experience, of high mental qualifications, and of persevering industry. It might be difficult to form any estimate of what was an appropriate payment and allowance to missionaries placed in fields so very diverse over the face of the civilised and uncivilised world, were it not that, happily, there are other great societies occupying the same field; and that, by a comparison of their experience with your own, we may at least attain an approximation to what is needful and right. (Hear.) Your Committee made that comparison; and I am happy to report, that the result is extremely favourable; that, among those noble competitors in the work of evangelizing the world, there is no Society which occupies a more honourable position, or which has done more good, in proportion to its means, than the London Missionary Society. The resolution that was come to unanimously at the close of our inquiry, as to the various stations, was as follows:

"That this Committee, after a detailed investigation of the expenses connected with the foreign operations of the Society, and full explanations from the Foreign Secretary and members of the Finance Committee, expresses its conviction of the integrity, watchfulness, firmness, and zealous devotedness with which its affairs have been conducted by the Directors and officers: expressing, at the same time, its gratification that improved circumstances, in some of the principal missionary stations, have rendered considerable retrenchment possible, without limiting the extent or impairing the efficiency of the Society's operations."

It is requisite to add, that, in the course of the last year your Directors had appointed a Special Committee of their own number for the revision of their whole expenditure; and that, prior to the sitting of the Committee for which I now report, it had been found possible to make very important reductions in their expenditure-reductions which, it is hoped, when completed at the close of the year 1847, will amount to a sum of from £10,000 to £12,000. This reduction, however, it must be understood, is estimated on the expenditure of the years 1844-5, which was an exceedingly expensive period. It does not involve the abandonment of a single station, nor, with one exception, a diminution of the allowance made to any one of your missionaries; but it arises, in great part, from the delightful fact, that the congregations in the West Indies have now become to so great an extent independent of the Society from which they sprung, that they are able, in a great measure, to sustain their own ministers. (Cheers.) Another important item of reduction arises from the nonrecurrence of the heavy expenses upon the missionaries' return from Tahiti in 1844-5; and there are also found to be some reductions which it is practicable to make in South Africa and in

India. I may add, it was found that, in the course of the past year, there had been an addition of £4,500 to the ordinary income of the Society, and, in the course of this year, a diminution of about £8,000 in its expenditure, as compared with the preceding. The Committee next inquired into the establishment at the Missionhouse, into the number and duties of the officers employed to discharge the important duties at home. The first circumstance which attracted their attention was that they found, to their great regret, the providential disqualification of an old and faithful servant of this Society, the Rev. John Arundel, who for twenty-seven years has filled the office of Home Secretary; and the Committee considered that the time had come when it was clearly their duty to recommend to the Directors that they should make a suitable provision for the retirement of Mr. Arundel, suffering, as he was, under physical affliction which afforded no prospect of his again filling efficiently that important office. They made that recommendation, and I am happy to state that the Board took it into their consideration at their meeting on Monday last, and came to a decision which has been highly gratifying to the feelings of Mr. Arundel himself. We next found, in the course of the past year, that the office of Foreign Secretary, which before had been shared by the Rev. A. Tidman and the Rev. J. J. Freeman in common, was now filled entirely by Mr. Tidman, but without any advance of salary allowed to that gentleman. We found, further, that Mr. Freeman now wholly discharged the duties formerly devolving on Mr. Arundel, as Home Secretary; that he had resigned his charge at Walthamstow, and devoted his time wholly to the service of this Society. The result of all our inquiries, not only into the secretariat, but every other officer and servant employed at the Mission-house, was the unanimous adoption of the following resolution:

"That the Committee has carefully inquired into the extent and cost of the establishment at the Mission-house, and it is of opinion that the officers are able and laborious, as well as acting under the highest motives of Christian zeal. The Committee approves of the new arrangements made during the past year, and of others still contemplated; and it believes that, when they shall become completed, the establishment at the Mission-house will be highly efficient, and, considering the great magnitude of the business transacted, decidedly economical."

The Committee next inquired into the system of district agency which has been recently adopted in some of the counties of England and Scotland, and they saw sufficient ground to express their entire approbation of the appointment of these agents. They also inquired into the duties and labours of your Directors, and they thought it their duty to put on record a resolution declaring that these gentlemen were entitled to the warm gratitude of their constituents. (Cheers.) I may mention, as a fact that may be interesting to some, that the Board takes pains, and, of late, increased pains, to prevent the too frequent return of missionaries to

this country; and also that it continually directs its agents to encourage the missionary stations to become self-supporting. The Committee felt so much interest and satisfaction in the result of the inquiries they had carried on, that they could not but sincerely desire that every member, every subscriber to the Society, had been present to hear what they heard. They also took into their consideration the fact, that at these large anniversary meetings it is impossible to have anything more than a merely formal election of Directors and officers; and being of opinion that the more perfect openness and the more absolutely acknowledged responsibility there is in these great voluntary societies on the part of those who direct them to those whose liberality they administer, they determined, after much deliberation, upon coming to the following resolution:

"That in order to augment the interest felt in behalf of this Society throughout the country, and thereby increase its usefulness, as well as to strengthen the bonds of confidence and affection between the Directors and those whose liberality they administer, it is desirable to hold an annual Board in the course of the week before the anniversary meeting in May, to which every county and district auxiliary and principal association shall be invited, by special circular, to send a deputy. That at this meeting the annual accounts should be presented for examination and adoption; a statement made of the amount raised by each county auxiliary; an outline given of the proceedings of the Board during the year, so far as they offer anything new; and the list of Directors and officers for the ensuing year proposed, subject to the approbation of the anniversary meeting."

I have the pleasure to say that to this resolution the most entire and hearty assent of your officers and of those of your Directors present was given; and when the resolution was laid before your Board, on Monday last, the disposition manifested to accept it was such that I have no doubt that at the first Board that shall be held in the coming year it will be adopted and acted upon in future years. Let me express my hope that it will be rendered efficient by the associations throughout the land, by the deputies they will be invited to send; and let me express my conviction that the fuller the attendance is, and the freer the investigation entered into, the more perfect will be the satisfaction felt, and the stronger the interest which all present will feel in supporting this great Society. The Committee further took upon them to recommend that there should be an earlier publication of the Report than in former years, and that there should be a wider diffusion of the missionary intelligence. These recommendations of the Committee were laid before your Board, and most favourably received on Monday last. The Report will be printed and circulated among the friends of the Society through the country; and I feel convinced it will give full satisfaction. The summary, then, of the improvements in the position and prospects of the Society, as compared with the year 1844-5, is as follows:

An anticipated reduction of from £10,000 to £12,000 in the expenditure, without the abandonment of a single station, or the recal of a single missionary. (Cheers.)

An increase of £4,500 in the ordinary income of the past year.

A reduction of one secretary out of three.
An appointment of district agents.

An annual representative meeting, to be in future held for the examination of the accounts, and to prepare a list of the officers and Directors to be recommended for your election. (Hear.) An earlier publication of the Report.

And a wider diffusion of missionary intelligence.

I cannot but flatter myself that these results of the important labours of the Directors during the past year, and of the labours of the Select Committee, will meet with your approbation, and will give satisfaction generally to the Society. Confidence will be strengthened, and every unfounded rumour will be put down. (Cheers.) It will also be seen that every security which it is practicable to give for the efficient administration of the affairs of the Society is given. May it not be hoped that the friends of missions will, with fresh zeal, rally round the London Missionary Society-that they will take a deeper interest in all its concerns-that they will perfect the organization of the auxiliaries, form new associations, and enlarge their benevolence? Thus shall the domain of ignorance, idolatry, and cruelty be invaded with new power; thus shall the territories of gospel light be enlarged, praise be brought to God, and salvation to perishing men; and thus shall you enjoy the highest happiness in the performance of the highest duties of which man is capable. cheers.)

(Loud

The resolution was then put and carried.

The Rev. J. H. Hinton moved the next resolution, and was followed by Dr. Legge and Mr. Mather, missionaries, the Hon. Baptist Noel, Rev. W. Chalmers, and Dr. Cumming.

Rev. J. A. JAMES rose, and moved the following resolution :-"That this meeting has learned with deep and affectionate regret, that the Rev. John Arundel has been compelled by severe personal suffering to relinquish the office of Home Secretary to this Society. The meeting hereby expresses its high estimate of the value of his faithful services, continued through a period of seven-and-twenty years; and, while it sympathizes with him under his affliction, commends him to the consolation and support of the Saviour, to whose cause his useful life has been devoted," &c.

It is now seven-and-twenty years ago since I was appointed to move-not, certainly, in this place, for it was then never dreamt of-nor before this assembly, for perhaps not 100 now present were present on that occasion-but in a former place, at a former meeting, I was requested to move that our friend, Mr. Arundel, be appointed to the office of Home Secretary, I believe with the venerable George Burder,-a name ever to be remembered by this Institution with gratitude and respect. (Cheers.) And because I was the mover of the resolution for appointing him, I have been requested to move this vote of sympathy on his retirement. During twentyseven years he has served your Society, with something of the ardour of a lover, and with the fidelity of a servant. His health has failed: no

office, however honourable, no service, however valuable, no respect, however great, could secure him from the decline of nature and the ravages of disease. (Hear, hear.) Indeed, many of us upon this platform know that the warmer the fire glows, the more rapidly it consumes itself to ashes; and the brighter the taper burns to illuminate others, the sooner it exhausts itself; and the pastors of the churches, as well as the secretaries of the societies to which we belong, are often called to say, Death worketh in us, but life in you." Unwilling to relinquish an office which he felt to be not merely a post of duty, but a source of delight, he long struggled against disease and weakness, and was often at his desk when perhaps many of us would have been on our couches. But there is a limit to human endurance, beyond which the jaded strength of exhausted nature cannot advance. Our friend has passed that limit; and he is now retiring from us into seclusion with a reputation as unblemished as that which he brought to us. He is going from us, as he went to his official appointment, with our respect, our love, our gratitude, and, what I am persuaded he values still more than all these, and even than the provision -a mere act of justice-which we have made for his declining life,-I mean our prayers. We do this day follow him with our tenderest sympathy. May the God whom he has served be with him amidst wearisome nights and months of vanity! May the clouds of affliction which are now gathering around him not be permitted to darken his setting sun, but become a scene on which to display its glories! He will, I am quite sure, receive our testimony, which we send after him from this assembly, with thankfulness, knowing he has approved himself to our judgments and to our hearts; and may he receive it as an anticipation of that higher and more emphatic testimony which awaits him when he will meet the Divine Master: "Well done, good and faithful servant!" Such words from such lips, beloved and honoured brethren, may it be our privilege to receive, when we, too, shall end our course! A higher we cannot receive; may it never be a lower! With great pleasure I move this resolution; and were there time, I would spend one moment in adverting to another secretary, behind the veil, where he has retired under the pressure of disease; a man, whose talented wife, while she is training the female population of our own and other countries, is witnessing her talented husband no longer acting as the secretary, but still as the historian of our Society. (Cheers.) The name of Ellis will not, and ought not, and shall not be forgotten on these boards, or in that area. We might, with such losses, despond. But no; there are other names included in this resolution that have our confidence and our prayers. The place of Burder and Ellis and Orme has been filled by Tidman, and we do this day afresh show our confidence in him when we confirm his re-appointment to the office for which he is so well qualified. And his compeer, our friend Freeman; God has sent him home from Madagascar, and stopped him from helping us there, to help us here. May these brethren long continue to occupy the post they now so honourably fill! (Cheers) They, too, in the appointment of this day, receive our confidence, our prayers, and our gratitude, for all their past services. I must not trespass to advert to our Chairman, who is entitled to our gratitude, for

it did not appear to me that an angel from heaven could have so kept up the interest of the meeting, and surely not an angel from earth. (Laughter and cheers.) I was reluctant that the name of Mr. Arundel should pass without a few tokens of approbation being offered to him from those by whom he was known, loved, and valued. (Loud cheers.)

Dr. MORISON then said that he very cheerfully seconded the resolution. If time had permitted, he should like to have said a few words regarding their valued friend, Mr. Arundel.

A vote of thanks having been passed to Mr. Baines, the benediction was pronounced, and the meeting adjourned.

We have, of necessity, but with extreme regret, passed by the rest of the speeches, which, as a whole, were admirable; but the tribute of Mr. James to Mr. Arundel is so just, so truthful, so graceful, and withal so suited to the occasion, that we could not deny to it a permanent place in our pages. We are certain that Mr. James' estimate of the retiring Secretary will find a cordial response from the one end of the realm to the other-a response which will not be at all abated by his somewhat depreciatory view of angelic capacity, when, referring to the Chairman, he says, "It did not appear to me that an angel from heaven could have so kept up the interest of the meeting." After all reasonable allowance, such language appears to us of doubtful propriety. As addressed to mortal ears, moreover, it is not without peril. That cannot be safe for subjects which has destroyed kings. The words in question naturally suggest the well-known passage of the historian relative to James I." The impious flattery of Whitgift gained him wholly. Won by the high-flown compliments paid to his wisdom, his self-conceit greedily swallowed what the courtly prelate exclaimed with rapture, that the king spake by the special assistance of God's Spirit.' Whilst the hypocritical Bancroft, in the same strain of adulation, falling upon his knees before him, 'protested his heart melted with joy that Almighty God had given them such a king as since Christ's time had not been.' These incense-bearing bishops beat hollow the stiff Puritans, who could offer no such adulation." Such words, tempered by the tones and looks of the speaker, or by the laugh or cheer of the assembly, as given above, might pass; but as they nakedly appear in the official report of the meeting, they grate on the ears of judicious men.

HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

THE Annual Meeting of this Society was held on Tuesday evening, May 19, in Exeter-hall. The chair was taken at six o'clock, by Mr. Alderman CHALLIS. The proceedings having been prefaced as usual by a devotional service,

The CHAIRMAN said: I rejoice to find that the fruits of the Society's labours in diffusing a knowledge of the truths of the gospel are of the most encouraging kind; but, at the same time, I regret exceedingly to learn, that the funds of the Society during the past year have fallen off £1,300. When I came to this meeting, I thought within myself that I had attended a great number of glorious meetings, the objects of which tended to destroy all covetousness and all that made men selfish, and to make such things give way to the force of Christian principle and Christian power; and why, I thought, should they not give way here? why should we not subscribe, according to our means, to the Home Missionary Society? (Cheers.) I have heard of missionaries being proposed for China at a time when the Missionary Society was almost bankrupt. I have heard a proposal to raise £10,000 when the Committee found a difficulty in raising £5,000, and yet it has been accomplished. When the great objects which institutions like this have in view are presented to the public mind, our feelings are overcome, and we find ourselves capable of doing more than we before anticipated. Why, then, if £7,000 or £20,000 is necessary for the proper maintenance of such a Society as this-why should it not be subscribed? Do you believe that all Christian persons who are reputed to be rich are yet short of money for such purposes? Do you believe that any of them have arrived at that success in life when it becomes a matter of consideration whether they should not devote some of their means to the cause of God? Such persons, I feel certain, if the objects of this Society could be laid before their hearts, and if they are the Christians they profess themselves to be, would feel happy in making any sacrifices which they might be called upon to make, to give large sums themselves to further the object, and to persuade others to do the same; and from this they could not fail to derive a greater gratification than if that money were devoted to any other purpose. I have said that there is much that is encouraging. I rejoice in the connection of this Society with the Congregational Union. The Home Missionary Society has, during the last few years, been aided much in its labours by that Society. We are now making preparations for a larger attack on the kingdom of darkness; and we only require to have the resources which the Christian church has at its disposal, in order to make ignorance and superstition give up their strongholds, and to spread in their place the religion of the Bible throughout the length and breadth of the land. (Cheers.)

The Rev. R. AINSLIE then read the Report, from which it appeared, that the Society's agents had been labouring in 484 parishes, embracing 664 towns, villages, and hamlets. The population among which they had been preaching amounted to 562,840 persons, and out of that number they had 50,275 who listened regularly to their ministrations. The number of missionaries belonging to the Society was fiftyfour, and the number of grantees-that is, persons labouring in villages and districts aided by the Society-was seventy-six, making with their agents 130; an agency, however, which the Committee considered to be totally inadequate to the wants of the population. To illustrate the encouraging influence of the Society in its