working, it was stated that 58,572 copies of various religious publications had been sold by the Society; 77,864 tracts had been given and lent; and 348 copies of the Scriptures had been distributed during the past year. 117 Bibleclasses were now sustained, and 659 persons had been received into the church as converts. The Directors had at present six students training for Home Missionary work, for whose and other students' education a permanent fund was being established. £200 had been received towards this object under the will of the late Mr. Joseph Parry, of Shrewsbury, and the Committee strongly urged the co-operation of the public. The most discouraging part of the Report was, a deficiency of £1,169 in the funds, as compared with last year.

From the statement of the cash accounts it appeared, that the receipts for the last year amounted to £7,176 98. 10d, the expenditure to £8,496. The surplus expenditure had been met by the sale of part of the Society's funds.

The Rev. A. FRAZER, of Blackburn, in moving the adoption of the Report, which he did in a manly and forcible speech, said in the course of it, the amount spent in furthering this cause in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and many other parts of England, is very considerable. While I am on this point, I may mention that there is much friendship between the different Societies established for this purpose. My part of the country contains chiefly a manufacturing population; and though there is a great deal of wickedness prevailing there, there is also much that is excellent and encouraging. My congregation consists for the most part of working people; and we do not number altogether above 1,000. We contribute £130 for Sunday-schools and day-schools, and above £100 to the London Missionary Society.

The Rev. Mr. POTTER, in a good and telling speech, said,We rejoice in the fact, which has been stated, that not less than 600 persons have been converted by the instrumentality of this Society during the past year. And what is there to hinder these 600 from increasing tenfold or a hundred-fold? What is there to hinder it?-the apathy of Christian churches. What is there to hinder it ?-the comparatively small attention which is paid to the wants of the population of our land. We have never felt, as we ought to do, the claims of our own country; we have never put forth our exertions, as we ought to do, to evangelise this land. Sir, this Society exhibits the patriotism of our religion. Our blessed Redeemer has left us his own bright example in this matter. When he sent forth his apostles with the commission to preach the gospel, he told them first to begin at Jerusalem; and he tells us to regard every man as a brother, and to consider every person who is destitute, whether as regards his temporal or spiritual circumstances, as our neighbour. Our obligations to our country must continually present themselves to our minds; we should remember on our bended knees, we should remember in our contributions to other societies, that a vast proportion of the population of our own country are yet without God, and without hope in the world." If we were to pay proper and proportionate attention to the moral and spiritual condition of our own country; if we were as anxious to send the gospel to all the dark districts of our land as we are to aid other objects,

no doubt the state of our country would soon present a very different aspect from what it does at present. (Hear, hear.) You send the gospel to Ireland, and you do well-it is the only remedy for its social and political evils. You send the gospel to the colonies, and you do well-it is the best consolation you can provide for those who have left their homes to go to distant lands. You send the gospel to the heathen, and you do well. But send the gospel to the poor of our own land, and you will do better still. You want increased contributions for your Foreign Missionary Society, and how are you to obtain them? Only by the increase of the members of churches in our own land. The teeming population of the rural parts is constantly migrating to the provincial towns, and from the provincial towns it comes to this great metropolis. Where are you to find members for your churches except amongst those who come up from the provinces?-and unless the gospel is preached by the missionaries and other agents of this Society, what rational prospect can you have of the number of your churches being kept up, or of religion making an advance in the land? (Hear, hear.) We ought not to hide from ourselves the mournful and appalling fact, that we are not making advances-we are not making advances. (Hear, hear.) The increase of the population of this land every year far exceeds the increase of the converts of all the churches of every denomination in our land. (Hear, hear.) This fact must be told. We are not to shrink from presenting the dark side of the picture. (Hear, hear.)

The Rev. Mr. KIRK, of Boston, whose former visit endeared him to multitudes of British Christians, was next announced by the Chairman, and received from the assembly a hearty English welcome. Eminent as a preacher, Mr. Kirk is still superior as a platform speaker. His speech on this occasion was full of interest and appropriateness. We give one passage entire.

The people will never come to hear us; we must send another kind of ministry after the people. We must get a light infantry-a rifle corps (laughter)-to scour the country; we must get men who will take hold upon the people and compel them to come to the wedding feast. If the people who are in the highways and the hedges cannot hear us, there must be a special body of the servants of the Lord to go out to them, and they will hardly fail to accomplish the task which is imposed upon them, when assisted by the Spirit of God. The Home Missionary Society is a grand corporation for employing the "servants" in the highways and hedges. (Hear, hear.) Again, there is amongst us, I apprehend, a want of a right appreciation of God's way of destroying Satan's kingdom. We are always asking-" Have any of the rulers believed? Has this great man believed? Is that great man becoming a convert ?" Sir, the grace of God almost always begins in the lowest stratum of society, it works upwards instead of downwards. (Hear, hear.) Exceptions may be found, but I believe the rule to be what I have stated. It is my firm conviction that there is not at this time a more hopeful population to labour amongst than the vast mass of the unevangelised population of England and America; and

when they are converted, they will, under the institutions which distinguish those two countries, be just the class of persons to work upwards, and become the great reformers of public sentiment. The Home Missionary Society has a wide sphere of operations; and let us enable her to perform the work which is set before her. (Cheers.) Now let me ask you, in closing, what is to be done? The first thing is to determine that Britain shall be a spiritual garden. You do not know, Sir, with what feelings an American looks upon your isle. Coming from our vast mountains, our vast prairies, our primitive forests, our mighty rivers, our rude, uncultivated country, your little isle, the second time I have visited it, seems to me a perfect gem-(hear, hear)-physically and esthetically it appears a perfect gem. I see Britain itself cultivated in every part; London is increasing in beauty and in stateliness; its dark alleys and corners are being exposed to the sun; the Royal Exchange has lifted up its head since I was formerly amongst you. Go on, father-land! go on, and may God bless you. (Cheers) War between you and us! Not yet, not yet-(immense applause)-there are too many praying people on both sides to admit of that. The rainbow goes up; its arch reaches the mercy-seat; its two extremities here and there. No, no; go on, Britain ! We have no cannon to beat down your noble edifices; we have no soldiers to spill British blood-I think not-and we have none of our own to spare. (Great cheering.) I repeat, Sir, that Britain is physically a gem. I believe that society in Great Britain is carried to a pitch of advancement which is not known anywhere else; the social refinement of Britain is altogether unparalleled; and British Protestantism, not her Oxfordism or Romanism, is admired by the distant nations. But one thing is lacking in Great Britain, and that is the bringing of Britain's splendour and her misery side by side. This is the thing to change the aspect of society; this is the corrective for the evil; this is God's appointed way; and happy am I to stand here, with a stranger's eye and a brother's heart, to encourage you in this work. (Cheers.) British Christians ought to strive to cultivate mind as the British nation is endeavouring to cultivate matter. Why, you are going to improve British land to such a degree that every inch of British land will be worth an acre of land in America. (Laughter.) Cultivate the soul as you are cultivating the soil. Go on circulating the Bible; send forth prayerful, humble, faithful, laborious missionaries to preach the gospel. Meddle not with this, meddle not with that, preach the gospel. (Cheers.) Tell the people how Jesus died for them; tell them how he loves them; point them to the narrow way; urge them on in the path to heaven, and you will make Britain morally and spiritually what - she is commercially and physically. Let this meeting, and all British Christians, resolve that Italian Romanism and Oxford Romanism shall not find in Great Britain an unevangelised and infidel population to work upon. Put the Bible in the hands of the people; let them be imbued with its truths, and Romanism may come, Oxfordism may come, but neither will accomplish what they desire. (Cheers.) The Jesuits are soming down upon our own magnificent valleys; they are laying out their plans like skilful generals, building brick and stone houses where

they need not build even wooden ones; but if we can only put the Bible in every man's hand, and produce a love of it in his heart, let them come-they will quickly go home again. (Laughter and cheers.) Rome is making ready for a great conflict. Her eye is especially fixed on two spots. Runnymede is in England; it was there that the barons obtained the charter. Great Britain has a free constitution; and Rome is full of kindness, and would be exceedingly gracious if she could only be allowed to change the constitution, and to alter those insignificant documents which contain your principles of government. What she particularly wants now, is just to break up this Congregationalism-this way of doing things by means of the rabble. (Laughter.) She wants everything to be done either at Rome, or by Rome's bishops. Sir, I speak the full conviction of my heart,-and God knows that all the powers which I possess have been devoted to arousing the American people to see this fact,-when I say, that Rome has a deadly purpose with regard to our institutions, our church, and our religion. (Hear, hear.) But we have nothing to fear if we can only get the people, the lower class of the people, under the influence of the Bible. In conclusion, let me express a hope, that next year, instead of a deficit of £1,300, there will be a surplus in the treasury of ten times that amount. (Cheers.) The rev. gentleman concluded by proposing a resolution referring to the deficit, and the necessity for increased exertions in the ensuing year.

The Rev. Mr. SMITH, of Newry, seconded the resolution, in one of his fervent and brilliant addresses, and was followed by Mr. Richard, of Marlborough chapel, Old Kent-road; and Mr. Spencer, of Devonport; both very effective platform speakers, but on this occasion they were hampered for time. The meeting was both pleasant and profitable, we doubt not, to the large and attentive assembly.

IRISH EVANGELICAL SOCIETY. THE subscribers and friends to this Institution celebrated its Anniversary at Finsbury Chapel. on Tuesday, the 12th of May. The attendance, as usual, was very large.

Sir CULLING E. SMITH, Bart., took the chair, and opened the proceedings in a very able and interesting speech, in the course of which he said, I hold in my hand an extract from a work published at the Jesuit press in 1843. I purchased it myself in the city of Rome, and I have myself translated it. I will not give the entire details, but the purport. The object of the publication is to show the effect of prayers upon the souls of the departed. A person of bad character, but who had the redeeming quality of offering prayers for the souls of the departed, was travelling from Rome to a neighbouring city, and while doing so he beheld suspended from a tree the quarters of a criminal who had been recently executed. He immediately offered up a prayer for the soul of the departed person. He saw the limbs disentangle themselves from the tree, unite themselves together in one body, and come down and address him. He was called upon to give up his horse, which he did, and the revived body took possession of it, went on to some distance, opposite to a thicket, when several muskets were discharged at him, the body fell, and the assassins fled. He then came back to

the party whose horse he had taken, and he thus addressed him: "See how you have been delivered from imminent danger by your obedience to the law of the church. Learn to sin no more, and lead a better life than you have hitherto done." He restored the horse to the traveller, divided himself again into four quarters, suspended himself on the tree, and the traveller became a different man to what he was before. (Hear, hear.) I mention this as a bona fide circumstance, stated in a book published at the Jesuit press three years ago, and by which, therefore, it has given its authorized sanction to such superstitions as these. (Hear, hear.) The other document to which I will refer is this: the event happened to myself. In travelling through Genoa I distributed two books; one was a copy of the Scriptures, edited by Martini, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Florence. For distributing these books I was called to account, and desired to leave the country. I refused to do so until I received in writing an intimation of the reasons for which I was sent away. (Hear, hear.) Will you allow me to read the correspondence which took place? (Cheers.) I wrote the following letter to the English Consul, for the Government refused to give me their reasons in writing unless I made the application through him :

"Crocedi, Malta, Genoa, March 10.

"Dear Sir,-I have received a notification from the Government to leave this country; I placed yesterday in the hands of the officer of police a written request to be informed of the particulars for which this order is given. I am verbally informed by the director of police that Government will not give a written reply to a non-official person. I therefore venture to ask you to apply officially for an answer to the inquiry, including the names of the books, which, I understand, they complain of my having given away.

"I am, dear Sir,

"Your faithful servant,
"CULLING EARDLEY SMITH.

"Yeats Brown, Esq."

I received the following answer :

"I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your respected communication of this day, and have the honour of informing you that the intimation to Sir Culling Smith, English gentleman, to quit the royal dominions, was made by order of his Excellency the Governor, on account of that gentleman having in his possession anti-religious books, which he, the said baronet, had distributed in these kingdoms.

"I have the honour, &c.,
"LUCIANI."

I mention these facts because one is an instance of fanaticism authoritatively propagated by the Roman Catholic press; the other is an instance of the authoritative denial of the use of the Sacred Scriptures in a country where the Roman Catholic religion has power. (Hear, hear.) We heard, in the prayer presented this night, aspirations breathed that Ireland should present a different aspect from what it does at present. I do not know whether it is too sanguine a hope, but I have long felt that Ireland is to be a place where genuine Christian principles are one day to be developed as the admiration of the world.

I think Ireland will be the battle-field for the contest between genuine Christianity and those things that are opposed to it. (Hear, hear.) I trust we who have met to exercise faith upon this subject will live to see the day when the harvest shall be reaped; when those who have gone forth bearing precious seed shall come again rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them. (Loud cheers.)

The Rev. T. JAMES then read an abstract of the Report, from which it appeared that the stations of the Society had been visited by Mr. Aveling during the past year. His visit was highly appreciated by the brethren, and proved a season of great refreshment to the congregations. The services of Mr. Godkin had been discontinued, but not on any grounds affecting his moral and religious character, to which the Committee felt pleasure in bearing their strongest testimony. Some converts who had embraced the Protestant faith had sustained much persecution from the Roman Catholics, but continued stedfast in the faith. Last year several students from the English colleges laboured during the vacation in various parts of Ireland: their ministrations were highly respectable. Colporteurs continued to be employed, but for want of suitable support their labours had not been carried out as could be desired. With a view to reducing the debt, the Committee had disposed of the last of the funded property, amounting to £500. After a powerful appeal for increased funds, the Report referred to the distress prevailing among the members of churches in consequence of the potato blight, and stated that nearly £500 had been received from special contributions, and forwarded to Ireland with a view to their relief. The present number of agents employed by the Society was 32; there were 150 stations and out-stations, and 1100 children were in the sabbath and day-schools. The total income of the Society during the year amounted to £2,598 88. 8d., being an increase over the preceding year of £219; the expenditure amounted to £2,855 19s. 7d.

The meeting was subsequently addressed by the Revds. G. Smith, S. Shaw, of Mayo, Ireland, J. Burnet, S. P. Day, from Ireland, formerly a monk, M. A. Garvey, and S. S. England.

COLONIAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY. THE tenth Annual Meeting of this Society was held at the Weigh House Chapel, on Friday evening, the 15th of May. J. R. MILLS, Esq., took the chair. A hymn having been sung, the Rev. Mr. SPENCER implored the Divine blessing.

The CHAIRMAN, in opening, said,—It is a lamentable fact, that much as we have to deplore Tractarianism in the Established Church in this country, it has obtained a still greater predominance among the ministers of that church in the colonies; so that, if Christianity is to be maintained there in its purity, it must be by the evangelical Christians of England. (Cheers.) These are the strong grounds on which the Society rests; and I hope that the addresses that will be made this evening, and the interesting Report that is to be presented, will fix still more deeply upon our minds the claims of the Colonial Missionary Society. The only regret is, that it came into existence twenty years too late-(hear, hear)— that we allowed our colonies to grow up to vast

territories and populous districts before we began. We have a great deal to overtake. I trust, however, it will appear that the Society has exerted itself, so far as its limited measures have permitted, and has laid the foundation for the future good which I hope to see realized. (Cheers.)

The Rev. A. WELLS then read the Report. It commenced by stating the number of emigrants who, during the last twenty-one years, had left this country for the United States and the British colonies. Canada was at present the most interesting scene of the Society's labours. In a recent movement they had decided against a dominant church, and were determined that there should be equality. (Cheers.) It was the very soil, therefore, for the principles of this Society. It next referred to the Australian colonies. Matters had been so arranged in New Zealand that new settlers could take up their abode there. Van Dieman's Land had been injured by making it the chief penal settlement. Sidney began again to flourish, while Adelaide seemed to have entered on a career of safe prosperity. After referring to the attempts which Roman Catholics were making to disseminate themselves throughout the colonies, it went on to state that there were now in the colonies, the seat of the labours of this Society, about sixtyfive churches, and though they were not all organized, or even assisted by this Society, there stood connected with it eighteen churches in Canada West, and thirteen in Canada East, one in New Brunswick, and three in different Australian colonies. The Report concluded by referring to the changes which, during the past year, had taken place in the different missionary stations. Considerably more than two-thirds of the income of the Society had been obtained from the October collections, and it was an encouraging circumstance that the Institution appeared to be assuming a permanent and regular form. There was reason to hope that the annual collections would extend and become permanent among the churches.

The TREASURER then presented his accounts, from which it appeared that the total receipts

during the past year were £3,290 10s. 4d.; the expenditure, £2,932 148.; leaving a balance in its favour on the year of £357 16s. 4d. At the last meeting the Institution was in debt £708; deducting from that amount the above balance, its present debt was £350 3s. 8d.

The Rev. Dr. VAUGHAN, in moving the first resolution, uttered the following weighty observation, which merits the attention of thinking men :-"If we are only wise to see the circumstances of the times with which we are connected, we shall perceive that there never was such a season for the diffusion of sober, enlightened Congregationalism in the world as the present juncture. Whether you look to the continent of Europe, or to our own country, the fields are white to the harvest. What do you see in Germany? The new congregations that are forming there are taking a Congregational shape. In France and elsewhere the same thing is coming up; and, with regard to the colonies, what is so natural to free-born men as our own ecclesiastical polity? The republican governments that were formed in all the states of Greece, and which, at the time of Homer, were universal, was the result of re-action from the colonies; the popular government in the latter created a popular government in the former. Only let us labour to diffuse our principles in our colonies, and they will be sure to re-act upon us at home, and this will tend not to set up hollow sectarianism,— not to set up mere Congregationalism, for which I care not a straw,-but to set up a Congregationalism that shall be valued, because of its fitness to spread the church of God over the world, and to be a standard that shall be lifted up in the cause of pure Christianity, that God may be honoured, that man may be saved, and that the church of Christ may be glorified." (Cheers.)

Dr. Vaughan was followed by Messrs. Davids, J. D. Smith, J. Burnet, S. M‘All, J. C. Harrison, E. N. Kirk, and Dr. Massie, by all of whom important facts were stated, or judicious views set forth, strictly pertinent to the momentous question, which demands something more than common-place declamation.