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RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON HIBERNIAN SOCIETY. THE Eighteenth Annual Report of the London Hibernian Society, read at its last annual meeting,announces that the Society has in Ulster 326 day schools, containing 31,702 scholars; in Leinster 31, containing 2,665; in Connaught 204, containing 18,271; and in Munster 92, containing 8,749. Of these schools 188 are in connexion with noblemen, or gentlemen resident in the country, 274 under clergymen of the Established Church, ten under Dissenting Ministers, twenty-six under Roman-Catholic Priests, and 574 without the benefit of local superintendance. No fewer than 101 schools, and 9548 scholars, have been added to the list of last year.

It was proposed last year to connect a Sunday with every weekly school of the Society, where practicable; and this recommendation has been acted upon to a very considerable extent. There are now 238 schools, and 17,145 scholars. Independently of other advantages of the Sunday-school system, the benefits which result from the Christian relations formed by the contact of the upper with the lower orders in the operations of a Sunday school, are of the greatest importance to the welfare of Ireland. The Committee remark, that the general readiness of Roman-Catholic children to attend on the religious exercises of Sunday schools, has furnished a most satisfactory refutation of the assertion of their hostility to a system in which the Scriptures are exclusively used.'

In the Adult Schools, 10,117 persons have been received under instruction during the past winter, making an increase during the year of 1957.

Twenty-two Scripture Readers were stated to be in commexion with the Society last year; the Committee now report an addition of thirty-eight in the course of the present. To those who are acquainted with the moral condition of the peasantry of Ireland, and the almost insurmountable difficulties which it opposes to the introduction of Scriptural truth, the Committee consider that it would be unnecessary to dwell upon the importance of those facilities for doing good which belong to the office of an itinerant reader.

In the circulation of the Scriptures, the Society has made a steady progress. The number of copies issued from the deposiCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 269.

tory in the course of the year amounts to 2005 English Bibles; 12,297 English, and 2000 Irish Testaments; presenting an increase of 890 Bibles, and 2368 Testaments, upon the distribution of the former year; and a total of 108,902 copies since the commencement of the institution.

The Committee report a very general and increased favourable disposition upon the part of the clergy and gentry of the country to support schools and form Auxiliary Societies. Even in Limerick, schools, containing upwards of 2000 children, have been connected with this Society within the last few months.

The last observation in the Report, of a general nature affecting Ireland, refers to the increasing opposition of the RomanCatholic priesthood; but, it is added, in justice to the character and the dispositions of the Irish peasantry, that the plan of the Society is universally acceptable to those for whose benefit it was designed; and that the advantages which it proposes to confer are eagerly accepted and gratefully appreciated to the fullest extent they have been offered. With regard to the loose and indefinite charge of proselytism, it is stated that no interference is permitted with ritual distinctions in the schools; and that there is not probably a school in the Society's connexion, ramified as that connexion has been through nine-andtwenty counties, where the parents of the Roman-Catholic children would not readily depone to the good faith which has been kept by the institution in the observance of this particular understanding. Indeed, there are at this moment in possession of the Committee, and the Society's principal agents, several hundred copies of voluntary attestations to this effect; each copy embracing the Roman-Catholic parents of the children in connexion with the particular School to which it has reference.

Among last year's accessions to their list of patrons, the Committee have peculiar pleasure in adding the name of the Right Honourable Henry Goulburne, Chief Secretary for Ireland; a gentleman, they add," whose official connexion with the scene of the Society's labours is enhanced by the still more important consideration, that he is a sincere friend to the cause of Christian education."

The Committee of last year reported a 2 X

balance of 3000l. in favour of the institution; which, in consequence of the increased demand of the year, has been reduced to 2,2007. The list of contributions for the present year, presents a total of 73381.

guard against interference with the religion of the children, teaching from the Scriptures, by note or comment, written or oral, by teachers or visitors, is strictly interdicted.

Ample time, however, is allowed, and every encouragement given, for all classes DUBLIN IRISH EDUCATION SO- of Christians to attend to the religious

CIETY.

This institution, commonly called "the Kildare Street Society," having lately attracted much public notice, we present the following abstract of its plan and proceedings.

The receipts for last year were 12,611. including a parliamentary grant of 8,999. The disbursements were 14,248. In the "Cheap Book" department 106,230 volumes have been sold and distributed during the last year; making a total of 662,752 since the opening of the Depository in November 1817. The number of scholars under the Society's care at the commencement of 1823, was 51,637. In the Training School 154 schoolmasters have shared the advantages of the institution during the year. Applications for admission into the Training School are daily multiplying. The Gaol Schools in connexion with the Society amount to seventeen. In addition to 461 schools to which the aid was extended during the past year, applications had reached the Committee on behalf of 69 other schools, either opened, or about to be established in different parts of the country. The object of the Society is the education of the people; and, in the prosecution of this object, it is their wish to remove every obstacle which may arise from the diversity of religious sentiment prevailing in the country. In the earlier parts of education, they use such elementary books as contain nothing peculiar to any religious denomination; and when the pupils are advanced in reading, so as to take their place in the superior classes, the Scriptures are introduced as the text-book. The Society consider this as a necessary part of the instruction of their schools: it is their object, not only to communicate to the youth committed to their care the ability to read, but also to direct their attention, before evil habits are formed, to the morality and religion of the Word of God, as a security against the prevailing vices of the age, to which so many of the rising generation fall early victims. Where the children are Protestants, the Protestant Version of the Scriptures is used; and where the children are Catholics, the Version of their own church is substituted. Lest this should not be deemed a sufficient

education of their children. The Committee conceive it an object of great im-portance, to train up the rising generation in habits of intercourse and mutual goodwill, however they may differ in religious persuasion; and they consider that if it were permitted to persons of any sect, to inculcate their own peculiar religious opinions in schools open for the reception of children of all persuasions, endless controversy, discord, and confusion would be the inevitable consequence.

The Committee remark ;

"We would say to the gentry-Educate the people. Take up their own numerous and ill-regulated schools. Establish new

ones.

But let all be placed on a proper footing: the mere instruction of letters will not do: mere moral teaching will not do. Religion only will reach this deeply seated disease. Take care that they are imbued with the spirit of Christianity. Let them have the written word of God: this is new to them, and it will do much of itself. You will be opposed; but not always: and you will succeed, if you per

severe.

Do this, and then do not expect an instantaneous result. Be patient; and be satisfied that the good effects are certain-that they will come in due time, and give peace to the country, and security to property, and stability to the foundations of society."

MERCHANT'S SEAMEN'S BIBLE SOCIETY.

The Report of the proceedings of this Society, read at its last annual meeting, conveys the following gratifying particulars :

During the last four years, the Society has been enabled not only to pay the expenses of its establishment, which are necessarily considerable, but also to pay its debts to the parent society. The Committee have received, during the year, an anonymous contribution of one hundred pounds, with a second donations, to the same amount, from the Court of Directors of the East-India Company. During the six years which have elapsed since its formation, 56861. have been raised to supply our merchant seamen with the holy Scriptures; but as the loss to the Society on the Scriptures sold to seamen increases, in

proportion to the extent of their sales, and as the agents employed in this important work cannot be dispensed with, it is strongly urged on all who take an interest in the Society's welfare, to endeavour to increase the amount of its annual income. The disposition on the part of the sailors to supply themselves with the holy Scriptures is not by any means diminished; for, although the exertions of the Society's agents in former years have been instrumental in furnishing thousands of seamen trading to the port of London, with the holy Scriptures, and thereby diminishing from year to year the number unprovided with them, not fewer than 764 Bibles and 144 Testaments have been sold to seamen at Gravesend in the past year. Besides these, the Society's agent in London (who has visited 4619 vessels in the port of London during the year) has sold to seamen, principally in the coasting trade, 193 Bibles and 162 Testaments; thus making an aggregate of 957 Bibles and 306 Testaments, or 1263 copies of the Scriptures sold in the last year; and if to this number be added 35 Bibles and 133 Testaments paid for in London, in the same time, the total will be 1431. Independently, therefore, of numerous credible testimonies afforded to the improved and improving religious character of British seamen, the Committee appeal to this foregoing fact; namely, that 1263 copies of the Scriptures were sold to seamen in the last year in proof of this highly gratifying conclusion.

In the first year of the Society's existence, not fewer than 1705 Bibles, and 4068 Testaments, were left by their agent at Gravesend without payment. Such was the lamentable destitution of sailors as to the Scriptures! Whereas in the past year, such has been their inclination to purchase for themselves, and such the number found on board, either the property of individual seamen, or of the owners, that the agent at Gravesend has not thought it necessary to leave more than 20 Bibles, and 184 Testaments without pay

ment.

As no expense is now incurred by gratuitous distribution, the Committee conceive that they are not expecting too much from the public, to be enabled by their generosity to meet the loss incurred by the sale of Scriptures to seamen in the foreign trade, and to pay the agents employed in carrying this benevolent design into execution; especially since they are able to challenge the closest scrutiny into the economical expenditure of the Society's funds. The only persons who receive

pecuniary emolument from the Society are the two agents and the watermen employed in carrying them afloat.-We may take another opportunity of extracting a few of the interesting statements made by the Society's agents relative to the reception of the Scriptures by the seamen, and the beneficial effects of their distribution.

MORAVIAN MISSIONS.

The last Number of the United Brethren's "Periodical Accounts" contains several interesting communications from the Society's missions in North America and the West Indies; with the particulars of the last illness and decease of Badma, one of two Saisangs, or nobles of the Burat nation, who came to reside in St. Petersburgh, in the year 1817, and who had become a true convert to the faith of Christ.

Appended to these communications is the following Circular Letter from the Synodal Committee for the management of the missions of the United Brethren, to the congregations and friends who assist in their maintenance, dated Bethelsdorf, Sept. 12, 1823.

"Dear Brethren,-Although the maintenance of the Brethren's missions among the heathen, was not so expensive in the year 1822 as in the preceding year, yet it amounted to the sum of 83211. Our receipts were 96442. in consequence of extraordinary donations from friends and benefactors, chiefly in England and Scotland, which amounted to 55591. By this generous assistance we have been enabled, not only to cover the expenditure of the past year, but to lessen the accumulated arrears of former years, so as to leave a deficiency in the general account of only 1731. You will unite with us in thanks and praise to God for this extraordinary help, afforded us through the instrumentality of his children in other denominations, who so liberally contribute towards the support of his work, among the heathen, and rejoice with us in its prosperity.

"About the beginning of this year, (1823) 171 brethren and sisters were employed in the mission, and there are now two stations more than in 1821, with three additional missionaries. There are at present on our list sixty-two missionaries who have retired from activity, and sixtysix children of missionaries educated in our schools in Europe and America, for whose maintenance we are bound to provide.

"When we take a view of the course of our missions in the year 1822, we ac2 X 2

knowledge, with deep humility and thank fulness, that the Lord has again crowned all our labours with success in Greenland, Labrador, North and South America, the West-India Islands, and in South Africa. Two most valuable missionaries have entered into the joy of their Lord, after long and faithful services: brother Jacob Beck, at an age of eighty-two years, fiftythree of which he spent in the service of the Greenland Mission, treading in the steps of his venerable father, one of the first missionaries in that country, and encouraging two of his children to enter on the same service; and brother Henry Marsveld, whom the Lord had endowed with peculiar gifts for the renewal of the mission at the Cape of Good Hope, in the year 1792. He was in the seventy-seventh year of his age, and to the last period of life, most active and faithful in his labours among the Hottentots. Tears of love and gratitude followed these two worthy servants of God to their resting-places, in Greenland and at the Cape.

culty attend the chapels, on account of distance. The last accounts from Barbadoes give us hopes of a revival in that mission. The distress occasioned by storms and floods at the Cape, and by a famine which lasted two years, and caused inexpressible misery to the Hottentot population in and out of our settlements, has been relieved by most liberal contributions, both in England, Germany, and Holland, and by a good harvest last year, for which we unite with our dear missionaries in fervent thanks to our Heavenly Father. The accounts from all our settlements at the Cape afford us the liveliest satisfaction.

"In Greenland, we have the best hopes, that the new settlement proposed to be formed in the southern district will, by the mercy of our Lord, become the means of calling in yet more heathen, as the reception given by them to brother Kleinschmidt at Narksamio was most favourable.

"The small congregation of Christian Indians of the Delaware tribe, residing at Goshen, on the Muskingum, having been for several years on the decline, the few remaining Indians joined their brethren at New Fairfield in Canada, and the settlement at Goshen has been relinquished. Among the Cherokees the seed of the word of God has not been sowed in vain, and its pleasant fruits appear to increase. At Paramaribo in Surinam, the mission among the Negroes is in a remarkably prosperous state, and the blessing of our Saviour has been manifest in all places upon the labour of our brethren. In the Danish West-India islands, as likewise in Antigua and St. Kitts, many thousand Negroes have continued to enjoy the privileges of the house of God, and considerable numbers have been added to the church by holy baptism. The ardent desire of the Negroes in the May-day-hills in Jamaica, to have a missionary resident among them, will, we trust, soon be fulfilled, if a place now offered, can be obtained, and the means supplied for forming a regular settlement. The new stations in Antigua are Cedarhall and Mountjoy, and afford great convenience to the Negroes, who formerly could with diffi

"It is indeed a remarkable and encouraging sign in these interesting times, that missionary efforts are more and more extensively made in many Protestant Churches; and that by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and similar societies in different countries, the circulation of the holy Scriptures spreads in all quarters of the globe. As they are translated into all known languages, none need be left without an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the word of life. We have received the most substantial benefit in Labrador, Greenland and other missions, from the generous assistance of the British and Foreign Bible Society, for which may God richly reward them. Let us, dear brethren, continue to remember in our prayers, the great work committed unto us, and entreat the Lord of the harvest, that He would also in future grant us the favour to be helpful in gathering in the reward for the travail of His soul, and prepare in our church yet more labourers, whom He may send into His harvest."

PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN

INDIA.

Every new advice from India confirms the pleasing intelligence that education is making very rapid progrees among the natives. The establishment of the Schoolbook Society has added greatly to this salutary impulse. The Calcutta School Society alone has eighty-four schools within the limits of the town. So persuaded is the Government of the great advantages that may be expected to result from the system of education which is now in progress, that it has determined to appropriate a lac of rupees annually to this object, in addition to all former grants.

The Serampore Native Female Society meet with the greatest encouragement. There are seventeen schools on the Society's lists, and three hundred and thirtyfive children. The average attendance is

about two hundred and thirty. This is in Serampore and the immediate neighbourhood. The extensive plans of the Church Missionary Society, the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, &c. are fa miliar to our readers.

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN

OHIO.

We mentioned with much pleasure, in our last Number, that a mutual arrangement had been made among the friends of the American Episcopal Church, in favour of three important institutions, for the benefit of that interesting portion of the Christian communion. An Address has just been circulated, signed by Lord Kenyon, Lord Gambier, the Rev. Dr. Gaskin, and H. Hoare, Esq. in favour of one of these objects, the intended seminary at Ohio, from which we copy the following passages :

"The undersigned, having engaged to act as trustees of a fund now raising in this country, to assist in the establishment of a theological seminary in the diocese of Ohio, in the western territory of the United States of America, beg to solicit the contributions of benevolent persons to that fund. Aware that some objections have been made to this design, the trustees are happy to state, that those objections have been withdrawn; as will appear from a circular lately issued under the sanction of the Right Reverend Bishop Hobart, of New York, in which a similar application is made in behalf of two other important and valuable establishments specified in the following extract.

"In thus making known the general wants of the American Episcopal Church, there is no wish to interfere with the exertions which are in successful operation in favour of the theological school in the diocese of Ohio. On the contrary, it was considered desirable to bring all these institutions unitedly before the public: but the subscriptions for the Ohio seminary having commenced, that circumstance has been considered by its friends as presenting an obstacle to this measure. While, therefore, the subscription for the diocese of Ohio proceeds as a separate object, the General Theological Seminary, and the Episcopal College in Connecticut, are also now jointly presented to the benevolent consideration of the friends of the American Episcopal Church.'

The Address proceeds to detail the peculiar necessities of the diocese of Ohio, with the particulars of whieh our readers are already acquainted.

The Address then concludes as follows : "The undersigned having learnt, that fears have been expressed, that applications of the nature now made to this country might be considered by some as derogatory to the American Episcopal Church ; and by others, as implicating it in a connexion with the Established Church of. the United Kingdom, injurious to the integrity of its own political allegiance; disavow on their own part, and venture to disavow on the part of the other friends in this country of the American Episcopal Church, any implication of this naturetendering for themselves, and soliciting from others, contributions in support of measures which manifestly tend to the consolidation and efficiency of an infant church in a rising country, with no other feeling than that of affectionate regard to it as sprung from their own, and labouring, in the midst of difficulties and discouragements, to maintain and extend that system of doctrine and discipline which they all judge most conducive to Christian edification and the glory of God. ·

"The undersigned cannot but notice, as a strong additional motive for supporting the plans of Bishop Chase, that the Roman-Catholic Bishop in the State of Ohio, according to information lately received from that quarter, is now on a special mission at Rome, in order to solicit the means of establishing a College in Ohio; while it is announced, in the public papers of this country, that the pope has lately made an additional annual grant of 24,000 dollars (5000 guineas) to the Society De Propagandâ Fide, for the support of the Roman-Catholic Church in North America. As the great importance of making early efforts in the new settlements of America will, doubtless, cause much of this wealth to flow to the westward, the friends of the Protestant faith will feel a peculiar obligation lying upon them to strengthen Bishop Chase's hands.

"Under these circumstances, and being convinced that the strictest conformity to the general constitution and canons of the church, and the most scrupulous regard to the unity of that church, has characterized Bishop Chase's proposal, the undersigned cannot but applaud the undertaking, and heartily recommend it to the support of all who sympathize with their fellow-Christians, destitute of the blessings attending the appointed means of grace, and are grateful to God for their own spiritual privileges in this highly-favoured country."

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