vessel wanted words to express his gratitude for a Bible, and could scarcely believe it was a gift; saying, “It is very good, very good indeed! we pay a great deal of money for God's book in my country." On the importance of this establishment to the mariners them selves, their immediate employers, and the community at large, it would be superfluous to expatiate. We expressly and most earnestly recommend the objects of this important institution to our readers in every part of the kingdom. The zeal of the female part of the community has found a suitable object in "Ladies' Bible Associations;" the regulations of which the Committee of the parent society have carefully revised, and have recommended such measures as will promote the great object in view in the most prudent and unexceptionable manner. The Liverpool “Ladies' Auxiliary Bible Society," with its ten Associations, has obtained already 7292 subscribers, collected more than 9701., and issued 1338 Bibles and Testaments. Various legacies and donations of importance have also accrued to the Society during the past year. The number of copies issued in that period have been 89,795 Bibles, and 104,306 Testaments; making, with those circulated at the Society's expense from different presses on the continent, the total issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society, in somewhat less than thirteen years, more than TWO MILLIONS of Bibles and Testaments. It was our intention to have entered at some length into the particulars of the Annual Meeting, at which, among other, numerous other, persons of respectability, were present the Bishops of Norwich, Gloucester, Cloyne, and Derry; their Excellencies the Ambas. sadors from the United States of America, and from his Serene Highness the Prince of Hesse Homburg; the Earl of Harrowby, Lord Gambier, the Hon. Nicholas Vansittart, M.P. &c. &c. but having detailed the chief facts which were brought before the notice of the meeting, it becomes almost unnecessary to record the sentiments to which they gave rise. We cannot, however, but transcribe the very important and conclusive remarks of the Earl of Harrowby and the Bishop of Cloyne, which we are convinced will be perused by our readers with no ordinary interest and pleasure. The Bishop of Cloyne." I rise to second the motion of the Right Ho nourable Gentleman who preceded me. But perhaps it may be expected that I should say a few words upon the busi ness which calls us together. I congra tulate you upon the progress of your exertions to spread the name of Christ over the world, to carry into execution, as far as you can, the great apostolic commission, 'Go, and baptize all na tions. For how could they be baptized in the name of Jesus, without first be coming acquainted with the fact which the Bible reveals, that the blessed Jesus is their Saviour? That there should be persons in this country who view our proceedings with suspicion, is to me matter of surprise and concern especially as I see, among the ranks of those who are enemies to our Society, the names of scholars whom I admire, and of friends whom I love. Yet, conscious how very differently the same object strikes all of us, as it appears in different lights, I do not condemn their judgment,-while I claim the great right of a Protestant minister to consult my own. "I have, however, my Lord, still more to lament, that there seems, of late, an increasing spirit of hostility against those of us who are members of the Establishment. At first, our opponents disputed with us; they then pitied us; and now they censure us, One gentleman has ventured to assert, that the whole of our exertions may be resolved into a fondness for popularity, and indifference to the Established Church. A little while after, another person went much further; for he declares us to be an anti-Christian association, formed for anti-Christian purposes. Now it appears to me extraordinary, not to say absurd, that persons, sending the Bible to different countries, and disseminating it among the poor at home, should be accused of not believing in the Bible. I confess I am shocked at a charge of such a nature, brought against so many respectable persons. Gentlemen, I am a Member of the United Church of England and Ireland. I believe its doctrines, from the bottom of my heart, and I perform its functions; but I detest the intolerance which, on account of a shade of difference in doctrine or discipline, would consign any one to the uncovenanted mercies of God. What, gentlemen, because Luther differed from our church in some respects, was he therefore no Christian? The man that first seized the torch which illumined all the west of Europe, and taught us to read and understand the Gospel, was he no Christian himself? What shall we say of the different Reformed Churches in Germany? What of the Church of Scotland of the Presbytery of Glasgow, which forms so respectable a part of it, and which has certainly been deeply imbued in the guilt that attaches to our efforts? For, no persons have assisted us more with their purses and with their prayers. And, to come nearer home, gentlemen, ought such charges to be hastily thrown out against the Prelates of the Established Church? I say nothing as to those who are present; they want no defender: but I may be allowed to repel the attack with indignation, as far as it applies to some who are absent, and to one who is no more; men who have defended the Christian doctrine by their writings, and adorned it by their lives; to the venerable names of Porteus, and Burgess, and Barrington. Are such men not to be Christians?-I fancy the respectable audience I address, the noblemen and gentlemen on the platform, the merchants of the city, the ministers of state, who have come forward, much to their credit, on more than one occasion, to declare their concurrence in our principles, will be rather startled at hearing, that they are none of them Christians?, Half Europe will be astonished at the discovery, that Mr. Wilberforce is not a Christian. Gentlemen, such charges, against such men, can only be dismissed from our minds with utter contempt, conscious as we are of the truth of the common maxim, that no disputant has recourse to hard names, until he finds himself deficient in good reasons. tury, but will have very little effect in the nineteenth; and I am glad to know that we have still the countenance of many respectable men of that communion. This is not a time or place to say more, and I shall take leave of the subject, with one quotation from St. Paul: 'I thank my God, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers.' Proceed in your exertions, gentlemen; God will prosper them; and neither our enemies at home, with all their pamphlets, nor the Pope himself, with all his Bulls, nor the great enemy of mankind, with all his arts, will be able to prevail against us." "I must say a few words about another adversary of ours, and I will say them as mildly as I can; I mean one that appeared some months ago, His Holiness the Pope. This respectable personage, and respectable he is in many particulars, has condescended to publish a Bull against us. He says, that many heresies will appear, but that the most baneful of all heresies, is, the reading and dissemination of the Bible. So, then, to propagate that hook in which Christianity is founded, is to propagate heresy. The misfortune of this Bull certainly is, that it comes into the world a thousand years too late. It might have done some harm in the ninth cen The Earl of Harrowby, President of the Council." It is with peculiar pleasure that I seize this moment of offering myself to your notice, immediately after the speech we have heard from the representative of the United States of America, because I do not know a more striking proof of that feeling which a Society like this is calculated to excite, and to spread, than that it should fall to my lot, in this metropolis, to have the pleasure of seconding a motion made by the minister of a foreign state. In truth, my Lord, it is a strong proof, that in this canse there is nothing foreign; but from the progress of this Society, and of societies like this, we may be sanguine enough to hope that the period may be approaching (whether with steps more slow, or more rapid, can be known only to that Providence which guides every step of it), when, in the true sense of the word, all men shall be one fold,under oneShepherd. "My Lord, I had another reason for wishing to take an early opportunity of addressing myself to your lordship; a reason which perhaps reflects some degree of shame upon myself; and it is this, that I have not the happiness of being one of those who were early engaged in the ranks of this Society: whether, because I was distracted by many other subjects, or whatever was the cause, such was the fact: and what was it that first directed my attention to this subject? It was the sounding of the trumpet of alarm. Though I had not sufficiently attended to the progress of the Society, to be myself a competent judge of its proceedings, yet it did strike me, as a most singular circumstance, that it should be a subject of alarm to that church which I had always conceived to glory, that its foundation was the Bible, and its object to spread arisen from the very nature of the Society before us. How could we successfully call upon them to lay aside any of their prejudices; to forget for a moment, and for a moment only, their own peculiar predilections, unless we set them that example ourselves?" CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. The Report of the Society, and its Appendix which will shortly appear, will enable us to give an outline of its pro. ceedings up to the period of the last Annual Meeting. In the mean time, we have felt so much gratified at perceiving the temperate and dignified line of conduct pursued by the Society relative to the opposition lately excited, that we cannot forbear extracting the following passages from the conclusion of the Report, relative to that unhappy controversy, and expressive of the pleasure felt by the members of the Institution at the intended enlarged operations of another venerable Society. that Sacred Book more extensively; of enthusiastic adherence which has that that which was a Protestant Church, which rested its own defence of separation from the Church of Rome upon the right of private judgment, should hold forth such distrust, should hold so much at a distance from itself all those who (whether right or wrong) had presumed for themselves to exercise the same right which the Church of England had exercised for itself; that it should be deemed, if not a stain, yet a detraction from the advantage and benefit of a good work, to partake with them in the pursuit of it? But, if there was nothing in argument, was there any thing to be found in the conduct of this immense Society, which could justify that alarm by fact? To argument upon, the subject, I paid every possible attention: to pretend to say that I, or any man, could have read, with deep attention, every publication that has materially attracted the notice of the public, would be absurd. I have read every statement of facts, on both sides of the question, which were represented to me as worth reading; and the deliberate result of that investigation has been, a confirmation of the opinion which first struck me, that, so far from any danger existing to the Establishment of which I am a member, the union of that Church with this Society only adds to its credit, its dignity, and its usefulness, and therefore cannot but add to its strength. "My Lord, I have been unfortunately prevented from arriving here early enough to have more than a cursory view of the Report which has been read to you and this assembly. I can only speak of the general impression it has given me; and that impression is gratifying in the highest degree: it proves that, during a period of more than ordinary pressure, whatever retrenchments have been made, persons have not applied their economy to the Bible Society, and that it has been assisted in every part of the world by exertions nearly corresponding; that its influence has spread to an extent, and its great name has arisen in a manner, in which no other society, however respectably constituted, or well conducted, could have done. No insulated society, in this country, belonging to one peculiar class, be that class what it may, could excite in all nations, and in all countries, and among all sects, the same degree CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 193. "In conclusion, your Committee feel it necessary to advert to some peculiar oc currences of the last year. They would willingly have omitted all reference to the opposition which the Society has met with, had it been of an ordinary nature, or temporary in its consequences: but, both in the character and the effects of this opposition, there is something so remarkable, that your Committee feel that they should not answer the just expectations of the Society, if they did not state their views on this subject. "When your Committee call to mind the late period at which they themselves and their now active co-adjutors throughout the kingdom were brought to feel the duty of taking vigorous and determined measures in attempting to diffuse the knowledge of Christ among the Heathen, they are anxious to exercise forbearance and charity toward all others who may be tardy and reluctant in admitting into their minds the full influence of this obligation. And when they see their fellow-Christians and fellow-Churchmen awakening to a sense of the necessity and duty of diffusing everywhere the Gospel of the grace of God, they desire, without reference to any other circumstances, sincerely to congratulate and zealously to assist them in this sacred labour. "Your Committee cannot, however, be insensible to the advantages which both 3 H the Society and the general cause of Missions, particularly Missions as connected with the Church, have derived from the talents, the zeal, and the piety, which have been called forth on behalf of this Institution. To these friends they beg to offer, in the name of the Society, their most cordial acknowledg ments. “Nor can your Committee allow them selves to pass unnoticed the trouble and anxiety which one of the Society's revered and beloved Vice-Patrons has been called to encounter. They are sure that they shall most entirely accord with the wishes of that distinguished Prelate, in avoiding every intimation of reproach, and in stifling the very feeling of resentment, for that conduct toward his Lordship, which has been condemn ed by the public voice of our countrya voice which soon makes itself heard, amidst any temporary clamour, to be the voice of Truth and of Justice. But your Committee cannot avoid expressing, on this occasion, the earnest wish and prayer, that the spirit which thus actuates the heads and leaders of the Society may pervade and dwell in every member of the body. "And that it does so, your Committee rejoice to report that they are daily receiving the most satisfactory testimony. The Public Meetings which have been held at Bristol for instance, at Hereford, in Dublin, and at Colches ter-since those painful circumstances took place which are here alluded to, have marked that union of Christian determination with Christian meekness, which prove to your Committee that the Society is deeply imbibing that Divine feeling-Be not overcome of evil; but overcome evil with good. "In this spirit it is, that your Commit tee desire and pray that they may be enabled to persevere in their labours. "And what are these labours!-Contemplate, but for a moment, that astonishing fact that a tenth of the whole human race are subjects of the British Crown! that Eighty Millions or One Hundred Millions of human beings live under our just and beneficent laws! that, of these Millions of dying but immortal men, three-fourths are deluded Mahomedans, or wretched Pagans!that Sixty or Seventy Millions of men, our fellow-subjects, know nothing of that Only Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved!—and yet there are not, at this hour, Two Huadred Christian Men, Native or European, of all denominations-there are not Two Hundred engaged in shewing to these sinners the error of their ways! "How then must the Members of this Society rejoice, as Christians and as Churchmen, that the Society for Propagating the Gospel, which can exercise an extensive influence over their fellowmembers of the Church, is calling forth the resources of the Church in aid of this great cause! Your Committee most heartily bid them God speed; and entreat every Member of this Society to aid that venerable body to the utmost, by his contributions and by his prayers. Your Committee augur incalculable good from these exertions—not only to the Heathen and Mahomedan Subjects of this Empire, but to those who attempt to become blessings to them. Whoever approaches this sacred cause, can hardly fail to obtain, through the Divine Mercy, a deeper sense of his own obligations to Infinite Goodness and Love. "A day will come-and who does not most earnestly long to behold that day! when these Sixty Millions of our perishing fellow-subjects will no longer be left to their two hundred Christian Teachers—when, in truth, three hundred thousand souls will appear to be far, fær too many for the charge of one Christian pastor. Were these two hundred teachers of British Heathen augmented to sixty thousand, there would even then be but one instructor to a thou. sand. "Yet, when that day shall have arrived, there will still remain to the Members of our Church, and to the whole Christian World beside, the care of five hundred or six hundred millions of Jews, Mahomedans, and Heathens, out of the pale of the British Empire! "Oh! it needs nothing but an understanding of the immensity of human wretchedness and perdition to extinguish all jealousy and rivalry among Christians-that rivalry only excepted, which shall labour most assiduously to save souls from death, and to hide the multitude of sins!” VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. CONTINENTAL INTELLIGENCE. A CONGRESS of the great powers of Europe are shortly to assemble at Aixla Chapelle, a beautiful town nearly half way between Liege and Cologne, rendered famous by several public treaties, and particularly by that of 1748, between Great Britain and France. It is expected that the Emperors of Russia and Austria, and the Kings of Prussia and the Netherlands, will attend in person. The object of this Congress is, doubtless, to fix the peace of Europe, if possible, on a solid basis, and particularly to determine the measures which it may be expedient to pursue in regard to France. If the government of that country should appear to have acquired a sufficient degree of stability to justify the measure, it is probable that the army of occupation may be withdrawn in the autumu of the present year. Those who have observed what a large portion of combustible matter remains latent in France, only requiring the application of a spark to cause it to explode, and to renew the scene of former years, cannot do otherwise than view such a measure with very serious apprehensions. Persuaded, however, as we are, that the parties who shall be called to decide this great and vital question of European policy, have no by-ends to serve, and have also ample nieans of acquiring correct information respecting the actual state of feelings and opinions among the mass of the French population, we are disposed to place a strong reliance on the wisdom of their councils, and the equity of their decisions. The rapid rise which of late has taken place in the French funds, would indicate a growing confidence, on the part of the French themselves, in the continuance of internal tranquillity, and the stability of the existing order of things. At the same time it is to be remembered, that the bankers and capitalists of France are not likely, any more than our own stock-jobbers and fund-holders, to speculate very deeply or very accurately on the moral causes which are to be regarded as mainly inAluential in deciding the future destinies of France. Their view is apt to be bounded by the single consideration, whether, in the course of three, or six, or twelve months, the rise in the value of public securities is likely to be such as to render an investment of their capital in that species of property advantageous. And, after all, the rise which has taken place may prove nothing more than this, that the high rate of interest which was to be obtained in France, nearly three times as much as could be had in England, has drawn large sums thither from this country, and perhaps also from Holland and Germany, which, operating on a com paratively small quantity of stock, have, by the mere force of that operation, produced the effect we have witnessed, Besides this, the rise in the price of stock being, perhaps, too hastily assumed to flow from an increase of public confidence in the government, and of growing attachment to it on the part of its subjects, farther investments are thus encouraged, and the value of the stock enhanced. We should demur, therefore, to the conclusion, that the present rise in the value of the French funds bas proceeded from an ameliorated state of political feeling in that country, when, possibly, it may admit of being explained on those simple principles which regulate all commercial transactions, whether they relate to this or to any other description of property. The sums which have been transferred from Great Britain alone, into the funds of France, by persons who know nothing of the internal situation of that kingdom, but who merely calculate the gains of the transfer at compound interest, and who adventure on the chances of tranquillity as they would adventure on the chances of a prize in the lottery, would be sufficient of themselves to account for much of the advance of price which has taken place. There is one subject which we trust will employ no small portion of the time and cares of the approaching Congress. We allude to the Slave Trade. On this subject the different members of it will have much to learn, since, on the 8th of February 1815, they proclaimed at Vienna their desire "to put an end to a scourge which has so long desolated Africa, degraded Europe, and afflicted humanity," and their determination to pursue that object "with all the zeal and perseverance which so great and good acause merits." They will |