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claims of the Established Church; for their sakes we ought to waive the exercise of a power, which they are for the time disposed to resist; for their sakes, and for the sake of Him, in whose behalf it is our duty at all times to count all things loss (See Phil. iii. 8).

"Nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the Gospel of Christ.' This was what St. Paul could testify of his practice in the case of the Corinthians. This is what we could wish the Church to practise in the case of the Dissenters. Let us do any thing, yield any thing, suffer any thing, rather than hinder the Gospel of Christ. That holy cause we should ill indeed advance, by base desertion of important principles, or by affected indifference to truths for which we are bound most earnestly to contend. What we must give up, and when, and where, must be determined by this single consideration, which way shall we best set forward Christ's Gospel. But how can we help hindering it, if it be for ourselves we seem to fight, and not for the faith of Christ? if it be money that we seem to covet, and not the maintenance of religion? if the exposed abuses of our system receive from us that strenuous support which is due to its unquestionable advantages? or, if we are willing rather that souls should perish, than that we would flinch one atom from our lawful rights, or alter even that which probably is wrong?" pp. 15-18.

The above passage presents a beautiful and scriptural illustration of the doctrine of Christian expediency: but the question still remains, whether the relinquishment of Church Rates is really expedient. Supposing even, that, for the sake of peace and the furtherance of the Gospel, the temporary relinquishment of parochial assessments is admitted to be in any instance desirable, with a view particularly to that calm discussion of the subject which it is hoped may end in a return to the ancient and legal practice, it still remains to be considered whether the abandonment of the system as a national institution would be advisable. Our own opinion, for reasons which we have often stated in brief, and intend, when opportunity serves, to state more at large, is, that it would not; for we do not believe that a National Church Establishment could be maintained without some such provision, especially in remote and thinly-peopled country parishes; and as the impost is neither unjust nor oppressive, we should greatly regret its abandonment merely on account of the temporary opposition which is being made to it, and which we believe will diminish as the question becomes better understood that is to say, if the Church duly enshrines itself in the hearts of the people by a reform of abuses, and by acting up to its high duties.

It does not come within the object of this notice to dwell upon the third head of Mr. Girdlestone's discourse, which contains an affectionate pastoral address to his flock upon the value and blessedness of the Gospel; but we ought not to omit to notice it, as affording an illustration of the benefits to be derived from a right "improvement" (as the Puritans phrased it) of distressing visitations of Divine Providence. Mr. Girdlestone's parish was one of those which last year was fearfully visited with the pestilence that so greatly alarmed the land; and we have heard much of the zealous and Christian labours of the vicar of Sedgley for the souls and bodies of his parishioners, during and subsequent to the affliction. It appears by this discourse that he desires to keep up the remembrance of it as a warning to repentance, and the deliverance from it as a memento of God's mercy; and this is truly the way in which such solemn dispensations of the Divine hand ought to be dealt with by the ministers of Christ. If Mr. Girdlestone has retained, either in memory or in his private parochial diary, such a statement respecting the progress and memorabilia of this visitation as we alluded to in our notice of the Cholera at Bilston, it might be well if he would adopt the suggestion which we there offered, to ensure the preservation of the record.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

SOCIETY FOR THE RELIEF OF POOR PIOUS CLERGYMEN. WE copy a few cases from the last Report of this highly useful and well-conducted institution, in order to shew its necessity and value. It is melancholy, that in a rich church like ours such disparities should exist as to allow of cases like those noticed in the Reports of this Society.

1. "My income from clerical services (and I have no private fortune) is now about 951. per annum. I have a wife and nine children: one of these I was obliged to take from school, on account of illness, about six months since; she has as yet been unable to return, and I have my fears as to her ever being able to do so. My wife's health has, through the cares and labours arising from so large a family, declined for the last two or three years, and I am afraid that she is not likely to regain her former strength. I perform two full services on the Sabbath, and expound in the evening. I am happy to say, that our congregations are rather on the increase, and we have been enabled to build a school-room, in which we assemble more than 200 poor children."

(Acknowledgment from the same.)"It is not possible to express how much your letter, enclosing -l. has cheered me and mine. It has set me at liberty from the painful bondage of owing what I could not pay."

2. " My total income is 917. per annum; and I have eleven children, all entirely dependent on me, except my eldest son, who is apprenticed, for whom I provide clothing and washing. Although I was kindly aided in apprenticing my son by the Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy, I was obliged to pay 10. in addition to the sum granted me. This, with a tedious illness with which my dear wife was afflicted after confinement, increased my expenses last year; and I have still an account of eight pounds due to the medical man, which I am unable to pay. Exertions also made to provide for my two eldest daughters-who had before been educated by myself-some instruction suitable to their sex, have brought me into difficulties, from which I know not how to extricate myself, but by applying to your Society, to which I am already so much indebted."

In acknowledging a grant made, this clergyman says, "I shall now be free from all pecuniary embarrassments, and be enabled, I trust, to devote myself more earnestly to the service of Him, who thus supplies all my need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

3. "Sixty-six pounds is the whole sum derived from the ordinary sources of my income, with which I, with a wife and four young children, have been called to

bear up against the current expenses of the past year. To this, however, was mercifully added 5., received from a friend, and 12. from Mrs. Ashton's Trust. ... It affects me deeply to make such statements; but the burdens, occasioned by these circumstances, are indeed grievous to be borne, and have proved to me sore trials of faith and patience....My heart is burdened with fear, lest the little which I might do should come to nought, through the use which evil men may make of these circumstances of difficulty in which I am involved."

4. "My total income is 1007. a year. Of fourteen children, seven, who still survive, with their mother who is paralysed, my mother who is nearly ninety, and an aged widowed sister, are all dependent on me for support. My poor wife is unable to use her right hand, and is altogether weak and helpless; and though I paid 25/. in 1830, and 207. on account, last year, to medical men, I still owe 501.; this was occasioned by my dear partner having for months required daily medical attendance, in so critical a state was her life.-I have always two full services on a Sabbath in my own chapel of ease, where I have also a week-day evening lecture. Besides this, I take my turn with some other clergymen in preaching a Sunday evening and a week-day evening lecture, at another chapel of ease. The congregation at my own chapel is about 1000; the communicants from 150 to 200. The Sacrament is administered monthly."

5. "The joint salary of the two curacies which I serve (having ministered in one of them twenty years) is 801. per annum. I have no other income whatever; and have a wife and nine children; six of whom are at home and entirely dependent on me; three others depend on me partially, one of whom will cost me 18. this year, besides travelling expenses, and a few requisite articles of dress. I have this year lost a horse which was valuable to me, and have been compelled, through the necessity of the case, to buy another........ The Sacrament is administered at each church once every month."

6. "The two parishes of which I am curate contain 1630 souls or thereabouts: the joint salary is 1001. per annum, without a house; and I have an annuity of 351. per annum. On this income I, my wife, and seven children are dependent. Five of the latter wholly, two partially. I have three services on the Sabbathtwo full services, and prayers and I am obliged to walk seven miles. Moving from my late curacy to those which I am now to serve, causes considerable expense. At my late curacy my stipend was 1007. per annum, with the use of the rectoryhouse."

LITERARY, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND MISCELLANEOUS

INFORMATION.

CAPTAIN Ross has returned in safety from his Arctic expedition. In the month of May, 1829, this enterprising officer sailed from this country for the Arctic regions, in a steamer prepared and fitted out at his own expense. His crew consisted of about nineteen persons, exclusive of himself and his son, all volunteers. In the first season he only reached Wylie Fiord, on the eastern side of Davis's Straits, where, finding his machinery nearly useless, he converted his steamer into a sailing vessel, from the materials of a London whaler, which he found abandoned on that part of the coast. Next season he took the earliest opportunity to prosecute his voyage, and having proceeded up Baffin's Bay, entered Sir John Lancaster's Sound, and steered for the spot in Prince Regent's Inlet where his Majesty's ship Fury had been abandoned. Here he found only the keel of the Fury, and a few of her timbers, but, what was of more importance to him, he found the greater part of her provisions. Having re-victualled his vessel out of the abandoned stores, and left three of his boats at Fury Beach, he made sail for the westward, and succeeded in getting as far as 101 deg. W.L., near the North Georgian Islands, where his progress was arrested by the ice. As the season was now far advanced, and he had no hope of extricating his vessel, he was compelled to abandon her; and after many difficulties, he and his crew succeeded, by means of sledges and otherwise, in reaching Fury Beach, where the boats had been left, late in the same season. It appears that during the whole of 1831 they were unable to move to any distance from Fury Beach. In 1832, however, they made an attempt to reach the sea in their three boats; but after suffering many privations they failed in accomplishing their object, and were obliged to retrace their steps that winter, being at times thrown upon the beneficence of the few natives whom they chanced to meet with. As early in the present season as they could make any progress they again started for the open sea, and happily fell in with the Isabella, of Hull, at Jacob Teure, just as that ship was about to leave the fishing station, in which vessel he returned home. Captain Ross lost three men the first year on his voyage out, but no other casualties occurred.

From the above particulars it appears that little in the way of new discovery can be expected to result from Capt. Ross's protracted and perilous expedition. He was only able to reach 110 deg. W. longitude, which is 9 deg. E. of that part of Melville Island where Parry took his

observations, and 12 deg. E. of the extreme point to which Parry advanced in his second voyage. The accident which stopped Captain Ross's progress, however, was one which no perseverance or enterprise could overcome. Such is the statement which has appeared in the newspapers. We await more detailed and authentic intelligence.

An effort has been made to disturb the wreck of the Boyne, at Spithead, by explosion, which, after some failures, was attended with complete success. A magazine, containing about two hundredweight of gunpowder, was lowered, and placed by the diver at a depth of nearly forty feet from the surface of the water, under the stern of the wreck, and exploded by a train, contained in a lead pipe supported by floating buoys, with a torch attached. The stern-post was thrown down by the violence of the shock, and the dead wood on each side blown out. A large part of the stern-post was afterwards raised, with the valuable copper fastenings. The report was heard at a great distance, and the water, with a considerable quantity of mud, was greatly agitated. Numbers of fish were killed by the explosion. The experiment is of importance, as shewing an easy method of breaking up wrecks which are valuable for their contents or an impediment to navigation.

From the returns lately transmitted from the different dioceses of England and Wales, and published in the Parliamentary Papers, we extract the following results:

Total number of resident clergy.. 4649 Non-resident by exemption......... 2506 Non-resident by licence 1968 Cases not included among exemptions and licences

33

Of

Total number of benefices...10560 Of those non-resident by exemption 2080 are resident on other benefices; 266 are ecclesiastical, collegiate, and cathedral officers; 94 resident fellows, tutors, or officers of the universities; and 66 are exempted for various other causes. those non-resident by licence 1227 are prevented from residing by the want or unfitness of the parsonage-houses; 418 by infirmity; and the remainder by various other causes. Of the third class of non-residents 509 are cases of absence without licence or exemption; but of these 478 perform the duties of their respective parishes; 412 returns are defective as to residence; 115 are vacancies. In 183 cases there are no returns, 81 are recent institutions, 53 are sequestrations, and the remainder benefices held by bishops, &c.-The total number of curates in England and Wales

is 4373. Of these 1532 reside in the glebe-houses, 1005 in their parishes, and 3915 are licensed. The stipends of 486 are under 501.; of 2355 under 100%.; of 1079 under 150l.; of 249 under 2001. and of 33 upwards of 2001; 78 have the whole income of the living, and three have half the income of the living. Of the livings

where the incumbents are non-resident, 1139 are upwards of 3007. in annual value; and 2548 are under that sum.

A return has been made which illustrates some interesting facts in the statistics of the country. From this return it appears that the total number of families in the country employed in agricultural pursuits in 1831 was 761,348; the total number employed in trade, manufactures, and handicraft, was 1,182,912; and the total number not comprised in either of those two great classes 801,076. In 1831 the male population amounted to 6,376,627, and the female to 6,714,378, giving a balance of somewhat more than three hundred thousand in favour of the latter. From the same return it appears that the number of houses inhabited in 1831 was 2,326,022; the number of families by whom they were occupied 2,745,336; the number building 23,462, and the number uninhabited 113,385.

The following is the Parliamentary return of the number of applications to the Board of Education in Dublin, for aid to schools existing, or for new schools, up to August 16, 1833:-Number of applications for aid to schools existing, 911; number of applications for aid for new schools, 259; gross total, 1,170. Applications for 573 schools existing, and 142 new schools, making a total of 715, have been complied with.

The newspapers have published the following extraordinary statement, which we copy as we find it.-It is well known in the legal profession that the Acts of

the Irish Parliament from the time of the decapitation of Charles I. to the Restoration (from 1639 to 1662) were mislaid, and at last considered as destroyed in the wars of the Commonwealth, the most minute searches, and even expensive Parliamentary commissions, having failed to discover the slightest trace of them. In consequence of this loss the best lawyers were frequently at fault in their researches, and it is believed that much of the embarrassments and confiscations which occurred on the Restoration had their origin in the impossibility of referring to these various Statutes and Orders in Council, on the authority of which the principal actors in the busy time of the Commonwealth had politically committed themselves, and exposed their estates to the Act of Settlement. Within these few days the lost Acts have been found in Belfast, by Alexander Montgomery, Esq., of the firm of Alexander and John Montgomery, solicitors, whilst searching amongst the dusty records of the Rolls Court. When the circumstance was communicated to the Irish Government, the law officers refused to believe the fact till Mr. Montgomery produced his proofs, by transcripts of two of the missing Acts. This discovery is said to be likely to interest the historian as well as the lawyer, and may lead to attempts on the part of some of the unfortunate descendants of those who suffered in the changes of property consequent on the Restoration, to inquire how far holes may be picked in the parchment of the Act of Settlement, which was passed in despair of unravelling the gordian knots of legislation tied in the Interregnum, in which the Irish suffered equally for their loyalty or rebellion. Ireland has endured ten confiscations in the last 600 years, and it is estimated has on an average been totally confiscated three times over.

VIEW OF PUBLIC

THERE is little of domestic intelligence during the month to record. We witness with much concern the rapidly spreading refusal by parishes to grant rates for the repairs of churches, and the carrying on of Divine Worship; but our hope is, that as the question becomes better understood there will be a return to right principles, and that the good sense of the people will extricate them from the snares of Political Unions and other instruments of injurious agitation. The system of refusing the payment of unpopular demands is beginning to extend to the Assessed Taxes; but it will be seen, by every man of plain understanding, that no nation can exist under such a system; and every Christian at least will feel that he is in duty bound to defray every charge, not contrary to the law of God, which may be laid upon him by the

AFFAIRS.

rightful authorities of the nation to which he belongs.

In regard to Foreign Affairs, there was a time when such conflictions of opinion as those at this moment elicited by the death of the King of Spain, the jealousies of France, the successes of Don Pedro, and the acknowledgment of Donna Maria, with the arrangements between Russia and Turkey, and other passing topics of contention, might have caused a general European war; but we trust that the lesson of the long and ruinous convulsions which followed the first French revolution will not speedily be forgotten; and that, as most of the nations of Europe are too much impoverished to be able to support the expenses of war, so their respective governments, and especially our own, are anxious to avert it.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

G. C. S.; J. F.; HAMPDEN; A. R.; D.; Y. O.; A. Z.; A FATHER; THE WRITER; H. D.; G.; S.; M. G. S.; R. H. S.; IOTA; A CURATE; and MISERECORS; are under consideration.

We see no reason why we should trouble our readers with the details of the fanaticism and jargon to which L. M. alludes. We attacked it in the bud, and more especially we warned some of those against it who are now probably distressed at having assisted in opening floodgates which they cannot shut. We thought that our readers were long ago wearied, as we were, with the subject: and what could or need we say respecting the proceedings at Park Chapel, Chelsea, but what we Isaid in the discussion on the case of Miss Fancourt, and on various other occasions? We even doubt the utility of preaching sermons, however excellent, against those wild excesses: for though a solid argument may convince those who were convinced before, we fear that the publicity thus given to the evil augments rather than diminishes it; and that weak, curious, and superstitious minds, will extract poison from what was intended for medicine. Extravagancies often prevail most in those congregations or parishes in which the minister gives the most notoriety to them by constantly attacking them; and persons frequently say, "I knew little or nothing of such a doctrine till I heard Mr. preach against it; but I do not think he confuted the arguments in its favour." A Clergyman's business is rather to preach plain Scriptural truth, than to dignify every whimsy of the day with an elaborate refutation. The most effectual refutation of what is palpably absurd is, often, to pass it by as not worthy of an argument. If a man's mind is so unsoundly constituted as to require an elaborate proof that the practices alluded to are not miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit, we should despair of permanently convincing him either by reason or revelation. We might indeed persuade him for the moment; but he would be ready the next day to be drawn aside by any other novelty of error. A prominent object, both of preaching and of education, should be, to strengthen the mind against delusion by laying a solid foundation of Scriptural truth, and, in the case of children and young persons more particularly, to direct their attention to matters of primary importance, abstaining from giving to the fugitive novelties of the day such a colour as may render them objects of anxious curiosity.

SUPPLEMENT TO RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

IN introducing the Monthly Extracts, we cannot refrain from recording the lamented decease of that truly excellent man and highly valuable officer of the Society, the late Rev. Joseph Hughes. To the piety, zeal, sound judgment, and unwearied labours of that exemplary servant of God, the Bible Society owes, under the Divine blessing, a very large measure of its prosperity. Mr. Hughes was a Dissenter, and an Anti-pædo Baptist; but he was a man of such Christian moderation and candour, that he never failed to conciliate good men of every name; and with regard to the Church of England in particular, he has been heard to express in the strongest terms his high opinion of its value to the interests of religion in the land; and also to state, that, from his very extensive intercourse with all denominations of Christians, he had come to the full conviction that there was no body of persons in the nation among whom the spirit of the Gospel was so consistently exhibited, as among the pious members and ministers of the Established Church. The piety in this quarter, he would say, was of a better cast-more deep, more solid, more simple, more scriptural, less shewy-than in any other. Such a testimony, from such a man, ought not to be overlooked, at a time when so much is said and done to depreciate the Church of England, her clergy, her members, and her institutions. We expect to find in the next Number of the Monthly Extracts an ample testimonial from the Committee of the Society to the memory and services of their late Secretary. May a successor of kindred mind, by the blessing of God, be found to fill and adorn his arduous post! -We abridge the following passages of his life from the "Christian Advocate."

The day of Mr. Hughes's birth we have not ascertained; the year was 1769; the place, London. His father, who, if not a Welshman, was of Welsh extraction, was a member of the Baptist church in Wyld Street, over which Dr. Stennett at that time presided. Mr. Hughes died during the childhood of his son. The parents of young Hughes, being in respectable circumstances, gave him the rudiments of a good educa tion. He was taken by them to the house of God, and the grace of God at an early period influenced his heart. Evincing talents for the ministry, and being in other respects fitted to become a candidate for that office, he was received, at a youthful age,

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