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your heart may be comforted at knowing that the solemn advice which you have given us to-day has stimulated us to fresh zeal and more devotedness in the work committed to our hands.

"Met together on this highly-important and most interesting occasion, we feel we must not separate without making a spontaneous assurance of our individual affection to your Lordship's person, of our veneration for the high and holy office which you hold over us, and of our willing and conscientious submission to your just authority as our Bishop. We consider ourselves imperatively called upon to make this honest avowal of our sentiments of dutiful obedience to your Lordship as our ecclesiastical head, because we have heard with grief and deep concern that your episcopal authority has been set at nought by a Deacon in the neighbouring island of Montserrat, in despite of the ordination vows which he had not long since made, and the canonical obedience he had sworn to render; as well as in abuse of the extreme clemency and forbearance which he had received at your Lordship's hands. And in consequence of the resistance that has been made to the due exercise of ecclesiastical discipline, our beloved Church has been scandalized, St. George's Church in Montserrat has been closed for several weeks, and your Lordship will be compelled to have recourse to the civil power for protection and enforcement of your Lordship's unquestionable authority.

"After the affront that has thus been offered our ecclesiastical head, we feel that the occasion demands the declaration of our determination unitedly to uphold your Lordship in the exercise of your legitimate rule over us; and we sincerely trust that this unfeigned assurance on our part will be some alleviation to the painful circumstances in which your Lordship has been placed.

"In conclusion, we pray that your Lordship may, under the protecting care of God's good providence, be prospered on your way to England; and, after a term of necessary

repose there, be brought back to us again renewed in health, invigorated and refreshed in spirit.

(Signed)

"R. HOLBERTON, Archdeacon of Antigua and Rector of St. John's.

"J. B. WILKINSON, Rector of St. Paul's.

66

J. CURTIN, Rector of St. Mary's.

"R. R. ABBOTT, Minister of All Saints'.
"S. A. WARNER, Curate of St. John's parish.
"D. DAVEY, Curate of St. Peter's.

"M. M. DILLON, Curate of the parish of St. John,
residing at St. James's Chapel of Ease.
"A. H. P. CULPEPPER, Minister of Barbuda.
"W. A. SANDERS, Curate of St. George's.
"J. R. BARNES, Curate of St. Philip's.

"E. O. ROACH, Curate of the parish of St. John,
residing in the district of St. Luke's Chapel

of Ease.

"F. A. PYNSENT, Officiating Minister in Antigua under the direction of the Bishop.

"G. H. TODD, Rector of St. Anthony's and St. Patrick's, and Rural Dean of Monserrat.

St. John's, Antigua, April 23rd, 1847.”

THE BISHOP'S REPLY.

"Venerable Archdeacon and Reverend Gentlemen,-I accept your filial adddress, now presented to me, just after the delivery of my first Visitation Charge, with no ordinary feelings of gratification. The sense of anxiety in respect to my Charge was increased by the knowledge that almost of necessity it must come before the public. That anxiety was engendered by the conviction that, although it might well serve its purpose on the occasion, it would be scarcely worthy of general notice. In complying, however, with your request of affording you a printed impression, it will appear that in publishing it I am complying not alone with

common usage, but am sanctioned by your judgment. All that was said in the Charge was intended to subserve the cause of the Church within the limits of my diocese ; and I shall rejoice if it in any way, in the smallest degree, have that tendency. Accept my best acknowledgments for the hearty assurance of your affection for my person and veneration for my office. office. I value the assurance, because it convinces me that I hold over your minds the best security for the stability of my pastoral rule. Your affectionate sympathy with me, in the painful occurrences in a neighbouring island, is calculated indeed to mitigate the pains which they have inflicted on me, and your declaration of united support will strengthen my hands in carrying into effect my legitimate authority. It affords me comfort to know that I shall have your prayers for my personal safety during my voyage to England, and my return to you in invigorating health and refreshed spirit. I hope when I do return to you that we may join even more zealously than ever in all our labours of love in the Gospel of Christ.

"DANIEL GATEWARD ANTIGUA.

"St. John's, Antigua, April 23rd, 1847."

THE END.

GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.

THE GOVERNMENT PLAN OF EDUCATION.

A CHARGE

INTENDED FOR DELIVERY ON THE VISITATION IN OCTOBER 1847,

TO THE

CLERGY OF THE ARCHDEACONRY OF SURREY,

BY THE LATE

VENERABLE WILLIAM DEALTRY, D.D., F.R.S.

RECTOR OF CLAPHAM,

ARCHDEACON OF SURREY, AND CANON OF WINCHESTER.

LONDON:

DAVID BATTEN, CLAPHAM COMMON; HATCHARD AND SON ; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.

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