Horsley parish church being much dilapidated, and capable of holding only 600 persons, from a population of 4000, the rector, the Rev. S. Lloyd, has already collected about £700 among his own connexions, intending to erect a larger church on the original site, preserving the ancient tower and some other parts of that old fabric; this sum is invested in Exchequer bills to accumulate for this laudable purpose.

David Ricardo, Esq., of Gatcombe Park, patron of Minchinhampton rectory, has liberally subscribed, and promoted a subscription, towards building a church in Brimscombe, a densely populated part of this large parish, and has engaged to endow it when completed.-Amberly church, on the hill above Dunkirke House, on the opposite side of Minchinhampton, built and consecrated last year at the sole expense of the above-named munificent patron, presents now the heart-cheering prospect of a crowded and attentive congregation, and a large Sunday and week-day school.

The episcopal chapel at the Slad, on the Cheltenham side of Stroud, built and endowed about five years since, has now a resident minister, who is soliciting subscriptions for erecting schoolrooms.-Cain's Cross church, consecrated a few weeks since, (built and endowed by private subscription,) has an overflowing congregation, for whom galleries must soon be added to the church.

All these pious works and labours of love have been undertaken, and brought thus far onward, in a clothing district, where the majority of the manufacturers are dissenters, and this memorial is made merely to invite others to follow the example of the zealous members of the church of England resident in the borough of Stroud.

N.B. Two of these churches were considerably assisted by the incorporated society for building churches; they are those in the parishes of Mr. Keble and Mr. Powel.

LICHFIELD AND COVENTRY CHURCH BUILDING SOCIETY. THE Second Annual Meeting of this Society was held at Birmingham on Friday, the 27th of January last. The transactions of the past year will appear from the subjoined abstract of the full and able report then read to the meeting.

1.-"The following grants have been made, in the course of the year, towards the erection of new churches :

2." In aid of enlarging churches and chapels, or rebuilding, with enlargement, there has been granted as follows:

3.-"One place of worship has been purchased-viz., St. George's Church, in the parish of St. Peter's, Derby, built a few years ago by a private individual, and opened under episcopal licence, but now consecrated under the name of Trinity Church. The sittings in this church are 750, of which 140 are free, besides sittings for children. The grant, 6007.

"The brief result of the preceding statements is, that during the preceding year assistance has been afforded to

"The total cost of these additional 22,387 sittings, providing, according to the common scale of computation, for upwards of 60,000 persons, is 56,590l. 148. 7d.; and it is not an unimportant consideration that this society

has thus, by an outlay of little more than 13,000l., aided by liberal grants from the incorporated society, and, in one or two instances, by promises of aid from his Majesty's Commissioners, been the means of calling forth more than three times that amount from the resources of private benevolence in furtherance of this good work.

"The following endowments have been offered since the last anniversary towards the important object of providing a permanent ministry for the churches to which they are attached :—

Measham and Church Gresley...1400l., by a lady.
St. Werburgh's, Derby, new

church

10007., under 1 and 2 of Will. IV.

Birmingham, Gosta Green......1000l., under 1 and 2 of Will. IV.

"In conclusion, the report presses most earnestly on the consideration of the society's members, and of the friends of the established church throughout the diocese, that as yet very little has been accomplished towards effecting the design of the institution, which aims at nothing less than providing the whole unsupplied population to which its influence extends with the means of worshipping God, and hearing the gospel of the grace of God, according to the rites and doctrines of the established church. Let it not for a moment be forgotten that we have not only to repair the injury done to our church and country by at least a century of neglect, but to overtake, and keep pace with, the rapid strides of a population daily gathering more densely around us. Every view of their condition, both moral and spiritual, both social and political, claims our prompt and beneficent consideration. It is truly fearful to think how many of our people are living within the very confines of revelation-within, as it were, the very hearing of the oracles of God, and yet no heavenly light illumines their minds-no voice of mercy is addressed to their ears-no messenger of peace soothes their disturbed and guilty spirits. Everywhere, multitudes of them are perishing in ignorance and guilt; every day they are disappearing from the midst of us, and making their dark plunge into the depths of eternity. The cry of their spiritual destitution is hourly reaching to Heaven. And with whom rests the responsibility of suffering this mournful cry to ascend in vain? Will it not rest, with an awful weight of obligation, on those who, having the means, want the disposition to come forward to relieve the wants of perishing thousands ?"

CHURCH MATTERS.

CHURCH-RATES.

It was only in the number before last that it was found necessary to repeat the observation, that this Magazine had never been made a party or political engine. Acts have been spoken of as they seemed to deserve, and as little as might be said of those who did them. In fact, every reasonable churchman, whatever his politics may be, would wish to believe the actual government of the country to be well-at least, not to be ill-inclined to the church. But whatever men may wish, they cannot be blind to facts. Facts will force their way, in

despite of the most ardent wishes; and, at present, the facts of the last month must have forced the belief on most men, that the government, if not the determined foe, is anything but the friend of the church-that, to say the least, it is willing to sacrifice the church to its own convenience that it has decidedly taken the dissenters, as a party, to its bosom, and that it has as decidedly thrown off the church. Its conduct as to church-rates establishes that point beyond all question. It will be remembered that Lord John Russell, in one or more speeches, delivered last year, distinctly stated his firm and fixed opinion, that the maintenance of public worship must ever be a national charge; that if church-rates were done away with, as inconvenient in form, another fund must be provided, which must on no account come from church property, but from the property of the nation.

Such was the resolution of the government eight months ago. Now it has totally changed its opinions, gone round to the very opposite end of the compass, and exactly done that which it denounced as unjust and wrong. What can be the history of all this? Now that a strong exhibition of feeling has taken place on the subject, and destroyed the government plan, men will hardly believe that it existed. But yet there can be little doubt that the history was, that the government having a full conviction that they must go out, for a time, at least, wished to go out on a question on which they could raise a cry. Not having an idea that there is any strong attachment to the church existing in the people, (as they implicitly believe all the tales of their friends the dissenters,) and knowing that the dissenters have strength in great towns, they thought that a cry might be raised on this subject at the election which would follow their retreat from office, and that by the everlasting repetition of "Religious Liberty," and "Rights of Conscience," &c., &c., they might become more popular, and gain some strength. The result has proved the fallacy of their calculations, and they now know that they overshot their mark, inasmuch as they could get a majority of only twenty-three, and those actually twenty-three Irish papists,-in a House of Commons, too, where, besides ultraRadicals, who hate an establishment on political grounds, they have a certain quantity of dissenters with them. They must, indeed, now bitterly grieve that they tried this unwise experiment, If, in the House of Commons, they could only get a majority by their Irish papists,—if the majority, at least, of English members of all kinds, bating dissenters, infidels, and ultra-Radicals, were against them, they well know how it must be in the country itself. They know it, indeed, now, not only by inference, but by fact. The instant the bishops spoke, the country was up. In two or three days, the large towns, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, &c., had meetings of the most gratifying kind, alike from the great influence and the numbers of those who attended; and petitions have poured in from every part of the country, numerous almost beyond example, and signed by enormous numbers of persons. Since the fatal Emancipation measure, nothing seems to have called forth so much union of feeling as this government attempt to deprive the established church of its rights, and the country, in fact, of an established church.

If the view here taken has any truth in it, the Bill, evil and monstrous as it is in itself, is hardly so much calculated to excite indignation as the plan of ministerial operation. If it be true that the plan was to raise a cry on this point, or, in other words, to let popular fury (as it was hoped) be directed, through an election, against the church, (one of the ancient institutions of the country, to say no more, which every government is bound and professes to uphold) what is one to say of statesmen who would be guilty of such a breach of every statesmanlike principle, just to strengthen their own hands? And even, short of this, if they only hoped to curry favour with the dissenters, believing that the lords would reject the measure, is this conduct worthy of statesmen ?—is it not conduct calculated to excite the strongest feeling of indignation against them?

On the measure itself, little need be said, for its injustice and dishonesty have been exposed over and over again. But one remark ought to be made. Many persons had thought of having recourse to the church leases for church purposes; but as soon as the subject was examined, there started this plain difficulty. The lessees have certain rights for a certain number of years. There are, therefore, only two things to do. You must either wait till this number of years is over, or you must buy their rights. Now, in the case of an individual who wishes to provide for his family, he may resolve to wait, and may reduce his expenses, and live sparingly, till the leases fall, when his fortune may become enor mous. But when you want the income at once, (as, for instance, to increase small livings,) this cannot be. And if you take the other alternative, i. e., buying the lessees' rights, you have such a fearful sum to pay that almost all the expected profits are gone. This is a short and clear statement why church leases cannot be used to any advantage for church purposes. All this, it seems, had been discussed in the commission, and the plan set aside as a plan not likely to do any good to that body to which the property belonged-not capable, that is, of producing any profit. But that seemed no reason to the ministry, which had, then and there, and on that ground, rejected it, from bringing it forward as an excellent plan for benefiting a body to which the property did not belong. When one looks at this simple fact, is it creditable that the ministry thought the scheme a good one? Did they thèn not hope to carry it? Or if they did hope to carry it, was it by bribing lessees so high, at the expense of the church, that they really thought that the honesty of M.P. lessees would be overcome? If so, they must have known that it would prove a mere cheat by way of providing means for repairing the churches; and that the churches must have either gone without repair, or the charge be borne, at last, by the public purse, in which latter case, while the government flattered the bad passions of the dissenters to-day, they would have deceived them to-morrow. The matter, if looked at as the act of thinking men, provident for the future, is quite unintelligible. What one apprehends to be the right conclusion is, either that, as was said before, the government hoped to raise a successful cry on the question, or that, if they carried it, and thus got favour with the dissenters and radicals for to-day, they were quite reckless what happened to the church to-morrow.