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part, the churches and chapels which may be built or acquired by means of this fund, out of such property belonging to the prebendal stalls of St. Paul's Cathedral as may become available to such purposes; and, where circumstances may admit, to provide sites.

11. That the Rev. W. Dodsworth be requested to accept the office of Secretary. 12. That Mr. John Holford be appointed Assistant Secretary and Collector. 13. Than an annual report of the amount of subscriptions received, and of the appropriation of the fund, be made to the contributors.

SUBSCRIPTIONS.

Note. Subscriptions of 100l. and upwards may be paid in four equal annual instalments.

Subscribers are respectfully informed, that the first instalments should be paid on or before Michaelmas next.

Subscriptions will be received by the Lord Bishop of London; by the Members of the Committee; the Secretary; and by the following bankers:-Messrs. Williams, Deacons, and Co., Birchin-lane; Messrs. Drummond, 49, Charingcross; Messrs. Hoare, 37, Fleet-street; Messrs. Smith, Payne, and Smiths, 1, Lombard-street; Messrs. Jones, Loyd, and Co., Lothbury; Messrs. Hankey, 7, Fenchurch-street; Messrs. Snow and Co., 217, Strand; Messrs. Coutts and Co., 59, Strand; Messrs. Herries, Farquhar, and Co., 16, St. James's-street; Messrs. Sir Claude Scott, Bart., and Co., 1, Cavendish-square; and also by the following booksellers :-Messrs. Rivington, St. Paul's Church-yard, and Waterloo-place; Messrs. Hatchard and Son, Picadilly; Messrs. Nisbet and Co., 21, Berners-street, Oxford-street; and Messrs. L. and G. Seeley, Fleet-street.

All communications are to be addressed to the Rev. Wm. Dodsworth, 3, Great Dean's yard, Westminster.

SALISBURY CHURCH UNION SOCIETY. This excellent Society, established by the present learned Bishop Burgess, held its anniversary meeting on the 9th ult. The Cathedral pulpit was occupied on that occasion by the Ven. the Archdeacon of Berks, who, from Rom. xv. 27, very ably and feelingly advocated the objects and interests of the Society. The Sermon, we understand, is about to be published, and therefore hope that the Society will print a sufficient number of copies to supply the public at large, as well as its own members. The truly christian principles and objects of the institution need only to be known in order to be duly appreciated, and generally encouraged and supported; and assuredly there is no better method of effecting this than by publishing the anniversary discourses of its talented advocates.

Not long since, we stated that this charity, under the fostering care of its venerated originator and patron, was working great and lasting good in the diocese, giving to the poor and time-worn shepherd of Christ's flock the bread of sustenance, and to the flock itself (where suffering from duties inadequately performed) the comforts and advantages of efficient pastoral superintendence. And we may now add another beneficent object of the institution, viz.-contributing, to the extent of its meaus, towards the maintenance of superannuated parish clerks, a class of humble, but deserving men, for whose support, under the helplessness of age and infirmity, there is no adequate provision.

As vouchers for these statements, we point attention to the objects of the Society's bounty on the 9th inst., all of whom were exclusively relieved out of the interest fund; the Society investing the whole of its annual subscriptions and benefactions in government securities, and expending alone the interest thence accruing.

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To the perpetual curate of a village, containing upwards of 500 souls, who performs two services on the Sabbath, has no private property, a wife and two children dependent on him, and the whole of whose income from his curacy has hitherto been only 301., the Committee granted him 301.

To a sick, infirm, and aged Clergyman, long incapable of duty (whose income does not exceed 651.) who has been received, by this Society, from the books of the Widows' and Orphans' Charity of Wilts, in order that the funds of the latter institution might be exclusively devoted to the poor widows and orphans, the Committee granted 221.

Towards the maintenance of a poor, insane Clergyman, under the like circumstance, and with the same view, the Committee granted 221,

To the superannuated clerk of Hill Deverill, who had officiated there for half a century, and is now eighty-three years of age, and incapable of duty, 57.

To the aged and infirm clerk of Sutton Benger, who had officiated there for forty years, and withdrawn from his duties from incapacity, 21.

The Secretary, in the name of the Treasurer, reported the amount of the stock to be 26001. 3 per cent. Consols; disposable funds (inclusive of a small balance of preceding year) 817. 13s. 11d., of which the Committee appropriated, as above, 811. The benefactions received in the year 1835 amounted to 671. 158.; the annual subscriptions, according to the printed list, 2071. 3s. Many new subscribers were announced by the Secretary; and under the hope of a future augmentation of their disposable funds, the Committee added to their Rules the following important clause :

"That this Society will afford assistance (as soon as its funds will permit) towards the building, purchasing, improving, or otherwise rendering habitable, glebe-houses, so as to facilitate the residence of officiating ministers within the precincts of their respective parishes."

The foregoing grants and resolutions were passed at the Palace, whither the Committee withdrew, after Divine service, for the transaction of the affairs of the institution. There were present, the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Sarum, Patron; the Very Rev. the Dean of Sarum, President; the Ven. Archdeacon Berens, the Rev. C. Grove, R.D., Rev. F. Lear, R.D., Rev. H. W. Majendie, R.D. Vice-presidents; the Rev. W. Dansey, R.D. Secretary; the Rev. W. D. Thring, R.D., Rev. G. P. Buxton, R.D., Rev. H. J. Barton, R.D., Rev. R. B. Fisher, R.D., Rev. G. J. Majendie, R.D., Rev. G. P. Lowther, R.D., Rev. H. Wilson, R.D. Rev. C. G. Cotes, R.D., Rev. G. Hulme, R.D., and Rev. T. Loveday, R.D.

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CHAPELS AT BROMSGROVE.-The Committee appointed to superintend the erec tion of Chapels of Ease at Bromsgrove, have determined that two shall be built, and arrangements are making for erecting the first adjoining the village "of Catshill.

OFFA, KING OF THE MERCIANS.-A curious piece of antiquity has lately been discovered in the churchyard of Hemel Hempstead In digging a vault for a young lady of the name of Warren, the sexton, when he had excavated the earth about four feet below the surface of the ground, struck his spade against something solid, which, upon inspection, he found to be a large wrought stone, which proved to be the lid of a coffin, and under it the coffin entire, which was afterwards taken up in perfect condition; but the bones contained therein, on being exposed to the air, crumbled to dust. On the lid of the coffin is an inscription, partly effaced by time, yet still sufficiently legible to prove it contained the ashes of the celebrated Offa, king of the Mercians, who rebuilt the Abbey of St. Alban's, and died in the eighth century. The coffin is very curiously carved, and altogether unique of the kind. The church was built in the seventh century.

- ESTABLISHED CHURCH BILL.-The Established Church Bill and the Tithes' Commutation Bill have received the Royal Asseut. The original provisions of the Tithe Bill have been so altered and amended, and re-amended, that it may be necessary to recapitulate its principal enactments, as they at present stand. Parochial meetings may be called, at which the owners of two-thirds in value may agree on the sum to be paid to the tithe-owner, and such agreement will be binding on the whole parish; this agreement is to bear date on the day the first signature is attached to it, and must set forth in a schedule all the lands in the parish subject to tithes.

Disputes as to liability or boundaries may be referred to arbitration; and agreements for commutation pending at the time of the passing of the Act are to be valid.

The agreements must be confirmed by the Commissioners; and land to a certain extent and in certain cases may be given as an equivalent for tithes. Valuers may be appointed to apportion the rent-charge.'

If a voluntary agreement be not come to in a parish before the 1st of October, 1837, the Commissioners may proceed to ascertain the value of the tithes, with a view of bringing the Act into operation, calculating the value of the tithes on an average of the last seven years.

In extreme cases the Commissioners are to have power to diminish or increase the sum to be taken by a sum amounting to not more than one-fifth part of the average value;" and where any modus, &c. shall have been made by competent authority, they are to act on the principle of such decision.

The rent-charge is to be apportioned and regulated according to the average value of wheat, barley, and oats and it is to be liable to rates in like manner as the tithes commuted for such rent charge have heretofore been"—and the expenses of awards are to be borne by the landowners or titheowners, as the Commissioners may direct.

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Where a tenant dissents from the payment of the rent-charge, the landlord is to stand in the place of the titheowner; but where the tenant does pay, if he holds his land by lease or agreement made subsequently to the commutation, he may deduct it from his landlord's rent.

When the rent-charge, which is to be payable half-yearly, has been in arrear twenty-one days, it may be distrained for.

NAMES FOR JEWs.-A curious piece of intelligence is contained in the German papers. It is a decree directing that Jews are no longer to be allowed to use the baptismal names of Christians as their first names. The ground alleged is, that the police desire to have further means of surveillance over the Jews. Nothing is more absurd. We use as baptismal names every Jewish name from Abraham to Malachi; are they to be forbidden to the Jews themselves?

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.-During the past year, fourteen additional Missionaries have been sent out. This Society has now seventy ordained Clergymen labouring amongst the heathen.

The CHESTER DIOCESAN CHURCH BUILDING SOCIETY have just printed their Report for the present year, and from that document, it appears that there is in

Bolton Parish a population of 63,000, and church accommodation for 7,835: Bury

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49,000,

98,000,

45,000,

67,000,

16,000,

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5,200

11,860

6,900

7,440

1,000

Nothing can more clearly exhibit the enormous disproportion between the spiritual wants of the community and the provision made for supplying them. The population of Lancashire and Cheshire has increased, in about thirty years, from 804,000 to 1,647,000, and every year it is increasing in the same ratio; it is necessary, therefore, that some steps should be taken to provide this immense number with religious instruction. The Manchester Church Building Society, established last year, raised in two months the sum of 18,0007.; and at Glasgow above 22,000l. was raised in the course of the year. The Chester Diocesan Society has raised, chiefly in Liverpool and Chester, about 20,0001. in addition to separate subscriptions for the building of six new Churches.

GREAT MEETING AT LIVERPOOL OF THE FRIENDS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. One of the most numerous meetings that ever took place in Liverpool has been held at the Amphitheatre in that town. It was called in consequence of the new (Radical) Corporation having resolved to introduce into the Corporation schools the system of Irish scriptural education. The notice for convening the meeting was couched in the following terms :-"We, the undersigned Clergy of the parish and municipal borough of Liverpool, impressed with the necessity of making the authorized version of the Bible the basis of religious education, and deeply regretting that we are compelled to withhold our cooperation from the Corporation schools by regulations which, in our apprehension, will virtually exclude the Scriptures from practical use, and the Clergy from effective superintendence there, earnestly call upon all persons who are members or friends of the Established Church, and advocates for the fundamental principle of Protestantism, 'the free use of the unmutilated Word of God,' to assist us in building and supporting schools, where that Word may be freely taught, under the

direction and superintendence of the Clergy." Nothing could exceed the excitement and disgust that this act of the Liverpool Radicals has roused: the Amphitheatre (calculated to hold 8000 persons,) was filled in every part, and the ladies, of whom there were a great many present, were accommodated in the boxes and pit, and on seats which were raised on the stage for the occasion. There were about seventy clergymen, besides a considerable number of gentlemen of Liverpool and its neighbourhood, on the stage, many of whom came from a considerable distance to attend the meeting. The subscription for the new schools in connexion with the Church of England is upwards of 80002.

DEANS AND CHAPTERS.

TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

》4 MY LORD, There are a few observations upon the conduct of the Deans and Chapters running about the world, upon which I must make some commentaries. Our conduct is invidiously contrasted with that of the Bishops, who are represented as having made great sacrifices for the good of the Church, while we are making none at all, and are looking only to our own advantage; but this is assuming the whole point in dispute. We deny that the sacrifice exacted from us is of the smallest utility to the Church; we maintain that the patronage of Deans and Chapters has been as fairly and as honestly given away as that of Bishops, and that to take it away from one and to give it to the other is to make a needless change, and to fix an undeserved stigma, and to confer no benefit whatever upon the public.

The Bishops give up the patronage of Prebends, which are hereafter to be destroyed, the income of which is wanted to make a fund for the endowment of smaller livings; but the preferment you take from our patronage is not to be sold, it is always to endure; the only question is, who is to give it away? If we submit to the meditated injustice, we are utterly unable to see what benefit would be conferred on the Church.

But I wish this sacrifice on the part of the Bishops were a little more explained. Was it voluntary or was it involuntary? If it was a sacrifice, it was voluntary; their consent was asked, and they did not refuse. Before patronage is taken away, then, it seems consent of the patron is necessary, and if necessary in one ecclesiastical patron, it is so in all. Whence comes it then (may I ask) that the consent of Deans and Chapters was not only not asked, but of five or six communications from different Chapters why were none replied to, and the receipt of only one communication acknowledged?

But, perhaps, the consent of the Deans and Chapters was not required. Where, then, is the merit and the sacrifice, if the Bishops had no power of refusing? But they have not complained-and why ?-because more has been given to them of other persons' patronage than they have lost of their own; so that the alternative is this, either you have thought it but just to ask leave of the Bishops before you took away their patronage, and have not extended the same justice to us, or the patriotic conduct of the Bishops is this, that they have given up what they could not keep, and do not complain, because they gain more by the wrong done to us than they lose by the wrong done to themselves; and our selfishness consists in not quietly submitting to an injury, which involves a consure, and does not advance, in the minutest step, the progress of Church Reform.

As to the question of vested interest in patronage, I must, with great deference to you, maintain that the right of an ecclesiastical person to his patronage during his life, is quite as strong as that which any lay patron can possess. Does it belong more to a lay patron because he abuses (i. e. sells) it? and a lay patron cannot even do this in an entailed estate. I can see no reasoning whatever which applies to the one which does not apply to the other.

The patronage of livings has not crept in as an abuse (like the sale of places). It has no connexion with the public taxes-it is a gift to the patron of the most remote antiquity, protected up to this period by law; from the hope of enjoying which I took my preferment, and laid out my plan of life, and to take this right from me during my life, and to respect it in the laity, has, as far as I can see, no other meaning than this, that you know the laity would not let you do it, and you know we cannot hinder you from doing it.

It is said of us, that we do not petition in very "measured terms;" but when men find that they are all of a sudden broken to pieces under the grave forms of law, and

VOL. XVIII. NO. IX.

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their possessions granted to the judges who have condemned them, a little excess in language may be pardoned. Those who are despoiled in no measured degree are apt to complain in no "measured terms." This luxury of complaint is in general conceded to the sufferer. The patience of the good Samaritan was probably allowed, after his property was secured, to complain in terms somewhat less courteous than the usages of polished society could justify.

You know very well, my dear Lord, that in criticising parts of your Church Reform, I mean nothing unkind or unfriendly to you personally. I have known you well for thirty years, and I do not believe that in this country, full of good men, there is one more honest, upright, and intrepid than yourself. SYDNEY SMITH.

REV. J. ALLEN.---The Right Rev. Joseph Allen, D.D. late Bishop of Bristol, has been confirmed at Bow Church as Bishop of Ely.

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