business of the meeting was transacted in the chapel, Mr. James Wilkinson in the chair. Reports were then given of the Societies connected with the Association, viz. Newchurch, Rawtenstall, Rochdale, Padiham, and Todmorden. Mr. Ashworth spoke at some length favourably of the congregation at Newchurch, its regularity, &c., and congratulated the meeting, for the first time of assembling at Rawtenstall, on the present occasion, when he had the satisfaction to hear from Mr. Ingham, (the old minister there,) that to him (Mr, Ashworth) they owed their present views, as his separation from the Methodists at Newchurch, and the publication of his opinions, had led. Mr. Ingham to a further examination, of the Scriptures, from which he had derived so much consolation, that he could now repose in his God as a God of mercy and a God of love.

Mr. Taylor, of Rochdale, after reporting the state of the society there, which he regretted was not altogether so regular as that at Newchurch, dwelt much on the institution of the Lord's Supper as an imperative duty, which ought to be attended to, particularly as it would shew who were the real friends of our faith. But that which elicited the liveliest interest was the flourishing state of the Unitarian cause at Padiham, as given by Mr. Robinson of that place. He represented the congregation as regular and encouraging under the labours and preaching of three home-made preachers, himself, Mr. James Pollard, and Mr. Stephenson; he said, if a strange preacher came to them, (and he wished to God they had more,) they had then overcrowded congregations. He felt much also for the people behind the mountains, as he termed them, meaning a place north of Padiham, called Downham, where Unitarianism has been preached and embraced by a few, who are desirous it should spread and be occasionally preached amongst them; labourers are wanted in the vineyard. The Sunday-school at Padiham was very promising; married men who were members of the society were condescending to become scholars, learning to read and write, and the number of children wanting instruction were double to the pecuniary means they had within themselves. Mr. Robinson could never forget the late kind Mrs. Hughes, of Bristol, and he wished to record the gratitude of this meeting to her for having aided in the support of most of the Societies connected with the Association.

"Fresh as the leaf her name shall live,
Her works were heavenly fruit.”

After the nomination of the preachers, the Rev. W. Tate, of Chorley, and the Rev. B. R. Davis, of Chowbent, for the next Association, which will be held at Newchurch, on Thursday, in Whitsun-week, the meeting broke up for tea, and met again in the chapel in the evening, when Mr. Ragland, of Hindley,

delivered a sermon from Matt. x. 9, 10. Mr. Ragland preached the following Sunday three times, twice at Newchurch and once at Rawtenstall, to crowded congregations, who were highly pleased, expressing a desire to hear him oftener.

A.

NORTH-EASTERN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.

THIS Association held its Annual Meeting at Lutton, Lincolnshire, the 11th and 12th of June. The service, on the Wednesday evening, was conducted by the Rev. G. Harris, of Glasgow, to a pretty numerous congregation. On the morning of Thursday, the Rev. Mr. Lee, of Boston, prayed and read the Scriptures; and in the evening, the Rev. Mr. Philp, of Lincoln; and the sermons were delivered by Mr. Harris. Nearly 120 of the members of the Association dined and supped together at Long Sutton, the town adjacent; Mr. Harris in the chair. Messrs. Wright, Selby, Philp, Scargill, Walker, and Lee, with others, addressed the meeting. On the Friday, a very numerous party was hospitably entertained at the residence of Mr. Hursthouse, of Tyd, and in the evening Mr. Harris preached in the barn. The congregations on Thursday and Friday were large and deeply attentive.

KENT AND SUSSEX UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.

THE Sixteenth Anniversary of this Association was held at Tenterden, on Wednesday, 25th June. The introductory services were taken by the Rev. E. Talbot, of Tenterden, and the Rev. W. Stevens, of Maidstone. The Rev. G. Harris, of Glasgow, delivered a discourse, from the words of Philip, John xiv. 8. After the service, John Brent, Esq., of Canterbury, was called to the Chair; and in their Report of proceedings, the Committee made reference to a project, which has engaged their attention for some time past, and which, under the management of the present Committee, will, in all probability, be brought into full operation, namely, to have a permanent Missionary of respectable talents and acquirements, whose labours shall be devoted exclusively to the three counties of Kent, Sussex and Hampshire. After the business of the Society had been transacted, the friends of the Institution retired to the Wool-Pack Inn to dinner; the Rev. G. Harris in the Chair. The company amounted to 145; about fifty others entered the room after the dinner. The Society will meet the next year at Northiam.

EASTERN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.

THE anniversary was kept on Wednesday and Thursday, the 2nd and 3rd of July, at Yarmouth. On Wednesday evening the Rev. H. Bowles, Jun. introduced the service, and the Rev. W. J. Fox delivered the discourse-the subject, The Lord's Prayer. On Thursday morning the service was introduced by the Rev. Mr. Melville, of Ipswich-the sermon was preached by the Rev. W. T. Bakewell, of Norwich-on the Misrepresentations of Unitarianism, from 2 Pet. ii. 2. At the meeting for business, Mr. Errington, of Yarmouth, was in the chair, and the Report, which is to be printed, was read by Mr. R. Alger, the Secretary. More than forty of the friends of the society dined together, Mr. Edward Taylor in the chair.

WESTERN UNITARIAN SOCIETY.

THIS Society held its Annual Meeting at Yeovil, in Somersetshire, on the 16th July. The Rev. W. Turner, Jun., commenced the morning's devotion; the Rev. T. Davis, of Evesham, gave the prayer before the sermon, and a discourse was delivered by the Rev. H. Hutton, of Birmingham, from the words, "If any man trust that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's." At the meeting for business, Mr. Baker, of Ilminster, was called to the Chair. The Minutes of the Committee were read by Mr. Fry, of Bristol, the Secretary. Mr. Hutton was unanimously requested to publish his sermon. A public dinner was held in the afternoon, Isaac Davy, Esq., of Crediton, Chairman. Various sentiments were given and spoken to, by Messrs. Davy, Turner, Davis, Hutton, Dr. Carpenter, Fry and Harris; and a vote of thanks to William Smith, Esq., M. P., for his steady and undeviating advocacy of the principles of Civil and Religious Freedom, was unanimously adopted. In the evening, the devotional service was conducted by Mr. Harris, of Glasgow ; and a most impressive sermon, on glorifying God through Christ Jesus, was preached by the Rev. Dr. Carpenter, of Bristol. There were eighteen ministers present. On Thursday evening, a religious service was held in the chapel at Yeovil, Messrs. S Martin, of Trowbridge, and H. Hutton, taking the first part, and the sermon being preached by Mr. Harris.

OPENING OF THE NEW UNITARIAN CHAPEL AT HAMPSTEAD.

ON Sunday morning, August 3, 1828, the new chapel at Hampstead, which has been erected on the site of the old meeting-house, was opened for divine worship by the Rev. J. Kenrick, A. M., of York, who delivered on the occasion an admirable and impressive discourse from John iv. 24. The preacher in the most able and lucid manner explained the

nature of true Christian worship, exploding and deprecating as he proceeded every species of idolatry, but seemed to regret that the epithet idolatrous should ever have been employed in Christian controvery. The preacher concluded with some excellent remarks on Nonconformity, which were peculiarly appropriate to the occasion and the circumstances of the times. The service, on the whole, was delightful and instructive, and the chapel was comfortably filled from the pulpit to the door. Upwards of twenty friends from London were present, the greater part of whom were much disappointed at there being no evening service.

R. Y.

APPLICATION IN BEHALF OF THE UNITARIAN SOCIETY AT PADIHAM, LANCASHIRE.

THE incumbrance which this application is designed to remove, consists of a ground-rent on the chapel of £10 per annum. It is proposed to purchase this rent at seventeen year's purchase, and the sum which is in consequence required is £170. The circumstances of the people are such as to render the payment of their rent, in addition to other expenses necessarily incurred in conducting public worship, a great and almost insupportable burthen. The congregation, with one or two exceptions, consists of calico-weavers, and their wages are the lowest of all the workmen in the manufacturing districts. A single man cannot, upon an average, earn more than five shillings per week, and a man and wife and five children not more than fifteen shillings. It is little, every one will see, that people with such means have to spare. Yet the society supports a Sunday-school of two hundred and forty children, and in other respects is in a highly flourishing state. The regular attendants on public worship are above a hundred, and on any special occasion four and even five hundred persons assemble. The chapel at Padiham is situated in a neighbourhood comprising a large population; among whom a spirit of inquiry has spread extensively, and where Unitarian Christianity has been preached with much promise and success. (For further particulars see Christian Re

former, May, 1828.)

It is with confidence, therefore, that from our personal knowledge of the circumstances of the case, we strongly recommend it to the liberality of opulent individuals and the Fellowship Funds.

JOHN R. BEARD, Minister, Salford, Manchester.
GEORGE BUCKLAND, Minister, Dob Lane, near
Manchester.

Manchester, August 9, 1828.

It is not intended to apply through any other channel on behalf of this Society. Donations will be received by Mr. Horwood, at the Unitarian Association Office; Rev. R. Scott, Portsmouth; Rev. J. G. Robberds, Manchester; and Rev. J. Kentish, Birmingham.

RAMMOHUN ROY'S ANGLO-HINDOO SCHOOL.

[From the Asiatic Journal.]

A PUBLIC examination of RAMMOHUN Roy's Anglo-Hindoo school took place, January 7, at the Hurkaru public rooms, when we had a proof of the strong interest felt in native improvement, afforded by the presence and continued attention to the proceedings of several of the principal merchants and gentlemen of Calcutta, besides natives. The number of boys examined appeared to be about fifty, but the number whose names are in the school register is between seventy and eighty. This institution is principally supported at the expense of Rammohun Roy, with the aid of a few philanthropic individuals both among his own countrymen and Europeans, who are friendly to the communication of liberal education to the natives of this country; and it must have afforded a very high degree of pleasure to that distinguished individual, as well as to those who have aided him in his benevolent exertions, to observe the progress which several of the pupils have made in their studies. To the intelligent observer it must also have been an additional source of gratification to notice among the scholars several of the children of the native gentlemen who contribute to the support of the school, in no respect distinguished from those who receive their education gratuitously.

Besides three classes that were examined in reading, spelling, grammar, and translation; the first, or most advanced class, was also examined in Joyce's Scientific Dialogues on Mechanics and Astronomy, in the first sixteen propositions of the First Book of Euclid, and in translating into Bengallee a passage of Voltaire's History of Charles XII. of Sweden, in all of which they acquitted themselves apparently very much to the satisfaction of the auditors. Although this class appears to have made very little progress in mathematics, yet they were perfect masters of all that they professed to know; and one boy in particular, Bissonauth Mitter, was distinguished for the great facility with which he demonstrated the propositions assigned to him, and the clear apprehension he had formed of their import, and of the corollaries deducible from them.

One of the greatest obstacles, perhaps, to the thorough education of the natives in general knowledge, is the want of a sufficient check to secure their constant and regular attendance; although, reasoning from general principles alone, we should be inclined to suspect that this evil is attributable, in a certain extent at least, to some defect in the system of education adopted, or in the internal economy of the school. One instance has been mentioned to us of a boy, who one day came to school and coolly took his place among the rest of the scholars after three years' absence!

Beng. Hurk., January 10, 1828.