Of the Society's two series of “Tracts for the Million," comprising in all seventeen, the number disposed of is 80,000. This gives to each an average circulation of about 4,700.

The average circulation of the Magazine articles is 101,500.

Let the Eclectic, then, the Patriot, the Nonconformist, the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, and the CHRISTIAN'S PENNY MAGAZINE be combined, and the united action of them all in diffusing the doctrine in question over the mighty surface of British mind be estimated, and it will perhaps be within the truth to say that the efficiency of that united action is greater by at least ten thousand-fold than the publication department of the Association, notwithstanding the ability and energy with which it has been conducted. Seeming and real power are very different things.

An Executive Committee of fifty first-rate men; a Council of five hundred, and a Constituency of many thousands; multitudinous Triennial Conventions, with high-wrought Reports and animated discussions; the superadded passion, enthusiasm, and thunder of the closing public assembly, form to the unreflecting a grand, an imposing spectacle; but these are not the power that is to shake the world. The flags and pennons which wave and flutter aloft dazzle the rustic spectator, but the thunder which protects the shores of Albion is below. The several Editors, each at the head of his staff, and all unseen, are the chief source of the real, permanent, and allpervading power by which the minds alike of the mighty and of the masses are to be quickened, enlightened, animated, and conducted to victory. counsel, therefore, is,-Use all possible means to augment the efficiency and promote the extension of your Periodical Literature.

Our

The Report next speaks to the subject of Lectures and Public Meetings, on which, we think, the Society ought to expend its main strength, as the importance of these can scarcely be over-estimated.

The Committee, of course, have not restricted their operations to the press. The delivery of lectures and the holding of public meetingsmeans of indoctrinating the public to which the people of this country are thoroughly habituated -have been resorted to as freely as the resources of the Association would allow. The Committee were able, last year, to engage the services of a stated lecturer, and were sufficiently fortunate to find in Mr. John Kingsley, B.A., of Trinity College, Dublin, a gentleman highly qualified for this important post. Until then, and even

After this statement the Treasurer said, "You will perceive from this that the Anti-State-Church Association is in a condition of increased pecuniary prosperity-prosperity far beyond that which has been attained by any other organization which has ever been established in this country in reference to Dissenting principles. The rock on which so many similar institutions has split has been a want of funds. As regards our own Association, there has been a steady increase in that respect, even without our putting forth any special effort.”

The following weighty passages made part of the appropriate close of a most masterly Report, which was rapturously cheered by the assembly:

Gentlemen, the Executive Committee invite your solemn consideration to the fact, that Church pretensions are becoming every day more preposterous; Church power every day more formidable in the empire. Cabinet ministers, senators, and even judges, designedly or from the unconscious bias of prejudice, are giving a practical, institutional, and legal interpretation to the demands of State ecclesiasticism. would seem to be a determination amongst the ruling classes to link all our secular interests, if so it may be, with clerical ascendancy. The

There

spirit of the Establishment is gradually permeating and assimilating all the means of intercourse and impression between mind and mind. It is stealthily creeping into our private seminaries. It is obtaining sway in our schools for the labouring poor. It claims legal exemption from the comments of a free Press. It gives its tone to much of our literature. It exercises a powerful influence over our organs of political opinion. There is nothing too high for it, nothing too low. It overlooks the throne itself, and it stands a sentinel of exclusion at the door of our workhouses. It has not only revived assumptions which, a century back, were thought to be exploded, but it has resuscitated many of those terms of contempt which it was wont, in the days of Laud, to heap upon Nonconformity. This intense activity, this universal presence, this untiring, unremitting persistency, worthy of a nobler cause, met by no correspondent effort on the part of Dissenters, are strangely telling upon the public mind. It is vain to conceal from ourselves what the smallest observation will suffice to make evident, that in England the influence of the State Church "has increased, is increasing, and must," if we would save the civil and religious freedom of our country, "be diminished."

But, gentlemen, this is not, by any means, the worst feature of the case. Could we but have had representatives from all the Colonial possessions of Great Britain, we should have learned that, actively as the system of Establishments is being extended at home, it is pushed on with more oppressive vigour abroad. The multiplication of Colonial bishops, sent out to their newly-created sees at the public expense, and, in some instances, supported, in part, from the Consolidated Fund, evinces the purpose of Government to sow the seeds of that system in every spot of God's earth subject to British control. Scarcely a newspaper reaches us from any one of these distant possessions, these cradles of new-born empires, which does not present illustrations of the grasping and domineering character of the Church of England as by law established. In one it is fearfully augmenting burdens long complained of as too heavy. In another, in defiance of previous stipulation, it is obtruding upon reluctant settlers the support of every form of religious teaching. The evil which centuries back entwined itself with our civil institutions, and which the lapse of time has made it difficult to separate from them,i} thus deliberately, and in our presence, transplanted to other climes, to develop itself in huge forms, and to obstruct vital Christianity in every part of the globe.

To these grave, and, in some aspects, melancholy facts, the Executive Committee have thought it fitting to point your notice, with a view of deepening your sense of obligation to bestir yourselves for the emancipation of Divine truth, and promptly, heartily, unanimously, to throw your energies into an Association which aims, by moral agency, to counteract and finally abolish a system bearing so abundantly its noxious fruits. The contest which has been begun cannot, must not, be given over. The Vows to which we are pledged must, at all hazards, be redeemed. We have put our hand to the plough, and for us there must be no looking back. The enterprise before us, Gentle

men, is unquestionably an arduous one, but the encouragements which cheer us on to the prosecution of it are neither few nor small.

The history of the first three years of this Society does honour to those able and devoted men who have taken the lead in its affairs. The result has exceeded all reasonable expectation, and is unlike everything of the kind hitherto known among us. Prejudice is rapidly passing away, and confidence extending. The accessions have been numerous. The delegation from Manchester was powerful; the ministers of Leeds have come forward in a body. On opening the proceedings, Dr. Price, the Treasurer, referring to Yorkshire, said, "I may read an extract from a letter received from Dr. Hamilton, with whom some correspondence has arisen, as well as with other ministers. He states, in reply to a letter of mine,

"I am glad to be authorized hereby to send in the adhesion of myself, the Rev. John Ely, the Rev. Thomas Scales, and the Rev. William Hudswell, all Independent ministers of our town, to the Anti-State-Church Association. We do it unequivocally as to the avowed principle and operation. We unanimously feel that now we must do nothing to embarrass, nothing to divide. We come with full-heartedness among you.'

(Cheers.) I also received a note on Monday last from Mr. Edward Baines, Jun., of Leeds. (Cheers.) It is to the following effect:

"Leeds, May 1, 1847.

"MY DEAR DOCTOR,-It is my wish to become a member of the Anti-State-Church Association, and I shall be obliged to you to cause my name to be enrolled.

"Never in modern times have the interests of Nonconformists been so seriously menaced as at present; and never, therefore, was it so necessary to make their noble and scriptural principles understood, to proclaim them fearlessly, and to act upon them consistently.

"I had hoped to be with you at the Conference, but I now find that I shall be unable to be in town at least till the last day of your sitting." (Loud cheers.)

The Congregational Union of Scotland are most hearty in the cause, and sent as delegates three of their best men. The Rev. J. H. Hinton, Secretary of the Baptist Union, at first strongly adverse, has now come boldly and cordially forward; and to this valuable acquisition is to be added that of some of the most eminent men of the New Connexion and the Association Methodists. We may specify the Rev. J. Bakewell, Editor of the former, and the Rev. R. Eckett,

Editor and President of Conference among the latter. Nor was the Old Conference itself wholly unredeemed.

Mr. HIGGS, of Gloucester, (a Wesleyan,) said, There may be some good reasons why a Wesleyan should stand up to support the resolution proposed. I desire to say nothing of the reputation of those gentlemen who have put themselves forward as the representatives of the Wesleyans. I leave the Conference and Committees to defend themselves; my business is to discharge an important mission, and that is, to represent not only the section of the Wesleyan church that sent me, but to speak the sentiments of an overwhelming majority of Wesleyans throughout the country. (Hear, hear.) The Committee of Privileges had quite a right to sit within doors, and make the lowest bow to Lord Ashley. (Laughter.) They had a right to depart from a former resolution; but they had no right to put it forth that they were the chosen representatives of that great body of people whose rights they were trampling under foot. (Cheers.) Talk of the Wesleyan Methodists coinciding with the Whig Government, and coinciding in plans for education, indeed! I should like to know where there is a people on the face of the earth who have had better opportunities of knowing the evils of an Established Church than the Wesleyans. They have been the pioneers of education in all the dark corners of the earth; they have gone forth where no one else would go, in the rural districts, and there they have had to contend, not so much with the ignorance of the people, as with the dominancy of the clergyman and the squire. (Cheers.) Is it reasonable to suppose, viewing the Wesleyans as a common sense people, that they must not have had their eyes open, and been equally as well prepared to stand up on behalf of this Association as Baptists and Independents? (Cheers.) I rise to support the resolution because I have been particularly requested by my constituency to state to the Conference that not only do they repudiate the opinions put forth by the Committee of Privileges with respect to Education, but they repudiate the notion sent current throughout the world, that Methodists are opposed to the separation of Church and State. (Hear, hear.) I believe that if it were possible that the Wesleyan Methodists could be gammoned into the belief that their piety was at stake, and that it was not a part and parcel of their duty to join the Anti-State-Church Association, you would acknowledge that you would lose a great source of strength. (Hear, hear.) I believe Wesleyan Methodism to be an essential element in that organization which you have put in operation, to bring about your desired ends, and if you only have a little patience, and take a proper method of getting at the opinions of the Wesleyan Methodists-not by the dark light which a Watchman's lantern may shed(laughter and loud cheers)—not within the closed doors, where, perhaps, the windows are darker than these, where a committee, self-elected, and irresponsible, so far as the people are concerned, assembles -you will find that there are channels through which these opinions will be expressed, and perhaps in my own person a little may ooze out on the present occasion. (Cheers.) Then it follows that it is an insult to the Wesleyan Methodists; it is a gross misrepresentation of

their sentiments and opinions; it is a deception to the Government; it is an improper source of discouragement to Independents, Baptists, and the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion; it is an unnecessary, improper, vexatious burden thrown on the shoulders of those aiding the freedom of education and religion, to suppose the Wesleyan Methodists are not one with you on this and other kindred subjects. I am quite willing that this statement should go forth. I am an insulated individual, and I am sure that I speak the sentiments of a very large and overwhelming majority of that part of the community with which I stand connected, and I think the A country at large, when I make this statement. gentleman of Gloucester, who spoke yesterday, said that only a small minority of the Dissenters there were in favour of the Anti-State-Church Association. I have no authority to say that such is the case with the Wesleyans; indeed, I should misrepresent them if I said that only a small minority were opposed to the separation of Church and State. (Cheers.) On a former occasion, when it was proposed to get up a petition, it was said to me, "What a pity it is that you cannot get the Methodists to join in that!" I replied, "How do you know that they will not come to the meeting to-night?" They were there, in the proportion of five to three, and I then said, "What a pity it is that the Independents and the Baptists do not come !" (Hear, and cheers.)

All things considered, it may with confidence be expected that the next Triennial Conference will be cheered and graced by the names of many honoured and much-loved men, who are one in heart and principle, although not incorporated in this great confederation for the welfare of England, and the good of mankind, by the liberation of the church of Christ from a worse than Egyptian bondage.

Such, then, is the history of the first stage of this great confederation. The three kindred projects which preceded it, throughout a space of eighteen years, "born in bitterness, and nurtured in convulsion," all expired at an early age, while this has survived the perils of infancy, and bids fair to reach a vigorous manhood. The value of this Association is not to be estimated by either its publications or its lectures. It is the visible embodiment of a portion of the true Nonconforming spirit of the empire. The Triennial Conferences are a representative concentration of that spirit—a process by which its gauge is taken, its vitality tested, its purity improved, and its power augmented; after which it is thrown back again upon the mass, diffusing through the whole, as from a thousand centres, its own improved qualities. Did the Society exist simply for the calling of Conferences, without either

publications or lectures, the institution would be one of incalculable importance; while its publications and lectures, of course, greatly enhance its value. By these, considered absolutely, we set great store; but we deem their power a thing of nought compared with that of the true

Dissenting Periodical Press. The great, the paramount duty, therefore, in our judgment, of the members of the Association throughout the nation is, to promote by all means the increased circulation of every branch of its own Periodical Literature.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. THE usual annual meeting of this Society took place at Exeter-hall, the large room of which was filled in every part. Among those present were the Bishops of Winchester, Chester, and Cashel; Lords Glenelg and Teignmouth; Sir R. H. Inglis, Sir T. D. Ackland, Sir C. E. Smith; the Bishop Elect of Australia; the Hon. and Rev. B. Noel, the Rev. Mr. Bickersteth, the Rev. Mr. Cunningham, Dr. Morison, Mr. J. Thornton, and Mr. W. A. Hankey. The chair was taken by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, who occupied it in the absence of the venerable president of the Society, who, from the state of his health, was unable himself to attend. The Secretary then read the Report, of which the following is an abstract:-"The entire receipts of the year amount to £117,440 9s. 3d., being an increase on the previous year of £16,134 14s. 3d., and nearly £6,000 more than in any previous year. The receipts for Bibles and Testaments during the year have amounted to £61,436 1s. 5d., being an increase over the preceding year of £5,459 10s. 8d. The total sum applicable to the general purposes of the Society is £56,004 78. 10d., including £30,851 11s. 11d., free contributions from Auxiliary Societies. The issues of the Society have amounted to 1,419,283 volumes: viz., from the depository at home, 1,109,224, and from the depôts abroad, 310,059; being 22,368 copies less than in the preceding year, but 473,223 more than in any former year. The total issues of the Society have been 19,741,770 volumes. The expenditure during the year has been £128,525 5s. 3d., being £26,749 78. more than the previous year, and, with one exception, the largest expenditure in any one year. The engagements of the Society exceed £48,000."-The Bishop of Winchester, in moving that the Report be adopted and printed, concluded by an eloquent eulogium on the memory of the late Mr. Gurney, of whom he felt that he could have said, without offence, "Tallis cum sis, utinam noster esses." (Cheers.)-Lord Glenelg seconded the resolution, which was supported by Sir C. E. Smith, and was agreed to by the meeting.-The Bishop of Cashel moved the second resolution, and adverted to the Government Scheme of Education, which he spoke of in laudatory terms, as rendering the reading of the Holy Scriptures indispensable.-The meeting was subsequently addressed by the Bishop elect of Melbourne, and several other speakers, and the proceedings of the day terminated shortly after three o'clock.

CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. THE forty-seventh annual meeting of the above Society, was held in Exeter-hall, where a crowded audience assembled. The Earl of Chichester was in the chair, surrounded by several prelates, clergymen, and influential gentlemen. The Report was read by the Rev. R. Davies and the Rev. Henry Venn. A considerable increase was announced in the receipts, the total amount of which reached £116,827., showing an increase of £14,369 over last year; but it should be mentioned, that, of the whole income, £10,429 arose from legacies, one large bequest of £7,321 having been made by the late John Scott, Esq. The present state of the Society's finances left it an ample working capital. The Report on the whole was very cheering. The one great difficulty experienced by the Society had been to obtain fresh recruits for the Missionary service; a circumstance which speaks volumes as to the spiritual character of the Establishment. Strange that, while the Home clergy are so numerous that many lack bread, foreign labour has no charm for them. From the first, this Society has derived its principal Missionaries from Germany. Resolutions were moved, seconded, or supported by the Bishop of Winchester, the Rev. Edward Bickersteth, Rev. Dr. Jeune, Right Rev. Dr. Perry, Sir Robert Inglis, M.P., Rev. J. S. M. Anderson, Rev. Mr. Tucker, Rev. G. Smith, and Rev. J. C. Miller.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN SAILORS'
SOCIETY.

THE Report commenced by adverting to the deaths of the President-Lord Mountsandford, one of the Vice-Presidents-Admiral Young, and the late Secretary-the Rev. C. J. Hyatt, jun., to whom it paid a high tribute of respect. In the port of London, the Society had secured the services of two valuable Welch preachers, who continued to pay weekly visits to the shipping belonging to the Principality, and conducted services in their vernacular tongue. One agent, the Rev. Carl von Bulow, had been engaged to visit foreign seamen. During the year he had visited 639 vessels of various nations, selling forty-four New Testaments, and seven Bibles, and distributing 4,345 tracts. The Tham(8 Missionaries had carried on their labours with great success. By their combined agencies in the port of London alone, 8,785 visits had been paid to vessels from almost every part of the world; 640 meetings had been held afloat, at which 11,474 sailors had attended; and 295

services had been conducted on shore. The attendance of sailors at the sailors' church had been encouraging; 6,740 visits had been paid to that sanctuary during the year by seamen out of an aggregate attendance of 17,262 individuals. The Directors regretted that they had not yet been able to obtain a suitable agent to visit the sailors' lodging-houses. Thirty additional loan libraries had been furnished to vessels bound to various parts of the world; and 48,000 tracts had been put in circulation in London alone. The following statement was made by the master of the Boys' Day-school: "In presenting my Annual Report of the Boys' school connected with your Society, under my tuition, I have very great pleasure in stating that the school is in a very prosperous condition. The number admitted during the past year has been 127; about 120 have left during the same period, from the usual causes,-viz., death, removals to a distance, and several on account of going to situations. Very few continue at school after their eleventh year, as their parents are generally so poor as to require their small services to aid them in supporting the family, as soon as their efforts are available for that purpose. The average number on the books during the past year has been 120; and the attendance ninety in summer, and eighty during the winter. The number of scholars admitted into the Girls' school was 152; left during the year, 154. The Sunday-school had recently declined, in consequence of the severity of the weather. From all the outports of this country the most cheering intelligence had been derived. With regard to Foreign operations, the Directors lamented that the low state of the finances had prevented them from appointing chaplains in many important and much-frequented ports. The Rev. J. K. Stallybrass had, however, been appointed to Cronstadt, in Russia. Among the donations received by the Society was £20, which Her Majesty had ordered to be paid to it in the name of the Prince of Wales.

From the Treasurers' accounts it appeared that the total receipts of the Society during the year, including a loan from the bankers of £100, amounted to £2,128; the expenditure to £2,044 198. 8d.; but there were various outstanding claims, leaving the Institution £96 13s. 2d. in debt.

BAPTIST HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. THE Report stated that the Committee have employed, during the year, ninety agents, who had laboured at about as many principal, and, by the valuable assistance of many "fellowhelpers to the truth," at 223 subordinate stations. They had given assistance also, both in England and Wales, to several occasional applicants, whose statistics were not included in the Report. Upwards of 500 persons had been added to the churches, not as the result of special movements, but as the fruit of the ordinary, unpretending, but often toilsome, persevering efforts of the agents. The majority of the Missionaries reported a considerable number of inquirers. Instruction had been given in 111 sabbath-schools, by 1,196 teachers, to 7,500 scholars. Partly through the operation of causes from which all denominational institutions had suffered, the Committee had been compelled to borrow £400. This, together with £200 bor

rowed to meet the deficiency in 1845, left the Society in debt £600.

The TREASURER then presented his accounts, from which it appeared that the total receipts of the Society, during the year, amounted to £5,119 18.; the expenditure to £5,118 28. 6d. ; leaving a balance in hand of 188. 6d., which, deducted from the £600 that had been borrowed, left a nett balance against the Society of £599 18. 6d.

BAPTIST IRISH SOCIETY.

THE Report, which, as might be supposed, was chiefly occupied with details of arrangements, and records of calamity, stated that the finances of the Society had been much affected by the efforts which the churches had made to relieve the temporal wants of the Irish. In that generous enterprise the Baptist churches had not been last or least. The largest portion of the relief had been distributed in food. The reports from all the districts, in each of the Irish provinces, united in testifying the gratitude, patience, and surprise of the people. They were amazed at British liberality. The Saxon and the heretic had been their kindest and most liberal friends. The TREASURER then presented his accounts, from which it appeared that the total receipts of the Society for the past year amounted to £2,283 11s. 7d.; the expenditure to £3,913 38. 10d.; leaving a balance against the Society of £1,629 12s. 3d.

BIBLE TRANSLATION SOCIETY. THE Report stated that since the death of Dr. Yates, the Calcutta translations had been carried on by the Revs. J. Wenger, A. Leslie, and C. C. Aratson, while the "Mission Press" remained under the management of the Rev. J. Thomas. Mr. Leslie was assiduously engaged in carrying through the press a revised edition of the Hindi Testament, while Mr. Wenger was occupied with Sanscrit and Bengali. In the Hindi the printing had advanced to John; of Matthew 8000 copies, and of Mark 4000 had been printed, independently of former impressions. The total number of copies of the whole or parts of the Word of God sent out from the Baptist Mission Press, since 1831, was 387,137. In connection with these great labours, the Committee acknowledged the aid afforded by the American and Foreign Bible Society, being £412 16s. during the past year. The Society had voted £50 to the Rev. J. Clarke for a translation into the Fernandian language, and £2000 to the Baptist Missionary Society for the Calcutta translations. The total receipts for the year were £2,125 168. 1d., including a legacy of £213 by Mrs. Norman, of Isleham, and two donations,-W. Blacklock, Esq, Colchester, £50; and D. Sinclair, Esq., Edradour, £200.

BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY. AFTER a very judicious speech from the Chairman, the Secretary presented the Report, which commenced by recording the death of Messrs. Burchell and Dutton, in Jamaica; of Mr. Francies, in Hayti; and of Messrs. Thompson and Hudgrow, in Africa; and also the cessation from labour, through infirmity and sickness, of some others. Mr. and Mrs. Webley have been sent