The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-06-20 00:00:00

VIEW OF THE lIINDOSTANEE PLAINS.

All around, the hills rise steeply five or six thousand
feet, clothed in a dense deep-green dripping forest. Tor-
rents rush down the slopes, their position indicated by the
dipping of the forest into their beds, or the occasional
cloud of spray rising above some more boisterous part of
their course. From the road, and at a little above Pun-
kabaree, the view is really superb, and very instructive.
Behind (or north) the Himalayas rise in steep confused
masses. Below, the hill on which I stood, and the ranges
as far as the eye can reach east and west, throw spurs on
the plains of India. Those are very thickly wooded, and
enclose broad, dead-flat, hot and damp valleys, apparently
covered with a dense forest. Secondary spars of clay and
gravel, like that immediately below Punkabaree, rest on
the bases of the mountains, and seem to form an interme-
diate neutral ground between flat and mountainous India.
The Terai district forms a very irregular belt, scantily
clothed, and intersected by innumerable rivulets from the
hills,which unite and again divide on the flat, till, emerging
from the region of many trees, they enter the plains,
following devious courses, which glisten like silver threads.
The whole horizon is bounded by the sea-like expanse of
the plains, which stretch away into the region of sunshine
and fine weather in one boundless flat.
In the distance, the courses of the Teesta and Cossi, the
great drainers of the snowy Himalayas, and the recipients
of innumerable smaller rills, are with difficulty traced at
this, the dry season. The ocean-like appearance of this
southern view is even more conspicuous in the heavens
than on the land, the clouds arranging themselves altar
a singularly sea-scape fashion. Endless strata ran in
parallel ribbons over the extreme horizon ; above these,
scattered cumuli, also in horizontal lines, are dotted against
a clear grey sky, which gradually, as the eye is lifted,
passes into a deep cloudless blue vault, continuously clear
to the zenith; there the cumuli, in white fleecy masses,
again appear, till in the northern celestial hemisphere
they thicken and assume the leaden hue of nimbi, dis-
charging their moisture on the dark forest-clad hills
around. The breezes are south-easterly, bringing that
vapour from the Indian Ocean, which is ratified and sus-
pended aloft over the heated plains, but condensed into
drizzle when it strikes the cooler flanks of the hills, and
into heavy rain when it meets their still cooler summits.
Upon what a gigantic scale does nature here operate !
Vapours, raised from an ocean whose nearest shore is more
than four hundred miles distant, are safely transported
without the loss of one drop of water, to support the rank
luxuriance of this far distant region. This and other
offices fulfilled, the waste waters are returned, by the Cossi
and Teesta to the ocean, and again exhaled, exported,
expended, re-collected and returned.

To the above reflective and interesting descrip-
tion it would be difficult to add anything by which
its effect could be more finely impressed on the
mind of the reader, and therefore we shall not
attempt it ; but content ourselves with giving as a
supplement his

PICTIIRE OP A SNOWY RANGE.

The most eloquent descriptions I have read fail to con-
vey to my mind's eye the forms and colours of snowy
mountains, or to my imagination the sensations and im-
pressions that rivet my attention to these sublime pheno-
mena, when they are present in reality ; and I shall not,
therefore, obtrude any attempt of the kind upon my reader.
The latter has, probably, seen the Swiss Alps, which,
though barely possessing half the sublimity, extent, or
height of the Himalayas, are yet far more beautiful. In
either case he is struck with the precision and sharpness
of their outlines, and still more with the wonderful play
of colours on their snowy flanks, from the glowing hues
reflected in orange, gold, and ruby, from clouds illumined
by the sinking or rising sun, to the ghastly pallor that
succeeds with twilight, when the red seems to give place
to its complimentary colour green. Such dissolving views
elude all attempts at description; they are far too aerial
to be chained to the memory, and fade from it so fast as
to be gazed upon day after day with undiminished admi-
ration and pleasure, long after the mountains themselves
have lost their sublimity and apparent height.

That Dr. Hooker has been an intelligent as well
as an observant traveller, and is
his
possessedexperiene
experience, must
much
t
graphic skill in narrating
have been apparent from the above extracts, which
havejperinoorit byeen selected on account of their marked
equally teasil to
__,others that might have been
numerous peyrsoPvlen. Our traveller met with
and
was
sub
sect
tntao adventures of various kinds,
la frequent annoyances and dan-
gers, all of which he in a style of unrepining,
contentedness llts from the reader unqua-
lified approbation, whilemin minute
eexstiites sincere sympathy.
To extensive and
Hooker adds ready and pleasing in observation, Dr.
delightful powers of descrip-
mane
tion. His book is at once
aand useful ;
and the labours of such
country and on his kind a
which is to be prized alike for its intrinsic
and for the honourable distinction it bestows 11-;.;
its possessor and those with whom he is content7lC
to

share it.
The Poetical Works of William Cowper, with
Critical Dissertation by the Rev. George Gil-
fillan. Edinburgh : James Nichol.
The volume before us is the second and conclud-
ing one of Cowper's poems contained hi the very
handsome series of Nichol's Library Edition of the
British Poets, of which series it forms the eighth
volume. It is prefaced by an essay on the poetry
and genius of Cowper, by Mr. Gilfillan, in several
of whose views, as here expressed, we cannot fully
concur, although we must admit that in general
stating that
is not a greatly inaccurate one. After
that the principal characteristic of Cowper's
g i
poetry s its earnest simplicity, Mr. Gilfillan pro-
ceeds with the annexed delineation of

COWPE' PA-SCE .
When he does shooR
tS PLIGHTS
his fancy into other climes, its
zotwia mumbles rather that of a playful 'w tIAU Qf

an arrow-like and etherial Ariel. He alights not on the
shivering summits of the Andes ; he shies the awful dome
of Mont Blanc ; he plunges not within that circle of sun•
fire which encloses the interior of Africa, but he stands on
the topmast of the ship which is ploughing the quiet
waters of the Pacific ; he wanders with the gentle Omai
through those islands where the sea ripples up on golden
sands in waves of silver, and where at noonday the large
cocoanut is heard to drop amid the sultry silence ; or he
laughs an elfin, yet amiable, laughter over that wondrous
toy, the palace of ice, constructed by the despotess of the
north—an unintended satire upon herself, her empire,
and all sublunary things.

The above elaborate attempt at producing what
the literary slang of the day would call a " word
picture" seems sadly out of place in treating of the
natural and unaffected poetry of Cowper. In point
of fact, the whole essay seems pitched on too high
a key, and the reader becomes painfully aware—or
at least is made to feel—that the poet is, for the
time being, made subservient to the essayist. This
is an error at all times, and should be sedulously
avoided. In every other respect the volume bears
out the high character by which the series has
hitherto been marked. It is beautifully and accu-
rately printed, has evidently been carefully col-
lated, and is entitled to a prominent position in
every library pretending to the name of general or
classical.

I.THE COLONIAL CHURCH AND SCHOOL

SOCIETY.

MEETING LAST NIGHT.

THE annual meeting of this society was held last night at
the Collegiate Institution. There was a respectable, but very
limited attendance. The deputation from the Parent society
consisted of the Rev. E. Garbett, M.A., incumbent of St. Bar-
tholomew's, Gray's Inn Lane, London; and the Rev. M. M.
Dillon, M.A., missionary to the Fugitive Slaves in Canada,
late Rector of Dominica. The Rev. T. Nolan, who had been
announced, was not present, but his place was supplied by
the Rev. Mr. Lamb, a missionary from the Cape of Good
Hope. In addition, amongst the gentlemen on the platform
we observed :—Charles Inman, Esq. • W. C. Jones, Esq. ;
and the Revels. Messrs. Leveson, H. Carpenter, J. Butler, F.
Parry, W. Rawson, E. Gabriel, J. Bardaley, W. H. Wright,
S. Minton, and G. W. Warr.

The Rev'. Fielding Ould was called to the chair, and the
meeting having been opened by prayer, the chairman began
by apologising for the absence of the Rev. Dr. Mc Neile, who
would have taken the chair, but that he bad been called un-
expectedly out of town. He then said— The society on whose
behalf they were assembled that night was second in im-
portance to none. Its object was to send out clergymen,
schoolmasters. schoolmistresses, and catechists to the
British colonists. Its operations were conducted in the
strictest conformity with the discipline and order of the
church, and all its agents, and the various churches were
placed under the episcopal control of the various diocesans.
Its principles were such as they could in the heartiest
degree approve as being both Protestant and evangelical.
These were the words inscribed upon its banners, and he be-
lieved its practices were in strict conformity with its prin-
ciples. (Hear, hear.) There was something wonderful and
serious at the same time in die extent of our colonial empire.
England held 40 colonies, containing a population exceeding
150 millions of human beings, occupying one-tenth part of
the whole surface of the globe, and one-seventh part of the
population of the whole human race. Of those 150 millions
of inhabitants of our colonial empire, five millions at least
were our own brethren, our own flesh and blood, natives of
the British empire ; and-they might suppose what a condition
they were in when he told them that for the whole of our
colonial empire there were barely 1,200 ministers of our
church, whilefor the mother country alone there were more
than 15,000. As they might suppose, the spiritual destitution
that existed throughout these vast regions was extreme, and
there were few things more painful to his mind than to read
some accounts of the destitution existing; especially in
the Continent of Australia, the accounts we had of
the state of the population gathered round the various
gold diggings were something so horrifying as to be
scarcely credible. Then this immense amount of destitution
had ;been exceedingly aggravated of late years by the great
emigration from this country. The calculation was, that a
quarter of a million, 250,000 individuals, emigrate every year
to some part of the colonial empire. It was right that when
these parties got there that they should enjoy the ministrations
of the Church, be reminded of the Sabbatn, and have preached
to them the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This unfor-
tunately was not the case; and then they had there the zealous,
active, and most persevering antagonism of the Church of
Rome. In all our colonies the religion of the Romanists was
tolerated, as it ought to be ; but further, in many of them it
was absolutely supported and maintained by the British
Government. (Hear, hear.) At the end of the last century,
an Act was passed called the Quebec Act, by which the
Sovereign was constituted the head of the Established Church,
the Romanist church of Lower Canada, its bishops and eccle-
siastics being paid from the funds of the State. While
we had only 25 colonial dioteses,: the Church of Rome
had 46, with its whole staff of bishops, priests, and
monks, Sisters of Mercy, and Sisters of Charity, and what
not? using their utmost exertions not only to build up
their own sect, but to proselytise from the ignorant and
defenceless Protestants. (Hear.) Then it might be said
that the venerable society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts had undertaken to meet that thin;
and to that be -replied that they had lost their confidence in
that society. (Hear, hear.) .He rejoiced to acknowledge
that there were-many of our colonial bishops in whom they
had every confidence of their adherence to the Protestant,
scriptural, and "evangelical principles of the church,—such
as the Bishops of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, the excellent
Bishop of Melbourne, and also the Bishop of Rupert's Land,
well known in Liverpool. In those men, and in such as
those, they had every confidence ; but in certain other of
those men, located chiefly in the dioceses of the west, they
were constrained in their conscience to say that while
the voice was the voice of Jacob, the hands were the
hands of Esau. What confidence could they repose
as Protestants and men of evangelical principles in such
men as the Bishops of Newfoundland, Toronto, and others
of that class. He said for himself, and he doubted not he
spoke the sentiments of many there, that be could not in
his conscience Inbscrihe his money or collect money for the
support of ministers appointed by and under the influence of
such tenets as he had mentioned. What they wanted for the
colonies, as for the dioceses at home, were true evangelists,
faithful Scriptural teachers, pails-taking, self-denying, de-
voted men of God—men who had learned Christ for them-
selves, and who burned with holy love and zeal to teach
Christ's law. But, as for the men who half-deified a bishop,
when he happened to agree with them, and treated him with
the most insolent defiance when he happened to differ from
them—(hear, hear,)—as for the men who put the Church in
the place of Christ, and who prefer the erudition of the fa-
thers to the sacred literature of Jerusalem—as for the men
who were more observers of the rubric than solicitous for the
saving of souls—as for the men who were apt to dwell upon
the letter of a sacrament that killeth, rather than the grace of
a sacrament that giveth life,—for men of that stamp, he said,
he could not conscientiously subscribe his money, or ask
others to subscribe, fer the maintenance of them,—of men
who were rather wolves in sheep's clothing, who devoured
rather than fed their flocks. (Applause.) Now what a melan-
choly thing ft was that there were Colonial dioceses in which
there was not one evangelical minister to be found; and while
the episcopal church of the United States of America
had actually built not less than thirty churches in California,
the English church had not, so far as he knew, exerted her-
self to build one in any of the vast colonial dependencies of
the British empire. (Hear, hear.) Now, what were they to
do under such circumstances 7 He said, support the Colonial
Church and School Society. Its principles were Protestant and
evangelical. Those were the watchwords inscribed upon its
banners. We sent forth no. man except those anxious to
witness against the perils of Romanists and Romanisers, and
that should be 'faithful teachers of the truth as it was in
Jesus. They were aware that hitherto the chief support of
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts, which he should no longer support or preach for, had
been the Queen's -letter. issued every three years. He had
the strongest reason to believe that the Queen's letter would
never again be issued. He bad been up in London recently,
and learned from the best authority that government had
come to the conclusion no longer to order it. (Hear, hear.)
And then came the question, what was the church in the
colony to do, when that venerable society had not the power?
In that state of,things the Colonial Church and School
Society would be. more uileful, necessary, and important
than before; and,• therefore, instead of having an income of
49,000 or £lO,OOO
.a year, be hoped to see it soon with an
income of £lOO,OOO a year, when they looked at the vast field
of labour which the society occupied. (Applause.)
The Rev. S. MINTON, the secretary to the Liverpool Auxi-
liary Associationg then said that he had no accounts to pre-
sent, as they were'not yet made up. Last year the Liverpool
association had- raised for the Colonial Church and School
Society four or five times as much as it had ever done before.
This year the number of pulpits open for appeals on behalf
of the society was not quite so great as last year, but nearly
so. The amount of the collections at the various churches
on the previous day showed, he thought, upon the whole, a
decided increase upon the collections in the same churches
last year. (Applause.)
The Rev. Mr. DILLoN was then introduced to the meeting,
and began by tracing the origin of the Church and Colonial
School Society. It had not sprung up in antagonism, as stated,
but was owing to the efforts of a friend of his Major Irwin,
who, baying left his regiment and settled in Western Aus-
tralia, finding no clergymen, came to England, and laid the
spiritual destitution of the colony before the Church
Missionary Society, and the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. They both refused to
have anything to do with it, and it was then that he
applied to his friends for a sum of money, which enabled
him to establish what was then called the Western Australian
Society. A naval officer of Prince Edwin's Island, struck
with the like destitution in that province, raised an equal
sem of money and joined him, then the name of the society
was changed. From the first the principles of the society
had been evangelical and Protestant. Where was the oppo-
sition, in pretesting against Popish tractarianism and infidel
error? Those who raised the cry knew that there was some-
thing rotten in the state of Denmark. He had never acted
in the colonies under any of the societies, and therefore he
could bear impartial testimony to the operation of all ; and
as be could say that this society was not ashamed to profess
its principles, so had he ever found its agents men of sim-
plicity of mind, men who held the faith of Christ as the all in
all. There was only one clergyman in our colonies for every
33,000 of those who were of our own flesh and blood • and
then see how those 33,000 were scattered over a wide district,
where they could not be brought direct under his pastoral care,
indeed there were some who for a whole year never received
a visit from a minister of Christ. It was a melancholy truth
that nine4enths of the emigrants who went forth from this
country were uninfluenced by the everlasting Gospel. Mr.
Dillon gave an instance which had been brought painfully
under his personal notice, and then showed that whilst the
church had been neglecting Australia, and the 23,000 persons
now settled at the diggings, where 18 years ago the foot of
civilized man had never trod, the Romanists had been pecu-
liarly active, and said he knew six Presbyterian gentlemen
who had sent out 20 ministers, guaranteeing them their
salaries for six years. Speaking of the Romanist efforts
abroad, he said we were anxious that the cup of salvation
should not be poisoned when put into the hand of the Heathen,
but we often showed a reckless indifference whether that cup
of salvation was to be put in its purity into the hands of our
own brethren. Mr. Dillon concluded by an interesting r,!-
ference to the condition of the fugitive slaves in Canada, tes-
tifying to the truth in every particular of the portraiture of
slavery drawn in "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

The Rev. E. GA RBETT, in an eloquent speech;then dwelt
upon the principles of the society, the nature of the want they
were desirous to remedy, and the nature of the agency that
they ought to use. He thought the cause should be pleaded
on a vantage ground in this princely town, for he had been
told that one-half of the entire export of Liverpool was to the
colonies of the British empire. It was, besides, impossible
to see the groups of emigrants leaving our port without a
sympathetic thought as to how the poor creatures were to
live in the countries that they were going to, and how they
wereem to die. He besought them to think if deriving so much
been
ogfivtebnit, to us
temporalgoo .
d from those colonies, did not involve likewise
spiritual obligation. Why had that immense empire
by providence? Not for the aggrandise-
ment
little spot of the world, but that we might seize
c ot then showed the opportunity for the furtherance of the kingdom of God.
osfpeaokuerr sshoivnved the peculiar geographical posi-
?very part of the earth, and
said if, whenever a -
tTihone
tl.oleonsy had been planted, Eng-
land's Church had at
an immense power might novvamtfavtiembeen exercised for the
evangeliSation of the world t And did God give the
oppor-
tunity to this favoured Christian land, and not intend ust
use it? The thought had greater weight when we remem-
bered that those countries were the seat of future kingdoms.
He believed all were convinced that we owed all our greatness
and freedom to the influence of a pure Gospel and open Bible,
and if we failed to use our power and discharge our duty to
the colonies, God's purpose would still be accomplished, but
the nerves of England would be paralysed, and we should tall
into weakness, decrepitude, and ruin. The means of religious
s
instruction inthecolonies were shamefully deficient, andthe re-
suit was just what might be expected. In some places, in Nova
Scotia, particularly, according to the reports, the coteni4ts

bad almost degenerated morally and socially into the condi-
tion of the Indians, and in some places the Sabbath Day was
forgotten. Now from this had sprung the notorious fact,
familiar to all acquainted with the workings of the Missionary
Society, that the colonists of England. instead of being the
means of spreading by the light of their ex:mple the Divine
truth, had been positive impediments and obstacles to the
progress of truth, by the inconsistencies, vices, and neglected
Godless, graceless state, of those who bore the name of Eng-
lishmen and Christians. The society had never forgot that
its success depended upon the character of its agency, and it
was useless to have an outward organization unless the thing
to be wrouzht by it was good; and to lay all over the world
channels through which religious influence might flow
to the souls of men would be worse than a useless
task, if that which flowed in the channel was
not the river of life and able to make men whole.
The society had two classes of agents, ordained, and unor-
dained, and it was a false assertion that the latter were em.
ployed in spiritual ministrations, such as baptism, &c. Mr.
Garbett then made reference to the good to be expected from
the society's training schools in Canada and Nova Scotia,
and concluded by a powerful appeal on behalf of the objects
sought to be attained.

A-collection was here made, during which a hymn was
sung. At the conclusion of the hymn, the CHAIRMAN
called on

The Rev. Mr. LAMB, from Capetown, who at the com-
mencement of his address expressed the regret be experienced
in not having, as he expected, met with one who might be
called a prince in Israel, who, he understood, was to have
preceded him in addressing the meeting. He could not,
however, resist the opportunity offered of telling what he
knew of the operations of the Colonial Church and School
Society, in the locality in which he had been placed. Being
a government chaplain, he was not immediately connected
with the society, but was desirous of bearing his humble
testimony to its usefulness. (Applause.) The society had
been the means of disseminating Gospel and Christian
truth. Its workings, however, his own experience enabled
him to say. were interrupted by the spread of dangerous
doctrines, and, as an instance of that, cited a case
of a gentleman, whom he would not name, who, under the
pretence of teaching Christian doctrine, lent a book to a
young woman; it professed to be the confessions of a saint,
but which he should blush to describe, and was not in-
deed fit for the human eye. He went on to say that at the
Cape of Good Hope, innovations had been introduced into the
services of the church, and these had been carried to such en
extent, even after remonstrance had been made, that he (the
speaker) was informed the congregation was compelled to leave
the church. This was a matter deeply to be regretted, as, in
the colonies. no powerful press lent its aid in checking error;
and here, in the instance referred to. the congregation would in
all probability be forced to leave the Church of England by the
Tractarian practices which were obtruded on them. He next
referred to an edition of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, which
had been prepared for and circulated in the colony from
Which "the Giant Pope" had been withdrawn, and "the
Giant Mahomet" substituted in its stead, a proceeding which
had unnecessarily offended every Mahometan in the colony.
He concluded by urging on the meeting the necessity for
countenancing by every means in their power the objects of
the Colonial Church and School Society.
The Rev. C. iIiNNER next addressed the meeting, and
urged on its consideration the imperative claims of the so-
ciety, which, by its agency and through its operations, gave
utterance to no uncertain sound, although he was sorry to
know that, in some institutions of the church connected with
the colonies, the trumpet gave forth. Tractarian heresy, not
unmixed with Popish error. He concluded by warning all to
guard against the insinuating refinements of t'useyism.
The CHAIRMAN having echoed the sentimentslof the pre-
ceding speakers as to the claims of the society, the doxology
was sung, and the meeting separated.

A CIIILD BURIED ALIVE.—On Saturday, a little boy
named Thomas Baxter, whose parents reside in Oliver-
street, was playing with some other children in a sand-
hole at Upper Windsor, when a quantity of the material
fell, completely burying him, and before he could be extri-
cated, recovery was hopeless. An older brother was also
partially buried beneath the heap of sand, but succeeded
in crawling out. An inquest on the body will be held
to-day.

SLIP-BUILDING AT THE SOUTH END.—Dming the
past week the foreshore at the front of the premises oc-
cupied by Mr. Alderman James Lawrence, south of Mr.
Laird's ship-building works, was measured, for the pur-
pose of being converted into ship-building yards. With
the view of assisting the iron ship-building at the south
end, an enormous machine is being constructed at the
Mersey Steel and Iron Company's premises, for making
plates and constructing them into any form, to supersede
the usual process of manipulation by hand.
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.—On Thursday was ordered, on
the motion of Mr. Horsfall, a return showing the number
of vessels and of tonnage entered inwards and cleared out-
wards at each of the twelve principal ports of the United
Kingdom respectively also, the official and declared
value of the exports ; and official value of the imports for
each of the said ports, during the years 1851,1852, and 1853
LIVERPOOL WORKING MEN'S PROTESTANT REFORMA-
TION SOCIETY---At the weekly meeting, in the- large
room, Beau-street, on Friday evening, a discussion took
place between two working men, on transubstantiation.
The Romanist opened the discussion, and contended for
the corporeal presence of Christ in the sacrament, as
asserted in the creed of Pope Pius IV. The Protestant
answered his arguments by showing that transubstantia-
tion is unscriptural and absurd. The discussion occupied
one hour and a half,during which the most lively interest
was manifested by all present. The room was literally
crammed; above three hundred men were present, princi-
pally Romanists, besides women, and many sought admit-
tance when the room was filled. The chairman, Mr. J.
Parsonage, informed the audience that the discussion, will
be resumed next Friday evening, at half-past seven o'clock,
when he hoped that the same ability and good temper
would be displayed by the disputants, and the same atten-
tion and excellent order observed by the audience, which
it had been his pleasure to witness on the present very
interesting occasion. A vote of thanks to both disputants
was passed unanimously. The doxology was then sung,
and the meeting separated in the most orderly and peace-
able manner.

SURRENDER OF A MURDERER.—A man named Hugh
Marks gave himself in charge to police-inspector Cahill at
Manchester on Tuesday, stating that he had caused the
death of a person named Bruce in the Trafalgar Dock, at
Liverpool, about a year and a-half ago. He says that he
was employed as a porter by the Glasgow Steam Company
at Liverpool towards the end of November, 1852, when
there was a turn-out of the Clarence Dock porters, and
during the continuance of the strike he and other persons
belonging to the porters' society went on board a Wexford
boat lying in the Trafalgar Dock, where they found
several men at work. One of these men he (Marks) says
he pushed into the hold, when he received serious injuries
by the fall; that he was taken to the Northern Hospital,
and that he died there of those injuries. He was detained
for farther inquiries.

NEW BRIGHTON COLLEGE—EXAMINATION OF PUPILS.
—The annual examination of the pupils attending the
New Brighton College (principal, the Rev. D. J. Poggi,
D.D.), commenced on Wednesday last, the 15th instant.
The pupils were examined by the Rev. Dr. Wilson in all
the various branches of education taught in the schools,
and the proficiency they displayed drew from the examiner
the warmest commendations. Specimens of writing,
drawing, oil painting, &c., in all of which more or less
ability was displayed, were exhibited in the class-rooms.
The examination closed on Thursday afternoon. In the even-
ing a meeting was held for the distribution of prizes, presided
over by the Rev. Joseph Baylee, D.D. A large number of
ladies and gentlemen were present : amongst others, the
Rev. Dr. Hume, Rev. Dr. Wilson, Rev. J. W. Welsh,
Rev. R. D. Fowell, Rev. W. Roberts, Rev. H. Westby,
of Dalkey, near Dublin, &e. Recitations were given
by the pupils in Greek, Latin, French, and English, in a
style which elicited the highest approval of the company.
The prizes were delivered as follows

Captain's Prize: J. Yates.—Algebra: First Class, A.
Smith; Second Class, J. Darlington. Physiology: F.
Asbridge.—Latin : First Class, W. H. Hall; Second Class.
H. Sheppard; Third Class, J. Darlington; Fourth Class, R.
Owen.—French : First Class, G. Pollexfen; Second Class,
H. H. Carr.—Greek: First Class, H. Sheppard; Second
Class, C. Coulborn.—Euclid: First Class, H. Sheppard;
Second Class, F. Asbridge.—Arithmetic: First Class, E.
Westby ; Second Class, E. Pollexfen; Third Class, C. Camp-
bell.—Geography : First Class, G. Pollexfen ; Second Class,
H. P. Onley.—Prize for English Grammar and Composition :
S. Radcliffe.—English Grammar : Second Class,. A. F
Thomas.—Prize for History: T. Allbut.—For General Im-
provement : It. Weber.—First Writing Prize : T. Bennett.—
Second Writing Prise: H. Davis.—Third Writing Prize:
S, G. Brown.—Prize for General Good Conduct: J. Kenyon
and H. Sharland.—Prize for Drawing : W. Bennett and J.
Kenyon.—Prize for Oil Painting: Sellars.
The Rev. Dr. Wilson, the examiner, spoke at some length
on the importance of a proper system of teaching in form-
ing the habits and character of the pupils, and eulogised
the plan pursued in Dr. Poggi's school as being one cal-
culated to ensure steady and permanent progress in every
branch of polite and useful knowledge.—Dr. Hume, the
Rev. Dr. Baylee, and other gentlemen expressed similar
sentiments, and a vote of thanks was given to the Rev.
Dr. Poggi and Mrs. Poggi. The compliment wasappro-
priately acknowledged by Dr. Poggi. Thanks having
been voted to the chairmain, the proceedings terminated
by the pupils singing the National Anthem.
PATAGONIAN MISSIONARY SOCIRTY.—A meeting of
this society, and of those friendly to its objects, was held
on Thursday evening, in Hope-hall, Hope-street. The
chair was occupied by the Rev. W. M. Falloon. Among
those present were the Revs. S. Minton, W. H. Wright,
Carpenter, Dr. Dill, Edinburgh; Messrs. A. Hodgson,
S. Martin, T. D. Anderson, W. Jones, Fulham, Collett,
R. H. Wilson, A. T. Ritchie. The Rev. G. Peckenham
Despard, of Bristol, and the Rev. W. G. Robinson, at-
tended as a deputation. The meeting was opened with
prayer by the Rev. W. H. Wright.—The chairman referred
to the origin of the Patagonian mission by Captain Allen
Gardiner, who directed his attention to the southern ex-
tremity of South America, and in the year 1844, with a
single friend, made a visit to the shores of Patagonia for
a short time, and found it absolutely necessary to have a
ship always in readiness to receive the missionaries when
brought into danger by the natives. Another effort was
made in 1848, but failed from want of means. On the 7th
of September, 1850, Captain Gardiner, with six others,
sailed from this town, in a vessel called the Ocean Queen.
They reached their destination at the Falkland Islands,
where they perished under melancholy circumstances. He
then called upon the Rev. G. P. Despard, one of the deputa-
tion, to afford information.—The Rev. Mr. Despard com-
menced by stating that the portion of South America to which
their missionary operations were about to be directed was
1,100 miles long and 1,000 broad. It was a noble land,
watered by the finest rivers in the world. The inhabitants
consisted of about 40 tribes who never bowed their neck
to Spanish thrall or papal dominion. (Hear, hear.) He
proceeded to point out the openings which presented them-
selves to missionary enterprise in South America, des-
cribing the soil and productions of the islands of the
Falkland group, showing how by means of their missionary
schooner, now building, they would be enabled to keep
up a constant communication and an ample supply of
food to the various missionary stations. They would first
establish themselves in the Falklands, and by means of
this schooner, which was to be 100 feet long, 18 feet
beam, and 10 feet depth of hold, they could easily reach
the shores of South America, bringing plenty of provi-
sions and trinkets with them from the parent station, by
means of which they could easily gain the confidence of
the natives. They were ready with men, and by the 11th
of July they expected to have their schooner ready for sea.
Since last year they had collected £1,400, and several
local associations had been formed for the purpose of sup-
porting the mission. (Applause.) Mr. Ritchie read the
statement of accounts, from which it appeared there was
only a deficit of £BOO to complete and fit out the vessel, to
pay the master's and seamen's wages, and the mission-
aries' salaries, the station expenses, &c., up to November,
1855. He strongly recommended the Allen Gardiner to
the consideration of the people of Liverpool. (Hear,
hear.)--The Rev. Mr. Robinson, the Rev. S. Minton, and
the Rev. Mr. Wright subsequently addressed the meeting,
after which a collection was made' and the meeting ter-
minated with prayer