The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-05-05 00:00:00

CHURCH INTELLIGENCE.

At a special meeting of the Society for the propagation of
the Gospel, on Friday, the 28th of April last, the Rev. Er.
nest 1-laukins was, on the recommendation of his Grace the
Archbishop of Canterbury, President, unanimously elected
secretary in the room of the Rev. A. M. Campbell, resigned.
CLOSING OF ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.—Some surprise
vas excited on Tuesday, in London, by the attendants of
Divine worship in this splendid edifice and the public at the
following notice being put up :—" The daily service will be
discontinued in this cathedral after Wednesday next, until
further notice. Service on Sundays as usual. May Ist,
1843."

THE NEW DISTRICT AND :MILITARY CHURCH AT
WINDSOR.—This edifice, the first stone of which was laid by
his Royal Highness Prince Albert, in April, 1842, has just
been completed (with the exception of its internal fittings) ;
the sum already expended, raised by voluntary subscriptions,

amounting to £5,300. The sum of £3,500 more being re-
quired for its internal fittings. Mr. Trant, who had previously
made a donation of £lOO, has handsomely offered to the com-
mittee to advance the whole sum of £3,500, without interest,
to effect its completion by the Ist of next October. This
liberal offer has, of course, been gratefully accepted by the
committee. The whole of the floor of the building is in-
tended for the use of the two regiments in garrison at
Windsor, where there is now no accommodation for the troops
at any of the places for Divine worship in the town.
COLONIAL CHURCH SOCIETY.—On Wednesday evening,
the anniversary meeting of this society was held at Exeter
Hall, Captain Sir Edward Parry, R.N., in the chair. The
chairman remarked that he had travelled through New South
\Vales and the Australian colonies, and he could bear nn-
equivocal testimony to the necessity for such a society.
Captain Cotton read the annual report, from which it ap-
peared that missionaries and catechists in the employment of
the society were preaching and teaching with success in Nova
Scotia, Canada, Prince Edward's Island, and in many
continental towns. Associations had been formed at Derby,
Ryde, Bath, and Bristol. The sum received from the
colonies during the past year in aid of the general objects of
the society had been £lB9 145., and from the continental
towns £195 13s. The total receipts were £3,225 160., a
sum far exceeding that of any former year. Many clergy-
men formerly opposed to the society had become members,
and much additional support had been received. The report
was approved on the motion of the Hon. and Rev. Charles
Isaac Yorke, rector of Shenfield, Essex ; seconded by the
Rev. Hugh Stowell, incumbent of Christ Church, Salford.
The forty-third anniversary meeting of the Church
Missionary Society was held on Tuesday morning last, at
Exeter Hall, the Earl of Chichester in the chair, supported
by the Lord Bishops of Winchester, Norwich, and Chester,
the Very Rev. the Dean of Salisbury, the Hon. and Rev.
the Dean of St. Patrick's, Viscount Sandon, M.P., Mr. J.
C. Colquhoun, M.P., and a large number of gentlemen.
The Earl of Chichester briefly addressed the meeting in sup-
port of the objects of the institution, the 43rd anniversary of
which they had met to celebrate; he looked upon it as art
ornament to the church, and a blessing to mankind. The
Rev. R. Davies, M.A., read the report. It stated that the
income during the past year had exceed £115,000, a sum un-
precedented in the history of this or any other religious
society. The Lord Bishops of Barbadoes and Guiana had
become vice-presidents, and the King of Prussia a member
of the society. His Majesty had presented the society with
a donation of £lOO, and had become an annual subscriber of
£25. In New Zealand, Eastern and Western Africa, Greece,
India, and elsewhere, the missions were encouraging, and the
call for missionaries was more urgent than ever. In a short
time the society would turn its attention to China, towards a
mission in which country an individual, who wished to be
unknown, had presented the munificent sum of £6OOO. Upon
the motion of the Lord Bishop of Winchester, seconded by
the Venerable Archdeacon of Derby, the report was agreed
to. A variety of resolutions were subsequently adopted, in
the course of which Lord Sandon, M.P., the Rev. Augustus
Hanson, government chaplain at the Gold Coast, the Hon.
and Very Rev. the Dean of St. Patrick's, the Rev. J. J.
Neithecht, Mr. J. C. Colquhoun, M.P., and the Rev. F.
Close, addressed the meeting.
CHINA.—The following pastoral letter has been issued by
the Bishop of London to the clergy of his diocese :—Rev.
SlR.,—The readiness with which the clergy of my diocese
gave effect to my suggestions of a general collection in their
churches, on Palm-Sunday in last year, in aid of the fund
for endowing additional Bishopricks in the Colonies of the
British Empire; and the liberality displayed by the laity, in
answering the call made upon them, have induced me to
comply with the wish, expressed by many both of the clergy
and laity, that a Sunday, in the present year, should be ap-
pointed as a day of solemn and united offering in all the
churches of this diocese; and that the offerings then made
should be devoted to some special purpose, pertaining to the
glory of God in the extension of his Church. Such an act
of general oblation is eminently calculated to remind every
separate congregation, and every individual worshipper, that
they are all members of one spiritual body, of which Jesus
Christ is the head, " from whom the whole body, fitly joined
together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth,
according to the effectual working of every part, maketh in-
crease of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." (Eph.
iv. 16.) The object for which I wish this collection to be made
is the formation of a fund for planting the Church of this
country in its newly acquired territories on the coasts of
China ; and I earnestly hope that it may be of such an
amount, as to provide a competent maintenance not only for
a Missionary clergy, but also for a Missionary bishop. The
success with which the divine goodness has crowned our en-
deavours to establish bishoprics in the Colonies, and the
happy results, which have in every instance followed such es-
tablishment, afford the strongest encouragement to us to per-
severe in that good work ; and with regard to China in parti-
cular, the obvious difficulties which impede the introduction
of Christianity into that vast empire, as well as the peculiar
state of society which is likely to exist, for some time at least
in our new settlements. render especially the superintendence
and control of a bishop, I need not dwell on the obligation
incumbent upon us, as a christian people, highly favoured of
God, to provide for the spiritual wants of our brethren in
those remote possessions of the empire ; to make the settle-
ment of our church there contemporary and co-ordinate with
that of the civil government; and to send ambassadors of
christ to the heathen, through the door which God's Provi-
dence has so manifestly opened to us ; nor need I urge the
appropriateness of such a mode of evincing our thankfulness
to God for his great and undeserved goodness, in bringing so
calamitous a war to so speedy and happy a termination.
With respect to the mode of collecting the offerings of the
people, that which I recommended last year, and which,
where it was adopted, was so successful, will, I hope, be still
more generally resorted to on the present occasion. The
objections which some persons have made to it, from want of
consideration, or from the fancied novelty of the practice,
will be overcome by proper explanation, and by the persevere-
ing use of an ancient and laudable custom. It ought not,
surely, to be cause of offence, but rather of gladness, if the
alms of the congregation are gathered, during the reading of
those sentences of God's word, which declare the duty, the
measure, and the rewards of charity ; nor ought it to be
deemed in any sense superstitious, if these offerings, expressly
given for the glory of God, and solemnly and devoutly de-
dicated to Him, with a united and fervent prayer of interces-
sion " for the whole state of Christ's Church militant here
en earth." Earnestly commending this matter to your
good-will and co-operation, I remain, Rev. Sir, your faithful
servant and brother in Christ,

J. C. LONDON.

London Hons., April 181 A, 1843.

WESLEYAN MISSIONARY SOCISTY.—The annual meet-
ing of this body was held on Monday, at Exeter Hall. J. P.
Plumptre, Esq. M.P. took the chair. The report gave the
most gratifying account of the society's operations at the va-
rious stations. The receipts from all sources since Christ-
mas last were £98,253, being a decrease of £3,434 ; expendi-
ture, £103,663 ; increase, £1909 6s. ; being a deficiency for
the last year of £2410. In 1841 there was a surplus of
£2933, which would liquidate that deficiency and leave a ba-
lance of £523 to the credit of the society. Towards a debt
of £30,000 contracted in 1838, 1839, and 1840, a sum had
been raised during the last year, which, with interest, left
only £6653 due by the Society. Amongst the donations
were those of the London Bazaar, £l7BB 2s. 10d. which
would, it was expected, eventually amount to £2000; from
Mr. I. Crowther, of Morley, near Leeds, £l5OO ; the Ladies
Bazaar, Dublin, £215 ; Mr. J. Heald, £lOOO ; Miss Heald,
£2OO ; Miss M. Heald, £2OO ; Mr. P. Bothwell, of Bolton,
£250; Mrs. Parker, of Warwick-ball, £300; Mr. Thomas
Farmer, £250, with an additional subset iption of 100 guineas,
Scc.

TRINITARIAN BIBLE SOCIETY.—On Wednesday morn-
ing the annual meeting of the Trinitarian Bible Society was
held at Hanover-square, London, General Marshall in the
chair. The twelfth annual report was read by the Rev. A.
S. Thelwall, M.A., ministerof Bedford Chapel, Bloomsbury.
The attention of the committee had been specially directed
to foreign operations. It became generally known that a
version of the Vulgate, countenancing some of the most per-
nicious and destructive heresies of the Romish Church, had
been circulated in foreign lands by British Protestants.
Faithful translations had been made by the society, particu-
larly into Portuguese, and the version of the Old Testament
had been completed with the exception of the book of Job
and a few chapters of Daniel. The committee were desirous
of introducing the Scriptures into Spain on the same princi-
ple. A legacy of £3OO, free of duty, had been received from
Dr. Slater, of High Wycombe, and an anonymous donation
of £lOO had been received. With these helps the receipts
of the year amounted to £1,632 4s, exceeding those of last
year by £479 Is. Ild. The great reduction in the price of
Bibles had materially affected the receipts for books, the
amount received this year being £704 18s. Od, a diminution
of £343 10s. 9d on the last year. The society had supplied
various schools with 867 Bibles and 1.295 Testaments, at a
loss to the society of £2B Os. sd. During the year a friend
was supplied with 4 Bibles and 49 Testaments, together with
several copies of the Portuguese translations, for the purpose
of visiting the sailors in the docks. The Rev. J. Tatum, of
Blackburn, the Rev. J. Cumming, Captain Vernon Har-
court, and other gentlemen addressed the meeting in support
of various resolutions.

The fifty-first anniversary of "the Baptist Missionary
Society was held at Exeter Hall, on Thursday last, and was
attended by about three thousand :persons. The chair was
taken by J. L. Philips, Esq. The Report stated that though
they had to deplore the death or return of ten agents, inclu-
ding five missionaries, they were were thankful to be able to
report that sixteen, including eight missionaries, had gone
forth to the glorious work. The total number of mission-
aries sent out by the society amounted to 169, of whom 62
had been sent out within the last ten years. In India there
were 79 schools in connexion with the society, containing
2,789 children. To the Baptist Churches, in Jamaica, there
had been added during the last year, by baptism, 2,925 ; by
letter, 604; by restoration, 388. The number of enquirers
was 14,353, and the total number of members 33,658. The
number of children in the mission schools was 6,944 ; and
the number of Sunday School children was 13,402. With
regard to home proceedings, it was stated that the amount of
the jubilee fund was £32,500. The total receipts of the year
amounted to £21,198. 3s. 10d., being a decrease, as compa-
red with the preceding year, of £1,528. 18s. 4d. The sum-
mary stated that the total number of members added to the
churches during the past year was 3,569; the total number
in all the churches being 36,622. There were besides about
18,000 enquirers, 165 stations, 79 missionaries, 59 female
missionaries, with 78 native preachers. The number of day
schools was 137 ; of schoolmasters, 155 ; of children taught
in day schools, 10,'226; and of children taught in Sabbath
schools, about 15,000. The number of volumes of the
Scriptures printed was 90,000. The total receipts for all pur-
poses was £50,86'6. 125., exclusive of the additional sum of
£2,812. still due to the jubilee fund.

A parliamentary return, published last week shows the
following results of the Poor Law Amendment Act, in the
year ending Lady-day, 1842 :—The names of the nine assis-
tant commissioners were Messrs. Clements, Day, Hawley,
Parker, Power, Tufnell, Twisleton, Neale, and Sir J. Wal-
sham ; the number of unions, 597 ; the number of parishes,
13,803; the area in statute acres, 28,791,726; the population
of the 597 unions, 13,762,353; average number of paupers
relieved in the workhouse, 151,592; number of medical offi-
aers employed, (2,425; aggregate amount of money paid to
them. £139,784. ; rate per head of medical expenses, lid. ;
augmentation of salaries to medical officers since Lady-day,
£917. The following statement gives the average number
of paupers relieved in England and Wales, and the expendi-
ture for the years ending the 25th of March, 1841 anrcl 18142
Year 1841. ear 1 .
In-door paupers....
Out-door ditto . . . 814;485 ...... 855,283
Cost of in-maintenance.... 4741,700 ...... £769,120
Out-relief

Establishment charges

762,120

---
Total expense £3,998,514...... 54,105,,210