The Cannock Chase Examiner. — 1876-05-12 (Cannock, Staffordshire, England)

TIIE MAY MEETINGS.  The British and Foreign Bible Society laid out last year more ihan -V200,000. The Church Missionary Society did not fall much below the same sum. We must remember, too, that the whole of what we have lately been seeing is the faint and imperfect reflection of a small part of England's voluntary work. We bear of a great deal, but there is a great deal more behind of which we do not hear now, or of whioh we do not hear at all, but which ill juS6 as vital as the rest. Such a total, however we may regard it, is certainly not to be overlooked or slighted. Rather it is one of the most important forms in which our national life reveals itself, one of the most assured proofs we have of its intensity and worth. It is no .little matter that such work has been going on, and under such stimulus and direction. It is the work, of course, of imperfect agents, and, therefore, not wholly admirable, and by no means exempt from errors. But even so we may be proud of it, and may even more feel sure that it is worth improving. On the whole, there is a very fair agreement between the objects at which the different societies have been aiming, even whore they have been most unlike. Missions to the heathen world outside and efforts to deal with heathendom at our own doors are but different parts of the same great idea, and proceed in different ways in obedience to the same command. We could easily multiply the in-' stances of this harmony. It is, as we have said, the rule, but it is not the universal rule, and we must look, therefore, at the exceptions as well as at the examples. The first of these which forces it-elf upon us now will be furoished by the Liberation Society. Some of its members are, no doubt, members of other societies too, and with a less negative aim and title. We know the account which these would give of their presence among the friends of Church disestablishment. They would regard, or would profess to regard, the Established Church as the great enemy of voluntary min, anti would olaim to be rendering an important service to the cause of religious freedom and, therefore, to the cause of the Church herself, by doing all they can to f se a religious body from what they would term the bonds of the State. This Is not what others would say, by whose side they have been lately standing. The effort to promote disestabliehnient may 'conic either from the wish to pour new life into the Church, or frOin the wish to give it a deathblow. The want of perfect agreement among our different voluntary agencies is clear, however necessary or excusable. We find, too, in the speeches at the May meetings of other societies that there is sometimes a trace of needless acrimony, not much, perhaps, in itself, and not always unprovoked, but a little more obvious than we could with. Nor can we wholly avoid the reflection that some of the ends pursued most earnestly, and some of the means employed for promoting them, are at beet of very doubtful value. Much as we esteem national sobriety, we must yet doubt the aim of the National Temperance League, which addresses itself especially to men of moderate habits, and thinks these the most proper objects of its reforming zeal. In missions, again, there is ample roam for more judgment than we can discern at present, for more distinction of kind between hopeful and hopeless fields of labour. There are regions we know in which the new message mar be delivered with the certainty that it will do good; while there are others in which the case Is doubtful, and some in which the balance of advantage is rather ihe other way, and in which more harm than good is likely to result from turning things upside down by such agencies as we can as yet press into Ithe service.— Times.  At the Bow street Pollee-court, last week, William Vance, medical student, and Mrs. Snee were committed for trial for conspiracy to murder. Dr. Bond, who examined the druge fouud at the prisoner Vance'e residence, Bald all the bottles contained drugs which would destroy  M. I.eon Leendier. riireetor of the ThV,tre Its lien of Pans, ha. offered an engarement to Madame Patti, whereby IC rhea i• to Rive twenty-five performances n>, • ...rot,at thP Salle Ventulnur. at a salary of WOO