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GENERAL SOCIETIES INCLUDING BAPTISTS.

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BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY.

Formed, 1808.

OBJECT:-" Promoting the education of the labouring and manufacturing classes of society of every religious persuasion."

INCOME, year ending Dec. 31, 1843

EXPENDITURE

President, the DUKE OF BEDFORD.

£10,079 1 0

9,475 16 11

Treasurer, SAMUEL GURNEY, Esq., 65, Lombard Street.
Secretary, HENRY DUNN, Esq., Central School, Borough Road.
Collector, Mr. THOMAS BOULTON, 44, Essex Street, Strand.

PEACE SOCIETY.
Formed, 1816.

OBJECT :-"The promotion of permanent and universal peace."

INCOME, year ending May 20, 1844
EXPENDITURE

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Chairman, JOHN LEE, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S.
Treasurer, SAMUEL GURNEY, Esq., 65, Lombard Street.

Secretaries

Rev. J. HARGREAVES, Waltham Abbey, and Rev. J. JEFFERSON, Stoke Newington. Collector, Mr. A. BROCKWAY, 19, New Broad Street.

AGED MINISTERS' SOCIETY.
Formed, 1818.

OBJECT :-"The relief of aged and infirm protestant dissenting ministers of the presbyterian, independent, and baptist denominations, in England and Wales, accepted and approved in their respective denominations; who having been settled pastors of congregations, have resigned their office in consequence of incapacity by age or other infirmities."

INCOME
EXPENDITURE

£451 19 2

390 9 6

Secretary, Rev. T. RUSSELL, M.A., Walworth.
Collector, Mr. ISAAC HAILES, 27, Francis Street, Walworth.

THE WIDOWS' FUND.
Formed, 1773.

OBJECT:-"The relief of the necessitous widows and children of Protestant dissenting ministers."

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Treasurer, STEPHEN OLDING, Esq., Clement's Lane. Secretary, Mr. H. K. SMITHERS, 3, Crescent, Minories. Collector, Mr. I. HAILES, 27, Francis St., Walworth, and 31, Budge Row, From whom Forms of Petitions and every other information relative to this charity may be had.

PROTESTANT UNION.
Founded, 1799.

London.

OBJECT:-The benefit of the widows and children of protestant ministers who subscribe in conformity with its rules.

INCOME and EXPENDITURE, about £2000 per annum.

Treasurer, W. ALERS HANKEY, Esq., Fenchurch Street.
Secretary, Rev. JOHN HUNT, Brixton Rise.

ORPHAN WORKING SCHOOL.

Founded, 1760.

OBJECT:-"To provide food, clothes, lodging, and education for orphans and such other necessitous children as shall be elected by the subscribers."

INCOME and EXPENDITURE, about £2000 per annum.

Treasurer, JOHN REMINGTON MILLS, Esq.

Secretary, Mr. JOSEPH SOUL, 20, Brunswick Parade, Islington.
Collector, Mr. J. HARRISON, 21, Doris Street, Kennington Cross.

NEW ASYLUM FOR INFANT ORPHANS.

Founded, 1844.

OBJECT:-"To board, clothe, nurse, and educate the infant orphan under eight years of age; and until he shall be eligible to enjoy the aid of those institutions which provide for the fatherless above that age."

FUNDAMENTAL LAW:-"That it being the design of this charity to receive and bless the fatherless infant, without distinction of sex, place, or religious connexion, it shall be a rule absolute, beyond the control of any future general meeting, or any act of incorporation, that, while the education of the infant family shall be strictly religious and scriptural, no denominational catechism whatever shall be introduced, and that no particular forms whatever shall be imposed on any child, contrary to the religious convictions of the surviving parent or guardian of such child."

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Bankers, Messrs. BARCLAY, BEVAN, TRITTON, and Co.

Sub-Secretary and Collector, Mr. W. STRUDWICKE.

Office, 32, Poultry, London, where the forms for the nomination of candidates, and information relative to the charity, may be obtained.

WALTHAMSTOW GIRLS' SCHOOL.

Established, 1838.

OBJECT:-"The education of the daughters of missionaries."

"That there be provided a comfortable residence, education, board, washing, ordinary medicines, and books; and that the total charge to the parents or guardians shall not exceed £12 per annum for each child under ten years old, and £15 for all above that age; if clothing be included, £5 per annum extra. The education to be liberal and respectable; attention to domestic affairs to be taught at a suitable age. The whole to be conducted with a strict regard to utility, habits of economy, and comfort.'

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Secretaries, Mrs. F. A. Cox, Hackney, Mrs. FOULGER, Walthamstow.
Corresponding Secretary, Miss WILLS.

Collector, Mr. HINE, 10, Allan Terrace, Kensington.

WALTHAMSTOW BOYS' SCHOOL,

OBJECT: "The education of the sons of missionaries."
Treasurer, W. D. ALEXANDER, Esq.

Honorary Secretary, Rev. J. J. FREEMAN, Blomfield Street.

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BELIZE, HONDURAS.

Mr. Henderson, our laborious missionary at this station, having long wished for a colleague, and especially one practically acquainted with the art of printing, is about we hope to see the fulfilment of his desire. Mr. J. P. Buttfield was set apart for this purpose on the 23rd of September, at the Baptist Chapel, Box Moor, Herts. The services were conducted by Mr. Fraser of Lambeth, Mr. Gould of Dunstable, and Mr. Gotch, who had been Mr. Buttfield's pastor. Mrs. Buttfield is grand-daughter of Dr. Carey, being the daughter of Mr. Jonathan Carey late of Calcutta. They sailed on the 13th of Nov., in the Echo, Captain De Quettville.

RETROSPECT OF HALF A CENTURY.

The following ingenious comparison between the commencement of missionary exertions in this country, and the scenes which were taking place at the same time in a neighbouring land, was made by Dr. W. R. Williams of New York in a discourse delivered in June, 1842, at the close of the twenty-seventh session of the Hudson River Baptist Association.

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When the foreign missions of our British Reason" was in preparation, intended to brethren commenced, the French revolution carry on the same work through the language had begun. The opening scenes of that fear- and literature of England. The privileged ful drama arrested all eyes. Its violent and and titled classes, who saw with horror the wondrous changes, and its terrific victories, political changes, were largely infected with were filling the civilized world with hope or the principles of this revolt against religion. alarm. The year of Carey's missionary dis- And many who might dread French decourse was that in which the September mas-mocracy, were but too partial to French sacres drenched the prisons of Paris with gore atheism. Then it was, when the people were by a series of butcheries more atrocious than thus "imagining a vain thing," and saying of the judicial murders of the guillotine. Amid Him that sitteth on the throne, and of his these sanguinary and frantic convulsions at anointed Son, "Let us break their bands home, the French people were looking abroad asunder, and let us cast away their cords with undaunted mien; and their National from us," that He whose name and being Convention, in the same year, flung down the they would abolish, laughed, and the gauntlet of defiance to all the governments of Highest held them in derision." When the Europe, by pledging assistance and fraterni- pride of hell was thus assailing his church in zation to all nations who would rise and battle the west, he replied but by calling for a new for their own freedom. The following year, and vigorous onset upon the gates of the that in which the English missionaries set enemy in the ancient east. The times of the sail, was that in which France gave proof of ignorance there long winked at, were now to her stern abjuration of all monarchical go- end. He summoned to his service in the vernment by bringing her sovereign to the conflict a very poor, but a very learned and block, and the blood of the houses of Bourbon pious man. From the lap-stone and the awl and Hapsburgh, among the oldest of the he had called him. And he came. He put royal lines of Europe, flowed on the scaffolds into the hands of him, and his humble assoof her capital. It was not a mere revolution, ciates, some £13, and bade them, thus furit was a war of opinions, upheaving the old nished, to assail the paganism of India, with foundations of society, and the most cherished its myriad gods, and its myriad fanes, enand venerated principles of antiquity. Not trenched in massive and time-worn fastnesses, only were the floods of change shaking the that centuries of power had built up, until base of each European throne, but the they they seemed impregnable. It was as if authority of heaven was boldly questioned a grain of sand from the desert had been comand cast off. French infidelity was already manded to lift itself up on the wings of the maddening all Europe, and Paine's Age of wind, dash itself against the pyramids of

Egypt, and shatter their mountain masses for far other destinies by that providence of into dust. But hopeless as was the task, and which he took little thought. The event is inadequate as were the means, at his bidding caught up by every gazette, and is the theme these poor but devoted men moved onward to of comment in every civilized land. On that the unequal enterprise. As soon as literature incident the destinies of the world seemed to could descry objects so insignificant, she over- hinge. Yet, four days after, in a far distant whelmed them and their enterprise with peals land nearer the rising sun, an event occurred of mocking laughter and heartless derision, of which no gazette, as we believe, took note But they held on their way in the serenest but which was scarce less significant in its meekness. What their God had commanded results. It was Carey "desecrating," to use they knew was right, what he had promised his own phrase, the waters of the sacred they felt was sure. There was seen the Ganges by the immersion of his first Hindu mighty magnanimity of faith. It was amid convert. The chain of caste has been broken. such scenes of confusion and dismay, in such We fancy that the rabble of gods who crowd a day, dark with rebuke and blasphemy, that the Hindu Pantheon looked on, aghast at the Carey and his coadjutors planned their mis- sight, feeling that the blow was one well sions for the welfare of the distant east. It aimed, and that struck at the very heart of was not for the want of objects requiring their their power. When we look at durable recare at home that t ey went abroad. The sults, which seems the more eventful incident, labours of Wesley and of Howard, who had the escape of the great Captain, or that first but just then ended their race, had shown success of the lowly missionary? The course how fearful was the mass of misery left un- of the soldier, after a series of the most splenrelieved, and of ignorance yet untaught, that did triumphs, in which, to use his own were to be found in Christian Britain. But favourite phrase, he seemed to chain victory there were many to whom these domestic to his standards, closed in defeat and capnecessities might be well committed; a heavier tivity. The career of the conquerer of Lodi, necessity was laid on them to heed the distant of Austerlitz, and of Jena, was terminated in cry of the dying millions of heathenism. In December, 1793, the devoted preacher had but recently set foot on the shores of India. As yet, ignorant of the language, we find him in that month with a congregation composed only of his own family and that of his associate in the mission but he is anticipating much pleasure when he shall be able to preach in their own tongue to the benighted Hindus. Little does he suspect that six weary years are to elapse ere he shall be allowed to welcome one sincere convert. In that same month, when the cheerful missionary is thus girding himself to the work, a lieutenant of artillery is distinguishing himself by effecting for the French armies the capture of a besieged sea-port on the southern coast of France.

The name of that young engineer is yet to resound through all lands. It is Napoleon, the star of whose glory is seen skirting the horizon and beginning to emit its first glimmerings at the close of the year which brought Carey to India, and when the pious missionary was labouring over the rudiments of the Beagali. How distinguished was the career that soldier was to run! The instrument in the hands of providence for shaking the powers of Europe and bringing into a new shape the whole structure of its society, he went on winning battles, dictating treaties, putting down kings, and overthrowing dynasties, until many were ready to deem him more than man. Some seven years after his success at Toulon, that victorious general has become the first consul of France. It is the 24th of December, and he is driving through the streets of Paris, when a fearful explosion is heard behind his carriage. It was intended for his destruction, but he escapes it, preserved

In

disaster and exile. The flames of Moscow
and the rock of St. Helena were a melancholy
comment on the instability of all earthly
glory, and the utter impotence of all mortal
prowess. The year in which your association
was formed, 1815, was that which smote
down his power on the field of Waterloo.
vain was his gigantic genius, in vain the re-
morseless conscriptions that drained France of
her sons-in vain the energy of despair
wielding all the resources of his consummate
tactics. A few years after, the Great Captain
died, on a lonely island in the ocean, his soul
seething impatiently with wishes never to be
realized, his mind teeming with vast projects
that perished in their conception; with his
parting breath muttering indistinctly and de-
liriously of armies which he no longer headed.
But the missionary said in his later years that
he had no wish that was left ungratified.
Who was then the happier man? The bril-
liant victories of the one scarce kept pace, in
their number, with the dialects into which the
other translated the lively oracles of God.
Give to the mighty warrior the honours of an
exalted intellect, with which that of the
humble missionary can never be compared—
give to him the unmatched influence he ex-
ercised over the diplomacy and civilization of
all Europe-give to him the 2,200,000 con-
scripts that perished in his service, and the
myriads that were sacrificed in the armies of
his adversaries. Set over against these the
gates of eastern dialects opened to the scho-
lars of Europe by that missionary; Chris-
tian churches planted, and the Christian
scriptures translated; and an impulse given
to the mind of heathen India, of which it is
equally idle to dispute the present extent or

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