DIOCESE OF KILMORE.

INCREASE OF CHURCHES AND CHAPELS.

(From a Correspondent.)

ON Sunday, the 14th September, Kennington Chapel, formerly an Independent meeting-house, was opened for Divine Service, under the authority of the license of the Bishop of Winchester. This is the fourth dissenting meetinghouse which has been converted into a chapel of ease in this neighbourhood. The others are, Camden Chapel, Camberwell; St. John's, London Road, Southwark; and St. Paul's, Vauxhall; the two latter being added to the establishment in the past year. Previous to the Commission for Building New Churches came into operation, Lambeth possessed one church and five proprietary Chapels, one of the latter belonging to the Asylum for Female Orphans; Camberwell contained one church and two chapels of ease, and Newington one church. Lambeth now possesses one parish church, four district churches, two district chapels, and six proprietary chapels; Camberwell has two churches, two chapels of ease, and two proprietary chapels; Newington, one parish and two district churches: making an increase, in these three adjacent parishes, of twelve churches and chapels, in about the same number of years. All of them are commodious buildings, and afford church room to a far greater number of persons than the original church accommodation. This increase is worthy of record, as the dissenters decried the new churches as useless buildings, predicting that they would be without congregations; adding their usual boast that, nearly the whole population being dissenters, the scanty accommodation afforded by the parish churches was amply sufficient for those who remained in our communion. The falsehood of that assertion has been established by this increase, and the fallacy of their calculations on the effect of their voluntary system has been fully proved by the fact, that all the additional churches and chapels are without any further endowment than their individual pew rents. It is far from improbable that one or two other meetings in the same neighbourhood may be gained to the church; and, notwithstanding the great increase, a vast number of the population, with churchmen or dissenters, must remain without the possibility of attending Divine Service.

E. I. C.

FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF HIS MAJESTY'S COMMISSIONERS FOR BUILDING NEW CHURCHES.

In their last Report, his Majesty's Commissioners stated, that 198 churches and chapels had been completed, in which accommodation had been provided for 266,238 persons, including 147,015 free seats, to be appropriated to the use of the poor.

They beg now to state, that 10 churches and chapels have since been completed. In these 10 churches and chapels, accommodation has been provided for 12,811 persons, including 6,553 free seats, to be appropriated to the use of the poor. Thus, on the whole, 208 churches and chapels have now been completed, and therein a total provision has been made for 279,049 persons, including 153,568 free seats, to be appropriated to the use of the poor, the number of sittings being estimated according to a scale laid down by his Majesty's Commissioners.

His Majesty's Commissioners beg leave further to report, that 5 churches and chapels are being built,-that plans for 2 other chapels have been approved of,—and that they have proposed to make grants in aid of building churches and chapels at 10 places, the plans for which have not yet been laid

before the Board.

Since the last Report, the parish of St. Martin, Birmingham, has been again divided into two distinct and separate parishes, under the provisions of the 16th section of the Act of the 58th Geo. III. c. 45.

Ecclesiastical districts, under the 21st section of 58 Geo. III., have been formed out of the respective parishes of Great Budworth, Cheshire; St. Giles, in the city of Oxford; Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey; and a district chapelry has been assigned, under the 16th section of 59 Geo. III., c. 134, to the new chapel at Enfield, Middlesex.

His Majesty's Commissioners have, since their last Report, and without any aid from the Parliamentary Funds, afforded, or expressed their willingness to afford, facilities for obtaining additional burial-grounds for 7 parishes; and also for obtaining sites for new churches and chapels at 10 places.

Several applications have been made to the Board by various persons having built, or proposed to build and endow chapels, under the Act of the 1st and 2nd Will. IV. c. 38; and in the following cases, being within the jurisdiction of the Board, his Majesty's Commissioners propose granting the perpetual patronage, with respect to chapels so built and endowed,-viz., at Bude, in the parish of Stratton, in the county of Cornwall; Fareham, in the county of Hants; Mineham, in the parish of Gnossall, in the county of Stafford; and Levens, in the parish of Heversham, in the county of Westmoreland.

His Majesty's Commissioners have granted the perpetual patronage to the chapel built at Denford, in the parish of Kintbury, in the county of Bucks, to George Henry Cherry, Esquire, who built and endowed it. The Exchequer Bills issued to this day amount to 1,500,000l.

CHURCH MATTERS.

EDUCATION IN THE WEST INDIES. NORMAL SCHOOLS.

THE article on Education in the last Number must have roused all whose attention had not been turned to this momentous subject before, and must have convinced them that there is a regular plan in operation for wresting education out of the hands of the clergy. The Edinburgh Review, a few months ago, spoke very plainly on this subject, and the article contained a strong recommendation that Normal schools should be established everywhere. The following Letter contains some notice of a plan actually at work for bringing this about in the West Indies. It is very true, as will no doubt be observed, that the West Indies and England are not the same thing; but it is far from improbable that they who are looking to these schools in the West Indies, look also to the establishment of a precedent for England. The matter is of such importance that it is thought right to let other matter give way to this very interesting Letter, sent to the Magazine by one whose high character, knowledge, and ability give him strong claims to be heard.

To the Editor of the British Magazine.

SIR,-May I be permitted to solicit attention, through your valuable miscellany, to a small anonymous publication recently put forth under the following title-" Hints respecting the Christian Education of the Negro Population in the British Colonies"? The subject is evidently of great importance, especially at the present juncture, when a more than ordinary interest has been excited, very naturally and very

laudably, respecting the religious instruction of the negroes in our dependencies abroad. After conferring upon them the boon of emancipation, which, however excellent in itself, and however capable of becoming, with the Divine blessing, the preparation for many and great benefits, is yet liable to much abuse, it is the bounden duty of this country to use all reasonable precaution against the perversion of its benevolence and the frustration of its hopes, especially by connecting with the liberty so largely bestowed the constraint of Christian principles, to prevent it from degenerating into licentiousness. One cannot, therefore, but rejoice at the anxiety which is felt in many different quarters to promote, throughout the Colonies, the farther and more effectual diffusion of Christian views and sentiments.

In proportion, however, as this end is interesting and important, we must be the more solicitous that the means proposed for its accomplishment should be both unexceptionable in their own nature, and also adapted to the actual state of the Colonies, not overlooking, much less overthrowing, what has been already done. On this ground the "Hints" adverted to call for the most careful consideration, (before, at least, they are acted upon,) in regard both to the measures proposed, and likewise to the assumptions upon which their proposal proceeds.

The great object of the "Hints" is this:-to suggest the establishment and support, out of the funds of the Mico Charity, (now amounting to about 100,000l.) of a liberal system of instruction throughout the Colonies. This is to be done by the institution, in the first place, of a certain number of "Normal schools," (eight is the number chosen,) as a model to all others, and in which masters and mistresses should be trained for other schools of a more common description. The Normal schools it is proposed to distribute thus:-in Jamaica, two (i.e., one at Spanish Town, and one at Montego Bay); and one at each of the following places-viz., Bridgetown, Barbadoes; St. John's, Antigua; George Town, Demerara; Port-Louis, Mauritius; Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope; and Free Town, Sierra Leone. The mechanism of the schools is to be that of our national system; but the principles (as already intimated) widely different; or, rather, there is to be no religious principle at all enforced,-no " peculiar creed," at least, admitted; and therefore, of course, no inculcation,† by the teachers, of Christian motives, nor any explanation+ even of the Scriptures, when read. For it seems to be proposed, for the present,

This practice of training "natives" to be teachers is already common in the Colonies, at least in the West Indies. Many schools-indeed, almost all-have been thus supplied-the best schools being used for the purpose; so that without the word Normal, the Colonies have already the thing; and of late, at least in Barbadoes, the subject has received especial attention, and the training of teachers been placed on a more effective system than ever.

For, in so doing, the teachers would gradually insinuate their own views into the minds of their young confiding pupils. How, indeed, could it be otherwise, unless the teacher is to be a mere automaton? This, however, it is proposed to attempt to make him "by care in selecting for that office persons of liberal sentiments, as well as by the liberal nature of the instructions under which they should be bound to act."

at least, that the Bible should be read; though the writer of the "Hints" has overlooked the fact, that in several of the Colonies a large proportion of the population is nominally attached to the Romish church; and that therefore, if the principle of compromise is to be acted upon throughout, it will be necessary to abandon the Bible also: nor can we say, if we go on compromising, how soon we shall have to give up everything Christian, and get into the cold regions of mere Deism. Already are there in the Colonies many Jews, several Mahometans, and, perhaps, some infidels, whose prejudices, surely, (by the rule of compromise,) it would be a shame to outrage by insisting that the national education should be even Christian! But respecting the compromising views, on which the pamphlet proceeds, of practically teaching children habitually to regard all differences between professing Christians as unimportant; of reducing the established church to the level of any sect, however erroneous; of relinquishing, in fact, the very principle of an establishment, and placing our public schools for the education of the poor (first in the Colonies, and eventually in England,) under the conduct, and therefore, of course, under the influence, not only, it may be, of Baptists, Quakers, or Socinians, but even of Jews or deists. On these intentions my limits forbid me to enlarge. The general question is already before the public, and has been often ably, if not fully, discussed.

My object is rather to draw attention to the local question,-that is to say, to the erroneous assumptions upon which the "Hints" proceed in regard to some at least of the Colonies, and probably in regard to all; but I shall speak only of those with which I am best acquainted.

The grand assumption, namely, that the established church has done nothing or almost nothing in the work of education; that it has, in short, neglected this part of its duty, and that the ground still remains unoccupied, to be built upon by others, without any previous overthrow or injury of existing institutions, is, as regards the present state of things, altogether a mistake-for anything else but a mistake, originating in partial or imperfect information, I am unwilling to suppose it. Formerly, that is, twenty or even ten years back, when the isolated churches in the West Indies (for instance) lay in an unconnected and comparatively neglected state, with no ecclesiastical authority at hand" to set in order the things that were wanting," or "to ordain elders" where required, or to "rebuke" the negligent; and when there was no common point of union, nor even an adequate protection to the clergy in the full discharge of their duties, little, comparatively, was done for the instruction of the negroes within the establishment, excepting by individual incumbents here and there, or by the missionaries of the Negro Conversion Society. With the latter, indeed, (for nearly forty years) the negroes have been especial objects of attention, and education one of the chief means of instructing them in the Christian faith but it was not till the West Indian churches were, in 1824, united into dioceses, and placed under episcopal direction, and supplied with extended means of usefulness, that the regular instruction of the negro became generally an object of clerical attention. At that period a new

VOL. VI.-Oct. 1834.

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