of its benefits. It has been, as has been well observed, like an opulent and disinterested individual settling in a vicinage, who by draining stagnant marshes, unclogging choked up streams, and digging new and copious channels, has increased the value of all the adjacent lands, and spread a new fertility over the face of the whole country.

But, Sir, after disposing of this point, another may be proposed, Whether the blessing of God appears to encourage the efforts of the Society? Because after all that can be said in recommendation of the design, yet if no spirit of co-operation should spread itself around, and no particular blessing of God seem to call on it to proceed, considerate persons might be inclined to divert their labours towards some more promising quarter. On this topic I rejoice to say, that if ever a religious institution enjoyed the peculiar blessing of Providence, it is surely this. What can equal the ardour with which it has been greeted at home and abroad? In what nation do not kings and princes and prelates and governors vie with each other in affording it their protection? Who could ever have imagined, that in twelve years it should have reached the elevation where it now stands, the admiration of every other people and the glory of our own? Sir, such a plan might have been conceived and have perished in the birth. It

might, like a thousand excellent schemes of benevolence, have been limited in its operations to a narrow and obscure circle. What thanks then do we owe to the Father of mercies for the extent and prosperity of our cause? Its fame, or rather its benefits, have reached the most distant lands. It has united men of every nation and every clime in one simple plan of peaceful yet magnificent enterprise. It has kept pace with our national glory, and has sanctified our wealth and our prowess to our God. In the mean time, at home the system of general education has increased the readers of the Bible in proportion as the facilities for obtaining it increased. Inventions in the art of printing have come in aid of the design—the stereotype plates first, and then the rotatory press, have so expedited the process, that copies of the Scripture are now multiplied with incalculable ease. The skill of the learned and the researches of the missionary have contributed to the same cause, and translations of the Bible have been made into almost every language of the globe. And, what is most important, the universal eagerness at home and abroad to possess the Scriptures, and to assist in forming auxiliary institutions, the spirit of inquiry into the nature of Christianity in Heathen and Mo-> hammedan countries, with the moral and reli

gious effects apparent wherever the Society has spread its sacred stores, attest the excellence of its object, and the singular favour of God which rests upon it.

There remains therefore but one more consideration to which I will entreat a moment's attention. It may be asked, Whether we ought to continue to support this great Institution? Such a question, Sir, I do not consider to be doubtful. I only propose it in order that we may pledge ourselves the more deliberately to the cause. What the Society has already accomplished is nothing to what yet remains before it. The whole world is intent on our further proceedings. Whether indeed it may please God at this time to fulfil the word of prophecy, and spread the light of Christianity throughout the dark corners of the earth, it is not for us to presume to say; but certainly no period since the promulgation of Christianity has afforded fairer hopes or more inviting opportunities. And I believe I may undertake to say, on behalf of the noble President and the other officers of the British and Foreign Bible Society, that they are determined to persevere in the course on which they have entered. I believe I may assert, that the news communicated at every committee binds them more closely to their purpose.

I believe I may affirm, that

they only wait for the increased support of their numerous affiliated bodies to extend immeasurably their operations. I believe I may assure you, that the objections to their cause which may perhaps, like the clouds of your lofty mountains, hover round the distant portions of the scene, obscure not the fair sunshine which gilds the summit where they stand surveying the glowing prospect and drinking with prescient eye the glories of the rising day. And I am sure I may infer from the pleasure which beams from every countenance around me, that it will not be in Wales that the first example of defection will be shown. It is not in the manner of the inhabitants of the prineipality to desert so high a cause. Much less will they renounce a design, to which they had the peculiar felicity of first giving occasion.

But I perceive, Sir, that I have insensibly arrived at the particular motion with which I am to conclude these common, and I fear tedious, remarks. I am requested to move your thanks to Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart. M. P. President of the Merionethshire Auxiliary Bible Society, and to the Vice-Presidents, for their patronage during the last year. I propose this motion, Sir, with the utmost pleasure, because our warmest acknowledgments are justly due to those distinguished persons who lead the

way in this work of mercy. And if I am to judge of the other officers of your Institution by the munificent character of your President, few auxiliary societies can boast of higher support. I speak thus because that honourable individual is known to me, as he is to every Briton, by the extent of his charities and the warmth of his benevolence. It so occurs that a most valuable Institution-the Honourable and Loyal Society of Ancient Britons, under whose patronage above one hundred destitute Welsh children are entirely maintained, and which is just now enlarging its plan for the reception of thirty or forty additional objects—regularly attends the church where I officiate in London, and has not left me ignorant of the benevolent character of your President. I most cheerfully take the liberty therefore of moving your thanks to a personage who thus unites the most enlarged charity to local institutions with the support of a cause which, like the Bible Society, embraces the spiritual necessities of the whole world.

I shall conclude, Sir, by again entreating the pardon of this numerous assembly for the length into which I have been betrayed, and by suggesting that the best comment on the excellency of our Society is the purity of our tempers and the holiness of our lives, our dili