Libraries, fifty-three of which are established within the Diocese-a number far short, the Committee trust, of what a few years more will exhibit; also to a grant of 10%. aided by a donation of 251. from the Rev. Archdeacon Bull, towards the formation of several sets of books and tracts to be placed in the different wards of the Devon and Exeter Hospital. Between the audit of April 1828, and that of April 1829, there have been distributed – Bibles, 60,668; Testaments and Psalters, 79,164; Common Prayer Books, 151,702 ; other bound books, 115,927; small Tracts, 967,443; Books and Papers (gratis), 230,000 - Total, 1,604,904. Of these, it is gratifying to observe, that a considerable_number, amounting in value to 2000. has been issued for the religious instruction of the Army and Navy. But it is not to the mere distribution of books, however large, to which the Committee would invite the earnest attention of the public; the several modes in which the funds of the Society have been otherwise applied towards the high purposes of promoting Christian Knowledge, assuredly deserves the sincere and thankful notice of the members. The wants and interests of Ireland, and the publication of the entire Scriptures in the common Irish language-the efficacy of the recently-established Bishoprics in the West Indies, and the instruction of the vast slave population in the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel, and the endowment of the two new Scholarships, bearing the name of Bishop Heber, in that important Missionary establishment, Bishop's College, Calcutta, cannot fail to excite a lively interest in the minds of every one who feels the value of the religion he professes. And if, (in the words of the Report from the West Cornwall District) it be the bounden duty of this opulent and powerful Christian nation to promote the knowledge and practice of pure Christianity throughout all her extensive posses

sions, our exertions are loudly called for in behalf of a Society, where funds are devoted to diffusing the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel in every way, throughout the vast extent of the British empire.

The Lord Bishop having concluded this Report, said he would immediately proceed to that of the Sister Society; and it would save time by both being taken into consideration together. His Lordship then proceeded to read the Seventh Annual Report of the Exeter Diocesan Committee of the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; from which we have room only for a very short extract.

It commences, by observing that it is impossible to peruse the interesting statements contained in the Society's Report-to trace the long, laborious, and perilous visitations of the Colonial Bishops, and to listen to the urgent appeals which are made, both for the ministration of religion among our own countrymen, in their separation from their native land, and for the advancement of Christian truth among the many heathens subject to our dominion, without feeling how much it becomes the duty of a christian people to afford the necessary means for these several and important interests of religion. The charge on the Society's expenditure, for Newfoundland, NovaScotia, and Canada, amounted in 1828, to 25,000l. The check which the Society's proceedings received in the Eastern sphere, from the continual absence of episcopal authority, is now removed by the embarkation from England of a fourth Bishop, as governor of the Indian Church. The Missionary College, near Calcutta, continues to engage the anxious attention of the Society; the buildings have been enlarged, some new scholarships have been founded, and the Institution promises to answer the objects con templated, as an important establishment for the means of propagating the Gospel among the heathen.

YOUR Committee is not able to report to its members any considerable feature in its proceedings during the past year. It has, in that time, answered the demands which District Committees and individuals have made upon its depository, by various supplies of the sacred volume and of other religious books. It is trusted, therefore, that a better, and more lasting, and more widely extended, record of its operations may be found in the different closets of its members, and in the chambers of the poor and others, where its vouchers may be seen, than any which a report of this nature could supply. When, indeed, the character of the books and tracts recommended by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is taken into view, all must allow that a committee, which can detail above 11,000 copies of the Bible and of other religious books dispersed within the last twelve months, may justly expect knowledge to have been proportionably increased; it inust be granted that it prefers a reasonable claim to the hearty co-operation of all who would be humbly instrumental in the turning of many unto righteousness.

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The Committee have pleasure in communicating to its friends the valuable accessions which have been made to the catalogues of the Parent Society. A volume of Sermons on the interesting subjects of "sickness, sorrow, and death," by that valuable practical writer, the Reverend Edward Berens, with an address to the attendants on the sick, by the Rev. J. D. Coleridge," have been added. A most valuable piece of Biography, the life of the pious James Bonnell, Esq. accomptantgeneral of Ireland, in the reign of King James, which has been long out of print, has been reprinted; an instructive story of " Penitence," selected from that excellent clergyman's manual, "Dr. Warton's Death-Bed Scenes," and "a Manual for Soldiers, by the Rev. R. G. Curtois," are also among the works recently admitted; and the whole of the Society's books and tracts are under a course of revision, in which antiquated phrases in

many have been amended, and in all an endeavour has been made to convey the soundest instruction in the most popular language and the most acceptable form.

Our correspondence with the Parent Society has been most satisfactory, and our thanks are due to that venerable board for their having recently supplied the town of Halifax with a parochial lending library of above 200 volumes at their most reduced prices. The sum of 70%. currency has been raised, independently of the funds of this Committee, by the charitable subscriptions of the benevolent towards this object; and a decent book-case has been erected for their preservation in the vestry-room at St. Paul's, where the officiating clergy of that church will henceforth be ready immediately after divine service, on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, to issue the works to such as may apply for them.

Since the last report, forty-one packages of Bibles, Books, and Tracts have been sent, several of them gratuitously, from our stores.

Bibles of various sizes and prices to the number of 236; Testaments to the number of 227; Common Prayer 346; other bound books 973; halfbound books and tracts 10,138-in all 11,920; amounting in cost to upwards of 3501., have been issued.

With respect to the funds we may observe, that our debt to the Parent Society has been considerably diminished during the past year, and that the balance at present due to it is only 2021.

we are enabled to make of the improving state of the school, which is supported among us by the liberal grants of the Provincial Legislature and the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The number of boys in daily attendance is 202. The number of girls 87. have been trained at the last ten months, who,

Ten masters school in the after having

become qualified to diffuse the benefits of the national system of education, have been settled in different stations.

The progress during the past year, of our Sunday Schools, under the most flourishing auspices, should not be unnoticed. There are at present assembled, each Sunday, an average of one hundred children of each sex.

THE object of the National Society, and the methods by which it endeavours to promote the education of the poor, are so well known, that the report for the Annual Meeting is necessarily confined to a brief detail of the most interesting events in the past year. During this period, very few circumstances have occurred to produce anxiety or regret in the minds of the Committee, but many which were calculated to inspire feelings of the most gratifying kind. The suspension or cessation of a few schools established many years since, and a small but gradual reduction which has of late taken place in the amount of the Society's annual subscriptions, are included in the former description. The first, although a matter of regret to the Committee, is a consequence they were prepared to expect from the varying circumstances of parishes, the change of incumbents, and the death or removal of individuals on whom the schools mainly depended for support; but they are happy to add that the decrease thus occasioned in the number of schools, is far more than compensated by the union of sixty additional places during the past year. With regard to the diminution of the Society's resources, this is a circumstance which, they trust, will be speedily obviated by renewed exertions on the part of their friends.

But a far heavier calamity than this has befallen the Society since the last annual meeting, in the decease of that revered Prelate, who had watched over

VOL. XI. NO. XI.

its concerns from the time of its first formation. The wisdom and prudence, the benevolence and zeal, which marked the whole of his public life, were eminently displayed in his connexion with the National Society, which owes to his memory a debt of gratitude for seventeen years of unremitting attention to its interests.

Among the causes of thankfulness and encouragement which the Committee have to acknowledge, may be numbered the general prosperity of the Institution, a growing persuasion in the public mind of its usefulness and importance, the large addition made to the Society's funds by the bequest of a charitable individual, together with the continuance and increase of that good spirit which has so long actuated the parochial clergy in promoting the religious education of the poor.

The Committee have also to acknowledge the prompt attention that has been paid by the Secretaries of district societies in general, to the papers of inquiry which have been addressed to them. Returns made from two-thirds of the places having schools in union previously to the last report, gave the following numbers:

Sunday and Daily-Boys... 100,477. Girls.. 74,136 Sunday only..... Boys. 51,089 Girls. 51,547

4 Y

Total... 277,249

Adding one-third for the places from which no accounts had been recently received, the total of children would be about 360,000. The inquiry recently made, would enable the Committee to carry this result to a greater degree of accuracy; but as a few returns are still wanting, the publication of a new list of schools is delayed till next year, when an accurate account of the Society's connexions will be laid before the public.

From the valuable suggestions received at the Anniversary of the Society of Secretaries last year, it has been determined that a general inquiry into the state of Sunday and other Church-of-England schools shall be made every fifth year; and that information shall be periodically sought for of the actual increase or decrease in the number of children educated under the Establishment.

The subject which next presents itself to notice, is the state of the Central Schools. The average number of boys on the books during the last year, has been 357, and of the girls, 206; the latter being an increase on several preceding years. Since the last report, 233 boys, and 182 girls have left the schools, a large majority of whom, viz. 179 boys and 102 girls, could read the Bible, write, cipher, and give a reasonable account of the chief truths and duties of Christianity, as taught in the Church Catechism, and proved from Holy Scripture.

Thirty-eight masters, and fourteen mistresses, have been admitted for instruction from schools in the country; forty-three schools have been provided with permanent masters or mistresses, and seventeen with assistants and monitors for a limited period; and six boys and girls have been received from schools to be trained as monitors; making a total of one hundred and eighteen schools which derived advantage from the Central School during the past year. Two of the mistresses, and one of the masters,

who have obtained permanent appointments, received their education as children in the Central School. A master and two mistresses have been admitted for instruction from the Newfoundland School Society, and one master has been recommended to a situation in Jamaica, at the request of the Lord Bishop of the diocese.

The Committee have now to report on the condition and appropriation of the funds intrusted to their care. They desire to record their unfeigned sense of obligation to the individual, whose piety and benevolence have been made instrumental in promoting the best interests of many thousands of the poorer members of our church. In August last, information was received, that James Tillard, Esq. of Petham, near Canterbury, had by will given "to the National Society in London, for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, and to encourage building schools in the metropolis, or within three miles round, for infant children of the labouring poor, 20,000l. in trust to be applied to the purposes of the said charity." Accordingly, after deducting the legacy duty, 18,0002 was received, and immediately invested in the 3 per cents. Other legacies, of which notices have been received during the year, are from Mrs. E. Shields, of Brentford, 197. 198.; from Mrs. E. Horne, of Evesham, 100.; and an equal bequest from F. Waring, Esq. lessee of the premises in Baldwin's Gardens, on which the Central School stands.

We refer our readers to the Appendix, p. 19, of the Report, for a summary view of the extensive good this excellent Society is promoting. The whole of the Report is well put together, and reflects no little credit upon the Secretary, by whom we presume it was drawn up. It may be procured at Messrs. Rivington's. See our Literary Report, p. 611.

DOMESTIC.-The revenue accounts of last quarter present a melancholy picture of the universal decay that has taken place in every branch of our national wealth, affecting our own consumption in a very material degree. The defalcation in excise duties amounts to 400,000l. upon the corresponding quarter in 1828; upon the whole year, this head of the revenue exhibits a deficiency of a million, exclusive of 150,000l. Irish tea duties, brought during the current year, for the first time, to the account of the English excise, and this decrease has been progressive. There is a great, but not a gratifying increase in the customs, as it arises entirely from the duty on imported corn; 1,322,800. for the duty on foreign grain during one quarter of the year, and the greater proportion of that already consumed, proves the excessive diminution of our own harvest, and consequent impoverishment of the agricultural classes. The whole deficit of the year, closing the 5th of last month, compared with that ending at the same period in 1828, amounts to 146,4221., and that including the above enormous corn import duty. In every other branch of the revenue there is a lamentable falling off.

The agricultural operations of the season are going forward with unremitting exertions; the farmers, availing themselves of the propitious weather during the last few weeks, to complete the ingathering of their crops, and ploughing up the land, proceeded immediately to re-sow it. The ground for the most part works well, although owing to the wetness of the season, it is inclined to be grassy. That part of the harvest remaining to be cut in the month of October, has proved better than could, from previous circumstances, have been anticipated. Much of the barley has been secured in a very good condition, and the oat has been got in well and turns out good in quality, though not large in quantity. The undercrop of grass has been very luxuriant ;

it might be almost said too much so, having frequently proved a serious obstacle to the agriculturist's exertions. He has, in numerous instances, when a short interval of dry weather has occurred, found himself unable to derive any material advantage from it, from the difficulty of separating the barley and the large portion of grass that had grown up amongst it, to prepare them for the barn or rick, notwithstanding unceasing toil and great expenses have been incurred in daily turning the swathe. The second crop of clover has, in many situations, proved abundant; but has, in some parts, been injured by the same unpropitious weather that has damaged our grain. The appearance of an abundant crop of turnips has proved very fallacious; in some good and warm soils, where they have been sown and hoed just at a fortunate interval, they have flourished, though unusually backward; but in many places the root has not grown in proportion to the head. The partial failure of this crop has had some influence on the price of sheep, which, as well as the larger cattle, have experienced a flatness and reduction in the late country fairs.

Ireland still continues in the same state of insubordination; bands of ruffians traversing the country, threatening the lives and property of the peaceable and respectable inhabitants, and continually skirmishing with the police stationed in the disturbed districts. A meeting has been convened in Dublin to organize a petition for the introduction of poor laws into the country; in every respect a most desirable object, tending not only to tranquillize the country by increasing the ties between all classes of society, but to diminish absenteeism, and to prevent our own island from being deluged with crowds of peasantry coming over to deprive the English labourers of the work they have been accustomed to derive their support from, and which, from the difference in their mode of life, they cannot afford to do