Mr. BARTON was chosen to the pastoral office. He resigned in 1819, and removed to Wincanton in Somersetshire. On Mr. Burton's departure, Mr. EDWARDS succeeded.

SOUTH STREET (Baptist ).--Of the early history of this church we have but little to communicate. The succession of ministers appears to be as follows:--PHIPPS, TOWNES, RICHARD SAMPSON, JOHN LUCAS, JOHN INGRAM, D. STEnnett, J. JENKINS, J. WOODMAN, J. JONES, J. LEWIS, E. FRANCIS, WILLIAM CLARKE, MANNING, D. SPRAGUE, THOMAS EDWARDS, and SAMUEL KILPIN, the present pastor. In the time of Mr. CLARKE, who took the charge of this church in 1700, and continued till his death in 1796, there was a great revival in the church and congregation. Soon after his death the cause fell into a declining state. Mr. Kilpin settled here in 1813. His labours have been eminently blessed, and the church has much increased. There are now about 170 members. A very flourishing Sabbath-school, of 200 children, is connected with the congregation. A small meetinghouse has been built at the eastern extremity of the city, through the exertion of Mr. Kilpin and his friends; in which service is performed in the week, and occasionally on the Sabbath. A school of industry is also supported by the members of this congregation. Since Mr. Kilpin's settlement, the church has admitted Pædobaptists to sit down at the table. This congregation has been liberally endowed, receiving annually from houses

PAUL'S STREET (Baptist).--There is a small congregation of Baptists meeting for worship in a room in Paul's Street, under the care of Mr. ARNOLD, who, in 1817, quitted the Church of England, and relinquished two livings in the county of Essex. He is considered to be high in doctrinal sentiments; but, it is presumed, he does not hold the opinions of the generality of the late Seceders respecting the Trinity.

BARTHOLOMEW (Seceders).--This is a large and handsome edifice, built at the sole expense of Mr. G. BARING, one of the recent Seceders, and opened by him for public worship in 1818. After preaching here a few months, Mr. Baring left, and was succeeded by Mr. MASON. The congregation consists of four or five hundred people. The church, which is composed of Baptists, has about eighty members.

HARTLAND (Independent).--An Independent interest has lately been raised here, under pleasing circumstances.

A

neat meeting-house is erected; the attendance is good; and there is every prospect of usefulness.

HATHERLEIGH.--Some years since there was a Dissenting cause in this town, under the care of Mr. Castle. It is understood that this gentleman was an Arian. Under his ministry the congregation decreased, and at present there is no DisSenting interest in the place.

ILFRACOMBE.--The old Dissenting interest in this town had gradually declined,under the chilling influence of Arianism, until, by the recent adoption of a different strain, the empty pews have been filled with attentive hearers, and it has been found necessary to build a new meeting house on a larger scale. The present minister is Mr. H. BESLEY.

FORD (Independent). - The Dissenting cause in this place cominenced soon after the Act of Uniformity, though no documents are preserved of its ancient history. The former meeting house was situated at the farther extremity of the village, from the scite of the present one. It was leasehold property; and, when decayed, and nearly falling into the hands of the lord of the manor, was forsaken, and a freehold spot of ground purchased, on which the present building was erected. This was about the year 1745. In the year 1792, an additional piece of land was purchased, and appropriated to a burial-ground. About eight years ago, the meeting-house was considerably enlarged, so as to render it a spacious and comfortable place of worship. There are three small endowments belonging to this interest: one of six pounds per annum, left, in the year 1710, by Mary Hodge, to be paid out of an estate, called Molescombe, in the neighbourhood. Another of four pounds per annum; together with three suits of clothes, viz. a coat, hat, shoes, stockings, and shirt, to three poor men of the parish of Stokingham; left, about eighty years since, by Andrew Jeffery, of the said parish, to be paid out of his estate, by the Company of Fullers, Weavers, &c. of the Fullers' Hall, Exeter. The clothes are distributed at the discretion of the minister; and the annual bequest of four pounds is so limited, that the money cannot be demanded, except there be a minister settled at Ford. The third endowment is one of three pounds per annum, left, about sixty years since, by Richard Cornice. Mr. RICHARD WALSH is the first minister of whom we have any account. He was ordained here, April 22, 1690, and died in November, 1729. In all probability, he never left Ford. On June 28th, 1732, Mr. RICHARD MOORE was ordained as his successor. Mr. Moore remained here upwards of ten years, and died September 7, 1754. Mr. EVANS was the next in succession. He

in crowds to visit them. Fellows fantastically dressed parade the streets, begging in the name of the church "per gli morti" for the dead. A little German boy, a protegé of the Countess Etroff, asked his tutor, "What do the dead want money for? They don't buy any thing." His tutor told him, it was the priests who wanted the money to pray for the dead; but this did not seem quite to satisfy him. I am afraid you will be as tired of all this nonsense as I am; but the reflections it gives rise to are most melancholy. I used to go into the churches when I first came to Naples to hear the sermons; but the nonsense dealt out from the pulpit was so disgusting, that I have long since given it up. The last sermon I heard, contained the following exposition of Christian doctrine, which I will endeavour to give you as near as I can in the priest's own words. When I went in, he was describing the fall of man, and expected, with some curiosity, an account of the redemption; but his time was out, and he suddenly broke off by saying, I will now tell you, as I cannot go through my subject, who are those who obtain the kingdom of heaven. There are four classes-the first obtain it in the way of barter--the second buy it-the third steal it-and the fourth are driven into it. I pricked up my ears. He went on; the first are those pious persons, monks, friars, hermits, and nuns who withdraw from the world into cells and caverns, and there practising austerities and mortifying the flesh, may be fairly said to exchange the delights of this life for the hope of that which is to come. The second are those individuals, who possessing either inherited or acquired property, have freely given it up to the church and to the poor, and so have purchased an inheritance in heaven. The third are those who, unable from various causes to quit the world, have, in their commerce with mankind, privately practiced all the Christian virtues; they are like the woman who pressed into the crowd, and touched by stealth the hem of Christ's garment; these may be said to steal the kingdom of heaven: and the fourth class are those poor, and needy, and miserable who having no enjoyment in this life, are driven by suffering and misfortune to seek for the hope of the righteous; and so may be considered as forced into the kingdom of heaven. I hope I have not misinterpreted my priest, 1 think I have given the spirit, and almost the very words of his brief exposition. He ended, by calling upon his audience to fall down before the image of the Virgin, to beg of her to intercede with her son, that they might all be numbered in one or other of the above classes! I left them on their knees.

I have been several times lately to Pompeii, and always with increased in

terest. They go on very slowly in their excavations, but they have lately opened up a good many interesting objects. The public baths, which are very beautiful, and a private house superbly decorated, which they call, for what reason I know not, the House of the Tragic Poet. The pictures on the walls, like all the rest that have been discovered, are of very unequal merit; evidently the work of different hands, and evidently copied from different originals; I say copied, because I am convinced that all the paintings in Pompeii and Herculaneum are only imitations of much better things which possibly existed there, but have been destroyed. The internal evidence is what I rest upon. The drawing and execution of the parts is in many cases so much inferior to the design, that I am sure the hand that painted them did not belong to the head that conceived them. I have not yet reached as far as the Greek temple at Pastum, it takes three days to accomplish it. I suppose I must go before I leave the country, more for the sake of saying I have been, than for any pleasure I anticipate in the excursion.

Two friends of mine, a clergyman and an artist, have just returned from Greece, where they have been passing the summer. They give deplorable accounts of the state of the country, and are entirely without hope of Grecian emancipation; they say, the dreams of the English newspapers on the subject are worse than ridiculous. From what they state, the Greeks have no moral stamina to work upon; they say that they can never be got to act together, and that when they have had any success, it has been all attributed to the foreigners who have acted with them. Their towns are almost all destroyed, and they are rapidly assuming the character of wandering tribes, who will ultimately become robbers and pirates.

A circumstance happened here the other day, which ought to have been told in another place, but you must not expect arrangement in letters like mine, written a baton rompeii. The tutor of General Koller's children, who is a young Catholic priest, cut his throat, and left a letter to the General, stating, that he had long been struggling between his passions and his Vows, and he had at length come to the determination of destroying himself, rather than break those oaths which he had solemnly sworn in the face of the church and before God. He said his case was a severe one, as he had been almost forced into the priestly office by his friends. By prompt and skilful medical aid, his life has been saved; to what state of suffering he is restored, none but himself can know. General Koller is one of the Austrians Generals, who commanded the army of occupation. You may rely on the accuracy of this statement.

The Committee are waiting to receive exact information relative to the minor cases of spoliation, outrage, and other injuries, upon persons and families not banished, in order to make a further and probably final distribution. The following narrative relates to the individual No. I. in

the last number of the Congregational Magazine. There is now no need to suppress the name; the forty pounds which have been remitted for his use, will be a seasonable relief to his widow and orphans. Our correspondent remarks, referring, no doubt, to the atrocious assassinations and persecutions at Nismes, and the surrounding district, ten years ago. "It is not a little remarkable that Nismes should have given an asylum and sepulture to a Protestant minister persecuted and banished from the very Canton to which so many persecuted fled for refuge, at the period of the revocation of the edict of Nantz." In the name of the London Committee, J. PYE SMITH.

Dec. 13, 1826.

THE FATAL SUFFERINGS OF M. JUVET.

"M. Juvet, banished from the Canton of Vaud, for the testimony of the Lord Jesus, sought an asylum in a neighbouring Canton, but his request was denied. He retired to Ferney-Voltaire, and pursued his charitable labours without molestation; but he had to contend with the pulmonary disease, from which he had already suffered. This malady was considerably aggravated by an excursion to L'Isle and Montrichen, to visit those who were dis. posed to hear the Word of God. He was insulted, attacked, and pursued by the populace from town to town, and at L'Isle, where he arrived quite exhausted, and in a profuse perspiration, after much ill treatment, he was thrown into a cold dungeon, with only a chair, and some chopped straw on which to pass the night. His friends

were not permitted to give him either food, fire, or clothing, and in this state he was detained during fifteen hours. He was

also confined during two months in the prison of Yverdun, where a violent diarrhoea was added to his ordinary indisposition, and where medical attendance and treatment were denied. On leaving the prison, and during the preparation for his trial, he visited some Christians formed into a small society at Saint Croix. He was arrested, and expelled the commune by the armed force. After such repeated exposure to cold, insult, privation, pursued on every side, always occupied in the work of the ministry, in season and out of season, it may be easily conceived that his disease could not but make a regular and rapid progress. Some time before his death, he was desirous of going to Nismes. He constantly prayed for his persecutors, whether the magistrates or the mob.

"Being informed that some peasants of L'Isle and Montrichen, had manifested repentance, he raised his eyes towards heaven, and prayed that his death might be an occasion of eternal life to many of these poor people. He often spake of his departure, was much in prayer, and frequently shed tears of sacred joy.

"After having prayed with him, M. Malan asked him if he was happy in the prospect of death? How can I do otherwise than rejoice,' said he, in the expectation of so soon beholding him, who has so loved me?' Two or three months before his death, the Lord took away a son whom he had given him; all who saw him know with what resignation he supported this loss; even unbelievers were constrained to admire. His kindness and benevolence were well known. France offered him an asylum, and he there led a peaceable life, under the protection of the government; the Protestant ministers of that country received him as a brother."

THE INCREASE OF POPERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

A Roman Catholic Journal boasts of the extraordinary progress of Popery in the United States of America within the last forty years, and exults in the fact, that in 1790, there was only one convent in all the republic, but now there are ten colleges and ecclesiastical seminaries; besides twenty-four convents, and other religious associations, distributed over the several dioceses which have been formed since that period. This fact is capable of explanation, without admitting that proselytism to the church of Rome, is rapidly advancing in North America, for it is only necessary to recollect, that during the above period, the rebellion in Ireland, and the revolution in France, with the various changes which have subsequently

Occurred throughout Catholic Europe, have occasioned the emigration of a vast population to the United States, who carried with them their educational attachment to the religion of their ancestors. But still Protestants on each side of the Atlantic must no longer slumber.

DISCUSSION WITH THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

In consequence of the discussion which has taken place between the Committee of the Religious Tract Society, and the Congregational Board, respecting the proposed publication of an abridgment of Milner's Church History, some account of which was given in our last Number, an extraordinary meeting of the Board was convened on Tuesday, the 13th ulti

mo.

At this meeting, which was very numerously attended, the Board appointed a Committee, consisting of the Rev. Dr. Winter and the Rev. Messrs. Davies, Blackburn, Fletcher, Orme, and the Secretary, to receive the deputation of the Tract Society; and to adopt such other measures, as to them might appear expedient for accomplishing the wishes of the Board. This Committee accordingly met, and came to a series of resolutions in vindication of the past conduct of the Board, and in farther explanation of the reasons of its opposition to the publication of Milner's Church History, by the Religious Tract Society. An interview afterwards took place between the Committee and the deputation of the Tract Society, when these resolutions were communicated, and a long and friendly conversation ensued. It affords us sincere pleasure to learn, that in consequence of these measures, the Committee of the Religious Tract Society, on Tuesday the 25th ultimo, came to the following resolution, which we trust will terminate this discussion in a manner satisfactory to all parties.

"Resolved unanimously, That the Committee of the Religious Tract Society, having considered the friendly communication of the Committee of the Congregational Board, cheerfully adopt the suggestion to publish the prepared work on their own responsibility, without the author's

name.

THE ADDRESS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, TO CHRISTIAN MINISTERS OF EVERY DENOMINATION.

It would have afforded us pleasure to have given increased publicity to an affecting address, by inserting it in our columns; but a press of matter forbids it. We doubt not, however, that the ministers of Christ universally possess one common feeling upon the iniquities of a system, which at once enslaves, in body and in mind, 830,000 immortal beings, our fellow men and fellow subjects too! Already have many of them advocated,

with powerful eloquence, from the pul pit and the hustings, the cause of negro emancipation, and we trust, that those who can thus controul public opinion, will righteously employ their influence, till from every part of the united kingdom the voice of a free people shall be heard demanding of an enlightened legislature, that the negro may be free. The body of Dissenting Ministers of the Three Denominations, Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, assembled, on 31st ult. "to consider the expediency of presenting petitions to the Legislature, for the entire and speedy suppression of slavery in the British Colonies;" and we hope to present our readers with the result, honourable to that venerable Association, and exemplary to the whole Dissenting Ministry, in our next number.

A LIST OF COUNTY ASSOCIATIONS.

Deeply convinced of the value of the County Associations of Congregational Ministers and Churches, we are anxious to furnish the public with a complete list of them, with the names and abodes of their secretaries; the periods when they meet, and the number of ministers and churches united in each; by which a correspondence with the whole body, when necessary, will be greatly facilitated, and, to a certain extent, its most desirable union advanced. We are satisfied the fol

lowing list is defective, and perhaps inground-work of one more complete, such correct; but we publish it to furnish the as we have described; and we trust that our correspondents, during the coming year, will bear this object in mind, and shall enable us to present them with so favour us with such communications as

useful a schedule in our last number of the present volume.

Cheshire. Rev. J. Turner, Knutsford. Cornwall. Rev. T. Wildboar, Penrhyn. Devon. Rev. H. Bromley, Appledore. Derbyshire. Rev. Mr. Gawthorn, Derby. Dorsetshire. Rev. T. Durant, Poole. Matheson, Durham. Durham, with Northumberland. Rev. J

Essex. Rev. J. Morrison, Stebbing. Glocester. Rev. J. Edkins, Nailsworth. Hampshire. Rev. W. Priestley, Fordingbridge.

Leicestershire. Rev. E. Webb, Leicester. Middlesex and Herts. Union. Rev. J. Knight, Mile End. Northamptonshire. Northampton.

Rev. B. Edwards,

Somerset. Rev. T. Golding, Poundsfield Park.

Staffordshire. Rev. B. Brook, Tutbury. Sussex. Rev. James Edwards, Brighton. Warwickshire and Worcester. Rev. Timothy East, Birmingham.

Wiltshire. Rev. Richard Elliot, De

vizes.