other duties.

God multiplies and enlarges our means of usefulness, our friends, and our opportunities; He gives us increase where we did not expect it; and what is done in one direction is reproduced, as it were, in another. A church which disobeys her Lord's command to carry God's word to the Heathen, is not likely to persevere in the work of building herself up among her own people; and it is quite certain that never has the Church of England been so powerful, so popular, so much respected, so much loved and honoured, as it has been since her members have devoted themselves earnestly to the extending her borders abroad. But, my Lord, I said that I should not detain you long. I felt that, in the peculiar circumstances in which I was placed, it was not so much necessary for me to give exhortations which many other persons present are much more competent to give than I am, as to make a declaration of principles, to declare what are my hopes and intentions in taking this office upon me. I felt that it was not so much an individual who was asked to move the Resolution as an office. I shall, therefore, say nothing more, unless it be to remind you, in a few words, how sacred an office mine is, and how difficult and pressing are its claims upon you as well as upon me. The bishopric of Calcutta, as the centre of Protestant Christianity in India, has very precious memories associated with it, not only in the names of those who have actually held it-Heber, and Middleton, and Wilson, who went to their rest too early to be able to carry out their designs -but all who have laboured in the Missionary field, Schwartz, and Buchanan, and Martyn, and others, who have left us to carry on their work which they so nobly began. Their memories appeal to us this day. But may we not go much further than this? May we not say that not the memories of the just alone, but our Lord Jesus Christ, is appealing to us, to whom the work has been committed; to us, who look up to Him for strength to carry it on; to us, for whom He has lived and died; to us, whom He has taught by Apostles; to us, to whom He has declared in His word that it is His will that all men should be saved, that men of all climates, and countries, and languages, should be brought to a knowledge of the truth?

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. -Sketch of Report. The answer already given to the appeal for twenty Missionaries [for the East] is sufficient to con

vince the Directors that, in this proposal, they have the hearty sympathy of their friends throughout the country. Within three months nearly £11,000 have been promised towards the object; and a confident hope may be cherished that, by the close of the year, additional funds will be realized adequate to its full accomplishment. The total annual income from ordinary sources is £72,996. 10s. 8d.; being an increase of £6,659. 2s. 8d. The amount received from the Australian and the Foreign Auxiliaries is £819. 5s.; being less than the preceding year by £1,048. 18. 6d. The expenditure of the Society for ordinary purposes has been £64,059. 13s. 9d.; being a decrease on that of the former year of £2,799. 15s. ld., without involving any diminution of the Society's operations. The preceding statement is exclusive of the fund for the establishment of new Missions in South Africa, amounting to £7,076. 6s. 5d., and that promised for the extension of Indian Missions, approaching the sum of £11,000. The number of the Society's ordained Missionaries last reported was 152; and it is an unusual demand for gratitude, that, in the interval, death has not been permitted to diminish that number in a single instance, while two additional brethren, Messrs. Blake and Jones, have been sent forth to strengthen the Missionary band in India. In Tahiti, the Rev. William Howe, amidst many obstructions, continues in charge of the Bible-depository and the press, and renders also most valuable services in the defence of the truth, and in animating and sustaining the minds both of the native Pastors and their flocks. Though forbidden to commend the Gospel to the native Christians, he regularly preaches to the British and other foreigners located at Papeetee. In the Society Islands, the political strife that in former years occasioned much pain and sorrow to our Missionaries, has happily ceased, and the condition and prospects of their several churches are truly encouraging. The Mission-churches of Hervey Islands continue to present the same aspect of vitality and beauty by which they have been distinguished in former years. The Rev. Aaron Buzacott has been compelled, by severe and long-continued suffering, to retire from his beloved work in Rarotonga. In the Samoan or Navigators' Islands, the restoration of peace has happily been preserved, and our Missionaries have been able to prosecute, without interruption, their various efforts for the social and religious improvement of the people; and, notwithstanding occasions

of sorrow and discouragement arising from the former degradation and the peculiar habits of the natives, they are cheered by the evident progress of their churches in knowledge, enjoyment, and usefulness. The Missions of the Society, both in British Guiana and Jamaica, have throughout the year afforded to their faithful Ministers occasion for devout thankfulness. Few instances have occurred in any of the churches demanding Christian discipline; while, in several instances, the accessions have been unusually numerous. The progress of the congregations, and more especially of the junior classes, in general intelligence and Scripture knowledge, has been evident; and the prosperous state of the numerous schools affords sure ground for encouragement and hope. The aggregate contributions of these churches towards their own support amount to £7,540; and, although £500 properly belongs to the year preceding, the actual increase for 1857 exceeds £1,500. Although the Cape Colony suffered disorder and injury during the last year from the influx of many thousand starving Kaffirs, and although this had been preceded by the disease which destroyed the greater part of the cattle, yet the social condition of the people has continued to improve. The reports from the Mission-stations, both within and beyond the Colony, are cheering; the churches, almost without exception, have received numerous additions, and vigorous exertions have been made to extend the blessings of the Gospel to the Fingoes and other strangers from the interior. The stations on the frontier, including Peelton, Knapp'sHope, and King William's Town, consisting of enlightened and converted Kaffirs, are examples of a people transformed from wild marauders, ferocious in their spirit and disgusting in their habits, into peaceful and industrious Christian villagers. At the last Annual Meeting the Directors had the pleasure of reporting that the translation of the entire Scriptures into Sichuana, by the Rev. Robert Moffatt, was then nearly completed; and later intelligence informed them that the work was finished. It is scarcely possible to overrate the importance of this great achievement. The Sichuana, under certain modifications, is the language of the interior of South Africa. After repeated conference with Dr. Livingstone, the Directors lost no time in making known their intended efforts in Central South Africa to their faithful friend and veteran Missionary Robert Moffatt, requesting his counsels

and co-operation in the enterprise. Their letter reached him just at the time he had completed the translation of the Old Testament; and with all the ardour of youth he started forthwith on a journey of nearly six hundred miles, that he might secure the countenance and support of Moselekatse, the Chief of the Matabele, for the establishment of a Mission among his numerous people. Hong-Kong, from its proximity to the scene of war, has been often in a state of excitement and alarm; but, notwithstanding these hindrances, the Rev. Dr. Legge and the Rev. John Chalmers have continued their unwearied labours in the respective branches of the Mission; while Chin-Seen, the Pastor of the Chinese church, has faithfully preached the Gospel, in season and out of season, to his countrymen. At Amoy, Messrs. A. and J. Stronach, Hirschberg, and Lea, have again been favoured with manifold proofs of God's presence and grace. During the year, 22 converts have been added to the church, making 193 since the establishment of the Mission ten years since. The church of the American Mission in this city includes 172 members, and that of the English Presbyterian Mission, 53; making a total of upwards of 400 Christian Chinese. The converts consist of various classes, and among them are several individuals of high literary attainments. The Report then alluded to India. At Benares and Mirzapore Messrs. Buyers, Kennedy, and Sherring were exposed to imminent danger from the mutinous Sepoys; but God was their present help in time of trouble, and suffered not a hair of their heads to perish. The Directors regret, however, to record that Mrs. Buyers, whose devotion to her husband, and to the interests of the Mission, constrained her to remain at her post when others retired from the scene of danger, shortly after fell a victim to disease superinduced by labour and anxiety; but her end was peace, and her character is embalmed in the memories and hearts of all who knew her. The defection of the Bengal army must be attributed to various causes, both social and political, but in no degree to the influence of Missions; inasmuch as the Sepoy, whether Hindu or Mohammedan, was of all men the farthest removed from the approaches of the Christian teacher. On the other hand, the native Christians remained faithful to our Government, and, in its support, exposed themselves to the intense hatred of their Heathen countrymen, to whose vengeance many of their number fell victims. The mutineers

went forth to battle trusting in the gods of their country for strength and victory; and shame, defeat, and death overwhelm them. Already, as our Missionaries tell us, the haughty looks of the Heathen are brought low, and they are more disposed to hear of that kingdom into which none can enter who does not seek admission as a little child.

BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY. -The Report stated that the total receipts for the past year had amounted £22,946. 10s. 10d.; being an increase of £1,479. 11s. 4d. over the amount col

to

lected in the previous year. The total expenditure, for the same period, had been £23,593. 13s. 8d.; leaving a balance against the Society of £932. 18s. 9d., which the Committee hoped would soon be met; and they were pleased to be able to state that the contributions for widows and orphans had considerably increased. The Report then entered at great length into the evil of the mutiny in India, and the detrimental effect it had had on Missionary enterprise in that empire. Some of the Missionaries had fallen victims to the thirst for English blood, and many others had suffered more or less in various respects. The Report then contrasted the condition of the people of India at the time when Dr. Carey, the first Baptist Missionary, landed there, with their existing condition; and having referred to the great progress of Missionary efforts in India, went on to state that when the mutiny was quelled, a new field would be opened for Missionaries, and the greatest blessings and success awaited them. The word of God had been translated in all languages for the benefit of the people, and upwards of 2,000,000 copies of the holy Scriptures had issued from the Missionary press, and other religious books in countless numbers had been circulated. Upwards of 1,200 men, Europeans and natives, were daily employed in preaching the Gospel, while the schools contained at least 80,000 children.

WESLEYAN EDUCATION.-Speech of the Right Hon. W. F. Cowper, M.P., at the Fourth Annual Meeting.-Ladies and Gentlemen, the question which we have met to consider is, undoubtedly, one of the most important of all those great subjects which are earnestly calling for the attention of people in the present day, whether we consider its object, or the means by which this object may be attained. I think it will be admitted, that there is nothing more urgent in the pre

sent day than to secure for the children of the working classes an adequate training and an education that will fit them for their after-life, and develop those faculties which God has bestowed upon them. And, perhaps, there is no way in which larger or more certain results can be obtained than in the pains that may be taken for the promotion and furtherance of this elementary education. Now this subject of the education of the poorer classes is one upon which, we know, there exists a very great variety of opinion. Indeed, of late years, the attempts that have been made to legislate on the subject have failed from the extreme variety and diversity, the continual opposition and conflict, of opinion. While all acknowledge the importance and necessity of the object, persons have endeavoured to attain it in different ways; though, I think, I accurately state the present position of affairs when I say, that, by almost universal consent, the exceptions being but very few individuals here and there, people have agreed that the origination and management of elementary education shall be left to those religious educational bodies who have shown their right to deal with it by the zeal and energy with which they have undertaken it, and by the manner in which they have occupied the ground. Parliament has shown its willingness to take any measures within its power to promote education. The readiness with which it will devote the public funds to this purpose is shown by the rapid increase of the money annually voted in the House of Commons. In the present year no less a sum than £663,000 will be spent in assisting education. I think that parties in the House of Commons, and, I believe, all parties in the country, are agreed, that, in the present posture of affairs at least, the proper province of the State is to give aid to the voluntary efforts of the existing educational Societies; and that that aid shall be given by grants of money to promote the building of new schools, or the repair and improvement of existing ones; by aiding the better payment of well qualified masters; by the payment of the stipends of pupil-teachers; by securing, or at least promoting, the regularity of attendance on the part of the children by means of capitation-grants; by aiding the purchase of such books as are necessary for school-work; by means of inspection; and by collecting reports of the experience which has been gained in different parts of the country, and presenting that experience to others, that they may profit by what other people

have done; by giving advice; and by all that superintendence and assistance which a central authority can give: but that the State shall not interfere in any degree with the local management. It seems to me, as I have said, by almost universal admission, to be agreed, that that duty which the religious educational bodies have assumed to themselves, of watching over, assisting, and promoting the clementary education of the poor, shall be a duty not merely self-assumed by them, but a duty acknowledged to rest upon them. Under these circumstances, therefore, it behoves every religious community to occupy to the fullest extent of which it is capable the ground that properly belongs to it; and I am happy to observe, from the experience that I have had of the working of the different communities, that the Wesleyan body have been in no wise backward in discharging their duty. The Wesleyan body have been particularly zealous and active of late in erecting new buildings, and in improving existing schools; and this fact is illustrated by comparing the amount of public grants which have been received by different educational bodies in the year 1857 with the preceding year 1856; for, upon comparing the increase of grants which each body has obtained in these two years, I find that the increase obtained by the Wesleyan body is the largest of all. In the year 1857, schools in connexion with the Wesleyan body received grants to the amount of £32,000, having, in 1856, received grants to the amount of £22,000, -being an increase of £10,000 in one year; and that is a larger proportionate increase than any other of the denominations has claimed and received. Inspectors appointed by the Privy Council have borne full and ample testimony to the efforts that have been made, and the success that has attended those efforts, in support of the Wesleyan schools. One of the Inspectors, Mr. Laurie, has pointed out as a school which deserves particular attention, and which may be held up as a model, a school at Goxhill in Lincolnshire, under a master of the name of Hopwood; and in the mining districts of South Staffordshire, and in Lancashire, are schools in which very great and successful efforts have been made by persons connected with this Society. The same evils that have been found to exist in all other parts of the country, which impede the exertions that are made to improve schools, have also been felt in those schools of which we are to hear this evening. That one great hindrance which arises from the very short period of time

The

usually allotted to the children of the working classes, is one which it seems almost impossible to grapple with by any compulsory method, or by any peculiar contrivance. It would seem, I think, as if the most feasible mode of extending the very short period allowed for children's education, is by lengthening that education at the two ends,-by having more effective and complete infant-schools before the children come into the ordinary day-schools; and, on the other hand, providing effective night-schools for adults, after the time when they leave the ordinary day-schools. I think there are very many of the Wesleyan schools that might be really improved in regard to the infantschools. There are many of them that have no separate infant-schools; but many, if they could not have an infantschool attached, might yet have within their walls a separate class for infants; for, when the infants are intermingled with the older children, they cannot but produce confusion and disorder. The infants cannot be kept quiet, and under methodical arrangement; they neither learn themselves, nor do they allow the learning of the other children to go on harmoniously; and the result is evidently much confusion that might otherwise be avoided. And, certainly, if the demands of labour are to diminish the amount of time which is given for the proper education of children, we must endeavour to begin that education earlier, and we must endeavour to make the infant teaching more rapid and more effective, so as to give more tuition in a more limited time, if we cannot have the time that we should desire. Then with regard to the nightschools, I think a greater degree of attention might be successfully paid to them. Indeed, I cannot help thinking that we should do well to direct much more of our teaching power, much more of our interest, much more of our sympathy, toward these night-schools. If anyone wants to devote himself to a really noble and efficient work, I do not think there is any field from which so large a harvest might be reaped, and where so much good might be done, as in a well-organized arrangement for these night-schools. Now, there are many people who could afford to give one night or two nights in a week. Many of those, for instance, who, in so laudable a manner, devote their Sunday to teaching, might be able to give up a weekevening for some of these schools; and if really efficient teaching can be brought to bear upon schools that will receive persons of a more advanced age than are in the ordinary schools, we might at last

hope to see something like an efficient education given in this land. For, what is now done is by no means satisfactory in the education of the working classes. One can only view it as the beginning,as the basis upon which a superstructure ought to be laid. Many persons who have promoted night-schools have failed because they did not make the teaching just that which is desired. When we bring children, by the orders of their parents, into a school, we may settle for them what they are to learn; but when we have an evening or a night school, to which persons who are their own masters and their own mistresses are to come, we must suit the teaching to the desire of those who are to learn. Therefore, the primary condition is, that the tuition given in those schools shall be, not that which the teachers think desirable, but that which happens to suit those who are to be taught. I would commend, to anyone who is endeavouring to establish aight-schools, the example that was set by the Council of King's College in London, who, when they wished to establish evening-classes, before they determined what they should teach, opened a book wherein the learners were to write down the subjects in which they desired instruction. And when it was found out what people wished to learn, the teaching was suited to the learners. It often happens that persons do not desire to learn just that which we think would be the most suitable for them; but, give them time, and, as they grow, they find, perhaps, that the topics which they preferred at the beginning were not those that yield the greatest return, or are the most satisfactory, and afterwards they will come to other branches of learning which are more useful, and will give them a more complete return. practical point, it is of great importance that in night-schools there should not be too great an admixture of persons of different advances in knowledge, or of different ages. There must, in short, be a good classification, or the whole system will fail. Many of those which have not succeeded, have been marred by the fact, that in the same classes people were put who were not evenly matched: some who were older were discouraged at finding themselves surpassed by the younger, while some of the younger were apt to be a little too assuming, and to think they could lead when they ought rather to follow. Another cause of the great deficiency of scholars in our schools must be admitted to arise from the indifference of parents. It should be a great object,

VOL. IV.-FIFTH SERIES.

As a

with all those who are earnest about education, to endeavour to convey to the parents of children a sense of the great importance to those children of their being sent to school. But one cause which, I think, has occasioned much of the indifference of the parents to the schools is, that they often see that the education given in the schools is not just of the useful and practical character which they perceive to be really advantageous to their children. A good deal of mistake certainly does often occur in the manner in which education is given to children. We sometimes see, in an agricultural village, that the son of an agricultural labourer is brought into a school, and, if his father allows him to remain there for a long time, he becomes very expert in arithmetic; he writes a very good hand; his faculties are sharpened; he gets a great deal of general knowledge; and, by the time he leaves the school, he entirely repudiates the notion that he is to follow the same occupation as his father. He says, "Why am I, who have so much knowledge of bookkeeping; who have such a power of penmanship; such a power of composition; who am fit to be clerk in a railway-office; who am fit, perhaps, if I could get there, to be a railway-director ;-why am I to go back to be a ploughman, to cart manure, and do the ordinary operation of a farm ?"— I have known many young men in that condition, who, unfortunately for them, by this sharpening and development of their mental faculties, were quite unsuited for the only occupation in life that they had any chance of following; for if, from being the sons of labourers, they do not happen to have much influence, and have not the power of becoming clerks, they are dissatisfied with being labourers; they wander about in the hope that, some day or other, they shall find somebody to appoint them as clerks; they do not get appointments; they are unhappy; they want to go to Australia, or they fall under the temptations which are constantly assailing those who have no settled, no proper, occupation in life. If such a boy as that I have supposed, instead of being educated for a sphere to which he could not succeed in rising, had been educated solely with a view to that position of life into which he was born, a very different result would have followed. If, in short, his mind had been directed to those useful occupations which he might follow; if the elementary information that had been given to him had been directed to observation of the laws of nature, the growth of plants, and the mastering of all 2 N