the consequences of raising him to such an office.

"The Rev. Mr. Williams aspires to be a moral teacher; the Professor of Poetry in a Christian University must impart to his writings and his lectures, frequently on secular, always on sacred, subjects those sentiments and principles which he believes to be essential to the propagation of the truth; this we should expect of a layman; we should demand it of a minister. The late accomplished and amiable Professor was animated by this spirit, and published, with the attraction of his respected name and the authority of his official station, sundry poems of admitted talent and disputed theology.

"I am now summoned to consider whether a similar appointment would not confer a similar authority.

"The venerable members of Trinity College have issued a disclaimer for Mr. Williams himself, and have deprecated, on the part of others, any attempt whatever to introduce, upon the occasion, questions of theological controversy.

With all the deference that is due from a layman, I cannot believe myself at liberty to set aside these important considerations. I acknowledge the latitude of speculation that must be permitted to all the members of a common church; but there are limits, I maintain, which must not be overpassed, at least without a solemn and indignant protest on the part of those who have both an opportunity and a right to give an opinion.

I have endeavoured, then, to ascertain the principles of Mr. Williams, and I have found that he is the author of the tract entitled Reserve in Communicating Religious Knowledge.'

"There is no power on earth that shall induce me to assist in elevating the writer of that paper to the station of a public teacher. I see very little difference between a man who promulgates false doctrine and him who suppresses the true. I cannot concur in the approval of a candidate whose writings are in contravention of the inspired Apostle, and reverse his holy exultation that he had not shunned to declare, to his readers, the whole counsel of God.' I will not consent to give my support, however humble, towards the recognition of exoteric and esoteric doctrines in the Church of England, to obscure the perspicuity of the gospel by the philosophy of Paganism, and make the places set apart for the ministrations of the preacher, whose duties must mainly be among the poor, the wayfaring, and the simple, as mystic and incomprehensible as the grove of Eleusis.

"These, Sir, are my reasons for refusing

Williams Poetry in Oxford, the duplicate of an address, signed by two hundred and fortyfour non-resident members of Convocation, and requesting you, in conjunction with the Committee of Mr. Garbett

Williams}

to

take measures for procuring the withdrawal of both candidates, with a view to the advantage of the University and of the Church. "I transmit simultaneously, a similar document to the gentlemen composing the Williams. London Committee of Mr. Garbett.

"Copies of the circular, in which this address was contained, were forwarded for signature exclusively to non-residents, members of Convocation. Copies were despatched, among the earliest, to the President of Trinity, the Principal of Brasenose, the Vice-Chancellor, and the Proctors, for their information.

"I take the liberty of stating, that while two hundred and forty-four assents have been sent in, the refusals have not amounted to thirty. Of these, some decline to sign on the ground that the proposed withdrawal is injurious to Mr. Williams, and about an equal number on the ground that it would be unjust to Mr. Garbett; others express their regrets that, having pledged their vote to one or the other of the candidates, they consider themselves precluded from subscribing the address, of which they fully approve; whilst a very small proportion indeed consider it desirable, on general grounds, that the struggle should go on.

"I may also mention, that of the seven Bishops in the provinces of Canterbury and York who are members of Convocation, five have signed the address.

"An address, with the same object, from the diocese of Worcester, I have reason to believe, if not already presented, is about to be forwarded to the Principal of Brasenose, and the President of Trinity, signed by at least forty members of Convocation.

"It is right that I should observe that the signatures to the address, which I have now the honour to transmit to you, have been obtained in little more than a week

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

JANUARY MEETING.

Notice was given by the Secretary, by direction of the standing committee, that at the next meeting a grant of 1000l. would be proposed towards founding a college in Scotland in connection with the Scottish Episcopal Church. He stated, that the subscriptions, at present, amounted to nearly 90007.

The Secretary also stated, that at the next meeting a grant of 500l. to be placed at the disposal of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, would be proposed, by direction of the standing committee, for promoting the objects of the society in Chaldea and Kurdistan.

On the motion of the Rev. R. Burgess, it was resolved, "That this board do recommend the subject of the spiritual destitution of persons employed on canals and rivers, to the special consideration of the standing committee, in order that such additional supplies may be granted, as the exigencies of the case may seem to the committee to require; and that the committee be requested to report the result of their inquiries and proceedings with reference to this subject to the board."

The board determined that subscriptions should be received at the society's office for the Calcutta Diocesan Additional Clergy Society.

The board granted towards the Church at Chippaw, 501.; Sarnia, 25.; Carltonplace, 251.; also 107. for St. Andrew's, New Brunswick; and the same for Campo Bello. and the West Isles, in the diocese of Nova Scotia.

A grant of Bibles, Testaments, and Prayer-books, was made to the Rev. G. Cummins, of Trinidad; and a similar grant to the amount of 25/. to the Rev. J. Wenham in Ceylon, for the use of seamen and soldiers touching at the port of Galle, in the island of Ceylon.

The Secretary announced a legacy of 330/. from Mr. Richard Richardson, late of Cobham Head Cumberland, in trust, to transmit Bibles, &c., at cost prices, to the an.vant of the interest, to the Rectors of Greystoke, Coldbreck, and Skelton, and the Vicar of Castle Sowerby, for distribu

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.

The Society at its last monthly meeting agreed, on the recommendation of the Bishop of Australia, to grant a sum of 100l. towards the erection of a church at Murrambidgee, and to adopt the Rev. Charles Campbell Kemp as missionary at Pitt-town.

A sum of 50l. was at the same time voted towards the expense of completing the church at Wynberg, Cape of Good Hope.

Sixty missionaries have been added to the Society's list during the year 1841:21 for the diocese of Toronto, 4 for Montreal, 6 for Nova Scotia, 1 for Cape Breton, 3 for Prince Edward's Island, for New Brunswick, 5 for Newfoundland, 2 for Calcutta, 2 for Madras, 2 for Bombay, 5 for New South Wales, 4 for Van Dieman's Land, 1 for Western Australia, 2 for New Zealand.

Besides the foregoing, fourteen clergymen, appointed by the several Bishops of the colonial dioceses, have received grants of money towards defraying the expense of their passage and outfit.

CHURCH PASTORAL AID
SOCIETY.

At the general committee, held the 6th of January, six grants for Curates, and three grants for Lay Assistants, were renewed at a charge to the society of 5651. per annum, to meet 230l. per annum, supplied by the incumbents, in order to provide the amounts required for the several stipends.

During the previous month five grants for Clergymen, and one for a Lay Assistant have lapsed, or have been relinquished under change of circumstances, and one grant for a Curate has fallen in abeyance, the whole amounting to the sum of 4651. The Committee in consequence have made four new grants for Curates, and one for a Lay Assistant, amounting to 4407.! the application being of an urgent nature, and there being a prospect that funds from local resources will be returned to the society sufficient to pay the amount of two of these grants.

The total number of the existing grants are in aid of 247 Incumbents, having an aggregate population of 1,858,827,—or each, on an average, the charge of 7,500 souls; while the average amount of their income is only 161. Of these Incumbents, 129 are without Parsonage Houses.

The grants are to provide stipends for

255 Clergymen and 37 Lay Assistants, at a charge, when all the appointments shall be made by the Incumbents, of 22,5291. per annum. Twenty-one grants for Curates and two for Lay Assistants are in abeyance, needing a further sum of 1,970. per anuum. At the present time, 204 Clergymen and 31 Lay Assistants are supported in their labours by the Society, at a charge of 18,1747. per annum.

Within the last few days the Society has received a donation of 5007. from a lady in

The following letter on Church extension, addressed by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln to the Committee of the Church Building Society for the town and county of Nottingham, cannot be too extensively circulated:

"Willingham, Market Raisin. "Gentlemen,-Mr. Gally Knight has communicated to me the resolution passed at your meeting, held on Friday, Nov. 12, that I should be requested to take upon myself the office of President of the Society, which it is proposed to establish for promoting the building, &c., of churches in the town and county of Nottingham. At the same time that I express my willingness to accept the office, allow me to express the satisfaction which I feel that effectual measures are at length taken to call the attention of the clergy and gentry of the county and town to the spiritual destitution which prevails around them. Of its extent the statement which you have published will afford melancholy proof; of the obligation of the wealthier portion of the community to relieve it, no doubt can exist in the minds of those who bear the name of Christ, and profess to derive from his gospel the rule of their practice. The Author of our being has been pleased to place the rich and poor in a state of mutual dependence on each other; and though in countries like our own, which have made great advances in wealth and civilization, this dependence may be less apparent than where society is in a ruder state, on account of the extent to which the division of labour is carried, yet it is not the less true that the rich derive all their means of temporal enjoyment, all their conveniences and luxuries, from the labour, and are consequently bound to administer to the wants, both temporal and spiritual, of the poor. This is an obligation inseparable from the possession of wealth, nor the less real, not

involving a less serious responsibility, because human laws do not prescribe by positive enactments the manner in which it is to be discharged, nor annex penalties to the neglect of discharging it.

"How then, let us ask ourselves, have we discharged this obligation-how have we acquitted ourselves of this responsibility, with reference to the spiritual wants of our poorer brethren? While we have seen the population increasing on all sides, have we made any corresponding exertion to provide for its religious instruction-for its accommodation in the house of God? Can we look around without humiliation and self-reproach on the churches which the piety of our ancestors scattered over the face of the land, without painfully feeling how condemnatory of the age in which we have lived, the comparison between their zealf or the honour of God, and our lukewarmness, our apathy in his cause? I mean not to include all in this censure. I know that there are splendid exceptions -instances of Christian liberality not unworthy of the best ages of the Church; but the splendid exceptions are as oases in the desert, serving only to render the surrounding barrenness more striking by contrast; they are not sufficient to redeem the age from the charge of apathy, of insensibility to the wants of the growing population. Of that insensibility we are now reaping the bitter fruits. We complain of the spirit of insubordination, of the intemperance, the licentiousness, the irreligion, prevailing on all sides, and especially in the manufacturing districts; and we are not slow in calling upon the legislature to interfere and remedy the evil. We forget to inquire whether we are ourselves the parties whom the law ought first to visit with its penalties-whether this melancholy state of things has not been produced by our own neglect of duty. If the