THE Thirteenth Anniversary of the above Societies, this year held by rotation in Bath, took place on Thursday, July 23, on which occasion the Lord Bishop of the Diocese, together with a most respectable assemblage of the Clergy and Laity, met a little before eleven at the Committee Room of the Guildhall, whence they proceeded to the Abbey Church, where an appropriate and impressive discourse was delivered by the Rev. Harvey Mariott, Rector of Claverton, from Matt. vi. 10. After divine service the several individuals connected with the District Committees who were present, assembled at the Upper Rooms, where, after the usual prayers were read, the Lord Bishop, in the presence of the Meeting, opened the proceedings of the day. After which the Rev. Mr.

Mount presented the Meeting with a full view of the proceedings of the Diocese, so far as the district returns permitted him to do so. The Report stated, that in the course of the last year had been circulated within the Diocese 1846 Bibles, 2924 Testaments, 26,780 Prayer-books and Psalters, 35,411 bound books and tracts, &c. &c.;-that, according to the school returns, the aggregate of children instructed in the principles of the Established Church amounted to 18,983.

The Report being read, the Rev. Mr. Brymer rose, and moved that it be printed and circulated. After which, in an eloquent speech, he pressed in a powerful manner the claims of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge upon every Christian heart. "There is, said he, one point to which

I would direct the attention of this Meeting: it is stated in the conclusion of the Report just read, that the Parent Society will be obliged, unless it meets with increased support, either to raise the price of its books, or to limit its supplies. The total expense of the books distributed among its members during the past year was 55,3821.: the charge to the members for these books was 36,1467.; so that the Society's loss upon these books was 18,500l. Now when it is remembered that many persons who merely subscribe to District Associations derive the benefit of the Parent Society's issues without contributing any thing to its funds, I cannot but press upon them the necessity of contributing to the fountain head from which the streams are supplied; and I cannot but express an earnest hope that many who have hitherto been subscribers only to District Associations will henceforth become subscribers also to the funds of the Parent Institution. I most earnestly entreat a Christian public not to suffer the Society to be under the painful necessity of contracting those supplies which have been so generally beneficial to the community at large; but by their increased support to increase the means of its extensive usefulness, and enable it to carry on, both at home and abroad,

on that more extended scale, which the exigencies of the times imperatively demand, those operations which are so admirably adapted to promote the glory of God and the good of man."

The Rev. H. Marriott stated that the Parent Society had offered to co-operate with a Society in Ireland, in promoting the interest of that country in any way it might think proper. The Archbishop of Armagh, the Lord Primate of all Ireland, had taken up the subject very warmly, and 1000l. had been advanced for the above purpose. The Bible had also been published and circulated in that country in the original Irish language.

Öther able speeches were delivered by the Rev. Procter Thomas and Colonel Daubeny. After which thanks were voted to the Rev. H. Marriott for his excellent discourse at the Abbey.

The brief Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, was next read by the Secretary, the Rev. Mr. Algar; and afterwards an energetic appeal was made by the Rev. Mr. Brymer, in behalf of the Society.

Thanks were voted to the Bishop for his judicious conduct in the Chair, which his Lordship having acknowledged, the Meeting separated.

The collection amounted to above twenty pounds.

The

DOMESTIC.-The weather, during the past month, has been unfavourable in the extreme for the usual agricultural operations of the season. crops have been in great peril from the quantity of rain which has fallen, almost without intermission, during the middle and end of August; and being, in most parts of the country, partially cut, has occasioned considerable anxiety among the landed interests. In the West of England, where the harvest commences earlier, the corn was mostly carried before the wet weather set in, and has proved good and heavy; some of the new wheat which has been brought to market fetched a good price. Oats

and barley are likewise looking well; and not being so forward as the wheat, a change of weather may be hoped for before the time for cutting them approaches. Potatoes and turnips promise abundant crops: the latter, though in many places re-sown since the spring, look very well, and may in a great measure supply the want of hay, occasioned by the drought in the spring. In some of the western counties large crops of this produce have been mown and carried at the same time with the wheat; heavy crops having been made upon the same land, which, at the usual period of hay-harvest, offered nothing the scythe could lay hold of. Hops are

very indifferent, the continued rains producing mould. With the exception of a few favoured spots in Mid Kent, there is no likelihood of any produce worth mentioning; and even in these there is great reason to apprehend that the less in quancrops will prove tity and inferior in quality to what they are now rated at. It must be acknowledged that the present is a critical period for the country: upon the harvest depends, in a great measure, the internal well-being of the country for the ensuing year; and should that fail us, the results must be distressing indeed. The past year has been one of unparalleled suffering amongst our labouring classes; it can scarcely be hoped that the winter, generally the most difficult time to procure employment in all branches of labour, will bring them that relief they could not obtain in the summer: and if scarcity of bread be added to their want of the means to procure it, our anticipations of the distress of the lower orders must be appalling in the

extreme.

FRANCE. A complete change of ministry has taken place in this kingdom, of a nature which may lead all Europe to anticipate the happiest results. It promises a change from councils breathing war, to councils actuated by the very spirit of peace, and from a weak and divided administration, without aim and incapable of looking forward to the result of their undertakings, to a firm and decisive system of government calculated to improve the domestic affairs of the country, and command the respect of foreign nations. The Prince de Polignac has been recalled from England by his sovereign to form an efficient cabinet, of which he is to be the head, and, from his known character and political views, there is every reason to expect a more cordial union, and closer co-operation with the foreign politics of the British government than has existed hitherto between the two nations. France would prove an useful auxiliary in putting a period to those dissensions which agitate Eastern Europe, and, if in close alliance with England, they might, together, insist upon a speedy arrangement between the contending powers in that

quarter favourable to the general interests of mankind, and such as will tend to place the balance of Europe upon a permanent basis.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.-The Russian army has crossed the Balkan, and Count Diebitsch has established his head quarters at Aidos. Immediately after his victorious troops had defeated the Turkish army opposed to them, they made themselves masters of this place and also of the important fortresses of Messembria and Bourgos, the possession of which posts left the passage of the Balkan open to them. Schoumla has not, however, surrendered, and may prove a serious annoyance in the rear of an advancing army at this late period of the campaign, being directly in the line of its supplies, reinforcements, and communications. General Diebitsch intends to advance upon Adrianople with the utmost speed consistent with prudence, hoping to strike a decisive blow before the close of the year; and to facilitate this attempt, Admiral Greig is to take on board 15,000 men at Varna, and land them between Bourgos and Sissopoli, to oblige the Turks, by threatening their rear, to retreat upon that city. These circumstances the Porte endeavour to keep secret at Constantinople, though, owing to the approach of the scene of war towards the capital, rumours of them are continually spreading, and the populace are much discouraged. The Sultan continues to make great efforts to support the war: urgent orders have been sent to the Pachas to hasten a levy en masse, and to send the militia to the army without delay: but the finances of the Porte are now almost exhausted; the principal sources of the revenue were the toll on the Danube, the duties paid on the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, and the polltax levied on the Greeks: the latter of these has not been paid for eight years; the two former have ceased for two years, and it is apprehended that the unfavourable turn which the affairs of Turkey have now decidedly taken will affect the remittances from abroad. It is to be hoped, however, that the European potentates will interfere, and not suffer the Russian Autocrat to aggrandize himself unduly at the expense of a neighbouring state, thus

destroying the balance of power on the continent; and there is some reason to conclude that they have already begun to see the necessity of acting. The Prussian General Von Muffling has been despatched by his sovereign to Constantinople to offer the Sultan terms of peace, to which it is supposed the Emperor will accede if accepted by his antagonist. What these may be is totally unknown; should they prove such as the Sultan cannot in honour and justice agree to, and the Emperor continues to advance, reports are in circulation in the Turkish capital of very different means to be employed in order to render him more accommodating. The English frigate, which carrried out Mr. Gordon, is now ready to enter the Black Sea, and other English vessels are prepared to follow it, for the purpose, it is there asserted, of an armed intervention, should the Russians menace the capital. In Asia, likewise, the Russians have been generally victorious. A battle has been fought near Erzeroon, in which four Pachas and some thousand Turks have been made prisoners, and many cannon with ammunition have fallen into the hands of the Russians. Trebizond was invested immediately after, and rumours are afloat that it has fallen; if this be true the Russians must be in possession of the whole of Armenia.

Meantime the Greeks continue to strengthen themselves, and their troops have advanced in some places beyond the line marked as the boundary of their country. The Sultan persists in refusing to acknowledge their independence, and has explicitly declared to the British and French ambassadors, recently returned to the Porte, that all attempts to enter into a treaty on the subject will prove fruitless. Such being his determination, the allied powers will, most probably, proceed to acknowledge Greece without any reference to the feelings of the Porte, leaving it to digest the matter as it

bability; but the dreadful dissensions now prevailing in the republic, and the late atrocious measure enforced by the Mexican government, of expelling the old Spanish families in order to gratify a tumultuous rabble, has excited so much indignation amongst even many of the republicans, that it is possible a vigorous and well-supported attempt at this juncture might restore, at least for a short time, the dominion of Spain; and should it prove true, as has been asserted, that Ferdinand contemplates its erection into a separate kingdom, under the rule of a branch of the Spanish royal family, it might ultimately become a monarchy closely connected with the mother. country, and more truly and permanently beneficial to her interests than it can ever prove as a dependent colony. The Spanish authorities in the Havannah have opened a correspondence with General Santa Ana, a bold and unprincipled leader, over whom the Mexican government, which has been in the habit of injuring and insulting every person to whom it is indebted for services, has no substantial control, and who governs the extensive district between Xalassa and Vera Cruz, and they rely upon his cooperation in case of a descent. The forces under his command amount to upwards of 12,000 men, who are represented as ready to follow him in any enterprise; and these, united to the large force which Spain has always kept at the Havannah, as if waiting for a favourable opportunity, might prove effectual in a country so completely disorganized; especially as the South American States are so distracted by intestine commotions, that they would be unable to render any assistance to the Mexicans. The nation is in such a state, that a change of legislators might be advantageous, and could not possibly place it in a worse condition; nor could any laws or rulers from Spain introduce a more bigoted or intolerant system than has been hitherto practised by the republican go

vernors.

SOUTH AMERICA.-The general state of this portion of the new world is one of division and turbulence; the settlement of which seems, in a great degree, dependent on the life of Bolivar,