to get a living during the late severe winter, had left her, and was gone to sea. She had five children to support, without any means of doing it. She hired a mangle at four shillings per week: but no one gave her any thing to do, because she was a stranger; and she has been for two days together without tasting victuals. The miserable apartment in which she was confined, was so damp that it struck the infant blind when it was a few days old. On the first visit, the visitor found the wretched mother weeping over her child, and three other famished little ones around her. Some money was advanced to her, which put her in a way of getting a living. She is now more comfortable, and expresses the greatest thankfulness for the benefit received from the Society.

7. "We found Benjamin G. of Grey Eagle-street, and his family, in great distress. The man appeared to be sober and industrious, which led us to inquire particularly into his circumstances and the cause of his wretchedness; when we learnt that owing to the badness of trade, &c. about three years ago, he became very much reduced, so that he had no money at all to purchase mahogany to make chairs, by which he used to maintain his family, viz. a wife and three children. He then had recourse to the following singular mode of raising money, which he continued from that time till we met with him :-It being a very rare thing for him to get on a single week without every article of furniture and apparel, that could possibly be spared, being gone, it was his custom, every Monday morning, to borrow of a neighbour a few silver tea-spoons, and a shawl, upon which he raised about twenty shillings at the pawnbroker's. With this money he purchased mahogany, and worked hard all the week, making it into chairs: these he was obliged to sell, at any rate, on Saturday evening, that he might redeem the borrowed articles, and re

place them for the owner's use on Sunday, who would only spare them on this express condition. The consequence of his being obliged to sell his week's labour every Saturday, frequently was, that he obtained scarcely more than half the value of his chairs. To relieve the man from this wretched state of dependance on the pawnbroker, we advanced him 21. which we thought it prudent to call a loan, to be repaid at Midsummer: he immediately discontinued his former system, (by which he lost so much time, and incurred an expense of 6d. per week for the use of 20s., making the rate of interest 130 per cent. per annum,) and we soon had the pleasure of witnessing a considerable improvement in the condition of the family and at present we have to state such advantages to have already arisen from this 21., as we ourselves could scarcely give credit to, had we not regularly visited the family once or twice every month since last January, and observed the progressive benefit arising from it. We visited them last the 23d instant, when the man gave us back the 21. we had lent him in January. We, however, returned it to him as a gift, expressing our gratification at his having made so good use of it. He then enumerated the following advantages, which he said, through the goodness of God, this money had procured him and his family:

1st, He said, It has been the means of filling all our bellies.

"

2d, It has made us all comfortable on a Sabbath-day, so that we can go to a place of worship in decent clothing.

"3d, It has enabled us to redeem from the pawnbrokers a great many things, viz. two silver watches, a wooden clock, several tools of great use in my business, and many articles of wearing apparel: these had been pledged for between 31, and 41.

shall undergo a careful examination, by the chairman of that meeting, respecting his acquaintance with Mr. Wesley's works in general, and especially with his sermons, and his notes on the New Testament, in addition to the other examinations required by our existing rules: and no preacher shall be so recommended, unless the result of his examination be satisfactory to the meeting."

The foreign missions of the society were formerly under the superintendance of the Rev. Dr. Coke. In consequence of his death, they are taken under the more immediate care and direction of the Conference, and placed under new regulations.

In an Address of the Conference of the last year to the prince regent, on the conclusion of peace with France, we perceive with pleasure their strong expressions of Christian loyalty and of attachment to the government of the king, and the decisive testimony which they bear to the iniquity of the slave trade.

HIBERNIAN SOCIETY.

WE have before us the Ninth Report of this Society, of which we proceed to give an abstract.

The exertions of the Society are advancing both in importance and efficiency. To diffuse religious instruction among the poor in Ireland is the great object to which the exertions of this Institution are directed. In order to succeed in this object, it is required to remove the afflicting spectacle of ignorance, immorality, and mental degrada tion, which the lower classes of the community present; and to provide a remedy for their want of early culture. The most prominent impediment to the designs of the Society has proceeded from the diversity of religious sentiment which exists in Ireland. In that country, about three millions two hundred thousand of its population are sup CHRIST. OBServ, App.

posed to be Roman Catholics; and much opposition has arisen, and still exists among this class, to the estab lishment of the Society's schools, and to the course of education pursued in them.

To confer on the children of the poor, in Ireland, the benefits of intellectual and moral culture ought to be regarded as a national object; and to connect with this benefit the blessings of a religious education," founded on the holy Scriptures, ought to be considered as a work of bounden duty, and of infinite importance, by every Christian.

The Committee have the pleasure to state, that additions have been made to the number both of schools and pupils in the last year; and that the number of children taught by the Society is now upwards of eleven thousand. This number is considerable; but it bears only a small proportion to the aggregate of that part of the population of Ireland, whose condition is caleulated to excite commiseration, and to claim exertion.

The Hibernian Society has printed an elementary book for the instruction of children in the Irish language. An edition of 5000 of these books was published in 1810. In the districts where Irish is the colloquial language, the Society's Schools have an Irish class; and both children and adults, after being taught to read in the Irish Spelling-book, have the New Testament in the same language put into their hands, and its truths impressed on their minds.

All the schools are subjected to a quarterly inspection; and the state in which each of them is found is, at those periods, reported to the Committee.

The children who have been taken into the Society's schools have, in general, exhibited an aptness to receive instruction which has proved very satisfactory and encouraging. The Committee have to report favourably of the state of the schools. The Scriptures are

SY

taught in all of them: the progress of the children in committing them to memory is highly pleasing; and some of them have learned from twenty to forty chapters each, in half a year. This proficiency has much gratified their Catholic parents, who have appeared not a little elated, that their children have proved more expert in Scripture-quotations than their neighbours. The masters employed under the Society are those who were previously found teaching in Ireland, and many of them are Catholics. Good impressions have, in many instances, been made ou the minds of these masters, while instructing their pupils out of the Scriptures; and they frequently become the medium of communicating the knowledge of Divine truth to their respective families and neighbourhoods.

Another branch of the Society's concerns is, the instruction which is afforded to adults. The masters of the schools have a class of adult pupils, on mornings and evenings, on Sundays and holidays; and also lend Testaments to such as can read, every Sunday.

7

It is stated, that the people in general begin to shew a spirit of religious inquiry, and that they now seem athirst for the Word of Life; that many parents, who not long since would have refused to receive the New Testament into their houses, are now anxious to procure it for the instruction of their children, while in those parts of Ireland, where no schools are yet established, it is almost impossible to gain the attention of the lower orders to the Word of God; and also, that there are particular instances, of an affecting kind, in which religious instruction has been blessed to children, and, through them, has interested the hearts of their pa rents, enabling both to experience Divine consolation and support, in the hovels of poverty, in seasous of sickness, and at the hour of death.

The funds of the Society have improved in the last year; but as the operations of the Society are increasing, its funds will need proportional aid.

The British and Foreign Bible Society has granted to the Society 250 Bibles, and 1000 Testaments, with permission to purchase a further quantity at prime cost.

Considerable donations have also been received from several Scotch Bible and other Societies, and from congregational collections.

Before we close this article, we must be permitted to make one or two passing observations.

In looking over the Appendix to this Report, we have been restrained from extracting some interesting communications which it contains, by perceiving that almost every page brings before the public, statements of collisions with the Catholic clergy, and rather strong complaints of the conduct of that body. We are not surprised that such collisions should occur, nor that the agents of the Society should have frequent cause to complain of unreasonable opposition: but then we do not think that the best way of disarming that opposition, and of conciliating the Catholic clergy and people, is to publish the instances of splenetic or intemperate conduct which a priest may exhibit. The Society would not make the less progress either in England or Ireland, if it exercised some forbearance and self-denial in this respect, and if such recitals as those to which we allude were either entirely omitted or at least merged. in generalities. It may be perfectly right to attack the errors of Popery, and to expose the bigotry and intolerance, or other misconduct, of the Romish clergy: but this seems a work which should be. left, by such a society as this, in other hands.F

Aso warm friends also to the objects of this and of all religious societies, we would take this occa