At half-past nine

The Rev. J. ARUNDEL announced that W. T. Blair, Esq., of Bath, whose presence as chairman had been expected, was prevented by illness from attending; and stated that Edward Baines, Esq., Member of Parliament for Leeds, had kindly engaged to preside on the occasion.

Mr. BAINES then took the chair, supported by Wm. Alers Hankey, Esq., and Thomas Wilson, Esq.

The Hymn

"Hark! the voice from distant nations,"

having been sung, the Rev. JOHN WATSON, from Scotland, implored the Divine presence and blessing.

The CHAIRMAN then rose, and after expressing his regret at the absence of Mr. Blair, observed-It is particularly gratifying to find, that in every part of the world the labours of this Society are greatly extending, and that the benefits accruing from those labours reach I may almost say from pole to pole; that it is embracing, through the instrumentality of its agents, and with the blessing of God, those regions that have hitherto sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, and diffusing a light over them that extends from earth to heaven, and will be found to bloom throughout the countless ages of eternity. A great amount of good has already attended our efforts; and surely we ought to be animated to renewed exertions by the example of those who are now labouring in the field of Missions; by the example of such men as the honoured Mr. Williams. Observe the impression that he has made on the people of this country; observe how he has brought under the view of men hitherto indifferent to the subject the labours of Missionaries; observe the impression that he has made upon their minds, and the power that they are now displaying, and the readiness with which they now come forward to aid his labours. I remember the time when he appeared before a committee of the House of Commons in all the simplicity of his character. He gave his evidence in that simple and characteristic manner which distinguishes those who feel conscious of their own integrity, and of the importance of the labours in which they are employed. I believe there was not a gentleman in the committee who heard his evidence that was not favourably impressed with the character of Mr. Williams, and, what was infinitely more important, favourably impressed with that Mission and with those labours in which he is engaged. Again he has gone forth, every heart in the land wishing him and the noble band, not of warriors, but a much more noble band,-wishing them God speed in the great work in which they are engaged.

He has gone to encounter perils and to encounter difficulties that the mind of a man like Mr. Williams can alone adequately grapple with; but he has gone under a protection infinitely above that which human wisdom or human power can afford the protection of his Divine Master. If other and yet more powerful considerations were wanting, it is by reflecting on the labours that he and those who have accompanied him are encountering, that we ought to be stimulated to greater exertions. We are doing something, but how little in comparison of that which these devoted men are effecting for the cause we have all so much at heart? But it is not only in the South Seas; we find the same motives for exertion in all the regions where the ministers of the London Missionary Society are actively engaged. We find that ministry extending its usefulness, and promoting the great object that we have in view in the East and in the West; and here let me say, (and I say it with great pleasure,) that whatever may be our disappointment about negro apprenticeship, or any other of the inconveniences under which the negro may labour, the apprenticeship of Satan in the West India Islands I hope is drawing to a speedy termination. I hope the time will soon arrive when every sable inhabitant of that region will have the light of the Gospel communicated to his mind, partly through the instrumentality of Missionaries, and partly through the instrumentality of the resident clergy. And even in Madagascar, can we doubt that the Cross which has for a time been taken down will speedily re-rear its head, and, notwithstanding the infatuation of the Queen, so unfit an emblem of queens, and so unlike her Majesty who rules over this country, (loud applause,) that it will present in time a spectacle upon which the world may look with admiration. Of this consummation there can be no doubt, if you persevere steadily in your endeavours to support the Missionary Society in the labours that it has undertaken, and if this Society continues to co-operate with similar institutions in promoting the great purposes for which it was originally designed. I will not longer detain you. I have been called, as I have said, to this station, by a circumstance in some degree accidental. I do not regret that I should have been placed here, not from any principle of personal aggrandisement, but because no man ought to regret that he is placed in any situation where he can render assistance towards a cause so glorious, and to a Society so infinitely deserving of support as this.

The Rev. W. ELLIS then read an abstract of the Report. The South Sea Mission had been favoured with many proofs of Divine compassion and support, and the gracious

revival of spiritual religion among the churches at Tahiti had been mercifully continued. The Chinese still excluded the ministers of reconciliation from their country, but the blessing of God on the labours of the Missionaries in the Ultra Ganges Stations afforded great encouragement. In India, the revival of piety at some of the most important Stations encouraged to perseverance, though the idolatries of the country were still sanctioned and promoted by the Supreme Government. The progress of the Siberian Mission was satisfactory. In Southern Africa the peace of the colony continued unbroken, and there were evident tokens of the Divine favour resting on the labours of the Missionaries, especially in Griqua Land. The Mission in the West Indies partook in the general advancement, though some of the most valuable labourers, including the Rev. John Wray, the venerable father of the West Indian Mission, had been removed by death. The darkness which hung over Madagascar at the last Anniversary still remained; and the storm of persecution then gathering had burst with fearful violence on the faithful but defenceless band of native Christians there. The following is the number of Missionary Stations and Out-stations belonging to the Society in different parts of the world, Missionaries labouring at the same, &c., &c. :

The Directors had sent forth, during the past year, to various parts of the world, Missionaries with their families, amounting, exclusive of their children, to sixty-one individuals. The number of churches was 93, communicants 7,347, and scholars 36,954, being an increase on the year 1837 of 9 churches, 932 communicants, 2732 scholars. In relation to the funds, the Directors had to report, that the amount of legacies received during the year had been 3,7407. 68. 8d., being 4,0371. 58. 8d. less than the amount of legacies received during the preceding year. The contributions for the ordinary and special objects of the Society, of which the items would be specified in the larger Report, had been 66,5141.158.1d., making, with the legacies, a total of 70,255., being an increase beyond the income of the last year of 5,8821. 3s. 7d. The expendi

ture of the year had been 76,8187. 16s. 11d., being an increase beyond the expenditure of the year ending at the last anniversary to the amount of 13,6581. 7s. 9d., and an excess beyond the income of the past year of 6,5631. 168. 11d,

The Rev. ARTHUR TIDMAN said-The resolution which I have the honour to propose to the meeting is this

"That this meeting has heard with satisfaction and pleasure the abstract of the Report which has been read; that it presents to the Directors its congratulations on account of the greatly augmented operations of the Society; and that it cheerfully pledges itself to meet, by renewed and zealous exertion, the heavy additional expenditure which must result from the proceedings of the past year."

That most interesting document assured us that in the forty-fourth year of the Society's operations, many events of interest and importance have occurred, unknown in its previous history; and whatever expectations may have been thus excited, I will pledge myself, on the part of those who heard the details, that we have not been disappointed. When did the friends of modern Missions ever listen to a record of events so calculated to awaken their gratitude, to expand their hopes, and to stimulate their zeal? That this Society should have added, including those adopted and those sent forth, nearly a hundred additional agents within the limits of a single year, is a new thing in its history. I hope it will be but the first of many such years. Another new thing! We have a vessel of our own in which our beloved brethren are now ploughing the mighty ocean to the far distant isles of the South, and this little sanctuary of the waters has been purchased, not out of the ordinary resources of the institution, but with the extra free-will offerings of the Christian public. Another new thing in our history! This enterprise has not only received the generous contributions of many of our liberal-minded nobility, but we have had the generous aid, also, of the first municipal body in the first city in the world-and that aid has been given under the distinct conviction that the best and only effectual method to civilise the savage, to restrain the tyrannical, and to elevate the degraded, is to send the Gospel throughout the world. There would be no end to these novelties if I were to go through them. But they are all as delightful to our How hearts as they are new to our ears. altered are our circumstances to-day from those meetings which some of us were accustomed to attend in the days of our boyhood and our youth. The fathers of this Institution, whose names are embalmed in our affectionate remembrance, and whose works follow them, for many a year could only announce the tidings of bitter disappointment. One year, my elder brethren

No;

can remember, though some of us were then, perhaps, in our cradles, they had to tell the churches that their faithful bands of Missionaries were captured by an enemy; another year, that their self-denying and laborious agents were harassed and annoyed, and almost forbidden to proclaim the glad tidings to the Caffres and the Hottentots; another, that the doors of India were shut and barred by British hands against the heralds of the Cross; another, that all their Missionaries, with the exception of two, (one of whom I am happy to see in this assembly to-day,) had been forced by persecution or discouragement to leave the islands of the Southern Seas. These were years of mourning, lamentation, and woe; but we have met together to-day, not to sigh over the withered blossoms of our hope, nor merely to refresh ourselves with the fragrance these flowers exhale; but we are assembled (thanks be to God, the Author of all good) to feast richly on those fruits of life which he has granted in such profusion and variety, as the reward of our anxiety, our toil, and our prayer. If it should be imagined, from what we have heard, that there is at least one exception to this scene of fertility and beauty-if it should be said that there is one island over which the keen blast of persecution has just passed, and left behind it irreparable desolation-I cannot subscribe to such a sentiment. we have just seen a new thing indeed in the history of the Society, but we have seen, even in that act of murder, [the martyrdom of the honoured female, RAFARAVAVY, in Madagascar,] new evidence to the divinity of our faith; we have seen that the Gospel which we propagate, with all our conscious weakness and imperfection, can make the saint, and sustain the sufferer. We have seen that the Gospel, applied by the power of the Divine Spirit to the heart, is sufficient still to make poor, feeble, unbefriended woman the calm, the dauntless, the triumphant martyr! It is true that that fair land of promise has been sorely stricken by the blast, but let us not forget that the tree of life is planted there; and though the branches may be torn by a rude and ruthless hand, yet, when the race of persecutors shall have passed away, that tree, the germ of which is indestructible, shall thrive, and grow, and extend its branches over their dishonoured ashes. We are told that when the multitudes were brought forth to see that foul deed, and when the property of the martyred saint was presented to tempt the violence and selfishness of the soldiers, there was not found a hand to touch it—it was a sacred thing. If I rightly understand that conduct, it was language of the heart that the lips dared not express; and I entertain no doubt that many, who came to

see the martyr bleed, went home to learn the faith in which the martyr died. The blood of the martyr of Demerara proved there the seed of the Church; and the blood which has newly stained the soil of Madagascar will hereafter bring forth fruit thirty, sixty, yea, a hundred-fold. Christian brethren, remember them that are in bonds as bound with them; but rejoice that while the iron hangs around their neck, it leaves the spirit free; rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer for the Lord's sake, and pray that others, when driven to the dens and caverns of that island, waxing confident by their bonds, may become bold to speak the word without fear, so that the things that have happened to them in Madagascar may turn out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel. We have been carried with breathless velocity by the abstract of the Report around the world, and we have been permitted only just to glance at many lovely fields on which a seraph might delight to linger. I think this assembly will not be unwilling to retrace their flight, and glance again, although we can give but á glance, at some of those unearthly scenes. We first caught sight of the distant islands that bestud the Pacific. And those islands most remote from our shores are perhaps the nearest to our hearts. Those were dear as objects of pity to the fathers of this Institution; by their moral transformation they are dearer to us; and by their advance in knowledge, piety, and truth, they will be dearer still to our children. In the exhibition of Polynesian piety, there are two things characteristic of the very best times of the Christian Church, diffusiveness and heroism. In that most charming of all charming productions, in that book that may be called, The Acts of the Apostles of the Islands of the South, our beloved brother, who has so lately left us, presents an exhibition of renewed and sanctified humanity, before which many of us should sink into the dust of insignificance and self-abasement. Of that book a Christian Bishop has lately said in this place with so much candour and so much judgment, "I would rather part with half the folios of the fathers of my library, than with the volume of the Missionary Williams." In the islands of the Southern Seas we have seen the true principle of apostolic piety. "Freely have they received, and freely have they given." They have sent their property, to the value of thousands, to our treasury; and, what is better far, they have parted with their best men, and parted with them gladly, to spread the Gospel in the regions beyond them. And thus we are reminded, even in our own degenerate times, of a little fraternity who had turned from their idols, and received the Gospel but a few months before, and who were then strug

gling for their existence with their persecutors; but of whom it was said, "From you sounded out the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad." We find some discussing the great question, What is the best means of sustaining and extending the blessings of Christianity? Let us not lose our time or our temper in entering into such discussions, but let us work on in that way in which God is working with us mightily. We find others making high pretensions to the exclusive authority of propagating the Gospel, and referring to the authority of Rome for their credentials. We do not wish to seek the seals of office in that quarter. We desire no letters of commendation thence; we point to the islands of the South-they are our epistles, known and read of all men. But, turning from the South to the islands of the West, let us take a glance there. Those islands have their claims, their distinct, peculiar claims, on the Church of God in Britain. They appeal to our justice no less than our religion. There we, as a part of this guilty nation, have inflicted wrongs -deep and deadly wrongs-which admit of no restitution, but in the glory of the God we proclaim. We have heard it said, for the nine hundred and ninety-ninth time, that the negro, forsooth, is too dull to learn; too much like the brute to receive any useful instruction. To-day we have visited the schools of Demerara, and have seen the lamented and enlightened Governor of that Colony suspending the medals of merit around the necks of little negroes, who, with glistening eyes and lighted countenances, looked up, and seemed to say, "This is a new thing in Demerara." We have heard it said just as often that the negro is too lazy to work. Money would have no attraction for him. The whip, and nothing but the whip, would make the negro toil. Let it be known by this assembly, that the congregation of our late lamented brother, Howe, in which there was not a single white man, contributed in one year more than 2007. for the spread of the Gospel. That is not a solitary case; other congregations of coloured people not quite so numerous have contributed in the same, and I think I might affirm, a still larger proportion. And when the day shall come, which I trust is not far distant, when industry shall have a fair competition, and when labour shall have an equitable reward, then I venture to predict, that at least the churches of that colony will not only be self-supported, but that they will prove valuable auxiliaries in the Missionary cause. If additional evidence were wanting, we have that evidence this morning, that all the benefits which the

generous public of Britain intended to secure for the negroes in the cheerful payment of twenty millions sterling-that all the blessings of education, religion, and immediate freedom, might be enjoyed not only without danger, but with the highest possible advantage to themselves and to the colonies. I am quite aware that I am not this morning addressing an Anti-Slavery Society. (Cries of yes, yes.) A friend says he thinks I am. Well, I recall the word, because, according to the interpretation that would be given of that sentiment, I do most cordially concur, and say that every society founded on the principles of the Gospel of Christ, breathing the spirit of Christ, and seeking the honour of Christ, must be an enemy to slavery in every place, and in every degree, and in every form. But what I meant to say was this, that instead of attempting to arouse the honest and righteous indignation of this assembly against that system of modified bondage, falsely named freedom, I should rather call them to rejoice that, notwithstanding the serious impediments it has left to the spread of the Gospel, the Word of God is not bound, but has free course, and is glorified among them. I cannot, however, but seize the passing opportunity to express my thankfulness to God-and I am sorry, in so doing, for the presence of one gentleman in this assembly -to express my gratitude to God, who has put it into the hearts of one of the earliest and most active friends of this Society to do honour to his Christian principles, by declaring that his servants shall not only have the name of liberty, but that they shall be free indeed. Of the pecuniary sacrifice involved in such a determination, I will say nothing, because I am sure that those greatly miscalculate who calculate on the side of losing. The master who acts uprightly and generously will find his ample compensation in the fidelity, affection, and industry of his servant. But of the moral courage displayed in such an action I might say much, and much I would say, but for the regretted presence of one behind me. I know that our valued friend does not seek, and I am quite sure that he does not require the commendation of any man. No; the man that shall rise on the 1st of August from his pillow with a conviction that the blessing of the thankful and the prayers of the free are descending on him, can desire no higher recompence, can taste no purer joy.

Although I have too long detained you, I should deem myself most criminal if I could overlook one land of Missionary effort, compared with which the population of any other field of our exertion, with the population of our own empire added, will sink into comparative insignificance-I look to India —to India, which demands all the resources

of the Christian church, and would amply repay our noblest exertions. I have been speaking of some new things in the history of this Society, but that a handful of islanders, distant many thousand miles, and separated from the mighty continent by rolling seas that a handful of islanders so circumstanced should exercise direct authority, or a paramount control over nearly 200 millions of their fellow-creatures, is a thing unknown in the world's historythe wonder of the world's old age. And what is to be the end of this mystery in the operations of Divine Providence? The politician looks, and perhaps looks no farther, than to the glory of that little land, which is a mere speck in the mighty waters. But the Christian will look to the honour of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, and at whose bidding nations and empires rise and fall, flourish and decay. We have often lamented, and we have lamented again to-day, that China is not open; and deep and sincere is our grief that its massive gates are still unbarred. But India is open, and to India the providence of God points the church of God as the present field of its noblest efforts, and the destined field of its brightest achievements. Sir, I seem to see the sacred hand of God guiding and directing us thither with as much distinctness as though we were following the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night. But anxious as we are to see India obedient to the faith, we disclaim, utterly disclaim the imputation that we wish to see her subjugated by the power of coercion. The mercantile princes of Leadenhall-street, who reiterate this charge, do not know the best friends of India, and strangely misrepresent the best portion of their countrymen. No; glad as we should be to see the heathen turning from their idols-thankful as we should be to see them filled with holy indignation, casting their idols to the moles and to the bats-we should be among the first to raise the loudest remonstrance against the man who would dare to force the idolater from his false gods, or attempt to take a base and senseless idol from the temple of its votaries. No; that is not our plan-we are not quite so wicked as to wish it we are not quite so mad as to think it practicable, if we could desire it. The only power which we wish to employ for the subjugation of India is the force of truth-the only influence with which we would assail idolatry is the influence of tenderness and persuasion. We would just remind those who so strangely libel the church of God, that India is no stranger to coercion ! The coercion of the cannon and the bayonet has been tried there! They know by whom, and for what purpose. And India is no

stranger to coercion still; or why are our noble-minded countrymen compelled to perform military honours to the rites and absurdities of Mohammed? India is no stranger to coercion still; or why-why are our countrymen again compelled, upon penalty of loss of rank, to add to the splendour and pageantry of an idol's train? India is no stranger to coercion still; or why is the native soldier, if he renounce his idols and become a worshipper of Christ, compelled to forego the honours and emoluments of his profession? India has been no stranger to coercion of a baser kind. It was but yesterday that the police of India went forth among the villages of Orissa, armed with the whip, and with the authority of the most honourable Company, and compelled the villagers to come and yoke themselves to the car of Juggernaut. And what has brought that system of abomination to an end but the loud remonstrances of the Christian public of Britain? What, then, do we want of the civil and military authorities of British India? Why, to use a phrase that some of our friends on the other side of the Irish Channel might employ, all we want them to do is just to do nothing, but to maintain in matters of religion a strict neutrality, an honest, fairdealing non-interference. We say, let the Bible and the Shastres work their own influence on the minds of the people, let the Brahmin and the Missionary have a fair field and no favour. Let Hinduism and Christianity be left to the voluntary principles of their respective votaries. We say, do this, and we ask no more; extend liberty, just and equal liberty, to all; to idolaters no less than to Christians, but to the Christian no less than the idolater. If the Government of India would volunteer their patronage to-day, I am quite sure that we should dread much more than we should desire it. If you, Mr. Chairman, were to put it, I can venture to assure you that there would be as many hands against that motion as there will be in favour of the one I have proposed. All we want, and what by calm and persevering Christian effort we mean to obtain-all we want is this-not that the Government of India shall throw over our feeble cause the broad shield of their protection-not that they should send our Missionaries into the bazaars with the staff of their authority; but we say :-"Sirs, no more appoint the priests to the altar-no longer lavish wealth upon the gaudy trappings of the idol and his car-render not the name of your religion infamous, by appointing the basest women to occupy the temple. We say, and it is all we say, touch not the unclean thing, neither bless it at all, nor curse it at all; but if you see Dagon