they have erected against infidelity and superstition, and close his eyes in peace. Let him rest assured, that the charge against the National Society, of being an engine of state policy, will gain very little credit beyond the sphere of Mr. Bentham's influence; but let him also remember, that the Church with which we conceive him to be in communion, is established by law; and that it will therefore naturally foster those habits and principles which are required both by law and Gospel. Let him, likewise, receive due praise for the impartiality with which he has commented upon "Noblemen presiding at Genera!-school or Bible meetings;" they will not feel offended at being dispatched in a sentence, though a page of condemnation is bestowed upon the Bishops; and they will even pardon his finding some fault with the patrons of Mr. Hone, in consideration of the frankness with which he declares, that almost every diocese is stained with marks of nepotism and neglect. This sweeping condemnation is a conclusive proof of attachment to the Church: though not distinctly enumerated among the "means of National improvement," it evidently leads us to anticipate great benefit from the destruction of Episcopacy; and as we cannot subscribe to our author's opinion, that the frequent repetition of a sentiment or a wish, is the way to deprive it of all influence upon the actions and the heart, we must beg leave to protest against a systematic promulgation of charges, which may gratify the coarse appetite of a mob; although they can only excite the pity of the well-informed or the reflecting. MONTHLY REGISTER. A Sketch of the Church of England. As this department of the Christian Remembrancer is, in an especial manner, to be devoted to the bringing into one point of view as many of the detached labours, both of individual members of the Church of England, and of associated bodies of her Apostolic communion, in the support and propagation of Christianity, both at home and abroad, as the industry of the Editors can collect, or friends to the undertaking may furnish, and again to diffuse throughout the empire this valuable intelligence; the most appropriate introduction which the Editors can prefix to their future communications, seems to be a sketch of that venerable Establishment, comprehensively surveyed, in all its amplitude of incorporation; that, being first exhibited as a whole, and as it were in outline, to be filled up progressively by fresh details of exertion in its several parts, our readers may be better prepared to understand its contexture, and be impressed more and more, as its interesting narrative is unfolded, with its completeness for all the purposes of a Christian institution. The Church is designated by St. Paul, "the pillar and ground of the truth;" and by its Divine Founder, addressing himself to his first disciples, the light of the world," and the "sait of the earth." The important functions, then, which it has to perform, are, in the first place, to enshrine, and to make conspicuous, within its own body-the truth: the truth as it is in Jesus; the faith once delivered to the saints; the Gospel of our common salvation. Having established the truth in unsullied lustre, and provided for its security, the next function which the Church has to perform, with reference to this sacred deposit, is to carry into effect, zealously, but discreetly, the prescribed methods for its diffusion, and for chasing from every corner of the earth, by the bright beams of its glorious light, that blackness of spiritual darkness in which, at its introduction, it found the world involved, and which is gradually retiring from before it, as it proceeds towards its stupendous consummation. Confining ourselves to that Apostolic branch of the Christian Church, planted at a very early period of the Christian æra, in this kingdom, few words are necessary to demonstrate its fidelity in the performance of the first of its holy functions, the setting forth and establishment of the truth; for even Calvin's jaundiced eye cou'd detect only tolerabiles ineptias in the English reformation; and, amongst our own separatists, few have ventured to carp at it as the pretext for their separation; but, employing every sort of artifice to fix their own gloss upon its exemplification of Christian doctrine, have, with a.most one consent, eulogized its venerable authors, and celebrated the work which they began, and in a great measure compleated, in the highest strains of admiration. We may pass on then to the second function of the Church, that which is bound upon it as its perpetual labour, the diffusion of Scrip tural truth. And, in order to do justice to this portion of the task which we have undertaken, it is no superficial investigation that is required. work is conducted; first noticing the arrangements made, and the establishments formed, for its domestic execution; for laying a good foundation of it, in early life, and for following it up afterwards through its several stages to its attainment to maturity; and further, we have to set forth the means employed to extend its limits beyond our own borders to the whole family of man, all equally interested in the covenant of redemption, and all responsible for spreading the knowledge of it amongst their unconverted fellow-creatures, as they are themselves made partakers of its grace and mercy. Public Schools and Universities. Upon the plan just laid down, our public schools and universities, for the most part endowed from the Church's patrimony, or founded by the munificence of its Prelates and other distinguished members, claim our first attention. These are to be considered as the nurseries of sound religion, where the mind is formed upon scientific principles, which elicit all its powers, chastize its puerilities, and enlarge its comprehension; and where, by the invigorating exercise of human learning, reason is progressively matured, to the utmost extent of its powers, and is thus brought to the state which God, in the ordinary course of his providence, requires in all who aspire to the sacred character of Christian teachers, as preparatory to his imparting to them that wisdom from above which is indispensable to their success in those profound researches into the treasures of divine knowledge, which they are now to enter upon; and indispensable, therefore, to the due discharge of their awful responsibility. For neither the word of God, nor his conduct in the government of his Church, justify us We have first to survey the provisions made for rearing and continuing a faithful and efficient Ministry, and for inducing candidates to dedicate themselves to this holy call-in expecting more from him thaning; then we have to take an estimate of the process in which the HELP to our infirmities. He affords us divine assistance where our own power fails, but never, except on extraordinary occasions, does he supersede human industry and human exertion. Our public schools and universities then are pre-eminently entitled to the foremost rank amongst the institutions which the Church fosters in its bosom, for the purpose of providing itself with a never-failing supply of fit and able men to be its champions in maintaining, against all gainsaying and contradiction, the truth committed to its charge, and to do the work of Evangelists, in spreading the glad tidings which the truth contains: and the total absence of all respect of persons which it observes in the administration of this department of its trust, very considerably enhances the claim, which the service itself, most essential to the best interests of a Christian community, establishes, in its behalf, to general respect and protection. The same advantages which it offers to the nobles of the land for an adequate pecuniary recompence, it of fers, either gratuitously, or at a comparatively trifling charge, to those who are without these means of requital. Fitness and ability discovering their sure prognostics under the worst circumstances of birth and fortune, never appeal to it in vain for succour and encouragement. It stretches out the same hand to the meanest of its children that is extended to welcome within its cloisters those of highest estate; it provides for both, the same intellectual and spiritual food; administers it to them both with equal assiduity; distributes amongst them its literary honours with reference only to their respective attainments; supplies its Priesthood from amongst them with complete indiscrimination; and if, in the apportionment of its emoluments and dignities, it does not reach that standard of impartiality which perfection would require, the numbers that have risen, and are continually rising, from total obscuREMEMBRANCER, No. 1, rity to the highest offices which it has to bestow, may be confidently referred to for incontestible proof that indigent merit is very far indeed from being left wholly out of account, nay, is, perhaps, allowed to the full as much weight in the scale of pretension, as, in a world like ours, it is reasonable to look for. Dr. Bray's Associates. The first want which a Clergyman experiences upon entering upon the active duties of his profession is that of a library. His lot is cast in a country village, at a distance from those seats of learning where he has laid the first foundations of Theology, and he wants the means of prosecuting his sacred studies, and adding to his spiritual treasures of things new and old, so necessary to the efficient performance of the work of an Evangelist the rightly dividing the word of truth, and the rightly distributing it amongst the people committed to his care. The pious and indefatigable Dr. Bray, so renowned for his many excellent designs and great personal exertions for advancing the interests of Christianity, both at home and in our American colonies, had his attention arrested to this, amongst other deficiencies in our ecclesiastical provisions, which he earnestly strove to supply. It appears, that before his time, Sir Roger Twisden had projected the formation of libraries for all the smaller vicarages of the kingdom, one-third of which being under 501. per annum left the incumbents without the means of purchasing books for themselves. The magnitude of this project having defeated its success, Dr. Bray, in 1697, re-produced it in a more practicable form, as limited to the several deaneries into which each archdeaconry is subdivided; and though he could not accomplish even this modification of the plan, yet, in conjunction with several H noblemen, and the memorable Mr. Nelson, he laid the foundation for its gradual completion; procured, through the intervention of Sir Peter King, in the VIIth year of Queen Anne, an Act of Parliament providing for its permanence; and before his death, which happened in 1730, left behind him upwards of sixty parochial libraries established by his munificence and exertions. The distinguished persons whom he had interested in this undertaking, far from abandoning it, now assumed a corporate form under the title of THE ASSOCIATES OF DR. BRAY, and though they have never engaged a large share of public attention or patronage, they have been joined at different periods, by the most highly respected characters in Church and State, and have continued prosecuting the important object of their association to the utmost extent that the means placed at their disposal would admit. The libraries formed by Dr. Bray were for the most part parochial; those which the Associates have established are of two kinds, partly parochial and partly lending libra ries; and slender as their resources have been, up to the present time, their Register contains ninety of the former description, and fifty-four of the latter. So that two hundred libraries distributed throughout all the Dioceses in the kingdom, are the present result of their own and their Founder's labours. The present Associates do not much exceed eighty. Half the English Bench, and of the inferior Clergy, thirty-five being included in that number; but an object so obviously calculated to encourage Clerical industry, and to raise the standard of Christian Knowledge in general, by the improvement which will grow out of it in the instruction of the Clergy; in an age and country like ours, can only want to be better known, in order to be more liberally sup ported. The Reformation, amongst its other blessings, restored the Clergy of the Church of England, " to the charities of domestic life," but it did not restore to them "that portion of their revenues, which in the darkness of a more corrupt age, had been alienated to Monastic and Conventual uses," whilst these were rendered more than ever necessary, in consequence of the families springing up around them, and looking up to them for support. This insufficiency was, even at that time, felt and lamented; and the provision in Edward VIth's Charter, for the founding of Christ's Hospital, which made the Children of the Clergy equally eligible into that institution, with those of the freemen of London, manifests a strong disposition to mitigate an evil, which the peculating spirit of those times would not allow the government effectually to redress. Feast of the Sons of the Clergy. Other remedies in time succeeded, and the first that claims our attention is, the Association known by the name of THE STEWARDS OF THE FEAST OF THE SONS OF THE CLERGY, now nearly two centuries old. The object of which continues to this day the same that it was at its original formation, viz. to raise a sum of money by annual collection, to meet the painful exigence to which the poorer Clergymen are reduced, when the education of their children is completed, and a fee is required, in order to their being apprenticed to some trade or han dicraft, in which they may earn an honest livelihood, and become useful members of society. Such has been the general ap¬ propriation of this fund ever since its creation; but being the product of casual benevolence, and comparatively very limited in its amount, its total inadequacy to meet the calls made upon it, was soon per ceived, and a more efficient estab lishment speedily followed, known sixty years of its duration had res by the name of The Corporation for the Relief of A Royal Charter was granted by Charles the Second for this institution, soon after the Restoration under which it has flourished up to the present time; having acquired large funds of its own from the pious munificence of numerous benefactors, and being moreover the trustee and administrator of several private charities for the relief of necessitous clergymen and their families. Its objects are declared in its designation; and the course of its benevolence is the supplying the insufficiency of the former institution in providing apprentice fees, and allowing small portions towards the support of the widows and unmarried daughters of clergymen, above forty-five years of age; near five hundred of the former, and upwards of one hundred and eighty of the latter, being annually pensioned from its funds. But the whole exigency of the bereaved families of the poorer clergy was not met by either of the above specified establishments, their younger children yet remained very precariously and insufficiently provided with the means of education; and another institution was still found wanting, to render those already in existence, complete. Under this conviction some charitable individuals, in the year 1749, associated themselves together, under the designation of The Society for Cloathing, Maintaining, and Educating poor Orphans of Clergymen of the Established Church, in that part of the United Kingdom called England, until of Age to be put Apprentice, 7 Aso the institution became more generally known it obtained more extensive patronage; and in the first cued upwards of seven hundred clergy orphans of both sexes, from the evils of poverty and a neglected education. Till this period, how ever, it wanted many of its present advantages. It was not incorporated, and there were no premises belonging to it, and though the girls of the institution were educated in the immediate vicinity of London, and therefore under the inspection of their protectors; the boys enjoyed no such oversight, being sent to Thirsk, in Yorkshire, for their education. But in the year 1809, a new era of the Society commenced. It ob tained a Charter at the cost of the Lord Bishop of Durham, and re ceived a large influx both of means and influence, by the accession of many great and eminent persons to its List of Governors. These were the preludes to its most material advancement; for the attention of the heads of the Church, of the dif ferent ecclesiastical bodies, of the universities, indeed of the wealthy and benevolent in general, both in Church and State, was almost immediately excited by the urgent representations of its late indefatigable secretary, the Rev. Mr. Embry, most actively supported by the treasurer, Archdeacon Cambridge, to that greatest of all its wants, a school-house of its own: and by the splendid subscription which was, within a very short time, munificently contributed, an edifice has been erected, capable of containing one hundred and seventy children, twothirds more than its present number, and every way worthy of the Church of England, to whose sons and daughters (for such, the destitute offspring of her clergy emphatically are) it opens (during the most critical period of life) so efficient an asylum. To extend the benefits of the institution, commensurately with its enlarged accommodations, is the only object which the Committee of |