DURING the last month seven Infant School teachers trained by this institution for the Mico Charity, have sailed to the West Indies. Two

trained by the same Society have also been sent to Brighton, one to a Poor Law Union, one to Keswick, and four to other places.

THE following observations of the the Bishop of London on the late Act for promoting the residence of the clergy, appear in his lordship's recently published charge,

With regard to "residence

:

Upon this subject I retain the opinion which I expressed in my primary charge to the clergy of this diocese, that under the present circumstances of the church pluralities are in many cases necessary, and in some useful; but that they ought to be restricted, and certain conditions imposed upon those who hold them. Most gladly should I see that necessity removed, and other methods devised of supplying sufficient employment for the younger clergy upon their first entrance into the ministry, which is in truth the only direct advantage to be urged in favour of pluralities. In the mean time they ought certainly to be restricted within the narrowest limits which are consistent with the efficiency of the church. The act lately passed will not, perhaps, effect this completely; but it will diminish the number of pluralities to a much greater degree than is generally supposed, and, if no inconvenience should be found to result from it, a still further diminution may be practicable at some future time. With respect to the distance, beyond which no two livings can in future be held in plurality, I would observe, that as every parish should, if possible, have a resident clergyman, it is better that the incumbent of two benefices, which are not contiguous, and of small population, should serve only one of them in person, having a curate resident upon the other, than that he should undertake the duties of both; while at the same time it appears desirable that the parish which is intrusted to his curate should be within such a distance of his own residence as may make it easy for him to visit it

occasionally, and to satisfy himself that his place is properly supplied.

The power, which is given to the Queen in Council upon a representation from the archbishop, made at the instance of the bishop, to unite contiguous benefices of small value and population, will tend to diminish the number of pluralities, while it will in many cases remedy in part the evils which result from the poverty of benefices. By the same authority, a separation may be made of two or more benefices which have been improperly united, or of which the union, although proper when it was made, has ceased to be so, from a change of circumstances.

'I will now briefly notice the principal changes which have been made in the law which relates to the incumbents of benefices with cure of souls.

'With respect to residence, every clergyman upon whose benefice there is no house, or no fit house of residence, will be held to be legally resident, if he reside in some fit and convenient house, licenced by the bishop for that purpose, although not belonging to, nor within the limits of, such benefice, such house being not more than three miles distant from his church, if in the country, or two miles if in any city, borough, or market-town. If this provision, which I consider to be a great improvement in the law, be attended to and acted upon by the clergy, the cases of apparent nonresidence will be greatly diminished. It is my intention, in compliance with the recommendation of the archbishop, to call upon incumbents having no house, or no fit house of residence upon their benefices, and who reside, or in my judgment ought to reside, within the prescribed distance, to apply for licenses such as I have mentioned, in order that I may describe them in my annual returns to the Privy

As to the grounds upon which an incumbent may petition for a license of non-residence, an important change has taken place in the law, of which the clergy should be made aware. In future, although a license of non-residence may be granted, as heretofore, to any incumbent who labours under incapacity of mind or body, such license, if sought for on account of the dangerous illness of his wife or child, can be granted only for a period of six months; nor can it be renewed at the expiration of that term, except with the allowance of the archbishop, granted upon a recommendation in writing from the bishop. In the case of wilful nonresidence, where a monition and sequestration have issued, if the benefice continue under such sequestration for one whole year (instead of two years, as formerly,) or if it be twice sequestered within the space of two years, such benefice will become ipso facto void; and if an incumbent returning into residence upon monition shall again absent himself from his benefice within twelve months, the bishop may sequester the benefice. I am happy in being able to state, that in the ten years during which I have presided over this diocese I have had

occasion to issue only one monition to an incumbent to reside. * *

'One of the clauses in the new act, which has been strongly objected to, but which in my opinion was absolutely necessary, empowers the bishop to require, if he thinks fit, a resident incumbent to employ an assistant curate in any benefice the income of which exceeds 500l. the population amounting to 3,000 persons; or where there is a smaller population than 3,000, but a second church or chapel two miles from the parish church, with a population of 400 persons. Premising that this provision is not to apply to any benefice the incumbent whereof was in possession at the time of the passing of the act, I hold it to be a sufficient answer to all objections which have been made to this enactment to say, that the endowment of every benefice was given by its founder for the purpose of making a sufficient provision for the spiritual wants of the parishioners; and that if one elergyman be manifestly insufficient for that purpose, it is but following out the intentions of the founder, and supplying that urgent want, which cannot be supplied in any other way, to require the employment of an assistant. Undoubtedly it will make certain benefices less valuable in a temporal point of view, and so far will diminish the worth of the advowson. But it is not the value of the benefice, as a saleable commodity, no, nor even as a provision for the incumbent, which is the first object to be looked to; but the pastoral care and instruction of those for whose benefit the whole endowment was given. It is to the credit of lay patrons that so little objection has been made by them to this alteration of the law.'

YOUR Committee, in conclusion (say the Tunbridge Wells Auxiliary,) would merely advert to one other interesting field of labour-that connected with the hop-pickers from Ireland, of whom many thousands are employed in the County of Kent. One hop-planter alone engages the services of three or four thousand. Of these fellow-subjects from the

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sister Island, fifteen persons have been formerly known to die in a day on one plantation, no man caring for their souls." It is gratifying, however, to find, that since the year 1829, 700 copies of the New Testament have been gratuitously distributed by your Committee to these destitute Irish brethren and it is still more gratifying to be assured

that some have carefully preserved the gift, and have from year to year made it their companion in leaving and returning from their native home. Copies thus bestowed have been actually shewn to our friends for six successive years, by the poor persons to whom they had been given. A few, indeed, have been known to sell these gifts, and for a price greater than that which our Auxiliary had originally paid for them but although such an abuse of Christian bounty must be regretted, it yet affords convincing proof of the value which the buyers attached to the sacred volume.

One affecting incident, as related by a respected neighbouring minister, must not be omitted. A poor Irish woman from St. Giles's, who was picking hops last year in Kent, had a wicked son, of whom she had heard nothing for many years; when the sad tidings reached her, of his being on board a convict ship at Portsmouth, under sentence of transportation for life, to a distant colony. Not having a penny in the world, but possessing a New Testament, she begged her way to Portsmouth, in order to give into his own hands that blessed book, as the last token of his motherly love. The interview was most affecting. The unhappy convict solemnly assured her that he would not only read it, with humble prayer to God, during the voyage; but would continue to peruse it when arrived at the place of his destination, declaring that he would never part with it but with his life. This very Testament had been given to his poor mother during the previous hop-picking, by your Auxiliary Bible Society.

SCOTLAND.

A SUPPLY of Four Thousand Bibles and Testaments were granted, in the course of the last year, to a Gentleman in Scotland, for distribution among the destitute poor in the Highlands and Islands. From that gentleman the fullest returns of the distribution have been received. The returns give the name of the parish, the names of the heads of the family, the number of persons in the family, the number that can read, the number of Bibles and Testaments already in their possession, and the number now supplied. In

two returns, one relating to one hundred and fifty-nine families, and the other to one hundred and sixty, not a single Bible or Testament appears to have been found in their possession. The other returns, between twenty and thirty in number, exhibit an almost equal destitution of the sacred volume. The following is a Letter from one of the distributors employed:

'I have seen hundreds of houses that had not one Bible! and, more astonishing, two or three persons, at the most, in those houses, that are able to read the Scriptures in their native language! If a reason be required for this, I will state one, as I have it from their own confession: Although a wise reigning God was pleased to provide for them teachers to teach their children gratis, the utmost they could do, was to purchase one Bible for as many as they sent to school: and when two or three from a family would be using that book between them, the said book was either blotted or torn into pieces. Poverty was such a severe restraint over them, together with the inconvenience of getting the sacred copy for their children after being taught to read, that the destitution of the Scriptures has been over our forgotten deserts, till the "I AM," that heard the groans of the Israelites in Egypt, was pleased to provide ways and means for them ; and I hope will continue to do so, till the Book of God shall be in each house among us. I cannot express my consolation at having had the pleasure of delivering such a treasure to so many thirsty and needy people, overwhelmed with floods of tenderness, and struck with shame and admiration, when they saw such an unspeakable boon sent within their reach. I am not aware of any thing that ever came into my way that had such effect upon the feelings of the poor people as this wonderful supply of the Holy Scriptures, coming so unexpectedly to their possession; although there are still many in want. I have been in a town that had not one Bible within the bounds of it; and yet certain people are able to read the Scriptures, who borrow a book from each of their well-wishers till such time as they are called upon to restore it.

THE following account of this pious and lamented Minister, is extracted from the Colonist, a Sidney Newspaper, and though not strictly correct, yet evinces plainly the high esteem in which our departed friend was held.

It may be proper to remark that Mr. Marsden was, not strictly speaking, a Missionary, but a Chaplain sent out by Government; that he was required to act as a magistrate, as well as a minister; and that in the then state of the colony, it was almost indispensable, and on various accounts desirable, that the two offices should be united, nor do we conceive it was in any respect really unfortunate, that he so long continued to unite those arduous offices.

This devoted Missionary died on the 12th of May. On the 15th his funeral took place, and on the next day the following notice appeared in the Colonist, Sydney paper.

The remains of the late Rev. Samuel Marsden, of Parramatta, for upwards of forty years principal Episcopal Chaplain of New South Wales, were attended to the grave yesterday, from his residence at Parramatta, by a numerous and respectable assemblage of mourners, including most of the public functionaries of the colony. Mr. Marsden had evidently been breaking down for more than two years past, and his habit of body, and the active life he had uniformly led since the commencement of his ministerial career, had prepared his friends for a sudden termination of his earthly labours. He had gone to Windsor a few days ago, and had probably caught cold by the way, as he was immediately thereafter seized with erysipelas, which very soon reduced him to a state of insensibility, and under which he sunk rapidly into the arms of death-uttering only a few incoherent expressions, indicative of his hope in God through the merits and mediation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Mr. Marsden was naturally a man of a masculine understanding, of great decision of character, and indomitable energy of mind; and if he had enjoyed the benefits of a superior education in his early life,

he would doubtless have stood high in the literary world. He was one of the numerous eleves of the late Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, and was led, we believe, to embark for this colony as a minister of the Gospel, when it was a mere receptacle for miserable outcasts from the three kingdoms, by the late Mr. Wilberforce. He was ordained in the year 1793, and entered on his ministerial labours in this colony very shortly thereafter.

'Mr. Marsden arrived in the colony at a time when the incomes of the various civil officers of the colonial establishment were quite inadequate to the maintenance of their families, and he was thus necessitated to eke out his salary and allowances by engaging, like everybody else around him, in agriculture, and in the rearing of sheep and cattle. He did so, as indeed he did whatever he attempted, with enthusiasm, and as an importer of sheep and cattle of superior breeds, at a time when stock of these deseriptions was both exceedingly high priced, and of a very inferior character, he certainly proved a benefactor of the colony.

In such circumstances it was scarcely possible that he could fail to acquire property, in a country especially, in which people possessing a few sheep and cattle, and managing them with common prudence, become rich insensibly. Mr. Marsden's flocks and herds, with no great attention on his part, gradually increased to a patriarchal amount, and these, added to his property in land, rendered him, as is commonly imagined, one of the wealthiest of our colonial proprietors at his death. Riches uniformly bring a multitude of cares along with them and it were doubtless to be wished that there were some. means devised for preventing ministers of religion in future from becoming extensive stockholders in this territory, to whatever communion they belong; but none of the present colonial incumbents have the same excuse to plead for dying wealthy, as the Rev. Mr. Marsden.

can

'It was peculiarly unfortunate