The fate of this book is well known. An attempt to introduce it was made in the High Church of Edinburgh; but no sooner had the Dean, who was appointed to read it, appeared in his surplice, and begun the service, than a multitude of the meaner sort of people, most of them women, with clapping of hands, clamour and outeries, raised such a hideous noise, that not a word could be distinctly heard, and then a shower of stones and sticks was directed against the clergyman's head. The Bishop ascended the pulpit to remonstrate with the insurgents, when Jenny Geddes, of famous memory, darted a species of stool at his person, to the imminent hazard of his life; whilst the mob, who had taken their place outside the Church, continued to batter the doors and windows with the most ungovernable fury, exclaiming, "A Pope! A Pope! Antichrist! Pull him down! Stone him! Stone him!" The pious defenders of the faith, and the assault itself, were spoken of by the popular preachers in their pulpits, "as the most heroic spirits that ever God inspired and raised up in this last age of the world, and as the happy mouths and heads which he had honoured with the commencement of such a blessed work!" These; however, were but the beginning of sorrows. Things were now fast hastening to that dreadful crisis which overthrew at once kingly and episcopal power all over the island. Disaffection to Church and State had already assumed so strongly the character of rebellion that, immediately after a packed Assembly at Glasgow had voted down the Bishops, they agreed to raise an army to oppose the Sovereign. The poor prelates were, of course, treated with little mercy. The greater number fled into England, under assurance from the tumultuary reformers in the north, that if they dared to return home, they "should be used as accursed, and even given over to the devil, and out of Christ's body, as ethnics and publicans, and that all who harboured them should be prosecuted to excommunication likewise." (To be continued.). ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPELS AND SCHOOLS. It is our intention to furnish our readers, from time to time, with documents relating to the principles and condition of the Roman Catholic Church in these Islands and on the Continent. Authentic statements and declarations, issued by themselves, cannot be represented by Roman. Catholics as an unfair ground on which to build our opinion of the present effects and future consequences of their proceedings. To these manifestoes alone, or to such as these, we shall therefore refer in the course of our remarks on this momentous subject. To avowed principles and acknowledged facts, we shall in this, as in every other case, studiously endeavour to confine ourselves. Though our arguments Y VOL. I. NO. I. may fail to produce conviction, or our admonition to make proselytes to that which we believe, and shall firmly assert as truth, we will never, knowingly, subject ourselves to a just imputation of sinning against charity and justice. With these views, we cannot do better, perhaps, than begin with A Statement of Roman Catholic Chapels and Schools, in England and Wales, collected from Keating's Laity's Directory for 1824; published with the Authority of the Vicar Apostolic in England. IN CONNEXION WITH THE CHURCH. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, LINCOLN'S-INN-FIELDS. THIS Society expresses its comprehensive object in its name-the promoting of Christian Knowledge generally throughout the world. It is at the same time inseparably connected with the Established Church, and admits none to be subscribing members, but such as are well affected to the ecclesiastical institutions of the country. The Society was raised in the year 1698, at a period when the baneful influence of the profligate manners, introduced by the court of Charles the Second, was still felt, and when the malignant ascendancy of Popery, though no longer triumphant, was still dreaded in England. The first meeting was composed of six persons only, whose names deserve to be recorded as the founders of a Society, which has the justest elaims to be considered the Parent Society of every kindred Institution in the kingdom. Lord Guilford, Sir Humphrey Mackworth, Mr. Justice Hook, Dr. Bray, and Colonel Chichester, had the piety and public spirit to commence an undertaking, which is now supported by more than fifteen thousand annual contributors. The preamble to their incipient proceedings, will sufficiently explain the design which the Society then had, and still has in view. "Whereas the growth of vice and immorality is greatly owing to gross ignorance of the principles of the Christian Religion; we, whose names are underwritten, do agree to meet together, as often as we can conveniently, to consult (under the conduct of the Divine providence and assistance) how we may be able, by due and lawful methods, to promote Christian knowledge.' Consistently with this pious resolution, the Society began its labours by circulating religious books and tracts, establishing lending libraries, and promoting the formation of Sunday and other charity-schools at home, and by maintaining missionaries, furnishing the means of translating and printing copies of Scripture, and rendering assistance to people, who were suffering under the effects of persecution or ignorance, abroad. For upwards of a hundred years it continued gra. dually, but almost silently, to pour the streams of its bounty into different channels, and to dispense the blessings of religious knowledge to hundreds of thousands, who did not know even the name of the Society to which they were indebted. Not only did the natives of distant countries remain in ignorance of the hand that brought them the word of God in their vernacular tongue, but even the inhabitants of our own islands have received Bibles from this Institution, in the language that they could read, without knowing from whence they came. "The agents who distributed the Society's gifts were often considered the almoners of their own bounty, without reference to the treasury from which it proceeded *." It was at length perceived that the Society might advantageously have recourse to measures, without vaunting itself, which would give greater publicity to its proceedings, and be the means of enlarging its sphere of action. In June, 1810, a Committee was appointed to consider and report the best method to be adopted for increasing the Society's influence, and for inviting a more general co-operation. The formation of District and Diocesan Committees was the expedient proposed and resorted to; and the result has been so favourable, that in less than fourteen years, the funds of the Society have been encreased more than four-fold. The following Table will shew how much the Society has been able to do since the Establishment of these Committees, and will at the same time give a correct Idea of its progressive Condition and general Efficiency. 195 12,600 £59,444 Diocesan Committees Subscribing Members to Society Bibles distributed Expenditure Testaments and Psalters, ditto Common Prayer-Books Other bound Books............................... Tracts........ Books and Papers gratuitously 25,765 26,766 24,678 47,314 48,018 39,986 29,998 48,661 56,328 65,492 67,057 38,523 42,529 49,310 51,525 55,851 42,529 430,796 488,710 523,412 795,637 64,752 151,730 144,606 100,089 219,752 393,545 747,212 667,727 845,302.1,202,962| 1819. 1820. 1821. 1822. 1823 +. 225 242 14,530 14,650 55,245 56,021 259 15,000 265 15,000 57,714 60,607 52,954 53,769 209 216 13,300 14,000 55,939 52,684 £59,195 55,147 52,366 30,030 32,150 32,598 32,199 32,085 54,047 53,905 55,367 45,682 54,270 87,135 91,621 89,143 85,301 90,855 103,826 126,431 60,877 74,888 78,223 75,550 81,943 86,042 95,142 835,935 913,483 980,964 827,044 822,374 835,154 811,949 241,558 261,760 169,143 176,315 140,855 278,726 316,431 Total number of Books, Tracts, &c. 1,309,582 1,427 808 1,405 437 1,242,091 1,222,382 1 400,7111,454.818 Total Number of Books, Tracts, and Papers distributed by the Society between April 1810 See the Address of the Lewes Deanery District Committee, in the Society's Annual Report for 1816. The Report of this year extends to April 1824. The annual interest of the Society's capital is upwards of 80007. which is derived from legacies and donations that have occasionally fallen in. The principal of these are, Lord Vryhouven's legacy, 75,3311. stock. Earl of Kerry's legacy, 10,2001. stock ... 1819 .1824 Rev. Edward Parkinson's legacy, 20,000l. stock Rev. Richard Wilkes's deed of gift of 10,501. 16s. 8d. stock, besides making the Society his residuary legatee, (the amount uncertain).. .1824 In addition to these more liberal contributions, there have been many sums of 500l.; and no less than 8554l. has been remitted to the Society, from time to time, by foreign benefactors. The general objects of the Society may be comprised under the following heads : : To promote the religious education of children of the lower orders in the principles of the Established Church. To circulate Bibles, Prayer-books, books of instruction, and religious tracts, doctrinal, devotional, and practical. * To support missionaries in the East Indies. It has aided the translation of the Bible into the Welsh, Irish, Gaelic, Manks, Portuguese, French, Danish, German, Arabic, Tamulian, and Bengalee languages. It has made grants of books or money, To the Waldensian churches in Piemont; To the persecuted Protestants in the archbishopric of Saltzburgh; To French, Danish, and Swedish prisoners taken during the late war; To the poor inhabitants of the Scilly Islands; To the Greek churches in Palestine, Syria, Arabia, and Egypt. It will be seen from the above statements, that scarcely any design has been pursued by other Societies separately, but has been included in the vast and comprehensive plan of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and that its principle is not more calculated to unite and combine the efforts of churchmen, in a particular cause, Those two Apostolic teachers, Swartz and Gerickè, were among the number of the Society's missionaries; and the establishment of the Mission College at Calcutta is to be attributed mainly to its exertions. |