and, therefore, with a more extensive library, and a greater number of professors.

The system of education pursued in it, would, therefore, be more extensive and more perfect; the youths educated in it would also become more united in the same views, and contract an early and lasting friendship for each other; circumstances which could not fail of promoting harmony and prosperity in the church. The disadvantages attending this mode would be, principally those derived from the distance of its position from the extremities of the presbyterian bounds.

The advantages attending the second of the proposed modes, and the disadvantages will readily suggest themselves, from a comparison of this with the other two.

The advantages which would attend the third, to wit; the establishment of theological schools, by the respective synods, would be the fol. lowing. The local situation of the respective schools would be peculiarly convenient for the several parts of a country so extensive, as that for the benefit of which they were designed. The inhabitants having the seminaries brought near to them, would feel a peculiar interest in their prosperity, and may be rationally expected to contribute to it much more liberally and generally, than to a single school, or even to two. The synods also, having the immediate care of them, and directing either in person, or by delegation, all their concerns, would feel a similar interest, and would probably be better pleased with a system formed by themselves, and therefore peculiarly suited to the wishes and interests of the several parts of the church immediately under their direction. Greater efforts, therefore, may be expected from ministers and people, to promote the prosperity of these schools, than of any other. The disadvantages of this mode would be, the inferiority of the funds, a smaller number of professors, a smaller library, and a more limited system of education in each. The students also, would, as now, be strangers to each other.

Should the last of these modes be adopted, your committee are of opin

VOL. II. New Series.

ion that every thing pertaining to the erection and conduct of each school, should be left to the direction of the respective synods. If either of the first, the whole should be supject to the control of the General Assembly.

Your committee also suggest, that in the former of these cases, the funds for each school should be raised within the bounds of the synod, within which it was stationed. In the latter they should be collected from the whole body of the church.

Your committee, therefore, submit the following resolution, to wit:

Resolved, That the above plans be submitted to all the presbyteries within the bounds of the General Assembly, for their consideration, and that they be careful to send up to the next Assembly, at their sessions in May, 1810, their opinions on the subject.

The General Assembly have under their jurisdiction, 7 synods, 32 presbyteries, and 1 association.

FIFTH REPORT OF THE COMMIT. TEE OF THE BRITISH AND FOR EIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

(Concluded from page 91.)

Your Committee will now advert to their proceedings within the United Kingdom.-Since the publication of their last Report, another very considerable edition of the Welsh Testament has been printed at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Several copies, both of the Bible and New Testament, in English, have been sent to the Isle of Man, for sale at the reduced prices, in conformity to an application for them on these terms, for the accommodation of the poor in that Island.

Donations of the Scriptures for the accommodation of persons of various descriptions within the United Kingdom, including prisoners of

war

and convicts, as usual, have been very considerable this year.

The Naval and Military Bible Society has been accommodated with copies of the Scriptures at the cost

S

prices, to a very considerable amount, in the course of the year; and the Committee anticipate the satisfaction which the Members of the Society will receive, at having had it in their power to assist, in however humble a degree, so laudable an Institution. Large supplies have also been furnished on similar terms, to the Hibernian Bible Society, the Cork Bible Society, and the Wigan Bible Society; the latter of which Institutions has been established for the purpose of distributing the Scriptures at reduced prices, under the patronage of the Bishop of Chester.

The Cork Bible Society, cursorily mentioned above, has laid before your Committee a copy of its First Report, containing very pleasing intelligence of the progress already made by that society, and holding out a prospect of its increasing usefulness in the populous city and County of Cork.

The London Female Penitentiary and some schools have received the assistance of the society. Individuals have also been supplied with them at the cost or reduced prices for the purpose of charitable distribution.

The accommodation of Prisons, Hospitals, and Workhouses, has engaged the particular attention of your Committee; and a Sub-committee has been expressly appointed for collecting information respecting their wants, in order to enable your Committee to proportion the measure of supply. This arrangement has necessarilyled to a correspondence with the sheriff's of the different counties, and the chaplains and gaolers of various Prisons; and it will be satisfactory to the society, to learn that the applications of the Sub-com. mittee have received a gratifying attention from those to whom they were addressed.

It is with sentiments of the sincerest satisfaction your Committee advert to an event, of which, from the notoriety given to it through the public Papers, the Members of the Society can scarcely be ignorant ; your Committee allude to the forma tion of an Auxiliary Bible Society at Reading, in aid of the British and reign Bible Society. The zealous

and effectual manner in which the Reading Bible Society has been constituted, the distinguished patronage which it has obtained, (the Bish op of Salisbury, one of your Vice Presidents, having accepted the presidency of it ;) and finally, the liberality and union so unanimously manifested in its support, entitle its promoters and contributors to the respect and gratitude of the parent Institution.

Intelligence has also been very recently received of another Auxiliary Institution having been formed at Nottingham under the designation of "the Bible Society of Nottingham and its Vicinity."

Your Committee are so deeply impressed with the advantage which must result to the interests and usefulness of the British and Foreign Bible Society from such Establishments in aid of their Funds, that they earnestly recommend the precedents furnished by "the Birmingham Association," "the Reading Auxiliary Bible Society," and "the Bible Society of Nottingham and its Vicinity," to the consideration of such towns throughout the Kingdom, as may be disposed to promote the object of their Institution; leaving it to be determined by local circumstances, which of the precedents shall be adopted.

With respect to the funds of the Society, your Committee remark, with great pleasure, the accession which has been made to them in the course of the year by the great increase of Annual Subscriptions, as well as by Legacies and Donations.-The several Congregations in the connexion of the late Rev. J. Wesley, are entitled to the acknowledgments of the Society, for various collections, amounting in the whole to 1278/. 16s. 01-2d. and presented, in their names, by the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke.—The sum of 1,000. three per cent. Consol, Ann. has been transferred into the names of the Trustees of the British and Foreign Bible Society, being a Donation from Mrs. Ann Scott, relict of the late Rev. Jonathan Scott, of Matlock. The transfer has been acknowledged, and the thanks of the Society have been com

municated, by your committee to Mrs. Scott.

Upwards of 7001. have been receiv. ed from the Presbytery of Glasgow, through the hands of William Muir, Esq. being the fruits of a Collection made through that Presbytery.

The Reading Auxiliary Bible Society (of which notice has been taken above) has already raised a considerable sum; the particulars of which, when received, will be duly reported. A Society instituted at Greenock, under the denomination of "the "Greenock and Port Glasgow Soci"ety, for the professed object of cir"culating the Holy Scriptures in pla"ces where they are most wanted, "and for assisting other Societies who "have the same views," has presented to the British and Foreign Bible Society a Donation of fifty guineas.

A fourth Donation of 90%. has been received from the Association established in London for aiding the funds of our Institution. The progressive increase of the Annual Donations from this Association proves the steady and active zeal of its Members. A second Contribution, amounting to upwards of 18. has also been made by the Teachers and Children of the Holborn Sunday School, who have agreed to appropriate a small Weekly Donation in aid of the Funds of the Society. And, lastly, your Committee have the pleasure to notice that various Legacies have been be queathed to the Society in the course of the year.

Your Committee have also the satisfaction to report the prospect of further additions to the funds of this Society, by the active zeal of its friends in Scotland. The Rev. the Presbytery of Glasgow, having had laid before them a statement of facts relative to the proceedings of the British and Foreign Bible Society, after solemn deliberation, becoming the magnitude of the subject, unanimously appointed an annual Collection to be made at all the Churches and Chapels within their bounds, on or before the last Sabbath of July each year, till otherwise ordered. The Collection for this year has already been made, and the amount of it noticed above. The Rev. Presbytery at Paisley have also unanimously ap.

pointed a Collection to be made for the same object, within the bounds of their extensive Presbytery. Your Committee, while they mention, with the sincerest gratification, the liberality which has largely added to the funds of the Society, and the flattering prospect of future augmentation, are at the same time anxious to guard against an impression, that the resources of the Society are more than adequate to its enlarged operations and increasing exigencies. They deem it their duty, therefore, cursorily to state, that a large proportion of the expense which must be incurred in preparing the various editions of the Scriptures,enumerated in the former part of this Report, cannot be re-imbursed; that the completion of the engagements of your Committee with India, from which no pecuniary return can be expected, will absorb a large sum for the three ensuing years; that the annual loss on books supplied by the Society at reduced prices, hich has been unavoidably increased in conse. quence of the enhanced value of paper, cannot be estimated at less than 1000/.; and, lastly, that the demands upon the benevolence of the Society, for donations in money and books, both at home and abroad, are annually very considerable.

Your Committee take the present opportunity of observing, that, notwithstanding their invariable attention to give every degree of notoriety to the Institution of the British and Foreign Bible Society, they have still reason to believe, that it is far from being so generally known, as it ought to be; and they therefore earnestly request the assistance of every Member of the Society, to second their endeavors for making the establishment known in every part of the United Kingdom, as the most effectual means of procuring additionl support to it.

Your Committee have availed themselves of the privilege with which they are invested, of electing Honorary Members and Governors for Life, in the instances of Professor Bently of Aberdeen, the Rev. T. Charles, B. A. Vicar of Bela, the Rev. Adam Clarke, L L. D. Will iam Muir, Esq. Christopher Sundius,

Esq, and the Rev. Dr. Hertzog, of Basle. The first of these has been appointed an Honorary Member; and the four last Honorary Governors for Life: and all have merited the distinction conferred upon them, byrendering in their several departments essential services to the Society.

Your Committee will now close the Report of their domestic occurrences, by mentioning that the lib. erality of individuals has made a very valuable addition to the Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The donations of books have been thankfully acknowledged by your Committee, and will, as usual, be spe cifically noticed in the Appendix to this Report.

From the facts which have been stated, your Committee feel themselves authorized to entertain a pleas ing confidence, that the liberal support, which has enabled the British and Foreign Bible Society to make such extensive exertions, will still be continued.

Every Annual Report of your Committee has hitherto amply verified the prospective intimations held out at the General Meetings, of the increasing utility of the Institution. Its example still continues to stimu late zeal, and to excite emulation; and when the editions of the Scrip tures, now in the press, shall be completed, the British and Foreign Bible Society will be entitled to the merit of having, directly or mediately, produced, or assisted in producing editions of the Bible, either in whole or in part, in not less than seventeen of the languages and dialects current in Europe. If to these be added the Mohawk version of the Gospel by St. John, the Kalmuc of the Gospel by St Matthew, and the Oriental Translations carrying on in Bengal, to promote which the Society has so largely contributed, the number will be twenty-six.

The field for exertion is still ample; and your Committee are persuaded, that the Society will not consider it exhausted, while the inhabitants of any part of the Globe, who are able to read "the things belonging to their peace" are in want of its assistance.

The Gospel of Salvation was a free,

unmerited boon to mankind; let us therefore rejoice, that, under Providence, we are become the honored instruments of its dispersion. It must be most gratifying to the Members of the Society, to receive applications for its aid and support, dictated by a spirit of Christian confidence and unity, from their fellowlaborers in the same cause, dispersed through various parts of the world: but it is still more gratifying, to possess the disposition to comply with them, and the means of indulging that disposition to the most liberal extent. Let us therefore hope, that neither will ever be wanting. Five years only have elapsed, since the British and Foreign Bible Society was established; and, during that period, the calamities of war, from which Providence has mercifully protected our Country, have been more or less felt in every kingdom of the Continent. But these calamities, even when they have operated with the greatest pressure, have not been able to extinguish that zeal, which your Society had either kindled, or promoted, for the circulation of the Holy Scriptures insomuch that the institution of the British and Foreign Bible Society has become a central point of union for Individuals and Societies animated with the same spirit, however variously circumstanced, or widely dispersed. Like a city set

on a hill, it has become conspicuous; and the rays of light which have flowed from it, have been reflected with undiminished lustre. What success may attend the operations of the British and Foreign Bible Society, forimproving the religious and moral state of mankind, cannot be ascertained. But surely it may be permitted to hope that the blessing of God will not be wanting to an Institution, which has for its single object, to promote His glory by the circulation of the Holy Scriptures; nor its endeavors in this line of duty be unattended with correspondent success. At present the Members of the Society may be allowed to enjoy the gratification of knowing, that it has been the instrument of communicating the words of Eternal Life to cottages and prisons, to kindred and aliens, to the poor and the afflicted, in our own and For