HACKNEY COLLEGE.-The seventieth annual meeting of this institution was held on Tuesday, July 1st, in Trinity Congregational Church, Mile End New Town; Ebenezer Viney, Esq., in the chair. The Rev. E. Mannering having offered prayer, Mr. Mark Lucas, to whom the first Homes's jubilee prize of £20 had been awarded, read the successful essay on the Christian Sabbath; the second prize of £10 had been awarded to Mr. J. Beaty Hart. The report was read by the Rev. J. E. Richards, the secretary, and the reports of the examiners, which were very satisfactory, by the Rev. W. Bevan. Reference was made to the death of Mr. J. Stapelton, one of the treasurers, Mr. James Carter, one of the committee, and Mr. Joseph Green, for many years one of the trustees. The meeting was addressed by the Revs. Professor Newth, D. M. Jenkins, D. Alexander, E. Price, Reuen Thomas, W. Tarbotton, and G. L. Turner, M.A. BRISTOL CONGREGATIONAL INSTITUTE. -The annual meeting of the Bristol Congregational Institute for the Education of Home Missionaries was held in the school-room of Highbury Chapel, Bristol, on Thursday, June 26th. Mr. S. S. Marling, M.P. for West Gloucestershire, presided. After the meeting had been opened with singing, and prayer by the Rev. S. Hebditch, the Rev. R. P. Clarke, the hon. secretary, read the report for the past year, which referred to the removal to London of the Rev. S. Hebditch, the secretary, and the appointment of the Rev. R. P. Clarke as his successor, and went on to state that the session began with seventeen students. During the term 1,192 services had been held by the students, who had also paid regular house to house visits, during which they had distributed 8,000 tracts. The Rev. E. J. Hartland read his report as examiner. The Revs. H. I. Roper, Dr. Davies, D. Thomas, S. Hebditch, and L. H. Byrnes moved and seconded the resolutions. ROTHERHAM COLLEGE.-The constituents and supporters of this College met in the library on Wednesday, July 2nd, the usual address having been previously given to the students by the Rev. P. C. Barker, M.A., LL.B. The Rev. James Parsons, of York, presided, and Dr. Falding read the report; also very satisfactory statements from the examiners. It appears that plans for a new building have been approved, and are only waiting final revision. The cost will be about £12,500. The Rev. Mr. Brown, of Barnsley, with Messrs. J. W. Pye Smith and Yates, addressed the friends present. SPRING HILL COLLEGE.-The thirtyfifth annual meeting of the subscribers and friends of the Spring Hill College was held in the library, when Mr. R. W. Dale occupied the chair. The balance sheet presented by Mr. S. Edwards stated that the income for the past year was £2,115 10s. 5d., and that a balance remained in the bank of £361 11s. 9d. The Rev. Dr. Deane, with the Revs. R. Beeby, E. Simon, and Messrs. Massie, Wallis, Ingal, Pidduek, Cooper, Callaway, and Marris spoke. In the evening the friends assembled in the chapel, and the Rev. Dr. Halley delivered his farewell address to the students. THE ORPHANS' HOME, SOUTHWARK.— The seventh annual meeting of this charity was held on Wednesday, July 9th, in the lecture-room, Westminster Chapel, Rev. H. T. Cavell, vicar of St. Jude's, Southwark, in the chair. The report was read by Mr. G. H. F. Nye, showing the receipts to the general fund to be £2,247 88. 7d, and the expenditure £2,247 38. There are 206 children in the Home. Donations to building fund £2,396 9s. 6d. The report stated that Mr. Samuel Morley had promised a second donation of £500. Messrs, Roger Smith, De Sélingourt, Morgan Chase, and other gentlemen addressed the meeting. CHESHUNT COLLEGE.-The one hundred and fifth anniversary of this institution was celebrated on Thursday, June 26th, when the Rev. J. G. Rogers, B.A., preached the usual sermon. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton presided at the dinner, and expressed his interest as a near neighbour, in sympathy with the catholic and unsectarian character of the teaching in the college. From the financial statement it appears that the debt on the building of £2,100 has been reduced to £1,738, which it is proposed to clear off by April next. The Rev. Drs. Reynolds and McAuslane, and the Revs. W. Cuthbertson and Paxton Hood, and others, addressed the friends assembled. Thirty-eight students had attended the classes, and 120 churches had been supplied, in addition to the College Chapel, and the stations connected with it. UNITED ANTI-RITUALISTIC MOVEMENT. -On Thursday, the 10th July, a conference was held at the National Club, of Churchmen, Presbyterians, and some other Nonconformists, for the purpose of inaugurating some united effort for the defence of the Protestant faith against the Romish tendencies spreading so rapidly in the Church of England. Lord Shaftesbury presided. The Rev. Donald Fraser, D.D., of the English Presbyterian Church, was the first speaker; he was followed by the Rev. W. Arthur, of the Wesleyan body. It was understood that the question of Disestablishment was not to be touched. Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., and Mr. Holt, M.P., expressed their sympathy with the movement, but avoided compromising themselves by union with any new society. Lord Ebury, the Hon. and Rev. E. V. Bligh, Rev. J. W. Reeve, Rev. C. Skrine, Rev. Capel Rev. D. Molyneux, Russell, and others spoke, expressing their views on the crisis in the Established Church and the urgent need of some earnest and resolute action to stay the progress of Romanism in it. After a good deal of discussion several resolutions were adopted. A joint committee of Churchmen, Presbyterians, and other Nonconformists was appointed as a "Vigilance Committee." Lord Shaftesbury thinks this united movement is likely to prove an epoch in the religious history of the country. We devoutly wish it may be So. THE REUNION OF CHRISTENDOM.-On Monday, 14th July, a meeting was held in St. George's Hall in favour of the unity of Christendom; Mr. Alderman Bennett, of Manchester, in the chair. The hall was fairly filled by ladies and gentlemen. The Chairman, in opening the meeting, said that there had been dissensions in Christianity from the earliest period, but the unity of Christianity had not been broken till the secession of the Greek Church in the middle of the 11th century. Now his hope was that Rome would come back and unite herself with Christendom, of which she formed an important member in the early ages. He thought he saw in the proposed marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh to a Russian Princess a forerunner of that happy event. The Revs. Messrs. MacColl, Oxenham, Hugo, and Philimore, &c., took part in the proceedings. THE KENT CONGREGATIONAL UNION held its annual meetings at Bromley on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 8th and 9th. Mr. S. Morley, M.P., presided at the public meeting. The report stated that at the last meeting of the association in Bromley the income for assisting weaker churches was no more than £80; it would this year amount to about £600. Through the efforts of the congregations, aided by a society formed for the purpose, in about three years chapel debts in Kent had been reduced from £16,000 to less than £4,000. Revs. A. Hannay, G. L. Herman, D. G. Watt, W. Guest, J. Beazley, R. T. Verrall, and A. Turner took part in the proceedings. Meeting of Managers. THE half-yearly meeting of the Managers of THE EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE was held at the Guildhall Coffee-house, Gresham-street, on Tuesday, July 15th. Present: Rev. J. Viney, the treasurer, in the chair; Rev. Drs. J .Stoughton, A. Raleigh, J. Young, J. Kennedy; Revs. T. James, S. B. Bergne, J. Fleming, and I. V. Mummery. Prayer was offered by the Rev. T. James, after which the usual business was transacted. A letter was read from the editor, saying that he as was under medical orders to avoid all exertion as well as excitement, he was deprived of the pleasure of being present. The Secretary read a letter recently received from Bristol, signed "A. D," offering some suggestions with regard to the portraits, and concluding with the following gratifying statement: "Allow me to say I have read THE EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE as boy and man for nearly forty years, and never found it so interesting as now." The following table will show the number of each widow on the list of grantees as entered in the Treasurer's book, with her age, and the sum voted : The Secretary reported that in response to the appeal recently issued for Sacramental Collections in aid of the WIDOW'S FUND, a pleasing amount had already been received, while the hope was expressed that all our churches would generously unite in such a commendable practice, so that the cases standing on the book might be at once adopted on the fund. I. V. M. THE CHRONICLE OF THE London Missionary Society, T 1.-Deputation to Madagascar. HE great enlargement of the Madagascar Mission during the last five years; the unprecedented demands made upon the Society by the multitudes who have come round the mission for instruction; and the rapid increase effected in the number of the English missionaries, have placed that mission in a peculiar position, and have both multiplied the demands which it has made, and rendered it difficult to supply them. On the one side, the letters sent from the missionaries have failed to convey to the Directors that full information which they were anxious to obtain: on the other, the missionaries have needed a more complete acquaintance with the views of the Board as to the plans they should follow out. It has therefore been long felt that nothing less than prolonged conference and consultation between a Deputation of the Directors and the missionaries on the spot will secure those great ends which the enlargement of the mission has in view. The Directors have, therefore, appointed their Foreign Secretary, the Rev. Dr. MULLENS, and the Rev. JOHN PILLANS, a member of the Board, to proceed to Madagascar as a DEPUTATION on their behalf. The objects which these brethren have been requested to keep in view have relation both to the English missionaries and to the native churches ; and the Deputation themselves also hold a two-fold position, especially to the former-that of being messengers of the English churches connected with the Society as well as representatives of the Board. I. As messengers from the Churches, they are desired to encourage and strengthen the hands of the missionary brethren, by assurances of the deep interest with which they are regarded; by urging on the native Churches a steady adherence to the great truths in which they have been instructed; a strong faith in the Saviour; purity of church fellowship; personal activity, and consecration in sustaining the means of grace and spreading them abroad. II.—As representatives of the Board, they will endeavour— (1.) To aid the missionaries by their counsel on all matters which concern the development of the mission, and its more complete adaptation to the demands at present made upon it. (2.) To make careful inquiry into all that concerns general education, and the means by which it may be extended; including the principles and mode in which a national system of education may be founded. (3.) To obtain information on all matters connected with the exterior interests and the internal management of the mission. (4.) To consider carefully and report on the relation of the Society to other Missionary Societies in the island. In carrying out these important objects, the DEPUTATION have been desired to pay personal visits to the various branches of the mission, and the native churches which they contain; to attend the meetings of the District Committees; and, in the fullest degree, to confer with the members of the mission on everything which may promote the efficiency of their plans. On all these matters they will fully report to the Board the information which they may gather, and the conclusions at which they arrive. At the usual quarterly devotional meeting of the Directors, held at the Mission House, on Monday, June 30th, the brethren forming the Deputation were specially commended, by earnest prayer, to the protection and blessing of God. On the morning of the following Wednesday the Deputation left London for Marseilles, with the view of proceeding to Mauritius by the French steamer of the 5th of July. 11.-Madagascar-Country Work. UCH has been said in the pages of the Missionary Chronicle respecting Christian work as carried on in the CAPITAL of Madagascar ; where churches, schools, and numerous other agencies, have long been established, and are in full operation for the elevation and improvement of the people. Now that the mission is widening its borders and extending its influence, there is necessarily much new work to be reported by our brethren in various localities more or less distant from Antananarivo. Among the Society's COUNTRY STATIONS, VONIZONGO lies north-west of the Capital, and FIANARANTSOA in the Betsileo Country, far to the south. From the reports of these districts for the past year, we select a few illustrations of the kind of work which is being carried on by our brethren labouring there. The Rev. E. H. STRIBLING, who joined the VoxIZONGO Mission in January, 1872, gives the following outline of his engagements : |