Seventh Annual Report of the Exeter Diocesan Committee.

AT the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Subscribers and Friends of this Institution, holden at the Guildhall of Exeter, on Thursday, the 11th of September, 1823,

The LORD BISHOP in the Chair: The following Report, made by the Select Committee, was produced, and read by the Lord Bishop, and ordered:

Report. --In presenting the Seventh Annual Report of the Exeter Diocesan Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Committee feel sincere satisfaction that they have it in their power to congratulate the friends and supporters of this excellent Institution on its increasing prosperity and usefulness. The number of Bibles, PrayerBooks, and especially of Tracts, distributed during the last year, considerably exceeds that of the preceding: and the grants of books, issued gratuitously or sold at a very reduced price, more than double the grants of the former year. The improved state of the Society's funds has enabled the Committee thus to spread more widely its charitable designs; and fully relying on the continued and increasing assistance of their benevolent friends and supporters, they confidently trust that they shall be furnished with the means of extending the benefits of the Society more and more.

The interests of religion and virtue are of such paramount consequence that they cannot be regarded with indifference by any well-disposed member of the Christian community-and, without disparaging the zeal and exertions of other Christian societies, it cannot be denied that the earnest endeavours of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge are wholly directed to inculcate the purest principles, and the soundest morality of the Gospel. In the present enlightened age, when the blessing of educa tion is so liberally and generally diffused amongst the people; what can be more desirable or beneficial than to have it in your power to procure elementary Tracts for teaching and "bringing up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" and also larger Treatises, explanatory of Christian doctrines and precepts, adapted to the capacity and justruction of those of riper years; and wisely calculated to keep them in the true faith, and conscientious practice of our holy religion? Such Tracts and Treatises are carefully and abundantly provided by this Society; and the Committee cannot too strongly urge all its lay as well as clerical members to disseminate them with a judicious and bountiful hand.

The Committee are farther anxious to call the attention of the charitable and dis

7

cerning to the important and useful subject of "Parochial Lending Libraries." Rules for their formation and management are plainly laid down in the Appendix, No. 1, of the Report of the Parent Society for 1822. And to encourage the establishment of such Libraries, the Parent Society offers to afford extraordinary aid to those parishes which are not able to defray the whole expense: and the Committee entertain a sanguine expectation that the augmenting state of their funds will enable the Exeter Diocesan Committee to second, and materially assist in the saine good and useful undertaking.

For, as the Report alluded to, justly observes, "The education now given to the poor naturally excites among them a taste for reading; and this increasing appetite for information must be gratified to a certain extent; and unless it be supplied with wholesome and nutritious food, will probably devour the poisonous productions of infidelity and vice. The work of education is incomplete, or its advantage is at least precarious, if no effort be made to render the knowledge, which has been acquired, a real and permanent source of truth, happiness, and edification." In these sentiments your Committee fully agree; and whilst they faithfully promise that their own utmost exertions, under the Divine blessing, shall contine to be used in behalf of such excellent objects; they feel justified, from the highest motives, in recommending in the strongest manner, a more extensive and effectual support of the Society, to which they have the happiness to belong. A Society, whose efforts are simply and sincerely directed to promote the best and enduring interest of our poorer fellow-creatures, namely, to promote amongst them Christian knowledge, which is able to make them wise unto salvation."

Four new Subscribers have been recommended to the Parent Society, and nineteen new Subscribers to the Loca! Fund, since the last annual meeting.

The number of Books issued from the Depository, during the last year, amounts to 632

Bibles.......

Prayers and Psalters.
....... 1489
Other Books and Tracts.... 8734

It is gratifying to observe the continued and indeed increased demand for the Old and New Testaments, and for the Liturgy of the National Church. The dispersion of the Scriptures by other Associations, which confine their operations to that single object, may be one, among many reasons, why the issue of Bibles from the Depositories, considerable as it is, is not perhaps in proportion to that of Common Prayer Books. The excess, however, in the number of the latter, may be fairly attributed to the firm attachment of the people to the admirable Services of the Church, and their increasing veneration for a form of worship which their increasing acquaintance with the words of Holy Writ shew them to be most consonant with the spirit of Christianity, with the will of its Divine Founder, and with the ordiDances of its earliest aud inspired Teachers.

Considerable grants of Bibles, Testaments, Prayer-Books, and particularly of Elementary Tracts, have been made to the National Schools at New Shoreham, Patcham, Lewes, and Brighton, and, on application from the rector, a Bible and Common Prayer-Book, of the largest type, has been been given for the use of the workhouse at Newhaven.

After the annual sermons, which unfortunately produced much smaller collections than heretofore, probably from their having been delayed to a later period than usual, the Committee voted an adequate number of Common Prayer-Books to the officiating Ministers of the Church and Chapels, to be distributed according to the terms of the Grant in 1821, together with a supply of Books, Tracts, and Papers on Confirmation, previously to the performance of that rite by the Bishop of the Diocese.

To the Subscribers at large, in order to ensure a wide circulation of the Society's valuable Treatises on Confirmation, the Committee gave directions that they should be offered at the average charge of three shillings per hundred; and the Secretaries have reported that, to meet the demand, they had occasion to obtain from the Society, 4800 Iracts and Papers on Confirmation, which were distributed among the several candidates. The value of the instruction thus afforded by the Society in aid of ministerial exertions, particularly in the more populous parishes, could not have been more strikingly exemplified: and never will be erased from the recollection of those who witnessed the sacred eeremony; the solemn and interesting spectacle of multitudes of young people crowding around the Holy Altars, to take upon themselves the vows of their baptism: and of our venerable Diocesan, in his 90th year, giving to thein all his apostolic blessing, and, with impressive energy, affectionately exhorting them to continue, amidst the temptations and seductions incident to their time of life, to remember their Creator in the days of their youth.

The Society having, for the third time since the institution of this Committee, made a reduction in the price of Books, the Committee obtained the consent of the last Anniversary Meeting to a still further reduction of their charges to Subscribers, and have since printed Lists of the Reduced Prices for the use of all their Subscribing Members. They have also made a further diminution in the price of the Family Bible when intended for the Poor, for the Parochial Lending Libraries, or for National Schools, to two shillings and sixpence each part, and in such cases they continue to bind them in three or more volumes without any further charge At the reduced charge the Books sold from the Depositories this year amount to 113l. 3s. 5d. Within the same time the Committee have purchased of the Society Books to the amount of 1957. 6s. 6d. the printing whereof actually cost the Society, cheaply as they are enabled by various means and arrangements to print their works, 312/. 18s. 10d. Had the same Books been purchased in the ordinary way, they would have been charged probably at a sum little short of 5001.

Much of the inercased demand for Books this year appears to be attributable to a measure, which was adopted at the last Quarterly General Meeting at Lewes. On the resignation hy the Rev. H. I. Beaver of the Secretaryship for the Lewes Division, the Rev. John Scobell, Rector of All Saints in that Town, who had before kindly undertaken the charge of the Lewes Depository, was authorized to correspond with the General Board in London, and to receive such stores as might be from time to time required for the Lewes Division, direct from

London, on the Committee's Account: and subject only to such limitations as the Brighton Secretaries may find it necessary to make on consideration of the state of the finances. Since the Election of that Gentleman to the vacant office of Secretary at a Special General Meeting in May, the demand for the Lewes division has been regularly increasing, and at the Audit it was found that 28 Bibles, 48 Testaments, 119 Prayer Books, 25 Bound Books, and 274 Tracts, have been furnished to his order; and in the mean time other orders from that neighbourhood have been supplied from the General Depository in Brighthelmstone.

The last subject on which the Committee beg leave to congratulate the General Meeting, is the Aid which has been recently and very generally afforded to the NATIONAL SOCIETY which twelve years since emanated from the Venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, for the express purpose of giving to all the poorer Orders of the Community, upon a new and approved system, the blessings of an Education in the principles of the Established Church. This truly National Object was at an early period patronized by the August Head of the Church, and received repeated tokens of his Princely Liberality. In consequence of His Majesty's new instance of regard to the National System of Education, (the Royal Letter recommending its support) above 14,000l. have been received from about 3000 Parishes at the Society's Office in Bartlett's Buildings; and it is expected that six or eight thousand more may yet be forwarded to the Treasurer; a sum which will enable the National Society to pay off all its arrears, and surmount all its difficulties: and with the aid of an expected Annual Grant from Parliament, and of the new Subscriptions which may be reasonably anticipated from the mode adopted to make its efforts, its requirements, and its transcendant success more generally known to the Public, to proceed with its accustomed liberality in its highly useful and important

The Committee are happy to add, that they have met with new and increasing demands for the Books issued by the Society, more particularly for the Book of Common Prayer. Exclusive of the poor in this populous neighbourhood, the Soldiers of the Garrison have been found very desirous of possessing the Common Prayer Book; to whose application it was deemed right to accede; and to afford to the Royal Marines, who regularly attend Divine Service in the Chapel in the Dock-Yard; as well as to the Military in the Ordnance Barracks, preparing for Foreign Service; an opportunity of supplying themselves with this excellent manual of devotion, on the favourable terms of the Society.

The Committee are glad to acknowledge the support which they have received from the heads of the Naval and Military Departments at Chatham; particularly from the late Commissioner, Sir Robert Barlow; and from those Officers of the Garrison, who have become Members of the Rochester District Committee; and they feel confident that the Society will gladly extend to the Soldiers stationed here, the advantage of obtaining the Common Prayer and any other Book, at their reduced prices, as far as the other claims on the Society will allow.

In reporting the distribution of Books, the Committee will state

First, The supply of the National Daily and Sunday Schools in the district.

Second, The Sale of Books and gratuitous distribution to the Poor.

1. The Schools beneath, have been supplied with Books published by the Society for the use of National Schools, and also with Bibles, Testamen's, and Common Prayer Books, thus rendering a very material aid to the Funds of the several Schools, by furnishing them with every Book required on the terms of the Society.

The number of Children in attendance at the several Schools, is as follows:

there is reason to hope, that they will become the means of lasting benefit to those who possess them.

A donation of Bibles, Testaments, and Prayer Books, was ordered at the first Quarterly Meeting of the Committee, for the Hospital of the Ordnance Barracks. These Books have been supplied from the Stores given by the Society for the Troops in Chatham Garrison; and they are constantly read by the Patients in the Hospital, to whom they have become a source of comfort and instruction.

The amount of Books distributed by this District Committee, from January 1st to December 31st, is as follows:

principles, and the most cordial union has always subsisted between them, many from the beginning having become members of the sister Societies. The sum of 12l. 18s. 6d. was received last year on account of the Incorporated Society, and has been forwarded to their Treasurer. In return they have sent copies of the Society's last Report, for the use of the members of this District Committee; requ sting us to give "a wide circulation to this document, with a view to augment the Funds of the Society, and enable it more effectually to provide for the spiritual wants of the British Colonies."

The chief exertions of the Society have till lately been employed in the Colonies of North America, but they have now entered on a large field of Missionary Labour, in India. Adopting the wise and enlarged plan of the lamented Bishop Middleton, they have founded a Mission College, near Calcutta, which it is expected is at this period actively employed under the direction of its able Principal and Professor.

From this noble Establishment, which will require increasing Funds for its support, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, will be enabled to send forth able and faithful Missionaries to preach the glad tidings of Salvation to the unenlightened Natives of Hindoostan. Degraded as they are, by the most absurd and cruel superstitions, ought we not to endeavour to dispense to them that Heavenly Light, with which we are so greatly blessed? We have been taught to pray to the Creator and Preserver of all Mankind, that His ways may be known upon Earth, His saving health among all Nations! Let us endeavour to promote this great end, for which we pray, by aiding a Society, whose object corresponds with the petitions of our Church. Let us willingly offer our contributions, together with our fervent Prayers, that the Name of our Redeemer may be known, and his saving Health proclaimed to the Nations of India, subjected to British Rule, who are yet in Heathen Darkness, destitute of that knowledge which it is our duty and our privilege to impart.

We think a note of the following decision upon a clause in the late Vestry Act, may be serviceable to our Clerical Readers.

NIGHTINGALE V. MARSHALL AND
ANOTHER,

The 58 Ġ.3. c. 69. for the Regulation of Parish Vestries, enacts, in the third