Holy Baptism may, in my opinion, be stated in the eight following propositions.

1. Regeneration is that operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart, which produces a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness. By regeneration we are made members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.

2. Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration, which is the particular grace prayed for, expected, and thankfully acknowledged to have been received in the baptismal service.

3. The work of regeneration is wrought in all, whether they be adults or infants, who receive baptism rightly, (Art. xxvii.), but in none others. (Art. xxv.)

4. The Church in her office for the baptism of infants, and in that for the baptism of adults, uses the language of faith and hope, and is not to be understood as declaring positively a fact which it cannot certainly know, viz. that every baptized infant, or every baptized adult, is regenerate.

5. The statement put into the mouth of a catechumen, that he was in baptism made a member of Christ, &c., is to be understood in the same qualified application as the declaration which almost immediately follows, that by God's help he will do as his godfathers and godmothers had promised for him, and that he heartily thanks his heavenly Father that He hath called him, &c.

6. Repentance and faith are required of those who come to be baptized, but the Church is silent as to the fitness, or unfitness, of an infant, who is incapable of repentance and faith, for receiving regeneration in baptism.

7. The unworthiness of a Minister does not take away the effect of baptism, either in the case of adults or infants. (Art. xxvi.)

8. Parents are nowhere mentioned in the Articles, or in the baptismal service, but infants are baptized, because they promise repentance and faith by their sureties. These sureties, or sponsors, are to be duly qualified persons, and no one is to be admitted godfather or godmother before the said person so undertaking has received the Holy Communion. (Canon xxix.) The Church, however, has not positively affirmed that the unworthiness of sponsors disqualifies an infant for receiving the grace of baptism.

The truth of the following four additional propositions may also, I think, be gathered from the Scriptures, and is perfectly consistent with the general tenour of the Articles and formularies of our Church, viz. :—

9. Sponsors, who themselves repent and believe, may and ought to expect most confidently the grace of regeneration for the children whom they bring to be baptized.

10. While the Church may, and ought to use the language of faith and hope respecting all infants brought to be baptized, impenitent and unbelieving sponsors are not entitled to expect any blessing from an ordinance which they only profane.

11. Children who have been baptized are to be taught to regard

God as their Father, and to love and trust in Him as having redeemed them by his Son, and sanctified them by His Spirit—to pray that being regenerate, and made the children of God, by adoption and grace, they may daily be renewed by the Holy Ghost, (Collect for Christmas Day), to consider the guilt of any sins which they may commit against God, as aggravated by their having been baptized, and brought up in the faith of the Gospel.

12. Our own personal repentance and faith are the only sure evidence of our being spiritually the children of God.

Having thus stated my own views of the doctrine of our Church concerning Holy Baptism, I would unite with my Right Reverend. Brethren in expressing-

1. My cordial and entire agreement with all the Articles and formularies of our Church in their plain and full meaning, and in their literal and grammatical sense.

2. My willing disposition to accept and use them in the manner which is appointed; and (with especial reference to our present subject) to carry on the work of Christian education in the firm belief that infants do receive in baptism the grace of regeneration.

3. Above all, my unfeigned thankfulness to Almighty God for the gift and preservation of these inestimable blessings.

C. MELBOURne.

IX.-EDUCATION.
(1.) Schools.

We cannot incur the responsibility of seeming to countenance any system of erroneous, defective, or indefinite religious instruction by incorporating ourselves with the Boards, either general or local, which have the regulation and superintendence of schools so conducted.

But wherever a Church of England School cannot be established, the clergy, after communication with the Bishop, should consider it their duty to remedy, as far as possible, the evils or defects of any schools to which Church children may be sent by their parents.

(2.) University.

We are of opinion that the establishment of the University of Sydney may promote the growth of sound learning, and may in many ways assist the Collegiate Institutions of the Church of England in our respective dioceses.

But while we are not unwilling that the students in our Diocesan Colleges and Schools should compete with all other classes of students in such public University examinations, on general literature and science, as may be established by a senate, appointed under ordinance of the Colonial Legislature, we should decidedly object to any University system which might have the effect of withdrawing from our own collegiate rule the students educated in our separate Diocesan Institutions.

X.-AUSTRALASIAN BOARD OF MISSIONS.

The objects of the Australasian Board of Missions are twofold—
Domestic and Foreign.

1. DOMESTIC.-The conversion and civilization of the Australian
blacks.

2. FOREIGN.-The conversion and civilization of the heathen races
in all the islands of the Western Pacific.

The difficulties to be expected in this work, perhaps to a greater
extent than in other missions, are—

1. The low state of barbarism in which these races now are.

2. In the Australian blacks, the unsettled habits of the race.

3. The multiplicity of languages and dialects throughout the whole
field of operations.

4. The unhealthiness of many of the Australasian Islands in certain
seasons of the year, especially from January to April.

These peculiar difficulties must be met by a plan of missionary
action deviating in many respects from the practice of other missions.

1. The low state of barbarism in which these races now are seems
to require that a select number should be brought under the most
careful training, at a distance from their own tribes.

2. The unsettled habits of the Australian blacks require the same
corrective, and further suggest the necessity of providing religious
instruction for them rather by means of visiting missionaries than by
fixed mission stations.

3. The multiplicity of languages makes it necessary to conduct
instruction in some one language common to all, which must be
English.

4. The unhealthiness of many of the islands makes it advisable
that missionary action should be carried on rather by long visits
of the English missionaries during the healthy season, than by the
occupation of permanent mission stations.

66

RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY IN THE COLONIES.

SIR,-One of the most unhappy circumstances connected with our
unhappy divisions" in England, is the readiness which in some
instances is shown by our brethren abroad, lay and clerical, to rush
uncalled into the thorny field of controversy. May I submit to your
readers the example of moderation, with fidelity, shown by the excel-
lent prelate who first presided over our Church in India? In a
letter to the late lamented Rev. H. H. Norris, Bishop Middleton
writes as follows (see Le Bas's Life, chap. xiii. vol. i. p. 376) :—

"I preached a sort of Trenicon upon Gal. vi. 15, in which I dis-
claimed, not, I hope, the doctrine of our Church upon regeneration,
but those mischievous and absurd inferences which are deducible from
it; as, that baptism is sufficient to salvation, and is a remission of all
sins which men afterwards commit; that the opus operatum is every-

thing, &c. &c. &c.; and I have every reason to believe that to some of my hearers (who have been exceedingly scandalized at the inferences contained in the commentaries upon Dr. Mant's Tracts) it has given great satisfaction; for the consequences of all your controversies in England reach India, and, I am sorry to say, are doing us harm; and nothing is wanting to complete the mischief, but an unconciliating spirit on the part of the Bishop. Whatever little I may have hitherto been able to accomplish has been done by my readiness to hear what every body has to say, and by smoothing asperities. A different course would in an instant undo everything. It must be remembered that the religious mind of the country, if I may use the expression, had been pre-occupied in great measure before I came; and that the Scotch Church will divide the portion which had hitherto been with the Church of England. These circumstances made it impossible that I should here take any direct and active part in some points, on which in England you are accustomed to express very strong opinions. To popularity I have made no sacrifices, or I might have had it in a degree, perhaps, which few men attain. I might have had my name rung throughout England, and perhaps elsewhere. But I have firmly resisted overtures of that sort, very much to the astonishment of some, who do not enter into controversy, and who, I am afraid, give me credit in consequence for less zeal than I hope I possess."

L.

SUBDIVISION OF THE DIOCESE OF TORONTO.

May 27, 1851.

SIR,-Referring to a proposal from the Bishop of Toronto for the subdivision of his large Diocese, and to two letters which have appeared in your columns in the numbers of the Chronicle for January and April last, urging the immediate establishment of the three additional proposed Sees, it will, perhaps, be useful that you should communicate to your readers the scale of salaries which it appears is about to be adopted in Canada in the civil establishments of the country. The Times of the 19th instant, in its column of American intelligence, states, that much satisfaction had been felt at Toronto at the intention of the Government to reduce the official salaries, and mentions 900l. per annum as the intended salary of the Chief Justice, and 800 per annum as the salary of the Puisne Judges, and heads of departments, who answer to our Secretaries of State, &c.

The writer of the last communication which you have inserted upon this subject, mentions 800l. per annum as a suitable income for the Bishops of Kingston and Woodstock, the proposed Dioceses east and west of the Home or Toronto district, and 600l. per annum for the more distant Diocese of St. Mary's; amounts which the scale of official salaries seems to show, would be very fully sufficient.

The press of business which falls on our English Bishops, perhaps, justifies their being excluded from parochial cures while their number

is as limited as it is at present; but with four Upper Canadian Dioceses, it seems wholly unnecessary, if not objectionable, to attempt a similar restriction in that country, and a total amount of from 2,000l. to 2,500l. per annum, might probably be safely taken as an ultimately sufficient sum for the purely Episcopal income of the four Sees, while their establishment, if necessary, upon a lower scale of income appears decidedly preferable to the longer continuance of too large Dioceses in a new country which especially requires a sound Ecclesiastical organization, and the advantages of frequent Episcopal ministrations.

The Bishop having summoned a convention of the laymen of his Diocese, to deliberate with his Clergy on the temporal affairs of the Church, we shall probably learn that this has been one of the chief subjects of their deliberations. I am &c.

R.

TRAINING INSTITUTION AT PORT LINCOLN, IN THE DIOCESE OF ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

IN our March number for this year, (p. 352,) we referred to the exertions made by the Ven. M. B. Hale, Archdeacon of Adelaide, for the instruction of the Australian Aborigines.

We are glad to be able to communicate some further account of his movements in this work, which appeared first in a letter addressed by himself to the South Australian Register.

The spot first selected by the Archdeacon and his party, was the Island of Boston, lying at the entrance of Port Lincoln.

we set

"On the 10th September, 1850," writes the Archdeacon, up our tent upon Boston Island—an island of great beauty and many attractions, forming the shelter to the far-famed harbour of Port Lincoln. It will readily be understood, that our object in choosing that locality was principally seclusion that we might be cut off from the society of blacks living in a wild state, and protected from the unwelcome intrusions of evil-minded persons amongst the whites. These advantages we set against the formidable disadvantage that no permanent fresh water had (as yet) been discovered upon the island. We thought that we should be in a position to make a closer search for the necessary element than had ever been made before-we trusted much to the acknowledged natural sagacity of the natives in such cases we determined to persevere in making well after well, so long as a hope remained of our obtaining the object of our search. However, all our expectations-all our efforts proved fruitless. Salt water! salt water! was the oft-told tale of every well that was sunk. So prevalent is salt in the composition of the soil, above as well as below, that even the rain-water as it trickles down the sides of the hills, when but newly fallen from the clouds, tastes almost like the briny sea itself. Our wants in the meantime had been mainly supplied from a fine natural reservoir in a rock, where pure water to the amount of about 150 gallons is deposited by every moderate shower of rain;