INTELLIGENCE.

Since our last Publication, the Anniversary Meetings of the leading Religious and

Charitable Institutions have been held, and we shall therefore, as on former occasions, insert extracts from the Reports of those Societies which are more generally interesting, together with outlines of the arguments of the leading speakers. The Meetings in general have been distinguished by Christian affection and devotional feeling. We are not sure that the eloquence displayed has quite equalled that of some former years; but there has been far more seriousness, humility, zeal, and love, with comparatively few of those light and trifling remarks, which, by provoking a smile, call forth a temporary and injudicious applause.

LONDON HIBERNIAN SOCIETY. This Society, owing to the impossibility of obtaining accommodation on its usual day, assembled on Monday May 4th, and thus took precedence of the Church Missionary, Bible, Prayer Book and Jews Societies.

The Chair was taken by Lord Bexley, who was supported by Lords Lorton, Mount Sandford, and Valentia ; the Hon. J. Shore and J. King : the Hon. and Rev. G. T. Noel, H. Erskine, &c. the Rev. Drs. Singer, Stopford, and Thorpe ; the Rev. Messrs. Wilson, Cunningham, Foote, H. M'Neile, &c.

On taking the chair, Lord BEXLEY expressed his satisfaction at presiding in support of a society, the great importance of which gave it so strong a claim on the public. If the objects of the Society were ever more necessary at one time than another, the present was the period when they were most required. Though events had taken place, which could not have been anticipated even some short time before, yet there was no reason to be cast down, or to give way to any feeling of despondency. The Society had laboured for twenty-two years in the promotion of religious instruction in Ireland, and he was happy to say, with most important benefits to that country, and the empire at large; since any thing which went to improve the moral and religious condition of the people of that country, must of course be beneficial to the empire, of which it was so important a portion.

The Report stated, that During the past year, the Schools had increased from ONE THOUSAND AND FORTY-SIX, to ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTYTWO; and the Scholars enrolled in those Schools, now amount to SEVENTY-SIX THOUSAND, FOUR HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR, being an increase of THREE HUNDRED AND SIX Schools, and NINE THOUSAND, ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN Scholars.

• The Day-schools had advanced from FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY, as reported last year, to SIX HUNDRED AND THIRTY, containing FORTY-SEVEN THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN Scholars ; of whom NINETEEN THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE were Roman Catholics, and TWENTY EIGIIT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-THREE were Protestants ;-it thus appears, that above One THOUSAND more Roman Catholics have been educated in the Day-schools, in the last, than in the preceding year. Did the funds permit the occupation of the many important stations in the South, and South-west of Ireland, which are now pressed on the attention of the Committee, the number of Roman Catholic Scholars would be rapidly and exceedingly increased. m. Of the six HUNDRED AND THIRTY Day-schools connected with the Society:316 are under the care and superintendance of Clergymen of the Established Church; 15 under Ministers of various denominations ; 215 in connexion with Noblemen and Gentlemen; and 41 have no regular Patrons or Visitors, in consequence of their local situation, being remote from resident Gentlemen or Clergy.

"The Society's SUNDAY SCHOOLS now amount to FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHT, containing SIXTEEN THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND FORTY Scholars, while the Adult Schools have advanced to two HUNDRED AND SIXTY-ONE, in which TEN THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FOUR Scholars have been enrolled. By far the greater part of the. Adult Scholars are of the Romish persuasion; many of them habitually speak the Irish Language; and almost all learn, in the course of one season, to read with fluency, either in English or Irish, the New Testament. JUNE 1829.

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The Committee most earnestly desire, that they may be enabled to extend these Adult Schools to the South, and South-west parts of Ireland, where abundant openings appear, and from which great encouragement has been received.

• The Irish Classes, in the Day-schools, have, in the last year, considerably increased; though the Committee find now, as in former years, that the peasantry, who themselves speak Irish, are on various accounts most desirous that their children should be instructed rather in the English language; meanwhile, the returns from Ireland show that the demand for Irish Scriptures and Irish Readers is on the increase. This is the more gratifying, since the exertions of other and more recently formed Institutions, might be supposed to render the claim on this Society for these specific objects less urgent.

• The Society employs at present 16 Inspectors, and 50 Scripture Readers, being an increase of 17 of the latter; immediate and advantageous occupation in this interesting department, could be given to a much greater additional force.

FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-Two English or Irish Bibles, and EIGHTEEN THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN English or Irish Testaments, have been distributed, during the last year; so that above 209,390 copies of the Holy Scriptures have been dispersed by this Society. This extended circulation of the Holy Scriptures has been accompanied with the distribution of many hundreds of thousands of Spelling Books in English or Irish, containing copious extracts from the plainer parts of Holy Writ.

• The BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY has granted to the London Hibernian Society, during the last year, no less than TEN THOUSAND BIBLES AND TWENTY THOUSAND TESTAMENTS.

The gross receipts of the year amounted to £7,809, while the expenditure reached £8,917 leaving a' balance against the Society of £1,108. The increase of expenditure arose from the before named addition of above THREE HUNDRED Schools, and NINE THOUSAND Scholars.

The Report then proceeds, It may, indeed, be inquired, Did the Committee act rightly in thus extending the sphere of the Society's operations ? Their answer to such inquiry is simply this; They calculated, apparently on good grounds, on an increasing income-they found a feeling every where evinced on behalf of Ireland -the claims of that country appeared universally allowed the simplicity and efficiency and economy of your system was almost every where commended the duty and importance of embracing the present moment was strongly urged ; and they therefore felt that while earnestly applied to on every side by persons destitute of the word of life, and anxiously desirous that themselves and their children might be enabled to read the Holy Scriptures; it would argue a distrust of Providence, and an unworthy estimate of the extent of Christian benevolence, if they cautiously limited and restricted the Expenditure to the precise amount of the Funds actually received. They therefore ventured to incur a debt of above ONE THOUSAND Pounds. It rests with you this day to declare whether you approve or censure their conduct-whether you wish the Schools they have just opened to be closed—the NINE THOUSAND new scholars to be dispersed the additional Scripture Readers to be dismissed or whether you will, by increased exertions and enlarged donations, practically say, Go FORWARD.'

Viscount LORTON congratulated his Lordship, and the assembly, on the most satisfactory Report which had just been read. There certainly never was a period which called more imperatively on the friends of Ireland to come forward in support of those objects which this Society has in view ; for we never can hope for the real and permanent improvement of that country, -we never can hope to see her effectually assisted, until her inhabitants have been taught to know and feel the benefits of scriptural instruction. In the promotion of so great a work, it is undoubtedly a circumstance of no slight encouragement to us to know, that there is no part of the empire where the people are more desirous to receive scriptural education. But, in order to communicate to them that great blessing, it will be necessary to use great and constant exertion; for by such exertion, with the blessing of Heaven, can we alone hope to emancipate them from a superstition which is calculated to paralyse every ordinary effort for their improvement. This superstition, however cannot withstand the force of pure scriptural instruction, such as it is the object of this Society to communicate.

The Rev. J. W. CUNNINGHAM, referring to his recent visit to Ireland, said, No man can visit that country, and come back from it, without a deep interest in its welfare, and an earnest desire for the advancement of such societies as this. He then adverted to the increase in the number of the Society's schools and scholars since the last Repori-being an addition of 306 schools, and 9,118 scholars ; to the increased" patronage received from the Established Church, there being not less than 316 of the Society's schools under the immediate inspection and superintendance of clergymen of that Church; and the increasing patronage of noblemen and gentlemen of landed property-the number of schools under whose patronage had increased from 164 to 210. He next noticed the very great deficiency in the funds of the Society, lamenting—that while we see so many come to us we should withold the means of giving them the advantage which it is the object of the Society to bestow. The question is, whether the Committee were right in extending the operations of the Society, even though in so doing they incurred a considerable debt in its name. I say they were, and we are bound to assist them in restoring the Society to the state in which it once was, and to endeavour to increase still farther the sphere of its useful operation. It would indeed be affecting to think that so many should have petitioned Parliament on a recent occasion for the protection of their religion, if we found that they did not now act up to the principles they then professed. The present time is indeed important, and calls upon all who are sincerely attached to the pure doctrines of the Reformed Religion, to come forward in support of those doctrines : and if we exert ourselves zealously in this work, why should we doubt the result ? If we relax in our exertions--if we are remiss in our duty--if we lay down our arms—or sleep at our posts-Popery will prevail over us. But let us be active and vigilant, and Protestantism has nothing to fear. Now is the time for exertion—for vigilance. The political ramparts by which our religion was surrounded have been borne down. I do not say whether that measure was good or bad ; but as those ramparts are gone, what are we called upon to do?-but to put braver men and better soldiers forward in the place of those ramparts. Let Protestants exert themselves, let those who possess the means not be slow in applying thein. Where a man gave a guinea before, in support of objects such as this Society proposes, let him now give two; where he before made one exertion, let him now make twenty. Let those who recently petitioned the Legislature remember, that there is another place to which their supplications should be addressed. Let them raise their hearts to the throne of mercy, and fervently pray, that the cross of Christ may be planted in the mountains and the valleys of that country to which our attention has lately been so much directed ; that those who are now our brother Christians, may be soon ranked as our brother Protestants.

J. CUMMINS, Esq. (of Cork), assured the meeting of the disposition of the Irish people to receive Christian instruction in their native language ; and that the accounts given were by no means over-drawn, adding some facts within his own personal observation in illustration of this disposition. I was some time ago visiting the western part of the county of Cork, perhaps not long since the most benighted spot in Ireland, and the most a prey to ignorance and superstition ; I was accompanied by a clergyman of the Church of England, who spoke the Irish language fluently. At Bantry, it was announced that my friend would address the people in the church, and in their native language. Such was the anxiety to receive instruction in the language in which they could best understand it, that when my friend came to the church, it was so crowded with people, the greater part of whom were of the lower classes, and Roman Catholics, that I and others who acted as door-keepers on the occasion, had actually to place some of the audience in the pulpit, whilst my friend delivered his address from the reading-desk. He was listened to with the most profound attention, and the people expressed their gratitude for the instructions they had received. The next town was Skibbereen; here it was thought we had no chance of obtaining a congregation, as it was the residence of a most zealous and active bishop of the Romish Church; however, we were determined to make the trial. We did'so, and were even more successful that at Bantry. The Roman Catholics of the middling and lower ranks, crowded in, till the church could hold no more ; and such was the eagerness to hear my friend, that many stood at the windows outside until all was over. The Meeting will see the importance of these facts, when they know that in the Romish Church it is most strictly prohibited to enter any place of worship, for the purpose of attending service which belonged to persons not in communion with that Church. However, such is the eagerness for instruction, that this prohibition is disregarded, and the people have proved themselves willing to attend to receive religious instruction wherever an opportunity presents itself. My Lord, I am convinced that, if a few clergymen speaking the Irish language men, as was said to-day, with the Bible in their hands, and its sacred truths in their hearts and on their lips-were to exert themselves in this way among the Irish peasantry, the effect would be, the bringing thousands away from ignorance and superstition. Until within these few years there were few who took much pains in communicating scriptural instruction: but now, happily, there is scarcely a town or village in Ireland in which there is not a clergyman, distinguished for his exertions to disseminate the truths of the Gospel. I had always thought that there should be some barriers round the Protestant religion; but as it appears to have been the feeling of the Legislature that these human barriers should be removed, I concur with the Rev. Mr. Cunningham in thinking that we are called upon to send forth more watchful and better soldiers for our protection. This I feel we must do, if we would save the country from the ignorance of Popery, or from the plague of infidelity. It is impossible to overlook the effect produced by the union of five or six millions of people for one object. That union it was, no doubt, which caused the change we bave recently witnessed in the Constitution of England, the probability of which no man could have believed a few years ago. Now let us suppose the effect which may be produced if Socinianism or infidelity could be brought to act with success upon such a mass of people, and produce amongst them another union, would not the result of such a union be, that they would bear down the true religion, and that infidelity would overspread the land ? Let us then act while yet we may with a hope of success; let us bring this Society, and through it the sacred truths of the Gospel, to bear upon this body; and, instead of its being turned to the destruction, it may, through the divine blessing, at once be the ornament and support of the Reformed religion in that country. You have, as it is termed, “ emancipated" the people of Ireland; but still, my Lord, they are bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and I would say to this meeting, “ loose them, and let them go;" they are desirous of scriptural instruction; let them receive it, and then, indeed, you will secure their true emancipation. · The Rev. C. Townsend (of Clonakilty, Cork) observed, that he had the superintendance of two of the Society's readers in his vicinity, one of whom had been a Roman Catholic. This man had been reading, in a Popish work, called “ A Net for the Fishers of Men," a chapter which defended the worship of angels and saints, and which referred, in support of that doctrine, to a text in St. Joho. On looking out in the Testament for this text, he found, as was frequently the case, that it was very different from what it was described to be in the work. This shook his faith; but when he came to read the Testament carefully, he found many things in it of which his priest had never informed him. He then began to judge for himself, and at length he altogether renounced a creed which he found to be so full of error. He was often taunted by his friends and acquaintance with having changed his creed, and asked what sort of a creed it was he had got instead of his own. On these occasions he would defend himself, an instance of which he thus in his own simple words described to Mr. T. “Sir, I met Tom, and Tom says to me, “Well, James, why did you lave the ould religion, and what sort of a creed is that you've got in the place of it?' and I says to him, "Tom, do you know the difference between the two?' and, Sir, he could not tell me; and so I says to him, 'How can you tell me that my new creed is not better than your ould one, when you don't know the difference?'” Mr. T. after detailing some of this man's conversations with his friends on the subject of his conversion, described the bappy effects which his exertions and those of another reader had produced amongst the poor in his own vicinity, by reading the Holy Scriptures amongst them.

The Hon: and Rev. GERARD T. NOEL said–The claims of this Society to our confidence are very great. Last autumn, when in Ireland, I came in contact with several of the Schools belonging to the Society, and the recollections of what I then witnessed are such as fill my mind with an interest almost indescribable. Those Schools are in a very wild district of the county of Clare, near the village of Corrofin, and they exist under circumstances which afford the severest test of the character and merits of this Society. I passed a night in this desolate region, where a gentleman who has quitted the civilization of Society resides in a farmhouse, which was once assailed at night, and from which he and his servant repelled forty or fifty assailants. When I was there, he had a guard of police in the house. The Schools were burned down, but he still remains with a determination to discharge his obligation to God as well as his duty as a landlord, by giving the blessing of education to those who surround his dwelling. I declare that I never witnessed a scene so entirely interesting and encouraging as when I saw the two or three Schools under his management. He adheres to his rule, never to allow a Roman Catholic tenant who will not suffer his children to receive a scriptural education. I saw several of the scholars- they were half naked; but I never heard answers so completely declarative of the effects of the Scripture on the mind, as those of the children in the neighbourhood of Corrofin. The situation of the people there is very peculiar. Their landlord says . It is imperative on you, if you remain on my land, that you give your children a scriptural education. The priests are, in consequence, very energetic, and come there from all quarters of the country. When he sees one of them coming, he scours at once across the country to meet him, and disputes with bim point by point in the cottages of the peasantry. The consequence is, the parents say, "Why should you binder our children from going to these Schools? This is our landlord, who, when he first came here, relieved and saved us from starvation. Our children weep at being taken away ; they are more obedient to us; they are happier; they declare he does them nothing but good ; and yet you refuse us permission to send them to his Schools.' Thus these poor creatures-and I never sympathised more with any persons-are pressed on the one side by the declaration of the priest, that he would refuse them the rites of the Church,-by the landlord on the other, who says the children shall come,—and again, by the tears of their children, who say they are never so happy as when they are at School. And when I quitted them, I did so with an earnest prayer, that the Almighty would give these parents spirit to bear those trials which they have to suffer. The manner in which these schools are conducted, appears from the scholars to be such as is rivalled by nothing of the kind in England, either as to intelligence or the clear understanding of what is taught. The people long for scriptural education, and I am exceedingly encouraged by the present conduct of the parochial clergy of Ireland. They come forward, animated by an intense feeling of Christian interest on behalf of the population of Ireland ; and the heads of the church are giving authority to their clergy to preach to the people wherever they find them; not merely in churches, but to go into barns and hovels, so that the people may be brought into contact with the revealed Word of God. It is well known that two millions of the Irish people are unable to read religious books in their native tongue, and two classes have been lately founded in the Dublin University, in order to go and diffuse Christian information throughout Ireland. This is most favourable to our progress; although it is most painful that two millions of men should have been so long abandoued as outcasts. The Hon. and Rev. Gentleman proceeded to observe with respect to the funds, Will you suffer the country to go back to a state of ignorance? Will you cripple the exertions and the efforts of your Committee?' I trust, that in the eye of God, this is not possible; for, if so, allow me to say, England will not do for Ireland what her connexion obliges her to do. We are told, “He that does not provide for his own is worse than an infidel;" yet Ireland is our next door neighbour, and while fifty thousand pounds are provided to diffuse Christian Knowledge among the heathen, this Society labours at the point of eight thousand pounds, and scarcely hopes for an increase. It is easy to attend an Annual Meeting, but this is not all that Christianity requires. Do we remember what we owe to the sacrifice of our blessed Redeemer, to Him who was rich and became poor, to Him who was the Lord of life, and became the slave of death for our sakes. If so, we shall not leave this place to-day, without giving proof that “the silver and the gold are the Lord's.”

The Rev. GEORGE CLAYTON said, that he had hoped to be a silent spectator, but when he saw the nature of the Resolution put into his hand, all his repugnance to come forward had been done away-his heart had been gratified, and his tongue loosened. The Resolution was one of thanks to the Bible Society for their munificent grant of 10,000 Bibles and 20,000 Testaments. He fully agreed in its object. He believed the Bible Society entitled to the highest commendation, and he was therefore happy to move the Resolution. It was delightful to witness