citations from different parts of the continent and the adjacent islands had indeed been, at the earliest period of its labours, transmitted to this country, that a Suffragan might be appointed to visit the several Churches, as well as administer the rites of Ordination and Confirmation. Accordingly in 1713, the Society having previously addressed the Queen on the subject, submitted to her Majesty the plan of an American Episcopate, in which it was stated as expedient that four Bishops should be appointed for the Colonies. As Burlington was judged a proper situation for one of the proposed sees, the Society purchased there, at the cost of 600l. specially contributed for that purpose, à house with a small domain annexed to it. Another of the sees was to be fixed at the island of Barbadoes, where it was proposed that the future Bishop should have the presidentship of the college, at that time about to be erected in the island, in pursuance of the will of General Codrington *.

The measure was on the point of being carried, when the death of Queen Anne put a stop to the proceeding. The

Christopher Codrington was born in the island of Barbadoes in the year 1668. He received his education first at a private school, and afterwards removed to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1685, where having taken one degree in Arts, he was admitted Fellow of All Souls in 1689. Quitting the University, but retaining his fellowship, he entered into the army, and soon recommended himself to the notice of King William, by whom he was honoured with promotion. On the conclusion of the peace at Ryswick, he was appointed Captain General and Governor in Chief of the Leeward Caribbee Islands, in which he met with some trouble; for in 1701 several articles were exhibited against him to the House of Commons, but he was honourably acquitted from all imputations. In 1703 he was at the attack upon Guadaloupe, in which he displayed great bravery, though the enterprize was unsuccessful. Some time before his death, he resigned his government, and retired to the enjoyment of a studions and learned course of life, which ended at his residence at Barbadoes, on Good Friday, April 7, 1710. He was buried in the Church of St. Michael, in that island, but his body was afterwards brought over to England, and interred in the Chapel of All Souls College, June 10, 1716. Latin orations to his memory were spoken by two Fellows of the College; the one by Digby Cotes, M.A. public orator of the University, at his interment; and the other on the following day, by the celebrated Dr. Young, then B.C.L. By his last will he bequeathed his own plantations in Barbadoes, and part of the island of Barbuda, to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for the purpose of building a College in Barbadoes; in which he appointed that a certain number of professors and scholars should be maintained; who are required to study and practise surgery and physic as well as divinity. He di rected that the plantations should continue entire, and 300 Negroes at least be always kept on them. From a claim, however, made by Lieutenant Colonel Codrington, the executor, some delay occurred in obtaining this munificent benefaction; and the property was at the same time deteriorated through neglect, during the settling of the disputed claim. The French also made a descent on the island of Barbuda, and took off all the Negroes and most of the stock. These circumstances, together with the difficulty of procuring materials and workmen, prevented the intentions of the Founder from being realized in any immediate good result to the cause of Christianity.

attempt, however, was renewed in the beginning of the next reign, and with good prospects of success; but it proved abortive, from causes which are not fully known at this day-probably, among other reasons, from an excess in the conciliatory policy then adopted towards the Dissenters, and from the distractions which arose at home. The Society, notwithstanding these disappointments, still continued to have the object of sending out Bishops to America as a leading part of its designs and, with a view to the future accomplishment of it, under its auspices a fund was raised for that express purpose, to be employed whenever the times might favour it.

The activity with which infidel principles were propagated in America in the period following the first thirty years of the Society's incorporation, greatly impeded the exertions of the Missionaries in the different provinces, and also exposed their persons to considerable danger of persecution. But such was the diligence and moderation of the Clergy employed in this arduous mission, and such their constancy in spreading the -blessings of the Gospel, that the Churches continued to increase in number, many of them in elegance of structure, and all in decency and order; insomuch that, as Bishop Terrick observed in 1764," at the first opening of the Mission, only five Churches were to be found in the same extent of country which had the happiness to see them multiply to fifty times that number in the space of little more than fifty years." What a harvest then might not have been expected from the well-directed labours of the Society in cultivating those desert fields, had not the enemy so industriously sown tares among the wheat?

As the province of South Carolina was the first which sought and obtained the help of the Society, so it was the first in which the Society found occasion to suspend its missions, in consequence of its object having been so far effected as to render its support unnecessary-the legislature there in 1767 providing for the Incumbent of every parish by a yearly allowance of 100%. sterling. In the mean time a constant succession of Missionaries had been maintained there by the Society, and a well organized plan had been commenced at the suggestion of Mr. Garden, the Bishop of London's Commissary at Charlestown, for the instruction of the Negroes. A school was established in 1740-two Negro-boys having been first especially instructed under the immediate care of the Commissary, in order that they might act as school-masters to their fellow Negroes ;-which was the happy means of educating a great number of that class. Before the school had been opened three years, no less than twenty-eight were dismissed from it as sufficiently educated, and twenty in each successive year-sixty children being daily

instructed, and at the same time fifteen grown slaves who at tended in the evening when the labour of the day was over.

In 1746, the exertions of the Society were directed to the o nversion of the Mosquitos, who had humbly solicited instrucion in Christianity, by an application to the Governor of Jamaica. Missionaries were sent out for this purpose, though considerable impediments to the design arose from the difficulty of obtaining proper persons to undertake the office, and from the ill health of those who were sent. The King and Queen of the Mosquitos were baptized, and 120 Indians and Negroes, on the Mosquito shore.

In the Bahamas also, about the same time, a mission was established, which was productive of great benefit in diminishing the ignorance and licentiousness extensively prevalent in those islands.

In 1732, the Trustees of Georgia applied to the Society for a Missionary. To Mr. Quincey, who was first appointed for this service, succeeded in 1735, John Wesley *-the Society recommending the latter to the post, but the expense of his mission being defrayed by the Trustees. But another Missionary being also requested, others were successively sent with salaries from the Society, until 1771, when the provision made by the Local Government for the support of Clergymen removed the necessity of assistance from home. A Missionary, however, continued to be supported at Augusta, until the rebellion forced him to take refuge in the Bahamas. Fanaticism was at this time prevalent throughout Georgia, but it was greatly counteracted by the exertions of the Missionaries. Here also, in 1750, the Society concurred with the Associates of Dr. Bray in the support of a Catechist and Schoolmaster for the instruction of the Negroes. The prejudices, however, of the Negroes, their ignorance of the English language, and the continual labour to which they were subjected, operated in this case as strong barriers to their improvement.

The great discouragements encountered in the province of North Carolina by the first Missionaries, deterred others from undertaking the arduous duty. At length, in 1732, Mr. Boyd was appointed itinerant missionary there, and to him regularly succeeded others; and in 1750 a church was built at Edgcumbe,

Wesley was then thirty-two years of age. His answer to an unbeliever, who ridiculed, as Quixotic, the idea of his going out as a Missionary, when he had a good provision at home, was admirable—“Sir, if the Bible be not true, I am as very a fool and madman as you can conceive; but if it be of God, I am sober-minded. For he has declared, There is no man that hath left house, or friends, or brethren, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in the present time, and in the world to come everlasting life." "Southey's Life of Wesley, Vol. I. p. 76.

where the Missionary chiefly resided, and who had afterwards the fixed cure of a parish, with a stipend from the GovernmentThe eastern division of the province was the seat of a separate mission, to which Mr. Garzia was appointed, and after his death Mr. Clement Hall, a respectable inhabitant and magistrate of the province, who, having received holy orders from the Bishop of London, returned to North Carolina as the Society's Missionary. The labours of the last were extraordinary-in travelling and preaching, and administering the communion and visiting the sick and it is computed that he baptized, in the course of fifteen years service, no less than 10,000 persons. One circumstance is deserving of notice, as retarding the progress of religion in this province, that of the parochial ministers being annually appointed by the parishioners, who being in general men of dissolute lives, were not likely to retain a zealous and faithful Clergyman long amongst them. From the unfavourable circumstances of North Carolina, it followed upon the whole, that little success comparatively attended on the Society's endeavours there, and sectaries of every description consequently increased. The last Missionary here was Mr. Earl, who succeeded Hall, and who continued to receive the assistance of the Society until 1781.

In Pennsylvania, Missionaries continued to be regularly sup ported by the Society, until the disaffection towards the mother country broke out in acts of insubordination. One was also expressly appointed for the instruction of the Negroes, who discharged that duty until 1763. The Missionaries had here to struggle with the want of an established Church, and the conse quent rivalry of aspiring sects, and with a spirit of anarchy fostered by infidelity on one hand, and enthusiasm on the other. The Society, therefore, was particularly careful in the instructions which it gave to them for their direction in this hazardous state of affairs; and its Missionaries acting upon these instructions, were signally distinguished for the zeal and the discretion with which they met the impending dangers and promoted the inte rests of Christianity, amidst the personal insults and risks to which they were exposed.

In New Jersey also, where, as in Pennsylvania, the government was administered by Quakers, and no support consequently was obtained to religion from the authority of the State; and it was owing chiefly to the active care of the Society, that the Church of England continued to maintain its ground. Until 1775, when the political disturbances broke out, Missionaries were supported at several stations-at Burlington-at Salem-at Elizabeth Town, where Dr. Chandler, who distinguished himself as an advocate for episcopacy, by a work enti

tled, "An Appeal on behalf of the Church of England in America," was first the Society's Catechist, and afterwards its Missionary-and at Amboy and Trenton: the duties of the several Ministers at these places extending also to their respective neighbourhoods.

The growth of religion was strikingly evidenced in a charitable institution which took its rise here, for the widows and orphans of such of the American Clergy as should die in necessitous circumstances. At a general meeting of the Clergy at Elizabeth Town, in October, 1767, a Committee was appointed to meet at Amboy, in the following May, when a scheme was drawn up, which was adopted by the Clergy of the three provinces of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, and established by charter from the respective Governments. The Society having received an application for its countenance and assistance in the design, voted an annual contribution of 201. for each province.

The Church of England had been established by the Government of New York in the city of New York. But the Society still provided Ministers for other parts of the province which required its aid, supporting no less than fourteen missions in different districts of it. One of its Missionaries here was Mr. Seabury, who, after the rupture of the States from the mother country, received consecration as Bishop of Connecticut, from the Bishops of Scotland. The school for poor children, established at New York, in 1709, continued to be supplied with Bibles, Common Prayers, Psalters, and Catechisms by the Society, which sent out its instructions to the Masters, with the prayers to be used by the scholars. To the original school another was added, for the education of twelve girls, at the expence of the Society; and this also obtained its assistance until the separation of the Colonies. Under its sanction and encouragement also, in 1755, the sum of 5000%. currency was raised in the province, for the purpose of establishing a College in New York. From the opposition made by the Dissenters, only half the sum raised could be obtained, and this was inadequate to the design. A voluntary contribu tion was then made by members of the Church of England in the province, to the amount of 2000l. and this being still insufficient, the Society, whose chief wish in promoting such an institution, was that Indian children might thus be educated for the conversion of their people, on receiving a memorial soliciting its aid, voted the sum of 500l. towards the building and support of the College, recommending it also to the further contribution of their friends. About the same time Dr. Bristowe, a member of the Society, died, and bequeathed to the