CLERICAL SOCIETIES. To the Editor of the Christian Remembrancer. SIR,-The information on the subject of "clerical societies," contained in your miscellany, dated March, 1825, p. 175, and in that of October of the same year, p. 649, and three following, has been read here with great interest. The present communication is offered on the principle which, it is presumed, led to the publication of the articles to which reference is now made. The advantages likely to arise from clerical associations, were discussed at this place in August, 1814; and in January, 1816, a club was formed, to meet six times in the year. The general object of these meetings is expressed in the following memorandum: "To promote a friendly intercourse with each other as neighbouring clergy; and to hold conversation on subjects which relate to clerical duties, or to parochial affairs in which as clergymen we may find ourselves concerned." At a meeting of this club, on the 15th of February, 1816, it was resolved, that this association "shall bear the name of The Rubric Club." The number of members was at first limited to twelve; but in 1821, it was extended to sixteen. The time of meeting is after dinner; three o'clock. In 1822, a plan of a book club, greatly similar to that at Ashby-dela-Zouch, was introduced; the subscription, fifteen shillings a year; and at the same time, a Rubric fund was added, to which each member of the Rubric Club is obliged to subscribe seven shillings a year This fund is a stock at the disposal of the club as circumstances may require. The appellation of this society was assumed in reference to the importance of clerical rules, and to the value of our most excellent liturgy and church order. Although the passage quoted in your note, pages 649 and 650, from Burnet's "Pastoral Care," was not adverted to at the formation of this club, the sentiment of Bishop Burnet was acted upon in the fixing of its rules, which provide that an exact sobriety be observed. Our refreshment on meeting extends no further than that of a mere tea-party. The Editor of the Christian Remembrancer needs no information we can give, concerning the responsibility of the parochial clergy, or the importance of the static they occupy; nor concerning the extensive benefits likely to result from a judicious regard to unity of design, uniformity of conduct, and to measures tending to inspire mutual confidence in the members of such a body. If an apology be required for advocating clerical associations, it will be found in the combination of the foes of our church establishment. It is not sufficient for a parish priest to possess rectitude of principle and goodness of intention,-that he be learned, devout, sound, zealous, he wants the armour and the address of a warrior in active service, and all the encouragement from his brethren which an extensive and familiar intercourse alone can inspire. On entering the service especially, and at other times, he frequently meets with obstructions and annoyances; the friendly advice of his. more experienced brethren will, on such occasions, be the "ointment and perfume" which " rejoice the heart" of the individual, while the common good is thus promoted. No order in society is better qualified to taste the "sweetness" of "hearty counsel." The subject is copious, but I will enlarge no further than to suggest what is supposed to be an important inquiry: viz. How far a friendly communication occasionally held between clerical societies in different parts, might be supposed to extend the benefits of such societies.— I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, HAMMOND ROBERSON. Healds Hall, near Leeds, 8th Feb. 1826. MONTHLY REGISTER. SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, STORRINGTON DISTRICT COMMITTEE. Patron. The Right Reverend the Bishop Since its last Report, the Committee has obtained several new Subscribers, and has been honoured by an accession of Vice-Presidents. During the past year, it has distributed above Six Hundred Bibles and Testaments, and above One Thousand Prayer Books. To the Coast Blockade Stations at Worthing and Lancing, it has made a grant of books (including Bibles, Prayer-Books, Doctrinal, Devotional, and Practical Treatises, Voyages, History, and Biography) for the use of the seamen employed in that service:-the Parent Society has made a liberal grant for the like purpose:-and this attention to the comfort and spiritual improvement of these persons, (who have few opportunities of attending public worship, or of receiving religious instruction, except from the pious care of their officers,) has been most gratefully acknowledged. To the prisoners in Horsham Gaol, and to the inmates of the workhouse at Preston, the customary gratuitous supply of books has been afforded. Several schools have also partaken of the bounty of the Committee; and it is a source of unfeigned joy to observe that some new National Schools have been established, and that others are now forming; and it is hoped that, in a short time, one or more will be found in every town and populous parish within the district. To these institutions the Committee proves of great benefit, affording them, in all cases, the utmost facility in the obtaining of books, and at very reduced prices. But it is important to notice, that to the poor generally, and without distinction, the supplies of the Committee are freely opened, and at so low a rate, as to be within the purchase of every one. Bibles are sold to them at Two Shillings each, New Testaments at Ninepence, and Prayer Books at Sixpence; and in some parishes, as a further accommodation, a plan has been successfully adopted of receiving even these sums by small weekly instalments; so that two weekly payments of Threepence will purchase a Prayer-Book, three a New Testament, and eight a Bible. Ten years have now elapsed since the establishment of the Committee; and its members cannot look back on its formation and progress and continued support without sincere satisfaction and devout thankfulness. The Committee is authorised to state that this labour has not been in vain,— and trusts that a blessing has attended it in many unreported instances. How often the careless and wandering sinner may have been brought back from the paths of misery and perdition,or how often the sinking and desponding penitent may have been supported and comforted in the road to heaven,can be known only to Him, who alone can cause human exertions to prosper, and to whom the Committee ascribes all the praise of success. It is the intention of the Committee to hold an Annual Meeting at Horsham and Worthing, alternately, on the first Tuesday after Midsummer:-and by permission of the respective Ministers, to attend Public Worship, and have a Sermon preached on the occasion. Balance in hand at last Audit £47 5 2 Subscriptions and Donations received. Cash received for Books sold at the Reduced Price of the Committee ... 93 17 6 156 02 £297 2 10 BOMBAY DISTRICT COMMITTEE. REPORT. MOTIVES of economy have induced this Committee to suspend for the last three years the putting forth any printed statement of their proceedings. The report, therefore, which has recently been received, exhibits the details of that whole period, and is to the following effect : I. The Distribution of Books and Tracts. In the distribution of books, every Committee must have two things to attend to;-first, to ascertain what parts of the Society's publications are most likely to be serviceable within their limits, in order that a proper supply of such as are most likely to be in demand may be generally relied on; and secondly, to consider the most efficacious method of making these supplies available for the public benefit. The experience of a few years has now, perhaps, given sufficient insight into the wants, in this respect, of this country. While occasional demand is made by subscribing members or other individuals for the Society's publications for their own use over a wide range of the catalogue, the great stream of the issues of the Indian Committees, in the present state of Christian population, must be into the schools, the barracks, and the hospitals of the military, and occasionally among the seamen of the Honourable Company's ships and other vessels frequenting the Indian ports; and it is upon the ground of their usefulness in thus supplying religious books that they chiefly rest their claim to public support. Without the stores of the District Committee, it is not easy to see how the books of elementary instruction, absolutely necessary for them to go on with, could be procured for schools in this country; and without their aid, although other institutions might afford the means of providing bibles, every congregation assembled for public worship, according to the ritual of the Church of England, would labour under great deficiency of the means of following the Liturgy, and consequently be deprived of the best help to editication as well as to devotion, which an uninspired production can afford. But it is not to supplying the book of Common Prayer for the use of soldiers and others in the Church, or for private devotion, that the usefulness of a branch of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is confined. The number of those in England, in the inferior ranks of life, who have been taught to read, has increased so rapidly of late years, that there are few who come to this country in the capacity of soldiers, who have not the ability to profit by the perusal, to a greater extent, of the works of devotion or religious and moral instruction which the Society distributes. Here then profligacy from utter ignorance is hardly to be met with; but if the better classes, who have contributed so effectually to the spread of education, do not every where, by offering some variety of reading of a beneficial tendency, endeavour to take full advantage of this change in a moral and religious view, they will be throwing away a great deal of what has been gained for the individual and for society, and converting, in a great measure, solely to a civil benefit that which presents the means of serving also in an equal degree the higher cause of virtue and religion. For these reasons, it seems to be now more especially necessary to offer, both in the barrack and in the hospital, such works of useful instruction, and such helps to serious and devout reflection, as appear most likely to engage the attention and improve the character of the soldier. These objects the Bombay District Committee have constantly had in view, and the means which they make use of are such as the circumstances of the country obviously point out. It is to the clergy that the Committee must look for the best information respecting the wants of each particular station, and it is through them that their issues must reach the bands of the individuals who require them.On their part, again, the clergy continue to acknowledge with gratitude how much they are indebted in the course of their duty to the liberal supplies of the District Committee, which enable them to minister to the spiritual necessities of their poorer fellow-countrymen far more effectually than they could otherwise have hoped to do; and to every member of the Church, but above all to her clergy, it must be cheering and delightful to be followed in a foreign and a heathen country by the streams of her benevolence and piety. It is the wish of the Committee that at every station where a chaplain is resident, beyond the boundaries of the Presidency, each should be constantly provided with an adequate supply of such of the Society's publications for the school, for the soldiers, or for other residents at the place, as are likely to be required. Having made these preliminary observations on the nature of the occasion for the exertions of the District Committee, and on their mode of proceeding, the next thing to lay before the public is an account of the issues made by them during the last three years, which is as follows: Making a grand total of 59,550 copies of the Scriptures, Liturgy, and other books and tracts dispersed since the formation of the Committee in 1816. In the course of the present year an arrangement has been made with Government, by which in future only one half of the sum formerly allowed for the purchase of bibles and prayer books for the use of the hospitals and the marine will be appropriated to that purpose, and the other half will be expended under the direction of the Archdeacon in the purchase of books for the more advanced classes of regimental schools. With respect to the disposal of bibles by purchase to individual soldiers and others, which is the mode of dispersing the Holy Scriptures which the Committee are most anxious to encourage, they have the satisfaction of saying that it is decidedly on the increase. An increase of nearly one half in the distribution of bound books has taken place within the period, taken chiefly from the supplemental catalogue. One principal remark to be made upon this increase is, that it is in a great measure the result of more extensive usefulness in the Committee to the public in general by the sale of religious and moral books, and that it indicates a greater proportion of issues in that way to the gratuitous distribution of small tracts. The formation also of the Government military lending libraries, and the distribution of prizes at the annual examination of military schools, have in a considerable degree affected the issues of bound books within the last year. The demand upon the Committee for school books keeps pace with the progressive increase of Christian education in the country. For the three years now reported of, the number of those publications disposed of for English schools are respectively 1467, 2404, and 3355. For a more particular account of the state of Christian schools within this Archdeaconry, the Committee beg to refer to the annual reports of the Education Society. The number of persons in the different schools using the Society's books cannot be accurately ascertained, but it is probably about 1200, exclusive of those in native schools. In reference to the supplemental catalogue, which has received considerable additions since the publication of the Committee's last report, the Committee must gratefully acknowledge the liberality of the Parent Society, which not only granted a supply of books from it on credit to the amount of one hundred pounds sterling, but subsequently learning that books of this class were in great request in Bombay, not only for the public, but for lending libraries and for prizes in schools, directed Messrs. Rivington to furnish the Committee with double the number of those books specified in the list transmitted by the Committee to London. The Society's Family Bible is now so generally dispersed within the sphere of the Committee's operations, as to render any particular description of it here unnecessary: the number disposed of during the last three years may be seen in the general abstract. Several copies have been sent by the Society on account, and it will be the endeavour of the Committee to have constantly on hand a sufficient supply of both editions, the large paper and the small, of which the prices are respectively 120 Rs. and 80. In the last report, it was announced that the Committee had begun the formation of station lending libraries, in imitation of the parochial libraries of late years introduced by the Society at home. They had proceeded as far in the execution of their plan as their stock |