I have reserved to the last a reference to my own favourite charge, the Belfast Ladies' Relief Association for Connaught, not certainly because I believe it worthy of only the lowest room. On the contrary, I believe it to be just such an institution as should engage the sympathy and support of the Evangelical Alliance, being, in fact, an Evangelical Alliance in miniature, a female Evangelical Alliance, composed of exactly such materials as your own, and directing its energies to the elevation of woman's state in Connaught, by giving her an honest industry for her own support, and an education in the truth of God-qualifying her for the present life, and the life to come.

With these great ends in view, we have sent, to the care of good Christian ladies in Connaught, fifty-six female teachers, whose superior Christian worth and usefulness had distinguished them at home, and these have introduced into seventy districts, and among two thousand pupils, with their families and friends, such fruits of industrial training, that the wages of our pupils amount to seven thousand five hundred pounds a-year; and such a taste for religious instruction, and such a spirit of Christian liberty, that, in spite of both the priest's whip and cursee-and whip and curse he unmercifully uses-our noble little Romish girls, the most of them the poorest of the poor, many of them orphans, and not a few of them formerly beggars, continue to attend our schools, to read and commit Scripture, to sing hymns, and teach others to read and sing, and, in one word, to furnish such delightful evidence of improvement and reforma

tion as to fill us with joy and comfort, like what an improving parent knows when he says to his dutiful child, “My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine."

The subject of Irish conversions from Romanism has lately assumed such importance that the London "Times" has devoted to it articles of great weight and power. It is not, however, in any paper favourable to Protestantism, but in the organs of Popery themselves, that we find the most convincing evidence of the reality and extent of the work of reform. "We repeat," say the Dublin “Tablet," and "Evening Post," in November, 1851, "that it is not Tuam, nor Cashel, nor Armagh, that are chief seats of successful proselytism, but this very city in which we live. We learn, from unquestionable Catholic authority, that the success of the proselytisms in almost every part of the country, and, we are told, in the metropolis, is beyond all that the worst misgivings could have dreamt of. There is not only no use in denying these statements, but it would be an act of treachery to the best interests of the Catholic Church to conceal them, or even to pass the matter over as a thing of no great moment. But there is no Catholic who does not regard the movement—if he be a sensible and sincere one, and not a brawler and a mountebank-with, we were going to say, dismay, but we shall substitute for the word, indignation and shame."

[Extracted from a paper read at the Dublin Conference of the Evangelical Alliance, by Dr. Edgar.]

AFTER what we said on the appearance of

the first of these "Letters," it will be un

necessary to do more at present than announce the welcome arrival of the third series, which is in all respects a fit companion to its predecessors. The subjects treated in the present number are:-creased Power and Pretensions of the Papacy since the time of Gregory I.Popery a Monomania-Celibacy and Convents-and, Policy of British Statesmen in

"In

for the sake of our English readers, that although Sir George's "Letters" are addressed to the Protestants of Scotland, the only national feature they possess is their Protestant spirit, sturdy and unflinching. Extracts from the Reports of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools; intended chiefly for the use of the Managers and Teachers of such Elementary Schools as are not receiving Government Aid. London: Longman and Co.

TEACHERS and others engaged or interested

I CANNOT better introduce the short account which I intend to give in this paper of the visit which I had recently the pleasure of making, as a Deputy from our Synod, to the Representative Assembly of the Christian Missionary Church of Belgium, than by prefixing the following succinct and comprehensive view of the progress and present position of that infant Church, drawn up by one of its ablest and most active ministers, the Rev. Leonard Anet, of Brussels:

The Evangelical Society, or the Belgian Christian Missionary Church, is now in the sixteenth year of its operations. Its labours are divided into five branches.

"1. Religious publications.-It re-edits, or publishes tracts, or religious works adapted to the wants of an awakening conscience. It publishes a monthly review, entitled Le Chrétien Belge. It publishes also a popular almanack, called Le Fidèle Messager.

"2. It has a library at Brussels for the sale of Bibles, religious tracts, and booksthe only evangelical library existing in Belgium, containing the complete works of the British and Foreign Bible Society, tracts and religious works of the Societies of Toulouse, Paris, and Neufchatel, the writings of all orthodox authors, together with many other tracts both English and German. This library is of the utmost

importance as regards the evangelization not only of Brussels, but of the country at large.

3. The Society supplies tracts for gratuitous distribution by pious persons. It employs colporteurs to traverse the whole kingdom, distributing in their progress religious works, and impressing upon the mind the first ideas of the knowledge of salvation.

"4. It endows schools, or gives pecuniary assistance to those congregations which already have them, but are unable, of themselves, to maintain them.

"5. Lastly, it causes the Gospel to be preached by ministers of God's Word. It has ten or twelve ministers, or missionary pastors, and two evangelists. It has twentysix or twenty-eight places of worship.

"Besides the regular labourers employed by the Society, the elders and deacons, and nearly every one of the faithful, may be ranged amongst those who announce the Gospel to the Roman Catholics. In a word, the labours of the Evangelical Society constitute a missionary work."

The number of congregations connected more or less strictly with the Society, amounts to fifteen, without counting the hamlets. These congregations have the remarkable peculiarity of being composed almost entirely of converted Roman Catholics, and

have all sprung up within the last fifteen, or twenty years, as the fruit of evangelistic labours among the population of Belgium. They have a remarkable unity of faith-are animated by a strong missionary feeling; and, unlike the older Protestant Churches of the country composed of born Protestants both native and foreign, they have no connexion with the State, and receive no financial assistance from the Government. "A population of, at least, from 4,500 to 5,000 souls is decidedly attached to these Churches; from 400 to 500 are born Protestants, the others converted from Romanism. Besides this, at the lowest estimate, we may safely affirm, that about 3,000 Roman Catholics habitually frequent the preaching of the Gospel. Lastly, from the attendance at funerals, it is proved that, over and above these numbers, 10,000 Roman Catholics listen to the preaching of the Gospel in the course of the year. These congregations have almost all of them Sunday-schools taught in different methods, and thirteen day-schools, with fifteen masters, or mistresses. The number of scholars is upwards of 700. About fifty of these children are born Protestants; all the others are the children of Roman Catholic converts, or of persons still belonging to the Romish Church."

Of these fifteen congregations, those which belong to the Evangelical Society in the strictest manner-being subject to the jurisdiction of the Representative Assembly, and forming in consequence an ecclesiastical body, called the Christian Missionary Church of Belgium-amount to twelve in number. They hold Presbyterian principles, and have a Presbyterian organization partially developed. They have also a Confession, to which all their ministers and other office-bearers are required to adhere the "Belgica Confessio" of the sixteenth century-the same which is still in use in the Protestant Church of Holland. The liberty of Christian and ecclesiastical action at present enjoyed by this new Protestant body in Belgium is of the amplest kind, and the field of usefulness which lies open to their exertions is in the highest degree important and inviting.

"The Constitution guarantees," says Mr. Anet, with admirable clearness and vigour, "these four important rights :

The liberty of the press,
"The liberty of instruction,
"The liberty of convocation,
"The liberty of worship.

"No law restricts the full and free exercise of these rights, and, if Government sought to impose any restrictions, it would fail in its efforts. Every door is open to do good, and to announce the glad tidings of the Gospel. Everywhere there

may be found many who read the Bible and religious tracts and books; everywhere you may assemble people to listen to the Gospel. Could we, in the course of a year, but receive 150 labourers, ministers of the Gospel and schoolmasters, we would engage to find ample occupation for them all, unless God should withdraw his blessing from our exertions."

The amount of assistance hitherto received by the Society from other Churches and Associations has been considerable. "We receive assistance for the various branches of the work, and for building chapels, from Holland, Great Britain, America, Switzerland, and Germany. As to religious denominations, we are aided by members of the Church of England, by the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland and England, national and dissenting; by Dissenting Churches in all countries, and by members of the National Churches of Holland and Germany. We also receive contributions towards our schools from members of the Society of Friends." *

The Representative Assembly-or, as we would call it, the Synod or General Assembly of this interesting and hopeful little Church-met this year, on Monday, the 16th of August, in Brussels. The place of meeting is a large vestry attached to Mr. Anet's Chapel in the Boulevard de l'Observatoire. All the ministers were present, and elders presented commissions from almost all the congregations. Each elder, before being admitted to take his seat in the Assembly, was asked by the President whether he adhered to the Belgian Confession as the confession of his faith. The elders receive their commissions from their respective Consistories or Sessions, exactly as with ourselves. Mr. Anet was chosen President or Moderator of the Assembly, and the Session was opened with devotional exercises. After the usual preliminaries of appointing Secretaries and Committees, or Bureaux, the first business of importance entered upon was the adoption of the Report for the past year or for the last Exercice, as they call it, or a term of administration, extending from the 1st of July, 1851. This Report contains a general review of the proceedings of the Comité Administrateur during the year, a body which acts in the name of the Representative Assembly, and is invested with all the deliberative and executive powers which we distribute among our Commission of Synod and our several Synod Committees. The Report also contains a view of the progress

* These extracts are taken from two papers

communicated by Mr. Anet to the Evangelical Alliance at its Meeting in London last year, and published in " 'Evangelical Christendom," Number for April, 1852.

and position of all the stations occupied by the Church in different parts of the country, and a financial statement exhibiting the whole annual revenue and expenditure. The document is drawn up in the first instance by the Committee of Administration, and the draft having been submitted to the scrutiny of a Bureau appointed by the Assembly, is adopted with such modifications as the Bureau may suggest, after full discussion of all such suggestions in the Assembly. The Meetings of this and the other Bureaux, and the adoption of the Report in the manner now described, occupied the time of the Assembly during the whole of Tuesday; and I had many opportunities of observing, in the progress of these parts of their business, the very stringent manner in which they look into all their administrative matters, and what a rigid economy they aim at securing in the disbursement of their limited funds. The Church's accounts seemed to be most thoroughly overhauled, and the Comité Administrateur most pointedly interrogated and brought to reckoning. With all their frugality, however, both Comité and Assemblée Représentative have enough to do to make both ends meet, and when all is done that can be done in the way of paring and pinching, a déficit at the year's end is an occurrence common enough. The déficit will sometimes even occur long before the year is out, as was the case on the 24th of September last, when the Comité having met to vote the salaries for the quarter or half-year, found, to their great distress, that there was absolutely nothing to vote away, and were compelled to content themselves with the following brief entry in their Minutes :

"Authorization to Pay Salaries.-The exchequer being empty, and having no funds at their disposal, the Committee could come to no Resolution. They leave it to the Sub-Committee to pay the salaries when funds come to hand."

"Oh! the anguish of heart is great which the Committee feels when such a case presents itself. The only thing they can do is to cry loudly for help to the Lord."

On Wednesday, the Assembly was occupied during almost the whole day with a very important discussion, the result of which is likely materially to affect the Church's financial interests in some quarters which have hitherto rendered important aid. The point in debate was whether they should agree to certain overtures or proposals for union, which had come to them from the Synod of what may be called the Established Protestant Church of Belgium, consisting of about fifteen congregations of native and foreign-born Protestants, whose pastors are salaried by the State. The

union proposed was not a union of ecclesiastical bodies, to the effect of making the two Churches one for all purposes and in every sense, but a union of the two for the one specific end of carrying forward the work of Evangelization in Belgium. This was proposed to be effected, as I understood the matter, by the admission of three members of the Synod-to be nominated by the Synod itself-into the Comité Administrateur, the right of the Comité in their admission being limited to the power of selecting these three out of six names to be annually submitted to them by the Synod, without any discretion being allowed them, if they saw cause, to object to more than three of the six, or in other words, without any power or possibility being reserved to them of saving the Administration from a very serious taint and damage, in the event of all or the greater part of the names submitted to them being objectionable, which was at least a possible and conceivable case. One very obvious and serious objection to this proposal was, that, if carried out, it would have given to the ministers and elders of the one Church a very considerable degree of influence in the affairs of the other without any equivalent concession being made, or being even regarded as desirable, on the other side. The Comité Administrateur is not a mere Evangelistic or Missionary Board, it is the executive administration of an organized Presbyterian Church, having manifold duties to perform, and having all the rights and privileges of the Church which it represents, to watch over and protect. However appropriately, therefore, such a proposal might have come to the Assembly, if it had been merely the re-union of an Evangelistic Society, it was felt by many, by the majority of the members,-that the proposal was one which could not be entertained by the Representative Council of a Church, by an Assembly which was as truly a Synod as that from which the proposal proceeded. There were no doubt other grounds and reasons for the decision which was at length arrived at, to decline the proposal. The Synod of the old Protestant congregations is an ecclesiastical body without a Confession of Faith. Several of its ministers, it is alleged, are Rationalistic in their views; and the temporal advantages connected with its union with the State, must tend, when no guarantees are in operation to secure soundness of doctrine, to lay open its ministry and membership to the entrance of unworthy candidates. All these considerations are understood to have had weight with the members of the Assembly, and to have decided them to decline the union proposed, at the same time that they

expressed their cordial readiness to cooperate with those members of the Synod in their individual capacity, who might desire to take part in the great work of evangelizing the country. This result was different from what some of the members of the Assembly wished, and was a great disappointment to some of the best friends of the Society in Holland. In a conversation which I afterwards enjoyed with Dr. Capadose at the Hague, he expressed his deep regret at the failure of the proposal; and a paragraph appeared in one of the Dutch newspapers giving utterance to the same feeling, and very erroneously attributing the decision in a great measure to the influence of foreign Deputations in the Assembly, alluding to the deputies from Paris, Edinburgh, and London. The good men in the National Church of Holland, it is to be remembered, very naturally have a leaning to the evangelical men in the small Protestant Establishment of Belgium, and wish to see them exercising more influence than they at present do, in the evangelization of the country. They sympathize, therefore, in the disappointment of their brethren on the present occasion, and there is some danger, in consequence, of their attachment to the Missionary Church being weakened and cooled. It is to be hoped, however, that they will do justice to the motives and views of the Representative Assembly, which found itself compelled to oppose the wishes of some even of its best friends, from a regard to the true and permanent interests of the great cause committed to its trust. It was their jealous solicitude for the welfare of that cause, and no other motive, that prompted them to decline a proposal which, though coming in the first instance from sincere friends and well-wishers, might eventually in its issues have given advantage to adverse influences, and even now, as its first effect, have broken up their own harmony and peace. And I trust that this solicitude and jealousy for the interests of a noble cause, this trembling for the ark of God, without occasioning them in the end the loss of a single supporter, will only have the effect of adding to the number and the zeal of their friends.

On Wednesday evening the Annual Public Meeting took place in Mr. Anet's chapel. The attendance was large and cheering, and after devotional exercises and the reading of an abstract of the year's Report, the Assembly was addressed in a series of speeches, by the members of the Foreign Deputations present, including, besides myself, deputies from the Free Church, from the Union of the Evangelical Churches of France, and from the friends of the Society in Holland. Mr. Moody Stewart alluded very appropriately to

what he had seen of a similar work to that which is now going on in Belgium, in Madeira, and the west of Ireland. The Rev. Mons. Pilatte, from Paris, gave an affecting account of the hindrances and difficulties by which the work of evangelization in France is beset under the present régime; and with great emphasis of feeling congratulated his Belgian brethren on the enviable liberty of religious action which they enjoyed, and exhorted them to turn it, while it lasted, to the best account. This appeal seemed to make a deep impression, and before the Meeting broke up, the whole assembly joined in fervent supplications in behalf of the brethren in France, offered up by Mr. Panchaud, of Brussels.

On Thursday evening there was another delightful réunion held in Mr. Panchaud's chapel. It was the Annual Meeting of the Belgian branch of the Evangelical Alliance. Here such of the foreign deputies as still remained in Brussels had another opportunity of expressing the feelings of Christian joy and sympathy, which all that they had seen and heard of the Lord's work in Belgium was so well fitted to excite. Excellent ministers of the old Protestant congregations of the country were also present to add to the interest and significance of the réunion, and to contribute by their words to the edification of the Assembly. Times of revival from the presence of the Lord are always times of great love as well as of great faith; and the fruit of brotherly love is not wanting to show that the Spirit of light and life has been poured out in these last days upon a land which had so long been like the valley of the shadow of death.

The only other incident which I think it necessary to mention is, that I was invited by the Representative Assembly, in the course of its business proceedings, to make communications to them respecting the constitution and working of the Presbyteries of our Church. It has been for some time in contemplation to complete their Presbyterian organization by adding two district Presbyteries to their Congregational Consistories and their Representative Assembly. At present the Assembly, which is, so to speak, a large General Presbytery, exercises, by means of its Commission, or Comité Administrateur, all the administrative functions of our Presbyteries; but already the inconvenience and disadvantage have begun to be felt, which arise from the want of Administrative Courts of a more local and circumscribed character; and it is exceedingly probable that in a short time this young Presbyterian Church will assume the full ecclesiastical development with which we are ourselves now grown so familiar. Not very many years ago we were ourselves