No. 4.

specified

No Grammar 1320 11 3

643 4 7

1121 13 7

1453 0 6

20 10 0 School.

202 14 8

No. 5.

• Interest on money borrowed.

This includes for the years 1828, and to Lady-day, 1829, the repairs of the school, dining hall, college, kitchen, masters' houses, &c., and salary to the clerk of the works. No grammar school attached to the cathedral.

( The remainder of the Appendix will be given in the next Number.)

COVENTRY RELIGIOUS AND USEFUL KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY.

SIR,-Allow me, through the medium of your valuable journal, to direct the attention of the public to the origin and formation of an institution lately established in this city, having for its object the providing for the workingclasses the means of obtaining all necessary and useful knowledge upon religious principles.

This Society originated with the teachers of the Sunday school in Trinity parish. In that school there are twelve hundred children, and it is conducted, under the direction of the clergy of the parish, chiefly by persons who volunteer their services, having been themselves educated in the school. Of these there are between fifty and sixty in number, who are anxious for their own improvement, but found that the only Society open to them was the Mechanics' Institute, where they stood a chance of having those principles in which they had been educated undermined by their associates, while they could not obtain the religious works of which they stood in need in order to defend the church from the attacks constantly made upon it by persons in their own line of life. They accordingly waited on the Rev. W. F. Hook, the vicar, and proposed to him the adoption of some such plan as that upon which this Society is conducted. He immediately acceded to the proposition, obtained the Bishop's sanction, and the support of the neighbouring clergy.

Such was the origin of this Institution, and it may be considered as the result of the inculcation of those sound church principles which the clergy in this city uniformly preach.

The Bishop is of course President of the Society, and the Archdeacon of Coventry its Vice-President; among its members and friends are several noblemen, and nearly all the clergy in and near the city.

With respect to the objects of the Society, they cannot be more ably shewn than by transcribing the address at the head of the catalogue :-"The object of this Institution is to afford to its members the means of obtaining all useful knowledge, by establishing a library by organizing classes for mutual instruction, and by procuring the delivery of occasional lectures on those branches of science which require the exhibition of experiments for their illustration.

To the studious and industrious an opportunity will thus be provided of raising themselves to a respectable station in society, while society itself may be improved by their exertions. But since man is an immortal being, to whom religious knowledge is of paramount importance,—and since the same authority which commands us not to be slothful in business, enjoins us to be ready alwags to give an answer to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us with meekness and reverence, while no species of knowledge calculated to benefit its members will be neglected,-instruction in the faith and discipline of the Christian church is recognised as a primary object.

To assist in this desirable work, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge have presented this Institution with books from the Society's catalogue to the amount of 25/. which is considered the basis of a library, to which the committee add, from time to time, such works as they consider most conducive to the ends for which this Institution has been formed.

Thus, while no species of knowledge calculated to benefit its members will be neglected, the most useful of all knowledge, "religious knowledge," is the grand distinguishing feature of this Society, to imbue the mind with that wisdom from above, the highest and holiest, adapted to all states, and attainable by all capacities, endeavouring not less to induce habits of social feeling, of order, of loyalty, and unobtrusive industry, to which valuable qualifications, it must be admitted, this age does by no means seriously incline us. While, therefore, our library is well stored with theological works, and those of the best character, and the reading of them recommended to our members, still they are only recommended, and it remains with them to choose between such works and others purely literary and scientific. The reading-room is well VOL. IX.-May, 1836.

4 c

supplied with the best periodicals of the day, &c., &c.; in addition to which, as standard works, Mant and D'Oyley's Bible, Mant's Prayer Book, Collier's Ecclesiastical History, are the most distinguished. Classes are also formed for instruction in those branches of knowledge calculated to advance the interest of the mechanic and artizan, such as reading, writing, arithmetic, drawing, music, divinity, &c., &c.

In recommending, then, the formation of institutions of the same character, —at least in every manufacturing town,-it is important to remark, that the almost unparalleled success of this Society proves stronger than words can do its extreme necessity and great usefulness, since although only established in May last, nearly six hundred persons have enrolled their names as members.

Such are the principles and objects of this Institution,-principles and objects which, if carried out to their fullest extent, and inculcated, as they might be by due exertion, throughout the land, could not fail of doing much for the cause of religion, and to the annihilation of scepticism and infidelity, so rife amongst us. Among all the pleasing reflections arising from the contemplation of the advantages of this Institution, this is not the least pleasing, that this plan of engrafting useful knowledge upon religious principles has not been a plan submitted to the minds of the working-classes, but, on the contrary, has been sought and inquired for by themselves; a proof that religion is not yet superseded by a sceptical philosophy, or annihilated by infidelity. I am, &c., A SUBSCRIBER.

P.S. For the information of those who may wish to establish institutions upon the same principles, I have given an outline of some of the most important rules :

"Subscriptions, &c.-All subscribers to be entitled to the benefits of the Institution, but the right of voting at general meetings, and of attendance at lectures, to be in the following proportion to the amount of subscription,-viz., each subscriber of one shilling per quarter, to have one vote; subscribers of two shillings and sixpence per quarter, to have two votes each, and their tickets transferable for admission to lectures. Each subscriber of five shillings per quarter to have two votes, to be allowed to introduce one person to each lecture, and to be considered honorary members.

"No person to have any vote, or to be elected upon the committee under eighteen years of age.

"Committee. The committee shall consist of the President, Vice-President, and Trustees, who are appointed for life, and of the clergy of the church of England who are or may become members of the Institution, and of thirteen lay-members of the church of England,-ladies excepted,-six or seven of whom (in alternate years) shall go out in rotation, and six or seven others be chosen in their place, four from the subscribers of five shillings and two shillings-and-sixpence per quarter, and three from the subscribers of one shilling per quarter.

66

Any member of the committee going out in rotation shall be eligible for reelection.

"The committee to have power to make new laws, or to amend old ones.

"Five of the committee to be competent to act, and to call special meetings when necessary.

"Trustees. The property of the Society shall be vested in four Trustees, who shall be appointed by the committee for life, (and who shall be ex-officio members of the committee;) and in case of the death or resignation of any one of them, the vacancy to be filled up by a successor chosen by the committee.

"The Trustees to have the power of preventing the circulation, or of removing from the library, any works which they may consider as opposed to the principles upon which this Society is founded, and to have a veto upon all other proceedings of the committee.

"A Secretary and Treasurer to be appointed by the committee annually.

"The library to be open every evening from seven to half-past nine o'clock, and the reading-room the same hours."

Coventry, February 13, 1836.

MANCHESTER CHURCH BUILDING SOCIETY.

Under the Patronage of the Lord Bishop of the Diocese.

RULE IV. That the Bishop of the diocese be president, and the incumbents of the parishes of Manchester and Eccles be vice-presidents, of the society.

Rule VII. The patronage of all churches and chapels built by the society shall be vested in five trustees, of whom the bishop of the diocese, and the incumbent of the parish in which the church or chapel is situated, shall be two: any person endowing a particular church or chapel with 1000l., in that case to be made a trustee of the church or chapel so endowed; the other two or three, as the case may be, to be elected in the first instance, from the patrons* and vice-patrons; and when, and so often as one or more of such trustees shall die, resign, or become incapable of acting, the vacancy to be supplied within three months by the surviving trustees and the minister of the church or chapel, for the pewholders of the said particular church or chapel; which trust, such succeeding trustee shall hold only during his personal occupancy of pew in the said church or chapel. †

The highly satisfactory list of contributions which follows is surely a sufficient guarantee that an appeal would not be made in vain to the great merchants of London, and to their sense of the great responsibility under which their position and blessings place them.

May one venture to ask how it is, that the name of that distinguished member of parliament for Manchester and of administration, Mr. Poulett Thomson, does not appear in the list?

200

200

200

10000

10000

£ s. d.

300 0

пит

100

Edmund Wright

200

Mrs. Byron

300

0

Miss Alsop

200 0

0000

0000

500 0 0

&c. &c.

300 0 0

Lord Francis Egerton, per an

INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ENLARGEMENT, BUILDING, AND REPAIRING OF CHURCHES AND CHAPELS.

A Meeting of this Society was held at their chambers in St. Martin's Place, on Monday, the 18th of April; his Grace the Archbishop of York, in the chair. There were present the Bishops of London, Winchester, Llandaff, Chester, and Bangor; Reverends Archdeacon Cambridge, Dr. Shepherd, H. H. Norris, and T. Bowdler; Joshua Watson, N. Connop, jun., Samuel Bosanquet, J. S. Salt, Jas. Cocks, William Cotton, and Benjamin Harrison, Esqrs. Among other business transacted, grants were voted towards building a chapel at Brearton, in the parish of Knaresborough, county of York; building a chapel at Bushy Heath, in the county of Herts; increasing the accommoda

* A patron is a donor of 5001., a vice-patron, 2501.

The writer hopes he does not take an improper liberty in expressing his own wish that the patronage had been placed in the bishop.