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in which some new speakers on the Nonconformist side took part, and which is believed to have settled the controversy so far as argument is concerned. The carrying of the bill is considered to be now only a work of time.

On the 13th two important ecclesiastical questions were discussed in the Lord's House. The first was the Irish Burial Bill, to repeal the act which renders it necessary to get permission of the parish clergyman, before any burial service, other than that of the Established Church, can be read in any church-yard. After attempting to refer this bill to a select committee the second reading was passed, and there is now a probability that the bill will soon become law. This concession of the rights of Irish Dissenters must soon, we trust, be followed by a similar one to the much larger class of English nonconformists.

On the same night the Compulsory Church Rates Bill was read a third time and passed. The Bishop of Oxford proposed a series of amendments which, if carried, would have spoiled the measure; but the Lord's were too wise to be counselled by "that fox." In five separate instances they put the negative on his proposals, and he left the House defeated and disgraced. We grieve to find another bishop-Dr. Ellicott-protesting against this just measure to the last He also stood alone, snubbed by the Tory Lord Lyttleton, and quite put down at length

by Lord Cairns. The bill must of course be remitted to the Commons for consideration, and then, Her Majesty having put her seal to it, this vexed question is settled for ever. It is hard to say which party in these odious Church-rate conteststhose who have been for, or those who have been against the impost-should be the more heartily congratulated on the present issue.

Another ecclesiastical measure, Lord Shaftesbury's Bill for Securing Uniformity of Public Worship in the Church of England, was discussed during the same week. Its object was to give legislative effect to the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Ritualistic practices in regard to vestments, lights, and incense. It proposed, after dealing with the vestments, "that no minister shall in any church, during the saying of public prayer use, or allow any other person to use lighted candles when not needed for the purpose of giving light, or use or allow any other person to use incense." The House was disinclined to consider the measure, and so it was stopped by the moving of the “previous question." Pity it is that so good a man as the Earl of Shaftesbury should not be able to see that civil legislation is powerless to prevent spiritual errors-or that he should be blind to what is so palpable to all close observers, that the Church, which he regards as the main bulwark of Protestantism, is encouraging practices which are essentially Popish.

Marriages.

WAINWRIGHT-COOPER.-May 18, at the General Baptist chapel, Kirton Lindsey, by Rev. J. E. Moore, Mr. George Wainwright, of Hemswell, to Miss Sarah Cooper, of Grayingham.

STEGGALL-STONE. - June 27, at the Baptist chapel, Berkhampstead, by the Rev. J. Lawton, Mr. William Steggall, of Hackney, London, to Miss Mary Ann Stone, of Berkhampstead.

ELLIOTT-GOODACRE.-July 7, at Birstall, near Leicester, Mr. Thos. Elliott, of No. 61, St. Augustine's Road, N.W., son of the late Mr. John Elliott, of Ashby-de-laZouch, to Eliza, eldest child of the late Joseph Goodacre, Esq., of Barrow Mills, Leicestershire. No Cards.

CANTRILL-HAYWOOD.

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- July 7, at the Baptist chapel, Barton Fabis, by the Rev. W. Hill, assisted by the Rev. J. Salisbury, M.A., of Hugglescote, the Rev. E. W. Cantrill, of Barlestone, to Sarah Fanny, third daughter of Mr. William Haywood, Nailstone Fields, Leicestershire.

GREEN-MARSHALL.-July 8, at the Baptist chapel, Baxter Gate, Loughborough, by the Rev. T. Foston, of Norwich, brotherin-law of the bride, Mr. William F. Green, of Clyde Villa, Ratcliffe-on-Trent, to Mary, the younger daughter of the late Mr. T. Marshall, of Hathern, Leicestershire.

PAYNE NICHOLS. July 18, at Dover Street chapel, Leicester, by the Rev. J. Jackson Goadby, Mr. George Payne, to Miss Ada Nichols, both of Leicester.

MRS. NEWELL

Recent Deaths.

Was born at Howgate, in Stansfield, in the year 1798, and departed this life on the 18th April, 1867, in her 70th year.

When fourteen years of age she was unfortunately left without an earthly father, but was subject to the religious training of a pious mother. When young she never had the privilege of attending a Sunday school, but at an early age she was religiously disposed, and for many years attended the preaching of the gospel at New Chapel, Todmorden. She, however, attached great importance to the Sabbath training of her children, as will appear from the fact, that because there was no school taught in connection with New Chapel at that time, as her children grew up she took them to the General Baptist Sunday school at Lineholme, and for years she attended the public worship and sat under the influence of the gospel there. Eventually, however, she returned to New Chapel; and under the power of the gospel, through the ministerial labours of the Rev. Richard Woffendon, she was led to feel herself a helpless sinner, and was pointed to the sinners' friend-" the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;" and at the advanced age of fifty she embraced religion, was brought to a saving knowledge of the truth, and to peace with God. She at once joined herself in church fellowship, and remained a consistent member in the New Chapel church about seventeen years.

During the later part of the seventeen years she often expressed her intention to be baptized by immersion, and in August, 1865, she, along with her two daughters, was baptized by the Rev. R. Ingham, after which her name was, with honourable testimony, transferred from New Chapel to Vale. She joined the church of her choice, and continued a member with us up to the time of her death.

For many months before her decease her mind was pained because she was unable to attend the house of God as regularly as she wished to do. But when through weakness and bodily indisposition she was thus deprived of that spiritual blessing, she would read portions of God's word, and rejoice in His promises.

During her last affliction she was confined to her sick room several weeks. Her sufferings were very heavy; and yet, notwithstanding this fiery trial, she was never known to murmur or complain. She believed that her "light afflictions were but for a moment." She manifested the

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strongest confidence in God, and in Jesus as her Saviour. Her faith remained unshaken, for she said she was on the "rock." She frequently quoted the language of the Psalmist, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," &c. Nay, further, she patiently said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." She often referred to the Psalm which commences, "The Lord is my Shepherd," &c.

Many times, when experiencing severe pain, her mind was raised from earth to heaven. She had no desire to remain here, but waited patiently in hope for the day when the Lord should, in His pleasure, see fit to call her home to Himself. It may also be said that during her sickness she was scarcely ever heard to pray without making mention of the Vale church. She was pleased on all occasions when the members went to visit her, and always wished them to pray with her.

Those who have attended upon her in her last illness have been amply rewarded by the pleasure which it has afforded them to hear such noble testimony in favour of true religion.

After eight weeks of severe affliction she was called to lay down staff and sandal; and one of her last expressions on earth was, To die is gain." Thus God was to her a very present help in time of need.

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When the hand of Sarah forgot its cunning, and death at last "rolled its wave o'er the flickering candle of life," she "fell asleep in Jesus," leaving a bright assurance behind that she has gained the "desired haven," and her "anchor is cast within the veil."

"Let me die the death of the righteous." Amen.

PICKSLEY.-June 9, at Kirton Lindsey, Mr. Samuel Picksley, senr., aged seventynine, many years a member of the General Baptist church.

PHILLIPPO.-May 22, at the residence of her son, Town Close, Norwich, Mrs. Phillippo, mother of the Rev. J. M. Phillippo, Baptist missionary, Spanish Town, Jamaica, aged ninety-three years.

URWICK.-July 16, at Dublin, the Rev. Dr. Urwick, minister of York Street chapel, aged seventy-six-a man remarkable for the smallness of his body and the greatness of his mind. An Englishman by birth, he went to Ireland as a missionary in 1815, and on completing the fiftieth year of his ministry was presented with a testimonial of £2,000.

Missionary Observer.

D. J. M'NEILE, ESQ., AND THE ORISSA ORPHANAGES.

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OUR readers have all heard of the generous efforts put forth by D. J. M'Neile, Esq., of the Bengal Civil Service, in behalf of the Famine Orphanages in Orissa. We have received that gentleman's permission to transfer the substance of his Private Circular" to our pages, also a copy of the letter to the Rev. J. Buckley, announcing the result of his appeal. The information that the noble sum of £1,065 had been already forwarded to India, was first received by us at Miller's Dale, near Buxton, where, upon the close of the services of the Association at Derby, over two hundred friends from different parts of the country had resorted to spend the day. A hearty and enthusiastic vote of thanks was passed to Mr. M'Neile for the exertions put forth in aid of our friends in Orissa. Also to Lieut.-Colonel Young and the "Ayr Committee," for their efforts in procuring boxes of goods to be sent out to India to the value of £340. Gratitude to God, who had graciously inclined His servants to undertake the good work, was also expressed by all joining in singing "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," &c.

PRIVATE CIRCULAR.

I solicit assistance in raising a subscription for the benefit of the children left orphans in the Province of Orissa, in the East Indies, by the famine of A.D. 1866, and entrusted under the orders of Government to the care of the christian missionaries at Cuttack, the capital of the province, by whom they are being brought up as christians.

At an early period in the progress of the famine, the attention of the public authorities at Cuttack, and of the Local Relief Committee, was anxiously directed to the best means of providing for the support of the numerous children whose parents had died of starvation or disease. The difficulty was speedily met by the generous offer of the missionaries to receive and take charge of any number

of children for whose bare subsistence the Committee would guarantee the assignment of sufficient funds. The offer was immediately accepted, with the warm approval of the Bengal Government, by whom an allowance of two rupees (four shillings) per mensem was forthwith assigned for each orphan from public funds. To this allowance the Relief Committee unanimously agreed to add two rupees, making the total sum provided for each orphan four rupees per mensem. With the famine prices then prevailing this was just sufficient to purchase rice (the staple article of food in Orissa) for the children, and to provide them with the simple clothing they needed. The children were accordingly made over to the missionaries from time to time as they arrived from the various relief stations in the interior. A large majority of them arrived in a state of terrible prostration and disease, and for many months about one in three died in spite of all that the most assiduous medical care and the kindest nursing could do for them. To that care and kindness, and to the excellent general management of the orphanage at Cuttack, I can testify from personal observation, having been myself employed for the last six months of A.D. 1866, ie., throughout the time of the greatest distress, in the relief operations, and having been resident for the greater part of that time at Cuttack.

At the end of A.D. 1866 the number of orphans who had been placed under the care of the missionaries throughout the province was six hundred. They had been collected at the four missionary stations, Cuttack, Piplee, Balasore, and Jellasore. The orphans at those stations now number about fifteen hundred, of whom a considerable majority are girls. It is not my intention to ask for assistance for the three last-named orphanages; not because they are less in need of it, nor because I have any reason to believe that they are less carefully and efficiently managed than the Cuttack orphanage; but because I cannot hope to raise a sum of money which would suffice to meet in

any full and satisfactory degree the requirements of all; and being thus compelled to make a choice among them, I prefer to urge the case of that one of which I have the fullest personal knowledge.

It is necessary to explain exactly the present financial condition and prospects of the Cuttack orphanage, and the special objects to secure which I make the present appeal for funds.

The allowance of four rupees per mensem for each child was continued throughout the year A.D. 1866, and part of A D. 1867. Last autumn, however, the fall of prices consequent on a fair harvest made it possible to reduce this allowance. (It will be remembered that this was a mere subsistence allowance, and was never intended to cover the expense of anything beyond food and clothing.) At the same time the general relief operations were brought to a close, and the Government invested the whole balance of the relief funds-the greater part of which had been drawn from the Imperial Exchequer-in public securities for the benefit of the famine orphans throughout Orissa and Bengal, making thereby a permanent provision of three rupees per mensem for each boy up to the age of sixteen, and for each girl up to the age of seventeen, or until her marriage, if that should occur at an earlier date. The provision also includes a donation of twenty rupees to each girl on her marriage. This is the limit of the Government subsidy. Beyond this limit the orphans will be absolutely dependent

upon their own exertions, and on the missionaries.

In respect to this allowance, and to obtain other specific information concerning the Cuttack orphanage, I recently wrote to the Rev. Mr. Buckley, the senior missionary at Cuttack.

In his

reply he says that the question of what expenses will, and what will not, be covered by this provision, "depends on circumstances that cannot be foreseen, especially on the price of rice and native clothes; but if times be, by the blessing of God, moderately favourable, it will provide for food, clothing, medicine, and

A correspondent of the Times, writing from Calcutta, recently stated that the fund would yield three rupees and a half for each orphan. This was a mistake.

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a number largely in excess of the whole native christian population previously existing in Cuttack. Mr. Buckley informs me that the present Mission chapel is so small that he has found it necessary to have three separate services every Sunday morning. This is of comparatively little consequence at present, because most of the children are so young (their ages range from one to fourteen) that the pulpit addresses suitable for persons of riper years are not adapted to their capacities; but in a year or two the inconvenience of being unable to assemble the converts generally in one place for public worship will become very serious. Mr. Buckley has not supplied me with any estimate of the sum which would suffice to defray the expense of enlarging his chapel, or of building a new one; and I therefore propose to make this object secondary to the following, of the expense of which he has made a calculation, and the necessity of which is, in my opinion, even pressing than that of facilitating the regular performance of divine worship.

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(II) THE LOCATION OF THE OR

PHANS UNDER PROPER SUPERVISION IN

SEPARATE VILLAGE COMMUNITIES.-AS they grow up, and become able to work for their own livelihood (and many of the boys are already old enough to do so to some extent) they cannot be sent out to shift for themselves among their heathen countrymen. No one would receive them, or give them work. It is one of the lamentable results of caste prejudice that christian converts are invariably thrown in India entirely upon one another and their missionary protectors. The Cuttack missionaries have no idea of maintaining one of their converts in idleness after work is found for him. They are therefore most anxious to make

arrangements by which the orphan boys may be started in life with small plots of land, and seed grain for their first season's crop. No other means are available for giving them employment. A very few may be educated as artisans, but the demand for the produce of skilled labour is exceedingly small. The whole population of the province is agricultural, and a comparatively small outlay is necessary to provide a native youth with a patch of land (taken on a lease, not purchased) and with the few rough farming tools required to cultivate it.

Mr. Buckley writes on this head:"More than one" (such village as I have mentioned) "must be established in connection with Cuttack. Each village must have its little chapel, school-room, and bungalow for the missionary on his visits, and house for the native preacher. Iu the settlement of the boys it will be necessary to supply them with seed corn and a subsistence allowance till they have cut their first crop, or they will go, in their necessity, to the mahajans" (usurers) "and be impoverished for life." To show the primary importance of saving them from this danger, I need only observe that the interest charged by an Indian usurer for money or grain advanced is from 50 to 75 per cent. per annum, and that the incoming crop is always hypothecated for the loan. Once in a usurer's books, the unhappy cultivator seldom gets free again."

Mr. Buckley calculates the cost of establishing one village at "not less, with rigid economy, than 1,200 or 1,500 rupees," £120 to £150. Now knowing, as I do, the paramount importance of making some such arrangements as those proposed by Mr. Buckley for the future maintenance of these children, I have no hesitation in proposing that whatever funds may be raised in consequence of this appeal should be devoted in the first instance, up to say £150, to the establishment of one of these villages.

If the boys are provided for, little difficulty will be experienced with the girls. Most of them will marry their present young companions as a matter of course, and of the remainder many will probably obtain employment as domestic servants in European families.

It may probably be suggested that if the missionaries succeed in settling their young converts in separate villages, the

necessity for a new or an enlarged chapel at Cuttack will be obviated. No doubt the difficulty about the chapel will in this way be partly met, but it will not be altogether removed. It will take a long time to carry out the village scheme in respect to the mass of the orphan children now collected at Cuttack; and in any case the missionaries will endeavour to keep as many of them at headquarters as they can make arrangements to retain, giving them suitable employment. The majority will be planted out by degrees, but enough will remain to require much larger chapel accommodation than that afforded by the present building.

(III.) THE PURCHASE OF BOOKS.On this head Mr. Buckley is most anxious that first and foremost every child should possess a Bible in his native language. These Bibles will have to be printed for them, and Mr. Buckley is already in correspondence with the Calcutta Auxiliary Bible Society on the subject. He expects that the Society will defray the cost of the paper and the printing. The cost of binding remains, and be estimates it at two rupees for each copy (ie., of both the Old and New Testaments in separate volumes). In explanation of this high charge it must be observed that the diffuse form of the character of the Oriya language makes it impossible to print a book in it in a small compendious form. The Old Testament alone will, Mr. Buckley assures me, be a volume in royal octavo of 800 pages, though the smallest possible type will be used.

Next to the Scriptures, Mr. Buckley rightly estimates the value to the children of books upon Geography. I need hardly say that some elementary educational books are indispensable. Little expense will be incurred in writing materials, as the custom of the country is to write on palm-leaves with a pointed style.

I propose that any sum which may be raised over and above £150, to be appropriated as above described, should be devoted up to the same amount to part payment for Bibles and school-books, in the proportion of four-fifths for Bibles and one-fifth for other books. Should a sum in excess of £300 in all be subscribed, I should wish to put the surplus,

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