for it is a remarkable feature in the change that is so steadily advancing, that it is wholly within the pale of the Established Church, that United Church of England and Ireland, which may well be regarded as the visible Church here below: as yet there is no taint of sectarianism, no stain of fanaticism, no wild enthusiasm, to mislead and lower their true profession.

Of converts, there are ascertained at least three thousand: one thousand of these are scattered through the very extensive tract of country called the King's Court district; fifty in one parish, ten perhaps in another, and so on.

There are spread through the Cork and other districts a thousand; and in the western and northern parts of Kerry, reaching to the borders of Limerick, at Abbeyfeale and Fealebridge, are a thousand more; every one of whom the agent for that district knows and can name.

Teachers and readers are frequently sent to the Church model-school in St. Peter's Parish, Dublin, where they are trained as schoolmasters: and in every parish where there is a sufficient number of children or adults desirous of learning to read Irish, schools are established as far as the funds of the Society will admit. There are openings for many more schools than there are means to erect; there is a call for a vast number more of teachers and readers than the Society can afford to pay; and, above all, there is a crying want of Irish-reading and Irishspeaking Ministers of the Established Church. There is, in fact, full employment for at least twenty clergymen in addition to those who are already engaged in this glorious work.

Hitherto there have been two distinct societies; the parent Irish Society, founded in 1816; and the Ladies' Auxiliary, established in 1821; which, however, have worked well together. They have lately been united; that is, the Committee of the Parent Society is henceforward to have a control over the actions of the Ladies' Society, to the validity of whose orders the consent of this head committee is necessary. But the affairs of this Auxiliary Society continue to be managed as formerly by the committee of Ladies, and all the accounts kept by Miss Mason, their excellent and indefatigable secretary, as well as original founder. Thus, then, the Irish Society consists now of the Parent Society, the Auxiliary Branch managed by the Ladies, and the Educational Branch.t

The Island Society, and that alone, is separate from the Irish Society, and it is a pity that it should be so; because the efforts of all when united may be more vigorous and more consistent than when separate; because the machinery of the Irish Society is already very extensive and works excellently; and because the public interest is divided and lost between so many claimants for different and yet the same objects. We would, as earnest friends to the great cause, strongly advise the Island Society to become a branch of the Parent Society.

Any person kindly sending subscriptions by post-office orders or otherwise to No. 16, Upper Sackville street, Dublin, may signify for which of the three branches the donation is intended. The Ladies' Auxiliary, having the greatest and most constant outlay, is perhaps that to which most should be given.

A common but mistaken objection to giving instruction in the Irish language, and, by so doing, extending the knowledge of and preserving the use of it in place of English, is continually made. But to this there are excellent answers.

First, What is the object? is it not one far above that of language? is it not the greatest we can have—that of teaching the way of salvation to the misguided and ignorant, the calling of those who are in darkness into light?

Secondly, How can this be done but by reaching the understanding?

Thirdly, How can the understanding be reached, but by using the language with which it is acquainted? For, as St. Paul says, "if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." (1 Cor. xiv. 11.)

Fourthly, Experience has proved that the desire to read English, and to acquire an English Bible for the purpose of comparing it with the Irish, almost invariably follows.

The Rev. Mr. Winning, now one of the most active and successful promoters of the efforts of the Irish Society, was originally opposed to the plan of teaching in Irish, and long persevered in the endeavour to distribute English Bibles and Testaments; but in vain; the people always brought them back, saying, they were told they were the devil's books. Mr. Winning then procured the Douay Version, but with no better success; as the people declared, they were told these were no better than the first. Things were in this state when it chanced that one Reilly, a teacher, called at his house: Mr. W. asked him to read out, in his kitchen, a chapter from St. John's Gospel in Irish. A very old woman, who knew not a word of English, was present: she listened with the most eager attention, her tears began to flow, and when he came to the narrative of the Crucifixion she dropped on her knees, looking upwards with clasped hands. The manifest impression made upon her induced Mr. Winning to try a like experiment with others; the success which attended these experiments, completely changed his opinion, and he became the zealous assistant of the Society. The King's Court District bears powerful witness to Mr. Winning's unwearied and persevering efforts, in the number of steadfast converts who have continued unshaken by priestly threats or the violence of their bigoted neighbours. There was in the beginning of last November, in the little town of King's Court, a meeting of the Irish teachers and scholars of that immediate part of the country, to the number of 323. Several inspectors and clergymen were present at it, and also the secretary of the Auxiliary Society, from whose report the following passage is extracted:

On the 4th and 5th of this month (Nov. 1842), we had two most interesting examinations of the Irish teachers and scholars at King's Court. There were 323 present; and I can truly say, that, had they been the best instructed of our Church, I do not think their answering could have been better. On the 5th (Saturday), the catechising was of a most searching nature, as it was preparatory to their being

admitted to receive the Lord's Supper, and therefore they were divided into several classes and examined by different clergymen.

On Sunday they all attended church, walking up the long street of King's Court three or four abreast to the church, where they filled the aisles so completely that it was almost impossible to pass through them. Two hundred of these received the Lord's Supper; one hundred and sixty, for the first time. Most of them were heads of families; and the feelings with which we viewed their deep devotion and humility were almost overpowering. But then came the sad part of the business: two of the poor fellows were most seriously hurt the following week: one was severely beaten and his lip cut in two, so that it is feared the parts will not again unite: and the other received eleven severe cuts on the head: "yet none of these things move them." And if Protestants would but give them the right hand of fellowship, if Protestant landlords would but treat them with kindness, and Protestant magistrates see that they receive fair justice, they would care little for the scoffs and persecutions of the Romanists. But it is hard to be branded with the name of hypocrite, when literally, in almost every instance, "they suffer the loss of all things." Hundreds come to

*

Mr. Winning, and say, "Give us sixpence a day and hard work, and we'll turn Protestants; for our hearts and consciences are with you, but we cannot let our children starve."

The same person gives the following remarkable account of a visit to a Sunday evening school in the wild hills in the neighbourhood of King's Court:

"I visited for the first time a real Irish school; I went with Mr. Winning at half past five o'clock, up a hilly and bleak road about five miles from King's Court, when, leaving our car at a cottage, we walked, or rather scrambled, over hedges and ditches, above our shoes in mud, nearly a mile farther, when we entered a small cabin: in the middle of the room was a table surrounded by men in frieze coats, with Testaments in their hands; and the rest presented one heap of faces-men, women, and children, of all ages and sizes. There were two farthing candles: one was stuck in a hole in the table, the other moved round the room from hand to hand, according as the turn came to read a verse. Mr. Winning began with prayer, and they then read and translated Rom. viii., after which he examined them as to its meaning; and, to give some idea of the deep knowledge of Scripture they exhibited, I will only mention, that two boys quoted the Scape Goat and the Paschal Lamb, telling the stories in their own words, to prove the way in which condemnation can he removed from the sinner. This is but one school out of many: most of the scholars, now, are Roman Catholics, and all were so a few months ago.

Mr. Winning then spoke a few practical words, which were listened to with the deepest attention, and he ended with prayer. As he wished to visit a sick man in a neighbouring cabin, he entrusted to me the care of five or six of the men. It was a dark and wintry night, the place peculiarly wild and remote; I was alone with those who a few years ago would have thirsted for my Protestant blood, yet I felt not only safe, but certain that they would all have hazarded their lives for mine. One of them grasped my arm to keep me from falling, whilst the others collected stones to place in the mud of some of the bad steps to try and keep me from the wet; and until we arrived at the cabin where we left the car, and while we were waiting there for Mr. Winning, we had a most interesting conversation on religion. We arrived at King's Court at half past eleven o'clock. This is a sample of a common Irish school.

*The Rev. Mr. Winning was Presbyterian minister at King's Court. This gentleman, with singular good judgement, has led all the converts in his district to join the Established Church, as being in her appointed services a more certain guide for them, than the varying extempore public prayer of the Presbyterian Church.

A letter from an inspecting clergyman who lives within a few miles of King's Court, gives the following account of what has been occurring there within the last three or four weeks:

During the month of January last (1843), there were meetings of a peculiarly interesting nature held in the immediate vicinity of King's Court, in the house of a respectable farmer, which was quite crowded by an audience, two thirds of which were Roman Catholics, assembled to listen to an amicable controversy, managed on the Romanist side by a man put forward and prepared by the Romish Priests, and on our side by a reader who formerly had been prepared by the Priests in a similar manner, but who, having been converted, is now a most able advocate of that faith which once he had desired and endeavoured to destroy.

These extracts give a lively picture of what is actually going on at King's Court and in its neighbourhood.

What is termed the District of King's Court, (a little town standing at the junction of the three counties of Louth, Meath, and Monaghan,) is very extensive, comprising a great part of eleven counties; it reaches eastward and westward to the sea, and northward by the mountains of Monaghan, Tyrone, and Derry, to the remote Barony of Innishowen, until lately famous only for poteen, or illicit whisky, commonly called Innishowen. Throughout all this great extent a most encouraging progress is making; and of a line of wild, neglected hill country, to which admittance has but lately been obtained, a trust-worthy agent, who was sent down to investigate and ascertain, reports that " he had witnessed the beginning and progress of the works at Dingle, Ventry, and Abbeyfeale, &c.; but in none of them did he see such a promising opening, or such a prospect of a rich blessing if properly worked, as in that part of the King's Court District."

Of Dingle, in the western part of Kerry, more has become known to the public than of any other of those districts in which the work of the reformation has been advancing of that, therefore, only two additional circumstances need be mentioned. First, that the new church at Ventry has been consecrated and opened for divine service; on which occasion five hundred converts were present, whose happiness and appreciation of the blessing of such a house of worship were such, as their awakened minds and strength of religious feeling would lead us to expect. Secondly, in that scene of present desolation and mournful remains of former civilisation, Kilmelchedar, the school-house, which was only roofed in last September, is now neatly finished, and opened for a week-day and Sunday school, as well as for divine service on Sundays. When first opened, there were only from twenty-seven to thirty attending children; now there are seventy, with every prospect of further increase of number.

Of Fealebridge, as a much less known place, we cannot resist giving some extracts from an interesting journal kept by a member of the Committee of the Auxiliary or Readers' Branch of the Irish Society, who not long since made a circuit of inspection :

There are seventy converts from Romanism in and about the village, who, along with many Roman Catholics, attend the meetings for Scriptural instruction, held by the Clergyman (Mr. Norman) and Thomas Dooling, the Irish reader. There are,

besides, very many Roman Catholics who come by stealth at night to Dooling's house, for the purpose of studying Scripture in Irish. Indeed, the Roman Catholics in this neighbourhood are generally well-disposed to the works of the Society, and would show countenance to Dooling if it were not for the priests.

Mr. Norman has been able to erect a school-house, which is to answer the double purpose of church and school for Fealebridge: its site is in the old churchyard, near the beautiful bridge which gives its name to the village, the parish being called Brosna. To this building the Auxiliary Branch had given 1007., and we were anxious to see how it was executed. After this examination, the secretary wished to have a meeting called on the spot, and in ten minutes twenty-five persons, all converts, assembled in Dooling's kitchen: they translated the second chapter of 1st Cor. from the Irish, and then followed a very animated discussion on the doctrines contained in the chapter. We were more than delighted with these people: their intelligence and desire for information are extraordinary. There was one boy, Batty Flyn by name, who did not miss answering a single question, though the examination took a wide range. This boy had undergone great persecution, and had been cast out of his home by his own mother, who acted by the priest's directions; who went to her home and cursed every person and every place that should give the child shelter: the boy fled to his brother's; but the priest's wrath pursued him there, and, flying from that, he at last found refuge at Dooling's.*

We went the next day, with Dooling and Batty Flyn, to two hovels inhabited by converts: there never were more wretched dwellings; being made in a dry ditch of the church-yard, with sticks laid against the bank, and then covered with sods. The men were out, but we were much interested by the women. In one of the hovels I saw a little shelf hung from the roof containing their books-the Irish Bible, Testament, and Primers. On the fly leaf of the Testament, I found the following inscription: "William Vaughan got full permission from our Saviour to read the Scriptures, (see John v. 39; Mat. xxii. 29; Rom. i. 16, and xv. 4; 2 Tim. iii. 15, &c.,) and says he will take the angel's advice, who told him to come out of Babylon, and not to partake of her curses."

Can anything be stranger, more simple-minded, or more characteristic than this inscription, the writer of which little dreamed it

*The history of Dooling is interesting. He was an Irish Romanist, living in London, when Lord Teignmouth employed him as a teacher of Irish, but removed him afterwards to Bristol, where he made him master of the Irish school for the labourers employed in the docks. Whilst instructing others, it pleased God to open his heart and mind to the truths of Scripture; and, forsaking the errors of Rome, he embraced with joy the Gospel of Salvation. Anxious to declare to his own people the blessed news he had discovered, he threw up his employment and came to Ireland. His relations received him gladly; but, when they found he had become a heretic, they cast him off. Being unwilling to give up proclaiming the Gospel to his countrymen, he spent a wandering life, reading to and instructing any who would listen to him. He procured copies of the Scripture in Irish, and sold those through Ireland, carrying them even into the R. C. Colleges of Clongows-wood and Maynooth. In one of these he sold four copies of the New Testament to the young students, who crowded round him; but in the other they were not permitted to purchase, and Dooling was turned out of the gate. He continued this wandering life for sixteen years, without notice or reward, except once that the Hebrew Bible Society presented him with a Golden Guinea. On Mr. Gogan being placed at Dingle he found an able assistant, and from that time (now nine years) he has been employed regularly as Scripture reader and inspector, being moved as occasion required from place to place, and has been the means, under God, of bringing many out of their errors in various parts of County Kerry, and has also gathered them into reformed congregations: thus has that at Fealebridge sprung up under his fostering care, and latterly another has been founded by his exertions at Rattoo.