son proceeded to distribute the prizes, making such remarks as the several cases required. Dr. Davies said he was happy to bear testimony to the highly creditable manner in which the students had acquitted themselves in the departments in which he had examined. Mr. Davison then made a feeling and impressive address to those students who were about to leave, and called upon the Rev. Hugh Jones, minister of the Independent chapel, Carmarthen, to offer up the valedictory prayer, with which the duties of the session closed. Nine candidates presented themselves for admission, eight of whom were found to be qualified; the three who distinguished themselves the most were admitted on the foundation. The duties of the ensuing session will be resumed on the 7th September. Unsectarian Education-important Meeting of Dissenting Ministers of different Denominations at Carmarthen. On Tuesday, June 23, Mr. Davison, M. A., the deputation from the Presby terian Board to conduct the examination at the Presbyterian College at the above place, was invited to a public dinner by about forty Dissenting ministers and lay gentlemen of different religious persuasions. Many members of the Town Council were also present, and the chair was taken by Alfred Thomas, Esq., of Welfield House, and Alderman W. G. Thomas filled the vicechair; the former a Wesleyan and the latter an Independent. A general system of education, on entirely unsectarian principles, is exciting much attention at present in the Principality, and this formed the subject of most of the speeches of the evening. After the usual loyal toasts, the Chairman, in a short complimentary speech, proposed the health of Mr. Davison, the deputation from the Presbyterian Board. Mr. DAVISON, after giving a brief account of the early history of the Presbyterian College at Carmarthen, proceeded to state, for the information of those who might not be aware of the objects of that institution, that it was established for promoting the education of Dissenting ministers on principles altogether unconnected with sectarianism. It was the only institution of the kind in the kingdom. There was no institution in the British dominions where Baptists, Independents, Presby terians and Methodists were educated for the sacred duties of the Christian ministry on neutral ground, as at Carmarthen. All denominations not only could, but did, here meet and join in the good work of education, irrespective of sectarian instruction. It was true that they had no religious test at the New College at Manchester, and that it was open to all; but in the Theological department the Tutors were all of one denomination, and this gave to that institution a sectarian appearance. In operation, no institution of the kind was so unsectarian as Carmarthen. Here they had at present students of all sects, which gave a practical proof of what he stated. It was generally supposed that there was a great difficulty in devising a plan for giving education without reference to peculiar doctrinal opinions. The plan had been devised and was eminently successful in that institution. Each year proved to him the practicability of such a plan. In that institution, the Revds. D. Lloyd and D. Davies (the Tutors) entertained very different opinions on religious matters, and yet education progressed there in the most satisfactory manner. He could not understand why any man should insist on instructing others in his own peculiar views. He always found where men of varying opinions met, and were constantly associated together, if they were honest and frank, they had always something to learn, some old prejudice to rub off, and could harmonize cheerfully together in the pursuit of knowledge. That institution for the last twenty years had grown into great importance, and could send out into the world young men in no way inferior to those of Dissenting Colleges in England. They had distinguished themselves in the Universities of London and Glasgow; and, without intending the slightest disrespect to any other institution, he would state that whenever young men from different Colleges became candidates for Dr. Williams's valuable exhibitions at Glasgow, a Carmarthen man generally stood at the top of the list. He could not help alluding to the fact, that of the five young men sent to Glasgow last year from different institutions, the only one that came back with a prize was a Carmarthen student. -Wales seemed to him to be better adapted for a good sound unsectarian education than any other country. The Church in Wales did not and could not claim the exclusive credit of education. And if the Church did not, what other sect could? He thought neither sect, nor any combination of sects, as long as any were excluded from that combination, could ask for a Government grant. Public money could only be asked and given for public purposes. He could really see no obstacle to the establishment of a general system of education throughout England and Wales. If persons happened to be Baptists or Independents, they could have no difficulty to teach their children writing, arithmetic, Euclid, &c., which were all ingredients in an education and essential to man's usefulness and happiness. But there was another favourable circumstance which affected Wales. They had an illustrious Prelate who was pre-eminently and fortunately distinguished for talent and learning-in fact, no man on the Episcopal Bench was more sowho exhibited proofs of the greatest liberality of spirit in the speeches he had lately made on the subject of education in Wales, Corn Laws, &c. If, then, with the aid of this great and talented man, they joined one and all in increasing efforts for education, there would be no doubt of ultimate success. Mr. Davison then proceeded to give a very interesting account of the success of the national system of education in Ireland. In acknowledging the toast, "The health of the Tutors of the Presbyterian Colleges," the Rev. D. LLOYD said the institution over which his worthy colleague and himself had the honour to preside was the most free, liberal and unsectarian in the kingdom. What his friend Mr. Davison had said relative to the New College at Manchester was perfectly true. It had no religious test, and was open to students of all denominations; but as the Tutors connected with the Theological department were all of the same faith, it followed as a natural consequence that the students of one denomination only sought admission there. He felt quite sure that it would be highly satisfactory to the friends of the Presbyterian College to learn that the truly liberal and unsectarian principles on which that institution was founded were becoming very general in the Principality, and were likely soon to guide the operations of similar institutions. The spirit of the age was not to be mistaken. It was the spirit of Progress; and he trusted that it was a spirit that would soon bring parties of all shades of political and religious opinions to co-operate to promote education. They could not justly expect co-operation unless the principles which guided their plans were founded upon a basis sufficiently wide to include the interest and enlist the sympathy of all sects and parties. They as Dissenters objected to schools established in connection with the National Church, on account of their sectarian and exclusive character. The National Schools, as at present conducted, were utterly inadequate to meet the educational wants of the country. The blight of sectarianism was upon them, and as long as they continued under the influence of that blight, no human efforts could give them healthful and vigorous vitality. Dissenters generally ought to be careful to avoid every thing exclusive and sectarian in their views on education, lest they might be justly exposed to the charge of inconsistency-of being quicker to detect the mote than to discover the beam. They should be careful that, whilst they professed to have furnished and swept the house of conscience, they did not allow the "unclean spirit to return with seven worse than himself." The Rev. D. Davies, Theological Tutor, Rev. J. Hughes, Baptist minister, Rev. Hugh Jones, Independent minister, Rev. Dr. Davis, and other gentlemen, also addressed the company, and acknowledged their entire sympathy with the views expressed by the preceding speakers in favour of a general system of unsectarian education. Controversy on National Education. Considerable attention has been given to two series of letters on National Education now in the course of publication, the first by Mr. Edward Baines, Jun., published in his able newspaper, the Leeds Mercury, opposing all Government interference in popular education, and maintaining the sufficiency of the voluntary principle to meet the growing wants of the country in respect to education; the second by Dr. Vaughan, Principal of the Lancashire Independent College, published in the Morning Chronicle, maintaining the utter insufficiency of all existing educational provision, and the right and duty of the Government to supply secular instruction to the people." So far, the advantage in the argument seems altogether on the side of Dr. Vaughan. He lays down the maxim, that "Government may be a moral teacher to the extent in which it must be a moral administrator." In the remarks which follow, taken from his second letter, Dr. Vaughan will carry with him the assent of every liberal mind amongst the Dissenters of England. "Nor should it be forgotten that it is a new thing with Dissenters to feel any difficulty on this point. When an attempt was made some years since to secure access for Nonconformists to the means of secular education in our Universities, without obliging them to commit themselves in any way to the religious teaching of those places, no man throughout the ranks of Dissent appeared to doubt the reasonableness or practicability of such a separation of the literary and scientific from the theological. The concession was not made, and all classes of Nonconformists agreed in attributing the refusal to the narrow selfishness of the refusers. Our language was, not only that the party adverted to might have done that thing if they would, but that the plea of religion set up by them for not doing it was a worthless and hollow plea. When the London University was instituted -instituted for the purpose of imparting secular instruction, and such instruction only-Nonconformists generally gave it their approval. The cry raised against it as irreligious because not professedly religious, as 'atheistic' because not professedly Christian, all fair-minded men knew well enough how to interpret. It was regarded by Nonconformists as the bad pretext by which political partisans and Church intolerants sought to accomplish their particular ends. When the Government scheme of education for Ireland was introduced a few years ago, the Congregational Board of London and the ministers of the Three Denominations voted resolutions and presented a memorial to Government in approbation of what was done. The cry of No Popery,' and 'No Atheism,' which the enemies of a Liberal Government contrived to get up on that measure, was not only spread through the land, and proclaimed with due theatrical effect in some memorable public meetings, but was borne with no less memorable parade to the gates of Buckingham Palace, and even to the foot of the Throne! Protestant Nonconformists were observant of these very religious proceedings, and estimated them at their proper value." Dr. Vaughan reiterates the opinion previously stated in the British Quar terly Review, that he entertains "a very humble opinion of the direct religious teaching which is given in day-schools, or that ever can be given in such institutions." His experience has taught him that the great benefit of such schools consists, not in any direct religious impression produced by them, but in their adaptation to prepare the young for receiving religious instruction elsewhere. We have read with great pleasure Dr. Vaughan's letters, and trust they will be collected and published in a separate form. In respect to catholicity of spirit, they present Protestant Nonconformity in the position which we conceive it ought to take. The closing remark of the second letter especially deserves attention: "Let the day-school inculcate a reverence of truth and justice, and a love of every thing kindly, generous and noblehearted, and let the directly religious instruction be grafted upon such teaching, and it will be the fault of the agents, and not of the method, if you do not realize a scheme of popular education of the highest value. Nor can I doubt that an intermixture of the children of all sects in such schools would tend to abate our sectarian animosities, and render the next generation in that respect an improvement on the past." Mr. Baines's letters are written too much in the temper excited by the obnoxious clauses of Sir James Graham's Factories' Bill. West-Riding Unitarian Tract Society. The thirty-first annual meeting of this Society was held at Bradford, on Wednesday, June 10th, 1846. The service in the chapel commenced at twelve o'clock: the Rev. George Hoade, of Selby, conducted the devotional service, and the Rev. Samuel Bache, of Birmingham, preached the sermon. At the social meeting of the members and friends of the Society, held in the afternoon, (the Rev. J. H. Ryland in the chair,) the Report was read, from which we give a few extracts. "The Committee of the West-Riding Unitarian Tract Society, in meeting the subscribers and friends on occasion of the thirty-first anniversary, are happy in being able once more to present to them a favourable and encouraging account of recent proceedings. It has become abundantly manifest that, since the establishment of this institution, in the year 1815, a great change has taken place in public feeling. Instead of merely supplying its own subscribers, and a few of those chapel libraries connected with the denomination which seemed to require aid, the Society has now opening before it a wider demand for its tracts on the part of a more general public. The labours of Bell and Lancaster are beginning to tell upon the people; and the old prophecy of the Unitarian, that education must precede, and would eventually introduce a greater disposition for the entertainment of his views of religion, is beginning to be fulfilled. Numbers of the people in this neighbourhood and many other parts of England are filled with the spirit of inquiry, and it becomes a very serious question with the religious philanthropist at the present time, how that spirit may be at once best ministered to and best directed. "With regard to ourselves, it seems evident that the existing machinery of our Society is inadequate to these fresh demands. As long as the principal business of the Society was confined to the supplying actual subscribers with the books and tracts required by them, a depôt at the house of one of the members might be sufficient for the purpose; but when we come to reflect that we are in the centre of a population of half a million, several thousands of whom, it is no exaggeration to say, are looking out for religious instruction and guidance, and are willing to accept assistance at our hands, it is clear that greater facilities ought to be afforded, and a more satisfactory arrangement for the supply of books and tracts ought to be made, than can possibly exist with a private depository. "The Committee have turned their anxious attention to this subject; and mindful of the caution with which any changes should be introduced into the working of the Society, without the full knowledge and approbation of those who have for upwards of thirty years sustained its interests, they venture only to propose, for the present, the following commencement of an tended plan, which can be pursued at a subsequent period if found to hold out promise of good. ex "In the first place they would suggest the gradual formation of a new Series of Tracts, to be called ' The WestRiding Series of People's Christian Tracts.' The Committee have for some time been convinced of the necessity for some such step as this. Some of the most useful and popular tracts in our catalogue are published by the American Unitarian Association, but at such prices as, with the additional charges of freight and booksellers' commission in this country, to render them too expensive for extended circulation. Tracts, for instance, for which this Society has been giving 50s. per hundred, may be printed and obtained in this country for 6s. per hundred. This is shewn by the practical reply which the Committee of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association have given to the request forwarded to them from the last meeting of this Society, as they are now prepared to offer several tracts, by the aid of Mr. Barker's Press, at prices reduced to a sixth or eighth of the sum which they previously cost. Per 100.-s. d. Questions to Trinitarians Tyrwhit on the Creation of all 1 6 3 3 3 0 6 0 6 0 60 6 0 "These tracts, or most of them, your Committee recommend to be adopted into the New Series; and to these they would gradually add others, either to be hereafter printed by themselves, or to be obtained from other sources. They feel anxious that this Society should avail itself of the increasing knowledge which it now receives of the wants and wishes of the people in its vicinity, and be prepared to meet them. For this purpose it is not intended by any means to confine the Series to works of a controversial character. It is proposed to introduce a large proportion of moral, didactic, strictly devotional, and also, as opportunity may offer, a good deal of narrative matter, such as the Christian Tracts supply, or of a kind still more suited to the every-day topics and interests of a manufacturing district. For the preparation of such tracts they have pre-eminent facility in the peculiar talents of the minister to the poor at Holbeck, which they are sure would gladly be devoted, as they already have been most successfully, to such a purpose. "In the second place, it is recom mended that a depository in a regular bookseller's shop be obtained in a central situation in Leeds, and if possible a like accommodation in other places, where tracts should be always on sale. A respectable bookseller in Leeds has signified his willingness to undertake this duty; and if the plan should answer, your Committee may be encouraged at a future meeting to propose its extension to other and larger works; so that the complaint which has so long been made, that there is no bookseller's shop in the Riding where a stock is kept of those publications which are peculiarly wanted by us as a religious denomination may be removed. "It is obvious, however, that for the carrying out of these objects, even on a limited scale, increased means will be necessary, especially as at present the Society is considerably in debt. An effort to place the funds on a satisfactory footing would have to be made this year at all events, and that not by recourse to any unusual proceeding, or by any additional pressure on the present subscribers. It has always been usual to have collections at our chapels from time to time-in some places even from year to year-in aid of this Society. For some years this custom has been omitted: the last collection for the Society was made at Leeds several years ago. It is hoped that this meeting will pledge itself to hold collections in each congregation during the ensuing summer or autumn, and that the local Treasurers will make an effort to place upon the list of subscribers many names now absent from it, which the mere mention of the subject would be sufficient to place there: thus in the course of a few months the Society may be put out of its difficulties, and into the possession of funds at least sufficient for present purposes. "Owing to the absence of the Treasurer, who is in America, your Committee are not able to lay before you any financial statement; but they have only too good reason to believe that if those accounts were presented to you, they would exhibit a very considerable balance against the Society. The Committee feel no call to apologize for, or even to regret this deficiency, because it is an indication that the Society has been active to the full extent of its funds; for there can be no condition more condemnatory to a society of the present kind than the possession of a large number of tracts undistributed, and a large balance of money unspent. "For the better carrying out of the above objects, your Committee recommend the formation, for the next year, of a larger Committee than that to which the affairs of the Society are at present practically entrusted. With this view, a resolution will be submitted, constituting all the Secretaries and Treasurers into a General Committee. "Something under 500 books and tracts have been distributed to subscribers, about 1400 given away in grants, and about 100 sold; making a total of 2000 books and tracts. But this small number would convey a faint idea of the real influence exercised upon public opinion by agencies of a similar kind. Many of these 2000 tracts are, in fact, large and expensive volumes placed in libraries for the permanent use and improvement of populous neighbourhoods, and the number of small leaves circulated by friendshaving many principles and objects in common with this Society, as the Messrs. Barker, the Domestic Mission Societies, and Mr. Mill-would swell the number probably to something like 20,000. "Your Committee would beg to congratulate you on the establishment of a congregation at Huddersfield, under the pastoral charge of the Rev. George Heap. It has long been felt that, in so large a town as Huddersfield, some means of public worship and religious instruction should be provided for those who could not conscientiously unite with existing societies of Christians. For this purpose, but with feelings of perfect charity and respect for all other denominations, the friends at Huddersfield have assembled themselves for their own spiritual good, and for that of such as may be like-minded with themselves and feel the same necessity; and we are happy to say that many of these have joined the Tract Society. "They would further congratulate you on the settlement of the Rev. Edward Higginson at Wakefield, whose zeal and energy they doubt not will be the means of reviving interest in the Tract Society at that place, and greatly promote its general prosperity and efficiency. "They are much gratified to learn that the Rev. John Owen has accepted the invitation of the congregation at Lydgate; and that the chapel at Selby is once more opened for worship, under the pastoral care of the Rev. G. Hoade; and they trust that this is not the only |