before deciding, to obtain satisfactory evidence that the facts truly stand as represented to them, and that a certificate is nimiously withheld. But to deal judicially with a minister holding office in another church, for his admission among them, while he has never communicated his intentions to his own presbytery, and they know not in what position he may stand, is, we think, inconsistent with the duty and respect which one church owes to another. It is true, the Free Church presbytery, at its first meeting, referred Mr Spence to his presbytery; but, previously to doing this, they had travelled in his application as far as they could go, by examining him in court, and before a committee, as to his course of study, and other qualifications; and they only required him to lay his demission before the Secession presbytery, as a mere matter of form, proper to be attended to before the final act for his admission among them was passed.

In the next place, we find it difficult to divest the resolution of the 19th June of the appearance of discourtesy. When informed by Mr Spence that the Secession presbytery had refused him his certificate, and had, on the contrary, suspended him, they very properly appointed a committee to meet with the presbytery and obtain explanations; but in doing so, and while professing to respect the authority and discipline of the Secession, they very inconsistently, we think, introduced a finding, and came to a resolution, which took away all the credit from these professions. They found that "it would be quite warrantable to proceed forthwith to the admission ;" and in effect formally resolved that they would admit, by fixing the next ordinary meeting for the purpose; thus saying, almost in so many words, that whatever explanations they might receive, they would disregard the suspension. Instead of this, their finding ought to have been that they could not, without disrespect to the authority and discipline of the Secession, proceed to adinit Mr Spence, and that further consideration of his application must be delayed till they communicated with the presbytery.

Then, again, the proceedings of the committee were not at all such as we would have expected. It was not surely obtaining explanations to come to the presbytery, make a statement, and then run away. Instead of inviting explanations with a view to remove difficulties, such conduct seemed to say that no explanations were wanted, that the Free Church had resolved to receive Mr Spence, that no circumstances would change this resolution, and that all they had to say was, they meant no disrespect.

Lastly, In the resolutions passed when Mr Spence was finally received, the Free Church Presbytery, in the language of the mover, professed to act "independently, on their own views and feelings, without being influenced by any decision of the Secession Presbytery," yet they pronounced a judgment on these proceedings, finding that they did not affect Mr Spence's personal character or doctrinal soundness; and gave, as one of the elements in their reception of him, that he had sufficiently apologized to the presbytery for his disorderly conduct, without any evidence before them but his own statement, that he had apologized at all.

In the whole proceedings, while there has been no want of professions of respect for the authority and discipline of the Secession, and of a

desire to cultivate a good understanding, there has, we think, been a great want of corresponding conduct. Had there been the slightest reason to suppose that the Secession Presbytery wished needlessly to throw obstacles in the way of Mr Spence's reception into the Free Church, and had subjected him to discipline merely because he had applied to that body, they would have acted rightly in disregarding the sentence; but when the presbytery was vindicating its own character, and the character of the church at large, against his reckless and calumnious charges, and reproving conduct of a very irregular description, we think we were entitled to expect that different conduct from that of hastily welcoming a fugitive from the discipline of his church.

In connexion with the above we have learned that, in consequence of the proceedings, and the feelings they have pretty generally produced, the Synod's committee, appointed for the purpose of conference with the Free Church in regard to planting of churches, &c., have held meetings with a committee of the Free Church, and that the following resolutions have been agreed to, with the view of preventing the recurrence of such awkward collisions in time to come:

Resolutions agreed upon at a Conference between a committee of the United Secession Synod, and a committee of the Free Church, appointed by their respective churches for mutual co-operation, held at Edinburgh, the 19th and 22d July 1844, in consequence of the apparent collision between the Presbyteries in Dundee of the Free Church and Secession Church, in reference to the case of the Rev. Samuel Spence.

I. That it would be inexpedient for this meeting to pronounce any opinion in reference to the proceedings of either presbytery in the case in question, farther than to express their regret that matters should have been so conducted as to produce unpleasant feelings on either side.

II. That while it is neither the desire nor the interest of either church to encourage the passing of individuals from the one body to the other, but rather the reverse, it is equally their desire that no obstructions should be placed in the way of such parties as may feel themselves called by conscientious motives to do so.

III. That it is extremely desirable that some general regulations were made in reference to the admission of both ministers and members of the one body into the other; and the ministers and elders present agree to suggest, as fitted to prevent the appearance of collision, the adoption of rules to the following effect:

1. That applications by ministers or members of one church for admission into the other should not be received, unless accompanied by a certificate from the presbytery or session with which the applicant is or was connected, disjoining him therefrom; except in the case provided for in the following rule.

2. That in case such certificate, when applied for, shall be refused, while the mere fact of refusal shall not be held sufficient to bar the presbytery or session to which the application is made from taking up the same, they should, ante omnia, and before giving any deliverance thereon, apply, by conference if practicable, or at least by correspondence, to the presbytery or session so refusing, for an explanation of the circumstances under which the refusal had taken palce.

3. That having obtained such explanation, it shall then be competent to the presbytery or session, after due deliberation, to decide in the application as they shall see right.

4. That while the preceding regulation is necessary, in consequence of the separate and independent jurisdiction of the two churches, it is of the utmost importance that a spirit of kindness and brotherly confidence should be cherished, and that, in all ordinary cases, the presbyteries or sessions of the one church should so act towards those of the other, as they would have done towards courts in their own connexion. HENRY GREY, Chairman. JOHN BROWN, Chairman. JA. PEDDIE, Clerk,

(Signed)

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.-FOREIGN.

SURVEY OF MISSIONS.-India.-This vast continent is computed to have a population of from 120 to 127 millions; of whom eighty-four millions are British subjects, and the remainder are allied or tributary states. Missionaries have entire protection, and the most unrestricted freedom in their endeavours to diffuse the knowledge of Christianity within the whole of the British territory, and also in some of the protected states. Yet the difficulties they have to encounter are both numerous and trying. The climate is not favourable to the health of Europeans; and although some missionaries have, amid the most abundant labours in it, retained both health and vigour to a very advanced life, yet to a large extent the missionaries who have been sent to it have been compelled, after their work was only commenced, or very shortly advanced, to seek the restoration of their faded health and impaired constitutions in some more salubrious climate; and very many of them have sunk into an early but honourable grave. The diversity of languages spoken throughout the different provinces of India, is another formidable difficulty which the missionary has to encounter. No fewer than about thirty different languages are enumerated as being vernacular among the various tribes of its vast population. The nature of the prevalent religions, however, is the greatest hindrance to the spread of Christianity among them. The Mohammedan faith, established widely in the country by conquest at a very early period, still retains considerable sway; and with its characteristic bigotry, it offers there, as in other countries, a proud and obstinate resistance to all the arguments and expostulations of the missionary. The Hindu religion, which obtains by far most extensively, is not less obstinate in its hold of the mind. It has interwoven itself with the whole framework of society; distributing the population into different castes, or orders, which they regard, not as different classes of the same human family, but as different species of human beings, having a distinct origin, and a correspondent distinction of privileges, civil and religious. Originally there were only four castes; now by subdivision they amount to about 100. And although the humbler castes have nothing to lose by embracing Christianity, and have, therefore, been most accessible to missionary influence; yet as the higher castes are served and honoured, and in some instances even worshipped by the lower, all the influence of the former is employed in holding fast the latter under their melancholy delusions; while the higher castes themselves have all the pride of their present existence, as well as their hopes of the imaginary immortality for which they look, bound up in a rigid adherence to their own creed; so that the defection of a Brahman from his native religion is regarded by the whole circle of his connexions as a family calamity, in comparison of which the death of the convert would have been no affliction.

As ignorance is "the mother of all false devotion," and the degraded condition of the female part especially of the Hindu population is greatly caused by the state of ignorance in which they are held, the spread of moral and Christian EDUCATION Occupies a very large place in the attention of all missionaries, and as largely promoted by societies instituted for this express object. The "Eastern Female Education Society" has at seven different stations schools in active operation under female teachers, and with growing success. One of their correspondents writes, "Our village day-schools number twenty-eight, containing about 700 scholars." Another society in Calcutta for native female education has five schools, containing in the aggregate 350 pupils. Some specimens may be given of the amount of attention bestowed by missionaries upon the education of youth.

NO. VIII. VOL. I.

3 F

In connexion with the Calcutta Mission of the Baptist Missionary Society there are fifteen schools, which contain, according to the latest accounts, about 1050 scholars. The Church of England Missionary Society reports for all its Indian Missions 235 schools, 9234 scholars, of whom only 1422 are females. The German Missionary Society, with eight stations or out-stations, has 1172 day scholars.

The following summary will give some outline of the number of missionary societies engaged in this vast field, and of the extent to which it is occupied by them. The numbers as to stations (S.) and missionaries (M.) will be found nearly accurate: only there are, in addition, in several instances, various out-stations, regularly visited by the missionaries, or served by their assistants; there are also, beside the missionaries mentioned, some who are designated assistant missionaries, and a considerable number of native preachers. The Church of England Missionary Society has 38 S., 47 M. The Gospel Propagation Society, 26 S., 34 M. The London Missionary Society, 20 S., 46 M. The Baptist Missionary Society, 20 S., 28 M. The Wesleyan Missionary Society, 8 S., 10 M. The General Baptist Missionary Society 7 S., 4 M. The Welsh Foreign Mission, 1 S., 1 M. The Irish Presbyterian Mission, 1 S., 1 M. The German Missionary Society, 6 S., 20 M. The American Board 13 S., 16 M. The American Presbyterian Mission, 5 S., 17 M. The American Baptist Mission, 1 S., 2 M. In consequence of all the missionaries formerly connected with the Church of Scotland having joined the Free Church of Scotland, the state of the missions which were under their superintendence cannot at present be given. The whole stations which we have just reported as occupied in India, by these various British, German, and American Missionary Societies, amount to 146, and the number of their missionaries to 225. How small this number of labourers for so immense a population! The statements given by these societies in relation to encouragement and appearances of success, in the labours of their missionaries, are of course chequered; hopeful appearances followed by discouragement; and discouragements in one case relieved by cheering prospects in another. The district of Tinnevelly in Southern India, has long been a very promising field of labour with the missionaries of the Church of England Missionary Society, which began first to yield its fruits under the labours of the late excellent Mr Rhenius and his coadjutors, and has still continued to exhibit somewhat of the same encouraging symptoms. During last year, the number of villages from which applications for christian instruction have been made, is 315; the number of baptisms, 1221; the communicants have also been increased above 200 in number. In this district of Krishnaghur, north of Calcutta, a remarkable awakening took place four years ago, under the same society, "which has not been extended during last year," they remark, "according to the sanguine expectations which some may have formed; and many inquirers have since drawn back. The entire number baptized there may be computed at least at 3000; of which number 660 have been added during the last year." In India the ministrations of the missionaries of various societies have been much blessed to the British residents and soldiers ; who, in that land of heathenism, were made to appreciate privileges which they little valued, in the great abundance of them, in their native country. The London Missionary Society reports, in reference to their missionary in Chinsurah, twenty-two miles north of Calcutta Qur brother has been cheered, in the absence of apparent success, among the native community, by marked and repeated instances of conversion among the European soldiers. From several of them, and especially from some who fell during the late dreadful campaign in Affghanistan, he has received the most gratifying letters, indicative of his usefulness under the blessing of Christ, and of the progress these converts had made, in divine knowledge, faith, and zeal." A very special object of attention on the part of

all these missionary societies, is to raise up a native agency, imbued with the knowledge and the spirit of the gospel, who will be better fitted both for appealing to the understanding and the hearts of their countrymen in their vernacular tongue, and also for enduring the fatigues and privations of the missionary in a climate so hazardous to foreigners.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.-DOMESTIC.

UNITED SECESSION CHURCH.

OBITUARY.

Seldom, we believe, has an event of the kind produced a deeper impression on the churches of our body, than the unexpected death of our beloved and honoured brother, the Rev. Dr BALMER, which took place at his house, Golden Square, Berwick, on Monday, the 1st ult. The state of Dr Balmer's health, though somewhat impaired after the late meeting of Synod, was not such as to cause any alarm till a few days before his departure. Disease of a violent character on a sudden manifested itself, and carried him off after a few days of severe suffering. Prepared for the change, death to him was no surprise. His deportment during his illness was such as to afford a high and noble testimony to the value of the gospel as a source of peace and hope. Amidst agonising pains his mind remained not only calm but cheerful. The directions he gave on various matters showed the full possession of his faculties, which he retained to the last; and the serenity and pleasantness with which he anticipated dissolution, rendered the scene of his death-bed both triumphant and happy. In Dr Balmer's character high intelligence and enlightened piety were combined in a degree rarely exemplified even among the wise and good. Hence the tranquillity of his death, and the value of his pious example. We forbear attempting either a memoir or a sketch of Dr Balmer. This duty is already in the hands of one, of all others the best qualified to appreciate his varied excellencies. It is, we are happy to understand, the intention of Dr Brown to give to the public the discourses which he preached on occasion of the death of Dr Balmer, containing an account of his life, and a delineation of his character,-a duty which must have been in no common degree trying, and yet gratifying, to the feelings of one, between whom and Dr Balmer there subsisted for upwards of thirty years all the cordiality and warmth of the most confiding christian friendship. If the publication appear in time, we purpose to favour our readers with the memoir in our September number.

Died at Glasgow on the 26th April, of consumption, aged twenty-nine years, GEORGE MARTIN, A.M., sometime a divinity student of the United Secession Church. Born at Lanark, but latterly resident at Glasgow, he entered that university at the age of sixteen; and there prosecuted his studies with an assiduity which gradually wasted, and at length totally undermined, a constitution naturally strong. The exercises of the logic class first impaired his voice, exhausting him so much that he withdrew from college for two years. When he did return, an impatience of imperfection in his acquirements, highly respectable as they were, and an ardent thirst for general knowledge, induced him to attend extra classes, in consequence of which, and of his arduous preparations in prospect of a degree, his health entirely failed, session 1840-1. Henceforward, rest and recovery on the one hand, studyand relapse on the other, came almost as regularly as summer and winter In December 1842, he caught a fever from which he never perfectly recovered, its dregs becoming the consumption of