Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

which may appear to them calculated to assist the beneficent efforts of the ladies in Ireland; and to use means to procure subscriptions and donations, as well as to encourage the formation of local associations in Great Britain, in aid of the funds of the society.

"5. The funds so obtained shall, after deducting incidental expenses, be employed at the discretion of the committee, in furthering the object of the society, by the circulation of useful information; by occasional co-operation with the county associations in Ireland, in affording the necessary materials of work, both for domestic purposes and for simple and easy manufac tures; by encouraging the cleansing and white-washing the habitations of the poor, and by supplying means for distributing presents among such as may distinguish themselves by the clean, orderly, and decent appearance of their children.

"6. The assistance rendered by this society to the associations in Ireland, shall, as far as possible, be suited to the wants and situation of the different districts, and be placed at the disposal of the county committees for distribution; and the correspondence of the society shall be confined to such county committees, as far as circumstances admit.

"7. The committee shall be authorized to add to the number of vice-patronesses; to fill up annually such vacancies as may occur in the committee; to replace the treasurer and secretaries as occasion may require; to employ such subordinate officers as may be found necessary; and to prepare before the meeting in June, an annual report of their proceedings, and a statement of the receipts and expenditure of the society, which shall be printed for the general information of the members.

"4th Resolution.-That the ladies resident in Ireland shall be solicited to assist in carrying the design of this society into effect, by forming county and district associations, whose objects shall be

"1. To visit the families of the poor, and obtain a knowledge of their situation under certain heads of inquiry *.

"2. To excite to a sense of virtue and piety, to habits of industry, cleanliness, and attention to domestic duty.

"3. To endeavour to procure employment for poor women at their own dwellings.

"4. To visit the sick, and provide temporary assistance in the loan of linen, &c. also to procure medical advice where necessary.

"5. To encourage the poor to send their children to schools.

"6. To promote the industry and improvement of the poor in any other way which local circumstances appear to require.

"5th Resolutior.-That this society, duly appreciating the benevolence of such ladies as have contributed to the general subscription for the relief of the distressed districts in Ireland, solicit their concurrence in support of this institution. Subscriptions from such ladies will not be required till Midsummer, 1823."

[ocr errors]

* The following heads (placed in ruled columns) varying according to local circumstances, are respectfully suggested, as likely to be useful:Name-Residence-Number in family-Employment, and means of subsistence-Children from 6 to 14 years of age-Whether educated or not-Occa sional remarks.

OBITUARY.

161

OBITUARY.

THE REV. JOHN OWEN, M.A.

Late one of the Secretaries of the British and Foreign Bible Society. WE quote the following character of this gentleman from a minute prepared by Lord Teignmouth, and recorded in the Monthly Extracts of Correspondence published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

The President stated, that he had now to discharge the melancholy duty, of reporting to the Committee the death of their Secretary, the Rev. John Owen, which took place on Thursday, the 26th of September, at Ramsgate.

In adverting to the afflicting dispensation, which has deprived the British and Foreign Bible Society of the invaluable services of its late Secretary, the Committee cannot resist the impulse of duty and affection, thus to record their grateful testimony to his zeal and unwearied exertions.

As no one was more deeply impressed with a sense of the great importance of the Institution to the best interests of mankind, no one laboured more strenuously and effectually to promote its influence and prosperity. To this object, which was ever near to his heart, his time, his talents, and his personal labours, were unremittingly devoted. The correspondence which his official situation imposed on him, was alone sufficient to occupy the time which he could spare from his professional duties; but the energies of a superior mind enabled him to extend his care and attention to every branch of the multifarious concerns of the Society, and to accomplish more than could have been expected from individual efforts. His pen and his voice were incessantly employed in its cause. The former was frequently and vigorously exercised in elucidating the principles of the Institution, or in defending its character and conduct against misrepresentation or aggression. To his pen the world is indebted for a luminous and authentic History of the Origin of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and of its progress during the first fifteen years of its existence; in which the characters of truth and impartiality are throughout conspicuous: while his eloquence, so often and successfully displayed in advocating the cause of the Institution, impressed on his audiences that conviction of its utility, which he himself so strongly felt, and which the progressive experience of eighteen years has now so amply confirmed.

But his eloquence was entitled to a higher praise: it was the effusion of a heart in which candour and liberality ever predominated: it was characterised by that suavity of disposition, which had endeared him to the affectionate esteem, not only of his colleagues and the Committee, but of all who were in any way associated with him in transacting the busi ness of the Society; while his great and diversified talents commanded general respect and admiration, and never failed to produce in public meetings

VOL. II. NO. III.

M

meetings an harmonious feeling of mutual regard among all who had the privilege of attending them.

In the year 1818, Mr. Owen, at the suggestion of the Committee, undertook a journey to the Continent, principally with a view to the recovery of his health, which had materially suffered in the cause of the Institution; but also, for the purpose of visiting the Bible Societies in France and Switzerland.

Of his conduct during this excursion, it is sufficient to say, that it tended to raise the reputation of the Institution of which he was the representative, and to cement that happy union which had so long subsisted between the British and Foreign Bible Society and its Continental associates; and that his advice and experience were eminently useful, in forming arrangements for the establishment of new Societies, or, for rendering those already existing more active and efficient.

The Committee, while they deeply lament, individually and collectively, the loss which the Society has sustained, cannot but devoutly express their gratitude to Almighty God, for having so long granted it the benefit of the zeal and talents of their beloved associate: to the indefatigable exertion of that zeal and those talents, the British and Foreign Bible Society, so far as regards human instrumentality, is essentially indebted for its present prosperous state: while to the same cause must, in great measure, be ascribed that indisposition, which has so fatally terminated.

REV. THOMAS FANSHAW MIDDLETON, D.D. F.R.S. bishop of CALCUTTA.

July 8. At the Presidency of Calcutta, after a short but severe illness, in the 53d year of his age, the Rev. Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, D.D. F.R.S. His lordship was in the full possession of his health on the preceding Tuesday, when he visited the college. On the day of his death, he was considered to have passed the crisis of his disorder, and to be out of danger; at half-past seven he was thought much better than before, but at eight he was seized with a violent paroxysm of fever, and at eleven o'clock he expired, to the great grief of all who had the honour of his acquaintance.

Dr. Middleton was born in Jan. 1769, at Kedleston in Derbyshire, and was the only child of the Rev. Thomas Middleton of that place. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, under the rigid discipline of the Rev. James Bowyer, who has been not inaptly termed the Busby of that establishment. Here he was contemporary with Sir Edward Thornton, our present ambassador to the court of Sweden; the Rev. George Richards, D.D. F.R.S. author of the Aboriginal Britons, and Bampton Lectures; and Mr. Coleridge the poet, from whose fertile pen has issued a just tribute of gratitude to the zeal and ability of their tutor.

From Christ's Hospital he proceeded, upon one of the school exhibitions, to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he took the degrees of B.A. 1792; M.A. 1795; and B. and D.D. in 1808.

In March 1792, after taking the degree of B.A. and being ordained Deacon by the then Bishop of Lincoln (Dr. Pretyman), he entered upon

his clerical duties at Gainsborough. In 1794 he was selected by Dr. John Pretyman, Archdeacon of Lincoln, and brother of the Bishop, to be tutor to his two sons; and it was probably to this circumstar.ce that he was indebted for the future patronage of the Bishop, who presented him, in 1795, to the rectory of Tansor in Northamptonshire, vacant by the promotion of Dr. John Potter to the see of Killala in Ireland. About this time he published a periodical essay without his name, entitled "The Country Spectator."

In 1797, Dr. Middleton married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of John Maddison, esq. of Gainsborough, and of Alvingham in Lincolnshire.

In 1798 he published "The Blessing and the Curse; a Thanksgiving on occasion of Lord Nelson's and other Victories ;" and in 1802 obtained from his former patron the consolidated rectory of Little Bytham, with Castle Bytham annexed, which he held with Tansor by dispen

sation.

In 1808 Dr. Middleton established his reputation as a scholar by the publication of his celebrated "Treatise on the Doctrine of the Greek Article, applied to the Criticism and the Illustration of the New Testament;" and the following year, "Christ divided; a Sermon preached at the Visitation of the Lord Bishop of Lincoln."

In 1810 he began to act as a magistrate for the county of Northampton; but in 1811 resigned his livings in that county, upon being presented, by the same generous patron, to the Vicarage of St. Pancras, Middlesex, and Puttenham, Herts; and shortly after took up his residence at the Vicarage-house, Kentish Town.

In April 1812, he was collated by the Bishop of Lincoln to the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon; and in the autumn of the same year he directed his attention to the deplorable condition of the parish of St Pancras, in which he found a population of upwards of 50,000 persons, with only the ancient very small village church, which could not accommodate a congregation of more than 300. On this occasion he published "An Address to the Parishioners of St. Pancras, Middlesex, on the in-. Dr. Middletended Application to Parliament for a new Church." ton's influence and perseverance caused a bill to be brought into Parliament, for powers to erect a new church; but the bill was lost in the debate upon the second reading.

In 1813, the Rev. C. A. Jacobi, a German divine, having been appointed one of the missionaries to India, Dr. Middleton was requested to deliver, before a special meeting of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, a Charge to the new missionary, previous to his departure.

About this time the friends of the establishment of Christianity in our Eastern dominions, were very active in prevailing upon Government to establish an episcopacy in those vast regions; and Lord Castlereagh, in a debate on the renewal of the East India Company's charter, adverted to the expediency of such an establishment. It was subsequently enacted, that the Company should be chargeable with certain salaries, to be paid to a bishop and three archdeacons, if it should please His Majesty, by his In the autumn of letters patent, to constitute and appoint the same. 1813, Dr. Middleton received an order to wait upon the Earl of Bucking

M 2

hamshire,

hamshire, President of the Board of Controul, by whom he was recommended to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent as the new Bishop of Calcutta. He was consecrated on the 8th of May, 1814, at Lambeth Palace, the Archdeacon of Winchester having preached the consecration sermon. On the 17th of the same month he attended a special meeting of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, to receive their valedictory address, delivered by the Bishop of Chester; on the 19th he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; and on the 8th of June took his departure for Bengal.

Upon his arrival in India, Dr. Middleton was mainly instrumental in founding the Mission College at Calcutta, for the following purposes: 1. For instructing Native and other Christian youth in the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, in order to their becoming preachers, catechists, or school-masters; 2. For teaching the elements of useful knowledge, and the English language, to Mussulmans and Hindoos having no object in such attainments beyond secular advantage; 3. For translating the Scriptures, the Liturgy, and Moral and Religious Tracts; 4. For the reception of English missionaries on their first arrival in India, for the purpose of acquiring the languages.-Towards the erection and endowment of this college, the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and the Society for Missions to Africa and the East, have each contributed 5,0001.

Under any circumstances, the death of such a man as Dr. Middleton would be a great loss to the profession of which he was so distinguished an ornament, and has caused a chasm that will with great difficulty be filled up worthily.

INTELLIGENCE.

1. SCHOOLS.

CHELSEA.-At a public Meeting held in the Moravian Chapel at Chelsea, October 30, 1822; Joseph Butterworth, Esq. in the chair: the Chairman opened the Meeting by calling on Mr. Millar, Secretary of the British and Foreign School Society, to read a brief statement of the plan and object of the Meeting, as proposed by the Committee.

From the Report, it appeared, that there are about 3000 children in Chelsea, of suitable age to attend public schools, exclusive of those whose circumstances place them above the necessity of receiving aid from the benevolent: that in the existing day-schools there is not room for quite 1000; and that although instruction is afforded on Sundays to a large number, yet it is probable the actual number of children who are without any means of education is not less than 1500.

There is a good school for girls in the room where the Meeting was held, in which 170 children receive instruction, which has hitherto been

supported

« AnteriorContinuar »