he showed that there are at least a million of children who
might and who do not receive education; and asked
whether, after forty-five years of labour, we can be
thought to have arrived at a satisfactory conclusion?

The annual meeting of the Protestant Association
was held on the 10th inst., Lord Bernard presiding.
The report showed that the income for the past year
had been £842, the expenditure £826. The Reverend
J. C. Miller, of Birmingham, and the Reverend Hugh
Stowell were the more conspicuous speakers. The
resolutions declared Popery incompatible with conscience,
freedom, and constitutional government; and approved
of the proposed inspection of nunneries.

At the annual dinner of the Merchant Seamen's
Orphan Asylum, Lord John Russell presided on the
10th inst.; and upwards of £1315 was subscribed. The
society supports 120 orphan children.

The fifth annual festival of the British Beneficent
Institution was kept at the London Tavern on the 6th
inst., the Reverend Charles Mackenzie in the chair.
The object of the institution is to afford incomes of £30
a year to the widows and orphan unmarried daughters
of military and naval officers, clergymen, members of
the learned professions, artists, bankers, merchants, and
others. The evening's subscription was £1200.

The Bicentenary Festival of the Sons of the Clergy
took place at St. Paul's on the 10th inst. An assemblage
of from 5,000 to 6,000 persons, all belonging to the
wealthier classes, filled the vast space under the dome
and a large portion of the central nave. The choirs of
the Chapel Royal, of Westminster Abbey, of St.
George's, Windsor, of Bristol, Canterbury, Chester,
Ely, Hereford, Lincoln, Norwich, Rochester, and
Winchester Cathedrals, of the Temple, and other churches,
assisted. Prince Albert, the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and
Aldermen, the civic authorities of other cities and towns,
were present. An anthem, composed for the occasion
by Mr. Goss, the organist of St. Paul's, was performed
after the first lesson, and is a fine example of sacred
music. The sermon was preached by the Archbishop
of Canterbury. The collection at the cathedral amounted
to the large sum of £690. The funds of the corporation
are administered impartially to claimants from all the
dioceses of England and Wales, and annually assist
about 1200 persons, of whom 700 are widows and aged
single daughters of deceased clergymen. The sick and
disabled clergy and their families, in cases of urgent
distress, are also relieved; and a third object is, to
educate and place out in life the children of poor clergymen.
The first festival was held in St. Paul's Cathedral
in 1655, 200 years ago. In the evening a dinner took
place in the hall of the Merchant Taylors' Company.
Upwards of 450 noblemen, prelates, divines, and laymen
sat down to table. The Lord Mayor presided, and
Prince Albert was present. On the health of his Royal
Highness being drunk, he said: "I am highly gratified
to have been a witness to the 200th anniversary of this
festival, testifying, as it does, that the people of this
country do not relax in efforts which they have once
undertaken, and do not forsake the spirit which
animated their forefathers. When our ancestors
purified the christian faith and shook off the yoke
of a domineering priesthood, they felt that the
keystone of that wonderful fabric which had grown up during
the dark times of the middle ages was the celibacy of the
clergy; and shrewdly foresaw that their reformed faith
and newly-won religious liberty would, on the
contrary, only be secure in the hands of a clergy united with
the people with every sympathy—national, personal,
and domestic. Gentlemen, this nation has enjoyed for
three hundred years the blessings of a church establishment
which rests upon this basis, and cannot be too
grateful fur the advantages afforded by the fact that the
christian ministers not only preach the doctrines of
Christianity, but live among their congregations, an
example for the discharge of every christian duty as
husbands, fathers, and masters of families—themselves
capable of fathoming the whole depth of human feelings,
desires, and difficulties. While we must gratefully
acknowledge that they have, as a body, worthily
fulfilled this nigh and difficult task, we must hear in mind
that we deny them an equal participation in one of the
actuating motives of life—the one which among the
'children of this generation' exercises, perhaps of
necessity, the strongest influence—I mean the desire for
the acquisition and accumulation of the goods of this
world. Gentlemen, the appellation of 'a money-making
parson' is not only a reproach, but a condemnation for
a clergyman, depriving him at once of all influence over
his congregation. Yet this man, who has to shun
opportunities for acquiring wealth open to most of us,
and who has himself only an often scanty life-income
allotted to him for his services, has a wife and children
like ourselves, and we wish him to have the same
solicitude for their welfare which we feel for our own. Are
we not bound, then, to do what we can to relieve his mind
from anxiety, and to preserve his children from destitution
when it shall have pleased the Almighty to remove
him from the scene of his labours? You have given an
answer in the affirmative by your presence here to-day,
and although this institution can do materially but little,
morally it gives a public recognition of the claims which
the sons of the clergy have upon the sympathy and
liberality of the community at large, and, as such, is of
the greatest value. May it continue for further
hundreds of years as a bond of union between clergy
and laity, and on each recurring centenary may it find
the nation ever advancing in prosperity, civilisation,
and piety!" This address was loudly cheered during
its delivery and at its conclusion. Amongst those who
addressed the assembly were the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the Bishop of London. The latter eulogized
the terms in which Prince Albert had expressed himself
with reference to the claims of the poorer clergy, and
expressed a hope that the present festival indicated
the rejuvenescence of the charity which they had met
to support. Whatever difficulties the war in which the
nation was now involved might entail, he hoped that
the duty of christian charity would be the last which
the people would surrender, and especially that form of
it which was directed to supply the necessity of those
who were the ministers of the gospel of peace. The
Treasurer then read the financial report, which
announced that his Royal Highness had contributed 100
guineas, that the 113 stewards of the festival had handed
in lists amounting to £3,500, that the collection at the
cathedral doors was £690, that the subscriptions at the
dinner gave a sum of £3,115, that an estimated sum of
£3,600, might be added as the proceeds of sermons
preached in aid of the funds, that the Dowager Lady
Willoughby de Broke had given a donation of £500,
and that the receipts for the year would amount to
£12,050. This gratifying statement was received with
loud cheers by the company.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE.

THE Madiai—the husband and wife whose
persecution in Italy has made so strong a sensation—have
now received a provision for life. The committee
entrusted with the care of the fund for their benefit have
recently purchased an annuity of £63 5s. at the National
Debt Office, for which they paid £1,078 1s. 6d. This is
augmented by a sum of £40 in foreign annuities,
making their yearly receipts from christian benevolence
upwards of £100. It is supposed that there are several
sums not yet brought in from the collectors, which,
together with a slight balance in their favour in the hands
of the treasurer, will be carried to their account. They
are fast recruiting their strength, and intend leaving
Nice for some locality more congenial to their constitutions
—probably Switzerland.

The Bal Costumé given by the French Ambassador,
Count Walewski, at his mansion at Albert Gate, on the
12th inst., was remarkable not only for its extraordinary
splendour, but its political significance. When the
Queen and Prince Albert arrived at ten o'clock, they
found the house brilliantly illuminated, their own
initials and that of the Emperor of the French conspicuous
in the blaze; and they alighted under a spacious
awning, on a carpeted path. Count Walewski stood to
receive them almost at the carriage-door; and, leaning
on the Ambassador's arm, preceded by the secretaries of
the Embassy, the Queen entered the house. Passing
through the vestibule into the hall, the Queen found