having the same general object in view, but less definite in. their character, had existed here and there, especially in the neighborhood of some of our Colleges and Literary Institutions, but it was now seen that something more comprehensive and efficient was necessary, and the American Society was accordingly formed with a view to meet the exigency.

The first reception of beneficiaries was in March, 1816. The Society was incorporated the 4th of December following. Since this time it has been its purpose to suffer no young man worthy and desirous of its patronage, and willing to receive it according to its rules, to fail of an education through want of pecuniary means.

The plan of the Society as to the conditions on which the beneficiaries have been allowed to receive its assistance has undergone some changes in the progress of experience, till. now it is believed to be as nearly perfect as, considering the nature of the case, it probably ever will be. Its first plan was to furnish money to beneficiaries. without any obligation to refund it either in whole or in part. In 1820 it required an obligation to refund one half the amount received; and since 1826 it has required an obligation to refund the whole and that with interest after a suitable time in which to pay it subsequent to the completion of the beneficiary's education, and his entrance on the active duties of his profession.

It 1826 it was found necessary to secure the whole services of some one to the interests of the Society, and the Rev. Elias Cornelius was elected its permanent Secretary and General Agent. The whole number of beneficiaries assisted by the Society up to that time was 541 and the total receipts $121,769.

In 1827 the Presbyterian Education Society became connected with the American Education Society, and two general agencies were established, one at Cincinnati, Ohio, and the other at Hudson in the same state.

In 1828 the compass of the Society's patronage which had hitherto been confined to beneficiaries in the Academic and Collegiate course only, was extended so as to accommodate the necessities of students alike in all the several stages of education, from the commencement to the close of their studies.

The number of new applicants for the year ending May 1832, was 222, of which 127 were in the first stage of study. The whole number assisted by the Society for the same year was 673.

The receipts of the Society for the year ending May, 1832, were $41,927, 50, and the expenditure $41,362, 56, which, with the then existing debts of the Society, left it in arrears $3,588, 05.

In May, 1831, the relation of the Presbyterian Branch to the Parent Society became so modified as to have the pecuniary concerns of the latter within the bounds of the former, committed to its care; it being provided that 'it should adopt the rules of the American Society, and make report of its proceedings to it accordingly.

The officers of the Society, are a President, a Vice President, 16 Honorary Vice Presidents, 11 Directors, a Secretary, a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and an Auditor. At the last annual meeting the Hon. Samuel Hubbard, LL. D., was elected President, William Bartlett, Esq. Vice President, the Rev. William Cogswell, Secretary, Mr. Bela B. Edwards, Recording Secretary, Hardy Ropes, Esq., Treasurer, and the Hon. Pliny Cutler, Auditor.

Of the Presbyterian Education Society, Arthur Tappan, Esq. was elected President, the Rev. William Patten, Corresponding Secretary, the Rev. John J. Owen, Assistant Secretary and Agent, Horace Holden, Esq., Recording Secretary, and Oliver Wilcox, Esq., Treasurer.

There are Branch Societies in various parts of the country. The Society is wholly catholic in its principles; bestowing patronage on all of evangelical sentiments, who in accordance with its rules, and with suitable qualifications apply for assistance.

As a system of means to furnish pastors for the Church and Missionaries for the heathen, that of Education Societies is nearly peculiar to this country.

There are other Education Societies which exist as denominational societies, whose object is to educate those young men only who are of the denomination to which the society belongs whose patronage they receive; but the American Education Society patronizes young men without regard to the denomination to which they belong, provided only it be a denomination of evangelical sentiment.

The Northern Baptist Education Society had under its care the last year (1832) 129 beneficiaries. In New England there are 300 young men of the Baptist denomination, pursuing an education for the ministry. The Rev. Ebenezer

*28

Thresher, is Secretary of the Society, and John B. Jones,
Esq. Treasurer.

The Board of Education of the General Assembly was organized by the General Assembly in 1819, and had under its care the last year (1832) 259 young men. There were added to its number the last year 170 beneficiaries. The amount of appropriations during the year was $13,000. The Rev. John Breckenridge is Secretary, and John Stille, Esq., Treasurer.

Other Education Societies as the "National Education Society of England," and the "British and Foreign School Society" are Societies of great usefulness, but are not strictly and exclusively religious, and are therefore different from the American Education Society, whose object is simply to educate young men for the Christian ministry.

(a.) In a sermon preached by the Rev. Ebenezer Porter, D. D. before the American Education Society in 1820, the following ways are pointed out by him, in which a sufficiency of funds may be raised for that Institution. "The practicability of this, (that is, of raising needful funds) may be demonstrated from the tax we pay to a single vice; though we do not expect from any vice a voluntary contribution to the Lord's treasury. No sober man, probably, will doubt, that nine tenths of the expense for ardent spirits in this country, is worse than wasted. But give us only one half of the expense for two years, and we have a permanent fund forever, with an annual income of two millions of dollars! Yes, give this small proportion of what it costs to fill our streets with drones and vagrants, our prisons with culprits, our hospitals with lunatics and beggars, and we have four times more than we need.

"Let conscience enrol the, Christian families of the land, and lay its assessments on those luxuries of the table, dress, furniture, and equipage, the retrenchment of which would be cheerfully made for any great temporal object, and the sum is raised another way. One tenth part of the sacrifices to which the fathers of this town, (Boston) and of other towns to a great extent, submitted with prompt alacrity, in days when the stamp tax, and the tea tax, and the Boston Port Bill called for the spontaneous resistance of free men; would fill the treasury of Christ to overflowing. Surely, brethren, Christian benevolence ought to be as operative a principle as patriotism. And yet I fear, that very few, even among those who bear the Saviour's name, have denied themselves or have regarded it as a serious duty to deny themselves a single personal comfort for the promotion of a cause to which their undivided affection, and energies, and resources ought to be supremely devoted.

In some instances, mechanics have set apart the avails of a half day's labor of one person in every month as an offering to Christ. But let all this highly important class of our citizens devote one hour

a month to the same purpose, and this alone would be an ample provision for the object before us.

Among Christian farmers, the practice is recently begun of consccrating some portion of a field, to be cultivated for the purposes of religious charity. Others have made a similar consecration from their flocks. Now, if all the farmers of the land would annually dedicate a lamb, or the product derived from one quarter of an acre of his ground, to Him who blesses or blasts the labors of men; and who could sweep away the hopes of a year by one hail-storm or inundation; it would furnish, without aid from any other source, an income, double in amount to the sum contemplated.

"Two hundred thousand persons, perhaps, in this country, may be supposed to unite in prayer for Zion's prosperity on the first Monday of each month. What can be more reasonable than that every one should carry to this hallowed season of devotion, something for the treasury of the church? Let it be an offering which on the deathbed, conscience will certainly say is not excessive. Let it be one dollar or one cent, as the "Lord hath prospered him ;" and the revenue would unquestionably surpass that which all our great charitable societies have hitherto received. This is a fifth way in which the claims that we advance might be answered without the least imaginable inconvenience to any one.

"In many towns young men have associated with an honorable zeal to promote this object. In the United States, others of this age, to the number of one million, might do the same thing. But let only half of these young men come forward, annually, and give, I do not say the amount of what they are accustomed to spend during the year on objects of no value; but what they are accustomed to spend on one hour's amusement, and we need no other charity: the thing is accomplished in a sixth way.

66

Among the four and a half millions of females of different ages which our population may be supposed to contain, two millions might aid this object to a small amount. Let each of these, by a little increase of economy or industry, or by retrenching some trivial article of food or dress, give twenty-five cents annually, and the thing is done in a seventh way.

"An eighth resource is large benefactions of the wealthy. Fifty individuals, doubtless, tight be found, who could with perfect ease establish thirty scholarships each. One hundred others, probably, might with equal ease, establish ten each, five hundred others two each; and one thousand others, one each.

"Two thousand scholarships more might be established by associ ations of different persons. These scholarships would furnish 19,500, preachers in the twenty years; and the residue might be readily farnished by minor collections.

"As the millennium approaches, other Thorntons will arise, and secure an immortality in two worlds, when they are dead, by rescuing from obscurity other Buchanans to shine in the holy ministry.

A ninth resource is one that cannot fail. We have about four thousand Christian churches, which, on an average, might carry forward each, one student. This would go far towards furnishing the proposed supply, estimating each church to consist of one hundred members, paying one dollar each. But how many Christians are there, who could give without the smallest inconvenience, fifty or one hundred, or five hundred dollars annually, to excuse the aged and sick, and to cover the remaining exigency.

"Here we must be allowed to hope, is a permanent, unfailing ground of reliance. Many others may refuse, but they who are united in the sacred bonds of the church cannot, must not stand back in this cause. Nay, when they understand the subject, they will not. I know one church, which I am informed, supported the last year six charity students, while its pastor supported a seventh. I know other churches, following hard after this noble example."

(b.) The following on Popery in the United States in 1833, is extracted from the Connecticut Observer.

:

"The population attached to the Romish church in the valley of the Mississippi, is about 500,000, and they boast of an increase of about 40,000 in that region last year. Between twenty and thirty Jesuits recently arrived in Baltimore from Europe, to go to the Mississippi valley. Twelve more are on their way to enter Michigan. Five Jesuits lately arrived at New York from Antwerp with the same de· sign. But recently five nuns from the convent at Georgetown, took their departure for Mobile, with the intention of establishing in that vicinity, schools for female children and youth. There is in the western states a band or brotherhood of young Catholic priests, who bind themselves by a vow, to spend three years in teaching youth before they shall attempt to enter the ministry; and the members of it are i constantly on the alert in the Western states. Many of their chapels are known to be built in the valley of the Mississippi by money sent from Rome. In Pennsylvania since July, four individuals have been promoted to the priesthood in Massachusetts one or two. During the past year Catholic churches have been completed, or nearly so, in Burlington, Vermont, St. Louis, Mississippi, Washington County, Kentucky, Clearfield and Newry, Pennsylvania, and in the City of New York. On the 30th of September, 100 persons were confirmed in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania; 25 in Clearfield, 52 in Huntingdon, and 16 in Newry, Pennsylvania. On the 29th of August, 26 in Hartford, Connecticut, 22 of whom were converts from Protestantism; 40 in Wilmington, Delaware; 27 in Burlington, Vermont ; in July, and 43 in St. Louis. A few years ago, a few poor Catholic Canadians constituted the entire Catholic population of Burlington, Vermont ; now it is said to exceed one thousand in number, In a section of Missouri, where six years ago, there were but eight Catholics there are now 550. In the college "de Propaganda fide," at Rome, there are several youth of the American Indian tribes, being educated to return as Missionaries among their kindred; and the best scholar in that institution, is a native (white) of Kentucky, who will probably return as a Missionary to his native State. He possesses fine talents. These are but a few of the facts well authenticated which I might mention, did my limits, or a regard to your patience permit."

(H.)

Sabbath School Societies.

The Sabbath School system originated about half a century ago in the benevolence of Robert Raikes, Esq. of.