present time, something that needed the consideration of the Assembly towards their judging where they were, and what progress in truth and in reality they had made. The Reports that had been given in on former occasions, of a kind like that which he was now endeavouring to make, had also invariably shown, when considered and analysed, that there had been no falling away of interest on the part either of ministers or people, but, on the contrary, however inadequate the means provided might have been for the manifold openings of usefulness presented to the Church, there had been a steady and substantial increase. Now, having ventured on making these preliminary remarks, he would go forward as rapidly as he could to place before the Assembly a view of their Missionary Schemes, and the efforts made on behalf of them. And he did not altogether despair of reaching, in the end, a result which would be found gratifying to this venerable House, and, as he considered, a cause why all of them should in humility, and with devout gratitude, acknowledge the good hand of the Lord. The contributions on behalf of the various Schemes of the Church, which he had the privilege and honour of reporting to last General Assembly, showed that for the six Schemes proper of the Church, and the Building Fund superadded, that is, for the seven Schemes, there had been raised the sum of £42,010: 8: 3. The Report he had to make to-day in regard to the year ending 31st March last showed, in regard to these seven objects, a marked and most gratifying increase. The contributions he had said were, for 1849-50, £42,010: 8:3; and for 1850-51, £50,868: 18: 3, showing, therefore, an increase in regard to all the seven objects of £8858: 10. (Applause.) But then it might be well, for one moment, to glance at the condition of each of these seven Schemes; indeed, in regard to some of them, one in particular, a word of explanation was needed. He was rejoiced to inform the Assembly that there was a substantial increase in regard to each and every one of them. The Home Mission, for example, including both the Highlands and Lowlands, received last year £55929: 10; this year, £6083: 18: 5. Then the Education Scheme, including also the Schoolmasters' Sustentation, received last year, £11,196: 15: 5, this year it was £13,906 13: 10. (Applause.) The Sustentation Fund of the College, if he might so call it, received last year £3494: 39; this year the sum was £3671:49. The Foreign Mission Scheme received last year £12,328; 11: 1; and during the year on which he was reporting, it received £17,264: 2: 8. But this was the Scheme, in regard to which a word of explanation was needed. It was known to all the members of this venerable House, that a call was made on the Church and the people of Scotland, for the purpose of providing in their Mission Stations in India suitable buildings. Their brethren from Madras and Bombay were with them, and made some commencement in that work prior to the period on which he was reporting. For the last year, they had obtained for the mission buildings at Bombay and Madras, £957: 3: 10, which, of course, was included in the account of that year; but during the year just terminated, they succeeded not only in raising all that they had asked, namely, £6000,— for that was the sum they limited themselves to, but they received well nigh £1000 more, Of this sum of £17,000 odd pounds received for Foreign Missions, £5863 6 9 fell to be placed under the head of

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Contributions to Mission Buildings; and therefore it was to be distinguished from the ordinary revenue of the Scheme, which, in point of fact, amounted only to the difference between these two sums. But when the Assembly considered that last year the revenue was £12,328, including £957 for Mission Buildings, and that this year it was £17,000 odds, including £5800 for Mission Buildings, he thought it would be plain that there was in this, as in all the previous departments, a substantial increase. Then the Colonies last year received £3686: 16:9; this year, £4900 11 8;-the Jews Conversion Scheme, last year £4250 : 5s. ; this year £5671: 12: 9;-the Building Fuud last year received £3144: 15:7; this year it had received £3365: 6:4;- so that on all these seven Schemes there was a substantial increase, rising, as contrasted with last year, from £42,010 and odds to £50,868, being an increase of £8858 10s. But, then, there were other objects, in their own nature missionary, that had also been associated, in reviews like the present, with the statement in regard to the Schemes proper of the Church. Every special effort made on behalf of any of the Schemes of the Church had in the Assemblies preceding been uniformly reported; so that last year there were superadded to the £42,000 to which he had referred sundry contributions in regard to the various Schemes, thus swelling the missionary total to a very large sum indeed. In 'the Home Mission department there were contributions from associations in the Highlands and Lowlands, by which sums were raised in addition to what was obtained from other sources by the people themselves, for the maintenance of ordinances amongst them; and these sums in 1849-50 amounted to £1996: 18:9. Then there was the collection on behalf of the quoad sacra churches,-a special effort,-which amounted to £5230: 8s. Then there were the contributions for the School Building Fund, £2031: 127. Then the contributions to the College Building Fund were £2352: 1s., making a total for that year of £53,621 : 8: 7. Then, in addition to all this, as he had the honour of reporting to the last Assembly, the great friend and promoter, he might almost say, the father of all their missionary organizations in this Church, and he said so when he looked to years prior to the Disruption, and to the measures then entered into with a view to giving force and efficiency to all their evangelistic organizations,-he said that that gentleman, now very near him (Mr Dunlop), announced in the previous Assembly the cheering fact, that the sum of not less than £12,500 had been contributed by a benevolent and large-hearted individual, and that sum fell last year to be held as part and parcel of their Missionary accounts. The total for 1849-50 thus swelled up to the large sum, from all sources, including the cooperating Associations, of £67,162 18 13. (Applause.) Now, looking to the specialty of their circumstances last year, and the fact of this large collection having been obtained for quoad sacra churches,looking also to the fact of this munificent donation of £12,500 coming in last year, he must, for one, confess that he felt it would be wonderful indeed if they were able, in contrasting the present year with the past, to approximate to the liberality of what was reported last year. But the effort must be made. He had stated already that, for the seven Schemes of the Church during the year £50,868: 18: 3 had been received, being an increase, as he formerly stated, of about £9000. Then, as to the

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contributions from the Associations in the Highlands and Lowlands,--and he might state by the way, that the contributions from the Lowland stations were, to his knowledge, almost £200 larger than last year,--these amounted to £1961: 12: 8. Then, under the head quoad sacra churches, there was the sum of £1054 79 to be set against £5000 odds the former year. Then, for the School-Building Scheme, there had been received £511:4:1; for the College Building, £4972: 1s.; for the Endowment of the College, £610; for bursaries in connection with the College, £5250: 15: 9. And then, those co-operative associations which had extended their aid, and to which the approval of former Assemblies had been most warmly accorded -the Ladies' India Female Association-the Ladies' Jewish Association-the Ladies' Continental Association-the Ladies' Colonial Associationthe Glasgow Association for the Lovedale Seminary-these Associations had been in full vigour during the past year, and the sum of £1980: 6:9 appeared, so far as could be ascertained, to be the large amount of their contributions. This, therefore, furnished them with a total which, he trusted, would be pronounced by the Assembly as the basis on which they ought fairly to contrast the one year with the other. It furnished them with a total of £67,209: 6: 3,-thus showing not only an increase of £8800 on their Schemes proper; but, with all the unusual contributions to which he had referred,-all the unusual specimens of liberality last year,there was an absolute increase this year over the last of £46: 8:14(applause, and a laugh)—a result which, he ventured to say, very few in the Assembly, considering the specialties to which he had referred, would have expected. There was only one circumstance of a discouraging kind, on which he felt it to be his duty to enter. There had been in one department of their ingatherings a marked decrease; and it was in the department which he had found, in former years, had ever called forth the deepest interest in this Assembly. It was in the department of juvenile offerings. It was not for him to do more than bring the fact under the notice of the Assembly, which, doubtless, in its wisdom, would deal with it in the manner best tending to promote missionary zeal and missionary ardour among the youth of the Church. But so it was, that while last year he had had the privilege of reporting that the juvenile offerings amounted to £1249: 2: 4, they had now been reduced to £867: 4:9; there having been a defalcation to the extent of almost a third. He remembered that in last Assembly he had been indulged in stating that these young people had voted and distributed the funds they had collected in a most proper way. He rather thought it was on that occasion he indulged in conjecturing to what ends and uses their special offerings might be applied; and he rather thought that, though the Moderator (Dr Duff) was not amongst them then, he (Mr Jaffray) took the freedom of saying that the sum given by the children in Scotland to the Foreign Mission Scheme was adequate in amount for the support of any European missionary in India and a native colleague superadded. He trusted some means might be taken for keeping open this most interesting source of supply-that the General Assembly would lead the young of their Church to come in with their offerings, so greatly valued, and that nothing would be wanting in order to stimulate them to greater deeds. There was one contribution to which he begged in one sentence also to refer as being the first of the kind that he had been called personally to report upon. It was the sum of £610 given for the endowment of the College. Now, on making inquiry, he found that, some three years ago, a sum of £1000 was given for the same purpose; and he could not but take

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the freedom to say that this might be a very desirable channel into which the liberality of those whom God had been pleased to bless with abundance, should be turned, when they were considering the arrangement of their worldly affairs. (A laugh.) He did not feel it would be proper for him to trespass longer on the attention of the House. He thought the statements which had been made must be confessed by all to be of a cheering kind,—if not of a wondrously cheering kind. They had had abundant reason, however, to join trembling with their gladness; for what was all this compared with what might have been, and ought to have been done? It was undoubtedly a cause of congratulation that they were not falling back in their work; but they should each, one and all, consider how much more the Lord demanded from them, and how much more their offerings and their efforts would be, if in correspondence with what the Lord had been pleased to give them. (Applause.)

The MODERATOR said, it had been usual on an occasion like the present for members to say something to cheer on those engaged in the undertaking; and if any one was so disposed, he would now be pleased to rise and do so.

Mr CAMPBELL of Melrose explained, in regard to the children's collection, that the reason why there was a defalcation this year was, that the usual method of raising money from the children had not been adopted last year. He believed that for the previous two or three years there had been a great effort made at Christmas, which yielded a considerable sum of money, and that effort was not made last year. He believed, therefore, that it was not because there was any lack of zeal in the children, but because the opportunity was not given them last Christmas, as in former years (Hear, hear.) Having now nothing to do with the management of the Children's Record, he could speak with more freedom on the subject. The managers of the Children's Record considered that it was perhaps more judicious to allow the children to make their offerings as their parents made theirs, not by any special effort made at Christmas, but in the ordinary way. Whether they were right, or not, he did not know. Undoubtedly it had thrown a cloud over Mr Jaffray's report. But he trusted that when the reason was understood, members of Assembly would not feel it to be a discouraging element. Of course it might be well if ministers would give their opinion on the subject, and say whether they thought the children liked it or not. He must say he was not clear himself about it. In his own congregation he found the children made a great deal too much of the effort, half a-dozen calling on the same morning at the same house in order to beg money; and when it occurred the second year, he was obliged to restrain them to some extent. Perhaps in future years a plan might be put forth by the managers of the Record, leaving it to ministers to follow it up or not as they chose.

Mr NIXON of Montrose did not think it was desirable to raise a discussion on any of the schemes of the Church in connection with a report of this kind, which was really somewhat nondescript in its character; and any observations might be reserved till the several subjects came up in the ordinary course. But with reference to the deficiency in the contributions from the children, he believed the deficiency existed in those obtained in the ordinary way, as well as the general collection at Christmas. As regarded it, though it was a delicate matter to enter on, he might state that there had been a strong feeling for some two or three years as to the want of wisdom in the management of that general offering at the end of the

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year. The fact already referred to had pressed very painfully on a great number of them in different parts of the country; and it had been seriously considered whether the sum obtained was not counterbalanced by the disadvantages which were consequently incurred. The children got the schedules at the end of the Record for the previous year, and undertook the thing at their own hazard. In the town (Montrose) where he resided, not only were their own people continually called on by half-a-dozen parties in a day, but others beyond their own communion were harassed to an extent which rendered the whole contribution to be a public nuisance. (Laughter.) Members of the Establishment were generally finally appealed to by the children, when every other argument had failed, with "the money was for Mr Nixon's kirk." (A laugh.) The people of the Establishment actually made a sort of public complaint against them. He himself had met a child engaged in collection with a hand full of coppers that he would not have trusted a penny with; and he felt that until the thing was put under proper control and surveillance, there would be no loss in giving it up. There was no doubt, however, that, when properly managed, Mr Jaffray, instead of lamenting over a deficit, might have reason to rejoice over double or treble the sum. thought it right to make these explanations, because he felt that the children had not been dealt with as they ought to have been. He did not think the managers of the Record were to blame. No duty had been devolved on them with reference to these collections; and unless the General Assembly itself chose to give some directions to them, the matter ought to be left in the hands of ministers and those concerned with each congregation; they were the proper parties to manage it. Just as they left the contributions for the schemes in the hands of deacons, and those locally concerned, the contributions from the children should be left in the hands of Sabbath-school teachers and those who managed such matters. They would, of course, be happy to issue any circular to call forth contributions at the proper season, but he trusted it would in future be done in a way which would save them from the evils attending the former mode. He hoped Mr Jaffray would understand that he (Mr Nixon) had merely made this statement in self-defence -to shew that they had not been overlooking their duty, and that the reason of their not being able to accomplish what they had done formerly, was on account of the system being attended by those evils which had been complained of so grievously throughout the country; and by another year some proper mode might be fallen on to accomplish the end. (Hear, hear.)

Dr CANDLISH hoped the discussion which had been raised was now disposed of so far as was necessary. He thought this was not the best time to discuss the various topics brought before them in Mr Jaffray's statement. But so far as regarded this matter of the children's contributions, he for one most thoroughly concurred in the opinion of Mr Nixon and his coadjutors in editing the Children's Missionary Record. He (Dr Candlish) had for his own part very strong doubts as to the expediency of employing children as collectors, from house to house, as in former years. He at the same time had a very strong conviction, along with Mr Nixon, that by encouraging in all proper ways the liberality of the children, a considerable fund might be raised in that manner. He did not suppose Mr Jaffray intended to raise any question of culpability or blame in any quarter; and therefore he thought this was not the best time to discuss the propriety of these Christmas collections. He agreed with Mr Nixon, that the whole ought to be left very much with the ordinary office-bearers of the different congregations and the ordinary Sabbath-school teachers. In reply to the appeal of the Moderator, he did not