as members of the Church of England, to look to that Church.

You are summoned hither to discuss the propriety of establishing a Branch of this Church Missionary Society in this city; under the patronage, not of the Lord Bishop of this diocese, but of the Lord Bishop of Gloucester; who, himself, as Dean of Wells, owes canonical obedience to the Bishop of Bath and Wells; and who, moreover, has no manner of jurisdiction in this city, nor in this diocese, beyond his deanery.

In the name of the Lord Bishop of this diocese-in my own name-in the name of the Rectors of Bath-and in the name of nineteen twentieths of the Clergy in my jurisdiction

I PROTEST against the formation of such Society in this city.

Whether, or in what manner, the Hon. and Right Rev. Vice-Patron and his friends will condescend to notice this PROTEST,I shall not stay to see.

ADDRESS

TO THE

SOCIETY.

GUARDIAN SOCIETY.

GENTLEMEN,

IT has been frequently asserted, that London is the most charitable place in the universe. That larger sums of money are subscribed and collected for public charities in London than in any other city, is, I believe, without doubt; but that these sums are always well and properly applied will not, I am afraid, be so readily admitted, or so easily proved.

In stating this, however, I have not the most distant intention of imputing any blame to the very respectable individuals who, in these cases, step so generously forward to give their services gratuitously in the arrangement and direction of these charities, nor of charging them with any intentional abuse of the funds committed to their charge; on the contrary, I have every reason to believe that these trusts are, in general, conducted with the utmost honour and probity.

It is to the grand stile in which these charities are arranged and managed, and to the great expense incurred in outward show, that I refer; and I think that every one, who gives a glance at the elegant and expensive buildings erected for these purposes in almost every quarter of this extended metropolis, or who takes a slight inspection of the great establishments within these buildings, will join me in suspecting that where so much has been expended on these, a great deal cannot be left to be applied to the real purposes of the charity.

2

Even in those associations for charity where no buildings have been erected, so much is expended in public meetings, salaries of officers and servants, expenses of committees, printing and advertisements, etc. that comparatively little is left to be applied to the purposes for which the Society was instituted, and the consequence is, that the real good done is not at all in proportion to the sums raised.

Besides, I suspect that, in many cases, the objects of these charities and the ends proposed to be attained are not of that utility to justify the sums expended upon them, and in some the latter are actually impossible to be accomplished at all.

In fact, a number of these charities are only known to, or heard of by the public at the annual meetings, when a flaming report is made, a dinner had, and a fresh subscription for their support entered into; and then they sink into oblivion until the next occa

sion.

In this respect they have frequently reminded me of comets, those erratic wanderers in the heavens. A comet is visible to the inhabitants of this earth, only on its approach to the sun and for a short time after it has passed that luminary, when it shines with great splendour, and then, rapidly flying off into boundless space, completely disappears until its next periodical visit. In like manner these societies are heard of for a short time previous to the annual meeting; at the dinner they dazzle the public with the effulgence of their brightness; they continue to do so for a short time after, becoming dimmer and dimmer, until they sink into utter darkness and oblivion, and only appear again when the revolv ing year brings round the stated period.

Among these meteors, these shining inhabitants of the sky of charity, your Society made last season a most conspicuous figure. The professed object was popular, and the times were extremely favourable for its introduction. After twenty years war the country found itself at peace with all the world, and so at leisure to turn its attention to objects of internal police; the newspapers were at a loss for subjects to fill their columns; and the city of London had got a chief magistrate of a particularly active turn, and fully disposed to do all the good in his power. The consequence was, that the moment a meeting of the Guardian Society was advertised, the subject was taken up with the greatest keenness; the daily and weekly papers were filled with paragraphs and letters. the Lord Mayor set the police-officers in motion, crowds of the unhappy objects who infest the streets were taken into custody, and committed to Bridewell for a period; the meeting was most numerously attended, a report was read, which was afterwards printed, and a number of flaming speeches were made, which were copied almost at full length into all the newspapers. So that a