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Towards this amount the following sums were granted :—

Parliamentary grant to St. Mary's

6,512 27,578

£ S. d. 24,602 10 44

18,939 8 91

1,246 13 4 10,560 7 7

£55,349 0 03

£ 8. d.

3,333 6 8

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Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,

with aid from Government

9,752 0 0

3,018 18 2

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The most evident result of the exertion of the clergy, when the slaves obtained their liberty, proves the number of baptisms of adult persons. I possess only specified returns from five parishes, and from the Moravian congregation, according to which the number of labourers who were converted to Christianity from the year 1835 to 1845 inclusive,

amounted to 10,033 persons. The population of these five parishes consisted in 1844 of 53,177 individuals'.

Bishop Coleridge resigned his useful career as the head of the Bishopric in 1842. The pious zeal of this eminent prelate found a large field of exertion on his arrival in the island; and it is certain that Dr. Coleridge mainly contributed to that station which religion and her institutions now occupy, not only in Barbados, but throughout the large Diocese which was entrusted to his care.

On the resignation of Bishop Coleridge, Her Majesty's Government resolved upon dividing the former Bishopric of Barbados and the Leeward Islands into the Bishoprics of Barbados and of Antigua, and the Right Reverend Thomas Parry, D.D., was appointed Lord Bishop of the former Diocese, which now includes Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada and its dependencies, and Trinidad. The Ecclesiastical Establishment consists of an Archdeacon of Barbados, St. Vincent and Grenada, and an Archdeacon of Trinidad, four Rural Deans, one for each island, and five Chaplains.

The number of the clergy resident in Barbados in 1846, including the Bishop and the Archdeacon, is thirty-three. There are, as formerly, eleven parish churches; but the other places of worship have much increased, namely, to thirty-two chapels, chapel-schools or licensed places of worship.

The rectors receive a stipend from the colonial treasury of £500 currency, or about £334 sterling. There is also attached to each benefice, a portion of glebe, varying in extent and value, together with a parsonage, or an allowance for one. The fees, which are still connected with the execution of some of their sacred duties, vary in extent according to the population of the parish. The spirit of our times renders it highly desirable that fees for burials, marriages and baptisms should be everywhere abolished, and this might be done without curtailing the stipend, by an adequate additional salary. These fees are received under the authority of a local act, dated the 9th of March 1826.

Perhaps for future reference, it may not be out of place to add the following statement of churches and chapels in Barbados in 1845. It may serve hereafter to show by comparison, whether the religious state is

1 These specified returns give the following results:-
In the Cathedral district of St. Michael were baptized..
In the Parish Church of St. Philip

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St. Joseph

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1,410

2,338

1,622

1,506

1,274

Congregation of the United Brethren

1,883-10,033

In 1839 the baptisms of adults in the above parishes amounted to 2,325; in 1845 only to 169.

advancing as progressively as it has hitherto done in the island since the arrival of Bishop Coleridge, and his equally zealous successor the present Lord Bishop of Barbados.

Churches and Chapels in connection with the Established Church of England, in the Island of Barbados, in 1846.

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1 In this return, the object has been to give the aggregate number of persons generally attending at churches and chapels. Where this has not been obtained, the average number attending the principal service has been given.

* Besides the churches and chapels of the Established Church, there are three Wesleyan chapels, a Moravian congregation, and a Jewish synagogue in this parish.

One Wesleyan chapel. Ibid. 5 One Moravian congregation, and one Wesleyan Chapel. One Wesleyan chapel. 7 Ibid. 8 Two Moravian congregations.

The churches and chapels as enumerated in the preceding table, contain sittings for 13,800 persons; and if we assume the number of inhabitants at 123,000, it will be observed that the churches would be filled if each ninth person of the population attended divine service.

Public Education.-The schools for the education of the poor are fiftynine in number, in which between 3000 and 4000 children are educated upon the national system, in the principles of the Established Church. They are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in many of the schools the girls receive instruction in needlework. These schools are generally situated near the churches or chapels; or, in the case of the chapel-schools, a portion of the building is appropriated exclusively for divine worship, and the remainder used as a school. This part is also occupied by the congregation on Sundays.

There are also Sunday-schools attached to nearly all the churches and chapels, attended in a great measure by adults, who are prepared for baptism or confirmation under the superintendence of the clergy. The children under weekly instruction, and others who have left the schools, generally attend on Sundays.

Some of the public schools are supported by parochial grants from the vestries of their respective parishes, the children being in some cases maintained and clothed as well as instructed. The rest have been supported by grants from Societies in England, and by payments from the parents of the children. The payments of the parents are very variable and most irregular—a remark which applies to every parish: scarcely one-half pay the stipulated weekly or monthly sum. The grants from the Societies in England were of late years much diminished, and ceased entirely

in 1847.

The Central school in Bridgetown was founded in 1819, for the maintenance and education of poor white children from the different parishes of the island. The institution consists of two buildings; one for boys, the other for girls, and is supported by a legislative grant, by a grant from the vestry of St. Michael's parish, and by voluntary contributions. There are also invested funds, the interest arising from which is applied to the support of the schools. The numbers of the children maintained and educated in 1846 were

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The expenses connected with the boys' school in 1845-46, including the master's and matron's salaries, servants' wages, feeding and clothing forty-five boarders, amounted to $2805 88 cents; and for the girls' school, including mistress' and assistants' salaries, servants' wages, feeding and clothing thirty-five boarders, 1965 35 cents, or both together, 4771 dollars 23 cents, equal to £994 sterling. Lord Combermere, when Governor of Barbados, took the liveliest interest in the promotion of the Central school; he had previously shown an equal zeal for the foundation of a Colonial Charity-school, which was intended for the instruction in reading, writing and arithmetic, of such children of the coloured and black population as from pecuniary and other impediments were not able to avail themselves of any other resource than a charity-school. It was established on the 19th of November 1818; and the first annual report showed that the number of scholars amounted to eighty-nine of both sexes, fifty-seven of which were free, and thirty-two the children of slaves. The expenses connected with this institution amounted during the first year to £203 6s. ; the voluntary contribution to £322 16s. 3d., towards which the Church Missionary Society had furnished £100 for the master's salary. It was at a later period placed under the superintendence of Bishop Coleridge. Bridgetown possesses another institution for the education of the poor, namely Harrison's Free School. It was founded in 1733 by Thomas Harrison, a merchant of Bridgetown, who purchased a piece of land adjoining the parish church of St. Michael (the present cathedral), upon which he erected a large building, which was to serve as a public school and a residence for the master. These premises were conveyed by a deed, dated July 30th, 1733, to certain trustees, viz. the first member of the Council, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Attorney-General, the Rector of St. Michael's parish, the Churchwarden of that parish, and two members to be chosen annually by and out of the vestry of the parish; they, or any three of their number, being empowered to elect proper masters, and to place on the foundation of the school twenty-four poor and indigent boys of the parish, to be instructed in reading, writing, ciphering, and the Latin and Greek languages, without any fee or reward; the master or masters to have the liberty of taking into the school and teaching upon pay any other scholars for their own benefit. In 1815 there were twenty-four scholars on the foundation, besides eight private scholars.

St. Andrew's School, in the parish of the same name, was partly erected and endowed with a permanent salary of £60 currency per annum to the master in the year 1785, by Sir John Gay Alleyne, Bart., then Speaker of the House of Assembly. A bequest of £20 a-year, payable out of Blower's plantation in Barbados, and applied to the above institution, was left by J. Bryant, Esq., who also left £20 a-year to St. Thomas's parish, and a like sum to the parish of St. James for a similar purpose.

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