II. That the British Constitution acknowledges in its principle and laws the sovereignty of Almighty God, and the supreme authority of his holy word; and has provided for the seriptural instruction of the people by its religious establishments..

III. That in opposition to this principle of the constitution, doctrines have of late been propagated, that religion is unconnected with the duties of legislation-that in the eye of the state all religions are alike--and that support should be equally given or denied to all.

IV. That under cover of these doctrines, the members of the church of Rome are zealously exerting themselves to destroy the Protestant character of the constitution; and that the first object to which they direct their efforts, is the overthrow of the Established Churches, as forming the main obstacle to their ulterior designs.

V. That to counteract these efforts, all who venerate the word of God, and value the British institutions, should be called on to cooperate in pointing out to the people the peculiar dangers of the present time, and in taking measures to inspire them with a just sense of the benefits and blessings of the Protestant constitution.

RULES.

I. That the Association be under the direction of a President, Vicepresidents, a Treasurer, and a Committee, not exceeding twenty-five, who shall have the power of appointing Secretaries.

II. That Annual Subscribers of Five Shillings and upwards, and Donors of One Guinea and upwards, assenting to the Fundamental Re solutions, be Members of the Association.

III. That a General Meeting of the Association shall be held at least once in every year.

IV. That the Committee be chosen annually, out of the Members of the Association.

V. That the Committee, of whom five shall be a quorum, shall have power to regulate all matters relating to their own meetings or those of the Association, to fill up vacancies in their body, and generally to conduct and manage the affairs and funds of the Association.

CHURCH NOTICES ACT.

ANNO PRIMO VICTORIÆ REGINE. CAP. XLV.

An Act to alter the mode of giving Notices for the holding of Vestries of making Proclamations in cases of Outlawry, and of giving Notices on Sundays with respect to various matters.-July 12, 1837.

"WHEREAS by an Act of Parliament passed in the fifty-eighth year of the reign of his Majesty King George the Third, intituled An Act for the Regulation of Parish Vestries,' it is enacted, that no vestry, or meeting of the inhabitants in vestry, of or for any parish shall be holden until public notice shall have been given of such vestry, and of the place and hour of holding the same, and the special purpose thereof, three days at least before the day to be appointed for holding such vestry, by the publication of such notice in the parish church or chapel on some Sunday during or immediately after Divine service, and by affixing the same, fairly written or printed, on the principal door of such church or chapel; and whereas by an Act passed in the thirty-first year of Queen Elizabeth it is enacted, that before any outlawry shall be had and pronounced, proclamation shall be made at the door of the church or chapel of the town or parish where the defendant shall be dwelling, immediately after Divine service on a Sunday; and whereas by divers Acts relative to the assessing and collecting of highway and poor rates and land-tax, and other matters, it is directed or required that public notice shall be given with reference to certain proceedings relating thereto respectively in the parish churches or chapels during Divine service; and whereas by ancient custom notice is usually given in churches during Divine service of the times appointed for holding courts leet, courts baron, and customary courts; and whereas it is expedient that such mode of giving notice should be altered: be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from and after the passing of this Act so much of the first recited Act as directs the publication of such notices to be made in the parish church or chapel on some Sunday during or immediately after Divine service shall be and the same is hereby repealed; and that from and after the first day of January next no proclamation or other public notice for a vestry meeting or any other matter shall be made or given in any church or chapel during or after Divine service, or at the door of any church or chapel at the conclusion of Divine service.

"2. And be it further enacted, that from and after the first day of January next all proclamations or notices, which, under or by virtue of any law or statute, or by custom or otherwise, have been heretofore made or given in churches or chapels during or after Divine service, shall be reduced into writing, and copies

thereof, either in writing or in print, or partly in writing and partly in print, shall, previously to the commencement of Divine service on the several days on which such proclamations or notices have heretofore been made or given in the church or chapel of any parish or place, or at the door of any church or chapel, be affixed on or near to the doors of all the churches and chapels within such parish or place; and such notices when so affixed shall be in lieu of, and as a substitution for, the several proclamations and notices so heretofore given as aforesaid, and shall be good, valid, and effectual to all intents and purposes whatsoever.

"3. And be it further enacted, that no such notice of holding a vestry shall be affixed on the principal door of such church or chapel, unless the same shall previously have been signed by a churchwarden of the church or chapel, or by the rector, vicar, or curate of such parish, or by an overseer of the poor of such parish; but that every such notice so signed shall be affixed on or near to the principal door of such church or chapel.

"4. And be it further enacted, that from and after the first day of January next no decree relating to a faculty, nor any other decree, citation, or proceeding whatsoever, in any ecclesiastical court, shall be read or published in any church or chapel during or immediately after Divine service.

"5. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that nothing in this Act shall extend or be construed to extend to the publication of bans, nor to notice the celebration of Divine service or of sermons, nor to restrain the curate, in pursuance of the rules in the Book of Common Prayer, from declaring unto the people" what holy days or fasting days are in the week following to be observed, nor to restrain the minister from proclaiming or publishing what is prescribed by the rules of the Book of Common Prayer, or enjoined by the ordinary of the place.

"6. And be it further enacted, that all the provisions of this Act shall extend and be construed to extend to the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Isle of Man, and the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark."

Report of the Nottingham District Committee of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, and of the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, including the Report of the Association in Aid of the Translation Committee, January, 1837.

THE Committee of these Societies invite the attention of the members of the Church, residing in the district, to the following account of their proceedings since the publication of their last Report in 1833.

In furtherance of the great objects of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, they have facilitated, as far as

possible, the distribution of the Holy Scriptures, Liturgy, and Religious Tracts, and have issued from their repository during the last four years, 1,940 Bibles, 2,132 Testaments, 4,130 Prayer-books, 1,569 Tracts (bound), and 28,014 ditto (unbound), The Committee have used their utmost endeavours to procure and open a repository* in some central part of the town of Nottingham, for the sale of the Society's publications, and more particularly those intended to counteract the alarming progress3 of infidelity; but in consequence of the great and unanswerable demand for shops and ware-rooms of every kind, more especially in central situations of this great mart of trade, they regret that they have hitherto failed in finding a place suitable to their purpose.

The Society have communicated to the Committee the intention of setting apart a considerable sum, annually, for the important purpose of procuring standard translations of the Scriptures, and of the English Liturgy in foreign languages, and of distributing them abroad; the members of this District Committee have had their earnest attention directed to this great object, in consequence of which, an Association in aid, composed of members of the Society, has been formed, and every effort made to promote this important undertaking-an undertaking calculated to remove the objection made against the Society by so many, that its efforts were directed too much to the advantage of those at home, or living within reach of the divine light of the gospel, to the exclusion of others of their fellow-creatures, who were sitting in the regions of darkness. It is now earnestly hoped, that this extension of the word of God, accompanied with translations of our admirable Liturgy, now preparing for the distant nations of the world, to whom the sound of the gospel is unknown, will be considered as an object worthy of extensive support. Already has the Association transmitted the sum of 1457. in aid of this undertaking, and it still looks forward with anxious hope for additional means of promoting it.

With respect to the incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Committee have the gratification of announcing, that their attention has been arrested by some new and interesting circumstances connected with it. The Society, which has for many years been engaged in providing episcopally-ordained missionaries in the North American colonies, and some other parts of the British empire, now feels itself called upon to give a wider range to the sphere of its labours. The present situation of the emancipated negroes in the West Indies of the British and native population of Hindostan, and

Since the writing of this Report, a repository has been opened at Mr. Kidd's, Clerk of St. Peter's, Hounds' Gate, Nottingham, to whom applications for books may be made.