what I never saw before. Oh,' he continued, what would not our friends in London give for such a sight!' Turning to me, he said, God has blessed your labours beyond description. I had heard of your success, but I could not have believed that it was so great.""

We deeply regret to add, that since this Report was read, Western Africa has lost by death some of its most valuable missionaries and settlers.

The progress of education through out the West Indies and the shores of the neighbouring continents, cannot but awaken hopes of much ultimate good.

At Antigua, Mr. Charles Thwaites has been appointed superintendent of schools and assistant catechist. There are three stations. The greater part of the funds has been supplied by this Society: the remainder has been contributed by benevolent persons, in the island and in this country. Mr. Dawes has applied the bounty of various friends, in the most effectual manner, to the relief of distressed females; and has directed the schoolplans of the Society.

Lieutenant Robert Lugger, of the royal artillery, proceeding to Barbadoes, having offered his services to promote the objects of the Society, a quantity of the National Society's school books was, in consequence, placed at his disposal, and he was requested to act as the correspondent of the Society.

The Committee notice with pleasure the transmission, from Mrs. Wilhelmina Worrell, of Barbadoes, of a box of various West-India seeds and plants, to be sent to Africa, with the hope of benefiting that mission. They have been accordingly forwarded.

We mentioned some time since the appointment of the Rev. Mr. Morton to a post of considerable influence and usefulness at Hayti; and indeed many other circum

stances interwoven with this Report have already appeared before our readers in other shapes.

A correspondence has been opened on the subject of a mission to the Mosquito Indians near Honduras, both with the commandant, Lieut.-Colonel Arthur, and with the chaplain, the Rev. John Armstrong; both of whom are anxious to promote the good of the settlement itself, and the extension of Christianity among the native tribes. In reference to missionaries and students, the offers of service have been very considerable, while the demand for labourers is every year increasing.

In the Mediterranean mission, there are openings for exertion in the Barbary States, in Egypt, in Abyssinia, in Palestine, in Syria, on the shores of the Black Sea, and in other quarters. In the North of India, in the South, in Ceylon, in Australasia, in West Africa, and in the West Indies-in all the missions of the Society-opportunities for doing good are far greater than the Society's means of embracing them; while at the Cape of Good Hope, at Madagascar, and in otber places, the Society have been invited and urged to establish new missions.

Under circumstances like these, we are glad to perceive that the Society are adhering to the most cautious measures in their selection of missionaries. Some young Lutherans of piety and talents have been placed at the institution in Basle; but the Society look with increasing hope and desire to our own universities for their missionaries.

We have already alluded to some of the Society's Biblical plans; in addition to these, Mr. Lee has caried through the press, the compendium of the Liturgy in Hindoostanee prepared by Mr. Corrie. It has been printed by the Prayer book and Homily Society. This edition will be very acceptable in India. The Committee have caused a set of stereotype plates to be cast, as this edition passed through the

OBITUARY.

witness his son Henry's zeal and activity in the ministry. Full of years, and venerable for genuine simplicity of manners and holiness of life, he died, after a few days' illness, at the house of his eldest daughter, Miss Whytehead, at Easingwold; where he had many years before removed, and where he had eminently shared with his two daughters the luxury of doing good" in that town and neighbourhood. In the exercise of real benevolence, this happy family heartily promoted, by their influ ence and fortune, every thing that had for its end the glory of God, and the spiritual and temporal welfare of man. This aged minister was greatly delighted at the success of the various religious institutions which brightened his latter days.

Under the religious care of this good man, the subject of our memoir received the rudiments of knowledge. At the usual age he was sent to Beverly school, then superintended by Mr. Jackson, who was esteemed for classical abilities and success in his profession. No great indications of piety distinguished him there, though he was free from the vi cious habits that are sometimes difficult to be controuled or eradicated at school. Thence he was removed to the university, and was admitted a student of Jesus college, Cambridge, and in 1795 took his degree of A. B. It does not appear that he felt any ardent desire for the ministry, or had those views of a clergyman's responsibility, which he afterwards obtained. But feeling no disinclination to the wishes of his friends, and rather biassed by veneration for the sacred office, he prepared to take holy orders, and was ordained deacon, and the year following priest, by Dr. Markham, Archbishop of York, being liceused at the same time to the curacy of Hornsea.

He entered upon the duties of his new profession with spirit and ardour, though, perhaps, relying too much on himself, and reposing too little upon Him, without whose special blessing our strength and exertions are but perfect weakness. His exemplary conduct and attention to his parochial duties drew the respect and esteem of all about him, and he was consequently nominated to the perpetual curacy of Nun Keeling, by Robert Dixon, Esq., in 1797. After continuing his ministry for seven years at Hornsea, he quitted it for the curacy of North Cave, which he shortly relinquished upon his marriage, in 1803, with Hannah Diana Bowman, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Bowman, rector of Craike in the county of Durham, and a prebendary of Lincoln. Shortly after, he resigned his church engagements at Cave, and undertook the curacy of Thorman

by, near Easingwold and Craike, wishing to be in the neighbourhood of his own and his wife's relatives. It was in this place he was eventually to close his labours in the ministry, and to depart to render an account of his stewardship. His earnest and serious exhortations aroused the attention and gained the hearts of his parishioners, who soon filled his little church. In 1805, the Archbishop of York nominated him to the perpetual curacy of Bridforth, near Thormanby. Three years after, he was presented to the rectory of Goxhill, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, by Marmaduke Constable, Esq., of Wassand. This gift was without any application on his part, and indeed without much personal acquaintance. Mr. Constable selected him on account of his upright conduct as a man, and his conscientious diligence as a minister, while resident in his neighbourhood; a circumstance highly honourable to both parties. During fifteen years, he continued his ministrations at Thormanby and Bridforth, and displayed the example of a consistent churchman and faithful pastor. In the last years of his valuable life, it pleased his Divine Master severely to discipline both himself and his family by domestic afflictions. These, however, prepared him for his last trial, and produced in him, by Divine grace, an increasing spirituality of mind. The decease of his father, which took place about a year before his own, and other family bereavements about the same period, deeply affected him. In the mean time, his affectionate wife was at the point of death, in her confinement with her ninth child; he himself was twice severely afflicted by sickness; and his eldest son, a youth of fourteen, was for some time in great danger, beside other domestic afflictions. These successive visitations, added to the care of his churches, weighed heavily upon a constitution not naturally robust. Other cares and, business also crowded upon him about the same period, and the fatigue he endured during the sultry weather of last June, rendered him less able to sustain the fatal attack of a typhus fever. After lingering under it for some weeks, he departed in peaceful resignation, on the 21st August, 1818, leaving his wife, four or five children, and several servants, dangerously ill of the same disorder. Thus was a beloved pastor, the father of nine children, the friend of the poor and destitute, a zealous and active supporter of religious institutions, alone taken away in the prime of life, while the others were left.

He was a man of lively temper and cheerful disposition, frank and open in his address, frequently animated, and

entered at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he proceeded Master of Arts. While at the University, the course of his reading, and the religious acquaintances he formed, led him to a thorough investigation of his own heart; and some of his letters written at that time shew an extraordinary tenderness of conscience, and contain such comprehensive views of the justice and mercy of God and of the responsibility of man, as nothing but an intimate aequaintance with Scripture, and a diligent reading of our best divines could have supplied. The writings of Hooker especially were so wrought into his mind, that in after life, on every suitable occasion, he would almost instinctively appeal to his authority, quoting his very words with remarkable accuracy.

At a proper age, Mr. Simpson was ordained by Dr. Huntingford, then Bishop of Gloucester, whose solemn and affectionate address to him, on that occasion, he frequentiy acknowledged, with pious gratitude, to have produced considerable influence on his ministerial conduct, in the curacy of Newland in / the Forest of Dean, to which he was ordained, and where he diligently laboured till he was preferred to the vicarage of Keynsham. He has often remarked, that the attention of the simple cottagers in that poor district, and the strong attachment which they shewed towards him, were very instrumental in deepening his impressions of the import ance of ministerial exertion in visiting the poor, and conversing with them in a kind and familiar manner respecting their spiritual concerns. He added, that he looked upon the years spent among them, as the most delightful and useful of his life. When he removed to the vicarage house of Keynsham, his parents were still living in the neighbourhood; and that filial obedience which had distinguished him as a youth adorned him as a man, for he never pass ed a day when at home without seeing them or writing to them.

Upon his marriage, he removed to the adjoining parish of Brislington, of which he was curate and lecturer, and officiated there and in his parish of Keynsham till his death, with the exception of one year, which he spent in his parish of Congresbury.

The success with which he laboured, has appeared in the general and affect ing expressions of sorrow which his death has occasioned, particularly in his own neighbourhood and county, and the tribute of respect which was paid to his memory, on the Sunday after his decease, from almost all the pulpits of Bristol. Indeed, his loss is a very serious one; for he united those excellencies of head and heart which made

him not only highly useful as a minister, but greatly beloved as a neighbour, and respected as a magistrate-an office which those who knew him can testify he undertook from the best and purest of motives.

Indeed, Mr. Simpson had formed very enlarged views of the duties of the clergy, and their opportunities of conferring benefits upon the world; and he in consequence shunned no labour which might tend, however remotely or incidentally, to bring glory to God or good to man. It was his delight to compose the differences which arose in his neighbourhood; for which important office his modest deportment and serene temper qualified him scarcely less than his minnte acquaintance with the human heart, his happy fertility in expedients, his extensive knowledge, and his truly scriptural piety. He had studied the poor both in the most affectionate and the most enlightened manner; with the discrimination of a political economist, and the ever wakeful charity of a Christian pastor. His influence, however, was not confined to the poor ; for, in every rank of life, his society and advice were valued in proportion as he became known, and this even by many who knew little how to appreciate his religious principles. The integrity of his character and his skill in business entailed upon him numerous offices of trust and kindness, which he discharged with a diligence and patience equal to his other qualities. The extent of the benefits which he thus conferred upon society cannot easily be measured; especially when it is added, that his influence, even when more immediately operating upon concerns of a temporal nature, was silently, but not inefficaciously, employed to win over those with whom he had intercourse, to that Gospel which his own life so conspicuously adorned.

Mr. Simpson's moderation on those points in theology respecting which good men sometimes differ, was particnJarly useful among his clerical acquaintances, as his singular unobtrusiveness of manner, indicating the absence of all consciousness of superiority, was very conciliating, and their love for him as a man, and respect for him as a scholar, gave a weight to his opinions which few persons, at his age, have attained. He was, indeed, a truly scriptural divine; preaching the sovereignty of God, and the responsibility of man, in such a way as to enforce both humility and exertion, a peaceful and implicit reliance on Divine grace and mercy, with a diligent exercise of every faculty which God has conferred. Fearful of appearing "wise above what is written," he did not attempt to reconcile those truths which respect the infinite nature of God