on consideration, however, that the great educational Societies, whose head-quarters are in London, do but little to assist the education of the resident population: they operate in some degree to absorb the funds that might be devoted to that purpose, and to occupy many men who, under other circumstances, might form local Committees, at the same time they maintain no schools except their model-schools. This is not said in the way of reproach; these Societies are for the nation at large, and not for London only; and as the difficulty of forming local Committees to raise schools in the metropolis is, from the peculiar habits of its population, far greater than in the country, it is high time that this subject received more attention. At present London, where the population ought to be the best educated, and set the first example, is believed to be the worst instructed of any part of England.

"This want of local schools applies with peculiar force to those for infants; schools for older children may be at a distance from their homes, they can walk, and weather does not so much affect them; but with very young children the case is different, the school must be brought near to them, as experience shows they will not be brought to the school; there may be an exception now and then; but you cannot obtain the attendance of children with anything like regularity, if the school be at any considerable distance from their habitations.

"It is on this account that the Committee observe without regret the increase of infant-schools, for a limited number of children, conducted by single women; they are satisfied that, on the whole, they are not so efficient as schools for a larger number conducted by a man and his wife; but they are convenient to the poor, are far less expensive, and when the teacher is well instructed and pious, prove great blessings. So forcibly do the Committee feel the want of such schools in the dense population of London, that they would willingly devote a portion of time to their establishment, if the necessary funds were placed at their disposal. It would probably require 1,000l. to form ten such schools at different points and maintain them for a year: once established, the difficulty of obtaining local Committees might perhaps be overcome."

THE EFFECTS OF DRUNKENNESS.

THE Missionary in the Walworth District reports that, on Wednesday, the 6th ult., Mrs. W- attempted self-destruction by throwing herself into the Surrey Canal, and was just going down the third time, when she was providentially rescued by two men who were then passing by.

It appears from her statement that she has been married eighteen years. Her husband is a sad drunken man, and by his profligate habits had brought her and her children to such distress, that at length it became intolerable, and about three months back she left him, hoping by needlework to be able to

maintain herself and children; in this she failed, and as her husband would not allow her anything, and the parish refused her any permanent relief, she was literally starving, and under the influence of despair she committed the rash act, the guilt of which, she says, she now sees. She told me she was perfectly sensible while in the water, and the awful state her mind was then in, was most frightful. Her children, her soul, her sins, her Judge, eternity-all rushed upon her view, and produced a horror of feeling she could not describe.

I dwelt upon the mercy which had so remarkably interposed to snatch her as a brand from destruction, pointed her to the sinner's Friend for pardon, and read the fifty-first Psalm and other portions of Scripture. She wept much and promised when able to attend public worship. The parish has taken up her case and will provide for her.

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMITTEE.

THE Committee of the London City Mission have much pleasure in laying before the subscribers and friends of the Mission the following extract from the Minutes of the Committee Meeting, held on Monday, November 15:—

"At a Meeting of the Committee specially convened, and held at the office on Monday Evening, November 15, 1841; Mr. W. D. Owen in the chair; and also present Sir Wathen Waller, Bart., and Messrs. J. L. Benham, Joseph Claypon, George Clare, Richd. Edward Dear, James Foster, John Gomm, Thomas Bentley Hudson, Herbert Mayo, John Isaac Marks, Thomas Campion Newman, James Rudall, John Rothery, Ernest Augustus Stephenson, and Charles Henry Weston,*

"It was resolved unanimously

"That the unwearied zeal which has on all occasions been manifested by the Rev. John Garwood, and the Rev. Robert Ainslie, the Secretaries of the London City Mission, and more especially in reference to the efforts which have been recently made with such success in preventing the desecration of the Sabbath at public taverns, calls for the expression, by the members of this Committee, of cordial thanks, and at the same time of Christian regard, and of personal esteem and attachment; and while each member of the Committee desires thus to record his sense of the benefits which have resulted to the Institution by the labours of its Secretaries, they are constrained devoutly to acknowledge the hand of Divine Providence which has favoured them with officers so distinguished by active and diffusive piety.

"That a copy of this Resolution be inserted in the next month's Magazine."

*Among the letters from absent members of the Committee concurring in a vote of thanks, was one from R. C. L. Bevan, Esq., in which he says, "Perhaps the most gratifying mode to the Secretaries in which I can join in a warm expression of thanks is to take this opportunity of enclosing a donation for the Society in which we all feel so lively an interest." The cheque was for 501.

Macintosh, Printer, Great New Street, London.