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faction of beholding, any one of them, any comrades besides the two others. Of so much as a single person,-over and above the number, without which that could have been done which is stated as being done,-are any tokens to be found. To seven persons, or sets of persons, by that same number of different Resolutions, thanks are ordered, on the motion of the "President." Thus all that, in the way of thanksgiving, could be done by the President, it is by the President that it is done.— By him, by whom so many thanks were given, it had been hard if no thanks had been received. But the President could not move thanks to the President. For the execution of this important office, provision is accordingly made of The Earl of Shaftesbury-Similar to the demand for thanks,— which had thus produced itself, and thus received its supply, in the instance of the President,—was a correspondent demand in the instance of the General Committee. In the persons of the pair of illustrious Members just named,in these, and, for aught appears, in no others,-was embodied at this time the said General Committee. But the modesty of these two illustrious persons would not suffer either of them to move thanks for the joint use of himself and the other: for the supply of this demand for thanks, their prudence had accordingly made provision of Earl Nelson; whose name, illustrious as it is, does not display itself upon the

list of the 52 Members, of whom the General Committee is stated as being at that time composed.*

Of the suspicion,-that the Meeting, stated in Report I. as being held in June 1812 at Sion College, being the first of the Meetings stated as being held at that place, was-if any such Meeting really had place-a private one,-present only the few that were in the secret,-a confirmation may, as it should seem, be afforded, by a comparison of the terms by which the Meeting of 1812 is designated, viz. in Report I.;-compared with the terms in which the Meeting of 1813 is designated, viz. in Report II. In Report II. the Meeting there mentioned as held at Sion College in June 1813, is styled the "General Annual Meeting" of the Society. Yet,though at that same place a meeting, styled the Annual Meeting of the Society, had in Report I. been stated as held in 1812,-this of 1813 is not styled the second. On the other hand, the Meeting stated in Report I. as held in 1812-this Meeting, though there styled the "Annual Meeting" of the

* In addition to the above acts of thanksgiving, the only two acts which, on that occasion, are stated as having had place, are -One, for the "forthwith" publishing a correct statement of "the proceedings of the Society for the last year ;"—the other, an appointment made of Auditors. It is at the motion of that same most Reverend President that, on both those occasions, the requisite Resolutions are stated as having been come to.

Society, is not there styled the general annual meeting, nor is the word general at all applied to it. By the name of The first of the intended General Annual Meetings of the Society at large-by this, or by some equivalent name, would not this meeting have been designated,-if it had been what the second annual meeting, held at that same place, seems to have been intended to be passed upon the public for? That is to say, not a close meeting,such as those of the governing body, the General Committee, avowedly are, but an open meeting, into which all persons, being members of the Society at large, should find entrance: in other words, "all Subscribers of not less than one guinea "annually, or Benefactors to the amount of ten "guineas:" all these being persons, who, by the 10th of the fourteen Resolutions reported in Report I. p. 8, as come to at a meeting preliminary to the formation of the Society, are declared to be " qua❝lified to attend such meeting:" viz. per "Reso"lution 8, a general meeting to be holden annu"ally."

In the account given of the meeting of 1812, not so much as the appearance, any more than the name, of a general meeting, i. e. of an open meeting, is attempted to be given to it. But, in the account given, as above, of the meeting of 1813, not only the name of a general meeting, but the appearance of an open meeting is actually given to it.

Members of the General Committee, two at the

least, viz. the Archbishop President and the Earl of Shaftesbury,-whose business it is to thank the one. of them the other, there they are:-Non-Member of that same illustrious Committee, Earl Nelson, -brought thither to thank them both,-there he is: the noble and not the less Reverend Non-Member of the Committee-Orator and self-deputed Representative of all the other Members of this National Society of England-as, upon another occasion, Orator Cloots was of the whole human

race.

From the comparison thus made, the inference is it an ill-grounded one, viz. that of the wording thus employed, at least in the instance of the meeting of 1812, the object was to cause a close meeting to be taken for an open one? For the variation,-observable as above, in the expression,-on this hypothesis an adequate cause will be found: on any other hypothesis, no such cause will (it is believed) be to be found for it.

Be this as it may, this,-as it appears to have been the first, so does it appear to have been, and moreover to be likely to remain, the last-representation of the Melo-drama, intituled, A General Annual Meeting of the National Society.-Out comes Report III., date in the title-page 1815: and in it neither as holden at Sion College, nor as holden at the National Society's Central School, nor in short as holden at any other place, has any trace of any such meeting been found.

The year 1814 is passed away,-the month of June in that year-the appointed month of annual thanksgiving is passed away,-and no more such thanks have been given at any such place. No more Earls of Shaftesbury :-no more Earls Nelson. -Exhausted by that same grand effort, the stock of thanksgivers is gone. Happily, not yet exhausted is the stock of thanks. But, no more Earls being found to administer them to either, the most Reverend President and his Reverend Secretary, confined to the theatre furnished by their own Report,-add now, to their severer labours, the more agreeable task of thanking one another and themselves. The thanks, so justly due to the most Reverend the President, may be seen in p. 30: the thanks not less justly due, though in his subordi nate sphere, to the Reverend the Secretary, may be seen in page the twenty-eighth,

§ VI. Proofs of the system of imposition continued, II. Sub-Committees and their meetings, none.

Thus much as to the General Committee-its meetings and proceedings.-Now as to Sub-Committees.

Not inconsiderable is the importance of the functions, and thence of the existence, of these SubCommittees. Not indeed in the first Report, but, however, in Report II, (p. 5) the information is

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