because a hope was at that time entertained, that the demonstration thus given of correctness, in this one case, might operate not only as presumptive, but as conclusive, evidence of actual correctness, in other cases: in cases in which such tokens of correctness, not being capable of being afforded without a palpable falsehood, are accordingly not visible.*

IV. Cases, in which the acts in question neither were,-nor, for the deceptious purpose in question, required to be believed to be,—acts of the Society at large: being manifestly so many acts of certain officers, acting under the authority of the Society,in a matter, to which, without contravening established usage, the proper tokens of authenticity and correctness could not be refused.†

V. Case, in which the instrument in question,though in reality not competent to be issued by any person, otherwise than with the express sanction of the governing Committee,-yet, being, upon the face of it, in respect of the foremost and most prominent part of it, within the competence of

* V.-1. Anno 1812, May 9.-Report I. p. 23.-Report of the Committee, called the Building Committee: of which mention has already been made in § 6. and elsewhere.

† VI.—1. Anno 1812, May 19.-Auditors' allowance of the Accounts.-Report I. pp. 58, 59.

VII. 2. Anno 1813, June 1.-Ditto.-Report II. pp. 200, 201.

VIII.-3. Anno 1814, June 1.-Ditto.-Report III. pp. 182, 183.

the Secretary,-received, in conjunction with the signature of the Secretary, a determinate day of date: viz. under the assurance, that,-howsoever it might be known to the members of the said Committee in general, that, at that day, there was no meeting of the said Committee,-yet, under the notion of its being given as and for the act of the Secretary alone, without its having received, because without its having stood in need of receiving, the sanction of the Committee, or under the notion of its having received the sanction of the Committee on some former occasion or occasions,no such reproach as that of wilful misrepresentation would, in the eyes of any of those persons, appear imputable to it.*

* IX.—1. Anno 1812, April 8th.-Paper, intituled « Adver"tisement of the Society;" Report I. p. 58. No. VII.—What it opens with is, an article of information, such as the Secretary would of himself be competent to give: viz. information of a matter of fact, the opening of a school,-which had just then taken place. So far so good. But thereupon, as already observed, comes a quantity of matter, which,-being delivered, as speaking, upon a variety of subjects, the mind, not merely of the governing Committee, but of the whole Society,— could not with propriety have been delivered in any such character, without an act of the governing body to sanction it. The matter of fact being, however, of such a nature, as naturally to call, not only for a determinate year and month, but for a determinate day in which to place it,-the deficiency would have been apt to excite attention and remark, if, in this instance, as in so many others, the mention of the determinate day had been

VI. Cases in which the acts reported, being acts of other assemblages of persons,-viz. bodies acting, in various parts of England, in union with this Society, and under directions from the General Committee, and these acts having, in the usual manner, received, of course, the usual marks of authentication, and, amongst others, the designation of the determinate days, on which they respectively received the sanction of the several bodies,-under these circumstances, to have truncated the form of authentication, by leaving out the designation of the day, would naturally have called forth attention and surprise, on the part of readers in general; but more particularly on the part of the persons of whom the local meetings in question had been composed. The designation of the day was accordingly, in these instances, left to stand. Standing as it does, true it is that, by the contrast it forms with the totally unauthenticated state of some of the acts given as the acts of the General Committee, in some instances, and the mutilated state of the form of authentication in others, it operates in some sort in confirmation of the suspicion of spuriousness, when once brought to view. But, lying as they do, dispersed in so vast a body of

omitted. The risk of suspicion incurred by insertion, presenting itself as being inferior to the risk that would have been incurred by omission, mention of the particular day may accordingly be seen inserted.

L

matter, an assurance which under these circumstances might naturally enough be entertained, is— that under such circumstances, these tokens of spuriousness would escape notice. On the other hand, had the designation of the days been in these instances truncated,-viz. for the purpose of cutting them down, to a conformity with the pattern, exhibited in the representation given in these Reports, of the acts therein ascribed to the governing bodies of the Metropolitan Society; in this case the probability would have been-that, by the bare appearance of such truncation, in the face of each such instrument standing singly, the suspicion thus produced would have been much stronger, than would have been produced by an indication, for the furnishing of which the confrontation and comparison of two different classes of instruments would have been, and has accordingly been here, found necessary.*

* X.-1. 1812, January 29.-Proceedings at a Country Meeting, at Exeter. Report I. p. 39.

XI.-2. 1812, March 2.-Proceedings at Thorpe, in the Deanery of Tendering, in Essex. Report I. p. 50.

XII.-3. 1812, March 6.-Proceedings at Winchester. Report I. p. 49: with several antecedently mentioned dates.

XIII.-4. Anno 1812, October 14.-" Paper, circulated by "the Norfolk and Norwich Society, for the Education of the "Poor in the Principles of the Established Church." In Report II. p. 179 to 182, under the above title, this Paper forms in this Report a separate article of itself, having for this purpose

VII. Cases in which the act reported is the act of a party, not in connexion with the Society.*

Such are the circumstances, under which the sincere reader will have to pronounce his judgment, on the subject of the omissions and truncations which have thus been brought to view :-to pronounce→→ in the first place, whether they had for their cause mere accident or design: and, if design, what that

been detached from the paper, to which it properly belongs, viz. No. I. "Summary of Reports from Societies, &c. in Union "with the National Society." In this detached paper, (p. 181.) not only is the day, as above, designated, but prefixt to the names of the three persons officiating as Secretaries, are the words, "By order of the Committee."-Thereupon in the next page (p. 182,) follow three paragraphs, to the last of which is attached another date, viz. Norwich, 28th October, 1812, but without signature, or any mention of any Committee.

XIV.-5. Anno 1812, October 19.-Proceedings at a Meeting at North Walsham, in Waxham Deanery, Norfolk. Report II. p. 183 to 185.-Concerning persons present, information is here given in these words: viz. "Present, the Honourable Colonel "Wodehouse, in the chair,-Rev. Dr. Hay, and others of the "Clergy and Laity." Quere, Who is this Dr. Hay, who, after the Honourable Chairman, is every body, while all the "others,” Clergy and Laity together, are nobody? It looks as if these others were such, that on account of the smallness of their number, or on some other account, prudence forbad the bringing of their names to view.

* XV.-1. Anno 1813, March 9.-Application made in the name of the East-India Company, for two Schoolmasters trained by the Society, to be sent to St. Helena. Report II. P. 16.