CHRISTIAN WITNESS, AND Church Member's Magazine : THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 1846. He who freely magnifies what hath been nobly done, and fears not to declare as freely what might be done better, gives ye the best covenant of his fidelity; and that his loyalest affection and his hope wait on your proceedings,-Milton. Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a progeny of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are: nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.-Ibid. PREFACE. In closing the labours of another year, our friends will expect to hear the result of an experiment which they have done so much to render decisive. The facts, then, as nearly as can be ascertained, are these:-the total circulation of the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, for the year now expiring, is about 379,254, ranging from 30,571 to 33,554, and giving an average monthly sale of 31,604; and that of the CHRISTIAN'S PENNY MAGAZINE is about ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED COPIES. From this, then, it will be seen that the WITNESS has nobly stood its ground against its more popular rival. It was supposed at the outset, and not without reason that the WITNESS must necessarily be affected by the FRIEND, and it cannot be doubted that its last year's list of subscribers was considerably reduced. The maintenance of its position was secured by new subscribers replacing those who had drawn off in favour of the FRIEND. These facts greatly redound to the credit of our friends, who have sustained us with a promptitude and an energy fully equal to our expectations. Nothing could have realized such results but a degree of enlightened interest and generous zeal such as was never before excited in behalf of any kindred project. While such a response cannot fail to prove highly gratifying to the CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES, to ourselves it is a matter of intense and altogether unalloyed satisfaction, showing, as it does, that honest endeavours to benefit the Millions, wellconceived, and executed with a fair measure of diligence and vigour, begin at length to be appreciated, acknowledged, and sustained. The experiment made by these journals, while it suffices to determine the present state of public opinion with respect to the principles of Nonconformity, by contrast, also, verifies the sagacious conclusions of Foster, as recorded in his Life and Correspondence. At the commencement of the Eclectic Review, "Churchmen and Dissenters were united in its support, on the understanding that the points at issue betwixt them were not to be brought under discussion." Foster saw at once that the certain results of such an arrangement would be feebleness in the way, and ruin in the end. The mighty spirit of the Essayist spurned the fetters of the compact, and resented it as an indignity offered to truth. According to his biographer, he "made frequent and pointed remonstrances, which, combined with the tone of several of his articles, contributed to a settlement of the journal on a Nonconformist basis." In a letter to the Editor, after alluding to certain clergymen who were concerned in the management of the Review, he says, "It is utterly impossible to keep on terms with them, I am persuaded, but at the cost of injuring the character of the Review for anything like spirit and independence." Again, pursuing the subject, Foster proceeds: "For it is to me as clear as the sunshine in which I am writing, that nothing of a useful work of this kind will ever succeed that does not substantially please the Dissenters; and this may be done without the slightest approach toward anything like forward declaration in their favour: but it absolutely never can be done by a trembling, reverential forbearance on all subjects relating to corruptions and tyranny, and wicked men involved in the history and practice of Church and State. There |