agent to conduct a weekly service on board the Welsh vessels in the Pool, the following report has been received :—

"The Bethel meetings among the Welsh were commenced on the 14th of September, 1843, and, with the exception of three evenings, have been carried on regularly in the vessels of the Welsh sailors. The average attendance may be estimated from twenty to thirty every week, and on two or three occasions there were not less than from one hundred to one hundred and fifty present. The Welsh agency has been of no expense to the Society hitherto. Messrs. Evans and Harris, who are the chief supporters of the agency, and who have sacrificed their time and comforts to a very considerable degree, left their homes in cold winter evenings, and entered the cabins, the holds, and the decks of the vessels, inviting the sailors to accept the rich provisions of the gospel, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Sometimes they had the pleasure of hearing and uniting in prayer with the captain of the vessel, and some of the men whom he employed. I might write much more, but am afraid of growing tedious."

Since the last annual meeting an agency has been established at.

GREENHITHE, AND AT LONG REACH

the cause of vital godliness advances with a pleasing progress. These various statements affecting the character and progress of the cause in which we are engaged, are substantially and satisfactorily confirmed by

THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THAMES AGENCY,

who has given the closest attention to each department of labour. both on the river and on the shore. The following is his summary of what has been done :

Bethel services held during the year, 625; aggregate of seamen present, 10,748. Services held on shore, 243; Tracts distributed, 23,845; Libraries supplied to ships, 22; Bethel flags sold or granted, 18.

It is not possible (he says) to present a complete view of the agency of the Society in actual operation; nor can even the agents themselves know what is the amount of good really effected. The daily visitation of the shipping-the casual conversationthe passing remark, or the more formal appeal—the gift of a tract-—the prayer— the address the sermon-are all exerting an influence, silent it may be, and unobserved, but the character of which may be exhibited years hence, and the precious fruits of which may be enjoyed when time shall be no more.

The Superintendent has also devoted a little attention to Seamen's Boarding Houses, and after describing their wretched condition, says :-

Did the state of our finances admit of the expenditure, an agency appointed exclusively to the visitation of sailors' lodging-houses, and of other places of resort while on shore, would be as productive of important results as the operations of the Society afloat.

In adverting to the important assistance rendered to the Society by its various auxiliaries throughout the kingdom, especially its metropolitan associations, the Directors are constrained gratefully to recognise the valuable agency conducted by the East London

Auxiliary, under the direction of whose committee a weekly Bethel service is conducted. The lodging-houses in that vicinity are visited, seamen are invited to attend the places of worship, and large numbers of religious tracts are distributed. On all their efforts in thus effectually co-operating with this Committee, may a rich and abundant blessing rest!

For the liberal aid received during the year from the Religious Tract Society, and for the generous grant of Bibles and Testaments made by the Naval and Military Bible Society, the Directors offer their cordial thanks.

BELL WHARF PREMISES.

The Directors having quitted the premises formerly held by them, at a heavy annual rent, at Bell Wharf, and occupied as a place of public worship and school-rooms for the education of children of both sexes, have entered into arrangements for a temporary accommodation both of the congregation and the conducting of the schools. The object of our missionaries will be to invite the attendance of the seamen on the means of grace both on the Sabbath and in the week, whilst the schools will be under the same system of instruction and superintendence; and it is hoped will still maintain the same character and efficiency.

The arrangements are not permanent, but temporary. The Directors still cherish the hope that the metropolis of the kingdom will ere long exhibit a building, or buildings, in every way adapted to the important objects which they have in view, and which are indispensable to the temporal and moral welfare of the sailor.

PROVINCIAL AGENCIES.

The Directors have the satisfaction to state, that these have been multiplied during the year, whilst those formerly established have been distinguished with the most unequivocal tokens of

success.

In Sunderland, Newcastle, North and South Shields, Shoreham, Torquay, Brixham, Ramsgate, and various ports in Cornwall; in Swansea, Haverfordwest, and some minor ports in Wales; the general aspect of the work is truly encouraging.

IRELAND.

There are in the sister isle several ports of sufficient consequence to demand some special effort. There, as in many places of England, justice has not been done to the sailor. But Ireland is now becoming alive to his claims, and is prepared to act in the true spirit of her warm and generous devotion.

"In the summer of 1812, I arrived once more in my native land, and having had an interview with the owners, set off with the most intense anxiety to my home, where I found my wife seriously ill, occasioned by the wretched conduct of Charles. After my departure, not having any check, (for his mother's advice was completely disregarded,) he sunk deeper than ever in vice. Coming home one night. in a state of intoxication, and being severely reproached by her, he struck her. The shock occasioned by her still beloved son's conduct, and the uncertainty as to my fate, were too much for her, and she sunk under it. On my entering the room she swooned, and could not be recovered for some time. When she was able to speak, I inquired for Charles, when she gave me such a detail of his conduct as completely horrified me.

'Midnight came- -one, and two o'clock struck, but he came not; when, about half an hour afterwards, I heard a violent knocking, accompanied by oaths and threats. The door was opened, and he staggered upstairs to the sick room of his mother, when he saw me sitting at the side of the bed. He uttered no more oaths, no more threats then, but glared at me from his distended eyeballs, which seemed starting from their sockets. His appearance was truly horrible his clothes were ragged, he foamed at the mouth, and he seemed sunk to the depths of infamy and disgrace. I shall never forget that moment; the recollection of it will go to the grave with me. Some unintelligible sounds escaped his lips, but I took him by the collar and thrust him out, when he staggered to his own room, and threw himself on his bed, from which he did not rise till the following day at noon: A confused idea of what had occurred the preceding night was in his mind, but he could form no connected idea respecting it. When he saw me he could not utter a word, but seemed sunk in the deepest remoise and self-abasement. I told him, that after all his ill-conduct,

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by which he had completely forfeited any right to my favour, I would yet give him another trial, to see if he would relinquish his evil habits. I therefore procured him a berth as mate of the brig now coming in, and promised him my future support and protection, while he continued to deserve it. For some years, with the exception of two or three instances of drunkenness, in one of which he fell from the mainyard, and narrowly escaped drowning, he went on well, being as good a seaman as ever stepped on deck. In about four years, the captain dying, he took the command. When I saw him again, it was with pleasure, for I fondly hoped that the misery he had endured from his former way of life, compared with the satisfaction arising from the consciousness of having done his duty, would serve as a warning. But the events which afterwards occurred, proved that I had bitterly deceived myself.

"During the time he was on board as mate, the cabin-boy seemed the particular object of my son's aversion. The boy, who was considerably younger than he, was not only a native of the same place, but they had been at school together. One would think that circumstance would have procured him some favour; but indulgence in strong drink steeled my son's heart against the common feelings of humanity. The boy had several times complained of his conduct to the captain, who severely reprimanded my son, and told him if he did not cease ill-using the boy, he should represent it to the owners. This caused him to be circumspect, and to behave with more humanity than before. On the last voyage out, repeated cruelties were inflicted on the boy, whose life was rendered completely miserable. They had taken in a cargo of timber, but had delayed coming away from Quebec till the end of October, when the cold had set in most intensely. The navigation was extremely difficult, the ice being very strong; but instead of keeping a good look-out, as he ought to have done in such circumstances, my son was almost constantly at the rum-bottle; and while under the influence of the deadly liquor, would rush on deck like a madman, and if the poor cabin boy stood in his way, (for on no other could he inflict such treatment with impunity,) he would seize a rope's end, and lash him till his back was quite covered with wounds. One day, he came on deck, and asked him the reason some trifling thing had not been done in the cabin; and on the boy's replying that he had been employed in cooking, he called him a lazy dog. He then caught hold of the poor fellow, passed a rope round his middle, flung him over the ship's side, and dragged him along for about a quarter of an hour, the vessel then going about six knots. He then hauled him up, and threw him on a coil of rope, at the same time uttering some brutal threats, and commanding the men not to touch him, but to see if that would cure his sulkiness. On the master's going below, one of the crew lifted him up, when he was found to be completely insensible, and vomited a great quantity of water. He became delirious from the effects of the cold and fright; and the mate told me it was heartrending to hear him supplicating his mother (his father being dead)

to save him from the cruelty of the wicked captain. He died next day, when he was ordered to be flung overboard, which was done. From that time the recollection of the horrid deed he had committed haunted my son incessantly, and deprived him of all peace of mind. The moment the vessel reached England, he fled to our house like a maniac, and took to his bed, from which he never stirred. He called me to his bed-side, and said, 'Father, I feel that within which tells me that I must soon die. Death I cannot look upon without dread in any shape, but the ignominy of dying by the hands of the executioner is what I cannot submit to. Drinking-drinking, has been the deadly cause of all my misery. It has made me a wretch through life, and I sum it all up by being A MURDERER!' I stood aghast. I really thought that liquor had turned his brain. He then began in an incoherent manner to acquaint me with the circumstances of the death of his victim, but I shrunk from him with horror. Ah! you fly from me too, do you?" said he, with tremendous vehemence. 'You, who are the author of my crimes,-you, who nourished the habit, and set me the example. Your own conscience tells you that you did, and do you leave me?' I heard his hideous ravings as I fled down stairs, calling on me to come back to save him from perdition.

"In about an hour, finding all quiet, I stepped softly up-stairs-and what a sight for a parent! My son, my beloved son, lay on the bed with a horrible gash in his throat, inflicted with a penknife, which was firmly grasped in his hand. I fell senseless on the floor at the horrid spectacle. When I recovered, I found myself alone with the corpse. I crawled to the door, and rather fell than ran down stairs, and alarmed the neighbourhood. My wife had fallen asleep just before I went up-stairs, and therefore knew nothing of the awful circumstance till the people rushed in. I thought she never would recover the shock; and time, although it has blunted the feelings of us both, can never erase the remembrance of that night from our memories.

'Spirits have never passed my lips since that time. I should feel as if I were drinking a deadly poison both for body and soul, and the image of my boy were warning me to dash it from my lips.

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During the time my son was absent on his last voyage, I had obtained the command of another vessel. I was very soon afterwards wrecked on the coast of France, and carried prisoner to Quimper, whence I had just returned, penniless and dispirited, when what I have related occurred. No owner would ever entrust me with another ship, and we experienced what it was to want almost the common necessaries of life, till, by the death of an old aunt, who, while living, would not have given me a farthing to save me from starvation, I came into possession of a small sum, on the interest of which we live as comfortably as we can expect.

"The horrid end of our beloved son crosses our minds sometimes but I thank God that he has brought me to see the evils occasioned by the use of spirits; and in the midst of all, I cannot but acknowledge His preserving hand. My dear Sir, I shall not live to see the