The "Church of England Messenger" is now in its fortieth year of existence, having been commenced in the year 1850, Bishop Charles Perry and the Rev. Samuel Edward Bloomfield being its first editors, the latter of whom was replaced two years later by the Rev. Henry Hewett Paulet Handfield, who is still a valued contributor to this paper. We have before us an old volume containing an article on the discovery of gold at Ballarat, from which it is plain that the more sober-minded members of the community so far from being elated at the prospect of unbounded wealth for themselves and their children, were rather disposed to lament over the wreck of social order and demoralisation of national character which they foresaw as the result of the general desertion of legitimate business for precarious adventure, and the irruption into the country in quest of gain of all the most ruffianly and godless spirits of the old and new worlds. In the same number, January, 1852, we find announced - the appointment of the Venerable Hussey Burgh Macartney, D.D., Archdeacon of Geelong, to the dignity of Dean of Melbourne, and to the office of minister of the Cathedral Church of St. James, - and the ordination, on the 21st of the preceding month, of the Rev. John Potter, B.A., and Henry Hewett Paulet Handfield, as deacons, and the Rev. Edward Tanner and Charles Thomas Perks, A.D., King's College, London. We have also an account of the "Primary Visitation of the Lord Bishop of Melbourne," with a list of the clergy present, in which only three names occur of clergymen now in the colony, viz. - those of the Dean, Canon Handfield, and the Incumbent (then as now) of St. Stephens, Richmond.

From a pastoral letter of Bishop Perry, "to the laity of the united Church of England and Ireland, in the diocese of Melbourne," we learn that as yet State aid to religion had taken no defined or reliable form, that for the maintenance of the clergy 'after their arrival in the colony,' and for the building of churches - the Church had to depend mainly on the voluntary contributions of its members - that the entire expenditure for stipends, purchase of sites, maintenance of schools, &c., for the first year after the foundation of the diocese was £985 8s. 3d. - which in four year's time had increased to £4,527 14s. 5d. - that for these amounts the Bishop had made himself responsible; but that at a Conference of Clergy and Laity, held in Melbourne, in June and July, 1851, (of which all memory seems to have been lost - for we have never even heard it referred to), an Annual Stipend Fund, and an Endowment Fund were established by resolution, the former to be administered by an executive committee who should relieve the Bishop of his responsibility, and secure the clergy regularity in the receipt of their stipends, the latter "to provide against the fluctuation, or failure, or insufficiency of those various precarious sources of revenue, on which the church then relied," and to obtain by accumulation a capital which should secure the stability of the church in future years. To these laudable objects we read that two individuals unnamed, contributed £500 each, and two others, £100 each, in annual instalments of £20. The Diocesan Society, which seems to be the true parent of the Bishop of Melbourne's Fund and the Board of Missions are also spoken of as already at work. We find indeed a report of the first annual public meeting of the latter Society, among the speakers of which occur the names of the Dean of Melbourne, the Rev. Charles Thomas Perks, Mr. Thomas Turner A'Beckett, and Mr. Stawell.

After an interesting letter from "the community of Pitcairn's Island," and their Pastor, returning thanks for some articles which had been presented to them - and asking for a medicine chest, of the value of £25, for which "having no silver and gold," they would be glad to make payment in kind - we come upon mention of the Diocesan Grammar School, to which the Mayor of Melbourne, J. T. Smith, Esq., had offered one silver and two gold medals, to be competed for at the June examination, also upon the account of the Bishop's first visit to the gold fields, (Mt. Alexander), April 14th, 1852, when he conducted Divine Service three times, to orderly and tolerably numerous congregations. The open expanse of heaven served them for a cathedral, and a gum tree stump formed an. excellent substitute for a pulpit. There were present at the morning and evening services about 200 people - and in the afternoon about 400. At a meeting subsequently held, the Bishop presiding, it was unanimously resolved that a subscription be opened for the erection of one or more buildings for public worship at the gold fields, and that the following gentlemen form a committee to carry out the object proposed - Rev. John Herbert Gregory, Messrs. Anketell, Bull, Ford. Marsden, Walker, Pace, Ralston, and Drs. Homan and Roach. On this journey we read that the Bishop's horse fell, and rolled over his rider, who, however, sustained no serious injury.

Next month (12 monthly issues being bound up in the volume) we learn that the Rev. Septimus Lloyd Chase and another clergyman "may be expected to arrive from England in the course of a few weeks." Later on we notice a meeting of the congregation of St. Kilda - where a school house had been built, and fitted up as a temporary place of worship, at the cost of £450 - and the formation of a committee of which the Rev. Henry William Wilkinson Liddiard is president - to collect money for the erection of a church, and the stipend of a minister. The names of Messrs. Jennings and Belcher are found in connection with this committee. School feasts are reported in connection with the parishes of St. James', St. Peters' and St. Mark's, Collingwood. At a visitation of the clergy of the Western District, held at Portland, April 1st, we have the names of Rev. Thomas Henry Braim, Belfast; Rev. Francis Thomas Cusack Russell, the Rev. Peter Teulon Beamish, Warnambool, as present.

A paragraph on the same page announces that the Rev. Theodore Carlos Benoni Stretch, an English clergyman of considerable experience in the ministry, was to sail for Melbourne in January, and might therefore (this in June) be daily expected. An article on the state of the Church in the Diocese of Tasmania, speaks of serious differences of opinion between the Bishop of that diocese and some of his clergy - reaching indeed such a point that the Bishop had refused to accept the testimony of those clergymen for the doctrinal soundness of a candidate for orders, - and counsels mutual forbearance and conciliatory dispositions.

We next light upon a decision of the Archbishop of Canterbury - which we now know to have been erroneous - to the effect that all the Bishops of Australia were suffragans of the Metropolitan Bishop of Sydney, and that an appeal in all cases lay from them to him, when his decision would be final. Appeals from the Bishop of Sydney as diocesan lay, it was stated, to the Archbishop of Canterbury. A little later on we find Mr. Thomas Turner A'Beckett lecturing on "our present position and duties with reference to the Church of England Young Men's Society," (where is it? we should very much like to revive it, if defunct).

Under the head of varieties, we learn that 1250 copies of the "Messenger" were sold monthly - we can only say that the churchmen in those days, in proportion to their number, must have taken a far greater interest in their church paper than they do now.

In this eventful year we come also upon the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of New Zealand, containing the 'general principles' which he (Bishop George Augustus Selwyn) proposed as the basis for the constitution of the church in that colony, also upon a summary of a Bill introduced by Mr. Gladstone into the House of Commons, for enabling the members of the Church of England in the various colonies to manage their own ecclesiastical affairs.

An article on Public Education does not hesitate to say "that the establishment of a rigid national system of education throughout the colony of Victoria would be impossible, and that if it were possible, it would be most unjust."

Reference is made in the September issue to the arrival of the Rev. Theodore Carlos Benoni Stretch, and the taking of the contract for the pewing of St. Paul's Church, Melbourne - to the incumbency of which the Rev. Septimus Lloyd Chase, had been appointed.

In the October column we have the report of a meeting of members of St. Paul's Church, Geelong - at which the sum of £1000 - (to be raised in contributions and loans of £50 each, from friends of the church), was voted for the completion of the building, and a most cordial resolution was passed inviting the Rev. Theodore Carlos Benoni Stretch to undertake the charge of the parish.

We read in November of the appointment of the Rev. John Cheyne to officiate in the neighbourhood of Forest Creek, "on alternate Sundays - when Mr. Gregory visits Bendigo."

In the same month an appeal was issued for a special fund of £2,000 to bring out from England not less than ten additional clergymen.

A very interesting narrative is found in the December number, of a missionary voyage around the Polynesian Islands by the Bishop of New Zealand and Newcastle, in the "Border Maid," - for the purpose of bringing back boys to be trained at St. John's College, Auckland.

This most interesting volume - the contents of which are invaluable to the historian of the church in this diocese - closes with the announcement of the opening of St. Stephen's Church, Richmond, "in a very unfinished state," the resignation of the Venerable J. H. Davis, Incumbent of St. Peter's, and Archdeacon of Melbourne, a description of the design for the 'new church' of St. Paul's, Melbourne, "on the best site that could possibly have been selected for a place of worship," - intended to accommodate, when completed, 1088 persons, - and a report of a public meeting held at Williamstown, on October 25th, to "take into consideration the necessity for erecting a church in their township."