was excited; the ultimate consequence of which, according to the "Address,” was, that "officers and members, to the number of 30,000," withdrew from the Society. The Minutes, which are the only authentic report for the Society, show that, during the same year, 1835, whatever number of members might have withdrawn from the Society, there was an increase in the total number of more than ten thousand. The great defection of which the "Address" speaks, it attributes mainly to "the adoption and promulgation of certain Declaratory Rules" by the Conference, which, it says, "entirely subverted these very compacts, (1795 and 1797,) denuded the church of the right of admitting and expelling its own members, and arrogated to itself all authority, legislative and executive. This audacious usurpation was completed by a Declaration, also published in the Minutes of that year, to the effect, that all members who could not acquiesce in this system of discipline, must either peaceably retire, or be excluded from the Connexion." We make no comment upon this absurd piece of writing, any further than to invite all who read it, and are inclined to believe it, to examine for themselves, and see whether it really is so. And in order that such of our friends who have heard of, but have not seen, these enactments of 1835, may judge of their tenor, and of the spirit in which they were made, we will give the one to which there is reference in the foregoing paragraph.

Speaking of "associations" which had been formed in opposition to Methodism, the Resolution of the Conference says:

Such plans and proceedings, moreover, are plainly opposed to the supreme and unrepealable law of Christ in the New Testament, already repeatedly referred to in this Address. "Debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, back bitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults," are there deprecated and condemned in the strongest and most affecting terms. We are enjoined to mark them that cause divisions,—if any man that is called a brother be a railer, with such an one, no, not to eat, to live in peace, that the God of love and peace may be with us, to let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from us,—to follow peace with all men,-if it be possible, as much as in us lieth, to live peaceably with all men,—to know them which labour among us, and are over us in the Lord, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake, and be at peace among ourselves, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,—and, finally, to desire that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. St. James declares, that "where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work; but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy; and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." The Conference, for these reasons, deem it unnecessary at present to provide against these modern forms of offence by any new and more specific regulation; because so much of moral evil and un-Christian practice is involved in the plans and proceedings of the said Association,-and of other similar confederacies, by whatever name disguised, that to give them countenance, or to co-operate with them, is to be a partaker and abettor of various palpable transgressions of the commandments of God, and a violator, in some instances of the letter, and in others of the whole spirit and tenor, of our established Rules. It is therefore hereby declared to be the unanimous judgment of the Conference, That any person,

who, instead of peaceably retiring from our Connexion, if he decidedly disapprove of our system, either of doctrine or discipline, and cannot conscientiously even acquiesce in them, endeavours to retain and to employ his position among us for the purposes of opposition and strife,- —or who continues, after due admonition, to be a member of “The Grand Central Association," or of any other confederacy formed for the object of systematic agitation,—is guilty of a flagrant transgression of that morality of the New Testament, the observance of which was a principal condition of his admission into our Society, and must be considered to have justly forfeited his claim to the privileges of our religious fellowship. In applying to particular cases this righteous general rule, the Conference exhorts all the Superintendents to exercise, in connexion with a holy firmness, the moderation and mercy of the Gospel ; bearing long, and dealing tenderly though faithfully, with the weak, the illinformed, and the misled; while they do not shrink from the effectual execution of necessary Christian discipline on those who by overt acts of hostility and disturbance identify themselves as the leaders, or open partisans, of disaffection and faction.

Christian men will judge for themselves, whether this language is so un-scriptural and tyrannical as some have represented. And they will not be unprepared to hear, that, after the publication of this and similar Resolutions, all of them indicating the same fidelity to Christ, the agitation, which had been so unrighteously begun, was stayed. Methodism prospered both at home and abroad. Its sphere of operation was greatly enlarged. Its means became vastly increased. During this period, also, the ever-to-be-remembered Centenary of Methodism was celebrated; when it was abundantly evident that our people were attached to the system, and to its institutions and laws. And we find that, whereas, in 1835, the total number of members under its care amounted to 371,251, in 1849 these had increased to 468,241,—that is, nearly 100,000 members were added to the church in the space of fourteen years. Now, with such signs of blessing, up to this time at least, (1849,) Methodists were warranted in saying, "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!"

Hitherto, with the exception of the extract from the "Minutes" of 1835, we have quoted mainly from the "Address," that persons who read these observations may see how little ground there is, even on the showing of the "Delegates" themselves, for all the reproach and calumny which have been heaped upon the Conference, whom they charge with "allowing the Connexion to be rent in pieces, rather than resign any part of its usurped and unscriptural power." According to their "Address," though there were disturbances after the death of Mr. Wesley in 1791, yet in 1797 a "solemn covenant," promulgated by the Conference, "quickly restored peace and harmony;" and for thirty years "no further disturbance with regard to general discipline occurred." Then the introduction of an organ into a chapel at Leeds "occasions" one. Some years later, the establishment of a Theological Institution occasions another-not the Declaratory Resolutions of 1835, as the "Address" so falsely insinuates: those, be it remembered,

were the consequence of the agitation, not the cause of it. Will "Protestant Evangelical Churches" think these two occurrences sufficient ground for an agitation in any religious community? We believe not. Nor do we imagine that, when they look into the history of the present agitation, they will think there has been any better ground for it. And we proceed, therefore, to supply a few details,—not, indeed, taken from the "Delegates' Address," but drawn from our own personal knowledge of the facts.

Some time prior to the Conference of 1849, and while the Connexion was still rejoicing in its prosperity, certain mischievous slanders were published and circulated respecting several eminent Ministers in the body, with the avowed intention of damaging them in the esteem of their brethren, and of the people at large. Without encumbering this paper with extracts from these slanderous publications, which were altogether anonymous, we may give our readers some idea of their contents, by quoting from the pamphlet of a Minister who is not connected with our own community, and who has no very favourable feeling towards the Conference. Speaking of the "Fly-Sheets," he (Mr. Eckett) says, "The clique are represented as being tricksters, drones, sinecurists, locaters, lords, selfish and tyrannical. They are directly charged with the mismanagement and mal-appropriation of the funds of the Connexion; and in 'The Fly-Sheets Vindicated,' there is an insinuation which is calculated to produce an impression that the party referred to is guilty of grossly fraudulent and swindling practices." The same writer observes: "As the Conference believed that some of its own members were concerned in circulating those charges, it was only reasonable-if it regarded the charges as calumnious and injurious to the characters of brethren held in high repute by them, and injurious to the interests of the Connexion-that it should use strong measures to endeavour to find out the authors of the 'Fly-Sheets."" We presume that "Protestant Evangelical Churches" generally will entertain the same opinion. We know that they would not willingly endorse slanders against Christian Ministers; nor do we think that they are disposed to quarrel with the Conference for resolving to protect those of its members, whose characters had been so malignantly assailed for several years in succession. In the course of an inquiry, which the Conference instituted, three brethren, whose case is already too well known to need any enlargement here, were expelled; and that agitation was the result, whose history we are now briefly detailing.

At first the only ostensible reason for the agitation was the circumstance just referred to,-the expulsion of the three Ministers,-and meetings were got up in every part of the kingdom, for the purpose of sympathising with them. But it soon became manifest, that the leaders in this movement had other objects before them; and subsequent events have discovered a regularly-organised conspiracy against Methodism, whose avowed object is to revolutionise the whole system and degrade the ministry. We speak deliberately; and are prepared

to prove, if necessary, from the proceedings of the party themselves, that both these objects are sought to be accomplished. How far the Delegates, individually, may have committed themselves to such proceedings, it is not our province to inquire; but, as a body, they are now responsible for the agitation, and all its mischievous results; and until they lay aside their pretended office, they will still continue responsible. We have called their office a pretended one; and it is so. We do not forget the circumstances connected with their (so called) election; and beg to remind our readers of what we said in the “Vindicator” more than twelve months ago respecting it: "Not one of the professed Delegates from the Wesleyan Societies' was appointed by a properly-constituted Meeting in Methodism; and more than a few of them have been indignantly and openly repudiated as their Delegates by the Quarterly-Meetings of the Circuits from which they professed to be sent." To this it may be added, that many of these Delegates were self-elected; that some of them were not even members of the Methodist Society; and that from the vast majority of Circuits in our Connexion no Delegates whatever professed either to come or to be sent.

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Were the proceedings of such a body as this then to be regarded by the Conference? "Protestant Evangelical Churches" will probably apply the case to themselves, before they decide. Nor may we omit to mention, that one of the very first Resolutions to which these Delegates came, when they first assembled, was a recommendation to the people to disregard the usual and constitutional mode of addressing the Conference, and to adopt one of their own. This recommendation was carried into effect; and not succeeding, the Delegates then issued an Address to the Methodist Societies," in which they say, "We therefore deliberately advise and recommend, that the usual contributions to all Wesleyan funds be at once diverted into another channel, until the Conference shall fully accede to your just and scriptural claims." Upon this advice their adherents have for the most part faithfully acted; so that the pecuniary embarrassments which the Connexion would have sustained, had it not been for the kindness and help of the great majority of the Methodist Societies, might have been exceedingly serious. These embarrassments, however, the "Delegates" evidently desired to produce, in the vain hope that they would thereby accomplish their purpose. But "Evangelical Churches" will judge whether it is in accordance with the teaching of New-Testament Scripture, that because a small minority in a church cannot make such innovations in the order of the church as they please, they are justified in an attempt to stop the supplies, and so starve the Ministers of Christ into compliance with their requests; and they will judge, too, whether it would be seemly in Christian Ministers, through fear of temporal loss, to accede to that which they know the word of God forbids. We might lengthen our observations on this "Address" considerably; but we conclude by remarking, that if the counsels and proceed

ings of the Delegates be tested by any law of Scripture or Methodism, they will be found altogether at variance with truth and justice. And we are certain that "Protestant Evangelical Churches" will not

countenance them.

OFFENDERS AND THEIR JUDGES.

(REVIEW.)

Counsels of Peace, adapted to the present Crisis, and addressed to the Wesleyan Ministers and People. By Daniel Walton.

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OUR author has characterised Wesleyan Methodism as I one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical arrangements that ever existed in the providence of God, for the benefit of the world." (P. 38.) In this "beautiful ecclesiastical arrangement" were embodied certain laws, which, it was thought by some, this gentleman had violated. He was therefore put upon his trial, and, we are sorry to say, convicted. At first his tone was defiant; but, becoming more subdued, when before the Conference, judgment was mingled with mercy, and he was, though censured, not deprived of ministerial connexion with his brethren. In the printed Minutes of 1849, page 167, we find the following record :-"The Rev. Daniel Walton was accused before a Minor District-Meeting, of having been cognizant, and concerned in the preparation of them;" (namely, the notorious "Fly-Sheets; ") "and that charge was sufficiently established. The Annual District-Meeting confirmed the proceedings of the Minor District Meeting, and recommended them to the adoption of the Conference." Those Resolutions were adopted accordingly, and are as follows:

"Resolved,-1. That this Meeting expresses its high estimate of the care, patience, and impartiality with which the members of the Minor District-Meeting have investigated this painful subject: and its grateful satisfaction in the Christian spirit and ability with which the Minutes and other documents of that Meeting have been prepared.

"2. That this Meeting approves and accepts the Report of the Minor DistrictMeeting; and, having entire confidence in the justice of the conclusions which that Meeting has recorded, recommends to the Conference the adoption of these conclusions, and the recommendations thereto appended; namely,

"(1.) That he (Mr. Walton) be solemnly admonished from the Chair by the President of the next Conference.

“(2.) That he be declared to be disqualified, for the present, for being the Superintendent of a Circuit."

This pamphlet deserves attention, as indicating the inmost thoughts and feelings of sensitive minds, placed in these very trying circumstances.

1. Our author perceives a charm in forgetfulness, and says, page 34, "If there be a difference of opinion about bygone events, let the past be buried in oblivion, and perish." Judicial records, indeed, may have their use, and to Mordecai seem to have been of great value; but, together with tenacious memories and busy tongues, to others, no doubt, they are a great inconvenience. Either, too, his wishes are at variance with his practice, or he seriously thinks that publishing this pamphlet, commencing a new agitation, and leading people to think and talk of "bygone events," is the way to "let the past be buried in oblivion, and perish.'

2. Sufferers under the operation of law, like other people, are more tender towards their friends and partisans, than to their opponents. This pamphlet says, page 33, "Vast numbers would be immediately satisfied if they could be assured that the Conference was determined to abide by a liberal and bonâ fide interpretation of the settlement made in 1797." Did this sentence contain no unfounded insinuation, but express a simple truth, still its converse would be equally true. "Vast num