Who, prompted by thy foe To shed a brother's blood, Appolyon is their king, we know, And Satan is their God." -VETUS. land in these colonies is either sold by auction in perpetuity, or for leases of 999 years, with trifling quitrents. The result is an encouragement to European settlement and enterprise, and such an improvement in the condition of the people as to mark these countries as the most flourishing of our Eastern posses HOW ARE INCREASED SUPPLIES OF COTTON TO sions. BE OBTAINED? BY J. B. SMITH, M.P., EX-PRESIDENT OF THE MANCHESTER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. (Concluded from page 20.) NOTHING can be more mistaken or impolitic than the system of land tenure in India. No country can ever rise beyond barbarism so long as the State has the power to take, at any one moment, any given amount of the produce of the soil. Where there is no stimulus, poverty must always prevail. It is not a sufficient justification for continuing this system, that it is said to have always existed in the East. The presumed object of all governments being the happiness of the people, a comparison of the condition of the people in those countries where the sovereigns are the owners of the land, and of those where it is owned by the people, would seem to be the best test of the superiority of either. Experience shows that in every country, in the same proportion as the monopoly of the land exists, is the poverty and wretchedness of the people; and we accordingly find that Egypt, and all other countries of the East, contain the most miserable populations in the world. In the United States, and in the British colonies, as in India, the whole land belonged originally to the government; but, instead of adopting the Indian custom of letting it out to tenants, and employing thousands of officers to assess every field and collect the revenue, both countries have adopted the wiser policy of selling the land to the people in fee-simple for ever, and giving those who cut down woods and cultivate lands such advantages as to induce them to convert the wilderness into a smiling country. Had their respective governments adopted the Indian system of land tenure, and said to the people, "Go and cultivate the backwoods, bring the land into productive fertility, and give the surplus profit to the State," how many emigrants would have gone forth to till the ground on such conditions? Who would ever have heard of such flourishing countries as the United States, Canada, and Australia? The contrast which the condition of the people of these countries presents to that of India is decisive of the superiority of their land tenure in promoting the welfare and happiness of the people. Some of the ablest Indian statesmen have advocated the policy of placing the land tenure on the same footing as our colonies. Lord Wellesley said, fifty years ago. "It can never be desirable that the government should act as the proprietor of the land, and should collect the rents from the immediate cultivators of the soil." And even the East India Company, in a despatch from the Court, so long ago as 1809, expressed its disapproval of the annual and individual settlement with the cultivators. "The Court," says the despatch, "also dwell upon the obvious defect of the system-the minuteness of investigation which it involves, the necessary employment of countless native agents, the impossibility of effectually preventing their mal-practices, and the difficulty of adjusting the rents to all varieties of the season and public events;" and conclude, "that although the plan, intelligently followed up, might be well calculated to discover the resources of a country, yet it was not to be preferred for constant practice." In Ceylon, Penang, Singapore, and Hong-Kong, the Indian policy of land tenure has been abandoned. The The state of the law and of the police is another crying evil in India. Hindoo, Mahometan, and English law is administered by incompetent and underpaid functionaries, without professional training or the practice or study of the law. In the Supreme Courts at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, the law is administered by English judges; and although 95 per cent. of the suitors are natives, the system gives satisfaction. But in the mofussil, or country, there is no code of procedure. The judges of the Sudder Court are appointed by the East India Company from their own officers; and, though they receive salaries of £3000 to £5000 a-year, are not qualified by education or previous training to fill these important posts. Young men of 22 or 23 years of age, without knowledge of the world, or of law, are appointed as magistrates and judges. Boy magistrates and boy judges are the scandal of India, and no wonder that the system results in dissatisfaction and complainings. Neither person nor property is safe; bands of robbers infest the country; and the kind of protection afforded by the corrupt police is best shown by an extract from the minute of Mr. Haliday, deputy-governor of Bengal. "The most urgent necessity (he says) exists for a thorough revision of the police throughout the country:-The establishment of village watchmen is described as not only utterly useless for police purposes, but a curse instead of a blessing to the community. It is even a question whether an order issued throughout the country to apprehend and confine them would not do more to put a stop to theft and robbery than any other measure that could be adopted." The advantages to India of European enterprise and capital are incalculable; but who can be induced to settle in a country in such a state of insecurity? The indigo planters have petitioned the Indian and English governments to protect their persons and property by just laws and an efficient police, and have an agent now in England to press their claims. Within the past fifteen years, upwards of three millions of people have emigrated from England to different parts of the world; but, according to an official return in 1852, the number of British subjects in India, not in the service of the Company, residing in the interior of the country, and engaged in agricultural or manufacturing pursuits, including indigo and sugar planters, farmers, landed proprietors, cotton agents, &c., does not exceed, in— Bengal, Madras,. Bombay,. 273 persons. 37 7 " What a condemnation of the government of the East India Company; of its land tenure-its want of roads, want of law and justice-absence of everything which tempts men to leave their homes for foreign lands! A change in the system of government in India is no less indispensable to its future welfare. Hitherto, no honours nor rewards await any governors but those who extend our territory. Dazzled by the glories of war and new conquests, no encouragement is awarded by the government to the real benefactors of India those who conquer barbarism by seeking to develope the resources of the country, and to improve the condition of the people. The attention of the government being distracted by continual wars or insurrections, they have no time to attend to the wants of the people, while the revenues being squandered in conquests, nothing remains to be applied to roads and public works, which the government alone possess the means of making. to the present occupants and when we have convinced them, by making no assessments above the fixed rent for a series of years, that they are actually proprietors of the soil, we shall see a demand for European articles of which we have at present no conception." If India were able to consume our manufactures in the same proportion as the United States, our exports to India alone would exceed our present total exports to all parts of the world. What a field for British enterprise! We have incurred a fearful responsibility, as a nation, by our conquest of India. We have forcibly taken under our rule 150,000,000 human beings unfit for free institutions. The British people are therefore bound, before God, to see that steps are taken to promote their happiness by wise and just laws, administered by a paternal government, with a view to prepare them for higher destinies. How have we hitherto fulfilled this responsibility? We profess to deplore the abomination of slavery; we have abolished it in our own dominions; we have entered into treaties with foreign States to abolish the slave-trade; we keep armed squadrons to put it down; we glory in these deeds, and, in a pharisaical spirit, pride ourselves that we are not as other nations. But we are all the while the governors of 150,000,000 human beings in India, groaning under burdens and oppressions which render it doubtful whether their condition be not worse than the slavery we so much condemn in others. It is proposed to form an association, in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire, for promoting the growth of cotton in various parts of the world, with the view to obviate the existing dependence chiefly on one source of supply. There are, doubtless, great advantages in association and union to obtain definite objects. I have endeavoured to show that India is capable of furnishing an unlimited supply of cotton, and that the obstacles which prevent it are1. The want of works of irrigation. 2. The want of roads and cheap conveyance. nies and the United States. Every governor-general sent out to India excites expectations only to disappoint them. Much was expected from the administrative abilities of Lord Dalhousie. With great professions of regard for the welfare of the people, he quitted India, leaving the great social grievances of the people unredressed; and, with the exception of the electric telegraph-railways had been proposed for India before his arrival-during an administration of ten years, he has not originated a single measure for the benefit of India. Lord Dalhousie says, in his minutes, that "the essential interest of England requires that the territory of Nagpore should pass under the British government; for the possession of Nagpore will materially aid in supplying a want, upon the secure supply of which much of the manufacturing prosperity of England depends." That is the article of cotton, the importance of which, he says, was urged on him personally by the Chamber of Commerce at Manchester. His lordship takes a very mistaken view of the means of promoting the growth of cotton. There are millions of acres of land in our own possessions suitable for the production of cotton without further conquests or annexations. Had the sums expended in his wars been applied to roads, canals, irrigation, and other public works, Lord Dalhousie would have taken a more effectual means of promoting the growth of cotton, as well as of all other produce. He might have covered India with prosperity, and left a name behind to be remembered with gratitude to the latest posterity. If, then, the obstacles which weigh upon the ener-tuity, similar to that enjoyed by all the British cologies of the people, and prevent them from developing the resources of the country, were removed, India presents unbounded means of supplying us not only with cotton, but with supplies of raw produce of all kinds; but at present Java, with her ten millions of people, yields more than India with her 150,000,000. The improvement in the condition of the people which would follow upon wise and just government would enable them to consume our manufactures of all kinds to an immense extent. It is almost incredible that India, with her 150,000,000 of people, consumes a less amount of our manufactures than are consumed by a few thousand people in Australia! We have the evidence of Sir Thomas Munroe, late governor of Madras, that the small demand for our manufactures arises solely from the inability of the people to consume them. "If," says that distinguished friend of India, "the existing mode of taxation should be abandoned, the country, instead of rice and dry grain, would be covered with plantations of betel, cocoa-nut, sugar, indigo, and cotton, and the people would take a great deal of British manufactures, for they are remarkably fond of them, particularly of scarlet. It is a mistaken notion that Indians are too simple in their manners to have any passion for foreign manufactures. In dress, and every kind of dissipation but drinking, they are at least our equals. They are hindered from taking our goods, not by want of inclination, but either by poverty or the fear of being reputed rich, and having their rents raised. When we relinquish the barbarous system of annual settlements-when we make over the land either on very long leases, or in perpetuity 4. The want of just and well-administered laws, and an efficient police. These are objects which the people of England may legitimately demand of the government, and which the government, in justice to India, are bound to carry out. Let it not be supposed, that by asking of the government the expenditure of large sums for irrigation, roads, and canals, the manufacturers of Lancashire are seeking for any peculiar favours to be granted to them. Mr. Mangles, the Chairman of the East India Company, acknowledges this to be the duty of the government, and is one of the purposes for which they claim the monopoly of all the land. So far from asking any favour from the government, they are simply asking them to fill their treasury. The profit accruing to the public exchequer from the outlay of such public works as are most needed, is so extraordinary that the only wonder is why so little has been expended. The outlay of £180,000 in irrigation, in the province of Rajahmundry, yielded, in six years, an increased revenue of £60,000 per annum, and an increased production of £220,000 a-year; so that an outlay of £180,000 produced a return of £280,000 per annum. In Tanjore, an outlay of £250,000 in public works produced an increased revenue of £200,000 a-year, and an increased value of land of £200,000 a-year; so that, in this instance, an outlay of £250,000 produced a return of £400,000 a-year! The tolls received on the Coomptah road paid off the outlay the duction would be so reduced as to enable India to compete with the lowest known prices of American cotton. first year. Colonel Cotton states, that "the average return on all the new irrigation in the Madras Presidency, for the last fourteen years, is 70 per cent., taking the whole of the years since their execution. In a country, however, where the cultivators of The present annual profit is at least cent. per cent., cotton are so poor and wretched, and where the unand that without counting the improvement of private fortunate ryot usually mortgages his future crop property." before it is grown, at a rate of interest amounting The government of India have incurred a debt of from 40 to 50 per cent. per annum, it cannot be exupwards of £50,000,000 for war purposes. Why can-pected that he will be induced to depart from the old not they borrow for making public works? In India, system of cultivation, or try experiments with new the department of public works should be considered seeds, or new or more economical methods of cleanone of the very first in the State. There would be ing cotton. It seems, in the peculiar condition of less difficulty in raising funds on the credit of the India, that European influence, agency, and capital, government for objects of acknowledged public utility are indispensable to an early and large production of than for purposes of war; and the profits attending cotton of improved quality. This is a subject which public works are so enormous, that if they were faith- would properly engage the attention of an assofully set apart as a sinking fund in extinguishing the ciation formed for promoting the growth of cotton, as debt, India might be covered with public works for also the means of delivering the ryots from the exacnothing. tions of the money-lenders and middle-men, of whom a resident of many years thus writes:-"The middlemen are proverbially the greatest villains in the country. There is a series of two or three of them through whom the cotton passes before it gets into the hands of the Bombay merchants. To the first man of the series the material passes, probably in as good and clean a state as would altogether satisfy the most fastidious of our manufacturers. But with this commences the process of deterioration. He sells by weight rather than quality. He exposes his pur chases to the hot wind, and thus gains a few ounces of dust, and to the dew at night, and thus gains a few pounds of moisture. He then disposes of it to another party, who gives it a second edition of dust and dew, and further adds the sweepings of the cleaning gins, and seed of cotton, and other minute particles of refuse. I have known these broadcast on layers of cotton, which are then rolled up into the loose bales, or bundles, in which state the brokers of the Bombay merchants purchase the material." It is contended by the Indian authorities, rather, as it would seem, as an apology for their inertness and neglect, that even if the roads were good, and the lands of India were irrigated and made productive, it does not follow that we should obtain more cotton from India than at present. That India produces a variety of produce, and she will naturally grow that which yields most profit. That supplies of cotton are a question of price; and unless we can afford to give such a price for it as will yield at least an equal profit with other produce, that cotton will not be grown. No doubt these are specious arguments; but it may be answered that India has at all times produced a variety of products, but has never ceased to grow cotton; and it may therefore be inferred that cotton has been as profitable as anything else. That if by irrigation the quantity of produce be increased, the various products will still bear the same relative value to each other as at present. Cotton would be grown then as it is now, but if irrigation increased the quantity grown four or five fold, the cost of production would be diminished; and with improved and cheaper modes of cleaning, good roads, cheap and expeditious modes of transit to market, cotton could be afforded at a less cost, and with better profit to the grower than before irrigation. Mr. Nesbit Shaw, formerly a collector of revenue in the Dharwar district, is decidedly of opinion that India can, even at present, compete with Americanot, however, by growing indigenous cotton, but by fairly turning attention to the steady introduction of superior varieties, by introducing all practicable improvements, and by a rigid determination to put down adulteration and other frauds in the trade. Mr. Shaw tried the experiment, under many difficulties, of growing, on unirrigated land, several thousand bales of cotton from New Orleans seed. This cotton was sold in Manchester at 61d. per lb., while the native cotton only sold at 3d. per lb. The produce from New Orleans seed is about 100 lbs. of clean cotton per acre; from native seed it is only 60 to 70 lbs. per acre. This cotton from New Orleans seed only yielded about 14d. per lb. to the cultivator; and if this left as large a profit as other kinds of produce, it would continue to be grown for a constant demand. Colonel Cotton estimates that at least one anua (1d.) per lb. could be taken off the cost of bringing cotton to market by improved communications. In this case, India cotton from New Orleans seed might be laid down in Liverpool at 31d. or 4d. per lb. But supposing, by means of irrigation, the land were made to yield four or five fold, unless the government raised the assessments of the ryots in proportion, and appropriated all the improvements to themselves, the cost of pro An excellent opportunity is presented of encouraging the growth of cotton without one farthing of expense or of risk to the government. The province of Candeish is one of the richest in India, and peeu liarly suited for the growth of cotton. The country is covered with ruined towns and villages, which attest its former prosperity. At present only 14 per cent. of the whole province is cultivated, the remaining 86 per cent. lying waste; of which Captain Wingate, the revenue survey commissioner, says, "Nearly the whole of this is comparatively fertile, and suitable to the growth of exportable products, such as cotton, oil seeds, &c." "The ryots," he says, "are ready and anxious to extend their cultivation, but dare not do so with their present rates. A reduction would, I am satisfied, cause an immediate and great extension of cultivation where there is waste to break up." Captain Wingate was again and again asked by the ryots to assess all the land of their villages, whether good or bad, at one and the same rate, to escape the corrupt exactions of the assessors. They would then, they said, know exactly how they stood, and be able to take up waste without hesitation, which they never could do as matters are now managed. Here is also an opportunity for the Indian govern ment to try the experiment of a secure tenure of land in perpetuity, such as exists in all the British colonies, and in the United States-a system which has resulted in an amount of prosperity and happiness which might be equally enjoyed by India. The people want the land, and would gladly cultivate, on these terms, all that is now lying waste. Every farthing the government received from unoccupied land would be clear profit-industry would be promoted, capital accumulated, the attachment of the people would be secured, and the experiment would be tried, without cost, whether a greater revenue could not be raised from prosperous farmers than from poverty-stricken ryots. There are in Candeish five million acres of land capable of growing cotton, and also great facilities of irrigation. There is land enough in this one province alone, capable of producing more cotton than is now grown in the United States. It may be asked, however, is it possible to find a demand for such an enormously increased production of cotton? I well remember the incredulity with which the prediction of an eminent, but sanguine, Liverpool cotton-broker was received, viz., that the time would come when our consumption of cotton would reach 1,000,000 bales per annum! But at the weight of the packages of that day we are now consuming upwards of 3,000,000 bales per annum. Perhaps I may be accused of the like apparent extravagance when I say that I can see no reason why our consumption should not reach 6,000,000 bales a-year. There is no limit to the consumption of cotton but the want of a cheap supply of the raw material, and that, I have endeavoured to show, it is possible to obtain. Look at the extraordinary increase in our foreign trade since we freely opened our ports to the produce of the whole earth. If any leaguer had had the temerity to predict that in ten years from the establishment of free trade, our foreign trade would be doubled, he would have been pronounced as fit only for bedlam. Yet so it is. Free trade has doubled our exports in ten years, but it has yet greater triumphs in prospect. Independently of India, which may be made capable of taking from us as much as our present exports to all the world, free trade has become as much a necessity with all nations as railways are to the prosperity of a district. We see towns without railways become isolated and decline, and so it will be with nations who cling to prohibitions and monopolies. In conclusion. In dealing with the future of India, let us "be just, and fear not." It is fortunate that in seeking to develope her resources, our duty and our interests go hand-in-hand. If it be possible to render the lands of India equally productive with those cultivated by slave labour, who can foresee the consequences? It may aid the solution of interesting problems. Can slave labour, costing 2s. a-day, successfully compete with Indian free labour at 3d. a-day? And what will be the saleable value of human beings, should slavery cease to be profitable? Who can tell, but that justice to down-trodden India, may be the instrument, in the hands of Providence, of hastening the emancipation of the down-trodden race of Africa? Journal of the Society of Arts. ANECDOTES OF THOMAS SCATTERGOOD AND HIS TIMES. (Continued from page 25.) OF Joan Vokins, whose visit to the West Indies is noted in our last number, we have an account written by her friend Theophila Townsend, who after telling of Joan's desire that her children should some to the Truth, adds: "When she saw them cumbered, and hurried with worldly business, she would call them together to sit down and wait upon the Lord, that he might compose their minds into an inward retiredness. The Lord let her live to see the fruits of her labour and the desire of her soul concerning them, and the good effect that her Christian motherly care had brought forth, through the blessing of Almighty God, among them. To him be the glory, for he is worthy for ever. Her father, her husband, and children, all came to receive the Truth." When her husband and son, for the testimony of Truth, were made prisoners, she signified that it rejoiced her heart to see them willing to suffer in so good a cause. I have been told that a valuable Friend, who deceased in Philadelphia not many years since, was so anxious that his children should not regard worldly business, and the pecuniary profits thereof, as the most important object of life, that he studiously avoided in the family circle talking about money transactions. Doubtless his concern on behalf of his children in this, as well as other matters, was blessed. I doubt not but that some of the busy toilers after earthly riches, who from morning to night are seeking to extend their sales, and increase their profits, if they could withdraw for a few minutes occasionally from the bustle, tumult, and strife of business competition, and seek in quiet introversion for the mind of Truth, would have the eager spirit of gain in them restrained, and would hear the voice, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all things shall be added unto you." It is most certain that if any are neglecting religious duties, under the plea of being too much occupied in worldly business, they had need closely to scrutinize their actions and their motives. With them, the things of time are getting into undue importance. They are not in the condition in which Joan Vokins was, of whom her friend thus continues the account:-"Her trials and exercises were many, but that which was her greatest grief, her heaviest burden, and most grevious to be borne, was her sufferings by false brethren and apostates, who, under the form and profession of Truth, did make war, and kick against the life and power of it. Her zeal for God was against that libertine backsliding spirit; and the Lord bore up her head, and supported her through it all, and now hath taken her to himself out of all their reach, where she rests from her labour, and her works do follow her. In her last letter, dated London, in the Fourth Month, 1690, she signified that her service was finished, and said, 'I could gladly have laid down my body here among the Lord's worthies; yet seeing it is otherwise ordered, I submit to the will of my God, and do think to go homeward in a little time;'- -as if she had known his time to be near at hand. And it was very near in In looking back upon days that are past, let us be especially thankful for the intercourse we have enjoyed with Christian Friends. At such times, a sum of happiness is sometimes condensed into a little space, as light is concentrated in the flash. Such moments are given us to enable us to guess at the joys of hea-deed, for she did not reach home, dying at Reading, ven. in peace with the Lord, and in unity with all his faithful people. Blessed be the worthy name of the Lord, she is now set free from all sorrow, pain, and weakness of body." As she was dying, she thus addressed her son Richard:-"Son, my weakness is great, and my pains very strong; but the Lord is large in his love to me, and good to me. He gives me patience to bear my pains. Correspondence. TRUST PROPERTY. To the EDITORS of THE BRITISH FRIEND. DEAR FRIENDS,-I have read, with some interest, the letter of your correspondent, W. N., from Colebrookdale, relative to the Act 13 and 14 Vict., cap. 28, for the more easy and effectual securing certain Trust Property. With him, I think the act a useful one, affording the means of transferring certain trust property in a more easy, expeditious, and economical manner; and also with him, I have been surprised to find by his letter, that this act has been objected to by some Friends of high standing, as not applicable to, or intended for, our Society. I differ from such Friends, and believe it was intended, and is calculated to be serviceable to the whole community, and that it may be carried out without infringement of any of our religious principles. called so; but in order more literally to fulfil the requirements of the law, a chairman might be specially appointed for the particular occasion. I consider the act to be both useful and economic. It is the latter, because the schedule to the act contains a draft of the only deed required, and which almost any Friend may copy, and this will occasion no other expense than the cost of the parchment and of the deed stamp (35s.) There may be some peculiar cases in which the services of a professional person may be requisite; but I apprehend these will form the exception and not the rule the act will also be useful, and No doubt but there in one respect peculiarly so. are many Monthly Meetings throughout the country situated as the one is of which I am a member, that is, having one or more of its trustees on property who have emigrated to America, Australia, or elsewhere; and who may have had, or may have to experience great difficulty, on the renewal of a trust, to obtain the signature of those parties, owing to their being at such a distance; or, perhaps, from a total inability to find them. Now, this act gets rid of this difficulty, by rendering the consent of existing trustees not necessary. I may here state that one instance has recently come under my notice (though not among Friends), in which the provisions of the act have been carried out, and it proved an easy and satisfactory way of renewing the trust. It was a case, too, in which difficulty had arisen from an old trustee being absent from the country, and could not be found. Though I entertain a favourable opinion of the act, and augur well as to the advantages to be derived from it, and think the public indebted to the gentleman who introduced the measure, and the legislature who passed it, yet I cannot but regret that it has been framed somewhat loosely. Burial grounds do not appear to be included in the property described, at least they are not specifically named; yet I apprehend that when a burial ground is attached, and forms an appendage to a meeting-house, it would be considered and pass as one property; but where it is a decidedly separate property, I am afraid it could not be considered as included in the provisions of the act. How is the omission to be accounted for? Can it be that the acts since passed relating to general cemeteries were then contemplated, and occasioned it? On the whole, I shall greatly regret if the Society does not avail itself of the benefits of this act-there is as full opportunity of securing and maintaining the uses of a trust as before.-I am, sincerely, your friend, EDWARD GRIPPER. Layer Breton, 2d Month, 1858. TRUST PROPERTY. The only objection which has been specified is, that we have not the machinery to carry it out; which, I suppose, means that we have no officer that we style chairman. This is true literally, but the difficulty may easily be got over. When a meeting is convened to elect new trustees, let some Friend be placed in a conspicuous seat, and let him be styled and act as chairman, and he will be such for all legal purposes. I can scarcely suppose that Friends will take an objecTo the EDITORS of THE BRITISH FRIEND. tion of a higher character, viz., that we, as a Society, acknowledge no other president of our meetings, either ESTEEmed Friends,-In the last number of the Brifor worship or discipline, than the Great Head of the tish Friend is a letter signed W. N., in which, after Church (and this doctrine, I trust, we shall ever up- referring to the Act 13 and 14 Vict., cap. 28, it is hold), and that this principle will be infringed by the stated that," provision is made by this act for the appointment of a chairman for a specific purpose. I renewal of trusteeships for meeting-houses, burialapprehend there will be no such infringement more grounds, &c., in an easy and economical way, acceptthan in the appointment of a clerk. The chairman will able, it might be supposed, to all classes, and to none be, for the time being, an officer of the Society as much more so than to our Society." Unfortunately for the as a clerk; for I consider the clerk of a meeting for argument which W. N. raises on these premises, discipline unites the characters of chairman and sec- burial-grounds are not mentioned in the act: and it retary. Is not a clerk the party appealed to upon was the opinion of the solicitor I consulted at the any point of order? Does he not, to a certain extent, time, on behalf of the Monthly and Quarterly Meetregulate and control the proceedings of the meeting? ings of which I am a member, that the act did not and does he not gather and estimate the opinions ex- give power to transfer land, except within the narpressed, and pronounce the decision of the meeting? row limits recited in the act itself; and as I appreand are not all these duties which a chairman exer- hend the majority of our meeting-houses, even now, cises, and for which purposes he is appointed? A have burial-grounds attached to them, where this is clerk is, therefore, virtually a chairman, though not the case, new trustees could not be appointed under |