ciples which we have so long deemed to be sound and scriptural in themselves, and important to the interests of our Connexion. Had we ever been inclined to look upon your troubles and difficulties with indifference, the peculiar circumstances in which we have ourselves been placed during the last two years, would have compelled us to regard them with interest, and anxiously to observe their results. He who can make the wrath of man to praise him, has caused our recent agitations to terminate in a calm and settled peace, and in the acquisition of other considerable advantages to our Connexion; our discipline is better understood, and more ardently loved both by Preachers and people; greater uniformity of administration is secured; and we are freed from the influence of a few unquiet spirits, whose love of pre-eminence had made them the constant troublers of our Israel. Although these unhappy men have succeeded in drawing away from us a considerable number of members in some of the disturbed districts, yet it has pleased God so to bless our labours, that, even in Great Britain, we have a gratifying increase of upwards of two thousand, which, together with an increase of three hundred and ninety-seven in Ireland, and of seven thousand five hundred and seventy-seven in the Foreign Missions, make a total increase of ten thousand one hundred and eighteen. We have no doubt that the faithfulness which you have manifested in the maintenance of rule and order will be similarly rewarded; and that the longer and more conscientiously you enforce, the less you will be inclined to change, that admirable form of Discipline, by which you are governed. We rejoice in the laudable zeal which you have manifested to preserve the great doctrines of Methodism in their uncorrupted purity and power. God has made them the means of reviving religion in these lands; and similar effects will be produced wherever they are faithfully preached. Permit us, however, to remind you of the vast importance of forming Classes, wherever practicable, that your hearers may be brought under the direct influence of your pastoral care. Your kind solicitude for the spiritual welfare of our fellowcountrymen has endeared you to our hearts. It is an interesting part of your great work to follow these sheep into the wilderness, and bring them into the fold of Christ. Our deep solicitude for your success in this labour of love will perhaps excuse our specially directing your attention to the necessity of enforcing the sanctity of the Christian Sabbath, which your remote and agricultural population are probably in great danger of forgetting. It is of vast importance that the whole of this day should be devoted to religious purposes. Catechetical instruction also, and the various duties of domestic piety, are important under any circumstances; but it is imperatively necessary that they should be sedulously regarded, where public means of grace are distant and irregular. We are not ignorant of your peculiar situation, or of the strong political excitements to which you are frequently exposed. While, however, we admire your anxiety to promote the civil improvement of your new and interesting country, may we venture affectionately to guard you against the evils of violent partisanship; and urge you, in imitation of the example of our great Founder, to recommend, both by precept and example, loyalty to the King, and scriptural obedience to his Government. The strongest argument we can use on this subject is, that the very same authority by which we hold the ministerial office, has instituted the civil power, and entrusted it with the administration of the laws. The same spirit of insubordination which would abolish the wholesome restraints of the Magistrate, would banish from the world the institutions of Christianity itself. The extensive circulation of our own standard works would imbue the minds of your people with correct principles, both civil and religious, and greatly assist you in the formation of character, and the accomplishment of the various and important objects of your ministry. Your anxiety to promote the religious education of your youth, and the noble efforts you have made for the accomplishment of your wishes, are highly honourable to you, and gratifying to us. We cannot, however, too strongly express our opinion of the absolute necessity of maintaining the strictly religious and Wesleyan character of all your literary Institutions. You are doubtless, with us, convinced that the real and permanent advantages of education depend in a great degree upon its association with sound moral and decidedly Christian principles; and we trust that you will recognise this very necessary connexion in all your academical arrangements. The presence of your respected Representative, the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, has renewed and strengthened among us the very favourable impression produced by his former visit, and more closely attached us to him; and to you, we trust, he will in due time return in safety, long to bless you by his example and labours. We are happy to learn that the labours of our beloved brother, the Rev. William Lord, have been satisfactory and beneficial to you. God has kindly restored him to us, in answer to your prayers, in health and vigour; and we have received him with the affection and thankfulness which his previous character and recent faithful services have so justly merited. We have appointed as his successor the Rev. W. M. Harvard, whose established piety, general knowledge, and acquaintance with Missionary work, eminently qualify him for the office. We have, according to your wish, requested him to proceed with all possible dispatch, and trust that he will come among you in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace. We now most affectionately commend you to Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Signed, in behalf and by order of the Conference, Birmingham, August 12th, 1836. THE ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH CONFERENCE FROM THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE WESLEYANMETHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. HONOURED FATHERS AND BRETHREN, WE have had the pleasure of receiving, by the hands of your worthy Representative, the Rev. William Lord, your kind and fraternal salutations, as expressed in the epistle with which he was charged, and which has been read in open Conference. This, together with the friendly intercourse of brother Lord among us on the present interesting occasion, has brought to our recollection those hallowed associations by which we have been refreshed in former times, by similar tokens of brotherly love and Christian affection. Assembled as we are, in our General Conference, as the Representatives of the twenty-two Annual Conferences, into which our work, for greater convenience and facility in carrying forward the sacred cause in which we are engaged, is divided, we embrace this opportunity of expressing our unfeigned gratitude to God for what he hath wrought on this vast continent by our instrumentality; and our firm and unwavering attachment to those doctrines and usages, and to that discipline, by which we have ever been distinguished, and which we have received in substance from the venerable Founder of Methodism. But in the midst of these recollections, so holy and consolatory, we have to lament the loss by death, since we last assembled, of our senior Superintendent, the Rev. William McKendree, the brightness of whose example, for the many years he went in and out amongst us, shone with a steady and cheering light, and whose setting sun reflects upon those of us who survive him the radiance of immortality;-of our junior Superintendent, the Rev. John Emory, whose commanding talents and fervent piety gave us reason to hope that he would be rendered a great blessing to the church and the world, but whose sudden and unexpected death, while it has deprived us of his services, has doubtless transferred him to the brighter regions of eternal day;—and the loss of our excellent Book-Establishment by fire in the city of New-York, by which disastrous event we have lost about 250,000 dollars' worth of stock, including printing and binding materials, building, &c. And to these losses, which we regard as the chastisements of our heavenly Father, we may add, a diminution in the number of our communicants, for the last year, of between two and three thousand. But while these things call for mourning, for "searchings of heart," for humiliation and prayer, we are by no means discouraged; for though thus chastened, we are not in despair,though cast down, not destroyed. We trust that the God of Providence and Grace will raise up others to fill the places of those who have gone to their reward; and furnish means to resume our wonted practice of diffusing abroad evangelical principles and holiness through the medium of the press; and also pour out his Spirit upon our heritage, and so prosper the labour of our hands, that we shall hereafter witness an increase of piety and of numbers to our Zion. But while our domestic work has thus suffered from these and other causes, not necessary now to mention, we rejoice to witness the growing prosperity of our Missions, both in our own borders, among the aborigines of our wildernesses, in the rising colony of Liberia in Western Africa, and in some of the cities of South America. In the contemplation of these opening prospects for Missionary enterprise, we rejoice in being able to record the encouraging fact, that our people are cheerfully and promptly pledging a portion of their substance to aid us in this great and good work. During the past year our Missionary Fund has been replenished by about 22,000 dollars, over and above the amount collected in any one preceding year; and on our several Missionary Stations we have had an accession of upwards of four thousand to the number of our Church-members. For these manifest tokens of divine approbation upon this department of our work, we desire to be thankful to Him from whom cometh every good and perfect gift, and to make them motives of renewed exertion and persevering efforts in the grand Missionary cause. In common with sister-denominations of Christians in our country, we have been less or more agitated with the perplexing question of Negro Slavery. And, although we receive with respectful deference what you, as our elder brethren, have said to H us in relation to this question, yet we are assured, that, from the known prudence by which your body has ever been distinguished, had you been as well acquainted with this subject as we are,could you have viewed it in all its aspects, as it presents itself to us who are in the midst of it, interwoven as it is in many of the State-Constitutions, and left to their disposal by the Civil Compact which binds us together as a nation, and thus put beyond the power of legislation by the General Government, as well as the control of Ecclesiastical Bodies,-could you have critically analyzed its various ramifications in our country, so as to have perceived all its delicate relations to the church, to the several States, and to the Government of the United States, we cannot doubt, that, while expressing your decided disapprobation of the system of slavery itself, your tone of sympathy for us would have been deeper and more pathetic. While on this subject, it may be pertinent to remark, that of the coloured population in the southern and south-western States, there are not less than seventy thousand in our Church-membership; and that, in addition to those who are mingled with our white congregations, we have several prosperous Missions exclusively for their spiritual benefit, which have been, and are still, owned of God, to the conversion of many precious souls. On the plantations of the south and south-west, our devoted Missionaries are labouring for the salvation of the slaves, catechising their children, and bringing all within their influence, as far as possible, to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ; and we need hardly add, that we shall most gladly avail ourselves, as we have ever done, of all the means in our power to promote their best interests. Having thus given a brief outline of our present state and future prospects, permit us, dear brethren, to congratulate you on the continued prosperity of your growing Connexion. We have witnessed with mingled emotions of pleasure and gratitude the extension of your work, both at home and abroad, particularly on your Foreign Missions. In this grand work we hope to imitate your pious zeal; and, though it may be at a respectful distance, to follow your steps until we shall meet on some favoured spot upon our globe, and salute each other face to face, as the servants of Him who claims the Heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. Although we have no Institution, as you seem to have supposed we have, of the character you mention, as existing among yourselves, for the education of those of your junior Preachers who are not actively engaged in the field of labour, yet we are endeavouring, by such means as are at our command, to improve our young Ministers in the various branches of knowledge which are deemed requisite for a successful discharge of the functions of their |