THE ANSWER OF THE BRITISH CONFERENCE TO THE ADDRESS OF THE UPPER CANADA CONFERENCE.

VERY DEAR BRETHREN,

THE Address which we have just received from you affords us no small degree of satisfaction and encouragement. We are especially gratified with the evidence which it supplies of your continued attachment to the principles of sound Christian faith and loyalty, in spite of the public agitations and perplexities through which you have lately passed; nor can we disregard the assurances which it also conveys of your hearty concurrence in the adoption of any such plans and exertions as may, by the blessing of Almighty God, most effectually promote the interests of that sacred cause to which we are mutually pledged.

Sincerely do we sympathize with you in the peculiar trials and dangers to which you are still exposed, though the rage of a late mischievous insurrection in your country is for the present happily repressed. But we cannot allow ourselves to doubt that, if you abide firm and faithful to the truths and professions which have prevailed among us from the beginning, you will be assisted by the providence and grace of God to surmount all opposition, from whatever quarter that opposition may arise, and to maintain your proper place as a lively and prosperous part of Christ's universal church. Forget not that, in all the difficulties and emergencies which may arise, "the Lord your God will be with you, while you are with him."

It is consolatory to us to be informed, that the members of your Church have hitherto preserved their character as dutiful and obedient subjects, and that they have been awake to every call which has been made upon them in the hour of need. We trust that nothing, either from within or from without, will ever rob them of this honourable praise. True politics are based on true religion. They draw their maxims from its doctrines and precepts, and their spirit from its influence. It is an inspired maxim, that "righteousness exalteth a nation;" nor will that maxim ever falsify its meaning, or lose its force.

Your comparative decrease of numbers can scarcely occasion us surprise, when we reflect on the revolutions by which you have been shaken, the unavoidable removal of many from your Societies by emigration and otherwise, and the interruption which your religious services have sometimes suffered. It is our persuasion, however, that this season of apparent want of growth and enlargement will not, in the final issue, be the most adverse one in your history. Times of painful exercise and loss, are times also of

discipline, instruction, and improvement. Right principles should then become more firmly seated, and Christian experience more matured; while preparations are also silently made, amidst what seems a wintry dearth and desolation, for the reviving influences of spring, whose return may be assuredly expected, when all shall flourish in new beauty, and yield the promise of a plentiful

harvest.

Our wishes coincide with yours, that the Academy which you have established, and placed under the care of so competent a person as the Rev. Matthew Richey, may, in all respects, prove a blessing to you and the country at large. Solid learning will always, as we devoutly hope, be associated in that Seminary with the soundest principles of religion and loyalty for these will, beyond all controversy, contribute far more than anything which human policy or philosophy might affect to substitute in their place, to the security and happiness of your rising community.

We are pleased to hear that our esteemed brother, the Rev. Joseph Stinson, has so faithfully discharged his duties, and has, on grounds so just and commendable, endeared himself to your grateful affections. In accordance with your request, we have re-appointed him to the office which he has so well sustained during the past year.

The Rev. Robert Alder, our honoured brother, has our entire and undoubting confidence. We are glad to find, as we had fully anticipated, that he more and more enjoys your cordial esteem; and we assure ourselves that his present visit to you will, with the gracious assistance of God's Holy Spirit, be attended with extensive and permanent good.

May the blessing of God rest upon you, and all who are confided to your care, in far larger measures than any that you have yet experienced; and may you joyfully prove, in the pilgrimage of time, and the rest of eternity, that "the fruit of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever."

Signed in behalf and by order of the Conference,

THEOPHILUS LESSEY, President,
ROBERT NEWTON, Secretary.

Liverpool, August 15th, 1839.

APPENDIX.

DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING MINUTES.

I. RELATING TO THE PROPOSED REGULAR PROVISION FOR SUPERNUMERARY PREACHERS AND WIDOWS; AND CONTAINING THE PLAN, NOW SANCTIONED BY THE DISTRICT-MEETINGS AND BY THE CONFERENCE, FOR THE SUPERNUMERARY PREACHERS' AND WIDOWS' NEW AUXILIARY FUND.

FROM various circumstances which have occurred during the last twelve months, it would appear that the exact situation of Ministers in the Wesleyan Connexion, when worn out with service, or obliged to retire from the regular work of the ministry through loss of health, and of the Widows and Orphan Children of deceased Preachers, when bereaved by death of their husbands and parents, has not till lately been well understood by the body of Wesleyan Methodists and their friends at large, nor indeed by any considerable number of that body. It was not generally known that there is no Fund, at present, raised by the contributions of the members of our Societies and Congregations, upon which these persons have any claim, and from which they may receive, as matter of course, some stated allowance when they are cut off from every Circuit-fund in the Connexion. In this respect the situation of a Methodist Minister is peculiar and trying. He may have journeyed, and preached, and worn himself out in strenuous endeavours to promote the temporal, the spiritual, and the eternal welfare of the people to whose service he devotes his life, never in any place receiving more pecuniary remuneration for his labours than is sufficient for the present respectable and comfortable maintenance of himself and his family; and then, as soon as the Conference declares him no longer competent to the labours of a Circuit, and places him in the class of Supernumerary Preachers, he has to begin the world;

he has not so much as a habitation to shelter him from the wind and rain; his people have made no provision for his subsistence; and all that he can claim, from any Fund provided by the Connexion, is Twenty or at most Thirty Pounds, towards furnishing the house to which he retires, with a worn-out or broken constitution, to suffer and to die. (The only exception is, the very limited assistance afforded from what is now usually termed the Auxiliary Fund, to a small class of the most aged Supernumeraries.) A Preacher's Widow is in a still more destitute condition. She has no more claim upon any Connexional Fund than a Preacher has; and when her husband dies, and she has to provide a residence for herself and family, she is not allowed the smallest sum towards procuring furniture for her future habitation. There is a Preachers' Annuitant Society, to which each Preacher, while in the work, subscribes Six Guineas annually, besides paying a considerable Premium for admission, and to which a considerate friend occasionally presents a donation, or leaves a bequest,—but to which the Societies and Congregations, as such, contribute nothing from this Fund the retiring Preacher and the Widow receive their sole claimable support. The annuities, however, paid by that Society are so small as to be altogether inadequate to the maintenance of the persons depending upon them, inasmuch as some claimants receive only Ten Pounds a year, though the Preacher may have travelled in the Connexion upwards of eleven years, and may have a wife and several children to support; and no sum paid from that Fund amounts to more than Forty-Two Pounds a year, though the Preacher when he retires may have travelled forty years, or any number beyond forty. The evident insufficiency of this income led to the institution of the Fund to which reference has just been made, namely, the Preachers' Auxiliary Fund, designed to aid the Preachers' Annuitant Society. To this Auxiliary Fund, raised annually by the private subscriptions of a few members of our Society and other friends, appeal may be made by a Supernumerary Preacher or by a Widow, and then the Committee may vote a grant to assist the income received from the Annuitant Society. It may be sufficient here to say, in praise of this Fund, and in thankful acknowledgment to the subscribers, that it has saved many Supernumerary Preachers and Widows from perishing through want, which they must have done, especially if they had families, had they received nothing beyond their income from the Annuitant Society's Fund; and if the amount annually subscribed had been sufficient, with the annuities, to make the last days of Worn-out Preachers and Widows comfortable, though the sums were paid, not as matter of course, but of favour,-not as an act of justice for years of labour, perhaps of suffering, in the church of God, but of charity,

-however objectionable the manner of ministering the assistance, less necessity would have existed for any change of system. But the Fund has ever been so insufficient as a supply for the urgent demands made upon it, that the utmost discrimination has been necessary in making the grants; this again has made it necessary to inquire into the private affairs of the applicants; and so searching and painful, however kindly conducted, has been the inquiry, that few persons would apply for relief, unless compelled by an imperious necessity. And when the Committee have sifted the cases most thoroughly, to ascertain the comparative amount of distress, and have distributed the sum placed at their disposal with the strictest equity, the cases are seldom relieved to the extent of one half, often not one quarter, of the amount which can be deemed either desirable or just.

This defect in the financial system of Methodism has been long observed by several friends, and very deeply deplored; and besides contributing liberally to the Auxiliary Fund, they have from time to time expressed an earnest desire that the Connexion would make some stated provision for its Ministers when they can labour no longer, and for their Widows when it pleases God to remove them by death; but the difficulty was to bring the subject fully before the whole Methodist community. An opportunity offered of conferring with a number of influential friends, from almost every part of the kingdom, when the Committees of the several Funds met in Bristol, previous to the last Conference; and, at the meeting of a very large Committee, appointed to consider in what way the Centenary of the formation of the Wesleyan Methodist Society should be celebrated, James Wood, Esq., of Bristol, brought it forward, and with great ability placed it in its just light before the gentlemen then present. The greatest interest was felt whilst the subject was under discussion; and the result was, the unanimous adoption of the following Resolution :-"That this Committee earnestly recommends to the immediate consideration of the Connexion the case of our Worn-out Ministers, and that of the Widows of our deceased Ministers. The Committee respectfully suggest the propriety and necessity of some further provision for their support, upon the principle of the Children's Fund; and would be particularly gratified, if such an arrangement could be effected, and provision made for its future practical operation, during the coming Centenary Year; believing that it would be, in connexion with other modes of celebrating that occasion, an eminently fitting and beneficial testimonial of the gratitude of the Connexion to those of its Ministers who are no longer capable of regular and constant labours, and of its pious care for the Widows of those Preachers who are gone to their reward.”