The PRESIDENT's address is, 30, Myddleton-Square, Pentonville, London; to which place it is requested that all communications to him, relating to the general business of the Connexion, may be directly forwarded. Letters on Missionary business should be addressed," To the Secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, 77, Hatton-Garden, London." The SECRETARY'S address is, Brunswick-Place, Leeds.

COMMITTEES FOR 1837.

The COMMITTEES preparatory to the next Conference are appointed to meet in Leeds, as follows, (subject, however, to any change of the particular days or hours here specified, which the PRESIDENT, giving due notice to the parties concerned, may find it expedient to make,) viz.,

1. The Stationing Committee, on Monday morning, July 17th, at nine o'clock.

2. The Book Committee, (for a List of whom see A. 4, to Q. XIII., at p. 71 of these Minutes,) on Thursday evening, July 20th, at six o'clock, and on Friday morning, July 21st, at six o'clock.

3. The General School Committee, (for a List of whom see A. 2, to Q. XII., at p. 68 of these Minutes,) on Friday morning, July 21st, at nine o'clock.

4. The Committee of the Contingent Fund and Children's Fund, (for a List of whom see the Answer to Q. XVIII., at p. 78 of these Minutes,) on Friday, July 21st, at three o'clock and at six P. M.; and also on Saturday, July 22d, at Six o'clock, A.M.; and on Tuesday, July 25th, at six o'clock, A.M.

5. The Committee of the Auxiliary Fund, (for a List of whom see the Answer to Q. XIX., at p. 80 of these Minutes,) on Saturday, July 22d, at nine o'clock A.M., and at six P.M.

6. The Chapel-Fund Committee, (for a List of whom see Q. XIV., A. 6, at p. 73 of these Minutes,) on Monday, July, 24th, at nine o'clock in the morning, at three in the afternoon, and at six in the evening; and also on Tuesday evening, July 25th, at six o'clock.

7. The Special Missionary Committee, (for a List of whom see the 10th article of the answer to Q. XI., at pp. 66, 67 of these Minutes,) on Tuesday, July 25th, at nine o'clockin the morning.

8. The Committee of the Theological Institution, or such Members of the Committee, and other friends of the Institution, as can conveniently be present, on Tuesday afternoon, July 25th, at three o'clock.

N. B. 1. The Secretaries of our several Funds are directed to meet in Leeds, on Wednesday, July 19th, for the purpose of preparing for the several Committees the accounts of their respective departments.

2. The Rev. John Anderson, sen., and the Rev. John Hannah, sen., our Sub-Secretaries, with the Rev. William Barton, the Journal-Secretary, are directed to attend at the same time, for the purpose of compiling from the District-Minutes various lists, &c., which will facilitate the business of the Committees, and of the subsequent Conference.

3. The Chairmen of Districts are required to bring, or send, in time for the meeting of the Secretaries of our Funds, on Wednesday, July 19th, perfect copies of the District-Minutes, and an account of the Numbers in Society in the several Circuits of their Districts, as taken at the Midsummer Visitation in 1837.

4. The amount of the July Collection in each Circuit must be certified by the Superintendent to the Financial Secretary of the District, not later than the fifteenth day of July. The said Secretary must enter such amount in a General Schedule, and send that Schedule to the Secretaries of the Contingent Fund in Leeds, on the Wednesday before the Conference.

LIST OF GENERAL COLLECTIONS AND SUB

SCRIPTIONS FOR 1836-37.

The following are the usual and regular Collections which are to be made in all our Circuits during the ensuing year; viz.,

1. The Private Subscriptions and Public Collections for the Kingswood and Woodhouse-Grove Schools, &c., are to be made in the month of October, 1836; and the amount should be immediately remitted to the Rev. Philip C. Turner, (whose address is, Methodist Chapel, Southwark,) one of the General Treasurers for the School-Fund, according to the directions given under Q. XII., at pp. 69, 70 of these Minutes.

2. The Annual Subscriptions, due January 1st, and occasional Donations for the Wesleyan Theological Institution, are to be solicited in every Circuit in the first or second week of January, 1837; and forthwith remitted to the Treasurer, Thomas Farmer, Esq., at the Wesleyan Institution-House, Hoxton, London.

3. The Private Subscriptions and Public Collections for the General Chapel-Fund are to be made in the month of February, 1837; and the money should be immediately remitted to Thomas Marriott, Esq., and the Rev. Samuel Jackson, the General Treasurers of that Fund, at No. 14, City-Road, London.

4. The Yearly Collection in all the Classes is to be made as usual at the March Visitation, and the money to be paid at the District-Meetings in May.

5. The Private Subscriptions for the Mission-Fund are to be received in all our Circuits, either weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually, as is most convenient to the Subscribers. The annual Public Collections for that Fund are to be made in all our chapels, and other preaching-places, at the time of the Anniversaries of the several Auxiliary or Branch Societies; or, where no Public Meetings of that kind are held, in the month of May. The money so raised is to be remitted, through the hands of the District-Treasurers, to Thomas Farmer, Esq., and the Rev. John Scott, the General Treasurers, whose address is, No. 77, Hatton-Garden, London.

6. The Private Subscriptions for the Auxiliary Preachers' Fund are to be solicited in the month of June, 1837, and the money to be paid on or before the first day of the Conference, to the Financial Secretary of the District, and by him to James Wood, Esq., and the Rev. John Waterhouse, the Treasurers.

7. The Collection in aid of the Contingent Fund, for the support and spread of the Gospel in Great Britain and Ireland, is to be made in all our chapels and preaching-places, not later than the second Sunday in July, 1837; and the money is to be paid, on or before the first day of the Conference, to the Financial Secretary, and by him to the Rev. Joseph Cusworth, the Treasurer of the Contingent Fund. The amount collected in each Circuit is to be certified by the Superintendent to the Financial Secretary, not later than the third Tuesday in July. (See Minutes of 1830, Vol. VI., p. 618, N. B. 4th.)

THE ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE CONFERENCE TO THE METHODIST SOCIETIES.

DEARLY BELOVED BRETHREN,

AMIDST the various duties which engage our attention, when assembled in our collective character as the Conference of the Wesleyan Methodists, that of addressing you in this way is very far from being the least interesting or important. We thankfully adopt this method of communication, as a memorial, and a practical exemplification, of the principle, that the entire body of the Preachers, and the Societies with which they are respectively entrusted from year to year, constitute but one Connexion, all having, over and above their individual and local interests, a community of purposes and operations, by which, in being bound to the same objects, they are bound also to each other. If, on the one hand, we "all are yours," as your "servants for Jesus's sake," to live and to die with you, on the other hand, ye all

are ours, to be, as the people of our charge, "our glory and our joy."

It is with unfeigned gratitude to Him who is "the author of peace and lover of concord," that we refer to the general state of the Connexion during the past year, and to the circumstances under which we have been permitted to assemble upon this occasion. At the close of the last Conference we thought ourselves warranted in the expression of a confident expectation that the God of love and peace would still be with us, and that we should yet see our Zion a peaceable and quiet habitation, and a dwellingplace of the divine glory; and we have not been disappointed in our expectation. The Resolutions then adopted on the subject of those matters which had agitated our Societies during the preceding year, have received, as we ventured to anticipate, the general approbation of our people; so that in this case, as in others, we have been enabled, "by manifestation of the truth, to commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." The consequence has been, that the attempts which have since been made to propagate disturbance and division, beyond the extent to which they had been previously carried, have, with very few exceptions, absolutely failed; and almost the only remaining agitation has been as the swell, which for a short season continues to heave the surface of the water when the tempest has subsided. And, after a year of comparatively peaceful and prosperous labour in our Master's vineyard, whatever may have been wanting to perfect our confidence as to the future, has been given to us at this Conference. Whether we regard the spirit in which we have been received by the people of this place, the general unanimity and harmony of our proceedings, or the signs of the divine presence and favour in our religious services, we find in our present circumstances an encouragement which the most aged and experienced amongst us declare to be beyond all precedent. These circumstances we most gratefully accept and acknowledge, as tokens of good to you not less than to ourselves; and we invite you to join with us in ascribing praise therein to Him to whom. alone the praise is due. "Thou, Lord, wilt ordain peace for us; for thou hast wrought all our works in us."

With this very brief allusion to those painful circumstances which on a former occasion necessarily occupied so much of our attention, we now proceed to topics more directly, as we trust, connected with your present edification and comfort. The danger which once threatened you from those circumstances, we are thankful to perceive, has passed away; but there are other dangers which, though not entirely new or very sudden, are yet too formidable not to excite our earnest and affectionate solicitude on your behalf. We feel it especially necessary to renew to you

the caution which we have given you in former Addresses against the danger of being carried away from the sobriety and purity of the Christian character by the turbulent excitement of political and party feeling. Important as may be many of those questions which divide and agitate the public mind, and whatever bearing some of them may seem to have on the religious character and interests of the country, they cannot, as to their real importance, be compared with the things immediately pertaining to your own salvation, and to the extension and support of the great cause of "God and of his Christ." The patriotism which so justly attaches us to our own country must be controlled and sanctified by a predominating reference to those higher claims which come upon us, as professing to be the subjects of One whose "kingdom ruleth over all;" and we are taught by the faith we have received to regard all worldly movements and changes as being designed to be subservient, in the order of divine Providence, to the advancement of those things which are "spiritual and eternal." Guard, therefore, against all associations which, by carrying you unnecessarily into the field of political emulation and strife, would tarnish your spiritual character, and, under the plausible pretext of encouraging a virtuous patriotism, would practically hinder your growth "in the knowledge and in the love of God." As those who "desire a better country, that is, an heavenly," "set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth;" and in all things remember and acknowledge the paramount allegiance which you owe to "the Lord Christ," the King whom "God hath set upon his holy hill of Zion."

We would also most affectionately caution you to be upon your guard, lest any of you be involved, by too easy a compliance with the spirit of the times, in schemes and speculations, which, if they do not outrun the extent of your probable resources, may yet have the injurious effect of overcharging you with "cares of this life," and may divert to enterprises of a merely secular and comparatively selfish character, much of that energy and of those resources which God our Saviour requires to be devoted to the service of his church, and to the extension of his kingdom. Let it be manifest to all that, in your case, the pursuit of worldly objects is marked by a spirit of moderation and sobriety, such as may forbid the indulgence of any just suspicion on the profession which you make, of having your treasure and your heart in heaven. Your earthly gain, if purchased at the expense of that spiritual-mindedness in which alone is "life and peace," is purchased at too dear a rate, and with the fearful risk of repeated and aggravated loss of the same character. "Be sober," therefore, and "be vigilant," as those who act under the remembrance that "the end of all things is at hand," and that they only are truly