the Union was formed with the Canada Conference, in 1833, this fact was hid from that body by the cunning of Dr. Alder, but an offer to expend £1,000 on the Missionaries in the Province-as from the funds of Conference-was the gilded bait which he presented before its members, in order to give weight to the religious and moral arguments in favour of the then projected alliance. The bait was unfortunately taken; the Union was consummated; and afterwards the eyes of the Preachers were enlightened, but too late to prevent inevitable reproach. But since that Union failed, and the object for which it had been brought about has not yet been accomplished, a further bribe is held out by Government in 1847, OF AN ANNUAL GRANT FROM THE FUNDS OF THE INDIAN DEPARTMENT TO THE MISSIONARY COMMITTEE, THROUGH MESSRS. RYERSON AND GREEN, of fifTEEN HUNDRED POUNDS, Ostensibly for Indian Schools: that is, a total gratuity of ten thousand dollars is to be given annually by Government to secure the "loyal" co-operation of the combined Methodist Conferences in advancing the political stratagems of the advocates of a Provincial Church Establishment! This is the simple truth let it be garnished as

it may: and Dr. Alder's testimony, before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, with the evident bearing of the Government throughout the past history of the Colony, is sufficient to demonstrate our assertion. In 1828, Dr. Alder testifies, that he had been in communication with the Governor-General of the Colonies, and with the LieutenantGovernor of Upper Canada, both of whom had expressed themselves strongly as to the importance and necessity of furnishing a supply of English Methodist Preachers for the Province, and had transmitted communications to the Colonial Department, urging the Imperial Government to provide for their support. Now let any honest and unprejudiced mind inquire,Why this anxiety on the part of the Provincial Government for British Wesleyan Preachers? The object was purely political: the Government, urged by Dr. Strachan and his confederates, wanted merely to engage them as mercenaries, to divide and destroy the power of their Canadian brethren, for the purpose of securing the ascendancy of High Church Toryism in the Province.

These are but a few of the facts, which exhibit in the clearest light the unscrupulous means to which the High Church

party have on all occasions resorted, in order to the accomplishment of their political purposes. Yet there is another which demands our special notice,-and that is, the injustice and faithlessness, the deep treachery of the Imperial and Provincial Governments towards the people of this colony, in THE ESTABLISH

MENT OF THE FIFTY-SEVEN RECTORIES. This act alone would have warranted the impeachment both of Sir John Colborne and the Colonial Secretary, Lord Goderich. It was an intolerable outrage committed upon the whole Nonconformists of this province, and was done in violation of the strongest official pledges of the Imperial Government to the contrary, through the Secretary for the Colonies. It was, in fact, A GRAND FRAUD, disgraceful to any government in the world, and

DEMANDS EARLY AND FULL REDRESS.

Το

prove this, we shall give extracts from two despatches from Lord Goderich to Sir John Colborne; in the first of which, being intended for publication, HE STRONG

LY REPUDIATES SECTARIAN ASCENDANCY, through the patronage of Government, in all its forms; in the second, intended only for private instruction, HE DIRECTS SIR JOHN COLBORNE HOW TO ESTABLISH THE RECTORIES, AND HOW TO BRIBE THE NONCONFORMISTS INTO SILENCE!!!

In the despatch dated Nov. 8, 1832, the following language is employed by Lord Goderich:

"With respect to the charge of showing an undue preference to the teachers of religion belonging to the Established Church of this country, it is so utterly at variance with the whole course of policy which it has been the object of my despatches to yourself to prescribe, that I cannot pause to repel it in any formal manner. His Majesty has studiously abstained from the exercise of his undoubted prerogative of endowing literary or religious corporations until he should obtain the advice of the Representatives of the Canadian people for his guidance in that respect."

The foregoing despatch was extensively published in the Province, and for a time allayed the fears, and excited the hope and confidence of all Nonconformists. It appeared afterwards, however, that AT THIS VERY TIME the plans of the Church and State party were only being matured for the violent establishment of the rectories! as the extract from the other despatch exhibits beyond all question:

Extract from a despatch from Lord Goderich to Sir John Colborne, dated the

6th April, 1833 (about five months subsequent to the former).

[After referring to his former instructions to Sir John as to the application of £6,000 drawn from the provincial revenues for the support of the Episcopal clergy, and expressing his satisfaction at finding an unappropriated £4,000 at his disposal, he remarks:]

"A question, therefore, necessarily arises, as to the most advantageous mode of disposing of the £4,000 to be taken out of the casual and territorial revenue which had been destined to this particular service, (the payment of the salaries of two archdeacons,) and which will no longer be required for that purpose. I have considered with great attention the observations contained in your private letter, of February 17th, (written just three months after he had published the despatch repudiating all ecclesiastical ascendancy,) and the propositions which result from them." "I quite

concur with you in thinking that the greatest benefit to the Church of England could be derived from applying a portion, at least, of the funds under the control of the Executive Government IN THE BUILDING OF RECTORIES AND CHURCHES; and, I could add, in preparing, as far as may be, for profitable occupation, that moderate portion of land which you proposed to assign in each township or parish for increasing the future comfort, if not THE

COMPLETE MAINTENANCE OF THE REC

TORS!!! With this view, it appears to me that it would be most desirable to make a beginning in this salutary work, by assigning a portion of the £4,000 for the payment of clerical salaries (generally). I say a portion of this sum, because I am led to think that it would be expedient, with a view to prevent jealousy, and attempts at interfering with the territorial fund." * Some of it might,

for instance, be applied to churches for the Presbyterians, some for Roman Catholic chapels, and some for the METHODISTS,

PARTICULARLY THAT PORTION OF THEM WHO MAY BE IN CONNECTION WITH THE

WESLEYAN METHODISTS OF THIS COUNTRY!"* "I am well aware that, in the execution of this duty, you will have to steer a difficult course, and that IT WILL REQUIRE NO SMALL TACT to determine by what practical means these important objects can be best attained"!!!

This secret Despatch would never, in all probability, have seen the light, but Egerton Ryerson, when in London, in 1835, after he had been converted to the

faith of the Tories, had free access to the Canadian Archives of the Colonial-office, in Downing-street, and accidentally stumbled upon this official curiosity, and copied it for future use! It forms but a faint index to the general Colonial policy of England, particularly with reference to the question of Church and State; and gives also one solitary reason for the commotions which have in past times so fearfully agitated the Colony.

From the mass of evidence here adduced, there can be but one opinion, we should suppose, among the intelligent, moral, and religious everywhere, that the conduct of the Local and Imperial Governments in league with the Ecclesiastics of the Episcopal Sect in their efforts to thrust a State Church upon the inhabitants of Canada has been no less unjust and dishonourable than it has been impolitic and unwise. It was this which formed one of the prime causes of the unhappy popular commotions which well nigh lost the Colony to the Mother Country in 1837. Yet none of those mighty wrongs against a peaceful, industrious, and loyal people have been redressed, but the same causes are perpetually in operation to carry out, contrary to the well known wishes of the people, the same ruinous policy to its final issue! We cannot withhold from our readers the weighty words of the above-mentioned journal:

"The age of imprisonment and banishment for Nonconformity has, it is true, passed away, but we have arrived at a period when the golden wand of a statesman can convert a Methodist Conference into the slaves of political power, the ministers of their own undoing, and the agents of their people's ruin. Nay, more

when the bribe of a statesman is capable even of purchasing the influence of one Methodist Conference to coerce or destroy the influence of another for the basest political ends :-When Executive gold can subsidize the Leading Ministers of Religion in two Conferences, and make them the instruments to thrust upon the people of Canada Institutions to which they have ever been hostile-one Institution, in particular, at which public sentiment everywhere revolts-an Institution which they deem to be no less destructive to their civil liberties than ruinous to their moral and religious interests-a political and religious evil of surpassing magnitude-THE CURSE OF A DOMINANT STATE CHURCH.

"We therefore call most earnestly upon the friends of religious liberty everywhere,

but particularly upon the old and well tried friends of that cause among the Methodists generally throughout the Province, to ponder well the question concerning the proposed POLITICAL Re-union of the British and Canada Conferences (a spiritual re-union under all circumstances is morally impossible) before they submit to be enslaved by it. Let them calmly reflect upon the humiliating facts we have gathered from our past history, and ponder well the reasons we have given for our present alarm. Let them read with attention and care the unanswerable reasoning contained in the eloquent speech of Doctor John Rolph, delivered in the first Session of the thirteenth Parliament, when the motion to devote the Clergy Reserves to General Education was lost:-Let them reflect upon the fact, that few of the Ecclesiastical wrongs inflicted upon this Colony have been redressed-that the evil is progressing with insidious steps-that the endowment of the Episcopal Bishopric of this place, which could NEVER BE OBTAINED UNDER ANY FORMER ENGLISH ADMINISTRATION, HAS VERY LATELY BEEN GRANTED UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF LORD JOHN RUSSELL (to the extent of 6,000 dollars per annum). Let them mark the humiliating admissions of the Leading Agents of the British Methodist Conference, that they are the allies of the English Hierarchy: let them reflect upon the manifest purpose designed to be subserved through their means-and the treachery of the Canadian Leaders to over-rule or prostrate the power of the Canadian Methodist People.-Let them remember that the present Parliament will soon be dissolved, that upon the character of the next will our Civil and Religious Liberties greatly depend; that the enemy has an eye in this Methodist movement, to the next Electoral Contest: and, above all things, let every man as he regards his own interests, and the interests of his country, be prepared fearlessly to do his duty :

Knock at the gate of Nations, rouse their fears; Say wrath is coming, and the storm appears; But raise the shrillest cry in Christians' ears."

In the Evidence given before the Select Committee of the Assembly, in 1828, it was proved that the Episcopal Denomination, then claiming exclusive privileges in Canada, stood in the following ratio to the population and to other Churches, while four Denominations were respectively more numerous :

The number of Episcopalian Communicants was only as 1 to 243 of the population of the Province !

The number of persons in their Congregations was only as 1 to 100 of the population of the Province !

But allowing them the latitude they ordinarily demand, to embrace in their statistics all persons not connected with other Churches, whether attending in their Congregations or not, their numbers were reckoned to be only from 1-20th to 1-10th of the population of the Province.

The number of Communicants in the Church of England was about 1-19th of the number in other Churches. The Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Roman Catholics were respectively more numerous than the Episcopalians. Yet, notwithstanding this small minority, the Episcopal Sect have the face to contend for a monopoly of Royal favour, and for a legal Establishment!

WESLEYAN PATRIOTS OF ENGLAND!you now see your condition. It is now placed beyond the possibility of doubt that the dearest rights of your fellow-subjects in the Colonies are every hour becoming more and more endangered by the prin ciples and policy of your Conference. These lamentable, these discreditable facts, have heretofore been unknown to you and the rest of your British brethren, as well as to the mass of the British people. But darkness is now past; the mystery is unfolded; and your true character must henceforth be determined by your proceedings! For the past we blame you not; but you must be held responsible for the future! You are now solemnly called upon to the discharge of a high, a paramount duty. You are the pillars of the system out of which these evils sprang. Your position heretofore has been most humiliating, most degrading. Your Conference system of government befits the Middle Ages rather than the nineteenth century. The idea of some hundreds of preachers meeting together annually, and for weeks, discussing your affairs, legislating for the whole body of Methodists throughout these kingdoms, the British colonies, and every part of the globe, with closed doors, is monstrous in the extreme! It alike outrages Scripture and reason! In vain you look to either the Old or the New Testament for a word or a deed, an event or a circumstance, giving the slightest countenance to such a polity! How long will the Methodist community endure it? Religion and patriotism are alike concerned

in the question. Conference Methodism has ceased to be merely a matter of religion; IT HAS BECOME A SYSTEM OF POLI

TICS OF THE WORST DESCRIPTION, BOTH AS IT RESPECTS CHRISTIANITY AND FREEDOM, throughout England, her colonies, and the world. This is the chief ground on which we rest our complaints and remonstrances. We hold Conferences to be the ally of despotism, and the adversary of all that is liberal and popular; and hence, and hence alone, we denounce its constitution, and invoke you and your brethren to the work of reform. The interests of truth must no longer be sacrificed to a false, a culpable delicacy. The note of danger must be sounded in the ears of both the church and the world. There is a silence

which is a crime! There is a charity which is treachery to the throne of God! The British people must be apprised of the impending danger.

Methodists of England! you are summoned to a momentous and honourable duty to break your own fetters, and increase the guarantee of freedom to mankind! Prove yourselves worthy of the arduous position in which Providence has

placed you. We believe you will do so: how can we admit a doubt, with the recently published declaration of one of yourselves before us, in the following words:"The fact is, that Wesleyanism is a well organized system,' capable, in consequence, as was the Romish

church, of effecting great good; but, like that church, also capable of producing much harm. It is a system destined, apparently, to rivet more securely the fetters of ecclesiastical domination, and to retard the progress of civil liberty in these kingdoms, on the one hand; or, on the other, to accelerate by forced marches the onward progress of universal freedom. The plain fact is, that the preachers in Methodism are, in all matters, inclined to favour the State religion; and the people, speaking generally, fraternize with their Nonconformist brethren. As education advances a struggle must ensue between the two parties, and the event of the conflict will decide the fate of the system. The Wesleyans are men, and, as men, they believe, if they are to be enslaved, better it should be in those countries where the black flag of oppression is fearlessly unfurled, than in our island, when all about them is tending to liberty. They believe that it were better that their religious freedom were given up to a church, even the Romish, amid the grandeur of ceremony, and all the prestige derived

from antiquity, than that they should be

ENSLAVED BY A SYSTEM, HOWEVER WELL ORGANIZED,' HAVING POPES WITHOUT MITRES, AND CARDINALS WITHOUT CAPS!!" Such is the voice of a patriotic Methodist layman, which, we doubt not, will be echoed by thousands upon thousands. Let us next listen to the deliberate declaration of a Methodist minister, who, we fear, is but a fair representative of the vast majority of his brethren. The Rev. J. Beckwith, now stationed in Leicester, has just issued a pamphlet, entitled "The Position of the Wesleyans in reference to the Church and Dissenters," in which he has expressed himself thus:

"Their principles, as a body, are truly Conservative, their loyalty, is almost proverbial; and they are zealously affected in the maintenance of all the fundamental principles of the Protestant Constitution, both in Church and State. We do not, of course mean to insinuate, that they impose any restraint upon individuals of their community, in the exercise of their own judgment in political matters; but we speak of their acknowledged principles as a body. And although there are exceptions to be met with in almost every town and village, yet, generally speaking, THE WESLEYANS

WILL BE FOUND TO RANGE THEMSELVES

on the side OF CONSERVATISM; AND WE HOPE THE TIME IS NOT FAR DISTANT, WHEN THE WHOLE OF THAT IMMENSE BODY WILL THROW THEIR POLITICAL INFLUENCE INTO THE SCALE OF CONSERVATISM, AND THEREBY GIVE TO IT A PREPONDERANCE, WHICH WILL CAST EVERY OPPOSING PRINCIPLE INTO THE SHADE.

Patriotic Methodists! Please to ponder these words, and say what must be their effect on the minds of the Nonconformist bodies of England. Must they not view the passage as a declaration of war upon liberal principles, and as the avowal of a purpose to rear a barrier in the paths of social progress? Were it not blindness, infatuation, madness, to allow any considerations of a spurious charity to silence the voice of warning to all the friends of Civil and Religious Freedom? Thus warned, were it not treason both to the throne of England, and the altar of Heaven to neglect the adoption of all proper methods to expose and defeat the tyrant machinations of this strong and wide-spread clerical conspiracy? The triumph of the principle of Conservatism will be death to the hope of man! Woe to the Nonconformity of England, woe to the interests

every op

of Christ's kingdom, when " posing principle shall have been cast into the shade!" Yea, and woe, thrice woe to Methodism itself when it shall have, by throwing its " political influence" into the scale, decided the conflict, and secured the dreadful consummation! Men will not always slumber; in due time they will awake to vengeance!

Methodist Electors!-The hour is at hand which will test your principles, and determine your virtue. Be prepared in the sight of God and your country, for the duties of that hour!

Your Friend and Servant,
JOHN CAMPBell.

Tabernacle-house, London,
June 11, 1847.

CHRONICLE OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES: OF THE THREE SOCIETIES FOR BRITISH MISSIONS: AND OF THE BOARD FOR GENERAL EDUCATION, IN CONNECTION WITH THE UNION. PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNION. (Continued from page 304.)

CROSBY HALL, FRIDAY, May 14, 1847.-Second Session of the Assembly.

Dr. Hamilton resumed the chair, and conducted the opening worship. The Rev. James Gawthorn, of Derby, offered prayer.

The Chairman read the paper of agenda, and called for the Report on Irish Missions as the first business. This was presented and read by Samuel Morley, Esq., Chairman of the Committee on that subject, amended agreeably to the instructions given by the Assembly in its former session. Whereupon it was moved by the Rev. Professor Stowell, of Rotherham College; seconded by the Rev. Henry Townley, of London; and after discussion, carried:

XI. That the Report of the Committee of Mediation between the Committees of the Irish Evangelical Society and of the Congregational Union of Ireland, now presented and read, be received by this Assembly with most cordial thanks to that Committee for its strenuous efforts to adjust the important and difficult questions submitted to its consideration. Also that copies of this report be forwarded to the two Committees interested, with the respectful advice of the present Assembly that they adopt it in the spirit of candour and conciliation, so that it may secure permanent harmony and co-operation in conducting vigorously Congregational Missions in Ireland, in which course the Assembly assures the two Committees that the cordial and liberal support of all the English churches may be confidently relied on.

Report of the Committee appointed to consider the

differences between the Irish Societies.

YOUR Committee were appointed at the last autumnal meeting of the Congregational Union, held at Plymouth, with a view to the adjustment of the differences between the Committees of the Irish Evangelical Society, and the Congregational Union of Ireland.

After needful preliminary correspondence they convened in the Vestry of Carr's-lane Chapel, Birmingham, on the 23rd day of March last, and continued their sittings during the whole of that and the following day, and through a considerable portion of a third day. The following

members were in attendance, the Revs. Dr. Harris, Dr. Massie, T. Binney, and John Ely, and W. D. Wells, William Wilson, and S. Morley. There were in attendance also, as representatives of the Irish Evangelical Society, the Revs. T. James, A. Wells, and J. Burnet; and of the Congregational Union of Ireland, the Revs. Dr. Urwich, Dr. Bewglass, A. King, and N. Shepherd, and Messrs. H. Leachman, and W. Polluck.

S. Morley was appointed Chairman of the Committee.

The Money question came first under consideration. The Committee deemed it unnecessary and undesirable to enter into the details of this matter; and certain proposals having been made on the ground of which the respective parties agreed to accept their award, they came, after careful deliberation, to the following unanimous resolution:

"That, inasmuch as the Committees of the two Societies, while acknowledging each other as Christian men, have arrived at different conclusions as to the sum justly due from the one to the other; inasmuch as a renewed investigation of the data on which they reach these conclusions is on the whole undesirable; inasmuch as the promotion of peace now, and the useful working of the Societies in future, are of paramount importance, and may be best secured by avoiding all reference to past differences: inas. much as the funds have been and will be applied to purposes which both Societies and the whole Denomination in both parts of the kingdom desire to promote, this Committee having considered the joint proposals made this day by the representatives of the two Societies, deems it right without any expression as to the conduct of either Society, to award that the sum of five hundred and seventy-six pounds and seventeen shillings be paid by the Irish Evangelical Society to the Congregational Union of Ireland."

Your Committee are happy to report that this award was at once accepted by the Deputation from the Congregational Union of Ireland; and that the representatives of the Irish Evangelical Society engaged strongly to recommend its acceptance by the Committee of their Society.

The Money question having been adjusted, your Committee proceeded to the second subject of deliberation,-the devising of a plan in pursuance of which the two Societies may be united in effective co-operation for time to come.

Papers, containing suggestions as to future operations, were read by the Rev. Thomas James, on behalf of the Irish Evangelical Society, and by the Rev. Dr. Bewglass on behalf of the Deputation from Ireland; as also a paper