Men and Brethren, the system of the Oligarchy is an abomination! It is wholly indefensible; it has been surrendered by all your own best and ablest men. Hear your own great prophet, Richard Watson referring to an excellent individual whose life he was writing, he said, "He understood, as well as any, the principles upon, which a church should be governed, and the rights that they, as Christians, had to maintain. He dis covered a radical defect in the Old System, a power assumed, not delegated, and exercised without limit and without accountableness. A power which, in the hands of infallible virtue, would have produced the most beneficial effects; but, in the hands of fallible men, is often made the instrument of degradation on the one part, and the support of illegal and unchristian authority on the other."

We shall close with another writer of your own, that would do honour to any community; "We ask then, if any other body in civilized countries are so priestridden as are the Methodists? And by Methodists we mean, speaking in general terms, not only the people, not only the local preachers, but also no few of the itinerants. . Why tolerate such assumption? Why suffer under so slavish a degradation? In becoming Methodists have they ceased to be Englishmen ? Is it needful to be a slave in order to be pious? Are the itinerants, who are not debauched by a participation in the despotism, so wedded to the craft, so blind to their rights, so deadened by servitude, so fear-stricken at the presence of their masters, so fascinated by hopes of preferment, that they have not a heart, nor a hand to unseat the lordling priests, and establish a government that shall place all the itinerants on a footing of equality, and secure to the people their undoubted rights?"

Fathers and Brethren, leaving you to answer these questions, I remain,

Your friend and servant,
JOHN CAMPBELL.

July 7th, 1847.

P.S. Since the above was written, we have received a variety of communications from Canada, all of a melancholy and ominous character. Dr. Alder, representative of the English Oligarchy at the Canadian Conference recently held, immediately on his arrival, was invited to spend the first evening with the representative of British Majesty at Government House! There was propriety in this, as his object was to effect a union between the Canadian and British Conferences, and as, in the judgment of

intelligent Wesleyans on the spot, the "re-union is A GOVERNMENT MEASURE." The Conference met in the city of Toronto, on Wednesday, June 2; and on Saturday, after Dr. Alder had discoursed to them "of the glory of the English Conference-its powers, its vast riches," &c., the Plan of Union was adopted by a majority of ten to one; the votes being eighty-two for, eight against it. The Canadians having thus struck their flag, Dr. Alder boarded and took possession of the vessel; or, in the words of the oracle itself, Dr. Alder was "invited, in accordance with the appointment of the English Conference, to take the chair, and preside over the Conference during its sittings." The Toronto Examiner presents an admirable review of the whole matter, in which it says, "The people are now enchained by their ecclesiastical rulers as thoroughly as the slaves of any despotism in the world." Every limb is loaded with its appropriate fetter. The preachers seem possessed by the seven spirits of thraldom! They have actually surrendered the last fragment of their liberty; for when, says the Examiner, to check the power of a British President, two brethren moved "that THE CHAIRMEN OF DISTRICTS, INSTEAD OF BEING CHOSEN BY THE PRESIDENT ALONE, SHOULD BE CHOSEN BY CONFERENCE, the very body itself, whose rights were involved in this resolution, voted by a large majority against it!!! This official phenomenon seems almost inexplicable upon any rational grounds. Surely any body of men so utterly destitute of self-respect-so utterly indifferent to the first duties-so utterly regardless of the most obvious and important rights of all associations, especially such as profess to be governed by the laws of the New Testament, are fit only to be the vassals of power."-" Thus the most astonishing act of ecclesiastical despotism of modern times has been consummated. Both preachers and people of the Canada Connexion have been enslaved and sold by their leaders, and the transaction has been gilded with a covering of self-interest, and surrounded with a halo of religious feeling!" The preachers, by their own vote, haye become the slaves of the British Conference, while the British Conference openly avow that they a schismatic branch of that antichristian Colossus (the Church of England) -an institution which even Wesley declared had no foundation in the New Testament, but was purely political! Thus the Canada Conference have become the slaves of the slaves of a political power whose aim is to crush religious liberty in Canada, and upon its ruin to raise a spiritual Golgotha. This project is a movement preparatory to the centralization of the British Wesleyan power over the whole North American Colonies. It is a movement in a retrogade direction, and will be attended by wide-spread and ruinous consequences." J. C.

are

SURVEY OF THE IRISH PERIODICAL PRESS.

In surveying the condition of the Irish Press-a subject of serious inquiry alike to the statesman, the patriot, and the Christian-we shall first range the several journals under the classes to which they respectively belong, and then make such

Dublin Freeman's Journal

Dublin Mercantile Advertiser

Dublin Nation

Dublin Pilot

Weekly Freeman's Journal
Dublin Register
The World

6d. 1840

From this table it will appear, that while the Dublin Press, as a whole, is feeble, the Liberal portion of it is greatly in the ascendant. The Tory organs, it appears, are only four, and of course are Church and State. The first, second, and third are issued only thrice a week, and the last twice. It is not to be expected that these Protestant State-Church journals should be regarded with any feelings other than those of scorn and contempt by the Popish part of the population. It deserves to be particularly noted that the spirit which pervades the Liberal Press is not simply that of Popery, but of Popery in conjunction with Repeal; that is, the repeal of the Union between England and Ireland, and the establishment of an Irish Parliament.

There are actually six out of the nine Liberal journals labouring intensely for Repeal; and to augment the evil, these comprise, with one exception, all the papers of frequent issue as well as of extended circulation; while the march of madness is headed by the Freeman's Journal, the only daily journal in the city. The only papers on which a Protestant patriot can look with satisfaction are the Post and the World, both of which, we understand, have done and are still performing distinguished service to the nation. We shall now proceed to the papers of the provinces, which rank under the following classes:

Limerick Reporter Londonderry Journal Tipperary Vindicator Roscommon Journal Sligo News

Kerry Examiner Tuam Herald Waterford Chronicle Waterford Freeman Wexford Independent

Such is the institution of the Periodical Press among a Nation of Nine Millions of Men. To those who are conversant with the economy of the empire of Mind, it will tell a dismal tale. But it may be said, is not the desolation of the Newspaper Press in some degree repaired by

the state of the Religious Periodical Press? Not so; for in Ireland that is almost a nonentity; and to complete the misfortune, the state of General Literature is in mournful keeping with the state of things just described, as will appear from the following statistics of Irish bookselling, recently brought before the public:-" In Ireland," according to that document, "there are seventy-four towns, each with a minimum of 2,500 inhabitants (census 1841,) not one of which contains a bookseller! Scotland, with a third of the population, has three times the number of booksellers; being in the proportion of nine to one! The seventy-four towns without one of the trade' include the following: Dungarvon, 12,382; Carrick-on-Suir, 11,049; Youghal, 9,939; Carrickfergus, 9,379; Cashel, 8,027; Newtonards, 7,621; Lisburn,7,524; Kinsale, 6,918. More remarkable still, there are six counties which cannot boast of even one bookseller, or a single circulating library; and we shall name them: Donegal, Kildare, Leitrim, Queen's, Westmeath, Wicklow. These may be considered strange, but most assuredly they are very startling facts!" It is difficult to conceive of a more affecting picture of intellectual benightedness than that which these returns present. It implies a darkness all but Egyptian !

The above tables of the Newspaper Press, collected mainly from the accurate and laudable inquiries of Mr. Charles Mitchell, for the present year, give only eighty papers, and but one of them daily, for the whole nation; many of which circulate to an extent so limited, that they are in hourly jeopardy of extinction. But as things of this sort are best understood by comparison, let us look at the United States. In a return of the PostmasterGeneral, made some years back-since then, of course, the numbers are much increased-it is stated that the number of Newspapers and other periodical journals in the United States, was 1555; of which 116 were daily; 14, three times a week; 39, twice a week; and 991, once a week; the remainder, which were issued fortnightly, monthly, or quarterly, being chiefly magazines and reviews. The subscribers to the Newspapers alone were computed at 1,000,000! The American Periodical Press, like the sun in the heavens, from day to day, with ceaseless iteration, continues to flood with light the whole intellectual domain of the New World.

There are in the United States 14,601 post-offices. There are 3,530 con

tractors for carrying the mails. There are 4,285 post-routes, the total length of which is 149,414 miles. The total amount received last year for postages was three millions, four hundred and eighty-seven thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine dollars. The cost of transporting letters and papers last year was nearly a million of dollars more than the postage. The beneficial effects of this stupendous system, with all its imperfections, which time will remove, are set forth by Tocqueville, the most erudite, the most cautious, the most candid, and the most philosophic of all our European travelfers, as follows:-Speaking of the observant stranger, he says, "If he only singles out the learned, he will be astonished to find how rare they are; but if he counts the ignorant, the American People will appear to be the most enlightened community in the world. In New England every citizen receives the elementary notions of human knowledge; he is, moreover, taught the doctrine and the evidence of his religion, the history of his country, and the leading features of its Constitution. In the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon. To this extraordinary state of society no one thing, nor all things together, except the Pulpit, has contributed so much as the Newspaper Press. The American Consul, O. Rich, with reference to Newspapers, says: "Their number and cheapness, and the extent of their diffusion, are unparalleled. It may, in fact, be asserted, that almost every man in the country reads a newspaper; for, as every man has a direct personal interest in public affairs, and as the policy of the country has been to facilitate their distribution by the mail, they penetrate everywhere, and constitute, probably, the greater part of the reading of at least the agricultural portion of the people."

Nothing can more strikingly illustrate the degradation of Ireland, with the blinding, paralyzing, and all-destructive effects of Popery, than the facts we have adduced. Nor is this all that these facts teach; they show the great work that yet remains to be achieved for the intellectual illumination of the Millions of Great Britain, as well as Ireland. All attempts to elevate the People, without enlightening their understandings and purifying their hearts, are absurd, and

they will only end in disappointment, or social convulsion. The true friends of Britain are not those who clamour for a more extended suffrage, while they make no effort to improve the suffrage we have. What is wanted to England's welfare is not so much more voters as better voters. Let the whole of the mighty fellowship of TEN POUND HOUSEHOLDERS be thoroughly instructed as to their rights and their duties; let them be clearly taught the great lesson of the British Constitution; let them be well indoctrinated in the general interests of their country, and deeply imbued with the spirit of a godly patriotism; let these things be done, and even the present constituency will be found fully adequate to the entire regeneration of the empire. Nor is this all; these things will infallibly bring along with them a general preparation for a vast extension of the franchise; while, practically, they would render that extension unnecessary, they would, at the same time, render it perfectly safe.

To return to Ireland; the condition of things, with respect to the Newspaper, Periodical, and General Press, is obviously deplorable in the extreme; but the worst of the case does not, at first sight, appear. In the above list of twenty-five Liberal Provincial Papers, twelve of the ablest and most vigorous are avowed Repealers! Again; the Repeal papers are widely spread over the Nation, and mostly occupy commanding centres, from which they bring their artillery to bear with effect upon the surrounding masses. The facts are curious and instructive as to the Conservative Press, which numbers more by seven than the Liberal; out of the above list of thirty-two, no fewer than seventeen are zealous supporters of the Church of England,-forming a moat round Mammon's temple! What an embodiment of quills, type, learning, logic, and eloquence, for the defence of an "Apostolic Church!" Let us add to this, Police of divers classes, and a Standing Army of 20,000 men, with guns, bayonets, cavalry, and cannon! Noble branch of the church militant!

The political aspect of the Irish Press is far from pleasing or satisfactory. It cannot be enough deplored that, both in Dublin and in the Provinces, the strength of the Liberal Press is violently employed to excite and madden the multitude in favour of the preposterous and mischievous project of Repeal. The true source of Irish misery is not the union between Ireland and England, but the union be

tween Ireland and Ignorance,-Ireland and Idleness! Let the Irish Press hurl its thunders against that Union, and it will become the true and large benefactor of that afflicted Nation. Otherwise, it will prove a cruel deceiver, a traitorous disturber, a ruthless destroyer!

But the religious aspect of the Irish Press is still more appalling. With slight exception, the real religion of the New Testament is neither regarded nor understood by it. Scriptural Nonconformity is an idea foreign to the mind of the Irish Press. The word may almost be said to have no place in their language, There exist in the Island a few churches on the apostolic plan; but they are as lilies springing out of a dry ground. They have to contend, amidst much discouragement, and they have nobly contended, with difficulties, of various sorts, and all but insuperable. They require to be encouraged and strengthened, and their means of defence and assault augmented, in all possible ways; and among these means, a chief place must ever be assigned to the Printing Press. How, and under what conditions, this giant power is to be put forth, is a problem for solution by the Christians of Great Britain, and the question cannot too soon engage their most serious and profound consideration. Protestant Dissent, in Ireland, is, as a whole, worthy of its Episcopal sister; the one is a pampered plunderer of the Catholic population, and the other a crouching pauper fed by the crumbs which fall from the Imperial table. Under the head of PROTESTANT DISSENTING MINISTERS IN IRELAND, a Parliamentary paper has just been printed, containing returns of the number of ministers participating in the Parliamentary grant of £36,214 for Nonconforming Ministers in Ireland. Sixty-two receive £100 Irish each per annum, and 423 receive £75 per annum. Some of the recipients, it is right to mention, belong to the Remonstrant Synod, which consists of persons holding Arian and Unitarian opinions. Sad spectacle! An Irish Ecclesiastical Workhouse for Protestant Dissenters, containing nearly Five Hundred Inmates, and upheld at an expence to the country of more than Thirty-six Thousand Pounds! Once more, sad spectacle!

POWER OF THE LIVING PREACHER. THERE is much truth in the following extract, from a sermon on ministerial education, by Rev. T. C. Teasdale. It