hath died for us,-how can I presume to doubt or question for a single moment that the work you have thus been privileged to do is indeed the work of our God and of our Saviour, and has been blessed and prospered in your hands by the Holy Spirit from on high? (Ap. plause.) The Resolution which I am privileged to present to the Meeting is this:

"That this Meeting, while thankful for the improvement which has taken place in the Society's Receipts in the last year, and more especially as all the ordinary and regular sources of income have somewhat increased in productiveness, yet laments that the total amount received is not equal to even the diminished expenditure of the year; and therefore earnestly recommends the most strenuous exertions on the part of the Friends of the Society, to secure such an augmentation of the Society's Funds as will be sufficient to maintain the existing Missions in a state of efficiency, and enable the Committee to improve some of the peculiar facilities now afforded for the extension of the Missionary work." If I had cause to regret before my inability to discharge my duty to the Society, I have been still more grieved at finding the very first thing presented to my hands on entering the Meeting was to call upon you to express regret for the inadequacy of your funds. I certainly had hoped that, in some small degree, I might have been permitted to help on the work; but, at least, I have been gratified in being able to state, that a friend of the Society, and a friend of the Church of England, has placed at my disposal for the benefit of this institution the sum of £50. (Loud applause.) I rejoice, indeed, that I have thus been permitted, though only for a few moments, to take my standing among you; and I can assure you, most cordially, that as long as I live, I trust and am persuaded I shall ever remember the kind invitation given me to take part in your services in behalf of this Society; and I shall ever rejoice to think that, after Mr. Mortimer himself, in whose chapel my sermon was to have been preached, and who preached for you last year, I should have been invited to be the first Clergyman of the Church of England who should have to preach for this noble and venerable institution. (Loud applause.)

CHARLES COWAN, ESQ., M.P. for Edinburgh, seconded the Resolution, and said, Mr. Chairman, I feel it to be a high honour and privilege to take a part on an occasion so deeply interesting

as that at which I now find myself present. I think the finger of God has been very manifest in the events of the last few years in our own country. There was, among the various evangelical churches of Britain, far too much of a repelling, rather than an attractive, influence exerted from one to another. There was certainly too much of jealousy, and of rivalry; and there was, in many cases, an idea even of territorial and geogra phical limits being looked to, and an unwillingness on the part of those churches, as well as of individual Christians, to meet together in the way in which we have now the pleasure of meeting with so many friends on this occasion; and I rejoice with all my heart, that the tendency of the events of the last few years has been a kind of upshaking and up-heaving of the elements; and that we have, as in the primeval period, something like order issuing out of the chaos and confusion in which we were placed. The evangelical churches of Christendom require to be reininded that "the field is the world," and although there is still that exclusiveness in some quarters of which we have heard this day, I do think that what is now taking place in our country, and throughout the nations of the earth, ought to stir us all up to greater earnestness on behalf of the various important operations which are going on by means of the various churches of Britain for the great work of evangelizing the world. I do not believe there ever was a time in the history of Britain, or the history of the world, that presented so many encouragements to Christians of every name and denomination to unite together in the great work in which they are invited to be fellow-workers with God. In our own land we have much indeed to be thankful for, when we look at what has taken place in every nation of Europe in the shaking and overturning of thrones, and in the anarchy, confusion, and bloodshed which have been so distressing to every man of peace, and which have prevailed throughout most of the nations of Europe; and when we think of our own security, and our own privileges at home, and are persuaded, as every one must acknowledge, that our state of peace and security and good order in this country is to be attributed to the reading of the word of God, to the diffusion of Christian truth throughout the masses (imperfect as that is even in our own country). I do feel, that a loud call is presented to us to stir one another up to works of Christian love and

usefulness, in order that principles of peace, and unity, and good-will throughout all the nations of the earth, may be promoted and encouraged by this and every other evangelical denomination. (Cheers.) I bid God speed to the noble enterprise of the Wesleyan Missionary Society; and I trust that you, and the various Christian churches throughout our own land, may be far better supported by the contributions and prayers of the various members of these churches; that each of us may consider not so much what we ought to give, but how much we are entitled to keep back, (hear, hear,) when we consider the obligation laid on us, and the gratitude that ought to fill our minds in contemplating the possession of the many blessed privileges that belong to us as individuals, as families, and as a nation. (Loud cheers.)

JAMES HEALD, Esq., M.P. for Stockport, said,-Allow me to endeavour to express the great pleasure we all experience on seeing you, Sir, in the chair. (Cheers.) I was trying to realize, as I sat quietly on the platform, the contrast between our present association, and one to which you and I are accustomed from day to day. What a difference there is in discussing religious subjects, in an assembly like the present, and in the House of Commons! And yet, I dare say, it will not be uninteresting to the Meeting to know that, of all subjects in the present day, there are few that excite such intense interest and anxiety in the British Parliament, as those that are directly or indirectly connected with the interests of religion; and I believe we are hastening onward to that final issue, when these questions and their relations are destined to occupy a far larger measure of public attention; and when public opinion is likely to be more exercised upon them, than upon all other subjects put together. (Hear, hear.) I rejoice that you, Sir Edward, and other friends whom I have seen here to-day, and myself, are colleagues in the same Parliament; and I appeal to this Meeting now to testify its sense of obligation to the Honourable Member for Edinburgh, for the noble, intrepid, and religious course, in which he dared to step forward, a few days ago, in opposition to a Bill which he and the people of Scotland conscientiously believed would have led to a great desecration of the Christian Sabbath, and a departure from those high principles which require the sanctification of the Lord's day. I had the honour, Sir, of presenting a petition from a Committee of the Wesleyan Conference, which was appointed, I believe, at its

last session, in Hull, for promoting the sanctification of the Lord's day; and, if I have not forgotten myself, I have brought with me a copy of the petition, received this morning, printed by the House of Commons, with the votes. I thought it would be gratifying to my respected and revered friend, the President of the Conference, if I put it into his hands, as his is the first name upon it. (Hear, hear.) I think the country is indebted to the Wesleyan Conference for having appointed that Committee at its last session: rejoice to have had the honour of presenting it to the House of Commons, and to find that the Committee of Petitions have selected it, and printed it in full, with three or four of the signatures, as a specimen of the rest. (The Hon. gentleman then spoke to two or three points in the Resolution, and concluded a truly excellent speech amidst great cheering.)

The Resolution was then put to the Meeting, and carried unanimously.

DR. NEWTON moved the following Resolution, in a very effective speech

"That this Meeting devoutly recognises the importance and necessity of prayer for the providential removal of those obstacles which obstruct the progress of the Gospel; for the preservation and support of Missionaries in their arduous labours, to a great extent prosecuted in unfriendly climes; and for a further accomplishment of the prophetic word relating to the outpouring of the Spirit upon the church and the world at large."

RICHARD CROOK, Esq., of Liverpool, seconded the Resolution, which was carried unanimously.

The Collection was then made.

The REV. FREDERICK J. JOBSON, of Manchester, moved the follow. ing Resolution :

That the thanks of this Meeting be presented to the Ministers who have advocated the cause of the Society throughout the year; to the Treasurers, Secretaries, and Committees of the Auxiliary and Branch Societies; to the Ladies' Associations and Committees, for their zealous co-operation; to the Juvenile Societies, and especially to the Collectors of the Christmas and New-year's Offerings, and the kind friends who countenanced them, for the handsome amount received from this delightful source of income; to the Missionaries, Officers, and Contributors, on the Foreign Stations, for their practical interest in the maintenance of the Funds of the Parent Society, in addition to the support they have afforded to their own Local Institutions ; and to the Members of other

Christian Communities who have kindly aided the Funds of this Society."

CHARLES PEARSON, Esq., M.P. for Lambeth, in seconding the Resolution, said, Mr. Chairman, it has been said, that religion and politics are essentially connected with each other. In that proposition I entirely agree; (cheers ;) and if there is any semblance of truth in it, it is quite clear that any man, elevated to station in this country, by the choice of a numerous constituency, a large portion of whom occupy a place in the religious world, entails upon himself, by the acceptance of office, the duty of presenting himself in the presence of a religious meeting, when called upon to testify his entire adherence to the principles by which they are actuated. (Hear, hear.) It is with that view that I respond to the call of my esteemed friend, Dr. Bunting, and have appeared on the platform this day. It is, therefore, in my public representative capacity, and that alone, that I dare presume to address the Meeting this day. (Hear, hear.) It is not my intention to detract, in the slightest degree, from the higher and more noble motives by which, I am sure, the majority of this vast assembly are actuatedthe noble motive of extending to the heathen world the blessings of our common Christianity. But, Sir, I leave that portion of the subject to be advocated, as it has doubtless been advocated, by those who have a greater right to be earnest and eloquent in their advocacy than the individual who now addresses you. While I admit, entirely and to the fullest extent, the disinterested and noble principle by which you are actuated, allow me to congratulate this Meeting, that the blessings of Providence do not descend single-handed, and that the performance of any duty, even in this world, does not go unrewarded. Sir, you are in want of funds permit a layman to use one argument by which politics and religion may be truly said to be connected with each other, to stimulate those who have given before to give again, and those who never gave to give now. (Cheers.) We have heard it stated that the distress and poverty of a large portion of the population, engaged in commercial and manufacturing pursuits, have deprived you of some of those sources of supply, which you have been in the habit of calculating upon. I would ask you, when your Missionaries go to foreign countries to extend the blessings of Christianity to those who never heard

in

its sound, whether Christianity does not carry in its train civilization; and whether civilization does not convert the naked and untutored savage into a customer for those products of industry which form the foundation of the wealth of this nation? I will conclude my observations seconding the Resolution, by cheerfully echoing the remark of the Rev. Mr. Jobson, that it is one which requires no argument to secure its adoption unanimously by this Meeting. We have here enumerated the Treasurers, the Secretaries, the Committees of the Auxiliary and Branch Societies, the Ladies' Associations and Committees, the Juvenile Societies, and a vast number of other persons, who are presented to this assembly, to receive that portion of honour which is due to them for the exertions they have made in the cause. I had yesterday the privilege of sitting under my Reverend friend, Dr. Newton; (cheers ;) and he observed, in one part of his discourse, that it was the practice of the Wesleyans, when they met with a recruit, to put him into some place they thought him fit to fill. Now, when this Resolution was first presented to me, I requested your worthy Secretary would ask some other gentleman to propose the Resolution, to give me time to think what was my place, which the Rev. Doctor taught me yesterday I was to find out. I think I have found a place, and it is this :-inasmuch as, in arithmetic, in order to give greater value to any figure you must place a cipher on its right-hand side, so I shall be happy to fill the duty of a cipher, to give value to the excellent orations that my friend the Doctor and others have presented to you this day; but, ladies and gentleman, although I am willing, (I was going to say,) to figure as a cipher on this occasion, I trust you will not be mere ciphers in the subscriptions and contributions,-figure as large as you will in that respect, but no ciphers, if you please. (Cheers.)

The REV. JOHN GREER, from Ireland, supported the Resolution, which was carried unanimously.

Other Resolutions were submitted to the Meeting by THOMAS MARRIOTT, JOHN CORDEROY, THOMAS WALKER, and THOMAS FARMER, ESQRS.; and the REV. WILLIAM BARTON, DR. ALDER, and DR. BUNTING; the CHAIRMAN returned thanks; and this truly interesting Meeting closed at about half-past four.