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hand, referring to that canton, states, that your own Missionaries had several obstacles to contend against in the jealousy of some of these good men, who are now suffering in their turn. All have expressed their liveliest sympathy with their suffering brethren of the Free Church. Those Ministers of the Free Church are now, in as brotherly a spirit, officiating in your Missionary labour; so that these circumstances have brought Christians together, while they have been separating Christians from the world; and it is hard to say which of these two benefits is the greater. Christians want to be more separated, in all religious matters, from the world, and to be more united together, in their worship, their love, and their brotherly action, with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, throughout the world. If we can already see that those sufferings, which did demand our sympathy, it is true, have already improved the Christian character and energy of our brethren in that country; on the other hand, there are other salutary influences, which are most obviously beginning to act on the population at large through these events. It appears to me to be distinct, that the greatest virulence that has arisen against these good men in that canton has not arisen simply and solely from the natural hatred which men feel to the restraints of the Gospel, and its spiritual doctrines. That is always enough, it is true, to account for any active opposition; but in the present case there was this additional feeling, that the populace in the Canton de Vaud, who felt a great dislike, jealousy, and even hatred in many instances, of their former governors, perceived those governors, with the best intentions, to be in strict alliance with the evangelical Ministers of the canton; they saw that they were sustained by them, appreciated by them, and that their interests were promoted by them. When, therefore, they saw this, this popular hatred against the existing Government was necessarily transferred to those who were supposed to be their allies and friends; and I know, from a conversation with a gentleman connected with that canton, that the belief existed among the people, that the evangelical Ministers, with their flocks, were a political party against them. They did not believe their religion to be true; but they thought it to be official, worn for the sake of worldly ends, and by which worldly ends contrary to their own views were to be supported. They can now think this no longer; for they have seen

politicians of every class deserting these persecuted men, and yet these persecuted Ministers manifesting an unalienable allegiance to the truth which they have discovered and maintained. It is true, they have been silenced; but their ser mons, even when most eloquent and most earnest, perhaps excited the admiration of their hearers, but never scarcely penetrated their hearts;-that canton, notwithstanding the influence of many faithful men, degenerated into mere irreligion: their sermons were heard and admired in the pulpit; but were forgotten in all the week besides: but their silence now is a louder sermon, that knocks at the door of every heart, that reaches every one who listens to it, that finds an echo in his mind from which he cannot protect himself; it is the sermon of a blameless, suffering life in the promotion of Christian truths. That sermon speaks, if they are excluded from their pulpits, and hunted from the humble meetings which they have substituted for their great congregations; and when your own Missionaries, in common with them, meet in the forest, or on the brink of the lake, or wherever an opportunity occurs, the very knowledge that there are a few remaining who will, in spite of persecution, still meet to praise God, still meet to implore unitedly his blessing, and still listen to the sound of redeeming love, this speaks to the consciences of all, and bids them turn to God. And when they see men that were before jealous of each other, now united as a band of brothers, this adds to the blessed influence which is excited on their hearts. The feeling which before prevailed is now fast vanishing: it must vanish, because its whole foundation is destroyed; but, on the other hand, there is a new principle taking the place of the irritation which the populace before felt,-for even the populace itself is not destitute of generous emotion, is not incapable of some right feeling: when they see that the very men, whom they thought leagued with those whom they supposed to misgovern them, are now every where proscribed, and bear it patiently, prosecute their benevolent labours with unintermitting exertion, driven from one place will meet for prayer in another, and if they are not found occupying the pulpit in their cathedral, are found by the bed-side of the dying, and amidst sickness and want,-sympathy arises in place of that irritation; and I believe the religion of the Canton de Vaud will be vastly accelerated and augmented by the circumstances that now appear so

disastrous, if we only have patience to wait for the results. If I ask for your sympathy with your suffering friends in that canton, permit me to remind you, that the best expression of your sympa thy is to sustain their exertions. It is an expression of sympathy they ask for; for they are not timid enough to retire : as long as they are permitted to labour, there they are willing to remain. Mr. Gallienne would not leave the streets of Lausanne, although they might be stormier than the lake under a hurricane, and your Missionary still meets with his friends. Already the violent feeling manifested in the town has so much subsided, that your congregation meets in peace; nor are there wanting indications, even now, of a remission of the unjust and most discreditable violence which the Government and the populace have there shown. The fact that the Grand Council would not enact the persecuting law, is encouraging; and many Members of the Grand Council are now anticipating the time when they shall be able to reverse the proceedings which they feel to be disgraceful to them, as well as injurious to their fellowcitizens. I trust, therefore, I may be permitted to ask this assembly to support your Committee in still maintaining their interesting Mission there. There are several reasons why the Society is called upon to do so. That persecution may, ere long, cease; and if it does, you may be sure that there will be greater opportunities of preaching the Gospel among that people than there have been for many years that are past. At this time, likewise, the persecution has necessarily driven from their homes and from their canton many of those who once preached in that land: they have been obliged to seek asylums and support elsewhere; and, therefore, the faithful men who still proclaim the Gospel in that country are now exceedingly few. Your Missionaries, therefore, have a larger field than before, and their efforts are much more imperiously required than when there were numbers ready to preach as they do. And what is so likely to sustain their hands, I mean the hands of the native Ministers, as the knowledge that a body so large as yours does protest, as Christian men ought to protest, against the unrighteous violence which has been done to them; that you feel a deep interest in the proclamation of those doctrines which are there decried; that you agree with the persecuted minority in proclaiming the glory of your risen and reigning Saviour; and that you

wish, as far as in you lies, to throw the shield of your influence, your combina tion, and your position as Englishmen, over these your persecuted brethren? Surely this will, at the present time, tell upon that country. I cannot believe that they will long maintain these unrighteous edicts. What do they see at this moment? Why, that while they are expelling the Jesuits from that canton, those nations that are truly free, and in which the Gospel freely circulates, feeling as they do the bad principle and the bad intention of that Roman Catholic association, yet admit them freely to their coasts, because they know that truth can conquer error, and that we have nothing to fear from them so long as the Gospel has free course, and is glorified in this land. What do they see in this happy England of ours? That we can afford to give refuge to every persecuted man, whatever his country may be. We did not refuse to welcome amongst us Mazzini, the Italian patriot, although his secrets might be vast, and some might think them dangerous; but writhing under the tyranny inflicted on the best part of the nation by Austria and by Prince Metternich, he found an asylum on our shores, and in our city too. But when the time changed, and violence spread over the Continent, and that very persecutor himself, fearing lest his palace should be burnt over his head, was anxious to hide himself from the population he had disgusted, he, too, has found a free asylum and shelter on these happy shores, and in this very city. They see this, and they learn to value the character of those institutions that enable us to do it so safely; and when they see what England does for the unhappy refugees, no matter what their faults, no matter what their opinions may be, I cannot but think that free Switzerland, which, after all, sympa. thizes with us in many things, and admires this great nation, from which she has derived many advantages, will no longer dishonour herself by injuring the very best portion of the population that ought to be placed under the safeguard of their laws.

The REV. DR. URWICK, of Dublin, -My Christian friends, I have no objection whatever, but am gratified, to occupy a brief space in the proceedings of this most interesting, and I hope it will prove equally edifying, Meeting. And I avail myself of the opportunity to thank the Committee of the Wesleyan-Methodist Society for their kindness in inviting me, a stranger of

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another denomination, from the sister isle, to come and share in your privilege, and I hope in your profit, at its present Anniversary. I think, Sir, if I had means for the purpose, and nothing of greater importance wherewith to occupy my time, I should be strongly disposed to spend a good portion of my life in travel. I should like exceedingly to visit France and Switzerland, and various other countries on the continent of Europe; and I should have no objection to visit the countries in other parts of the world, and more especially the spheres of Christian Missionary labour. is another kind of travelling, however, which is within my humble ability sometimes to accomplish; and it is a kind of travelling which I love at least equally well with that to which I have referred. I like to pay a visit at one time to one denomination of Christians, and at another time to another; and I can assure you, Sir, I have great pleasure in finding myself now within the territory of Wesleyanism; for there is a vast deal within that range of Christian and ecclesiastical territory, (whatever you may call it,) that accords very much with the best convictions of my judgment, and the best feelings of my heart. I have come, as you are aware, from Ireland, a country that has lately occupied a great portion of attention on this side of the Channel. You call it your sister isle. You will perhaps allow me to say a word or two about Ireland. I have heard from the gentleman who proposed the first Resolution, the utterance of what I may state to be substantially my own judgment in the matter. We have heard very much of the repeal of the Union. I am for a repeal of a union; and I believe, Mr. Chairman, that Ireland will never be what England is, and what her best, her most enlightened and warmest friends wish her to be, until there has been a repeal of a union;-not a repeal of the union be tween England and Ireland, which ought to be cemented more and more by every possible appliance, and especially the appliances that bear upon the intellect and heart in Christianizing the people: confirmed yet more and more be that union between the two! But there is a union, cemented now for centuries, which is one of the greatest calamities that has ever befallen that country, so remarkable for its calamities. The repeal that I wish for is a repeal of the union between Ireland and Antichristianism; a repeal of the union between Ireland and the Man of Sin; a repeal of the union be

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tween the Irish intellect and heart and the dogmas of the Council of Trent. Give us, Mr. Chairman, liberty for Ireland, the liberty of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. Sir, I wish well to your Society; I know somewhat of its labour in Ireland. It is doing great good there. Your men are workingmen and I say, with all my heart, and many others along with me, not of your denomination, will join with me in saying concerning them, "God speed.” The Resolution which I have been called upon to second, and upon which, for form's sake, I must say a word, bears upon Switzerland and upon France. After the statements which you have heard with regard to Switzerland, the only remark I shall make in connexion with the Christians of the Canton de Vaud is somewhat of a practical application. I heard once of, I think, a member of the Society of Friends, describing a very touching case to another. The other expressed his very great sympathy. "How much do you feel?" said the Quaker: "I feel," he continued, "so much," naming a sun of money, whether it were £5 or £50, I forget. how much does this Meeting feel? If the collection were near at hand, (and I suppose there will be one before the close of the Meeting,) I should put it to this Meeting, "How much do you feel for the persecuted Christians of the Canton de Vaud ?" Well, measure your sympathy partly by your money. But give also to the Christians there the sympathy of prayer which has power with God, and that will bring down upon your proscribed brethren a blessing, greater than any amount of money possibly could furnish. And, friends, value your own privileges, and thank God for them. With regard to France, I had the pleasure, when I was at a meeting of the Council of the Evangelical Alliance in this city lately,- (and I must say, that that name, 66 Evangelical Alliance," somehow or other, carries a sort of mystic, powerful, indefinable, but hallowed and delightful, charm to my heart,)— when I was at the meeting of that Council, I had the pleasure of seeing a very excellent Minister from France; and I shall not soon forget the thrill of delight and gratitude with which we heard his testimony as to the probable results of the present movements in France, in securing full religious liberty for the professors and Ministers of evangelical truth; and I have since then had a letter from that worthy brother, fully confirmatory, so far, of that representation. There may be

circumstances which seem to warrant anxiety. Your funds are short. Your receipts are below your expenditure. Shall that dismay or even discourage? Whose are the silver and the gold? Whose is the cause you wish to sustain ?

The battle is not yours, but God's; and rely upon it, that he will not suffer you to be lacking the requisite provision for the war. And what, though difficulties should arise? Can we expect the powers of darkness to quit the field they have so long held, without a struggle? Why, it would be an absurdity to look for it! The church must calculate upon a conflict,-perad venture one of the most severe she has yet seen: but He that gave to Luther the soul he had, can give a soul like Luther's to every man, woman, and child in the compass of the church. Look to Him for that soul; for in proportion as a soul like that is possessed, the church will be herself blessed and prepared for whatever exigency may come. I most heartily wish you success in the undertaking in which you are engaged.

The REV. WILLIAM ARTHUR said, -It has been denied, Mr. Chairman, certainly in words, and, I think, from the response that those words met, it appears to be denied in feeling, that the Report that has been submitted to us gives us any note of discouragement. I am glad that that is so; glad that the feeling with which the notes uttered by the Report have been heard, is not a feeling of discouragement. I believe

that that does not at all alter the facts that have been stated, although it considerably alters the aspect of affairs with regard to those facts. That which to one state of mind is discouragement, to another state of mind is only incitement. One thing is very certain,-the Report to-day has laid before us a great work to do it has plainly stated what, in a certain condition of heart, would be a discouragement, that during the past year your expenditure has greatly exceeded your income; that, though the Committee during the past year have not expended a sum of money equal to the income of the year previous, and therefore can certainly appear before their friends without the possibility of being accused of improvidence; although they have not expended a sum equal to the income of the previous year, yet they have expended a sum that very greatly exceeds that which they have received this year from their friends and supporters. Now, Sir, it is very natural that, during the progress of a year, the expenditure

should be in advance of the income; but I confess that I, for one, cannot regard, but with very serious feeling, an Auniversary at which we find the income is behind the expenditure. At this Anniversary, there is a discrepancy, and a considerable one, between our income

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and our expenditure. However, that discrepancy has been stated, the Meeting has looked at it, and has declared it is not a discouragement: I, therefore, am not discouraged; for, when a work is given to do, to a diligent heart it is an incitement, to an apathetic one it is a discouragement; when a work appears to be done, to the fearful mind it is a discouragement, to the believing one an incitement. But, remember, if it do not discourage and do not incite us, if it do neither the one nor the other, it will surely multiply itself next year, and come down upon us in a positive discouragement. We must seriously look at the fact, that there is a great work to be done, and that this year we must not by any means allow an addition to the debt which has last year been unavoidably and very naturally contracted. what your Society has passed through already, after the painful trials to which your Committee have been subjected, I confess that I do most earnestly deprecate anything at all approaching to a progressive debt, or a debt progressively increasing. I believe our present position is not at all discouraging; but it is not discouraging simply on this ground, that God will give us the heart, and that we, in obedience to his will, will take the heart, to go to the work anew, and raise, in the year that is coming, such an amount of income, as that the reasonable expenditure to be anticipated shall be fully covered, and the Committee be in a condition to go on again. But do not, on any ground, let a debt accumulate upon the Society. I remember, when I looked at the Society, on my arrival from India, although the heart was just the same heart it had always been, and just as large and full, I could not but feel, as there was a dead weight of £30,000 on the breast, that with such a weight it was impossible there could be free action. We will not be discouraged. We are not. But I earnestly trust that we shall all be moved to renewed and greater exertion. If we look at that prodigious sphere of labour which the Report has placed before our view, we find in it, not, I think, in any place, discouragement, but in every place incitements and calls. The Society is, perhaps, unique in some of the aspects of its cha

racter, unique in the multiplicity of its Missionary engagements. It is not,and I believe we do not pay sufficient attention to the fact,-it is not merely a Missionary Society to the Heathen; but it is, first, a Colonial Missionary Society; it is, again, a Continental and European Society; and it is, finally, and most largely of all, a Missionary Society to the Heathen. With regard to the Colonial branch of our Missions, I am satisfied that but few of us, very few, perhaps, of the most thoughtful and intelligent, are at all prepared to estimate the responsibility we are under to the Head of the church and future generations of the human family, in regard to the conduct of that branch of our operations. About a century ago, or less, we had the colonies of North America, with a population somewhat under three millions. Less than a century ago, the Methodists of England undertook a Mission in those colonies; and now that those colonies have become separate states, according to the statement of Dr. Baird, we have a number of individuals connected with the Methodist church considerably exceeding what the entire population of the states was at the time to which I have alluded. The entire population did not then number within nearly a million the number which he now estimates are enjoying the benefits of Christianity through that instrumentality. We may look at our colonies as a great means for the extension of our national grandeur. But take another view. Take their geographical position, and they present a most astonishing opening, furnished by the providence of God, to bring to bear upon every portion of the human race the energies of the Anglo-Saxon character, and the truths of the Christian faith. If we take, for instance, the continent of Africa, we find the only part of that continent where the Anglo-Saxon constitution freely developes itself consigned to the care of England; and there, in a fine country and climate, we have the opportunity of planting our institutions, and rearing a vast fabric of Christianity, that shall, by degrees, spread through the entire of that continent, and finally carry to all its people the Gospel of Christ. If we look at the colonies of Australia and New-Zealand, there God has provided, in climates congenial to the European constitution, spheres where we may plant our institutions and our race, and bring them to act with force upon those great homes of the human family, China and India, and upon the eastern Archipelago. Then, Sir, there

is another branch of our operations, to which allusion has been made to a considerable extent. Our Mission in nominally Christian countries is, I believe, now assuming an importance that it never had before. Taking that country to which reference has been made, (France,) I may say, that during the Revolution in Paris, and subsequently to that Revolution, I have made it my conscientious duty to see as much of the people as I could, to watch them as closely as Providence gave me the opportunity, to go wherever I could go with propriety, in order to obtain a knowledge of their sentiments, and of their feelings. I have been in the most excited of the mobs, on the most excited days. I have been wherever I could find access and opportunity; and there is not a sentiment of hope uttered by the Hon. and Rev. gentleman who moved this Resolution, (Mr. Noel,) in which I do not cordially and joyfully participate. Some of my friends, not far from me, are aware that this has been my prevalent state of feeling. In this country there has been no exaggeration, with regard to the commercial distress, with regard to the stagnation in trade, with regard to the pecuniary embarrassments, and to the dangers to manufacture and commerce, for some time to come, that have resulted from the Revolution. On that point your information, your impressions, do not appear to be beyond the reality. But, with regard to personal peril, with regard to danger to life, property, person, or other private right, I believe the impression in this country, as is very natural in a country which God has long blessed with such perfect peace, is beyond the truth; and I believe, too, that no man who has not lived in Paris during the Revolution, no man, even in France, however acquainted with the aspect of the Parisian character, and its changes, could have supposed that changes so prodigious should have occurred in a day; that the most inflammatory principles should have been spread among the people; that excitement of the utmost kind should have been brought to bear upon them; and that yet, since the Revolution, the city of Paris is freer from crime, theft, robbery, and general disorder, than at any recent period of its general history. There has never been anything to endanger life and property for a moment; there has never been anything to frighten, although there has certainly been a good deal to concern, anybody; there never has been anything to frighten any, except those who looked upon the people

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